18 - The Island of Dr Moreau - H G Wells

https://www.solgoodmedia.com Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad-free! Embark on a journey beyond the ordinary with our Sci-Fi podcast, where each day a new chapter unfolds from classic tales that defy the limits of imagination. Dive into worlds of mystery and adventure with timeless stories like "Anthem," "Around The World in Eighty Days," "Baron's Marvellous Underground Journey," "Flatland - A Romance of Many Dimensions," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "Out of Time's Abyss," "The Door Through Space," "The Flying Inn," "The Gods of Mars," "The House of Arden," "The Invisible Man," "The Island of Dr. Moreau," "The Machine Stops," "The New Atlantis," "The Time Machine," "The War of The Worlds," and "Thuvia, Maid of Mars." Each chapter is a portal to a different universe, offering a fresh dose of excitement and wonder. Subscribe now and let your imagination soar as we transport you to realms unknown, one chapter at a time.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eighteen, The finding of Moreau. When I saw Montgomery swallow
a third dose of brandy, I took it upon myself
to interfere. It was already more than half fuddled. I
told him that some serious thing must have happened to
Moreau by this time, or he would have returned before this,

(00:21):
and that it behooved us to ascertain what that catastrophe was.
Montgomery raised some feeble objections, and at last agreed. We
had some food, and then all three of us started.
It is possibly due to the tension of my mind
at the time, but even now that start into the

(00:42):
hot stillness of the tropical afternoon is a singularly vivid expression.
Imling went first, his shoulder hunched, his strange black head,
moving with quick starts as he peered, first on this
side of the way and then on that. He was
unarmed his axe he had dropped when he encountered the

(01:03):
swine men. Teeth were his weapons when it came to fighting.
Montgomery followed with stumbling footsteps, his hands in his pockets,
his face downcast. He was in a state of muddled sullenness.
With me, on account of the brandy. My left arm
was in a sling. It was lucky. It was my

(01:24):
left and I carried my revolver in my right. Soon
we traced a narrow path through the wild luxuriance of
the island, going northwestward, and presently Amling stopped and became
rigid with watchfulness. Montgomery almost staggered into him, and then
stopped too. Then, listening intently, we heard coming through the

(01:49):
trees the sound of voices and footsteps approaching us. He
is dead, said a deep vibrating voice. He is not dead.
He is not dead, jabbered another. We saw, we saw,
said several voices. Hello, suddenly shouted Montgomery. HALLO, there, confound you,

(02:18):
said I and gripped my pistol. There was a silence,
then a crashing among the interlacing vegetation, first here, then there,
and then half a dozen faces appeared, strange faces lit
by a strange light. Imling made a growling noise in
his throat. I recognized the ape man, I had indeed

(02:41):
already identified his voice, and two of the white swathed,
brown featured creatures I had seen in Montgomery's boat with
These were the two dappled brutes and that gray, horribly
crooked creature who said the law, with his gray hair
streaming down its cheeks, heavy gray eyebrows, and gray locks

(03:03):
pouring off from a central parting upon its sloping forehead.
A heavy, faceless thing with strange red eyes looking at
us curiously from amidst the green For a space, no
one spoke. Then Montgomery hiccoughed, who said he worth dead?

(03:27):
The monkey man looked guiltily at the hairy gray thing.
He is dead, said this monster. They saw there was
nothing threatening about this detachment at any rate. They seemed
awe stricken and puzzled. Whereth he said Montgomery beyond? And

(03:52):
the gray creature pointed. Is there a law? Now? Asked
the monkey man. Is it still to be this? And that?
Is he dead? Indeed? Is there a law? Repeated the
man in white. Is there a law? Thou Weather with

(04:14):
the whip? He is dead, said the hairy gray thing.
And they all stood watching us. Prindic, said Montgomery, turning
his dull eyes to me. He dead. Evidently I had
been standing behind him during this colloquy. I began to

(04:37):
see how things lay with them. I suddenly stepped in
front of Montgomery and lifted up my voice. Children of
the Law, I said, he is not dead, imling turned
his sharp eyes on me. He has changed his shape,
he has changed his body. I went on for a time.

(05:02):
You will not see him. He is there, I pointed upward,
where he can watch you. You cannot see him, but
he can see you. Fear the law. I looked at
them squarely. They flinched. He is great, he is good,

(05:23):
said the ape man, peering fearfully upward among the dense trees.
And the other thing, I demanded, the thing that bled
and ran, screaming and sobbing. That is dead too, said
the gray thing, still regarding me. That's well, grunted Montgomery.

(05:47):
The other with the whip began. The gray thing well said,
I said he was dead. But Montgomery was still sober
enough to understand my motive in denying Moreau's death. He
is not dead, he said, slowly, not dead at all,

(06:11):
no more dead than I am. Some said I have
broken the law. They will die. Some have died. Show
us now where his old body lies, the body he
cast away because he had no more need of it.
It is this way man who walked in the sea,

(06:35):
said the gray thing, And with these six creatures guiding us,
we went through the tumult of ferns and creepers and
tree stems towards the northwest. Then came a yelling, a
crashing among the branches, and a little pink harmunculus rushed
by us, shrieking. Immediately after appeared a monster in headlong pursuit.

(06:57):
Blood bedabbled who was amongst us. Almost before he could
stop his career, the gray thing leaped aside Imling with
a snarl, flew at it, and was struck aside. Montgomery
fired and missed, bowed his head, threw up his arm,
and turned to run. I fired, and the thing still

(07:19):
came on. Fired again, point blank into its ugly face.
I saw its features vanish in a flash. Its face
was driven in yet it passed me, gripped Montgomery, and
holding him, fell headlong beside him, and pulled him, sprawling
upon itself in its death agony. I found myself alone

(07:43):
with him ling, the dead brute and the prostrate man.
Montgomery raised himself slowly and stared in a muddled way
at the shattered beast man beside him. It more than
half sobered him. He scrambled to his feet. Than I
saw the gray thing returning cautiously through the trees, see,

(08:06):
said I, pointing to the dead brute. Is the law
not alive? This came of breaking the law. He peered
at his body. He sends the fire that kills, said
he in his deep voice, repeating part of the ritual.

(08:30):
The others gathered round and stared for a space. At
last we drew near the westward extremity of the island.
We came upon the nod and mutilated body of the puma,
its shoulder bone smashed by a bullet, and perhaps twenty
yards farther found at last what we sought. Moreau lay

(08:51):
face downward in a trampled space in a cane brake.
One hand was almost severed at the wrist, and his
silvery hair dabbled in blood. His head had been battered
in by the fetters of the puma. The broken canes
beneath him were smeared with blood. His revolver could not

(09:11):
be found. Montgomery turned him over, resting at intervals, and
with the help of the seven beast people, for he
was a heavy man, we carried Moreau back to the enclosure.
The night was darkling. Twice we heard unseen creatures howling

(09:31):
and shrieking past our little band, and once the little
pink sloth creature appeared and stared at us, and vanished again,
but we were not attacked again. At the gates of
the enclosure, our company of beast people left us imbling,
going with the rest. We locked ourselves in, and then

(09:52):
took Moreau's mangled body into the yard and laid it
upon a pile of brushwood. Then we went into the
laboratory and put an end to all we found living there.