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05 - The Island of Dr Moreau - H G Wells · Science Fiction Books - Daily

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  Five, the man who had nowhere to go. In the early morning,
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  it was the second morning after my recovery, and I believed the fourth.
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  After I was picked up, I awoke through an avenue of tumultuous dreams,
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  dreams of guns and howling mobs, and became sensible of a hoarse shouting above
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  me. I rubbed my eyes and lay listening to the noise, doubtful for
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  a little while of my whereabouts. Then came a sudden pattering of bare feet,
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  the sound of heavy objects being thrown about, a violent creaking, and
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  the rattling of chains. I heard the swish of the water as the ship
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  was suddenly brought round, and a foamy yellow green wave flew across the little
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  round window and left it streaming. I jumped into my clothes and went on
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  deck. As I came up the ladder, I saw, against the flushed
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  sky, for the sun was just rising, the broad back and red hair
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  of the captain, and over his shoulder the puma spinning from a tackle rigged
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  on the Mizzen spanker boom. The poor brute seemed horribly scared and crouched in
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  the bottom of its little cage. Overborrow them, bawled the captain. Overborrow
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  them. We'll have a clean ship sooner, the whole bilin of em.
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  He stood in my way so that I had perforce to tap his shoulder to
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  come on deck. He came round with a start and staggered back a few
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  paces to stare at me. It needed no expertise to tell that the man
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  was still drunk. Hello, said he stupidly, and then with a light
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  coming into his eyes. Why it's mister, mister Prindick, said I Prindick,
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  be damned, said he shot up. That's your name. Mister shut
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  up. It was no good answering the brute, but I certainly did not
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  expect his next move. He held out his hand to the gangway, by
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  which Montgomery stood, talking to a massive, gray haired man in dirty blue
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  flannels who had apparently just come aboard that way. Mister blasted shot up that
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  way, roared the captain. Montgomery and his companion turned as he spoke,
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  What do you mean that way, mister blasted? Shut up? That's what
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  I mean. Overboard, mister shut Up and Sharp were cleaning the ship out,
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  cleaning the whole blessed ship out, and overboard you go. I stared
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  at him, dumbfounded. Then it occurred to me that it was exactly the
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  thing I wanted, the last prospect of a journey a sole passenger with this
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  quarrelsome sot was not one to mourn over. I turned towards Montgomery. Can't
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  have you, said Montgomery's companion. Concisely, you can't have me, said
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  I, aghast. He had the squarest and most resolute face I had ever
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  set eyes upon. Look here, I began, turning to the captain.
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  Overboard, said the captain, This ship ain't for beasts and gallibles, and
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  worse than beasts any more. Overboard you go, mister, shut up if
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  they can't have you, your goals overboard, But anyhow, you go with
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  your friends. I've done with this, blessed I learned, for evermore.
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  Amen, I've had enough of it. But Montgomery, I appealed. He
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  distorted his lower lip and nodded his head hopelessly at the gray haired man beside
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  him, to indicate his powerlessness to help me. Then began a curious three
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  cornered altercation. Alternately, I appealed to one and another of the three men,
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  first to the gray haired man to let me land and then to the
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  drunken captain to keep me aboard. I even bawled entreaties to the sailors.
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  Montgomery said never a word, only shook his head. You're going overboard,
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  I tell you. Was the captain's refrain. Law be damned. I'm king
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  here at last, I must confess. My voice suddenly broke in the middle
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  of a vigorous threat. I felt a gust of hysterical petulance, and went
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  aft and stared dismally at nothing. Meanwhile, the sailors progressed rapidly with the
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  task of unshipping the packages and caged animals. A large launch with two standing
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  lugs lay under the lee of the schooner, and into this the strange assortment
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  of goods was swung. I did not then see the hands from the island
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  that were receiving the packages, for the whole of the lanch was hidden from
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  me by the side of the schooner. Neither Montgomery nor his companion took the
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  slightest notice of me, but busied themselves in assisting and directing the four or
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  five sailors who were unloading the goods. The captain went forward, interfering,
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  rather than insisting. I was alternately despairful and desperate. Once or twice,
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  as I stood waiting there for things to accomplish themselves, I could not resist
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  an impulse to laugh at my miserable quandary. I felt all the wretcheder for
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  the lack of a breakfast, hunger and a lack of blood. Corpuscles take
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  all the manhood from a man. I perceived pretty clearly that I had not
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  the stamina either to resist what the captain chose to do to expel me,
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  or to force myself upon Montgomery and his companion. So I waited passively upon
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  fate and the work of transferring Montgomery's possessions to the launch when on, as
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  if I did not exist presently, that work was finished, and then came
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  a struggle. I was hauled, resisting weakly enough to the gangway. Even
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  then I noticed the oddness of the brown faces of the men who were with
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  Montgomery in the launch. For the launch was now fully laden and was shoved
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  off hastily. A broadening gap of green water appeared under me, and I
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  pushed back with all my strength to avoid falling headlong. The hands in the
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  launch shouted derisively, and I heard Montgomery curse at them, and then the
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  captain, the mate, and one of the seamen helping him ran me aft
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  towards the stern. The dinghy of the Lady Vain had been towing behind.
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  It was half full of water, had no oars, and was quite unvictualled.
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  I refused to go aboard her, and flung myself full length on the
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  deck. In the end they swung me into her by a rope, for
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  they had no stern ladder, and then they cut me adrift. I drifted
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  slowly from the schooner in a kind of stupor. I watched all hands take
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  to the rigging, and slowly but surely she came round to the wind.
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  The sails fluttered and then bellied out as the wind came into them. I
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  stared at her weather beaten side, healing steeply towards me, and then she
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  passed out of my range of view. I did not turn my head to
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  follow her. At first, I could scarcely believe what had happened. I
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  crouched in the bottom of the dinghy, stunned and staring blankly at the vacant,
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  oily sea. Then I realized that I was in that little hell of
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  mine again, and now half swamped, and looking back over the gunwale,
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  I saw the schooner standing away from me, with the red haired captain mocking
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  at me over the taffrail, and turning towards the island. Saw the launch
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  growing smaller as she approached the beach. Abruptly, the cruelty of this desertion
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  became clear to me. I had no means of reaching the land unless I
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  should chance to drift there. I was still weak, you must remember from
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  my exposure in the boat. I was empty and very faint, or I
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  should have had more heart, But as it was, I suddenly began to
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  sob and weep, as I had never done since I was a little child.
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  The tears ran down my face. In a passion of despair, I
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  struck with my fists at the water in the bottom of the boat, and
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  kicked savagely at the gunwale. I prayed aloud for God to let me die.