however fresh and charming these plants appear to you now,
in the future they will be your deadliest rivals and enemies. Now you
may go."

The man limped painfully away, across the isthmus, out of sight. Oceaxe
yawned.

Maskull pushed his way forward, as if against a wall. "Are you joking,
or are you a devil?"

"I am Crimtyphon. I never joke. For that epithet of yours, I will devise
a new punishment for you."

The duel of wills commenced without ceremony. Oceaxe got up, stretched
her beautiful limbs, smiled, and prepared herself to witness the
struggle between her old lover and her new. Crimtyphon smiled too;
he reached out his hand for more fruit, but did not eat it. Maskull's
self-control broke down and he dashed at the boy, choking with red
fury--his beard wagged and his face was crimson. When he realised with
whom he had to deal, Crimtyphon left off smiling, slipped off the
couch, and threw a terrible and malignant glare into his sorb. Maskull
staggered. He gathered together all the brute force of his will, and by
sheer weight continued his advance. The boy shrieked and ran behind the
couch, trying to get away.... His opposition suddenly collapsed. Maskull
stumbled forward, recovered himself, and then vaulted clear over the
high pile of mosses, to get at his antagonist. He fell on top of him
with all his bulk. Grasping his throat, he pulled his little head
completely around, so that the neck was broken. Crimtyphon immediately
died.

The corpse lay underneath the tree with its face upturned. Maskull
viewed it attentively, and as he did so an expression of awe and wonder
came into his own countenance. In the moment of death Crimtyphon's face
had undergone a startling and even shocking alteration. Its personal
character had wholly vanished, giving place to a vulgar, grinning mask
which expressed nothing.

He did not have to search his mind long, to remember where he had seen
the brother of that expression. It was identical with that on the face
of the apparition at the seance, after Krag had dealt with it.

Chapter 10. TYDOMIN

Oceaxe sat down carelessly on the couch of mosses, and began eating the
plums.

"You see, you had to kill him, Maskull," she said, in a rather quizzical
voice.

He came away from the corpse and regarded her--still red, and still
breathing hard. "It's no joking matter. You especially ought to keep
quiet."

"Why?"

"Because he was your husband."

"You think I ought to show