Alone With The Beast Folk

: The Island Of Doctor Moreau

I 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 monsters.

They avoided my yes, and their quivering 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.



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 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 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 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 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 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 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 myself. 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 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 shoulder. He went slanting along the beach,

and vanished beneath the driving masses of dense smoke that were

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 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 position 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

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? "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.

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, without 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 out of the landward 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!" 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 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 solitary 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 imperious 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. 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.