Latest / Beetle / 46 - Beetle by Richard Marsh

Transcript

46 - Beetle by Richard Marsh · Beetle

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Beadle by Richard Marsh, chapter forty six. The sudden stopping.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: As we were leaving the house, a constable gave the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: inspector a note. Having read it, he passed it to me.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It was from the local office, message received that an
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Arab with a big bundle on his head had been
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: noticed loitering around the neighborhood of Saint Pancras's station. He
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: seemed to be accompanied by a young man who had
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the appearance of a tramp. Young man seemed ill. They
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: appeared to be waiting for a train, probably to the north.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Shall I advise detention? I scribbled on the fly leaf
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of the note. Had them detained if they have gone
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: by train, have a special in readiness. In a minute
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: we were again in the cab. I endeavored to persuade
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Lessingham and Atherton to allow me to conduct the pursuit
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: alone in Vain. I had no fear of Atherton's succumbing,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: but I was afraid for Lessingham. What was more almost
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: than the expectation of his collapse was the fact that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: his look and manner, his whole bearing, so eloquent of
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the agony and agitation of his mind, was beginning to
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: tell upon my nerves a catastrophe of some sort. I foresaw,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of the curtain's fall upon one tragedy we had just
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: been witnesses, that there was worse, much worse to follow.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I did not doubt optimistic anticipations were out of the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: question that the creature we were chasing would relinquish the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: prey uninjured. No One, after what we had seen and heard, could,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: by any possibility suppose, should a necessity suddenly arise from
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: prompt and immediate action, that Lessingham would prove a hindrance
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: rather than a help. I felt persuaded. But since moments
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: were precious, and Lessingham was not to be persuaded to
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: allow the matter to proceed without him, all that remained
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: was to make the best of his presence. The Great
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: arch at Saint Pancras was in darkness. An occasional light
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: seemed to make the darkness still more visible. The station
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: seemed deserted. I thought at first that there was not
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a soul about the place, that our errand was in vain,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: that the only thing for us to do was to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: drive to the police station and to pursue our inquiries there.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: But as we turned towards the booking office, our footsteps
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: ringing out clearly through the silence and the night. A
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: door opened, a light shone out from the room within,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and a voice inquired, Who's that? My name's Champno. Has
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a message been received from me from the Limehouse police station?
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Step this way? We stepped that way into a snug
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: enough office of which one of the railway inspectors was
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: apparently in charge. He was a big man with a
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: fair beard. He looked me up and down, as if
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: doubtfully Lessingham he recognized at once. He took off his
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: cap to him, mister Lessingham. I believe I am, mister Lessingham,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: have you any news for me? I fancied by his
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: looks that the official was struck, by the pallor of
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the speaker's face, and by his tremulous voice. I am
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: instructed to give certain information to a mister Augustus Champnell.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I am, mister Champnell. What's your information with reference to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: the Arab about whom you have been making inquiries? A
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: foreigner dressed like an Arab, with a great bundle on
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: his head, took two single thirds for Hull by the
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: midnight express. Was he alone? It is believed that he
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: was accompanied by a young man of very disreputable appearance.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: They were not together at the booking office, but they
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: had been seen together previously. A minute or so after
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the Arab had entered the train, this young man got
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: into the same compartment they were in the front wagon.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Why were they not detained. We had no authority to
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: detain them, nor any reason until your message was received
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a few minutes ago. We at this station were not
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: aware that inquiries were being made for them. You say
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: he booked to Hull. Does the train run through to Hull. No,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: it doesn't go to Hull at all. Part of it's
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the Liverpool and Manchiin Express and part of it's for Carlisle.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: It divides at Derby. The man you're looking for will
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: change either at Sheffield or at Cudworth Junction and go
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: on to Hull by the first train in the morning.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: There's a local service. I looked at my watch. You
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: say the train left at midnight. It's now nearly five
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and twenty past. Where is it now nearing Saint Albans.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: It's due there twelve thirty five. Would there be time
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: for a wire to reach Saint Albans? Hardly? And Anyhow,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: there'll only be enough railway officials about the place to
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: receive and dispatch the train. They'll be fully occupied with
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: their ordinary duties. There won't be time to get the
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: police there. You could wire to Saint Albans to inquire
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: if they were still in the train. That could be done. Certainly,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I have it done it once if you like. Then
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: where's the next stoppage? Well, they're at Luton at twelve
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: fifty one. But that's another case of Saint Albans. You see,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: there won't be much more than twenty minutes by the
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: time you've got your wire, and I don't expect there'll
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: be many people awake at Luton. At these country places,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: sometimes there's a policeman hanging about the station to see
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the express grow through. But on the other hand, very
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: often there isn't, and if there isn't, probably at this
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: time of night it'll take a good bit of time
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: to get the police on the premises. I tell you
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: what I should advise. What's that the train is due
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: at Bedford at one twenty nine. Send your wire there.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: There ought to be plenty of people about at Bedford,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and anyhow, there'll be time to get the police to
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the station. Very good. I instructed them to tell you
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: to have a special ready. Have you got one. There's
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: an engine with steam up in the shed. We'll have
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: all ready for you in less than ten minutes. And
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I tell you what you'll have about fifty minutes before
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the train is due at Bedford. It's a fifty mile run.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: With luck, you ought to get there pretty nearly as
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: soon as the express does. Shall I tell them to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: get ready at once. While he issued directions through a
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: telephone to what I presume was the engine shed, I
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: drew up a couple of telegrams. Having completed his orders,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: he turned to me. They're coming out of the siding now.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: They'll be ready in less than ten minutes. I'll see
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: that the lines kept clear. Have you got those wires?
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Here's one? This is for Bedford. It ran arrest the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Arab who is in the train due at one twenty
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: nine when leaving Saint Pancras. He was in a third
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: class compartment in front wagon. He has a large bundle
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: which detained. He took two third singles for Hull. Also
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: detain his companion, who is dressed like a tramp. This
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: is a young lady whom the Arab has disguised and
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: kidnapped while in a condition of hypnotic trance. Let her
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: have medical assistance and be taken to a hotel. All
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: expenses will be paid on the arrival of the undersigned,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: who is following by special train. As the Arab will
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: probably be very violent, a sufficient force of police should
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: be in waiting. Augustus Champnell, and this is the other.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: It is probably too late to be of any use
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: at Saint Albans, but send it there and also to Luton.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Is Arab with companion and train which left Saint Pancras
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: at thirteen hundred. If so, do not let them get
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: out till train reaches Bedford, where instructions are being wired
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: for arrest. The inspector rapidly scanned them both. They ought
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: to do your business, I should think, come along with me.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: I'll have them sent at once, and we'll see if
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: your train's ready. The train was not ready, nor was
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: it ready within the prescribed ten minutes. There was some
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: hitch i fancy about a saloon. Finally we had to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: be content with an ordinary, old fashioned first class carriage.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: The delay, however, was not altogether time lost, just as
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: the engine with its solitary coach was approaching the platform.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Someone came running up with an envelope in his hand,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: telegram from Saint Albans. I tore it open. It was
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: brief and to the point. The Arab with companion was
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: in train when it left here, and Wiring lutin. That's
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: all right now, unless something wholly unforeseen takes place. We
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: ought to have them that unforeseen. I went forward with
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the inspector and the guard of our train to exchange
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: a few final words with the driver. The inspector explained
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: what instructions he had given. I've told the driver not
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to spare his coal, but to take you into Bedford
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: within five minutes after the arrival of the express. He says,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: he thinks that he can do it. The driver leaned
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: over his engine, rubbing his hands with the usual oily rag.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: He was a short, wiry man with gray hair and
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: a grizzled mustache, with about him that bearing of semi humorous,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: frank faced resolution, which one knows about engine drivers as
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: a class. We ought to do it. The gradients are
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: against us, but it's a clear night and there's no wind.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: The only thing that will stop us will be if
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: there's any shunting on the road or any luggage trains.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, if we are blocked, we are blocked. But
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: the inspector says he'll clear the way for us. Yes,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: said the inspector, I'll clear the way. I've wired down
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the road already. Atherton broke in, driver, if you get
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: us into Bedford within five minutes of the arrival of
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the mail, there'll be a five pound note to divide
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: between your mate and you. The driver grinned, we'll get
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: you there in time, sir. If we have to go
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: clear through the shunters. It isn't often we get a
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: chance of a five pound note for a run to Bedford,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: and we'll do our best to earn it. The fireman
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: waved his hand in the rear. That's right, sir, he cried.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: We'll have to trouble you for that five pound note.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: So soon as we were clear of the station, it
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: began to seem probable that, as the fireman put it,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Atherton would be troubled. Journeying in a train which consists
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: of a single carriage attached to an engine which is
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: flying at topmost speed is a very different business from
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: being an occupant of an ordinary train which is traveling
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: at ordinary express rates. I had discovered that for myself
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: before that night. It was impressed on me more than
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: ever a tyro or even a nervous season might have
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: been excused for, expecting at every moment we were going
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: to be derailed. It was hard to believe that the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: carriage had any springs. It rocked and swung, and jogged
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: and jolted. Of smooth traveling, we had none. Talking was
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: out of the question, and for that I personally was grateful,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: quite apart from the difficulty we experienced in keeping our seats,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and when every moment our position was being altered, and
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: we were jerked backwards and forwards, up and down this way,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: and that that was a business which required care. The
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: noise was deafening. It was as though we were being
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: pursued by a lesion of shrieking, bellowing, raging demons. George
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: shrieked Atherton, he does mean to earn that fiver. I
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: hope I'll be alive to pay him. He was only
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: at the other end of the carriage, but though I
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: could see by the distortion of his visage that he
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: was shouting at the top of his voice, and he
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: has a voice. I only caught here and there a
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: word or two of what he was saying. I had
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to make sense of the whole Lessingham's contortions were a study.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Few of that large multitude of persons who are acquainted
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: with him only by means of the portraits which have
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: appeared in the illustrated papers, would then have recognized the
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: rising statesman. Yet I believe that few things could have
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: better fallen in with his mood than that wild traveling.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: He might have been almost shaken to pieces, but the
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: very severity of the shaking served to divert his thoughts
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: from the one dread topic which threatened to absorb them
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: to the exclusion of all else. Beside. Then there was
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: the tonic influence of the element of risk, the pick
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: me up effect of a spice of peril. Actual danger
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: there quite probably was none, but there very really seemed
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: to be. And one thing was absolutely certain that if
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: we did come to smash while going at that speed,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: we should come to as everlasting smash as the heart
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: of a man could, by any possibility desire. It is
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: probable that the knowledge that this was so warmed the
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: blood in Lessingham's veins at any rate as to use
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: what is in the case was simply a form of speech.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I sat and watched him. It seemed to me that
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: he was getting a firmer hold of the strength which
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: had all but escaped him, and that with every jog
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: and jolt he was becoming more and more of a man.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: On and on we went, dashing, clashing, smashing, roaring, rumbling. Atherton,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: who had been endeavoring to peer through the window, strained
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: his lungs again in the effort to make himself audible.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Where the devil are we looking at my watch? I
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: screamed back at him. It's nearly one, so I suppose
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: we're somewhere in the neighborhood of ludin Hullo. What's the matter?
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: That something was? The matter seemed certain. There was a
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: shrill whistle from the engine. In a second we were conscious,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: almost too conscious, of the application of the Westinghouse break.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Of all the jolting that was ever jolted, the mere
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: reverberation of the carriage threatened to resolve our bodies into
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the component parts. Feeling what we felt then helped us
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to realize the retardatory force which that vacuum break must
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: be exerting. It did not seem at all surprising that
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: the train should have been brought to an almost instant
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: standstill simultaneously. All three of us were on our feet.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I let down my window and Atherton let down his,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: he shouting out, I should think that inspector's wire hasn't
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: had its proper effect. Looks as if we're blocked or else.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: We've stopped at Luton. It can't be Bedford. It wasn't Bedford.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: So much seemed clear, though at first from my window
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I could make out nothing. I was feeling more than
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: a trifle dazed. There was a singing in my ears.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: The sudden darkness was impenetrable. Then I became conscious that
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the guard was opening the door of his compartment. He
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: stood on the step for a moment, seeming to hesitate, Then,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: with a lamp in his hand, he descended on to
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the line. What's the matter, I asked, don't know, sir,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: seems as if there was something on the road. What's
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: up there? This was to the man on the engine.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: The fireman replied, some one in front there's waving a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: red light like mad Lucky. I caught sight of him.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: We shouldn't have been clean on top of him. In
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: another moment, looks as if there was something wrong here.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: He comes. As my eyes grew more accustomed to the darkness,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: I became aware that some one was making what haste
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: he could along the six foot way, swinging a red
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: light as he came. Our guard advanced to meet him,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: shouting as he went, what's the matter? Who's that? A
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: voice replied, My God, is that George Hewett? I thought
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: you were coming right on top of us. Our guard again,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: what Jim Branson? What the devil are you doing here?
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: What's wrong? I thought you were on the twelve out?
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: We're chasing you? Are you? Then you've caught us? Thank
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: God for it. We're a wreck. I had already opened
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the carriage door. With that we all three clambered out
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: on to the line end of chapter forty six.