August 22, 2025 • 20 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Twelve the sayers of the law. Then something cold touched
my hand. I started violently and saw close to me
a pinkish thing, looking more like a flayed child than
anything else in the world. The creature had exactly the
mild but repulsive features of a sloth, the same low
(00:22):
forehead and slow gestures. As the first shock of the
change of light passed, I saw about me more distinctly.
The little slothlike creature was standing and staring at me.
My conductor had vanished. The place was a narrow passage
between high walls of lava, a crack in the knotted rock,
(00:44):
and on either side, interwoven heaps of sea mat, palm, fans,
and reeds leaning against the rock formed rough and impenetrably
dark dens. The winding way up the ravine between these
was scarcely three yards wide, and was disfigured by lumps
of decaying fruit, pulp, and other refuse, which accounted for
(01:05):
the disagreeable stench of the place. The little pink sloth
creature was still blinking at me when my ape man
reappeared at the aperture of the nearest of these dens
and beckoned me in. As he did so a slouching
monster wriggled out of one of the places further up
this strange street, and stood up in featureless silhouette against
(01:27):
the bright green beyond, staring at me. I hesitated, having
half a mind to bolt the way I had come,
and then determined to go through with the adventure. I
gripped my nailed stick about the middle and crawled into
the little, evil smelling lean to after my conductor. It
(01:48):
was a semicircular space, shaped like the half of a
bee hive, and against the rocky wall that formed the
inner side of it was a pile of variegated fruits,
cocoa nuts, among others. Some rough vessels of lava and
wood stood about the floor, and one on a rough stool.
There was no fire. In the darkest corner of the
(02:08):
hut sat a shapeless mass of darkness that grunted hey
as I came in, and my ape man stood in
the dim light of the doorway and held out a
split cocoanut to me. As I crawled into the other
corner and squatted down, I took it and began gnawing
it as serenely as possible, in spite of a certain
(02:31):
trepidation and the nearly intolerable closeness of the den. The
little pink sloth creature stood in the aperture of the hut,
and something else with a drab face and bright eyes
came staring over its shoulder. Hey came out of the
lump of mystery opposite. It is a man. It is
(02:55):
a man, gabbled my conductor. A man, a man, A
five man like me. Shut up, said the voice from
the dark, and grunted. I gnawed my cocoanut amid an
impressive stillness. I peered hard into the blackness, but could
(03:15):
distinguish nothing. It is a man, the voice repeated, he
comes to live with us. It was a thick voice
with something in it, a kind of whistling overtone that
struck me as peculiar, but the English accent was strangely good.
(03:36):
The ape man looked at me as though he expected
something I perceived. The pause was interrogative. He comes to
live with you, I said. It is a man. He
must learn the law. I began to distinguish now a
deeper blackness in the black, a vague outline of a
(03:58):
hunched up figure. Then I noticed the opening of the
place was darkened by two more black heads. My hand
tightened on my stick. The thing in the dark repeated,
in a louder tone, say the words I had missed.
Its last remark, not to go on all fours, that
(04:21):
is the law, it repeated, in a kind of sing song.
I was puzzled. Say the word, said the ape man, repeating,
and the figures in the doorway echoed this with a
threat in the tone of their voices. I realized that
I had to repeat this idiotic formula, and then began
(04:45):
the insanest ceremony. The voice in the dark began intoning
a mad litany, line by line, and I in the
rest to repeat it. As they did so, they swayed
from side to side in the oddest way, and beat
their hands upon their knees, and I followed their example.
(05:05):
I could have imagined I was already dead, and in
another world, that dark hut, these grotesque dim figures just
flecked here and there by a glimmer of light, and
all of them swaying in unison, enchanting not to go
on all fours? That is the law. Are we not men?
(05:26):
Not to suck up drink? That is the law? Are
we not men? Not to eat fish or flesh. That
is the law. Are we not men? Not to claw
the bark of trees? That is the law? Are we
not men? Not to chase other men? That is the law?
Are we not men? And so from the prohibition of
(05:47):
these acts of folly on to the prohibition of what
I thought then were the maddest, most impossible, and most
indecent things one could well imagine, a kind of rhythmic
fervor fell on all of us. We gabbled and swayed
faster and faster, repeating this amazing law superficially. The contagion
(06:10):
of these brutes was upon me, but deep down within
me the laughter and disgust struggled together. We ran through
a long list of prohibitions, and then the chance swung
round to a new formula. His is the house of pain.
(06:30):
His is the hand that makes, His is the hand
that wounds, His is the hand that heals, and so
on for another long series, mostly quite incomprehensible gibberish to me,
about him, whoever he might be. I could have fancied
it was a dream, But never before have I heard
(06:53):
chanting in a dream. His is the lightning we flash,
We sang is the deep salt sea. A horrible fancy
came into my head. That moreau, after animalizing, these men
had infected their dwarfed brains with a kind of deification
(07:13):
of himself. However, I was too keenly aware of white
teeth and strong claws about me to stop my chanting
on that account. His are the stars in the sky.
At last, that song hinded. I saw the ape man's
face shining with perspiration, and my eyes, being now accustomed
(07:38):
to the darkness, I saw more distinctly the figure in
the corner from which the voice came. It was the
size of a man, but it seemed covered with the
dull gray hair, almost like a sky terrier. What was it?
What were they all? Imagine yourself surrounded by all the
(07:58):
most horrible cripple and maniacs. It is possible to conceive,
and you may understand a little of my feelings. With
these grotesque caricatures of humanity about me. Here's a five man,
a five man, a five man like me, said the
ape man. I held out my hands. The gray creature
(08:23):
in the corner leant forward. Not two anon, all fours,
that is the law. Are we not men? He said,
He put out a strangely distorted talon and gripped my fingers.
The thing was almost like the hoof of a deer
produced into claws. I could have yelled with surprise and pain.
(08:48):
His face came forward and peered at my nails, came
forward into the light of the opening of the hut,
and I saw, with a quivering disgust, that it was
like the face of night, neither man nor beast, but
a mere shock of gray hair, with three shadowy over
archings to mark the eyes and mouth. He has little nails,
(09:13):
said this grisly creature in his hairy beard. It is well.
He threw my hand down, and instinctively I gripped my stick,
heat roots and herbs. It is his will, said the
ape man. I am the sayer of the law, said
(09:36):
the gray figure. Here come all that be new to
learn the law. I sit in the darkness and say
the law. It is even so, said one of the
beasts in the doorway. Evil are the punishments of those
who break the law. None escape, None escape, said the
(10:00):
beast folk, glancing furtively at one another. None none, said
the ape man. None escape. See, I did a little thing,
a wrong thing, wants a jabberd jabbert. Stop talking. None
could understand. I am burnt branded in the hand. He
(10:24):
is great, he is good. None escape, said the gray
creature in the corner. None escape, said the beast. People
looking askance at one another. For every one the want
that is bad, said the gray sayer of the law.
What you will want, we do not know. We shall know.
(10:49):
Some want to follow things that move, to watch and
slink and wait and spring, to kill and bite by
deep and rich, sucking the blood. It is bad not
to chase other men. That is the law. Are we
not men? Not to eat flesh or fish? That is
(11:10):
the law? Are we not men? None escape, said a
dappled brute standing in the doorway. For every one the
want is bad, said the gray sayer of the law.
Some want to go tearing with teeth and hands into
the roots of things, snuffing into the earth. It is bad.
(11:35):
None escape, said the men in the door. Some go
clawing trees, Some go scratching at the graves of the dead.
Some go fighting with foreheads or feet or claws. Some
bite suddenly, none giving occasion. Some love uncleanness. None escape,
(11:59):
said the man scratching his calf none escape, said the
little pink sloth creature. Punishment is sharp and sure. Therefore
learn the law, say the words. And incontinently he began
again the strange litany of the law. And again I
(12:20):
and all these creatures began singing and swaying. My head
reeled with this jabbering in the close stench of the place,
But I kept on, trusting to find presently some chance
of a new development. Not to go on all fours,
that is the law. Are we not men? We were
(12:42):
making such a noise that I noticed nothing of a
tumult outside, until some one, who I think was one
of the two swine men I had seen, thrust his
head over the little pink sloth creature and shouted something excitedly,
something that I did not catch. Incontinently, those at the
opening of the hut vanished. My ape man rushed out.
(13:05):
The thing that had sat in the dark followed him.
I only observed that it was big and clumsy and
covered with silvery hair, and I was left alone. Then,
before I reached the aperture, I heard the yelp of
a staghound. In another moment, I was standing outside the hovel,
(13:26):
my chair rail in my hand, every muscle of me.
Quivering before me were the clumsy backs of perhaps a
score of these beast people, their misshapen heads half hidden
by their shoulder blades. They were gesticulating excitedly. Other half
animal faces glared interrogation out of their hovels, looking in
(13:51):
the direction which they faced, I saw coming through the
haze under the trees, beyond the end of the passage
of Dens, the dark figure and a white face of Moreau.
He was holding the leaping staghound back, and close behind
him came Montgomery, revolver in hand. For a moment, I
(14:12):
stood horror struck. I turned and saw the passage behind
me blocked by another heavy brute with a huge gray
face and twinkling little eyes, advancing towards me. I looked
round and saw to the right of me, and a
half dozen yards in front of me a narrow gap
in the wall of rock, through which a ray of
(14:33):
light slanted into the shadows. Stop, cried Moreau, as I
strode towards this and then hold him at that. First
one face turned towards me, and then others. The best
your minds were happily slow. I dashed my shoulder into
(14:53):
a clumsy monster, who was turning to see what Moreau meant,
and flung him forward into another I felt his hands
fly round, clutching at me and missing me. The little,
pink slothe creature dashed at me, and I gashed down
its ugly face with the nail in my stick, and
in another minute was scrambling up a steep side of pathway,
(15:15):
a kind of sloping chimney out of the ravine. I
heard howl behind me and cries of catch him, hold him,
and the gray faced creature peered behind me and jammed
his huge bulk into the cleft. Go On, go on,
they howled. I clambered up the narrow cleft in the
(15:39):
rock and came out upon the sulfur on the westward
side of the village of the beast Men. That gap
was altogether fortunate for me, for the narrow chimney slanting
obliquely upward must have impeded the nearer pursuers. I ran
over the white space and down a steep slope through
(16:00):
a scattered growth of trees, and came to a low
lying stretch of tall reeds, through which I pushed into
a dark, thick undergrowth that was black and succulent under foot.
As I plunged into the reeds, my foremost pursuers emerged
from the gap. I broke my way through this undergrowth
(16:20):
for some minutes. The air behind me and about me
was soon full of threatening cries. I heard the tumult
of my pursuers in the gap up the slope, then
the crashing of the reeds, and every now and then
the crackling crash of a branch. Some of the creatures
roared like excited beasts of prey. The staghound yelped to
(16:43):
the left. I heard Moreau and Montgomery shouting in the
same direction. I turned sharply to the right. It seemed
to me even then that I heard Montgomery shouting for
me to run for my life. Presently the ground gave
rich and oozy under my feet, but I was desperate
and went headlong into struggled through knee deep, and so
(17:07):
came to a winding path among tall canes. The noise
of my pursuers passed away to my left. In one place,
three strange pink hopping animals about the size of cats,
bolted before my footsteps. This pathway ran up hill across
another open space covered with white incrustation and plunged into
(17:29):
a cane brake again. Then suddenly it turned parallel with
the edge of a steep walled gap, which came without
warning like a ha ha of an English park, turned
with an unexpected abruptness. I was still running with all
my might, and I never saw this drop until I
was flying headlong through the air. I fell on my
(17:53):
forearms and head among thorns, and rose with a torn
ear and bleeding face. I had fallen into a precipitous ravine,
rocky and thorny, full of a hazy mist, which drifted
about me in wisps, and with a narrow streamlet from
which this mist came meandering down the ciner. I was
(18:15):
astonished at this thin fog in the full blaze of daylight,
but I had no time to stand wandering. Then I
turned to my right down stream, hoping to come to
the sea in that direction and so have my way
open to drown myself. It was only later I found
that I had dropped my nail stick in my fall. Presently,
(18:39):
the ravine grew narrower for a space, and carelessly I
stepped into the stream. I jumped out again pretty quickly
for the water was almost boiling. I noticed too, there
was a thin, sulfurous scum drifting upon its coiling water.
Almost immediately came a turn in the ravine, and the
(19:00):
indistinct blue horizon the nearer sea was flashing the sun
from a myriad facets. I saw my death before me,
but I was hot and panting, with the warm blood
oozing out on my face and running pleasantly through my veins.
I felt more than a touch of exultation too, at
(19:22):
having distanced my pursuers. It was not in me then
to go out and drown myself. Yet I stared back
the way I had come. I listened, save for the
hum of the gnats and the chirp of some small
insects that hopped among the thorns, the air was absolutely still.
(19:46):
Then came the yelp of a dog, very faint, and
a chattering and gibbering, the snap of a whip, and voices.
They grew louder, then fainter again. The noise receded the
stream and faded away. For a while. The chase was over,
But I knew now how much hope of help for
(20:08):
me lay in the beast people
Twelve the sayers of the law. Then something cold touched
my hand. I started violently and saw close to me
a pinkish thing, looking more like a flayed child than
anything else in the world. The creature had exactly the
mild but repulsive features of a sloth, the same low
(00:22):
forehead and slow gestures. As the first shock of the
change of light passed, I saw about me more distinctly.
The little slothlike creature was standing and staring at me.
My conductor had vanished. The place was a narrow passage
between high walls of lava, a crack in the knotted rock,
(00:44):
and on either side, interwoven heaps of sea mat, palm, fans,
and reeds leaning against the rock formed rough and impenetrably
dark dens. The winding way up the ravine between these
was scarcely three yards wide, and was disfigured by lumps
of decaying fruit, pulp, and other refuse, which accounted for
(01:05):
the disagreeable stench of the place. The little pink sloth
creature was still blinking at me when my ape man
reappeared at the aperture of the nearest of these dens
and beckoned me in. As he did so a slouching
monster wriggled out of one of the places further up
this strange street, and stood up in featureless silhouette against
(01:27):
the bright green beyond, staring at me. I hesitated, having
half a mind to bolt the way I had come,
and then determined to go through with the adventure. I
gripped my nailed stick about the middle and crawled into
the little, evil smelling lean to after my conductor. It
(01:48):
was a semicircular space, shaped like the half of a
bee hive, and against the rocky wall that formed the
inner side of it was a pile of variegated fruits,
cocoa nuts, among others. Some rough vessels of lava and
wood stood about the floor, and one on a rough stool.
There was no fire. In the darkest corner of the
(02:08):
hut sat a shapeless mass of darkness that grunted hey
as I came in, and my ape man stood in
the dim light of the doorway and held out a
split cocoanut to me. As I crawled into the other
corner and squatted down, I took it and began gnawing
it as serenely as possible, in spite of a certain
(02:31):
trepidation and the nearly intolerable closeness of the den. The
little pink sloth creature stood in the aperture of the hut,
and something else with a drab face and bright eyes
came staring over its shoulder. Hey came out of the
lump of mystery opposite. It is a man. It is
(02:55):
a man, gabbled my conductor. A man, a man, A
five man like me. Shut up, said the voice from
the dark, and grunted. I gnawed my cocoanut amid an
impressive stillness. I peered hard into the blackness, but could
(03:15):
distinguish nothing. It is a man, the voice repeated, he
comes to live with us. It was a thick voice
with something in it, a kind of whistling overtone that
struck me as peculiar, but the English accent was strangely good.
(03:36):
The ape man looked at me as though he expected
something I perceived. The pause was interrogative. He comes to
live with you, I said. It is a man. He
must learn the law. I began to distinguish now a
deeper blackness in the black, a vague outline of a
(03:58):
hunched up figure. Then I noticed the opening of the
place was darkened by two more black heads. My hand
tightened on my stick. The thing in the dark repeated,
in a louder tone, say the words I had missed.
Its last remark, not to go on all fours, that
(04:21):
is the law, it repeated, in a kind of sing song.
I was puzzled. Say the word, said the ape man, repeating,
and the figures in the doorway echoed this with a
threat in the tone of their voices. I realized that
I had to repeat this idiotic formula, and then began
(04:45):
the insanest ceremony. The voice in the dark began intoning
a mad litany, line by line, and I in the
rest to repeat it. As they did so, they swayed
from side to side in the oddest way, and beat
their hands upon their knees, and I followed their example.
(05:05):
I could have imagined I was already dead, and in
another world, that dark hut, these grotesque dim figures just
flecked here and there by a glimmer of light, and
all of them swaying in unison, enchanting not to go
on all fours? That is the law. Are we not men?
(05:26):
Not to suck up drink? That is the law? Are
we not men? Not to eat fish or flesh. That
is the law. Are we not men? Not to claw
the bark of trees? That is the law? Are we
not men? Not to chase other men? That is the law?
Are we not men? And so from the prohibition of
(05:47):
these acts of folly on to the prohibition of what
I thought then were the maddest, most impossible, and most
indecent things one could well imagine, a kind of rhythmic
fervor fell on all of us. We gabbled and swayed
faster and faster, repeating this amazing law superficially. The contagion
(06:10):
of these brutes was upon me, but deep down within
me the laughter and disgust struggled together. We ran through
a long list of prohibitions, and then the chance swung
round to a new formula. His is the house of pain.
(06:30):
His is the hand that makes, His is the hand
that wounds, His is the hand that heals, and so
on for another long series, mostly quite incomprehensible gibberish to me,
about him, whoever he might be. I could have fancied
it was a dream, But never before have I heard
(06:53):
chanting in a dream. His is the lightning we flash,
We sang is the deep salt sea. A horrible fancy
came into my head. That moreau, after animalizing, these men
had infected their dwarfed brains with a kind of deification
(07:13):
of himself. However, I was too keenly aware of white
teeth and strong claws about me to stop my chanting
on that account. His are the stars in the sky.
At last, that song hinded. I saw the ape man's
face shining with perspiration, and my eyes, being now accustomed
(07:38):
to the darkness, I saw more distinctly the figure in
the corner from which the voice came. It was the
size of a man, but it seemed covered with the
dull gray hair, almost like a sky terrier. What was it?
What were they all? Imagine yourself surrounded by all the
(07:58):
most horrible cripple and maniacs. It is possible to conceive,
and you may understand a little of my feelings. With
these grotesque caricatures of humanity about me. Here's a five man,
a five man, a five man like me, said the
ape man. I held out my hands. The gray creature
(08:23):
in the corner leant forward. Not two anon, all fours,
that is the law. Are we not men? He said,
He put out a strangely distorted talon and gripped my fingers.
The thing was almost like the hoof of a deer
produced into claws. I could have yelled with surprise and pain.
(08:48):
His face came forward and peered at my nails, came
forward into the light of the opening of the hut,
and I saw, with a quivering disgust, that it was
like the face of night, neither man nor beast, but
a mere shock of gray hair, with three shadowy over
archings to mark the eyes and mouth. He has little nails,
(09:13):
said this grisly creature in his hairy beard. It is well.
He threw my hand down, and instinctively I gripped my stick,
heat roots and herbs. It is his will, said the
ape man. I am the sayer of the law, said
(09:36):
the gray figure. Here come all that be new to
learn the law. I sit in the darkness and say
the law. It is even so, said one of the
beasts in the doorway. Evil are the punishments of those
who break the law. None escape, None escape, said the
(10:00):
beast folk, glancing furtively at one another. None none, said
the ape man. None escape. See, I did a little thing,
a wrong thing, wants a jabberd jabbert. Stop talking. None
could understand. I am burnt branded in the hand. He
(10:24):
is great, he is good. None escape, said the gray
creature in the corner. None escape, said the beast. People
looking askance at one another. For every one the want
that is bad, said the gray sayer of the law.
What you will want, we do not know. We shall know.
(10:49):
Some want to follow things that move, to watch and
slink and wait and spring, to kill and bite by
deep and rich, sucking the blood. It is bad not
to chase other men. That is the law. Are we
not men? Not to eat flesh or fish? That is
(11:10):
the law? Are we not men? None escape, said a
dappled brute standing in the doorway. For every one the
want is bad, said the gray sayer of the law.
Some want to go tearing with teeth and hands into
the roots of things, snuffing into the earth. It is bad.
(11:35):
None escape, said the men in the door. Some go
clawing trees, Some go scratching at the graves of the dead.
Some go fighting with foreheads or feet or claws. Some
bite suddenly, none giving occasion. Some love uncleanness. None escape,
(11:59):
said the man scratching his calf none escape, said the
little pink sloth creature. Punishment is sharp and sure. Therefore
learn the law, say the words. And incontinently he began
again the strange litany of the law. And again I
(12:20):
and all these creatures began singing and swaying. My head
reeled with this jabbering in the close stench of the place,
But I kept on, trusting to find presently some chance
of a new development. Not to go on all fours,
that is the law. Are we not men? We were
(12:42):
making such a noise that I noticed nothing of a
tumult outside, until some one, who I think was one
of the two swine men I had seen, thrust his
head over the little pink sloth creature and shouted something excitedly,
something that I did not catch. Incontinently, those at the
opening of the hut vanished. My ape man rushed out.
(13:05):
The thing that had sat in the dark followed him.
I only observed that it was big and clumsy and
covered with silvery hair, and I was left alone. Then,
before I reached the aperture, I heard the yelp of
a staghound. In another moment, I was standing outside the hovel,
(13:26):
my chair rail in my hand, every muscle of me.
Quivering before me were the clumsy backs of perhaps a
score of these beast people, their misshapen heads half hidden
by their shoulder blades. They were gesticulating excitedly. Other half
animal faces glared interrogation out of their hovels, looking in
(13:51):
the direction which they faced, I saw coming through the
haze under the trees, beyond the end of the passage
of Dens, the dark figure and a white face of Moreau.
He was holding the leaping staghound back, and close behind
him came Montgomery, revolver in hand. For a moment, I
(14:12):
stood horror struck. I turned and saw the passage behind
me blocked by another heavy brute with a huge gray
face and twinkling little eyes, advancing towards me. I looked
round and saw to the right of me, and a
half dozen yards in front of me a narrow gap
in the wall of rock, through which a ray of
(14:33):
light slanted into the shadows. Stop, cried Moreau, as I
strode towards this and then hold him at that. First
one face turned towards me, and then others. The best
your minds were happily slow. I dashed my shoulder into
(14:53):
a clumsy monster, who was turning to see what Moreau meant,
and flung him forward into another I felt his hands
fly round, clutching at me and missing me. The little,
pink slothe creature dashed at me, and I gashed down
its ugly face with the nail in my stick, and
in another minute was scrambling up a steep side of pathway,
(15:15):
a kind of sloping chimney out of the ravine. I
heard howl behind me and cries of catch him, hold him,
and the gray faced creature peered behind me and jammed
his huge bulk into the cleft. Go On, go on,
they howled. I clambered up the narrow cleft in the
(15:39):
rock and came out upon the sulfur on the westward
side of the village of the beast Men. That gap
was altogether fortunate for me, for the narrow chimney slanting
obliquely upward must have impeded the nearer pursuers. I ran
over the white space and down a steep slope through
(16:00):
a scattered growth of trees, and came to a low
lying stretch of tall reeds, through which I pushed into
a dark, thick undergrowth that was black and succulent under foot.
As I plunged into the reeds, my foremost pursuers emerged
from the gap. I broke my way through this undergrowth
(16:20):
for some minutes. The air behind me and about me
was soon full of threatening cries. I heard the tumult
of my pursuers in the gap up the slope, then
the crashing of the reeds, and every now and then
the crackling crash of a branch. Some of the creatures
roared like excited beasts of prey. The staghound yelped to
(16:43):
the left. I heard Moreau and Montgomery shouting in the
same direction. I turned sharply to the right. It seemed
to me even then that I heard Montgomery shouting for
me to run for my life. Presently the ground gave
rich and oozy under my feet, but I was desperate
and went headlong into struggled through knee deep, and so
(17:07):
came to a winding path among tall canes. The noise
of my pursuers passed away to my left. In one place,
three strange pink hopping animals about the size of cats,
bolted before my footsteps. This pathway ran up hill across
another open space covered with white incrustation and plunged into
(17:29):
a cane brake again. Then suddenly it turned parallel with
the edge of a steep walled gap, which came without
warning like a ha ha of an English park, turned
with an unexpected abruptness. I was still running with all
my might, and I never saw this drop until I
was flying headlong through the air. I fell on my
(17:53):
forearms and head among thorns, and rose with a torn
ear and bleeding face. I had fallen into a precipitous ravine,
rocky and thorny, full of a hazy mist, which drifted
about me in wisps, and with a narrow streamlet from
which this mist came meandering down the ciner. I was
(18:15):
astonished at this thin fog in the full blaze of daylight,
but I had no time to stand wandering. Then I
turned to my right down stream, hoping to come to
the sea in that direction and so have my way
open to drown myself. It was only later I found
that I had dropped my nail stick in my fall. Presently,
(18:39):
the ravine grew narrower for a space, and carelessly I
stepped into the stream. I jumped out again pretty quickly
for the water was almost boiling. I noticed too, there
was a thin, sulfurous scum drifting upon its coiling water.
Almost immediately came a turn in the ravine, and the
(19:00):
indistinct blue horizon the nearer sea was flashing the sun
from a myriad facets. I saw my death before me,
but I was hot and panting, with the warm blood
oozing out on my face and running pleasantly through my veins.
I felt more than a touch of exultation too, at
(19:22):
having distanced my pursuers. It was not in me then
to go out and drown myself. Yet I stared back
the way I had come. I listened, save for the
hum of the gnats and the chirp of some small
insects that hopped among the thorns, the air was absolutely still.
(19:46):
Then came the yelp of a dog, very faint, and
a chattering and gibbering, the snap of a whip, and voices.
They grew louder, then fainter again. The noise receded the
stream and faded away. For a while. The chase was over,
But I knew now how much hope of help for
(20:08):
me lay in the beast people
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