"Did you eat something that didn't agree with you?" asked Bernard.
The Savage nodded.
"I ate civilization."
"What?"
"It poisoned me; I was defiled.
And then," he added, in a lower tone, "I ate my own wickedness."
"Yes, but what exactly? ...
I mean, just now you were ..."
"Now I am purified," said the Savage.
"I drank some mustard and warm water."
The others stared at him in astonishment.
"Do you mean to say that you were doing it on purpose?" asked Bernard.
"That's how the Indians always purify themselves."
He sat down and, sighing, passed his hand across his forehead.
"I shall rest for a few minutes," he said.
"I'm rather tired."
"Well, I'm not surprised," said Helmholtz.
After a silence, "We've come to say good-bye," he went on in another tone.
"We're off to-morrow morning."
"Yes, we're off to-morrow," said Bernard on whose face the Savage remarked a new expression of determined resignation.
"And by the way, John," he continued, leaning forward in his chair and laying a hand on the Savage's knee, "I want to say how sorry I am about everything that happened yesterday."
He blushed.
"How ashamed," he went on, in spite of the unsteadiness of his voice, "how really ..."
The Savage cut him short and, taking his hand, affectionately pressed it.
"Helmholtz was wonderful to me," Bernard resumed, after a little pause.
"If it hadn't been for him, I should ..."
"Now, now," Helmholtz protested.
There was a silence.
In spite of their sadness-because of it, even; for their sadness was the symptom of their love for one another-the three young men were happy.
"I went to see the Controller this morning," said the Savage at last.
"What for?"
"To ask if I mightn't go to the islands with you."
"And what did he say?" asked Helmholtz eagerly.
The Savage shook his head.
"He wouldn't let me."
"Why not?"
"He said he wanted to go on with the experiment.
But I'm damned," the Savage added, with sudden fury, "I'm damned if I'll go on being experimented with.
Not for all the Controllers in the world.
I shall go away to-morrow too."
"But where?" the others asked in unison.
The Savage shrugged his shoulders.
"Anywhere. I don't care.
So long as I can be alone."
From Guildford the down-line followed the Wey valley to Godalming, then, over Milford and Witley, proceeded to Haslemere and on through Petersfield towards Portsmouth.
Roughly parallel to it, the upline passed over Worplesden, Tongham, Puttenham, Elstead and Grayshott.
Between the Hog's Back and Hindhead there were points where the two lines were not more than six or seven kilometres apart.
The distance was too small for careless flyers-particularly at night and when they had taken half a gramme too much.
There had been accidents.
Serious ones.