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43 - Beetle by Richard Marsh · Beetle

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  Speaker 1: The Beadle by Richard Marsh Chapter forty three, The Murder
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: at missus Enderson's. It is something of a drive from
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  Speaker 1: Waterloo to Limehouse. It seems longer when all your nerves
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  Speaker 1: are tingling with anxiety to reach your journey's end, And
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  Speaker 1: the cab I had hit upon proved to be not
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  Speaker 1: the fastest I might have chosen. For some time after
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  Speaker 1: our start, we were silent, each was occupied with his
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  Speaker 1: own thoughts. Then Lessingham, who was sitting at my side,
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  Speaker 1: said to me, mister champnow you have that report I have.
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  Speaker 1: Will you let me see it once more? I gave
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  Speaker 1: it to him. He read it once twice, and I
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  Speaker 1: fancy yet again. I purposely avoided looking at him as
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  Speaker 1: he did so, Yet all the while I was conscious
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  Speaker 1: of his pallid cheeks, the twitched muscles of his mouth,
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  Speaker 1: the feverish glitter of his eyes. This leader of men,
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  Speaker 1: whose predominant characteristic in the House of Commons was immobility,
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  Speaker 1: was rapidly approximating the condition of a hysterical woman. The
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  Speaker 1: mental strain which he had been recently undergoing, was proving
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  Speaker 1: too much for his physical strength. This disappearance of the
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  Speaker 1: woman he loved bade Fair to be the final straw.
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  Speaker 1: I felt convinced that unless something was done quickly to
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  Speaker 1: relieve the strain upon his mind, he was nearer to
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  Speaker 1: a state of complete mental and moral collapse than he
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  Speaker 1: himself imagined. Had he been under my orders, I should
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  Speaker 1: have commanded him to at once return home and not
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  Speaker 1: to think. But conscious that as things were, such a
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  Speaker 1: direction would be simply futile, I decided to do something
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  Speaker 1: else instead. Feeling that suspense was for him the worst
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  Speaker 1: possible form of suffering, I resolved to explain, so far
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  Speaker 1: as I was able, precisely, what it was I feared,
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  Speaker 1: and how I proposed to prevent it. Presently, there came
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  Speaker 1: the question for which I had been waiting, in a harsh,
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  Speaker 1: broken voice, which no one who had heard him speak
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  Speaker 1: on a public platform or in the House of Commons
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  Speaker 1: would have recognized as is his, mister Chapnell, who do
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  Speaker 1: you think this person is? Of whom the report from
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  Speaker 1: Vauxhall Station speaks as being all in rags and tatters?
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  Speaker 1: He knew perfectly well, but I understood the mental attitude
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  Speaker 1: which induced him to prefer that the information should seem
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  Speaker 1: to come from me. I hope that it will prove
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  Speaker 1: to be Miss Lindon. Hope. He gave a sort of gasp, Yes, hope,
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  Speaker 1: because if it is, I think it possible, nay probable,
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  Speaker 1: that within a few hours you will have her again
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  Speaker 1: enfolded in your arms. Pray God that it may be so.
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  Speaker 1: Pray God, Pray the Good God. I did not dare
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  Speaker 1: to look round, for from the tremor which was in
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  Speaker 1: his tone, I was persuaded that in the speaker's eyes
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  Speaker 1: were tears. Atherton continued silent. He was leaning half out
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  Speaker 1: of the cab, staring straight ahead, as if he saw
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  Speaker 1: in front of a young girl's face from which he
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  Speaker 1: could not remove his glance, and which beckoned him on.
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  Speaker 1: After a while, Lessingham spoke again, as if half to
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  Speaker 1: himself and half to me. This mention of the shrieks
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  Speaker 1: on the railway and of the wailing noise in the cab,
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  Speaker 1: What must this wretch have done to her? How my
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  Speaker 1: darling must have suffered? That was a theme on which
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  Speaker 1: I myself scarcely ventured to allow my thoughts to rest.
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  Speaker 1: The notion of a gently nurtured girl being at the
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  Speaker 1: mercy of that fiend incarnate possessed as I believe that
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  Speaker 1: so called Arab to be possessed of all the paraphernality
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  Speaker 1: of horror and of dread, was one which caused me
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  Speaker 1: tangible shrinkings of the body. Once had come those shrieks
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  Speaker 1: and yells of which the writer of the report spoke,
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  Speaker 1: which had caused the Arab's fellow passengers to think that
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  Speaker 1: murder was being done. What unimaginable agony had caused them?
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  Speaker 1: What speechless torture and the wailing noise which had induced
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  Speaker 1: the prosaic injuryate London cabman to get twice off his
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  Speaker 1: box to see what was the matter? What anguish had
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  Speaker 1: been provocative of that the helpless girl, who had already
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  Speaker 1: endured so much, endured perhaps that to which death would
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  Speaker 1: have been preferred, shut up in that rattling, jolting box
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  Speaker 1: and wheels alone with that diabolical asiatic, with the enormous bundle,
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  Speaker 1: which was but the lurking place of nameless terrors. What
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  Speaker 1: might she, not, while being borne through the heart of
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  Speaker 1: civilized London, have been made to suffer? What had she
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  Speaker 1: not been made to suffer? To have kept up that
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  Speaker 1: continued wailing noise? It was not a theme on which
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  Speaker 1: it was wise to permit one's thoughts to linger, and
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  Speaker 1: particularly was it clear that it was one from which
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  Speaker 1: Lessingham's thoughts should have been kept as far as possible. Away, come,
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  Speaker 1: mister Lessingham. Neither you nor I will do himself any
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  Speaker 1: good by permitting his reflections to flow in a morbid channel.
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  Speaker 1: Let us talk of something else. By the way, weren't
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  Speaker 1: you due to speak in the house to night? Do? Yes?
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  Speaker 1: I was due? But what does it matter? But you
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  Speaker 1: have acquainted no one with the cause of your non attendants,
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  Speaker 1: a quaint whom should I acquaint my good sir? Listen
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  Speaker 1: to me, mister Lessingham. Let me entreat you very earnestly
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  Speaker 1: to followed my advice, call another cab or take this
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  Speaker 1: and go at once to the house. It is not
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  Speaker 1: too late. Play the man, deliver the speech you have
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  Speaker 1: undertaken to deliver, perform your political duties. By coming with me,
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  Speaker 1: you will be a hindrance rather than a help, and
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  Speaker 1: you may do your reputation an injury from which it
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  Speaker 1: never may recover. Do as I counsel you, and I
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  Speaker 1: will undertake to do my very utmost to let you
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  Speaker 1: have good news. By the time your speech is finished.
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  Speaker 1: He turned on me with a bitterness for which I
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  Speaker 1: was unprepared. If I were to go down to the
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  Speaker 1: house and try to speak in the state in which
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  Speaker 1: I am now, they would laugh at me. I should
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  Speaker 1: be ruined. Do you not run an equally great risk
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  Speaker 1: of being ruined by staying away? He gripped me by
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  Speaker 1: the arm. Mister Champnell, do you know that I am
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  Speaker 1: on the verge of madness? Do you know that as
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  Speaker 1: I am sitting here by your side, I am living
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  Speaker 1: in a duel world. I am going on and on
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  Speaker 1: to catch that that fiend, and I am back again
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  Speaker 1: in that Egyptian den, upon that couch of Ruggs, with
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  Speaker 1: the woman of the songs beside me, and Marjorie is
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  Speaker 1: being torn and tortured and burnt before my eyes, God
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  Speaker 1: help me. Her shrieks are ringing in my ears. He
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  Speaker 1: did not speak loudly, but his voice was none the
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  Speaker 1: less impressive. On that account, I endeavored my hardest to
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  Speaker 1: be stern. I confess that you disappoint me, mister Lessingham.
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  Speaker 1: I have always understood that you were a man of
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  Speaker 1: unusual strength. You appear instead to be a man of
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary weakness, with an imagination so ill governed that its
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  Speaker 1: ebullitions remind me of nothing so much as feminine hysterics.
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  Speaker 1: Your wild language is not wanted by circumstances. I repeat that,
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  Speaker 1: I think it quite possible that by tomorrow morning she
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  Speaker 1: will be returned to you. Yes, but how as the
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  Speaker 1: Marjorie I have known as I saw her last? Or
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  Speaker 1: how that was the question which I had already asked myself,
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  Speaker 1: in what condition would she be when we had succeeded
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  Speaker 1: in snatching her from her captor's grip? It was a
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  Speaker 1: question to which I had refused to supply an answer.
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  Speaker 1: To him, I lied by implication. Let us hope that,
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  Speaker 1: with the exception of being a trifle scared, she will
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  Speaker 1: be as sound and hale and hearty as ever in
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  Speaker 1: her life. Do you yourself believe that she'll be like that, untouched, unchanged, unstained?
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  Speaker 1: Then I lied right out. It seemed to me necessary
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  Speaker 1: to calm his growing excitement. I do you don't, mister Lessingham.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that I can't see your face and
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  Speaker 1: read it in the same thoughts which trouble me as
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  Speaker 1: a man of honor? Do you care to deny that
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  Speaker 1: when Marjorie Lindon is restored to me. If she ever is,
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  Speaker 1: you fear she will be but the mere, soiled husk
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  Speaker 1: of the Marjorie whom I knew and loved. Even supposing
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  Speaker 1: that there may be a modicum of truth in what
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  Speaker 1: you say, which I am far from being disposed to admit,
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  Speaker 1: what good peristy you propose to serve by talking in
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  Speaker 1: such a strain, None, no good purpose, unless it be
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  Speaker 1: the desire of looking the truth in the face. For
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  Speaker 1: mister chapnow you must not seek to play with me
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  Speaker 1: the hypocrite, nor try to hide things from me as
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  Speaker 1: if I were a child. If my life is ruined,
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  Speaker 1: it is ruined, Let me know it, and look the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge in the face that to me is to play
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  Speaker 1: the man. I was silent the wild tale he told
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  Speaker 1: me of that Cairene inferno. Oddly enough, yet why oddly,
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  Speaker 1: for the world is at all Coincidence had thrown a
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  Speaker 1: flood of light on certain events which had happened some
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  Speaker 1: three years previously, and which ever since had remained shrouded
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  Speaker 1: in mystery. The conduct of the business afterwards came into
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  Speaker 1: my hands, And briefly what had occurred was this three persons,
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  Speaker 1: two sisters, and their brother, who was younger than themselves,
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  Speaker 1: members of a decent English family, were going on a
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  Speaker 1: trip round the world. They were young, adventurous, and, not
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  Speaker 1: to put too fine a point on it, foolhardy. The
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  Speaker 1: evening after their arrival in Cairo, by way of what
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  Speaker 1: is called a lark, in spite of the protestations of
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  Speaker 1: people who were better informed than themselves, they insisted on
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  Speaker 1: going alone for ramble through the native quarter. They went,
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  Speaker 1: but they never returned, or rather, the two girls never returned.
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  Speaker 1: After an interval, the young man was found again what
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  Speaker 1: was left of him. A fuss was made when there
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  Speaker 1: were no signs of their reappearance, But as there were
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  Speaker 1: no relations nor even friends of theirs, but only casual
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  Speaker 1: acquaintances on board the ship by which they had traveled,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps not so great a fuss as might have been
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  Speaker 1: was made. Anyhow, nothing was discovered. Their widowed mother alone
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  Speaker 1: in England, wondering how it was that, beyond the receipt
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  Speaker 1: of a brief wire acquainting her with their arrival at Cairo,
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  Speaker 1: she had heard nothing further of their wanderings, placed herself
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  Speaker 1: in communication with the diplomatic people over there to learn
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  Speaker 1: that to all appearances, her three children had vanished from
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  Speaker 1: off the face of the earth. Then a fuss was
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  Speaker 1: made with a vengeance. So far as one can judge,
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  Speaker 1: the whole town or neighborhood was turned pretty well upside down,
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  Speaker 1: but nothing came of it so far as any results
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  Speaker 1: were concerned. The authorities might just as well have left
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  Speaker 1: the mystery of their vanishment alone. It continued where it
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  Speaker 1: was in spite of them. However, some three months afterwards,
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  Speaker 1: a youth was brought to the British embassy by a
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  Speaker 1: party of friendly Arabs, who asserted that they had found
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  Speaker 1: him naked and nearly dying in some remote spot in
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  Speaker 1: the weighty Haifa Desert. It was the brother of the
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  Speaker 1: two lost girls. He was as nearly dying as he
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  Speaker 1: was very well could be without being actually dead when
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  Speaker 1: they brought him to the embassy, and in a state
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  Speaker 1: of indescribable mutilation. He seemed to rally for a time
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  Speaker 1: under careful treatment, but he never again uttered a coherent word.
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  Speaker 1: It was only from his delirious ravings that any idea
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  Speaker 1: was formed of what really occurred. Shorthand notes were taken
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  Speaker 1: of some of the utterances of his delirium. Afterwards, they
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  Speaker 1: were submitted to me. I remembered the substance of them
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  Speaker 1: quite well, and when mister Lessingham began to tell me
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  Speaker 1: his own hideous experiences, they came back to me more clearly. Still,
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  Speaker 1: had I laid those notes before him, I have little
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  Speaker 1: doubt but that he would have immediately perceived that, seventeen
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  Speaker 1: years after the adventure which had left such an indelible
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  Speaker 1: scar upon his own life, this youth, he was little
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  Speaker 1: more than a boy, had seen the things which he
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  Speaker 1: had seen, and suffered the nameless agonies and degradations which
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  Speaker 1: he had suffered. The young man was perpetually raving about
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  Speaker 1: some indescribable den of horror which was own brother to
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  Speaker 1: Lessingham's temple, and about some female monster, whom he regarded
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  Speaker 1: with such fear and horror that every allusion made to
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  Speaker 1: her was followed by a convulsive paroxysm, which taxed all
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  Speaker 1: the ingenuity of his medical attendance to bring him out
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  Speaker 1: ofquently called upon his sisters by name, speaking of them
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  Speaker 1: in a manner which inevitably suggested that he had been
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  Speaker 1: an unwilling and helpless witness of hideous tortures which they
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  Speaker 1: had undergone. And then he would rise in bed, screaming,
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  Speaker 1: their burning them, their burning them, devils, devils, And at
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  Speaker 1: those times it required all the strength of those who
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  Speaker 1: were in attendance to restrain his maddened frenzy. The youth
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  Speaker 1: died in one of these fits of great preternatural excitement, without,
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  Speaker 1: as I have previously written, having given utterance to one
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  Speaker 1: single coherent word, and by some of those who were
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  Speaker 1: best able to judge, it was held to have been
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  Speaker 1: a mercy that he did die without having been restored
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  Speaker 1: to consciousness. And presently tales began to be whispered about
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  Speaker 1: some idolatrous sect which was stated to have its headquarters
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  Speaker 1: somewhere in the interior of the country, some located in
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  Speaker 1: this neighborhood, and some in that which was stated to
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  Speaker 1: still practice, and to always have practiced, in unbroken historical continuity,
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  Speaker 1: the debased, unclean, mystic, and bloody rites of a form
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  Speaker 1: of idolatry which had had its birth in a period
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  Speaker 1: of the world's story, which was so remote that, to
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  Speaker 1: all intents and purposes, it might be described as prehistoric.
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  Speaker 1: While the ferment was still at its height, a man
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  Speaker 1: came to the British embassy, who said that he was
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  Speaker 1: a member of a tribe which had its habitat on
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  Speaker 1: the banks of the White Nile. He asserted that he
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  Speaker 1: was in association with this very idolatrous sect though he
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  Speaker 1: denied that he was one of the actual sectaries. He
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  Speaker 1: did admit, however, that he had assisted more than once
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  Speaker 1: at their orgies, and declared that it was their constant
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: practice to offer young women as sacrifices, preferably white Christian women,
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  Speaker 1: with a special preference if they could get them to
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  Speaker 1: young English women. He vowed that he himself had seen
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  Speaker 1: with his own eyes English girls burnt alive. The description
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: which he gave of what preceded and followed these foul
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: murders appalled those who had listened. He finally went up,
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  Speaker 1: offering on pavement of a stipulated sum of money to
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  Speaker 1: guide a troop of soldiers to this den of demons,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: so that they should arrive there at the moment when
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  Speaker 1: it was filled with worshipers who were preparing to participate
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  Speaker 1: in an orgy which was to take place during the
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  Speaker 1: next few days. His offer was conditionally accepted. He was
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  Speaker 1: confined in an apartment with one man on guard inside
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  Speaker 1: and another on guard outside. The room that night, the
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  Speaker 1: sentinel without was startled by hearing a great noise and
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: frightful screams issuing from the chamber in which the native
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: was interned. He summoned assistance, the door was opened. The
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  Speaker 1: soldier on guard within was stark, staring mad. He died
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  Speaker 1: within a few months, a gibbering maniac to the end.
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  Speaker 1: The native was dead. The window, which was a very
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  Speaker 1: small one, was securely fastened inside and strongly barred without.
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  Speaker 1: There was nothing to show by what means entry had
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: been gained. Yet it was the general opinion of those
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  Speaker 1: who saw the corpse that the man had been destroyed
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  Speaker 1: by some wild beast. A photograph was taken of the
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  Speaker 1: body after death, a copy of which is still in
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: my possession. In it are distinctly shown lacerations about the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: neck and the lower portion of the abdomen, as if
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  Speaker 1: they had been produced by the clause of some huge
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and ferocious animal. The skull is splintered in half a
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: dozen places, and the face is torn to rags. That
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  Speaker 1: was more than three years ago. The whole business has
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: remained as great a mystery as ever, But my attention
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  Speaker 1: has once or twice been caught by trifling incidents which
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: have caused me to more than suspect that the wild
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: tale told by that murdered native had in it at
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: least the elements of truth, and which have even led
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: me to wonder if the trade in kidnapping was not
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: being carried on to this very hour, and if women
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  Speaker 1: of my own flesh and blood were not still being
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: offered up on that infernal altar. And now here was
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Paul Lessingham, a man of worldwide reputation, of great intellect,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of undoubted honor, who had come to me with a
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: wholly unconscious verification of all my worst suspicions. That the
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: creature spoken of as an Arab, and who was probably
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: no more an Arab than I was, and whose name
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: was certainly not Mohammed al Kir, was an emissary from
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: that den of demons. I had no doubt. What was
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: the exact purport of the creature's presence in England was
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: another question. Possibly part of the intention was the destruction
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: of Paul Lessingham body, soul and spirit. Possibly another part
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: was the procuration of fresh victims for that long drawn
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: out holocaust. That this latter object explained the disappearance of
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Miss Lindon. I felt persuaded that she was designed by
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: the personification of evil who was her captor, to suffer
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  Speaker 1: all the horrors at which the stories pointed, and then
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  Speaker 1: to be burned alive. Amidst the triumphant yells of the
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: attendant demons. I was certain that the wretch, aware that
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the pursuits was in full cry, was terror ring, twisting, doubling,
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  Speaker 1: and would stick at nothing which would facilitate the smuggling
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  Speaker 1: of the victim out of England. Was clear, my interest
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  Speaker 1: in the quest was already far other than a merely
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  Speaker 1: professional one. The blood in my veins tingled at the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: thought of such a woman as Miss London, being in
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  Speaker 1: the power of such a monster. I may assuredly claim
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: that throughout the whole business I was urged forward by
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: no thought of fee or of reward. To have had
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: a share in rescuing that unfortunate girl and in the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: destruction of her noxious persecutor would have been reward enough
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: for me. One is not, always, even in strictly professional matters,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: influenced by strictly professional instincts. The cab slowed. A voice
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: descended through the trap door. This is commercial road, sir,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: What part of it. Do you want drive me to
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: Limehouse Police Station? We were driven there. I made my
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: way to the usual inspector behind the usual pigeonhole. My
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: name is No. Have you received any communication from Scotland
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: Yard tonight having reference to a matter in which I
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: am interested? Do you mean about the Arab? We received
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: a telephonic message about a half an hour ago. Since
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: communicating with Scotland Yard, this has come to hand from
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: the authorities at Vauxhall Station. Can you tell me if
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: anything has been seen of the person in question by
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the men of your division. I handed the inspector the report.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: His reply was laconic. I will inquire. He passed through
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a door into an inner room and the report went
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: with him. BEG pardon, sir, but was that a Arab
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you was talking about? To the inspector. The speaker was
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: a gentleman, unmistakably of the guttersnipe class. He was seated
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: on a form. Close at hand hovered a policeman whose
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: special duty it seemed to be to keep an eye
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: upon his movements. Why do you ask? I beg your pardon, sir,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: but I saw a Arab myself about an hour ago. Leastways,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: he looked like as if he was a Arab. What
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: sort of looking person was he? I can't hardly tell that, sir,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: because I didn't never have a proper look at him.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: But I know he had a blooming gray bundle on
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: his head. It was like this ear I was comin
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: round the corner as he was passin. I never see
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: him till I was right at top of 'em, so
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: that I accidentally run again. My hey, didn't he give
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: me a downer? I was down on my back of
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: my head in the middle of the road before I
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: knew where I was, and E was at the other
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: end of the street. If he hadn't knocked me more
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: an our silly, I've been after him, sharp, I tell ye,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: and ask him what you thought he was a doin?
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: But afore my senses was back again he was out
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of sight clean you were sure that he had a
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: bundle on his head. I noticed it most particular. How
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: long ago did you say this was? And where about?
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: An hour ago? Perhaps more perhaps less? Was he alone?
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: It seemed to me as if a cove was a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: followerin um leastways, there was a bloke as was a
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: keepin close at his heels. Though I don't know what
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: his little game was, I'm sure as the pliceman he
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: knows he knows everything the policeman do. I turned to
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the pleiceman, Who is this man? The policeman put his
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: hands behind his back and threw out his chest. His
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: manner was distinctly affable. Well, he's being detained upon suspicion.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: He's given us an address at which to make inquiries,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: and inquiries are being made. I shouldn't pay too much
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: attention to what he says. If I were you, I
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: don't suppose he'd be particular about a liar. Two. This
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: frank expression of opinion re aroused the indignation of the gentleman,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: on the form, there you are at it again. It's
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: just like you peelers. They're all the same. What do
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: you know about me? Nothin this gentleman. Ain't got no
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: call to believe me, not as I knows on It's
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: all the same me if you do or don't. But
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: it's truth what I'm saying, all the same. At this point,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the inspector reappeared at the pigeon hole. He cut short
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the flow of eloquence. Now then, not so much noise
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: outside there. He addressed me. None of our men have
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: seen anything of the person you're inquiring for so far
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: as we are aware. But if you like, I will
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: place a man at your disposal, and he will go
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: round with you, and you'll be able to make your
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: own inquiries. A capitalist, wildly excited young ragamuffin came dashing
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: in at the street door. He gasped out as clearly
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: as he could for the speed which he had made.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: There's been a murder done, mister Pleesman. The Arabs killed
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the bloke. Mister Pleesman gripped him by the shoulder. What's that?
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: The youngster put up his arm and ducked his head instinctively,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: as if to ward off a blow. Leave me alone.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: I don't want none of your antlin. I ain't done
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: nothing to you. I tell you he has. The inspector
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: spoke through the pigeonhole. He is what, my lad, what
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: do you say has happened? There's been murder done? It's
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: right enough there as up at missus Anderson's in Paradise place,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: a Harab's been and killed a bloke. End of chapter
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: forty three.