s much as he
could from the disaster for which he held himself responsible. He ran to
the Barque, near the Point.

His voice was firm as he hailed the canoe of the floating restaurant
where, thanks to him, Koupriane had been thwarted in impotent anger. He
had himself taken to just below Staria-Derevnia and jumped out at the
spot where he saw little Katharina disappear a few days before. He
landed in the mud and climbed on hands and knees up the slope of a
roadway which followed the bank. This bank led to the Bay of Lachtka,
not far from the frontier of Finland.

On Rouletabille's left lay the sea, the immense gulf with slight waves;
to his right was the decaying stretch of the marsh. Stagnant water
stretching to the horizon, coarse grass and reeds, an extraordinary
tangle of water-plants, small ponds whose greenish scum did not stir
under the stiff breeze, water that was heavy and dirty. Along this
narrow strip of land thrust thus between the marsh, the sky and the sea,
he hurried, with many stumblings, his eyes fixed on the deserted gulf.
Suddenly he turned his head at a singular noise. At first he didn't see
anything, but heard in the distance a vague clamoring while a sort of
vapor commenced to rise from the marsh. And then he noticed, nearer
him, the high marsh grasses undulating. Finally he saw a countless flock
rising from the bed of the marshes. Beasts, groups of beasts, whose
horns one saw like bayonets, jostled each other trying to keep to the
firm land. Many of them swam and on the backs of some were naked men,
stark naked, with hair falling to their shoulders and streaming
behind them like manes. They shouted war-cries and waved their clubs.
Rouletabille stopped short before this prehistoric invasion. He would
never have imagined that a few miles from the Newsky Prospect he could
have found himself in the midst of such a spectacle. These savages had
not even a loin-cloth. Where did they come from with their herd? From
what remote place in the world or in old and gone history had they
emerged? What was this new invasion? What prodigious slaughter-house
awaited these unruly herds? They made a noise like thunder in the marsh.
Here were a thousand unkempt haunches undulating in the marsh like the
ocean as a storm approaches. The stark-naked men jumped along the route,
waving their clubs, crying gutturally in a way the beasts seemed to
understand. They worked their way out from the marsh and turned toward
the ci