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      CHAPTER 17

       A CATASTROPHE

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      Scarcely six weeks passed before I had lost every feeling but dislike and abhorrence for these infamous experiments of Moreau’s. My one idea was to get away from these horrible caricatures of my Maker’s image, back to the sweet and wholesome intercourse of men. My fellow-creatures, from whom I was thus separated, began to assume idyllic virtue and beauty in my memory. My first friendship with Montgomery did not increase. His long separation from humanity, his secret vice of drunkenness, his evident sympathy with the Beast People, tainted him to me. Several times I let him go alone among them. I avoided intercourse with them in every possible way. I spent an increasing proportion of my time upon the beach, looking for some liberating sail that never appeared, until one day there fell upon us an appalling disaster, that put an altogether different aspect upon my strange surroundings.

      It was about seven or eight weeks after my landing — rather more, I think, though I had not troubled to keep account of the time — when this catastrophe occurred. It happened in the early morning — I should think about six. I had risen and breakfasted early, having been aroused by the noise of three Beast Men carrying wood into the enclosure.

      After breakfast I went to the open gateway of the enclosure and stood there smoking a cigarette and enjoying the freshness of the early morning. Moreau presently came round the corner of the enclosure and greeted me. He passed by me, and I heard him behind me unlock and enter his laboratory. So indurated was I at that time to the abomination of the place, that I heard without a touch of emotion the puma victim begin another day of torture. It met its persecutor with a shriek almost exactly like that of an angry virago.

      Then something happened. I do not know what it was exactly to this day. I heard a sharp cry behind me, a fall, and turning, saw an awful face rushing upon me, not human, not animal, but hellish, brown, seamed with red branching scars, red drops starting out upon it, and the lidless eyes ablaze. I flung up my arm to defend myself from the blow that flung me headlong with a broken forearm, and the great monster, swathed in lint and with red-stained bandages fluttering about it, leaped over me and passed. I rolled over and over down the beach, tried to sit up, and collapsed upon my broken arm. Then Moreau appeared, his massive white face all the more terrible for the blood that trickled from his forehead. He carried a revolver in one hand. He scarcely glanced at me, but rushed off at once in pursuit of the puma.

      I tried the other arm and sat up. The muffled figure in front ran in great striding leaps along the beach, and Moreau followed her. She turned her head and saw him, then, doubling abruptly, made for the bushes. She gained upon him at every stride. I saw her plunge into them, and Moreau, running slantingly to intercept her, fired and missed as she disappeared. Then he too vanished in the green confusion.

      I stared after them, and then the pain in my arm flamed up, and with a groan I staggered to my feet. Montgomery appeared in the doorway dressed, and with his revolver in his hand.

      `Great God, Prendick!’ he said, not noticing that I was hurt. `That brute’s loose! Tore the fetter out of the wall. Have you seen them?’ then sharply, seeing I gripped my arm. `What’s the matter?’

      `I was standing in the doorway,’ said I.

      He came forward and took my arm. `Blood on the sleeve,’ said he, and rolled back the flannel. He pocketed the weapon, felt my arm painfully, and let me inside. `Your arm is broken,’ he said; and then, `Tell me exactly how it happened — what happened?’

      I told him what I had seen, told him in broken sentences, with gasps of pain between them, and very dexterously and swiftly he bound my arm meanwhile. He slung it from my shoulder, stood back, and looked at me. `You’ll do,’ he said. `And now?’ He thought. Then he went out and locked the gates of the enclosure. He was absent some time.

      I was chiefly concerned about my arm. The incident seemed merely one more of many horrible things. I sat down in the deck chair and, I must admit, swore heartily at the island. The first dull feeling of injury in my arm had already given way to a burning pain when Montgomery reappeared.

      His face was rather pale, and he showed more of his lower gums than ever. `I can neither see nor hear anything of him,’ he said. `I’ve been thinking he may want my help.’ He stared at me with his expressionless eyes. `That was a strong brute,’ he said. `It simply wrenched its fetter out of the wall.’

      He went to the window, then to the door, and there turned to me. `I shall go after him,’ he said. `There’s another revolver I can leave with you. It’s just possible you may need it.’

      He obtained the weapon and put it ready to my hand on the table, then went out, leaving a restless contagion in the air. I did not sit long after he left. I took the revolver in hand and went to the doorway.

      The morning was as still as death. Not a whisper of wind stirred, the sea was like polished glass, the sky empty, the beach desolate. This stillness of things oppressed me.

      I tried to whistle, and the tune died away. I swore again — the second time that morning. Then I went to the corner of the enclosure and stared inland at the green bush that has swallowed up Moreau and Montgomery. When would they return. And how?

      Then far away up the beach a little grey Beast Man appeared, ran down to the water’s edge, and began splashing about. I strolled back to the doorway, then to the corner again, and so began pacing to and fro like a sentinel upon duty. Once I was arrested by the distant voice of Montgomery bawling, `Coo-ee… Mor-eau!’ My arm became less painful, but very hot. I got feverish and thirsty. My shadow grew shorter. I watched the distant figure until it went away again. Would Moreau and Montgomery never return? Three seabirds began fighting for some stranded treasure.

      Then from far away behind the enclosure I heard a pistol-shot. A long silence, and then came another. Then a yelling cry nearer, and another dismal gap of silence. My unfortunate imagination set to work to torment me. Then suddenly a shot close by.

      I went to the corner, startled, and saw Montgomery, his face scarlet, his hair disordered, and the knee of his trousers torn. His face expressed profound consternation. Behind him slouched the Beast Man M’ling, and round M’ling’s jaws were some ominous brown stains.

      `He has come?’ he said.

      `Moreau?’ said I. `No.’

      `My God!’ The man was panting, almost sobbing for breath. `Go back in,’ he said, taking my arm. `They’re mad. They’re all rushing about mad. What can have happened? I don’t know. I’ll tell you when my breath comes. Where’s some brandy?’

      He limped before me into the room and sat down in the deck chair. M’ling flung himself down just outside the doorway, and began panting like a dog. I got Montgomery some brandy and water. He sat staring blankly in front of him, recovering his breath. After some minutes he began to tell me what had happened.

      He had followed their track for some way. It was plain enough at first on account of the crushed and broken bushes, white rags torn from the puma’s bandages, and occasional smears of blood on the leaves of the shrubs and undergrowth. He lost the track, however, on the stony ground beyond the stream where I had seen the Beast Man drinking, and went wandering aimlessly westward shouting Moreau’s name. Then M’ling had come to him carrying a light hatchet. M’ling had seen nothing of the puma affair, had been felling wood and heard him calling.