August 16, 2025 • 11 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six the evil looking boatmen, but the islanders, seeing that
I was really adrift, took pity on me. I drifted
very slowly to the eastward, approaching the island slantingly, and
presently I saw with hysterical relief, the launch come round
and return towards me. She was heavily laden, and I
(00:24):
could make out as she drew nearer Montgomery's white haired,
broad shouldered companion sitting cramped up with the dogs in
several packing cases in the stern sheets. This individual stared
fixedly at me, without moving or speaking. The black faced
cripple was glaring at me as fixedly. In the boughs
near the puma, there were three other men, besides three strange,
(00:50):
brutish looking fellows, at whom the stag hounds were snarling savagely. Montgomery,
who was steering, brought the boat by me, and rising
caught and fastened my painter to the tiller to tow me,
for there was no room aboard. I had recovered from
my hysterical phase by this time, and answered his hail
(01:11):
as he approached. Bravely enough. I told him that Dinghy
was nearly swamped, and he reached me a pigan I
was jerked back as the rope tightened between the boats.
For some time I was busy baling. It was not
until I had got the water under for the water
and the dinghy had been shipped the boat was perfectly sound,
(01:34):
that I had leisure to look at the people in
the launch again. The white haired man I found was
still regarding me steadfastly, but with an expression as I
now fancied, of some perplexity. When my eyes met his,
he looked down at the staghound that sat between his knees.
(01:54):
He was a powerfully built man, as I have said,
with a fine forehead and rap the heavy features. But
his eyes had that odd drooping of the skin above
the lids which often comes with advancing years, and the
fall of his mouth at the corners gave him an
expression of pugnacious resolution. He talked to Montgomery in a
(02:16):
tone too low for me to hear from him. My
eyes traveled to his three men and a strange crew
they were. I saw only their faces, Yet there was
something in their faces I knew not what. That gave
me a queer spasm of disgust. I looked steadily at them,
(02:38):
and the impression did not pass, though I failed to
see what had occasioned it. They seemed to me then
to be brown men, but their limbs were oddly swathed
in some thin, dirty white stuff down even to the
fingers and feet. I have never seen men so wrapped
up a four and women so only in the East.
(03:01):
They wore turbans, too, and thereunder peered out their elfin
faces at me, faces with protruding lower jaws and bright eyes.
They had lank black hair, almost like horse hair, and seemed,
as they sat, to exceed in stature any race of
men I have seen. The white haired man, whom I
(03:24):
knew was a good six feet in height, sat a
head below any one of the three. I found afterwards
that really none were taller than myself. But their bodies
were abnormally long, and the thigh part of the leg
short and curiously twisted. At any rate, they were an
amazingly ugly gang. And over the heads of them, under
(03:47):
the forward lug peered the black face of the man,
whose eyes were luminous in the dark. As I stared
at them, they met my gaze, and then first one
and then another turned away from my direct stair and
looked at me in an odd, furtive manner. It occurred
(04:07):
to me that I was perhaps annoying them, and I
turned my attention to the island we were approaching. It
was low and covered with vegetation, chiefly a kind of
palm that was new to me. From one point, a
thin white thread of vapor rose slantingly to an immense height,
and then frayed out like a down feather. We were
(04:30):
now within the embrace of a broad bay, flanked on
either hand by a low promontory. The beach was of
dull gray sand and sloped steeply up to a ridge
perhaps sixty or seventy feet above the sea level, and
regularly set with trees and undergrowth. Half Way up was
a square enclosure of some grayish stone, which I found
(04:53):
subsequently was built partly of coral and partly of pumicious lava.
Two thatched roofs heaped from within this enclosure. A man
stood awaiting us at the water's edge. I fancied, while
we were still far off that I saw some other
and very grotesque looking creatures scuttle into the bushes upon
(05:14):
the slope, But I saw nothing of these as we
drew nearer. This man was of a moderate size and
with a black negroid face. He had a large, almost
lipless mouth, extraordinary lank arms, long thin feet and bow legs,
and stood with his heavy face thrust forward staring at us.
(05:36):
He was dressed like Montgomery and his white head companion,
in jacket and trousers of blue surge. As we came
still nearer, this individual began to run to and fro
on the beach, making the most grotesque movements. At a
word of command from Montgomery, the four men in the
launch sprang up and, with singularly awkward gestures, struck the lug.
(06:01):
Montgomery steered us round into a narrow little dock excavated
into the beach. Then the man on the beach hastened
towards us. This dock, as I call it, was really
a mere ditch, just long enough at this phase of
the tide to take the long boat. I heard the
boughs ground in the sand, staved the dinghy off the
rudder of the big boat with my piggin and freeing
(06:24):
the painter landed. The three muffled men, with the clumsiest movements,
scrambled out upon the sand and forthwith set to landing
the cargo assisted by the man on the beach. I
was struck, especially by the curious movements of the legs
of the three swathed and bandaged boatmen. Not stiff they were,
(06:45):
but distorted in some odd way, almost as if they
were jointed in the wrong place. The dogs were still
snarling and strained at their chains after these men. As
the white haired man landed with them, the three big
fellows spoke to one another in odd guttural tones, and
(07:06):
the man who had waited for us on the beach
began chattering to them excitedly a foreign language. As I
fancied as they laid hands on some bales piled near
the stern. Somewhere I had heard such a voice before,
and I could not think where. The white haired man stood,
(07:26):
holding in a tumult of six dogs and bawling orders
over their din. Montgomery, having unshipped the rudder, landed likewise,
and all set to work at unloading. I was too faint,
what with my long fast in the sun beating down
on my bare head, to offer any assistance. Presently, the
(07:50):
white haired man seemed to recollect my presence and came
up to me. You look, said he, as though you
had scarcely pricked. His little eyes were a brilliant black
under his heavy brows. I must apologize for that. Now
you are our guest. We must make you comfortable, though
(08:14):
you are uninvited, you know, he looked keenly into my face.
Montgomery says, you are an educated man. Mister Prindick says,
you know something of science. May I ask what that signifies?
I told him I had spent some years at the
Royal College of Science and had done some researches in
(08:36):
biology under Huxley. He raised his eyebrows slightly at that.
That alters the case a little. Mister Prindick, he said,
with a trifle more respect in his manner. As it happens,
we are biologists here. This is a biological station of
a sort. His eyes rested on the men in white,
(08:59):
who were easily hauling the puma on rollers towards the
walled yard Ay and Montgomery at least, he added, Then
when you will be able to get away, I can't
say we are off the track to anywhere. We see
a ship once in a twelve month or so. He
(09:22):
left me abruptly and went up the beach past this group,
and I think entered the enclosure. The other two men
were with Montgomery erecting a pile of smaller packages on
a low wheeled truck. The lama was still on the
launch with the rabbit hutches. The staghounds were still lashed
to the thwarts. The pile of things completed, all three
(09:45):
men laid hold of the truck and began shoving the
ton weight or so upon it after the puma. Presently,
Montgomery left them, and, coming back to me, held out
his hand. I'm glad, said he for my own part.
That captain w a thilly asth he'd have made things
(10:06):
lively for you. It was you, said I that saved
me again, that de pinthe you'll find this island an
infirmly rum plaith. I promise you I'd watch my goings
carefully if I were you. He he hesitated and seemed
(10:27):
to alter his mind about what was on his lips.
I wish you'd help me with thee rabbits, he said.
His procedure with the rabbits was singular. I waded in
with him and helped him lug one of the hatches ashore.
No sooner was that done than he opened the door
of it and tilting the thing on one end, turned
(10:49):
its living contents out on the ground. They fell in
a struggling heap, one on top of the other. He
clapped his hands, and forthwith they went off at that
hopping of theirs, fifteen or twenty of them. I should
think up the beach in Greeth and multiply, my friend,
said Montgomery, Replyneth the island hitherto. We've had a certain
(11:13):
lack of meat here. As I watched them disappearing, the
white haired man returned with a brandy flask and some biscuits.
Something to go on with, Priddock, said he in a
far more familiar tone than before. I made no ado,
but set to work on the biscuits at once, while
(11:35):
the white haired man helped Montgomery to release about a
score more of the rabbits. Three big hutches, however, went
up to the house with the puma. The brandy I
did not touch, for I have been an abstainer from
my berth
Six the evil looking boatmen, but the islanders, seeing that
I was really adrift, took pity on me. I drifted
very slowly to the eastward, approaching the island slantingly, and
presently I saw with hysterical relief, the launch come round
and return towards me. She was heavily laden, and I
(00:24):
could make out as she drew nearer Montgomery's white haired,
broad shouldered companion sitting cramped up with the dogs in
several packing cases in the stern sheets. This individual stared
fixedly at me, without moving or speaking. The black faced
cripple was glaring at me as fixedly. In the boughs
near the puma, there were three other men, besides three strange,
(00:50):
brutish looking fellows, at whom the stag hounds were snarling savagely. Montgomery,
who was steering, brought the boat by me, and rising
caught and fastened my painter to the tiller to tow me,
for there was no room aboard. I had recovered from
my hysterical phase by this time, and answered his hail
(01:11):
as he approached. Bravely enough. I told him that Dinghy
was nearly swamped, and he reached me a pigan I
was jerked back as the rope tightened between the boats.
For some time I was busy baling. It was not
until I had got the water under for the water
and the dinghy had been shipped the boat was perfectly sound,
(01:34):
that I had leisure to look at the people in
the launch again. The white haired man I found was
still regarding me steadfastly, but with an expression as I
now fancied, of some perplexity. When my eyes met his,
he looked down at the staghound that sat between his knees.
(01:54):
He was a powerfully built man, as I have said,
with a fine forehead and rap the heavy features. But
his eyes had that odd drooping of the skin above
the lids which often comes with advancing years, and the
fall of his mouth at the corners gave him an
expression of pugnacious resolution. He talked to Montgomery in a
(02:16):
tone too low for me to hear from him. My
eyes traveled to his three men and a strange crew
they were. I saw only their faces, Yet there was
something in their faces I knew not what. That gave
me a queer spasm of disgust. I looked steadily at them,
(02:38):
and the impression did not pass, though I failed to
see what had occasioned it. They seemed to me then
to be brown men, but their limbs were oddly swathed
in some thin, dirty white stuff down even to the
fingers and feet. I have never seen men so wrapped
up a four and women so only in the East.
(03:01):
They wore turbans, too, and thereunder peered out their elfin
faces at me, faces with protruding lower jaws and bright eyes.
They had lank black hair, almost like horse hair, and seemed,
as they sat, to exceed in stature any race of
men I have seen. The white haired man, whom I
(03:24):
knew was a good six feet in height, sat a
head below any one of the three. I found afterwards
that really none were taller than myself. But their bodies
were abnormally long, and the thigh part of the leg
short and curiously twisted. At any rate, they were an
amazingly ugly gang. And over the heads of them, under
(03:47):
the forward lug peered the black face of the man,
whose eyes were luminous in the dark. As I stared
at them, they met my gaze, and then first one
and then another turned away from my direct stair and
looked at me in an odd, furtive manner. It occurred
(04:07):
to me that I was perhaps annoying them, and I
turned my attention to the island we were approaching. It
was low and covered with vegetation, chiefly a kind of
palm that was new to me. From one point, a
thin white thread of vapor rose slantingly to an immense height,
and then frayed out like a down feather. We were
(04:30):
now within the embrace of a broad bay, flanked on
either hand by a low promontory. The beach was of
dull gray sand and sloped steeply up to a ridge
perhaps sixty or seventy feet above the sea level, and
regularly set with trees and undergrowth. Half Way up was
a square enclosure of some grayish stone, which I found
(04:53):
subsequently was built partly of coral and partly of pumicious lava.
Two thatched roofs heaped from within this enclosure. A man
stood awaiting us at the water's edge. I fancied, while
we were still far off that I saw some other
and very grotesque looking creatures scuttle into the bushes upon
(05:14):
the slope, But I saw nothing of these as we
drew nearer. This man was of a moderate size and
with a black negroid face. He had a large, almost
lipless mouth, extraordinary lank arms, long thin feet and bow legs,
and stood with his heavy face thrust forward staring at us.
(05:36):
He was dressed like Montgomery and his white head companion,
in jacket and trousers of blue surge. As we came
still nearer, this individual began to run to and fro
on the beach, making the most grotesque movements. At a
word of command from Montgomery, the four men in the
launch sprang up and, with singularly awkward gestures, struck the lug.
(06:01):
Montgomery steered us round into a narrow little dock excavated
into the beach. Then the man on the beach hastened
towards us. This dock, as I call it, was really
a mere ditch, just long enough at this phase of
the tide to take the long boat. I heard the
boughs ground in the sand, staved the dinghy off the
rudder of the big boat with my piggin and freeing
(06:24):
the painter landed. The three muffled men, with the clumsiest movements,
scrambled out upon the sand and forthwith set to landing
the cargo assisted by the man on the beach. I
was struck, especially by the curious movements of the legs
of the three swathed and bandaged boatmen. Not stiff they were,
(06:45):
but distorted in some odd way, almost as if they
were jointed in the wrong place. The dogs were still
snarling and strained at their chains after these men. As
the white haired man landed with them, the three big
fellows spoke to one another in odd guttural tones, and
(07:06):
the man who had waited for us on the beach
began chattering to them excitedly a foreign language. As I
fancied as they laid hands on some bales piled near
the stern. Somewhere I had heard such a voice before,
and I could not think where. The white haired man stood,
(07:26):
holding in a tumult of six dogs and bawling orders
over their din. Montgomery, having unshipped the rudder, landed likewise,
and all set to work at unloading. I was too faint,
what with my long fast in the sun beating down
on my bare head, to offer any assistance. Presently, the
(07:50):
white haired man seemed to recollect my presence and came
up to me. You look, said he, as though you
had scarcely pricked. His little eyes were a brilliant black
under his heavy brows. I must apologize for that. Now
you are our guest. We must make you comfortable, though
(08:14):
you are uninvited, you know, he looked keenly into my face.
Montgomery says, you are an educated man. Mister Prindick says,
you know something of science. May I ask what that signifies?
I told him I had spent some years at the
Royal College of Science and had done some researches in
(08:36):
biology under Huxley. He raised his eyebrows slightly at that.
That alters the case a little. Mister Prindick, he said,
with a trifle more respect in his manner. As it happens,
we are biologists here. This is a biological station of
a sort. His eyes rested on the men in white,
(08:59):
who were easily hauling the puma on rollers towards the
walled yard Ay and Montgomery at least, he added, Then
when you will be able to get away, I can't
say we are off the track to anywhere. We see
a ship once in a twelve month or so. He
(09:22):
left me abruptly and went up the beach past this group,
and I think entered the enclosure. The other two men
were with Montgomery erecting a pile of smaller packages on
a low wheeled truck. The lama was still on the
launch with the rabbit hutches. The staghounds were still lashed
to the thwarts. The pile of things completed, all three
(09:45):
men laid hold of the truck and began shoving the
ton weight or so upon it after the puma. Presently,
Montgomery left them, and, coming back to me, held out
his hand. I'm glad, said he for my own part.
That captain w a thilly asth he'd have made things
(10:06):
lively for you. It was you, said I that saved
me again, that de pinthe you'll find this island an
infirmly rum plaith. I promise you I'd watch my goings
carefully if I were you. He he hesitated and seemed
(10:27):
to alter his mind about what was on his lips.
I wish you'd help me with thee rabbits, he said.
His procedure with the rabbits was singular. I waded in
with him and helped him lug one of the hatches ashore.
No sooner was that done than he opened the door
of it and tilting the thing on one end, turned
(10:49):
its living contents out on the ground. They fell in
a struggling heap, one on top of the other. He
clapped his hands, and forthwith they went off at that
hopping of theirs, fifteen or twenty of them. I should
think up the beach in Greeth and multiply, my friend,
said Montgomery, Replyneth the island hitherto. We've had a certain
(11:13):
lack of meat here. As I watched them disappearing, the
white haired man returned with a brandy flask and some biscuits.
Something to go on with, Priddock, said he in a
far more familiar tone than before. I made no ado,
but set to work on the biscuits at once, while
(11:35):
the white haired man helped Montgomery to release about a
score more of the rabbits. Three big hutches, however, went
up to the house with the puma. The brandy I
did not touch, for I have been an abstainer from
my berth
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