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

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  Twenty. Alone with the beast folk. I faced these people, facing my
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  feet in them single handed, now literally single handed, for I had a
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  broken arm. In my pocket was a revolver with two empty chambers. Among
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  the chips scattered about the beach lay the two axes that had been used to
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  chop up the boats. The tide was creeping in behind me. There was
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  nothing for it but courage. I looked squarely into the faces of the advancing
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  monsters. They avoided my eyes, and their quivering nostrils investigated the bodies that
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  lay beyond me on the beach. I took a half dozen steps, picked
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  up the blood stained whip that lay beneath the body of the wolf man,
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  and cracked it. They stopped and stared at me. Salute, said I
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  bow down. They hesitated, one bent his knees. I repeated my command
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  with my heart in my mouth, and advanced upon them. One knelt,
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  then the other two. I turned and walked towards the dead bodies, keeping
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  my face towards the three kneeling beastmen, very much as an actor passing up
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  the stage faces the audience. They broke the law, said I, putting
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  my foot on the sayer of the law. They have been slain, even
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  the sayer of the law, even the other with the whip. Great is
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  the law. Come and see none escape, said one of them, advancing
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  and peering. None escape, said I, therefore hear and do as I
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  command. They stood up, looking questioningly at one another. Stand there,
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  said I. I picked up the hatchets and swung them by their heads from
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  the sling of my arm. Turning Montgomery over, picked up his revolver,
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  still loaded in two chambers, and bending down to rummage, found a half
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  dozen cartridges in his pocket. Take him, said I, standing up again,
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  and pointing with a whip. Take him and carry him out, and
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  cast him into the sea. They came forward, evidently still afraid of Montgomery,
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  but still more afraid of my cracking red whiplash. And after some fumbling
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  and hesitation, some whip cracking and shouting, they lifted him gingerly, carried
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  him down to the beach, and went splashing into the dazzling welter of the
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  sea. On, said I, on carry him far. They went in
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  up to their arm pits and stood regarding me. Let go, said I,
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  and the body of Montgomery vanished with a splash. Something seemed to tighten
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  across my chest. Good, said I, with a break in my voice.
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  And they came back, hurrying and fearful, to the margin of the
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  water, leaving long wakes of black in the silver. At the water's edge.
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  They stopped turning and glaring into the sea, as though they presently expected
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  Montgomery to arise therefrom and exact vengeance. Now these, said I, pointing
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  to the other dead bodies. They took care not to approach the place where
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  they had thrown Montgomery into the water, but instead carried the four dead beast
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  people slantingly along the beach for perhaps a hundred yards before they waded out and
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  cast them away. As I watched them disposing of the mangled remains of Hmling,
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  I heard a light footfall behind me, and turning quickly, saw the
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  big hight ena swine perhaps a dozen yards away. His head was bent down,
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  his bright eyes were fixed upon me, his stumpy hands clinched and held
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  close by his side. He stopped in this crouching attitude when I turned,
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  his eyes a little averted. For a moment we stood I to eye.
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  I dropped the whip and snatched at the pistol in my pocket, for I
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  meant to kill this brute, the most formidable of any left now upon the
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  island, at the first excuse. It may seem treacherous, but so I
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  was resolved. I was far more afraid of him than any of the other
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  two of the beast folk. His continued life was. I knew a great
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  threat against mine. I was perhaps a dozen seconds collecting myself, then cried,
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  I salute, bow down. His teeth flashed upon me in a snarl.
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  Who are you that I should perhaps a little too Spasmodically, I drew
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  my revolver, aimed quickly and fired. I heard him yelp, saw him
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  run sideways and turn. Knew I had missed, and clicked back the cock
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  with my thumb for the next shot. But he was already running headlong,
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  jumping from side to side, and I dared not risk another miss. Every
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  now and then he looked back at me over his shoulder. He went slanting
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  along the beach and vanished beneath the driving masses of dense smoke that was still
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  pouring out from the burning enclosure. For some time I stood staring after him.
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  I turned my three obedient beast folk again and signaled them to drop the
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  body they still carried. Then I went back to the place by the fire
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  where the bodies had fallen, and kicked the sand until all the brown blood
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  stains were absorbed and hidden. I dismissed my three serfs with the wave of
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  the hand and went up the beach into the thickets. I carried my pistol
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  in my hand, my whip thrust with the hatches, and the sling of
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  my arm. I was anxious to be alone, to think out the position
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  in which I was now placed. A dreadful thing that I was only beginning
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  to realize was that over all this island there was now no safe place where
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  I could be alone and secure to rest or sleep. I had recovered strength
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  amazingly since my landing, but I was still inclined to be nervous and to
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  break down under any great stress. I felt that I ought to cross the
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  island and establish myself with the beast people and make myself secure in their confidence.
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  But my heart failed me. I went back to the beach, and,
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  turning eastward past the burning enclosure, made for a point where a shallow
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  spit of coral sand ran out towards the reef. Here I could sit down
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  and think my back to the sea ye and my face against any surprise.
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  And there I sat, chin on knees, the sun beating down upon my
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  head, and unspeakable dread in my mind, plotting how I could live on
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  against the hour of my rescue, if ever rescue came. I tried to
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  review the whole situation as calmly as I could, but it was difficult to
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  clear the thing of emotion. I began turning over in my mind the reason
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  of Montgomery's despair. They will change, he said, they are through ar
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  to change. And Moreau what was it that Moreau had said? The stubborn
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  beast flesh grows day by day back again. Then I came round to the
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  hyena swine. I felt sure that if I did not kill that brute,
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  he would kill me. The Sayer of the Law was dead. Worse luck,
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  they knew now that we of the whips could be killed, even as
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  they themselves were killed. Were they peering at me already out of the green
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  masses of ferns and palms of a yonder, watching until I came within their
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  spring? Were they plotting against me? What was the hyena swine telling them?
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  My imagination was running away with me into a morass of unsubstantial fears.
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  My thoughts were disturbed by a crying of sea birds, hurrying towards some black
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  object that had been stranded by the waves on the beach near the enclosure.
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  I knew what the object was, but I had not the heart to go
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  back and drive them off. I began walking along the beach in the opposite
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  direction, designing to come round the eastward corner of the island and so approach
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  the ravine of the huts without traversing the possible ambuse scards of the thickets.
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  Perhaps half a mile along the beach, I became aware of one of my
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  three beast folk advancing out of the landward bushes towards me. I was now
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  so nervous with my own imaginings that I immediately drew my revolver. Even the
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  propitiatory gestures of the creature failed to disarm me. He hesitated as he approached
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  go away. I cried, there was something very suggestive of a dog in
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  the cringing attitude of the creature. It retreated a little way, very like
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  a dog being sent home, and stopped looking at me imploringly. With canine
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  brown eyes. Go away, said I do not come near me. May
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  I not come near you? It said, no, go away, I
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  insisted, and snapped my whip. Then, putting my whip in my teeth,
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  I stooped for a stone, and with that threat drove the creature away.
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  So in solitude I came round by the ravine of the beast people,
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  and hiding among the weeds and reeds that separated this crevice from the sea,
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  I watched such of them as appeared, tried to judge from them their gestures
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  and appearance. Had the death of Moreau and Montgomery and the destruction of the
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  House of Pain had affected them. I know now the folly of my cowardice.
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  Had I kept my courage up to the level of the dawn, had
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  I not allowed it to ebb away in solitary thought, I might have grasped
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  the vacant scepter of Moreau and ruled over the beast people. As it was,
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  I lost the opportunity and sank to the position of a mere leader among
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  my fellows. Towards noon, certain of them came and squatted, basking in
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  the hot sand. The imperious voices of hunger and thirst prevailed over my dread.
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  I came out of the bushes, and revolver in hand, walked down
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  towards these seated figures. One a wolf woman, turned her head and stead
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  at me, and then the others. None attempted to rise or salute me.
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  I felt too faint and weary to insist, and I let the moment
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  pass. I want food, said I, almost apologetically, and drawing near.
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  There is food in the huts, said an ox bore man, drowsily,
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  and looking away from me. I passed them and went down to the
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  shadow and odors of the almost deserted ravine. In an empty hut, I
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  feasted on some specked and half decayed fruit, And then, after I had
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  propped some branches and sticks about the opening, and placed myself with my face
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  towards it and my hand upon my revolver, the exhaustion of the last thirty
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  hours claimed its own, and I fell into a light slumber, hoping that
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  the flimsy barricade I had erected would cause sufficient noise in its removal to save
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  me from surprise.