Chapter 7 CHAPTER 6 THE Evil-faced Boatmen

However, the people on the small island felt compassion for me when they saw that I was really drifting away.I drifted slowly to the east, and the boat leaned towards the island.Presently I saw the launch, with its cargo and men, come round towards me, and I breathed a wild sigh of relief.The launch was fully laden, and as she approached me I distinctly saw Montgomery's white-haired, broad-shouldered companion sitting on the stern sheet, surrounded by a pack of dogs and some packing boxes.The old man stared at me intently, motionless, and said nothing.The shambling black-faced man at the bow near the mountain leopard was staring at me just as intently, and there were three other men beside him, all grotesque looking beasts, at whom the deerhounds were barking. Howl fiercely.Montgomery, who was at the helm, approached me with the motor-boat, rose up, caught the cable-fly in the bow of my skiff, and fastened it to his tiller, to haul my boat away, for There was no room left on the launch.

At that time, I had already woken up from the state of madness.I answered Montgomery's call as he bravely approached me.I told him that the boat was going to sink.He handed me a small wooden barrel.The tug-rope snapped taut between the two boats, and I was jerked backwards by the jerk, and for a while I was busy trying to get the water out of the boat with this barrel.It wasn't until I got the water down to the bottom of the boat--dumped all the water out of the boat, and the boat was all right--that I had time to get a good look at the people on the launch. I noticed that the white-haired man was still staring at me motionlessly, but according to my guess at this moment, his expression seemed to be somewhat embarrassed.When my eyes met his, he looked down at the staghounds lying between his knees.He was, as I have said, a stocky, powerful man, with a very fine forehead and a rather dull countenance; but his upper eyelids, as is often the case with old men, were curiously drooping, and the result was that the eyes always Like looking down.The corners of his big mouth are turned down, always showing a resolute and aggressive look.He and Montgomery were talking in a low voice, so low I couldn't hear it.My eyes shifted from him to his other three boatmen, who were an odd bunch of boatmen.I could only see their faces; but there was something in their faces that I couldn't describe, which made me sick and disgusted.I stared at them, and the impression didn't go away, though I still couldn't see what caused me to feel it.They looked to me like brown people, but their arms and legs, down to the hands and feet, were strangely wrapped in some thin, dirty white wool.

I have never seen men dressed like this before, only in the East, women have such attire.They were also wearing hoods, and from beneath them peeked out goblin-like faces, with protruding chins and bright eyes, staring at me.Their black hair was long and soft, almost like a horse's mane.They sat there looking taller and taller than any human race I had ever seen.The white-haired man I knew was six feet tall and sitting there was also a head shorter than any of the three. I found out later that none of the three of them was taller than me, but their upper bodies were extraordinarily long, while their thighs were extraordinarily short and grotesquely bent.They were, after all, hideously ugly.Across their heads, under the fore-sail, in the shadows, the black-faced man's eyes twinkled.

Just as I was staring at them, they met my fixed gaze, and one by one they avoided my sight, but they all looked at me strangely and furtively.It seemed that I might have pissed them off, so I turned my attention to the isle we were getting closer to. The island is very low-lying, and the island is covered with luxuriant vegetation, mainly some naturally growing palm trees.From somewhere on the island, a thin wisp of white smoke slowly rose from a slanting thorn, drifted to the boundless sky, and then scattered like a falling feather.We were now surrounded by a broad bay with low craggy headlands on either side.The beach is all dark gray sand.The slope of the beach is very steep, extending to the mountains.The height of the mountain is about sixty or seventy feet above sea level, and there are some trees and bushes growing on the ridge.Halfway up the ridge there was a square enclosure of black and white stones, which, I later discovered, was built half of coral and half of pumice lava.You can see the two thatched roofs erected on the inside of the paddock.

At the water's edge, a man stood waiting for us.When we were far from the island, I thought I saw some other queer-looking fellows scurrying into the bushes on the slope, but when our boat drew near, not a single one was in sight. .The man who was waiting for us was of medium height, with a dark Negroid face, a large mouth, almost no lips, unusually long thin arms, large and thin feet, and bandy legs, standing there, leaning forward. That blunt face stared at us.He too, like Montgomery and his gray-haired companion, wore a blue flannel coat and trousers. As we got closer to the shore, we saw him running up and down the beach in such a funny way.At Montgomery's order, the four sailors on the longboat jumped to their feet in such a strange posture that they tore down the square sails used for the gaff.Montgomery took the helm and steered our boat around and into a small dock dug out of the beach.The guy on the beach at that time ran up to us.The dock, as I called it, was really nothing more than a ditch, which, at the high tide, could barely hold the launch.

The bow of the boat ran aground on the sand.I used the keg to keep my skiff from running against the rudder of the big ship, and untied the rope, and got ashore.The three scarf-wrapped men climbed out of the boat with the utmost stupidity, jumped onto the sand, and, with the help of the man on the beach, immediately began to unload the cargo.I was particularly astonished at the strange movement of the legs of the three gondoliers wrapped in scarves.Their legs were not stiff, but they were twisted in a strange way, as if they had connected the wrong bones.When the white-haired man and the dogs came ashore, the dogs were still barking and chasing after the men with their chains tight.

The three big guys were talking to each other with strange guttural voices.The man who had been waiting for us on the sand began talking excitedly to them as they prepared to unload some of the packages that had piled up in the stern.They were speaking some kind of foreign tongue, I guessed.I've heard that said somewhere before, but I can't remember where.The white-haired man stood there, amidst the din of the six dogs, holding them tightly and shouting loudly.Montgomery unloaded the helm and went ashore too.Everyone started to unload the goods together.I was too weak to help them from the long absence of food, and the exposure of my uncovered head to the sun.

After a while, the white-haired man seemed to remember my existence and walked in front of me. "It seems," he said, "that you haven't had your breakfast." Under his heavy brows, small eyes were piercing and gleaming black. "I must apologize to you for that. Now that you are our guest, we must make you comfortable, even though, you know, you are an uninvited visitor." He stared straight into my face with sharp eyes. "Montgomery says you're an educated man, Mr. Prendick, and he says you know some science. May I ask what that means?" I told him that I had worked for a few years at the Royal Academy and had done some research work in biology under Huxley.Hearing this, he slightly raised his eyebrows.

"Well, things are a little different, Mr. Prendick," he said, with a little respect in his expression. "Here, as it happens, we are some biologists. This is a biological research station—a research station of some sort." His eyes fell on the men wrapped in white cloth who were busy rolling America Mountain leopards are transported to the paddock. "At least Montgomery and I are biologists," he added. After a pause, "I can't say when you'll be able to get out of here. We're out of the way of going anywhere. We've only seen a ship in about twelve months or so."

He left me abruptly and rudely, walked up the beach, passed the crowd, and, I think, walked into the paddock again.Two other men were helping Montgomery with loading some of the smaller packaged items onto a low-wheeled cart.The mountain leopard and the rabbit cages were still on the launch, and the deerhounds were still kicking against the slats.After loading the goods, the three of them helped up the cart together, and began to push and transport the ton-heavy goods behind the mountain leopard.After a while Montgomery left them and came back to me, holding out his hand. "I'm glad," he said, "for my own part. That captain's a fool. He'll make it hard for you."

"It was you," I said, "that saved me again." "It depends. I assure you you'll find this island a very strange place. If I were you I'd act very carefully. I'd proceed very carefully. He—" He hesitated , It seems that he changed his mind again, and swallowed the words on his lips. "Can you help me transport these rabbits?" he said. The way he handles these rabbits is fantastic.I also joined in and helped him drag a rabbit cage to the shore.As soon as he dragged the cage to the shore, he immediately opened the cage door, lifted one end of the cage, and dumped all the jumping rabbits inside on the sand.These rabbits are scrambling to be the first, one on top of the other, and they are all piled together.Montgomery clapped his hands, and the rabbits, I think there were fifteen or twenty of them, immediately hopped up the sand. "Have sons and daughters, my friends," said Montgomery, "to replenish the island's supplies. We are quite short of meat here at present." While I watched the rabbits run away without a trace, the gray-haired man returned with a decanter of brandy and some biscuits. "Let Prendick eat less for a moment," he said in a far more cordial tone than before. Without further ado, I started eating these cookies right away.At this moment, the white-haired man helped Montgomery free the other twenty or so rabbits from their cages.The three big cages and the mountain leopard were brought into the paddock.I left the bottle of brandy untouched, as I have never touched a drop in my life.