the need, and I the knowledge, and I injected and fed you much as I might have collected a specimen. I was bored, and wanted something to do. If I’d been jaded that day, or hadn’t liked your face, well — ; it’s a curious question where you would have been now.
This damped my mood a little. `At any rate — ‘ I began.
`It’s a chance, I tell you,’ he interrupted, `as everything is in a man’s life. Only the asses won’t see it. Why am I here now — an outcast from civilisation — instead of being a happy man enjoying all the pleasures of London? Simply because — eleven years ago — I lost my head for ten minutes on a foggy night.’
He stopped. `Yes?’ said I.
`That’s all.’
We relapsed into silence. Presently he laughed. `There’s something in this starlight that loosens one’s tongue. I’m an ass, and yet somehow I would like to tell you.
`Whatever you tell me, you may rely upon my keeping to myself…. If that’s it.’
He was on the point of beginning, and then shook his head doubtfully. `Don’t,’ said I. `It is all the same to me. After all, it is better to keep your secret. There’s nothing gained but a little relief, if I respect your confidence. If I don’t… well!’
He grunted undecidedly. I felt I had him at a disadvantage, had caught him in the mood of indiscretion; and, to tell the truth, I was not curious to learn what might have driven a young medical student out of London. I have an imagination. I shrugged my shoulders, and turned away. Over the taffrail leant a silent black figure, watching the stars. It was Montgomery’s strange attendant. It looked over its shoulder quickly with my movement, then looked away again.
It may seem a little thing to you, perhaps, but it came like a sudden blow to me. The only light near to us was a lantern at the wheel. The creature’s face was turned for one brief instant out of the dimness of the stern towards this illumination, and I saw that the eyes that glanced at me shone with a pale green light.
I did not know then that a reddish luminosity, at least, is not uncommon in human eyes. The thing came to me as a stark inhumanity. That black figure, with its eyes of fire, struck down through all my adult thoughts and feelings, and for a moment the forgotten horrors of childhood came back to my mind. Then the effect passed as it had come. An uncouth black figure of a man, a figure of no particular import, hung over the taffrail, against the starlight, and I found Montgomery was speaking to me.
`I’m thinking of turning in, then,’ said he; `if you’ve had enough of this.’
I answered him incongruously. We went below, and he wished me goodnight at the door of my cabin.
That night I had some very unpleasant dreams. The waning moon rose late. Its light struck a ghostly faint white beam across my cabin, and made an ominous shape on the planking by my bunk. Then the staghounds woke and began howling and baying, so that I dreamt fitfully and scarcely slept until the approach of dawn.
CHAPTER 5
THE LANDING ON THE ISLAND
In the early morning — it was the second morning after my recovery, and I believe the fourth after I was picked up — I awoke through an avenue of tumultuous dreams, dreams of guns and howling mobs, and became sensible of a hoarse shouting above me. I rubbed my eyes, and lay listening to the noise, doubtful for a little while of my whereabouts. Then came a sudden pattering of bare feet, the sound of heavy objects being thrown about, a violent creaking and rattling of chains. I heard the swish of the water as the ship was suddenly brought round, and a foamy yellow-green wave flew across the little round window and left it streaming. I jumped into my clothes and went on deck.
As I came up the ladder I saw against the flushed sky — for the sun was just rising — the broad back and red hair of the captain, and over his shoulder the puma spinning from a tackle rigged on to the mizzen spanker boom. The poor brute seemed horribly scared, and crouched in the bottom of its little cage. `Overboard with `em!’ bawled the captain. `Overboard with `em! We’ll have a clean ship soon of the whole bilin’ of `em.’
He stood in my way, so that I had perforce to tap his shoulder to come on deck. He came round with a start, and staggered back a few paces to stare at me. It needed no expert eye to tell that the man was still drunk. `Hullo!’ said he stupidly, and then with a light coming into his eyes, `Why, it’s Mister — Mister —?’
`Prendick,’ said I.
`Prendick be damned!’ said he. `Shut Up — that’s your name. Mister Shut Up.’
It was no good answering the brute. But I certainly did not expect his next move. He held out his hand to the gangway by which Montgomery stood talking to a massive white-haired man in dirty blue flannels, who had apparently just come aboard. `That way, Mister Blasted Shut Up. That way,’ roared the captain.
Montgomery and his companion turned as he spoke.
`What do you mean?’ said I.
`That way, Mister Blasted Shut Up — that’s what I mean. Overboard, Mister Shut Up — and sharp. We’re clearing the ship out, cleaning the whole blessed ship out. And overboard you go.
I stared at him dumbfounded. Then it occurred to me it was exactly the thing I wanted. The lost prospect of a journey as sole passenger with this quarrelsome sot was not one to mourn over. I turned towards Montgomery.
`Can’t have you,’ said Montgomery’s companion concisely.
`You can’t have me!’ said I, aghast. He had the squarest and most resolute face I ever set eyes upon.
`Look here,’ I began, turning to the captain.
`Overboard,’ said the captain. `This ship ain’t for beasts and cannibals, and worse than beasts, any more. Overboard you go… Mister Shut Up. If they can’t have you, you goes adrift. But anyhow you go! With your Friends. I’ve done with this blessed island for evermore amen! I’ve had enough of it!’
`But, Montgomery,’ I appealed.
He distorted his lower lip, and nodded his head hopelessly at the greyhaired man beside him, to indicate his powerlessness to help me.
`I’ll see to you presently,’ said the captain.
Then began a curious three-cornered altercation. Alternately I appealed to one and another of the three men, first to the greyhaired man to let me land, and then to the drunken captain to keep me aboard. I even bawled entreaties to the sailors. Montgomery said never a word; only shook his head. `You’re going overboard, I tell you,’ was the captain’s refrain…. `Law be damned! I’m king here.’
At last, I must confess, my voice suddenly broke in the middle of a vigorous threat. I felt a gust of hysterical petulance, and went aft, and stared dismally at nothing.
Meanwhile the sailors progressed rapidly with the task of unshipping the packages and caged animals. A large launch with two standing lugs lay under the lee of the schooner, and into this the assortment of goods was swung. I did not then see the hands from the island that were receiving the packages, for the hull of the
