[CHAPTER XXII]

SERENITY

I had fallen face downwards. I experienced a sensation of shattering and laceration. My eyes closed. I made a convulsive effort to get up. Impossible! But where was I wounded? My head was swimming, everything was turning round me. I was dying.

"Your leg, isn't it?"

I succeeded in opening my eyes again.

Guillaumin!

"Yes—I think so!" I stammered.

"Hurts a bit, what?"

I tried to lift up my head and spit some soil out. Everything grew dim again. I caught sight of a clown's face—Judsi, leaning over me, too.