UKELY stooped for a brand to relight his cigar. He puffed thirstily.
"Twelve moons ago. The Cycle eh? Still. Well, then I wanted to go. My head man was with me—poor devil! They were too busy to notice me. Then—I went off and down to the canoes. But there weren't any canoes—at least not where we had landed. They must have hidden them somewhere else on the island. Of course, I didn't know then that it was an island. Well, I was in a of a rage. I came blunderin' back here. Blood-drunk an' crazy. Orgy, of course.
"Just over there cookin' parts of the body on great fires. Blood an' hair and women all over the place. Saturnalia. I might as well have expected a rational answer from a lunatic asylum. My boy was gone. I wish to God I'd shot 'em. I couldn't have got 'em all, of course, but most of 'em before they had come to their senses. But I didn't know. I cleared off an' walked about all night Then—of course, I had not a notion—what—what—well, you know now.
"I came back in the dawn. The drums were going. Some still dancin' like stuffed vultures. Others gorged, slept. They made me sick. I went off an' sat under a tree—that one over there. I decided to clear out next day, as I couldn't undertake to wipe out the tribe. Yet I recollect that I thought what a toppin' account it would make in a book. Queer ideas one gets—when Fate's playin' round. Oh God! Y'know, Doc, I've wondered sometimes—since—when I've been wooin' the moon there, whether we aren't all merely characters—an' rotten ones mostly, eh? In a book? What? But, Lord, I'd like to get my hands on my author who put me here—an' you. Sorry."
He ceased abruptly, puffed twice and shot out—
"Well? what are you goin' to do about it, Doc?"
"I really don't know." The little doctor's voice had lost the irritable note; he appeared to have regained his consulting-room tone—suave, impersonal. "But what did you do then—in the morning?"
"I do? an' Tommy, what d'you think I could do? They pinched my rifle while I slept. Then they trotted me up to this place. Oh yes, I objected. Still, they were an ugly crowd, an' lots of 'em. Of course, I didn't know what was up at the time. As a matter of fact they flung me in here and then skedaddled. I roamed around to find out that the darned place was an island. Among other things I found were about a couple of dozen heads of my men, on the trees down there, courteous reminder, y'know.
"They starved me for three days, an' then I began to find goats left in the stockade here while I was away huntin' round for some one to kill. After about ten days of that sort of thing, I dunno—they brought one of my men in a canoe an' made him interpret for me. Of course, I got as mad as—when the feller told me about the husband business of the magic tree an' all that. He said they had all been wiped—except himself—and eaten.
"After that I tried to escape. I told you, eh? That cured me—or broke me. I dunno. I was delirious when they brought me back here. I pulled through an' found all my gear here—more or less—except guns. The other things they thought were magic an' were scared to interfere with 'em, even the whisky, thank Heaven."
"The whisky?" queried the doctor sharply. "Didn't they drink that?"
"No. Brought up all, nearly all, my gear except my rifles. Didn't know what whisky was probably—or thought it was magic stuff."
"Oh," commented the doctor. "Um. Um. I say, how about your medicine-chest? Have you got it still?"
"Oh yes; quinine all finished."
"Um! How about opium?"
"Finished, too. You see, old boy, that was rather useful sometimes—when the whisky had run out. Gives you sleep at at any rate."
"Got any aconite?"
"No."
"Laudanum?"
"Finished, too. Partly for same reason; also had dysentery, y'know. Why?"
"Why because I don't intend to provide a post-mortem lecture for your witch-doctor friend."
"Oh, well you'll have twelve moons to think it over."
"Nonsense."
Warren-Dukely yawned lazily.
"You'll find out, old boy, same as I did. A year of contemplation sobers you up a bit. What's it matter after all? I don't care what they do afterward."
"Look here, Dukely; get that out of your mind."