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06 - The Island of Dr Moreau - H G Wells · Daily Classic Sci Fi Books

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  Speaker 1: Six the evil looking boatmen, but the islanders, seeing that
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I was really adrift, took pity on me. I drifted
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  Speaker 1: very slowly to the eastward, approaching the island slantingly, and
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  Speaker 1: presently I saw with hysterical relief, the launch come round
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  Speaker 1: and return towards me. She was heavily laden, and I
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  Speaker 1: could make out as she drew nearer Montgomery's white haired,
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  Speaker 1: broad shouldered companion sitting cramped up with the dogs in
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  Speaker 1: several packing cases in the stern sheets. This individual stared
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  Speaker 1: fixedly at me, without moving or speaking. The black faced
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  Speaker 1: cripple was glaring at me as fixedly. In the boughs
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  Speaker 1: near the puma, there were three other men, besides three strange,
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  Speaker 1: brutish looking fellows, at whom the stag hounds were snarling savagely. Montgomery,
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  Speaker 1: who was steering, brought the boat by me, and rising
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  Speaker 1: caught and fastened my painter to the tiller to tow me,
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  Speaker 1: for there was no room aboard. I had recovered from
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  Speaker 1: my hysterical phase by this time, and answered his hail
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  Speaker 1: as he approached. Bravely enough. I told him that Dinghy
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  Speaker 1: was nearly swamped, and he reached me a pigan I
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  Speaker 1: was jerked back as the rope tightened between the boats.
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  Speaker 1: For some time I was busy baling. It was not
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  Speaker 1: until I had got the water under for the water
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  Speaker 1: and the dinghy had been shipped the boat was perfectly sound,
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  Speaker 1: that I had leisure to look at the people in
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  Speaker 1: the launch again. The white haired man I found was
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  Speaker 1: still regarding me steadfastly, but with an expression as I
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  Speaker 1: now fancied, of some perplexity. When my eyes met his,
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  Speaker 1: he looked down at the staghound that sat between his knees.
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  Speaker 1: He was a powerfully built man, as I have said,
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  Speaker 1: with a fine forehead and rap the heavy features. But
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  Speaker 1: his eyes had that odd drooping of the skin above
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  Speaker 1: the lids which often comes with advancing years, and the
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  Speaker 1: fall of his mouth at the corners gave him an
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  Speaker 1: expression of pugnacious resolution. He talked to Montgomery in a
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  Speaker 1: tone too low for me to hear from him. My
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  Speaker 1: eyes traveled to his three men and a strange crew
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  Speaker 1: they were. I saw only their faces, Yet there was
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  Speaker 1: something in their faces I knew not what. That gave
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  Speaker 1: me a queer spasm of disgust. I looked steadily at them,
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  Speaker 1: and the impression did not pass, though I failed to
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  Speaker 1: see what had occasioned it. They seemed to me then
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  Speaker 1: to be brown men, but their limbs were oddly swathed
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  Speaker 1: in some thin, dirty white stuff down even to the
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  Speaker 1: fingers and feet. I have never seen men so wrapped
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  Speaker 1: up a four and women so only in the East.
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  Speaker 1: They wore turbans, too, and thereunder peered out their elfin
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  Speaker 1: faces at me, faces with protruding lower jaws and bright eyes.
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  Speaker 1: They had lank black hair, almost like horse hair, and seemed,
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  Speaker 1: as they sat, to exceed in stature any race of
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  Speaker 1: men I have seen. The white haired man, whom I
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  Speaker 1: knew was a good six feet in height, sat a
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  Speaker 1: head below any one of the three. I found afterwards
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  Speaker 1: that really none were taller than myself. But their bodies
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  Speaker 1: were abnormally long, and the thigh part of the leg
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  Speaker 1: short and curiously twisted. At any rate, they were an
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  Speaker 1: amazingly ugly gang. And over the heads of them, under
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  Speaker 1: the forward lug peered the black face of the man,
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  Speaker 1: whose eyes were luminous in the dark. As I stared
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  Speaker 1: at them, they met my gaze, and then first one
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  Speaker 1: and then another turned away from my direct stair and
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  Speaker 1: looked at me in an odd, furtive manner. It occurred
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  Speaker 1: to me that I was perhaps annoying them, and I
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  Speaker 1: turned my attention to the island we were approaching. It
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  Speaker 1: was low and covered with vegetation, chiefly a kind of
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  Speaker 1: palm that was new to me. From one point, a
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  Speaker 1: thin white thread of vapor rose slantingly to an immense height,
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  Speaker 1: and then frayed out like a down feather. We were
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  Speaker 1: now within the embrace of a broad bay, flanked on
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  Speaker 1: either hand by a low promontory. The beach was of
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  Speaker 1: dull gray sand and sloped steeply up to a ridge
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  Speaker 1: perhaps sixty or seventy feet above the sea level, and
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  Speaker 1: regularly set with trees and undergrowth. Half Way up was
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  Speaker 1: a square enclosure of some grayish stone, which I found
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  Speaker 1: subsequently was built partly of coral and partly of pumicious lava.
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  Speaker 1: Two thatched roofs heaped from within this enclosure. A man
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  Speaker 1: stood awaiting us at the water's edge. I fancied, while
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  Speaker 1: we were still far off that I saw some other
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  Speaker 1: and very grotesque looking creatures scuttle into the bushes upon
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  Speaker 1: the slope, But I saw nothing of these as we
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  Speaker 1: drew nearer. This man was of a moderate size and
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  Speaker 1: with a black negroid face. He had a large, almost
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  Speaker 1: lipless mouth, extraordinary lank arms, long thin feet and bow legs,
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  Speaker 1: and stood with his heavy face thrust forward staring at us.
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  Speaker 1: He was dressed like Montgomery and his white head companion,
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  Speaker 1: in jacket and trousers of blue surge. As we came
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  Speaker 1: still nearer, this individual began to run to and fro
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  Speaker 1: on the beach, making the most grotesque movements. At a
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  Speaker 1: word of command from Montgomery, the four men in the
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  Speaker 1: launch sprang up and, with singularly awkward gestures, struck the lug.
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery steered us round into a narrow little dock excavated
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  Speaker 1: into the beach. Then the man on the beach hastened
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  Speaker 1: towards us. This dock, as I call it, was really
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  Speaker 1: a mere ditch, just long enough at this phase of
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  Speaker 1: the tide to take the long boat. I heard the
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  Speaker 1: boughs ground in the sand, staved the dinghy off the
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  Speaker 1: rudder of the big boat with my piggin and freeing
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  Speaker 1: the painter landed. The three muffled men, with the clumsiest movements,
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  Speaker 1: scrambled out upon the sand and forthwith set to landing
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  Speaker 1: the cargo assisted by the man on the beach. I
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  Speaker 1: was struck, especially by the curious movements of the legs
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  Speaker 1: of the three swathed and bandaged boatmen. Not stiff they were,
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  Speaker 1: but distorted in some odd way, almost as if they
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  Speaker 1: were jointed in the wrong place. The dogs were still
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  Speaker 1: snarling and strained at their chains after these men. As
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  Speaker 1: the white haired man landed with them, the three big
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  Speaker 1: fellows spoke to one another in odd guttural tones, and
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  Speaker 1: the man who had waited for us on the beach
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  Speaker 1: began chattering to them excitedly a foreign language. As I
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  Speaker 1: fancied as they laid hands on some bales piled near
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  Speaker 1: the stern. Somewhere I had heard such a voice before,
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  Speaker 1: and I could not think where. The white haired man stood,
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  Speaker 1: holding in a tumult of six dogs and bawling orders
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  Speaker 1: over their din. Montgomery, having unshipped the rudder, landed likewise,
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  Speaker 1: and all set to work at unloading. I was too faint,
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  Speaker 1: what with my long fast in the sun beating down
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  Speaker 1: on my bare head, to offer any assistance. Presently, the
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  Speaker 1: white haired man seemed to recollect my presence and came
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  Speaker 1: up to me. You look, said he, as though you
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  Speaker 1: had scarcely pricked. His little eyes were a brilliant black
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  Speaker 1: under his heavy brows. I must apologize for that. Now
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  Speaker 1: you are our guest. We must make you comfortable, though
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  Speaker 1: you are uninvited, you know, he looked keenly into my face.
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery says, you are an educated man. Mister Prindick says,
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  Speaker 1: you know something of science. May I ask what that signifies?
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  Speaker 1: I told him I had spent some years at the
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  Speaker 1: Royal College of Science and had done some researches in
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  Speaker 1: biology under Huxley. He raised his eyebrows slightly at that.
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  Speaker 1: That alters the case a little. Mister Prindick, he said,
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  Speaker 1: with a trifle more respect in his manner. As it happens,
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  Speaker 1: we are biologists here. This is a biological station of
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  Speaker 1: a sort. His eyes rested on the men in white,
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  Speaker 1: who were easily hauling the puma on rollers towards the
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  Speaker 1: walled yard Ay and Montgomery at least, he added, Then
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  Speaker 1: when you will be able to get away, I can't
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  Speaker 1: say we are off the track to anywhere. We see
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  Speaker 1: a ship once in a twelve month or so. He
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  Speaker 1: left me abruptly and went up the beach past this group,
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  Speaker 1: and I think entered the enclosure. The other two men
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  Speaker 1: were with Montgomery erecting a pile of smaller packages on
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  Speaker 1: a low wheeled truck. The lama was still on the
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  Speaker 1: launch with the rabbit hutches. The staghounds were still lashed
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  Speaker 1: to the thwarts. The pile of things completed, all three
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  Speaker 1: men laid hold of the truck and began shoving the
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  Speaker 1: ton weight or so upon it after the puma. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery left them, and, coming back to me, held out
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  Speaker 1: his hand. I'm glad, said he for my own part.
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  Speaker 1: That captain w a thilly asth he'd have made things
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  Speaker 1: lively for you. It was you, said I that saved
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  Speaker 1: me again, that de pinthe you'll find this island an
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  Speaker 1: infirmly rum plaith. I promise you I'd watch my goings
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  Speaker 1: carefully if I were you. He he hesitated and seemed
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  Speaker 1: to alter his mind about what was on his lips.
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  Speaker 1: I wish you'd help me with thee rabbits, he said.
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  Speaker 1: His procedure with the rabbits was singular. I waded in
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  Speaker 1: with him and helped him lug one of the hatches ashore.
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  Speaker 1: No sooner was that done than he opened the door
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  Speaker 1: of it and tilting the thing on one end, turned
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  Speaker 1: its living contents out on the ground. They fell in
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  Speaker 1: a struggling heap, one on top of the other. He
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  Speaker 1: clapped his hands, and forthwith they went off at that
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  Speaker 1: hopping of theirs, fifteen or twenty of them. I should
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  Speaker 1: think up the beach in Greeth and multiply, my friend,
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  Speaker 1: said Montgomery, Replyneth the island hitherto. We've had a certain
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  Speaker 1: lack of meat here. As I watched them disappearing, the
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  Speaker 1: white haired man returned with a brandy flask and some biscuits.
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  Speaker 1: Something to go on with, Priddock, said he in a
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  Speaker 1: far more familiar tone than before. I made no ado,
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  Speaker 1: but set to work on the biscuits at once, while
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  Speaker 1: the white haired man helped Montgomery to release about a
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  Speaker 1: score more of the rabbits. Three big hutches, however, went
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  Speaker 1: up to the house with the puma. The brandy I
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  Speaker 1: did not touch, for I have been an abstainer from
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  Speaker 1: my berth