Meanwhile Haunte again approached her, staggering and grinning.  She suffered him quietly; but the instant lips met lips the second time, he fell backward with a startled cry, as though he had come in contact with an electric wire.  The back of his head struck the ground, and he lay there motionless.

Corpang sprang forward to his assistance.  But, when he saw what had happened, he left him where he was.

“Maskull, come here quickly!”

The light was perceptibly fading from Haunte’s skin, as Maskull bent over.  The man was dead.  His face was unrecognisable.  The head had been split from the top downward into two halves, streaming with strange-coloured blood, as though it had received a terrible blow from an axe.

“This couldn’t be from the fall,” said Maskull.

“No, Sullenbode did it.”

Maskull turned quickly to look at the woman.  She had resumed her former attitude on the ground.  The momentary intelligence had vanished from her face, and she was again smiling.

Chapter 19

SULLENBODE

Sullenbode’s naked skin glowed softly through the darkness, but the clothed part of her person was invisible.  Maskull watched her senseless, smiling face, and shivered.  Strange feelings ran through his body.

Corpang spoke out of the night.  “She looks like an evil spirit filled with deadliness.”

“It was like deliberately kissing lightning.”

“Haunte was insane with passion.”

“So am I,” said Maskull quietly.  “My body seems full of rocks, all grinding against one another.”

“This is what I was afraid of.”

“It appears I shall have to kiss her too.”

Corpang pulled his arm.  “Have you lost all manliness?”

But Maskull impatiently shook himself free.  He plucked nervously at his beard, and stared at Sullenbode.  His lips kept twitching.  After this had gone on for a few minutes, he stepped forward, bent over the woman, and lifted her bodily in his arms.  Setting her upright against the rugged tree trunk, he kissed her.

A cold, knifelike shock passed down his frame.  He thought that it was death, and lost consciousness.

When his sense returned, Sullenbode was holding him by the shoulder with one hand at arm’s length, searching his face with gloomy eyes.  At first he failed to recognise her; it was not the woman he had kissed, but another.  Then he gradually realised that her face was identical with that which Haunte’s action had called into existence.  A great calmness came upon him; his bad sensations had disappeared.

Sullenbode was transformed into a living soul.  Her skin was firm, her features were strong, her eyes gleamed with the consciousness of power.  She was tall and slight, but slow in all her gestures and movements.  Her face was not beautiful.  It was long, and palely lighted, while the mouth crossed the lower half like a gash of fire.  The lips were as voluptuous as before.  Her brows were heavy.  There was nothing vulgar in her—­she looked the kingliest of all women.  She appeared not more than twenty-five.