The Willows

t, lost utterly." He looked at me with an expression so calm, so determined, so sincere, that I no longer had any doubts as to his sanity. He was

ly think a sa

ver our heads as I spoke, but it was my frien

n help. Do not refer to them by name. To name is to reveal; it is the inevitable

" He was extraord

spirals in their world. We must keep them

verything its own way. I never longed for the sun as I lon

ll last night?" h

vely, trying to follow his instructions, which I kne

ind won't account

u heard

ps I heard," he said, adding, after a mom

the pressing down upon us of s

d signif

ning of a sort of inne

the atmosphere had been altered-had increased e

nting upwards where the gong-like note hummed ceaselessly

thin that it leaks through somehow. But, if you listen carefully, you'll find it's not above so much as around us. It's in the

is than his. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him at last about my hallucination of the ascending figures and the moving bushes, when he suddenly thrust his face again close into mine acros

bits, go to bed, and so forth; pretend we feel nothing and notice nothing. It is a question wholly of the mind, and

eness of it all; "all right, I'll try, but tell me one more thing first. Tell me

t, put the thought into words. If you have not guessed I am glad. Don't try to. They

im to explain. There was already just about as much horror in me as I could ho

iculty the man had in fitting me, and other details of the uninteresting but practical operation. At once, in its train, followed a wholesome view of the modern skeptical world I was accustomed to move in at home. I thought of roast beef, and ale, motor-cars, policemen, brass bands, and a dozen other things that proclaimed the soul of ordinariness or utility. The effect was immediate and astonish

ng aloud in his face. "You imaginative

y voice as something sacrilegious. The Swede, of course, heard it too-the strange cry ove

n. He stood bolt upright in front of t

c way, "we must go! We can't stay now; we must stri

dictated by abject terror-the terror he had res

on better than he did. "Sheer madness! The river's in flood, and we've only got a single paddle. Besides,

ic changes nature loves, were suddenly reversed, and the control of our forces passed ove

h a thing?" he whispered with the awe

both his hands in mine, kneeling down beside h

ight. At sunrise we'll be off full speed for Komorn. Now, pull yourself

ursion into the darkness for more wood. We kept close together, almost touching, groping among the bushes and along the bank. Th

ght high among the branches, when my body was seized in a grip that made me half drop upon the sand. It was the Swe

t was to hear tears of terror in a human voice. He was pointing to the fire, some fifty

the dim glow, som

e strange impression of being as large as several animals grouped together, like horses, two or three, moving slowly. The Swede, too, got a similar result, though expressing it differen

sobbed at me. "Look, by God! It's coming this way! Oh,

wede on top of me we fell in a struggling heap upon the sand. I really hardly knew what was happening. I was conscious only of a sort of enveloping sensation of icy fear that plucked the nerves out of their fleshly covering, twisted them this way and t

that the Swede had hold of me in such a way that he hurt

very instant when they were about to find me. It concealed my mind from them at the moment of discovery, yet just in time t

he slippery network of willow branches, and saw my companion standing in front of me holding out a hand to assi

o," I heard him say. "That's what saved

id, uttering my only connected thought

managed to set them off on a false tack somewhere. The h

laughter that brought a tremendous sense of relief in their train. We made our way back to the fire and put the wo

e process tripped more than on

tent was up again and the firelight lit up the ground f

aped hollows in the sand, exactly similar to the ones we had already found over the island, only far bigg

ther delay, having first thrown sand on the fire and taken the provision sack and the paddle inside the tent with us. The canoe

again went to bed in our clo

t first he fidgeted and constantly sat up, asking me if I "heard this" or "heard that." He tossed about on his cork mattress, and said the tent was moving and the river had risen over the point of the island, but each time I went out to look I returned

the last thought in my

irst thought was that my companion had rolled off his mattress on to my own in his sleep. I called to him and sat up, and at the same moment i

iced that the flap of the tent was down. This was the unpardonable sin. I crawled out in the darkness to hook it

ded me completely and came out of every quarter of the heavens at once. It was that same familiar humming-gone mad! A swarm of great invisib

in danger, and I c

patches. In my excitement I ran frantically to and fro about the island, calling him by name, shouting at the top of my voice the first words that came into my head. But the willows smothered my voice, and the humm

igure outlined between the water and the sky. It was the Swede. And already h

st outlandish phrases in his anger about "going inside to Them," and "taking the way of the water and the wind," and God only knows what more besides, that I tried in vain to recall afterwards, but which turned me sic

attering outside-I think this was almost the strangest part of the whole business perhaps. For he had just opened his eyes and turned his t

my life I owe you. But

d a victim i

happened and he had never tried to offer his own life as a sacrifice by drowning. And when the sunlight woke him three hours later-hours of ceaseless vigil for me-

e got up and set about the preparation of the fire for breakfast. I followed him anxiously at bathing, but he di

last," he said, "a

has stopped

l expression. Evidently he remembered eve

stopped," he s

t remark he had made just before he fainted wa

another victim'?" I said

as positive of it as though-as though-I f

lay in hot patches on the sand. There was no wind.

I think if we look

e banks, poking with a stick among the sandy bays and cave

claimed pre

n him. He was pointing with his stick at a large black object that lay half in the water and half on the sand. It appeared to be ca

, "the victim that mad

rpse of a peasant, and the face was hidden in the sand. Clearly the man had been drowned, but a few hours before, and hi

it a decent bu

pite of myself, for there was something about the ap

lambering down the bank. I followed him more leisurely. The current, I noticed, had torn

um to bring myself quickly to a halt, for I bumped into him and sent him forward with a sort of leap to save himself. We tumbled together on to

rp cry. And I sprang ba

d with a vast commotion as of winged things in the air about us and disappeared upwards into the sky, growing fainter and fainter

t a movement of the current was turning the corpse round so that it became released from the grip of the willow roots. A moment later it had tur

bout a "proper burial"-and then abruptly dropped upon his knees on the s

hat he

us, and showed plainly how the skin and flesh were indented with small hollows, beautifully forme

ompanion mutter under his

one its work, and the body had been swept away into mid-stream and was already beyond