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The Island of Doctor Moreau Chapter 5 - The Man Who Had Nowhere to Go · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section six of the Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
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  Speaker 1: Tom here five the man who had nowhere to go.
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  Speaker 1: In the early morning, it was the second morning after
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  Speaker 1: my recovery, and I believed the fourth after I was
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  Speaker 1: picked up. I awoke through an avenue of tumultuous dreams,
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  Speaker 1: dreams of guns and howling mobs, and became sensible of
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  Speaker 1: a hoarse shouting above me. I rubbed my eyes and
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  Speaker 1: lay listening to the noise, doubtful for a little while
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  Speaker 1: of my whereabouts. Then came a sudden pattering of bare feet,
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  Speaker 1: the sound of heavy objects being thrown about, a violent creaking,
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  Speaker 1: and the rattling of chains. I heard the swish of
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  Speaker 1: the water as the ship was suddenly brought round, and
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  Speaker 1: a foamy yellow green wave flew across the little round
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  Speaker 1: window and left it streaming. I jumped into my clothes
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  Speaker 1: and went on deck. As I came up the ladder,
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  Speaker 1: I saw, against the flushed sky, for the sun was
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  Speaker 1: just rising, the broad back and red hair of the captain,
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  Speaker 1: and over his shoulder the puma spinning from a tackle
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  Speaker 1: rigged on the mizzen spanker boom. The poor brute seemed
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  Speaker 1: horribly scared and crouched in the bottom of its little cage.
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  Speaker 1: Over borrow em, bawled the captain. Overborrow them, we'll have
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  Speaker 1: a clean ship sooner, the whole bilin of em. He
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  Speaker 1: stood in my way so that I had perforce to
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  Speaker 1: tap his shoulder to come on deck. He came round
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  Speaker 1: with a start and staggered back a few paces to
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  Speaker 1: stare at me. It needed no expertise to tell that
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  Speaker 1: the man was still drunk. Hallo said, he stupidly, and
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  Speaker 1: then with a light coming into his eyes. Why it's mister,
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  Speaker 1: mister Prindick, said I Prindick, be damned, said he shut up.
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  Speaker 1: That's your name, mister shut up. It was no good
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  Speaker 1: answering the brute, but I certainly did not expect his
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  Speaker 1: next move. He held out his hand to the gangway,
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  Speaker 1: by which Montgomery stood, talking to a massive, gray haired
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  Speaker 1: man in dirty blue flannels who had apparently just come
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  Speaker 1: aboard that way. Mister blasted shot up that way, roared
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  Speaker 1: the captain. Montgomery and his companion turned as he spoke,
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean that way, mister blasted? Shut up?
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  Speaker 1: That's what I mean overboard, mister shut Up and Sharp
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  Speaker 1: were cleaning the ship out, cleaning the whole blessed ship out,
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  Speaker 1: and overboard, you'll go. I stared at him, dumbfounded. Then
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  Speaker 1: it occurred to me that it was exactly the thing
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  Speaker 1: I wanted, the last prospect of a journey, a sole
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  Speaker 1: passenger with this quarrelsome sot was not one to mourn over.
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  Speaker 1: I turned towards Montgomery. Can't have you, said Montgomery's companion. Concisely,
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  Speaker 1: you can't have me, said I, aghast. He had the
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  Speaker 1: squarest and most resolute face I had ever set eyes upon.
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  Speaker 1: Look here, I began, turning to the captain. Overboard, said
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  Speaker 1: the captain, This ship ain't for beasts and gallibles, and
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  Speaker 1: worse than beasts any more. Overboard you go, mister shut up.
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  Speaker 1: If they can't have yo, your goal's overboard. But anyhow, YO,
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  Speaker 1: go with your friends. I've done with this blessed I
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  Speaker 1: learned for evermore. Amen, I've got enough of it. But Montgomery,
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  Speaker 1: I appealed. He distorted his lower lip and nodded his
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  Speaker 1: head hopelessly at the gray haired man beside him, to
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  Speaker 1: indicate his powerlessness to help me. Then began a curious
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  Speaker 1: three cornered altercation. Alternately, I appealed to one and another
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  Speaker 1: of the three men, first to the gray haired man
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  Speaker 1: to let me land, and then to the drunken captain
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  Speaker 1: to keep me aboard. I even bawled entreaties to the sailors.
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery said never a word, only shook his head. You're
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  Speaker 1: goin overboard, I tell you, was the captain's refrain. Law
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  Speaker 1: be damned. I'm king here at last, I must confess.
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  Speaker 1: My voice suddenly broke in the middle of a vigorous threat.
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  Speaker 1: I felt a gust of hysterical petulance, and went aft
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  Speaker 1: and stared dismally at nothing. Meanwhile, the sailors progressed rapidly
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  Speaker 1: with the task of unshipping the packages and caged animals.
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  Speaker 1: A large launch with two standing lugs lay under the
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  Speaker 1: lee of the schooner, and into this the strange assortment
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  Speaker 1: of goods was swung. I did not then see the
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  Speaker 1: hands from the island that were receiving the packages, for
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  Speaker 1: the whole of the launch was hidden from me by
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  Speaker 1: the side of the schooner. Neither Montgomery nor his companion
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  Speaker 1: took the slightest notice of me, but busied themselves in
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  Speaker 1: assisting and directing the four or five sailors who were
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  Speaker 1: unloading the goods. The captain went forward, interfering rather than insisting.
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  Speaker 1: I was alternately despairful and desperate. Once or twice, as
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  Speaker 1: I stood waiting there for things to accomplish themselves, I
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  Speaker 1: could not resist an impulse to laugh at my miserable quandary.
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  Speaker 1: I felt all the wretcheder for the lack of a breakfast, hunger,
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  Speaker 1: and a lack of blood. Corpuscles take all the manhood
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  Speaker 1: from a man. I perceived pretty clearly that I had
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  Speaker 1: not the stamina either to resist what the captain chose
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  Speaker 1: to do to expel me, or to force myself upon
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery and his companion. So I waited passively upon fate,
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  Speaker 1: and the work of transferring Montgomery's possessions to the launch
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  Speaker 1: went on as if I did not exist. Presently, that
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  Speaker 1: work was finished, and then came a struggle. I was hauled,
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  Speaker 1: resisting weakly enough to the gangway. Even then I noticed
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  Speaker 1: the oddness of the brown faces of the men who
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  Speaker 1: were with Montgomery in the launch. For the launch was
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  Speaker 1: now fully laden and was shoved off hastily. A broadening
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  Speaker 1: gap of green water appeared under me, and I pushed
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  Speaker 1: back with all my strength to avoid falling headlong. The
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  Speaker 1: hands in the launch shouted derisively, and I heard Montgomery
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  Speaker 1: curse at them. And then the captain, the mate, and
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  Speaker 1: one of the seamen helping him ran me aft towards
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  Speaker 1: the stern. The dinghy of the Lady Vain had been
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  Speaker 1: towing behind. It was half full of water, had no oars,
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  Speaker 1: and was quite unvictualled. I refused to go aboard her
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  Speaker 1: and flung myself full length on the deck. In the
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  Speaker 1: end they swung me into her by a rope, for
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  Speaker 1: they had no stern ladder, and then they cut me adrift.
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  Speaker 1: I drifted slowly from the schooner in a kind of stupor.
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  Speaker 1: I watched all hands take to the rigging, and slowly
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  Speaker 1: but surely she came round to the wind. The sails
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  Speaker 1: fluttered and then bellied out as the wind came into them.
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  Speaker 1: I stared at her, weather beaten side, healing steeply towards me,
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  Speaker 1: and then she passed out of my range of view.
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  Speaker 1: I did not turn my head to follow her. At first,
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  Speaker 1: I could scarcely believe what had happened. I crouched in
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of the dinghy, stunned and staring blankly at
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  Speaker 1: the vacant, oily sea. Then I realized that I was
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  Speaker 1: in that little hell of mine again, now half swamped,
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  Speaker 1: and looking back over the gunwale, I saw the schooner
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  Speaker 1: standing away from me, with the red haired captain mocking
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  Speaker 1: at me over the taffrail, and turning towards the island.
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  Speaker 1: Saw the launch growing smaller as she approached the beach. Abruptly,
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  Speaker 1: the cruelty of this desertion became clear to me. I
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  Speaker 1: had no means of reaching the land unless I should
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  Speaker 1: chance to drift there. I was still weak. You must
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  Speaker 1: remember from my exposure in the boat. I was empty
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  Speaker 1: and very faint, or I should have had more heart.
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  Speaker 1: But as it was, I suddenly began to sob and weep,
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  Speaker 1: as I had never done since I was a little child.
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  Speaker 1: The tears ran down my face. In a passion of despair,
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  Speaker 1: I struck with my fists at the water in the
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  Speaker 1: bottom of the boat, and kicked savagely at the gunwale.
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  Speaker 1: I prayed aloud for God to let me die. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section six