Latest / Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) / 13 - Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) by G K Chesterton

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13 - Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) by G K Chesterton · Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading)

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And the earth in anarchy, urging the horses to gallop
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: without respect to the rather rugged descent of the road.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: The horsemen soon regained their advantage over the men on
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the march, and at last the bulk of the first
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: buildings of Lancey cut off the sight of their pursuers. Nevertheless,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the ride had been a long one, and by the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: time they reached the real town the west was warming
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: with the color and quality of sunset. The colonel suggested
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that before making finally for the police station, they should
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: make the effort in passing to attach to themselves one
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: more individual who might be useful.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Four out of the five rich men in this town,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: he said, are common swindlers. I suppose that a portion
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: is pretty equal all over the world. The fifth is
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: a friend of mine, and a very fine fellow, and
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: is even more important from our point of view. He
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: owns a motor car.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid, said the professor in his mirthful way, looking
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: back along the white road, on which the black crawling
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: patch might appear at any moment.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: I'm afraid we have had the time for afternoon calls.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: And doctor Ronard's house is only three minutes off.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Said the Colonel.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: Our danger, said doctor Bull is not two minutes off.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Yes, said Sime.
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: If you ride on fast, we must leave him behind,
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: for they're on foot.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: He has a motor car, said the colonel, But we
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: may not get it, said Bull. Yes, he is quite
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: on your side.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: But he might be out.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Hold your tongue, said Sime. Suddenly, what's that noise? For
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: a second they all sat as still as he equestrian statues,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: And for a second, for two or three or four seconds,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: heaven and earth seemed equally still. Then all their ears,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: in an agony of attention, heard along the road that
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: indescribable thrill and throb that means only one thing, horses.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: The colonel's face had an instantaneous change, as if lightning
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: had struck it and yet left it scatheless. They have
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: done us, he said, with brief military irony.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Prepare to receive cavalry.
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: Where can I have got the horses?
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Asked Sim as he mechanically urged his steed to canter.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: The colonel was silent for a little. Then he said,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: in a strained.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Voice, I was speaking with strict accuracy when I said
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: that the soul door was the only place where one
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: could get horses within twenty miles.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: No, said sim violently.
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: I don't believe he'd do it. Of with all that
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: white hair.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: He may have been forced, said the colonel gently. They
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: must be at least a hundred strong, for which reason
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: we are all going to see my friend Renard, who
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: has a motor car.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: With these words, he swung his horse suddenly round a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: street corner and went down the street with such thundering
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: speed that the others, though already well at the gallop,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: had difficulty in following the flying tail of his horse.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Doctor Reynard inhabited a high and comfortable house at the
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: top of a steep street, so that when the riders
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: alighted at his door, they could once more see the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: solid green ridge of the hill, with the white road
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: across it, standing up above all the roofs of the town.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: They breathed again to see that the road as yet
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: was clear, and they rang the bell. Doctor Reynard was
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a beaming, brown bearded man, a good example of that
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: silent but very busy professional class which France has preserved
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: even more perfectly than England. When the matter was explained
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: to him, he pooh pooed. The panic of the ex
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: marquis altogether. He said, with the solid French skepticism, that
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: there was no conceivable probability of a general anarchist rising anarchy.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: He said, shrugging his shoulders. It is childishness, ecaw, cried
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: out the colonel, suddenly pointing over the other's shoulder.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: And that is childishness, isn't it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: They all looked round and saw a curve of black
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: cavalry come sweeping over the top of the hill with
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: all the energy of attila swiftly as they rode. However,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the whole rank still kept well together, and they could
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: see the black bizards of the first line as level
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: as a line of us. But although the main black
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: square was the same, though traveling faster, there was now
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: one sensational difference which they could see clearly upon the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: slope of the hill, as if upon a slanted map.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: The bulk of the riders were in one block, but
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: one rider flew far ahead of the column, and with
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: frantic movements of hand, and heel urged his horse faster
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: and faster, so that one might have fancied that he
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: was not the pursuer but the pursued. But even at
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: that great distance, they could see something so fanatical, so
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: unquestionable in his figure, that they knew it was the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: secretary himself.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: I am sorry to cut short a cultured discussion, said
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: the colonel, but can you lend me your motor car
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: now in two minutes?
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: A heavy suspicion that you are all mad, said Doctor Lenard,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: smiling sociably.
• 5:59
  Speaker 6: But God forbid that madness in any way, inter of friendship,
• 6:03
  Speaker 6: let us go round to the garage.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Doctor Renard was a mild man with monstrous wealth. His
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: rooms were like the Musee de Cluny, and he had
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: three motor cars. These, however, he seemed to use very sparingly,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: having the simple tastes of the French middle class, and
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: when his impatient friends came to examine them, it took
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: them some time to assure themselves that one of them
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: could even be made to work. This was some difficulty
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: they brought round into the street before the doctor's house.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: When they came out of the dim garage, they were
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: startled to find that twilight had already fallen with the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: abruptness of night in the tropics. Either they had been
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: longer in the place than they imagined, or some unusual
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: canopy of cloud had gathered over the town. They looked
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: down the steep streets and seemed to see a slight
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: mist coming up from the sea. It is now or never,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: said doctor bull. I hear horses, no, corrected the professor
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: a horse, And as they listened, it was evident that
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the noise rapidly coming nearer on the rattling stones was
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: not the noise of the whole cavalcade, but that of
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the one horseman who had left it far behind. The
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: insane Secretary. Sime's family, like most of those who end
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: in the simple life, had once owned a motor, and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: he knew all about them. He had leapt at once
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: into the chauffeur's seat, and with flushed face, was wrenching
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: and tugging at the disused machinery. He bent his strength
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: upon one handle, and then said, quite quietly, I'm afraid
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: it's no go. As he spoke, there swept round the corner,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: a man, rigid on his rushing horse, with the rush
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and rigidity of an arrow. He had a smile that
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: thrust out his chin as if it were dislocated. He
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: swept alongside of the stationary car, into which its company
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: had crowded and laid his hand on the front. It
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: was the Secretary, and his mouth went quite straight in
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the solemnity of triumph. Sim was leaning hard upon the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: steering wheel, and there was no sound but the rumble
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: of the other pursuers riding into the town. Then there
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: came quite suddenly a scream of scraping iron, and the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: car leaped forward. It plucked the Secretary clean out of
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: his saddle as a knife is whipped out of its sheath,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: trailed him, kicking terribly, for twenty yards, and left him
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: flung flat upon the road, far in front of his
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: frightened horse. As the car took the corner of the
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: street with a splendid curve, they could just see the
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: other anarchists filling the street and raising their fallen leader.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: You can't understand why it's grown so dark.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Said the professor at last, in a low voice.
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: Going to be a storm, I think, said doctor Bull.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: I say, it's a pity we haven't caught a light
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: on this car for me to see by we.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Have, said the Colonel, And from the floor of the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: car he fished up a heavy, old fashioned carved iron
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: lantern with a light inside it. It was obviously an antique,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and it would seem as if its original use had
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: been in some way semi religious, for there was a
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: rude molding of a cross upon one of its sides.
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Where on earth did you get that.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Asked the professor.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: I got it? Where I got the car?
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Ha ha, answered the colonel, chuckling from.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: My best friend. Well, your friend here was fighting with
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: steering wheel. I ran up the front steps of the
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: house and spoke to Ronaud, who was standing in his
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: own porch. You will remember, I suppose, I said, there's
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: no time to get a lamp. He looked up, blinking amiably,
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: at the beautiful arched ceiling of his own front hall.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: From this was suspended by chains of exquisite ironwork. This
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: lantern one of a hundred treasures of his treasure house.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: By sheer force, he tore the lamp out of his
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: own ceiling, shadowing the painted panels and bringing down two
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: blue vases with his violence. Then he handed me the
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: iron lantern, and I put it in the car. Was
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: I not right when I said that doctor Naud was
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: worth knowing.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: You were, said Sime seriously, and hung the heavy lantern
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: over the front. There was a certain allegory of their
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: whole position in the contrast between the modern automobile and
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: its strange ecclesiastical lamp. Hither too, they had passed through
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the quietest part of the town, meeting at most one
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: or two pedestrians, who could give them no hint of
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: the peace or the hostility of the place. Now, however,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the windows in the houses began one by one to
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: be lit up, giving a greater sense of habitation and humanity.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Doctor Bull turned to the new detective who had led
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: their flight, and permitted himself one of his natural and
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: friendly smiles.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: These lights make one feel more cheerful.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Inspector Ratcliffe drew his brows together.
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: There is only one set of light that make me
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: more cheerful, he said, and they are those lights of
• 11:42
  Speaker 6: the police station, which I can see beyond the town.
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: Please God, we may be there in ten minutes.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Then all bulls, boiling good sense and optimism, broke suddenly
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: out of him.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: Oh this is all raving nonsense, he cried. If you
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: wially think that ordinary people in ordinary houses are anarchists,
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: you must be mader than an anarchist yourself. If we
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: turned and fort these fellows, the whole town had fight
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: for us.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: No, said the other, with an immovable simplicity.
• 12:15
  Speaker 6: The whole town would fight for them. We shall see.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: While they were speaking, the Professor had leaned forward with
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: sudden excitement.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: What is that noise?
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: He said?
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, the horses behind us, I suppose, said the colonel.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: I thought we had got clear of them.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: The horses behind us.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: No, said the professor.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: It is not horses, and it is not behind us.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Almost as he spoke, across the end of the street
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: before them, two shining and rattling shapes shot past. They
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: were gone almost in a flash, but everyone could see
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: that they were motor cars, and the Professor stood up
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: up with a pale face and swore that they were
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the other two motor cars from doctor Renard's garage.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: I told you they were his.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: He repeated, with wild eyes.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: And they were full of men in masks.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Absurd, said the colonel angrily.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: Doctor or Not would never give them his.
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: Cause he may have been forced.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Said Ratcliff quietly.
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: The whole town is on their side.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: You still believe.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: That, asked the colonel incredulously.
• 13:34
  Speaker 6: You will all believe it soon.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Said the other, with a hopeless calm. There was a
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: puzzled pause for some little time, and then the Colonel
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: began again abruptly.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: No, I can't believe it. This thing is nonsense, the
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: plain people of a peaceable French town.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: He was cut short by a bang and a flash
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: of light, which seemed close to his eyes. As the
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: car sped on, it left the floating patch of white
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: smoke behind it, and Sime had heard a shot shriek
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: past his ear.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Thank God, said the colonel, someone has shot at us.
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: It need not interrupt your conversation.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Said the gloomy Ratcliff.
• 14:21
  Speaker 6: Pleay resume your remarx Colonel, you are talking. I think
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: about the plain people of a peaceable French town.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: The staring colonel was long past minding satire. He rolled
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: his eyes all round the street.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: It is extraordinary, he said, most extraordinary.
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: A fastidious person, said Sime, might even call it unpleasant. However,
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: I suppose those lights out in the fields beyond the
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: streets of Gendarmerie. We shall soon get there.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: No, said Inspector Ratcliffe.
• 14:59
  Speaker 6: We shull never get there.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: He had been standing up and looked keenly ahead of him.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Now he sat down and smoothed his sleek hair with
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: a weary gesture. What do you mean, asked wool sharply.
• 15:14
  Speaker 6: I mean that we shall never get.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: There, said the pessimist placidly.
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: They have two rows of armed men across the road already,
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: I can see them from here. The town is in alms,
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: as I said it was, I can only wallow in
• 15:30
  Speaker 6: the exquisite comfort of my own exactitude.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: And Ratcliff sat down comfortably in the car and lit
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: a cigarette, But the others rose excitedly and stared down
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the road. Sime had slowed down the car as their
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: plans became doubtful, and he brought it finally to a standstill,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: just at the corner of a side street that ran
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: down very steeply to the sea. The town was mostly
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: in shadow, but the sun had not sunk. Wherever its
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: level light could break through, it painted everything a burning gold.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Up this side street, the last sunset light shone as
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: sharp and narrow as the shaft of artificial light at
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the theater. It struck the car of the five friends
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: and lit it like a burning chariot. But the rest
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: of the street, especially the two ends of it, was
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: in the deepest twilight, and for some seconds they could
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: see nothing. Then Sime, whose eyes were the keenest, broke
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: into a little bitter whistle and said.
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: It is quite true there is a crowded or an army,
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: or some such thing across the end of that street.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: Well, if there is, said Bull, impatiently.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: It must be something else, a sham fight, or the
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: mayor's birthday, or something. I cannot and will not believe that. Plain,
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: jolly people in a place like this walk around with
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: dynamite in our pockets. Get on a bit, simon, let's
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: look at them.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: The car crawled about a hundred yards farther, and then
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: they were all startled by doctor Bull, breaking into a
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: high crow of laughter.
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: Why you silly mugs, he cried, What did I tell you?
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: The crowd's as law abiding as a cow. And if
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: it weren't, it's on our side.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Oh do you know, asked the professor, staring you blind,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: that cried Bull.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: Don't you see who is leading them?
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: They peered again, and then the colonel, with a catch
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: in his voice, cried out, why h Bernard. There was
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: indeed a rank of dim figures running across the road,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: and they could not be clearly seen, but far enough
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: in front to catch the accident of the evening light
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: was stalking up and down the unmistakable Doctor Renard, in
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a white hat, stroking his long brown beard, and holding
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: a revolver in his left hand. Oh what a fool
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: I've been, exclaimed the colonel.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Of course, the dear old boy has turned out to
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: help us.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Doctor Bull was bubbling over with laughter, Swinging the sword
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: in his hand as carelessly as a cane. He jumped
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: out of the car and ran across the intervening space, calling.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: Out Doctor Renard, Doctor Renard.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: An instant after, Simon thought his own eyes had gone
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: mad in his head, for the philanthropic Doctor Renard had
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: deliberately raised his revolver and fired twice at Bull, so
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: that the shots rang down the road almost at the
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: same second. As the puff of white cloud went up
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: from this atrocious explosion, A long puff of white cloud
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: went up also from the cigarette of the cynical Ratcliff.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Like all the rest, he turned a little pale, but
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: he smiled. Doctor Bull, at whom the bullets had been fired,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: just missing his scalp, stood quite still in the middle
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: of the road without a sign of fear, and then
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: turned very slowly and crawled back to the car and
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: climbed in with two holes through his hat. Well, said
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: the cigarette smoker slowly.
• 19:21
  Speaker 6: What do you think now?
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: I think, said doctor Bull with precision.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: That I am lying in bed at number two hundred
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: and seventeen Peabody's buildings, and that I shall soon wake
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: up with a jump. Or, if that's not it, I
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: think that I am sitting in a small cushion of
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: cell and handwell, and that the doctor can't make much
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: of my case. But if you want to know what
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: I don't think, I'll tell you. I don't think what
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: you think. I don't think, and I never shall think
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: that the mass of ordinary men are a pack of
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: dirty modern thinkers. No, sir, I'm a democrat. I still
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: don't believe that Sunday could convert one average navy or
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: counter jumper. No. I may be mad, but humanity isn't.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Simon turned his bright blue eyes on Ball with an
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: earnestness which he did not commonly make clear.
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: You are a very fine fellow, he said. You can
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: believe in his sanity, which is not made of your sanity.
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: And you're right enough about humanity, about peasants and people
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: like that, jolly old innkeeper. But you're not right about Renald.
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: I suspected him from the first. He's rationalistic. And what's worse,
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: he's rich. When duty and religion are really destroyed, it'll
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: be by the rich.
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: They are really destroyed.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Now, said the man with a cigarette, and rose with
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: his hands in his pockets.
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: The devils are coming on.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: The man in the motor car looked anxiously in the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: direction of his dreamy gaze, and they saw that the
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: whole regiment at the end of the road was advancing
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: upon them. Doctor Renard marching furiously in front, his beard
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: lying in the breeze. The colonel sprang out of the
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: car with an intolerant exclamation.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Gentlemen, he cried, the thing is incredible. It must be
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: a practical joke. If you knew Renard as I do.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: It's like calling Queen Victoria a dynamiter. If you had
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: got the man's character into your head, Doctor Bull.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: Said Sime sardonically.
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: Has at least got it into his hat.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: I tell you it can't be cried the colonel, stamping.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Bernard shall explain it. He shall explain it to me,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: and he strode forward.
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: Don't be in such.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: A hurry, drawled the smoker.
• 21:55
  Speaker 6: He will very soon explain it to all of us.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: But the impatient colonel was already out of earshot, advancing
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: towards the advancing enemy. The excited doctor Renard lifted his
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: pistol again, but perceiving his opponent, hesitated, and the colonel
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: came face to face with him with frantic gestures of remonstrance.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: It's no good, said Sime.
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: He'll never get anything out of that old heathen. Howbout
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: we drive bang through the stick of them bang as
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: the bullet went through Bull's hat. May all be killed,
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: but we must kill a tidy number of them.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: I won't have it, said doctor Bull, growing more vulgar
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: in the sincerity of his virtue.
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: The poor chaps may be making a mistake. Give the
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: colonel a chance.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Shall you go back, then, asked the professor. No, said
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Ratcliffe in a cold voice.
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: The street behind us is held too. In fact, I
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: seemed to see there another friend of yours, Simeon.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: Sime spun round smartly and stared backwards at the track
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: which they had traveled. He saw an irregular body of
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: horsemen gathering and galloping towards them. In the gloom, he
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: saw above the foremost saddle the silver gleam of a sword,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: and then, as it grew nearer, the silver gleam of
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: an old man's hair. The next moment was shattering violence.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: He had swung the motor round and sent it dashing
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: down the steep side street to the sea, like a
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: man that desired only to die. Well, the devil is up,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: cried the professor, seizing his arm.
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: The morning star has fallen.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Said Sime, as his own car went down the darkness
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: like a falling star. The others did not understand his words,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: but when they looked back at the street above, they
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: saw the hostile cavalry coming round the corner and down
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: the slopes after them, And foremost of all rode the
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: good innkeeper blushed with the fiery innocence of the evening light.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: The world is insane.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Said the professor, and buried his face in his hands. No,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: said doctor Bull, in adamantine humility.
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: It is I.
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: What are we going to do?
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Asked the professor. At this moment, said Zime, with a
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: scientific detachment.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: I think we're going to smash into a lamp post.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: The next instant, the automobile had come with a catastrophic
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: jar against an iron object. The instant after that, four
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: men had crawled out from under a chaos of metal,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: and a tall, lean lamp post that had stood up
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: straight on the edge of the marine parade stood out,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: bent and twisted like the branch of a broken tree.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: Well, we smashed something.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Said the professor, with a faint smile.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: That's some comfort.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: She'll becoming an anarchist, said Sime, dusting his clothes with
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: his instinct of daintiness.
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: Everyone is, said Ratcliffe.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: As they spoke, the white haired horseman and his followers
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: came thundering from above, and almost at the same moment,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: a dark string of men ran shouting along the sea front.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Sime snatched a sword and took it in his teeth.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: He struck two others under his armpits, took a fourth
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: in his left hand and the lantern in his right,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: and leaped off the high parade on to the beach below.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: The others leaped after him, with a common acceptance of
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: such decisive action, leaving the debris and the gathering mob
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: above them. We have one more chance, said Sime, taking
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the steel out of his mouth.
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: Whatever all this pandemonium means, I suppose the police station
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: will help us. We can't get there, for they hold
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: the way. But as a pair or breakwater runs out
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: into to see just here, which we could defend longer
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: than anything else. Like Aracious in his bridge, we must
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: defend it till the gendarmere turn out keep off to me.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: They followed him as he went crunching down the beach,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: and in a second or two their boots broke not
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: on the sea gravel, but on broad flat stones. They
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: marched down a long, low jetty, running out in one
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: arm into the dim, boiling sea, and when they came
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: to the end of it, they felt that they had
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: come to the end of their story. They turned and
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: faced the town. That town was transfigured with uproar. All
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: along the high parade from which they had just descended
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: was a dark and roaring stream of humanity, with tossing
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: arms and fiery faces groping and glaring towards them. The
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: long dark line was dotted with torches and lanterns, but
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: even where no flame lit up a furious face they
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: could see in the far figure in the most shadowy
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: gesture an organized hate. It was clear that they were
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the accursed of all men, and they knew not why.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Two or three men, looking little and black, like monkeys,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: leaped over the edge as they had done, and dropped
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: on to the beach. These came plowing down the deep sand,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: shouting horribly, and strove to wade into the sea at random.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: The example was followed, and the whole black mass of
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: men began to run and drip over the edge like
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: black treacle. Foremost among the men on the beach, sime
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: saw the peasant who had driven their cart. He splashed
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: into the surf on a huge cart horse and shook
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: his axe at them.
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: The peasant cried, sime I felt. Brisiness is the Middle Ages.
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: Even if the police do come now.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Said the professor, mournful, they.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: Can do nothing with this mob.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: Nonsense, said Bull desperately.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: There must be some people left in the town who
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: are human.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: No, said the hopeless inspector.
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: The human being will soon be extinct. We are the
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: last of mankind.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: It may be, said the professor absently. Then he added,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: in his dreamy voice, what.
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: Is all that at the end of the dunce he
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: had no public flame, no private days to shine, nor
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: human light is left. No glimpse divine lo thy dread empire.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: Chaos is a restored light dies before thine uncreating word,
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: thy hand, great anarch lets the curtain fall and universal
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: darkness berries.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: All stop, cried Bulsaly.
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: The gendarmes are out.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: The low lights of the police station were indeed blotted
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: and broken with hurrying figures. And they heard through the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: darkness the clash and jingle of a disciplined cavalry. They
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: are charging the mob, cried Bull, in ecstasy or alarm, No,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: said Sime.
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: They've fond along the parade.
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: They have unslung their carbines.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Cried Bull, dancing with excitement. Yes, said Ratcliff.
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: And they are going to fire on us.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: As he spoke, there came a long crackle of musketry,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: and bullets seemed to hop like hailstones on the stones
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: in front of them.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: The gendarmes have joined them.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Cried the professor, and struck his forehead. I am in
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the padded cell, said Bull solidly. There was a long silence,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: and then Ratcliffe said, looking out over the swollen sea,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: all a sort of gray purple.
• 30:02
  Speaker 6: What does it matter who is mad, who is sane?
• 30:05
  Speaker 6: We shall all be dead soon.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Sime turned to him and said, you are quite hopeless.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Then mister Ratcliffe kept his stony silence. Then at last
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: he said quietly.
• 30:19
  Speaker 6: No, oddly enough, I am not quite hopeless. There is
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: one insane little hope that I cannot get out of
• 30:28
  Speaker 6: my mind. The power of this whole planet is against us,
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: yet I cannot help wondering whether this one silly little
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: help is hopeless.
• 30:39
  Speaker 5: Yet in what or whom is your hope?
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Asked Sime with curiosity.
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: In the man I never saw, said the.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Other, looking at the leaden sea. I know what you mean,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: said Sime in a low voice.
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: The man in the dark room. But someday must have
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: killed him now.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Perhaps, said the other steadily.
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: But if so, he was the only man whom Sandy
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: found it hard to kill.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I heard what you said, said the professor, with his
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: back turned.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: I also am holding hard on to the thing I
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: never saw.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden, Syme, who was standing as if
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: blind with introspective thought, swung round and cried out, like
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: a man waking from sleep.
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: Where is the Colonel? I thought you was with us.
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: The colonel, yes, cried bull. Where on earth is the colonel?
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: He went to speak to Renard.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: Said the professor. We cannot leave him among all those beasts,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: cried Sime.
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: Let is star like, gentlemen, if do not pity the colonel.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Said Ratcliffe, with a pail sneer.
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: He is extremely comfortable.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: He is no, no, no, cried sim in a kind
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: of frenzy.
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: Not the colonel too. I'll never believe it.
• 32:09
  Speaker 6: Will you believe your eyes, asked the.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Other, and pointed to the beach. Many of their pursuers
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: had waded into the water, shaking their fists, but the
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: sea was rough and they could not reach the pier.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: Two or three figures, however, stood on the beginning of
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: the stone footway and seemed to be cautiously advancing down it.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: The glare of a chance lantern lit up the faces
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: of the two foremost. One face wore a black half mask,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: and under it the mouth was twisting about in such
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: a madness of nerves that the black tuft of beard
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: wriggled round and round like a restless living thing. The
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: other was the red face and white mustache of Colonel Ducroix.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: They were in earnest consultation.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: Yes, he is gone to said.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: The professor, and sat down on a.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: Stone everything's gone. I'm gone. I can't trust my own
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: bodily machinery. I feel it if my own head might
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: fly up and strike me.
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: When my hand flies up, said Sime, it'll strike somebody else.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: And he strode along the pier towards the colonel, the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: sword in one hand and the lantern in the other,
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: as if to destroy the last hope or doubt. The colonel,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: who saw him coming, pointed his revolver at him and fired.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: The shot missed Sime, but struck his sword, breaking it
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: short at the hilt. Sime rushed on and swung the
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: iron lantern above his head. Showed this before Harrod, he said,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: and struck the colonel down upon the stones. Then he
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: turned to the secretary, whose frightful mouth was almost foaming now,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: and held the lamp high with so rigid and resting
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: a gesture that the man was, as it were, frozen
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: for a moment and forced to hear.
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: Do you see this lantern.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Cried sim in a terrible voice.
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: Do you see the cross calves on it? At the
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: flame in sight? He didn't make it, he didn't light it.
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: Better men than you, men who could believe and obey,
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: twisted the entrails of iron and preserve the legend of fire.
• 34:25
  Speaker 5: There's not a street you walk on. There is not
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: a thread you wear that was not made as this
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: lantern was. By denying your philosophy of dirt and rats,
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: you can make nothing. You can only destroy. You will
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: destroy mankind, You will destroy the world. Let that suffice
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: you get this one old Christian lantern, you shall not destroy.
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: It shall go where your empire of apes will never
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: have the wit to find it.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: He struck the Secretary once with the lantern, so that
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: he staggered, and then, whirling it twice a round his head,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: sent it flying far out to sea, where it flared
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: like a roaring rocket and fell swords, shouted Sime, turning
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: his flaming face to the three behind him.
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: Let us charge these dogs, for a time has come
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: to die.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: His three companions came after him, sword in hand. Sime's
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: sword was broken, but he rent a bludgeon from the
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: fist of a fisherman, flinging him down. In a moment,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: they would have flung themselves upon the face of the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: mob and perished. When an interruption came, the Secretary ever
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: since Syme's speech had stood with his hand to a
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: stricken head, as if dazed. Now he suddenly pulled off
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: his black mask. The pale face, thus peeled in the lamplight,
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: revealed not so much rage as astonishment. He put up
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: his hand with an anxious authority. So there is some mistake,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: he said.
• 36:02
  Speaker 7: Mister Sime, I hardly think you understand your position. I
• 36:08
  Speaker 7: arrest you in the name of the law.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: That the law, said Sime, and dropped his stick. Certainly,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: said the Secretary.
• 36:20
  Speaker 7: I am a detective from Scotland yard.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: And he took a small blue card from his pocket.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: And what do you suppose we are?
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Asked the professor, and threw up his arms. You, said
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: the secretary stimply.
• 36:39
  Speaker 7: Ah, as I know for a fact members of the
• 36:43
  Speaker 7: Supreme Anarchist Council disguised as one of you.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: I doctor Bull passed his sword into the sea.
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: There never was any Supreme Anarchist Council, he said. We
• 36:59
  Speaker 4: were all a lot of silly policemen looking at each other,
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: and all these nice people who have been peppering us
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: with shot thought we were the dynamiters. I knew I
• 37:07
  Speaker 4: couldn't be wrong about the mob.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: He said, beaming over the enormous multitude which stretched away
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: to the distance on both sides.
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: Vulgar people are never mad. I'm vulgar myself, and I
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: know I am now going on shore to stand a
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: drink to everybody here.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twelve.