Latest / Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) / 14 - Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) by G K Chesterton

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14 - Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) by G K Chesterton · Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading)

0:00
Speaker 1: The pursuit of the president. Next morning, five bewildered but
0:06
Speaker 1: hilarious people took the boat Ford Dover. The poor old
0:10
Speaker 1: colonel might have had some cause to complain, having been
0:14
Speaker 1: first forced to fight for two factions that didn't exist,
0:18
Speaker 1: and then knocked down with an iron lantern, But he
0:22
Speaker 1: was a magnanimous old gentleman, and, being much relieved that
0:26
Speaker 1: neither party had anything to do with dynamite, he saw
0:30
Speaker 1: them off on the pier with great geniality. The five
0:35
Speaker 1: reconciled detectives had a hundred details to explain to each other.
0:39
Speaker 1: The Secretary had to tell Sime how they had come
0:42
Speaker 1: to wear masks originally in order to approach the supposed
0:46
Speaker 1: enemy as fellow conspirators. Sime had to explain how they
0:51
Speaker 1: had fled with such swiftness through a civilized country. But
0:56
Speaker 1: above all these matters, a detail which could be explained
0:59
Speaker 1: rose the central mountain of the matter. That they could
1:02
Speaker 1: not explain. What did it all mean if they were
1:07
Speaker 1: all harmless officers? What was Sunday if he had not
1:12
Speaker 1: seized the world? What on earth had he been up to?
1:17
Speaker 1: Inspector Ratcliffe was still gloomy about this.
1:22
Speaker 2: I can't make head or tail of old Sandy's little
1:25
Speaker 2: game any more than you can, he said. But whatever
1:29
Speaker 2: else Sendy is, he isn't a blameless citizen. Damn it.
1:34
Speaker 2: Do you remember his face?
1:36
Speaker 3: I kan'tif, answered Simeon that I've never been able to
1:40
Speaker 3: forget it.
1:42
Speaker 1: Well, said the Secretary.
1:45
Speaker 4: I suppose we can find out soon, for to morrow
1:49
Speaker 4: we have our next general meeting. You will excuse me.
1:55
Speaker 1: He said, with a rather ghastly smile.
1:58
Speaker 4: For being well acquointed with my secretarial duties.
2:04
Speaker 5: I suppose you are.
2:06
Speaker 1: Right, said the Professor reflectively.
2:10
Speaker 5: I suppose we might find it out from him, But
2:14
Speaker 5: I confess I should feel a bit afraid of asking
2:17
Speaker 5: Sunday who he really.
2:19
Speaker 1: Is, why, asked the Secretary, For fear of bombs. No,
2:27
Speaker 1: said the Professor, for fear he might tell me. Let
2:33
Speaker 1: us have some drinks, said doctor Bull, after a silence.
2:38
Speaker 1: Throughout their whole journey by boat and train, they were
2:42
Speaker 1: highly convevial, but they instinctively kept together. Doctor Bull, who
2:47
Speaker 1: had always been the optimist of the party, endeavored to
2:50
Speaker 1: persuade the other four that the whole company could take
2:53
Speaker 1: the same handsome cab from Victoria. But this was overruled,
2:58
Speaker 1: and they went in a four wheeler, with doctor Bull
3:00
Speaker 1: on the box singing. They finished their journey at a
3:04
Speaker 1: hotel in Piccadilly Circus, so as to be close to
3:08
Speaker 1: the early breakfast next morning in Leicester Square. Yet even
3:13
Speaker 1: then the adventures of the day were not entirely over.
3:17
Speaker 1: Doctor Bull, discontented with the general proposal to go to bed,
3:21
Speaker 1: had strolled out of the hotel at about eleven to
3:25
Speaker 1: see and taste some of the beauties of London. Twenty
3:29
Speaker 1: minutes afterwards, however, he came back and made quite a
3:33
Speaker 1: clamor in the hall. Sime, who tried at first to
3:36
Speaker 1: soothe him, was forced at last to listen to his
3:39
Speaker 1: communication with quite new attention. I tell you I've seen him,
3:46
Speaker 1: said doctor Bull, with thick emphasis, whom asked Simon quickly.
3:52
Speaker 6: But the President's not so bad as that.
3:56
Speaker 1: Said doctor Bull, with unnecessary laughter.
4:00
Speaker 6: So bad as that, I've got him here.
4:02
Speaker 1: Got whom here, asked Simon impatiently. Harryman said the other
4:08
Speaker 1: elucidly man that used to be Harryman Gogle, here he is,
4:14
Speaker 1: and he pulled forward by a reluctant elbow. The identical
4:18
Speaker 1: young man, who five days before, had marched out of
4:22
Speaker 1: the council with thin red hair and a pale face,
4:25
Speaker 1: the first of all the sham anarchists who had been exposed.
4:31
Speaker 4: Won't you worry about me, he cried, You've expelled me
4:35
Speaker 4: as a spy.
4:36
Speaker 1: We're all spies, whispered sim We're all spies, shouted doctor Bull.
4:44
Speaker 6: Come let have a drink.
4:47
Speaker 1: Next morning. The battalion of the Reunited Six marched stolidly
4:51
Speaker 1: towards the hotel in Leicester Square.
4:54
Speaker 6: This is morchierful, said doctor Bull. We are six men
4:58
Speaker 6: going to ask one man what he means.
5:02
Speaker 3: I'd think it's a bit queer than that, said Sime.
5:06
Speaker 3: I think it is six men going to ask one
5:08
Speaker 3: man what they mean.
5:10
Speaker 1: They turned in silence into the square, and though the
5:14
Speaker 1: hotel was in the opposite corner, they saw at once
5:17
Speaker 1: the little balcony and a figure that looked too big
5:20
Speaker 1: for it. He was sitting alone with bent head, poring
5:24
Speaker 1: over a newspaper. But all his councilors, who had come
5:28
Speaker 1: to vote him down, crossed that square as if they
5:31
Speaker 1: were watched out of heaven by a hundred eyes. They
5:36
Speaker 1: had disputed much upon their policy about whether they should
5:40
Speaker 1: leave the unmasked goal without and begin diplomatically, or whether
5:45
Speaker 1: they should bring him in and blow up the gunpowder
5:48
Speaker 1: at once. The influence of Syme and Bull prevailed for
5:52
Speaker 1: the latter course, though The Secretary to the last asked
5:56
Speaker 1: them why they attacked Sunday so rashly.
6:00
Speaker 3: My reason is quite simple, said Sime. I attack him
6:04
Speaker 3: rashly because I'm afraid of him.
6:07
Speaker 1: They followed Sime up the dark stair in silence, and
6:11
Speaker 1: they all came out simultaneously on to the broad sunlight
6:14
Speaker 1: of the morning and the broad sunlight of Sunday's smile.
6:19
Speaker 7: Delightful, he said, so pleased to see you all. What
6:25
Speaker 7: an exquisite day it is is the Tzar dead.
6:30
Speaker 1: The Secretary, who happened to be foremost, drew himself together
6:34
Speaker 1: for a dignified outburst. No sah, he said, sternly.
6:41
Speaker 4: There has been no massacre. I bring you news of
6:45
Speaker 4: no such disgusting spectacles.
6:49
Speaker 7: Disgusting spectacles, repeated the President, with a bright, inquiring smile.
6:56
Speaker 7: You mean doctor Bull's spectacles.
6:59
Speaker 1: The secretary choked for a moment, and the President went
7:03
Speaker 1: on with a sort of smooth appeal.
7:06
Speaker 7: Of course, we all have our opinions, and even our eyes,
7:11
Speaker 7: but really to call them disgusting? Before the man himself, Doctor.
7:17
Speaker 1: Bull, tore off his spectacles and broke them on the table.
7:22
Speaker 6: My spectacles are black, godly, he said, But I'm not
7:27
Speaker 6: looked my face.
7:29
Speaker 7: I dare say it's the sort of face that grows
7:33
Speaker 7: on one, said the President. In fact, it grows on you.
7:38
Speaker 7: And who am I to quarrel with the wild fruits
7:42
Speaker 7: upon the tree of life? I dare say it will
7:45
Speaker 7: grow on me someday.
7:48
Speaker 4: We have no time for this tomfoolery.
7:52
Speaker 1: Said the Secretary, breaking in savagely.
7:55
Speaker 4: We have come to know what all this means.
8:00
Speaker 8: Who hire you?
8:02
Speaker 7: What are you?
8:04
Speaker 8: Why did you get us all here? Do you know
8:08
Speaker 8: who and what we are? Are you a half witted
8:13
Speaker 8: man playing the conspirator? Or how are you a clever
8:17
Speaker 8: man playing the fool?
8:20
Speaker 4: Answer me?
8:21
Speaker 7: I tell you, candidates, murmured Sunday are only required to
8:28
Speaker 7: answer eight out of the seventeen questions on the paper.
8:33
Speaker 7: As far as I can make out, you want me
8:36
Speaker 7: to tell you what I am and what you are,
8:39
Speaker 7: and what this table is, and what this council is,
8:44
Speaker 7: and what is the world? For all I know? Well,
8:49
Speaker 7: I will go so far as to rend the veil
8:52
Speaker 7: of one mystery. If you want to know what you are,
8:56
Speaker 7: you are a set of highly well intentioned young jackasses,
9:01
Speaker 7: and you.
9:03
Speaker 1: Said, Sime, leaning forward with you, I what am? I
9:10
Speaker 1: roared the President, and he rose slowly to an incredible height,
9:15
Speaker 1: like some enormous wave about to arch above them and break.
9:20
Speaker 7: You want to know what I am? Do you? Bull?
9:23
Speaker 7: You are a man of science. Grub in the roots
9:26
Speaker 7: of those trees and find out the truth about them. Sime,
9:31
Speaker 7: you are a poet stare at those morning clouds. But
9:35
Speaker 7: I tell you this that you will have found out
9:38
Speaker 7: the truth of the last tree and the topmost cloud
9:43
Speaker 7: before the truth about me. You will understand the sea,
9:47
Speaker 7: and I shall still be a riddle. You shall know
9:50
Speaker 7: what the stars are and not know what I am.
9:55
Speaker 7: Since the beginning of the world, all men have hunted
9:58
Speaker 7: me like a wolf, Kings and sages and poets and lawgivers,
10:05
Speaker 7: all the churches and all the philosophies. But I have
10:09
Speaker 7: never been caught yet, and the skies will fall in
10:14
Speaker 7: the time I turned to bay. I have given them
10:17
Speaker 7: a good run for their money, and I will now.
10:22
Speaker 1: Before one of them could move the monstrous man had
10:26
Speaker 1: swung himself like some huge orangutang over the balustrade of
10:30
Speaker 1: the balcony. Yet before he dropped, he pulled himself up again,
10:34
Speaker 1: as on a horizontal bar, and, thrusting his great chin
10:38
Speaker 1: over the edge of the balcony, said solemnly.
10:42
Speaker 7: There is one thing I'll tell you though, about who
10:45
Speaker 7: I am. I am the man in the dark room
10:49
Speaker 7: who made you all policemen.
10:52
Speaker 1: With that, he fell from the balcony, bouncing on the
10:55
Speaker 1: stones below like a great ball of India rubber, and
10:58
Speaker 1: went bounding off to towards the corner of the Alhambra,
11:02
Speaker 1: where he hailed a handsome cab and sprang inside it.
11:06
Speaker 1: The six detectives had been standing thunderstruck and livid in
11:10
Speaker 1: the light of his last assertion, But when he disappeared
11:13
Speaker 1: into the cab, Sime's practical senses returned to him, and,
11:17
Speaker 1: leaping over the balcony so recklessly as almost to break
11:21
Speaker 1: his legs, he called another cab. He and bull sprang
11:25
Speaker 1: into the cab, together the professor and the inspector into another,
11:29
Speaker 1: while the Secretary and the lake Gogul scrambled into a third,
11:33
Speaker 1: just in time to pursue the flying Syme, who was
11:36
Speaker 1: pursuing the flying President Sunday, led them a wild chase
11:41
Speaker 1: towards the northwest. His cabman, evidently under the influence of
11:45
Speaker 1: more than common inducements, urging the horse at breakneck speed.
11:51
Speaker 1: But Sime was in no mood for delicacies, and he
11:54
Speaker 1: stood up in his own cab, shouting stop safe, until
11:59
Speaker 1: crowd ran along beside his cab, and policemen began to
12:03
Speaker 1: stop and ask questions. All this had its influence upon
12:07
Speaker 1: the President's cabman, who began to look dubious and to
12:11
Speaker 1: slow down to a trot. He opened the trap to
12:15
Speaker 1: talk reasonably to his fare, and in so doing let
12:18
Speaker 1: the long whip droop over the front of the cab.
12:21
Speaker 1: Sunday leaned forward, seized it, and jerked it violently out
12:25
Speaker 1: of the man's hand. Then, standing up in front of
12:28
Speaker 1: the cab himself, he lashed the horse and roared aloud,
12:32
Speaker 1: so that they went down the streets like a flying storm.
12:36
Speaker 1: Through street after street and square after square, went whirling
12:41
Speaker 1: this preposterous vehicle, in which the fare was urging the
12:44
Speaker 1: horse and the driver trying desperately to stop it. The
12:48
Speaker 1: other three cabs came after it, if the phrase be
12:51
Speaker 1: permissible of a cab like panting hounds, shops and streets
12:56
Speaker 1: shot by like rattling arrows at the highest ecstasy of speed.
13:02
Speaker 1: Sunday turned round on the splashboard where he stood, and,
13:06
Speaker 1: sticking his great grinning head out of the cab, with
13:09
Speaker 1: white hair whistling in the wind, he made a horrible
13:12
Speaker 1: face at his pursuers, like some colossal urchin. Then, raising
13:18
Speaker 1: his right hand swiftly, he flung a ball of paper
13:21
Speaker 1: in Sime's face and vanished. Sime caught the thing while
13:26
Speaker 1: instinctively warding it off, and discovered that it consisted of
13:30
Speaker 1: two crumpled papers. One was addressed to himself and the
13:34
Speaker 1: other to doctor Bull, with a very long, and it
13:38
Speaker 1: is to be feared partly ironical string of letters after
13:42
Speaker 1: his name. Doctor Bull's address was at any rate considerably
13:47
Speaker 1: longer than his communication, for the communication consisted entirely of the.
13:52
Speaker 7: Words what about Martin Tupper? Now?
13:57
Speaker 6: What does the old maniac mean?
13:59
Speaker 1: Asked staring at the words.
14:02
Speaker 6: What does yours say? Simeon.
14:05
Speaker 1: Sime's message was at any rate longer and ran as follows.
14:10
Speaker 7: No one would regret anything in the nature of an
14:13
Speaker 7: interference by the Archdeacon. More than I I trust it
14:18
Speaker 7: will not come to that. But for the last time,
14:22
Speaker 7: where are your goloshes? The thing is too bad, especially
14:27
Speaker 7: after what uncle said.
14:30
Speaker 1: The President's cabman seemed to be regaining some control over
14:34
Speaker 1: his horse, and the pursuers gained a little as they
14:37
Speaker 1: swept round into the Edgeware Road. And here there occurred
14:41
Speaker 1: what seemed to the allies a providential stoppage. Traffic of
14:46
Speaker 1: every kind was swerving to right or left, or stopping
14:50
Speaker 1: for down the long road was coming the unmistakable roar
14:54
Speaker 1: announcing the fire engine, which in a few seconds went
14:57
Speaker 1: by like a brazen thunderbolt. But quick as it went by,
15:02
Speaker 1: Sunday had bounded out of his cab, sprung at the
15:05
Speaker 1: fire engine, caught it, slung himself on to it, and
15:09
Speaker 1: was seen as he disappeared in the noisy distance, talking
15:13
Speaker 1: to the astonished fireman with explanatory gestures. After him, howled sime.
15:20
Speaker 3: He can't go straight now, there's no mistaking of fire engine.
15:24
Speaker 1: The three cabmen, who had been stunned for a moment,
15:28
Speaker 1: whipped up their horses and slightly decreased the distance between
15:31
Speaker 1: themselves and their disappearing prey. The President acknowledged this proximity
15:36
Speaker 1: by coming to the back of the car, bowing, repeatedly,
15:40
Speaker 1: kissing his hand, and finally flinging a neatly folded note
15:44
Speaker 1: into the bosom of Inspector Ratcliff. When that gentleman opened it,
15:49
Speaker 1: not without impatience, he found it contained the words fly.
15:54
Speaker 7: At once, the truth about your trouser stretchers is known.
15:59
Speaker 1: A friend and the fire engine had struck still farther
16:03
Speaker 1: to the north into a region that they did not recognize,
16:07
Speaker 1: and as it ran by a line of high railings
16:10
Speaker 1: shadowed with trees, the six friends were startled but somewhat
16:14
Speaker 1: relieved to see the President leap from the fire engine,
16:19
Speaker 1: though whether through another whim or the increasing protest of
16:22
Speaker 1: his entertainers, they could not see. Before the three cabs, however,
16:28
Speaker 1: could reach up to the spot, he had gone up
16:31
Speaker 1: the high railings like a huge gray cat, tossed himself
16:35
Speaker 1: over and vanished in a darkness of leaves. Sime, with
16:40
Speaker 1: a furious gesture, stopped his cab, jumped out and sprang
16:44
Speaker 1: also to the escalade. When he had one leg over
16:48
Speaker 1: the fence and his friends were following, he turned a
16:50
Speaker 1: face on them, which shone quite pale in the shadow.
16:55
Speaker 3: What place can this be, he asked? Can he killed
17:00
Speaker 3: Devil's house? I've heard he has a house in North London.
17:04
Speaker 1: All the better, said the secretary, grimly, planting a foot
17:08
Speaker 1: in a foothold.
17:10
Speaker 4: We shall find him at home.
17:14
Speaker 1: No, but it isn't that, said Sime, knitting his brows.
17:18
Speaker 3: I hit the most horrible noises, like devils laughing and
17:22
Speaker 3: sneezing and blowing their devilish noses.
17:25
Speaker 4: His dog's barking, of.
17:27
Speaker 1: Course, said the secretary.
17:30
Speaker 3: Why not say his black beatles barking.
17:33
Speaker 1: Said Sime furiously.
17:35
Speaker 3: Snail's barking, geranium's barking. Did you ever hear a dog
17:39
Speaker 3: bark like that?
17:41
Speaker 1: He held up his hand, and there came out of
17:43
Speaker 1: the thicket a long, growling roar that seemed to get
17:47
Speaker 1: under the skin and freeze the flesh, A low, thrilling
17:51
Speaker 1: roar that made a throbbing in the air all about them.
17:56
Speaker 2: The dogs of Sunday would be no ordinary.
17:59
Speaker 1: Dogs, said Gogl and shuddered. Sime had jumped down on
18:05
Speaker 1: the other side, but he still stood listening impatiently. But
18:10
Speaker 1: listen to that, he said.
18:13
Speaker 3: Is that a dog, anybody's dog.
18:16
Speaker 1: There broke upon their ear a hoarse screaming as of
18:20
Speaker 1: things protesting and clamoring in sudden pain, and then, far off,
18:24
Speaker 1: like an echo, what sounded like a long nasal trumpet.
18:29
Speaker 4: Well his house ought to be hell.
18:33
Speaker 1: Said the secretary.
18:35
Speaker 4: And if it is hell, I'm going in.
18:39
Speaker 1: And he sprang over the tall railings almost with one swing.
18:44
Speaker 1: The others followed. They broke through a tangle of plants
18:47
Speaker 1: and shrubs and came out on an open path. Nothing
18:52
Speaker 1: was in sight, but doctor Bull suddenly struck his hands together.
18:57
Speaker 1: Why you asses, he cried, it's the zoo. As they
19:02
Speaker 1: were looking round wildly for any trace of their wild quarry,
19:06
Speaker 1: a keeper in uniform came running along the path with
19:09
Speaker 1: a man in plain clothes.
19:12
Speaker 4: Has it come this way?
19:14
Speaker 1: Gasped the keeper, has what, asked Sime. The elephant, cried
19:20
Speaker 1: the keeper.
19:21
Speaker 4: An elephant has gone mad and run away. He has
19:25
Speaker 4: run away with an old gentleman.
19:28
Speaker 1: Said the other stranger, breathlessly, A.
19:31
Speaker 4: Poor old gentleman with white hair.
19:35
Speaker 3: What source of old gentleman?
19:37
Speaker 1: Asked Sime with great curiosity.
19:40
Speaker 4: A very large and fat old gentleman in light gray clothes.
19:44
Speaker 1: Said the keeper eagerly. Well, said Sime.
19:48
Speaker 3: If he's that particular kind of old gentleman, if you're
19:52
Speaker 3: quite sure that he's a large and fat old gentleman
19:54
Speaker 3: in gray clothes, you may take my word for it
19:57
Speaker 3: that the elephant does not run away with him. He
20:00
Speaker 3: has run away with the elephants. The elephant is not
20:03
Speaker 3: made by God that could run away with him if
20:06
Speaker 3: he did not consent the elopements. And by thunder day
20:10
Speaker 3: he is.
20:11
Speaker 1: There was no doubt about it. This time, clean across
20:15
Speaker 1: the space of grass, about two hundred yards away, with
20:19
Speaker 1: a crowd screaming and scampering vainly at his heels, went
20:23
Speaker 1: a huge gray elephant at an awful stride, with his
20:27
Speaker 1: trunk thrown out as rigid as a ship's bowsprit and
20:31
Speaker 1: trumpeting like the trumpet of doom. On the back of
20:34
Speaker 1: the bellowing and plunging animal, sat President Sunday with all
20:39
Speaker 1: the placidity of a sultan, but goading the animal to
20:42
Speaker 1: a furious speed with some sharp object in his hand.
20:47
Speaker 1: Stop him, screamed the populace.
20:50
Speaker 3: He'll be out of the gate.
20:53
Speaker 1: Stop a landslide, said the keeper. He is out of
20:57
Speaker 1: the gate. And even as he's a final crash and
21:02
Speaker 1: roar of terror announced that the great gray elephant had
21:06
Speaker 1: broken out of the gates of the zoological gardens and
21:09
Speaker 1: was careening down Albany Street like a new and swift
21:13
Speaker 1: sort of omnibus.
21:16
Speaker 6: Great Lord cried bull, I never knew an elephant could
21:20
Speaker 6: go so fast. Well, it must be handsome cabs. Again,
21:23
Speaker 6: we are to keep them in sight.
21:25
Speaker 1: As they raced along to the gate out of which
21:28
Speaker 1: the elephant had vanished, sim felt a glaring panorama of
21:32
Speaker 1: the strange animals in the cages which they passed. Afterwards,
21:36
Speaker 1: he thought it queer that he should have seen them
21:39
Speaker 1: so clearly. He remembered, especially seeing pelicans with their preposterous
21:44
Speaker 1: pendant throats. He wondered why the pelican was the symbol
21:48
Speaker 1: of charity, except that it wanted a good deal of charity.
21:52
Speaker 1: To admire a pelican, he remembered a hornbill, which was
21:56
Speaker 1: simply a huge yellow beak with a small bird tied
21:59
Speaker 1: on behind it. The hole gave him a sensation, the
22:03
Speaker 1: vividness of which he could not explain. That nature was
22:07
Speaker 1: always making quite mysterious jokes. Sunday had told them that
22:11
Speaker 1: they would understand him. When they had understood the stars,
22:15
Speaker 1: he wondered whether even the archangels understood the hornbill. The
22:21
Speaker 1: six unhappy detectives flung themselves into cabs and followed the elephant,
22:26
Speaker 1: sharing the terror which he spread through the long stretch
22:29
Speaker 1: of the streets. This time Sunday did not turn round,
22:33
Speaker 1: but offered them the solid stretch of his unconscious back,
22:37
Speaker 1: which maddened them, if possible, more than his previous mockeries.
22:43
Speaker 1: Just before they came to Baker Street, however, he was
22:46
Speaker 1: seen to throw something far up into the air as
22:49
Speaker 1: a boy does a ball, meaning to catch it again,
22:52
Speaker 1: but at their rate of racing, it fell far behind,
22:56
Speaker 1: just by the cab containing Gogule, and, in faint hope
23:00
Speaker 1: of a clue or for some impulse unexplainable, he stopped
23:04
Speaker 1: his cab so as to pick it up. It was
23:07
Speaker 1: addressed to himself and was quite a bulky parcel. On examination, however,
23:13
Speaker 1: its bulk was found to consist of thirty three pieces
23:17
Speaker 1: of paper of no value, wrapped one round the other.
23:21
Speaker 1: When the last covering was torn away, it reduced itself
23:25
Speaker 1: to a small slip of paper on which was written the.
23:29
Speaker 7: Word I fancy should be pink.
23:34
Speaker 1: The man once known as Gogul said nothing, but the
23:38
Speaker 1: movements of his hands and feet were like those of
23:40
Speaker 1: a man urging a horse to renewed efforts. Through street
23:45
Speaker 1: after street, through district after district, went the prodigy of
23:49
Speaker 1: the flying Elephant, calling crowds to every window, and driving
23:53
Speaker 1: the traffic left and right and still through all this
23:58
Speaker 1: insane publicity. The three cabs toiled after it until they
24:02
Speaker 1: came to be regarded as part of a procession and
24:06
Speaker 1: perhaps the advertisement of a circus. They went at such
24:10
Speaker 1: a rate that distances were shortened beyond belief, and Simes
24:15
Speaker 1: saw the Albert Hall in Kensington when he thought that
24:18
Speaker 1: he was still in Paddington. The animal's pace was even
24:22
Speaker 1: more fast and free through the empty aristocratic streets of
24:25
Speaker 1: South Kensington, and he finally headed towards that part of
24:29
Speaker 1: the skyline where the enormous wheel of Earl's Court stood
24:33
Speaker 1: up in the sky. The wheel grew larger and larger
24:37
Speaker 1: till it filled heaven like the wheel of stars. The
24:41
Speaker 1: beasts outstripped the cabs. They lost him around several corners,
24:46
Speaker 1: and when they came to one of the gates of
24:47
Speaker 1: the Earl's court exhibition, they found themselves finally blocked in
24:53
Speaker 1: front of them was an enormous crowd. In the midst
24:56
Speaker 1: of it was an enormous elephant, heaving and shuddering, as
25:00
Speaker 1: such shapeless creatures do. But the president had disappeared.
25:06
Speaker 3: Where is he?
25:06
Speaker 1: Gonzi asked, sim slipping to the ground.
25:11
Speaker 7: The gentleman rushed into the exhibition.
25:13
Speaker 1: Sir, said an official in a dazed manner. Then he added,
25:18
Speaker 1: in an injured voice.
25:20
Speaker 7: Funny gentleman. Sir asked me to hold his horse, and
25:24
Speaker 7: gave me this.
25:27
Speaker 1: He held out with this taste, a piece of folded
25:30
Speaker 1: paper addressed.
25:32
Speaker 4: To the Secretary of the Central Anarchist Council.
25:38
Speaker 1: The secretary, raging, rented open and found written inside it.
25:43
Speaker 7: When the herring runs a mile, let the secretary smile.
25:48
Speaker 7: When the herring tries to fly, let the secretary die.
25:53
Speaker 4: Rustic proverb, why the eternal crikey began?
25:58
Speaker 1: The secretary, did you let the man in?
26:03
Speaker 4: Two people commonly come to your exhibition riding on mad elephants?
26:08
Speaker 1: Do look, shouted Sime. Suddenly, look over there, look at what,
26:16
Speaker 1: asked the secretary. Savagely, look at the captive balloon, said
26:21
Speaker 1: Sime and pointed in a frenzy.
26:24
Speaker 4: Why the blazes should I look at a captive.
26:27
Speaker 1: Balloon, demanded the secretary.
26:30
Speaker 4: What is there queer about a captive balloon?
26:34
Speaker 3: Nothing, said Sime, except it isn't captive.
26:40
Speaker 1: They all turned their eyes to where the balloon swung
26:43
Speaker 1: and swelled above the exhibition on a string like a
26:46
Speaker 1: child's balloon. A second afterwards, the string came in too,
26:51
Speaker 1: just under the car, and the balloon, broken loose, floated
26:54
Speaker 1: away with the freedom of a soap bubble.
26:58
Speaker 4: Ten thousand devils.
27:00
Speaker 1: Shrieked the Secretary.
27:02
Speaker 4: He's got into it, and he shook.
27:05
Speaker 1: His fists at the sky. The balloon, borne by some
27:09
Speaker 1: chance wind, came right above them, and they could see
27:13
Speaker 1: the great white head of the President peering over the
27:16
Speaker 1: side and looking benevolently down on them.
27:20
Speaker 5: God bless my soul, said.
27:23
Speaker 1: The professor, with the elderly manner that he could never
27:26
Speaker 1: disconnect from his bleached beard and parchment face.
27:31
Speaker 5: God bless by soul. I seem to fancy that something
27:35
Speaker 5: fell on the top of my hat.
27:38
Speaker 1: He put up a trembling hand and took from that
27:41
Speaker 1: shelf a piece of twisted paper, which he opened absently,
27:45
Speaker 1: only to find it inscribed with a true lover's knot.
27:48
Speaker 7: And the words your beauty has not left me indifferent
27:53
Speaker 7: From little snowdrop.
27:56
Speaker 1: There was a short silence, and then Sime said, biting
28:00
Speaker 1: his beard.
28:02
Speaker 3: I'm not beaten yet. The plasted thing must come down somewhere.
28:07
Speaker 3: Let's follow it.
28:10
Speaker 1: End of chapter thirteen.