There are strange red depths in the soul of the most commonplace man. I am
tender-hearted by nature, and have found my eyes moist many a time over the
scream of a wounded hare. Yet the blood lust was on me now. I found myself on
my feet emptying one magazine, then the other, clicking open the breech to
re-load, snapping it to again, while cheering and yelling with pure ferocity
and joy of slaughter as I did so. With our four guns the two of us made a
horrible havoc. Both the guards who held Summerlee were down, and he was
staggering about like a drunken man in his amazement, unable to realize that he
was a free man. The dense mob of ape-men ran about in bewilderment, marvelling
whence this storm of death was coming or what it might mean. They waved,
gesticulated, screamed, and tripped up over those who had fallen. Then, with a
sudden impulse, they all rushed in a howling crowd to the trees for shelter,
leaving the ground behind them spotted with their stricken comrades. The
prisoners were left for the moment standing alone in the middle of the
clearing.
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Il y a d’étranges profondeurs de sauvagerie chez l’homme le plus
ordinaire. Je suis une nature sensible ; maintes fois, devant un lièvre
blessé, j’ai eu les yeux humides, et néanmoins, dans la circonstance
actuelle, j’avais soif de sang. Je me surpris à charger, décharger,
recharger mon arme, en hurlant de férocité, en riant de joie ! Avec nos
quatre fusils, nous faisions, lord John et moi, d’horribles ravages. Les deux
gardes de Summerlee avaient mordu la poussière, et il titubait comme un homme
ivre, sans arriver à se rendre compte qu’il fût libre. La multitude des
hommes-singes courait, éperdue, dans tous les sens, se demandant d’où
venait et quel était cet ouragan mortel. Ils tourbillonnaient, gesticulaient,
criaient, trébuchaient contre les cadavres. Une subite impulsion les fit se
précipiter vers les arbres pour y chercher un refuge. Et dans la clairière
jonchée des leurs, il ne resta plus que les prisonniers, au centre.
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