Latest / Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales / 🟡 Book of Ghosts (Full Audiobook) | Sabine Baring-Gould (Part 2 of 2)

Transcript

🟡 Book of Ghosts (Full Audiobook) | Sabine Baring-Gould (Part 2 of 2) · Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: One of your half-tester beds. If there is a window
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: at one's feet, one can lie in bed without the
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: glare in one's eyes, and yet without darkening the room
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: by drying the blinds. There is much to be said
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: for a four-poster, but this is not the place in
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: which to say it.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Mr.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Square pulled his hands out of his pockets and began
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: fiddling with the electric point near the head of my bed,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: attached to wire, swept it in a semicircle along the floor,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and then thrust the knob at the end into my
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: hand in the bed. Keep your eye open, he said,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and your hand shut and covered. If that finger comes again,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: tickling your ribs, try it with the point. I'll manage
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the switch from behind the curtain. Then he disappeared. I
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was too indifferent in my misery to turn my head
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and observe where he was. I remained inert, with the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: knob in my hand and my eyes closed, suffering and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: thinking of nothing but the shooting pains through my head
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and the aches in my loins and back and legs.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Sometime probably elapsed before I felt the finger again at
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: work on my ribs. It groped, but no longer bored.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: I now felt the entire hand, not a single finger,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and the hand was substantial, cold and clammy. I was
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: aware how, I know not, that if the finger point
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: reached the region of my heart on the left side,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the hand would, so to speak, sit down on it,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: with a cold palm over it, and then immediately my
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: heart would cease to beat. and it would be, as
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Square might express it, gone coon with me. In self-preservation,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I brought the knob of the electric wire against the hand,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: against one of the ringers, I think, and at once
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: was aware of a rapping, squealing noise. I turned my
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: head languidly and saw the form, now more substantial than before,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: capering in an ecstasy of pain, endeavoring fruitlessly to withdraw
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: its arm from under the bedclothes and the hand from
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the electric point. At the same moment Square stepped from
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: behind the curtain. With a dry laugh he said, I
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: thought we should fix him. He has the coil about
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: him and can't escape. Now let's drop to particulars. But
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I shan't let you off until I know all about you.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: The last sentence was addressed not to me, but to
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: the apparition. Thereupon he bade me take the point away
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: from the hand of the figure, being whatever it was,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: but to be ready with it at a moment's notice.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: He then proceeded to chastise my visitor, who moved restlessly
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: within the circle of wire, but could not escape from it.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: It replied in a thin, squealing voice that sounded as
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: if it came from a distance, and had a querulous
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: tone in it. I do not pretend to give all
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: that was said. I cannot recollect everything that passed. My
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: memory was affected by my illness as well as my body.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Yet I prefer giving the scraps that I recollect to
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: what Square told me he had heard. Yes, I was unsuccessful.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Always was. Nothing answered with me. The world was against me.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Society was. I hate society. I don't like work neither.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Never did. But I like agitating against what's established. I
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: hate the royal family. The landed interest. The parsons. Everything
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that is. Except the people, that is. The unemployed. I
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: always did. I couldn't get work as suited me. When
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I died, they buried me in a cheap coffin, dirt cheap,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and gave me a nasty grave, cheap, and a service
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: rattled away cheap, and no monument. Didn't want one. Oh,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: there are lots of us. All discontented. Discontent. That's a passion.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: It gets into the veins. It fills the brain. It
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: occupies the heart. It's a sort of divine cancer that
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: takes possession of the entire man and makes him dissatisfied
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: with everything and hate everybody. But we must have our
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: share of happiness at some time. We all crave for
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: it in one way or another. I think there's a
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: future state of blessedness, and so have hope. But look
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: to attain it, for hope is a cable and an
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: anchor that attaches to what is real. But when you
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: have no hope of that sort, don't believe in any
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: future state. You must look for happiness in life here.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: We didn't get it when we were alive, so we
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: seek to procure it after we are dead.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: We can do it.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: If we can get out of our cheap and nasty coffins.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: But not until the greater part of us is moldered away.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: If a finger or two remains, that can work its
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: way up to the surface. Those cheap deal coffins go
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: to pieces quick enough. Then the only solid part of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: us left can pull the rest of us that has
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: gone to nothing after it. Then we grope about after
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the living, the well to do if we can get
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: at them, the honest working poor if we can't. We
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: hate them, too, because they are content and happy. If
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: we reach any of these and can touch them, then
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: we can draw their vital force out of them into
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: ourselves and recuperate at their expense. That was about what
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: I was going to do with you. Getting on famous.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Nearly solidified into a new man and given another chance
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: in life. But I've missed it this time, just like
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: my luck. Missed everything. Always have, except misery and disappointment.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Get plenty of that. What are you all, asks Square? Anarchists,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: out of employ? Some of us go by that name,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: some by other designations, but we are all one and
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: own allegiance to but one monarch, sovereign discontent. We are
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: bred to have distaste for manual work, and we grow
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: up loafers, grumbling at everything and quarreling with the society
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: that is around us and the providence that is above us.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: And what do you call yourselves now? Call ourselves nothing.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: We are the same, in another condition. That is all.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Folk called us once anarchists, nihilists, socialists, levelers. Now they
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: call us the influenza. They learn to talk of microbes
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and bacilli and bacteria. Microbes, bacilli, and bacteria be blowed.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: We are the influenza. We the social failures. THE GENERALLY DISCONTENTED,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: COMING UP OUT OF OUR CHEAP AND NASTY GRAVES IN
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: THE FORM OF PHYSICAL DISEASE. WE ARE THE INFLUENZA. THERE
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: YOU ARE, I GUESS, EXCLAIMED SQUARE TRIUMPHANTLY. DID I NOT
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: SAY THAT ALL FORCES WERE CORRELATED? IF SO, THEN ALL
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: NEGOTIATION'S DEFICIENCIES OF FORCE ARE ONE IN THEIR SEVERAL MANIFESTATIONS.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: TALK OF DIVINE DISCONTENT IS A FORCE IMPELLING TO PROGRESS. RUBBISH!
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: IT'S A PARALYSIS OF ENERGY. It turns all it absorbs
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: into acid.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Envy.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: Spike.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: Gall.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: It inspires nothing, but rots the whole moral system. Here
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: you have it. Moral, social, political discontent, in any form,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: nay aspect. That is all. What anarchism is in the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: body politic, that influenza is in the body physical. Do
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: you see that? Yes, I believe I answered, and dropped
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: away into the land of dreams. I recovered. What Square
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: did with the thing I do not know, but believe
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: that he reduced it again to his former negative and
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: self-deposing condition. Section 26 of The Book of Ghosts This
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: I do not know when I had spent a more
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: pleasant evening, or had enjoyed a dinner more than that
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: at Mr. Weatherwood's hospitable house. For one thing, the hostess
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: knew how to keep her guests interested and in good humor.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: The dinner was all that could be desired, and so
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: were the wines. But what conduced above all to my
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: pleasure was that at table I sat by Miss Fulton,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: a bright, intelligent girl, well-read and entertaining. My wife had
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: a cold, and sent her excuses by me. Miss Fulton
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: and I talked of this, that, and everything. Towards the
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: end of dinner, she said, I SHALL BE OBLIGED TO
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: RUN AWAY SO SOON AS THE LADIES LEAVE YOUR ROOM
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: TO YOU AND YOUR CIGARETTES AND GOSSIP. IT IS RATHER MEAN,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: BUT MRS. WEATHERWOOD HAS BEEN FOREWARNED AND UNDERSTANDS. TOMORROW IS
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: OUR VILLAGE FEAST AT MARKSLEY, AND I HAVE A HOST
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: OF THINGS ON MY HAND. I SHALL HAVE TO BE
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: UP AT SEVEN, AND I DO OBJECT TO CUT A
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: SLICE OFF MY NIGHT'S REST AT BOTH ENDS.' Rather an
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: unusual time of year for a village feast,' said I.'
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: These things are generally got over in the summer.' You see,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: our church is dedicated to St. Mark, and tomorrow is
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: his festival, and it has been observed in one fashion
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: or another in our parish from time immemorial. In your
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: parts do they have any notions about St. Mark's Eve?
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: What sort of notions? That if you sit in the
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: church porch from midnight till the clock strikes one, you
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: will see the apparitions pass before you of those destined
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: to die within the year. I fancy our good people
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: see themselves, and nothing but themselves, on every day and
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: hour throughout the twelvemonth. Joking aside, have you any such
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: superstition hanging on in your neighbourhood? Not that I'm aware of.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: That sort of thing belonged to the Golden Age that
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: has passed away. Board schools have reduced us to that
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: of lead. At Marksley the villagers believe in it, and
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: recently their faith has received corroboration.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: How so?
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: I asked. Last year, in a fit of bravado, a
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: young carpenter ventured to sit in the porch at the
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: witching hour, and saw himself enter the church. He came home,
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: looking as blank as a sheet, moped, lost flesh, and
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: died nine months later. Of course he'd died if he
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: had made up his mind to do so. Yes, that
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: is explicable. But how do you account for his having
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: seen his double? He had been drinking at the public house.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: A good many people see double after that. It was
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: not so. He was perfectly sober at the time. Then
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: I give it up. Would you venture on a visit
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: to a church porch on this night, St.
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: Mark's Eve?
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Certainly I would, if well wrapped up and I had
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: my pipe. I bar the pipe, said Miss Fulton. No
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: apparition can stand tobacco smoke. But there is Lady Eastley rising.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: When you come to rejoin the ladies, I shall be gone.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I did not leave the house of the Weatherwoods till late.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: My dog-cart was driven by my groom, Richard. The night
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: was cold, or rather chilly, but I had my fur-lined overcoat,
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: and I did not mind that. The stars shone out
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: of a frosty sky. All went smoothly enough till the
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: road dipped into a valley, where a dense white fog
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: hung over the river and water meadows. Anyone who has
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: had much experience in driving at night is aware that
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: in such a case the carriage lamps are worse than useless.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: They bewilder the horse and driver. I cannot blame Dick
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: if he ran his wheel over a heap of stones
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: that upset the trap. We were both thrown out, and
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I fell on my head. I sang out, Mind the cob, Dick!
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: I am all right!
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: The boy at once mastered the horse. I did not
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: rise immediately, for I had been somewhat jarred by the fall.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: When I did, I found Dick engaged in mending a
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: ruptured trace. One of the shafts was broken, and a
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: carriage lamp had been shattered. Dick, said I, there are
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: a couple of steep hills to descend. and that is
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: risky with a single shaft. I will lighten the dog-cart
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: by walking home, and do you take care at the hills?''
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: I think we can manage, sir.'' I should prefer to
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: walk the rest of the way. I am rather shaken
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: by my fall, and a good step out on the
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: cool night will do more to put me to rights
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: than anything else. When you get home, send up a
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: message to your mistress that she is not to expect
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: me at once. I shall arrive in due time, and
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: she is not to be alarmed.' It's a good trudge
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: before you, sir, and I dare say we could get
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: the shaft tied up at Fifewell. What, at this time
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: of night? No, Dick, do as I say. Accordingly, the
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: groom drove off, and I started on my walk. I
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: was glad to get out of the clinging fog when
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: I had reached the higher ground. I looked back, and
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: by the starlight saw the river-bottom filled with the mist,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: lying apparently dense as snow. After a swinging walk of
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: a quarter of an hour, I entered the outskirts of Fifewell.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: a village of some importance, with shops, the seat of
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: the petty sessions, and with a small boot-and-shoe factory in it.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: The street was deserted. Some bedroom windows were lighted, for
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: our people have the habit of burning their paraffin lamps
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: all night. Every door was shut. No one was stirring.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: As I passed along the churchyard wall, the story of
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: the young carpenter told by Miss Fulton recurred to me.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: By Jove, thought I, it is now close upon midnight,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: a rare opportunity for me to see the wonders of St.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Mark's Eve. I will go into the porch and rest
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: there for a few minutes, and then I shall be able,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: when I meet that girl again, to tell her that
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I had done what she challenged me to do, without
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: any idea that I would take her challenge up. I
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: turned in at the gate and walked up the pathway.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: The headstones bore a somewhat ghostly look in the starlight.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: A cross of white stone, recently set up, I supposed,
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: had almost the appearance of phosphorescence. The church windows were dark.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: I seated myself in the roomy porch on a stone
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: bench against the wall, and felt for my pipe. I
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: am not sure that I contemplated smoking it then and there,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: partly because Miss Fulton had forbidden it, but also because
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I felt that it was not quite the right thing
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: to do on consecrated ground. But it would be a
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: satisfaction to finger it, and I might plug it, so
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: as to be ready to light it up so soon
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: as I left the churchyard. To my vexation I found
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: that I had lost it. The tobacco pouch was there,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: and the matches. My pipe must have fallen out of
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: my pocket when I was pitched from the trap. That
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: pipe was a favorite of mine. What a howling nuisance,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: said I. If I send Dick back over the road
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: tomorrow morning, ten chances to one if he finds it,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: for tomorrow is market day, and people will be passing early.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: As I said this, the clock struck twelve. I counted
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: each stroke. I wore my fur-lined coat, and was not cold.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: In fact, I had been too warm walking in it.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: At the last stroke of twelve, I noticed lines of
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: very brilliant light appear about the door into the church.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: The door must have fitted well, as the light did
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: no more than show about it, and did not gush
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: forth at all the crevices. But from the keyhole shot
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: a ray of intense brilliancy. Whether the church windows were
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: illumined I did not see. In fact, it did not
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: occur to me to look, either then or later. But
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: I am pretty certain that they were not, or the
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: light streaming from them would have brought the gravestones into prominence.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: When you come to think of it, it was remarkable
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: that the light of so dazzling a nature should shine
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: through the crannies of the door, and that none should issue,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: as far as I could see, from the windows. At
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: the time I did not give this a thought. My
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: attention was otherwise taken up, for I saw distinctly Miss Venville,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: a very nice girl of my acquaintance, coming up the
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: path with that swinging walk so characteristic of an English lady.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: How often it has happened to me, when I have
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: been sitting in a public park or in the gardens
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: of a casale abroad, and some young girls have passed by,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: that I have said to my wife, I bet you
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: a bob those are English. Yes, of course, she has replied.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: You can see that by their dress. I don't know
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: anything about dress, I have said. I judge by the walk. Well,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: there was Miss Venville coming towards the porch. This is
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: a joke, said I. She's going to sit here on
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: the lookout for ghosts, and if I stand up or
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: speak she will be scared out of her wits.' Hang it,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: I wish I had my pipe now. If I gave
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: a whiff it would reveal the presence of a mortal,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: without alarming her. I think I shall whistle. I had
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: screwed up my lips to begin, rocked in the cradle
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: of the deep. That is my great song I perform
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: whenever there is a village concert, or I am asked
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: out to dinner, and am entreated afterward to sing. I
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: say I had screwed up my lips to whistle, when
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: I saw something that scared me so that I made
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: no attempt at the melody. The ray of light through
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: the keyhole was shut off, and I saw standing in
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: the porch before me the form of Mrs. Venville, the
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: girl's mother, who had died two years before. The ray
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: of white light arrested by her filled her as a lamp,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: and was diffused as a mild glow from her.' Hello, mother.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: What brings you here?' asked the girl.' Gwendolyn, I have
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: come to warn you back. You cannot enter. You have
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: not got the key.'' The key, mother?'' Yes.' Everyone who
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: would pass within must have his or her own key.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: But where am I to get one? It must be
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: forged for you, Gwen. You are wholly unfit to enter.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: What good have you ever done to deserve it? Why, mother,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: everyone knows I'm an awfully good sort. No one in
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: here knows it. That is no qualification. And I always
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: dressed in good taste. Nor is that. And I was
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: splendid at lawn tennis. Her mother shook her head. Look here,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: little mummy, I won a brooch at the archery match.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: That will not do, Gwendolyn. What good have you ever
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: done to anyone besides yourself? The girl considered a minute,
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: then laughed and said, I put into a raffle at
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: the bazaar. No, it was a bran pie for an orphanage,
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: and I drew out a pair of braces. I had
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: rare fun over those braces. I sold them to Captain
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: Fitzhackerly for half a crown, and that I gave to charity.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: You went for what you could get, not what you
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: could give. Then the mother stepped on one side, and
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: the ray shot directly at the girl. I saw that
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: it had something of the quality of the X-ray. It
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: was not arrested by her garments, or her flesh or muscles.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: It revealed in her breast, in her brain, penetrating her
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: whole body, a hard, dark core.' Black ram, I bet,'
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: said I. Now black ram is the local name for
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: a substance found in our land, especially in the low ground,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: that ought to be the most fertile, but is not so,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: on account of this material found in it. The substance
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: lies some two or three feet below the surface, and
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: forms a crust of the consistency of cast iron. No
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: plough can possibly be driven through it. No water can
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: percolate athwart it, and consequently, where it is, there the
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: superincumbent soil is resolved into a quagmire. No tree can
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: grow in it, for the moment the taproot touches the
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: black ram the tree dies. Of what black ram consists
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: is more than I can say. The popular opinion is
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: that it is a bastard manganese. Now I happen to
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: own several fields accursed with the presence in them of
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: black ram, fields that ought to be luxuriant meadows, but which,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: in consequence of its presence, are worth almost nothing at all. No, Gwen,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: said her mother, looking sorrowfully at her, there is not
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: a chance of your admission till you have got rid
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: of the black ram that is in you. Sure, said I,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: as I slapped my knee. I thought I knew the article,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: and now my opinion has been confirmed. How can I
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: get rid of it? asked the girl. Gwendolyn, you will
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: have to pass into little Polly Finch, and work it
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: out of your system. She is dying of scarlet fever,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: and you must enter into her body, and so rid
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: yourself in time of the black ram. Mother, the Finches
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: are common people. So much the better chance for you.
• 19:57
  Speaker 5: And I am eighteen.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: Polly is about ten. You will have to become a
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: little child if you would enter her. I don't like it.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: What is the alternative? to remain without, in the darkness,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: till you come to a better mind. And now, Gwen,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: no time is to be lost. You must pass into
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Polly Finch's body before it grows cold. Well, then, here goes.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Gwen Venville turned, and her mother accompanied her down the path.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: The girl moved reluctantly and pouted. Passing out of the churchyard,
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: both traversed the street and disappeared within a cottage. from
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: the upper window of which, light from behind a white blind,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: was diffused. I did not follow. I leaned back against
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: the wall. I felt that my head was throbbing. I
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: was a little afraid, lest my fall had done more
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: injury than I had at first anticipated. I put my
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: hand to my head and held it there for a moment.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Then it was as though a book were opened before me,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: the book of the life of Polly Finch, or rather
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: of Gwendolyn's soul in Polly Finch's body. It was but
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: one page that I saw, and the figures in it
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: were moving. The girl was struggling, under the burden of
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: a heavy baby brother. She coaxed him, she sang to him,
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: she played with him, talked to him, broke off bits
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: of her bread and butter given to her for breakfast,
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: and made him eat them. She wiped his nose and
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: eyes with her pocket-handkerchief. She tried to dance him in
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: her arms. It was a fractious urchin, and most exacting.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: But her patience, her good nature, never failed. The drops
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: stood on her brow, and her limbs tottered under the weight,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: but her heart was strong, and her eyes shone with love.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: I drew my hand from my head. It was burning.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I put my hand to the cold stone bench to
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: cool it, and then applied it once more to my brow.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Instantly it was as though another page were revealed. I
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: saw Polly in her widowed father's cottage. She was now
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: a grown girl. She was on her knees scrubbing the floor.
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: A bell tinkled. THEN SHE PUT DOWN THE SOAP AND BRUSH,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: TURNED DOWN HER SLEEVES, ROSE, AND WENT INTO THE OUTER
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: SHOP TO SERVE A CUSTOMER WITH HALF A POUND OF TEA.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: THAT DONE, SHE WAS BACK AGAIN, AND THE SCRUBBING WAS RENEWED.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: AGAIN A TINKLE, AND AGAIN SHE STOOD UP AND WENT
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: INTO THE SHOP TO A CHILD WHO DESIRED TO BUY
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: A PENNY WORTH OF LEMON DROPS. ON HER RETURN IN
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: CAME HER LITTLE BROTHER CRYING. HE HAD CUT HIS FINGER.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: HOLLY AT ONCE SUPPLIED COBWEB AND THEN STITCHED A RAG
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: ABOUT THE WOUNDED MEMBER. There, there, Tommy, don't cry any more.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: I have kissed the bad place, and it will soon
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: be well. Paul, it hurts!
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: It hurts!
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Sobbed the boy. Come to me, said his sister. She
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: drew a low chair to the fireside, took Tommy on
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: her lap, and began to tell him the story of
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Jack the Giant Killer. I removed my hand, and the
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: vision was gone. I put my other hand to my head,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: and at once saw a further scene in the life-story
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: of Polly. She was now a middle-aged woman, and had
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: a cottage of her own. She was dispatching her children
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: to school. They had bright, rosy faces. Their hair was
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: neatly combed, their pinafores were white as snow. One after another,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: before leaving, put up the cherry lips to kiss Mammy,
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: and when they were gone, for a moment she stood
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: in the door, looking after them, then sharply turned, brought
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: out a basket, and emptied its contents on the table.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: There were little girl's stockings with potatoes in them, to
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: be darned, torn jackets to be mended, a little boy's
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: trousers to be reseated, pocket-handkerchiefs to be hemmed. She laboured
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: on with her needle the greater part of the day,
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: then put away the garments, some finished, others to be finished,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: and going to the flour-bin, took forth flour and began
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: to knead dough, and then to roll it out, to
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: make pasties for her husband and the children.' Paul!' called
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: a voice from without. She ran to the door. Back, Joe.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: I have your dinner hot in the oven. I must say, Paul,
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: you are the best of good wives, and there isn't
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: a mother like you in the Shire. My word, that
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: was a lucky day when I chose you, and didn't
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: take Mary Matters, who was setting a cap at me.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: See what a slattern she has turned out. Why, I
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: do believe, Paul, if I'd took her, she'd have drove
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: me long ago to the public house. I saw the
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: mother of Gwendolyn standing by me, and looking out on
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: the scene, and I heard her say, the black ram
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: is run out, and the key is forged. All had vanished.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: I thought now I might as well rise and continue
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: my journey, but before I had left the bench I
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: observed the rector of Fifewell sauntering up the path, with
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: uncertain step, as he fumbled in his coat-tail pockets and said, Well,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: the deuce is the key! THE BOOK OF GHOSTS by
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Sabine Bering-Gold. SECTION 27 BLACK RAM. PART II. The Reverend
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: William Hexworthy was a man of good private means, and
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: was just the sort of man that a bishop delights
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: to honour. He was one who would never cause him
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: an hour's anxiety. He was not the man to indulge
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: in ecclesiastical vagaries. He flattered himself that he was strictly
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: a via media man. He kept dogs. He was a
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: good judge of horses, was fond of sport. He did
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: not hunt, but he shot and fished. He was a
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: favourite in society, was of irreproachable conduct. and was a
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: magistrate on the bench. As the ray from the keyhole
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: smote on him, he seemed to be wholly dark, made
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: up of nothing but black ram. He came on slowly,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: as though not very sure of his way.' Best me
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: where can be the key?' he asked. Then from out
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: of the graves, and from over the wall of the church,
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: came rushing up a crowd of his dead parishioners, and
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: blocked his way to the porch. Please your reverence, said one,
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: you did not visit me when I was dying. I
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: sent you a bottle of my best port, said the parson. Aye, sir,
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: and thank you for it, but that went into my stomach,
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: and what I wanted was medicine for my soul. You
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: never said a prayer by me, you never urged me
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: to repentance for my bad life, and you let me
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: go out of the world with all my sins about me.'
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: And I, sir,' said another, thrusting himself before Mr. Hexworthy,'
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: I was a young man, sir, going wild, and you
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: never said a word to restrain me,' never sent for
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: me and gave me a bit of warning and advice,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: which would have checked me.' You just shrugged your shoulders
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: and laughed, and said that a young chap like me
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: must sow his wild oats.'' And we,' shouted all the rest,'
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: we were never taught by you anything at all.'' Now
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: this is really too bad,' said the rector.' I preach
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: twice every Sunday.' Oh, yes, right enough that, but precious
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: little good it did when nothing came out of your
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: heart and all out of your pocket, and that you
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: did give us was copied in your library. Why, sir,
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: not one of your sermons ever did anybody a farthing
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: of good. We were your sheep, protested others, and you
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: let us wander where we would. You didn't seem to
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: know yourself that there was a fold into which to
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: draw us. And we, said others, went off to chapel,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: and all the good we ever got was from the
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: dissenting minister, never a mite from you. And some of us,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: cried others, went to the bad altogether through your neglect.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: But did you care about our souls as long as
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: your terriers were washed and combed and your horses well groomed?
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: You were a fisherman, but all you fished for were trout,
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: not souls. And if some of us turned out well,
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: it was in spite of your neglect, no thanks to you.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Then some children's voices were raised. Sir, you never taught
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: us no catechism, nor our duty to God and man,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: and we grew up regular heathens. That was your father's
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: and mother's duty. But our fathers and mothers never taught
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: us anything. Come, this is intolerable, shouted Mr. Hexworthy. Get
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: out of the way, all of you. I can't be
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: bothered with you now. I want to go in there.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: You can't, Parson. The door is shut, and you have
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: not got your key. Mr. Hexworthy stood by, bewildered and irresolute.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: He rubbed his chin. What the dickens am I to do?
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: he asked. Then the crowd closed about him, and they
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: thrust him back towards the gate.' You must go whither
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: we send you,' they said. I stood up to follow.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: It was curious to see a flock drive its shepherd,
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: who indeed had never attempted to lead. I walked in
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: the rear, and it seemed as though we were all
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: swept forwards as by a mighty wind. I did not
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: gain my breath or realize whither I was going till
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: I found myself in the slums of a large manufacturing
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: town before a mean house such as those occupied by artisans,
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: with a conventional one window on one side of the
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: door and two windows above. Out of one of these
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: latter shone a scarlet glow. The crowd hustled Mr. Hexworth
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: in at the door, which was opened by a hospital nurse.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: I stood, hesitating what to do, and not understanding what
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: had taken place. On the opposite side of the street
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: was a mission church, and all the windows were lighted.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: I entered, and saw that there were at least a
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: score of people, shabbily dressed, and belonging to the lower class,
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: on their knees in prayer. There was a sort of
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: door-opener or verger at the entrance, and I said to him,'
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: What is the meaning of all this?'' Oh, sir,' said he,'
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: he is ill. He has been attacked by smallpox. It
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: has been raging in the place, and he has been
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: with all the sick, and now he has taken it himself,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: and we are terribly afraid that he is dying, so
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: we are praying God to spare him to us.' Then
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: one of those who was kneeling turned to me and said,'
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: I was an ongert, and he gave me meat.' And
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: another rose up and said, I was a stranger, and
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: he took me in. Then a third said, I was naked,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: and he clothed me. And a fourth, I was sick,
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: and he visited me. Then said a fifth with bowed
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: head sobbing, I was in prison, and he came to me.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Thereupon I went out and looked up at the red window,
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: and I felt as if I must see the man
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: for whom so many prayed. I tapped at the door,
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: and a woman opened. I should very much like to
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: see him, if I may,' said I.' Well, sir,' spoke
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: the woman, a plain middle-aged rough creature, but her eyes
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: were full of tears.' Oh, sir, I think you may,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: if you will go up softly. There has come over
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: him a great change. It is as though a new
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: life had entered into him.' I mounted the narrow staircase
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: of very steep steps, and entered the sick-room. There was
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: an all-pervading glow of red.' The fire was low, no flame,
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: and a screen was set before it. The lamp had
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: a scarlet shade over it. I stepped to the side
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: of the bed, where stood a nurse. I looked on
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: the patient. He was an awful object. His face had
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: been smeared over with some dark solution, with the purpose
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: of keeping all light from the skin, with the object
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: of saving it from permanent disfigurement. The sick priest lay
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: with eyes raised, and I thought I saw in them
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: those of Mr. Hexworthy, but with a new light, a
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: new faith, a new fervour, a new love in them.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: The lips were moving in prayer, and the hands were
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: folded over the breast. The nurse whispered to me, We
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: thought he was passing away, but the prayers of those
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: he loved have prevailed. A great change has come over him.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: The last words he spoke were, God's will be done.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: If I live, I will live only, only for my
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: dear sheep, and die among them. And now he is
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: in an ecstasy and says nothing, but he is praying
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: still for his people. As I stood looking, I saw
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: what might have been tears, but seemed to be molten
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: black ram, roll over the painted cheeks. The spirit of Mr.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: Hexworthy was in this body. Then, without a word, I
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: turned to the door, went through, groped my way down
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: the steps, passed out into the street, and found myself
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: back in the porch of Fifewell Church.' Upon my word,'
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: said I,' I have been here long enough.' I wrapped
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: my fur coat about me, and prepared to go, when
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: I saw a well-known figure, that of Mr. Fothergill, advancing
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: up the path. I knew the old gentleman well. His
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: age must have been seventy.' He was a spare man,
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: he was rather bald, and had sunken cheeks. He was
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: a bachelor, living in a pretty little villa of his own.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: He had a good fortune, and was a harmless but
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: self-centred old fellow. He prided himself on his cellar and
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: his cook. He always dressed well, and was scrupulously neat.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: I had often played a game of chess with him.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: I would have run towards him to remonstrate with him
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: for exposing himself to the night air, but I was forestalled.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Slipping past me, his old man-servant David went to meet him.
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: David had died three years before. Mr. Fothergill had then
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: been dangerously ill with typhoid fever, and the man had
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: attended to him night and day. The old gentleman, as
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: I heard, had been most irritable and exacting in his illness.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: When his malady took a turn, and he was on
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the way to convalescence, David had succumbed in his turn,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: and in three days was dead. This man now met
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: his master, touched his cap, and said,' Beg pardon, sir,
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: you will not be admitted.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: Not admitted. Why not, Davy?'' I' m really very sorry, sir.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: If my key would have availed, you would have been
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: welcome to it. But, sir, there's such a terrible lot
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: of black ram in you, sir, that must be got
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: out first.'' I don't understand, Davy.'' I' m sorry, sir, to
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: have to say it, but you've never done anyone any good.''
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: I paid your wages regularly.'' Yes, sir, to be sure, sir,
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: for my services to yourself. And I've always subscribed when
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: asked for money.'' Yes, it is very true, sir, but
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: that was because you thought it was expected of you,
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: not because you had any sympathy with those in need
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: and sickness and suffering. I'm sure I never did anyone
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: any harm.'' No, sir, and never anyone any good. You'll
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: excuse me for mentioning it.'' But, Davy, what do you mean?
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: I can't get in.'' No, sir, not till you have
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: the key.'' But, bless my soul, what is to become
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: of me? Am I to stick out here?'' Yes, sir.
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: Unless—'' In this damned cold and darkness?'' There' s no hope
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: for it, Mr. Fothergill. Unless—'' Unless what, Davy?
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: Unless you become a mother, sir.'' What?'' Of twins, sir.'' Fiddlesticks!''
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: Indeed it is so, sir, and you will have to
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: nurse them.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: I can't do it. I'm physically incapable.'' It must be done, sir.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Very sorry to mention it, but there is no alternative.''
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: There' s Sally Booker, is approaching her confinement, and is going
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: terribly hard with her. The doctor thinks she'll never pull through.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: But if you'd consent to pass into her and become
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: a mother—'' And nurse the twins? Oh, Davy, I shall
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: need a great amount of stout.'' I agree to say it, Mr.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Father Gill, but you'll be too poor to afford it.''
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Is there no alternative?'' None in the world, sir.'' I
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: don't know my way to the place.'' If you do
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: me the honour, sir, to take my arm, I will
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: lead you to the house.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: It' s hard.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Cruel hard on an old bachelor. Must it be twins?
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: It's a rather large order.'' It really must, sir.' Then
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: I saw Davy lend his arm to his former master
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: and conduct him out of the churchyard, across the street,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: into the house of Seth Boker, the shoemaker.' I was
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: so interested in the fate of my old friend, and
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: so curious as to the result, that I followed and
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: went into the cobbler's house. I found myself in the
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: little room on the ground floor. Seth Boker was sitting
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: over the fire with his face in his hand, swaying
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: himself and moaning,' Oh, dear, dear life! Whatever shall I
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: do without her? And she, the best woman, is breathed
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: and knew all my little ways.' Overhead was a trampling.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: The doctor and the midwife were with the woman. Seth
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: looked up and listened. Then he flung himself on his
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: knees at the deal-table and prayed,' Oh, good God in heaven,
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: have pity on me and spare me my wife! I
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: shall be a lost man without her, and no one
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: to sew on my shirt-buttons!' At the moment I heard
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: a feeble twitter aloft, and then it grew in volume,
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: and presently became cries. Seth looked up. His face was
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: bathed in tears, still that strange sound like the chirping
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: of sparrows. He rose to his feet, and made for
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: the stairs, and held on to the banister. Forth from
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: the chambers above came the doctor, and leisurely descended the stairs.' Well, Booker,'
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: said he,' I congratulate you. You have two fine boys.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: And my Sally, my wife, she has pulled through, but
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: really upon my soul. I did fear for her at
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: one time, but she rallied marvellously. Can I go up
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: to her?' In a minute or two, not just now,
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: the babes are being washed. And my wife will get
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: over it. I trust so, Bowker. A new life came
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: into her as she gave birth to twins. God be praised!
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Seth's mouth quivered, all his face worked, and he clasped
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: his hands. Presently the door of the chamber upstairs was open,
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: and the nurse looked down and said, Mr.
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: Bowker, you may come up.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: Your wife wants you to—' Lark, you will see the
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: beautilest twins there ever was!' I followed Seth upstairs and
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: entered the sick-room. It was humble enough, with whitewashed walls,
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: all scrupulously clean. The happy mother lay in the bed,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: her pale face on the pillow, but the eyes were
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: lighted up with ineffable love and pride.' Kiss them, Boca,'
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: she said, exhibiting at her side two little pink heads
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: with down on them, but her husband just stooped and
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: pressed his lips to her brow. and after that kissed
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: the tiny morsels at her side.' I did loves!' exclaimed
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: the midwife. But oh, what a rapture of triumph! Pity, fervour,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: love was in that mother's face, and the eyes looking
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: on those children were the eyes of Mr. Fothergill. Never
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: had I seen such an expression in them, not even
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: when he had exclaimed,' Checkmate!' over a game of chess.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: Then I knew what would follow. how night and day
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: that mother would live only for her twins, how she
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: would cheerfully sacrifice her night's rest to them, how she
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: would go downstairs even before nightfall. it was judicious, to
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: see to her husband's meals. Verily, with the mother's milk
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: that fed those babies, the black ram would run out
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: of the father-girl's soul. There was no need for me
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: to tarry. I went forth, and as I issued into
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: the street, heard the clock strike one.' Bless me!' I exclaimed.'
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: I have spent an hour in the porch. What will
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: my wife say?' I walked home as fast as I could,
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: in my fur coat. When I arrived, I found Bessie up.' Oh, Bessie!'
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: said I.' With your cold you ought to have been
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: in bed.'' My dear Edward!' she replied.' How could I?
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: I had lain down, but when I heard of the
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: accident I could not rest. Have you been hurt?'' My
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: head is somewhat confused,' I replied.' Let me feel. Indeed,
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: it is burning. I will put on some cold compresses. But, Bessie,
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: I have a story to tell you. Oh, never mind
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: the story. We'll have that another day. I'll send for
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: some ice from the fishmonger tomorrow for your head. I
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: did eventually tell my wife the story of my experience
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: in the porch of Fifewell on St. Mark's Eve. I
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: have since regretted that I did so, for whenever I
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: cross her will, or express my determination to do something
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: of which she does not approve, she says, Edward, Edward,
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: I very much fear there is still in you too
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: much black ram. Section 28 of THE BOOK OF GHOSTS
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: the public domain.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: by Kirk Ziegler The Book of Ghosts by Sabine Baring
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Gould Section 28 Mr. Benjamin Woolfield was a widower. For
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: twelve months he had put on mourning. The mourning was external,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: and by no means represented the condition of his feelings,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: for his married life had not been happy. He and
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Kasaya had been unequally yoked together. The Mosaic law forbade
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: the union of the ox and ass to draw one plow,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: and two more uncongenial creatures than Benjamin and Kasaya could
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: hardly have been coupled to draw the matrimonial furrow. She
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: was a Plymouth sister, and he, as she repeatedly informed
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: him whenever he indulged in light reading, laughed, smoked, went
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: out shooting, or drank a glass of wine, was of
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the earth. EARTHY AND A MISERABLE WORLDLING. FOR SOME YEARS MR.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: WOLFIELD HAD BEEN MADE TO FEEL AS THOUGH HE WERE
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: A MORAL AND RELIGIOUS PARIAH. KASAYA HAD INVITED TO THE
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: HOUSE AND TO MEALS THOSE OF HER OWN WAY OF THINKING,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: AND ON SUCH OCCASIONS HAD SPARED NO PAINS TO HAVE
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: THE TABLE WELL SERVED, FOR THE ELECT ARE PARTICULAR ABOUT
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: THEIR FEEDING, IF INDIFFERENT AS TO THEIR DRINKS. ON SUCH OCCASIONS, MOREOVER,
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: When Benjamin had sat at the bottom of his own table,
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: he had been made to feel that he was a
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: worm to be trodden on. The topics of conversation were
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: such as far beyond his horizon, and concerned matters of
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: which he was ignorant. He attempted at intervals to enter
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: into the circle of talk. He knew that such themes
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: as football matches, horse races, and crickets were taboo. But
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: he did suppose that home or foreign politics might interest
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the guests of Kasaya. but he soon learned that this
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: was not the case, unless such matters tended to be
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: the fulfillment of prophecy. When, however, in his turn, Benjamin
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: invited home to dinner some of his old friends, he
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: found that all provided for them was hashed mutton, cottage pie,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: and tapioca pudding. But even these could have been stomached,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: had not Mrs. Woolfield sat stern and silent at the
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: head of the table, not uttering a word, but giving
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: vent to occasional very audible sighs. When the year of
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: mourning was well over, Mr. Woolfield put on a light
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: suit and contented himself, as an indication of bereavement, with
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: a slight black band around the left arm. He also
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: began to look about him for someone who might make
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: up for the years during which he had felt like
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: a crushed strawberry. And in casting his inquiring eye about,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: it lighted upon Philippa Western, a bright, vigorous young lady,
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: well-educated and intelligent, She was aged twenty-four, and he was
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: but eighteen years older, a difference on the right side.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: It took Mr. Woolfield but a short courtship to reach
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: an understanding, and he became engaged. On the same evening
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: upon which he had received a satisfactory answer to the
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: question put to her, and had pressed for an early marriage,
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: to which also consent had been accorded, he sat by
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: his study fire with his hands on his knees, looking
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: into the embers and building love-castles there. Then he smiled
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: and patted his knees. He was startled from his honey
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: reveries by a sniff. He looked around. There was a
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: familiar ring in that sniff, which was unpleasant to him.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: What he then saw dissipated his rosy dreams and sent
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: blood to his heart. At the table sat his Kasaya,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: looking at him with her beady black eyes and with
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: stern lines in her face. He was so startled and
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: shocked that he could not speak.' Benjamin,' said the apparition,'
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: I know your purpose.' It shall never be carried to accomplishment.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: I will prevent it. Prevent what, my love, my treasure?
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: He gathered up his faculties to reply. It is in
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: vain that you assume that infantile look of innocence, said
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: his deceased wife. You shall never, never lead her to
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: the hymnal altar. Lead whom, my idol? You astound me.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: I know all. I can read your heart. A lost
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: being though you may be, you still have me to
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: watch over you. When you quit this earthly tabernacle, if
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: you have given up taking in the field, and have
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: come to realize your fallen condition, there is a chance,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: a distant chance, but yet one, of our union becoming eternal.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: You don't mean to say so, said Mr. Woolfield, his
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: jaw falling. There is, there is that to look to,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: that to lead you to overturn a new leaf, but
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: it can never be if you become united to that
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: flibberty gibbet. Mentally, Benjamin said, I must hurry up with
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: my marriage. Vocally he said, Dear me, dear me, my
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: care for you is still so great, continued the apparition,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: that I intend to haunt you by night and day,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: to let engagement be broken off. I would not put
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: you to so much trouble, said he. It is my duty,
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: replied the late Mrs. Woolfield sternly. You are oppressively kind,
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: sighed the widower. At dinner that evening Mr. Woolfield had
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: a friend to keep him company. a friend to whom
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: he had poured out his heart. To his dismay, he
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: saw seated opposite him the form of his deceased wife.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: He tried to be lively, he cracked jokes, but the
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: sight of the grim face and stony eyes riveted on
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: him dampened his appearance, and all his mirth died away.'
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: You seem to be out of sorts to-night,' said his friend.'
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: I am sorry that I act so bad a host,'
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: apologized Mr.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: Bullfield.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Two is company, three is none.' But we are only
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: two here tonight. My wife is with me in spirit.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: Which she that was, or she that is to be. Mr.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Woolfield looked with timid eyes towards her, who sat at
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: the end of the table. She was raising her hands
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: in holy horror. Her face was black with frowns. His
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: friend said to himself when he left, Oh, these lovers,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: they are never themselves so long as the fit lasts.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: Mr.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Woolfield retired early to bed. When a man has screwed
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: himself up to proposing to a lady, it has taken
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: a great deal out of him, and nature demands rest.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: So it was with Benjamin. He was sleepy. A nice
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: little fire burned in his grate. He undressed and slipped
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: between the sheets. Before he put out the light, he
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: became aware that the late Mrs. Woolfield was standing by
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: his bedside with a nightcap on her head.' I am cold,'
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: said she,' bitterly cold.'' I am sorry to hear it,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: my dear,' said Benjamin.' The grave is cold as ice,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: she said. I am going to step into bed. No, never,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: exclaimed the widower, sitting up. It won't do, it really won't.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: You will draw all the vital heat out of me,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: and I shall be laid up with rheumatic fever. It
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: will be ten times worse than damp sheets. I am
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: coming to bed, repeated the deceased lady, inflexible as ever
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: in carrying out her will. As she stepped in, Mr.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: Woolfield crept out on the side of the fire and
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: seated himself by the grate. He sat there some considerable time,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: and then, feeling cold, he fetched his dressing-gown and enveloped
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: himself in that. He looked at the bed. In it
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: lay the deceased lady with her long slit of a
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: mouth shut like a rat-trap, and her hard eyes fixed
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: on him.' Is no use of your thinking of marrying, Benjamin,'
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: she said.' I shall haunt you till you give it up.' Mr.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: Woolfield sat by his fire all night, and only dozed
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: off towards morning. During the day he called at the
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: house of Miss Weston, and was shown into the drawing-room.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: But there, standing behind her chair, was his deceased wife
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: with her arms folded on the back of the seat,
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: glowering at him. It was impossible for the usual tender
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: passages to ensue between the lovers with the witness present,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: expressing by gesture her disapproval of such matters and her
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: inflexible determination to force on a rupture. The dear departed
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: did not attend Mr. Woolfield continuously during the day. but
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: appeared at intervals. He could never say when he would
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: be free, when she would not turn up. In the
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: evening he rang for the housemaid, Jemima. Jemima, he said,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: put two hot bottles into my bed to-night. It's somewhat chilly. Yes, sir.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: and let the water be boiling, not with the chill off. Yes, sir.
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: When somewhat late Mr. Woolfield retired to his room, he found,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: as he had feared, that his late wife was there
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: before him. She lay in the bed with her mouth snapped,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: her eyes, like black balls, staring at him. My dear,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: said Benjamin, I hope you are more comfortable. I am cold,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: deadly cold. But I trust you are enjoying the hot bottles.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: I lack animal heat, replied the late Mrs. Woolfield. Benjamin
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: fled the room and returned to his study, where he
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: unlocked his spirit case and filled his pipe. The fire
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: was burning. He made it up. He would sit there
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: all night during the passing hours. However, he was not
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: left quite alone. At intervals the door was gently opened,
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: and the night-capped head of the late Mrs. Woolfield was
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: thrust in.' Don' t think, Benjamin, that your engagement will lead
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: to anything,' she would say.' Because it will not. I
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: shall stop it.' So time passed. MR. WOLFIELD FOUND IT
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: IMPOSSIBLE TO ESCAPE THIS PERSECUTION. HE LOST SPIRITS, HE LOST FLESH.
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: AT LAST, AFTER SAD THOUGHT, HE SAW BUT ONE WAY
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: OF RELIEF, AND THAT WAS TO SUBMIT. AND IN ORDER
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: TO BREAK OFF THE ENGAGEMENT, HE MUST HAVE A PROLONGED
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: INTERVIEW WITH FALIPA. HE WENT TO THE THEATER AND BOUGHT
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: TWO STALL TICKETS, AND SENT ONE TO HER WITH THE
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: EARNEST REQUEST THAT SHE SHOULD ACCEPT IT, AND MEET HIM
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: THAT SAME EVENING AT THE THEATER. He had something to
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: communicate of the utmost importance. At the theater he knew
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: he would be safe. The principles of Kasaya would not
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: suffer her to enter there. At the proper time Mr.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Woolfield drove round to Miss Weston's, picked her up, and
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: together they went to the theater and took their places
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: in the stalls. Their seats were side by side. I
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: am so glad you have been able to come, said Benjamin.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: I have a most shocking disclosure to make to you.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: I am afraid that— but I hardly know how to say
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: it— that I really must break it off. Break what off?
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: Our engagement. Nonsense! I've been fitted for my trousseau. Your what?
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: My wedding dresses. Oh, I beg pardon. I did not
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: understand your French pronunciation. I thought— but it does not matter
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: what I thought. Pray, what is the sense of this? Filippa,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: my affection for you is unabated. Do not suppose that
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: I love you one whit the less. But I am
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: oppressed by a horrible nightmare, daymare as well. I am haunted.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: Haunted indeed! Yes, by my late wife. She allows me
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: no peace. She has made up her mind that I
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: shall not marry you. Oh, is that all? I am
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: haunted also. Surely not. It is a fact. Hush, hush,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: from the persons in the front and at the side.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Neither Ben nor Philippa had noticed the curtain had risen
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: and that the play had begun.' We are disturbing the audience,'
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: whispered Mr.
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: Woolfield.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: Let us go out into the passage and promenade there,
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: and then we can talk freely.' So both rows left
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: their stalls and went into the collier.' Look here, Philippa,'
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: said he, offering the girl his arm, which she took.'
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: The case is serious. I am badgered out of my reason,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: out of my health, by the late Mrs. Woolfield. She
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: always had an iron will.' and she has intimated to
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: me that she will force me to give you up.
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: Defy her. I cannot. Tut, these ghosts are exacting. Give
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: them an inch and they'll take an ell. They are
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: like old servants. If you yield to them, they tyrannize
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: over you. But how do you know, Philippa dearest? Because,
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: as I said, I also am haunted. That only makes
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: the matter more hopeless. On the contrary, it only shows
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: how well suited we are to each other. We are
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: in one box. Philippa, this is a dreadful thing. When
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: my wife was dying, she told me she was going
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: to a better world, and that we should never meet again.
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: And she has not kept her word. The girl laughed.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Rag her with it. How can I? You can do
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: it perfectly. Ask her why she is left out in
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: the cold. Give her a piece of your mind. Make
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: it unpleasant for her. I give Jehu no good time.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Who is Jehu? Jehu Post is the ghost who haunts me.
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: When in the flesh he was a great admirer of mine,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: and in his cumbrous way tried to court me, but
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: I never liked him, and gave him no encouragement. I
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: snubbed him unmercifully. But he was one of those self-satisfied,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: self-assured creatures, incapable of taking a snubbing. He was a
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Plymouth brother. My wife was a Plymouth sister. I know
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: she was, and I always felt for you. It was
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: so sad.' Well, to go on with my story. In
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: a frivolous mood, Jehu took to a bicycle, and the
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: very first time he scorched, he was thrown, and so
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: injured his back that he died in a week. Before
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: he departed, he entreated that I would see him, so
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: I could not be nasty, and I went. And he
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: told me, then, that he was about to be wrapped
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: in glory. I asked him if this were so certain.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: Cock sure, was his reply, and they were his last words.
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: And he has not kept his word, And he haunts
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: you now? Yes, he dangles about with his great ox-eyes
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: fixed on me. But as to his envelope of glory,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: I have not seen a fag end of it, and
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: I have told him so. Do you really mean this, Philippa?
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: I do.
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: He wrings his hands and sighs. He gets no change
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: out of me, I promise you. This is a very
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: strange condition of affairs. It only shows how well matched
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: we are. I do not suppose you will find two
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: other people in England so situated as we are. and
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: therefore so admirably suited to one another. There is much
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: in what you say. But how are we to rid
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: ourselves of the nuisance, for it is a nuisance being
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: thus haunted? We cannot spend all our time in a theatre.
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: We must defy them, marry in spite of them. I
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: never did defy my wife when she was alive. I
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: do not know how to pluck up the courage now
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: that she is dead. Feel my hand, Philippa. How it trembles!
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: She has broken my nerve. WHEN I WAS YOUNG, I
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: COULD PLAY SPELLICANS, MY HAND WAS SO STEADY. NOW I'M
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: QUITE INCAPABLE OF DOING ANYTHING WITH THE LITTLE STICKS. WELL,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: HARKEN TO WHAT I PROPOSE, SAID MISS WESTON. I WILL
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: BEAR THE OLD CAT. HUSH, NOT SO DISRESPECTFUL SHE WAS,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: MY WIFE. WELL, THEN, THE GHOSTLY OLD LADY ENTERED IN.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: YOU THINK SHE WILL APPEAR IF I GO PAY YOU
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: A VISIT? SURE OF IT. SHE IS CONSUMED WITH JEALOUSY.
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: SHE HAD NO PERSONAL ATTRACTIONS HERSELF, AND YOU HAVE A THOUSAND.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: I never knew whether she loved me, but she was
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: always confoundedly jealous of me. Very well, then. You have
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: often spoken to me about the changes in the decoration
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: of your villa. Suppose I call on you tomorrow afternoon,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: and you shall show me what your schemes are. And
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: your ghost, will he attend you? Most probably. He is
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: also as jealous as a ghost can well be. Well,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: so be it. I shall await your coming with impatience. Now, then,
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: we may as well go to our respective homes. A
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: cab was accordingly summoned, and after Mr. Woolfield had handed
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: Philippa in, and she had taken her seat in the back,
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: he entered and planted himself with his back to the driver.
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: Why do you not sit by me? asked the girl.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: I can't, replied Benjamin. Perhaps you may not see, but
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: I do. My deceased wife is in the cab, and
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: occupies the space on your left. Sit on her, urged Philippa,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: I haven't the effrontery to do it, gasped Ben. Will
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: you believe me? whispered the young lady, leaning over to
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: speak to Mr. Woolfield. I have seen Jehu Pulse hovering
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: about the theater door, wringing his white hands and turning
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: up his eyes. I suspect he's running after the cab.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: As soon as Mr. Woolfield had deposited his bride-elect at
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: her residence, he ordered the cabman to drive him home.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: Then he was alone in the conveyance with the ghost.
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: As each gaslight was passed, the flash came over the
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: cadaverous face opposite him, and sparks of fire kindled momentarily
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: in the stony eyes.' Benjamin,' she said.' Benjamin, O Benjamin!
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: Do not suppose that I shall permit it. You may
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: writh and twist, you may plot and contrive, how you will.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: I will stand between you and her as a wall
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: of ice.' Next day, in the afternoon, Philippa Weston arrived
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: at the house. The late Mrs. Woolfield had, however— apparently
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: obtained an inkling of what was intended, for she was
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: already there in the drawing-room, seated in an arm-chair with
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: her hands raised and clasped, looking stonily before her. She
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: had a white face, no lips that showed, and her
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: dark hair was dressed in two black slabs, one on
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: each side of her temples. It was done in a
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: knot behind. She wore no ornaments of any kind. In
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: came Miss Weston, a pretty girl, coquettishly dressed in colors,
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: with sparkling eyes and laughing lips. As she had predicted,
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: she was followed by her attendant specter, a tall, gaunt
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: young man, in a black frock coat, with a melancholy
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: face and large ox eyes. He shambled in shyly, looking
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: from side to side. He had white hands and long,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: lean fingers. Every now and then he put his hands
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: behind him, up his back, under the tails of his coat,
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: and rubbed his spine where he had received his mortal
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: injury in cycling. Almost as soon as he entered, he
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: noticed the ghost of Mrs. Woolfield, that was, and made
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: an awkward bow. Her eyebrows rose, and a faint, wintry
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: smile of recognition lighted up her cheeks.' I believe I
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: have the honor of saluting Sister Kasaya,' said the ghost
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: of J. Zupost, and he assumed a posture of ecstasy.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: It is even so, brother Jehu. And how do you
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: find yourself, sister, out of the flesh? The late Mrs.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: Woolfield looked disconcerted, hesitated a moment, as if she found
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: some difficulty in answering, and then, after a while, said,
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: I suppose much as you do, brother. It is a
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: melancholy duty that detains me here below, said Jehu, post's ghost.
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: The same may be said of me, observed the spirit
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: of the deceased Mrs.
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: Woolfield.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Pray, take a chair. I am greatly obliged, sister. My back.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: Philippa nudged Benjamin, and, unobserved by the ghosts, both slipped
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: into the adjoining room by a doorway over which hung
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: velvet curtains. In this room, on the table, Mr. Woolfield
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: had collected patterns of chintzes and books of wallpapers. There
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: the engaged pair remained, discussing what curtains would go with
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: the chintz coverings of the sofa and chairs, and what
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: papers would harmonize with both. I see, said Philippa, that
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: you have plates hung on the walls. I don't like them.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: It is no longer in good form. If they be
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: worth anything, you must have a cabinet with glass doors
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: for the china. How about the carpets? There is the drawing-room,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: said Benjamin. No, we won't go in there and disturb
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: the ghosts, said Philippa. We'll take the drawing-room for granted. Well,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: come with me to the dining-room. We can reach it
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: by another door. In the room they now entered the
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: carpet was in fairly good condition, except at the head
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: and bottom of the table where it was worn. This
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: was especially the case at the bottom, where Mr. Woolfield
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: had usually sat. There, when his wife had lectured, moralized,
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: and harangued, he had rubbed his feet up and down
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: and fritted the nap off the Brussels carpet. I think,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: remarked Philippa, that we can turn it about, and by
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: taking out one whip and putting that under the bookcase
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: and inserting the strip that was there in its room,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: we can save the expense of a new carpet. But
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: the engravings of those landseers, what do you think of them,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: Ben dear? She pointed to the two familiar engravings of
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: the deer in the winter and dignity and impudence. Don't
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: you think, Ben, that one has got a little tired
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: of those pictures? My late wife did not object to them.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: They were so perfectly harmless. But your coming wife does.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: We will have something more up-to-date in their room. By
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: the way, I wonder how the ghosts are getting on.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: They have left us alone so far. I will run
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: back and have a peep at them through the curtains.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: The lively girl left the dining apartment, and her husband-elect,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: studying the pictures to which Philippa had objected. Presently she returned. Oh, Ben,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: such fun, she said, laughing. My ghost has drawn up
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: his chair so close to that of the late Mrs.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: Woolfield and is fondling her hand. I believe they are
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: only talking goody-goody. And now about the china, said Mr.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: Woolfield.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: It is in a closet near the pantry, that is
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: to say, the best china. I will get a benzoline
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: lamp and will examine it. We had it out only
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: when Mrs. Woolfield had a party of her elect brothers
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: and sisters. I fear a good deal is broken. I
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: know that the soup tureen has lost the lid. and
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: I believe we are short of vegetable dishes. How many
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: plates remain I do not know. We had a parlor maid, Dorcas,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: who was a sad smasher. But as she was one
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: who had made her election sure, my late wife would
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: not part with her. And how are you off for glass?
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: The wine glasses are fairly complete. I fancy the cut
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: glass decanters are in a bad way. My late wife
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: chipped them, I really believe out of spite. and it
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: took a couple of times to go through the china
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: and the glass. And the plate? asked Philippa. All of
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: the real old silver is at the bank, as Kasaya
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: preferred plated goods. How about the kitchen utensils? Upon my word,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: I cannot say. We had a rather nice-looking cook, and
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: so my late wife never allowed me to step inside
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: the kitchen. Is she here still? inquired Philippa sharply. No,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: my wife, when she was dying, gave her the sack.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: Bless me, Ben! exclaimed Philippa.' It' s growing dark. I have
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: been here an age. I really must go home. I
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: wonder the ghosts have not worried us. I'll have another
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: look at them.' She tripped off. In five minutes she
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: was back. She stood for a minute looking at Mr. Woolfield,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: laughing so heartily she had to hold her sides.' What
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: is it, Philippa?' he inquired.' Oh, Ben, a happy release!
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: They will never dare to show their faces again. They
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: have eloped together!' End of section 28. Recording by Kirk Ziegler, Ogden, Utah, voiceover-solutions.com
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: Section 29 of the Book of Ghosts This is a
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: by Kirk Ziegler. The Book of Ghosts by Sabine Baring
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: Gould Section 29 In a well-authenticated ghost story, names and
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: dates should be distinctly specified. In the following story I
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: am unfortunately able only to give the year and the month,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: for I have forgotten the date of the days and
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: do not keep a diary. With regard to names, my
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: own figures as a guarantee as that of the principal
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: personage to whom the following extraordinary circumstances occurred. but the
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: minor actors are provided with fictitious names, for I am
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: not warranted to make their real ones public. I may
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: add that the believer in ghosts may make use of
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: the facts which I relate to establish his theories, if
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: he finds that they will be of service to him
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: when he has read through and weighed well the startling
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: account which I am about to give from my own experiences.
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: On a fine evening in June, 1860, I paid a
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: visit to Mrs. Lyons on my way to the Hassox
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: Gate station on the London and Brighton line. This station
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: is the first out of Brighton. As I rose to leave,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: I mentioned to the lady whom I was visiting that
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: I expected a parcel of books from town, and that
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: I was going to the station to inquire whether it
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: had arrived.' Oh,' she said readily,' I expect Dr. Lyons
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: out from Brighton by the 9.30 train.' If you like
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: to drive the pony chase down and meet him, you
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: are welcome, and you can bring your parcel back with
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: you in it. I gladly accepted her offer, and in
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: a few minutes I was seated in a narrow little
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: basket carriage, drawn by a pretty iron-gray Welsh pony. The
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: station road commands the line of the South Downs from
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: Chattonbury Ring, with its cap of dark furs, to Mount Harry,
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: the scene of the memorable Battle of Loo's. WOLSONBERRY STANDS
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: OUT LIKE A HEADLAND ABOVE THE DARK DANNY WOODS OVER
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: WHICH THE ROOKS WERE WHEELING AND CAUING PREVIOUS TO SETTLING
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: THEMSELVES IN FOR THE NIGHT. DITCHLING BEACON, ITS STEEP SIDES
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: GASHED WITH CHOCKPITS, WAS FAINTLY FLUSHED WITH LIGHT. THE CLAYTON WINDMILLS,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: WITH THEIR SAILS MOTIONLESS, STOOD OUT DARKLY AGAINST THE GREEN
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: EVENING SKY. CLOSE BENEATH OPENS THE TUNNEL IN WHICH, NOT
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: SO LONG BEFORE, HAD HAPPENED ONE OF THE MOST FEARFUL
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: RAILWAY ACCIDENTS ON RECORD. The sky was kindled with light,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: though the sun was set. A few gilded bars of
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: cloud lay in the west. Two or three stars looked forth,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: one I noticed twinkling green, crimson, and gold, like a gem.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: From a field of young wheat, hard by I heard
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: the harsh, grating note of the corn crake. Mist was
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: lying on the low meadows, like a mantle of snow, pure, smooth,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: and white. The cattle stood in it to their knees.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: The effect was so singular that I drew up to
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: look at it attentively. At the same moment I heard
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: the scream of an engine, and looking down towards the
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: downs I saw the up-train shooting out of the tunnel,
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: its red signal lamps flashing brightly out of the purple
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: gloom which bathed the roots of the hills. Seeing that
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: I was late, I whipped the Welsh pony on and
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: proceeded at a fast trot. About a quarter-mile from the
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: station there is a turnpike, an odd-looking building, tenanted then
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: by a strange old man, usually dressed in white smock,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: over which his long white beard flowed to his breast.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: This toll-collector is dead now, and amused himself in bygone
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: days by carving life-size heads out of wood. And these
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: were stuck along the eaves. One is the face of
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: a drunkard, round and blotched, leering out of misty eyes
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: at passers-by. The next has the crumpled features of a miser,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: worn out with toil and moil. A third has the
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: wild scowl of a maniac. And the fourth, the stare
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: of an idiot. I drove past, flinging the toll to
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: the door, and shouting to the old man to pick
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: it up, for I was in a vast hurry to
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: reach the station before Dr. Lyons left it. I whipped
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: the little pony on, and he began to trot down
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: a cutting in the greensand, through which leads the station road.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: Suddenly Taffy stood still, planted his feet resolutely on the ground,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: threw up his head, snorted, and refused to move a peg.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: I guilloped and tushed, all to no purpose. Not a
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: step would the little fellow advance. I saw that he
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: was thoroughly alarmed. His flanks were quivering, his ears were
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: thrown back. I was on the point of leaving the chase,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: when the pony made a bound to one side, and
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: ran the carriage up into the hedge, thereby upsetting me
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: on the road. I picked myself up and took the
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: beast's head. I could not conceive what had frightened him.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: There was positively nothing to be seen, except a puff
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: of dust running up the road, such as might be
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: blown along by a passing current of air. There was
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: nothing to be heard, except a little rattle of a
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: gig or tax-cart with one wheel loose. Probably a vehicle
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: of this kind was being driven down the London Road,
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: which branches off at the turnpike at right angles. The
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: sound became fainter, and at last died away in the distance.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: The pony now no longer refused to advance. It trembled violently.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: It was covered with sweat.' Well, upon my word, you
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: have been driving hard!' exclaimed Dr. Lyons when I met
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: him at the station.' I have not, indeed,' was my reply.'
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: But something has frightened Taffy. But what that something is,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: is more than I can tell.'' Oh, ah!' said the doctor,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: looking round with a certain degree of interest in his face.'
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: So you met it, did you?'' Met what?'' Oh, nothing.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: Only I have heard of horses being frightened along this
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: road after the arrival of the nine-thirty up-train. Flies never
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: leave the moment that the train comes in, or the
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: horses become restive. A wonderful thing for a fly-horse, to
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: become restive, isn't it? But what causes this alarm? I
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: saw nothing.'' You ask me more than I can answer.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: I am as ignorant of the cause as yourself.' I
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: take things as they stand, and make no inquiries. When
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: the flyman tells me that he can't start for a
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: minute or two after the train has arrived, or urges
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: on his horses to reach the station before arrival of
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: this train, giving as his reason that his brutes become
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: wild if he does not do so, then I merely say,
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: Do as you think best, cabby, and bother my head
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: no more about the matter. I shall search this matter out,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: I said resolutely. What has taken place so strangely corroborates
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: the superstition that I shall not leave uninvestigated. Take my
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: advice and banish it from your thoughts. When you have
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: come to the end, you will be sadly disappointed, and
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: will find that all the mystery evaporates and leaves a dull,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: commonplace residuum. It is best that the few mysteries which
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: remain to us unexplained should still remain mysteries, or we
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: shall disbelieve in supernatural agencies altogether. We have searched out
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: the arcana of nature, and exposed all her secrets to
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: the garish eye of day, and we find, in despair,
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: that the poetry and romance of life are gone. Are
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: we the happier for knowing that there are no ghosts,
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: no fairies, no witches, no mermaids, no wood spirits? Were
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: not our forefathers happier in thinking every lake to be
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: a boat of a fairy, every forest to be a
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: bower of yellow-haired sylphs, every moorland sweep to be tripped
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: over by elf and pixie? I found my little boy
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: one day lying on his face in a fairy ring crying.'
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: You dear, dear little fairies, I will believe in you,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: though Papa says you are all nonsense.' I used, in
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: my childish days, to think, when silence fell upon a company,
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: that an angel was passing through the room. Alas, I
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: now know that it results only from the subject of
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: weather having been talked to death, and no new subject
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: having been started. Believe me, science has done good to mankind.'
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: but it has done mischief too. If we wish to
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: be poetical or romantic, we must shut our eyes to facts.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: The head and the heart wage mutual war now. A
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: lover preserves a lock of his mistress's hair as a
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: holy relic, yet he must know perfectly well that for
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: all practical purposes a bit of rhinoceros hide would do
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: as well the chemical constituents are identical. If I adore
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: a fair lady and feel a thrill through all my
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: veins when I touch her hand, A moment's consideration tells
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: me that phosphate of lime number one is touching phosphate
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: of lime number two, nothing more. If for a moment
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: I forget myself so far as to wave my cap
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: and cheer for king or queen or prince, I laugh
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 1: at my folly next moment for having paid reverence to
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: one disgusting machine above another. I cut the doctor short
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: as he was lapsing into his favorite subject of discussion,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: and asked him whether he would lend me the pony
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: chase on the following evening. that I might drive to
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: the station again to try and unravel the mystery.' I
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: will lend you the pony,' said he, but not the chase,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: as I am afraid of its being injured should Taffy
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: take fright and run up into the hedge again. I
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: have got a saddle. Next evening I was on my
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: way to the station considerably before the time at which
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: the train was due. I stopped at the turnpike and
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: chatted with the old man who kept it. I asked
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: him whether he could throw any light on the matter
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: which I was investigating.' SAYING THAT HE KNOWED NOTHING ABOUT IT.
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 4: WHAT?
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: NOTHING AT ALL? I DON'T TROUBLE MY HEAD WITH MATTERS
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: OF THIS SORT, WAS THE REPLY. PEOPLE DO SAY THAT
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: SOMETHING OUT OF THE COMMON SORT PASSES ALONG THE ROAD
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: AND TURNS DOWN THE OTHER ROAD LEADING TO CLAYTON AND BRIGHTON,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: BUT I PAYS NO ATTENTION TO WHAT THEM PEOPLE SAYS.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: DO YOU EVER HEAR ANYTHING? AFTER THE ARRIVAL OF THE
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: NINE-THIRTY TRAIN I DOES AT TIMES HEAR THE RATTLE OF
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: A MAIL CART AND THE TROT OF A HORSE ALONG
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: THE ROAD. The sound is as though one of the
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: wheels was loose. I've been out many a time to
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: take the toll. Them spirits, if spirits them be, don't
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: go for to pay toll. Have you ever inquired into
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: the matter? Why should I? Anything as don't go to
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: pay for toll don't concern me. Do you think I
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: knows how many people and dogs go through this here
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: gate in a day? Not I them don't pay toll,
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: so them's no odds to me. Look here, my man,
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: said I. Do you object to my putting the bar
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: across the road immediately on the arrival of the train?''
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: Not a bit. Please yourself. But you ain't got much
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: time to lose, for there comes thicky train out of
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: Clayton Tunnel.' I shut the gate, mounted Taffy, and drew
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: up across the road a little way below the turnpike.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: I heard the train arrive. I saw it puff off.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: At the same moment I distinctly heard a trap coming
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: up the road, one of the wheels rattling as though
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: it were loose.' I repeat deliberately that I heard it.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: I cannot account for it, but though I heard it,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: yet I saw nothing, whatever. At the same time the
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: pony became restless. It tossed its head, pricked up its ears.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: It started, pranced, and then made a bound to one side,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: entirely regardless of whip and rein. I tried to scramble
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: up the sandbank in its alarm, and I had to
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: throw myself off and catch its head. I then cast
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: a glance behind me at the turnpike. I saw the
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: bar bent as though someone were pressing against it. Then
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: with a click it flew open and was dashed violently
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: back against the white post to which it was usually
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: hasped in the daytime. There it remained, quivering from the shock.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: I immediately heard the rattle-rattle of the tax cart. I
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: confess that my first impulse was to laugh. The idea
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: of a ghostly tax cart was so essentially ludicrous. But
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: the reality of the whole scene soon brought me to
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: a graver mood, and remounting Taffy, I rode down to
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: the station. The officials were taking their ease, as another
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: train was not due for some while. So I stepped
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: up to the stationmaster and entered into conversation with him.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: After a few delusory remarks, I mentioned the circumstances which
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: had occurred to me on the road, and my inability
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: to account for them. So that's what you're after, said
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: the master somewhat bluntly. Well, I can tell you nothing
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: about it. Spirits don't come my way, saving and accepting
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: those that can be taken inwardly, and mighty comfortable warming
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: things they be when so taken. If you ask me
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: about other sorts of spirits, I tell you flat I
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: don't believe in them, though I don't mind drinking the
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: health of them. What does? Perhaps you may have the chance,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: if you are a little more communicative, said I. Well,
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you all I know, and that's precious little,
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: answered the worthy man. I know one thing for certain,
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: that one compartment of a second-class carriage is always left
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: vacant between Brighton and Hassock's Gate by the 930 up-train.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: For what purpose? Ah, that's more than I can fully explain.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: Before the orders came to this effect, people went into
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: Fitz and that like in one of the carriages. Any
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: particular carriage? The first compartment of the second-class carriage nearest
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: to the engine, and I unlock it at this station.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: What do you mean by saying people had Fitz?' I
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: mean that I used to find men and women a-screeching
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: and a-hollering, like mad to be let out. They'd seen
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: something as had frightened them as they was passing through
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: Clayton Tunnel. It was before they made the arrangement I
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: told you of. Very strange, I said meditatively. Very much so,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: but true for all that. I don't believe in nothing
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: but spirits of a warming and cheering nature, and them
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: sort ain't to be found in Clayton Tunnel, to my thinking.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: There was evidently nothing more to be got out of
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: my friends. I hoped that he drank my help that night.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: If he admitted to do so, it was his fault,
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: not mine. As I rode home, revolving in my mind
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: all that I had heard and seen, I became more
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: and more settled in my determination to thoroughly investigate the matter.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: The best means that I could adopt for so doing
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: would be to come out from Brighton by the 9.30
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: train in the very compartment of the second-class carriage from
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: which the public were considerably excluded. Somehow I felt no
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: shrinking from the attempt. My curiosity was so intense that
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: it overcame all apprehension as to the consequences. My next
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: free day was Thursday, and I hoped then to execute
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: my plan. In this, however, I was disappointed, as I
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: found out that the battalion drill was fixed for that
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: very evening, and I was desirous of attending it. Being
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: somewhat behindhand in the regulation number of drills, I was
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: consequently obliged to postpone my Brighton trip. On Thursday evening,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: about five o'clock, I started in regimentals with my rifle
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: over my shoulder, for the drilling ground a piece of
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: Fersey Common near the railway station. I was speedily overtaken
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: by Mr. Ball, a corporal in the Rifle Corps, a
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: capital shot and most efficient in his drill.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: Mr.
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: Ball was driving his gig. He stopped on seeing me
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: and offered me a seat beside him. I gladly accepted
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: as the distance to the station is a mile and
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: three-quarters by the road, and two miles by what is
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: commonly supposed to be the shortcut across the fields. After
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: some conversation on volunteering matters, about which Corporal Ball was
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: an enthusiast, we turned out of the lanes into the
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: station road, and I took the opportunity of averting the
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: subject which was uppermost in my mind. I've heard a
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: good deal about that, said the corporal. My workmen have
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: often told me some cock-and-bull stories of that kind. But
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: I can't say as how I believed them. What you
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: tell me is, however, very remarkable. I never add it
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: on good authority afore. Still, I can't believe there's anything
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: supernatural about it. I do not yet know what to believe,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: I replied. For the whole matter to me is perfectly inexplicable.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: You know, of course, the story which gave rise to
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: the superstition. Not I, pray tell it me. Just about
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: seven years agone, why. You must remember the circumstances as
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: well as I do. There was a man drove over,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: from I can't say where, for that was never exactly ascertained,
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: but from the Henfield direction, in a light cart. He
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: went to the station inn, and throwing the reins to
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: John Thomas, the Ulster, bade him take the trap and
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: bring it round to meet the nine-thirty train, by which
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: he calculated to return from Brighton. John Thomas said, as
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: Al the stranger was quite unbeknown to him, that he
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: looked as though he'd had some matter on his mind
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: when he went to the train. He was a queer
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: sort of man, with thick gray hair and beard, and
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: delicate white hands, just like a lady's. The trap was
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: round to the station door as ordered by the arrival
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: of the 9.30 train. The ostler observed then that the
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: man was ashen pale, and that his hands trembled as
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: he took the reins, and the stranger stared at him
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: in a wild, abstracted way. and that he would have
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: driven off without tendering payment had he not been respectfully
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: reminded that the horse had been given feet of oats.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: John Thomas made a hobservation to the gent relative to
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: the wheel which was loose, but that hobservation met with
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: no corresponding answer. The driver whipped his horse and went off.
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: He passed the turnpike and was seen to take the
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: Brighton Road instead of that by which he had come.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: A workman observed the trap next on the downs above
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: Clayton Chalk Pits, He didn't pay much attention to it.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: But he saw that the driver was on his legs
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: at the head of the horse. Next morning, when the
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 1: quarrymen went into the pit, they found a shattered tax
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: cart at the bottom, the horse and driver dead, the
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: latter with his neck broken. What was curious, too, was
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: that an handkerchief was bound round the brute's eyes, so
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: that he must have been driven over the edge blindfold. Hard,
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: wasn't it? Well, folks say that the gent and his
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: tax cart passed along the road every evening after the
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: arrival of the 9.30 train. But I don't believe it.
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: I ain't a bit superstitious, not I. The next week
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: I was again disappointed in my expectation of being able
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: to put my scheme in execution. But on the third
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: Saturday after my conversation with Corporal Ball, I walked into
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: Brighton in the afternoon, the distance of about nine miles.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: I spent an hour on the shore watching the bolts,
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: and then I sauntered around the pavilion, ardently longing that
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: fire might break forth and consume that architectural monstrosity. I
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: believe that I afterwards had a cup of coffee at
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: the refreshment rooms of the station, and capital refreshment rooms
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: they are, or were very moderate and very good. I
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: think I partook of a bun, but if put on
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: my oath I could not swear to the fact. A
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: floating reminiscence of bun lingers in the chambers of my memory,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: but I cannot be positive, and I wish in this
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: paper to advance nothing but reliable facts. I squandered precious
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: time in reading the advertisements of baby jumpers, which no
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: mother should be without, which are indispensable in nursery and
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: the greatest acquisition in the parlor, the greatest discovery since
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: modern times, etc., etc. I pursued a notice of the
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: advantage of metallic brushes. and admired the young lady with
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: her hair white on one side and black on the other.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: I studied the Chinese letter, commendatory, of Horniman's Tea and
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: the inferior English translation, and counted up the number of
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: agents in Great Britain and Ireland. At length the ticket
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: office opened, and I booked for Hassock's Gate, second class,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: fare one shilling. I ran along the platform till I
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: came to the compartment of the second class carriage which
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: I wanted. The door was locked, so I shouted for
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: a guard. Put me in here, please. I can't, sir. Next, please.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: Nearly empty. One woman and baby. I particularly wish to
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: enter this carriage, said I. Can't be. Locked orders. Company,
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: replied the guard, turning on his heel. What reason is
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: there for the public being excluded, may I ask? Don't know.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: Spress orders. Can't let you in. Next carriage, please. Now then, quick, please.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: I knew the guard, and he knew me by sight.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: for I often travel to and fro on the line,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: so I thought it best to be candid with him.
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: I briefly told him my reason for making the request,
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: and begged him to assist me in executing my plan.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: He then consented, though with reluctance.' Have your own way,'
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: said he.' Only if anything happens, don't blame me.'' Never fear,'
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: laughed I, jumping into the carriage. The guard left the
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: carriage unlocked, and in two minutes we were off. I
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: did not feel in the slightest degree nervous. There was
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: no light in the carriage, but that did not matter,
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: as there was twilight. I sat facing the engine on
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: the left side, and every now and then I looked
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: out at the downs, with a soft haze of light
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: still hanging over them. We swept into a cutting, and
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: I watched the lines of flint in the chalk, and
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: longed to be geologicizing among them with my hammer, picking
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: out shepherd's crowns and shark's teeth. The delicate brine canella
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: and the quaint ventriculite I remembered not a very distant
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: occasion on which I had actually ventured there, and been
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: chased off by the guard, after having brought down an
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: avalanche of chalk debris in a manner dangerous to traffic,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: whilst endeavoring to extricate a magnificent ammonite which I found,
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: and alas, left protruding from the side of the cutting.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: I wondered whether that ammonite was still there. I looked
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: about to identify the exact spot as we whizzed along,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: and at that moment we shot into the tunnel. There
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: are two tunnels, with a bit of chalk cutting between them.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: We passed through the first, which is short, and in
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: another moment plunged into the second. I cannot explain how
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: it was that, now all of a sudden, a feeling
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: of terror came over me. It seemed to drop over
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: me like a wet sheet and wrap round and round me.
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: I felt that someone was seated opposite me, someone in
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: the darkness with his eyes fixed on me, many persons
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 1: possessed of keen nervous sensibility, are well aware when they
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: are in the presence of another, even though they can
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: see no one. And I believe that I possess this
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: power strongly. If I were blindfolded, I think that I
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: should know when anyone was looking fixedly at me. And
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: I am certain that I should instinctively know that I
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: was not alone if I entered a dark room in
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: which another person was seated, even though he made no noise.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: I remember a college friend of mine who dabbled in anatomy,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: telling me that a little Italian violinist once called him
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: to give a lesson on his instrument. The foreigner, a
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: singularly nervous individual, moved restlessly from place to place where
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: he had been standing, casting many a furtive glance over
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: his shoulder at a press which was behind him. At
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: last the little fellow tossed aside his violin, saying, I
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: cannot give the lesson if someone will look at me
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: from behind. There is somebody in the cupboard, I know.
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: You are right, there is, laughed my anatomical friend. Flinging
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: open the door of the press and discovering a skeleton.
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: The horror which oppressed me was numbing. For a few
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: moments I could neither lift my hands nor stir a finger.
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: I was tongue-tied. I seemed paralyzed in every member. I
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: fancied that I felt ice staring through me through the gloom.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: A cold breath seemed to play over my face. I
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: believed that fingers touched my chest and plucked at my coat.
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: I drew back against the partition. My heart stood still.
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: My flesh became stiff, my muscles rigid. I do not
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: know whether I breathed the blue mist swam before my eyes,
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: and my head span. The rattle and roar of the
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: train dashing through the tunnel drowned every other sound. Suddenly
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: we passed a light fixed against the wall in the side,
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: and it sent a flash, instantaneous as that of lightning,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: through the carriage. At that moment I saw what I
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: shall never, never forget. I saw a face opposite me,
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: livid as that of a corpse, hideous with a passion
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: like that of a gorilla. I cannot describe it accurately,
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: for I saw it before a second. Yet there arises
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: before me now, as I write, the low, broad brow,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: seamed with wrinkles, the shaggy, overhanging gray eyebrows, the wild,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: ashen eyes, which glared as those of a demoniac, the
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: coarse mouth with its fleshy lips compressed till they were white,
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: The profusion of wolf-gray hair about the cheeks and chin,
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: the thin, bloodless hands, raised half open, extended towards me
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: as though they would clutch and tear me. In madness
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: of terror, I flung myself along the seat to the
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: further window. I felt that it was moving slowly down
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: and opposite me again. I lifted my hand to let
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: down the window, and I touched something. I thought it
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: was a hand. Yes, yes, it was a hand, for
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: it folded over mine and began to contract on it.
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: I felt each finger separately. They were cold, dully cold.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: I wrenched my hand away. I slipped back to my
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: former place in the carriage by the open window, and
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: in frantic horror I opened the door, clinging to it
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: with both my hands round the window-jam, swung myself out
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: with my feet on the floor, and my head turned
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: from the carriage. If the cold fingers had but touched
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: my woven hands, mine would have given way. Had I
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: but turned my head and seen that hellish countenance peering
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: out at me, I must have lost my hold. Ah,
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: I saw the light from the tunnel mouth. It smote
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: my face. The engine rushed out with a piercing whistle.
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: The roaring echoes of the tunnel died away. The cool,
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: fresh breeze blew over my face and tousled my hair.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: The speed of the train was relaxed. The lights of
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: the station became brighter. I heard the bell ringing loudly.
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: I saw people waiting for the train. I felt the
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: vibration as the brake was put on. We stopped. And
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: then my fingers gave way. I dropped as a sack
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: on the platform. Then not till I awoke. There now,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: from beginning to end, the hole had been a frightful dream,
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: caused by my having too many blankets over my bed.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: If I must append a moral, don't sleep too hot.
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: Section 30 The Book of Ghosts Having realized a competence
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: in Australia, and having a hankering after a country life
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: for the remainder of my days in the old home,
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: on my return to England I went to an agent
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: with the object of renting a house with a shooting attached,
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: over at least three thousand acres, with the option of
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: a purchase, should the place suit me. I was no
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: more intending to buy a country seat without having tried
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: what it was like, than as a king disposed to
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: go to war without knowing something of the force that
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: can be brought against him. I was rather taken with
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: the photographs of a manor called Fernwood, and I was
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: still further engaged when I saw the place itself on
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: a beautiful October day, when St. Luke's summer was turning
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 1: the country into a world of rainbow tints under a
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: warm sun, and a soft vaporous blue haze tinted all
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: the shadows cobalt, and gave to the hills a stateliness
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: that made them look like mountains. Fernwood was an old house,
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: built in the shape of a letter H, and therefore
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: presumably dating from the early Tudor monarchs. The porch opened
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: into the hall which was on the left of the cross-stroke,
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: and the drawing-room was on the right. There was one
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: inconvenience about the house. It had a staircase at each
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: extremity of the cross-stroke, and there was no upstairs communication
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: between the two wings of the mansion. But, as a
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: practical man, I saw how this might be remedied. The
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: front door faced the south, and the hall was windowless
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: on the north. nothing easier than to run a corridor
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: along the back, giving communication to both stairs and downstairs,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: without passing through the hall. The whole thing could be
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: done for, at the outside, two hundred pounds, and would
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 1: be no disfigurement to the place. I agreed to become
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: a tenant of Fernwood for a twelve-month, in which time
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: I should be able to judge whether the place would
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: suit me, the neighbors be pleasant, and the climate agree
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: with my wife. We went down to Fernwood at once,
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: and settled ourselves comfortably in by the first week in November.
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: The house was furnished. It was property of an elderly gentleman,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: a bachelor named Framit, who lived in two rooms in town,
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: and spent most of his time at the club. I
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: called on him before taking up our residence at Fernwood,
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: and found him a somewhat blasé, languid, cold-blooded creature, not
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: at all proud of having a noble manor house that
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: had belonged to his family for four centuries. very willing
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: to sell it so as despite a cousin who calculated
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: on coming in for the estate, and who Mr. Framit,
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: with the malignity that is sometimes found in old people,
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: was particularly desirous of disappointing. The house has been let before,
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: I suppose, said I. Oh, yes, he replied indifferently. I
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 1: believe so several times. For long? No, I believe not
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: for long. HAVE THE TENANTS HAD ANY PARTICULAR REASONS FOR
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: NOT REMAINING ON HERE? IF I MAY BE SO BOLD
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: AS TO INQUIRE. ALL PEOPLE HAVE REASONS TO OFFER, BUT
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: WHAT THEY OFFER YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO RECEIVE AS GENUINE.
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: I COULD GET NO MORE FROM HIM THAN THIS. I THINK, SIR,
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 1: IF I WERE YOU, I WOULD NOT GO DOWN TO
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 1: FERNWOOD TILL AFTER NOVEMBER WAS OUT. BUT, SAID I, I
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: WANT THE SHOOTING. AH, TO BE SURE, THE SHOOTING. Ah,
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: I should have preferred if you could have waited till
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: December began. That would not suit me, I said, and
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: so the matter was ended. When we were settled in,
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: we occupied the right wing of the house. The left
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: or west wing was but scantily furnished and looked chairless,
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: as though rarely tended it. We were not a large family,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: my wife and myself alone. There was consequently ample accommodation
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: in the east wing for us. The servants were placed
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: above the kitchen, in a portion of the house I
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 1: have not yet described. It was a half-wing, if I
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: may so describe it, built on the north side parallel
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: with the upper arm of the western limb of the
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 1: wall and the symbol H. This block had a gable
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: to the north like wings, and a broad lead valley
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 1: was between them. That, as I learned from the agent,
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: had to be attended to after the fall of the leaf,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: and in times of snow to clear it. Access to
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: this valley could be had from within by means of
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: a little window in the roof. formed as a dormer.
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: A short ladder allowed anyone to ascend from the passage
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: to this window and open or shut it. The western
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: staircase gave access to this passage, from which the servants'
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: rooms in the new block were reached, as also the
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: untended departments in the old wing. And as there were
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: no windows in the extremities of this passage that ran
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: due north and south, it derived all its light from
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: the aforementioned dormer window. One night, after we'd been in
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: the house for about a week, I was sitting up smoking,
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: with a little whiskey and water at my elbow, reading
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: a review of an absurd, ignorantly written book on the
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: New South Wales, when I heard a tap at the door,
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: and the partermaid came in and said in a nervous
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: tone of voice,' Beg your pardon, sir, but cook nor I,
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: nor none of us dare go to bed.'' Why not?'
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: I asked, looking up in surprise.' Whatever is the matter
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: with the passage?'' Oh, nothing, sir, with the passage.'' Would
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: you mind, sir, just coming to see? We don't know
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: what to make of it.' I put down my review,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 1: and with a grunt of dissatisfaction laid my pipe aside
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: and followed the maid. She led me through the hall
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: and up the staircase at the western extremity. On reaching
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: the upper landing I saw all the maids there in
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: a cluster, and all evidently much scared.' Whatever is all
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: this nonsense about?' I asked.' Please, sir, will you look?
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: We can't say.' The parlor maid pointed to an oblong
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: patch of moonlight on the wall of the passage. The
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 1: night was cloudless, and the full moon shone slanting through
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: the dormer and painted a brilliant silver strip on the
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: wall opposite. The window being on the side of the
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: roof to the east, we could not see that, but
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: did see the light thrown through it against the wall.
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: This patch of reflected life was about seven feet above
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: the floor. The window itself was some ten feet up,
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: and the passage was but four feet wide. I enter
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: into these particulars for reasons that will presently appear. The
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: window was divided into three parts by wooden mullions and
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: was composed of four panes of glass in each compartment.
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: Now I could distinctly see the reflection of the moon
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: through the windows with the black bars up and down,
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: the division of the panes. But I saw more than that.
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: I saw the shadow of a lean arm with a
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: hand and thin, lengthy fingers across a portion of the window.
• 1:37:48
  Speaker 1: apparently groping at where the window latched by which the
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: casement could be opened. My impression at the moment was
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: that there was a burglar on the leaves trying to
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: enter the house by means of this dormer. Without a
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: minute's hesitation I ran into the passage and looked up
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: at the window, but could only see a portion of it,
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: as in the shape it was low, though broad, and
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: as already stated, was set at a great height. But
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: at that moment something fluttered past it, like a rush
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: of flapping draperies obscuring the light. I had placed the
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: ladder which I found hooked up to the wall in position,
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 1: and planted my foot on the lowest rung when my
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: wife arrived. She had been alarmed by the housemaid, and
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: now she clung to me and protested that I was
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: not to ascend without my pistol. To satisfy her, I
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: got my Colt's revolver, that I always kept loaded, and then,
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 1: but only hesitatingly, did she allow me to mount. I
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: ascended the casement, unhasp it, and looked out. I could
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: see nothing. The latter was overshort, and it required great
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: effort to heave oneself from it through the casement on
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: to the leads. I am stout, and not so nimble
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: as I was when younger. After one or two efforts,
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: and after presenting from below an appearance that would have
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 1: provoked laughter at any other time, I succeeded in getting
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: through and upon the leads. I looked up and down
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: the valley. There was absolutely nothing to be seen except
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: an accumulation of leaves carried there from the trees that
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: were shedding their foliage. The situation was very puzzling. As
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: far as I could judge, there was no way off
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: the roof, no other window opening on to the valley.
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: I did not go along upon the leads, as it
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: was night and the moonlight is treacherous. Moreover, I was
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: wholly unacquainted with the arrangement of the roof and had
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: no wish to risk a fall. I descended from the
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 1: window with my feet groping for the upper rung of
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: the ladder in a manner even more grotesque than my
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 1: ascent through the casement. usually extremely alive to anything ridiculous
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: in my appearance, nor the domestics were in a mood
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: to make merry. But neither my wife, usually extremely alive
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: with anything ridiculous in my appearance, nor the domestics were
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: in a mood to make merry. I fastened the window
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: after me, and had hardly reached the bottom of the
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 1: ladder before again a shadow flickered across the patch of moonlight.
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: I was fairly perplexed and stood musing. Then I recalled
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: that immediately behind the house the ground rose. That, in fact,
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: the house lay under a considerable hill. It was just
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: possible by ascending the slope to reach the level of
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: the gutter and rake the leads from one extremity to
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: the other with my eye. I mentioned this to my wife,
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: and at once the whole set of maids trailed down
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: the stairs after us. They were afraid to remain in
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: the passage, and they were curious to see if there
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: was really some person on the leads. We went out
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: at the back of the house and ascended the bank
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: till we were on a level with the broad gutter
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: between the gables. I now saw that this gutter did
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: not run through, but stopped against the hall roof. Consequently,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: unless there were some opening of which I knew nothing,
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: the person on the leads could not leave the place,
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: save by the dormer window when open, or by swarming
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: down the fall pipe. At once it occurred to me
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: that if what I had seen were shadows of a burglar,
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: he might have been mounted by means of the rain pipe.
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: But if so, how had he vanished the moment my
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: head was protruded through the windows? AND HOW WAS IT
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: THAT I HAD SEEN THE SHADOW FLICKER PAST THE LIGHT
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 1: IMMEDIATELY AFTER I HAD DESCENDED THE LADDER? IT WAS CONCEIVABLE
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: THAT THE MAN HAD CONCEALED HIMSELF IN THE SHADOW OF
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: THE HALL ROOF, AND HAD TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF MY WITHDRAWAL
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: TO RUN PAST THE WINDOW SO AS TO REACH THE
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: FALL PIPE, AND LET HIMSELF DOWN BY THAT. I COULD, HOWEVER,
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: SEE NO ONE RUNNING AWAY, AS I MUST HAVE DONE,
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: GOING OUTSIDE SOON AFTER HIS SUPPOSED DESCENT. BUT THE WHOLE
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 1: AFFAIR BECAME MORE PERPLEXING WHEN, LOOKING TOWARDS THE LEADS, I
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: saw in the moonlight something with fluttering garments running up
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: and down them. There could be no mistake. The object
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: was a woman, and her garments were mere tatters. We
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: could not hear a sound. I looked round at my
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: wife and the servants. They saw this weird object as
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: distinctly as myself. It was more like a janic bat
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: than a human being. And yet, that it was a
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: woman we could not doubt, for the arms were now
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 1: and then thrown above the head, and while gesticulations, and
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: at moments a profile was presented, and then we saw,
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: or thought we saw, long flapping hair, unbound.' I must
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: go back to the ladder,' said I.' You remain where
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: you are watching.'' Oh, Edward, not alone,' pleaded my wife.' Dear,
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: who is going to go with me?
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 4: I went.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: I had left the back door unlocked, and descended the
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: staircase and entered the passage. Again I saw the shadow
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: flicker past the moonlit patch on the wall opposite the window.'
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: I ascended the ladder and opened the casement. Then I
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: heard the clock in the hall strike one. I heaved
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: myself up to the sill with great labor, and I
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: endeavored to thrust my short body through the window when
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: I heard feet on the stairs, and next moment my
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: wife's voice from below, at the foot of the ladder.
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 4: Oh, Edward!
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: Edward, please do not go out there again. It has
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 1: vanished all at once. There is nothing there now to
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: be seen. I returned. touched the ladder tentatively with my feet,
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: refastened the window, and descended, perhaps inelegantly. I then went
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 1: down with my wife, and with her returned up to
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: the bank, to the spot where it had clustered our servants.
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: They had seen nothing further, and although I remained on
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: the spot watching for a half an hour, I also
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: saw nothing more. The maids were too frightened to go
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: to bed, and so agreed to sit up in the
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: kitchen for the rest of the night by the good fire.
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: and I gave them a bottle of sherry to maul
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: and make themselves comfortable upon and to help them to
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: recover their courage. Although I went to bed, I could
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: not sleep. I was completely baffled by what I had seen.
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: I could in no way explain what the object was
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: and how it had left the leads. Next day I
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: sent for the village mason and asked him to set
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 1: a long ladder against the wellhead of the fallpipe and
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: examine the valley between the gables. At the same time,
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 1: I would mount to the little window and contemplate proceedings
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: through that. The man had to send for a ladder
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: sufficiently long, and that occupied some time. However, at length
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: he had it planted and then mounted. When he approached
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: the dormer window,' Give me a hand,' said I, and
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: haul me up. I would like to satisfy myself with
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: my own eyes that there is no other means of
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: getting up on or leaving the leads. He took me
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: under both shoulders and heaved me out, and I stood
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: with him in the broad-lead gutter.' There' s no other opening whatever,'
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: he said.' And, Lord love you, sir, I believe that
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: what you saw was no more than this.' And he
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: pointed to a branch of noble cedar that had grew
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: hard by the west side of the house.' I warrant, sir,'
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: said he,' that what you saw was this here bough,
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: as it has been carried by a starman thrown here,
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 1: and the wind last night swept it up and down
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: the leads.' But was there any wind?
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 2: I asked.
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: I do not remember that there was. I can't say,
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: said he. Before twelve o'clock I was fast asleep, and
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: I might have blown a gale, and I hear nothing
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: of it. I suppose there must have been some wind,
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: said I, and that I was too surprised and the
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: women too frightened to observe it.
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 2: I laughed.
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: So this marvelous spectral phenomenon receives a very prosaic and
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: natural explanation. Mason, throw down the bow, and we will
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: burn it to-night. The branch was cast over the edge
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: and fell at the back of the house. I left
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 1: the leads, descended, and going out, picked up the cedar branch,
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: brought it into the hall, summoned the servants, and said derisively,
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: Here is an illustration of the way in which weak-minded
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: women get scared. Now we will burn the burglar or
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: ghost that we saw. It turns out to be nothing
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 1: but this branch, blown up and down the leads by
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: the wind. But Edward, said my wife, There was not
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: a breath stirring. There must have been. Only where we were,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: we were sheltered and did not observe it. Aloft, it
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: blew across the roofs and formed an eddy that caught
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: the broken bow, lifted it, carried it first one way,
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: then spun it around and carried it the reverse way.
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: In fact, the wind between the two roofs assumed a
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: spiral movement. I hope now you are all satisfied.
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 4: I am.
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: So the bow was burned, and our fears, I mean
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: those of the females, were allayed. In the evening, after dinner,
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: as I sat with my wife, she said to me,
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 1: Half a bottle would have been enough, Edward. Indeed, I
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 1: think half a bottle would be too much. You should
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: not give the girls a liking for sherry. It may
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: lead to bad results. If it had been elderly wine,
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: that would have been different. But there is no elderberry
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: wine in the house, I objected. Well, I hope no
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: harm will come of it. but I greatly mistrust. Please, sir,
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: it is there again. The parlor maid with a blanched
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: face was at the door. Nonsense, said I. We burnt it.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: This comes of the sherry, observed my wife. They will
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: be seeing ghosts every night. But, my dear, you saw
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: it as well as myself. I rose, my wife followed,
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: and we went out to the landing as before, and
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: sure enough, against the patch of moonlight cast through the
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: window and the roof was that arm again. and then
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 1: a flutter of shadows as if cast by garments. It
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 1: was not the bow, said my wife. If this had
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: been seen immediately after the sherry, I should not have
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: been surprised, but as it is now, most extraordinary. I'll
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: have this part of the house shut up, said I,
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: and then bade the maids once more spend the night
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: in the kitchen. And make yourselves lively on tea, I said,
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: for I knew my wife would not allow another bottle
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: of sherry to be given them. Tomorrow your bed shall
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 1: be moved to the east wing, BEG PARDON, SAID THE COOK.
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: I SPEAKS IN THE NAME OF ALL. WE DON'T THINK
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: WE CAN REMAIN IN THE HOUSE, BUT MUST LEAVE THE SITUATION.
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: THAT COMES OF THE TEA, I SAID TO MY WIFE. NOW,
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: TO THE COOK, AS YOU HAVE HAD ANOTHER FRIGHT, I
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: WILL LET YOU HAVE A BOTTLE OF MOLD PORK TONIGHT. SIR,
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: SAID THE COOK, IF YOU CAN GET RID OF THE GHOST,
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: WE DON'T WANT TO LEAVE SO GOOD A MASTER. WE
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: WITHDRAW THE NOTICE. Next day I had all the servants'
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: goods transferred to the east wing and rooms, and were
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: fitted up for them to stay. sleep in. As their
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: portion of the house was completely cut off from the
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: west wing, the alarm of the domestics died away. A heavy,
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: stormy rain came on next week, the first token of
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: winter misery. I then found that, whether caused by the
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: cedar bough or by the nailed boots of the mason,
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: I cannot say— but the lead of the valley between
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: the roofs was torn and water came in, streaming down
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 1: the walls and threatening to severely damage the ceilings. I
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 1: had to send for a plumber as soon as the
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: weather mended. At the same time I started to town
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: to see Mr. Framit, I made up my mind that
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: Fernwood was not suitable, and by the terms of my
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: agreement I might be off my bargain if I gave
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: notice the first month, and then my tenancy would be
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: for six months only. I found the squire at his club.' Ah,'
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 1: said he, I told you not to go there in November.
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 1: No one likes Fernwood in November. It's all right at
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 1: other times. What do you mean? There's no bother except
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: in November. Why should there be a bother, as you
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: term it, then?
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 2: Mr.
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: Framit shrugged his shoulders. How the deuce can I tell you?
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: I've never been a spirit, and all that sort of thing.
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: Madame Blavatsky might possibly tell you. I can't, but it
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: is a fact. What is a fact? Why, that there
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: is no apparition at any other time. It's only in
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: November when she met with a little misfortune. That is
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: when she is seen. Who is seen? My Aunt Eliza.
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: I mean my great-aunt. You speak mysteries. I don't know
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: much about it and care less, said Mr. Frammer, and
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: called for a lemon squash. It was this. I had
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: a great-aunt who was deranged. The family kept it quiet
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: and did not send her to an asylum, but fastened
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: her in a room in the west wing. You see,
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: that part of the house is partially separated from the rest.
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 1: I believe she was rather shabbily treated, but she was
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: difficult to manage and tore her clothes to pieces. Somehow,
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: she succeeded in getting out on the roof and would
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: race up and down there. They allowed her to do so,
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: as by that means she obtained fresh air. But one
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: night in November she scrambled up and I believe tumbled over.
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: It was hushed up. Sorry you went there in November.
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: I should have liked you to buy the place. I'm
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: sick of it. I did buy Fernwood. What decided me
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: was this. The plumbers, in mending the leads, with what
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: ingenuity to do mischief which they sometimes display, succeeded in
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: setting fire to the roof, and the result was that
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: the west wing was burnt down. Happily, a wall so
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: completely separated from the wing of the rest of the
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 1: house that the fire was arrested. The wing was not rebuilt,
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: and I, thinking that the disappearance of the leads, I
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: should be freed from the apparition that haunted them, purchased Fernwood.
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: I am happy to say that we have been undisturbed since.
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 3: XXXI. Aunt Joanna In the Land's End district is the
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 3: little church town of Zenner. There is no village to
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 3: speak of, a few scattered farms, and here and there
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 3: a cluster of cottages. The district is bleak. The soil
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 3: does not lie deep over granite that peers through the
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 3: surface on exposed spots where the furious gales from the
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 3: ocean sweep the land. If trees ever existed there, they
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 3: have been swept away by the blast, but the golden
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 3: furs or gorse defies all winds and clothes the moorland
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 3: with a robe of splendor. and the heather fleshes the
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 3: slopes with crimson towards the decline of summer, and mantles
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 3: them in soft, warm brown in winter like the fur
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 3: of an animal. In Zenner is a little church, built
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 3: of granite, rude and simple of construction, crouching low to
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 3: avoid the gales, but with a tower that has defied
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 3: the winds and the lashing rains because wholly devoid of
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 3: sculptured detail, which would have afforded the blast something to
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 3: lay hold of and eat away. In Zenner Parish is
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 3: one of the finest cromlechs in Cornwall, a huge slab
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 3: of unwrought stone like a table, poised on the points
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 3: of standing upright blocks as rude as the mass they sustain.
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 3: Near this monument of a whore and indeed unknown antiquity
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 3: lived an old woman by herself, in a small cottage
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 3: of one story in height, built of more stones set
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 3: in earth and pointed only with lime. It was thatched
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 3: with heather, and possessed but a single chimney that rose
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 3: but little above the apex of the roof, and had
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 3: two slates set on the top to protect the rising
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 3: smoke from being blown down the chimney into the cottage
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 3: when the wind was from the west or from the east. When, however,
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 3: it drove from north or south, then the smoke must
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 3: take care of itself. On such occasions it was wont
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 3: to find its way out of the door, and little
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 3: or none went up the chimney. The only fuel burnt
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 3: in this cottage was peat, not the solid black peat
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 3: from the deep bogs, but turf of only a spade graft,
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 3: taken from the surface and composed of undissolved roots. Such
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 3: fuel gives flame, which the other does not, but on
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 3: the other hand it does not throw out the same
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 3: amount of heat, nor does it last one half the time.
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 3: The woman who lived in the cottage was called by
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 3: the people of the neighborhood Aunt Joanna. what her family
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 3: name was but few remembered, nor did it concern herself much.
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 3: She had no relations at all, with the exception of
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 3: a grandniece who was married to a small tradesman, a
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 3: wheelwright near the church. But Joanna and her great-niece were
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 3: not unspeaking terms. The girl had mortally offended the old
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 3: woman by going to a dance at St. Ives, against
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 3: her express orders. It was at this dance that she
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 3: had met the wheelwright, and this meeting, and the treatment
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 3: the girl had met with from her aunt for having
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 3: gone to it, had led to the marriage, for Aunt
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 3: Joanna was very strict in her Wesleyanism, and bitterly hostile
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 3: to all such carnal amusements as dancing and play-acting. Of
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 3: the latter there was none in that wild west Cornish district,
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 3: and no temptation ever afforded by a strolling company setting
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 3: up its booth within Reach's Zenner. but dancing, though denounced,
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 3: still drew the more independent spirits together. Rose Peneluna had
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 3: been with her great-aunt after her mother's death. She was
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 3: a lively girl, and when she heard of a dance
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 3: at St. Ives, and had been asked to go to it,
• 1:55:38
  Speaker 3: although forbidden by Aunt Joanna, she stole from the cottage
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 3: at night and found her way to St.
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 2: Ives.
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 3: Her conduct was reprehensible, certainly, but that of Aunt Joanna
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 3: was even more so. For when she discovered that the
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 3: girl had left the house, she barred her door, and
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 3: refused to allow Rose to re-enter it. The poor girl
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 3: had been obliged to take refuge the same night at
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 3: the nearest farm and sleep in an outhouse, and next
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 3: morning go into St. Ives and entreat an acquaintance to
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 3: take her in till she could enter into service. Into
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 3: service she did not go, for when Abraham Hext, the carpenter,
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 3: heard how she had been treated, he at once proposed,
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 3: and in three weeks married her. Since then, no communication
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 3: had taken place between the old woman and her grandniece.
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 3: As Rose knew, Joanna was implacable in her resentments, and
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 3: considered that she had been acting aright in what she
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 3: had done. The nearest farm to Aunt Joanna's cottage was
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 3: occupied by the Hawkins. One day Elizabeth, the farmer's wife,
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 3: saw the old woman outside the cottage as she was
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 3: herself returning from market. And noticing how bent and feeble
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 3: Joanna was, she halted and talked to her, and gave
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 3: her good advice.' See you now, auntie. You ain't getting
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 3: old and cringed with hermatics. How can you get about?
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 3: And there's no knowing but you might be took bad
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 3: in the night. You ought to have some little lass
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 3: with you to mind you.'' I don't want nobody, thank
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 3: the Lord.' Not just now, auntie, but suppose any chancey
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 3: luck were to come on you. And then, in the
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 3: bad weather, you are not fit to go abroad after
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 3: the tares, and you can't get all you want. Tea
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 3: and sugar and milk for yourself now. It would be
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 3: handy to have a little maid by you. Who should
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 3: I have? asked Joanna. Well, now you couldn't do better
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 3: than to take little Mary, Rose Hex's eldest girl. She's
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 3: a handy maid, and bright and pleasant to speak to.'' No,'
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 3: answered the old woman.' I' ll have none of they hicks,
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 3: not I. The Lord is again rose, and all her family,
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 3: I know it. I'll have none of them.'' But, auntie,
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 3: you must be nigh on ninety.' I'd be o'er than that.
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 3: But what of that? Didn't Sarah, the wife of Abraham,
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 3: live to an hundred and seven and twenty years? And
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 3: that in spite of him words, and of her with
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 3: that audacious maid of her and Hagar? If it hadn't
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 3: been for their goings-on of Abraham and Hagar,' It' s my
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 3: belief that she hailed on to a hundred and fifty-seven.'
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 3: I thank the Lord I've never had a man to
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 3: barge me, 'so why I shouldn't equal Sarah's life I
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 3: don't see.'' Then she went indoors and shut the door.'
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 3: After that a week elapsed without Mrs. Hawkins seeing the
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 3: old woman.' She passed the cottage, but no Joanna was about.'
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 3: The door was not open, and usually it was.' Elizabeth
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 3: spoke about this to her husband.' Jibbers,' said she,' I
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 3: don't like the looks o' this. I've kept my eye open,
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 3: and there be no Aunt Johanna hoppin' about. Whatever can
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 3: be up? It's my opinion. I thought to go and see.'' Well,
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 3: I've not on my hands now,' said the farmer, 'so
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 3: I reckon we'll go.' The two walked together to the cottage.
• 1:59:20
  Speaker 3: No smoke issued from the chimney, and the door was shut.
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 3: Jabez knocked, but there came no answer, so he entered,
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 3: followed by his wife. There was in the cottage but
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 3: the kitchen, with one bedroom at the side. The hearth
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 3: was cold.' There' s some atop,' said Mrs. Hawkins.' I reckon
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 3: it's the old lady be down,' replied her husband, and
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 3: throwing open the bedroom door, he said,' Sure nothing, no mistake.
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 3: There her be, dead as a dried pilchard.' And in fact,
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 3: Auntie Joanna had died in the night, after having so
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 3: confidently affirmed her conviction that she would live to the
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 3: age of a hundred and twenty-seven. Whatever shall we do?
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 3: asked Mrs.
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 2: Hawken.
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 3: I reckon, said her husband, us had better take an
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 3: inventory of what is here, lest wicked rascals come in
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 3: and steal anything and everything. Folks bates, how bad is that?
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 3: And a corpse in the house, observed Mrs. Hawken. Don't
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 3: be sure of that. These be terrible wicked times, said
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 3: the husband. And I says, says I, no harm was
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 3: done in seeing what the old creature had got. Well, surely,
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 3: acquiesced Elizabeth, there's no harm in that. In the bedroom
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 3: was an old oak chest, and this the farmer and
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 3: his wife opened. To their surprise, they found in it
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 3: a silver teapot and half a dozen silver spoons. Well now,
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 3: exclaimed Elizabeth Hawkins,' Fancy her havin' these and me only
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 3: Britannia metal!'' I reckon she came of a good family,'
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 3: said Jabez.' Leastwise I've heard as how she were once
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 3: well off.'' And look here!' exclaimed Elizabeth.' There' s fine and
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 3: beautiful linen underneath.' Sheets and pillowcases.'' But look here!' cried Jabez.'
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 3: Blessed if the tape ought been chock-full of money.' Wherever
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 3: did she get it from?' Her's been in the way
• 2:01:16
  Speaker 3: of showing folks the Zinner quite, visitors from St. Ives
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 3: and Penzance, and she's had scores of shillings that way. Lord,
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 3: exclaimed Jabez, I wish she'd left it to me, and
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 3: I could buy a cow. I want another crow bad. Aye,
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 3: we do terrible, said Elizabeth, but just look to her bed.
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 3: What torn and wretched linen beyond that, and here these
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 3: fine bedclothes all in the chest.' Who' ll get the silver,
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 3: day-pot and spoons and the money?' inquired Jabez.' Her had
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 3: no kin, none but Rose Hext, and her couldn't abide her.'
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 3: Last words her said to me was that she'd have
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 3: never naught to do with a hex.' They and all
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 3: their belongings.'' That was her last words?'' The very last
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 3: words her spoke to me, or to anyone.'' Then,' said Jabez,'
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 3: I tell you what, Elizabeth.' It's our moral duty to
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 3: abide by the wishes of Aunt Joanna. It never does
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 3: to go again what's right. And as her expressed herself
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 3: that strong, why us, as honest folks, must carry out
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 3: her wishes and see that none of all her savings
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 3: go to them darned and dratted hecks. But who be
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 3: they to go to, then?
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 4: Well, we'll see.
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 3: First, us will have her removed, and provide that her
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 3: be decent buried. Them hexes be in a poor way,
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 3: and couldn't afford the expense. And it do seem to me, Elizabeth,
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 3: as it would be a liberal and kindly act in
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 3: us to take all the charges on ourselves, us as
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 3: the closest neighbours. Aye, and her have had milk with
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 3: me these ten or twelve years, and I have never
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 3: charged her a penny, thinking her couldn't afford it. But
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 3: her could. Her were a hoarding of her money, and
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 3: not paying me. That were not honest. And what I
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 3: say is I have a right to some of her savings, too,
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 3: to pay the milk bill. And it's better I've let
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 3: her have now and then in a liberal way.' Very well, Elizabeth.
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 3: First of all, we'll take the silver tape out and
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 3: the spoons with us, to get him out of harm's way.
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 3: And I'll carry the linen sheets and pillowcases. My word,
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 3: why didn't she use them instead of them rags?' All
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 3: Zenner declared that the Hawkins were a most neighborly and
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 3: generous couple when it was known that they took upon
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 3: themselves to defray the funeral expenses.' Mrs. Hext came to
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 3: the farm' and said that she was willing to do
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 3: what she could,' but Mrs. Hawken replied,' My good Rose,
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 3: it's no good.' I seeed your aunt when her was
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 3: ailin' and nigh on death,' and her laid it on
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 3: me solemn as could be that we was to bury her,'
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 3: and that she'd have nothing to do with the Hext
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 3: at no price.'' Rose sighed and went away.' Rose had
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 3: not expected to receive anything from her aunt.' She had
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 3: never been allowed to look at the treasures in the
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 3: oak chest.' As far as she had been aware, Aunt
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 3: Joanna had been extremely poor, but she remembered that the
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 3: old woman had at one time befriended her, and she
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 3: was ready to forgive the harsh treatment to which she
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 3: had finally been subjected. In fact, she had repeatedly made
• 2:04:28
  Speaker 3: overtures to her great aunt to be reconciled, but these
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 3: overtures had been always rejected. She was, accordingly, not surprised
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 3: to learn from Mrs. Hawkins that the old woman's last
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 3: words had been as reported. But, although disowned and disinherited, Rose,
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 3: her husband, and children dressed in black and were chief
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 3: mourners at the funeral. Now it had so happened that
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 3: when it came to the laying out of Aunt Joanna, Mrs.
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 3: Hawkins had looked at the beautiful linen sheets she had
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 3: found in the oak chest with the object of furnishing
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 3: the corpse with one as a winding sheet. But, she
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 3: had said to herself, It would really be a shame
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 3: to spoil a pair, and where else could she get
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 3: such fine and beautiful old linen as was this? So
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 3: she put the sheets away, and furnished for the purpose
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 3: a clean but coarse and ragged sheet such as Aunt
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 3: Joanna had in common use. That was good enough to
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 3: mold her in the grave. It would be positively sinful,
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 3: because wasteful, to give up to corruption and the worm
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 3: such fine white linen as Aunt Joanna had hoarded. The
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 3: funeral was conducted otherwise liberally. Aunt Joanna was given an
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 3: elm and not a mean deal board coffin such as
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 3: is provided for paupers, and a handsome escutcheon of white
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 3: metal was put on the lid. Moreover, plenty of gin
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 3: was drunk, and cake and cheese eaten at the house,
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 3: all at the expense of the Hawkins. and the conversation
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 3: among those who attended and ate and drank and wiped
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 3: their eyes was rather anent the generosity of the Hawkins
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 3: than of the virtues of the departed. Mr. and Mrs.
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 3: Hawkins heard this, and their hearts swelled within them. Nothing
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 3: so swells the heart as the consciousness of virtue being recognized. Jabez,
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 3: in an undertone, informed a neighbor that he weren't going
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 3: to stick at the funeral expenses, not he. he'd have
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 3: a neat stone erected above the grave with work on it,
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 3: at two pence a letter. The name and the date
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 3: of the departure of Aunt Joanna, and her age, and
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 3: two lines of a favorite hymn of his, all about
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 3: earth being no dwelling place, heaven being properly her home.
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 3: It was not often that Elizabeth Hawken cried, but she
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 3: did this day. She wept tears of sympathy with the deceased,
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 3: and happiness at the ovation accorded to herself and her husband.
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 3: At length, as the short winter day closed in, the
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 3: last of those who had attended the funeral and had
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 3: returned to the farm to recruit and regale after it, departed.
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 3: and the Hawkins were left to themselves. It were a
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 3: beautiful day, said Jabez. Aye, responded Elizabeth, and what a
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 3: sight of people came here. This herbarium of Aunt Joanna
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 3: have set us up tremendous in the estimation of the neighbours.
• 2:07:17
  Speaker 3: I'd like to know who else would have done it
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 3: for a poor old creature as has no relation. Aye,
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 3: and one has owed a purty long bill to me
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 3: for milk and butter through ten or twelve years. Well,
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 3: said Jabez.' I' ve allus heard say that a good deed
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 3: brings its own reward with it. And it's a fine proverb.
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 3: I feels it in my insides. Perhaps it's the gin, Jabez. No,
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 3: it's virtue. It's warmer nor gin alongside. Gin gives a
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 3: smoldering spark, but a good conscience is a blaze of furs.'
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 3: The farm of the Hawkins was small, and Hawkins looked
• 2:07:52
  Speaker 3: after his cattle himself. One maid was kept, but no
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 3: man in the house. All were wont to retire early
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 3: to bed. neither Hawkins nor his wife had literary tastes,
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 3: and were not disposed to consume much oil so as
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 3: to read at night. During the night, at what time
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 3: she did not know, Mrs. Hawkins awoke with a start
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 3: and found that her husband was sitting up in bed listening.
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 3: There was a moon that night. and no clouds in
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 3: the sky. The room was full of silver light. Elizabeth
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 3: Hawken heard a sound of feet in the kitchen, which
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 3: was immediately under the bedroom of the couple. There's someone about,
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 3: she whispered. Go down, Jabez. I wonder now, who it be.
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 3: Perhaps it's Sally. It can't be Sally. How can it,
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 3: when she can't get out of her room without passing
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 3: through ours? Run down, Elizabeth, and see.' It' s your place
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 3: to go, Jabez. But if it was a woman, and
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 3: me in my nightshirt! And Jabez, if it was a man,
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 3: a robber, and me in my nightshirt, it'd be shameful.
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 3: I reckon us had best go down together.'' We' ll do so.
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 3: But I hope it's not—'' What?' Mrs. Hocken did not answer.
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 3: She and her husband crept from bed and, treading on
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 3: tiptoe across the room, descended the stair. There was no
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 3: door at the bottom, but the staircase was boarded up
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 3: at the side. It opened into the kitchen. They descended
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 3: very softly and cautiously, holding each other, and when they
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 3: reached the bottom, peered timorously into the apartment that served
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 3: many purposes. Kitchen, sitting room, and dining place. The moonlight
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 3: poured in through the broad, low window. By it, they
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 3: saw a figure. There could be no mistaking it. It
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 3: was that of Aunt Joanna, clothed in the tattered sheet
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 3: that Elizabeth Hawken had allowed for her grave clothes. The
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 3: old woman had taken one of the fine linen sheets
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 3: out of the cupboard in which it had been placed
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 3: and had spread it over the long table and was
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 3: smoothing it down with her bony hands. The Hawkins trembled,
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 3: not with cold, though it was midwinter, but with terror.
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 3: They dared not advance. and they felt powerless to retreat.
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 3: Then they saw Aunt Joanna go to the cupboard, open it,
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 3: and return with the silver spoons. She placed all six
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 3: on the sheet, and with a lean finger counted them.
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 3: She turned her face toward those who were watching her proceedings,
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 3: but it was in shadow, and they could not distinguish
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 3: the features nor note the expression with which she regarded them.
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 3: Presently she went back to the cupboard and returned with
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 3: the silver teapot. She stood at one end of the table,
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 3: and now the reflection of the moon on the linen
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 3: sheet was cast upon her face, and they saw that
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 3: she was moving her lips, but no sound issued from them.
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 3: She thrust her hand into the teapot and drew forth
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 3: the coins, one by one, and rolled them along the table.
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 3: the hawkins saw the glint of the metal and the
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 3: shadow cast by each piece of money as it rolled.
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 3: The first coin lodged at the further left-hand corner, and
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 3: the second rested near it. And so on the pieces
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 3: were rolled and ranged themselves in order, ten in a row.
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 3: Then the next ten were run across the white cloth
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 3: in the same manner, and dropped over on their sides
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 3: below the first row, thus also the third ten. and
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 3: all the time the dead woman was mouthing, as though counting,
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 3: but still inaudibly. The couple stood motionless observing the proceedings,
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 3: till suddenly a cloud passed before the face of the moon,
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 3: so dense as to eclipse the light. Then, in a
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 3: paroxysm of terror, both turned and fled up the stairs,
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 3: bolted their bedroom door, and jumped into bed. There was
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 3: no sleep for them that night. In the gloom when
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 3: the moon was concealed, in the glare when it shone forth,
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 3: it was the same. They could hear the light rolling
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 3: of the coins along the table and the click as
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 3: they fell over. Was the supply inexhaustible? It was not so,
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 3: but apparently the dead woman did not weary of counting
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 3: the coins. When all had been ranged, she could be
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 3: heard moving to the further end of the table and
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 3: there recommencing the same proceeding of coin-rolling. Not till near
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 3: daybreak did the sound cease, and not till the maid, Sally,
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 3: had begun to stir in the inner bedchamber did Hocken
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 3: and his wife venture to rise. Neither would suffer the
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 3: servant girl to descend till they had been down to
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 3: see in what condition the kitchen was. They found that
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 3: the table had been cleared, the coins were all back
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 3: in the teapot, and that and the spoons were where
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 3: they had themselves placed them. The sheet, moreover, was neatly
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 3: folded and replaced where it had been before. The Hawkins
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 3: did not speak to one another of their experiences during
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 3: the past night so long as they were in the house,
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 3: but when Jabez was in the field, Elizabeth went to
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 3: him and said,' Husband, what about Aunt Joanna?'' I don't know.
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 3: Maybe it were a dream.'' Carrie says she had dreamed alike.''
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 3: I don't know that.'' Try the gin made us dream.
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 3: And us both had gin, so us dreamed the same thing.''
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 3: It were more like real truth than dream,' observed Elizabeth.'
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 3: We' ll take it as a dream,' said Jabez.' Maybe it
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 3: won't happen again.' But precisely the same sounds were heard
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 3: on the following night. The moon was obscured by thick clouds,
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 3: and neither of the two had the courage to descend
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 3: to the kitchen. But they could hear the patter of feet,
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 3: and then the roll and click of the coins. Again,
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 3: sleep was impossible.' Whatever shall we do?' asked Elizabeth Hawken
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 3: the next morning of her husband.' Us can't go on
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 3: like this with a dead woman about our house nightly.
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 3: There's no telling. She might take it into her head
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 3: to come upstairs and pull the sheets off us. As
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 3: we took hers, she may think it fair to carry
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 3: off ours.'' I think,' said Jabez sorrowfully,' we' ll have to
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 3: return them.
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 4: But how?
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 3: After some consultation, the couple resolved on conveying all the
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 3: deceased woman's goods to the churchyard by night and placing
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 3: them on her grave.' I reckon,' said Hawken,' we' ll bide
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 3: in the porch and watch what happens. If they be
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 3: left there till morning, why, we may carry them back
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 3: with an easy conscience. We've spent some pounds over her burying.''
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 3: What have it come to?'' Three pounds five and four pence,
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 3: as I make it out.
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 5: Well,'.
• 2:14:48
  Speaker 3: Said Elizabeth, We must risk it. When night had fallen murk,
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 3: the farmer and his wife crept from their house, carrying
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 3: the linen sheets, the teapot, and the silver spoons. They
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 3: did not start till late, for fear of encountering any
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 3: villagers on the way, and not till after the maid
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 3: Sally had gone to bed. They fastened the farm door
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 3: behind them. The night was dark and stormy, with scudding
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 3: clouds so dense as to make deep night when they
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 3: did not part and allow the moon to peer forth.
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 3: They walked timorously and side by side, looking about them
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 3: as they proceeded, and on reaching the churchyard gate they
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 3: halted to pluck up courage before opening and venturing within.
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 3: Jabez had furnished himself with a bottle of gin to
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 3: give courage to himself and his wife. Together they heaped
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 3: the articles that had belonged to Aunt Joanna upon the
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 3: fresh grave. But as they did so, the wind caught
• 2:15:47
  Speaker 3: the linen and unfurled and flapped it, and they were
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 3: forced to place stones upon it to hold it down. Then,
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 3: quaking with fear, they retreated to the church porch, and Jabez,
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 3: uncorking the bottle, first took a long pull himself and
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 3: then presented it to his wife. And now down came
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 3: a tearing rain, driven by a blast from the Atlantic,
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 3: howling among the gravestones and screaming in the battlements of
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 3: the tower and its bell-chamber windows. The night was so
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 3: dark and the rain fell so heavily that they could
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 3: see nothing for full half an hour. But then the
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 3: clouds were rent asunder, and the moon glared white and
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 3: ghastly over the churchyard. Elizabeth caught her husband by the
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 3: arm and pointed. There was, however, no need for her
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 3: to indicate that on which his eyes were fixed already.
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 3: Both saw a lean hand come up out of the
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 3: grave and lay hold of one of the fine linen
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 3: sheets and drag at it. They saw it drag the
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 3: sheet by one corner, and then it went down underground
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 3: and and the sheet followed, as though sucked down in
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 3: a vortex. Fold on fold it descended till the entire
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 3: sheet had disappeared. I have taken it for her winded sheet,
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 3: whispered Elizabeth. Whatever will I do with the rest? Have
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 3: a drop of gin. This be terrible trying, said Jabez
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 3: in an undertone, and again the couple put their lips
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 3: to the bottle, which came away considerably lighter after the drafts. Look,
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 3: gasped Elizabeth. Again the lean hand with long fingers appeared
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 3: above the soil, and this was seen groping about the
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 3: grass till it laid hold of the teapot. Then it
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 3: groped again and gathered up the spoons that flashed in
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 3: the moonbeams. Next up came the second hand and a
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 3: long arm that stretched along the grave till it reached
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 3: the other sheets. At once, on being raised, these sheets
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 3: were caught by the wind and flapped and fluttered like
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 3: half-hoisted sails. The hands retained them for a while till
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 3: they bellied with the wind, and then let them go,
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 3: and they were swept away by the blast across the churchyard,
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 3: over the wall, and lodged in the carpenter's yard that
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 3: adjoined among his timber.' She said don't do this!' whispered Elizabeth. Next,
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 3: the hands began to trifle with the teapot and to
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 3: shake out some of the coins. In a minute, some
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 3: silver pieces were flung with so true an aim that
• 2:18:20
  Speaker 3: they fell clinking down on the floor of the porch.
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 3: How many coins! How much money was cast! The couple
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 3: were in no mood to estimate. Then they saw the
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 3: hands collect the pillowcases and proceed to roll up the
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 3: teapot and silver spoons in them. And, that done... The
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 3: white bundle was cast into the air and caught by
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 3: the wind and carried over the churchyard wall into the
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 3: wheelwright's yard. At once a curtain of vapor rushed across
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 3: the face of the moon, and again the graveyard was
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 3: buried in darkness. Half an hour elapsed before the moon
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 3: shone out again, then the Hawkins saw that nothing was
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 3: stirring in the cemetery.' I reckon us may go now,'
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 3: said Jabez. Let us gather up what she chalked to us,
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 3: advised Elizabeth. So the couple felt about the floor and
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 3: collected a number of coins. What they were they could
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 3: not tell till they reached their home and had lighted
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 3: a candle. How much be it? asked Elizabeth. Three pounds,
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 3: five and four pence exact, answered Jabez. End of Section
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 3: 31 Chapter.
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 5: 32 Part 1 of The Book of Ghosts CHAPTER XXXII.
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 5: THE WHITE FLAG. PART I. A percentage of the South
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 5: African boas, how large or how small, that percentage has
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 5: not been determined, is possessed of a rudimentary conscience, much
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 5: as the oyster has incipient eyes, and the snake initiatory
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 5: articulations for feet, which in the course of long ages may,
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 5: under suitable conditions, develop into an active faculty. If Jacob
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 5: van Heeren possessed any conscience at all, It was the
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 5: merest protoplasm of one. He occupied Herendorp, a ramshackle farmhouse
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 5: under a koppie, and had cattle and horses, also a
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 5: wife and grown-up sons and daughters. When the war broke out,
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 5: Jacob hoisted the white flag at the gable, and he
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 5: and his sons indulged their sporting instincts by shooting down
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 5: such officers and men of the British army as went
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 5: to the farm, unsuspecting treachery. Herondot by this means obtained
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 5: an evil notoriety, and it was ordered to be burnt,
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 5: and the women of Jacob's family to be transferred to
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 5: a concentration camp, where they would be mollycoddled at the
• 2:21:18
  Speaker 5: expense of the English taxpayer. Thus Jacob and his sons
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 5: were delivered from all anxiety as to their womankind, and
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 5: were given a free field in which to exercise their
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 5: mischievous ingenuity. As to their cattle and horses that had
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 5: been commandeered, they held receipts which would entitle them to
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 5: claim full value for the beasts at the termination of hostilities.
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 5: Jacob and his sons might have joined one of the
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 5: companies under a Boer general, but they preferred independent action
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 5: and their peculiar tactics which proved eminently successful. That achievement
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 5: in which Jacob exhibited most slimness, and of which he
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 5: was pre-eminently proud, was as follows. Feigning himself to be wounded,
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 5: he rolled on the ground, waving a white kerchief, and
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 5: crying out for water. A young English lieutenant at once
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 5: filled a cup and ran to his assistance, when Jacob
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 5: shot him through the heart. When the war was over,
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 5: Fenheran got his farm rebuilt immediately. and restocked at the
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 5: expense of the British taxpayer, and received his wife and
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 5: daughters from the concentration camp plump as partridges. So, as
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 5: soon as the new Herondope was ready for occupation, Jacob
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 5: took a large knife and cut 17 notches in the doorpost.
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 5: What is that for, Jacob? asked his wife. They are
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 5: reminders of the Britishers I have shot. Well, said she,
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 5: If I hadn't killed more Roineks than that, I'd be
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 5: ashamed of myself. Oh, I shot more in open fight.
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 5: I didn't count them. I only reckon such as I've
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 5: been slim enough to be fooled with the white flag,
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 5: said the boy. Now, the lieutenant whom Jacob van Heeren
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 5: had killed when bringing him a cup of cold water
• 2:23:14
  Speaker 5: was Aneurin Jones, and he was the only son of
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 5: his mother, and she a widow in North Wales. On
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 5: Anurin her heart had been set. In him was all
• 2:23:26
  Speaker 5: her pride. Beyond him she had no ambition. About him
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 5: every fibre of her heart was entwined. Life had to
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 5: her no charms apart from him. When the news of
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 5: his death reached her, unaccompanied by particulars, she was smitten
• 2:23:43
  Speaker 5: with a sorrow that almost reached despair. The joy was
• 2:23:47
  Speaker 5: gone out of her life, the light from her sky.
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 5: The prospect was a blank before her. She sank into
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 5: profound despondency and would have welcomed death as an end
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 5: to an aimless, hopeless life. But when peace was concluded
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 5: and some comrades of Aneurin returned home, the story of
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 5: how he had met his death was divulged to her.
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 5: Then the passionate Welsh mother's heart became as a live
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 5: coal within her breast. An impotent rage against his murderer
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 5: consumed her. She did not know the name of the
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 5: man who had killed him. She but ill understood where
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 5: her son had fallen. Had she known, had she been able,
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 5: she would have gone out to South Africa and have
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 5: gloried in being able to stab to the heart the
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 5: man who had so treacherously murdered her aneuron. But how
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 5: was he to be identified? The fact that she was
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 5: powerless to avenge his death was a torture to her.
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 5: She could not sleep, she could not eat. She writhed,
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 5: she moaned. She bit her fingers, she chafed at her
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 5: incapacity to execute justice on the murderer. A feverish flame
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 5: was lit in her hollow cheeks. Her lips became parched,
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 5: her tongue dry. Her dark eyes glittered as if sparks
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 5: of unquenchable fire had been kindled in them. She sat
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 5: with clenched hands and set teeth before her dead grate,
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 5: and the purple veins swelled and throbbed in her temples. Oh,
• 2:25:30
  Speaker 5: if only she knew the name of the man who
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 5: had shot her aneuron! Oh, if only she could find
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 5: out a way to recompense him for the wrong he
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 5: had done! These were her only thoughts, and the sole
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 5: passage in her Bible she could read, and which she
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 5: read over and over again. was the story of the
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 5: importunate widow who cried to the judge, Avenge me of
• 2:25:54
  Speaker 5: mine adversary! and who was heard for her persistent asking.
• 2:26:01
  Speaker 5: Thus passed a fortnight. She was visibly wasting in flesh,
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 5: but the fire within her burned only the fiercer as
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 5: her bodily strength failed. Then, all at once, an idea
• 2:26:15
  Speaker 5: shot like a meteor through her brain. She remembered to
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 5: have heard of the cursing well of St. Elian, near Colwyn.
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 5: She recalled the fact that the last priest of the well,
• 2:26:28
  Speaker 5: an old man who had lived hard by, and who
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 5: had initiated postulants into the mysteries of the well, had
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 5: been brought before the magistrates for obtaining money under false pretenses,
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 5: and had been sent to jail at Chester. and that
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 5: the parson of Llanellion had taken a crowbar and had
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 5: ripped up the wall that enclosed the spring, and had
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 5: done what lay in his power to destroy it and
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 5: blot out the remembrance of the powers of the well,
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 5: or to ruin its efficacy. But the spring still flowed.
• 2:27:02
  Speaker 5: Had it lost its virtues? Could a parson, could magistrates
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 5: bring to naught what had been for centuries? She remembered
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 5: further that the granddaughter of the priest of the well
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 5: was then an inmate of the workhouse at Denby. Was
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 5: it not possible that she should know the ritual of St.
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 5: Elian's Spring, should be able to assist her in the
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 5: desire of her heart? Mrs. Winifred Jones resolved on trying.
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 5: She went to the workhouse and sought out the woman,
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 5: an old and infirm creature, and had a conference with her.
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 5: She found the woman, a poor decrepit creature, very shy
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 5: of speaking about the well, very unwilling to be drawn
• 2:27:46
  Speaker 5: into a confession of the extent of her knowledge, very
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 5: much afraid of the magistrates and the master of the workhouse,
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 5: punishing her if she had anything to do with the well.
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 5: But the intensity of Mrs. Jones's her vehemence in prosecuting
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 5: her inquiries, and, above all, the gift of half a
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 5: sovereign pressed into her palm with the promise of another
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 5: if she assisted Mrs. Winifred in the prosecution of her purpose,
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 5: finally overcame her scruples, and she told all that she knew.'
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 5: You must visit St. Elian's, madame,' said she,' when the
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 5: moon is at the wane.' You must write the name
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 5: of him whose death you desire on a pebble.' and
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 5: drop it into the water, and recite the 69th Psalm. But,
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 5: objected the widow, I do not know his name, and
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 5: I have no means of discovering it. I want to
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 5: kill the man who murdered my son. The old woman
• 2:28:44
  Speaker 5: considered and then said, In this case it is different.
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 5: There is a way under these circumstances. Murdered was your son? Yes,
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 5: he was treacherously shot dead. Then you will have to
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 5: call on your son by name, as you let fall
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 5: the pebble, and say, Let him be wiped out of
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 5: the book of the living. Avenge me of mine adversary,
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 5: O my God. And you must go on dropping in pebbles,
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 5: reciting the same prayer, till you see the water of
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 5: the spring boil up black as ink. Then you will
• 2:29:17
  Speaker 5: know that your prayer has been heard, and that the
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 5: curse was wrought. Winifred Jones departed in some elation. She
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 5: waited till the moon changed, and then she went to
• 2:29:28
  Speaker 5: the spring. It was near a hedge. There were trees
• 2:29:32
  Speaker 5: by it. Apparently it had been unsought for many years,
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 5: but it still flowed. About it lay scattered a few
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 5: stones that had once formed the bounds. She looked about her.
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 5: No one was by. The sun was declining and would
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 5: soon set. She bent over the water. It was perfectly clear.
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 5: She had collected a lapful of rounded stones. Then she
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 5: cried out, Anurin, come to my aid against your murderer.
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 5: Let him be blotted out of the Book of the Living.
• 2:30:08
  Speaker 5: Avenge me on my adversary.
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God!
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 5: And she dropped a pebble into the water. Then rose
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 5: a bubble. That was all. She paused but for a moment.
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 5: Then again she cried, Anurin, come to my aid against
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 5: your murderer. Let him be blotted out of the book
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 5: of the living. Avenge me on my adversary. Oh, my God!
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 5: Once more a pebble was let fall. It splashed into
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 5: the spring, but there was no change, save the dribbles
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 5: were sent against the side. A third, then a fourth.
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 5: She went on. The sun sent a shaft of yellow
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 5: glory through the trees over the springs. Then someone passed
• 2:30:57
  Speaker 5: along the road hard by, and Mrs. Winifred Jones held
• 2:31:00
  Speaker 5: her breath and desisted till the footfall had died away.
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 5: But then she continued, stone after stone was dropped, and
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 5: the ritual was followed till the 17th had disappeared in
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 5: the well, when rose up a column of black fluid, boiling,
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 5: as it were, from below the colour of ink, and
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 5: the widow pressed her hands together and drew a sigh
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 5: of relief. Her prayer had been heard, and her curse
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 5: had taken effect. She cast away the rest of the pebbles,
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 5: let down her skirt, and went away rejoicing. It so
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 5: fell out that on this very evening Jacob van Heren
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 5: had gone to bed early, as he had risen before
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 5: daybreak and had been riding all day. His family were
• 2:31:49
  Speaker 5: in the outer room when they were startled by a
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 5: hoarse cry from the bedroom. He was a short-tempered, imperious man,
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 5: accustomed to yell at his wife and children when he
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 5: needed them. But this cry was of an unusual character.
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 5: It had in it the ring of alarm. His wife
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 5: went to him to inquire what was the matter. She
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 5: found the old boar sitting up in bed with one
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 5: leg extended, his face like dirty, stained leather, his eyes
• 2:32:21
  Speaker 5: starting out of his head, and his mouth opening and shutting,
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 5: lifting and depressing his shaggy grey beard, as though he
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 5: were trying to speak, but could not utter words.' Pete!'
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 5: she called to her eldest son.' Come here and see
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 5: what ails your father!' Pete and others entered, and stood
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 5: about the bed, staring stupidly at the old man, unable
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 5: to comprehend what had come over him.' Fetch some brandy, Pete,'
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 5: said the mother.' He looks as if he had a fetter!'
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 5: When some spirits had been poured down his throat, the
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 5: farmer was revived and said huskily, Take it away, quick,
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 5: take it off. Take what away? The white flag. There
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 5: is none here. It is there, there, wrapped about my foot.
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 5: The wife looked at the outstretched leg and saw nothing.
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 5: Jacob became angry. He swore at her and yelled, Take
• 2:33:18
  Speaker 5: it off. It is chilling me to the bone. but
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 5: there is nothing there. But I say it is. I
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 5: saw him come in. Saw whom, father? asked one of
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 5: the sons. I saw that Roenick lieutenant I shot when
• 2:33:33
  Speaker 5: he was bringing me drink, thinking I was wounded. He
• 2:33:37
  Speaker 5: came in through the door. That is not possible. He
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 5: must have passed us. I say he did come. I
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 5: saw him. And he held the white rag, and he
• 2:33:48
  Speaker 5: came upon me and gave me a twist with a
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 5: flag about my foot. And there it is. It numbs me.
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 5: I cannot move it. Quick, quick, take it away. I repeat,
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 5: there is nothing there, said his wife. Pull off his stocking,
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 5: said Pete Van Heren. He has got a chill in
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 5: his foot and fancies this nonsense. He has been dreaming.
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 5: It is not a dream, said roared Jacob. I saw
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 5: him as clearly as I see you, and he wrapped
• 2:34:21
  Speaker 5: my foot in that accursed flag. Accursed flag? exclaimed Samuel,
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 5: the second son. That's a fine way to speak of it, father,
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 5: when it served you so well. Take it off, you dogs,
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 5: yelled the old man, and don't stand staring and barking
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 5: around me. The stocking was removed from his leg, and
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 5: then it was seen that his foot The left foot
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 5: had turned a livid white. Go and heat a brick,
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 5: said the housewife to one of her daughters. It is
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 5: just the circulation has stopped. But no artificial warmth served
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 5: to restore the flow of blood and the natural heat.
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 5: Jacob passed a sleepless night. End of chapter 32 part
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 5: 1 CHAPTER XXXII THE WHITE FLAG PART TWO Next morning
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 5: he rose, but limped. All feeling had gone out of
• 2:35:57
  Speaker 5: the foot. His wife vainly urged him to keep to
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 5: his bed. He was obstinate and would get up, but
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 5: he could not walk without the help of a stick.
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 5: When clothed, he hobbled into the kitchen and put the
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 5: numbed foot to the fire, and the stocking sole began
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 5: to smoke. It was singed and went to pieces. but
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 5: his foot was insensible to the heat. Then he went forth,
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 5: aided by the stick, to his farmyard, hoping that movement
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 5: would restore feeling and warmth, but this was also in vain.
• 2:36:31
  Speaker 5: In the evening he seated himself on a bench outside
• 2:36:34
  Speaker 5: the door whilst his family ate supper. He ordered them
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 5: to bring food to him. He felt easier in the
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 5: open air than within doors. Whilst his wife and children
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 5: were about the table at their meal, they heard a
• 2:36:48
  Speaker 5: scream without, more like that of a wounded horse than
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 5: a man, and all rushed forth to find Jacob in
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 5: a paroxysm of terror, only less severe than that of
• 2:36:59
  Speaker 5: the preceding night.
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 4: He came on me again!' he gasped.' The same man!
• 2:37:07
  Speaker 4: I do not know from whence he seemed to spring
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 4: out of the distance!' I saw him first like smoke,
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 4: but with a white flicker in it. And then he
• 2:37:17
  Speaker 4: got nearer and became more distinct, and I knew it
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 4: was he. He had another of those white napkins in
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 4: his hand. I could not call for help.
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 6: I tried I could utter no sound till he wrapped
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 6: it that white rag around my calf and then with
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 6: a cold and pain I cried out and he.
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 5: Vanished father said Pete You fell asleep and dreamt this.
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 5: I did not. I saw him and I felt what
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 5: he did. Give me your hand. I cannot rise. I
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 5: must go within. Good Lord, when will this come to
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 5: an end? When lifted from his seat, it was seen
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 5: that his left leg dragged. He had to lean heavily
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 5: on his son on one side and his wife the other,
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 5: and he allowed himself without remonstrance to be put to bed.
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 5: It was then seen that the dead whiteness, as of
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 5: a corpse, had spread from the foot up the calf.
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 5: He is going to have a paralytic stroke. That is it,
• 2:38:30
  Speaker 5: said Pete. You, Samuel, must ride for a doctor tomorrow morning.
• 2:38:35
  Speaker 5: Not that he can do much good, if what I
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 5: think be the case. On the second day the old
• 2:38:40
  Speaker 5: man persisted in his determination to rise. He was deaf
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 5: to all remonstrance. He would get up and go about
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 5: as far as he was able, but his ability was small.
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 5: In the evening, as the sun went down, he was
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 5: sitting crouched over the fire. The family had finished supper,
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 5: and all had left the room except his wife, who
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 5: was removing the dishes, when she heard a gasping and
• 2:39:04
  Speaker 5: struggling by the fire, and, turning her head, saw her
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 5: husband writhing on his stool, clinging to it with his hands,
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 5: with his left leg out, his mouth foaming and and
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 5: he was snorting with terror or pain. She ran to
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 5: him at once. Jacob, what is it? He is at
• 2:39:25
  Speaker 5: me again. Beat him off with the broom, he screamed.
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 5: Keep him away. He is wrapping the white flag around
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 5: my knee. Pete and the others ran in and raised
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 5: their father, who was falling out of his seat, and
• 2:39:39
  Speaker 5: conveyed him to bed. It was now seen that his
• 2:39:43
  Speaker 5: knee had become hard and stiff, His cough was as
• 2:39:47
  Speaker 5: if frozen. The whiteness had extended upwards to the knee.
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 5: Next day a surgeon arrived. He examined the old man
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 5: and expressed his conviction that he had a stroke, but
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 5: it was a paralytic attack of an unusual character, as
• 2:40:02
  Speaker 5: it had in no way affected his speech or his
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 5: left arm and hand. He recommended hot fermentations. Still the
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 5: farmer would not be confined to bed. He insisted on
• 2:40:13
  Speaker 5: being dressed and assisted into the kitchen. One stick was
• 2:40:18
  Speaker 5: not now sufficient for him, and Samuel contrived for him crutches.
• 2:40:23
  Speaker 5: With these he could drag himself about, and on the
• 2:40:26
  Speaker 5: fourth evening he laboriously worked his way to a car
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 5: store to look at one of his beasts that was ill.
• 2:40:35
  Speaker 5: Whilst there he had a fourth attack. Pete, who was without,
• 2:40:40
  Speaker 5: heard him yell and beat at the door with one
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 5: of his crutches. He entered and found his father lying
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 5: on the floor quivering with terror and spluttering unintelligible words.
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 5: He lifted him and drew him without, then shouted to Samuel,
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 5: who came up, and together they carried him to the house.
• 2:41:01
  Speaker 5: Only when there, and when he had drunk some brandy,
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 5: was he able to give an account of what had
• 2:41:06
  Speaker 5: taken place. He had been looking at the cow and
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 5: feeling it, when down out of the hayloft had come
• 2:41:13
  Speaker 5: leaping the form of the Roinick lieutenant, which had sprung
• 2:41:17
  Speaker 5: in between him and the cow, and, stooping, had wrapped
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 5: a white rag round his thigh above the knee. And
• 2:41:23
  Speaker 5: now the whole of his leg was dead and livid.
• 2:41:27
  Speaker 5: There is nothing for it, father, but to have your
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 5: leg amputated, said Pete. The doctor told me as much.
• 2:41:34
  Speaker 5: He said that mortification would set in if there was
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 5: no return of circulations. I won't have it off. What
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 5: good shall I be with only one leg? exclaimed the
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 5: old man. But, father, it will be the sole means
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 5: of saving your life. I won't have my leg off,
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 5: again repeated Jacob. Pete said in a low turn to
• 2:41:55
  Speaker 5: his mother, Have you seen any dark spots on his leg?
• 2:42:00
  Speaker 5: The doctor said we must look for them, and when
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 5: they come, send for him at once. No, she replied.
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 5: I have not noticed any so far. Then we will
• 2:42:10
  Speaker 5: wait till they appear. On the fifth day the farmer
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 5: was constrained to keep his bed. He had now become
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 5: a prey to abject terror, so sure as the hour
• 2:42:21
  Speaker 5: of sunset came did a new visitation occur. He listened
• 2:42:25
  Speaker 5: for the clock to sound each hour of the day,
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 5: and as the afternoon drew on he dreaded with unspeakable
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 5: horror the advent of the moment when again the apparition
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 5: would be seen, and a fresh chill be inflicted. He
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 5: insisted that his wife or Pete should remain in the
• 2:42:41
  Speaker 5: room with him. They took it in turns to sit
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 5: by his bedside. Through the little window the fire of
• 2:42:48
  Speaker 5: the setting sun smote in and fell across the suffering man.
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 5: It was his wife's turn to be in attendance. All
• 2:42:56
  Speaker 5: at once a gurgling sound broke from his throat. His
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 5: eyes started from his face, his hair bristled. and with
• 2:43:04
  Speaker 5: his hands he worked himself into a sitting posture, and
• 2:43:07
  Speaker 5: he heaved himself onto his pillow, and would have broken
• 2:43:10
  Speaker 5: his way through the backboard of his bed, could he
• 2:43:13
  Speaker 5: have done so.' What is it, Jacob?' asked his wife,
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 5: throwing down the garment which he was mending and coming
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 5: to his assistance.' Lie down again. There is nothing here.'
• 2:43:26
  Speaker 5: He could not speak. His teeth were chattering, and his
• 2:43:30
  Speaker 5: beard shaking. Firming bubbles formed on his lips and great
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 5: sweat drops on his brow. Pete! Samuel!
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 2: She called.
• 2:43:40
  Speaker 5: Come to your father! The young men ran in, and
• 2:43:44
  Speaker 5: they forcibly laid the old boar in bed, prostrate, and
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 5: now it was found that the right foot had turned dead,
• 2:43:51
  Speaker 5: like the left. On the evening of the seventeenth day
• 2:43:56
  Speaker 5: after the visit to the well of Flanillion, Mrs. Winifred
• 2:44:00
  Speaker 5: Jones was sitting on the side of her bed in
• 2:44:01
  Speaker 5: the twilight. She had lighted no candle. She was musing,
• 2:44:07
  Speaker 5: always on the same engrossing topic, the wrong that had
• 2:44:10
  Speaker 5: been done to her and her son, and thirsting with
• 2:44:13
  Speaker 5: a feverish thirst for vengeance on the wrongdoer. Her confidence
• 2:44:18
  Speaker 5: in the expedient to which she had resorted was beginning
• 2:44:21
  Speaker 5: to fail. What was this recourse to the well but
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 5: a falling in with an old superstition that had died
• 2:44:28
  Speaker 5: out with the advance of knowledge and under the influence
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 5: of a wholesome feeling? Was any trust to be placed
• 2:44:35
  Speaker 5: in that woman at the workhouse? Was she deceiving her
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 5: for the sake of the half-sovereign? And yet she had
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 5: seen a token that her prayer would prove efficacious. there
• 2:44:45
  Speaker 5: had risen through the crystal water a column of black fluid.
• 2:44:50
  Speaker 5: Could it be that a widow's prayer should meet with
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 5: no response? Was wrong to prevail in the world? Were
• 2:44:57
  Speaker 5: the weak and oppressed to have no means of procuring
• 2:45:00
  Speaker 5: the execution of justice on the evildoers? Was not God
• 2:45:05
  Speaker 5: righteous in all his ways? Would it be righteous in
• 2:45:09
  Speaker 5: him to suffer the murderer of her son to thrive?
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 5: If God be merciful, he is also just. If his
• 2:45:17
  Speaker 5: ear is open to the prayer for help, he must
• 2:45:20
  Speaker 5: as well listen to the cry for vengeance. Since that
• 2:45:23
  Speaker 5: evening at the spring, she had been unable to pray
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 5: as usual. To pray for herself, her only cry had been,
• 2:45:33
  Speaker 5: If she tried to frame the words of the Lord's Prayer,
• 2:45:36
  Speaker 5: she could not do so. They escaped her. Her thoughts
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 5: travelled to the South African felt. Her soul could not
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 5: rise to God in the ecstasy of love and devotion.
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 5: It was choked with hate, an overwhelming hate. She was
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 5: in her black weeds. The hands, thin and white, were
• 2:45:55
  Speaker 5: on her lap, nervously clasping and unclasping the fingers. Had
• 2:46:00
  Speaker 5: anyone been there in the grey twilight of a summer night,
• 2:46:03
  Speaker 5: he would have been saddened to see how hard and
• 2:46:05
  Speaker 5: lined the face had become, how all softness had passed
• 2:46:09
  Speaker 5: from the lips, how sunken were the eyes, in which
• 2:46:12
  Speaker 5: was only a glitter of wrath. Suddenly she saw standing
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 5: before her, indistinct indeed but unmistakable, the form of her
• 2:46:21
  Speaker 5: lost son, her Anurin, and he held a white napkin
• 2:46:26
  Speaker 5: in his right hand. and this napkin emitted a phosphorescent glow.
• 2:46:31
  Speaker 5: She tried to cry out, to utter the beloved name.
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 5: She tried to spring to her feet and throw herself
• 2:46:38
  Speaker 5: into his arms, but she was unable to stir hand
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 5: or foot or tongue. She was as one paralysed, but
• 2:46:46
  Speaker 5: her heart bounded within her bosom. Mother, said the apparition,
• 2:46:52
  Speaker 5: in a voice that seemed to come from a vast distance,
• 2:46:55
  Speaker 5: yet was articulate and audible. Mother, you called me back
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 5: from the world of spirits and sent me to discharge
• 2:47:03
  Speaker 5: a task. I have done it. I have touched him
• 2:47:07
  Speaker 5: on the foot and calf and knee and thigh, on
• 2:47:12
  Speaker 5: hand and elbow and shoulder, on one side and on
• 2:47:16
  Speaker 5: the other, on his head and last on his heart
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 5: with the white flag and now he is dead I
• 2:47:27
  Speaker 5: did it in all 16 times and with the 16th
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 5: he died I chilled him piecemeal with the white flag
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 5: the 16th was laid on his heart and that stopped beating.
• 2:47:43
  Speaker 5: Then she lifted her hands slightly, and her stiffened tongue
• 2:47:47
  Speaker 5: relaxed so far that she was able to murmur, God
• 2:47:50
  Speaker 5: be thanked. Mother, continued the apparition, there is a seventeenth remaining.
• 2:48:01
  Speaker 5: She tried to clasp her hands on her lap, but
• 2:48:04
  Speaker 5: the fingers were no longer under her control. They had
• 2:48:07
  Speaker 5: fallen to the side of her chair bed and hung
• 2:48:09
  Speaker 5: there lifeless. Her eyes stared wildly at the spectre of
• 2:48:14
  Speaker 5: her son, but without love in them. Love had faded
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 5: out of her heart and given place to hate of
• 2:48:19
  Speaker 5: his murderer. Mother, proceeded the vision, you summoned me. and
• 2:48:27
  Speaker 5: even in the world of spirits the soul of a
• 2:48:29
  Speaker 5: child must respond to the cry of a mother, and
• 2:48:32
  Speaker 5: I have been permitted to come back and to do
• 2:48:35
  Speaker 5: your will, and now I am suffered to reveal something
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 5: to you, to show you what my life would have
• 2:48:43
  Speaker 5: been had it not been cut short by the shot
• 2:48:46
  Speaker 5: of a boar. He stepped towards her and put forth
• 2:48:51
  Speaker 5: a vaporous hand and touched her eyes. She felt as
• 2:48:55
  Speaker 5: though a feather had been passed over them. Then he
• 2:48:59
  Speaker 5: raised the luminous sheet and shook it. Instantly, all about
• 2:49:03
  Speaker 5: her was changed. Mrs Winifred Jones was not in her
• 2:49:08
  Speaker 5: little Welsh cottage, nor was at night. She was no
• 2:49:12
  Speaker 5: longer alone. She stood in a court in full daylight.
• 2:49:17
  Speaker 5: She saw before her the judge on his seat, the
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 5: barristers in wig and gown, the press reporters with their
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 5: notebooks and pens. a dense crowd thronging every portion of
• 2:49:28
  Speaker 5: the court, and she knew instinctively before a word was spoken,
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 5: without an intimation from the spirit of her son, that
• 2:49:36
  Speaker 5: she was standing in the divorce court. And she saw there,
• 2:49:40
  Speaker 5: as correspondent, her son, older, changed in face, but more
• 2:49:45
  Speaker 5: altered in expression, and she heard a tale unfolded, full
• 2:49:49
  Speaker 5: of dishonour and rousing disgust. She was now able to
• 2:49:54
  Speaker 5: raise her hands. She covered her ears. Her face, crimson
• 2:49:58
  Speaker 5: with shame, sank on her bosom. She could endure the sight,
• 2:50:02
  Speaker 5: the words spoken, the revelations made no longer. And she
• 2:50:06
  Speaker 5: cried out, Anurin, Anurin, for the Lord's sake, no more
• 2:50:10
  Speaker 5: of this. Oh, the day, the day that I have
• 2:50:13
  Speaker 5: seen you standing here. At once all passed, and she
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 5: was again in her bedroom in Honeysuckle Cottage, North Wales.
• 2:50:21
  Speaker 5: seated with folded hands on her lap and looking before
• 2:50:24
  Speaker 5: her wonderingly at the ghostly form of her son.' Is
• 2:50:28
  Speaker 5: that enough, mother?' She lifted her hands deprecatingly. Again he
• 2:50:34
  Speaker 5: shook the glimmering white sheet, and it was as though
• 2:50:36
  Speaker 5: drops of pearly fire fell out of it. And again
• 2:50:41
  Speaker 5: all was changed. She found herself at Monte Carlo. She
• 2:50:45
  Speaker 5: knew it instinctively. She was in the great saloon where
• 2:50:49
  Speaker 5: were the gambling tables. The electric lights glittered, and the
• 2:50:53
  Speaker 5: decorations were superb. But all her attention was engrossed on
• 2:50:58
  Speaker 5: her son, whom she saw at one of the tables,
• 2:51:00
  Speaker 5: staking his last Napoleon. It was indeed her own anurin,
• 2:51:06
  Speaker 5: but with a face on which vice and its consequent
• 2:51:09
  Speaker 5: degradation were written indelibly. He lost, and turned away, and
• 2:51:15
  Speaker 5: left the hall and its lights. His mother followed him.
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 5: He went forth into the gardens. The full moon was shining,
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 5: and the gravel of the terraces was white as snow.
• 2:51:27
  Speaker 5: The air was fragrant with the scent of oranges and myrtles.
• 2:51:31
  Speaker 5: The palms cast black shadows on the soil. The sea
• 2:51:35
  Speaker 5: lay still as if asleep with a gleam over it
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 5: from the moon.
• 2:51:40
  Speaker 2: Mrs.
• 2:51:40
  Speaker 5: Winifred Jones tracked her son as he stole in and
• 2:51:44
  Speaker 5: out amongst the shrubs amid the trees with a sickening
• 2:51:47
  Speaker 5: fear at her heart. Then she saw him pause by
• 2:51:51
  Speaker 5: some oleanders and draw a revolver from his pocket and
• 2:51:55
  Speaker 5: place it at his ear. She uttered a cry of
• 2:51:59
  Speaker 5: agony and horror and tried to spring forward to dash
• 2:52:02
  Speaker 5: the weapon from his hand. Then all changed. She was
• 2:52:08
  Speaker 5: again in her little room in the dusk and the
• 2:52:10
  Speaker 5: shadowy form of Anurin was before her. Mother, said the spirit.
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 5: I have been permitted to come to you and to
• 2:52:18
  Speaker 5: show to you what would have been my career if
• 2:52:21
  Speaker 5: I had not died whilst young and fresh and innocent.
• 2:52:25
  Speaker 5: You have to thank Jacob van Heeren that he saved
• 2:52:28
  Speaker 5: me from such a life of infamy and such an
• 2:52:31
  Speaker 5: evil death by my own hand. You should thank and
• 2:52:35
  Speaker 5: not curse him. She was breathing heavily. Her heart beat
• 2:52:40
  Speaker 5: so fast that her brain span. She fell on her knees.
• 2:52:45
  Speaker 2: Mother!
• 2:52:46
  Speaker 5: The apparition continued. There were seventeen pebbles cast into the well. Yes, Anurin,
• 2:52:54
  Speaker 5: she whispered. And there is a seventeenth white flag. With
• 2:53:00
  Speaker 5: the sixteenth, Jacob van Heeren died. The seventeenth is reserved
• 2:53:05
  Speaker 5: for you. Anurin, I am not fit to die. Mother,
• 2:53:11
  Speaker 5: it must be. I must lay the white flag over
• 2:53:15
  Speaker 5: your head. Oh, my son, my son! It is so ordained,
• 2:53:21
  Speaker 5: he proceeded. But there are love and mercy on high,
• 2:53:25
  Speaker 5: and you shall not be veiled with it till you
• 2:53:28
  Speaker 5: have made your peace. You have sinned. You have thrust
• 2:53:33
  Speaker 5: yourself into the council chamber of God. You have claimed
• 2:53:37
  Speaker 5: to exercise vengeance yourself, and not left it to him
• 2:53:41
  Speaker 5: to whom vengeance in right belongs. I know it now,
• 2:53:45
  Speaker 5: breathed the widower. and now you must atone for the
• 2:53:49
  Speaker 5: curses by prayers. You have brought Jacob from here unto
• 2:53:54
  Speaker 5: his death by your imprecations, and now fold your hands
• 2:53:59
  Speaker 5: and pray to God for him, for him, your son's murderer.
• 2:54:05
  Speaker 5: Little have you considered that his acts were due to ignorance,
• 2:54:08
  Speaker 5: resentment for what he fancied were wrongs, and to having
• 2:54:12
  Speaker 5: been reared in a mutilated and debased form of Christianity.
• 2:54:17
  Speaker 5: Pray for him, that God may pardon his many and
• 2:54:20
  Speaker 5: great transgressions, his falsehood, his treachery, his self-righteousness. You, who
• 2:54:27
  Speaker 5: have been so greatly wronged, are the right person to
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 5: forgive and to pray for his soul. In no other
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 5: way can you so fully show that your heart is
• 2:54:36
  Speaker 5: turned from wrath to love. Forgive us our trespasses as
• 2:54:40
  Speaker 5: we forgive them that trespass against us. She breathed a yes.
• 2:54:48
  Speaker 5: Then she clasped her hands. She was already on her knees,
• 2:54:51
  Speaker 5: and she prayed first the great exemplar's prayer, and then
• 2:54:55
  Speaker 5: particularly for the man who had wrecked her life with
• 2:54:58
  Speaker 5: all its hopes. And as she prayed, the lines in
• 2:55:02
  Speaker 5: her face softened, and the lips lost their hardness, and
• 2:55:06
  Speaker 5: the fierce light passed utterly away from her eyes, in
• 2:55:09
  Speaker 5: which the lamp of charity was once more lighted, and
• 2:55:12
  Speaker 5: the tears formed and rolled down her cheeks. and still
• 2:55:17
  Speaker 5: she prayed on, bathed in the pearly light from the
• 2:55:19
  Speaker 5: summer sky at night. Without, in the firmament, twinkled a star,
• 2:55:25
  Speaker 5: and a nightbird began to sing. And now, mother, pray
• 2:55:30
  Speaker 5: for yourself. Then she crossed her hands over her bosom
• 2:55:35
  Speaker 5: and bowed her head, full of self-reproach and shame. And
• 2:55:39
  Speaker 5: as she prayed, the spirit of her son raised the
• 2:55:42
  Speaker 5: white flag above her and let it sail down softly,
• 2:55:46
  Speaker 5: lightly over the loved head, and as it descended, there
• 2:55:50
  Speaker 5: fell from it, as it were, a dew of pale fire,
• 2:55:54
  Speaker 5: and it rested on her head, and fell about her,
• 2:55:57
  Speaker 5: and she sank forward with her face upon the floor. R.I.P.
• 2:56:05
  Speaker 5: End of chapter 32, part 2. End of A Book
• 2:56:10
  Speaker 5: of Ghosts by Sabine Baring Gould