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

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