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Page 10
"My companion's garments were a mass of strange-looking patches.
"Even as I noticed them I glanced rapidly down--and found myself in
similar condition. As I did so one of these patches upon the sleeve of
my tunic intruded coldly upon my bare wrist. At that I cried out aloud
in fear. Valera and I commenced what was literally a fight for life.
"Gentlemen, we were attacked by some kind of blood-red leeches, which
came out of the slime! In detaching them one detached patches of skin,
and they swarmed over our bodies like ants upon carrion.
"They penetrated beneath our garments, these swollen, lustful, unclean
things; and it was whilst we staggered on through the swamp in agony of
mind and body that we saw the light of many torches amid the trees
ahead of us, and in their smoky glare witnessed the flight of hundreds
of bats. The moonlight creeping dimly through the mist, and the
torchlight--how do you say?--enflaming the vegetation, created a scene
like that of Inferno, in which naked figures danced wildly, uttering
animal cries.
"Above the shrieking and howling, which rose and fell in a sort of
unholy chorus, I heard one long, wailing sound, repeated and repeated.
It was an African word. But I knew its meaning.
"It was '_Bat Wing_!'
"My doubts were dispersed. This was a meeting-place of Devil-
worshippers, or devotees of the cult of Voodoo! One man only could I
see clearly so as to remember him, a big negro employed upon one of my
estates. He seemed to be a sort of high priest or president of the
orgies. Attached to his arms were giant imitations of bat wings which
he moved grotesquely as if in flight. There were many women in the
throng, which numbered fully I should think a hundred people. But the
final collapse of my brave, unhappy Valera at this point brought home
to me the nature of the peril in which I stood.
"He lay at my feet, moving convulsively, and sinking ever deeper in the
swamp, red leeches moving slowly, slowly over his fast-disappearing
body."
Colonel Menendez paused in his appalling narrative and wiped his moist
forehead with a silk handkerchief. Neither Harley nor I spoke. I knew
not if my friend believed the Spaniard's story. For my own part I found
it difficult to do so. But that the narrator was deeply moved was a
fact beyond dispute.
He suddenly commenced again:
"My next recollection is of awakening in my own bed at the hacienda. I
had staggered back as far as the veranda, in raving delirium, and in
the grip of a strange fever which prostrated me for many months, and
which defied the knowledge of all the specialists who could be procured
from Cuba and the United States. My survival was due to an iron
constitution; but I have never been the same man. I was ordered to
leave the West Indies directly it became possible for me to be moved. I
arranged my affairs accordingly, and did not return for many years.
"Finally, however, I again took up my residence in Cuba, and for a time
all went well, and might have continued to do so, but for the following
incident. One night, being troubled by insomnia--sleeplessness--and the
heat, I walked out on to the balcony in front of my bedroom window. As
I did so, a figure which had been--you say lurking?--somewhere under
the veranda ran swiftly off; but not so swiftly that I failed to obtain
a glimpse of the uplifted face.
"It was the big negro! Although many years had elapsed since I had seen
him wearing the bat wings at those unholy rites, I knew him instantly.
"On a little table close behind me where I stood lay a loaded revolver.
I snatched it in a flash and fired shot after shot at the retreating
figure."
Colonel Menendez shrugged his shoulders and selected a fresh cigarette
paper.
"Gentlemen," he continued, "from that moment until this I have gone in
hourly peril of my life. Whether I hit my man or missed him, I have
never known to this day. If he lives or is dead I cannot say. But--" he
paused impressively--"I have told you of something that was nailed to
the hut of a certain native girl? Before she died I knew that it was a
death-token.
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