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03 - The Island of Dr Moreau - H G Wells · Adventure Books Library

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  Three the strange face. We left the cabin and found a man at the
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  campion, obstructing our way. He was standing on the ladder with his back
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  to us, peering over the combing of the hatchway. He was, I
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  could see, and a shapen man, short, broad and clumsy, with
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  a crooked back, a hairy neck, and a head sunk between his shoulders.
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  He was dressed in dark blue serge and had peculiarly thick, coarse black
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  hair. I heard the unseen dogs growl furiously and forthwith. He ducked back,
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  coming into contact with the hand I put out to find him off from
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  myself. He turned with animal swiftness in some indefinable way. The black face
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  thus flashed upon me shocked me profoundly. It was a singularly deformed one.
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  The facial part projected forming something dimly suggestive of a muzzle, and the huge,
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  half open mouth showed as big white teeth as I had ever seen in
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  a human mouth. His eyes were blood shot at the edges, with scarcely
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  a rim of white round the hazel pupils. There was a curious glow of
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  excitement in his face. Confound you, said Montgomery, Why the devil.
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  Don't you get out of the way. The black faced man started aside without
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  a word. I went on up the companion, staring at him instinctively as
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  I did so, Montgomery stayed at the foot for a moment. You have
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  no bitterness here, you know, he said, in a deliberate tone.
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  Your place is forward. The black faced man cowered, nay, won't have
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  me forward. He spoke slowly, with a queer, hoarse quality in his
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  voice. Won't have you forward, said Montgomery in a menacing tone. But
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  I tell you to go. He was on the brink of saying something further,
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  then looked up at me suddenly, and followed me up the ladder.
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  I paused half way through the hatchway, looking back, still astonished beyond measure
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  at the grotesque ugliness of this black faced creature. I had never beheld such
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  a repulse of an extraordinary face before, And yet, if the contradiction is
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  credible, I experienced the same time an odd feeling that in some way I
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  had already encountered exactly the features and gestures that now amazed me. Afterwards,
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  it occurred to me that probably I had seen him as I was lifted aboard
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  and yet that scarcely satisfied my suspicion of a previous acquaintance. Yet, how
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  one could have set eyes on so singular a face and yet have forgotten the
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  precise occasion passed my imagination. Montgomery's movement to follow me released my attention,
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  and I turned and looked about me at the flushed deck of the little schooner.
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  I was already half prepared by the sounds I had heard for what I
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  saw, certainly, I never beheld a deck so dirty. It was littered
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  with scraps of carrot, shreds of green stuff, and indescribable filth. Fastened
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  by chains to the mainmast were a number of grisly staghounds, who now began
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  leaping and barking at me. And by the mizzen, a huge puma was
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  cramped in a little iron cage, far too small even to give a turning
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  room. Farther under the starboard bulwark were some big hutches containing a number of
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  rabbits, and a solitary lama was squeezed in a mere box of a cage.
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  Forward, the dogs were muzzled by leather straps. The only human being
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  on deck was a gaunt and silent sailor at the wheel. The patched and
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  dirty bankers were tense before the wind, and up aloft the little ship seemed
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  carrying every sail she had. The sky was clear, the sun midway down
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  the western sky. Long waves capped by the breeze with froth were running with
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  us. We went past the steersman to the taffrail, and saw the water
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  come foaming under the stern, and the bubbles go dancing and vanishing in her
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  wake. I turned and surveyed the unsavory length of the ship. Is this
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  an ocean menagerie? Said? I look like it? Said Montgomery. What
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  are these beasts for merchandise? Curios? Does the captain think he is going
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  to sell them somewhere in the south seas? It looked like it, dothn't
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  it, said Montgomery, and turned towards the wake again. Suddenly we heard
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  a yelp and a volley of furious blasphemy from the companion hatchway, and the
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  deformed man with the black face came up hurriedly. He was immediately followed by
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  a heavy, red haired man in a white cap. At the sight of
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  the former, the staghounds, who had all tired of barking at me.
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  By this time became furiously excited, howling and leaping against their chains. The
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  black hesitated before them, and this gave the red haired man time to come
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  up with him and deliver a tremendous blow between the shoulder blades. The poor
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  devil went down like a felled ox, and rolled in the dirt among the
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  furiously excited dogs. It was lucky for him that they were muzzled. The
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  red haired man gave a yop of exultation and stood staggering and as it seemed
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  to me, in serious danger of either going backwards down the companion hatchway or
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  forwards upon his victim. So soon as the second man had appeared, Montgomery
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  had started forward sturdy. On there ah, he cried in a tone of
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  remonstrance. A couple of sailors appeared on the forecastle. The black faced man,
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  howling in a singular voice, rolled about under the feet of the dogs.
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  No one attempted to help him. The brutes did their best to worry
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  him, butting their muzzles at him. There was a quick dance of their
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  lithe gray figured bodies over the clumsy, prostrate figure. The sailors forward,
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  shouted as though it was admirable sport. Montgomery gave an angry exclamation and went
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  striding down the deck, and I followed him. The black faced man scrambled
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  up and staggered forward, going and leaning over the bulwark by the main shrouds,
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  where he remained panting and glaring over his shoulders at the dogs. The
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  red haired man laughed a satisfied laugh. Look here, Captain, said Montgomery,
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  with his lisp a little accentuated, gripping the elbows of the red haired
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  man. This won't do. I stood behind Montgomery. The captain came half
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  round and regarded him with the dull and solemn eyes of a drunken man.
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  Wah won't do, he said, and added, after looking sleepily into Montgomery's
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  face for a minute, last ditch sore bones. With a sudden movement,
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  he shook his arms free, and, after two ineffectual attempts, stuck his
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  freckled fists into his side pockets. That man's, the passenger, said Montgomery.
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  I'd advise you to keep your hands off him. Go do well,
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  said the captain loudly. He suddenly turned and staggered towards the side. Do
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  what I like on my own ship, he said. I think Montgomery might
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  have left him then, seeing the brute was drunk, But he only turned
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  a shade paler and followed the captain to the bulwarks. Look you here,
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  captain, he said, that man of mine is not to be ill treated.
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  He hath been heaved ever thinth he came aboard for a minute. Alcoholic
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  fumes kept the captain speechless. Blasted sow bones was all he considered necessary.
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  I could see that Montgomery had one of those slow, pertinacious tempers that were
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  warm day after day to a white heat, and never again cool to forgiveness.
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  And I saw too that this quarrel had been some time growing. The
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  man's drunk, said I perhaps officiously, it'll do no good. Montgomery gave
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  an ugly twist to his drooping lip. He's always drunk. Do you think
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  that? Excuseeth a thoughting? Pasengers, my ship began the captain, waving
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  his hand unsteadily towards the cages. Was a clean ship. Look at it
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  now? It was certainly anything but clean, crew, continued the captain,
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  Clean, respectable crew. You agreed to take the beasts. I wish I'd
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  never set eyes on your infernal island. What the devil want beasts for on
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  an island like that? Then that man of yours understood. He was a
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  man. He's a lunatic, and he hadn't no business aft. Do you
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  think the whole damn ship belongs to you? Your Tailith began to Haye,
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  the poor devil Athunith he came aboard. That's just what he is. He's
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  a devil, an ugly devil. My men can't stand him. I can't
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  stand him. None of us can stand him, nor you either. Montgomery
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  turned away. You leave that man alone, anyhow, he said, nodding
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  his head as he spoke. But the captain meant to quarrel now, he
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  raised his voice. If he comes this end of the ship again, I'll
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  cut his insides out. I tell you, cut out his blasted insides.
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  Who are you to tell me what I'm to do? I tell you,
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  I'm the captain of this ship, captain and owner. I'm the law here.
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  I tell you the law and the prophets. I bargain to take a
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  man and his attendants to and from Erika and bring back some animals. I
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  never bargain to carry a mad devil and a silly saw bones bab well,
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  never mind what he called Montgomery. I saw the latter take a step forward
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  and interposed, He's drunk, said I. The captain began some abuse,
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  even fouler than the last. Shut up, I said, turning on him
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  sharply, for I had seen danger in Montgomery's white face. With that,
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  I brought the downpour on myself. However, I was glad to avert what
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  was uncommonly near a scuffle, even at the price of the captain's drunken ill
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  will. I do not think I have ever heard quite so much vile language
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  come in a continuous stream from any man's lips before. Though I have frequented
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  eccentric company enough, I found some of it hard to endure, though I
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  am a mild tempered man. But certainly, when I told the captain to
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  shut up, I had forgotten that I was merely a bit of human flots
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  cut off from my resources, and with by fare, unpaid, a mere
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  casual dependent on the bounty or speculative enterprise of the ship. He reminded me
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  of it with considerable vigor, But at any rate, I prevented a fight