Section 14

210

XX.

ALONE WITH THE BEAST FOLK.

T FACED these people, 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 mon-
sters. They avoided my eyes, and their quiver-
ing nostrils investigated the bodies that lay
beyond me on the beach. I took half-a-dozen
steps, picked up the blood-stained whip that lay
beneath the body of the Wolf-man, 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.

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The Island of Doctor Moreau.

I turned and walked towards the dead bodies,
keeping my face towards the three kneeling
Beast Men, 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 ; turned
Montgomery over ; picked up his revolver still
loaded in two chambers, and bending down to
rummage, found half-a-dozen cartridges in his
pocket.

"Take him," said I, standing up again and
pointing with the whip ; " take him, and carry
him out and cast him into the sea."

They came forward, evidently still afraid of

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Alone with the Beast Folk.

Montgomery, but still more afraid of my cracking
red whip-lash; and after some fumbling and
hesitation, some whip-cracking 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 Mont-
gomery 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
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

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The Island of Doctor Moreau.

hundred yards before they waded out and cast
them away.

As I watched them disposing of the mangled
remains of M'ling, I heard a light footfall 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 this crouch-
ing 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 of any other two of the
Beast Folk. His continued life was I knew a
threat against mine.

I was perhaps a dozen seconds collecting my-
self. Then cried I, " Salute! Bow down! "

His teeth flashed upon me in a snarl. "Who
are you that I should — ' '

Perhaps a little too spasmodically I drew my
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Alone with the Beast Folk.

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 I dared not risk another miss. Every now
and then he looked back at me over his shoul-
der. He went slanting along the beach, and
vanished beneath the driving masses of dense
smoke that were still pouring out from the burn-
ing enclosure. For some time I stood staring
after him. I turned to my three obedient
Beast Folk again and signalled 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 brown 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 hatchets in the sling of my arm. I
was anxious to be alone, to think out the posi-
tion in which I was now placed. A dreadful
thing that I was only beginning to realise was,
that over all this island there was now no safe
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The Island of Doctor Moreau.

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 sure to change." And
Moreau, what was it that Moreau had said?
f< The stubborn beast-flesh grows day by day
back again." Then I came round to the
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Alone with the Beast Folk.

Hyena-swine. I felt sure that if I did not
kill that brute, he would kill me. The 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 over 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 that 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 approach the ravine of the huts, with-
out traversing the possible ambuscades of the
thickets.

Perhaps half a mile along the beach I became
aware of one of my three Beast Folk advancing
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The Island of Doctor Moreau.

out of the landward bushes towards me. I was
now so nervous with my own imaginings that I
immediately drew my revolver. Even the pro-
pitiatory gestures of the creature failed to disarm
me. He hesitated as he approached.

"Go away ! " cried I.

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 Beast People, and hiding among the weeds
and reeds that separated this crevice from the
sea I watched such of them as appeared, trying
to judge from their gestures and appearance how
the death of Moreau and Montgomery and the
destruction of the House of Pain had affected
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Alone with the Beast Folk.

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 ebb away in soli-
tary thought, I might have grasped the vacant
sceptre of Moreau and ruled over the Beast
People. 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 impe-
rious voices of hunger and thirst prevailed over
my dread. I came out of the bushes, and,
revolver in hand, walked down towards these
seated figures. One, a Wolf-woman, turned
her head and stared at me, and then the others.
None 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-
boar-man, drowsily, and looking away from
me.

I passed them, and went down into the
shadow and odours of the almost deserted ravine.
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The Island of Doctor Moreau.

In an empty hut I feasted on some specked and
half-decayed 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, hoping that the flimsy barricade
I had erected would cause sufficient noise in its
removal to save me from surprise.

220

XXI.

THE REVERSION OF THE BEAST FOLK.

TN this way I became one among the Beast
* People in the Island of Doctor Moreau.
When I awoke, it was dark about me. My
arm ached in its bandages. I sat up, wonder-
ing at first where I might be. I heard coarse
voices talking outside. Then I saw that my
barricade had gone, and that the opening of the
hut stood clear. My revolver was still in my
hand.

I heard something breathing, saw something
crouched together close beside me. I held my
breath, trying to see what it was. It began to
move slowly, interminably. Then something
soft and warm and moist passed across my hand.
All my muscles contracted. I snatched my
hand away. A cry of alarm began and was
stifled in my throat. Then I just realised what
had happened sufficiently to stay my fingers on
the revolver.

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The Island of Doctor Moreau.

" Who is that ? " I said in a hoarse whisper,
the revolver still pointed.

« / — Master."

"Who are you?"

"They say there is no Master now. But I
know, I know. I carried the bodies into the
sea, O Walker in the Sea ! the bodies of those
you slew. I am your slave, Master."

" Are you the one I met on the beach ? " I
asked.

" The same, Master."

The Thing was evidently faithful enough, for
it might have fallen upon me as I slept. " It is
well," I said, extending my hand for another
licking kiss. I began to realise what its pres-
ence meant, and the tide of my courage flowed.
" Where are the others ? " I asked.

" They are mad ; they are fools," said the
Dog-man. " Even now they talk together
beyond there. They say, ' The Master is
dead. The Other with the Whip is dead.
That Other who walked in the Sea is as we are.
We have no Master, no Whips, no House of
Pain, any more. There is an end. We love
the Law, and will keep it ; but there is no
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The Reversion of the Beast Folk.

Pain, no Master, no Whips for ever again.' So
they say. But I know, Master, I know."

I felt in the darkness, and patted the Dog-
man's head. " It is well," I said again.

"Presently you will slay them all," said the
Dog-man.

" Presently," I answered, "I will slay them
all, — after certain days and certain things have
come to pass. Every one of them save those
you spare, every one of them shall be slain."

" What the Master wishes to kill, the Master
kills," said the Dog-man with a certain satisfac-
tion in his voice.

"And that their sins may grow," I said,
" let them live in their folly until their time is
ripe. Let them not know that I am the
Master. "

"The Master's will is sweet," said the Dog-
man, with the ready tact of his canine blood.

"But one has sinned," said I. "Him I
will kill, whenever I may meet him. When I
say to you, ' That is he,' see that you fall upon
him. And now I will go to the men and
women who are assembled together."

For a moment the opening of the hut was
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The Island of Doctor Moreau.

blackened by the exit of the Dog-man. Then
I followed and stood up, almost in the exact
spot where I had been when I had heard
Moreau and his staghound pursuing me. But
now it was night, and all the miasmatic ravine
about me was black ; and beyond, instead of a
green, sunlit slope, I saw a red fire, before
which hunched, grotesque figures moved to and
fro. Farther were the thick trees, a bank of
darkness, fringed above with the black lace of
the upper branches. The moon was just riding
up on the edge of the ravine, and like a bar
across its face drove the spire of vapour that was
for ever streaming from the fumaroles of the
island.

" Walk by me," said I, nerving myself; and
side by side we walked down the narrow way,
taking little heed of the dim Things that peered
at us out of the huts.

None about the fire attempted to salute me.
Most of them disregarded me, ostentatiously. I
looked round for the Hyena-swine, but he was
not there. Altogether, perhaps twenty of the
Beast Folk squatted, staring into the fire or talk-
ing to one another.

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The Reversion of the Beast Folk.

"He is dead, he is dead! the Master is
dead ! ' ' said the voice of the Ape-man to the
right of me. " The House of Pain — there is
no House of Pain ! "

"He is not dead," said I, in a loud voice.
"Even now he watches us!"

This startled them. Twenty pairs of eyes
regarded me.

" The House of Pain is gone," said I. " It
will come again. The Master you cannot see ;
yet even now he listens among you."

" True, true ! " said the Dog-man.

They were staggered at my assurance. An
animal may be ferocious and cunning enough,
but it takes a real man to tell a lie.

" The Man with the Bandaged Arm speaks
a strange thing," said one of the Beast Folk.

" I tell you it is so," I said. " The Master
and the House of Pain will come again. Woe
be to him who breaks the Law ! ' '

They looked curiously at one another. With
an affectation of indifference I began to chop
idly at the ground in front of me with my
hatchet. They looked, I noticed, at the deep
cuts I made in the turf.
15 225

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

Then the Satyr raised a doubt. I answered
him. Then one of the dappled things objected,
and an animated discussion sprang up round the
fire. Every moment I began to feel more con-
vinced of my present security. I talked now
without the catching in my breath, due to the
intensity of my excitement, that had troubled
me at first. In the course of about an hour I
had really convinced several of the Beast Folk
of the truth of my assertions, and talked most of
the others into a dubious state. I kept a sharp
eye for my enemy the Hyena-swine, but he
never appeared. Every now and then a sus-
picious movement would startle me, but my
confidence grew rapidly. Then as the moon
crept down from the zenith, one by one the
listeners began to yawn (showing the oddest
teeth in the light of the sinking fire) , and first
one and then another retired towards the dens
in the ravine ; and I, dreading the silence and
darkness, went with them, knowing I was safer
with several of them than with one alone.