"Герберт Уэллс. Dr. Moreau" - читать интересную книгу автора

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.

"Where?" said I.

"It's an island, where I live. So far as I know, it hasn't got
a name."

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.




III. THE STRANGE FACE.


WE left the cabin and found a man at the companion obstructing
our way. He was standing on the ladder with his back to us,
peering over the combing of the hatchway. He was, I could see,
a misshapen man, short, broad, and clumsy, with a crooked back,
a hairy neck, and a head sunk between his shoulders. He was dressed
in dark-blue serge, and had peculiarly thick, coarse, black hair.
I heard the unseen dogs growl furiously, and forthwith he ducked back,-
coming into contact with the hand I put out to fend him off from myself.
He turned with animal swiftness.

In some indefinable way the black face thus flashed upon me
shocked me profoundly. It was a singularly deformed one.
The facial part projected, forming something dimly suggestive
of a muzzle, and the huge half-open mouth showed as big white teeth
as I had ever seen in a human mouth. His eyes were blood-shot
at the edges, with scarcely a rim of white round the hazel pupils.
There was a curious glow of excitement in his face.

"Confound you!" said Montgomery. "Why the devil don't you get
out of the way?"

The black-faced man started aside without a word.
I went on up the companion, staring at him instinctively
as I did so. Montgomery stayed at the foot for a moment.
"You have no business here, you know," he said in a deliberate tone.
"Your place is forward."

The black-faced man cowered. "They-won't have me forward."