The Man Who Was Going Nowhere
- Waking up in a strange cabin, our narrator discovers a man staring at him. The man has a medical background and has nursed the narrator back to health.
- The man tries to explain how the narrator is on the trader schooner of one Captain Davis. But all the narrator hears is a voice that sounds like a mix between a growl and a human voice. Weird.
- Paying the growl no heed, the medical man talks about the injections he gave the narrator. The narrator interrupts and asks for actual food. With the ten-or-so days adrift on a barren sea, his stomach must be rumbling something fierce.
- The mutton isn't ready yet though. So, instead of getting food, the medical man asks to hear the narrator's story. Then he suddenly leaves and complains about the howling.
- An argument occurs between medical man and some unknown person; it might have ended with fists. We don't know about the narrator, but that seems a tad worrisome coming from the man who was injecting you with unknown substances beforehand.
- When the medical man returns, the narrator tells him his name—it's Edward Prendick—and his story.
- We learn a bit about the medical man, too. Apparently, he has done some research in biology, and he seems to miss London terribly.
- The medical man goes to fetch Prendick's mutton, and the growling returns with "savage anger" (2.22). Prendick asks what it is, but the medical man either doesn't hear him or ignores him. Which do you think it is?
- After a day of eating and sleeping, Prendick feels good enough to walk around the ship a bit.
- Finally, we learn the medical man's name is Montgomery when he gives Prendick new duds to wear.
- Prendick asks where the ship is going. Turns out, its ultimate destination is Hawaii. Good on you, Prendick. But before anyone can get their tan on, Montgomery has to be dropped off at his destination. It's a secluded island in the Pacific with no name. You know, the perfect set up for a super villain's lair.