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

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  Speaker 1: For at the schooner's rail that night, Land was sighted
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  Speaker 1: at the sundown, and the schooner hove too. Montgomery intimated
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  Speaker 1: that was his destination. It was too far to see
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  Speaker 1: in the details. It seemed to me then, simply a
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  Speaker 1: low lying patch of dim blue and the uncertain blue
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  Speaker 1: gray sea. An almost vertical streak of smoke went up
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  Speaker 1: from it into the sky. The captain was not on
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  Speaker 1: deck when it was sighted. After he had vented his
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  Speaker 1: wrath on me, he had staggered below, and I understand
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  Speaker 1: he went to sleep on the floor of his own cabin.
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  Speaker 1: The mate practically assumed the command. He was the gaunt,
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  Speaker 1: taciturn individual we had seen at the wheel. Apparently he
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  Speaker 1: was in an evil temper with Montgomery. He took not
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  Speaker 1: the slightest notice of either of us. We dined with
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  Speaker 1: him in a sulky silence, after a few ineffectual efforts
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  Speaker 1: on my part to talk. It struck me too that
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  Speaker 1: the men regarded my companion and his animals in a
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  Speaker 1: singularly unfriendly manner. I found Montgomery very reticent about his
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  Speaker 1: purpose with these creatures, and about his destination, And though
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  Speaker 1: I was sensible of a growing curiosity as to both.
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  Speaker 1: I did not press him. We remained talking on the
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  Speaker 1: quarter deck until the sky was thick with stars. Except
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  Speaker 1: for an occasional sound in the yellow lit forecastle and
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  Speaker 1: a movement of the animals. Now and then, the night
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  Speaker 1: was very still. The puma lay crouched together, watching us
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  Speaker 1: with shining eyes, a black heap in the corner of
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  Speaker 1: its cage. Montgomery produced some cigars. He talked to me
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  Speaker 1: of London in a tone of half painful reminiscence, asking
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of questions about changes that had taken place.
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  Speaker 1: He spoke like a man who had loved his life
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  Speaker 1: there and had been suddenly and irrevocably cut off from it.
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  Speaker 1: I gossiped as well as I could of this and that.
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  Speaker 1: All the time the strangeness of him was shaping itself
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  Speaker 1: in my mind, And as I talked, I peered at
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  Speaker 1: his odd, pallid face in the dim light of the
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  Speaker 1: binnacle lantern behind me. Then I looked out at the
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  Speaker 1: darkling sea, where in the dimness his little island was hidden.
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  Speaker 1: This man, it seemed to me, had come out of
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  Speaker 1: immnsity merely to save my life. Tomorrow he would drop
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  Speaker 1: over the side and vanish again out of my existence.
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  Speaker 1: Even had it been under commonplace circumstances, it would have
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  Speaker 1: made me a trifle thoughtful. But in the first place
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  Speaker 1: was the singularity of an educated man living on this
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  Speaker 1: unknown little island, and coupled with that the extraordinary nature
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  Speaker 1: of his luggage. I found myself repeating the captain's question,
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  Speaker 1: what did he want with the beasts? Why? Too, had
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  Speaker 1: he pretended they were not his? When I had remarked
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  Speaker 1: about them at first? Then again in his personal attendant.
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  Speaker 1: There was a bizarre quality which had impressed me profoundly.
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  Speaker 1: These circumstances threw a haze of mystery round the man.
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  Speaker 1: They laid hold of my imagination and hampered my tongue.
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  Speaker 1: Towards midnight, our talk of London died away, and we
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  Speaker 1: stood side by side, leaning over the bulwarks and staring
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  Speaker 1: dreamily over the silent starlit sea, each pursuing his own thoughts.
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  Speaker 1: It was the atmosphere for sentiment, and I began upon
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  Speaker 1: my gratitude, if I may say it, said I, after
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  Speaker 1: a time you saved my life. Chance, he answered, just chance.
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  Speaker 1: I prefer to make my thanks to the accessible agent.
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  Speaker 1: Thanked no one. You had the need and I had
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  Speaker 1: the knowledge, and I injected and fed you much as
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  Speaker 1: I might have collected a spathamen. I was bored and
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  Speaker 1: wanted something to do. If i'd being jaded that day,
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  Speaker 1: or hadn't liked your faith, well, it's a curious question
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  Speaker 1: where he would have been. Now this damped my mood
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  Speaker 1: a little. At any rate, I began. It's a chance,
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  Speaker 1: I tell you, he interrupted, as everything is in a
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  Speaker 1: man's life, only the athes won't see it. Why am
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  Speaker 1: I here now an outcast from civilization instead of being
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  Speaker 1: a happy man enjoying all the pleasures of London, simply
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  Speaker 1: because eleven years ago I lost my head for ten
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  Speaker 1: minutes on a foggy night. He stopped, Yes, said I,
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  Speaker 1: that's all. We relapsed into silence. Presently, he laughed, there's
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  Speaker 1: something in the starlight that luthened one'th tongue. I'm an
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  Speaker 1: ath and you somehow I would like to tell you.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever you tell me, you may rely upon my keeping
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  Speaker 1: to myself, if that's it. He was on the point
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  Speaker 1: of beginning, and then shook his head. Doubtfully, don't, said I.
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  Speaker 1: It is all the same to me. After all, it
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  Speaker 1: is better to keep your secret. There's nothing gained but
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  Speaker 1: a little relief. If I respect your confidence, if I don't, well,
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  Speaker 1: he grunted undecidedly. I felt I had him at a disadvantage,
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  Speaker 1: had caught him in the mood of indiscretion. And to
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  Speaker 1: tell the truth, I was not curious to learn what
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  Speaker 1: might have driven a young medical student out of London.
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  Speaker 1: I have an imagination. I shrugged my shoulders and turned
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  Speaker 1: away over the taffrail into silent black figure watching the stars.
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  Speaker 1: It was Montgomery's strange attendant. It looked over its shoulder
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  Speaker 1: quickly with my movement, then looked away again. It may
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  Speaker 1: seem a little thing to you, perhaps, but it came
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  Speaker 1: like a sudden blow to me. The only light near
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  Speaker 1: us was a lantern at the wheel. The creature's face
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  Speaker 1: was turned for one brief instant out of the dimness
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  Speaker 1: of the stern, towards this illumination, and I saw that
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  Speaker 1: the eyes that glanced at me shone with a pale
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  Speaker 1: green light. I did not know then that a reddish luminosity,
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  Speaker 1: at least is not uncommon in human eyes. The thing
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  Speaker 1: came to me as stark inhumanity. That black figure, with
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  Speaker 1: its eyes of fire, struck down through all my adult
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  Speaker 1: thoughts and feelings, and for a moment the forgotten horrors
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  Speaker 1: of childhood came back to my mind. Then the effect
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  Speaker 1: passed as it had come. An uncouth, black figure of
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  Speaker 1: a man, a figure of no particular import, hung over
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  Speaker 1: the taffrail against the starlight, and I found Montgomery was
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  Speaker 1: speaking to me. I'm thinking of turning in, then said
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  Speaker 1: he if you've had enough of this, I answered him incongruously.
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  Speaker 1: We went below, and he wished me good night at
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  Speaker 1: the door of my cabin. That night, I had some
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  Speaker 1: very unpleasant dreams. The waning moon rose late. Its light
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  Speaker 1: struck a ghostly white beam across my cabin and made
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  Speaker 1: an ominous shape on the planking of my bunk. Then
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  Speaker 1: the staghounds woke and began howling and baying, so that
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  Speaker 1: I dreamt fitfully and scarcely slept until the approach of dawn.