Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth Book 1 Chapter 3 - The Giant Rats

Transcript

The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth Book 1 Chapter 3 - The Giant Rats · The H. G. Wells Library

0:00
Speaker 1: Book one, chapter three of the Food of the Gods
0:03
Speaker 1: and How It Came to Earth. This is the LibriVox recording.
0:07
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
0:10
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
0:15
Speaker 1: by Alexei Tallander Davis, California. The Food of the Gods
0:20
Speaker 1: and How It Came to Earth by H. G. Wells,
0:23
Speaker 1: Book one, Chapter three, The Giant Rats One. It was
0:29
Speaker 1: two nights after the disappearance of mister Skinner, as the
0:32
Speaker 1: oad born doctor was out late near Hankey driving in
0:35
Speaker 1: his buggy. He had been up all night assisting another
0:38
Speaker 1: undistinguished citizen into his curious world of ours, and his
0:41
Speaker 1: task accomplished. He was driving homeward in a drowsy mood. Enough.
0:45
Speaker 1: It was about two o'clock in the morning, and the
0:46
Speaker 1: waning moon was rising. The summer night had gone cold,
0:49
Speaker 1: and there was a low lying whitish mist that made
0:51
Speaker 1: things indistinct. He was quite alone, for his coachman was
0:54
Speaker 1: ill in bed, and there was nothing to be seen
0:57
Speaker 1: on either hand but a drifting mystery of hedge rending
0:59
Speaker 1: the athwart, the yellow glare of his lamps, and nothing
1:02
Speaker 1: to hear but the clitter clatter of his horses and
1:04
Speaker 1: the gride and hedge echo of his wheels. His horse
1:08
Speaker 1: was as untrustworthy as himself. And one does not wander
1:11
Speaker 1: that he does. You know that intimittent drowsing, as one says,
1:14
Speaker 1: the drooping of the head, the nodding to the rhythm
1:16
Speaker 1: of the wheels, then chin upon the breast, and at
1:18
Speaker 1: once the sudden start up again. Pitter letter patter? What
1:22
Speaker 1: was that? It seemed to the doctor he had heard
1:25
Speaker 1: a thin, shrill squeal close at hand. For a moment
1:27
Speaker 1: he was quite awake. He said a word or two
1:29
Speaker 1: of undeserved rebuke to his horse, and looked about him.
1:32
Speaker 1: He tried to persuade himself that he had heard the
1:34
Speaker 1: distant squeal of a fox, or perhaps a young rabbit
1:38
Speaker 1: gripped by a ferret. Swish, swish, swish, pitter patter, swish,
1:43
Speaker 1: what was that? He felt he was getting fanciful. He
1:45
Speaker 1: shook his shoulders and told his horse to get on.
1:48
Speaker 1: He listened and heard nothing, or was it nothing? He
1:51
Speaker 1: had the queerest impression that something had just peeped over
1:53
Speaker 1: the hedge at him, a queer, big head with round ears.
1:56
Speaker 1: He peered hard, but he could see nothing. Nonsense said he.
2:00
Speaker 1: He sat up with an idea that he had dropped
2:02
Speaker 1: into a nightmare, gave his horse the slightest touch of
2:04
Speaker 1: the whip, spoke to it, and peered again over the hedge.
2:07
Speaker 1: The glare of his lamp, however, together with the mist,
2:09
Speaker 1: rendered things indistinct, and he could distinguish nothing. It came
2:13
Speaker 1: into his head. He says that there could be nothing there,
2:16
Speaker 1: because if there was, his horse would have shied at it. Yet,
2:18
Speaker 1: for all that his senses remained nervously awake. Then he
2:21
Speaker 1: heard quite distinctly a soft pattering of feet in pursuit
2:24
Speaker 1: along the road. He would not believe his ears about that.
2:27
Speaker 1: He could not look round, for the road had a
2:29
Speaker 1: sinuous curve just there. He whipped up his horse and
2:32
Speaker 1: glanced sideways again. And then he saw quite distinctly where
2:35
Speaker 1: a ray from his lamp leaped a low stretch of
2:37
Speaker 1: the hedge, the curved back of some big animal. He
2:40
Speaker 1: couldn't tell what, going along in quick convults of leaps.
2:44
Speaker 1: He says, he thought of the old tales of witchcraft.
2:46
Speaker 1: The thing was so utterly unlike any animal he knew,
2:49
Speaker 1: and he tightened his hold on the reins for fear
2:51
Speaker 1: of the fear of his horse. Educated men as he was,
2:54
Speaker 1: he admits, he asked himself if this could be something
2:56
Speaker 1: that his horse could not see. Ahead, and drawing near
2:59
Speaker 1: his silhouette against the rising moon was the outline of
3:02
Speaker 1: the little hamlet of Hanky, comforting, though it showed never
3:05
Speaker 1: a light. And he cracked his whip and spoke again,
3:07
Speaker 1: and then in a flash the rats were at him.
3:10
Speaker 1: He had passed the gate, and as he did so,
3:11
Speaker 1: the formerst rat came leaping over into the road. The
3:14
Speaker 1: thing sprang upon him out of vagueness into the utmost clearness,
3:18
Speaker 1: the sharp, eager, round eared face, the long body exaggerated
3:21
Speaker 1: by its movement, and what particularly struck him the pink
3:24
Speaker 1: webb fore feet of the beast. What must have made
3:27
Speaker 1: it more horrible to him at the time was that
3:28
Speaker 1: he had no idea that the thing was any created beast.
3:31
Speaker 1: He knew he did not recognize it as a rat
3:33
Speaker 1: because of the size. His horse gave a bound as
3:36
Speaker 1: the thing dropped into the row beside it. The little
3:38
Speaker 1: lane woke into tumult at the report of the whip
3:40
Speaker 1: and the doctor's shout. The whole thing suddenly went fast rattle, clatter, clashed, clatter.
3:46
Speaker 1: The doctor one gathered, stood up, shouted to his horse,
3:49
Speaker 1: and slashed with all his strength. The rat winced and
3:52
Speaker 1: swerved most reassuringly at his blow. In the glare of
3:55
Speaker 1: his lamp, he could see the fur furrow under the lash,
3:57
Speaker 1: and he slashed again and again, and unaware of the
4:00
Speaker 1: second pursuer that gained upon him off his side, he
4:04
Speaker 1: let the reins go and glanced back to discover the
4:07
Speaker 1: third rat in pursuit behind His horse bounded forward. The
4:10
Speaker 1: buggy leapt high at a rut for a frantic but
4:12
Speaker 1: perhaps everything seemed to be going, and leap some bounds.
4:15
Speaker 1: It was sheer good luck. The horse came down in hanky,
4:18
Speaker 1: and not either before after the houses had been passed.
4:21
Speaker 1: No one knows how the horse came down, whether it stumbled,
4:24
Speaker 1: or whether the rat on the off side really got
4:27
Speaker 1: home with one of those slashing down strokes of the
4:29
Speaker 1: teeth given with the full weight of the body. And
4:32
Speaker 1: the doctor never discovered that he himself was bidden until
4:35
Speaker 1: he was inside the brickmaster's house. Much less did he
4:37
Speaker 1: discover when the bite occurred. Though bitten he was and badly,
4:41
Speaker 1: a long slash like the slash of a double tomahawk,
4:44
Speaker 1: that had cut two parallel ribbons of flesh from his
4:46
Speaker 1: left shoulder. He was standing up in his buggy at
4:49
Speaker 1: one moment, and in the next he had leapt to
4:51
Speaker 1: the ground with his ankle, though he did not know
4:53
Speaker 1: it badly sprained, and he was cutting furiously the third
4:56
Speaker 1: rat that was flying directly at him. He scarcely remembers
4:59
Speaker 1: the leap he must made over the top of the
5:01
Speaker 1: wheel as the buggy came over. So obliteratingly hot and
5:04
Speaker 1: swift did his impressions rush upon him, I think myself.
5:07
Speaker 1: The horse read up, with the rat biting out again
5:09
Speaker 1: at its throat, and fell sideways, and carried the whole
5:12
Speaker 1: affair over, And that the doctor sprang as it were instinctively.
5:16
Speaker 1: As the buggy came down, the receiver of the lamp
5:18
Speaker 1: smashed and suddenly poured a flare of blazing oil, a
5:22
Speaker 1: thud of white flame into the struggle. That was the
5:24
Speaker 1: first thing the brickmaster saw. He had heard the clad
5:27
Speaker 1: of the doctor's approach, And though the doctor's memory has
5:30
Speaker 1: nothing of this wild shouting, he had got out of
5:33
Speaker 1: bed hastily and as he did so, came the terrific
5:35
Speaker 1: smash and upshot the glare outside the rising blind. It
5:39
Speaker 1: was brighter that day, he says. He stood blind, cord
5:42
Speaker 1: in hand, and stared out the window at a nightmare
5:45
Speaker 1: transformation of the familiar robe. Before him, the black figure
5:48
Speaker 1: of the doctor, with its whirling whip, danced out against
5:51
Speaker 1: the flame. The horse kicked indistinctly, half hidden by the blaze,
5:55
Speaker 1: with the rat at his throat, in obscurity against the
5:57
Speaker 1: churchyard wool. The eyes of a second monster, shawn wickedly. Another,
6:01
Speaker 1: a mere, dreadful blackness, with red lit eyes and flesh
6:04
Speaker 1: colored hands, clutched unsteadily on the wall coping to which
6:07
Speaker 1: it had leapt as the flash of the exploding lamp.
6:11
Speaker 1: You know, the keen face of a rat, those two
6:13
Speaker 1: sharp teeth, those pitiless eyes, seen magnified to near six
6:17
Speaker 1: times its linear dimensions, and still more magnified by darkness
6:20
Speaker 1: and amazement and the leaping fancies of a fitful blaze.
6:24
Speaker 1: It must have been an ill sight for the brickmaster,
6:26
Speaker 1: still more than half asleep. Then the Doctor had grasped
6:29
Speaker 1: the opportunity that momentary respite the flare afforded, and was
6:33
Speaker 1: out of the brickmaster's sight below, battering the door with
6:35
Speaker 1: the butt of his whip. The brickmaster would not let
6:38
Speaker 1: him in until he got a light. There were those
6:40
Speaker 1: who have blamed the man for that, But until I
6:42
Speaker 1: know my own courage better, I hesitated to join their number.
6:45
Speaker 1: The doctor yelled and hammered. The brickmaster says he was
6:48
Speaker 1: weeping with terror. When at last the door was open. Bolt,
6:51
Speaker 1: said the doctor. Bolt. He could not save bolt the door.
6:54
Speaker 1: He tried to help and was of no service. The
6:57
Speaker 1: brickmaster fastened the door, and the doctor had to sell
6:59
Speaker 1: in the chair side the clock first space before he
7:02
Speaker 1: could go downstairs. I don't know what they are, he
7:05
Speaker 1: repeated several times. I don't know what they are. With
7:07
Speaker 1: the high note on the ar, the brickmaster would have
7:10
Speaker 1: got him a whiskey, but the doctor would not be
7:12
Speaker 1: left alone with nothing but a flickering light. Just then.
7:15
Speaker 1: It was long before the brickmaster could get him up
7:17
Speaker 1: to go upstairs, and when the fire was out, the
7:20
Speaker 1: giant rats came back, took the dead horse, dragged it
7:23
Speaker 1: across the churchyard into the brick field, and ate it
7:26
Speaker 1: until it was dawn, not even then daring to disturb them.
7:30
Speaker 1: Two Redwood went round to Bensington about eleven the next morning,
7:34
Speaker 1: with the second editions of three evening papers in his hand.
7:37
Speaker 1: Bensington looked up from a despondent meditation over the forgotten
7:41
Speaker 1: pages of the most distracting novel the Brompton Road librarian
7:44
Speaker 1: had been able to find him anything fresh. He asked,
7:47
Speaker 1: two men stung near Chartham, they ought to let us
7:50
Speaker 1: smoke out that nest, they really did. It's their own fault.
7:53
Speaker 1: It's their own fault, certainly, said Redwood. Have you heard
7:56
Speaker 1: anything about buying the farm? The house agent said, Redwood
7:59
Speaker 1: is a thing with a big mouth and made of
8:01
Speaker 1: dense wood. It pretends someone else is after the house.
8:04
Speaker 1: It always does, you know, and you won't understand. There's
8:06
Speaker 1: a hurry. This is a matter of life and death.
8:08
Speaker 1: I said, don't you understand? It dropped its eyes half
8:11
Speaker 1: shut and said, then, why don't you go to the
8:14
Speaker 1: other two hundred pounds. I'd rather live in a world
8:17
Speaker 1: of solid wasps than give in to stonewalling stupidity of
8:20
Speaker 1: that offensive creature. Aye, He paused, feeling that a sentence
8:24
Speaker 1: like that might very easily be spoiled by its context.
8:27
Speaker 1: It's too much to hope, said Bensington, that one of
8:29
Speaker 1: the wasps. The wasp has no more idea of public
8:32
Speaker 1: utility than a house and agent, said Ridwood. He talked
8:37
Speaker 1: for a little while about house agents and solicitors and
8:40
Speaker 1: people of that sort, in the unjust, unreasonable way that
8:43
Speaker 1: so many people do, somehow get to talk of these
8:46
Speaker 1: business calculate, of all the cranky things in this cranky world,
8:50
Speaker 1: it is the most cranky, to my mind of all
8:51
Speaker 1: that while we expect on our courage efficiency from a
8:55
Speaker 1: doctor or a soldier, as a matter of course, a
8:57
Speaker 1: solicitor or a house agent is not only permitted, they
9:00
Speaker 1: expected to display nothing but a sort of greedy, greasy, obstructive,
9:04
Speaker 1: overreaching imbecility, et cetera. And then, greatly relieved, he went
9:08
Speaker 1: at the window and stared out at the Sloane Street traffic.
9:11
Speaker 1: Bensy did' have put the most exciting novel conceivable on
9:14
Speaker 1: the little table that carried his electric standard. He joined
9:17
Speaker 1: the fingers of his opposed hands very carefully and reguarded
9:20
Speaker 1: them Redwood, He said, do they say much about us?
9:23
Speaker 1: Not so much as I should expect They don't denounce
9:26
Speaker 1: this at all, not a bit. But on the other hand,
9:29
Speaker 1: they don't back up what I point out must be done.
9:31
Speaker 1: I've written to the Times, you know, explaining the whole thing.
9:34
Speaker 1: We take the Daily Chronicle, said Bensington, and the Times
9:38
Speaker 1: has a long leader on the subject, a very high class,
9:41
Speaker 1: well written leader with three pieces of Times Latin status
9:44
Speaker 1: quo is one and it reads like the voice of
9:47
Speaker 1: somebody impersonal of the greatest importance, suffering from influence a
9:51
Speaker 1: headache and talking through sheets and sheets of felt without
9:54
Speaker 1: getting any relief from it whatever. Reading between the lines,
9:57
Speaker 1: you know, it's pretty clear that the Times considers that
9:59
Speaker 1: it is is useless to mince matters. And that's something indefinite,
10:03
Speaker 1: of course, has to be done at once, otherwise still
10:05
Speaker 1: more undesirable consequences. Times English, you know, for more Washton
10:09
Speaker 1: stings thoroughly states when like article, and meanwhile, this bigness
10:14
Speaker 1: is spreading in all sorts of ugly ways precisely. I
10:17
Speaker 1: wonder if Skinner was right about those big rats. Oh no,
10:19
Speaker 1: that would be too much, said Redwood. He came and
10:22
Speaker 1: stood by Benzingdon's chair. By the bye, he said with
10:25
Speaker 1: a slightly lower voice. How does she he indicated the
10:28
Speaker 1: closed door cousin Jane. She simply knows nothing about it,
10:32
Speaker 1: doesn't connect us with it, and won't read the articles.
10:35
Speaker 1: Gigantic wash. She says, I haven't patience to read the papers.
10:38
Speaker 1: That's very fortunate, said Redwood. I suppose missus Redwood, No,
10:42
Speaker 1: said Redwood, just if president happens. She's terribly worried about
10:45
Speaker 1: the child. You know, he keeps on growing, Yes, put
10:49
Speaker 1: on forty one ounces in ten days, where he's nearly
10:51
Speaker 1: four stone and only six months old. Naturally rather alarming, healthy, vigorous.
10:56
Speaker 1: His nerve is leaving because he kicks so forcibly everything,
11:00
Speaker 1: of course, shocking the outgrown everything you know has had
11:03
Speaker 1: to be made fresh clothes and everything. Perambulator light affair
11:07
Speaker 1: broke one wheel and the youngster had to be brought
11:09
Speaker 1: home on the milkman's hand truck. Yes, quite a crowd,
11:12
Speaker 1: and we've put Georgina Phyllis back into his cot and
11:14
Speaker 1: put him into the bed of Georgina Phyllis. His mother
11:17
Speaker 1: laterally alarmed, proud of first and inclined to praise Winkles
11:21
Speaker 1: not now feels the thing can't be wholesome, you know,
11:24
Speaker 1: I imagined you were going to put him on diminishing doses.
11:27
Speaker 1: I tried. It didn't work. How's in the ordinary way
11:31
Speaker 1: the cry of a child is loud and distressing. It
11:33
Speaker 1: is for the good of the species that this should
11:35
Speaker 1: be so. But since he has been on the hairclophorbia treatment, Mmm,
11:39
Speaker 1: said Bensington, regarding his fingers with more resignation than he
11:42
Speaker 1: hitherto displayed. Pradly, the thing must come out. People will
11:46
Speaker 1: hear of this child connected up with our hens and things,
11:49
Speaker 1: and the whole thing will come round to my wife.
11:51
Speaker 1: How she will take it? I haven't the remotest idea.
11:54
Speaker 1: It is difficult, said mister Bensington, to form any plan.
11:57
Speaker 1: Certainly he removed his glasses and white things. It is
12:01
Speaker 1: another instance, he generalized, of the thing that is continually happening. We, if, indeed,
12:06
Speaker 1: I may presume on the adjective scientific men, we work,
12:09
Speaker 1: of course always for a theoretical result, a purely theoretical result.
12:13
Speaker 1: But incidentally we do set forces in operation, new forces.
12:17
Speaker 1: We mustn't control them, and nobody else can practically, Redwood,
12:21
Speaker 1: the thing is out of our hands. We supply the material,
12:23
Speaker 1: and they said, redwood, turning to the window, get the experience,
12:27
Speaker 1: so far as is troubled down and cant goes. I
12:29
Speaker 1: am not disposed to worry further unless they worry us exactly,
12:33
Speaker 1: and if they like to muddle about with solicitors and
12:35
Speaker 1: pettifoggers and legal obstructions and weighty considerations of the tom
12:39
Speaker 1: full order, until they have got a number of new
12:42
Speaker 1: gigantic species of verbon well established. Things always have been
12:45
Speaker 1: in a muddle. Redwood, Redwood traced a twisted, tangled line
12:49
Speaker 1: in the air. And our real interest lies at present
12:51
Speaker 1: with your boy. Redward turned about and came and stared
12:54
Speaker 1: at his collaborator. What do you think of him? Byzanton?
12:57
Speaker 1: You can look at this business with a greater detachment
12:59
Speaker 1: than I can. What am I to do about him?
13:02
Speaker 1: Go on feeding him on Hereclophorbia on heracliophorbia, and then
13:07
Speaker 1: he'll grow. He'll grow, as far as I can calculate,
13:10
Speaker 1: from the hens in the wasps, to the height of
13:12
Speaker 1: about five and thirty feet, with everything in proportion. And
13:15
Speaker 1: then what'll we he do? That's said, mister Benston, is
13:18
Speaker 1: just what makes the whole thing so interesting. Confound it? Man?
13:21
Speaker 1: Think of his clothes and when he's grown up, said Wedwood,
13:24
Speaker 1: he'll only be one solitary gulliver in a pigmy world.
13:28
Speaker 1: Mister Bensington's eye over his gold room was pregnant. Why solitary,
13:32
Speaker 1: he said, and repeated still more darkly, Why solitary? But
13:36
Speaker 1: you don't propose, I said, said mister Bensington, with the
13:40
Speaker 1: self complacency of a man who has produced a good,
13:43
Speaker 1: significant saying why solitary? Meaning that one might bring up
13:47
Speaker 1: other children beating nothing beyond my inquiry. Robert began to
13:51
Speaker 1: walk about the room. Of course, he said, one might.
13:54
Speaker 1: But still, what are we coming to? Bensington evidently enjoyed
13:57
Speaker 1: his line of high intellectual detachment. The thing that interests
14:01
Speaker 1: me most, Redwood, of all this is to think that
14:03
Speaker 1: his brain at the top of him, will also, so
14:05
Speaker 1: far as my reasoning goes, be five and thirty feet
14:08
Speaker 1: or so above our level. What's the matter? Redwood stood
14:12
Speaker 1: the window and stared at a news placard on a
14:14
Speaker 1: paper cart that readed up the street. What's the matter,
14:16
Speaker 1: repeated Bezington. Rising, Redwood exclaimed violently, what is it? Said Bensington,
14:21
Speaker 1: Get a paper, said Redwood, moving doorward. Why get a paper,
14:25
Speaker 1: something I didn't quite catch gijanket rats rats, Yes, rats,
14:29
Speaker 1: Skinner was right after all? What do you mean how'
14:32
Speaker 1: the desome eye dunno till I see a paper great rats,
14:35
Speaker 1: good lord, I wonder if he's eaten. He glanced for
14:38
Speaker 1: his hat and decided to go hatless. As he rushed
14:40
Speaker 1: downstairs two steps at a time, he could hear along
14:43
Speaker 1: the street the mighty howlings to and fro of the
14:45
Speaker 1: hooligan paper sellows making a boom auble fare and ghent
14:50
Speaker 1: or walfare and ghent doctor eaten by rats or ball
14:54
Speaker 1: fair or wol fare, rats eaten by stropendish rats full
14:59
Speaker 1: particulars or above fair three. Cosser, the well known civil engineer,
15:04
Speaker 1: found them in the great doorway of the flat mansions, Redwood,
15:08
Speaker 1: holding out the damp ink pink paper, and Bensington on tiptoe,
15:11
Speaker 1: reading over his arm. Cosser was a large bodied man,
15:14
Speaker 1: with gaunt in elegant limbs casually placed at convenient corners
15:17
Speaker 1: of his body, and a face like a carving abandoned
15:20
Speaker 1: at an early stage as altogether too unpromising for completion.
15:24
Speaker 1: His nose had been left square, and his lower jaw
15:26
Speaker 1: projected beyond his upper He breathed audibly. Few people considered
15:30
Speaker 1: him handsome. His hair was entirely tangential, and his voice,
15:34
Speaker 1: which he used sparingly, was pitched high and had commonly
15:37
Speaker 1: a quality of bitter protest. He wore gray cloth jacket,
15:40
Speaker 1: suit and a silk hat on all occasions. He plumbed
15:43
Speaker 1: an abysmal trouser pocket with a vast red hand, paid
15:46
Speaker 1: his cabman, and came panting resolutely up the steps, A
15:49
Speaker 1: copy of the pink paper clutched about the middle like
15:52
Speaker 1: Jove's thunderball in his hands. Skinner Besiden was saying, regardless
15:56
Speaker 1: of his approach, nothing about him, said dwind bound to
15:58
Speaker 1: be eaten, both of them. It's too horrible. Hello, Cossar,
16:02
Speaker 1: this your stuff, asked Cossar, waving the paper. Well, why
16:05
Speaker 1: don't you stop it, he demanded. Can't be jiggens, said Cossar.
16:09
Speaker 1: Buy the place, He cried, what nonsense? Burn it? I
16:12
Speaker 1: knew your chaps will fumble this. What are you to do?
16:14
Speaker 1: Why what I tell you you do? Why go up
16:17
Speaker 1: the street to the gunsmiths? Of course? Why for guns? Yes,
16:20
Speaker 1: there's only one stop get eight guns, rifles, not edlepha guns.
16:24
Speaker 1: No too big, not army rifles too small. Say it's
16:27
Speaker 1: to kill kill a bull, Say it's to shoot buffalo.
16:30
Speaker 1: See eh, rats No, how the deuce? So they'd understand that,
16:33
Speaker 1: because we want eight, get a lot of ammunition. Didn't
16:37
Speaker 1: get guns without ammunition? No, take the lot in a
16:39
Speaker 1: cab to where's the place? Er shut cherry Cross. Then
16:43
Speaker 1: there's a train, well, the first train that starts after two.
16:46
Speaker 1: Think you can do that, all right? License? Get eight
16:49
Speaker 1: at the post office, of course, gun licenses, you know,
16:52
Speaker 1: not game? Why it's rats man? You Bensington? Got a telephone? Yes,
16:56
Speaker 1: I'll ring up five of my chaps from ealing. Why five?
16:59
Speaker 1: Because it's the right number. Where you're going Redwood? Get
17:02
Speaker 1: a hat? Nonsense? Have mine? You want guns man, not hats?
17:06
Speaker 1: Got money enough? All right? So long? Where's the telephone? Besyden?
17:10
Speaker 1: Bensington wheeled about obediently and led the way. Cosser used
17:14
Speaker 1: and replaced the instrument. Then there's the was, he said,
17:16
Speaker 1: sulfur nitra'll do obviously, plaster Paris. You're a chemist. Where
17:20
Speaker 1: can I get sulfur? By the ton in puttable sacks?
17:22
Speaker 1: What for? Why? Lord, bless my heart and soul to
17:25
Speaker 1: smoke at the nest. Of course, I suppose it must
17:27
Speaker 1: be sulfur. Eh, you're a chemist, sulfur best eh, yes,
17:30
Speaker 1: I should think sulfur. Nothing better, right, that's your job.
17:34
Speaker 1: That's all right. Get as much sulfur as you can,
17:36
Speaker 1: sul peter to make it burn scent charing Cross right away?
17:39
Speaker 1: See they do it. Follow it up anything, he thought
17:42
Speaker 1: a moment. Plaster paris, any sort of plaster bung up
17:45
Speaker 1: nest holes. You know that, I'd better get how much?
17:49
Speaker 1: How much? What sulfur? Tons? See? Bensington tightened his glasses
17:53
Speaker 1: with a hand, trevulous with determination, right, he said, very curtly.
17:56
Speaker 1: Money in your pocket, asked Cosser. Hand checks. They may
17:59
Speaker 1: not know you pay cash, obviously, where's your bank? All right?
18:02
Speaker 1: Stop on the way and get forty pounds nuts and gold.
18:05
Speaker 1: Another meditation. If we leave this job for public officials,
18:08
Speaker 1: we shall have all kentdid tatters? Said Cosser. Now is
18:11
Speaker 1: there anything? No? Hi? He stretched a vast hand towards
18:14
Speaker 1: a cab that became convulsively eager to serve him. Cab, Sir,
18:18
Speaker 1: said the cabman. Obviously, said Cossar, and Bensington still hatless,
18:22
Speaker 1: paddled down the steps and prepared to mount. I think,
18:25
Speaker 1: he said, with his hand on the cab apron and
18:27
Speaker 1: a sudden glance up at the windows of his flat.
18:29
Speaker 1: I ought to tell my cousin Jane. More time to
18:32
Speaker 1: tell when you come back, said Casser, thrusting him in
18:34
Speaker 1: with a vast hand that expanded over his back. Clever Chaps,
18:38
Speaker 1: remarked Cossar. But no initiative whatever Cousin Jane, indeed, I
18:41
Speaker 1: know her, wrote these. Cousin Jane's county infested with him.
18:44
Speaker 1: I s fothers shall have to spend the whole blessed
18:46
Speaker 1: night seeing that they do what they do perfectly well
18:49
Speaker 1: they ought to do all along. I wonder if its
18:51
Speaker 1: research makes him like that, or Cousin Jane know what?
18:54
Speaker 1: He dismissed this obscure problem, meditated for a face upon
18:57
Speaker 1: his watch, and decided they would be just time to
18:59
Speaker 1: drop an a restaurant and get some lunch before he
19:02
Speaker 1: hunted up the plaster Paris and took it to Charing Cross.
19:05
Speaker 1: The train started at five minutes past three, and he
19:07
Speaker 1: arrived at Charing Cross at a quarter to three to
19:10
Speaker 1: find Bensington. A heated argument between two policemen and his
19:13
Speaker 1: van driver outside, and Redwood in the luggage office involved
19:16
Speaker 1: in some technical obscurity about his ammunition. Everybody was pretending
19:21
Speaker 1: ought to know anything or to have any authority in
19:23
Speaker 1: the way. Dear to Southeastern officials when they catch you
19:26
Speaker 1: in a hurry. Pity they can't shoot all these officials
19:28
Speaker 1: and get a new lot, remarked Cossler with a sigh.
19:31
Speaker 1: But the time was too limited for anything fundamental, and
19:34
Speaker 1: so he swept through these minor controversies, disinterred what may
19:37
Speaker 1: or may not have been the station master from some
19:39
Speaker 1: obscure hiding place, walked about the premises, holding him and
19:42
Speaker 1: giving orders in his name, and was out of the
19:44
Speaker 1: station with everybody and everything aboard before that official was
19:47
Speaker 1: fully awake to the breeches in the most sacred routines
19:50
Speaker 1: and regulations that were being committed. Who was he, said
19:54
Speaker 1: the high official, caressing the armed Cossler had gripped and
19:57
Speaker 1: smiling with nick brows. It was a gentleman, say said
20:00
Speaker 1: a porter. Anyhow, ivanol is partly traveled first class. Well,
20:04
Speaker 1: we got him and his stuff off pretty sharp. Whoever
20:07
Speaker 1: he was, said the high official, rubbing his arm with
20:09
Speaker 1: something approaching satisfaction, And as he walked slowly back blinking
20:13
Speaker 1: in the unaccustomed daylight towards that dignified retirement in which
20:17
Speaker 1: the higher officials at Charing Cross sheltered from the importunity
20:20
Speaker 1: of the vulgar, he smiled still as his unaccustomed energy.
20:24
Speaker 1: It was a very gratifying revelation of his own possibilities.
20:27
Speaker 1: In spite of the stiffness of his arm. He wished
20:29
Speaker 1: some of those confounded armchair critics of railway management could
20:32
Speaker 1: have seen it. Four by five o'clock that evening, this
20:36
Speaker 1: amazing causer, with no appearance of hurry at all, had
20:39
Speaker 1: got all the stuff for his fight with insurgent bigness.
20:42
Speaker 1: Out of earth shot and on the road to Hickley
20:44
Speaker 1: Brow two brows of paraffin and the little dry brushwood
20:48
Speaker 1: he had bought an earthshot, plentiful sacks of sulfur, eight
20:51
Speaker 1: big gang guns and ammunition, three light breech loaders with
20:54
Speaker 1: small shot ammunition for the wasps, a hatchet, two bill hooks,
20:58
Speaker 1: a pick and three spades, two cause of rope, some
21:01
Speaker 1: bottled beer, soda and whiskey, one gross of packets of
21:04
Speaker 1: rat poison and cold provisions for three days had come
21:07
Speaker 1: down from London. All these things he had set on
21:10
Speaker 1: in a croal trolley and a hay wagon in the
21:12
Speaker 1: most businesslike way, except the guns and ammunition, which were
21:15
Speaker 1: stuck under the seat of the Red Lion wagonette appointed
21:18
Speaker 1: to bring on Redwood and the five picked men who
21:20
Speaker 1: had come up from ealing at Cosser's summons. Cosser conducted
21:24
Speaker 1: all these transactions with an invisible air of commonplace, in
21:27
Speaker 1: spite of the fact that Ershat was in a panic
21:29
Speaker 1: about the rats, and all the drivers had to be
21:31
Speaker 1: specially paid. All the shops were shut in the place,
21:34
Speaker 1: and scarcely a sol abroad in the street, and when
21:37
Speaker 1: he banged at the door a window was apt to open.
21:40
Speaker 1: He seemed to consider that the conduct of business from
21:42
Speaker 1: open windows was an entirely legitimate and obvious method. Finally,
21:46
Speaker 1: he and Bensenden got the Red Lion dogcart and set
21:48
Speaker 1: off with the wagonette to overtake the baggage. They did
21:51
Speaker 1: this a little beyond the cross roads, and so reached Hickleybrow. First. Bensington,
21:55
Speaker 1: with a gun between his knees, sitting beside Cosser and
21:58
Speaker 1: the dog cart, developed a long germinated amazement. All they
22:01
Speaker 1: were doing was no doubt, as Cossar insisted, quite the
22:04
Speaker 1: obvious thing to do. Only in England once so rarely
22:08
Speaker 1: does the obvious thing. He glanced from his neighbor's feet
22:10
Speaker 1: to the boldly sketched hands upon the rain. Cossar had
22:13
Speaker 1: apparently never driven before, and he was keeping the line
22:16
Speaker 1: of least resistance down the middle of the road by
22:18
Speaker 1: some no doubt, quite obvious but certainly unusual light of
22:21
Speaker 1: his own. Why don't we all do the obvious, thought Bensatin.
22:24
Speaker 1: How the world would travel if one did. I wonder,
22:26
Speaker 1: for instance, why I don't do such a lot of
22:28
Speaker 1: things I know would be all right to do things
22:31
Speaker 1: I want to do. Is everybody like that? Or is
22:33
Speaker 1: it peculiar to me? He plunged into obscure speculation about
22:37
Speaker 1: the will. He thought of the complex, organized futilities of
22:40
Speaker 1: the daily life, and in contrast with them, the plain
22:42
Speaker 1: and manifest things to do, the sweet and splendid things
22:45
Speaker 1: to do that some incredible influences will never permit us
22:48
Speaker 1: to do. Cousin Jane, Cousin Jane, he proceeded, was important
22:51
Speaker 1: in the question in some subtle and difficult way, Why
22:54
Speaker 1: should we, after all, eat, drink and sleep, remain unmarried,
22:58
Speaker 1: go here, abstain from going there? All out of deference
23:00
Speaker 1: to cousin Jane. She became symbolical, without ceasing to be incomprehensible.
23:05
Speaker 1: A style and a path across the fields caught his
23:07
Speaker 1: eye and reminded him of that other bright day, so
23:10
Speaker 1: recent in time, so remote in its emotions, when he
23:13
Speaker 1: had walked from Ershot to the Experimental Farm to see
23:15
Speaker 1: the giant chicks. Fate plays with us, chick, said Cossar.
23:20
Speaker 1: Get up. It was a hot midday afternoon, not a
23:23
Speaker 1: breath of wind, and the dust was thick in the roads.
23:26
Speaker 1: Few people were about, but the deer beyond the park
23:28
Speaker 1: palings browsed in profound tranquility. They saw a couple of
23:31
Speaker 1: big wasps dripping a gooseberry bush just outside Hickleybrow, and
23:35
Speaker 1: another was crawling up and down the front of the
23:37
Speaker 1: little grocer's shop in the Villa street, trying to find
23:40
Speaker 1: an entry. The grocer was dimly visible within, with an
23:43
Speaker 1: ancient fowling piece in hand, watching its endeavors. The driver
23:47
Speaker 1: of the wagon ant pulled up outside the Jolly drovers
23:49
Speaker 1: and inforigned Redwood, that is part of the bargain was
23:51
Speaker 1: done in this contention. He was presently joined by the
23:54
Speaker 1: drivers of the wagon and the trolley. Not only did
23:57
Speaker 1: they maintain this, but they refused to let the horses
23:59
Speaker 1: be taken. And further then big rats his nuts on horses.
24:03
Speaker 1: The trolley driver kept on repeating. Cosser surveyed the controversy
24:06
Speaker 1: for a moment. Get the things out of that wagonette,
24:08
Speaker 1: he said, and one of his men, a tall, fair,
24:11
Speaker 1: dirty engineer, obeyed. Give me that shot gun, said Cosser.
24:14
Speaker 1: He placed himself between the drivers. We don't want you
24:17
Speaker 1: to drive, he said. You can say what you like.
24:19
Speaker 1: He conceded, but we want these horses. They began to argue,
24:22
Speaker 1: but he continued speaking. If you try and assault us,
24:25
Speaker 1: I shall. It's up defense. Let's fly at your legs.
24:27
Speaker 1: The horses are going on. He treated the incident as clothes.
24:30
Speaker 1: Get up on that wagon, Flack, he said, to a
24:33
Speaker 1: thick set, wiry little man, Boon take the trolley. The
24:36
Speaker 1: true driver's blustered to Redwood. You've done your duty to
24:39
Speaker 1: your employers, said Rodwood. You stop in this village until
24:41
Speaker 1: we come back. No one will blame you. Seeing we've
24:44
Speaker 1: got guns. We've no wish to do anything unjust or violent,
24:47
Speaker 1: but this occasion is pressing. I'll pay if anything happens
24:49
Speaker 1: to the horses. Never fear, that's all right, said Cossar,
24:53
Speaker 1: who rarely promised. They left the wagonette behind, and the
24:56
Speaker 1: men who were not driving went afoot. Over each shoulder
24:59
Speaker 1: sloped a gun. It was the oddest little expedition for
25:01
Speaker 1: an English country road, more like a Yankee party trekking
25:04
Speaker 1: West in the good old Indian days. They went up
25:07
Speaker 1: the road and toil of the crest. By the style,
25:09
Speaker 1: they came into sight of the experimental farm. They found
25:12
Speaker 1: a little group of men there with a gun or so.
25:14
Speaker 1: The two folkers were among them, and one man, a
25:16
Speaker 1: stranger from Maidstone, stood up before the others and watched
25:19
Speaker 1: the place through an opera glass. These men turned about
25:22
Speaker 1: and stared at Red West party. Anything first, said Cossar.
25:26
Speaker 1: The Waspers keep it comin and goin', said old folker.
25:29
Speaker 1: Can't see as they bring anything. The canary creepers going
25:32
Speaker 1: in among the fine trees now, said the man with
25:34
Speaker 1: the lorn net. It wasn't there this morning. You can
25:37
Speaker 1: see it grow while you watch it. He took out
25:39
Speaker 1: a handkerchief and wiped his object glasses with careful deliberation.
25:43
Speaker 1: I Reckon, you're going down there, ventured Skelmersdale. Will you come,
25:47
Speaker 1: said Cossar. Skelmersdale seemed to hesitate. It's an all night job.
25:51
Speaker 1: Skelmersdale decided that he wouldn't. Rat's about, asked Cosser. One
25:55
Speaker 1: was up in the pines this morning, rabbiting. We reckon.
25:58
Speaker 1: Cosser slashed on to overtake his part. Besington, regarding the
26:01
Speaker 1: experimental farm under his hand, was able to gage now
26:04
Speaker 1: the vigor of the food. His first impression was that
26:07
Speaker 1: the house was smaller than he had thought, very much smaller.
26:10
Speaker 1: His second was to perceive that all the vegetation between
26:12
Speaker 1: the house and the pine wood had become extremely large.
26:15
Speaker 1: The roof over the well peeped amid the tussocks of
26:17
Speaker 1: grass a good eight feet high, and the canary creeper
26:20
Speaker 1: wrapped about the chimney stack and gesticulated with stiff tendrils
26:24
Speaker 1: towards the heavens, its flowers with vivid yellow splashes distinctly
26:27
Speaker 1: visible as separate specks. This mile away, a great green
26:31
Speaker 1: cable had rised across the big wire enclosures of the
26:33
Speaker 1: giant hens run and flung twining leaf stems. About two
26:37
Speaker 1: outstanding pines fully half as tall as these was the
26:40
Speaker 1: grove of nettles running round behind the cart shed. The
26:43
Speaker 1: whole prospect, as they drew nearer, became more and more
26:46
Speaker 1: suggestive of a rate of pygmies upon a doll's house
26:49
Speaker 1: that had been left in a neglected corner of some
26:51
Speaker 1: great garden. There was a busy coming and going from
26:54
Speaker 1: the wasp nests. They saw a swarm of black shapes
26:57
Speaker 1: interlaced in the air above the rusty hill front, beyond
26:59
Speaker 1: the iron cluster, And ever and again one of those
27:02
Speaker 1: would dart up into the sky with incredible swiftness, and
27:05
Speaker 1: soar off upon some distant quest. The humming became audible
27:08
Speaker 1: at more than half miles distance from the experimental farm.
27:11
Speaker 1: Once a yellow striped monster dropped towards them and hung
27:14
Speaker 1: for a space, watching them with its great compound eyes.
27:17
Speaker 1: But at an ineffectual shot from cossar, it darted off again.
27:20
Speaker 1: Down on a corner of the field awaited the right,
27:23
Speaker 1: Several were crawling about over some ragged bones that were
27:25
Speaker 1: probably the remains of the land The rats had brought
27:28
Speaker 1: from Huckster's farm. The horses became very restless as they
27:31
Speaker 1: drew near these creatures. None of the party was an
27:34
Speaker 1: expert driver, and they had to put a man to
27:36
Speaker 1: lead each horse and encourage it with the voice. They
27:38
Speaker 1: could see nothing of the rats as they came up
27:40
Speaker 1: to the house, and everything seemed perfectly still except for
27:42
Speaker 1: the rising and falling wooz wooz of the wastedness. They
27:48
Speaker 1: led the horses into the yard, and one of Carsar's men,
27:51
Speaker 1: seeing the door open, the whole of the bit of
27:53
Speaker 1: portioned the door had been gnawed out, walked into the house.
27:56
Speaker 1: Nobody missed him for the time, the rest being occupied
27:59
Speaker 1: with the barrels of paraffin, and the first intimation they
28:01
Speaker 1: had of his separation from them was the report of
28:04
Speaker 1: his gun and the whizz of his bullet bang banged
28:07
Speaker 1: both barrels, and his first bullet at scenes went through
28:09
Speaker 1: the cask of sulfur, smashed out of stay from the
28:12
Speaker 1: further side, and filled the air with yellow dust. Redward
28:15
Speaker 1: had kept his gun in hand and let fly at
28:17
Speaker 1: something gray that leapt past him. He had a vision
28:20
Speaker 1: of the broad hind quarters, the long scaly tail, and
28:22
Speaker 1: long soles of the hind feet of a rat and
28:25
Speaker 1: fired his second barrel. He saw Bensiden drop as the
28:28
Speaker 1: beasts vanished round the corner. Then for a time everybody
28:31
Speaker 1: was busy with the gun. For three minutes, lives were
28:33
Speaker 1: cheap at the expandmental farm, and the banging of guns
28:36
Speaker 1: filled the air. Redwood, careless of Benziden in his excitement,
28:39
Speaker 1: rushed in pursuit and was knocked headlong by a mass
28:42
Speaker 1: of brick fragments, mortar plaster, and rotten lathed splinters that
28:46
Speaker 1: came flying out of him as a bullet whaked through
28:48
Speaker 1: the wall. He found himself sitting on the ground with
28:50
Speaker 1: blood on his hands and lips, and a great stillness
28:53
Speaker 1: brooded over all about him. Then a flatished voice from
28:56
Speaker 1: within the house remarked, gee whiz Hello, said hello there,
29:01
Speaker 1: answered the voice, And then did you chat scate him?
29:05
Speaker 1: Since the duties of friendship returned to Redwood. It's mister
29:08
Speaker 1: Bezyden hurt, he said. Then the man inside heard him perfectly.
29:12
Speaker 1: No one ain't to blaze I fay, it said the
29:14
Speaker 1: voice inside. Peck came clearer of Redwood that he must
29:17
Speaker 1: have shot Bensington. He forgot the cuts upon his face,
29:20
Speaker 1: arose and came back to find Beziden seated on the
29:22
Speaker 1: ground and rubbing his shoulder. Besiden looked over his glasses.
29:26
Speaker 1: We peppered him redwood, he said, and then he tried
29:28
Speaker 1: to jump over me and knock me down. But I
29:30
Speaker 1: let him have it with both barrels, and my how
29:33
Speaker 1: it was hurt by shoulder to be shore. The man
29:35
Speaker 1: appeared in the doorway. I got him once in the
29:37
Speaker 1: chest and once in the side. He said, where's the waggons,
29:39
Speaker 1: asked Cossar, appearing amidst a thicket of gigantic canary creeper leaves.
29:43
Speaker 1: It became evident to Redwoods Amazement, first that no one
29:46
Speaker 1: had been shot, and secondly that the trolley and wagon
29:48
Speaker 1: had shifted fifty yards. And when ilse standing with interlocked
29:51
Speaker 1: wheels amidst the tangled distortions of Skinner's kitchen garden, the
29:55
Speaker 1: horses had stopped there, plunging half way towards them. The
29:58
Speaker 1: burst barrel of sulfur lay in the path, with a
30:00
Speaker 1: cloud of sulfur or dust above it. He indicated this Tocosser,
30:04
Speaker 1: and walked towards it. Has anyone seen that rat? Shouted
30:07
Speaker 1: cossar following. I got him in between the ribs once
30:10
Speaker 1: and once to the face as he turned on me.
30:12
Speaker 1: They were joined by two men as they worried of
30:14
Speaker 1: the locked wheels. I killed that rat, said one of them.
30:17
Speaker 1: Have they got him, asked cosser Jim Bades has found
30:20
Speaker 1: and beyond the hedge. I got him just as he
30:22
Speaker 1: came round the corner, whaked behind the shoulder. When things
30:25
Speaker 1: were a little ship shaved again, Redwood went and stared
30:27
Speaker 1: at the huge Misshaven corpse. The brute lay on its side,
30:30
Speaker 1: with its body slightly bent, its rowing teeth overhanging, Its
30:33
Speaker 1: receding lower jaw gave its face a look of colossal feebleness,
30:37
Speaker 1: of weak avidity. It seemed not in the least ferocious
30:39
Speaker 1: or terrible. Its fore paws reminded him of lank and
30:42
Speaker 1: ma sheiated hands except for one neat round hole with
30:45
Speaker 1: the scorched rim on either side of its neck. The
30:47
Speaker 1: creature was absolutely intact. He meditated over this fact for
30:51
Speaker 1: some time. There must have been two rats, he said,
30:54
Speaker 1: at last, turning away, Yes, and the one that everybody
30:56
Speaker 1: hit got away. I am certain that for my own shot.
30:59
Speaker 1: A canary creep relief gendril, engaged in that mysterious search
31:02
Speaker 1: for a hold fast which constitutes a tendrill's career, bent
31:06
Speaker 1: itself engagingly towards his neck and made him step aside
31:09
Speaker 1: hastily wooz from the distant wasp nests Wooz five. This
31:18
Speaker 1: incident left the party alert, but not unstrung. They got
31:20
Speaker 1: their stores into the house, which had evidently been ransacked
31:23
Speaker 1: by the rats. After the flight of Mers's skinner, and
31:26
Speaker 1: four of the men took the two horses back to
31:27
Speaker 1: Hitckley Brow. They dragged the dead rat through the hedge
31:30
Speaker 1: and into a position commanded by the windows of the house.
31:33
Speaker 1: It incidentally came upon a cluster of giant earwigs in
31:35
Speaker 1: the ditch. These creatures dispersed hastily, but Cosser reached out
31:39
Speaker 1: in calculable limbs and managed to kill several with his
31:42
Speaker 1: boots and gumbut. Then two of the men hagged through
31:44
Speaker 1: several of the main stems of the canary creeper huge cylinders.
31:48
Speaker 1: They were a couple of feet in diameter that came
31:50
Speaker 1: out by the sink at the back, and while Costro
31:52
Speaker 1: set the house in order for the night, Bensington Redwood
31:55
Speaker 1: and one of the assistant electricians went cautiously round to
31:58
Speaker 1: buy the foul runs in search of the rat holes.
32:01
Speaker 1: They skirted the giant nettles widely, for these huge weeds
32:04
Speaker 1: threatened them with poisoned thorns a good inch long. Then
32:07
Speaker 1: round beyond the gnawed, dismantled style, they came abruptly on
32:09
Speaker 1: the huge cavernoer's throat of the most westerly of the
32:12
Speaker 1: giant rat holes, an evil smelling profundity that drew them
32:15
Speaker 1: up into a line together. I hope they'll come out,
32:18
Speaker 1: said Redwood, with a glance at the penthouse of the well.
32:21
Speaker 1: If they don't, reflected Bensington, they will, said Redwood. They meditated.
32:25
Speaker 1: We shall have to bring up some sort of flare
32:27
Speaker 1: if we do go in, said Redwood. They went up
32:29
Speaker 1: a little path of white sand through the pine wood,
32:32
Speaker 1: and halted presently within sight of the wasp holes. The
32:34
Speaker 1: sun was setting now, and the wasps were coming home
32:37
Speaker 1: for good. Their wings in the golden light made twirling
32:39
Speaker 1: halos about them. The three men peered out from under
32:42
Speaker 1: the trees. They did not care to go right to
32:44
Speaker 1: the edge of the wood and watch these tremendous insects
32:47
Speaker 1: drop and crawl for a little, and enter and disappear.
32:49
Speaker 1: They will be still in a couple of hours from now,
32:51
Speaker 1: said Redwood. This is like being a boy again. We
32:55
Speaker 1: can't miss those holes, said Bensington, even if the night
32:57
Speaker 1: is dark by the bye about the light full moon,
33:00
Speaker 1: said the electrician. I looked it up. They went back
33:03
Speaker 1: and consulted with Cossar. He said that obviously they must
33:06
Speaker 1: get the sulfur, nitra and plaster parish through the wood
33:08
Speaker 1: before twilight, and for that they broke bulk and carried
33:11
Speaker 1: the sacks. After the necessary shouting of the preliminary directions,
33:15
Speaker 1: never a word was spoken, and as the buzzing of
33:17
Speaker 1: the wasp nest died away, there were scarcely a sound
33:19
Speaker 1: in the world but the noise of footsteps, the heavy
33:22
Speaker 1: breathing of burthened men, and the thud of the sacks.
33:25
Speaker 1: They all took turns of that labor, except mister Bensington,
33:27
Speaker 1: who was manifestly unfit. He took posts in the skinner's
33:30
Speaker 1: bedroom with a rifle to watch the carcass of the
33:33
Speaker 1: dead rat and of the others. They took turns to
33:35
Speaker 1: rest from sack carrying and to keep watch two at
33:37
Speaker 1: a time upon the rat holes behind the nettle grove.
33:40
Speaker 1: The pollen sacks of the nettles were ripe, and every
33:42
Speaker 1: now and then the vigil would be enlivened by the
33:44
Speaker 1: dehissance of these, the bursting the sacks sounding exactly like
33:48
Speaker 1: the crack of a pistol, and the pollen grains as
33:50
Speaker 1: big as buckshop pattered all about them. Mister Benson had
33:54
Speaker 1: sat at his window on a hard, hoarse hair stuffed
33:56
Speaker 1: arm chair covered by a grubby antimacassa that had given
33:59
Speaker 1: a touch of social distinction to the Skinner's sitting room
34:02
Speaker 1: for many years. His unaccustomed rifle rested on the sill,
34:05
Speaker 1: and his spectacles and nod watched the dark bulk of
34:07
Speaker 1: the dead rat. In the thickening twilight. Anon wandered about
34:10
Speaker 1: him in curious meditation. There was a faint smell of
34:13
Speaker 1: paraffin without for one of the casks leaked, and it
34:16
Speaker 1: mingled with a less unpleasant odor arising from the hackened
34:19
Speaker 1: and crushed creeper within. When he turned his head, a
34:22
Speaker 1: blend of faint domestic scents bears cheese, rotten apples, and
34:27
Speaker 1: old boots as the leading motifs was full of the
34:29
Speaker 1: reminiscences of the vanished Skinners. He regarded the dim room
34:33
Speaker 1: for a space. The furniture had been greatly disordered, perhaps
34:36
Speaker 1: by some inquisitive rat, But a coat upon the clothes
34:38
Speaker 1: peg on the door, a razor, and some dirty scraps
34:41
Speaker 1: of paper and a piece of soap that had hardened
34:43
Speaker 1: through years of disuse into a horny cube were redolent
34:46
Speaker 1: of Skinner's distinctive personality. It came to Bensington's mind with
34:50
Speaker 1: a complete novelay of realization that in all probability, the
34:53
Speaker 1: man had been killed and eaten, at least in part
34:55
Speaker 1: by the monster that now lay dead there in the
34:57
Speaker 1: darkling to think of all that a harmless looking discovery
35:00
Speaker 1: and chemistry may lead to. Here he was in homely England,
35:04
Speaker 1: and yet in infinite danger, sitting out alone with a
35:06
Speaker 1: gun in a twilight ruined house, remote from every comfort,
35:09
Speaker 1: his shoulder dreadfully bruised from a gun kick. And by Jove,
35:13
Speaker 1: he grasped now how profoundly the order of the universe
35:15
Speaker 1: had changed for him. He had come right away to
35:17
Speaker 1: this amazing experience without even saying a word to his
35:20
Speaker 1: cousin Jane. What must she be thinking of him? He
35:23
Speaker 1: tried to imagine it, and he could not. He had
35:25
Speaker 1: an extraordinary feeling that she and he were parted forever
35:28
Speaker 1: and would never meet again. He felt he had taken
35:31
Speaker 1: a step and come into a world of new immensities.
35:33
Speaker 1: What other monsters might not Those deepening shadows hide. The
35:37
Speaker 1: tips of the giant nettles came out sharp and black
35:39
Speaker 1: against the pale green and amber of the western sky.
35:42
Speaker 1: Everything was very still, very still. Indeed, he wondered why
35:45
Speaker 1: he could not hear the others away there round the
35:47
Speaker 1: corner of the house. The shadow in the cart shed
35:50
Speaker 1: was now an abysmal black bang, bang, bang, a sequence
35:54
Speaker 1: of echoes and a shout, a long silence bang, and
35:57
Speaker 1: a dominue note of echoes. Stillness. Then, thank goodness, Redwood
36:01
Speaker 1: and Cosser were coming out of the inaudible darknesses, and
36:04
Speaker 1: Redwood was calling Bensington, Bensington. We bagged another of the rats.
36:09
Speaker 1: Costas bagged another of the rats. Six. When the expedition
36:13
Speaker 1: had finished refreshment, the night had fully come. The stars
36:16
Speaker 1: were at their brightest, and a growing pallet towards Hankey
36:18
Speaker 1: heralded the moon. The watch on the rat holes had
36:21
Speaker 1: been maintained, but the watchers had shifted to the hill
36:23
Speaker 1: slope above the holes, feeling this a safer firing point.
36:27
Speaker 1: They squatted there at a rather abundant dew, fighting the
36:29
Speaker 1: damp with whisky. The others rested in the house, and
36:32
Speaker 1: the three leaders discussed the night's work with the men.
36:34
Speaker 1: The moon rose towards midnight, and as soon as it
36:37
Speaker 1: was clear of the downs, everyone except the rat hole
36:39
Speaker 1: sentinels started off in single file, led by Cosser, towards
36:43
Speaker 1: the wast nest. So far as the wast nests went,
36:45
Speaker 1: they found their task exceptionally easy, astonishingly easy, except that
36:49
Speaker 1: it was a longer labor. It was no graver affair
36:52
Speaker 1: than any common wast nest might have been. Danger there
36:55
Speaker 1: was no doubt danger to life, but it never so
36:57
Speaker 1: much as thrust its head out of that portentous hillsie.
37:00
Speaker 1: They stuffed in the sulfur and nitre. They bunged the
37:03
Speaker 1: holes soundly and fired their trains. Then, with a common impulse,
37:06
Speaker 1: all the party but Cossar, turned and ran athwart the
37:09
Speaker 1: long shadow of the pines, and, finding Cossar had stayed behind,
37:12
Speaker 1: came to a halt. Together in a knot a hundred
37:14
Speaker 1: yards away, convenient to a ditch that offered cover just
37:18
Speaker 1: for a minute or two. The moonlit night, all black
37:20
Speaker 1: and white, was heavy with the suffocated buzz that rose
37:23
Speaker 1: and mingled to a roar, a deep abundant note, and
37:25
Speaker 1: culminated and died, And then, almost incredibly, the night was still.
37:29
Speaker 1: By jove, said Bensington, almost in a whisper. It's done.
37:33
Speaker 1: All stood silent. The hill side above the black point
37:36
Speaker 1: lace of the pine shadows seemed as bright as day
37:38
Speaker 1: and as culorless as snow. The setting plaster in the
37:41
Speaker 1: holes positively shone. Cossa's loose framework moved towards them. So far,
37:47
Speaker 1: said Cosser. Crack, bang a shot from near the house,
37:50
Speaker 1: and then stillness. What's that, said Bensington. One of the
37:53
Speaker 1: rats put its head outs, suggested one of the men.
37:55
Speaker 1: By the bye, we left our guns up there, said Woodward,
37:58
Speaker 1: by the sacks. Everyone began to walk towards the hill again.
38:02
Speaker 1: That must be the rat, said Bensington. Obviously, said Cossar,
38:05
Speaker 1: gnawing his finger nails. Bang hello, said one of the men.
38:09
Speaker 1: Then abruptly came a shout, two shouts, a loud shout
38:12
Speaker 1: that was almost a scream, three shots in rapid succession,
38:15
Speaker 1: and a splintering of wood. All these sounds were very
38:17
Speaker 1: clear and very small in the immense stillness of the night.
38:20
Speaker 1: Then for some moments nothing but a minute muffled confusion
38:23
Speaker 1: from the direction of the rat holes, and then again
38:25
Speaker 1: a wild yell. Each man found himself running hard for
38:28
Speaker 1: the guns. Two shots. Bensington found himself gun in hand,
38:32
Speaker 1: going hard through the pine trees after a number of
38:34
Speaker 1: receding backs. It is curious that the thought uppermost in
38:37
Speaker 1: his mind at that moment was the wish that his
38:39
Speaker 1: cousin Jane could see him. His bulbous, slashed boots flew
38:42
Speaker 1: out in wild strides, and his face was distorted in
38:44
Speaker 1: a permanent grin because that wrinkled his nose and kept
38:48
Speaker 1: his glasses in place. Also, he held the muzzle of
38:50
Speaker 1: his gun projecting straight before him as he flew through
38:53
Speaker 1: the checkered moonlight. The man who had run away met
38:55
Speaker 1: them full tilt. He had dropped his gun hullo, said Cosser,
38:59
Speaker 1: and caught him in his arms. What's this? They came
39:01
Speaker 1: out together, said the man. The rats, Yes, six of them.
39:04
Speaker 1: Where's flack? Down. What's he say? Panny Bensenden coming up? Unheeded?
39:09
Speaker 1: Flax down? He fell down. They came out, no one
39:12
Speaker 1: after the other. What made a rush? I fired both
39:15
Speaker 1: barrels first, you left, Flack. They were on to us.
39:18
Speaker 1: Come on, said Kassler, you come with us. Where's Flak
39:20
Speaker 1: show us? The whole party moved forward. Further details of
39:23
Speaker 1: the engagement dropped from the men who had run away.
39:26
Speaker 1: The other clustered about him, except Cossar, who led, where
39:29
Speaker 1: are they back in their holes? Perhaps I cleared they
39:32
Speaker 1: made a rush for their holes. What do you mean
39:34
Speaker 1: did you get behind them? We got up around by
39:36
Speaker 1: their holes, saw him come out, you know, and tried
39:38
Speaker 1: to cut him off. They lollaped out like rabbits. We
39:40
Speaker 1: ran down and let fly. They ran about wild after
39:43
Speaker 1: our first shot, and suddenly came at us, went for us.
39:45
Speaker 1: How many six or seven? Kasser led the way to
39:48
Speaker 1: the edge of the pine wood and halted. Do you
39:50
Speaker 1: mean they got Flack asked some one. One of them
39:53
Speaker 1: was yelling to him. Didn't you shoot now? Could I?
39:56
Speaker 1: Every one loaded? Said Cosser over his shoulder. There was
39:59
Speaker 1: a confirment movement, but Flax said, one you mean, Flax,
40:03
Speaker 1: said another. There's no time to lose, said Klasser, and
40:06
Speaker 1: shouted Flack. As he had led the way. The whole
40:08
Speaker 1: force advanced towards the rat holes, the man who had
40:10
Speaker 1: run away a little to the rear. They went forward
40:13
Speaker 1: through the rank exaggerated weeds, and skirted the body of
40:16
Speaker 1: the second dead rat. They were extended in a bungee line,
40:18
Speaker 1: each man with his gun pointing forward, and they peered
40:21
Speaker 1: about them in the clear moonlight for some crumbled, ominous shape,
40:24
Speaker 1: some crouching form. They found the gun of the man
40:26
Speaker 1: who had run away. Very speedily. Flack cried, Cossar, Flack.
40:30
Speaker 1: He ran past the nettles and fell down, volunteered the
40:33
Speaker 1: man who ran away? Where round about there? Where did
40:36
Speaker 1: he fall? He hesitated and led them athwart the long
40:39
Speaker 1: black shadows for a space, and turned judicially about here.
40:42
Speaker 1: I think, well, he's not here now, But his gun
40:45
Speaker 1: come found it, swared Cassar, where's everything got to? He
40:48
Speaker 1: strode a step towards the black shadows on the hillside
40:51
Speaker 1: that masked the holes, and stood staring. Then he swore
40:53
Speaker 1: again if they have dragged him in. So they hung
40:56
Speaker 1: for a space, tossing each other the fragments of thoughts.
40:59
Speaker 1: Bensington's glasses flashed like diamonds as he looked from one
41:01
Speaker 1: to the other. The men's faces changed from cold clearness
41:04
Speaker 1: to a mysterious obscurity as they turned them to or
41:07
Speaker 1: from the moon. Everyone spoke, no one completed a sentence.
41:11
Speaker 1: Then abruptly Cossar chose his line. He flapped his limbs
41:14
Speaker 1: this way and that, and expelled orders and pellets. It
41:17
Speaker 1: was obviously wanted lamps. Everyone except Kassar was moving towards
41:20
Speaker 1: the hole. You're going into the holes asked forwood, obviously,
41:23
Speaker 1: said Cosser. He made it clear once more that the
41:26
Speaker 1: lamps of the cart and trolley were to be got
41:28
Speaker 1: and brought to him. Bensington, grasping this, started off along
41:31
Speaker 1: the path by the well. He glanced over his shoulder
41:33
Speaker 1: and saw Cossar's gigantic figure standing out as if he
41:36
Speaker 1: were regarding the holes pensively. At the sight, Benzingden hold
41:39
Speaker 1: of for a moment and half turned. They were all
41:41
Speaker 1: leaving Kasser. Kassa was able to take care of himself,
41:44
Speaker 1: of course. Suddenly Bessingden saw something that made him shoot
41:47
Speaker 1: of white and windless high and a second, three rats
41:50
Speaker 1: had projected themselves from the dark tangle of the creep
41:52
Speaker 1: towards Kosser. For three seconds, Kasser stood unaware of them,
41:56
Speaker 1: and then he had become the most active thing in
41:57
Speaker 1: the world. He didn't fire his gun, apparently he had
42:00
Speaker 1: no time to aim or to think of aiming. He
42:02
Speaker 1: ducked a leaping rat Bensington saw, and then smashed at
42:05
Speaker 1: the back of its head with the butt of his gun.
42:07
Speaker 1: The monster gave one leap and fell over itself. Cosser's
42:10
Speaker 1: form went right down out of sight among the reedy grass,
42:13
Speaker 1: and then he rose again, running towards another the rats
42:15
Speaker 1: and whirling his gun overhead. A faint shout came to
42:18
Speaker 1: Bensingen's ears, and then he perceived the remaining two rats
42:21
Speaker 1: bolting divergently, and Cosser in pursuit towards the holes. The
42:24
Speaker 1: whole thing was an affair of misty shadows. All three
42:27
Speaker 1: fighting monsters were exaggerated and made unreal by the delusive
42:30
Speaker 1: clearness of the light. A moment's courser was colossal, at
42:33
Speaker 1: moments invisible, The rats flashed athwart the eye in sudden,
42:36
Speaker 1: unexpected leaps, or ran with a movement of the feet,
42:39
Speaker 1: so swift they seemed to run on wheels. It was
42:41
Speaker 1: all over in half a minute. No one saw it
42:43
Speaker 1: but Bensington. He could hear the others behind him, still
42:45
Speaker 1: receding towards the house. He shouted something inarticulate, and then
42:48
Speaker 1: ran back towards Cosser. While the rats vanished. He came
42:51
Speaker 1: up to him outside the holes and the moonlight. The
42:53
Speaker 1: distribution of shadows that constituted Cosser's visage intimated calm. Hullo,
42:58
Speaker 1: said Cosser, back, already, what's the lamps? They're all back
43:02
Speaker 1: now in their holes. One I broke the neck off
43:03
Speaker 1: as event past. Me see there, and he pointed to
43:06
Speaker 1: a gaunt finger. Bezyton was too astonished for conversation. The
43:10
Speaker 1: lamp seemed an interminable time in coming. At last they appeared,
43:13
Speaker 1: first one and winking luminous eye, preceded by a swaying
43:16
Speaker 1: yellow glare, and then winking now and then and then
43:19
Speaker 1: shining out again. Two others. About them came little figures
43:22
Speaker 1: with little voices, and then enormous shadows. This group made,
43:25
Speaker 1: as it were, a spot of inflammation upon the gigantic
43:28
Speaker 1: dreamland of moonshine, flax, said the voices flack an illuminating sentence.
43:32
Speaker 1: Sloat it up, locked himself in the attic. Cossar was
43:35
Speaker 1: continually more wonderful. He produced great handfuls of cotton wool
43:39
Speaker 1: and stuffed them in his ears. Beziden wondered, why then
43:41
Speaker 1: he loaded his gun with a quarter charge of powder.
43:44
Speaker 1: Who else could have thought of? That? Wonderland culminated with
43:46
Speaker 1: the disappearance of Cossar's twin realms of boot soul upon
43:50
Speaker 1: the central hole. Crosser was on all fours, with two guns,
43:53
Speaker 1: one trailing on each side from a string under his chin,
43:56
Speaker 1: and his most trusted assistant, a little dark man with
43:58
Speaker 1: a grave face, was to go in, stooping behind him,
44:01
Speaker 1: holding a lantern over his head. Everything had been made
44:03
Speaker 1: as sane and obvious and proper as a lunatic extreme.
44:06
Speaker 1: The wool, it seems, was on account of the concussion
44:08
Speaker 1: of the rifle. The man had some two. Obviously, so
44:11
Speaker 1: long as the rats turned tail on Cosser, no harm
44:14
Speaker 1: could come to him, and directly they had it for him.
44:16
Speaker 1: He would see their eyes and fire between them. Since
44:19
Speaker 1: they would have to come down the cylinder of the hole,
44:21
Speaker 1: Cosser could hardly fail to hit them. It was Cosser
44:23
Speaker 1: insisted the obvious method, a little tedious, perhaps, but absolutely certain.
44:28
Speaker 1: As the assistant stooped to enter, Bensington saw that the
44:30
Speaker 1: end of a ball of twine had been tied to
44:32
Speaker 1: the tail of his coat. By this he was to
44:34
Speaker 1: draw in the rope if it should be needed to
44:36
Speaker 1: drag out the bodies of the rats. Bensington perceived that
44:39
Speaker 1: the object he held in his hand was Cosser's silk hat.
44:42
Speaker 1: How had it got there? It would be something to
44:44
Speaker 1: remember from him by anyhow. At each of the adjacent
44:47
Speaker 1: holes did a low group, with the lantern on the
44:49
Speaker 1: ground shining up the hole, and with one man kneeling
44:51
Speaker 1: and aiming at the round void before him, waiting for
44:54
Speaker 1: anything that might emerge. There was an interminable suspense. Then
44:57
Speaker 1: they heard Cosser's first shot, like an explosion in every
45:00
Speaker 1: one's nerves and muscles tightened that and bang, bang bang.
45:04
Speaker 1: The rats had tried a bolt, and two more were dead.
45:06
Speaker 1: Then the man who held the ball of twined reported
45:08
Speaker 1: a switching. He has killed one in here, said Benzington,
45:11
Speaker 1: and he wants the rope. He watched the rope creep
45:13
Speaker 1: into the hole, and it seemed as though it had
45:14
Speaker 1: become animated by a serpentine intelligence, though the darkness made
45:18
Speaker 1: the twine invisible. At last it stopped crawling, and there
45:21
Speaker 1: was a long pause. Then what seemed to Bensington the
45:23
Speaker 1: queerest monster of all, crept slowly from the hole and
45:26
Speaker 1: resolved itself into the little engineer, emerging backwards after him
45:30
Speaker 1: and plowing deep furro his Cosser's boots thrust out, and
45:32
Speaker 1: then came his lantern, illuminated back. Only one rat was
45:35
Speaker 1: left alive now, and this poor doomed wretch cowered in
45:38
Speaker 1: the innermost recesses until Cosser and the lantern went in
45:42
Speaker 1: again and slew it and finally cost her. That human
45:44
Speaker 1: ferret went through all the runds to make sure we gotten,
45:47
Speaker 1: he said to when it is nearly all stricken company
45:49
Speaker 1: at last, And if it adn't been a Muddad and Muca,
45:52
Speaker 1: I should have stripped to the waist obviously, feel my sleeves, Bezzington.
45:55
Speaker 1: I'm went through with perspiration, jolly ought to think of everything.
45:58
Speaker 1: Only a halfway up a whiskey can save me from
46:00
Speaker 1: a cold seven. There were moments during that wonderful night
46:04
Speaker 1: when it seemed to Benzyington that he was planned by
46:06
Speaker 1: nature for a life of fantastic adventure. This was particularly
46:09
Speaker 1: the case for an hour or so after he had
46:11
Speaker 1: taken a stiff whisky. Shan't go back to Sloane Street,
46:13
Speaker 1: he confided to the tall, fair, dirty engineer. You won't
46:17
Speaker 1: eh no fear, said Benzington, nodding darkly. The exertion of
46:20
Speaker 1: dragging the seven dead rats to the funeral pyre by
46:23
Speaker 1: the nettle grove left him bathed in perspiration, and Cosser
46:26
Speaker 1: pointed out the obvious physical reaction of whiskey to save
46:28
Speaker 1: him from the otherwise inevitable chill. There was a sort
46:31
Speaker 1: of brigand supper in the old pricked kitchen, with the
46:34
Speaker 1: row of dead rats lying in the moonlight against the
46:36
Speaker 1: hen runs outside, and after thirty minutes or so of rest,
46:39
Speaker 1: Cosser roused them all to the labor as they were
46:41
Speaker 1: still to do. Obviously, as he said, they had to
46:44
Speaker 1: wipe the place out, no litter, no scandal. See, he
46:47
Speaker 1: stirred them up the idea of making distruction complete. They
46:50
Speaker 1: smashed and splintered every fragment of wood in the house.
46:53
Speaker 1: They filt trails, of chopped wood. Wherever big vegetation was springing,
46:56
Speaker 1: they made a pire for the rat bodies and soaked
46:58
Speaker 1: them in paraffin. Wesiden't worked like a conscientious navy. He
47:02
Speaker 1: had a sort of climax of exhilaration and energy towards
47:05
Speaker 1: two o'clock, when in the work of destruction he wandered
47:07
Speaker 1: an axe. The bravest fled in his neighborhood. Afterwards, he
47:10
Speaker 1: was a little sobered by the temporary loss of his spectacles,
47:13
Speaker 1: which were found for him at last in his side coat.
47:15
Speaker 1: Pocket men went to and fro about him, grimy, energetic men.
47:19
Speaker 1: Cosser moved amongst them like a god. Bensiden drank that
47:22
Speaker 1: delight of human fellowship that comes to happy armies to
47:25
Speaker 1: sturdy expeditions, noted those who lived the life of the
47:28
Speaker 1: sober citizen in the cities. After Cosser had taken his
47:31
Speaker 1: axe away and set him to carry wood, he went
47:34
Speaker 1: to and fro, saying they were all good fellows. He
47:36
Speaker 1: kept on long after he was aware of fatigue. At
47:39
Speaker 1: last all was ready, and the approaching of the pharo
47:41
Speaker 1: fing began. The moon robbed now of all its meager
47:44
Speaker 1: night retinue of stars shone high above the dawn. Burn everything,
47:48
Speaker 1: said Cossar, going to and fro burn the ground and
47:51
Speaker 1: make a clean swep of it. See Benzydon became aware
47:54
Speaker 1: of him, looking now very gaunt and horrible in the
47:56
Speaker 1: pale beginnings of the daylight, hurrying past with his lower
47:59
Speaker 1: jaw p forgee and flaring a torch of touchwood in
48:02
Speaker 1: his hand. Come away, said some one, pulling Benzingden's arm.
48:06
Speaker 1: The still dawn, no birds were singing. There was suddenly
48:08
Speaker 1: full of tumultuous crackling. A little dull red flame ran
48:12
Speaker 1: about the base of the pyre, tinged to blue upon
48:14
Speaker 1: the ground, and set out to clamber leaf by leaf
48:16
Speaker 1: up the stem of a giant needle. A singing sound
48:19
Speaker 1: mingled with the crackling. They snatched their guns from the
48:22
Speaker 1: corner of the Skinner's living room, and then everyone was running.
48:24
Speaker 1: Crosser came after them with heavy strides. Then they were
48:27
Speaker 1: standing looking back at the experimental farm. It was boiling up.
48:30
Speaker 1: The smoke and flames poured out like a crowd in
48:33
Speaker 1: a panic, from doors and windows, and from a thousand
48:35
Speaker 1: cracks and crevices in the roof. Trust costs her to
48:38
Speaker 1: build a fire. A great column of smoke, shot with
48:40
Speaker 1: blood red tongues and darting flashes, rushed up into the sky.
48:44
Speaker 1: It was like some huge giants suddenly standing up, straining upward,
48:47
Speaker 1: and abruptly spreading his great arms out across the sky.
48:50
Speaker 1: It cast the night back upon them, utterly hiding and
48:53
Speaker 1: obliterating the incandescence of the sun that rose behind it all.
48:56
Speaker 1: Hickley Brow was soon aware of that stupendous pillar smoke,
49:00
Speaker 1: and came out upon the crest in various dishabille to
49:03
Speaker 1: watch them coming behind. Like some fantastic fungus, this smoke
49:07
Speaker 1: pillar swayed and fluctuated up up into the sky, making
49:10
Speaker 1: the down seem low on all other objects petty and
49:13
Speaker 1: in the foreground let by Cosser, the makers of this
49:15
Speaker 1: mischief follow the path eight little black figures, coming wearily
49:19
Speaker 1: guns shouldered across the meadow. As Benison looked back, there
49:22
Speaker 1: came into his jaded brain and echoed, there a familiar formula,
49:25
Speaker 1: What was it? You will have lit to day? You
49:28
Speaker 1: have lit to day? Then he remembered Ladimer's words, we
49:31
Speaker 1: have lit this day as such a candle in England,
49:33
Speaker 1: as no man may ever put out again. What a
49:36
Speaker 1: man Cosser was. To be sure, he admired his back
49:39
Speaker 1: view for a space and was proud to have held
49:41
Speaker 1: that hat proud although he was an eminent investigator, and
49:44
Speaker 1: Cosser only engaged in applied science. Suddenly he felt shivering
49:47
Speaker 1: and yawning enormously, and wishing he was warmly tucked away
49:50
Speaker 1: in bed, in his little flat that looked out upon
49:52
Speaker 1: Sloane Street. It didn't do even to think of cousin Jane.
49:56
Speaker 1: His legs became Caughton strands, his feet led. He wondered
49:59
Speaker 1: if any one would get them at Coffee and Hickley Row.
50:02
Speaker 1: He had never been up for all night for three
50:04
Speaker 1: and thirty years eight And while these eight adventurers fought
50:08
Speaker 1: with rats about the experimental farm, nine miles away in
50:11
Speaker 1: the village of Cheasing Eyebright, an old lady with an
50:14
Speaker 1: excessive nose struggled with great difficulties. By the light of
50:17
Speaker 1: a flickering candle, she gripped a sardine tin, opening one
50:20
Speaker 1: gnarled hand, and in the other she held a tin
50:22
Speaker 1: of heraclophobia, which she had resolved to open or die.
50:26
Speaker 1: She struggled indefatigably grunting at each fresh effort, while through
50:29
Speaker 1: the flimsy partitioned the voice of the cattle's infant wailed,
50:33
Speaker 1: bless his poor art, said Missus Skinner. And then, with
50:35
Speaker 1: her solitary tooth, biting her lip, in an ecstasy of determination,
50:39
Speaker 1: come up and presently jab A fresh supply of the
50:42
Speaker 1: Food of the Gods was let loose to wreak his
50:44
Speaker 1: power of giantry upon the world. End of Book one,
50:49
Speaker 1: Chapter three of the Food of the Gods and How
50:51
Speaker 1: It Came to Earth. Recording by Alexe to Lander, Davis, California,
50:56
Speaker 1: w w W dot Alyxetlander dot com