With that we went to breakfast, and discussed at length the details of our proposed journey north, which was now finally fixed for the following day. Grey’s manager was to arrive on the morrow, and, the day after, we were to proceed overland to a seaport some thirty miles to the north, and there take our passage in a sailing ship which Grey had ascertained was bound for Golden Bay, the coast line of which was situated not fifty miles from the Table Land.
From time to time during the day I learned by repeated inquiries that Crystal was still sleeping peacefully, but my mental state was one of extreme tension; for, being ignorant of the after effects of the strange poison, I was tormented with a thousand apprehensions. Every half-hour I paid visits to Tiki, for in his condition I felt I had something to go by. It calmed my fears a little to find that his pulse was uniformly regular, that his breathing was normal, and that there were no signs of anything more alarming than a very deep sleep which, as far as I could judge, was perfectly natural. In this way, taking Tiki’s state to represent hers, I watched over Crystal in my imagination the whole day long, now tortured with fears for the issue, and now relieved by the healthy symptoms.
In my wanderings in and out and about the house I remembered the wizard’s reed tube, and found it again in the place where I had hidden it. It was a strange-looking reed, seven knotted, and marked with peculiar characters and signs. The darts were arranged in little receptacles round the mouthpiece. Three were left. I extracted one and inspected it. There was a blood-red tip to it, and this crimson dye I knew was the poison. The safest course would be to burn the accursed things, lest they should do damage by accident. Accordingly, I took them to the kitchen grate and burnt them. What the poison was I have no idea, but, as I threw them in one by one, each emitted a jet of some gas, which burned many colours in succession, giving a peculiar wail, like the cry of a tortured dumb animal. So horrible, and yet so plaintive and pathetic was this faint sound, that I was inclined to confess there was more than poison in those accursed messengers of evil. Then I burned the tube and returned to my restlessness.
At length, late in the afternoon, I was standing beneath the nut-trees, whither I had wandered in my anxiety, when, hearing a rustle of a dress outside, I looked up and encountered Crystal as she parted the screen of leaves and came towards me. My fears bounded off in an instant, for her face was the picture of buoyant health, and the flush of confusion on her cheeks made her look radiant.
She extended her hand to me and said, “It’s very absurd for people to walk in their sleep, but I am very grateful to you all the same.”
“What are you grateful for?” I asked, wondering how much of the affair she remembered.
“Why, father told me you found me walking in the garden and brought me in,” she replied, looking hard at me with unwavering eyes, though her cheeks were crimson.
“Oh! he told you that, did he?”
“Yes, but not until I made him. He wouldn’t tell me anything about it at first.”
“You remembered something of what happened, then, and questioned him for the rest?”