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The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Red Room · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Section sixteen of the Country of the Blind and Other
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  Speaker 1: Stories by H. She Wells. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Read by Peter Yearsley. The Red Room,
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  Speaker 1: I can assure you, said I that it will take
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  Speaker 1: a very tangible ghost to frighten me. And I stood
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  Speaker 1: up before the fire with my glass in my hand.
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  Speaker 1: It is your own choosing, said the man with the
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  Speaker 1: withered arm, and glanced at me askance. Eight and twenty years,
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  Speaker 1: said I. I have lived, and never a ghost have
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  Speaker 1: I seen. As yet the old woman sat staring hard
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  Speaker 1: into the fire, her pale eyes wide open. Ay, she
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  Speaker 1: broke in, and eight and twenty years, you have lived
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  Speaker 1: and never seen the likes of this house, I reckon.
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  Speaker 1: There are many things to see you when one still
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  Speaker 1: but eight and twenty she swayed her head slowly from
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  Speaker 1: side to side, And many things to see, and sorrow
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  Speaker 1: for I half suspected the old people were trying to
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  Speaker 1: enhance the spiritual terrors of their house by their droning insistence.
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  Speaker 1: I put down my empty glass on the table and
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  Speaker 1: looked about the room, and caught a glimpse of myself
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  Speaker 1: abbreviated and broadened to an impossible sturdiness in the queer
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  Speaker 1: old mirror at the end of the room. Well, I said,
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  Speaker 1: if I see anything to night, I shall be so
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  Speaker 1: much the wiser, for I come to the business with
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  Speaker 1: an open mind. It's your own choosing, said the man
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  Speaker 1: with the withered arm. Once more, I heard the sound
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  Speaker 1: of a stick and a shambling step on the flags
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  Speaker 1: in the passage outside, and the door creaked on its hinges.
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  Speaker 1: As a second old man entered, more bent, more wrinkled,
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  Speaker 1: more aged even than the first. He supported himself by
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  Speaker 1: a single crutch. His eyes were covered by a shade,
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  Speaker 1: and his lower lip half averted, hung pale and pink
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  Speaker 1: from his decaying yellow teeth. He made straight for an
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  Speaker 1: arm chair on the opposite side of the table, sat
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  Speaker 1: down clumsily, and began to cough. The man with the
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  Speaker 1: withered arm gave this new comer a short glance of
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  Speaker 1: positive dislike. The old woman took no notice of his arrival,
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  Speaker 1: but remained with her eyes fixed steadily on the fire.
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  Speaker 1: I said, it's your own choosing, said the man with
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  Speaker 1: the withered arm, When the coughing had ceased for a while.
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  Speaker 1: It's my own choosing, I answered the man with the
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  Speaker 1: shade became aware of my presence for the first time,
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  Speaker 1: and threw his head back for a moment and sideways
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  Speaker 1: to see me. I caught a momentary glimpse of his eyes,
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  Speaker 1: small and bright and inflamed. Then he began to cough
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  Speaker 1: and splutter again. Why don't you drink, said the man
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  Speaker 1: with the withered arm, pushing the bier towards him. The
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  Speaker 1: man with the shade poured out a glass us with
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  Speaker 1: a shaky hand that splashed half as much again on
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  Speaker 1: the deal table. A monstrous shadow of him crouched upon
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  Speaker 1: the wall and mocked his action as he poured and drank.
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  Speaker 1: I must confess I had scarce expected these grotesque custodians.
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  Speaker 1: There is to my mind something inhuman insenility, something crouching
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  Speaker 1: and atavistic. The human qualities seemed to drop from old
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  Speaker 1: people insensibly. Day by day. The three of them made
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  Speaker 1: me feel uncomfortable, with their gaunt silences, their bent carriage,
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  Speaker 1: their evident unfriendliness to me and to one another. If
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  Speaker 1: said I you will show me to this haunted room
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  Speaker 1: of yours, I will make myself comfortable there. The old
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  Speaker 1: man with the cough jerked his head back so suddenly
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  Speaker 1: that it startled me, and shot another glance of his
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  Speaker 1: red eyes at me from under the shade, But no
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  Speaker 1: one answered me. I waited a minute, glancing from one
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  Speaker 1: to the other. If I said a little louder, you
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  Speaker 1: will show me to this haunted room of yours, I
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  Speaker 1: will relieve you from the task of entertaining me. O
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  Speaker 1: the candle on the slab outside the door, said the
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  Speaker 1: man with the withered arm, looking at my feet as
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  Speaker 1: he addressed me. But if you go to the Red
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  Speaker 1: Room to night, this night of all nights, said the
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  Speaker 1: old woman, You go alone, very well, I answered, And
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  Speaker 1: which way do I go? You go along the passage
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  Speaker 1: for a bit, said he, until you come to a door,
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  Speaker 1: and through that is a spiral staircase, and half way
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  Speaker 1: up that is a landing, and another door covered with baize.
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  Speaker 1: Go through that and down a long corridor to the end,
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  Speaker 1: and the Red Room is on your left, up the steps.
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  Speaker 1: Have I got that right, I said, and repeated his directions.
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  Speaker 1: He corrected me in one particular. And I you are
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  Speaker 1: really going, said the man with the shade, looking at
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  Speaker 1: me again for the third time with that queer, unnatural
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  Speaker 1: tilting of the face. This night of all nights, said
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  Speaker 1: the old woman. It is what I came for, I said,
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  Speaker 1: and moved towards the door. As I did so, the
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  Speaker 1: old man with the shade rose and staggered round the
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  Speaker 1: table so as to be closer to the others and
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  Speaker 1: to the fire at the door. I turned and looked
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  Speaker 1: at them, and saw they were all close together, dark
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  Speaker 1: against the firelight, staring at me over their shoulders, with
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  Speaker 1: an intent expression on their ancient faces. Good Night, I said,
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  Speaker 1: setting the door open. It's your own choosing, said the
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  Speaker 1: man with the withered arm. I left the door wide
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  Speaker 1: open until the candle was well alight, and then I
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  Speaker 1: shut them in and walked down the chilly, echoing passage.
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  Speaker 1: I must confess that the oddness of these three old pensioners,
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  Speaker 1: in whose charge her Ladyship had left the castle, and
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  Speaker 1: the deep toned, old fashioned furniture of the housekeeper's room
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  Speaker 1: in which they foregathered, affected me, in spite of my
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  Speaker 1: efforts to keep myself at a matter of fact phase.
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  Speaker 1: They seemed to belong to another age, an older age,
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  Speaker 1: an age when things spiritual were different from this of ours,
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  Speaker 1: less certain, an age when omens and witches were credible,
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  Speaker 1: and ghosts beyond denying there very existence, were spectral. The
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  Speaker 1: cut of their clothing fashions born in dead brains. The
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  Speaker 1: ornaments and conveniences of the room about them were ghostly,
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  Speaker 1: the thoughts of vanished men which still haunted rather than
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  Speaker 1: participated in the world of to day. But with an effort,
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  Speaker 1: I sent such thoughts to thee right about the long,
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  Speaker 1: drafty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty, and my candle
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  Speaker 1: flared and made the shadows cower and quiver. The echoes
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  Speaker 1: ran up and down the spiral staircase, and a shadow
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  Speaker 1: came sweeping up after me, and one fled before me
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  Speaker 1: into the darkness overhead. I came to the landing and
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  Speaker 1: stopped there for a moment, listening to a rustling that
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  Speaker 1: I fancied I heard. Then, satisfied of the absolute silence,
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  Speaker 1: I pushed open the baize covered door and stood in
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  Speaker 1: the corridor. The effect was scarcely what I expected for.
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  Speaker 1: The moonlight coming in by the great window on the
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  Speaker 1: grand staircase picked out everything in vivid black shadow or
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  Speaker 1: silvery illumination. Everything was in its place. The house might
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  Speaker 1: have been deserted on the yesterday instead of eighteen months ago.
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  Speaker 1: There were candles in the sockets of the sconces, and
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  Speaker 1: whatever dust had gathered on the carpets or upon the
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  Speaker 1: polished flooring was distributed so evenly as to be invisible
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  Speaker 1: in the moonlight. I was about to advance, and stopped abruptly.
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  Speaker 1: A bronze group stood upon the landing, hidden from me
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  Speaker 1: by the corner of the wall, but its shadow fell
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  Speaker 1: with marvelous distinctness upon the white paneling, and gave me
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  Speaker 1: the impression of some one crouching to waylay me. I
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  Speaker 1: stood rigid for half a minute, perhaps, then, with my
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  Speaker 1: hand in the pocket that held my revolver, I advanced
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  Speaker 1: only to discover a ganymede and eagle glistening in the moonlight.
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  Speaker 1: That incident, for a time restored my nerve, and a
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  Speaker 1: porcelain chinaman on a bool table, whose head rocked silently
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  Speaker 1: as I passed him, scarcely startled me. The door to
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  Speaker 1: the red room and the stairs up to it were
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  Speaker 1: in a shadowy corner. I moved my candle from side
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  Speaker 1: to side in order to see clearly the nature of
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  Speaker 1: the recess in which I stood, before opening the door. Here,
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  Speaker 1: it was thought I that my predecessor was found, and
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  Speaker 1: the memory of that story gave me a sudden twinge
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  Speaker 1: of apprehension. I glanced over my shoulder at the Ganymede
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  Speaker 1: in the moonlight, and opened the door of the Red
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  Speaker 1: Room rather hastily, with my face half turned to the
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  Speaker 1: pallid silence of the landing. I entered, closed the door
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  Speaker 1: behind me at once turned the key I found in
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  Speaker 1: the lock within, and stood, with the candle held aloft,
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  Speaker 1: surveying the scene of my vigil, the great red room
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  Speaker 1: of Lorraine Castle, in which the young Duke had died,
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  Speaker 1: or rather in which he had begun his dying, For
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  Speaker 1: he had opened the door and fallen headlong down the
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  Speaker 1: steps I had just ascended. That had been the end
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  Speaker 1: of his vigil, of his gallant attempt to conquer the
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  Speaker 1: ghostly tradition of the place. And never I thought, had
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  Speaker 1: apoplexy better served the ends of superstition. And there were
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  Speaker 1: other and older stories that clung to the room, back
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  Speaker 1: to the half credible beginning of it all, the tale
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  Speaker 1: of a timid wife and the tragic end that came
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  Speaker 1: to her husband's jest of frightening her and looking around
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  Speaker 1: that large somber room, with its shadowy window bays, its recesses,
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  Speaker 1: and alcoves, One could well understand the legends that had
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  Speaker 1: sprouted in its black corners, its germinating darkness. My candle
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  Speaker 1: was a little tongue of light in its vastness, that
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  Speaker 1: failed to pierce the opposite end of the room, and
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  Speaker 1: left an ocean of mystery and suggestion beyond its island
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  Speaker 1: of light. I resolved to make a systematic examination of
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  Speaker 1: the place at once and dispel the fanciful suggestions of
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  Speaker 1: its obscurity before they obtained a hold upon me. After
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  Speaker 1: satisfying myself of the fastening of the door, I began
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  Speaker 1: to walk about the room, peering round each article of furniture,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: tucking up the balances of the bed, and opening its
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  Speaker 1: curtains wide. I pulled up the blinds and examined the
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  Speaker 1: fastenings of the several windows before closing the shutters. Leant
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  Speaker 1: forward and looked up at the blackness of the wide chimney,
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  Speaker 1: and tapped the dark oak paneling for any secret opening.
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  Speaker 1: There were two big mirrors in the room, each with
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  Speaker 1: a pair of sconces bearing candles, and on the mantel
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  Speaker 1: shelf too were more candles in china candlesticks. All these
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  Speaker 1: I lit one after the other. The fire was laid
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  Speaker 1: an unexpected consideration from the old housekeeper, and I lit
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  Speaker 1: it to keep down any disposition to shiver. And when
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  Speaker 1: it was burning well, I stood round with my back
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  Speaker 1: to it and regarded the room again. I had pulled
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  Speaker 1: up a chintz covered arm chair and a table to
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  Speaker 1: form a kind of barricade before me, and on this
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  Speaker 1: lay my revolver ready to hand. My precise examination had
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  Speaker 1: done me good, but I still found the remoter darkness
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  Speaker 1: of the place and its perfect stillness too stimulating for
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  Speaker 1: the imagination. The echoing of the stir and crackling of
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  Speaker 1: the fire was no sort of comfort to me. The
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  Speaker 1: shadow in the alcove at the end, in particular, had
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  Speaker 1: that undefinable quality of a presence, that odd suggestion of
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  Speaker 1: a lurking, living thing that comes so easily in silence
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  Speaker 1: and solitude. At last, to reassure myself, I walked with
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  Speaker 1: the candle into it, and satisfied myself that there was
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  Speaker 1: nothing tangible there. I stood that candle upon the floor
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  Speaker 1: of the alcove and left it in that position. By
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  Speaker 1: this time I was in a state of considerable nervous tension,
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  Speaker 1: although to my reason there was no adequate cause for
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  Speaker 1: the condition. My mind, however, was perfectly clear. I postulated
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  Speaker 1: quite unreservedly that nothing supernatural could happen, and to pass
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  Speaker 1: the time, I began to string some rhymes together, ingallsby
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  Speaker 1: fashion of the original legend of the place. A few
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  Speaker 1: I spoke aloud, but the echoes were not pleasant. For
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  Speaker 1: the same reason, I also abandoned after a time a
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  Speaker 1: conversation with myself upon the impossibility of ghosts and haunting.
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  Speaker 1: My mind reverted to the three old and distorted people downstairs,
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  Speaker 1: and I tried to keep it upon that topic. The
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  Speaker 1: somber reds and blacks of the room troubled me. Even
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  Speaker 1: with seven candles, the place was merely dim. The one
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  Speaker 1: in the alcove flared in a draft, and the fire
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  Speaker 1: flickering kept the shadows and penumber perpetually shifting and stirring,
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  Speaker 1: casting about. For a remedy, I recalled the candles I
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  Speaker 1: had seen in the passage, and with a slight effort,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: walked out into the moonlight, carrying a candle and leaving
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  Speaker 1: the door open, and presently returned with as many as
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  Speaker 1: ten these. I put in various nick knacks of china,
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  Speaker 1: with which the room was sparsely adorned, lit and placed
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  Speaker 1: where the shadows had lain deepest, some on the floor,
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  Speaker 1: some in the window recesses, Until at last my seventeen
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  Speaker 1: candles were so arranged that not an inch of the
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  Speaker 1: room but had the direct light of at least one
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  Speaker 1: of them. It occurred to me that when the ghost came,
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  Speaker 1: I could warn him not to trip over them. The
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  Speaker 1: room was now quite brightly illuminated. There was something very
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  Speaker 1: cheery and reassuring in these little streaming flames, and snuffing
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  Speaker 1: them gave me an occupation and afforded a helpful sense
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  Speaker 1: of the passage of time. Even with that, however, the
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  Speaker 1: brooding expectation of the vigil weighed heavily upon me. It
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  Speaker 1: was after midnight that the candle in the alcove suddenly
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  Speaker 1: went out, and the black shadow sprang back to its
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: place there. I did not see the candle go out.
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  Speaker 1: I simply turned and saw that the darkness was there,
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  Speaker 1: as one might start and see the unexpected presence of
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  Speaker 1: a stranger. By jove, said I aloud, that draft's a
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  Speaker 1: strong one, and taking the matches from the table. I
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: walked across the room in a leisurely manner to relight
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  Speaker 1: the corner again. My first match would not strike, and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: as I succeeded with the second, something seemed to blink
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: on the wall before me. I turned my head involuntarily
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  Speaker 1: and saw that the two candles on the little table
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  Speaker 1: by the fireplace were extinguished. I rose at once to
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: my feet, or I said, did I do that myself?
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: In a flash of absent mindedness, I walked back re
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: lit one, and as I did so, I saw the
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: candle in the right sconce of one of the mirrors
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  Speaker 1: when and go right out, and almost immediately its companion
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  Speaker 1: followed it. There was no mistake about it. The flame
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: vanished as if the wicks had been suddenly nipped between
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  Speaker 1: a finger and a thumb, leaving the wick neither glowing
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  Speaker 1: nor smoking, but black. While I stood gaping, the candle
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: at the foot of the bed went out, and the
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: shadows seemed to take another step towards me. This won't do,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: said I, and first one and then another candle on
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: the mantel shelf followed. What's up? I cried with a
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  Speaker 1: queer high note, getting into my voice somehow. At that
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: the candle on the wardrobe went out, and the one
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  Speaker 1: I had re lit in the alcove followed steady on.
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  Speaker 1: I said, these candles are wanted, speaking with a half
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  Speaker 1: hysterical facetiousness, and scratching away at a match. The while
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  Speaker 1: for the mantle candlesticks, my hands trembled so much that
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: twice I missed the right off paper of the match box.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: As the mantle emerged from darkness again, two candles in
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the remoter end of the window were eclipsed, but with
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the same match. I also ReLit the larger mirror candles
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and those on the floor near the doorway, so that
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: for the moment I seemed to gain on the extensions.
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  Speaker 1: But then in a volley there vanished four lights at
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: once in different corners of the room, and I struck
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  Speaker 1: another match in quivering haste, and stood hesitating whither to
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  Speaker 1: take it. As I stood undecided, an invisible hand seemed
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: to sweep out the two candles on the table. With
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: a cry of terror. I dashed at the alcove, then
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: into the corner, and then into the window, relighting three
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: as two more vanished by the fireplace. Then Perceiving a
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: better way, I dropped the matches on the iron bound
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: deed box in the corner, and caught up the bedroom candlestick.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: With this I avoided the delay of striking matches. But
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: for all that, the steady process of extinction went on,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: and the shadows I feared and fought against returned and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: crept in upon me. First a step gained on this
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: side of me, and then on that. It was like
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the stars. Now and
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: then one returned for a minute and was lost again.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I was now almost frantic with the horror of the
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: coming darkness, and my self possession deserted me. I leapt,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: panting and disheveled, from candle to candle in a vain
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: struggle against that remorseless advance. I bruised myself on the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: thigh against the table, I sent a chair headlong. I
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: stumbled and fell, and whisked the cloth from the table.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: In my fall. My candle rolled away from me, and
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: I snatched another as I rose abruptly. This was blown
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: out as I swung it off the table by the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: wind of my sudden movement, and immediately the two remaining
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: candles followed, but there was light still in the room,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: a red light that staved off the shadows from me
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: the fire. Of course, I could still thrust my candle
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: between the bars and relight it. I turned to where
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the flames were still dancing between the glowing coals and
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: splashing red reflections upon a furniture, made two steps towards
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  Speaker 1: the grate, and incontinently, the flames dwindled and vanished. The
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: glow vanished, the reflections rushed together and vanished. And as
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  Speaker 1: I thrust the candle between the bars, darkness closed about me,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: like the shutting of an eye, wrapped about me in
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a stifling embrace, sealed my vision and crushed the last
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: vestiges of reason from my brain. The candle fell from
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: my hand. I flung out my arms in a vain
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: effort to thrust that ponderous blackness away from me, and,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: lifting up my voice, screamed with all my might, once, twice, thrice.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Then I think I must have staggered to my feet.
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  Speaker 1: I know, I thought suddenly of the moonlight's corridor, and
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: with my head bowed and my arms over my face,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: made a run for the door. But I had forgotten
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the exact position of the door, and struck myself heavily
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: against the corner of the bed. I staggered back, turned,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and was either struck or struck myself against some other
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: bulky furniture. I have a vague memory of battering myself
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: thus to and fro in the darkness of a cramped struggle,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and of my own wild crying as I darted to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: and fro of a heavy blow at last upon my forehead,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: a horrible sensation of falling that lasted an age of
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: my last frantic effort to keep my footing, And then
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: I remember no more. I opened my eyes in daylight.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: My head was roughly bandaged, and the man with the
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: withered arm was watching my face. I looked about me,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: trying to remember what had happened, and for a space
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: I could not recollect. I rolled my eyes into the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: corner and saw the old woman, no longer abstracted, pouring
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: out some drops of medicine from a little blue vial
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: into a glass. Where am I, I asked? I seemed
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: to remember you, and yet I cannot remember who you are.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: They told me. Then, and I heard of the haunted
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: red room as one who hears a tale. We found
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: you at dawn, said he, And there was blood on
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: your forehead and lips. It was very slowly I recovered
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: my memory of my experience. You believe now, said the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: old man, that the room is haunted. He spoke no
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: longer as one who greets an intruder, but as one
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: who grieves for a broken friend. Yes, said I, the
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: room is haunted, and you you have seen it, And
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: we who have lived here all our lives have never
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: set eyes upon it, because we have never dared tell us,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: is it truly the old earl who no, said I.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: It is not. I told you so, said the old lady,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: with the glass in her hand. It is his poor
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: young countess who was frightened. It is not, I said.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: There is neither ghost of Earl nor ghost of countess
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: in that room. There is no ghost there at all.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: But worse, far, worse, well, they said, the worst of
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: all the things that haunt poor mortal man, said I.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: And that is in all its nakedness, fear that will
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: not have light nor sound, that will not bear with reason,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that deafens and darkens and overwhelms. It followed me through
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: the corridor, It fought against me in the room I
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: stopped abruptly. There was an interval of silence. My hand
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: went up to my bandages. Then the man with the
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: shade sighed and spoke, that is it, said he I
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: knew that? Was it a power of darkness to put
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: such a curse upon a woman. It lurks there always.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: You can feel it, even in the daytime, even of
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: a bright summer's day, in the hangings, in the curtains,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: keeping behind you, however you face about in the dusk,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: it creeps along the corridor and follows you, so that
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: you dare not turn. There is fear in that room
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: of hers, black fear, and there will be so long
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: as this house of sin endures. End of Section sixteen.