Oh! the thing was horrible, and sometimes when I am out of sorts, it
haunts me to this day. Yet that creature's blood does not lie heavy on
my mind, of it my conscience is not afraid. His end was necessary to
save the innocent and I am sure that it was well deserved. For he was
a devil, akin to the great god ape I had slain in the forest, to whom,
by the way, he bore a most remarkable resemblance in death. Indeed if
their heads had been laid side by side at a little distance, it would
not have been too easy to tell them apart with their projecting brows,
beardless, retreating chins and yellow tushes at the corners of the
mouth.
Presently I was clear of the cave. Still for a while I lay to at one
side of it against the towering cliff, both to listen in case what I
had done should be discovered, and for fear lest the lightning which
was still bright, although the storm centre was rapidly passing away,
should reveal me to any watchers.
For quite ten minutes I hid thus, and then, determining to risk it,
paddled softly towards the opposite bank keeping, however, a little to
the west of the cave and taking my line by a certain very tall tree
which, as I had noted, towered up against the sky at the back of the
graveyard.
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