how would you interpret montgomery's view about saving prendick's life

The quiet conversation furthers the friendship between Prendick and Montgomery, despite Montgomery's reductive attempts to call their meeting chance and nothing more. Prendick seems to agree somewhat, musing that Montgomery seemed to have "come out of Immensity merely to save [his] life." In both instances, they devalue personal initiative as a causative agent, and in doing so are minimizing responsibility for the consequences of their actions. If they are passive with respect to nature and fate, Dr. Moreau is brutally active.