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

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  Speaker 1: Twelve the sayers of the law. Then something cold touched
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  Speaker 1: my hand. I started violently and saw close to me
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  Speaker 1: a pinkish thing, looking more like a flayed child than
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  Speaker 1: anything else in the world. The creature had exactly the
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  Speaker 1: mild but repulsive features of a sloth, the same low
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  Speaker 1: forehead and slow gestures. As the first shock of the
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  Speaker 1: change of light passed, I saw about me more distinctly.
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  Speaker 1: The little slothlike creature was standing and staring at me.
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  Speaker 1: My conductor had vanished. The place was a narrow passage
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  Speaker 1: between high walls of lava, a crack in the knotted rock,
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  Speaker 1: and on either side, interwoven heaps of sea mat, palm, fans,
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  Speaker 1: and reeds leaning against the rock formed rough and impenetrably
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  Speaker 1: dark dens. The winding way up the ravine between these
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  Speaker 1: was scarcely three yards wide, and was disfigured by lumps
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  Speaker 1: of decaying fruit, pulp, and other refuse, which accounted for
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  Speaker 1: the disagreeable stench of the place. The little pink sloth
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  Speaker 1: creature was still blinking at me when my ape man
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  Speaker 1: reappeared at the aperture of the nearest of these dens
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  Speaker 1: and beckoned me in. As he did so a slouching
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  Speaker 1: monster wriggled out of one of the places further up
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  Speaker 1: this strange street, and stood up in featureless silhouette against
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  Speaker 1: the bright green beyond, staring at me. I hesitated, having
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  Speaker 1: half a mind to bolt the way I had come,
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  Speaker 1: and then determined to go through with the adventure. I
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  Speaker 1: gripped my nailed stick about the middle and crawled into
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  Speaker 1: the little, evil smelling lean to after my conductor. It
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  Speaker 1: was a semicircular space, shaped like the half of a
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  Speaker 1: bee hive, and against the rocky wall that formed the
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  Speaker 1: inner side of it was a pile of variegated fruits,
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  Speaker 1: cocoa nuts, among others. Some rough vessels of lava and
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  Speaker 1: wood stood about the floor, and one on a rough stool.
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  Speaker 1: There was no fire. In the darkest corner of the
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  Speaker 1: hut sat a shapeless mass of darkness that grunted hey
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  Speaker 1: as I came in, and my ape man stood in
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  Speaker 1: the dim light of the doorway and held out a
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  Speaker 1: split cocoanut to me. As I crawled into the other
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  Speaker 1: corner and squatted down, I took it and began gnawing
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  Speaker 1: it as serenely as possible, in spite of a certain
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  Speaker 1: trepidation and the nearly intolerable closeness of the den. The
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  Speaker 1: little pink sloth creature stood in the aperture of the hut,
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  Speaker 1: and something else with a drab face and bright eyes
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  Speaker 1: came staring over its shoulder. Hey came out of the
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  Speaker 1: lump of mystery opposite. It is a man. It is
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  Speaker 1: a man, gabbled my conductor. A man, a man, A
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  Speaker 1: five man like me. Shut up, said the voice from
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  Speaker 1: the dark, and grunted. I gnawed my cocoanut amid an
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  Speaker 1: impressive stillness. I peered hard into the blackness, but could
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  Speaker 1: distinguish nothing. It is a man, the voice repeated, he
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  Speaker 1: comes to live with us. It was a thick voice
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  Speaker 1: with something in it, a kind of whistling overtone that
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  Speaker 1: struck me as peculiar, but the English accent was strangely good.
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  Speaker 1: The ape man looked at me as though he expected
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  Speaker 1: something I perceived. The pause was interrogative. He comes to
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  Speaker 1: live with you, I said. It is a man. He
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  Speaker 1: must learn the law. I began to distinguish now a
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  Speaker 1: deeper blackness in the black, a vague outline of a
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  Speaker 1: hunched up figure. Then I noticed the opening of the
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  Speaker 1: place was darkened by two more black heads. My hand
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  Speaker 1: tightened on my stick. The thing in the dark repeated,
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  Speaker 1: in a louder tone, say the words I had missed.
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  Speaker 1: Its last remark, not to go on all fours, that
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  Speaker 1: is the law, it repeated, in a kind of sing song.
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  Speaker 1: I was puzzled. Say the word, said the ape man, repeating,
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  Speaker 1: and the figures in the doorway echoed this with a
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  Speaker 1: threat in the tone of their voices. I realized that
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  Speaker 1: I had to repeat this idiotic formula, and then began
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  Speaker 1: the insanest ceremony. The voice in the dark began intoning
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  Speaker 1: a mad litany, line by line, and I in the
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  Speaker 1: rest to repeat it. As they did so, they swayed
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  Speaker 1: from side to side in the oddest way, and beat
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  Speaker 1: their hands upon their knees, and I followed their example.
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  Speaker 1: I could have imagined I was already dead, and in
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  Speaker 1: another world, that dark hut, these grotesque dim figures just
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  Speaker 1: flecked here and there by a glimmer of light, and
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  Speaker 1: all of them swaying in unison, enchanting not to go
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  Speaker 1: on all fours? That is the law. Are we not men?
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  Speaker 1: Not to suck up drink? That is the law? Are
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  Speaker 1: we not men? Not to eat fish or flesh. That
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  Speaker 1: is the law. Are we not men? Not to claw
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  Speaker 1: the bark of trees? That is the law? Are we
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  Speaker 1: not men? Not to chase other men? That is the law?
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  Speaker 1: Are we not men? And so from the prohibition of
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  Speaker 1: these acts of folly on to the prohibition of what
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  Speaker 1: I thought then were the maddest, most impossible, and most
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  Speaker 1: indecent things one could well imagine, a kind of rhythmic
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  Speaker 1: fervor fell on all of us. We gabbled and swayed
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  Speaker 1: faster and faster, repeating this amazing law superficially. The contagion
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  Speaker 1: of these brutes was upon me, but deep down within
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  Speaker 1: me the laughter and disgust struggled together. We ran through
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  Speaker 1: a long list of prohibitions, and then the chance swung
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  Speaker 1: round to a new formula. His is the house of pain.
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  Speaker 1: His is the hand that makes, His is the hand
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  Speaker 1: that wounds, His is the hand that heals, and so
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  Speaker 1: on for another long series, mostly quite incomprehensible gibberish to me,
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  Speaker 1: about him, whoever he might be. I could have fancied
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  Speaker 1: it was a dream, But never before have I heard
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  Speaker 1: chanting in a dream. His is the lightning we flash,
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  Speaker 1: We sang is the deep salt sea. A horrible fancy
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  Speaker 1: came into my head. That moreau, after animalizing, these men
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  Speaker 1: had infected their dwarfed brains with a kind of deification
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  Speaker 1: of himself. However, I was too keenly aware of white
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  Speaker 1: teeth and strong claws about me to stop my chanting
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  Speaker 1: on that account. His are the stars in the sky.
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  Speaker 1: At last, that song hinded. I saw the ape man's
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  Speaker 1: face shining with perspiration, and my eyes, being now accustomed
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  Speaker 1: to the darkness, I saw more distinctly the figure in
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  Speaker 1: the corner from which the voice came. It was the
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  Speaker 1: size of a man, but it seemed covered with the
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  Speaker 1: dull gray hair, almost like a sky terrier. What was it?
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  Speaker 1: What were they all? Imagine yourself surrounded by all the
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  Speaker 1: most horrible cripple and maniacs. It is possible to conceive,
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  Speaker 1: and you may understand a little of my feelings. With
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  Speaker 1: these grotesque caricatures of humanity about me. Here's a five man,
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  Speaker 1: a five man, a five man like me, said the
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  Speaker 1: ape man. I held out my hands. The gray creature
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  Speaker 1: in the corner leant forward. Not two anon, all fours,
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  Speaker 1: that is the law. Are we not men? He said,
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  Speaker 1: He put out a strangely distorted talon and gripped my fingers.
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  Speaker 1: The thing was almost like the hoof of a deer
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  Speaker 1: produced into claws. I could have yelled with surprise and pain.
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  Speaker 1: His face came forward and peered at my nails, came
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  Speaker 1: forward into the light of the opening of the hut,
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  Speaker 1: and I saw, with a quivering disgust, that it was
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  Speaker 1: like the face of night, neither man nor beast, but
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  Speaker 1: a mere shock of gray hair, with three shadowy over
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  Speaker 1: archings to mark the eyes and mouth. He has little nails,
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  Speaker 1: said this grisly creature in his hairy beard. It is well.
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  Speaker 1: He threw my hand down, and instinctively I gripped my stick,
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  Speaker 1: heat roots and herbs. It is his will, said the
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  Speaker 1: ape man. I am the sayer of the law, said
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  Speaker 1: the gray figure. Here come all that be new to
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  Speaker 1: learn the law. I sit in the darkness and say
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  Speaker 1: the law. It is even so, said one of the
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  Speaker 1: beasts in the doorway. Evil are the punishments of those
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  Speaker 1: who break the law. None escape, None escape, said the
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  Speaker 1: beast folk, glancing furtively at one another. None none, said
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  Speaker 1: the ape man. None escape. See, I did a little thing,
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  Speaker 1: a wrong thing, wants a jabberd jabbert. Stop talking. None
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  Speaker 1: could understand. I am burnt branded in the hand. He
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  Speaker 1: is great, he is good. None escape, said the gray
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  Speaker 1: creature in the corner. None escape, said the beast. People
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  Speaker 1: looking askance at one another. For every one the want
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  Speaker 1: that is bad, said the gray sayer of the law.
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  Speaker 1: What you will want, we do not know. We shall know.
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  Speaker 1: Some want to follow things that move, to watch and
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  Speaker 1: slink and wait and spring, to kill and bite by
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  Speaker 1: deep and rich, sucking the blood. It is bad not
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  Speaker 1: to chase other men. That is the law. Are we
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  Speaker 1: not men? Not to eat flesh or fish? That is
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  Speaker 1: the law? Are we not men? None escape, said a
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  Speaker 1: dappled brute standing in the doorway. For every one the
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  Speaker 1: want is bad, said the gray sayer of the law.
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  Speaker 1: Some want to go tearing with teeth and hands into
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  Speaker 1: the roots of things, snuffing into the earth. It is bad.
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  Speaker 1: None escape, said the men in the door. Some go
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  Speaker 1: clawing trees, Some go scratching at the graves of the dead.
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  Speaker 1: Some go fighting with foreheads or feet or claws. Some
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  Speaker 1: bite suddenly, none giving occasion. Some love uncleanness. None escape,
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  Speaker 1: said the man scratching his calf none escape, said the
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  Speaker 1: little pink sloth creature. Punishment is sharp and sure. Therefore
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  Speaker 1: learn the law, say the words. And incontinently he began
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  Speaker 1: again the strange litany of the law. And again I
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  Speaker 1: and all these creatures began singing and swaying. My head
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  Speaker 1: reeled with this jabbering in the close stench of the place,
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  Speaker 1: But I kept on, trusting to find presently some chance
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  Speaker 1: of a new development. Not to go on all fours,
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  Speaker 1: that is the law. Are we not men? We were
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  Speaker 1: making such a noise that I noticed nothing of a
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  Speaker 1: tumult outside, until some one, who I think was one
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  Speaker 1: of the two swine men I had seen, thrust his
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  Speaker 1: head over the little pink sloth creature and shouted something excitedly,
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  Speaker 1: something that I did not catch. Incontinently, those at the
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  Speaker 1: opening of the hut vanished. My ape man rushed out.
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  Speaker 1: The thing that had sat in the dark followed him.
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  Speaker 1: I only observed that it was big and clumsy and
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  Speaker 1: covered with silvery hair, and I was left alone. Then,
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  Speaker 1: before I reached the aperture, I heard the yelp of
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  Speaker 1: a staghound. In another moment, I was standing outside the hovel,
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  Speaker 1: my chair rail in my hand, every muscle of me.
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  Speaker 1: Quivering before me were the clumsy backs of perhaps a
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  Speaker 1: score of these beast people, their misshapen heads half hidden
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  Speaker 1: by their shoulder blades. They were gesticulating excitedly. Other half
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  Speaker 1: animal faces glared interrogation out of their hovels, looking in
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  Speaker 1: the direction which they faced, I saw coming through the
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  Speaker 1: haze under the trees, beyond the end of the passage
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  Speaker 1: of Dens, the dark figure and a white face of Moreau.
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  Speaker 1: He was holding the leaping staghound back, and close behind
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  Speaker 1: him came Montgomery, revolver in hand. For a moment, I
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  Speaker 1: stood horror struck. I turned and saw the passage behind
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  Speaker 1: me blocked by another heavy brute with a huge gray
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  Speaker 1: face and twinkling little eyes, advancing towards me. I looked
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  Speaker 1: round and saw to the right of me, and a
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  Speaker 1: half dozen yards in front of me a narrow gap
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  Speaker 1: in the wall of rock, through which a ray of
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  Speaker 1: light slanted into the shadows. Stop, cried Moreau, as I
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  Speaker 1: strode towards this and then hold him at that. First
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  Speaker 1: one face turned towards me, and then others. The best
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  Speaker 1: your minds were happily slow. I dashed my shoulder into
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  Speaker 1: a clumsy monster, who was turning to see what Moreau meant,
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  Speaker 1: and flung him forward into another I felt his hands
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  Speaker 1: fly round, clutching at me and missing me. The little,
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  Speaker 1: pink slothe creature dashed at me, and I gashed down
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  Speaker 1: its ugly face with the nail in my stick, and
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  Speaker 1: in another minute was scrambling up a steep side of pathway,
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  Speaker 1: a kind of sloping chimney out of the ravine. I
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  Speaker 1: heard howl behind me and cries of catch him, hold him,
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  Speaker 1: and the gray faced creature peered behind me and jammed
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  Speaker 1: his huge bulk into the cleft. Go On, go on,
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  Speaker 1: they howled. I clambered up the narrow cleft in the
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  Speaker 1: rock and came out upon the sulfur on the westward
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  Speaker 1: side of the village of the beast Men. That gap
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  Speaker 1: was altogether fortunate for me, for the narrow chimney slanting
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  Speaker 1: obliquely upward must have impeded the nearer pursuers. I ran
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  Speaker 1: over the white space and down a steep slope through
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  Speaker 1: a scattered growth of trees, and came to a low
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  Speaker 1: lying stretch of tall reeds, through which I pushed into
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  Speaker 1: a dark, thick undergrowth that was black and succulent under foot.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: As I plunged into the reeds, my foremost pursuers emerged
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  Speaker 1: from the gap. I broke my way through this undergrowth
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  Speaker 1: for some minutes. The air behind me and about me
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  Speaker 1: was soon full of threatening cries. I heard the tumult
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  Speaker 1: of my pursuers in the gap up the slope, then
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  Speaker 1: the crashing of the reeds, and every now and then
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  Speaker 1: the crackling crash of a branch. Some of the creatures
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  Speaker 1: roared like excited beasts of prey. The staghound yelped to
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  Speaker 1: the left. I heard Moreau and Montgomery shouting in the
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: same direction. I turned sharply to the right. It seemed
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  Speaker 1: to me even then that I heard Montgomery shouting for
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  Speaker 1: me to run for my life. Presently the ground gave
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  Speaker 1: rich and oozy under my feet, but I was desperate
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  Speaker 1: and went headlong into struggled through knee deep, and so
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  Speaker 1: came to a winding path among tall canes. The noise
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  Speaker 1: of my pursuers passed away to my left. In one place,
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  Speaker 1: three strange pink hopping animals about the size of cats,
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  Speaker 1: bolted before my footsteps. This pathway ran up hill across
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  Speaker 1: another open space covered with white incrustation and plunged into
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: a cane brake again. Then suddenly it turned parallel with
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  Speaker 1: the edge of a steep walled gap, which came without
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: warning like a ha ha of an English park, turned
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  Speaker 1: with an unexpected abruptness. I was still running with all
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: my might, and I never saw this drop until I
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: was flying headlong through the air. I fell on my
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: forearms and head among thorns, and rose with a torn
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  Speaker 1: ear and bleeding face. I had fallen into a precipitous ravine,
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  Speaker 1: rocky and thorny, full of a hazy mist, which drifted
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: about me in wisps, and with a narrow streamlet from
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: which this mist came meandering down the ciner. I was
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: astonished at this thin fog in the full blaze of daylight,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: but I had no time to stand wandering. Then I
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: turned to my right down stream, hoping to come to
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  Speaker 1: the sea in that direction and so have my way
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  Speaker 1: open to drown myself. It was only later I found
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  Speaker 1: that I had dropped my nail stick in my fall. Presently,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the ravine grew narrower for a space, and carelessly I
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: stepped into the stream. I jumped out again pretty quickly
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: for the water was almost boiling. I noticed too, there
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: was a thin, sulfurous scum drifting upon its coiling water.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Almost immediately came a turn in the ravine, and the
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  Speaker 1: indistinct blue horizon the nearer sea was flashing the sun
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  Speaker 1: from a myriad facets. I saw my death before me,
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  Speaker 1: but I was hot and panting, with the warm blood
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: oozing out on my face and running pleasantly through my veins.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I felt more than a touch of exultation too, at
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: having distanced my pursuers. It was not in me then
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: to go out and drown myself. Yet I stared back
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the way I had come. I listened, save for the
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: hum of the gnats and the chirp of some small
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: insects that hopped among the thorns, the air was absolutely still.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Then came the yelp of a dog, very faint, and
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: a chattering and gibbering, the snap of a whip, and voices.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: They grew louder, then fainter again. The noise receded the
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  Speaker 1: stream and faded away. For a while. The chase was over,
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  Speaker 1: But I knew now how much hope of help for
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: me lay in the beast people