Section 2

" Confound you ! " said Montgomery.
"Why the devil don't you get out of the
way?"

The black-faced man started aside without a
word. I went on up the companion, staring
at him instinctively as I did so. Montgomery
stayed at the foot for a moment. " You have
no business here, you know," he said in a
deliberate tone. " Your place is forward."

The black-faced man cowered. "They —
won't have me forward." He spoke slowly,
with a queer, hoarse quality in his voice.

" Won* t have you forward ! ' ' said Mont-
gomery, in a menacing voice. " But I tell you
to go ! " He was on the brink of saying some-
thing further, then looked up at me suddenly
and followed me up the ladder.

I had paused half way through the hatch-
way, looking back, still astonished beyond
measure at the grotesque ugliness of this black-
faced creature. I had never beheld such a
22

The Strange Face.

repulsive and extraordinary face before, and
yet — if the contradiction is credible — I expe-
rienced at the same time an odd feeling that in
some way I bad already encountered exactly
the features and gestures that now amazed me.
Afterwards it occurred to me that probably I
had seen him as I was lifted aboard ; and yet
that scarcely satisfied my suspicion of a previous
acquaintance. Yet how one could have set
eyes on so singular a face and yet have forgot-
ten the precise occasion, passed my imagination.
Montgomery's movement to follow me re-
leased my attention, and I turned and looked
about me at the flush deck of the little schooner.
I was already half prepared by the sounds I
had heard for what I saw. Certainly I never
beheld a deck so dirty. It was littered with
scraps of carrot, shreds of green stuff, and
indescribable filth. Fastened by chains to the
mainmast were a number of grisly staghounds,
who now began leaping and barking at me,
and by the mizzen a huge puma was cramped
in a little iron cage far too small even to give
it turning room. Farther under the starboard
bulwark were some big hutches containing a
23

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

number of rabbits, and a solitary llama was
squeezed in a mere box of a cage forward.
The dogs were muzzled by leather straps. The
only human being on deck was a gaunt and
silent sailor at the wheel.

The patched and dirty spankers were tense
before the wind, and up aloft the little ship
seemed carrying every sail she had. The sky was
clear, the sun midway down the western sky ;
long waves, capped by the breeze with froth,
were running with us. We went past the steers-
man to the taffrail, and saw the water come
foaming under the stern and the bubbles go
dancing and vanishing in her wake. I turned
and surveyed the unsavoury length of the ship.

*' Is this an ocean menagerie ? " said I.

"Looks like it," said Montgomery.

"What are these beasts for? Merchandise,
curios ? Does the captain think he is going to
sell them somewhere in the South Seas ? ' '

"It looks like it, doesn't it?" said Mont-
gomery, and turned towards the wake again.

Suddenly we heard a yelp and a volley of
furious blasphemy from the companion hatch-
way, and the deformed man with the black
24

The Strange Face.

face came up hurriedly. He was immediately
followed by a heavy red-haired man in a white
cap. At the sight of the former the staghounds,
who had all tired of barking at me by this time,
became furiously excited, howling and leaping
against their chains. The black hesitated before
them, and this gave the red-haired man time to
come up with him and deliver a tremendous
blow between the shoulder-blades. The poor
devil went down like a felled ox, and rolled in
the dirt among the furiously excited dogs. It
was lucky for him that they were muzzled.
The red-haired man gave a yawp of exultation
and stood staggering, and as it seemed to me in
serious danger of either going backwards down
the companion hatchway or forwards upon his
victim.

So soon as the second man had appeared,
Montgomery had started forward. "Steady
on there ! " he cried, in a tone of remonstrance.
A couple of sailors appeared on the forecastle.
The black-faced man, howling in a singular voice,
rolled about under the feet of the dogs. No
one attempted to help him. The brutes did
their best to worry him, butting their muzzles
25

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

at him. There was a quick dance of their lithe
grey-figured bodies over the clumsy, prostrate
figure. The sailors forward shouted, as though
it was admirable sport. Montgomery gave an
angry exclamation, and went striding down the
deck, and I followed him. The black-faced
man scrambled up and staggered forward, going
and leaning over the bulwark by the main
shrouds, where he remained, panting and glaring
over his shoulder at the dogs. The red-haired
man laughed a satisfied laugh.

"Look here, Captain," said Montgomery,
with his lisp a little accentuated, gripping the
elbows of the red-haired man, "this won't
do!"

I stood behind Montgomery. The captain
came half round, and regarded him with the
dull and solemn eyes of a drunken man. " Wha'
won't do ? " he said, and added, after looking
sleepily into Montgomery's face for a minute,
" Blasted Sawbones ! "

With a sudden movement he shook his arm
free, and after two ineffectual attempts stuck his
freckled fists into his side pockets.

"That man's a passenger," said Mont-
26

The Strange Face.

gomery. "I'd advise you to keep your hands
off him."

" Go to hell ! " said the captain, loudly.
He suddenly turned and staggered towards the
side. " Do what I like on my own ship," he
said.

I think Montgomery might have left him
then, seeing the brute was drunk ; but he only
turned a shade paler, and followed the captain
to the bulwarks.

" Look you here, Captain,1' he said ; "that
man of mine is not to be ill-treated. He has
been hazed ever since he came aboard."

For a minute, alcoholic fumes kept the cap-
tain speechless. "Blasted Sawbones!" was
all he considered necessary.

I could see that Montgomery had one of
those slow, pertinacious tempers that will warm
day after day to a white heat, and never again
cool to forgiveness ; and I saw too that this
quarrel had been some time growing. " The
man's drunk," said I, perhaps officiously;
" you '11 do no good."

Montgomery gave an ugly twist to his
dropping lip. "He's always drunk. Do
27

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

you think that excuses his assaulting his
passengers ? "

"My ship," began the captain, waving his
hand unsteadily towards the cages, "was a
clean ship. Look at it now ! " It was cer-
tainly anything but clean. " Crew,'' con-
tinued the captain, "clean, respectable crew."

"You agreed to take the beasts."

" I wish I 'd never set eyes on your infernal
island. What the devil — want beasts for on
an island like that ? Then, that man of yours
— understood he was a man. He 's a lunatic ;
and he hadn't no business aft. Do you think
the whole damned ship belongs to you ?"

" Your sailors began to haze the poor devil
as soon as he came aboard."

"That's just what he is — he's a devil!
an ugly devil ! My men can't stand him. /
can't stand him. None of us can't stand him.
Nor you either ! "

Montgomery turned away. " You leave
that man alone, anyhow," he said, nodding his
head as he spoke.

But the captain meant to quarrel now. He
raised his voice. "If he comes this end of the
28

The Strange Face.

ship again I '11 cut his insides out, I tell you.
Cut out his blasted insides ! Who are you, to
tell me what Pm to do ? I tell you I 'm cap-
tain of this ship, — captain and owner. I 'm
the law here, I tell you, — the law and the
prophets. I bargained to take a man and his
attendant to and from Arica, and bring back
some animals. I never bargained to carry a
mad devil and a silly Sawbones, a — "

Well, never mind what he called Montgomery.
I saw the latter take a step forward, and inter-
posed. "He's drunk," said I. The captain
began some abuse even fouler than the last.
" Shut up ! " I said, turning on him sharply,
for I had seen danger in Montgomery's white
face. With that I brought the downpour on
myself.

However, I was glad to avert what was
uncommonly near a scuffle, even at the price of
the captain's drunken ill-will. I do not think
I have ever heard quite so much vile language
come in a continuous stream from any man's
lips before, though I have frequented eccentric
company enough. I found some of it hard to
endure, though I am a mild-tempered man ;
29

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

but, certainly, when I told the captain to " shut
up J ' I had forgotten that I was merely a bit of
human flotsam, cut off from my resources and
with my fare unpaid ; a mere casual dependant
on the bounty, or speculative enterprise, of the
ship. He reminded me of it with considerable
vigour ; but at any rate I prevented a fight.

IV.

PHAT night land was sighted after sundown,
and the schooner hove to. Montgomery
intimated that was his destination. It was too
far to see any details ; it seemed to me then
simply a low-lying patch of dim blue in the
uncertain blue-grey sea. An almost vertical
streak of smoke went up from it into the sky.
The captain was not on deck when it was sighted.
After he had vented his wrath on me he had
staggered below, and I understand he went to
sleep on the floor of his own cabin. The mate
practically assumed the command. He was the
gaunt, taciturn individual we had seen at the
wheel. Apparently he was in an evil temper
with Montgomery. He took not the slightest
notice of either of us. We dined with him in
a sulky silence, after a few ineffectual efforts on
my part to talk. It struck me too that the men
regarded my companion and his animals in a
31

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

singularly unfriendly manner. I found Mont-
gomery very reticent about his purpose with
these creatures, and about his destination ; and
though I was sensible of a growing curiosity as
to both, I did not press him.

We remained talking on the quarter deck until
the sky was thick with stars. Except for an
occasional sound in the yellow-lit forecastle and
a movement of the animals now and then, the
night was very still. The puma lay crouched
together, watching us with shining eyes, a black
heap in the corner of its cage. Montgomery
produced some cigars. He talked to me of
London in a tone of half-painful reminiscence,
asking all kinds of questions about changes that
had taken place. He spoke like a man who had
loved his life there, and had been suddenly and
irrevocably cut off from it. I gossiped as well
as I could of this and that. All the time the
strangeness of him was shaping itself in my mind ;
and as I talked I peered at his odd, pallid face
in the dim light of the binnacle lantern behind
me. Then I looked out at the darkling sea,
where in the dimness his little island was hidden.

This man, it seemed to me, had come out of
32

At the Schooner's Rail.

Immensity merely to save my life. To-morrow
he would drop over the side, and vanish again
out of my existence. Even had it been under
commonplace circumstances, it would have made
me a trifle thoughtful ; but in the first place
was the singularity of an educated man living
on this unknown little island, and coupled with
that the extraordinary nature of his luggage. I
found myself repeating the captain's question,
What did he want with the beasts ? Wny, too,
had he pretended they were not his when I had
remarked about them at first ? Then, again,
in his personal attendant there was a bizarre
quality which had impressed me profoundly.
These circumstances threw a haze of mystery
round the man. They laid hold of my imagi-
nation, and hampered my tongue.

Towards midnight our talk of London died
away, and we stood side by side leaning over
the bulwarks and staring dreamily over the
silent, starlit sea, each pursuing his own thoughts.
It was the atmosphere for sentiment, and I
began upon my gratitude.

"If I may say it," said I, after a time,
"you have saved my life."
3 33

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

"Chance,** he answered. "Just chance."

"I prefer to make my thanks to the accessible
agent."

" Thank no one. You had the need, and I
had the knowledge ; and I injected and fed you
much as I might have collected a specimen. I
was bored, and wanted something to do. If
I'd been jaded that day, or hadn't liked your
face, well — it's a curious question where you
would have been now ! "

This damped my mood a little. "At any
rate," I began.

" It 's chance, I tell you," he interrupted, —
"as everything is in a man's life. Only the
asses won't see it ! Why am I here now, an
outcast from civilisation, instead of being a
happy man enjoying all the pleasures of Lon-
don ? Simply because eleven years ago — I
lost my head for ten minutes on a foggy night."

He stopped. " Yes ? " said I.

"That's all."

We relapsed into silence. Presently he
laughed. "There's something in this star-
light that loosens one's tongue. I'm an ass,
and yet somehow I would like to tell you."
34

At the Schooner's Rail.

" Whatever you tell me, you may rely upon
my keeping to myself — if that's it."

He was on the point of beginning, and then
shook his head, doubtfully.

"Don't," said I. "It is all the same to
me. After all, it is better to keep your secret.
There's nothing gained but a little relief if I
respect your confidence. If I don't — well ? "

He grunted undecidedly. I felt I had him
at a disadvantage, had caught him in the mood
of indiscretion ; and to tell the truth I was not
curious to learn what might have driven a young
medical student out of London. I have an
imagination. I shrugged my shoulders and
turned away. Over the taffrail leant a silent
black figure, watching the stars. It was Mont-
gomery's strange attendant. It looked over its
shoulder quickly with my movement, then looked
away again.

It may seem a little thing to you, perhaps,
but it came like a sudden blow to me. The
only light near us was a lantern at the wheel.
The creature's face was turned for one brief
instant out of the dimness of the stern towards
this illumination, and I saw that the eyes that
35

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

glanced at me shone with a pale-green light. I
did not know then that a reddish luminosity, at
least, is not uncommon in human eyes. The
thing came to me as stark inhumanity. That
black figure with its eyes of fire struck down
through all my adult thoughts and feelings, and
for a moment the forgotten horrors of childhood
came back to my mind. Then the effect passed
as it had come. An uncouth black figure of a
man, a figure of no particular import, hung over
the taffrail against the starlight, and I found
Montgomery was speaking to me.

"I'm thinking of turning in, then," said
he, "if you've had enough of this."

I answered him incongruously. We went
below, and he wished me good-night at the
door of my cabin.

That night I had some very unpleasant dreams.
The waning moon rose late. Its light struck a
ghostly white beam across my cabin, and made
an ominous shape on the planking by my bunk.
Then the staghounds woke, and began howling
and baying ; so that I dreamt fitfully, and
scarcely slept until the approach of dawn.

V.

THE MAN WHO HAD NOWHERE TO GO.

IN the early morning (it was the second morn-
ing after my recovery, and I believe the
fourth after I was picked up), I awoke through
an avenue of tumultuous dreams, — dreams of
guns and howling mobs, — and became sensi-
ble of a hoarse shouting above me. I rubbed
my eyes and lay listening to the noise, doubtful
for a little while of my whereabouts. Then
came a sudden pattering of bare feet, the sound
of heavy objects being thrown about, a violent
creaking and the rattling of chains. I heard
the swish of the water as the ship was suddenly
brought round, and a foamy yellow-green wave
flew across the little round window and left it
streaming. I jumped into my clothes and went
on deck.

As I came up the ladder I saw against the
flushed sky — for the sun was just rising — the
37

The Island of Doctor Moreau.

broad back and red hair of the captain, and
over his shoulder the puma spinning from a
tackle rigged on to the mizzen spanker-boom.