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The Island of Doctor Moreau Chapter 7 - The Locked Door · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section eight 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 Hare seven the Locked Door. The reader will perhaps
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  Speaker 1: understand that at first everything was so strange about me,
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  Speaker 1: and my position was the outcome of such unexpected adventures,
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  Speaker 1: that I had no discernment of the relative strangeness of
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  Speaker 1: this or that thing. I followed the lama up the
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  Speaker 1: beach and was overtaken by Montgomery, who asked me not
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  Speaker 1: to enter the stone enclosure. I noticed then that the puma,
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  Speaker 1: in its cage in the pile of packages, had been
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  Speaker 1: placed outside the entrance to this quadrangle. I turned and
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  Speaker 1: saw that the launch had now been unloaded, run out again,
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  Speaker 1: and was being beached, and the white haired man was
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  Speaker 1: walking towards us. He addressed Montgomery, and now comes the
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  Speaker 1: problem of this uninvited guest. What are we to do
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  Speaker 1: with him? He know something of Thianth, said Montgomery. I'm
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  Speaker 1: itching to get to work again with this new stuff,
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  Speaker 1: said the white haired man, nodding towards the enclosure. His
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  Speaker 1: eyes grew brighter. Ay dare say you are, said Montgomery,
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  Speaker 1: in anything but a cordial tone. We can't send him
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  Speaker 1: over there, and we can't spare the time to build
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  Speaker 1: him a noo shanty, and we certainly can't take him
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  Speaker 1: into our confidence just yet. I'm in your hands, said I.
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  Speaker 1: I had no idea of what he meant by over there.
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  Speaker 1: I've been thinking of the same things, Montgomery answered. There's
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  Speaker 1: my room with the outer door. That's it, said the
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  Speaker 1: elder man, promptly, looking at Montgomery, and all three of
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  Speaker 1: us went towards the enclosure. I'm sorry to make a mystery,
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  Speaker 1: mister Prindick, but you'll remember your uninvited. Our little establishment
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  Speaker 1: here contains a secret or so, and is kind of
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  Speaker 1: a bluebeard's chamber. In fact, nothing very dreadful really to
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  Speaker 1: a sane man. But just now, as we don't know
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  Speaker 1: you decidedly said I, I should be a fool to
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  Speaker 1: take offense at any want of confidence. He twisted his
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  Speaker 1: heavy mouth into a faint smile. He was one of
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  Speaker 1: those saturnine people whose smile with the corners of the
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  Speaker 1: mouth down and bowed his acknowledgment of my complaisance. The
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  Speaker 1: main entrance to the enclosure was past. It was a
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  Speaker 1: heavy wooden gate framed in iron and locked with the
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  Speaker 1: cargo of the launch piled outside it, and at the
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  Speaker 1: corner we came to a small doorway I had not
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  Speaker 1: previously observed. The white haired man produced a bundle of
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  Speaker 1: keys from the pocket of his greasy blue jacket, opened
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  Speaker 1: the door and entered his keys. And the elaborate locking
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  Speaker 1: up of the place, even while it was still under
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  Speaker 1: his eye, struck me as peculiar. I followed him and
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  Speaker 1: found myself in a small apartment, plainly but not uncomfortably furnished,
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  Speaker 1: and with its inner door, which was slightly ajar, opening
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  Speaker 1: into a paved court yard. This inner door, Montgomery at
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  Speaker 1: once closed, A hammock was slung across the darker corner
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  Speaker 1: of the room, and a small unglazed window, defended by
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  Speaker 1: an iron bar, looked out towards the sea. This, the
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  Speaker 1: white haired man told me, was to be my apartment,
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  Speaker 1: and the inner door, which for fear of accidents he
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  Speaker 1: said he would lock on the other side, was my limit. Inward,
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  Speaker 1: he called my attention to a convenient deck chair before
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  Speaker 1: the window, and to an array of old books. Chiefly
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  Speaker 1: I found surgical works and editions of the Latin and
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  Speaker 1: Greek classics, languages I cannot read with any comfort on
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  Speaker 1: a shelf near the hammock. He left the room by
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  Speaker 1: the outer door, as if to avoid opening the inner
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  Speaker 1: one again. We usually have our meals in here, said Montgomery,
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  Speaker 1: and then, as if in doubt, went out after the
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  Speaker 1: other Moreau. I heard him call, and for the moment
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  Speaker 1: I do not think I noticed. Then, as I handled
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  Speaker 1: the books on the shelf, it came up in consciousness
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  Speaker 1: where had I heard the name of Moreau before? I
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  Speaker 1: sat down before the window, took out the biscuits that
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  Speaker 1: still remained to me and ate them with an excellent
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  Speaker 1: appetite Moreau. Through the window, I saw one of those
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  Speaker 1: unaccountable men in white lugging a packing case along the beach.
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  Speaker 1: Presently the window frame hid him. Then I heard a
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  Speaker 1: key inserted and turned in the lock behind me. After
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  Speaker 1: a little while, I heard through the locked door the
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  Speaker 1: noise of the staghounds that had now been brought up
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  Speaker 1: from the beach. They were not barking, but sniffing and
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  Speaker 1: growling in a curious fashion. I could hear the rapid
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  Speaker 1: patter of their feet and Montgomery's voice soothing them. I
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  Speaker 1: was very much impressed by the elaborate secrecy of these
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  Speaker 1: two men regarding the contents of the place, And for
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  Speaker 1: some time I was thinking of that, and of the
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  Speaker 1: unaccountable familiarity of the name of Moreau. But so odd
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  Speaker 1: is the human memory that I could not then recall
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  Speaker 1: that well known name in its proper connection. From that,
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  Speaker 1: my thoughts went to the indefinable queerness of the deformed
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  Speaker 1: man on the beach. I never saw such a gait,
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  Speaker 1: such odd motions. As he pulled at the box. I
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  Speaker 1: recalled that none of these men had spoken to me,
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  Speaker 1: though most of them I had found looking at me
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  Speaker 1: one time or another in a peculiarly furtive manner, quite
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  Speaker 1: unlike the frank stare of your unsophisticated savage. Indeed, they
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  Speaker 1: had all seemed remarkably taciturn, and when they did speak,
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  Speaker 1: endowed with very uncanny voices. What was wrong with them? Then?
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  Speaker 1: I recalled the eyes of Montgomery's ungainly attendant. Just as
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  Speaker 1: I was thinking of him, he came in. He was
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  Speaker 1: now dressed in white, and carried a little tray with
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  Speaker 1: some coffee and boiled vegetables. Thereon, I could hardly repress
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  Speaker 1: a shudder of recoil as he came, bending amiably and
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  Speaker 1: placed the tray before me on the table. Then astonishment
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  Speaker 1: paralyzed me. Under his stringy black locks. I saw his ear.
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  Speaker 1: It jumped upon me suddenly, close to my face. The
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  Speaker 1: man had pointed ears covered with a fine brown fur.
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  Speaker 1: Your breakfast, sir, he said. I stared at his face,
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  Speaker 1: without attempting to answer him. He turned and went towards
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  Speaker 1: the door, regarding me oddly over his shoulder. I followed
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  Speaker 1: him out with my eyes, and as I did so,
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  Speaker 1: by some odd trick of unconscious cerebration, there came surging
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  Speaker 1: into my head the phrase the Moreau hollows. Was it Moreau? Ah?
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  Speaker 1: It's my memory back ten years, the Moreau horrors. The
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  Speaker 1: phrase drifted loose in my mind for a moment, and
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  Speaker 1: then I saw it in red lettering on a little
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  Speaker 1: buff colored pamphlet to read, which made one shiver and creep.
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  Speaker 1: Then I remembered distinctly all about it. That long forgotten
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  Speaker 1: pamphlet came back with startling vividness to my mind. I
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  Speaker 1: had been a mere lad then. And Moreau was, I
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  Speaker 1: suppose about fifty, a prominent and masterful physiologist, well known
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  Speaker 1: in scientific circles for his extraordinary imagination and his brutal
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  Speaker 1: directness in discussion. Was this the same Moreau? He had
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  Speaker 1: published some very astonishing facts in connection with the transfusion
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  Speaker 1: of blood, and an addition, was known to be doing
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  Speaker 1: valuable work on morbid growths. Then suddenly his career was closed.
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  Speaker 1: He had to leave England. A journalist obtained access to
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  Speaker 1: his laboratory in the capacity of laboratory assistant, with the
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  Speaker 1: deliberate intention of making sensational exposures, and by the help
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  Speaker 1: of a shocking accident. If it was an accident, his
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  Speaker 1: gruesome pamphlet became notorious. On the day it's publication, a
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  Speaker 1: wretched dog, flayed and otherwise mutilated, escaped from Moreau's house.
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  Speaker 1: It was in the silly season, and a prominent editor,
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  Speaker 1: a cousin of the temporary laboratory assistant, appealed to the
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  Speaker 1: conscience of the nation. It was not the first time
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  Speaker 1: that conscience has turned against the methods of research. The
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  Speaker 1: doctor was simply howled out of the country. It may
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  Speaker 1: be that he deserved to be, but I still think
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  Speaker 1: that the tepid support of his fellow investigators and his
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  Speaker 1: desertion by the great body of scientific workers was a
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  Speaker 1: shameful thing. Yet some of his experiments, by the journalist's account,
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  Speaker 1: were wantonly cruel. He might perhaps have purchased his social
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  Speaker 1: peace by abandoning his investigations, but he apparently preferred the latter,
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  Speaker 1: as most men would who have once fallen under the
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  Speaker 1: overmastering spell of research. He was unmarried, and had indeed
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  Speaker 1: nothing but his own interest to consider. I felt convinced
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  Speaker 1: that this must be the same man. Everything pointed to it.
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  Speaker 1: It dawned upon me to what in the puma and
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  Speaker 1: the other animals, which had now been brought with other
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  Speaker 1: luggage into the enclosure behind the house, were destined. And
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  Speaker 1: a curious, faint odor, the halitus of something familiar, an
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  Speaker 1: odor that had been in the background of my consciousness
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  Speaker 1: hitherto suddenly came forward into the forefront of my thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: It was the antiseptic odor of the dissecting room. I
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  Speaker 1: heard the puma growling through the wall, and one of
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  Speaker 1: the dogs yelped as though it had been struck. Yet surely,
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  Speaker 1: and especially to another scientific man, there was nothing so
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  Speaker 1: horrible in vivisection as to account for this secrecy, And
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  Speaker 1: by some odd leap in my thoughts, the pointed ears
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  Speaker 1: and luminous eyes of Montgomery's attendant came back again before
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  Speaker 1: me with the sharpest definition. I stared before me out
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  Speaker 1: at the green sea, frothing under a freshening breeze, and
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  Speaker 1: let these and other strange memories of the last few
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  Speaker 1: days chase one another through my mind. What could it
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  Speaker 1: all mean? A locked enclosure on a lonely eye island,
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  Speaker 1: a notorious vivisector, and these crippled and distorted men. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section eight.