XVIII. THE FINDING OF MOREAU.
WHEN I saw Montgomery swallow a third dose of brandy, I took itupon myself to interfere. He was already more than half fuddled.I told him that some serious thing must have happened toMoreau by this time, or he would have returned before this,and that it behoved 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 hot stillness of the tropicalafternoon is a singularly vivid impression. M'ling went first,his shoulder hunched, his strange black head moving with quickstarts as he peered first on this side of the way and then on that.He was unarmed; his axe he had dropped when he encounteredthe Swine-man. 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 sullennesswith me on account of the brandy. My left arm was in a sling(it was lucky it was my left), and I carried my revolver in my right.Soon we traced a narrow path through the wild luxuriance ofthe island, going northwestward; and presently M'ling stopped,and became rigid with watchfulness. Montgomery almost staggeredinto him, and then stopped too. Then, listening intently,we heard coming through the trees the sound of voices and footstepsapproaching 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.
"Hullo!" suddenly shouted Montgomery, "Hullo, there!"
"Confound you!" 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,--strangefaces, lit by a strange light. M'ling made a growlingnoise in his throat. I recognised the Ape-man: I had indeedalready identified his voice, and two of the white-swathedbrown-featured creatures I had seen in Montgomery's boat.With these were the two dappled brutes and that grey, horribly crookedcreature who said the Law, with grey hair streaming down its cheeks,heavy grey eyebrows, and grey locks pouring off from a centralparting upon its sloping forehead,--a heavy, faceless thing,with strange red eyes, looking at us curiously from amidstthe green.
For a space no one spoke. Then Montgomery hiccoughed, "Who--saidhe was dead?"
The Monkey-man looked guiltily at the hairy-grey Thing. "He is dead,"said this monster. "They saw."
There was nothing threatening about this detachment, at any rate.They seemed awestricken and puzzled.
"Where is he?" said Montgomery.
"Beyond," and the grey creature pointed.
"Is there a Law now?" asked the Monkey-man. "Is it still to be thisand that? Is he dead indeed?"
"Is there a Law?" repeated the man in white. "Is there a Law,thou Other with the Whip?"
"He is dead," said the hairy-grey Thing. And they all stoodwatching us.
"Prendick," said Montgomery, turning his dull eyes to me."He's dead, evidently."
I had been standing behind him during this colloquy.I began to see how things lay with them. I suddenly stepped in frontof Montgomery and lifted up my voice:--"Children of the Law,"I said, "he is _not_ dead!" M'ling turned his sharp eyes on me."He has changed his shape; he has changed his body," I went on."For a time 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," said the Ape-man, peering fearfullyupward 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 grey Thing, still regarding me.
"That's well," grunted Montgomery.
"The Other with the Whip--" began the grey Thing.
"Well?" said I.
"Said he was dead."
But Montgomery was still sober enough to understand my motive in denyingMoreau's death. "He is not dead," he said slowly, "not dead at all.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 becausehe had no more need of it."
"It is this way, Man who walked in the Sea," said the grey Thing.
And with these six creatures guiding us, we went through the tumultof ferns and creepers and tree-stems towards the northwest.Then came a yelling, a crashing among the branches, and a littlepink homunculus rushed by us shrieking. Immediately after appeareda monster in headlong pursuit, blood-bedabbled, who was amongst usalmost before he could stop his career. The grey Thing leapt aside.M'ling, with a snarl, flew at it, and was struck aside. Montgomery firedand missed, bowed his head, threw up his arm, and turned to run.I fired, and the Thing still came on; fired again, point-blank, intoits ugly face. I saw its features vanish in a flash: its face wasdriven in. Yet it passed me, gripped Montgomery, and holding him,fell headlong beside him and pulled him sprawling upon itself in itsdeath-agony.
I found myself alone with M'ling, the dead brute, and the prostrate man.Montgomery raised himself slowly and stared in a muddled way atthe shattered Beast Man beside him. It more than half sobered him.He scrambled to his feet. Then I saw the grey Thing returning cautiouslythrough the trees.
"See," said I, pointing to the dead brute, "is the Law not alive?This came of breaking the Law."
He peered at the body. "He sends the Fire that kills,"said he, in his deep voice, repeating part of the Ritual.The others gathered round and stared for a space.
At last we drew near the westward extremity of the island.We came upon the gnawed and mutilated body of the puma,its shoulder-bone smashed by a bullet, and perhaps twenty yardsfarther found at last what we sought. Moreau lay face downwardin a trampled space in a canebrake. One hand was almost severedat the wrist and his silvery hair was 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 we could not find. 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 howlingand shrieking past our little band, and once the little pinksloth-creature appeared and stared at us, and vanished again.But we were not attacked again. At the gates of the enclosureour company of Beast People left us, M'ling going with the rest.We locked ourselves in, and then took Moreau's mangledbody 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 livingthere.