ral
parting upon its sloping forehead,--a heavy, faceless thing,
with strange red eyes, looking at us curiously from amidst
the green.

For a space no one spoke. Then Montgomery hiccoughed, "Who--said
he was dead?"

The Monkey-man looked guiltily at the hairy-grey Thing. "He is dead,"
said this monster. "They saw."

There was nothing threatening about this detachment, at any rate.
They seemed awestricken and puzzled.

"Where is he?" said Montgomery.

"Beyond," and the grey creature pointed.

"Is there a Law now?" asked the Monkey-man. "Is it still to be this
and that? Is he dead indeed?"

"Is there a Law?" repeated the man in white. "Is there a Law,
thou Other with the Whip?"

"He is dead," said the hairy-grey Thing. And they all stood
watching us.

"Prendick," said Montgomery, turning his dull eyes to me.
"He's dead, evidently."

I had been standing behind him during this colloquy.
I began to see how things lay with them. I suddenly stepped in front
of Montgomery and lifted up my voice:--"Children of the Law,"
I said, "he is _not_ dead!" M'ling turned his sharp eyes on me.
"He has changed his shape; he has changed his body," I went on.
"For a time you will not see him. He is--there," I pointed upward,
"where he can watch you. You cannot see him, but he can see you.
Fear the Law!"

I looked at them squarely. They flinched.

"He is great, he is good," said the Ape-man, peering fearfully
upward among the dense trees.

"And the other Thing?" I demanded.

"The Thing that bled, and ran screaming and sobbing,--that is dead too,"
said the grey Thing, still regarding me.

"That's well," grunted Montgomery.

"The Other with the Whip--" began the grey Thing.

"Well?" said I.

"Said he was dead."

But Montgomery was still sober enough to understand my motive in denying
Moreau's death. "He is not dead," he said slowly, "not dead at all.
No more dead than I am."

"Some," said I, "have broken the Law: they will die. Some have died.
Show us now where his old body lies,--the body he cast away because
he had no more need of it."

"It is this way, Man who walked in the Sea," said the grey Thing.

And with these six creatures guiding us, we went through the tumult
of ferns and creepers and tree-stems towards the northwest.
Then came a yelling, a crashing among the branches, and a little
pink homunculus rushed by us shrieking. Immediately after appeared
a monster in headlong pursuit, blood-