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024 - Chapter 24 · House with the Green Shutters

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four of the House with the Green Shutters.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Len Nicholson. The House
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Speaker 1: with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown, chapter twenty four.
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Speaker 1: There had been fine cackling in Barbie as Gurley's men
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Speaker 1: dropped away from him one by one, and now it
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Speaker 1: was worse than ever. When Jimmy Bain and Sandy Cross
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Speaker 1: were dismissed last winter, he canna last long now, mused
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Speaker 1: the bodies. And then when even Riney got the sack lord,
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Speaker 1: they cried, this maun be the end o it. The
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Speaker 1: downfall of Gurley had an unholy fascination for his neighbors,
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Speaker 1: and that not merely because of their dislike to the man.
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Speaker 1: That was a wet to their cueuriosity, of course, but
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Speaker 1: over and above it, they seemed to be watching with
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Speaker 1: bated breath for the final collapse of an edifice that
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Speaker 1: was bound to fall. Simple expectation held them. It was
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Speaker 1: a dramatic interest of suspense yet certainty that had them
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Speaker 1: in its grip. He's bound to come down, said certainty. Yes,
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Speaker 1: But when though cried curiosity all the more eager because
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Speaker 1: of its instinct for the coming crash. And so they
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Speaker 1: waited for the great catastrophe, which they felt to be
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Speaker 1: so near. It was as if they were watching the
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Speaker 1: tragedy near at hand, and noting with keen interest every
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Speaker 1: step in it that must lead to inevitable ruin that
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Speaker 1: invariably happens. When a family tragedy is played out in
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Speaker 1: the midst of a small community, Each step in it
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Speaker 1: is discussed with a prying interest that is neither malevolent
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Speaker 1: nor sympathetic, but simply curious. In this case, it was
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Speaker 1: chiefly malevolent, only because Gourley had been so a brute
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Speaker 1: to Barbie. Though there were thus two reasons for public interest,
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Speaker 1: the result was one and the same. A constant tittle
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Speaker 1: tattling particular spite and a more general curiosity brought the
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Speaker 1: grain Merchant's name on to every tongue. Not even in
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Speaker 1: the gaussy days of its prosperity, had the house with
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Speaker 1: the green shutters been so much talked of. Pride will
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Speaker 1: have a down come, said some, with a gleg look
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Speaker 1: and a smack of the lip. Trying to veil their
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Speaker 1: personal malevolence in a common proverb. He simply in debt
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Speaker 1: in every corner, goldered the keener spirits. He never had
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Speaker 1: a brain for business, he said, money for stuffies, unable
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Speaker 1: to deliver not a day gang's by, But the big
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Speaker 1: blue envelopes are coming. How do I ken, say ye?
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Speaker 1: How do I ken? Indeed, oh a ken perfectly perfectly.
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Speaker 1: It was posteum'ssel that telled me. Yet all this was
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Speaker 1: merely guesswork, for Gurli had hitherto gone away from Barby
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Speaker 1: for his moneys and accommodations, so that the bodies could
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Speaker 1: only surmise they had nothing definite to go on, and
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Speaker 1: through it all a girly old fellow kept a brave
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Speaker 1: front to the world. He was thinking of retiring, he said,
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Speaker 1: and gradually drawing in his business this offhand and lordly
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Speaker 1: to hide the patent diminution of his trade. He he said,
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Speaker 1: the old provist with a cruel laugh when he heard
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Speaker 1: of Gurley's remark, drawing in his business eye, it's like
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Speaker 1: langean Lingleton's waist. I'm thinking it's thin enough drawn already's
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Speaker 1: On the morning of the last market day, he was
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Speaker 1: ever to see in Barbie. Old Gurley was standing at
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Speaker 1: the green gate when the postman came up with a
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Speaker 1: smirk and put a letter in his hand. He betrayed
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Speaker 1: a wish to hover in gossip while Gurley opened his letter.
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Speaker 1: But less lip, said Surley, John, and the fellow went away.
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Speaker 1: Ere he had reached the corner, a gowl of anger
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Speaker 1: and grief struck his ear, and he wheeled eagerly. Gurley
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Speaker 1: was standing with open mouth and outstretched arm, staring at
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Speaker 1: the letter in his clenched fist with a look of horror,
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Speaker 1: as if it had stung him. My God, he cried,
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Speaker 1: had I not enough to thole?
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Speaker 2: Aha?
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Speaker 1: Thought posty Yon letter Wilson got this morning was correct?
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Speaker 1: Then his son had sent the true story. That letter
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Speaker 1: O Gurley's had the Edinburgh postmark. Somebody has sent him
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Speaker 1: word about his son. Lord, what a tit bit for
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Speaker 1: my rounds. Missus Gurley, who was washing dishes, looked up
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Speaker 1: to see her husband standing in the kitchen door. His
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Speaker 1: face frightened her. She had often seen the blaze in
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Speaker 1: his eye, and often the dark scowl, but never this
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Speaker 1: bloodless pallor in his cheek. Yet his eyes were flaming. Aye, aye,
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Speaker 1: he burned. A fine job you have made of him?
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Speaker 1: Oh what is it? She quavered, And the dish she
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Speaker 1: was wiping clashed on the floor. That sits, said he,
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Speaker 1: that's it. Break the dishes, next, break the dishes. Everything
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Speaker 1: seems gone to smash. If you keep on lang enough,
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Speaker 1: you'll put a bonny entilt, or you buy it the lotter. Ye.
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Speaker 1: The taunt passed in the anxiety that stormed her. Tell
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Speaker 1: me see, she cried, imperious, in stress of appeal. Oh
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Speaker 1: what is it? John? She stretched out her thin red
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Speaker 1: hands and clasped them tightly before her.
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Speaker 2: Is it from Edinburgh? Is there anything the matter with
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Speaker 2: my boy? Is there anything the matter with my boy?
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Speaker 2: The hard eye surveyed her, awhile, in grim contempt of
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Speaker 2: her weakness, she was a fluttering thing in his grip.
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Speaker 2: Everything's the matter with your boy, he sneered slowly. Everything's
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Speaker 2: the matter with your boy. And it's your fault too,
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Speaker 2: Damn you, for you have always spoilt him. With sudden wrath,
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Speaker 2: he strode over to the famous range and threw the
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Speaker 2: letter within the great fender.
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Speaker 1: What is it? She cried, wheeling round in his wife
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Speaker 1: the son you are so wild about sending to college,
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Speaker 1: has been flung in disgrace from its door. That's what
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Speaker 1: it is. He swept from the house like a madman.
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Speaker 1: Missus Gurley sank into her old nursing chair and wailed, Oh,
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Speaker 1: my waine, my waine, my dear, my poor dear. She
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Speaker 1: drew the letter from the ashes, but could not read
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Speaker 1: it for her tears. The words drunkenness and expulsion swam
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Speaker 1: before her eyes. The manner of his disgrace she did
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Speaker 1: not care to hear. She only knew her first born
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Speaker 1: was in sorrow. Oh my son, my son, she cried,
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Speaker 1: My Laddie, my wee laddie. She was thinking of the
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Speaker 1: time when he trotted at her petticoat. It was market day,
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Speaker 1: and Gurley must face the town. There was interest due
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Speaker 1: in a mortgage which she could not pay. He must
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Speaker 1: swallow his pride and try to borrow it in Barbie.
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Speaker 1: He thought of trying Johnny Coe, for Johnny was of
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Speaker 1: yielding nature and had never been unfriendly. He turned twenty
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Speaker 1: yards from his game and looked at the house with
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Speaker 1: the green shutters. He had often turned to look back
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Speaker 1: with pride at the Gaussy building on its terrace, But
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Speaker 1: never as he looked to day, all that his life
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Speaker 1: meant was bound up in that house. It had been
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Speaker 1: the pride of the girlies. Now it was no longer his,
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Speaker 1: and the Gurli's pride was in the dust, their name
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Speaker 1: a byword. As Gurley looked, a robin was perched on
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Speaker 1: the quiet roof tree, its breast vivid in the sun.
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Speaker 1: One of his metaphors flashed at the sight Shamus sitting
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Speaker 1: there too. He muttered and added, with a proud, angry
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Speaker 1: snarl on the rigging, oh my hoose. He had a
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Speaker 1: triple wrath to his son. He had not only ruined
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Speaker 1: his own life, he had destroyed his father's hope that,
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Speaker 1: by entering the ministry he might restore the Gurly reputation.
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Speaker 1: Above all, he had disgraced the house with the green shutters.
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Speaker 1: That was the crown of his offending. Gurley felt for
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Speaker 1: the house of his pride even more than for himself. Rather,
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Speaker 1: the house was himself. There was no division between them.
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Speaker 1: He had built it bluff to represent him to the world.
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Speaker 1: It was his character in stone and lime. He clung
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Speaker 1: to it as the dull, fierce mind unable to live
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Speaker 1: in thought clings to a material source of pride, and
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Speaker 1: John had disgraced it. Even if fortune took a turn
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Speaker 1: for the better, green Shutters would be laughed at the
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Speaker 1: country over as the home of a prodigal. As he
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Speaker 1: went by the cross, Wilson provised this long while broke
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Speaker 1: off a conversation with templand Muir to yell it's grand weather,
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Speaker 1: mister Gurley. The men had not spoken for years, so
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Speaker 1: to shout at poor Gurley in his black air from
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Speaker 1: the pinnacle of civic greatness was a fine stroke. It
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Speaker 1: was gloating, It was rubbing. In the contrast, the words
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Speaker 1: were innocent, but that was nothing whatever the remark. For
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Speaker 1: a declared enemy to address Gurly in his shame was
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Speaker 1: an insult. That was why Wilson addressed him. There was
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Speaker 1: something in the very loudness of his tones that cried plainly, Aha, Gurly,
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Speaker 1: your son has disgraced you. My man Gurly glowered at
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Speaker 1: the animal and plodded dorely. Ere he had gone ten yards.
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Speaker 1: A coarse laugh came bellowing behind him. They saw the
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Speaker 1: color surge up the back of his neck to the
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Speaker 1: roots of his hair. He stopped was his son's disgrace
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Speaker 1: known in Barbie already. He had hoped to get through
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Speaker 1: the market day without anybody knowing. But Wilson had a
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Speaker 1: son in Edinburgh. He had written it was like the
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Speaker 1: salutation therefore and a laugh had both been uttered in derision.
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Speaker 1: He wheeled, his face black with the passionate blood, his
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Speaker 1: mouth yawed with anger, his voice and a moan of intensity.
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Speaker 1: What are he laughing at? He said, with a mastering quietness. Ey,
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Speaker 1: just tell me, please, what you're laughing at. He was
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Speaker 1: vouching for the grip, his hands out like a gorilla's.
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Speaker 1: The quiet voice from the yawing mouth beneath the steady,
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Speaker 1: flaming eyes was deadly. There is something inhuman in a rage,
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Speaker 1: So still, ay, he said slowly, And the moan seemed
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Speaker 1: to come from the midst of a vast intensity, rather
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Speaker 1: than a human being. It was the question that must
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Speaker 1: grind an answer. Wilson was wishing to all his gods
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Speaker 1: that he had not insulted this awful man. He remembered
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Speaker 1: what had happened to Gibson. This he had heard, was
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Speaker 1: the very voice with which gurly moned, take your hand
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Speaker 1: off my shoutherer ere he hurled Gibson through the window
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Speaker 1: of the Red Lion. Barbie might soon want a new
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Speaker 1: prophist if he ran in now. But there is always
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Speaker 1: one way of evading punishment for a veiled insult, and
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Speaker 1: of adding to its sting. By your evasion repudiate the
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Speaker 1: remotest thought of the protester. Thus you enjoy your previous
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Speaker 1: jibe with the additional pleasure of making your victim seem
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Speaker 1: a fool for thinking you refer to him. You not
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Speaker 1: only insult him on the first count, but send him
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Speaker 1: off with an additional hint that he isn't worth your notice.
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Speaker 1: Wilson was an adept in the art. Man he lied blandly,
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Speaker 1: but his voice was quivering. Man, I wasn't so much
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Speaker 1: as giving ye a thoat. It's very strange if I
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Speaker 1: cannot pass a joke with my old friend templand Muir
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Speaker 1: without you calling me to book. It's a free country.
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Speaker 1: I suppose you weren't in my mind at all. I
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Speaker 1: have more important matters to think of, he ventured to add,
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Speaker 1: seeing he had baffled Gurly, For Gurley was baffled for
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Speaker 1: a director insult and offensive gesture. One fierce word he
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Speaker 1: would have hammered the road with the provst but he
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Speaker 1: was helpless before the bland quivering lie. Maybe they were
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Speaker 1: now referring to him, Maybe they knew nothing of John
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Speaker 1: in Edinburgh. Maybe he had been foolishly suspicious. A subtle
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Speaker 1: yet baffling check was put upon his anger, madman as
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Speaker 1: he was in wrath. He never struck without direct provocation.
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Speaker 1: There was none in this pulpy gentleness. And he was
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Speaker 1: too dull of wit to get round the common ruse
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Speaker 1: and find a means of getting at them. He let
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Speaker 1: loose a great breath through his nostrils, as if releasing
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Speaker 1: a deadly force which he had pent within him. Ready
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Speaker 1: should he need to spring. His mouth opened again, and
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Speaker 1: he gaped at them with a great round, unseeing stare.
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Speaker 1: Then he swung on his heel, but wrath clung round
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Speaker 1: him like a garment. His anger fed on its uncertainties.
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Speaker 1: For that is the beauty of the Wilson method of insult.
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Speaker 1: You leave the poison in your victim's blood, and he
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Speaker 1: torments himself. Was Wilson referring to me? After all? He
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Speaker 1: pondered slowly, and his body surged at the thought. If
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Speaker 1: he was, I have let him get away unkilled, and
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Speaker 1: he clutched the hands. Whence Wilson had hiss escaped. Suddenly
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Speaker 1: a flashing thought stopped him dead in the middle of
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Speaker 1: his walk, Staring hornily before him. He had seen the
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Speaker 1: point at last, that a quicker man would have seized
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Speaker 1: on it the first. Why had Wilson thrust his damned
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Speaker 1: voice on him on this particular morning, of all days
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Speaker 1: in the year, if he was not gloating over some
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Speaker 1: news which he had just heard about the Gurleys. It
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Speaker 1: was as plain as daylight. His son had sent word
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Speaker 1: from Edinburgh. That was why he brayed and ho ho
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Speaker 1: hoed when Gurley went by. Gurley felt a great flutter
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Speaker 1: of pulsies against his collar. There was a pain in
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Speaker 1: his throat, an ache of madness in his breast. He
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Speaker 1: turned once more, but Wilson and the templar had withdrawn
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Speaker 1: discreetly to the black bull. The street was in a canny.
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Speaker 1: Gurley resumed his way as being a dumb gowl of rage.
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Speaker 1: His angry thoughts swept to John. Each insult and fancied insult.
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Speaker 1: He endured that day was another item in the long
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Speaker 1: account of vengeance with his son. It was John who
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Speaker 1: had brought all his flaming round his ears, John, whose
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Speaker 1: colleging he had lippened to so muckle. The staff in
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Speaker 1: which he leaned had pierced him by the eternal heavens.
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Speaker 1: He would tramp it into atoms. His legs felt John
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Speaker 1: beneath them. As the market grew busy, Gurley was the
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Speaker 1: aim of innumerable eyes. He would turn his head to
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Speaker 1: find himself the object of a queer, considering look. Then
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Speaker 1: the eyes of the starer would flutter abashed, as though
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Speaker 1: detected spying the forbidden. The most innocent look at him
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Speaker 1: was poison. Do they know? Was his constant thought, Have
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Speaker 1: they heard the news? What's Laura and Ogi looking at
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Speaker 1: me like that? For? Not a man ventured to address
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Speaker 1: him about John. He had cowed them too long. One man, however,
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Speaker 1: showed a wish to try a pretended sympathy from behind
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Speaker 1: A veil of which you probe a man's anguis should
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Speaker 1: your ease is a favorite weapon of human beasts anxious
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Speaker 1: to wound. The deacon longed to try it and Gurley,
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Speaker 1: but his courage failed him. It was the only time
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Speaker 1: he was ever worsted in malignity. Never a man went
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Speaker 1: forth bowed down with a recent shame, wounded and wincing
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Speaker 1: from the public gaze. But that old rogue hurpled up
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Speaker 1: to him and lisped with false smoothness, thirce me, neighbor,
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Speaker 1: I am sorry for ye. This is a terrible affair,
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Speaker 1: ye though everybody's tongue. But ye have my sympathy, neighbor,
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Speaker 1: Ye have that my warmeth sympathy. And all the while
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Speaker 1: the shifty eyes above the lying mouth would peer and
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Speaker 1: probe to see if the soul within the other was
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Speaker 1: writhing at his words. Now, though everybody was spying at
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Speaker 1: Gurley in the market, all were giving him a wide berth,
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Speaker 1: for they knew that he was dangerous. He was no
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Speaker 1: longer the man whom they had baited on the way
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Speaker 1: to ski him. Then he had some control. Now three
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Speaker 1: years come lamities had fretted his temper to a raw
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Speaker 1: wound to flick. It was perilous. Great was the surprise
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Speaker 1: of the starers. Therefore, when the idle old deacon was
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Speaker 1: seen to detach himself and hail the great merchant, Gurley
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Speaker 1: wheeled and waited with a leveled eye. All were agg
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Speaker 1: at the sight. Something would be sure to come with
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Speaker 1: this here would be an encounter worth the speaking o'
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Speaker 1: But the deacon, having toddled forward a bittock on his
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Speaker 1: thin shanks, stopped half roads, took snuff, trumpeted into his
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Speaker 1: big red handkerchief, and then, feebly waving a'l thie again,
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Speaker 1: chewing clean, turned tail, and toddled back to his cronies.
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Speaker 1: A roar went up at his expense, God, said Tom Wiley,
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Speaker 1: did ye see yawn? Gurley stopped him by a glour,
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Speaker 1: But the laugh was maddening to Gurley. Its readiness, its
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Speaker 1: volume showed him that scores of folk had him in
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Speaker 1: their minds, were watching him, considering his position. Cognizant of
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Speaker 1: where he stood, they ken He thought they were all
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Speaker 1: waiting to see what would happen. They wanted to watch
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Speaker 1: how Gurley thold the men should know his son's disgrace,
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Speaker 1: and a kinder show to them. Johnny Coe, idle and
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Speaker 1: well to pass, though he had no business of his
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Speaker 1: own to attend to, was always present where business men assembled.
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Speaker 1: It was a grand way of getting news to day. However,
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Speaker 1: Gurley could not find him. He went into the cattle
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Speaker 1: mark to see if you was there. For two years
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Speaker 1: now Barbie had a market for cattle. On the first
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Speaker 1: Tuesday of the month. The auctioneer, a jovial dog, was
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Speaker 1: in the middle of his roaring game. A big red bullock,
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Speaker 1: the coat of which made a rich color in the ring,
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Speaker 1: came bounding in, scared at its surroundings, staring one moment
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Speaker 1: and the next careering. There's meat for you, said he
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Speaker 1: of the hammer. See how it runs. How much have
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Speaker 1: I offered for this fine bullock? He sing songed, always
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Speaker 1: saying this fine bullock in exactly the same tone of voice.
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Speaker 1: Thirteen pounds for this fine bullock, thirteen five, thirteen ten,
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Speaker 1: thirteen ten for this fine bullock, thirteen ten, Any further
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Speaker 1: bids in thirteen ten, Why it's worth that for the
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Speaker 1: color arts, thank'e sir, thirteen fifteen, fourteen pounds, fourteen pounds
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Speaker 1: for this fine bullock. See how the stout stots about
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Speaker 1: the ring. That joke should raise him another half. Sovereign
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Speaker 1: AH knew it would fourteen five, fourteen five for this
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Speaker 1: fine bullock, fourteen ten, No more than fourteen ten for
18:37
Speaker 1: this fine bullock. Going at fourteen ten, gone erynd Davy,
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Speaker 1: Now that he was in the circle. However, the mad, big,
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Speaker 1: handsome beast refused to go out again. When the cattleman
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Speaker 1: would drive him to the yard, he snorted and galloped
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Speaker 1: round till he had to be driven from the ring
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Speaker 1: with blows. When at last he bounded through the door,
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Speaker 1: he flung up his heels with a bellow, and sent
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Speaker 1: the sand of his arena showering on the people round.
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Speaker 1: I say, roared Brody in his coarsest voice, from the
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Speaker 1: side of the ring opposite to Gourley. I say, out, Schineer,
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Speaker 1: that mun be a college bred stot from the way
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Speaker 1: he behaves. He flung dirt at his master's and had
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Speaker 1: to be expelled. Put Brody in the ring and ripe him,
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Speaker 1: cried Inn and Davy. He rose like a bill. At
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Speaker 1: any rate. There was a laugh at Brody, true, But
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Speaker 1: it was at Gourley that a hundred big red faces
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Speaker 1: turned to look. He did not look at them, though
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Speaker 1: he sent his eyes across the ring at Brody, lords
19:38
Speaker 1: said Dorn Davy. It's wheel for Brody that the rings
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Speaker 1: sequeish them. Gurley, I'll murder somebody. Yet Red Hell lap
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Speaker 1: out at his en when he looked at Brody. Gurley's
19:49
Speaker 1: suspicion that his son's disgrace was a matter of common knowledge,
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Speaker 1: had now become a certainty. Brody's taunt showed that everybody
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Speaker 1: knew it. He walked out of the building very quiet,
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Speaker 1: pale but resolute, no meanness in his carriage, no cowering.
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Speaker 1: He was now resting figure of a man. As he
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Speaker 1: stood for a moment in the door and looked round
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Speaker 1: for the man whom he was seeking, weal Wiel. He
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Speaker 1: was thinking, am thole. I suppose they were under my
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Speaker 1: feet for many a day and are taking our advantage now.
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Speaker 1: But though he could thole, his anger against John was
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Speaker 1: none the less. It was because they had been under
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Speaker 1: his feet for many a day that John's conduct was
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Speaker 1: the more heinous. It was his son's conduct that gave
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Speaker 1: Gurley's enemies their first opportunity against him, that enabled him
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Speaker 1: to turn the tables. They might sneer at his trollop
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Speaker 1: of a wife. They might sneer at his want of
20:44
Speaker 1: mere cleverness. Still he held his head high amongst them.
20:48
Speaker 1: They might suspect his poverty, but so far for anything
20:51
Speaker 1: they knew he might have thousands behind him, he owed
20:55
Speaker 1: not a man in Barbie. The appointments of green Shutters
20:58
Speaker 1: were as brave as ever. The selling of his horses
21:02
Speaker 1: the dismissal of his men might mean the completion of
21:04
Speaker 1: a fortune, not its loss. Hitherto then he was invulnerable,
21:10
Speaker 1: So he reasoned, it was his son's disgrace that gave
21:13
Speaker 1: the men he had trodden under foot the first weapon
21:16
Speaker 1: they could use against him. That was why it was
21:18
Speaker 1: more damnable in Girley's eyes than the conduct of all
21:22
Speaker 1: the prodigals that ever lived. It had enabled his foes
21:25
Speaker 1: to get their knife into him at last, and they
21:27
Speaker 1: were turning the dagger in the wound, all owing to
21:31
Speaker 1: the boy on whom he had staked such hopes of
21:33
Speaker 1: keeping up the Girly name. His account with john was
21:37
Speaker 1: lengthening steadily. Ko was nowhere to be seen. At last,
21:42
Speaker 1: Gurley made up his mind to go out and make
21:44
Speaker 1: inquiries at his house out the Flecky Road. It was
21:48
Speaker 1: a quiet, big house standing by itself, and Gurley was
21:52
Speaker 1: glad there was nobody to see him. It was miss
21:55
Speaker 1: Coe herself who answered his knock at the door. She
21:59
Speaker 1: was a withered old shrew with fifty times the spunk
22:02
Speaker 1: of Johnny on her thin wrists and long hands. There
22:05
Speaker 1: was always a pair of bright red mittens, only her
22:08
Speaker 1: finger tips, showing her far sunken and toothless mouth was
22:12
Speaker 1: always working with a sucking motion of the lips, and
22:15
Speaker 1: her round little knob of a sticking out chin munched
22:18
Speaker 1: up and down when she spoke, a long, stiff, whitish
22:22
Speaker 1: hair slanting out its middle. However much she wished to
22:26
Speaker 1: avoid doing so, you could not keep your eyes from
22:28
Speaker 1: staring at that solitary hair while she was addressing you.
22:32
Speaker 1: It worked up and down, so keeping time to every
22:34
Speaker 1: word she spoke. Is your brother in? Said Gurli. He
22:39
Speaker 1: was too near reality in this sad pass of his
22:42
Speaker 1: to think of mistering. Is your brother in? Said he?
22:46
Speaker 1: No Ah, she shrilled for. Miss co answered questions with
22:50
Speaker 1: an old maidish scream, as if the news she was
22:53
Speaker 1: giving must be a great surprise both to you and her.
22:56
Speaker 1: No Ah, she scurled. He's noah in Ah. Was it
22:59
Speaker 1: a anything particular? No, said Gurley heavily. I I just
23:05
Speaker 1: wanted to see him, and he trudged away. Miss Cole
23:09
Speaker 1: looked after him for a moment ere she closed the door.
23:12
Speaker 1: He's wanting to barrow money, she cried, I'm nearly sure.
23:17
Speaker 1: I'm on cautioned Johnny, when he comes back through Flecky,
23:20
Speaker 1: afore he gangs east the tune Gurley could get him
23:24
Speaker 1: to do ocht. He always admired the brute. I'm sure
23:27
Speaker 1: I kenna why because he's sick in a silly body himself.
23:31
Speaker 1: I suppose it was after dark when Gurley met Coe
23:35
Speaker 1: in the street. He drew him aside in the shadows
23:38
Speaker 1: and asked for a loan of eighty pounds. Johnny stammered
23:42
Speaker 1: her refusal. Off the Bobby's is mine, his sister had
23:46
Speaker 1: scurled and adore youated do you any sicken thing, John Cole.
23:51
Speaker 1: It's only for a time, pleaded Gurley, and by god
23:54
Speaker 1: he flashed, it's hell in my throat to ask from
23:57
Speaker 1: any man. No, no, mister, Gourley, said Johnny, It's quite impossible.
24:02
Speaker 1: I've always looked up to ye, and I'm not unwilling
24:04
Speaker 1: to obligee. But I cannot take the risk risk, said Gurley,
24:08
Speaker 1: and stared at the darkness. By hooker, by crook. He
24:11
Speaker 1: must raise the money to save the house with the
24:13
Speaker 1: green shutters. It was no use trying the bank. He
24:17
Speaker 1: had a letter from a banker in his desk to
24:19
Speaker 1: tell him that his account was overdrawn, and yet if
24:23
Speaker 1: the interest were not paid at once, the lawyers in
24:25
Speaker 1: Glasgow would foreclose and the girlies would be flung upon
24:28
Speaker 1: the street. His proud soul must eat dirt if need be,
24:32
Speaker 1: for the sake of eighty pounds. If I get the
24:35
Speaker 1: Baker or Tam Wyley to stand security, he asked, would
24:38
Speaker 1: ye not oblige me? I think they would do it.
24:41
Speaker 1: I've always felt they respected me, well, said Johnny, slowly,
24:45
Speaker 1: fearing his sister's anger. If YE get the Baker and
24:48
Speaker 1: Tam Wiley for security, I'll be in the street for
24:51
Speaker 1: another half hour. A figure muffled in a greatcoat was
24:55
Speaker 1: seen stealing off through the shadows. God's curse on whoever
24:59
Speaker 1: that is, snarled Gurley, creeping up to listen to our talk.
25:03
Speaker 1: I don't think so, said Johnny. It seemed a young
25:06
Speaker 1: chap trying to hide himself. Gurley failed to get his securities.
25:12
Speaker 1: The Baker, though a poor man, would have stood for
25:14
Speaker 1: him if Tam Wiley would have joined. But Tam would
25:17
Speaker 1: not budge. He was as clean as gray granite and
25:21
Speaker 1: as hard. So Gurley trudged home through the darkness. Beaten
25:26
Speaker 1: at last, mad with shame and anger and foreboding. The
25:30
Speaker 1: first thing he saw in entering the kitchen was his son,
25:34
Speaker 1: sitting muffled in his coat by the great fender. End
25:41
Speaker 1: of chapter twenty four.