Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / Bealby Chapter 7 - The Battle of Cratminister part two

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Bealby Chapter 7 - The Battle of Cratminister part two · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven of Bilby a Holiday. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Tracy Duckett. Bilby a Holiday by H. G. Wells.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven, The Battle of Crayminster, Part five. The subsequent
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  Speaker 1: hour or so was an interval of tedious tension for Bilby.
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  Speaker 1: After vast spaces of time, he was suddenly aware of
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  Speaker 1: three vertical threads of light. He stared at them with
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  Speaker 1: mysterious awe, until he realized that they were just the
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  Speaker 1: moonshine streaming through the cracks of the shed. The tramp
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  Speaker 1: tossed and muttered in his sleep. Footsteps, yes, footsteps, then voices.
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  Speaker 1: They were coming along by the edge of the field,
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  Speaker 1: and coming and talking very discreetly, augh, said the tramp,
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  Speaker 1: And then softly, what's that? Then he too became noiselessly attentive.
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  Speaker 1: Bilby could hear his heart beating. The men were now
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  Speaker 1: close outside the shed. He wouldn't go in there, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Benhaw's voice. He wouldn't dare anyhow, We'll go up
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  Speaker 1: by the glass first. I'll let him have the whole
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  Speaker 1: barrel full of oats. If I get a glimpse of him.
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  Speaker 1: If he'd gone away, they'd have caught him in the road.
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  Speaker 1: The footsteps receded. There came a cautious rustling on the
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  Speaker 1: part of the tramp, and then his feet padded softly
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  Speaker 1: to the door of the shed. He struggled to open it,
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  Speaker 1: and then with a jerk, got it open a few inches.
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  Speaker 1: A great bar of moonlight leapt and lay still across
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  Speaker 1: the floor of the shed. Bilby advanced his head cautiously
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  Speaker 1: until he could see the black, obscure indications of the
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  Speaker 1: tramp's back as he peeped out. Now whispered the tramp
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  Speaker 1: and opened the door wider. Then he ducked his head
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  Speaker 1: down and darted out of sight, leaving the door open
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  Speaker 1: behind him. Bilby questioned whether he should follow. He came
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  Speaker 1: out a few steps and then went back at a
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  Speaker 1: shout from away up the garden. There he goes, shouted
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  Speaker 1: a voice in the shadow of the hedge. Look out,
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  Speaker 1: Jim pain, and a yelp, stand away, I've got another
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  Speaker 1: barrel pain. Then silence for a time, and then the
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  Speaker 1: footsteps coming back. That ought to teach him, said mister Benshaw.
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  Speaker 1: First time I got him fair, and I think I
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  Speaker 1: peppered him a bit. The second couldn't see very well,
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  Speaker 1: but I heard him yell he won't forget that in
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  Speaker 1: a hurry. Not him. There's nothing like oats for fruit stealers. Jim,
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  Speaker 1: Just shut the door, will you. That's where he was hiding.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed a vast time to Bilby before he ventured
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  Speaker 1: out into the summer moonlight, and a very pitiful and
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  Speaker 1: outcast little Bilby he felt himself to be. He was
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  Speaker 1: beginning to realize what it means to go beyond the
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  Speaker 1: narrow securities of human society. He had no friends, no
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  Speaker 1: friends at all. He caught at and arrested a sob
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  Speaker 1: of self pity. Perhaps, after all, it was not so
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  Speaker 1: late as Bilby had supposed. There were still lights in
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  Speaker 1: some of the houses, and he had the privilege of
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  Speaker 1: seeing mister Benshaw going to bed with pensive deliberation. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Benshaw wore a flannel night shirt and said quite a
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  Speaker 1: lengthy prayer before extinguishing his candle. Then suddenly Bilby turned
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  Speaker 1: nervously and made off through the hedge. A dog had
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  Speaker 1: barked at first there were nearly a dozen lighted windows
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  Speaker 1: in Crayminster. They went out one by one. He hung
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  Speaker 1: for a long time with a passionate earnestness on the
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  Speaker 1: soul surviving one, but that too went at last. He
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  Speaker 1: could have wept when at last it winked out. He
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  Speaker 1: came down into the marshy flats by the river, but
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  Speaker 1: he did not like the way in which the water
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  Speaker 1: sucked and swirled in the vague moonlight. Also, he suddenly
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  Speaker 1: discovered a great white horse standing quite still in the
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  Speaker 1: misty grass, not thirty yards away. So he went up
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  Speaker 1: to and crossed the high road, and wandered up the
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  Speaker 1: hillside towards the allotments, which attracted him by reason of
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  Speaker 1: the sociability of the numerous tool sheds. In a hedge
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  Speaker 1: near at hand, a young rabbit's stone wheeled sharply and
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  Speaker 1: was stilled. Why then something like a short snake scrabbled
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  Speaker 1: by very fast through the grass. Then he thought he
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  Speaker 1: saw the tramp stalking him noiselessly behind some currant bushes.
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  Speaker 1: That went on for some time but came to nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Then nothing pursued him, nothing at all. The gap the
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  Speaker 1: void came after him. The bodiless, the faceless, the formless.
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  Speaker 1: These are evil hunters in the night. What a cold,
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  Speaker 1: still watching thing moonlight can be. He thought he would
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  Speaker 1: like to get his back against something solid, and found
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  Speaker 1: near one of the sheds a little heap of litter.
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  Speaker 1: He sat down against good tard boards, assured at least
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  Speaker 1: that whatever came must come in front. Whatever he did.
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  Speaker 1: He was resolved he would not shut his eyes. That
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  Speaker 1: would be fatal. He awoke in broad daylight amidst a
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  Speaker 1: cheerful uproar of birds. Part six, and then again flight
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  Speaker 1: and pursuit were resumed as built. When you went up
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  Speaker 1: the hill away from Crayminster, he saw a man standing
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  Speaker 1: over a spade and watching his retreat. And when he
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  Speaker 1: looked back again, presently this man was following. It was
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  Speaker 1: Lady Laxton's five pound reward had done the thing for him.
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  Speaker 1: He was half minded to surrender and have done with it.
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  Speaker 1: But jail, he knew, was a dreadful thing of stone
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  Speaker 1: and darkness. He would make one last effort. So he
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  Speaker 1: beat along the edge of a plantation, and then crossed it,
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  Speaker 1: and forced his way through some gorse, and came upon
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  Speaker 1: a sunken road that crossed the hill in a gorse
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  Speaker 1: line cutting he struggled down the steep bank at its foot,
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  Speaker 1: regardless of him. Unaware of him. A man sat beside
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  Speaker 1: a motor bicycle with his fist grip tight and his
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  Speaker 1: head downcast, swearing. A county map was crumpled in his hand. Damn,
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  Speaker 1: he cried and flung the map to the ground and
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  Speaker 1: kicked it and put his foot on it. Bilby slipped,
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  Speaker 1: came down the bank with a run, and found himself
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  Speaker 1: in the road within a couple of yards of the
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  Speaker 1: blonde features and angry eyes of Captain Douglas. When he
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  Speaker 1: saw the Captain and perceived himself recognized, he flopped down
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  Speaker 1: a done and finished Bielby part seven, he had arrived
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  Speaker 1: just in time to interrupt the Captain in a wild
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  Speaker 1: and reprehensible fit of passion. The captain imagined it was
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  Speaker 1: a secret fit of passion. He thought he was quite
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  Speaker 1: alone and that no one could hear him or see him.
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  Speaker 1: So he had let himself shout and stamp to work
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  Speaker 1: off the nervous tensions that tormented him beyond endurance. In
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  Speaker 1: the direst sense of the words, the captain was in
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  Speaker 1: love with Madeline. He was in love, quite beyond the
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  Speaker 1: bound set by refined and decorous people. To this dangerous passion,
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  Speaker 1: The primordial savage that lurks in so many of us
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  Speaker 1: was uppermost in him. He was not in love with
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  Speaker 1: her prettily or delicately. He was in love with her
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  Speaker 1: violently and vehemently. He wanted to be with her, He
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  Speaker 1: wanted to be close to her. He wanted to possess her,
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  Speaker 1: and nobody else to approach her. He was so inflamed
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  Speaker 1: now that no other interest in life had any importance,
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  Speaker 1: except as it aided or interfered with this desire. He
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  Speaker 1: had forced himself, in spite of this fever in his blood,
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  Speaker 1: to leave her to pursue Bilby, and now he was
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  Speaker 1: regretting this firmness furiously. He had expected to catch Bilby
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  Speaker 1: over night and bring him back to the hotel in Triumph,
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  Speaker 1: But Bilby had been elusive. There. She was away there,
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  Speaker 1: hurt and indignant, neglected. AH laggard in love, cried the captain,
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  Speaker 1: A dastard in war. God, I run away from everything. First,
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  Speaker 1: I leave the maneuvers, then her unstable as water. Thou
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  Speaker 1: shalt not prevail water. What does the confounded boy matter
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  Speaker 1: what does he matter? And there she is alone, shall flirt, naturally,
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  Speaker 1: shall flirt? Don't I deserve it? Haven't I asked for it,
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  Speaker 1: just the one little time we might have had together.
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  Speaker 1: I fling it in her face, you fool, laggered, you dastard.
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  Speaker 1: And here's this map, A breathing moment, how the devil,
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  Speaker 1: cried the captain. Am I to find a little beast
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  Speaker 1: on this map? And twice he's been within reach of
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  Speaker 1: my hand? No decision, cried the captain, no instant grip.
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  Speaker 1: What good is a soldier without it? What good is
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  Speaker 1: any man who will not leap at opportunity? I ought
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  Speaker 1: to have chased out last night, after that fool in
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  Speaker 1: his oats, then I might have had a chance. Chuck it,
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  Speaker 1: chuck the whole thing, Go back to her, kneel to her, kiss,
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  Speaker 1: or compel her. And what sort of reception am I
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  Speaker 1: likely to get? He crumpled the flapping map in his fist,
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  Speaker 1: and then suddenly, out of nowhere, Bilby came rolling down
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  Speaker 1: to his feet, a disheveled and earthy Bilby. But Bilby,
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  Speaker 1: good lord, cried the captain, starting to his feet and
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  Speaker 1: holding the map like a sword sheath. What do you
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  Speaker 1: want For a second, Bilby was a silent spectacle of misery.
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  Speaker 1: Oh I want my breakfast, he burst out at last,
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  Speaker 1: reduced to tears. Are you young, Bilby asked the captain,
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  Speaker 1: seizing him by the shoulder. They're after me, cried Bilby.
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  Speaker 1: If they catch me, they'll put me in prison where
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  Speaker 1: they don't give you anything. It wasn't me, did it?
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  Speaker 1: And I haven't had anything to eat, not since yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: The captain came rapidly to a decision. There should be
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  Speaker 1: no more faltering. He saw his way clear before him.
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  Speaker 1: He would act like a whistling sword. Here, jump up behind,
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  Speaker 1: he said, hold on tight to me Part eight. For
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  Speaker 1: a time there was a more than napoleonic swiftness in
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  Speaker 1: the Captain's movements. When Bilby's pursuer came up to the
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  Speaker 1: hedge that looks down into the sunken road, there was
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  Speaker 1: no Bilby, no captain, nothing but a torn and disheveled
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  Speaker 1: county map, an almost imperceptible odor of petrol, and a
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  Speaker 1: faint sound like a distant mowing machine. And the motor
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  Speaker 1: bicycle was a mile away on the road to Beckonstone,
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  Speaker 1: eight miles eight rather sickening miles Bilby did to Beckingstone
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  Speaker 1: in eleven minutes, and there in a little coffee house
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  Speaker 1: he was given breakfast with eggs and bacon and marmalade prime,
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  Speaker 1: and his spirit was restored to him. While the captain
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  Speaker 1: raided a bicycle and repairing shop and negotiated the hire
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  Speaker 1: of an experienced but fairly comfortable wicker work trailer, and
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  Speaker 1: so to London through the morning sunshine, leaving tramps, pursuers, policemen, handbills, bakers,
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  Speaker 1: market gardeners, terrors of the darkness, and everything upon the
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  Speaker 1: road behind and further behind, and remote and insignificant, and
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  Speaker 1: so to the vanishing point. Some few words of explanation
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  Speaker 1: the captain had vouchsafed, and that was all. Don't be
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  Speaker 1: afraid about it, he said, don't be in the least
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  Speaker 1: bit afraid. You tell them about it, just simply and truthfully,
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  Speaker 1: exactly what you did, exactly how you got into it
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  Speaker 1: and out of it, and all about it. You're going
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  Speaker 1: to take me up to a magistrate, sir. I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to take you up to the Lord Chancellor himself, and
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  Speaker 1: then they won't do anything nothing at all. Bielby, you
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  Speaker 1: trust me all you've got to do is to tell
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  Speaker 1: the simple truth. It was pretty rough going in the trailer,
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  Speaker 1: but very exciting. If you grip the sides very hard
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  Speaker 1: and sat quite tight, nothing very much happened. And also
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  Speaker 1: there was a strap across your chest, and you went
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  Speaker 1: past everything. There wasn't a thing on the road. The
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  Speaker 1: captain didn't pass, lowing deeply with his great horn when
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  Speaker 1: they seemed likely to block his passage. And as for
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  Speaker 1: the burglary and everything, it would all be settled. The
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  Speaker 1: captain also found that ride to London exhilarating. At least
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  Speaker 1: he was no longer hanging about. He was getting to something.
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  Speaker 1: He would be able to go back to her, and
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  Speaker 1: all his being now yearned to go back to her.
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  Speaker 1: With things achieved, with successes to show he'd found the boy,
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  Speaker 1: he would go straight to dear old Uncle Chickney, and
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  Speaker 1: Uncle Chickney would put things right with Maggridge. The boy
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  Speaker 1: would bear his testimony. Margridge would be convinced, and all
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  Speaker 1: would be well again. He might be back with Madeline
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  Speaker 1: that evening. He would go back to her and she
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  Speaker 1: would see the wisdom and energy of all he had done,
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  Speaker 1: and she would lift that dear chin of hers, and
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  Speaker 1: smile that dear smile of hers, and hold out her
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  Speaker 1: hand to be kissed, and the lights and reflections would
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  Speaker 1: play on that strong, soft neck of hers. They buzzed
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  Speaker 1: along stretches of common, and stretches of straight edged meadowland,
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  Speaker 1: by woods and orchards, by pleasant inns and slumbering villages,
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  Speaker 1: and the gates and lodges of country houses. These latter
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  Speaker 1: grew more numerous, and presently they skirted a town, and
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  Speaker 1: then more road, more villages, and at last signs of
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  Speaker 1: a nearness to London, more frequent houses, more frequent ends,
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  Speaker 1: hoardings and advertisements. An asphalted sidewalk, lamps, a gas works, laundries,
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  Speaker 1: a stretch of suburban villadum, a suburban railway station, a
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  Speaker 1: suburbanized old town, an omnibus, the head of a tramline,
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  Speaker 1: a stretch of public common thick with notice boards, a
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  Speaker 1: broad pavement, something or other, parade with a row of shops. London.
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  Speaker 1: End of section twelve.