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The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce · The Best Ghost Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section eleven of the Best Ghost Stories. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording ale. LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker, The Best Ghost Stories. The Damned
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  Speaker 1: Thing by Ambrose Bierce. One one does not always eat
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  Speaker 1: what is on the table. By the light of a
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  Speaker 1: tallow candle, which had been placed on one end of
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  Speaker 1: a rough table, a man was reading something written in
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  Speaker 1: a book. It was an old account book, greatly worn,
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  Speaker 1: and the writing was not apparently very legible. For the
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  Speaker 1: man sometimes held the page close to the flame of
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  Speaker 1: the candle to get a stronger light on it. The
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  Speaker 1: shadow of the book would then throw into obscurity a
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  Speaker 1: half of the room, darkening a number of faces and figures.
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  Speaker 1: For besides the reader, eight other men were present. Seven
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  Speaker 1: of them sat against the rough lack walls, silent, motionless,
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  Speaker 1: and the room, being small, not very far from the table.
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  Speaker 1: By extending an arm, any one of them could have
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  Speaker 1: touched the eighth man, who lay on the table, face upward,
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  Speaker 1: partly covered by a sheet, his arms at his sides.
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  Speaker 1: He was dead. The man with the book was not
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  Speaker 1: reading aloud, and no one spoke. All seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: waiting for something to occur. The dead man only was
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  Speaker 1: without expectation. From the blank darkness outside came in through
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  Speaker 1: the aperture that served for a window, all the ever
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  Speaker 1: unfamiliar noises of night in the wilderness, the long, nameless
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  Speaker 1: note of a distant coyote, the stilly pulsing thrill of
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  Speaker 1: tireless insects on trees, strange cries of night birds so
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  Speaker 1: different from those of the birds of day, the drone
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  Speaker 1: of great blundering beetles, and all that mysterious chorus of
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  Speaker 1: small sounds that seem always to have been but half
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  Speaker 1: heard when they have suddenly seen east, as if conscious
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  Speaker 1: of an indiscretion. But nothing of all this was noted
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  Speaker 1: in that company. Its members were not over much addicted
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  Speaker 1: to idle interest and matters of no practical importance. That
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  Speaker 1: was obvious in every line of their rugged faces, obvious
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  Speaker 1: even in the dim light of the single candle. They
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  Speaker 1: were evidently men of the vicinity, farmers and woodsmen. The
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  Speaker 1: person reading was a trifle different. One would have said
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  Speaker 1: of him that he was of the world worldly, albeit
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  Speaker 1: there was that in his attire which attested a certain
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  Speaker 1: fellowship with the organisms of his environment. His coat would
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  Speaker 1: hardly have passed muster in San Francisco. His foot gear
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  Speaker 1: was not of urban origin, and the hat that lay
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  Speaker 1: by him on the floor he was the only one uncovered,
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  Speaker 1: was such that if one had considered it as an
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  Speaker 1: article of mere personal adornment, he would have missed its meaning.
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  Speaker 1: In countenance, the man was rather prepossessing, with just a
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  Speaker 1: hint of sternness, though that he may have assumed or
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  Speaker 1: cultivated as appropriate to one in authority, For he was
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  Speaker 1: a coroner. It was by virtue of his office that
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  Speaker 1: he had a possession of the book in which he
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  Speaker 1: was reading. It had been found among the dead man's
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  Speaker 1: effects in his cabin, where the inquest was now taking place.
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  Speaker 1: When the coroner had finished reading, he put the book
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  Speaker 1: into his breast pocket. At that moment the door was
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  Speaker 1: pushed open and a young man entered. He clearly was
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  Speaker 1: not of mountain berth and breeding. He was clad as
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  Speaker 1: those who dwell in cities. His clothing was dusty, however,
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  Speaker 1: as from travel he had in fact been writing hard
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  Speaker 1: to attend the inquest. The coroner nodded. No one else
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  Speaker 1: greeted him. We have waited for you, said the coroner.
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  Speaker 1: It is necessary to have done with this business to night.
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  Speaker 1: The young man smiled. I am sorry to have kept you,
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  Speaker 1: he said. I went away not to evade your summons,
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  Speaker 1: but to post to my newspaper an account of what I
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  Speaker 1: suppose I am called back to relate. The coroner smiled.
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  Speaker 1: The account that you posted to your newspaper, he said,
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  Speaker 1: differs probably from that which you will give here under oath.
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  Speaker 1: That replied the other, rather hotly and with a visible flush,
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  Speaker 1: is as you please. I use manifold paper and have
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  Speaker 1: a copy of what I scent. It was not written
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  Speaker 1: as news, for it is incredible, but as fiction it
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  Speaker 1: may go as a part of my testimony under oath.
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  Speaker 1: But you say it is incredible, that is nothing to you, sir,
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  Speaker 1: if I also swear that it is true. The coroner
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  Speaker 1: was silent for a time, his eyes upon the floor.
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  Speaker 1: The men about the sides of the cabin talked in whispers,
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  Speaker 1: but seldom withdrew their gaze from the face of the corpse. Presently,
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  Speaker 1: the coroner lifted his eyes and said, we will resume
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  Speaker 1: the inquest. The men removed their hats. The witness was sworn.
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  Speaker 1: What is your name, the coroner asked, William Harker, age
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven. You knew the deceased Hugh Morgan. Yes, you
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  Speaker 1: were with him when he died near him. How did
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  Speaker 1: that happen? Your presence? I mean, I was visiting him
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  Speaker 1: at this place to shoot and fish. A part of
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  Speaker 1: my purpose, however, was to study him in his odd,
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  Speaker 1: solitary way of life. He seemed a good model for
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  Speaker 1: a character in fiction. I sometimes write stories, I sometimes
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  Speaker 1: read them. Thank you stories in general, not yours. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the jurors laughed against a somber background. Humor shows
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  Speaker 1: high lights, soldiers in the intervals of battle, laugh easily
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  Speaker 1: in a jest, and the death chamber conquers by surprise.
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  Speaker 1: Relate the circumstances of this man's death, said the coroner.
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  Speaker 1: You may use any notes or memoranda that you please.
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  Speaker 1: The witness understood. Pulling a manuscript from his breast pocket,
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  Speaker 1: he held it near the candle and turned the leaves
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  Speaker 1: until he found the passage that he wanted. Began to read. Two.
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  Speaker 1: What may happen in a field of wild oats? The
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  Speaker 1: sun had hardly risen when we left the house. We
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  Speaker 1: were looking for quail, each with a shotgun, but we
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  Speaker 1: had only one dog. Morgan said that our best ground
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  Speaker 1: was beyond a certain ridge that he pointed out, and
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  Speaker 1: we crossed it by a trail through the chaparral. On
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  Speaker 1: the other side was comparatively level ground thickly covered with
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  Speaker 1: wild oats. As we emerged from the chaparral, Morgan was
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  Speaker 1: but a few yards in advance. Suddenly we heard, at
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  Speaker 1: a little distance to our right and partly in front,
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  Speaker 1: a noise as of some animal thrashing about in the bushes,
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  Speaker 1: which we could see were violently agitated. We've started a deer,
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  Speaker 1: I said, I wish we'd brought a rifle. Morgan, who
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  Speaker 1: had stopped and was intently watching the agitated chaparral, said nothing,
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  Speaker 1: but had cocked both barrels of his gun and was
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  Speaker 1: holding it in readiness to aim. I thought him a
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  Speaker 1: trifle excited, which surprised me, for he had a reputation
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  Speaker 1: for exceptional coolness, even in moments of sudden and eminent peril. Oh, come,
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  Speaker 1: I said, you're not going to fill up a deer
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  Speaker 1: with quail shot, are you still? He did not reply,
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  Speaker 1: but catching a sight of his face as he turned
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  Speaker 1: it slightly towards me. I was struck by the intensity
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  Speaker 1: of his look. Then I understood that we had serious
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  Speaker 1: business in hand. In My first conjecture was that we
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  Speaker 1: had jumped a grizzly. I advanced to Morgan's side, cocking
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  Speaker 1: my pieces, I moved. The bushes were now quiet and
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  Speaker 1: the sounds had ceased, but Morgan was as attentive to
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  Speaker 1: the place as before. What is it? What the devil
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  Speaker 1: is it? I asked, that damned thing? He replied without
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  Speaker 1: turning his head. His voice was husky and unnatural. He
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  Speaker 1: trembled visibly. I was about to speak further when I
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  Speaker 1: observed the wild oats near the place of the disturbance
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  Speaker 1: moving in the most inexplicable way I can hardly describe it.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed as if stirred by a streak of wind
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  Speaker 1: which not only bent it, but pressed it down, crushed
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  Speaker 1: it so that it did not rise. And this movement
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  Speaker 1: was slowly prolonging itself directly toward us. Nothing that I
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  Speaker 1: had ever seen had affected me so strangely as this
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  Speaker 1: unfamiliar and unaccountable phenomenon. Yet I am unable to recall
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  Speaker 1: any sense of fear I remember and tell it here,
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  Speaker 1: because singularly enough I recollected it then, that once, in
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  Speaker 1: looking carelessly out of an open window, I momentarily mistook
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  Speaker 1: a small tree close at hand for one of a
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  Speaker 1: group of larger trees at a little distance away. It
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  Speaker 1: looked at the same size as the others, but being
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  Speaker 1: more distinctly and sharply defined in mass and details, seemed
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  Speaker 1: out of harmony with them. It was a mere falsification
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  Speaker 1: of the law of aerial perspective. But it startled, almost
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  Speaker 1: terrified me. We so rely upon the orderly operation of
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  Speaker 1: familiar natural laws that any seeming suspension of them is
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  Speaker 1: noted as a menace to our safety, a warning of
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  Speaker 1: unthinkable calamity. Now, the apparently causeless movement of the herbage
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  Speaker 1: and the slow, undeviating approach of the line of disturbances
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  Speaker 1: were distinctly disquieting. My companion appeared actually frightened, and I
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  Speaker 1: could hardly credit my senses when I saw him suddenly
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  Speaker 1: throw his gun to his shoulder and fire both barrels
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  Speaker 1: at the agitated grain. Before the smoke of the discharge
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  Speaker 1: had cleared away, I heard a loud, savage cry, a
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  Speaker 1: scream like that of a wild animal, and flinging his
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  Speaker 1: gun upon the ground. Morgan sprang away and ran swiftly
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  Speaker 1: from the spot. At the same instant, I was thrown
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  Speaker 1: violently to the ground by the impact of something unseen
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  Speaker 1: in the smoke, some soft, heavy substance that seemed thrown
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  Speaker 1: against me with great force. Before I could get upon
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  Speaker 1: my feet and recover my gun, which seemed to have
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  Speaker 1: been struck from my hands, I heard Morgan crying out
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  Speaker 1: as if in mortal agony, and mingling with his cries
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  Speaker 1: were such hoarse, savage sounds as one hears from fire
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  Speaker 1: eating dogs. Inexpressibly terrified, I struggled to my feet and
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  Speaker 1: looked in the direction of Morgan's retreat, and may Heaven
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  Speaker 1: and Mercy spare me from another sight like that. At
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  Speaker 1: a distance of less than thirty yards, was my friend
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  Speaker 1: down upon one knee, his head thrown back at a
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  Speaker 1: frightful angle, hatless, his long hair and disorder, and his
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  Speaker 1: whole body and violent movement from side to side, backward
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  Speaker 1: and forward. His right arm was lifted and seemed to
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  Speaker 1: lack the hand at least I could see none. The
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  Speaker 1: other arm was invisible at times. As my memory now reports,
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  Speaker 1: this extraordinary scene. I could discern but a part of
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  Speaker 1: his body. It was as if he had been partly
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  Speaker 1: blotted out. I cannot otherwise express it. Then a shifting
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  Speaker 1: of his position would bring it all into view again.
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  Speaker 1: All this must have occurred within a few seconds. Yet
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  Speaker 1: in that time Morgan assumed all the postures of a
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  Speaker 1: determined wrestler, vanquished by superi weight and strength. I saw
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  Speaker 1: nothing but him, and him, not always distinctly. During the
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  Speaker 1: entire incident, his shouts and curses were heard, as if
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  Speaker 1: through an enveloping uproar of such sound of rage and
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  Speaker 1: fury as I've never heard from the throat of a
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  Speaker 1: man or brute. For a moment, I only stood irresolute. Then,
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  Speaker 1: throwing down my gun, I ran forward to my friend's assistance.
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  Speaker 1: I had a vague belief that he was suffering from
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  Speaker 1: a fit or some form of convulsion. Before I could
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  Speaker 1: reach his side, he was down and quiet. All sounds
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  Speaker 1: had ceased, But with a feeling of such terror as
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  Speaker 1: even these awful events had not inspired. I now saw
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  Speaker 1: again the mysterious movement of the wild oats, prolonging itself
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  Speaker 1: from the trampled area about the prostrate man toward the
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  Speaker 1: edge of a wood. It was only when it had
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  Speaker 1: reached the wood that I was able to withdraw my
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  Speaker 1: eyes and look at my companion. He was dead. Three
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  Speaker 1: a man, though naked, may be in The coroner rose
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  Speaker 1: from his seat and stood beside the dead man. Lifting
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  Speaker 1: an edge of the sheet, he pulled it away, exposing
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  Speaker 1: the entire body altogether naked and showing in the candle
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  Speaker 1: light a clay like yellow. It had, however, broad maculations
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  Speaker 1: of bluish black, obviously caused by extravasated blood from contusions.
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  Speaker 1: The chest and sides looked as if they had been
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  Speaker 1: beaten with a bludgeon. There were dreadful lacerations. The skin
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  Speaker 1: was torn in strips and shreds. The coroner moved round
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  Speaker 1: to the end of the table and undid a silk
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  Speaker 1: handkerchief which had been passed under the chin and knotted
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  Speaker 1: on the top of the head. When the handkerchief was
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  Speaker 1: drawn away, it exposed what had been the throat. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the jurors, who had risen to get a better view,
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  Speaker 1: repented their curiosity and turned away their faces. Witness Harker
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  Speaker 1: went to the open window and leaned out across the
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  Speaker 1: sill faint and sick, dropping the handkerchief upon the dead
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  Speaker 1: man's neck. The coroner stepped to an angle of the room,
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  Speaker 1: and from a pile of clothing produced one garment after another,
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  Speaker 1: each of which he held up a moment for inspection.
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  Speaker 1: All were torn and stiff with blood. The jurors did
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  Speaker 1: not make a closer inspection. They seemed rather uninterested. They had,
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  Speaker 1: in truth, seen all this before, the only thing that
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  Speaker 1: was new to them being Harker's testimony. Gentlemen, the coroner said,
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  Speaker 1: we have no more evidence. I think your duty has
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  Speaker 1: been already explained to you. If there is nothing you
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  Speaker 1: wish to ask, you may go outside and consider your verdict.
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  Speaker 1: The foreman rose, a tall, bearded man of sixty coarsely clad.
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  Speaker 1: I should like to ask one question, mister coroner. He said,
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  Speaker 1: what asylum did this year last witness escape from? Mister Harker,
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  Speaker 1: said the coroner, gravely and tranquility from What asylum did
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  Speaker 1: you last escape? Harker flushed Crimson again, but said nothing,
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  Speaker 1: and the seven jurors rose and solemnly filed out of
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  Speaker 1: the cabin. If you have done it insulting me, sir,
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  Speaker 1: said Harker. As soon as he and the officer were
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  Speaker 1: left alone with the dead men. I suppose I am
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  Speaker 1: at liberty to go. Yes. Harker started to leave, but
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  Speaker 1: paused with his hand on the door latch. The habit
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  Speaker 1: of his profession was strong in him, stronger than his
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  Speaker 1: sense of personal dignity. He turned about and said, the
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  Speaker 1: book that you have there, I recognize it is Morgan's diary.
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  Speaker 1: You seemed greatly interested in it. You read it while
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  Speaker 1: I was testifying. May I see it? The public would
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  Speaker 1: like the book? Will cut no figure in this matter,
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  Speaker 1: replied the official, slipping it into his coat pocket. All
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  Speaker 1: the entries in it were made before the writer's death.
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  Speaker 1: As Harker passed out of the house, the jury re
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  Speaker 1: entered and stood about the table on which the now
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  Speaker 1: covered corpse showed under the sheet with sharp definition. The
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  Speaker 1: foreman seated himself near the candle, produced from his breast
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  Speaker 1: pocket of pencil and scrap of paper, and wrote rather
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  Speaker 1: laboriously the following verdict, which, with various degrees of effort,
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  Speaker 1: all signed. We the jury, do find that the remains
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  Speaker 1: come to their death at the hands of a mountain lion.
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  Speaker 1: But some of us thinks all the same they had
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  Speaker 1: fits four an explanation from the tomb in the Diary
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  Speaker 1: of the late Hugh Morgan, or certain interesting entries having
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  Speaker 1: possibly a scientific value, as suggestions at the inquest upon
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  Speaker 1: his body, the book was not put in evidence. Possibly
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  Speaker 1: the coroner thought it was not worth while to confuse
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  Speaker 1: the jury. The date of the first of the entries
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  Speaker 1: mentioned cannot be ascertained. The upper part of the leaf
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  Speaker 1: is torn away, the part of the entry remaining follows
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: would run in a half circle, keeping his head turned
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  Speaker 1: always towards the center, and again he would stand still,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: barking furiously. At last he ran away into the brush
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  Speaker 1: as fast as he could go. I thought at first
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  Speaker 1: that he had gone mad, but on returning to the house,
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  Speaker 1: found no other alteration in his manner than what was
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: obviously due to fear of punishment. Can a dog see
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: with his nose devotors impressed some cerebral center with images
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: of the thing that omitted them. September second, looking at
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  Speaker 1: the stars last night, as they rose above the crest
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: of the ridge east of the house, I observed them
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  Speaker 1: successively disappear from left to right. Each was eclipsed but
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  Speaker 1: an instant, and only a few at the same time,
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  Speaker 1: but along the entire length of the ridge, all that
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  Speaker 1: were within a degree or two of the crest were
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  Speaker 1: blotted out. It was as if something had passed along
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  Speaker 1: between me and them, but I could not see it,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: and the stars were not thick enough to define its outline. Ugh,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I don't like this. Several weeks entries are missing, three
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: leaves being torn from the book. September twenty seventh. It
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: has been about here again. I find evidences of its
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: presence every day. I watched again all last night in
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  Speaker 1: the same cover, gun in hand, double charged with buckshot.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: In the morning, the fresh footprints were there as before.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Yet I would have sworn that I did not sleep. Indeed,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I hardly sleep at all. It is terrible, insupportable. If
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  Speaker 1: these amazing experiences are real, I shall go mad. If
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: they are fancible, I am mad already. October third, I
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  Speaker 1: shall not go It shall not drive me away. No,
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  Speaker 1: this is my house, my land. God hates a coward.
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  Speaker 1: October fifth, I can stand it no longer. I have
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  Speaker 1: invited Harker to pass a few weeks with me. He
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  Speaker 1: has a level head. I can judge from his manner
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  Speaker 1: if he thinks me mad October seventh. I have the
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: solution of the mystery. It came to me last night
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: suddenly is by revelation, how simple, how terribly simple. There
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: are sounds that we cannot hear. At either end of
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  Speaker 1: the scale are notes that stir no cord of that
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: imperfect instrument, the human ear. They are too high or
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: too grave. I have observed a flock of blackbirds occupying
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: an entire treetop, the tops of several trees, and all
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  Speaker 1: in full song. Suddenly, in a moment, at absolutely the
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: same instant, all spring into the air and fly away.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: How they could not all see one another? Whole tree
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  Speaker 1: tops are intervened. At no point could a leader have
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  Speaker 1: been visible to all. There must have been a signal
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  Speaker 1: of warning or command, high and shrill above the din,
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  Speaker 1: but by me unheard. I have observed too, the same
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: simultaneous flight when all were silent, among not only blackbirds,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: but other birds, quail, for example, widely separated by bushes,
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  Speaker 1: even on opposite sides of a hill. It is known
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: to seamen that a school of whales basking or sporting
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: on the surface of the ocean miles apart with the
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: convexity of the earth between will sometimes dive at the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: same instant, all gone out of sight in a moment
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the signal has been sounded too grave for the ear
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: of the sailor at the masthead and his comrades on
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the deck, who nevertheless feel its vibrations in the ship,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: as the stones of a cathedral are stirred by the
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: base of the organ. As with sounds, so with colors.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: At each end of the solar spectrum, the chemists can
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: detect the presence of what are known as actinic rays.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: They represent colors, integral colors, and the composition of light
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: which we are unable to discern. The human eye is
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: an imperfect instrument. Its range is but a few octaves
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: of the real chromatic scale. I am not mad. There
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: are colors that we cannot see, and God help me,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the damned thing is of such a color. End of
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Section eleven.