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The Island of Doctor Moreau Chapter 11 - The Hunting of the Man · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section twelve of the Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
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  Speaker 1: Tom Hare eleven, The Hunting of the Man. It came
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  Speaker 1: before my mind with an unreasonable hope of escape, that
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  Speaker 1: the outer door of my room was still open to me.
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  Speaker 1: I was convinced, now, absolutely assured, that Moreau had been
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  Speaker 1: vivisecting a human being. All the time since I had
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  Speaker 1: heard his name, I had been trying to link in
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  Speaker 1: my mind in some way the grotesque animalism of the
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  Speaker 1: Islanders with his abominations, and now I thought I saw
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  Speaker 1: it all. The memory of his work on the transfusion
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  Speaker 1: of blood recurred to me. These creatures I had seen
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  Speaker 1: were the victims of some hideous experiment. These sickening scoundrels
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  Speaker 1: had merely hinted to keep me back, to fool me
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  Speaker 1: with their display of confidence, and presently to fall upon
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  Speaker 1: me with a fate more horrible than death, with torture,
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  Speaker 1: and after torture, the most hideous degradation it is possible
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  Speaker 1: to conceive, to send me off a lost soul, a beast,
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  Speaker 1: to the rest of their comus route. I looked around
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  Speaker 1: for some weapon. Nothing. Then, with an inspiration, I turned
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  Speaker 1: over the deck chair, put my foot on the side
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  Speaker 1: of it, and tore away the side rail. It happened
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  Speaker 1: that a nail came away with the wood, and projecting
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  Speaker 1: gave a touch of danger to an otherwise petty weapon.
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  Speaker 1: I heard a step outside and incontinently flung open the
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  Speaker 1: door and found Montgomery within a yard of it. He
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  Speaker 1: meant to lock the outer door. I raised this nailed
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  Speaker 1: stick of mine and cut at his face, spraying back.
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  Speaker 1: I hesitated a moment, then turned and fled round the
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  Speaker 1: corner of the house. Pryndic man. I heard his astonished cry,
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  Speaker 1: don't be a thiliath man. Another minute, thought I, and
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  Speaker 1: he would have had me locked in and as ready
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  Speaker 1: as a hospital rabbit for my feet. He emerged behind
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  Speaker 1: the corner for I heard him shout pryndic. Then he
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  Speaker 1: began to run after me, shouting things as he ran,
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  Speaker 1: this time running blindly. I went northeastward, in the direction
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  Speaker 1: at right angles to my previous expedition. Once, as I
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  Speaker 1: went running headlong up the beach, I glanced over my
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  Speaker 1: shoulder and saw his attendant with him. I ran furiously
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  Speaker 1: up the slope over it. Then, turning eastward along a
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  Speaker 1: rocky valley fringed on either side with jungle, I ran
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  Speaker 1: for perhaps a mile altogether, my chest straining, my heart
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  Speaker 1: beating in my ears, and then, hearing nothing of Montgomery
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  Speaker 1: or his man, and feeling upon the verge of exhaustion,
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  Speaker 1: I doubled sharply back towards the beach as I judged,
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  Speaker 1: and lay down in the shelter of a cane brake.
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  Speaker 1: There I remained for a long time, too fearful to move,
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  Speaker 1: and indeed too fearful even to plan a course of action.
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  Speaker 1: The wild scene about me lay sleeping silently under the sun,
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  Speaker 1: and the only sound near me was the thin hum
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  Speaker 1: of some small gnats that had discovered me. Presently I
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  Speaker 1: became aware of a drowsy breathing sound, the sowing of
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  Speaker 1: the sea upon the beach. After about an hour I
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  Speaker 1: heard Montgomery shouting my name far away to the north.
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  Speaker 1: That me thinking of my plan of action as I
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  Speaker 1: interpreted it, then this island was inhabited only by these
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  Speaker 1: two vivisectors and their animalized victims. Some of these, no
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  Speaker 1: doubt they could press into their service against me if
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  Speaker 1: need arose. I knew both Moreau and Montgomery carried revolvers,
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  Speaker 1: and save for a feeble bar of deal spiked with
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  Speaker 1: a small nail, the merest mockery of a mace. I
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  Speaker 1: was unarmed, so I lay still there until I began
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  Speaker 1: to think of food and drink. And at that thought
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  Speaker 1: the real hopelessness of my situation came home to me.
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  Speaker 1: I knew no way of getting anything to eat. I
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  Speaker 1: was too ignorant of botany to discover any resort of
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  Speaker 1: root or fruit that might lie about me. I had
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  Speaker 1: no means of trapping the few rabbits upon the island.
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  Speaker 1: It grew blank. Here the more I turned the prospect over.
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  Speaker 1: At last, in the desperation of my position, my mind
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  Speaker 1: turned to the animal men I had encountered. I tried
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  Speaker 1: to find some hope in what I remembered of them.
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  Speaker 1: In turn, I recalled each one I had seen, and
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  Speaker 1: tried to draw some augury of assistance from my memory.
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  Speaker 1: Then suddenly I heard a stag hound bay, and at
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  Speaker 1: that realized a new danger. I took little time to think,
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  Speaker 1: or they would have caught me then, but snatching up
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  Speaker 1: my nailed stick, rushed headlong from my hiding place towards
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  Speaker 1: the sound of the sea. I remember a growth of
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  Speaker 1: thorny plants with spines that stabbed like pin knives. I emerged,
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  Speaker 1: bleeding and with torn clothes, upon the lip of a
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  Speaker 1: long creek opening northward. I went straight into the water
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  Speaker 1: without a minute's hesitation, wading up the creek and presently
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  Speaker 1: finding myself knee deep in a little stream, I scrambled
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  Speaker 1: out at last on the westward bank, and with my
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  Speaker 1: heart beating loudly in my ears, crept into a tangle
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  Speaker 1: of ferns to await the issue. I heard the dog
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  Speaker 1: there was only one draw nearer, and yelp when it
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  Speaker 1: came to the thorns. Then I heard no more, and
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  Speaker 1: presently began to think I had escaped. The minutes passed,
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  Speaker 1: the silence lengthened out, and at last, after an hour
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  Speaker 1: of security, my courage began to return to me. By
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  Speaker 1: this time I was no longer very much terrified or
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  Speaker 1: very miserable. I had, as it were, past the limit
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  Speaker 1: of terror and despair. I felt now that my life
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  Speaker 1: was practically lost, and that persuasion made me capable of
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  Speaker 1: daring anything. I had even certain wish to encounter mon
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  Speaker 1: Row face to face, and as I had waded into
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  Speaker 1: the water. I remembered that if I were too hard pressed,
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  Speaker 1: at least one path of escape from torment still lay
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  Speaker 1: open to me. They could not very well prevent my
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  Speaker 1: drowning myself. I had half a mind to drown myself then,
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  Speaker 1: but not wished to see the whole adventure out. A
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  Speaker 1: queer impersonal spectacular interest in myself restrained me. I stretched
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  Speaker 1: my limbs, sore and painful from the pricks of the
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  Speaker 1: spiny plants, and stared around me at the trees, and
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  Speaker 1: so suddenly that it seemed to jump out of the
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  Speaker 1: green tracery about it. My eyes lit upon a black
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  Speaker 1: face watching me. I saw that it was the Simian
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  Speaker 1: creature who had met the launch upon the beach. He
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  Speaker 1: was clinging to the oblique stem of a palm tree.
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  Speaker 1: I gripped my stick and stood up facing him. He
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  Speaker 1: began chattering, you, you, you, was all I could distinguish
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  Speaker 1: at first. Suddenly he dropped from the tree, and in
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  Speaker 1: another moment was holding the fronds apart and staring curiously
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  Speaker 1: at me. I did not feel the same repugnance towards
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  Speaker 1: this creature which I had experienced in my encounters with
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  Speaker 1: the other beast men, you, he said, in the boat.
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  Speaker 1: He was a man then, at least as much of
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  Speaker 1: a man as Montgomery's attendant, for he could talk. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I said, I came in the boat from the ship. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: he said, And his bright, restless eyes traveled over me,
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  Speaker 1: to my hands, to the stick I carried, to my feet,
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  Speaker 1: to the tattered places in my coat, and the cuts
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  Speaker 1: and scratches I had received from the thorns. He seemed
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  Speaker 1: puzzled at something. His eyes came back to my hands.
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  Speaker 1: He held out his own hand and counted his digits slowly, one, two, three, four, five. Ay.
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  Speaker 1: I did not grasp his meaning. Then afterwards I was
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  Speaker 1: to find that a great proportion of these beast men
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  Speaker 1: had malformed hands, lacking sometimes even three digits. But, guessing
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  Speaker 1: this was in some way a greeting, I did the
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  Speaker 1: same thing by way of reply. He grinned with immense satisfaction.
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  Speaker 1: Then his swift, roving glance went round again. He made
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  Speaker 1: a swift movement and vanished. The fern Franz had stood
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  Speaker 1: between came swishing together. I pushed out of the brake
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  Speaker 1: after him, and was astonished to find him swinging cheerfully
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  Speaker 1: by one lank arm from a rope of creepers that
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  Speaker 1: looped down from the foliage overhead. His back was to me. Hullo,
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  Speaker 1: said I. He came down with a twisting jump and
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  Speaker 1: stood facing me. I say, said I, where can I
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  Speaker 1: get something to eat? Eat? He said, eat man's food now,
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  Speaker 1: and his eye went back to the swing of ropes
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  Speaker 1: at the huts. But where are the huts? Oh, I'm new,
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  Speaker 1: you know. At that, he swung round and set off
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  Speaker 1: at a quick walk. All his motions were curiously rapid.
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  Speaker 1: Come along, said he. I went with him to see
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  Speaker 1: the adventure out. I guessed the huts were some rough
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  Speaker 1: shelter where he and some more of these beast people lived.
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  Speaker 1: I might perhaps find them friendly, find some handle in
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  Speaker 1: their minds to take hold of. I did not know
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  Speaker 1: how far they had forgotten their human heritage. My ape
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  Speaker 1: like companion trotted along by my side, with his hands
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  Speaker 1: hanging down and his jar thrust forward. I wondered what
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  Speaker 1: memory he might have in him. How long have you
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  Speaker 1: been on this island, said I? How long? He asked,
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  Speaker 1: and after having the question repeated, he held up three fingers.
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  Speaker 1: The creature was little better than an idiot. I tried
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  Speaker 1: to make out what he meant by that, and it
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  Speaker 1: seems I bored him. After another question or two, he
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  Speaker 1: suddenly left my side and went leaping at some fruit
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  Speaker 1: that hung from a tree. He pulled down a handful
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  Speaker 1: of prickly husks and went on eating the contents. I
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  Speaker 1: noted this with satisfaction, for here, at least was a
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  Speaker 1: hint for feeding. I tried him with some other questions,
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  Speaker 1: but his chattering prompt responses were, as often as not
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  Speaker 1: quite at cross purposes with my question. Some few were appropriate,
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  Speaker 1: others quite parrot like. I was so intent upon these
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  Speaker 1: peculiarities that I scarcely noticed the path we followed. Presently
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  Speaker 1: we came to trees all charred and brown, and so
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  Speaker 1: to a bare place covered with a yellow white incrustation,
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  Speaker 1: across which a drifting smoke, pungent in whiffs to nose
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  Speaker 1: and eyes eyes. When drifting on our right over a
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  Speaker 1: shoulder of bare rock, I saw the level blue of
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  Speaker 1: the sea. The path coiled down abruptly into a narrow
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  Speaker 1: ravine between two tumbled and knotty masses of blackish scory eye.
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  Speaker 1: Into this we plunged. It was extremely dark this passage.
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  Speaker 1: After the blinding sunlight reflected from the sulfurous ground. Its
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  Speaker 1: walls grew steep and approached each other. Blanches of green
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  Speaker 1: and crimson drifted across my eyes. My conductor stopped suddenly, home,
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  Speaker 1: said he. And I stood in a floor of a
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  Speaker 1: chasm that was at first absolutely dark to me. I
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  Speaker 1: heard some strange noises and thrust the knuckles of my
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  Speaker 1: left hand into my eyes. I became aware of a
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  Speaker 1: disagreeable odor, like that of a monkey's cage. Ill cleaned
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  Speaker 1: beyond the rock opened again upon a gradual slope of
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  Speaker 1: sunlit greenery, and on either hand the lights smote down
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  Speaker 1: through narrow ways into the central gloom. End of Section twelve.