Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com rags. Let me give you something that will make you sleep.
That—will keep on for hours yet. You must simply get to
sleep, or I won’t answer for it.’
I did not reply. I bowed forward, and covered my face
with my hands. Presently he returned with a small measure
containing a dark liquid. This he gave me. I took it unre-
sistingly, and he helped me into the hammock.
When I awoke, it was broad day. For a little while I lay
flat, staring at the roof above me. The rafters, I observed,
were made out of the timbers of a ship. Then I turned my
head, and saw a meal prepared for me on the table. I per-
ceived that I was hungry, and prepared to clamber out of
the hammock, which, very politely anticipating my inten-
tion, twisted round and deposited me upon all-fours on the
floor.
I got up and sat down before the food. I had a heavy
feeling in my head, and only the vaguest memory at first
of the things that had happened over night. The morning
breeze blew very pleasantly through the unglazed window,
and that and the food contributed to the sense of animal
comfort which I experienced. Presently the door behind
me—the door inward towards the yard of the enclosure—
opened. I turned and saw Montgomery’s face.
‘All right,’ said he. ‘I’m frightfully busy.’ And he shut the
door.
Afterwards I discovered that he forgot to re-lock it. Then
I recalled the expression of his face the previous night, and
with that the memory of all I had experienced reconstruct-
ed itself before me. Even as that fear came back to me came