“It killed the Kanaka⁠—yes. It killed several other things that it caught. We chased it for a couple of days. It only got loose by accident⁠—I never meant it to get away. It wasn’t finished. It was purely an experiment. It was a limbless thing, with a horrible face, that writhed along the ground in a serpentine fashion. It was immensely strong, and in infuriating pain. It lurked in the woods for some days, until we hunted it; and then it wriggled into the northern part of the island, and we divided the party to close in upon it. Montgomery insisted upon coming with me. The man had a rifle; and when his body was found, one of the barrels was curved into the shape of an S and very nearly bitten through. Montgomery shot the thing. After that I stuck to the ideal of humanity⁠—except for little things.”

He became silent. I sat in silence watching his face.

“So for twenty years altogether⁠—counting nine years in England