"But that's the story. All the Kanaka boys are dead now. One fell overboard the launch, and one died of a wounded heel that he poisoned in some way with plant-juice. Three went away in the yacht, and I suppose, and hope, were drowned. The other one… was killed. Well—I have replaced them. Montgomery went on much as you are disposed to do at first, and then…"
"What became of the other one?" said I sharply—"the other Kanaka who was killed?"
"The fact is, after I had made a number of human creatures I made a thing—" He hesitated.
"Yes?" said I.
"It was killed."
"I don't understand," said I; "do you mean to say…"
"It killed the Kanaka—yes. It killed several other things that it caught. We chased it for a couple of days. It only got loose by accident—I never meant it to get away. It wasn't finished. It was purely an experiment. It was a limbless thing with a horrible face that writhed along the ground in a serpentine fashion. It was immensely strong and in infuriating pain, and it travelled rapidly in a rolling way like a porpoise swimming. It lurked in the woods for some days, doing mischief to all it came across, until we hunted it, and then it wriggled into the northern part of the island, and we divided the party to close in upon it. Montgomery insisted upon coming with me. The man had a rifle, and when his body was found one of the barrels was curved into the shape of an S, and very nearly bitten through.… Montgomery
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