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08 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton · Classic Science Fiction Books

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Speaker 1: Chapter eight, Fox Populi, Fox Day. I am sure, mister Levison,
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Speaker 1: the Secretary, had said, with a somewhat constrained smile, that
0:14
Speaker 1: after the eloquent and epoch making speech to which we
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Speaker 1: have listened, there will be some questions asked, and we
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Speaker 1: hope to have a debate afterwards. I am sure somebody
0:25
Speaker 1: will ask a question. Then he looked interrogatively at one
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Speaker 1: weary looking gentleman in the fourth row and said, mister Hinch.
0:34
Speaker 1: Mister Hinch shook his head with a pallid passion of refusal,
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Speaker 1: wonderful to watch, and said I couldn't, I really couldn't.
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Speaker 1: We should be very pleased, said mister Levison, if any
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Speaker 1: lady would ask a question. In the silence that followed,
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Speaker 1: it was somewhat psychologically borne in on the whole audience
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Speaker 1: that one particular, great large lady, as the lecturer would say,
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Speaker 1: sitting at the end of the second row, was expected
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Speaker 1: to ask a question her own waxwork. Immobility was witnessed
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Speaker 1: both to the expectation and its disappointment. Are there any
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Speaker 1: other questions? Asked mister Levison, as if there had been
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Speaker 1: any yet. He seemed to speak with a slight air
1:25
Speaker 1: of relief. There was a sort of stir at the
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Speaker 1: back of the hall, and half way down one side
1:32
Speaker 1: of it, choked whispers could be heard of. Now, then, George,
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Speaker 1: go it, George, is there any questions carr. Mister Levison
1:44
Speaker 1: looked up with an alertness somewhat akin to alarm. He
1:48
Speaker 1: realized for the first time that a few quite common
1:51
Speaker 1: men in coarse, unclean clothes had somehow strolled in through
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Speaker 1: the open door. They were not true rustics, but the
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Speaker 1: semi rustic laborers that linger about the limits of the
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Speaker 1: large watering places. There was no mister among them. There
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Speaker 1: was a general tendency to call everybody George. Mister Levison
2:12
Speaker 1: saw the situation and yielded to it. He modeled himself
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Speaker 1: on Lord Ivywood and did much what he would have
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Speaker 1: done in all cases, but with a timidity Lord Ivywood
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Speaker 1: would not have shown. And the same social training that
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Speaker 1: made him ashamed to be with such men made him
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Speaker 1: ashamed to own his shame. The same modern spirit that
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Speaker 1: taught him to loathe such rags also taught him to
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Speaker 1: lie about his loathing. I am sure we should be
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Speaker 1: very glad, he said, nervously. If any friends from outside
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Speaker 1: care to join in our inquiry, of course, where all democrats,
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Speaker 1: And he looked round at the grand ladies with a
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Speaker 1: ghastly smile, and believe in the voice of the people,
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Speaker 1: and so on. If our friend at the back of
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Speaker 1: the hall will put his question briefly, we need not
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Speaker 1: insist I think on his putting it in writing. There
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Speaker 1: were renewed horse encouragements to George that rightly christened Champion,
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Speaker 1: and he wavered forward on legs tied in the middle
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Speaker 1: with string. He did not appear to have had any
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Speaker 1: seat since his arrival, and made his remarks, standing half
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Speaker 1: way down what we may call the central aisle. Well,
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Speaker 1: I want to ask the proprietor. He began questions, said
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Speaker 1: mister Levison, swiftly, seizing a chance for that construction of debate,
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Speaker 1: which is the main business of a modern chairman, must
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Speaker 1: be asked of the chair if there are points of order,
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Speaker 1: if they concern the address, they should be asked of
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Speaker 1: the lecturer. Well, I ask the lecturer, said the patient, George,
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Speaker 1: whether it ain't right that when you have the thing outside,
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Speaker 1: you should have the thing inside. Horse applause at the back.
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Speaker 1: Mister Levison was evidently puzzled and already suspicious that something
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Speaker 1: was quite wrong. But the enthusiasm of the prophet of
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Speaker 1: the Moon sprang up instantly at any sort of question
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Speaker 1: and swept the chairman along with it. But it is
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Speaker 1: the essence of our whole message, she cried, spreading out
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Speaker 1: his arms to embrace the world, that the outer manifestation
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Speaker 1: should be one with the inner manifestation. My friends, it
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Speaker 1: is this very truth our friend has stated that is
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Speaker 1: responsible for our apparent lack of symbolism in Islam. We
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Speaker 1: appear to neglect the symbol because we insist on the
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Speaker 1: satisfactory symbol. My friend in the middle will walk round
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Speaker 1: all our mosques and say loudly, where is the statue
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Speaker 1: of Allah? But can my friend in the middle really
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Speaker 1: execute a complete and generally approved statue of Allah? Miss
5:03
Speaker 1: Sistra Ahmon sat down greatly satisfied with his answer, but
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Speaker 1: it was doubted by many whether he had conveyed the
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Speaker 1: satisfaction to his friend in the middle. That seeker after
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Speaker 1: truth wiped his mouth with the back of his hand
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Speaker 1: with an unsatisfied air, and said, no offense, sir. But
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Speaker 1: ain't it the law, sir, that if you have that
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Speaker 1: outside We're all right. I came in ear as natural
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Speaker 1: as could be. But gourlam, I never see a place
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Speaker 1: like this. Afore hoarse laughter behind. No apology is needed,
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Speaker 1: my friend, cried the Eastern sage eagerly. I can conceive
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Speaker 1: you are not, perhaps duly conversant with such schools of truth.
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Speaker 1: But the law is all. The law is Allah, the
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Speaker 1: inmost u unity of well. Ain't it the law, repeated
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Speaker 1: the dogged George, And every time he mentioned a Llah,
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Speaker 1: the poor men who are its chief victims, applauded loudly.
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Speaker 1: I'm not one to make a fuss. I never was
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Speaker 1: one to make a fuss. I'm a law abiden man,
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Speaker 1: I am more applause. Ain't it the law that, if
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Speaker 1: so be, such is your sign and such as your profession.
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Speaker 1: You ought to serve us. I fear I not quite follow,
6:25
Speaker 1: cried the eager Turk. I ought to serve us, shouted
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Speaker 1: a throng of thick voices from the back of the hall,
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Speaker 1: which was already much more crowded than before. Serve you,
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Speaker 1: cried Miss Cicra, leaping up like a spring released the
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Speaker 1: holy prophet came from heaven to serve you. The virtue
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Speaker 1: and val are of a thousand years. My friend has
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Speaker 1: had no hunger but to serve you. We are of
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Speaker 1: all faiths the most the faith of service. Our highest
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Speaker 1: profit is no more than the servant of God, as
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Speaker 1: I am, as you all are. Even for our symbol,
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Speaker 1: we choose a satellite and honor the moon because it
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Speaker 1: only serves the Earth and does not pretend to be
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Speaker 1: the Sun. I'm sure, cried mister Levison, jumping up with
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Speaker 1: the tactful grin that the lecturer has answered this last
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Speaker 1: point in a most eloquent and effective way. And the
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Speaker 1: motor cars are waiting for some of the ladies who
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Speaker 1: have come from some distance, and I really think the proceedings.
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Speaker 1: All the artistic ladies were already getting on their wraps,
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Speaker 1: with faces varying from bewilderment to blank terror. Only Lady
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Speaker 1: Joane lingered, trembling with unexplained excitement. The hitherto speechless Hinch
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Speaker 1: had slid up to the chairman's seat and whispered to him,
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Speaker 1: you must get all the ladies away. I can't imagine
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Speaker 1: what's up, but something's up, well, repeated the patient George.
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Speaker 1: So be it's the law. Where is it? Ladies? And gentlemen,
8:04
Speaker 1: said mister Levison, in his most ingratiating manner. I think
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Speaker 1: we have had a most delightful evening, and no we ain't,
8:12
Speaker 1: cried a new and nastier voice from a corner of
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Speaker 1: the room. Where is it? That's what we got a
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Speaker 1: right to know, said the law abiding George. Where is it?
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Speaker 1: Where's what? Cried the nearly demented secretary in the chair.
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Speaker 1: What do you want? The law abiding mister George made
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Speaker 1: a half turn and a gesture towards the man in
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Speaker 1: the corner, and said, what's yours? Jim, I'll have a
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Speaker 1: drop a scotch, said the man in the corner. Lady
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Speaker 1: Enid Wimple, who had lingered a little in loyalty to Joan,
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Speaker 1: the only other lady still left, caught both her wrists
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Speaker 1: and cried in a thrilling whisper, oh, we must go
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Speaker 1: to the Garter. They're using the most awful language. Away
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Speaker 1: on the wettest edge of the sands by the sea,
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Speaker 1: the prints of two wheels and four hoofs were being
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Speaker 1: slowly washed away by a slowly rising tide, which was
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Speaker 1: indeed the only motive of the man Humphrey Pump leading
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Speaker 1: the donkey cart and leading it almost ankle deep in water.
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Speaker 1: I hope you're sober again now, he said with some
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Speaker 1: seriousness to his companion, a huge man walking heavily and
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Speaker 1: even humbly, with the straight sword swinging to and fro
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Speaker 1: at his hip. For honestly, it was a mug's game
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Speaker 1: to go and stick up the old sign before that
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Speaker 1: tin place. I haven't often spoken to you like this, Captain,
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Speaker 1: but I don't believe any other man in the county
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Speaker 1: could get you out of the hole as I can.
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Speaker 1: But to go down there and frighten the ladies. Why
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Speaker 1: there's been nothing so silly here since Bishop's Folly. You
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Speaker 1: could hear the ladies screaming before we left. I heard
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Speaker 1: worse than that, long before we left, said the large man,
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Speaker 1: without lifting his head. I heard one of them laugh. Christ,
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Speaker 1: Do you think I shouldn't hear her laugh? There was
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Speaker 1: a silence. I didn't mean to speak, sharp, said Humphrey Pump,
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Speaker 1: with that incorruptible kindliness which was the root of his
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Speaker 1: English ree and may yet save the soul of the English.
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Speaker 1: But it's the truth. I was pretty well bothered about
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Speaker 1: how to get out of this business. You're braver than
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Speaker 1: I am, you see, and I own I was frightened
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Speaker 1: about both of us. If I hadn't known my way
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Speaker 1: to the lost tunnel, I should be fairly frightened. Still,
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Speaker 1: don't you wait to what, asked the captain, lifting his
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Speaker 1: red head for the first time. Oh you know all
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Speaker 1: about no more Ivywood's Lost Tunnel, said Pump carelessly. Why
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Speaker 1: we all used to look for it when we were boys.
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Speaker 1: Only I happened to find it. Have mercy on an exile,
10:52
Speaker 1: said Delry humbly. I don't know which hurt him most.
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Speaker 1: The things he forgets are the things he remembers. Mister
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Speaker 1: Pump was silent for a little while, and then said,
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Speaker 1: more seriously than usual. Well, the people from London say
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Speaker 1: you must put up placards and statues and subscriptions and epitaphs.
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Speaker 1: And the Lord knows what to the people who found
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Speaker 1: some new trick and made it come off. But only
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Speaker 1: a man that knows his own land for forty miles
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Speaker 1: round knows what a lot of people, and clever people too,
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Speaker 1: there were who found new tricks and had to hide
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Speaker 1: them because they didn't come off. There was doctor boone
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Speaker 1: up by Gill and Hugby, who held out against doctor
11:33
Speaker 1: Collison in the vaccination. His treatment saved sixty patients who
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Speaker 1: had got smallpox, and doctor Collisons killed ninety two patients
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Speaker 1: who hadn't got anything. But Boone had to keep it
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Speaker 1: dark naturally, because all his lady patients grew mustaches. It
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Speaker 1: was a result of the treatment, but it wasn't a
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Speaker 1: result he wishes to dwell on. Then there was old
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Speaker 1: Dean Arthur, who discovered balloons, if ever a man did.
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Speaker 1: He discovered them long before they were discovered, but people
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Speaker 1: were suspicious about such things. Just then there was a
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Speaker 1: revival of the witch business in spite of all the Parsons,
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Speaker 1: and he had to sign a paper saying where he'd
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Speaker 1: got the notion. Well, it stands to reason you wouldn't
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Speaker 1: like to sign a paper saying you'd got it from
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Speaker 1: the village idiot, when you were both blowing soap bubbles.
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Speaker 1: And that's all he could have signed for. He was
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Speaker 1: an honest gentleman, the poor old dean. Then it was
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Speaker 1: Jack Arlingham and the diving bell. But you remember all
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Speaker 1: about that, Well, it was just the same with the
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Speaker 1: man that made this tunnel. One of the mad ivy Woods.
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Speaker 1: There's many a man captain that has a statue in
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Speaker 1: the Great London Squares for helping to make the railway trains.
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Speaker 1: There's many a man has his name in Westminster Abbey
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Speaker 1: for doing something in discovering steamboats. Poor old Ivywood discovered
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Speaker 1: both at once and had to be put under control.
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Speaker 1: He had a notion that a railway train might be
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Speaker 1: made to rush right into the sea and turn into
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Speaker 1: a steamboat, and it seemed all right according as he
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Speaker 1: worked it out, but his family were so ashamed of
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Speaker 1: the thing that they didn't like the tunnel even mentioned.
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Speaker 1: I don't think anybody knows where it is but me
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Speaker 1: and Bungie Robinson. We shall be there in a minute
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Speaker 1: or two. They've thrown the rocks about at this end
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Speaker 1: and let the thick plantation grow at the other. But
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Speaker 1: I've got a race horse through before now to save
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Speaker 1: it from Colonel Chepstow's little games. And I think I
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Speaker 1: can manage this donkey. Honestly, I think it's the only
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Speaker 1: place we'll be safe in after what we've left behind
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Speaker 1: us at the Pebblewick. But it's the best place in
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Speaker 1: the world, is no doubt for lying low and starting afresh,
13:40
Speaker 1: here we are. You think you can't get behind that rock,
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Speaker 1: but you can, in fact you have. Delroy found himself
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Speaker 1: with some bewilderment, round the corner of a rock, and
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Speaker 1: in a long bore or barrel of blackness that ended
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Speaker 1: in a very dim spot of green. Harrying the hoofs
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Speaker 1: of the ass and the feet of his friend behind him,
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Speaker 1: turned his head but could see nothing but the pitch
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Speaker 1: darkness of a closed coal cellar. He turned again to
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Speaker 1: the dim green speck, and, marching forward, was glad to
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Speaker 1: see it grow larger and brighter like a big emerald,
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Speaker 1: till he came out on a throng of trees, mostly thin,
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Speaker 1: but growing so thickly and so close to the cavernous
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Speaker 1: entrance of the tunnel, that it was quite clear the
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Speaker 1: place was meant to be choked up by forests and forgotten.
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Speaker 1: The light that came glimmering through the trees was so
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Speaker 1: broken and tremulous that it was hard to tell whether
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Speaker 1: it was daybreak or moon rise. I know there's water here,
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Speaker 1: said Pump. They couldn't keep it out of the stone
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Speaker 1: work when they made the tunnel. An old ivy wood
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Speaker 1: hit the hydraulic engineer with a spirit level with the
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Speaker 1: bit of covert here and the sea behind us. We
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Speaker 1: ought to be able to get food of one kind
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Speaker 1: or another when the cheese has given out and donkeys
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Speaker 1: can eat anything. By the way, he added, with some embarrassment.
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Speaker 1: You don't mind my safe a captain, but I think
15:01
Speaker 1: we'd better keep that room for rare occasions. It's the
15:05
Speaker 1: best room in England, and maybe the last. If these
15:08
Speaker 1: mad games are going on. It'll do us good to
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Speaker 1: feel it's there, so we can have it when we
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Speaker 1: want it. The casks still nearly full, delbroy put out
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Speaker 1: his hand and shook the others hump. He said, seriously,
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Speaker 1: you're right. It's a sacred trust for humanity, and we'll
15:26
Speaker 1: only drink it ourselves to celebrate great victories, in token
15:30
Speaker 1: of which I will take a glass now to celebrate
15:32
Speaker 1: our glorious victory over Levison and his tin tabernacle. He
15:38
Speaker 1: drained one glass and then sat down on the cask,
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Speaker 1: as if to put temptation behind him. His blue, ruminant
15:44
Speaker 1: bull's eye seemed to plunge deeper and deeper into the
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Speaker 1: emerald twilight of the trees in front of him. And
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Speaker 1: it was long before he spoke again. At last he observed,
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Speaker 1: I think you, said, Hump, that a friend of yours,
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Speaker 1: a gentleman named Bungie Robinson, and I think was also
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Speaker 1: a habitue here. Yes he knew the way, answered Pump,
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Speaker 1: leading the donkey to the most suitable patch of pasturage.
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Speaker 1: May we do you think have the pleasure of a
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Speaker 1: visit from mister Robinson, inquired the captain. Not unless they're
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Speaker 1: jolly careless up in Blackstone jails, replied Pump, and he
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Speaker 1: moved the cheese well into the arch of the tunnel.
16:23
Speaker 1: Dalroy still sat with his square chin on his hand,
16:27
Speaker 1: staring at the mystery of the little wood you see mAbs.
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Speaker 1: A minded captain, remarked Humphrey. The deepest thoughts are all commonplaces,
16:37
Speaker 1: said Delroy. That is why I believe in democracy, which
16:41
Speaker 1: is more than you do, you foul, blood stained old
16:44
Speaker 1: British Tory. And the deepest commonplace of all is that
16:49
Speaker 1: vany tass van Tatham, which is not pessimism, but is
16:53
Speaker 1: really the opposite of pessimism. It is man's futility that
16:57
Speaker 1: makes us feel he must be a god. And I
17:00
Speaker 1: think of this tunnel and how the poor old lunatic
17:03
Speaker 1: walked about on this grass watching it being built. The
17:06
Speaker 1: soul in him on fire with the future, and he
17:10
Speaker 1: saw the whole world changed, and the seas thronged with
17:13
Speaker 1: his new shipping. And now and Delroy's voice changed and broke.
17:18
Speaker 1: Now there is good pasture for the donkey, and it
17:22
Speaker 1: is very quiet here, yes, said Pump, in some way
17:27
Speaker 1: that conveyed his knowledge that the captain was thinking of
17:30
Speaker 1: other things. Also, the captain went on dreamily. And I
17:35
Speaker 1: think about another Lord Ivywood recorded in history, who also
17:38
Speaker 1: had a great vision. For it is a great vision,
17:41
Speaker 1: after all. And though the man is a prig, he
17:43
Speaker 1: is brave. He also wants to drive a tunnel between
17:47
Speaker 1: East and West to make the Indian Empire more British,
17:51
Speaker 1: to effect what he calls the orientation of England, and
17:54
Speaker 1: I call the ruin of Christendom. And I am wondering
17:58
Speaker 1: just now whether the clear intellect and courageous will of
18:01
Speaker 1: a madman will be strong enough to burst and drive
18:04
Speaker 1: that tunnel, as everything seems to show at this moment
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Speaker 1: that it will, or whether there indeed be enough life
18:11
Speaker 1: and growth in your England to leave it at last
18:14
Speaker 1: as this is left buried in English forests and wasted
18:18
Speaker 1: by an English sea. The silence fell between them again
18:22
Speaker 1: and again there was only the slight sound the animal
18:25
Speaker 1: made in eating. As Delroy had said, it was very
18:29
Speaker 1: quiet there, but it was not quiet. And pebblewick that
18:34
Speaker 1: night when the Riot Act was read, and all the
18:37
Speaker 1: people who had seen the sign board outside fought all
18:39
Speaker 1: the people who hadn't seen the signboard outside, or when babies.
18:43
Speaker 1: And scientists next morning, seeking for shells and other common
18:47
Speaker 1: objects of the seashore, found that their study included fragments
18:51
Speaker 1: of the outer clothing of Levison and scraps of corrugated iron.
18:57
Speaker 1: End of Chapter eight