Latest / Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales / 🟡 PD Goth (Full Audiobook) | Various

Transcript

🟡 PD Goth (Full Audiobook) | Various · Occult & Supernatural Audiobooks: Forbidden Rituals, Esoteric Texts & Paranormal Tales

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Speaker 1: THE WOOD OF THE DEAD by Algernon Blackwood One summer
0:15
Speaker 1: in my wanderings with a knapsack, I was at luncheon
0:18
Speaker 1: in the room of a wayside inn in the western country,
0:21
Speaker 1: when the door opened, and there entered an old rustic,
0:24
Speaker 1: who crossed close to my end of the table, and
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Speaker 1: sat himself down very quietly, in the seat by the bow-window.
0:31
Speaker 1: We exchanged glances, or, properly speaking, nods, for at the
0:35
Speaker 1: moment I did not actually raise my eyes to his face.
0:38
Speaker 1: So concerned was I with the important business of satisfying
0:42
Speaker 1: an appetite gained by tramping twelve miles over a difficult country.
0:46
Speaker 1: The fine warm rain of seven o'clock, which had since
0:49
Speaker 1: risen in a kind of luminous mist about the treetops,
0:52
Speaker 1: now floated far overhead in a deep blue sky, and
0:56
Speaker 1: the day was settling down into a blaze of golden light.
0:59
Speaker 1: It was one of those days peculiar, to Somerset, in
1:02
Speaker 1: North Devon, when the orchards shine and the meadows seem
1:05
Speaker 1: to add a radiance of their own, so brilliantly soft
1:08
Speaker 1: are the colorings of grass and foliage. The innkeeper's daughter,
1:13
Speaker 1: a little maiden with a simple country loveliness, presently entered
1:16
Speaker 1: with a foaming pewter mug, inquired after my welfare, and
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Speaker 1: went out again. Apparently she had not noticed the old
1:23
Speaker 1: man sitting in the settle by the bow window, nor
1:25
Speaker 1: had he, for his part, so much as once turned
1:29
Speaker 1: his head in our direction. UNDER ORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES I SHOULD
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Speaker 1: PROBABLY HAVE GIVEN NO THOUGHT TO THIS OTHER OCCUPANT OF
1:36
Speaker 1: THE ROOM, BUT THE FACT THAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO
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Speaker 1: BE RESERVED FOR MY PRIVATE USE, AND THE SINGULAR THING
1:42
Speaker 1: THAT HE SAT LOOKING AIMLESSLY OUT OF THE WINDOW, WITH
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Speaker 1: NO ATTEMPT TO ENGAGE ME IN CONVERSATION, DREW MY EYES
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Speaker 1: MORE THAN ONCE SOMEWHAT CURIOUSLY UPON HIM, AND I SOON
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Speaker 1: CAUGHT MYSELF WONDERING WHY HE SAT THERE SO SILENTLY, AND
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Speaker 1: ALWAYS WITH A VERTED HEAD. HE WAS, I SAW, A
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Speaker 1: RATHER BENT OLD MAN IN RUSTIC DRESS, and the skin
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Speaker 1: of his face was wrinkled, like that of an apple.
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Speaker 1: Corduroy trousers were caught up with a string below the knee,
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Speaker 1: and he wore a sort of brown, fustian jacket that
2:11
Speaker 1: was very much faded. His thin hand rested upon a
2:14
Speaker 1: stoutish stick. He wore no hat and carried none, and
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Speaker 1: I noticed that his head, covered with silvery hair, was
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Speaker 1: finely shaped and gave the impression of something noble. Though
2:25
Speaker 1: rather piqued by his studied disregard of my presence, I
2:28
Speaker 1: came to the conclusion that that he probably had something
2:30
Speaker 1: to do with Little Hostel, and had a perfect right
2:33
Speaker 1: to use this room with freedom, and I finished my
2:36
Speaker 1: luncheon without breaking the silence, and then took the subtle
2:39
Speaker 1: opposite to smoke a pipe before going on my way.
2:43
Speaker 1: Through the open window came the sense of the blossoming
2:45
Speaker 1: fruit trees, the orchard was drenched in sunshine, and the
2:48
Speaker 1: branches danced lazily in the breeze, the grass below fairly
2:52
Speaker 1: shone with white and yellow daisies, and the red roses
2:55
Speaker 1: climbing in profusion over the casement mingled their perfume, with
2:59
Speaker 1: the sweetly penetrating odor of the sea. It was a
3:03
Speaker 1: place to dawdle in, to lie and dream away a
3:05
Speaker 1: whole afternoon, watching the sleepy butterflies and listening to the
3:08
Speaker 1: chorus of birds which seemed to fill every corner of
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Speaker 1: the sky. Indeed, I was already debating in my mind
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Speaker 1: whether to linger and enjoy it all instead of taking
3:18
Speaker 1: the strenuous pathway over the hills, when the old rustic,
3:21
Speaker 1: in the subtle opposite, suddenly turned his face towards me
3:24
Speaker 1: for the first time and began to speak. His voice
3:28
Speaker 1: had a quiet, dreamy note in it that was quite
3:30
Speaker 1: in harmony with the day and the scene, but it
3:33
Speaker 1: sounded far away, I thought, almost as though it came
3:36
Speaker 1: to me from outside, where the shadows were weaving their
3:39
Speaker 1: eternal tissues of dreams upon the garden floor. Moreover, there
3:43
Speaker 1: was no trace in it of the rough quality one
3:45
Speaker 1: might naturally have expected. And now that I saw the
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Speaker 1: full face of the speaker for the first time, I noted,
3:52
Speaker 1: with something like a start, that the deep, gentle eyes
3:55
Speaker 1: seemed far more in keeping with the timber of the
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Speaker 1: voice than with the rough and very countrified appearance of
4:00
Speaker 1: the clothes and manner. His voice set pleasant waves of
4:04
Speaker 1: sound in motion towards me, and the actual words, if
4:07
Speaker 1: I remember rightly, were, You are a stranger in these parts? Or,
4:12
Speaker 1: Is not this part of the country strange to you?
4:16
Speaker 1: There was no sir, nor any outward invisible sign of
4:19
Speaker 1: the deference usually paid by real country folk to the
4:22
Speaker 1: town-bred visitor, but in its place a gentleness, almost a sweetness,
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Speaker 1: of polite sympathy,' that was far more of a compliment
4:30
Speaker 1: than either.' I answered that I was wandering on foot'
4:33
Speaker 1: through a part of the country that was wholly new
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Speaker 1: to me,' and that I was surprised not to find
4:37
Speaker 1: a place' of such idyllic loveliness marked upon my map.'
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Speaker 1: I have lived here all my life,' he said with
4:42
Speaker 1: a sigh,' and am never tired of coming back to
4:45
Speaker 1: it again.' Then you no longer live in the immediate neighbourhood?''
4:48
Speaker 1: I have moved,' he answered briefly,' adding after a pause
4:52
Speaker 1: in which his eyes seemed to wander wistfully' to the
4:55
Speaker 1: wealth of blossoms beyond the window.' but I am almost sorry,
4:59
Speaker 1: for nowhere else have I found the sunshine lie so warmly,
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Speaker 1: the flowers smell so sweetly, or the winds and streams
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Speaker 1: make such tender music. His voice died away into a
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Speaker 1: thin stream of sound that lost itself in the rustle
5:11
Speaker 1: of the rose leaves climbing in at the window, for
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Speaker 1: he turned his head away from me as he spoke
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Speaker 1: and looked out into the garden, but it was impossible
5:18
Speaker 1: to conceal my surprise, and I raised my eyes in
5:21
Speaker 1: frank astonishment on hearing so poetic an utterance from such
5:25
Speaker 1: a figure of a man. though at the same time
5:27
Speaker 1: realizing that it was not in the least inappropriate, and that,
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Speaker 1: in fact, no other sort of expression could have properly
5:34
Speaker 1: been expected from him. I am sure you are right,
5:37
Speaker 1: I answered at length, when it was clear he had
5:39
Speaker 1: ceased speaking. Oh, there is something of enchantment here, of
5:43
Speaker 1: real fairy-like enchantment, that makes me think of the visions
5:46
Speaker 1: of childhood days, before one knew anything of, of... I
5:51
Speaker 1: had been oddly drawn into his vein of speech, some
5:54
Speaker 1: inner force compelling me. but here the spell passed and
5:57
Speaker 1: I could not catch the thoughts that had a moment
5:59
Speaker 1: before opened a long vista before my inner vision. To
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Speaker 1: tell you the truth, I concluded lamely, the place fascinates me,
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Speaker 1: and I am in two minds about going further. Even
6:10
Speaker 1: at this stage I remember thinking at odd that I
6:12
Speaker 1: should be talking like this with a stranger whom I
6:14
Speaker 1: met in a country inn, for it has always been
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Speaker 1: one of my failings that to strangers my manner is
6:19
Speaker 1: brief to surliness. It was as though we were figures
6:22
Speaker 1: meeting in a dream, speaking without sound. obeying laws not
6:26
Speaker 1: operative in the everyday working world, and about to play
6:29
Speaker 1: with a new scale of space and time, perhaps. But
6:32
Speaker 1: my astonishment passed quickly into an entirely different feeling when
6:36
Speaker 1: I became aware that the old man opposite had turned
6:39
Speaker 1: his head from the window again and was regarding me
6:41
Speaker 1: with eyes so bright they seemed almost to shine with
6:44
Speaker 1: an inner flame. His gaze was fixed upon my face
6:48
Speaker 1: with an intense ardor, and his whole manner had suddenly
6:51
Speaker 1: become alert and concentrated. There was something about him, I
6:54
Speaker 1: now felt for the first time. That made little thrills
6:57
Speaker 1: of excitement run up and down my back. I met
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Speaker 1: his look squarely, but with an inward tremor. Stay then
7:04
Speaker 1: a little while longer, he said in a much lower
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Speaker 1: and deeper voice than before. Stay, and I will teach
7:10
Speaker 1: you something of the purpose of my coming. He stopped abruptly.
7:14
Speaker 1: I was conscious of a decided shiver. You have a
7:18
Speaker 1: special purpose then, in coming back? I asked, hardly knowing
7:21
Speaker 1: what I was saying. To call away someone. HE WENT
7:25
Speaker 1: ON IN THE SAME THRILLING VOICE, SOMEONE WHO IS NOT
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Speaker 1: QUITE READY TO COME, BUT WHO IS NEEDED ELSEWHERE FOR
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Speaker 1: A WORTHIER PURPOSE. THERE WAS A SADNESS IN HIS MANNER
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Speaker 1: THAT MYSTIFIED ME MORE THAN EVER.
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Speaker 2: YOU MEAN.
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Speaker 1: I BEGAN WITH AN UNACCOUNTABLE ACCESS OF TREMBLING. I HAVE
7:42
Speaker 1: COME FOR SOMEONE WHO MUST SOON MOVE, EVEN AS I
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Speaker 1: HAVE MOVED. HE LOOKED ME THROUGH AND THROUGH WITH A DREADFUL,
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Speaker 1: PIERCING GAZE, BUT I MET HIS EYES WITH A FULL,
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Speaker 1: STRAIGHT STARE, TREMBLING THOUGH I WAS. and I was aware
7:54
Speaker 1: that something stirred within me that had never stirred before,
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Speaker 1: though for the life of me I could not have
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Speaker 1: put a name to it, or have analyzed its nature.
8:03
Speaker 1: Something lifted and rolled away. For one single second I
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Speaker 1: understood clearly that the past and the future exist actually
8:10
Speaker 1: side by side in one immense present, that it was
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Speaker 1: I who moved to and fro among shifting, protean appearances.
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Speaker 1: The old man dropped his eyes from my face, and
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Speaker 1: the momentary glimpse of a mightier universe passed utterly away.
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Speaker 1: Reason regained its sway over a dull, limited kingdom. Come tonight,
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Speaker 1: I heard the old man say. Come to me tonight,
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Speaker 1: into the wood of the dead. Come at midnight. Involuntarily
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Speaker 1: I clutched the arm of the settle for support, for
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Speaker 1: I then felt that I was speaking with someone who
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Speaker 1: knew more of the real things that are and will be.
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Speaker 1: than I could ever know while in the body, working
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Speaker 1: through the ordinary channels of sense, and this curious half-promise
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Speaker 1: of a partial lifting of the veil had its undeniable
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Speaker 1: effect upon me. The breeze from the sea had died
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Speaker 1: away outside, and the blossoms were still. A yellow butterfly
9:02
Speaker 1: floated lazily past the window. The song of the birds hushed.
9:05
Speaker 1: I smelt the sea. I smelt the perfume of heated
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Speaker 1: summer air rising from the fields and flowers, the ineffable
9:12
Speaker 1: scents of June, and of the long days of the year,
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Speaker 1: and with it, from countless green meadows beyond, came the
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Speaker 1: hum of myriad summer life, children's voices, sweet pipings, and
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Speaker 1: the sound of water falling. I knew myself to be
9:26
Speaker 1: on the threshold of a new order of experience, of
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Speaker 1: an ecstasy. Something drew me forth with a sense of
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Speaker 1: inexpressible yearning towards the being of this strange old man
9:36
Speaker 1: in the window seat, and for a moment I knew
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Speaker 1: what it was to taste a mighty and wonderful sensation,
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Speaker 1: and to touch the highest pinnacle of joy I have
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Speaker 1: ever known. It lasted for less than a second and
9:47
Speaker 1: was gone, but in that brief instant of time the
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Speaker 1: same terrible lucidity came to me that had already shown
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Speaker 1: me how the past and future exist in the present,
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Speaker 1: and I realized and understood that pleasure and pain are
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Speaker 1: one and the same force, for the joy I had
10:02
Speaker 1: just experienced included all the pain I ever had felt,
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Speaker 1: or ever could feel. The sunshine grew to dazzling radiance, faded,
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Speaker 1: passed away. The shadows paused in their dance upon the grass,
10:14
Speaker 1: deepened a moment, and then melted into air. The flowers
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Speaker 1: of the fruit trees laughed with their little silvery laughter
10:20
Speaker 1: as the wind sighed over their radiant eyes the old,
10:23
Speaker 1: old tale of its personal love. Once or twice a
10:27
Speaker 1: voice called my name. A wonderful sensation of lightness and
10:30
Speaker 1: power began to steal over me. Suddenly the door opened
10:33
Speaker 1: and the innkeeper's daughter came in. By all ordinary standards,
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Speaker 1: hers was a charming country loveliness, born of the stars
10:41
Speaker 1: and wildflowers, of moonlight shining through autumn mists upon the
10:44
Speaker 1: river and the fields. Yet by contrast with the higher
10:47
Speaker 1: order of beauty I had just momentarily been in touch with,
10:51
Speaker 1: she seemed almost ugly. How dull her eyes, how thin
10:54
Speaker 1: her voice, how vapid her smile, and insipid her whole presentment.
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Speaker 1: For a moment she stood between me and the occupant
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Speaker 1: of the window-seat, while I counted out the small change
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Speaker 1: for my meal and for her services. But when an
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Speaker 1: instant later she moved aside, I saw that the settle
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Speaker 1: was empty, and that there was no longer anyone in
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Speaker 1: the room but our two selves. This discovery was no
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Speaker 1: shock to me. Indeed, I had almost expected it, and
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Speaker 1: the man had gone just as a figure goes out
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Speaker 1: of a dream, causing no surprise in leaving me as
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Speaker 1: part and parcel of the same dream without breaking of continuity.
11:29
Speaker 1: But as soon as I had paid my bill and
11:31
Speaker 1: thus resumed, in very practical fashion, the thread of my
11:34
Speaker 1: normal consciousness, I turned to the girl and asked her
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Speaker 1: if she knew the old man who had been sitting
11:39
Speaker 1: in the window-seat, and what he had meant by the
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Speaker 1: wood of the dead. The maiden started visibly, glancing quickly
11:46
Speaker 1: around the room, but answering simply that she had seen
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Speaker 1: no one. I described him in great detail, and then
11:52
Speaker 1: as the description grew clearer, she turned a little pale
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Speaker 1: under her pretty sunborn and said very gravely that it
11:58
Speaker 1: must have been the ghost.
12:00
Speaker 2: Ghost?
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Speaker 1: What ghost? Oh, the village ghost, she said quietly, coming
12:04
Speaker 1: closer to my chair with a little nervous movement of
12:07
Speaker 1: genuine alarm, and adding in a lower voice, He comes
12:11
Speaker 1: before a death, they say. It was not difficult to
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Speaker 1: induce the girl to talk, and the story she told me,
12:17
Speaker 1: shorn of the superstition that had obviously gathered with the
12:20
Speaker 1: years round the memory of a strangely picturesque figure, was
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Speaker 1: an interesting and peculiar one. The inn, she said, was
12:27
Speaker 1: originally a farmhouse, occupied by a yeoman farmer, evidently of
12:32
Speaker 1: a superior, if rather eccentric, character, who had been very
12:35
Speaker 1: poor until he reached old age, when a son died
12:38
Speaker 1: suddenly in the colonies and left him an unexpected amount
12:41
Speaker 1: of money, almost a fortune. the old man thereupon altered
12:45
Speaker 1: no whit his simple manner of living, but devoted his
12:48
Speaker 1: income entirely to the improvement of the village and to
12:51
Speaker 1: the assistance of its inhabitants. He did this quite regardless
12:55
Speaker 1: of his personal likes and dislikes, as if one and
12:58
Speaker 1: all were absolutely alike to him, objects of a genuine
13:01
Speaker 1: and impersonal benevolence. People had always been a little afraid
13:05
Speaker 1: of the man, not understanding his eccentricities, but the simple
13:09
Speaker 1: force of this love for humanity changed all that in
13:12
Speaker 1: a very short space of time, and before he died
13:15
Speaker 1: he came to be known as the father of the village,
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Speaker 1: and was held in great love and veneration by all.
13:21
Speaker 1: After a short time before his end, however, he began
13:24
Speaker 1: to act queerly. He spent his money just as usefully
13:27
Speaker 1: and wisely, but the shock of sudden wealth after a
13:30
Speaker 1: life of poverty, people said, had unsettled his mind. He
13:34
Speaker 1: claimed to see things that others did not see, to
13:37
Speaker 1: hear voices, and to have visions. Evidently he was not
13:41
Speaker 1: of the harmless, foolish, visionary order, but a man of
13:44
Speaker 1: character and of great personal force, for the people became
13:47
Speaker 1: divided in their opinions, and the vicar, good man, regarded
13:51
Speaker 1: and treated him as a special case. For many, his
13:55
Speaker 1: name and atmosphere became charged almost with a spiritual influence
13:59
Speaker 1: that was not of the best. People quoted texts about him,
14:03
Speaker 1: kept when possible out of his way, and avoided his
14:05
Speaker 1: house after dark. None understood him, but though the majority
14:10
Speaker 1: loved him, an element of dread and mystery became associated
14:13
Speaker 1: with his name, chiefly owing to the ignorant gossip of
14:16
Speaker 1: the few. A grove of pine trees behind the farm,
14:20
Speaker 1: the girl pointed them out to me on the slope
14:22
Speaker 1: of the hill, he said was the wood of the dead,
14:25
Speaker 1: because just before anyone died in the village he saw
14:27
Speaker 1: them walk into that wood, singing. No one who went
14:31
Speaker 1: in ever came out again. He often mentioned the names
14:34
Speaker 1: to his wife, who usually published them to all the
14:36
Speaker 1: inhabitants within an hour of her husband's confidence. and it
14:39
Speaker 1: was found that the people he had seen enter the
14:42
Speaker 1: wood died. On warm summer nights he would sometimes take
14:46
Speaker 1: an old stick and wander out, hatless, under the pines,
14:49
Speaker 1: for he loved this wood, and used to say he
14:52
Speaker 1: met all his old friends there, and one day walk
14:54
Speaker 1: in there never to return. His wife tried to break
14:57
Speaker 1: him gently of this habit, but he always had his
15:00
Speaker 1: own way, and once, when she followed and found him
15:03
Speaker 1: standing under a great pine in the thickest portion of
15:05
Speaker 1: the grove, talking earnestly to someone she could not see,
15:09
Speaker 1: He turned and rebuked her very gently, but in such
15:12
Speaker 1: a way that she never repeated the experiment, saying, You
15:16
Speaker 1: should never interrupt me, Mary, when I am talking with
15:18
Speaker 1: the others, for they teach me, remember, wonderful things, and
15:22
Speaker 1: I must learn all I can before I go to
15:24
Speaker 1: join them. This story went like wildfire through the village,
15:28
Speaker 1: increasing with every repetition, until at length everyone was able
15:31
Speaker 1: to give an accurate description of the great veiled figures
15:35
Speaker 1: the woman declared she had seen moving among the trees
15:37
Speaker 1: where her husband stood. the innocent Pine Grove now became
15:41
Speaker 1: positively haunted, and the title of Wood of the Dead
15:45
Speaker 1: clung naturally, as if it had been applied to it
15:47
Speaker 1: in the ordinary course of events by the compilers of
15:50
Speaker 1: the Ordnance Survey. On the evening of his 90th birthday,
15:54
Speaker 1: the old man went up to his wife and kissed her.
15:56
Speaker 1: His manner was loving and very gentle, and there was
15:59
Speaker 1: something about him besides, she declared afterwards, that made her
16:02
Speaker 1: slightly in awe of him and feel that he was
16:04
Speaker 1: almost more of a spirit than a man. He kissed
16:07
Speaker 1: her tenderly on both cheeks, but his eyes seemed to
16:10
Speaker 1: look right through her as he spoke. Dearest wife, he said,
16:14
Speaker 1: I am saying good-bye to you, for I am now
16:17
Speaker 1: going into the wood of the dead, and I shall
16:19
Speaker 1: not return. Do not follow me or send a search,
16:22
Speaker 1: but be ready soon to come upon the same journey yourself.
16:26
Speaker 1: The good woman burst into tears and tried to hold him,
16:29
Speaker 1: but he easily slipped from her hands, and she was
16:31
Speaker 1: afraid to follow him.' Slowly she saw him cross the
16:34
Speaker 1: field in the sunshine' and then enter the cool shadows
16:37
Speaker 1: of the grove,' where he disappeared from her sight.' That
16:41
Speaker 1: same night, much later, 'she woke to find him lying
16:44
Speaker 1: peacefully by her side in bed,' with one arm stretched
16:47
Speaker 1: out towards her, dead.' Her story was half believed, half
16:51
Speaker 1: doubted at the time,' but in a very few years
16:54
Speaker 1: afterwards' it evidently came to be accepted by all the countryside.'
16:57
Speaker 1: A funeral service was held' to which the people flocked
17:01
Speaker 1: in great numbers.' and everyone approved of the sentiment, which
17:05
Speaker 1: led the widow to add the words, The father of
17:07
Speaker 1: the village, after the usual texts which appeared upon the
17:10
Speaker 1: stone over his grave. This, then, was the story I
17:14
Speaker 1: pieced together of the village ghost as the little innkeeper's
17:17
Speaker 1: daughter told it to me that afternoon in the parlor
17:19
Speaker 1: of the inn. But you're not the first to say
17:22
Speaker 1: you've seen him, the girl concluded, and your description is
17:25
Speaker 1: just what we've always heard, and that window, they say,
17:28
Speaker 1: was just where he used to sit and think and
17:30
Speaker 1: think when he was alive. and sometimes, they say, to
17:34
Speaker 1: cry for hours together. And would you feel afraid if
17:37
Speaker 1: you had seen him? I asked, for the girl seemed
17:40
Speaker 1: strangely moved and interested in the whole story. I think so,
17:44
Speaker 1: she said timidly. Surely if he spoke to me. He
17:48
Speaker 1: did speak to you, didn't he? She asked after a
17:51
Speaker 1: slight pause. He said he had come for someone. Come
17:55
Speaker 1: for someone, she repeated. Did he say? She went on falteringly. No,
17:59
Speaker 1: he did not say for whom, I said quickly, noticing
18:02
Speaker 1: the sudden shadow on her face and the tremulous voice.
18:05
Speaker 1: Are you really sure, sir? Oh, quite sure, I answered cheerfully.
18:09
Speaker 1: I did not even ask him. The girl looked at
18:11
Speaker 1: me steadily for nearly a whole minute, as though there
18:14
Speaker 1: were many things she wished to tell me or to ask,
18:17
Speaker 1: but she said nothing, and presently picked up her tray
18:20
Speaker 1: from the table and walked slowly out of the room.
18:23
Speaker 1: Instead of keeping to my original purpose and pushing on
18:25
Speaker 1: to the next village over the hills— I ordered a
18:28
Speaker 1: room to be prepared for me at the inn, and
18:30
Speaker 1: that afternoon I spent wandering about the fields and lying
18:33
Speaker 1: under the fruit trees, watching the white clouds sailing out
18:37
Speaker 1: over the sea. The wood of the dead I surveyed
18:40
Speaker 1: from a distance, but in the village I visited the
18:42
Speaker 1: stone erected to the memory of the father of the village,
18:45
Speaker 1: who was thus evidently no mythical personage, and saw also
18:49
Speaker 1: the monuments of his fine, unselfish spirit, the schoolhouse he
18:53
Speaker 1: had built, the library, the home for the aged poor,
18:57
Speaker 1: and the tiny hospital. That night, as the clock in
19:00
Speaker 1: the church tower was striking half-past eleven, I stealthily left
19:04
Speaker 1: the inn and crept through the dark orchard and over
19:06
Speaker 1: the hayfield in the direction of the hill whose southern
19:09
Speaker 1: slope was clothed with the wood of the dead. A
19:12
Speaker 1: genuine interest impelled me to the adventure, but I also
19:15
Speaker 1: was obliged to confess of a certain sinking in my
19:17
Speaker 1: heart as I stumbled along over the field in the darkness,
19:21
Speaker 1: for I was approaching what might prove to be the
19:23
Speaker 1: birthplace of a real country myth. and a spot already
19:26
Speaker 1: lifted by the imaginative thoughts of a considerable number of
19:29
Speaker 1: people into the region of the haunted and ill-omened. The
19:33
Speaker 1: inn lay below me, and all around it in the
19:36
Speaker 1: village clustered in a soft black shadow, unrelieved by a
19:39
Speaker 1: single light. The night was moonless, yet distinctly luminous, for
19:43
Speaker 1: the stars crowded the sky. The silence of deep slumber
19:47
Speaker 1: was everywhere, so still indeed that every time my foot
19:50
Speaker 1: kicked against a stone, I thought the sound must be
19:53
Speaker 1: heard below in the village and waken the sleepers. I
19:56
Speaker 1: climbed the hill slowly, thinking chiefly of the strange story
19:59
Speaker 1: of the noble old man who had seized the opportunity
20:02
Speaker 1: to do good to his fellows the moment it came
20:05
Speaker 1: his way, and wondering why the causes that operate ceaselessly
20:09
Speaker 1: behind human life, did not always select such admirable instruments.
20:14
Speaker 1: Once or twice a nightbird circled slowly over my head,
20:17
Speaker 1: but the bats had long since gone to rest, and
20:19
Speaker 1: there was no other sign of life stirring. Then suddenly,
20:23
Speaker 1: with a singular thrill of emotion, I saw the first
20:26
Speaker 1: trees of the Wood of the Dead rise in front
20:28
Speaker 1: of me in a high black wall. Their crests stood
20:31
Speaker 1: up like giant spears against the starry sky, and though
20:34
Speaker 1: there was no perceptible movement of the air on my cheek,
20:37
Speaker 1: I heard a faint, rushing sound among their branches as
20:40
Speaker 1: the night breeze passed to and fro over their countless
20:43
Speaker 1: little needles. A remote, hushed murmur rose overhead and died
20:47
Speaker 1: away again almost immediately, for in these trees the wind
20:51
Speaker 1: seemed to be never absolutely at rest, and on the
20:54
Speaker 1: calmest day there was always a sort of whispering music
20:57
Speaker 1: among their branches. For a moment I hesitated on the
21:01
Speaker 1: edge of this dark wood and listened intently. Delicate perfumes
21:06
Speaker 1: of earth and bark stole out to meet me. Impenetrable
21:09
Speaker 1: darkness faced me. Only the consciousness that I was obeying
21:13
Speaker 1: an order strangely given, and including a mighty privilege, enabled
21:17
Speaker 1: me to find the courage to go forward and step
21:20
Speaker 1: in boldly under the trees. Instantly the shadows closed in
21:23
Speaker 1: upon me, and something came forward to meet me from
21:26
Speaker 1: the center of the darkness. It would be easy enough
21:30
Speaker 1: to meet my imagination halfway with fact, and say that
21:33
Speaker 1: a cold hand grasped my own and led me, by
21:35
Speaker 1: invisible paths, into the unknown depths of the grove. But
21:39
Speaker 1: at any rate, without stumbling, and always with the positive
21:42
Speaker 1: knowledge that I was going straight towards the desired object,
21:45
Speaker 1: I pressed on confidently and securely into the wood. So
21:49
Speaker 1: dark was it that at first not a single starbeam
21:52
Speaker 1: pierced the roof of branches overhead, and as we moved
21:55
Speaker 1: forward side by side, the tree shifted silently past us
21:59
Speaker 1: in long lines, row upon row, 'squadron upon squadron,' like
22:03
Speaker 1: the units of a vast, soundless army.' And at length
22:07
Speaker 1: we came to a comparatively open space' where the trees
22:10
Speaker 1: halted upon us for a while,' and looking up, I
22:13
Speaker 1: saw the white river of the sky,' beginning to yield
22:16
Speaker 1: to the influence of a new light' that now seemed
22:18
Speaker 1: spreading swiftly across the heavens.' It is the dawn coming,'
22:23
Speaker 1: said the voice at my side,' that I certainly recognized,'
22:25
Speaker 1: but which seemed almost like a whispering from the trees.'
22:28
Speaker 1: And we are now in the heart of the Wood
22:31
Speaker 1: of the Dead.' We seated ourselves on a moss-covered boulder
22:34
Speaker 1: and waited the coming of the sun. With marvelous swiftness,
22:38
Speaker 1: it seemed to me, the light in the east passed
22:40
Speaker 1: into the radiance of early morning, and when the wind
22:43
Speaker 1: awoke and began to whisper in the treetops, the first
22:46
Speaker 1: rays of the risen sun fell between the trunks and
22:48
Speaker 1: rested in a circle of gold at our feet. Now
22:52
Speaker 1: come with me, whispered my companion in the same deep voice,
22:55
Speaker 1: for time has no existence here, and that which I
22:58
Speaker 1: would show you is already there. We trotted gently and
23:01
Speaker 1: silently over the soft pine needles. Already the sun was
23:05
Speaker 1: high over our heads, and the shadows of the trees
23:07
Speaker 1: coiled closely about their feet. The wood became denser again,
23:11
Speaker 1: but occasionally we passed through little open bits where we
23:14
Speaker 1: could smell the hot sunshine and the dry, baked pine needles.
23:19
Speaker 1: Then presently we came to the edge of the grove,
23:21
Speaker 1: and I saw a hayfield lying in the blaze of day,
23:24
Speaker 1: and two horses basking lazily with switching tails in the
23:27
Speaker 1: shafts of a laden haywagon. so complete and vivid was
23:31
Speaker 1: the sense of reality, that I remember the grateful realization
23:35
Speaker 1: of the cool shade where we sat and looked upon
23:37
Speaker 1: the hot world beyond. The last pitchfork had tossed up
23:42
Speaker 1: its fragrant burden, and the great horses were already straining
23:45
Speaker 1: in the shafts after the driver as he walked slowly
23:48
Speaker 1: in front with one hand upon their bridles. He was
23:51
Speaker 1: a stalwart fellow, with sunburned neck and hands. Then for
23:55
Speaker 1: the first time I noticed, perched aloft upon the trembling
23:58
Speaker 1: throne of the hay, the figure of a slim young girl.
24:02
Speaker 1: I could not see her face, but her brown hair escaped,
24:04
Speaker 1: in disorder, from a white sunbonnet, and her still browner
24:08
Speaker 1: hands held a well-worn hayrake. She was laughing and talking
24:12
Speaker 1: with the driver, and he, from time to time, cast
24:15
Speaker 1: up at her ardent glances of admiration, glances that won
24:18
Speaker 1: instant smiles and soft blushes in response. The cart presently
24:22
Speaker 1: turned into the roadway that skirted the edge of the
24:25
Speaker 1: wood where we were sitting. I watched the scene with
24:27
Speaker 1: intense interest, and became so much absorbed in it that
24:30
Speaker 1: I quite forgot the manifold, strange steps by which I
24:33
Speaker 1: was permitted to become a spectator. Come down and walk
24:36
Speaker 1: with me, cried the young fellow, stopping a moment in
24:39
Speaker 1: front of the horses and opening wide his arms. Jump,
24:42
Speaker 1: and I'll catch you. Oh, oh, she laughed, and her
24:45
Speaker 1: voice sounded to me as the happiest, merriest laughter I
24:48
Speaker 1: had ever heard from a girl's throat. Oh, oh, that's
24:50
Speaker 1: all very well, but remember, I'm queen of the hay,
24:53
Speaker 1: and I must ride. Then I must come and ride
24:55
Speaker 1: beside you, he cried, and began at once to climb
24:58
Speaker 1: up by the way of the driver's seat. but with
25:00
Speaker 1: a peel of silvery laughter she slipped down easily over
25:03
Speaker 1: the back of the hay to escape him and ran
25:05
Speaker 1: a little way along the road. I could see her
25:08
Speaker 1: quite clearly and notice the charming natural grace of her
25:11
Speaker 1: movements and the loving expression in her eyes as she
25:14
Speaker 1: looked over her shoulder to make sure he was following.
25:17
Speaker 1: Evidently she did not wish to escape for long, certainly
25:20
Speaker 1: not forever. In two strides the big brown swain was
25:24
Speaker 1: after her, leaving the horses to do as they pleased.
25:28
Speaker 1: Another second, and his arms would have caught the slender
25:30
Speaker 1: waist and pressed the little body to his heart. But
25:33
Speaker 1: just at that instant, the old man beside me uttered
25:35
Speaker 1: a peculiar cry. It was low and thrilling, and it
25:38
Speaker 1: went through me like a sharp sword. He had called
25:41
Speaker 1: her by her own name, and she had heard. For
25:44
Speaker 1: a second she halted, glancing back with frightened eyes. Then,
25:48
Speaker 1: with a brief cry of despair, the girl swerved aside
25:51
Speaker 1: and dived in swiftly among the shadows of the trees.
25:54
Speaker 1: But the young man saw the sudden movement and cried
25:57
Speaker 1: out to her passionately, Not that way, my love, not
26:00
Speaker 1: that way. It's the wood of the dead. She threw
26:02
Speaker 1: a laughing glance over her shoulder at him, and the
26:05
Speaker 1: wind caught her hair and drew it out in a
26:06
Speaker 1: brown cloud under the sun. But the next minute she
26:09
Speaker 1: was close beside me, lying on the breast of my companion,
26:13
Speaker 1: and I was certain I heard the words repeatedly uttered
26:15
Speaker 1: with many sighs, Father, you called and I have come,
26:18
Speaker 1: and I come willingly, for I am very, very tired.
26:22
Speaker 1: At any rate, so the words sounded to me. and
26:24
Speaker 1: mingled with them I seemed to catch the answer in
26:26
Speaker 1: that deep, thrilling whisper I already knew. And you shall sleep,
26:30
Speaker 1: my child, sleep for a long, long time, until it
26:33
Speaker 1: is time for you to begin the journey again. In
26:35
Speaker 1: that brief second of time I had recognized the face
26:38
Speaker 1: and voice of the innkeeper's daughter. But the next minute
26:41
Speaker 1: a dreadful wail broke from the lips of the young man,
26:44
Speaker 1: and the sky grew suddenly as dark as night, the
26:47
Speaker 1: wind rose and began to toss the branches about us,
26:49
Speaker 1: and the whole scene was swallowed up in a wave
26:51
Speaker 1: of utter blackness. Again the chill fingers seemed to seize
26:55
Speaker 1: my hand, and I was guided by the way I
26:57
Speaker 1: had come to the edge of the wood, and crossing
26:59
Speaker 1: the hayfield, still slumbering in the starlight, I crept back
27:03
Speaker 1: to the inn and went to bed. A year later
27:06
Speaker 1: I happened to be in the same part of the country,
27:08
Speaker 1: and the memory of the strange summer vision returned to
27:11
Speaker 1: me with the added softness of distance. I went to
27:14
Speaker 1: the old village, and had tea under the same orchard
27:17
Speaker 1: trees at the same inn, but the little maid of
27:20
Speaker 1: the inn did not show her face. and I took
27:22
Speaker 1: occasion to inquire of her father as to her welfare
27:25
Speaker 1: and her whereabouts. Married, no doubt, I laughed, but with
27:29
Speaker 1: a strange feeling that clutched at my heart. No, sir,
27:33
Speaker 1: replied the innkeeper sadly. Not married, though she was just
27:36
Speaker 1: going to be, but dead. She got a sunstroke in
27:40
Speaker 1: the hayfields just a few days after you were here,
27:42
Speaker 1: if I remember rightly, and she was gone from us
27:45
Speaker 1: in less than a week. End of The Wood of
27:49
Speaker 1: the Dead by Algernon.
27:50
Speaker 2: Blackwood Section 2 of the P.D. Goth Collection This is
28:05
Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
28:09
Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording
28:16
Speaker 2: by Algie Pugg The Night Doings of Deadmans A Story
28:21
Speaker 2: That Is Untrue by Ambrose Bierce It was a singularly
28:28
Speaker 2: sharp night. and clear as the heart of a diamond.
28:32
Speaker 2: Clear nights have a trick of being keen. In darkness
28:35
Speaker 2: you may be cold and not know it. When you see,
28:38
Speaker 2: you suffer. The night was bright enough to bite like
28:42
Speaker 2: a serpent. The moon was moving mysteriously along behind the
28:46
Speaker 2: giant pines crowning the south mountain, striking a cold sparkle
28:51
Speaker 2: from the crusted snow, and bringing out against the black
28:54
Speaker 2: west the ghostly outlines of the coast range. beyond which
28:58
Speaker 2: lay the invisible Pacific. The snow had piled itself, in
29:02
Speaker 2: the open spaces along the bottom of the gulch, into
29:05
Speaker 2: long ridges that seemed to heave, and into hills that
29:08
Speaker 2: appeared to toss and scatter spray. The spray was sunlight,
29:12
Speaker 2: twice reflected, dashed once from the moon, once from the snow.
29:18
Speaker 2: In this snow, many of the shanties of the abandoned
29:21
Speaker 2: mining camp were obliterated. A sailor might have said they
29:25
Speaker 2: had gone down, and at irregular intervals it had overtopped
29:28
Speaker 2: the tall trestles which had once supported a river called
29:32
Speaker 2: a flume. For, of course, flume is flumen. Among the
29:37
Speaker 2: advantages of which the mountains cannot deprive the gold hunt...
29:40
Speaker 2: is a privilege of speaking Latin. He says of his
29:43
Speaker 2: dead neighbour, he has gone up the flume. This is
29:47
Speaker 2: not a bad way to say his life has returned
29:50
Speaker 2: to the fountain of life. While putting on its armour
29:53
Speaker 2: against the assaults of the wind, this snow had neglected
29:57
Speaker 2: no coin of vantage. Snow pursued by the wind is
30:00
Speaker 2: not wholly unlike a retreating army. In the open field
30:04
Speaker 2: it ranges itself into ranks and battalions. Where it can
30:08
Speaker 2: get a foothold it makes a stand. Where it can
30:11
Speaker 2: take cover it does so. You may see whole platoons
30:14
Speaker 2: of snow cowering behind a bit of broken wall. The
30:18
Speaker 2: devious old road, hewn out of the mountainside, was full
30:22
Speaker 2: of it. Squadron upon squadron had struggled to escape by
30:26
Speaker 2: this line. when suddenly pursuit had ceased. A more desolate
30:31
Speaker 2: and dreary spot than Deadman's Gulch in a winter midnight,
30:34
Speaker 2: it is impossible to imagine. Yet Mr Hiram Beeson elected
30:38
Speaker 2: to live there, the sole inhabitant. Away up the side
30:42
Speaker 2: of the North Mountain, his little pine-log shanty projected from
30:45
Speaker 2: its single pane of glass a long thin beam of light,
30:50
Speaker 2: unlooked not altogether unlike a black beetle fastened to the
30:53
Speaker 2: hillside with a bright new pin. Within it sat Mr.
30:57
Speaker 2: Beeson himself before a roaring fire, staring into its hot
31:02
Speaker 2: heart as if he had never before seen such a
31:04
Speaker 2: thing in all his life. He was not a comely man.
31:09
Speaker 2: He was grey. He was ragged and slovenly in his attire.
31:13
Speaker 2: His face was wan and haggard. His eyes were too bright.
31:17
Speaker 2: As to his age, if one had attempted to guess it,
31:21
Speaker 2: one might have said forty-seven, then corrected himself and said seventy-four.
31:26
Speaker 2: He was really twenty-eight. Emaciated he was, as much, perhaps,
31:31
Speaker 2: as he dared be, with a needy undertaker at Bentley's
31:35
Speaker 2: flat and a new and enterprising coroner at Sonora. Poverty
31:39
Speaker 2: and zeal are an upper and a nether millstone. It
31:42
Speaker 2: is dangerous to make a third in that kind of sandwich.
31:46
Speaker 2: As Mr Beeson sat there, with his ragged elbows on
31:50
Speaker 2: his ragged knees, his lean jaws buried in his lean hands,
31:54
Speaker 2: and with no apparent intention of going to bed, he
31:57
Speaker 2: looked as if the slightest movement would tumble him to pieces,
32:01
Speaker 2: yet during the last hour he had winked no fewer
32:04
Speaker 2: than three times. There was a sharp rapping at the door.
32:08
Speaker 2: A rap at that time of night, and in that weather,
32:11
Speaker 2: might have surprised an ordinary mortal who had dwelt two
32:14
Speaker 2: years in a gulch without seeing a human face, and
32:17
Speaker 2: could not fail to know that the country was impassable,
32:20
Speaker 2: but Mr. Beeson did not so much as pull his
32:23
Speaker 2: eyes out of the coals, and even when the door
32:25
Speaker 2: was pushed open, he only shrugged a little more closely
32:28
Speaker 2: into himself, as one does who is expecting something that
32:32
Speaker 2: he would rather not see. You may observe this movement
32:36
Speaker 2: in women when, in a mortuary chapel, the coffin is
32:38
Speaker 2: borne up the aisle behind them. But when a long
32:42
Speaker 2: old man in a blanket overcoat, his head tied up
32:45
Speaker 2: in a handkerchief, and nearly his entire face in a muffler,
32:49
Speaker 2: wearing green goggles and with a complexion of glittering whiteness
32:53
Speaker 2: where it could be seen, strode silently into the room,
32:57
Speaker 2: laying a hard, gloved hand on Mr. Beeson's shoulder, the
33:01
Speaker 2: latter so far forgot himself as to look up with
33:03
Speaker 2: an appearance of no small astonishment. Whomever he may have
33:07
Speaker 2: been expecting, he had evidently not counted on meeting anyone
33:11
Speaker 2: like this. Nevertheless, the sight of this unexpected guest produced
33:15
Speaker 2: in Mr. Beeson the following sequence, a feeling of astonishment,
33:20
Speaker 2: a sense of gratification, a sentiment of profound good-wills, Rising
33:25
Speaker 2: from his seat, he took the knotty hand from his
33:27
Speaker 2: shoulder and shook it up and down with a fervour
33:29
Speaker 2: quite unaccountable, for in the old man's aspect was nothing
33:33
Speaker 2: to attract, much to repel. However, attraction is too general
33:38
Speaker 2: a property for repulsion to be without it. The most
33:41
Speaker 2: attractive object in the world is the face we instinctively
33:44
Speaker 2: cover with a cloth. When it becomes still more attractive, fascinating,
33:49
Speaker 2: we put seven feet of earth above it.' Sir!' said Mr. Beeson,
33:55
Speaker 2: releasing the old man's hand, which fell passively against his
33:58
Speaker 2: thigh with a quiet clack. It is an extremely disagreeable night.
34:03
Speaker 2: Pray be seated. I am very glad to see you. Mr.
34:08
Speaker 2: Beeson spoke with an easy good breeding that one would
34:11
Speaker 2: hardly have expected, considering all things. Indeed, the contrast between
34:15
Speaker 2: his appearance and his manner was sufficiently surprising to be
34:19
Speaker 2: one of the commonest of the social phenomena in the mines.
34:22
Speaker 2: The old man advanced a step toward the fire, glowing
34:26
Speaker 2: cavernously in the green goggles. Mr Beeson resumed,' You bet
34:30
Speaker 2: your life I am!' Mr Beeson's elegance was not too refined.
34:36
Speaker 2: It had made reasonable concessions to local taste. He paused
34:39
Speaker 2: a moment, letting his eyes drop from the muffled head
34:42
Speaker 2: of his guest, down along the row of mouldy buttons
34:45
Speaker 2: confining the blanket overcoat to the greenish cowhide boots powdered
34:49
Speaker 2: with snow. which had begun to melt and run along
34:52
Speaker 2: the floor in little rills. He took an inventory of
34:55
Speaker 2: his guest, and appeared satisfied. Who would not have been?
35:00
Speaker 2: Then he continued, A cheer I can offer you, unfortunately,
35:04
Speaker 2: is in keeping with my surroundings. But I shall esteem
35:08
Speaker 2: myself highly favoured, if it is your pleasure to partake
35:12
Speaker 2: of it, rather than seek better at Bentley's flat. With
35:16
Speaker 2: a singular refinement of hospitable humility, Mr. Beeson spoke as
35:20
Speaker 2: if a sojourn in his warm cabin on such a night,
35:23
Speaker 2: as compared with walking fourteen miles up to the throat
35:26
Speaker 2: in snow with a cutting crust, would be an intolerable hardship.
35:30
Speaker 2: By way of reply, his guest unbuttoned the blanket overcoat.
35:35
Speaker 2: The host laid fresh fuel on the fire, swept the
35:37
Speaker 2: hearth with the tail of a wolf, and added,' But
35:41
Speaker 2: I think you'd better skedaddle.' The old man took a
35:44
Speaker 2: seat by the fire, spreading his broad soles to the
35:47
Speaker 2: heat without removing his hat. In the mines the hat
35:51
Speaker 2: is seldom removed except when the boots are. Without further remark, Mr.
35:55
Speaker 2: Beeson also seated himself in a chair which had been
35:58
Speaker 2: a barrel, and which, retaining much of its original character,
36:02
Speaker 2: seemed to have been designed with a view to preserving
36:04
Speaker 2: his dust, if it should please him to crumble. For
36:08
Speaker 2: a moment there was a silence. Then, from somewhere among
36:11
Speaker 2: the pines, came the snarling yelp of a coyote, and
36:14
Speaker 2: simultaneously the door rattled in its frame. There was no
36:18
Speaker 2: other connection between the two incidents than that the coyote
36:22
Speaker 2: has an aversion to storms and the wind was rising.
36:25
Speaker 2: Yet there seemed somehow a kind of supernatural conspiracy between
36:29
Speaker 2: the two, and Mr Beeson shuddered with a vague sense
36:32
Speaker 2: of terror. He recovered himself in a moment and again
36:36
Speaker 2: addressed his guest. There are strange doings here. I will
36:40
Speaker 2: tell you everything, and then if you decide to go...
36:43
Speaker 2: I shall hope to accompany you over the worst of
36:45
Speaker 2: the way, as far as where Baldy Peterson shot Ben Hike.
36:50
Speaker 2: I dare say you know the place.' The old man
36:53
Speaker 2: nodded emphatically, as intimating not merely that he did, but
36:57
Speaker 2: that he did indeed.' Two years ago,' began Mr. Beeson,' I,
37:03
Speaker 2: with two companions, occupied this house. But when the rush
37:07
Speaker 2: to the flat occurred, we left, along with the rest.
37:10
Speaker 2: In ten hours the gulch was deserted.' That evening, however,
37:14
Speaker 2: I discovered I had left behind me a valuable pistol.
37:18
Speaker 2: That is it, and returned for it, passing the night
37:21
Speaker 2: here alone, as I have passed every night since. I
37:24
Speaker 2: must explain that a few days before we left, our
37:27
Speaker 2: Chinese domestic had the misfortune to die while the ground
37:30
Speaker 2: was frozen so hard that it was impossible to dig
37:33
Speaker 2: a grave in the usual way. So, on the day
37:36
Speaker 2: of our hasty departure, we cut through the floor there,
37:39
Speaker 2: and gave him such burial as we could. But before
37:43
Speaker 2: putting him down, I had the extremely bad taste to
37:46
Speaker 2: cut up his pigtail and spike it to that beam
37:49
Speaker 2: above his grave, where you may see it at this moment, or, preferably,
37:54
Speaker 2: when warmth hath given you leisure for observation. I stated,
37:58
Speaker 2: did I not, that the Chinaman came to his death
38:00
Speaker 2: from natural causes? I had, of course, nothing to do
38:04
Speaker 2: with that, and returned through no irresistible retraction or morbid fascination,
38:09
Speaker 2: but only because I had forgotten a pistol. That is
38:12
Speaker 2: clear to you, is it not, sir? The visitor nodded gravely.
38:17
Speaker 2: He appeared to be a man of few words, if any. Mr.
38:21
Speaker 2: Beeson continued, According to the Chinese faith, a man is
38:25
Speaker 2: like a kite. He cannot go to heaven without a tail. Well,
38:30
Speaker 2: to shorten this tedious story, which, however, I thought it
38:33
Speaker 2: my duty to relate, on that night, while I was
38:36
Speaker 2: here alone and thinking of anything but him, that Chinaman
38:40
Speaker 2: came back for his pigtail. He did not get it.
38:45
Speaker 2: At this point Mr. Beeson relapsed into blank silence. Perhaps
38:49
Speaker 2: he was fatigued by the unwonted exercise of speaking. Perhaps
38:52
Speaker 2: he had conjured up a memory that demanded his undivided attention.
38:56
Speaker 2: The wind was now fairly abroad, and the pines along
38:59
Speaker 2: the mountainside sang with singular distinctness. The narrator continued, You
39:05
Speaker 2: say you did not see much in that, and I
39:08
Speaker 2: must confess I do not myself. But he keeps coming.
39:12
Speaker 2: There was another long silence, during which both stared into
39:15
Speaker 2: the fire without the movement of a limb. Then Mr.
39:18
Speaker 2: Beeson broke out, almost fiercely fixing his eyes on what
39:22
Speaker 2: he could see of the impassive face of his auditor.'
39:24
Speaker 2: Give it him. Sir, in this matter I have no
39:29
Speaker 2: intention of troubling you.' anyone for advice. You will pardon me,
39:33
Speaker 2: I am sure. Here he became singularly persuasive. But I
39:37
Speaker 2: have ventured to nail that pigtail fast, and have assumed
39:40
Speaker 2: the somewhat onerous obligation of guarding it. So it is
39:44
Speaker 2: quite impossible to act on your considerate suggestion. Do you
39:48
Speaker 2: blame me for a muddock? Nothing could exceed the sudden
39:52
Speaker 2: ferocity with which he thrust this indignant remonstrance into the
39:55
Speaker 2: ear of his guest. It was as if he had
39:57
Speaker 2: struck him on the side of the head with a
39:59
Speaker 2: steel gauntlet. It was a protest, but it was a challenge.
40:04
Speaker 2: To be mistaken for a coward, to be played for
40:07
Speaker 2: a modoc. These two expressions are one. Sometimes it is
40:10
Speaker 2: a Chinaman. Do you play me for a Chinaman? is
40:13
Speaker 2: a question frequently addressed to the ear of the suddenly dead.
40:18
Speaker 2: Mr Beeson's buffet produced no effect. and after a moment's pause,
40:22
Speaker 2: during which the wind thundered in the chimney, like the
40:25
Speaker 2: sound of clods upon a coffin, he resumed. But, as
40:29
Speaker 2: you say, it is wearing me out. I feel that
40:33
Speaker 2: the life of the last two years has been a mistake,
40:36
Speaker 2: a mistake that corrects itself. You see how. The grave. No,
40:42
Speaker 2: there is no one to dig it. The ground is
40:44
Speaker 2: frozen too. But you are very welcome. You may say
40:48
Speaker 2: at Bentley's. but that is not important. It was very
40:52
Speaker 2: tough to cut. They breed silk into their pigtails. Mr.
40:57
Speaker 2: Beeson was speaking with his eyes shut, and he wandered.
41:01
Speaker 2: His last word was a snore. A moment later he
41:04
Speaker 2: drew a long breath, opened his eyes with an effort,
41:07
Speaker 2: made a single remark, and fell into a deep sleep.
41:10
Speaker 2: What he said was this, They are swiping my dust.
41:15
Speaker 2: Then the aged stranger, who had not uttered one word
41:18
Speaker 2: since his arrival, arose from his seat and deliberately laid
41:22
Speaker 2: off his outer clothing, looking as angular in his flannels
41:26
Speaker 2: as the late Signorina Festorazzi, an Irish woman six feet
41:30
Speaker 2: in height and weighing 56 pounds, who used to exhibit
41:34
Speaker 2: herself in her chemise to the people of San Francisco.
41:38
Speaker 2: He then crept into one of the bunks, having first
41:41
Speaker 2: placed a revolver in easy reach, according to the custom
41:44
Speaker 2: of the country. This revolver he took from a shelf,
41:47
Speaker 2: and it was the one which Mr Beeson had mentioned
41:50
Speaker 2: as that for which he had returned to the Gulch
41:52
Speaker 2: two years before. In a few moments Mr Beeson awoke,
41:56
Speaker 2: and seeing that his guest had retired, he did likewise.
42:00
Speaker 2: But before doing so he approached the long, plaited whisper
42:03
Speaker 2: of pagan hair, and gave it a powerful tug to
42:06
Speaker 2: assure himself that it was fast and firm. The two beds,
42:11
Speaker 2: mere shelves covered with blankets, not over-clean, faced each other
42:15
Speaker 2: from opposite sides of the room, the square little trap-door
42:18
Speaker 2: that had given access to the Chinaman's grave being midway between. This,
42:23
Speaker 2: by the way, was crossed by a double row of spike-heads.
42:26
Speaker 2: In his resistance to the supernatural, Mr. Beeson had not
42:30
Speaker 2: disdained the use of material precautions. The fire was now low,
42:35
Speaker 2: the flames burning bluely and petulantly, with occasional flashes projecting
42:40
Speaker 2: spectral shadows on the walls, shadows that moved mysteriously about,
42:45
Speaker 2: now dividing— now uniting. The shadow of the pendant queue, however,
42:50
Speaker 2: kept moodily apart, near the roof at the further end
42:53
Speaker 2: of the room, looking like a note of admiration. The
42:57
Speaker 2: song of the pines outside had now risen to the
42:59
Speaker 2: dignity of a triumphal hymn. In the pauses the silence
43:04
Speaker 2: was dreadful. It was during one of these intervals that
43:07
Speaker 2: the trap in the floor began to lift. Slowly and
43:11
Speaker 2: steadily it rose, and slowly and steadily rose the swaddled
43:14
Speaker 2: head of the old man in the bunk to observe it. Then,
43:18
Speaker 2: with a clap that shook the house to its foundation,
43:21
Speaker 2: it was thrown clean back, where it lay with its
43:23
Speaker 2: unsightly spikes pointing threateningly upward. Mr. Beeson awoke, and without rising,
43:29
Speaker 2: pressed his fingers into his eyes. He shuddered, his teeth chattered.
43:34
Speaker 2: His guest was now reclining on one elbow, watching the
43:37
Speaker 2: proceedings with the goggles that glowed like lamps. Suddenly a
43:42
Speaker 2: howling gust of wind swooped down the chimney, scattering ashes
43:46
Speaker 2: and smoke in all directions, for a moment obscuring everything.
43:50
Speaker 2: When the firelight again illuminated the room, there was seen,
43:54
Speaker 2: sitting gingerly on the edge of a stool by the hearthside,
43:57
Speaker 2: a swarthy little man of prepossessing appearance and dressed with
44:01
Speaker 2: faultless taste, nodding to the old man with a friendly
44:04
Speaker 2: and engaging smile.' From San Francisco, evidently,' thought Mr. Beeson, who,
44:11
Speaker 2: having somewhat recovered from his fright, was groping his way
44:14
Speaker 2: to a solution of the evening's events. But now another
44:19
Speaker 2: actor appeared upon the scene. Out of the square black
44:22
Speaker 2: hole in the middle of the floor protruded the head
44:24
Speaker 2: of the departed Chinaman. His glassy eyes turned upward in
44:28
Speaker 2: their angular slits and fastened on the dangling queue above
44:32
Speaker 2: with a look of yearning unspeakable. Mr. Beeson groaned and
44:36
Speaker 2: again spread his hands upon his face. A mild odour
44:40
Speaker 2: of opium pervaded the place. The phantom, clad only in
44:44
Speaker 2: a short blue tunic quilted and silken, but covered with
44:47
Speaker 2: grave mould, rose slowly, as if pushed by a weak
44:51
Speaker 2: spiral spring. Its knees were at the level of the floor, when,
44:55
Speaker 2: with a quick upward impulse, like the silent leaping of
44:58
Speaker 2: a flame, it grasped the queue with both hands, drew
45:02
Speaker 2: up its body, and took the tip in its horrible
45:05
Speaker 2: yellow teeth. To this it clung in a seeming frenzy,
45:09
Speaker 2: grimacing ghastly, surging and plunging from side to side in
45:13
Speaker 2: its efforts to disengage its property from the beam, but
45:16
Speaker 2: uttering no sound. It was like a corpse artificially convulsed
45:20
Speaker 2: by means of a galvanic battery. The contrast between its
45:24
Speaker 2: superhuman activity and its silence was no less than hideous. Mr.
45:30
Speaker 2: Beeson cowered in his bed. The swarthy little gentleman uncrossed
45:33
Speaker 2: his legs— beat an impatient tattoo with the toe of
45:36
Speaker 2: his boot, and consulted a heavy gold watch. The old
45:40
Speaker 2: man sat erect and quietly laid hold of the revolver. Bang!
45:48
Speaker 2: Like a body cut from the gallows, the Chinaman plumped
45:51
Speaker 2: into the black hole below, carrying his tail in his teeth.
45:55
Speaker 2: The trapdoor turned over, shutting down with a snap. The
45:58
Speaker 2: swarthy little gentleman from San Francisco sprang nimbly from his perch,
46:03
Speaker 2: caught something in the air with his hat as a
46:05
Speaker 2: boy catches a butterfly, and vanished into the chimney as
46:08
Speaker 2: if drawn up by suction. From away somewhere in the
46:12
Speaker 2: outer darkness floated in through the open door a faint
46:16
Speaker 2: far cry, a long sobbing wail, as of a child
46:20
Speaker 2: death-strangled in the desert, or a lost soul borne away
46:23
Speaker 2: by the adversary. It may have been the coyote. In
46:28
Speaker 2: the early days of the following spring, a party of
46:31
Speaker 2: miners on their way to new diggings passed along the gulch,
46:35
Speaker 2: and straying through the deserted shanties, found in one of
46:37
Speaker 2: them the body of Hiram Beeson, stretched upon a bunk
46:41
Speaker 2: with a bullet hole through the heart. The ball had
46:44
Speaker 2: evidently been fired from the opposite side of the room,
46:47
Speaker 2: for in one of the oaken beams overhead was a
46:49
Speaker 2: shallow blue dint where it had struck a knot and
46:52
Speaker 2: been deflected downward to the breast of its victim. Strongly
46:56
Speaker 2: attached to the same beam was what appeared to be
46:58
Speaker 2: the end of a rope of braided horsehair, which had
47:01
Speaker 2: been cut by the bullet in its passage to the knot.
47:04
Speaker 2: Nothing else of interest was noted, excepting a suit of
47:08
Speaker 2: mouldy and incongruous clothing, several articles of which were afterward
47:12
Speaker 2: identified by respectable witnesses as those in which certain deceased
47:16
Speaker 2: citizens of Deadman's had been buried years before. But it
47:20
Speaker 2: is not easy to understand how that could be, unless, indeed,
47:23
Speaker 2: the garments had been worn as a disguise by death himself,
47:27
Speaker 2: which is hardly credible.
47:40
Speaker 3: CHAPTER III. Yay, though I walk through the valley of
47:44
Speaker 3: the shadow. Psalm of David. Ye who read are still
48:11
Speaker 3: among the living, but I who write shall have long
48:15
Speaker 3: since gone my way into the region of shadows. for
48:19
Speaker 3: indeed strange things shall happen and secret things be known
48:23
Speaker 3: and many centuries shall pass away ere these memorials be
48:27
Speaker 3: seen of men and when seen there will be some
48:30
Speaker 3: to disbelieve and some to doubt and yet a few
48:34
Speaker 3: who will find much to ponder upon in the characters
48:37
Speaker 3: here graven with a stylus of iron the year had
48:42
Speaker 3: been a year of terror and of feelings more intense
48:46
Speaker 3: than terror for which there is no name upon the
48:48
Speaker 3: earth for many prodigies and signs had taken place and
48:53
Speaker 3: far and wide over sea and land the black wings
48:56
Speaker 3: of the pestilence were spread abroad to those nevertheless cunning
49:01
Speaker 3: in the stars it was not unknown that the heavens
49:05
Speaker 3: wore an aspect of ill and to me the greek
49:08
Speaker 3: enos among others it was evident that now had arrived
49:13
Speaker 3: the alternation of that seven hundred and ninety-fourth year when
49:17
Speaker 3: at the entrance of aries the planet Jupiter is conjoined
49:20
Speaker 3: with the red ring of the terrible Saturnus. The peculiar
49:24
Speaker 3: spirit of the skies, if I mistake not greatly, made
49:28
Speaker 3: itself manifest, not only in the physical orb of the earth,
49:32
Speaker 3: but in the souls, imaginations, and meditations of mankind. Over
49:39
Speaker 3: some flasks of the red Chian wine, within the walls
49:42
Speaker 3: of a noble hall, in a dim city called Ptolemaisus,
49:46
Speaker 3: we sat at night, a company of seven. And to
49:50
Speaker 3: our chamber there was no entrance, save by a lofty
49:53
Speaker 3: door of brass, and the door was fashioned by the
49:56
Speaker 3: artisan Corinnos, and being of rare workmanship, was fastened from within.
50:02
Speaker 3: Black draperies likewise in the gloomy room shut out from
50:05
Speaker 3: our view the moon, the lurid stars, and the peopless
50:09
Speaker 3: streets but the boding and the memory of evil they
50:13
Speaker 3: would not be so excluded there were things around us
50:17
Speaker 3: and about of which i can render no distinct account
50:20
Speaker 3: things material and spiritual heaviness in the atmosphere a sense
50:25
Speaker 3: of suffocation anxiety and above all that terrible state of
50:30
Speaker 3: existence which the nervous experience when the senses are keenly
50:33
Speaker 3: living and awake and meanwhile the powers of thought lie
50:37
Speaker 3: dormant a dead weight hung upon us it hung upon
50:42
Speaker 3: our limbs upon the household furniture upon the goblets from
50:46
Speaker 3: which we drank and all things were depressed and borne
50:49
Speaker 3: down thereby all things save only the flames of the
50:54
Speaker 3: seven lamps which illumined our revel uprearing themselves in tall
50:58
Speaker 3: slender lines of light they thus remained burning all pallid
51:03
Speaker 3: and motionless and in the mirror which their lustre formed
51:07
Speaker 3: upon the round table of ebony at which we sat
51:10
Speaker 3: each of us there assembled beheld the pallor of his
51:13
Speaker 3: own countenance and the unquiet glare in the downcast eyes
51:17
Speaker 3: of his companions yet we laughed and were merry in
51:21
Speaker 3: our proper way which was hysterical and sang the songs
51:25
Speaker 3: of Anacreon, which are madness, and drank deeply. although the
51:30
Speaker 3: purple wine reminded us of blood, for there was yet
51:33
Speaker 3: another tenant to our chamber in the person of young Zoalis. Dead,
51:39
Speaker 3: and at full length he lay enshrouded, the genius and
51:42
Speaker 3: the demon of the scene. Alas, he bore no portion
51:46
Speaker 3: in our mirth, save that his countenance distorted with the plague,
51:51
Speaker 3: and his eyes, in which death had but half extinguished
51:53
Speaker 3: the fire of the pestilence, seemed to take such interest
51:57
Speaker 3: in our merriment, as the dead may happily take in
52:00
Speaker 3: the merriment of those who are to die. But although I, Enos,
52:05
Speaker 3: felt that the eyes of the departed were upon me,
52:08
Speaker 3: still I forced myself not to perceive the bitterness of
52:11
Speaker 3: their expression, and gazing down steadily into the depths of
52:15
Speaker 3: the ebony mirror, sang with a loud and sonorous voice
52:19
Speaker 3: the songs of the son of Teos. but gradually my
52:24
Speaker 3: songs they ceased and their echoes rolling afar off among
52:28
Speaker 3: the sable draperies of the chamber became weak and undistinguishable
52:32
Speaker 3: and so faded away and lo from among those sable
52:37
Speaker 3: draperies where the sounds of the song departed there came
52:40
Speaker 3: forth a dark and undefined shadow a shadow such as
52:44
Speaker 3: the moon when low in heaven might fashion from the
52:46
Speaker 3: figure of a man but it was the shadow neither
52:50
Speaker 3: of man nor of god nor of any familiar thing
52:55
Speaker 3: and quivering awhile among the draperies of the room it
52:59
Speaker 3: at length rested in full view upon the surface of
53:01
Speaker 3: the door of brass BUT THE SHADOW WAS VAGUE AND
53:05
Speaker 3: FORMLESS AND INDEFINITE AND WAS THE SHADOW NEITHER OF MAN
53:08
Speaker 3: NOR OF GOD, NEITHER GOD OF GREECE NOR GOD OF
53:12
Speaker 3: CALDIA NOR ANY EGYPTIAN GOD. AND THE SHADOW RESTED UPON
53:16
Speaker 3: THE BRAZEN DOORWAY AND UNDER THE ARCH OF THE ENTABLATURE
53:20
Speaker 3: OF THE DOOR, AND MOVED NOT NOR SPOKE ANY WORD,
53:24
Speaker 3: BUT THERE BECAME STATIONARY AND REMAINED. and the door whereupon
53:29
Speaker 3: the shadow rested was, if I remember aright, over against
53:33
Speaker 3: the feet of the young Zoalis enshrouded. But we, the
53:36
Speaker 3: seven there assembled, having seen the shadow as it came
53:40
Speaker 3: out from among the draperies, dared not steadily behold it,
53:43
Speaker 3: but cast down her eyes, and gazed continually into the
53:47
Speaker 3: depths of the mirror of ebony. And at length I
53:50
Speaker 3: and us, speaking some low words, demanded of the shadow
53:54
Speaker 3: its dwelling and its appellation. And the shadow answered, I
53:59
Speaker 3: am shadow, and my dwelling is near to the catacombs
54:03
Speaker 3: of Ptolemasus, and hard by those dim plains of refusion
54:07
Speaker 3: which border upon the foul Caronian canal. And then did we,
54:13
Speaker 3: the seven, start from our seats in horror, and stand trembling,
54:17
Speaker 3: and shuddering, and aghast, for the tones in the voice
54:20
Speaker 3: of the shadow were not the tones of any one being,
54:24
Speaker 3: but of a multitude of beings, and varying in their
54:27
Speaker 3: cadences from syllable to syllable, fell duskly upon our ears,
54:32
Speaker 3: in the well-remembered and familiar accents of many thousand departed friends.
54:39
Speaker 3: End of Section 3.
54:46
Speaker 2: CHAPTER FOUR OF P. D. GOTH. THIS IS A LIBRIVOX RECORDING.
54:51
Speaker 2: ALL LIBRIVOX RECORDINGS ARE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. FOR MORE INFORMATION,
54:54
Speaker 2: OR TO VOLUNTEER, PLEASE CONTACT LIBRIVOX.ORG. RECORDING BY ALGIE PUG.
55:03
Speaker 2: KIAFOL BY EDITH WARTEN ONE You ought to buy it.
55:12
Speaker 2: 'said my host.' It' s just the place for a solitary-minded
55:14
Speaker 2: devil like you,' and it would be rather worthwhile' to
55:17
Speaker 2: own the most romantic house in Brittany.' The present people
55:21
Speaker 2: are dead broke,' and it's going for a song.' You
55:24
Speaker 2: ought to buy it.'' It was not with the least
55:28
Speaker 2: idea of living up to the character 'my friend L'Enrevin
55:31
Speaker 2: ascribed to me.' As a matter of fact, under my
55:34
Speaker 2: unsociable exterior,' I have always had secret yearnings for domesticity.'
55:39
Speaker 2: that I took his hint one autumn afternoon, and went
55:42
Speaker 2: to Kerfold. My friend was motoring over to Compe on business.
55:47
Speaker 2: He dropped me on the way, at a crossroad on
55:49
Speaker 2: a heath, and said,' First turn to the right, and
55:52
Speaker 2: second to the left, then straight on to Lucien Avenue.
55:55
Speaker 2: If you meet any peasants, don't ask your way. They
55:58
Speaker 2: don't understand French, and they would pretend they did, and
56:01
Speaker 2: mix you up. I'll be back for you here by sunset,
56:05
Speaker 2: and don't forget the tombs in the chapel.' I followed
56:08
Speaker 2: L'Enrevard's directions with a hesitation occasioned by the usual difficulty
56:13
Speaker 2: of remembering whether he had said the first turn to
56:16
Speaker 2: the right and second to the left, or the contrary.
56:19
Speaker 2: If I had met a peasant I should certainly have asked,
56:22
Speaker 2: and probably been sent astray, but I had the desert
56:25
Speaker 2: landscape to myself, and so stumbled on the right turn
56:29
Speaker 2: and walked on across the heath till I came to
56:31
Speaker 2: an avenue. It was so unlike any other avenue I
56:34
Speaker 2: have ever seen that I instantly knew it must be
56:37
Speaker 2: THE avenue. The grey-trunked trees sprang straight up to a
56:41
Speaker 2: great height and then interwove their pale grey branches in
56:45
Speaker 2: a long tunnel through which the autumn light fell faintly.
56:48
Speaker 2: I know most trees by name, but I haven't to
56:51
Speaker 2: this day been able to decide what those trees were.
56:54
Speaker 2: They had the tall curve of elms, the tenuity of poplars,
56:58
Speaker 2: the ashen colour of olives under a rainy sky. and
57:02
Speaker 2: they stretched ahead of me for half a mile or
57:04
Speaker 2: so without a break in their arch. If ever I
57:07
Speaker 2: saw an avenue that unmistakably led to something, it was
57:10
Speaker 2: the avenue at Querfol. My heart beat a little as
57:14
Speaker 2: I began to walk down it. Presently the trees ended,
57:18
Speaker 2: and I came to a fortified gate in a long wall.
57:21
Speaker 2: Between me and the wall was an open space of grass,
57:25
Speaker 2: with other grey avenues radiating from it. Behind the wall
57:28
Speaker 2: were tall slate roofs mossed with silver, a chapel belfry,
57:32
Speaker 2: the top of a keep. A moat filled with wild
57:35
Speaker 2: shrubs and brambles surrounded the place. The drawbridge had been
57:39
Speaker 2: replaced by a stone arch, and the portcullis by an
57:42
Speaker 2: iron gate. I stood for a long time on the
57:45
Speaker 2: hither side of the moat, gazing about me, and letting
57:48
Speaker 2: the influence of the place sink in. I said to myself,
57:51
Speaker 2: If I wait long enough, the guardian will turn up
57:54
Speaker 2: and show me the tombs, and I rather hoped he
57:56
Speaker 2: wouldn't turn up too soon. I sat down on a
58:00
Speaker 2: stone and lit a cigarette. As soon as I had
58:03
Speaker 2: done it, it struck me as a puerile and portentous
58:05
Speaker 2: thing to do, with that great blind house looking down
58:08
Speaker 2: at me, and all the empty avenues converging on me.
58:12
Speaker 2: It may have been the depth of the silence that
58:14
Speaker 2: made me so conscious of my gesture. The squeak of
58:17
Speaker 2: my match sounded as loud as the scraping of a brake,
58:20
Speaker 2: and I almost fancied I heard it fall when I
58:22
Speaker 2: tossed it onto the grass. but there was more than that,
58:26
Speaker 2: a sense of irrelevance, of littleness, of childish bravado, in
58:30
Speaker 2: sitting there puffing my cigarette smoke into the face of
58:33
Speaker 2: such a past. I knew nothing of the history of Kerfol.
58:38
Speaker 2: I was new to Brittany, and Lanrevin had never mentioned
58:41
Speaker 2: the name to me till the day before, but one
58:44
Speaker 2: couldn't as much as glance at that pile without feeling
58:47
Speaker 2: in it a long accumulation of history. What kind of history,
58:51
Speaker 2: I was not prepared to guess. perhaps only the sheer
58:54
Speaker 2: weight of many associated lives and deaths, which gives a
58:57
Speaker 2: kind of majesty to all old houses. But the aspect
59:01
Speaker 2: of Kerfol suggested something more, a perspective of stern and
59:05
Speaker 2: cruel memories stretching away, like its own grey avenues, into
59:09
Speaker 2: a blur. of darkness. Certainly, no house had ever more
59:13
Speaker 2: completely and finally broken with the present. As it stood there,
59:17
Speaker 2: lifting its proud roofs and gables to the sky, it
59:20
Speaker 2: might have been its own funeral monument. Tombs in the chapel?
59:24
Speaker 2: The whole place is a tomb, I reflected. I hoped
59:28
Speaker 2: more and more that the guardian would not come. The
59:31
Speaker 2: details of the place, however striking, would seem trivial compared
59:35
Speaker 2: with its collective impressiveness, and I wanted only to sit
59:39
Speaker 2: there and be penetrated by the weight of its silence.'
59:41
Speaker 2: It' s the very place for you,' L'Enrevin had said, and
59:46
Speaker 2: I was overcome by the almost blasphemous frivolity of suggesting
59:50
Speaker 2: to any living being that Kerfold was the place for him.'
59:53
Speaker 2: Is it possible that anyone would not see?' I wondered.
59:58
Speaker 2: I did not finish the thought. What I meant was undefinable.
1:00:02
Speaker 2: I stood up and wandered toward the gate. I was
1:00:05
Speaker 2: beginning to want to know more, not to see more.
1:00:09
Speaker 2: I was by now so sure it was not a
1:00:11
Speaker 2: question of seeing, but to feel more, feel all the
1:00:14
Speaker 2: place had to communicate. But to get in, one would
1:00:18
Speaker 2: have to rout out the keeper, I thought reluctantly, and hesitated. Finally,
1:00:23
Speaker 2: I crossed the bridge and tried the iron gate. It yielded.
1:00:26
Speaker 2: and I walked down the tunnel formed by the thickness
1:00:29
Speaker 2: of the chemin de l'Onde. At the farther end a
1:00:32
Speaker 2: wooden barricade had been laid across the entrance, and beyond
1:00:35
Speaker 2: it I saw a court enclosed in noble architecture. The
1:00:39
Speaker 2: main building faced me, and now I discovered that one
1:00:42
Speaker 2: half of it was a mere ruined front, with gaping
1:00:45
Speaker 2: windows through which the wild growths of the moat and
1:00:48
Speaker 2: the trees of the park were visible. The rest of
1:00:51
Speaker 2: the house was still in its robust beauty. One end
1:00:54
Speaker 2: abutted on the round tower, the other on the small
1:00:58
Speaker 2: traceried chapel, and in an angle of the building stood
1:01:01
Speaker 2: a graceful wellhead adorned with mossy urns. A few roses
1:01:05
Speaker 2: grew against the walls, and on an upper windowsill I
1:01:09
Speaker 2: remember noticing a pot of fuchsias. My sense of the
1:01:13
Speaker 2: pressure of the invisible began to yield to my architectural interest.
1:01:17
Speaker 2: The building was so fine that I felt a desire
1:01:20
Speaker 2: to explore it for its own sake. I looked about
1:01:22
Speaker 2: the court, wondering in which corner the guardian lodged. Then
1:01:26
Speaker 2: I pushed open the barrier and went in. As I
1:01:29
Speaker 2: did so, a little dog barred my way. He was
1:01:32
Speaker 2: such a remarkably beautiful little dog that for a moment
1:01:35
Speaker 2: he made me forget the splendid place he was defending.
1:01:39
Speaker 2: I was not sure of his breed at the time,
1:01:41
Speaker 2: but have since learnt that it was Chinese, and that
1:01:44
Speaker 2: he was of a rare variety called the Sleeve Dog.
1:01:48
Speaker 2: He was very small and golden brown, with large brown
1:01:51
Speaker 2: eyes and a ruffled throat. He looked rather like a large,
1:01:55
Speaker 2: tawny chrysanthemum. I said to myself, These little beasts always
1:01:59
Speaker 2: snap and scream, and somebody will be out in a minute.
1:02:03
Speaker 2: The little animal stood before me, forbidding, almost menacing. There
1:02:07
Speaker 2: was anger in his large brown eyes. But he made
1:02:11
Speaker 2: no sound. He came no nearer. Instead, as I advanced,
1:02:15
Speaker 2: he gradually fell back, and I noticed that another dog,
1:02:18
Speaker 2: a vague, rough, brindled thing, had limped up. There'll be
1:02:22
Speaker 2: a hubbub now, I thought, and at the same moment
1:02:25
Speaker 2: a third dog, a long-haired white mongrel, slipped out of
1:02:28
Speaker 2: a doorway and joined the others. All three stood looking
1:02:31
Speaker 2: at me with grave eyes, but not a sound came
1:02:35
Speaker 2: from them. As I advanced they continued to fall back
1:02:38
Speaker 2: on muffled paws, still watching me. At a given point
1:02:42
Speaker 2: they were all charged at my ankles. It's one of
1:02:44
Speaker 2: those dodges that dogs who live together put up on one,
1:02:47
Speaker 2: I thought. I was not much alarmed, for they were
1:02:51
Speaker 2: neither large nor formidable— but they let me wander through
1:02:54
Speaker 2: the courts as I pleased, following at a little distance,
1:02:57
Speaker 2: always the same distance, and always keeping their eyes on me.
1:03:01
Speaker 2: Presently I looked across at the ruined façade, and saw
1:03:04
Speaker 2: that in one of its window-frames another dog stood, a
1:03:07
Speaker 2: large white pointer with one brown ear. He was an
1:03:11
Speaker 2: old grave-dog, much more experienced than the others, and he
1:03:15
Speaker 2: seemed to be observing me with a deeper intentness.' I' ll
1:03:19
Speaker 2: hear from him,' I said to myself. but he stood
1:03:22
Speaker 2: in the empty window-frame against the trees of the park
1:03:26
Speaker 2: and continued to watch me without moving. I looked back
1:03:28
Speaker 2: at him for a time to see if the sense
1:03:31
Speaker 2: that he was being watched would not rouse him. Half
1:03:34
Speaker 2: the width of the court lay between us, and we
1:03:36
Speaker 2: stared at each other silently across it. But he did
1:03:40
Speaker 2: not stir, and at last I turned away. Behind me
1:03:44
Speaker 2: I found the rest of the pack, with a newcomer added,
1:03:47
Speaker 2: a small black greyhound with pale agate-coloured eyes, He was
1:03:52
Speaker 2: shivering a little, and his expression was more timid than
1:03:54
Speaker 2: that of the others. I noticed that he kept the
1:03:57
Speaker 2: little behind them, and still there was not a sound.
1:04:01
Speaker 2: I stood there for fully five minutes, the circle around me,
1:04:05
Speaker 2: waiting as they seemed to be waiting. At last I
1:04:08
Speaker 2: went up to the little golden brown dog and stooped
1:04:11
Speaker 2: to pat him. As I did so, I heard myself laugh.
1:04:16
Speaker 2: The little dog did not start or growl or take
1:04:18
Speaker 2: his eyes from me. He simply slipped back about a yard,
1:04:22
Speaker 2: and then paused and continued to look at me.' Oh,
1:04:26
Speaker 2: hang it!' I exclaimed aloud, and walked across the court
1:04:29
Speaker 2: towards the well. As I advanced, the dogs separated and
1:04:32
Speaker 2: slid away into different corners of the court. I examined
1:04:35
Speaker 2: the urns on the well, tried a locked door or two,
1:04:38
Speaker 2: and up and down the dumb façade. Then I faced
1:04:41
Speaker 2: about toward the chapels. When I turned, I perceived that
1:04:44
Speaker 2: all the dogs had disappeared except the old pointer, who
1:04:47
Speaker 2: still watched me from the empty window-frame. It was rather
1:04:51
Speaker 2: a relief to be rid of that cloud of witnesses,
1:04:53
Speaker 2: and I began to look about me for a way
1:04:55
Speaker 2: to the back of the house. Perhaps there'll be somebody
1:04:58
Speaker 2: in the garden, I thought. I found a way across
1:05:01
Speaker 2: the moat, scrambled over a wall smothered in brambles, and
1:05:05
Speaker 2: got into the garden. A few lean hydrangeas and geraniums
1:05:09
Speaker 2: pined in the flower-beds, and the ancient house looked down
1:05:12
Speaker 2: on them indifferently. Its garden side was plainer and severer
1:05:16
Speaker 2: than the other. The long granite front, with its few
1:05:19
Speaker 2: windows and steep roof, looked like a fortress prison. I
1:05:23
Speaker 2: walked around the farther wing, went up some disjointed steps,
1:05:27
Speaker 2: and entered the deep twilight of a narrow and incredibly
1:05:30
Speaker 2: old box-walk. The walk was just wide enough for one
1:05:33
Speaker 2: person to slip through, and its branches met overhead. It
1:05:37
Speaker 2: was like the ghost of a box-walk. its lustrous green
1:05:40
Speaker 2: all turning to the shadowy greyness of the avenues. I
1:05:43
Speaker 2: walked on and on, the branches hitting me in the
1:05:46
Speaker 2: face and springing back with a dry rattle, and at
1:05:49
Speaker 2: length I came out on the grassy top of the
1:05:52
Speaker 2: Chemin de Ronde. I walked along it to the gate-tower,
1:05:55
Speaker 2: looking down into the court, which was just below me.
1:05:59
Speaker 2: Not a human being was inside, and neither were the dogs.
1:06:03
Speaker 2: I found a flight of steps in the thickness of
1:06:04
Speaker 2: the wall and went down them, and when I emerged
1:06:07
Speaker 2: again into the court, There stood the circle of dogs,
1:06:10
Speaker 2: the golden-brown one a little ahead of the others, the
1:06:13
Speaker 2: black greyhound shivering in her ear.' Oh, hang it, you
1:06:17
Speaker 2: uncomfortable beast, you!' I exclaimed, my voice startling me with
1:06:22
Speaker 2: a sudden echo. The dogs stood motionless, watching me. I
1:06:26
Speaker 2: knew by this time that they would not try to
1:06:29
Speaker 2: prevent my approaching the house, and the knowledge left me
1:06:31
Speaker 2: free to examine them. I had a feeling that they
1:06:34
Speaker 2: must be horribly cowed to be so silent and inert.
1:06:38
Speaker 2: yet they did not look hungry or ill-treated. Their coats
1:06:41
Speaker 2: were smooth, and they were not thin, except the shivering greyhound.
1:06:45
Speaker 2: It was more as if they had lived a long
1:06:47
Speaker 2: time with people who never spoke to them or looked
1:06:49
Speaker 2: at them, as though the silence of the place had
1:06:52
Speaker 2: gradually benumbed their busy, inquisitive natures. And this strange passivity,
1:06:56
Speaker 2: this almost human lassitude, seemed to me sadder than the
1:07:00
Speaker 2: misery of starved and beaten animals. I should have liked
1:07:03
Speaker 2: to rouse them for a minute, to coax them into
1:07:05
Speaker 2: a game or a scamper, but the longer I looked
1:07:08
Speaker 2: into their fixed and weary eyes, the more preposterous the
1:07:11
Speaker 2: idea became. With the windows of that house looking down
1:07:14
Speaker 2: on us, how could I have imagined such a thing?
1:07:17
Speaker 2: The dogs knew better. They knew what the house would
1:07:20
Speaker 2: tolerate and what it would not. I even fancied that
1:07:24
Speaker 2: they knew what was passing through my mind, and pitied
1:07:27
Speaker 2: me for my frivolity. But even that feeling probably reached
1:07:30
Speaker 2: them through a thick fog of listlessness. I had an
1:07:33
Speaker 2: idea that their distance from me was as nothing to
1:07:36
Speaker 2: my remoteness from them. In the last analysis, the impression
1:07:39
Speaker 2: they produced was that of having in common one memory
1:07:43
Speaker 2: so deep and dark that nothing that had happened since
1:07:46
Speaker 2: was worth either a growl or a wag.' I say,'
1:07:50
Speaker 2: I broke out abruptly, addressing myself to the dumb circle,
1:07:53
Speaker 2: 'do you know what you look like, the whole lot
1:07:56
Speaker 2: of you? You look as if you'd seen a ghost.
1:07:58
Speaker 2: That's how you look. I wonder if there is a
1:08:01
Speaker 2: ghost here, and nobody but you left for it to
1:08:04
Speaker 2: appear to?' the dogs continued to gaze at me without moving.
1:08:08
Speaker 2: It was dark when I saw Laurent Rivard's motor-lamps at
1:08:11
Speaker 2: the crossroads, and I wasn't exactly sorry to see them.
1:08:14
Speaker 2: I had the sense of having escaped from the loneliest
1:08:16
Speaker 2: place in the whole world, and of not liking loneliness,
1:08:19
Speaker 2: to that degree, as much as I had imagined I should.
1:08:23
Speaker 2: My friend had brought his solicitor back from Compaix for
1:08:26
Speaker 2: the night, and, seated beside a fat and affable stranger,
1:08:29
Speaker 2: I felt no inclination to talk of Querfol. But that
1:08:33
Speaker 2: evening— When Laurent Rivard and the solicitor were closeted in
1:08:36
Speaker 2: the study, Madame de Laurent Rivard began to question me
1:08:39
Speaker 2: in the drawing-room.' Well, are you going to be careful?'
1:08:44
Speaker 2: she asked, tilting up her gay chin from her embroidery.'
1:08:47
Speaker 2: I haven't decided yet. The fact is I couldn't get
1:08:51
Speaker 2: into the house,' I said, as if I had simply
1:08:53
Speaker 2: postponed my decision and meant to go back for another look.'
1:08:57
Speaker 2: You could not get in? Why?'' What happened?' The family
1:09:02
Speaker 2: are mad to sell the place,' and the old guardian
1:09:04
Speaker 2: has orders.' Very likely, but the old guardian wasn't there.'
1:09:08
Speaker 2: What a pity!' He must have gone to market, but
1:09:12
Speaker 2: his daughter...' There was nobody about.' At least I saw nobody.'
1:09:16
Speaker 2: How extraordinary!'' Literally nobody?'' Nobody but a pack of dogs,
1:09:22
Speaker 2: a whole pack of them,' who seemed to have the
1:09:24
Speaker 2: place to themselves.'' Madame de L'Enrevin let the embroidery slip
1:09:29
Speaker 2: to her knee' and folded her hands on it.' For
1:09:31
Speaker 2: several minutes she looked at me thoughtfully.' A pack of dogs!
1:09:36
Speaker 2: You saw them?'' Saw them? I saw nothing else.'' How many?'
1:09:41
Speaker 2: she dropped her voice a little.' I' ve always wondered.'' I
1:09:45
Speaker 2: looked at her with surprise.'' I suppose the place to
1:09:48
Speaker 2: be familiar to her.' Have you never been to Kerfol?'
1:09:51
Speaker 2: I asked.' Oh, yes, often, but never on that day.''
1:09:56
Speaker 2: What day?'' I' d quite forgotten, and so had Herve, I'm sure.'
1:10:01
Speaker 2: If we remembered, we never should have sent you today.'
1:10:04
Speaker 2: But then, after all, one doesn't half believe that sort
1:10:07
Speaker 2: of thing, does one?'' What sort of thing?' I asked,
1:10:12
Speaker 2: involuntarily sinking my voice to the level of hers.' Inwardly
1:10:15
Speaker 2: I was thinking—' I knew there was something. Madame Delon-Yvain
1:10:20
Speaker 2: cleared her throat and produced a reassuring smile. Didn't he
1:10:24
Speaker 2: tell you the story of Carefull? An ancestor of his
1:10:27
Speaker 2: was mixed up in it. You know, every Breton house
1:10:30
Speaker 2: has its ghost story, and some of them are rather unpleasant. Yes,
1:10:36
Speaker 2: but those dogs, I insisted.' Well, those dogs are the
1:10:41
Speaker 2: ghosts of Keffel.' At least, the peasants say there's one
1:10:44
Speaker 2: day in the year' when a lot of dogs appear there,'
1:10:46
Speaker 2: and that day the keeper and his daughter' go off
1:10:49
Speaker 2: to Morlaix and get drunk.' The women in Brittany drink dreadfully.''
1:10:53
Speaker 2: She stood up to match her silk,' and then she
1:10:55
Speaker 2: lifted her charming, inquisitive Parisian face.' Did you really see
1:10:59
Speaker 2: a lot of dogs?' There isn't one at Keffel,' she said.' Two.'
1:11:05
Speaker 2: La Riva, the next day, hunted out a shabby calf
1:11:09
Speaker 2: volume from the back of the upper shelf of his library.' Yes,
1:11:14
Speaker 2: here it is. What does it call itself?' A History
1:11:18
Speaker 2: of the Assizes of the Duchy of Brittany, Compe, 1702.'
1:11:22
Speaker 2: The book was written about a hundred years later than
1:11:26
Speaker 2: the Kerfol affair,' but I believe the account is transcribed
1:11:30
Speaker 2: pretty literally from the judicial records.' Anyhow, it's queer reading.''
1:11:35
Speaker 2: and there's a hail to Long River mixed up in it.'
1:11:38
Speaker 2: Not exactly my style, as you see.' But then he's
1:11:42
Speaker 2: only a collateral.' Here, take the book up to bed
1:11:45
Speaker 2: with you.' I don't exactly remember the details,' but after
1:11:49
Speaker 2: you've read it, I'll bet anything' you' ll leave your light
1:11:51
Speaker 2: burning all night.'' I left my light burning all night,
1:11:56
Speaker 2: as he had predicted,' but it was chiefly because, till
1:12:00
Speaker 2: near dawn,' I was absorbed in my readings. The account
1:12:04
Speaker 2: of the trial of Anne de Cournot, wife of the
1:12:06
Speaker 2: Lord of Caerfolle, was long and closely printed. It was,
1:12:11
Speaker 2: as my friend had said, probably an almost literal transcription
1:12:15
Speaker 2: of what took place in the courtroom, and the trial
1:12:17
Speaker 2: lasted for nearly a month. Besides, the type of the
1:12:21
Speaker 2: book was detestable. At first I thought of translating the
1:12:26
Speaker 2: old record literally, but it is full of wearisome repetitions.
1:12:30
Speaker 2: and the main lines of the story are forever straying
1:12:33
Speaker 2: off into side issues. So I have tried to disentangle it,
1:12:37
Speaker 2: and give it here in a simpler form. At times, however,
1:12:41
Speaker 2: I have reverted to the text, because no other words
1:12:44
Speaker 2: could have conveyed so exactly the sense of what I
1:12:47
Speaker 2: felt at Caerfolle, and nowhere else have I added anything
1:12:51
Speaker 2: of my own. 3. It was in the year 16
1:12:57
Speaker 2: that Yves de Cournot Lord of the Domaine of Querfol,
1:13:03
Speaker 2: went to the pardon of L'Encrenant to perform his religious duties.
1:13:08
Speaker 2: He was a rich and powerful noble, then in his
1:13:10
Speaker 2: sixty-second year, but hale and sturdy, a great horseman and
1:13:15
Speaker 2: hunter and a pious man, so all his neighbours attested.
1:13:19
Speaker 2: In appearance he seems to have been short and broad,
1:13:22
Speaker 2: with a swarthy face, legs slightly bowed from the saddle.
1:13:27
Speaker 2: a hanging nose and broad hands with black hairs on them.
1:13:31
Speaker 2: He had married young and lost his wife and son
1:13:33
Speaker 2: soon after, and since then had lived alone at Caillefolle.
1:13:38
Speaker 2: Twice a year he went to Morlaix, where he had
1:13:41
Speaker 2: a handsome house by the river, and spent a week
1:13:44
Speaker 2: or ten days there, and occasionally rode to Rennes on business.
1:13:48
Speaker 2: Witnesses were found to declare that during his absences he
1:13:51
Speaker 2: led a life different from the one he was known
1:13:54
Speaker 2: to lead at Caillefolle. where he busied himself with his estate,
1:13:58
Speaker 2: attended mass daily, and found his only amusement in hunting
1:14:02
Speaker 2: the wild boar and waterfowl. But these rumours are not
1:14:06
Speaker 2: particularly relevant, and it is certain that among people of
1:14:09
Speaker 2: his own class in the neighbourhood he passed for a
1:14:12
Speaker 2: stern and even austere man, observant of his religious obligations
1:14:17
Speaker 2: and keeping strictly to himself. There is no talk of
1:14:20
Speaker 2: any familiarity with the women on his estate, though at
1:14:23
Speaker 2: that time the nobility were very free with their peasants.
1:14:27
Speaker 2: Some people said that he had never looked at a
1:14:29
Speaker 2: woman since his wife's death, but such things are hard
1:14:32
Speaker 2: to prove, and the evidence on this point was not
1:14:35
Speaker 2: worth much. Well, in his sixty-second year, Yves de Cournot
1:14:41
Speaker 2: went to the pardon at L'Encrenant, and saw there a
1:14:44
Speaker 2: young lady of Dornenay, who had ridden over a pillion
1:14:47
Speaker 2: behind her father to do her duty to the saint.
1:14:51
Speaker 2: Her name was Anne de Barrigan, and she came of
1:14:54
Speaker 2: good old Breton stock, but much less great and powerful
1:14:58
Speaker 2: than that of Yves de Cournot, and her father had
1:15:01
Speaker 2: squandered his fortune at cards, and lived almost like a
1:15:04
Speaker 2: peasant in his little granite manor on the moors. I
1:15:08
Speaker 2: have said I would add nothing of my own to
1:15:10
Speaker 2: this bold statement of a strange case, but I must
1:15:13
Speaker 2: interrupt myself here to describe the young lady who rode
1:15:16
Speaker 2: up to the leech-gate of L'Encrenant at the very moment
1:15:19
Speaker 2: when Baron de Cournot was also dismounting there. I take
1:15:24
Speaker 2: my description from a rather rare thing, a faded drawing
1:15:28
Speaker 2: in red crayon, sober and truthful enough to be by
1:15:31
Speaker 2: a late pupil of the Clouet, which hangs in Londrevan's study,
1:15:36
Speaker 2: and is said to be a portrait of Anne de Barragan.
1:15:39
Speaker 2: It is unsigned, and has no mark of identity, but
1:15:42
Speaker 2: the initials A.B. and the date 16, the year after
1:15:47
Speaker 2: her marriage. It represents a young woman with a small
1:15:50
Speaker 2: oval face, almost pointed, yet wide enough for a full
1:15:53
Speaker 2: mouth with a tender depression at the corners. The nose
1:15:57
Speaker 2: is small, and the eyebrows are set rather high, far
1:16:00
Speaker 2: apart and as lightly penciled as the eyebrows in a
1:16:03
Speaker 2: Chinese painting. The forehead is high and serious, and the hair,
1:16:08
Speaker 2: which one feels to be fine and thick and fair,
1:16:11
Speaker 2: drawn off it and lying close like a cap. The
1:16:15
Speaker 2: eyes are neither large nor small, hazel probably, with a
1:16:19
Speaker 2: look once shy and steady. a pair of beautiful long
1:16:23
Speaker 2: hands across below the lady's breast. The chaplain of Kerfol,
1:16:28
Speaker 2: and other witnesses, averred that when the baron came back
1:16:31
Speaker 2: from Longquena, he jumped from his horse, ordered another to
1:16:34
Speaker 2: be instantly saddled, go to young Page, come with him,
1:16:39
Speaker 2: and rode away that same evening to the south. His
1:16:42
Speaker 2: steward followed the next morning, with coffers laden on a
1:16:45
Speaker 2: pair of pack-mules. The following week, Yves de Cournot rode
1:16:50
Speaker 2: back to Kerfol, sent for his vassals and tenants, and
1:16:54
Speaker 2: told them he was to be married at All Saints
1:16:57
Speaker 2: to Anne de Barragan of Dornenay, and on All Saints'
1:17:00
Speaker 2: Day the marriage took place. As to the next few years,
1:17:05
Speaker 2: the evidence on both sides seems to show that they
1:17:07
Speaker 2: passed happily for the couple. No one was found to
1:17:11
Speaker 2: say that Yves de Cournot had been unkind to his wife,
1:17:14
Speaker 2: and it was plain to all that he was content
1:17:16
Speaker 2: with his bargain. Indeed, it was admitted by the chaplain
1:17:20
Speaker 2: and other witnesses for the prosecution that the young lady
1:17:23
Speaker 2: had a softening influence on her husband, and that he
1:17:26
Speaker 2: became less exacting with his tenants, less harsh to peasants
1:17:29
Speaker 2: and dependents, and less subject to the fits of gloomy
1:17:33
Speaker 2: silence which had darkened his widowhood. As to his wife,
1:17:37
Speaker 2: the only grievance her champions would call up in her
1:17:39
Speaker 2: behalf was that Kefauld was a lonely place, and that
1:17:43
Speaker 2: when her husband was away on business, at Rennes or Morlaix,
1:17:47
Speaker 2: with her she was never taken. She was not allowed
1:17:50
Speaker 2: so much as to walk in the park unaccompanied. But
1:17:53
Speaker 2: no one asserted that she was unhappy, though one servant-woman
1:17:56
Speaker 2: said that she surprised her crying, and had heard her
1:17:59
Speaker 2: say that she was a woman accursed to have no child,
1:18:02
Speaker 2: and nothing in life to call her own. But that
1:18:05
Speaker 2: was a natural enough feeling in a wife attached to
1:18:08
Speaker 2: her husband, and certainly it must have been a great
1:18:11
Speaker 2: grief to Eve de Cournot that she gave him no son.
1:18:15
Speaker 2: Yet he never made her feel her childlessness, as a reproach.
1:18:20
Speaker 2: She herself admits this in her evidence, but seemed to
1:18:23
Speaker 2: try to make her forget it by showering gifts and
1:18:26
Speaker 2: favours on her. Rich though he was, he had never
1:18:29
Speaker 2: been open-handed, but nothing was too fine for his wife,
1:18:33
Speaker 2: in the way of silks, or gems, or linen, or
1:18:36
Speaker 2: whatever else she fancied. Every wandering merchant was welcome at
1:18:40
Speaker 2: Caer Foll, and when the master was called away he
1:18:43
Speaker 2: never came back without bringing his wife a handsome present.
1:18:46
Speaker 2: something curious and particular, from Mollet. Orin, or Compey. One
1:18:52
Speaker 2: of the waiting-women gave, in cross-examination, an interesting list of
1:18:55
Speaker 2: one year's gifts, which I copy. From Molay, a carved
1:19:00
Speaker 2: ivory junk, with Chinaman at the oars, that a strange
1:19:04
Speaker 2: sailor had brought back as a vote of offering for
1:19:06
Speaker 2: Notre-Dame de la Clare, above Plominat. from compay, an embroidered gown,
1:19:12
Speaker 2: worked by the nuns of the Assumption, from wren, a
1:19:16
Speaker 2: silver rose that opened and showed an amber virgin with
1:19:19
Speaker 2: a crown of garnets, from mollet, again, a length of
1:19:23
Speaker 2: Damascus velvet shot with gold, bought of a Jew from Syria,
1:19:27
Speaker 2: and from Michaelmas, that same year, from wren, a necklet
1:19:32
Speaker 2: or bracelet of round stone, emeralds and pearls and rubies,
1:19:36
Speaker 2: strung like beads on a gold wire, This was the
1:19:39
Speaker 2: present that pleased the lady best, the woman said. Later on,
1:19:43
Speaker 2: as it happened, it was produced at the trial, and
1:19:46
Speaker 2: it appears to have struck the judges and the public
1:19:49
Speaker 2: as a curious and valuable jewel. The very same winter
1:19:53
Speaker 2: the baron absented himself again, this time as far as Bordeaux,
1:19:58
Speaker 2: and on his return he brought his wife something even
1:20:01
Speaker 2: odder and prettier than the bracelet. It was a winter
1:20:04
Speaker 2: evening when he rode up to Caer Folles, and walking
1:20:07
Speaker 2: into the hall, found her sitting listlessly by the fire,
1:20:10
Speaker 2: her chin on her hand, looking into the fire. He
1:20:14
Speaker 2: carried a velvet box in his hand, and setting it
1:20:17
Speaker 2: down on the hearth, lifted the lid, and let out
1:20:20
Speaker 2: a little golden-brown dog. Anne de Colnoy exclaimed with pleasure
1:20:26
Speaker 2: as the little creature bounded towards her.' No, it looks
1:20:30
Speaker 2: like a bird or butterfly,' she cried as she picked
1:20:34
Speaker 2: it up. and the dog put its paws on her
1:20:36
Speaker 2: shoulders and looked at her with eyes like a Christian's.
1:20:41
Speaker 2: After that she would never have it out of her sight,
1:20:43
Speaker 2: and petted and talked to it as if it had
1:20:46
Speaker 2: been a child, as indeed it was the dearest thing
1:20:49
Speaker 2: to a child she was to know. Yves de Cournot
1:20:52
Speaker 2: was much pleased with his purchase. The dog had been
1:20:55
Speaker 2: brought to him by a sailor from an East India merchantman,
1:20:59
Speaker 2: and the sailor had bought it of a pilgrim in
1:21:01
Speaker 2: a bazaar at Jaffa, who had stolen it from a
1:21:04
Speaker 2: nobleman's wife in China. A perfectly permissible thing to do,
1:21:08
Speaker 2: since the pilgrim was a Christian, and a nobleman a heathen,
1:21:12
Speaker 2: doomed to hellfire. Yves de Cournot had paid a long
1:21:15
Speaker 2: price for the dog, for they were beginning to be
1:21:17
Speaker 2: in demand at the French court, and the sailor knew
1:21:20
Speaker 2: that he had got hold of a good thing. But
1:21:22
Speaker 2: Anne's pleasure was so great, that to see her laugh
1:21:25
Speaker 2: and play with a little animal, her husband would have
1:21:27
Speaker 2: doubtless given twice the sum. So far, all the evidence
1:21:32
Speaker 2: is at one, and the narrative plain sailing. But now
1:21:35
Speaker 2: the steering becomes difficult. I will try and keep as
1:21:39
Speaker 2: nearly as possible to Anne's own statements, though towards the end,
1:21:43
Speaker 2: poor thing— Well, to go back. The very year after
1:21:48
Speaker 2: the little brown dog was brought to Caillefolle, Yves de Colneux,
1:21:52
Speaker 2: one winter night, was found dead at the head of
1:21:55
Speaker 2: a narrow flight of stairs leading down from his wife's
1:21:57
Speaker 2: room to a door opening on the court. It was
1:22:01
Speaker 2: his wife who found him, and gave the alarm, so distracted,
1:22:04
Speaker 2: poor wretch, with fear and horror, for his blood was
1:22:07
Speaker 2: all over her, that at first the roused household could
1:22:11
Speaker 2: not make out what she was saying, and thought she
1:22:13
Speaker 2: had gone suddenly mad. But there, sure enough, at the
1:22:17
Speaker 2: top of the stairs lay her husband, stone dead, and
1:22:20
Speaker 2: head foremost, the blood from his wounds dripping down to
1:22:24
Speaker 2: the steps below him. He had been dreadfully scratched and
1:22:27
Speaker 2: gashed about the face and throat, as if with a
1:22:30
Speaker 2: dull weapon, and one of his legs had a deep
1:22:33
Speaker 2: tear in it, which had cut an artery, and probably
1:22:36
Speaker 2: caused his death. But how did he come there, and
1:22:39
Speaker 2: who had murdered him? His wife declared that she had
1:22:43
Speaker 2: been asleep in her bed, and, hearing his cry, rushed
1:22:47
Speaker 2: out to find him lying on the stairs. But this
1:22:49
Speaker 2: was immediately questioned. In the first place, it was proved
1:22:53
Speaker 2: that from her room she could not have heard the
1:22:56
Speaker 2: struggle on the stairs, owing to the thickness of the
1:22:58
Speaker 2: walls and the length of the intervening passage. Then it
1:23:02
Speaker 2: was evident that she had not been in bed and asleep,
1:23:05
Speaker 2: since she was dressed when she roused the house, and
1:23:08
Speaker 2: her bed had not been slept in. Moreover, the door
1:23:11
Speaker 2: at the bottom of the stairs was ajar, and the
1:23:14
Speaker 2: key was in the lock, and it was noticed by
1:23:16
Speaker 2: the chaplain, an observant man, that the dress she wore
1:23:20
Speaker 2: was stained with blood about the knees, and that there
1:23:23
Speaker 2: were traces of small, blood-stained hands low down on the
1:23:27
Speaker 2: staircase walls, so that it was conjectured that she had
1:23:30
Speaker 2: really been to the postern door when her husband fell,
1:23:33
Speaker 2: and feeling her way up to him in the darkness,
1:23:36
Speaker 2: on her hands and knees, had been stained by his
1:23:39
Speaker 2: blood dripping down on her. Of course, it was argued
1:23:42
Speaker 2: on the other side that the blood marks on her
1:23:45
Speaker 2: dress might have been caused by her kneeling down by
1:23:47
Speaker 2: her husband when she rushed out of her room. but
1:23:51
Speaker 2: there was the open door below, and the fact that
1:23:53
Speaker 2: the finger-marks in the staircase all pointed upward. The accused
1:23:58
Speaker 2: held to her statement for the first two days, in
1:24:00
Speaker 2: spite of its improbability. But on the third day word
1:24:04
Speaker 2: was brought to her that Hervé de Lanrivain, a young
1:24:07
Speaker 2: nobleman of the neighbourhood, had been arrested for complicity in
1:24:10
Speaker 2: the crime. Two or three witnesses thereupon came forward to
1:24:14
Speaker 2: say that it was known throughout the country— that Lanrivain
1:24:18
Speaker 2: had formerly been on good terms with the Lady of Cournot,
1:24:21
Speaker 2: but that he had been absent from Brittany for over
1:24:24
Speaker 2: a year, and people had ceased to associate their names.
1:24:28
Speaker 2: The witnesses who made this statement were not of a
1:24:30
Speaker 2: very reputable sort. One was an old herb-gatherer suspected of witchcraft,
1:24:36
Speaker 2: another a drunken clerk from a neighbouring parish, the third
1:24:39
Speaker 2: a half-witted shepherd who could be made to say anything,
1:24:42
Speaker 2: and it was clear that the prosecution was not satisfied
1:24:45
Speaker 2: with its case, would have liked to find more definite
1:24:48
Speaker 2: proof of Lanrivain's complicity than the statement of the herb-gatherer,
1:24:53
Speaker 2: who swore to having seen him climbing the walls of
1:24:55
Speaker 2: the park on the night of the murder. One way
1:24:58
Speaker 2: of patching out incomplete proofs in those days was to
1:25:02
Speaker 2: put some sort of pressure, moral or physical, on the
1:25:05
Speaker 2: accused person. It is not clear what sort of pressure
1:25:09
Speaker 2: was put on Anne de Cournot. But on the third day,
1:25:12
Speaker 2: when she was brought into court, she appeared weak and wandering,
1:25:16
Speaker 2: and after being encouraged to collect herself and speak the truth,
1:25:19
Speaker 2: on her honour and the wounds of her blessed Redeemer,
1:25:23
Speaker 2: she confessed that she had in fact gone down the
1:25:25
Speaker 2: stairs to speak with Herve de L'Enrivain, who denied everything,
1:25:30
Speaker 2: and had been surprised there by the sound of her
1:25:32
Speaker 2: husband's fall. That was better, and the prosecution rubbed its
1:25:36
Speaker 2: hands with satisfaction. The satisfaction increased when the various dependents
1:25:41
Speaker 2: living at Kerfol were induced to say, with apparent sincerity—
1:25:45
Speaker 2: that during the year or two preceding his death their
1:25:48
Speaker 2: master had once more grown uncertain and irascible, and subject
1:25:53
Speaker 2: to the fits of brooding silence which his household had
1:25:56
Speaker 2: learned to dread before his second marriage. This seemed to
1:26:00
Speaker 2: show that things had not been going well at Kerfol,
1:26:03
Speaker 2: although no one could be found to say that there
1:26:05
Speaker 2: had been any signs of open disagreement between husband and wife.
1:26:10
Speaker 2: Anne de Cournot, when questioned as to her reason for
1:26:13
Speaker 2: going down at night to open the door to Herbe
1:26:15
Speaker 2: de Lanrivain, made an answer which must have sent a
1:26:18
Speaker 2: smile round the court. She said it was because she
1:26:22
Speaker 2: was lonely and wanted to talk with the young man.
1:26:25
Speaker 2: Was this the only reason, she was asked, and replied, Yes,
1:26:31
Speaker 2: by the cross over your lordship's heads. But why at midnight?
1:26:35
Speaker 2: the court asked. Because I could see him in no
1:26:38
Speaker 2: other way. I can see the exchange of glances across
1:26:42
Speaker 2: the ermine collars under the crucifix. Anne de Cordonneau, further questioned,
1:26:48
Speaker 2: said that her married life had been extremely lonely. Desolate
1:26:52
Speaker 2: was the word she used. It was true that her
1:26:54
Speaker 2: husband seldom spoke harshly to her, but there were days
1:26:58
Speaker 2: when he did not speak at all. It was true
1:27:00
Speaker 2: that he had never struck or threatened her, but he
1:27:03
Speaker 2: kept her like a prisoner at Kerfol, and when he
1:27:06
Speaker 2: rode away to Morlaix or Compey-Horinne, He set so close
1:27:09
Speaker 2: a watch on her that she could not pick a
1:27:11
Speaker 2: flower in the garden without having a waiting-woman at her heels.'
1:27:15
Speaker 2: I am no queen to need such honours,' she once
1:27:19
Speaker 2: said to him, and he had answered that a man
1:27:21
Speaker 2: who has a treasure does not leave a key in
1:27:23
Speaker 2: the lock when he goes out.' Then take me with you,'
1:27:27
Speaker 2: she urged, but to this he said the towns were
1:27:30
Speaker 2: pernicious places, and young wives better off at their own firesides.'
1:27:34
Speaker 2: But what did you say to Herb de Lanrivon?' The
1:27:39
Speaker 2: court asked, and she answered, To ask him to take
1:27:42
Speaker 2: me away. Ah, you confess that you went down to
1:27:46
Speaker 2: him with a doubt or his thoughts? No. Then why
1:27:49
Speaker 2: did you want me to take you away? Because I
1:27:52
Speaker 2: was afraid for my life. Of whom were you afraid?
1:27:55
Speaker 2: Of my husband. Why were you afraid of your husband?
1:28:00
Speaker 2: Because he had strangled my little dog. Another smile must
1:28:04
Speaker 2: have passed around the court room. In days when any
1:28:08
Speaker 2: nobleman had right to hang his peasants, and most of
1:28:11
Speaker 2: them exercised it, pinching a pet animal's windpipe was nothing
1:28:15
Speaker 2: to make a fuss about. At this point one of
1:28:17
Speaker 2: the judges, who appears to have had a certain sympathy
1:28:20
Speaker 2: for the accused, suggested that she should be allowed to
1:28:23
Speaker 2: explain herself in her own way, and she thereupon made
1:28:27
Speaker 2: the following statement. The first years of her marriage had
1:28:30
Speaker 2: been lonely, but her husband had not been unkind to her.
1:28:35
Speaker 2: If she had had a child, she would not have
1:28:37
Speaker 2: been unhappy. But the days were long, and it rained.
1:28:40
Speaker 2: too much. It was true that her husband, whenever he
1:28:43
Speaker 2: went away and left her, brought her a handsome present
1:28:46
Speaker 2: on his return, but this did not make up for
1:28:49
Speaker 2: the loneliness. At least nothing had, till he brought her
1:28:53
Speaker 2: the little brown dog from the east. After that she
1:28:56
Speaker 2: was much less unhappy.' Her husband seemed pleased that she
1:29:00
Speaker 2: was so fond of the dog. He gave her leave
1:29:02
Speaker 2: to put her jeweled bracelet around his neck, and to
1:29:05
Speaker 2: keep it always with her. One day she had fallen
1:29:09
Speaker 2: asleep in her room, with the dog at her feet,
1:29:12
Speaker 2: as his habit was. Her feet were bare and resting
1:29:15
Speaker 2: on his back. Suddenly she was waked by her husband.
1:29:18
Speaker 2: He stood beside her, smiling, not unkindly.' You look like
1:29:23
Speaker 2: my great-grandmother, Julien de Cournault,' lying in the chapel with
1:29:27
Speaker 2: her feet on a little dog,' he said. The analogy
1:29:31
Speaker 2: sent a chill through her, but she laughed and answered,' Well,
1:29:35
Speaker 2: when I am dead, you must put me beside her,
1:29:38
Speaker 2: carved in marble, with my dog at my feet.'' Aha!
1:29:42
Speaker 2: We'll wait and see,' he said, laughing also, but with
1:29:46
Speaker 2: his black brows glazed together. The dog is an emblem
1:29:49
Speaker 2: of fidelity.'' And do you doubt my right to lie
1:29:52
Speaker 2: with mine at my feet?' When I am in doubt,
1:29:55
Speaker 2: I find out, he answered. I am an old man,
1:29:59
Speaker 2: he added, and people say I make you lead a
1:30:02
Speaker 2: lonely life, but I swear you shall have your monument
1:30:05
Speaker 2: if you earn it. And I swear to be faithful,
1:30:09
Speaker 2: she returned, if only for the sake of having my
1:30:12
Speaker 2: little dog at my feet. Not long afterwards he went
1:30:16
Speaker 2: on business to the compé Assizes, and while he was
1:30:19
Speaker 2: away his aunt, The widow of a great nobleman of
1:30:22
Speaker 2: the duchy came to spend a night at Kerfol on
1:30:25
Speaker 2: her way to the pardon of St. Barbe. She was
1:30:28
Speaker 2: a woman of great piety and consequence, and much respected
1:30:31
Speaker 2: by Yves Le Cournot, and when she proposed to Anne
1:30:34
Speaker 2: to go with her to St. Barbe, no one could object,
1:30:37
Speaker 2: and even the chaplain declared himself in favour of the pilgrimage.
1:30:41
Speaker 2: So Anne sent out for St. Barbe, and there for
1:30:44
Speaker 2: the first time she talked with Herb de Longrivain. He
1:30:47
Speaker 2: had come once or twice to Kerfol with his father,
1:30:50
Speaker 2: but she had never before exchanged a dozen words with him.
1:30:54
Speaker 2: They did not talk for more than five minutes now.
1:30:57
Speaker 2: It was under the chestnuts that the procession was coming
1:31:00
Speaker 2: out of the chapel. He said, I pity you, and
1:31:04
Speaker 2: she was surprised, for she had not supposed that anyone
1:31:07
Speaker 2: thought her an object of pity. He added, Call for
1:31:10
Speaker 2: me when you need me, and she smiled a little,
1:31:13
Speaker 2: but was glad afterwards and thought often of the meeting.
1:31:17
Speaker 2: She confessed to having seen him three times afterwards, not more.
1:31:21
Speaker 2: How or where, she would not say. One had the
1:31:24
Speaker 2: impression that she feared to implicate someone. Their meetings had
1:31:28
Speaker 2: been rare and brief, and at the last he had
1:31:30
Speaker 2: told her that he was starting the next day for
1:31:32
Speaker 2: a foreign country, on a mission which was not without peril,
1:31:36
Speaker 2: and might keep him for many months absent. He asked
1:31:39
Speaker 2: her for a remembrance, and she had none to give
1:31:42
Speaker 2: him but the collar about the little dog's neck. She
1:31:46
Speaker 2: was sorry afterwards that she had given it, but he
1:31:48
Speaker 2: was so unhappy at going that she had not had
1:31:50
Speaker 2: the courage to refuse. Her husband was away at the time.
1:31:55
Speaker 2: When he returned a few days later, he picked up
1:31:57
Speaker 2: the little dog to pet it, and noticed that its
1:31:59
Speaker 2: collar was missing. His wife told him that the dog
1:32:02
Speaker 2: had lost it in the undergrowth of the park, and
1:32:05
Speaker 2: that she and her maids had hunted a whole day
1:32:07
Speaker 2: for it. It was true, she explained to the court,
1:32:11
Speaker 2: that she had made the maids search for the necklet.
1:32:14
Speaker 2: They all believed the dog had lost it in the park.
1:32:17
Speaker 2: Her husband made no comment, and that evening at supper
1:32:20
Speaker 2: he was in his usual mood, between good and bad,
1:32:23
Speaker 2: you could never tell which. He talked a great deal,
1:32:26
Speaker 2: describing what he had seen and done at Wren, but
1:32:29
Speaker 2: now and then he stopped and looked hard at her,
1:32:32
Speaker 2: and when she went to bed she found her little
1:32:35
Speaker 2: dog strangled on her pillow. The little thing was dead,
1:32:39
Speaker 2: but still warm. She stooped to lift it, and her
1:32:42
Speaker 2: distress turned to horror when she discovered that that it
1:32:45
Speaker 2: had been strangled by twisting twice round his throat the
1:32:48
Speaker 2: necklet she had given to Lanrivain. The next morning at
1:32:52
Speaker 2: dawn she bathed the dog in the garden, and hid
1:32:55
Speaker 2: the necklet in her breast. She said nothing to her husband,
1:32:58
Speaker 2: then or later, and he said nothing to her, but
1:33:02
Speaker 2: that day he had a present hanged for stealing a
1:33:04
Speaker 2: faggot in the park, and the next day he nearly
1:33:07
Speaker 2: beat to death the young horse he was breaking. Winter
1:33:10
Speaker 2: set in, and the short days passed. and the long nights,
1:33:14
Speaker 2: one by one, and she heard nothing of Herve de Lanrivain.
1:33:18
Speaker 2: It might be that her husband had killed him, or
1:33:21
Speaker 2: merely that he had been robbed of the necklet. Day
1:33:24
Speaker 2: after day by the hearth, among the spinning maids, night
1:33:28
Speaker 2: after night alone on her bed, she wondered and trembled.
1:33:32
Speaker 2: Sometimes at table her husband looked across at her and smiled,
1:33:37
Speaker 2: and then she felt sure that Lanrivain was dead. She
1:33:41
Speaker 2: dared not try to get news of him.' for she
1:33:43
Speaker 2: was sure her husband would find out if she did.'
1:33:46
Speaker 2: She had an idea that he could find out anything.'
1:33:49
Speaker 2: Even when a witch-woman who was a noted seer' and
1:33:53
Speaker 2: could show you the whole world in her crystal' came
1:33:55
Speaker 2: to the castle for a night's shelter,' and the maids
1:33:58
Speaker 2: flocked to her, Anne held back.' The winter was long
1:34:02
Speaker 2: and black and rainy.' One day, in Yves de Cournot's absence,
1:34:06
Speaker 2: 'some gypsies came to care full with a troop of
1:34:09
Speaker 2: performing dogs.' Anne brought the smallest and cleverest, a white
1:34:14
Speaker 2: dog with a feathery coat and one blue and one
1:34:16
Speaker 2: brown eye. It seemed to have been ill-treated by the gypsies,
1:34:20
Speaker 2: and clung to her plaintively when she took it from them.
1:34:24
Speaker 2: That evening her husband came back, and when she went
1:34:27
Speaker 2: to bed she found the dog strangled on her pillow.
1:34:31
Speaker 2: After that she said to herself that she would never
1:34:34
Speaker 2: have another dog, but one bitter cold evening a poor
1:34:37
Speaker 2: lean greyhound was found whining at the castle gate, and
1:34:41
Speaker 2: she took him in and forbade the maids to speak
1:34:43
Speaker 2: of him to her husband. She hid him in a
1:34:46
Speaker 2: room that no one went to, smuggled food to him
1:34:49
Speaker 2: from her own plate, made him a warm bed to
1:34:51
Speaker 2: lie on, and petted him like a child. Eve, the court-knower,
1:34:56
Speaker 2: came home, and the next day she found the greyhound
1:34:59
Speaker 2: strangled on her pillow. She wept in secret, but said nothing,
1:35:03
Speaker 2: and resolved that even she met a dog die of
1:35:06
Speaker 2: hunger she would never bring him into the castles. but
1:35:09
Speaker 2: one day she found a young sheep-dog, a brindled puppy
1:35:12
Speaker 2: with good blue eyes, lying with a broken leg in
1:35:15
Speaker 2: the snow of the park. Eve de Cournot was at Wren,
1:35:18
Speaker 2: and she brought the dog in, warmed and fed it,
1:35:22
Speaker 2: tied up its leg and hid it in the castle
1:35:24
Speaker 2: till her husband's return. The day before she gave it
1:35:27
Speaker 2: to a peasant woman who lived a long way off,
1:35:29
Speaker 2: and paid her handsomely to care for it and say nothing.
1:35:33
Speaker 2: But that night she heard a whining and scratching at
1:35:36
Speaker 2: her door— When she opened it, the lame puppy, drenched
1:35:39
Speaker 2: and shivering, jumped up on her with little sobbing barks.
1:35:44
Speaker 2: She hid him in her bed, and the next morning
1:35:46
Speaker 2: was about to have him taken back to the peasant
1:35:48
Speaker 2: woman when she heard her husband ride into the court.
1:35:52
Speaker 2: She shut the dog in the chest and went down
1:35:54
Speaker 2: to receive him. An hour or two later, when she
1:35:57
Speaker 2: returned to her room, the puppy lay strangled on her pillow.
1:36:02
Speaker 2: After that, she dared not make a pet of any
1:36:04
Speaker 2: other dog, and her loneliness became almost unendurable. Sometimes, when
1:36:10
Speaker 2: she crossed the court of the castle, and thought no
1:36:12
Speaker 2: one was looking, she stopped to pat the old pointer
1:36:15
Speaker 2: at the gate. But one day, as she was caressing him,
1:36:18
Speaker 2: her husband came out of the chapel, and the next
1:36:21
Speaker 2: day the old dog was gone. This curious narrative was
1:36:26
Speaker 2: not told in one sitting of the court, or received
1:36:28
Speaker 2: without impatience an incredulous comment. It was plain that the
1:36:32
Speaker 2: judges were surprised by its puerility. and that it did
1:36:36
Speaker 2: not help the accused in the eyes of the public.
1:36:39
Speaker 2: It was an odd tale, certainly, but what did it prove?
1:36:42
Speaker 2: That Yves de Cournot disliked dogs, and that his wife,
1:36:46
Speaker 2: to gratify her own fancy, persistently ignored this dislike. As
1:36:51
Speaker 2: for pleading this trivial disagreement as an excuse for her relations,
1:36:55
Speaker 2: whatever their nature, with her supposed accomplice, the argument was
1:37:00
Speaker 2: so absurd that her own lawyer manifestly regretted having let
1:37:03
Speaker 2: her make use of it, and tried several times to
1:37:06
Speaker 2: cut short her story, but she went on to the
1:37:09
Speaker 2: end with a kind of hypnotised insistence, as though the
1:37:13
Speaker 2: scenes she evoked were so real to her that she
1:37:17
Speaker 2: had forgotten where she was, and imagined herself to be
1:37:20
Speaker 2: reliving them. At length the judge, who had previously shown
1:37:25
Speaker 2: a certain kindness to her, said, leaning forward a little,
1:37:28
Speaker 2: one may suppose from his row of dozing colleagues, Then
1:37:32
Speaker 2: you would have us believe that you murdered your husband
1:37:34
Speaker 2: because he would not let you keep a pet dog?''
1:37:37
Speaker 2: I did not murder my husband.'' Who then did? Herve
1:37:43
Speaker 2: de Longrivard?'' No.'' Who then? Can you tell us?'' Yes,
1:37:49
Speaker 2: I can tell you. The dogs.' At that point she
1:37:53
Speaker 2: was carried out of the court in a swoon. It
1:37:56
Speaker 2: was evident that her lawyers had tried to get her
1:37:59
Speaker 2: to abandon this line of defence, Possibly her explanation, whatever
1:38:03
Speaker 2: it was, had seemed convincing enough when she poured it
1:38:07
Speaker 2: out to him in the heat of their first private colloquy.
1:38:10
Speaker 2: But now that it was exposed to the cold daylight
1:38:13
Speaker 2: of judicial scrutiny and the banter of the town, he
1:38:16
Speaker 2: was thoroughly ashamed of it, and would have sacrificed her
1:38:19
Speaker 2: without a scruple to save his professional reputation. But the
1:38:23
Speaker 2: obstinate judge, who, perhaps, after all, was more inquisitive than kindly,
1:38:28
Speaker 2: evidently wanted to hear the story. out, and she was
1:38:31
Speaker 2: ordered the next day to continue her deposition. She said that,
1:38:36
Speaker 2: after the disappearance of the old watchdog, nothing particular happened
1:38:40
Speaker 2: for a month or two. Her husband was much as usual.
1:38:43
Speaker 2: She did not remember any special incidents. One evening a
1:38:47
Speaker 2: peddler woman came to the castle and was selling trinkets
1:38:49
Speaker 2: to the maids. She had no heart for trinkets, but
1:38:53
Speaker 2: she stood looking on while the women made their choice.
1:38:56
Speaker 2: And then, she did not know how, but the peddler
1:38:59
Speaker 2: coaxed her into buying for herself an odd pear-shaped pomander
1:39:02
Speaker 2: with a strong scent in it. She had once seen
1:39:05
Speaker 2: something of the kind on a gypsy woman. She had
1:39:07
Speaker 2: no desire for the pomander, and did not know why
1:39:10
Speaker 2: she had bought it. The peddler said that whoever wore
1:39:13
Speaker 2: it had the power to read the future. but she
1:39:16
Speaker 2: did not really believe that, or care much either. However,
1:39:20
Speaker 2: she bought the thing and took it up to her room,
1:39:22
Speaker 2: where she sat turning it about in her hand. Then
1:39:25
Speaker 2: the strange scent attracted her, and she began to wonder
1:39:29
Speaker 2: what kind of spice was in the box. She opened
1:39:32
Speaker 2: it and found a grey bean rolled in a strip
1:39:34
Speaker 2: of paper, and on the paper she saw a sign
1:39:37
Speaker 2: she knew. and a message from Herve de Lanrivain, saying
1:39:41
Speaker 2: that he was home again, and would be at the
1:39:43
Speaker 2: door in the court that night, after the moon had set.
1:39:47
Speaker 2: She burned the paper, and then sat down to think.
1:39:50
Speaker 2: It was nightfall, and her husband was at home. She
1:39:53
Speaker 2: had no way of warning Lanrivain, and there was nothing
1:39:56
Speaker 2: to do but to wait. At this point I fancied
1:40:00
Speaker 2: the drowsy courtroom beginning to wake up. Even to the
1:40:04
Speaker 2: oldest hand on the bench there must have been a
1:40:06
Speaker 2: certain aesthetic relish in picturing the feelings of a woman,
1:40:09
Speaker 2: unreceiving such a message at nightfall, from a man living
1:40:13
Speaker 2: twenty miles away, to whom she had no means of
1:40:16
Speaker 2: sending a warning. She was not a clever woman, I imagine, and,
1:40:22
Speaker 2: as a first result of her cogitation, she appears to
1:40:25
Speaker 2: have made the mistake of being, that evening, too kind
1:40:28
Speaker 2: to her husband.' She could not apply him with wine,
1:40:32
Speaker 2: according to the traditional expedient, for though he drank heavily
1:40:35
Speaker 2: at times, he had a strong head, and when he
1:40:39
Speaker 2: drank beyond its strength, it was because he chose to,
1:40:42
Speaker 2: and not because a woman coaxed him. Not his wife,
1:40:45
Speaker 2: at any rate. She was an old story by now.
1:40:49
Speaker 2: As I read the case, I fancied there was no
1:40:51
Speaker 2: feeling for her left in him but the hatred occasioned
1:40:54
Speaker 2: by his supposed dishonour. At any rate she tried to
1:40:59
Speaker 2: call up her old graces, but early in the evening
1:41:02
Speaker 2: he complained of pains and fever, and left the hall
1:41:05
Speaker 2: to go up to his room. His servant carried him
1:41:08
Speaker 2: a cup of hot wine, and brought back word that
1:41:11
Speaker 2: he was sleeping, and not to be disturbed. And an
1:41:14
Speaker 2: hour later, when Anne lifted the tapestry and listened at
1:41:18
Speaker 2: his door, she heard his loud regular breathing. She thought
1:41:22
Speaker 2: it might be a faint, and stayed a long time
1:41:25
Speaker 2: barefooted in the cold passage, her ear to the crack,
1:41:28
Speaker 2: but the breathing went on too steadily and naturally to
1:41:31
Speaker 2: be other than that of a man in a sound sleep.
1:41:34
Speaker 2: She crept back to her room, reassured, and stood in
1:41:37
Speaker 2: a window, watching the moon set through the trees of
1:41:40
Speaker 2: the park. The sky was misty and starless, and after
1:41:44
Speaker 2: the moon went down the night was pitch black. She
1:41:47
Speaker 2: knew the time had come, and stole along the passage,
1:41:51
Speaker 2: past her husband's door, where she stopped again to listen
1:41:54
Speaker 2: to his breathing. to the top of the stairs. There
1:41:58
Speaker 2: she paused a moment, and assured herself that no one
1:42:00
Speaker 2: was following her. Then she began to go down the
1:42:03
Speaker 2: stairs in the darkness. They were so steep and winding
1:42:07
Speaker 2: that she had to go very slowly, for fear of stumbling.
1:42:10
Speaker 2: Her one thought was to get the door unbolted, tell
1:42:14
Speaker 2: Lanrivain to make his escape, and hasten back to her room.
1:42:18
Speaker 2: She had tried the bolt earlier in the evening, and
1:42:21
Speaker 2: managed to put a little grease on it. but nevertheless,
1:42:24
Speaker 2: when she drew it, it gave a squeak. Not loud,
1:42:27
Speaker 2: but it made her heart stop, and the next minute, overhead,
1:42:31
Speaker 2: she heard a noise.' What noise?' the prosecution interposed.' My
1:42:36
Speaker 2: husband's voice calling out my name and cursing me.'' What
1:42:40
Speaker 2: did you hear after that?'' A terrible scream and a fall.''
1:42:44
Speaker 2: Where was he of Delon Rivan at this time?' He
1:42:49
Speaker 2: was standing outside in the court. I made him out
1:42:51
Speaker 2: in the darkness. I told him, for God's sake, to go,
1:42:55
Speaker 2: and then I pushed the door shut.' What did you
1:42:57
Speaker 2: do next?' I stood at the foot of the stairs
1:43:00
Speaker 2: and listened.' What did you hear?' I heard dogs snarling
1:43:05
Speaker 2: and panting. Visible discouragement of the bench, boredom of the public,
1:43:09
Speaker 2: and exasperation of the lawyer for the defence.' Dogs again!'
1:43:14
Speaker 2: But the inquisitive judge insisted.' What dogs?' She bent her
1:43:18
Speaker 2: head and spoke so low that she had to be
1:43:20
Speaker 2: told to repeat her answer. I don't know. How do
1:43:24
Speaker 2: you mean you don't know? I don't know what dogs.
1:43:29
Speaker 2: The judge again intervened. Try to tell us exactly what happened.
1:43:33
Speaker 2: How long did you remain at the foot of the stairs?
1:43:37
Speaker 2: Only a few minutes. And what was going on meanwhile overhead?
1:43:43
Speaker 2: The dogs kept on snarling and panting. Once or twice
1:43:46
Speaker 2: he cried out. I think he moaned once. Then he
1:43:50
Speaker 2: was quiet. Then what happened? Then I heard a sound
1:43:54
Speaker 2: like the noise of a pack when a wolf is
1:43:56
Speaker 2: thrown to them, gulping and lapping. There was a groan
1:44:00
Speaker 2: of disgust and repulsion through the court, and another attempted
1:44:04
Speaker 2: intervention by the distracted lawyer. But the inquisitive judge was
1:44:08
Speaker 2: still inquisitive. And all the while you did not go up? Yes,
1:44:13
Speaker 2: I went up then, to dry them off. The dogs? Yes. Well?
1:44:20
Speaker 2: When I got there, it was quite dark. I found
1:44:23
Speaker 2: my husband's flint and steel, and struck a spark. I
1:44:26
Speaker 2: saw him lying there. He was dead. And the dogs?
1:44:31
Speaker 2: The dogs were gone. Gone? Where to? I don't know.
1:44:37
Speaker 2: There was no way out, and there were no dogs
1:44:40
Speaker 2: at Kerfol. He strained herself to her full height, threw
1:44:45
Speaker 2: her arms above her head, and fell down on the
1:44:47
Speaker 2: stone floor with a long scream. There was a moment
1:44:51
Speaker 2: of confusion in the courtroom. Someone on the bench was
1:44:54
Speaker 2: heard to say, This is clearly a case for the
1:44:57
Speaker 2: ecclesiastical authorities. And the prisoner's lawyer doubtless jumped at the suggestion.
1:45:03
Speaker 2: After this, the trial loses itself in a maze of
1:45:06
Speaker 2: cross-questioning and squabbling. Every witness who was called corroborated Anne
1:45:11
Speaker 2: de Cournauld's statement that there were no dogs at Carrefour.
1:45:15
Speaker 2: Had been none for several months. The master of the
1:45:18
Speaker 2: house had taken a dislike to dogs. There was no
1:45:21
Speaker 2: denying it. But on the other hand, at the inquest,
1:45:24
Speaker 2: there had been long and bitter discussion as to the
1:45:27
Speaker 2: nature of the dead man's wounds. One of the surgeons
1:45:30
Speaker 2: called in had spoken of marks that looked like bites.
1:45:34
Speaker 2: the suggestion of which graft was revived, and the opposing
1:45:37
Speaker 2: lawyers hurled terms of necromancy at each other. At last,
1:45:42
Speaker 2: Anne de Colneau was brought back into court, at the
1:45:45
Speaker 2: instance of the same judge, and asked if she knew
1:45:48
Speaker 2: where the dog she spoke of could have come from.
1:45:50
Speaker 2: On the body of her redeemer she swore that she
1:45:53
Speaker 2: did not. Then the judge put his final question.' If
1:45:57
Speaker 2: the dogs you think you heard had been known to you,
1:46:00
Speaker 2: do you think you would have recognised them by their barking?'' Yes.''
1:46:04
Speaker 2: Did you recognize them?'' Yes.'' What dogs do you take
1:46:09
Speaker 2: them to have been?'' My dead dogs,' she said in
1:46:13
Speaker 2: a whisper. She was taken out of court, not to
1:46:16
Speaker 2: reappear there again. There was some kind of ecclesiastical investigation,
1:46:21
Speaker 2: and the end of the business was that the judges
1:46:23
Speaker 2: disagreed with each other and with the ecclesiastical committee, and
1:46:27
Speaker 2: that Anne de Cournot was finally handed over to the
1:46:30
Speaker 2: keeping of her husband's family.' who shot her up in
1:46:32
Speaker 2: the keep of Carrefour, where she is said to have
1:46:35
Speaker 2: died many years later, a harmless madwoman. So ends her story.
1:46:41
Speaker 2: As for that of the Earl of Delon-Rivand, I had
1:46:43
Speaker 2: only to apply to his collateral descendant for subsequent details.
1:46:47
Speaker 2: The evidence against the young man being insufficient, and his
1:46:50
Speaker 2: family influence in the duchy considerable, he was set free,
1:46:54
Speaker 2: and left soon afterwards for Paris. He was probably in
1:46:57
Speaker 2: no mood for a worldly life, and he appears to
1:47:00
Speaker 2: have come almost immediately under the influence of the famous M.
1:47:04
Speaker 2: Arnauld d'Andaly and the gentlemen of Port-Royal. A year or
1:47:08
Speaker 2: two later he was received into their order, and without
1:47:11
Speaker 2: achieving any particular distinction, he followed its good and evil
1:47:15
Speaker 2: fortunes till his death some twenty years later. L'Henrivin showed
1:47:19
Speaker 2: me a portrait of him by a pupil of Philippe
1:47:22
Speaker 2: de Champagne. Side-eyes, an impulsive mouth, and a narrow brow.
1:47:27
Speaker 2: Poor air of Delon Rivard! It was a grey ending. Yet,
1:47:30
Speaker 2: as I looked at his stiff and sallow effigy in
1:47:33
Speaker 2: the dark dress of the Jansenists, I found myself almost
1:47:37
Speaker 2: envying his fate. After all, in the course of his life,
1:47:41
Speaker 2: two great things had happened to him. He had loved romantically,
1:47:45
Speaker 2: and he must have talked with Pascal. End of Section
1:47:50
Speaker 2: 4 Kierfolle by Edith.
1:47:53
Speaker 4: Wharton Section 5 of P.D. Goth.
1:48:06
Speaker 5: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
1:48:09
Speaker 5: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
1:48:13
Speaker 5: visit LibriVox.org. In the Dark by Ronald Kayser. It was
1:48:19
Speaker 5: a tale of... sheer horror that old Asa Gregg poured
1:48:22
Speaker 5: onto the dictaphone. The watchman's flashlight printed a white circle
1:48:27
Speaker 5: on the frosted glass, black-lettered door, Gregg Chemical Co., MFRS,
1:48:32
Speaker 5: ASA Gregg President Private. The watchman's hand closed on the knob,
1:48:39
Speaker 5: rattled the door in its frame. Queer but thought the
1:48:42
Speaker 5: sound had seemed to come from in there. But that
1:48:46
Speaker 5: couldn't be. He knew that Mr. Gregg and Ms. Caruthers
1:48:49
Speaker 5: carried the only keys to the office, so any intruder
1:48:53
Speaker 5: would have been forced to smash the lock. Maybe the
1:48:56
Speaker 5: sound came from the storage room. The watchman clumped along
1:49:00
Speaker 5: the rubber matted corridor, flung his weight against that door.
1:49:04
Speaker 5: It opened hard, being of ponderous metal fitted into a
1:49:08
Speaker 5: cork casing. The room was an airtight, fireproof vault, really.
1:49:13
Speaker 5: His shoes gritted on the concrete floor as he prowled
1:49:16
Speaker 5: among the big, porcelain vats. The flashlight poured through bluish
1:49:21
Speaker 5: haze to the concrete walls. Acid fumes escaping under the
1:49:25
Speaker 5: vat lids made the haze and seared the man's throat.
1:49:29
Speaker 5: He hurried out, coughing and wiping his eyes. It was
1:49:32
Speaker 5: damn funny. Every night lately he heard the same peculiar
1:49:36
Speaker 5: noise somewhere in this wing of the building, like a
1:49:38
Speaker 5: body groaning and turning in restless sleep, it was.
1:49:42
Speaker 4: It scared him.
1:49:43
Speaker 5: He didn't mention the mystery to anyone, though. He was
1:49:46
Speaker 5: an old man, and he didn't want Mr. Gregg to
1:49:48
Speaker 5: think he was getting too old for the job. I
1:49:51
Speaker 5: used to think I was crazy if I told him
1:49:53
Speaker 5: about it, he mumbled. Inside the office, Ozzy Gregg heard
1:49:59
Speaker 5: the muttered words plainly, He sat very still in the
1:50:02
Speaker 5: big leather cushioned chair, hardly breathing until the scrape of
1:50:05
Speaker 5: the watchman's feet had thinned away down the hall. There
1:50:08
Speaker 5: was no light in the room to betray him, only
1:50:11
Speaker 5: the cherry-colored tip of his cigar, which couldn't be visible
1:50:14
Speaker 5: through the frosted glass door. Anyway, it would be an
1:50:17
Speaker 5: hour before the watchman's round brought him past the office again.
1:50:21
Speaker 5: Odds of Greg had that hour, if he could screw
1:50:24
Speaker 5: up his nerve to use it. He took the frayed
1:50:28
Speaker 5: end of the cigar from his mouth. His hand, which
1:50:30
Speaker 5: had wasted to mere skin and bone these past few months,
1:50:34
Speaker 5: groped through the darkness, slid over the polished coolness of
1:50:38
Speaker 5: the Dictaphone hood, and snapped the switch. Machinery faintly whirred.
1:50:43
Speaker 5: His fingers found the tube, lifted it. Miss Caruthers, he snapped.
1:50:48
Speaker 5: He then hesitated. Surely he could trust Mary Caruthers. He'd
1:50:52
Speaker 5: never wondered about her before. He'd been the secretary for
1:50:55
Speaker 5: a dozen years lately. since he couldn't look after affairs
1:50:58
Speaker 5: himself as he used to. She had practically run the business.
1:51:02
Speaker 5: She was 40, sensible, unbeautiful, and tight-lipped. Hell, he had
1:51:07
Speaker 5: to trust her. His voice plunged into the darkness. What
1:51:11
Speaker 5: I have to say now is intended for Mrs. Gregg's
1:51:13
Speaker 5: ears only. She will take the first boat home, of course,
1:51:17
Speaker 5: meet that boat, and bring her to the office, since
1:51:20
Speaker 5: my wife knows nothing about a dictaphone. It will be
1:51:23
Speaker 5: necessary for you to set this record running. as soon
1:51:26
Speaker 5: as you have done so, to leave her alone in
1:51:28
Speaker 5: the room. Make sure she's not interrupted for a half hour,
1:51:31
Speaker 5: that's all. He waited a decent interval. The invisible needle
1:51:36
Speaker 5: peeled its thread into the revolving wax cylinder. Jeanette murdered
1:51:41
Speaker 5: us as a Greg and hesitated again. This wasn't going
1:51:44
Speaker 5: to be easy to say, he decided to begin matter-of-factly.
1:51:47
Speaker 5: As you probably know, my will and the insurance policies
1:51:51
Speaker 5: are in the vault at the First National. I believe
1:51:54
Speaker 5: you will find all my papers in excellent order. If
1:51:56
Speaker 5: any questions arise, consult Ms. Carruthers. What I have to
1:52:00
Speaker 5: say to you now is purely personal. I feel, my dear,
1:52:03
Speaker 5: that I owe you an explanation, that is. God, it
1:52:07
Speaker 5: came harder than he had expected. Jeanette, he started in afresh,
1:52:11
Speaker 5: you remember three years ago when I was in the hospital.
1:52:14
Speaker 4: You were in.
1:52:14
Speaker 5: Palm Beach at the time. I wired that there had
1:52:17
Speaker 5: been an accident here at the plant. That wasn't strictly so.
1:52:21
Speaker 5: The fact is, I got mixed up with the girl.
1:52:24
Speaker 5: He paused, shivering in the darkness. A picture of Dot
1:52:27
Speaker 5: swam before him. The oval face, framed by gleaming swirls
1:52:31
Speaker 5: of lemon-tinted hair, had pouting scarlet lips, and eyes whose
1:52:36
Speaker 5: allure was intensified by violet makeup. The full-length picture of
1:52:41
Speaker 5: her included a streamlined, full-blossomed, and yet delectably lithe body,
1:52:46
Speaker 5: a costly, enticing Broadway chorus orchard. As a matter of fact.
1:52:50
Speaker 4: That was.
1:52:51
Speaker 5: Where he'd found her. I won't make any excuses for myself,
1:52:56
Speaker 5: Asa Gregg said harshly. I might point out that you
1:52:59
Speaker 5: were always in Florida or Bermuda or France and that
1:53:03
Speaker 5: I was a lonely man, but it wasn't just loneliness
1:53:06
Speaker 5: and I didn't seek companionship I thought I was making
1:53:09
Speaker 5: the last bow to romance. I was successful, 60 and silly,
1:53:13
Speaker 5: and I did all the damn fool things. I even
1:53:17
Speaker 5: wrote letters to her, popsy-wopsy letters. The dite-a-phone couldn't record
1:53:21
Speaker 5: the grimace that jerked his lips. She saved them, of course,
1:53:25
Speaker 5: and by and by, she put in price on them.
1:53:28
Speaker 5: Ten thousand dollars. Dot claimed that one of those filthy
1:53:32
Speaker 5: tabloids had offered her that much for them. And what
1:53:36
Speaker 5: was a poor working girl to do? She lied, I
1:53:39
Speaker 5: knew that. I told her to bring letters to the
1:53:42
Speaker 5: office after business hours, and I'd take care of her.
1:53:45
Speaker 5: I took care of her, all right. I shot her, Jeanette.
1:53:49
Speaker 5: He mopped his face with a handkerchief that was already damp.
1:53:52
Speaker 5: Not on account of the money, you understand. It was
1:53:55
Speaker 5: the things she said after she had tucked the bills
1:53:58
Speaker 5: into her purse. Vile things about the way she had
1:54:02
Speaker 5: earned it ten times over by enduring my briefly kisses.
1:54:06
Speaker 5: I'd really loved that girl, and I thought she'd care
1:54:08
Speaker 5: for me a little. It was her hate that maddened me,
1:54:11
Speaker 5: and I got the gun out of my desk drawer.
1:54:16
Speaker 5: Ozegreg reached through the darkness for the switch. He fumbled
1:54:19
Speaker 5: for the bottle which stood on the desk. His hand trembled,
1:54:22
Speaker 5: spilling some of the liquor onto his lap. He drank
1:54:24
Speaker 5: from the bottle. This part of the story he'd skip.
1:54:28
Speaker 5: It was too horrible, even to think about it. He
1:54:30
Speaker 5: didn't want to remember how the blood pooled inside, dots
1:54:33
Speaker 5: for a quote, and how he'd managed to carry the
1:54:35
Speaker 5: body out of the office without leaking any of her
1:54:37
Speaker 5: blood onto the floor. He tried to forget the musky
1:54:41
Speaker 5: sweetness of the perfume on the dead girl, mingled with
1:54:44
Speaker 5: that other evil blood smell. Especially, he didn't want to
1:54:48
Speaker 5: remember the frightful time he'd had stripping the gold rings
1:54:51
Speaker 5: from her fingers and the one gold tooth in her head.
1:54:54
Speaker 5: The horror of it coiled in the blackness about him.
1:54:57
Speaker 5: His own teeth rattled against the bottle when he gulped
1:54:59
Speaker 5: the second drink. He snapped the switch savagely, but when
1:55:03
Speaker 5: he spoke, his voice cringed into the tube. I carried
1:55:06
Speaker 5: her into the storage room. I got the lid off
1:55:09
Speaker 5: one of the acid tanks. The vat contained an acid
1:55:12
Speaker 5: powerful enough to destroy anything, except gold. In fact, the
1:55:16
Speaker 5: vat itself had to be lined with gold leaf. I
1:55:19
Speaker 5: knew that in 24 hours there wouldn't be a recognizable
1:55:21
Speaker 5: body left, and in a week there wouldn't be anything
1:55:24
Speaker 5: at all. No matter what the police suspected, they couldn't
1:55:27
Speaker 5: prove a murder charge without a corpus de lexi. I
1:55:31
Speaker 5: had committed the perfect crime. Even for one thing, I
1:55:34
Speaker 5: didn't realize that there'd be a splash when she went
1:55:37
Speaker 5: into the vat. Greg laughed, not pleasantly. His wife might
1:55:42
Speaker 5: think it'd been a sob when she heard this record,
1:55:45
Speaker 5: Now you understand why I went to the hospital, he jerked.
1:55:47
Speaker 5: Possibly you call that poetic justice. Oh God. His voice broke.
1:55:52
Speaker 5: Again he thumbed off the switch and mopped his face
1:55:54
Speaker 5: with the damp lightning. The rest, how could he explain
1:55:57
Speaker 5: the rest of it? He spent a long minute arranging
1:56:00
Speaker 5: his thoughts. You haven't any idea, he resumed. No one
1:56:03
Speaker 5: has any idea of how I'd been punished for the
1:56:06
Speaker 5: thing I did. I don't mean the sheer physical agony,
1:56:10
Speaker 5: but the fear I'd talk coming out of the ether
1:56:13
Speaker 5: at the hospital. the fear that she'd been traced to
1:56:16
Speaker 5: my office. I'd simply hidden her rings away, expecting to
1:56:19
Speaker 5: drop them into the river, or that she might have
1:56:22
Speaker 5: confided in her lover. Yes, she had one. Or suppose
1:56:25
Speaker 5: a whopping big order came through, and that tank was
1:56:28
Speaker 5: emptied the very next day. And I couldn't ask any questions.
1:56:32
Speaker 5: I didn't even know what was in the papers. However,
1:56:35
Speaker 5: that part of it gradually cleared up. I quizzed Mrs.
1:56:38
Speaker 5: Caruthers and learned that an unidentifiable female body had been
1:56:42
Speaker 5: fished out of the East River. A few days after
1:56:45
Speaker 5: Dot disappeared. That's how the police solved the case. I
1:56:49
Speaker 5: got rid of her rings. I ordered that the vat
1:56:52
Speaker 5: left alone. The other thing began about six months ago.
1:56:56
Speaker 5: A spasm comforted his face. His fingers ached their grip
1:57:00
Speaker 5: into the dictaphone tube. Jeanette, you remember when I began
1:57:04
Speaker 5: to object to the radio, how I'd shout at you
1:57:07
Speaker 5: to turn it off in the middle of a program?
1:57:09
Speaker 5: You thought I was ill and worried about business. You
1:57:12
Speaker 5: were wrong. The thing that got me was hearing her voice.
1:57:16
Speaker 5: He gripped the gold cigar and chewed it. It's very
1:57:18
Speaker 5: strange that you didn't notice it. No matter what station
1:57:21
Speaker 5: we dialed to, always that same voice came stealing into
1:57:24
Speaker 5: the room. But perhaps you did notice? You said once
1:57:28
Speaker 5: or twice that all those blues singers sounded alike. And
1:57:31
Speaker 5: she was a blues singer. It was she, alright. Somewhere
1:57:35
Speaker 5: out in the ether, reminding me. The next thing was... Well,
1:57:39
Speaker 5: at first, when I noticed in the office, I thought
1:57:41
Speaker 5: Miss Carruthers had suddenly taken up with young ideas. You see,
1:57:45
Speaker 5: I kept smelling perfume, and he smelled it now. It
1:57:48
Speaker 5: was like a mizma in the dark. It isn't anything
1:57:52
Speaker 5: that Carruthers wears, he grated. It comes from, yes, a
1:57:55
Speaker 5: storage room. I realized that about a month ago. Just
1:57:59
Speaker 5: after you sailed one night, I stayed late at the office,
1:58:02
Speaker 5: and I went in there. It seemed to be strongest
1:58:04
Speaker 5: around the vat.
1:58:06
Speaker 4: Her vat, and I.
1:58:07
Speaker 5: Lifted the lid. The sweet, sticky... musk smell hit me
1:58:11
Speaker 5: like a blow in the face and that is an
1:58:14
Speaker 5: all terror stalked in this room ozzy greg crouched in
1:58:20
Speaker 5: his chair felt the weight of fear on him like
1:58:23
Speaker 5: a submarine pressure his cigar pitched to his knees dropped
1:58:26
Speaker 5: to the floor You won't believe this, Jeanette. He hammered
1:58:29
Speaker 5: the works like nails into the darkness in front of him.
1:58:32
Speaker 5: You will say that it's impossible. I know that. It
1:58:35
Speaker 5: is impossible. It is a psychological absurdity. It contradicts the
1:58:40
Speaker 5: laws of natural science. But I saw something on the
1:58:42
Speaker 5: bottom of that vat. He groped for the bottle. His
1:58:46
Speaker 5: wife would hear a long gurgle and then a coughing grasp.
1:58:50
Speaker 5: The vat was nearly full of his transparent, oily acid
1:58:54
Speaker 5: he went on. What I saw was a lot of
1:58:56
Speaker 5: sediment on the golden floor, and there shouldn't have been
1:58:59
Speaker 5: any sediment. The stuff utterly dissolves animal tissue, bone, even
1:59:03
Speaker 5: the common ores, keeps them in suspicion. It didn't look
1:59:08
Speaker 5: like sediment either.
1:59:09
Speaker 4: It looked like a.
1:59:10
Speaker 5: Heap of mold, grave mold. I replaced the lid. I
1:59:13
Speaker 5: spent a week convincing myself that it was all impossible,
1:59:17
Speaker 5: that I couldn't have seen anything of the sort. Then
1:59:19
Speaker 5: I went to the vat again. Silence hung in the
1:59:22
Speaker 5: darkness while he sucked wind into his lungs. and the
1:59:25
Speaker 5: words burst, separate yammering shrieks. I looked night after night
1:59:29
Speaker 5: for hours at a time and watched the change. Did
1:59:31
Speaker 5: you ever see a body decompose?
1:59:33
Speaker 4: Of course not.
1:59:34
Speaker 5: Neither have I. But you must know in a general
1:59:36
Speaker 5: way what the process is. Well, this has been the
1:59:39
Speaker 5: exact opposite. First I stared at the heap of grave
1:59:43
Speaker 5: mold as it shaped itself into bones, a skeleton. I
1:59:46
Speaker 5: watched the coming of hair, a yellow tangle of it
1:59:49
Speaker 5: sprouting from the bare round skull until, oh God, the
1:59:52
Speaker 5: flesh began making itself before my eyes. I couldn't bear
1:59:56
Speaker 5: it anymore. I stayed away. Didn't come to the office
1:59:59
Speaker 5: for five days. The tube slipped from his sweating, slick fingers. Panting,
2:00:05
Speaker 5: odds of Greg fumbled in the dark until he found it. Exhaustion,
2:00:08
Speaker 5: not self-control, flattened his voice into a deadly monotone. I
2:00:12
Speaker 5: tried to think of a way out, if I could
2:00:13
Speaker 5: fish the corpse out of the tank. But I couldn't
2:00:16
Speaker 5: smuggle it out of the plant alone. You know that,
2:00:18
Speaker 5: and so do I. Besides, what would be the use?
2:00:21
Speaker 5: If acid can't kill her, nothing can. That's why I
2:00:24
Speaker 5: can't have the lid cemented on. It wouldn't do any
2:00:27
Speaker 5: good either, until three days ago. She hadn't the least color,
2:00:31
Speaker 5: looked as white as a ghost in the bath. A
2:00:33
Speaker 5: naked ghost because there's been no resurrection for her clothing.
2:00:38
Speaker 5: I watched her limbs grow rosy. Her lips are scarlet.
2:00:42
Speaker 5: Her eyes are bright. They opened yesterday and her breasts
2:00:45
Speaker 5: were rising and falling. Oh, almost imperceptibly, but that was
2:00:49
Speaker 5: last night. And tonight, I swear it, her lips moved.
2:00:53
Speaker 5: She muttered my name. She turned. She'd been lying on
2:00:56
Speaker 5: her side over onto her back. The record would be
2:01:00
Speaker 5: badly blurred. His hand shook violently, bobbled the tube against
2:01:04
Speaker 5: his lips. Greg braced his elbow against the desk. She
2:01:09
Speaker 5: isn't dead, he choked. She's only asleep. Not very soundly asleep.
2:01:14
Speaker 5: She's waking up. The invisible needle quivered as it traced
2:01:17
Speaker 5: several noises. There was his tortured breathing and the clawing
2:01:21
Speaker 5: of his fingernails rattling over the desk. The drawer clicked
2:01:24
Speaker 5: as it opened. The loud click was the cooking of
2:01:27
Speaker 5: the revolver. Soon she's going to get out of that vat,
2:01:30
Speaker 5: Greg bleated. Jeanette, forgive me. God forgive me, but I
2:01:34
Speaker 5: will not.
2:01:34
Speaker 4: I cannot.
2:01:35
Speaker 5: I dare not stay here to see her then. The
2:01:38
Speaker 5: sound of the shot brought the watchman stumbling along the corridor.
2:01:41
Speaker 5: He crashed against the office door. It banged open in
2:01:44
Speaker 5: a shower of falling frosted glass. The watchman's flashlight severed
2:01:48
Speaker 5: the darkness and printed its white circle on the face
2:01:51
Speaker 5: of Azagreg. He had fallen back into the chair, a
2:01:54
Speaker 5: blackish gout of blood running from the hole in his temple.
2:01:57
Speaker 5: He started sightlessly into the light with his eyes that
2:02:00
Speaker 5: were two gnaws of shrunken brown flesh, like knots in
2:02:04
Speaker 5: a pine board. Azagreg was blind, had been since that night,
2:02:09
Speaker 5: three years past when the acid splashed. End of story.
2:02:19
Speaker 6: THE LAST REVEL IN PRINCE HALL by Charles M. Skinner
2:02:45
Speaker 6: Young man, I'll give thee five dollars a week to
2:02:48
Speaker 6: be caretaker in Prince Hall, said Quaker Quidd to Fiddler
2:02:53
Speaker 6: Matthews on an autumn evening. Young Matthews had just been
2:02:57
Speaker 6: taunting the old gentleman with being afraid to sleep on
2:03:00
Speaker 6: his own domain, and as the eyes of all the
2:03:02
Speaker 6: tavern loungers were on him he could hardly decline so
2:03:05
Speaker 6: flattering a proposition. So, after some hemming and hawing, he
2:03:10
Speaker 6: said he would take the Quaker at his word. He
2:03:13
Speaker 6: played but two or three more tunes that evening, did
2:03:16
Speaker 6: Peter Matthews, and played them rather sadly. Then, as Quid
2:03:20
Speaker 6: had finished his mulled cider and departed, he took his
2:03:24
Speaker 6: homeward way in thoughtful mood. Prince Hall stood in a lonely,
2:03:28
Speaker 6: weed-grown garden near Chester, Pennsylvania, and thither repaired Peter, as
2:03:34
Speaker 6: next day's twilight shut down, with a mattress, blanket, comestibles,
2:03:39
Speaker 6: his beloved fiddle, and a flask of whisky. Ensconcing himself
2:03:44
Speaker 6: in the room that was least depressing in appearance, he
2:03:47
Speaker 6: stuffed rag into the vacant panes, lighted a candle, started
2:03:51
Speaker 6: a blaze in the fireplace, and ate his supper. Not
2:03:55
Speaker 6: so bad a place, after all, mumbled Peter as he
2:03:59
Speaker 6: warmed himself at the fire and the flask. Then, taking
2:04:02
Speaker 6: out his violin, he began to play. The echo of
2:04:06
Speaker 6: his music emphasized the emptiness of the house. The damp
2:04:10
Speaker 6: got into the strings so that they sounded— tubby, and
2:04:13
Speaker 6: there were unintentional quavers in the melody whenever the trees
2:04:17
Speaker 6: swung against the windows and splashed them with rain, or
2:04:21
Speaker 6: when a distant shutter fell a-creaking. Finally he stirred the fire,
2:04:26
Speaker 6: bolted the door, snuffed his candle, took a courageous pull
2:04:30
Speaker 6: at the liquor, flung off his coat and shoes, rolled
2:04:33
Speaker 6: his blanket around him, stretched himself on the mattress, and
2:04:37
Speaker 6: fell asleep. He was awakened by— well, He could not say what, exactly.
2:04:46
Speaker 6: Only he became suddenly as wide awake as ever he
2:04:48
Speaker 6: had been in his life, and listened for some sound
2:04:51
Speaker 6: that he knew was going to come out of the
2:04:53
Speaker 6: roar of the wind and the slamming, grating, and whistling.
2:04:57
Speaker 2: About the house.
2:04:59
Speaker 6: Yes, there it was, a tread and a clank on
2:05:03
Speaker 6: the stair. The door, so tightly bolted, flew open, and
2:05:08
Speaker 6: there entered a dark figure with steeple-crowned hat, cloak, jackboots, sword,
2:05:13
Speaker 6: and corslet. The terrified fiddler wanted to howl, but his
2:05:17
Speaker 6: voice was gone.' I am Peter Prince, governor-general of His
2:05:23
Speaker 6: Swedish Majesty's American colonies and builder of this.
2:05:27
Speaker 2: House,' said the figure.
2:05:29
Speaker 6: Tis the night of the autumnal equinox, when my friends
2:05:34
Speaker 6: meet here for revel. Take thy fiddle and come. Play,
2:05:39
Speaker 6: but speak not.' and whether he wished or no, Peter
2:05:44
Speaker 6: was drawn to follow the figure, which he could make
2:05:47
Speaker 6: out by the phosphor gleam of it. Downstairs they went,
2:05:51
Speaker 6: doors swinging open before them, and along corridors that clanked
2:05:56
Speaker 6: to the stroke of the spectre's boot-heels. Now they came
2:06:00
Speaker 6: to the ancient reception-room, and as they entered it, Peter
2:06:03
Speaker 6: was dazzled. The floor was smooth with wax, logs snapping
2:06:08
Speaker 6: in the fireplace, though the flame was somewhat blue. THE
2:06:12
Speaker 6: OLD HANGINGS AND PORTRAITS LOOKED FRESH, AND IN THE LIGHT
2:06:15
Speaker 6: OF WAX CANDLES A HUNDRED PEOPLE, IN THE BRAVE ARRAY
2:06:18
Speaker 6: OF OLD TIMES, WALKED, COURTESIED, AND SEEMED TO LAUGH AND
2:06:23
Speaker 6: TALK TOGETHER. AS THE FIDLER APPEARED, EVERY EYE WAS TURNED
2:06:28
Speaker 6: ON HIM IN A DISQUIETING WAY, AND WHEN HE ADDRESSED
2:06:31
Speaker 6: HIMSELF TO HIS BOTTLE, FROM EVERY THROAT CAME.
2:06:34
Speaker 2: A HOLLOW LAUGH.
2:06:36
Speaker 6: FINDING HIS WAY TO A CHAIR, HE SANK INTO IT,
2:06:39
Speaker 6: AND PUT HIS INSTRUMENT IN POSITION. At the first note
2:06:43
Speaker 6: the couples took hands, and as he struck into a
2:06:45
Speaker 6: jig they began to circle swiftly, leaping wondrous high. Faster
2:06:51
Speaker 6: went the music, for the whiskey was at work in
2:06:53
Speaker 6: Peter's noddle, and wilder grew the dance. It was as
2:06:58
Speaker 6: if the storm had come in through the windows and
2:07:00
Speaker 6: was blowing these people hither and yon, around and around.
2:07:04
Speaker 6: The fiddler vaguely wondered at himself, for he had never
2:07:07
Speaker 6: played so well, though he had never heard the tune before.
2:07:12
Speaker 6: Now loomed Governor Prince in the middle of the room,
2:07:15
Speaker 6: and extending his hand he ordered the dance to cease.
2:07:19
Speaker 6: Thou hast played well, fiddler, he said, and shalt be paid.
2:07:25
Speaker 6: Then at his signal came two negro men tugging at
2:07:28
Speaker 6: a strong box that Prince unlocked. It was filled with
2:07:32
Speaker 6: gold pieces. Hold thy fiddle-bag, commanded the Governor, and Peter
2:07:38
Speaker 6: did so, watching open-mouthed. the transfer of a double handful
2:07:42
Speaker 6: of treasure from box to sack. Another such handful followed,
2:07:47
Speaker 6: and another. At the fourth Peter could no longer contain himself.
2:07:52
Speaker 6: He forgot the injunction not to speak, and shouted gleefully,
2:07:56
Speaker 6: Lord Harry, here's luck! There was a shrill of demon laughter.
2:08:01
Speaker 6: The scene was lost in darkness, and Peter fell insensible.
2:08:06
Speaker 6: In the morning, a tavern-haunting friend, anxious to know if
2:08:10
Speaker 6: Peter had met with any adventure, entered the house and
2:08:13
Speaker 6: went cautiously from room to room, calling on the watcher
2:08:17
Speaker 6: to show himself. there was no response. At last he
2:08:22
Speaker 6: stumbled on the whiskey bottle, empty, and knew that Peter
2:08:26
Speaker 6: must be near. Sure enough, there he lay in the
2:08:29
Speaker 6: great room, with dust and mould thick on everything, and
2:08:33
Speaker 6: his fiddle smashed into a thousand pieces. Peter, on being awakened,
2:08:38
Speaker 6: looked ruefully about him, then sprang up and eagerly demanded
2:08:42
Speaker 6: his money.' What money?' asked his friend. The fiddler clutched
2:08:47
Speaker 6: at his green bag—' opened it, shook it. There was nothing.
2:08:53
Speaker 6: Nor was there any delay in Peter's exit from that mansion,
2:08:56
Speaker 6: and when, twenty-four hours after, the house went up in flames,
2:09:01
Speaker 6: he averred that the ghosts had set it afire, and
2:09:04
Speaker 6: that he knew where they had brought their coals from.
2:09:06
Speaker 6: Section 7 of.
2:09:19
Speaker 5: P. D.
2:09:19
Speaker 2: Goth.
2:09:21
Speaker 6: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
2:09:24
Speaker 6: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
2:09:29
Speaker 6: visit LibriVox.org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville,
2:09:34
Speaker 6: South Carolina. Edward Randolph's Portrait by Charles M. Skinner Nothing
2:09:45
Speaker 6: is left of Province House, the old home of the
2:09:48
Speaker 6: royal governors, in Boston, but the gilded Indian that served
2:09:52
Speaker 6: as its weathercock and aimed his arrow at the winds
2:09:55
Speaker 6: from the cupola. The house itself was swept away long
2:09:58
Speaker 6: ago in the so-called March of Improvement. In one of
2:10:02
Speaker 6: its rooms hung a picture so dark that when Lieutenant
2:10:05
Speaker 6: Governor Hutchinson went to live there, hardly anybody could say
2:10:08
Speaker 6: what it represented. There were hints that it was a
2:10:11
Speaker 6: portrait of the devil, painted at a witch meeting near
2:10:14
Speaker 6: Salem and that on the eve of disasters in the
2:10:17
Speaker 6: province a dreadful face had glared from the canvas. Shirley
2:10:21
Speaker 6: had seen it on the night of the fall of Ticonderoga,
2:10:25
Speaker 6: and servants had gone shuddering from the room, certain that
2:10:28
Speaker 6: they had caught the glance of a malignant eye. It
2:10:32
Speaker 6: was known to the governors, however, that the portrait, if
2:10:35
Speaker 6: not that of the arch-fiend, was that of one who
2:10:38
Speaker 6: in the popular mind was none the less a devil,
2:10:42
Speaker 6: Edward Randolph, the Traitor, who had repealed the first provincial
2:10:45
Speaker 6: charter and deprived the colonists of their liberties. Under the
2:10:49
Speaker 6: curse of the people he grew pale and pinched and ugly,
2:10:53
Speaker 6: his face at last becoming so hateful that men were
2:10:56
Speaker 6: unwilling to look at it.
2:10:58
Speaker 2: Then it was that.
2:10:59
Speaker 6: He sat for his portrait. Three score or odd years afterward,
2:11:04
Speaker 6: Hutchinson sat in the hall wondering vaguely if coming events
2:11:07
Speaker 6: would consign him to the obloquy that had fallen on
2:11:10
Speaker 6: his predecessor. for at his bidding a fleet had come
2:11:14
Speaker 6: into the harbor with three regiments of redcoats on board,
2:11:17
Speaker 6: dispatched from Halifax to overall the city. The coming of
2:11:22
Speaker 6: the selectmen to protest against quartering these troops on the people,
2:11:26
Speaker 6: and the substitution of Marshall for civic law, interrupted his reverie,
2:11:31
Speaker 6: and a warm debate arose. At last the governor seized
2:11:34
Speaker 6: his pen impatiently and cried, The king is my master,
2:11:38
Speaker 6: and England is my home. Upheld by them, I defy
2:11:42
Speaker 6: the rabble. He was about to sign the order for
2:11:45
Speaker 6: bringing in the troops when a curtain that had hung
2:11:48
Speaker 6: before the picture was drawn aside. Hutchinson stared at the
2:11:52
Speaker 6: canvas in amazement, then muttered, It is Randolph's spirit.
2:11:57
Speaker 2: It wears the look of hell.
2:11:59
Speaker 6: The picture was seen to be that of a man
2:12:02
Speaker 6: in antique garb, with the despairing, hunted yet evil expression
2:12:07
Speaker 6: in the face, and seemed to stare at Hutchinson. It
2:12:12
Speaker 6: is a warning, said one of the company. Hutchinson recovered
2:12:16
Speaker 6: himself with an effort, and turned away. It is a trick,
2:12:21
Speaker 6: he cried, and bending over the paper he fixed his
2:12:24
Speaker 6: name as if in desperate haste. Then he trembled, turned white,
2:12:30
Speaker 6: and wiped a sweat from his brow. The selectmen departed
2:12:34
Speaker 6: in silence, but in anger, and those who saw Hutchinson
2:12:37
Speaker 6: on the streets next day affirmed that the portrait had
2:12:40
Speaker 6: stepped out of its canvas and stood at his side
2:12:44
Speaker 6: through the night. Afterward, as he lay on his deathbed,
2:12:48
Speaker 6: he cried that the blood of the Boston Massacre was
2:12:50
Speaker 6: filling his throat, and as his soul passed from him,
2:12:54
Speaker 6: his face, in its agony and rage, was the face
2:12:58
Speaker 6: of Edward Randolph. CHAPTER VIII. The Headless Skeleton of Swamp Town,
2:13:33
Speaker 6: by Charles M.
2:13:34
Speaker 2: Skinner.
2:13:37
Speaker 6: The boggy portion of North Kingston, Rhode Island, known as
2:13:40
Speaker 6: Swamp Town, is of queer repute in its neighborhood, for
2:13:44
Speaker 6: Hell Hollow, Pork Hill, Indian Corner, and Kettle Hole have
2:13:49
Speaker 6: their stories of Indian crimes and witch meetings. Here the
2:13:54
Speaker 6: headless figure of a Negro boy was seen by a
2:13:56
Speaker 6: belated traveler on a path that leads over the hills.
2:14:00
Speaker 6: It was a dark night, and the figure was revealed
2:14:03
Speaker 6: in a blaze of blue light. It swayed to and
2:14:06
Speaker 6: fro for a while, then rose from the ground with
2:14:09
Speaker 6: a lurch and shot into space, leaving a trail of
2:14:12
Speaker 6: illumination behind it. Here, too, is Goosenest Spring, where the
2:14:17
Speaker 6: witches dance at night. It dries up every winter and
2:14:21
Speaker 6: flows through the summer, gushing forth on the same day
2:14:24
Speaker 6: of every year, except once— when a goose took possession
2:14:28
Speaker 6: of the empty bed and hatched her brood there. That
2:14:31
Speaker 6: time the water did not flow until she got away
2:14:34
Speaker 6: with her progeny. But the most gruesome story of the
2:14:38
Speaker 6: place is that of the Indian whose skull was found
2:14:40
Speaker 6: by a road-mender. The unsuspecting person took it home, and
2:14:45
Speaker 6: as the women would not allow him to carry it
2:14:47
Speaker 6: into the house, he hung it on a pole outside.
2:14:51
Speaker 6: Just as the people were starting for bed, there came
2:14:54
Speaker 6: a rattling at the door— and looking out of the
2:14:57
Speaker 6: windows they saw a skeleton stalking around in quick and
2:15:00
Speaker 6: angry strides, like those of a person looking for something.
2:15:05
Speaker 6: But how could that be when the skeleton had neither
2:15:07
Speaker 6: eyes nor a place to carry them? It thrashed its
2:15:11
Speaker 6: bony arms impatiently, and its ribs rattled like a xylophone.
2:15:15
Speaker 6: The spectators were transfixed with fear, all except the culprit,
2:15:20
Speaker 6: who said through the window, in a matter-of-fact way,' I
2:15:23
Speaker 6: left your head on the pole at the back door.'
2:15:27
Speaker 6: The skeleton started in that direction, seized the skull, clapped
2:15:31
Speaker 6: it into the place where a head should have grown
2:15:33
Speaker 6: on its own shoulders, and after shaking its fist in
2:15:36
Speaker 6: a threatening way at the house, disappeared in the darkness.
2:15:40
Speaker 6: It is said that he acts as a kind of
2:15:42
Speaker 6: guard in the neighborhood, to see that none of the
2:15:45
Speaker 6: other Indians buried there shall be disturbed as he was.
2:15:49
Speaker 6: His principal lounging place is Indian Corner, where there is
2:15:53
Speaker 6: a rock from which blood flows when the moon shines.
2:15:56
Speaker 6: a memento, doubtless, of some tragedy that occurred there in
2:15:59
Speaker 6: times before the white men knew the place. There is
2:16:03
Speaker 6: iron in the soil, and visitors say that the red
2:16:05
Speaker 6: color is due to that, and that the spring would
2:16:08
Speaker 6: flow just as freely on dark nights as on bright ones,
2:16:11
Speaker 6: if any were there to see it. But the natives,
2:16:15
Speaker 6: who have given some thought to these matters, know better.
2:16:21
Speaker 6: End of Section 8 Section 9 of P. D.
2:16:31
Speaker 2: Goth.
2:16:32
Speaker 6: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
2:16:36
Speaker 6: the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please
2:16:40
Speaker 6: visit LibriVox.org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville,
2:16:46
Speaker 6: South Carolina. Werewolves of Detroit by Charles M.
2:16:52
Speaker 2: Skinner.
2:16:55
Speaker 6: Long were the shores of Detroit vexed by the snake-god
2:16:58
Speaker 6: of Belle Isle and his children, the witches, for the
2:17:02
Speaker 6: latter sold enchantments and were the terror of good people.
2:17:06
Speaker 6: Jacques Morand, the coureur de bois, was in love with
2:17:09
Speaker 6: Janvier Perron, but she disliked him and wished only to
2:17:13
Speaker 6: serve the church. Courting having proved of no avail, he
2:17:17
Speaker 6: resolved on force when she had decided to enter a
2:17:20
Speaker 6: convent and he went to one of the witches, who
2:17:23
Speaker 6: served as devil's agent, to sell his soul. The witch
2:17:27
Speaker 6: accepted the slight commodity, and paid for it with a
2:17:30
Speaker 6: grant of power, to change from a man's form to
2:17:32
Speaker 6: that of a werewolf, or loup-garou, that he might the
2:17:36
Speaker 6: easier bear away his victim. Incautiously he followed her to
2:17:40
Speaker 6: Grosse Pointe, where an image of the Virgin had been
2:17:43
Speaker 6: set up, and as Geneviève dropped at the feet of
2:17:46
Speaker 6: the statue to implore aid, the wolf, as he leaped
2:17:50
Speaker 6: to her side, was suddenly turned to stone. Harder was
2:17:55
Speaker 6: the fate of another maiden, Archange Simonnet, for she was
2:17:59
Speaker 6: seized by a werewolf at this place and hurried away
2:18:02
Speaker 6: while dancing at her own wedding. The bridegroom devoted his
2:18:06
Speaker 6: life to the search for her, and finally lost his reason,
2:18:10
Speaker 6: but he prosecuted the hunt so vengefully and shrewdly that
2:18:13
Speaker 6: he always found assistance. One of the neighbors cut off
2:18:17
Speaker 6: the wolf's tail with a silver bullet, the appendage being
2:18:20
Speaker 6: for many years preserved by the Indians. The lover finally
2:18:24
Speaker 6: came upon the creature and chased it to the shore,
2:18:27
Speaker 6: where its footprint is still seen in one of the boulders,
2:18:31
Speaker 6: but it leaped into the water and disappeared. In his
2:18:35
Speaker 6: crazy fancy, the lover declared that it had jumped down
2:18:38
Speaker 6: the throat of a catfish. and that is why the
2:18:40
Speaker 6: French Canadians have a prejudice against catfish as an article
2:18:44
Speaker 6: of diet. The man-wolf dared as much for gain as
2:18:48
Speaker 6: for love. On the night that Jean Chicot got the
2:18:52
Speaker 6: Indians drunk and bore off their beaver skins, the wood witches,
2:18:56
Speaker 6: known as the white women, fell upon him and tore
2:19:00
Speaker 6: a part of his treasure from him, while a werewolf
2:19:03
Speaker 6: pounced so hard on his back that he lost more.
2:19:06
Speaker 6: He drove the creatures to a little distance, but was
2:19:09
Speaker 6: glad to be safe inside of the fort again, though
2:19:12
Speaker 6: the officers laughed at him and called him a coward.
2:19:15
Speaker 6: When they went back over the route with him, they
2:19:18
Speaker 6: were astonished to find the grass scorched where the women
2:19:21
Speaker 6: had fled before him, and little springs in the turf
2:19:24
Speaker 6: showed where they had been swallowed up. Sulfur water was
2:19:28
Speaker 6: bubbling from the spot where the wolf dived into the
2:19:30
Speaker 6: earth when the trader's rosary fell out of his jacket.
2:19:34
Speaker 6: Belle Fontaine, the spot was called, long afterward. End of
2:19:40
Speaker 6: Section 9 That is the end of P. D.
2:19:45
Speaker 2: Goth.