Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 1 - Insomnia

Transcript

The Sleeper Awakes Chapter 1 - Insomnia · The H. G. Wells Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter one of The Sleeper Awakes. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: by Tim Perkins. The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells Insomnia.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: One afternoon at low Water, Mister Isbister, a young artist
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: lodging at Boscast, walked from that place to the picturesque
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: cove of Pentargon, desiring to examine the caves there. Half
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Way down the precipitous path to the Pentargon beach, he
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: came suddenly upon a man sitting in an attitude of
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: profound distress beneath a projecting mass of rock. The hands
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: of this man hung limply over his knees. His eyes
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: were red and staring before him, and his face was
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: wet with tears. He glanced round at Isbister's footfall. Both
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: men were disconcerted, Isbister the more so, and to override
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the awkwardness of his involuntary pause, he remarked, with an
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: air of mature conviction, that the weather was hot for
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the time of year. Very answered the stranger, shortly, hesitated
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: a second and added in a colorless tone. I can't sleep,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Isbister stopped abruptly. No was all he said, but his
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: bearing conveyed his helpful impulse. It may sound incredible, said
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: the stranger, turning weary eyes to Isbister's face and emphasizing
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: his words with a languid hand. But I have had
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: no sleep, no sleep at all, for six nights. Had advice, yes,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: bad advice for the most part, drugs my nervous system.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: They're all very well for the run of people. It's
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: hard to explain. I dare not take sufficiently powerful drugs.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: That makes it difficult, said Isbuster. He stood helplessly in
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the narrow path, perplexed what to do. Clearly the man
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: wanted to talk. An idea natural enough under the circumstances
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: prompted him to keep the conversation going. I have never
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: suffered from sleeplessness myself, he said, in a tone of
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: commonplace gossip. But in those cases I have known, people
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: have usually found something. I dare make no experiments, he
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: spoke wearily. He gave a gesture of rejection, and for
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: a space both men were silent. Exercise suggested Isbister, diffidently,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: with a glance from his Interlocktor's face of wretchedness to
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the toring costume. He wore, that is what I have tried. Unwisely.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Perhaps I have followed the coast day after day from
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: New Quay. It has only added muscular fatigue to the mental.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: The cause of this unrest was overwork, trouble. There was something.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: He stopped this from sheer fatigue. He rubbed his forehead
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: with a lean hand. He resumed speech like one who
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: talks to himself. I am a lone wolf, a solitary man,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: wandering through a world in which I have no part.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I am wifeless, childless. Who is it speaks of the
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: childless as the dead twigs on the tree of life.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I am wifeless, childless. I could find no duty to do,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: no desire even in my heart. One thing, at last
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I set myself to do. I said, I will do this,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: and to do it to overcome the inertia of this
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: dull body. I resorted to drugs. Great God, I've had
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: enough of drugs. I don't know if you feel the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: heavy inconvenience of the body. It's exasperating demand of time
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: from the mind. Time, life live. We only live in patches.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: We have to eat, and then comes the dull, digestive
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: complacencies or irritations. We have to take the air, or
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: else our thoughts grow sluggish, stupid, run into gulfs and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: blind alleys. A thousand distractions arise from within and without,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and then comes drowsiness and sleep. Men seem to live
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: for sleep. How little of a man's day is his own,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: even at the best. And then come those false friends,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: those thug helpers, the alkaloids that stiffle natural fatigue and
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: kill rest. Black coffee cocaine, I see, said is mister.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: I did my work, said the sleepless man, with a
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: quarrelous iantation, And this is the price, Yes, for a
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: little while the two remained without speaking. You cannot imagine
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: the craving for rest that I feel, a hunger and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: a thirst. For six long days since my work done,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: my mind has been a whirlpool, swift, unprogressive and incessant,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: a torrent of thoughts leading nowhere, spinning round, swift and steady.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: He paused towards the gulf. You must sleep, said Isbistras, decisively,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and with an air of remedy discovered, certainly, you must sleep.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: My mind is perfectly lucid. It was never clearer. But
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I know I am drawing towards the vortex presently. Yes,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: you have seen things go down and eddy out of
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the light of the day, out of the sweet world
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: of sanity. Down, but expostulated, isbister. The man threw out
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: a hand towards him, and his eyes were wild, and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: his voice suddenly high. I shall kill myself if in
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: no other way. At the foot of yonder, dark persips
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: there there where the waves are green, and the white
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: serge lifts and falls, and that little thread of water
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: trembles down there. At any rate is sleep. That's unreasonable,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: said Isbister, startled at the man's hysterical gust of emotion.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Drugs are better than that. There, at any rate is sleep,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: repeated the stranger, not heeding him, Isbister, looked at him.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: It's not asert, you know, he remarked. There's a cliff
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: like that at Lulworth Cove, as high anyhow, and a
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: little girl fell from the top to the bottom and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: lives today, sound and well. But those rocks there, one
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: might lie on them rather dismally through a cold night,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: broken bones grating as one shivered, chill water splashing over you. Eh,
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: their eyes met, Sorry to upset your ideals, said Isbister,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: with a sense of devilish may caish brilliance, but a
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: suicide over that cliff, or any cliff for the matter
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: of that. Really, as an artist, he laughed, it's so
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: damn amateurish. But the other thing, said the sleepless man, irritably.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: The other thing, no man can keep sane. If night
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: after night have you been walking along this coast alone? Yes,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: silly sort of thing to do. If you'll excuse my
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: saying so alone as you say, body fag is no
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: cure for brain fag who told you to no wonder walking?
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: And the sun on your head heat fag solitude all
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the day long. And then I suppose you go to
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: bed and try very hard, eh Isbister stopped short and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: looked at the sufferer doubtfully. Look at those rocks, cried
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the seated man, with a sudden force of gesture. Look
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: at that sea that has shone and quivered there forever,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: see the white spume rush into the darkness under that
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: great cliff, and this blue vault with the blinding sun
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: pouring from the dome of it. It is your world.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: You accept it, you rejoice in it. It warms and
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: supports and delights you, and for me. He turned his
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: head and showed a ghastly face, blood shot, pallid eyes,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: and bloodless lips. He spoke, almost in a whisper. It
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: is the garment of my misery. The whole world is
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the garment of my misery. Isbister looked at all the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: wild beauty from the sunlit cliffs about them, and back
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: to that face of despair. For a moment he was silent.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: He started and made a gesture of impatient rejection. You
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: get a night's sleep, he said, and you won't see
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: much misery out here. Take my word for it. He
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: was quite sure now that this was a providential encounter.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Only half an hour ago he had been feeling horribly bored.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Here was employment, the bare thought of which was righteous
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: self applause. He took possession forthwith the first need of
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: this exhaust being was companionship. He flung himself down to
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the steeply sloping turf beside the motionless, seated figure and
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: threw out a skirmishing line of gossip. His hearer lapsed
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: into apathy. He started dismally seaward, and spoke only in
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: answer to Isbister's direct questions, and not to all of those.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: But he made no objection to this benevolent intrusion. Upon
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: his despair, he seemed even grateful, And when presently Isbister,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: feeling that his unsupported talk was losing vigor, suggested that
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: they should reascend the steep and return towards boss Castle,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: alleging the view into blackapit, he submitted. Quietly. Half way up,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: he began talking to himself and abruptly turned a ghastly
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: face on his helper. What can be happening? He asked,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: with a gaunt, illustrative hand, what can be happening? Spin? Spin, spin, spin,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: It goes round and round, round and round forevermore. He
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: stood with his his hands circling. It's all right, old chap,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: said Isbister, with the air of an old friend. Don't
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: worry yourself. Trust to me. The man dropped his hand
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and turned again. They went over the brow into the
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: headland beyond Penalty, with the sleepless man gesticulating ever and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: again and speaking fragmentary things concerning his whirling brain. At
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the headland, they stood by the seat that looks into
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the dark mysteries of black a pit, and then he
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: sat down. Isbister had resumed his talk whenever the path
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: had widened sufficiently for them to walk abreast. He was
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: enlarging upon the complex difficulty of making Bosscastle harbor in
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: bad weather, when suddenly, and quite irrelevantly, his companion interrupted
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: him again. My head is not like what it was,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: he said, gesticulating for want of expressive phrases. It's not
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: like what it was. There's a sort of oppression. Await, No,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: not drowsiness, would god it were. It's like a shadow,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: a deep shadow, falling suddenly and swiftly across something busy,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: spin spin into the darkness, the tumult of thought, the
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: confusion that Eddie and Eddie. I can't express it. I
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: can hardly keep my mind on it steadily enough to
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: tell you. He stopped feebly. Don't trouble, old Chap, said Isbister.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I think I can understand at any rate. It don't
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: matter very much, just at present about telling me, you know.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: The sleepless man thrust his knuckles into his eyes and
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: rubbed them. Isbister talked for a while while this rubbing continued,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: and then he had a fresh idea. Come down to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: my room, he said, and try a pipe. I can
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: show you some sketches of this black a pit if
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: you'd care. The other rose obediently and followed him down
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: the steep several times. Isbister heard him stumble as they
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: came down, and his movements were slow and hesitating. Come
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: in with me, said Isbister, and try some cigarettes and
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the blessed gift of alcohol. If you take alcohol, The
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: stranger hesitated at the garden gate. He seemed no longer
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: aware of his actions. I don't drink, he said, slowly,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: coming up the garden path, and after a moment's interval,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: repeated absently, No, I don't drink. It goes round, spin,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: it goes spin. He stumbled at the doorstep and entered
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the room with the bearing of one who sees nothing.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Then he sat down heavily in the easy chair, seemed
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: almost to fall into it. He leant forward with his
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: brows and his hands and became motionless. Presently he made
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: a faint sound in his throat. Gbuster moved about the
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: room with the nervousness of an inexperienced host, making little
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: remarks that scarcely required answering. He crossed the room to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: his portfolio, placed it on the table, and noticed the
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: man clock. I don't know if you'd care to have
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: a supper with me, he said, with an unlighted cigarette
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: in his hand, his mind troubled with ideas of a
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: furative administration of chloral. Only cold mutton, you know, but
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: passing sweet Welsh and a tart I believe. He repeated
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: this after a momentary silence. The seated man made no answer.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Isbister stopped, match in hand, regarding him. The stillness lengthened,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the match went out, The cigarette was put down, unlit.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: The man was certainly very still. Isbister took up the portfolio,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: opened it, put it down, hesitated, seemed about to speak,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Perhaps he whispered doubtfully. Presently. He glanced at the door
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: and back to the figure. Then he stole on tiptoe
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: out of the room, glancing at his companion. After each
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: elaborate pace. He closed the door noiselessly. The house door
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: was standing open, and he went out beyond the porch
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: and stood where the monk should rose, at the corner
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: of the garden bed. From this point he could see
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the stranger through the open window, still and dim, sitting
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: head on hand. He had not moved. A number of
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: children going along the road stopped and regarded the artist curiously.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: A boatman exchanged civilties with him. He felt that possibly
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: his circumspect attitude and position looked peculiar and unaccountable. Smoking
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: perhaps might seem more natural. He drew the pipe and
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: pouched from his pocket, filled the pipe slowly. I wonder,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: he said, with a scarcely perceptible loss of complacency. At
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: any rate, one must give him a chance. He struck
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: a match in the viral way and proceeded to light
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: his pipe. He heard his landlady behind him, coming with
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: his lamp lit from the kitchen. He turned, gesticulating with
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: his pipe, and stopped her at the door of his
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: sitting room. He had some difficulty in explaining the situation
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: and whispers, for she did not know he had a visitor.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: She retreated again, with the lamp still A little mystified
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the judge from her manner, and he resumed a sovereign
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: at the corner of the porch, flushed and less at
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: his ease. Long after he had smoked out his pipe,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and when the bats were abroad. Curiosity dominated his complex hesitations,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: and he stole back into his darkling sitting room. He
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: paused in the doorway. The stranger was still in the
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: same attitude, dark against the window. Save for the singing
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: of some sailors aboard one of the little slate carrying
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: ships in the harbor, the evening was very still outside.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: The spikes of Monkshud and Delphinin stood erect and motionless
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: against the shadow of the hillside. Something flashed into isbister's mind.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: He started, and, leaning over the table, listened. An unpleasant
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: suspicion grew stronger, became conviction. Astonishment seized him and became dread.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: No sound of breathing came from the seated figure. He
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: crept slowly and noiselessly around the table, pausing twice to listen.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: At last he could lay his hand on the back
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: of the arm chair. He bent down until the two
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: heads were ear to ear. Then he bent still lower
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: to look up at his visitor's face. He started violently
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: and uttered an exclamation. The eyes were void spaces of white.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: He looked again and saw that they were open, and
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: with the pupils rolled under the lids. He was afraid.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: He took the man by the shoulder and shook him.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Are you asleep, he said, with his voice jumping, and again,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: are you asleep? A conviction took possession of his mind
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: that this man was dead. He became active and noisy.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Strode across the room, blundering against the table as he
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: did so, and rang the bell. Please bring a light
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: at once, he said in the passage there was something
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: wrong with my friend. He returned to the motionless seated figure,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: grasped the shoulder, shook it, shouted. The room was flooded
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: with yellow glare. As his landlady entered with the light.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: His face was white as he turned, blinking towards her.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I must go fetch a doctor, he said. It is
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: either death or a fit. Is there a doctor in
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the village? Where is a doctor to be found? End
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: of chapter one. Recording by Tim Perkins of sure Land, Texas.