Latest / Murrays Adirondack Tales / 21 - Murray's Adirondack Tales by William Henry Harrison Murray

Transcript

21 - Murray's Adirondack Tales by William Henry Harrison Murray · Murrays Adirondack Tales

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: After twenty one. It was afternoon. The sun was sinking
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: with that slow and easy motion with which in the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: long summer days it glides downward to its cool evening breast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: The least hint of shadow lurked under the cedar branches
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: at the western extremity, and hung like an intangible vapor
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of darkness around the tips of the balsam branches. But
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: above the sky was bright with a day's brightness. The
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: surface of the lake gleamed in answering response of color,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and the western sides of the pines glinted back through
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: all their glistening stems, the gleaming beams, which, in losing
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: something of their heat, had gained or seemed to gain
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a higher reflective power. Halfway down the lake, on one
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of the little beaches, her figure brought sharply out against
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the dark black background of the balsams, as the sun
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: shone upon it. Stood a girl, her hands slightly joined,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: hung drooping in front of her, and her face was
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: lit stood upward to the sun as she stood, her
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: eyes gazing at the sun as if she would take
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: within their large clear orbs a light to last her
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: through the coming gloom. Her hair unconfined, flowed over her shoulders.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: The sunlight shone on it and penetrated it until the
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: light brown color took of its warmth, the single hairs
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: lying freest bright as the beam itself. The depth of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the waving mass grew tawny with a hint of richest yellow,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: like etruscan gold. She was tall, She stood, erect, her
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: pose firm, no weakness in it, no awkward stiffness either,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: like a delicate shaft, slender indeed, but firm of material,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: and sat on an adequate pedestal. The face was tranquil,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: not with the tranquility of contentment, but with patience and
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of power, the tranquility of one who has much to
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: bear but is able to bear it. If it were
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: possible to associate so common a feeling with such an
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: uncommon face, one would have been tempted to say that
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the girl had suffered and was suffering from hunger. For
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the pallor and the first symptoms of emaciation, whose suggestive
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and pathetic shrinking precedes the actual loss of flesh, were
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: plainly visible around the sockets of the eyes, on the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: curvature of the cheek, and the drawn tightness of the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: large and naturally ripe mouth, But still would have taken
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: but a glance to have caused any of our readers
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to recognize that the girl standing thus on the beach
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: of the Lonely Lake and the girl whose pitcher the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: detective had shown Herbert and the trapper were one and
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: the same. Slowly, the sun went down, slowly, but surely
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: could it not stay? Could God not cause it the
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: halt that a young child of His, thus deserted of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: all but the light of the blessed day, might at
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: least die cheered by the sweetness of that light. So
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: her eyes prayed as she stood with unfastened on the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: descending orb. For five nights she had known the horror
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: of darkness, the horror of its sounds, and its stillness alike,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: five times had the sun gone down and left her
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: standing upon that beach alone. Five times had night, the wild, roving,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: screaming night of the woods, filled with animals and not men,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: filled with beasts and birds of prey, and wild things
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that creep and crawl, flutter and fly aimlessly captured her
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: body on that shore, and tortured it with shrinkings and
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: the horror of uncertainty and now for the sixth time,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: the same dreadful night was coming on coming like a thief,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: like a murderer, adjusting his mask as he moves on
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: his errand darkening his face as he creeps towards the
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: performance of his awful deed. Once she had stayed the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: night long on that beach, stayed that she might see
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the stars and have a companionship of orbs, whose beams
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: shone at last on human habitations, and to hue shining
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: human eyes somewhere, at least were lifted. One night she
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: had remained there, that she might have the companionship of
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: the stars, the evidence of life, of mercy and protection
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: amid the gloom of that darkness which had murdered day
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: and cruelly surrounded her, with danger from which she could
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: not flee, and against which she had no protection save
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of that eccentric providence which allows one sweet innocent creature
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: to be killed and snatches another sweet and innocent creature
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: from her doom. But even on that beach, what terrors
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: had come to her? And how powerless were the stars
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: to help? In the sand, hidden from sight, she had
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: heard things creep and crawl on the edge of the bank,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: car ears had caught the stealing footfall from the declivity
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: of the overhanging hill whose slope rose sharply from the shore.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: She had heard animals come down, wild creatures that called
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: under each other, challenged each other with fierce screams, and
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: when they met, joined in dreadful combat, until the very
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: woods startled out of slumber screamed back to them, multiplying
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the wild outcries. Other footfalls too. Her ears had caught
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: footfalls that had no voice accompanying them, footfalls that moved
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: slowly and cautiously and were interrupted by long, watchful pauses.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Footfalls from feet that would advance and halt and then
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: come on again, came directly toward her until they reached
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the very border of the open space, and she, driven
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: to the water's edge and breathless, the blood freezing in
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: her veins, would know that in the darkness, wild hidden eyes,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: eyes she could not see, were looking out at her.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: What help were the stars, Stars that were far off,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: stars without moods or sympathies that she felt and knew,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: would shine and twinkle as brightly and mercilessly too, above her, dying,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: above her dead, as they were shining upon her living
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: five nights of terror, five days and nights of fasting,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: no wonder. The cheeks showed signs of shrinking, No wonder
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that in the corners of the mouth, and round the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: edges of the lips, a tightening and a pallor began
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: to show, no wonder that the eyes of a girl
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: were lifted toward the sun, as men in dreadful stress
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: of death lift eyes to Heaven, praying through their dumb
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: piteousness for mercy. And yet the pose of the body
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: as it stood upon the beach showed courage. The light
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: form lifted itself erect, as if braced with a might
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: of inner strength, and even in the dark depths of
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: her eyes turned as they were longingly and entreatingly toward
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the sun, a light of finest courage shone out, as
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: if within her were two natures, one weak enough to
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: need companionship, the other strong enough to stand up and
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: die alone. At last, the sun went down behind the mountains,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: and the long, narrow lake lay in deep shadow. Gloom
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: captured the shores. It crept out from under the branches
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: of the balsams, and from amid the dark pines it
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: stole duskily across the bright sands of the beach, and there, pausing,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: a moment began to flow out upon the water itself.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Little by little, the air continued to thicken, dust deepened it.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: The sky above lost its bright blue tint, and the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: great vault grew gloomy. The whole world darkened. Nature seemed
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: stricken with grief, a grief she would fain hide, and
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: so adjusted to her fair proportions the drapery of darkness,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and over her bright face let fall the gloomy veil.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: And when night had fully come, when the lake and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: the woods were won, because the darkness, which obliterates all distinction,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: would spread densely over all upon the beach. Amid the gloom,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the girls stood alone. The sixth day had passed, and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the sixth night had come. What should she do? Should
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: she sit still and wait the dark hours, through waiting
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: the danger that each hour might bring. No, she could
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: not sit and wait for the morning to dawn. What
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: morning would any morning ever come to her again, unless
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: it were the morning whose light shines without lessening them,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: without shade, on the green slopes of the everlasting hills. No,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: she could not sit. She must walk She must move,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: She must, by the physical action, keep her mind from
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: brooding terror. Did her heart sink? Perhaps? Did she feel
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: that the gloom was death? Left deserted as she was? Doubtless?
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: But she fought it nobly. She took the peril out
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: of peril by the bravery of her facing it. She
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: counseled with her intelligence. She did the best she could
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: to banish her womanly timidity by wise philosophy. There were chances,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: she said to herself, chances of discovery. Some boat might pass,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: some hunter might be threading through the woods. Her enemies
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: might relent, retrace their steps, and free her from her
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: dreadful peril. Or God, by some signal providence might yet
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: intervene on her behalf. And so she fought her fear
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: most sturdily. She rallied her courage to hac the emergency
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: without shrinking, For she said within her soul, if death
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: itself shall come, it would come at some time. And
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: what matters the place and what matters the time? Could
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: a multitude make death anything but a solitude? Do we
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: not all have to die alone? Though twenty hands of
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: love be within reach, and twenty faces love lighted make
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: their solemn circle around us when our eyes grow dim,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: so she reasoned with herself, both foolishly and wisely, seeking
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: by things true and half true, alike comfort in her
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: misery and strength in her weakness. She rose, she walked
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the sands. She walked slowly, for her step was growing feeble.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Her prolonged fasting had begun to tell upon her frame,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and the splendid strength of her young form was in
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: sensibly leaving the limbs it had braced so well. She
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: paused here and there as she walked, felt in the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: darkness for the cedar stems, plucked them, put the fragrant
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: fragments in her mouth, and toyed with a pungent taste
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: with her tongue. This she did, seeking to occupy her mind,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: seeking to relieve the dreadful monotony of the silence and
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the darkness. But she was weak, weak from hunger, weak
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: from lack of food. She had not felt it until now.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Her health was perfect, her temper brave, her native strength
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: had fought the incoming weakness, fought it successfully for days.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: But at last the enemy had conquered. The revelation of
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: her weakness, coming to her in the darkness of the
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: night shocked her. It startled her with a new terror,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and her young mind recognized as she steadied herself on
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the sands amid the gloom, the dreadful significance of the revelation,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and as she felt the failing of her mortal strength,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: her soul went up and out toward him whose strength
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: braces the world, and unto whom all weakness and its
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: trembling in its terror her force must cry. She knelt
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: upon the sands, and lifting her eyes into the darkness,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: she prayed, Thou, that dwellest and Knight, who seeth through
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: all darkness and noteth the dangers that lurk therein, who
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: maketh and keepeth the weak things of the earth and
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: life from amid this awful gloom. I pray thee Father
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: here now my prayer, thy child, I am and sore
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: my need. The terror that waketh by night is on me,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and I know not where to fly. I shrink from
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: what I cannot see. Deliver me from this lonely spot
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and the lonely death that is fast coming to me.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Be Thou, Almighty Father, this night, and with a father's love,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: send help quickly, or I perish. She stopped, rose quickly
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: from her knees, and stood erect, her hands pressed tightly
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: above her heart, expectant, for from out of the darkness
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: a sound had come, a sound made by no stealing
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: beast or dreadful creeping thing, A sound of a paddle,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and of a boat moving with gentle, rippling onward through
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the gloom, moving directly toward her. The next instant the
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: boat reached the sand, touched the sand almost at her
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: very feet, and the trapper's voice, from out of the
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: darkness hailed. I heard the voice knight of the spot,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: praying for aid girl, Where you be? For Henry and
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: me be here. And then a light flashed through the gloom,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and Herbert and the trapper, standing in their boat, saw
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: the girl they had sought for so long, lying prone
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: upon the sand. Our search be over, Henry, said the trapper,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: as he stepped from the boat, and lifting the girl
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: in his strong arms, he added, bring blankets from the boat, boy,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and start a fire at the edge of the beach,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: here by the big pine. For the girl be nice,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: starved as I conceit, and has fainted in her weakness
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: from every joy. But joy never kills, as I have noted,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and she will come to herself pretty soon, beyond doubt.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: And when she's tasted a little food and drank a
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: cup of warm and drink, she will be strong enough
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to tell us many things. And we certainly have many
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: things to tell her. End of Chapter twenty one, end
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: of the Mystery of the Woods.