He seemed trying to think.
"The last," he murmured, "the last of this silly universe.
What a mess--"

I listened. His head fell helplessly to one side. I thought some drink
might revive him; but there was neither drink nor vessel in which to
bring drink at hand. He seemed suddenly heavier. My heart went cold.
I bent down to his face, put my hand through the rent in his blouse.
He was dead; and even as he died a line of white heat, the limb
of the sun, rose eastward beyond the projection of the bay,
splashing its radiance across the sky and turning the dark sea into
a weltering tumult of dazzling light. It fell like a glory upon his
death-shrunken face.

I let his head fall gently upon the rough pillow I had made for him,
and stood up. Before me was the glittering desolation of the sea,
the awful solitude upon which I had already suffered so much; behind me
the island, hushed under the dawn, its Beast People silent and unseen.
The enclosure, with all its provisions and ammunition, burnt noisily,
with sudden gusts of flame, a fitful crackling, and now and then a crash.
The heavy smoke drove up the beach away from me, rolling low
over the distant tree-tops towards the huts in the ravine.
Beside me were the charred vestiges of the boats and these five
dead bodies.

Then out of the bushes came three Beast People, with hunched shoulders,
protruding heads, misshapen hands awkwardly held, and inquisitive,
unfriendly eyes and advanced towards me with hesitating gestures.

XX. ALONE WITH THE BEAST FOLK.

I FACED these people, facing my fate in them, single-handed
now,--literally single-handed, for I had a broken arm. In my pocket was
a revolver with two empty chambers. Among the chips scattered about
the beach lay the two axes that had been used to chop up the boats.
The tide was creeping in behind me. There was nothing for it but
courage. I looked squarely into the faces of the advancing monsters.
They avoided my eyes, and their quivering nostrils investigated
the bodies that lay beyond me on the beach. I took half-a-dozen steps,
picked up the blood-stained whip that lay beneath the body
of the Wolf-man, and cracked it. They stopped and stared
at me.

"Salute!" said I. "Bow down!"

They hesitated. One bent his knees. I repeated my command,
with my heart in my mouth, and advanced upon them. One knelt,
then the other two.

I turned and walked towards the dead bodies, keeping my face
towards the