"The same, Master."
The thing was evidently faithful enough, for it might have fallen upon me as I slept. "It is well," I said, extending my hand for another licking kiss. I began to realise what its presence meant, and the tide of my courage flowed. "Where are the others?" I asked.
"They are mad. They are fools," said the Dog Man. "Even now they talk together beyond there. They say, 'The Master is dead; the Other with the Whip is dead. That Other who walked in the Sea is—as we are. We have no Master, no Whips, no House of Pain any more. There is an end. We love the Law, and will keep it; but there is no pain, no Master, no Whips for ever again.' So they say. But I know, Master, I know."
I felt in the darkness and patted the Dog Man's head. "It is well," I said again.
"Presently you will slay them all," said the Dog Man.
"Presently," I answered, "I will slay them all—after certain days and certain things have come to pass. Every one of them save those you spare, every one of them shall be slain."
"What the Master wishes to kill the Master kills," said the Dog Man with a certain satisfaction in his voice.
"And that their sins may grow," I said; "let them live in their folly until their time is ripe. Let them not know that I am the Master."
"The Master's will is sweet," said the Dog Man, with the ready tact of his canine blood.
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