Latest / Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) / 08 - Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) by G K Chesterton

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08 - Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading) by G K Chesterton · Man Who Was Thursday, A Nightmare (Dramatic Reading)

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Countable conduct of Professor de Worms. Sit down, said Sunday,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in a voice that he used once or twice in
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: his life, a voice that made men drop drawn swords.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: The three who had risen fell away from Gogul, and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: that equivocal person himself resumed his seat. Well, my man,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: said the President, briskly, addressing him as one addresses a
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: total stranger.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Will you oblige me by putting your hand in your
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: upper waistcoat pocket and showing me what you have there?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: The alleged pull was a little pale under his tangle
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of dark hair, but he put two fingers into the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: pocket with apparent coolness, and pulled out a blue strip
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: of card. When sim saw it lying on the table,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: he woke up again to the world outside him, for
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: although the card lay at the other extreme of the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: table and he could read nothing of the inscription on it,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: it bore a startling resemblance to the blue card in
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: his own pocket, the card which had been given to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: him when he joined the anti anarchist constabulary.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Pathetic Slav, said the President, tragic child of Poland, are
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: you prepared, in the presence of that card to deny
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: that you are in this company, Shall we say de
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: troll roto.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Said the late Google. It made everyone jump to hear
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: a clear commercial and somewhat cockney voice coming out of
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: that forest of foreign hair. It was irrational, as if
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: a chinaman had suddenly spoken with a Scotch accent.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I gather that you fully understand your position.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Said Sunday. You bet, answered the poll.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I say it's a fair cop.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: All I say is I don't believe any pole clue
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: imitated by accents.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: What I did is I concede the point, said Sunday.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: I believe your own accent to be inimitable, though I
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: shall practice it in my bath. Do you mind leaving
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: your beard with your card?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Not a bit, answered Goggle, and with one finger he
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: ripped off the whole of his shaggy head covering, emerging
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: with thin red hair and a pale pert face.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: It was aught. He added, I will do you the
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: justice to say.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Said Sunday, not without a sort of brutal admiration.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: That you seem to have kept pretty cool under it.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Now listen to me. I like you. The consequence is
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: that it would annoy me for just about two and
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a half minutes if I heard that you had died
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: in torments. Well, if you ever tell the police or
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: any human soul about us, I shall have that two
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: and a half minutes of discomfort. On your discomfort, I
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: will not dwell. Good day. Mind the step.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: The red haired detective, who had masqueraded as Gogul rose
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to his feet without a word and walked out of
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the room with an air of perfect nonchalance. Yet the
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: astonished sign was able to realize that this ease was
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: suddenly assumed, for there was a slight stumble outside the door,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: which showed that the departing detective had not minded the step.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Time is flying, said.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: The President in his gayest manner, after glancing at his watch,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: which liked everything about him, seemed bigger than it ought
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: to be.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I must go off at once. I have to take
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: the chair at a humanitarian meeting.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: The secretary turned to him with working eyebrows. Would it
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: not be better, he said, a little sharply, to discuss
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: further the details of our project, now that the spy
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: has left us. No, I think not, said the President,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: with a yawn, like an unobtrusive earthquake.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Leave it as it is, Let Saturday settle it. I
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: must be off breakfast here next Sunday.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: But the late loud scenes had whipped up the almost
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: naked nerves of the secretary. He was one of those
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: men who are conscientious even in crime.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: I must protest, President, that the thing is iercular, he said.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: It is a fundamental rule of our society that all
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: plans shall be debated in full council. Of course, I
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: fully appreciate your forethought when in the actual presence of
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: a traitor.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Secretary, said the President, seriously.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: If you'd take your head home and boil it for
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: a turnip, it might be useful. I can't say, but
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: it might.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: The secretary reared back in a kind of equine anger.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: I've really fail to understand, he began, in high offense.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: That's it, that's it, said.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: The President, nodding a great many times.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: That's where you fail, right enough, You fail to understand
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: why you dancing? Donkey, he roared, rising, You didn't want
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: to be overheard by a spy, didn't you? How do
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: you know you aren't overheard? Now?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: And with these words, he shouldered his way out of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the room, shaking with incomprehensible scorn. Four of the men
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: left behind gaped at him, without any apparent glimmering of
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: his meaning. Sime alone had even a glimmering, and such
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: as it was, froze him to the bone. If the
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: last words of the President meant anything, they meant that
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: he had not, after all, passed unsuspected. They meant that
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: while Sunday could not denounce him like Goggle, he still
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: could not trust him like the others. The other four
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: got to their feet, grumbling more or less, and betook
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: themselves elsewhere to find lunch, for it was already well
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: past mid day. The Professor went last, very slowly and painfully.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Sime sat long after the rest had gone, revolving his
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: strange position. He had escaped a thunderbolt, but he was
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: still under a cloud. At last he rose and made
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: his way out of the hotel into Leicester Square. The
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: bright cold day had grown increasingly colder, and when he
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: came out into the street, he was surprised by a
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: few flakes of snow. While he still carried the sword
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: stick and the rest of Gregory's portable luggage, he had
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: thrown the cloak down and left it somewhere, perhaps on
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: the steam tug, perhaps on the balcony, hoping therefore, that
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the snow shower might be slight. He stepped back out
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of the street for a moment and stood up under
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: the doorway of a small and greasy hair dresser's shop,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the front window of which was empty except for sickly
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: wax lady in evening dress. Snow, however, began to thicken
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: and fall fast, and Sime, having found one glance at
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the wax lady quite sufficient to depress his spirits, stared
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: out instead into the white and empty street. He was
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: considerably astonished to see, standing quite still outside the shop
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: and staring into the window a man. His top hat
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: was loaded with snow like the hat of Father Christmas.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: The white drift was rising round his boots and ankles.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: But it seemed as if nothing could tear him away
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: from the contemplation of the colorless wax doll in dirty
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: evening dress. That any human being should stand in such
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: weather looking into such a shop was a matter of
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: sufficient wonder to Syme, But his idle wonder turned suddenly
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: into a personal shock, for he realized that the man
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: standing there was the paralytic old professor de Worms. It
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: scarcely seemed the place for a person of his years
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and infirmities, Syme was ready to believe anything about the
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: perversions of this dehumanized brotherhood. But even he could not
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: believe that the Professor had fallen in love with that
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: particular wax lady. He could only suppose that the man's malady,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: whatever it was, involved some momentary fits of rigidity or trance.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: He was not inclined, however, to feel in this case
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: any very compassionate concern. On the contrary, he rather congratulated
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: himself that the Professor's stroke and his elaborate and limping
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: walk would make it easy to escape from him and
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: leave him miles behind. For Simon thursted first and last
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: to get clear of the whole poisonous atmosphere, if only
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: for an hour. Then he could collect his thoughts, formulate
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: his policy, and decide finally whether he should or should
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: not keep faith with Gregory. He strolled away through the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: dancing snow, turned up two or three streets, down through
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: two or three others, and entered a small Soho restaurant
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: For lunch. He partook reflectively of four small and quaint courses,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: drank half a bottle of red wine, and ended up
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: over black coffee and a black cigar. Still thinking, he
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: had taken his seat in the upper room of the restaurant,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: which was full of the chink of knives and the
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: chatter of foreigners. He remembered that in old days he
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: had imagined, and that all these harmless and kindly aliens
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: were anarchists. He shuddered, remembering the real thing. But even
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: the shutter had the delightful shame of escape. The wine,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the common food, the familiar place, the faces of natural
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and talkative men made him almost feel as if the
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Council of the Seven Days had been a bad dream.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: And although he knew it was nevertheless an objective reality,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: it was at least a distant one. Tall houses and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: populous streets lay between him and his last sight of
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the shameful seven. He was free, in free London, and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: drinking wine among the free. With a somewhat easier action,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: he took his hat and stick and strolled down the
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: stair into the shop below. When he entered that lower room,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: he stood stricken and rooted to the spot. At a
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: small table, close up to the blank window and the
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: white street of snow, sat the old anarchist professor over
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: a glass of milk, with his lifted, livid face and
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: pendent eyelids for an instant syme stood as rigid as
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the stick he leaned upon. Then, with a gesture as
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of blind hurry, he brushed past the Professor, dashing open
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the door and slamming it behind him, and stood outside
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: in the snow.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: Can that old corpse be following me?
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: He asked himself, biting his yellow mustache.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: I stopped too long up in that room, so that
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: even such leaden feet could catch me up. Wan comfort
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: is with a little brisk walking, and I could put
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: a man like that as far away as Timbuctoo. Oh am,
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: I too fanciful? Was he really following me? Surely Sunday
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: would be such a fool as to send a lame man.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: He set off at a smart pace, twisting and whirling
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: his stick in the direction of Covent Garden. As he
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: crossed the Great Market, the snow increased, growing blinding and bewildering.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: As the afternoon began to darken, the snowflakes tormented him
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: like a swarm of silver bees, getting into his eyes
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: and beard. They added their unremitting futility to his already
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: irritated nerves and by the time that he had come
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: at a swinging pace to the beginning of Fleet Street.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: He lost patience, and, finding a Sunday tea shop, turned
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: into it to take shelter. He ordered another cup of
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: black coffee as an excuse. Scarcely had he done so
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: when Professor de Worms hobbled heavily into the shop, sat
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: down with difficulty, and ordered a glass of milk. Sime's
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: walking stick had fallen from his hand with a great clang,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: which confessed the concealed steel, but the professor did not
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: look round. Sime, who was commonly a cool character, was
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: literally gaping as a rustic game apes at a conjuring trick.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: He had seen no cab following. He had heard no
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: wheels outside the shop. To all mortal appearances, the man
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: had come on foot, but the old man could only
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: walk like a snail, and sim had walked like the wind.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: He started up and snatched his stick, half crazy with
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: the contradiction in mere arithmetic, and swung out of the
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: swinging doors, leaving his coffee untasted. An omnibus going to
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the bank went rattling by with an unusual rapidity. He
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: had a violent run of a hundred yards to reach it,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: but he managed to spring swaying upon the splashboard, and
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: pausing for an instant to pant, he climbed on to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the top. When he had been seated for about half
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: a minute, he heard behind him a sort of heavy
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: and asthmatic breathing. Turning sharply, he saw, rising gradually higher
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: and higher up the omnibus steps, a top soiled and
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: dripping with snow, and under the shadow of its brim
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: the short sighted face and shaky shoulders of Professor du Worms.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: He let himself into a seat with characteristic care, and
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: wrapped himself up to the chin in the Mackintosh rug.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Every movement of the old man's tottering figure and vague hands,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: every uncertain gesture and panic stricken pause, seemed to put
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: it beyond question that he was helpless, that he was
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: in the last imbecility of the body. He moved by inches.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: He let himself down with little gasps of caution. And
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: yet unless the philosophical entities called time and space have
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: no vestige even of a practical existence, it appeared quite
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: unquestionable that he had run after the omnibus. Sime sprang
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: erect upon the rocking car, and after staring wildly at
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: the wintry sky that grew gloomier every moment, he ran
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: down the steps. He had repressed an elemental impulse to
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: leap over the side, to bewildered, to look back, or
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: to reason. He rushed into one of the little courts
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: at the side of Fleet Street as a rabbit rushes
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: into a hole. He had a vague idea, if this
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: incomprehensible old Jack in the Box was really pursuing him,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: that in that labyrinth of little streets, he could soon
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: throw him off the scent. He dived in and out
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: of those crooked lanes, which were more like cracks than thoroughfares,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: And by the time that he had completed about twenty
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: alternate angles and described an unthinkable polygon, he paused to
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: listen for any sound of pursuit. There was none. There
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: could not in any case have been much, for the
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: little streets were thick with the soundless snow. Somewhere behind
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: red Line Court, however, he noticed a place where some
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: energetic citizen had cleared away the snow for a space
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: of about twenty yards lee the wet, glistening cobblestones. He
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: thought little of this as he passed it, only plunging
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: into yet another arm of the maize. But when a
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: few hundred yards further on he stood still again to listen,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: his heart stood still also, for he heard from that
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: space of rugged stones the clinking crutch and laboring feet
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: of the infernal cripple. The sky above was loaded with
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: the clouds of snow, leaving London in a darkness and
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: oppression premature for that hour of the evening. On each
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: side of Sime, the walls of the alley were blind
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and featureless. There was no little window or any kind
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: of eve. He felt a new impulse to break out
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: of this hive of houses and to get once more
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: into the open and lamp lit street. Yet he rambled
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: and dodged for a long time before he struck the
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: main thoroughfare. When he did so, he struck it much
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: further up than he had fancied. He came out into
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: what seemed the vast and void of Ludgate Circus, and
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: saw Saint Paul's cathedral sitting in the sky. At first
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: he was startled to find these great roads so empty,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: as if a pestilence had swept through the city. Then
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: He told himself that some degree of emptiness was natural,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: first because the snowstorm was even dangerously deep, and secondly
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: because it was Sunday. And at the very word Sunday
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: he bit his lip. The word was henceforth for hire,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: like some indecent pond. Under the white fog of snow
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: high up in the heaven, the whole atmosphere of the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: city was turned to a very queer kind of green twilight,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: as of men under the sea. The sealed and sullen
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: sunset behind the dark dome of Saint Paul's had in
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: its smoky and sinister colors, colors of sickly green, dead red,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: or decaying bronze that were just bright enough to emphasize
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the solid whiteness of the snow. But right up against
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: these dreary colors rose the black bulk of the cathedral,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: And upon the top of the cathedral was a random
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: splash and great stain of snow, still clinging as to
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: an alpine peak. It had fallen accidentally, but just so
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: fallen as to half drape the dome from its very
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: topmost point, and to pick out in perfect silver the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: great orb and the cross. When Sime saw it, He
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: suddenly straightened himself and made with his swordstick an involuntary salute.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: He knew that that evil figure, his shadow, was creeping
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: quickly or slowly behind him, and he did not care.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: It seemed a symbol of human faith and valor that
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: while the skies were darkening, that high place of the
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: earth was bright. The devils might have captured Heaven, but
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: they had not yet captured the Cross. He had a
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: new impulse to tear out the secret of this dancing,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: jumping and pursuing paralytic, And at the entrance of the court,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: as it opened upon the circus, he turned stick in
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: hand to face his pursuer. Professor de Worms came slowly
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: round the corner of the irregular alley behind him, his
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: unnatural form outlined against a lonely gas lamp, irresistibly recalling
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: that very imaginative figure in the nursery rhymes, the crooked
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: man who went a crooked mile. He really looked as
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: if he had been twisted out of shape by the
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: tortuous streets he had been threading. He came nearer and nearer,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the lamp light shining on his lifted spectacles, his lifted
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: patient face Sime waited for him, as Saint George waited
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: for the dragon, as a man waits for a f
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: explanation or for death, And the old professor came right
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: up to him and passed him like a total stranger,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: without even a blink of his mournful eyelids. There was
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: something in this silent and unexpected innocence that left Sime
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: in a final fury. The man's colorless face and manner
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: seemed to assert that the whole following had been an accident.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Sime was galvanized with an energy that was something between
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: bitterness and a burst of boyish derision. He made a
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: wild gesture as if to knock the old man's hat off,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: called out something like catch me if you can, and
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: went racing away across the white, open circus. Concealment was
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: impossible now, and looking back over his shoulder, he could
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: see the black figure of the old gentleman coming after
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: him with long swinging strides, like a man winning a
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: mile race. But the head upon that bounding body was
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: still pale, grave and professional, like the head of a
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: lecturer upon the body of a harlequin. This outrageous chase
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: sped across Ludgate Circus, up Ludgate Hill, round Saint Paul's Cathedral.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Along cheapside Sime remembering all the nightmares he had ever known.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Then Sime broke away towards the river and ended almost
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: down by the docks. He saw the yellow panes of
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: a low lighted public house, flung himself into it and
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: ordered beer. It was a foul tavern, sprinkled with foreign sailors,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: a place where opium might be smoked or knives drawn.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: A moment later, Professor de Worms entered the place, sat
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: down carefully, and asked for a glass of milk. End
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: of Chapter seven