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Black Cat Vol. 05 No. 11 August 1900-Various · The Black Cat and other Short Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section one The Black Cat Volume five number eleven August
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  Speaker 1: nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Beesway's Candle The
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  Speaker 1: Black Cat, Volume five number eleven August nineteen hundred, Section
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  Speaker 1: one The train hunt at Loldos by E. C. Preston.
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  Speaker 1: Where is the midnight Express? So ran the query sent
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  Speaker 1: by the operator at Loldos to the operator at de
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  Speaker 1: Spatzal train passed on schedule, time flashed back over the wires.
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  Speaker 1: The Buenos Aires, Concepcion and Valdivia Railway was completed in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety nine. The greater part of the line traverses
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  Speaker 1: the level pumpas, where the construction of a roadway is
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  Speaker 1: not difficult, But in order to surmount the obstacle which
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  Speaker 1: the Andes created, it had been found necessary to pierce
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  Speaker 1: the range with a tunnel. It had been constructed through
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  Speaker 1: six miles of solid rock. The tunnel, which is like
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  Speaker 1: most others in general features of design, is unique in
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  Speaker 1: one particular and has a sharp curve near its western exit.
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  Speaker 1: Trains passing through it from east to west, travel almost
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  Speaker 1: due west for more than five miles, then turned sharply
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  Speaker 1: to the right and leave the tunnel headed a little
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  Speaker 1: west of north. The point where the roadbed leads the
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  Speaker 1: tunnel on the Pacific side is far up the mountain,
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  Speaker 1: and because of the precipitous character of the slope, a
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  Speaker 1: descent can be begun in no other direction. During the
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  Speaker 1: construction of the tunnel, rocks of a very shaly nature
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  Speaker 1: had been encountered in the vicinity of the curve, and
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  Speaker 1: to prevent the constant falling of small pieces upon the track,
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  Speaker 1: the sides and upper part of the tunnel had been
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  Speaker 1: encased in sheet iron. This encasement had been put on
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  Speaker 1: in sections, each about sixty feet in length. About three
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  Speaker 1: miles from the eastern entrance to the tunnel, the town
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  Speaker 1: of Espatzo is situated. Its population is composed chiefly of shiftless,
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  Speaker 1: indolent natives who take no thought of the morrow, their
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  Speaker 1: chief interest having recently sended in a stranger who had
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  Speaker 1: come into their midst. He was a scientist who was
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  Speaker 1: conducting experiments with wireless telegraphy. The colleague was located on
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  Speaker 1: the western side of the mountain at the hamlet of Lodos,
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  Speaker 1: and they were ascertaining the effect which the mountain range
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  Speaker 1: had upon the transmission of the current. Lodos nestles among
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  Speaker 1: the mountains, about a mile to the north of the tunnel.
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  Speaker 1: Its population consists of about fifty ignorant mountaineers, more thriftless
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  Speaker 1: than those of Espatzo, and the oldest inhabitant had never
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  Speaker 1: heard of a railroad until the route for one was
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  Speaker 1: surveyed through their little village. The Midnight Expressed leaves Espatzo
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  Speaker 1: at eleven thirty four and as duwe at las Oldoss
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  Speaker 1: at twelve o three. It makes no stop at the
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  Speaker 1: latter place, and less signaled. On the night of March nineteenth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen hundred, a lone traveler occupied the waiting room at
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  Speaker 1: the station. He had purchased a ticket for Concepcion. A
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  Speaker 1: few minutes before the express was due. The night operator
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  Speaker 1: hung out the signal for the train to stop. Twenty
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  Speaker 1: minutes later he sent the message with which this story opens.
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  Speaker 1: A half hour elapsed, and the operator began to fear
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  Speaker 1: that the train had met with some disaster. He stepped
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  Speaker 1: out upon the platform and gazed along the track. No
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  Speaker 1: approaching light indicated its coming. He re entered the office
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  Speaker 1: and attempted to read, but the train and not the
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  Speaker 1: printed page, occupied his thoughts, and a short time he arose,
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  Speaker 1: looked at his watch, then seated himself by his instrument,
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  Speaker 1: and sent the following despatch to the division headquarters at Concepcion.
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  Speaker 1: Express left Espatzo on time has not arrived at Loldos,
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  Speaker 1: fifty minutes over dune. In a few minutes he received
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  Speaker 1: the reply, order out section men to investigate, and section
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  Speaker 1: men were called and soon departed on a hand car
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  Speaker 1: in the direction of the tunnel. An hour and a
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  Speaker 1: half later, the following telegram was received from a Sputzer.
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  Speaker 1: Section men arrived, report track unobstructed, saw nothing of Express.
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  Speaker 1: The operator was dumbfounded. Certainly an error had been made
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  Speaker 1: in transmitting or receiving the message. He called for it
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  Speaker 1: to be repeated. The receiver clicked off the identical words
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  Speaker 1: of the first report, without pausing to theorize concerning the
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  Speaker 1: disappearance of the train. The operator forwarded the intelligence to Concepcion.
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  Speaker 1: The division superintendent at once despatched a wrecker to Loldos
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  Speaker 1: and sent orders to a Sputzo for the section men.
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  Speaker 1: To return slowly to and to carefully scan the ground
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  Speaker 1: outside of the tunnel for some distance to each side
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  Speaker 1: of the track. Twueer how they could miss seeing the wreck.
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  Speaker 1: He remarked to an operator the matter ha haa the
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  Speaker 1: embankment down which it plunged. It was broad daylight when
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  Speaker 1: the wrecker arrived at Loldos. A few minutes later, the
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  Speaker 1: hand car appeared in sight. Upon its arrival, the section
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  Speaker 1: hands were eagerly questioned. They reported having seen nothing of
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  Speaker 1: the train. The announcement was received with a shaft of derision.
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  Speaker 1: Where are your eyes, cried one of the wrecker crew.
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  Speaker 1: Come boys, move on, we will soon locate the express.
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  Speaker 1: The wrecker was set in motion and the crew kept
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  Speaker 1: a diligent look out for the missing train wherever it
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  Speaker 1: might have plunged. They were sure they could not fail
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  Speaker 1: to discover it. They proceeded slowly, reached the tunnel and
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  Speaker 1: no train had been visible. They emerged from the other
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  Speaker 1: side and proceeded leisurely in to is Spazo, and the
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  Speaker 1: express had not been found. When the division superintendent was
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  Speaker 1: apprized that the train could not be found, he ordered
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  Speaker 1: the swiftest engine that the company possessed to be coupled
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  Speaker 1: to the official's private car, and soon the President, Vice President,
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  Speaker 1: General Superintendent and several directors of the road were speeding
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  Speaker 1: toward the scene of the strange disaster. Arrived at Lothos.
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  Speaker 1: They proceeded slowly over the tractor spuzo. Nothing significant escape
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  Speaker 1: their eyes. Yet their quest was fruitless. From the office
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  Speaker 1: at a Spazo, the General Superintendent sent queries to every
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  Speaker 1: station on the system. The telegraph operators were asked to
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  Speaker 1: give information concerning the present location of the train, but
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  Speaker 1: none of them could help the puzzled superintendent solve the problem.
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  Speaker 1: The officials decided that the train must have become uncontrollable
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  Speaker 1: and run wild past Lordos. Unnoticed that the wreck could
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  Speaker 1: be found at the bottom of some embankment beyond. Was
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  Speaker 1: not probable that a train could leave a grade without
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  Speaker 1: tearing up the track, and they had already passed over
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  Speaker 1: that section of the railway. Yet such a contingency was
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  Speaker 1: more plausible than that it had melted into air. Accordingly,
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  Speaker 1: forces of searchers were ordered out on all parts of
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  Speaker 1: the system. For two days. The search went on, but
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  Speaker 1: no clue to the missing express could be discovered. Then
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  Speaker 1: the railway officials, despairing of success, ordered the search to
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  Speaker 1: be abandoned. News of the disasters spread rapidly throughout Chile
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  Speaker 1: and Argentina. Newspapers devoted almost their entire space to the
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  Speaker 1: facts and theories concerning the mystery. People neglected their business
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  Speaker 1: and collected in crowds upon the streets to discuss the
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  Speaker 1: unwonted phenomenon. The wires shook their heads gravely, had admitted
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  Speaker 1: that they could give no intelligent explanation of the enigma.
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  Speaker 1: The masses ignored science and attributed the deed to spirits, elves,
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  Speaker 1: and goblins. For here was something unparalleled in all the
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  Speaker 1: annals of history, which defied science and set all her
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  Speaker 1: known laws at nought. A wave of superstitions swept over
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  Speaker 1: the country, and prelate and laymen, scholar and illiterate, stepped
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  Speaker 1: back in belief a thousand years. Relatives of the passengers
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  Speaker 1: who had disappeared on the train sent letters, telegrams and messengers,
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  Speaker 1: or came in person to the officers of the company
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  Speaker 1: to learn what had been done and what would be done.
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  Speaker 1: The Bolivian minister at Santiago was reported among the missing,
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  Speaker 1: and his home government sent a polite message to the
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  Speaker 1: Chilean government requesting it to ascertain if the report were authentic.
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  Speaker 1: By the morning of the twenty second, excitement had been
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  Speaker 1: wrought to a high pitch. The wildest rumors spread from
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  Speaker 1: mouth to mouth, and the most preposterous were given credence.
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  Speaker 1: Valdivia El Rio came forth with the startling headlines Gas
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  Speaker 1: issues intermittently from tunnel. Train filled with it and soared away.
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  Speaker 1: Man found who saw it sail high above the mountains
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  Speaker 1: and disappear impossible, as was the fabrication. It found believers. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: the report leaked out what was supposed to be simply
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  Speaker 1: a private calamity might become one of national moment. For
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  Speaker 1: the Chilean government had lost five hundred thousand pezos which
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  Speaker 1: had been in transportation on the train. The party in
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  Speaker 1: power had endeavored to keep this secret for political reasons
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  Speaker 1: that it had been published in the papers of Argentina,
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  Speaker 1: from which was copied by those of Chile. The gold
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  Speaker 1: Standard Party had gained control of the government by a
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  Speaker 1: very narrow margin at the last general election, had proceeded
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  Speaker 1: to place the country on a gold basis. It had
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  Speaker 1: been known in the inner political circles for several months
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  Speaker 1: that the diplomatic relations with Brazil were in a strained condition.
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  Speaker 1: The leaders in Brazil were jealous of the political influence
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  Speaker 1: which Chile exerted in South America and wished to humble
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  Speaker 1: the latter country and at the same time make their
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  Speaker 1: own the dominant power. They only awaited a trivial pretext
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  Speaker 1: which would make the declaration of war appear justifiable in
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  Speaker 1: the ice of the civilized world. Their fleet was maneuvering
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  Speaker 1: in the South Atlantic and within twenty four hours could
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  Speaker 1: dash around the Horn and begin to devastate the Chilean coast.
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  Speaker 1: The President of Chile had called Congress an extracession in
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  Speaker 1: January and had voted to greatly increase the efficiency of
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  Speaker 1: the army and navy. Had directed that a loan of
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  Speaker 1: twenty million pesos should be negotiated. This had been secured
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  Speaker 1: in London, and eighteen million pesars had already been received
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  Speaker 1: by a transfer of credit, while the remaining two million
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  Speaker 1: pezzers had been forwarded in four equal shipments, one of
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  Speaker 1: which had gone lost on the missing train. This two
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  Speaker 1: million pesars consisted of ingots of gold, which it was
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  Speaker 1: the intention of the government to convert to coin to
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  Speaker 1: swell the circulatory medium of the country. The B, A, C.
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  Speaker 1: And V Road had the contract to forward all the
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  Speaker 1: gold from Buenos Aires to Concepcion, from whence it would
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  Speaker 1: be transported to Santiago over the Chilean Central. When the
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  Speaker 1: leaders of the Party of the Opposition heard of the
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  Speaker 1: loss of the treasure, they denounced the party in power
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  Speaker 1: in scathing language for their careless policy in allowing the
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  Speaker 1: gold to be transported without a sufficient guard to insure
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  Speaker 1: its safety. The ranks of the opposition had been restless
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  Speaker 1: for some months, and now the inflamed condition of the
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  Speaker 1: popular mind allowed the spirit of insurrection to materialize. Before evening,
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  Speaker 1: the masses were an affirment. The sun went down in
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  Speaker 1: a country filled with gloom and dark forebodings. Grief sat
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  Speaker 1: on the homes from which the missing had been snatched.
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  Speaker 1: Medieval superstition grasped the throat of enlightenment with a throttling clutch,
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  Speaker 1: and the sinister form of anarchy stalked the streets. At midnight,
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  Speaker 1: the express, bearing fourteen passengers and the second consignment of gold,
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  Speaker 1: was seen to enter the tunnel. It failed to come
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  Speaker 1: out on the other side. At sunrise, the General Superintendent
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  Speaker 1: of the Road and twenty men entered the tunnel. All
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  Speaker 1: trains were stopped while they made a systematic examination of
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  Speaker 1: the entire structure for the purpose of discovering how the
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  Speaker 1: trains had disappeared. For eight hours, they carefully examined the track,
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  Speaker 1: the side walls, and the upper vault. Everything appeared in
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  Speaker 1: proper condition, and not an atom of the missing train
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  Speaker 1: came to their notice. When news of the second calamity
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  Speaker 1: reached the public, excitement rose to a fever heat. After
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  Speaker 1: the first disaster, the loss of money had been looked
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  Speaker 1: upon as simply a coincident feature. Now that another half
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  Speaker 1: million had been lost in transportation with the second mystery,
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  Speaker 1: and as no large amount of precious metal had been
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  Speaker 1: handled by the railway at any other time, the consensus
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  Speaker 1: of opinion was that the gold was responsible for the mishaps.
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  Speaker 1: The desire for gold is a human attribute. When the
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  Speaker 1: public comprehended the connection between the yellow metal and the mysteries,
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  Speaker 1: many who had looked upon the supernatural as the cause
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  Speaker 1: of the mishaps changed their opinion and considered the disasters
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  Speaker 1: to have been brought about by brigands. No one could
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  Speaker 1: offer appla causible plan, however, by which man could bring
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  Speaker 1: to consummation a plot for the apparent annihilation of a train,
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  Speaker 1: and the belief of the general public in the supernatural
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  Speaker 1: origin of the catastrophes only strengthened. The business of the
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  Speaker 1: railroad company was completely paralyzed. During the twenty third and
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  Speaker 1: twenty fourth Not a person asked for a ticket for
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  Speaker 1: passage through the tunnel. The company received orders from those
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  Speaker 1: who had large shipments of freight and transportation not to
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  Speaker 1: allow their goods to enter the mountain until the mystery
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  Speaker 1: was solved. The road became in reality two systems, each
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  Speaker 1: terminating in the Andes. The trainmen shared the prevalent superstition,
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  Speaker 1: and none were required to enter the tunnel after the
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  Speaker 1: superintendent and party had made the investigation within it. During
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  Speaker 1: the afternoon of the twenty fourth, came to the main
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  Speaker 1: office of the system at Concepcion that the third consignment
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  Speaker 1: of gold had arrived at Disbudze. It was ordered placed
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  Speaker 1: under a heavy guard, and a meeting of the officials
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  Speaker 1: and directors of the road was called to consider plans
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  Speaker 1: for forwarding it to Santiago. Some favored returning it by
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  Speaker 1: rail to Buenos Aires and sending it by steamer around
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  Speaker 1: the hall. This was promptly overruled, because hostilities with Brazil
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  Speaker 1: might begin at any moment, and the fleet of the
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  Speaker 1: enemy would seize and confiscate all Chilean treasure and transportation
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  Speaker 1: around the hall. Others favored conducting it through a mountain
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  Speaker 1: pass on the backs of Llamas. The General Superintendent would
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  Speaker 1: listen to no such plan. Gentlemen, he said to the
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  Speaker 1: assembled directors of the company. We have brought the god
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  Speaker 1: thus farther, and the Buenos Aires Concepcion and Valdivia is
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  Speaker 1: a company that can carry its plans to their consummation.
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  Speaker 1: We will proceed through the tunnel with the gold. The
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  Speaker 1: Superintendent had always been a materialist and was not willing
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  Speaker 1: to concede that the supernatural had any connection with the mystery.
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  Speaker 1: He knew that a bad and of brigands had infested
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: the mountain for years, although their rendezvous was supposed to
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  Speaker 1: be at a considerable distance from a sputso, and he
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: believed that in some way they were responsible for the
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: disappearance of the trains. He accordingly decided upon a plan
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  Speaker 1: for the transfer of the gold through the tunnel whereby
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: he thought to be able to checkmate the plans of
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  Speaker 1: the shrewdest desperadoes. He ordered three engines, each with a coach,
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  Speaker 1: to be sent to a sputso before their arrival he
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  Speaker 1: had collected one hundred and fifty men to act as
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  Speaker 1: guards for the trains. Upon the arrival of the engines
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  Speaker 1: and coaches, he without a moment's delay, ordered fifty men
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  Speaker 1: into each car and placed the gold in the coach
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  Speaker 1: at the central train. He gave instructions that the trains
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  Speaker 1: should proceed at the rate of ten miles an hour
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  Speaker 1: until the tunnel was passed, and that an approximate distance
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  Speaker 1: of half a mile should be maintained between them. Then
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  Speaker 1: start was made. It was four thirty two in the
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  Speaker 1: afternoon of the twenty fifth, and engine number sixty eight
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  Speaker 1: pulled out at a Sputzer. Three minutes later, Number twenty
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  Speaker 1: two moved off, and as it did so, the General
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  Speaker 1: Superintendent swung himself into the cab and stood beside the engineer.
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  Speaker 1: Jack Steele, a veteran railroader from the United States who
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  Speaker 1: pulled a passenger on the Great Northern in the early nineties.
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  Speaker 1: Last of all to depart was the sixty three. As
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  Speaker 1: it left the village, a great shout went up from
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  Speaker 1: the assembled spectators. The crowd stood watching the trains until
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the last one had gone from view. Then it thronged
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: within and around the station, feverishly awaiting the time in
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: a message from Loldos should announce the result of the trip.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Not a man withdrew from its midst except the scientist
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: returned to his experiments with wireless telegraphy. In the meantime,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: news that another trial to forward God through the tunnel
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  Speaker 1: was about to be made spread in the vicinity of Lordos,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: and a throng of people gathered around the exit on
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  Speaker 1: the Pacific side. Five twenty had passed and there was
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  Speaker 1: no sign of an approaching train. Tis about time for
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  Speaker 1: one to appear, said one. Knock my words. None of
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: them will ever come forth, said another. Watches, standing within
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  Speaker 1: the mouth of the tunnel, saw the faint glimmer of
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  Speaker 1: a light far within its depths. A light, a light
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  Speaker 1: one rounds the curve, went up the cry. The light
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: came nearer, and a glow suffused the cavern walls, advancing
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  Speaker 1: until its foremost beams embraced the mellow daylight, stealing inward
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: from the outer world. The crowd hurried from the track,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and soon an engine and coach emerged from the mountain side.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: A great shout went up from the waiting assemblage. As
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: it died away. A man again peered into the tunnel.
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  Speaker 1: Another light, Another train, he cried. Then all was tumult
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  Speaker 1: and rejoicing, And as the train came forth, every throat
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  Speaker 1: spoke forth in year with loud huzzahs, until it seemed
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  Speaker 1: as if the very mountain trembled with a thunderous acclaim,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: while the echoes swelled the chorus, until the whole district reverberated.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: After the crowd had spent its energy, it once more
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: fixed its attention on the exit. Then its lapsed, and
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  Speaker 1: no train appeared. Men who had stood on the opening
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: gazing at the inner depts glanced furtively about, and then
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  Speaker 1: withdrew and lost themselves within the throng. Exultation ebbed away,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: and apprehension soon replaced it. Chattering voices ceased their gossom,
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  Speaker 1: and a hush of silence fell upon the watchers. An
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  Speaker 1: hour dragged out its dismal length, shades of night began
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  Speaker 1: to fall. Superstition fostered, fear and then the whole multitude,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: seized by sudden panic, fled precipitately down the mountains and
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: never halted till it reached the huts of Loldos. Here
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  Speaker 1: this the throng with espatso had heard the result. Five
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight came the message sixty eight, and coach arrived
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  Speaker 1: again at five point thirty four sixty three on siding.
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  Speaker 1: A tremor went through the crowd, and the people looked
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  Speaker 1: at one another with white faces. Number twenty two had
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: disappeared with the superintendent and the gold. Within two hours,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the news was known at every telegraph station in South America.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: The great dailies rushed forth special editions containing sensational accounts
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: of the affair. The mystery had been enacted during the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: hours of daylight, and almost under the eyes of a
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  Speaker 1: special guard. The masses became more than ever a prey
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of distorted fancy. Superstition tightened its grip upon the nation.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Go Lord resovery ware looked upon as a menace to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: public safety. No one would have been surprised at the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: banks with their vaulted hordes of gold had vanished completely
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: from the earth that night. Misers with shriveled souls, whose
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: chief delight had been to gloat over their glittering treasure,
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  Speaker 1: were loath to approach its place of concealment, and feared,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: as they tossed upon their beds, that the gruesome power
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: that sought for gold would snatch them from among the living.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: The leaders of the opposition had asked the government to
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: send a regiment for the purpose of protecting the third
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: consignment of gold during its passage through the tunnel. The
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: authorities dared not comply, as one half of the tunnel
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: as located in Argentina, and to send a regiment into
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the territory of the neighboring republic would be equivalent to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: a declaration of war. The opposition took no heed of
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: the point, involving international etiquette, and used the refusal for
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: political capital. The next day, insurrections seemed imminent every caught her.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: A mob gathered in Santiago and was dispersed at the
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: point of the bayonet. Valparaiso, ten thousand men marched in
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: one parade bearing aloft banners inscribed death or misgovernment. From Serena, Valdivo, Concepcion,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: and lesser towns came news of incendiary gatherings. All that
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: seemed lacking to precipitate a revolution was a commander to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: lead the hordes of agitators forth to battle. Then trouble
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: came from an unexpected quarter. The Bolivian government refused to
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: give credence to the report that its representative at Santiago
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: was among the missing, and maintained a belief that he
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: was imprisoned in some Chilean bastille. It issued an ultimatum
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: setting forth that if he was not liberated within twenty
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: four hours, war would be declared. Brazil immediately espoused the
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: cause of Bolivia, and a message was sent by wire
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: from Rio Geneio to Santa Cruz, where the despatch of
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: her fleet was coaling, for the squadron to set sail
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: at once for Valdivia. Without waiting for the expiration of
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the twenty four hours of grace. Bolivia began sending regiments
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: post haste to the frontier. The province of Atacama, wrested
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: from Bolivia by Chile as an indemnity after a recent war,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: contains a large element of population which is Bolivion at heart.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: It added to the general perplexity of the situation by
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: breaking into open revolt. Before the expiration of the twenty
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: four hours, the Chilean government secured an extension of time
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: until four p m. On the twenty eighth. On the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: morning of the twenty eighth, a skirmish took place at
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Anadutto between a small rebel force and a detachment of regulars.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: The government forces were put to flight. It was reported
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: at Santiago that the revolutionary forces had a leader that
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: a decisive blobe bestruck. On the morrow. It appeared as
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: if at least two thirds of the population would join
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: the revolutionists. The Bolivian officials were in most excellent spirits.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: They foresaw that with their own country in Brazil pitted
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: against her, and with formidable insurrection at home, Chile must
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: meet with defeat. And already they saw their own country
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: avenged for the war of eighteen eighty, and atza Gama
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: once more a Bolivian province, and they thought seriously demanding
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the surrender of the remainder of Chile as far south
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: as the province of Aconcagua. At ten a m. The
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: President of Chile received word that the fourth shipment of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: gold was in port at Buenos Aires. He sent orders
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: to the president of the railway company to have it
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: deposited in the vaults of the corporation there to remain indefinitely.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: At eleven a m it was reported that the Brazilian
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: fleet was moving along the western coast of Chile. Government
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: at Santiago ordered the Chilean fleet to put to sea
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and give it battle before it could reach and bombard Valdivia.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Shortly before noon, in the little town of Espasio and
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Argentina was thrown into the state of wildest commotion. An
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: engine and coach was seen backing with furious speed down
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the steep grade leading from the tunnel to the town.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: The coach was before the engine. Something seemed to be
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: fluttering and dangling over its forward end. As the train
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: drew nearer, it became apparent that it was an immense
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: strip of sheet iron like that in the tunnel. The
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: engine and coach came to a standstill and the engineer
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: stepped off. It was none other than Jack Steele, and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the engine was the number twenty two. Within the coach
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: with the three missing half millions of gold, every ingott
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: had been returned, but the passengers were not on board.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Jack Steele told a story of strange experiences, which was
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: in substance. Thus, the band of brigands who infested the
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: region had had their headquarters in a cave in the
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: western part of the mountain. From thence they had made
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: their sallies to plunder the defenseless. It happened that when
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: the tunnel was constructed, it passed very near this cave,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and would have entered it had not the curve been made.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: While it was being constructed, the brigands could hear the
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: noise of the workmen. After it was completed, they excavated
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: through the few rods of remaining rock, so that nothing
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: but the sheet iron encasement separated the track from their compartment.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: They did their work at night. They loosened the rivets
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: at both ends of a section of sheet iron and
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: hung it by rollers on a track. This track was
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: on the inner side, so that nothing could be noticed
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: from the tunnel. The trackway held the section in its
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: natural place, and there was nothing to reveal that it
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: had been tampered with except the rivers within the cavern.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: They laid a track which was made to connect with
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: the railway at the point where the curve began. For
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: a considerable distance it was laid in a straight, direct
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: extension of the westerly course of the railroad. When the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: robbers desired to capture a train, they moved the section
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: of sheet iron on its rollers to the west and
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: stood a short stretch of track into place. The rails
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: of this track narrowed down to a point and vertical
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: extension at the east, and were clamped to the top
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: of the roadway's rails. Several men could perform the labor
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: required in less than a minute, and in thirty seconds
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: after a train was passed, everything could be re arranged
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: in natural position. In approaching this trap, an engineer would
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: notice nothing wrong until it was too late to stop,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and when the train was finally brought to a standstill,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: retreat would no longer be possible. Thus the three trains
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: had been captured, and the robbers expected to obtain the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: fourth consignment of golden like manner if forwarded through the tunnel.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: They treated the captors well and announced to them that
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: when the two millimpezzos was secured, they would divide their
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: spoils and abandoned brigandage. As soon as that was done,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the captors would be restored to liberty and would be
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: sent out into the world on the trains off which
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: they had left it during their enforced sojourn with their captors.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: They were confined in a remote portion of the cavern
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: into which they had been lowered down over a precipice
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: by means of rope. Food and water were doled out
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: to them at intervals, and a few lanterns were placed
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: at their disposal. Escape from this depression seemed impossible. Jack
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Steele had managed to scale the cliff. After that, he
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: proceeded with great caution lest he should be discovered. He
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: found the entrance through the encasement to the tunnel and
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: was about to pass through and carry the tidings to
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: the world that the missing trains could be recovered when
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: he overheard a conversation which caused him to change his plans.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: From it, he gleaned that the robbers had learned that
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: the last half million of gold would not pass through
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the tunnel that they were about to divide the plunder
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: already secured, they had placed it all on one car
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: where they were about to weigh it. Ingot by Ingod,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: theyd started a fire on one of the engines by
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: which they intended to move the coach containing the treasure
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: to a more convenient place for the unloading of the
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: gold after its apportionment. Steele realized that as the gold
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: were to be saved, he must act at once. He
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: shoved back the sheet iron and placed the track in connection,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: then cautiously made his way to within a hundred feet
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: of where the steaming engine stood. It was the twenty two.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: There he waited for many minutes. It dared not move
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: closer lest he entered the circle of light from the
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: lanterns of the desperadoes, could hear the conversation and saw
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: them engaged in weighing the bars of gold. At last,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: an angry altercation arose among the men standing on the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: other side of the car. The weighing ceased, and all
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: left the coach and gathered around the ones engaged in dispute.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: That was his opportunity. Stealing forward. He entered the cab,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: shoved the lever forward to the last notch, and pulled
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the throttle wide open. The engine quickly started and had
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: gone too odds before the brigands realized what had happened.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Then they started in pursuit. They reached the engine and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: attempted to mount the cab, but each one who made
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: the spring received a blow from the shovel and fell back.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Thus Jack Steele beat off all his assailants until the
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: engine on the steep downgrade outstripped the fleetness of their feet.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: When the place of exit was reached, there was a crash,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: and he beheld the section of sheet iron clinging to
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: the coach. The two men whom he had heard conversing
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: must have been returning and reached the entrance too late
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: to disconnect the tracks, but in time to hurl the
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: sheet iron across the opening. It was evident that they
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: had hoped to cause a wreck in order to save
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the gold, but their efforts did not succeed. Once in
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: the tunnel, the run to Espazzo was uneventful. The story
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: spread like wildfire throughout the country. General Perez, who was
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: stationed with a battalion and a town twenty miles to
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the west of the tunnel, recognized that the cabin was
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: in Chilean territory and despatch a regiment by rail to
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: subdue the robbers and to liberate the captives. When they arrived,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: they found that the former had fled and the latter
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: were hoisted by ropes over the precipice. While on their
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: way back to the entrance, they discovered an instrument for
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the transmission of messages by wireless telegraphy. This solved the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: mystery how the brigands knew just which trains to capture.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: The self styled scientists had been in league with the
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: desperadoes and obtaining the information in spatso had transmitted it
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: to the tunnel. When the party reached the outside, a
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: search was instituted for the scientists, but they were not found.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: At two o five p m. The Bolivian minister stepped
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: into the railway office at Loldos and sent a message
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: to his home government, apprising it of his liberty and
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: verifying the former reports of the Chilean government. The limit
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: of the truce had not expired, and all pretexts for
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: the institution of hostilities was removed. The news that the
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: mystery of the tunnel had solved and that war with
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Boliviy and Brazil had been averted was soon known in
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: every important city of the Republic. The masses awoke, as
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: if from a nightmare, to a realization of the folly
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: of their position, and in the general revulsion of popular sentiment.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Even the insurrectionists was swallowed up. The restoration of the
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: gold brought confidence to the money market, and the financial
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: world began to recover from its panic. On the morning
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: of the thirtieth the sun arose over a country apparently
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: as peaceful and prosperous, and certainly less superstitious than it
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: had ever been before.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Into Section one, Section two of The Black Cat, Volume five,
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: number eleven August nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: All Librivax recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox read by Gregg
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Giardano The Black Cat, Volume five, number eleven August nineteen hundred,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Section two, The Revolving Head by John Reynauld Ellison. The
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: miserable looking creature must have fallen asleep as he sat
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: by the milestone on the edge of the road. Culberson
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: in fact did not see him until he uncoiled his
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: slim figure and rose like a specter above the low
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: tangle of vine and bramble. The sound of Culberson's footsteps
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: must have startled him greatly, for as soon as he
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: gained his feet, he fell again upon his knees, his
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: hands lifted in mute appeal. Scarcely more than half clad
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: in shreds and patches, he looked the image of adversity.
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: The attire proclaimed the tramp, yet surely the meekest of
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: the roving fraternity, and the face, sun burnt, thickly barred,
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: did full of dust and grime, had yet a scholarly cast.
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: It was pinched and pathetic, and the tears and woefully
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: hungry look proved irresistible to culperson who put his hand
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: in the back pocket where he carried his loose coin,
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: as though that hand had touched a spring somewhere in
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: the tramp, he made a most extraordinary movement, a movement
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: that raised him at once in his observer's esteem, to
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: the rank of an unrivaled mime. It was a movement
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: of the head glancing backward, sidewise, and forward again, swiftly
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: and eagerly. On the body and limbs meanwhile remained completely
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: at rest. Only the head moved, but that seemed to
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: turn around a dozen times in as many seconds, twirling
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: like a ball on a well oiled socket. The performance
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: would have astonished its beholder even in a side show,
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: and on a quiet country road. It was more than astonishing.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: Colberson stepped back a few paces and caught his breath.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: He had seen an owl turn its head till he
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: thought it would twist it off, but never a man.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: The strange oscillations continued rapidly until the sight made the
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: observer dizzy. Then he said, there that will do, Thank you,
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: That is quite enough. But the motion of the man's
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: head did not cease. Culberson raised his cane and advanced
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: with a threatening motion. When the stranger sobbed out, Oh,
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: I mean no harm. Don't you see I can't help it.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: I only ask your pity. Culberson paused, Is this really
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: no ingenious stage trick? Indeed, no, I assure you, sir,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: I am no buffoon, only the most luckless dog on
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: all the byways of the world, one who lurks in
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: solitude and dodges every passing shadow and trembles as the
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: leaves tremble. The gentleman rested upon his cane and stared.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: Tell me, then, he said, in a softer voice, what
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: it is that stirs you so powerfully and so strangely?
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: It is that worse the fears, the fear of being
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: caught unawares the fear of coming face to face with
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: those I have eluded for many a year. As he spoke,
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: he held his hands to the sides of his head,
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: as though to steady that rest of member. Coulberson was
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: a man of the world, and asked no further question.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: It must be a way to crime, he thought, to
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: so shatter a strong man's nerve. Come, old fellow, he said,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: you talk well, and I like your face. Shake off
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: your fear, get on your feet, pluck up some spirits.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: The tramp arose, brushed the thickest of the dust from
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: his knees with his ragged hat, and gathered his tatters
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: of out him. His countenance brightened as a gentleman pointed
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: to a little white cottage rustling among the green shrubbery
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: of a hilltop. It's a quiet place, culperson said, and
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: in fair weather like this, and take my meals under
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: that oak, where one has a view of the only
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: path by which the point is reached. You see the
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: advantage of the position, Aye, I see, replied the vagrant grimly.
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: People can't drop upon you suddenly exactly, so if you
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: see fit, we'll go up there where you may sit
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: at your ease and eat something and rest for an
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: hour or so. How good of you, murmured the stranger,
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: How very kind. Seated under the oak on the hilltop,
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: with a small table laden with cold chicken, fruit and
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: other things before him, the man with the revolving head
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: ached as if it were his last repast, while his
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: host makeed cracked ice, mint and whiskey in the large glass,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: as only it is mixed in Virginia. The eyes of
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: the tramp sparkled and moistened as this delectable compound was
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: set within his reach, but he did not touch it
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: till the luncheon was finished, and then he sipped it
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: sparingly with appreciative relish. Bourbon, he said, real old Kentucky,
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: and the best it's yours, since I tasted such. But
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: one never loses his taste whatever else has gone, Will
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: you smoke? Inquired Culberson, drawing a cigar from his case.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: I can't refuse, he said, with the accent of refinement.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Though just then a very common incident occurred in Culberson's
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: poultry yard some distance behind them. A pullet, having laid
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: an egg, made the customary note of it, and her
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: solo was, as usual, reinforced by the whole feathered chorus.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: The hand extended for the cigar dropped limply to the
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: stranger side. Again, he sank to his knees, trembling in
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: every limb, and his singular head seemed to rotate as
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: if set upon a pivot. Really, you must pardon me,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: he exclaimed, as he regained his seat and his composure.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: But it was so well, so very reminiscent, indeed, answered
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: his entertainer, with curiosity doubly aroused concerning the peculiar malady,
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: for he could not otherwise regard it of the cultured tramp.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: I have ventured to ask more definite particulars of your misfortune.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: How can I refuse you anything? You? You are so
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: kind and the wanderer of the highways. Lighting his cigar,
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: tossed off the last sip from the tall glass, and,
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: leaning back in his chair, began his narrative in a
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: style befitting one who, well he may not have been
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: a Matebank could hardly have been always a very serious person,
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: though I could I saw a figure now, sir, he said,
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: I was once a man of affairs. Money came to
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: me by inheritance, and I made money. I was flattered
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: and courted, and numbered my friends by the score. I
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: adored my wife and kept at my own expense the
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: whole flock of her relatives. I made no boasts. I'm
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: dealing in facts. My wife was the handsomest woman in
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: the world, accomplished and clever, also blessed with the genial
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: nature myself. I believe I gave my wife the reins
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: and did not refuse to join her in her follies
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: and caprices. For she had her caprices like other women,
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: but unlike them in originality. They were never scandalous. Though
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: people gossiped. Some said that I had no initiative, others
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: that I had lost whatever individuality I once possessed. However,
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: I was charmed with my choice, full of confidence in her,
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: and sure of her applause, and so I was happy.
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: Had not she the regal one favored me above all
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: other men at the last, as between Bradford the artist
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: and myself, had she not jilted him and taken me,
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: and yet any woman might well have chosen him. He
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: was extremely bright, had many talents besides his art, and
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: had many A high mark in that he was uncommonly eccentric,
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: everyone will admit, and in many of his ways carried
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: eccentricity to the point of grotesqueness. But his great gifts
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: none could deny. I retained my liking for him for
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: twenty years, during which my wife lost nothing of her vivacity,
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: none of her arms, nor any of her relatives. They
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: increased rather to the sister who was to be her
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: home companion in my hours of absence. Was soon added
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: another sister. Then the venerable father and mother came to
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: sit by our fireside. They were of a hearty and
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: vigorous stock. An uncle and two brothers one by one
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: joined the family circle, and the advent of each of
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: the later accessions was signalized by more or less friction
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: with earlier comers. I have said that my wife possessed
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: remarkable vitality. It was on such occasions and at other
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: times when affairs didn't glide with satisfactory smoothness, that this
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: abounding vitality seemed to react against the nervous centers and
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: dominate my wife like a veritable tempest. My wife's relatives
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: resembled her in this characteristic and I well as an
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: intelligent being, I was lodged. As the years went and
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: the relatives came to neutralize this excess of vital force
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: by a judicious system of correlative energy. For example, if
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: occasion compelled, I pitied my wife for one of the
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: servants against one or more of the relatives, and escape
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: the storm myself by slipping into some corner under cover,
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: where I often witnessed rare comedies in real life. At
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: the mere cost of some china and bric a brac
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: at which the house was full, I could afford luxuries
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: in those days, and my wife was a fine judge
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: of such matters. When a woman comes within an ace
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: of wedding an artists, an eccentric one, she is sure
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: to have an exceedingly nice sense of color and form.
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: She'll furnish the house with taste, decorate it admirably, and
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: fill it with choice and deer brought vases and bronzes,
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: marbles and paintings and tapestries. Her people approved candor. I
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: must say that they were no mean critics. Now, perhaps
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: you'll know what I mean when I say that I
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: managed to live twenty years in the midst of life's
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: blessings and my wife's kin and only once brought down
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: the temple about my ears only once. But well, let
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: me tell you how it happened. An agreeable project took
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: my fancy concerning my wife's approaching birthday straightway. I consulted Bradford.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: I let him into the scheme because I couldn't work
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: it without him. The idea amused him immensely, but he
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: seemed to hesitate. I urged, cajoled, named a good sum,
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: and secured his services. I was to procure my wife's
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: full length portrait painted by Bradford himself, under the pretext
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: that the artist declared that it needed retouching, and he,
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: with a shapely model who posed for him, was to
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: depict my wife at full length as Juno in the
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: purest classic style. The details I left to him. I
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: have said that he was an eccentric man, and I
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: think I have stated it moderately. For instance, he seldom
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: permitted his pictures to be viewed until completed, even by
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: his closest friends. Knowing this, I of course was not
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: surprised when he coolly told me that I should not
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: see the portrait till he himself unveiled it in my
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: chamber on my wife's birthday. My plans went well. I
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: got the picture bulky as it was into my apartment unobserved.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: I hoodwinked my wife's people and felt confident of springing
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: upon them all a profound surprise. My wife made a
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: partial discovery when she saw the large frame covered with
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: the double thickness of burlap stitched securely at the edges,
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: but she did not seem to connected in any way
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: with her own portrait. I owned that it was a
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: masterpiece by Bradford, who had reserved the privilege of unveiling
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: it himself. The eventful night came, the night of Knights.
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: My wife's kinfolk, of course always with us, chosen few,
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: the pick of her friends gathered for the occasion, but
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: the artist didn't arrive. However, that was simply his way.
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: He was always late. But when an hour passed two
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: hours and he was still absent, I was much annoyed.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: I felt that he had forfeited the privilege for which
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: she had stipulated, as I could not keep the inviting
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: guests waiting all night in ignorance of the delayed surprise,
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: So dropping a hint of what was to come, I
• 46:50
  Speaker 2: led the way into the yes, the fatal chamber, drew
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: the drapery from the curtained recess, mounted the latter that
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: stood beside it, and prepared to uncover the picture. Not
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: for years that I appeared more fully myself, my eyes
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: and neck accustomed by long practice to act independently, almost
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: with contrarity, in watching the trajectory of a flying ornament,
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: or calculating the angle of incidents of a bursting vase,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: and never seemed more unanimous or more obedient to my will.
• 47:26
  Speaker 2: As I stood on the top step of that library ladder,
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: I felt myself complete master of the situation. I clipped
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: the threads, beginning at the top, and gradually revealed the
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: beauties of Bradford's Juno. I can't conceive of such another glad,
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: chirping cry of surprise as went up when the picture
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: was but half in sight. But it was as nothing
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: to the yell that arose, or the scene that followed
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: when the burlap dropped to the carpet. The r artist
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: had employed his consummate skill. He had surpassed himself in
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: the drawing and coloring of the figure, from the diademed
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: hair to the gem encrusted girdle, But there the figure ended,
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: ended in something worse than deformity. For the nether limbs
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: were clad not in the drapery of a goddess, not
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: in Grecian raiment at all, but an ordinary, every day
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: masculine trousers, yes, even in pants, and a conspicuous pair
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: of the very pattern I most affected. You know, there's
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: one thing, at least that a married woman can never
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: be told, a truth that suggests everywhere except at home,
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: And when a great artist tells it in a bold way,
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: telling of it stings sharper than a serpent's tooth. Excuse me,
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: I was saying that from the picture I looked below
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: what faces? What a glare of eyes? And then what
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: a bedlam? Everything swam before me and around me. It
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: was some distance to the floor. Perhaps that alone was
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: sufficient to account for the fracture of the skull, which
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: kept me for many days in a hospital, hovering between
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: life and death. Perhaps, however, as soon as I could
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: crawl once more, I escaped from the nurses and the
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: drowsy watchers and went forth into the world and the night.
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: And I have since followed obscure paths as far as possible.
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: Years have gone by, but memory and doors, and the
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: horror of it, and the dread of a similar inglorious pommeling.
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: Do you understand now why I fall on my knees
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: at the slightest noise and look about me so timorously
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: on all sides at once? And of Section t.
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: Section three of The Black Cat, Volume five, number eleven
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: August nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Kelly
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: Hess The Black Cat, Volume five, number eleven August nineteen hundred,
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: Section three The Story that Cured His Wife by C. A. Stearns.
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: The colonel's young wife had suffered a bereavement that left
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: her in that state of melancholia, which is the first
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: stage of insanity. Nothing could rouse her from her dull,
• 50:54
  Speaker 3: listless brooding. The surgeon of the post, of course, advised
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: complete change of sins, but that was out of the question.
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: Yet an immediate change of mental attitude was imperative. How
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: could it be brought about? While pondering deeply on this
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: urgent problem, a chance word suggested to the colonel. A
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: desperate expedient, Would it succeed? Might not the remedy prove
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: more dangerous than the disease? Anything he felt would be
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: better than that alarming lethargy. Seating himself by his wife's couch,
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: he with difficulty secured her wandering attention. And this is
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: the story he told. At the close of a hot,
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: sultry afternoon, threatening a thunderstorm, a young lieutenantive Engineers, in
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: charge of a government surveying party, had gone on some
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: distance in advance of his men to select a camping
• 51:54
  Speaker 3: space for the night. Emerging from the forest, he entered
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: a glade of considerable size, bounded on one side by
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: a perpendicular ledge of rock fifteen or twenty feet in height.
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: Following the ledge, he came upon a decaying log cabin
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: built against the rock. Only a part of the thickly
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: moss grown roof remained, and above it projected the trunk
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: of a large tree built into the log wall of
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: the shack at one of its angles nearest the ledge.
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: Startled by the loneliness of this wreck of a human
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: shelter in the dense wilderness, the lieutenant pushed open the
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: door hung on wooden pins which creaked dismally as it
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: stiffly yielded. The earthen floor was littered with fragments of
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: the broken roof and a few rusty cooking utensils. There
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: were a moldy table and bench roughly hewn from tree trunks,
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: and a three legged stool at the rear, which he
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: had naturally expected to find a solid rock. The wooden
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: wall was continued, and no light came through the wide
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: from which the clay had fallen out from a common
• 53:03
  Speaker 3: center in the largest of these crannies, charred streaks radiated,
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: as though burnt into the solid wood by tongues of flame.
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: As the young engineer stood there, gazing around the moldering ruin,
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: he wondered vaguely why he should care to waste a
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: moment in such a desolate and uninviting spot. Yet he
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: could not make up his mind to go. The daylight
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: seemed to fade away and was replaced by a strange, dull,
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: yellowish glare. Several times he resolved to leave, but still
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: he stayed in a little while. He felt a sensation
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: of numbness in his feet, his eyelids grew heavy, and
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: drowsiness stole over him. Bringing with it the terrible paralysis
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: of nightmare. He felt that he could not move if
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: he tried, and he dared not try. Just then a
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: distant shout came to his ears. It drew nearer and nearer,
• 54:03
  Speaker 3: and the surveyors crossing the glade in search of him,
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: reached the open door, hanging on one of its pegs.
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: With feet as heavy as lead, he stepped over its threshold,
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: and almost with effusion, greeted Sergeant Lawson, the hardest headed
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: man in the party, who came up first. The sergeant
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: stared at him and into the gloomy hut, and lingered,
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: looking curiously after the lieutenant. As with ever lightning feet,
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: he led the men away from the cabin to a
• 54:34
  Speaker 3: camping spot at some distance. When camp was pitched, the
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: lieutenant gave orders that the men should be waked and
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: camp broken at half past three in the morning for
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: a long march before breakfast. In the cool of the day.
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: As they sat about the fire after supper, enjoying a
• 54:52
  Speaker 3: short smoke before turning in, the lieutenant could not keep
• 54:56
  Speaker 3: his thoughts from the deserted cabin and his strange experience there.
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: Pointing with his pipe stem, he said to laws in
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: queer old shack over there. The sergeant nodded and continued
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: to look at him steadily, with such an expression that
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: the officer felt impelled to relate what had happened to
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: him Again. Lawson nodded, knocked the ashes from his own pipe,
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: and said, I went in myself and had exactly the
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: same sensations. Each continued to look steadily into the other's face.
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: They were men of action, not words. At length, the
• 55:35
  Speaker 3: lieutenant said, there's a moon for an hour before daylight,
• 55:39
  Speaker 3: and an hour's sleep won't be missed even if we
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: can sleep. What do you say to an exploration of
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: the ruined cabin before we march? It was so agreed.
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: When they stood again in the moonlight before the old hut,
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: half buried in its mossy shroud, an unaccountable depression crept
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: over them like a miasmatic fog. Entering silently, they sat
• 56:04
  Speaker 3: down on the bench and looked about. As their eyes
• 56:07
  Speaker 3: became accustomed to the darkness. The moonlight filtering through the
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: broken roof grew dimmer and dimmer as they gazed, and
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: was gradually replaced by the faint yellowish light they had
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: seen in the afternoon, like that of the sun in
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: an eclipse. The symptoms they had before experienced returned, a
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: tingling sensation in the feet creeping up through the body.
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: Then the yellow light itself failed, and they were left
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: in pitchy darkness. Both men fumbled for matches, but their
• 56:40
  Speaker 3: fingers were numb and useless, and they felt the same
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: dreadful numbness stealing over their senses. At that moment, they
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: were startled into consciousness by an awful sight. At the
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: point among the logs of the rear wall where the
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: lieutenant had noticed the charred streaks, a great dagger shaped
• 57:01
  Speaker 3: dart of flame shot downward toward the floor and remained
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: there quivering. Then a second flashed and wavered beside the first.
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: They gave out a lurid, sulfurous light, like flames seen
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: through a dense fog or smoke. Rapidly, this smoky light,
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: pouring through the crevices, shaped itself until there appeared before them,
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: nebulous but distinct, a towering form in the semblance of humanity.
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: It seemed to glow with fiercest heat, yet far from
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: giving warmth, it only added to the deathly chill. As
• 57:42
  Speaker 3: the lieutenant saw that fearful shape solidifying out of the
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: fiery vapor. He was assailed by an unreasoning, overwhelming, unconquerable fear.
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: He groped toward his companion, who sat rigid as marble,
• 57:57
  Speaker 3: and laid a cold hand upon his arm. At his touch,
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: the trooper shrieked and dropped to the floor, leaving his
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: officer alone with the shape. As the colonel's low, impressive
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: tones put vivid life into this thrilling verbal picture, he
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: noted the light of concentrated attention in the eyes of
• 58:18
  Speaker 3: his wife, followed by the welcome gleam of returning interest
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: in human affairs. There the lieutenant sat continued the narrator,
• 58:29
  Speaker 3: his gaze held by a horrible fascination. He tried to speak,
• 58:34
  Speaker 3: to stir, to move, He could not lift a finger,
• 58:40
  Speaker 3: not a muscle would answer his will. Even his eyes
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: followed the quivering, swaying form of fire. Without his control,
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: the shape grew more and more into the likeness of
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: a human being of malignant type. Its color changed to
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: a pale greenish tint, like the phosphorescence of decaying wood.
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: Faintly outlined in this dreadful medium could be traced a sunken,
• 59:07
  Speaker 3: retreating brow, shadowed by a mat of hair, a hawk
• 59:11
  Speaker 3: like nose, and long wolfish teeth, gleaming through a drooping
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: mustache above a brutal jaw. The eyes, compared with the face,
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: seemed dark spots, yet they glistened with a ghastly light
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: of their own. The engineer officer was conscious that those
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: glowing orbs bursting into intermittent flame, like the embers of
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: a dying fire, were fixed upon him with consuming hatred,
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: and he vainly tried to evade their baleful glare. His
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: strength was slipping away with his enthralled volition, but he
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: feared not bodily harm as much as he dreaded the
• 59:50
  Speaker 3: assault and capture of his will, For he realized that
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: some more potent psychic force than he possessed was striving
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: to wrest from him his individuality. Physical death were welcome
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: compared with the unspeakable horror of the annihilation of his
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: soul as the result of its obsession by demoniac powers.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: He struggled to retain his reason with an effort of
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 3: will that brought the dew of agony to his brow.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: He almost flung himself upright upon his feet in an
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: effort to escape. As he did so, the hideous shape advanced,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: projected by the weird flames playing through the gaping chinks
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 3: of the rear wall, and crept stealthily forward like an
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: animal seeking its prey. The lieutenant could, in fancy feel
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: those horrible fangs piercing his very soul. As the dread
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: form was upon him, he instinctively threw up his arm
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: as if to ward off a physical blow. When a shock,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: a searing of the flesh as at the touch of
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: liquid air, an etching jet of flame that burnt to
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 3: the bone ran through his wrist. Then he felt himself
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: caught and dragged over the ground. When he looked about
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: with returning consciousness, he found himself surrounded by his men,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: some yards from the crumbling cabin, with lossins stretched upon
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 3: the grass, still unconscious, missing the lieutenant and the sergeant.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: At the hour set for breaking camp, the surveyors, attracted
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: by a bright light in the ruined shack, had sought
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 3: and found them there, insensible and apparently overcome by methodic
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: fumes that filled the place. Both were as weak as
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 3: though convalescing from a lingering fever, and the early morning
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 3: March was abandoned by sunrise. The leaders had so far
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: recovered as to superintend the demolition of the cabin in
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: which they had suffered such frightful fear. When the rotting
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 3: log walls were thrown down and burnt, an extraordinary sight
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: was revealed. As the blame zing logs fell away from
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: the face of the cliff. It was seen that the
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: rear wall, in which there had been a movable section
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: on pegs like the entrance door, masked a second chamber,
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: a cavern in the rock. There was a rude fireplace
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: in it, deep with ashes. Over it hung iron hooks
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 3: and pots. Crucibles into Various instruments and utensils were scattered about.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: Beyond the fireplace, and a rough work bench. Something was
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: vaguely outlined in the dim light. Approached with a torch,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: it proved to be a human skeleton of unusual height,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: whose bleached bones were cracked and distorted. It was complete
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: except the feet, which were missing. The stumps of the
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: ankle bones rested in a deep vat sunk in the
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 3: floor of the cave. One bony hand, split and blackened,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 3: grasped a wire that connected with the great growing tree
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 3: trunk in the cabin wall. It was with feelings of
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: awe that the little party gazed at this strange sight.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: But the two leaders were glad to find themselves entirely
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: free from the oppressive symptoms which had overpowered them when
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: on the spot before they looked at each other intently
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: in silence, but afterwards exchanged confidences. Was that the last
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: page in the dread history of some student of unknown forces,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: some searcher into forbidden mysteries, trapped to his death amid
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: the strange devices of his unholy occupation. It seemed, so
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: eagerly absorbed in some experiment, while a great storm was
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: raging without his feet, by an awful accident, had slipped
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 3: into the vat containing no one knows what frightful mixture.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 3: To save himself, he had grasped the wire attached to
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: the tree, which, at that moment, by some strange chance
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 3: or merited fatality, was riven by lightnings which followed the
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: wire and passed through his body. Had the sultry summer air,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: heavily charged with electricity, enabled the restless spirit of the
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: sorcerer to utilize again that fateful circuit impregnate the very
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: ground with a resistless benumbing power and materialize itself electrically
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: into the lambent, flaming figure they had seen, so they
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: always believed. And the deep scar, an inch long in
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 3: the lieutenant's wrist, which he will carry to his grave,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 3: confirms him in that belief. The colonel's wife started up
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: as he concluded his story, and following her gaze, his
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 3: eyes also rested on a livid scar on his own
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 3: right hand, reaching from the base of the thumb to
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 3: the wrist. Oh, Richard, she cried, rising and walking the
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: room in her excitement. I know at last the secret
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 3: of that dreadful burn. It was you who suffered that
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 3: awful experience. Oh what if I had lost you too.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 3: Raising his eyes to hers, he saw with joy the
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 3: wholesome brightness of sanity and health. As she sprang to
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 3: her feet, the shackles of her morbid fancies dropped away,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: and she stood there, glowing once more, the winsome and
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 3: vivacious bride the story had cured her. End of Section three.
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 4: Section four of The Black Cat, Volume five, number eleven,
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 4: August nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 4: recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 4: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Black Cat,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 4: Volume five, number eleven, August nineteen hundred, Section four, The
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 4: Golden Dryad by Alexander Black. Lenn Pike's girl was going
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: after the cows. She whistled as she walked, in defiance
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 4: of the just rights of the bobble link and the catbird,
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 4: and the low sun struck a spark on the wet
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 4: of her lips. Up from Ontario came a bantering breeze
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 4: that found the loose strands in the girl's hair, and
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 4: that flipped them irreverently into arabesques of bronze. When you
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 4: reach the top of the rise back of Lynn Pike's house,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 4: you need a stretch a path that creeps into the
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: clump of hemlocks planted by Len's wife's father and spared
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 4: the axe in honor of that good old gentleman's memory.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 4: Just beyond is a crippled fence, a puddle, a long
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 4: field running down to the marsh in the woods. At
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 4: this hour, the cows were due at the fence, if
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 4: they had not again violated the sanctity of the neighboring
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: and acutely unfriendly farm Connie Pike fluttered down the path
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 4: leading to the hemlocks, her lips still in the tension
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 4: of the drawing stream muscle, her gray eyes wandering without purpose,
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: her hard brown hands swinging their counterpoint to the tune
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: of her step. When out of the hemlocks came an
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 4: apparition so amazing and inexplicable that the girl's shoes smoked together.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 4: One hand faltered to her bosom, her eyes fixed in
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 4: a startled stare, and the song she had been whistling
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 4: faded with the color of her lips. In the frame
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 4: of hemlock boughs stood a young man wearing an acrobat's
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 4: flushings with spangled purple trunks. His black hair was disheveled,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 4: and his beardless face was flushed, as if from lively exertion.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 4: A touch of particular grotesqueness was imparted to his appearance
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 4: by the stain of mud that covered his tights to
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 4: the knees. For a moment, the apparition seemed as startled
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 4: as the girl. Then it spoke, I beg your pardon,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 4: where can I get some help? I've just come down
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 4: in a balloon and I want to get the thing
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 4: out of the swamp here and pack before dark. Involuntarily,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 4: the girl's eyes lifted to the treetops, as if to
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 4: look for the balloon. Then the words swamp and help
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 4: came back to her, and she succeeded in saying, Father
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 4: is over there at the barn. I wish you would
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 4: show me the way, he said, moving toward her. She
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 4: turned without speaking, and he followed her up the path.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 4: She could hear him panting behind her. Yet the image
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 4: left with her was so unreal that she would have
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 4: felt certain had she looked again, of finding that her
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 4: eyes had deceived her. I had a mighty close call,
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 4: came the voice over her shoulder. How far do you
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 4: call it to the lake? Less than a mile? It
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 4: didn't look as wide as a chicken lot. And that
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 4: bog scot, what a hole. Nearly cracked my neck in it.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 4: What is the nearest village? Westerling is a little nearer
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: than Hollyville. I think the last of the sun was
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 4: crimsoning her neck as she moved before him, her broad
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 4: lips rocking, her skirt clinging and flowing in the breeze.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 4: At the top of the path, they came in sight
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 4: of the barn and of Pike carrying a buck saw.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 4: Then she turned and looked at him again while he
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: spoke to her father, urging Pike to come at once
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 4: with his man. Have yer got the thing tied? Asked Pike,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 4: when he had come out of the stupor of his astonishment.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 4: Oh the thing's empty now, replied the balloonist. I dumped it.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 4: You come right along, won't you. I'll tend to the milkin',
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 4: said Connie. When Pike and his man started off through
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 4: the dusk with the balloonist, Connie noticed for the first
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 4: time that the young man limped heavily, and she winced
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 4: at every step he took until he melted into the
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 4: dark green beyond the pasture. Connie was just finishing the
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 4: milkin when she heard them coming back, and peering over
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 4: the cowyard fence, she saw the flushings of the balloonist
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 4: against it's the shadow of the currant bushes, and caught
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: the twinkle of the spangles and the figures halting transit
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 4: to the porch. The milk pans that night held three courts,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 4: less than usual. I guess you're just about in time
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 4: for supper, Pike was saying. When the girl came up
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 4: to the kitchen door with her two pails. The newcomer
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: was standing with his back to the stove, over which
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 4: Connie's mother was fussing with a pan of cakes. Presently,
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 4: the man sat down in a self possessed way in
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 4: a little black chair nearby, twisting his mouth as he
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 4: did so. To tell you the truth, he said, investigating
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 4: his right leg with his hand, I'm afraid I'll have
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 4: to give up getting back to Hawkesville tonight. Can I
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 4: engage a room with you here? Well? I don't know
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 4: about engaging, returned Pike, but there's a bed you're welcome to, missus.
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 4: Pike lifted her sharp face. Leonard, if the young man
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 4: wants to engage a room, I hope you won't make
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 4: him unwelcome. Not a bit, retorted Pack. I guess he
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 4: knows he's welcome here. You get that leg quite a twist,
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 4: I guess, rather, ejaculated the balloonist, slowly extricating his foot
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: from the shoe and tentatively working the tendon achilles. I
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 4: shouldn't like to try the bar with that. Now, I
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 4: can lend you a pair of my slippers, said Pack.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 4: I wish you would hello, do you know I forgot
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 4: where I put that money. The young man lifted two
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 4: five dollar bills out of his discarded shoe. You see,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 4: I jumped into the sky with a good financial footing,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: Lord laughed, Pack. What was you gonna do with that
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 4: money up in the air well, Leonard expostulated Missus Pack.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 4: I guess he expected to come down somewhere, didn't he,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: ho roared Pick. That's so, perhaps you want to change
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 4: your things, suggested Missus Pick, glancing at the bundle which
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 4: had been slung to the ring of the balloon. Supper'll
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 4: be ready in just a minute. Shan't I show you
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 4: the room? And Leonard, I wish you'd get that liniment.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: Missus Pike led the way into the chamber on the
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: south side of the house. The balloonists hobbled slowly after her,
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 4: and Pike brought up the rear with a pair of
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 4: slippers in one hand and the liniment in the other.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 4: Connie watched the procession from the little dining room table,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 4: onceing again at every step of the injured foot. When
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 4: the balloonists shuffled out in Pike's slippers and wearing his
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 4: normal clothes, his quick, dark eyes sought the girl, who,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 4: in the interval of his transformation, had slipped into a
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 4: gay light gown. Missus Pike too, acknowledged the presence of
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 4: company in a brown Merino affair with lace at the wrists,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 4: and Pike was suffering in a collar. The best lamp
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 4: glowed in the midst of four kinds of cake, three
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 4: kinds of preserves, a plate of hot biscuits, and a
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 4: jar of pickles. Despite the pain in his leg, the
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 4: balloonist was very hungry. He would have given the wealth
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 4: of his right shoe for a steak, a large steak,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 4: as it was. He ate three plates of preserves, much
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 4: hot biscuit, three kinds of cake, and drank tea until
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 4: the hostess was obliged to signal to Pike that he
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 4: could not expect his usual second cup. What beats me,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 4: said Pike, is how you hung on to the thing.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 4: Didn't you have nothing but that their stick? That's all,
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 4: replied the balloonist. You take hold of that trapeze with
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 4: one hand, and when the balloon swings into the wind,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 4: you yell to let go. Then up you sail, and
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 4: the band plays near my God to thee. Missus Pike
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 4: studied the balloonists. Obliquely, he was eating the cranberries and
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 4: resenting the dimensions of the best lamp, which prevented him
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 4: from seeing Connie very well. But mister Thadric volunteered the balloonist.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: I ought to have told you, Fenton Thadric is my name.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 4: I was gonna say, pursued missus Pike, that you couldn't
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 4: have held on with one hand for fourteen miles. Well, no,
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 4: admitted Fadric. I couldn't. After I got up a couple
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 4: of hundred feet, I skinned the cat and hung my
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 4: toes just to hear them yell. Connie was staring through
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 4: the lamp, her lips parted, her hands on her lap. Gee,
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 4: Jerusalem Pike suspended the progress of his chocolate cake. Didn't
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 4: that make you nervous? If you want to know what
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 4: made me nervous, I'll tell you a fact. You see
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 4: this trip, I wanted to make it pretty high. It
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 4: was a great day, and I said to myself, now's
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 4: your time to let out a little. I was tired
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 4: of just getting out of sight of the crowd and
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 4: coming down again. Swine hitched the sand after a while
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 4: and dropped nearly all of it and the ten thousand
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 4: fell away until they looked like ants, and the woods
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 4: got blue, and the horizon came up at mean like
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 4: a rim of a saucer. Of course, I was sitting
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 4: on the bar now and feeling mighty comfortable when I
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 4: looked at the barometer after a while. I don't know
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 4: that you understand what a barometer is, A sort of
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 4: little clock with a vacuum drum to tell you how
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 4: high you are. Anyway, the first time I looked at
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 4: that barometer it said twenty one hundred feet. When I
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 4: looked again it was fifty seven hundred Scott, It was
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 4: a wonderful day. You have no idea of the sensation
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 4: of being in a balloon, not the slightest sense of motion.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 4: You know, the wind might blow a hurricane, and you
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 4: wouldn't know it, for the balloon is going with it.
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 4: You can only see the ground sliding under you. Well.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 4: By and by I found myself pumping a little for breath,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 4: and I began to see. If I had been in
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 4: old hand, I would have seen it sooner that the
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 4: lake was coming toward me. Now, I wasn't hankering to
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 4: go after Andre. Just then, when I started up the
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 4: wind was from the northwest, as near as I can
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 4: make out. Now, I was in a new current from
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 4: the southeast. At that I grabbed the barometer and it
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 4: was still fifty seven hundred. Something was wrong. I struck
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 4: the thing against the ring, and it jumped to nineteen
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 4: thousand feet. I was nearly four miles high. Lord gasped pike,
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 4: and when I reached for the valve cord, I could
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 4: hardly lift my hand. It weighed a hundred and my
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 4: ears began to scream in my eyes to feel queer.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 4: I wished I hadn't been so fresh with that sand.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 4: When I got the valve opened, I hadn't more than
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 4: a minute to spare. I might have lived longer than that.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 4: But in the mighty a little while, I shouldn't have
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 4: been able to reach the cord. I should have killed
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 4: off that bar And it was a long drop. Connie
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 4: drew a quick breath. I held on to that rope,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 4: for the lake began to seem almost under me. It
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 4: was under me before I got through. I never let go.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 4: I knew I had to depend on a quick drop
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 4: and the kindness of the lower current. There was no
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 4: picking the spot. She came down at a parachute gait.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 4: She wouldn't have come any quicker if she had been empty.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 4: And I didn't know until the last minute, until the
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 4: last half minute, that I was going to dodge the lake.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 4: I couldn't have kept it away from me if it
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 4: hadn't been for the lower current. When I lit in
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 4: that swampy piece, I went clean through the crust of
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 4: that old oak stump, the balloon settling over me. She
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 4: was just like a low mushroom then. I mean, I
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 4: didn't have any trouble tipping her over to dump all
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 4: the gas that was left. It's a mercy, cried missus Pike,
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 4: her face white, that you didn't break all your bones.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 4: We're getting drowned in the lake, said Pike. Weren't you
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 4: very grateful to get down, asked Connie faintly. Yes, I
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 4: was grateful, admitted Thadrick, moving his chair so that he
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 4: could see around the lamp. Though I suppose I really
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 4: wasn't in great danger. Half a mile is a good margin.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 4: If that barometer hadn't been crazy, I wouldn't have gone
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 4: so high. I shouldn't think you ever would want to
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 4: go up again, added Connie. Thadric laughed. I'm afraid I'm
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 4: not cured yet, I dare say, he added, The report
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 4: is out that I have gone into the lake. Won't
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 4: they worry about you? Ventured? Connie? Oh, Sims will be
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 4: a little anxious. He'll be looking for me toward Doubbery
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 4: junction somewhere. What'll tickle him is that the Victory isn't
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 4: ripped a stitch. She's his pet. Heavens now that man
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 4: did coddle that silk. I suspect he used to kiss
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 4: it when I wasn't looking. They watched Thadric hobble off
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 4: to his sleeping quarters. It was a little bird cage
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 4: of a room. Her room, evidently sitting on the edge
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 4: of the bed. Guess this at a first glance. He
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 4: turned and looked at the pillow and the striped coverlet.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 4: But he did not dream of her. His dream related
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 4: to a gigantic vulture that swooped and caught him by
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 4: the right foot while he sat on the trapeze of
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 4: the Victory. But he understood the dream in the morning,
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 4: when he found that he could not move his leg
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 4: without great pain, he was compelled to get Pike's hired
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 4: man to ride over to Westerling and send a telegram
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 4: to Simms. He permitted missus Pike to fetch him some
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 4: breakfast and to rub his ankle with the liniment. The
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 4: rubbing worked such magic that he got up in an
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 4: hour and made his way to the side porch where
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 4: Connie was sewing on a navy blue dress. All this
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 4: trouble for a common sprain, he said, you should be
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 4: glad it isn't worse. I suppose I'm not so grateful
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 4: as I ought to be. Have you ever read Sir
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 4: Lionel's Secret, asked Connie. I don't believe if I have,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 4: replied Fadrick. What made me ask, continued Connie, is that
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 4: the hero in that story is hurting the woods while
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 4: coming to see sir lying along business, and they brought
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 4: him to the manor house. Well, I didn't have any
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 4: business here, Fadric said. They both laughed. You know what
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, said Connie. It made me think of the
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 4: hero to see you coming just now. Thanks. The hero
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 4: ought to have a right to come out, hadn't he.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 4: Then of course you are the heroin. But in all
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 4: the stories I ever read, the hero is always laid
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 4: up at the heroine's house for a long time, and please,
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 4: miss Heroin, I can't stay here an hour longer than
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 4: I must, because I have three ascensions next week. Connie
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 4: gave him a peculiar look. I wish you didn't have
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 4: to go up anymore, why, demanded Thadrick, with real perplexity.
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 4: Because it's so dangerous, and why should you care? I
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 4: don't know why I care as for that, Fadrick went on,
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 4: I suppose you have a right to a certain fellow
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 4: feeling for other folks who might have a balloonists dropping
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 4: around and scaring them when they're going after the cows.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 4: I thought you were a spirit. I just escaped that.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 4: Why do you go up in balloons? Fadrick looked across
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 4: the valley. I don't know. Maybe I like it a little.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 4: What is there to like about it? Challenged Connie to
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 4: begin with. It's dangerous. That makes it interesting. Do you
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 4: like danger Connie asked with a puzzled look, Yes, admitted Thadrick.
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 4: That is I used to. Perhaps I'm getting over that,
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 4: you see, he continued, They gave me up, and I
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 4: heard it around about that I had only about eighteen
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 4: months or so to live. Then I did all sorts
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 4: of devilish things. Yes, I was pretty wild. I wish
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 4: something would happen. After a while, I tried an adder
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 4: on deck farm and they stopped giving me up. Then
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 4: I fell in with a man who made and sent
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 4: up balloons at county fairs. I thought I would like
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 4: to try that sort of thing, and I slung a
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 4: trapeze from the peak of the barn and practiced there
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 4: half a summer. Now I got to be as strong
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 4: as a baggage agent. Sims sent me up a few
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 4: times in a captive balloon. Then he let me try
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 4: the Nancy, and I wanted more. Did you ever see
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 4: an ascension? No, replied Connie. I tell you, said Thadrick,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 4: turning to her. You ought to see me take up
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 4: the Golden Dryad. The Golden Dryad, Connie repeated the name.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 4: It sounds like a fairy story. It's one of missus
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 4: Sims's notions. She is very sentimental and has some funny
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 4: titles for the balloons. The Golden Dryad is a big one.
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 4: I'm going to take up a bridal couple in her
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 4: at the Hannyville Fair. Couldn't you come over somehow? They'll
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 4: be a great time. I'm there they say that the
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 4: town storekeepers are giving four hundred dollars worth of stuff
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 4: to the couple who were going up. I wish I could,
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 4: murmured Connie. That afternoon, Thadrick asked Missus Pike if she
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 4: would mind his staying until the next morning. I tell you,
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 4: Missus Pike, he said, I'm getting sensible in my old age,
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 4: and I know that if i'm monkey with this foot today,
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 4: it will bother me longer than I wanted to. Mercy,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 4: mister Thadrick exclaimed, Missus Pike, You're welcome to stay as
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 4: long as you want to. Missus Pike was rather pleased
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 4: with Fadrick. P Could informed her that there was a
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 4: good deal of money in ballooning. In the evening, Thadrick
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 4: told them many of his adventures. Missus Pike set out
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 4: some new cider and chocolate cake, and Connie was induced
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 4: to play several pieces on the organ, to one of
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 4: which Thadrick sang in a clear, strong tenor. Sims wouldn't
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 4: have a bit of sympathy for me, Thadrick said, if
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 4: he knew what a ride I was having. In the morning,
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 4: he went away and Pike's Democrat the victory folded up
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 4: behind the seat. It was just a week to the
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 4: day when he came back. I had to cross over
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 4: from Remley, he said to missus Pike, and it seemed
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 4: a pity not to come out and tell you how
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 4: completely you had cured me. Connie's eyes fluttered when she
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 4: saw him. And is your foot all better? She asked him.
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 4: Thanks to missus doctor Pike, it is, declared Thadrick, I
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 4: can walk like a head waiter. When Pike came in
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 4: and they were all at dinner, Padrick again brought up
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 4: the subject of the Hannyville Fair. I don't know Thursa,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 4: said Pike to his wife. Why shouldn't you and Connie
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 4: go over and see Myra and take in the fare.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 4: Missus Pike didn't see how they could unless they could
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 4: get some clothes ready. Bother the clothes, laughed pick. Mayra's
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 4: been wanting Connie to come over for the last six months.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 4: In the afternoon, Connie again was sewing on the navy
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 4: blue dress. I'll wear this if we go, she said
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 4: to Fadric. Just the thing, he exclaimed, looking at her eyelashes.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 4: In a moment, he said, very quietly, I wanted to
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 4: see you again did you? She smiled a queer little smile,
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 4: without looking up to tell you. The truth pursued Fadrick.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 4: I found that I had to see you again. That
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 4: was funny, wasn't it. I don't know that it was,
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 4: Connie said slowly. I could have thought that myself, if
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 4: it had been any use. They were on the little porch.
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 4: It was a warm October day, the country was drowsing.
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 4: Fadric caught one of her hands from the sewing. Is
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 4: that so, he exclaimed? Did you really care whether I
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 4: came back? Of course I did. I'm going to tell you,
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 4: cried Fadrick, without waiting another minute, that I like you
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 4: better than any other girl I have ever seen. That
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 4: isn't putting it strong enough Feither. He looked down at
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 4: her hand and held it between both of his. I
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 4: guess I'm in love with you, Connie. She turned her
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 4: face away. When he looked up. There was a little
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 4: tremor in her lips. I think she said, you better
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 4: wait until you know me better. I'm willing to know
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 4: you better, but I'm not willing to wait if you
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 4: mean to put off liking you so much. Suppose, Thadrick said,
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 4: suppose you let me go on liking you. In the meantime,
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 4: I was gonna ask you, mister Thadrick called Missus Pike
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 4: from the doorway, what time of day your balloon goes up? Well,
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 4: they advertise it for four, Missus Pike, but that means
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 4: five or later. The last train south goes at five
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 4: point fifteen, and they want to make the crowd miss
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 4: it so as to keep them in town to blow
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 4: in money during the evening. They wanted him to stay
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 4: to supper, but he had to go away at four,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 4: mind you, he shouted with his goodbye. I'll hold the
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 4: golden dryad till you come. Lare was a crush at
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 4: the Hannyville Fair. It was the third day. The trotting
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 4: stopped at three o'clock in anticipation of the balloon, which
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 4: was to go up from a point behind the grand stand.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 4: By this hour, the vast, restless crowd swayed and scuffled
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 4: for a glimpse of the big yellow bag that had
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 4: begun to lift itself from the ground. A little excitable
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 4: man was superintending the work of the gas generators. The
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 4: crowd was breaking down the ropes, and the little man
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 4: who was sims the balloon maker shook his fat fist
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 4: at the people and told them if they didn't keep back,
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 4: he would cut a hole in the balloon and they
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 4: could go home and curse themselves for fools. Up in
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 4: the corner of the grand stand stood Fadric, covertly holding
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 4: Connie's hand. I came as quick as I could, she said.
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 4: Mamma didn't feel that she could come, and Papa was bound.
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 4: I should, so I drove over to the train with
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 4: the as aunt Myra never goes out now. She didn't
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 4: want me to leave her right away. It's all right,
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 4: said Thadrick. Just look at Sims, will you. He'll burst
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 4: a blood vessel. I guess I'll have to go down
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 4: and lend a hand. After a time, he came back
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 4: to her through the crowd. The balloon was feeling and
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 4: she could now read the name in white letters, Golden Dryad.
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 4: Have you seen the wedding presence, asked Thadric, and he
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 4: took her away across the grounds to show her the
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 4: wonderful bounty of the town tradesman. Don't forget, he said
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 4: as they walked back, that I'm gonna wave you a
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 4: goodbye when I kiss my hand that's you. The plan
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 4: was to hold the balloon captive while the basket with
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 4: the bride, bridegroom and minister rose to a height from
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 4: which the multitude could witness the marriage. Then it was
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 4: to be drawn down, the minister to step out, the
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 4: balloonist was to step in, and they ain't cable was
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 4: to be loosened. When Connie saw the balloon, she exclaimed
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 4: to Fadrick, why there's a nice place to stand in,
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 4: isn't there. Fadrick gave his hearty laugh. You didn't expect
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 4: the bridal couple and me to go up sitting on
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 4: a trapeze, did you. Fadrick told her just where to stand,
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 4: pressed her hand again, and left her. At last, the
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 4: balloon was swaying impatiently in leash of the big weighted netting.
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 4: It was nearly five o'clock, and the crowd chafed and
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 4: clamored until it was hard to hear the band of
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 4: a sudden Then a commotion beginning in the little office
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 4: of the fair committee near the gate, spread over the
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 4: crowd like a puff of wind in a field of wheat.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 4: She's afraid to go up. The man's run away. The
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 4: minister says he won't trust the rope. It's a bunco game,
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 4: an advertising dodge. They haven't any bridle couple. A big
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 4: flushed farmer caught one of the committee men roughly by
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 4: the coat. Does this mean anyway? It's straight The couple
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 4: have had a spat. She won't marry him. The demeanor
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 4: of the crowd became angry. Then abusive Simms was livid.
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 4: The band stopped playing. A fence near the balloon went
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 4: down with a crash. Connie, standing aloof in the upper
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 4: corner of the grand stand, saw Thadrick in the center
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 4: of a group of excited men. Three of the men
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 4: wore a badge of the Committee. Then she saw Thadrick
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 4: fighting his way to her. It's royal daring. He's trying
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 4: to get away. No, I'm not, shouted Thadrick. I'm going
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 4: after the bride. The crowd parted for him, and he
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 4: finally came to Connie, reaching hard for breath. Connie, he
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 4: gasped at her, will you marry me here now in
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 4: the balloon? Don't say no. You know I'm crazy in
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 4: love with you and I'll take good care of you.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 4: And she looked past him at the balloon at the
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 4: plane black with people, and laughed an awed, frightened little laugh.
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 4: You will, won't you, Connie. We'll be down before dark,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 4: and then we can go and ask forgiveness, he laughed excitedly.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 4: And thank Connie, all those presents are ours. If we go,
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 4: that would be a joke, wouldn't it. Say yes, Connie,
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 4: Oh I couldn't, she said, shaking her head with unnecessary vigor,
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 4: as if to fortify herself with the violence of the gesture. Connie,
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 4: he caught both her arms. Don't say that. Of course
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 4: you can go. It's rough for me to propose to
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 4: you right before everybody. But I almost proposed to you
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 4: the other day and you didn't throw me over. Connie.
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 4: Say yes, Connie. The crowd's crazy and they won't have
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 4: me alone hanging by the toes. Won't go today, She
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 4: turned her face to him. I'll do it, she answered, firmly.
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 4: I'll do it this way if you will promise never
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 4: to go up in a balloon anymore. This is to
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 4: be the very last, asked Thadric, the very last. But Connie,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 4: that's the bargain, she said, without flinching. The crowd saw
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 4: him catching her by the arm, and a path broke
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 4: for them, the air filling with a new tumult, in
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 4: the midst of which the band could be heard screaming
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 4: the wedding march. Where's the parson? He was standing there,
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 4: pale but smiling, near the balloon. The crowd laughed and
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 4: cheered and scuffled again when they were climbing into the car.
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 4: And then when the sand weights were taking off the
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 4: netting and the man spent out the cable for twenty
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 4: feet or more, and the golden dryad rose and swayed
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 4: high and clear, there was a sudden silence. No one
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 4: could hear the minister, but everyone could see him, and
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 4: could see Thadrick his cap off, one hand to the
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 4: rim of the basket, and the other clasping Connie's trembling fingers.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 4: Everyone could see the Minister steadying himself and reading from
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 4: a little book. Everyone saw Fadric stoop and kiss the girl.
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 4: Everyone did not know that it was for the first time,
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 4: you too. Dominie called a hundred voices, and the Minister,
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 4: losing his book, did as he was bid, now for
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 4: a tug on the rope until the Dominie could get out,
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 4: until Sims could put in two bags of sand in
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 4: his place, until a score of men could grasp the car,
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 4: which wrestled with them like a live thing. The breeze
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 4: was freshening. Fadric unfastened the cable. Now, said Thadrick to
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 4: the men, when I say let go, you must all
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 4: let go at once. Do you understand all at once?
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 4: Twice the balloon swayed like an inverted pendulum as it
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 4: returned to windward. A third time, Thadric's voice rang out,
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 4: let go. The basket gave a lurch. The wind seemed
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 4: suddenly to stop. Everything seemed to stop in an awful,
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 4: convulsive hush. The black crowd fell away below them, and
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 4: then they were enveloped by a great, thrilling roar. You're
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 4: not afraid, are you? Shouted Thadric in the girl's white face.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 4: He was holding her firmly with his left arm. Though
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 4: the balloon no longer swayed. She shook her head, her
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 4: eyes on his. He could feel the thumping of her heart.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 4: The roar seemed to grow in volume. For a few
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 4: seconds there were fifteen thousand throats, and struggling through the
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 4: din came the frantic squealings of the band. The noise
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 4: seemed so near in the car, so still, that Connie
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 4: dropped her eyes incredulously, And when she saw far below
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 4: them the vast crowd, like a black spot on the
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 4: grotesque checkerboard of the fields, she shrank involuntarily toward Thadric,
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 4: who reassured her with his arm. Then his arm released her. God,
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 4: it's almighty. The sight of his face gave her the
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 4: first moment of real fear. Her lips moved to question him,
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 4: but her eyes answered her. When they followed his the
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 4: horizon had risen like the rim of a saucer, and
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 4: obscuring the western line of the rim hung a long,
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 4: sullen swirl of cloud. I might have known, muttered Thadrick,
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 4: diving into the bottom of the basket and fetching up
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 4: one of the bags, from which he let loose a
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 4: long snake of yellow sand. He sent another, leaping and
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 4: writhing after it, and the serpents grew big and vague
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 4: like specters, and then vanished. It's all right, Connie, he
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 4: cried to her. We'll get above it. His voice sounded
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 4: strangely in the awful silence above it, the storm. He answered,
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 4: I didn't see it. There was such a devil of
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 4: a hubbub, and I was being married. Do you mean,
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 4: she asked, quietly, taking hold of his arm, that we
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 4: shouldn't have come up. He was going to lie to her,
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 4: but for the first time, the mouth of the balloon
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 4: flapped and whispered. Yes, he said, looking straight at her,
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 4: that is what I mean. He caught her to him.
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 4: But you will be real brave, won't you, and not
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 4: mind a little excitement. The basket gave a slight shiver. No,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 4: she answered, arms about his neck. I won't mind now,
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 4: because I will die too. Then he unbound her arms
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 4: and bade her stand quietly, and he twice took up
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 4: a third sand bag and put it down again. Alternately
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 4: searching the scowling face of the storm and the placid
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 4: countenance of the barometer, Connie could see nothing but him.
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 4: The drab earth beneath, the vast blue above, the flecks
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 4: of vapor about them, the occasional frown, and the silk
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 4: of the balloon as it slowly revolved in the golden
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 4: light were minor appearances. His face was her barometer. It
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 4: occurred to her to wonder whether he really was a hero.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 4: She knew he couldn't be a coward. When he did
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 4: not speak, she understood that he was worried. She wondered
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 4: whether he was only afraid that the golden dryad would
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 4: get torn. Occasionally he looked at her. Once he caught
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 4: her again, God, he cried, it wouldn't do. Now we
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 4: are in a storm, canny girl. I can't spare any
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 4: more sand, and it has caught us. If I was alone,
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 4: I wouldn't care. But I never had my bride with
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 4: me before. Then he began to be cheerful. Now, Missus Thadric,
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 4: and she laughed at the name. You may have to
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 4: do some queer stunts before we get on solid earth again.
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 4: And you must obey me now, whether you are ever
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 4: going to obey me afterwards or not, I'll obey you,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 4: said Missus Thadrick. If she had shown any fear, he
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 4: might sooner have realized the need for hiding his anxiety.
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 4: For radiant faith in him made her seem more more
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 4: worthwhile than anything else life had ever offered. And let
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 4: me tell you, Missus Thadric, he said, with her face
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 4: between his cold hands, that your husband will spend the
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 4: rest of his life trying to deserve you. You won't have
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 4: to try so hard, will you, she laughed at his eyes.
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 4: He did not answer. The crimson of the sun had
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 4: faded from the golden dryad. Strange mists were about them.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 4: The mouth of the balloon whispered again, and once or
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 4: twice Connie caught the smell of gas. It's so quiet,
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 4: she said, I can't think there is any storm. But
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 4: almost as she spoke, a drop of spray struck her face,
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 4: and from a bank of mists to which her gaze
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 4: had traveled a moment before, fell a great gray feather
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 4: of rain that trailed to the drab earth below them.
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 4: The balloon glittered as with sweat. Rain trickled from the
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 4: neck and netting, and turning from the barometer, Fadrick loosened
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 4: another wriggling snake of sand into the vapors below them.
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 4: The balloon quivered, and vapors seemed to fall, and the
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 4: smell of gas came with the trickling water. But Thadric's
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 4: face was drawn for the second time. Connie saw him
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 4: examine the anchor, of which one claw clung to the
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 4: rim of the basket. A long loop fell from the anchor,
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 4: and looking down Connie could see the road lines, field markings,
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 4: and barn roofs floating into the shadow of the storm.
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 4: If there is any way I can help, suggested Connie,
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 4: you must let me. I am very strong. Oh I'll
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 4: call on you, little aeronaut, he cried, shifting the claw
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 4: of the anchor. See, I'm going to begin now. And
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 4: he lifted the last bag of sand and placed her
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 4: hands upon it so that it might be supported by
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 4: the edge of the basket. When I say the word,
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 4: you are to dump it quick, I will, she murmured,
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 4: her face glowing. He kissed her again. You must not
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 4: look down, he commanded, as she turned her wide gray
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 4: eyes eyes to the storm. He himself studied the flying
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 4: fields below a mile a minute, he muttered under his breath.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 4: Then he shut his teeth and examined again the anchor
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 4: rope fastening in the concentrating ring over his head. There
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 4: was mockery in the rope, for to try to land
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 4: was death. To rise with cool gas in the wetted
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 4: balloon in a wind that smote downward like the paw
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 4: of an angry beast might soon be impossible. He deliberately
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 4: took the bag of sand from the girl and released
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 4: half of the contents. The loss of the precious sand
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 4: wrenched from the barometer, the grudging respite of two hundred
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 4: feet Good God, cried Thadric, his face away from Connie,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 4: and their path was a wooded hill. Immediately beyond this
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 4: was a narrow river, then a long stretch of field
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 4: running to the foot of another lower hill. Just beyond
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 4: the river, thought Fadric, unless we clear the first hill
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 4: with a good margin. The turn of the balloon made
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 4: him hope for a moment that the main current of
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 4: the storm was passing them. His heart leaped to see
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 4: that the earth sped less rapidly, but the gas was
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 4: not lifting. Pressure had caused heavy loss at the mouth,
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 4: and rain still drooled from the flapping lips. The hill
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 4: came near, rising and darkening. Steady cawny girl, whispered Thadrick.
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 4: When the hill seemed still a mile away, we may
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 4: get a slap from the trees. Then he drew out
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 4: the last sand, peered at the hill, and, squatting for
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 4: a moment in the basket, threw out his shoes. Every
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 4: little helps. He laughed tremulously at the girl. In an
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 4: instant she had wrenched off her own low shoes and
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 4: flung them out. No, he exclaimed, those little things. Before
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 4: he could stop her, a little blue jacket and crimson
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 4: feathered hat were careening doward like two strange birds. He
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 4: had stretched out one hand to demanded her. The other
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 4: was on the anchor. The hill rushed at them. Fadric
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 4: knew that in the quieter air the balloon would rise
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 4: with the slope of the ground. How much would it
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 4: rise in this wind? He drew in the loop of
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 4: the anchor rope, hand over hand. A loud, sad murmur
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 4: rose out of the woods. Down, yelled Thadrick, and forcing
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 4: the girl into the shelter of the basket, he caught
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 4: up his forgotten coat and wrapped it about her head.
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 4: A harsh shock almost inverted the basket. Thank god, cried Thadric.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 4: They had only brushed the top of the hill. No,
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 4: cried Connie, fetching her face out of the coat. I
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 4: won't die down here. And she caught him by the
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 4: neck and pushed her cold lips onto his face. Let
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 4: me alone, commanded Thadrick, forcing her from him and clutching
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 4: hard at the valve cord, he cast the anchor ties
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 4: down as if into the river. The thing struck as
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 4: he intended beyond the far bank, and as the balloon
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 4: jumped in its freedom from the weight of the iron,
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 4: he caught the girl with his free arm. There was
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 4: a frightful lurch of the basket, and Fadric saw the
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 4: iron leap out of the field and clutch again at
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 4: the corn furrows one hundred feet beyond. When it leaped again,
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 4: one of the times was gone, and the three others
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 4: had straightened. Fadric had held hard onto the valve cord
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 4: and tried to force the girl down into shelter. She
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 4: fell on her knees, clasping his twice. The basket slapped
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 4: the field, then it tore through a fence. The balloon,
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 4: half empty, squirmed and quivered the wind, lifting its folds
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 4: into the netting, bellying it like a sail. Fadric enraged
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 4: at his helplessness, and tortured by a fear that after
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 4: all death might tear from him. The face here beside
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 4: him had a confused consciousness that they were nearing a farmhouse,
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 4: and that there was a barn in low sheds. He
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 4: heard the shouts of men, then a harsh jarring, and clatter,
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 4: as if the basket had torn through a stone wall.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 4: The anchor rope snapped, and the huge, swaying shadow of
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 4: the balloon rose a little. The blur was veined by
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 4: the lines of the netting. He seemed to see the
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 4: eaves of a barn as he crouched to guard the
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 4: girl's head, and then came a shock. They were carrying
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 4: her toward the house. That was the first thing he saw.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 4: I can walk, he said to the man who was
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 4: with him. He wiped the blood out of his eyes again,
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 4: and did walk a staggering line. Is she dead, he
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 4: asked the woman. I hope not, she answered. They had
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 4: placed her on a little couch in a room opening
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 4: from the verandah. She was breathing. The doctor cried, Thadric,
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 4: without taking his eyes from her face. They have gone
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 4: for him, the woman said. Thadric was on his knees.
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 4: They could not get him away, so the woman fetched
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 4: some water and bathed his head and face while he
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 4: knelt there. It's strange, muttered the woman. She doesn't seem
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 4: to be hurt anywhere. But Thadrick looked at the awful
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 4: whiteness of her face, and his heart burned.
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 2: In him.
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 4: When at last the wheels crunched in the yard and
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 4: the doctor came. Thadrick rushed at him, his face twisting. Doctor.
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 4: The doctor lifted his hand and walked straight over to
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 4: the girl. It was an old man with short white
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 4: hair and an inscrutable face. When he turned away, he
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 4: did not look at Thadric. Is there anything else I
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 4: can do? Whispered the woman. Fadrick dropped his face in
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 4: his hands. God knows, he sobbed. She was too good
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 4: for me. They carried her into the bedroom. When the
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 4: doctor came out, Thadric clutched him. Is there any chance
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 4: at all? I'm gonna stay here until I find out.
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 4: He made Thadrick submit to the dressing of the wound
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 4: in his head and forced him to lie down on
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 4: the couch where they first had placed the girl. At
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 4: nine o'clock, the doctor came over to Thadric, who sprang
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 4: up for the one hundredth time at the sound of
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 4: his step. I'll be back in a couple of hours,
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 4: he said. Fadrick could not speak for joy. Yes, said
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 4: the old man, reading his appeal. She is coming around
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 4: and of Section four read by Scottie Smith.
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 5: Section five of The Black Cat, Volume five, number eleven
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 5: August nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 5: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 5: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Shrimpfish
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 5: The Black Cat, Volume five, number eleven August nineteen hundred.
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 5: Section five The Mist in the Valley by Virginia M. Cornell.
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 5: There are stretches along what is known on the map
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 5: as Raccoon or sand Mountain, where the bluff of solid
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 5: rock extends down, straight and sheer to the level of
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 5: the valley. From the edge of these bluffs, one looks
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 5: across the space of some ten or twenty miles to
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 5: the side of Lookout, a parallel plateau which extends southward
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 5: for many miles from point lookout, the site of the
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 5: famous battle. Above the clouds. This mountain rises somewhat higher
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 5: than its neighbor across the valley, shutting in the range
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 5: of vision, yet giving at times as it melts away
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 5: into blueness. An idea of immeasurable distance. There is that
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 5: in this view, which, at certain seasons of the year
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 5: and under certain atmospheric conditions, approaches the grandeur of more
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 5: pretentious scenery. I do not know that rose Leah White,
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 5: who came to one of these bluffs the bride of
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 5: a slouching, gaited young mountaineer, ever looked upon it as
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 5: being especially scenic. But she spent a good deal of
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 5: time when her husband was in the field the first
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 5: spring and summer of her marriage, sitting under the projecting
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 5: limb of a big flowering ash which grew in a
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 5: fissure of the rock, and looking with unchanging face across
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 5: the valley. One may never know what she thought. There
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 5: are astronomers who, sweeping the nightly heavens with a lens
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 5: of the most powerful magnitude, find their view of space
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 5: still bounded. And there are those again, to whose vision
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 5: spaces which may be spanned by the common outlooks of
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 5: daily life, are quite as illimitable. So there is no
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 5: rule by which, if rose Lee had thoughts, one might
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 5: have measured them. She had been born and raised back
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 5: in the middle of the mountain, and until her marriage
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 5: to young Joe White brought her to the edge of it,
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 5: had scarcely thought that it had an edge. Life, having
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 5: its beginnings and endings in her primitive household tasks on
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 5: the one hand, in the corn rows and truck patches
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 5: on the other. But marriage is a wonderful thing, even
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 5: to a sand mountain girl. In the vision of rose Lee,
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 5: sitting under the flowering ash on the bluff, may have gone,
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 5: or longed to go, farther than one might suppose at
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 5: any rate, When a while afterwards her baby, little Joe,
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 5: began to look about upon the world he had come to.
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 5: His eyes had a wondering, yearning look in them, and
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 5: his first voyage of discovery, when he could creep, was
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 5: to the edge of the bluff, which was only a
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 5: few yards from the east door, where rose Lee always
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 5: looked for the sunrise. There his mother found him one
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 5: afternoon when the shadows were long upon lookout, and the
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 5: top of the mountains so blue that it was impossible
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 5: to tell which was mountain and which was sky. And
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 5: to that spot he persisted in creeping until Joe the
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 5: father one day fenced in the door yard with pickets,
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 5: which was a wise precaution and added much to the
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 5: safety of the other children who followed little Joe in
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 5: rapid succession, as children are accustomed to do upon the
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 5: top of raccoon or sand mountain, and so for rose
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 5: Lee was an end of sitting under the flowering ash
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 5: and looking across the valley. But not for Joe, who
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 5: grew big enough to let himself out of the gate
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 5: after a while. He was a quiet boy, not given
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 5: greatly to enjoying the sports of his brothers and sisters,
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 5: and working at his little daily tasks in an absent,
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 5: dreamy way, which tried the patience of rose Lee, though
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 5: like most mothers, her heart held its own special tenderness
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 5: for her first born. When he was old enough to
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 5: toe to'hoe, his father found that frequent applications of the
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 5: hickory seemed necessary to keep him going. It was not
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 5: that he was unwilling, but he was apt to forget
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 5: what he had been sent to the field for. And
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 5: you could often easily count ten from the time when
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 5: he lifted his hoe into the air until he brought
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 5: it down again. And in the meantime, as Joe the
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 5: father truthfully remarked, the crab grass cup right on a
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 5: growin when he was high enough to hold the plow handles,
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 5: it was still the same. He sometimes forgot to cluck
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 5: to his nag from one end of the row to
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 5: the other, and the nag, not over fed nor over
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 5: fond of going, used occasionally to take advantage of her
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 5: master's laxness in this respect by indulging in a long
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 5: rest now and then when the sun was hot and
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 5: the rose far stretching, And many times Joe was none
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 5: the wiser. For several summers he traveled up and down
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 5: the long corn rows, and how far else he went
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 5: no one knew. He always sat for his noontime rest
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 5: out on the edge of the bluff, sometimes whittling a stick,
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 5: but more often idle with his arms around his knees,
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 5: as rose Lee used to sit a long time before,
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 5: sometimes too, when he could keep awake. After his day's work,
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 5: he watched the full moon come up over lookout, and
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 5: one night he received a surprise and a revelation. It
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 5: had been raining, a warm, slow, foggy rain, but at
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 5: sundown it had suddenly cleared, and the mist which had
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 5: hung all day over the mountain, dropped down into the valley,
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 5: and Joe went to the edge of the bluff. He
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 5: saw it lying there in the moonlight, dense and deeply,
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 5: moving like a great body of water. To his startled gaze,
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 5: it seemed to rise and billow up to his very feet,
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 5: and he stretched for his arms with sudden longing the sea.
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 5: He cried wildly the sea, the sea, and then stood silent, gazing.
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 5: For Joe had found at last what he had so
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 5: long sought for up and down the corn rows, and
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 5: a fierce yearning was upon him for what lay far
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 5: beyond the rim of lookout the world old power of
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 5: oceans had called to him out of the mist in
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 5: the valley, and he would tell them all in the
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 5: morning that he was going away. But he did not
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 5: go away. For Joe the father saw that one morning's sunrise,
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 5: and he saw no more. He was found lying in
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 5: the woods with his gun beside him. And whether he
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 5: had shot himself accidentally, or whether some one else had
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 5: done the shooting, no one knew, but at any rate,
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 5: he was dead. And to Joe the sun rose. Lee
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 5: looked for the making of the scanty crop in summer,
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 5: and the hauling of the cross ties and stays bolts
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 5: which brought the family's coffee and brogans in winter. So
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 5: he walked for another summer up and down the corn rows,
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 5: and another and another, and his nag still stopped sometimes
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 5: while he thought of that moment on the bluff and
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 5: its vision. Then he went on again. At the end
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 5: of the third summer, he began to walk home from
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 5: meeting with a girl who had a fresh face with
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 5: wind blown hair around it and a slim waist. He
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 5: was only twenty then, and he had never thought of
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 5: girls until he saw this one. And suddenly, as he
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 5: looked at her, something of the same feeling came upon
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 5: him which he had had when he saw the sea
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 5: of mist stretching between the mountains. And as Annie was
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 5: more obtainable than the sea, his desire for her became reality.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 5: And so for many years the end of Joe's looking
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 5: across the valley also, But when he was an old man,
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 5: his dreams came back to him. Anne and Rosalie were
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 5: both sleeping beside his father, and his brothers and sisters
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 5: were dead and scattered. His own children were scattered too,
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 5: some of them sleeping along with Annie, and only one
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 5: widowed daughter, whose fifteen year old son followed a sturdy
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 5: mule between the corn rows, lived with him at the
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 5: old place on the bluff. He spent most of his
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 5: mornings out on the porch at the east of the
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 5: house where Rosalie used to watch the sunrise, his pipe
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 5: in his mouth and his old gaze going out across
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 5: the valley. He did not often venture near the bluff's edge,
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 5: for his steps were tottering and he was afraid. But
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 5: there were times when there were many things which he remembered.
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 5: Yet he never thought of blaming rose Lee nor Annie
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 5: for the unfulfillment of his dreams. And as they were
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 5: sleeping towards the sunset, he usually moved his chair to
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 5: the west porch in the afternoon. But as he grew
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 5: still older and still older, his memory of them faded,
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 5: and the thoughts of his youth took more and more
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 5: the place of it. And getting up one night by
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 5: an old man's whim to sit on the porch instead
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 5: of sleeping, he saw again his boyhood's vision of the sea.
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 5: There it lay outstretched from mountain to mountain, billowy and white,
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 5: the full moon in a blue sky high above it,
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 5: and broken patches of light drifting clouds between. His arms
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 5: reached toward it uncontrollably, and suddenly, as he stood gazing,
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 5: a new and great thought came to him. He was
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 5: an old man, old old, but He would yet do
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 5: what his youth had dreamed of. He would ride on
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 5: the tossing deep, that wide, wonderful sea which had called
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 5: to him when a boy. But there was no time
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 5: to lose. When it came again, he must be ready,
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 5: and he must be secret and silent. In an old,
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 5: nay used wagon shop he found all that was necessary
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 5: for the carrying out of his great plan. A few boards,
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 5: some nails, and a couple of cross pieces to hold
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 5: all together. That would answer surely for him. A light
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 5: old man, Ah, Yes, in an oor, just steer, he
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 5: must have the oar. And when all was ready, every
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 5: night he kept watch for it to come again. He
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 5: had not long to wait, else he might at last
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 5: have missed his opportunity, for he was growing very feeble,
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 5: and his daughter, herself an old woman, had laid a
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 5: new black sunbonnet aside against the day of father's burying.
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 5: It had been a wet August, and the face of
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 5: look At had been for two weeks veiled with a
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 5: curtain of rain. But at dark one night, the sky
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 5: suddenly cleared. The heavy mist which had covered the mountain
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 5: dropped low into the valley, and the moon rose full
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 5: and beautiful upon Old Joe's sea, and Joe, who had
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 5: been watching, saw it, and the light leaped into his eyes.
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 5: It was not heavy the boat, which he had made
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 5: yet to launch. It was no easy task for the
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 5: feeble old man, dragging and carrying it from its hiding place,
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 5: tugging with all his little strength to lift it, that
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 5: it might make no sound lest some one should wake
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 5: and hear hurrying too, lest it should be gone. And
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 5: the oar he must not forget the oar. The mist
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 5: had risen to the very edge of the bluff when
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 5: the old man stood at last beside his boat, thinking
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 5: how best to put it forth upon that wonderful sea,
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 5: whose dampness he could feel rising about him, and for
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 5: which he had for so many years longed so many years.
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 5: Yet he had never blamed them, not Rosalie nor Annie.
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 5: Perhaps a faint memory stirred him. Perhaps he might find Annie,
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 5: and her cheeks would be red, and the wind blowing
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 5: her hair. A stunted pine grew at the bluff edge.
• 1:59:03
  Speaker 5: Close to this he placed his boat, and standing upon it,
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 5: he took his oar, braced it firmly against the foot
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 5: of the tree, and pushed off. There was a startled cry,
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 5: and the soul of old Joe went drifting out upon
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 5: that sea, which is both wide and wonderful. End of
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 5: Section five. End of the Black Cat, Volume five, number eleven,
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 5: August nineteen hundred