August 14, 2025 • 8 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
For at the schooner's rail that night, Land was sighted
at the sundown, and the schooner hove too. Montgomery intimated
that was his destination. It was too far to see
in the details. It seemed to me then, simply a
low lying patch of dim blue and the uncertain blue
(00:21):
gray 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,
(00:42):
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
(01:05):
singularly unfriendly manner. I found Montgomery 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
(01:26):
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
(01:48):
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
(02:10):
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
immnsity merely to save my life. Tomorrow he would drop
(02:32):
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
(02:52):
of his luggage. I found myself repeating the captain's question,
what did he want with the beasts? Why? 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.
(03:13):
These circumstances threw a haze of mystery round the man.
They laid hold of my imagination 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.
(03:36):
It was the atmosphere for sentiment, and I began upon
my gratitude, if I may say it, said I, after
a time you saved my life. Chance, he answered, just chance.
I prefer to make my thanks to the accessible agent.
(03:58):
Thanked no one. You had the need and I had
the knowledge, and I injected and fed you much as
I might have collected a spathamen. I was bored and
wanted something to do. If i'd being jaded that day,
or hadn't liked your faith, well, it's a curious question
(04:19):
where he would have been. Now this damped my mood
a little. At any rate, I began. It's a chance,
I tell you, he interrupted, as everything is in a
man's life, only the athes won't see it. Why am
I here now an outcast from civilization instead of being
(04:43):
a happy man enjoying all the pleasures of London, 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
(05:06):
something in the starlight that luthened one'th tongue. I'm an
ath and you somehow I would like to tell you.
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.
(05:29):
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
(05:52):
might have driven a young medical student out of London.
I have an imagination. I shrugged my shoulders and turned
away over the taffrail into silent black figure watching the stars.
It was Montgomery's strange attendant. It looked over its shoulder
(06:13):
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
(06:36):
the eyes that 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
(06:57):
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
(07:18):
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
(07:45):
struck a ghostly white beam across my cabin and made
an ominous shape on the planking of my bunk. Then
the staghounds woke and began howling and baying, so that
I dreamt fitfully and scarcely slept until the approach of dawn.
For at the schooner's rail that night, Land was sighted
at the sundown, and the schooner hove too. Montgomery intimated
that was his destination. It was too far to see
in the details. It seemed to me then, simply a
low lying patch of dim blue and the uncertain blue
(00:21):
gray 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,
(00:42):
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
(01:05):
singularly unfriendly manner. I found Montgomery 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
(01:26):
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
(01:48):
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
(02:10):
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
immnsity merely to save my life. Tomorrow he would drop
(02:32):
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
(02:52):
of his luggage. I found myself repeating the captain's question,
what did he want with the beasts? Why? 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.
(03:13):
These circumstances threw a haze of mystery round the man.
They laid hold of my imagination 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.
(03:36):
It was the atmosphere for sentiment, and I began upon
my gratitude, if I may say it, said I, after
a time you saved my life. Chance, he answered, just chance.
I prefer to make my thanks to the accessible agent.
(03:58):
Thanked no one. You had the need and I had
the knowledge, and I injected and fed you much as
I might have collected a spathamen. I was bored and
wanted something to do. If i'd being jaded that day,
or hadn't liked your faith, well, it's a curious question
(04:19):
where he would have been. Now this damped my mood
a little. At any rate, I began. It's a chance,
I tell you, he interrupted, as everything is in a
man's life, only the athes won't see it. Why am
I here now an outcast from civilization instead of being
(04:43):
a happy man enjoying all the pleasures of London, 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
(05:06):
something in the starlight that luthened one'th tongue. I'm an
ath and you somehow I would like to tell you.
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.
(05:29):
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
(05:52):
might have driven a young medical student out of London.
I have an imagination. I shrugged my shoulders and turned
away over the taffrail into silent black figure watching the stars.
It was Montgomery's strange attendant. It looked over its shoulder
(06:13):
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
(06:36):
the eyes that 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
(06:57):
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
(07:18):
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
(07:45):
struck a ghostly white beam across my cabin and made
an ominous shape on the planking of my bunk. Then
the staghounds woke and began howling and baying, so that
I dreamt fitfully and scarcely slept until the approach of dawn.
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