[p. 156r][2744] picnic. [2745] And you, Maurice, she added, stay by the dinghy. [2746] She called that a dinghy. [2747] The thin one chafed to run about, but the youth had thrown himself down in the shade of a rock, like Sordello, but less noble, for Sordello resembled a lion at rest, and clung to it with both hands. [2748] The poor creatures, said Lady Pedal, let them loose. [2749] Maurice made to obey. Keep off, said Lemuel. [2750] The giant had refused to leave the boat, so that the Saxon could not leave it either. [2751] Macmann was not free either, Lemuel held him by the waist, perhaps lovingly. [2752] Well, said Lady Pedal, you are the one in charge. [2753] She moved away with Ernest. [2754] Suddenly she turned and said, You know, on the island, there are Druid
[2755] remains. [2756] She looked at them in turn. [2757] When we have had our tea, she said, we shall hunt for them, what do you say? [2758] Finally she moved away again, followed by Ernest carrying the hamper in his arms. [2759] When she had disappeared Lemuel released Macmann, went up behind Maurice who was sitting on a stone filling his pipe and killed him with the hatchet. [2760] We're getting on, getting on. [2761] The youth and the giant took no notice. [2762] The thin one broke his umbrella against the rock, a curious gesture. [2764] The Saxon cried, bending forward and slapping his thighs, Nice work, sir, nice work! [2765] A little later Ernest came back to fetch them. [2766] Going to meet him Lemuel killed him in his turn, in the same way as the other. [2767] It merely took a little longer. [2768] Two decent, quiet, harmless men, brothers-in-law into the bargain, there are billions of such brutes. [2769] Macmann's huge head. [2770] He has put his hat on again. [2772] The voice of Lady Pedal, calling. [2773] She appeared, joyous. [2774] Come along, she cried, all of you, before the tea gets
[p. 157r][2774] cold. [2775] But at the sight of the late sailors she fainted, which caused her to fall. [2776] Smash her! screamed the Saxon. [2777] She had raised her veil and was holding in her hand a tiny sandwich. [2778] She must have broken something in her fall, her hip perhaps, old ladies often break their hips, for no sooner had she recovered her senses than she began to moan and groan, as if she were the only being on the face of the earth deserving of pity. [2779] When the sun had vanished, behind the hills, and the lights of the land begun to glitter, Lemuel made Macmann and the two others get into the boat and got into it himself. Then they set out, all six, from the shore.
[2780] Gurgles of outflow.
[2781] This tangle of grey bodies is they. [2782] Silent, dim, perhaps cling[⁁]ing to one another, their heads buried in their cloaks, they lie together in a heap, in the night. [2783] They are far out in the bay. Lemuel has shipped his oars, the oars trail in the water. [2784] The night is strewn with absurd
[2785] absurd lights, the stars, the beacons, the buoys, the lights of earth and in the hills the faint fires of the blazing gorse. [2786] Macmann, my last, my possessions, I remember, he is there too, perhaps he sleeps. [2787] Lemuel
[2788] Lemuel is in charge, he raises his hatchet on which the blood
[p. 158r][2788] will never dry, but not to hit anyone, he will not hit anyone, he will not hit anyone any more, he will not touch anyone any more, either with it or with it or with it or with or
[2789] or with it or with his hammer or with his stick or with his fist or in thought in dream I mean never he will never
[2790] or with his pencil or with his stick or
[2791] or light light I mean
[2792] never there he will never
[2794] never anything
[2795] there
[2796] any more