Latest / Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily / 13 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton

Transcript

13 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton · Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, The Battle of the Tunnel. What Joan Brett
0:05
Speaker 1: really felt as she went back from the second tete
0:08
Speaker 1: a tete she had experienced in the turret, It is
0:11
Speaker 1: doubtful if any one will ever know, but she was
0:14
Speaker 1: full of the pungent feminine instinct to drive at practice.
0:18
Speaker 1: And what she did clearly realize was the pencil writing
0:21
Speaker 1: Delroy had left on the back of Lord ivy Wood's menu.
0:25
Speaker 1: Heaven alone knew what it was, and as it pleased
0:29
Speaker 1: her profane temper to tell herself, she was not satisfied
0:32
Speaker 1: with Heaven alone. Knowing, she went swiftly back with swishing
0:37
Speaker 1: skirts to the table where it had been left. But
0:40
Speaker 1: her skirts fell more softly, and her feet trailed slower
0:44
Speaker 1: and more in her usual manner. As she came near
0:47
Speaker 1: the table for standing at it was Lord ivy Wood
0:51
Speaker 1: reading the card with tranquil lowered eyelids that set off
0:55
Speaker 1: perfectly the long and perfect oval of his face. He
0:59
Speaker 1: put down the card with a quite natural action, and,
1:02
Speaker 1: seeing Joan, smiled at her in his most sympathetic way.
1:07
Speaker 1: So you've come out too, he said, so have I.
1:11
Speaker 1: It's really too hot for anything. Doctor Gluck is making
1:15
Speaker 1: an uncommonly good speech. But I couldn't stop even for that.
1:20
Speaker 1: Don't you think my Eastern decorations are rather a success?
1:23
Speaker 1: After all? A sort of vegetarianism in design, isn't it.
1:29
Speaker 1: He led her up and down the corridors, pointing out
1:31
Speaker 1: lemon colored crescents or crimson pomegranates in the scheme of ornament,
1:36
Speaker 1: with such utter detachment that they twice passed the open
1:39
Speaker 1: mouth of the Hall of debate, and Joan could distinctly
1:43
Speaker 1: hear the voice of the diplomatic Gluck saying, indeed, we
1:47
Speaker 1: owe our knowledge of the pollution of the pork primarily
1:51
Speaker 1: to the youth, and not the mauvelumth I do not
1:54
Speaker 1: there that prejudice against the youth, which is too common
1:58
Speaker 1: in my family and all the erythemcratic and military prothen families.
2:03
Speaker 1: I think we prothen arithocrats owe everything to the Jews.
2:07
Speaker 1: The jeth have given to our old Teutonic rugged virtue,
2:11
Speaker 1: just that touch of refinement, just that intellectual superiority, which
2:17
Speaker 1: and then the voice would die away behind, as Lord
2:20
Speaker 1: Ivywood lectured luxuriantly and very well on the peacock tail
2:24
Speaker 1: in decoration or some more extravagant Eastern version of the
2:28
Speaker 1: Greek key. But the third time they turned they heard
2:32
Speaker 1: the noise of subdued applause and the breaking up the meeting,
2:36
Speaker 1: and people came pouring forth with stillness and swiftness. Ivywood
2:41
Speaker 1: pitched on the people he wanted and held them. He
2:45
Speaker 1: buttonholed Levison and was evidently asking him to do something
2:49
Speaker 1: which neither of the two liked doing. If your Lordship insists,
2:55
Speaker 1: she heard Levison whispering, of course, I will go myself.
2:59
Speaker 1: But there is a great to be done here with
3:01
Speaker 1: your Lordship's immediate matters. And if there were any one else,
3:06
Speaker 1: if Philip Lord Ivywood had ever looked at a human
3:09
Speaker 1: being in his life, he would have seen that j.
3:12
Speaker 1: Levison's secretary was suffering from a very ancient human malady,
3:17
Speaker 1: excusable in all men, and rather more excusable in one
3:21
Speaker 1: who has had his top hat smashed over his eyes
3:24
Speaker 1: and has run for his life. As it was, he
3:28
Speaker 1: saw nothing, but merely said, oh, well, get some one else.
3:32
Speaker 1: What about your friend Hibbs. Levison ran across to Hibbs,
3:37
Speaker 1: who was drinking another glass of champagne at one of
3:40
Speaker 1: the innumerable buffets Hibbs said Levison rather nervously. Will you
3:46
Speaker 1: do Lord ivy Wood a favor? He says, you have
3:49
Speaker 1: so much tact it seems possible that a man may
3:53
Speaker 1: be hanging about the grounds just below that turret there.
3:57
Speaker 1: He is a man. It would certainly be Lord Ivywood's
3:59
Speaker 1: public do to put into the hands of the police
4:02
Speaker 1: if he is there. But then again, he is quite
4:05
Speaker 1: capable of not being there at all. I mean of
4:08
Speaker 1: having sent his message from somewhere else and in some
4:12
Speaker 1: other way. Naturally, Lord Ivywood doesn't want to alarm the
4:16
Speaker 1: ladies and perhaps turn the laugh against himself by getting
4:20
Speaker 1: up a sort of police raid about nothing. He wants
4:23
Speaker 1: some sensible, tactful friend of his to go down and
4:26
Speaker 1: look around the place. It's a sort of disused garden
4:30
Speaker 1: and report if there's anyone about. I'd go myself, but
4:34
Speaker 1: I'm wanted here. Hibbs nodded and filled another glass. But
4:40
Speaker 1: there's a further difficulty, went on Levison. He's a clever brood.
4:45
Speaker 1: It seems a remarkable and a dangerous man, were his
4:48
Speaker 1: Lordship's words. And it looks as if he'd spotted a
4:52
Speaker 1: very good hiding place, a disused tunnel leading to the sands,
4:56
Speaker 1: just beyond the disused garden and chapel. It's a smart choice,
5:00
Speaker 1: you see, for he can bolt into the woods if
5:03
Speaker 1: any one comes from the shore, or onto the shore
5:06
Speaker 1: if any one comes from the woods. But it would
5:08
Speaker 1: take a good time even to get the police here,
5:11
Speaker 1: and it would take ten times longer to get 'em
5:14
Speaker 1: round to the sea end of the tunnel, especially as
5:17
Speaker 1: the sea comes up to the cliffs once or twice
5:20
Speaker 1: between here and Pebblewick. So we mustn't frighten him away,
5:24
Speaker 1: or he'll get a start. If you meet anyone down there,
5:27
Speaker 1: talk to him quite naturally and come back with the news.
5:31
Speaker 1: We won't send for the police till you come. Talk
5:35
Speaker 1: as if you were just wandering like himself. His lordship
5:38
Speaker 1: wishes your presence to appear quite accidental. Wishes my presence
5:44
Speaker 1: to appear quite accidental, repeated Hibbs gravely. When the feverish
5:50
Speaker 1: levison had flashed off. Satisfied, Hibbs took a glass or
5:53
Speaker 1: two more of wine, feeling that he was going on
5:56
Speaker 1: a great diplomatic mission to please a lord. Then he
6:00
Speaker 1: went through the opening, picked his way down the stair,
6:03
Speaker 1: and somehow found his way out into the neglected garden
6:06
Speaker 1: and shrubbery. It was already evening, and an early moon
6:11
Speaker 1: was brightening over the sunken chapel with its dragon colored
6:14
Speaker 1: scales of fungus. The night breeze was very fresh and
6:18
Speaker 1: had a marked effect on mister Hibbs. He found himself
6:22
Speaker 1: taking a meaningless pleasure in the scene, especially in one
6:26
Speaker 1: fungus that was white with brown spots. He laughed shortly
6:30
Speaker 1: to think that it should be white with brown spots.
6:33
Speaker 1: Then he said, with carefully accurate articulation, his Lordship wishes
6:39
Speaker 1: my presence to appear quite accidental. Then he tried to
6:43
Speaker 1: remember something else that Levison had said. He began to
6:47
Speaker 1: wade through the waves of whed and thorn past the chapel,
6:51
Speaker 1: but he found the soil much more uneven and obstructive
6:54
Speaker 1: than he had supposed. He slipped and sought to save
6:58
Speaker 1: himself by throwing one arm round a broken stone angel
7:01
Speaker 1: at a corner of the heap of Gothic fragments, but
7:04
Speaker 1: it was loose and rocked in its socket. Mister Hibbs
7:08
Speaker 1: presented for a moment the appearance of waltzing with the
7:11
Speaker 1: angel in the moonlight in a very armorous and irreverent manner.
7:16
Speaker 1: Then the statue rolled over one way, and he rolled
7:19
Speaker 1: over the other, and lay on his face in the grass,
7:22
Speaker 1: making inaudible remarks. He might have lain there for some time,
7:27
Speaker 1: or at least found some difficulty in rising, But for
7:30
Speaker 1: another circumstance, the dog koodle, with characteristic officiousness, had followed
7:36
Speaker 1: him down the dark stairs and out of the doorway,
7:40
Speaker 1: and finding him in this unusual posture, began to bark
7:43
Speaker 1: as if the house were on fire. This brought a
7:47
Speaker 1: heavy human footstep from the more hidden parts of the copse,
7:51
Speaker 1: and in a minute or two the large man with
7:53
Speaker 1: the red hair was looking down at him in undisguised wonder,
7:57
Speaker 1: Hibbs said, in a muffled voice, which came obscurely from
8:01
Speaker 1: under his hidden face. Wish my presence to appear quite accidental,
8:07
Speaker 1: it does, said the captain. Can I help you up?
8:11
Speaker 1: Are you hurt? He gently set the prostrate gentleman on
8:15
Speaker 1: his feet, and looked genuinely concerned. The fall had somewhat
8:20
Speaker 1: sobered Lord Ivywood's representative, and he really had a red
8:24
Speaker 1: graze on his left cheek that looked more ugly than
8:27
Speaker 1: it was. I am so sorry, said Patrick Dalroy cordially,
8:32
Speaker 1: come and sit down in our camp. My friend Pump
8:35
Speaker 1: will be back presently, and he's a capital doctor. His
8:40
Speaker 1: friend Pump may or may not have been a capital doctor,
8:44
Speaker 1: but the Captain himself was certainly a most inefficient one.
8:48
Speaker 1: So small was his talent for diagnosing the nature of
8:51
Speaker 1: a disease at sight, that, having given mister Hibbs a
8:54
Speaker 1: seat on a fallen tree by the tunnel, he proceeded
8:57
Speaker 1: to give him, in mere automatic hospitality, a glass of rum.
9:03
Speaker 1: Mister hibbs eyes awoke again when he had sipped it,
9:07
Speaker 1: but they awoke to a new world, wherever may be
9:11
Speaker 1: our individual pinions, he said, and looked into space with
9:16
Speaker 1: an expression of humorous sagacity. He then put his hand
9:20
Speaker 1: lazily in his pocket, as if to find some letter
9:23
Speaker 1: he had to deliver. He found nothing but his old
9:26
Speaker 1: journalistic note book, which he had often carried when there
9:30
Speaker 1: was a chance of interviewing anybody. The feel of it
9:33
Speaker 1: under his fingers changed the whole attitude of his mind.
9:37
Speaker 1: He took it out and said, and what would you
9:41
Speaker 1: say of vegetarianism, Colonel Pump? I think it palls, replied
9:47
Speaker 1: the recipient of this complex title staring. Shall we say,
9:52
Speaker 1: asked Hibbs, brightly, turning a leaf in his note book.
9:56
Speaker 1: Shall we say long been strong vegetarian by conviction? No,
10:01
Speaker 1: I have only once been convicted, answered Delroy with restraint.
10:05
Speaker 1: And I hope to lead a better life when I
10:07
Speaker 1: come out. Hope's lead better life, murmured Hibbs, writing eagerly
10:14
Speaker 1: with the wrong end of his pencil. And what would
10:17
Speaker 1: you shay? Was best vegeable food for really strong vegetarian
10:22
Speaker 1: by conviction? Thistles, said the captain wearily. But I don't
10:28
Speaker 1: know much about it. You know, Lord Ivy was strong
10:32
Speaker 1: vegetarian by conviction, said mister Hibbs, shaking his head with unction.
10:38
Speaker 1: Lord Ivy was, says tact. Talk to him naturally, and
10:43
Speaker 1: so I do. That's what I do, Talk to him naturally.
10:48
Speaker 1: Humphrey Pump came through the clearer part of the wood,
10:51
Speaker 1: leading the donkey, who had just partaken of the diet
10:54
Speaker 1: recommended to a vegetarian by conviction. The dog sprang up
10:59
Speaker 1: and ran to them. Pomp was perhaps the most naturally
11:03
Speaker 1: polite man in the world, and said nothing, but his
11:06
Speaker 1: eyes had accepted with one snap of surprise. The other
11:09
Speaker 1: fact also not unconnected with diet, which had escaped Dalroy's notice.
11:15
Speaker 1: When he administered rum as a restorative. Lord Ivy was, says,
11:21
Speaker 1: murmured the journalistic diplomatist. Lord Ivy Was says, talk as
11:26
Speaker 1: if you were just wandering. That's it, that's tact. That's
11:30
Speaker 1: what I've got to do. Talk as if I was
11:33
Speaker 1: just wandering long way round to the other end. Tunnel,
11:37
Speaker 1: sea and cliffs. Don't suppose they can swim? He seized
11:42
Speaker 1: his note book again and looked in vain for his pencil.
11:46
Speaker 1: Good subject correspondence. Can policemen swim? Policemen, said Dalroy in
11:54
Speaker 1: a dead silence. The dog looked up, and the innkeeper
11:57
Speaker 1: did not get to Ivy. Woe one thing, reasoned the diplomatist.
12:04
Speaker 1: Get policemen beach other end, other thing? No good? Do
12:08
Speaker 1: one thing, not do other thing? No good? Do other thing,
12:13
Speaker 1: not do other thing. Wish my presence appear quite accidental. Ha,
12:20
Speaker 1: I'll harness the donkey, said pump. Will he go through
12:24
Speaker 1: that door, asked Dalroy, with a juster toward the entrance
12:27
Speaker 1: of the rough boarding with which they had faced the tunnel,
12:31
Speaker 1: Or shall I smash it all at once? He'll go
12:34
Speaker 1: through all right, answered Pump. I saw to that when
12:38
Speaker 1: I made it, and I think i'll get him to
12:41
Speaker 1: the safe end of the tunnel before I load him up.
12:44
Speaker 1: The best thing you can do is pull up one
12:46
Speaker 1: of those saplings to bar the door with. That'll delay
12:49
Speaker 1: him a minute or two, though I think we've got
12:52
Speaker 1: warning in pretty easy time. He led his donkey to
12:56
Speaker 1: the cart and carefully harnessed the donkey. Like all men
13:00
Speaker 1: cunning in the old healthy sense, he knew that the
13:03
Speaker 1: last chance of leisure ought to be leisurely in order
13:06
Speaker 1: that it may be lucid. Then he led the whole
13:09
Speaker 1: equipment through the temporary wooden door of the tunnel, the
13:12
Speaker 1: inquisitive crudal, of course, following at his heels. Excuse me
13:18
Speaker 1: if I take a tree, said Dalroy politely to his guest,
13:22
Speaker 1: like a man reaching across another man for a match.
13:25
Speaker 1: And with that he rent up a young tree by
13:28
Speaker 1: its roots, as he had done on the island of
13:30
Speaker 1: the Olives, and carried it on his shoulder like the
13:33
Speaker 1: club of Hercules up in ivywood House. Lord Ivywood had
13:39
Speaker 1: telephoned twice to Pebblewick. It was a delay he seldom suffered,
13:44
Speaker 1: and though he never experienced impatience in unnecessary words, he
13:48
Speaker 1: expressed it in unnecessary walking. He would not yet send
13:53
Speaker 1: for the police without news from his ambassador, but he
13:56
Speaker 1: thought a preliminary conversation with some police authority he knew
14:00
Speaker 1: well might advance matters. Seeing Levison rather shrunk in a corner,
14:05
Speaker 1: he wheeled round in his walk and said, abruptly, you
14:09
Speaker 1: must go and see what has happened to Hibbs. If
14:12
Speaker 1: you have any other duties here, I authorize you to
14:15
Speaker 1: neglect them. Otherwise I can only say. At this moment,
14:19
Speaker 1: the telephone rang, and the impatient nobleman rushed for his
14:23
Speaker 1: delayed call with a rapidity he seldom showed. There was
14:27
Speaker 1: simply nothing for Levison to do except to do as
14:30
Speaker 1: he was told or be sacked. He walked swiftly toward
14:34
Speaker 1: the staircase, and only stopped once at the table where
14:37
Speaker 1: Hibbs head stood, and gulped down two goblets of the
14:41
Speaker 1: same wine. But let no man attribute to mister Levison
14:45
Speaker 1: the loose and luxurious social motives of mister Hibbs. Mister
14:49
Speaker 1: Levison did not drink for pleasure. In fact, he hardly
14:53
Speaker 1: knew what he was drinking. His motive was something far
14:57
Speaker 1: more simple and sincere, a sentiment forcibly described in legal
15:01
Speaker 1: phraseology as going in bodily fear. He was partly nerved,
15:07
Speaker 1: but by no means reconciled to his adventure. When he
15:10
Speaker 1: crept carefully down the stairs and peered about the thicket
15:13
Speaker 1: for any signs of his diplomatic friend, he could find
15:17
Speaker 1: neither distant sight nor a sound to guide him, except
15:21
Speaker 1: a sort of distant singing, which greatly increased in volume
15:24
Speaker 1: of sound as he pursued it. The first words he
15:27
Speaker 1: heard seemed to run something like, no more the milk
15:31
Speaker 1: of cows shall pollute my private house than the milk
15:35
Speaker 1: of the wild mares of the barbarian. I shall stick
15:39
Speaker 1: to port and sherry, for they are so very very,
15:42
Speaker 1: so very very very vegetarian. Levison did not know the
15:47
Speaker 1: huge and horrible voice in which these words were shouted,
15:51
Speaker 1: but he had a most strange and even sickening suspicion
15:55
Speaker 1: that he did know. The voice, however, altered the quavering
15:59
Speaker 1: and rather refined voice that joined in the chorus and
16:02
Speaker 1: sang because they are so veggie, so veggie, veggie, veggie vegetarian.
16:10
Speaker 1: Terror lit up his wits, and he made a wild
16:13
Speaker 1: guess at what had happened. With a gasp of relief,
16:16
Speaker 1: he realized that he had now good excuse for returning
16:20
Speaker 1: to the house with the warning. He ran there like
16:23
Speaker 1: a hare, still hearing the great voice from the woods,
16:26
Speaker 1: like the roaring of a lion in his ear. He
16:30
Speaker 1: found Lord Ivywood in consultation with Doctor Gluck, and also
16:35
Speaker 1: with mister bull Rose, the agent, whose froglike eyes hardly
16:38
Speaker 1: seemed to have recovered yet from the fairy tale of
16:41
Speaker 1: the flying signboard in the English Lane, but who to
16:45
Speaker 1: do him justice, was more plucky and practical than most
16:49
Speaker 1: of Lord Ivywood's present advisers. I'm afraid mister Hibbs has inadvertently,
16:56
Speaker 1: stammered Levison. I'm afraid he has. I'm a porraid the
17:00
Speaker 1: man is making his escape. My Lord, you had better
17:02
Speaker 1: send for the police. Ivy Wood turned to the agent.
17:07
Speaker 1: You go and see what's happening, he said, simply. I
17:11
Speaker 1: will come myself when I've wrung them up and get
17:14
Speaker 1: some of the servants up with sticks and things. Fortunately
17:17
Speaker 1: the ladies have gone to bed. Hullo is that the
17:20
Speaker 1: police station. Bull Rose went down into the shrubbery and
17:25
Speaker 1: had for many reasons less difficulty in crossing it than
17:29
Speaker 1: the hilarious hibbs. The moon had increased to an almost
17:33
Speaker 1: unnatural brilliancy, so that the whole scene was like a
17:36
Speaker 1: rather silver daylight. And in this clear medium he beheld
17:40
Speaker 1: a very tall man with ereced red hair and a
17:44
Speaker 1: colossal cylinder of cheese carried under one arm, while he
17:48
Speaker 1: employed the other to wag a big forefinger at a
17:51
Speaker 1: dug with whom he was conversing. It was the agent's
17:55
Speaker 1: duty and desire to hold the man, whom he recognized
17:58
Speaker 1: from the signboard mister in play and conversation and prevent
18:03
Speaker 1: his final escape. But there are some people who really
18:07
Speaker 1: cannot be courteous, even when they want to be, and
18:10
Speaker 1: mister bull Rose was one of them. Lord Ivy would,
18:15
Speaker 1: he said, abruptly, wants to know what you want. Do not, however,
18:21
Speaker 1: fall into the common error Koodle Delroy was saying to
18:25
Speaker 1: the dog, whose unfathomable eyes were fixed on his face,
18:29
Speaker 1: of supposing that the phrase good dog is used in
18:32
Speaker 1: its absolute sense. A dog is good or bad negatively
18:36
Speaker 1: to a limited scheme of duties created by human civilization.
18:41
Speaker 1: What are you doing here, said mister bull Rose. A
18:45
Speaker 1: dog my dear koodle, continued the captain cannot be either
18:50
Speaker 1: so good or so bad as a man. Nay, I
18:53
Speaker 1: should go farther. I would almost say, a dog cannot
18:56
Speaker 1: be so stupid as a man. He cannot be utterly
18:59
Speaker 1: won hunting as a dog as some men are as men.
19:04
Speaker 1: Answer me, you there, roared the agent. It is all
19:09
Speaker 1: the more pathetic, continued the captain, to whose monologuekudles seem
19:13
Speaker 1: to listen with magnetized attention. It is all the more
19:17
Speaker 1: pathetic because this mental insufficiency is sometimes found in the good.
19:22
Speaker 1: Though there are I should imagine at least an equal
19:25
Speaker 1: number of opposite examples. The person standing a few feet
19:29
Speaker 1: off us, for example, is both stupid and wicked. But
19:33
Speaker 1: be very careful, Koodle, to remember that any disadvantage under
19:38
Speaker 1: which we place him should be based on the moral
19:41
Speaker 1: and not his mental defects. Should I say to you
19:44
Speaker 1: at any time go for him kudle, or hold him quudle,
19:49
Speaker 1: be certain in your own mind, please, that it is
19:52
Speaker 1: solely because he is wicked, and not because he is stupid,
19:56
Speaker 1: that I am entitled to do so. The fact that
19:59
Speaker 1: he is stupid should not justify me in saying hold
20:02
Speaker 1: him Qudle with the realistic intonation I now employ. Curse
20:08
Speaker 1: you call him off, cried mister Bulrose, retreating, for Koudle
20:13
Speaker 1: was coming toward him with the bulldog part of his pedigree,
20:16
Speaker 1: very prominently displayed like a pennon. Should mister Bulrose find
20:21
Speaker 1: it expedient to climb a tree or even a sign post,
20:25
Speaker 1: proceeded Dalroy, For indeed the agent had already clasped the
20:28
Speaker 1: pole of the old ship, which was stouter than the
20:32
Speaker 1: slender trees standing just around it. You will keep an
20:35
Speaker 1: eye on him, Quodole, and I doubt not constantly remind
20:39
Speaker 1: him that it is his wickedness, and not as he
20:42
Speaker 1: might hastily be inclined to suppose stupidity, that has placed
20:47
Speaker 1: him on so conspicuous an elevation. Some of you'll wish
20:51
Speaker 1: yourself dead for this, said the agent, who was by
20:55
Speaker 1: this time clinging to the wooden sign like a monkey
20:58
Speaker 1: on a stick, while Udo watched him from below with
21:01
Speaker 1: an unsated interest. Some of you'll see something. Here comes
21:06
Speaker 1: his lordship and the police. I reckon. Good morning, my lord,
21:11
Speaker 1: said Dalroy, as ivy Wood paler than ever in the
21:14
Speaker 1: strong moonshine came through the thicket toward them. It seemed
21:19
Speaker 1: to be his fate that his faultless and heueless face
21:22
Speaker 1: should always be contrasted with richer collors. For even now
21:27
Speaker 1: it was thrown up by the gorgeous diplomatic uniform of
21:30
Speaker 1: doctor Gluck, who walked just behind him. I'm glad to
21:35
Speaker 1: see you, my lord, said Dalroy in a stately manner.
21:39
Speaker 1: It is always so awkward doing business with an agent,
21:42
Speaker 1: especially for the agent Captain Dalroy, said Lord ivy Wood
21:48
Speaker 1: with a more serious dignity. I am sorry we meet
21:52
Speaker 1: again like this, and such things are not of my seeking.
21:56
Speaker 1: It is only right to tell you that the police
21:59
Speaker 1: will be here in a moment quite time, too, said Dalroy,
22:04
Speaker 1: shaking his head. I never saw anything so disgraceful in
22:08
Speaker 1: my life. Of course, I am sorry. It's a friend
22:12
Speaker 1: of yours, and I hope the police will keep ivywood
22:15
Speaker 1: House out of the papers. But I won't be a
22:17
Speaker 1: party to one law for the rich and another for
22:20
Speaker 1: the poor. And it would be a great shame if
22:23
Speaker 1: a man in that state got off altogether merely because
22:26
Speaker 1: he had got the stuff at your house. I do
22:30
Speaker 1: not understand you, said Lord ivy Wood, What are you
22:34
Speaker 1: talking of? Why of him, replied the captain, with a
22:39
Speaker 1: genial gesture toward a fallen tree trunk that lay a
22:42
Speaker 1: yard or two from the tunnel wall. The poor chap
22:46
Speaker 1: the police are coming for Lord Ivywood looked at the
22:50
Speaker 1: forest log by the tunnel, which he had not glanced
22:53
Speaker 1: at before, and in his pale eyes, perhaps for the
22:56
Speaker 1: first time, stood a simple astonishment. Above the log appeared
23:01
Speaker 1: two duplicate objects, which, after a prolonged stare, he identified
23:06
Speaker 1: as the soles of a pair of patent leather shoes,
23:09
Speaker 1: offered to his gaze as if demanding his opinion in
23:12
Speaker 1: the matter of resoling. They were all that was visible
23:16
Speaker 1: of mister Hibbs, who had fallen backward off his woodland
23:19
Speaker 1: seat and seemed contented with his new situation. His lordship
23:25
Speaker 1: put up the poncenee that made him look ten years older,
23:28
Speaker 1: and said, with a sharp, steely accent, what is all this?
23:34
Speaker 1: The only effect of his voice upon the faithful Hibbs
23:37
Speaker 1: was to cause him to feebly wave his legs in
23:39
Speaker 1: the air in recognition of a feudal superior. He clearly
23:43
Speaker 1: considered it hopeless to attempt to get up, so Dalroy,
23:47
Speaker 1: striding across to him, lugged him up by his shirt
23:50
Speaker 1: collar and exhibited him limp and wild eyed to the company.
23:56
Speaker 1: You won't want many policemen to take him to the station,
24:00
Speaker 1: said the captain. I'm sorry, Lord ivy Wood. I'm afraid
24:04
Speaker 1: it's no use your asking me to overlook it again.
24:07
Speaker 1: We can't afford it. And he shook his head implacably.
24:12
Speaker 1: We've always kept a respectable house, mister Pump and I.
24:16
Speaker 1: The old ship has a reputation all over the country
24:19
Speaker 1: in quite a lot of different parts. In fact, people
24:22
Speaker 1: in the oddest places have found it a quiet family house.
24:27
Speaker 1: Nothing get about in the old Ship. And if you
24:30
Speaker 1: think you can send all your staggering revelers, Captain Delroy,
24:35
Speaker 1: said ivy Wood, simply you seem to be under a misapprehension,
24:39
Speaker 1: which I think it would be hardly honorable to leave undisturbed.
24:43
Speaker 1: Whatever these extraordinary events may mean, and whatever be fitting
24:47
Speaker 1: for the case of this gentleman. When I spoke of
24:50
Speaker 1: the police coming, I meant they were coming for you
24:53
Speaker 1: and your confederate for me, cried the Captain, with a
24:58
Speaker 1: stupendous air of supper. Why I have never done anything
25:03
Speaker 1: naughty in my life. You have been selling alcohol, contrary
25:07
Speaker 1: to Clause five of the Act of But I've got
25:10
Speaker 1: a sign, cried Dalroy excitedly. You told me yourself it
25:14
Speaker 1: was all right if i'd got a sign. Oh do
25:17
Speaker 1: look at our new sign, the sign of the agile agent.
25:22
Speaker 1: Mister Bullrose had remained silent, feeling his position none of
25:26
Speaker 1: the most dignified, and hoping his employer would go away.
25:31
Speaker 1: But Lord Ivywood looked up at him and thought he
25:33
Speaker 1: had wandered into a planet of monsters. As he slowly
25:38
Speaker 1: recovered himself, Patrick Dalroy said briskly, all quite correct and conventional.
25:44
Speaker 1: You see, you can't run us in for not having
25:46
Speaker 1: a sign. We've rather an extra life like one. And
25:51
Speaker 1: you can't run us in as rogues and vagabonds either
25:54
Speaker 1: visible means of subsistence. And he slapped the huge cheese
25:58
Speaker 1: under his arm with his great flat hand, so that
26:01
Speaker 1: it reverberated like a drum. Quite visible, perceptible, he added,
26:07
Speaker 1: holding it out suddenly almost under Lord Ivywood's nose, perceptible
26:11
Speaker 1: to the naked eye through your lordship's eyeglasses. He turned
26:16
Speaker 1: abruptly burst open the pantomime door behind him, and bowed
26:20
Speaker 1: the big cheese down the tunnel with a noise like thunder,
26:23
Speaker 1: which ended in a cry of acceptation in the distant
26:26
Speaker 1: voice of mister Humphrey Pump. It was the last of
26:29
Speaker 1: their belongings left at this end of the tunnel, and
26:32
Speaker 1: Delroy turned again, a man totally transfigured, and now ivy would,
26:38
Speaker 1: He said, what can I be charged with? Well, I
26:42
Speaker 1: have a suggestion to make. I will surrender to the
26:45
Speaker 1: police quite quietly when they come, if you will do
26:48
Speaker 1: me one favor. Let me choose my crime. I don't understand, you,
26:54
Speaker 1: answered the other coolly, What crime? What favor? Captain Delroy
27:00
Speaker 1: unsheathed the straight sword that still hung on his now
27:03
Speaker 1: shabby uniform. The slender blade sparkled pleasantly in the moonlight
27:08
Speaker 1: as he pointed it straight at doctor Gluck. Take away
27:11
Speaker 1: his sword from the little pawnbroker, he said, it's about
27:16
Speaker 1: the length of mine, or will change if you like,
27:19
Speaker 1: give me ten minutes on that strip of turf, and
27:22
Speaker 1: then it may be, ivy would that I shall be
27:25
Speaker 1: removed from your public path in a way A little
27:27
Speaker 1: worthier of enemies who have once been friends than if
27:31
Speaker 1: you tripped me up with bow street runners, of whose
27:34
Speaker 1: help every ancestor you have would have been ashamed. Or
27:38
Speaker 1: on the other hand, it may be that when the
27:41
Speaker 1: police come there will be something to arrest me. For
27:45
Speaker 1: there was a long silence, and the elf of irresponsibility
27:49
Speaker 1: peeped out again for an instant in Delroy's mind. Mister
27:53
Speaker 1: bull Rose will see fair play for you from a
27:56
Speaker 1: throne above the lists, he said, I have all ready
28:00
Speaker 1: he put my honor in the hands of mister Hibbs.
28:03
Speaker 1: I must decline Captain Delroy's invitation, said ivy Wood at last,
28:08
Speaker 1: in a curious tone. Not so much because before he
28:12
Speaker 1: could proceed, Levison came racing across the cops, hallooing the
28:17
Speaker 1: police are here. Delroy, who loved leaving everything to the
28:21
Speaker 1: last instant, tore up the sign with bul Rose literally
28:25
Speaker 1: hanging to it, shook him off like a ripe fruit,
28:28
Speaker 1: and then plunged into the tunnel, the clamorous cooodle at
28:32
Speaker 1: his heels. Before even ivy Wood, the promptest of his party,
28:37
Speaker 1: could reach the spot, he had clashed to the wood
28:39
Speaker 1: door and bolted it across with his wooden staple. He
28:43
Speaker 1: had not had time even to sheathe his sword break
28:48
Speaker 1: down this door, said Lord ivy Wood, calmly, I noticed
28:52
Speaker 1: they haven't finished loading their cart. Under his directions and
28:57
Speaker 1: vastly against their will, Bulros and Levis and lifted the
29:00
Speaker 1: tree trunk vacated by hibbs, and swinging at thrice as
29:04
Speaker 1: a battering ram burst in the door, Lord Ivywood instantly
29:09
Speaker 1: sprang into the entrance. A voice called out to him
29:12
Speaker 1: quietly from the other end of the tunnel. There was
29:15
Speaker 1: something touching and yet terrible about a voice so human
29:19
Speaker 1: coming out of that inhuman darkness. If Philip Ivywood had
29:23
Speaker 1: been really a poet, and not rather its opposite an aesthete,
29:28
Speaker 1: he would have known that all the past and people
29:31
Speaker 1: of England were uttering their oracle out of the cavern.
29:35
Speaker 1: As it was, he only heard a publican wanted by
29:38
Speaker 1: the police. Yet even he paused, and indeed seemed spellbound.
29:44
Speaker 1: My Lord, I would like a word. I learned my
29:47
Speaker 1: Catechism and never was with the radicals. I want you
29:51
Speaker 1: to look at what you've done to me. You stole
29:54
Speaker 1: in a house that was mine as that one's yours.
29:57
Speaker 1: You've made me a dirty tramp, that was a man
30:00
Speaker 1: respected in church and market. Now you send me where
30:04
Speaker 1: I might have cells or the cat if I might
30:07
Speaker 1: make so bold. What do you suppose I think of you?
30:11
Speaker 1: Do you think because you go up to London and
30:13
Speaker 1: settle it with the lords in Parliament and bring back
30:16
Speaker 1: a lot of papers and long words, that makes any
30:19
Speaker 1: difference to the man you do it to. By what
30:22
Speaker 1: I can see, you're just a bad and cruel master,
30:25
Speaker 1: like those God punished in the old days, like Squire Varney,
30:29
Speaker 1: the weasels killed in holy Wood. Well Parson always said
30:33
Speaker 1: one might shoot at robbers, And I want to tell
30:36
Speaker 1: your lordship, he ended, respectfully, that I have a gun.
30:41
Speaker 1: Ivy Wood instantly step into the darkness and spoke in
30:44
Speaker 1: a voice shaken with some emotion, the nature of which
30:48
Speaker 1: was never certainly known. The police are here, he said,
30:53
Speaker 1: but I'll arrest you myself. A shot shrieked and rattled
30:58
Speaker 1: through the thousand echoes of the time. Lord Ivywood's legs
31:02
Speaker 1: doubled and twisted under him, and he collapsed on the
31:05
Speaker 1: earth with a bullet above his knee. Almost at the
31:09
Speaker 1: same instant, a shout and a bark announced that the
31:12
Speaker 1: cart had started as a complete equipage. It was even
31:16
Speaker 1: more than complete for the instant before it moved, mister
31:19
Speaker 1: Quoodle had sprung into it, and as it was driven off,
31:23
Speaker 1: sat erect in it, looking solemn. End of Chapter thirteen.