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18 - The Island of Dr Moreau - H G Wells · Daily Sci-Fi Books

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  Speaker 1: Eighteen, The finding of Moreau. When I saw Montgomery swallow
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  Speaker 1: a third dose of brandy, I took it upon myself
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  Speaker 1: to interfere. It was already more than half fuddled. I
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  Speaker 1: told him that some serious thing must have happened to
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  Speaker 1: Moreau by this time, or he would have returned before this,
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  Speaker 1: and that it behooved us to ascertain what that catastrophe was.
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery raised some feeble objections, and at last agreed. We
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  Speaker 1: had some food, and then all three of us started.
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  Speaker 1: It is possibly due to the tension of my mind
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  Speaker 1: at the time, but even now that start into the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: hot stillness of the tropical afternoon is a singularly vivid expression.
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  Speaker 1: Imling went first, his shoulder hunched, his strange black head,
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  Speaker 1: moving with quick starts as he peered, first on this
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  Speaker 1: side of the way and then on that. He was
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  Speaker 1: unarmed his axe he had dropped when he encountered the
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  Speaker 1: swine men. Teeth were his weapons when it came to fighting.
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery followed with stumbling footsteps, his hands in his pockets,
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  Speaker 1: his face downcast. He was in a state of muddled sullenness.
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  Speaker 1: With me, on account of the brandy. My left arm
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  Speaker 1: was in a sling. It was lucky. It was my
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  Speaker 1: left and I carried my revolver in my right. Soon
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  Speaker 1: we traced a narrow path through the wild luxuriance of
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  Speaker 1: the island, going northwestward, and presently Amling stopped and became
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  Speaker 1: rigid with watchfulness. Montgomery almost staggered into him, and then
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  Speaker 1: stopped too. Then, listening intently, we heard coming through the
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  Speaker 1: trees the sound of voices and footsteps approaching us. He
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  Speaker 1: is dead, said a deep vibrating voice. He is not dead.
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  Speaker 1: He is not dead, jabbered another. We saw, we saw,
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  Speaker 1: said several voices. Hello, suddenly shouted Montgomery. HALLO, there, confound you,
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  Speaker 1: said I and gripped my pistol. There was a silence,
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  Speaker 1: then a crashing among the interlacing vegetation, first here, then there,
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  Speaker 1: and then half a dozen faces appeared, strange faces lit
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  Speaker 1: by a strange light. Imling made a growling noise in
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  Speaker 1: his throat. I recognized the ape man, I had indeed
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  Speaker 1: already identified his voice, and two of the white swathed,
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  Speaker 1: brown featured creatures I had seen in Montgomery's boat with
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  Speaker 1: These were the two dappled brutes and that gray, horribly
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  Speaker 1: crooked creature who said the law, with his gray hair
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  Speaker 1: streaming down its cheeks, heavy gray eyebrows, and gray locks
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  Speaker 1: pouring off from a central parting upon its sloping forehead.
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  Speaker 1: A heavy, faceless thing with strange red eyes looking at
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  Speaker 1: us curiously from amidst the green For a space, no
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  Speaker 1: one spoke. Then Montgomery hiccoughed, who said he worth dead?
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  Speaker 1: The monkey man looked guiltily at the hairy gray thing.
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  Speaker 1: He is dead, said this monster. They saw there was
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  Speaker 1: nothing threatening about this detachment at any rate. They seemed
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  Speaker 1: awe stricken and puzzled. Whereth he said Montgomery beyond? And
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  Speaker 1: the gray creature pointed. Is there a law? Now? Asked
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  Speaker 1: the monkey man. Is it still to be this? And that?
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  Speaker 1: Is he dead? Indeed? Is there a law? Repeated the
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  Speaker 1: man in white. Is there a law? Thou Weather with
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  Speaker 1: the whip? He is dead, said the hairy gray thing.
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  Speaker 1: And they all stood watching us. Prindic, said Montgomery, turning
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  Speaker 1: his dull eyes to me. He dead. Evidently I had
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  Speaker 1: been standing behind him during this colloquy. I began to
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  Speaker 1: see how things lay with them. I suddenly stepped in
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  Speaker 1: front of Montgomery and lifted up my voice. Children of
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  Speaker 1: the Law, I said, he is not dead, imling turned
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  Speaker 1: his sharp eyes on me. He has changed his shape,
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  Speaker 1: he has changed his body. I went on for a time.
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  Speaker 1: You will not see him. He is there, I pointed upward,
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  Speaker 1: where he can watch you. You cannot see him, but
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  Speaker 1: he can see you. Fear the law. I looked at
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  Speaker 1: them squarely. They flinched. He is great, he is good,
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  Speaker 1: said the ape man, peering fearfully upward among the dense trees.
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  Speaker 1: And the other thing, I demanded, the thing that bled
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  Speaker 1: and ran, screaming and sobbing. That is dead too, said
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  Speaker 1: the gray thing, still regarding me. That's well, grunted Montgomery.
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  Speaker 1: The other with the whip began. The gray thing well said,
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  Speaker 1: I said he was dead. But Montgomery was still sober
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  Speaker 1: enough to understand my motive in denying Moreau's death. He
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  Speaker 1: is not dead, he said, slowly, not dead at all,
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  Speaker 1: no more dead than I am. Some said I have
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  Speaker 1: broken the law. They will die. Some have died. Show
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  Speaker 1: us now where his old body lies, the body he
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  Speaker 1: cast away because he had no more need of it.
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  Speaker 1: It is this way man who walked in the sea,
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  Speaker 1: said the gray thing, And with these six creatures guiding us,
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  Speaker 1: we went through the tumult of ferns and creepers and
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  Speaker 1: tree stems towards the northwest. Then came a yelling, a
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  Speaker 1: crashing among the branches, and a little pink harmunculus rushed
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  Speaker 1: by us, shrieking. Immediately after appeared a monster in headlong pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: Blood bedabbled who was amongst us. Almost before he could
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  Speaker 1: stop his career, the gray thing leaped aside Imling with
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  Speaker 1: a snarl, flew at it, and was struck aside. Montgomery
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  Speaker 1: fired and missed, bowed his head, threw up his arm,
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  Speaker 1: and turned to run. I fired, and the thing still
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  Speaker 1: came on. Fired again, point blank into its ugly face.
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  Speaker 1: I saw its features vanish in a flash. Its face
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  Speaker 1: was driven in yet it passed me, gripped Montgomery, and
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  Speaker 1: holding him, fell headlong beside him, and pulled him, sprawling
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  Speaker 1: upon itself in its death agony. I found myself alone
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  Speaker 1: with him ling, the dead brute and the prostrate man.
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery raised himself slowly and stared in a muddled way
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  Speaker 1: at the shattered beast man beside him. It more than
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  Speaker 1: half sobered him. He scrambled to his feet. Than I
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  Speaker 1: saw the gray thing returning cautiously through the trees, see,
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  Speaker 1: said I, pointing to the dead brute. Is the law
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  Speaker 1: not alive? This came of breaking the law. He peered
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  Speaker 1: at his body. He sends the fire that kills, said
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  Speaker 1: he in his deep voice, repeating part of the ritual.
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  Speaker 1: The others gathered round and stared for a space. At
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  Speaker 1: last we drew near the westward extremity of the island.
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  Speaker 1: We came upon the nod and mutilated body of the puma,
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  Speaker 1: its shoulder bone smashed by a bullet, and perhaps twenty
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  Speaker 1: yards farther found at last what we sought. Moreau lay
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  Speaker 1: face downward in a trampled space in a cane brake.
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  Speaker 1: One hand was almost severed at the wrist, and his
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  Speaker 1: silvery hair dabbled in blood. His head had been battered
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  Speaker 1: in by the fetters of the puma. The broken canes
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  Speaker 1: beneath him were smeared with blood. His revolver could not
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  Speaker 1: be found. Montgomery turned him over, resting at intervals, and
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  Speaker 1: with the help of the seven beast people, for he
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  Speaker 1: was a heavy man, we carried Moreau back to the enclosure.
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  Speaker 1: The night was darkling. Twice we heard unseen creatures howling
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  Speaker 1: and shrieking past our little band, and once the little
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  Speaker 1: pink sloth creature appeared and stared at us, and vanished again,
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  Speaker 1: but we were not attacked again. At the gates of
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  Speaker 1: the enclosure, our company of beast people left us imbling,
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  Speaker 1: going with the rest. We locked ourselves in, and then
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  Speaker 1: took Moreau's mangled body into the yard and laid it
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  Speaker 1: upon a pile of brushwood. Then we went into the
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  Speaker 1: laboratory and put an end to all we found living there.