Corpang looked calm and sullen, but both the others were visibly agitated. Maskull’s heart was hammering away under his chest. Haunte pulled him, and said, “My head feels as if it were being torn from my shoulders.” “What can that mean?” “Yet there’s a horrible joy in it,” added Haunte, with a sickly smile. He put his hand on the woman’s shoulder. She awoke softly, glanced up at them, smiled, and then resumed eating her fruit. Maskull did not imagine that she had intelligence enough to speak. Haunte suddenly dropped on his knees, and kissed her lips. She did not repulse him. During the continuance of the kiss, Maskull noticed with a shock that her face was altering. The features emerged from their indistinctness and became human, and almost powerful. The smile faded, a scowl took its place. She thrust Haunte away, rose to her feet, and stared beneath bent brows at the three men, each one in turn. Maskull came last; his face she studied for quite a long time, but nothing indicated what she thought. Meanwhile Haunte again approached her, staggering and grinning. She suffered him quietly; but the instant lips met lips the second time, he fell backward with a startled cry, as though he had come in contact with an electric wire. The back of his head struck the ground, and he lay there motionless. Corpang sprang forward to his assistance. But, when he saw what had happened, he left him where he was. “Maskull, come here quickly!” The light was perceptibly fading from Haunte’s skin, as Maskull bent over. The man was dead. His face was unrecognisable. The head had been split from the top downward into two halves, streaming with strange- coloured blood, as though it had received a terrible blow from an axe. “This couldn’t be from the fall,” said Maskull. “No, Sullenbode did it.” Maskull turned quickly to look at the woman. She had resumed her former attitude on the ground. The momentary intelligence had vanished from her face, and she was again smiling. Chapter 19. SULLENBODE Sullenbode’s naked skin glowed softly through the darkness, but the clothed part of her person was invisible. Maskull watched her senseless, smiling face, and shivered. Strange feelings ran through his body. Corpang spoke out of the night. “She looks like an evil spirit filled with deadliness.” “It was like deliberately kissing lightning.” “Haunte was insane with passion.” “So am I,” said Maskull quietly. “My body seems full of rocks, all grinding against one another.” “This is what I was afraid of.” “It appears I shall have to kiss her too.” Corpang pulled his arm. “Have you lost all manliness?” But Maskull impatiently shook himself free. He plucked nervously at his beard, and stared at Sullenbode. His lips kept twitching. After this had gone on for a few minutes, he stepped forward, bent over the woman, and lifted her bodily in his arms. Setting her upright against the rugged tree trunk, he kissed her.