g that was not wind and yet was like it.
A little clammy cat's-paw. So! And then was gone. And on its heels came
the leaves. Yes, millions of them. But not blown; not hurriedly. Very
hesitatingly; as if by their own volition. One might have said that they
oozed with a monstrous slowness out from between the crepuscular
tree-trunks and across the open space toward the brook. Gray leaves,
creeping forward with a curious dogged languor. And when they came to
the brook they paused on its farther edge and stopped, and the ones
behind came pushing up to them. And looking down upon them, they might
have been the backs of wounded men in gray, dragging themselves on their
knees to water....

"I don't know how long this moment lasted--minutes perhaps; perhaps no
longer than the drawing in and letting out of a breath. It was broken by
the figure of a man--an upstanding man, this time--who stepped out of
the forest opposite and, halting for a moment on the edge of the
clearing, looked up to where The Maimed Man was sitting. Then he
signalled to some one behind him, and presently one by one the figures
of the belated suite appeared. They formed themselves in a little group
and with some precision marched across the clearing. As they trampled
upon the stricken leaves by the brookside the fixed stare in The Maimed
Man's eyes faded, and he watched them with a rigid attention. Shortly
they came to where he had got to his feet. A huge elderly man with a red
face led them.

"'But your Majesty,' he objected, 'it is not fitting. You should not
leave us in this way. Even here, is it altogether safe?'

"The Maimed Man did not answer. Covertly and with a sly shamefacedness,
unlike himself, he was trying to read the expression in the huntsman's
face. But that faithful fellow's eyes were bland. There was no sign that
he had seen anything out of the ordinary....

"There is no need," said the voice, "for delay. From this to the second
incident I would describe to you is only a step. I shall not go into
details. For these I can safely trust to your imaginations. And yet I
would not, of course, have you gather that what I have just told you is
without background--was out of a clear sky. Naturally, it was not; it
was a cumulation, an apex. Such things do not happen altogether
suddenly. There is a nibbling away at the banks, a little rivulet here
and there, and then, all at once, a torrent like a hunted river under
the moon. I called the first ape