Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Island of Doctor Moreau Chapter 18 - The Finding of Moreau

Transcript

The Island of Doctor Moreau Chapter 18 - The Finding of Moreau · The H. G. Wells Library

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Section nineteen of the Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Tom Hare eighteen, The Finding of Moreau. When I saw
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Montgomery swallow a third dose of brandy, I took it
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: upon myself to interfere. It was already more than half fuddled.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I told him that some serious thing must have happened
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to Moreau by this time, or he would have returned
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: before this, and that it behooved us to ascertain what
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: that catastrophe was. Montgomery raised some feeble objections, and at
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: last agreed. We had some food, and then all three
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of us started. It is possibly due to the tension
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of my mind at the time, but even now that
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: start into the hot stillness of the tropical afternoon is
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a singularly vivid expression. Imling went first, his shoulder hunched,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: his strange black head, moving with quick starts as he peered,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: first on this side of the way and then on that.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: He was unarmed his axe he had dropped when he
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: encountered the swine men. Teeth were his weapons when it
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: came to fighting. Montgomery followed with stumbling footsteps, his hands
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: in his pockets, his face downcast. He was in a
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: state of muddled sullenness with me on account of the brandy.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: My left arm was in a sling. It was lucky
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: it was my left and I carried my revolver in
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: my right. Soon we traced a narrow path through the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: wild luxuriance of the island, going northwestward, and presently Amling
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: stopped and became rigid with watchfulness. Montgomery almost staggered into him,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and then stopped too. Then, listening intently, we heard coming
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: through the trees the sound of voices and footsteps approaching us.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: He is dead, said a deep vibrating voice. He is
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: not dead. He is not dead, jabbered another. We saw,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: we saw, said several voices. Hallo, suddenly shouted Montgomery, HALLO. There,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: confound you, said I and gripped my pistol. There was
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a silence, then a crashing among the interlacing vegetation, first here,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: then there, and then half a dozen faces appeared, strange
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: faces lit by a strange light. Imling made a growling
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: noise in his throat. I recognized the ape man. I
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: had indeed already identified his voice, and two of the
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: white swathed, brown featured creatures I had seen in Montgomery's boat.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: With These were the two dappled brutes, and that gray,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: horribly crooked creature, who said the law, with his gray
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: hair streaming down its cheeks, heavy gray eyebrows, and gray
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: locks pouring off from a central parting upon its sloping forehead.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: A heavy faceless thing with strange red eyes looking at
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: us curiously from amidst the green For a space, no
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: one spoke. Then Montgomery hiccoughed, who said he worth dead.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: The monkey man looked guiltily at the hairy gray thing.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: He is dead, said this monster. They saw there was
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: nothing threatening about this detachment at any rate. They seemed
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: awe stricken and puzzled. Where did he, said Montgomery beyond?
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: And the gray creature pointed, Is there a law? Now?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Asked the monkey man. Is it still to be this?
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: And that? Is he dead? Indeed? Is there a law?
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Repeated the man in white? Is there a law? That
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: weather with the whip? He is dead, said the hairy
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: gray thing, and they all stood watching us. Prindick, said Montgomery,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: turning his dull eyes to me, He's dead. Evidently I
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: had been standing behind him during this colloquy. I began
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: to see how things lay with them. I suddenly stepped
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: in front of Montgomery and lifted up my voice. Children
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: of the law, I said, he he is not dead.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Emling turned his sharp eyes on me. He has changed
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: his shape, he has changed his body. I went on
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: for a time. You will not see him. He is there,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: I pointed upward, where he can watch you. You cannot
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: see him, but he can see you. Fear the law.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I looked at them squarely. They flinched. He is great,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: He is good, said the ape man, peering fearfully upward
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: among the dense trees. And the other thing, I demanded,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the thing that bled and ran, screaming and sobbing. That
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: is dead too, said the gray thing, still regarding me.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: That's well, grunted Montgomery. The other with the whip began.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: The gray thing well, said, I sird he was dead.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: But Montgomery was still sober enough to understand my motive
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: in denying Moreau's death. He is not dead, he said, slowly,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: not dead at all, No more dead than I am.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Some said I have broken the law. They will die.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Some have died. Show us now where his old body lies.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: The body he cast away because he had no more
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: need of it. It is this way man who walked
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: in the sea, said the gray thing. And with these
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: six creatures guiding us, we went through the tumult of
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: ferns and creepers and tree stems towards the northwest. Then
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: came a yelling, a crashing ung the branches, and a
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: little pink harmunculus rushed by us, shrieking. Immediately after appeared
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: a monster in headlong pursuit. Blood bedabbled who was amongst us.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Almost before he could stop his career, the gray thing
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: leaped aside Imling with a snarl, flew at it, and
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: was struck aside. Montgomery fired and missed, bowed his head,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: threw up his arm, and turned to run. I fired,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and the thing still came on. Fired again, point blank
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: into its ugly face. I saw its features vanish in
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: a flash. Its face was driven in yet it passed me,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: gripped Montgomery, and holding him, fell headlong beside him, and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: pulled him, sprawling upon itself in its death agony. I
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: found myself alone with him ling, the dead brute and
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the prostrate man. Montgomery raised himself slowly and stared in
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a muddled way at the shattered beast man beside him.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: It more than half sobered him. He scrambled to his feet.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Then I saw the gray thing returning cautiously through the trees. See,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: said I, pointing to the dead brute. Is the law
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: not alive? This came of breaking the law. He peered
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: at his body. He sends the fire that kills, said
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: he in his deep voice, repeating part of the ritual.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: The others gathered round and stared for a space. At
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: last we drew near the westward extremity of the island.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: We came upon the nod and mutilated body of the puma,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: its shoulder bone smashed by a bullet, and perhaps twenty
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: yards farther, found at last what we sought. Moreau lay
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: face downward in a trampled space in a cane break.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: One hand was almost severed at the wrist, and his
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: silvery hair was dabbled in blood. His head had been
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: battered in by the fetters of the puma. The broken
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: canes beneath him were smeared with blood. His revolver could
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: not be found. Montgomery turned him over, resting at intervals,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: and with the help of the seven beast people, for
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: he was a heavy man. We carried Moreau back to
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the enclosure. The night was darkling. Twice we heard unseen
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: creatures howling and shrieking past our little band, and once
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the little pink sloth creature appeared and stared at us,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and vanished again, But we were not attacked again. At
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the gates of the enclosure, our company of beast people
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: left us im ling, going with the rest. We locked
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: ourselves in, and then took Moreau's mangled body into the
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: yard and laid it upon a pile of brushwood. Then
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: we went into the laboratory and put an end to
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: all we found living there. End of Section nineteen