{"id":30,"date":"2021-04-06T15:45:43","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T19:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/doctormoreau\/?post_type=chapter&p=30"},"modified":"2022-02-02T09:28:18","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T14:28:18","slug":"chapter-2-the-man-who-was-going-nowhere","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/chapter\/chapter-2-the-man-who-was-going-nowhere\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 2: The Man Who was Going Nowhere","rendered":"Chapter 2: The Man Who was Going Nowhere"},"content":{"raw":"The cabin in which I found myself was small and rather untidy. A youngish man with flaxen hair, a bristly straw-coloured moustache, and a dropping nether lip, was sitting and holding my wrist. For a minute we stared at each other without speaking. He had watery grey eyes, oddly void of expression. Then just overhead came a sound like an iron bedstead being knocked about, and the low angry growling of some large animal. At the same time the man spoke. He repeated his question,\u2014\u201cHow do you feel now?\u201d\r\n\r\nI think I said I felt all right. I could not recollect how I had got there. He must have seen the question in my face, for my voice was inaccessible to me.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou were picked up in a boat, starving. The name on the boat was the Lady Vain<\/i>, and there were spots of blood on the gunwale.\u201d\r\n\r\nAt the same time my eye caught my hand, so thin that it looked like a dirty skin-purse full of loose bones, and all the business of the boat came back to me.\r\n\r\n\u201cHave some of this,\u201d said he, and gave me a dose of some scarlet stuff, iced.\r\n\r\nIt tasted like blood, and made me feel stronger.\r\n\r\n\u201cYou were in luck,\u201d said he, \u201cto get picked up by a ship with a medical man aboard.\u201d He spoke with a slobbering articulation, with the ghost of a lisp.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat ship is this?\u201d I said slowly, hoarse from my long silence.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s a little trader from Arica and Callao. I never asked where she came from in the beginning,\u2014out of the land of born fools, I guess. I\u2019m a passenger myself, from Arica. The silly ass who owns her,\u2014he\u2019s captain too, named Davies,\u2014he\u2019s lost his certificate, or something. You know the kind of man,\u2014calls the thing the Ipecacuanha<\/i>, of all silly, infernal names; though when there\u2019s much of a sea without any wind, she certainly acts according.\u201d\r\n\r\n(Then the noise overhead began again, a snarling growl and the voice of a human being together. Then another voice, telling some \u201cHeaven-forsaken idiot\u201d to desist.)\r\n\r\n\u201cYou were nearly dead,\u201d said my interlocutor. \u201cIt was a very near thing, indeed. But I\u2019ve put some stuff into you now. Notice your arm\u2019s sore? Injections. You\u2019ve been insensible for nearly thirty hours.\u201d\r\n\r\nI thought slowly. (I was distracted now by the yelping of a number of dogs.) \u201cAm I eligible for solid food?\u201d I asked.\r\n\r\n\u201cThanks to me,\u201d he said. \u201cEven now the mutton is boiling.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cYes,\u201d I said with assurance; \u201cI could eat some mutton.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut,\u201d said he with a momentary hesitation, \u201cyou know I\u2019m dying to hear of how you came to be alone in that boat. Damn that howling<\/i>!\u201d I thought I detected a certain suspicion in his eyes.\r\n\r\nHe suddenly left the cabin, and I heard him in violent controversy with some one, who seemed to me to talk gibberish in response to him. The matter sounded as though it ended in blows, but in that I thought my ears were mistaken. Then he shouted at the dogs, and returned to the cabin.\r\n\r\n\u201cWell?\u201d said he in the doorway. \u201cYou were just beginning to tell me.\u201d\r\n\r\nI told him my name, Edward Prendick, and how I had taken to Natural History as a relief from the dulness of my comfortable independence.\r\n\r\nHe seemed interested in this. \u201cI\u2019ve done some science myself. I did my Biology at University College,\u2014getting out the ovary of the earthworm and the radula of the snail, and all that. Lord! It\u2019s ten years ago. But go on! go on! tell me about the boat.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe was evidently satisfied with the frankness of my story, which I told in concise sentences enough, for I felt horribly weak; and when it was finished he reverted at once to the topic of Natural History and his own biological studies. He began to question me closely about Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street. \u201cIs Caplatzi still flourishing? What a shop that was!\u201d He had evidently been a very ordinary medical student, and drifted incontinently to the topic of the music halls. He told me some anecdotes.\r\n\r\n\u201cLeft it all,\u201d he said, \u201cten years ago. How jolly it all used to be! But I made a young ass of myself,\u2014played myself out before I was twenty-one. I daresay it\u2019s all different now. But I must look up that ass of a cook, and see what he\u2019s done to your mutton.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe growling overhead was renewed, so suddenly and with so much savage anger that it startled me. \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d I called after him, but the door had closed. He came back again with the boiled mutton, and I was so excited by the appetising smell of it that I forgot the noise of the beast that had troubled me.\r\n\r\nAfter a day of alternate sleep and feeding I was so far recovered as to be able to get from my bunk to the scuttle, and see the green seas trying to keep pace with us. I judged the schooner was running before the wind. Montgomery\u2014that was the name of the flaxen-haired man\u2014came in again as I stood there, and I asked him for some clothes. He lent me some duck things of his own, for those I had worn in the boat had been thrown overboard. They were rather loose for me, for he was large and long in his limbs. He told me casually that the captain was three-parts drunk in his own cabin. As I assumed the clothes, I began asking him some questions about the destination of the ship. He said the ship was bound to Hawaii, but that it had to land him first.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhere?\u201d said I.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s an island, where I live. So far as I know, it hasn\u2019t got a name.\u201d\r\n\r\nHe stared at me with his nether lip dropping, and looked so wilfully stupid of a sudden that it came into my head that he desired to avoid my questions. I had the discretion to ask no more.","rendered":"

The cabin in which I found myself was small and rather untidy. A youngish man with flaxen hair, a bristly straw-coloured moustache, and a dropping nether lip, was sitting and holding my wrist. For a minute we stared at each other without speaking. He had watery grey eyes, oddly void of expression. Then just overhead came a sound like an iron bedstead being knocked about, and the low angry growling of some large animal. At the same time the man spoke. He repeated his question,\u2014\u201cHow do you feel now?\u201d<\/p>\n

I think I said I felt all right. I could not recollect how I had got there. He must have seen the question in my face, for my voice was inaccessible to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were picked up in a boat, starving. The name on the boat was the Lady Vain<\/i>, and there were spots of blood on the gunwale.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time my eye caught my hand, so thin that it looked like a dirty skin-purse full of loose bones, and all the business of the boat came back to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave some of this,\u201d said he, and gave me a dose of some scarlet stuff, iced.<\/p>\n

It tasted like blood, and made me feel stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were in luck,\u201d said he, \u201cto get picked up by a ship with a medical man aboard.\u201d He spoke with a slobbering articulation, with the ghost of a lisp.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat ship is this?\u201d I said slowly, hoarse from my long silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little trader from Arica and Callao. I never asked where she came from in the beginning,\u2014out of the land of born fools, I guess. I\u2019m a passenger myself, from Arica. The silly ass who owns her,\u2014he\u2019s captain too, named Davies,\u2014he\u2019s lost his certificate, or something. You know the kind of man,\u2014calls the thing the Ipecacuanha<\/i>, of all silly, infernal names; though when there\u2019s much of a sea without any wind, she certainly acts according.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Then the noise overhead began again, a snarling growl and the voice of a human being together. Then another voice, telling some \u201cHeaven-forsaken idiot\u201d to desist.)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were nearly dead,\u201d said my interlocutor. \u201cIt was a very near thing, indeed. But I\u2019ve put some stuff into you now. Notice your arm\u2019s sore? Injections. You\u2019ve been insensible for nearly thirty hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

I thought slowly. (I was distracted now by the yelping of a number of dogs.) \u201cAm I eligible for solid food?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to me,\u201d he said. \u201cEven now the mutton is boiling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I said with assurance; \u201cI could eat some mutton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut,\u201d said he with a momentary hesitation, \u201cyou know I\u2019m dying to hear of how you came to be alone in that boat. Damn that howling<\/i>!\u201d I thought I detected a certain suspicion in his eyes.<\/p>\n

He suddenly left the cabin, and I heard him in violent controversy with some one, who seemed to me to talk gibberish in response to him. The matter sounded as though it ended in blows, but in that I thought my ears were mistaken. Then he shouted at the dogs, and returned to the cabin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell?\u201d said he in the doorway. \u201cYou were just beginning to tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I told him my name, Edward Prendick, and how I had taken to Natural History as a relief from the dulness of my comfortable independence.<\/p>\n

He seemed interested in this. \u201cI\u2019ve done some science myself. I did my Biology at University College,\u2014getting out the ovary of the earthworm and the radula of the snail, and all that. Lord! It\u2019s ten years ago. But go on! go on! tell me about the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was evidently satisfied with the frankness of my story, which I told in concise sentences enough, for I felt horribly weak; and when it was finished he reverted at once to the topic of Natural History and his own biological studies. He began to question me closely about Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street. \u201cIs Caplatzi still flourishing? What a shop that was!\u201d He had evidently been a very ordinary medical student, and drifted incontinently to the topic of the music halls. He told me some anecdotes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeft it all,\u201d he said, \u201cten years ago. How jolly it all used to be! But I made a young ass of myself,\u2014played myself out before I was twenty-one. I daresay it\u2019s all different now. But I must look up that ass of a cook, and see what he\u2019s done to your mutton.\u201d<\/p>\n

The growling overhead was renewed, so suddenly and with so much savage anger that it startled me. \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d I called after him, but the door had closed. He came back again with the boiled mutton, and I was so excited by the appetising smell of it that I forgot the noise of the beast that had troubled me.<\/p>\n

After a day of alternate sleep and feeding I was so far recovered as to be able to get from my bunk to the scuttle, and see the green seas trying to keep pace with us. I judged the schooner was running before the wind. Montgomery\u2014that was the name of the flaxen-haired man\u2014came in again as I stood there, and I asked him for some clothes. He lent me some duck things of his own, for those I had worn in the boat had been thrown overboard. They were rather loose for me, for he was large and long in his limbs. He told me casually that the captain was three-parts drunk in his own cabin. As I assumed the clothes, I began asking him some questions about the destination of the ship. He said the ship was bound to Hawaii, but that it had to land him first.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere?\u201d said I.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an island, where I live. So far as I know, it hasn\u2019t got a name.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stared at me with his nether lip dropping, and looked so wilfully stupid of a sudden that it came into my head that he desired to avoid my questions. I had the discretion to ask no more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":3,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-30","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/30\/revisions\/31"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/30\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/doctormoreau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}