Then two years more went by, or perhaps three, for time passes
imperceptibly in Tahiti, and it is hard to keep count of it; but at
last a message was brought to Dr. Coutras that Strickland was dying.
Ata had waylaid the cart that took the mail into Papeete, and besought
the man who drove it to go at once to the doctor. But the doctor was
out when the summons came, and it was evening when he received it. It
was impossible to start at so late an hour, and so it was not till next
day soon after dawn that he set out. He arrived at Taravao, and for the
last time tramped the seven kilometres that led to Ata’s house. The
path was overgrown, and it was clear that for years now it had remained
all but untrodden. It was not easy to find the way. Sometimes he had to
stumble along the bed of the stream, and sometimes he had to push
through shrubs, dense and thorny; often he was obliged to climb over
rocks in order to avoid the hornet-nests that hung on the trees over
his head. The silence was intense.
It was with a sigh of relief that at last he came upon the little
unpainted house, extraordinarily bedraggled now, and unkempt; but here
too was the same intolerable silence. He walked up, and a little boy,
playing unconcernedly in the sunshine, started at his approach and fled
quickly away: to him the stranger was the enemy. Dr. Coutras had a
sense that the child was stealthily watching him from behind a tree.
The door was wide open. He called out, but no one answered. He stepped
in. He knocked at a door, but again there was no answer. He turned the
handle and entered. The stench that assailed him turned him horribly
sick. He put his handkerchief to his nose and forced himself to go in.
The light was dim, and after the brilliant sunshine for a while he
could see nothing. Then he gave a start. He could not make out where he
was. He seemed on a sudden to have entered a magic world. He had a
vague impression of a great primeval forest and of naked people walking
beneath the trees. Then he saw that there were paintings on the walls.
“_Mon Dieu_, I hope the sun hasn’t affected me,” he muttered.
A slight movement attracted his attention, and he saw that Ata was
lying on the floor, sobbing quietly.
“Ata,” he called. “Ata.”
She took no notice. Again the beastly stench almost made him faint, and
he lit a cheroot. His eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, and now he
was seized by an overwhelming sensation as he stared at the painted
walls. He knew nothing of pictures, but there was something about these
that extraordinarily affected him. From floor to ceiling the walls were
covered with a strange and elaborate composition. It was indescribably
wonderful and mysterious. It took his breath away. It filled him with
an emotion which he could not understand or analyse. He felt the awe
and the delight which a man might feel who watched the beginning of a
world. It was tremendous, sensual, passionate; and yet there was
something horrible there, too, something which made him afraid. It was
the work of a man who had delved into the hidden depths of nature and
had discovered secrets which were beautiful and fearful too. It was the
work of a man who knew things which it is unholy for men to know. There
was something primeval there and terrible. It was not human. It brought
to his mind vague recollections of black magic. It was beautiful and
obscene.
“_Mon Dieu_, this is genius.”
The words were wrung from him, and he did not know he had spoken.
Then his eyes fell on the bed of mats in the corner, and he went up,
and he saw the dreadful, mutilated, ghastly object which had been
Strickland. He was dead. Dr. Coutras made an effort of will and bent
over that battered horror. Then he started violently, and terror blazed
in his heart, for he felt that someone was behind him. It was Ata. He
had not heard her get up. She was standing at his elbow, looking at
what he looked at.
“Good Heavens, my nerves are all distraught,” he said. “You nearly
frightened me out of my wits.”
He looked again at the poor dead thing that had been man, and then he
started back in dismay.
“But he was blind.”
“Yes; he had been blind for nearly a year.”