Dracula of the Apes 3, стр. 33
“I have seen hardly any insects at all,” the governess said, “never mind one of a size large enough to make wounds like that...”
Van Resen could only nod silently. He had been concerned about insect life and other vermin, especially those of the parasitic variety, and had been surprised by their apparent scarcity in the yurt and the clearing around it. He had theorized that their low numbers might be attributed to the season in which the group had been stranded; however, the hypothesis was weak and he had expected the worst variety of creature to descend in massive swarms at any moment.
“And we’ve cleaned this cabin from top to bottom,” Miss James blurted.
“Such a place could never be completely clean,” Van Resen rasped. “And this jungle teems with every kind of life. She may have been bitten when she was outside.”
Miss James nodded somberly.
“Well, we have another clue to the cause of her sickness but no answer,” Van Resen had said, pulling up Lilly’s bed clothes before taking his seat by the fire.
Van Resen remembered this, wishing again that he had brought equipment from his lab back in London. True, he was not a medical doctor, but he understood the principals involved in blood chemistry, and had on one teaching engagement in London been invited to watch physicians applying various surgical techniques, with blood transfusion into anemic patients but one of them.
Though the technology was in its infancy, and still recorded failures and allergic reactions, Van Resen felt that if Lilly’s condition worsened, if she lost consciousness and could no longer drink water or take food to hydrate; well, in such an instance, a blood transfusion might have been a logical option.
In these primitive conditions, donors with compatible blood groups could be determined with cross-matching. If only he had the tools...
Cross-matching. Cross...
Van Resen jerked awake, realizing he had fallen asleep as he contemplated treatments to Lilly’s condition. The long day of labor had seriously depleted his resources, and left him vulnerable to the quiet rustle, and soft bellows of the deep-breathing sleepers around him.
He blinked into the darkness, and then cursed. His vision had been deteriorating since his 40th birthday, and he relied almost entirely on his eyeglasses now. After extinguishing the lamps he had slipped the spectacles into his pocket for safekeeping.
In the resulting darkness, there was no use wearing them, but now, his eyes or his tired mind had begun to play tricks because there seemed to be a deepening of the shadows at his feet and that a similar effect lay over his sleeping companions.
Van Resen shrugged and let his glasses lie as he instead began to recite the names of carnivores they might run into along this part of the African coast while considering what the castaways could do to guard against them.
When Gazda arrived in the trees encircling his lair, he was surprised to see that the black fog had completely covered the grass in the open space, and even lapped at the stout trunks that held the tree-nest aloft.
Again, it had leaked from among the sick, black trees and drifted outward to fill the clearing like some malign tide.
It seemed to carry with it a dampness that gave a chill to the otherwise warm night, and the King of the Apes could not suppress a shiver as the fog rose up through the branches to brush against him.
He climbed higher and watched the tree-nest for a time, considering whether it would be wiser to await another night when there was no black fog.
Lilly. Her face came to mind.
Thought of her had him quickly clambering down to lower limbs, hooting worriedly as he gazed across at his goal. He stood swaying on a branch while gathering his courage, concerned that the fog was somehow connected to the young female and what had occurred between them.
It had been present when they...
He felt another chill rise from where the fog lurked beneath him.
Gazda had started out his trek to the tree-nest certain that what he had done with Lilly the night before would not have harmed her, but he had grown more doubtful by the mile. Indeed he had even started thinking of his mother again—how he would never have wished her harm, yet his thirst had overwhelmed him in a vulnerable state.
And had not the touch and taste of Lilly’s soft skin made him vulnerable?
And the music! The music had effected and confused him. Was it still at play?
With this concern had grown a greater shame—and a terrible fear.
The night ape snarled helplessly and bolted across the open ground so quickly that the black fog barely seemed to part around him as he passed.
Gazda leapt up onto the platform below the window where he crouched, realizing there was no light within.
He rose to peer past the tight mesh and his breath caught.
His special vision saw through the darkness as it would at twilight, and there was Lilly. She was sitting straight up on her bed with her hands clasped over her heart.
The girl’s white face was turned up to the window and her bright eyes were fixed upon him. The cool black fog that pressed against Gazda’s calves already covered the floor inside the tree-nest, completely shrouding the dark-haired woman who slept at Lilly’s side.
Gazda barked quietly, gently pressing the wall around the window with the first and second knuckles of his right hand, and he nodded.
Inside, Lilly got slowly to her feet.
She smiled at him through the mesh before walking softly to the door.
Gazda sank into a crouch, and the black mist swirled up around his shoulders like wings. On all sides, the jungle had gone as silent as death.
CHAPTER 14 – Survivor in the Sand
So it seemed to Captain Theodore Seward, too. The jungle that edged the beach