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

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