Latest / The Black Cat and other Short Stories / Black Cat Vol. 03 No. 01 October 1897-Various

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Black Cat Vol. 03 No. 01 October 1897-Various · The Black Cat and other Short Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section one of The Black Cat, Volume three, number one,
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  Speaker 1: October eighteen ninety seven. This is a librevox recording. All
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  Speaker 1: Librevox recordings earned the public domain. For more information or
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit librevox dot org. Read by Julie
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  Speaker 1: Burkes The Black Cat, Volume three, number one, October eighteen
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  Speaker 1: ninety seven, Section one, His Millionaire Client by Sally pate Steen.
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  Speaker 1: When the Government committed the crime of ninety three, in
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  Speaker 1: other words, when the Cherokee Strip was opened for settlement,
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  Speaker 1: Russell Greer made the run. He succeeded in reaching and
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  Speaker 1: holding down for two days and a night a town lot,
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  Speaker 1: which afterwards proved to be in the middle of one
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  Speaker 1: of the principal thoroughfares of a city of the future. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: his concern was very much with the present. He had
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  Speaker 1: come west with the hackneyed resolve to make many, and,
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  Speaker 1: in strip parlance, to make it quick. Incidentally, he intended
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  Speaker 1: to practice law. Having failed in his primary ambition, he
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  Speaker 1: hung out his shingle for two years, owing to prompt
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  Speaker 1: failures to pay office rent. He was never able to
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  Speaker 1: regard that sign as a fixture. During that time he
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  Speaker 1: had watched the town widen and spread until it crystallized,
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  Speaker 1: a blotch of supreme ugliness upon the prairie. He had
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  Speaker 1: lived through with considerable philosophy, a railroad fight, a town
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  Speaker 1: site war, a county seat squabble, and the petering out
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  Speaker 1: of the land office practice. In experience he was rich. Financially,
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  Speaker 1: he was reduced to the possession of some sticks of
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  Speaker 1: office furniture, a depleted wardrobe, and the aforesaid sign, which,
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  Speaker 1: as the owner of his shack informed him, would on
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  Speaker 1: the morrow, flutter elsewhere. Beyond these effects, his own only
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  Speaker 1: remaining resource was the unpunched number of a meal ticket,
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  Speaker 1: which had otherwise taken on the appearance of a sieve,
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  Speaker 1: one more meal, one more night's lodgings, and then chaos.
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  Speaker 1: It was while he was taking this pitiful account of
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  Speaker 1: stock that the young lawyer's mind reverted inappropriately enough to
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  Speaker 1: address suit at the bottom of his trunk to the
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  Speaker 1: last time he had worn it, to something whispered behind
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  Speaker 1: an epurn of American beauty roses, his last dinner, as
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  Speaker 1: far as his prospects pointed in the strip. For two
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  Speaker 1: years he had hesitated to destroy the iridescent tissue, which
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  Speaker 1: during that time he had been carefully weaving in letters
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  Speaker 1: to relatives and friends. But pride had its limits. These limits,
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  Speaker 1: in his case, had been reached. Greer decided until he
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  Speaker 1: reflected that nothing insures a man's reticence at long range
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  Speaker 1: like the want of a postage stamp, or of the
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  Speaker 1: amount of charging on a telegram. Tomorrow, he might even
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  Speaker 1: be capable of sending one collect In the meantime, he
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  Speaker 1: turned to his desk and began picking phrases with a
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  Speaker 1: view to that contingency. Are you running this shop? The
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  Speaker 1: question came as though from the skies he had not
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  Speaker 1: heard any one enter. A man stood over him, darkening
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  Speaker 1: the daylight, before Grear was aware of his presence. As
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  Speaker 1: the young lawyer glanced up, he started with a strange
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  Speaker 1: rigor of repulsion, For there was that in his visitor's face, which,
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  Speaker 1: to his fellow man was a warning. Not that he
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  Speaker 1: was a typical Western rough There was nothing in his
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  Speaker 1: appearance of the cowboy, the bandit, or the train robber,
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  Speaker 1: those fruitful subjects for magazine illustration. Even the bluntness of
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  Speaker 1: his speech was a thin disguise, as Greer afterwards learned,
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  Speaker 1: and one that he was continually dropping but the oblique
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  Speaker 1: and sinister arch of his brows, the cruel backward curl
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  Speaker 1: of his lips from his teeth, the fierce yet shifty
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  Speaker 1: glance of his eye, all these betrayed him. I don't
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  Speaker 1: suppose you've ever seen me before, he said, dropping into
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  Speaker 1: a chair. But i've heard you speak at one or
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  Speaker 1: two political meetings, and I like the way you talked.
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  Speaker 1: I happen to want a lawyer's opinion about a little matter.
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  Speaker 1: I suppose it's customary to doe up beforehand. Greer replied
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  Speaker 1: that he believed a fee was necessary. His visitor glanced
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  Speaker 1: at the meal ticket, which still lay on the table,
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  Speaker 1: as he took out two tens and a five from
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  Speaker 1: a fat pocket book and placed them beside the ticket.
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  Speaker 1: And now, he said, drawing himself up with a subtle
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  Speaker 1: change of manner, about the obligations of this here retainer.
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  Speaker 1: As I understand it, you're not only bound to defend
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  Speaker 1: my interest, but there's to be no going over to
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  Speaker 1: the other side and no talking. If I accept it,
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  Speaker 1: Grea returned curtly, for he did not relish his client's
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  Speaker 1: manner and failed to appreciate his instructions on legal ethics.
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  Speaker 1: And then he stopped suddenly as the meal ticket caught
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  Speaker 1: his eye. The other laughed as Mephistopheles might have laughed
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  Speaker 1: at Faust. If you accept it, then he said, while
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  Speaker 1: you were making up your mind to accept it, I'll
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  Speaker 1: put the case. Suppose a man had fled from his
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  Speaker 1: native state to escape the penalty of a crime. Suppose that,
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  Speaker 1: after some years had passed, a fortune were left him.
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  Speaker 1: Is there no way for him to claim it without
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  Speaker 1: risking his safety? Could it be made over to some
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  Speaker 1: other person? Could it be seized ostensibly for debt? Is
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  Speaker 1: there no possible means, no legal quirk or quibble by
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  Speaker 1: which an outlaw as well as another man could come
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  Speaker 1: at what is honestly his own Just why Greer could
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  Speaker 1: never explain, But at that moment there flashed into his
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  Speaker 1: mind the recollection of a letter that he had received
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  Speaker 1: that morning. It was simply one of those periodical enquiries
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  Speaker 1: after fugitives from justice which are sent out at intervals
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  Speaker 1: by certain law associations. With his mind filled with the
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  Speaker 1: name of the particular criminal sought, he turned to the
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  Speaker 1: man before him. Before I could give you anything like
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  Speaker 1: a reliable opinion, mister Pennington, he began and never finished,
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  Speaker 1: for with a white rage of fear and horror in
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  Speaker 1: his face, the man sprang toward him. Damn you, what
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  Speaker 1: do you mean by calling me by that name? He gasped.
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  Speaker 1: It was by God's mercy that the young lawyer had
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  Speaker 1: his revolver out before the other. As it was the
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  Speaker 1: man stopped with the pistol barrel between his eyes, panting
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  Speaker 1: like a mad dog. I failed to understand you, Grere said,
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  Speaker 1: when he had found his voice. But there's no necessity
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  Speaker 1: for giving yourself away. If you will sit down, I
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  Speaker 1: will show you the letter which was in my mind
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  Speaker 1: when I called or miscalled your name. It contains a
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  Speaker 1: printed slip which has probably been sent out every year
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  Speaker 1: since Charles J. Pennington escaped from the state of California
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  Speaker 1: under a death sentence for murder. Greer extended the letter
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  Speaker 1: in his left hand, still holding the pistol in his right.
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  Speaker 1: The other read it, wiping the cold drops from his face.
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  Speaker 1: And now the lawyer went on taking up the money
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  Speaker 1: which still lay on the desk. This little affair has
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  Speaker 1: quite decided me. I accept your retainer and consider myself
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  Speaker 1: bound by the utmost stringency of the act doubly bound
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  Speaker 1: by the consequences of my own blunder. As for my
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  Speaker 1: addressing you by the name mentioned in that letter, I
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  Speaker 1: give you my word of honor as a man and
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  Speaker 1: a lawyer, that I can no more explain it than
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  Speaker 1: you can. Your statement of a case in which a
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  Speaker 1: criminal was concerned reminded me of the letter which you
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  Speaker 1: hold in your hand. I unconsciously addressed you by the
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  Speaker 1: name mentioned in that letter. That is absolutely all that
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  Speaker 1: I can tell you. His client's face relaxed as he listened.
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  Speaker 1: There's no use denying that I've made a fool of myself,
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  Speaker 1: he said, sullenly, that you'd have to know sooner or
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  Speaker 1: later that I am the man who would inherit the
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  Speaker 1: money if there wasn't a good reason for my not
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  Speaker 1: claiming it. I was a boy of twenty when I
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  Speaker 1: got into trouble about a woman, A woman too with
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  Speaker 1: a sneer that I wonder now I ever looked at.
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  Speaker 1: But that's neither here nor there. There's no use in
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  Speaker 1: raking up the past. I don't want your opinion about it,
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  Speaker 1: for it wouldn't help me. What I do want to
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  Speaker 1: know is about this money. I must have it. It
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  Speaker 1: is mine. My old father spent his life, aye an
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  Speaker 1: shortened it in hoarding up the dollars. There was but
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  Speaker 1: one thing he loved better, and that was his son,
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  Speaker 1: who stood in the shadow of the gallows. He left
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  Speaker 1: the money to me to keep the noose from my neck.
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  Speaker 1: But he overrated the power of his man. He thought
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  Speaker 1: it could do anything. But I know better. I know
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  Speaker 1: that if I ever set foot within the state of
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  Speaker 1: California or its laws ever reached me, I'll swing, and
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  Speaker 1: I'll not throw away a cent in fighting the corps. No, sir,
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  Speaker 1: I'll take my chances, a short life and a merry one.
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  Speaker 1: I've managed to dodge the law for ten years, and
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  Speaker 1: I'll risk dodging it a while. Now. Let me tell you.
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  Speaker 1: His eyes glittered. He leaned over the desk and dropped
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  Speaker 1: his voice to a husky whisper. This is no small deal.
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  Speaker 1: There's a cool million waitin in the city of San
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  Speaker 1: Francisco for Charles Pennington to claim it. You contrive some
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  Speaker 1: way for him to get it without risking his neck,
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  Speaker 1: and the day it is handed over to him, a
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  Speaker 1: third of it is yours. Greer caught his breath. Wait
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  Speaker 1: a minute, he said, let me think it over. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not accustomed to receive such an offer more than once
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  Speaker 1: a year. An It rattles me the third of a million.
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  Speaker 1: It made his head swim as he paced the floor.
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  Speaker 1: A dozen wild schemes were revolving in his brain. To
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  Speaker 1: be sure his client was an outlaw, a criminal, a murderer.
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  Speaker 1: But with these phases of his career, he had nothing
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  Speaker 1: to do. He was pledged to his interest. He had
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  Speaker 1: not been employed by the great state of California to
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  Speaker 1: apprehend the man. The money, moreover, was honestly his own,
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  Speaker 1: the hands of his dead father held it out to him.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, Greer was already beginning to entertain the remarkable
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  Speaker 1: opinion that a criminal naturally stood in greater need of
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  Speaker 1: two thirds of a million than did an honest man.
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  Speaker 1: Pausing in his study, the lawyer faced his client. Have
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  Speaker 1: you a wife, he asked abruptly. He was unprepared for
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  Speaker 1: the dark flush that swept across his companion's face. It's
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  Speaker 1: best to be perfectly frank with you, the lawyer went on.
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  Speaker 1: There's just one chance in a thousand of gets the money,
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  Speaker 1: and that chance would be through your wife. I'll have
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  Speaker 1: no risks taken so far as she is concerned, the
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  Speaker 1: other said, roughly, there would be none. Let her make
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  Speaker 1: out a case of inexcusable abandonment against you, and by
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  Speaker 1: the laws of the state, she can claimed the money,
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  Speaker 1: the whole of it, probably if she can sustain charges
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  Speaker 1: of extreme cruelty on your part. Her ignorance of your
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  Speaker 1: whereabouts would simply bear out her statements. There was no answer.
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  Speaker 1: The man had risen, and, with his back turned, stared
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  Speaker 1: moodily out of the window. Struck by his sudden change
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  Speaker 1: from red hot enthusiasm to apparent indifference, greer ventured another question.
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  Speaker 1: I am supposing, of course, that she is aware of
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  Speaker 1: your hampered condition. She is, he answered curtly. The risk
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  Speaker 1: then would be yours alone. There could be none personally
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  Speaker 1: for her if she is clever. Pardon me, I use
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  Speaker 1: the word in a legal sense, simply cool. Shrewd determined
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  Speaker 1: the danger for you is reduced to a minimum. Still
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  Speaker 1: no answer. His listener stood obstinately silent, his broad shoulders
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  Speaker 1: shutting out the light from the dusky pains. The man's
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  Speaker 1: flem nettled his companion, whose nerves were still tingling from
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  Speaker 1: the late encounter. You will understand, he said testily that
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  Speaker 1: I am not urging this upon you. I have given
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  Speaker 1: you my opinion and been paid for it. Very well.
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  Speaker 1: We are quits. If you are not satisfied, some other
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  Speaker 1: lawyer may please you with a better I should decline
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  Speaker 1: to conduct the case on any other lines than those
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  Speaker 1: I have mentioned. I am not particularly anxious to hand
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  Speaker 1: this story around from one law office to another, said
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  Speaker 1: Pennington savagely. A final decision, moreover, does not rest altogether
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  Speaker 1: with me. I live about ten miles from town. If
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  Speaker 1: you will ride out with me some afternoon, we can
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  Speaker 1: talk the matter over. He spoke, with his hand upon
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  Speaker 1: the doorknob. Before gear could intimate that to go to
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  Speaker 1: the house of a client for consultation would be hardly professional,
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  Speaker 1: he had nodded curtly and was gone. Now, setting legal
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  Speaker 1: etiquette aside. The prospect of being drawn into anything like
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  Speaker 1: social relations with his client was far from agreeable to Greer.
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  Speaker 1: Some murderers were, no doubt pleasant and entertaining gentlemen, but
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  Speaker 1: this particular outlaw laid claim to no such distinctions, and
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  Speaker 1: the lawyer was haunted moreover by a lurking suspicion that
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  Speaker 1: the fact of his having in a manner forced the
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  Speaker 1: other's confidence, had not raised him in that person's esteem. Naturally,
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  Speaker 1: he went to bed that night with no very pleasant anticipations,
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  Speaker 1: nor were his forebodings lessened when the next afternoon Pennington
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  Speaker 1: rode up to the office, leading by the bridle and
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  Speaker 1: extra saddle horse. Greer had counted on at least a
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  Speaker 1: few day days of reflection before going home with his client,
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  Speaker 1: and was in his mind to Poulter to put him off,
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  Speaker 1: to refuse, point blank, if necessary, to accompany him. But
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  Speaker 1: there was that in Pennington's habitual sneer as he addressed
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  Speaker 1: his lawyer, which the latter chose to construe as a
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  Speaker 1: challenge to his courage, and he was young enough to
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  Speaker 1: meet it. So he went back into the office, ostensibly
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  Speaker 1: to look around and lock up, and came back carrying
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  Speaker 1: in his hip pocket the revolver that had stood him
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  Speaker 1: in such good stead the day before. Even then, he
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  Speaker 1: felt disconcerted at first to read in the eye of
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  Speaker 1: his prospective host that he was as well aware of
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  Speaker 1: the concealed weapon as was its owner. But once he
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  Speaker 1: had left the town behind him, his spirits rose with
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  Speaker 1: every stride of his good horse, on such a day,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: it was not in his blood to cherish forebodings. Little
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  Speaker 1: by little he he yielded himself to that charm of
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: which those who have never seen the prairies in early
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  Speaker 1: spring can know nothing, The pale, severe charm of the
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  Speaker 1: gray monochrome of dead grasses breaking here and there into
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  Speaker 1: spots and flecks of vivid green, of the misty sweep
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  Speaker 1: of an april day, of the wild floating melancholy of
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  Speaker 1: the meadowlark's call. Naturally, the presence of his silent companion
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: added nothing to Greer's enjoyment of the ride, But the
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  Speaker 1: latter felt no weariness when they drew rein before a long,
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  Speaker 1: low sod house of the sort common to this country,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and an outward appearance undistinguishable from half a dozen they
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  Speaker 1: had passed already. But the room into which he was
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: ushered appeared, even at first glance, vastly different from that
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  Speaker 1: of the average strip dweller. Its walls had been carefully cemented,
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  Speaker 1: their dull gray plaster for an artistic background for the
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: two or three fine etchings that adorned them. The floor
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: was covered by a dull hued oriental rug, A wide
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  Speaker 1: low couch stood in one corner, a grand piano in another.
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  Speaker 1: There was a well filled bookcase and a round table
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  Speaker 1: littered with magazines and papers. An open wood fire burned
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  Speaker 1: on the hearth, and some prairie flowers in a big
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: wedgewood bowl scented the warm air. So conventional, indeed were
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  Speaker 1: the room's appointments that Greer might have turned his back
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  Speaker 1: to the windows and imagined himself in the morning room
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: of a Fifth Avenue residence. All these observations the young
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  Speaker 1: lawyer found time for during the absence of his host, who,
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  Speaker 1: with a muttered excuse, had disappeared into the adjoining room.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: But he had hardly recovered from the surprise produced by
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  Speaker 1: his surroundings when Pennington returned, accompanied by a woman, the
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  Speaker 1: first glimpse of whom awakened an added sense of wonderment.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: This time, however, he could no more have described the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: beauty of the woman whose entrance so affected him than
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  Speaker 1: he could have analyzed the charm of her presence. Indeed,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: his only coherent impressions were those of horror that she
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: should be mated with the man beside her, and of
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: quickened aversion for Pennington, feelings which he lay to the
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: charge of the sudden, subtle change in the demeanor of
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: his host. He had always distrusted the manner that can
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: be put off and on like a loose glove, And
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: in Pennington's bearing there was a spurious fineness, an easy
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: assumption of gallantry, amazing as proof of his powers of acting,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: but which left his visitor still convinced of the brutality
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: of the man's real nature. At the same time he
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: was bewildered by his conflicting impressions. It was especially hard
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: to reconcile this man's evident passion for the woman beside him,
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  Speaker 1: with the wolfish suspicion which darkened his occasional furtive glance
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  Speaker 1: at her downcast face. There was a tenseness in the
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: very atmosphere, and when, in obedience to Pennington's bland suggestion,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: the three seated themselves at the table for consultation, Grear
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: felt himself possessed by a grim fancy that he was
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: playing a game in which the stakes were not declared,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: and whose end he could but fearfully forecast. In the beginning,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: he had intended simply to hold his own and watch
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the players, but already his interest had grown too intense
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: for an attitude so passive. It was only after they
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: had seated themselves that he learned with some surprise that
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: their plan of action had not been disclosed to the
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: woman on whom so much depended, his client, stating with
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  Speaker 1: a sardonic smile that he thought it best for the
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  Speaker 1: lawyer to explain his own theories. Afterward, Greer wondered if
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  Speaker 1: the man had assumed this neutral role for the purpose
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  Speaker 1: of gaging the effect of the explanation upon the third
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  Speaker 1: member of the council. While going through it, however, he
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  Speaker 1: felt conscious only of a feeling of embarrassment, for the
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: woman's beauty bewildered him, and the presence of the man,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: who sat watching them with sinister, half shut eyes did
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  Speaker 1: not add to his self possession. But it was not
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  Speaker 1: until her first question that he forgot his promised third
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  Speaker 1: of a million and went blindly over to her side
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  Speaker 1: of the game. And my identity, she said, with a
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  Speaker 1: strange hesitation. Will there be no trouble about that? The
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  Speaker 1: lawyer shook his head. As mister Pennington's wife, he replied,
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  Speaker 1: you will have no difficulty about that. Your marriage certificate
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: as affirmative proof, would be sufficient no sooner were the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: words spoken than Greer longed to recall them, even if
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  Speaker 1: she deserved it. He disliked to see a woman's suffer,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and pitted against the sudden, pained flush of that exquisite face,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: the purchasing power of his client's inheritance had been overrated.
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  Speaker 1: There was a dull silence, during which he felt his
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  Speaker 1: head going Finally, the abandonment scheme, he said, with a gulp,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: wondering meantime at the steadiness of his own voice, has,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: after all its weak points. An altogether different idea presented
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: itself after mister Pennington had left me last night. The
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: execution of a power of attorney enabling you to act
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: in his stead would be far more feasible, although his
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: signature might have to be identified, which can be done
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: broke in the subject of their discussion with great excitement.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: The attorney who drew up my father's will can swear
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: to it. The only objection, then is removed as a
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: matter of precaution, however, that this power of attorney should
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: be acknowledged in some state or territory as far as
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: possible from your place of residence, say in Texas, say
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in Mexico. You don't want to furnish a clue to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: your enemies. No, by God, the other cried, bringing his
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: hand down upon the table. But it is a good scheme,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: an excellent scheme. Let me see if you have grasped it, Anita,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: And as the speaker bent toward her, Greer fancied that
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: he saw in the man's eyes that lurking devil of distrust.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: We start for Mexico, the lawyer. You and I, armed
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: with your power of attorney, and accompanied by our legal adviser.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Here you go on to California to claim my inheritance
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: for me. When you return with a million, we can
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: put half the world between us and this cursed dread
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: of discovery. But you are forgetting the terrible risk, she said,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: in a low tone. Do not make me a party
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: to it. I beseech you let the money go. Why
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: should you care for it as compared to your safety.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: As the pleading sweetness of her voice and eyes sank
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: into his own mind, Greer did not wonder that doubts
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: seemed to die out of his clients. Apparently. His next words, however,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: were uttered with a view to forcing some further expression
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of feeling from her. For He turned to the lawyer
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: with a sort of reckless triumph, and asked when he
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: could be ready to start next week tomorrow the day after. Whereupon,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: moved by the pale despair in the woman's face, the
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: young attorney made his first move in the strange game.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: He said that it would be impossible for him to
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: leave within a fortnight his clients. His practice must be considered,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: at which Pennington laughed coarsely, declaring that after dinner and
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: a bottle, the young lawyer would be willing to leave
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: his distended practice to take care of itself with a
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: million in sight. Then, with a great show of hospitality,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: he left the room, as he said, to look after
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the wine. But no sooner had the door closed behind him,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and the sound of his footsteps died away than Greer
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: was made to realize how strangely he had mistaken his
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: other companions. Lead Rising from her chair, she came swiftly
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: and noiselessly to his side, and, placing her cool hand
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: upon his shoulder, gazed intently into his astonished eyes. We
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: start the day after tomorrow, she said, in a low
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: tense voice. Do you understand the day after tomorrow? And
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: for God's sake control your face. So with enlightened comprehension,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: he allowed his client, after dinner was over and the
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: bottles disposed of, to fulfill his own prophecy, and by
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: turns to persuade and bully his lawyer into consenting to
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the early estate fixed for the start to Mexico. As
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: to the distendest practice that was indeed left to take
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: care of itself. For when Grear was back at home
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: and seated once more in his office, he spent the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: few remaining hours which should have been devoted to that practice,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and wondering whether he should be able to guide his
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: future conduct by the light of this strange woman's inscrutable eyes.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Thirty six hours after some triangular episode in Pennington's library,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the attorney occupied a seat in a train just starting
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: for Mexico. In the same car sat the two remaining
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: members of the trio, removed from him, however, by several seats,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: for it had been decided as a precautionary measure, that
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: during the journey they should effect to be unknown to him.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: So it was that, becoming once more only the looker
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: on at their drama, he found himself confronted for the
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: first time by the moving and pitiable spectacle of a
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: criminal existing undetected among his fellow men. Of all who
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: surrounded the man, Russell Greer alone held the clue to
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: his strange deportment, his shifty eye and hunted step, to
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: the elaborate caution which at one time invited suspicion, and
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the recklessness which at another defied it. Occasionally Pennington would
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: even loiter back, to drop casually into the seat beside
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: his lawyer, and to talk in hoarse whispers of their undertaking.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: For now that the affair was fairly under way, he
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: seemed possessed by a fiend of impatience, a fury of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: desire to have the thing over and done with. In
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the first squalid village that they reached after crossing the
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Mexican border, the three stopped long enough for the power
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of attorney to be drawn up. At this point it
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: was agreed they should separate the young lawyer and the
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: woman in whose hands was vested such authority to set
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: out upon their long journey, the client to retrace the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: route by which he had come, and to wait in
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: whats soe security he might for their return. In obedience
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: to his directions, Grear drove to the station first, his
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: respective traveling companion reaching it half an hour later. Pennington, however,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: remained at the hotel to avoid, as he explained, being
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: seen with them at the station. A prudent idea if
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: carried out, but a criminal is never consistent, and by
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: this theory, Greer explained a last glimpse in a shadowy
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: doorway of Pennington's sinister face and skulking figure, illuminated by
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the chance light from a trainsman's lantern. A glance at
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: his companion showed that she had not seen the lurking figure,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: and as his inquiry whether she had left his client
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: at the hotel brought an answer in the affirmative, he
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: determined not to annoy her by revealing the incident. Already,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: her pallor and air of fatigue showed the severe strain
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: she had undergone, and as the train rolled out of
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the station, she sank back against her cushions as if exhausted.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Her attorney had no wish to annoy her with obtrusive attentions,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: but before they started he had laid on the seat
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: beside her a bunch of violets bought from a Mexican
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: flower cellar, and when he retired to his section in
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: the adjoining car, the fragrance of the flowers in which
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: she had buried her face with evident delight, seemed wafted
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: after him until it mingled with his dreams. As for
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: the succeeding days of the journey, it varied scenes, the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: narrow limits of the car, the faces of the passengers,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: even the journey itself soon seemed for Russell Greer to
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: blend into a confused background for the delicate dark head,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the exquisite profile of this inexplicable woman. Concerning her and
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: her strange association with the criminal, he tortured himself with
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: a thousand fancies, now throwing a veil over the entire affair,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: now trying to work out impossible solutions of the problem,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: that she regarded Pennington with aversion would gladly escape from
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: his influence. He felt convinced of that fact. His memory
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of her passionate appeal of a few days before was
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: proof sufficient that for the vaguely expected explanations of that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: appeal he waited in vain. Not once did she allude
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: to it, and his instincts rose up in arms against
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: reminding her of what she had chosen to forget. In
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: talks of books and art, however, of the conduct of life,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of travel, reminiscences, all the generalities of conversation that pass
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: current among cultivated people the world over, Greer found a
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: neutral meeting ground. He found also, in the course of
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the journey many un forced opportunities for ministering to her
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: comfort without trespassing upon her reserve. And there were even
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: moments when a responsive laugh or the sympathetic glance of
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: intellectual comradeship seemed to reveal the real woman behind the veil.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Such moments, however, were rare and ceased altogether before they
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: reached their journey's end, an end that seemed to the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: man less and less desirable, as a third of a
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: million seemed a smaller and smaller stake to be played
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: for the nearer he approached both. Indeed, his only incentive
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: to further effort now lay in her approval and the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: face of her evident confidence. The thought of failure was intolerable,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: and yet success had never seemed so unattainable as on
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the morning when they reached San Francisco. Here, he thought,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: as at the door of her hotel, he left her
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: for an hour's rest. Here there awaited him practical difficulties
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: very different from his self torturing fancies of the journey. Indeed,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: as these difficulties took tangible shape and form during their
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: walk to the court house, he was assailed by a
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: hundred doubts. He even questioned the existence of the will
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: until he had examined the authenticated record of that strange instrument.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: But there it was full evidence of the splendid inheritance
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: of a felon, bearing death as the apparent penalty of
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: his acceptance. The horrible incongruity of the thing fascinated, while
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: it appalled him. He panted for yet dreaded the final
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: test of his scheme. And now, as with his silent companion,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: he made his way into the street. This test confronted him.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: He could not, by an hour delay the interview with
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the executor of the will. From the court house to
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: the door of the executor's office was a walk of
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: barely fifteen minutes. The all important interview would require no
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: more than that time. In half an hour, then Charles J.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Pennington would be declared the inheritor of a million, or
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: the hunted fugitive from justice. With the law again upon
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: his track. In half an hour he would read reward
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: or condemnation in the eyes of the woman beside him,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: as though in answer to his unspoken thought. His companion
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: leaned suddenly toward him, lowering for the second time her
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: guard of reserve, and speaking in that low, vibrant voice
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: that had thrilled him once before. I wish you to know,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: she said, the rare color glowing in her olive cheeks,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: that whatever the result may be, my gratitude for your kindness,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: my belief in your ability, your loyalty remained the same.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: With the sound of those words echoing in his ears,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Greer came into the presence of the attorney who had
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: drawn up the fate dealing will. He was a stout,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: grizzled man of middle age, with lynx like eyes and
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: a thin mouth that tightened as he heard the young
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: lawyer's errand taking the paper that the other handed him,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: he scrutinized it sharply, muttering as he ran over it.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Charles Pennington his signature as I can square and the
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: great State of California would give just five thousand dollars
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: to know where and when you saw him last. What
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: of that? With a million to back him, he can
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: laugh at the state of California. And none knew that
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: better than old Pennington. You set the son at guessing
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: the father's tricks, did you? If you never suspected them yourself,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: You were a fool to come here with your paltry
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: power of attorney and a bullet aimed by the hand
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: that wrote this signature awaiting you. Perhaps if you failed,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: it's lucky for you. He finished, after a brief disappearance
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: into an inner office, that there's a clause in this
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: precious will to prop you. And with that parchment clutched
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: firmly in his short, thick fingers, he read, or to
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: any person authorized by a power of attorney duly executed,
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: this bequest is to be paid upon demand, without question.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: So the great ordeal was over in twenty four hours,
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: when the technicalities of the transfer should be accomplished, the
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: fortune would be in their keeping. The prize was won,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: and without a struggle, Even in the glow of triumph,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Greer could not smother his humiliation at that last thought,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the humiliation of a man who had exaggerated his powers
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: and the dangers of his undertaking. But there was no
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: belittling of the one or the other in the eyes
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: or words of his companion as they left the lawyer's
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: office together, only a finality of appreciation that reminded her
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: companion of the approaching end of their joint mission. Tomorrow
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: they would start upon their homeward journey, and a few
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: days they would separate, perhaps forever. Meantime, the evening was theirs,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: and on his side, the longing to show some last
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: little attention outside the deference of a lawyer to his client.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Would she not, he put it, with boyish eagerness, Would
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: she not allow him to celebrate their victory by a
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: little feast at one of the famous restaurants in the
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Mexican Quarter. To his delight, she was graciously acquiescent. Apparently
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: a new mood was upon her. From once seated in
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: a half screened corner of the little restaurant, she expanded
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: into a childlike enjoyment of the place, the mingled odors
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: of cigarette smoke and aromatic cookery, the shrilling of the parrots,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: the coming and going of all sorts and conditions of
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: men attracted thither by certain famous specialties. Only underneath all
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: her brilliancy Greer felt occasionally that he detected an anxious note,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: while her eyes surveyed each newcomer with an air of
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: eager interest whose meaning the man could not fathom. Once
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: or twice during the dinner he would have made some
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: reference to the future, to the disposal of her newly
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: acquired fortune, But these questions his companion parried with a
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: jest or referred to some other time with a decision
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Greer could but respect. Later, however, when they had finished
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: their dinner and were walking back to her hotel, the
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: mood of the last hour fell away from his companion,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: leaving her silent and distrait. Occasionally she would even pause
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: a moment and look back as though she had forgotten something,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: hurrying forward afterward with a half intelligible apology. Finally, as
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: they turned at the corner of Market Street, she stopped short,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: with a little gasping breath and an involuntary movement of
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: her hand toward his arm. Then, as they started on
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: their way again, I must speak, she whispered. I have
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: a horrible fancy that we are followed. For days, it
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: has haunted me, and to night it weighs upon me
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: like a stone. And yet it must be a fancy
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: nothing more. But it's not about that I wished to talk.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: It's of myself, you must have wondered there. Don't interrupt me.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: I can't rest until I've told you. It's not a
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: long story. I don't appeal to you. What the past,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: weak women do that? And yet mine has been sad enough.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: God knows. I was a Spanish dancer's child, rescued in
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: my babyhood from a life of misery by that man's father.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I grew up knowing that I was destined to be
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: the wife of his son. With the son became a murderer,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: I pleaded in vain to be released from my promise.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: At last, I rebelled. I have determined to break my vow.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: At his father's entreaty, I swore to keep this resolve
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: a secret from the Sun until he should come into
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: his inheritance. I took an oath here her voice sank,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: to make any guiltless sacrifice to further that end. His
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: father died suddenly, leaving me in ignorance of the provision
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: of the will, which no doubt he intended to apprize me.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: The Sun I never saw from the day of his
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: flight until at his urgent summons. I went to his house,
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: accompanied by the old nurse who has had charge of
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: me since childhood. I even consented at what cost you
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: can best judge to explain nothing to you until the
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: final result should be determined. But thank God this last
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: with a half sob of joy, I am now as
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: free as I am innocent. Her breath came quickly. For
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: the rest of the way, they walked on in silence. Finally,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: at the lady's entrance of her hotel, Greer stretched out
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: his hand and would have spoken, but she stopped him. Wait,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: she said, turning and facing him a figure of heroic
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: dignity as she stood in the lighted doorway. Wait, I
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: have a message for you in the restaurant. I evaded
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: your questions when you spoke of my return. Now you
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: know why. And you may tell your client, when you
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: restore to him his gold, that not all that was
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: dug from the mines of California could ever lure me
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: back to him. With these words, she extended her hand
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: as though for a good night's salutation, when some sight
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: unseen by her companion seemed suddenly to petrify her into position,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Wheeling swiftly Greer saw gleaming out of the darkness, two
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: sinister eyes and a shining pistol barrel, the latter settling
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: to an aim at the rigid form in the doorway
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: with a plunge forward, arms flung up to protect that figure.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Greer was upon the would be murderer just in time
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: to deflect his hand and send the bullet crashing harmlessly
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: through the glass door. When the midst of fury cleared
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: from the lawyer's brain, he found himself in the doorway
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: with the hand of the woman he had saved clasped
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: reassuringly over his Below the center of an excited crowd,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: the figure of Pennington, guarded by two blue coated officers,
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: loomed up, stolid, unresisting in its resignation to what was
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: bound to be just when the Great State of California
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: exacted the penalty. Do it from Charles J. Pennington is
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: not a part of this narrative at any rate. He
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: never received the fortune that had so nearly cost two lives,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: and that's how it happened that, instead of gaining a
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: third of that fortune as fee, two years later, Greer
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: became joint owner of the entire million and of section.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: One section two of The Black Cat, Volume three, number one,
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: October eighteen ninety seven. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: Dan Gerzinski The Black Cat, Volume three, number one, October
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: eighteen ninety seven, Section two, The Egg that Ran Away
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: by Philip Verel. Miguel's bluish smoke wreathed lazily upward from
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: the graying embers of a fire upon the beach of
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: the lake, and it got in the eyes of a
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: number of Indian mahalas getting hot. In the ashes were
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: several rocks, and standing about were several baskets made of willow,
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: the largest of them filled with a thickish and pinkish
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: substance of the consistency of gruel, with the making of
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: which all the women were concerned. The substance was what
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: the Washos called their acorn soup, being made of eggcorns dried,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: pounded into flour, mixed with water, utter, and regularly boiled.
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: As a part of the process, an elderly squaw lifted
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: rocks from the fire with a couple of sticks, dipped
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: them quickly in some water near to cleanse them of
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: the ashes, and proceeded to drop them in the soup
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: to make it cook. Another of the women had a
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: basket the shape and capacity of a common bowl for porridge.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: This she filled from a basket of the cooked and
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: finished stuff, slowly, skillfully dipping it full. At every dip,
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: her hand got more or less covered with the soup.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: Her first precaution was to rid this hand of everything
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: by placing it well in her mouth. Next, she held
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: up the bowl and ran a pair of fingers around
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: inside to push the soup away from the edge, forming
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: a smooth little puddle. Then she conscientiously removed any accumulated
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: stuff from the fingers by the process described, held the
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: bowl to the surface of a pool of water near,
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: and dexterously turned out a biscuit looking thing the size
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: of an Ostrich's as cleaning her bowl with her fingers
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: and her fingers with her mouth, she proceeded as before,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: and her hand, it is pertinent to say, was clean.
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: The pool of water where she sat was formed by
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: percolation from the lake, the hollow being scooped in the
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: sand along the beach were a number of the pools,
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: the depth of which was usually one or two feet
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: in diameter seven to ten on the further side of
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: an alder. One was nicely filled with the pinkish cakes
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: of soup solidifying, and the others were nearly filled, for
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: the work was all but finished. The cakes were floating
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: suspended in the water an inch below the surface. When
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: at length the stuff had all been cooked and dipped
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: through the process, the Mahalas gathered together the baskets and
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: wended their way through a thicket of trees to their camp,
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: which was up in the brush. They had all been
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: gone an hour, and the biscuit floating peacefully, were slowly
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: getting harder, when a tall and slender woman with large
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: and scrutinizing glasses on her nose, came wandering and pondering
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: down the beach from a cottage in the trees. In
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: her hand she held a net for catching insects, and
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: a case whereon appeared an excellent lettering Cynthia Hatfield, naturalist.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: Beneath an arm, she lugged a jar full of hoppers
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: that were vainly giving their tobacco in the hope thereby
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: of earning the privilege to hop or fly away. She
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: had just arrived the night before from far Vermont with
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: her brother, and was starting already on her quests. Near sighted,
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: not a little miss Cynthia nearly walked into the pool
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: beside the alders before she noted its existence. Then she paused, abruptly,
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: got down on her knees, dropped her various trappings, and
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: subjected the buns of soup to a keen and protracted investigation. Marvelous,
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: she asserted, in a voice that piped most marvelous, and
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: her face creased itself into joyous lines at the thought
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: of that be a tyfic moment when she should reveal
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: to her professor what she mentally named these unparalleled manifestations
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: of embryonic evolution. But how collect them? She seemed suddenly
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: to take compassion on the hoppers, for the large mouth
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: jar was opened, cleared of insects, and filled with water
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: with exceeding care. She then proceeded to dip a pair
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: of the cakes from the pool with her net and
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: to place them in the receptacle, after which she hurried away,
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: a glow and smile of triumph on her face. Jaunty,
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: she called as she stepped to the cottage, Jaunty, reveal
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: your present location. From the lawn at the rear, where
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: with a branch she was pounding grasshoppers on the back
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: to catch them and place them in a box. A
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: lad came rolling into the house. He was singularly round
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: and fat, His hair was the color of down on
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: a peach, and his eyebrows and eyelashes failed to appear
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: under close examination. To him, the naturalist imparted with solemn
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: unction her marvelous discovery that of a new and unclassified
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: order of egg, and in as much Jaunty Miss Cynthia concluded,
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: as the eggs were discovered in a quiet, shaded pool,
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: it seems to me best that you should bring the
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: crystalline globe, place them therein, and leave them here where
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: I can give them my personal attention and half hourly inspection,
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: writing out my observations during interims. The globe brought and
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: the transfer accomplished. The lad on limbird and rolled off
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: through the door. The naturalists, submitting her collection to a
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: most minute and penetrative scrutiny, at length went away to
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: an inner of inners, locking two or three doors behind
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: her till she reached her private desk, where she eagerly
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: wrote on an endless roll of paper, which she rapidly
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: unwound like a ribbon from its bolt. True to her word,
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: she issued forth at the end of every thirty minutes,
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: made observations, and went again to write. As the calm,
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: delightful moment slipped away, a brown little object came, with
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: quail like timidity, edging from the bushes. At last it
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: crossed the grass unseen, and walked and crawled within the
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: open house. It was merely the fat little air to
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: the chieftainship of the Wisho Indians, a chubby papoose with
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: a tangled lot of raven hair and a coppery, health
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: glowing face that was round as the moon. He crept
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: and he toddled about the incubating room until he reached
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: a crystaline globe. Then his eyes grew astoundingly large, his
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: attitude betokened interest, and he thrust his hand informally down
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: into the water and fetched it up full of soup,
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: which he ate with speed and gusto. Down again went
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: the hand, and the bun that was left was soon
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: reposing with its mate. Then he dabbed in the liquid,
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: and he pushed the globe about till it went abruptly
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: over with a crash, and the tide gushed forth to
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: swamp the floor, making him gurgle and glee. Then came
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: a fearful slamming, a sound of precipitate running, and Cynthia,
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: like a something from a catapult, came hurtling through the
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: door in the room. She paused her hands, went up
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: with a gesture of unspeakable astonishment to see before her
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: this perfectly naked little creature on the floor. And then
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: she found her voice and fairly screamed out. Hatched, she
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: ran to the door and yelled for Jaunty. She grabbed
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: for her net and squared her glasses. She lifted her
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: skirt and cautiously peered around and beyond the staring youngster.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: A look somewhat of horror overspread her countenance. There was
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: the globe but empty, There was the floor, but nothing
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: lay upon it. Then she moaned, as in pain, hatched
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: and gone the other hatched and gone to think that
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: after all I should thus turned too late. But she
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: seemed to recover, not a little doubtless bullied by the
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: fact that one of her egg things still remained slowly.
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: Moving now ahead and straining her near seted eyes vainly
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: to make out the nature of her specimen. She advanced
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: on the startled pepoose like the wild thing that he was.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: He had scrambled to his feet and was making little
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: starts as if for cover. No sooner had she come
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: about and left a clearing toward the door than the
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: nimble little tight made a dive to clear the space
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: that lay between himself in freedom. But Cynthia also was
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: quick as a cat, and what was more, the portly
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: form of Jaunty now drew near the naturalists, jumped and ran,
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: and her companion lifted his foot to the step. The
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: red little chieftain darted quickly between his legs. The net
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: came down to snatch him, but it fell athwart. Poor
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: Johnty's head tripped below and assaulted above. He fell as
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: a miniature mountain of boy, and Cynthia too lost her
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: footing and came to the floor most abruptly run run.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: She screamed, the egg, the egg, it's getting away. Help
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: me up, Help me up. With an effort, gigantic Jaunty
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: got again to a perpendicular assisted his sister to her feet,
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: and away they went in hot pursuit. Catch it, catch it,
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: cried Cynthia. It mustn't get away. It's wonderful, it's marvelous.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: And they tore along across the green and the waving
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: grassy wake of the tiny fleeing was show. Run like
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: a swallow fly. She piped, and Jaunty flew like a
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: barrel up a hill. She ran, and she reached with
• 49:38
  Speaker 2: her net, while Jaunty plunged and sputtered. But the race
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: was short, though mighty, for the Wishaw, like a wily squirrel,
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: made straight to gain a thicket, and slipped in a
• 49:48
  Speaker 2: wink away beneath the tangle. Then Cynthia, falling wildly fairly,
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: shrieked her last despairing cry dive. Jaunty dive, and her
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: partner in the chase went headlong in the bushes, to
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: bounce back again and to lie on his back, waving
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: arms and legs at random like a turtle. Then the
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: two sat there, braced in the grass, and looked each
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: other in the countenance. Ruefully, Oh, professor, professor, you will
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: not you cannot forgive me for this, groaned Cynthia. Aloud,
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: and after I had nearly got them classified and named,
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: suddenly across her veil of gloom, like a ray of
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: hope athwart a Cavanou's abyss of woe came a thought
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: the pool. She cried to the pool for more. She
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: hastened to the shore, whither jaunty came. After she reached
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: the scooped out nest, and then her wail went forth
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: in accents, loud and shrill. Not a single leg like
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: the two I had, she piped in her anguish. They
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: all have hatched and are flown to their native heath,
• 50:53
  Speaker 2: and indeed to the heath to which the chieftain in
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: Embryo had scudded. They were all, in reality gone. End
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: of section two.
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: Section three of The Black Cat, Volume three, number one,
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: October eighteen ninety seven. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Black Cat,
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: Volume three, number one, October eighteen ninety seven. Section three.
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: Love and Avarice by Leonard Freeman Burke Bank. The day
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: was done. Andre and Marie Acutaine were eating their simple
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: evening meal. The little kitchen in which they sat was
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: such a room as one may see in almost any
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: of the farming districts of Normandy, small and neat. The
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: furniture was plain, but the white muslin curtains at the windows,
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: and a shell filled with geraniums in the bloom gave
• 52:09
  Speaker 3: it an air of comfort. And Ray and his wife
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: were old. The deep wrinkles and hard lines of their faces,
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: their bent figures and halting gait told a tale of
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: trouble and hard work. I too wish Jean would come home,
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: said the woman, as she arose from the table and
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: began clearing away the dishes. It's fifteen years since he
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: went away, and it do seem as if he might
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: come back to see his old mother. If he had
• 52:45
  Speaker 3: only been easy like usemegaunt and stayed at home, how
• 52:50
  Speaker 3: happy we should have been. I told you, replied the
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: old man, that you should let well enough alone. The
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: lad was a fine boy, and would have been four
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: handed here as well as in America. I do believe
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: if you can't get your porridge among your own folks,
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: strangers won't give it to you. It was your high
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: notions that did it, and now we must bear it
• 53:20
  Speaker 3: the best we can. Marie was silenced and without saying more,
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: Andray went out and sat on the low wooden seat
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: beside the door, while his wife washed the dishes and
• 53:33
  Speaker 3: tied it up the room. When she had made the
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: house neat, she went and stood beside her husband. The
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: sun was setting, making the rows of bright colored flowers
• 53:44
  Speaker 3: in the little garden glow in the rich light. The
• 53:47
  Speaker 3: apple trees were white with their snowy promises of harvest.
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: In the distance, the puppy besprinkled rain waved in the
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: gentle breathe. Ah, Marie, he said, taking her hard and
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: wrinkled hand in his Normandy is beautiful in may. She
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: did not heed his remark. Drawing her hand away, she said,
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: I am going to mind Dame Rob and may not
• 54:18
  Speaker 3: come home until late. The old woman is mightly used
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: up and isn't long for here. Don't sit up for me.
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: Taking his pipe from his mouth, the old man slowly
• 54:32
  Speaker 3: arose and faced his wife. I don't like this, he said.
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: Before the lad went away, you were always working and
• 54:43
  Speaker 3: saving to set him up. When he got big, he
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: went and left us. You made him. He has been
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: away for fifteen years and ever since he left us.
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: You have been a working and a saving for him
• 54:58
  Speaker 3: when he comes back. What good are we getting out
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: of life? Not any? I think it is time to stop.
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: Why Aunty? He wouldn't have the old woman suffer for
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: want of care, would you?
• 55:17
  Speaker 4: No?
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: He continued, But it is not damn Rob that you
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: care for. It's her money that you want to say
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: for the boy. Without replying, Marie a coutine, moved up
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: the street as fast as her bent form and halting
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: steps would let her, and was soon lost to view
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: in the gathering gloom. Her husband watched her retreating figure,
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: not without feelings of sorrow. When she could no longer
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: be seen, he re let his pipe, which had gone
• 55:50
  Speaker 3: out during the discussion, and resumed his place on the settle.
• 55:56
  Speaker 3: More than thirty years before he and Marie had married
• 56:00
  Speaker 3: and moved into the little cottage. She was a beauty then.
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: On market days, when they stood in the great square
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: of Ruan selling their vegetables and flowers, many a passer
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: by would stop to look at the pretty flower vender
• 56:16
  Speaker 3: and her handsome husband. Those were happy days. When their
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: child was born, they called him John. His winning ways
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: gained for him the good will of all the village people.
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: Andrea and Marie were justly proud of him. I don't
• 56:34
  Speaker 3: want him like we are, his mother would often say,
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: as she and her husband talked about his prospects and
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: planned for the future. He must be like the fine
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: folks that used to come to the chateau when you
• 56:49
  Speaker 3: were under butler and I lady's mate. Andrea. Perhaps so,
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: but it takes money and piles of it to be
• 57:00
  Speaker 3: like them. The father would reply, I know that, Dearie,
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: but we can earn and save, and when he grows
• 57:10
  Speaker 3: up he will have enough to stort on. It would
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: be a fine thing to have our jaunt a great man.
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: Marie A. Coton was one of those people who could
• 57:22
  Speaker 3: love intensely. Yet such was her nature that many passions,
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: many hopes, could not find a place in her heart
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: at one time. Gradually, the motherly instinct great the ascendancy,
• 57:37
  Speaker 3: and while she yet loved her husband, she did not
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: feel towards him as she had before the child was born.
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: Her ruling passion was love for her boy. For him,
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: she lived, toiled and hoarded the fruits of her labors.
• 57:55
  Speaker 3: Year after year, she gave her life to him. One morning,
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: coming from confession in Saint mon. Before she took her
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: place beside the little cart in the Great Square, she
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: heard a man say to his companion that America was
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: the best place on earth for a young man to
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: become rich and prosperous. Her ideas of America were vague,
• 58:23
  Speaker 3: but she at once resolved that John should go to
• 58:27
  Speaker 3: that place, wherever it was. A dozen times she repeated
• 58:32
  Speaker 3: the word to herself that she might not forget it.
• 58:36
  Speaker 3: An hour later, when the man stopped before the little cart,
• 58:41
  Speaker 3: she made bold to ask about this America which he
• 58:45
  Speaker 3: had spoken of on their way home. She talked incessantly
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: about that strange country and John, until Andrea, wearied with
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: her prattle, got down and walked far in advance of
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: the cart. From that day she never weavered in her
• 59:03
  Speaker 3: determination that Jean should go to the land of riches. If, sometimes,
• 59:08
  Speaker 3: she said to herself, jeann might stay here to help
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: about the place. Yet her motherly ambition kept her to
• 59:17
  Speaker 3: her resolve. When the boy was sixteen, she had saved
• 59:21
  Speaker 3: enough to pay his passage and start him in life,
• 59:25
  Speaker 3: and in spite of Andrea's protests, Jean was sent across
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: the sea to make his fortune. It most breaks my
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: heart to have him go, she said, when the neighbors
• 59:38
  Speaker 3: came to bid him good bye. But a mother must
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: not stand in the way of her child. He can
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: love me as well away from me as here under
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: my nose. She saw him go down the road and
• 59:53
  Speaker 3: across the fields. Then she went into the house and
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: shut herself away in her boy room from her neighbors
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: and husband. The little cottage seemed very lonely after John
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 3: had gone. In all those years of living and caring
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: for the boy, the wife had grown blind to the
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: needs of her husband. Now that her idol had left her,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: he who remained behind neither cared for nor would receive
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: the little kindnesses and tokens of affection that were resumed
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: after many years of neglect. Not that they lived unhappily together,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: hundreds of families have the same existence. But the poetry
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: of their early married life had become prose. They both
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: kept to their work, Andre that he might support himself
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: and wife, and Marie that she might save for John.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: Every soue that she got was carefully hidden away, along
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: with the letters that came from over the sea from
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 3: her her boy. When she had nothing else to do,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: which was seldom, or when a moment could be stolen
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: from work, she would take from its hiding place, the
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: chining horde, thinking as she touched each piece of her
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: jahn and the good it would do him. When she could,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: she would take from her husband's money a few stems
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 3: to add to her own store. The years passed, the
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 3: pile grew slowly but steadily, while the old age crept
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: on with relentless pace. She was no longer young, and
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: her beauty had gone. When she stood in the market
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: place of Ruwan, no one noticed. Joanna must go with
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 3: us to market to day, she said to her husband
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 3: one morning. Her voice trembled and a great tear rolled
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: down her deep wrinkled face. Juan was her niece. I
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: have ceased to be attractive. Juan is beautiful and must
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: take my place. If she succeeds, I will stay at
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: home to work in the fields and care for the sick.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 3: I shall be just as useful, and John's pile will grow.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 3: Juan took her aunt's place, and Marie never went to
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: market again. Mornings, when Marie saw Juan leave for Rouan,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: the tears would come to her eyes as she thought
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: of the days when she was young and beautiful, even
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: the dullest of us. Half times of reflection when the
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: past comes back, was a startling clearness. As old Andrea
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: Caton sat there in the twilight, the years seemed to
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 3: roll by in a long, dismal procession. The light of
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 3: his pipe went out. His head rested against the casement
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 3: of the door he had fallen asleep. A slight noise
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: made by opening and shutting the gate aroused the sleeper.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: Before him stood a man. He was well dressed or
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 3: a full beard, and carried in his hand a small bundle.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: My good man, he said, can you direct me to
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 3: the inn in this town? There is no inn here?
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 3: Strangers don't come this way. You will find an inn
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: at the next place across the fields, or at one.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: I have traveled a long way and am tired. Can't
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: you give me lodging? Said the intruder. Andrea hesitated a moment. No,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: I don't think I can, he said. You see, Dame
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: Acuton is away and might not like it. I don't
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 3: think I can. Did you say your name was Acutin,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: said the stranger. Yes, replied the old man. I am
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 3: Andrea Acutin. My wife's name is Marie. I know a
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 3: John Cotan in America, continued the young man. You know John,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: You why heaven blessed you come in? And if Marie
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 3: don't like it, well, well she won't mind if you
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: tell her of her John. The old man seized the
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: stranger and led him into the kitchen. Well, well, you
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: know our John, sat down while I make a light.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 3: It's a blessing you came this way. He bustled about
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 3: to light a candle and quickly set before the stranger
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 3: the best he could find in the little cupboard. Then
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 3: he seated himself near his guest. Now tell me all
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 3: about my son, he said. Is he well? Is he rich?
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 3: Will he soon come home? Tell me all? Yes, answered
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: the stranger. He is well, and in the years since
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 3: he left home, he has grown from a big boy
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: into a strong, thoughtful man, just like me, interrupted the
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 3: old man. Just like me. But go on, he speaks
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: of you often and never cease to think of you
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: and his mother. He loves you both, of course, and
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: we both love him, said Andrea. While his mother works
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 3: night and day to save money for him. The young
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 3: man laughed, yet had the candle given more light, old
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: Andrea might have seen the look of pain that came
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 3: to the face of the young man. Works to save
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 3: money for him. Why he is rich, richer than anyone
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 3: in this village, so he tells me, said the guest.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: But why don't he come home and let us share
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 3: his fortune, asked Andre. We have worked and said for him.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: He is a thoughtless, wicked lad, not to help us
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 3: in our old age. I told Marie she was a fool,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 3: and now I know it. Do not say that he's
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 3: working for you.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: Soon.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 3: He hopes to come home and make you rich and
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: happy all your life. If he don't come soon, it
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 3: will be too late. We sha'n't want his help. In
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 3: his excitement, the old man moved the candle, which at
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 3: best gave him a dim light near his guest. As
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 3: he did so, his eyes caught the flash of the
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 3: ring upon the stranger's finger. It was one of those
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 3: silver bands, such as the peasants of Normandy, ware of
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 3: no value yet peculiar to themselves. He gazed at it
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: for some time, then, reaching across the table, took the
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: stranger's hand in his and examined the babble more closely.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 3: My son used to wear a ring like that. He said.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: His mother gave it to him when he left home.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 3: And my mother gave me this, replied the stranger. The
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: old man looked up the smiling eyes of the guests
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 3: told their story, and in an instant they held each
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: other in a close embrace. Heaven be praised for this.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 3: Come near the light, my boy, My eyes are dim.
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: Let me look at you. Your mother will be wild
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: with light. I will go to tell her at once. No, father,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 3: said the son. Let her continue her good work. Don't
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: let her know until morning. She will be tired when
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 3: she comes home, and seeing me may be too much
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 3: for her. Let her know in the morning, and to
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 3: morrow we will have a holiday. Neither you nor she
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 3: shall ever work. But come, father, let us go into
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 3: the garden. It is warm here. The two men left
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 3: the room an arm in arm, wandered through the garden
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 3: and out into the fields. The moonlight shone upon them
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 3: as they talked. The clock in the village struck ten.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 3: We must go in now, said the sun. We are
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 3: both tired. Your room is ready for you, said old Andrea.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 3: Ever since you went away, your mother has had it
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 3: in readiness for you. When you came back, good night.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 3: Heaven bless you as it has us. All good night.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: Taking the candle, the young man climbed the short flight
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 3: of stairs and entered the little room. It was just
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: as he had left it years before. There were his kite,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: his top, and all the playthings that he used to
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: love so well. While on the table was a bunch
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 3: of fresh flowers. The perfume came to him like a
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: breath from heaven. As John was very tired, he was
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 3: soon asleep, dreaming of childhood scenes with the father. It
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: was different. His son's coming home gave him so much
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 3: happiness that he could not sleep. Besides, he must sell
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 3: Marie when she came back that a stranger was upstairs.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: He laughed softly as he thought how curious she would be,
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 3: and how surprised in the morning when she should find
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: out that it was John. Some time after midnight, the
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: wife returned. Old Dame rob was dead. Marie had seen
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: the work of the great destroyer so many times that
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: his awful presence did not disturb her. She was droning
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 3: a song of the people. She had hardly entered the
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: house when Andrea aroused to tell her the news. What
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 3: you up, she said, get to bed s. Don't make
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 3: so much noise. There is a visitor upstairs in the
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 3: boy's room, said Andrea. The old woman stood glaring at
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 3: her husband, surprised into silence, which gave him a chance
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 3: to offer an apology for his offense. He came here,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: he continued, and begged of me to take him in.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 3: He was all tired out with walking, and so I
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 3: let him sleep in the boy's room. The old woman
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 3: turned livid with rage.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: Beast.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 3: She hissed, a stranger in my boy's room. I won't
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 3: have it. Have you go and pull him out, and
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: she moved towards the door which led to the stairs.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 3: Andrea caught her and held her fast. Marie, He said,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 3: have a care. The man has money, heaps of it.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 3: He will pay us well more for his night's lodging
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 3: than we can earn in weeks. At mention of the money,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 3: the woman became calmer, but she did not cease talking
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 3: about it until after they were in bed. We must
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 3: charge him a good price, she said. It's no small
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 3: thing to take a stranger into one's house. He ought
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 3: to bless Heaven that he has a place to lay
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: his head instead of having to tramp across the fields.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 3: If he is rich, he can pay well, and our
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 3: boy's pile grows so slow. Come, come, Marie, enough of this.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 3: I want to sleep, so say no more about it.
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 3: I will settle with him in the morning. You you
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 3: settle with him. No, not you. Why you would let
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 3: him go without paying a sou and our boy's pile
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 3: be no larger. Andrea Acutton was soon asleep, Not so
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: his wife. The thought of the gold set her brain
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 3: on fire. She could not sleep. A dozen times she
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 3: asked herself how much she should charge the stranger for
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 3: his night's lodging. Surely a shining gold piece would not
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 3: be too much. He had been saved a long walk.
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: Perhaps he would give her two if she told him
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: how she was saving, that her boy might come home.
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: No doubt he would be generous. A fever seized her.
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 3: She clutched her hands together, as if she already had
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 3: the coins in her possession. Supposing he refused to pay
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 3: her more than a few silver pieces. No, no, he
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 3: would not do that, And yet he might. Why should
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: she not take just a few bits while he slept.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 3: She would be sure of them then, and very likely
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 3: he would never miss them. John needed them more than
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 3: this man. But if she should be found out that
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 3: John Darme would arrest her and she would be sent
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: to prison. The thought overpowered her, and she lay quiet still.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: How loud and terrible seemed to her the heavy, regular
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 3: breathing of her husband, She could endure it no longer.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 3: The darkness and the stillness affected her, and her great
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 3: desire to possess the money took completely obsession of her.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: Rising from bed, she put on her old short skirt
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 3: and a heavy blouse. Her heart beat fast, and its
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 3: throbs sounded so loud to her that she felt as
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 3: if it must awaken her husband. She looked at him,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 3: but he was fast asleep. With a stealthly tread, she
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 3: climbed the stairs. At the open door, she stopped to listen.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 3: The breathing of the sleeper came to her distinct and clear,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 3: yet it was almost lost in the beating of her
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: own heart. For a moment she hesitated. A thousand thoughts
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 3: of other days surged through her brain as she stood there,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 3: but the one great desire that had brought her there
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: urged her on. The moonlight filled the room with a
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 3: mellow glow. She could see the form of the stranger.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 3: The upper part of the face was hidden by his
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: arm thrown over the forehead, his clothes folded and laid
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 3: over a chair. And on the table, beside the flowers
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: she had put there in the morning, was a pile
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 3: of shining gold. She could see nothing else. The gold
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 3: pieces fairly glowed before her excited vision. They seemed to
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 3: burn great holes in her brain and fill her whole
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 3: soul with a wild delirium. She thought only of that
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 3: beautiful yellow pile and of her boy John. She felt
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 3: like screaming with delight, but her parched lips gave no sound.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 3: Silently and carefully, she tiptoed her way into the room
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: like a cat approaching a mouse, and stood before the
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 3: table and the golden treasure. The man slept. She took
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 3: a few of the gold pieces and put them in
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 3: her pocket. Then she reached for more. A slight noise
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 3: stopped her. The man moved in his sleep. In her
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 3: excited fancy, she thought he was awake and had discovered
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 3: her taking the gold. Her agitation knew no bounds. The
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 3: blood coursed through her veins with quickened speed, The strength
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 3: of fury and despair came to her. She turned and
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 3: with a spring seized the sleeper by the throat, while
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 3: her knees struck him upon the chest. The truck awoke him,
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 3: and he tried to free himself, but the bed clothed
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 3: hampered him. He could not speak, for she held with
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 3: a grasp of iron. The frenzy was on her, and
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 3: to all his efforts she opposed an irresistible pressure. For
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 3: an instant he looked into the face that bent over him, and,
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: like one in an evil dream, knew it for the
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 3: face of his mother. But still, like one in a dream,
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 3: struggled vainly to speak. Little by little, his convulse writhings lessened.
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 3: In a few moments, he ceased to struggle and was
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 3: still he was dead. Relaxing her grip, for her strength
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 3: was gone, she got down from the bed, catching her
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 3: foot in the coverings as she did so. For a
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 3: moment she thought that the man had seized her, and
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 3: she turned pale with fear, giving a fierce pool at
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 3: her close. She loosened the coverings of the bed, and
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 3: the hand of the man was exposed. The ring upon
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 3: the finger glistened in the moonlight and attracted her attention.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 3: Raising the hand fearfully in hers, she turned the ring
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 3: upon the finger. A sickening fear overcame her, for the
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 3: little silver band has a strange familiar look. No, no,
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 3: she muttered to herself. Her heart olms stopped beating. With
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 3: a terrible despair. She seized the head of the man
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 3: and dragged it into the strong moonlight. Then she understood.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 3: In the morning, while dressing himself, Andrea a Cotton softly
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 3: hummed a tune such a long years ago he used
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 3: to sing when he wished to send little John into
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 3: the land of dreams. Marie has awakened before me, He thought,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 3: what I will have, my little surprise. I will go
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: to wake John. He smiled at the thought of the meeting.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 3: Slowly he climbed the stairs and stood at the door
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 3: of John's room. He saw his son upon the bed,
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 3: and kneeling beside him, the mother singing her gentle lullyby
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 3: the lullyby of a mother and a woman breatht of reason.
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 3: It was only for an instant. The next moment, the disease,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 3: that of the heart, which for so many years he
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 3: had feared, mercifully smot him. He was again with his son.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 3: Years have passed since then. Yet the peasants, when they
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 3: go by the deserted house and the barren fields, so
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 3: crossed themselves and utter a prayer and of section three.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 5: Section four of The Black Cat, Volume three, number one,
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 5: October eighteen ninety seven. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 5: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 5: or to volunteer, please visit libervox dot org. The Black Cat,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 5: Volume three, number one, October eighteen ninety seven. Section four,
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 5: How the Widow Raised the Mortgage by R. H. Fletcher, USA.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 5: My friend Bascombe and I were idling away a warm
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 5: summer afternoon in a pretty new England town which for
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 5: reasons must go nameless, but which lay at the confluence
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 5: of a river, with the sea loitering down a leafy
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 5: lane which led to this river. We were confronted by
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 5: a sign bearing the legend boats by our grummet. Immediately
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 5: we decided that we wanted a boat. A wooden hand
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 5: nailed to the sign pointed out the direction of the establishment,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 5: which proved to be a gaily painted barge moored to
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 5: the shore and approached by a gangplank with its little
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 5: white house at each end, it looked not unlike the
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 5: Noah's arks of our childhood. While a dozen boats of
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 5: all colors, which were tethered to its side, did very
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 5: well for the animals waiting to be fed. With passengers,
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 5: the sunlight filtered through a striped awning on to the
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 5: spotless deck, illuminating the bald crown of Captain R. Grummit himself,
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 5: who was seated on a folding chair mending some part
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 5: of his wardrobe. He was a short, fat man, snugly
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 5: encased in a blue flannel shirt and trousers of true
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 5: sailor cut and elaborately embroidered in true a man o
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 5: war style. A fringe of red hair surrounded his bald pate,
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 5: and on his nose was a pair of large silver spectacles.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 5: This highly colored Noah responded to our request for a
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 5: boat with professional promptness and agility. When we had paid him, however,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 5: and the boat was ready, we found it pleasanter to
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 5: loaf on the barge than to row in the sunlight.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 5: In this we were at first discouraged by the captain,
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 5: who occupied the only chair and went on with his
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 5: sewing in silence. But when he discovered that I had
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 5: been in the navy, and when he had moreover been
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 5: made to chuckle by some of my light hearted friend
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 5: Bascombe's irresistible nonsense, he gradually relaxed, and after we had
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 5: sat out our twenty five cents worth of boat higher,
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 5: he asked us to come again. We went again, and again,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 5: buying our right to sit on the holy stone deck
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 5: beneath the striped awning by hiring a boat while we
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 5: smoked our pipes and talked or listened to the captain's yarns. Finally,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 5: we so undermined the weary mariner's reserve that it gave
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 5: way altogether, and he actually invited us into his living
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 5: room in one of the deck houses, a beautifully neat
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 5: little place, shining with white paint and polished brass, and
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 5: fitted up and all respects like a regular ship's cabin.
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 5: Bascombe celebrated our promotion to the quarter deck, as he
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 5: called it, by procuring from the village a half dozen
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 5: of English ale. I had forgotten to mention, by the way,
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 5: that the captain was an Englishman, over which he eulogized
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 5: our host outrageously, declaring him the king of deep water sailors.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 5: A Neptune, whom no man could know without becoming his
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 5: devoted friend, and upon whom no woman could gaze without
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 5: falling in love with his manly form and honest features.
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 5: He then proposed three cheers for Captain Grummitt, which he
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 5: and I gave, and we drank that gallant mariner's health,
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 5: after which Bascombe sang in a deep bass, fifteen men
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 5: on a dead man's chest, Yo ho ho, and a
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 5: bottle of rum, and talked a lot of nonsense about
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 5: the flying jibboom of friendship, ever pointing to the harbor
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 5: of good fellowship. It was at this point of the
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 5: proceedings that the captain, who had been slowly sipping his
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 5: ale and staring admiringly at Bascombe, leaned forward and, laying
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 5: a pudgy forefinger on his arm, said, ye weren't far out,
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 5: And what he said a minute ago far out? Exclaimed
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 5: Bascombe dramatically, I was away in it was proceeding in
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 5: the same strain. When noticing that the captain still kept
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 5: his finger on his arm and was looking at at
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 5: him with peculiar significance, he checked his flow of speech
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 5: and said, what's a particular part of my remarks. Do
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 5: you refer to, captain? Think about the women? Said the captain,
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 5: still regarding him with mysterious gravity. For a moment, Bascombe
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 5: did not remember what he had said about women, and
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 5: that had suddenly occurred to him, and he promptly arose
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 5: to the occasion. Now that you mustion it, Captain, he said,
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 5: do you know it has always been a wonder to
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 5: me that a man like you should be allowed to
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 5: live in his bachelor's style. It's exceedingly snug and agreeable,
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 5: of course, but I don't see how you managed to
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 5: escape the women. I should think you would have been
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 5: married long ago. The Captain leaned back in his chair,
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 5: seemingly well satisfied, and then taking off his spectacles and
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 5: wiping them, said, why Lord bless you, sir. I was
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 5: married once. I was married and stayed married for fifteen years,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 5: pretty nigh, and then I buried her. She died, I suppose,
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 5: suggested Bascombe. Yes, sir, replied the captain, so lost in
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 5: retrospection as not to observe Bascombe's flippancy, she died. I
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 5: was married, nigh aunt of fifteen years. Astronomical time fifteen years,
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 5: lacking one month two weeks, four days and seven hours.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 5: I figured it out exact in the Harmanac. That's twelve
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 5: years ago. And what's more, he added, if I ain't
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 5: got wet it, since it ain't been for lack of opportunity.
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 5: And the captain again removed his glasses, this time to
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 5: bestow upon Bascombe a very knowing wink. Of course, said Bascombe,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 5: anyone can see that with half an eye. Ye may
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 5: have noticed, continued our elderly friend, that a good many
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 5: women come down here to the barge. What do they
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 5: come for? Some m comes for boats, an some of
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 5: em says they come for roats. It says they do
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 5: mind ye, And again Captain bestowed upon a Bascom that
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 5: portentous wink, immediately after relapsing into a dignified silence in
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 5: which all of Bascombe's gross flattery and palpable leads failed
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 5: to draw him. But on our very next visit, the
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 5: captain drifted around to the subject again. I had asked
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 5: him if he had made all of his own clothes, Yes, sir,
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 5: he replied, every stitch of em. What's the good of
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 5: payin other men to do what I can do myself?
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 5: A sight more? To be home satisfaction. Then there's a
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 5: matter o grub, he continued. The cook's what I want.
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 5: A cook's it just the way I wants it. An
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 5: there hate no jaw and woman make a help. She
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 5: knows what I wants better an I do myself. Sometimes
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 5: it takes it in me. Yet I wants apple sarce
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 5: and bread and butter for supper. Why not apples is cheap?
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 5: That buys em by the bushel. Or mean, if it's
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 5: a fish, water catches off the back porchair. I tell you, sir,
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 5: a man can live mighty comfortable on a mighty biddle
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 5: if he knows how it. Ain't got nobody but hisself
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 5: to please. Very true, captain, said Bascombe judiciously upon my word.
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 5: I envy you. I never saw a man more independent
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 5: and at the same time comfortable. No women to humor,
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 5: d'ye see, chimed in the Captain. It takes me pipe
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 5: in me ease, but I wants it exactly, said Bascombe.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 5: And as for the matter o children, continued the captain.
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 5: There ain't none round here to try bel on me
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 5: toes when they're kids, or don't be hot o my
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 5: money when they're growed. Quite true, said Bascombe. They tell
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 5: me that you're a regular capitalist, got money out at
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 5: interest and all that sort of thing. Well, said our
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 5: host slowly, I ain't exactly what you can call a capitalist,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 5: but I got a little money laid by. And every
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 5: once in a while some feller comes down here and
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 5: he says, cap'in, He says, can you lend me hunderd dollars?
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 5: And I asks what it's for and what security's got,
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 5: And maybe I lends it, and maybe I don't. I
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 5: had a sight rather they be comin to me than
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 5: me goin' to them. Then there's the women. Why they're
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 5: comin down here all the time? A tellin me they're
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 5: troubles and askin for advice or maybe wantin to borrow
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 5: a little money. Generally lends it to the women. That's security,
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 5: of course, I'm pretty you sure to get it back again.
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 5: And then I likes to help them because they needs it.
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 5: It beats everything why the Lord made women so kind
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 5: or helpless? Like I got as much as two thousand
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 5: dollars loan to one woman. She's a widow, what keeps
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 5: a shop up in town, fancy notions and search She
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 5: comes to me order her man died and a heap
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 5: of trouble. And I lent her a little money, and
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 5: I've added to it since. No more notion of business, sir,
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 5: or taking care of herself than a babby. Of course,
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 5: i'd a mortgage from the place, all right. She owns
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 5: the ouse and the stock, and I got it covered.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 5: She's got a couple of children too, What ain't worth
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 5: the prouder to blow them up with. I got up
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 5: here every once in a while and straighten things out
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 5: for her, go over the accounts and give her advice.
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 5: She's a mighty good cook, too, is the widow. And
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 5: the best ain't good enough for me? When I goes
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 5: calling on her and again our anautical friend waked. Don't
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 5: you think you're a little reckless, captain, said Bascombe, reproachfully.
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 5: The first thing you know, that widow will marry you. No, sir, No,
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 5: said the captain. There's too many of em tried that.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 5: I was married once, d'ye see, fifteen years backin one month,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 5: two weeks, four days, and seven hours astronomical time. Soon
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 5: after this one beautiful moonlight night, Bascombe and I walked
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 5: down to the barge with the intention of taking a
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 5: boat for a row. We found, however, that our friend
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 5: was rushed with business. All the boats were out except one,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 5: which was engaged by a man accompanied by two women,
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 5: and this party the captain was in the active embarking.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 5: As we stood idly watching the operation, the old mariner
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 5: said to them, old on till I swab off that thwart,
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 5: and passing Bascombe, ostensibly to get the swab, he nudged
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 5: that gentleman in the ribs with his elbow and whispered
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 5: hoarsely behind the back of his hairy hand, that's the widow.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 5: Of course, our interest in the embarkation was doubled by
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 5: this piece of information, and we scanned the widow as
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 5: well as the occasion permitted. She was a small, middle
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 5: aged woman, rather thin and angular, but as Bascombe afterwards
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 5: told the captain of a tidy build, we noticed that
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 5: neither she nor her benefactor indulged in look or word
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 5: of a confidential character. He attended strictly to business, while
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 5: she kept her eyes straight in front of her, with
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 5: the rigidity that defied the public gaze. When the captain
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 5: joined us after his labors, he stood for a while
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 5: watching the silvery wake of the moon on the water,
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 5: into the radiance of which a boat would occasionally glide,
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 5: showing femine drapery, while little peals of laughter came pleasantly
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 5: to our ears, mingled with the strumming of a guitar
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 5: and snatches of song. The moon must be a considerable
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 5: help to your business, captain said, I yes, sir, he admitted,
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 5: taking his pipe from his mouth and thrusting the glowing
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 5: tobacco down with his little finger. The moon's pretty good,
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 5: though the stars wear better. Still, the moon ain't bad.
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 5: It's a powerful help to the young woman in gettin married.
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 5: When a young woman comes down here and says, cap'n,
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 5: why not there be a moon? I don't say nothing,
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 5: but I count a loosener for a regular customer inside
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 5: a year, for d'ye see, arter they gets married. The
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 5: women don't care no more about boats and the moon
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 5: and such. And as for the man, I reckon, you
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 5: don't know and don't care whether the moon shinin' or
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 5: not seppin' it might be when he has to get
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 5: out of bed at night to hunt for the paragoric
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 5: bascom last. At this then we fell to smoking our
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 5: pipes and enjoying the quiet of the scene. The silence
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 5: was finally broken by our host. If I was a
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 5: young man, he said, puffing out a long streamer of
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 5: smoke meditatively, and was casting around in my mind to
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 5: get witted, I'd steer my course by the way of
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 5: a girl got into a boat. I'd fetch her alongside
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 5: of a boat and keep my eye on her when
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 5: she got in ford. Ye mind, some women, the moment
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 5: they gets nigh a boat commences to giggle and larugh,
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 5: and I old o everything in sight, septin' the right thing.
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 5: And some of em gets scared and screeches and grabs
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 5: at the feller what's helpin 'em? And some of 'em
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 5: flops in for all the world like a whale stranded
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 5: on a sandbar, and all but capsizes the boat. And
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 5: some of em precious for you. They are steps in
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 5: as light as a feather and sets right down without
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 5: any fuss or noise, so that you'd hardly know they
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 5: was there. Now, if I was going to get wetted,
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 5: I wouldn't have no think whatever to do with the
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 5: giggling kind, or the screeching kind, or the flapping kind.
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 5: I'd just make right up to the warm what was
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 5: quick and light on foot, and didn't make no fuss
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 5: I would if I was gone to get wetted. I noticed,
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 5: said Bascombe reflectively, that the widow has a neat way
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 5: of stepping into a boat at which the captain emitted
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 5: from somewhere down in his throat, a curious choking sound,
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 5: which we had long ago learned was a concealed laugh.
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 5: Three weeks elapsed before we again visited the barge, and
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 5: that we found a tall nankey fellow by the name
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 5: of Sam, in charge of the captain's domicile. In former days,
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 5: our nautical friend sometimes employed Sam to help him in
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 5: busy seas, and frequently left him to care for the
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 5: barge during his temporary absence, so we supposed that Sam
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 5: was present in the capacity of hired man on this occasion.
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 5: He quickly corrected our misapprehension, however, by announcing that he
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 5: had bought old Grummitt out, bought him out. Bascombe and
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 5: I exclaimed in unison, Yep, said Sam. Why what's become
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 5: of the captain, said Bascombe. He's married, replied Sam.
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 2: Married.
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 5: We again chorused, yep, said Sam. Not the widow, said Bascombe, incredulously, yep,
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 5: said Sam, least the ways the widow married him. You know,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 5: the old man was always violent again marriage. Well, when
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 5: he got spliced, he tried to make out to me
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 5: that it was a matter of business, for he prided
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 5: himself on being a man of business, and he was
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 5: kind of anxious to prove to me that marrying the
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 5: widow was a good speculation. He allowed that the store
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 5: was going to the devil for lack of proper management,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 5: and if he got in and married the widow, he'd
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 5: run the business to the queen's taste and saved the
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 5: money what he'd advanced on the mortgage. But good lord,
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 5: I hain't no marine, and Sam spat contemptuously over the side.
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 5: It was about six months after the Captain's marriage that
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 5: I came across a paragraph in the newspaper announcing the
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 5: accidental death by drowning of Captain R. Grummitt, well known
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 5: in the vicinity, where he had for many years kept
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 5: the house boat. I had no doubt this was our
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 5: old friend, and I read with grieved interest, not unmixed
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 5: with surprise, that the captain had hired one of his
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 5: old boats one evening to go fishing. Later on a
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 5: southeaster had sprung up, and as her husband had not
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 5: returned the following morning, his wife had instituted a search
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 5: that resulted in the finding of the boat bottom up
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 5: in the edge of the marshes and the discovery of
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 5: his hat floating a quarter of a mile away. The
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 5: body had not been found, but there was no doubt.
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 5: The article said that the old mariner had met his
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 5: death in the squall, and his remains had gone out
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 5: with the tide. Although Bascomb and I had not seen
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 5: the captain since his marriage, we naturally were very sorry
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 5: to hear of his death, and one day, being in
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 5: the neighborhood, who paid a final visit to the houseboat.
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 5: The place was no longer what it had been. The
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 5: neat little cabin was now dirty and disordered. The bed
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 5: looked as though it had not been made up for
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 5: a week. The stove and cooking utensils were sadly in
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 5: need of cleaning. An old woolen shirt was thrust in
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 5: the cutty sacred to the chronometer in an empty bottle,
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 5: but the candle stuck in it stood on the compass
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 5: outside under the awning spitting on the once immaculate deck
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 5: sat three or four loafers among them. Sam tilted back
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 5: against the house with his hat over his eyes, whittling
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 5: his chair. We called him to one side and asked
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 5: him if it was true about the captain's death. Why sure,
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 5: said Sam. It's in the papers, ain't it, well, said Bascombe.
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 5: We were friends of the captain, and we are mighty
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 5: sorry to hear it. That's the fact, said Sam, with
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 5: awakened interest. You were friends, weren't you, yes, said Bascombe,
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 5: And if there was anything we could have done for him,
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 5: we would have done it gladly. At this, Sam eyed
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 5: us for quite a little while. Then he looked across
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 5: the water. Then he looked down and scratched the back
• 1:39:54
  Speaker 5: of his head, pushing his hat over his eyes to
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 5: enable him to do it more thorough. Finally, he looked
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 5: at us again from under the brim, and then, to
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 5: our amazement, he slowly drew the lids of his right
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 5: eye together and at the same time thrust his tongue
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 5: in his left cheek. What the devil do you mean
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 5: by that? Demanded Bascombe. Roughly, sh said Sam, and again
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 5: he repeated the performance. A sudden intelligence dawned on Bascombe's face.
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 5: You don't mean it's all a fake, do you, he whispered.
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 5: I ain't sayin, replied Sam, relapsing into his ordinary manner.
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 5: Only TwixT you and me. There ain't enough water in
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 5: this here bay to drown the old man. As for
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 5: the boat, well, I gave it to the newspapers as
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 5: I found it, but that ain't proven he's dead. He
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 5: may have had his reasons for skippin' out, and I
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 5: may have helped him. I ain't saying. You see, the
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 5: widow had a will of her own that the captain
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 5: hadn't counted on, with a temper to back it up.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 5: And when it come to manage in the store, the
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 5: captain wasn't in it. He's all for peace and quiet,
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 5: the captain was, and he may have concluded, mind you,
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 5: I don't say he did, but he may have concluded
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 5: he rather she'd minister on his estate, or so much
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 5: of it, as he couldn't salt down and get away
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 5: with and to have to live alongside her for the
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 5: balance of his days. I ain't giving you this for
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 5: gospel truth, you understand, I'm only saying it might be so.
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 5: But there's one thing you can gamble, your last dollar on,
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 5: and that is that, although the widow may be much
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 5: on business, she raised that mortgage a durned sight, quicker
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 5: than any man could have done it. And of section
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 5: fourd Bye Greg Giardano, Newport, Richie, Florida.
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 6: Section five of The Black Cat, volume three, number one,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 6: October eighteen ninety seven. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 6: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 6: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Black Cat,
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 6: Volume three, number one, October eighteen ninety seven, Section five,
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 6: told in China by Elizabeth flint Wade. With a sigh
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 6: of contentment, Miss Patricia Emery turned the key in the
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 6: lock and pushed open the door of her little gray cottage.
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 6: When she went away, the daffy down dillies were just
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 6: thrusting their green swords through the garden moond and now
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 6: the apple trees were dropping their pink and white flakes
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 6: on her doorstone. No sooner had the key clinked in
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 6: the lock than a big black cap with a yellow
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 6: star on his breast came running round the corner of
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 6: the house, and with a purrow of joy, leaped on
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 6: Miss Emery's shoulder, rubbing his cheek against her dress, and
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 6: buzzing the welcome whose loudness had gained for him his name.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 6: You're as glad to have a home again as I am,
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 6: aren't you? Bumble? Said Miss Patricia, rubbing his soft coat.
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 6: Then hastening to change her stuff dress for a cool gingham.
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 6: She lighted the fire in her little cook stove, the
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 6: kindlings for which had been laid before her departure. Bumbled
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 6: trotting close beside her scarcely had the first gray banner
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 6: of smoke floated from the chimney, when, without the ceremony
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 6: of knocking her next neighbor, missus Banaja Tuttle, walked into
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 6: the kitchen. How did you, miss Patty? I see the
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 6: smoke coming out of your chimney, and I run right
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 6: over to ask you how you enjoyed your visit, and
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 6: tell you some news that'll surprise you. I make my
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 6: guess why the Hailliard have come home at last? At
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 6: any rate? The granddaughter has, they say, Miss Powers, that's
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 6: poor Catherine Higgards. A girl is just rolled in in money.
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 6: Her father owned a silver mine out west, but in
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 6: instead of spending some of it to furnish. She's just
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 6: used old stuff that was in the house. You remember them,
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 6: two corner cupboards with glass doors. She's got them full
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 6: of dishes and things for break or bake, she calls them.
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 6: And I guess we'll break her back getting up and
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 6: down for them every time she wants to use them.
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 7: Well, you just ought to see it all, and I
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 7: suppose you will, seeing they used to be such good
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 7: friends of yours, especially theren Hillard.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 6: Though why he stayed away in foreign parts these twenty
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 6: years instead of marrying you as everyone expected. Here, a
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 6: darkening of Miss Patricia's usually placid eyes brought her collar
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 6: back with a plunge to the present and to the
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 6: sudden recollection of a lack of gingerbread that would most
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 6: likely burn to her crisp if she stayed another minute.
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 6: By her departure, Miss Patricia was left free to prepare
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 6: her own meal and to think undisturbed the thoughts invoked
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 6: by the news of the reopening of the old Hilliard Place,
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 6: closed now twenty years and the homecoming of the daughter
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 6: of her girlhood's dearest friend. Happy thoughts They were at
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 6: first of childish games in the old colonial house with
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 6: Katherine Hilliard and her brother Thern sober thoughts of meetings
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 6: and partings with the brother grown to the.
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 4: Dignity of a sea captain.
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 6: Sadden. Thoughts finally of those dark days when, in one year,
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 6: by the Squire's death, the removal of Missus Hallard and Katherine,
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 6: and that sudden, unexplained departure of thereon, the ties of
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 6: her little world had been broken, never to be renewed
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 6: since lonely thoughts finally of this home coming of Katherine
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 6: Hillyard's daughter, with Katherine Hillard and her mother dead thereon
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 6: still absent on the other side of the world, while
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 6: she Patricia was an old maid of forty living alone
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 6: with a cat, which last thought brought Patricia back to
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 6: the present and to the fact that Bumble, despairing of
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 6: his supper, was quietly helping himself to the contents of
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 6: the cream pitcher. But whatever the course of Miss Patty's feelings,
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 6: her duty was obviously to call at once upon Katherine
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 6: Hilliard's daughter. So it was only the next afternoon that
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 6: Miss Emery, feeling like the very ghost of herself, lifted
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 6: the ponderous knocker of the Hayard house and sent its
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 6: echoes trailing down the long hall. Once inside and awaiting
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 6: Miss Power's appearance in the familiar yet strangely renovated parlor,
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 6: Miss Emory recognized with a thrill of pleasure the well
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 6: remembered corner cupboard. But as she crossed the room and
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 6: peered through the glass doors for a closer view of
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 6: the break or bake, a curious little gasp broke from
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 6: Miss Patty's lips. Then, with a half frightened look over
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 6: her shoulder, she put out a trembling hand and lifted
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 6: from the shelf a fragile cup decorated with blue you
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 6: forget me nots. Hardly, however, had her nervous fingers abstracted
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 6: the bit of china when a step in the hall
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 6: startled her, and, hastily setting the dainty thing back in
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 6: its place, she turned away, a fatal turn, as it proved,
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 6: for in her haste, the long fringe of her silk
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 6: shawl became entangled in the cup, whirling it to the floor,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 6: where it shivered into a dozen pieces. For an instant
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 6: Miss Patricia stood looking at the china fragments with the
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 6: helplessness of despair. Then, as the step passed on the culprit.
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 6: Hardly realizing her action, stooped and, gathering up the broken bits,
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 6: dropped them into her bead embroidered reticule. A similar vagary
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 6: of impulse moved her to turn the key in the
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 6: cupboard and to retreat to the father and of the room,
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 6: where Miss Powers found her sitting stiffly upright a few
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 6: minutes later. Of the rest of her call, Miss Patricia
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 6: had only a confused and painful recollection. Fortunately for the
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 6: little spinster, the cordial young Westerner had a ready tongue
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 6: and an abounding desire to do the honors of the
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 6: place to her mother's old friend. Under the cover of
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 6: that flood of girlish enthusiasm, Miss Patricia finally regained her
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 6: self possession sufficiently to say yes and no in the
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 6: right place, to demonstrate how a certain grinning Chinese idol
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 6: brought from over the seas by the girl's uncle, Aron Hilliard,
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 6: could be made to turn its eyes, and even to
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 6: show the secret workings of some carved boxes that the
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 6: same seafaring uncle had given his sister, Miss Power's mother.
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 6: He always brought some sort of puzzle to Catherine, and
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 6: usually one like it to me, the speaker finished with
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 6: an imperceptible sigh, But the next question set her heart
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 6: fluttering again, and it was with burning ears that she
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 6: heard the hostess say, there is one thing that I
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 6: want you to tell me about, and that is the
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 6: dearest little china cup, all covered with forget me nots
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 6: woven in and out in the drollest way imaginable Janie
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 6: calling to the maid, go and bring me that blue
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 6: and white cup in the cupboard on the left of
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 6: the fireplace in the parlor. In agony of spirit, Miss
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 6: Patricia rose, murmuring incoherently that she must go at once,
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 6: that some of the time she would tell about the cup,
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 6: and this to a cordial invitation to Tea that she
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 6: would like to stay, thank you, but there were home duties.
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 6: In fact, Miss Patricia never knew quite how she got
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 6: away from the scene of her misdeed and back to
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 6: the shelter of her own home. But even after she
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 6: was tucked away in her comfortable canopy tucked bed, she
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 6: obtained no respite from her torturing conscience. The very Katie
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 6: did in the trees by the gate voiced her guilt
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 6: for instead of proclaiming Katie's misdeeds. They were saying, stole
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 6: a cup, stole a cup? She did, she did a
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 6: cup a cup, first one and then another. And now
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 6: they were saying it together so loud and fast that
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 6: the brown alid slept in the oak in the lane,
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 6: rustled through the garden screaming, who who, And in a
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 6: minute from the little stream at the foot of the
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 6: garden came an answer from the bullfrog, in such loud
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 6: tones that Patricia felt it must be heard all over
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 6: the village.
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 4: Miss Patty, Miss Patty.
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 6: She pulled the bedclothing over her ears in order to
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 6: shut out the sounds, and at last fell asleep from
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 6: exhaustion to a waken just as the clock struck three.
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 6: And yes, even the clock knew it, for it was saying,
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 6: over and over, without pause or chain, miss Patty stole
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 6: a cup. Miss Paddy stole a cup. Miss Patty stole
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 6: a cup. And so the trouble grew during all the
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 6: next day, and Miss Patty found her guilty secret pictured
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 6: in cup shaped sunrise clouds, announced by the morning call
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 6: of the chanticleer, and even denounced at church for the
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 6: minister who always searched out hidden sins looked directly at
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 6: Miss Patty and gave out his text as for ye
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 6: may clean the outside of the cup, while in the
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 6: Bible class the lesson was on the hiding of the
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 6: cup in Benjamin's sack. The cap chief, however, was added
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 6: to her mental suffering when at supper time Bumble jumped
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 6: on her shoulder and knocked her tea cup from her.
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 6: Had had her education been classical, Miss Emery probably would
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 6: have said ed to Broute, but as it was, she remarked, sadly,
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 6: even you know how wicked I am, don't you, Bumble?
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 6: In short, to Miss Patricia's purer and tenderness of conscience,
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 6: accentuated by early training and by her lonely life, the
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 6: concealment of the accident and the taking of the pieces
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 6: of the cup seemed a crime, hardly to be atoned
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 6: for by years of expiation. About the time that Miss
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 6: Patricia was confessing her sins to Bumble, a bronze stalwart
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 6: man was sitting in the renovated parlor of the old
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 6: Hilliard House, saying one word to ten that were flung
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 6: at him from the lips of the impetuous young chateling.
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 6: It was Captain Darren Hailliard, who, in his East Indian banishment,
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 6: had received the half jesting invitation of his western niece
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 6: to visit her in the rehabilitated homestead, and whom, moved
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 6: by the unaccountable impulse of the long exiled, had hastened
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 6: home on the first steamer, arriving only that morning. During
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 6: the day, however, the two have become fast friends, and
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 6: to night Miss Powers was telling him, with full assurance
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 6: of his sympathy, about the dear little woman who came
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 6: to see her the day before, and whom she wanted
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 6: to get for a chaperone in place of her father's
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 6: homesick western cousin. You ought to see her, uncle, then
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 6: the speaker concluded, then, breathlessly, why you must know her,
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 6: for she was mama's dearest friend. And her name is Emory,
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 6: Patricia Emery, Patricia Emory. Do you mean to say that
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 6: she is living here and not married? Yes, uncle, And
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 6: she is like a piece of china, so delicate and dainty.
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 6: And oh, she was going to tell me about a
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 6: funny cup. I'll show it to you. Why it's been
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 6: taking out? And oh look it's been broken, for here
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 6: is a bit on the floor. Captain Theron took the
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 6: piece of china and looked at it. Child, tell me,
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 6: he said, is this piece of the cup you had
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 6: in the cupboard the very same uncle, and it belonged
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 6: to my mother?
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 4: But what, why?
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 6: Where are you going? Just for a quiet stroll, said
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 6: Captain Thyron, putting on his hat and setting out at
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 6: a rapid pace down the hill. As the bells rang
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 6: out the curfew, Miss Patricia lighted her bedroom candle, and
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 6: then she blew it out. She simply could not go
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 6: to bed. Almost stealthily, she opened her redicule, pulled out
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 6: the broken pieces, and laid them one by one in
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 6: the light of the argund burner on the table. Her
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 6: next movement was to go to the closet, bring from
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 6: it a pasteboard box, a box into whid she had
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 6: not looked for years, and to take from it and
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 6: place on the table another and a much mended cup
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 6: and saucer, apparently the mate to the one that now
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 6: lay in pieces before her. Then, after an ineffectual attempt
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 6: to fit together the tiny fragments of the broken cup,
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 6: she hurried they mixed a bowlful of corn meal dough
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 6: molded apart into the semblance of an upturned cup, and,
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 6: sitting down, arranged the pieces one by one on the
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 6: dome model. It was when she had finished, and bent
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 6: to scrutinize her work, that something on the white surface
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 6: caught her eye, causing it to brighten curiously. For there
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 6: on this cup of Catherine Hilliard's mis Patty had never
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 6: seen until yesterday, wovenskillfully out among the forget me nots
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 6: was her own name in tiny specs of gold, Yes,
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 6: and there were other letters, a motto. Perhaps with fluttering haste,
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 6: Miss Patricia found another lamp, lighted it, and, placing it
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 6: where she might see the lettering, distinctly read this strange inscription, Patricia,
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 6: Dear Patricia, Oh dearest, answer kind? But what question Patricia
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 6: was to answer? The cup did not reveal, for the
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 6: one bit of china bearing the all important words was missing.
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 6: It was because of this extra lamp that the out
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 6: struistic missus Tuttle, seeing the unusual illumination at so late
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 6: an hour, feared illness for her gentle little neighbor, and
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 6: determined to investigate. To reassure her mind without being discovered
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 6: was an easy matter for Miss Patricia's kitchen occupied an
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 6: entire l with windows and doors opening both in the
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 6: rear and at the front to one of the rear windows. Accordingly,
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 6: missus Tuttle stole shawl overhead there to discover Miss Patty
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 6: apparently mending broken china on Sunday night too, mused the
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 6: unseen onlooker, and her always pretending to be that pious
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 6: she wouldn't pull the bastins out of her dress Sunday
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 6: morning so as to wear it to church. Well, I'll
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 6: never believe in full again, only just as fur. But
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 6: the extent of missus Tuttle's faith can only be conjectured,
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 6: for at that moment, happening to glance across the room,
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 6: she saw a dark bearded face staring into the window
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 6: opposite and with a wild scream of miss Paddy.
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 4: Miss Paddy, he's going to murder you. Open, not your tuttles,
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 4: save your darling. She surned and fled. Filled with visions
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 4: of constables, prisons and scaffolds, Patricia tremblingly opened the door.
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 4: A tall, imperious looking man strode in and, pointing to.
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 6: The mended cup, said, where did you get that cup?
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 6: That is a broken cup?
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 4: Thearon Hilliard gave me.
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 6: I meant it, said miss Patricia, so faintly that she
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 6: hardly hurt herself, and this pointing to the one which
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 6: she had fitted over the dome. Oh, I didn't mean.
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 6: I was there, faulted, Patricia, and I took it off
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 6: the shelf and broke it.
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 1: But on pay for it.
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 6: I was going to the first thing in the morning,
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 6: Patricia Emery, sit down. I'm going to tell you of
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 6: a fool who wanted to tell a girl he loved her,
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 6: and thought he would do it in an original way. So,
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 6: when he was in a foreign land, he had two
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 6: cups made, one for his sister and the other for
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 6: the girl he loved. Both cups were painted with forget
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 6: me nots, But on the one intended for his sweetheart,
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 6: twined in and out among the flowers was a verse
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 6: telling of his love and asking her to marry him.
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 6: Now listen. Though he didn't know it then, the sister's
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 6: cup must have got broken on the way home. They
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 6: were both done up in the same kind of wrappings,
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 6: and in his haste for an answer, he mixed them,
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 6: sent the broken cup and got the answer he deserved.
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 6: For as it was Saint Valentine's eve, what must he
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 6: do but send with a cupper rhyme note, and so
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 6: ruin his happiness and hers trying to be smart.
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 4: Let's see.
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 6: How did it run? But while the man's mind was
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 6: still struggling after the first line of his old time Valentine, Patty,
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 6: her eyes shining brightly through the tears, was repeating softly
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 6: those enigmatic words that stood out distinctly even through the
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 6: mist of years. Dear friend, I sent this Valentine in
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 6: hope that when you've read this line it bears the
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 6: trifling gift your prize. But if the message you despise,
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 6: just cast aside the good saint's token and simply say
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 6: the cup is broken. But oh, thereon pursued Miss Patty,
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 6: quite ignoring the persistent third person of her visitor's narrative.
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 6: How was I to know there was no message on
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 6: the cup? And when you called and I told you
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 6: it was broken, you just looked at me and to
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 6: weigh without a word. Then your father died, your sister
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 6: moved away, the house was closed. And if I hadn't
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 6: been a thief, yes, a thief, for I didn't know
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 6: the cup was mine, I should never have seen. And
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 6: if you had concealed the evidence of your crime. I
• 2:06:24
  Speaker 6: might never have understood, said the man. For see, on
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 6: the floor in the old parlor, I found this, And,
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 6: grasping in his strong hand the trembling fingers that still
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 6: clasped unconsciously the dome ended cup, he fitted into its
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 6: place the fragment of china that made the boyish message complete. Patricia,
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 6: Dear Patricia, I love you more than life, dearest, answer kindly,
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 6: will you be my own sweet wife? It was soon
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 6: after Tharon Hilliard had received the long delayed answer to
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 6: his Saint Valentine message that Missus Tuttle, carrying the broom
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 6: and tongs and banaga Tuttle, armed with a pitchfork and
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 6: barn shovel, cautiously approached Miss Patricia's house in quest of
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 6: the supposed assassin. At the rear window, the couple stopped
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 6: and peeped in there. On the kitchen settle sat Miss Patricia,
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 6: her head comfortably resting on a man's shoulder, while Bumble
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 6: was prancing up and down in front of them, buzzing
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 6: his head nearly off with the excitement at such a
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 6: strange Proceeding for a full minute, Missus Tuttle's stood staring
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 6: in at the window before her usually quick mind grasped
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 6: the situation. Then she turned and, grasping the bewildered Banaga
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 6: by the shoulders, said sterly, come right along home, Banaja Tuttle,
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 6: What do you mean by getting out of bed and
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 6: coming down here appearing in on Miss Patty when she's
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 6: got a bowl? Didn't you know Darren Hillard got home
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 6: last night? End of section five, read by Laura Judith Barbro, Leesburg, Virginia,
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 6: July nineteenth, twenty twenty two. End of The Black Cat,
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 6: Volume three, number one, October eighteen ninety seven,