Page:Taylor - In the Dwellings of the Wilderness.djvu/156

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The Other Who Returned


done. My brain was burnt out; there was an iron band across my forehead. I nearly went mad with the pain. I think I got delirious after a while, for every time I woke, I was chasing that infernal thing across the desert. It stopped after a while. I thought it lay down, but that may have been my eyes. I was seeing stars and pinwheels then. And then something cracked inside my head, and the light went out."

He drew a long breath. Always his voice was slow and monotonous, devoid of all expression.

"For a while I … I stayed where I was. Then I swore I'd get back in spite of it, or die on my feet. So I went on, as nearly due east as I could guess, trying to keep in the direction I had been

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