Latest / A Drop in Infinity / Chapter XXV

Transcript

Chapter XXV · A Drop in Infinity

• 0:01
  Chapter twenty five of A Drop in Infinity. This is a Librivot's recording.
• 0:06
  All Librivot's recordings are in the public domain. For more information ought to volunteer,
• 0:11
  please visit LibriVox dot org. A Drop in Infinity by Gerald Grogan,
• 0:17
  Chapter twenty five. Marjorie listened to all I had to say, as quietly
• 0:22
  as she usually does when matters are really serious. She quite saw the gravity
• 0:27
  of the situation, but she was far too brave to show the fear not
• 0:32
  for herself but for Bill and Irene, which she must have felt. For
• 0:37
  my own part, I confess I threw myself entirely in her hands. You
• 0:42
  do the thinking, Marjorie, I suggested, and I'll do the active part,
• 0:46
  orders she smiled. Wanly, you're a good boy, she said.
• 0:51
  Run back as fast as you can, and I'll follow you. We'll all
• 0:55
  camp at the north gate where he can't roll rocks on us the house.
• 1:00
  Go if needs be. I'll wait for you there till dark. I kissed
• 1:03
  her frantically on the nose, and ran I was not troubled by the idea
• 1:07
  that Quelch might attack her again, for I knew he must have caught her
• 1:11
  unawares the first time I found her bow and arrows outside the window where he
• 1:17
  had thrown them, with all the other weapons within reach. And I knew
• 1:21
  that Marjorie, with that instrument in her hand and on the alert, was
• 1:26
  a match for five or six Michael quelches. She is not a perfect housewife
• 1:30
  by Marjorie, but she makes up for it in other ways. I hastened
• 1:34
  along as fast as my aching legs would carry me, and half an hour
• 1:38
  later ran full tilt into a scene of rural peacefulness at Lower Falls that dissipated
• 1:45
  my fears in a ripple of laughter. Adela was still lying unconscious under the
• 1:51
  bank. Her breathing was slow but regular, and she had a fairly strong
• 1:55
  pulse. I had good hopes for her recovery, as there was no fracture
• 2:00
  that I could discover, and the gashes on her neck had not severed any
• 2:02
  large artery. What made me grin, however, was the comportment of my
• 2:07
  two babes in the wood. Evidently Bill had made himself at home. He
• 2:13
  had speared or tickled a good fat trout which was a present broiling in the
• 2:17
  embers, and he sat beside the fire with a portentous frown on his heroic
• 2:23
  brow, and his hands folded round his knees. I imagine he was picturing
• 2:28
  to himself what he intended to do if Quelch appeared on the scene and tried
• 2:31
  to steal the trout. Irene was on the other side of the fire,
• 2:37
  her fat legs stuck out stiffly before her, and one eye on the fish.
• 2:42
  At intervals, she cast a stone into the nearest thicket, chanting the
• 2:46
  wireless singsong refrain highly uncomplimentary to bears. Over and about them, the dappled
• 2:53
  sunlight checkered a carpet of dead leaves and soft turf, and a small red
• 2:58
  squirrel dodged round and round the true unk of a tree to take peeps at
• 3:00
  them. I think they were rather annoyed at having to go home. It
• 3:07
  was out of the question to carry both Adela and Irene. But now that
• 3:12
  my mind was at ease with regard to events at Limestone Hollow, there was
• 3:15
  not any great need for making haste. I got the unconscious woman on my
• 3:21
  back and staggered as far as my strength held out. The children toddling along
• 3:25
  quite happily in my wake. They evidently saw the humor of the situation,
• 3:30
  although its gravity was mercifully beyond them. Thus, by carrying and resting,
• 3:36
  I managed to transport Adela to within half a mile of the wall. At
• 3:39
  this point Irene gave out and wept, complaining that she was too tired to
• 3:45
  walk any further. There was nothing for it but to leave billong guard again
• 3:49
  and take her as far as the gate, where I found Marjorie waiting with
• 3:53
  the other two. I handed over Irene, now half asleep, and returned
• 3:58
  for the others, leaving Margine to make arrangements for the night. Then I
• 4:01
  gathered up my helpless burden again, and with Bill at my side, I
• 4:05
  tottered in. About half an hour after sunset, I fell down in the
• 4:11
  orchard, too exhausted to speak, and thereafter knew nothing more until Jack,
• 4:17
  Jack, for goodness sake, Wake up Jack, and don't make a noise.
• 4:20
  He's coming back. I groaned wearily to find Marjorie kneading heavily at my
• 4:26
  ribs, and glancing upwards with dull wonder, found the sun shone high.
• 4:31
  I was lying under a shrubby apple tree on a bed of skins, and
• 4:35
  the children were sitting round the remains of breakfast as quietly as children might be
• 4:40
  expected to do in such a case as the present one. Marjorie, very
• 4:44
  hollow eyed, laid her fingers on my lips, and I sat up,
• 4:48
  feeling desperately foolish. It appears I had let her watch all night whilst I
• 4:54
  snored in comfort. Surely not, Marjorie, I whispered. He wouldn't dare.
• 4:59
  It's daylight. It's nine o'clock, you pig, she said, Listen.
• 5:03
  I listened. If it was indeed Quelch, he would appear to have
• 5:08
  become clean bereft of his senses in the night, for he advanced upon us
• 5:12
  with rock spattering tread to the lilt of a whistled marching tune, which ran
• 5:16
  tripping along over a series of staccato semiquavers to a bump at the end of
• 5:20
  every second or third bar. I laughed aloud, confound him. I said,
• 5:28
  he's deserted the sheep. That's not Quelch, Marjorie. That must be
• 5:31
  Peter Omundson, marching to our relief. I don't suppose he knew we were
• 5:35
  in trouble, unless he's got the gift of second sight. But I infer
• 5:40
  the beer gave out, who's Peter Omensen. Marjorie seemed a trifle surprised for
• 5:46
  once in her life. I'll tell you about him later. I met the
• 5:50
  hubble bubble again. I've got lambs, I've got looking glasses, I've got
• 5:56
  Peter, and I've got home. It's all right. Oh the gate,
• 6:00
  I jumped up and opened it myself, whilst Marjorie was trying to get the
• 6:04
  sag out of her lower jaw so as not to appear too imbecile before the
• 6:09
  critical eye of Peter. And in under the lintel strode the sweating ex lieutenant
• 6:14
  of Hussars, in his tattered uniform and down at heeled boots. I noted,
• 6:20
  with a thrill of joy that under each oxter he transported an indignant lamb.
• 6:26
  Eh put the ordo lamps in cave, he said, smiling shyly at
• 6:30
  Marjorie and the children, and I mac fal for keep them in. I
• 6:34
  thank Maybe i'd better come down. What made you do that? Peter?
• 6:40
  I thanked, maybe smpting hron iveit in hart like the arrange until this morning.
• 6:46
  This morning, pelacombe, about half past four, I glanced at Marjorie
• 6:53
  and I hear him come and I look out. He vast lain off a
• 6:57
  fal and look at those lamps. I say hollow and he say hollo.
• 7:02
  I say what you want and he say nothing. He say who you?
• 7:08
  How you get here? You ben catch by hubble bubble? I say what
• 7:13
  hubble bubble? And he say, he give me gold if I show way
• 7:16
  back to London. They he talk. I think him make sure I friend
• 7:20
  of that fellow who look like devil. Then I ask him his name?
• 7:25
  He say Quelch. I say, why not say so before? Now I
• 7:30
  know you. You left with John Thorpe whereby he took surprise and say,
• 7:35
  yes, John Thorpe send me for those lamps. I say, if John
• 7:41
  Thorpe send you by those lamps, how you not say so before? How
• 7:46
  you not know me? I think, my friend, you dumb liar.
• 7:50
  Then concluded Peter Avely. He ran away and I chase him with my sword,
• 7:58
  but he run too fast. I say, maybe sainteing ran and I
• 8:03
  hate provision and those lamps together in cave be safed those in any case.
• 8:09
  And then you come on down here. I think, Peter, you've saved
• 8:13
  the situation. I had no idea you were such a brilliant strategist. Peter
• 8:18
  blushed. Ay stupid fellow he began when his eye suddenly fell on Adela.
• 8:26
  How he broke off sharply, But this I told him all that had happened,
• 8:31
  and I think the quelch would not have cared to see the honest gentleman's
• 8:35
  face at that particular moment. He flushed and his lips drew back savagely in
• 8:41
  a vicious snarl. By he cried, that dirty trick. I killed that
• 8:46
  fellow. He glared round as if he expected to observe the culprit hiding among
• 8:52
  our young apple trees, and Irene at once set up a howl. This
• 8:56
  softened Peter, who's fond of children. Instantaneously he picked her up and produced
• 9:01
  his hunter watch, a watch the like of which Irene had never cast eyes
• 9:07
  on before. The yells ceased as suddenly as they had begun, and I
• 9:11
  saw that Peter was going to be popular in Limestone Meadow. Peace fell like
• 9:16
  a curtain. For now that we had two men of Marjorie to defend the
• 9:20
  settlement withal, there was not much fear of surprises. We even decided that
• 9:26
  it would be quite safe to return to the house. Which we did the
• 9:30
  same morning. There is a good deal of mystery attached to this exploit of
• 9:35
  Michael Quelch, and it seemed incredible at first that a fellow Englishman, a
• 9:39
  peacefully brought up Londoner to boot, could sink so unexpectedly to such depths of
• 9:45
  scoundrelism. Funnily enough, however, there came into my mind, as I
• 9:50
  pondered the matter, certain true tales of the doings of old time pirates.
• 9:54
  Somehow, in the old world one always had the impression that such characters were
• 10:00
  an extinct race. But come to think of it, this was sheer lack
• 10:03
  of imagination. Human nature does not change itself in three generations, and the
• 10:11
  germs of criminality must lie dormant in many a man, only awaiting the removing
• 10:15
  of the wholesome dread of punishment to wax into active virulence. I picture Quelch
• 10:20
  as having been such a man. His early environment had not only kept him
• 10:26
  in check, but it crushed his virility, so that as I first encountered
• 10:30
  him, he was vicious, yet not dangerous. Under more favorable conditions of
• 10:35
  living, he had got bold and more determined on the purely physical side of
• 10:39
  him. But Unfortunately, his moral character stayed where it originally was, that
• 10:46
  is to say, at absolute zero. He had, as far as I
• 10:50
  can determine from personal observation, not the slightest trace of sense of duty or
• 10:54
  responsibility to others. Added to this, and quite likely behind me most of
• 11:00
  this, he had the trouble with his teeth, which I have mentioned.
• 11:05
  The result lay before us. I am still in the dark also as to
• 11:09
  what actually happened up the brook. When Adela recovered consciousness a week later,
• 11:13
  she could just remember starting from Limestone Hollow with Irene, but beyond that point
• 11:18
  the blows seems to have destroyed her memory. She knows that their object was
• 11:24
  to pick berries. I gather from Irene, who remembers a good deal,
• 11:26
  that Quelch followed them, and that he and Adela seemed to have quarreled.
• 11:31
  Later they patched it up, and Quelch's attempted murder of his wife cannot be
• 11:37
  regarded as anything less than an act of the basest and most despicable treachery.
• 11:41
  In the light of what Irene can remember about it, She herself, she
• 11:46
  averts, was frightened, and she crawled into the bushes to hide. She
• 11:50
  says that Quilch hunted for her for a long time, and she believes he
• 11:54
  meant to kill her also. Fortunately she had sufficient sense, or her childish
• 11:58
  instinct prompted her to lie perfectly quiet until he abandoned his search and went away.
• 12:05
  It is difficult for me to write of these incidents in cold blood,
• 12:09
  even after the lapse of so many years. End of Chapter twenty five.
• 12:13
  Rebby Tim Row in London, twenty twenty three.