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The Island of Doctor Moreau Chapter 20 - Alone With the Beast Folk · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty one 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 twenty Alone with the beast folk, I faced
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  Speaker 1: these people, facing my fate in them single handed, now
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  Speaker 1: literally single handed, for I had a broken arm. In
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  Speaker 1: my pocket was a revolver with two empty chambers. Among
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  Speaker 1: the chips. Scattered about the beach lay the two axes
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  Speaker 1: that had been used to chop up the boats. The
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  Speaker 1: tide was creeping in behind me. There was nothing for
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  Speaker 1: it but courage. I looked squarely into the faces of
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  Speaker 1: the advancing monsters. They avoided my eyes, and their quivering
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  Speaker 1: nostrils investigated the bodies that lay beyond me on the beach.
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  Speaker 1: I took a half dozen steps, picked up the blood
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  Speaker 1: stained whip that lay beneath the body of the wolf man,
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  Speaker 1: and cracked. They stopped and stared at me. Salute, said
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  Speaker 1: I bow down. They hesitated, one bent his knees. I
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  Speaker 1: repeated my command with my heart in my mouth, and
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  Speaker 1: advanced upon them. One knelt, then the other two. I
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  Speaker 1: turned and walked towards the dead bodies, keeping my face
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  Speaker 1: towards the three kneeling beastmen, very much as an actor
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  Speaker 1: passing up the stage faces the audience. They broke the law,
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  Speaker 1: said I, putting my foot on the sayer of the law.
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  Speaker 1: They have been slain, even the sayer of the law,
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  Speaker 1: even the other with the whip. Great is the law.
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  Speaker 1: Come and see none escape, said one of them, advancing
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  Speaker 1: and peering. None escape, said I, therefore hear and do
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  Speaker 1: as I come out. And they stood up, looking questioningly
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  Speaker 1: at one another. Stand there, said I. I picked up
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  Speaker 1: the hatchets and swung them by their heads from the
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  Speaker 1: sling of my arm. Turning Montgomery over, picked up his revolver,
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  Speaker 1: still loaded in two chambers, and bending down to rummage,
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  Speaker 1: found a half dozen cartridges in his pocket. Take him,
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  Speaker 1: said I, standing up again, and pointing with a whip.
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  Speaker 1: Take him and carry him out, and cast him into
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  Speaker 1: the sea. They came forward, evidently still afraid of Montgomery,
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  Speaker 1: but still more afraid of my cracking red whiplash. And
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  Speaker 1: after some fumbling and hesitation, some whip cracking and shouting,
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  Speaker 1: they lifted him gingerly, carried him down to the beach,
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  Speaker 1: and went splashing into the dazzling welter of the sea.
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  Speaker 1: On said I, on carry him far. They went in
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  Speaker 1: up to their arm pits and stood regarding me. Let go,
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  Speaker 1: said I, and the body of Montgomery vanished with a splash.
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  Speaker 1: Something seemed to tighten across my chest. Good, said I,
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  Speaker 1: with a break in my voice. And they came back,
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  Speaker 1: hurrying and fearful, to the margin of the water, leaving
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  Speaker 1: long wakes of black in the silver. At the water's edge.
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  Speaker 1: They stopped, turning and glaring into the sea, as though
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  Speaker 1: they presently expected Montgomery to arise therefrom and exact vengeance.
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  Speaker 1: Now these, said I, pointing to the other dead bodies.
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  Speaker 1: They took care not to approach the place where they
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  Speaker 1: had thrown Montgomery into the water, but instead carried the
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  Speaker 1: four dead beast people slantingly along the beach for perhaps
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  Speaker 1: a hundred yards before they waded out and cast them away.
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  Speaker 1: As I watched them disposing of the mangled remains of himling,
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  Speaker 1: I heard a light footfall behind me, and, turning quickly,
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  Speaker 1: saw the big hyena swine perhaps a dozen yards away.
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  Speaker 1: His head was bent down, his bright eyes were fixed
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  Speaker 1: upon me, his stumpy hands clinched and held close by
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  Speaker 1: his side. He stopped in this crouching attitude when I
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  Speaker 1: turned his eyes a little averted. For a moment we
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  Speaker 1: stood eye to eye. I dropped the whip and snatched
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  Speaker 1: at the pistol in my pocket, for I meant to
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  Speaker 1: kill this brute, the most formidable of any left now
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  Speaker 1: upon the island, at the first excuse. It may seem treacherous,
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  Speaker 1: but so I was resolved. I was far more afraid
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  Speaker 1: of him than any of the other two of the
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  Speaker 1: beast folk. His continued life was I knew a great
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  Speaker 1: threat against mine. I was perhaps a d seconds collecting myself,
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  Speaker 1: then cried, I salute, bow down. His teeth flashed upon
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  Speaker 1: me in a snarl. Who are you that I should
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  Speaker 1: perhaps a little too Spasmodically, I drew my revolver, aimed
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  Speaker 1: quickly and fired. I heard him yelp, saw him run
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  Speaker 1: sideways and turn. Knew I had missed, and clicked back
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  Speaker 1: the cock with my thumb for the next shot. But
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  Speaker 1: he was already running headlong, jumping from side to side,
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  Speaker 1: and I dared not risk another miss. Every now and
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  Speaker 1: then he looked back at me over his shoulder. He
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  Speaker 1: went slanting along the beach and vanished beneath the driving
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  Speaker 1: masses of dense smoke. That was still pouring out from
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  Speaker 1: the burning enclosure. For some time, I stood staring after him.
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  Speaker 1: I turned to my three obedient beast folk again and
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  Speaker 1: signaled them to drop the body they still carried. Then
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  Speaker 1: I went back to the place by the fire where
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  Speaker 1: the bodies had fallen, and kicked the sand until all
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  Speaker 1: the brown blood stains were absorbed and hidden. I dismissed
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  Speaker 1: my three serfs with the wave of the hand and
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  Speaker 1: went up the beach into the thickets. I carried my
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  Speaker 1: pistol in my hand, my whip thrust with the hatches
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  Speaker 1: in the sling of my arm. I was anxious to
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  Speaker 1: be alone, to think out the position in which I
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  Speaker 1: was now placed. A dreadful thing that I was only
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  Speaker 1: beginning to realize was that over all this island there
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  Speaker 1: was now no safe place where I could be alone
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  Speaker 1: and secure to rest or sleep. I had recovered strength
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  Speaker 1: amazingly since my landing, but I was still inclined to
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  Speaker 1: be nervous and to break down under any great stress.
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  Speaker 1: I felt that I ought to cross the island and
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  Speaker 1: establish myself with the beast people and make myself secure
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  Speaker 1: in their confidence. But my heart failed me. I went
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  Speaker 1: back to the beach, and turning eastward past the burning enclosure,
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  Speaker 1: made for a point where a shallow spit of coral
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  Speaker 1: sand ran out towards the reef. Here I could sit
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  Speaker 1: down and think, my back to the sea and my
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  Speaker 1: face against any surprise. And there I sat, chin on knees,
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  Speaker 1: the sun beating down upon my head, and unspeakable dread
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  Speaker 1: in my mind, plotting how I could live on against
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  Speaker 1: the hour of my rescue, if ever rescue came. I
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  Speaker 1: tried to review the whole situation as calmly as I could,
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  Speaker 1: but it was difficult to clear the thing of emotion.
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  Speaker 1: I began turning over in my mind the reason of
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery's despair. They will change, he said, they are through
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  Speaker 1: ard to change. And Moreau what was it that Moreau
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  Speaker 1: had said? The stubborn beast flesh grows day by day
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  Speaker 1: back again. Then I came round to the hyena swine.
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  Speaker 1: I felt sure that if I did not kill that brute,
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  Speaker 1: he would kill me. The Sayer of the law was dead.
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  Speaker 1: Worse luck, they knew now that we of the whips
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  Speaker 1: could be killed, even as they themselves were killed. Were
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  Speaker 1: they peering at me already? Out of the green masses
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  Speaker 1: of ferns and palms of a yonder, watching until I
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  Speaker 1: came within their spring. Were they plotting against me? What
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  Speaker 1: was the hyena swine telling them? My imagination was running
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  Speaker 1: away with me into a morass of unsubstantial fears. My
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  Speaker 1: thoughts were disturbed by a crying of sea birds hurrying
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  Speaker 1: towards some black object that had been stranded by the
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  Speaker 1: waves on the beach near the enclosure. I knew what
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  Speaker 1: the object was, but I had not the heart to
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  Speaker 1: go back and drive them off. I began walking along
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  Speaker 1: the beach in the opposite direction, designing to come round
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  Speaker 1: the eastward corner of the island and so approach the
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  Speaker 1: ravine of the hut without traversing the possible ambusecards of
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  Speaker 1: the thickets. Perhaps half a mile along the beach, I
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  Speaker 1: became aware of one of my three beast folk advancing
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  Speaker 1: out of the landward bushes towards me. I was now
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  Speaker 1: so nervous with my own imaginings that I immediately drew
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  Speaker 1: my revolver. Even the propitiatory gestures of the creature failed
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  Speaker 1: to disarm me. He hesitated as he approached go away.
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  Speaker 1: I cried, there was something very suggestive of a dog
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  Speaker 1: in the cringing attitude of the creature, it retreated a
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  Speaker 1: little way, very like a dog being sent home, and
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  Speaker 1: stopped looking at me imploringly with canine brown eyes. Go away,
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  Speaker 1: said I do not come near me. May I not
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  Speaker 1: come near you? It said, no, go away. I insisted,
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  Speaker 1: and snapped my whip. Then, putting my whip in my teeth,
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  Speaker 1: I stooped for a stone, and with that threat drove
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  Speaker 1: the creature away. So in solitude I came round by
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  Speaker 1: the ravine of the beast people, and hiding among the
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  Speaker 1: weeds and reeds that separated this crevice from the sea,
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  Speaker 1: I watched such of them as appeared, tried to judge
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  Speaker 1: from them their gestures and appearance at the death of
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  Speaker 1: Moreau and Montgomery, and the destruction of the House of
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  Speaker 1: Pain had affected them. I know now the folly of
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  Speaker 1: my cowardice. Had I kept my courage up to the
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  Speaker 1: level of the dawn, had I not allowed it to
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  Speaker 1: ebb away in solitary thought, I might have grasped the
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  Speaker 1: vacant scepter of Moreau and ruled over the beast people.
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  Speaker 1: As it was, I lost the opportunity and sank to
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  Speaker 1: the position of a mere leader among my fellows. Towards noon,
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  Speaker 1: certain of them came and squatted basking in the hot sand.
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  Speaker 1: The imperious voices of hunger and thirst prevailed over my dread.
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  Speaker 1: I came out of the bush and revolver in hand,
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  Speaker 1: walked down towards these seated figures. One a wolf woman,
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  Speaker 1: turned her head and stared at me, and then the others.
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  Speaker 1: None attempted to rise or salute me. I felt too
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  Speaker 1: faint and weary to insist, and I let the moment pass.
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  Speaker 1: I want food, said I, almost apologetically, and drawing near.
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  Speaker 1: There is food in the huts, said an ox bore man, drowsily,
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  Speaker 1: and looking away from me. I passed them and went
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  Speaker 1: down to the shadow and odors of the almost deserted ravine.
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  Speaker 1: In an empty hut, I feasted on some specked and
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  Speaker 1: half decayed fruit, And then, after I had propped some
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  Speaker 1: branches and sticks about the opening, and placed myself with
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  Speaker 1: my face towards it and my hand upon my revolver,
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  Speaker 1: the exhaustion of the last thirty hours claimed its own,
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  Speaker 1: and I fell into a light slumber, hoping that the
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  Speaker 1: flimsy barricade I had erected would cause sufficient noise in
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  Speaker 1: its removal to save me from surprise. End of Section
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  Speaker 1: twenty one