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Three Ghost Stories-Charles Dickens · Short Ghost and Horror Stories Collection

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  Speaker 1: Section one of three ghost Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Three
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  Speaker 1: ghost Stories by Charles Dickens. Section one. The signal man,
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  Speaker 1: hullo below there when he heard a voice thus calling
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  Speaker 1: to him. He was standing at the door of his
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  Speaker 1: box with a flag in his hand, furled round its
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of
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  Speaker 1: the ground, that he could not have doubted from what
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  Speaker 1: quarter the voice came. But instead of looking up to
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  Speaker 1: where I stood on the top of the steep cutting
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  Speaker 1: nearly over his head, he turned himself about and looked
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  Speaker 1: down the line. There was something remarkable in his manner
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  Speaker 1: of doing so. I could not have said for my
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  Speaker 1: life what, but I know it was remarkable enough to
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  Speaker 1: attract my notice, even though his figure was foreshortened and
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  Speaker 1: shadowed down in the deep trench, and mine was high
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  Speaker 1: above him, so steep did the glow of an angry
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  Speaker 1: sunset that I had shaded my eyes with my hand
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  Speaker 1: before I saw him at all, hullo below. From looking
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  Speaker 1: down the line, he turned himself about again, and raising
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  Speaker 1: his eyes saw my figure high above him. Is there
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  Speaker 1: any path by which I can come down and speak
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  Speaker 1: to you? He looked up at me without replying, and
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  Speaker 1: I looked down at him, without pressing him too soon,
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  Speaker 1: with a repetition of my idle question. Just then there
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  Speaker 1: came a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly
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  Speaker 1: changing into a violent pulsation and an oncoming rush that
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  Speaker 1: caused me to start back, as though it had forced
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  Speaker 1: to draw me down. When such vapor as rose to
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  Speaker 1: my height from this rapid train had passed me and
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  Speaker 1: was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again
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  Speaker 1: and saw him refurling the flag he had shown while
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  Speaker 1: the train went by. I repeated my inquiry. After a
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  Speaker 1: pause during which he seemed to regard me with fixed attention,
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  Speaker 1: he motioned his rolled up flag towards the point on
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  Speaker 1: my level, some two or three hundred yards distant. I
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  Speaker 1: called down to him, I'll ride, and made for that point.
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  Speaker 1: There By dint of looking closely about me, I found
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  Speaker 1: a rough zigzag descending path, not doubt which I followed.
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  Speaker 1: The cutting was extremely deep and unusually precibited. It was
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  Speaker 1: made through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter
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  Speaker 1: as I went down. For these reasons, I found the
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  Speaker 1: way long enough to give me time to recall a
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  Speaker 1: singular air of reluctance or compulsion with which he had
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  Speaker 1: pointed out the path. When I came him down low
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  Speaker 1: enough upon the zigzag descent to see him again, I
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  Speaker 1: saw that he was standing between the rails and the
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  Speaker 1: way by which the train had lately passed, in an
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  Speaker 1: attitude as if he were waiting for me to appear.
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  Speaker 1: He had his left hand at his chin, and that
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  Speaker 1: left elbow rested on his right hand crossed over his breast.
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  Speaker 1: His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness that
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  Speaker 1: I stopped a moment wondering at it. I resumed my
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  Speaker 1: downward way, and, stepping out upon the level of the railroad,
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  Speaker 1: and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark,
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  Speaker 1: sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows.
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  Speaker 1: His post was in a solitary and dismal a place,
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  Speaker 1: as ever, I saw on either side a dripping, wet
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  Speaker 1: wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip
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  Speaker 1: of sky, the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation
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  Speaker 1: of this great dungeon, the shorter perspective in the other direction,
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  Speaker 1: terminating in a glowe me red light, and the gloomier
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  Speaker 1: entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there
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  Speaker 1: was a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air. So little sunlight
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  Speaker 1: ever found its way to this spot that it had
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  Speaker 1: an earthy, deadly smell, and so much cold wind rushed
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  Speaker 1: through it that it struck chill to me, as if
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  Speaker 1: I had left the natural world before he stirred, I
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  Speaker 1: was near enough to have touched him, not even then,
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  Speaker 1: removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step
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  Speaker 1: and lifted his hand. This was a lonesome post to occupy,
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  Speaker 1: I said, and it had riveted my attention when I
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  Speaker 1: looked down from up yonder. A visitor was a rarity,
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  Speaker 1: I should suppose, not an unwelcome rarity, I hoped in me.
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  Speaker 1: He merely saw a man who had been shut up
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  Speaker 1: within narrow limits all his life, and who, being at
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  Speaker 1: last set free, had a newly awakened interest in these
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  Speaker 1: great works. To such perurpose, I spoke to him. But
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  Speaker 1: I am far from shore of the terms I used.
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  Speaker 1: For Besides that, I am not happy in opening any conversation.
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  Speaker 1: There was something in the man that daunted me. He
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  Speaker 1: directed a most curious look towards the red light near
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  Speaker 1: the tunnel's mouth, and looked all about it as if
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  Speaker 1: something were missing from it, and then looked at me.
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  Speaker 1: That life was part of his charge? Was it not,
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  Speaker 1: he answered, in a low voice. Don't you know it is?
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  Speaker 1: The monster's thought came into my mind as I perused
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  Speaker 1: the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was
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  Speaker 1: a spirit, not a man. I have speculated since whether
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  Speaker 1: there may have been infection in his mind. In my turn,
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  Speaker 1: I stepped back, But in making the action I detected
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  Speaker 1: in his eyes some latent fear of me. This put
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  Speaker 1: the monster's thought to flight. You look at me, I said,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: forcing a smile. If you had a dread of me,
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  Speaker 1: I was doubtful. He returned. Whether I had seen you before?
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  Speaker 1: Where he pointed to the red light He had looked
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  Speaker 1: at there, I said, intently, watchful of me, he replied,
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  Speaker 1: but without sound, Yes, my good fellow, What should I
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  Speaker 1: do there? However? Be that as it may, I never
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  Speaker 1: was there? You may swear I think I may, he rejoined, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I am sure I may. His manner cleared like my own,
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  Speaker 1: he replied to my remarks with readiness and in well
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  Speaker 1: chosen words. Had he much to do there? Yes? That
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  Speaker 1: was to say he had enough responsibility to bear. But
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: exactness and watchfulness were what was required of him, And
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  Speaker 1: of actual work, manual labor he had next to none.
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  Speaker 1: To change that signal, to trim those lights, and to
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  Speaker 1: turn this iron handle now and then was all he
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  Speaker 1: had to do under that head, guarding those many long
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  Speaker 1: and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much.
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  Speaker 1: He could only say that the routine of his life
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  Speaker 1: had shaped itself into that forum, and he had grown
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  Speaker 1: used to it. He had taught himself a language down here,
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  Speaker 1: if only to know it by sight, and to have
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  Speaker 1: formed his own crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be
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  Speaker 1: called learning it. He had also worked at fractions and decimals,
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  Speaker 1: and tried a little algebra, But he was, and had been,
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  Speaker 1: as a boy, a poor hand at figures. Was it
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  Speaker 1: necessary for him, when on duty, always to remain in
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  Speaker 1: that channel of damp air, and could never rise into
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  Speaker 1: the sunshine from between those high stone walls. Why that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: depended upon times and circumstances. Under some conditions there would
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  Speaker 1: be less upon the line than under others, and the
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  Speaker 1: same held good as to certain hours of the day
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  Speaker 1: and night in bright weather. He did choose occasions for
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  Speaker 1: getting a little above these lower shadow, but being at
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  Speaker 1: all times liable to be called by his electric bell,
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  Speaker 1: and at such times listening for it with redoubled anxiety,
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  Speaker 1: the relief was less than I would suppose. He took
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  Speaker 1: me into his box, where there was a fire, a
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  Speaker 1: desk for an official book in which he had to
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  Speaker 1: make certain entries, a telegraphic instrument with its dial, face
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  Speaker 1: and needles, and the little bell of which he had
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  Speaker 1: spoken on my trusting that he would excuse the remark
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  Speaker 1: that he had been well educated, and I hoped, I
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  Speaker 1: might say, without offense, perhaps educated above that station, he
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: observed that instances of slight incongruity in such wives would
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  Speaker 1: rarely be found wanting among large bodies of men, that
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: he had heard it was so in workhouses, in the
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  Speaker 1: police force, even in that last desperate resource, the army,
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  Speaker 1: and that he knew it was so more or less
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  Speaker 1: in any great railway step he had been when young.
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  Speaker 1: If I could believe it, sitting in that hut, he
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  Speaker 1: scarcely could a student of natural philosophy, and had attended lectures,
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  Speaker 1: but he had run wild, misused his opportunities, gone down,
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  Speaker 1: and never risen again. He had no complaint to offer
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  Speaker 1: about that. He had made his bed, and he lay
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  Speaker 1: upon it. It was far too late to make another.
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  Speaker 1: All that I have here condensed, he said, in a
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  Speaker 1: quiet manner, with his grave, dark regards divided between me
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  Speaker 1: and the fire. He threw in the word sir from
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  Speaker 1: time to time, and especially when he referred to his youth,
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  Speaker 1: as though to request me to understand that he claimed
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  Speaker 1: to be nothing but what I found him. He was
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  Speaker 1: several times interrupted by the little bell, and had to
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  Speaker 1: read off messages and send replies. Once he had to
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  Speaker 1: stand without the door and play a flag as the
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  Speaker 1: train passed, and make some verbal communication to the driver.
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  Speaker 1: In the discharge of his duties, I observed him to
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  Speaker 1: be remarkably exact and vigilant, breaking off his discourse at
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  Speaker 1: a syllable and remaining silent until what he had to
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  Speaker 1: do was done. In a word, I should have set
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  Speaker 1: this man down as one of the safest of men
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  Speaker 1: to be employed in that capacity, but for the circumstance
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  Speaker 1: that while he was speaking to me. He twice broke
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  Speaker 1: off with a fallen color, turned his face towards the
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  Speaker 1: little bell when it did not ring, opened the door
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  Speaker 1: of the hut, which was kept shut to exclude the
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  Speaker 1: unhealthy damp, and looked out towards the red light near
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  Speaker 1: the mouth of the tunnel. On both of those occasions
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  Speaker 1: he came back to the fire with the inexplicable air
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  Speaker 1: upon him which I had remarked without being able to
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  Speaker 1: define when we were so far asunder, said I, when
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  Speaker 1: I rose to leave him. You almost make me think
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  Speaker 1: that I have met with a contented man. I am
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  Speaker 1: afraid I must acknowledge that I said to lead him on.
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  Speaker 1: I believe I used to be so. He rejoined in
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  Speaker 1: the low voice in which he had first spoken. But
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  Speaker 1: I am troubled, sir, I am troubled. He would have
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  Speaker 1: recalled the words if he could. He had said them, however,
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  Speaker 1: and I took them up quickly with what what is
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  Speaker 1: your trouble? It is very difficult, impart, sir. It is
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  Speaker 1: very very difficult to speak of. If you ever make
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  Speaker 1: me another visit, I will try to tell you. But
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  Speaker 1: I expressly intend to make you another visit. Say when
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  Speaker 1: shall it be. I go off early in the morning,
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  Speaker 1: and I shall be on again at ten tomorrow night, Sir,
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  Speaker 1: I will come at eleven. He thanked me and went
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  Speaker 1: out at the door with me. I'll show you my
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: white light, sir, he said, in his peculiar low voice,
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  Speaker 1: till you have found the way up. When you have
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  Speaker 1: found it, don't call out. And when you are at
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  Speaker 1: the top, don't call out. His manner seemed to make
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  Speaker 1: the place strike colder to me. But I said, no
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  Speaker 1: more than very well. And when you come down to
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  Speaker 1: morrow night, don't call out. Let me ask you a
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  Speaker 1: parting question. What made you cry hollo below there to night?
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  Speaker 1: Heaven knows, said I. I cried something to that effect.
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  Speaker 1: Not to that effect, sir, those were the very words.
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  Speaker 1: I know them well, admit those word the very words.
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  Speaker 1: I said them, no doubt, because I saw you below
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  Speaker 1: for no other reason. What other reason could I possibly have?
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  Speaker 1: You had no feeling that they were conveyed to you
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  Speaker 1: in any supernatural way. No, He wished me good night
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  Speaker 1: and held up his light. I walked by the side
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  Speaker 1: of the down line of rails with a very disagreeable
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  Speaker 1: sensation of a train coming behind me, until I found
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  Speaker 1: the path. It was easier to mount than to descend,
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  Speaker 1: and they got back to my inn without any adventure.
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  Speaker 1: Punctual to my appointment. I placed my foot on the
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  Speaker 1: first notch of the zig zag. Next night, as the
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  Speaker 1: distant clocks were striking eleven, he was waiting for me
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  Speaker 1: at the bottom with his white light on. I have
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  Speaker 1: not called out, I said, when we came close together,
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  Speaker 1: May I speak now by all means, sir? Good night then,
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  Speaker 1: and here is my hand, good night, sir, and here
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  Speaker 1: is mine. With that, we walked side by side to
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  Speaker 1: his box, entered it, closed the door, and sat down
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  Speaker 1: by the fire. I have made up my mind, sir,
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  Speaker 1: he began, bending forward as soon as we were seated,
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  Speaker 1: and speaking in a tone but a little above a whisper,
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  Speaker 1: that you shall not have to ask me twice? What
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  Speaker 1: troubles me? I took you for some one else yesterday evening.
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  Speaker 1: That troubles me. That mistake, No, that some one else?
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  Speaker 1: Who is it? I don't know, Like me, I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I never saw the face. The left arm is across
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  Speaker 1: the face, and the right arm is waved violently waved
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  Speaker 1: this way. I followed his action with my eyes, and
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  Speaker 1: it was the action of an arm jesticulating with the
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  Speaker 1: utmost passionate vehemence for God's sake, cleared away one moonlight night,
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  Speaker 1: said the man. I was sitting here when I heard
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  Speaker 1: a voice cry, hallo below there. I started up, looked
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  Speaker 1: from that door and saw this some one else standing
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  Speaker 1: by the red light near the tunnel, waving as I
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  Speaker 1: just now showed you. The voice seemed horse was shouting,
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  Speaker 1: and it cried, look out, look out, and then again
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  Speaker 1: hallo below there, look out. I caught up my lamp,
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  Speaker 1: turned it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling
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  Speaker 1: what's wrong? What has happened? Where it stood just outsid
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  Speaker 1: the blackness of the tunnel. They advanced so close upon
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  Speaker 1: it that I wondered at its keeping the sleeve across
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  Speaker 1: its eyes. I ran right up at it and had
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  Speaker 1: my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away. When
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  Speaker 1: it was gone into the tunnel, said I.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: I ran on into the tunnel five hundred yards. I
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  Speaker 1: stopped and held my lamp above my head and saw
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: the figures of the measured distance, and saw the wet
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  Speaker 1: stains tealing down the walls and trickling through the arch.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I ran out again faster than I had run in,
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  Speaker 1: for I had a mortal abhorrence of the place upon me.
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  Speaker 1: And I looked all round the red light with my
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  Speaker 1: own red light, and I went up the iron ladder
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  Speaker 1: to the gallery at above it, and I came down
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  Speaker 1: again and ran back here. I telegraphed both ways, an
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  Speaker 1: alarm has been given, Is anything wrong? The answer came
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  Speaker 1: back both ways all well. Resisting the slow touch of
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  Speaker 1: a frozen finger tracing out my spine, I showed him
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  Speaker 1: how that this figure must be a deception of his
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: sense of sight, and how that figures originating in disease
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  Speaker 1: of the delicate nerves that minister to the functions of
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the eye, were known to have often troubled patients, some
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: of whom had become conscious of the nature of the refliction,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and had even proved it by experiments upon themselves. As
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: to an imaginary cry, said, I do but listen for
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  Speaker 1: a moment with the wind in this unnatural valley, while
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: we speak so low, and to the wild harp it
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  Speaker 1: makes of the telegraph wires. That was all very well.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: He returned after we had sat listening for a while,
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  Speaker 1: and he ought to know something of the wind and
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  Speaker 1: the wires, he who so often passed long winter nights
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  Speaker 1: there alone and watching. But he would beg to remark
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: that he had not finished. I asked his pardon, and
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: he slowly added these words, touching my arm. Within six
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: hours after the appearance, the memorable accident on this line happened,
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  Speaker 1: and within ten hours the dead and wounded were brought
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: had stood. A disagreeable shudder crept over me. But I
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: did my best against it. It was not to be denied.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I rejoined that this was a remarkable coincidence, calculated deeply
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: to impress his mind. But it was unquestionable that remarkable
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: coincidences did continually occur, and they must be taken into
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: account in dealing with such a subject. Though to be sure,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: I must admit, I added, for I thought I saw
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that he was going to bring the objection to bury
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: upon me. Men of common sense did not allow much
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: for coincidences in making the ordinary calculations of life. He
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: again begged to remark that he had not finished. I
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: again begged his pardon, for being betrayed into interruptions. This
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: he said, again, laying his hand upon my arm. And
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: glancing over his shoulder with hollow eyes. Was just a
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: year ago. Six or seven months passed, and I had
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: recovered from the surprise and shock. When one morning, as
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the day was breaking, I standing at the door, looked
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: towards the red light and saw the specter again. He
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: stopped with a fixed look at me. Did it cry out, no,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: it was silent. Did it wave its arm no. It
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: leaned against the shaft of the light with both hands
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: before the face like this once more. I followed his
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: action with my eyes. It was an action of mourning.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I have seen such an attitude in stone figures and tombs.
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  Speaker 1: Did you go up to it? I came in and
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: sat down, partly to collect my thoughts, partly because it
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: had turned me faint. When I went to the door again,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: daylight was above me and the ghost was gone. But
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: nothing followed, Nothing came off this. He touched me on
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: the arm with his forefinger twice or thrice, giving a
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: gavastly not each time. That very day, as a train
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: came out of the tunnel, I noticed at a carriage
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  Speaker 1: window on my side what looked like a confusion of
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: hands and heads, and something waved. I saw it just
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: in time to signal the driver stop. He shut off
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: and put his brake on, but the train drifted past
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: here a hundred and fifty yards or more. I ran
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  Speaker 1: after it, and as I went along heard terrible screams
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: and cries. A beautiful young lady had died instantaneously in
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: one of the compartments, and was brought in here and
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: laid down on this floor between us. Involuntarily, I pushed
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: my chair back as I looked from the boards, at
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: which he pointed to himself. True, sir, True, precisely as
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: it happened, So I tell it you. I could think
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: of nothing to say to any purpose, and my mouth
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: was very dry. The wind and the w took up
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the story with a long, lamenting wail. He resumed, Now, Sir,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: marked this, and judge how my mind is troubled. The
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: specter came back a week ago. Ever since, it has
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: been there now and again by fits, and starts at
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: the light, at the danger light. What does it seem
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: to do? He repeated, If possible, with increased passion and vehemence,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that former gesticulation of for God's sake cleared the way.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Then he went on, I have no peace or rest
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: for it. It calls to me for many minutes together
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: in an agonized manner. Below there, look out, look out,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: It stands waving to me. It rings my little bell.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: I caught at that. Did it ring your bell? Yesterday evening?
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: When I was here and you went to the door twice? Why? See,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: said I, How your imagination misleads you. My eyes were
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: on the bell, and my ears were opened to the bell.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: And if I am a living man, it did not
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: ring at those times, no, nor at any other time,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: except when it was wrong in the natural course of
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: physical things by the station communicating with you, He shook
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: his head. I have never made a mistake as to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: that yet, sir, I have never confused the specter's ring
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: with the man's. The ghost's ring is a strange vibration
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: in the bell that it derives from nothing else. And
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I have not asserted that the bell stirs to the eye.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I don't wonder that you failed to hear it. But
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I heard it, and did the specter seem to be
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: there when you looked out? It was there both times,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: he repeated firmly, both times. Will you come to the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: door with me and look for it? Now? He bit
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: his underlip, as though he were somewhat unwilling, but arose.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: I opened the door and stood on the step while
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: he stood in the doorway. There was a danger light.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: There was the small mouth of the tunnel. There were
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the high wet stone walls of the cutting. There were
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the stars above them. Do you see it? I asked him,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: taking particular note of his face. His eyes were prominent
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and strained, but not very much more so, perhaps than
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: my own had been when I had directed them earnestly
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: towards the same spot. No, he answered, it is not there, agreed,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: said I. We went in again, shut the door, and
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: resumed our receipts. I was thinking how best to improve
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: this advantage, if it might be called one, when he
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: took up the conversation in such a matter of coarse way,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: so assuming that there could be no serious question of
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: fact between us, that I felt myself placed to the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: weakest of positions. By this time. You will fully understand, sir,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: He said that what troubles me so dreadfully is the
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: question what does the specter mean? I was not sure.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: I told him that I did fully understand. What is
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: its warning against? He said, ruminating with his eyes on
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the fire, and only by times earning them on me.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: What is the danger? Where is the danger? There is
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: danger over hanging somewhere on the line, Some dreadful calamity
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: will happen. It is not to be doubted this third time,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: after what has gone before. But surely this is a
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: cruel haunting of me. What can I do? He pulled
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: out his handkerchief and wiped the drops from his heated forehead.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: If I telegraphed danger on either side of me, or
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: on both, I can give no reason for it. He
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: went on, wiping the palms of his hands. I should
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: get into trouble and do no good. They would think
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I was mad. This is the way it would work.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Message danger, take care? Answer what danger where? Message don't know,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: But for God's sake, take care. They would displace me.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: What else could they do? His pain of mind was
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: most pitiable to see. It was the mental torture of
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endurance by an unintelligible responsibility
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: involving life when it first stood under the danger light.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: He went on, putting his dark hair back from his
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: head and drawing his hands outward, across and across his
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: temples in an extremity of feverish distress. Why not tell
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: me where that accident was to happen, If it must happen,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: why not tell me how it could be averted? If
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: it could have been averted, when on its second coming
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: it hid its face, Why not tell me instead she
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: is going to die. Let them keep her at home.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: If it came on those two occasions only to show
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: me that its warnings were true, and so to prepare
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: me for the third, why not warn me plainly now?
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: And I Lord help me a mere poor signal man
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: on this solitary station, Why not go to somebody with
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: credit to be believed and power to act? When I
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: saw him in this state, I saw that for the
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: poor man's sake as well as for the public safety,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: what I had to do for the time was to
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: compose his mind. Therefore, setting aside all question of reality
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: or unreality between us, I represented to him that whoever
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: thoroughly discharged his duty must do well, and that at
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: least it was his comfort that he understood his duty,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: though he did not understand these confounding appearances. In this
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: effort I succeeded far better than in the attempt to
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: reason him out of his conviction. He became calm. The
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: occupations incidental to his post as the night advanced began
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: to make larger demands on his attention, and I left
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: him at two in the morning. I had offered to
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: stay through the night, but he would not hear of it.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: That I more than once looked back at the red
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: light as I assented the pathway, that I did not
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: like the red light, and that I should have slept
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: but poorly if my bid had been under it. I
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: see no reason to conceal, nor did I like the
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: two sequences of the accident and the dead girl. I
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: see no reason to conceal that either. But what ran
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: most in my thoughts was the consideration, how ought I
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: to add, having become the recipient of this disclosure? I
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: had proved the man to be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking and exact,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: But how long might he remain so? In his state
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: of mind? Though in a subordinate position, still he held
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: a most important trust, And would I, for instance, like
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to stake my own life on the chances of his
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: continuing to execute it with precision? Unable to overcome a
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: feeling that there would be something treacherous in my communicating
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: what he had told me to his superiors in the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: company without first being plain with himself, and proposing a
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: middle course to him. I ultimately resolved to offer to
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: accompany him, otherwise keeping his secret for the present to
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the wisest medical practitioner we could hear of in those parts,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: and to take his opinion. A change in his time
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: of duty would come round next night, he had apprised me,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and he would be off an hour or two after sunrise,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and on again soon after sunset. I had appointed to
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: return accordingly. Next evening was a lovely evening, and they
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: walked out early to enjoy it. The sun was not
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: yet quite down when I traversed the field path near
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: the top of the deep cutting. I would extend my
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: walk for an hour, I said to myself, half an
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: hour on and half an hour back, and it would
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: then be time to go to my signal man's box.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Before pursuing my stroll, I stepped to the brink and
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: mechanically looked down from the point from which I had
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: first seen him. I cannot describe the thrill that seized
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: upon me when close at the mouth of the tunnel
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I saw the appearance of a man with his left
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving his arm. The nameless
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: horror that oppressed me passed in a moment, For in
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: a moment I saw that this appearance of a man
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: was a man, indeed, and that there was a little
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: group of other men standing at a short distance, to
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he made.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: The danger light was not yet lighted against its shaft.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: A little low, entirely new to me, had been made
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: of some wooden supports and turpollen. It looked no bigger
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: than a bed. With an irresistible sense that something was wrong,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: with a flashing self reproachful fear that fatal mischief had
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: come of my leaving the man there and causing no
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: one to be sent to overlook or correct what he did.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I descended the notched path with all the speed I
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: could make. What is the matter, he asked the man
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: signal man killed this morning, sir, Not the man belonging
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: to that box, Yes, sir, not the man I know.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: You will recognize him, sir, if you knew him, said
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: the man who spoke for the others, sulemnly, uncovering his
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: own head and raising an end of the turpollin for
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: his face is quite composed. Oh, how did this happen?
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: How did this happen? I asked, turning from one to another.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: As the hut closed again, he was cut down by
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: an engine. Sir. No man in England knew his work better,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: but somehow he was not clear of the outer rail.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: It was us that broad day. He had struck the
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: light and had the lamp in his hand. As the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: engine came out of the tunnel. His back was towards her,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: and she cut him down. That man drove her and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: was showing how it happened, showed the gentleman Tom. The
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: man who wore a rough dark dress, stepped back to
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: his former place at the mouth of the tunnel, coming
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: round the curve in the tunnel, Sir, he said, I
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: saw him at the end, like as if I saw
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: him down a perspective glass. There was no time to
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: take speede and I know him to be very careful,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: as he didn't seem to take heed of the whistle.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I shut it off when were running down upon him,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: and called to him as loud as I could call.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: What did you say, I said, well, aw there, look out,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: look out, for God's sake, clear the way I started. Ah,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: it was a dreadful time, sir, and never left half
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: calling to him. I put this arm before my eyes
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: not to see, and I waved this arm to the last.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: But it was no use. Without prolonging, the narrative did
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: dwell on any of its curious circumstances, more than on
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: any other. I may, in closing up, point out the
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: coincidence that the warning of the engine driver included not
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: only the words which the unfortunate signal man had repeated
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: to me as haunting him, but also the words which I,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: myself not he had attached, and that only in my
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: own mind to the distigalation he had imitated. End of
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: section one.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Section two A of Three Ghost Stories. This is a
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Recording by Marian Brown. Three ghost Stories by Charles Dickens.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: The Haunted House, Chapter one. The mortals in the House
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: under none of the accredited ghostly circumstances, an environed by
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: none of the conventional ghostly surroundings. Did I first make
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: acquaintance with the house which is the subject of this
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: Christmas Peace. I saw it in the daylight, with the
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: sun upon it. There was no wind, no rain, no lightning,
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: no thunder, no awful or unwonted circumstance of any kind
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: to heighten its effect more than that I had come
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: to it direct from a railway station. It was not
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: more than a mile distant from the railway station, And
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: as I stood outside the house, looking back upon the
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: way I had come, I could see the Goods train
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: running smoothly along the embankment in the valley. I will
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: not say that everything was utterly commonplace, because I doubt
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: if anything can be that except to utterly commonplace people,
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: and there my vanity steps in. But I will take
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: it on myself to say that anybody might see the
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: house as I saw it any fine autumn morning. The
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: manner of my lighting on it was this. I was
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: traveling towards London out of the north, intending to stop
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: by the way to look at the house. My health
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: required a temporary residence in the country, and a friend
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: of mine who knew that, and who had happened to
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: drive past the house had written to me to suggest
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: it as a likely place. I had got into the
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: train at midnight, and had fallen asleep, and had woke up,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: and had sat looking out of the window at the
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: brilliant northern lights in the sky, and had fallen asleep again,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: and had woke up again to find the night gone,
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: with the usual discontented conviction on me that I hadn't
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: been to sleep at all, upon which question, in the
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: first imbecility of that condition, I am ashamed to believe
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: that I would have done wager by battle with the
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: man who sat opposite me. That opposite man had had
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: through the night, as that opposite man always has several legs,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: too many, and all of them too long. In addition
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: to this unreasonable conduct, which was only to be expected
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: of him, he had had a pencil and a pocket book,
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: and had been perpetually listening and taking notes. It appeared
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: to me that these aggravating notes related to the jolts
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: and bumps of the carriage, and I should have resigned
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: myself to his taking them under a general supposition that
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: he was in the civil engineering way of life. If
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: he had not sat staring straight over my head whenever
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: he listened. He was a goggle eyed gentleman of a
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: perplexed aspect, and his demeanor became unbearable. It was a cold,
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: dead morning, the sun not being up yet, and when
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I had outwatched the paling light of the fires of
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: the Iron country and the curtain of heavy smoke that
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: hung at once between me and the stars and between
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: me and the day, I turned to my fellow traveler
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: and said, I beg your pardon, sir, but do you
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: observe anything particular in me? For really, he appeared to
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: be taking down either my traveling cap or my hair
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: with a minuteness that was a liberty. The goggle eyed
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: gentleman withdrew his eyes from behind me as if the
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: back of the carriage were a hundred miles off, and said,
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: with a lofty look of compassion for my insignificance in you, sir,
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: b be sir, said, I growing warm. I have nothing
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: to do with you, sir, returned the gentleman, pray, let
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: me listen.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Oh.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: He enunciated this vowal after a pause, and noted it down.
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: At first, I was alarmed for an express lunatic and
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: no communication with the guard is a serious position. The
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: thought came to my relief that the gentleman might be
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: what is popularly called a wrapper, one of a sect
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: for some of whom I have the highest respect, but
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: whom I don't believe in. I was going to ask
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: him the question when he took the bread out of
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: my mouth. You will excuse me, said the gentleman, contemptuous
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: if I am too much in advance of common humanity
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: to trouble myself at all about it. I have passed
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: the night, as indeed I passed the whole of my
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: time now in spiritual intercourse, Oh, said I, somewhat snappishly.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: The conferences of the night began, continued the gentleman, turning
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: several leaves of his note book with this message evil communication,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: corrupt good manners sound, said I, but absolutely new new
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: from spirits, returned the gentleman. I could only repeat my
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: rather snappish oh, and ask if I might be favored
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: with the last communication. A bird in the hand, said
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: the gentleman, reading his last entry with great solemnity, is
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: worth two in the bosh. Truly, I am of the
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: same opinion, said I. But shouldn't it be bush it
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: came to me, Bosh returned the gentleman. The gentlemen then
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: informed me that the spirit of Socrates had delivered this
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: special revelation in the course of the night. My friend,
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I hope you are pretty well. There are two in
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: this railway carriage. How do you do There are seventeen thousand,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: four hundred and seventy nine spirits here, but you cannot
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: see them. Pythagoras is here. He is not at liberty
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: to mention it, but hopes you like traveling. Galileo likewise,
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: had dropped in with this scientific intelligence. I am glad
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: to see you. Amiko, Comeista. Water will freeze when it
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: is cold enough Adio. In the course of the night,
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: also the following phenomena had occurred. Bishop Butler had insisted
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: on spelling his name Bubbler, for which offense against orthography
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: and good manners, he had been dismissed as out of temper.
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: John Milton, suspected of wilful mystification, had repudiated the authorship
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: of Paradise Lost, and had introduced as joint authors of
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: that poem two unknown gentlemen respectively named Grungers and scatting
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Tone and Prince Arthur nephew of King John of England,
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: had described himself as tolerably comfortable in the Seventh Circle,
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: where he was learning to paint on velvet under the
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: direction of Missus Trimmer and Mary, Queen of Scots. If
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: this should meet the eye of the gentleman who favored
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: me with these disclosures, I trust he will excuse my
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: confessing that the sight of the rising sun and the
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: contemplation of the magnificent order of the vast universe made
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: me impatient of them. In a word, I was so
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: impatient of them that I was mightily glad to get
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: out at the next station, and to exchange these clouds
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: and vapors for the free air of heaven. By that
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: time it was a beautiful morning. As I walked away
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: among such leaves as had already fallen from the golden,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: brown and russet trees, and as I looked around me
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: on the wonders of creation, and thought of the steady,
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: unchanging and harmonious laws by which they are sustained. The
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: Gentleman's spiritual intercourse seemed to me as poor a piece
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: of journey work as ever this world saw. In which
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: heathen state of mind I came within view of the
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: house and stopped to examine it attentively. It was a
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: solitary house, standing in a sadly neglected garden, a pretty
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: even square of some two acres. It was a house
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: of about the time of George the Second, as stiff,
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: as cold, as formal, and in as bad taste as
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: could possibly be desired by the most loyal admirer of
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: the whole courtet of George's. It was uninhabited, but had
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: within a year or two been cheaply repaired to render
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: it habitable. I say cheaply because the work had been
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: done in a surface manner and was already decaying as
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: to the paint and plaster, though the colors were fresh.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: A lopsided board drooped over the garden wall, announcing that
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: it was to let on very reasonable terms. Well furnished,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: it was much too closely and heavily shadowed by trees,
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: and in particular there were six tall poplars before the
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: front windows, which were excessively melancholy, and the sight of
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: which had been extremely ill chosen. It was easy to
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: see that it was an avoided house, a house that
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: was shunned by the village, to which my eye was
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: guided by a church spire some half a mile off,
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: a house that nobody would take, and the natural interference
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: was that it had the reputation of being a haunted house.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: No period within the four and twenty hours of day
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: and night is so solemn to me as the early
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: morning in the summer time. I often rise very early
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: and repair to my room to do a day's work
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: before breakfast, and I am always, on those occasions deeply
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: impressed by the stillness and solitude around me. Besides that,
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: there is something awful in the being surrounded by familiar faces,
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: asleep in the knowledge that those who are dearest to
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: us and to whom we are dearest, are profoundly unconscious
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: of us, in an impassive state, anticipate of that mysterious
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: condition to which we are all tending. The stopped life,
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: the broken threads of yesterday, the deserted seat, the closed book,
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: the unfinished but abandoned occupation, all are images of death.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: The tranquility of the hour is the tranquility of death.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: The color and the chill have the same association, even
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: a certain air that familiar household objects take upon themselves
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: when they first merge with the shadows of the night
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: into the morning, of being newer as they used to
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: be long ago, has its counterpart in the subsistence of
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: the worn face of maturity or age in death into
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: the old youthful look. Moreover, I once saw the apparition
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: of my father at this hour. He was alive and well,
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: and nothing ever came of it. But I saw him
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: in the daylight, sitting with his back towards me on
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: a seat that stood beside my bed. His head was
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: resting on his hand, and whether he was slumbering or grieving,
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: I could not discern. Amazed to see him there, I
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: sat up, moved my position, leaned out of bed, and
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: watched him. As he did not move. I spoke to
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: him more than once. As he did not move. Then
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: I became alarmed and laid my hand upon his shoulder,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: as I thought, And there was no such thing. For
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: all these reasons, and for others less easily and briefly statable,
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I find the early morning to be my most ghostly time.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Any house would be more or less haunted to me
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: in the early morning, and a haunted house could scarcely
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: address me to greater advantage than then. I walked on
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: into the villa with the desertion of this house upon
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: my mind, and I found the landlord of the little
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: Inn standing his doorstep. I bespoke breakfast and broached the
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: subject of the house. Is it haunted? I asked? The
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: landlord looked at me, shook his head, and answered, I
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: say nothing, Then it is haunted, well, cried the landlord,
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: in an outburst of frankness that had the appearance of desperation.
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't sleep in it. Why not if I wanted
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: to have all the bells in a house ring with
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: nobody to ring him, and all the doors in a
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: house bang with nobody to bang him, and all sorts
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: of feet treading about with no feet there, Why then
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: said the landlord, I'd sleep in that house. Is anything
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: seen there? The landlord looked at me again, and then,
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: with his former appearance of desperation, called down his stable
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: yard for ikey. The call produced a high shouldered young
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: fellow with a round red face, a short crop of
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: sandy hair, a very broad, humorous mouth, a turned up nose,
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: and a great sleeved waistcoat of purple bars with mother
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: of pearl buttons that seemed to be growing upon him,
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: and to be in a fair way, if it were
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: not pruned of covering his head and overrunning his boots.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: This gentleman wants to know, said the landlord. If anything
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: seen at the poplar's ooded woman with a howl, said Ikey,
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: in a state of great freshness, Do you mean a cry?
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: I mean a bird, sir, A hooded woman with an owl?
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: Dear me, did you ever see her? I seen the howl.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: Never the woman not so plain as the howl, but
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: they always keeps together. Has anybody ever seen the woman
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: as plainly as the owl? Lord, bless you, sir lots?
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: Who Lord, bless you, sir lots. The general dealer opposite,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: for instance, who was opening his shop, Perkins, bless you?
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Perkins wouldn't go anigh the place, No, observed the young
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: man with considerable feeling. He ain't over wise, ain't Perkins.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: But he ain't such a fool as that here. The
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: landlord murmured his confidence in Perkins knowing better who is
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: or who was the hooded woman with the owl? Do
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: you know well, said Ikey, holding up his cap with
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: one hand while he scratched his head with the other.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: They say in general that she was murdered, and the
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: howl he ooded the while a very concise summary of
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: the facts was all I could learn, except that a
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: young man as hearty and as likely a young man
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: as ever I see, had been took with fits and
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: held down in him after seeing the hooded woman. Also
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: that a personage dimly described as an old chap, a
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: sort of one eyed tramp answering to the name of Joby,
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: unless you challenge as Greenwood. And then he said, why not,
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: And even if so, mind your own business, had encountered
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: the hooded woman a matter of five or six times.
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: But I was not materially assisted by these witnesses, inasmuch
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: as the first was in California, and the last was
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: as Ike said, and he was confirmed by the landlord anywheres. Now,
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: although I regard with the hushed and solemn fear the
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: mysteries between which and this state of existence is interposed
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: the barrier of the great trial and change that fall
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: on all the things that live, And although I have
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: not the audacity to pretend that I know anything of them,
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: I can no more reconcile the mere banging of doors,
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: ringing of bells, creaking of boards, and suchlike insignificances with
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: the majestic beauty and pervading analogy of all the divine rules,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: that I am permitted to understand, that I have been
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: able a little while before to yoke the spiritual intercourse
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: of my fellow traveler in the chariot of the rising Sun. Moreover,
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: I had lived in two haunted houses, both abroad. In
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: one of these an old Italian palace, which bore the
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: reputation of being very badly haunted, indeed, and which had
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: recently been twice abandoned. On that account, I lived eight
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: months most tranquility and pleasantly, notwithstanding that the house had
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: a score of mysterious bedrooms which were never used, and
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: possessed in one large room in which I sat reading
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: times out of number at all hours, and next to
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: which I slept a haunted chamber of the first pretensions.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: I gently hinted these considerations to the landlord, and to
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: this particular house having a bad name. I reasoned with him,
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: why how many things had bad names undeservedly, and how
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: easy it was to give bad names? And did he
• 46:54
  Speaker 2: not think that if he and I were persistently to
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: whisper in the village that any weird looking, old drug
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: sunk and tinker of the neighborhood had sold himself to
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: the devil. He would come in time to be suspected
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: of that commercial venture. All this wise talk was perfectly ineffective.
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: With the landlord, I am bound to confess, and was
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: as dead a failure as ever I made in my
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: life to cut this part of the story short. I
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: was piqued about the haunted house, and was already half
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: resolved to take it. So after breakfast I got the
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: keys from Perkins's brother in law, a whip and harness
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: maker who keeps the post office and is under submission
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: to a most rigorous wife of the doubly seceding little
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: immanual persuasion, and went up to the house, attended by
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: my landlord and by Ikey. Within, I found it as
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: I had expected, transcendently dismal. The slowly changing shadows waved
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: on it from the heavy trees were doleful in the
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: last degree. The house was ill placed, ill built, ill planned,
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: and ill fitted. It was damp, it was not free
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: from dry rot, and there a flavor of rats in it,
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: And it was the gloomy victim of that indescribable decay,
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: which settles on all the work of man's hands whenever
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: it's not turned to man's account. The kitchens and offices
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: were too large and too remote from each other. Above
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: stairs and below waiste tracks of passage intervened between patches
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: of fertility represented by rooms. And there was a moldy
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: old well with a green growth upon it, hiding like
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: a murderous trap, near the bottom of the back stairs
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: under the double row of bells. One of these bells
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: was labeled on a black ground in faded white letters.
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: Master B. This, they told me, was the bell that
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: rang the most. Who was Master B? I asked, Is
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: it known what he did? While the owl hooted rang
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: the bell? Said Ike. I was rather struck by the
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: prompt dexterity with which this young man pitched his fur
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: cap at the bell and rang it himself. It was
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: a loud, unpleasant bell, and made a very disagreeable sound.
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: The other bells were inscribed according to the names of
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: the rooms to which their wires were conducted, as picture room,
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: double room, clock room, and the like. Following Master B's
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: bell to its source, I found that young gentleman to
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: have had but indifferent third class accommodation in a triangular
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: cabin under the cock loft, with a corner fireplace, which
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: Master B must have been exceedingly small if he were
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: ever to warm himself at, and a corner chimney piece
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: like a pyramidal staircase to the ceiling. For tom Thumb.
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: The papering of one side of the room had dropped
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: down bodily, with fragments of plaster adhering to it, and
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: almost blocked up the door. It appeared that Master B,
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: in his spiritual condition, always made a point of pulling
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: the paper down. Neither the landlord nor Ikey could suggest
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: why he made such a fool of himself, except that
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: the house had an immensely large rambling loft at top.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: I made no other discoveries. It was moderately well furnished,
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: but sparely. Some of the furniture, say a third, was
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: as old as the house, and the rest was of
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: various periods within the last half century. I was referred
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: to a corn chandler in the market place of the
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: county town to treat for the house. I went that day,
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: and I took it for six months. It was just
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: the middle of October when I moved in with my
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: maiden sister, I ventured to call her eight and thirty.
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: She is so very handsome, sensible and engaging. We took
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: with us a deaf stableman, my bloodhound Turk, two women servants,
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: and a young person called an odd girl. I have
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: reason to record of the attendant last enumerated, who was
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: one of the Saint Lawrence's Union female orphans, and that
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: she was a fatal mistake and a disastrous engagement. The
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: year was dying early, the leaves were falling fast. It
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: was a raw cold day when we took possession, and
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: the gloom of the house was most depressing. The cook,
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: an amiable woman but of a weak turn of intellect,
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: burst into tears on beholding the kitchen, and requested that
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: her silver watch might be delivered over to her sister.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: Two Toppenstock's gardens, LIGs Walk Clapham Rise in the event
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: of anything happening to her from the damp streaker. The
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: house made feigned cheerfulness, but was the greater martyr. The
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: odd Girl, who had never been in the country alone,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: was pleased and made arrangements for sowing an acorn in
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: the garden outside the scullery window and rearing an oak.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: We went before dark through all the natural as opposed
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: to supernatural miseries incidental to our state. Dispiriting reports ascended
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: like the smoke from the basement in volumes, and descended
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: from the upper rooms. There was no rolling pin. There
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: was no salamander, which failed to surprise me, for I
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know what it is. There was nothing in
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: the house. What there was was broken. The last people
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: must have lived like pigs. What could the meaning of
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: the Landlord be through these distresses? The odd Girl was
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: cheerful in exemplary, but within four hours after dark we
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: had got into a supernatural groove, and the odd girl
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: had seen eyes and was in hysterics. My sister and
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: I had agreed to keep the haunting strictly to ourselves,
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: and my impression was, and still is, that I had
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: not left Ikey when he helped to unload the cart
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: alone with the women, or any of them for one minute. Nevertheless,
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: as I say, the odd girl had seen eyes, no
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: other explanation could ever be drawn from her before nine,
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: and by ten o'clock had had as much vintage applied
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: to her as would pickle a handsome salmon. I leave
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: a discerning public to judge of my feelings when under
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: these untoward circumstances. At about half past ten o'clock, Master
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: B's bell began to ring in a most infuriated manner,
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: and Turk howled until the house resounded with his lamentations.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: I hope I may never again be in a state
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: of mind so unchristian as the mental frame in which
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: I lived for some weeks respecting the memory of Master B.
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: Whether his bell was rung by rats or mice, or bats,
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: or wind, or what other accidental vibration, or sometimes by
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: one cause, sometimes another, and sometimes by collusion, I don't know,
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: but certain it is that it did ring two nights
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: out of three until I conceived the happy idea of
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: twisting Master Bee's neck, in other words, breaking his bell
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: off short and silencing that young gentleman, as to my
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: experience and belief forever. But by that time the odd
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: girl had developed such improving powers of catalepsy that she
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: had become a shining example of that very inconvenient disorder.
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: She would stiffen like a guy fox endowed with unreason
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: on the most irrelevant occasions. I would address the servants
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: in a lucid manner, pointing out to them that I
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: had painted Master Bee's room, and balk the paper, and
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: taken Master bees belloway and balk the ringing. And if
• 54:13
  Speaker 2: they could suppose that that confounded boy had lived and
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: died to clothe himself with no better behavior, then would
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: most unquestionably have brought him, with the sharpest particles of
• 54:25
  Speaker 2: a birch broom, into close acquaintance in the present imperfect
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: state of existence. Could they also suppose a mere poor
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: human being such as I was capable of these contemptible
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: means of counteracting and limiting the powers of the disembodied
• 54:40
  Speaker 2: spirits of the dead, or of any spirits. I say,
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: I would become emphatic and cogant, not to say rather
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: complacent in such an address, when it would all go
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: for nothing by reason of the odd girl suddenly stiffening
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: from the toes upward and glaring among us like a
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: parochial petrifact streaker. The housemaid, too had an attribute of
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: a most discomfiting nature. I am unable to say whether
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: she was of an unusually lymphatic temperament, or what else
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: was the matter with her, But this young woman became
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: a mere distillery for the production of the largest and
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: most transparent tears I have ever met with. Combined with
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: these characteristics was a peculiar tenacity of hold in these specimens,
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: so that they didn't fall, but hung upon her face
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: and nose in this condition, and mildly and deplorably shaking
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: her head. Her silence would throw me more heavily than
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: the admirable Crichton could have done in a verbal disputation
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: for a purse of money. Cook likewise always covered me
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: with confusion, as with a garment, by neatly winding up
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: the session with the protest that the ouse was wearing
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: her out, and by meekly repeating her last wishes regarding
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: her silver watch. As to our nightly life, the contagion
• 55:59
  Speaker 2: of suspicion and fear was among us. There is no
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: such contagion under the sky hooded woman. According to the accounts,
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: we were in a perfect convent of hooded women. Noises
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: with that contagion downstairs, I myself have sat in the
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: dismal parlor listening until I have heard so many and
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: such strange noises that they would have chilled my blood
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: if I had not been warned by dashing out to
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: make discoveries. Try this in bed, in the dead of
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: the night. Try this at your own comfortable fireside in
• 56:33
  Speaker 2: the life of the night. You can fill any house
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: with noises if you will, until you have a noise
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: for every nerve in your nervous system. I repeat, the
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: contagion of suspicion and fear was among us, and there
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: is no such contagion under the sky. The women, their
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: noses in a chronic state of excoriation from smelling salts,
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: were always primed and loaded for a swoon, and ready
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: to go off with hair triggers. The two elder detached
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: the odd Girl on all expeditions that were considered doubly hazardous,
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: and she always established the reputation of such adventures by
• 57:08
  Speaker 2: coming back cataleptic. If Cook or Streaker went overhead after dark,
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: we knew we should presently hear a bump on the ceiling.
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: And this took place so constantly that it was as
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: if a fighting man were engaged to go about the
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: house administering a touch of his art, which I believe
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: is called the auctioneer, to every domestic he met with.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: It was in vain to do anything. It was in
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: vain to be frightened for the moment in one's own
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: person by a real owl, and then to show the owl.
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: It was in vain to discover, by striking as accidental
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: discord on the piano, that turk always howled at particular
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: notes and combinations. It was in vain to be a
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: rhadamanthus with the bells, and if an unfortunate bell rang
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: without leave, to have it down inexorably and sign. It
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: was in vain to fire up chimneys, let torches down
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: the well, charge furiously into suspected rooms and recesses. We
• 58:09
  Speaker 2: changed servants, and dejectedly said to my sister, we changed servants,
• 58:13
  Speaker 2: and it was no better. The new set ran away,
• 58:16
  Speaker 2: and a third set came, and it was no better.
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: At last, our comfortable housekeeping got to be so disorganized
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: and wretched that I one night dejectedly said to my
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: sister Patty, I begin to despair of our getting people
• 58:30
  Speaker 2: to go on with us here. I think we must
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: give this up. My sister, who was a woman of
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: immense spirit, replied, no, John, don't give it up. Don't
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: be beaten, John. There is another way, And what is
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: that said I. John returned my sister. If we are
• 58:50
  Speaker 2: not to be driven out of this house, and that
• 58:52
  Speaker 2: for no reason whatever that is apparent to you or me,
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: we must help ourselves and take the house wholly and
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: solely into our own own hands. But the servants said,
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: I have no servants, said my sister boldly. Like most
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: people in my gradive life, I had never thought of
• 59:09
  Speaker 2: the possibility of going on without these faithful obstructions. The
• 59:14
  Speaker 2: notion was so new to me. When suggested that, I
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: looked very doubtful. We know they come here to be
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: frightened and infect one another, and we know they are
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: frightened and do infect one another, said my sister. With
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: the exception of Bottles, I observed in a meditative tone,
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: the deaf stable man. I kept him in my service
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: and still keep him as a phenomenon of moroseness, not
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: to be matched in England. To be sure, John assented
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: my sister, except Bottles, and what does that go to prove?
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: Bottles talks to nobody, And here's nobody unless he is
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: absolutely roared at. And what alarm has Bottles ever given
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: or taken? None? This was perfectly true. The individual in question,
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: having retired every night at ten o'clock to his bed
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: over the coach house, with no other company than a
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: pitchfork and a pail of water. That the pail of
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: water would have been over me, and the pitchfork threw
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: me if I had put myself without announcement, in Bottles.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: Way after that minute, I had deposited in my own
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: mind as a fact worth remembering, neither had Bottles ever
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: taken the least notice of any of our many uproars.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: An imperturbable and speechless man, he had sat at his
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 2: supper with Streaker present in a swoon and the old
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: girl Marble, and had only put another potato in his cheek,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: or profited by the general misery, to help himself to
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: beefsteak pie. And so continued my sister. I exempt Bottles,
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: and considering John that the house is too large and
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: perhaps too lonely, to be well kept in hand by Bottles.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 2: You and me, I propose that we cast about among
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: our friends for a certain selected number of the most
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: reliable and willing form a society. Here for three months
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: weighed upon ourselves and one another, live cheerfully and socially,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: and see what happens. I was so charmed with my
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: sister that I embraced her on the spot and went
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 2: into her plan with the greatest ardor We were then
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 2: in the third week of November, but we took our
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: measures so vigorously, and were so well seconded by the
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 2: friends in whom we confided, that there was still a
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 2: week of the month unexpired when our party all came
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 2: down together merrily and mustered in the haunted house. I
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: will mention in this place two small changes that I
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: made while my sister and I were yet alone. It
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: occurring to me as not improbable that Turk howled in
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: the house at night, partly because he wanted to get
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: out of it. I stationed him in his kennel outside,
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: but unchained, and I seriously warned the village that any
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: man who came in his way must not be expected
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: to leave him without a rip in his own throat.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: I then casually asked Ikey if he were a judge
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: of a gun, on his saying yes, Sir, I knows
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: a good gun. When I sees her, I beg the
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: favor of his stepping up to the house and looking
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: at mine. She's a true one, Sir, said ike after
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: inspecting a double barreled rifle that I had bought in
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: New York a few years ago. No mistake about her,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: sir Ike said, I don't mention it. I have seen
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 2: something in this house. No, sir, he whispered, greedily, opening
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: his eyes wooded. Lady, sir, don't be frightened, said I.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: It was a figure rather like you. Lord, sir Ike,
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: said I, shaking hands with him warmly, as I may
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: say affectionately. If there is any truth in these ghost stories,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: the greatest service I can do you is to fire
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: at that figure, and I promise you, by Heaven and Earth,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: I will do it with this gun if I see
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: it again. The young man thanked me and took his
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: leave with some little precipitation. After declining a glass of liquor.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 2: I imparted my secret to him, because I had never
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: quite forgotten his throwing his cap at the bell, because
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 2: I had, on another occasion, noticed something very like a
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: fur cap lying not far from the bell one night
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: when it had burst out ringing, And because I had
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 2: remarked that we were at our ghostliest whenever he came
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: up in the evening to comfort the servants. Let me
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: do ikey no injustice. He was afraid of the house
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: and believed in its being haunted, and yet he would
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: play false on the haunting side, so surely as he
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: got an opportunity. The odd Girl's case was exactly similar.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: She went about the house in a state of real terror,
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: and yet lied monstrously and wilfully, and invented many of
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: the alarms she spread, and made many of the sounds
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: we heard. I had had my eye on the two,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: and I know it. It is not necessary for me
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: here to account for this preposterous state of mind. I
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: content myself with remarking that it is familiarly known to
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: every intelligent one who has had fair, medical, legal, or
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: other watchful experience, that it is as well established and
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: as common a state of mind as any with which
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: observers are acquainted, and that it is one of the
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 2: first elements, above all others, rationally to be suspected in
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: and strictly looked for and separated from any question of
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: this kind. To return to our party, the first thing
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: we did when we were all assembled was to draw
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 2: lots for bedrooms. That done, and every bedroom, and indeed
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: the whole house having been minutely examined by the whole body,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 2: we allotted the various household duties as if we had
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 2: been on a gipsy party, or a yachting party, or
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: a hunting party, or shipwrecked. I then recounted the floating
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: rumors concerning the hooded Lady, the Owl, and Master b
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 2: with others still more filmy, which had floated about during
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 2: our occupation, relative to some ridiculous old ghost of the
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: female gender who went up and down carrying the ghost
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: of a round table, and all so to an impalatable
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: jackass whom nobody was ever able to catch. Some of
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: these ideas, I really believe our people below had communicated
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: to one another in some diseased way, without conveying them
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: in words. We then gravely called one another to witness
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: that we were not there to be deceived or to deceive,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: which we'd considered pretty much the same thing, and that
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: with a serious sense of responsibility, we would be strictly
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 2: true to one another and would strictly follow out the truth.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: The understanding was established that anyone who heard unusual noises
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: in the night, and who wished to trace them, should
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: knock at my door. Lastly, that on twelfth night, the
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 2: last night of Holy Christmas, all our individual experiences since
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: that then present hour of our coming together in the
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: Haunted House, should be brought to light for the good
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: of all, and that we would hold our peace on
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: the subject till then unless on some remarkable provocation to
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: break silence. Were in number and in character as follows. First,
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: to get my sister and myself out of the way,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: there were we two in the drawing of lots. My
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: sister drew her own room, and I drew Master B's.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: Next there was our first cousin, John Herschel, so called
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: after the great astronomer, than whom I suppose a better
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 2: man at a telescope does not breathe. With him was
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: his wife, a charming creature to whom he had been
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: married in the previous spring. I thought it, under the circumstances,
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: rather imprudent to bring her, because there is no knowing
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: what even a false alarm may do at such a time.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: But I suppose he knew his own business best, and
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 2: I must say that if she had been my wife,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 2: I never could have left her endearing and bright face behind.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: They drew the clock room. Alfred S. Darling, an uncommonly
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 2: agreeable young fellow of eight and twenty, through whom I
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: have the greatest liking, was in the double room mine
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: usually and designated by that name, from having a dressing
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: room within it, with two large and cumbersome windows, which
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: no wedges I was ever able to make would keep
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 2: from shaking in any weather wind or no. Alfred is
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: a young fellow who pretends to be fast another word
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: for loose, as I understand the term, but who is
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: much too good and sensible for that nonsense, and who
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: would have distinguished himself before now if his father had
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 2: not unfortunately left him a small independence of two hundred
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: a year, on the strength of which his only occupation
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: in life has been to spend six I am in hopes, however,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 2: that his banker may break, or that he may enter
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 2: into some speculation guaranteed to pay twenty percent. For I
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 2: am convinced that if he could only be ruined, his
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: fortune is made. Belinda Bates Bosom, friend of my sister
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 2: and a most intellectual, aiming and delightful girl, got the
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 2: picture room. She has a fine genius for poetry combined
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 2: with real business earnestness, and goes in to use an
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: expression of Alfred's for women's mission, women's rights, women's wrongs,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: and everything that is woman's with a capital W, or
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 2: is not and ought to be, or is and ought
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 2: not to be. Most praiseworthy, my dear and heaven prosper you,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 2: I whispered to her on the first night of my
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 2: taking leave of her at the picture room door. But
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: don't overdo it. And in respect of the great necessity
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: there is, my darling, for more employments being within the
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: reach of women than our civilization has as yet assigned
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 2: to her. Don't fly at the unfortunate men, even those
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: men who are at first sight in your way, as
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: if they were the real oppressors of your sex. For
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: trust me, Belinda, they do sometimes spend their wages among
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: wives and daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. And the
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 2: play is really not all Wolf in Red riding Hood,
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: but has other parts in it. However, I digress, Belinda.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: As I have mentioned occupied the picture room, we had
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: but three other chambers, the corner room, the cupboard room,
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: and the garden room. My old friend Jack Governor slung
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: his hammock, as he called it, in the corner room.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: I have always regarded Jack as the finest looking sailor
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: that ever sailed. He is gray now, but as handsome
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: as he was a quarter of a century ago, nay handsomer,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: A portly, cheery, well built figure of a broad shouldered man,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 2: with a frank smile, a brilliant dark eye, and a
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 2: rich dark eyebrow. I remember those under darker hair, and
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: they look all the better for their silver setting. He
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 2: has been wherever his union namesake flies has. Jack and
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 2: I have met old shipmates of his away in the
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: Mediterranean and on the other side of the Atlantic, who
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 2: have beamed and brightened at the casual mention of it name,
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: and have cried, you know Jack guv'nor, then you know
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: a prince of men that he is, and so unmistakably
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: a naval officer, that if you were to meet him
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: coming out of an Eskimo snow hut in a seal skin,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 2: you would be vaguely persuaded he was in full naval uniform.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: Jack once had that bright, clear eye of his on
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 2: my sister, but it fell out that he married another
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: lady and took her to South America, where she died.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 2: This was a dozen years ago or more. He brought
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: down with him to our haunted house a little cask
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: of salt beef, for he is always convinced that all
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 2: salt beef not of his own pickling, is mere carrion,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: and invariably when he goes to London packs a piece
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 2: in his portmanteau. He had also volunteered to bring with
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 2: him one G. Nat Beaver, an old comrade of his
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: captain of a merchantman. Mister Beaver, with a thick set
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 2: wooden face and figure, and apparently as hard as a
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: block all over, proved to be an intelligent man, with
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 2: a world of watery experiences in him and great practical knowledge.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: At times there was a curious nervousness about him, apparently
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 2: the lingering result of some old illness, but it seldom
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: lasted many minutes. He got the cupboard room and lay
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: there next to mister under Ea, my friend and solicitor,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 2: who came down in an amateur capacity to go through
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 2: with it, as he said, and who plays whist better
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 2: than the whole law list from the red cover at
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: the beginning to the red cover at the end, I
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: never was happier in my life, and I believe it
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: was the universal feeling among us. Jack Governor, always a
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: man of wonderful resources, was chief cook and made some
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 2: of the best dishes I ever ate, including unapproachable curries.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: My sister was pastry cook and confectioner Starling and I
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: were Cook's mate turn and turn about, and on special
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: occasions the chief cook pressed mister Beaver. We had a
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: great deal of outdoor sport and exercise, but nothing was
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 2: neglected within, and there was no ill humor or misunderstanding
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 2: among us, and our evenings were so delightful that we
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: had at least one good reason for being reluctant to
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: go to bed. We had a few night alarms in
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 2: the beginning. On the first night, I was knocked up
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: by Jack with a most wonderful ship's lantern in his hand,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: like the gills of some monster of the deep, who
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 2: informed me that he was going aloft to the main
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: truck to have the weather calck down. It was a
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 2: stormy night, and I remonstrated, but Jack called my attention
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 2: to its making a sound like a cry of despair,
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 2: and said somebody would be hailing a ghost presently if
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 2: it wasn't done. So up to the top of the house,
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 2: where I could hardly stand for the wind. We went,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 2: accompanied by mister Beaver, and there Jack Lantern and all
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: with mister Beaver after him, swore up to the top
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 2: of a cupola some two dozen feet above the chimneys,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 2: and stood upon nothing particular, coolly knocking the weathercock off,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: until they both got into such good spirits with the
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: wind and the height, that I thought they would never
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: come down. Another night they turned out again and had
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: a chimney cowl off. Another night they cut a sobbing
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: and gulping water pipe away. Another night they found out
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 2: something else. On several occasions they both, in the coolest manner,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: simultaneously dropped out of their respective bedroom windows hand over
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 2: hand by their counterpanes to overhaul something mysterious in the garden.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: The engagement among us was faithfully kept, and nobody revealed anything.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: All we knew was if anyone's room were haunted, no
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: one looked the worse for it. End of Section two A,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 2: Section two B of Three Ghost Stories. This is a
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 2: Recording by Marian Brown. Three ghost Stories by Charles Dickens,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: The Haunted House, Chapter two, The Ghost in Master B's Room.
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: When I established myself in the triangular garret, which had
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 2: gained so distinguished a reputation, my thoughts naturally turned to
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 2: Master B. My speculations about him were uneasy and manifold.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 2: Whether his Christian name was Benjamin by sextile, from his
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: having been born in leap year, Bartholemew or Bill. Whether
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: the initial letter belonged to his family name, and that
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: was Baxter, Black, Brown, Barker, Buggins, Baker or Bird. Whether
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 2: he was a foundling and had been baptized b Whether
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: he was a lion hearted boy and b was short
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: for Britain or for bull. Whether he could possibly have
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: been kith and kin to an illustrious lady who brightened
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: my own childhood, and had come of the blood of
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: the brilliant mother Bunch. With these profitless meditations, I tormented
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 2: myself much. I also carried the mysterious letter into the
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 2: appearance and pursuits of the deceased, wondering whether he dressed
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: in blue, wore boots, he couldn't have been bald, was
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: a boy of brains, liked books, was good at bowling,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 2: had any skill as a boxer, even in his buoyant boyhood.
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: Bathed from a bathing machine at Bogner Banger, Bournemouth, Brighton
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: or broad Stairs like a bounding billiard ball. So from
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 2: the first I was haunted by the letter B. It
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 2: was not long before I remarked that I never, by
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 2: any hazard, had a dream of Master B, or of
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 2: anything belonging to him. But the instant I woke up
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: from sleep at whatever hour of the night, my thoughts
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: took him up and roamed away, trying to attach his
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: initial letter to something that would fit it and keep
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: it quiet. For six days I had been worried thus
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: in Master B's room. When I began to perceive that
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 2: things were going wrong. The first appearance that presented itself
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: was early in the morning, when it was but just
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 2: daylight and no more. I was standing shaving at my
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 2: glass when I suddenly discovered, to my consternation and amazement,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 2: that I was shaving not myself I am fifty, but
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 2: a boy, apparently Master B. I trembled and looked over
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 2: my shoulder. Nothing there. I looked again in the glass
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: and distinctly saw the features and expressions of a boy
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 2: who was shaving, not to get rid of a beard,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 2: but to get one. Extremely troubled in my mind, I
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 2: took a few turns in the room and went back
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: to the looking glass, resolved to steady my hand and
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: complete the operation in which I had been disturbed. Opening
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: my eyes which I had shut while recovering my firmness,
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 2: I now met in the glass looking straight at me
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 2: the eyes of a young man of four or five
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: and twenty. Terrified by this new ghost, I closed my
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: eyes and made a strong effort to recover myself. Opening
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: them again, I saw, shaving his cheek in the glass
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: my father, who has long been dead. Nay, I even
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 2: saw my grandfather too, whom I never did see in
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 2: my life. Although naturally much affected by these remarkable visitations,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 2: I determined to keep my secret until the time agreed
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: upon for the present general disclosure. At by a multitude
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 2: of curious thoughts, I retired to my room that night,
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 2: prepared to encounter some new experience of a spectral character.
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 2: Nor was my preparation needless, for waking from an uneasy
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 2: sleep at exactly two o'clock in the morning, what were
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: my feelings to find that I was sharing my bed
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: with the skeleton of Master B. I sprang up, and
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 2: the skeleton sprang up also. I then heard a plaintive
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 2: voice saying, where am I? What is become of me? And,
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: looking hard in that direction, perceived the ghost of Master B.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 2: The young specter was dressed in an obsolete fashion, or
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 2: rather was not so much dressed as put into a
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 2: case of inferior pepper and salt cloth made horrible by
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 2: means of shining buttons. I observed that these buttons went
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 2: in a double row over each shoulder of the young ghost,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 2: and appeared to descend his back. He wore a frill
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: round his neck. His right hand, and which I distinctly
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: noticed to be inky, was laid upon his stomach. Connecting
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: this action with some feeble pimples on his countenance and
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: his general air of nausea, I concluded this ghost to
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: be the ghost of a boy who had habitually taken
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: a great deal too much medicine. Where am I, said
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 2: the little specter in pathetic voice, And why was I
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 2: born in the Calomel days? And why did I have
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: all that Calomel given me? I replied with sincere earnestness
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 2: that upon my soul I couldn't tell him. Where is
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 2: my little sister, said the ghost, And where my angelic
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: little wife? And where is the boy I went to
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 2: school with? I entreated the phantom to be comforted, and
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: above all things, to take heart. Respecting the loss of
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 2: the boy he went to school with. I represented to
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 2: him that probably that boy never did, within human experience,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 2: come out well when discovered. I urged that I myself had,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: in later life turned up several boys whom I went
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: to school with, and none of them had at all answered.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: I expressed my humble belief that the boy never did answer.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: I represented that he was a mythic character, a delusion
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 2: and a snare. I recounted how the last time I
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: found him, I found him at a dinner party, behind
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 2: a wall of white cravat, with an inconclusive opinion on
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 2: every possible subject, and a power of silent boredom, absolutely titanic.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: I related how, on the strength of our having been
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: together at Old Doylance's, he had asked himself to breakfast
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 2: with me, a social offense of the largest magnitude, how
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 2: fanning my weak embers of belief, in Doylance's boys. I
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 2: had let him in, and how he had proved to
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 2: be a fearful wanderer about the earth, pursuing the race
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 2: of Adam, with inexplicable notions concerning the currency, and with
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 2: a proposition that the bed think of England should, on
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 2: pain of being abolished, instantly strike off and circulate. God
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 2: knows how many thousand millions of ten and sixpenny notes.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 2: The ghost heard me in silence, and with a fixed
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 2: stare Barber it apostrophised me. When I had finished, Barber,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 2: I repeated, for I am not of that profession. Condemned,
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 2: said the ghost, to shave a constant change of customers.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 2: Now me, now a young man, now thyself as thou art,
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 2: Now thy father, now thy grandfather. Condemned too, to lie
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 2: down with a skeleton every night, and to rise with
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 2: it every morning. I shuddered on hearing this dismal announcement.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 2: Barber pursue me. I had felt even before the words
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 2: were uttered that I was under a spell to pursue
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 2: the phantom. I immediately did so, and was in Master
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 2: B's room no longer. Most people know what long and
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 2: fatiguing night journeys had been forced upon the witches who
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 2: used to confess, and who no doubt told the exact truth,
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 2: particularly as they were always assisted with leading questions, and
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 2: the torture was always ready. I asseverate that during my
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: occupation of Master B's room, I was taken by the
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 2: ghost that haunted it, on expeditions fully as long and
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 2: wild as any of those Assuredly, I was presented to
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 2: no shabby old man with a goat's horns and tail,
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: something between pan and an old clothesman, holding conventional reception
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 2: as stupid as those of real life, and less decent.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 2: But I came upon other things which appeared to me
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 2: to have more meaning. Confident that I speak the truth
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 2: and shall be believed, I declare without hesitation that I
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: followed the ghost, in the first instance on a broomstick,
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 2: and afterwards on a rocking horse. The very smell of
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 2: the animal's paint, especially when I brought it out by
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 2: making him warm, I am ready to swear to I
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 2: followed the ghost afterwards in a Hackney coach an institution,
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 2: with the peculiar smell of which the present generation is unacquainted,
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 2: but to which I am again ready to swear as
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: a combination of stable dog with mange and very old bellows.
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 2: In this I appealed to previous generations to confirm or
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: refute me. I pursued the phantom on a headless donkey,
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 2: at least upon a donkey who was so interested in
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 2: the state of his stomach that his head was always
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 2: down there investigating it. On ponies expressly born to kick
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 2: up behind on roundabouts and swings from fares in the
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 2: first cab, another forgotten institution where the fair regularly got
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 2: into bed and was tucked up with the driver. Not
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 2: to trouble you with the detailed account of all my
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 2: travels in pursuit of the ghost of Master B, which
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: were longer and more wonderful than those of Sinbad the Sailor,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 2: I will confine myself to one experience from which you
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 2: may judge of many. I was marvelously changed. I was myself,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 2: yet not myself. I was conscious of something within me
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 2: which has been the same all through my life, and
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 2: which I have always recognized, under all its phases and varieties,
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: as never altering. And yet I was not the I
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 2: who had gone to bed in Master B's room. I
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 2: had the smoothest of faces, and shortest of legs. And
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 2: I had taken another creature like myself, also with the
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 2: smoothest of faces and the shortest of legs, behind a door,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: and was confiding to him a proposition of the most
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: astounding nature. This proposition was that we should have a seraglio.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 2: The other creature assented warmly. He had no notion of respectability,
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: neither had I. It was the custom of the East,
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 2: It was the way of the good Caliph Haroun al Rashid.
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 2: Let me have the corrupted name again, for once it
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: is so scented with sweet memories. The usage was highly
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 2: laudable and most worthy of imitation. Oh yes, let us
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: said the other creature with a jump, have a seraglio.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 2: It was not because we entertained the faintest doubts of
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 2: the meritorious character of the Oriental establishment we proposed to
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 2: import that we perceived it must be kept a secret
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 2: from Miss Griffin. It was because we knew Miss Griffin
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 2: to be bereft of human sympathies and incapable of appreciating
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 2: the greatness of the great Haroun mystery impenetrably shrouded from
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 2: Miss Griffin. Then let us entrust it to Miss Buell.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 2: We were ten in Miss Griffin's establishment by Hampstead Ponds,
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 2: eight ladies and two gentlemen. Miss Buell, whom I judged
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 2: to have attained the ripe age of eight or nine,
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: took the lead in society. I opened the subject to
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 2: her in the course of the day and proposed that
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: she should become the favorite. Miss Buell, after struggling with
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 2: the diffidence so natural to and charming in her adorable sex,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 2: expressed herself as flattered by the idea, but wished to
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 2: know how it was proposed to provide for Miss Pipson.
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 2: Miss Buell, who was understood to have vowed towards that
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 2: young lady a friendship, halves and no secrets until death.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 2: On the church service and Lessons complete in two volumes
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 2: with Case and Locke, Miss Buele said she could not,
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 2: as the friend of Pipson, disguise from herself or me
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 2: that Pipson was not one of the common Now, Miss Pipson,
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 2: having curly hair and blue eyes, which was my idea
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 2: of anything mortal and feminine that was called fair, I
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 2: promptly replied that I regarded Miss Pipson in the light
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 2: of a fair Circassian. And what then, Miss Buell pensively asked.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 2: I replied that she must be in vagueed by a merchant,
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 2: brought to me, veiled and purchased as a slave. The
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 2: other creature had already fallen into the second male place
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 2: in the state, and was set apart for Grand Vizier.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 2: He afterwards resisted this disposal of events, but had his
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 2: hair pulled until he yielded. Shall I not be jealous,
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 2: miss Buell, inquired, casting down her eyes. Zobeida no, I replied,
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 2: you will ever be the favorite sultana, the first place
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 2: in my heart and on my throne. It will be
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 2: ever yours. Miss Buell, upon that assurance, consented to propound
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 2: the idea to her seven beautiful companions. It occurring to
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 2: me in the course of the same day that we
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 2: knew we could trust a grinning and good natured soul
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 2: called Tabby, who was serving drudge of the house, and
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 2: had no more figure than one of the beds, and
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 2: upon whose face there was always more or less black lead.
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 2: I slipped into Miss Buell's hand after supper a little
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 2: note to that effect. Dwelling on the black lead as
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 2: being in a manner deposited by the finger of Providence
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 2: pointing tabby out for Messruer, the celebrated chief of the
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 2: Blacks of the Harim. There were difficulties in the formation
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 2: of the desired institution, as there are in all combinations.
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 2: The other creature showed himself of a low character, and,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 2: when defeated in aspiring to the throne, pretended to have
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 2: conscientious scruples about prostrating himself before the Caliph wouldn't call
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 2: him commander of the faithful, spoke of him slightly and
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 2: inconsistently as a mere chap said he. The other creature
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 2: wouldn't play play, and was otherwise coarse and offensive. This
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 2: meanness of disposition was, however, put down by the general
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 2: indignation of united Seraglio, and I became blessed in the
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 2: smiles of eight of the fairest of the daughters of men.
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 2: The smiles could only be bestowed when Miss Griffin was
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 2: looking another way, and only then in a very weary manner.
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 2: For there was a legend among the followers of the
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 2: prophet that she saw with a little round ornament in
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 2: the middle of the pattern on the back of her shawl.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 2: But every day after dinner, for an hour we were
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 2: all together, and then the favorite and the rest of
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 2: the royal Harem competed who should most beguile the leisure
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 2: of the serene Haroun, reposing from the cares of the state,
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 2: which were generally, as in most affairs of state, of
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 2: an arithmetical character, the commander of the faithful being a
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 2: fearful boggler at a sum On these occasions, the devoted Massrour,
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 2: chief of the Blacks of the Harim, was always in
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 2: attend Miss Griffin, usually ringing for that officer at the
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 2: same time with great vehemence, but never acquitted himself in
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 2: a manner worthy of his historical reputation. In the first place,
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 2: his bringing a broom into the divan of the Caliph,
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 2: even when Haroun wore on his shoulders the red robe
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 2: of anger Miss Pipson's pelisse, though it might be got
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 2: over for the moment, was never to be quite satisfactorily
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 2: accounted for. In the second place, his breaking out into
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 2: grinning exclamations of lorc eu pritties was neither eastern nor respectful.
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 2: In the third place, when specially instructed to say bismil Lach.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 2: He always said, Hallelujah. This officer, unlike his class, was
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 2: too good humored altogether kept his mouth open far too wide,
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 2: expressed approbation to an incongruous extent, and even once it
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 2: is on the occasion of the purchase of the fair
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 2: Circassian for five hundred thousand purses of gold and cheap
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 2: two embraced the slave, the favorite, and the caliph all around. Parenthetically,
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 2: let me say, God bless Messur. And there may have
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 2: been sons and daughters on that tender bosom, softening many
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 2: a hard day, since Miss Griffin was a model of propriety,
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 2: and I am at a loss to imagine what the
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 2: feelings of the virtuous woman would have been if she
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 2: had known when she paraded us down that Hampstead Road
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 2: two and two that she was walking with a stately
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 2: step at the head of polygamy and Mohammedianism. I believe
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 2: that a mysterious and terrible joy with which the contemplation
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 2: of Miss Griffin in this unconscious state inspired us, and
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 2: a grim sense prevalent among us, that there was a
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 2: dreadful power in our knowledge of what Miss Griffin, who
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 2: knew all things that could be learnt out of book
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 2: didn't know were the mainspring of the preservation of our secret.
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 2: It was wonderfully kept, but was once upon the verge
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 2: of self betrayal. The danger and escape occurred upon a Sunday.
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 2: We were all ten ranged in a conspicuous part of
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 2: the gallery at church, with Miss Griffin at our head,
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 2: as we were every Sunday, advertising the establishment in an
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 2: unsecular sort of way. When the description of Solomon in
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 2: his domestic glory happened to be read. The moment that
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 2: Monarch was thus referred to, Conscience whispered me, thou too, Haroun.
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 2: The officiating minister had a cast in his eye, and
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 2: it assisted Conscience by giving him the appearance of reading
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 2: personally at me. A crimson blush, attended by a fearful perspiration,
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 2: suffused my features. The Grand Vizier became more dead than alone,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 2: and the whole seraglio reddened, as if the sunset of
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 2: Baghdad shone direct upon their lovely faces. At this portentous time,
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 2: the awful Griffin rose and balefully surveyed the children of Islam.
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 2: My own impression was that church and state had entered
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 2: into a conspiracy with Miss Griffin to expose us, and
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 2: that we should all be put into white sheets and
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 2: exhibited in the centurisle. But so westerly, if I may
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 2: be allowed the expression of opposites to Eastern associations. Was
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 2: Miss Griffin's sense of rectitude, that she merely suspected apples,
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 2: and we were saved. I have called the seraglio united
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 2: upon the question solely whether the commander of the faithful
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 2: Durst exercise a right of kissing in that sanctuary of
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 2: the palace, were its peerless inmates divided? Zobidae asserted a
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 2: counter right in the favorite to scratch and the fair
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 2: Sir Cassis, and put her face for refuge into a
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 2: green baize bag originally designed for books. On the other hand,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 2: a young antelope of transcendent beauty from the faithful Plains
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 2: of Camden Town, whence she had been brought by traders
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 2: in the half yearly caravan that crossed the intermediate desert
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: after the holidays, held more liberal opinions, but stipulated for
• 1:34:24
  Speaker 2: limiting the benefit of them to that dog and son
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 2: of a dog, the Grand Vizier, who had no rights
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: and was not in question at length. The difficulty was
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 2: compromised by the installation of a very youthful slave as deputy.
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 2: She raised upon a stool, officially received upon her cheeks
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 2: the salutes intended by the gracious Haroun for other sultanas,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 2: and was privately rewarded from the coffers of the ladies
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 2: of the Harim. And now it was at the full
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 2: height of enjoyment of my bliss that I became heavily troubled.
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 2: I began to think of my mother and what she
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 2: would say to my taking home at Midsummer eight, of
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 2: the most beautiful of the daughters of men, but all unexpected.
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 2: I thought of the number of beds we made up
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 2: at our house, of my father's income, and of the baker,
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: and my despondency redoubled. The seraglio and malicious Vizier, divining
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 2: the cause of their lord's unhappiness, did their utmost to
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 2: augment it. They professed unbounded fidelity and declared that they
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 2: would live and die with him. Reduced to the utmost
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 2: wretchedness by these protestations of attachment, I lay awake for
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 2: hours at a time, ruminating on my frightful lot. In
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 2: my despair, I think I might have taken an early
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 2: opportunity of falling on my knees before Miss Griffin, avowing
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 2: my resemblance to Solomon, and praying to be dealt with
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 2: according to the outraged laws of my country, if an
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 2: unthought of means of escape had not opened before me.
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 2: One day we were out walking two and two, on
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 2: which occasion the Vizier had his usual instructions to take
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 2: note of the boy at the turnpike, and if he
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 2: profanely gazed, which he always did at the beauties of
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 2: the Harim, to have him bowstrung in the course of
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 2: the night. And it happened that our hearts were veiled
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 2: in gloom. An unaccountable action on the part of the
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 2: antelope had plunged the state into disgrace. That Charmer, on
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 2: the representation that the previous day was her birthday and
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 2: that vast treasures had been sent in a hamper for
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 2: its celebration, both baseless assertions, had secretly but most pressingly
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 2: invited thirty five neighboring princes and princesses to a ball
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 2: and supper, with a special stipulation that they were not
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 2: to be fetched till twelve. This wandering of the Antelope's
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 2: fancy led to the surprising arrival at Miss Griffin's door
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 2: in divers equipages and other various escorts of a great
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 2: company in full dress, who were deposited on the top
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 2: step in a flush of high expectancy, and who were
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 2: dismissed in tears at the beginning of the double knocks
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 2: attendant on these ceremonies, the antelope had retired to a
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 2: back attict and bolted herself in. Miss Griffin had gone
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 2: so much more and more distracted that at last she
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 2: had been seen to tear her front. Ultimate capitulation on
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 2: the part of the offender had been followed by solitude
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 2: in the linen closet, bread and water, and a lecture
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 2: to all of vindictive length, in which Miss Griffin had
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 2: used expressions Firstly, I believe you all of you knew
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 2: of it. Secondly, every one of you is as wicked
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 2: as another. Thirdly, a pack of little wretches. Under these circumstances,
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 2: we were walking drearily along, and I, especially with my
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 2: Mussulman responsibilities heavy on me, was in a very low
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 2: state of mind when a strange man accosted Miss Griffin,
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 2: and after walking on at her side for a little while,
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 2: and talking with her, looked at me, supposing him to
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 2: be a minion of the law, and that my hour
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 2: was come. I instantly ran away, with the general purpose
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 2: of making for Egypt. The whole seraglio cried out when
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 2: they saw me, making off as fast as my legs
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 2: would carry me. I had an impression that the first
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 2: turning on the left and round by the public house
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 2: would be the shortest way to the Pyramids. Miss Griffin
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 2: screamed after me. The faithless vizier ran after me, and
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 2: the boy at the turnpike dodged me into a corner
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 2: like a sheep and cut me off. Nobody scolded me
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 2: when I was taken and brought back. Miss Griffin only said,
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 2: with a stunning gentleness, this was very curious. Why had
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 2: I run away? When the gentleman looked at me. If
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 2: I had had my breath to answer with, I dare
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 2: say I should have made no answer. Having no breath,
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 2: I certainly made none. Miss Griffin and the strange man
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 2: took me between them and walked me back to the
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 2: palace in a sort of state, but not at all,
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 2: as I couldn't help feeling with astonishment. In culprit state.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 2: When we got there, we went into a room by ourselves,
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 2: and Miss Griffin called in to her assistance Mesruer, chief
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 2: of the dusty guards of the Harim. Mesrur, on being
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 2: whispered to began to shed tears. Bless you, my precious,
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 2: said that officer, turning to me, Your pause took bitter bad,
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 2: I asked, with a fluttered heart, is he very ill? Lord?
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 2: Temper the wind to you, my lamb, said the good Mesrur,
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 2: kneeling down, that I might have a comforting shoulder for
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 2: my head to rest on your paws. Dead Haroon al
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 2: Rashid took to flight at the words, the seraglio vanished.
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 2: From that moment I never again saw one of the
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 2: eight of the fairest of the daughters of Men. I
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 2: was taken home, and there was a dead at home,
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 2: as well as a death, and we had a sail there.
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 2: My own little bed was so superciliously looked upon by
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 2: a power unknown to me, hazily called the trade that
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 2: a brass coal scuttle, a roasting jack, and a bird
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 2: cage were obliged to be put into it, to make
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 2: a lot of it. And then it went for a song,
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 2: so I heard mentioned, and I wondered what song, and
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 2: thought what a dismal song it must have been to sing.
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 2: Then I was sent to a great cold beare school
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 2: of big boys, where everything to eat and wear was
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 2: thick and clumpy without being enough, where everybody large and
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 2: small was cruel, where the boys knew all about the
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 2: sail before I got there, and asked me what I
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 2: had fetched and who had brought me, and hooted at me,
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 2: going going gone. I never whispered in that wretched place
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 2: that I had been haroon or had had a seraglio,
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 2: for I knew that if I mentioned my reverses, I
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 2: should be so worried that I should have to drown
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 2: myself in the muddy pond near the playground, which looked
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 2: like the bier. Ah Me, ah me. No other ghost
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 2: has haunted the boy's room, my friends, since I have
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 2: occupied it, than the ghost of my own childhood, the
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 2: ghost of my own innocence, the ghost of my own
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 2: airy belief. Many a time have I pursued the phantom,
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 2: never with this man's stride of mind to come up
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 2: with it, never with these man's hands of mine to
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 2: touch it, nevermore to this man's heart of mine to
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 2: hold it in its purity. And here you see me
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 2: working out as cheerfully and thankfully as I may my doom,
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 2: of shaving in the glass, a constant change of customers,
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 2: and of lying down and right up with the skeleton
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 2: allotted to me for my mortal companion. End of Section
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 2: two b.
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: Section three of three Ghost Stories. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings or in the public domain. For more
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Three
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: ghost Stories by Charles Dickens, Section three The Trial for Murder.
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: I have always noticed a prevalent want of courage, even
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: among persons of superior intelligence and culture, as to importing
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 1: their own psychological experiences, when those have been of a
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: strange sort. Almost all men are afraid that what they
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: could relate in such wise would find no parallel or
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: response in a listener's internal life, and might be suspected
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: or laughed at. A trustful traveler who should have seen
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: some extraordinary creature in the likeness of a sea serpent,
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: would have no fear of mentioning it. But the same traveler,
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 1: having had some singular presentiment impulse, vagary of thought, vision,
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: so called dream, or other remarkable mental impression, would hesitate
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: considerably before he would own to it. To this reticence
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: I attribute much of the obscurity in which such subjects
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: are involved. We do not habitually communicate our experiences of
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: these subjective things as we do our experiences of objective creation.
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 1: The consequence is that the general's talk of experience in
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: this regard appears exceptional, and really is so, in respect
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: of being miserably imperfect. In what I am going to relate,
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: I have no intention of setting up, opposing, or supporting
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: any theory. Whatever I know the history of the book
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: Center of Berlin. I have studied the case of the
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: wife of a late astronomer Royal, as related by Sir
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: David Brewster, and I have followed the minutest details of
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: a much more remarkable case of spectral illusion occurring within
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: my private circle of friends. It may be necessary to state,
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: as to this last, that the sufferer or lady was,
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: in no degree, however distant, related to me. I mistake
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: an assumption on that head might suggest an explanation of
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: a part of my own case, but only a part
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: which would be wholly without foundation. It cannot be referred
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: to my inheritance of any developed peculiarity, nor had I
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: ever before any at all similar experience, Nor have I
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: ever had any at all similar experience, since it does
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: not signify how many years ago or how few a
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: certain murder was committed in England which attracted great attention.
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: We hear more than enough of murderers as they arise
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: in succession to their atrocious eminence, And I would bury
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: the memory of this particular brood if I could. As
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: his body was buried in Newgate Jail, I purposely abstained
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 1: from giving any direct clue to the criminal's individuality. When
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: the murder was first discovered, no suspicion fell, or I
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: ought rather to say, for it cannot be too precise
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: in my facts. It was nowhere publicly hinted that any
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: suspicion fell on the man who was afterwards brought to trial.
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: As no reference was at that time made to him
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: in the newspapers, it is obviously possible that any description
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: of him can at that time have been given in
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 1: the newspapers. It is essential that this fact be remembered.
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: Unfolding at breakfast my morning paper containing the account of
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 1: that first discovery. I found it to be deeply interesting,
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: and I read it with close attention. I read it twice,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: if not three times. The discovery had been made in
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: the bedroom, and when I laid down the paper, I
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: was aware of a flash, rush flow. I do not
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: know what to call it. No word I can find
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: is satisfactorily descriptive, in which I seemed to see that
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: bedroom passing through my room like a picture impossibly painted
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: on a running river. Though almost instantaneous in its passing,
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: it was perfectly clear, so clear that I distinctly, and
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: with a sense of relief, observed the absence of the
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: dead body from the bed. It was in no romantic
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: place that I had this curious sensation, but in chambers
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: in Piccadilly, very near to the corner of Saint James Street.
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: It was entirely new to me. I was in my
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: easy chair at the moment, and the sensation was accompanied
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: with a peculiar shiver, which started the chair from its position.
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: But it is to be noted that the chair ran
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: easily uncapts. I went to one of the windows. There
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: are two in the room, and the room is on
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: the second floor. To refresh my eyes with the moving objects.
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: Down in Piccadilly. It was a bright autumn morning, and
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: the street was sparkling and cheerful. The wind was high.
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: As I looked out, it brought down from the park
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: a quantity of fallen leaves, which a gust took and
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: whirled into a spiral pillar. As the pitter fell and
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: the leaves dispersed, I saw two men on the opposite
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: side of the way, going from west to east. They
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: were one behind the other. The foremost man often looked
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: back over his shoulder. The second man followed him at
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: a distance of some thirty paces with his right hand
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: menacingly raised. First the singularity and steadiness of this threatening
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: gesture in so public a thoroughfare attracted my attention, and
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: next the more remarkable circumstance that nobody heeded it. Both
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: men steaded their way among the other passengers with a
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: smoothness hardly consistent even with the action of working on
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: a pavement, and no single creature that I could see
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: gave them place, touched them, or looked after them. In
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: passing before my windows, they both stared up at me.
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: I saw their two faces very distinctly, and I knew
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: that I could recognize them anywhere, not that I had
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: consciously noticed anything very remarkable in either face, except that
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: the man who went first had an unusually louring appearance,
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: and that the face of the man who followed him
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: was the color of impure wax. I am a bachelor,
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: and my valet and his wife constitute my whole establishment.
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: My occupation is in a certain branch bank, and I
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: wish that my duties as head of a department were
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 1: as light as they are popularly supposed to be. They
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: kept me in town that autumn when I stood in
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: need of change. I was not ill, but I was
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: not well. My reader is to make the most that
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: can be reasonably made of my feeling dated, having a
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: depressing sense upon me of a monotonous life, and being
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: slightly dyspeptic. I am assured by my renowned doctor that
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: my real state of health at that time justifies no
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: stronger description, and I quote his own from his written
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: answer to my request for it. As the circumstances of
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: the murder gradually unreveling took stronger and stronger possession of
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: the public mind, I kept them away from mind by
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: knowing as little about them, as was possible in the
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: midst of the universal excitement. But I knew that a
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: verdict of wilful murder had been found against the suspected murderer,
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: and that he had been committed to no gate for trial.
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: I also know that his trial had been postponed over
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: one sessions of the Central Criminal Court on the ground
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: of general prejudice and want of time for the preparation
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: of the defense. I may further have known, not I
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: believe I did not when or about when the sessions
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 1: to which his trial stood postponed would come on. My
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: sitting room, bedroom and dressing room are all on one floor.
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: With the last. There is no communication but through the bedroom. True,
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: there is a door in it once communicating with the staircase,
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: but a part of the fitting of my bath has been,
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: and had then been for some years fixed across it.
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: At the same period, and as a part of the
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: same arrangement, the door had been nailed up and canvassed over.
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: I was standing in my bedroom late one night, giving
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: some directions to my servant before he went to bed.
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 1: My face was towards the only available door of communication
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: with the dressing room, and it was closed my servant's
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: back was towards that door. While I was speaking to him.
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: My side opened, and a man look in, who very
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 1: earnestly and mysteriously beckoned to me. That man was the
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: man who had gone second at the two along Piccadilly,
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 1: and whose face was of the color of impure wax.
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: The figure, having beckoned, drew back and closed the door,
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: with no longer pause than was made by my crossing
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: the bedroom. I opened the dressing room door and looked in.
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: I had a lighted candle already in my hand. I
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 1: felt no inward expectation of seeing the figure in the
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: dressing room, and I did not see it there. Conscious
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: that my servant stood amazed, I turned round to him
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: and said, derec, could you believe that in my cold senses,
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: I fancied I saw a As I there laid my
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: hand upon his breast with a sudden start, he trembled
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: violently and said, O Lord, yes, sir, a dead man beckoning. Now.
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: I did not believe that this John Derreck, my trusty
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: and attached servant for more than twenty years, had any
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: impression whatever of having seen any such figure until he
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 1: touched him. The change in him was so startling when
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 1: I touched him that I fully believe he derived his
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: impression in some occult manner from me. At that instant,
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: I bade John Derreck bring some brandy, and I gave
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: him a dram and was glad to take one myself.
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: Of what had preceded that night's phenomenon, I told him
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: not a single word. Reflecting on it, I was absolutely
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 1: certain that I had never seen that face before, except
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: on the one occasion in Piccadilly. Comparing its expression when
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 1: beckoning at the door with its expression when it had
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: stared up at me as I stood at my window,
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: I came to the conclusion that on the first occasion
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: it had sought to fasten itself upon my memory, and
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: that on the second occasion it had made sure of
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: being immediately remembered. I was not very comfortable that night,
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: though I felt a certainty difficult to explain that the
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: figure would not return at daylight. I fell into a
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: heavy sleep, from which I was awakened by John Derreck's
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: coming to my bedside with a paper in his hand.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: This paper, it appeared, had been the subject of an
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: altercation at the door between its bearer and my servant.
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 1: It was a summons to me to serve upon a
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: jury at the forthcoming sessions of the Central Criminal Court
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: at the Old Bailey. I had never before been summoned
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: on such a jury. As John Derrick well known. He believed,
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: I am not certain at this hour, whether with reason
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: or otherwise, that that class of jurors were customarily chosen
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 1: on a lower qualification than mine, And he had at
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: first refused to accept the summons. The man who served
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: it had taken the matter very coolly. He had said
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: that my attendance or non attendance was nothing to him.
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: There the summons was, and I should deal with it
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: at my own peril and not at his. For a
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 1: day or two I was undecided whether to respond to
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: this call or to take no notice of it. I
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 1: was not conscious of the slightest mysterior is bias, influence,
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: or attraction, one way or an other. Of that, I
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: am as strictly sure as of every other statement that
• 1:54:07
  Speaker 1: I make here. Ultimately I decided, as a break in
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: the monotony of my life, that I would go the opponent.
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: Mourning was a raw mourning. In the month of November.
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: There was a dense brown fog in Piccadilly, and it
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: became positively black and in the last degree oppressive. East
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: of Temple Bar, I found the passages and staircases of
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: the court house flaringly lighted with gas, and the court
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: itself similarly illuminated. I think that until I was conducted
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: by officers into the Old Court and saw its crowded state,
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: I did not know that the murderer was to be
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: tried that day. I think that until I was so
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: helped into the Old Court with considerable difficulty, I did
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: not know into which of the two courts stating my
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: summons would take me. But this must not be received
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: as a positive assertion, for I am not completely satisfied
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: in my mind on either point. I took my seat
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: in the place appropriated to jurors in waiting, and I
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: looked about the court as well as I could through
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: the clad of fog and breast that was heavy in it.
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: I noticed the black vapor hanging like a murky curtain
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: outside the great windows. And I noticed the stifled sound
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 1: of wheels on a straw tan that was littered in
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: the street. Also the hum of the people gathered there,
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: which a shrill whistle or a louder song or hail
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: than the rest occasionally peered. Soon afterwards, the judges, two
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: in number, entered and took their seats. The buzz in
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: the court was awfully hushed. The direction was given to
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 1: put the murderer to the bar. He appeared there, and
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: in that same instant I recognized in him the first
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: of the two men who had gone down Piccadilly. If
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: my name had been called, then I if I could
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 1: have answered to it audibly, But it was called about
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: sixth or eighth in the panel, and I was by
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 1: that time able to say. Here now observed as I
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: stepped into the box, the prisoner, who had been looking
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: on attentively but with no sign of concern, became violently
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: agitated and beckoned to his attorney. The prisoner's wish to
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: challenge me was so manifest that it occasioned the pause,
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: during which the attorney, with his hand upon the dock,
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: whispered with his client and shook his head. I afterwards
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: had it from that gentleman that the prisoner's first affrighted
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: words to him were at all hazards. Challenged that man,
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: but that as he would give no reason for it,
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: and admitted that he had not even known my name
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: until he heard it called, and I appeared it was
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: not done. Both on the ground already explained that I
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: wished to avoid reviving the unwholesome mini of that murderer,
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 1: and also because a detailed account of his long trial
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: is by no means indispensable to my narrative, I shall
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: confine myself closely to such incidents in the ten days
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: and nights during which we the jury were kept together,
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: as directly bare on my own curious personal experience. It
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 1: is in deth and not in the murder, that I
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: seek to interest my reader. It is to that, and
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: not to a page of the Newgate calendar, that I
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 1: beg attention. I was chosen foreman of the jury. On
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: the second morning of the trial, after evidence had been
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: taken for two hours, I heard the church clock strike.
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 1: Happening to cast my eyes over my brother juryman, I
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: found an inexplicable difficulty in counting them. I counted them
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: several times, yet always with the same difficulty. In short,
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: I made them want too many. I touched the brother juryman,
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: whose place was next to me, and I whispered to him,
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: oblige me by counting us. He looked surprised by the request,
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: but turned his head and counted. Why, says he suddenly,
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: we are certain, But no, it's not possible. No, we
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: are twelve. According to my counting that day, we were
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: always right in detail, but in the grows we were
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: always want too many. There was no appearance, no figure
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: to account for it. But I had now an inward
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: foreshadowing of the figure that was surely coming. The jury
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: were housed at the London Tavern. We all slept in
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: one large room, on separate tables, and were constantly in
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: the charge and under the eye of the officer's sworn
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: to hold us in safe keeping. I see no reason
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: for suppressing the real name of that officer. He was intelligent,
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: highly polite, and obliging, and I was glad to hear.
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 1: Much respected in the city. He had an agreeable presence,
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: good eyes, enviable black whiskers, and the fine, sonorous voice.
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 1: His name was mister Harker. When we turned into our
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: twelve beds a night, mister Harker's bed was drawn across
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: the door. On the night of the second day, not
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: being disposed to lie down and seeing mister Harker sitting
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: on his bed. I went and sat beside him and
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: offered him a pinch of snuff. As mister Harker's hand
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: touched mine in taking it from my box, a peculiar
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: shiver crossed him, and he said, who is this? Following
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: mister Harker's eyes and looking along the room, I saw
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: again the figure I expected, the second of the two
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: men who had gone down Piccadilly. I rose and advanced
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: a few steps, then stopped and looked round at mister Harker.
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: He was quite unconcerned, laughed and said in a pleasant way.
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: I thought for a moment we had the thirteenth Juram
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: without a bed. But I see it is the moonlight.
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: Making no revelation to mister Harker, but inviting him to
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: take a walk with me to the end of the room.
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: I watched what the figure did. It stood for a
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: few moments, with the bedside of each of my eleven
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: brother jurymen closed to the pillow. It always went to
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: the right hand side of the bed, and always passed out,
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: crossing the foot of the next bed. It seemed, from
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: the action of the head, merely to look down pensively
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: at each recumbent figure. It took no notice of me
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: or off my bed, which was that nearest to mister Harker's.
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: It seemed to go out where the moonlight came in
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: through a high window, as by an aerial flight of stairs.
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: Next morning, at breakfast, it appeared that everybody present had
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: dreamed of the murdered man last night, except myself and
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: mister Harker. I now felt as convinced that the second
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: man who had gone down Piccadilly was the murdered man,
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: so to speak, as if it had been worn into
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: my comprehension by his immediate testimony. But even this took place,
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: and in a manner for which I was not at
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 1: all prepared. On the fifth day of the trial, when
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 1: the case for the prosecution was drawing to a close,
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: a miniature of the murdered man missing from his bedroom
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: upon the discovery of the deed, and afterwards found in
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: a hiding place where the murderer had been seeing digging,
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: was put in evidence, Having been identified by the witness
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: under examination. It was handed up to the bench and
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: then sanded down to be inspected by the jury. As
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: an officer in a black gown was making his way
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 1: with it across to me. The figure of the second
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: man who had gone down Piccadilly, impiteously started from the crowd,
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 1: caught the miniature from the officer and gave it to
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: me with his own hands, at the same time, saying
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: in a low and hollow tone, before I saw the miniature,
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: which was in a locking it, I was younger then,
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: and my face was not then drained of blood. It
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: also came between me and the brother juryman to whom
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: I would have given the miniature, and between him and
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 1: the brother juryman to whom he would have given it,
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: and so passed it on through the whole of our
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: number and back into my possession. Not one of them, however,
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: detected this at table, and generally when we were shut
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 1: up together in mister Harker's custody. We had from the
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: first naturally discussed the day's proceedings a good deal. On
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: that fifth day, the case for the prosecution being closed,
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: and we having that side of the question in the
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: completed shape before us, our discussion was more animated and serious.
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: Among our number was a Vestruman, the densest idiot I
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: have ever seen at large, who met the plainest evidence
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: with the most preposterous objections, and who was sided with
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: by two flabby parochial parasites. All the three in pans
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: from a district so delivered over to fever that they
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: ought to have been upon their own trial for five
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: hundred murders. When these mischievous blockheads were at their loudest,
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: which was towards midnight, while some of us were already
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: preparing for bed, I again saw the murdered man. He
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: stood grimly behind them, beckoning to me. On my going
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 1: towards them, and striking into the conversation, he immediately retired.
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: This was the beginning of a separate series of appearances
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: confined to that long room in which we were confined.
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: Whenever a knot of my brother Juraman laid their heads together,
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: I saw the head of the murdered man among theirs.
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: Whenever their comparison of notes was going against him, he
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: would solemnly and irresistibly beckon to me, it will be
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: borne in mind that dawn to the production of the miniature.
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: On the fifth day of the trial, I had never
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: seen the appearance in court. Three changes occurred now that
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: we entered on the case for the defense. Two of them,
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: I will mention together. First, the figure was now incurred continually,
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: and it never dare addressed himself to me, but always
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 1: to the person who was speaking at the time. For instance,
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: the throat of the murdered man had been cut straight across.
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: In the opening speech for the defense, it was suggested
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: that the deceased might have cut his own throat. At
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 1: that very moment, the figure, with its throat in the
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: dreadful condition, referred to this it had concealed before, stood
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: at the speaker's elbow, motioning across and across its windpipe,
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: now with the right hand, now with the left, vigorously
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: suggesting to the speaker himself the impossibility of such a
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 1: wound having been self inflicted by either hand. For another instance,
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: a witness to character a woman deposed to the prisoner's
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: being the most amiable of mankind. The figure at that
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: instant stood on the floor before her, looking her full
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 1: in the face, and pointing out the prisoner's evil countenance
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: with an extended arm and an outstretched finger. The third change,
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: now to be added, impressed me strongly as the most
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: marked and striking of all. I do not theorize upon it.
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: I accurately stated, and there leave it. Although the appearance
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: was not itself perceived by those whom it addressed, its
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 1: coming close to such persons was invariably attended by some
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 1: tapidation or disturbance on their part. It seemed to me
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: as if it were prevented by laws to which I
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: was not amenable from fully revealing itself to others, and
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: yet as if it could invisibly, dumbly and darkly overshadow
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: their minds. And when the leading counsel for the defense
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: suggested that hypothesis of suicide, and the figure stood at
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: the learned gentleman's elbow, frightfully sawing at its severe throat,
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 1: it is undeniable that the council faltered in his speech,
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: lost for a few seconds that spread of his ingenious discourse,
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 1: wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, and turned extremely pale.
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: When the witness to character was confronted by the appearance,
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: her eyes most certainly did follow the direction of its
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: pointed finger and rest in great hesitation and trouble upon
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: the prisoner's face. Two additional illustrations will suffice. On the
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: eighth day of the trial, after the pause, which was
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: every day made early in the afternoon for a few
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: minutes rest and refreshment. I came back into court with
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: the rest of the jury some little time before the
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: return of the judges. Standing up in the box and
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: looking about me, I thought the figure was not there,
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: until chancing to raise my eyes to the gallery, a
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: sight bending forward and leaning over a very decent woman,
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: as if to assure itself whether the judges had resumed
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: their seats or not. Immediately afterwards, that woman screamed, fainted,
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: and was carried out, so with the venerable sagation and
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: patient judge who conducted the trial. When the case was
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: over and he settled himself on his papers to sum up,
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: the murdered man, entering by the judge's door, advanced to
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: his lordship's desk and looked eagerly over his shoulder at
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: the pages of his notes which he was turning. A
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 1: change came over his Lordship's face, his hands stopped. The
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 1: peculiar shiver that I know so well passed over him.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: He faltered, excuse me, gentlemen. For a few moments, I
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 1: am somewhat oppressed by the vitiated air, and did not
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 1: recover until he had drunk a glass of water. Through
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: all the monotony of six of those interminable ten days,
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: the same judges and others on the bench, the same
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: murderer in the dock, the same lawyers at the table,
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 1: the same tones of question and answer rising to the
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 1: roof of the court, the same scratching up the judge's pen,
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: the same ushers going in and out, the same lights
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 1: kindled at the same hour when there had been any
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: natural light of day, the same foggy curtain outside the
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: great windows when it was foggy, the same rain pattering
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 1: and dripping when it was rainy. The same footmarks of
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: turnkeys and prisoner day after day on the same sawdust.
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: The same key is locking and unlocking, the same heavy doors.
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: Through all the wearisome monotony, which made me feel as
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: if I had been foreman of the jury for a
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 1: vast period of time, and Piccadilly had flourished covidly with Babylon.
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: The murdered man never lost one trace of his distinctness
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: in my eyes, nor was he at any moment less
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 1: distinct than anybody else. I must not omit as a
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: matter of fact that I never once saw the appearance,
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: which I called by the name of the murdered man.
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 1: Look at the murderer again and again, I wondered, why
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: does he not? But he never did, nor did he
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 1: look at me. After the production of the miniature, until
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: the last closing minutes of the trial arrived we retired
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: to consider not seven minutes before ten at night. The
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: idiotic vestryman and his two parochial parasites gave us so
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: much trouble that we twice returned into court to beg
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: to have certain extracts from the judge's notes re read.
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: Nine of us had not the smallest doubt about those passages,
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: neither I believe, had any one in the court. The
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: dunder headed triumvirate, having no idea but obstruction, disputed them
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: for that very reason. At length we prevailed, and finally
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: the jury returned into court at ten minutes past twelve.
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: The murdered man at that time stood directly opposite the
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 1: jury box on the other side of the court. As
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 1: I took my place, his eyes rested on me with
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: great attention. He seemed satisfied, and slowly shook a great
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: gray veal, which he carried on his arm. For the
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: first time over his head and whold for him. As
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 1: I gave in our verdict guilty, the veal collapsed, all
• 2:09:58
  Speaker 1: was gone, and his place was empty. The murderer, being
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 1: asked by the judge according to usage, whether he had
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: anything to say before sentence of death should be passed
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: upon him, indistinctly muttered something which was described in the
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: leading newspapers of the following day as of fear, rambling
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: incoherent and half audible words in which he was understood
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: to complain that he had not had a fair trial
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: because the foreman of the jury was prepossessed against him.
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: The remarkable declaration that he really made was this, my Lord,
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: I know I was a doomed man when the foreman
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: of my jury came into the box. My Lord, I
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: know he would never let me off, because before I
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: was taken he somehow got to my bedside in the night,
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: woke me and put a rope round my neck. And
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: of Section three and the end of three Ghost Stories.
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.