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The Island of Doctor Moreau Chapter 1 - In the Dingey of the "Lady Vain" · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section two 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 One in the Dinghy of the Lady Vain.
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  Speaker 1: I do not propose to add anything to what has
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  Speaker 1: already been written concerning the loss of the Lady Vain.
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  Speaker 1: As every one knows, she collided with a derelict when
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  Speaker 1: ten days out from Callao. The longboat with seven of
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  Speaker 1: the crew was picked up eighteen days after by each
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  Speaker 1: chim gun boat Myrtle, and the story of their terrible
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  Speaker 1: privations has become quite as well known as the far
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  Speaker 1: more horrible Medusa case. But I have to add to
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  Speaker 1: the published story of the Lady Vain another, possibly as
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  Speaker 1: horrible and far stranger, has hitherto been supposed that the
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  Speaker 1: four men who are in the dinghy perished, But this
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  Speaker 1: is incorrect. I have the best of evidence for this assertion.
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  Speaker 1: I was one of the four men. But in the
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  Speaker 1: first place, I must state that there were never four
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  Speaker 1: men in the dinghy. The number was three. Constance, who
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  Speaker 1: was seen by the captain to jump into the gig
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  Speaker 1: Daily News March seventeenth, eighteen eighty seven. Luckily for us
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  Speaker 1: and unluckily for himself, did not reach us. He came
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  Speaker 1: down out of the tangle of ropes under the stays
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  Speaker 1: of the smashed bowsprit Some small rope caught his heel
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  Speaker 1: as he let go, and he hung for a moment
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  Speaker 1: head downward, and then fell and struck a block or
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  Speaker 1: spar floating in the water. We pulled towards him, but
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  Speaker 1: he never came up. I say, luckily for us, he
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  Speaker 1: did not reach us, and I might almost say luckily
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  Speaker 1: for himself, for he had only a small beaker of
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  Speaker 1: water and some sodden ship's biscuits with us. So sudden
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  Speaker 1: had been the alarm, so unprepared the ship for any disaster.
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  Speaker 1: We thought the people on the launch would be better provisioned,
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  Speaker 1: though it seems were not, and we tried to hail them.
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  Speaker 1: They could not have heard us, and the next morning,
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  Speaker 1: when the drizzle cleared, which was not until past midday,
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  Speaker 1: we could see nothing of them. We could not stand
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  Speaker 1: up to look about us because of the pitching of
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  Speaker 1: the boat. The two other men who had escaped so
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  Speaker 1: far with me were a man named Helmar, a passenger
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  Speaker 1: like myself, and a seaman whose name I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: A short, sturdy man with a stammer. We drifted famishing,
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  Speaker 1: and after our water had come to an end, tormented
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  Speaker 1: by an intolerable thirst, for eight days altogether. After the
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  Speaker 1: second day the sea subsided slowly to a glassy calm.
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  Speaker 1: It is quite possible for the ordinary reader to imagine
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  Speaker 1: those eight days. He has not, luckily for himself anything
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  Speaker 1: in his memory to imagine with. After the first day,
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  Speaker 1: we said little to one another, and lay in our
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  Speaker 1: faces in the boat and stared at the horizon, or
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  Speaker 1: watched with eyes that grew larger and more haggard every day,
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  Speaker 1: the misery and weakness gaining upon our companions. The sun
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  Speaker 1: became pitiless. The water ended on the fourth day, and
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  Speaker 1: we were already thinking strange things in saying them with
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  Speaker 1: our eyes. But it was I think the sixth before
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  Speaker 1: Helmar gave voice to the thing we had all been thinking.
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  Speaker 1: I remember our voices were dry and thin, so that
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  Speaker 1: we bent towards one another and spared our words. I
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  Speaker 1: stood out against it with all my might, was rather
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  Speaker 1: for scuttling the boat and perishing together among the sharks
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  Speaker 1: that followed us. But when Helma said that if his
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  Speaker 1: proposal was accepted, we should have drink. The sailor came
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  Speaker 1: round to him. I would not draw lots, however, and
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  Speaker 1: in the night the sailor whispered to Helmar again and again,
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  Speaker 1: and I sat in the boughs with my clasp knife
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  Speaker 1: in my hand, though I doubt if I had the
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  Speaker 1: stuff in me to fight. And in the morning I
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  Speaker 1: agreed to Helma's proposal, and we handed halfpence to find
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  Speaker 1: the odd man. The lot fell upon the sailor, but
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  Speaker 1: he was the strongest of us and would not abide
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  Speaker 1: by it, and attacked Helmar with his hands. They grappled
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  Speaker 1: together and almost stood up. I crawled along the boat
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  Speaker 1: to them, intending to help Helmar by grasping the sailor's legs.
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  Speaker 1: But the sailors stumbled with the swaying of the boat,
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  Speaker 1: and the two fell upon the gun wale and rolled
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  Speaker 1: overboard together. They sank like stones. I remember laughing at that,
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  Speaker 1: and wondering why I laughed. The laugh caught me suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: like a thing from without. I lay across one of
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  Speaker 1: the thwarts for I know not how long, thinking that
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  Speaker 1: if I had the strength, I would drink sea water,
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  Speaker 1: and mad myself to die quickly, and even As I
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  Speaker 1: lay there, I saw, with no more interest than if
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  Speaker 1: it had been a picture, a sail come up towards
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  Speaker 1: me over the sky line. My mind must have been wandering,
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  Speaker 1: and yet I remember all that happened quite distinctly. I
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  Speaker 1: remember how my head swayed with the seas and the horizon,
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  Speaker 1: with the sail above it danced up and down. But
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  Speaker 1: I also remember as distinctly that I had a persuasion
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  Speaker 1: that I was dead, and that I thought what a
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  Speaker 1: jest it was that they should come too late, by
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  Speaker 1: such a little to catch me in my body. For
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  Speaker 1: an endless period, as it seemed to me, I lay
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  Speaker 1: with my head on the thwart, watching the schooner. She
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  Speaker 1: was a little ship schooner rigged fore and aft, come
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  Speaker 1: up out of the sea. She kept tacking to and
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  Speaker 1: fro in a widening compass, for she was sailing dead
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  Speaker 1: into the wind. It never entered my head to attempt
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  Speaker 1: to attract attention, and I do not remember anything distinctly
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  Speaker 1: after the sight of her, until I found myself in
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  Speaker 1: a little cabin aft. There's a dim half memory of
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  Speaker 1: being lifted up to the gangway and of a big
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  Speaker 1: round countenance covered with freckles and surrounded with red hair,
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  Speaker 1: staring at me over the bulwarks. I also had a
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  Speaker 1: disconnected impression of a dark face with extraordinary eyes close
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  Speaker 1: to mine, but that I thought was a nightmare until
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  Speaker 1: I met it again. I fancy I recollect some stuff
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  Speaker 1: being poured in between my teeth, and that is all.
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  Speaker 1: End of Section two.