Франкенштейн / Frankenstein

About two o’clock the mist cleared away we saw vast plains of ice, which seemed to have no end. Suddenly they noticed a low carriage, fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, passing on towards the north, at the distance of half a mile. A being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature[4 - stature – рост], sat in the sledge and guided the dogs. They watched the traveller with our telescopes until he disappeared. Robert and his men were very excited by this encounter as they had thought they were hundred miles from any land.

About two hours after this occurrence they heard the ground sea, and before night the ice broke and freed our ship.

In the morning, however, as soon as it was light, I went upon deck and found all the sailors busy on one side of the vessel, apparently talking to someone in the sea. It was, in fact, a sledge, like that we had seen before, which had drifted towards us in the night on a large fragment of ice. Only one dog remained alive; but there was a human being within it whom the sailors were persuading to enter the vessel.

He was not, as the other traveller seemed to be, a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but a European. When I appeared on deck the master said, “Here is our captain, and he will not allow you to perish on the open sea.”

On perceiving me, the stranger addressed me in English, although with a foreign accent. “Before I come on board your vessel,” said he, “will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?”

Having heard the answer that they had been on a voyage of discovery towards the northern pole the stranger seemed to be satisfied and consented to come on board.

He was in a wretched condition. He was rubbed with brandy and forced to swallow a small quantity. Than he was wrapped up in blankets and placed near the kitchen stove. After two days he was able to speak and Robert removed him to his own cabin.

When my guest was a little recovered I had great trouble to keep off the men, who wished to ask him a thousand questions; but I would not allow him to be tormented by their idle curiosity, in a state of body and mind whose restoration evidently depended upon entire repose.

Once, however, the lieutenant asked why he had come so far upon the ice in so strange a vehicle.

His countenance instantly assumed an aspect of the deepest gloom, and he replied, “To seek one who fled from me.