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04 - The Plattner Story · Classic Sci-Fi Tales Audio Library

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Speaker 1: The Platner Story by H. G. Wells. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Reading by Greg Marguerite, The Platner Story by H. G. Wells.
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Speaker 1: Whether the story of Godfried Platner is to be credited
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Speaker 1: or not is a pretty question in the value of evidence.
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Speaker 1: On the one hand, we have seven witnesses, to be
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Speaker 1: perfectly exact, we have six and a half pairs of
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Speaker 1: eyes and one undeniable fact. And on the other we
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Speaker 1: have what is it, prejudice, common sense, the inertia of opinion.
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Speaker 1: Never were there seven more honest seeming witnesses, Never was
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Speaker 1: there a more undeniable fact than the inversion of godfreed
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Speaker 1: Platner's anatomical structure. And never was there a more preposterous
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Speaker 1: story than the one they have to tell. The most
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Speaker 1: preposterous part of the story is the worthy Godfried's contribution.
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Speaker 1: For I count him as one of the seven. Heaven
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Speaker 1: forbid that I should be led into giving countenance to
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Speaker 1: superstition by a passion for impartiality, and so come to
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Speaker 1: share the fate of Usapia's patrons. Frankly, I believe there
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Speaker 1: is something crooked about this business of Godfried Platner. But
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Speaker 1: what that crooked factor is I will admit as frankly
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Speaker 1: I do not know. I have been surprised at the
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Speaker 1: credit accorded to the story in the most unexpected and
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Speaker 1: authoritative quarters. The fairest way to the reader, however, will
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Speaker 1: be for me to tell it without further comment. Godfried
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Speaker 1: Plattner is, in spite of his name, a free born Englishman.
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Speaker 1: His father was an Alsatian who came to England in
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Speaker 1: the sixties, married a respectable English girl of unexceptional antecedents,
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Speaker 1: and died after a wholesome and uneventful life devoted, I understand,
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Speaker 1: chiefly to the laying of parquet flooring in eighteen eighty seven.
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Speaker 1: Godfried's age is seven and twenty. He is, by virtue
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Speaker 1: of his heritage of three languages modern languages master in
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Speaker 1: a small private school in the south of England. To
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Speaker 1: the casual observer, he is singularly like any other modern
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Speaker 1: languages master in any other small private school. His costume
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Speaker 1: is neither very costly nor very fashionable. But on the
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Speaker 1: other hand, it is not markedly cheap or shabby. His complexion,
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Speaker 1: like his height and his bearing, is inconspicuous. You would
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Speaker 1: not notice, perhaps that, like the majority of people, his
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Speaker 1: face was not absolutely symmetrical, his right eye a little
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Speaker 1: larger than the left, and his jaw a trifle heavier
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Speaker 1: on the right side. If you, as an ordinary, careless person,
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Speaker 1: were to bare his chest and feel his heart beating,
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Speaker 1: you would probably find it quite like the heart of
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Speaker 1: anyone else. But here you and the trained observer would
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Speaker 1: part company. If you found his heart quite ordinary, the
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Speaker 1: trained observer would find it quite otherwise, And once the
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Speaker 1: thing was pointed out to you, you too would perceive
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Speaker 1: the peculiarity easily enough. It is that Godfried's heart beats
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Speaker 1: on the right side of his body. Now, that is
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Speaker 1: not the only singularity of Godfreed's structure, although it is
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Speaker 1: the only one that would appeal to the untrained mind.
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Speaker 1: Careful sounding of Godfried's internal arrangements by a well known
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Speaker 1: surgeon seems to point to the fact that all the
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Speaker 1: other unsymmetrical parts of his body are similarly misplaced. The
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Speaker 1: right lobe of his liver is on the left side,
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Speaker 1: the left on his right, while his lungs, too, are
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Speaker 1: similarly contraposed. What is still more singular. Unless Godfried is
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Speaker 1: a consummate actor, we must believe that his right hand
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Speaker 1: has recently become his left. Since the occurrences we are
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Speaker 1: about to consider, as impartially as possible, he has found
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Speaker 1: the utmost difficulty in writing, except from right to left
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Speaker 1: across the paper with his left hand. He cannot throw
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Speaker 1: with his right hand. He is perplexed at meal times
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Speaker 1: between knife and fork, and his ideas of the rule
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Speaker 1: of the road he is a cyclist, are still a
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Speaker 1: dangerous confusion, and there is not a scrap of evidence
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Speaker 1: to show that before these occurrences Gottfried was at all
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Speaker 1: left handed. There is yet another wonderful fact in this
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Speaker 1: preposterous business. Gottfried produces three photographs of himself. You have
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Speaker 1: him at the age of five or six, thrusting fat
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Speaker 1: legs at you from under a plaid frock and scowling.
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Speaker 1: In that photograph, his left eye is a little larger
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Speaker 1: than his right, and his jaw is a trifle heavier
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Speaker 1: on the left side. This is the reverse of his
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Speaker 1: present living condition. The photograph of Gottfried at fourteen seems
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Speaker 1: to contradict these facts, but that is because it is
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Speaker 1: one of those cheap gem photographs that were then in vogue,
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Speaker 1: taken direct upon the metal and therefore reversing things just
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Speaker 1: as a looking glass would. The third photograph represents him
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Speaker 1: at one and twenty and confirms the record of the others.
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Speaker 1: There seems here evidence of the strongest confirmatory character that
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Speaker 1: Gottfried has exchanged his left side for his right. Yet
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Speaker 1: human being can be so changed short of a fantastic
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Speaker 1: and pointless miracle. It is exceedingly hard to suggest. In
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Speaker 1: one way. Of course, these facts might be explicable on
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Speaker 1: the supposition that Plattner has undertaken an elaborate mystification on
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Speaker 1: the strength of his heart's displacement. Photographs may be faked
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Speaker 1: and left handedness imitated, but the character of the man
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Speaker 1: does not lend itself to any such theory. He is quiet, practical, unobtrusive,
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Speaker 1: and thoroughly sane from the Nordau standpoint. He likes beer
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Speaker 1: and smokes moderately, takes walking exercise daily, and has a
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Speaker 1: healthy high estimate of the value of his teaching. He
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Speaker 1: has a good but untrained tenor voice, and takes a
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Speaker 1: pleasure in singing airs of a popular and cheerful character.
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Speaker 1: He is fond, but not morbidly fond of reading, chiefly fiction,
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Speaker 1: pervaded with a vaguely pious optimism, sleeps well, and rarely dreams.
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Speaker 1: He is, in fact the very last person to evolve
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Speaker 1: a fantastic fable. Indeed, so far from forcing this story
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Speaker 1: upon the world, he has been singularly reticent on the matter.
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Speaker 1: He meets inquirers with a certain engaging bashfulness is almost
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Speaker 1: the word that disarms the most suspicious. He seems genuinely
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Speaker 1: ashamed that anything so unusual has occurred to him. It
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Speaker 1: is to be regretted that Plattner's aversion to the idea
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Speaker 1: of post mortem dissection may postpone, perhaps forever, the positive
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Speaker 1: proof that his entire body has had its left and
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Speaker 1: right sides transposed. Upon that fact, mainly, the credibility of
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Speaker 1: his story hangs. There is no way of taking a
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Speaker 1: man and moving him about in space as ordinary people
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Speaker 1: understand space, that will result in our changing his sides.
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Speaker 1: Whatever you do, his right is still his right, and
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Speaker 1: his left his left. You can do that with a
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Speaker 1: perfectly thin and flat thing. Of course, if you were
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Speaker 1: to cut a figure out of paper. Any figure with
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Speaker 1: a right and left side, you could change its side
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Speaker 1: simply by lifting it up and turning it over. But
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Speaker 1: with a solid but it is different. Mathematical theorists tell
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Speaker 1: us that the only way in which the right and
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Speaker 1: left sides of a solid body can be changed is
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Speaker 1: by taking that body clean out of space as we
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Speaker 1: know it, taking it out of ordinary existence, that is,
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Speaker 1: and turning it somewhere outside space. This is a little abstruse,
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Speaker 1: no doubt, but anyone with any knowledge of mathematical theory
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Speaker 1: will assure the reader of its truth. To put the
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Speaker 1: thing in technical language, the curious inversion of Platner's right
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Speaker 1: and left sides is proof that he has moved out
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Speaker 1: of our space into what is called the fourth dimension,
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Speaker 1: and that he has returned again to our world. Unless
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Speaker 1: we choose to consider ourselves the victims of an elaborate
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Speaker 1: and motiveless fabrication, we are almost bound to believe that
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Speaker 1: this has occurred. So much for the tangible facts. Now
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Speaker 1: we come to the account of the phenomena that attended
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Speaker 1: his temporary disappearance from the world. It appears that in
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Speaker 1: the Sussexville Proprietary School Platner not only discharged the duties
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Speaker 1: of modern language master, but also taught chemistry, commercial geography, bookkeeping, shorthand, drawing,
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Speaker 1: and any other additional subject to which the changing fancies
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Speaker 1: of the boy's parents might direct attention. He knew little
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Speaker 1: or nothing of these various subjects. But in secondary as
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Speaker 1: distinguished from board or elementary schools, knowledge in the teacher
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Speaker 1: is very properly by no means so necessary as high
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Speaker 1: moral character and gentlemanly tone. In chemistry he was particularly deficient,
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Speaker 1: knowing he says nothing beyond the three gases, whatever the
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Speaker 1: three gases may be. As however, his pupils began by
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Speaker 1: knowing nothing and derived all their information from him. This
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Speaker 1: caused him, or any one but little inconvenience for several terms.
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Speaker 1: Then a little boy named Wibble joined the school, who
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Speaker 1: had been educated, it seems, by some mischievous relative, into
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Speaker 1: an inquiring habit of mind. This little boy followed Platner's
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Speaker 1: lessons with marked and sustained interest, and, in order to
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Speaker 1: exhibit his zeal on the subject, brought at various times
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Speaker 1: substances for a Platine to analyze. Plattner, flattered by this
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Speaker 1: evidence of his power of awakening interest and trusting to
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Speaker 1: the boy's ignorance, analyzed these and even made general statements
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Speaker 1: as to their composition. Indeed, he was so far stimulated
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Speaker 1: by his pupil as to obtain a work upon analytical
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Speaker 1: chemistry and study it during his supervision of the evening's preparation.
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Speaker 1: He was surprised to find chemistry quite an interesting subject.
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Speaker 1: So far, the story is absolutely commonplace. But now the
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Speaker 1: greenish powder comes upon the scene. The source of that
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Speaker 1: greenish powder seems unfortunately lost. Master Wibble tells a tortuous
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Speaker 1: story of finding it done up in a packet in
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Speaker 1: a disused lime kiln near the Downs. It would have
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Speaker 1: been an excellent thing for Platner, and possibly for Master
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Speaker 1: Wibble's family, if a match could have been applied to
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Speaker 1: that powder there and then. The young gentleman certainly did
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Speaker 1: not bring it to school in a packet, but in
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Speaker 1: a common eight ounce graduated medicine bottle plugged with masticated newspaper.
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Speaker 1: He gave it to Platner at the end of the
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Speaker 1: air afternoon school. Four boys had been detained after school
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Speaker 1: prayers in order to complete some neglected tasks, and Platner
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Speaker 1: was supervising these in the small classroom in which the
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Speaker 1: chemical teaching was conducted. The appliances for the practical teaching
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Speaker 1: of chemistry in the Sussexville Proprietary School, as in most
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Speaker 1: small schools in this country, are characterized by a severe simplicity.
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Speaker 1: They are kept in a small cupboard, standing in a recess,
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Speaker 1: and having about the same capacity as a common traveling trunk. Platner,
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Speaker 1: being bored with his passive superintendents, seemed to have welcomed
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Speaker 1: the intervention of Wibble with his green powder as an
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Speaker 1: agreeable diversion, and unlocking this cupboard, proceeded at once with
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Speaker 1: his analytical experiments. Wibble sat, luckily for himself at a
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Speaker 1: safe distance. Regarding him, the four malefactors, feigning a profound
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Speaker 1: absorption in their work, watched him furtively with the keenest interest.
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Speaker 1: For even within the limits of the three gases, Platner's
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Speaker 1: practical chemistry was I understand Temeriot. They are practically unanimous
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Speaker 1: in their account of Platner's proceedings. He poured a little
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Speaker 1: of the green powder into a test tube and tried
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Speaker 1: the substance with water, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, and sulfuric
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Speaker 1: acid in succession. Getting no result, he emptied out a
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Speaker 1: little heap nearly half the bottleful in fact, upon a slate,
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Speaker 1: and try to match. He held the medicine bottle in
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Speaker 1: his left hand. The stuff began to smoke and melt,
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Speaker 1: and then exploded with deafening violence and a blinding flash.
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Speaker 1: The five boys, seeing the flash and being prepared for catastrophes,
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Speaker 1: ducked below their desks, and were none of them seriously hurt.
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Speaker 1: The window was blown out into the playground, and the
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Speaker 1: blackboard on its easel was upset. The slate was smashed
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Speaker 1: to atoms. Some plaster fell from the ceiling, but no
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Speaker 1: other damage was done to the school edifice or appliances,
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Speaker 1: and the boys, at first, seeing nothing of Platner, fancied
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Speaker 1: he was knocked down and lying out of their sight
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Speaker 1: below the desks. They jumped out of their places to
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Speaker 1: go to his assist stance, and were amazed to find
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Speaker 1: this space empty. Being still confused by the sudden violence
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Speaker 1: of the report, they hurried to the open door, under
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Speaker 1: the impression that he must have been hurt and have
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Speaker 1: rushed out of the room. But Carson, the foremost merely
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Speaker 1: collided in the doorway with the principal, mister Lidgett. Mister
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Speaker 1: Lydgittt is a corpulent, excitable man with one eye. The
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Speaker 1: boys describe him as stumbling into the room, mouthing some
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Speaker 1: of those tempered expletives irritable schoolmasters accustomed themselves to use,
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Speaker 1: lest worse, befall wretched mum chancer. He said, where's mister Plattner?
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Speaker 1: The boys are agreed on the very words wobbler, stiveling,
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Speaker 1: puppy and mum chancer are it seems among the ordinary
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Speaker 1: small change of mister Lydgott's scholastic commerce, where's mister Plattner?
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Speaker 1: That was a question that was to be repeated many
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Speaker 1: times in the next few days. It really seemed as
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Speaker 1: though that frantic hyperbole blown to Adams had for once
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Speaker 1: realized itself. There was not a visible part article of
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Speaker 1: Platner to be seen, not a drop of blood, nor
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Speaker 1: a stitch of clothing to be found. Apparently he had
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Speaker 1: been blown clean out of existence and left not a
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Speaker 1: rack behind, not so much as would cover a sixpenny piece,
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Speaker 1: to quote a proverbial expression. The evidence of his absolute
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Speaker 1: disappearance as a consequence of that explosion is indubitable. It
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Speaker 1: is not necessary to enlarge here upon the commotion excited
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Speaker 1: in the Sussexville Proprietary School, and in Sussexville and elsewhere
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Speaker 1: by this event. It is quite possible, indeed, that some
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Speaker 1: of the readers of these pages may recall the hearing
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Speaker 1: of some remote and dying version of that excitement during
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Speaker 1: the last summer holidays. Lydgate, it would seem, did everything
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Speaker 1: in his power to suppress and minimize the story. He
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Speaker 1: instituted a penalty of twenty five lines for any mention
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Speaker 1: of Plattner's name among the boys, and stated in the
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Speaker 1: school room that he was clearly aware of his assistants
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Speaker 1: whereabouts he was afraid. He explains that the possibility of
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Speaker 1: an explosion happening in spite of the other elaborate precautions
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Speaker 1: taken to minimize the practical teaching of chemistry, might injure
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Speaker 1: the reputation of the school, and so might any mysterious
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Speaker 1: quality in Platner's departure. Indeed, he did everything in his
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Speaker 1: power to make the occurrence seem as ordinary as possible.
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Speaker 1: In particular, he cross examined the five eye witnesses of
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Speaker 1: the occurrence so searchingly that they began to doubt the
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Speaker 1: plain evidence of their senses. But in spite of these efforts,
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Speaker 1: the tale, in a magnified and distorted state, made a
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Speaker 1: nine days wonder in the district, and several parents withdrew
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Speaker 1: their sons on colorable pretexts. Not the least remarkable point
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Speaker 1: in the matter is the fact that a large number
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Speaker 1: of people in the neighborhood dreamed singularly vivid dreams of
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Speaker 1: Platner during the period of excitement before his return, and
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Speaker 1: that these dreams had a curious uniformity. In almost all
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Speaker 1: of them, Platner was seen, sometimes singly, sometimes in company,
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Speaker 1: wandering about through a coruscating iridescence. In all cases, his
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Speaker 1: face was pale and distressed, and in some he gesticulated
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Speaker 1: toward the dreamer. One or two of the boys, evidently
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Speaker 1: under the influence of nightmare, fancied that Platner approached them
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Speaker 1: with remarkable swiftness and seemed to look closely into their
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Speaker 1: very eyes. Others fled with Platner from the pursuit of
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Speaker 1: vague and extraordinary creatures of a globular shape. But all
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Speaker 1: these fancies were forgotten in inquiries and speculations. When on
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Speaker 1: the Wednesday next, but one after the Monday of the explosion,
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Speaker 1: Platner returned, the circumstances of his return were as singular
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Speaker 1: as those of his departure. So far as mister Lidget's
15:35
Speaker 1: somewhat choleric outline can be filled in from Platner's hesitating statements,
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Speaker 1: it would appear that on Wednesday evening, towards the hour
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Speaker 1: of sunset, the former gentleman, having dismissed evening preparation, was
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Speaker 1: engaged in his garden, picking and eating strawberries, a fruit
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Speaker 1: of which he is inordinately fond. It is a large,
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Speaker 1: old fashioned garden, secured from observation, fortunately by a high
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Speaker 1: and ivy covered red brick wall. Just as he was
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Speaker 1: stooping over a particularly prolific plant, there was a flash
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Speaker 1: in the air and a heavy thud, and before he
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Speaker 1: could look round, some heavy body struck him violently from behind.
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Speaker 1: He was pitched forward, crushing the strawberries he held in
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Speaker 1: his hand, and that so roughly that his silk hat
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Speaker 1: mister lydgatet adheres to the older ideas of scholastic costume,
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Speaker 1: was driven violently down upon his forehead and almost over
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Speaker 1: one eye. This heavy missile, which slid over him sideways
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Speaker 1: and collapsed into a sitting posture among the strawberry plants,
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Speaker 1: proved to be our long lost mister Godfried Platner in
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Speaker 1: an extremely disheveled condition. He was collarless and hatless, his
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Speaker 1: linen was dirty, and there was blood upon his hands.
16:43
Speaker 1: Mister Lydgatett was so indignant and surprise that he remained
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Speaker 1: on all fours and with his hat jammed down on
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Speaker 1: his eye, while he expostulated vehemently with Platner for his
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Speaker 1: disrespectful and unaccountable conduct. This scarcely idyllic scene completes what
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Speaker 1: I may call the exterior version of the Platner's story
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Speaker 1: its esoteric aspect. It is quite unnecessary to enter here
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Speaker 1: into all the details of his dismissal by mister Lidgett.
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Speaker 1: Such details, with the full names and dates and references,
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Speaker 1: will be found in the larger report of these occurrences
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Speaker 1: that was laid before the Society for the Investigation of
17:18
Speaker 1: Abnormal Phenomena. The singular transposition of Platner's right and left
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Speaker 1: sides was scarcely observed for the first day or so,
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Speaker 1: and then first in connection with his disposition to write
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Speaker 1: from right to left across the blackboard. He concealed rather
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Speaker 1: than ostended this curious confirmatory circumstance, as he considered it
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Speaker 1: would unfavorably affect his prospects in a new situation. The
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Speaker 1: displacement of his heart was discovered some months after, when
17:45
Speaker 1: he was having a tooth extracted under anesthetics. He then
17:48
Speaker 1: very unwillingly allowed a cursory surgical examination to be made
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Speaker 1: of himself, with a view to a brief account in
17:55
Speaker 1: the Journal of Anatomy that exhausts the statement of the
17:59
Speaker 1: material fact. And we may now go on to consider
18:02
Speaker 1: Platner's account of the matter, But first let us clearly
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Speaker 1: differentiate between the preceding portion of this story and what
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Speaker 1: is to follow. All I have told thus far is
18:11
Speaker 1: established by such evidence as even a criminal lawyer would approve.
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Speaker 1: Every one of the witnesses is still alive. The reader,
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Speaker 1: if he have the leisure, may hunt the lads out tomorrow,
18:22
Speaker 1: or even brave the terrors of the redoubtable lidgate and
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Speaker 1: cross examine, and trap and test to his heart's content.
18:28
Speaker 1: Godfreed Platner himself and his twisted heart, and his three
18:32
Speaker 1: photographs are producible. It may be taken as proved that
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Speaker 1: he did disappear for nine days as the consequence of
18:39
Speaker 1: an explosion, that he returned almost as violently under circumstances
18:44
Speaker 1: in their nature annoying to mister Lidgittt, whatever the details
18:48
Speaker 1: of those circumstances may be, and that he returned inverted,
18:52
Speaker 1: just as a reflection returns from a mirror. From the
18:56
Speaker 1: last fact. As I have already stated, it follows almost
18:58
Speaker 1: inevitably that platiner Or during those nine days must have
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Speaker 1: been in some state of existence altogether out of space.
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Speaker 1: The evidence to these statements is indeed far stronger than
19:08
Speaker 1: that upon which most murderers are hanged. But for his
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Speaker 1: own particular account of where he had been, with its
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Speaker 1: confused explanations and well nigh self contradictory details, we have
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Speaker 1: only mister Godfried Plattner's word. I do not wish to
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Speaker 1: discredit that, but I must point out what so many
19:26
Speaker 1: writers upon obscure psychic phenomena fail to do. That we
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Speaker 1: are passing here from the practically undeniable to that kind
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Speaker 1: of matter which any reasonable man is entitled to believe
19:36
Speaker 1: or reject as he thinks proper. The previous statements render
19:40
Speaker 1: it plausible. Its discordance with common experience tilts it towards
19:44
Speaker 1: the incredible. I would prefer not to sway the beam
19:48
Speaker 1: of the reader's judgment either way, but simply to tell
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Speaker 1: the story as Platner told it to me. He gave
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Speaker 1: me his narrative, I may state, at my house at Chiselhurst,
19:57
Speaker 1: and so soon as he had left me that eve,
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Speaker 1: I went into my study and wrote down everything as
20:02
Speaker 1: I remembered it. Subsequently, he was good enough to read
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Speaker 1: over a typewritten copy, so that its substantial correctness is undeniable.
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Speaker 1: He states that at the moment of explosion, he distinctly
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Speaker 1: thought he was killed. He felt lifted off his feet
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Speaker 1: and driven forcibly backward. It is a curious fact for
20:20
Speaker 1: psychologists that he thought clearly during his backward flight, and
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Speaker 1: wondered whether he should hit the chemistry cupboard or the
20:27
Speaker 1: blackboard easel. His heels struck ground, and he staggered and
20:31
Speaker 1: fell heavily into a sitting position on something soft and firm.
20:35
Speaker 1: For a moment, the concussion stunned him. He became aware
20:38
Speaker 1: at once of a vivid scent of singed hair and
20:41
Speaker 1: he seemed to hear the voice of Lydgott asking for him.
20:45
Speaker 1: You will understand that for a time his mind was
20:47
Speaker 1: greatly confused. At first, he was under the impression that
20:51
Speaker 1: he was still standing in the class room. He perceived
20:54
Speaker 1: quite distinctly the surprise of the boys and the entry
20:57
Speaker 1: of mister Lydgott. He is quite positive upon that score
21:01
Speaker 1: he did not hear their remarks, but that he ascribed
21:03
Speaker 1: to the deafening effect of the experiment. Things about him
21:07
Speaker 1: seemed curiously dark and faint, But his mind explained that
21:11
Speaker 1: on the obvious but mistaken idea that the explosion had
21:14
Speaker 1: engendered a huge volume of dark smoke. Through the dimness,
21:19
Speaker 1: the figures of Lidgett and the boys moved as faint
21:22
Speaker 1: and silent as ghosts. Plattner's face still tangled with the
21:26
Speaker 1: stinging heat of the flash. He was, he says, all muddled.
21:31
Speaker 1: His first definite thoughts seemed to have been of his
21:33
Speaker 1: personal safety. He thought he was perhaps blinded and deafened.
21:38
Speaker 1: He felt his limbs and face in a gingerly manner.
21:41
Speaker 1: Then his perceptions grew clearer, and he was astonished to
21:43
Speaker 1: miss the old, familiar desks and other schoolroom furniture about him,
21:48
Speaker 1: only dim, uncertain gray shape stood in the place of these.
21:53
Speaker 1: Then came a thing that made him shout aloud and
21:55
Speaker 1: awoke his stunned faculties to instant activity. Two of the
22:00
Speaker 1: boys gesticulating, walked one after the other, clean through him.
22:06
Speaker 1: Neither manifested the slightest consciousness of his presence. It is
22:09
Speaker 1: difficult to imagine the sensation he felt. They came against him,
22:13
Speaker 1: he says, with no more force than a wisp of mist.
22:17
Speaker 1: Plattner's first thought after that was that he was dead.
22:20
Speaker 1: Having been brought up with thoroughly sound views in these matters, however,
22:24
Speaker 1: he was a little surprised to find his body still
22:27
Speaker 1: about him. His second conclusion was that he was not dead,
22:31
Speaker 1: but that the others were. That the explosion had destroyed
22:34
Speaker 1: the Sussexville Proprietary School and every soul in it except
22:37
Speaker 1: for himself. But that too, was scarcely satisfactory. He was
22:42
Speaker 1: thrown back upon astonished observation. Everything about him was profoundly dark.
22:48
Speaker 1: At first, it seemed to have an altogether ebony blackness.
22:52
Speaker 1: Overhead was a black firmament. The only touch of light
22:55
Speaker 1: in the scene was a faint greenish glow at the
22:58
Speaker 1: edge of the sky in one direction, which threw into
23:00
Speaker 1: prominence a horizon of undulating black hills. This, I say
23:05
Speaker 1: was his impression at first. As his eye grew accustomed
23:08
Speaker 1: to the darkness, he began to distinguish a faint quality
23:11
Speaker 1: of differentiating greenish color in the circumambient night. Against this background,
23:16
Speaker 1: the furniture and occupants of the classroom, it seemed, stood
23:19
Speaker 1: out like phosphorescent specters, faint and impalpable. He extended his
23:24
Speaker 1: hand and thrust it without an effort, through the wall
23:26
Speaker 1: of the room by the fireplace, He describes himself as
23:30
Speaker 1: making a strenuous effort to attract attention. He shouted to
23:34
Speaker 1: Lydgit and tried to seize the boys as they went
23:37
Speaker 1: to and fro. He only desisted from these attempts when
23:40
Speaker 1: missus Lydgittt, whom he as an assistant manager naturally disliked,
23:45
Speaker 1: entered the room. He says, the sensation of being in
23:48
Speaker 1: the world and yet not a part of it was
23:50
Speaker 1: an extraordinarily disagreeable one. He compared his feelings not inaptly
23:55
Speaker 1: to those of a cat watching a mouse through a window.
23:58
Speaker 1: Whenever he made a motion to communicate with the dim,
24:00
Speaker 1: familiar world about him. He found an invisible, incomprehensible barrier
24:05
Speaker 1: preventing intercourse. He then turned his attention to his solid environment.
24:10
Speaker 1: He found the medicine bottle still unbroken in his hand,
24:13
Speaker 1: with the remainder of the green powder therein. He put
24:16
Speaker 1: this in his pocket and began to feel about him.
24:19
Speaker 1: Apparently he was sitting on a boulder of rock covered
24:23
Speaker 1: with a velvety moss, the dark country about him. He
24:26
Speaker 1: was unable to see the faint, misty picture of the
24:29
Speaker 1: school room blotting it out. But he had a feeling,
24:32
Speaker 1: due perhaps to a cold wind, that he was near
24:35
Speaker 1: the crest of a hill, and that a steep valley
24:37
Speaker 1: fell away beneath his feet. The green glow along the
24:41
Speaker 1: edge of the sky seemed to be growing in extent
24:43
Speaker 1: and intensity. He stood up, rubbing his eyes. It would
24:47
Speaker 1: seem that he made a few steps, going steeply downhill,
24:50
Speaker 1: and then stumbled, nearly fell, and sat down again upon
24:53
Speaker 1: a jagged mass of rock to watch the dawn. He
24:57
Speaker 1: became aware that the world about him was absolutely silent.
25:01
Speaker 1: It was as still as it was dark, and though
25:04
Speaker 1: there was a cold wind blowing up the hill face,
25:06
Speaker 1: the rustle of grass, the sowing of the boughs that
25:09
Speaker 1: should have accompanied it were absent. He could hear, therefore,
25:13
Speaker 1: if he could not see, that the hillside upon which
25:16
Speaker 1: he stood was rocky and desolate. The green grew brighter
25:20
Speaker 1: every moment, and as it did so, a faint, transparent
25:23
Speaker 1: blood red mingled with, but did not mitigate the blackness
25:26
Speaker 1: of the sky overhead and the rocky desolations about him.
25:30
Speaker 1: Having regard to what follows, I am inclined to think
25:33
Speaker 1: that the redness may have been an optical effect. Due
25:36
Speaker 1: to contrast, something black fluttered momentarily against the livid yellow
25:41
Speaker 1: green of the lower sky, and then the thin and
25:43
Speaker 1: penetrating voice of a bell rose out of the black
25:46
Speaker 1: gulf below him. An oppressive expectation grew with the growing light.
25:52
Speaker 1: It is probable that an hour or more relapsed while
25:55
Speaker 1: he sat there, the strange green light growing brighter every
25:58
Speaker 1: moment and spreading slowly and flamboyant fingers upward toward the zenith.
26:03
Speaker 1: As it grew, the spectral vision of our world became
26:06
Speaker 1: relatively or absolutely fainter, probably both, for the time must
26:11
Speaker 1: have been about that of our earthly sunset, so far
26:15
Speaker 1: as his vision of our world went platiner. By his
26:18
Speaker 1: few steps down hill had passed through the floor of
26:20
Speaker 1: the class room, and was now, it seemed, sitting in
26:23
Speaker 1: mid air in the larger school room downstairs. He saw
26:27
Speaker 1: the borders distinctly, but much more faintly than he had
26:30
Speaker 1: seen lydgate. They were preparing their evening tasks, and he
26:33
Speaker 1: noticed with interest that several were cheating with their euclid
26:36
Speaker 1: riders by means of a crib, a compilation whose existence
26:40
Speaker 1: he had hitherto never expected. As the time passed, they
26:44
Speaker 1: faded steadily, as steadily as the light of the green
26:47
Speaker 1: dawn increased. Looking down into the valley, he saw that
26:50
Speaker 1: the light had crept far down its rocky sides, and
26:53
Speaker 1: that the profound blackness of the abyss was now broken
26:56
Speaker 1: by a minute green glow, like the light of a glowworm.
27:00
Speaker 1: And almost immediately the limb of a huge, heavenly body
27:03
Speaker 1: of blazing green rose over the basaltic undulations of the
27:07
Speaker 1: distant hills, and the monstrous hill masses about him came out,
27:11
Speaker 1: gaunt and desolate in green light and deep ruddy black shadows.
27:16
Speaker 1: He became aware of a vast number of ball shaped
27:19
Speaker 1: objects drifting as thistledown drifts over the high ground. There
27:23
Speaker 1: were none of these nearer to him than the opposite
27:26
Speaker 1: side of the gorge. The bell below twanged quicker and
27:29
Speaker 1: quicker with something like impatient insistence, and several lights moved
27:34
Speaker 1: hither and thither. The boys at work at their desks
27:36
Speaker 1: were now almost imperceptibly faint. This extinction of our world
27:41
Speaker 1: when the green sun of this other universe rose, is
27:44
Speaker 1: a curious point upon which Platner insists. During the other
27:48
Speaker 1: world night, it is difficult to move about on account
27:51
Speaker 1: of the vividness with which the things of this world
27:54
Speaker 1: are visible. It becomes a riddle to explain why, if
27:57
Speaker 1: this is the case, we in this world catch no
27:59
Speaker 1: glie of the other world. It is due perhaps to
28:02
Speaker 1: the comparatively vivid illumination of this world of ours. Platner
28:07
Speaker 1: describes the mid day of the other world at its
28:09
Speaker 1: brightest as not being nearly so bright as this world
28:12
Speaker 1: at full moon, while its night is profoundly black. Consequently,
28:17
Speaker 1: the amount of light even in an ordinary dark room
28:20
Speaker 1: is sufficient to render the things of the other world invisible.
28:24
Speaker 1: On the same principle, that faint phosphorescence is only visible
28:27
Speaker 1: in the profoundest darkness. I have tried, since he told
28:31
Speaker 1: me his story to see something of the other world,
28:33
Speaker 1: by sitting for a long space in a photographer's dark
28:36
Speaker 1: room at night. I have certainly seen indistinctly the form
28:40
Speaker 1: of greenish slopes and rocks, but only, I must admit,
28:44
Speaker 1: very indistinctly. Indeed, the reader may possibly be more successful.
28:49
Speaker 1: Platner tells me that since his return he has dreamt
28:52
Speaker 1: and seen and recognized places in the other world, but
28:55
Speaker 1: this is probably due to his memory of these scenes.
28:59
Speaker 1: It seems quite possible that people with unusually keen eyesight
29:02
Speaker 1: may occasionally catch a glimpse of this strange other world
29:05
Speaker 1: about us. However, this is digression. As the green sun rose,
29:11
Speaker 1: a long street of black buildings became perceptible, though only
29:15
Speaker 1: darkly and indistinctly in the gorge, and after some hesitation,
29:19
Speaker 1: Platner began to clamber down the precipitous descent toward them.
29:23
Speaker 1: The descent was long and exceedingly tedious, being so not
29:27
Speaker 1: only by the extraordinary steepness, but also by reason of
29:30
Speaker 1: the looseness of the boulders with which the whole face
29:33
Speaker 1: of the hill was strewn the noise of his descent
29:36
Speaker 1: now and then his heels struck fire from the rocks
29:39
Speaker 1: seemed now the only sound in the universe, for the
29:42
Speaker 1: beating of the bell had ceased. As he drew nearer,
29:46
Speaker 1: he perceived that the various edifices had a singular resemblance
29:49
Speaker 1: to tombs and mausoleums and monuments, saving only that they
29:53
Speaker 1: were all uniformly black, instead of being white, as most
29:57
Speaker 1: sepulchers are. And then he saw crad out of the
30:00
Speaker 1: largest building, very much as people disperse from church, a
30:04
Speaker 1: number of pallid, rounded, pale green figures. These dispersed in
30:10
Speaker 1: several directions about the broad street of the place, some
30:13
Speaker 1: going through side alleys and reappearing upon the steepness of
30:16
Speaker 1: the hill, others entering some of the small black buildings
30:19
Speaker 1: which lined the way. At the sight of these things
30:22
Speaker 1: drifting up towards him, Platner stopped staring. They were not walking.
30:27
Speaker 1: They were indeed limbless, and they had the appearance of
30:30
Speaker 1: human heads, beneath which a tadpole like bodies swung. He
30:35
Speaker 1: was too astonished at their strangeness, too full indeed of
30:38
Speaker 1: strangeness to be seriously alarmed by them. They drove towards
30:42
Speaker 1: him in front of the chill wind that was blowing
30:44
Speaker 1: up hill, much as soap bubbles drive before a draft,
30:48
Speaker 1: and as he looked at the nearest of those approaching,
30:50
Speaker 1: he saw it was indeed a human head, albeit with
30:53
Speaker 1: singularly large eyes, and wearing such an expression of distress
30:57
Speaker 1: and anguish as he had never seen before upon mortal countenance.
31:01
Speaker 1: He was surprised to find that it did not turn
31:03
Speaker 1: to regard him, but seemed to be watching and following
31:06
Speaker 1: some unseen moving thing. For a moment, he was puzzled,
31:11
Speaker 1: and then it occurred to him that this creature was
31:13
Speaker 1: watching with its enormous eyes something that was happening in
31:16
Speaker 1: the world he had just left. Nearer it came and nearer,
31:20
Speaker 1: and he was too astonished to cry out. It made
31:23
Speaker 1: a very faint, fretting sound as it came close to him.
31:26
Speaker 1: Then it struck his face with a gentle pat Its
31:29
Speaker 1: touch was very cold, and drove past him and upward
31:32
Speaker 1: towards the crest of the hill. An extraordinary conviction flashed
31:36
Speaker 1: across Platner's mind that this head had a strong likeness
31:39
Speaker 1: to lidgate. Then he turned his attention to the other
31:42
Speaker 1: heads that were now swarming thickly up the hillside. None
31:46
Speaker 1: made the slightest sign of recognition. One or two indeed
31:50
Speaker 1: came close to his head and almost followed the example
31:52
Speaker 1: of the first, but he dodged convulsively out of the way.
31:56
Speaker 1: Upon most of them, he saw the same expression of
31:58
Speaker 1: unavailing regret he had seen upon the first, and heard
32:02
Speaker 1: the same faint sounds of wretchedness from them. One or
32:06
Speaker 1: two wept, and one, rolling swiftly up hill, wore an
32:09
Speaker 1: expression of diabolical rage. But others were cold, and several
32:14
Speaker 1: had a look of gratified interest in their eyes. One
32:17
Speaker 1: at least was almost in an ecstasy of happiness. Platner
32:20
Speaker 1: does not remember that he recognized any more likenesses in
32:23
Speaker 1: those he saw at this time. For several hours, perhaps
32:27
Speaker 1: Platner watched these strange things dispersing themselves over the hills,
32:32
Speaker 1: and not till long after they had ceased to issue
32:34
Speaker 1: from the clustering black buildings in the gorge did he
32:37
Speaker 1: resume his downward climb. The darkness about him increased so
32:41
Speaker 1: much that he had a difficulty in stepping true overhead.
32:45
Speaker 1: The sky was now a bright, pale green. He felt
32:48
Speaker 1: neither hunger nor thirst. Later, when he did he found
32:51
Speaker 1: a chilly stream running down the center of the gorge,
32:54
Speaker 1: and the rare moss upon the boulders. When he tried
32:57
Speaker 1: it at last, in desperation, was good to eat. He
33:01
Speaker 1: groped about among the tombs that ran down the gorge,
33:04
Speaker 1: seeking vaguely for some clue to these inexplicable things. After
33:08
Speaker 1: a long time he came to the entrance of the
33:10
Speaker 1: big mausoleum like building from which the heads had issued.
33:13
Speaker 1: In this he found a group of green lights burning
33:16
Speaker 1: upon a kind of basaltic altar, and a bell rope
33:19
Speaker 1: from a belfry overhead hanging down into the center of
33:22
Speaker 1: the place. Round the wall ran a lettering of fire
33:26
Speaker 1: in a character unknown to him. While he was still
33:29
Speaker 1: wondering at the purport of these things, he heard the
33:31
Speaker 1: receding tramp of heavy feet echoing far down the street.
33:35
Speaker 1: He ran out into the darkness again, but he could
33:38
Speaker 1: see nothing. He had a mind to pull the bell
33:41
Speaker 1: rope and finally decided to follow the footsteps, But although
33:44
Speaker 1: he ran far, he never overtook them, and his shouting
33:47
Speaker 1: was of no avail. The gorge seemed to extend an
33:51
Speaker 1: interminable distance. It was as dark as earthly starlight throughout
33:55
Speaker 1: its length. While the ghastly green day lay along the
33:58
Speaker 1: upper edge of its precipice. There were none of the
34:01
Speaker 1: heads now below. They were all, it seemed, busily occupied
34:05
Speaker 1: along the upper slopes. Looking up, he saw them drifting
34:09
Speaker 1: hither and thither, some hovering stationary, some flying swiftly through
34:12
Speaker 1: the air. It reminded him, he said, of big snowflakes,
34:16
Speaker 1: only these were black and pale green. In pursuing the firm,
34:21
Speaker 1: undeviating footsteps, that he never overtook, in groping into new
34:25
Speaker 1: regions of this endless devil's dyke, in clambering up and
34:28
Speaker 1: down the pitiless heights, in wandering about the summits, and
34:31
Speaker 1: in watching the drifting faces, Plattner states that he spent
34:35
Speaker 1: the better part of seven or eight days. He did
34:38
Speaker 1: not keep count, he says, though once or twice he
34:41
Speaker 1: found eyes watching him. He had word with no living soul.
34:45
Speaker 1: He slept among the rocks on the hillside in the gorge,
34:48
Speaker 1: things earthly were invisible, because from the earthly standpoint it
34:52
Speaker 1: was far underground. On the altitudes. So soon as the
34:57
Speaker 1: earthly day began, the world became visible to him. He
35:00
Speaker 1: found himself sometimes stumbling over the dark green rocks, or
35:03
Speaker 1: arresting himself on a precipitous brink, while all about him
35:07
Speaker 1: the green branches of the Sussexville lanes were swaying. Or
35:11
Speaker 1: again he seemed to be walking through the Sussexville streets,
35:14
Speaker 1: or watching unseen the private business of some household. And
35:19
Speaker 1: then it was he discovered that to almost every human
35:22
Speaker 1: being in our world there pertained some of these drifting heads.
35:26
Speaker 1: That everyone in the world is watched intermittently by these
35:29
Speaker 1: helpless disembodiments. What are they these watchers of the living?
35:34
Speaker 1: Platner never learned, But two that presently found and followed
35:38
Speaker 1: him were like his childhood's memory of his father and mother.
35:41
Speaker 1: Now and then other faces turned their eyes upon him,
35:45
Speaker 1: eyes like those of dead people who had swayed him,
35:48
Speaker 1: or injured him, or helped him in his youth and manhood.
35:51
Speaker 1: Whenever they looked at him, Platner was overcome with a
35:54
Speaker 1: strange sense of responsibility to his mother. He ventured to speak,
35:58
Speaker 1: but she made no answer. She looked sadly, steadfastly and tenderly,
36:03
Speaker 1: a little reproachfully too, it seemed into his eyes. He
36:07
Speaker 1: simply tells this story. He does not endeavor to explain.
36:11
Speaker 1: We are left to surmise who these watchers of the
36:14
Speaker 1: living may be, or, if they are indeed the dead,
36:17
Speaker 1: why they should so closely and passionately watch a world
36:20
Speaker 1: they have left forever. It may be. Indeed, to my mind,
36:24
Speaker 1: it seems just that when our life has closed, when
36:27
Speaker 1: evil or good is no longer a choice for us,
36:30
Speaker 1: we may still have to witness the working out of
36:32
Speaker 1: the train of consequences we have laid. If human souls
36:36
Speaker 1: continue after death, then surely human interests continue after death.
36:41
Speaker 1: But that is merely my own guess at the meaning
36:43
Speaker 1: of the things seen. Platner offers no interpretation, for none
36:47
Speaker 1: was given him. It is well the reader should understand
36:51
Speaker 1: this clearly. Day after day, with his head reeling, he
36:55
Speaker 1: wandered about this strange lit world outside the world, weary
36:59
Speaker 1: and towards the end, and weak and hungry by day.
37:02
Speaker 1: By our earthly day, that is, the ghostly vision of
37:06
Speaker 1: the old, familiar scenery of Sussexville all about him, irked
37:09
Speaker 1: and worried him. He could not see where to put
37:12
Speaker 1: his feet, and ever and again, with a chilly touch,
37:14
Speaker 1: one of these watching souls would come against his face.
37:18
Speaker 1: And after dark, the multitude of these watchers about him,
37:21
Speaker 1: and their intent distress confused his mind beyond describing. A
37:25
Speaker 1: great longing to return to the earthly life that was
37:28
Speaker 1: so near and yet so remote consumed him. The unearthliness
37:32
Speaker 1: of things about him produced a positively painful mental distress.
37:37
Speaker 1: He was wearied beyond describing. By his own particular followers.
37:41
Speaker 1: He would shout at them to desist from staring at him,
37:44
Speaker 1: scold at them, hurry away from them. They were always
37:47
Speaker 1: mute and intent. Run as he might over the uneven ground,
37:50
Speaker 1: they followed his destinies. On the ninth day, towards evening,
37:55
Speaker 1: Plattner heard the invisible footsteps approaching far away down the gorge.
37:59
Speaker 1: He was then wandering over the broad crest of the
38:01
Speaker 1: same hill upon which he had fallen in his entry
38:04
Speaker 1: into this strange other world of his. He turned to
38:08
Speaker 1: hurry down into the gorge, feeling his way hastily, and
38:11
Speaker 1: was arrested by the sight of the thing that was
38:13
Speaker 1: happening in a room in a back street near the school.
38:17
Speaker 1: Both of the people in the room he knew by sight.
38:20
Speaker 1: The windows were open, the blinds up, and the setting
38:23
Speaker 1: sun shone clearly into it, so that it came out
38:25
Speaker 1: quite brightly at first, a vivid, oblong room, lying like
38:29
Speaker 1: a magic lantern picture upon the black landscape and the
38:32
Speaker 1: livid green dawn. In addition to the sunlight, a candle
38:36
Speaker 1: had just been lit in the room. On the bed
38:38
Speaker 1: lay a lank man, his ghastly white face terrible upon
38:42
Speaker 1: the tumbled pillow. His clenched hands were raised above his head.
38:46
Speaker 1: A little table beside the bed carried a few medicine bottles,
38:49
Speaker 1: some toast and water, and an empty glass. Every now
38:52
Speaker 1: and then, the lank man's lips fell apart to indicate
38:55
Speaker 1: a word he could not articulate, But the woman did
38:58
Speaker 1: not notice that he wanted anything, because she was busy
39:01
Speaker 1: turning out papers from an old fashioned bureau in the
39:03
Speaker 1: opposite corner of the room. At first, the picture was
39:06
Speaker 1: very vivid, indeed, but as the green dawn behind it
39:09
Speaker 1: grew brighter and brighter, so it became fainter and more
39:12
Speaker 1: and more transparent. As the echoing footsteps paced nearer and nearer,
39:17
Speaker 1: those footsteps that sound so loud in that other world,
39:20
Speaker 1: and come so silently. In this Platner perceived about him
39:24
Speaker 1: a great multitude of dim faces, gathering together out of
39:27
Speaker 1: the darkness, and watching the two people in the room.
39:30
Speaker 1: Never before had he seen so many of the watchers
39:33
Speaker 1: of the living. A multitude had eyes only for the
39:36
Speaker 1: sufferer in the room. Another multitude, in infinite anguish, watched
39:41
Speaker 1: the woman as she hunted with greedy eyes for something
39:43
Speaker 1: she could not find. They crowded about Platner. They came
39:48
Speaker 1: across his sight and buffeted his face. The noise of
39:51
Speaker 1: their unavailing regrets was all about him, he saw clearly
39:55
Speaker 1: only now and then at other times the picture quivered
39:59
Speaker 1: dimly through the veil of green reflections upon their movements
40:03
Speaker 1: in the room. It must have been very still, and
40:05
Speaker 1: Platner says, the candle flames streamed up into a perfectly
40:09
Speaker 1: vertical line of smoke. But in his ears, each footfall
40:12
Speaker 1: and its echoes beat like a clap of thunder. And
40:15
Speaker 1: the faces two more, particularly near the woman's one. A
40:19
Speaker 1: woman's also white and clear, featured a face which might
40:23
Speaker 1: have once been cold and hard, but which was now
40:25
Speaker 1: softened by the touch of a wisdom strange to earth.
40:28
Speaker 1: The other might have been the woman's father. Both were
40:31
Speaker 1: evidently absorbed in the contemplation of some act of hateful meanness,
40:36
Speaker 1: so it seemed which they could no longer guard against
40:38
Speaker 1: and prevent. Behind were others, teachers, it may be, who
40:43
Speaker 1: had taught ill, friends whose influence had failed. And over
40:47
Speaker 1: the man too a multitude, but none that seemed to
40:50
Speaker 1: be parents or teachers. Faces that might once have been coarse,
40:55
Speaker 1: now purged to strength by sorrow, And in the forefront
40:59
Speaker 1: one face girlish, one neither angry nor remorseful, but merely
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Speaker 1: patient and weary. And as it seemed to Platner, waiting
41:07
Speaker 1: for relief, his powers of description fail him at the
41:10
Speaker 1: memory of this multitude of ghastly countenances. They gathered on
41:14
Speaker 1: the stroke of the bell. He saw them all in
41:17
Speaker 1: the space of a second. It would seem that he
41:20
Speaker 1: was so worked on by his excitement that quite involuntarily,
41:23
Speaker 1: his restless fingers took the bottle of green powder out
41:26
Speaker 1: of his pocket and held it before him. But he
41:29
Speaker 1: does not remember that abruptly the footsteps ceased. He waited
41:33
Speaker 1: for the next, and there was silence, and then suddenly
41:36
Speaker 1: cutting through the unexpected stillness, like a keen, thin blade,
41:40
Speaker 1: came the first stroke of the bell. At that the
41:43
Speaker 1: multitudinous faces swayed to and fro, and a louder crying
41:46
Speaker 1: began all about him. The woman did not hear. She
41:50
Speaker 1: was burning something now in the candle flame. At the
41:53
Speaker 1: second stroke, everything grew dim, and a breath of wind,
41:57
Speaker 1: icy cold, blew through the host of watchers. They swirled
42:00
Speaker 1: about him like an eddy of dead leaves in the spring.
42:03
Speaker 1: And at the third stroke something was extended through them
42:06
Speaker 1: to the bed. You have heard of a beam of light.
42:09
Speaker 1: This was like a beam of darkness. And looking again
42:13
Speaker 1: at it, Platner saw that it was a shadowy arm
42:15
Speaker 1: and hand. The green sun was now topping the black
42:19
Speaker 1: desolations of the horizon, and the vision of the room
42:21
Speaker 1: was very faint. Platner could see that the white of
42:25
Speaker 1: the bed struggled and was convulsed, and that the woman
42:28
Speaker 1: looked around over her shoulder at it startled. The cloud
42:31
Speaker 1: of watchers lifted high, like a puff of green dust
42:34
Speaker 1: before the wind, and swept silently downward towards the temple
42:37
Speaker 1: in the gorge. Then suddenly Platner understood the meaning of
42:41
Speaker 1: the shadowy black arm that stretched across his shoulder and
42:43
Speaker 1: clutched its prey. He did not dare turn his head
42:47
Speaker 1: to see the shadow behind the arm. With a violent effort,
42:50
Speaker 1: and covering his eyes, he set himself to run, made
42:53
Speaker 1: perhaps twenty strides, then slipped on a boulder and fell.
42:57
Speaker 1: He fell forward on his hands, and the bottle smashed
43:00
Speaker 1: and exploded as he touched the ground. In another moment,
43:03
Speaker 1: he found himself stunned and bleeding, sitting face to face
43:06
Speaker 1: with Lydgate in the old walled garden behind the school.
43:09
Speaker 1: There the story of Plattner's experience ends. I have resisted,
43:13
Speaker 1: I believe, successfully, the natural disposition of a writer of
43:16
Speaker 1: fiction to dress up incidents of this sort. I have
43:19
Speaker 1: told the thing as far as possible, in the order
43:22
Speaker 1: in which Plattner told it to me. I have carefully
43:24
Speaker 1: avoided any attempt at style, effect or construction. It would
43:28
Speaker 1: have been easy, for instance, to have worked the scene
43:31
Speaker 1: of the deathbed into a kind of plot in which
43:33
Speaker 1: Platner might have been involved, But quite apart from the
43:37
Speaker 1: objectionableness of falsifying a most extraordinary true story, any such
43:41
Speaker 1: trite device would spoil, to my mind the peculiar effect
43:44
Speaker 1: of this dark world, with its livid green illumination and
43:48
Speaker 1: its drifting watchers of the living, which unseen and unapproachable
43:52
Speaker 1: to us, is yet lying all about us. It remains
43:56
Speaker 1: to add that a death did actually occur in Vincent Terrace,
43:59
Speaker 1: just beyond the school garden, and so far as can
44:02
Speaker 1: be proved, at the moment of Platner's return. Deceased was
44:06
Speaker 1: a rate collector and insurance agent. His widow, who was
44:09
Speaker 1: much younger than himself, married last month a mister Weiper,
44:13
Speaker 1: a veterinary surgeon of all bleeding. As the portion of
44:17
Speaker 1: this story given here has in various forms circulated orally
44:20
Speaker 1: in Sussexville, she has consented to my use of her name,
44:23
Speaker 1: one condition that I make it distinctly known that she
44:26
Speaker 1: emphatically contradicts every detail of Platner's account of her husband's
44:30
Speaker 1: last moments. She burnt no will, she says, although Platner
44:35
Speaker 1: never accused her of doing so. Her husband made but
44:38
Speaker 1: one will, and that just after their marriage, certainly from
44:42
Speaker 1: a man who had never seen it. Platner's account of
44:44
Speaker 1: the furniture of the room was curiously accurate. One other thing,
44:49
Speaker 1: even at the risk of an irksome repetition I must
44:52
Speaker 1: insist upon lest I seem to favor the credulous, superstitious view.
44:57
Speaker 1: Platner's absence from the world for nine days is I
45:00
Speaker 1: think proved, but that does not prove his story. It
45:04
Speaker 1: is quite conceivable that even outside space hallucinations may be possible,
45:08
Speaker 1: that at least the reader must bear distinctly in mind
45:16
Speaker 1: and of the Platner story by H. G. Wells,