Latest / The Black Cat and other Short Stories / Black Cat Vol. 05 No. 02 November 1899-Various

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Black Cat Vol. 05 No. 02 November 1899-Various · The Black Cat and other Short Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section one of The Black Cat, Volume five, number two,
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  Speaker 1: November eighteen ninety nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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  Speaker 1: are to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
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  Speaker 1: April six zero nine zero The Black Cat, Volume five
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  Speaker 1: number two, November eighteen ninety nine. Section one, A Daughter
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  Speaker 1: of the Sun by Samuel Scoville Junior. On the east
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  Speaker 1: appears a copper colored streak brightening through tawny reds to
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  Speaker 1: a flame colored glow. A moment of waiting with the
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  Speaker 1: steely sky all tense, and then dawn flashes and post
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  Speaker 1: desert awakes the southernmost of all the Arizona posts, with
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  Speaker 1: the scorching sands of the desert licking its adobe wall.
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  Speaker 1: It stands in the heart of the Apache country. Through
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  Speaker 1: the dew drenched sage bush. Sleepy troopers stumble this morning,
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  Speaker 1: sinching up winnying Broncos, who, when mounted buck vigorously as
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  Speaker 1: a protest against such early rising for last night. Two scouts,
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  Speaker 1: their weary horses, white with lather, pounded at the gates
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  Speaker 1: from General Crook, the guardian of all that waste land.
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  Speaker 1: They came lone Wolf. After a year of quiet preparation,
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  Speaker 1: is once more on the warpath with his band of apaches,
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  Speaker 1: leaving a trail of blood and ashes. They are sweeping
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  Speaker 1: southward to the desert, where among the rocks and canyons
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  Speaker 1: they can evade all pursuit if only Krook's little army
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  Speaker 1: can be passed or broken through. So messengers have hurried
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  Speaker 1: to every post, summoning every man able to back a horse.
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  Speaker 1: Even if the Reds break through, the General counts on
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  Speaker 1: a pursuit too close to permit them to attack the
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  Speaker 1: almost deserted posts at the post desert. The grisp old
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  Speaker 1: Colonel has decided to leave behind the two scouts to
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  Speaker 1: rest from their hard ride. They will be also the
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  Speaker 1: sole protectors of the women and children of the little garrison,
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  Speaker 1: for none others are left but Joe the Cook, too
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  Speaker 1: valuable to be lightly risked in a skirmish, and two
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  Speaker 1: troopers in the hospital. But from the Black Hills to
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  Speaker 1: the Guille River, there are no more noted Indian fighters
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  Speaker 1: than these two scouts, the Wells brothers. The Indians themselves
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  Speaker 1: have nicknamed one death from his infallible aim, while the
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  Speaker 1: other is called dumb because for years no one save
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  Speaker 1: possibly his brother, has heard him speak. As the men
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  Speaker 1: file out into the red dawn of this blazing August day,
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  Speaker 1: there canters out to see them depart, a girl of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen with a skin as brown as her tan gauntlets,
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  Speaker 1: and gray eyes that look out from under long black lashes.
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  Speaker 1: Strange eyes that can darken to match the great coil
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  Speaker 1: of dusky hair, or brighton like the glint on on steel,
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  Speaker 1: Eyes that can do anything but flinch or waver. The
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  Speaker 1: truest dearest eyes in the world, thinks Lieutenant Ardly of
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  Speaker 1: the signal course. As Alex Claverac gallops up to say
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  Speaker 1: goodbye to her uncle, the Colonel. Her horse Knight is
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  Speaker 1: worthy of the rider without a single white hair. His
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  Speaker 1: magnificent quarters and satiny skin so thin that all the
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  Speaker 1: tracery of veins beneath shows through mark him as a thoroughbred.
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  Speaker 1: At the sight of the long line of sulky little
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  Speaker 1: broncos with their jingling accouterments, Knight stands on his hind
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  Speaker 1: legs and gives Alice an opportunity to display equitation that
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  Speaker 1: dmiring troop will swear to be unequaled on the plains.
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  Speaker 1: In a minute, she was brought night down on his
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  Speaker 1: feet again, a bunch of trinkets tinkling against the silver
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  Speaker 1: backed hand mirror hanging at her belt, and deftly Radanes
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  Speaker 1: hymn alongside the colonel. As the bluff soldier tries to
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  Speaker 1: make his parting words as light and reassuring as possible,
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  Speaker 1: he notes with disapproval the glance of understanding passing between
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  Speaker 1: his lovely niece and the young and ineligible lieutenant, who
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  Speaker 1: he suddenly remembers has been monopolizing Alice's society the past month. Soon,
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  Speaker 1: the rapid, even lope of the tireless Bronchos carries the
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  Speaker 1: troopers of the seventh Cavalry beyond the range of a
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  Speaker 1: vision of the anxious eyes at Post Desert, strained to
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  Speaker 1: catch the last glimpse of the dust cloud marking their
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  Speaker 1: way as it disappears in the lonely north along after
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  Speaker 1: they are out of sight of the post, the worthy
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  Speaker 1: Colonel is puzzled by flashes of light on the sky
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  Speaker 1: coming from that direction, and glances sternly at Lieutenant Ardsley,
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  Speaker 1: who only regards the skyline where the flashes come with
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  Speaker 1: a curiously tender look. In his eyes. But the departure
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  Speaker 1: of the troops is eagerly watched by other eyes than
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  Speaker 1: those of the little garrison, black snaky eyes that glitter
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  Speaker 1: low in the sage bush as the soldiers pass, and
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  Speaker 1: flash with anticipation at sight of the deserted post. For once,
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  Speaker 1: lone wolf has outwitted the gray fox, as the Indians
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  Speaker 1: called General Crook. The wolf himself, with a picked force
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  Speaker 1: of braves on foot, has slipped through the slim shifting
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  Speaker 1: a line of blue horsemen. This has been easy for
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  Speaker 1: the scouts naturally follow the playing horse. Signed once in
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  Speaker 1: the passes of the southern hills, he can be joined
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  Speaker 1: later by the squaws and horses. Meantime, the wolf reasons
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  Speaker 1: because of a curious weakness of the whites, the women
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  Speaker 1: and old men will be well fed and cared for,
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  Speaker 1: instead of being tortured to death, as captives properly should be.
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  Speaker 1: So for three days this picked band of fighters has
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  Speaker 1: traveled hot foot southward, and now, by a lucky chance,
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  Speaker 1: the last post of the enemy lies beaure for them.
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  Speaker 1: Almost defenseless, The hot hours wear away until the troop
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  Speaker 1: is safe beyond signal, and nearer and nearer to the
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  Speaker 1: Chapparral hedge for all the wolf and his pack. If
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  Speaker 1: the defense of the post devolve upon the cook smoking
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  Speaker 1: before the kitchen, or the convalescing troopers lying in cots
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  Speaker 1: in the cool veranda, another surprise and massacre will be
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  Speaker 1: added to the wolf's long list. But when a scout's
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  Speaker 1: knife has long depended upon his eye sight, it becomes
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  Speaker 1: very keen. The sage bush moves ever so slightly out
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  Speaker 1: beyond the hedge, and there is no wind. It ought
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  Speaker 1: be a jack rabbit muttered death. But and the noontide
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  Speaker 1: stillness is broken by a rifle shot, almost as if
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  Speaker 1: part of the report comes a sudden, hideous wailing cry,
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  Speaker 1: the death note of the apache, a pulse of silence,
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  Speaker 1: and then one horde to molt of yells, as the
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  Speaker 1: van of the ambushed reds rushes upon the post, hoping
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  Speaker 1: to carry it with one fierce attack. On come the
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  Speaker 1: naked painted forms over the hot sand, each savage swinging
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  Speaker 1: in front of him a long blanket which serves both
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  Speaker 1: as a shield and as a foothold. When the bristling
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  Speaker 1: thorns of the hedge are reached. The great outer gates
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  Speaker 1: fortunately have been shut and barred on the departure of
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  Speaker 1: the troopers. A scattering fire is kept up by the Indians,
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  Speaker 1: who with the wolf cover the attack. But not a
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  Speaker 1: shot comes from the low, loop holed wall surrounding the
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  Speaker 1: tiny green and the form itself. Death and Dumb are
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  Speaker 1: Indian fighters too old to waste ammunition against swinging blankets.
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  Speaker 1: Crouched close to the circular wall, they wait. Now the
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  Speaker 1: Indians are at the hedge, even as their hands clutch
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  Speaker 1: at the top, and a dozen befeathered heads show over
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  Speaker 1: the wall. Fire spurts from two of the loopholes, and
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  Speaker 1: in an instant the heads disappear. Each scout carries six
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  Speaker 1: lives in the magazine of his winchester, and as fast
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  Speaker 1: as practiced hands can pump the levers, their shots pour
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  Speaker 1: out at a short fifty yards range. While indeed do
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  Speaker 1: Death and Dumb sustain their reputation for marksmanship, and the
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  Speaker 1: rush is stopped without a red man over the outer wall.
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  Speaker 1: Now all trace of the Indians disappears for a space,
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  Speaker 1: a pandemonium of shouts, yells and rapid shots. Now in
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  Speaker 1: an instant the silence of the desert. With great good sense,
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  Speaker 1: the wolf simply waits once let it become dark enough
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  Speaker 1: to dim the aim of the Scouts, and his band
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  Speaker 1: can swarm over the wall and butcher the little garrison
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  Speaker 1: by sheer force of numbers. Not a sign of the
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  Speaker 1: tawny bodies can be seen. But let one of the
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  Speaker 1: garrison be exposed ever so little, and there comes a
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  Speaker 1: puff of white smoke and the whine of a bullet
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  Speaker 1: from the sage bush. The weary day slowly passes. Early
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  Speaker 1: in the after afternoon, after Joe has crawled out with
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  Speaker 1: food and water for the silent sentinels, Death feels a
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  Speaker 1: light touch on the shoulder and finds Alice crouched beside him.
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  Speaker 1: She has been doing vlorous work inside with a dozen
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  Speaker 1: frightened women and children, trying to overcome by activity the dread.
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  Speaker 1: She will not confess to her less philosophical companions until
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  Speaker 1: a plan has formed itself in her mind, a desperate plan,
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  Speaker 1: but not less desperate than their situation. Ignoring the Scout's reproof,
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  Speaker 1: she interrupts quietly, Death, what are we going to do
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  Speaker 1: after sundown? There's silence as the Scout looks at her searchingly,
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  Speaker 1: but the gray eyes meet his unflinchingly, and the set
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  Speaker 1: little mouth never quivers. Tell me death, she repeats, simply.
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  Speaker 1: The scout answers with strange and shaking voice. If help
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  Speaker 1: doesn't come before dark, and I don't see where help
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  Speaker 1: can come from, they'll rush us. And then it's only
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  Speaker 1: a matter of minutes. I thought so, said Alice, after
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  Speaker 1: a little pause. Now listen to my plan, and she
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  Speaker 1: murmurs a while into the ear of the scout. Couldn't
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  Speaker 1: be did, answers the stout laconically with a shake of
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  Speaker 1: the head. They'll fill ye full of lead at the gate. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: it's a man's job, not a girl's. It's for me
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  Speaker 1: to go, replies Alice. I'm the only one here can
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  Speaker 1: do it, and I'm the only one who can ride
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  Speaker 1: to Night, and he's the only horse that can do
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  Speaker 1: his part. You and dumb pretend to be opening the
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  Speaker 1: gate and draw their attention, and I'll jump the wall
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  Speaker 1: on the other side, jump the six foot hedge, and
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  Speaker 1: Wall exclaims Death, aghast, no horse on the plains could
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  Speaker 1: do it, none but Night calmly corrects Alice. He'll take
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  Speaker 1: anything I send him at and you know it's our
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  Speaker 1: only chance. Death wavers and then calls his brother, crawling
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  Speaker 1: toward him by a low whistle. In a few short sentences,
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  Speaker 1: Alice's plan is unfolded to him. Dumb thinks intently for
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  Speaker 1: a few moments, with no trace of expression on his
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  Speaker 1: passive face, as she says whispers Death, it's a last chance.
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  Speaker 1: She'd better be shot down in the open than be
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  Speaker 1: here after sundown. Suddenly, Dum reaches out for a moment,
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  Speaker 1: engulfs Alice's little brown hands in one of his big
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  Speaker 1: lift paws, and then begins to crawl towards the gates,
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  Speaker 1: followed by his brother, while Alice makes her way back
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  Speaker 1: to the buildings in safety. During all the tumult of
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  Speaker 1: the attack, Night has been grazing peacefully within the enclosure,
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  Speaker 1: the only horse of the garrison allowed such a privilege.
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  Speaker 1: At a low call from Alice, he trots to the
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  Speaker 1: doorway and is saddled and bridled by her deft fingers. Meantime,
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  Speaker 1: the scouts have reached the gate, where through the heavy
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  Speaker 1: barrows they are but indistinctly visible to the lurking indians.
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  Speaker 1: Death places his slouch hat on the muzzle of his
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  Speaker 1: rifle and moves it to and fro while from the
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  Speaker 1: Oppice sits side of the gate. Dumb clinks the bar
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  Speaker 1: and lock vigorously with a steel cleaning rod. It suffices,
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  Speaker 1: and bullet after bullet harmlessly splinters the bars. The venomous
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  Speaker 1: little puffs of smoke begin to cluster near together as
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  Speaker 1: the besiegers crawl from ambush on all sides to stop
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  Speaker 1: the escape of any messenger from the gate. They quickly
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  Speaker 1: cease firing as they behold a girl mounted on a
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  Speaker 1: magnificent black horse come thundering down toward them. Horses and
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  Speaker 1: squaws are too valuable of booty to be shot at.
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  Speaker 1: The scouts ostensibly redouble their efforts to open the gate
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  Speaker 1: in time, while the band outside waits expectantly for the
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  Speaker 1: horse and rider coming straight toward their itching hands. A
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  Speaker 1: few rods from the gate. Alice presses her right rein
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  Speaker 1: tightly against Knight's sat to neck, almost in midair, with
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  Speaker 1: a tremendous swing that would have unseated many a rider.
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  Speaker 1: He swerves, turns almost in his tracks, and goes dashing back.
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  Speaker 1: A derisive yell comes from the sage bush as the
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  Speaker 1: messenger apparently abandons her purpose and seeks safety in the fort.
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  Speaker 1: Back rushes night, gathering speed with every stride, and before
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  Speaker 1: the Indians have realized the daring plan, the two have
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  Speaker 1: passed the fort and are flying across the hundred yards
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  Speaker 1: of level turf toward the six feet of adobe wall,
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by a wide mass of chaparral thorns that bars
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  Speaker 1: the way to the hidden watchers without, and even to
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  Speaker 1: the garrison, who know horse and rider well. The jump
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  Speaker 1: seems impossible, but might is of a different stock from
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  Speaker 1: the horses known to the Plains. The blood of a
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  Speaker 1: long line of thoroughbrings is in him game timber toppers,
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  Speaker 1: who would try a house if set at it. In
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  Speaker 1: a moment, he has covered the stretch of turf until
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  Speaker 1: only a few yards separate him from the wall. Then,
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  Speaker 1: as in the glorious days when every master of the
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  Speaker 1: hound's new night, he shortens his stride, gaging the take
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  Speaker 1: off with marvelous skill. For an instant he seems to crouch,
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  Speaker 1: and then as Alice leans a bit forward and lifts
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  Speaker 1: the reins encouragingly, he leaves the ground with a tremendous
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  Speaker 1: spring that carries him up and up until the sinewy
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  Speaker 1: neck and bent forelegs are above the wall. Even as
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  Speaker 1: he hangs over it. With that strange, inexplicable double leap
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  Speaker 1: of which only a thoroughbread knows the secret. The tense
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  Speaker 1: body shoots itself forward, as if from some invisible leverage,
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  Speaker 1: beyond the wall, beyond the waiting thorns and the great
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  Speaker 1: horse lands lightly, with hardly a stagger on the sand.
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  Speaker 1: The best of steeple chasers could not have done better
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  Speaker 1: than that slim girl with burning eyes, who, with shifting
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  Speaker 1: balance and skillful hand, has helped Night in his magnificent effort.
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  Speaker 1: From the plain comes a fierce yell, as lone wolf
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  Speaker 1: and his hungry pack see themselves tricked and one of
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  Speaker 1: their prey escaping toward the almost unguarded se out. Almost unguarded,
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  Speaker 1: but not quite for As Knight heads toward the heights,
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  Speaker 1: there comes from a near clump of bushes, a single,
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  Speaker 1: low toned note, like the open a string of a banjo.
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  Speaker 1: Through the hot air behind her sounds the long hissing
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  Speaker 1: whisper of an arrow. A sickening pane bites at her shoulder,
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  Speaker 1: and Alice feels something wet and warm trickling down over
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  Speaker 1: the hand that tightly grips the little mirror at her belt.
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  Speaker 1: For a moment, the anxious watchers see her reel in
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  Speaker 1: the saddle and the rain falls loose upon Knight's neck,
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  Speaker 1: but only for a moment. The thought that she carries
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  Speaker 1: the last hope of the garrison drives back, the cloud
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  Speaker 1: from her eyes and the numbness stealing to her brain.
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  Speaker 1: Almost in a moment, she is out of arrow range
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  Speaker 1: and running as never ran before. The brave horse reaches
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  Speaker 1: the beginning of the long slope that stretches up some
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  Speaker 1: six thousand feet to where Lone Bluff towers Blackly swifter
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  Speaker 1: and swifter, they go directly opposite the route taken by
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  Speaker 1: the troopers of the Seventh, the only possible saviors of
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  Speaker 1: the practically defenseless post. There is no pursuit time enough,
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  Speaker 1: thinks the wolf. After the fort be sacked to track
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  Speaker 1: down the black haired squaw and high jumping horse from
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  Speaker 1: the fort. Alice soon shows only as a moving climbing
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  Speaker 1: speck that merges at last onto the drab up the hillside.
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  Speaker 1: The long hot afternoon drags wearily, yet only too soon
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  Speaker 1: will come the night and with it annihilation. The sharp
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  Speaker 1: eyes at Post Desert vigilantly watch the ambushed foe at
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  Speaker 1: the gates, and then gaze long and anxiously at the
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  Speaker 1: lone bluff to the south. There, at the very top
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  Speaker 1: of the height comes an irregular series of flashes, like
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  Speaker 1: sunlight reflected from a mirror. It is she, the courageous
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  Speaker 1: girl on whom all remaining hope depends again and again,
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  Speaker 1: the dots and dashes of life flash across the heavens,
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  Speaker 1: and earnestly all hearts pray that far across the blazing sands,
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  Speaker 1: someone in that shifting line of horsemens thirty miles away
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  Speaker 1: may spell on the sky line that would cry for help.
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  Speaker 1: Slowly through the flawless blue sinks the sun and the
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  Speaker 1: signals never cease. Slowly, slowly, through the fading turquoise, it
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  Speaker 1: descends until but a narrow strip remains between the dazzling
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  Speaker 1: orb and the gray of the desert. Now approaches the
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  Speaker 1: brief twilight, and destruction is creeping nearer with the dark.
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  Speaker 1: The little garrison knows it. The sobbing children and the crouching, shuddering,
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  Speaker 1: praying women. The two grim scouts, who have fought a
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  Speaker 1: hopeless fight, and in their dumb despair, can think now
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  Speaker 1: only of the last terrible duty of quick death they
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  Speaker 1: owe to the helpless ones behind them, far away on
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  Speaker 1: the height. The lonely girl knows it, and with the
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  Speaker 1: very last rays of the setting sun, her glass flashes
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  Speaker 1: against the northern sky the single word help, Help, and
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  Speaker 1: again help. Now from the sage bush rises the most
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  Speaker 1: horrid of human cries, a whale, swelling to a shriek
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  Speaker 1: like the unearthly scream of a wounded horse, yet with
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  Speaker 1: a leer of triumph and anticipation running through it. The
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  Speaker 1: hag cry of the apache squaws as they wait for
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  Speaker 1: their share of the torturing lone wolf and his band
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  Speaker 1: know well what the darkness means for them. Tauntingly again
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  Speaker 1: they raise the whale, and the scout grit their teeth
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  Speaker 1: at this last terrible insult. Not for them the war cry,
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  Speaker 1: the shout of fighting men, but the women cry that
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  Speaker 1: only bound, quiet captives should hear. Inch by inch, the
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  Speaker 1: strip of blue melts before the sinking sun, and the
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  Speaker 1: lurking foe creeps near with the shadows. Suddenly, dumb, who
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  Speaker 1: has been crouching impassively close to the wall, raises his
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  Speaker 1: head and throws back his long hair with a listening gesture.
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  Speaker 1: Then a great voice that none there save death has
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  Speaker 1: ever heard rings out, thrilled with a joy that even
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  Speaker 1: the Apaches can understand. The bugles, the bugles of the
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  Speaker 1: seventh o God, and the strange unknown voice breaks into
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  Speaker 1: a sob and now I'll hear it silvery sharp. In
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  Speaker 1: the silence that follows, the sentinel shout a never. Never,
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  Speaker 1: on earth will there be a sweeter sound to any
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  Speaker 1: one of that garrison than the faraway bugle. Note that,
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  Speaker 1: even in its distant sweetness, seems to partake of the
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  Speaker 1: insistent stress of tumultuous hurry, of the rush of straining
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  Speaker 1: horses and grim faced men. The sound has banished all
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  Speaker 1: thoughts of leisurely slaughter from the minds of the savages.
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  Speaker 1: To gain the fastness of the hills is now their
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  Speaker 1: only purpose, But it is already too late. Louder and
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  Speaker 1: louder drum, the hoof beats faster and faster, whirls on
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  Speaker 1: that little troop of wiry, dauntless men stripped to the waist.
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  Speaker 1: Only the long blue black revolvers and the keen edged
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  Speaker 1: sabers keep for the final crash. If the lone wolf
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and his band are brought to bay. But the Apaches
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: have no thought of standing against that avalanche. Through their fleeing,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: scattering remnants dash the troopers, the grim gray colonel at
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: their heads, and close at his shoulder, the supple figure
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: of the young lieutenant, whose flaming eyes are nothing but
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the dying flicker of light from the height beyond the post.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Whence comes now a little love message in a secret
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: heliographic code he has talked the brave Alice, and which
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: not even her uncle understands. In the gathering darkness, they
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: find her, a slim figure with a blood stained sleeve,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: leaning wearily against the faithful night. As she sinks limply
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: to the ground. Artsley slips from his panting horse and
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: gathers her in his arms, And the old colonel looks
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: another way, knowing well that these young people deserved the
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: ever reward for their work this day. End of section number.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: One Section two of The Black Cat, Volume five, number two,
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: November eighteen ninety nine. This is a Librox recording. All
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Librox recordings in the public domain. From information on to volunteer,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: please visit librox dot org. The Black Cat, volume five,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: number two, November eighteen ninety nine. Section two. The Shadow
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: on the Wall by C. B. Lewis the great mutiny
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: of the native troops in India had been crushed, and
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: only its flickering embers remained to be scattered to the winds.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Savage and inhuman had been the deeds of the rebellious Sepahis,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: and strange and cruel was the vengeance visited upon them,
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: even as in the beginning the peculiar beliefs of the
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: rank and file and held them to credit the cunningly
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: circulated lie that the Ferengis were plotting by forcing Hindu
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: and Mohammadan to put their lips cartridges greased with the
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: fat of unclean animals, to deprive true believers of their
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: caste and therefore of honor, social position, and everything worth having.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: So now in the Inn, the English took advantage of
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: the ingrained superstition of their prisoners to punish them in
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: a manner which the natives believed would deprived them of
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: their souls and render them malignant ghosts after death. The
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: spacious military parade ground at Campour was surrounded by a
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: dense mass of troops and people. Twenty thousand spectators covered
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: the ground like ants, climbed the shade trees, weighed down
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: the house tops and jostled each other at every window.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Six thousand red coats in serried ranks held two sides
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: of a hollow square, the north and west. On the
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: east were the spectators. On one side. The square was
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: entirely open. On the south, toward the dominions of Yama,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: the lord of Death. For four hundred yards along the
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: northern side of the square were drawn up twenty four
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: field pieces, and a little knot of artillery men stood
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: at every gun. For a long half hour, the sun
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: blazed down upon this ominous scene. There was no movement
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: in the ranks of the military, no sound above a
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: whisper in the compact crowd of spectators. Something more dreadful
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: than the fear of death hung over all. It was
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: a spectacle deliberately planned, when whose climax would never be forgotten,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: whose story wouldleve a hundred years. Suddenly the blare of
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: bugles broke the silence, and a small detachment of troops
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: came marching into the square, guarding twenty four natives who
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: had been condemned to death death for treason, murder, arson, robbery,
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: not a crime in any code of which some of
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: them had not been guilty along the line of guns
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: marched the guard till each prisoner had been left with
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: his back lashed to the muzzle of a loaded cannon.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Not one of them had pled for mercy before the judge,
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: not wept or cursed at his sentence. Not one of
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: them would die a craven's death. To day, though fully
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: believing that spiritual as well as bodily destruction would ensue,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: there were grim smiles, as though a bound to the guns,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: heads would turn to the left to survey the mob
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: almost with exultation, and twisted to the right to look
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: upon the soldiers for the last time with contempt and hate.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: If any in that vast throng had expected, when the
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: last victim was bound to the engine of his destruction,
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: to see the twenty four guns discharged simultaneously, he was
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: speedily undeceived that would end the awful and impressive spectacle
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: too soon. Therefore, Major Clavering had ordered the firing to
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: begin on the right of the line, farthest from the spectators,
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: so that as each gun boomed out, stirring the plane
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: with its ghastly shower, the next would be discharged nearer
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: and yet nearer to the shrinking quivering, sickened but fascinated multitude.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: It was to be one gun every thirty seconds. Again,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: the bugle sounded, the drums rolled, and the death warrants
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: were red. Then the gunner on the extreme right of
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: line stepped back the supper he yet its muzzle, held
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: his head erect, and drew a long breath, and ten
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: seconds later he was as nothing. A shif went through
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: the great crowd of witnesses, and every man sucked in
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: his breath with a gasp, but no one moved or
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: cried out. It was so at the next and the
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: next so, and told there was but one more gun
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: and one more man to die. Nanda Din had not
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: sought to escape, but, not being very securely bound to
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: the gun, had pulled one arm free. Major Clavering stormed
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: and swart the negligent artilleryman, And as they nervously fumbled
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: at the ropes, the prisoner said to the Major, I
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: would not take life at your hands if you would
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: offer it English swine. I hate you above all else
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: on earth. I've killed and killed and killed. If i'd
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: a dozen lives, you could not take vengeance for all
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: of your people I've sent to the Christian hell. Stop
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: that devil's talk, said the Major, And the man tugged
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: at the ropes. And you swore falsely against me in
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: the court, continued Nanda Din. You charged me with many
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: things I did not do, and now you have condemned
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: me to a boot. Hereafter, very well, you'll see what
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: a boot can do and what I cannot do to
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: your soul. That shall my son, who lives after me,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: do to your body, And if not to you, then
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: to the next of your cursed blood. I am ready
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: hardly had the last word passed his lips when there
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: was a jet of fire and a crash, and Nanda
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Din had perished. Three years later, Major Clavering was dead.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: No one had ambushed him. He did not die of poison.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: He was not struck down in the darkness as he
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: walked a lonely road. He had been clawed to death
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: by a tiger while on a hunting excursion two hundred
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: miles away from his post. Only the day before, Captain Clavering,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: his nephew, an only bird relative, had been transferred from
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: a reorganized regiment of native infantry at Allahabad to his
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: uncle's regiment at Canpour. The newcomer was a bachelor of thirty,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: and of course he took bachelor quarters. He brought with
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: him his native manservant, but within a month the man
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: had disappeared, never to be heard of again. Among a
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: score of applicants for the place was a young Bengali
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: of twenty lal Rang, from the captain, disliked at first sight,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: and sent away with curses. Within a fortnight, Clavering had
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: given half a dozen servants a trial and kicked them out,
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: and lal Rang, applying again, was engaged. Lal Rang was
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: silent and humble in demeanor, and moved about like a cat.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: His voice was soft and low in his tone, full
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: of respect, and any other but Clavering would have regarded
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: him as a prize. Not so the irascible captain. He
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: said of the new servant before he had had him
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: a day. Gad, Major, I don't know what to make
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: of that young nigger. He knows his business to a dot,
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: but I'd almost as soon have a snake moving about.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: It's the first tom I've ever honored one of the
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: lot with any feeling at all, good, bad or indifferent.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Knock him about red ammended the Major. No, and then
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: I get a nigger. I can't make out, and I
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: kick him around till he's as plain as a b
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: c ha. A good remedy, laughed the Captain. I'll try
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: it the first time I get an excuse, make your excuse,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: growled the Major. I got a sight of his face
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: this morning, and I don't like it. He's a sulky
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: devil and wants a good kicking. Paton's and seekhs psychesis
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: as Tommy Atkins calls him a grateful for decent treatment,
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: but it's thrown away on him and gharaly. He only
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: cares for a man he's afraid of. Give him the boots, sir.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: As Captain Clavering sat reading and smoking in his bungalow
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: that evening, lal Rang came in to ask a question
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: about the repair of a uniform. He came gliding in
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: like a ghost, spoke low and soft, and kept his
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: eyes cast down. His coming, his speech, and his demeanor
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: all irritated the Captain. He had not taken the Major
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: seriously about the kicking, and had no thought of following
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: the half earnest advice given him at the mess table.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: But now as the young man stood before him, he
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: felt a surprising animosity in vindictiveness, throwing down his book,
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: he half rose up, exclaiming, you cursed nigger, How dare
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: you come skulking on me like this? Missa Heeb does
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: not want a servant who clutters about like a horse,
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: quietly replied the meek servitor, how do you know what
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: I want? You son of a devil. Lal Rang folded
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: his hands and bowed his head. His attitude expressed the
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: deepest humility, and yet it increased the Captain's anger. Years
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: had passed since that tragic scene on the parayed ground
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: a quarter of a mile away. The words of this apa,
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: he who was the last to die that day, he
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: had been reported by the newspapers and had been read
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: by Captain clavering at his distant post, read sneered at
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: and soon forgotten. But now as he sat there fiercely
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: regarding the young native, the threat of the man about
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: to be blown to atoms from a gun came back
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: to him with a sudden shock. He drew in his
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: breath with a sound which caused lal Rang to rais
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: his eyes. For an instant. There was one swift glance,
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: like the thrust of a dagger, and the Captain sprang
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: to his feet and caught the servant by the throat
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: and shook him as he hissed, you dog, you are
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: the son of that fiend who has blown away that day.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Rang made no resistance, choked and flung about for a moment,
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: and then backed up against the wall and released. He
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: did not even lift a hand. Still, with bowed head
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: and folded arms, he whispered, the Sahib is a gentleman.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: He is most high and sacred. It is for him
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: to do with me as you will speak. Wretch, are
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: you not the son of nander Din? I am the
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: son of my father, Sahib wood Mash almost shrieked the captain,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: giving way to ungovernable wrath. Instinct tells me you are
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: my enemy. You have cut my throat or poison me.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: I will have you hung. I'll kill you with my
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: own hands. His onslaught was so fierce that they hitherto
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: passive youth now struggled for his life with the scenery.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: Hands of Clavering closed round his slender throat and hurled
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: him from side to side. Even this feeble resistance inflamed
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: the rising rate of the Englishman till it burst all bounds,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: and seizing from a trophy of arms in native tolwar,
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: he plunged it through the body of the boys. He crouched,
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: panting and gasping against the wall. There was a court
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: of inquiry, of course, that some of the officers considered
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: it superfluous to make so much fuss over a dead nigger.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Lal Rang had been impudent, and sullen had even resisted
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: and assaulted his master, and that was enough to justify
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Clavering the atrocities of Nana Sahib. The memories of the
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: Whaler of Campeur, right there in their midst was too
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: fresh in all minds to permit of any other result.
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: And if the recorded verdict was not served him right,
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: it meant as much. On the night of the day
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: on which it was rendered, Captain Clavering returned at a
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: late hour to his quarters from a mess dinner. He
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: not waited for the dead servant to be buried before
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: taking on another. This new attendant should have been asleep
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: long ago, but had not even gone to bed, and
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: in the darkness the Captain almost fell over him sitting
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: on the ground before the door. What in the fiend's
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: name you a sleep out? Here for you, cat, exclaimed
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: the captain, half drawing his sword. Come so he can
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: see the shadow, quietly replied Gopie Mal, What shadow the
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: word on the wall of your sitting room? It came
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: as I lighted the lamp, and it will not go away. Come.
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: There was something so quietly earnest in the servant's manner
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: that the captain followed him in a passive way into
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: the Bengler. In the middle of the largest room, almost
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: twenty feet square, a lamp stood on a small table.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Over the globe was a green shade, and the light
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: was turned down. See Sahib, whispered Gopi Mal, pointing with
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: his finger on the wall against which Lal Raang had
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: crouched as the tall wire found his heart was a shadow,
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: the shadow of Rang. It had a crouching, supplicating attitude,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: and the right arm was thrown up as if to
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: shield the face from an expected blow. Well, Rang gasped
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: the captain, sitting down heavily and glaring at the shadow.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: There was silence for a moment, broken only by the
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: heavy breathing of the officer, whose winde muddled wits required
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: time to grasp the situation. Then He jumped up and cried, fool,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: why didn't you turn up the light? The deft brown
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: fingers sought the screw and lifted the wick. The shadow
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: was still there, but not as dark as before. It
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: had more of a reddish tinge off with a shade. Idiot,
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: it is off, sayib, And the action accompanied the words.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: And now they looked no longer upon a shadow. It
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: was a blood red silhouette upon the wall. The wall
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: was of light boards, tongued and groove together and finished
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: in oil. It filled the space between two doors, and
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: five feet from the floor hung the trophy of Natives arms.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: It was under this that the crouching silhouett appeared in red.
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: Captain Clavering, as a military man, had of course, studied optics,
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: and you remember that red is the complimentary color of green,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: and his fuddled brain tried to frame a theory that
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: the awful aspect of the shadow was caused by the
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: sudden removal of the green shade. So he made go
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: pi mal experiment. The servant put on and removed the shade,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: and carried the lamp about the room. It cast black
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: shadows here and there, but the red silhouette remained where
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: it first appeared. It is some of your native tricks,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: growled the captain. After a while, some of your cursed
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: hindoo juggling. The shadow came there a dark as it
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: lighted the lamp, quietly, replied the man. I knew what
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: it was at once, and I was afraid to stay inside.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: It is the shadow of laal Rang. This is the
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: shadow of blood. Is the shadow of death. Nonsense, grumbled
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: the officer. I've been out here long enough to know
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: your devilish tricks. If the shadow is there to morrow night,
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: I'll bang the wall down with your head. Help me
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: off with these things, and then to bed with you.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: If there's any gossiping about this shadow of business, there'll
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: be another dead nigger to bury. Captain clad Rang rolled
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: into bed and was soon asleep. But go pie Mal
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: passed the remainer of the short night on the earth
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: under a tree, el Rang was murdered. He kept whispering
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: to himself. This shadow has come back for revenge. He
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: is become a boot and had come in the ship
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: of a tiger, a wolf for a bear. He will
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: hunt his victim down in his sleep and sit on
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: his breast so he cannot give an alarm. This a
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: heave may do as he likes, but the shadow will
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: not go away till he dies. At dawn, go pie
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Mal disappeared, and Captain Claver Rang long overslept. Major Dawes,
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: who had given such vigorous advice about Rang, feared something
• 35:37
  Speaker 2: was amiss, entered the bangler and roused, the sleeper, has
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: the fresh nigger bolted on you? He queried, as the
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Captain huddled into his uniform, fuming and cursing, looks like it.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: Miserable idiot was in a blue funk last night over something.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: When I got home. Let's see what was it?
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: An image on the wall frightened him out of his
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: wits and out of the house. I'd have bobbed him
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: if I an't been quite so balmy. Oh I stumped
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: them follosober, said the Major, as he walked about. What
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: sort of an image? Did he see? Something? And down
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: the panel under the sword and things. The Major entered
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: the sitting room with his hand in his pockets and
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: his lips pursed into a whistle, and looked carelessly around.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: It had been daylight for several hours, but all the
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: shades being drawn, it was still like twilight in the room.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: His whistle suddenly ceased, and the captain heard him utter
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: an exclamation. There was silence for half a minute, and
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: then Major Dawes returned to the bedroom with a look
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: of astonishment on his face and a very earnest tone
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: in his voice as he said, see here, Clavering, I
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: don't envy you that thing out there. What is it there? Yet,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: demanded the Captain, pausing in his dressing plain as the
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: nose on your face, I'll be handed if it's a
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: pleasant thing to have about the house. Why if it
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: isn't the shadow of the nigger you did for the
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: other day, then my eyes are away off Captain Clavering,
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: half dressed as he was, stepped into the sitting room
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: with a vague sense of uneasiness. He'd only a dim
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: remembrance of the previous night's experience, but what he saw
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: now made his heart beat faster, though his blood run cold.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: There on the panel with the red silhouette of the
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: murdered rang faint yet perfect. What What do you make
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: of it? He asked of the Major after a long stare.
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: Looks tremendously like you were going to be haunted by
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: that dead nigger, was the blunt reply. I've heard of
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: such things out in this beastly country. I'll pull the
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: wall down right away. Yes, well that's not about idea.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: See you later, old boy, and you can tell me
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: how it worked. Was matydors in a hurry to leave
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: the premises? Did he look at the captain in a
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: strange queer way? Clavering asked himself those questions as he
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: hurriedly completed his toilet. He felt nervous and irritated over
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: that shadow, and as soon as he had finished his
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: almost solitary breakfast, started to hunt up the company carpenter
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: to have the wall torn out. But while framing an
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: excuse for such an order, it occurred to him that
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: he might render himself ridiculous in the eyes of the
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: whole post, where he was new and without the reputation
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: for tiger like courage which he had at Allahabad. Let
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: it go abroad that he was afraid of a shadow
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: in the wall, and even the native soldiers would sneer
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: at him. No, he'd do nothing of the kind. He
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: regretted that Major Dawes had seen the shadow, but he
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: would laugh it off with him and stand on his
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: dignity if any one else dared to even hint at
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: such a thing. Captain Clavering returned to his bangler and
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: stood squarely before the silhouette and studied it. Then he
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: threw open doors and windows and let in a flood
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: of sunshine, expecting to see the last trace of it disappear.
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: It did not disappear. Do it faded a trifle? It
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: would be almost sure to catch the eye of any caller,
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: no matter how strong the light. The Captain sat and
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: gazed and pondered. Suddenly a feeling of relief filled his heart.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: How stupid I've been, he laughed. Hat stain has probably
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: been there for months or years, but my superstitious nigger
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: happened to discover it only last night. Nothing new, It
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: can't be new. Clavering resumed his day's routine with a
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: lighter heart. But a few hours later it occurred to
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: him that it certainly was lal Rang's shadow, and that
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: lal Rang had not been known about the cantonment till
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: he first came to him, nor had the shadow been
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: seen till after Rag was dead. That evening at mess
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Major Dawes was courtesy itself, but distant, so were two
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: or three of the others now, and then Captain Clavering
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: caught them looking at him in a strange way, stealing
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: furtive glances in which pity and wonder seemed combined. When
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: the meal was nearly at an end, he secured the
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Major's ear for a moment, and, forcing a laugh, said,
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: you know that shadow we saw on the wall this morning? Well,
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: after thinking things over, I concluded, excuse me, Clavering, but
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: I haven't a moment to spare. Not a second, interrupted
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: the Major, hastily withdrawing. Captain Clavering had been sent to Coventry.
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: There was no doubt of it in his mind. Looked
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: upon as a man living under a curse, he was
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: shunned by his brother officers when he reached his what
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: is again that night it was late, not because of
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: a wine supper, now, but because he dreaded that shadow.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: It had been said of him in army circles and
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: in the newspapers that he did not know the meaning
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: of fear. Yet that night he entered his bangler, drawn
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: sword in hand, and his knees knocking together as he
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: fumbled with the lamp. Yes, the shadow was there, not
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: an ordinary black shadow, not even a faint pink silhouette,
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: but a solid blood red image, sharp and lifelike in
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: its minutest outline, and looking so much like Lalrang that
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: a groan escaped the captain, and he felt cold work
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: drops of perspiration covering his forehead and hands. And what
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: startled him most, what clutched at his heart like the
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: grasp of steel fingers, was the fact that the right arm,
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: which had been covering the face as a shield, was
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: now raised above the head in a menacing position. Good God,
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: the arms moved, whispered the captain to himself, and his
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: throat grew dry. What devil's trick is this? It is
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: the work of some chondra who hopes to frighten me off,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: but not beat him at his game. Shortening his naked weapon,
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: he advanced to the wall and jabbed a dozen times
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: at the shadow, forcing the sword point through the boards.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: A live man would have been pricked, but there was
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: no live man there in either room, only a grim,
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: threatening shadow. Those who had called Captain Clavering a brave
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: man made no mistake. Had there been an atom of
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: cowardice in his make up, he would not, as he did,
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: have turned out the light and turned into his camp bed.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: He slept fitfully, to be sure, and there were half
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: hours when he was much more awake than asleep, and
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: strange grewesome fancies flitted through his mind. But he worried
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: through the night, and when morning came he looked no
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: more for the shadow. He knew it was there. Neither
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: at the mess house did he look for any cheery greeting.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: He was a doomed man, and others do not smile
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: and shake hands with the shadow of death. He knew
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: that the story of that shadow on the wall must
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: have gone all over the cantonment, for he found officers
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: whose acquaintance even he had not yet made, looking at
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: him askance and speaking in subdued tones. At first, claud
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: fram was rather glad that no one sought to draw
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: him into conversation on the subject he would gladly avoid.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: But as time more on it angered him to be ostracized,
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: and turned to a lieutenant. He bluntly said, look here, now,
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: what in the devil is the matter with everybody? Have
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: I become an outlaw because I killed the nigger? I?
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Really, nothing seems to be the matter? Stammered the officer, addressed,
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: are you feeling uh as well as usual, Captain. Of course,
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: Why shouldn't I see any signs of collar in my face?
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: Oh no, no, suddenly not. But you know a fellow
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: sometimes drops off very suddenly in this country, and you
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: think I'm booked to drop off suddenly, then that's it?
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Is it really now? Captain? And I I excuse me,
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: but I want to speak to Flint before he goes
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: on duty. Captain Clavering watched the retreating officer and half
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: moaned to himself, it's that cursed shadow on the wall.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: They've all heard about it. They're afraid to strike hands
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: the man standing beside his own grave. Not being on
• 43:03
  Speaker 2: duty that week, the Captain again rode away to the
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: city and sauntered from place to place, having a drink
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: here and a game of billiards there, always with a civilian,
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: and he drank with the purpose. But when a man
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: has the shadow of death on his wall, he cannot
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: be made drunk. No ordinary intoxicant can overcome the tension
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: of his nervous system. He was sober when he rode
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: away in the morning, and just as sober when he
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: returned at ten o'clock at night. He went straight to
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: his own quarters, speaking to no one. He did not
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: tremble this time when he lighted the lamp. His heart
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: did not dump when he looked up and saw the
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: shadow in its old place on the wall. He did
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: give a start of surprise when he saw that the
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: right hand was raised a little higher, and that the
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: face bore a malicious look. But he had come to
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: his quarters to go to bed and to die. Yes,
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: he decided to surrender to the shadow. It would demand
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: his life in revenge. But was life worth living with
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: such a thing confronting him day and night, and his
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: brother officers holding themselves ready for a funeral march? Here
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: I am, he said to the shadow, as he lay
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: down for the night. Here I am. We fight it
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: out to night. Either kill me or go away forever.
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: There was silence all night long in Captain Clavering's quarters.
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: He made no effort to fight sleep away, Nord appear
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: and listen in the velvet darkness. Dawn came and all
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: was quiet. The forenoon was half gone when an orderly
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: sent with a message to Captain Clavering, entered the bangler.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: After knocking vainly for admission, in a few moments, he
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: came running out shouting in alarm, and as five or
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: six followed him back to the captain's sleeping room, they
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: saw a sight that made them pale. Stretched out at
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: full length upon his back was the Captain, and a
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: glance was enough to show that he was dead. Coiled
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: upon his bosom was a hooded cobra, which hissed and
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: threatened the intruders. When the servant had been driven off
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: and despatched, Major Dawes turned to the others and said,
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: in explanation he was an omed man. There was a
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: death shadder on his wall. The shadow of la rang
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: the boy he killed. Come and look at it. They went,
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: but the shadow was no longer there and of Section
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: two read by Yankurl.
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: Section three of The Black Cat, volume five, number two,
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: November eighteen ninety nine. This is LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: recordings are in the public domain. For more information order volunteer,
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: please visit LibriVox dot or read by Chris Pyle The
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: Black Cat, Volume five number two, November eighteen ninety nine.
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: Section three A bale of rags by A. W. Whitehouse.
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: When the Duke of Athens, one of the most wayfaring
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: of ocean tramps swung from Millwall Docks into the river,
• 45:49
  Speaker 4: rounded the forelands, kept clear of Godwin Sands, and cleverly
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: avoided numerous other marine traps and pitfalls on the route
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: to the little south coast harbor of new Haven, where
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: she had to take on more freight. The only passenger
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: was Charles Rollingston, who was taking out a pack of
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: hounds to his wyoming ranch with a view to finding
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: out whether the coyotes of that region could run as
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: straight as the foxes of Northamptonshire. But with the numerous
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: bales of rags shipped at new Haven, came on board
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: a mud colored individual in a great state of excitement,
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: in which Rollingston recognized an old acquaintance, Jonathan Strange, the
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: Lewes rag merchant. Rollingston had much difficulty in preventing his
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: hounds from being buried beneath the musty and unsavory cargo,
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: over the stowing of which Strange was making a great fuss.
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: He had every bale ticketed, and nothing would suit him
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: but that they should be stowed away in numerical order,
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: like a child in a tidy fit over his toys.
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: Jonathan was a many sighted personage. He owned a few racers,
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: was a licensed pawnbroker, and the uncharitable said of fence,
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: but rags were his stand by. Lews was not large
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: enough for his operations, and he had acquired control of
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: the output of Brighton, Eastbourne and other watering places. Though
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: a pure Sussex stock, he was one of the few
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: gentiles who could patter Yiddish his different occupations, throwing him
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: much among the users of that jargon, and it his
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: affinity for them often stood him in good stead. He
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: was full of narrative after the fourth gin and ginger.
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: Now he said to Rollingston, I think I can do
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: a bit of business in the States. It seems that
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: they wear their clothes so long over there, or have
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: such poor stuff to start with. That American rags are
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: no use for making the better kinds of paper. Now
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: I have fine rags, beautiful, splendid. That strangers greatly interested
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: in his rags seemed evident to Rollingstone. But whenever he
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: went below to look after his hounds, he always found
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: Jonathan admiring his ill smelling property. What would the ship smell,
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: the kennel smell, and the rag bouquet? It was no
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: better roses below decks than the Duke of Athens. One
• 47:49
  Speaker 4: calm afternoon after many days, the tramp steamed slowly into
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: the harbor of New York, and the rancher parted from
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: the rag merchant, not expecting to see him again unless
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: they should some time meet in Old England. Jonathan Strange
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: got his rags through the customs without difficulty, and with
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: the assistance of a mister Lewis Coulhoun, at once attended
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: to the distribution of the bales. Here it was that
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: the utility of the numbers appeared. There are a great
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: many varieties of rags, and the samples were carefully graded
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: according to the purposes for which they were to be used.
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: The bales numbered from one hundred upward, which sent to
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: various eastern points, where they arrived in safety and drop
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: out of the story. Bales numbers one to fifty inclusive
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: were linen rags of a very high quality, and were
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: assigned to a paper mill in San Francisco. Of course,
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: this shipment would not pay for freight, but if these
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: samples gave satisfaction, Strange intended to supply the mill by
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: the shipload by way of Cape Horn. Bals numbers fifty
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: one to one hundred were carded up to the warehouse
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: of mister Calhoun, where they were to serve as specimens
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: for the New York trade. They were of all kinds, good, bad,
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: and indifferent. Calhoun and Strange looked them rapidly over number
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: ninety one. I think you said it was marked, Calhoun. Yes,
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: answered Strange. Should be Lenin, Lenin it is, replied Calhoun.
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: Help me drag it out and open it. This was done,
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: and the rags were spread out till it seemed as
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: if they recover acres. Jonathan was down on his knees
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: among them, and Colhoun was equally interested. They appeared to
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: be in search of something they could not find. Suddenly,
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: Jonathan arose from his stooping attitude and eagerly examined the
• 49:22
  Speaker 4: number painted on the hoop of the bail. Good lord,
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: he gasped, we have sent ninety one on to San Francisco.
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: This is sixteen, as you can see by the bar
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: underneath the six. The two men stared hard at each other.
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: We must start west tonight, said Calhoun, and catch that
• 49:37
  Speaker 4: car east of Chicago. They won't let you break the seals.
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: After that, they won't be so strict, and if it
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: comes to the worst, you must follow that veil clear
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: up to the paper mill. Strange reached Chicago ahead of
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: the car of rags, but there his tribulations began. He
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: found out that run along now, my good man, which
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: is potent with an English railway guard, does not develop
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: any extraordinary activity in an American can, even of freight,
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: and that even a quarter does not, if accepted, list
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: the same amount of servility as a sixpence. It was
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: his first visit to America, and he was not enjoying
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: himself as a result of his various breaks. The car
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: alluded him at Chicago and went serenely on its western
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: way by din of a good deal of activity in
• 50:18
  Speaker 4: the assistance of an old engineer with compassion for a
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: fellow countryman in distress. He finally caught up with it
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: at a little dog hole of a place in Iowa.
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: He was boldly clambering up the side of the car,
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: determined to effect an entrance, when he was hauled down
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: by the coat tails, and a new obstacle presented itself
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: in the person of a fresh freight conductor. Say, old feller,
• 50:38
  Speaker 4: you can't ride in there, Strange, who was rapidly acquiring wisdom,
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: said nothing but produced a copious flask. The enemy thus
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: turned into an ally, took him back to the caboose,
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: and put him through a short catechism, which was repeated
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: with variations by every subsequent conductor. You say, the stuff
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: in that car belongs to you? What is it? Rags? Rags?
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: Oh rats? What do you want to do if you
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: did get in here? Strange explained that his rags were,
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: or should be, very fine, handsome rags, but that one
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: bale of much inferior stuff had been shipped by mistake,
• 51:10
  Speaker 4: and being a sample shipment, he wanted to get it
• 51:13
  Speaker 4: out before arrival, so as not to damage his future trade.
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: This was a trifle thin, but the best he had
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: to offer. Well, I can't let you in. The car
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: is sealed and build through. It cost me my job
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: on the road. To offer a large bride was evidently
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: inconsistent with his story. A small one is manifestly inadequate.
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: So Jonathan reconciled himself to the prospect of chasing a
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: Booses in the middle of the night, living on doughnuts
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: and railroad station coffee, and enduring the joys of traveling
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: by freight all the way to San Francisco. The conductor is,
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: seeing that he was no ordinary tramp, but one provided
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: with good cigars and a frequent and inexhaustible bottle, passed
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: him on from one to another as a harmless crank
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: made mad by many rags. Then he worked his weary
• 51:55
  Speaker 4: way on to the Union Pacific through Nebraska, where he
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: already knew his car by making shape without looking at
• 52:00
  Speaker 4: the number one one O three eight, past Cheyenne and
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: over Sherman's Summit, till the smoke of Laramie hung far
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: below and distant many miles. When smash smashed banged Burr
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: neither more or less than a collision with the caboose
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: to the preceding train, which had uncoupled itself and was
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: stranded with a broken axle. Engineer and firemen had jumped,
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: the crew of the helpless caboose were at a safe distance,
• 52:24
  Speaker 4: and the only person damaged to speak of was Strange,
• 52:27
  Speaker 4: who was carried back to tie siding on a hand car,
• 52:30
  Speaker 4: and with serious concussion and a dislocated elbow, retired from
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: active pursuit of his quest for the time. But car
• 52:39
  Speaker 4: number one one O three eight had been next to
• 52:42
  Speaker 4: the engine, and piled on top of it was now
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: a blaze. Tightly packed rags, however, are not very inflammable,
• 52:48
  Speaker 4: and only seven bales were severely scorched. The remaining forty
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: three were soon put in an uninjured car and sent
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: on to their destination. While Strange was tossing anxiously and
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: feverishly on his cot in a sick extreamed hotel at
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: thy siding, kindly ministered to by a stout landlady, his
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: fellow traveler of the Duke of Athens, was scarcely ten
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: miles distant down the hill on his ranch. Two days
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: after the freight smash up, there crawled into Rollingston's main
• 53:14
  Speaker 4: yard at a lapidated team dragging on four wheels a
• 53:17
  Speaker 4: great mount of rubbish, upon which two men were perched.
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: Before they had labourislely alighted. Lucy Rollingston had already christened,
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: if that word is allowable, one of them Jerusalem, because
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: he was old and full of sorrows, and the other
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: Nineveh because he was oiled and curled, with greasy black
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: ringlets covering his ears. Though he was on rather a
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: small scale for an Assyrian bull, there was no doubt
• 53:40
  Speaker 4: from whence their ancestors had come. They themselves were apparently
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: more recently from Middle Europe, and their English cannot be
• 53:45
  Speaker 4: rendered with justice to its quaintness. Nineveh did the talking,
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: while Jerusalem gazed with rapt and prophitic air at the
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: ash heap. Rollingston fancied, however, that Jerusalem was really in command.
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: Nineva's inquiries began with regard to scrap iron and broken stoves,
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: proceeded to bottles, for which he quoted to Rollingston a
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: market price of three cents per dozen, and wound up
• 54:07
  Speaker 4: with old clothing rags. Quoth Nineveh, rags escute beat tit
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: great pishness, mitt rags at ty sighting, Yes, sir, give
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: us some more ti sighting rags. Jerusalem, at this point
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: cut the communication short by dropping a large piece of
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: old iron on none of his foot, and the two
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: junk merchants piled the Rollingston's rubbish on top of their
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: own and departed. Not many days afterward, Rollingston was at
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: the railway station at Tie Siding and heard of an
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: Englishman who had been injured in a railroad accident and
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: had gone stark, staring mad. Of course, he hunted him
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: up and of course, it proved to be Jonathan Strange,
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: who had then about recovered from his concussion but was
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: still suffering with his arm. He began to pour out
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: his troubles to his compatriot, complaining that while he was insensible,
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: the railway people had sold the debris of the freight
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: wreck to a couple of peddlers who had vanished, and
• 54:57
  Speaker 4: with them seven bales of his rags. Then came the
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: familiar story about the linen rag samples and the prospective
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: San Francisco trade, which Jonathan now mourned is ruined. Strange
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: said Rollingston, I know I am a fool, but I
• 55:10
  Speaker 4: can't swallow that. What have you got in bale ninety one?
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: Jonathan paused and then answered hesitatingly, second rate linen rags.
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: Rollingston sniffed and reflected. On the station platform he had
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: met Tom Virgil, a sheep raiser whose ranch was about
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: three miles from his own. He had mentioned to Tom
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: the sale of his old junk and learned that the
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: peddlers were in negotiation for Virgil's whole wool clip and
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: had demonstrated their ability to pay several thousand dollars for it.
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: So the next day Rollingston drove Strange over to where
• 55:40
  Speaker 4: the peddlers were camped, and he tackled them. I lost
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: seven bales of rags and the wreck at tie siding.
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: He said, you bought them. Yes, I would like to
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: buy them back from you, my friend, said Nineveh, the
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: railway company will pay you full value for your loss.
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: These damaged bales knew good to you now if he
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: keeped them. Strange tried a variation of the good old
• 56:00
  Speaker 4: story about the samples and the danger of losing his trade,
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: but the compassion of his auditors was not noticeably excited.
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: Have you opened any of the bales? He inquired, in desperation.
• 56:09
  Speaker 4: Nineveh looked at Jerusalem, who solemnly nodded. Thus encouraged, Nineva replied, yes,
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: they foshed fairycoot rags, but we found some grit in
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: one bail. Jonathan now swore, implored, threatened, and cajoled by Turns,
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: and Nineva was beginning to spit and become abusive when
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: Strange burst into a stream of Yiddish. From that time on,
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: Rollingson could only judge the conversation by the tones and
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: gestures of the participants, but it was evident that the
• 56:33
  Speaker 4: new medium of communication was having its effect. Jerusalem at
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: once began to take an active part in the discussion,
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: and Nineva was soon almost as much a spectator as
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: the rancher. Strange cut up the imploring tone for a while,
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: Jerusalem shaking his head vigorously. Then the two ragmen stepped
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: aside and held a consultation. Next, Jerusalem made a proposition
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: to Strange, who hesitated and refused it. Another consultation longer
• 56:55
  Speaker 4: than the first, another proposition, a volley of questions from Strange,
• 56:58
  Speaker 4: and then evidently agreement. The three men shook hands and
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: Rollingston drove Strange home to his ranch, where has guest
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: surprised him by announcing that he must start for England
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: that very night. Pumping failed to elicit anything satisfactory. It
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: is better for everyone that you should not know what
• 57:14
  Speaker 4: is up, he said, But I shall not forget your kindness,
• 57:17
  Speaker 4: and some day, when it will do no harm, I
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: will tell you about bail ninety one. Ten years later,
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: they came to the wyoming rancher, through the hands of
• 57:25
  Speaker 4: an English firm of solicitors, a little package and a letter.
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: As civilized man and a rancher is partially civilized looks
• 57:31
  Speaker 4: to the written word to explain the unknown. Rollingston first
• 57:34
  Speaker 4: read the letter, which ran thus, Dear Sir, pursuant to
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: the instructions of our late client, Jonathan Strange, recently deceased,
• 57:41
  Speaker 4: we forward you by International Express Company charge is prepaid
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: a parcel to your address, and we enclosed herewith a
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: sealed letter relating to it, hoping you will favor us
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: with an acknowledgment of the receipt of the parcel and letter.
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: We have the honor to remain your obedient servants, Jones,
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: Welsh and Stratton. The letter enclosed was from Range himself
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: and was as follows as I promised you in eighteen
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: eighty eight, I now take pen in hand, being about
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: to execute my will and other important documents, to explain
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: the occurrences about which I was unable to enlighten you
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: at the time. Finding that my rag business and other
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: ventures were not going to make me a millionaire anytime soon,
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: I determined to have a little flutter with the United
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: States Custom House. I raised twenty five thousand pounds, bought diamonds,
• 58:24
  Speaker 4: and packed them safe and sound in bail. Ninety one
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: Calhoun of New York had promised me thirty five thousand
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: pounds for the parcel. How ninety one went astray, you know,
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: and talk how I would, I couldn't get the peddlers
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: to shell out. The Yiddish saved me. The beggars hung
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: on to the stones, but offered to start me in
• 58:42
  Speaker 4: rags and diamonds as a regular trade, and good lord
• 58:45
  Speaker 4: or backing they had. Since that, I have been at
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: its steady diamonds, venacetine and lots of other stuff, and
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: never a custom house officer poked his blessed nose into
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: one of my own differous bales. But unluckily I did,
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: and one of them had more bacilli to this square
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: inch than a culture tube. And that's why I'm writing this.
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: Wasn't it a beastly shame when I was just getting
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: enough together to retire my ease. Well, the jig is
• 59:08
  Speaker 4: up for me. But the small sample of my riches
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: which you will get with this duty paid mind you. Well, look, well,
• 59:15
  Speaker 4: I'm sure on your Lucy's hand, and will serve as
• 59:17
  Speaker 4: a reminder to you of a day I have never forgotten,
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: for it was the one on which you set me
• 59:22
  Speaker 4: face to face with Jerusalem and nineveh Charles Rollingston found
• 59:26
  Speaker 4: the sample of riches to be a fine, large cut
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: diamond of the rare and valuable blue white color in
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: the center of a package contrived in the outward semblance
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: of a miniature bale of rags. End of section three.
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: Section four of The Black Cat, Volume five, number two,
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: November eighteen ninety nine. This is a liprivox recording. All
• 59:55
  Speaker 3: liprivox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 59:59
  Speaker 3: or to volunteer here, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: by shrimp Fish The Black Cat, Volume five, number two,
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: November eighteen ninety nine, Section four. The Woman in Red
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: by Muriel Campbell Dyar. Winter ragned throughout Europe, but on
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: the Riviera, spring and summer bloomed together. Overhead, the sky
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: was infinitely blue. Below, the sea was green and purple
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: in amethyst everywhere, the sun everywhere, the scent of geranium
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: and mimosa, the fragrance of rose and violet. Always, the
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 3: deep boom boom of the waves thundering against the tall
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: cliffs of Monaco. Always, the cry of the seagull forever,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: the chimes from the Church of Sante de Voute at
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: Monte Carlo that paradise of the gamester. The season was
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: at its height. The hotels de Parri and beau Rivage
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 3: were crowded, those of the Quarter La Condamine were full
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 3: and well dressed. People finding shelter and some cheap lodging
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 3: house over in Monaco gave the name of some more
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 3: fashionable resort when applying for a carte de admission to
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 3: the cercodess Estrangers, the euphemistic title of that institution which
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 3: draws hither the avid and the inquisitive of all the nations.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: Day after day, night after night, the casino overflowed with
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 3: those who came to tempt fortune. Everyone laughed and sang
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 3: and was gay. Heavy hearts are hidden. At Monte Carlo.
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 3: It was at a concert that she first appeared, the
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 3: woman in red. The French tenor was just beginning his
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: number when the doors of the middle box of the
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: right hand tier swung slowly open and closed behind her.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: She stood for just a moment, outlined against the ivory background,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: very tall, she seemed, dressed from head to foot in red,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: not cardinal nor crimson, but the most intense and glowing scarlet.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: From out this mass of color, her bare throat rose
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: vividly white and down the satin of her skirt. Her
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 3: ungloved arms hung soft and round as those of a child.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: Her hair, too fine and fair, gave her head a
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: rather childish look. And then no wonder fan stopped fluttering,
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: and silks began to rustle. Her face was entirely concealed
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: by a mask of dark red velvet. The lady seated
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 3: herself quickly, with a curious grace in every movement, and
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: the red of her dress spreading out around her, stained
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 3: as with blood the whiteness of the box. She raised
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 3: her glass and insolently swept the house, moving her head
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: so that the jewels in her hair blazed and flamed
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: into the faces turned in her direction. A laugh floated
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: from above, as a woman in the gallery with a
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 3: program twisted into a little roll, mocked the motion. The
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 3: woman in Red turned away her face with a shrug
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: of her white shoulders, and sat through the performance, quite
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: still and indifferent. At the beginning of the last number,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: she rose slowly, and, gathering together her shimmering scarlet, left
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 3: the box. That was the introduction to the world of
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 3: Monte Carlo of the Woman in Red. After that, interests
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 3: centered about her increasing as her peculiarities became known. She
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 3: never wore a suggestion of any color but red, and
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: that alone was enough to make her conspicuous. Then the mask,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: thought to have been merely a caprice on the night
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: of the concert, was never removed. That rendered her mysterious.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: She talked but little, going about silently with a soft
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: light step, one might be quite alone, and the next
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 3: moment suddenly aware of the red Woman's presence. When the
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 3: tall young Englishman who lost everything at a turn of
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 3: the wheel went out into the casino garden, and, cocking
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: his pistol in the shadow of the cacti, muttered all
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: in the whole cursed business, the woman in red murmured
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 3: persuasively beside him, Oh, I wouldn't, and he didn't. And
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: when a lady knelt one evening before the image of
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 3: the Virgin in the church of Sante de Vote and
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 3: whispered wildly, Oh, blessed Mother, forgive me my sins, it
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 3: was the woman in red who finished softly for her
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 3: and those who sin against me. This made her something
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 3: more than conspicuous and mysterious. It made her awesome. No
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 3: one ever saw her smoke, but her scarlet garments always
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 3: exhaled a faint odor of cigarettes. Every night she came
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 3: into the roulette room and sat there in her scarlet dress,
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: with a red flower in her hair, and put down
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 3: her steaks with as much emotion as though the gold
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 3: and notes were worthless. Consistent in her color scheme, she
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: invariably placed her money on the red, and nine times
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 3: out of ten she won. To make her a trifle
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: more conspicuous, mysterious, and eerie, she had for a chaperone,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 3: a woman so thin and wrinkled and old as to
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 3: seem hardly capable of life. When some one ventured to
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: ask her a question about the woman in red, the
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 3: creature cackled, Oh, the devil, the devil, the devil. How
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: should I know? No wonder the men like her? Chattered
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 3: A lively little frenchwoman, mad like us, if we muffled
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 3: our faces and wore clothes like that, I wager she
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 3: has the face of oblancheous seas anyone could be fascinating
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 3: behind a velvet mask. She is, certainly, said a bystander dryly.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 3: This exclaimed the sallow critic angrily. No one wants that
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 3: old count or that stupid baron. Or that pink chinked
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: English boy. Anyway, it is true that the woman in
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 3: red had found ardent admirers in the old Count and
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 3: the stupid baron, and the English boy, the one to
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 3: whom she had whispered that night behind the cacti, and
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 3: the rivalry between them increased as the season passed to day.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 3: One was in favor, tomorrow another, and the frequenters of
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 3: the casino got to betting on the chances of the
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 3: several suitors, till it became almost as exciting as a
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 3: game at one of the tables. But throughout it all
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 3: the woman remained calm, inscrutable, mysterious. Neither of the three
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 3: could persuade her to tell her name or take off
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: her mask. I answer to any name, she said, I
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: have forgotten my own. And as for my face, what
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: makes you think it beautiful? Oh you said the courtly
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 3: old Count. Your huns, said the stupid baron. Your hair,
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 3: said the blond young englishman with British egotism. In answer
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: to each, she only laughed, a hard little laugh, not
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: altogether pleasant to hear, to be much talked about, and
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: to say little appeared to suit her. A month after
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 3: her advent. No one in Monte Carlo or Monaco knew
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 3: a whit more about her than at first, and no
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: one would have hesitated to give half his fortune. Hattie
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: had one to know everything. The mystery of the masked
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 3: woman was exasperating, the theories concerning her innumerable. Perhaps the
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 3: majority of the woman believed that being very ugly, she
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 3: had adopted this means of attracting the attention rightfully belonging
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 3: to beauty. She was a problem which might be studied
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 3: for weeks without arriving at a solution. The warm southern
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 3: days crept lazily along, and, as sometimes happens even in
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 3: that sheltered paradise, began to grow oppressively hot. It was
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 3: on the languid evening of one of these scorching days
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 3: that the woman in red and the young englishmen were
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 3: gaming side by side at the roulette table. The air
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 3: of the casino was heavy and scented. There was a
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 3: murmur of laughter and talk, and the frequent click clack
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 3: of the roulette balls. The woman pushed back her chair
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 3: impatiently and said to the man, do come out into
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 3: the garden. It is insufferably hot in here. I should
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: think said the young man at length, as they strolled
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 3: through the shrubbery, that your mask would be unbearable. It is, then,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: why not take it off? I did not come out
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: to talk of that, but perhaps I did. The British
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: shoulders square themselves aggressively. The woman made no reply, but
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: continued her occupation of listlessly slipping a ring up and
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: down her finger. Oh, I have dropped it, she suddenly cried,
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 3: and stooped quickly to search for it. The low branch
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: of a tree caught in the coils of her yellow hair.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: To free it, she impatiently drew up her head. There
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 3: was a sharp click as of the release of a
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: metal catch, and the velvet mask loosened fell softly to
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 3: the ground. She made an inarticulate noise in her throat,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 3: and her hands were thrown upward in an ineffectual attempt
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 3: to conceal her face. But the young man was too
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 3: quick for her. There in the bright white moonlight, he
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 3: looked full at the face of the woman in red,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: and with a terrible cry of horror, fell like one
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: dead upon the grass. It was a long time before
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 3: he opened his eyes and felt the touch of the
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: woman's hand upon his brow, and the cool trickle of
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 3: water over his face. He lay passive, thinking if nothing.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: Then suddenly it all came back. Oh don't, don't, don't
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: touch me, he gasped, Keep away from me. He staggered
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 3: to his feet and pressed his hands to his eyes
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 3: to shut out the vision that would return. His knees trembled,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 3: and his teeth chattered. Something as white as the moonlight
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 3: gathered at his lips. The woman made an imploring gesture,
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 3: Oh see, I have put it on again, and she
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 3: turned her head that he might behold the velvet mask
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: at the center of her voice. He shivered in terror,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 3: and without a word, but making a strange moaning noise,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: he ran like one demented, in the direction of the
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 3: lighted casino, and in the still white moonlight, the woman
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 3: in red stood like one of the statues of the
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 3: terraced garden, its marble purity turned to scarlet. The next night,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: she was at her usual place at the roulette table,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 3: but it was the stupid baron who sat beside her.
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: Why don't you play, he asked, as she sat motionless
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: and indifferent, Eyed curiously by the spectators of the game.
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 3: She sat up wearily and pushed a pile of gold
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 3: and notes upon the red number twelve. The croupier started
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 3: the wheel, revolving rapidly in one direction, and sent the
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 3: ball deftly rolling in the other. And there was a
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: little buzz of conversation. Tongues wagged briskly while eyes were
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 3: fastened on the whirling wheel. What has become of our
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 3: English friend? Asked? One gone home? Was the answer from
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 3: another across the table. Perhaps the heat went to his head.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 3: He tapped his forehead significantly. Gradually, the wheel slowed down
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 3: and the ball was about to settle with its customary click.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 3: Gamblers leaned over the table to see the result of
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 3: their bets. The slowly rolling sphere was just dropping into
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 3: number twelve. No, it has settled into the adjoining compartment.
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 3: Vingt huit nor Gagnee calls out the croupier with shrill muttony,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 3: and those shining heaps are distributed to the winners, and
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 3: madame who's lost, exclaimed the stupid baron in surprise. The
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 3: woman in red made no reply, but stood up and,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 3: with an imperious motion not to follow, walked steadily from
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: the sunne deju. A vivid bit of color under the
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 3: glittering lights of the splendid apartment. Early the next morning,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: she was found lying on the marble steps of the casino,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 3: dead in her scarlet dress. The stain trailing along the
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 3: snowy marble had been scarlet too, but was now turning
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 3: to a reddish brown, and one fine, strong hand was
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 3: tightly clutched a folded note. The servants and people who
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 3: gathered in trembling all sent for the priest of the
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: Church of Sante de Vote to read it. He came, quickly,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 3: panting a little for breath, taking the paper from the
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 3: fingers of the dead woman. He glanced over it nervously
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 3: while the people looked on in breathless silence. It was
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 3: written in French. I will read it, the priest said slowly,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 3: and he translated the writing and trembling tones. I have
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 3: taken my own life. Let that pass. Let no one
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: lift the mask from my face, but the priests of
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 3: the Church of Sante de Volte, And I pray him
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 3: when he knows my secret, to say Mass for my
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 3: soul by all that is holy. Respect these words. As
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 3: his solemn voice ceased, those crowding about shuddered and fell
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 3: back in nameless fear. They at once carried the body
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: of the woman to where she had lodged. The early
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 3: morning sun gleaming strangely on her scarlet garments and yellow hair.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: The priest entered the house and closed the door upon
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 3: the crowd. When he again emerged, he was hardly recognizable.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 3: His face deadly white, twitched and quivered spasmodically, His eyes
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 3: protruded and rolled wildly from side to side, and his
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 3: lips were parted in an awful, unh smile. His trembling
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 3: hands could scarcely hold the crucifix. To those who spoke
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 3: to him, he made no answer. He did not seem
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 3: to hear. They buried the woman that evening at sunset,
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 3: among the nameless graves on the hill behind Monte Carlo,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 3: as speedily as possible. When the grim grotesque companion if
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 3: the dead, was asked if any one should be sent for,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: the only answer she would give was, oh, the devil,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 3: the devil, the devil, How should I know? The priest
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 3: from the Church of Sante de Vote mumbled the service
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 3: rapidly and indistinctly over the grave, with one shaking hand
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 3: raised in a defensive attitude, as though to banish something,
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: or still the quaking terror that shook him from head
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 3: to foot. When the ritual was ended, he turned to
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 3: the dense crowd, which no secrecy or word of authority
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 3: had been able to keep away, and said so sternly
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 3: and distinctly that his voice echoed in the silence. Whosoever,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 3: as much as dares to touch this grave upon him,
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 3: I pronounced the everlasting curse of the Holy Church of Rome.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: Down the sloping hill side back to the town. He
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 3: led the procession all the way, shaking like a leaf.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: When they came again to the narrow streets, he suddenly
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 3: stopped trembling and began to laugh. And at the sound
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 3: of such laughter, the people stumbled over each other in
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 3: their anxiety to get away. The Commissaire special and the
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 3: administration acted promptly and with energy. There was an extra
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 3: concert that very night, a grand ball on that succeeding
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 3: followed by a comic opera at Monte Carlo. It will
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 3: not do to encourage reminiscence, and so by and by
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 3: people stopped thinking and began to talk of other things.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 3: The old Count and the stupid Baron were among the
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 3: first to drop the subject. But when to the mad
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 3: priest in his cell. There came continually the deep boom
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 3: boom of the sea, the cry of the goal, and
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 3: the chimes of the church. Where he should nevermore say Mass.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 3: He laughed and laughed and laft, though he could not
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 3: remember why. End of section.
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 5: Four Section five of The Black Cat, Volume five number two,
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 5: November eighteen ninety nine. This is the LibriVox recording. All
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 5: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 5: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 5: Greg Giordano, The Black Cat, Volume five number two, November
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 5: eighteen ninety nine. Section five The Invasion of calm Haven
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 5: by Arthur McEwen. Doctor Philip Garrunson was rowing on the
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 5: smooth Little River, which on the south bounded the extensive
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 5: wooded grounds of the private lunatic asylum where he served
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 5: as assistant resident physician. Com Haven called itself a sanitarium,
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 5: but it was really a lunatic asylum, though it harbored
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 5: among its inmates many patients who were not lunatics, quite
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 5: only nervous wrecks or moral cripples, seeking help in their
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 5: despairing fight to conquer bad habits. The river was not
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 5: navigable at this point, and being free from steamers and
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 5: all craft save an occasional pleasure boat, had come to
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 5: be regarded almost as a private stream by com Haven,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 5: of whose hotel like buildings, with their rocker dotted verandas
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 5: the young doctor caught a glimpse through the trees now
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 5: and again as he pulled at his oars to row
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 5: on the sequestered river, was the one relaxation of doctor Grunson,
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 5: who knew much about his profession and little about life.
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 5: He had worked so very hard to acquire knowledge of
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 5: medicine and surgery, that, like an numbers of young doctors,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 5: he was ignorant and grave beyond his years. Lectures and
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 5: textbooks in the hospitals leave little time for social attrition,
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 5: or that reading which brightens the mind, quickens the spirit,
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 5: and multiplies the sympathies. In his head was charted every
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 5: bone and muscle belonging to the human body, but with
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 5: the human heart. Except as a physical organ, he had
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 5: no conscious acquaintance. Busy men dream few dreams. His mother,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 5: his sister, older than himself, half a dozen industrious and
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 5: absorbed female students, the trained nurses, of the wards these
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 5: had given him all his association with women. Doctor Grunson
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 5: was yet too young to have undergone atrophy of the
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 5: imaginative and esthetic faculties. They were dormant. Merely he was
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 5: not stupid despite his extreme gravity. Simply his good brain
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 5: had been exercised in a special direction in his capacity
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 5: for sentiment. Not at all of marriage, he had thought,
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 5: of course, being a normal man, but as something far
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 5: away on the yonder side of the office and competence
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 5: that were to be his in the years to come,
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 5: when he should take up private practice and succeed. That
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 5: he would succeed, he was quite sure, and he was
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 5: justified in this confidence, for he owned a resolute temper
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 5: and had no tastes or weaknesses to swerve him from
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 5: the straight professional track. Meantime, he tarried in his calmhaven
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 5: Jericho till his beard should be grown, and it was
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 5: growing finely, doing its loyal best to give an aspect
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 5: of trust inspiring maturity to the soberly ambitious young man
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 5: without means or friends of influence, who saved while he
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 5: labored and studied in this asylum against the day of
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 5: private practice. In the interval he qualified himself for a
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 5: career as an alienist, should circumstances force him along that road. Already,
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 5: his book knowledge of insanity was larger and fresher than
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 5: that of the superintendent himself. Doctor Whitehouse, an elderly man
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 5: who had grown rusty in Madhouse literature. He preferring the
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 5: human pages which the living cases in Comhaven supplied, study
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 5: the patients more in the books less advised doctor Whithouse,
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 5: but his assistant was still in the book stage. Doctor
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 5: Grunson rode on the quiet river and thought of Parisis.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 5: His primary motive for rowing was his recognition of the
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 5: need of exercise, the secondary the pleasure it afforded him.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 5: For doctor Grunson was a healthy young man, well muscled
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 5: and strong, he in need to be, for a practitioner
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 5: among lunatics is often required to do more violent tasks
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 5: than prescribed sedatives and enforce hygiene. The afternoon was warm,
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 5: and the oarsmen had shed his coat. He pulled with
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 5: a steady stroke, the rhythm of which made muscular music
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 5: for him behind him, as far as the eye could
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 5: reach to bend a mile away, his was the only
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 5: boat visible on the Placid stream, which mirrored prettily the
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 5: willows and maples on its grassy banks. He filled his
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 5: lungs deeply, knowing that that was good for him, and
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 5: his thoughts switched from parysus to acute mania. Suddenly doctor
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 5: Grunson backed water with startled energy and stared in astonishment.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 5: No wonder a girl lay in the water, not two
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 5: oars length from the boat. She was not dead. Had
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 5: she been, the steady nerved young doctor would not have
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 5: been disturbed a hundredth part so greatly as he was.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 5: Dead people were very much in his line, whereas living
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 5: girls on land or water were not. This one was
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 5: exceedingly alive, as it proved. She lay on her back,
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 5: keeping afloat, with slight motions of her hands by her sides,
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 5: a practiced swimmer, evidently, and gazed solemnly at the man
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 5: who stared at her speechless. They were strange eyes, hazel
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 5: and very large, their look intense. She was not more
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 5: than twenty, apparently, of small and rather full figure, and
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 5: her pale face, doctor Grunson decided, or something in doctor
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 5: Grunson decided for him, was almost lovely. It would have
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 5: been wholly so, but for the eyes. These were beautiful
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 5: in themselves, but their intensity of regard gave them an
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 5: uncanny quality, the hypnotic quality which confused the sight of
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 5: others and causes a sense of dizzy disturbance in the rain.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 5: Why you missah, she demanded, calm but frowning. Her voice
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 5: helped Doctor Grunson to find his And who are you,
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 5: miss And what on earth are you doing out here
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 5: in the water? He asked. There was no end to
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 5: Doctor Grunson's surprises. The instant these words left his lips.
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 5: She whirled around upon her chest and with three strokes,
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 5: reached the boat. Seizing what she drew herself up until
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 5: her chin was above the line of the stern, a
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 5: diamond twinkling on her little finger, through which raised into
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 5: his puzzled eyes. Her face showed anger, and a naturally
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 5: sweet contralto was depraved into harsh flatness, as she cried
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 5: out to him, insolent, you dare to question me what
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 5: you do in our park canal? You shall be punished
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 5: row me, she ordered, boarding the skiff with athletic ease,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 5: which the young doctor appreciated in spite of his bewilderment,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 5: rolling instantly to the bank and I shall deliver you
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 5: to our foresters. Why certainly, miss quietly assented doctor Gronson.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 5: The talk of park and foresters revealed everything to him,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 5: and he became at once his collected professional self. Where
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 5: did you leave your wheel? She was in bicyclists, dress
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 5: of the light is material and with the shortest of skirts,
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 5: and adele by the shore of this lake, she answered mildly,
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 5: And as he set himself to the oars, eyeing her
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 5: the while furtively, she caught his glance, and her young
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 5: face rippled into a sunny smile. Faster Lewis, she urged gently,
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 5: We have been upon the water long. The dew is falling.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 5: I think yes. While she felt her clinging garments with
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 5: a questioning hand, I am sure it is, for I
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 5: am damp. The memory of that walk of a few
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 5: hundred yards to the asylum always remained with Doctor Grunson.
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 5: He laughs at it now, but it was a tremendously
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 5: serious business. Then It began with the wet girl's small
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 5: hand upon his arm, her face upturned to his, beaming
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 5: with trust and a sisterly tenderness. There was an imploring
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 5: cadence in her voice while she spoke rapidly and at length.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 5: But as she spoke in French, Philip understood not one word,
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 5: though he pretended comprehension, and was deadly anxious to deliver
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 5: her into the matron's care before some change of lunatic
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 5: mood might seize her from French. She burst into English,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 5: perfectly good American English, then dropped back into French again.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 5: Try as he might, she would not let him hurry.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 5: She dressed him as Lewis Monechosson, which was near enough
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 5: in sound to English to be comprehended. At a turn
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 5: of the wide blue gravel path that, when rounded, would
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 5: bring into view the buildings of Calmhaven, she stopped where
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 5: a venerable elm cast its luminous shade, the sunlight shifting
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 5: down through the foliage, giving to the air that Sylvan
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 5: sweetness of pervasive green, which is the most delicate thing
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 5: in nature. Louis should besought him both her hands upon
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 5: his arm. You will speak to the Cardinal for me
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 5: and Eugene, won't you, dear? He esteems you and you
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 5: are powerful. Certainly certainly, Philip assured her, in encouraging tones,
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 5: the tones of the soothing doctor. It means so much,
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 5: She urged, plaintively, clinging closer to him. So much for Eugene,
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 5: so much for me. We cannot live apart. Eugene is poor,
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 5: but he is noble. Bear that in upon the Cardinal
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 5: Eugene is noble. Are not the d s Damovilles the
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 5: equals and blood of the de ro Hans. It's not
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 5: all the world know that, of course, agreed Philip warmly.
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 5: Of course that's understood everywhere. And he smiled upon her
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 5: with a wide, professional smile that was not seconded by
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 5: his anxious eyes. And yet, and yet, she said, her
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 5: voice breaking, while the Cardinal, our uncle objects Louis the
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 5: king will forbid. She withdrew herself from him, sat down
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 5: dejectedly on a great gray boulder under the elm, and,
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 5: covering her face with her hands, began to weep, not
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 5: with violence, but in a pitiful, quiet helplessness. Doctor Grunson
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 5: stood in the road, regarding her with the patience of
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 5: his training. She certainly was very pretty to look at,
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 5: being young Philip, though a doctor and a budding alienist,
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 5: couldn't be blind to that. The scant wet dress set
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 5: off her well rounded, girlish figure to perfection. Her hair
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 5: loosened at the sides, fell from under the half displaced
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 5: jaunty cap to her shoulders and wavy and dark cascades.
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 5: She was so pathetically small, so utterly feminine in her
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 5: helpless woe, that a gush of protecting pity surged through
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 5: Philip's breast. Won't you, he said, gently, approaching and touching
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 5: her shoulder. Won't you please get up and come with me?
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 5: She raised her face from her hands, smiling tearfully through
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 5: her hair, and sprang to her feet. Surely, she cried, gaily,
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 5: let us do the chateau. Monsieur lecomte Luncheon must be ready,
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 5: with her hand on his arm again, and chattering in
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 5: French with a sustained valuability whose only interruptions were her
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 5: frequent bursts of light laughter. She completed the journey to Colmhaven.
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 5: Thank god, God, sighed doctor Grunson, when he had landed
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 5: her in the asylum in the matron's charge. Thank god,
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 5: And he changed his clothes for the side to which
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 5: this new patient had clung was wet to the skin.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 5: Doctor Whitehouse was not at all sorry. At the end
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 5: of a week, the new patient disappeared, her wheel with
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 5: her in the first place. Calm Haven was intended for
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 5: people of means, and though the young woman was plainly
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 5: not a poor person, she had brought no money with her,
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 5: and efforts to discover her identity had failed. Besides, to
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 5: this elderly alienist, insensible to the charms of youth, demented
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 5: or undemented, she had been a good deal of a nuisance.
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 5: Mademoiselle de Rochan, as she called herself, robe all over
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 5: the place where great liberty was allowed, talking of cardinals
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 5: and dukes, the King and Versailles, singing in French one
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 5: hour and bewilling her lovelorn lot in the lished the next.
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 5: She flew into a passion with doctor Grunson because he
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 5: did not instantly upon her demand furniture with a lute.
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 5: The young man was not so philosophical as his superior.
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 5: The thought of the poor girl, insane and singularly attractive
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 5: despite her insanity, martering about without protection, harassed him to
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 5: nervous and febrile excitement by day, and produced stubborn insomnia
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 5: by night. My dear Grunson protested the seasoned doctor Whitehouse
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 5: on the third day. If you persist in making a
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 5: personal concern of it, and going off like a lated
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 5: knight errant in search of this crazy damsel. I shall
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 5: certainly think you need treatment yourself. When you are older,
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 5: my boy, you will learn to keep your feelings for
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 5: those who are entitled to them, and take only a
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 5: professional interest in your patience. This girl was nothing to you,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 5: nothing to us. No doubt we shall hear of her soon,
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 5: So well marked a case of mania accompanied by hallucination
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 5: cannot be long hid. They did hear from her, Doctor Whithouse,
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 5: with well founded indignation, and doctor Grunson, with a deep
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 5: sense of having the most delicate sensibilities of his nature
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 5: trampled upon. The letter came to the latter, it begged
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 5: his pardon, and then continued, But business is business with
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 5: me as well as with yourself, in that astute owl
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 5: of an eminent alienist, our mutual, hard hearted friend, Doctor Whitthhouse. Really,
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 5: my dear doctor Grunson, who are not out of gratefulness
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 5: to you, who were so kind, so manly in your consideration,
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 5: I would try what I could do to make calm
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 5: Haven a little less profitable than it is.
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 4: Well.
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 5: It is true that the stories of cruelty and neglect
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 5: which came to the Searchlight office are so far as
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 5: I could discover, wholly unfounded. There's always enough about any
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 5: large institution of the kind to supply material for a
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 5: critical pen. But for your sake, in return for the
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 5: pranks I played upon you in the way of business,
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 5: and your truly noble care for what you took to
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 5: be a deranged and helpless girl, I have disappointed the
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 5: editor by reporting to him that calm Haven is all right,
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 5: and that there is nothing there worth a piece in
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 5: the Searchlight, which once only the sensational. I enclose my
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 5: check for my week's entertainment, And should you care when
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 5: in New York to call, I shall be very glad,
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 5: indeed to meet you again, sincerely, in a little remorsefully, yours,
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 5: Helen Betty Dotty Dimple, Doctor Whohouse's hair rose rose above
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 5: his indignation as a fooled and flouted specialist of national reputation.
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 5: For a whole week, Comhaven had harbored Dotty Dimple, the
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 5: famous female reporter he turned white. The name of that
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 5: enterprising young lady must forever henceforth give him the sensations
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 5: that the name of dry Fox imparted to members of
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 5: the British Parliament for several generations. The sign of doctor
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 5: Philip Grunson embellishes the door of a brownstone house in
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 5: a conspicuously respectable Uptown New York street. At the present day,
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 5: his beard is all that he could wish. In the
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 5: dark green livery of his coachman is just what it
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 5: should be, notwithstanding his resolve never to pardon such heartless deceit.
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 5: After Grunson did call on Miss Helen Beatty, and he
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 5: continued to call as on the occasion of his thirtieth
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 5: or was it the fiftieth visit one year eight months
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 5: precisely after the young lady's departure from Calmhaven. The conversation
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 5: took place in Miss Helen's elegant flat on fifth first
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 5: Street West, in which that persuasive journalist who had a
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 5: bank account overcame the doctor's scruples on the subject of
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 5: ways and means and outline their immediate future in these words,
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 5: domesticity is really my dearest ideal, Philip, I detest Dotty
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 5: Dimple and all her works. I thought everything out, and
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 5: we shall be married immediately, say on the first Wednesday
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 5: in June. Is now April eighteenth. I am due to
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 5: go up in a balloon on May second, and that
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 5: shall be my last assignments. End of Section five. End
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 5: of The Black Cat, Volume five, number two, November eighteen
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 5: ninety nine.