Guy Oscard laid aside his rifle. He stepped forward to the open
window.
"Is that you, Durnovo?" he said, without raising his voice.
"Yes," replied the other. His voice was muffled, as if his tongue
was swollen, and there was a startling break in it.
Oscard stepped aside, and Durnovo passed into his own house.
"Got a light?" he said, in the same muffled way.
In the next room Joseph could be heard striking a match, and a
moment later he entered the room, throwing a flood of light before
him.
"GOOD GOD!" cried Guy Oscard. He stepped back as if he had been
struck, with his hand shielding his eyes.
"Save us!" ejaculated Joseph in the same breath.
The thing that stood there--sickening their gaze--was not a human
being at all. Take a man's eyelids away, leaving the round balls
staring, blood-streaked; cut away his lips, leaving the grinning
teeth and red gums; shear off his ears--that which is left is not a
man at all. This had been done to Victor Durnovo. Truly the
vengeance of man is crueller than the vengeance of God!
Could he have seen himself, Victor Durnovo would never have shown
that face--or what remained of it--to a human being. He could only
have killed himself. Who can tell what cruelties had been paid for,
piece by piece, in this loathsome mutilation? The slaves had
wreaked their terrible vengeance; but the greatest, the deepest, the
most inhuman cruelty was in letting him go.
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