Classic Adventure Books - Daily

20 - The Island of Dr Moreau - H G Wells

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Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 06 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Facing my fate in them, single-handed now, literally single-handed, for I had a broken arm. In my pocket was a revolver with two empty chambers. Among the chips scattered about the beach lay the two axes that had been used to chop up the boats. The tide was creeping in behind me. There was nothing for it but courage. I looked squarely into the faces of the advancing monsters. They avoided my eyes and their quivering nostrils investigated the bodies that lay beyond me on the beach. I took a half dozen steps, picked up the blood stain whip that lay beneath the body of the wolfman and cracked it. They stopped and stared at me. "Salute!" said I. "Bow down!" They hesitated. One bent his knees. I repeated my command with my heart in my mouth and advanced upon them. One knelt. Then the other two. I turned and walked towards the dead bodies, keeping my face towards the three kneeling beastmen, very much as an actor passing up the stage faces the audience. "They broke the law," said I, putting my foot on the sayer of the law. "They have been slain. Even the sayer of the law. Even the other with the whip." "Great is the law. Come and see." "None escape," said one of them, advancing and peering. "None escape," said I. "Therefore hear and do as I command." They stood up, looking questioningly at one another. "Stand there," said I. I picked up the hatchets and swung them by their heads from the sling of my arm. Turning Montgomery over, picked up his revolver, still loaded in two chambers, and bending down to rummage, found a half dozen cartridges in his pocket. "Take him," said I, standing up again and pointing with a whip. "Take him, and carry him out, and cast him into the sea." They came forward, evidently still afraid of Montgomery, but still more afraid of my cracking red whiplash. And after some fumbling and hesitation, some whiplacking and shouting, they lifted him gingerly, carried him down to the beach, and went splashing into the dazzling welter of the sea. "On!" said I. "On! Carry him far!" They went in up to their armpits and stood regarding me. "Let go!" said I, and the body of Montgomery vanished with a splash. Something seemed to tighten across my chest. "Good!" said I, with a break in my voice, and they came back hurrying and fearful to the margin of the water, leaving long wakes of black in the silver. At the water's edge they stopped, turning, and glaring into the sea, as though they presently expected Montgomery to arise therefrom and exact vengeance. "Now these," said I, pointing to the other dead bodies. They took care not to approach the place where they had thrown Montgomery into the water, but instead carried the four dead beast people, slantingly along the beach for perhaps a hundred yards before they waded out and cast them away. As I watched them disposing of the mangled remains of Imling, I heard a light foot fall behind me, and, turning quickly, saw the big hyena swine, perhaps a dozen yards away. His head was bent down, his bright eyes were fixed upon me, his stumpy hands clenched and held close by his side. He stopped in his crouching attitude when I turned, his eyes a little averted. For a moment we stood eye to eye. I dropped the whip and snatched at the pistol in my pocket, for I meant to kill this brute the most formidable of any left now upon the island, at the first excuse. It may seem treacherous, but so I was resolved. I was far more afraid of him than any of the other two of the beast folk. His continued life was I knew a great threat against mine. I was perhaps a dozen seconds collecting myself. Then cried I, salute, bow down. His teeth flashed upon me in a snarl, "Who are you that I should?" Just a little too spasmodically, I drew my revolver, aimed quickly, and fired. I heard him yelp, saw him run sideways and turn, knew I had missed, and clicked back the cock with my thumb for the next shot. But he was already running, headlong, jumping from side to side, and a dead nod risk another miss. Every now and then he looked back at me over his shoulder. He went slanting along the beach, and vanished beneath the driving masses of dense smoke that was still pouring out from the burning enclosure. For some time I stood staring after him. I turned to my three obedient beast folk again, and signaled them to drop the body they still carried. Then I went back to the place by the fire where the bodies had fallen, and kicked the sand until all the browned blood stains were absorbed and hidden. I dismissed my three serfs with a wave of the hand, and went up the beach into the thickets. I carried my pistol in my hand. My whip thrust with the hatches in the sling of my arm. I was anxious to be alone, to think out the position in which I was now placed. A dreadful thing that I was only beginning to realize was, that over all this island there was now no safe place where I could be alone, and secure to rest or sleep. I had recovered strength amazingly since my landing, but I was still inclined to be nervous and to break down under any great stress. I felt that I ought to cross the island and establish myself with the beast people, and make myself secure in their confidence. But my heart failed me. I went back to the beach, and turning eastward past the burning enclosure made for a point where a shallow spit of coral sand ran out towards the reef. Here I could sit down and think, my back to the sea, and my face against any surprise. And there I sat, chin on knees, the sun beating down upon my head, and unspeakable dread in my mind, plotting how I could live on against the hour of my rescue, if ever rescue came. I tried to review the whole situation as calmly as I could, but it was difficult to clear the thing of emotion. I began turning over in my mind the reason of Montgomery's despair. "They will change," he said. "They are through all to change," Anorro, what was it that Morro had said? The stubborn beast flesh grows day by day back again. Then I came round to the hyena swine. I felt sure that if I did not kill that brute, he would kill me. This sayer of the law was dead, worse luck. They knew now that we of the whips could be killed, even as they themselves were killed. Were they peering at me already out of the green masses of ferns and palms of yonder, watching until I came within their spring? Were they plotting against me? What was the hyena swine telling them? My imagination was running away with me into a morass of unsubstantial fears. My thoughts were disturbed by a crying of sea birds hurrying towards some black object that had been stranded by the waves on the beach near the enclosure. I knew what the object was, but I had not the heart to go back and drive them off. I began walking along the beach in the opposite direction, designing to come round the eastward corner of the island and so approached the ravine of the huts, without traversing the possible ambient scars of the thickets. Perhaps half a mile along the beach I became aware of one of my three beastfolk advancing out of the landwood bushes towards me. I was now so nervous with my own imaginings that I immediately drew my revolver. Even the propitiatory gestures of the creature failed to disarm me. He hesitated as he approached. "Go away!" I cried. There was something very suggestive of a dog in the cringing attitude of the creature. It retreated a little way, very like a dog being sent home, and stopped, looking at me imploringly with canine brown eyes. "Go away," said I. "Do not come near me." "May I not come near you?" it said. "No, go away!" I insisted, and snapped my whip. Then putting my whip in my teeth I stooped for a stone, and with that threat drove the creature away. So in solitude I came round by the ravine of the beastpeople, and hiding among the weeds and reeds that separated this crevice from the sea I watched such of them as appeared, dragged a judge from in their gestures and appearance of the death of Moreau and Montgomery, and the destruction of the house of pain had affected them. I know now the folly of my cowardice. Had I kept my courage up to the level of the dawn, had I not allowed it to air away in solitary thought, I might have grasped the vacant scepter of Moreau, and ruled over the beastpeople, as it was I lost the opportunity, and sank to the position of a mere leader among my fellows. Towards noon certain of them came and squatted basking in the hot sand, the imperious voices of hunger and thirst prevailed over my dread. I came out of the bushes, and, revolved her in hand, walked down towards these seated figures. One, a wolf-woman, turned her head and stared at me, and then the others. One attempted to rise or salute me. I felt too faint and weary to insist, and I let the moment pass. "I want food," said I, almost apologetically, and drawing near. "There is food in the huts," said an ox-bore man, drowsily and looking away from me. I passed them, and went down to the shadow and odours of the almost deserted ravine. In an empty hut I feasted on some specked and half-decade fruit, and then after I had propped some branches and sticks about the opening, and placed myself with my face towards it and my hand upon my revolver. The exhaustion of the last thirty hours claimed its own, and I fell into a light slumber. Knowing that the flimsy barricade I had erected would cause sufficient noise in its removal to save me from surprise. Hey there, listeners. Are you ready to unlock a world of captivating stories, soothing sounds, and enlightening lectures? At Solgood Media, we believe in the power of audio to enrich your life, and now we're offering you a chance to experience it all for free. 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