Latest / The Best Ghost Stories / The Haunted and the Haunters by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Transcript

The Haunted and the Haunters by Edward Bulwer-Lytton · The Best Ghost Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section four of the Best Ghost Stories. This is a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Read by Ben Tucker. The Haunted and the Haunters or
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: The House and the Brain by Edward Bulwer Lytton, a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: friend of mine, who is a man of letters and
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a philosopher, said to me one day, as if between
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: jest and Earnest Pantcy, since we last met, I have
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: discovered a haunted house in the midst of London, really
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: haunted and by what ghosts? Well, I can't answer that question.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: All I know is this. Six weeks ago, my wife
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and I were in search of a furnished apartment, passing
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a quiet street. We saw in the windows one of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the houses a bill apartments furnished. The situation suited us.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: We entered the house, liked the rooms, engaged them by
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the week, and left them the third day. No power
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: on earth could have reconciled my wife to stay longer.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And I don't wonder at it, what did you see?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Excuse me? I have no desire to be ridiculed as
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a superstitious dreamer. Nor, on the other hand, could I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: ask you to accept on my affirmation which you would
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: hold to be incredible without the evidence of your own senses.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Let me only say this, It was not so much
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: what we saw or heard, and which you might fairly
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: suppose that we were the dupes of our own excited fancy,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: or the victims of imposture and others, but drove us away,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: as it was an undefinable terror which seized both of
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: us whenever we passed by the door of a certain
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: unfurnished room in which we neither saw nor heard anything.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: And the strangest marvel of all was that, for once
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: in my life, I agreed with my wife, silly woman
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: though she be, and allowed, after the third night that
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: it was impossible to stay a fourth in that house. Accordingly,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: on the fourth morning, I summoned the woman who kept
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the house and attended on us, and told her that
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the rooms did not quite suit us, and we would
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: not stay out our week. She said, dryly, I know
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: why you have stayed longer than any other lodger if
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: you ever stay a second night, none before you a third.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: But I take it they've been very kind to you.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: They who I asked, affecting to smile. Why they who
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: haunt the house? Whoever they are, I don't mind them.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I remember them many years ago when I lived in
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: this house, not as a servant. But I know they
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: will be the death of me some day. I don't care.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I'm old and must die soon anyhow, and then I
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: shall be with them and in this house still. The
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: woman spoke with so dreary a calmness that really it
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: was a sort of awe that prevented my conversing with her. Further,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I paid for my week, and too happy were my
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: wife and I to get off so cheaply. You excite
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: my curiosity, said I. Nothing I should like better than
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: to sleep in a haunted house. Pray, give me the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: address of the one which you left so ignominiously. My
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: friend gave me the address, and when we parted, I
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: walked straight towards the house, thus indicated. It is situated
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: on the north side of Oxford Street, in a dull
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: but respectable thoroughfare. I found the house shut up, no
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: bill at the window, and no response to my knock.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: As I was turning away, a beer boy collecting pewter
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: pots at the neighboring areas, said to me, do you
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: want any one at that house? Sir, yes, I heard
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: it was to be let let Why the woman who
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: kept it is dead, has been dead these three weeks,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and no one can be found to stay here, though
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: mister Jay offered ever so much. He offered mother, who
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: chars for him, one pound a week just to open
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and shut the windows, and she would not would not.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: And why the house is haunted? And the old woman
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: who kept it was found dead in her bed with
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: her eyes wide open. They say the devil strangled her. Pooh,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: you speak of mister Jay. Is he the owner of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the house? Yes? Where does he live in G Street?
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Number blank? What is he in any business? No, sir,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: nothing particular, a single gentleman. I gave the pot boy
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the gratuity earned by liberal information and proceeded to mister
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: j in G Street, which was close by the street
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: that boasted the haunted house. I was lucky enough to
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: find mister Jay at home, an elderly man with intelligent
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: countenance and prepossessing manners. I communicated my name and my business. Frankly,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I said, I heard the house was considered to be haunted,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: that I had a strong desire to examine a house
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: with so equivocal a reputation that I should be greatly
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: obliged if he would allow me to hire it, though
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: only for a night. I was willing to pay for
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: that privilege, whatever he might be inclined to ask. Sir,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: said mister Jay, with great courtesy. The house is at
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: your service for as short or as long a time
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: as you please. Rent is out of the question. The
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: obligation will be on my side should you be able
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to discover the cause of the strange phenomena which at
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: present deprives it of all value. I cannot let it,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: for I cannot even get a servant to keep it
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: in order or answer the door. Unluckily, the house is haunted,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: if I may use that expression, not only by night
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: but by day, though at night the disturbances are of
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: a more unpleasant and sometimes of a more alarming character.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: The poor old woman who died in it three weeks
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: ago was a pauper whom I took out of a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: workhouse for in her childhood she had been known to
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: some of my family, and had once been in such
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: good circumstances that she had rented that house of my uncle.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: She was a woman of superior education and strong mind,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and was the only person I could ever induce to
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: remain in the house. Indeed, since her death, which was sudden,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: and the coroner's inquest, which gave it a notoriety in
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood, I have so despaired of finding any person
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: to take charge of the house much more tenant, that
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I would willingly let it rent free for a year
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to any one who would pay its rates and taxes.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: How long is it since the house acquired this sinister
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: character that I can scarcely tell you, but very many
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: years since the old woman I spoke of said it
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: was haunted when she rented it between thirty and forty
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: years ago. The fact is that my life has been
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: spent in the East Indies and in the civil service
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: of the company. I returned to England last year on
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: inheriting the fortune of an uncle, among whose possessions was
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the house in question. I found it shut up and uninhabited.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: I was told that it was haunted, that no one
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: would inhabit it. I smiled at what seemed to me
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: so idle a story. I spent some money in repairing it,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: added to its old fashioned furniture. A few modern articles
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: advertised it, and obtained a lodger for a year. He
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: was a colonel retired on half pay. He came in
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: with his family, a son and a daughter, and four
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: or five servants. They all left the house the next day,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: And although each of them declared that he had seen
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: something different from that which had scared the others, a
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: something still was equally terrible to all. I really could not,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: in conscience soon or even blame the colonel for a
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: breach of agreement. Then I put in the old woman
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I have spoke of, and she was empowered to let
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: the house in apartments. I never had one lodger who
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: stayed more than three days. I do not tell you
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: their stories. To no two lodgers have there been exactly
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the same phenomena repeated. It is better that you should
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: judge for yourself than enter the house with an imagination
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: influenced by previous narratives. Only be prepared to see and
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: to hear something or other, and take whatever precautions you yourself. Please,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Have you never had a curiosity yourself to pass a
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: night in that house? Yes, I passed not a night,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: but three hours in broad daylight alone in that house.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: My curiosity is not satisfied, but it is quenched. I
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: have no desire to renew the experiment. You cannot complain,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: you see, sir, that I am not sufficiently candid. And
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: unless your interest be exceedingly eager and your nerves unusually strong,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I honestly add that I advise you not to pass
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: a night in that house. My interest is exceedingly keen,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: said I. And though only a coward will boast of
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: his nerves and situations wholly unfamiliar to him, yet my
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: nerves have been seasoned in such variety of danger that
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I have the right to rely on them, even in
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a haunted house. Mister Jay said very little more. He
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: took the keys of the house out of his bureau,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: gave them to me, and, thanking him cordially for his
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: frankness and his urbane concession to my wish, I carried
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: off my prize, impatient for the experiment. As soon as
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: I reached home, I summoned my confidential servant, a young
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: man of gay spirits, fearless temper, and as free from
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: superstitious prejudices as any one I could think of. F
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: said I, you remember in Germany. How disappointed we were
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: at not finding a ghost in that old castle which
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: was said to be haunted by a headless apparition. Well,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I have heard of a house in London which I
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: have reason to hope is decidedly haunted. I mean to
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: sleep there to night. From what I hear there is
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: no doubt that something will allow itself to be seen
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: or to be heard, something perhaps excessively horrible. Do you
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: think if I take you with me, I may rely
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: on your presence of mind whatever may happen. Oh, sir,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: pray trust me, answered f grinning with delight. Very well,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: then here are the keys of the house. This is
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: the address. Go now select for me any bedroom you please,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And since the house has not been inhabited for weeks,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: make up a good fire. Are the bedwell? See of
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: course that there are candles as well as fuel. Take
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: with you my revolver and my dagger, so much for
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: my weapons. Arm yourself equally well. And if we are
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: not a match for a dozen ghosts, we shall be
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: but a sorry couple of Englishmen. I was engaged for
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the rest of the day on business so urgent that
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I had not leisure to think much on the nocturnal
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: adventure to which I had plighted my honor. I dined
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: alone and very late, and while dining read, as is
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: my habit, I selected one of the volumes of Macauley's essays.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I thought to myself that I would take the book
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: with me. There was so much of the healthfulness in
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the style and practical life in the subjects, that it
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: would serve as an antidote against the influence of superstitious fancy. Accordingly,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: about half past nine, I put the book into my
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: pocket and strolled leisurely towards the haunted house. I took
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: with me a favorite dog, an exceedingly sharp, bold and
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: vigilant bull terrier, a dog fond of prowling about strange,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: ghostly corners and passages at night in search of rats.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: A dog of dogs for a ghost. It was a
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: summer night, but chilly, the sky somewhat gloomy and overcast.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Still there was a moon, faint and sickly, but still
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: a moon, and if the clouds permitted after midnight, it
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: would be brighter. I reached the house knocked, and my
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: servant opened with a cheerful smile. All right, sir, and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: very comfortable oh, said I rather disappointed. Have you not
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: seen or heard anything remarkable? Well, sir, I must own
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I have heard something queer? What what? The sound of
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: feet pattering behind me? And once or twice small noises
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: like whispers close at my ear. Nothing more. You are
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: not at all frightened. I not a bit of it, sir.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And the man's bold look reassured me on one point, viz.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: A ville that happened? What might? He would not desert me.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: We were in the hall, the street door closed, and
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: my attention was now drawn to my dog. He had
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: at first run eagerly enough, but it sneaked back to
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the door and was scratching and whining to get out.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: After patting him on the head and encouraging him gently,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the dog seemed to reconcile himself to the situation and
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: followed me and f through the house, but keeping close
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: at my heels, instead of hurrying inquisitively in advance, which
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: was as usual a normal habit in all strange places.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: We first visited the subterranean apartments, the kitchen and other offices,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and especially the cellars, in which there were two or
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: three bottles of wine still left in a bin covered
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: with cobwebs, and evidently by their appearance undisturbed for many years,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: it was clear that the ghosts were not wine bibbers.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: For the rest we discovered nothing of interest. There was
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a gloomy little back yard with very high walls. The
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: stones of this yard were very damp, And what with
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: the damp and what would the dust and smoke grime
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: on the pavement. Our feet left a slight impression where
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: we passed, and now appeared the first strange phenomenon witnessed
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: by myself in the strange abode, I saw just before
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: me the print of a foot suddenly form itself as
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: it were. I stopped, caught hold of my servant, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: pointed to it. In advance of that footprint, as suddenly
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: dropped another, We both saw it. I advanced quickly to
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the place the footprint kept advancing before me, a small footprint,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the foot of a child. The impression was too faint
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: thoroughly to distinguish the shape, but it seemed to us
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: both that it was the print of a naked foot.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: The phenomenon ceased when we arrived at the opposite wall,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: nor did it repeat itself. On returning. We remounted the
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: stairs and entered the rooms on the ground floor, a
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: dining parlor, a small back parlor, and a still smaller
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: third room that had been probably appropriated to a footman.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: All still is death. We then visited the drawing rooms,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: which seemed fresh and new. In the front room, I
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: seated myself in an arm chair. F placed on the
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: table the candlestick with which he had lighted us. I
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: told him to shut the door. As he turned to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: do so, a chair opposite to me moved from the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: wall quickly and noiselessly, and dropped itself about a yard
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: from my own chair, immediately fronting it. Why this is
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: better than the turning tables, said I, with a half laugh.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: And as I laughed, my dog put back his head
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and howled. F coming back had not observed the movement
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: of the chair. He employed himself now in stilling the dog,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I continued to gaze on the chair, and fancied. I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: saw on it a pale, blue, misty outline of a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: human figure, but an outline so indistinct that I could
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: only distrust my own vision. The dog now was quiet
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: put back that chair opposite me, said I to F
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: put it back to the wall. F obeyed. Was that you, sir,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: said he turning about. IY. What why something struck me?
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: I felt it sharply on the shoulder, just here, no,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: said I. But we have jugglers present, and though we
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: may not discover their tricks, we shall catch them before
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: they frighten us. We did not stay long in the
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: drawing rooms. In fact, they felt so damp and so
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: chilly that I was glad to get to the fire upstairs.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: We locked the doors of the drawing rooms, a precaution
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: which I should observe we had taken with all the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: rooms we had searched below. The bedroom my servant had
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: selected for me was the best on the floor, a
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: large one with two windows fronting the street. The four
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: posted bed, which took up no inconsiderable space, was opposite
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: to the fire, which burnt clear and bright. A door
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: in the wall to the left between the bed and
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the window communicated with the room which my servant appropriated
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to himself. This last was a small room with a
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: sofa bed, and had no communication with the landing place.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: No other door but that which conducted to the bedroom
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I was to occupy. On either side of my fireplace
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: was a cupboard without locks flushed with the wall and
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: covered with the same dull brown paper. We examined these cupboards,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: only hooks to suspend female dresses, nothing else. We sounded
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the walls, evidently solid, the outer walls of the building.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Having finished the survey of these apartments, warmed myself a
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: few moments and lighted my cigar. I, then, still accompanied
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: by f went forth to complete my reconnoiter. In the
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: landing place, there was another door. It was closed firmly, Sir,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: said my servant in surprise. I unlocked this door with
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: all the others when I first came. It cannot have
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: got locked from the inside, for before he had finished
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: his sins, the door, which neither of us then was touching,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: opened quietly of itself. We looked at each other a
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: single instant. The same thought seized both some human agency
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: might be detected here. I rushed in first. My servant followed.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: A small, blank, dreary room without furniture, few empty boxes
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: and hampers in a corner, a small window, the shutters closed,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: not even a fireplace, no other door than that by
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: which we had entered. No carpet on the floor, and
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the floor seemed very old. Uneven worm eaten mended here
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: and there, as was shown by the whiter patches on
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the wood, but no living being, and no visible place
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: in which a living being could have hidden. As we
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: stood gazing round, the door by which we had entered
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: closed as quietly as it had before opened, we were imprisoned.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: For the first time. I felt a creep of undefinable horror.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Not so, my servant. Why they don't think to trap us, Sir,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: I could break the trumpery door with a kick of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: my foot. Try first, if it will open to your hand,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: said I, shaking off the vague apprehension that had seized me. Well,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: I unclose the shutters and see what is Without I
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: unbarred the shutters. The window looked on the little back
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: yard I have before described. There was no ledge, without
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: nothing to break the sheer descent of the wall. No
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: man getting out of that window would have found any
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: footing till he had fallen on the stones below. F meanwhile,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: was vainly attempting to open the door. He now turned
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: round to me and asked my permission to use force.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And I should here state in justice to my servant that,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: far from evincing any superstitious terrors. His nerve, composure, and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: even gayety amidst circumstances so extraordinary compelled my admiration and
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: made me congratulate myself on having secured a companion in
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: every way fitted to the occasion. I willingly gave him
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: the permission he required. But though he was a remarkably
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: strong man, his force was as idle as his milder efforts.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: The door did not even shake to his stoutest kick.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Breathless and panting, he desisted. I then tried the door,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: myself equally in vain. As I ceased from the effort,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: again that creep of horror came over me, But this
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: time it was more cold and stubborn. I felt as
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: if some strange and ghastly exhalation and were rising up
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: from the chinks of that rugged floor and filling the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: atmosphere with a vehemous influence hostile to human life. The
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: door now very slowly and quietly opened as of its
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: own accord. We precipitated ourselves into the landing place. We
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: both saw a large, pale light, as large as the
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: human figure, but shapeless and unsubstantial, move before us and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: ascend the stairs. That led from the landing into the attics.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I followed the light, and my servant followed me. It
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: entered to the right of the landing a small garret,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: of which the door stood open. I entered in the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: same instant. The light then collapsed into a small globule
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: exceedingly brilliant and vivid, rested a moment on a bed
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: in the corner, quivered and vanished. We approached the bed
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: and examined it a half tester, such as is commonly
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: found an attics devoted to servants. On the drawers that
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: stood near it, we perceived an old, faded silk kerchief
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: with the needle still left in a rent half repaired.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: The kerchief was covered with dust. Probably it had belonged
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: to the old woman who had last died in that house,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and this might have been her sleeping room. I had
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: sufficient curiosity to open the drawers. There were a few
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: odds and ends of female dress, and two letters tied
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: round with a narrow ribbon of faded yellow. I took
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the liberty to possess myself of the letters. We found
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: nothing else in the room worth noticing, nor did the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: light reappear, but we distinctly heard as we turned to go,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: a pattering footfall on the floor just before us. We
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: went through the other attics in all four, the footfall
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: still preceding us. Nothing to be seen, nothing but the
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: footfall heard. I had the letters in my hand. Just
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: as I was descending the stairs. I distinctly felt my
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: wrist seized, and a faint, soft effort made to draw
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: the letters from my clasp. I only held them the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: more tightly, and the efforts ceased. We regained the bed
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: chamber appropriated to myself, and I then remarked that my
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: dog had not followed us when we had left it.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: He was thrusting himself close to the fire and trembling.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: I was impatient to examine the letters, and while I
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: read them, my servant opened a little box in which
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: he had deposited the weapons I had ordered him to bring,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: took them out, placed them on a table close at
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: my bed head, and then occupied himself in soothing the dog,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: who however, seemed to heed him very little. The letters
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: were short, they were dated, the dates exactly thirty five
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: years ago. They were evidently from a lover to his
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: mistress or a husband to some young wife. Not only
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the terms of expression, but a distinct reference to a
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: former voyage indicated the writer to have been a seafarer.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: The spelling and handwriting were those of a man imperfectly educated,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: but still the language itself was forcible. In the expressions
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: of endearment, there was a kind of rough, wild love.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: But here and there were dark and unintelligible hints at
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: some secret not of love, some secret that seemed of crime.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: We ought to love each other was one of the
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: sentences I remember for how every one else would execrate
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: us if all was known. Again, don't let any one
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: be in the same room with you at night. You
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: talk in your sleep, And again, what's done can't be undone.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: And I tell you there's nothing against us unless the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: dead could come to life. Here there was underlined in
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: a better handwriting of female's they do, and the end
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of the letter latest in date. The same female hand
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: had written these words lost at sea the fourth of June,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: the same day as I put down the letters and
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: began to muse over their contents. Fearing, however, that the
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: train of thought into which I fell might unsteady my nerves,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: I fully determined to keep my mind in a fit
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: state to cope with whatever of marvelous the advancing night
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: might bring forth. I roused myself, laid the letters on
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: the table, stirred up the fire, which was still bright
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and cheering, and opened my volume of Macaulay. I read
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: quietly enough till about half past eleven. I then threw
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: myself dressed upon the bed and told my servant he
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: might retire to his own room, but must keep himself awake.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I bade him leave open the door between the two rooms.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Thus alone, I kept two candles burning on the table
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: by my bed head. I placed my watch beside the weapons,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and calmly resumed my Macaully Opposite to me. The fire
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: burned clear, and on the hearth rug, seemingly asleep lay
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the dog. In about twenty minutes, I felt an exceedingly
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: cold air pass by my cheek, like a sudden draft.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I fancied the door to my right, communicating with the
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: landing place must have got open, But no, it was closed.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I then turned my glance to my left and saw
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the flame of the candles violently swayed as by a wind.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: At the same moment, the watch beside the revolver softly
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: slid from the table, softly, softly, no visible hand. It
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: was gone. I sprang up, seizing the revolver with the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: one hand, the dagger with the other. I was not
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: willing that my weapons should share the same fate of
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the watch. Thus armed, I looked round the floor, no
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: sign of the watch. Three slow, loud, distinct knocks were
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: now heard at the bed head. My servant called out,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: is that you, sir, no be on your guard. The
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: dog now roused himself and sat on his haunches, his
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: ears moving quickly backwards and forwards. He kept his eyes
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: fixed on me, with a look so strange that he
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: consentered all my attention on himself. Slowly he rose up,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: all his hair bristling, and stood perfectly rigid and with
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the same wild stare. I had no time, however, to
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: examine the dog. Presently my servant emerged from his room.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: And if I ever saw horror in the human face
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: it was then I should not have recognized him had
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: we met in the street. So altered was his every lineament.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: He passed by me, quickly, saying, in a whisper that
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: seemed scarcely to come from his lips, run, run, it
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: is after me. He gained the door to the landing,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: pulled it open, and rushed forth. I followed him into
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the landing, involuntarily calling him to stop, but without heeding me,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: he bounded down the stairs, clinging to the balusters and
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: taking several steps at a time. I heard where I
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: stood the street door open, heard it again, clap two.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: I was left alone in the haunted house. It was
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: but for a moment that I remained undecided whether or
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: not to follow my servant. Pride and curiosity alike forbade
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: so dastardly a flight. I re entered my room, closing
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the door after me, and proceeded cautiously into the interior chamber.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I encountered nothing to justify my servant's terror. I again
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: carefully examined the walls to see if there were any
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: concealed door. I could find no trace of one, not
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: even a seam in the dull brown paper with which
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the room was hung. How then, had the thing, whatever
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: it was, which had so scared him, obtained ingress except
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: through my own chamber. I returned to my room, shut
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: and locked the door that opened upon the interior one,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and stood on the hearth, expectant and prepared I now
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: perceived that the dog had slunk into an angle of
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the wall, and was pressing himself close against it, as
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: if literally striving to force his way into it. I
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: approached the animal and spoke to it. The poor brute
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: was evidently beside itself with terror. It showed all its teeth,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: the slaver dropping from its jaws, and would certainly have
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: bitten me if I had touched it. It did not
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: seem to recognize me. Whoever is seen at the zoological
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: gardens a rabbit fascinated by a serpent cowering in a corner,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: may form some idea of the anguish which the dog exhibited.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: Finding all efforts to soothe the animal in vain, and
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: fearing that his bite might be as venomous in that
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: state as in the madness of hydrophobia, I left him alone,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: placed my weapons on the table beside the fire, seated myself,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and recommenced my macaulay. Perhaps in order not to appear
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: seeking credit for a courage, or rather a coolness, which
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the reader may conceive I exaggerate. I may be pardoned
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: if I pause to indulge in one or two egotistical remarks,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: as I hold presence of mind, or what is called courage,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: to be precisely proportioned of familiarity with the circumstances that
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: lead to it. So I should say that I had
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: been long sufficiently familiar with all experiments that appertained to
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: the marvelous. I had witnessed many very extraordinary phenomena in
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: various parts of the world, phenomena that would be either
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: totally disbelieved if I stated them, or ascribed to supernatural agencies.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Now my theory is that the supernatural is the impossible,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and that what is called supernatural is only a something
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: in the laws of nature of which we have been
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: hitherto ignorant. Therefore, if a ghost rise before me, I
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: have not the right to say so, then the supernatural
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: is possible. But rather so, then the apparition of a
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: ghost is contrary to received opinion within the laws of nature,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: i e. Not supernatural. Now, in all that I had
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: hitherto witnessed, and indeed all the wonders which the amateurs
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of mystery in our age record as facts, a material
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: living agency is always required. On the continent. You will
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: find still magicians who assert that they can raise spirits,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: assume for the moment that they can assert truly. Still,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the living material form of the magician is present, and
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: he is the material agency by which, from some constitutional peculiarities,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: certain strange phenomena are represented to your natural senses. Except again,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: as truthful the tales of spirit manifestation in America, musical
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: or other sounds, writings on paper produced by no discernible hand,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: articles of furniture moved without apparent human agency, or the
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: actual sight and touch of hands to which no bodies
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: seem to belong. Still, there must be found the medium
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: or living being with constitutional peculiarities capable of obtaining these
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: signs in fine in all such marvels. Supposing even that
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: there is no imposture, there must be a human being
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: like ourselves, by whom or through whom the effects presented
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: to human beings are produced. It is so with the
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: now familiar phenomena of mesmerism or electro biology. The mind
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: of the person operated on is effected through a material
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: living agent. Nor, supposing it is true that a mesmerized
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: patient can respond to the will or passes of a
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: mesmerizer one hundred miles distant, is the response less occasioned
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: by a material fluid, Call it electric, call it odic,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: call it what you will, which has the power of
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: traversing space and passing obstacles, that the material effect is
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: communicated from one to the other. Hence, all that I
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: had hitherto witnessed or expected to witness in this strange
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: house I believed to be occasioned through some agency or
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: medium as mortal as myself. And this idea necessarily prevented
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: the awe with which those who regard as supernatural things
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: that are not within the ordinary operations of nature might
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: have been impressed by the adventure of that memorable night.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: As then, it was my conjecture that all that was
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: presented or would be presented to my senses must originate
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: in some human being, gifted by Constitution with the power
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: so to present them, and having some motive so to do.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I felt an interest in my theory, which in its
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: way was rather philosophical than superstitious, and I can sincerely
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: say that I was in as tranquil a temper for
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: observation as any practical experimentalist could be in awaiting the
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: effect of some rare, though perhaps perilous, chemical combination. Of course,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the more I kept my mind attached from fancy, the
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: more the temper fitted for observation would be obtained. And
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I therefore riveted eye and thought on the strong daylight.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Since in the page of my Macaulay, I now became
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: aware that something interposed between the page and the light.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: The page was overshadowed. I looked up and I saw
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: what I shall find it very difficult, perhaps impossible to describe.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: It was a darkness shaping itself forth from the air,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: and very undefined outline. I cannot say it was of
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: a human form, and yet it had more resemblance to
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: a human form, or rather shadow, than to anything else.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: As it stood wholly apart and distinct from the air
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: and the light around it, its dimensions seemed gigantic, the
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: summit nearly touching the ceiling. While I gazed, a feeling
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: of intense cold seized me. An iceberg before me could
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: not more have chilled me, nor could the cold of
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: an iceberg have been more purely physical. I feel convinced
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: that it was not the cold caused by fear. As
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I continued to gaze, I thought, but this I cannot
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: say with precision. That I distinguished two eyes looking down
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: on me from the height. One moment I fancied that
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I distinguished them clearly. The next they seemed gone. But
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: still two rays of a pale blue light frequently shot
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: through the darkness, as from the height on which I believed,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: half doubted that I had encountered the eyes. I strove
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: to speak, My voice utterly failed me. I could only think,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: to myself, is this fear? It is not fear. I
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: strove to rise in vain. I felt as if weighed
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: down by an irresistible force. Indeed, my impression was that
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: of an immense and overwhelming power opposed to any volition.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: The sense of utter inadequacy to cope with a force
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: beyond man's, which one may feel physically in a storm
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: at sea, in a conflagration, or when confronting some terrible
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: wild beast, or rather perhaps the shark of the ocean.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I felt morally opposed to my will was another will,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: as far superior to its strength, as storm, fire and
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: shark are superior and material force to the force of man.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: And now, as this impression grew on me, now came
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: at last horror, horror to a degree that no word
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: can convey. Still I retained pride, if not courage, and
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: in my own mind I said, this is horror, but
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: it is not fear. Unless I fear, I cannot be harmed.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: My reason rejects this thing. It is an illusion. I
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: do not fear. With a violent effort, I succeeded at
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: last in stretching out my hand towards the weapon on
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: the table. As I did so on the arm and shoulder,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I received a strange shock, and my arm felt to
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: my side powerless. And now, to add to my horror,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: the light began slowly to wane from the candles. They
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: were not, as it were, extinguished, but their flame seemed
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: very gradually withdrawn. It was the same with the fire.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: The light was extracted from the fuel. In a few minutes,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: the room was in utter darkness. The dread that came
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: over me. To be thus in the dark with that
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: dark thing, whose power was so intensely felt, brought a
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: reaction of nerve. In fact, terror had reached that climax
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: that either my senses must have deserted me or I
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: must have burst through the spell. I did burst through it.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I found voice, though the voice was a shriek. I
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: remember that I broke forth with words like these. I
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: do not fear. My soul does not fear. And at
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the same time I found the strength to rise. Still
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: in that profound gloom, I rushed to one of the windows,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: tore aside the curtain, flung open the shutters. My first
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: thought was light, and when I saw the moon, high,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: clear and calm, I felt a joy that almost compensated
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: for the previous terror. There was the moon. There was
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: also the light from the gas lamps in the deserted,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: slumbrous street. I turned to look back into the room.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: The moon penetrated its shadow, very palely and partially, but
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: still there was light. The dark thing, whatever it might be,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: was gone, except that I could yet see a dim shadow,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: which seemed the shadow of that shade against the opposite wall.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: My eye now rested on the tile, and from under
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the table, which was without cloth or cover, an old
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: mahogany round table, there rose a hand, visible as far
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: as the wrist. It was a hand seemingly as much
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: of flesh and blood as my own, but the hen
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: of an aged person lean wrinkled small to a woman's hand.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: That hand very softly closed on the two letters that
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: lay on the table. Hand in letters both vanished. Then
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: there came the same three loud, measured knocks I heard
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: at the bed head. Before this extraordinary drama had commenced,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: As though sounds slowly ceased, I felt the whole room
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: vibrate sensibly, And at the far end there rose, as
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: from the floor, sparks or globules, like bubbles of light,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: many colored green, yellow, fire, red, azure, up and down
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: to and fro hither thither's tiny will of the wisps.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: The sparks moved slow or swift, each at his own caprice.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: A chair, as in the drawing room below, was now
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: advanced from the wall without apparent agency, and placed at
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: the opposite side of the table. Suddenly, as forth from
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: the chair, there grew a shape, a woman's shape. It
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: was distinct as a shape of life, ghastly as a
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: shape of death. The face was that of youth, with
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: a strange, mournful beauty. Throat and shoulders were bare, the
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: rest of the form in a loose robe of cloudy white.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: It began sleeking, its long yellow hair, which fell over
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: its shoulders. Its eyes were not turned towards me, but
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: to the door. It seemed listening, watching, waiting. The shadow
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: of the shade in the background grew darker, and again
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: I thought I beheld the eyes gleaming out from the
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: summit of the shadow. Eyes fixed upon that shape, as
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: if from the door, though it did not open, There
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: grew out another shape, equally distinct, equally ghastly, a man's shape,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: a young man's It was in the dress of the
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: last century, or rather in a likeness of such dress.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: For both the male shape and the female, though defined,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: were evidently unsubstantial, impalpable, simulcra phanfasms. There was something incongruous, grotesque,
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: yet fearful in the contrast between the elaborate finery, the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: courtly precision of that old fashioned garb with its ruffles
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: and lace and buckles, and the corpselike aspect and ghostlike
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: stillness of the flitting wearer. Just as the male shape
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: approached the female, the dark shadows started from the wall,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: all three for a moment wrapped in darkness. When the
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: pale light returned, the two phantoms were as in the
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: grasp of the shadow that towered between them. There was
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: a blood stain on the breast of the female, and
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: the phantom male was leaning on its phantom's sword, and
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: blood seemed trickling fast from the ruffles from the lace,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: and the darkness of the intermediate shadow swallowed them up.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: They were gone. And again the bubbles of light shot
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: and sailed and undulated, growing thicker and thicker and more
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: wildly confused in their movements. The closet door to the
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: right of the fireplace now opened, and from the aperture
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: there came the form of an aged woman. In her
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: hand she held letters, the very letters over which I
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: had seen the hand close, and behind her I heard
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: a footstep. She turned round as if to listen, and
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: then she opened the letters and seemed to read. And
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: over her shoulder I saw a livid face, the face
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: as of a man, long drowned, bloated, bleached, seaweed tangled
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: in its dripping hair. And at her feet lay a
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: form as of a corpse. And beside the corpse there
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: cowered a child, a miserable, squalid child, with famine in
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: its cheeks and fear in its eyes. And as I
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: looked in the old woman's face, the wrinkles and lines vanished,
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: and it became a face of youth, hard eyed, stony,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: but stead, and the shadow darted forth and darkened over
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: these phantoms, as it had darkened over the last. Nothing
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: now was left but the shadow, and on that my
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: eyes were intently fixed, till again eyes grew out of
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: the shadow, malignant serpent eyes. And the bubbles of light
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: again rose and fell, and in their disorder, irregular, turbulent
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: maze mingled with the wan moonlight. And now from these
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: globules themselves, as from the shell of an egg, monstrous
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: things burst out. The air grew filled with them, larvae
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: so bloodless and so hideous, that I can in no
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: way describe them, except to remind the reader of the
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: swarming life which the solar microscope brings before his eyes
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: in a drop of water, things transparent, supple, agile, chasing
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: each other, devouring each other, forms like naught ever beheld
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: by the naked eye. As the shapes were without symmetry,
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: so their movements were without order. In their very vagrancies,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: there was no sport. They came round me and round,
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: thicker and faster and swifter, swarming over my head, crawling
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: over my right arm, which was outstretched an involuntary command
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: against all evil beings. Sometimes I felt myself touched, but
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: not by them invisible hands touched me. Once, I felt
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: a clutch as of cold, soft fingers at my throat.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: I was still equally conscious that if I gave way
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: to fear, I should be in bodily peril. And I
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: concentrated all my faculties in the single focus of resisting
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: stubborn will. And I turned my sight from the shadow above, all,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: from those strange serpent eyes, eyes that had now become
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: distinctly visible. For there, though in naught else round me,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: I was aware that there was a will, and a
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: will of intense, creative, working evil, which might crush down
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: my own. The pale atmosphere in the room began now
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: to redden as if in the air of some near conflagration.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: The larvae grew lurid as things that live in fire. Again,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: the room vibrated, again, were heard the three measured knocks,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: and again all things were swallowed up in the darkness
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: of the dark shadow, as if out of that darkness
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: all had come into that darkness, all returned. As the
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: gloom receded, the shadow was wholly gone, slowly as it
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: had been withdrawn. The flame grew again into the candles
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: on the table, again into the fuel in the grate.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: The whole room came once more calmly, healthily into sight.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: The two doors were still closed, the door communicating with
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: the servant's room still locked. In the corner of the
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: wall into which he had so convulsively niched himself, lay
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: the dog. I called to him. No movement. I approached.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: The animal was dead. His eyes protruded, his tongue out
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: of his mouth. The froth gathered round his jaws. I
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: took him in my arms. I brought him to the fire.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: I felt acute grief for the loss of my poor favorite,
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: acute self reproach. I accused myself of his death. I
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: imagined he had died of fright. But what was my
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: surprise on finding that his neck was actually broken? Had
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: this been done in the dark? Must it not have
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: been by a hand human as mine? Must there not
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: have been a human agency all the while in that room?
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: Good cause to suspect it? I cannot tell. I cannot
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: do more than state the fact fairly. The reader may
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: draw his own inference. Another surprising circumstance, my watch was
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: restored to the table from which it had been so
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: mysteriously withdrawn, But it had stopped at the very moment
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: it was so withdrawn. Nor despite all the skill of
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: the watchmaker, has it ever gone since that is, it
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: will go in a strange, erratic way for a few hours,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: and then come to a dead stop. It is worthless,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: nothing more chanced for the rest of the night. Nor indeed,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: had I long to wait before the dawn broke, nor
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: till it was broad daylight did I quit the haunted house.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Before I did so, I revisited the little blind room
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: in which my servant and myself had been for a
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: time imprisoned. I had a strong impression for which I
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: could not account, that from that room had originated the
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: mechanism of the phenomena, if I may use the term,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: which had been experienced in my chamber. And though I
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: entered it now in the clear day, with the sun
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: peering through the filmy window, I still felt, as I
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: stood on its floor the creep of the horror which
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: I had first there experienced the night before, and which
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: had been so aggravated by what had passed in my
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: own chamber. I could not, indeed bear to stay more
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: than half a minute within those walls. I descended the stairs,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: and again I heard the footfall before me, and when
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: I opened the street door, I thought I could distinguish
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: a very low laugh. I gained my own home, expecting
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: to find my runaway servant there, but he had not
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: presented himself, nor did I hear more of him for
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: three days, when I received a letter from him, dated
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: from Liverpool, to this effect, Honored Sir, I humbly entreat
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: your pardon, though I can scarcely hope that you will
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: think I deserve it, unless which Heaven forbid, you saw
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: what I did. I feel that it will be years
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: before I can recover myself, and as to being fit
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: for service, it is out of the question. I am
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: therefore going to my brother in law at Melbourne. The
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: ship sails tomorrow. Perhaps the long voyage may set me up.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: I do nothing now but start and tremble, and fancy
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: it is behind me. I humbly beg you, honored Sir,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: to order my clothes and whatever wages are due to me,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: to be sent to my mother's at Walworth. John knows
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: her address. The letter ended with additional apologies, somewhat incoherent,
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: and explanatory details as to effects that had been under
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: the writer's charge this flight may perhaps warrant a suspicion
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: that the man wished to go to Australia and had
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: been somehow or other fraudulently mixed up with the events
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: of the night. I say nothing in refutation to that conjecture. Rather,
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: I suggest it as one that would seem to many
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: persons the most probable solution of improbable occurrences. My belief
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: my own theory remained unshaken. I returned in the evening
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: to the house to bring away in a hack cab
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: the things I had left there, with my poor dog's body.
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: In this task I was not disturbed, nor did any
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: incident worth note befall me, except that, still on ascending
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: and descending the stairs, I heard the same footfall in advance.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: On leaving the house, I went to mister Jays. He
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: was at home. I returned him the keys, told him
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: that my curiosity was sufficiently gratified, and was about to
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: relate quickly what had passed, when he stopped me and said,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: though with much politeness, that he had no longer any
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: interest in a mystery which none had ever solved. I
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: determined at least to tell him of the two letters
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: I had read, as well as of the extraordinary manner
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: in which they had disappeared. And I then inquired if
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: he thought they had been addressed to the woman who
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: had died in the house, and if there were anything
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: in her early history which could possibly confirm the dark
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: suspicions to which the letters gave. Mister Jay seemed startled, and,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: after musing a few moments, answered, I am but little
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: acquainted when the woman's earlier history, except as I before
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: told you that her family were known to mine, but
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: you revive some vague reminiscences to her prejudice. I will
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: make enquiries and inform you of their result. Still, even
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: if we could admit the popular superstition that a person
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: who had been either the perpetrator or the victim of
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: dark crimes in life could revisit, as a restless spirit,
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: the scene in which those crimes had been committed, I
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: should observe that the house was infested by strange sights
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: and sounds before the old woman died. You smile, What
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: would you say? I would say this that I am convinced,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: if we could get to the bottom of these mysteries,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: we should find a living human agency. What you believe
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: it is all an imposture for what object not an
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: imposture in the ordinary sense of the word. If suddenly
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: I were to sink into a deep sleep from which
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: you could not awake me, but in that sleep could
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: answer questions with an accuracy which I could not pretend
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: to when awake. Tell you what money you had in
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: your pocket, nay, describe your very thoughts. It is not
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: necessarily an imposture any more than it is necessarily supernatural.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: I should be unconsciously to myself under a mesmeric influence
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: conveyed to me from a distance by a human being
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: who had acquired power over me by previous rapport. But
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: if a mesmerizer could so affect another living being, can
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: you suppose that a mesmerizer could also affect inanimate objects,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: move chairs, open and shut doors, or impress our senses.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: With the belief in such effects, we never having been
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: a rapport with the person acting on us. No, what
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: is commonly called mesmerism could not do this. But there
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: may be a power akin to mesmerism and superior to it,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: the power that in the old days was called magic.
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: That such a power may extend to all inanimate objects
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: of matter. I do not say but if so, it
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: would not be against nature. It would only be a
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: rare power in nature, which might be given to constitutions
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: with certain peculiarities, and cultivated by practice to an extraordinary degree.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: That such a power might extend over the dead, that is,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: over certain thoughts and memories, that the dead may still
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: retain and compel. Not that which ought properly to be
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: called the soul, and which is far beyond human reach,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: but rather a phantom of what has been most earth
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: stained on earth. To make itself apparent to our senses
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: is a very ancient, though obsolete theory upon which I
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: will hazard no opinion. But I do not conceive the
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: power would be supernatural. Let me illustrate what I mean
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: from an experiment which Paracelsus describes as not difficult, in
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: which the author of the Curiosities of Literature site is credible.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: A flower perishes, you burn it whatever where. The elements
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: of that flower while it lived are gone, dispersed. You
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: know not whither. You can never discover nor recollect them.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: But you can, by chemistry, out of the burnt dust
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: of that flower, raise a spectrum of the flower, just
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: as it seemed in life. It may be the same
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: with the human being. The soul has as much escaped
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: you as the essence or elements of the flower. Still
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: you may make a spectrum of it. And this phantom,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: though in popular superstition it is held to be the
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: soul of the departed, must not be confounded with the
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: true soul. It is but idolon of the dead form. Hence,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: like the best attested stories of ghosts or spirits, the
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: thing that most strikes us is the absence of what
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: we hold to be soul, that is, of superior, emancipated intelligence.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: These apparitions come for little or no object. They seldom
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: speak when they do come. If they speak, they utter
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: no ideas above those of an ordinary person on earth.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: American spirit seers have published volumes of communications in prose
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: and verse, which they assert to be given in the
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: names of the most illustrious dead, Shakespeare, Bacon, heaven knows whom.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Those communications, taking the best are certainly not a whit
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: of higher order that would be communications from a living
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: persons of fair talent and education. They are wondrously inferior
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: to what Bacon, Shakespeare, and Plato said and wrote when
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: on earth. Nor what is more noticeable. Do they ever
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: contain an idea that was not on earth before wonderful?
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: Therefore such phenomena may be, granting them to be truthful.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: I see much that philosophy may question. Nothing that is
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: incumbent on philosophy to deny visa be nothing supernatural. They
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: are but ideas conveyed somehow or other. We have not
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: yet discovered the means from one mortal brain to another,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: whether in doing so, tables walk of their own accord,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: or fiendlike shapes appear in a magic circle, or bodiless
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: hands rise and remove material objects, or a thing of darkness,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: such as presented itself to me frees our blood. Still
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: am I persuaded that these are but agencies conveyed, as
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: if by electric wires, to my own brain from the
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: brain of another, and some constitutions. There is a natural chemistry,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: and these constitutions may produce chemic wonders. In others of
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: natural fluid, call it electricity, and these may produce electric wonders.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: But the wonders differ from normal science in this They
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: are alike objectless, purposeless, puerile, frivolous. They lead on to
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: no grand results, and therefore the world does not heed,
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: and true sages have not cultivated them. But sure as
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: I am that of all I saw or heard a
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: man human as myself, was the remote originator, and I
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: believe unconsciously to himself as to the exact effects produced.
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: For this reason, no two persons, you say, have ever
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: told you that they experienced exactly the same thing. Well,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: observe no two persons ever experience exactly the same dream.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: If this were an ordinary imposture, the machinery would be
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: arranged for results that would but little vary. If it
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: were a supernatural agency permitted by the Almighty, it would
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: surely be for some definite end. These phenomena belong to
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: neither class. My persuasion is that they originate in some
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: brain now far distant. That the brain had no distinct
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: volition in anything that occurred. That what does occur reflects
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: but its devious motley, ever shifting half formed thoughts. In short,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: that it has been but the dreams of such a
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: brain put into action and invested with a semi substance.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: That this brain is of immense power, that it can
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: set matter and movement, That it is malignant and destructive.
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: I believe some material force must have killed my dog.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: The same force might fraud, I know, have sufficed to
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: kill myself had I been as subjugated by terror as
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: the dog, had my intellect or my spirit given me
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: no countervailing resistance in my will? Good killed your dog?
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: That is fearful. Indeed, it is strange that no animal
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: can be induced to stay in that house, not even
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: a cat. Rats and miser never found in it. The
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: instincts of the brute creation detect influences deadly to their existence.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: Man's reason has a sense less subtle because it has
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: a resisting power more supreme. But enough, do you comprehend
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: my theory? Yes, though imperfectly, and I accept any crochet
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: pardon the word, however odd, rather than embrace at once
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: the notion of ghosts and hobcoblins we imbibed in our nurseries.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: Still to my unfortunate house, the evil is the same.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: What on earth can I do with the house? I
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: will tell you what I would do. I am convinced
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: from my own internal feelings that the small, unfurnished room
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: at right angles to the door of the bedroom which
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: I occupied, forms a starting point or receptacle for the
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: influences which haunt the house, and I strongly advise you
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: to have the walls opened, the floor removed, nay, the
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: whole room pulled down. I observe that it is detached
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: from the body of the house, built over the small
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: back yard, and could be removed without injury to the
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: rest of the building. And you think if I did
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: that you would cut off the telegraph wires. Try it.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: I am so persuaded that I am right that I
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: will pay half the expense if you will allow me
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: to direct the operations. Nay, I am well able to
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: afford the cost for the rest. Allow me to write
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: to you. About ten days afterwards, I received a letter
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: from mister j telling me that he had visited the
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: house since I had seen him, That he had found
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: the two letters I described replaced in the drawer from
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: which I had taken them, That he had read them
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: with misgivings like my own. That he had instituted a
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: cautious inquiry about the woman to whom I rightly conjectured
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: they had been written. It seemed that thirty six years ago,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: a year before the date of the letters, she had
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: married against the wishes of her relations. An American of
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: very suspicious character. In fact, he was generally believed to
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: have been a pirate. She herself was the daughter of
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: very respectable tradespeople, and had served in the capacity of
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: nursery governess before her marriage. She had a brother, a
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: widower who was considered wealthy, and who had one child
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: of about six years old. A month after the marriage,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: the body of this brother was found in the Thames
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: near London Bridge. There seemed some marks of violence about
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: his throat, but they were not deemed sufficient to warrant
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: the inquest in any other verdict than that of found drowned.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: The American and his wife took charge of the little boy.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: The deceased brother having by his will left his sister
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: the guardian of his only child, and in the event
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: of the child's death, the sister inherited. The child died
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: about six months afterwards. It was supposed to have been
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: neglected and ill treated. The neighbors deposed to have heard
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: its shriek at night. The surgeon who had examined it
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: after death, said that it was emaciated, as if from
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: want of nourishment, and the body was covered with livid bruises.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: It seemed that one winter night, the child had sought
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: to escape, crept out into the back yard, tried to
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: scale the wall, fallen back, exhausted, and been found at
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: morning on the stones in a dying state. But though
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: there was some evidence of cruelty, there was none of murder,
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: and the aunt and her husband had sought to palliate
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: cruelty by a ledging the exceeding stubbornness and perversity of
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: the child, who was declared to be half witted. Be
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: that as it may. At the orphan's death, the aunt
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: inherited her brother's fortune. Before the first wedded year was out,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: the American quitted England abruptly and never returned to it.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: He obtained a cruising vessel, which was lost in the
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Atlantic two years afterwards. The widow was left in affluence,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: but reverses of various kinds had befallen her. A bank broke,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: an investment failed, She went into a small business and
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: became insolvent. Then she entered into service, sinking lower and lower,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: from housekeeper down to maid of all work, never long
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: retaining a place. Though nothing decided against her character was
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: ever alleged. She was considered sober, honest and piquiteculiarly quiet
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: in her ways. Still nothing prospered with her, and so
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: she had dropped into the workhouse from which mister Jay
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: had taken her to be placed in charge of the
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: very house which she had rented as mistress in the
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: first year of her wedded life. Mister Jay added that
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: he had passed an hour alone in the unfurnished room
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: which I had urged him to destroy, and that his
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: impressions of dread while there were so great, though he
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: had neither heard nor seen anything, that he was eager
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: to have the walls bared and the floors removed as
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: I had suggested. He had engaged persons for the work,
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: and would commence any day I would name. The day
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: was accordingly fixed, I repaired to the haunted house. He
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: went into the blind, dreary room, took up the skirting
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: and then the floors. Under the rafters, covered with rubbish,
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: was found a trap door, quite large enough to admit
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: a man. It was closely nailed down with clamps and
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: rivets of iron. On removing these, we descended into a
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: room below the existence of which had never been suspected.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: In this room there had been a window and a flew,
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: but they had been bricked over, evidently for many years.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: By the help of candles, we examined this place. It
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: still retained some moldering furniture, three chairs and oak settle
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: a table, all of the fashion of about eighty years ago.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: There was a chest of drawers against the wall, in
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: which we found half rotted away, old fashioned articles of
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: a man's dress, such as might have been worn eighty
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: or a hundred years ago by a gentleman of some rank,
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: costly steel buckles and buttons like those yet worn in
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: court dresses, a handsome court sword in a waistcoat which
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: had once been rich with gold lace, but which was
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: now blackened and foul with damp. We found five guineas,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: a few silver coins, and an ivory ticket, probably for
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: some place of entertainment long since passed away. But our
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: main discovery was in a kind of iron safe fixed
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: to the wall, the lock of which it cost us
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: much trouble to get picked. In this safe were three
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: shelves and two small drawers. Ranged on the shelves were
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: several small bottles of crystal, hermetically stopped. They contained colorless,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: volatile essences of the nature of which I shall say
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: only that they were not poisons. Phosphor and ammonia entered
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: into some of them. There were also some very curious
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: glass tubes, and a small pointed rod of iron with
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: a large lump of rock crystal, and another of amber,
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: also a lodestone of great power. In one of the
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: drawers we found a miniature portrait, set in gold and
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: retaining the freshness of its colors, most remarkably considering the
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: length of time and had probably been there. The portrait
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: was that of a man who might be somewhat advanced
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: in middle life, perhaps forty seven or forty eight. It
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: was a remarkable face, a most impressive face. If you
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: could fancy some mighty serpent transformed into a man preserving
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: in the human lineaments the old serpent type, you would
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: have a better idea of that countenance than long descriptions
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: can convey. The width and flatness of frontal, the tapering
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: elegance of contour disguising the strength of the deadly jaw,
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: the long, large, terrible eye, glittering and green as the emerald,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: and with all a certain ruthless came as if from
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: the consciousness of an immense power. Mechanically I turned round
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: the miniature to examine the back of it, and on
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: the back was engraved a pentacle. In the middle of
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the pentacle a ladder, and the third step of the
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: ladder was formed by the date seventeen sixty five. Examining
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: still more minutely, I detected a spring. This, on being pressed,
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: opened the back of the miniature as a lid. Withinside
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: the lid were engraved Marianna, to THEE be faithful in
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: life and in death. To here follows a name that
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: I will not mention. But it was not unfamiliar to me.
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: I had heard it spoken of by old men in
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: my childhood, as the name borne by a dazzling charlatan
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: who had made a great sensation in London for a
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: year or so, and had fled the country on the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: charge of a double murder within his own house, that
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: of his mistress and his rival. I said nothing of
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: this to mister Jay, to whom reluctantly I resigned the miniature.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: We had found no difficulty in opening the first drawer
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: within the iron safe, we found great difficulty in opening
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: the second. It was not locked, but it resisted all
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: efforts till we inserted in the chinks the edge of
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: a chisel. When we had thus drawn it forth, we
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: found a very singular apparatus in the nicest order. Upon
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: a small thin book, or rather tablet, was placed a
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: saucer of crystal. This saucer was filled with a clear liquid.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: On that liquid floated a kind of compass with a
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: needle shifting rapidly round. But instead of the usual points
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: of a compass were seven strange characters, not very unlike
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: those used by astrologers to denote the planets. A peculiar
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: but not strong nor displeasing odor came from this drawer,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: which was lined with a wood that we afterwards discovered
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: to be hazel. Whatever the cause of this odor, it
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: produced a material effect on the nerves. We all felt it,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: even the two workmen who were in the room, a creeping,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: tingling sensation from the tips of the fingers to the
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: roots of the hair. Impatient to examine the tablet, I
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: removed the saucer. As I did so, the needle of
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: the compass went round and round with exceeding swiftness, and
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: I felt a shock that ran through my whole frame,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: so that I dropped the saucer on the floor. The
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: liquid was spilt, the saucer was broken, the compass rolled
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: to the end of the room, and at that instant
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: the walls shook to and fro as if a giant
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: had swayed and rocked them. The two workmen were so
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: frightened that they ran up the ladder by which we
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: had descended from the trap door. But seeing that nothing
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: more happened, they were easily induced to return. Meanwhile, I
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: had opened the tablet. It was bound in plain red
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: leather with a silver clasp. It contained but one sheet
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: of thick vellum, and on that sheet were inscribed, within
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: a double pentacle, words and old Monkish Latin, which are
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: literally to be translated. Thus on all that it can
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: be reached within these walls. Since yet or inanimate, living
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: or dead, as moves the needle, so work my will.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: A cursed be the house, and restless be the dwellers.
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Therein we found no more. Mister Jay burnt the tablet
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: and its annunthema. He raised to the foundations the part
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: of the building containing the secret room with the chamber
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: over it. He had then the courage to inhabit the
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: house himself for a month, and a quieter, better conditioned
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: house could not be found in all London. Subsequently, he
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: led it to advantage, and his tenant has made no complaints.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: End of Section four