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Black Cat Vol. 05 No. 12 September 1900-Various · The Black Cat and other Short Stories

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  Speaker 1: Section one of The Black Cat, Volume five, number twelve
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  Speaker 1: September nineteen hundred. This is a librevox recording. All librevox
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  Speaker 1: recordings or in the public domain. For more information or
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit libravox dot org. The Black Cat,
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  Speaker 1: Volume five, number twelve September nineteen hundred, Section one The
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  Speaker 1: Levitation of Jacob by Clifford Howard. As I cast my
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  Speaker 1: eye over the advertising columns of the Journal, I was
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  Speaker 1: attracted by the following notice, printed in small type and
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  Speaker 1: tucked away in an inconspicuous place. Here I am Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: Office Box nine seven five, annihilator of the Undesirable. I
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  Speaker 1: am not naturally a person of much curiosity, but it
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  Speaker 1: seemed to me that there was something very unusual about
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  Speaker 1: this advertisement. It may not have impressed other readers in
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  Speaker 1: the same way, but it surely appealed to me as
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  Speaker 1: a most singular announcement. I could not rid my mind
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  Speaker 1: of it, and the more I thought of it, the
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  Speaker 1: more curious I became. But I never spend time in
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  Speaker 1: idle speculation. My policy is to get at the facts
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  Speaker 1: of a case. Accordingly, I clipped the advertisement and enclosed
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  Speaker 1: it in a note addressed to hear Am Jacob asking
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  Speaker 1: him to furnish me with full particulars. After waiting a day,
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  Speaker 1: I received this answer written on the typewriter in regular
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  Speaker 1: business form. My dear sir, in reply to your favor
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  Speaker 1: of this state, I beg to inform you that I
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  Speaker 1: am now prepared to fill orders for the extermination of
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  Speaker 1: human pests, drunkards, and worthless grandparents. As speciality. Particular attention
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  Speaker 1: paid to the annihilation of personal enemies, money borrowers, organ grinders,
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  Speaker 1: mischievous gossips, miserly relatives, and confirmed dyspeptics. In short, my
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  Speaker 1: business applies to all all individuals who are a burden
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  Speaker 1: to society or whose existence interferes with the life, liberty,
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  Speaker 1: or happiness of others. I am the discoverer and sole
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  Speaker 1: possessor of a method of annihilation that defies detection. It
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  Speaker 1: is instantaneous, clean, noiseless, and absolutely certain. It leaves not
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  Speaker 1: a shadow of a trace behind. It is annihilation, pure
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  Speaker 1: and simple. This I guarantee in the case of relatives,
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  Speaker 1: it saves all bother and expense of funerals. This is
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  Speaker 1: an important item. My terms or five hundred dollars for
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  Speaker 1: each case cash in advance twenty percent discount for two
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  Speaker 1: in a family if ordered at the same time, orders
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  Speaker 1: executed within three days after receipt, or money refunded special
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  Speaker 1: yearly rates for the annihilation of tramps. My patrons assume
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  Speaker 1: no risk. Those who fear possibility of detection, though I
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  Speaker 1: guarantee there is none, need not reveal their identity. Simply
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  Speaker 1: write name and address of party to be exterminated, and
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  Speaker 1: forward with banknote two yours t truly here, I am Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: Annihilator of the Undesirable. There was a straightforwardness about this
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  Speaker 1: letter which impressed me very favorably. The man was evidently sincere,
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  Speaker 1: notwithstanding that he was several generations in advance of his time.
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  Speaker 1: But I was particularly struck with what he said in
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  Speaker 1: reference to his method of business. The absolute annihilation of
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  Speaker 1: a body has always been regarded as a physical impossibility.
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  Speaker 1: Yet here was a man who claimed to have discovered
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  Speaker 1: a means of accomplishing it, and was ready to put
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  Speaker 1: it to practical use for the benefit of humanity. As
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  Speaker 1: an investigator and a seeker after truth, I felt it
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  Speaker 1: my duty to look into this matter more deeply. I
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  Speaker 1: have spent many thousands of dollars in scientific experiments and research,
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  Speaker 1: and the question of five hundred dollars offered but little
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  Speaker 1: objection to satisfy myself of the truth of this man's
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  Speaker 1: claim regarding his remarkable discovery. A more serious matter was
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  Speaker 1: the selection of somebody to be annihilated. I had in
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  Speaker 1: mind quite a number of both men and women, who
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  Speaker 1: would answer the purpose very satisfactorily. The difficulty lay in
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  Speaker 1: making a choice. There were several whose sudden taking off
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  Speaker 1: I knew would prove a godsend to their relatives. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: I was possessed of an aged and unbalanced aunt whose
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  Speaker 1: death was impatiently awaited by every member of the family.
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  Speaker 1: She was a helpless, invalid, totally deaf and almost blind,
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  Speaker 1: and subject to the peevish her lucination that the neighbors
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  Speaker 1: were spitting at her. Her lucid moments were devoted to
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  Speaker 1: wagging her head and mumbling grievously. Because she was not
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  Speaker 1: in heaven, where she had an idea she belonged, everybody said,
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  Speaker 1: and said it quite freely too, that it would be
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  Speaker 1: a mercy if she died. But whenever she developed alarming
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  Speaker 1: symptoms which gave promise of her speed determination, the doctor
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  Speaker 1: was hastily called, and she was nursed back to life
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  Speaker 1: with much care and solicitude. It was probably the same
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  Speaker 1: spirit which impelled us to do all we could to
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  Speaker 1: prolong her days of misery, that now deterred me from
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  Speaker 1: selecting her for the hand of Jacob. Besides her, I
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  Speaker 1: had two or three other relatives who, for one reason
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  Speaker 1: or another, would have been more agreeable in the graveyard
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  Speaker 1: than around the house. But I have a natural delicacy
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  Speaker 1: about tampering with relatives. At the same time, to get
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  Speaker 1: rid of a member of the family would have served
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  Speaker 1: a purely personal end, and that was not my object
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  Speaker 1: in this matter. I desired simply to make a scientific investigation,
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  Speaker 1: aside from all family or selfish considerations, and I therefore
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  Speaker 1: determined to select someone whose annihilation would not only serve
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  Speaker 1: the cause of science, but at the same time be
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  Speaker 1: a benefit to society at large. Accordingly, I picked out
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  Speaker 1: Bill Tyser. Bill Tyser was a notorious scamp, a hard
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  Speaker 1: drinker and a gambler, convicted of a number of minor offenses,
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  Speaker 1: and always suspected of larger ones, a charge on the community,
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  Speaker 1: utterly worthless, a dangerous element of society. If ever, there
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  Speaker 1: was a man unfit to live. It was Bill TiSER,
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  Speaker 1: and I felt myself a public benefactor when I placed
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  Speaker 1: my order for him with the Annihilator of the Undesirable.
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  Speaker 1: For the next two days after mailing the order, I
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  Speaker 1: spent my time following Bill Tyser about town. It was
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  Speaker 1: important that I should be on hand when the annihilation
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  Speaker 1: took place, and as a consequence, most of my time
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  Speaker 1: was given up to lounging about in saloons. It was
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  Speaker 1: not altogether good for my reputation, but I have learned
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  Speaker 1: to sacrifice much for the sake of science. And when
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  Speaker 1: it was rumored that I had taken to drink and
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  Speaker 1: was seen prowling around dead Man's Alley in a state
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  Speaker 1: of intoxication, I accepted my fate with the meekness of
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  Speaker 1: a martyr. The reward of my vigilance and self sacrifice
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  Speaker 1: came at last. It was on the afternoon of the
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  Speaker 1: third day, and it may not be amiss to add
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  Speaker 1: that I shall never forget that day. It was shortly
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  Speaker 1: after three o'clock. I was crossing a street in the
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  Speaker 1: business section of the city, following in the tipsy footsteps
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  Speaker 1: of Bill Tyser, who was a few feet ahead. Of me.
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  Speaker 1: I was just in the act of reaching forward to
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  Speaker 1: pull him out of the way of a cart, when
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  Speaker 1: a most astonishing thing occurred. Bill Tyser suddenly vanished. The
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  Speaker 1: hand that I had raised to take him by the
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  Speaker 1: shoulder fell upon empty air. Only in an instant before
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  Speaker 1: he had been directly in front of me. I was
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  Speaker 1: looking right at him. Now he was gone, as completely
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  Speaker 1: as if he had never existed. The effect of his
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  Speaker 1: disappearance was like that of a gas jet that is
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  Speaker 1: suddenly extinguished. Now ye see it, now you don't. He
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  Speaker 1: simply went out of existence, instantly and completely, without a sign,
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  Speaker 1: without a trace of what had become of him. Had
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  Speaker 1: I been the only witness of this marvel, I should
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  Speaker 1: probably have doubted my senses. But what I had seen
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  Speaker 1: was confirmed by the driver of the cart, who was
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  Speaker 1: so overcome with fright that he gave vent to a
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  Speaker 1: series of unearthly yells, which not only served his horse
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  Speaker 1: as a pretext of away, but attracted a large and
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  Speaker 1: inquisitive crowd. The street at this point is paved with
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  Speaker 1: Belgian blocks. I examined the pavement carefully. It was firm
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  Speaker 1: and solid. There was no manhole, no sewer trap, no
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  Speaker 1: opening of any kind into which my victim might have fallen.
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  Speaker 1: Neither could I discover the slightest trace of the man.
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  Speaker 1: There was no sign of blood, no scrap of clothing,
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  Speaker 1: no mark of any sort in the dust or on
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  Speaker 1: the stones, absolutely nothing to indicate the spot where he
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  Speaker 1: had disappeared, or to show how he had passed out
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  Speaker 1: of existence. He was gone, body and soul. There could
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  Speaker 1: be no doubt about it. I was the witness of
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  Speaker 1: a marvelous phenomenon, a phenomenon in contradiction of all the
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  Speaker 1: laws of physics, the complete and total annihilation of matter.
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  Speaker 1: The demonstration was complete and beyond question, but the mystery
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  Speaker 1: of it was unfathomable. The announcement that Bill Tyser was missing,
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  Speaker 1: and that no clue to his whereabouts could be found,
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  Speaker 1: attracted but little public interest. Despite the story of his
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  Speaker 1: disappearance as told by the drunken driver, it was taken
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  Speaker 1: for granted that he had tumbled into the river, and
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  Speaker 1: the police made no special effort to find him. Nor
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  Speaker 1: did I deem it worthwhile to make any mention of
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  Speaker 1: myoso's with the affair. It was a case of good
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  Speaker 1: riddance to bad rubbish, and the public was satisfied to
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  Speaker 1: let it go at that, But scarcely had the incident
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  Speaker 1: passed from mind, when the mystery connected with it was
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  Speaker 1: revived by another remarkable and mysterious disappearance. A retired banker,
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  Speaker 1: an old man by the name of Muldoon, suddenly disappeared
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  Speaker 1: one morning. He had left his home to call at
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  Speaker 1: the house of a friend about two blocks away. Several
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  Speaker 1: persons distinctly remembered having passed him on the street, and
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  Speaker 1: one man testified that he had stopped and talked with
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  Speaker 1: him at the very doorstep of his friend's house. That
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  Speaker 1: was the last scene of him. He never reached his destination.
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  Speaker 1: While the police and the public racked their startled brains
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  Speaker 1: for some solution of this extraordinary affair, I saw in
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  Speaker 1: it at once the mighty hand of the mysterious Jacob.
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  Speaker 1: Evidently he had secured another customer, for I had not
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  Speaker 1: considered it necessary to place a second order with him,
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  Speaker 1: as he had fully satisfied me of his ability as
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  Speaker 1: an annihilator. My chief desire now was to learn his secret.
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  Speaker 1: Yet there was something so overwhelmingly wonderful and incomprehensible about
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  Speaker 1: it that I was at a loss to even conjecture
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  Speaker 1: his possible method of operation. Then, about a week after
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  Speaker 1: the annihilation of the venerable Muldoon, the community was thrown
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  Speaker 1: into a state of bewilderment by the similar disappearance of
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  Speaker 1: an old lady. Her case was even more remarkable than
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  Speaker 1: either of the previous ones. She was an invalid, had
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  Speaker 1: been an invalid for fifty years, and was being wheeled
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  Speaker 1: slowly up and down the sunny side of the street
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  Speaker 1: near her home, when suddenly she and her entire outfit
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  Speaker 1: of chair, nurse and pet poodle vanished from the face
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  Speaker 1: of the earth. It may readily be imagined that my
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  Speaker 1: science loving soul was stirred to its depths by this
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  Speaker 1: demonstration of Jacob's miraculous force. And while of course I
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  Speaker 1: agreed with the community that it was a very unceremonious
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  Speaker 1: way for this time worn lady to make her exit
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  Speaker 1: from the stage of life, I was too deeply impressed
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  Speaker 1: with the scientific aspect of the case to give much
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  Speaker 1: attention to the sentimental side of it. But my feelings
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  Speaker 1: on the subject were very abruptly altered by a startling
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  Speaker 1: and most unexpected incident. I received the following letter from here.
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  Speaker 1: I am Jacob, Dear sir, your attentions to a certain
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  Speaker 1: young lady, whom it is unnecessary for me to mention
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  Speaker 1: by name, are the cause of much unhappiness to a
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  Speaker 1: fellow mortal on his behalf, I warn you to completely
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  Speaker 1: sever your acquaintanceship with the said young lady on or
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  Speaker 1: before the twentieth inst Now a man who is readily frightened,
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  Speaker 1: but the prospect of personally experiencing complete annihilation was by
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  Speaker 1: no means agreeable. There could be no doubt that that
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  Speaker 1: was the meaning of the letter. Some cowardly rival for
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  Speaker 1: the hand of Helen Baker had evidently placed an order
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  Speaker 1: for me with the inscrutable Jacob. Unfortunately, Miss Baker had
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  Speaker 1: so many admirers in addition to myself, that I was
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  Speaker 1: at a loss to know which one to accuse of
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  Speaker 1: this villainous threat. Nor was I in a financial position
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  Speaker 1: to wreak wholesale vengeance by placing an order for the
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  Speaker 1: annihilation of the entire lot. At the same time, I
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  Speaker 1: did not propose to be bulldozed, and within an hour
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  Speaker 1: after the receipt of the letter, I called on Miss
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  Speaker 1: Baker with an avowal which I had had in contemplation
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  Speaker 1: for some time past, and when I left, I was
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  Speaker 1: calling her Helen, and we kissed one another good night.
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  Speaker 1: I mention this not so much for the purpose of
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  Speaker 1: showing Miss Baker's preference for me above her numerous suitors,
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  Speaker 1: but to demonstrate that I am no coward. I knew
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  Speaker 1: it would be both senselers and futile to call the
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  Speaker 1: attention of the police to Jacob's letter. It contained no
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  Speaker 1: real threat of violence, and were I to explain who
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  Speaker 1: the writer was by declaring him to be the destroyer
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  Speaker 1: of Bill Tyser, it would be impossible to prove it. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: if by any possibility I could prove the assertion, it
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  Speaker 1: would necessarily involve me in the matter, and I would
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  Speaker 1: be adjudged as guilty as Jacob himself, perhaps more so,
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  Speaker 1: and that would mean the disgraceful termination of my days
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  Speaker 1: on the end of a rope between the two. I
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  Speaker 1: preferred clean, respectable annihilation. What's to giving up Helen. That
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  Speaker 1: was out of the question. I was engaged to her now,
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  Speaker 1: and I am particularly conscientious about keeping my engagements. My
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  Speaker 1: rival should see that I was not a man to
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  Speaker 1: be intimidated, and furthermore, I was determined he should not
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  Speaker 1: succeed in his murderous design. I made up my mind
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  Speaker 1: to find heroum Jacob. I felt that if I could
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  Speaker 1: could once get hold of him, I could arrange matters
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  Speaker 1: to our mutual satisfaction as between brother scientists. Pride would
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  Speaker 1: not permit me to write to him, for I would
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  Speaker 1: not put myself in the attitude of pleading for mercy.
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  Speaker 1: I had made several attempts before to locate him, for
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  Speaker 1: my curiosity had impelled me to seek from him an
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  Speaker 1: explanation of his marvelous secret. But all my efforts in
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  Speaker 1: that direction had been in vain. Beyond his post office box,
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  Speaker 1: he appeared to have no existence. As the matter had
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  Speaker 1: now assumed a much more serious aspect, I devoted my
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  Speaker 1: entire time and energy to his discovery. The date fixed
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  Speaker 1: for my extermination was but five days off. Three of
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  Speaker 1: these days I spent in the post office from early
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  Speaker 1: morning until late at night, keeping a watch on box
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  Speaker 1: nine seven five. Despite my vigilance, it was not until
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  Speaker 1: this much of my time had been consumed that I
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  Speaker 1: was able to discover who took the mail from this
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  Speaker 1: particular box. It was only then, by the merest chance
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  Speaker 1: that I made the discovery. I happened to turn rather
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  Speaker 1: suddenly in my slow pacing up and down the lobby,
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  Speaker 1: and caught a small boy in the act of taking
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  Speaker 1: a letter from Number nine seventy five. He unlocked and
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  Speaker 1: closed the box again so quickly that had I been
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  Speaker 1: fifteen seconds later, I should have missed him. Putting the
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  Speaker 1: letter in his pocket, he left the building. I at
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  Speaker 1: once followed him, keeping him well in sight, but avoiding
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  Speaker 1: any appearance of tracking him. After a walk of several blocks,
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  Speaker 1: he stopped at a letter box on a street corner.
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  Speaker 1: Taking the letter from his pocket, he placed it in
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  Speaker 1: a large envelope and sealed it, and was in the
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  Speaker 1: act of mailing it when it slipped from his hand
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  Speaker 1: and fell to the ground. Here he could pick it up.
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  Speaker 1: I saw the address Room thirty seven Duncan Building. That
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  Speaker 1: was all. There was no name, but the clue was sufficient,
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  Speaker 1: and the next day found me knocking at number thirty
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  Speaker 1: seven Dunton Building, bright and early in the morning. Six
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  Speaker 1: different times I called and pounding on the door, and
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  Speaker 1: stamped about impatiently in the hall, but each time without success.
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  Speaker 1: Then the janitor told me that no one occupied the room.
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  Speaker 1: He said some one had rented it but never used it.
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  Speaker 1: The only one who called was the postman, and he
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  Speaker 1: always dropped the letters through the opening in the door.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: With the aid of a button hook and several keys,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I succeeded in gaining an entrance to the room the
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  Speaker 1: next morning. This was the twentieth of the month, my
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  Speaker 1: last day of grace, and I took it for granted
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  Speaker 1: that desperate chances were permissible. The room was without furniture
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  Speaker 1: and totally bare. On the floor lay two letters, where
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  Speaker 1: the carrier had dropped them through the door. I had
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  Speaker 1: brought my lunch with me, for I was determined to
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  Speaker 1: remain until mister Jacob called for his letters. Notwithstanding the
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  Speaker 1: janitor's statement, it was plain that Jacob must sneak into
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  Speaker 1: the room sometime during the day or night to get
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  Speaker 1: his mail. I also had my revolver with me four contingencies.
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  Speaker 1: Two or three hours passed without a sound or sign
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  Speaker 1: of anybody. My vigil was becoming irksome. I sat on
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  Speaker 1: the window sill, keeping one eye on the door and
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: allowing the other to see as much as it could
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  Speaker 1: of the roofs and chimneys outside. By way of diversion,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: twelve o'clock came and I was still alone. I took
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  Speaker 1: my lunch from my pocket, and as I did so,
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  Speaker 1: I happened to glance down at the floor. The letters
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: that had been lying there close to the door had disappeared.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: A creepy chill passed over me. No one had entered
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  Speaker 1: the room. I had fastened the bolt when I came in,
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  Speaker 1: and the door was still bolted. There was no opening
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  Speaker 1: under the door through which the letters could have been extracted.
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  Speaker 1: The situation was positively uncanny, and combined with the mystery
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  Speaker 1: of Jacob's existence and the realization of his fearful power,
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I do not think I can be blamed for feeling
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  Speaker 1: decidedly uncomfortable, not to say, he's scared. There are times
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  Speaker 1: when the bravest of men lose their nerve, when judgment
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  Speaker 1: and reason are thrown to the winds under the stress
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  Speaker 1: of sudden fear or excitement. I rushed from the room
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  Speaker 1: and out into the street. There was now but one
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  Speaker 1: chance for my life. Pride, love, happiness must be the sacrifice.
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  Speaker 1: Helen would understand when I explained the terrible situation to her.
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  Speaker 1: The last day of my life was ebbing away and Jacob,
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  Speaker 1: that dark angel of death might take it into his
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  Speaker 1: head to call early. When I reached the house, I hesitated.
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  Speaker 1: My senses were coming back to me. Perhaps my hated
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: rival was watching me, smiling with diabolical satisfaction at my weakness.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I let my hand drop from the doorbell without wringing it.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Pride and determination returned. I was myself once more unconquered
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  Speaker 1: and undaunted. I turned and walked with a firm step
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  Speaker 1: toward my own home. Arrived there, I wrote a long
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  Speaker 1: and most affectionate letter of farewell to Helen. I decided
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  Speaker 1: to send it by special delivery in order that she
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  Speaker 1: might receive it before the news of my disappearance reached her.
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  Speaker 1: It would lessen the shock. As I read the missive
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: over it brought tears to my eyes. It aroused in
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: me an inexpressible sympathy for Heaven. In her impending bereavement,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: she would be deprived even of the consolation of putting
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: flowers on my grave. There would be no grave, no remains,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: no funeral, no opportunity for a last expression of love.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I also wrote letters to several of my scientific friends,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: explaining my situation and asking them in the name of
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: science to discover this man Jacob, and force from him
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: an explanation of what had become of me. I was
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: still writing, seated at a small table on the back verandah,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: overlooking the garden, when I was interrupted by the appearance
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: of a small, genial faced man about fifty years of age,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: who came up the steps smiling most graciously. Pardon my interruption,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: he said, politely, coming forward and shaking my hand with
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: great cordiality. My name is Jacob. Here I am Jacob.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Then taking a seat directly opposite me at the table,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: he continued, smiling blandly all the while. I have called
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: a little earlier than I expected. Once I have an
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: engagement out of the city, and it has occurred to
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: me that if you have come to a decision in
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the matter about which I wrote you, it would be
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: useless to put off till to morrow that which can
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: be done to day. May I ask, therefore, what your
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: decision is. My decision is that I will not be
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: bulldozed by anybody, I answered, warmly, bringing my fist down
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: on the table. Very well, he replied, calmly. That settles
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the matter at once. But before proceeding, I think I
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: owe you an explanation in view of my letter of
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the fifteenth. No explanations are necessary, I retorted, I am
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: fully aware of who you are, mister Jacob, and what
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: you intend doing. I have myself employed your services. Oh indeed,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: he answered, of course, as all my respondent or anonymous,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I cannot be expected to recognize old patrons. I trust
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: you found my services satisfactory. Not only satisfactory, but of
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: the greatest interest, I replied, glad of a chance to
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: gain time. I am myself a scientist, and your discovery
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: has aroused my most ardent curiosity, and I may add
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: my warmest admiration. And by the way, I added suddenly,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: I am also much interested in the manner in which
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: you obtain your mail from Room thirty seven, Dunton Building.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: I thought I would startle him, but he answered quietly.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: In my room below number thirty seven, where I have
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: an office in the name of Thomas Sullivan, I simply
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: pull a cord that is attached to a hinged plank
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: in the floor above, and the letters drop through an
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: opening in the ceiling whenever I am ready to receive them.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: That's a very simple trick, don't you think it is,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: I told him, I thought it was very simple. Indeed,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I want to be perfectly frank with you, he went on,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: for there is no reason why I should conceal anything
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: from you. It flatters me to know that you are
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: interested in my discovery, and I have no objection to
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: explaining it to you, as one man of science to another,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: especially as you will yourself be the subject of a
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: demonstration of it within the next few minutes. Will seven
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars induce you to throw now up
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the job? I asked, couldn't think of it for a moment,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: my dear sir, he answered, striking a match and lighting
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: his cigar. I have a reputation to sustain, and I
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: have made it a rule never to permit anything to
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: interfere with carrying out an order. I can assure you, however,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: that it is painless, absolutely painless, And besides, you have
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: the satisfaction of knowing that your annihilation means the happiness
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: of a fellow being. Then you mean to say that
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: there is no possible means by which this murder can
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: be avoided, I asked, half rising in my chair with
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: a determination to have first playing the game by shooting
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: mister Jacob through the head. My dear sir, you will
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: gain nothing by such tactics as that, he answered, serenely,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: looking at me with half closed eyes as he puffed
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the smoke from his smiling mouth. I have merely to
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: press the button you see on this instrument, he added,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: holding up to view the small leather covered box he
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: had with him. And the work is done in the
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: twinkling of an eye. I settled back in my chair.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: And is your power of annihilation contained in that little
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: camera like box? I asked forgetting in my curiosity the
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: fate that was so near at hand. Just so, he responded,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Just so, you have hit the nail on the head.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: I have simply to point the annihilator at my subject
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: and pushed the button. Great invention, is it not. He
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: turned the apparatus slowly around in his hands while he
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: fixed his gaze upon me with an expression of benevolent
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: appreciation of my interest in the matter. In this instrument
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: is stored the greatest power of the ages, the power
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: of levitation. You look surprised, but the truth is I
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: have discovered a means of destroying gravitation. And behold, I
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: have levitation the antithesis of gravity. Many men have claimed
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: this before, and have duped the innocence by illusions and
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: stories of floating bodies, men furniture suspended in mid air.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: But common sense should have told them that the destruction
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: of gravity would not have such a result as that.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: What is it that holds us on the Earth. It
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: is the force of gravity, is it not? Of course
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: it is in this latitude the Earth revolves on its
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: axis at the rate of nearly a thousand miles an hour. Now,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: when I destroy in you the force of gravitation, you,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: as a man of science, know as well as I
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: what will happen. The centrifrugal force of the Earth's revolution
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: will shoot you off into space at the rate of
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: sixteen miles and minute, so flat but the eye cannot
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: follow you. You will be out of sight in a twinkling. Now,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: that's as plain as the nose on your face, don't
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: you think it is? I assured him that it was
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: all very plain As to what becomes of you, He
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: went on, is neither here nor there, so far as
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: this earth is concerned, you will be annihilated. You will
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: leave it with the force of a cannon ball, and
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: nothing this side of the moon can stop you. You
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: may perhaps land on the Moon, or you may go
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: on to the Sun, or you may continue to shoot
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: through space forever and a day. But these are questions
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: that concern neither you nor There was a crash, the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: table was violently upset, and Hiram Jacob was gone. A
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: hole in the roof of the porch marked his exit
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: from Earth. He had accidentally pushed the button while the
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: machine was pointed toward himself, and as he had it
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: in his hand at the time, it of course went
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: with him, as did also the chair on which he
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: was sitting. After gathering together my scattered senses, by which
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: time mister Jacob and my chair were fifty miles on
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: their way to the stars, I picked up the table
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: and quietly destroyed the letters I had written, and after
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: a little while I called on Helen to talk over
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the plans for our wedding. End of section one Read
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: my Tin Price, Kendall, England, twenty ninth of December twenty
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: twenty five.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: Section two of the Black Cat, Volume five, number twelve
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: September nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Greg
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Giordano The Black Cat, Volume five, number twelve, September nineteen hundred,
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Section two The Music of Money by Newt Newkirk. Baptiste
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Lacroix was weasened, withered, little, and old when he came
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: alone from France to New Orleans. He died there, but
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: that was in eighteen oh one, so his story has
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: been lost to the wu world in the years that
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: have passed. Baptiste la Croix had a god. Baptiste Lacroix
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: loved but one kind of music. His god was money,
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: and his music was the chink of the shining metal.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: Often as he walked, Baptiste thrust his hands into his
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: pockets and ran his trembling fingers among a few coins
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: he always carried, so that they could clink together, and
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: his eyes would dilate, his step would quicken, and over
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: his seared face would creep a smile, but it was
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: a smile that chilled the smile of a miser. He
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: never did this within the hearing of any one but himself.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Baptiste was selfish of his music, and besides he feigned
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: to be poor, so poor that the covering was worn off,
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: the buttons on his coat, and the cloth upon his
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: elbows thin and polished with long service. So poor they
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: scarcely bought food sufficient to sustain him, and therefore he
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: sometimes went hungry. He was often caught a beggar, and
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: was as often pleased, for if the world believed him poor,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: the world would not rob him. Poor Baptiste, he brought
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: with him from over the sea two chests, which were
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: bound and iron and stout. They were small, but they
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: were heavy. In the old French quarter of New Orleans,
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: the miser bought a house. The reason he bought it
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: was because the house was put up at sale to
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: satisfy a creditor, and went for a song. The building
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: was not large, certainly not beautiful, but it was strong.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: The walls were thick, and that sufficed. Into this house,
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: the miser moved the two chests, and within it he
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: lived its sole tenant. When the nights were dark, he
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: would close the shutters, bolt the door, and by the
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: light of a sputtering candle, unlocked the chests and filtered
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: through his trembling fingers the gold and silver coins that
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: filled them till his heart would pound an unwonted rhythm
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: to their music. Baptiste would then re lock the chests,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: push them under his bed, tie the keys about his neck,
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: blow out the candle, and creep to bed, where the
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: blended echoes of gold and silver would lull him to sleep.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: When there was a moon, enough light filtered through the
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: windows to make the candle an expense of luxury. Moonlight
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: cost him nothing. Baptiste began to look about him for
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: some means whereby he might add to his horde of wealth.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: The more money, the merrier music. There were profits to
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: be made in the traffic of slaves. He investigated and
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: learned that men about him had become rich in that business.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: They had made money that might as well have been his.
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: But the buying and selling of slaves had a risk
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: that terrified him. These blacks were ill treated and ill fed,
• 43:56
  Speaker 2: Many of them were old, and one or more might
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: die on his hands. The loss of their lives was nothing,
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: but the loss of prophets. He wished you could have
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: bought and sold their souls, for he had heard somewhere
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: that souls never die. The conditions, however, were before him,
• 44:14
  Speaker 2: and he must risk if he would win. He bought
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: with the marvelous eye of a miser in a small
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: way at first, but as he learned the tricks of
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: the trade more extensively. Baptiste was a modest middleman. He
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: knew where to put his hands on such slaves as
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: his patrons wanted. He dealt in fathers, mothers, sons and
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: daughters as if they had been so many sheep or cattle.
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: He bought low, he sold high, and prospered, but in
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: such a quiet way the few seemed to know who
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: he was or where he lived. Baptiste, in his best years,
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: had never cumulitted money so rapidly. He saved it all
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: but the trifle in which he lived, and in time
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: filled a third chest. The music grew the sweeter and
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: the more mellow, as his hoard increased, and as his
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: creeping age enfeebled him. The time came when it required
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: all his strength to drag the smallest chest from under
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: the bed, so that he might sift the coins and
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: hear them ring. The exertion spent his strength, and he
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: often wished it were possible to sit idly by, And
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: yet heared the clinking of the coins as he pondered
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: over the idea of the money making its own music.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: A plan unfolded itself, and Baptiste resolved to adopt it
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: straight away, even if it should cost something. The next day,
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: and for many days thereafter, workmen were busy in the
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: miser's home. Baptiste followed them about and directed when they
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: had finished. The result of their labors stood in the
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: center of the room where he ate and slept. Was
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: massively built stone upon stone, from the ground floor beneath
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: the floor to the height of nine feet as other
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: dimensions were three feet each way, making it horizontal section square.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: Its walls were six inches thick, having an interior two
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: and one half feet square, in which a man might
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: stand erect and turn about. The inside was metal lined.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: There was a solitary barred window a few inches square
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: in one wall of the structure, within arm's reach from
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: the inside, that emitted a shaft of light. There was
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: also a heavy swinging panel door that locked with a
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: great key to which a man might squeeze within the
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: walls above, and with its apex hanging downward. On the
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: inside was a metal hopper as large as the top
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: of the structure. The slot in the apex of this
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: hopper was a thickness and width of a currant, gold
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: or silver coin. Baptist's triumph might have passed for a
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: huge stone chimney, but it was a money music box
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: and at the same time a vault. The miser had
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: only to carry his coin in small loads up the
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: ladder against the outside, empty them into the hopper, release
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: the mechanism at the slot, which would drop the pieces
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: that would ever paste desired, and listen in idle ecstasy
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: to their music as they dripped within the vault, rolling
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: and ringing in sweetest symphony. There was something almost pathetic
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: in the childish way poor old Baptiste would unlock the
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: vault door at night, carry a few gold and silver
• 47:30
  Speaker 2: burdens aloft to the hopper, release the slide at the slot,
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: and then sit crouched outside the walls, listening to the
• 47:37
  Speaker 2: money's music. The miser had been blessed with the most
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: profitable week in his slave traffic. He counted his earnings
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: with excited fingers on Sabbath morning and promised himself a
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: concert the like of which he had never heard. On
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: that very day, going up and down the ladder was
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: toilsome work for a feeble old man like Baptiste, but
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: the promised music seemed to lend unusual strength to his
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: tottering legs and palsied hands. How many times he crept
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: aloft burdened with coin, he knew not, But at last
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: his wealth lay gleaming in the hopper, and the vault
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: was empty. Then Baptiste set the slot at the measured pace,
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: went down the ladder for the last time, and, sliding
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: through the open panel door, pulled it slowly to and
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: locked it on the inside. He even removed the key
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: and placed it on the ledge of the single window,
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: which lighted the interior, as if it were safer there.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: The miser's grand conscience was under way. The coins fell
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: at his feet and rolled about with ringing accents. Baptiste
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: crouched in the corner and closed his eyes so the
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: vision might not share with hearing. The music thrilled, then
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: soothed his tired faculties, and at length his white head nodded,
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: and Baptiste slept. When the miser opened his eyes, he
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: knew not for the instant where he was till his
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: ear caught the sound of the coins, which were yet falling.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: He was chilled and aching, with the sensation of a
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: great weight bearing him down. He tried to rise from
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: his cramped posture, but his stiffened limbs responded weakly, and
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: it was with difficulty. They shook off the weight and
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: struggled to his feet. Then he reeled and would have
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: fallen had not the close walls of the vault supported him.
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: He was seized with a choking sensation, and in nervous haste,
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: stretched his thin hand upward toward the key, which lay
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: on the window ledge. His trembling fingers touched it, pushed
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: it through the bars, where it hung, balancing an instant,
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: and then fell on the outside. As the key struck
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: the floor, it rang with a clink that seemed to
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: mock the clink of the falling coins within. As the
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: full significance of the miser's situation forced itself upon him,
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: his knees gave way, and he sank in a limp
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: and motionless. Heap a prisoner with his wealth. His eyes
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: were closed, his head rested sidewise on his knees, directly
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: under the slots. Each falling coin struck him on the
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: temple and glanced against the metal lining of the vault
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: with a ring. Baptiste was yet conscious, but without the
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: power to move. The coins smote him with pendulum like regularity,
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: till each one pained like a knife thrust, and then
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: jingled narrowly to rest among its fellows. At length, the
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: money's music came to him indistinctly, as if it were
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: a great way off, and he felt the pain no longer.
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: Baptiste was drifting, drifting in a golden ship over a
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: golden sea. The shimmering waters rocked him gently while the
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: waves covered him with her glittering spray. Then Baptiste fell
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: into his sleep, sleep wherein the heart stops the flickering
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: light of life goes out. The coins continued to fall
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: in measured accents, chanting a weird requiem and wasting their
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: music within that prison suppulcher and of section two.
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: Section three of The Black Cat, volume five, number twelve
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: September nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The Black Cat,
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: volume five, number twelve September nineteen hundred, Section three, The
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: Yellow mask by Charles Newton Hood. The cleverness of Lemuel C.
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: Loomis was ingenuity raised to a very high power, and
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: if he had any local rival, it was certainly his
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: ingenious helpmate Lucinda L. Loomis Lawrence. When they were married,
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: the groom had reached his fifty second year, and the
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: bride had bidden farewell to the frivolous thirties, as nothing
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: will develop a latent talent for labor saving devices more
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: thoroughly or in part of more intimate knowledge of one's
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: own peculiar traits than living alone. The couple entered upon
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: their new experience unusually well equipped in both these respects,
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: and their house hunting was rendered both easier and more difficult.
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: They examined a great number of houses in their little
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: village and made the real estate agents a great deal
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: of trouble. But they knew so well what would and
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: what would not answer their purposes, that they were able
• 52:43
  Speaker 3: to give prompt and decided decisions. After one inspection. Finally,
• 52:49
  Speaker 3: the choice narrowed down to two houses at about the
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: same price. Each was three squares from the church which
• 52:56
  Speaker 3: they attended, and four from the post office, and the
• 53:00
  Speaker 3: interior arrangements of both were in the main satisfactory. Each, however,
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: had one great defect. The house on Locust Street had
• 53:10
  Speaker 3: no haul, the front door opening directly into the sitting room,
• 53:14
  Speaker 3: while the Elm Street dwelling, with an ample hallway, had
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: neither a bathroom nor any space that could be converted
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: into one. Which shall it be, Lucinda, what do you think, Lemuel?
• 53:29
  Speaker 3: I would much rather that you would, say, my dear,
• 53:32
  Speaker 3: and I should prefer that you should decide, Darling. Well, then,
• 53:36
  Speaker 3: without either of us deciding it, said mister Loomis, diplomatically,
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: let us each write our opinion on a piece of
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: paper and exchange them. All right, agreed Missus Loomis. Mister
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: Loomis unfolded his wife's opinion with much curiosity, and read,
• 53:55
  Speaker 3: I have always said I would never live in a
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: house which did not have a front hug. Missus Loomis
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: read on her husband's slip. It has only seemed to
• 54:05
  Speaker 3: me that if I were building a house, i'd build
• 54:08
  Speaker 3: a first class bathroom, and with what money I had left,
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: build the best house I could around it. Both laughed
• 54:16
  Speaker 3: heartily and rose with one accord to give the houses
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: another inspection. It will be pretty hard to build a
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: hall on that Locust Street house, said mister Loomis. But
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: by building an addition on the west side of the
• 54:30
  Speaker 3: Elm Street house, replied Missus Loomis, we could have a
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: nice bathroom without much cost, and build it when we
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: can best afford to. Mister Loomis complimented his wife on
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: this happy solution of the difficulty, and before night had
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: secured a deed of the Elm Street property. Then he
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: figured a little and said, I don't think we can
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: afford to build the edition this year, and I dislike
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: to perform my ablutions in a wash tub or oh,
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: I have thought that all out, replied Missus Loomis, smiling,
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: and I have such a nice idea. We will buy
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: a handsome tub, just such as we will want for
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: our new bathroom and set it up back of the
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: kitchen range. There needn't be any plumbing except the exhaust pipe,
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: for it will be so close to the range that
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: one can dip the hot water from that, and by
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: turning the top of the rainwater pump in the sink around,
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: cold water can be pumped directly into the tub. We
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: can have a nice broad shelf on the hinges to
• 55:33
  Speaker 3: let down over the tub, and that'll make a splendid
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: kitchen table. Nobody need ever know that there is a
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: tub there. While this ingenious arrangement would have been very
• 55:45
  Speaker 3: inconvenient for some families, it was perfectly suitable for the
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: Lewis manage. Free from even a kitchen maid. Down behind
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: the range proved an exceedingly cozy, warm spot in which
• 55:59
  Speaker 3: to take a leisurely bath. The new tub was of beauty,
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: and when the broad shelf practically amounted to a folding
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: table was dropped down over it, supported by two swinging
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: legs at the right height for a work bench, Missus
• 56:14
  Speaker 3: Loomis said that it was the most convenient for washing
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: dishes on that she had ever seen, and it was
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: not at all uncommon for mister Loomis to assist her
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: in that employment, that their Sunday forenoons in all their
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: evenings might be longer. Mister Loomis was a member of
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: the village Board of Trustees, which held its sessions on
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: Saturday evenings, and it was his custom, on returning from
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: these meetings, to enjoy a thorough leisurely bath before retiring.
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: Then he had the kitchen all to himself and could
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: take his time. One particular Saturday night, the village council
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: had held such a protracted sitting that it was actually
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: Sunday morning when mister Loomis stole into the kitchen, swung
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: up the poor table, and as silently and rapidly as possible,
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: filled the tub. A flood of moonlight came in through
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: the windows, and he did not trouble to light the gas,
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: but was soon soaking placidly in the warm and comfortable bath.
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: A heated discussion over the purchase of a road roller
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: had wearied mister Loomis considerably, and while reviewing the arguments,
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: as he lay in the tub, he fell asleep. This
• 57:28
  Speaker 3: he himself denies, asserting that he heard the first touch
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: of the burglar's hands on the window fastening. This latter
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: statement there is no means of controverting, but it is
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: positively known that mister Loomis did not enter the kitchen
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: later than a quarter past twelve o'clock, that the intruder's
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: presence was not observed much before two, and that it
• 57:50
  Speaker 3: had never before taken mister Loomis an hour and three
• 57:53
  Speaker 3: quarters to Bathe. However, when he did hear the fumbling
• 57:58
  Speaker 3: at the fastening. His first impulse was to leap from
• 58:01
  Speaker 3: the tub and repulse the invader. His second thought was
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: merely to flee. What he did, in the excitement of
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: the moment was to reach upward, grasp the swinging shelf,
• 58:13
  Speaker 3: and pull it down. Just as he heard the kitchen
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: window gently raised. Either the water had cooled a great
• 58:21
  Speaker 3: many degrees since he entered it, or else, mister Loomis
• 58:24
  Speaker 3: was very much frightened. He leaned toward the former theory,
• 58:28
  Speaker 3: or the two reasons combined to cause such a shiver
• 58:31
  Speaker 3: that it was with difficulty that he prevented an alarming
• 58:35
  Speaker 3: swashing in the bath. Peering cautiously over the rim of
• 58:39
  Speaker 3: the tub, he shivered more violently than before. A man
• 58:44
  Speaker 3: was crawling through the window. The moon had now nearly
• 58:47
  Speaker 3: gone down, but the solid black silhouette indicated a rogue
• 58:52
  Speaker 3: of monstrous size. The suspense was horrible. Before the intruder
• 58:58
  Speaker 3: dropped quietly to the he shot a tiny, searching ray
• 59:02
  Speaker 3: of light into every corner, and the head of mister
• 59:05
  Speaker 3: Loomis slid out aside as a startled turtle slips off
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: a log in an agony of apprehension. The householder heard
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: the burglar tiptoe across to the pantry and back, Waiting
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: as long as he could restrain his curiosity and alarm,
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: he again peered cautiously between the table shelf and the tubrim.
• 59:27
  Speaker 3: The burglar was sitting in the middle of the room
• 59:30
  Speaker 3: with his back towards mister Loomis. By the faint light
• 59:33
  Speaker 3: of the tiny lantern, he could not see what the
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: man was doing, and wriggled a little higher up. As
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: he moved his feet. There was a slight disturbance in
• 59:43
  Speaker 3: the water, and mister Loomis realized only too well what
• 59:47
  Speaker 3: it meant. Pending the permanent location of the bathtub, he had,
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: with his accustomed ingenuity, utilized a large cork as an
• 59:56
  Speaker 3: exhaust plug, and this, loosened by his foot, had bobbed
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 3: to the surface. The water was running rapidly out. When
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: it was nearly all out, the exhaust would make a
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: hideous gurgling wail, startling the burglar. Mister Loomis would be discovered, and,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 3: in his helplessness, probably murdered. He fumbled wildly for the cork,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: but it eluded every clutch, and he dared not make
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 3: a noise. He tried to check the flow of the
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: water by inserting his toes in the orifice, but this
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: only slightly delayed the end. Nothing could stop the water.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 3: His moments were numbered, discovery being inevitable. It were better
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 3: to be prepared for defense, he thought. Before the alarm
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 3: from the exhaust pipe came, as quietly as possible, he
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 3: pushed the shelf upward on its well old hinges. Fortunately
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: it made no noise. He rose slowly on his benumbed
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 3: limbs and stood upright in the tub. The water was
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: getting lower and lower, and he had but a moment
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 3: to decide upon a plan of action. He could now
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 3: see the burglar, who was engaged in devouring a lemon pie,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 3: a sort which missus Loomis made especially well, and of
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: which mister Loomis was particularly fond, and which had been
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: intended for their Sunday dinner. It was as yellow as
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 3: gold and topped with a beautiful, thick, frothy meringue. If
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 3: the blood of mister Loomis had not been so chilled,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 3: it would have boiled at the sight of the rough
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 3: looking robber wrecking this masterpiece of pastry and feeding with
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 3: a knife. At that the time for action had come.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 3: Mister Loomis felt around for a weapon, but could find none.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 3: He was in despair. The last wave of the retiring
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 3: water floated the big bath sponge against his ankles. He
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 3: reached down and grasped it. As he straightened up with
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 3: it poised in his hand, he was dismayed to hear
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: a light step on the back stairs. Missus Loomis was
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 3: descending to see why he had not come to bed.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: It was a fearful crisis. At that very moment, the
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 3: bathtub exhaust emitted a ghastly gurgling groan, followed by a sucking,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: swirling shriek. The very worst had come, and mister Loomis,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: steadied by a realization of the critical situation, raised the
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 3: saturated sponge with careful wame and let it fly with
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: a soggy swash. It struck the burglar squarely in the
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: back of the neck, forcing the villainous face violently into
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: the center of the lemon pie to the very bottom
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: of the dish. When the burglar's countenance was withdrawn, it
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 3: wore a mask of yellow fringed with frothy white, from
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: which two beady eyes protruded. With a horrible stare. They
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: fell upon the open doorway of the backstairs, where a
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: plump matron in snowy white just then sat forcibly down
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 3: upon the bottom step, still clinging to a smoking lamp,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: whose shattered chimney fell upon the floor. Then, as they
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: turned in the direction from which the cold paralyzed missile
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 3: had come and beheld the stark form of mister Loomis,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: their owner gave utterance to a cry very like that
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 3: just omitted by the bathtub, and disappeared through the open window.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 3: The clock struck two and of section three read by
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: Scottie Smith.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: Section number four of The Black Cat volume four, number
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 4: twelve September nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 4: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 4: April six zero nine zero The Black Cat, volume five,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 4: number twelve September nineteen hundred, Section four. The French Doll's
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 4: Dowry by Florence Girten Tuttle. When my husband admires a woman,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: I always make it a point to cultivate her opposition.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 4: Only fans the flame which good natured toleration blows gently out.
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 4: My husband is a physician who thinks that he knows
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: women from A to Z. In reality, he does not
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: know them from A to B. This, however, is his
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 4: only weakness and is a harmless form of self deception,
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 4: so I allow the assumption to go unchallenged. Our two
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: children had become old enough to temporarily leave the parental nest,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 4: placing them in reliable schools. We meet plans for the
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 4: fulfillment of our long cherished dream is what belated but
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 4: wholly appreciated European honeymoon. After a continental tour enhanced by
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 4: precious immature letters from America, we returned to London, where
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 4: we had chosen to spend the last few weeks of
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: our vacation. One afternoon, as we were walking down a
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 4: corridor of the hotel Cecil, we were arrested by an
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 4: appealing exclamation. Turning to a small hall on the right,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 4: we found a young woman combating the predicament of having
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 4: shut her train in the door. She was strikingly pretty,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 4: with blooming blonde loveliness. Her attractions were further heightened by
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 4: an elegantly severe street suit. The perfection of sartorial art.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 4: The more the fair prisoner tried to extricate herself, the
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: more the clinging cloth frock wrapped itself severely around her form.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: The pose might have served for that of a Greek
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 4: statue brought suddenly to life. Beauty was a shrine before
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 4: which my husband always swung incense. Beauty and distress was
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: an altar before which he fell upon willing knee. Permit me,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 4: he exclaimed, springing forward to free the stranger. You are
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 4: very kind, but it will not avail. She rippled back
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 4: with an enchanting laugh. I cannot be liberated unless we
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: cut my gown, and I haven't the heart to cut
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 4: so valued a friend. If you would be good enough
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 4: to go to the office for a key, however, K
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: one hundred and sixteen, we will show this door who
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 4: is master, and I shall be greatly the debtor to
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 4: your courtesy. Like Adonis at the command of Venus. My
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 4: husband flew for the lift. The imprisoned goddess swept me
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 4: with a glance preliminarily to the imposed tete tee. I'm
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 4: interested in detecting nationalities, she said, with listlessly polite intonation,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 4: as if to fill in the delay? Am I right
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 4: in inferring that English is not yours? Yes, we are Americans,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 4: I replied, with the pride of star spangled banner in
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: my voice. Her indifference instantly vanished. Instead, a look of
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 4: intense interest illuminated her features. Then we are cousins, she exclaimed,
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 4: with the cordiality that the knowledge of my habitat had
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 4: nowhere else aroused blood relations in spite of poor blundering
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 4: King George, you are remaining in London some time? No,
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 4: only for about a month, I replied, more than gratified
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 4: by her interest. Her eyes seemed to interrogate me still further.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 4: Their complete absorption in my personality proved a form of
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 4: flattery that my ego could not resist. We are leaving
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 4: for lodgings in Kensington Road. I obeyed. My husband thought
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 4: that their quiet would be pleasanter than the unrest of
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 4: a hotel. At that moment, the doctor returned with a key.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 4: He slipped it into the spring lock, and in a
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 4: second the prisoner was again tasting the sweets of liberty.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 4: May I not have the pleasure of remembering the name
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 4: of my emancipator, she inquired, giving my husband a smile
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 4: that would have warmed the heart of a stone image. Certainly,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 4: he said, reaching for his card case, the embodiment of
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 4: delighted acquiscence. After a few more civilities, we left. What
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 4: a beautiful woman, my husband exclaimed, as we drove through
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 4: a London labyrinth of vehicles. What a clever one, I returned.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 4: In five minutes. She had my past, present, and future.
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 4: As for us, we did not even secure her name.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 4: She looks like the women who make or mar history. Hers,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 4: I am sure is not the feminine chronology of lived, married,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 4: and died. Why did she take such an interest in
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 4: us when she found that we were Americans? And wasn't
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 4: it rather strange that she asked so many questions about
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 4: people whom she never again expected to see. My husband
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 4: laughed and advised me not to look for underlying motives. Suspicion,
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 4: he said, sacked the foundation of social intercourse. I must
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 4: take people, as he did, for what they appeared to be.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 4: But I could not drive this unusual woman from my thoughts.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 4: Before we left London, I felt that she would again
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 4: sweep into our orbit. This feeling was so strong that
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 4: two days later, when I met her, coming up the
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 4: garden walk, followed by a maid and a cabman bearing
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 4: her luggage. I exhibited no surprise. I felt only greater
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 4: faith in my own intuitions. Her surprise at seeing me
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 4: seemed complete and found vent in delighted ejaculations. Missus Atherton,
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 4: she exclaimed, holding out both hands, Kelschanz, have I chosen
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 4: the vine and fig tree that shelter you and the
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 4: gallant doctor? Something within me, a possible sixth sense, told
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 4: me that she falsifying. Not only had she known that
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: she was coming to our lodgings, but for some inexplicable
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 4: reason she had followed us there from the porter who
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 4: had sent our trunks. She might easily have procured our address.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 4: My distrust, which before had germinated, blossomed now into full growth.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 4: When I mentioned my conjectures to my husband, he scouted them.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 4: It was true that I commanded no argument, either logical
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 4: or affair. I was certain that this woman was untrustworthy.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 4: But I could offer only the feminine reason that her
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 4: eyes were set too near together, and that I trusted
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 4: my instinct, that thing some one has said a woman
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 4: feels when she is wrong. The doctor was, of course
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 4: delighted at the coincidence of our second meeting. Up to
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 4: this time, there had been thirty six women whom my
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 4: husband had confirmed were the creator's masterpieces. Missus Delinbar, I saw,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 4: was destined to be the thirty seventh, and to surpass
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 4: all the others. The favorite was sure to be the
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 4: one he could answer present to the roll call. This
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: attitude did not alarm me. I had learned that my
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 4: husband was a lover of all womenkind, but was in
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 4: love with one only. Bearing my suspicions, I adopted my
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 4: usual cue and let my friendship follow, where my husband's
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: admiration lingered. The next morning, we found Missus Delinbar's superior
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: knowledge of London at our service. After that, hardly a
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 4: day passed without an excursion of three to a place
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: of historic interest, in informal dinner, or visit to the play.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 4: Soon the fact became apparent that designs upon my husband
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: was not Missus Delinbar's motive for cultivating us. Her attention
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 4: to his wife was even more marked. But she could
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 4: not disarm my original disquietude. Some day this woman would
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 4: use us. Why else had she followed us? We were
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 4: people of moderate income, little had we to attract a
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 4: person of Missus Delanbar's brilliancy and wealth. I resolved to
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 4: be as gracious as my conscience would permit, while like
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 4: a detective, I watched her every initiative. One morning we
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 4: invited her to go to the shops and to luncheon afterwards.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 4: Unlike her usual custom, she declined. She had letters to write,
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 4: she said, and did not intend to go out. Our
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 4: wanderings led us at noon to a small curio shop
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 4: just off the strand. Its sign told us that relics
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 4: of South Africa were to be found within oom. Paul
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: had issued his famous ultimatum. The indignant British Lion was
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 4: even then roaring a declination of the terms without thanks.
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 4: We wished to secure some souvenirs of the dark continent
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 4: to commemorate our present in London at the nativity of
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 4: such portentous events. When we entered the store, I stood
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 4: still in amazement. In the shadowy rear of the long
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 4: low room stood Missus Delinbar, exchanging papers with a short
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 4: swarthy man. I turned to my husband, look, I said quickly.
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 4: But when we turned again, the back of the shop
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 4: was vacant. The lady and her strange companion had withdrawn
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 4: into another room. You are mistaken, of course, my husband asserted.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 4: Missus Delinbar distinctly said that she would not leave the house.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 4: I did not attempt to convince him, but was confident
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 4: that I could trust my own vision. The man with
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 4: whom she had been earnestly talking had worn the unreal
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 4: opera comgaire of foreigners. He might have impersonated any rule
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 4: from an ambassador to a pirate. The interrogation, in my mind,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 4: was what part he played in the drama of Missus
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 4: Dela n Barr's life. When we again met, she did
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 4: not refer to her outing. She assumed perhaps she believed
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 4: that we had not seen her. I was now confident
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 4: that all in her life was not open. Who was she?
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 4: What had she to conceal? Whence came those lovely gowns
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 4: and jewels? Where was mister Deleonbar and why was she
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 4: traveling alone and unattached? A few days later, an incident occurred,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 4: confirming my own and awakening even my husband's miss misgivings.
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 4: We had returned from a visit to the National Gallery,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 4: where Missus Delanbar had kindly introduced us to the Kings
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 4: and Queens. We were taking tea in a room on
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 4: the ground floor. From it, we could see the tiny garden,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 4: high brick wall, and passing vehicles. I had noticed that
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 4: in any public room Missus Delanbar never sat with her
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 4: back to the door. Her alert eyes seemed ever watchful.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 4: Suddenly I saw them dark. If escape had been possible,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 4: I am sure that she would have fled from her
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 4: vantage seat. She had observed a handsome draw up at
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 4: the gate. I looked out inside, a tall braunze faced
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 4: man of distinguished carriage mount the villa steps. Missus Dealnbar.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 4: What fortune, he exclaimed, going towards her with the delighted
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 4: air of one who renews a valued acquaintance. How strange
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 4: that you should be the last english Person to bid
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 4: me adieu in South Africa and the first to greet
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 4: me in Kensington Road? Why did you conceal the fact
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 4: that you were so soon to follow? Did the certainty
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 4: of war rob west Griglande of its charms? Missus Delnbar
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 4: was as flatteringly cordial to him as she was to
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 4: all of masculine gender. She asked permission to present mister Everard,
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 4: and he and my husband were soon engaged in a
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 4: conversation as to the pros and cons of the coming war.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 4: Almost immediately Missus delenbarb withdrew. She was not seen again
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 4: for many days. Her maid said she was ill and
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 4: obliged to keep quietly within her room. This statement, I
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 4: took the liberty of doubting. I had now at last
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 4: something tangible upon which to base suppicion. For three weeks
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 4: this woman had been constantly with us, yet never once
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 4: had she mentioned having visited the land whose name was
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 4: upon every tone, the land from whence, it now appeared
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 4: she had just returned. This was doubly striking, since she
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 4: had talked freely of her travels, her varied experiences, retentative memory,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 4: and reminiscences of distinguished people whom she had met made
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 4: her the most entertaining of companions. Why had she been
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 4: silent concerning her visits to the bearers. Why had she
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 4: secretly visited the little South African store? Why did she
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 4: wish to avoid mister Everard and shame illness to keep
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 4: out of his way? These were questions which my husband
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 4: hoped that Missus delnbar would plausibly answer but the explanation
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 4: would have to be more than plausible to satisfy me.
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 4: From mister Everard, I could learn nothing of enlightening interest.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 4: He had known her only as we had, as a
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 4: charming woman possessing the rare combination of beauty and brains.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 4: He was an Englishman, a cattle breeder in the Orange
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 4: Free State, near the border of West Greekland. Missus Delnbar
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 4: had visited his ostrich farm with some people of social standing.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 4: He had afterwards met her at their home. Her interest
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 4: in the Ostriches had been so intense and childlike that
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 4: he had named a young bird of particularly fine plumage
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 4: after her. She had plainly captivated him, as she had
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 4: my husband. His home was on a platte, However, away
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 4: from the towns. His opportunity for seeing her had therefore
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 4: been slight. With mister Everard's deporture, Missus Dillabar's illness, as
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 4: I foresaw, took a decided turn for the better. She reappeared,
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 4: looking rosier than ever, and with the anticipated story at
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 4: her tongue's end. I feel that I can trust you
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 4: and the discreet doctor, she sighed, with her pretty air
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 4: of unenlightening frankness. A gold vinigrette with an amethyst top
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 4: was in her hand. This cleverly applied stimulated sympathy by
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 4: producing an effect of a semi invalidism, or at least
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 4: interesting convalesce. Mentally, she was very much troubled, she said,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 4: and this was the explanation of her unrest to which
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 4: she treated us. She had an elder and much loved
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 4: brother at present. This brother was in the small African Republic,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 4: which was challenging the attention of the giant nations of
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 4: the world. A man of large wealth, she said, he
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 4: fostered peculiar ideas of dispensing it. In fact, he was
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 4: as so. His ambition was the chimera of bringing universal
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 4: democracy to the earth. This social treason against his inherited
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 4: aristocratic proclivities was laid like a plight at the doors
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 4: of Ruskin and Carlyle. Now the Transvaal, or to dignify
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 4: it with its constitutional name, the South African Republic represents,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 4: in one respect, as everyone who cares for such uninteresting
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 4: items knows, the most ideal democracy ever formed. Every white
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 4: man within its borders has not only a vote, but
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 4: receives a homestead of three thousand acres from the public lands.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 4: Her brother, believing in this governmental distribution, had gone to
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 4: the Transvaal to study its patriarchal form of rule. His
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 4: acquaintance with them had aroused strong sympathy for the Boers.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 4: Pity had then led him to embrace their cause and
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 4: to offer not only his wealth but his life. That
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 4: one of her own blood should bare arms against England
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 4: and her dear Queen was more than Missus Delibar could endure.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 4: To try to dissuade him from this rashness, she had
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 4: made a secret pilgrimage to South Africa. At least the
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 4: visit had been kept a secret from her English friends, for,
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 4: as we plainly could see, in case of an outbreak,
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 4: she preferred to have it unknown that one of her
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 4: ancient blue tinged blood had joined forces with these ignorant,
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 4: unreasonable bowers. My husband drank in this story as does
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 4: a lamb its mother's milk. Having lived three weeks in London,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 4: he felt that he understood the English character to the morrow.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 4: Missus Delenbar, he said, embodied its pride, its loyalty to
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 4: tradition and to the throne. No one should learn from
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 4: him of her anxiety or well established occasion for grief.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 4: As for me, I did not credit a word of
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 4: the story. Try as I might, however, I could not
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 4: surprised Missus Delenbar into one contradictory statement. I felt baffled
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 4: but not convinced. The next day I stumbled upon a
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 4: clue which at once became a key to the conduct
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 4: of my lovely enigma. In my presence, she received a
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 4: registered package with a foreign stamp. Through a mistake, the
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 4: parcel was brought first to me. I detected West Grequiland
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 4: on the postmark. I could not read the name of
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 4: the town. However, as Missus Delnbar's voice rang out sharply,
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 4: I think the package is for me. Then, recovering her
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 4: usual tone, she murmured, my poor brother. But she did
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 4: not open the parcel until she was alone. Now she
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 4: had told us that Johannesburg in the transmall was her
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 4: brother's headquarters. Here was a discrepancy, although of course her
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 4: brother might be traveling about. Then, like an inspiration, the
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 4: truth flashed over me. This was an official communication. Missus
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 4: Dalnbar was a governmental spy. I had heard of the
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 4: beautiful nihilist and feminine emissaries of the Russian diplomatic course
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 4: even in our own country, had we not our much
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 4: vaunted secret service. In Europe, the land of intrigues, where
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 4: courts slept with arms folded upon downturned bayonets, where the
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 4: wolf of war was silenced only by a diet of
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 4: costlier armament, where diplomats fond that they might not frighten
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 4: and distrust was the policy that paradoxically maintained confidence. Woman's
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 4: wit was of value, by its aid secrets might be secured,
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 4: which would determine an empire's policy. And who better fitted
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 4: to ferret out information than the fertile minded missus Dunbar
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 4: without awakening his suspicions? Had she not extracted the doctor's
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 4: history from genesis to revelation, And had she not drained
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 4: me also deliberately on the defensive of all that she
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 4: wished to know. Her secret visit to the South African
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 4: curio shop and strange silence concerning her trip to Africa
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 4: were now intelligible. What the spy theory failed to explain
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 4: was the question in which I felt deepest interest. Why
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 4: had she left the hotel cecil to pursue an intimacy
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 4: with an American doctor and his wife. I did not
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 4: inform my husband of my deductions. He was once more
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 4: thoroughly under the spell of Missus Dealinbar's charm, and would
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 4: only have upbraided me. We were about to leave London
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 4: in our baffling acquaintance. The discussion was therefore one which
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 4: seemed profitless to pursue. Missus Delnbar's grief at parting from
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 4: us appeared genuine. Perhaps my husband's perfect faith touched her.
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 4: She was aware of my distrust, I was sure, and
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 4: respected me for it. I knew too that she congratulated
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 4: herself upon the clever fareness with which she thought she
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 4: had thwarted me. When the final good byes were said,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 4: she gave us many assurances that she would certainly accept
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 4: our kind hospitality my husband's when she came to New York.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 4: She then inquired casually the best method of sending a
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 4: small parcel to America. She had a French doll, she said,
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 4: for the birthday of a little namesake, the child of
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 4: the American friends whom she had told us that she
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 4: dearly loved. She had dressed the doll with her own
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 4: hands and would not have the little one disappointed. Of course,
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 4: my husband volunteered to carry the keepsake. After many protestations,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 4: she consented to burden us with it. The small parcel
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 4: proved to be a box nearly three feet long. It
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 4: was about twelve inches wide and occupied the line's share
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 4: of my husband's gladstone. When she opened the box, a
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 4: new and fascinating side of her nature was revealed. The
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 4: contents proved to be a beautiful French doll, dressed in
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 4: the daintiest of bridal attie. With almost maternal pride, she
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 4: showed us its name Souk and real lace lingerie, every
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 4: stitch of which she affirmed had been made by her
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 4: own hands. When had she found time to accomplish this work?
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 4: I could not restrain the thought that her maid might
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 4: have enlightened me like a mother. She guided my finger
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 4: to a spring in the doll's chest. A slight pressure
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 4: caused it to emit a species of jabberwock, supposed to
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 4: be Mamma and Papa. She also tilted its body up
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 4: and down so that it might open and shut its
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 4: blue eyes. The little girl for whom it is intended
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 4: has blue eyes. She said, she has clustering curls also,
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 4: and the ensemble of a Raphael cherub, only not the wings.
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 4: Far from it. She is very human and very naughty.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 4: At times when we are again alone, my husband turned
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 4: with an air of firm persuasion towards me. Now, Alice,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 4: will you abandon your suspicions. A woman who loves children,
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 4: and as Missus Delabar does, cannot be far from right.
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 4: I have been more annoyed than I care to acknowledge.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 4: It is unlike you to distrust a lovely woman whose
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 4: only crime is that she has not introduced us to
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 4: a husband above or below the sod. I did not reply.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 4: I was more than a little chagrined to board the
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 4: steamer with my engaging mystery unsolved, For the power of
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 4: the woman's attraction had drawn me singularly to her. I
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 4: liked her, while I doubted her. My study of her
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 4: character had revealed many lovable, womanly qualities running counter to
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 4: those that repelled. Something in her eyes told me that
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 4: the ambition had did not satisfied her, that at times
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 4: she envied me my quiet life and contentment. I felt
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 4: sure that whatever the secret she covered, the power of
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 4: circumstances called fate had drawn her into it. If she
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 4: used people, she was in turned the tool of her
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 4: master's unscrupulous politicians, I believe who in listed a clever
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 4: woman to do the unclean work with which they refused
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 4: to soil their hands. The first false step had probably
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 4: been an unfortunate marriage. She was fond of children, and
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 4: they had been denied her. Her beauty and intelligence had
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 4: then become the reef upon which she had foundered. When
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 4: we arrived on board the Oceanic we found some acquaintances
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 4: from New York at home we had a bowing interest
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 4: in them. We greeted them now with the irrepressible effusiveness
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 4: one feels towards even casually familiar faces when met where
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 4: familiar faces are rare, A common conversational ground was established
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 4: by comparing experiences as to places we had visited and
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 4: people we had met. The third day out, Missus Delnbar's
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 4: name was mentioned. It was our good fortune to meet her. Also,
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 4: Missus White exclaimed she stopped a week a short time
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 4: ago at mentone on the Riviera. She has all the
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 4: gifts of the gods, has she not? A discussion of
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 4: Missus Delanbar ensued the full of admiration, and we women
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 4: of curiosity concerning the bewildering stranger. She has friends in
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 4: America from whom some day we may hope to hear
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 4: her history. Missus White volunteered. She is sending them a
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 4: keepsake by me. I stiffened with interest. It isn't for
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 4: a namesake, is it, I inquired, with a nervous laugh. Yes,
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 4: how did you know? She answered? Is it a French doll?
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: Yes?
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 4: My friend again, returned completely mystified. While the gentleman listened
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 4: in dazed silence. She dressed it entirely herself. For a moment,
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 4: the blue of the ocean became indistinct and blurred. Is
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 4: the namesake like a Raphael Cherub? I asked, yes, all
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 4: but the wings. Missus White replied, she is human and
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 4: very naughty. At times I dared not look at my husband.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 4: My thoughts were traveling faster than electricity could carry them.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 4: Instead of leaving my enigma behind it, I had brought
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 4: it with me. I fell back limply in my chair.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 4: What does it mean, asked the now thoroughly perplexed Missus White.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 4: It means that I too have a doll, I said,
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 4: weakly from Missus d'lumbar to a namesake, a Raphael Cherub,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 4: without the Wains that I found presence of mind to inquire.
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 4: She did not know that you were to return on
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 4: the Oceanic No, when we saw her, we had expected
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 4: to sail from Genoa. A cable from the firm brought
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 4: Missus White unexpectedly to London. Mister White tugged at his mustache.
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 4: It may be all right, he muttered, but a looks
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 4: confoundedly queer. My husband's face was troubled and pale. One
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 4: course alone will settle suspicion, he said, gravely. The dolls
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 4: must tell the story. I move that we appoint Missus
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 4: White and my wife as the coroner's inquest to hold
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 4: a post mortem on the young ladies. Meantime, until we
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 4: know that they hold a secret, let us judge not
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 4: I loved him for this last sentence and for the
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 4: genuine pain I knew that he suffer at the thought
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 4: of a gentlewoman's downfall. Yes, I returned softly. We will
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 4: suspend judgment until we have absolute proof. But the Whites
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 4: could not put the subject away, not having entertained suspicions
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 4: of Missus delenbar. They were much stirred by the sudden
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 4: turn of affairs. Have you any theory as to what
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 4: the dolls are likely to divulge? Mister White asked, I have,
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 4: I replied, I believe that they contained papers bearing secret
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 4: information in regard to the situation in South Africa. My
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 4: opinion is that our lovely friend is a British spy.
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 4: Mister White gave a low exclamation. My husband made a
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 4: depreciating gesture while he looked at the distant horizon. In
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 4: that case, we have no right to read the papers,
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 4: mister White said. Nevertheless, I intend to know the true
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 4: inwardness of my doll, I replied, to be a spy
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 4: is pardonable to involve us in such a network of lives? Please?
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 4: Is the lady beyond at our sympathy? Missus White, there
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 4: is no time like the present. Will you descend while
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 4: the gentlemen wait for us and help me dissect the
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 4: demo's well If our suspicions are groundless, we have a
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 4: surgeon present, glancing at my husband, who will take a
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 4: few stitches to restore her to society. For my husband's sake.
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 4: I make light of the occasion, but my heart was
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 4: pounding like a piston. My steamer trunk was soon pulled
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 4: forward in my cabin. Its flat surface offered an impromptu
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 4: operating table. The doll was extracted from her tissue paper
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 4: bed and stripped to her white gloved kid's skin. I
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 4: armed myself with some sharp pointed scissors. Seating myself on
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 4: the floor, I braced my back against the bunk to
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 4: resist the ship's motion. Then the autopsy began. A body
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 4: artery and under armed seam was selected. Slowly, I ripped
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 4: each stitch. When an opening of three inches was affected,
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 4: I inserted a finger and worked it in the bran
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 4: resistance nowhere met my digit. The doll's body was as
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 4: free from foreign substances as my husband's mind from guile.
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 4: To say that I was disappointed would be to acknowledge
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 4: that I was predetermined to find Missus delinbar guilty. I
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 4: was disappointed that she had again circumvented me. Each leg
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 4: and arm was in turn examined alike fruitlessly. I had
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 4: succeeded only in sprinkling my stateroom with brand. Missus White
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 4: began to grow frightened, you have ruined the doll she exclaimed,
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 4: What will you do, missus Dalibar, will hear that you
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 4: did not deliver it by another one? Of course, just
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 4: the size of this one, I replied dejectedly. The situation
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 4: seemed inexplicable, Yet I felt that I must be warm.
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 4: As the children said, when the searcher approaches a hidden object,
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 4: the solution must be at hand. Why did she send
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 4: two dolls, I mused, by two women whom she believed
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 4: would not meet, to two namesakes, each answering the description
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 4: of the other. I don't know, Missus White returned plaintively.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 4: It looks strange, but we have plainly wronged her. I
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 4: can't believe it, I replied decisively. If there is any
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 4: truth in the psychic, then I'm certain that instead she
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 4: has wronged us. I picked up the doll's head. It
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 4: was made of the usual composition, exquisitely colored and set
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 4: upon shoulders dimpled and plump. I turned it upside down.
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 4: Then I made a discovery. It ought to be hollow,
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 4: I asserted, examining it closely, this one has been sealed
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 4: in the small of the neck. My inquiring mind. When
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 4: a child had insisted that I should see the wheels
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 4: go wound up in all toys. Inexperienced eye told me
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 4: that all was not legitimate with this flax covered head.
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 4: Then an inspiration came to me. Stand aside, I commanded.
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 4: Missus White was too dismayed to do anything but over.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 4: Holding the head aloft in my hand, I threw it
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 4: with all my force. Upon the it fell in fragments. Then,
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 4: from out of a mass of soft paper rolled numerous
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 4: gleaming stones, flashing yellow and sparkling crystal white diamonds ejaculated
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 4: Missus White, a smuggler, I exclaimed under my breath. At
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 4: my request, Missus White flew to her stateroom and secured
• 1:34:21
  Speaker 4: her doll again in operation, this time beginning at decapitation
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 4: took place once more. The priceless stones rolled over the
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 4: stateroom floor. Accompanying each head was a paper with a
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 4: list of its precious freight, so many straw colored diamonds,
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 4: so many off colors, and so many pure whites. Each
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 4: stone also was given its carrot weight. I preferred to
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 4: drop the veil of the scene on the scene. When
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 4: my husband heard of our discovery. In all truth, however,
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 4: I think I can say that he felt no more
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 4: regret than I to a spy who imperils all in
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 4: the interest of his country. We could give our affection
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 4: and even respent if he'd lose his life for a cause.
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 4: Immortal laurels are his. But a smuggler, a trickster who
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 4: works for private gain. We wisely concluded to drop Missus
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 4: Delnbar from our conversation and thoughts. The diamonds were sent
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 4: anonymously to the governmental authorities. We did not wish to
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 4: become known in connection with them. Through the address on
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 4: the keepsakes. We might have traced the American accomplices, but
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 4: we would not hound them or an erring woman to
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 4: a cell. Forces not so kindly as ours, however, were
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 4: fermenting against her. Soon after our arrival. In an English paper,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 4: I read the following extract. It was copied from the
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 4: Kimberly Daily Advertiser. A dainty diamond thief Kimberly, May twenty fourth,
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 4: The annual diamond sensation is with us, this time to
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 4: lend variety to the old story, A beautiful woman of
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 4: aristocratic connections is associated with the fraud. Everyone knows of
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 4: the precautions against theft taken by the owners of the Bufotaine,
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 4: Kimberly day Beers, and other mines. Yet, in spite of
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 4: the thorough searching each evening of the kaffirs who work
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 4: in the mines, eyelids lifted and tongues drawn out. In
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 4: spite of the fact that many of the mine owners
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 4: compel the men to live in the company's compounds while
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 4: the blue clay is being worked, it is estimated that
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 4: one third of the diamonds are stolen each year. The
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 4: kaffirs dispose of the stones to the idb's illicit diamond buyers,
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 4: who in turn sell them at a large advance on
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 4: the original purchase price. The account then narrated the tale
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 4: of a man, an apparent gentleman who had long carried
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 4: on an illicit traffic on a large scale. The medium
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 4: through which he disposed of the gems was a lovely
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 4: woman who had visited Kimberly each year. This woman had
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 4: been secretly warned of the exposure and had successfully disappeared.
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 4: Is known that at the time she had been living
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 4: in London. She was blonde, and it was supposed that
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 4: she had colored her hair and taken passage as a
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 4: maid for the United States. I did not intend to
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 4: show my husband this article. But he had come quietly
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 4: into the room, and, finding me absorbed in thought, had
• 1:37:17
  Speaker 4: insisted upon knowing the occasion. I hope that we do
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 4: not chance to meet her Lansing, I said, when he
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 4: had read the extract. Because you would feel compelled to
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 4: give her to the authorities, He asked, no, because I
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 4: should feel compelled to befriend her. She is the most
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 4: magnetic woman I have ever met. His eyes rested softly
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 4: on me. I knew he was grateful to hear that
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 4: I would console rather than condemn. I want you to
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 4: tell me what first led you to suspect missus Dulnbar,
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 4: he asked, plunging his hands into his pockets as he
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 4: pasted the floor. Her eyes were set too near together,
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 4: I smilingly replied. And of section four.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 5: Section five of The Black Cat, Volume five, number twelve
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 5: September nineteen hundred. This is a LibriVox according all LibriVox
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 5: accordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 5: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Sonia
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 5: The Black Cat, Volume five, twelve September nineteen hundred, Section
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 5: five missing by Mary Boardman Sheldon It is good to
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 5: travel far and to come upon strange sights at the
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 5: end of one's journey. This he who has tried it knows,
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 5: and he who has not speaks without authority. But it
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 5: is also good to come again to the hard known
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 5: spots of earth, and to find them still as one
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 5: has had them in his thoughts. When one wants new things,
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 5: it is best to go to new places for them.
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 5: There is a farm that I know of, about six
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 5: miles from any way road, and the owners thereof are
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 5: my friends. I went there at first as a boarder,
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 5: my occupancy of a room in the house and the
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 5: seat at the table meaning so many dollars a week
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 5: to the farmer and his wife, and meaning nothing more
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 5: when I stay there. Now, although the dollars are passed
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 5: from hand to hand every seven days, as before, they
• 1:39:19
  Speaker 5: long ago cease to hold any significant relation to my
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 5: position in the family. There may be those who will
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 5: not credit this statement, but it is true. After the
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 5: lapse of a year and a half, I traveled again
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 5: over the old trail, recognizing as I came the landmarks
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 5: that had blazed a way from me on my first
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 5: adventure to the place. At a little station in the woods.
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 5: I got out of the train, and there on the
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 5: platform I found the farmer, his name is Hiram Tibble's,
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 5: waiting for me with outstretched hand. We drove through the
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 5: orange light and the purple shadows of the late summer afternoon,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 5: towards the farm six miles away. I leaned back in
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 5: the buggy utter, content too satisfied to talk. Mister Tibbles
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 5: held the reins in his left hand, his right lay
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 5: on his knee. He drove with the easy mastery of
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 5: long habit, with a careless caution that I remembered, and
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 5: which now in its recognized familiarity, added to my peace
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 5: and blessedness. Everything was as it had been the first
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 5: time I had come that way, and as I had
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 5: found it on every return that I had made, And
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 5: in this fact lay my happiness. Only once, as we
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 5: drove was the deep breathed silence, broken looks natural. Mister
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 5: Tibble said, with the rising infection, Very was all I
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 5: answered him. Just before we came to a village two
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 5: miles beyond which lay the farm, we passed the little cemetery.
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 5: As we drove by, Tibbles leaned towards it from the
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 5: buggy half raised his hand in gesture as if to
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 5: point out something dropped it and turned to me. I
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 5: waited for him to speak, but after an instant he
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 5: looked away, settled back in his seat, and we went
• 1:41:04
  Speaker 5: on in a silence that lasted until we reached the farm.
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 5: We came at dusk to the old white house, and
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 5: Missus Tibbles met me on the threshold. With her, I
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 5: went in across the hall and into the familiar sitting room,
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 5: while mister Tibbles drove away to the barn. Later we
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 5: three had tea by lamp light in the dining room
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 5: that I remembered so well. Then we went out and
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 5: sat on the long low porch, Missus Tibbles in a
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 5: little red rocker, the farmer and I, with our chairs up,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 5: tilted our feet on the railing, our pipes in our mouths. Presently,
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 5: mister Tibbles repeated exactly the inquiry he had made on
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 5: our drive from the station. Seems natural, he questioned me again.
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 5: My content had taken another mood, and I responded this
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 5: time with audible enthusiasm. Natural, yes, I testified happily, and
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 5: then I enlarged upon this. It's hard to believe that
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 5: I've been away. Nothing is changed nothing, It's all as
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 5: I left it. Mister Tibblets twisted a little in his
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 5: chair and looked over at his wife. The slow, regular
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 5: sound of the red rocker on the wood of the
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 5: porch ceased as the farmer took the pipe from his
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 5: mouth and cleared his throat. I someway knew that the
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 5: silence of our afternoon drive had been significant, and that
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 5: it was now to be broken. There's spin one change
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 5: since you was here, Tibbles asserted at length, Has there?
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 5: I queried? Then I added, interestedly, what is it we've
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 5: calculated to tell you? It was the wife who answered me,
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 5: speaking in that sincere way of hers that makes a
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 5: man feel that she's trusting him with something.
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: Is so? Be it?
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 5: You'd like to hear? We'd be glad to have you
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 5: know about it. Of course I should like to hear,
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 5: I told her cordially and truthfully. But there were some
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 5: moments of silence before either of them spoke again. At last,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 5: mister Tibbles said tentatively, I expect you don't remember much
• 1:43:06
  Speaker 5: about the war. The war, I repeated, in surprise, my
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 5: thoughts flashing to san Juan and Manila Bay. What war, oh,
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 5: he answered quickly, not the war you're thinking of. Not that.
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 5: I mean the war of sixty one that I expect
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 5: was over before you was old enough to know the
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 5: awfulness of it or to have it hurt you. Anyways,
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 5: as I was born on the day that Lincoln was assassinated,
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 5: it was quite true that my knowledge of the rebellion
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 5: is mostly second hand. And I admitted the fact. Yes,
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 5: said Tibbles, nodding his head. Yes, I presumed you must
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 5: be somr's about that old Well here, he took his
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 5: feet down from the railing and turned his chair so
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 5: that he faced his wife. Well, it ain't been so
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 5: with us. We lived through them times, Mary and me,
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 5: and I guess we couldn't forget them if we tried.
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 5: But you were not at the front yourself, I said inquiringly.
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 5: I was sure he had told me that he had
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 5: lived all his life on that farm. No, missus, Tibbles answered,
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 5: confirming my impression. Hire him. He didn't go himself. I
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 5: our little baby. He couldn't go. She hesitated a moment.
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 5: That's what we've got to tell you. It's about about
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 5: him that went in hire's place. A substitute, I questioned.
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 5: Missus Tibbles looked over at her husband, and he repeated
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 5: my words in the tone of one who reverently gives
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 5: another his just title. A substitute. Yes, that's what Jim was,
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 5: just that, my substitute. He went instead of me. Then
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 5: I waited while the locusts word outside, and our pipes
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 5: glowed in the shadow of the deep Verandah, there was
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 5: a story to come, I knew, and I for the
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 5: words which were to bring it to me. They came
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 5: at length from mister Tibble's. We wasn't married when the
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 5: war broke out. He began to narrate, though we'd been
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 5: thinking about it for some considerable time. I was here
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 5: with Mother, and we'd both been glad enough to have
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 5: had Mary come, but she was living with her father
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 5: in the village, and she wouldn't leave him. Then. Long
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 5: in the summer sixty one, he died and left Mary alone,
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 5: and the next fall we was married. Mother, she said,
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 5: great store by Mary. She used to say. She didn't
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 5: know why it was mother in laws and daughter in
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 5: laws didn't generally gid along. She guessed if every daughter
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 5: in law was like Mary they would well, Mother livet
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 5: till our baby girl was four months old. I'm thankful
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 5: she did, for such comfort as she'd used to take
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 5: with the little thing. Then never was such a child seemingly,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 5: Mary and me, we thought so too. He stopped, and
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 5: Missus Tibbard said in a hushed voice, musingly. She had
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 5: the prettiest hair I ever see, all soft like round
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 5: her face, and such cunning baby ways. I tried to
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 5: say something, but could think of no adequate word. Then
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 5: presently the farmer went on speaking. It didn't last long
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 5: for mother, and only a little longer for us. Mother
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 5: died when we wasn't thinking of such a thing, very sudden,
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 5: leavin the baby and leaving us, and just then, not
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 5: more'n a month after that. It wasn't I was drafted Mary.
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 5: He turned to his wife, as if appealing to her
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 5: to tell the story. You was afraid to tell me,
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 5: missus Tibble's recalled. You come back from the village, and
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 5: I see something was the matter, but you wouldn't tell.
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 5: And then Jim come in. Then Jim he come in.
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 5: The farmer took up the tale he'd heard at the store,
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 5: and he'd come right down and not knowing I hadn't
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 5: had the courage to tell Mary. He said, right out,
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 5: look here high. Ye're not going, Mary, she says, gone
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 5: where she was scared, though not known why. I tried
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 5: to hush Jim up, but Mary she'd seen there was
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 5: something the matter, and nothing would do. But I'd got
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 5: to tell well. I thought then she was going to drop.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 5: She got so white. But Jim he spoke up quick,
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 5: and he says, I tell you you're not going. Don't
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 5: look like that, Mary, for God's sake, don't he ain't going?
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 5: Do you hear I'm going? Then it came out as
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 5: Jim had gone and offered himself as my substitute, and
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 5: he was going instead of me, and we both knowed
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 5: why he'd done it, one for my's sake, though Jim
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 5: me was always good friends enough, I knowed, though Mary
• 1:47:51
  Speaker 5: never let on, and Jim hadn't that Jim. The rocking
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 5: chair had not been in motion for some seconds, and
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 5: at this point Missus Tibbot's broke into the narrative. There, Hiram,
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 5: She declared, there's no call for you to say nothing
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 5: about that. About what Missus Tibble's. I inquired with what
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 5: I could not keep from being an overdone air of innocence.
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 5: The lady gave me no answer ad all, and her
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 5: husband went back like humpty dumpty to the last remark.
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 5: But one, all right, Mary, all right, he chuckled. I
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 5: guess I don't need to say nothing more. But almost
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 5: immediately the smile left his face, and his voice took
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 5: on a deeper, grave tone as he continued, But this,
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 5: I will say. It ain't in many men to do
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 5: what Jim done. I'll swear it rained in me. Talk
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 5: about dying for a woman, and there's more talkin done
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 5: than dying by a long sight. A man can do it,
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 5: maybe if the girl he loves loves him. He can't
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 5: do it, because her love in him has made him
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 5: somehow more indifferent from what he was before. But Jim, well,
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 5: he'd just give up his life because the woman he
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 5: wanted loved another man than him, and she'd have suffered
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 5: her and her little child if I if the other
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 5: men had went away to war. The old farmer's clenched
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 5: fist came down with force on the broad arm of
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 5: his chair, and he threw back his head with a
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 5: gesture of strong feeling. As for me, by some association
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 5: of ideas. There flashed before my mind a day when I,
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 5: a boy of eight, went for the first time down
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 5: the Potomac past Mount Vernon. The boat's bell had told
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 5: I had seen my father take off his hat and
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 5: stand with bared head, and only half knowing why, I
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 5: had followed his example. That's what Jim done. The farmer's
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 5: voice went on, That's just what Jim done, and there
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 5: reind them monument made. That's too good for him. That's so,
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 5: ain't it, he asked, turning to me. Was your friend
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 5: killed in battle? I questioned him, not quite comprehending. Strange
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 5: is the heart of man. With all the respectful sympathy
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 5: which I certainly felt for the tale and its tellers,
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 5: my brain at this moment automatically presented to my consciousness
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 5: the words this would make a good play. I had
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 5: nothing whatever to do with the formation of the idea.
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 5: It simply leaped upon me, then was gone. At the
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 5: same instant, I was listening for the farmer's answer to
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 5: my question, but his reply was intercepted by missus Tibble's
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 5: why don't you tell it out, Hiram, She criticized, he
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 5: don't know what you're getting at hum, responded mister tibbles Well,
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 5: turning to me as he answered my question. That's what
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 5: we've never knowed, whether Jim was killed in battle or not.
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 5: Most likely he was, but we ain't never been sure.
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 5: We heard from him quite a few times after he went.
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 5: He was yet none all right, he said, And in
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 5: the fights he was in nothing seemed to touch him.
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 5: Then come Gettysburg. I brought home a paper and we
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 5: looked for some word of Jim, as we always done,
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 5: and this time it was there. It stood out plain,
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 5: as if there were nothing else that side o the
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 5: paper missin James Mullen, and I think the farmer testified
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 5: in the tone of one to whom experience has given insight.
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 5: I think there's nothing harder nor worse for a man's
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 5: friends to bear than that just missing. There's nothing you
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 5: can take hold on. You just sat down and you wait.
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 5: You have all heard of loosen of him, and yet
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 5: you have a torment in hope that maybe he ain't
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 5: gone and you'll hear something. Well, we waited, but nothing
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 5: ever come of it. We never heard a word. I
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 5: knowed in my heart Jim was dead, and Mary knowed
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 5: it too, but she kept telling herself, an tell me
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 5: that she thought he'd come back, trying to deceive both
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 5: on us, but not succeed exactly. She kept it up though,
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 5: till it come Memorial Day and they was putting flags
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 5: and flowers on the soldier's graves down to the buryin' ground.
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 5: We rode past there that mornin', an we've seen em
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 5: doin of it. An quick as winking. Mary says to me,
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 5: says she where's Jim's flags? Where's his flowers? He'd ought
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 5: to have em if anybody in creation ought. She says,
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 5: there ain't no grave for Jim. I says, we don't know,
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 5: as Jim's dead. With that, Mary, she begun to cry,
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 5: and she says, saw the chokin and saw them mad
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 5: Jim's dead, hirun' tibbles, and you know it as well
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 5: as I do. Women is squeer, commented the farmer at
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 5: this point, well, with a deep breath. So that's the
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 5: way it come that we got our minds set on
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 5: havin a monument for Jim and a grave, even if
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 5: he didn't lay in it. We wanted him to have
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 5: all that. The dead's soldier said, and more if we
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 5: could fetch it. We begun right away to put aside
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 5: for a stone. It would take about one hundred dollars recalculated,
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 5: for we didn't want nothing poor. We figured we could
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 5: do it in a year if we had good luck,
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 5: or maybe two. Say two, I says to Mary, and
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 5: there'll be no disappointments. Two. Oh lord, it's been thirty five,
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 5: what I cried, incredulously, you've been thirty five years, saving
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 5: one hundred dollars, nearly all your married life. Neither husband
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 5: nor wife answered me. For a moment, then tell him father,
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 5: missus Tibbles commanded softly. No, the farmer corrected me, No,
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 5: it ain't exactly like that. You see, there's been setbacks.
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 5: As you might say, the money is when ready or
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 5: most ready, time and again, and then it's had to go.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 5: There was a fire first, lightning struck the lower bunds
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 5: after a dry spell, and what got burned up in
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 5: an hour took us near two years to get back again.
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 5: And after that, well, there come a time when there
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 5: was no thought of saving little Ruth, our little baby girl,
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 5: recalled her, though she was five and over, She begun
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 5: to pine. God only knows how we tried to save her.
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 5: There wasn't nothing we didn't do. We spent all we had,
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 5: and we borrowed on the farm. But then' twan't no.
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 5: Use maybe you've read the poem them. Times always puts
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 5: me in mind of Baby. Bell the name? IS i,
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 5: nodded looking straight before me into the. MOONLIGHT i, thought
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 5: likely you had as far as that. GOES i guess
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 5: it was in one of them books of YOURS i
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 5: see in. It at last he, came the, messenger the
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 5: messenger from unseen. Lands it was like that she. Went
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 5: all we could. Do we'd just stood by and let her,
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 5: go and put her little body into the buryin. Ground
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 5: you've seen her, grave, YES i, assented a little. HESITATINGLY
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 5: i knew the tibles lot in the, cemetery for the
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 5: farmer's father and mother were buried, there with their names
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 5: cut on stones at the foot of the. Graves, ALSO
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 5: i had often remarked a little mound by the side
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 5: of the, others but with no monument of any. KIND
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 5: i knew For Missus tibble's had told me that the
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 5: Little ruth was buried, there AND i had often wondered
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 5: that no stone marked the, Spot no tablet with the
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 5: child's name or the dates of her short. Life this
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 5: was in my mind now when Mister tibble, said as
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 5: if in, answer there ain't no. Monument we ain't never
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 5: been able to have. One after we'd buried our, baby
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 5: we talked it Over mary and, me and we settled
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 5: it that if we ever got money to buy a,
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 5: Stone jim had ought to have. It Little. Ruth she'll,
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 5: Understand mary, says she'll know up in. Heaven it's been
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 5: hard not having no mark on the little. Grave it
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 5: would have been a. Comfort But i'm glad we done
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 5: the way we, have and so Is. Mary he turned
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 5: to the wife and she met his. Look she made no,
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 5: response but none was. NECESSARY i saw that the childless
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 5: years had drawn these two into a relation that was.
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 5: Perfect we got the debt's paid at, last after a
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 5: long spell of workin and, saviin' and then we begun
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 5: to lay by. Again things went well for quite some,
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 5: time and we'd saved considerable and was thinkin maybe the
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 5: time had, Come and just then it was that the
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 5: Wither brown's boy went. Wrong it come to me to
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 5: know about, it and there was nobody but me to
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 5: save him and to keep his mother from hearing of.
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 5: It she'd been good to marry and comforting when our baby,
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 5: went and, WELL i just couldn't face her and tell
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 5: her what her boy had. Done there warn't much time
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 5: to think it. Over If sam was going to be,
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 5: saved it had to be done. Quick SO i Told
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 5: mary the whole, story AND i, says what AM i
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 5: going to?
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 1: Do?
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 5: Mary she didn't have to consider. Long it Was jim's
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 5: money that was in both our, minds of, course and she, Says,
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 5: hiram the living had ought to come before the. Dead
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 5: jim is where he don't sorrow at having no. Monument
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 5: but the Widow, brown oh, father she, says covering her.
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 5: Eyes she loves that boy the WAY i did my.
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 5: Baby there warn't no need to say any. MORE i
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 5: Took jim's money and went out and paid some stead
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 5: and his mother never. Knowed she died about two years.
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 5: Back and so it's been one set back after, another
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 5: and it seemed as if it one meant As jim
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 5: was to have that. MONUMENT i was laid up for
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 5: one spell and we got behind. Again But i'd come
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 5: round all right and started in. Again and, well that's
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 5: all it's done, now And i'm glad on IT foriv
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 5: WON'T i don't, know as the devil would. Be we
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 5: got the stone set up Before Memorial day last, spring
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 5: and there was flowers For jim and the. Flag he
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 5: raised his arms over his head with a gesture full of.
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 5: WEARINESS i am, tired he, Confessed AND i Guess mary.
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 5: Is we'll get nold, now both on, us and we
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 5: can't do just what we. Could it was in the
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 5: bright sunlight of the morrow THAT i saw in the little,
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 5: cemetery the plain white shaft with the words in memory
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 5: Of James mullin Born january, fifth eighteen thirty, eight missing
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 5: Since july, third eighteen sixty. Three greater love hath no
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 5: man than, this that a man laid down him his
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 5: life for his. Friends but through the brightness of the
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 5: NOONTIDE i could see, again in the white luster of
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 5: The august, moonlight the expression on the faces of my,
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 5: friends the look of peace after, conflict rest after, striving
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 5: and the joy of consummation following the pain and restlessness
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 5: of hope long. Deferred end of section, five end Of
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 5: The Black, Cat volume, five Twelve september nineteen hundred