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The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The Island of Doctor Moreau
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: by H. G. Wells, Chapter one in the Dinghy of
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  Speaker 1: the Lady Vain. I do not propose to add anything
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  Speaker 1: to what has already been written concerning the loss of
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  Speaker 1: the Lady Vain. As everyone knows, she collided with a
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  Speaker 1: derelict when ten days out from Collal. The longboat with
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  Speaker 1: seven of the crew, was picked up eighteen days after
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  Speaker 1: by h M. Gunboat Myrtle, and the story of their
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  Speaker 1: terrible privations has become quite as well known as the
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  Speaker 1: far more horrible Medusa case. But I have to add
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  Speaker 1: to the published story of the Lady Vain another, possibly
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  Speaker 1: as horrible and far stranger. It has hitherto been supposed
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  Speaker 1: that the four men who were in the dinghy perished,
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  Speaker 1: but this is incorrect. I have the best of evidence
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  Speaker 1: for this assertion. I was one of the four men.
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  Speaker 1: But in the first place, I must state that there
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  Speaker 1: never were four men in the dinghy. The number was three.
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  Speaker 1: Unstands who was seen by the captain to jump into
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  Speaker 1: the gig, luckily for us and unluckily for himself, did
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  Speaker 1: not reach us. He came down out of the tangle
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  Speaker 1: of ropes under the stays of the smashed bowsprit Some
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  Speaker 1: small rope caught his heel as he let go, and
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  Speaker 1: he hung for a moment head downward, and then fell
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  Speaker 1: and struck a block or spar floating in the water.
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  Speaker 1: We pulled towards him, but he never came up. Daily News,
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  Speaker 1: March seventeenth, eighteen eighty seven. I say, luckily for us,
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  Speaker 1: he did not reach us, and I might almost say
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  Speaker 1: luckily for himself, for we had only a small beaker
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  Speaker 1: of water and some sodden ship's biscuits with us. So
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  Speaker 1: sudden had been the alarm, so unprepared the ship for
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  Speaker 1: any disaster, we thought the people on the launch would
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  Speaker 1: be better provisioned, though it seems they were not, and
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  Speaker 1: we tried to hail them. They could not have hurt us,
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  Speaker 1: And that next morning, when the drizzle cleared, which was
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  Speaker 1: not until past midday, we could see nothing of them.
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  Speaker 1: We could not stand up to look about us because
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  Speaker 1: of the pitching of the The two other men who
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  Speaker 1: had escaped so far with me were a man named Helmar,
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  Speaker 1: a passenger like myself, and a seaman whose name I
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  Speaker 1: don't know a short, sturdy man with a stammer. We
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  Speaker 1: drifted famishing, and after our water had come to an end,
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  Speaker 1: tormented by an intolerable thirst, for eight days altogether. After
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  Speaker 1: the second day the sea subsided slowly to a glassy calm.
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  Speaker 1: It is quite impossible for the ordinary reader to imagine
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  Speaker 1: those eight days. He has not, luckily for himself anything
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  Speaker 1: in his memory to imagine with. After the first day,
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  Speaker 1: we said little to one another, and lay in our
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  Speaker 1: places in the boat and stared at the horizon, or
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: watched with eyes that grew larger and more haggard every day,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the misery in weakness gaining upon our companions. The sun
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: became pitiless. The water ended on the fourth day, and
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: we were already thinking strange things and saying them with
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  Speaker 1: our eyes. But it was I think the sixth before
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  Speaker 1: Helmar gave to the thing we had all been thinking.
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  Speaker 1: I remember our voices were dry and thin, so that
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  Speaker 1: we bent towards one another and spared our words. I
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  Speaker 1: stood out against it with all my might, was rather
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  Speaker 1: for scuttling the boat and perishing together among the sharks
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  Speaker 1: that followed us. But when Helmar said that if his
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  Speaker 1: proposal was accepted, we should have drank the sailor came
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  Speaker 1: round to him. I would not draw lots, however, and
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: in the night the sailor whispered to Helmar again and again,
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  Speaker 1: and I sat in the bows with my clasp knife
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  Speaker 1: in my hand, though I doubt if I had the
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  Speaker 1: stuff in me to fight. And in the morning I
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  Speaker 1: agreed to Helmar's proposal, and we handed halfpence to find
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  Speaker 1: the odd man. The lot fell upon the sailor, but
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  Speaker 1: he was the strongest of us and would not abide
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  Speaker 1: by it, and attacked Helmar with his hands. They grappled
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  Speaker 1: together and almost stood up. I crawled along the boat
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  Speaker 1: to them, intending to help Helmar by grasping the sailor's leg,
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  Speaker 1: But the sailor stumbled with the swaying of the boat,
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  Speaker 1: and the two fell upon the gunwale and rolled overboard together.
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  Speaker 1: They sank like stones. I remember laughing at that, and
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  Speaker 1: wondering why I laughed. The laugh caught me suddenly, like
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  Speaker 1: a thing from without. I lay across one of the
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  Speaker 1: thwarts for I know not how long, thinking that if
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  Speaker 1: I had the strength, I would drink sea water and
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  Speaker 1: madden myself to die quickly, And even as I lay there,
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  Speaker 1: I saw, with no more interest than if it had
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  Speaker 1: been a picture, a sail come up towards me over
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  Speaker 1: the sky line. My mind must have been wandering, and
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  Speaker 1: yet I remember all that happened quite distinctly. I remember
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: how my head swayed with the seas and the horizon,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: with the sail above it danced up and down. But
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  Speaker 1: I also remember as distinctly that I had a persuasion
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  Speaker 1: that I was dead, and that I thought what a
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  Speaker 1: jest it was that they should come too late, by
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  Speaker 1: such a little to catch me in my body. For
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: an endless period, as it seemed to me, I lay
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  Speaker 1: with my head on the thwart, watching the schooner. She
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: was a little ship schooner rigged fore and aft, come
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  Speaker 1: up out of the sea. She kept tacking to and
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  Speaker 1: fro in a widening compass, for she was sailing dead
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  Speaker 1: into the wind. It never entered my head to attempt
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  Speaker 1: to attract attention. And I do not remember anything distinctly
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  Speaker 1: after the sight of her side, until I found myself
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  Speaker 1: in a little cabin aft. There's a dim half memory
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  Speaker 1: of being lifted up to the gangway and of a
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  Speaker 1: big round countenance covered with freckles and surrounded with red hair,
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  Speaker 1: staring at me over the bulwarks. I also had a
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  Speaker 1: disconnected impression of a dark face with extraordinary eyes close
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  Speaker 1: to mine, but that I thought was a nightmare until
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  Speaker 1: I met it again. I fancy I recollect some stuff
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  Speaker 1: being poured in between my teeth, and that is all.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter two. The man who was going nowhere. The cabin
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  Speaker 1: in which I found myself was small and rather untidy.
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  Speaker 1: A youngish man with flaxen hair, a bristly straw colored mustache,
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  Speaker 1: and a dropping nether lip was sitting and holding my wrist.
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  Speaker 1: For a minute, we stared at each other without speaking.
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  Speaker 1: He had watery gray eyes oddly expression. Then just overhead
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: came a sound like an iron bedstead being knocked about,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and the low, angry growling of some large animal. At
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  Speaker 1: the same time the man spoke. He repeated his question,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: how do you feel now? I think, I said, I
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: felt all right. I could not recollect how I had
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  Speaker 1: got there. He must have seen the question in my face,
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  Speaker 1: for my voice was inaccessible to me. You were picked
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  Speaker 1: up in a boat starving. The name on the boat
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  Speaker 1: was the Lady Vain, and there were spots of blood
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  Speaker 1: on the gunwale. At the same time, my eye caught
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: my hand, so thin that it looked like a dirty
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  Speaker 1: skin purse full of loose bones, And all the business
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  Speaker 1: of the boat came back to me. Have some of this,
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  Speaker 1: said he, and gave me a dose of some scarlet
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  Speaker 1: stuff iced. It tasted like blood and made me feel stronger.
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  Speaker 1: You were in luck, said he, to get picked up
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  Speaker 1: by a ship with a medical man aboard. He spoke
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  Speaker 1: with a slobbering articulation with the ghost of a list.
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  Speaker 1: What ship is this, I said, slowly, course, from my
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  Speaker 1: long silence, it's a little traitor for Marica and Colal.
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  Speaker 1: I never asked where she came from in the beginning,
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  Speaker 1: out of the land of born fools. I guess I'm
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  Speaker 1: a passenger myself from Marica. The silly ass who owns her.
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  Speaker 1: He's captain too, named Davies. He's lost his certificate or something.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the kind of man calls the thing the
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  Speaker 1: epocacuana of all silly, infernal names. Though when there's much
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  Speaker 1: of a sea without any wind, she certainly acts according.
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  Speaker 1: Then the noise overhead began again, a snarling growl, and
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  Speaker 1: the voice of a human being together, then another voice
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  Speaker 1: telling some heaven forsaken idiot to desist. You were nearly dead,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: said my interlocutor. It was a very near thing, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: But I've put some stuff into you. Now. Notice your
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  Speaker 1: arm's sore injections. You've been insensible for nearly thirty hours,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: I thought slowly. I was distracted now by the yelping
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  Speaker 1: of a number of dogs. Am I eligible for solid food?
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  Speaker 1: I asked? Thanks to me, he said, even now the
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  Speaker 1: mutton is boiling. Yes, I said, with assurance I could
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  Speaker 1: eat some mutton. But said he, with a momentary hesitation.
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  Speaker 1: You know I'm dying to hear of how you came
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  Speaker 1: to be alone in that boat. Dan that howling, I
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: thought I detected a certain suspicion in his eyes. He
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  Speaker 1: suddenly left the cabin, and I heard him in violent
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  Speaker 1: controversy with some one who seemed to me to talk
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  Speaker 1: gibberish in response to him. The matter sounded as though
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  Speaker 1: it ended in blows, But in that I thought my
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  Speaker 1: ears were mistaken. Then he shouted at the dogs and
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  Speaker 1: returned to the cabin. Well, said he in the doorway,
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  Speaker 1: you were just beginning to tell me. I told him
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  Speaker 1: my name, Edward, Prendick, and how I had taken to
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  Speaker 1: natural history as a relief from the dulness of my
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  Speaker 1: comfortable independence. He seemed interested in this. I've done some
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  Speaker 1: science myself. I did my biology at University College, getting
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  Speaker 1: out the ovary of the earthworm and the ratula of
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  Speaker 1: the snail and all that. Lord, it's ten years ago,
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  Speaker 1: but go on, go on, tell me about the boat.
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  Speaker 1: He was evidently satisfied with the frankness of my story,
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  Speaker 1: which I told in concise sentences, enough for I felt
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  Speaker 1: horribly weak, And when it was finished, he reverted at
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  Speaker 1: once to the topic of natural history and his own
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: biological studies. He began to question me closely about Tottenham
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  Speaker 1: Court Road and Gower Street. Is Caplatzi still flourishing? What
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  Speaker 1: a shop that was? He had evidently been a very
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  Speaker 1: ordinary medical student, and drifted incognently to the topic of
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: the music halls. He told me some anecdotes left it all,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: He said, ten years ago, how jolly it all used
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  Speaker 1: to be. But I made a young ass of myself,
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  Speaker 1: played myself out before I was twenty one. I dare
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  Speaker 1: say it's all different now. But I must look up
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  Speaker 1: that ass of a cook and see what he's done
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  Speaker 1: to your mutton? The growling overhead was renewed so suddenly
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  Speaker 1: and with so much savage anger, that it startled me.
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  Speaker 1: What's that? I called after him, but the door had closed.
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  Speaker 1: He came back again with the boiled mutton, and I
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  Speaker 1: was so excited by the appetizing smell of it that
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  Speaker 1: I forgot the noise of the beast that had troubled me.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: After a day of alternate sleep and feeding, I was
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  Speaker 1: so far recovered as to be able to get from
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  Speaker 1: my bunk to the scuttle and see the green seas
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: trying to keep pace with us. I judged the schooner
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  Speaker 1: was running before the wind. Montgomery, that was the name
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: of the flaxen haired man, came in again as I
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: stood there, and I asked him for some clothes. He
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: lent me some duck things of his own, for those
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I had worn in the boat had been thrown overboard.
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  Speaker 1: They were rather loose for me, for he was large
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  Speaker 1: and long in his limbs. He told me casually that
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  Speaker 1: the captain was three parts drunk in his own cabin.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: As I assumed the clothes, I began asking him some
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  Speaker 1: questions about the destination of the ship. He said the
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  Speaker 1: ship was bound to Hawaii, but that it had to
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  Speaker 1: land him first. Where, said I. It's an island where
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  Speaker 1: I live. So far as I know, it hasn't got
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  Speaker 1: a name. He stared at me with his nether lip dropping,
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  Speaker 1: and looked so wilfully stupid of a sudden that it
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  Speaker 1: came into my head that he desired to avoid my questions.
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  Speaker 1: I had the discretion to ask no more. Free the
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  Speaker 1: strange face. We left the cabin and found a man
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  Speaker 1: at the companion obstructing our way. He was standing on
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  Speaker 1: the ladder with his back to us, peering over the
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  Speaker 1: combing of the hatchway he was. I could see a
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: misshapen man, short, broad and clumsy, with a crooked back,
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  Speaker 1: a hairy neck, and a head sunk between his shoulders.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: He was dressed in dark blue serge and had peculiarly thick,
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  Speaker 1: coarse black hair. I heard the unseen dogs growl furiously
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  Speaker 1: and forthwith. He ducked back, coming into contact with the
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  Speaker 1: hand I put out to fend him off for myself.
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  Speaker 1: He turned with animal swiftness in some indefinable way. The
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: black face thus flashed upon me shocked me profoundly. It
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: was a singularly deformed one. The facial part projected forming
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: something dimly suggestive of a muzzle, and the huge, half
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: open mouth showed as big white teeth as I had
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: ever seen in a human mouth. His eyes were bloodshot
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  Speaker 1: at the edges, with scarcely a rim of white round
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  Speaker 1: the hazel pupils. There was a curious glow of excitement
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  Speaker 1: in his face. Confound you, said Montgomery, Why the devil
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: don't you get out of the way. The black faced
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: man started aside without a word. I went on up,
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  Speaker 1: the companion, staring at him instinctively as I did so,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: Montgomery stayed at the foot for a moment. You have
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: no business here, you know, he said, in a deliberate tone.
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  Speaker 1: Your place is forward. The black faced man coward. They
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: won't have me forward, he spoke, slowly, with a queer,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: hoarse quality in his voice. Won't have you forward, said
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  Speaker 1: Montgomery in a menacing voice. But I tell you to go.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: He was on the brink of saying something further, then
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: looked up at me suddenly and followed me up the ladder.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I had paused half way through the hatchway, looking back,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: still astonished beyond measure at the grotesque ugliness of this
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: black faced creature. I had never beheld such a repulsive
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: and extraordinary face before, And yet, if the contradiction is credible,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I experienced at the same time an odd feeling that
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: in some way I had already encountered exactly the features
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and gestures that now amazed me. Afterwards, it occurred to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: me that probably I had seen him as I was
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: lifted aboard, and yet that scarcely satisfied my suspicion of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: a previous acquaintance. Yet, how one could have set eyes
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: on so singular a face and yet have forgotten the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: precise occasion passed my imagination. Montgomery's movement to follow me
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: released my attention, and I turned and looked about me
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: at the flushed deck of the little schooner. I was
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: already half prepared by the sounds I had heard for
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: what I saw. Certainly I never beheld a deck so dirty.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: It was littered with scraps of carrot, shreds of green stuff,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and indescribable filth. Fastened by chains to the mainmast were
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a number of grisly staghounds, who now began leaping and
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: barking at me, and by the Mizzen. A huge puma
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: was cramped in a little iron cage, far too small
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: even to give it turning room. Farther under the starboard
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  Speaker 1: bulwark were some big hutches containing a number of rabbits,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and a solitary lama was squeezed in a mere box
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: of a cage. Forward, the dogs were muzzled by leather straps.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: The only human being on deck was a gaunt and
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: silent sailor at the wheel. The patched and dirty spankers
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: were before the wind and up aloft. The little ship
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: seemed carrying every sail she had. The sky was clear,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the sun midway down the western sky. Long waves capped
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: by the breeze with froth, were running with us. We
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: went past the steersman to the taffrail and saw the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: water come foaming under the stern, and the bubbles go
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: dancing and vanishing in her wake. I turned and surveyed
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the unsavor length of the ship. Is this an ocean menagerie? Said?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I looks like it, said Montgomery, What are these beasts
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: for merchandise? Curios? Does the captain think he is going
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: to sell them somewhere in the south seas? It looks
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: like it doesn't it, said Montgomery, and turned towards the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: wake again. Suddenly we heard a yelp and a volley
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: of furious blasphemy from the companion hatchway, and the deformed
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: man with the black face came up hurriedly. He was
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: immediately followed by a heavy, red haired man in a
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: white cap. At the sight of the former, the staghounds,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: who had all tired of barking at me by this time,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: became furiously excited, howling and leaping against their chains. The
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: black hesitated before them, and this gave the red haired
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: man time to come up with him and deliver a
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: tremendous blow between the shoulder blades. The poor devil went
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: down like a fell dockx and rolled in the dirt
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: among the furiously excited dogs. It was lucky for him
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that they were muzzled. The red haired man gave a
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: yop of exultation and stood staggering, and as it seemed
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: to me, in serious danger of either going backwards down
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the companion hatchway or forwards upon his victim. So soon
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: as the second man had appeared, Montgomery had started forward
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: steady on there he cried in a tone of remonstrance.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: A couple of sailors appeared on the forecastle. The black
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: faced man, howling in a singular voice, rolled about under
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the feet of the dogs. No one attempted to help him.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: The brutes did their best to worry him, butting their
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: muzzles at him. There was a quick dance of their
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: lithe gray figured bodies over the clumsy, prostrate figure. The
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: sailors forward shouted as though it was admirable sport. Montgomery
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: gave an angry exclamation and went striding down the deck,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: and I followed him. The black faced man scrambled up
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: and staggered forward, going and leaning over the bulwark by
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: the main shrouds, where he remained panting and glaring over
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: his shoulder at the dogs. The red haired man laughed
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: a satisfied laugh. Look here, Captain, said Montgomery, with his
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: lisp a little accentuated, gripping the elbows of the red
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: haired man. This won't do. I stood behind Montgomery. The
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: captain came half round and regarded him with the dull
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and solemn eyes of a drunken man. Wa won't do,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: he said, and added, after looking sleepily into Montgomery's face
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: for a minute blasted saw bones. With a sudden movement,
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: he shook his arms free, and, after two ineffectual attempts,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: duck his freckled fists into his side pockets. That man's
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: a passenger, said Montgomery. I'd advise you to keep your
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: hands off him. Go to hell, said the captain loudly.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: He suddenly turned and staggered towards the side. Do what
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: I like on my own ship, he said. I think
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Montgomery might have left him then, seeing the brute was drunk,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: but he only turned a shade paler, and followed the
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: captain to the bulwarks. Look you here, captain, he said.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: That man of mine is not to be ill treated.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: He has been hazed ever since he came aboard. For
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: a minute, alcoholic fumes kept the captain speechless. Blasted saw
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: bones was all he considered necessary. I could see that
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Montgomery had one of those slow, pregnacious tempers that were
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: warm day after day to a white heat, and never
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: again cool to forgiveness. And I saw too that this
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: quarrel had been some time growing. The man's drunk, said
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: I perhaps a viciously you'll do no good. Montgomery gave
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: an ugly twist to his dropping lip. He's always drunk.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Do you think that excuses his assaulting his passengers? My ship,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: began the captain, waving his hand unsteadily towards the cages.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Was a clean ship, Look at it now? It was
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: certainly anything but clean, crew, continued the captain, Clean, respectable crew.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: You agreed to take the beasts. I wish I'd never
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: set eyes on your infernal island. What the devil want
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: beasts for on an island like that? Then that man
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: of yours understood he was a man. He's a lunatic,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and he hadn't no business aft. Do you think the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: whole damned ship belongs to you? Your sailors began to
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: haze the poor devil as soon as he came aboard.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: That's just what he is. He's a devil, an ugly devil.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: My men can't stand him. I can't stand none of
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: us can't stand him, nor you either. Montgomery turned away.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: You leave that man alone, anyhow, he said, nodding his
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: head as he spoke. But the captain meant to quarrel. Now,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: he raised his voice. If he comes this end of
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the ship again, I'll cut his insides out, I tell
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: you cut out his blasted insides. Who are you to
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: tell me what I'm to do? I tell you, I'm
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: captain of this ship, captain and owner. I'm the law here.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I tell you the law and the prophets. I bargain
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: to take a man and his attendant too, and from
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Arica and bring back some animals. I never bargain to
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: carry a mad devil and a silly saw bones. Well,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: never mind what he called Montgomery. I saw the latter
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: take a step forward and interposed, He's drunk, said I.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: The captain began some abuse, even fouler than the last.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Shut up, I say, turning on him sharply, for I
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: had seen danger in Montgomery's white face. With that, I
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: brought the downpour on myself. However, I was glad to
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: avert what was uncommonly near a scuffle, even at the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: price of the captain's drunken ill will. I do not
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: think I have ever heard quite so much vile language
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: come in a continuous stream from any man's lips before.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Though I have frequented eccentric company enough, I found some
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: of it hard to endure, though I am a mild
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: tempered man. But certainly, when I told the captain to
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: shut up. I had forgotten that I was merely a
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: bit of human flotsam, cut off from my resources and
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: with my fare unpaid, a mere casual dependent on the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: bounty or speculative enterprise of the ship. He reminded me
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: of it with considerable vigor, but at any rate, I
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: prevented a fight for at the schooner's rail That night.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Land was sighted after sundown, and the schooner hove to
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: Montgomery intimated that was his destination. It was too to
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: see any details. It seemed to me then, simply a
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: low lying patch of dim blue in the uncertain blue
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: gray sea. An almost vertical streak of smoke went up
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: from it into the sky. The captain was not on
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: deck when it was sighted. After he had vented his
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: wrath on me, he had staggered below, and I understand
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: he went to sleep on the floor of his own cabin.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: The mate practically assumed the command. He was the gaunt
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: tacit an individual we had seen at the wheel. Apparently
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: he was in an evil temper with Montgomery. He took
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: not the slightest notice of either of us. We dined
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: with him in a sulky silence, after a few ineffectual
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: efforts on my part to talk. It struck me too
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that the men regarded my companion and his animals in
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: a singularly unfriendly manner. I found Montgomery very reticent about
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: his purpose with these creatures and about his destination, and
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: though I was sensible of a growing curiosity as to both,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I did not press him. We remained talking on the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: quarter deck until the sky was thick with stars. Except
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: for an occasional sound in the yellow lit forecastle and
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: a movement of the animals now and then, the night
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: was very still. The puma lay crouched together, watching us
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: with shining eyes, a black heap in the corner of
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: its cage. Montgomery produced some cigars. He talked to me
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: of London in a tone of half painful reminiscence, asking
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: all kinds of questions about changes that had taken place.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: He spoke like a man who had loved his life
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: there and had been suddenly and irrevocably cut off from it.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I gossiped as well as I could of this, and
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: that all the time the strangeness of him was shaping
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: itself in my mind, And as I talked, I peered
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: at his odd, pallid face in the dim light of
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: the binnacle lantern behind me. Then I looked out at
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the darkling sea, where in the dimness his little island
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: was hidden. This man, it seemed to me, had come
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: out of immensity merely to save my life. Tomorrow he
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: would drop over the side and vanish again, out of
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: my existence. Even had it been under commonplace circumstances, it
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: would have made me a trifle thoughtful. But in the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: first place was the singularity of an educated man living
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: on this unknown little island, and coupled with that the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: extraordinary nature of his luggage. I found myself repeating the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Captain's question, what did he want with the beasts? Why? Too,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: had he pretended they were not his? When I had
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: remarked about them at first, then again in his personal
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: attendant there was a bizarre quality which had impressed me profoundly.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: These circumstances threw a haze of mystery round the man.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: They laid hold of my imagination and hampered my tongue.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Towards midnight, our talk of London died away, and we
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: stood side by side, leaning over the bulwarks and staring
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: dreamily over the silent starlit sea, each pursuing his own thoughts.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: It was the atmosphere for sentiment, and I began upon
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: my gratitude, if I may say it, said I, after
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: a time, you have saved my life. Chance, he answered,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: just chance. I preferred to make my thanks to the
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: accessible agent. Thank no one. You had the need and
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I had the knowledge. And I injected and fed you
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: much as I might have collected a specimen. I was
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: bored and wanted something to do. If i'd been jaded
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: that day, or hadn't liked your face, well it's a
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: curious question where you would have been. Now this damped
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: my mood a little. At any rate, I began. It's
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: a chance, I tell you, he interrupted, as everything is
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: in a man's life, only the asses won't see it.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Why am I here now an outcast from civilization instead
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: of being a happy man enjoying all the pleasures of London,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: simply because eleven years ago I lost my head for
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: ten minutes on a foggy night. He stopped, Yes, said
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: I that's all. We relapsed into silence. Presently, he laughed,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: there's something in this starlight that loosens one's tongue. I'm
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: an ass and yet somehow I would like to tell you.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Whatever you tell me, you may rely upon my keeping
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: to myself. If that's it. He was on the point
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: of beginning, and then shook his head. Doubtfully, don't, said I.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: It is all the same to me. After all, it
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: is better to keep your secret. There's nothing gained but
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: a little relief if I respect your confidence. If I don't, well,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: he grunted undecidedly. I felt I had him at a disadvantage,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: had caught him in the mood of indiscretion, And to
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: tell the truth, I was not curious to learn what
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: might have driven a young medical student out of London.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I have an imagination. I shrugged my shoulders and turned away.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Over the taffrail lent a silent black figure watching the stars.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: It was Montgomery's strange attendant. It looked over its shoulder
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: quickly with my movement, then looked away again. It may
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: seem a little thing to you, perhaps, but it came
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: like a sudden blow to me. The only light near
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: us was a lantern at the wheel. The creature's face
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: was turned for one brief instant out of the dimness
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of the stern, towards this illumination, and I saw that
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the eyes that glanced at me shone with a pale
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: green light. I did not know then that a reddish
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: luminosity at least is not uncommon in human eyes. The
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: thing came to me as stark in humanity. That black figure,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: with its eyes of fire, struck down through all my
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: adult thoughts and feelings, and for a moment the forgotten
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: horrors of childhood came back to my mind. Then the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: effect passed as it had come. An uncouth black figure
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: of a man, a figure of no particular import, hung
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: over the taffrail against the starlight, and I found Montgomery
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: was speaking to me. I'm thinking of turning in, then
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: said he if you've had enough of this, I answered
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: him incongruously. We went below, and he wished me good
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: night at the door of my cabin. That night I
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: had some very unpleasant dreams. The waning moon rose late,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: its light struck a ghostly white beam across my cabin
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: and made an ominous shape on the planking by my bunk.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Then the staghounds woke and began howling and baying, so
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: that I dreamt fitfully and scarcely slept until the approach
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of dawn five, the man who had nowhere to go.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: In the early morning, it was the second morning after
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: my recovery, and I believed the fourth. After I was
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: picked up, I awoke through an avenue of tumultuous dreams,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: dreams of guns and howling mobs, and became sensible of
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: a horse shouting above me. I rubbed my eyes and
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: lay listening to the noise, doubtful for a little while
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of my whereabouts. Then came a sudden pattering of bare feet,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the sound of heavy objects being thrown about, a violent creaking,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: and the rattling of chains. I heard the swish of
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the water as the ship was suddenly brought round, and
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: a foamy yellow green wave flew across us the little
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: round window and left it streaming. I jumped into my
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: clothes and went on deck. As I came up the ladder,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: I saw, against the flushed sky, for the sun was
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: just rising, the broad back and red hair of the captain,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: and over his shoulder the puma spinning from a tackle
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: rigged on to the mizzen spanker boom. The poor brute
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: seemed horribly scared and crouched in the bottom of its
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: little cage overboard with M, bawled the captain overboard with M.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: We'll have a clean ship soon, of the whole violin
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: of M. He stood in my way so that I
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: had perforce to tap his shoulder to come on deck.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: He came round with a start and staggered back a
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: few paces to stare at me. It needed no expert
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I to tell that the man was still drunk. Hullo,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: said he stupidly, and then, with a light coming into
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: his eyes. Why it's mister, mister Prendick, said I Prendick,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: be damned, said he shut up. That's your name, mister
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: shut up. It was no good answering the brute, but
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: I certainly did not expect his next move. He held
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: out his hand to the gangway, by which Montgomery stood,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: talking to a massive, gray haired man in dirty blue
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: flannels who had apparently just come aboard that way. Mister blasted,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: shut up that way, roared the captain. Montgomery and his
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: companion turned as he spoke. What do you mean I
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: said that way? Mister blasted shut up, That's what I mean. Overboard,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: mister shut up and sharp. We're cleaning the ship out,
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: cleaning the whole blessed ship out and overboard you go.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I stared at him, dumbfounded. Then it occurred to me
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: that it was exactly the thing I wanted, the lost
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: prospect of a journey as sole passenger. With this quarrelsome
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: sot was not one to mourn over. I turned towards Montgomery.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: Can't have you, said Montgomery's companion. Concisely can't have me,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: said I, aghast. He had the squarest and most resolute
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: face I ever set eyes upon. Look here, I began,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: turning to the captain. Overboard, said the captain. This ship
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: ain't for beasts and cannibals, and worse than beasts any more.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Overboard you go, mister, shut up. If they can't have you,
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: you goes overboard. But anyhow, you go with your friends.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: I've done with this blessed island for evermore. Amen, I've
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: had enough of it. But Montgomery, I appealed. He distorted
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: his lower lip and nodded his head hopelessly at the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: gray haired man beside him, to indicate his powerlessness to
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: help me. I'll see to you, presently, said the captain,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: then began a curious three cornered altercation. Alternately, I appealed
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: to one and another of the three men, first to
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: the gray haired man to let me land, and then
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: to the drunken captain to keep me aboard. I even
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: bald entreaties to the sailors. Montgomery said, never a word,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: only shook his head. You're going overboard, I tell you,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: was the captain's refrain. Law be damned. I'm king here
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: at last, I must confess. My voice suddenly broke in
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: the middle of a vigorous threat. I felt a gust
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: of hysterical petulance, and went aft and stared dismally at nothing. Meanwhile,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: the sailors progressed rapidly with the task of unshipping the
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: packages and caged animals. A large launch with two standing
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: lugs lay under the lee of the schooner, and into
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: this the strange assortment of goods were swung. I did
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: not then see the hands from the island that were
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: receiving the packages, for the hull of the launch was
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: hidden from me by the side of the schooner. Neither
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Montgomery nor his companion took the slightest notice of me,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: but busied themselves in assisting in directing the four or
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: five sailors who were unloading the goods. The captain went forward,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: interfering rather than assisting. I was alternately despairful and desperate.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Once or twice, as I stood waiting there for things
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: to accomplish themselves, I could not resist an impulse to
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: laugh at my miserable quandary. I felt all the wretcheder
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: for the lack of a breakfast, hunger, and a lack
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: of blood. Corpusals take all the manhood from a man.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: I perceived pretty clearly that I had not the stamina
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: either to resist what the captain chose to do to
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: expel me, or to force myself upon Montgomery and his companion.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: So I waited passively upon fate, and the work of
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: transferring Montgomery's possessions to the launch went on as if
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: I did not exist. Presently, that work was finished, and
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: then came a struggle. I was hauled, resisting weakly enough
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: to the gangway. Even then I noticed the oddness of
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: the brown faces of the men who were with Montgomery
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: in the launch. But the launch was now fully laden
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: and was shoved off hastily. A broadening gap of green
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: water appeared under me, and I pushed back with all
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: my strength, to avoid falling headlong. The hands in the
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: launch shouted derisively, and I heard Montgomery curse at them,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: and then the captain, the mate, and one of the
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: seamen helping him ran me aft towards the stern. The
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: dinghy of the Lady Vain had been towing behind. It
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: was half full of water, had no oars, and was
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: quite unvictualled. I refused to go aboard her and flung
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: myself full length on the deck. In the end they
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: swung me into her by a rope, for they had
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: no stern ladder, and then they cut me adrift. I
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: drifted slowly from the schooner in a kind of stupor.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: I watched all hands take to the rigging, and slowly
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: but surely, she came round to the wind. The sails
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: fluttered and then bellied out as the wind came into them.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: I stared at her weather beaten side, heeling steeply towards me,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and then she passed out of my range of view.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: I did not turn my head to follow her. At first,
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: I could scarce believe what had happened. I crouched in
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the dinghy, stunned and staring blankly at
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the vacant oily sea. Then I realized that I was
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: in that little hell of mine again, now half swamped,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: and looking back over the gunwale, I saw the schooner
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: standing away from me, with the red haired captain mocking
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: at me over the taffrail, and turning towards the island.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: Saw the launch growing smaller as she approached the beach. Abruptly,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the cruelty of this desertion became clear to me. I
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: had no means of reaching the land unless I should
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: chance to drift there. I was still weak. You must
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: remember from my exposure in the boat. I was empty
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: and very faint, or I should have had more heart,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: But as it was, I suddenly began to sob and weep,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: as I had never done since I was a little child.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: The tears ran down my face. In a passion of despair,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I struck with my fists at the water in the
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: bottom of the boat, and kicked savagely at the gunwale.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: I prayed aloud for God to let me die six
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: the evil looking boatmen, but the islanders, seeing that I
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: was really adrift, took pity on me. I drifted very
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: slowly to the eastward approaching the island slantingly, and presently,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: I saw with hysterical relief, the launch come round and
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: returned towards me. She was heavily laden, and I could
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: make out as she drew nearer Montgomery's white haired, broad
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: shouldered companions sitting cramped up with the dogs in several
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: packing cases in the stern sheets. This individual stared fixedly
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: at me, without moving or speaking. The black faced cripple
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: was glaring at me as fixedly. In the bows near
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: the puma. There were three other men besides three strange,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: brutish looking fellows, at whom the stag hounds were snarling savagely. Montgomery,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: who was steering, brought the boat by me, and rising
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: caught and fastened my painter to the tiller to tow me,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: for there was no room aboard. I had recovered from
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: my hysterical face by this time and answered his hail
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: as he approached. Bravely enough. I told him that Dinghy
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: was nearly swamped, and he reached me a pigan. I
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: was jerked back as the rope tightened between the boats.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: For some time I was busy bailing. It was not
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: until I had got the water under for the water,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: and the dinghy had been shipped. The boat was perfectly
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: sound that I had leisure to look at the people
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: in the launch again. The white haired man I found
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: was still regarding me steadfastly, but with an expression, as
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: I now fancied, of some perplexity. When my eyes met his,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: he looked down at the staghound that sat between his knees.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: He was a powerfully built man, as I have said,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: with a fine forehead and rather heavy features. But his
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: eyes had that odd drooping of the skin above the
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: lids which often comes with advancing years, and the fall
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: of his heavy mouth at the corners gave him an
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: expression of pugnacious resolution. He talked to Montgomery in a
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: tone too low for me to hear from him. My
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: eyes traveled to his three men, and the strange crew
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: they were. I saw only their faces, Yet there was
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: something in their faces I knew not what. That gave
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: me a queer spasm of disgust. I looked steadily at them,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: and the impression did not pass, though I failed to
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: see what had occasioned it. They seemed to me then
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: to be brown men, but their limbs were oddly swathed
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: in some thin dirty white, stuffed down even to the
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: fingers and feet. I have never seen men so wrapped
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: up before, and women so only in the East. They
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: wore turbans, too, and thereunder peered out their elfin faces
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: at me, faces with protruding lower jaws and bright eyes.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: They had lank black hair, almost like horse hair, and seemed,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: as they sat, to exceed in stature any race of
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: men I have seen. The white haired man, who I
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: knew was a good six feet in height, sat ahead
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: below any one of the three. I found afterwards that
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: really none were taller than myself, but their bodies were
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: abnormally long, and the thigh part of the legs short
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: and cureously twisted. At any rate, they were an amazingly
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: ugly gang. And over the heads of them, under the
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: forward lug, peered the black face of the man, whose
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: eyes were luminous in the dark. As I stared at them,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: they met my gaze, and then first one and then
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: another turned away from my direct stare and looked at
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: me in an odd, furtive manner. It occurred to me
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: that I was perhaps annoying them, and I turned my
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: attention to the island we were approaching. It was low
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: and covered with thick vegetation, chiefly a kind of palm
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: that was new to me. From one point, a thin
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: white thread of vapor rose slantingly to an immense height,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: and then frayed out like a down feather. We were
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: now within the embrace of a broad bay, flanked on
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: either hand by a low promontory. The beach was of
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: dull gray sand and sloped steeply up to a ridge
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: perhaps sixty or seventy feet above the sea level, and
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: irregularly set with trees and undergrowth. Half Way up was
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: a square enclosure of some grayish stone, which I found
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: subsequently was built partly of coral and partly of pumiicious lava.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Two thatched roofs peeped from within this enclosure. A man
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: stood awaiting us at the water's edge. I fancied, while
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: we were still far off that I saw some other
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: and very grotesque looking creatures scuttle into the bushes upon
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: the slope, But I saw nothing of these as we
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: drew nearer. This man was of a moderate size and
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: with a black negroid face. He had a large, almost
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: lipless mouth, extraordinary lank arms, long thin feet, and bow legs.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: And stood with his heavy face thrust forward, staring at us.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: He was dressed like Montgomery and his white haired companion,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: in jacket and trousers of blue surge. As we came
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: still nearer, this individual began to run to and fro
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: on the beach, making the most grotesque movements. At a
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: word of command from Montgomery, the four men in the
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: launch sprang up and, with singularly awkward gestures, struck the lugs.
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: Montgomery teered us round and into a narrow little dock
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: excavated in the beach. Then the man on the beach
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: hastened towards us. This dock, as I call it, was
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: really a mere ditch, just long enough at this phase
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: of the tide to take the long boat. I heard
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: the bows ground in the sand, staved the dinghy off
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the rudder of the big boat, with my pigin and
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: freeing the painter landed. The three muffled men, with the
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: clumsiest movements, scrambled out upon the sand and forthwith set
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: to landing the cargo, assisted by the man on the beach.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: I was struck, especially by the curious movements of the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: legs of the three swathed and bandaged boatmen. Not stiff
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: they were, but distorted in some odd way, almost as
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: if they were jointed in the wrong place. The dogs
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: were still snarling and strained at their chains after these men.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: As the white haired man landed with them, the three
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: big fellows spoke to one another in odd guttural tones,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: and the man who had waited for us on the
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: beach began chattering to them excitedly a foreign language. As
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: I fancied as they laid hands on some bales piled
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: near the stern. Somewhere, I had heard such a voice before,
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: and I could not think where the white haired man stood,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: holding in a tumult of six dogs and bawling orders
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: over their din. Montgomery, having unshipped the rudder, landed likewise,
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: and all set to work at unloading. I was too faint,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: what with my long fast and the sun beating down
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: on my bare head, to offer any assistance. Presently, the
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: white haired man seemed to recollect my presence and came
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: up to me. You look, said he, as though you
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: had scarcely breakfasted. His little eyes were a brilliant black
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: under his heavy brows. I must apologize for that. Now
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: you are our guest, we must make you comfortable, though
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: you are uninvited, you know. He looked keenly into my face.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Montgomery says, you are an educated man. Mister Prendick says,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: you know something of science. May I ask what that signifies?
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: I told him I had spent some years at the
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Royal College of Science and had done some researches in
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: biology under Huxley. He raised his eyebrows slightly at that.
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: That alters the case a little, mister Prendick, he said,
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: with a trifle more respect in his manner. As it happens,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: we are biologists here. This is a biological station of
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: a sort. His eye rested on the men in white,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: who were busily hauling the puma on rollers towards the
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: walled yard. I in Montgomery at least, he added, Then
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: when you will be able to get away, I can't
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: say we're off the track to anywhere. We see a
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: ship once in a twelvemonth or so. He left me
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: abruptly and went up the beach past this group, and
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: I think entered the enclosure. The other two men were
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: with Montgomery, directing a pile of smaller packages on a
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: low wheeled truck. The lama was still on the launch
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: with the rabbit hutches. The staghounds were still lashed to
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: the thwarts. The pile of things completed, all three men
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: laid hold of the truck and began shoving the ton
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: weight or so upon it after the puma. Presently, Montgomery
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: left them, and, coming back to me, held out his hand.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: I'm glad, said he for my own part. That captain
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: was a silly ass. He'd have made things lively for you.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: It was you, said I that saved me. Again. That depends.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: You'll find this island an infernally rum place. I promise
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: you I'd watch my goings carefully if I were you.
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: He he hesitated and seemed to alter his mind about
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: what was on his lips. I wish you'd help me
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: with these rabbits, he said. His procedure with the rabbits
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: was singular. I waded in with him and helped him
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: lug one of the hutches ashore. No sooner was that
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: done than he opened the door of it, and, tilting
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the thing on one end, turned its living contents out
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: on the ground. They fell in a struggling heap, one
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: on the top of the other. He clapped his hands
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: and forthwith. They went off with that hopping run of theirs,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty of them. I should think up the beach,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: increase and multiply my friends, said Montgomery, replenish the island. Hitherto,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: we've had a certain lack of meat here. As I
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: watched them disappearing, the white haired man returned with a
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: brandy flask in some biscuits. Something to go on with, Prendick,
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: said he, in a far more familiar tone than before.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: I made no ado, but set to work on the
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: biscuits at once, while the white haired man helped Montgomery
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: to release about a score more of the rabbits. Three
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: big hutches, however, went up to the house with the puma.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: The brandy I did not touch, for I have been
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: an abstainer from my berth seven the locked Door. The
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: reader will perhaps understand that at first everything was so
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: strange about me and my position was the outcome of
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: such unexpected adventures, that I had no discern of the
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: relative strangeness of this or that thing. I followed the
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: lama up the beach and was overtaken by Montgomery, who
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: asked me not to enter the stone enclosure. I noticed
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: then that the puma in its cage and the pile
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: of packages had been placed outside the entrance to this quadrangle.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: I turned and saw that the launch had now been unloaded,
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: run out again, and was being beached, and the white
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: haired man was walking towards us. He addressed Montgomery, and
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: now comes the problem of this uninvited guest. What are
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: we to do with him? He knows something of science,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: said Montgomery. I'm mitching to get to work again with
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: this new stuff, said the white haired man, nodding towards
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: the enclosure. His eyes grew brighter. I dare say you are,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: said Montgomery, in anything but a cordial tone. We can't
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: send him over there, and we can't spare the time
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: to build him a new shanty, and we certainly can't
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: take him into our confidence just yet. I'm in your hands,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: said I. I had no idea of what he meant
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: by over there. I've been thinking of the same things,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: Montgomery answered. There's my room with the outer door. That's it,
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: said the elder man, promptly, looking at Montgomery, and all
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: three of us went towards the enclosure. I'm sorry to
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: make a mystery, mister Prendick, but you'll remember you're uninvited.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Our little establishment here contains a secret or so is
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: a kind of Bluebeard's chamber. In fact, nothing very dreadful,
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: really to a sane man. But just now, as we
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: don't know, you decidedly said I, I should be a
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: fool to take offense at any want of confidence. He
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: twisted his heavy mouth into a faint smile. He was
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: one of those saturnine people who smile with the corners
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: of the mouth down, and bowed his acknowledgment of my complaisance.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: The main entrance to the enclosure was pasted. It was
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: a heavy wooden gate, framed in iron and locked with
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: the cargo of the launch piled outside it. And at
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: the corner we can came to a small doorway I
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: had not previously observed. The white haired man produced a
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: bundle of keys from the pocket of his greasy blue jacket,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: opened this door and entered his keys. And the elaborate
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: locking up of the place, even while it was still
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: under his eye, struck me as peculiar. I followed him
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: and found myself in a small apartment, plainly but not
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: uncomfortably furnished, and with its inner door, which was slightly ajar,
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: opening into a paved court yard. This inner door, Montgomery
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: at once closed. A hammock was slung across the darker
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: corner of the room, and a small unglazed window, defended
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: by an iron bar, looked out towards the sea. This,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: the white haired man told me, was to be my apartment,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: and the inner door, which for fear of accidents he
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: said he would lock on the other side, was my limit. Inward.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: He called my attention to a convenient deck chair before
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: the window, and to an array of old books. Chiefly
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: I found surgical works and additions of the Latin and
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: Greek classics, languages I cannot read with any comfort, on
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: a shelf near the hammock. He left the room by
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: the outer door, as if to avoid opening the inner
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: one again. We usually have our meals in here, said Montgomery,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: and then, as if in doubt, went out after the
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: other Moreau. I heard him call, and for the moment
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: I do not think I noticed. Then, as I handled
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: the books on the shelf, it came up in consciousness
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: where had I heard the name of Moreau before? I
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: sat down before the window, took out the biscuits that
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: still remained to me and ate them with an excellent
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: appetite Moreau. Through the window, I saw one of those
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: unaccountable men in white, lugging a packing case along the beach.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Presently the window frame hid him. Then I heard a
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: key inserted and turned in the lock behind me. After
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: a little while, I heard through the locked door the
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: noise of the staghounds that had now been brought up
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: from the beach. They were not barking, but sniffing and
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: growling in a curious fashion. I could hear the rapid
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: patter of their feet, and Montgomery's voice soothing them. I
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: was very much impressed by the elaborate secrecy of these
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: two men regarding the contents of the place, and for
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: some time I was thinking of that, and of the
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: unaccountable familiarity of the name of Moreau. But so odd
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: is the human memory that I could not then recall
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: that well known name in its proper connection. From that,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: my thoughts went to the indefinable queerness of the deformed
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: man on the beach. I never saw such a gait,
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: such odd motions. As he pulled at the box. I
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: recalled that none of these men had spoken to me,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: though most of them I had found looking at me
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: at one time or another, in a peculiarly furtive manner,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: quite unlike the frank stare of your unsophisticated savage. Indeed,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: they had all seemed remarkably taciturn, and when they did speak,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: endowed with very uncanny voices. What was wrong with them? Then?
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: I recalled the eyes of Montgomery's ungainly attendant. Just as
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: I was thinking of him, he came in. He was
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: now dressed in white, and carried a little tray with
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: some coffee and boiled vegetables thereon. I could hardly repress
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: a shuddering recoil as he came, bending amiably, and placed
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: the tray before me on the table. Then astonishment paralyzed me.
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: Under his stringy black locks, I saw his ear. It
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: jumped upon me, suddenly, close to my face. The man
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: had pointed ears covered with a fine brown fur. Your
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: breakfast sair, he said. I stared at his face, without
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: attempting to answer him. He turned and went towards the door,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: regarding me oddly over his shoulder. I followed him out
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: with my eyes, and as I did so, by some
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: odd trick of unconscious cerebration, there came surging into my
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: head the phrase the Moreau hollows. Was it? The Moreau ah?
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: It sent my memory back ten years, the Moreau horrors.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: The phrase drifted loose in my mind for a moment,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: and then I saw it in red lettering on a
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: little buff colored pamphlet to read, which made one shiver
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: and creep. Then I remembered distinctly all about it. That
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: long forgotten pamphlet came back with startling vividness to my mind.
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: I had been a mere lad then. And Moreau was
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: I suppose about fifty a prominent and masterful physiologist, well
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: known in scientific circles for his extraordinary imagination and his
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: brutal directness in discussion. Was this the same Moreau? He
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: had published some very astonishing facts in connection with the
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: transfusion of blood, and in addition was known to be
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: doing valuable work on morbid growths. Then suddenly his career
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: was closed. He had to leave England. A journalist obtained
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: access to his laboratory in the capacity of laboratory assistant,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: with the deliberate intention of making sensational exposures, and by
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: the help of a shocking accident. If it was an accident.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: His gruesome pamphlet became notorious. On the day of its publication,
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: a wretched dog, flayed and otherwise mutilated, escaped from Moreau's house.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: It was in the silly season, and a prominent editor,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: a cousin of the temporary laboratory assistant, appealed to the
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: conscience of the nation. It was not the first time
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: that conscience has turned against the methods of research. The
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: doctor was simply howled out of the country. It may
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: be that he deserved to be, but I still think
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: that the tepid support of his fellow investigators and his
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: desertion by the great body of scientific workers was a
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: shameful thing. Yet some of his experiments, by the journalist's account,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: were wantonly cruel. He might perhaps have purchased his social
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: peace by abandoning his investigations, but he apparently preferred the latter,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: as most men would who have once fallen under the
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: overmastering spell of research. He was unmarried, and had indeed
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: nothing but his own interest to consider. I felt convinced
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: that this must be the same man everything pointed to.
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: It dawned upon me to what end the puma and
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: the other animals which had now been brought with other
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: luggage into the enclosure behind the house were destined, and
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: a curious, faint odor, the halitus of something familiar, an
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: odor that had been in the background of my consciousness hitherto,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: suddenly came forward into the forefront of my thoughts. It
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: was the antiseptic odor of the dissecting room. I heard
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: the puma growling through the wall, and one of the
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: dogs yelped as though it had been struck. Yet surely,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: and especially to another scientific man, there was nothing so
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: horrible in vivisection as to account for this secrecy, And
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: by some odd leap in my thoughts, the pointed ears
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: and luminous eyes of Montgomery's attendant came back again before
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: me with the sharpest definition. I stared before me out
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: at the green sea, frothing under a freshening breeze, and
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: let these and other strange memories of the last few
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: days chase one another through my mind. What could it
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: all mean? A locked enclosure on a lonely island, a
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: notorious vivisector, and these crippled and distorted men. Eight The
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: crying of the puma Montgomery interrupted my tangle of mystification
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: and suspicion. About one o'clock, and his grotesque attendant followed
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: him with a tray bearing bread, some herbs, and other eatables,
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: a flask of whisky, a jug of water, and three
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: glasses and knives. I glanced askance at this strange creature
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: and found him watching me with his queer, restless eyes.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Montgomery said he would lunch with me, but that Moreau
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: was too preoccupied with some work to come. Moreaux said,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: I I know that name the devil? You do? Said he?
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: What an ass I was to mention it to you?
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: I might have thought, anyhow, it will give you an
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: inkling of our mysteries. Whiskey, No thanks, I'm an abstainer.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: I wish i'd been, but it's no use locking the
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: door after the steed is stolen. It was that infernal
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: stuff which led to my coming here. That and a
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: foggy night. I thought myself in luck at the time
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: when Moreau offered to get me off. It's queer, Montgomery said,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: I Suddenly, as the outer door closed. Why has your
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: man pointed ears? Damn, he said, over his first mouthful
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: of food. He stared at me for a moment, and
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: then repeated pointed ears, little points to them, said I,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: as calmly as possible, with a catch in my breath,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: and a fine black fur at the edges. He helped
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: himself to whiskey and water with great deliberation. I was
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: under the impression that his hair covered his ears. I
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: saw them as he stooped by me to put that
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: coffee you sent to me on the table, and his
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: eyes shine in the dark. By this time Montgomery had
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: recovered from the surprise of my question. I always thought,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: he said, deliberately, with a certain accentuation of his flavoring
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: of lisp, that there was something the matter with his ears,
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: from the way he covered them. What were they like?
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: I was persuaded from his manner that this ignorance was
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: a pretense. Still, I could hardly tell the man that
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: I thought him a liar, pointed, I said, rather small
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: and furry, distinctly furry. But the whole man is one
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: of the strangest beings I ever set eyes on. A sharp,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: hoarse cry of animal pain came from the enclosure behind us.
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: It's depth and volume testified to the puma. I saw
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Montgomery WinCE. Yes, he said, where did you pick up
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: the creature San Francisco. He's an ugly brute, I admit,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: half witted, you know, can't remember where he came from.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: But I'm used to him, you know, we both are.
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: How does he strike you? He's unnatural, I said, there's
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: something about him. Don't think me fanciful, but it gives
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: me a nasty little sensation, a tightening of my muscles
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: when he comes near me. It's a much of the diabolical.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: In fact, Montgomery had stopped eating while I told him
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: this rum. He said, I can't see it. He resumed
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: his meal. I had no idea of it, he said,
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: and masticated. The crew of the schooner must have felt it.
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: The same made a dead set at the poor devil,
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: you saw the captain. Suddenly the puma howled again, this
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: time more painfully. Montgomery swore under his breath, I had
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: half a mind to attack him about the men on
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: the beach. Then the poor brute within gave vent to
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: a series of short, sharp cries. Your men on the beach,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: said I what race? Are they? Excellent fellows, aren't they?
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: Said he absent mindedly knitting his brows. As the animal
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: yelled out sharply, I said, no more. There was another outcry,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: worse than the former. He looked at me with his
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: dull gray eyes, and then took some more whisk ski.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: He tried to draw me into a discussion about alcohol,
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: professing to have saved my life with it. He seemed
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: anxious to lay stress on the fact that I owed
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: my life to him. I answered him distractedly. Presently our
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: meal came to an end. The misshapen monster with the
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: pointed ears cleared the remains away, and Montgomery left me
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: alone in the room again. All the time he had
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: been in a state of ill concealed irritation at the
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: noise of the vivisected puma. He had spoken of his
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: odd want of nerve, and left me to the obvious application.
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: I found myself that the cries were singularly irritating, and
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: they grew in depth and intensity as the afternoon wore on.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: They were painful at first, but their constant resurgence at
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: last altogether upset my balance. I flung aside a crib
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: of horace I had been reading, and began to clench
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: my fists, to bite my lips, and to pace the room.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: Presently I got to stopping my ears with my fingers.
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: The emotional appear feel of those yells grew upon me steadily,
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: grew at last to such an exquisite expression of suffering
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: that I could stand it in that confined room no longer.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: I stepped out of the door into the slumbrous heat
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: of the late afternoon, and walking past the main entrance,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: locked again, I noticed turned the corner of the wall,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: the crying sounded even louder out of doors. It was
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: as if all the pain in the world had found
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: a voice. Yet had I known such pain was in
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: the next room, and had it been dumb, I believe
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: I have thought, since I could have stood it well enough.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us. But in
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: spite of the brilliant sunlight and the green fans of
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: the trees waving in the soothing sea breeze, the world
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: was a confusion, blurred with drifting black and red phanfasms.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: Until I was out of earshot of the house in
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: the checkered wall nine the thing in the forest. I
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: strode through the undergrowth that clothed the ridge behind the house,
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: scarcely heating when I went passed on through the shadow
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: of a thick cluster of straight stem trees beyond it,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: and so presently found myself some way on the other
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: side of the ridge and descending towards a streamlet that
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: ran through a narrow valley. I paused and listened the
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: distance I had come, or the intervening masses of thicket
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: deadened any sound that might be coming from the enclosure.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: The air was still. Then, with a rustle or rabbit
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: emerged and went scampering up the slope before me. I
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: hesitated and sat down in the edge of the shade.
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: The place was a pleasant one. The rivulet was hidden
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: by the luxuriant vegetation of the bank, save at one point,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: where I caught a triangular patch of its glittering water.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: On the farther side, I saw, through a blueish haze
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: a tangle of trees and creepers, and above these again
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: the luminous blue of the sky. Here and there a
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: splash of white or crimson marked the blooming of some
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: trailing epiphyte. I let my eyes wander over this scene
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: for a while, and then began to turn over in
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: my mind again the strange peculiarities of Montgomery's man. But
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: it was too hot to think elaborately, and presently I
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: fell into a tranquil state midway between dozing and waking.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: From this, I was aroused, after I know not how long,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: by a rustling amidst the greenery on the other side
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: of the stream. For a moment I could see nothing
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: but the waving summits of the ferns and reeds. Then suddenly,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: upon the bank of the stream appeared something. At first
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: I could not distinguish what it was. It bowed its
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: round head to the water and began to drink. Then
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: I saw it was a man, going on all fours
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: like a beast. He was clothed in bluish cloth and
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: was of a copper colored hue, with black hair. It
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: seemed that grotesque ugliness was an invariable character of these islanders.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: I could hear the suck of the water at his
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: lips as he drank. I leant forward to see him better,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: and a piece of lava detached by my hand, went
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: pattering down the slope. He looked up guiltily, and his
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: eyes met mine. Forthwith he scrambled to his feet and stood,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: wiping his clumsy hand across his mouth, and regarding me.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: His legs were scarcely half the length of his body.
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: So staring one another out of countenance, we remained for
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: perhaps the space of a minute, then stopping to look
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: back once or twice. He slunk off among the bushes
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: to the right of me, and I heard the swish
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: of the fronds grow faint in the distance and die away.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: Long after he had disappeared, I remained sitting up, staring
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: in the direction of his retreat. My drowsy tranquility had gone.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: I was startled by a noise behind me, and turning,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: suddenly saw the flapping white tail of a rabbit vanishing
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: up the slope. I jumped to my feet. The apparition
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: of this grotesque, half bestial creature had suddenly populated the
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: stillness of the afternoon for me. I looked around me
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: rather nervously and regretted that I was unarmed. Then I
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: thought that the man I had just seen have been
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: clothed in bluish cloth, had not been naked as a
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: savage would have been, And I tried to persuade myself
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: from that fact that he was, after all, probably a
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: peaceful character, that the dull ferocity of his countenance belied him.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: Yet I was greatly disturbed at the apparition. I walked
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: to the left along the slope, turning my head about
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: and peering this way and that among the straight stems
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: of the trees. Why should a man go on all
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: fours and drink with his lips? Presently I heard an
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: animal wailing again, and, taking it to be the puma,
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: I turned about and walked in a direction diametrically opposite
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: to the sound. This led me down to the stream,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: across which I stepped and pushed my way up through
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: the undergrowth. Beyond. I was startled by a great patch
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: of vivid scarlet on the ground, and going up to it,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: found it to be a peculiar fungus, branched and corrugated
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: like a foliaceous lichen, but deliquescing into slime at the touch.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: And then, in the shadow of some luxuriant ferns, I
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: came upon an unpleasant thing, the dead body of a rabbit,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: covered with shining flies, but still warm, and with the
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: head torn off. I stopped aghast at the sight of
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: the scattered blood. Here, at least was one visitor to
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: the island disposed of. There were no traces of other
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: violence about it. It looked as though it had been
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: suddenly snatched up and killed. And as I stared at
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: the little furry body came the difficulty of how the
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: thing had been done. The vague dread that had been
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: in my mind since I had seen the inhuman face
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: of the man at the stream grew distinct. As I
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: stood there, I began to realize the hardihood of my
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: expedition among these unknown people. The thicket about me became
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: altered to my imagination, every shadow became something more than
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: a shadow, became an ambush, Every rustle became a threat.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: Invisible things seemed watching me. I resolved to go back
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: to the enclosure on the beach. I suddenly turned away
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: and thrust myself violently, possibly even frantically, through the bushes,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: anxious to get a clear space about me again. I
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: stopped just in time to prevent myself emerging upon an
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: open space. It was a kind of glade in the
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: forest made by a fall. Seedlings were already starting up
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: to struggle for the vacant space, and beyond the dense
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: growth of stems and twining vines and splashes of fungus
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: and flowers closed in again before me. Squatting together upon
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: the fungoid ruins of a huge fallen tree, and still
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: unaware of my approach, were three grotesque human figures. One
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: was evidently a female, the other two were men. They
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: were naked save for swathings of scarlet cloth about the middle,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: and their skins were of a dull, pinkish drab color,
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: such as I had seen in no savages before. They
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: had fat, heavy, chinless faces, retreating foreheads, and a scant,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: bristly hair upon their heads. I never saw such besto
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: looking creatures. They were talking, or at least one of
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: the men was talking to the other two, and all
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: three had been too closely interested to heat the rustling
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: of my approach. They swayed their heads and shoulders from
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: side to side. The speaker's words came thick and sloppy,
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: and though I could hear them distinctly, I could not
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: distinguish what he said. He seemed to me to be
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: reciting some complicated gibberish. Presently his articulation became shriller, and
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: spreading his hands, he rose to his feet. At that
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: the others began to gibber in unison, also rising to
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: their feet, spreading their hands and swaying their bodies in
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: rhythm with their chant. I noticed then the abnormal shortness
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: of their legs and their lank, clumsy feet. All three
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: began slowly to circle round, raising and stamping their feet
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: and waving their arms. A kind of tune crept into
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: their rhythmic recitation, and a refrain llullah or bullullah. It
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: sounded like their eyes began to sparkle, and their ugly
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: faces to brighten with an expression of strange pleasure. Saliva
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: dripped from their lipless mouths. Suddenly, as I watched their
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: grotesque and unaccountable gestures, I perceived clearly for the first
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: time what it was that had offended me, what had
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: given me the two inconsistent and conflicting impressions of utter
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: strangeness and yet of the strangest familiarity. The three creatures
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: engaged in this mysterious rite were human in shape, and
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: yet human beings with the strangest air about them of
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: some familiar animal. Each of these creatures, despite its human form,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: its rag of clothing, and the rough humanity of its
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: bodily form, had woven into it into its movements, into
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: the expression of its countenance, into its whole presence, some
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: now irresistible suggestion of a hog, a swinish taint, the
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: unmistakable mark of the beast. I stood overcome by this
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: amazing realization, and then the most horrible questionings came rushing
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: into my mind. They began leaping in the air, first
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: one and then the other, whooping and grunting. Then one slipped,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: and for a moment was on all fours to recover,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: indeed forthwith. But that translatory gleam of the true animalism
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: of these monsters was enough. I turned as noiselessly as possible,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: and becoming every now and then rigid with the fear
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: of being discovered as a branch cracked or a leaf rustled,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: I pushed back into the bushes. It was long before
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: I grew bolder and dared to move freely. My only
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: idea for the moment was to get away from these
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: foul beings, and I scarcely noticed that I had emerged
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: upon a faint pathway amidst the trees. Then, suddenly traversing
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: a little glade, I saw with an unpleasant start, two
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: clumsy legs among the trees. Walking with noiseless footsteps, parallel
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: with my course, and perhaps thirty yards away from me.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: The head and upper part of the body were hidden
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: by a tangle of creeper I stopped abruptly, hoping the
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: creature did not see me. The feet stopped as I did.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: So nervous was I that I controlled an impulse to
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: headlong flight with the utmost difficulty. Then, looking hard, I
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: distinguished through the interlacing network the head and body of
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: the brute I had seen drinking. He moved his head.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: There was an emerald flash in his eyes as he
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: glanced at me from the shadow of the trees, a
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: half luminous color that vanished as he turned his head again.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: He was motionless for a moment, and then with a
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: noiseless tread, began running through the green confusion. In another moment,
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: he had vanished behind some bushes. I could not see him,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: but I felt that he had stopped and was watching
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: me again. What on earth was he? Man or beast?
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: What did he want with me? I had no weapon,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: not even a stick. Flight would be madness at any rate.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: The thing, whatever it was, lacked the courage to attack me.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: Setting my teeth hard, I walked straight towards him. I
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: was anxious not to show the fear that seemed chilling
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: my backbone. I pushed through a tangle of tall, white
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: flowered bushes and saw him twenty paces beyond, looking over
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: his shoulder at me, and hesitating, I advanced a step
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: or two, looking steadfastly into his eyes. Who are you,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: said I He tried to meet my gaze. No, he
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: said suddenly, and turning, went bounding away from me through
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: the undergrowth. Then he turned and stared at me again,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: his eyes shone brightly out of the dusk under the trees.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: My heart was in my mouth, but I felt my
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: only chance was bluff, and walked steadily towards him. He
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: turned again and vanished into the dusk. Once more, I
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: thought I caught the glint of his eyes, and that
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: was all. For the first time, I realized how the
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: lateness of the hour might affect me. The sun had
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: set some minutes since the swift dusk of the tropics
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: was already fading out of the eastern sky, and a
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: pioneer moth fluttered silently by my head. Unless I would
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: spend the night among the unknown dangers of the mysterious forest,
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: I must hasten back to the enclosure. The thought of
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: a return to that pain haunted refuge was extremely disagreeable,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: but still more so was the idea of being overtaken
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: in the open by darkness and all that darkness might conceal.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: I gave one more look into the blue shadows that
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: had swallowed up this odd creature, and then retraced my
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: way down the slope towards the stream, going as I judged,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: in the direction from which I had come. I walked eagerly,
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: my mind confused with many things, and presently found myself
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: in a level place among scattered trees. The colorless clearness
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: that comes after the sunset flush was darkling. The blue
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: sky above grew momentarily deeper, and the little stars, won
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: by one pierced the attenuated light. The interspaces of the trees,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: the gaps in the further vegetation that had been hazy
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: blue in the daylight grew black and mysterious. I pushed
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: on the color vanished from the world. The tree tops
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: rose against the luminous blue sky in inky silhouette, and
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: all below that outline melted into one formless blackness. Presently,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: the trees grew thinner, and the shrubby undergrowth more abundant.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Then there was a desolate space covered with a white sand,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: and then another expanse of tangled bushes. I did not
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: remember crossing the sand opening before I began to be
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: tormented by a faint rustling upon my right hand. I
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: thought at first it was fancy, for whenever I stopped
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: there was silence, save for the evening breeze in the
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: tree tops. Then when I turned to hurry on again,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: there was an echo to my footsteps. I turned away
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: from the thickets, keeping to the more open ground and
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: endeavoring by sudden turns now, and then, to surprise, something
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: in the act of creeping upon me. I saw nothing,
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: and nevertheless my sense of another presence grew steadily. I
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: increased my pace, and after some time came to a
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: slight ridge, crossed it, and turned sharply, regarding it steadfastly
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: from the further side. It came out black and clear
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: cut against the darkling sky, and presently a shapeless lump
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: heaved up momentarily against the sky line. And again I
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: felt assured now that my tawny faced antagonist was stalking
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: me once more, and Coupled with that was another unpleasant
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: realization that I had lost my way for a time.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: I hurried on, hopelessly, perplexed and pursued by that stealthy approach.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: Whatever it was, the thing either lacked the courage to
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: attack me, or it was waiting to take me at
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: some disadvantage. I kept studiously to the open. At times
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: I would turn and listen, and presently I had half
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: persuaded myself that my pursuer had abandoned the chase, or
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: was a mere creation of my disordered imagination. Then I
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: heard the sound of the sea. I quickened my footsteps
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: almost into a run, and immediately there was a stumble
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: in my rear. I turned suddenly and stared at the
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: uncertain trees behind me. One black shadow seemed to leap
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: into another. I listened rigid and heard nothing but the
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: creep of the blood in my ears. I thought that
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: my nerves were unstrung, and and that my imagination was
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: tricking me, and turned resolutely towards the sound of the
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: sea again. In a minute or so, the trees grew thinner,
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: and I emerged upon a bear low headland, running out
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: into the somber water. The night was calm and clear,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: and the reflection of the growing multitude of the stars
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: shivered in the tranquil heaving of the sea. Some Way
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: out the wash, upon an irregular band of reef shone
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: with a pallid light of its own. Westward, I saw
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: the zodiacal light mingling with the yellow brilliance of the
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: evening star. The coast fell away from me to the
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: east and westward. It was hidden by the shoulder of
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: the cape. Then I recalled the fact that Moreau's beach
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: lay to the west. A twig snapped behind me, and
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 1: there was a rustle. I turned and stood facing the
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: dark trees. I could see nothing, or else I could
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: see too much. Every dark form in the dimness had
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: its ominous quality, its peculiar suggestion of alert watchfulness. So
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: I stood for perhaps a minute, and then, with an
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: eye to the trees, still turned westward to cross the headland.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: And as I moved, one among the lurking shadows moved
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: to follow me. My heart beat quickly. Presently, the broad
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: sweep of a bay to the westward became visible, and
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: I halted again. The noiseless shadow halted a dozen yards
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: from me. A little point of light shone on the
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: further bend of the curve, and the gray sweep of
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: the sandy beach lay faint under the starlight. Perhaps two
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: miles away was that little point of light. To get
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: to the beach, I should have to go through the
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: trees where the shadows lurked, and down a bushy slope.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: I could see the thing rather more distinctly. Now it
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: was no animal, for it stood erect At that. I
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: opened my mouth to speak and found a hoarse phlegm
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: choke my voice. I tried again and shouted, who is there?
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: There was no answer. I advanced a step. The thing
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: did not move, only gathered itself together. My foot struck
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: a stone that gave me an idea. Without taking my
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: eyes off the black form before me, I stooped and
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: picked up this lump of rock. But at my motion
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: the thing turned abruptly as a dog might have done,
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: and slunk obliquely into the further darkness. Then I recalled
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: a schoolboy expedient against big dogs, and twisted the rock
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: into my handkerchief and gave this a turn round my wrist.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: I heard a movement further off among the shadows, as
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: if the thing was in retreat. Then suddenly my tense
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: excitement gave way. I broke into a profuse perspiration and
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: fell a trembling, with my adversary routed and this weapon
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: in my hand. It was some time before I could
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: summon resolution to go down through the trees and bushes
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: upon the flank of the headland to the beach. At
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: last I did it at a run, And as I
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: emerged from the thicket upon the sand, I heard some
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: other body come crashing after me. At that I completely
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: lost my head with fear, and began running along the sand.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: Forwith there came the swift patter of soft feet in pursuit.
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: I gave a wild cry and redoubled my pace. Some
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: dim black things about three or four times the size
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: of rabbits, when running or hopping up from the beach
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: towards the bushes, as I passed. So long as I live,
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: I shall remember the terror of that chase. I ran
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: near the water's edge, and heard every now and then
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: the splash of the feet that gained upon me. Far away, hopelessly,
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: far was the yellow light. All the night about us
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: was black, and still splash, splash, came the pursuing feet
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: nearer and nearer, I felt my breath going, for I
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: was quite out of training. It hooped as I drew it,
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: and I felt a pain like a knife at my side.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: I perceived the thing would come up with me long
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: before I reached the enclosure, and desperate and sobbing for
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: my breath, I wheeled round upon it and struck at
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: it as it came up to me. Struck with all
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: my strength. The stone came out of the sling of
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: the handkerchief as I did so. As I turned, the thing,
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: which had been running on all fours, rose to its feet,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: and the missile fell fair on its left temple. The
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: skull rang loud, and the animal man blundered into me,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: thrust me back with its hands, and went staggering past
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: me to fall headlong upon the sand, with its face
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: in the water. And there it lay still. I could
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: not bring myself to approach that black heap. I left
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: it there, with the water rippling round it, under the
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: still stars, and giving it a wide berth, pursued my
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: way towards the yellow glow of the house, and presently,
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: with a positive effect of relief, came the pitiful moaning
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: of the puma. The sound that had originally driven me
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: out to explore this mysterious island. At that though I
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: was faint and horribly fatigued, I gathered together all my
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: strength and began running again towards the light. I thought
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: I heard a voice calling me x the crying of
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: the man. As I drew near the house, I saw
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: that the light shone from the open door of my room.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: And then I heard, coming from out of the darkness
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: at the sight of that orange oblong of light, the
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: voice of Montgomery, shouting prendick. I continued running. Presently I
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: heard him again. I replied by a feeble hello, and
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: in another moment had staggered up to him. Where have
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: you been, said he, holding me at arm's length so
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: that the light from the door fell on my face.
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: We have both been so busy that we forgot you
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: until about half an hour ago. He led me into
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: the room and sat me down in the deck chair.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: For a while I was blinded by the light. We
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: did not think you would start to explore this island
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: of ours without telling us, he said, And then I
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: was afraid, but what hello? My last remaining strength slipped
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: from me, and my head fell forward on my chest.
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: I think he found a certain satisfaction in giving me brandy.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: For God's sake, said I. Fasten that door. You've been
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: meeting some of our curiosities, eh said he. He locked
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: the door and turned to me again. He asked me
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: no questions, but gave me some more brandy and water
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: and pressed me to eat. I was in a state
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: of collapse. He said something vague about his forgetting to
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: warn me, and asked me briefly when I left the
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: house and what I had seen. I answered him as briefly,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: in fragmentary sentences. Tell me what it all means, said I,
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: in a state bordering on hysterics. It's nothing so very dreadful,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: said he. But I think you have had about enough
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: for one day. The puma suddenly gave a sharp yell
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: of pain. At that, he swore under his breath. I'm damned,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: said he. If this place is not as bad as
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: Gower Street with its cats. Montgomery said, I what was
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: that thing that came after me? Was it a beast
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: or was it a man? If you don't sleep to night,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: he said, you'll be off your head to morrow. I
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: stood up in front of him. What was that thing
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: that came after me, I asked. He looked me squarely
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: in the eyes and twisted his mouth. Ask you, his eyes,
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: which had seemed animated a minute before, went dull from
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: your account, said he. I'm thinking it was a bogel.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: I felt a gust of intense irritation, which passed as
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: quickly as it came. I flung myself into the chair
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: again and pressed my hands on my forehead. The puma
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: began once more. Montgomery came round behind me and put
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: his hand on my shoulder. Look here, Prendick, he said,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: I had no business to let you drift out into
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: this silly island of ours. But it's not so bad
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: as you feel. Man, your nerves are worked to rags.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: Let me give you something that will make you sleep,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: that will keep on for hours. Yet you must simply
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: get to sleep, or I won't answer for it. I
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: did not reply. I bowed forward and covered my face
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: with my hands. Presently he returned with a small measure
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: containing a dark liquid. This he gave me. I took
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: it unresistingly, and he helped me into the hammock. When
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: I awoke, it was broad day. For a little while,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: I lay flat staring at the roof above me. The rafters,
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: I observed, were made out of the timbers of a ship.
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: Then I turned my head and saw a meal prepared
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: for me on the table. I perceived that I was
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: hungry and prepared to clamber out of the hammock, which,
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: very politely, anticipating my intention, twisted round and deposited me
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: upon all fours on the floor. I got up and
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: sat down before the food. I had a heavy feeling
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: in my head, and only the vaguest memory at first
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: of the things that had happened overnight. The morning breeze
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: blew very pleasantly through the unglazed window, and that and
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: the food contributed to the sense of animal comfort which
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: I experienced. Presently the door behind me, the door inward
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: towards the yard of the enclosure opened. I turned and
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: saw Montgomery's face all right, said he I'm frightfully busy,
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: and he shut the door. Afterwards I discovered that he
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: forgot to relock it. Then I recalled the expression of
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: his face the previous night, and with that the memory
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: of all I had experienced reconstructed itself before me. Even
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: as that fear came back to me, came a cry
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: from within, But this time it was not the cry
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: of a puma. I put down the mouthful that hesitated
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: upon my lips and listened silence, save for the whisper
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: of the morning breeze. I began to think my ears
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: had deceived me. After a long pause, I resumed my meal,
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: but with my ears still vigilant. Presently I heard something else,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: very faint and low. I sat as if frozen in
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: my attitude. Though it was faint and low, it moved
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: me more profoundly than all that I had hitherto heard
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: of the abominations behind the wall. There was no mistake
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: this time in the quality of the dim broken sounds,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: no doubt at all of their source, for it was groaning,
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: broken by sobs and gasps of anguish. It was no
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: brute this time, it was a human being in torment.
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: As I realized this, I rose, and in three steps
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: had crossed the room, seized the handle of the door
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: into the yard, and flung it open before me. Prendick
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: Man stop, cried, Montgomery, intervening, A startled deerhound yelped and snarled.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: There was blood I saw in the sink, brown and
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: some scarlet, and I smelt the peculiar smell of carbolic acid.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: Then through an open doorway beyond, in the dim light
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: of the shadow, I saw something bound painfully upon a framework, scarred,
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: red and bandaged. And then, blotting this out, appeared the
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: face of old Moreau, white and terrible. In a moment,
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: he had gripped me by the shoulder with a hand
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: that was smeared red, had twisted me off my feet
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: and flung me headlong back into my own room. He
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: lifted me as though I was a little child. I
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: fell at full length upon the floor, and the door
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: slammed and shut out the passionate intensity of his face.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: Then I heard the key turn in the lock, and
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: Montgomery's voice in expostulation, ruin the work of a lifetime.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: I heard Moreau say he does not understand, said Montgomery,
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: and other things that were inaudible. I can't spare the
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: time yet, said Moreau. The rest I did not hear.
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: I picked myself up and stood trembling, my mind a
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: chaos of the most horrible misgivings. Could it be possible?
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: I thought that such a thing as the vivisection of
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: men was carried on here the question shot like lightning
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: across a tumultuous sky, and suddenly the clouded horror of
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: my mind condensed into a vivid realization of my own danger. Eleven,
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: the hunting of the man. It came before my mind
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: with an unreasonable hope of escape, that the outer door
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: of my room was still open to me. I was convinced, now,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: absolutely assured, that Moreau had been vivisecting a human being.
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: All the time since I had heard his name, I
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: had been trying to link in my mind in some
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: way the grotesque animalism of the Islanders, with his abominations,
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: and now I thought I saw it all. The memory
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: of his work on the transfusion of blood recurred to me.
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: These creatures I had seen were the victims of some
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: hideous experiment. These sickening scoundrels had merely intended to keep
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: me back, to fool me with their display of confidence,
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: and presently to fall upon me with a fate more
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: horrible than death, with torture, and after torture, the most
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: hideous degradation it is possible to conceive, to send me
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: off a lost soul, a beast, to the rest of
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: their comus route I looked round for some weapon. Nothing.
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: Then with an inspiration, I turned over the deck chair,
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: put my foot on the side of it, and tore
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: away the side rail. It happened that a nail came
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: away with the wood, and projecting gave a touch of
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: danger to an otherwise petty weapon. I heard a step
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: outside and incontinently flung open the door and found Montgomery
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: within a yard of it. He meant to lock the
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: outer door. I raised this nailed stick of mine and
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: cut at his face, but he sprang back. I hesitated
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: a moment, then turn and fled round the corner of
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: the house. Prendick man. I heard his astonished cry, don't
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: be a silly ass man. Another minute, thought I, and
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: he would have had me locked in and as ready
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: as a hospital rabbit for my fate. He emerged behind
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: the corner for I heard him shout prendick. Then he
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: began to run after me, shouting things as he ran,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: this time running blindly. I went northeastward, in a direction
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: at right angles to my previous expedition. Once, as I
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: went running headlong up the beach, I glanced over my
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: shoulder and saw his attendant with him. I ran furiously
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: up the slope over it, then turning eastward along a
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: rocky valley fringed on either side with jungle, I ran
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: for perhaps a mile altogether, my chest straining, my heart
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: beating in my ears, and then, hearing nothing of Montgomery
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: or his man, and feeling upon the verge of exhaustion,
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: I doubled sharply back towards the beach as I judged,
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: and lay down in the shelter of a cane brake.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: There I remained for a long time, too fearful to move,
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: and indeed too fearful even to plan a course of action.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: The wild scene about me lay sleeping silently under the sun,
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: and the only sound near me was the thin hum
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: of some small gnats that had discovered me. Presently I
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: became aware of a drowsy breathing sound, the soughing of
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: the sea upon the beach. After about an hour, I
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: heard Montgomery shouting my name far away to the north.
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: That set me thinking of my plan of action as
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: I interpreted it. Then this island was inhabited only by
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: these two vivisectors and their animalized victims. Some of these
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: know no doubt they could press into their service against
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: me if need arose, I knew both Moreau and Montgomery
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: carried revolvers, and save for a feeble bar of deal
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: spiked with a small nail, the merest mockery of a mace,
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: I was unarmed. So I lay still there until I
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: began to think of food and drink. And at that
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: thought the real hopelessness of my position came home to me.
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: I knew no way of getting anything to eat. I
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: was too ignorant of botany to discover any resort of
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: root or fruit that might lie about me. I had
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: no means of trapping the few rabbits upon the island.
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: It grew blanker the more I turned the prospect over.
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: At last, in the desperation of my position, my mind
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: turned to the animal men I had encountered. I tried
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: to find some hope in what I remembered of them.
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: In turn, I recalled each one I had seen, and
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: tried to draw some augury of assistance from my memory.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: Then suddenly I heard a staghound bay, and at that
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: realized and new danger. I took little time time to think,
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: or they would have caught me then, but snatching up
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: my nailed stick, rushed headlong from my hiding place, towards
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: the sound of the sea. I remember a growth of
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: thorny plants with spines that stabbed like pen knives. I emerged,
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: bleeding and with torn clothes, upon the lip of a
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: long creek opening northward. I went straight into the water
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: without a minute's hesitation, wading up the creek and presently
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: finding myself knee deep in a little stream, I scrambled
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: out at last on the westward bank, and with my
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: heart beating loudly in my ears, crept into a tangle
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: of ferns to await the issue. I heard the dog
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: there was only one, drawn nearer, and yelp when it
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: came to the thorns. Then I heard no more, and
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: presently began to think I had escaped. The minutes passed,
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: the silence lengthened out, and at last, after an hour
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: of security, my courage began to return to me. By
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: this time I was no longer very much terrified or
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: very miserable. I had, as it were, passed the limit
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: of terror and despair. I felt now that my life
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: was practically lost, and that persuasion made me capable of
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: daring anything. I had even a certain wish to encounter
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 1: moreau face to face, And as I had waded into
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: the water, I remembered that if I were too hard pressed,
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: at least one path of escape from torments still lay
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: open to me. They could not very well prevent my
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: drowning myself. I had half a mind to drown myself then,
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: but an odd wish to see the whole adventure out
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: a queer impersonal spectacular interest in myself restrained me. I
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: stretched my limbs, sore and painful from the pricks of
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: the spiny plants, and stared around me at the trees,
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: and so suddenly that it seemed to jump out of
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: the green tracery about it. My eyes lit upon a
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: black face watching me. I saw that it was the
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: Simian creature who had met the launch upon the beach.
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: He was clinging to the oblique stem of a palm tree.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: I gripped my stick and stood up facing him. He
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: began chattering, you, you, you, was all I could distinguish
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: at first. Suddenly he dropped from the tree, and in
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: another moment was holding the fronds apart and staring curiously
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: at me. I did not feel the same repugnance towards
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: this creature which I had experienced in my encounters with
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: the other beast men. You, he said, in the boat.
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: He was a man, then, at least as much of
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: a man as Montgomery's attendant, for he could talk. Yes,
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: I said, I came in the boat from the ship. Oh,
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: he said, And his bright, restless eyes traveled over me,
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: to my hands, to the stick I carried, to my feet,
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: to the tattered places in my coat, and the cuts
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: and scratches I had received from the thorns. He seemed
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: puzzled at something. His eyes came back to my hands.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: He held his own hand out and counted his digits slowly, one, two, three, four,
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: five A. I did not grasp his meaning. Then, afterwards
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: I was to find that a great proportion of these
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: beast people had malformed hands, lacking sometimes even three digits.
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: But guessing this was in some way a greeting, I
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: did the same thing by way of reply. He grinned
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: with immense satisfaction. Then his swift, roving glance went round again.
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: He made a swift movement and vanished. The fern fronds
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: he had stood between came swishing together. I pushed out
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: of the brake after him, and was astonished to find
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: him swinging cheerfully by one lank arm from a rope
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: of creepers that looped down from the foliage overhead. His
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: back was to me. Hullo, said I. He came down
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: with a twisting jump and stood facing me. I say,
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: said I, where can I get something to eat? Eat?
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: He said, eat man's food now, and his eye went
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 1: back to the swing of ropes at the huts. But
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: where are the huts? Oh? I knew you know? At that,
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 1: he swung round and set off at a quick walk.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: All his motions were curiously rapid. Come along, said he.
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: I went with him to see the adventure out. I
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: guessed the huts were some rough shelter where he and
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: some more of these beast people lived. I might perhaps
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: find them friendly, find some handle in their minds to
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: take hold of. I did not know how far they
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: had forgotten their human heritage. My apelike companion trotted along
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: by my side, with his hands hanging down and his
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: jaw thrust forward. I wondered what memory he might have
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: in him. How long have you been on this island,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: said I? How long? He asked, And after having the
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: question repeated, he held up three fingers. The creature was
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: little better than an idiot. I tried to make out
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: what he meant by that, and it seems I bored him.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: After another question or two, he suddenly left my side
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: and went leaping at some fruit that hung from a tree.
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: He pulled down a handful of prickly husks and went
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: on eating the contents. I noted this with satisfaction, for here,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: at least was a hint for feeding. I tried him
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: with some other questions, but his chattering prompt responses were
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: as often as not quite a cross purposes with my question.
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: Some few were appropriate, others quite parrot like. I was
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: so intent upon these peculiarities that I scarcely noticed the
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: path we followed. Presently we came to trees all charred
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: and brown, and so to a bare place covered with
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: a yellow white incrustace, across which a drifting smoke, pungent
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: in whiffs to nose and eyes, went drifting on our right.
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: Over a shoulder of bare rock, I saw the level
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: blue of the sea. The path coiled down abruptly into
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: a narrow ravine between two tumbled and knotty masses of
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: blackish scorye into this we plunged. It was extremely dark
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: this passage. After the blinding sunlight reflected from the sulfurious ground,
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: its walls grew steep and approached each other. Blotches of
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: green and crimson drifted across my eyes. My conductor stopped suddenly, home,
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: said he and I stood in a floor of a
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: chasm that was at first absolutely dark to me. I
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: heard some strange noises and thrust the knuckles of my
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: left hand into my eyes. I became aware of a
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 1: disagreeable odor, like that of a monkey's cage. Ill cleaned
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: beyond the rock opened again upon a gradual slope of
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: sunlit greenery, and on either hand. The light smote down
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: through narrow ways into the central gloom. Twelve the Sayers
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: of the Law. Then something cold touched my hand. I
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: started violently and saw close to me a dim, pinkish thing,
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: looking more like a flayed child than anything else in
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: the world. The creature had exactly the mild but repulsive
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: features of a sloth, the same low forehead and slow gestures.
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: As the first shock of the change of light passed,
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: I saw about me more distinct. The little slothlike creature
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: was standing and staring at me. My conductor had vanished.
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: The place was a narrow passage between high walls of lava,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: a crack in the knotted rock, and on either side,
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 1: interwoven heaps of sea mat, palm, fans, and reeds leaning
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: against the rock formed rough and impenetrably dark dens. The
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: winding way up the ravine between these was scarcely three
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: yards wide, and was disfigured by lumps of decaying fruit, pulp,
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: and other refuse, which accounted for the disagreeable stench of
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: the place. The little pink sloth creature was still blinking
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: at me when my ape man reappeared at the aperture
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: of the nearest of these dens and beckoned me in.
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: As he did so, a slouching monster wriggled out of
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: one of the places further up this strange street and
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: stood up in featureless silhouette against the bright green beyond,
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: staring at me. I hesitated, having half a mind to
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: bolt the way I had come, and then determined to
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: go through with the adventure. I gripped my nailed stick
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: about the middle and crawled in to the little, evil
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: smelling lean to after my conductor. It was a semicircular space,
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: shaped like the half of a beehive, and against the
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: rocky wall that formed the inner side of it was
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: a pile of variegated fruits coconuts, among others, some rough
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: vessels of lava and which stood about the floor, and
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: one on a rough stool. There was no fire. In
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: the darkest corner of the hut sat a shapeless mass
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: of darkness that grunted Hay as I came in, and
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: my ape man stood in the dim light of the
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: doorway and held out a split coconut to me. As
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: I crawled into the other corner and squatted down, I
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: took it and began gnawing it as serenely as possible,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: in spite of a certain trepidation and the nearly intolerable
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: closeness of the den. The little pink sloth creature stood
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: in the aperture of the hut, and something else with
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: a drab face and bright eyes came staring over its shoulder.
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: Hay came out of the lump of mystery opposite. It
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: is a man. It is a man, gabbled my conductor.
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: A man, a man, A five man like me. Shut up,
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: said the voice from the dark and grunted. I gnawed
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: my cocoonut amid an impressive stillness. I peered hard into
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: the blackness, but could distinguish nothing. It is a man,
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: the voice repeated, he comes to live with us. It
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: was a thick voice with something in it, a kind
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 1: of whistling overtone that struck me as peculiar, but the
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: English accent was strangely good. The ape man looked at
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: me as though he expected something I perceived. The pause
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: was interrogative. He comes to live with you, I said,
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: It is a man. He must learn the law. I
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: began to distinguish, now a deeper blackness in the black,
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: a vague outline of a hunched up figure. Then I
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: noticed the opening of the place was darkened by two
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: more black heads. My hand tightened on my stick. The
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: thing in the dark repeated, in a louder tone, say
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: the word words. I had missed. Its last remark, not
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: to go on all fours. That is the law, it repeated,
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: in a kind of sing song. I was puzzled. Say
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: the words, said the ape man, repeating, and the figures
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: in the doorway echoed this with a threat in the
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: tone of their voices. I realized that I had to
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 1: repeat this idiotic formula, and then began the insanest ceremony.
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: The voice in the dark began intoning a mad litany,
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: line by line, and I and the rest to repeat it.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: As they did so, they swayed from side to side
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: in the oddest way, and beat their hands upon their knees.
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: And I followed their example. I could have imagined I
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: was already dead, and in another world, that dark hut,
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: these grotesque, dim figures just flecked here and thereby a
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: glimmer of light, and all of them swaying in unison
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 1: and chanting not to go on all fours? That is
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: the law. Are we not men not to suck up drink?
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 1: That is the law. Are we not men not to
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: eat fish or flesh? That is the law. Are we
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: not men not to claw the bark of trees? That
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: is the law. Are we not men not to chase
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: other men? That is the law? Are we not men?
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: And so from the prohibition of these acts of folly,
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: onto the prohibition of what I thought them were the maddest,
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: most impossible, and most indecent things, one could well imagine
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: a kind of rhythmic fervor fell on all of us.
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 1: We gabbled and swayed faster and faster, repeating this amazing
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: law superficially. The contagion of these brutes was upon me,
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: but deep down within me, the laughter and disgust struggled together.
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: We ran through a long list of prohibitions, and then
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: the chance swung round to a new formula. His is
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: the house of pain. His is the hand that makes,
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: His is the hand that wounds, His is the hand
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: that heals, and so on for another long series, mostly
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: quite incomprehensible, gibbering to me about him, whoever he might be.
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: I could have fancied it was a dream, But never
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: before have I heard chanting in a dream. His is
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: the lightning flash, we sang, His is the deep salt sea.
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: A horrible fancy came into my head that moreau, after
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: animalizing these men, had infected their dwarfed brains with a
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 1: kind of deification of himself. However, I was too keenly
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: aware of white teeth and strong claws about me to
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: stop my chanting on that account. His are the stars
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: in the sky. At last that song ended, I saw
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: the ape man's face shining with perspiration, and my eyes,
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: being now accustomed to the darkness, I saw more distinctly
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: the figure in the corner from which the voice came.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: It was the size of a man, but it seemed
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: covered with a dull gray hair, almost like a scy terrier.
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: What was it? What were they all? Imagine yourself surrounded
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: by all the most horrible cripples and maniacs. It is
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: possible to conceive, and you may understand a little of
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: my feelings with these grotesque caricatures of humanity about me.
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: He is a five man, a five man, a five
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: man like me, said the ape man. I held out
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: my hands. The gray creature in the corner leant forward.
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: Not to run on all fours. That is the law.
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: Are we not men? He said? He put out a
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: strangely distorted, tallone and gripped my fingers. The thing was
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: almost like the hoof of a deer, produced into claws.
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: I could have yelled with surprise and pain. His face
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: came forward and peered at my nails. Came forward into
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: the light of the opening of the hut, and I saw,
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: with a quivering disgust, that it was like the face
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: of neither man nor beast. But a mere shock of
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: gray hair with three shadowy overarchings to mark the eyes
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: and mouth. He has little nails, said this grisly creature
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: in his hairy beard. It is well. He threw my
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: hand down, and instinctively I gripped my stick, eat roots
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: and herbs. It is his will, said the ape man.
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: I am the sayer of the law, said the gray figure.
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: Here come all that be new to learn the law.
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: I sit in the darkness and say the law. It
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: is even so, said one of the beasts in the doorway.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: Evil are the punishments of those who break the law.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: None escape, None escape, said the beast folk, glancing furtively
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: at one another. None none, said the ape man. None escape. See,
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: I did a little thing, a wrong thing. Once I jabbered, jabbered,
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: stop talking. None could understand. I am burnt branded in
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: the hand. He is great, he is good. None escape,
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: said the gray creature in the corner. None escape, said
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: the beast people looking askance at one another. For everyone
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: the want that is bad, said the gray sayer of
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: the law. What you will want we do not know.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: We shall know. Some want to follow things that move,
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: to watch and slink and wait In spring to kill
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: and bite by deep and rich sucking the blood. It
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: is bad not to chase other men, that is the law.
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: Are we not men? Not to eat flesh or fish?
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: That is the law? Are we not men? None escape,
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: set a dappled brute standing in the doorway. For every one.
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: The want is bad, said the gray sayer of the law.
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: Some want to go tearing with teeth and hands into
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: the roots of things, snuffing into the earth. It is bad.
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: None escape, said the men in the door. Some go
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: clawing trees, Some go scratching at the graves of the dead.
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: Some go fighting with foreheads or feet or claws. Some
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 1: bite suddenly, none giving occasion. Some love uncleanness. None escape,
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: said the ape man, scratching his calf. None escape, said
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 1: the little pink sloth creature. Punishment is sharp and sure.
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: Therefore learn the law. Say the words. And incontinently he
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 1: began again the strange litany of the law. And again
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: I and all these creatures began singing and swaying. My
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: head reeled with this jabbering in the close stench of
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: the place. But I kept on, trusting to find presently
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: some chance of a new development. Not to go on
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: all fours. That is the law. Are we not men?
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: We were making such a noise that I noticed nothing
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 1: of a tumult outside, until some one, who I think
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: was one of the two swine men I had seen,
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: thrust his head over the little pink sloth creature and
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: shouted something excitedly, something that I did not catch. Incontinently,
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: those at the opening of the hut vanished. My ape
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: man rushed out. The thing that had sat in the
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: dark followed him. I only observed that it was big
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: and clumsy and covered with silvery hair, and I was
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: left alone. Then, before I reached the aperture, I heard
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: the yelp of a staghound. In another moment, I was
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: standing outside the hovel, my chair rail in my hand,
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: every muscle of me quivering. Before me were the clumsy
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: backs of perhaps a score of these beast people, their
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: misshapen heads half hidden by their shoulder blades. They were
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: gesticulating excitedly. Other half animal faces glared interrogation out of
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: the hovels. Looking in the direction in which they faced,
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: I saw, coming through the haze under the trees, beyond
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: the end of the passage of dens, the dark figure
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: an awful white face of Morrow. He was holding the
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: leaping staghound back, and close behind him came Montgomery, revolver
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: in hand. For a moment, I stood horror struck. I
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: turned and saw the passage behind me blocked by another
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: heavy brute with a huge gray face and twinkling little eyes,
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: advancing towards me. I looked round and saw to the
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: right of me, and a half dozen yards in front
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: of me a narrow gap in the wall of rock,
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: through which a ray of light slanted into the shadows. Stop,
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 1: cried Moreau, as I strode towards this and then hold
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: him at that. First one face turned towards me, and
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: then others. Their bestial minds were happily slow. I dashed
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: my shoulder into a clumsy monster who was turning to
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: see what Moreau meant, and flung him forward into another.
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: I felt his hands fly round, clutching at me and
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: missing me. The little pink sloth creature dashed at me,
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: and I gashed down its ugly face with the nail
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: in my stick, and in another minute was scrambling up
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: a steep side pathway, a kind of sloping chimney out
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: of the ravine. I heard a howl behind me and
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: cries of catch him, hold him, and the gray faced
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: creature appeared behind me and jammed his huge bulk into
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: the cleft. Go On, go on, they howled. I clambered
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: up the narrow cleft in the rock and came out
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: upon the sofa on the westward side of the village
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: of the beast Men. That gap was altogether fortunate for me,
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: for the narrow chimney slanting obliquely upward must have impeded
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: the nearer pursuers. I ran over the white space and
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: down a steep slope through a scattered growth of trees,
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: and came to a low lying stretch of tall reeds,
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: through which I pushed into a dark, thick undergrowth that
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: was black and succulent under foot. As I plunged into
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: the reeds, my foremost pursuers emerged from the gap. I
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: broke my way through this undergrowth for some minutes. The
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: air behind me and about me was soon full of
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: threatening cries. I heard the tumult of my pursuers in
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: the gap up the slope, then the crashing of the reeds,
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: and every now and then the crackling crash of a
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 1: branch some of the creatures roared like excited beasts of prey.
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: The staghound yelped to the left. I heard Moreau and
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: Montgomery shouting in the same direction. I turned sharply to
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: the right. It seemed to me even then that I
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: heard Montgomery shouting for me to run for my life.
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: Presently the ground gave rich and oozy under my feet,
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: but I was desperate and went headlong into it, struggled
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 1: through needy and so came to a winding path among
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: tall canes. The noise of my pursuers passed away to
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: my left. In one place, three strange pink hopping animals
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: about the size of cats, bolted before my footsteps. This
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: pathway ran up hill, across another open space covered with
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: white incrustation, and plunged into a cane brake again. Then
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: suddenly it turned parallel with the edge of a steep
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: walled gap, which came without warning like the ha ha
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: of an English park. Turned with an unexpected abruptness. I
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: was still running with all my might, and I never
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: saw this drop until I was flying headlong through the air.
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 1: I fell on my forearms and head among thorns, and
• 1:51:46
  Speaker 1: rose with a torn ear and bleeding face. I had
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: fallen into a precipitous ravine, rocky and thorny, full of
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: a hazy mist, which drifted about me in wisps, and
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: with a narrow streamlet from which this mist came meandering
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: down the center. I was astonished at this thin fog
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: in the full blaze of daylight, but I had no
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: time to stand wondering. Then I turned to my right
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 1: down stream, hoping to come to the sea in that direction,
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: and so have my way open to drown myself. It
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: was only later I found that I had dropped my
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 1: nailed stick in my fall. Presently, the ravine grew narrower
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 1: for a space, and carelessly I stepped into the stream.
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: I jumped out again pretty quickly, for the water was
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: almost boiling. I noticed too, there was a thin, sulfurious
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: scum drifting upon its coiling water. Almost immediately came a
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: turn in the ravine, and the indistinct blue horizon the
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: nearer sea was flashing the sun from a myriad facets.
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: I saw my death before me, but I was hot
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: and panting, with the warm blood oozing out on my
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: face and running pleasantly through my veins. I felt more
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: than a touch of exultation too, at having distanced my pursuers.
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: It was not in me then to go out and
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: round myself. Yet I stared back the way I had come.
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 1: I listened. Save for the hum of the gnats and
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: the chirp of some small insects that hopped among the thorns,
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: the air was absolutely still. Then came the yelp of
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: a dog, very faint, and a chattering and gibbering, the
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: snap of a whip, and voices. They grew louder, then
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: fainter again. The noise receded up the stream and faded
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 1: away for a while. The chase was over, but I
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: knew now how much hope of help for me lay
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: in the beast people thirteen a parley. I turned again
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: and went on down towards the sea. I found the
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: hot stream broadened out to a shallow, weedy sand, in
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: which an abundance of crabs and long bodied, many legged
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 1: creatures started From my footfall. I walked to the very
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: edge of the salt water, and then I felt I
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: was safe. I turned and stared arms akimbo at the
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 1: thick green behind me, into which the steamy ravine cut
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: like a smoking gash. But as I say, I was
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: too full of excitement and a true saying, though those
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: who have never known danger may doubt it, too desperate
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 1: to die. Then it came into my head that there
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 1: was one chance before me. Yet, while Morow and Montgomery
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 1: and their best Joal Rabble chased me through the island,
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: might I not go round the beach until I came
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: to their enclosure, make a flank, march upon them in fact,
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: and then with a rock lugged out of their loosely
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: built wall, perhaps smash in the lock of the smaller door,
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: and see what I could find knife, pistol or what
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: not to fight them with when they returned. It was,
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: at any rate something to try. So I turned to
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: the westward and walked along by the water's edge. The
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: setting sun flashed his blinding heat into my eyes. The
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: slight pacific tide was running in with a gentle ripple.
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: Presently the shore fell away southward, and the sun came
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: round upon my right hand. Then suddenly, f in front
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: of me, I saw first one and then several figures
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: emerging from the bushes, Moreau with his gray staghound, then
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: Montgomery and two others. At that I stopped. They saw
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: me and began gesticulating and advancing. I stood watching them approach.
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 1: The two beast men came running forward to cut me
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: off from the undergrowth inland. Montgomery came running also, but
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 1: straight towards me. Moreaux followed slower with the dog. At last,
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 1: I roused myself from my inaction, and, turning seaward, walked
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 1: straight into the water. The water was very shallow at first.
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 1: I was thirty yards out before the waves reached to
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: my waist. Dimly, I could see the intertidal creatures darting
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: away from my feet. What are you doing, man, cried Montgomery.
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: I turned, standing waist deep and stared at them. Montgomery
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: stood panting at the margin of the water. His face
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: was bright red with exertion, his long flaxen hair blown
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 1: about his head, and his dropping nether lip showed his
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: irregular teeth. Morew was just coming up, his face pale
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 1: and firm, and the dog at his hand barked at me.
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 1: Both men had heavy whips farther up the beach. Stared
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: the beast men. What am I doing? I Am going
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 1: to drown myself, said I. Montgomery and Moreau looked at
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: each other, Why, ask Moreau, Because that is better than
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: being tortured by you. I told you so, said Montgomery,
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 1: And Morrow said something in a low tone. What makes
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: you think I shall torture you? Asked Moreau. What I saw,
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: I said, and those yonder hush, said Moreau, and held
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: up his hand. I will not, said I. They were men.
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: What are they now? I, at least will not be
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: like them. I looked past my interlocutors, up the beach,
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 1: where em Ling, Montgomery's attendant, and one of the white
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: swathed brutes from the boat. Farther up, in the shadow
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: of the trees, I saw my little ape man, and
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: behind him some other dim figures. Who are these creatures,
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: said I, pointing to them, and raising my voice more
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: and more that it might reach them. They were men,
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: men like yourselves, whom you have infected with some bestial taint,
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: men whom you have enslaved, and whom you still fear.
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: You who listen, I cried, pointing now to Moreau and
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: shouting past him to the beast men, you who listen,
• 1:57:32
  Speaker 1: Do you not see these men still fear you go
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: and dread of you? Why then do you fear them?
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: You are many for God's sake, cried Montgomery. Stop that Prendick. Prendick,
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: cried Moreau. They both shouted together as if to drown
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: my voice, and behind them lowered the staring faces of
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: the beast men, wondering, their deformed hands hanging down, their
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: shoulders hunched up. They seemed, as I fancied, to be
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: trying to understand me, to remember I thought something of
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: their human past. I went on shouting. I scarcely remember
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: what that Moreau and Montgomery could be killed, that they
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: were not to be feared. That was the burden of
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 1: what I put into the heads of the beast people.
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 1: I saw the green eyed man in the dark rags,
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 1: who had met me on the evening of my arrival,
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 1: come out from among the trees, and others followed him
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: to hear me better. At last, for want of breath,
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: I paused. Listen to me for a moment, said the
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: steady voice of Moreau, and then say what you will, well,
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: said I. He coughed, thought, then shouted Latin, Prendick, bad
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 1: Latin schoolboy, Latin, But try and understand hi, non saant
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: homines Saint Animelia Canos habmas vivisected a humanizing process. I
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 1: will explain. Come ashore, I laughed, A pretty story, said
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: they talk, build houses, they were men. It's likely I'll
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 1: come ashore. The water just beyond where you stand is
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: deep and full of sharks. That's my way, said I,
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: short and sharp. Presently, wait a minute. He took something
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: out of his pocket that flashed back the sun and
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 1: dropped the object at his feet. That's a loaded revolver,
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: said he. Montgomery here will do the same. Now we
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: are going up the beach. Until you are satisfied the
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: distance is safe, then come and take the revolvers. Not I.
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: You have a third between you. I want you to
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: think over things, Prendick. In the first place, I never
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: asked you to come upon this island. If we vivisected men,
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: we should import men, not beasts. In the next, we
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: had you drugged last night. Have we wanted to work
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 1: you any mischief? And in the next. Now your first
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 1: panic is over, and you can think, is Montgomery here
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: quite up to the character you give him? We have
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: chased you for your good because this island is full
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: of animical phenomena. Besides, why should we want to shoot
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: you when you have just offered to drown yourself. Why
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: did you set your people on to me when I
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: was in the hut. We felt sure of catching you
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: and bringing you out of danger. Afterwards, we drew away
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: from the scent for your good, I mused, it seemed
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 1: just possible. Then I remembered something again. But I saw,
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: said I in the enclosure. That was the puma. Look here, Prendick,
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: said Montgomery. You're a silly ass. Come out of the
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: water and take these revolvers and talk. We can't do
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: anything more than we could do now. I will confess
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: that then, and indeed always I distrusted and dreaded more.
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: But Montgomery was a man I felt, I understood. Go
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: up the beach, said I, after thinking, and added holding
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: your hands up. Can't do that, said Montgomery, with an
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: explanatory nod over his shoulder, undignified. Go up to the trees, then,
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: said I, as you please. It's a damn silly ceremony,
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: said Montgomery. Both turned and faced the six or seven
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: grotesque creatures who stood there in the sunlight, solid casting shadows,
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: moving and yet so incredibly unreal. Montgomery cracked his whip
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: at them and forthwith They all turned and fled helter
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: skelter into the trees, and when Montgomery and Moreau were
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: at a distance, I judged sufficient. I waded ashore and
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: picked up and examined the revolvers. To satisfy myself against
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: the subtless trickery, I discharged one at a round lump
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: of lava, and had the satisfaction of seeing the stone
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: pulverized and the beach splashed with lead. Still I hesitated
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: for a moment. I'll take the risk, said I at last,
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 1: and with a revolver in each hand, I walked up
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: the beach towards them. That's better, said Moreau, without affectation.
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: As it is, you have wasted the best part of
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: my day with your confounded imagination, And with a touch
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: of contempt, which humiliated me. He and Montgomery turned and
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: went on in silence. Before me, the knot of beast men,
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: still wondering, stood back among the trees. I passed them
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 1: as serenely as possible. One started to follow me, but
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: retreated again when Montgomery cracked his whip. The rest stood silent, watching.
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 1: They may once have been animals, but I never before
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: saw an animal trying to think fourteen, doctor Moreau explains,
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: And now prendick. I will explain, said doctor Moreau, so
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: soon as we had eaten and drunk. I must confess
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: that you are the most dictatorial guest I ever entertained.
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: I warn you that this is the last I shall
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: do to oblige you. The next thing you threatened to
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: commit suicide about I shan't do, even at some personal inconvenience.
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: He sat in my deck chair, a cigar, half consumed
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: in his white dexterous looking fingers. The light of the
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: swinging lamp fell on his white hair. He stared through
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: the little window out at the starlight. I sat as
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: far away from him as possible. The table between us
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: and the revolvers to hand. Montgomery was not present. I
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: did not care to be with the two of them
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: in such a little room. You admit that the vivisected
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: human being, as you called it, is, after all, only
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 1: the puma, said Moreau. He had made me visit that
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: horror in the inner room to assure myself of its inhumanity.
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: It is the puma, I said, still alive, but so
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: cut and mutilated as I pray I may never see
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: living flesh again of all vile. Never mind that, said Moreau,
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: at least spare me those youthful horrors. Montgomery used to
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: be just the same. You admit that it is the puma.
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: Now be quiet, while I reel off my physiological lecture
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: to you, and forthwith, beginning in the tone of a
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: man supremely bored, but presently warming a little, he explained
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: his work to me. He was very simple and convincing.
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: Now and then there was a touch of sarcasm in
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: his voice. Presently I found myself hot with shame at
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: our mutual positions. The creatures I had seen were not men,
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: had never been men. They were animals, humanized animals, triumphs
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: of vivisection. You forget all that a skilled vivisector can
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: do with living things, said Moreau. For my own part,
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: I'm puzzled why the things I have done here have
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: not been done before. Small efforts, of course, have been made. Amputation,
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: tongue cutting, excisions. Of course, you know a squint may
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: be induced or cured by surgery. Then in the case
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: of excisions, you have all kinds of secondary changes, pigmentary disturbance,
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: modifications of the passions, alterations in the secretion of fatty tissue.
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: I have no doubt you have heard of these things,
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: of course, said I. But these foul creatures of yours,
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: all in good time, said he, waving his hand at me.
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: I am only beginning. Those are trivial cases of alteration.
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: Surgery can do better things than that. There is building
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: up as well as breaking down and changing. You have heard,
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: perhaps of a common surgical operation resorted to in cases
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: where the nose has been destroyed. A flap of skin
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: is cut from the forehead, turned down on the nose,
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: and heals in the new position. This is a kind
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: of grafting in a new position of part of an
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: animal upon itself. Grafting of freshly obtained material from another
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: animal is also possible. The case of teeth, for example,
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 1: the grafting of skin and bone is done to facilitate healing.
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: The surgeon places in the middle of the wound pieces
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: of skin sniffed from another animal, or fragments of bone
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: from a victim. Freshly killed hunter's cockspur possibly you have
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: heard of that flourished on the bull's neck. And the
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 1: rhinoceros rats of the Algerian zuovs are also to be
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: thought of. Monsters manufactured by transferring a slip from the
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 1: tail of an ordinary rat to its snout, and allowing
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: it to heal in that position monsters manufactured, said I,
• 2:06:24
  Speaker 1: then you mean to tell me, yes, these creatures you
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 1: have seen are animal's carbon and wrought into new shapes.
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 1: To that, to the study of the plasticity of living forms,
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: my life has been devoted. I have studied for years,
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 1: gaining in knowledge as I go. I see you look horrified,
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 1: and yet I am telling you nothing new. It all
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 1: lay in the surface of practical anatomy years ago, but
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: no one had the temerity to touch it. It is
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 1: not simply the outward form of an animal which I
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: can change. The physiology, the chemical rhythm of the creature
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: may also be made to un ago an enduring modification
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: of which vaccination and other methods of inoculation with living
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: or dead matter are examples that will no doubt be
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: familiar to you. A similar operation is the transfusion of blood,
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: with which subject, indeed, I began. These are all familiar cases.
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: Less so, and probably far more extensive, were the operations
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: of those medieval practitioners who made dwarfs and beggar cripples
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 1: show monsters. Some vestiges of whose art still remain in
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: the preliminary manipulation of the young mountebank or contortionist. Victor
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: Hugo gives an account of them in Pouhome courrit. But
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: perhaps my meaning grows plain now you begin to see
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 1: that it is a possible thing to transplant tissue from
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: one part of an animal to another, or from one
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: animal to another, to alter its chemical reactions and methods
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: of growth, to modify the articulations of its limbs, and
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: indeed to change it in its most intimate structure. And
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: yet this extraordinary branch of knowledge has never been sought
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: as an end and systematically by modern investigators until I
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: took it up. Some such things have been hit upon
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: in the last resort of surgery. Most of the kindred
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: evidence that will recur to your mind has been demonstrated,
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: as it were, by accident, by tyrants, by criminals, by
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 1: the breeders of horses and dogs, by all kinds of untrained,
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: clumsy handed men working for their own immediate ends. I
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: was the first man to take up this question, armed
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: with antiseptic surgery and with a really scientific knowledge of
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: the laws of growth. Yet one would imagine it must
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: have been practiced in secret before such creatures as the
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 1: Siamese Twins, and in the vaults of the Inquisition. No
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 1: doubt their chief aim was artistic torture. But some at
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: least of the inquisitors must have had a touch of
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: scientific curiosity. But said I these things, these animals talk.
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: He said, that was so, and proceeded to point out
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: that the possibility of the visection does not stop at
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: a mens physical metamorphosis. A pig may be educated. The
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: mental structure is even less determinate than the bodily. In
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: our growing science of hypnotism, we find the promise of
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: a possibility of superseding old inherent instincts by new suggestions,
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: grafting upon or replacing the inherited fixed ideas. Very much
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: indeed of what we call moral education, he said, is
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: such an artificial modification and perversion of instinct. Pugnacity is
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: trained into courageous self sacrifice, and suppressed sexuality into religious emotion.
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: And the great difference between man and monkey is in
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 1: the larynx, he continued, in the incapacity to frame delicately
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: different sound symbols by which thought could be sustained. In
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: this I failed to agree with him, but with a
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: certain incivility, he declined to notice my objection. He repeated
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 1: that the thing was so, and continued his account of
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: his work. I asked him why he had taken the
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: human form as a model. There seemed to me then,
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: and there still seems to me now, a strange wickedness
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: for that choice. He confessed that he had chosen that
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: form by chance. I might just as well have worked
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: to form sheep into lamas and lamas into sheep. I
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: suppose there is something in the human form that appeals
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: to the artistic turn of mind more powerfully than any
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: animal shape can. But I have not confined myself to
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: man making once or twice he was silent for a minute.
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: Perhaps these years, how they have slipped by, And here
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: I have wasted a day saving your life, and am
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: now wasting an hour explaining myself. But said I, I
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: still do not understand. Where is your justification for inflicting
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: all this pain. The only thing that could excuse vivisection
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: to me would be some application, precisely, said he. But
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: you see I am differently constituted. We are on different platforms.
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: You are a materialist. I am not a materialist. I
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 1: began hotly in my view, In my view, for it
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: is just this question of pain that parts us. So
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: long as visible or audible pain turns you sick, so
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: long as your own pains drive you, so long as
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: pain underlies your propositions about sin, So long I tell
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: you you are an animal, thinking a little less obscurely
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 1: what an animal feels this pain? I gave an impatient
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 1: shrug at such sophistry. Oh but it is such a
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: little thing. A mind truly open to what science has
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: to teach must see that it is a little thing.
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 1: It may be that save in this little planet, this
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 1: speck of cosmic dust, invisible long before the nearest star
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 1: could be attained. It may be I say that nowhere
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 1: else does this thing called pain occur. But the laws
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: we feel our way towards. Why, even on this earth,
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 1: even among living things, what pain is there? As he spoke,
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 1: he drew a little penknife from his pocket, opened the
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 1: smaller blade, and moved his chair so that I could
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: see his thigh. Then, choosing the place deliberately, he drove
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: the blade into his leg and withdrew it. No doubt,
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: he said, you have seen that before. It does not
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: hurt a pin prick, But what does it show. The
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: capacity for pain is not kneaded in the muscle, and
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: it is not placed. There is but little kneeded in
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: the skin, and only here and there over the thigh
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: is a spot capable of feeling pain. Pain is simply
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 1: our intrinsic medical adviser to warn us and stimulate us.
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: Not all living flesh is painful, nor is all nerve,
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: not even all sensory nerve. There's no taint of pain,
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 1: real pain in the sensations of the optic nerve. If
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 1: you wound the optic nerve, you merely see flashes of light,
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: just as disease of the auditory nerve merely means a
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: humming in our ears. Plants do not feel pain, nor
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: the lower animals. It's possible that such animals as the
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: starfish and crayfish do not feel pain at all. Then
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: with men, the more intelligent they become, the more intelligently
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: they will see after their own welfare, and the less
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: they will need the goat to keep them out of danger.
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 1: I never yet heard of a useless thing that was
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: not ground out of existence by evolution. Sooner or later
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: did you? And pain gets needless. Then I am a
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: religious man, Prendick, as every sane man must be. It
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: may be I fancy that I have seen more of
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: the ways of this world's maker than you, For I
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: have sought his laws in my way all my life,
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: while you, I understand, have been collecting butterflies. And I
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: tell you, pleasure and pain have nothing to do with
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: heaven or hell. Pleasure and pain, Bah, what is your
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 1: theologian's ecstasy but Mahomet's hurry in the dark. This store
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 1: which men and women set on pleasure and pain, Prendick,
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 1: is the mark of the beast upon them, the mark
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: of the beast from which which they came. Pain, pain
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: and pleasure they are for us only so long as
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: we wriggle in the dust. You see, I went on
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 1: with this research just the way it led me. That
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: is the only way I ever heard of true research going.
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 1: I asked a question, devised some method of obtaining an answer,
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: and got a fresh question. Was this possible or that possible?
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: You cannot imagine what this means to an investigator, what
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 1: an intellectual passion grows upon him. You cannot imagine the strange,
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: colorless delight of these intellectual desires. The thing before you
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: is no longer an animal, a fellow creature, but a
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: problem sympathetic pain. All I know of it I remember
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: as a thing I used to suffer from years ago.
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: I wanted it was the one thing I wanted to
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: find out the extreme limit of plasticity in a living shape.
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 1: But said I, the thing is an abomination. To this
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: day I have never troubled about the ethics of the matter,
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 1: he continued. The study of nature makes a man at
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 1: last as remorseless as nature. I have gone on, not
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: heeding anything but the question I was pursuing, and the
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: material has dripped into the huts yonder. It is nearly
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: eleven years since we came here. I in Montgomery and
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: six Kannakas. I remember the green stillness of the island
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 1: and the empty ocean about us, as though it was yesterday.
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 1: The place seemed waiting for me. The stores were landed
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: and the house was built. The Kanakas founded some huts
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: near the ravine. I went to work here upon what
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: I had brought with me. There were some disagreeable things happened.
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: At first. I began with a sheep and killed it.
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: After a day and a half by a slip of
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 1: the scalpel. I took another sheep and made a thing
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: of pain and fear, and left it bound up to heal.
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: It looked quite human to me when I had finished it,
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 1: but when I went to it I was discontented with it.
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: It remembered me and was terrified beyond him imagination, and
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: it had no more than the wits of a sheep.
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: The more I looked at it, the clumsier it seemed,
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: until at last I put the monster out of its misery.
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: These animals without courage, these fear haunted, pain driven things,
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: without a spark of pugnacious energy to face torment, they
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: are no good for man making. Then I took a
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 1: gorilla I had, and upon that, working with infinite care
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: and mastering difficulty after difficulty, I made my first man.
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: All the week, night and day, I molded him. With him,
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: it was chiefly the brain that needed molding. Much had
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 1: to be added, much changed. I thought him a fair
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: specimen of the negroid type when I had finished him,
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 1: and he lay bandaged, bound and motionless before me. It
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: was only when his life was assured that I left
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: him and came into this room again and found Montgomery
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: much as you are. He had heard some of the
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: cries as the thing grew, human cries like those that
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 1: disturbed you. So I didn't take him completely into my
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: confidence at first, and the Kannakas too had realized something
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: of it. They were scared out of their wits by
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: the sight of me. I got Montgomery over to me
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 1: in a way, but I and he had the hardest
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: job to prevent the Kanakas deserting. Finally they did, and
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: so we lost the yacht. I spent many days educating
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: the brute. Altogether, I had him for three or four months.
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 1: I taught him the rudiments of English, gave him ideas
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 1: of counting, even made the thing read the alphabet. But
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 1: at that he was slow, though I've met with idiots slower.
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: He began with a clean sheet mentally, had no memories
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: left in his mind of what he had been. When
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: his scars were quite healed, and he was no longer
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 1: anything but painful and stiff, and able to converse a little,
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 1: I took him yonder and introduced him to the Kanakas
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 1: as an interesting stowaway. They were horribly afraid of him
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: at first, somehow, which offended me rather, for I was
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: conceited about him. But his ways seemed so mild, and
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: he was so abject, that after a time they received
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 1: him and took his education in hand. He was quick
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: to learn, very imitative and adaptive, and built himself a hovel,
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: rather better, it seemed to me, than their own shanties.
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 1: There was one among the boys, a bit of a missionary,
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: and he taught the thing to read, or at least
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 1: to pick out letters, and gave him some rudimentary ideas
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: of morality. But it seems the beast's habits were not
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: all that is desirable. I rested from work for some
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 1: days after this, and was in a mind to write
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 1: an account of the whole affair, to wake up English physiology.
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: Then I came upon the creature squatting up in a
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 1: tree and gibbering at two of the kanakas who had
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: been teasing him. I threatened him, told him the inhumanity
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: of such a proceeding, aroused his sense of shame, and
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 1: came home, resolved to do better. Before I took my
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 1: work back to England. I have been doing better, but
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 1: somehow the things drift back again. The stubborn beast flesh
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 1: grows day by day back again. But I mean to
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: do better things still. I mean to conquer that this puma.
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: But that's the story. All the Kanaka boys are dead now.
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: One fell overboard of the launch, and one died of
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 1: a wounded heel that he poisoned in some way with
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: plant juice. Free went away in the yacht, and I
• 2:19:19
  Speaker 1: suppose and Hope were drowned. The other one was killed. Well,
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 1: I have replaced them, Montgomery went on, much as you
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: are disposed to do at first. And then what became
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 1: of the other one, said I sharply, the other kanaka
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: who was killed. The fact is, after I had made
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 1: a number of human creatures, I made a thing. He hesitated. Yes,
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: said I. It was killed. I don't understand, said I.
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: Do you mean to say it killed the kanaka. Yes,
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 1: it killed several other things that it caught. We chased
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 1: it for a couple of days. It only got loose
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: by accident. I never meant it to get away. It
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't finished. It was purely an experiment. It was a
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 1: limbless thing with a horrible face that writhed along the
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: ground in a serpentine fashion. It was immensely strong, and
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 1: in infuriating pain. It lurked in the woods for some
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: days until we hunted it, and then it wriggled into
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: the northern part of the island, and we divided the
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: party to close in upon it. Montgomery insisted upon coming
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 1: with me. The man had a rifle, and when his
• 2:20:30
  Speaker 1: body was found, one of the barrels was curved into
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: the shape of an s and very nearly bitten through.
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: Montgomery shot the thing. After that I stuck to the
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: ideal of humanity, except for little things. He became silent.
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: I sat in silence watching his face. So for twenty
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 1: years altogether, counting nine years in England, I have been
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 1: going on. And there is still something in everything I
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: do that defeats me, makes me dissatisfied, challenges me to
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: further effort. Some times I rise above my level. Sometimes
• 2:21:02
  Speaker 1: I fall below it, but always I fall short of
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: the things I dream. The human shape I can get
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 1: now almost with ease, so that it is lithe and graceful,
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: or thick and strong. But often there is trouble with
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: the hands and the claws, painful things that I dare
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 1: not shape too freely. But it is in the subtle
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: grafting and reshaping one must needs due to the brain
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 1: that my trouble lies. The intelligence is often oddly low,
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 1: with unaccountable blank ends, unexpected gaps, and least satisfactory of
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: all is something that I cannot touch. Somewhere I cannot
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 1: determine where in the seat of the emotions, cravings, instincts,
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 1: desires that harm humanity, a strange hidden reservoir to burst
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: forth suddenly and inundate the whole being of the creature
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: with anger, hate, or fear. These creatures of mine seem
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: strange and uncanny to you so soon as you began
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: to observe them. But to me, just after I make them,
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: they seem to be indisputably human beings. It's afterwards, as
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: I observe them that the persuasion fades. First one animal trait,
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 1: then another creeps to the surface and stares out at me.
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: But I will conquer. Yet, each time I dip a
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: living creature into the bath of burning pain, I say,
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: this time I will burn out all the animal. This
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 1: time I will make a rational creature of my own.
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 1: After all, what is ten years? Men have been a
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand in the making, he thought darkly, but I
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 1: am drawing near the fastness this puma of mine. After
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 1: a silence, and they revert. As soon as my hand
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 1: is taken from them. The beast begins to creep back,
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 1: begins to assert itself again. Another long silence. Then you
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: take the things you make into those dens, said I.
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 1: They go. I turn them out when I begin to
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 1: feel the beast in them, and presently they wander there.
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: They all dread this house in me. There is a
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: kind of travesty of humanity over there. Montgomery knows about it,
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 1: for he interferes in their affairs. He has trained one
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: or two of them to our service. He's ashamed of it,
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 1: but I believe he have like some of those beasts.
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 1: It's his business, not mine. They only sicken me with
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 1: a sense of failure. I take no interest in them.
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: I fancy they follow in the lines that cannot com
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 1: Missionary marked out, and have a kind of mockery of
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: a rational life. Poor beasts. There's something they call the law.
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 1: Sing hymns about all thine. They build themselves their dens,
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 1: gather fruit and pull herbs, marry even. But I can
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 1: see through it all, see into their very souls, and
• 2:23:43
  Speaker 1: see They're nothing but the souls of beasts, beasts that perish,
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 1: anger and the lusts to live and gratify themselves. Dot
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: Yet they're odd, complex, like everything else alive. There is
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 1: a kind of upward striving in them, part vanity, part
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: waste sexual emotion, part waste curiosity. It only mocks me.
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 1: I have some hope of this puma. I have worked
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: hard at her head and brain, and now, said he,
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 1: standing up, after a long gap of silence, during which
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 1: we had each pursued our own thoughts. What do you think?
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: Are you in fear of me? Still? I looked at
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: him and saw but a white faced, white haired man
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 1: with calm eyes. Save for his serenity, the touch almost
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: a beauty that resulted from his set tranquility and his
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: magnificent build, he might have passed Muster among a hundred
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: other comfortable old gentleman. Then I shivered. By way of
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: answer to his second question, I handed him a revolver
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 1: with either hand. Keep them, he said, and snatched at
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 1: a yawn. He stood up, stared at me for a moment,
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 1: and smiled. You have had two eventful days, said he.
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: I should advise some sleep. I'm glad it's all clear.
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 1: Good night. He thought me over for a moment, then
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: went out by the inner door. I immediately turned the
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 1: key in the outer one. I sat down again, sat
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 1: for a time in a kind of stagnant mood, so
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 1: weary emotionally, mentally, and physically that I could not think
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: beyond the point at which he had left me. The
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 1: black window stared at me like an eye. At Last,
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: with an effort, I put out the light and got
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: into the hammock. Very soon I was asleep fifteen concerning
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 1: the beast folk, I woke early. Moreau's explanation stood before
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: my mind, clear and definite from the moment of my awakening.
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 1: I got out of the hammock and went to the
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: door to assure myself that the key was turned. Then
• 2:25:43
  Speaker 1: I tried the window bar and found it firmly fixed
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: that these manlike creatures were, in truth only bestial monsters.
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 1: Mere grotesque travesties of men. Filled me with a vague
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 1: uncertainty of their possibilities, which was far worse than any
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: definite fear. A tapping came at the and I heard
• 2:26:01
  Speaker 1: the glutinous accents of Emling speaking. I pocketed one of
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 1: the revolvers, keeping one hand upon it, and opened to him.
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 1: Good morning, sair, he said, bringing in in addition to
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: the customary herb breakfast, an ill cooked rabbit. Montgomery followed
• 2:26:18
  Speaker 1: him his roving. I caught the position of my arm,
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: and he smiled, ask you. The puma was resting to
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 1: heal that day, but Moreau, who was singularly solitary in
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 1: his habits, did not join us. I talked with Montgomery
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 1: to clear my ideas of the way in which the
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 1: beast folk lived. In particular, I was urgent to know
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 1: how these inhuman monsters were kept from falling upon Moreau
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 1: and Montgomery and from rending one another. He explained to
• 2:26:45
  Speaker 1: me that the comparative safety of Moreau and himself was
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 1: due to the limited mental scope of these monsters. In
• 2:26:51
  Speaker 1: spite of their increased intelligence and the tendency of their
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: animal instincts to reawaken, they had certain fixed ideas implanted
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 1: by Moreau in their minds which absolutely bounded their imaginations.
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: They were really hypnotized, had been told that certain things
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 1: were impossible and that certain things were not to be done,
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 1: and these prohibitions were woven into the texture of their minds.
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: Beyond any possibility of disobedience or dispute. Certain matters, however,
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: in which old instinct was at war with Moreau's convenience,
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: were in a less stable condition. A series of propositions
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: called the Law. I had already heard them recited, battled
• 2:27:29
  Speaker 1: in their minds with the deep seated, ever rebellious cravings
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 1: of their animal natures. This law they were ever repeating,
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: I found and ever breaking. Both Montgomery and Moreau displayed
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: particular solicitude to keep them ignorant of the taste of blood.
• 2:27:44
  Speaker 1: They feared the inevitable suggestions of that flavor. Montgomery told
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 1: me that the law, especially among the feline beast people,
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: became oddly weakened about nightfall, that then the animal was
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 1: at its strongest, that a spirit of adventure sprang up
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: in them at the dusk, when they would dare things
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 1: they never seemed to dream about by day. To that,
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: I owed my stalking by the leopard man on the
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: night of my arrival. But during these earlier days of
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 1: my stay they broke the law only furtively and after dark.
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 1: In the daylight there was a general atmosphere of respect
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 1: for its multifarious prohibitions, And here perhaps I may give
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 1: a few general facts about the island and the beast people.
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 1: The island, which was of irregular outline and lay low
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 1: upon the wide sea, had a total area, I suppose
• 2:28:30
  Speaker 1: of seven or eight square miles two. It was volcanic
• 2:28:33
  Speaker 1: in origin, and was now fringed on three sides by
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: coral reefs. Some fumaroles to the northward, and a hot
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 1: spring were the only vestiges of the forces that had
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 1: long since originated it. Now and then a faint quiver
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 1: of earthquake would be sensible, and sometimes the ascent of
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: the spire of smoke would be rendered tumultuous by gusts
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 1: of steam. But that was all. The population of the island,
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 1: Montgomery informed me, now numbered rather more than sixty of
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 1: these strange creations of Moreau's art, not counting the smaller
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 1: monstrosities which lived in the undergrowth and were without human form.
• 2:29:08
  Speaker 1: Altogether he had made nearly one hundred and twenty, but
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 1: many had died, and others, like the writhing, footless thing
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 1: of which he had told me, had come by violent ends.
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: In answer to my question, Montgomery said that they actually
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: bore offspring, but that these generally died when they lived,
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: Moreau took them and stamped the human form upon them.
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: There was no evidence of the inheritance of their acquired
• 2:29:32
  Speaker 1: human characteristics. The females were less numerous than the males,
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 1: and liable to much furtive persecution in spite of the
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 1: monogamy the law enjoined two. This description corresponds in every
• 2:29:44
  Speaker 1: respect to nobles ildt c. P. It would be impossible
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: for me to describe these beast people in detail, by
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 1: I has had no training in details, and unhappily I
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 1: cannot sketch most striking perhaps in their general appear. Ahearrance
• 2:30:00
  Speaker 1: was the disproportion between the legs of these creatures and
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 1: the length of their bodies. And yet so relative is
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: our idea of grace. My eye became habituated to their forms,
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 1: and at last I even fell in with their persuasion
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 1: that my own long thighs were ungainly. Another point was
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: the forward carriage of the head and the clumsy and
• 2:30:18
  Speaker 1: inhuman curvature of the spine. Even the ape man lacked
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 1: that inward, sinuous curve of the back which makes the
• 2:30:24
  Speaker 1: human figure so graceful. Most had their shoulders hunched clumsily,
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: and their short forearms hum weakly at their sides. Few
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 1: of them were conspicuously hairy, at least until the end
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 1: of my time upon the island. The next most obvious
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: deformity was in their faces, almost all of which were prognathists,
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 1: malformed about the years, with large and protuberant noses, very
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 1: furry or very bristly hair, and often strangely colored or
• 2:30:51
  Speaker 1: strangely placed eyes. None could laugh, though the ape man
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 1: had a chattering titter. Beyond these general characters, their heads
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: had looked in common. Each preserved the quality of its
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: particular species. The human mark distorted, but did not hide
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: the leopard, the ox, or the sow, or other animal
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 1: or animals from which the creature had been molded. The voices, too,
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 1: varied exceedingly. The hands were always malformed, and though some
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 1: surprised me by their unexpected human appearance, almost all were
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: deficient in the number of the digits, clumsy about the
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 1: finger nails, and lacking any tactile sensibility. The two most
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 1: formidable animal men were my leopard man and a creature
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 1: made of hyena and swine. Larger than these were the
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 1: three bull creatures who pulled in the boat. Then came
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 1: the silvery hairy man, who was also the sayer of
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: the law, Emling, and a sadderllite creature of ape and goat.
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: There were three swine men and a swine woman, a
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 1: mere rhinoceros creature, and several other females whose sources I
• 2:31:53
  Speaker 1: did not ascertain. There were several wolf creatures, a bare bull,
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 1: and a saint Bernard man I have already described the
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 1: ape man. And there was a particularly hateful and evil
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: smelling old woman made of vixen and bear, whom I
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 1: hated from the beginning. She was said to be a
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: passionate votary of the law. Smaller creatures were certain dappled youths,
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 1: and my little sloth creature. But enough of this catalog.
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 1: At first I had a shivering horror of the brutes,
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: felt all too keenly that they were still brutes. But
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 1: insensibly I became a little habituated to the idea of them,
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 1: And moreover I was affected by Montgomery's attitude towards them.
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 1: He had been with them so long that he had
• 2:32:35
  Speaker 1: come to regard them as almost normal human beings. His
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 1: London days seemed a glorious impossible passed to him. Only
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 1: once in a year or so did he go to
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: Africa to deal with Moreau's agent, a traitor in animals.
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: There he hardly met the finest type of mankind in
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: that seafaring village of Spanish mongrels. The men aboard ship,
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 1: he told me, seemed at first just as strange to
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: him as the beast men seemed to me. Unnaturally long
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 1: in the leg, flat in the face, prominent in the forehead, suspicious, dangerous,
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 1: and cold hearted. In fact, he did not like men.
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 1: His heart had warmed to me, he thought, because he
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 1: had saved my life. I fancied even then that he
• 2:33:18
  Speaker 1: had a sneaking kindness for some of these metamorphosed brutes,
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: a vicious sympathy with some of their ways, but that
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: he attempted to veil it from me at first. Em Ling.
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 1: The black faced man, Montgomery's attendant, the first of the
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 1: beast folk I had encountered, did not live with the
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: others across the island, but in a small kennel at
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 1: the back of the enclosure. The creature was scarcely so
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 1: intelligent as the ape man, but far more docile and
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: the most human looking of all the beast folk, and
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 1: Montgomery had trained it to prepare food, and indeed to
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: discharge all the trivial domestic offices that were required. It
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 1: was a complex trophy of Moreau's horrible skill, A bear
• 2:33:56
  Speaker 1: tainted with dog and ox, and one of the most
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 1: elaborately of all his creatures. It treated Montgomery with a
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 1: strange tenderness and devotion. Sometimes he would notice it had it,
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: call it half mocking, half jocular names, and so make
• 2:34:12
  Speaker 1: it caper with extraordinary delight. Sometimes he would ill treat it,
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 1: especially after he had been at the whiskey, kicking it,
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 1: beating it, pelting it with stones or lighted fusees. But
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 1: whether he treated it well or ill, it loved nothing
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 1: so much as to be near him. I say I
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 1: became habituated to the beast people, that a thousand things
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: which had seemed unnatural and repulsive speedily became natural and
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: ordinary to me. I suppose everything in existence takes its
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 1: color from the average hue of our surroundings. Montgomery and
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 1: Moreau were too peculiar and individual to keep my general
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 1: impressions of humanity well defined. I would see one of
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 1: the clumsy bovine creatures who worked the launch treading heavily
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 1: through the undergrowth, and find myself asking, trying hard to
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 1: recall how he differed from some illy human yokel trudging
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 1: home from his mechanical labors, where I would meet the
• 2:35:03
  Speaker 1: foxbare woman's vulpine, shifty face, strangely human in its speculative cunning,
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 1: and even imagine I had met it before in some
• 2:35:11
  Speaker 1: city byway. Yet every now and then the beast would
• 2:35:14
  Speaker 1: flash out upon me, beyond doubt or denial. An ugly
• 2:35:18
  Speaker 1: looking man, a hunchbacked human, savage to all appearance, squatting
• 2:35:22
  Speaker 1: in the aperture of one of the dens, would stretch
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: his arms in yawn, showing with startling suddenness, scissor edged
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: incisors and saber like canines, keen and brilliant as knives. Or,
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 1: in some narrow pathway, glancing with a transitory daring into
• 2:35:37
  Speaker 1: the eyes of some lithe white swathed female figure, I
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 1: would suddenly see with a spasmodic revulsion that she had
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: slit like pupils, or glancing down, note the curving nail
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: with which she held her shapeless wrap about her. It
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 1: is a curious thing, by the bye, for which I
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 1: am quite unable to account that these weird creatures, the
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 1: females I mean, had in the earlier days of my stage,
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 1: an instinctive sense of their own repulsive clumsiness, and displayed
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 1: in consequence a more than human regard for the decency
• 2:36:06
  Speaker 1: and decorum of extensive costume. Sixteen. How the beast folk
• 2:36:12
  Speaker 1: taste blood. My inexperience as a writer betrays me, and
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 1: I wander from the thread of my story. After I
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 1: had breakfasted with Montgomery, he took me across the island
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 1: to see the fumarole and the source of the hot
• 2:36:24
  Speaker 1: spring into whose scalding waters I had blundered on the
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 1: previous day. Both of us carried whips and loaded revolvers.
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: While going through a leafy jungle on our road thither,
• 2:36:35
  Speaker 1: we heard a rabbit squealing. We stopped and listened, but
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 1: we heard no more, and presently we went on our way,
• 2:36:41
  Speaker 1: and the incident dropped out of our minds. Montgomery called
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 1: my attention to certain little pink animals with long hind
• 2:36:48
  Speaker 1: legs that went leaping through the undergrowth. He told me
• 2:36:52
  Speaker 1: they were creatures made of the offspring of the beast
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 1: people that Moreau had invented. He had fancied they might
• 2:36:59
  Speaker 1: serve for meat, but a rabbit like habit of devouring
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: their young had defeated this intention. I had already encountered
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: some of these creatures, once during my moonlight flight from
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 1: the Leopard Man, and once during my pursuit by Moreau
• 2:37:11
  Speaker 1: on the previous day. By chance, one hopping to avoid us,
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 1: leapt into the hole caused by the uprooting of a
• 2:37:18
  Speaker 1: wind blown tree. Before it could extricate itself, we managed
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: to catch it. It spat like a cat, scratched and
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: kicked vigorously with its hind legs, and made an attempt
• 2:37:28
  Speaker 1: to bite, but its teeth were too feeble to inflict
• 2:37:31
  Speaker 1: more than a painless pinch. It seemed to me rather
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 1: a pretty little creature, and as Montgomery stated that it
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 1: never destroyed the turf by burrowing, and was very cleanly
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 1: in its habits, I should imagine it might prove a
• 2:37:43
  Speaker 1: convenient substitute for the common rabbit in gentlemen's parks. We
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: also saw on our way the trunk of a tree
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 1: barked in long strips and splintered deeply. Montgomery called my
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 1: attention to this not to claw bark of trees, that
• 2:37:57
  Speaker 1: is the law, he said much some of them care
• 2:38:01
  Speaker 1: for it. It was after this, I think that we
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 1: met the Sadder and the ape Man. The Sadder was
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 1: a gleam of classical memory on the part of Moreau.
• 2:38:09
  Speaker 1: His face ovine in expression like the coarser Hebrew type,
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: his voice a harsh bleat his nether extremity satanic. He
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 1: was gnawing the husk of a podlike fruit. As he
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 1: passed us. Both of them saluted Montgomery. Hale said they
• 2:38:25
  Speaker 1: to the other with the whip. There's a third with
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 1: a whip now, said Montgomery. So you'd better mind. Was
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 1: he not made? Said the ape man? He said, He
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 1: said he was made. The sadder man looked curiously at me.
• 2:38:41
  Speaker 1: The third with the whip, he that walks weeping into
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 1: the sea, has a thin white face. He has a thin,
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 1: long whip, said Montgomery. Yesterday he bled and wept, said
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: the Sadder. You never bleed nor weep. The Master does
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 1: not bleed or weep. Allendorfian beggar, said Montgomery, you'll bleed
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 1: and weep if you don't look out. He has five fingers.
• 2:39:05
  Speaker 1: He is a five man, like me, said the ape man.
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 1: Come along, Prendick said Montgomery taking my arm, and I
• 2:39:13
  Speaker 1: went on with him. The Sadder and the ape man
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 1: stood watching us and making other remarks to each other.
• 2:39:19
  Speaker 1: He says nothing, said the sadder men have voices. Yesterday
• 2:39:25
  Speaker 1: he asked me of things to eat, said the ape man.
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 1: He did not know. Then they spoke inaudible things, and
• 2:39:31
  Speaker 1: I heard the sadder laughing. It was on our way
• 2:39:34
  Speaker 1: back that we came upon the dead rabbit. The red
• 2:39:38
  Speaker 1: body of the wretched little beast was rent to pieces,
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 1: many of the ribs stripped white, and the backbone indisputably gnawed.
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 1: At that, Montgomery stopped. Good God, said he stooping down
• 2:39:50
  Speaker 1: and picking up some of the crushed vertebrae to examine
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: them more closely. Good God, he repeated, What can this mean?
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 1: Some carnivore of yours has remembered its old habits, I said,
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 1: after a pause, This backbone has been bitten through. He stood, staring,
• 2:40:06
  Speaker 1: with his face white and his lip pulled. Ask you.
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 1: I don't like this, he said slowly. I saw something
• 2:40:13
  Speaker 1: of the same kind, said I. The first day I
• 2:40:16
  Speaker 1: came here, the devil you did. What was it? A
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 1: rabbit with its head twisted off? The day you came
• 2:40:25
  Speaker 1: here the day I came here in the undergrowth at
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 1: the back of the enclosure. When I went out in
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 1: the evening, the head was completely wrung off. He gave
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 1: a long, low whistle. And what is more, I have
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 1: an idea which of your brutes did the thing. It's
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 1: only a suspicion, you know. Before I came on the rabbit,
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 1: I saw one of your monsters drinking in the stream,
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: sucking his drink. Yes, not to suck your drink. That
• 2:40:54
  Speaker 1: is the law. Much the brutes care for the law, eh,
• 2:40:57
  Speaker 1: when Morou's not about. It was the brute who chased me,
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 1: of course, said Montgomery. It's just the way with carnivores.
• 2:41:07
  Speaker 1: After a kill, they drink. It's the taste of blood,
• 2:41:11
  Speaker 1: you know. Dot. What was the brute like, he continued,
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 1: Would you know him? Again? He glanced about us, standing
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: astride over the mess of dead rabbit, his eyes roving
• 2:41:21
  Speaker 1: among the shadows and screens of greenery, the lurking places
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 1: and ambuscades of the forest that bounded us. In the
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 1: taste of blood, he said again. He took out his revolver,
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 1: examined the cartridges in it, and replaced it. Then he
• 2:41:36
  Speaker 1: began to pull at his dropping lip. I think I
• 2:41:39
  Speaker 1: should know the brute again, I said, I stunned him.
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 1: He ought to have a handsome bruise on the forehead
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 1: of him. But then we have to prove that he
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 1: killed the rabbit, said Montgomery. I wish I'd never brought
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 1: the things here. I should have gone on. But he
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: stayed there, thinking over the mangled rabbit in a puzzle
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 1: headed way. As it was, I went to such a
• 2:42:00
  Speaker 1: distance that the rabbit's remains were hidden. Come on, I said. Presently,
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 1: he woke up and came towards me. You see, he said,
• 2:42:10
  Speaker 1: almost in a whisper. They are all supposed to have
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 1: a fixed idea against eating anything that runs on land.
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: If some brute has, by any accident tasted blood. We
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: went on some way in silence. I wonder what can
• 2:42:23
  Speaker 1: have happened, he said to himself. Then, after a pause again,
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: I did a foolish thing the other day that servant
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: of mine. I showed him how to skin and cook
• 2:42:33
  Speaker 1: a rabbit. It's odd I saw him licking his hands.
• 2:42:37
  Speaker 1: It never occurred to me. Then we must put a
• 2:42:40
  Speaker 1: stop to this. I must tell Moreau. He could think
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: of nothing else on our homeward journey. Moreau took the
• 2:42:47
  Speaker 1: matter even more seriously than Montgomery, and I need scarcely
• 2:42:50
  Speaker 1: say that I was affected by their evident consternation. We
• 2:42:54
  Speaker 1: must make an example, said Moreau. I've no doubt in
• 2:42:58
  Speaker 1: my own mind that the leopard man was the sinner,
• 2:43:01
  Speaker 1: But how can we prove it? I wish, Montgomery, you
• 2:43:05
  Speaker 1: had kept your taste for meat in hand and gone
• 2:43:08
  Speaker 1: without these exciting novelties. We may find ourselves in a
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 1: mess yet through it. I was a silly ass, said Montgomery.
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 1: But the thing's done now, and you said I might
• 2:43:20
  Speaker 1: have them. You know we must see to the thing
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 1: at once, said Moreau. I suppose if anything should turn up,
• 2:43:27
  Speaker 1: Emling can take care of himself. I'm not so sure
• 2:43:31
  Speaker 1: of Emling, said Montgomery. I think I ought to know him.
• 2:43:35
  Speaker 1: In the afternoon, Moreau, Montgomery, myself, and Emling went across
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 1: the island to the huts in the ravine. We three
• 2:43:42
  Speaker 1: were armed. Emling carried the little hatchet he used in
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 1: chopping firewood and some coils of wire. Morow had a
• 2:43:50
  Speaker 1: huge cowherd's horn slung over his shoulder. You will see
• 2:43:53
  Speaker 1: a gathering of the beast people, said Montgomery. It is
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 1: a pretty sight, Morow said, not a word on the way,
• 2:44:01
  Speaker 1: but the expression of his heavy, white fringed face was
• 2:44:04
  Speaker 1: grimly set. We crossed the ravine down which smoked the
• 2:44:08
  Speaker 1: stream of hot water, and followed the winding pathway through
• 2:44:11
  Speaker 1: the cane brakes until we reached a wide area covered
• 2:44:14
  Speaker 1: over with a thick, powdery yellow substance, which I believe
• 2:44:17
  Speaker 1: was sulfur, above the shoulder of a weedy bank, the
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: sea glittered. We came to a kind of shallow natural amphitheater,
• 2:44:25
  Speaker 1: and here the four of us halted. Then Moreau sounded
• 2:44:28
  Speaker 1: the horn and broke the sleeping stillness of the tropical afternoon.
• 2:44:33
  Speaker 1: He must have had strong lungs. The hooting note rose
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 1: and rose amidst its echoes to at last an ear
• 2:44:39
  Speaker 1: penetrating intensity, Ah, said Moreau, letting the curved instrument fall
• 2:44:45
  Speaker 1: to his side again. Immediately there was a crashing through
• 2:44:48
  Speaker 1: the yellow canes, and a sound of voices from the
• 2:44:51
  Speaker 1: dense green jungle that marked the morass through which I
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 1: had run on the previous day. Then at three or
• 2:44:57
  Speaker 1: four points on the edge of the sulfurious area appeared
• 2:45:00
  Speaker 1: the grotesque forms of the beast people hurrying towards us.
• 2:45:03
  Speaker 1: I could not help a creeping horror as I perceived
• 2:45:06
  Speaker 1: first one and then another trot out from the trees
• 2:45:09
  Speaker 1: or reeds, and come shambling along over the hot dust.
• 2:45:12
  Speaker 1: But Moreau and Montgomery stood calmly enough, and perforce I
• 2:45:17
  Speaker 1: stuck beside them. First to arrive was the sadder, strangely
• 2:45:21
  Speaker 1: unreal for all that he cast a shadow and tossed
• 2:45:24
  Speaker 1: the dust with his hoofs after him from the break
• 2:45:27
  Speaker 1: came a monstrous lout, a thing of horse and rhinoceros,
• 2:45:30
  Speaker 1: chewing as straw as it came. Then appeared the swine
• 2:45:33
  Speaker 1: woman and two wolf women. Then the foxbare witch with
• 2:45:36
  Speaker 1: her red eyes and her peaked red face, and then others,
• 2:45:40
  Speaker 1: all hurrying eagerly. As they came forward. They began to
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 1: cringe towards Moreau and chant quite regardless of one another,
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: fragments of the latter half of the litany of the law.
• 2:45:50
  Speaker 1: His is the hand that wounds, his is the hand
• 2:45:52
  Speaker 1: that heals, and so forth. As soon as they had
• 2:45:56
  Speaker 1: approached within a distance of perhaps thirty yards, they halted, and,
• 2:45:59
  Speaker 1: bowing on knees and elbows, began flinging the white dust
• 2:46:02
  Speaker 1: upon their heads. Imagine the scene, if you can. We
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 1: three blue clad men, with our misshapen, black faced attendant,
• 2:46:11
  Speaker 1: standing in a wide expanse of sunlit yellow dust, under
• 2:46:13
  Speaker 1: the blazing blue sky, and surrounded by this circle of
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 1: crouching and gesticulating monstrosities, some almost humans, save in their
• 2:46:20
  Speaker 1: subtle expression and gestures, some like cripples, some so strangely
• 2:46:26
  Speaker 1: distorted as to resemble nothing but the denizens of our
• 2:46:28
  Speaker 1: wildest dreams. And beyond the reedy lines of a cane
• 2:46:32
  Speaker 1: break in one direction, a dense tangle of palm trees
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 1: on the other, separating us from the ravine with the huts,
• 2:46:38
  Speaker 1: and to the north the hazy horizon of the Pacific Ocean.
• 2:46:42
  Speaker 1: Sixty two sixty three, counted Moreau. There are four more.
• 2:46:48
  Speaker 1: I do not see, the leopard man, said I. Presently,
• 2:46:50
  Speaker 1: Moreau sounded the great horn again, and at the sound
• 2:46:53
  Speaker 1: of it all the beast people writhed and groveled in
• 2:46:55
  Speaker 1: the dust. Then, slinking out of the cane brake, stooping
• 2:46:59
  Speaker 1: near the ground and trying to join the dust throwing circle.
• 2:47:02
  Speaker 1: Behind Moreau's back, came the leopard Man. The last of
• 2:47:06
  Speaker 1: the beast people to arrive was the little ape man.
• 2:47:10
  Speaker 1: The earlier animals, hot and weary with their groveling, shot
• 2:47:13
  Speaker 1: vicious glances at him. Cease, said Moreau in his firm,
• 2:47:18
  Speaker 1: loud voice. And the beast people sat back upon their
• 2:47:21
  Speaker 1: hands and wrested from their worshiping. Where is the sayer
• 2:47:24
  Speaker 1: of the law, said Moreau, And the hairy gray monster
• 2:47:28
  Speaker 1: bowed his face in the dust. Say the words, said Moreau.
• 2:47:33
  Speaker 1: Forthwith all in the kneeling assembly, swaying from side to side,
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 1: and dashing up the sulfur with their hands. First the
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 1: right hand and a puff of dust, and then the
• 2:47:42
  Speaker 1: left began once more to chant their strange litany. When
• 2:47:46
  Speaker 1: they reached not to eat flesh or fish, that is
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 1: the law, Moreau held up his lank white hand. Stop,
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 1: he cried, and there fell absolute silence upon them all.
• 2:47:57
  Speaker 1: I think they all knew and dreaded what was coming.
• 2:48:00
  Speaker 1: I looked round at their strange faces. When I saw
• 2:48:04
  Speaker 1: their wincing attitudes and the furtive dread in their bright eyes,
• 2:48:07
  Speaker 1: I wondered that I had ever believed them to be men.
• 2:48:11
  Speaker 1: That law has been broken, said Moreau. None escape from
• 2:48:15
  Speaker 1: the faceless creature with the silvery hair. None escape, repeated
• 2:48:19
  Speaker 1: the kneeling circle of beast people. Who is he cried Moreau,
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 1: and looked round at their faces, cracking his whip. I
• 2:48:29
  Speaker 1: fancied the hyena swine looked dejected, so too did the
• 2:48:32
  Speaker 1: leopard man. Moreau stopped facing this creature, who cringed towards
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 1: him with the memory and dread of infinite torment. Who
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 1: is he? Repeated Moreau in a voice of thunder. Evil
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 1: is he who breaks the law? Chanted the sayer of
• 2:48:47
  Speaker 1: the law? Moreau looked into the eyes of the leopard
• 2:48:51
  Speaker 1: man and seemed to be dragging the very soul out
• 2:48:53
  Speaker 1: of the creature. Who breaks the law? Said Moreau, taking
• 2:48:57
  Speaker 1: his eyes off his victim and turning towards it. Seemed
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 1: to me there was a touch of exultation in his voice.
• 2:49:04
  Speaker 1: Goes back to the house of pain, they all clamored.
• 2:49:07
  Speaker 1: Goes back to the house of pain, Oh, Master, back
• 2:49:11
  Speaker 1: to the house of pain. Back to the house of pain,
• 2:49:14
  Speaker 1: gabbled the ape man, as though the idea was sweet
• 2:49:17
  Speaker 1: to him. Do you hear, said Moreau, turning back to
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 1: the criminal, My friend, hello, for the leopard man, released
• 2:49:25
  Speaker 1: from Moreau's eye, had risen straight from his knees, and
• 2:49:28
  Speaker 1: now with eyes aflame, and his huge feline tusks flashing
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 1: out from under his curling lips, leapt towards his tormentor.
• 2:49:36
  Speaker 1: I am convinced that only the madness of unendurable fear
• 2:49:39
  Speaker 1: could have prompted this attack. The whole circle of threescore
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 1: monsters seemed to rise about us. I drew my revolver.
• 2:49:48
  Speaker 1: The two figures collided. I saw Moreau reeling back from
• 2:49:52
  Speaker 1: the leopard Man's blow. There was a furious yelling and
• 2:49:55
  Speaker 1: howling all about us. Every one was moving rapidly. For
• 2:50:00
  Speaker 1: a moment, I thought it was a general revolt. The
• 2:50:03
  Speaker 1: furious face of the leopard man flashed by mine, with
• 2:50:06
  Speaker 1: emmling close in pursuit. I saw the yellow eyes of
• 2:50:10
  Speaker 1: the hyena swine blazing with excitement his attitude, as if
• 2:50:13
  Speaker 1: he were half resolved to attack me. The sadder two
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 1: glared at me over the Hyena Swine's hunched shoulders. I
• 2:50:22
  Speaker 1: heard the crack of Moreau's pistol and saw the pink
• 2:50:24
  Speaker 1: flash dart across the tumult. The whole crowd seemed to
• 2:50:28
  Speaker 1: swing round in the direction of the glint of fire,
• 2:50:31
  Speaker 1: and I too was swung round by the magnetism of
• 2:50:33
  Speaker 1: the movement. In another second, I was running one of
• 2:50:37
  Speaker 1: a tumultuous, shouting crowd in pursuit of the escaping leopard man.
• 2:50:42
  Speaker 1: That is all I can tell. Definitely, I saw the
• 2:50:45
  Speaker 1: leopard man strike Moreau, and then everything spun about me
• 2:50:48
  Speaker 1: until I was running headlong. Emling was ahead, close in
• 2:50:52
  Speaker 1: pursuit of the fugitive. Behind their tongues already lolling out
• 2:50:57
  Speaker 1: ran the wolf women in great leaping strides. The swine
• 2:51:01
  Speaker 1: folk followed, squealing with excitement, and the two bull men
• 2:51:04
  Speaker 1: in their swathings of white. Then came Moreaux in a
• 2:51:08
  Speaker 1: cluster of the beast people, his wide brimmed straw hat
• 2:51:11
  Speaker 1: blown off, his revolver in hand, and his lank white
• 2:51:14
  Speaker 1: hair streaming out. The hyena swine ran beside me, keeping
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 1: pace with me and glancing furtively at me out of
• 2:51:21
  Speaker 1: his feline eyes, and the others came pattering and shouting
• 2:51:24
  Speaker 1: behind us. The leopard man went bursting his way through
• 2:51:28
  Speaker 1: the long canes, which sprang back as he passed and
• 2:51:31
  Speaker 1: rattled in Emling's face. We others in the rear found
• 2:51:35
  Speaker 1: a trampled path for us. When we reached the break,
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 1: the chase lay through the brake for perhaps a quarter
• 2:51:41
  Speaker 1: of a mile, and then plunged into a dense thicket
• 2:51:43
  Speaker 1: which retarded our movements exceedingly, though we went through it
• 2:51:47
  Speaker 1: in a crowd together, franz flicking into our faces, ropey
• 2:51:51
  Speaker 1: creepers catching us under the chin or gripping our ankles,
• 2:51:54
  Speaker 1: thorny plants, hooking into and tearing cloth, and fleshed together.
• 2:51:58
  Speaker 1: He has gone on all fours through this, panted Moreau
• 2:52:02
  Speaker 1: now just ahead of me. None escape, said the wolf bear,
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 1: laughing into my face. With the exultation of hunting. We
• 2:52:10
  Speaker 1: burst out again among rocks and saw the quarria head
• 2:52:13
  Speaker 1: running lightly on all fours and snarling at us over
• 2:52:15
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. At that, the wolf folk howled with delight.
• 2:52:20
  Speaker 1: The thing was still clothed, and at a distance its
• 2:52:22
  Speaker 1: face still seemed human, but the carriage of its four
• 2:52:25
  Speaker 1: limbs was feline, and the furtive droop of its shoulder
• 2:52:28
  Speaker 1: was distinctly that of a hunted animal. It leapt over
• 2:52:31
  Speaker 1: some thorny, yellow flowering bushes and was hidden. Emling was
• 2:52:36
  Speaker 1: half way across the space. Most of us now had
• 2:52:40
  Speaker 1: lost the first speed of the chase and had fallen
• 2:52:42
  Speaker 1: into a longer and steadier stride. I saw, as we
• 2:52:46
  Speaker 1: traversed the open that the pursuit was now spreading from
• 2:52:48
  Speaker 1: a column into a line. The hyenas swine still ran
• 2:52:52
  Speaker 1: close to me, watching me as it ran every now
• 2:52:55
  Speaker 1: and then, puckering its muzzle with a snarling laugh. At
• 2:52:59
  Speaker 1: the edge of the rock, the leopard man, realizing that
• 2:53:02
  Speaker 1: he was making for the projecting cape upon which he
• 2:53:04
  Speaker 1: had stalked me on the night of my arrival, had
• 2:53:06
  Speaker 1: doubled in the undergrowth, But Montgomery had seen the maneuver
• 2:53:10
  Speaker 1: and turned him again. So, panting, tumbling against rocks, torn
• 2:53:15
  Speaker 1: by brambles, impeded by ferns and reeds, I helped to
• 2:53:18
  Speaker 1: pursue the leopard man who had broken the law, and
• 2:53:20
  Speaker 1: the hyena swine ran, laughing savagely by my side. I
• 2:53:25
  Speaker 1: staggered on my head, reeling and my heart beating against
• 2:53:28
  Speaker 1: my ribs, tired almost to death, and yet not daring
• 2:53:32
  Speaker 1: to lose sight of the chase lest I should be
• 2:53:33
  Speaker 1: left alone with this horrible companion. I staggered on in
• 2:53:37
  Speaker 1: spite of infinite fatigue and the dense heat of the
• 2:53:40
  Speaker 1: tropical afternoon. At last, the fury of the hunt slackened.
• 2:53:45
  Speaker 1: We had pinned the wretched brute into a corner of
• 2:53:47
  Speaker 1: the island. Moreox, whip in hand, marshaled us all into
• 2:53:51
  Speaker 1: an irregular line, and we advanced, now slowly, shouting to
• 2:53:55
  Speaker 1: one another as we advanced, and tightening the cordon about
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 1: our victim. He lurked, noiseless and invisible, in the bushes
• 2:54:01
  Speaker 1: through which I had run from him during that midnight pursuit. Steady,
• 2:54:06
  Speaker 1: cried Moreau, Steady. As the ends of the line crept
• 2:54:09
  Speaker 1: round a tangle of undergrowth and hemmed the brute in
• 2:54:13
  Speaker 1: where a rush came the voice of Montgomery from beyond
• 2:54:16
  Speaker 1: the thicket. I was on the slope above the bushes.
• 2:54:19
  Speaker 1: Montgomery and Moreau beat along the beach beneath. Slowly we
• 2:54:23
  Speaker 1: pushed in among the fretted network of branches and leaves.
• 2:54:27
  Speaker 1: The quarry was silent. Back to the house of pain,
• 2:54:31
  Speaker 1: the house of pain, the house of pain. Yelped the
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 1: voice of the ape man, some twenty yards to the right.
• 2:54:38
  Speaker 1: When I heard that I forgave the poor wretch all
• 2:54:40
  Speaker 1: the fear he had inspired in me. I heard the
• 2:54:43
  Speaker 1: twig snap and the boughs swish aside before the heavy
• 2:54:46
  Speaker 1: tread of the horse rhinoceros upon my right. Then, suddenly,
• 2:54:50
  Speaker 1: through a polygon of green in the half darkness under
• 2:54:53
  Speaker 1: the luxuriant growth, I saw the creature we were hunting.
• 2:54:57
  Speaker 1: I halted. He was crouched together other into the smallest
• 2:55:01
  Speaker 1: possible compass, his luminous green eyes turned over his shoulder
• 2:55:04
  Speaker 1: regarding me. It may seem a strange contradiction in me
• 2:55:08
  Speaker 1: I cannot explain the fact. But now seeing the creature
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 1: there in a perfectly animal attitude, with the light gleaming
• 2:55:15
  Speaker 1: in its eyes and its imperfectly human face distorted with terror,
• 2:55:18
  Speaker 1: I realized again the fact of its humanity. In another moment,
• 2:55:22
  Speaker 1: other of its pursuers would see it, and it would
• 2:55:24
  Speaker 1: be overpowered and captured to experience once more the horrible
• 2:55:28
  Speaker 1: tortures of the enclosure. Abruptly, I slipped out my revolver,
• 2:55:32
  Speaker 1: aimed between its terror struck eyes, and fired. As I
• 2:55:36
  Speaker 1: did so, the hyena swine saw the thing and flung
• 2:55:40
  Speaker 1: itself upon it with an eager cry, thrusting thirsty teeth
• 2:55:43
  Speaker 1: into its neck. All about me, the green masses of
• 2:55:46
  Speaker 1: the thicket were swaying and cracking as the beast people
• 2:55:49
  Speaker 1: came rushing together. One face and then another appeared. Don't
• 2:55:54
  Speaker 1: kill it, Prendick, cried Moreau, don't kill it, and I
• 2:55:59
  Speaker 1: saw him stooping as he pushed through under the fronds
• 2:56:02
  Speaker 1: of the big ferns. In another moment, he had beaten
• 2:56:05
  Speaker 1: off the hyena swine with the handle of his whip,
• 2:56:08
  Speaker 1: and he and Montgomery were keeping away the excited carnivorous
• 2:56:11
  Speaker 1: beast people, and particularly emling from the still quivering body.
• 2:56:16
  Speaker 1: The hairy gray thing came sniffing at the corpse under
• 2:56:18
  Speaker 1: my arm. The other animals, in their animal ardor jostled
• 2:56:23
  Speaker 1: me to get a nearer. You confound you, Prendick, said Moreau.
• 2:56:28
  Speaker 1: I wanted him. I'm sorry, said I, though I was not.
• 2:56:33
  Speaker 1: It was the impulse of the moment. I felt sick
• 2:56:35
  Speaker 1: with exertion and excitement. Turning, I pushed my way out
• 2:56:40
  Speaker 1: of the crowding beast people and went on alone up
• 2:56:42
  Speaker 1: the slope towards the higher part of the headland. Under
• 2:56:45
  Speaker 1: the shouted directions of Moreau, I heard the three white
• 2:56:48
  Speaker 1: swathed bowmen begin dragging the victim down towards the water.
• 2:56:52
  Speaker 1: It was easy now for me to be alone. The
• 2:56:55
  Speaker 1: beast people manifested a quite human curiosity about the dead body,
• 2:56:59
  Speaker 1: and followed it in a thick knot, sniffing and growling
• 2:57:02
  Speaker 1: at it as the bull men dragged it down the beach.
• 2:57:06
  Speaker 1: I went to the headland and watched the bull men,
• 2:57:08
  Speaker 1: black against the evening sky, as they carried the weighted
• 2:57:11
  Speaker 1: dead body out to sea, And like a wave across
• 2:57:13
  Speaker 1: my mind came the realization of the unspeakable aimlessness of
• 2:57:16
  Speaker 1: things upon the island, upon the beach, among the rocks
• 2:57:20
  Speaker 1: beneath me were the ape man, the hyena swine, and
• 2:57:23
  Speaker 1: several other of the beast people standing about Montgomery and Moreau.
• 2:57:28
  Speaker 1: They were all still intensely excited, and all overflowing with
• 2:57:31
  Speaker 1: noisy expressions of their loyalty to the law. Yet I
• 2:57:34
  Speaker 1: felt an absolute assurance in my own mind that the
• 2:57:37
  Speaker 1: hyena swine was implicated in the rabbit killing. A strange
• 2:57:41
  Speaker 1: persuasion came upon me that, save for the grossness of
• 2:57:44
  Speaker 1: the line, the grotesqueness of the forms, I had here
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 1: before me the whole balance of human life in miniature,
• 2:57:50
  Speaker 1: the whole interplay of instinct, reason and fate in its
• 2:57:53
  Speaker 1: simplest form. The leopard man had happened to go under
• 2:57:57
  Speaker 1: that was all the difference, poor brute, poor brutes. I
• 2:58:03
  Speaker 1: began to see the viler aspect of Moreau's cruelty. I
• 2:58:07
  Speaker 1: had not thought before of the pain and trouble that
• 2:58:10
  Speaker 1: came to these poor victims after they had passed from
• 2:58:12
  Speaker 1: Moreau's hands. I had shivered only at the days of
• 2:58:15
  Speaker 1: actual torment in the enclosure. But now that seemed to
• 2:58:19
  Speaker 1: me the lesser part. Before they had been beasts, their
• 2:58:23
  Speaker 1: instincts fitly adapted to their surroundings, and happy as living
• 2:58:27
  Speaker 1: things may be. Now they stumbled in the shackles of humanity,
• 2:58:31
  Speaker 1: lived in a fear that never died, fretted by a
• 2:58:34
  Speaker 1: law they could not understand. Their mock human existence begun
• 2:58:38
  Speaker 1: in an agony, was one long internal struggle, one long
• 2:58:41
  Speaker 1: dread of Moreau. And for what it was the wantonness
• 2:58:45
  Speaker 1: of it that stirred me. Had Moreau had any intelligible object,
• 2:58:49
  Speaker 1: I could have sympathized at least a little with him.
• 2:58:52
  Speaker 1: I am not so squeamish about pain as that I
• 2:58:56
  Speaker 1: could have forgiven him a little, even had his motive
• 2:58:58
  Speaker 1: been only hate. But he was so irresponsible, so utterly careless,
• 2:59:04
  Speaker 1: his curiosity, his mad aimless investigations drove him on, and
• 2:59:09
  Speaker 1: the things were thrown out to live a year or so,
• 2:59:11
  Speaker 1: to struggle and blunder and suffer, and at last to
• 2:59:14
  Speaker 1: die painfully. They were wretched in themselves. The old animal
• 2:59:18
  Speaker 1: hate moved them to trouble one another. The law held
• 2:59:21
  Speaker 1: them back from a brief, hot struggle and a decisive
• 2:59:24
  Speaker 1: end to their natural animosities. In those days, my fear
• 2:59:28
  Speaker 1: of the beast people went the way of my personal
• 2:59:30
  Speaker 1: fear for more. I fell indeed into a morbid state,
• 2:59:34
  Speaker 1: deep and enduring, an alien to fear, which has left
• 2:59:37
  Speaker 1: permanent scars upon my mind. I must confess that I
• 2:59:41
  Speaker 1: lost faith in the sanity of the world when I
• 2:59:43
  Speaker 1: saw it suffering the painful disorder of this island, A
• 2:59:46
  Speaker 1: blind fate, a vast, pitiless mechanism seemed to cut and
• 2:59:50
  Speaker 1: shape the fabric of existence, and eye Morero by his
• 2:59:53
  Speaker 1: passion for research, Montgomery, by his passion for drink, the
• 2:59:57
  Speaker 1: beast people, with their instincts and mental restraintictions, were torn
• 3:00:01
  Speaker 1: and crushed ruthlessly, inevitably amid the infinite complexity of its
• 3:00:05
  Speaker 1: incessant wheels. But this condition did not come all at once.
• 3:00:10
  Speaker 1: I think, indeed, that I anticipate a little in speaking
• 3:00:13
  Speaker 1: of it now seventeen a catastrophe. Scarcely six weeks passed
• 3:00:18
  Speaker 1: before I had lost every feeling but dislike and abhorrence
• 3:00:21
  Speaker 1: for this infamous experiment of moreause. My one idea was
• 3:00:26
  Speaker 1: to get away from these horrible caricatures of my maker's image,
• 3:00:29
  Speaker 1: back to the sweet and wholesome intercourse of men. My
• 3:00:32
  Speaker 1: fellow creatures from whom I was thus separated, began to
• 3:00:36
  Speaker 1: assume my dylic virtue and beauty. In my memory. My
• 3:00:39
  Speaker 1: first friendship with Montgomery did not increase. His long separation
• 3:00:44
  Speaker 1: from humanity, his secret vice of drunkenness, his evident sympathy
• 3:00:48
  Speaker 1: with the beast people tainted him to me. Several times
• 3:00:52
  Speaker 1: I let him go alone among them. I avoided intercourse
• 3:00:56
  Speaker 1: with them in every possible way. I spent an increasing
• 3:00:59
  Speaker 1: portion of my time upon the beach looking for some
• 3:01:02
  Speaker 1: liberating sail that never appeared, until one day there fell
• 3:01:05
  Speaker 1: upon us an appalling disaster, which put an altogether different
• 3:01:09
  Speaker 1: aspect upon my strange surroundings. It was about seven or
• 3:01:13
  Speaker 1: eight weeks after my landing. Rather more, I think, though
• 3:01:16
  Speaker 1: I had not troubled to keep account of the time,
• 3:01:19
  Speaker 1: when this catastrophe occurred. It happened in the early morning,
• 3:01:23
  Speaker 1: I should think about six. I had risen and breakfasted early,
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: having been aroused by the noise of three beast men
• 3:01:30
  Speaker 1: carrying what into the enclosure. After breakfast, I went to
• 3:01:34
  Speaker 1: the open gateway of the enclosure and stood there, smoking
• 3:01:36
  Speaker 1: a cigarette and enjoying the freshness of the early morning.
• 3:01:40
  Speaker 1: Moreaux presently came round the corner of the enclosure and
• 3:01:43
  Speaker 1: greeted me. He passed by me, and I heard him
• 3:01:47
  Speaker 1: behind me unlock and enter his laboratory. So indurated was
• 3:01:51
  Speaker 1: I at that time to the abomination of the place
• 3:01:54
  Speaker 1: that I heard, without a touch of emotion, the puma
• 3:01:56
  Speaker 1: victim begin another day of torture. It met its person
• 3:02:00
  Speaker 1: secutor with a shriek, almost exactly like that of an
• 3:02:02
  Speaker 1: angry virago. Then suddenly something happened. I do not know
• 3:02:07
  Speaker 1: what to this day. I heard a short, sharp cry
• 3:02:11
  Speaker 1: behind me, a fall, and turning saw an awful face
• 3:02:14
  Speaker 1: rushing upon me, not human, not animal, but hellish brown,
• 3:02:19
  Speaker 1: seamed with red branching scars, red drops starting out upon it,
• 3:02:22
  Speaker 1: and the lidless eyes ablaze. I threw up my arm
• 3:02:26
  Speaker 1: to defend myself from the blow that flung me headlong
• 3:02:28
  Speaker 1: with a broken forearm, and the great monster, swathed in
• 3:02:32
  Speaker 1: lint and with red stained bandages fluttering about it, leapt
• 3:02:35
  Speaker 1: over me and passed. I rolled over and over down
• 3:02:38
  Speaker 1: the beach, tried to sit up, and collapsed upon my
• 3:02:41
  Speaker 1: broken arm. Then Moreau appeared, his massive white face all
• 3:02:45
  Speaker 1: the more terrible for the blood that trickled from his forehead.
• 3:02:49
  Speaker 1: He carried a revolver in one hand. He scarcely glanced
• 3:02:53
  Speaker 1: at me, but rushed off at once in pursuit of
• 3:02:55
  Speaker 1: the puma. I tried the other arm and sat up.
• 3:03:00
  Speaker 1: The muffled figure in front ran in great striding leaps
• 3:03:03
  Speaker 1: along the beach, and Moreau followed her. She turned her
• 3:03:06
  Speaker 1: head and saw him, then, doubling, abruptly, made for the bushes.
• 3:03:11
  Speaker 1: She gained upon him at every stride. I saw her
• 3:03:14
  Speaker 1: plunge into them, and Moreau, running slantingly to intercept her,
• 3:03:18
  Speaker 1: fired and missed as she disappeared. Then he too vanished
• 3:03:22
  Speaker 1: in the green confusion. I stared after them, and then
• 3:03:26
  Speaker 1: the pain in my arm flamed up, and with a groan,
• 3:03:29
  Speaker 1: I staggered to my feet. Montgomery appeared in a doorway
• 3:03:33
  Speaker 1: dressed and with his revolver in his hand. Great God, prendick,
• 3:03:38
  Speaker 1: he said, not noticing that I was hurt. That brute's
• 3:03:41
  Speaker 1: loose tore the fetter out of the wall. Have you
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 1: seen them? Then? Sharply seeing, I gripped my arm. What's
• 3:03:48
  Speaker 1: the matter, I was standing in the doorway, said I.
• 3:03:52
  Speaker 1: He came forward and took my arm. Blood on the sleeve,
• 3:03:56
  Speaker 1: said he, and rolled back the flannel. He pocketed his weapon,
• 3:04:00
  Speaker 1: felt my arm about painfully, and led me inside. Your
• 3:04:05
  Speaker 1: arm is broken, he said, And then tell me exactly
• 3:04:08
  Speaker 1: how it happened. What happened? I told him what I
• 3:04:11
  Speaker 1: had seen, told him in broken sentences, with gasps of
• 3:04:14
  Speaker 1: pain between them, and very dexterously and swiftly he bound
• 3:04:17
  Speaker 1: my arm. Meanwhile, he slung it from my shoulder, stood
• 3:04:21
  Speaker 1: back and looked at me. You'll do, he said, And
• 3:04:25
  Speaker 1: now he thought. Then he went out and locked the
• 3:04:29
  Speaker 1: gates of the enclosure. He was absent some time. I
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 1: was chiefly concerned about my arm. The incident seemed merely
• 3:04:38
  Speaker 1: one more of many horrible things. I sat down in
• 3:04:41
  Speaker 1: the deck chair, and I must admit, swore heartily at
• 3:04:44
  Speaker 1: the island. The first dull feeling of injury in my
• 3:04:48
  Speaker 1: arm had already given way to a burning pain. When
• 3:04:50
  Speaker 1: Montgomery reappeared, his face was rather pale, and he showed
• 3:04:55
  Speaker 1: more of his lower gums than ever. I can neither
• 3:04:58
  Speaker 1: see nor hear anything of him. He said, I've been
• 3:05:01
  Speaker 1: thinking he may want my help. He stared at me
• 3:05:04
  Speaker 1: with his expressionless eyes. That was a strong brute, he said.
• 3:05:09
  Speaker 1: It simply wrenched its fetter out of the wall. He
• 3:05:11
  Speaker 1: went to the window, then to the door, and there
• 3:05:14
  Speaker 1: turned to me. I shall go after him, He said,
• 3:05:18
  Speaker 1: there's another revolver I can leave with you to tell
• 3:05:21
  Speaker 1: you the truth. I feel anxious somehow. He obtained the
• 3:05:25
  Speaker 1: weapon and put it ready to my hand on the table,
• 3:05:28
  Speaker 1: then went out, leaving a restless contagion in the air.
• 3:05:32
  Speaker 1: I did not sit long after he left, but took
• 3:05:35
  Speaker 1: the revolver in hand and went to the doorway. The
• 3:05:38
  Speaker 1: morning was as still as death. Not a whisper of
• 3:05:41
  Speaker 1: wind was stirring. The sea was like polished glass, the
• 3:05:45
  Speaker 1: sky empty, the beach desolate. In my half excited, half
• 3:05:49
  Speaker 1: feverish state, this stillness of things oppressed me. I tried
• 3:05:54
  Speaker 1: to whistle, and the tune died away. I swore again
• 3:05:58
  Speaker 1: the second time that morning. Then I went to the
• 3:06:01
  Speaker 1: corner of the enclosure and stared inland at the green
• 3:06:03
  Speaker 1: bush that had swallowed up Moreau and Montgomery. When would
• 3:06:07
  Speaker 1: they return and how? Then far away up the beach,
• 3:06:11
  Speaker 1: a little gray beast man appeared, ran down to the
• 3:06:14
  Speaker 1: water's edge and began splashing about. I strolled back to
• 3:06:18
  Speaker 1: the doorway, then to the corner again, and so began
• 3:06:21
  Speaker 1: pacing to and fro, like a sentinel upon duty. Once
• 3:06:25
  Speaker 1: I was arrested by the distant voice of Montgomery, bawling
• 3:06:28
  Speaker 1: coo ee e Moreaux. My arm became less painful but
• 3:06:32
  Speaker 1: very hot. I got feverish and thirsty. My shadow grew shorter.
• 3:06:39
  Speaker 1: I watched the distant figure until it went away again.
• 3:06:42
  Speaker 1: Would Moreau and Montgomery never return? Three sea birds began
• 3:06:47
  Speaker 1: fighting for some stranded treasure. Then, from far away behind
• 3:06:51
  Speaker 1: the enclosure, I heard a pistol shot, a long silence,
• 3:06:55
  Speaker 1: and then came another, Then a yelling cry nearer, and
• 3:06:59
  Speaker 1: another dismal gap of silence. My unfortunate imagination set to
• 3:07:04
  Speaker 1: work to torment me. Then suddenly a shot close by.
• 3:07:08
  Speaker 1: I went to the corner, startled, and saw Montgomery his
• 3:07:12
  Speaker 1: face scarlet, his hair disordered, and the knee of his
• 3:07:15
  Speaker 1: trousers torn. His face expressed profound consternation. Behind him slouched
• 3:07:21
  Speaker 1: the beast man Emling, and round Emling's jaws were some
• 3:07:24
  Speaker 1: queer dark stains. Has he come? Said Montgomery? Morrow said,
• 3:07:30
  Speaker 1: I know, my god. The man was panting, almost sobbing.
• 3:07:35
  Speaker 1: Go back in, he said, taking my arm. They're mad,
• 3:07:40
  Speaker 1: they're all rushing about mad. What can have happened? I
• 3:07:45
  Speaker 1: don't know. I'll tell you when my breath comes. Where's
• 3:07:49
  Speaker 1: some brandy? Montgomery limped before me into the room and
• 3:07:53
  Speaker 1: sat down in the deck chair. Emmeling flung himself down
• 3:07:57
  Speaker 1: just outside the doorway and began panting like a dog.
• 3:08:00
  Speaker 1: I got Montgomery some brandy and water. He sat staring
• 3:08:04
  Speaker 1: in front of him at nothing, recovering his breath. After
• 3:08:08
  Speaker 1: some minutes he began to tell me what had happened.
• 3:08:11
  Speaker 1: He had followed their track for some way. It was
• 3:08:14
  Speaker 1: plain enough at first, on account of the crushed and
• 3:08:17
  Speaker 1: broken bushes, white rags torn from the puma's bandages, and
• 3:08:20
  Speaker 1: occasional smears of blood on the leaves of the shrubs
• 3:08:23
  Speaker 1: and undergrowth. He lost the track. However, on the stony
• 3:08:28
  Speaker 1: ground beyond the stream where I had seen the beast
• 3:08:30
  Speaker 1: man drinking, and went wandering aimlessly westward, shouting Moreau's name.
• 3:08:35
  Speaker 1: Then Emling had come to him carrying a light hatchet.
• 3:08:38
  Speaker 1: Emling had seen nothing of the puma affair, had been
• 3:08:41
  Speaker 1: felling wood and heard him calling. They went on shouting together.
• 3:08:47
  Speaker 1: Two beast men came, crouching and peering at them through
• 3:08:49
  Speaker 1: the undergrowth, with gestures and a furtive carriage that alarmed
• 3:08:53
  Speaker 1: Montgomery by their strangeness. He hailed them, and they fled guiltily.
• 3:08:58
  Speaker 1: He stopped shouting after that, and, after wandering some time
• 3:09:02
  Speaker 1: farther in an undecided way, determined to visit the huts.
• 3:09:06
  Speaker 1: He found the ravine deserted, Growing more alarmed every minute,
• 3:09:10
  Speaker 1: he began to retrace his steps. Then it was he
• 3:09:14
  Speaker 1: encountered the two swine men I had seen dancing on
• 3:09:16
  Speaker 1: the night of my arrival. Blood Stained, they were about
• 3:09:19
  Speaker 1: the mouth and intensely excited. They came crashing through the
• 3:09:23
  Speaker 1: ferns and stopped with fierce faces when they saw him.
• 3:09:27
  Speaker 1: He cracked his whip in some trepidation, and forthwith they
• 3:09:30
  Speaker 1: rushed at him. Never before had a beast man dared
• 3:09:34
  Speaker 1: to do that. One he shot through the head. Emling
• 3:09:37
  Speaker 1: flung himself upon the other, and the two rolled grappling.
• 3:09:41
  Speaker 1: Emling got his brute under and with his teeth in
• 3:09:43
  Speaker 1: its throat, and Montgomery shot that too, as it struggled
• 3:09:46
  Speaker 1: in Emling's grip. He had some difficulty in inducing Emmeling
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 1: to come on with him. Thence they had hurried back
• 3:09:54
  Speaker 1: to me. On the way, Emling had suddenly rushed into
• 3:09:57
  Speaker 1: a thicket and driven out an undersized oscillae man, also
• 3:10:01
  Speaker 1: blood stained and lame through a wound in the foot.
• 3:10:04
  Speaker 1: This brute had run a little way and then turned
• 3:10:06
  Speaker 1: savagely at Bay and Montgomery with a certain wantonness, I
• 3:10:11
  Speaker 1: thought had shot him. What does it all mean? Said I.
• 3:10:15
  Speaker 1: He shook his head and turned once more to the
• 3:10:17
  Speaker 1: Brandy eighteen The Finding of Moreau. When I saw Montgomery
• 3:10:22
  Speaker 1: swallow a third dose of Brandy, I took it upon
• 3:10:25
  Speaker 1: myself to interfere. He was already more than half fuddled.
• 3:10:30
  Speaker 1: I told him that some serious thing must have happened
• 3:10:33
  Speaker 1: to Moreau by this time, or he would have returned
• 3:10:35
  Speaker 1: before this, and that it behold us to ascertain what
• 3:10:38
  Speaker 1: that catastrophe was. Montgomery raised some feeble objections, and at
• 3:10:43
  Speaker 1: last agreed we had some food, and then all three
• 3:10:47
  Speaker 1: of us started. It is possibly due to the tension
• 3:10:50
  Speaker 1: of my mind at the time, but even now that
• 3:10:53
  Speaker 1: start into the hot stillness of the tropical afternoon is
• 3:10:56
  Speaker 1: a singularly vivid impression. Emling went first, his shoulder hunched,
• 3:11:01
  Speaker 1: his strange black head, moving with quick starts as he peered,
• 3:11:04
  Speaker 1: first on this side of the way and then on that.
• 3:11:07
  Speaker 1: He was unarmed. His axe he had dropped when he
• 3:11:09
  Speaker 1: encountered the swine man. Teeth were his weapons when it
• 3:11:13
  Speaker 1: came to fighting. Montgomery followed with stumbling footsteps, his hands
• 3:11:18
  Speaker 1: in his pockets, his face downcast. He was in a
• 3:11:21
  Speaker 1: state of muddled sullenness with me on account of the brandy.
• 3:11:25
  Speaker 1: My left arm was in a sling. It was lucky
• 3:11:27
  Speaker 1: it was my left, and I carried my revolver in
• 3:11:30
  Speaker 1: my right. Soon we traced a narrow path through the
• 3:11:33
  Speaker 1: wild luxuriance of the island, going northwestward, and presently Emling
• 3:11:37
  Speaker 1: stopped and became rigid with watchfulness. Montgomery almost staggered into him,
• 3:11:43
  Speaker 1: and then stopped too. Then, listening intently, we heard coming
• 3:11:48
  Speaker 1: through the trees the sound of voices and footsteps approaching us.
• 3:11:52
  Speaker 1: He is dead, said a deep vibrating voice. He is
• 3:11:56
  Speaker 1: not dead. He is not dead, jabbered another. We saw,
• 3:12:01
  Speaker 1: we saw, said several voices. Hollo, suddenly shouted Montgomery, Hollo,
• 3:12:07
  Speaker 1: there confound you, said I and gripped my pistol. There
• 3:12:12
  Speaker 1: was a silence, then a crashing among the interlacing vegetation,
• 3:12:16
  Speaker 1: first here, then there, and then half a dozen faces appeared,
• 3:12:20
  Speaker 1: strange faces lit by a strange light. Emling made a
• 3:12:24
  Speaker 1: growling noise in his throat. I recognized the ape man,
• 3:12:28
  Speaker 1: I had indeed already identified his voice, and two of
• 3:12:31
  Speaker 1: the white swathed, brown featured creatures I had seen in
• 3:12:34
  Speaker 1: Montgomery's boat. With These were the two dappled brutes, and
• 3:12:38
  Speaker 1: that gray, horribly crooked creature who said the law, with
• 3:12:41
  Speaker 1: gray hair streaming down its cheeks, heavy gray eyebrows, and
• 3:12:45
  Speaker 1: gray locks pouring off from a central parting upon its
• 3:12:48
  Speaker 1: sloping forehead. A heavy faceless thing with strange red eyes
• 3:12:52
  Speaker 1: looking at us curiously from amidst the green. For a space,
• 3:12:56
  Speaker 1: no one spoke. Then Montgomery hiccuped, who said he was dead?
• 3:13:01
  Speaker 1: The monkey man looked guiltily at the hairy gray thing.
• 3:13:05
  Speaker 1: He is dead, said this monster. They saw there was
• 3:13:09
  Speaker 1: nothing threatening about this detachment at any rate. They seemed
• 3:13:13
  Speaker 1: awestricken and puzzled. Where is he? Said Montgomery. Beyond and
• 3:13:19
  Speaker 1: the gray creature pointed. Is there a law? Now? Asked
• 3:13:23
  Speaker 1: the monkey man. Is it still to be this? And that?
• 3:13:27
  Speaker 1: Is he dead? Indeed? Is there a law? Repeated the
• 3:13:31
  Speaker 1: man in white. Is there a law? Thou other with
• 3:13:34
  Speaker 1: the whip? He is dead, said the hairy gray thing.
• 3:13:38
  Speaker 1: And they all stood watching us. Prendick, said Montgomery, turning
• 3:13:43
  Speaker 1: his dull eyes to me. He's dead. Evidently I had
• 3:13:47
  Speaker 1: been standing behind him during this colloquy. I began to
• 3:13:51
  Speaker 1: see how things lay with them. I suddenly stepped in
• 3:13:54
  Speaker 1: front of Montgomery and lifted up my voice. Children of
• 3:13:57
  Speaker 1: the law, I said, he is not dead, and turned
• 3:14:00
  Speaker 1: his sharp eyes on me. He has changed his shape,
• 3:14:04
  Speaker 1: he has changed his body. I went on. For a time.
• 3:14:07
  Speaker 1: You will not see him. He is there, I pointed upward,
• 3:14:12
  Speaker 1: where he can watch you. You cannot see him, but
• 3:14:15
  Speaker 1: he can see you. Fear the law. I looked at
• 3:14:19
  Speaker 1: them squarely. They flinched. He is great, he is good,
• 3:14:24
  Speaker 1: said the ape man, peering fearfully upward among the dense trees.
• 3:14:28
  Speaker 1: And the other thing, I demanded, the thing that bled
• 3:14:32
  Speaker 1: and ran, screaming and sobbing. That is dead too, said
• 3:14:36
  Speaker 1: the gray thing, still regarding me. That's well, grunted Montgomery.
• 3:14:42
  Speaker 1: The other with the whip began. The gray thing well said,
• 3:14:46
  Speaker 1: I said he was dead. But Montgomery was still sober
• 3:14:50
  Speaker 1: enough to understand my motive in denying Moreau's death. He
• 3:14:54
  Speaker 1: is not dead, he said, slowly, not dead at all,
• 3:14:58
  Speaker 1: no more dead than I am. Some said I have
• 3:15:02
  Speaker 1: broken the law. They will die. Some have died. Show
• 3:15:07
  Speaker 1: us now where his old body lies, the body he
• 3:15:09
  Speaker 1: cast away because he had no more need of it.
• 3:15:13
  Speaker 1: It is this way man who walked in the sea,
• 3:15:15
  Speaker 1: said the gray thing, And with these six creatures guiding us,
• 3:15:19
  Speaker 1: we went through the tumult of ferns and creepers and
• 3:15:22
  Speaker 1: tree stems towards the northwest. Then came a yelling, a
• 3:15:26
  Speaker 1: crashing among the branches, and a little pink homunculus rushed
• 3:15:29
  Speaker 1: by us, shrieking. Immediately after appeared a monster in headlong pursuit,
• 3:15:34
  Speaker 1: blood bedabbled who was amongst us? Almost before he could
• 3:15:37
  Speaker 1: stop his career, the gray thing leapt aside. Em Ling,
• 3:15:42
  Speaker 1: with a snarl, flew at it and was struck aside.
• 3:15:46
  Speaker 1: Montgomery fired and missed, bowed his head, threw up his arm,
• 3:15:50
  Speaker 1: and turned to run. I fired, and the thing still
• 3:15:54
  Speaker 1: came on. Fired again, point blank into its ugly face.
• 3:15:59
  Speaker 1: I saw its teacher's vanish in a flash. Its face
• 3:16:02
  Speaker 1: was driven in. Yet it passed me, gripped Montgomery, and
• 3:16:06
  Speaker 1: holding him, fell headlong beside him and pulled him, sprawling
• 3:16:09
  Speaker 1: upon itself in its death agony. I found myself alone
• 3:16:13
  Speaker 1: with Emling, the dead brute, and the prostrate man. Montgomery
• 3:16:18
  Speaker 1: raised himself slowly and stared in a muddled way at
• 3:16:21
  Speaker 1: the shattered beast man beside him. It more than half
• 3:16:24
  Speaker 1: sobered him. He scrambled to his feet. Then I saw
• 3:16:29
  Speaker 1: the gray thing returning cautiously through the trees. See, said I,
• 3:16:34
  Speaker 1: pointing to the dead brute. Is the law not alive?
• 3:16:38
  Speaker 1: This came of breaking the law. He peered at the body.
• 3:16:41
  Speaker 1: He sends the fire that kills, said he in his
• 3:16:44
  Speaker 1: deep voice, repeating part of the ritual. The others gathered
• 3:16:48
  Speaker 1: round and stared for a space. At last we drew
• 3:16:52
  Speaker 1: near the westward extremity of the island. We came upon
• 3:16:56
  Speaker 1: the gnawed and mutilated body of the puma, its shoulder
• 3:16:59
  Speaker 1: bone smashed by a bullet, and perhaps twenty yards farther,
• 3:17:02
  Speaker 1: found at last what we sought. Moreau lay face downward
• 3:17:06
  Speaker 1: in a trampled space in a cane break. One hand
• 3:17:09
  Speaker 1: was almost severed at the wrist, and his silvery hair
• 3:17:12
  Speaker 1: was dabbled in blood. His head had been battered in
• 3:17:15
  Speaker 1: by the fetters of the puma. The broken canes beneath
• 3:17:19
  Speaker 1: him were smeared with blood. His revolver we could not find.
• 3:17:24
  Speaker 1: Montgomery turned him over, resting at intervals, and with the
• 3:17:28
  Speaker 1: help of the seven beast people, for he was a
• 3:17:30
  Speaker 1: heavy man, we carried Moreau back to the enclosure. The
• 3:17:34
  Speaker 1: night was darkling. Twice we heard unseen creatures howling and
• 3:17:39
  Speaker 1: shrieking past our little band, and once the little pink
• 3:17:42
  Speaker 1: sloth creature appeared and stared at us, and vanished again.
• 3:17:46
  Speaker 1: But we were not attacked again. At the gates of
• 3:17:49
  Speaker 1: the enclosure, our company of beast people left us emmling.
• 3:17:52
  Speaker 1: Going with the rest. We locked ourselves in, and then
• 3:17:56
  Speaker 1: took Moreau's mangled body into the yard and laid it
• 3:17:59
  Speaker 1: upon a pile of brushwood. Then we went into the
• 3:18:02
  Speaker 1: laboratory and put an end to all we found living there.
• 3:18:06
  Speaker 1: Nineteen Montgomery's Bank holiday. When this was accomplished and we
• 3:18:11
  Speaker 1: had washed and eaten, Montgomery and I went into my
• 3:18:14
  Speaker 1: little room and seriously discussed our position for the first time.
• 3:18:18
  Speaker 1: It was then near midnight. He was almost sober, but
• 3:18:22
  Speaker 1: greatly disturbed in his mind. He had been strangely under
• 3:18:26
  Speaker 1: the influence of Moreau's personality. I do not think it
• 3:18:29
  Speaker 1: had ever occurred to him that Moreau could die. This
• 3:18:32
  Speaker 1: disaster was the sudden collapse of the habits that had
• 3:18:35
  Speaker 1: become part of his nature in the ten or more
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 1: monotonous years he had spent on the island. He talked vaguely,
• 3:18:41
  Speaker 1: answered my questions crookedly, wandered into general questions. This silly
• 3:18:46
  Speaker 1: ass of a world, he said, What a muddle it
• 3:18:49
  Speaker 1: all is. I haven't had any life. I wonder when
• 3:18:53
  Speaker 1: it's going to begin. Sixteen years being bullied by nurses
• 3:18:57
  Speaker 1: and schoolmasters at their own sweet will five in London,
• 3:19:00
  Speaker 1: grinding hard at medicine, bad food, shabby lodgings, shabby clothes,
• 3:19:05
  Speaker 1: shabby vice, A blunder. I didn't know any better, and
• 3:19:08
  Speaker 1: hustled off to this beastly island. Ten years here? What's
• 3:19:13
  Speaker 1: it all for, Prendick? Are we bubbles blown by a baby?
• 3:19:18
  Speaker 1: It was hard to deal with such ravings. The thing
• 3:19:22
  Speaker 1: we have to think of now, said I, is how
• 3:19:24
  Speaker 1: to get away from this island. What's the good of
• 3:19:27
  Speaker 1: getting away? I'm an outcast. Where am I to join on?
• 3:19:33
  Speaker 1: It's all very well for you, Prendick, poor old Moreau.
• 3:19:38
  Speaker 1: We can't leave him here to have his bones picked
• 3:19:41
  Speaker 1: as it is. And besides, what will become of the
• 3:19:44
  Speaker 1: decent part of the beast folk, well, said I, that
• 3:19:48
  Speaker 1: will do tomorrow. I've been thinking we might make the
• 3:19:52
  Speaker 1: brushwood into a pyre and burn his body and those
• 3:19:55
  Speaker 1: other things. Then what will happen with the beast folk?
• 3:19:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I suppose those that were made of
• 3:20:02
  Speaker 1: beasts of prey will make silly asses of themselves. Sooner
• 3:20:05
  Speaker 1: or later. We can't massacre the lot, can we. I
• 3:20:10
  Speaker 1: suppose that's what your humanity would suggest. But they'll change.
• 3:20:15
  Speaker 1: They are sure to change. He talked thus inconclusively, until
• 3:20:18
  Speaker 1: at last I felt my temper going damnation, he exclaimed,
• 3:20:23
  Speaker 1: at some petulance of mine. Can't you see I'm in
• 3:20:26
  Speaker 1: a worse hole than you are. And he got up
• 3:20:28
  Speaker 1: and went for the brandy drink, he said, returning you
• 3:20:32
  Speaker 1: logic chopping, chalky faced saint of an atheist drink not,
• 3:20:37
  Speaker 1: I said I, and sat grimly watching his face under
• 3:20:40
  Speaker 1: the yellow paraffin flare as he drank himself into a
• 3:20:43
  Speaker 1: garrulous misery. I have a memory of infinite tedium. He
• 3:20:48
  Speaker 1: wandered into a maudlin defense of the beast people and
• 3:20:51
  Speaker 1: of Emling. Em Ling, he said, was the only thing
• 3:20:54
  Speaker 1: that had ever really cared for him. And suddenly an
• 3:20:58
  Speaker 1: idea came to him. I'm damned, said he, staggering to
• 3:21:02
  Speaker 1: his feet and clutching the brandy bottle. By some flash
• 3:21:06
  Speaker 1: of intuition, I knew what it was. He intended. You
• 3:21:09
  Speaker 1: don't give drink to that beast, I said, rising and
• 3:21:12
  Speaker 1: facing him. Beast said he you're the beast. He takes
• 3:21:18
  Speaker 1: his liquor like a Christian. Come out of the way, Prendick,
• 3:21:23
  Speaker 1: for God's sake, said I. Get out of the way.
• 3:21:26
  Speaker 1: He roared, and suddenly whipped out his revolver. Very well,
• 3:21:30
  Speaker 1: said I, and stood aside, half minded to fall upon him,
• 3:21:34
  Speaker 1: as he put his hand upon the latch but deterred
• 3:21:36
  Speaker 1: by the thought of my useless arm. You've made a
• 3:21:40
  Speaker 1: beast of yourself. To the beasts, you may go. He
• 3:21:43
  Speaker 1: flung the doorway open and stood half facing me between
• 3:21:46
  Speaker 1: the yellow lamp light and the pallid glare of the moon.
• 3:21:49
  Speaker 1: His eye sockets were blotches of black under his stubbly eyebrows.
• 3:21:53
  Speaker 1: You're a solemn prig prendick, a silly ass. You're always
• 3:21:58
  Speaker 1: fearing and fancying. We're on the edge of things. I'm
• 3:22:03
  Speaker 1: bound to cut my throat to morrow. I'm going to
• 3:22:06
  Speaker 1: have a damned bank holiday to night. He turned and
• 3:22:08
  Speaker 1: went out into the moonlight. Emling, he cried, Emling, old friend.
• 3:22:14
  Speaker 1: Three dim creatures in the silvery light came along the
• 3:22:16
  Speaker 1: edge of the one beach, one a white wrapped creature,
• 3:22:19
  Speaker 1: the other two blotches of blackness following it. They halted, staring.
• 3:22:25
  Speaker 1: Then I saw Emling's hunched shoulders as he came round
• 3:22:28
  Speaker 1: the corner of the house. Drink, cried Montgomery. Drink you brutes,
• 3:22:34
  Speaker 1: drink and be men. Damn, I'm the cleverest moro forgot this.
• 3:22:40
  Speaker 1: This is the last touch. Drink, I tell you, and
• 3:22:45
  Speaker 1: waving the bottle in his hand. He started off at
• 3:22:47
  Speaker 1: a kind of quick trot to the westward, Emling ranging
• 3:22:50
  Speaker 1: himself between him and the three dim creatures who followed.
• 3:22:53
  Speaker 1: I went to the doorway. They were already indistinct in
• 3:22:57
  Speaker 1: the midst of the moonlight before Montgomery halted. I saw
• 3:23:01
  Speaker 1: him administer a dose of the raw brandy to Emling,
• 3:23:04
  Speaker 1: and saw the five figures melt into one vague patch sing.
• 3:23:08
  Speaker 1: I heard Montgomery shout, sing altogether. Confound Old Prendick. That's
• 3:23:13
  Speaker 1: right now again, confound Old Prendick. The black group broke
• 3:23:18
  Speaker 1: up into five separate figures and wound slowly away from me.
• 3:23:21
  Speaker 1: Along the band of Shining Beach. Each went howling at
• 3:23:25
  Speaker 1: his own sweet will yelping insults at me, or giving
• 3:23:28
  Speaker 1: whatever other vent this new inspiration of brandy demanded. Presently,
• 3:23:32
  Speaker 1: I heard Montgomery's voice shouting right, turn, and they passed,
• 3:23:37
  Speaker 1: with their shouts and howls into the blackness of the
• 3:23:39
  Speaker 1: land were trees. Slowly, very slowly, they receded into silence.
• 3:23:45
  Speaker 1: The peaceful splendor of the night healed again. The moon
• 3:23:49
  Speaker 1: was now past the meridian, and traveling down the west.
• 3:23:53
  Speaker 1: It was at its full and very bright. Riding through
• 3:23:55
  Speaker 1: the empty blue sky. The shadow of the wall lay
• 3:23:59
  Speaker 1: a yarred wide and of inky blackness. At my feet.
• 3:24:03
  Speaker 1: The eastward sea was a featureless, gray, dark and mysterious.
• 3:24:07
  Speaker 1: And between the sea and the shadow, the gray sands
• 3:24:10
  Speaker 1: of volcanic glass and crystals flashed and shone like a
• 3:24:13
  Speaker 1: beach of diamonds. Behind me, the paraffin lamp flared hot
• 3:24:17
  Speaker 1: and ruddy. Then I shut the door, locked it, and
• 3:24:21
  Speaker 1: went into the enclosure, where Moreau lay beside his latest victims,
• 3:24:25
  Speaker 1: the staghounds and the Lama and some other wretched brutes,
• 3:24:28
  Speaker 1: With his massive face calm even after his terrible death,
• 3:24:31
  Speaker 1: and with the hard eyes open staring at the dead
• 3:24:33
  Speaker 1: white moon above, I sat down upon the edge of
• 3:24:37
  Speaker 1: the sink, and with my eyes upon the ghastly pile
• 3:24:40
  Speaker 1: of silvery light and ominous shadows, began to turn over
• 3:24:43
  Speaker 1: my plans. In the morning, I would gather some provisions
• 3:24:46
  Speaker 1: in the dinghy, and after setting fire to the pyre
• 3:24:49
  Speaker 1: before me, push out into the desolation of the high sea.
• 3:24:52
  Speaker 1: Once more, I felt that for Montgomery there was no help,
• 3:24:56
  Speaker 1: that he was, in truth half akin to these beast
• 3:24:59
  Speaker 1: fol ok, unfitted for human kindred. I do not know
• 3:25:03
  Speaker 1: how long. I sat there scheming. It must have been
• 3:25:06
  Speaker 1: an hour or so. Then my planning was interrupted by
• 3:25:10
  Speaker 1: the return of Montgomery to my neighborhood. I heard a
• 3:25:14
  Speaker 1: yelling form many throats, a tumult of exultant cries passing
• 3:25:17
  Speaker 1: down towards the beach, whooping and howling, and excited shrieks
• 3:25:21
  Speaker 1: that seemed to come to a stop near the water's edge.
• 3:25:24
  Speaker 1: The riot rose and fell. I heard heavy blows and
• 3:25:27
  Speaker 1: the splintering smash of wood, but it did not trouble me.
• 3:25:30
  Speaker 1: Then a discordant chanting began. My thoughts went back to
• 3:25:35
  Speaker 1: my means of escape. I got up, brought the lamp,
• 3:25:38
  Speaker 1: and went into a shed to look at some kegs
• 3:25:40
  Speaker 1: I had seen there. Then I became interested in the
• 3:25:44
  Speaker 1: contents of some biscuit tins and opened one. I saw
• 3:25:48
  Speaker 1: something out of the tail of my eye, a red figure,
• 3:25:51
  Speaker 1: and turned sharply. Behind me. Lay the yard, vividly black
• 3:25:55
  Speaker 1: and white in the moonlight, and the pile of wood
• 3:25:57
  Speaker 1: and faggots on which Moreau and his mutilated victims lay
• 3:26:00
  Speaker 1: one over another. They seemed to be gripping one another
• 3:26:04
  Speaker 1: in one last revengeful grapple. His wounds gaped black as night,
• 3:26:09
  Speaker 1: and the blood that had dripped lay in black patches
• 3:26:11
  Speaker 1: upon the sand. Then I saw, without understanding the cause
• 3:26:16
  Speaker 1: of my phantom, a ruddy glow that came and danced
• 3:26:18
  Speaker 1: and went upon the wall opposite. I misinterpreted this, fancied
• 3:26:23
  Speaker 1: it was a reflection of my flickering lamp, and turned
• 3:26:25
  Speaker 1: again to the stores in the shed. I went on
• 3:26:28
  Speaker 1: rummaging among them as well as a one armed man could,
• 3:26:32
  Speaker 1: finding this convenient thing in that, and putting them aside
• 3:26:35
  Speaker 1: for tomorrow's launch. My movements were slow, and the time
• 3:26:39
  Speaker 1: passed quickly. Insensibly, the daylight crept upon me. The chanting
• 3:26:45
  Speaker 1: died down, giving place to a clamor. Then it began again,
• 3:26:48
  Speaker 1: and suddenly broke into a tumult. I heard cries of
• 3:26:52
  Speaker 1: more more, a sound like quarreling, and a sudden wild shriek.
• 3:26:58
  Speaker 1: The quality of the sound's change so greatly that it
• 3:27:01
  Speaker 1: arrested my attention. I went out into the yard and listened. Then,
• 3:27:06
  Speaker 1: cutting like a knife across the confusion, came the crack
• 3:27:09
  Speaker 1: of a revolver. I rushed at once through my room
• 3:27:12
  Speaker 1: to the little doorway. As I did so, I heard
• 3:27:15
  Speaker 1: some of the packing cases behind me go sliding down
• 3:27:18
  Speaker 1: and smashed together with a clatter of glass on the
• 3:27:20
  Speaker 1: floor of the shed. But I did not heed these.
• 3:27:24
  Speaker 1: I flung the door open and looked out up the beach.
• 3:27:28
  Speaker 1: By the boat house, A bonfire was burning, raining up
• 3:27:30
  Speaker 1: sparks into the indistinctness of the dawn. Around this struggled
• 3:27:35
  Speaker 1: a mass of black figures. I heard Montgomery call my name.
• 3:27:40
  Speaker 1: I began to run at once towards this fire, revolver
• 3:27:43
  Speaker 1: in hand. I saw the pink tongue of Montgomery's pistol
• 3:27:47
  Speaker 1: lick out. Once close to the ground, he was down.
• 3:27:51
  Speaker 1: I shouted with all my strength and fired into the air.
• 3:27:55
  Speaker 1: I heard some one cry the master. The knotted black
• 3:27:58
  Speaker 1: struggle broke into scat uttering units. The fire leapt and
• 3:28:01
  Speaker 1: sank down. The crowd of beast people fled in sudden
• 3:28:05
  Speaker 1: panic before me up the beach. In my excitement, I
• 3:28:09
  Speaker 1: fired at their retreating backs as they disappeared among the bushes.
• 3:28:13
  Speaker 1: Then I turned to the black heaps upon the ground.
• 3:28:17
  Speaker 1: Montgomery lay on his back, with the hairy gray beast
• 3:28:20
  Speaker 1: man sprawling across his body. The brute was dead, but
• 3:28:24
  Speaker 1: still gripping Montgomery's throat with its curving claws. Nearby lay
• 3:28:28
  Speaker 1: Emmling on his face and quite still, his neck bitten open,
• 3:28:31
  Speaker 1: and the upper part of the smashed brandy bottle in
• 3:28:34
  Speaker 1: his hand. Two other figures lay near the fire, the
• 3:28:37
  Speaker 1: one motionless, the other groaning fitfully every now and then,
• 3:28:41
  Speaker 1: raising its head slowly, then dropping it again. I caught
• 3:28:45
  Speaker 1: hold of the gray man and pulled him off Montgomery's body.
• 3:28:48
  Speaker 1: His claws drew down the torn coat reluctantly as I
• 3:28:51
  Speaker 1: dragged him away. Montgomery was dark in the face and
• 3:28:55
  Speaker 1: scarcely breathing. I splashed seat water on his face and
• 3:28:59
  Speaker 1: pillowed his head on my rolled up coat. Emling was dead.
• 3:29:04
  Speaker 1: The wounded creature by the fire. It was a wolf
• 3:29:06
  Speaker 1: brute with a bearded gray face. Lay I found with
• 3:29:10
  Speaker 1: the fore part of its body upon the still glowing timber.
• 3:29:13
  Speaker 1: The wretched thing was injured so dreadfully that in mercy
• 3:29:16
  Speaker 1: I blew its brains out at once. The other brute
• 3:29:20
  Speaker 1: was one of the bull men, swathed in white. He
• 3:29:23
  Speaker 1: too was dead. The rest of the beast people had
• 3:29:26
  Speaker 1: vanished from the beach. I went to Montgomery again and
• 3:29:30
  Speaker 1: knelt beside him, cursing my ignorance of medicine. The fire
• 3:29:34
  Speaker 1: beside me had sunk down, and only charred beams of timber,
• 3:29:38
  Speaker 1: glowing at the central ends and mixed with a gray
• 3:29:40
  Speaker 1: ash of brushwood remained. I wondered casually where Montgomery had
• 3:29:44
  Speaker 1: got his wood. Then I saw that the dawn was
• 3:29:47
  Speaker 1: upon us. The sky had grown brighter, the setting moon
• 3:29:51
  Speaker 1: was becoming pale and opaque in the luminous blue of
• 3:29:54
  Speaker 1: the day. The sky to the eastward was rimmed with red.
• 3:29:59
  Speaker 1: Suddenly I heard the thud and a hissing behind me,
• 3:30:01
  Speaker 1: and looking round, sprang to my feet with a cry
• 3:30:05
  Speaker 1: of horror. Against the warm dawn, great tumultuous masses of
• 3:30:09
  Speaker 1: black smoke were boiling up out of the enclosure, and
• 3:30:12
  Speaker 1: through their stormy darkness shot flickering threads of blood red flame.
• 3:30:16
  Speaker 1: Then the thatched roof caught I saw the curving charge
• 3:30:20
  Speaker 1: of the flames across the sloping straw. A spurt of
• 3:30:23
  Speaker 1: fire jetted from the window of my room. I knew
• 3:30:27
  Speaker 1: at once what had happened. I remembered the crash I
• 3:30:30
  Speaker 1: had heard when I had rushed out to Montgomery's assistance.
• 3:30:34
  Speaker 1: I had overturned the lamp. The hopelessness of saving any
• 3:30:38
  Speaker 1: of the contents of the enclosure stared me in the face.
• 3:30:42
  Speaker 1: My mind came back to my plan of flight, and
• 3:30:44
  Speaker 1: turning swiftly, I looked to see where the two boats
• 3:30:47
  Speaker 1: lay upon the beach. They were gone. Two axes lay
• 3:30:51
  Speaker 1: upon the sands beside me. Chips and splinters were scattered broadcast,
• 3:30:56
  Speaker 1: and the ashes of the bonfire were blackening and smoking
• 3:30:58
  Speaker 1: under the dawn. Montgomery had burnt the boats to revenge
• 3:31:02
  Speaker 1: himself upon me and prevent our return to mankind. A
• 3:31:06
  Speaker 1: sudden convulsion of rage shook me. I was almost moved
• 3:31:10
  Speaker 1: to batter his foolish head in as he lay there
• 3:31:12
  Speaker 1: helpless at my feet. Then suddenly his hand moved so feebly,
• 3:31:17
  Speaker 1: so pitifully, that my wrath vanished. He groaned and opened
• 3:31:22
  Speaker 1: his eyes For a minute. I knelt down beside him
• 3:31:25
  Speaker 1: and raised his head. He opened his eyes again, staring
• 3:31:29
  Speaker 1: silently at the dawn, and then they met mine. The
• 3:31:33
  Speaker 1: lids fell Sorry, he said, presently, with an effort. He
• 3:31:38
  Speaker 1: seemed trying to think the last. He murmured, the last
• 3:31:42
  Speaker 1: of this silly universe. What a mess. I listened. His
• 3:31:47
  Speaker 1: head fell helplessly to one side. I thought some drink
• 3:31:51
  Speaker 1: might revive him, but there was neither drink nor vessel
• 3:31:54
  Speaker 1: in which to bring drink. At hand. He seemed suddenly heavier.
• 3:31:59
  Speaker 1: My heart went cold. I bent down to his face,
• 3:32:03
  Speaker 1: put my hand through the rent in his blouse. He
• 3:32:06
  Speaker 1: was dead, and even as he dyed, a line of
• 3:32:08
  Speaker 1: white heat. The limb of the sun rose eastward beyond
• 3:32:11
  Speaker 1: the projection of the bay, splashing its radiance across the sky,
• 3:32:15
  Speaker 1: and turning the dark sea into a weltering tumult of
• 3:32:17
  Speaker 1: dazzling light. It fell like a glory upon his death,
• 3:32:21
  Speaker 1: shrunken face, I let his head fall gently upon the
• 3:32:25
  Speaker 1: rough pillow I had made for him, and stood up.
• 3:32:28
  Speaker 1: Before me was the glittering desolation of the sea, the
• 3:32:31
  Speaker 1: awful solitude upon which I had already suffered so much.
• 3:32:34
  Speaker 1: Behind me, the island hushed under the dawn, its beast
• 3:32:37
  Speaker 1: people silent and unseen. The enclosure, with all its provisions
• 3:32:42
  Speaker 1: and ammunition, burnt noisily with sudden gusts of flame, a
• 3:32:46
  Speaker 1: fitful crackling, and now and then a crash. The heavy
• 3:32:50
  Speaker 1: smoke drove up the beach away from me, rolling low
• 3:32:53
  Speaker 1: over the distant tree tops towards the huts in the ravine.
• 3:32:56
  Speaker 1: Beside me were the charred vestiges of the boats and
• 3:32:59
  Speaker 1: these five dead bodies. Then out of the bushes came
• 3:33:03
  Speaker 1: three beast people with hunched shoulders, protruding heads, misshapen hands
• 3:33:07
  Speaker 1: awkwardly held, and inquisitive, unfriendly eyes, and advanced towards me
• 3:33:12
  Speaker 1: with hesitating gestures. X X. Alone with the beast folk,
• 3:33:17
  Speaker 1: I faced these people, facing my fate in them, single handed,
• 3:33:21
  Speaker 1: now literally single handed, for I had a broken arm.
• 3:33:25
  Speaker 1: In my pocket was a revolver with two empty chambers.
• 3:33:29
  Speaker 1: Among the chips scattered about the beach lay the two
• 3:33:31
  Speaker 1: axes that had been used to chop up the boats.
• 3:33:34
  Speaker 1: The tide was creeping in behind me. There was nothing
• 3:33:38
  Speaker 1: for it but courage. I looked squarely into the faces
• 3:33:42
  Speaker 1: of the advancing monsters. They avoided my eyes, and their
• 3:33:46
  Speaker 1: quivering nostrils investigated the bodies that lay beyond me on
• 3:33:49
  Speaker 1: the beach. I took half a dozen steps, picked up
• 3:33:53
  Speaker 1: the blood stained whip that lay beneath the body of
• 3:33:55
  Speaker 1: the wolf man, and cracked it. They stopped and stared
• 3:33:59
  Speaker 1: at me. Salute, said I bow down. They hesitated, one
• 3:34:05
  Speaker 1: bent his knees. I repeated my command with my heart
• 3:34:09
  Speaker 1: in my mouth, and advanced upon them. One knelt, then
• 3:34:13
  Speaker 1: the other too. I turned and walked towards the dead bodies,
• 3:34:17
  Speaker 1: keeping my face towards the three kneeling beast men, very
• 3:34:21
  Speaker 1: much as an actor, passing up the stage, face as
• 3:34:23
  Speaker 1: the audience. They broke the law, said I, putting my
• 3:34:27
  Speaker 1: foot on the sayer of the law. They have been slain,
• 3:34:30
  Speaker 1: even the sayer of the law, even the other with
• 3:34:33
  Speaker 1: the whip. Great is the law. Come and see none escape,
• 3:34:39
  Speaker 1: said one of them, advancing and peering. None escape, said I,
• 3:34:44
  Speaker 1: therefore hear and do as I command. They stood up,
• 3:34:47
  Speaker 1: looking questioningly at one another. Stand there, said I. I
• 3:34:52
  Speaker 1: picked up the hatchets and swung them by their heads
• 3:34:54
  Speaker 1: from the sling of my arm. Turned Montgomery over, picked
• 3:34:57
  Speaker 1: up his revolver, still loaded in two chambers, and bending
• 3:35:00
  Speaker 1: down to rummage, found half a dozen cartridges in his pocket.
• 3:35:05
  Speaker 1: Take him, said I, standing up again, and pointing with
• 3:35:08
  Speaker 1: the whip. Take him and carry him out and cast
• 3:35:10
  Speaker 1: him into the sea. They came forward, evidently still afraid
• 3:35:15
  Speaker 1: of Montgomery, but still more afraid of my cracking red whiplash.
• 3:35:19
  Speaker 1: And after some fumbling and hesitation, some whip cracking and shouting,
• 3:35:23
  Speaker 1: they lifted him gingerly carried him down to the beach
• 3:35:26
  Speaker 1: and went splashing into the dazzling welter of the sea.
• 3:35:30
  Speaker 1: On said I, on carry him far. They went up
• 3:35:35
  Speaker 1: to their armpits and stood regarding me. Let go, said I,
• 3:35:39
  Speaker 1: and the body of Montgomery vanished with a splash. Something
• 3:35:43
  Speaker 1: seemed to tighten across my chest. Good, said I, with
• 3:35:48
  Speaker 1: a break in my voice. And they came back, hurrying
• 3:35:51
  Speaker 1: and fearful, to the margin of the water, leaving long
• 3:35:53
  Speaker 1: wakes of black in the silver at the water's edge.
• 3:35:57
  Speaker 1: They stopped turning and glaring into the sea, as though
• 3:36:00
  Speaker 1: they presently expected Montgomery to arise therefrom an exact vengeance.
• 3:36:05
  Speaker 1: Now these, said I, pointing to the other bodies. They
• 3:36:09
  Speaker 1: took care not to approach the place where they had
• 3:36:11
  Speaker 1: thrown Montgomery into the water, but instead carried the four
• 3:36:15
  Speaker 1: dead beast people slantingly along the beach for perhaps a
• 3:36:18
  Speaker 1: hundred yards before they waded out and cast them away.
• 3:36:21
  Speaker 1: As I watched them disposing of the mangled remains of Emling,
• 3:36:25
  Speaker 1: I heard a light footfall behind me, and, turning quickly,
• 3:36:28
  Speaker 1: saw the big hyenas Wine perhaps a dozen yards away.
• 3:36:32
  Speaker 1: His head was bent down, his bright eyes were fixed
• 3:36:34
  Speaker 1: upon me, his stumpy hands clenched and held close by
• 3:36:37
  Speaker 1: his side. He stopped in this crouching attitude when I turned,
• 3:36:42
  Speaker 1: his eyes a little averted. For a moment we stood
• 3:36:45
  Speaker 1: I to eye. I dropped the whip and snatched at
• 3:36:48
  Speaker 1: the pistol in my pocket, for I meant to kill
• 3:36:50
  Speaker 1: this brute, the most formidable of any left now upon
• 3:36:53
  Speaker 1: the island, at the first excuse. It may seem treacherous,
• 3:36:58
  Speaker 1: but so I was resolved. I was far more afraid
• 3:37:01
  Speaker 1: of him than of any other two of the beast folk.
• 3:37:05
  Speaker 1: His continued life was I knew a thread against mine.
• 3:37:08
  Speaker 1: I was perhaps a dozen seconds collecting myself, then cried,
• 3:37:12
  Speaker 1: I salute, bow down. His teeth flashed upon me in
• 3:37:17
  Speaker 1: a snarl. Who are you that I should perhaps a
• 3:37:20
  Speaker 1: little too Spasmodically, I drew my revolver, aimed quickly and fired.
• 3:37:25
  Speaker 1: I heard him yelp, saw him run sideways. In turn.
• 3:37:28
  Speaker 1: Knew I had missed, and clicked back the cock with
• 3:37:31
  Speaker 1: my thumb for the next shot. But he was already
• 3:37:34
  Speaker 1: running headlong, jumping from side to side, and I dared
• 3:37:38
  Speaker 1: not risk another miss. Every now and then he looked
• 3:37:41
  Speaker 1: back at me over his shoulder. He went slanting along
• 3:37:45
  Speaker 1: the beach and vanished beneath the driving masses of dense
• 3:37:48
  Speaker 1: smoke that were still pouring out from the burning enclosure.
• 3:37:51
  Speaker 1: For some time, I stood staring after him. I turned
• 3:37:55
  Speaker 1: to my three obedient beast folk again and signaled them
• 3:37:58
  Speaker 1: to drop the body they still carried. Then I went
• 3:38:01
  Speaker 1: back to the place by the fire where the bodies
• 3:38:03
  Speaker 1: had fallen, and kicked the sand until all the brown
• 3:38:05
  Speaker 1: blood stains were absorbed and hidden. I dismissed my three
• 3:38:09
  Speaker 1: serfs with a wave of the hand and went up
• 3:38:12
  Speaker 1: the beach into the thickets. I carried my pistol in
• 3:38:15
  Speaker 1: my hand, my whip thrust with the hatchets, and the
• 3:38:18
  Speaker 1: sling of my arm. I was anxious to be alone,
• 3:38:21
  Speaker 1: to think out the position in which I was now placed.
• 3:38:25
  Speaker 1: A dreadful thing that I was only beginning to realize
• 3:38:27
  Speaker 1: was that over all this island there was now no
• 3:38:30
  Speaker 1: safe place where I could be alone and secure to
• 3:38:32
  Speaker 1: rest or sleep. I had recovered strength amazingly since my landing,
• 3:38:37
  Speaker 1: but I was still inclined to be nervous and to
• 3:38:39
  Speaker 1: break down under any great stress. I felt that I
• 3:38:42
  Speaker 1: ought to cross the island and establish myself with the
• 3:38:45
  Speaker 1: beast people and make myself secure in their confidence. But
• 3:38:49
  Speaker 1: my heart failed me. I went back to the beach,
• 3:38:53
  Speaker 1: and turning eastward past the burning enclosure, made for a
• 3:38:56
  Speaker 1: point where a shallow spit of coral sand ran out
• 3:38:58
  Speaker 1: towards the reef. Here I could sit down and think,
• 3:39:02
  Speaker 1: my back to the sea and my face against any surprise.
• 3:39:06
  Speaker 1: And there I sat chin on knees, the sun beating
• 3:39:09
  Speaker 1: down upon my head, an unspeakable dread in my mind,
• 3:39:12
  Speaker 1: plotting how I could live on against the hour of
• 3:39:14
  Speaker 1: my rescue, if ever rescue came. I tried to review
• 3:39:18
  Speaker 1: the whole situation as calmly as I could, but it
• 3:39:20
  Speaker 1: was difficult to clear the thing of emotion. I began
• 3:39:24
  Speaker 1: turning over in my mind the reason of Montgomery's despair.
• 3:39:28
  Speaker 1: They will change, he said, They are sure to change.
• 3:39:31
  Speaker 1: And Moreau what was it that Moreau had said? The
• 3:39:34
  Speaker 1: stubborn beast flesh grows day by day back again. Then
• 3:39:37
  Speaker 1: I came round to the hyenas wine. I felt sure
• 3:39:41
  Speaker 1: that if I did not kill that brute, he would
• 3:39:43
  Speaker 1: kill me. The Sayer of the Law was dead. Worse luck,
• 3:39:48
  Speaker 1: they knew now that we of the whips could be
• 3:39:50
  Speaker 1: killed even as they themselves were killed. Were they peering
• 3:39:53
  Speaker 1: at me, already out of the green masses of ferns
• 3:39:56
  Speaker 1: and palms over yonder, watching until I came within their spring?
• 3:40:00
  Speaker 1: Were they plodding against me? What was the hyena swine
• 3:40:04
  Speaker 1: telling them? My imagination was running away with me into
• 3:40:08
  Speaker 1: a morass of unsubstantial fears. My thoughts were disturbed by
• 3:40:12
  Speaker 1: a crying of sea birds, hurrying towards some black object
• 3:40:15
  Speaker 1: that had been stranded by the waves on the beach
• 3:40:17
  Speaker 1: near the enclosure. I knew what that object was, but
• 3:40:21
  Speaker 1: I had not the heart to go back and drive
• 3:40:23
  Speaker 1: them off. I began walking along the beach in the
• 3:40:26
  Speaker 1: opposite direction, designing to come round the eastward corner of
• 3:40:30
  Speaker 1: the island and so approach the ravine of the huts
• 3:40:32
  Speaker 1: without traversing the possible ambuscades of the thickets. Perhaps half
• 3:40:36
  Speaker 1: a mile along the beach, I became aware of one
• 3:40:39
  Speaker 1: of my three beast folk advancing out of the landward
• 3:40:41
  Speaker 1: bushes towards me. I was now so nervous with my
• 3:40:45
  Speaker 1: own imaginings that I immediately drew my revolver. Even the
• 3:40:49
  Speaker 1: propitiatory gestures of the creature failed to disarm me. He hesitated
• 3:40:54
  Speaker 1: as he approached. Go Away, cried, I there was something
• 3:40:58
  Speaker 1: very suggestive of a dog, and the cringing attitude of
• 3:41:01
  Speaker 1: the creature. It retreated a little way, very like a
• 3:41:04
  Speaker 1: dog being sent home, and stopped, looking at me imploringly
• 3:41:08
  Speaker 1: with canine brown eyes. Go Away, said I do not
• 3:41:12
  Speaker 1: come near me. May I not come near you? It said, no,
• 3:41:17
  Speaker 1: go away, I insisted, and snapped my whip. Then, putting
• 3:41:22
  Speaker 1: my whip in my teeth, I stooped for a stone,
• 3:41:25
  Speaker 1: and with that threat drove the creature away. So in
• 3:41:28
  Speaker 1: solitude I came round by the ravine of the beast people,
• 3:41:31
  Speaker 1: and hiding among the weeds and reeds that separated this
• 3:41:34
  Speaker 1: crevice from the sea, I watched such of them as appeared,
• 3:41:37
  Speaker 1: trying to judge from their gestures and appearance, how the
• 3:41:40
  Speaker 1: death of Moreau and Montgomery and the destruction of the
• 3:41:43
  Speaker 1: House of Pain had affected them. I know now the
• 3:41:46
  Speaker 1: folly of my cowardice. Had I kept my courage up
• 3:41:50
  Speaker 1: to the level of the dawn, had I not allowed
• 3:41:52
  Speaker 1: it to ebb away in solitary thought, I might have
• 3:41:54
  Speaker 1: grasped the vacant scepter of Moreau and ruled over the
• 3:41:57
  Speaker 1: beast people. As it was, I lost the opportunity and
• 3:42:01
  Speaker 1: sank to the position of a mere leader among my fellows.
• 3:42:04
  Speaker 1: Towards noon, certain of them came and squatted basking in
• 3:42:07
  Speaker 1: the hot sand. The imperious voices of hunger and thirst
• 3:42:11
  Speaker 1: prevailed over my dread. I came out of the bushes
• 3:42:15
  Speaker 1: and revolver in hand, walked down towards these seated figures.
• 3:42:20
  Speaker 1: One a wolf woman turned her head and stared at me,
• 3:42:23
  Speaker 1: and then the others. None attempted to rise or salute me.
• 3:42:28
  Speaker 1: I felt too faint and weary to insist, and I
• 3:42:31
  Speaker 1: let the moment pass. I want food, said I, almost apologetically,
• 3:42:36
  Speaker 1: and drawing near. There is food in the huts, said
• 3:42:40
  Speaker 1: an ox boor man, drowsily, and looking away from me.
• 3:42:44
  Speaker 1: I passed them and went down into the shadow and
• 3:42:47
  Speaker 1: odors of the almost deserted ravine. In an empty hut,
• 3:42:50
  Speaker 1: I feasted on some specked and half decayed fruit, And then,
• 3:42:53
  Speaker 1: after I had propped some branches and sticks about the opening,
• 3:42:56
  Speaker 1: and placed myself with my face towards it, and my
• 3:42:59
  Speaker 1: hand upon my revolver. The exhaustion of the last thirty
• 3:43:02
  Speaker 1: hours claimed its own and I fell into a light slumber,
• 3:43:06
  Speaker 1: hoping that the flimsy barricade I had erected would cause
• 3:43:09
  Speaker 1: sufficient noise in its removal to save me from surprise
• 3:43:12
  Speaker 1: twenty one, the reversion of the beast folk. In this way,
• 3:43:16
  Speaker 1: I became one among the beast people in the island
• 3:43:19
  Speaker 1: of Doctor Moreau. When I awoke, it was dark about me,
• 3:43:24
  Speaker 1: my arm ached in its bandages. I sat up, wondering
• 3:43:28
  Speaker 1: at first where I might be. I heard coarse voices
• 3:43:31
  Speaker 1: talking outside. Then I saw that my barricade had gone,
• 3:43:35
  Speaker 1: and that the opening of the hut stood clear. My
• 3:43:39
  Speaker 1: revolver was still in my hand. I heard something breathing,
• 3:43:43
  Speaker 1: saw something crouched together close beside me. I held my breath,
• 3:43:47
  Speaker 1: trying to see what it was. It began to move
• 3:43:50
  Speaker 1: slowly interminably. Then something soft and warm and moist passed
• 3:43:55
  Speaker 1: across my hand. All my muscles contracted. I snatched my
• 3:44:01
  Speaker 1: hand away. A cry of alarm began and was stifled
• 3:44:05
  Speaker 1: in my throat. Then I just realized what had happened
• 3:44:08
  Speaker 1: sufficiently to stay my fingers on the revolver. Who is that?
• 3:44:12
  Speaker 1: I said in a hoarse whisper. The revolver still pointed
• 3:44:16
  Speaker 1: I Master, Who are you? They say there is no
• 3:44:21
  Speaker 1: master now, But I know, I know. I carried the
• 3:44:25
  Speaker 1: bodies into the sea. O walker in the sea, the
• 3:44:29
  Speaker 1: bodies of those you slew. I am your slave. Master.
• 3:44:34
  Speaker 1: Are you the one I met on the beach? I
• 3:44:36
  Speaker 1: asked the same master. The thing was evidently faithful enough,
• 3:44:40
  Speaker 1: for it might have fallen upon me as I slept.
• 3:44:44
  Speaker 1: It is well, I said, extending my hand for another
• 3:44:47
  Speaker 1: licking kiss. I began to realize what its presence meant,
• 3:44:51
  Speaker 1: and the tide of my courage flowed. Where are the others,
• 3:44:55
  Speaker 1: I asked? They are mad? They are fools, said the
• 3:44:59
  Speaker 1: dog man. Even now they talk together beyond there. They
• 3:45:04
  Speaker 1: say the master is dead. The other with the whip
• 3:45:07
  Speaker 1: is dead. That other who walked in the sea is
• 3:45:10
  Speaker 1: as we are. We have no master, no whips, no
• 3:45:14
  Speaker 1: house of pain any more. There is an end. We
• 3:45:19
  Speaker 1: love the law and will keep it, but there is
• 3:45:21
  Speaker 1: no pain, no master, no whips. Forever again, so they say,
• 3:45:26
  Speaker 1: but I know, Master, I know, I felt in the
• 3:45:29
  Speaker 1: darkness and patted the dog Man's head. It is well,
• 3:45:33
  Speaker 1: I said again. Presently you will slay them all, said
• 3:45:37
  Speaker 1: the dog man. Presently, I answered, I will slay them all.
• 3:45:41
  Speaker 1: After certain days and certain things have come to pass.
• 3:45:45
  Speaker 1: Every one of them, save those you spare, every one
• 3:45:47
  Speaker 1: of them shall be slain. What the Master wishes to kill,
• 3:45:51
  Speaker 1: the Master kills, said the dog man, with a certain
• 3:45:54
  Speaker 1: satisfaction in his voice. And that their sins may grow,
• 3:45:58
  Speaker 1: I said. Let them live in their folly until their
• 3:46:01
  Speaker 1: time is ripe. Let them not know that I am
• 3:46:04
  Speaker 1: the master. The masters will as sweet, said the dog man,
• 3:46:08
  Speaker 1: with the ready tact of his canine blood. But one
• 3:46:11
  Speaker 1: has sinned, said I him. I will kill whenever I
• 3:46:14
  Speaker 1: may meet him. When I say to you, that is he,
• 3:46:18
  Speaker 1: see that you fall upon him. And now I will
• 3:46:21
  Speaker 1: go to the men and women who are assembled together
• 3:46:24
  Speaker 1: for a moment. The opening of the hut was blackened
• 3:46:26
  Speaker 1: by the exit of the dog man. Then I followed
• 3:46:29
  Speaker 1: and stood up almost in the exact spot where I
• 3:46:32
  Speaker 1: had been when I had heard Moreau and his staghound
• 3:46:34
  Speaker 1: pursuing me. But now it was night, and all the
• 3:46:37
  Speaker 1: miasmatic ravine about me was black, and beyond, instead of
• 3:46:41
  Speaker 1: a green, sunlit slope, I saw a red fire, before
• 3:46:45
  Speaker 1: which hunched grotesque figures moved to and fro farther were
• 3:46:49
  Speaker 1: the thick trees, a bank of darkness fringed above with
• 3:46:52
  Speaker 1: the black lace of the upper branches. The moon was
• 3:46:56
  Speaker 1: just riding up on the edge of the ravine, and
• 3:46:58
  Speaker 1: like a bar across its drove the spire of vapor
• 3:47:01
  Speaker 1: that was forever streaming from the fumaroles of the island.
• 3:47:05
  Speaker 1: Walk by me, said I, nerving myself, and side by
• 3:47:08
  Speaker 1: side we walked down the narrow way, taking little heat
• 3:47:11
  Speaker 1: of the dim things that peered at us out of
• 3:47:13
  Speaker 1: the huts. None about the fire attempted to salute me.
• 3:47:17
  Speaker 1: Most of them disregarded me ostentatiously. I looked round for
• 3:47:22
  Speaker 1: the hyena swine, but he was not there. Altogether, perhaps
• 3:47:26
  Speaker 1: twenty of the beast folk squatted, staring into the fire
• 3:47:29
  Speaker 1: or talking to one another. He is dead. He is dead.
• 3:47:34
  Speaker 1: The Master is dead, said the voice of the ape man.
• 3:47:37
  Speaker 1: To the right of me. The house of pain. There
• 3:47:40
  Speaker 1: is no house of pain. He is not dead, said I,
• 3:47:44
  Speaker 1: in a loud voice. Even now he watches us. This
• 3:47:48
  Speaker 1: startled them. Twenty pairs of eyes regarded me. The house
• 3:47:53
  Speaker 1: of pain is gone, said I. It will come again.
• 3:47:56
  Speaker 1: The Master. You cannot see yet, even now he listens
• 3:47:59
  Speaker 1: among you. True, true, said the dog man. They were
• 3:48:05
  Speaker 1: staggered at my assurance. An animal may be ferocious and
• 3:48:09
  Speaker 1: cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell
• 3:48:11
  Speaker 1: a lie. The man with the bandaged arm speaks a
• 3:48:15
  Speaker 1: strange thing, said one of the beast folk. I tell
• 3:48:18
  Speaker 1: you it is so, I said the master, and the
• 3:48:21
  Speaker 1: house of pain will come again. Woe be to him
• 3:48:25
  Speaker 1: who breaks the law. They looked curiously at one another,
• 3:48:30
  Speaker 1: with an affectation of indifference. I began to chop idly
• 3:48:32
  Speaker 1: at the ground in front of me with my hatchet.
• 3:48:35
  Speaker 1: They looked. I noticed at the deep cuts I made
• 3:48:38
  Speaker 1: in the turf. Then the sadder raised a doubt. I
• 3:48:42
  Speaker 1: answered him. Then one of the dappled things objected, and
• 3:48:46
  Speaker 1: an animated discussion sprang up round the fire. Every moment
• 3:48:50
  Speaker 1: I began to feel more convinced of my present security.
• 3:48:54
  Speaker 1: I talked now without the catching in my breath due
• 3:48:57
  Speaker 1: to the intensity of my excitement that had troubled me
• 3:49:00
  Speaker 1: at first. In the course of about an hour, I
• 3:49:03
  Speaker 1: had really convinced several of the beast folk of the
• 3:49:05
  Speaker 1: truth of my assertions, and talked most of the others
• 3:49:08
  Speaker 1: into a dubious state. I kept a sharp by for
• 3:49:11
  Speaker 1: my enemy, the hyenas wine, but he never appeared. Every
• 3:49:15
  Speaker 1: now and then a suspicious movement would startle me, but
• 3:49:18
  Speaker 1: my confidence grew rapidly. Then, as the moon crept down
• 3:49:22
  Speaker 1: from the zenith, one by one the listeners began to yawn,
• 3:49:26
  Speaker 1: showing the oddest teeth in the light of the sinking fire,
• 3:49:28
  Speaker 1: And first one and then another retired towards the dens
• 3:49:31
  Speaker 1: in the ravine, and I, dreading the silence and darkness,
• 3:49:35
  Speaker 1: went with them, knowing I was safer with several of
• 3:49:37
  Speaker 1: them than with one alone. In this manner began the
• 3:49:40
  Speaker 1: longer part of my sojourn upon this island of Doctor Moreau.
• 3:49:44
  Speaker 1: But from that night until the end came, there was
• 3:49:47
  Speaker 1: but one thing happened to tell, save a series of
• 3:49:49
  Speaker 1: innumerable small, unpleasant details, and the fretting of an incessant uneasiness,
• 3:49:55
  Speaker 1: so that I preferred to make no chronicle for that
• 3:49:57
  Speaker 1: gap of time, to tell only one cardinal inscident. Of
• 3:50:00
  Speaker 1: the ten months I spent as an intimate of these
• 3:50:02
  Speaker 1: half humanized brutes, there is much that sticks in my
• 3:50:06
  Speaker 1: memory that I could write, things that I would cheerfully
• 3:50:08
  Speaker 1: give my right hand to forget, but they do not
• 3:50:11
  Speaker 1: help the telling of the story. In the retrospect, it
• 3:50:14
  Speaker 1: is strange to remember how soon I fell in with
• 3:50:16
  Speaker 1: these monsters ways and gained my confidence again. I had
• 3:50:21
  Speaker 1: my quarrels with them, of course, and could show some
• 3:50:23
  Speaker 1: of their teeth marks still, But they soon gained the
• 3:50:26
  Speaker 1: wholesome respect for my trick of throwing stones and for
• 3:50:28
  Speaker 1: the bite of my hatchet, and my Saint Bernard Man's
• 3:50:32
  Speaker 1: loyalty was of infinite service to me. I found their
• 3:50:35
  Speaker 1: simple scale of honor was based mainly on the capacity
• 3:50:38
  Speaker 1: for inflicting trenchant wounds. Indeed, I may say without vanity,
• 3:50:44
  Speaker 1: I hope that I held something like pre eminence among them,
• 3:50:48
  Speaker 1: one or two whom, in a rare access of high spirits,
• 3:50:51
  Speaker 1: I had scarred rather badly, bore me a grudge, but
• 3:50:54
  Speaker 1: invented itself chiefly behind my back and at a safe
• 3:50:57
  Speaker 1: distance from my missiles. In gramaces. The hyena swine avoided me,
• 3:51:02
  Speaker 1: and I was always on the alert for him. My
• 3:51:05
  Speaker 1: inseparable dog Man hated and dreaded him intensely. I really
• 3:51:09
  Speaker 1: believed that was at the root of the brute's attachment
• 3:51:12
  Speaker 1: to me. It was soon evident to me that the
• 3:51:14
  Speaker 1: former monster had tasted blood and gone the way of
• 3:51:17
  Speaker 1: the leopard man. He formed a lair somewhere in the
• 3:51:20
  Speaker 1: forest and became solitary once. I tried to induce the
• 3:51:25
  Speaker 1: beast folk to hunt him, but I lacked the authority
• 3:51:27
  Speaker 1: to make them co operate for one end. Again and
• 3:51:31
  Speaker 1: again I tried to approach his den and come upon
• 3:51:33
  Speaker 1: him unaware, but always he was too acute for me
• 3:51:36
  Speaker 1: and saw or winded me and got away. He too,
• 3:51:39
  Speaker 1: made every forest pathway dangerous to me and my ally
• 3:51:43
  Speaker 1: with his lurking ambuscades. The dog man scarcely dared to
• 3:51:47
  Speaker 1: leave my side. In the first month or so, The
• 3:51:50
  Speaker 1: beast folk, compared with their latter condition, were human enough,
• 3:51:54
  Speaker 1: and for one or two besides my canine friend, I
• 3:51:56
  Speaker 1: even conceived a friendly tolerance. The little pink sloth creature
• 3:52:01
  Speaker 1: displayed an odd affection for me and took to following
• 3:52:04
  Speaker 1: me about. The monkey man bored me, however, he assumed,
• 3:52:08
  Speaker 1: on the strength of his five digits that he was
• 3:52:11
  Speaker 1: my equal, and was forever jabbering at me, jabbering the
• 3:52:14
  Speaker 1: most errant nonsense. One thing about him entertained me a little.
• 3:52:18
  Speaker 1: He had a fantastic trick of coining new words. He
• 3:52:22
  Speaker 1: had an idea. I believe that to gabble about names
• 3:52:25
  Speaker 1: that meant nothing was the proper use of speech. He
• 3:52:29
  Speaker 1: called it big thinks, to distinguish it from little thinks,
• 3:52:32
  Speaker 1: the sane, every day interests of life. If ever I
• 3:52:36
  Speaker 1: made a remark he did not understand, he would praise
• 3:52:38
  Speaker 1: it very much, ask me to say it again, learn
• 3:52:41
  Speaker 1: it by heart, and go off repeating it with a
• 3:52:43
  Speaker 1: word wrong here or there, to all the milder of
• 3:52:46
  Speaker 1: the beast people. He thought nothing of what was plain
• 3:52:49
  Speaker 1: and comprehensible. I invented some very curious big thinks for
• 3:52:54
  Speaker 1: his especial use. I think now that he was the
• 3:52:58
  Speaker 1: silliest creature I ever met. He had developed in the
• 3:53:00
  Speaker 1: most wonderful way the distinctive silliness of man, without losing
• 3:53:03
  Speaker 1: one jot of the natural folly of a monkey. This,
• 3:53:07
  Speaker 1: I say, was in the earlier weeks of my solitude
• 3:53:10
  Speaker 1: among these brutes. During that time, they respected the usage
• 3:53:14
  Speaker 1: established by the law and behaved with general decorum. Once
• 3:53:18
  Speaker 1: I found another rabbit torn to pieces by the hyena swine,
• 3:53:22
  Speaker 1: I am assured, but that was all it was. About May,
• 3:53:26
  Speaker 1: when I first distinctly perceived a growing difference in their
• 3:53:28
  Speaker 1: speech and carriage, a growing coarseness of articulation, a growing
• 3:53:32
  Speaker 1: disinclination to talk. My monkey man's jabber multiplied in volume,
• 3:53:37
  Speaker 1: but grew less and less comprehensible, more and more simian.
• 3:53:41
  Speaker 1: Some of the others seemed altogether slipping their hold upon speech,
• 3:53:45
  Speaker 1: though they still understood what I said to them at
• 3:53:47
  Speaker 1: that time. Can you imagine language, once clear cut and exact,
• 3:53:52
  Speaker 1: softening and guttering, losing shape and import, becoming mere lumps
• 3:53:56
  Speaker 1: of sound again? And they walked erect with an increasing difficulty,
• 3:54:00
  Speaker 1: though they evidently felt ashamed of themselves. Every now and
• 3:54:03
  Speaker 1: then I would come upon one or another, running on
• 3:54:06
  Speaker 1: toes and finger tips, and quite unable to recover the
• 3:54:09
  Speaker 1: vertical attitude. They held things more clumsily. Drinking by suction,
• 3:54:14
  Speaker 1: feeding by gnawing, grew commoner. Every day. I realized, more
• 3:54:19
  Speaker 1: keenly than ever what Moreau had told me about the
• 3:54:21
  Speaker 1: stubborn beast flesh. They were reverting, and reverting very rapidly,
• 3:54:26
  Speaker 1: some of them, the pioneers in this I noticed with
• 3:54:29
  Speaker 1: some surprise, where all females began to disregard the injunction
• 3:54:33
  Speaker 1: of decency deliberately for the most part. Others even attempted
• 3:54:38
  Speaker 1: public outrages upon the institution of monogamy. The tradition of
• 3:54:42
  Speaker 1: the law was clearly losing its force. I cannot pursue
• 3:54:46
  Speaker 1: this disagreeable subject. My dog man imperceptibly slipped back to
• 3:54:51
  Speaker 1: the dog again. Day by day he became dumb, quadrupletal hairy.
• 3:54:56
  Speaker 1: I scarcely noticed the transition from the companion on my
• 3:54:59
  Speaker 1: right hand to the a lurching dog at my side.
• 3:55:02
  Speaker 1: As the carelessness and disorganization increased from day to day,
• 3:55:06
  Speaker 1: the lane of dwelling places, at no time very sweet,
• 3:55:09
  Speaker 1: became so loathsome that I left it, and, going across
• 3:55:13
  Speaker 1: the island, made myself a hovel of boughs amid the
• 3:55:15
  Speaker 1: black ruins of Moreau's enclosure. Some memory of pain I
• 3:55:20
  Speaker 1: found still made that place the safest from the beast folk.
• 3:55:24
  Speaker 1: It would be impossible to detail every step of the
• 3:55:27
  Speaker 1: lapsing of these monsters, to tell how, day by day
• 3:55:30
  Speaker 1: the human semblance left them, how they gave up bandagings
• 3:55:34
  Speaker 1: and wrappings, abandoned at last every stitch of clothing, how
• 3:55:37
  Speaker 1: the hair began to spread over the exposed limbs, how
• 3:55:40
  Speaker 1: their foreheads fell away and their faces projected how the
• 3:55:44
  Speaker 1: quasi human intimacy I had permitted myself with some of
• 3:55:47
  Speaker 1: them in the first month of my loneliness became a
• 3:55:49
  Speaker 1: shuddering horror. To recall, the change was slow and inevitable
• 3:55:54
  Speaker 1: for them, and for me. It came without any definite shock.
• 3:55:58
  Speaker 1: I still went among them in safety because no jolt
• 3:56:01
  Speaker 1: in the downward glide had released the increasing charge of
• 3:56:03
  Speaker 1: explosive animalism that ousted the human day by day. But
• 3:56:07
  Speaker 1: I began to fear that soon now that shock must come.
• 3:56:11
  Speaker 1: My Saint Bernard Brute followed me to the enclosure every night,
• 3:56:15
  Speaker 1: and his vigilance enabled me to sleep at times in
• 3:56:17
  Speaker 1: something like peace. The little pink sloth thing became shy
• 3:56:21
  Speaker 1: and left me to crawl back to its natural life
• 3:56:24
  Speaker 1: once more. Among the tree branches. We were in just
• 3:56:27
  Speaker 1: the state of equilibrium that would remain in one of
• 3:56:30
  Speaker 1: those happy family cages which animal tamers exhibit if the
• 3:56:33
  Speaker 1: tamer were to leave it forever. Of course, these creatures
• 3:56:37
  Speaker 1: did not decline into such beasts as the reader has
• 3:56:40
  Speaker 1: seen in zoological gardens, into ordinary bears, wolves, tigers, oxen, swine,
• 3:56:46
  Speaker 1: and apes. There was still something strange about each and
• 3:56:50
  Speaker 1: each Moreau had blended this animal with that. One perhaps
• 3:56:55
  Speaker 1: was ursine chiefly, another feline chiefly, another bovine chiefly, but
• 3:56:59
  Speaker 1: each was tainted with other creatures. A kind of generalized
• 3:57:02
  Speaker 1: animalism appearing through the specific dispositions, and the dwindling shreds
• 3:57:07
  Speaker 1: of the humanity still startled me every now and then,
• 3:57:10
  Speaker 1: a momentary recrudescence of speech, perhaps, and unexpected dexterity of
• 3:57:14
  Speaker 1: the fore feet, a pitiful attempt to walk erect. I too,
• 3:57:18
  Speaker 1: must have undergone strange changes. My clothes hung about me
• 3:57:22
  Speaker 1: as yellow rags, through whose rents showed the tanned skin.
• 3:57:27
  Speaker 1: My hair grew long and became matted together. I am
• 3:57:31
  Speaker 1: told that even now my eyes have a strange brightness,
• 3:57:33
  Speaker 1: a swift alertness of movement. At first, I spent the
• 3:57:37
  Speaker 1: daylight hours on the southward beach, watching for a ship,
• 3:57:40
  Speaker 1: hoping and praying for a ship. I counted on the
• 3:57:44
  Speaker 1: Ippicacuana returning as the year wore on, but she never came.
• 3:57:48
  Speaker 1: Five times I saw sails and thrice smoke, but nothing
• 3:57:52
  Speaker 1: ever touched the island. I always had a bonfire ready,
• 3:57:56
  Speaker 1: but no doubt the volcanic reputation of the island was
• 3:57:59
  Speaker 1: taken to a cat for that. It was only about
• 3:58:02
  Speaker 1: September or October that I began to think of making
• 3:58:05
  Speaker 1: a raft. By that time my arm had healed and
• 3:58:08
  Speaker 1: both my hands were at my service again. At first
• 3:58:12
  Speaker 1: I found my helplessness appalling. I had never done any
• 3:58:16
  Speaker 1: carpentry or such like work in my life, and I
• 3:58:19
  Speaker 1: spent day after day in experimental chopping and binding among
• 3:58:22
  Speaker 1: the trees. I had no ropes, and could hit on
• 3:58:25
  Speaker 1: nothing wherewith to make ropes. None of the abundant creepers
• 3:58:29
  Speaker 1: seemed limber or strong enough, and with all my litter
• 3:58:31
  Speaker 1: of scientific education, I could not devise any way of
• 3:58:34
  Speaker 1: making them. So I spent more than a fortnight grubbing
• 3:58:38
  Speaker 1: among the black ruins of the enclosure and on the
• 3:58:40
  Speaker 1: beach where the boats had been burnt, looking for nails
• 3:58:43
  Speaker 1: and other stray pieces of metal that might prove of service.
• 3:58:47
  Speaker 1: Now and then some beast creature would watch me and
• 3:58:49
  Speaker 1: go leaping off when I called to it. There came
• 3:58:53
  Speaker 1: a season of thunder storms and heavy rain, which greatly
• 3:58:56
  Speaker 1: retarded my work. But at last the raft was completed.
• 3:59:00
  Speaker 1: I was delighted with it, but with a certain lack
• 3:59:03
  Speaker 1: of practical sense, which has always been my bane. I
• 3:59:06
  Speaker 1: had made it a mile or more from the sea,
• 3:59:08
  Speaker 1: and before I had dragged it down to the beach,
• 3:59:10
  Speaker 1: the thing had fallen to pieces. Perhaps it is as
• 3:59:13
  Speaker 1: well that I was saved from launching it. But at
• 3:59:16
  Speaker 1: the time my misery at my failure was so acute
• 3:59:18
  Speaker 1: that for some days I simply moped on the beach
• 3:59:21
  Speaker 1: and stared at the water and thought of death. I
• 3:59:24
  Speaker 1: did not, however, mean to die, and an incident occurred
• 3:59:27
  Speaker 1: that warned me unmistakably of the folly of letting the
• 3:59:30
  Speaker 1: days pass, so, for each fresh day was fraught with
• 3:59:32
  Speaker 1: increasing danger from the beast people. I was lying in
• 3:59:36
  Speaker 1: the shade of the enclosure wall, staring out to see
• 3:59:39
  Speaker 1: when I was startled by something cold touching the skin
• 3:59:42
  Speaker 1: of my heel, and starting round, found the little pink
• 3:59:44
  Speaker 1: sloth creature blinking into my face. He had long since
• 3:59:48
  Speaker 1: lost speech and active movement, and the lank hair of
• 3:59:51
  Speaker 1: the little brute grew thicker every day, and his stumpy
• 3:59:54
  Speaker 1: claws more ascue. He made a moaning noise when he
• 3:59:57
  Speaker 1: saw he had attracted my attention. When a little towards
• 4:00:00
  Speaker 1: the bushes and looked back at me. At first I
• 4:00:03
  Speaker 1: did not understand, but presently it occurred to me that
• 4:00:06
  Speaker 1: he wished me to follow him, and this I did,
• 4:00:08
  Speaker 1: at last, slowly, for the day was hot. When we
• 4:00:12
  Speaker 1: reached the trees, he clambered into them, for he could
• 4:00:15
  Speaker 1: travel better among their swinging creepers than on the ground.
• 4:00:19
  Speaker 1: And suddenly, in a trampled space, I came upon a
• 4:00:21
  Speaker 1: ghastly group. My Saint Bernard creature lay on the ground, dead,
• 4:00:26
  Speaker 1: and near his body crouched the hyena swine, gripping the
• 4:00:29
  Speaker 1: quivering flesh with its misshapen claws, gnawing at it and
• 4:00:32
  Speaker 1: snarling with delight. As I approached, the monster lifted its
• 4:00:37
  Speaker 1: glaring eyes to mine. Its lips went trembling back from
• 4:00:40
  Speaker 1: its red stained teeth, and it growled menacingly. It was
• 4:00:44
  Speaker 1: not afraid and not ashamed. The last vestige of the
• 4:00:47
  Speaker 1: human taint had vanished. I advanced a step farther, stopped,
• 4:00:52
  Speaker 1: and pulled out my revolver. At last I had him
• 4:00:55
  Speaker 1: face to face. The brute made no sign of retreat,
• 4:00:59
  Speaker 1: but its ears went back, its hair bristled, and its
• 4:01:02
  Speaker 1: body crouched together. I aimed between the eyes and fired.
• 4:01:07
  Speaker 1: As I did so. The thing rose straight at me
• 4:01:09
  Speaker 1: in a leap, and I was knocked over like a
• 4:01:11
  Speaker 1: nine pin. It clutched at me with its crippled hand
• 4:01:15
  Speaker 1: and struck me in the face. Its spring carried it
• 4:01:18
  Speaker 1: over me. I fell under the hind part of its body,
• 4:01:22
  Speaker 1: but luckily I had hit as I meant, and it
• 4:01:24
  Speaker 1: had died even as it leapt. I crawled out from
• 4:01:27
  Speaker 1: under its unclean weight and stood up, trembling, staring at
• 4:01:30
  Speaker 1: its quivering body. That danger, at least was over. But this,
• 4:01:35
  Speaker 1: I knew, was only the first of the series of
• 4:01:37
  Speaker 1: relapses that must come. I burnt both of the bodies
• 4:01:41
  Speaker 1: on a pyre of brushwood. But after that I saw
• 4:01:43
  Speaker 1: that unless I left the island, my death was only
• 4:01:45
  Speaker 1: a question of time. The beast people, by that time had,
• 4:01:49
  Speaker 1: with one or two exceptions, left the ravine and made
• 4:01:52
  Speaker 1: themselves lairs according to their taste. Among the thickets of
• 4:01:55
  Speaker 1: the island, few prowled. By day, most of them slept,
• 4:01:59
  Speaker 1: and the eyeland might have seemed deserted to a newcomer.
• 4:02:02
  Speaker 1: But at night the air was hideous with their calls
• 4:02:04
  Speaker 1: and howling. I had half a mind to make a
• 4:02:07
  Speaker 1: massacre of them, to build traps, or fight them with
• 4:02:10
  Speaker 1: my knife. Had I possessed sufficient cartridges, I should not
• 4:02:14
  Speaker 1: have hesitated to begin the killing. There could now be
• 4:02:18
  Speaker 1: scarcely a score left of the dangerous carnivores. The braver
• 4:02:21
  Speaker 1: of these were already dead. After the death of this
• 4:02:24
  Speaker 1: poor dog of mine, my last friend, I too adopted
• 4:02:28
  Speaker 1: to some extent the practice of slumbering in the daytime.
• 4:02:30
  Speaker 1: In order to be on my guard at night. I
• 4:02:33
  Speaker 1: rebuilt my den in the walls of the enclosure, with
• 4:02:35
  Speaker 1: such a narrow opening that anything attempting to enter must
• 4:02:38
  Speaker 1: necessarily make a considerable noise. The creatures had lost the
• 4:02:43
  Speaker 1: art of fire, too, and recovered their fear of it.
• 4:02:46
  Speaker 1: I turned once more, almost passionately, now to hammering together
• 4:02:50
  Speaker 1: stakes and branches to form a raft for my escape.
• 4:02:54
  Speaker 1: I found a thousand difficulties. I am an extremely unhandy man.
• 4:02:59
  Speaker 1: My schooling was over before the days of Sloyd. But
• 4:03:01
  Speaker 1: most of the requirements of a raft I met at
• 4:03:03
  Speaker 1: last in some clumsy, circuitous way or other, and this
• 4:03:07
  Speaker 1: time I took care of the strength. The only insurmountable
• 4:03:10
  Speaker 1: obstacle was that I had no vessel to contain the
• 4:03:13
  Speaker 1: water I should need if I floated forth upon these
• 4:03:15
  Speaker 1: and traveled seas. I would have even tried pottery, but
• 4:03:19
  Speaker 1: the island contained no clay. I used to go moping
• 4:03:22
  Speaker 1: about the island, trying with all my might to solve
• 4:03:24
  Speaker 1: this one last difficulty. Sometimes I would give way to
• 4:03:28
  Speaker 1: wild outbursts of rage, and hack and splinter some unlucky
• 4:03:32
  Speaker 1: tree in my intolerable vexation. But I could think of nothing.
• 4:03:37
  Speaker 1: And then came a day, a wonderful day, which I
• 4:03:40
  Speaker 1: spent in ecstasy. I saw a sail to the southwest,
• 4:03:44
  Speaker 1: a small sail like that of a little schooner, and
• 4:03:47
  Speaker 1: forthwith I lit a great pile of brushwood and stood
• 4:03:50
  Speaker 1: by it in the heat of it and the heat
• 4:03:51
  Speaker 1: of the midday sun, watching All day. I watched that sail,
• 4:03:56
  Speaker 1: eating or drinking nothing, so that my head reeled, and
• 4:03:59
  Speaker 1: the beasts came and glared at me, and seemed to wonder,
• 4:04:02
  Speaker 1: and went away. It was still distant when night came
• 4:04:05
  Speaker 1: and swallowed it up. And all night I toiled to
• 4:04:08
  Speaker 1: keep my blaze bright and high, and the eyes of
• 4:04:10
  Speaker 1: the beasts shone out of the darkness, marveling. In the dawn,
• 4:04:14
  Speaker 1: the sail was nearer, and I saw it was the
• 4:04:16
  Speaker 1: dirty luck sail of a small boat, but it sailed strangely.
• 4:04:21
  Speaker 1: My eyes were weary with watching, and I peered and
• 4:04:24
  Speaker 1: could not believe them. Two men were in the boat,
• 4:04:27
  Speaker 1: sitting low down, one by the bows, the other at
• 4:04:30
  Speaker 1: the rudder. The head was not kept to the wind.
• 4:04:33
  Speaker 1: It yawed and fell away. As the day grew brighter.
• 4:04:37
  Speaker 1: I began waving the last rag of my jacket to them,
• 4:04:40
  Speaker 1: but they did not notice me and sat still facing
• 4:04:43
  Speaker 1: each other. I went to the lowest point of the
• 4:04:46
  Speaker 1: low headland and gesticulated and shouted. There was no response,
• 4:04:51
  Speaker 1: and the boat kept on her aimless course, making slowly,
• 4:04:54
  Speaker 1: very slowly for the bay. Suddenly, a great white bird
• 4:04:59
  Speaker 1: flew up out of the boat, and neither of the
• 4:05:01
  Speaker 1: men stirred nor noticed it. It circled round and then
• 4:05:04
  Speaker 1: came sweeping overhead with its strong wings outspread. Then I
• 4:05:08
  Speaker 1: stopped shouting and sat down on the headland and rested
• 4:05:11
  Speaker 1: my chin on my hands and stared slowly. Slowly, the
• 4:05:15
  Speaker 1: boat drove past towards the west. I would have swum
• 4:05:19
  Speaker 1: out to it, but something, a cold, vague fear, kept
• 4:05:23
  Speaker 1: me back. In the afternoon, the tide stranded the boat
• 4:05:27
  Speaker 1: and left it a hundred yards or so to the
• 4:05:29
  Speaker 1: westward of the ruins of the enclosure. The men in
• 4:05:32
  Speaker 1: it were dead, had been dead so long that they
• 4:05:35
  Speaker 1: fell to pieces when I tilted the boat on its
• 4:05:37
  Speaker 1: side and dragged them out. One had a shock of
• 4:05:40
  Speaker 1: red hair like the captain of the Ippicacuana, and a
• 4:05:43
  Speaker 1: dirty white cap lay in the bottom of the boat.
• 4:05:46
  Speaker 1: As I stood beside the boat, three of the beasts
• 4:05:49
  Speaker 1: came slinking out of the bushes and sniffing towards me.
• 4:05:52
  Speaker 1: One of my spasms of disgust came upon me. I
• 4:05:56
  Speaker 1: thrust the little boat down the beach and clambered on
• 4:05:59
  Speaker 1: board her. Two of the brutes were wolf beasts, and
• 4:06:02
  Speaker 1: came forward with quivering nostrils and glittering eyes. The third
• 4:06:06
  Speaker 1: was the horrible nondescript of bear and bull. When I
• 4:06:09
  Speaker 1: saw them approaching those wretched remains, heard them snarling at
• 4:06:13
  Speaker 1: one another, and caught the gleam of their teeth, a
• 4:06:15
  Speaker 1: frantic horrorse exceeded my repulsion. I turned my back upon them,
• 4:06:20
  Speaker 1: struck the lug, and began paddling out to sea. I
• 4:06:23
  Speaker 1: could not bring myself to look behind me. I lay, however,
• 4:06:28
  Speaker 1: between the reef and the island. That night and the
• 4:06:30
  Speaker 1: next morning went round to the stream and filled the
• 4:06:32
  Speaker 1: empty keg aboard with water. Then, with such patience as
• 4:06:37
  Speaker 1: I could command, I collected a quantity of fruit and
• 4:06:40
  Speaker 1: waylaid and killed two rabbits with my last three cartridges.
• 4:06:44
  Speaker 1: While I was doing this, I left the boat moored
• 4:06:46
  Speaker 1: to an inward projection of the reef, for fear of
• 4:06:48
  Speaker 1: the beast people. Twenty two the man alone. In the evening,
• 4:06:54
  Speaker 1: I started and drove out to sea before a gentle
• 4:06:56
  Speaker 1: wind from the southwest, slowly steadily, and the the island
• 4:07:00
  Speaker 1: grew smaller and smaller, and the lank spire of smoke
• 4:07:03
  Speaker 1: dwindled to a finer and finer line. Against the hot sunset.
• 4:07:07
  Speaker 1: The ocean rose up around me, hiding that low dark
• 4:07:10
  Speaker 1: patch from my eyes. The daylight, the trailing glory of
• 4:07:14
  Speaker 1: the sun, when streaming out of the sky, was drawn
• 4:07:17
  Speaker 1: aside like some luminous curtain. And at last I looked
• 4:07:20
  Speaker 1: into the blue gulf of immensity which the sunshine hides,
• 4:07:23
  Speaker 1: and saw the floating hosts of the stars. The sea
• 4:07:27
  Speaker 1: was silent, the sky was silent. I was alone with
• 4:07:31
  Speaker 1: the night in silence, so I drifted for three days,
• 4:07:35
  Speaker 1: eating and drinking sparingly, and meditating upon all that had
• 4:07:38
  Speaker 1: happened to me, not desiring very greatly then to see
• 4:07:41
  Speaker 1: men again. One unclean rag was about me, my hair
• 4:07:45
  Speaker 1: of black tangle. No doubt my discoverers thought me a madman.
• 4:07:50
  Speaker 1: It is strange, but I felt no desire to return
• 4:07:53
  Speaker 1: to mankind. I was only glad to be quit of
• 4:07:56
  Speaker 1: the foulness of the beast people. And on the third
• 4:07:59
  Speaker 1: day I was picked up by a brig from Apia
• 4:08:01
  Speaker 1: to San Francisco. Neither the captain nor the mate would
• 4:08:05
  Speaker 1: believe my story. Judging that solitude and danger had made
• 4:08:08
  Speaker 1: me mad, and fearing their opinion might be that of others,
• 4:08:11
  Speaker 1: I refrained from telling my adventure further, and professed to
• 4:08:15
  Speaker 1: recall nothing that had happened to me Between the loss
• 4:08:17
  Speaker 1: of the Lady Vain and the time when I was
• 4:08:19
  Speaker 1: picked up again, the space of a year. I had
• 4:08:23
  Speaker 1: to act with the utmost circumspection to save myself from
• 4:08:26
  Speaker 1: the suspicion of insanity. My memory of the law of
• 4:08:30
  Speaker 1: the two dead sailors, of the Ambuscades, of the darkness
• 4:08:34
  Speaker 1: of the body in the cane brake haunted me and unnatural,
• 4:08:37
  Speaker 1: as it seems, with my return to mankind came instead
• 4:08:40
  Speaker 1: of that confidence and sympathy I had expected, a strange
• 4:08:44
  Speaker 1: enhancement of the uncertainty and dread I had experienced during
• 4:08:48
  Speaker 1: my stay upon the island. No one would believe me
• 4:08:51
  Speaker 1: I was almost as queer to men as I had
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 1: been to the beast people. I may have caught something
• 4:08:56
  Speaker 1: of the natural wildness of my companions. They say that
• 4:09:00
  Speaker 1: terror is a disease, and anyhow I can witness that
• 4:09:03
  Speaker 1: for several years now a restless fear has dwelt in
• 4:09:06
  Speaker 1: my mind, such a restless fear as a half tamed
• 4:09:08
  Speaker 1: lion cub may feel. My trouble took the strangest form.
• 4:09:13
  Speaker 1: I could not persuade myself that the men and women
• 4:09:16
  Speaker 1: I met were not also another beast people, animals half
• 4:09:19
  Speaker 1: wrought into the outward image of human souls, and that
• 4:09:22
  Speaker 1: they would presently begin to revert, to show first this
• 4:09:24
  Speaker 1: bestial mark and then that But I have confided my
• 4:09:28
  Speaker 1: case to a strangely able man, a man who had
• 4:09:30
  Speaker 1: known Moreau and seemed half to credit my story, a
• 4:09:34
  Speaker 1: mental specialist, and he has helped me mightily. Though I
• 4:09:37
  Speaker 1: do not expect that the terror of that island will
• 4:09:39
  Speaker 1: ever altogether leave me. At most times it lies far
• 4:09:43
  Speaker 1: in the back of my mind, a mere distant cloud,
• 4:09:45
  Speaker 1: a memory, and a faint distrust. But there are times
• 4:09:48
  Speaker 1: when the little cloud spreads until it obscures the whole sky.
• 4:09:52
  Speaker 1: Then I look about me at my fellow men, and
• 4:09:55
  Speaker 1: I go in fear. I see faces keen and bright,
• 4:09:59
  Speaker 1: others dull, a dangerous, others, unsteady, insincere, none that have
• 4:10:04
  Speaker 1: the calm authority of a reasonable soul. I feel as
• 4:10:07
  Speaker 1: though the animal was surging up through them, that presently
• 4:10:10
  Speaker 1: the degradation of the islanders will be played over again
• 4:10:13
  Speaker 1: on a larger scale. I know this is an illusion,
• 4:10:16
  Speaker 1: that these seeming men and women about me are indeed
• 4:10:19
  Speaker 1: men and women, men and women forever perfectly reasonable creatures,
• 4:10:23
  Speaker 1: full of human desires and tender solicitude, emancipated from instinct,
• 4:10:27
  Speaker 1: and the slaves of no fantastic law, beings altogether different
• 4:10:31
  Speaker 1: from the beast folk. Yet I shrink from them, from
• 4:10:34
  Speaker 1: their curious glances, their inquiries and assistance, and long to
• 4:10:38
  Speaker 1: be away from them and alone. For that reason, I
• 4:10:41
  Speaker 1: live near the broad free downland, and can escape thither
• 4:10:44
  Speaker 1: when this shadow is over my soul, and very sweet
• 4:10:47
  Speaker 1: is the empty downland then under the windswept sky. When
• 4:10:51
  Speaker 1: I lived in London, the horror was well nigh insupportable.
• 4:10:55
  Speaker 1: I could not get away from men. Their voices came
• 4:10:58
  Speaker 1: through windows, locked doors were flimsy safeguards. I would go
• 4:11:02
  Speaker 1: out into the streets to fight with my delusion, and
• 4:11:05
  Speaker 1: prowling women would mew after me. Furtive craving men glance
• 4:11:09
  Speaker 1: jealously at me. Weary pale workers go coughing by me
• 4:11:12
  Speaker 1: with tired eyes and eager paces, like wounded deer, dripping blood.
• 4:11:16
  Speaker 1: Old people bent and dull past murmuring to themselves, and
• 4:11:20
  Speaker 1: all unheeding a ragged tale of gibing children. Then I
• 4:11:25
  Speaker 1: would turn aside into some chapel, and even there such
• 4:11:28
  Speaker 1: was my disturbance. It seemed that the preacher gibbered big thinks,
• 4:11:32
  Speaker 1: even as the ape man had done. Or into some library,
• 4:11:35
  Speaker 1: and there the intent faces over the book seemed but
• 4:11:38
  Speaker 1: patient creatures waiting for prey. Particularly nauseous were the blank,
• 4:11:43
  Speaker 1: expressionless faces of people in trains and omnibuses. They seemed
• 4:11:46
  Speaker 1: no more my fellow creatures than dead bodies would be.
• 4:11:49
  Speaker 1: So that I did not dare to travel unless I
• 4:11:51
  Speaker 1: was assured of being alone. And even it seemed that
• 4:11:55
  Speaker 1: I too was not a reasonable creature, but only an
• 4:11:57
  Speaker 1: animal tormented with some strange disorder in it ff brain,
• 4:12:00
  Speaker 1: which send it to wander alone like a sheep stricken
• 4:12:03
  Speaker 1: with gid. This is a mood, however, that comes to
• 4:12:06
  Speaker 1: me now, I thank God more rarely. I have withdrawn
• 4:12:11
  Speaker 1: myself from the confusion of cities and multitudes, and spend
• 4:12:14
  Speaker 1: my days surrounded by wise books, bright windows. In this
• 4:12:17
  Speaker 1: life of ours, lit by the shining souls of men,
• 4:12:21
  Speaker 1: I see few strangers, and have but a small household.
• 4:12:25
  Speaker 1: My days I devote to reading into experiments in chemistry,
• 4:12:29
  Speaker 1: and I spend many of the clear nights in the
• 4:12:31
  Speaker 1: study of astronomy. There is, though I do not know
• 4:12:34
  Speaker 1: how there is or why, there is a sense of
• 4:12:37
  Speaker 1: infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven.
• 4:12:41
  Speaker 1: There it must be, I think, in the vast and
• 4:12:43
  Speaker 1: eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares
• 4:12:46
  Speaker 1: and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more
• 4:12:49
  Speaker 1: than animal within us must find it solace and its hope.
• 4:12:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening,