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Camp of the Dog - Algernon Blackwood · The Non-Stop Stowaway

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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Camp of the Dog by
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  Speaker 1: Altenon Blackwood, read by Charles Blakemore The Camp of the Dog,
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  Speaker 1: Part one. Islands of all shapes and sizes troop northward
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  Speaker 1: from Stockholm by the hundred, and the little steamer that
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  Speaker 1: threads their intricate mazes in summer leaves the traveler in
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  Speaker 1: a somewhat bewildered state as regards the points of the
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  Speaker 1: compass when it reaches the end of its journey at Waxholm.
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  Speaker 1: But it is only after Waxholm that the true islands begin,
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  Speaker 1: so to speak, to run wild and start up the
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  Speaker 1: coast on their tangled course of a hundred miles of
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  Speaker 1: deserted loveliness. And it was in the very heart of
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  Speaker 1: this delightful confusion that we pitched our tents for a
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  Speaker 1: summer holiday. A veritable wilderness of islands lay about us,
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  Speaker 1: from the mere round button of rock that bore a
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  Speaker 1: single fir, to the mountainous stretch of a square mile,
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  Speaker 1: densely wooded and bounded by precipitous cliffs so close together,
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  Speaker 1: often that a strip of water ran between no wider
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  Speaker 1: than a country lane, or again so far that an
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  Speaker 1: expanse stretched like the open sea for miles. Although the
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  Speaker 1: larger islands boasted farms and fishing stations, the majority were uninhabited,
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  Speaker 1: carpeted with moss and heather. Their coastlines showed a series
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  Speaker 1: of ravines and clefts, and little sandy bays with a
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  Speaker 1: growth of splendid pine woods that came down to the
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  Speaker 1: water's edge and led the eye through unknown depths of
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  Speaker 1: shadow and mystery into the very heart of primitive forest.
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  Speaker 1: The particular islands to which we had camping rights by
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  Speaker 1: virtue of pain a nominal sum to a Stockholm merchant,
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  Speaker 1: lay together in a picturesque group far beyond the reach
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  Speaker 1: of the steamer, one being a mere reef with a
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  Speaker 1: fringe of fairy like birches, and two others cliff bound
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  Speaker 1: monsters rising with hooded heads out of the sea. The fourth,
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  Speaker 1: which we selected because it enclosed a little lagoon suitable
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  Speaker 1: for anchorage, bathing, night lines, and what not, shall have
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  Speaker 1: what description is necessary as the story proceeds, But so
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  Speaker 1: far as paying rent was concerned, we might equally have
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  Speaker 1: pitched our tents on any one of a hundred others
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  Speaker 1: that clustered about us as thickly as swarm of bees.
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  Speaker 1: It was in the blaze of an evening in July,
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  Speaker 1: the air clear as crystal, the sea of cobalt blue,
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  Speaker 1: when we left the steamer on the borders of civilization
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  Speaker 1: and sailed away with maps, compasses, and provisions for the
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  Speaker 1: little group of dots in the scaggard that were to
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  Speaker 1: be our home for the next two months. The day
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  Speaker 1: and my Canadian canoe trailed behind us, with tents and
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  Speaker 1: dunnage carefully piled aboard, And when the point of cliff
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  Speaker 1: intervened to hide the steamer and the waxome hotel, we
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  Speaker 1: realized for the first time that the horror of trains
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  Speaker 1: and houses was far behind us, the fever of men
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  Speaker 1: and cities, the weariness of streets and confined spaces. The
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  Speaker 1: wilderness opened up on all sides into endless blue reaches,
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  Speaker 1: and the map and compasses were so frequently called into
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  Speaker 1: requisition that we went astray more often than not, and
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  Speaker 1: progress was enchantingly slow. It took us, for instance, two
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  Speaker 1: whole days to find our crescent shaped home and the
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  Speaker 1: camps we made on the way were so fascinating that
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  Speaker 1: we left them with difficulty and regret, for each island
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  Speaker 1: seemed more desirable than the one before it. And over
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  Speaker 1: all lay the spell of haunting peace, remoteness from the
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  Speaker 1: turmoil of the world, and the freedom of open and
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  Speaker 1: desolate spaces. And so many of these spots of world
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  Speaker 1: beauty have I sought out and dwelt in that in
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  Speaker 1: my mind remains only a composite memory of their faces,
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  Speaker 1: a true map of heaven, as it were, from which
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  Speaker 1: this particular one stands forth with unusual sharpness, because of
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  Speaker 1: the strange things that happened there, and also, I think
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  Speaker 1: because anything in which John Silence played a part has
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  Speaker 1: a habit of fixing itself in the mind with a
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  Speaker 1: living and lasting quality of vividness. For the moment. However,
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  Speaker 1: Doctor Silence was not of the party. Some private case
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  Speaker 1: in the interior of Hungary claimed his attention, and it
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  Speaker 1: was not till later the fifteenth of August, to be exact,
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  Speaker 1: that I had arranged to meet him in Berlin, and
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  Speaker 1: then returned to London together for our harvest of winter work.
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  Speaker 1: All the members of our party, however, were known to
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  Speaker 1: him more or less well. And on this third day
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  Speaker 1: west we sailed through the narrow opening into the lagoon,
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  Speaker 1: and saw the circular ridge of trees in a gold
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  Speaker 1: and crimson sunset before us. His last words to me,
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  Speaker 1: when we parted in London, for some unaccountable reason, came
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  Speaker 1: back very sharply to my memory and recalled the curious
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  Speaker 1: impression of prophecy with which I had first heard them.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy your holiday and store up all the force you can,
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  Speaker 1: he had said, as the train slipped out of Victoria,
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  Speaker 1: and we will meet in Berlin on the fifteenth, unless
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  Speaker 1: you should send for me sooner. And now suddenly the
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  Speaker 1: words returned to me so clearly that it seemed I
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  Speaker 1: almost heard his voice in my ear, unless you should
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  Speaker 1: send for me sooner, and returned moreover with a significance.
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  Speaker 1: I was wholly at a loss to understand that touched
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  Speaker 1: somewhere in the depths of my mind a vague sense
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  Speaker 1: of apprehension that they had all along been intended in
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  Speaker 1: the nature of a prophecy in the lagoon. Then the
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  Speaker 1: wind failed us this July evening, as was only natural
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  Speaker 1: behind the shelter of the belt of woods, and we
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  Speaker 1: took to the oars, all breathless with the beauty of
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  Speaker 1: this first sight of our island home, yet all talking
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  Speaker 1: in somewhat hushed voices of the best place to land,
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  Speaker 1: the depth of water, the safest place to anchor to
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  Speaker 1: put up, the tents in, the most sheltered spot for
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  Speaker 1: the camp fires, and a dozen things of importance that
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  Speaker 1: crop up when a home in the wilderness has actually
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  Speaker 1: to be made. And during this busy sunset hour of
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  Speaker 1: unloading before the dark, the souls of my companions adopted
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  Speaker 1: the trick of presenting themselves very vividly, anew before my mind,
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  Speaker 1: and introducing themselves afresh. In reality, I suppose our party
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  Speaker 1: was in no sense singular in the conventional life at home.
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  Speaker 1: They certainly seemed ordinary enough. But suddenly, as we passed
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  Speaker 1: through these gates of the wilderness, I saw them more
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  Speaker 1: sharply than before, with characters stripped of the atmosphere of
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  Speaker 1: men and cities. A complete change of setting often furnishes
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  Speaker 1: a startling new view of people hitherto held for well known.
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  Speaker 1: They presented other facet of their personalities. I seemed to
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  Speaker 1: see my own part party almost as new people, people
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  Speaker 1: I had not known properly hitherto people who would drop
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  Speaker 1: all disguises and henceforth reveal themselves as they really were.
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  Speaker 1: And each one seemed to say, now you will see
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  Speaker 1: me as I am. You will see me here in
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  Speaker 1: this primitive life of the wilderness without clothes. All my
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  Speaker 1: masks and bales I have left behind in the abodes
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  Speaker 1: of men. So look out for surprises. The Reverend Timothy
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  Speaker 1: Maloney helped me to put up the tents long practice,
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  Speaker 1: making the process easy. And while he drove in pegs
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  Speaker 1: and tight and rope, his coat off, his flannel collar
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  Speaker 1: flying open without a tie, it was impossible to avoid
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  Speaker 1: the conclusion that he was cut out for the life
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  Speaker 1: of a pioneer rather than the church. He was fifty
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  Speaker 1: years of age, muscular, blue eyed, and hearty, and he
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  Speaker 1: took his share of the work and more without shirking.
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  Speaker 1: The way he handled the axe and cutting down saplings
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  Speaker 1: for the tent poles was a delight to see, and
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  Speaker 1: his eyes and jutting the level was unfailing. Bullied as
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  Speaker 1: a young man into a lucrative family living, he had
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  Speaker 1: in turn bullied his mind into some semblance of orthodox beliefs,
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  Speaker 1: doing the honors of the little country church with an
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  Speaker 1: energy that made one think of a coal heaver tending China.
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  Speaker 1: And it was only in the past few years that
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  Speaker 1: he had resigned the living and taken instead to cramming
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  Speaker 1: young men for their examinations. This suited him better. It
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  Speaker 1: enabled him, too to indulge his passion for spells of
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  Speaker 1: wild life, and to spend the summer months of most
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  Speaker 1: years under canvas in one part of the world or another,
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  Speaker 1: where he could take his young men with him and
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  Speaker 1: combine reading with open air. His wife usually accompanied him,
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  Speaker 1: and there was no doubt she enjoyed the trips, for
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  Speaker 1: she possessed, though in a less degree, the same joy
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  Speaker 1: of the wilderness that was his own distinguishing characteristic. The
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  Speaker 1: only difference was that while he regarded it as the
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  Speaker 1: real life, she regarded it as an interlude. While he
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  Speaker 1: camped out with his heart and mind, she played at
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  Speaker 1: camping out with her clothes and body. None the less,
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  Speaker 1: she made a splendid companion, and to watch her busy
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  Speaker 1: cooking dinner over the fire we had built among the
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  Speaker 1: stones was to understand that her heart was in the
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  Speaker 1: business for the moment, and that she was happy even
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  Speaker 1: with the detail Missus Maloney at home, knitting in the
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  Speaker 1: sun and believing that the world was made in six days,
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  Speaker 1: was one woman. But Missus Maloney, standing with bare arms
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  Speaker 1: over the smoke of a wood fire under the pine trees,
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  Speaker 1: was another. And Peter Sangree, the Canadian pupil, with his
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  Speaker 1: pale skin and his loose, though not ungainly figure, stood
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  Speaker 1: beside her in very unfavorable contrast, as he scraped potatoes
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  Speaker 1: and sliced bacon with slender, white fingers that seemed better
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  Speaker 1: suited to hold a pen than a knife. She ordered
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  Speaker 1: him about like a slave, and he obeyed too, with
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  Speaker 1: willing pleasure, for in spite of his general appearance of debility,
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  Speaker 1: he was happy to be in camp as any of them,
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  Speaker 1: but more than any other member of the party. Joan Maloney,
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  Speaker 1: the daughter, was the one who seemed a natural and
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  Speaker 1: genuine part of the landscape, who belonged to it all,
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  Speaker 1: just in the same way that the trees and the
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  Speaker 1: moss and the gray rocks running out into the water
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  Speaker 1: belonged to it. For she was, obviously, in her right
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  Speaker 1: and natural setting, a creature of the wilds, a gipsy
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  Speaker 1: in her own home. To any one with a discerning eye,
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  Speaker 1: this would have been more or less apparent. But to me,
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  Speaker 1: who had known her during all the twenty two years
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  Speaker 1: of her life and was familiar with the ins and
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  Speaker 1: outs of her primitive, utterly unmodern type, it was strikingly clear.
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  Speaker 1: To see her there made it impossible to imagine her
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  Speaker 1: again in civilization. I lost all recollection of how she
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  Speaker 1: looked in a town. The memory somehow evaporated this slim
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  Speaker 1: creature before me, flitting to and fro with the grace
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  Speaker 1: of the woodland life, swift, supple droit on her knees,
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  Speaker 1: blowing the fire or stirring the frying pan through a
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  Speaker 1: veil of smoke, suddenly seemed the only way I had
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  Speaker 1: ever really seen her. Here she was at home in London.
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  Speaker 1: She became someone concealed by clothes, an artificial doll, overdressed
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  Speaker 1: and moving by clockwork, only a portion of her alive.
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  Speaker 1: Here she was alive all over. I forgot altogether how
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  Speaker 1: she was dressed, just as I forgot how any particular
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  Speaker 1: tree was dressed, or how the markings ran on any
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  Speaker 1: one of the boulders that lay about the camp. She
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  Speaker 1: looked just as wild and natural and untamed as everything
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  Speaker 1: else that went to make up the scene. And more
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  Speaker 1: than that, I cannot say pretty. She was decidedly not.
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  Speaker 1: She was thin, skinny, dark haired, and possessed of great
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  Speaker 1: physical strength in the form of endurance. She had too,
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  Speaker 1: something of the forest and vigorous purpose of a man,
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  Speaker 1: tempestuous sometimes and wild to passionate, frightening her mother and
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  Speaker 1: puzzling her easy going father with her storms of waywardness,
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  Speaker 1: while at the same time she stirred his admiration by
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  Speaker 1: her violence. A pagan of the Pagans, she was, besides
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  Speaker 1: and with some haunting suggestion of old world pagan beauty
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  Speaker 1: about her dark face and eyes. Altogether an odd and
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  Speaker 1: difficult character, but with a generosity and high courage that
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  Speaker 1: made her very lovable in town life. She always seemed
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  Speaker 1: to me to feel cramped, bored, a devil in a
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  Speaker 1: cage in her eyes, a hunted expression, as though any
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  Speaker 1: moment she dreaded to be caught. But up in these
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  Speaker 1: spacious solitudes, all this disappeared. Away from the limitations that
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  Speaker 1: plagued and stung her, she would show at her best,
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  Speaker 1: and as I watched her moving about the camp, I
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  Speaker 1: repeatedly found myself thinking of a wild creature that had
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  Speaker 1: just obtained its freedom and was trying its muscles. Peter Sang,
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  Speaker 1: of course, at once went down before her. But she
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  Speaker 1: was so obviously beyond his reach, and besides so well
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  Speaker 1: able to take care of herself, that I think her
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  Speaker 1: parents gave the matter but little thought, and he himself
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  Speaker 1: worshiped at a respectful distance, keeping admirable control of his
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  Speaker 1: passion in all respects save one for his age. The
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  Speaker 1: eyes are difficult to master, and the yearning, almost the
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  Speaker 1: devouring expression often visible in them, was probably there unknown
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  Speaker 1: even to himself. He better than any one else, understood
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  Speaker 1: that he had fallen in love with something most hard
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  Speaker 1: of attainment, something that drew him to the very edge
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  Speaker 1: of life, and almost beyond it. It, no doubt was
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  Speaker 1: the secret and terrible joy to him, this passionate worship
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  Speaker 1: from Afar only. I think he suffered more than any
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  Speaker 1: one guessed, and that his want of vitality was due
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  Speaker 1: in large measure to the constant stream of unsatisfied yearning
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  Speaker 1: that poured forever from his soul. And moreover, it seemed
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  Speaker 1: to me, who now saw them for the first time together,
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  Speaker 1: that there was an unnameable something an elusive quality of
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  Speaker 1: some kind that marked them as belonging to the same world,
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  Speaker 1: and that although the girl ignored him, she was secretly,
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  Speaker 1: and perhaps unknown to herself, drawn by some attribute very
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  Speaker 1: deep in her own nature, to some quality equally deep
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  Speaker 1: in his. This then, was the party when we first
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  Speaker 1: settled down into our two months camp on the island
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  Speaker 1: and the Baltic Sea. Other figures flitted from time to
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  Speaker 1: time across the scene, and sometimes one reading man, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: another came to join us and spent his four hours
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  Speaker 1: a day in the clergyman's tent. But they came for
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  Speaker 1: short periods only, and they went without leaving much trace
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  Speaker 1: in my memory, and certainly they played no important part
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  Speaker 1: in what subsequently happened. The weather favored us that night,
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  Speaker 1: so that by sunset the tents were up, the boats unloaded,
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  Speaker 1: a store of wood collected and chopped into lengths, and
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  Speaker 1: the candle lanterns hung round, ready for lighting on the trees.
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  Speaker 1: Sangree too had picked deep mattresses of balsam boughs for
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  Speaker 1: the women's beds, and had cleared little paths of brushwood
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  Speaker 1: from their tents to the central fireplace. All was prepared
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  Speaker 1: for bad weather It was a cozy supper, and a
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  Speaker 1: well cooked one that we sat down to and ate
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  Speaker 1: under the stars, and, according to the clergyman, the only
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  Speaker 1: meal fit to eat we had seen since we left
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  Speaker 1: London a week before. The deep stillness after that roar
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  Speaker 1: of steamers, trains and tourists held something that thrilled, for
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  Speaker 1: as we lay round the fire, there was no sound
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  Speaker 1: but the faint sighing of the pines, and the soft
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  Speaker 1: lapping of the waves along the shore and against the
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  Speaker 1: sides of the boat in the lagoon. The ghostly outline
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  Speaker 1: of her white sails was just visible through the trees,
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  Speaker 1: idly rocking to and fro in her calm anchorage, her
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  Speaker 1: sheet flapping gently against the mast. Beyond lay the dim
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  Speaker 1: blue shapes of other islands floating in the night. And
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  Speaker 1: from all the great spaces about us came the murmur
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  Speaker 1: of the sea and the soft breathing of great woods.
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  Speaker 1: The odors of the wilderness. Smells of wind and earth,
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  Speaker 1: of trees and water, clean, vigorous and mighty, were the
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  Speaker 1: true odors of a virgin world, unspoilt by men, more
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  Speaker 1: penetrating and more subtly intoxicating than any other perfume in
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  Speaker 1: the whole world. Oh, and dangerously strong too, no doubt
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  Speaker 1: for some natures, Ah, breathed out the clergyman after supper,
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  Speaker 1: with an indescribable gesture of satisfaction and relief. Here there
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  Speaker 1: is freedom and room for body and mind to turn in.
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  Speaker 1: Here one can work and rest and play. Here one
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  Speaker 1: can be alive and absorb something of the earth forces
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  Speaker 1: that never get within touching distance in the cities. By George,
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  Speaker 1: I shall make a permanent camp here, and come when
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  Speaker 1: in his time to die. The good man was merely
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  Speaker 1: giving vent to his delight at being under canvas. He
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  Speaker 1: said the same thing every year, and he said it often,
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  Speaker 1: but it more or less expressed the superficial feelings of
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  Speaker 1: us all. And when a little later he turned to
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  Speaker 1: compliment his wife on the fried potatoes and discovered that
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  Speaker 1: she was snoring with her back against a tree, he
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  Speaker 1: grunted with content at the sight, and put a ground
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  Speaker 1: sheet over her feet, as if it were the most
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  Speaker 1: natural thing in the world for her to fall asleep
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  Speaker 1: after dinner, and then moved back to his own corner,
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  Speaker 1: smoking his pipe with great satisfaction. And I, smoking mine too,
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  Speaker 1: lay and fought against the most delicious sleep imaginable, while
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  Speaker 1: my eyes wandered from the fire to the stars peeping
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  Speaker 1: through the branches, and then back again to the group
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  Speaker 1: about me. The Reverend Timothy soon let his pipe go
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  Speaker 1: out and succumbed as his wife had done, for he
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  Speaker 1: had worked hard and eaten well. Sangree, also smoking, leaned
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  Speaker 1: against a tree with his gaze fixed on the girl,
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  Speaker 1: a depth of yearning in his face that he could
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  Speaker 1: not hide, and that really distressed me for him. And
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  Speaker 1: Joan herself with wide staring eyes, alert full of the
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  Speaker 1: new forces of the place, evidently keyed up by the
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  Speaker 1: magic of finding herself among all the things her soul
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  Speaker 1: recognized as home, sat rigid by the fire, her thoughts
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  Speaker 1: roaming through the spaces, the blood stirring about her heart.
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  Speaker 1: She was as unconscious of the Canadian's gaze as she
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  Speaker 1: was that her parents both slept. She looked to me
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  Speaker 1: more like a tree or something that had grown out
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  Speaker 1: of the island than a living girl of the century.
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  Speaker 1: And when I spoke across to her in a whisper
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  Speaker 1: and suggested a tour of investigation, she started and looked
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  Speaker 1: up at me as though she heard a voice in
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  Speaker 1: her dreams. Sangree leapt up and joined us, and without
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  Speaker 1: waking the others, we three went over the ridge of
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  Speaker 1: the island and made our way down to the shore. Behind.
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  Speaker 1: The water lay like a lake before us, still colored
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  Speaker 1: by the sunset. The air was keen and scented, wafting
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  Speaker 1: the smell of the wooded islands that hung about us.
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  Speaker 1: In the darkening air, very small waves tumbled softly on
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  Speaker 1: the sand. The sea was sown with stars, and everywhere
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  Speaker 1: breathed and pulsed the beauty of the northern summer night.
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  Speaker 1: I confess I speedily lost consciousness of the human presences
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  Speaker 1: beside me, and I have little doubt Joan did too.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Only Sangree felt otherwise, I suppose, for presently we heard
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: him sighing, and I can well imagine that he absorbed
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the whole wonder and passion of the scene into his
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: aching heart to swell the pain there that was more
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: searching even than the pain at the sight of such
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: matchless and incomprehensible beauty. The splash of a fish jumping
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: broke the spell. I wish we had the canoe, now,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: remarked Joan. We could paddle out to the other islands.
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, I said, wait here and I'll go across
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: for it, and was turning to feel my way back
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: through the darkness when she stopped me in a voice
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: that meant what it said, No, mister Sangree will get it.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: We will wait here, and cooey to guide him. The
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Canadian was off in a moment, for she had only
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: to hint of her wishes, and he obeyed. Keep out
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: from the shore in case of rocks, I cried out
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: as he went and turned to the right out of
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: the lagoon. It's the shortest way round by the map.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: My voice traveled across the still waters and woke echoes
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: in the distant islands that came back to us like
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: people calling out of space. It was only thirty or
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: forty yards over the ridge and down the other side
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: of the lagoon where the boats lay, but it was
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a good mile to coast round the shore and the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: dark to where we stood and waited. We heard him
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: stumbling away among the boulders, and then the sounds suddenly
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: ceased as he topped the ridge and went down past
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: the fire on the other side. I didn't want to
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: be left alone with him, girl said presently in a
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: low voice. I'm always afraid he's going to say something
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: or do something. She hesitated a moment, looking quickly over
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: her shoulder towards the ridge where he had just disappeared,
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: something that might lead to unpleasantness. She stopped abruptly. Who frightened, Joan,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: I exclaimed, with genuine surprise. This is a new light
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: on your wicked character. I thought the human being who
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: can frighten you did not exist. Then I suddenly realized
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: she was talking seriously, looking to me for help of
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: some kind, and at once I dropped the teasing attitude.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: He's very far gone, I think, Joan, I added gravely.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: You must be kind to him, whatever else you may feel.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: He's exceedingly fond of you. I know, but I can't
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: help it. She whispered lest her voice, Carrie, in the stillness,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: there's something about him that it makes me feel creepy
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: and half afraid. But poor man, it's not his fault
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: if he's delicate and sometimes looks like death, I laughed gently,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: way of defending what I've felt to be a very
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: innocent member of my sex. Oh but it's not what
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, she answered quickly. It's something I feel about him,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: something in his soul, something he hardly knows himself, but
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: that may come out if we are much together. It
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: draws me, I feel tremendously. It stirs what is wild
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: in me deep down, oh, very deep down. Yet at
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the same time it makes me feel afraid. I suppose
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: his thoughts are always playing about you, I said. But
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: he's nice minded, and yes, yes, she interrupted impatiently. I
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: can trust myself absolutely with him. He's gentle and singularly
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: pure minded. But there's something else that She stopped again
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: sharply to listen. Then she came up close beside me
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: in the darkness, whispering, You know, mister Hubbard, sometimes my
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: intuitions warn me a little too strongly to be ignored.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, you needn't tell me again that it's difficult
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: to distinguish between fancy and intuition. I know all that,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: but I also know that there's something deep down in
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: that man's soul that calls to something deep down in mind.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: And at present it frightens me because I cannot make
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: out what it is, and I know I know he'll
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: do something one day that that will shake my life
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: to the very bottom. She laughed a little at the
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: strangeness of her own description. I turned to look at
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: her more closely, but the darkness was too great to
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: show her face. There was an intensity, almost of suppressed
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: passion in her voice that took me completely by surprise. Nonsense, Joan,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: I said, a little severely. You know him well, he's
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: been with your father for months now, but that was
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: in London, and up here it's different. I mean, I
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: feel that it may be different. Life in a place
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: like this blows away the restraints of the artificial life
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: at home. I know, Oh, I know what I'm saying.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I feel all untied. In a place like this, the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: rigidity of one's nature begins to melt and flow. Surely
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: you must understand what I mean. Of course I understand,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I replied, He had not wishing to encourage her in
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: her present line of thought. And it's a grand experience
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: for a short time, But you're overtired to night, Joan,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: Like the rest of us, a few days in this
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: air will set you above all fears of the kind
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: you mention. Then, after a moment's silence, I added, feeling
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: that I should estrange her confidence altogether. If I blundered
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: any more, and treated her like a child. I think
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: perhaps the true explanation is that you pity him for
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: loving you, and at the same time you feel the
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: repulsion of the healthy, vigorous animal for what is weak
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: and timid. If he came up boldly and took you
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: by the throat and shouted, he would force you to
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: love him well, then you would feel no fear at all.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: You would know exactly how to deal with him. Isn't
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: it perhaps something of that kind? The girl made no reply,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: and when I took her hand, I felt that it
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: trembled a little and was cold. It's not his love
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: that I'm afraid of, she said hurriedly, For at this
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: moment we heard the dip of a paddle in the water.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: It's something in his very soul that terrifies me in
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: a way I have never been terrified before, yet fascinates me.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: In town, I was hardly conscious of his presence, But
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: the moment we got away from civilization, it began to come.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: He seems so so real up here. I dread being
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: alone with him. It makes me feel that something must
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: burst and tear its way out, that he would do something,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: or that I should do something. I don't know exactly
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: what I mean, probably but that I should let myself
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: go and scream. Joan, don't be alarmed. Sh she laughed shortly.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I shan't do anything silly, but I wanted to tell
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you my feelings in case I needed your help. When
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I have intuitions as strong as this, they are never wrong.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Only I don't know yet what it means exactly. You
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: must hold out for the month at any rate, I said,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in a matter of factive voice, as I could manage,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: for her manner had somehow changed my surprise to a
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: subtle sense of alarm. Sangree only stays the month, you know.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: And anyhow, you are such an odd creature yourself that
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: you should feel generously towards other odd creatures, I ended,
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: lamely with a forced laugh. She gave my hand a
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: sudden pressure. I'm glad I've told you at any rate,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: she said quickly under her breath, for the canoe was
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: now gliding up silently like a ghost to our feet.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: And I'm glad you're here too, she added, as we
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: moved down towards the water to meet it. I made
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Sangree change into the bows and got into the steering
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: seat myself, putting the girl between us, so I could
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: watch them both by keeping their outlines against the sea
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: and stars. For the intuitions of certain folk, women and children, usually,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I confess, I have always felt a great respect that
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: has more often than not been justified by experience. And
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: now the curious emotion stirred in me by the girl's
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: words remained somewhat vividly in my consciousness. I explained it
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: in some measure by the fact that the girl, tired
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: out by the fatigue of many days travel, had suffered
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: a vigorous reaction of some kind from the strong, desolate scenery,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and further, perhaps that she had been treated to my
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: own experience of seeing the members of the party in
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: a new light, the Canadian being partly a stranger, more
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: vividly than the rest of us. But at the same
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: time I felt it was quite possible that she had
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: sensed some subtle link between his personality and her own,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: some quality that she had hitherto ignored, and that the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: routine of town life had kept buried out of sight.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: The only thing that seemed difficult to explain was the
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: fear she had spoken of, and this I hoped the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: wholesome effects of camp life and exercise would sweep away
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: naturally in the course of time. We made the tour
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: of the island without speaking. Was all too beautiful for speech.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: The trees crowded down to the shore to hear us pass.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: We saw their fine dark heads bowed low with splendid
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: dignity to watch us, forgetting for a moment that the
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: stars were caught in the needled network of their hair
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: against the sky in the west, where still lingered the
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: sunset gold. We saw the wild toss of the horizon,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: shaggy with forest and cliff, gripping the heart like the
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: motive in a symphony, and sending the sense of beauty
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: all a shiver through the mind, all these surrounding islands
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: standing above the water like low clouds, and like them,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: seeming to post along silently into the engulfing night. We
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: heard the musical drip drip of the paddle, and the
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: little wash of our waves on the shore. And then
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: suddenly we found ourselves at the opening of the lagoon again,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: having made the complete circuit of our home. The Reverend
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Timothy had awakened from sleep and was singing to himself,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: and the sound of his voice as we glided down
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the fifty yards of enclosed water was pleasant to hear
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: and undeniably wholesome. We saw the glow of the fire
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: up among the trees on the ridge, and his shadow
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: moving about as he threw on more wood. There you are,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: he called aloud, good again, been setting the night lines, eh, capital,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and your mother's still fast asleep, joan. His cheery laugh
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: floated across the water. He had not been in the
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: least disturbed by our absence, for old campers are not
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: easily alarmed. Now, remember, he went on. After we had
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: told our little tale of travel by the fire, and
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: missus Maloney had asked for the fourth time exactly where
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: her tent was and whether the door faced east or south.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Everyone takes their turn at cooking breakfast, and one of
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: the men is always out at sunrise to catch it first, Hubbard,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: I'll toss you what you do in the morning, in
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: which I do. He lost the toss. Then I'll catch it,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: I said, laughing at his discomfiture, for I knew he
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: loathed stirring porridge. And mind you don't burn as you
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: did every blessed time last year on the Vulgari added,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: by way of reminder Missus Maloney's fifth interruption about the
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: door of her tent, and her further pointed observation that
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: it was past nine o'clock set us lighting lanterns and
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: putting the fire out for safety. But before we separated
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: for the night, the clergyman had a time on a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: little ritual of his own to go through that no
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: one had the heart to deny him. He always did this,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: It was a relic of his pulpit habits. He glanced
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: briefly from one to the other of us, his face
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: grave and earnest, his hands lifted to the stars, and
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: his eyes all closed and puckered up beneath a momentary frown.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Then he offered up a short, almost inaudible prayer, thanking
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Heaven for our safe arrival, begging for good weather, no
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: illness or accidents, plenty of fish and strong sailing winds.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: And then, unexpectedly no one knew exactly why, he ended
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: up with an abrupt request that nothing from the kingdom
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: of darkness should be allowed to afflict our peace, and
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: no evil thing come near to disturb us in the
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: night time. And while he uttered these last surprising words,
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: so strangely unlike his usual ending. It chanced that I
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: looked up and let my eyes wander round the group
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: assembled about the dying fire, and it certainly seemed to
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: me that Sangree's face underwent a sudden and visible alteration.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: He was staring at Joan, and as he stared, the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: change ran over it like a shadow, and was gone.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I started, in spite of myself, for something oddly concentrated,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: potent collected had come into the expression, usually so scattered
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: and feeble, but it was all swift as a passing meteor.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: And when I looked a second time, his face was normal,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: and he was looking among the trees. And Joan luckily
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: had not observed him, her head being bowed and her
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: eyes tightly closed while her father prayed. The girl has
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: a vivid imagination. Indeed, I thought, half laughing as I
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: lit the lanterns if her thoughts can put a glamor
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: upon mine in this way? And yet somehow, when we
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: said good night, I took occasion to give her a
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: few vigorous words of encouragement, and went to her tent
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to make sure I could find it quickly in the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: night in case anything happened in her quick way. The
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: girl understood and thanked me. And the last thing I
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: heard as I moved off to the men's quarters was
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Missus Maloney crying that there were beadles in her tent,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: and Jone's laughter as she went to help her turn
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: them out. Half an hour later, the island was as
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: silent as the grave, but for the mournful voices of
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: the wind as it sighed up from the sea like
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: white sentries. Stood the three tents of the men on
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: one side of the ridge, and on the other side,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: half hidden by some birches whose leaves just shivered as
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the breeze caught them. The women's tents, patches of ghostly gray,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: gathered more closely together for mutual shelter and protection. Something
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: like fifty yards of broken ground, gray, rock, moss and
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: lichen lay between, and over all lay the curtain of
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the night, and the great whispering winds from the forests
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: of Scandinavia. And the very last thing, just before floating
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: away on that mighty wave that carries one so softly
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: off into the deeps of forgetfulness. I again heard the
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: voice of John silence. As the train moved out of
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: victorious station, and by some subtle connection that met me
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: on the very threshold of consciousness, there rose in my
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: mind simultaneously the memory of the girl's half given confidence
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: and of her distress. As by some wizardry of approaching dreams.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: They seemed in that instant to be related. But before
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: I could analyze the why and the wherefore, both sank
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: away out of sight again, and I was off beyond
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: recall unless you should send for me sooner. End of
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Part one, The Camp of the Dog by Algernon Blackwood.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Camp of the Dog by
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Algernon Blackwood, Part two read by Charles Blakemore. Whether Missus
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Maloney's tent door opened south or east, I think she
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: never discovered, for it is quite certain she always slept
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: with the flap tightly fastened. I only know that my
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: own little five by seven, all silk faced, do east,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: because next morning, the sun pouring in as only the
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: wilderness sun knows how to pour, woke me early, and
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: a moment later, with a short run over soft moss,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: and a flying dive from the granite ledge. I was
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: swimming in the most sparkling water imaginable. It was barely
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: four o'clock, and the sun came down a long vista
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: of blue islands that led out to the open sea
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: and Finland. Nearer by rose the wooded domes of our
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: own property, still capped and wreathed with smoky trails of
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: fast melting mist, and looking as fresh as though it
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: was the morning of missus Maloney's sixth day, and they
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: had just issued clean and brilliant from the hands of
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: the great architect. In the open spaces, the ground was
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: drenched with dew, and from the sea. A cool salt
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: wind stole in among the trees and set the branches
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: trembling in an atmosphere of shimmering silver. The tents shone
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: white where the sun caught them in patches. Below lay
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: the lagoon, still dreaming of the summer night. In the
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: open the fish were jumping busily, sending musical ripples towards
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: the shore, and in the air hung the magic of dawn.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Silent incommunicable. I lit the fire, so that an hour
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: later the clergyman should find good ashes to stir his
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: porridge over. Then set forth upon an examination of the island.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: But hardly had I gone a dozen yards when I
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: saw a figure standing a little in front of me,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: where the sunlight fell in a pool among the trees.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: It was Joan. She had already been up an hour,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: she told me, and it bathed before the last stars
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: had left the sky. I saw at once that the
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: new spirit of this solitary region had entered into her,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: banishing the fears of the night. For her face was
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: like the face of a happy denizen of the wilderness,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: and her eyes stainless and shining. Her feet were bare,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: and drops of dew she had shaken from the branches
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: hung in her loose, flying hair. Obviously she had come
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: into her own I've been all over the island, she announced, laughingly.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: And there are two things wanting. You are a good judge, Joan.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: What what are they? There's no animal life and there's
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: no water. They go together, I said. Animals don't bother
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: with a rock like this unless there's a spring on it.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: And as she led me from place to place, happy
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: and excited, leaping adroitly from rock to rock, I was
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: glad to note that my first impressions were correct. She
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: made no reference to our conversation of the night before
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: the new spirit had driven out the old. There was
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: no room in her heart for fear or anxiety, and
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: nature had everything her own way. The island we found
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: was some three quarters of a mile from point to point,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: built in a circle or wide horseshoe, with an opening
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: of twenty feet at the mouth of the lagoon. Pine
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: trees grew thickly all over, but here and there were
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: patches of silver birch, scrub oak, and considerable colonies of
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: wild raspberry and gooseberry bushes. The two ends of the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: horseshoe formed bare slabs of smooth granite, running into the
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: sea and forming dangerous reefs just below the surface. But
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the rest of the island rose in a forty foot
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: ridge and sloped down steeply to the sea on either side,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: being nowhere more than a hundred yards wide. The outer
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: shore line was much indented, with numberless coves and bays
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and sandy beaches, with here and there caves and precipitous
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: little cliffs against which the sea broke in spray and thunder.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: But the inner shore, the shore of the lagoon was
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: low and regular, and so well protected by the wall
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: of trees along the ridge that no storm could ever
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: send more than a passing ripple along its sandy marges.
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: Eternal shelter reigned there on one of the other islands
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a few hundred yards away. For the rest of the
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: party slept late this first morning, and we took to
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: the canoe. We discovered a spring of fresh water untainted
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: by the brackish flavor of the Baltic, and having thus
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: solved the most important problem of the camp, we next
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: proceeded to deal with the second fish, and in half
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: an hour we reeled in and turned homeward, for we
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: had no means of storage, and to clean more fish
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: than may be stored or eaten in a day is
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: no wise occupation for experienced campers. And as we landed
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: towards six o'clock, we heard the clergyman singing as usual,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: and so his wife and sangree, shaking out their blankets
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: in the sun and dressed in a fashion that finally
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: dispelled all memories of streets and civilization. The little people
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: lit the fire for me, cried Maloney, looking natural and
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: at home in his ancient flannel suit and breaking off
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: in the middle of his singing. So I've got the
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: porridge going, and this time it's not burnt. We reported
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: the discovery of water and held up the fish. Good, good, again,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: he cried. We'll have the first decent breakfast we've had
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: this year. Sangree'll clean em in no time, and the
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Bo'sun's mate, we'll fry them to a turn, laughed the
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: voice of missus Maloney, appearing on the scene in a
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: tight blue jersey and sandals and catching up the frying pan.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: Her father always called her the Bosun's maiden camp because
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: it was her duty, among others, to pipe all hands
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: to meals. And as for you, Joan went on, the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: happy man, you look like the spear of the island,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: with moss in your hair and wind in your eyes,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: and sun and stars mixed in your face. He looked
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: at her with delighted admiration. Here, Sangree, take these twelve.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: There is a good fellow. They're the biggest and will
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: have him in butter in less time than you can
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: say Baltic Island. I watched the Canadian as he slowly
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: moved off to the cleaning pail. His eyes were drinking
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: in the girl's beauty, and a wave of passionate, almost
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: feverish joy passed over his face, expressive of the ecstasy
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: of true worship more than anything else. Perhaps he was
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: thinking that he still had three weeks to come, with
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: that vision always before his eyes. Perhaps he was thinking
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: of his dreams in the night. Cannot say, but I
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: noticed the curious mingling of yearning and happiness in his eyes,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: and the strength of the impression touched my curiosity. Something
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: in his face held my gaze for a second, Something
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: to do with its intensity, that so timid, so gentle
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: a personality should conceal so virile a passion, almost seemed
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: to require explanation, But the impression was momentary for that
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: first breakfast, and camp permitted no divided attentions, and I
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: dare swear that the porridge, the tea, the sweetish flat bread,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: and the fried fish flavored with points of frizzled bacon
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: were better than any meal eaten elsewhere that day in
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: the whole world. The first clear day in a new
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: camp is always a furiously busy one, and we soon
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: dropped into the routine upon which, in large measure the
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: real comfort of every one depends about the cooking fire
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: greatly improved with stones from the shore. We built a
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: high stockade consisting of upright poles thickly twined with branches,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: the roof lined with moss and lichen and weighted with rocks,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: and round the interior we made low wooden seats so
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: that we could lie round the fire even in rain,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: and eat our meals in peace. Paths too outlined themselves
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: from tent to tent from the bathing places in the
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: landing stage, and a fair division of the island was
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: decided upon between the quarters of the men and the women.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Wood was stacked, awkward trees and boulders removed, hammocks slung,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: and tents strengthened. In a word, camp was established and
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: duties were assigned and accepted, as though we expected to
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: live on this Baltic island for years to come, and
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the smallest detail of the community life was important moreover
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: us the camp came into being. This sense of community developed,
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: proving that we were a definite whole and not merely
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: separate human beings living for a while in tents upon
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: a desert island. Each fell willingly into the routine. Sangree
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: as by natural selection, took upon himself the cleaning of
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: the fish and the cutting of the wood into length
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: sufficient for a day's use, and he did it well.
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: The pan of water was never without a fish, cleaned
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: and scaled, ready to fry, for whoever was hungry. The
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: nightly fire never died down for lack of material to
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: throw on without going farther afield to search and Timothy.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: Once Reverend caught the fish and chopped down the trees,
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: he also assumed responsibility for the condition of the boat,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: and did it so thoroughly that nothing in the little
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: cutter was ever found wanting. And when for any reason
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: his presence was in demand, the first place to look
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: for him was in the boat, and there too he
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: was usually found tinkering away with sheets, sails or rudder,
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: and singing as he tinkered. Nor was the reading neglected.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: For most mornings there came a sound of droning voices
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: from the white tent by the raspberry bushes, which signified
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: that Sangree, the Tudor, and whatever other man chanced to
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: be in the party at the time were hard at
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: it with history or the classics. And while missus Maloney,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: also by natural selection, took charge of the larder and
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: the kitchen, the mending and general supervision of the rough comforts.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: She also made herself peculiarly mistress of the megaphone, which
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: summoned to meals and carried her voice easily from one
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: end of the island to the other. And in her
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: hours of leisure, she daubed the surrounding scenery on to
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: a sketching block with all the honesty and devotion of
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: her determined but unreceptive soul. Joan Meanwhile, Joan elusive creature
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: of the wilds became I know not exactly what she did,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: plenty of work in the camp, yet seemed to have
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: no very precise duties. She was everywhere and anywhere. Sometimes
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: she slept in her tent, sometimes under the stars with
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: a blanket. She knew every inch of the island and
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: kept turning up in places where she was least expected,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Forever wandering about, reading her books in sheltered corners, making
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: little fires on sunless days to worship by to the gods,
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: as she put it, Ever, finding new pools to dive
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: and bathe in, and swimming day and night in the
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: warm and waveless lagoon. Like a fish in a huge tank.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: She went bare legged and barefooted, with her hair down
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: in her skirts caught up to the knees. And if
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: ever a human being turned into a jolly savage within
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: the compass of a single week, Joan Maloney was certainly
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: that human being. She ran wild. So completely, too was
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: she possessed by the strong spirit of the place, that
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: the little human fear she had yielded to so strangely
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: on her arrival seemed to have been utterly dispossessed. As
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: I hoped and expected. She made no reference to our
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: conversation of the first evening. Sangree bothered her with no
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: special attentions, and after all they were very little together.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: His behavior was perfect in that respect, and I, for
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: my part, hardly gave the matter another thought. Joan was
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: ever a prey to vivid fancies of one kind or another,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: and this was one of them. Mercifully for the happiness
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: of all concerned. It had melted away before the spirit
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: of busy, active life and deep content that reigned over
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: the island. Every one was intensely alive, and peace was
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: upon all. Meanwhile, the effect of the camp life began
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: to tell always a searching test of character. Its results,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: sooner or later, are infallible, for it acts upon the
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: soul as swiftly and surely as the hypo bath upon
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: the negative of a photograph. A readjustment of the personal
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: forces takes place quickly. Some parts of the personality go
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: to sleep, others wake up. But the first sweeping change
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: that the primitive life brings about is that the artificial
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: portions of the character shed themselves, one after another, like
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: dead skins. Attitudes and poses that seemed genuine in the
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: city drop away. The mind, like the body, grows quickly, hard, simple, uncomplex,
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: and in a camp as primitive and close to nature
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: as ours was, these effects became speedily visible. Some folks,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: of course, who talk glibly about the simple life when
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: it is safely out of reach, betray themselves in camp
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: by forever peering about for the artificial excitements of civilization
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: which they miss. Some get bored at once, some grow slovenly,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: some reveal the animal in most unexpected fashion, and some,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: the select few, find themselves in very short order and
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: are happy. And in our little party we could flatter
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: ourselves that we all belonged to the last category, as
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: the general effect was concerned. Only there were certain other
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: changes as well, varying with each individual, and all interesting
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: to note. Twas only after the first week or two
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: that these changes became marked, Although this is the proper
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: place I think to speak of them, For having myself
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: no other duty than to enjoy a well earned holiday,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: I used to load my canoe with blankets and provisions
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: and journey forth on exploration trips among the islands of
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: several days together. And it was on my return from
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: the first of these when I rediscovered the party, so
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: to speak, that these changes first presented themselves vividly to me,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: and in one particular instance, produced a rather curious impression.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: In a word, then, while every one had grown wilder,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: naturally wilder, sangree, it seemed to me had grown much wilder,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: and what I can only call unnaturally wilder. He made
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: me think of a savage. To begin with, he had
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: changed immensely in mere physical appearance, and the full brown cheeks,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: the brighter eyes of absolute health, and the general air
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: of vigor and robustness that had come to replace his
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: customary lassitude and timidity had worked such an improvement that
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: I hardly knew him for the same man. His voice,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: too was deeper, and his manner bespoke for the first
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: time a greater measure of confidence in himself. He now
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: had some claims to be called nice looking, or at
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: least to a certain air of virility that would not
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: lessen his value in the eyes of the opposite sex.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: All this, of course, was natural enough and most welcome,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: But altogether apart from this physical change, which no doubt
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: had also been going forward in the rest of us,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: there was a subtle note in his personality that came
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: to me with a degree of surprise that almost amounted
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: to shock. And two things came down to welcome me
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: and pull up the canoe. Leaped up in my mind unbidden,
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: as though connected in some way, I could not at
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: the moment divine, first the curious judgment formed of him
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: by Joan, and secondly that fugitive expression I had caught
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: on his face while Maloney was offering up his strange
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: prayer for special protection from heaven. The delicacy of manner
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: and feature, to call it by no milder term, which
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: had always been a distinguishing characteristic of the man, had
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: been replaced by something far more vigorous and decided that
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: yet utterly eluded analysis. The change which impressed me so
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: oddly was not easy to name. The others singing Maloney,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: the bustling Bo'sun's mate, and Joan, that fascinating half breed
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: of undine and salamander, all showed the effects of a
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: life so close to nature. But in their case the
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: change was perfectly natural and what was to be expected,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: whereas with Peter Sangree the Canadian, it was something unusual
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: and unexpected. It is impossible to explain how he managed
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: gradually to convey to my mind the impression that something
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: in him had turned savage. Yet this, more or less
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: is the impression that he did convey. It was not
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: that he seemed really less civilized, or that his character
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: had undergone any definite alteration, but rather that something in him,
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: hitherto dormant, had awakened to life, some quality latent till
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: now so far, at least as we were concerned, who
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: after all knew him but slightly had stirred into activity
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: and risen to the surface of his being. And while
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: for the moment this seemed as far as I could get,
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: it was but natural that my mind should continue the
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: intuitive process and acknowledge that John's silence, owing to his
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: peculiar factaculties, and the girl, owing to her singularly receptive temperament,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: might each, in a different way, have divined this latent
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: quality in his soul and feared its manifestation. Later on,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: looking back to this painful adventure, too, it now seems
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: equally natural that the same process, carried to its logical conclusion,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: should have wakened some deep instinct in me, that, wholly
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: without direction from my will, set itself sharply and persistently
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: upon the watch. From that very moment thenceforward, the personality
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: of Sangree was never far from my thoughts, and I
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: was forever analyzing and searching for the exclamation that took
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: so long in coming. I declare, Hubbard, you're tanned like
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: an aboriginal, and you look like one, too, laughed Maloney,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: and I can return the compliment, was my reply. As
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: we all gathered round a brew of tea to exchange
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: news and compare notes, and later at supper, it amused
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: me to observe that the distinguished tutor one clergyman did
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: not eat his food quite as nicely as he did
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: at home, he devoured it. That missus Maloney ate more,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: and to say the least, with less delay than was
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: her custom in the select atmosphere of her English dining room.
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: And that while Joan attacked her tin plateful with genuine avidity,
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: sangree the Canadian bit and gnawed at his, laughing and
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: talking and complimenting the cook all the while and making
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: me think with secret amusement of a starved animal at
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: its first meal. While from their remarks about myself, I
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: judged that I had changed and grown wild as much
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: as the rest of them. In this, and in a
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: hundred other little ways, the change showed, ways difficult to
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: define in detail, but all proving not the coarsening effect
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: of leading the primitive life, but, let us say, the
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: more direct and unvarnished methods that had become prevalent. For
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: all day long we were in the bath of the elements, wind, water, sun,
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: And just as the body became insensible to cold and
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: shed unnecessary clothing, the mind grew straightforward and shed many
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: of the disguises required for the conventions of civilization, and
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: in each, according to temperament and character, there stirred the
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: life instincts that were natural, untamed, and in a sense savage.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: End of part two, The Camp of the Dog by
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Algernon Blackwood. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. The Camp of the Dog
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: by Algernon Blackwood, Part three read by Charles Blakemore So
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: it came about that I stayed with our island party,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: putting off my second exploring trip from day to day.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: And I think that this far fetched instinct to watch
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: sangree was really the cause of my postponement for another
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: ten days. The life of the camp pursued its even
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: and delightful way, blessed by perfect summer weather, a good
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: harvest of fish, fine winds for sailing, and calm starry nights.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: Maloney's selfish prayer had been favorably received. Nothing came to
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: disturb or perplex There was not even the prowling of
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: night animals to vex the rest of missus Maloney. For
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: in previous camps it had often been her peculiar afflicks
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: that she heard the porcupines scratching against the canvas or
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: the squirrels dropping fir cones in the early morning with
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: a sound of miniature thunder on the roof of her tent.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: But on this island there was not even a squirrel
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: or a mouse. I think two toads and a small
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: and harmless snake were the only living creatures that had
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: been discovered during the whole of the first fortnight, And
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: these two toads were, in all probability, not two toads,
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: but one toad. Then suddenly came the terror that changed
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: the whole aspect of a place, the devastating terror. It
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: came at first gently, but from the very start it
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: made me realize the unpleasant loneliness of our situation, our
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: remote isolation in this wilderness of sea and rock, and
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: how the islands in this tideless Baltic ocean lay about
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: us like the advance guard of a vast besieging army.
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Its entry, as I say, was gentle, hardly noticeable in
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: fact to most of us. Singularly undramatic, it certainly was.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: But then in actual life this is often the way
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: the dreadful climaxes move upon us, leaving the heart undisturbed
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: almost to the last minute, and then overwhelming it with
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: a sudden rush of horror, for it was the custom
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: at breakfast to listen patiently while each in turn related
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: the trivial adventures of the night, how they slept, whether
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: the wind shook their tent, whether the spider on the
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: ridge pole had moved, whether they had heard the toad,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: and so forth. And on this particular morning, Joan, in
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: the middle of a little pause, made a truly novel announcement.
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: In the night, I heard the howling of a dog,
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: she said, and then flushed up to the roots of
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: her hair as we burst out laughing. For the idea
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: of there being a dog on this forsaken island that
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: was only able to support a snake in two toads
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: was distinctly ludicrous. And I remember Maloney, half way through
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: his burnt porridge, capping the announcement by declaring that he
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: had heard a Baltic turtle in the lagoon, and his
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: wife's expression of frantic alarm before the laughter undeceived her.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: But the next morning Joan repeated the story with additional
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: and convincing detail. Sounds of whining and growling woke me,
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: she said, and I distinctly heard sniffing under my tent
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: and the scratching of pause. Oh, Timothy, can it be
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: a porcupine? Exclaimed the Bosun's mate with distress forgetting that
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: Sweden was not Canada. But the girl's voice it sounded
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: to me in quite another key, And looking up, I
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: saw that her father and Sangree were staring at her hard.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: They too understood that she was in earnest and had
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: been struck by the serious note in her voice. Rubbish, Joan,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: you're always dreaming something or rather wild, her father said
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: a little impatiently. There's not an animal of any size
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: on the whole island, added Sangree with a puzzled expression.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: He never took his eyes from her face, but there's
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: nothing to prevent one swimming over, I put in briskly.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: For somehow a sense of uneasiness that was not pleasant
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: had woven itself into the talk and pauses. A deer,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: for instance, might easily land in the night and take
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: a look around, or a bear, gasped the Boaston's mate,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: with a look so portentous that we all welcomed the laugh.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: But Joan did not laugh. Instead, she sprang up and
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: called us to follow. There, she said, pointing to the
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: ground by her tent, on the farthest side from her mother's.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: There are the marks close to my head. You can
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: see for yourselves. We saw plainly the moss and lichen
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: for earth. There was hardly any have been scratched up
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: by pause an animal about the size of a large dog.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: It must have been, to judge by the marks. We
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: stood and stared in a row close to my head,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: repeated the girl, looking round at us. Her face, I noticed,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: was very pale, and her lip seemed to quiver for
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: an instant. Then she gave a sudden gulp and burst
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: into a flood of tears. The whole thing had come
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: about in the brief space of a few minutes, and
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: with a curious sense of inevitableness. Moreover, as though it
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: had all been carefully planned from all time, and nothing
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: could have stopped it. It had all been rehearsed before,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: had actually happened before. As the strange feeling some sometimes
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: has it, it seemed like the opening movement in some
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: ominous drama, and that I knew exactly what would happen next.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Something of great moment was impending. For this sinister sensation
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: of coming disaster made itself felt from the very beginning,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: and an atmosphere of gloom and dismay pervaded the entire
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: camp from that moment forward. I drew Sangree to one
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: side and moved away, while Maloney took the distressed girl
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: into her tent, and his wife followed them, energetic and
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: greatly flustered. For thus, in undramatic fashion, it was that
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: the terror I have spoken of first attempted the invasion
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: of our camp. And trivial and unimportant, though it seemed,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: every little detail of this opening scene is photographed upon
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: my mind with merciless accuracy and precision. It happened exactly
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: as described. This was exactly the language used. I see
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: it written before me in black and white. I see
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: too the faces of all concerned with the sudden, ugly
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: signature of alarm were once had been peace. The terror
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: had stretched out, so to speak, a first tentative feeler
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: towards us. It had touched the hearts of each with
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: a horrid directness, and from this moment the camp changed.
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: Sangree in particular, was visibly upset. He could not bear
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: to see the girl distressed, and to hear her actually
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: cry was almost more than he could stand. The feeling
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: that he had no right to protect her hurt him keenly,
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: and I could see that he was itching to do
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: something to help, and liked him for it. His expression
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: said plainly that he would tear in a thousand pieces
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: anything that dared to injure a hair of her head.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: We lit our pipes and strolled over in silence to
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: the men's quarters, and it was his odd Canadian expression,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: gee whiz, that drew my attention to a further discovery.
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: The brute's been scratching round my tent, too, he cried,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: as he pointed to similar marks by the door, and
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: I stooped down to examine them. We both stared in
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: amazement for several minutes without speaking. Only I sleep like
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: the dead, he added, straightening up again, and so I
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: heard nothing, I suppose. We traced the paw marks from
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: the mouth of his tent in a direct line across
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: to the girls, But nowhere else about the camp was
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: there a sign of the strange visitor. The deer dog
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: or whatever it was that had twice favored us with
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: a visit in the night, had confined its attention to
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: these two tents, and after all there was really nothing
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: out of the way about these visits of an unknown animal.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: For although our island was destitute of life, we were
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: in the heart of a wilderness, and the mainland and
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: larger islands must be swarming with all kinds of four
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: footed creatures, And no very prolonged swimming was necessary to
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: reach us. In any other country, it would not have
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: caused a moment's interest, interest of the kind we felt.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: That is, in our Canadian camps, the bears were forever
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: grunting about among the provision bags at night, porcupines scratching unceasingly,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: and chipmunks scuttling over everything. My daughter is overtired, and
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: that's the truth of it, explained Maloney presently, when he
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: had rejoined us and had examined in turn the other
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: palmar works. She's been overdoing it lately in camp life,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: you know, always means a great excitement to her. It's
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: natural enough. If we take no notice, she'll be all right.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: He paused to borrow my tobacco pouch and fill his pipe,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: and the blundering way he filled it and spilled the
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: precious weed on the ground visibly belied the calm of
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: his easy language. You might take her out for a
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: bit of fishing, Hupbard, like a good chap. She's hardly
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: up to the long day in the cutter show. Are
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: some of the other islands in your canoe? Perhaps? Eh?
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: And by lunch time the cloud had passed away as
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: suddenly and as suspiciously as it had come. But in
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: the canoe on our way home, having till then purposely
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: ignored the subject uppermost in our minds, she suddenly spoke
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: to me in a way that again touched the note
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: of sinister alarm, the note that kept on sounding and
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: sounding until finally John Silence came with his great vibrating
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: presence and relieved it. Yes, and even after he came
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: too for a while, I'm ashamed to ask it, she
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: said abruptly, as she steered me home, her sleeves rolled up,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: her hair blowing in the wind. But ashamed of my
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: silly tears too, because I really can't make out what
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: caused them. But mister Hubbard, I want you to promise
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: me not to go off for your long expeditions just yet.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: I beg it of you. She was so in earnest
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: that she forgot the canoe and the wind caught it
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: sideways and made us roll dangerously. I've tried hard not
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: to ask this, she added, bringing the canoe around again,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: but I simply can't help myself. It was a good
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: deal to ask, and I suppose my hesitation was plain,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: for she went on before I could reply, and her
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: beseeching expression and intensity of manner impressed me very forcibly.
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: For another two weeks only, mister Sangree leaves in a fortnight,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: I said, seeing at once what she was driving at,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: but wondering if it was best to encourage her or
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: not if I knew you were to be on the
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: island till then she said, her face alternately pale and
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: blushing and her voice trembling a little. I should feel
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: so much happier. I looked at her, steadily, waiting for
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: her to finish. And safer, she added, almost in a whisper,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: especially at night, I mean safer, joan, I repeated, thinking
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: I had never seen her eyes so soft and tender.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: She nodded her head, keeping her gaze fixed on my face.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: It was really difficult to refuse, whatever my thoughts and
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: judgment may have been, And somehow I understood that she
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: spoke with good reason, though for the life of me
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: I could not have put it into words. Happier and safer,
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: she said gravely, the canoe giving a dangerous lurch as
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: she leaned forward in her seat to catch my answer. Perhaps,
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: after all, the wisest way was to grant her request
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: and make light of it, easing her anxiety without too
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: much encouraging its cause. All right, Joan, you queer creature,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: I promise, And the instant look of relief in her
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: face and the smile that came back like sunlight in
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: her eyes made me feel that, unknown to myself and
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: the world, I was capable of considerable sacrifice after all.
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: But you know there's nothing to be afraid of, I
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: added sharply, and she looked up in my face with
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: the smile women use when they know we are talking idly,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: yet do not wish to tell us. So you don't
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: feel afraid, I know, she observed, quietly. Of course, not
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: why should I so? If you will just humor me
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: this once, I I will never ask anything foolish of
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: you again as long as I live, she said, gratefully.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: You have my promise was all I could find to say.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: She headed the nose of the canoe for the lagoon,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: lying a quarter of a mile ahead, and paddled swiftly.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: But a minute or two later she paused again and
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: stared hard at me with the dripping paddle across the thwarts.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: You've not heard anything at night yourself, have you, she asked?
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: I never hear anything at night, I replied, shortly, from
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: the moment I lie down till the moment I get up,
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: that dismal howling, for instance. She went on, determined to
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: get it out far away at first, and then getting
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: closer and stopping just outside the camp. Certainly not because
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: sometimes I think I almost dreamed it. Most likely you did,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: was my unsympathetic response. And you don't think father has
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: heard it either, then no, he would have told me
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: if he had. This seemed to relieve her mind a little.
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: I no, mother hasn't, she added, as if speaking to herself,
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: for she hears nothing. Ever, it was two nights after
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: this conversation that I woke out of deep sleep and
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: heard sounds of screaming. The voice was really horrible, breaking
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: the peace in side silence with its shrill clamor. In
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: less than ten seconds, I was half dressed and out
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: of my tent. The screaming had stopped abruptly, but I
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: knew the general direction and ran as fast as the
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: darkness would allow over to the women's quarters, And on
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: getting close I heard sounds of suppressed weeping. It was
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: Jane's voice, and just as I came up, I saw
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: Missus Maloney, marvelously attired, fumbling with a lantern. Other voices
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: became audible in the same moment behind me, and Timothy
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: Maloney arrived breathless, less than half dressed, and carrying another
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: lantern that had gone out on the way from being
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: banged against a tree. Dawn was just breaking, and a
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: chill wind blew in from the sea. Heavy black clouds
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: drove low overhead. The scene of confusion may be better
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: imagined than described. Questions and frightened voices filled the air
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: against this background of suppressed weeping. Briefly, Jane's silk tent
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: had been torn, and the girl was in a state
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: of bordering upon hysterics, somewhat reassured by our noisy presence, however,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: for she was plucky at heart. She pulled herself together
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: and tried to explain what had happened, and her broken
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: words told there on the edge of night and morning,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: upon this wild island ridge were oddly thrilling and distressingly convincing.
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: Something touched me, and I woke, she said, simply, but
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: in a voice still hushed and broken with the terror
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: of it. Something pushing against the tent. I felt it
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: through the canvas. There was the same sniffing and scratching
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: as before, and I felt the tent give a little,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: as when the wind shakes it. I heard breathing, very loud,
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: very heavy breathing, and then came a sudden, great tearing blow,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: and the canvas ripped open, close to my face. She
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: had instantly dashed out through the open flap and screamed
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: at the top of her voice, thinking the creature had
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: actually got into the tent. But nothing was visible, she declared,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: and she heard not the faintest sound of an animal
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: making off under cover of the darkness. The brief account
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: seemed to exercise a paralyzing effect upon us all as
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: we listened to it. I can see the disheveled group
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: to this day, the wind blowing the women's hair, and
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: Maloney craning his head forward to listen, and his wife
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: open mouthed and gasping, leaning against a pine tree. Come
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: over to the stockade and we'll get the fire going.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: I said, that's the first thing, for we were all
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: shaking with the cold in our scanty garments. And at
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: that moment Sangree arrived, wrapped in a blanket and carrying
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: his gun. He was still drunken with sleep. The dog again,
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: Maloney explained, briefly, forestalling his questions. Been at Jones's tent,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: torn it, But gad, this time it's time we did something,
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: He went on, mumbling confusedly to himself. Sangree grit tis
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: gun and looked about swiftly in the darkness. I saw
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: his eyes aflame in the glare of the flickering lanterns.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: He made a movement as though to start out and
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: hunt and kill. Then his glance fell on the girl
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: crouching on the ground, her face hidden in her hands,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: and there leaped into his features an expression of savage
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: anger that transformed them. He could have faced a dozen
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: lions with a walking stick at that moment. And again
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: I liked him for the strength of his anger, his
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: self control, and his hopeless devotion. But I stopped him
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: going off in a blind and useless chase. Come and
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: help me start the fire, Sangree said, anxious also to
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: relieve the girl of our presence. And a few minutes later,
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 1: the ashes, still glowing from the night's fire had kindled
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: the fresh wood, and there was a blaze that warmed
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: us well, while it also lit up the surrounding trees
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: within a radius of twenty yards. I heard nothing, he whispered,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: What in the world do you think it is. It
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: surely can't be only a dog. We'll find that out later,
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: I said, as the others came up to the grateful warmth.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: The first thing is to make as big a fire
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: as we can. Joan was calmer now, and her mother
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: had put on some warmer and less miraculous garments. And
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: while they stood talking in low voices, Maloney and I
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: slipped off to examine the tent. There was little enough
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: to see, but that little was unmistakable. Some animal had
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: scratched up the ground at the head of the tent,
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: and with a great blow of a powerful paw, a
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: paw clearly provided with good claws, had struck the silk
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: and torn it open. There was a hole large enough
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: to pass a fist and arm through. It can't be
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: far away, Maloney said, excitedly. We'll organize a hunt at
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: once this very minute. We hurried back to the fire,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: Maloney talking boisterously about his proposed hunt. There's nothing like
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: prompt action to dispel alarm, he whispered in my ear,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: and then turned to the rest of us. We'll hunt
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: the island from end to end at once, he said,
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: with excitement. That's what we'll do. The beast can't be
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: far away, and the Bosun's mate and Joan must come too,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: because they can't be left alone. Hubbard, you take the
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: right shore, and you Sangree the left, and I'll go
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: in the middle with the women. In this way we
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: can stretch clean across the ridge, and nothing bigger than
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: a rabbit can possibly escape us. He was extraordinarily excited.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: I thought. Anything affecting Joan, of course, stirred him. Prodigiously.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: Get your guns and we'll start the drive at once,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: he cried. He lit another lantern and handed one each
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: to his wife and Joan, And while I ran to
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: fetch my gun, I heard him singing to himself with
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: the excitement of it all. Meanwhile, the dawn had come
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: on quickly. It made the flickering lanterns look pale. The wind, too,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: was rising, and I heard the trees moaning overhead, and
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: the waves breaking with increasing clamor on the shore. In
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: the lagoon, the boat dipped and splashed, and the sparks
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: from the fire were carried aloft in a stream and
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: scattered far and wide. We made our way to the
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: extreme end of the island, measured our distances carefully, and
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: then began to advance. None of us spoke, Sangree and I,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: with cocked guns, watched the shore lines and all within
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: easy touch and speaking distance. It was a slow and
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: blundering drive, and there were many false alarms. But after
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 1: the best part of half an hour we stood on
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: the farther end, having made the complete tour, and without
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: putting up so much as a squirrel. Certainly there was
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: no living creature on that island, but ourselves. I know
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: what it is, cried Maloney, looking out over the dim
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: expanse of Gray Sea, and speaking with the air of
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: a man making a discovery. It's a dog from one
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: of the farms in the larger islands. He pointed seawards
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: where the archipelago thickened and it's escaped and turned wild.
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: Our fires and voices attracted it, and it's probably half
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: starved as well as savage. Poor brute. No one said
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: anything in reply, and he began to sing again, very
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: low to himself. The point where we stood, a huddled,
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: shivering group, faced the wider channels that led to the
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: open sea and Finland. The gray dawn had broken in
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: earnest at last, and we could see the racing waves
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: with their angry crests of white. The surrounding islands showed
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: up as dark masses in the distance, and in the east.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: Almost as Maloney spoke, the sun came up with a
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: rush in a stormy and magnificent sky of red and gold.
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: Against this splashed and gorgeous background, black clouds shaped like
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: fantastic and legendary animals, filed past swiftly in a tearing stream,
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: And to this day I have only to close my
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: eyes to see again that vivid and hurrying procession in
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: the air. All about us, the pines made black splashes
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: against the sky. It was an angry sunrise. Rain indeed
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: had already begun to fall in big drops. We turned,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: as by by a common instinct and without speech, made
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: our way back slowly to the stockade, Maloney humming snatches
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: of his songs, Sangree in front with his gun prepared
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: to shoot at a moment's notice, and the women floundering
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: in the rear, with myself and the extinguished lanterns. Yet
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: it was only a dog. Really, it was most singular
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: when one came to reflect soberly upon it. Events say,
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: the occultists have souls, or at least that agglomerate life,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: due to the emotions and thoughts of all concerned in them,
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: so that cities and even whole countries have great astral
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: shapes which may become visible to the eye of vision.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: And certainly here the soul of this drive, this vain, blundering,
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: futile drive, stood somewhere between ourselves and laughed. All of
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: us heard that laugh, and all of us tried hard
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: to smother the sound, or at least to ignore it.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: Everyone talked at once, loudly and with exaggerated diss decision,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: obviously trying to say something plausible against heavy odds, striving
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: to explain naturally that an animal might so easily conceal
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: itself from us or swim away before we had time
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: to light upon its trail, for we all spoke of
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: that trail as though it really existed, and we had
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: more to go upon than the mere marks of pause
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: about the tents of Joan and the Canadian. Indeed, but
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: for these and the torn tent, I think it would
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: of course have been possible to ignore the existence of
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: this beast intruder altogether. And it was here, under this
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: angry dawn, as we stood in the shelter of the
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: stockade from the pouring rain, weary yet so strangely excited.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: It was here, out of this confusion of voices and explanations,
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 1: that very stealthily the ghost of something horrible slipped in
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: and stood among us. It made all our explanations seem
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: childish and untrue. The false relation was instantly exposed. Eyes
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: exchanged quick, anxious glances, questioning, expressive of dismay. There was
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: a sense of wonder, of poignant distress, and of trepidation.
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: Alarm stood waiting at our elbows. We shivered. Then, suddenly,
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: as we looked into each other's faces, came the long,
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: unwelcome pause in which this new arrival established itself in
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: our hearts, and without further speech or attempt at explanation.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: Maloney moved off abruptly to mix the porridge for an
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: early breakfast, Sangree to clean the fish, myself to chop
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: wood and tend the fire, Joan and her mother to
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: change their wet garments, and most significant of all, to
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: prepare her mother's tent for its future. Compliment of two.
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: Each went to his duty, but hurriedly, awkwardly, silently, And
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: this new arrival, this shape of terror and distress, stalked
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: fewless by the side of each. If only I could
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: have traced that dog, I think was the thought in
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: the minds of all. But in camp, where everyone realizes
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: how important the individual contribution is to the comfort and
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: well being of all, the mind speedily recovers tone and
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: pulls itself together. During the day, a day of heavy
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: and ceaseless rain, we kept more or less to our tents,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: and though there were signs of mysterious conferences between the
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: three members of the Maloney family, I think that most
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: of us slept a good deal and stayed alone with
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: his thoughts. Certainly I did, because when Maloney came to
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: say that his wife invited us all to a special
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: tea in her tent. He had to shake me awake
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: before I realized he was there at all, and by
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: supper time we were more or less even minded again
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: and almost jolly. I only noticed that there was an
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: undercurrent of what is best described as jumpiness, and that
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: the merest snapping of a twig or PLoP of a
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: fish in lagoon was sufficient to make us start and
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: look over our shoulders. Pauses were rare in our talk,
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: and the fire was never, for one instant allowed to
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: get low. The wind and rain had ceased, but the
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: dripping of the branches still kept up an excellent imitation
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: of a downpour. In particular, Maloney was vigilant and alert,
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: telling us a series of tales in which the wholesome,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: humorous element was especially strong. He lingered too behind with
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: me after Sangree had gone to bed, and while I
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: mixed myself a glass of hot, sweetish punch, he did
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: a thing I had never known him to do before.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: He mixed one for himself and then asked me to
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: light him over to his tent. We said nothing on
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: the way, but I felt he was glad of my companionship.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: I returned alone to the stockade and for a long
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: time after that kept the fire blazing and sat up,
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: smoking and thinking. I hardly knew why, but sleep was
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: far from me, for one thing, and for another, an
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: idea was taking form in my mind that required the
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: comfort of tobacco and a bright fire for its growth.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: I lay against a corner of that stockade seat, listening
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: to the wind whispering into the ceaseless drip drip of
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: the trees. The night otherwise was very still, and the
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: sea quiet as a lake. I remember that I was conscious,
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: particularly conscious of this host of desolate islands crowding about
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: us in the darkness, and that we were the one
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: little spot of humanity in a rather wonderful kind of wilderness.
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: But this, I think, was the only symptom that came
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: to warn me of highly strung nerves, and it certainly
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: was not sufficiently alarming to destroy my peace of mind.
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: One thing, however, did come to disturb my peace. For
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: just as I finally made ready to go, and had
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: kicked the embers of the fire into a last effort,
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: I fancied I saw peering at me round the farther
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: end of the stockade wall, a dark and shadowy mass
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: that might have been that strongly resembled, in fact, the
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: body of a large animal. Two glowing eyes shone for
• 1:24:02
  Speaker 1: an instant in the middle of it. But the next
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: second I saw that it was merely a projecting mass
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: of moss and lichen in the wall of our stockade,
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: and the eyes were a couple of wandering sparks from
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: the dying ashes I had kicked. It was easy enough,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: too to imagine I saw an animal moving here and
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: there between the trees as I picked my way stealthily
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: to my tent. Of course, the shadows tricked me, and
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: though it was after one o'clock, Maloney's light was still burning,
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: for I saw his tent shining white among the pines.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: It was, however, in the short space between consciousness and sleep,
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: that time when the body is low and the voices
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: of the submerged region tell sometimes true, that the idea
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: which had been all this while maturing, reached the point
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: of actual decision. And I suddenly realized that I had
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: resolved to send word to doctor Silence, For with a
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: sudden wonder that I had hitherto been so blind, the
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: unwelcome conviction dawned upon me all at once that some
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: dreadful thing was lurking about us on this island, and
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: that the safety of at least one of us was
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: threatened by something monstrous and unclean that was too horrible
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: to contemplate. And again remembering those last words of his,
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: as the train moved out of the platform, I understood
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: that Doctor Silence would hold himself in readiness to come
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: unless you should send for me sooner, he had said.
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: I found myself suddenly wide awake. It is impossible to
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: say what woke me, but it was no gradual process,
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: Seeing that I jumped from deep sleep to absolute alertness
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: in a single instant. I had evidently slept for an
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: hour or more. When for the night had cleared, the
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: stars crowded the sky, and a pallid half moon just
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: sinking into the sea through a spectral light between the trees,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: I went outside to sniff the air and stood upright.
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: A curious impression that something was a stir in the
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: camp came over me, and when I glanced across at
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 1: Sangree's tent, some twenty feet away, I saw that it
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: was moving. He too, then was awake and restless, for
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: I saw the canvas sides bulge this way, and that
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: as he moved within the tent flap pushed forward. He
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: was coming out like myself to sniff the air, and
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: I was not surprised for its sweetness. After the rain
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: was intoxicating, and he came on all fours just as
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: I had done. I saw a head thrust round the
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: edge of the tent, and then I saw that it
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: was not Sangree at all. It was an animal, and
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: the same instant I realized something else too. It was
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: the animal, and its whole presentment, for some unaccountable reason,
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: was unutterably molific. A cry I was quite unable to
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: suppress escaped me, and the creature turned on the instant
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: and stared at me with baleful eyes. I could have
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: dropped on the spot for the strength all ran out
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: of my body with a rush. Something about it touched
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: in me the living terror that grips and paralyzes. If
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: the mind requires but the tenth of a second to
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: form an impression, I must have stood there, stock still
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: for several seconds while I seized the ropes for support
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: and stared. Many and vivid impressions flashed through my mind,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: but not one of them resulted in action, because I
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: was in instant dread that the beast any moment would
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: leap in my direction and be upon me instead. However,
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: after what seemed a vast period, it slowly turned its
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: eyes from my face, uttered a low whining sound, and
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: came out altogether into the open. Then, for the first
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: time I saw it in its entirety, and noted two things.
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: It was about the size of a large dog, but
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: at the same time it was utterly unlike any animal
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: that I had ever seen. Also, that the quality that
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: had impressed me for first as being malific was really
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: only its singular and original strangeness. Foolish as it may sound,
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: and impossible as it is for me to adduce proof,
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: I can only say that the animals seemed to me
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: then to be not real. But all this passed through
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: my mind in a flash, almost subconsciously, and before I
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: had time to check my impressions or even properly verify them,
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: I made an involuntary movement, catching the tight rope in
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: my hand so that it twanged like a banjo string,
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: And in that instant the creature turned the corner of
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: Sangree's tent and was gone into the darkness. Then, of course,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 1: my senses in some measure returned to me, and I
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 1: realized only one thing it had been inside his tent.
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: I dashed out, reached the door in half a dozen strides,
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: and looked in the Canadian thanked God lay upon his
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: bed of branches. His arm was stretched outside across the blankets,
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: the fist tightly clenched, and the body had an appearance
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: of unusual rigidity that was alarming. On his face there
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: was an expression of effort, almost of painful effort, as
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: far as the uncertain light permitted me to see, and
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: his sleep seemed to be very profound. He looked, I thought,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: so stiff, so unnaturally stiff, and in some indefinable way too,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: he looked smaller, shrunken. I called to him to wake,
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: but called many times in vain. Then I decided to
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: shake him, and had already moved forward to do so vigorously,
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: when there came a sound of footsteps patting softly behind me,
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: and I felt a stream of hot breath burned my neck.
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: As I stooped. I turned sharply. The tent door was darkened,
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: and something silently swept in. I felt a rough and
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: shaggy body push past me, and I knew that the
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: animal had returned, seemed to leap forward between me and Sangree,
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: in fact, to leap upon Sangree, for its dark body
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: hid him momentarily from view, and in that moment my
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: soul turned sick and cowered with a horror that rose
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: from the very dregs and depths of life and gripped
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: my existence at its central source. The creature seemed somehow
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: to melt away into him, almost as though it belonged
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: to him and were a part of him. But in
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: the same instant, that instant of extraordinary confusion and terror
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: in my mind, it seemed to pass over and behind him,
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: and in some utterly unaccountable fashion, it was gone. And
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: the Canadian woke and sat up with a start. Quick,
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: you fool, I cried in my excitement. The beast has
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: been in your tent. Hear at your very throat while
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: you sleep like the dead. Ah man, get your gun.
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: Only this second it disappeared over there behind your head,
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: quick or joan. And somehow the fact that he was there,
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: wide awake now to corroborate me, brought the additional conviction
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: to my mind that this was no animal but some
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: perplexing and dreadful form of life that drew upon my
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: deeper knowledge that much reading had perhaps assented to, but
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: that had never yet come within actual range of my senses.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: He was up in a flash, and out he was
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: trembling and very white. We searched hurriedly, feverishly, but found
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: only the traces of paw marks passing from the door
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: of his own tent across the moss to the women's.
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: And the sight of the tracks about Missus Maloney's tent
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: where Joan now slept set him in a perfect fury.
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: Do you know what it is, Hubbard, this beast? He
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: hissed under his breath at me. It's a damned wolf,
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: That's what it is. A wolf lost among the islands
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: and starving to death, desperate. So help me God. I
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: believe it's that. He talked a lot of rubbish. In
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 1: his excitement. He declared he would sleep by day and
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 1: sit up every night till he killed it again. His
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: rage touched my admiration, but I got him away before
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: he made enough noise to wake the whole camp. I've
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: a better plan than that, I said, watching his face closely.
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: I don't think this is anything we can deal with
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to send for the only man I know
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: who can help. We'll go to Waxholm this very morning
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: and get a telegram through. Sanggree stared at me with
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: a curious expression as the fury died out of his
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: face and a new look of alarm took its place.
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 1: John silence, I said, will know you think it's something
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: of that sort, he stammered, I am sure of it.
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: There was a moment's pause. That's worse, far worse than
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: anything material, he said, growing visibly paler. He looked from
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: my face to the sky, and then added, with sudden resolution.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: Come the wind's rising. Let's get off at once. From
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: there you can telephone to Stockholm, and yet a telegram
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: sent without delay. I sent him down to get the
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: boat ready, and seized the opportunity myself to run and
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: wake Maloney. He was sleeping very lightly and sprang up
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: the moment I put my head inside his tent. I
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: told him briefly what I had seen, and he showed
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: so little surprise that I caught myself wondering for the
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: first time whether he himself had seen more going on
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: than he had deemed wise to communicate to the rest
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: of us. He agreed to my plan without a moment's hesitation,
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: and my last words to him were to let his
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: wife and daughter think that the great psychic doctor was
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: coming merely as a chance visitor and not with any
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: professional interest. So, with prying pan provisions and blankets aboard,
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: sangree and I sailed out of the lagoon fifteen minutes
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: later and headed with a good breeze for the direction
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: of Waxholm and the borders of civilization. End of Part three,
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: The Camp of the Dog by Altna Blackwood. This is
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: The Camp of the Dog by Algernon Blackwood, read by
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: Charles Blickmore The Camp of the Dog, Part four. Although
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: nothing John Silence did ever took me properly speaking, by surprise.
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 1: It was certainly unexpected to find a letter from Stockholm
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: waiting for me. I have finished my hungary business, he wrote,
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: and am here for ten days. Do not hesitate to
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: send if you need me. If you telephone any morning
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: from Waxholm, I can catch the afternoon steamer. My years
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: of intercourse with him were full of coincidences of this description,
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: And although he never sought to explain them by claiming
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: any magical system of communication with my mind, I have
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: never doubted that there actually existed some secret telepathic method
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: by which he knew my circumstances and gaged the degree
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: of my need. And that this power was independent of time,
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: in the sense that it saw into the future always
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: seemed to me equally apparent. Sangree was as much relieved
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: as I was, and within an hour of sunset that
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: very evening we met him on the arrival of the
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: little coasting steamer and carried him off in the dinghy
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: to the camp we had prepared on our neighboring island,
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: meaning to start for home early next morning. Now, he said,
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: when supper was over, when we were smoking round the fire,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: let me hear your story. He grant, glanced from one
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: to the other, smiling. You tell it, mister Hubbard. Sangree
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: interrupted abruptly and went awful little way to wash the dishes,
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 1: yet not so far as to be out of earshot.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: And while he splashed with the hot water and scraped
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: the tin plates with sand and moss, my voice unbroken
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: by a single question from doctor. Silence ran on for
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: the next half hour with the best account I could
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: give of what had happened. My listener lay on the
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: other side of the fire, his face half hidden by
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: a big sombrero. Sometimes he glanced up questioningly when a
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: point needed elaboration, but he uttered no single word till
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: I had reached the end, and his manner all through
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: the recital was grave and attentive. Overhead, the wash of
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: the wind in the pine branches filled in the pauses,
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: the darkness settled down over the sea, and the stars
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: came out in thousands, and by the time I finished,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 1: the moon had risen to flood the scene with silver.
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: Yet by his face and eyes, I knew quite well
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: that the doctor was listening to something he had expected
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: to hear, even if he had not actually anticipated all
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: the all the details you did well to send for me,
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: he said, very low, with a significant glance at me.
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: When I finished, very well, and for one swift second
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: his I took in sangree, for what we have to
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: deal with here is nothing more than a were wolf.
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: Rare enough, I am glad to say, but often very sad,
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: and sometimes very terrible. I jumped as though I had
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: been shot, but the next second was heartily ashamed of
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: my want of control. For this brief remark, confirming as
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: it did, my own worst suspicions, did more to convince
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: me of the gravity of the adventure than any number
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: of questions or explanations. It seemed to draw close the
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: circle about us, shutting a door somewhere that locked us
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: in with the animal and the horror, and turning the key.
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: Whatever it was had now to be faced and dealt with.
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: No one has been actually injured so far, he asked aloud,
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: but in a matter of fact tone that lent reality
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: to grim possibilities. Good heavens, no, cried the Canadian, throwing
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: down his dishcloths and coming forward into the circle of firelight.
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 1: Surely there can be no question of this poor starved
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: beast injuring anybody can there His hair straggled untidily over
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: his forehead, and there was a gleam in his eyes
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: that was not all reflection from the fire. His words
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: made me termed sharply. We all laughed, a little short
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: forced laughed, I trust not. Indeed, Doctor Silence said quietly,
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: but what makes you think the creature is starved. He
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: asked the question with his eyes straight on the other's face.
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: The prompt question explained to me why I had started,
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 1: and I waited with just a tremor of excitement for
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 1: the reply. Sangree hesitated a moment, as though the question
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: took him by surprise, but he met the doctor's gaze
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: unflinchingly across the fire, and with complete honesty. Really, he
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: faltered with a little shrug of the shoulders. I can
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: hardly tell you the phrase seemed to come out of
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 1: its own. I have felt from the beginning that it
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: was in pain and starved. Though why I felt this
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: never occurred to me till you asked. You really know
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 1: very little about it, then said the other, with a
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: sudden gentleness in his voice. No more than that, Sangree replied,
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: looking at him with a puzzled expression that was unmistakably genuine.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: In fact, nothing at all, really, he added, by way
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: of further explanation, I'm glad of that. I heard the
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: doctor murmur under his breath, but so low that I
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: only just caught the words, and Sangree missed them altogether,
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: as evidently he was meant to do and now he cried,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: getting on his feet and shaking himself with a characteristic gesture,
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: as though to shake out the horror and the mystery.
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: Let us leave the problem till tomorrow and enjoy this
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 1: wind and sea and stars. I've been living lately in
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: the atmosphere of many people, and feel that I want
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: to wash and be clean. I propose a swim and
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: then bed. Who'll second me? Two minutes later we were
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: all diving from the boat into cool, deep water that
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: reflected a thousand moons. As the waves broke away from
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: us in countless ripples. We slept in blankets under the
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 1: open sky, Sangree and I taking the outside places, and
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: were up before sunrise to catch the dawn wind. Helped
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: by this early start, we were half way home by noon,
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: and then the wind shifted to a few points behind us,
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: so that we fairly ran in and out among a
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: thousand islands, down narrow channels where we lost the wind,
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: out into open spaces where we had to take in
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: a reef. Racing along under a hot and cloudless sky,
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: we flew through the very heart of the bewildering and
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: lonely scenery. A real wilderness, cried John Silence from his
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: seat in the boughs where he held the jib sheet.
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: His hat was off, his hair tumbled in the wind,
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 1: and his lean brown face gave him the touch of
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: an oriental. Presently, he changed places with Sangree and came
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: down to talk with me by the tiller. A wonderful region,
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: all this world of islands, he said, waving his hand
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: to the scenery rushing past us. But doesn't it strike
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: you there's something lacking. It's hard, I answered, after a
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: moment's reflection. It has a superficial, glittering prettiness without I
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: hesitated to find the word I wanted. John Silence nodded
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: his head with approval. Exactly, he said, the picturesqueness of
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 1: stage scenery that is not real, not alive. It's like
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: a landscape by a clever painter, yet without true imagination. Soulless,
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: that's the word you wanted, something like that, I answered,
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: Watching the gusts of wind on the sails, not dead
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: so much as without soul. That's it, of course, he
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: went on in a voice calculated. It seemed to me
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 1: not to reach our companion in the bows, to live
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: long in a place like this, long and alone might
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 1: bring abu a strange result in some men. I suddenly
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: realized he was talking with a purpose, and pricked up
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: my ears. There's no life here. These islands are mere
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: dead rocks pushed up from below the sea, not living land,
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: and there's nothing really alive on them. Even the sea,
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 1: this tideless, brackish sea, neither salt water nor fresh is dead.
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 1: It's all a pretty image of life without the real
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: heart and soul of life. To a man with two
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: strong desires who came here and lived close to nature,
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: strange things might happen. Let her out a bit, I
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: shouted to Sangree, who was coming. After the wind's gusty,
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: and we've got hardly any ballast. He went back to
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: the boughs, and doctor silence continued here. I mean a
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: long sojourn would lead to deterioration, to degeneration. The place
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: is utterly unsoftened by human influences, by any humanizing associations
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: of history, good or bad. This landscape has never awakened
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: into life. It's still dreaming in its primitive sleep in time,
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: I put in, you mean a man living here might
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: become brutal. The passions would run wild selfishness become supreme,
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: the instincts coarsen and turn savage. Probably, But in other places,
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: just as wild parts of Italy, for instance, where there
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: are other moderating influences, it could not happen. The character
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 1: might grow wild, savage too, in a sense, but with
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: a human wildness one could understand and deal with. But here,
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 1: in a hard place like this, it might be otherwise.
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: He spoke, slowly, weighing his words carefully. I looked at
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: him with many questions in my eyes, and a precautionary
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: cry to sangree to stay in the fore part of
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: the boat, out of ear shot. First of all, there
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: would come callousness to pain and indifference to the rights
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: of others. Then the soul would turn savage, not from
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 1: passionate human causes or with enthusiasm, but by deadening down
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: into a kind of cold, primitive, emotionless savagery, by turning
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: like the landscape soulless. And a man with strong desires,
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: you say, might change without being aware of it. Yes,
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: he might turn savage. His instincts and desires turn animal.
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: And if he lowered his voice and turned for a
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: moment towards the bows and then continued in his most
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: weighty manner, owing to delicate health or other predisposing causes
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: his double You know what I mean, of course, his
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: etheric body of desire, or astral body, as some term it,
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: that part in which the emotions, passions, and desires reside.
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: If this, I say, were for some constitutional reason loosely
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 1: joined to his physical organism, there might well take place
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 1: an occasional projection. Sangree came aft with a sudden rush,
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: his face aflame, But whether with wind or sun, or
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: with what he had heard, I cannot say. In my surprise,
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: I let the tiller slip, and the cutter gave a
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: great plunge as she came sharply into the wind, and
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: flung us all together in a heap on the bottom.
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: Sangree said nothing, but while he scrambled up and made
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: the jib sheet fast, my companion found a moment to
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: add to his unfinished sentence, the words too low for
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: any ear but mine, entirely unknown to himself. However, we
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: righted the boat and laughed, And then Sangree produced the
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: map and explained exactly where we were, far away on
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: the horizon, across an open stretch of water lay a
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: blue cluster of islands, with our crescent shaped home among them,
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: and the safe anchorage of the lagoon. An hour with
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: this wind would get us there comfortably. And while Doctor
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: Silence and Sangree fell into conversation, I sat and pondered
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: over the strange suggestions that had just been put into
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 1: my mind concerning the double and the possible form it
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: might assume when dissociated temporarily from the physical body. The
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: whole way home, these two chatted, and John Silence was
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: as gentle and sympathetic as a woman. I did not
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: hear much of their talk, for the wind grew occasionally
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: to the force of a hurricane, and the sails and
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: tiller absorbed my attention. But I could see that Sangree
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 1: was pleased and happy, and was pouring out intimate revelations
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 1: to his companion in the way that most people did
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: when John Silence wished them to do so. But it
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: was quite suddenly, while I sat all intent upon the
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: wind and sails, that the true meaning of Sangree's remark
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: about the animal flared up in me with its full
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: import For his admission that he knew it was in
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: pain and starved was in reality nothing more or less
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: than a revelation of his deeper self. It was in
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: the nature of a confess and he was speaking of
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: something that he knew positively, something that was beyond question
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: or argument, something that had to do directly with himself,
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: poor starved beast. He had called it in words that
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: had come out of their own accord, and there had
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: not been the slightest evidence of any desire to conceal
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: or explain away. He had spoken instinctively from his heart,
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 1: as though about his own self. And half an hour
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: before sunset we raced through the narrow opening of the lagoon,
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: and saw the smoke of the dinner fire blowing here
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: and there among the trees, and the figures of Joan
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: and the Bosun's mate running down to meet us at
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: the landing stage. End of Part four. This is a
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: The Camp of the Dog by Algernon Blackwood, read by
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: Charles Blakemore The Camp of the Dog, Part five. Everything
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 1: changed from the moment John Silence set foot on that island.
• 1:48:30
  Speaker 1: It was like the effect produced by calling in some
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: big doctor, some great arbiter of life and death, for consultation.
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: The sense of gravity increased one hundredfold. Even inanimate objects
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: took upon themselves a subtle alteration for the setting of
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: the adventure. This deserted bit of sea, with its hundreds
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: of uninhabited islands, somehow turned somber an element that was
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: mysterious and in a sense disheartening, crept unbidden into the
• 1:48:59
  Speaker 1: severe of gray rock and dark pine forest, and took
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 1: the sparkle from the sunshine and the sea. I at
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: least was keenly aware of the change, for my whole
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: being shifted, as it were, a degree higher, becoming keyed
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: up and alert. Figures from the background of the stage
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: moved forward a little into the light, nearer to the
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: inevitable action. In a word, this man's arrival intensified the
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: whole affair. And looking back down the years to the
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: time when all this happened, it is clear to me
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: that he had a pretty sharp idea of the meaning
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 1: of it from the very beginning. How much he knew
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: beforehand by his strange divining powers, it is impossible to say,
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: but from the moment he came upon the scene and
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 1: caught within himself the note of what was going on
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 1: amongst us. He undoubtedly held the true solution of the puzzle,
• 1:49:49
  Speaker 1: and had no need to ask questions. And this certitude,
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: it was that set him in such an atmosphere of
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: power and made us all look to him instinctively, For
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: he took no tentative steps, made no false moves, and
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 1: while the rest of us floundered, he moved straight to
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: the climax. He was, indeed a true diviner of souls.
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 1: I can now read into his behavior a good deal
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: that puzzled me at the time, for though I had
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: dimly guessed the solution, I had no idea how he
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: would deal with it. And the conversations I can reproduce
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: almost verbatim, for according to my invariable habit, I took
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: full notes of all he said. To missus Maloney, foolish
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: and dazed, to Joan, alarmed yet plucky, and to the clergyman,
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: moved by his daughter's distress. Below his usual shallow emotions,
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 1: he gave the best possible treatment in the best possible way,
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 1: yet all so easily and simply as to make it
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: appear naturally spontaneous, for he dominated the Bosun's mate, taking
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: the measure of her ignorance with infinite patience. He keyed
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: up Joan, stirring her courage and interest to the highest
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: point for her own safety. And the Reverend Timothy he
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: soothed and comforted, while obtaining his implicit obedience by taking
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: him into his confidence and leading him gradually to a
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: comprehension of the issue that was bound to follow. And
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: Sangree here his wisdom was most wisely calculated. He neglected
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 1: outwardly because inwardly he was the object of his unceasing
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: and most concentrated attention. Under the guise of apparent indifference,
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 1: his mind kept the Canadian under constant observation. There was
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: a restless feeling in the camp that evening, and none
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: of us lingered round the fire after supper. As usual,
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: Sangree and I busied ourselves with patching up the torn
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 1: tent for our guest, and with finding heavy stones to
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: hold the ropes. For Doctor Silence insisted on having it
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 1: pitched on the highest point of the island ridge, just
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: where it was most rock and there was no earth
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: for pegs. The place, moreover was midway between the men's
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: and women's tents, and of course commanded the most comprehensive
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: view of the camp, so that if your dog comes,
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: he said simply, I may be able to catch him
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: as he passes across. The wind had gone down with
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: the sun, and an unusual warmth lay over the island
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: that made sleep heavy, and in the morning we assembled
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: at a late breakfast, rubbing our eyes and yawning. The
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: cool north wind had given way to the warm southern
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 1: air that sometimes came up with haze and moisture across
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: the Baltic, bringing with it the relaxing sensations that produced
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: enervation and listlessness. And this may have been the reason
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 1: why at first I failed to notice that anything unusual
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: was about, and why I was less alert than normally,
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: For it was not till after breakfast that the silence
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: of our little party struck me, and I discovered that
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: Joan had not yet put in an appearance. And then
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: in a flash, the last heaviness of sleep vanished, and
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: I saw that Maloney was white and troubled, and his
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: wife could not hold a plate without trembling. A desire
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: to ask questions was stopped in me by a swift
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 1: glance from doctor silence, and I suddenly understood in some
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: vague way that they were waiting till Sangree should have gone.
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: How this idea came to me, I cannot determine, but
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: the soundness of the intuition was soon proved. For the
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: moment he moved off to his tent, Maloney looked up
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 1: at me and began to speak in a low voice.
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: You slept through it all, he half whispered through what
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: I asked, Suddenly thrilled with the knowledge that something dreadful
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 1: had happened. We didn't wake you for fear of getting
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: the whole camp up, he went on, meaning, by the camp,
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 1: I supposed, Sangree. It was just before dawn when the
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: screams woke me the dog again, I asked, with a
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: curious sinking of the heart, right into the tent. He
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: went on, speaking passionately for very low, and woke my
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: wife by scrambling all over her. Then she realized that
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: Joan was struggling beside her, and by God, the beast
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: had torn her arm. Scratched all down the arms she
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: was and bleeding. Joan injured. I gasped, merely scratched this
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 1: time put in John's silence, speaking for the first time,
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: suffering more from shock and fright than actual wounds. Isn't
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: it a mercy the doctor was here, said missus Maloney,
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: looking as if she would never know calmness again. I
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: think we should have both been killed. It has been
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: a most merciful escape, Maloney said, his pulpit voice struggling
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: with his emotion. But of course we cannot risk another
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: We must strike camp and get away at once. Only
• 1:54:53
  Speaker 1: poor mister Sangree must not know what has happened. He
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: is so attached to Joan and would be so terribly
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 1: upset out of the Boastn's mate distractedly looking all about
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: in her terror. It is perhaps advisable that mister Sangree
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: should not know what has occurred. Doctor Silence said with
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: quiet authority. But I think for the safety of all concerned,
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: it would be better not to leave the island just now.
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: He spoke with great decision, and Maloney looked up and
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 1: followed his words closely. If you will agree to stay
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: here a few days longer, I have no doubt we
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 1: can put an end to the attentions of your strange visitor.
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: And incidentally, have the opportunity of observing a most singular
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: and interesting phenomenon. What, gasped missus Maloney, a phenomenon? You
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: mean that you know what it is? I am quite
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 1: certain I know what it is, he replied, very low,
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: for we had heard the footsteps of Sangree approaching. Though
• 1:55:47
  Speaker 1: I am not so certain yet as to the best
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: means of dealing with it. But in any case, it
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 1: is not wise to leave precipitately. Oh, Timothy, does he
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 1: think it's a devil? Cried the bosun's mate, in a
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 1: voice that even the Canadian must have heard. In my opinion,
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: continued John Silence, looking across at me and the clergyman.
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: It is a case of modern lycanthropy, with other complications
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: that may He left the sentence unfinished, for Missus Maloney
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: got up with a jump and fled to her tent,
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: fearful she might hear a worse thing. And at that
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: moment Sangree turned the corner of the stockade and came
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: into view. There are footmarks all round the mouth of
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 1: my tent, he said, with excitement. The animal has been
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 1: here again in the night. Doctor Silence, you really must
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: come and see them, for yourself there as plain on
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: the moss as tracks in snow. But later in the day,
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: while Sangree went off in the canoe to fish the
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: pools near the larger islands, and Joan lay still bandaged
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: and resting in her tent, Doctor Silence called me and
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: the tutor and proposed a walk to the granite slabs
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: of the far end, and missus Maloney sat on a
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: stump near her daughter and busied herself energetically with alternate
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: nursing and painting. We'll leave you in charge, the doctor said,
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 1: with a smile that was meant to be encouraging. And
• 1:57:15
  Speaker 1: when you want us for lunch or anything, the megaphone
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: will always bring us back in time. For though the
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: very air was charged with strange emotions, every one talked
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: quietly and naturally, as with a definite desire to counteract
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: on necessary excitement. I'll keep watch, said the plucky Bosun's maid.
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: And meanwhile, I find comfort in my work. She was
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: busy with the sketch she had begun on the day
• 1:57:41
  Speaker 1: after our arrival. For even a tree, she added, proudly,
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: pointing to her little easel, is a symbol of the divine,
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: And the thought makes me feel safer. We glanced for
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: a moment at a daub, which was more like the
• 1:57:54
  Speaker 1: symptom of a disease than a symbol of the divine,
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: and then took the path round the lion. At the
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: far end, we made a little fire and lay round
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 1: it in the shadow of a big bowlder. Maloney stopped
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 1: his humming suddenly and turned to his companion. And what
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: do you make of it all? He asked abruptly. In
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: the first place, replied John silence, making himself comfortable against
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 1: the rock. It is of human origin, this animal, it
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: is undoubtedly likeanthropy. His words had the effect precisely of
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 1: a bomb shell. Maloney listened as though he had been struck.
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 1: You puzzle me utterly, he said, sitting up closer and
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: staring at him, perhaps, replied the other. But if you'll
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 1: listen to me for a few moments, you may be
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 1: less puzzled at the end, or more, depends on how
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 1: much you know. Let me go further and say that
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: you have underestimated or miscalculated the effect of this primitive
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: wild life upon all of you. In what way? Asked
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: the clergyman, bristling a trifle. It is strong medicine for
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 1: any town dweller, and for some of you it has
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 1: been too strong. One of you has gone wild, he
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: uttered these last words with great emphasis. Gone savage, he added,
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: looking from one to the other. Neither of us found
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 1: anything to reply to say that the brute has awakened
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: in a man is not a mere metaphor always, he
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: went on, presently, of course, not, but in the sense
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, may have a very literal and terrible significance,
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: pursued doctor silence. Ancient instincts that no one dreamed of,
• 1:59:39
  Speaker 1: least of all their possessor may leap forth. Atavism can
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: hardly explain a roaming animal with teeth and claws and
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: sanguinary instincts, interrupted Maloney with impatience. The term is of
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: your own choice, continued the doctor, equably, not mine. And
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: it is a good example of a word that indicates
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: a result while it conceals the process. But the explanation
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: of this beast that haunts your island and attacks your
• 2:00:06
  Speaker 1: daughter is of far deeper significance than mere atavistic tendencies
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: or throwing back to animal origin, which I suppose is
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: the thought in your mind you spoke just now of lycanthropy,
• 2:00:19
  Speaker 1: said Maloney, looking bewildered and anxious to keep plain facts. Evidently,
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: I think I have come across the word. But really, really,
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: it can have no actual significance to day ken it
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 1: these superstitions of medieval times can hardly He looked round
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: at me with his jolly red face and the expression
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: of astonishment and dismay on it would have made me
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: shout with laughter at any other time. Laughter, however, was
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: never farther from my mind than at this moment, when
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: I listened to doctor Silence, as he carefully suggested to
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: the clergyman, the very explanation that had gradually been forcing
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: itself upon my own mind. However medieval ideas may have exaggerated,
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: the idea is not of much importance to us now,
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: he said quietly, when we are face to face with
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 1: a modern example of what I take it has always
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: been a profound fact. For the moment, let us leave
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 1: the name of any one in particular out of the matter,
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: and considers certain possibilities. We all agreed with that, at
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 1: any rate, there was no need to speak of Sangree
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: or of any one else until we knew a little
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: more the fundamental fact in this most curious case, he
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: went on, is that of the double of a man.
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: You mean the astral body I've heard of that, of course,
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 1: broke in a maloney with a snort of triumph. No doubt,
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: said the other, smiling, No doubt you have that this
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 1: double or fluidic body of a man, as I was saying,
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 1: has the power, under certain conditions, of projecting itself and
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: becoming visible to others. Certain training will accomplish this, and
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 1: certain drugs, likewise, illnesses too, that ravage the body, may
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: produce temporarily the result that death produces permanently. And let
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: loose this counterpart of a human being and render it
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: visible to the sight of others. Every one, of course
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: knows this more or less to day, but it is
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 1: not so generally known, and probably believed by none who
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: have not witnessed it, that this fluidic body can, under
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: certain conditions, assume other forms than human, and that such
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 1: other forms may be determined by the dominating thought and
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: wish of the owner. For this double or astral body,
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: as you call it, is really the seat of the passions, emotions,
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 1: and desires in the physical economy. It is the passion
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 1: body and in projecting itself, it can often assume a
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: form that gives expression to the overmastering desire that molds it,
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 1: For it is composed of such tenuous matter that it
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 1: tends itself readily to the molding by thought and wish,
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 1: I follow you perfectly, said Maloney, looking as if he
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 1: would much rather be chopping firewood elsewhere, and singing. There
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: are some persons so constituted. The doctor went on, with
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 1: increasing seriousness, that the fluid body in them is but
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 1: loosely associated with the physical persons of poor health as
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: a rule, yet often of strong desires and passions. And
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: in these persons it is easy for the double to
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: dissociate itself during deep sleep from their system, and, driven
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: forth by some consuming desire, to assume an animal form
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: and seek the fulfillment of that desire. There in broad daylight,
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: I saw Maloney deliberately creep closer to the fire and
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: heaped the wood on. We gathered into the heat and
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: to each other, and listened to Doctor Silence's voice as
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: it mingled with the swish and whirror of the wind
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: about us, and the falling of the little waves. For instance,
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: to take a concrete example, he resumed. Suppose some young
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 1: man with the delicate constitution I have spoken of, forms
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 1: an overpowering attachment to a young woman, yet perceives that
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: it is not welcomed, and is man enough to repress
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: its outward manifestations. In such a case, supposing his double
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: be easily projected, the very repression of his love in
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: the daytime would add to the intense force of his
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: desire when released in deep sleep from the control of
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: his will, and his fluidic body might issue forth in
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: monstrous or animal shape and become actually visible to others.
• 2:04:35
  Speaker 1: And if his devotion were doglike in its fidelity, yet
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: concealing the fires of a fierce passion beneath, it might
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: well assume the form of a creature that seemed to
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: be half dog half wolf. Aware wolf you mean, cried Maloney,
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: pale to the lips as he listened. John silence held
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: up a restraining hand. A ware wolf, he said, is
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 1: a true psychical fact of profound significance. However absurdly it
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: may have been exaggerated by the imaginations of a superstitious
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: pedantry in the days of unenlightenment. For a werewolf is
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 1: nothing but the savage and possibly sanguinary instincts of a
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: passionate man scouring the world in his fluidic body, his
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: passion body, his body of desire. As in the case
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: at hand, he may not know it. It is not
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 1: necessarily deliberate, then, maloney put in quickly with relief. It
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: is hardly ever deliberate. It is the desires released in
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: sleep from the control of the will, finding a vent
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 1: in all savage races. It has been recognized and dreaded,
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: this phenomenon styled werewolf. But today it is rare, and
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: it is becoming rarer still, for the world grows tame
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: and civilized. Emotions have become refined, desires lukewarm, and few
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 1: men have savagery enough left in them to generate impulses
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 1: of such intense force, and certainly not to project them
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: in animal form. By God, exclaimed the clergyman, breathlessly and
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: with increasing excitement. Then I feel I must tell you
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 1: what has been given to me in confidence, that Sangree
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: has in him an admixture of savage blood of red
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: Indian ancestry. Let us stick to our supposition of a
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: man as described. The doctor stopped him calmly and let
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: us imagine that he has in him this admixture of
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: savage blood, and further that he is wholly unaware of
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 1: his dreadful physical and psychical infirmity, and that he suddenly
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 1: finds himself leading the primitive life together with the object
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 1: of his desires, with the result that the strain of
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: the untamed wild man in his blood red Indian for instance,
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 1: from Maloney, red Indian, perfectly agreed the doctor. The result,
• 2:07:01
  Speaker 1: I say, that this savage strain in him is awakened
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 1: and leaps into passionate life. What then, he looked hard
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 1: at Timothy Maloney, and the clergyman looked hard at him.
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: The wild life, such as you lead here on this island,
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: for instance, might quickly awaken his savage instincts, his buried instincts,
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: and with profoundly disquieting results. You mean, his subtle body,
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: as you call it, might issue forth automatically in deep
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: sleep and seek the object of its desire, I said,
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: coming to Maloney's aid, who was finding it more and
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 1: more difficult to get words precisely. Yet the desire of
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: the man remaining utterly unmolific, pure and wholesome in every sense, Ah,
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: I heard the clergyman gasp. The lover's desire for union
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: run wild, run, savage, tearing its way out in primitive,
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 1: untamed fashion, I mean, continued the doctor, striving to make
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: himself clear to a mind bounded by conventional thought and knowledge.
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: For the desire to possess remember, may easily become importunate
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: and embodied in this animal form of the subtle body,
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: which acts as its vehicle, may go forth to tear
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: in pieces all it obstructs, to reach to the very
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: heart of the loved object and to seize it. Ou fant,
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: it is nothing more than the aspiration for union, as
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: I said, the splendid and perfectly clean desire to absorb
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: utterly into itself. He paused a moment and looked into
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: Maloney's eyes. To bathe in the very heart's blood of
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: the one desired, he added, with grave emphasis. The fire
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 1: spurted and crackled and made me start, But Maloney found
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: relief in a genuine shudder, and I saw him turn
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: his head and look about him, from the sea to
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: the trees. The wind dropped just at that moment, and
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: the doctor's words rang sharply through the stillness. Then it
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: might even k kill, stammered the clergyman, presently, in a
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 1: hushed voice and with a little forced laugh by way
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: of protest. That sounded quite ghastly in the last resort,
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 1: it might kill, repeated doctor silence. Then, after another pause,
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: during which he was clearly debating how much or how
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: little it was wise to give to his audience, he continued,
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: And if the double does not succeed in getting back
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: to its physical body, that physical body might wake an imbecile,
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 1: an idiot, or perhaps never wake at all. Maloney sat
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: up and found his tongue. You mean that if this
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: fluid animal thing or whatever it is, should be prevented
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: from getting back, the man might never wake again, he asked,
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: with a shaking voice. He might be dead, replied the
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: other calmly. The tremor of a positive sensation shivered in
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: the air about us. Then, isn't that the best way
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 1: to cure the fool the brute, thundered the clergyman, half
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: rising to his feet. Certainly it would be an easy
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: and undiscoverable form of murder, was the stern reply, spoken
• 2:10:25
  Speaker 1: as calmly as though it were a remark about the weather.
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: Maloney collapsed visibly, and I gathered the wood over the
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: fire and coaxed up a blaze. The greater part of
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 1: the man's life, of his vital forces, goes out with
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: this double. Doctor silence resumed after a moment's consideration, and
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: a considerable portion of the actual material of his physical body.
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: So the physical body that remains behind is depleted not
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 1: only a force, but of matter. You would see it small, shrunken,
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: dropped together, just like the body of a materializing medium
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 1: at a seance. Moreover, any mark or injury inflicted on
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: this double will be found exactly reproduced by the phenomenon
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 1: of repercussion upon the shrunken physical body lying in its trance.
• 2:11:19
  Speaker 1: An injury inflicted upon the one, you say, would be
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 1: reproduced also on the other, repeated Maloney, his excitement growing again, undoubtedly,
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 1: replied the other quietly. For there exists all the time
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: a continuous connection between the physical body and the double,
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 1: a connection of matter, though of exceedingly attenuated, possibly of
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 1: etheric matter. The wound travels, so to speak, from one
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: to the other. And if this connection were broken, the
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 1: result would be death. Death, repeated Malone to himself. Death.
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 1: He looked anxiously at our faces, his thoughts evidently beginning
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: to clear. And this solidity, he asked presently, after a
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: general pause, this tearing of tents and flesh, this howling,
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: and the marks of pause, you mean that the double
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: has sufficient material drawn from the depleted body to produce
• 2:12:19
  Speaker 1: physical results. Certainly, the doctor took him up, although to
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: explain at this moment such problems as the passage of
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 1: matter through matter would be as difficult as to explain
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: how the thought of a mother can actually break the
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: bones of the child unborn. Doctor silence pointed out to see,
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: and Maloney, looking wildly about him, turned with a violent start.
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: I saw a canoe with Sangree in the stern seat,
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: slowly coming into view around the farther point. His hat
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: was off, and his tanned face for the first time
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: appeared to me, to us all, I think, as though
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: it were the face of some one else. He looked
• 2:13:02
  Speaker 1: like a wild man. Then he stood up in the
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 1: canoe to make a cast with the rod, and he
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 1: looked for all the world like an Indian. I recalled
• 2:13:12
  Speaker 1: the expression of his face as I had seen it
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 1: once or twice, notably on that occasion of the evening prayer,
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: and an involuntary shudder ran down my spine. At that
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: very instant he turned and saw us where he lay,
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: and his face broke into a smile, so that his
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 1: teeth shone white in the sun. He looked in his
• 2:13:34
  Speaker 1: element and exceedingly attractive. He called out something about his fish,
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: and soon after passed out of sight into the lagoon.
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 1: For a time none of us said a word. And
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 1: the cure, ventured Maloney at length, is not to quench
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: this savage force, replied doctor silence, but to steer it better,
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: and to provide other outlets. This is the solution of
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: all these problems of accumulated force. For this force is
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: the raw material of usefulness, and should be increased and cherished,
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 1: not by separating it from the body by death, but
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 1: by raising it to higher channels. The best and quickest
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: cure of all, he went on, speaking very gently and
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 1: with a hand upon the clergyman's arm, is to lead
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: it towards its object, provided that object is not unalterably hostile,
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: to let it find rest. Where he stopped abruptly, and
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 1: the eyes of the two men met in a single
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: glance of comprehension. Joan Maloney exclaimed under his breath, Joan
• 2:14:43
  Speaker 1: replied John silence. We all went to bed early. The
• 2:14:50
  Speaker 1: day had been unusually warm, and after sunset a curious
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 1: hush descended upon the island. Nothing was audible but that
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 1: faint ghost singing, which is inseparable from a pine wood,
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: even in the stillest day, a low, searching sound, as
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 1: though the wind had hair and trailed it or over
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: the oer the world. With the sudden cooling of the atmosphere,
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 1: a sea fog began to form. It appeared in isolated
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 1: patches over the water, and then these patches slid together,
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: and a white wall advanced upon us. Not a breath
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: of air stirred. The firs stood like flat metal outlines.
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 1: The sea became as oil. The whole scene lay as
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 1: though held motionless by some huge weight in the air,
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 1: and the flames from our fire, the largest we had
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 1: ever made, rose upwards straight as a church steeple. As
• 2:15:50
  Speaker 1: I followed the rest of our party tent words, having
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: kicked the embers of the fire into safety, the advance
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: guard of the fog was creeping slowly among the trees,
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: like white arms, feeling their way. Mingled with the smoke
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 1: was the odor of moss, and soil and bark, and
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 1: the peculiar flavor of the Baltic half salt half brackish,
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 1: like the smell of an estuary at low water. It
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 1: is difficult to say why it seemed to me that
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 1: this deep stillness masked an intense activity. Perhaps in every
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 1: mood lies the suggestion of its opposite, so that I
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 1: became aware of the contrast of furious energy. For it
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: was like moving through the deep paws before a thunderstorm,
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 1: and I trod gently, lest by breaking a twig or
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: moving a stone, I might set the whole scene into
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 1: some sort of tumultuous movement. Actually, no doubt, it was
• 2:16:43
  Speaker 1: nothing more than a result of overstrung nerves. There was
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: no more question of undressing and going to bed than
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 1: there was of undressing and going to bathe some sense
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 1: in me was alert and expectant. I sat in my
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: tent and waited, And at the end of half an
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 1: hour or so, my waiting was justified, for the canvas
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 1: suddenly shivered, and some one tripped over the ropes and
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: held it to the earth. John silence came in. The
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: effect of his quiet entry was singular and prophetic. It
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 1: was just as though the energy lying behind all this
• 2:17:22
  Speaker 1: stillness had pressed forward to the edge of action. This,
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 1: no doubt, was merely the quickening of my own mind,
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 1: and had no other justification. For the presence of John
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: Silence always suggested the near possibility of vigorous action, And
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, he came in with nothing
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 1: more than a nod and a significant gesture. He sat
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 1: down in a corner of my ground sheet, and I
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: pushed the blanket over so that he could cover his legs.
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: He drew the flap of the tent after him and
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: settled down, But hardly had he done so when the
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: canvas shook a second time, and in blundered Maloney. Sitting
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: in the dark, he said self, cautiously, pushing his head
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: inside and hanging up his lantern on the rich pole. Nail.
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 1: I just looked in for a smoke, I suppose. He
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: glanced round, caught the eye of doctor Silence, and stopped.
• 2:18:15
  Speaker 1: He put his pipe back into his pocket and began
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: to hum softly, that underbreath humming of a nondescript melody
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: I knew so well, and had come to hate Doctor Silence.
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 1: Leaned forward, opened the lantern and blew the light out,
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 1: speak low, he said, and don't strike matches, Listen for
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 1: sounds and movement about the camp, and be ready to
• 2:18:39
  Speaker 1: follow me at a moment's notice. There was light enough
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: to distinguish our faces easily, and I saw Maloney glance
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 1: again hurriedly at both of us. Is the camp asleep,
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 1: the doctor asked, presently whispering sangree is, replied the clergyman,
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: in a voice equally low. I can't answer for the women.
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: I think they're sitting up. That's for the best. And
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 1: then he added, I wish the fog would thin a
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: bit and let the moon through later we may want it.
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 1: It is lifting now, I think, Maloney whispered back, it's
• 2:19:16
  Speaker 1: over the tops of the trees already. I cannot say
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: what it was in this commonplace exchange of remarks that thrilled.
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 1: Probably Maloney's swift acquiescence in the doctor's mood had something
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: to do with it, for his quick obedience certainly impressed
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 1: me a good deal. But even without that slight evidence,
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: it was clear that each recognized the gravity of the
• 2:19:38
  Speaker 1: occasion and understood that sleep was impossible and sentry duty
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: was the order of the night. Report to me repeated
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: John silence once again, the least sound and do nothing. Precipitately,
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: he shifted across to the mouth of the tent and
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: raised the flap, fastening it against the pole so that
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 1: he could see out. Maloney stopped humming and began to
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 1: force the breath through his teeth with a kind of
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 1: faint hissing, treating us to a medley of church hymns
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: and popular songs of the day. Then the tent trembled,
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 1: as though some one had touched it. That's the wind rising,
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: whispered the clergyman, and pulled the flap open as far
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: as it would go. A waft of cold, damp air
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: entered and made us shiver, and with it came a
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 1: sound of the sea, as the first wave washed its
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: way softly along the shores. It's got round to the north,
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: he added, and following his voice came a long, drawn
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: whisper that rose from the whole island, as the trees
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 1: sent forth a sighing response. The fog'll move a bit now,
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 1: I can make out a lane across the sea. Already, Hush,
• 2:20:54
  Speaker 1: said doctor Silence, for Maloney's voice had risen above a whisper,
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 1: and we settled down and again to another long period
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 1: of watching and waiting, broken only by the occasional rubbing
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 1: of shoulders against the canvas as we shifted our positions,
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: and the increasing noise of waves on the outer coastline
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: of the island, and overall hurd the murmur of wind
• 2:21:16
  Speaker 1: sweeping the tops of the trees like a great harp,
• 2:21:19
  Speaker 1: and the faint tapping on the tent as drops fell
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: from the branches with a sharp, pinging sound. We had
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: sat for something over an hour in this way, and
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: Maloney and I were finding it increasingly hard to keep
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: awake when suddenly Doctor Silence rose to his feet and
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 1: peered out. The next minute he was gone. Relieved of
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: the dominating presence, the clergyman thrust his face close into mine.
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: I don't much care for this waiting game, he whispered.
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 1: But Silence wouldn't hear of my sitting up with the others,
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 1: He said, it would prevent anything happening if I did,
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 1: he knows, I answered shortly. No doubt in the world
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 1: about that, he whispered back. It's this double business, as
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: he calls it, or else it's obsession as the Bible
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 1: describes it. But it's bad whichever it is, And I've
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: got my Winchester outside ready cocked, and I brought this too.
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 1: He shoved a pocket bible under my nose. At one
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 1: time in his life it had been his inseparable companion,
• 2:22:22
  Speaker 1: one's useless and the other's dangerous, I replied, under my breath,
• 2:22:25
  Speaker 1: conscious of a keen desire to laugh and leaving him
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 1: to choose safety lies in following our leader. I'm not
• 2:22:33
  Speaker 1: thinking of myself, he interrupted sharply. Only if anything happens
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 1: to Joan to night, I'm going to shoot first and
• 2:22:40
  Speaker 1: pray afterwards. Maloney put the book back into his hip
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 1: pocket and peered out of the doorway. What is he
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 1: up to now? In the Devil's name, I wonder, he added,
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 1: going round Sangree's tent and making gestures. How weird he looks,
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: disappearing in and out of the fog. Just trust him,
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 1: and wait, I said quickly, for the doctor was already
• 2:23:01
  Speaker 1: on his way back. Remember he has the knowledge and
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: knows what he's about. I've been with him through worse
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: cases than this. Maloney moved back as doctor silence darkened
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 1: the doorway and stooped to enter. His sleep is very deep,
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 1: he whispered, seating himself by the door. Again, He's in
• 2:23:21
  Speaker 1: a cataleptic condition, and the Double may be released any
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: minute now, But I've taken steps to imprison it in
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 1: the tent, and it can't get out till I permit
• 2:23:31
  Speaker 1: it beyond the watch for signs of movement. Then he
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: looked hard at Maloney. But no violence or shooting. Remember,
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 1: mister Maloney, unless you want a murder on your hands.
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 1: Anything done to the Double acts by repercussion upon the
• 2:23:46
  Speaker 1: physical body. You had better take out the cartridges at once.
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 1: His voice was stern. The clergyman went out, and I
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 1: heard him emptying the magazine of his rifle. When he returned,
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 1: he sat nearer the door than before, and from that
• 2:24:01
  Speaker 1: moment until we left the tent, he never once took
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 1: his eyes from the figure of doctor Silence, silhouetted there
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: against sky and canvas. And meanwhile the wind came steadily
• 2:24:13
  Speaker 1: over the sea and opened the mist into lanes and clearings,
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: driving it about like a living thing. It must have
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 1: been well after midnight when a low booming sound drew
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 1: my attention. But at first the sense of hearing was
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 1: so strained that it was impossible exactly to locate it,
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: and I imagined it was the thunder of big guns
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 1: far out at sea, carried to us by the rising wind.
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 1: Then Maloney, catching hold of my arm and leaning forward
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: somehow brought the true relation, and I realized the next
• 2:24:47
  Speaker 1: second that it was only a few feet away Sangree's tent,
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, in a loud and startled whisper. I craned
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: my head round the corner, But at first the affect
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: the fog was so confusing that every patch of white
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: driving about before the wind looked like a moving tent,
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 1: and it was some seconds before I discovered the one
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 1: patch that held steady. Then I saw it was shaking
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 1: all over, and the sides flapping as much as the
• 2:25:18
  Speaker 1: tightness of the ropes allowed, were the cause of the
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: booming sound. We heard something alive was tearing frantically about inside,
• 2:25:26
  Speaker 1: banging against the stretched canvass in a way that made
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: me think of a great moth dashing against the walls
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: and ceiling of a room. The tent bulged and rocked.
• 2:25:38
  Speaker 1: It's trying to get out by Jupiter, muttered the clergyman,
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 1: rising to his feet and turning to the side where
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 1: the unloaded rifle lay. I sprang up too, hardly knowing
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: what purpose was in my mind, but anxious to be
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: prepared for anything. John's silence, however, was before us both
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: and his figures slipped past and blocked the doorway of
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: the tent, And there was some quality in his voice.
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: Next minute, when he began to speak that brought our
• 2:26:07
  Speaker 1: minds instantly to a state of calm obedience. First the
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: women's tent, he said, low, looking sharply at Maloney, and
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: if I need your help, I'll call the clergyman. Needed
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: no second bidding, he dived past me and was out
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: in a moment. He was laboring, evidently under intense excitement.
• 2:26:30
  Speaker 1: I watched him picking his way silently over the slippery ground,
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 1: giving the moving tent a wide berth, and presently disappearing
• 2:26:37
  Speaker 1: among the floating shapes of fog. Doctor Silence turned to me.
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: You heard those footsteps about half an hour ago, he asked, significantly.
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 1: I heard nothing. They were extraordinarily soft, almost the soundless
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: tread of a wild animal. But now follow me closely,
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 1: he added, for we must waste no time if I
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 1: am to save this poor man from his affliction and
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 1: lead his werewolf double to its rest, and unless I
• 2:27:09
  Speaker 1: am much mistaken. He peered me through the darkness, whispering
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 1: with the utmost distinctness. Joan and Sangree are absolutely made
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: for one another, and I think she knows it too,
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 1: just as well as he does. My head swam a
• 2:27:27
  Speaker 1: little as I listened, but at the same time something
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 1: cleared in my brain, and I saw that he was right.
• 2:27:35
  Speaker 1: And yet it was all so weird and incredible, so
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 1: remote from the commonplace facts of life as commonplace people
• 2:27:42
  Speaker 1: know them. And more than once it flashed upon me
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 1: that the whole scene, people, words, tense, and all the
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 1: rest of it were delusions created by the intense excitement
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 1: of my own mind somehow, and that suddenly the sea
• 2:27:56
  Speaker 1: fog would clear off and the world would become armol again.
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: The cold air from the sea stung our cheeks sharply
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: as we left the close atmosphere of the little crowded tent.
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 1: The sighing of the trees, the waves breaking below on
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 1: the rocks, and the lines and patches of mist driving
• 2:28:16
  Speaker 1: about us seemed to create the momentary illusion that the
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 1: whole island had broken loose and was floating out to
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 1: sea like a mighty raft. The doctor moved just ahead
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 1: of me, quickly and silently. He was making straight for
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: the Canadian's tent, where the sides still boomed and shook
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 1: as the creature of sinister life raced and tore about impatiently.
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 1: Within a little distance from the door, he paused and
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 1: held up a hand to stop me. We were perhaps
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: a dozen feet away. Before I release it. You shall
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 1: see for yourself, He said that the reality of the
• 2:28:51
  Speaker 1: werewolf is beyond all question. The matter of which it
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 1: is composed is, of course exceedingly attenuated. But you are
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 1: partially clairvoyant, and even if it is not dense enough
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 1: for normal sight, you will see something. He added a
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: little more I could not catch. The fact was that
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 1: the curiously strong, vibrating atmosphere surrounding his person somewhat confused
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 1: my senses. It was the result, of course, of his
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: intense concentration of mind and forces, and pervaded the entire
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 1: camp and all the persons in it. And as I
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: watched the canvas shake and heard it boom and flap,
• 2:29:28
  Speaker 1: I heartily welcomed it, for it was also protective. At
• 2:29:33
  Speaker 1: the back of Sangree's tent stood a thin group of
• 2:29:36
  Speaker 1: pine trees, but in front and at the sides, the
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 1: ground was comparatively clear. The flap was wide open, and
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: any ordinary animal would have been out and away without
• 2:29:46
  Speaker 1: the least trouble. Doctor silence led me up to within
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: a few feet, evidently careful not to advance beyond a
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 1: certain limit, and then stooped down and signaled to me
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: to do the same. And looking over his shoulder, I
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: saw the interior lit faintly by the spectral light reflected
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: from the fog, and the dim blot upon the balsam
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 1: boughs and blankets signifying sangree. While over him and round him,
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 1: and up and down him flew the dark mass of
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: something on four legs, with pointed muzzle and sharp ears,
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: plainly visible against the tent sides, and the occasional gleam
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 1: of fiery eyes and white fangs. I held my breath
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 1: and kept utterly still, inwardly and outwardly for fear. I
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 1: supposed that the creature would become conscious of my presence.
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 1: But the distress I felt went far deeper than the
• 2:30:45
  Speaker 1: mere sense of personal safety or the fact of watching
• 2:30:49
  Speaker 1: something so incredibly active and real. I became keenly aware
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: of the dreadful psychic calamity. It involved the realization that
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: sang gray, they confined in that narrow space with this
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: species of monstrous projection of himself, That he was wrapped
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 1: there in the catalyptic sleep, all unconscious, that this thing
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: was masquerading with his own life and energies, added a
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 1: distressing touch of horror to the scene. In all the
• 2:31:19
  Speaker 1: cases of John silence, and they were many and often terrible,
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: no other psychic affliction has ever before or since impressed
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 1: me so convincingly with the pathetic impermanence of the human personality,
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: with its fluid nature, and with the alarming possibilities of
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 1: its transformations. Come, he whispered, After we had watched for
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 1: some minutes the frantic efforts to escape from the circle
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 1: of thought and will that held it prisoner. Come a
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 1: little farther away while I release it. We moved back
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: a dozen yards or so. It was like a scene
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: in some impossible place play, or in some ghastly and
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 1: oppressive nightmare, from which I should presently awake to find
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 1: the blankets all heaped up upon my chest by some
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 1: method undoubtedly mentaled, but which in my confusion and excitement,
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 1: I failed to understand. The doctor accomplished his purpose, and
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 1: the next minute I heard him say, sharply under his breath,
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 1: it's out. Now. Watch. At this very moment, a sudden
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 1: gust from the sea blew aside the mist, so that
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: a lane opened to the sky, and the moon, ghastly
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: and unnatural as the effect of stage limelight, dropped down
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: in a momentary gleam upon the door of Sangree's tent,
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 1: and I perceived that something had moved forward from the
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 1: interior darkness and stood clearly defined upon the threshold. And
• 2:32:48
  Speaker 1: at the same moment the tent ceased its shuddering and
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: held still. There in the doorway stood an animal with
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 1: neck and muzzle thrust forward, its head poking into the night,
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: its whole body poised in that attitude of intense rigidity
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 1: that precedes the spring into freedom, the running leap of attack.
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 1: It seemed to be about the size of a calf,
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 1: leaner than a mastiff, yet more squat than a wolf.
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 1: And I can swear that I saw the fur ridged
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 1: sharply upon its back. Then its upper lip slowly lifted,
• 2:33:23
  Speaker 1: and I saw the whiteness of its teeth. Surely no
• 2:33:27
  Speaker 1: human being ever stared so hard as I did in
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 1: those next few minutes. Yet the harder I stared, the
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: clearer appeared the amazing and monstrous apparition. For after all,
• 2:33:38
  Speaker 1: it was Sangree, and yet it was not Sangree. It
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: was the head and face of an animal, and yet
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: it was the face of Sangree, the face of a
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: wild dog, a wolf, And yet his face. The eyes
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 1: were sharper, narrower, more fiery, yet they were his eyes,
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 1: his eyes run wild. The teeth were longer, whiter, more pointed,
• 2:34:04
  Speaker 1: yet they were his teeth, his teeth grown cruel. The
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 1: expression was flaming, terrible, exultant, Yet it was his expression,
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 1: carried to the border of savagery, his expression, as I
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 1: had already surprised it more than once, only dominant, now
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 1: fully released from human constraint, with the mad yearning of
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: a hungry and importunate soul. It was the soul of Sangree,
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 1: the long suppressed, deeply loving Sangree, expressed in its single
• 2:34:33
  Speaker 1: and intense desire, pure, utterly and utterly wonderful. Yet at
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 1: the same time came the feeling that it was all
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 1: an illusion. I suddenly remembered the extraordinary changes the human
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 1: face can undergrow in circular insanity when it changes from
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 1: melancholia to elation. And I recalled the effect of hashish,
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 1: which shows the human countenance in the form of the
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 1: bird or animal to which in character it most approximates,
• 2:35:04
  Speaker 1: And for a moment I attributed this mingling of Sangree's
• 2:35:07
  Speaker 1: face with a wolf to some kind of similar delusion
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 1: of the senses. I was mad, deluded, dreaming the excitement
• 2:35:15
  Speaker 1: of the day in the dim light of stars and
• 2:35:18
  Speaker 1: bewildering mist combined to trick me. I had been amazingly
• 2:35:22
  Speaker 1: imposed upon by some false wizardry of the senses. It
• 2:35:26
  Speaker 1: was all absurd and fantastic. It would pass. And then,
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 1: sounding across this sea of mental confusion, like a bell
• 2:35:35
  Speaker 1: through the fog, came the voice of John Silence, bringing
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 1: me back to a consciousness of the reality of it all.
• 2:35:42
  Speaker 1: Sangree in his double And when I looked again more calmly,
• 2:35:48
  Speaker 1: I plainly saw that it was indeed the face of
• 2:35:51
  Speaker 1: the Canadian, but his face turned animal yet mingled with
• 2:35:55
  Speaker 1: the brute expression of a curiously pathetic look like the
• 2:35:59
  Speaker 1: soul seen so times in the yearning eyes of a dog.
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 1: The face of an animal shot with vivid streaks of
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 1: the human. The doctor called to him softly under his breath, sangree, sangree, you,
• 2:36:12
  Speaker 1: poor afflicted creature. Do you know me? Can you understand
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 1: what it is your doing? In your body of desire?
• 2:36:20
  Speaker 1: For the first time since its appearance, the creature moved.
• 2:36:24
  Speaker 1: Its ears, twitched, and it shifted the weight of its
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 1: body onto the hind legs. Then, lifting its head in
• 2:36:30
  Speaker 1: muzzle to the sky, it opened its long jaws and
• 2:36:34
  Speaker 1: gave vent to a dismal and prolonged howling. But when
• 2:36:39
  Speaker 1: I heard that howling rise to heaven, the breath caught
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 1: and strangled in my throat, and it seemed that my
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 1: heart missed a beat, For though the sound was entirely animal,
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 1: it was at the same time entirely human. And more
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: than that, it was the cry I had so often
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 1: heard in the Western States of America, where the Indians stole.
• 2:37:00
  Speaker 1: I'll fight and hunt and struggle. It was the cry
• 2:37:03
  Speaker 1: of the red skin the Indian blood, whispered John silence
• 2:37:08
  Speaker 1: when I caught his arm for support. The ancestral cry,
• 2:37:14
  Speaker 1: and that poignant, beseeching cry, that broken human voice mingling
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: with the savage howl of the brute beast pierced straight
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 1: to my very heart and touched there something that no music,
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 1: no voice, passionate or tender of man, woman or child,
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 1: has ever stirred before or since. For one second into life,
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 1: it echoed away among the fog and the trees, and
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: lost itself somewhere out over the hidden sea, and some
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: part of myself, something that was far more than the
• 2:37:46
  Speaker 1: mere act of intense listening, went out with it, and
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 1: for several minutes I lost consciousness of my surroundings and
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 1: felt utterly absorbed in the pain of another stricken fellow creature. Again,
• 2:37:59
  Speaker 1: the voice of j On Silence recalled me to myself. Hark,
• 2:38:03
  Speaker 1: he said aloud, Hark. His tone galvanized me afresh. We
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 1: stood listening, side by side, far across the island. Faintly
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: sounding through the trees and brushwood, came a similar answering cry,
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 1: shrill yet wonderfully musical, shaking the heart with a singular,
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 1: wild sweetness that defied description. We heard it rise and
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 1: fall upon the night air. It's across the lagoon, doctor
• 2:38:31
  Speaker 1: Silence cried, but this time in full tones that paid
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 1: no tribute to caution. It's joan, she's answering him again.
• 2:38:38
  Speaker 1: The wonderful cry rose and fell, and that same instant
• 2:38:42
  Speaker 1: the animal lowered its head and muzzled to earth, set
• 2:38:45
  Speaker 1: off on a swift, easy canter that took it off
• 2:38:48
  Speaker 1: into the mist and out of our sight, like a
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 1: thing of wind and vision. The doctor made a quick
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 1: dash to the door of Sangree's tent, and following close
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 1: at his heels, I peered in and caught a momentary
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 1: glimpse of the small, shrunken body lying upon the branches,
• 2:39:04
  Speaker 1: but half covered by the blankets, the cage from which
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 1: most of the life and not a little of the
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 1: actual corporeal substance, had escaped into that other form of
• 2:39:14
  Speaker 1: life and energy, the body of passion and desire, by
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 1: another of those swift, incalculable processes which at this stage
• 2:39:22
  Speaker 1: of my apprenticeship I failed often to grasp. Doctor silence
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 1: reclosed the circle about the tent and body. Now it
• 2:39:31
  Speaker 1: cannot return till I permit it, he said, and the
• 2:39:33
  Speaker 1: next second was off at full speed into the woods,
• 2:39:36
  Speaker 1: with myself close behind him. I had already had some
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 1: experience of my companion's ability to run swiftly through a
• 2:39:44
  Speaker 1: dense wood, and I now had the further proof of
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: his power, almost to see in the dark. For once
• 2:39:50
  Speaker 1: we left the open space about the tents, the trees
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 1: seemed to absorb all the remaining vestiges of light, and
• 2:39:56
  Speaker 1: I understood that special sensibility that is said to develop
• 2:40:00
  Speaker 1: in the blind the scents of obstacles. And twice, as
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 1: we ran, we heard the sound of that dismal howling,
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 1: drawing nearer and nearer to the answering faint cry from
• 2:40:11
  Speaker 1: the point of the island whither we were going. Then
• 2:40:14
  Speaker 1: suddenly the trees fell away, and we emerged, hot and breathless,
• 2:40:18
  Speaker 1: upon the rocky point where the granite slabs ran bare
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 1: into the sea. It was like passing into the clearness
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 1: of open day, and there, sharply defined against sea and sky,
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 1: stood the figure of a human being. It was Joan.
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 1: I at once saw that there was something about her
• 2:40:36
  Speaker 1: appearance that was singular and unusual. But it was only
• 2:40:40
  Speaker 1: when we had moved quite close that I recognized what
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 1: caused it. For while the lips wore a smile that
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 1: lit the whole face with a happiness I had never
• 2:40:48
  Speaker 1: seen there before, the eyes themselves were fixed in a
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 1: steady sightless stare as, though they were lifeless and made
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 1: of glass. I made an impulsive forward movement, but Doctor
• 2:41:00
  Speaker 1: Silence instantly dragged me back. No, he cried, don't wake her.
• 2:41:05
  Speaker 1: What do you mean, I replied aloud, struggling in his grasp.
• 2:41:08
  Speaker 1: She's asleep. It's somnambulistic. The shock might injure her permanently.
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 1: I turned and peered closely into his face. He was
• 2:41:17
  Speaker 1: absolutely calm. I began to understand a little more catching.
• 2:41:22
  Speaker 1: I suppose something of his strong thinking walking in her sleep?
• 2:41:26
  Speaker 1: You mean, he nodded, She's on her way to meet him.
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 1: From the very beginning he must have drawn her irresistibly.
• 2:41:35
  Speaker 1: But the torn tent and the wounded flesh, when she
• 2:41:38
  Speaker 1: did not sleep deep enough to enter the somnambulistic trance,
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 1: he missed her. He went instinctively and in all innocence
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 1: to seek her out, with the result, of course, that
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 1: she woke and was terrified. Then, in their heart of hearts,
• 2:41:52
  Speaker 1: they love, I asked finally, John Silence smiled his inscrutable smile.
• 2:41:58
  Speaker 1: Profoundly he answer, and as simply as only primitive souls
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 1: can love, if only they both come to realize it,
• 2:42:06
  Speaker 1: in their normal waking states. His double will cease these
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: nocturnal excursions. He will be cured and at rest. The
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 1: words had hardly left his lips when there was a
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 1: sound of rustling branches on our left, and the very
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 1: next instant, the dense brushwood parted where it was darkest,
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 1: and out rushed the swift form of an animal at
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: full gallop. The noise of feet was scarcely audible, but
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: in that utter stillness I heard the heavy panting breath,
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 1: and caught the swish of the low brushes against its sides.
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: It went straight towards Joan, and as it went the
• 2:42:41
  Speaker 1: girl lifted her head and turned to meet it. And
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 1: the same instant, a canoe that had been creeping silently
• 2:42:47
  Speaker 1: and unobserved round the inner shore of the lagoon emerged
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 1: from the shadows and defined itself upon the water, with
• 2:42:54
  Speaker 1: a figure at the middle thwart. It was Maloney. It
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 1: was only afterwards I realized that we were invisible to him,
• 2:43:03
  Speaker 1: as we stood against the dark background of trees. The
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 1: figures of Joan and the animal he saw plainly, but
• 2:43:09
  Speaker 1: not doctor silence, and myself standing just beyond them. He
• 2:43:13
  Speaker 1: stood up in the canoe and pointed with his right arm.
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 1: I saw something gleam in his hand. Stand aside, Joan, girl,
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 1: you'll get hit, he shouted, his voice ringing horribly through
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 1: the deep stillness, And the same instant a pistol shot
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 1: cracked out with a burst of flame and smoke, and
• 2:43:31
  Speaker 1: the figure of the animal, with one tremendous leap into
• 2:43:34
  Speaker 1: the air, fell back in the shadows and disappeared like
• 2:43:38
  Speaker 1: a shape of night and fog. Instantly. Then Joan opened
• 2:43:42
  Speaker 1: her eyes, looked in a dazed fashion about her, and,
• 2:43:46
  Speaker 1: pressing both hands against her heart, fell with a sharp
• 2:43:49
  Speaker 1: cry into my arms that were just in time to
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 1: catch her. And an answering cry sounded across the lagoon, thin, wailing, piteous.
• 2:44:00
  Speaker 1: It came from Sangree's tent. Fool cried, doctor silence, you've
• 2:44:05
  Speaker 1: wounded him, And before we could move or realize quite
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 1: what it meant, he was in the canoe and half
• 2:44:11
  Speaker 1: way across the lagoon. Some kind of similar abuse came
• 2:44:15
  Speaker 1: in a torrent from my lips, too, though I cannot
• 2:44:18
  Speaker 1: remember the actual words, as I cursed the man for
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: his disobedience and tried to make the girl comfortable on
• 2:44:23
  Speaker 1: the ground, but the clergyman was more practical. He was
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 1: spreading his coat over her and dashing water on her face.
• 2:44:30
  Speaker 1: It's not Joan, I've killed at any rate, I heard
• 2:44:32
  Speaker 1: him mutter, as she turned and opened her eyes and
• 2:44:34
  Speaker 1: smiled faintly up in his face. I swear the bullet
• 2:44:37
  Speaker 1: went straight. Joan stared at him. She was still dazed
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 1: and bewildered, and still imagined herself with the companion of
• 2:44:44
  Speaker 1: her trance. The strange lucidity of the somnambulist still hung
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 1: over her brain and mind, though outwardly she appeared troubled
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 1: and confused. Where has he gone to? He disappeared so suddenly,
• 2:44:57
  Speaker 1: crying that he was hurt, she asked, looking at her
• 2:44:59
  Speaker 1: fon as though she did not recognize him. And if
• 2:45:03
  Speaker 1: they've done anything to him, they have done it to
• 2:45:05
  Speaker 1: me too, for he is more to me than her
• 2:45:09
  Speaker 1: words grew vaguer and vaguer as she returned slowly to
• 2:45:12
  Speaker 1: her normal waking state. And now she stopped altogether, as
• 2:45:16
  Speaker 1: though suddenly aware that she had been surprised into telling secrets.
• 2:45:20
  Speaker 1: But all the way back, as we carried her carefully
• 2:45:23
  Speaker 1: through the trees, the girl smiled and murmured Sangree's name
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 1: and asked if he was injured, until it finally became
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 1: clear to me that the wild soul of the one
• 2:45:32
  Speaker 1: had called to the wild soul of the other, and
• 2:45:34
  Speaker 1: in the secret depths of their beings, the call had
• 2:45:37
  Speaker 1: been heard and understood. John's silence was right in the
• 2:45:42
  Speaker 1: abyss of her heart, too deep at first for recognition.
• 2:45:45
  Speaker 1: The girl loved him, and had loved him from the
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: very beginning. Once her normal waking consciousness recognized the fact,
• 2:45:52
  Speaker 1: they would leap together like twin flames, and his affliction
• 2:45:55
  Speaker 1: would be at an end, his intense desire would be satisfied,
• 2:46:00
  Speaker 1: he would be cured, And in Sangree's tent, doctor silence
• 2:46:04
  Speaker 1: and I sat up for the remainder of the night,
• 2:46:06
  Speaker 1: this wonderful and haunted night that had shown us such
• 2:46:09
  Speaker 1: strange glimpses of a new heaven and a new hell.
• 2:46:13
  Speaker 1: For the Canadian tossed upon his balsam boughs with high
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 1: fever in his blood, and upon each cheek a dark
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 1: and curious contusion showed, throbbing with severe pain, though the
• 2:46:24
  Speaker 1: skin was not broken and there was no outward invisible
• 2:46:27
  Speaker 1: sign of blood. Maloney shot straight you see whispered doctor
• 2:46:32
  Speaker 1: silence to me, after the clergyman had gone to his
• 2:46:34
  Speaker 1: tent and had put Joan to sleep beside her mother, who,
• 2:46:38
  Speaker 1: by the way, had never once awakened. The bullet must
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 1: have passed clean through the face, for both cheeks are stained.
• 2:46:46
  Speaker 1: He'll wear these marks all his life, smaller but always there.
• 2:46:51
  Speaker 1: They are the most curious scars in the world, these
• 2:46:54
  Speaker 1: scars transferred by repercussion from an injured double. They'll remain
• 2:46:59
  Speaker 1: visible until just before his death, and then with the
• 2:47:02
  Speaker 1: withdrawal of the subtle body, they will disappear. Finally, his
• 2:47:08
  Speaker 1: words mingled in my dazed mind with the sighs of
• 2:47:11
  Speaker 1: the troubled sleeper and the crying of the wind about
• 2:47:14
  Speaker 1: the tent. Nothing seemed to paralyze my powers of realization
• 2:47:18
  Speaker 1: so much as these twin stains of mysterious significance upon
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 1: the face before me. It was odd, too, how speedily
• 2:47:26
  Speaker 1: and easily the camp resigned itself again to sleep and quietness,
• 2:47:30
  Speaker 1: as though a stage curtain had suddenly dropped down upon
• 2:47:33
  Speaker 1: the action and concealed it. And nothing contributed so vividly
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 1: to the feeling that I had been a spectator of
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 1: some kind of visionary drama as the dramatic nature of
• 2:47:43
  Speaker 1: the change in the girl's attitude. Yet as a matter
• 2:47:47
  Speaker 1: of fact, the change had not been so sudden and
• 2:47:50
  Speaker 1: revolutionary as appeared underneath. In those remoter regions of consciousness
• 2:47:55
  Speaker 1: where the emotions unknown to their owners do secretly mature,
• 2:47:58
  Speaker 1: and oh thence their abrupt revelation to some abrupt psychological climax,
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 1: there can be no doubt that Jane's love for the
• 2:48:06
  Speaker 1: Canadian had been growing steadily and irresistibly all the time.
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 1: It now rushed to the surface so that she recognized it.
• 2:48:13
  Speaker 1: That was all. And it has always seemed to me
• 2:48:17
  Speaker 1: that the presence of John's silence, so potent, so quietly efficacious,
• 2:48:21
  Speaker 1: produced an effect, if one may say so, of a
• 2:48:24
  Speaker 1: psychic forcing house, and hastened incalculably the bringing together of
• 2:48:29
  Speaker 1: these two wild lovers. In that sudden awakening had occurred
• 2:48:34
  Speaker 1: the very psychological climax required to reveal the passionate emotion
• 2:48:38
  Speaker 1: accumulated below. The deeper knowledge had leaped across and transferred
• 2:48:43
  Speaker 1: itself to her ordinary consciousness, And in that shock, the
• 2:48:47
  Speaker 1: collision of the personalities had shaken them to the depths
• 2:48:50
  Speaker 1: and shown her the truth beyond all possibility of doubt.
• 2:48:55
  Speaker 1: He's sleeping quietly now, the doctor said, interrupting my reflections.
• 2:49:00
  Speaker 1: If you'll watch alone for a bit, I'll go to
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 1: Maloney's tent and help him arrange his thoughts. He smiled
• 2:49:06
  Speaker 1: in anticipation of that arrangement. He'll never quite understand how
• 2:49:11
  Speaker 1: a wound on a double can transfer itself to the
• 2:49:14
  Speaker 1: physical body, but at least I can persuade him that
• 2:49:17
  Speaker 1: the less he talks and explains tomorrow, the sooner the
• 2:49:21
  Speaker 1: forces will run their natural course. Now to peace and quietness.
• 2:49:27
  Speaker 1: He went away softly, and with the removal of his presence, Sangree,
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 1: sleeping heavily, turned over and groaned with the pain of
• 2:49:35
  Speaker 1: his broken head. And it was in the still hour,
• 2:49:40
  Speaker 1: just before the dawn, when all the islands were hushed,
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 1: the wind and sea still dreaming, and the stars visible
• 2:49:47
  Speaker 1: through clearing mists, that a figure crept silently over the
• 2:49:51
  Speaker 1: ridge and reached the door of the tent, where I
• 2:49:53
  Speaker 1: dozed beside the sufferer. Before I was aware of its presence,
• 2:49:57
  Speaker 1: the flap was cautiously lifted a few inches, and in
• 2:50:00
  Speaker 1: looked Joan. That same instant, Sangree woke and sat up
• 2:50:06
  Speaker 1: on his bed of branches. He recognized her before I
• 2:50:09
  Speaker 1: could say a word, and uttered a low cry. It
• 2:50:11
  Speaker 1: was pain and joy mingled, and this time all human.
• 2:50:16
  Speaker 1: The girl too, was no longer walking in her sleep,
• 2:50:19
  Speaker 1: but fully aware of what she was doing. I was
• 2:50:22
  Speaker 1: only just able to prevent him from springing from his blankets. Joan, joan,
• 2:50:27
  Speaker 1: he cried, and in a flash she answered him, I'm here.
• 2:50:31
  Speaker 1: I'm with you always now, and it pushed past me
• 2:50:34
  Speaker 1: into the tent and flung herself upon his breast. I
• 2:50:38
  Speaker 1: knew you had come to me in the end, I
• 2:50:39
  Speaker 1: heard him whisper. It was all too big for me
• 2:50:43
  Speaker 1: to understand. At first, she murmured, and for a long
• 2:50:45
  Speaker 1: time I was frightened, But not now, he cried, now louder.
• 2:50:50
  Speaker 1: You don't feel afraid now, of of anything that's in me.
• 2:50:55
  Speaker 1: I fear nothing. She cried nothing, nothing. I let her
• 2:50:59
  Speaker 1: outside again. She looked steadily into my face, with eyes
• 2:51:03
  Speaker 1: shining and her whole being transformed in some intuitive way,
• 2:51:07
  Speaker 1: surviving probably from the somnambulism. She knew or guessed as
• 2:51:11
  Speaker 1: much as I knew. You must talk tomorrow with John. Silence,
• 2:51:15
  Speaker 1: I said, gently, leading her towards her own tent. He
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 1: understands everything. I left her at the door, and as
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 1: I went back softly to take up my place of
• 2:51:25
  Speaker 1: sentry again with the Canadian, I saw the first streaks
• 2:51:29
  Speaker 1: of dawn biting up the far rim of the sea,
• 2:51:31
  Speaker 1: behind the distant islands, And as though to emphasize the
• 2:51:36
  Speaker 1: eternal closeness of comedy to tragedy, two small details rose
• 2:51:41
  Speaker 1: out of the scene and impressed me so vividly that
• 2:51:43
  Speaker 1: I remember them to this very day. For in the
• 2:51:46
  Speaker 1: tent where I had just left Joan, all a quiver
• 2:51:49
  Speaker 1: with her new happiness, there rose plainly to my ears
• 2:51:52
  Speaker 1: the grotesque sounds of the Bosun's mate, heavily snoring, oblivious
• 2:51:57
  Speaker 1: of all things in heaven or hell. And from Maloney's tent,
• 2:52:01
  Speaker 1: so still was the night where I looked across and
• 2:52:04
  Speaker 1: saw the lanterns glow. There came to me through the trees,
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 1: the monotonous rising and falling of a human voice that
• 2:52:12
  Speaker 1: was beyond question, the sound of a man praying to
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 1: his God. The End of the Camp of the Dog
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 1: by Algernon Blackwood