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07 - The Island of Dr Moreau - H G Wells · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Seven the locked door. The reader will perhaps understand that
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  Speaker 1: at first everything was so strange about me, and my
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  Speaker 1: position was the outcome of such unexpected adventures, that I
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  Speaker 1: had no discernment of the relative strangeness of this or
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  Speaker 1: that thing. I followed the lama up the beach and
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  Speaker 1: was overtaken by Montgomery, who asked me not to enter
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  Speaker 1: the stone enclosure. I noticed then that the puma, in
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  Speaker 1: its cage in the pile of packages, had been placed
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  Speaker 1: outside the entrance to this quadrangle. I turned and saw
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  Speaker 1: that the launch had now been unloaded, run out again,
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  Speaker 1: and was being beached, and the white haired man was
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  Speaker 1: walking towards us. He addressed Montgomery, and now comes the
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  Speaker 1: problem of this uninvited guest. What are we to do
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  Speaker 1: with him? He knowed something of ganth, said Montgomery. I'm
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  Speaker 1: itching to get to work again with this new stuff,
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  Speaker 1: said the white haired man, nodding towards the enclosure. His
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  Speaker 1: eyes grew brighter. Ay dare say you are? Said Montgomery,
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  Speaker 1: in anything but a cordial tone. We can't send him
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  Speaker 1: over there, and we can't spare the time to build
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  Speaker 1: him a new shanty, and we certainly can't take him
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  Speaker 1: into our confidence. Just yet, I'm in your hands, said I.
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  Speaker 1: I had no idea of what he meant by over there.
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  Speaker 1: I've been thinking of the same things, Montgomery answered. There's
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  Speaker 1: my room with the outer door. That's it, said the
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  Speaker 1: elder man, promptly, looking at Montgomery, and all three of
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  Speaker 1: us went towards the enclosure. I'm sorry to make a mystery,
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  Speaker 1: mister Prendick, but you'll remember you're uninvited. Our little establishment
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  Speaker 1: here contains a secret or so, and is kind of
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  Speaker 1: a bluebeard's chamber. In fact, nothing very dreadful, really to
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  Speaker 1: a sane man. But just now, as we don't know,
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  Speaker 1: you decidedly said I, I should be a fool to
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  Speaker 1: take offence at any want of confidence. He twisted his
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  Speaker 1: heavy mouth into a faint smile. He was one of
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  Speaker 1: those saturnine people whose smile with the corners of the
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  Speaker 1: mouth down and bowed his acknowledgment of my complaisance. The
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  Speaker 1: main entrance to the enclosure was past. It was a
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  Speaker 1: heavy wooden gate, framed in iron and locked with the
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  Speaker 1: cargo of the launch piled outside it. And at the
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  Speaker 1: corner we came to a small doorway. I had not
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  Speaker 1: previously observed. The white haired man produced a bundle of
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  Speaker 1: keys from the pocket of his greasy blue jacket, opened
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  Speaker 1: the door and entered his keys. And the elaborate locking
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  Speaker 1: up of the place, even while it was still under
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  Speaker 1: his eye, struck me as peculiar. I followed him and
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  Speaker 1: found myself in a small apartment, plainly but not uncomfortably furnished,
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  Speaker 1: and with its inner door, which was slightly ajar, opening
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  Speaker 1: into a paved courtyard. This inner door, Montgomery at once closed.
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  Speaker 1: A hammock was slung across the darker corner of the room,
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  Speaker 1: and a small unglazed window, defended by an iron bar,
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  Speaker 1: looked out towards the sea. This, the white haired man
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  Speaker 1: told me, was to be my apartment, and the inner door,
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  Speaker 1: which for fear of accidents he said he would lock
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  Speaker 1: on the other side, was my limit. Inward, he called
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  Speaker 1: my attention to a convenient deck chair before the window,
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  Speaker 1: and to an array of old books. Chiefly I found
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  Speaker 1: surgical works and additions of the Latin and Greek classics,
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  Speaker 1: languages I cannot read with any comfort, on a shelf
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  Speaker 1: near the hammock. He left the room by the outer door,
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  Speaker 1: as if to avoid opening the inner one again. We
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  Speaker 1: usually have our meals in here, said Montgomery, and then,
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  Speaker 1: as if in doubt, went out after the other Moreau.
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  Speaker 1: I heard him call, and for the moment I do
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  Speaker 1: not think I noticed. Then, as I handled the books
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  Speaker 1: on the shelf, it came up in consciousness where had
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  Speaker 1: I heard the name of Moreau before? I sat down
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  Speaker 1: before the window, took out the biscuits that still remained
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  Speaker 1: to me and ate them with an excellent appetite Moreau.
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  Speaker 1: Through the window, I saw one of those unaccountable men
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  Speaker 1: in white, lugging a packing case along the beach. Presently
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  Speaker 1: the window frame hid him. Then I heard a key
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  Speaker 1: inserted and turned in the lock behind me. After a
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  Speaker 1: little while I heard through the locked door the noise
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  Speaker 1: of the staghounds that had now been brought up from
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  Speaker 1: the beach. They were not barking, but sniffing and growling
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  Speaker 1: in a curious fashion. I could hear the rapid patter
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  Speaker 1: of their feet, and Montgomery's voice soothing them. I was
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  Speaker 1: very much impressed by the elaborate secrecy of these two
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  Speaker 1: men regarding the contents of the place, and for some
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  Speaker 1: time I was thinking of that, and of the unaccountable
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  Speaker 1: familiarity of the name of Moreau. But so odd is
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  Speaker 1: the human memory that I could not then recall that
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  Speaker 1: well known name in its proper connection. From that, my
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  Speaker 1: thoughts went to the indefinable queerness of the deformed man
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  Speaker 1: on the beach. I never saw such a gait, such
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  Speaker 1: odd motions as he pulled at the I recalled that
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  Speaker 1: none of these men had spoken to me, though most
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  Speaker 1: of them I had found looking at me one time
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  Speaker 1: or another in a peculiarly furtive manner, quite unlike the
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  Speaker 1: frank stare of your unsophisticated savage. Indeed, they had all
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  Speaker 1: seemed remarkably taciturn, and when they did speak, endowed with
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  Speaker 1: very uncanny voices. What was wrong with them? Then? I
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  Speaker 1: recalled the eyes of Montgomery's ungainly attendant. Just as I
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  Speaker 1: was thinking of him, he came in. He was now
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  Speaker 1: dressed in white, and carried a little tray with some
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  Speaker 1: coffee and boiled vegetables. Thereon, I could hardly repress a
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  Speaker 1: shuddering recoil as he came, bending amiably, and placed the
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  Speaker 1: tray before me on the table. Then astonishment paralyzed me.
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  Speaker 1: Under his stringy black locks. I saw his ear it
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  Speaker 1: jumped upon me suddenly close to my face. The man
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  Speaker 1: had pointed ears covered with a fine brown fur Your breakfast, sir,
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  Speaker 1: he said. I stared at his face, without attempting to
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  Speaker 1: answer him. He turned and went towards the door, regarding
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  Speaker 1: me yardly over his shoulder. I followed him out with
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  Speaker 1: my eyes, and as I did so, by some odd
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  Speaker 1: trick of unconscious cerebration, there came surging into my head
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  Speaker 1: the phrase the Moreau hollows. Was it Moreau? Ah? It
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  Speaker 1: sent my memory back ten years, the Moreau horrors. The
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  Speaker 1: phrase drifted loose in my mind for a moment, and
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  Speaker 1: then I saw it in read lettering on a little
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  Speaker 1: buff colored pamphlet to read, which made one shiver and creep.
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  Speaker 1: Then I remembered distinctly all about it. That long forgotten
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  Speaker 1: pamphlet came back with startling vividness to my mind. I
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  Speaker 1: had been a mere lad then. And Moreau was I
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  Speaker 1: suppose about fifty a prominent and masterful physiologist, well known
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  Speaker 1: in scientific circles for his extraordinary imagination and his brutal
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  Speaker 1: directness in discussion. Was this the same Moreau? He had
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  Speaker 1: published some very astonishing facts in connection with the transfusion
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  Speaker 1: of blood and an addition, was known to be doing
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  Speaker 1: valuable work on morbid growths. Then suddenly his career was closed.
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  Speaker 1: He had to leave England. A journalist obtained access to
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  Speaker 1: his laboratory in the capacity of laboratory assistant, with the
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  Speaker 1: deliberate intention of making sensational exposures, and by the help
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  Speaker 1: of a shocking accident. If it was an accident, his
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  Speaker 1: gruesome pamphlet became notorious. On the day of its publication,
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  Speaker 1: a wretched dog, flayed and otherwise mutilated, escaped from Moreau's house.
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  Speaker 1: It was in the silly season, and a prominent editor,
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  Speaker 1: a cousin of the temporary laboratory assistant, appealed to the
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  Speaker 1: conscience of the nation. It was not the first time
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  Speaker 1: that conscience has turned against the methods of research. The
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  Speaker 1: doctor was simply howled out of the country. It may
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  Speaker 1: be that he deserved to be, but I still think
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  Speaker 1: that the tepid support of his fellow investigators and his
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  Speaker 1: desertion by the great body of scientific workers was a
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  Speaker 1: shameful thing. Yet some of his experiments, by the journalist's account,
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  Speaker 1: were wantonly cruel. He might perhaps have purchased his social
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  Speaker 1: peace by abandoning his investigations, but he apparently preferred the latter,
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  Speaker 1: as most men would who have once fallen under the
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  Speaker 1: overmastering spell of research. He was unmarried, and had indeed
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  Speaker 1: nothing but his own interest to consider. I felt convinced
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  Speaker 1: that this must be the same man. Everything pointed to it.
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  Speaker 1: It dawned upon me to what end the puma and
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  Speaker 1: the other animals, which had now been brought with other
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  Speaker 1: luggage into the enclosure behind the house, were destined. And
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  Speaker 1: a curious, faint odor, the halitus of something familiar, an
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  Speaker 1: odor that had been in the background of my consciousness hitherto,
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  Speaker 1: suddenly came forward into the forefront of my thoughts. It
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  Speaker 1: was the antiseptic odor of the dissecting room. I heard
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  Speaker 1: the puma growling through the wall, and one of the
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  Speaker 1: dogs yelped as though it had been struck. Yet surely,
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  Speaker 1: and especially to another scientific man, there was nothing so
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  Speaker 1: horrible in vivisection as to account for this secrecy, And
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  Speaker 1: by some odd leap in my thoughts, the pointed ears
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  Speaker 1: and luminous eyes of Montgomery's attendant came back again before
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  Speaker 1: me with the sharpest definition. I stared before me out
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  Speaker 1: at the green sea frothing under a freshening breeze, and
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  Speaker 1: let these and other strange memories of the last few
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  Speaker 1: days chase one another through my mind. What could it
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  Speaker 1: all mean? A locked enclosure on a lonely island, a
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  Speaker 1: notorious vivisector, and these crippled and distorted men,