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The Island of Doctor Moreau Chapter 10 - The Crying of the Man · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section eleven of the Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
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  Speaker 1: Tom hare Ten The Crying of the Man. As I
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  Speaker 1: drew near the house, I saw that the light shone
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  Speaker 1: from the open door of my room. And then I heard,
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  Speaker 1: coming from out of the darkness at the side of
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  Speaker 1: that orange oblong of light, the voice of Montgomery, shouting prindic.
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  Speaker 1: I continued running. Presently I heard him again, I replied
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  Speaker 1: by a feeble hello, and in another moment had staggered
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  Speaker 1: up to him. Where have you been, said he, holding
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  Speaker 1: me at arm's length, so that the light from the
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  Speaker 1: door fell on my face. We have both been so
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  Speaker 1: busy that we forgot you until about half an hour ago.
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  Speaker 1: He led me into the room and sat me down
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  Speaker 1: in the deck chair. For a while I was blinded
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  Speaker 1: by the light. We did not think you would thought
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  Speaker 1: to explore the island of ours without telling of he said,
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  Speaker 1: And then I was afraid. But what hallo? My last
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  Speaker 1: remaining strength slipped from me, and my head fell forward
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  Speaker 1: on my chest. I think he found a certain satisfaction
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  Speaker 1: in giving me brandy. For God's sake, said I fasten
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  Speaker 1: the door. You've been meeting some of our curiosity, they
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  Speaker 1: said he. He locked the door and turned to me again.
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  Speaker 1: He asked me no questions, but gave me some more
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  Speaker 1: brandy and water and pressed me to eat. I was
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  Speaker 1: in a state of collapse. He said something vague about
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  Speaker 1: forgetting to warn me, and asked me briefly when I
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  Speaker 1: left the house and what I had seen. I answered
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  Speaker 1: him as briefly, in fragmentary sentences. Tell me what it
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  Speaker 1: all means, said I, in a state bordering on hysterics.
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  Speaker 1: It's nothing so dreadful, said he. But I think you
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  Speaker 1: have had but enough for one day. The puma suddenly
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  Speaker 1: gave a sharp yell of pain at that, he swore
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  Speaker 1: under his breath. I'm damned, said he. If this plaitheth not,
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  Speaker 1: it badeth Gareth dreat with its cat. Montgomery said I,
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  Speaker 1: what was that thing that came after me? Was it
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  Speaker 1: a beast? Or was it a man? If you don't
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  Speaker 1: sleep to night, he said, you'll be off your head
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  Speaker 1: to morrow. I stood up in front of him. What
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  Speaker 1: was that thing that came after me? I asked. He
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  Speaker 1: looked me squarely in the eyes and twisted his mouth askew.
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  Speaker 1: His eyes, which had seemed animated a minute before, went
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  Speaker 1: dull from your account, said he. I'm thinking it was
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  Speaker 1: a bogul. I felt a gust of intense irritation, which
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  Speaker 1: passed as quickly as it came. I flung myself into
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  Speaker 1: the chair again and pressed my hands on my forehead.
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  Speaker 1: The puma began once more. Montgomery came round behind me
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  Speaker 1: and put his hand on my shoulder. Look here, Prindick,
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  Speaker 1: he said, I had no bithness to let you drift
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  Speaker 1: out into the thilly island of our earth. But it's
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  Speaker 1: not so bad as you feel. Man your nerve. I'll
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  Speaker 1: work to rags. Let me give you something that will
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  Speaker 1: make you sleep, that will keep on for hours. Yet
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  Speaker 1: you must simply get to sleep, or I won't answer
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  Speaker 1: for it. I did not reply. I bowed forward and
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  Speaker 1: covered my face with my hands. Presently he returned with
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  Speaker 1: a small measure containing a dark liquid. This he gave me.
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  Speaker 1: I took it unresistingly, and he helped me into the hammock.
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  Speaker 1: When I awoke, it was broad day. For a little while,
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  Speaker 1: I lay flat, staring at the roof above me. The rafters,
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  Speaker 1: I observed were made out of the timbers of a ship.
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  Speaker 1: Then I turned my head and saw a meal prepared
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  Speaker 1: for me on the table. I perceived that I was
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  Speaker 1: hungry and prepared to clamber out of the hammock, which,
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  Speaker 1: very politely, anticipating my intention, twisted round and deposited me
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  Speaker 1: upon all fours on the floor. I got up and
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  Speaker 1: sat down before the food. I had a heavy feeling
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  Speaker 1: in my head, and only the vaguest memory at first
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  Speaker 1: of the things that happened over night. The morning breeze
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  Speaker 1: blew very pleasantly through the unglazed window, and that in
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  Speaker 1: the food contributed to the sense of animal comfort which
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  Speaker 1: I experienced presently. The door behind me, the door inward
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  Speaker 1: towards the yard at the enclosure opened. I turned and
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  Speaker 1: saw Montgomery's face all right, said he I'm frightfully busy,
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  Speaker 1: and he shut the door. Afterwards I discovered that he
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  Speaker 1: forgot to relock it. Then I recalled the expression of
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  Speaker 1: his face the previous night, and with that the memory
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  Speaker 1: of all I had experienced reconstructed itself before me. Even
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  Speaker 1: as that fear came back to me, came a cry
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  Speaker 1: from within, But this time it was not the cry
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  Speaker 1: of a puma. I put down the mouthful that hesitated
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  Speaker 1: upon my lips and listened silence, save for the whisper
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  Speaker 1: of the morning breeze. I began to think my ears
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  Speaker 1: had deceived me. After a long pause, I resumed my meal,
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  Speaker 1: but with my ears still vigilant. Presently I heard something else,
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  Speaker 1: very faint and low. I sat as if frozen in
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  Speaker 1: my attitude. Though it was faint and low, it moved
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  Speaker 1: me more profoundly than all that I had hitherto heard
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  Speaker 1: of the abominations behind the wall. There was no mistake
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  Speaker 1: this time in the quality of the dim broken sounds,
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  Speaker 1: no doubt at all of their source, for it was groaning,
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  Speaker 1: broken by sobs and gasps of anguish. It was no
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  Speaker 1: brute this time, it was a human being in torment.
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  Speaker 1: As I realized this, I rose, and in three steps
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  Speaker 1: had crossed the room, seized the handle of the door
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  Speaker 1: into the yard, and flung it open before me. Prindick
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  Speaker 1: Man stop, cried, Montgomery, intervening, A startled deer hound yelped
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  Speaker 1: and snarled. There was blood I saw in the sink,
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  Speaker 1: brown and some scarlet, and I smelt the peculiar smell
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  Speaker 1: of carbolic acid. Then through an open doorway beyond. In
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  Speaker 1: the dim light of the shadow, I saw something bound
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  Speaker 1: painfully upon a framework, scarred, red and bandaged. And then,
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  Speaker 1: blotting this out, appeared the face of old Moreau, white
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  Speaker 1: and terrible. In a moment, he had gripped me by
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  Speaker 1: the shoulder with a hand that was smeared red, had
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  Speaker 1: twisted me off my feet and flung me headlong back
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  Speaker 1: into my own room. He lifted me as though I
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  Speaker 1: was a little child. I fell at full length upon
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  Speaker 1: the floor, and the door slammed and shut out the
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  Speaker 1: passionate intensity of his face. Then I heard the key
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  Speaker 1: turn in the lock, and Montgomery's voice in expostulation, ruin
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  Speaker 1: the work of a lifetime. I heard Moreau say he
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  Speaker 1: doth not understand, said Montgomery, and other things that were inaudible.
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  Speaker 1: I can't spare the time yet, said Moreau. The rest
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  Speaker 1: I did not hear. I picked myself up and stood trembling,
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  Speaker 1: my mind a chaos of the most horrible misgivings. Could
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  Speaker 1: it be possible? I thought, that's such a thing as
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  Speaker 1: vivisection of men was carried on here? The question shot
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  Speaker 1: like lightning across a tumultuous sky, and suddenly the clouded
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  Speaker 1: horror of my mind condensed into a vivid realization of
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  Speaker 1: my own danger. End of section eleven.