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The Country of the Blind and Other Stories - The Plattner Story · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Section fifteen of the Country of the Blind and Other
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Speaker 1: Stories by H. G. Wells. This LibriVox recording is in
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Speaker 1: the public domain read by Peter Yearsley the Platinus story.
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Speaker 1: Whether the story of Gottfried Platner is to be credited
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Speaker 1: or not is a pretty question in the value of evidence.
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Speaker 1: On the one hand, we have seven witnesses, to be
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Speaker 1: perfectly exact, we have six and a half pairs of
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Speaker 1: eyes and one undeniable fact. And on the other we
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Speaker 1: have what is it, prejudice, common sense, the inertia of opinion.
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Speaker 1: Never were there seven more honest seeming witnesses. Never was
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Speaker 1: there a more undeniable fact than the inversion of Gottfried
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Speaker 1: Platner's anatomical structure. And never was there a more preposterous
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Speaker 1: story than the one they have to tell. The most
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Speaker 1: preposterous part of the story is the worthy Gottfried's contribution.
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Speaker 1: For I count him as one of the seven. Heaven
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Speaker 1: forbid that I should be led into giving countenance to
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Speaker 1: superstition by a passion for impartiality, and so come to
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Speaker 1: share the fate of Eusapia's patrons. Frankly, I believe there
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Speaker 1: is something crooked about this business. Of Gottfried Plattner. But
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Speaker 1: what that crooked factor is I will admit as frankly
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Speaker 1: I do not know. I have been surprised at the
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Speaker 1: credit accorded to the story in the most unexpected and
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Speaker 1: authoritative quarters. The fairest way to the reader, however, will
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Speaker 1: be for me to tell it without further comment. Gottfried
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Speaker 1: Plattner is, in spite of his name, a free born Englishman.
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Speaker 1: His father was an Alsatian who came to England in
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Speaker 1: the sixties, married a respectable English girl of unexceptionable antecedents,
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Speaker 1: and died after a wholesome and uneventful life devoted I understand,
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Speaker 1: chiefly to the laying of parquet flooring in eighteen eighty seven.
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Speaker 1: Gottfried's age is seven and twenty. He is, by virtue
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Speaker 1: of his heritage of three languages, modern language's master in
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Speaker 1: a small private school in the south of England. To
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Speaker 1: the casual observer, he is singularly like any other modern
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Speaker 1: languages master in any other small private school. His costume
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Speaker 1: is neither very costly, nor very fashionable, nor very fashionable.
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Speaker 1: But on the other hand, it is not markedly cheap
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Speaker 1: or shabby. His complexion like his height and his bearing
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Speaker 1: is inconspicuous. You would notice, perhaps that, like the majority
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Speaker 1: of people, his face was not absolutely symmetrical, his right
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Speaker 1: eye a little larger than the left, and his jaw
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Speaker 1: a trifle heavier on the right side. If you, as
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Speaker 1: an ordinary, careless person, were to bare his chest and
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Speaker 1: feel his heart beating, you would probably find it quite
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Speaker 1: like the heart of any one else. But here you
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Speaker 1: and the trained observer would part company. If you found
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Speaker 1: his heart quite ordinary, the trained observer would find it
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Speaker 1: quite otherwise, And once the thing was pointed out to you,
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Speaker 1: you too would perceive the peculiarity easily enough. It is
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Speaker 1: that Gottfried's heart beats on the right side of his body. Now,
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Speaker 1: that is not the only singularity of Gottfried's structure, although
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Speaker 1: it is the only one that would appeal to the
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Speaker 1: untrained mind. Careful sounding of Gottfried's internal arrangements by a
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Speaker 1: well known surgeon seems to point to the fact that
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Speaker 1: all the other unsymmetrical parts of his body are similarly misplaced.
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Speaker 1: The right low of his liver is on the left side,
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Speaker 1: the left on his right, while his lungs, too, are
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Speaker 1: similarly contraposed. What is still more singular. Unless Gottfried is
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Speaker 1: a consummate actor, we must believe that his right hand
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Speaker 1: has recently become his left. Since the occurrences we are
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Speaker 1: about to consider, as impartially as possible, he has found
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Speaker 1: the utmost difficulty in writing, except from right to left
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Speaker 1: across the paper with his left hand. He cannot throw
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Speaker 1: with his right hand. He is perplexed at meal times
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Speaker 1: between knife and fork, and his ideas of the rule
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Speaker 1: of the road he is a cyclist, are still a
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Speaker 1: dangerous confusion, and there is not a scrap of evidence
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Speaker 1: to show that before these occurrences Gottfried was at all
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Speaker 1: left handed. There is yet another wonderful fact in this
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Speaker 1: preposterous business. Gottfried produces three photographs of himself. You have
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Speaker 1: him at the age of five or six, thrusting fat
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Speaker 1: legs at you from under a plaid frock and scowling.
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Speaker 1: In that photograph, his left eye is a little larger
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Speaker 1: than his right, and his jaw is a true rifle
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Speaker 1: heavier on the left side. This is the reverse of
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Speaker 1: his present living condition. The photograph of Gottfried at fourteen
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Speaker 1: seems to contradict these facts, but that is because it
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Speaker 1: is one of those cheap gem photographs that were then
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Speaker 1: in vogue, taken direct upon metal and therefore reversing things
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Speaker 1: just as a looking glass would. The third photograph represents
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Speaker 1: him at one and twenty and confirms the record of
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Speaker 1: the others. There seems here evidence of the strongest confirmatory
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Speaker 1: character that Gottfried has exchanged his left side for his right.
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Speaker 1: Yet how a human being can be so changed shortly
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Speaker 1: fantastic and pointless miracle, It is exceedingly hard to suggest.
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Speaker 1: In one way, of course, these facts might be explicable
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Speaker 1: on the supposition that Platner has undertaken an elaborate mystification
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Speaker 1: on the strength of his heart's displacement. Photographs may be
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Speaker 1: faked and left handedness imitated, But the character of the
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Speaker 1: man does not lend itself to any such theory. He
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Speaker 1: is quiet, practical, unobtrusive, and thoroughly sane from the nawdou standpoint.
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Speaker 1: He likes beer and smokes moderately, takes walking exercise daily,
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Speaker 1: and has a healthily high estimate of the value of
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Speaker 1: his teaching. He has a good but untrained tenor voice,
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Speaker 1: and takes a pleasure in singing airs of a popular
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Speaker 1: and cheerful character. He is fond, but not morbidly fond,
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Speaker 1: of reading, chiefly fiction, pervaded with a vaguely pious optimism,
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Speaker 1: sleeps well, and rarely dreams. He is, in fact the
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Speaker 1: very last person to evolve a fantastic fable. Indeed, so
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Speaker 1: far from forcing this story upon the world, he has
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Speaker 1: been singularly reticent on the matter. He meets inquirers with
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Speaker 1: a certain engaging bash Fullness is almost the word that
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Speaker 1: disarms the most suspicious. He seems genuinely ashamed that anything
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Speaker 1: so unusual has occurred to him. It is to be
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Speaker 1: regretted that Platner's aversion to the idea of post mortem
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Speaker 1: dissection may postpone, perhaps forever, the positive proof that his
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Speaker 1: entire body has had its left and right sides transposed.
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Speaker 1: Upon that fact, mainly, the credibility of his story hangs.
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Speaker 1: There is no way of taking a man and moving
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Speaker 1: him about in space, as ordinary people understand space, that
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Speaker 1: will result in our changing his sides. Whatever you do,
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Speaker 1: his right is still his right, his left his left.
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Speaker 1: You can do that with a perfectly thin and flat thing.
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Speaker 1: Of course, if you were to cut a figure out
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Speaker 1: of paper, any figure with a right and left side.
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Speaker 1: You could change its sides simply by lifting it up
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Speaker 1: and turning it over. But with a solid it is different.
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Speaker 1: Mathematical theorists tell us that the only way in which
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Speaker 1: the right and left sides of a solid body can
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Speaker 1: be changed is by taking that body clean outer space
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Speaker 1: as we know it, taking it out of ordinary existence,
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Speaker 1: that is, and turning it somewhere outside space. This is
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Speaker 1: a little obstruse, no doubt, but anyone with any knowledge
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Speaker 1: of mathematical theory will assure the reader of its truth.
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Speaker 1: To put the thing in technical language, the curious inversion
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Speaker 1: of Platner's right and left sides is proof that he
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Speaker 1: has moved out of our space into what is called
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Speaker 1: the fourth dimension, and that he has returned again to
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Speaker 1: our world. Unless we choose to consider ourselves the victims
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Speaker 1: of an elaborate and motiveless fabrication, we are almost bound
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Speaker 1: to believe that this has occurred. So much for the
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Speaker 1: tangible facts. We come now to the account of the
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Speaker 1: phenomena that attended his temporary disappearance from the world. It
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Speaker 1: appears that in the Sussexville Proprietary School, Platner not only
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Speaker 1: discharged the duties of modern languages master, but also taught chemistry,
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Speaker 1: commercial geography, bookkeeping, shorthand, drawing, and any other additional subject
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Speaker 1: to which the changing fancies of the boy's parents might
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Speaker 1: direct attention. He knew little or nothing of these various subjects.
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Speaker 1: But in secondary as distinguished from board or elementary schools,
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Speaker 1: knowledge in the teacher is very properly by no means
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Speaker 1: so necessary as high moral character and gentlemanly tone. In
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Speaker 1: chemistry he was particularly deficient, knowing he says nothing beyond
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Speaker 1: the three gases, whatever the three gases may be. As however,
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Speaker 1: his pupils began by knowing nothing and derived all their
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Speaker 1: information from him. This caused him, or any one but
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Speaker 1: little inconvenience for several terms. Then a little boy named
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Speaker 1: Wibble joined the school, who had been educated, it seems,
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Speaker 1: by some mischievous relative, into an inquiring habit of mind.
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Speaker 1: This little boy followed Platner's lessons with marked and sustained interest, and,
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Speaker 1: in order to exhibit his zeal on the subject, brought
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Speaker 1: at various times substances for Platina to analyze. Platina, flattered
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Speaker 1: by this evidence of his power of awakening interest and
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Speaker 1: trusting to the boy's ignorance, analyzed these and even made
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Speaker 1: general statements as to their composition. Indeed, he was so
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Speaker 1: far stimulated by his pupil as to obtain a work
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Speaker 1: upon analytical chemistry and study it during his supervision of
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Speaker 1: the evening's preparation. He was surprised to find chemistry quite
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Speaker 1: an interesting subject. So far, the story is absolutely commonplace.
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Speaker 1: But now the greenish powder comes upon the scene. The
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Speaker 1: source of that greenish powder seems unfortunately lost. Master Wibble
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Speaker 1: tells a tortuous story of finding it done up in
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Speaker 1: a packet in a disused lime kiln near the Downs.
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Speaker 1: It would have been an excellent thing for Platner, and
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Speaker 1: possibly for Master Wibble's family, if a match could have
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Speaker 1: been applied to that powder there and then. The young
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Speaker 1: gentleman certainly did not bring it to school in a packet,
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Speaker 1: but in a common eight ounce graduated medicine bottle plugged
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Speaker 1: with masticated newspaper. He gave it to Platner at the
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Speaker 1: end of the afternoon school. Four boys had been detained
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Speaker 1: after school prayers in order to complete some neglected tasks,
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Speaker 1: and Platner was supervising these in the small classroom in
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Speaker 1: which the chemical teaching was conducted. The appliances for the
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Speaker 1: practical teaching of chemistry in the Sussexville Proprietary School, as
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Speaker 1: in most small schools in this country, are characterized by
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Speaker 1: a severe simplicity. They are kept in a small cupboard,
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Speaker 1: standing in a recess, and having about the same capacity
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Speaker 1: as a common traveling trunk. Plutner, being bored with his
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Speaker 1: passive superintendence, seems to have welcomed the intervention of Wibble
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Speaker 1: with his green powder as an agreeable diversion, and unlocking
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Speaker 1: this cupboard, proceeded at once with his analytical experiments. Wibble sat,
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Speaker 1: luckily for himself at a safe distance. Regarding him, the
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Speaker 1: four malefactors, feigning a profound absorption in their work, watched
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Speaker 1: him furtively with the keenest interest. For even within the
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Speaker 1: limits of the three gases, Platner's practical chemistry was I
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Speaker 1: understand and temporarius. They are practically unanimous in their account
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Speaker 1: of Platinus proceedings. He poured a little of the green
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Speaker 1: powder into a test tube and tried the substance with water,
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Speaker 1: hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, and sulfuric acid in succession, getting
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Speaker 1: no result. He emptied out a little heap nearly half
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Speaker 1: the bottleful in fact, upon a slate, and tried a match.
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Speaker 1: He held the medicine bottle in his left hand. The
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Speaker 1: stuff began to smoke and melt, and then exploded with
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Speaker 1: deafening violence and a blinding flash. The five boys, seeing
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Speaker 1: the flash and being prepared for catastrophes, ducked below their desks,
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Speaker 1: and were none of them seriously hurt. The window was
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Speaker 1: blown out into the playground, and the blackboard on its
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Speaker 1: easel was upset. The slate was smashed to atoms, some
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Speaker 1: plaster fell from the ceiling. No other damage was done
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Speaker 1: to the school edifice or appliances, and the boys, at first,
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Speaker 1: seeing nothing of Platner, fancied he was knocked down and
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Speaker 1: lying out of their sight below the desks. They jumped
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Speaker 1: out of their places to go to his assistance, and
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Speaker 1: were amazed to find the space empty. Being still confused
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Speaker 1: by the sudden violence of the report, they hurried to
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Speaker 1: the open door, under the impression that he must have
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Speaker 1: been hurt and have rushed out of the room, But
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Speaker 1: Carson the foremost nearly collided in the doorway with the
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Speaker 1: principal mister Lidget. Mister Lydget is a corpulent, excitable man
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Speaker 1: with one eye. The boys describe him as stumbling into
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Speaker 1: the room, mouthing some of those tempered expletives irritable schoolmasters
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Speaker 1: accustom themselves to use lest worse before ritched mum chancer,
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Speaker 1: He said, where's mister Platner. The boys are agreed on
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Speaker 1: the very words wobbler, sniveling, puppy and mum chancer are where,
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Speaker 1: it seems among the ordinary small change of mister Legitt's
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Speaker 1: scholastic commerce. Whereas mister Platner. That was a question that
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Speaker 1: was to be repeated many times in the next few days.
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Speaker 1: It really seemed as though that frantic hyperbole blown to
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Speaker 1: atoms had for once realized itself. There was not a
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Speaker 1: visible particle of Platner to be seen, not a drop
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Speaker 1: of blood, nor a stitch of clothing to be found.
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Speaker 1: Apparently he had been blown clean out of existence and
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Speaker 1: left not a rack behind, not so much as would
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Speaker 1: cover a sixpenny piece, to quote a proverbial expression. The
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Speaker 1: evidence of his absolute disappearance as a consequence of that
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Speaker 1: explosion is indubitable. It is not necessary to enlarge here
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Speaker 1: upon the commotion excited in the Sussexville Proprietary School, and
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Speaker 1: in Sussexville and elsewhere by this event. It is quite possible, indeed,
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Speaker 1: that some of the readers of these pages may recall
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Speaker 1: the hearing of some remote and dying version of that
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Speaker 1: excitement during the last summer holidays. Legit, it would seem,
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Speaker 1: did everything in his power to suppress and minimize the story.
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Speaker 1: He instituted a penalty of twenty five lines for any
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Speaker 1: mention of Platner's name among the boys, and stated in
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Speaker 1: the schoolroom that he was clearly aware of his assistance
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Speaker 1: whereabouts he was afraid. He explains that the possibility of
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Speaker 1: an explosion happening in spite of the elaborate precautions taken
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Speaker 1: to minimize the practical teaching of chemistry, might injure the
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Speaker 1: reputation of the school, and so might any mysterious quality
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Speaker 1: in Platner's departure. Indeed, he did everything in his power
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Speaker 1: to make the occurrence seem as ordinary as possible. In particular,
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Speaker 1: he cross examined the five eye witnesses of the occurrence
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Speaker 1: so searchingly that they began to doubt the plain evidence
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Speaker 1: of their senses. But in spite of these efforts. The tale,
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Speaker 1: in a magnified and distorted state, made a nine days
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Speaker 1: wonder in the district, and several parents withdrew their sons
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Speaker 1: on colorable pretexts. Not the least remarkable point in the
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Speaker 1: matter is the fact that a large number of people
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Speaker 1: in the neighborhood dreamed singularly vivid dreams of Platina during
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Speaker 1: the period of excitement before his return, and that these
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Speaker 1: dreams had a curious uniformity. In almost all of them,
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Speaker 1: Platina was seen, sometimes singly, sometimes in company, wandering about
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Speaker 1: through a coruscating iridescence. In all cases, his face was
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Speaker 1: pale and distressed, and in some he gesticulated towards the dreamer.
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Speaker 1: One or two of the boys, evidently under the influence
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Speaker 1: of nightmare, fancied that Platner approached them with remarkable swiftness
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Speaker 1: and seemed to look closely into their very eyes. Others
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Speaker 1: fled with Platner from the pursuit of vague and extraordinary
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Speaker 1: creatures of a globular shape. But all these fancies were
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Speaker 1: forgotten in inquiries and speculations, when on the Wednesday next
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Speaker 1: but one after the Monday of the explosion, Platner returned.
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Speaker 1: The circumstances of his return were as singular as those
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Speaker 1: of his departure. So far as mister Lidget's somewhat choleric
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Speaker 1: outline can be filled in from Platner's hesitating statements, it
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Speaker 1: would appear that on Wednesday evening, towards the hour of sunset,
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Speaker 1: the former gentleman, having dismissed evening preparation, was engaged in
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Speaker 1: his garden, picking and eating strawberries, a fruit of which
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Speaker 1: he is inordinately fond. It is a large, old fashioned garden,
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Speaker 1: secured from observation, fortunately by a high and ivy covered
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Speaker 1: red brick wall. Just as he was stooping over a
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Speaker 1: particularly prolific plant, there was a flash in the air
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Speaker 1: and a heavy thud, and before he could look round,
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Speaker 1: some heavy body struck him violently from behind. He was
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Speaker 1: pitched forward, crushing the strawberries he held in his hand,
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Speaker 1: and that so roughly that his silk hat mister Lidget,
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Speaker 1: adheres to the older ideas of scholastic costume, was driven
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Speaker 1: violently down upon his forehead and almost over one eye.
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Speaker 1: This heavy missile, which slid over him sideways and collapsed
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Speaker 1: into a sitting position among the strawberry plants proved to
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Speaker 1: be our long lost mister Gottfried Platner in an extremely
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Speaker 1: disheveled condition. He was collarless and hatless, his linen was dirty,
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Speaker 1: and there was blood upon his hands. Mister Lidget was
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Speaker 1: so indignant and surprised that he remained on all four
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Speaker 1: and with his hat jammed down on his eye, while
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Speaker 1: he expostulated vehemently with Platina for his disrespectful and unaccountable conduct.
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Speaker 1: This scarcely idyllic scene completes what I may call the
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Speaker 1: exterior version of the Platiner story its exoteric aspect. It
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Speaker 1: is quite unnecessary to enter here into all the details
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Speaker 1: of his dismissal by mister Lidget. Such details, with the
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Speaker 1: full names and dates and references, will be found in
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Speaker 1: the larger report of these occurrences that was laid before
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Speaker 1: the Society for the Investigation of Abnormal Phenomena. The singular
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Speaker 1: transposition of Platner's right and left sides was scarcely observed
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Speaker 1: for the first day or so, and then first in
20:48
Speaker 1: connection with his disposition to write from right to left
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Speaker 1: across the blackboard, he concealed rather than ostended. This a
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Speaker 1: curious confirmatory circumstance, as he considered it would unfavorably affect
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Speaker 1: his prospects in a new situation. The displacement of his
21:05
Speaker 1: heart was discovered some months after, when he was having
21:09
Speaker 1: a tooth extracted under anesthetics. He then very unwillingly allowed
21:14
Speaker 1: a cursory surgical examination to be made of himself, with
21:18
Speaker 1: a view to a brief account in the Journal of
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Speaker 1: Anatomy that exhausts the statement of the material facts. And
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Speaker 1: we may now go on to consider Platina's account of
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Speaker 1: the matter. But first let us clearly differentiate between the
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Speaker 1: preceding portion of this story and what is to follow.
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Speaker 1: All I have told thus far is established by such
21:41
Speaker 1: evidence as even a criminal lawyer would approve. Every one
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Speaker 1: of the witnesses is still alive. The reader, if he
21:48
Speaker 1: have the leisure, may hunt the lads out tomorrow, or
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Speaker 1: even brave the terrors of the redoubtable legate and cross examine,
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Speaker 1: and trap and test to his heart's content. Gottfrey Platner
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Speaker 1: himself and his twisted heart, and his three photographs are producible.
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Speaker 1: It may be taken as proved that he did disappear
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Speaker 1: for nine days as the consequence of an explosion, that
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Speaker 1: he returned almost as violently under circumstances in their nature
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Speaker 1: annoying to mister Lidget, whatever the details of those circumstances
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Speaker 1: may be, and that he returned inverted, just as a
22:27
Speaker 1: reflection returns from a mirror. From the last fact, as
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Speaker 1: I have already stated, it follows almost inevitably that Platner
22:36
Speaker 1: during those nine days must have been in some state
22:40
Speaker 1: of existence altogether out of space. The evidence to these
22:44
Speaker 1: statements is indeed far stronger than that upon which most
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Speaker 1: murderers are hanged. But for his own particular account of
22:54
Speaker 1: where he had been, with its confused explanations and well
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Speaker 1: nigh self contradictory details, we have only mister gotchfreed Platner's word.
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Speaker 1: I do not wish to discredit that, but I must
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Speaker 1: point out what so many writers upon obscure psychic phenomena
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Speaker 1: fail to do. That we are passing here from the
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Speaker 1: practically undeniable to that kind of matter which any reasonable
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Speaker 1: man is entitled to believe or reject as he thinks proper.
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Speaker 1: The previous statements render it plausible, its discordance with common
23:31
Speaker 1: experience tilts it towards the incredible. I would prefer not
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Speaker 1: to sway the beam of the reader's judgment either way,
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Speaker 1: but simply to tell the story as Platner told it
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Speaker 1: to me. He gave me his narrative, I may state,
23:47
Speaker 1: at my house at Chiselhurst, and so soon as he
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Speaker 1: had left me that evening, I went into my study
23:53
Speaker 1: and wrote down everything as I remembered it. Subsequently, he
23:58
Speaker 1: was good enough to read over a typewritten copy, so
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Speaker 1: that its substantial correctness is undeniable. He states that at
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Speaker 1: the moment of the explosion, he distinctly thought he was killed.
24:10
Speaker 1: He felt lifted off his feet and driven forcibly backward.
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Speaker 1: It is a curious fact for psychologists that he thought
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Speaker 1: clearly during his backward flight, and wondered whether he should
24:22
Speaker 1: hit the chemistry cupboard or the blackboard easel. His heels
24:25
Speaker 1: struck ground, and he staggered and fell heavily into a
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Speaker 1: sitting position on something soft and firm. For a moment,
24:32
Speaker 1: the concussion stunned him. He became aware at once of
24:37
Speaker 1: a vivid scent of singed hair, and he seemed to
24:40
Speaker 1: hear the voice of Lygit asking for him. You will
24:43
Speaker 1: understand that for a time his mind was greatly confused.
24:48
Speaker 1: At first, he was under the impression that he was
24:51
Speaker 1: still standing in the class room. He perceived quite distinctly
24:55
Speaker 1: the surprise of the boys and the entry of mister Lidget.
24:59
Speaker 1: He is quite positive upon that score he did not
25:02
Speaker 1: hear their remarks, but that he abscribed to the deafening
25:05
Speaker 1: effect of the experiment. Things about him seemed curiously dark
25:10
Speaker 1: and faint, but his mind explained that on the obvious
25:14
Speaker 1: but mistaken idea that the explosion had engendered a huge
25:18
Speaker 1: volume of dark smoke. Through the dimness, the figures of
25:22
Speaker 1: Lygid and the boys moved as faint and silent as ghosts.
25:28
Speaker 1: Platna's face still tingled with the stinging heat of the flash.
25:32
Speaker 1: He was, he says, all muddled. His first definite thoughts
25:37
Speaker 1: seemed to have been of his personal safety. He thought
25:40
Speaker 1: he was perhaps blinded and deafened. He felt his limbs
25:44
Speaker 1: and face in a gingerly manner. Then his perceptions grew clearer,
25:48
Speaker 1: and he was astonished to miss the old, familiar desks
25:51
Speaker 1: and other schoolroom furniture about him. Only dim, uncertain gray
25:57
Speaker 1: shapes stood in the place of these. Then came a
26:01
Speaker 1: thing that made him shout aloud, and awoke his stunned
26:04
Speaker 1: faculties to instant activity. Two of the boys gesticulating walked
26:11
Speaker 1: one after the other, clean through him. Neither manifested the
26:15
Speaker 1: slightest consciousness of his presence. It is difficult to imagine
26:19
Speaker 1: the sensation he felt. They came against him, he says,
26:23
Speaker 1: with no more force than a wisp of mist. Plattner's
26:27
Speaker 1: first thought after that was that he was dead. Having
26:30
Speaker 1: been brought up with thoroughly sound views in these matters, however,
26:34
Speaker 1: he was a little surprised to find his body still
26:37
Speaker 1: about him. His second conclusion was that he was not dead,
26:42
Speaker 1: but that the others were. That the explosion had destroyed
26:46
Speaker 1: the Sussexville Proprietary School and every soul in it except himself.
26:51
Speaker 1: But that too was scarcely satisfactory. He was thrown back
26:56
Speaker 1: upon astonished observation. Every thing about him was profoundly dark.
27:02
Speaker 1: At first, it seemed to have an altogether ebony blackness.
27:06
Speaker 1: Overhead was a black firmament. The only touch of light
27:10
Speaker 1: in the scene was a faint greenish glow at the
27:13
Speaker 1: edge of the sky in one direction, which threw into
27:16
Speaker 1: prominence a horizon of undulating black hills. This i say
27:22
Speaker 1: was his impression. At first, As his eye grew accustomed
27:26
Speaker 1: to the darkness, he began to distinguish a faint quality
27:31
Speaker 1: of differentiating greenish color in the circumambient night. Against this background,
27:37
Speaker 1: the furniture and occupants of the classroom, it seems, stood
27:40
Speaker 1: out like phosphorescent specters, faint and impalpable. He extended his
27:46
Speaker 1: hand and thrust it without an effort, through the wall
27:50
Speaker 1: of the room by the fireplace. He describes himself as
27:54
Speaker 1: making a strenuous effort to attract attention. He shouted to
27:58
Speaker 1: legit and try to seize the boys as they went
28:02
Speaker 1: to and fro. He only desisted from these attempts when
28:06
Speaker 1: missus Lydgitt, whom he, as an assistant master, naturally disliked,
28:11
Speaker 1: entered the room. He says, the sensation of being in
28:15
Speaker 1: the world and yet not a part of it was
28:18
Speaker 1: an extraordinarily disagreeable one. He compared his feelings not inaptly
28:25
Speaker 1: to those of a cat watching a mouse through a window.
28:28
Speaker 1: Whenever he made a motion to communicate with the dim,
28:31
Speaker 1: familiar world about him, he found an invisible, incomprehensible barrier
28:37
Speaker 1: preventing intercourse. He then turned his attention to his solid environment.
28:43
Speaker 1: He found the medicine bottle still unbroken in his hand,
28:47
Speaker 1: with the remainder of the green powder therein. He put
28:50
Speaker 1: this in his pocket and began to feel about him.
28:53
Speaker 1: Apparently he was sitting on a boulder of rock covered
28:57
Speaker 1: with a velvety moss, the dark country about him. He
29:01
Speaker 1: was unable to see the faint, misty picture of the
29:04
Speaker 1: schoolroom blotting it out. But he had a feeling, due
29:08
Speaker 1: perhaps to a cold wind, that he was near the
29:11
Speaker 1: crest of a hill, and that a steep valley fell
29:15
Speaker 1: away beneath his feet. The green glow along the edge
29:18
Speaker 1: of the sky seemed to be growing in extent and intensity.
29:23
Speaker 1: He stood up, rubbing his eyes. It would seem that
29:26
Speaker 1: he made a few steps, going steeply down hill, and
29:29
Speaker 1: then stumbled, nearly fell, and sat down again upon a
29:33
Speaker 1: jagged mass of rock to watch the dawn. He became
29:36
Speaker 1: aware that the world about him was absolutely silent. It
29:41
Speaker 1: was as still as it was dark, and though there
29:44
Speaker 1: was a cold wind blowing up the hill face, the
29:47
Speaker 1: rustle of grass, the sowing of the boughs that should
29:51
Speaker 1: have accompanied it were absent. He could hear. Therefore, if
29:54
Speaker 1: he could not see that the hillside upon which he
29:58
Speaker 1: stood was rocky and desert. The green grew brighter every moment,
30:03
Speaker 1: and as it did so, a faint, transparent blood red
30:07
Speaker 1: mingled with but did not mitigate the blackness of the
30:11
Speaker 1: sky overhead, and the rocky desolations about him. Having a
30:16
Speaker 1: regard to what follows, I am inclined to think that
30:20
Speaker 1: that redness may have been an optical effect. Due to contrast,
30:25
Speaker 1: something black fluttered momentarily against the livid yellow green of
30:30
Speaker 1: the lower sky, and then the thin and penetrating voice
30:35
Speaker 1: of a bell rose out of the black gulf below him.
30:39
Speaker 1: An oppressive expectation grew with the growing light. It is
30:45
Speaker 1: probable that an hour or more elapsed while he sat there,
30:48
Speaker 1: the strange green light growing brighter every moment and spreading
30:53
Speaker 1: slowly in flamboyant fingers upward towards the zenith. As it grew,
30:58
Speaker 1: the spectral vision of our world became relatively or absolutely fainter,
31:05
Speaker 1: probably both, for the time must have been about that
31:09
Speaker 1: of our earthly sunset. So far as his vision of
31:12
Speaker 1: our world went platna. By his few steps Downhill had
31:17
Speaker 1: passed through the floor of the classroom, and was now,
31:21
Speaker 1: it seemed, sitting in mid air in the larger schoolroom downstairs,
31:26
Speaker 1: he saw the borders distinctly, but much more faintly than
31:30
Speaker 1: he had seen legit. They were preparing their evening tasks,
31:33
Speaker 1: and he noticed with interest that several were cheating with
31:37
Speaker 1: their euclid riders by means of a crib, a compilation
31:41
Speaker 1: whose existence he had hitherto never suspected. As the time passed,
31:46
Speaker 1: they faded steadily, as steadily as the light of the
31:49
Speaker 1: green dawn increased. Looking down into the valley, he saw
31:55
Speaker 1: that the light had crept far down its rocky sides,
31:58
Speaker 1: and that the profoundness blackness of the abyss was now
32:02
Speaker 1: broken by a minute green glow, like the light of
32:05
Speaker 1: a glow worm. And almost immediately the limb of a huge,
32:10
Speaker 1: heavenly body of blazing green rose over the basaltic undulations
32:15
Speaker 1: of the distant hills, and the monstrous hill masses about
32:18
Speaker 1: him came out, gaunt and desolate in green light and
32:23
Speaker 1: deep ruddy black shadows. He became aware of a vast
32:27
Speaker 1: number of ball shaped objects drifting as thistledown drifts over
32:32
Speaker 1: the high ground. There were none of these nearer to him,
32:36
Speaker 1: than the opposite side of the gorge. The bell below
32:39
Speaker 1: twanged quicker and quicker, with something like impatient insistence, and
32:45
Speaker 1: several lights moved hither and thither. The boys at work
32:49
Speaker 1: at their desks were now almost imperceptibly faint. This extinction
32:55
Speaker 1: of our world when the green sun of this other
32:59
Speaker 1: universe rose, is a curious point upon which Platna insists.
33:04
Speaker 1: During the other world night, it is difficult to move
33:08
Speaker 1: about on account of the vividness with which the things
33:11
Speaker 1: of this world are visible. It becomes a riddle to
33:15
Speaker 1: explain why, if this is the case, we in this
33:18
Speaker 1: world catch no glimpse of the other world. It is
33:22
Speaker 1: due perhaps to the comparatively vivid illumination of this world
33:27
Speaker 1: of ours. Platner describes the mid day of the other
33:31
Speaker 1: world at its brightest as not being nearly so bright
33:35
Speaker 1: as this world at full moon, while its night is
33:38
Speaker 1: profoundly black. Consequently, the amount of light, even in an
33:42
Speaker 1: ordinary dark room is sufficient to render the things of
33:46
Speaker 1: the other world invisible, on the same principle that faint
33:50
Speaker 1: phosphorescence is only visible in the profoundest darkness. I have
33:55
Speaker 1: tried since he told me his story to see something
33:59
Speaker 1: of the other world by sitting for a long space
34:02
Speaker 1: in a photographer's dark room at night. I have certainly
34:05
Speaker 1: seen indistinctly the form of greenish slopes and rocks, but only,
34:11
Speaker 1: I must admit, very indistinctly. Indeed, the reader may possibly
34:16
Speaker 1: be more successful. Platner tells me that since his return
34:21
Speaker 1: he has dreamt and seen and recognized places in the
34:25
Speaker 1: other world, but this is probably due to his memory
34:28
Speaker 1: of these scenes. It seems quite possible that people with
34:32
Speaker 1: unusually keen eyesight may occasionally catch a glimpse of this
34:37
Speaker 1: strange other world about us. However, this is a digression.
34:43
Speaker 1: As the green sun rose, a long street of black
34:47
Speaker 1: buildings became perceptible, though only darkly and indistinctly in the gorge,
34:53
Speaker 1: and after some hesitation, Platina began to clamber down the
34:58
Speaker 1: precipitous descent towards s them. The descent was long and
35:02
Speaker 1: exceedingly tedious, being so not only by the extraordinary steepness,
35:08
Speaker 1: but also by reason of the looseness of the boulders
35:11
Speaker 1: with which the whole face of the hill was strewn.
35:14
Speaker 1: The noise of his descent now and then his heels
35:17
Speaker 1: struck fire from the rocks seemed now the only sound
35:22
Speaker 1: in the universe, for the beating of the bell had ceased.
35:26
Speaker 1: As he drew nearer, he perceived that the various edifices
35:30
Speaker 1: had a singular resemblance to tombs and mausoleums and monuments,
35:35
Speaker 1: saving only that they were all uniformly black, instead of
35:39
Speaker 1: being white as most sepulchers are. And then he saw
35:44
Speaker 1: crowding out of the largest building, very much as people
35:47
Speaker 1: dispersed from church, a number of pallid, rounded, pale green figures.
35:53
Speaker 1: These dispersed in several directions about the broad street of
35:57
Speaker 1: the place, some going through some alleys and reappearing upon
36:02
Speaker 1: the steepness of the hill, others entering some of the
36:05
Speaker 1: small black buildings which lined the way. At the sight
36:09
Speaker 1: of these things drifting up towards him, Platinus stopped staring.
36:14
Speaker 1: They were not walking, They were indeed limbless, and they
36:19
Speaker 1: had the appearance of human heads, beneath which a tadpole
36:24
Speaker 1: like body swung. He was too astonished at their strangeness,
36:29
Speaker 1: too full indeed of strangeness, to be seriously alarmed by them.
36:34
Speaker 1: They drove towards him in front of the chill wind
36:37
Speaker 1: that was blowing up hill much as soap bubbles drive
36:41
Speaker 1: before a draft, and as he looked at the nearest
36:45
Speaker 1: of those approaching, he saw it was indeed a human head,
36:50
Speaker 1: albeit with singularly large eyes and wearing such an expression
36:55
Speaker 1: of distress and anguish as he had never seen before
36:59
Speaker 1: a mortal countenance. He was surprised to find that it
37:04
Speaker 1: did not turn to regard him, but seemed to be
37:08
Speaker 1: watching and following some unseen moving thing. For a moment,
37:13
Speaker 1: he was puzzled, and then it occurred to him that
37:15
Speaker 1: this creature was watching with its enormous eyes something that
37:20
Speaker 1: was happening in the world he had just left. Nearer
37:24
Speaker 1: it came and nearer, and he was too astonished to
37:27
Speaker 1: cry out. It made a very faint, fretting sound as
37:32
Speaker 1: it came close to him. Then it struck his face
37:35
Speaker 1: with a gentle pat Its touch was very cold, and
37:39
Speaker 1: drove past him and upward towards the crest of the hill.
37:43
Speaker 1: An extraordinary conviction flashed across Platner's mind that this head
37:49
Speaker 1: had a strong likeness to leg It. Then he turned
37:52
Speaker 1: his attention to the other heads that were now swarming
37:55
Speaker 1: thickly up the hillside. None made the slightest sign of recognition.
38:01
Speaker 1: One or two indeed came close to his head and
38:04
Speaker 1: almost followed the example of the first, but he dodged
38:07
Speaker 1: convulsively out of the way. Upon most of them, he
38:11
Speaker 1: saw the same expression of unavailing regret he had seen
38:15
Speaker 1: upon the first, and heard the same faint sounds of
38:19
Speaker 1: wretchedness from them. One or two wept, and one, rolling
38:23
Speaker 1: swiftly uphill, wore an expression of diabolical rage. But others
38:29
Speaker 1: were cold, and several had a look of gratified interest
38:33
Speaker 1: in their eyes. One at least was almost in an
38:37
Speaker 1: ecstasy of happiness. Platiner does not remember that he recognized
38:42
Speaker 1: any more likenesses in those he saw at this time.
38:47
Speaker 1: For several hours, perhaps Platner watched these strange things dispersing
38:53
Speaker 1: themselves over the hills, and not still long after they
38:57
Speaker 1: had ceased to issue from the clustering black buildings in
39:00
Speaker 1: the gorge, did he resume his downward climb. The darkness
39:04
Speaker 1: about him increased so much that he had a difficulty
39:07
Speaker 1: in stepping through. Overhead, the sky was now a bright,
39:12
Speaker 1: pale green. He felt neither hunger nor thirst. Later, when
39:17
Speaker 1: he did, he found a chilly stream running down the
39:20
Speaker 1: center of the gorge, and the rare moss upon the boulders.
39:24
Speaker 1: When he tried it at last, in desperation, was good
39:27
Speaker 1: to eat. He groped about among the tombs that ran
39:31
Speaker 1: down the gorge, seeking vaguely for some clue to these
39:35
Speaker 1: inexplicable things. After a long time he came to the
39:39
Speaker 1: entrance of the big mausoleum like building from which the
39:43
Speaker 1: heads had issued. In this he found a group of
39:47
Speaker 1: green lights burning upon a kind of basaltic altar, and
39:52
Speaker 1: a bell rope from a belfry overhead hanging down into
39:56
Speaker 1: the center of the place. Round the wall ran a
39:59
Speaker 1: lettering of fire in a character unknown to him. While
40:03
Speaker 1: he was still wondering at the purport of these things,
40:07
Speaker 1: he heard the receding tramp of heavy feet echoing far
40:11
Speaker 1: down the street. He ran out into the darkness again,
40:14
Speaker 1: but he could see nothing. He had a mind to
40:17
Speaker 1: pull the bell rope, and finally decided to follow the footsteps,
40:22
Speaker 1: But although he ran far, he never overtook them, and
40:26
Speaker 1: his shouting was of no avail. The gorge seemed to
40:30
Speaker 1: extend an interminable distance. It was as dark as earthly
40:35
Speaker 1: starlight throughout its length, while the ghastly green day lay
40:40
Speaker 1: along the upper edge of its precipices, there were none
40:44
Speaker 1: of the heads now below. They were all, it seemed,
40:48
Speaker 1: busily occupied along the upper slopes. Looking up, he saw
40:52
Speaker 1: them drifting hither and thither, some hovering stationery, some flying
40:57
Speaker 1: swiftly through the air. It reminded him, he said, of
41:01
Speaker 1: big snowflakes, only these were black and pale green. In
41:07
Speaker 1: pursuing the firm, undeviating footsteps, that he never overtook, in
41:13
Speaker 1: groping into new regions of this endless devil's dyke, in
41:17
Speaker 1: clambering up and down the pitiless heights, in wandering about
41:22
Speaker 1: the summits, and in watching the drifting faces, Platnus states
41:27
Speaker 1: that he spent the better part of seven or eight days.
41:31
Speaker 1: He did not keep count, he says, though once or
41:35
Speaker 1: twice he found eyes watching him. He had word with
41:38
Speaker 1: no living soul. He slept among the rocks on the
41:42
Speaker 1: hillside in the gorge. Things earthly were invisible, because from
41:47
Speaker 1: the earthly standpoint it was far underground on the altitudes.
41:52
Speaker 1: So soon as the earthly day began, the world became
41:56
Speaker 1: visible to him. He found himself sometimes stumbling over the
42:00
Speaker 1: dark green rocks, or arresting himself on a precipitous brink,
42:05
Speaker 1: while all about him the green branches of the Sussexville
42:09
Speaker 1: lanes were swaying. Or again he seemed to be walking
42:14
Speaker 1: through the Sussexville streets, or watching unseen the private business
42:19
Speaker 1: of some household. And then it was he discovered that
42:23
Speaker 1: to almost every human being in our world there pertained
42:27
Speaker 1: some of these drifting heads, that every one in the
42:31
Speaker 1: world is watched intermittently by these helpless disembodiments. What are they,
42:38
Speaker 1: these watchers of the living? Platina never learned, But two
42:43
Speaker 1: that presently found and followed him were like his childhood's
42:47
Speaker 1: memory of his father and mother. Now and then other
42:51
Speaker 1: faces turned their eyes upon him, eyes like those of
42:55
Speaker 1: dead people who had swayed him, or injured him, or
42:59
Speaker 1: helped him in his youth and manhood. Whenever they looked
43:02
Speaker 1: at him, Platner was overcome with a strange sense of
43:06
Speaker 1: responsibility to his mother. He ventured to speak, but she
43:10
Speaker 1: made no answer. She looked sadly, steadfastly, and tenderly, a
43:16
Speaker 1: little reproachfully too, it seemed, into his eyes. He simply
43:23
Speaker 1: tells this story. He does not endeavor to explain. We
43:27
Speaker 1: are left to surmise who these watchers of the living
43:30
Speaker 1: may be, or, if they are indeed the dead, why
43:34
Speaker 1: they should so closely and passionately watch a world they
43:39
Speaker 1: have left forever It may be. Indeed, to my mind,
43:42
Speaker 1: it seems just that when our life has closed, when
43:47
Speaker 1: evil or good is no longer a choice for us,
43:51
Speaker 1: we may still have to witness the working out of
43:54
Speaker 1: the train of consequences we have laid. If human souls
43:59
Speaker 1: continue after death, then surely human interests continue after death.
44:05
Speaker 1: But that is merely my own guess at the meaning
44:08
Speaker 1: of the things seen. Platner offers no interpretation, for none
44:13
Speaker 1: was given him. It is well the reader should understand
44:17
Speaker 1: this clearly. Day after day, with his head reeling, he
44:22
Speaker 1: wandered about this strange lit world outside the world, weary
44:28
Speaker 1: and towards the end, weak and hungry by day, by
44:33
Speaker 1: our earthly day, that is, the ghostly vision of the old,
44:37
Speaker 1: familiar scenery of Sussexville all about him, irked and worried him.
44:43
Speaker 1: He could not see where to put his feet, and
44:46
Speaker 1: ever and again, with a chilly touch, one of these
44:49
Speaker 1: watching souls would come against his face, and after dark
44:54
Speaker 1: the multitude of those watchers about him, and their intent
44:58
Speaker 1: distress confused his mind, and beyond describing, a great longing
45:03
Speaker 1: to return to the earthly life that was so near
45:06
Speaker 1: and yet so remote, consumed him. The unearthliness of things
45:11
Speaker 1: about him produced a positively painful mental distress. He was
45:15
Speaker 1: worried beyond describing by his own particular followers. He would
45:21
Speaker 1: shout at them to desist from staring at him, scold
45:24
Speaker 1: at them, hurry away from them. They were always mute
45:28
Speaker 1: and intent. Run as he might over the uneven ground,
45:32
Speaker 1: they followed his destinies. On the ninth day, towards evening,
45:38
Speaker 1: Platna heard the invisible footsteps approaching far away down the gorge.
45:43
Speaker 1: He was then wandering over the broad crest of the
45:45
Speaker 1: same hill upon which he had fallen in his entry
45:49
Speaker 1: into this strange other world of his. He turned to
45:53
Speaker 1: hurry down into the gorge, feeling his way hastily, and
45:56
Speaker 1: was arrested by the sight of the thing that was
45:59
Speaker 1: happening in a room in a back street near the school.
46:03
Speaker 1: Both of the people in the room he knew by sight.
46:07
Speaker 1: The windows were open, the blinds up, and the setting
46:10
Speaker 1: sun shone clearly into it so that it came out
46:13
Speaker 1: quite brightly at first, a vivid oblong of room, lying
46:18
Speaker 1: like a magic lantern picture upon the black landscape and
46:22
Speaker 1: the vivid green dawn. In addition to the sunlight, a
46:26
Speaker 1: candle had just been lit in the room. On the
46:29
Speaker 1: bed lay a lank man, his ghastly white face terrible,
46:33
Speaker 1: upon the tumbled pillow. His clenched hands were raised above
46:37
Speaker 1: his head. A little table beside the bed carried a
46:41
Speaker 1: few medicine bottles, some toast and water, and an empty glass.
46:45
Speaker 1: Every now and then the lank man's lips fell apart
46:49
Speaker 1: to indicate a word he could not articulate, But the
46:53
Speaker 1: woman did not notice that he wanted anything, because she
46:57
Speaker 1: was busy turning out papers from an old fashioned bureau
47:00
Speaker 1: in the opposite corner of the room. At first the
47:03
Speaker 1: picture was very vivid, indeed, but as the green dawn
47:07
Speaker 1: behind it grew brighter and brighter, so it became fainter
47:12
Speaker 1: and more transparent. As the echoing footsteps paced nearer and nearer,
47:18
Speaker 1: those footsteps that sound so loud in that other world
47:22
Speaker 1: and come so silently in this Platna perceived about him
47:26
Speaker 1: a great multitude of dim faces gathering together out of
47:30
Speaker 1: the darkness, and watching the two people in the room.
47:34
Speaker 1: Never before had he seen so many of the watchers
47:37
Speaker 1: of the living. A multitude had eyes only for the
47:40
Speaker 1: sufferer in the room. Another multitude, in infinite anguish, watched
47:46
Speaker 1: the woman as she hunted with greedy eyes for something
47:50
Speaker 1: she could not find. They crowded about Platner, They came
47:54
Speaker 1: across his sight and buffeted his face. The noise of
47:57
Speaker 1: their unavailing regrets was all all about him, he saw clearly,
48:01
Speaker 1: only now and then at other times the picture quivered
48:05
Speaker 1: dimly through the veil of green reflections upon their movements
48:10
Speaker 1: in the room. It must have been very still, and
48:13
Speaker 1: Platna says, the candle flame streamed up into a perfect
48:17
Speaker 1: vertical line of smoke. But in his ears, each footfall
48:22
Speaker 1: and its echoes beat like a clap of thunder. And
48:25
Speaker 1: the faces two more, particularly near the woman's one, a
48:30
Speaker 1: woman's also white and clear, featured a face which might
48:34
Speaker 1: have once been cold and hard, but which was now
48:38
Speaker 1: softened by the touch of a wisdom strange to earth.
48:42
Speaker 1: The other might have been the woman's father. Both were
48:46
Speaker 1: evidently absorbed in the contemplation of some act of hateful meanness,
48:51
Speaker 1: so it seemed, which they could no longer guard against
48:55
Speaker 1: and prevent. Behind were others, teachers, it maybe, who he
49:00
Speaker 1: had taught ill, friends whose influence had failed. And over
49:04
Speaker 1: the man too, a multitude, but none that seemed to
49:08
Speaker 1: be parents or teachers. Faces that might once have been coarse,
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Speaker 1: now purged to strength by sorrow. And in the forefront
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Speaker 1: one face, a girlish one, neither angry nor remorseful, but
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Speaker 1: merely patient and weary. And as it seemed to Platner
49:28
Speaker 1: waiting for relief, his powers of description fail him at
49:33
Speaker 1: the memory of this multitude of ghastly countenances. They gathered
49:38
Speaker 1: on the stroke of the bell. He saw them all
49:40
Speaker 1: in the space of a second. It would seem that
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Speaker 1: he was so worked on by his excitement that quite involuntarily,
49:48
Speaker 1: his restless fingers took the bottle of green powder out
49:52
Speaker 1: of his pocket and held it before him. But he
49:55
Speaker 1: does not remember that abruptly the footsteps. See he waited
50:01
Speaker 1: for the next and there was silence, And then suddenly,
50:05
Speaker 1: cutting through the unexpected stillness like a keen, thin blade,
50:10
Speaker 1: came the first stroke of the bell. At that the
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Speaker 1: multitudinous faces swayed to and fro, and a louder crying
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Speaker 1: began all about him. The woman did not hear. She
50:22
Speaker 1: was burning something now in the candle flame. At the
50:25
Speaker 1: second stroke, everything grew dim, and a breath of wind,
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Speaker 1: icy cold, blew through the host of watchers. They swirled
50:33
Speaker 1: about him like an eddy of dead leaves in the spring.
50:37
Speaker 1: And at the third stroke something was extended through them
50:40
Speaker 1: to the bed. You have heard of a beam of light.
50:44
Speaker 1: This was like a beam of darkness. And looking again
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Speaker 1: at it, Platna saw that it was a shadowy arm
50:52
Speaker 1: and hand. The green sun was now topping the black
50:55
Speaker 1: desolations of the horizon, and the vision of the room
50:59
Speaker 1: was very faint. Platna could see that the white of
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Speaker 1: the bed struggled and was convulsed, and that the woman
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Speaker 1: looked round over her shoulder at it startled. The cloud
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Speaker 1: of watchers lifted high, like a puff of green dust
51:15
Speaker 1: before the wind, and swept swiftly downwards towards the temple
51:19
Speaker 1: in the gorge. Then suddenly Platna understood the meaning of
51:23
Speaker 1: the shadowy black arm that stretched across his shoulder and
51:27
Speaker 1: clutched its prey. He did not dare turn his head
51:31
Speaker 1: to see the shadow behind the arm. With a violent effort,
51:37
Speaker 1: and covering his eyes, he set himself to run, made
51:40
Speaker 1: perhaps twenty strides, then slipped on a boulder and fell.
51:45
Speaker 1: He fell forward on his hands, and the bottle smashed
51:49
Speaker 1: and exploded as he touched the ground. In another moment,
51:53
Speaker 1: he found himself stunned and bleeding, sitting face to face
51:58
Speaker 1: with Legit in the old walled garden behind the school.
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Speaker 1: There the story of Platina's experiences ends. I have resisted,
52:10
Speaker 1: I believe, successfully, the natural disposition of a writer of
52:13
Speaker 1: fiction to dress up incidents of this sort. I have
52:17
Speaker 1: told the thing as far as possible, in the order
52:20
Speaker 1: in which Platner told it to me. I have carefully
52:24
Speaker 1: avoided any attempt at style, effect or construction. It would
52:29
Speaker 1: have been easy, for instance, to have worked the scene
52:32
Speaker 1: of the deathbed into a kind of plot in which
52:36
Speaker 1: Platina might have been involved. But apart from the objectionableness
52:41
Speaker 1: of falsifying a most extraordinary true story, any such trite
52:47
Speaker 1: devices would spoil to my mind the peculiar effect of
52:52
Speaker 1: this dark world, with its livid green illumination and its
52:57
Speaker 1: drifting watchers of the living, which unseen and unapproachable to us,
53:03
Speaker 1: is yet lying all about us. It remains to add
53:08
Speaker 1: that a death did actually occur in Vincent Terrace, just
53:13
Speaker 1: beyond the school garden, and so far as can be proved,
53:17
Speaker 1: at the moment of Platner's return. Deceased was a rate
53:21
Speaker 1: collector and insurance agent. His widow, who was much younger
53:26
Speaker 1: than himself, married last month a mister Whimper, a veterinary
53:31
Speaker 1: surgeon of all bleeding. As the portion of this story
53:34
Speaker 1: given here has in various forms circulated orally in Sussexville,
53:40
Speaker 1: she has consented to my use of her name on
53:43
Speaker 1: condition that I make it distinctly known that she emphatically
53:48
Speaker 1: contradicts every detail of Platner's account of her husband's last moments.
53:54
Speaker 1: She burnt no will, she says, although Platner never accused
53:59
Speaker 1: her of doing so. Her husband made but one will,
54:03
Speaker 1: and that just after their marriage, certainly from a man
54:07
Speaker 1: who had never seen it. Platner's account of the furniture
54:11
Speaker 1: of the room was curiously accurate. One other thing, even
54:16
Speaker 1: at the risk of an irksome repetition, I must insist
54:20
Speaker 1: upon lest I seem to favor the credulous, superstitious view,
54:25
Speaker 1: Platner's absence from the world for nine days is I
54:29
Speaker 1: think proved, but that does not prove his story. It
54:34
Speaker 1: is quite conceivable that even outside space, hallucinations may be possible,
54:40
Speaker 1: that at least the reader must bear distinctly in mind.
54:46
Speaker 1: End of Section fifteen.