“They are mad; they are fools,” said the dog-man. “Even now they talk together beyond there. They say, ‘The master is dead. The other with the whip is dead. That other who walked in the sea is as we are. We have no master, no whips, no house of pain, any more. There is an end. We love the law, and will keep it; but there is no pain, no master, no whips forever again.’ So they say. But I know, master, I know.”

I felt in the darkness, and patted the dog-man’s head. “It is well,” I said again.

“Presently you will slay them all,” said the dog-man.

“Presently,” I answered, “I will slay them all⁠—after certain days and certain things have come to pass. Every one of them save those you spare, every one of them shall be slain.”

“What the master wishes to kill, the master kills,” said the dog-man with a certain satisfaction in his voice.