Latest / Beetle / 39 - Beetle by Richard Marsh

Transcript

39 - Beetle by Richard Marsh · Beetle

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Beadle by Richard Marsh, Chapter thirty nine. Miss Louisa Coleman,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: that the house over the way was tenanted was plain
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: to all the world. At least one occupant sat gazing
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: through the window of the first floor front room, an
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: old woman in a cap, one of those large old
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: fashioned caps which our grandmothers used to wear, tied with
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: strings under the chin. It was a bow window, and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: as she was seated in the bay, looking right in
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: our direction, she could hardly have failed to see us
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: as we advanced. Indeed, she continued to stare at us
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: all the while with placid calmness. Yet I knocked once, twice,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and yet again, without the slightest notice of being taken
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of my summons. Sidney gave expression to his impatience in
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: his own peculiar vein Knockers in this part of the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: world seem intended for ornament only. Nobody seems to pay
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: any attention to them when they are used. The old
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: lady upstairs must be either deaf or dotty. He went
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: out into the road to see if she was still there.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: She's looking at me as calmly as you please. What
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: does she think we're doing here? I wonder playing a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: tune on her front door. By way of a little amusement, Madame,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: He took off his hat and waved it to her. Madame,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: might I observe that if you won't condescend to notice
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: that we're here, your front door will run the risk
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of being severely injured. She don't care for me any
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: more than if I was nothing at all. Sound another
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: tattoo upon that knocker. Perhaps she's so deaf that nothing
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: short of a cataclysmal uproar will reach her auditory nerves.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: She immediately proved, however, that she was nothing of the sort.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Hardly had the sounds of my further knocking died away.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Than throwing up the window, she thrust out her head
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and addressed me in a fashion which, under the circumstances,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: was as unexpected as it wasn't called for now, young man,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: you needn't be in such a hurry, Sydney explained. Pardon me, madame,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: it's not so much a hourry, wherein as pressed for time,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: this is a matter of life and death. She turned
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: her attention to Sydney, speaking with a frankness for which
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I imagine he was unprepared. I don't want none of your imporence,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: young man. I've seen you before. You've been hanging about
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: here the whole day long, and I don't like the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: looks of you, and so I'll let you know. That's
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: my front door, and that's my knocker. I'll come down
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and open when I like, but I'm not going to
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: be hurried. And if the knocker's so much as touched again,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I won't come down at all. She closed the window
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: with a bang. Sydney seemed divided between mirth and indignation.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: That's a nice old lady, on my honor, one of
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the good, old, crusty sort, agreeable characters. This neighborhood seems
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: to grow. The sojourn hereabouts should do one good. Unfortunately,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I don't feel disposed just now to stand and kick
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: my heels in the road again. Saluting the old dame
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: by raising his hat, he shouted to her at the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: top of his voice, Madame, I begged ten thousand pardons
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: for troubling you, but this is a matter in which
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: every second is of vital importance. Would you allow me
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to ask you one or two questions? Up went the window,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Ow came the old lady's head. Now, young man, you
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: needn't put yourself out to holler at me. I won't
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: be hollered at. I'll come down and open that door
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: in five minutes, by the clock of my mantelpiece, and
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: not a moment before the Fiat delivered down came the window.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Sidney looked rueful. He consulted his watch. I don't know
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: what you think, Champnell, but I really doubt if this
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: comfortable creature can tell us anything worth waiting another five
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: minutes to hear. We mustn't let the grass grow under
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: our feet, and time is getting on. I was of
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: different opinion, and said, so, I'm afraid Atherton, that I
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: can't agree with you. She seems to have noticed you
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: hanging about all day, and it is at least possible
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: that she has noticed a good deal which would be
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: well worth our hearing. What more promising witness are we
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: likely to find? Her house is the only one which
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: overlooks the one we have just quitted. I am of
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: opinion that it may not only prove well worth our
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: while to wait five minutes, but also that it would
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: be as well, if possible, not to offend her by
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: the way she's not likely to afford us the information
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: we require. If you do good. If that's what you think,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm willing to wait. Only it's to be
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: hoped that that clock upon her mantelpiece moves quicker than
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: its mistress. Presently. When about a minute had gone, he
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: called to the cabman. Seen a sign of anything. The
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: cabman shouted back, ne'er sign. You'll hear a sound of
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: pop guns when I do. Those five minutes did seem
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: long ones, But at last Sidney, from his post of
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: vantage in the road, informed us that the old lady
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: was moving. She's getting up, she's leaving the window. Let's
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: hope to goodness she's coming down to open the door.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: That's been the longest five minutes I've known. I could
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: hear on certain footsteps descending the stairs. They came along
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the passage, the door was opened on the chain. The
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: old lady peered at us through an aperture about six inches.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know what you young men think you're after,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: but have all three of you in my house. I won't.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I'll have him and you. A skinny finger was pointed
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: to Lessingham and me. Then it was directed towards Atherton.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: But have him I won't, so if it's anything particular
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you want to say to me, you'll just tell him
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: to go away. On hearing this, Sydney's humility was abject.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: His hat was in his hand. He bent himself double.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Suffer me to make you a million apologies, madam. If
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I have in any way offended you nothing, I assure
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you could have been farther from my intention or from
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: my thoughts. I don't want none of your apologies, and
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I don't want none of you neither. I don't like
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: the looks of you, and so I tell you, before
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I let anybody into my house, you'll have to sling
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: your hook. The door was banged in our faces. I
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: turned to Sydney. The sooner you go, the better it
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: will be for us. You can wait for us over
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the way. He shrugged his shoulders and groaned, half in jest,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: half in earnest. If I must, I suppose I must.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: It's the first time I've been refused admittance to a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: lady's house in all my life. What have I done
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: to deserve this thing? If you keep me waiting long,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I'll tear that infernal den to pieces. He sauntered across
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the road. Viciously kicking the stones as he went. The
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: door reopened. Has that other young man gone? He has? Then,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: now I'll let you in have him inside my house.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: I won't. The chain was removed, Lessingham and I entered.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Then the door was refastened and the chain replaced. Our
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: hostess showed us into the front room of the ground floor.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: It was sparsely furnished and not too clean, but there
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: were chairs enough for us to sit upon, which she
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: insisted on our occupying sit down. Do I can't abide
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: to see folks standing. It gives me the fidgets. So
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: as soon as we were seated, without any overture on
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: our parts, she plunged in media's res I know what
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: it is you've come about. I know you want me
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: to tell you who it is as lives in the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: house over the road. Well I can tell you, and
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I dare bet a shilling that I'm about the only
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: one who can. I inclined my head. Indeed, is that so, madam?
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: She was huffed at once. Don't madame me. I can't
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: bear none of your lip service. I'm a plain spoken woman,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: That's what I am, and I like other people's tongues
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: to be as plain as mine. My name's Miss Luisa Coleman,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: but I'm generally called Miss Coleman. I'm only called Luisa
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: by my relatives. Since she was apparently between seventy and
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: eighty and looked every year of her hard age, I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: deemed that possible. Miss Coleman was evidently a character. If
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: one was desirous of getting information out of her, it
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: would be necessary to allow her to impart in it
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: her own manner. To endeavor to induce her to impart
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: it in anybody else's would be time clean wasted. We
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: had Sydney's fate before our eyes. She started with a
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: sort of roundabout preamble. This property is mine. It was
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: left me by my uncle, the late George Henry Jobson.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: He's buried in Hammersmith Cemetery just over the way. He
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: left me the whole of it. It's one of the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: finest building sites near London, and it increases in value
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: every year, and I'm not going to let it for
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: another twenty by which time the value will have more
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: than troubled. So if that is what you've come about,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: as heaps of people do, you might have saved yourselves
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: the trouble I keep the board standing just to let
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: people know that the ground is to let, though as
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: I say it, it won't be for another twenty years,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: when it'll be for the erection of high class mansions only,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: same as there in Grosvenor Square, no shops or public houses,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and none of your shanties. I live in this place
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: just to keep an eye on the property. And as
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: for the house over the way, I've never tried to
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: let it, and it never has been let, not until
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a month ago, when one morning I had this letter.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: You can see it if you like. She handed me
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: a greasy envelope, which she fettered out of a capacious pocket,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: which was suspended from her waist, and which she had
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: to lift up her skirt to reach. The envelope was
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: addressed in unformed characters, Miss Louisa Coleman, the Rhododendron's Convovolis Avenue,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: High Oaks Park, West, Kensington. I felt if the writer
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: had not been of a humorous turn of mind and
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: drawn on his imagination, and this really was the lady's
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: correct address, and there must be something in a name.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: The letter within was written in the same straggling, characterless calligraphy.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: I should have said, had I been asked offhand, that
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: though the whole thing was the composition of a servant girl,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the composition was about on a par with the writing
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the undersign would be obliged if miss Coleman would let
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: her empty house. I do not know the rent, but
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: send fifty pounds. If more will send please address Mohammed
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: el Kir, Post Office, Sligo Street, London. It struck me
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: as being as singular an application for a tendency as
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I remembered to have encountered. When I passed it on
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: to Lessingham, he seemed to think so too. This is
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: a curious letter, miss Coleman, so I thought, and still
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: more so when I found the fifty pounds inside there
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: were five ten pound notes all loose, and the letter
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: not even registered. If I had been asked what was
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the rent of the house, I should have said, at
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: the most not more than twenty pounds, because between you
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: and me, it wants a good bit of doing up,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: and as hardly fit to live in as it stands.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I had had sufficient evidence of the truth of this altogether,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: apart from the landlady's frank admission, why for all he
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: could have done to help himself. I might have kept
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the money and only sent him a receipt for a quarter,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and some folks would have done. But I'm not one
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: of that sort myself, and shouldn't care to be. So
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I sent this here party. I never could pronounce his name,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: and never shall a receipt for a year, as Coleman
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: paused to smooth her apron and consider well, the receipt
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: should have reached this here party on the Thursday morning,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: as it were, I posted it on the Wednesday night,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: and on the Thursday after breakfast, I thought i'd go
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: over the way to see if there were any little
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: thing I could do, because there wasn't hardly a whole
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: pane of glass in the place when I all but
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: went all of a heap when I looked across the road,
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: blessed that the party wasn't in already, at least as
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: much as he ever was in, which, so far as
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: I can make out, never as being anything particular, though
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: how he got in, unless it was through a window
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, is more than I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: should care to say. There was nobody in the house
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: when I went to bed that I could pretty nearly
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: take my Bible oath. Yeah, there was the blind up
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: at the parlor, and what's more, it was down, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: it's been down pretty nearly ever since. Well, I says
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to myself, for right down, imparants, this beats anything. Why
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: he's in the place before he knows if I'll let
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: him have it. Perhaps he thinks I haven't got a
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: word to say in the matter fifty pounds or no
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: fifty pounds. I'll soon show him. So I slips on
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: my bonnet and I walks over the road and I
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: hammers at the door. Well, I've seen people hammering since then,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: many a one, and how they've kept it up has
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: puzzled me for an hour, some of them, but I
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: was the first one has begun it. I hammers, and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I hammers, and I kept on hammering. But it wasn't
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: no more use than if i'd been hammering at a tombstone.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: So I starts rapping at the window. But that wasn't
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: no use neither. So I goes round behind and I
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: hammers at the back door. But there I couldn't make
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: anyone here, knowhow, So I says to myself, perhaps the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: party as is in ain't in in a manner of
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: speaking but I'll keep an eye on the house, and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: when he is in, i'll take care that he ain't
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: out again before I've had a word to say. So
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I come back home, and as I said I would,
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I kept an eye on the house the whole of
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: that livelong day, but never a soul went either out
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: or in. But the next day, which it was a Friday,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: I got out of bed about five o'clock to see
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: if it was raining, through my having an idea of
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: taking a little excursion if the weather was fine. When
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I see a party coming down the road. He had
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: on one of them dirty colored bed cover sort of things,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and it was wrapped all over his head and round
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: his body. Like as I've been told them they are
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Arabs were, and indeed i've seen them in them myself
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: at West Brompton when they was in that exhibition there.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: It was quite fine and broad day. And I see
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: him as plainly as I see you. He comes skimming
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: along at a tear of a pace, pulls up at
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: the house over the way, opens the front door, and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: lets himself in. So I says to myself, there you
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: are well, mister Arab or whatever or whoever you may be,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I'll take good care that you don't go out again
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: before you've had a word from me. I'll show you
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: that landladies had their rights like other Christians in this country,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: however it may be in yours. So I kept an
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: eye on the house to see that he didn't go
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: out again, and nobody never didn't. And between seven and
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: eight I goes and I knocks at the door, because
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I thought to myself that the earlier I was, the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: better it might be. If you'll believe me, no more
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: notice was taken to me than if I was one
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of the dead. I hammers and a hammer's till my
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: wrist was aching. I dare say a hammer twenty times.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: And then I went round to the back door, and
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I hammer's at that. But it wasn't the least good
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: in the world. I was that provoked to think I
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: should be treated as if I was nothing and nobody
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: by a dirty foreigner who went about in a bed
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: gown through the public streets. That it was all I
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: could do to hold myself. I comes round to the
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: front again, and I starts hammering at the window with
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: every knuckle on my hands, and I calls out, I'm
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: miss Louisa Coleman, and I'm the owner of this house,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and you can't deceive me. I saw you come in,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and you're in now, and if you don't come and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: speak to me at this moment, I'll have the police.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: All of a sudden, when I was least expecting it
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and was hammering my very heart, is that the pane,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: up goes the blind and up goes the window too,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: And the most awful looking creature ever I heard of,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: not to mention seeing puts his head right into my face.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: It was more like a hideous baboon than anything else,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: let alone a man. I was struck all of a
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: heap and plumps down on the little wall and all
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: but tumbles head over, heels backwards, and he starts shrieking
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: in a sort of kind of English, and in such
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: a voice as I'd never heard the like. It was
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: like a rusty steam, And go away, go away. I
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: don't want you. I will not have you never. You
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: have your fifty pounds, you have your money. That is
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the whole of you. That is all you want. You
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: come to me no more, never, never, no more, or
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: you'll be sorry. Go away. I did go away, and
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: that as fast as ever my legs would carry me.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: What with his looks, and what with his voice, and
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: what with the way that he went on, I was
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: nothing but a mass of trembling. As for answering him
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: back or giving him a piece of my mind, as
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I had meant to, I wouldn't have done it, not
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: for a thousand pounds. I don't mind confessing between you
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and me that I had to swallow four cups of
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: tea right straight away before my nerves were steady. Well,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I says to myself, when I did feel as it
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: might be a little more easy. You never have let
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: that house before, and now you've let it with a vengeance,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: so you have. If that there new tenant of yours
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: isn't the greatest villain that ever went unhung, it must
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: be because he's got near relations. What's as bad as
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: in self? Because two families like his, I'm sure they're campy,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: a nice sort of Arab party to have sleeping over
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the road, he is. But after a time I cools down,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: as it were, because I'm one of them sort as
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: likes to see on both sides of a question. After all,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: I says to myself, he has paid his rent and
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: fifty pounds is fifty pounds. I doubt if the whole
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: house is worth much more, and he can't do much
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: damage to it whatever he does. I shouldn't have minded,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: so far as that went, if he'd set fire to
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: the place, for between ourselves it's insured for a good
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: bid over its value. So I decided that I'd let
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: things be as they were and see how they went on.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: But from that hour to this I've never spoken to
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the man, and never wanted to, and wouldn't not of
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: my own free will, not for a shilling of time.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: That face of his will haunt me if I lived
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: till Noah. As the saying is, I've seen him going
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: in and out at all hours of the day and night.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: That Arab party's a mystery, if ever there was one.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: He always goes tearing along as if he's flying for
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: his life. Lots of people have come to the house,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: all sorts of kinds, men and women. They've been mostly
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: women and even little children. I've seen them hammer and
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: hammer at the front door, But never one have I
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: seen let in or yet seen taken any notice of.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: And I think I may say, and yet tell no
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: lie that I've scarcely took my eye off the house.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Since he's been inside it over and over again in
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: the middle of the night, have I got up to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: have a look, so that I've not missed much that
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: has took place. What's puzzled me is the noises that's
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: come from the house. Sometimes for days together, there's been
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: not a sound. It might have been a house of
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the dead, and then all through the night there have
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: been yells and screeches, squawks and screams. Never heard nothing
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: like it. I've thought, and more than once, that the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: devil himself must be in that front room, let alone
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: all the rest of his demons. And as for cats,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: where they've come from, I can't think. I didn't use
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: to notice hardly a cat in the neighborhood till that
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: their Arab party came, and there isn't much to attract them.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: But since he came here there's been regiments. Sometimes at
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: night there's been troops about the place, screeching like mad.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: I've wished them farther. I can tell you that our
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: party must be fond of em. I've seen them inside
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the house, at the windows upstairs and downstairs. As it
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: seems to me it doesn't at a time. End of
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: chapter thirty nine,