December 27, 2025 • 18 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nineteen Montgomery's bank holiday. When this was accomplished and we
had washed in Eton, Montgomery and I went into my
little room and seriously discussed our position for the first time.
It was then near midnight. He was almost sober, but
(00:20):
greatly disturbed in his mind. He had been strangely under
the influence of Moreau's personality. I do not think it
had ever occurred to him that Moreau could die. This
disaster was the sudden collapse of the habits that had
become part of his nature in the tin or more
monotonous years he had spent on the island. He talked vaguely,
(00:45):
answered my questions crookedly, wandered into general questions. The silly
ass of a world, he said, what a muddle it
all is. I haven't heard any life. I wonder when
it's going to begin. Sixteen years of being bullied by
(01:06):
nurses and schoolmath turth at their own sweet will five
in London, grinding hard at madicine, bad food, shabby lodgings,
shabby clothes, shabby vice, A blunder. I didn't know any better,
and hustled off to this Beethly island ten yearth here,
(01:27):
what it all for Preddick, are we bubbles blown by
a baby? It was hard to deal with such ravings.
The thing we have to think of now, said I,
is how to get away from this island. What's the
good of getting away? I'm an outcast. Where am I
(01:48):
to join on? It's all very well for you, Prendick,
poor old Moreau. We can't leave him here to have
his bones picked as it is. And besides, what will
become of the death and part of the beast folk, well,
said I, that will do tomorrow. I've been thinking we
(02:10):
might make the brushwood into a pyre and burn his
body and those other things. Then what will happen with
the beast folk? I don't know. I suppose those that
will made beasts of prey we'll make thilly aths of themselves.
Sooner or later. We can't maffacre the lot, can we.
(02:34):
I suppose that's what your humanity would suggest. But they'll change.
They are sure to change. He talked thus inconclusively, until
at last I felt my temper going dar nation, he exclaimed,
at some petulance of mine. Can't you see I'm in
(02:57):
a worth whole than you are? Ut up and went
for the brandy drink. He said, returning you logic chopping
chalky faith, think of an atheist. Drink not, I said I,
and sat grimly, watching his face under the yellow paraffin
(03:17):
flare as he drank himself into a garrulous misery. I
have a memory of infinite tedium. He wandered into a
model in defense of the beast people and of Imling. Imling,
he said, was the only thing that had ever really
cared for him, And suddenly an idea came to him.
(03:39):
I'm damned, said he, staggering to his feet and clutching
the brandy bottle. By some flash of intuition, I knew
what it was he intended. You don't give drink to
that beast, I said, rising and facing him. Beast said
he you're the beast. He taketh hith liquor like a Christian.
(04:05):
Come out of my way, prindic, for God's sake, said I.
Get out of the way. He roared, and suddenly whipped
out his revolver. Very well, said I, and stood aside,
half minded to fall upon him as he put his
hand upon the latch, but deterred by the thought of
(04:29):
my useless arm. You've made a beast of yourself to
the beasts. You may go. He flung the doorway open
and stood half facing me between the yellow lamp light
and the pallid glare of the moon. His eye sockets
were blotches of black under his stubbly eyebrows. You're a
(04:50):
solemn prig, prindick, a thiliath. You're always fearing and fancying.
We're on thee hedge of things. I'm bound to cut
my throat tomorrow. I'm going to have a damned bank
holiday to night. He turned and went out into the moonlight.
(05:12):
Yim Ling, he cried, jim Ling, old friend. Three dim
creatures in the silvery light came along the edge of
the wan beach, one a white wrapped creature, the other
two blotches of blackness following it. They halted, staring. Then
(05:33):
I saw Imling's hunched shoulders as he came round the
corner of the house. Drink, cried Montgomery. Drink, you bruthe
drink and be man. Damn, I'm the cleverest Moreau forgot this.
This is the last touch drink, I tell you, And
(05:56):
waving the bottle in his hand, he started off at
a kind of quick trot to the westward, Imbling, ranging
himself between him and the three dim creatures who followed.
I went to the doorway. They were already indistinct in
the midst of the moonlight. Before Montgomery halted. I saw
him in minister a dose of the raw brandy to Imbling,
(06:18):
and saw the five figures melt into one vague patch.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Thing.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I heard Montgomery shout, sing all together. Confound Old Prendick.
That's right now again, confound Old Prendick. The black group
broke up into five separate figures and wound slowly away
from me along the band of shining beach. Each went
howling at his own sweet will yelping insults at me,
(06:48):
or giving whatever other vent this new inspiration of brandy demanded. Presently,
I heard Montgomery's voice shouting right, turn, and they passed
with their shouts and howls into the blackness of the
landward trees. Slowly, very slowly, they receded into silence. The
(07:11):
peaceful splendor of the night healed again. The moon was
now past the meridian, and traveling down the west, it
was at its full and very bright. Riding through the
empty blue sky, the shadow of the wall lay a
yard wide and of inky blackness. At my feet. The
(07:32):
eastward sea was a featureless, gray, dark and mysterious. And
between the sea and the shadow, the gray sands of
volcanic glass and crystals flashed and shone like a beach
of diamonds. Behind me, the paraffine lamp flared hot and ruddy.
Then I shut the door, locked it, and went into
(07:54):
the enclosure, where Moreau lay beside his latest victims, the
staghounds and the Lama and some other wretched brutes, with
his massive face calm even after his terrible death, and
with his hard eyes open staring at the dead white
moon above, I sat down upon the edge of the sink,
(08:15):
and with my eyes upon that ghastly pile of silvery
light and ominous shadows, began to turn over my plans.
In the morning, I would gather some provisions in the dinghy,
and after setting fire to the pyre before me, push
out into the desolation of the high sea. Once more,
I felt that for Montgomery there was no help, that
(08:36):
he was, in truth half akin to these beast folk,
unfitted for human kindred. I do not know how long
I sat there, scheming, It must have been an hour
or so. Then my planning was interrupted by the return
of Montgomery to my neighborhood. I heard a yelling from
many throats, a tumult of exultant cries passing down towards
(09:00):
the beach, whooping and howling, and excited shrieks that seemed
to come to a stop near the water's edge. The
riot rose and fell. I heard heavy blows and the
splintering smash of wood, but it did not trouble me.
Then a discordant chanting began. My thoughts went back to
(09:22):
my means of escape. I got up, brought the lamp,
and went into a shed to look at some kegs
I had seen there. Then I became interested in the
contents of some biscuit tins and opened one. I saw
something out of the tail of my eye, a red figure,
and turned sharply. Behind me. Lay the yard, vividly black
(09:46):
and white in the moonlight, and the pile of wood
and faggots on which Moreau and his mutilated victims lay
one over another. They seemed to be gripping one another
in one last revengeful grapple. His wounds gaped black as night,
and the blood that had dripped lay in black patches
upon the sand. Then I saw, without understanding the cause
(10:10):
of my phantom, a ruddy glow that came and danced
and went upon the wall opposite. I misinterpreted this, fancied
it was a reflection of my flickering lamp, and turned
again to the stalls in the shed. I went on
rummaging among them as well as a one armed man could,
finding this convenient thing and that, and putting them aside
(10:33):
for tomorrow's launch. My movements were slow, and the time
passed quickly. Insensibly, the daylight crept upon me. The chanting
died down, giving place to a clamor. Then it began again,
and suddenly broke into a tumult. I heard cries of
more more, a sound like quarreling, and a sudden wild
(10:57):
Shrieky of the sounds changed so greatly that it arrested
my attention. I went out into the yard and listened. Then,
cutting like a knife across the confusion, came the crack
of a revolver. I rushed at once through my room
to the little doorway. As I did so, I heard
(11:18):
some of the packing cases behind me go sliding down
and smashed together with a clatter of glass on the
floor of the shed, but I did not heat these.
I flung the door open and looked out up the beach.
By the boat house, a bonfire was burning, raining up
sparks into the indistinctness of the dawn. Around this struggled
(11:40):
a mass of black figures. I heard Montgomery call my name.
I began to run at once towards this fire, revolver
in hand, I saw the pink tongue of Montgomery's pistol
lick out. Once close to the ground, he was down.
I shouted with all my strength and fired into the air.
(12:00):
I heard someone cry. The mass stir. The knotted black
struggle broken to scattering units. The fire leaped and sank down.
The crowd of beast people fled in sudden panic before
me up the beach. In my excitement, I fired at
their retreating backs as they disappeared among the bushes. Then
(12:22):
I turned to the black heaps upon the ground. Montgomery
lay on his back, with a hairy gray beast man
sprawling across his body. The brute was dead, but still
gripping Montgomery's throat with its curving claws. Near By lay
himbling on his face and quite still, his neck bitten open,
(12:45):
and the upper part of the smashed brandy bottle in
his hand. Two other figures lay near the fire, the
one motionless, the other groaning fitfully every now and then,
raising its head slowly, then dropping it again. I caught
hold of the gray man and pulled him off Montgomery's body.
(13:07):
His claws drew down the torn coat reluctantly as I
dragged him away. Montgomery was dark in the face and
scarcely breathing. I splashed sea water on his face and
pillowed his head on my rolled up coat. Imling was dead.
The wounded creature by the fire. It was a wolf
(13:29):
brute with a bearded gray face. Lay I found with
the fore part of its body upon the still glowing timber.
The wretched thing was injured so dreadfully that in mercy
I blew its brains out at once. The other brute
was one of the bull men, swathed in white. He
(13:49):
too was dead. The rest of the beast people had
vanished from the beach. I went to Montgomery again and
knelt beside him, cursing my ignorance of medicine. The fire
beside me had sunk down, and only charred beams of
timber glowing at the central ends, and mixed of the
(14:09):
gray ash of brushwood remained. I wondered casually where Montgomery
had got his wood. Then I saw that the dawn
was upon us. The sky had grown brighter, The setting
moon was becoming pale and opaque in the luminous blue
of the day. The sky to the eastward was rimmed
(14:30):
with red. Suddenly I heard a thud and a hissing
behind me, and looking round, sprang to my feet with
a cry of horror. Against the warm dawn, great tumultuous
masses of black smoke were boiling up out of the enclosure,
and through their stormy darkness shot flickering threads of blood
(14:50):
red flame. Then the thatched roof caught I saw the
curving charge of the flames across the sloping straw. A
spurt of fire jetted from the window of my room.
I knew at once what had happened. I remembered the
crash I had heard when I had rushed out to
(15:11):
Montgomery's assistance. I had overturned the lamp. The hopelessness of
saving any of the contents of the enclosure stared me
in the face. My mind came back to my plan
of flight, and turning swiftly, I looked to see where
the two boats lay upon the beach. They were gone.
Two axes lay upon the sands beside me. Chips and
(15:35):
splinters were scattered broadcast, and the ashes of the bonfire
were blackening and smoking under the dawn. Montgomery had burnt
the boats to revenge himself upon me and prevent our
return to mankind. A sudden convulsion of rage shook me.
(15:55):
I was almost moved to batter his foolish head in
as he lay there helpless at my feet. Then suddenly
his hand moved so feebly, so pitifully, that my wrath vanished.
He groaned and opened his eyes. For a minute. I
knelt down beside him and raised his head. He opened
(16:18):
his eyes again, staring silently at the dawn, and then
they met mine. The lids fell sorry, he said, presently,
with an effort he seemed trying to think.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
The laughed. He murmured, the laugh of this silly universe.
What a mess.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I listened. His head fell helplessly to one side. I
thought some drink might revive him, But there was neither drink,
no vessel in which to bring drink at hand. He
seemed suddenly heavier. My heart went cold. I bent down
(17:10):
to his face, put my hand through the rent in
his blouse. He was dead, and even as he died,
a line of white heat. The limb of the sun
rose eastward beyond the projection of the bay, splashing its
radiance across the sky and turning the dark sea into
a weltering tumult of dazzling light. It fell like a
(17:32):
glory upon his death, shrunken face. I let his head
fall gently upon the rough pillow I had made for him,
and stood up. Before me was the glittering desolation of
the sea, the awful solitude upon which I had already
suffered so much. Behind me, the island hushed under the dawn,
(17:55):
its beast people silent and unseen. The Enclosia, with all
its provisions and ammunition, burnt noisily with sudden gusts of flame,
a fitful crackling, and now and then a crash. The
heavy smoke drove up the beach away from me, rolling
low over the distant treetops towards the huts in the ravine.
(18:19):
Beside me were the charred vestiges of the boats, and
these five dead bodies then out of the bushes came
three beast people with hunched shoulders, protruding heads, misshapen hands,
awkwardly held and inquisitive unfriendly eyes, and advanced towards me
with hesitating gestures
Nineteen Montgomery's bank holiday. When this was accomplished and we
had washed in Eton, Montgomery and I went into my
little room and seriously discussed our position for the first time.
It was then near midnight. He was almost sober, but
(00:20):
greatly disturbed in his mind. He had been strangely under
the influence of Moreau's personality. I do not think it
had ever occurred to him that Moreau could die. This
disaster was the sudden collapse of the habits that had
become part of his nature in the tin or more
monotonous years he had spent on the island. He talked vaguely,
(00:45):
answered my questions crookedly, wandered into general questions. The silly
ass of a world, he said, what a muddle it
all is. I haven't heard any life. I wonder when
it's going to begin. Sixteen years of being bullied by
(01:06):
nurses and schoolmath turth at their own sweet will five
in London, grinding hard at madicine, bad food, shabby lodgings,
shabby clothes, shabby vice, A blunder. I didn't know any better,
and hustled off to this Beethly island ten yearth here,
(01:27):
what it all for Preddick, are we bubbles blown by
a baby? It was hard to deal with such ravings.
The thing we have to think of now, said I,
is how to get away from this island. What's the
good of getting away? I'm an outcast. Where am I
(01:48):
to join on? It's all very well for you, Prendick,
poor old Moreau. We can't leave him here to have
his bones picked as it is. And besides, what will
become of the death and part of the beast folk, well,
said I, that will do tomorrow. I've been thinking we
(02:10):
might make the brushwood into a pyre and burn his
body and those other things. Then what will happen with
the beast folk? I don't know. I suppose those that
will made beasts of prey we'll make thilly aths of themselves.
Sooner or later. We can't maffacre the lot, can we.
(02:34):
I suppose that's what your humanity would suggest. But they'll change.
They are sure to change. He talked thus inconclusively, until
at last I felt my temper going dar nation, he exclaimed,
at some petulance of mine. Can't you see I'm in
(02:57):
a worth whole than you are? Ut up and went
for the brandy drink. He said, returning you logic chopping
chalky faith, think of an atheist. Drink not, I said I,
and sat grimly, watching his face under the yellow paraffin
(03:17):
flare as he drank himself into a garrulous misery. I
have a memory of infinite tedium. He wandered into a
model in defense of the beast people and of Imling. Imling,
he said, was the only thing that had ever really
cared for him, And suddenly an idea came to him.
(03:39):
I'm damned, said he, staggering to his feet and clutching
the brandy bottle. By some flash of intuition, I knew
what it was he intended. You don't give drink to
that beast, I said, rising and facing him. Beast said
he you're the beast. He taketh hith liquor like a Christian.
(04:05):
Come out of my way, prindic, for God's sake, said I.
Get out of the way. He roared, and suddenly whipped
out his revolver. Very well, said I, and stood aside,
half minded to fall upon him as he put his
hand upon the latch, but deterred by the thought of
(04:29):
my useless arm. You've made a beast of yourself to
the beasts. You may go. He flung the doorway open
and stood half facing me between the yellow lamp light
and the pallid glare of the moon. His eye sockets
were blotches of black under his stubbly eyebrows. You're a
(04:50):
solemn prig, prindick, a thiliath. You're always fearing and fancying.
We're on thee hedge of things. I'm bound to cut
my throat tomorrow. I'm going to have a damned bank
holiday to night. He turned and went out into the moonlight.
(05:12):
Yim Ling, he cried, jim Ling, old friend. Three dim
creatures in the silvery light came along the edge of
the wan beach, one a white wrapped creature, the other
two blotches of blackness following it. They halted, staring. Then
(05:33):
I saw Imling's hunched shoulders as he came round the
corner of the house. Drink, cried Montgomery. Drink, you bruthe
drink and be man. Damn, I'm the cleverest Moreau forgot this.
This is the last touch drink, I tell you, And
(05:56):
waving the bottle in his hand, he started off at
a kind of quick trot to the westward, Imbling, ranging
himself between him and the three dim creatures who followed.
I went to the doorway. They were already indistinct in
the midst of the moonlight. Before Montgomery halted. I saw
him in minister a dose of the raw brandy to Imbling,
(06:18):
and saw the five figures melt into one vague patch.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Thing.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I heard Montgomery shout, sing all together. Confound Old Prendick.
That's right now again, confound Old Prendick. The black group
broke up into five separate figures and wound slowly away
from me along the band of shining beach. Each went
howling at his own sweet will yelping insults at me,
(06:48):
or giving whatever other vent this new inspiration of brandy demanded. Presently,
I heard Montgomery's voice shouting right, turn, and they passed
with their shouts and howls into the blackness of the
landward trees. Slowly, very slowly, they receded into silence. The
(07:11):
peaceful splendor of the night healed again. The moon was
now past the meridian, and traveling down the west, it
was at its full and very bright. Riding through the
empty blue sky, the shadow of the wall lay a
yard wide and of inky blackness. At my feet. The
(07:32):
eastward sea was a featureless, gray, dark and mysterious. And
between the sea and the shadow, the gray sands of
volcanic glass and crystals flashed and shone like a beach
of diamonds. Behind me, the paraffine lamp flared hot and ruddy.
Then I shut the door, locked it, and went into
(07:54):
the enclosure, where Moreau lay beside his latest victims, the
staghounds and the Lama and some other wretched brutes, with
his massive face calm even after his terrible death, and
with his hard eyes open staring at the dead white
moon above, I sat down upon the edge of the sink,
(08:15):
and with my eyes upon that ghastly pile of silvery
light and ominous shadows, began to turn over my plans.
In the morning, I would gather some provisions in the dinghy,
and after setting fire to the pyre before me, push
out into the desolation of the high sea. Once more,
I felt that for Montgomery there was no help, that
(08:36):
he was, in truth half akin to these beast folk,
unfitted for human kindred. I do not know how long
I sat there, scheming, It must have been an hour
or so. Then my planning was interrupted by the return
of Montgomery to my neighborhood. I heard a yelling from
many throats, a tumult of exultant cries passing down towards
(09:00):
the beach, whooping and howling, and excited shrieks that seemed
to come to a stop near the water's edge. The
riot rose and fell. I heard heavy blows and the
splintering smash of wood, but it did not trouble me.
Then a discordant chanting began. My thoughts went back to
(09:22):
my means of escape. I got up, brought the lamp,
and went into a shed to look at some kegs
I had seen there. Then I became interested in the
contents of some biscuit tins and opened one. I saw
something out of the tail of my eye, a red figure,
and turned sharply. Behind me. Lay the yard, vividly black
(09:46):
and white in the moonlight, and the pile of wood
and faggots on which Moreau and his mutilated victims lay
one over another. They seemed to be gripping one another
in one last revengeful grapple. His wounds gaped black as night,
and the blood that had dripped lay in black patches
upon the sand. Then I saw, without understanding the cause
(10:10):
of my phantom, a ruddy glow that came and danced
and went upon the wall opposite. I misinterpreted this, fancied
it was a reflection of my flickering lamp, and turned
again to the stalls in the shed. I went on
rummaging among them as well as a one armed man could,
finding this convenient thing and that, and putting them aside
(10:33):
for tomorrow's launch. My movements were slow, and the time
passed quickly. Insensibly, the daylight crept upon me. The chanting
died down, giving place to a clamor. Then it began again,
and suddenly broke into a tumult. I heard cries of
more more, a sound like quarreling, and a sudden wild
(10:57):
Shrieky of the sounds changed so greatly that it arrested
my attention. I went out into the yard and listened. Then,
cutting like a knife across the confusion, came the crack
of a revolver. I rushed at once through my room
to the little doorway. As I did so, I heard
(11:18):
some of the packing cases behind me go sliding down
and smashed together with a clatter of glass on the
floor of the shed, but I did not heat these.
I flung the door open and looked out up the beach.
By the boat house, a bonfire was burning, raining up
sparks into the indistinctness of the dawn. Around this struggled
(11:40):
a mass of black figures. I heard Montgomery call my name.
I began to run at once towards this fire, revolver
in hand, I saw the pink tongue of Montgomery's pistol
lick out. Once close to the ground, he was down.
I shouted with all my strength and fired into the air.
(12:00):
I heard someone cry. The mass stir. The knotted black
struggle broken to scattering units. The fire leaped and sank down.
The crowd of beast people fled in sudden panic before
me up the beach. In my excitement, I fired at
their retreating backs as they disappeared among the bushes. Then
(12:22):
I turned to the black heaps upon the ground. Montgomery
lay on his back, with a hairy gray beast man
sprawling across his body. The brute was dead, but still
gripping Montgomery's throat with its curving claws. Near By lay
himbling on his face and quite still, his neck bitten open,
(12:45):
and the upper part of the smashed brandy bottle in
his hand. Two other figures lay near the fire, the
one motionless, the other groaning fitfully every now and then,
raising its head slowly, then dropping it again. I caught
hold of the gray man and pulled him off Montgomery's body.
(13:07):
His claws drew down the torn coat reluctantly as I
dragged him away. Montgomery was dark in the face and
scarcely breathing. I splashed sea water on his face and
pillowed his head on my rolled up coat. Imling was dead.
The wounded creature by the fire. It was a wolf
(13:29):
brute with a bearded gray face. Lay I found with
the fore part of its body upon the still glowing timber.
The wretched thing was injured so dreadfully that in mercy
I blew its brains out at once. The other brute
was one of the bull men, swathed in white. He
(13:49):
too was dead. The rest of the beast people had
vanished from the beach. I went to Montgomery again and
knelt beside him, cursing my ignorance of medicine. The fire
beside me had sunk down, and only charred beams of
timber glowing at the central ends, and mixed of the
(14:09):
gray ash of brushwood remained. I wondered casually where Montgomery
had got his wood. Then I saw that the dawn
was upon us. The sky had grown brighter, The setting
moon was becoming pale and opaque in the luminous blue
of the day. The sky to the eastward was rimmed
(14:30):
with red. Suddenly I heard a thud and a hissing
behind me, and looking round, sprang to my feet with
a cry of horror. Against the warm dawn, great tumultuous
masses of black smoke were boiling up out of the enclosure,
and through their stormy darkness shot flickering threads of blood
(14:50):
red flame. Then the thatched roof caught I saw the
curving charge of the flames across the sloping straw. A
spurt of fire jetted from the window of my room.
I knew at once what had happened. I remembered the
crash I had heard when I had rushed out to
(15:11):
Montgomery's assistance. I had overturned the lamp. The hopelessness of
saving any of the contents of the enclosure stared me
in the face. My mind came back to my plan
of flight, and turning swiftly, I looked to see where
the two boats lay upon the beach. They were gone.
Two axes lay upon the sands beside me. Chips and
(15:35):
splinters were scattered broadcast, and the ashes of the bonfire
were blackening and smoking under the dawn. Montgomery had burnt
the boats to revenge himself upon me and prevent our
return to mankind. A sudden convulsion of rage shook me.
(15:55):
I was almost moved to batter his foolish head in
as he lay there helpless at my feet. Then suddenly
his hand moved so feebly, so pitifully, that my wrath vanished.
He groaned and opened his eyes. For a minute. I
knelt down beside him and raised his head. He opened
(16:18):
his eyes again, staring silently at the dawn, and then
they met mine. The lids fell sorry, he said, presently,
with an effort he seemed trying to think.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
The laughed. He murmured, the laugh of this silly universe.
What a mess.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I listened. His head fell helplessly to one side. I
thought some drink might revive him, But there was neither drink,
no vessel in which to bring drink at hand. He
seemed suddenly heavier. My heart went cold. I bent down
(17:10):
to his face, put my hand through the rent in
his blouse. He was dead, and even as he died,
a line of white heat. The limb of the sun
rose eastward beyond the projection of the bay, splashing its
radiance across the sky and turning the dark sea into
a weltering tumult of dazzling light. It fell like a
(17:32):
glory upon his death, shrunken face. I let his head
fall gently upon the rough pillow I had made for him,
and stood up. Before me was the glittering desolation of
the sea, the awful solitude upon which I had already
suffered so much. Behind me, the island hushed under the dawn,
(17:55):
its beast people silent and unseen. The Enclosia, with all
its provisions and ammunition, burnt noisily with sudden gusts of flame,
a fitful crackling, and now and then a crash. The
heavy smoke drove up the beach away from me, rolling
low over the distant treetops towards the huts in the ravine.
(18:19):
Beside me were the charred vestiges of the boats, and
these five dead bodies then out of the bushes came
three beast people with hunched shoulders, protruding heads, misshapen hands,
awkwardly held and inquisitive unfriendly eyes, and advanced towards me
with hesitating gestures
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