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Missing Page Thirteen - Anna Katharine Green · Miss Pims Camouflage

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  Speaker 1: First part of Missing Page thirteen by Anna Katherine Green.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by d'arvigna. Missing Page thirteen
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  Speaker 1: by Anna Katherine Green, An adventure of Violet Strange, the
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  Speaker 1: female counterpart of August Dupin, Sherlock Holmes and Craig Kennedy,
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  Speaker 1: undoubtedly the most unique and original detective in fiction. A
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  Speaker 1: witch woman but always charming. Part one one more, just
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  Speaker 1: one more well paying affair. And I promise to stop,
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  Speaker 1: really and truly to stop. But Puss, why one more?
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  Speaker 1: You have earned the amount you set for yourself, or
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  Speaker 1: very nearly, and though my help is not great, in
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  Speaker 1: three months I can add enough. No, you cannot, Arthur.
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  Speaker 1: You are doing well. I appreciate it. In fact, I
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  Speaker 1: am just delighted to have you work for me in
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  Speaker 1: the way you do. But you cannot, in your position,
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  Speaker 1: make enough in three months or in sex to meet
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  Speaker 1: the situation as I see it. Enough does not satisfy me.
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  Speaker 1: The measure must be full, heaped up and running over
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  Speaker 1: possible failure following promise, must be provided for. Never must
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  Speaker 1: I feel myself called upon to do this kind of
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  Speaker 1: thing again. Besides, I have never got over the Zabriski tragedy.
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  Speaker 1: It haunts me continually. Something new may help to put
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  Speaker 1: it out of my head. I feel guilty. I was responsible. No, Puss,
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  Speaker 1: I will not have it that you were responsible. Some
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  Speaker 1: such end was bound to follow a complication like that.
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  Speaker 1: Sooner or later he would have been driven to shoot himself.
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  Speaker 1: But not her. No, not her. But do you think
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  Speaker 1: she would have given those few minutes of perfect understanding
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  Speaker 1: with her blind husband for a few years more of
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  Speaker 1: miserable life. Violet made no answer. She was too absorbed
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  Speaker 1: in her surprise. Was this Arthur had a few weeks
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  Speaker 1: work and a close connection with the really serious things
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  Speaker 1: of life made this change in him. Her face beamed
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  Speaker 1: at the thought, which, seeing but not understanding what underlay
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  Speaker 1: this evidence of joy, he bent and kissed her, saying,
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  Speaker 1: with some of his old nonchalance, forget it, Violet, only
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  Speaker 1: don't let any one or anything lead you to interest
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  Speaker 1: yourself in another affair of the kind. If you do,
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  Speaker 1: I shall have to consult a certain friend of yours
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  Speaker 1: as to the best way of stopping, Miss Fowley, I
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  Speaker 1: mention no names. Oh you need not look so frightened,
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  Speaker 1: only behave That's all. He's right, she acknowledged to herself
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  Speaker 1: as he sauntered away. Altogether right, yet because she wanted
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  Speaker 1: the extra money. The scene invited alarm, that is for
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  Speaker 1: so young a girl as Violet, surveying it from an
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  Speaker 1: automobile some time after the stroke of midnight, an unknown
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  Speaker 1: house at the end of a heavily shaded walk, in
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  Speaker 1: the open doorway of which could be seen the silhouette
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  Speaker 1: of a woman's form leaning eagerly forward with arms outstretched
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  Speaker 1: in an appeal for help. It vanished while she looked,
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  Speaker 1: but the effect remained, holding her to her seat for
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  Speaker 1: one startled moment. This seemed strange, for she had anticipated adventure.
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  Speaker 1: One is not summoned from a private ball to ride
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  Speaker 1: a dozen miles into the country on an errand of
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  Speaker 1: investigation without some expectation of encountering the mysterious and the tragic.
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  Speaker 1: But Violet strange, for all her many experiences, was of
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  Speaker 1: a most susceptible nature, and for the instant in which
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  Speaker 1: that door stood open, with only the memory of that
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  Speaker 1: expectant figure to disturb the faintly lit vista of the
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  Speaker 1: hall beyond, She felt that grip upon the throat which
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  Speaker 1: comes from an indefinable fear which no words can explain,
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  Speaker 1: and no plummet sound. But this soon passed. With the
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  Speaker 1: setting of her foot to ground, conditions changed and her
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  Speaker 1: emotions took on a more normal character. The figure of
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  Speaker 1: a man now stood in the place held by the
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  Speaker 1: vanished woman, and it was not only that of one
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  Speaker 1: she knew, but that of one whom she trusted, a
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  Speaker 1: friend whose very presence gave her courage. With this recognition
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  Speaker 1: came a better understanding of the situation, and it was
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  Speaker 1: with a beaming eye and unclouded features that she tripped
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  Speaker 1: up the walk to meet the expectant figure and outstretched
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  Speaker 1: hand of Roger. Upjohn, you hear, she exclaimed, amid smiles
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  Speaker 1: and blushes. As he drew her into the hall. He
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  Speaker 1: at once launched forth into explanations, mingled with apologies for
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  Speaker 1: the presumption he had shown in putting her to this inconvenience.
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  Speaker 1: There was trouble in the house, great trouble. Something had
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  Speaker 1: occurred for which an explanation must be found. Before morning
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  Speaker 1: or the happiness and honor of more than one person,
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  Speaker 1: now under this unhappy roof would be wrecked. He knew
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  Speaker 1: it was late that she had been obliged to take
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  Speaker 1: a long and dreary ride alone. But her success with
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  Speaker 1: the problem, which had once come near wrecking his own life,
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  Speaker 1: had emboldened him to telephone to the office. And but
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  Speaker 1: you are in bull dress, he cried, in amazement. Did
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  Speaker 1: you think I came from a ball? Word reached me
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  Speaker 1: between the dances. I did not go home. I had
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  Speaker 1: been bidden to hurry. He looked his appreciation, but when
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  Speaker 1: he spoke, it was to say, this is the situation,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Digby, the lady who is to be married to morrow,
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  Speaker 1: who hopes to be married tomorrow, how hopes who will
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  Speaker 1: be married to morrow? If a certain article lost in
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  Speaker 1: this house to night can be found before any of
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  Speaker 1: the persons who have been dining here leave for their homes.
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  Speaker 1: Violet uttered an exclamation. Then, mister Cornell, she began, Mister
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  Speaker 1: Cornell has our utmost confidence. Roger hastened to interpose. But
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  Speaker 1: the article missing is one which he might reasonably desire
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  Speaker 1: to possess, and which he alone of all present, had
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity of securing you can therefore see why he,
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  Speaker 1: with his pride, the pride of a man not rich
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  Speaker 1: engaged to marry a woman who is should declare that
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  Speaker 1: unless his innocence is established before daybreak, the doors of
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  Speaker 1: Saint Bartholomew will remain shut tomorrow. But the article lost,
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  Speaker 1: what is it? Miss Digby, will give you the particulars
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  Speaker 1: she is waiting to receive you, he added, with a
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  Speaker 1: gesture towards a half open door at their right. Violet
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  Speaker 1: glanced that way, then cast her looks up and down
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  Speaker 1: the hall in which they stood. Do you know that
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  Speaker 1: you've not told me in whose house? I am? Not hers?
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  Speaker 1: I know she lives in the city, and you are
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  Speaker 1: twelve miles from Harlem, Miss Strange, you are in the
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  Speaker 1: van Brooklyn mansion. Famous enough you will acknowledge. Have you
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  Speaker 1: never been here before? I have been by here, but
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  Speaker 1: I recognize nothing in the dark. What an exciting place
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  Speaker 1: for an investigation. And mister van Brooklyn, have you never
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  Speaker 1: met him once? When a child? He frightened me then
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  Speaker 1: and may frighten you now, though I doubt it. Time
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  Speaker 1: has mellowed him. Besides, I have prepared him for what
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  Speaker 1: might otherwise occasion him. Some astonishment. Naturally he would not
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  Speaker 1: look for just the sort of lady investigator I am
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  Speaker 1: about to introduce to him, she smiled. Violet Strange was
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  Speaker 1: a very charming young woman, as well as a keen
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  Speaker 1: prober of odd mysteries. The meeting between herself and miss
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  Speaker 1: Digby was a sympathetic one, after the first inevitable shock
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  Speaker 1: which the latter felt at sight of the beauty and
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  Speaker 1: fashionable appearance of the mysterious little being who was to
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  Speaker 1: solve her difficulties. Her glance, which under other circumstances might
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  Speaker 1: have lingered unduly upon the piquant features and exquisite dressing
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  Speaker 1: of the fairy like figure before her, passed at once
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  Speaker 1: to Violet's eyes, in whose steady depths beamed an intelligence
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  Speaker 1: quite at odds with the coquettish dimples which so often
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  Speaker 1: misled the casual observer in his estimation of a character
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  Speaker 1: singularly subtle and well poised. As for the impression she
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  Speaker 1: herself made upon Violet, it was the same she made
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  Speaker 1: upon everyone. No one could look long at Florence Digby
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  Speaker 1: and not recognize the loftiness of her spirit and the
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  Speaker 1: generous nature of her impulses in person, she was tall,
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  Speaker 1: and as she leaned to take Violet's hand, the difference
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  Speaker 1: between them brought out the salient points in each to
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  Speaker 1: the great admiration of the one onlooker. Meantime, for all
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  Speaker 1: her interest in the case in hand, Violet could not
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  Speaker 1: help casting a hurried look about her in gratification of
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  Speaker 1: the curiosity incited by her entrance into a house signalized
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  Speaker 1: from its foundation by such a series of tragic events.
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  Speaker 1: The result was disappointing. The walls were plain, the furniture simple.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing suggestive in either, unless it was the fact that
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  Speaker 1: nothing was new, nothing modern. As it looked in the
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  Speaker 1: days of Burr and Hamilton, so it looked to day,
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  Speaker 1: even to the rather startling detail of candles which did
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  Speaker 1: duty on every side in place of gas. As Violet
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  Speaker 1: recalled the reason for this, the fascination of the past
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  Speaker 1: seized upon her imagination. There was no knowing where this
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  Speaker 1: might have carried her, had not the feverish gleam in
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  Speaker 1: Miss Digby's eyes warned her that the present held its
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  Speaker 1: own excitement. Instantly she was all attention and listening with
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  Speaker 1: undivided mind to that lady's disclosures. They were brief and
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  Speaker 1: to the following effect. The dinner, which had brought some
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  Speaker 1: half dozen people together in this house, had been given
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  Speaker 1: in celebration of her impending marriage, but it was also
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  Speaker 1: in a way meant as a compliment to one of
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  Speaker 1: the other guests, a mister Spielhagen, who during the week
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  Speaker 1: had succeeded in demonstrating to a few experts the value
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  Speaker 1: of a discovery he had made which would transform a
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  Speaker 1: great industry. In speaking of this discovery, Miss Digby did
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  Speaker 1: not go into particulars, the whole matter being far beyond
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  Speaker 1: her understanding, but in stating its value she openly acknowledged
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  Speaker 1: that it was in the line of mister Cornell's own work,
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  Speaker 1: and one which involved calculations and a formula which, if
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  Speaker 1: prematurely disclosed, would invalidate the contract mister Spielhagen hoped to
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  Speaker 1: make and thus destroy his present hopes of this formula.
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  Speaker 1: But two copies existed. One was locked up in a
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  Speaker 1: safe deposit vault in Boston. The other he had brought
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  Speaker 1: into the house on his person, and it was the
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  Speaker 1: latter which was now missing, it having been abstracted during
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  Speaker 1: the evening from a manuscript of sixteen or more sheets
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  Speaker 1: under circumstances which he would now endeavor to relate. Mister
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  Speaker 1: van Brodt Clynn, their host, had, in his melancholy life,
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  Speaker 1: but one interest which could be called at all absorbing.
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  Speaker 1: This was four explosives. As a consequence, much of the
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  Speaker 1: talk at the dinner table had been on mister Spielhaggen's
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  Speaker 1: discovery and the possible changes it might introduce into this
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  Speaker 1: especial industry. As these worked out from a formula kept
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  Speaker 1: secret from the trade, could not but affect greatly mister
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  Speaker 1: Cornell's interests, she found herself listening intently when mister van Brooklyn,
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  Speaker 1: with an apology for his interference, ventured to remark that
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  Speaker 1: if mister Spielhagen had made a valuable discovery in this line,
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  Speaker 1: so had he, and one which he had substantiated by
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  Speaker 1: many experiments. It was not a marketable one such as
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  Speaker 1: mister Spielhaggen's was. But in his work upon the same
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  Speaker 1: and in the tests which he had been led to make,
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  Speaker 1: he had discovered certain instances he would gladly name, which
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  Speaker 1: demanded exceptional procedure to be successful. If mister Spielhagen's method
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  Speaker 1: did not allow for these exceptions, nor make suitable provision
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  Speaker 1: for them. Then mister Spielhaggen's method would fail more times
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  Speaker 1: than it would succeed. Did it so allow and so provide?
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  Speaker 1: It would relieve him greatly to learn that it did.
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  Speaker 1: The answer came quickly, Yes it did. But later, and
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  Speaker 1: after some further conversation, mister Spielhaggen's confidence seemed to wane,
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  Speaker 1: and before they left the dinner table, he openly declared
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  Speaker 1: his intention of looking over his manuscript again that very night,
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  Speaker 1: in order to be sure that the formula therein contained
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  Speaker 1: duly covered all the exceptions mentioned by mister van Brooklyn.
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  Speaker 1: If mister Cornell's countenance showed any change at this moment, she,
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  Speaker 1: for one, had not noticed it. But the bitterness with
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  Speaker 1: which he remarked upon the other's good fortune in having
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  Speaker 1: discovered this formula, of whose entire success he had no doubt,
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  Speaker 1: was apparent to everybody, and naturally gave point to the
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  Speaker 1: circumstances which a short time afterward associated him with the
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  Speaker 1: disappearance of the same. The ladies there were two others
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  Speaker 1: besides herself. Having withdrawn in a body to the music room,
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  Speaker 1: the gentleman all proceeded to the library to smoke. Here
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  Speaker 1: conversation loosed from the one topic which had hitherto engrossed.
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  Speaker 1: It was proceeding briskly when mister Spielhagen, with a nervous gesture,
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  Speaker 1: impulsively looked about him and said, I cannot rest till
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  Speaker 1: I have run through my thesis again. Where can I
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  Speaker 1: find a quiet spot I won't belong? I read very rapidly.
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  Speaker 1: It was for mister van Brooklyn to answer, but no
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  Speaker 1: word coming from him. Every eye turned his way, only
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  Speaker 1: to find him sunk in one of those fits of
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  Speaker 1: abstraction so well known to his friends, and from which
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  Speaker 1: no one who has this strange man's peace of mind
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  Speaker 1: at heart ever presumes to rouse him what was to
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  Speaker 1: be done. These moods of their singular host sometimes lasted
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  Speaker 1: half an hour, and mister Spielhagen had not the appearance
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  Speaker 1: of a man of patience. Indeed, he presently gave proof
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  Speaker 1: of the great uneasiness he was laboring under. For, noticing
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  Speaker 1: a door standing ajar on the other side of the room,
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  Speaker 1: he remarked to those around him a den and lighted,
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  Speaker 1: do you see any objection to my shutting myself in there?
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  Speaker 1: For a few minutes? No one venturing to reply, he rose, and,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: giving a slight push to the door, disclosed a small room,
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  Speaker 1: exquisitely paneled and brightly lighted, but without one article of
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  Speaker 1: furniture in it, not even a chair the very place,
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  Speaker 1: quoth mister Spielhagen, And lifting a light cane bottomed chair
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  Speaker 1: from the many standing about, he carried it inside and
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  Speaker 1: shut the door behind him. Several minutes passed, during which
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  Speaker 1: the men who had served at table entered with a tray,
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  Speaker 1: on which were several small glasses, evidently containing some choice liqueur.
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  Speaker 1: Finding his master fixed in one of his strange moods,
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  Speaker 1: he set the tray down, and, pointing to one of
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  Speaker 1: the glasses, said, that is for mister van Brooklyn. It
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  Speaker 1: contains his usual quieting powder, And urging the gentlemen to
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  Speaker 1: help themselves, he quietly left the room. Mister Upjohn lifted
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  Speaker 1: the glass nearest him, and mister Cornell seemed about to
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: do the same, when he suddenly reached forward, and, catching
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  Speaker 1: up one further off, started for the room in which
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  Speaker 1: mister Spielhagen had so deliberately secluded himself. Why he did
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  Speaker 1: all this, Why above all things he should reach across
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  Speaker 1: the tray for a glass instead of taking the one
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  Speaker 1: under his hand. He can no more explain than why
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  Speaker 1: he has followed many another unhappy impulse. Nor did he
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  Speaker 1: understand the nervous start given by mister Spielhoggen at his entrance,
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  Speaker 1: or the stare with which that gentleman took the glass
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  Speaker 1: from his hand and mechanically drank its contents, till he
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  Speaker 1: saw how his hand had stretched itself across the sheet
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  Speaker 1: of paper he was reading, in an open attempt to
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  Speaker 1: hide the lines visible between his fingers. Then indeed the
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  Speaker 1: intruder flushed and withdrew in great embarrassment, fully conscious of
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  Speaker 1: his indiscretion, but not deeply disturbed, till mister van Brooklyn,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: suddenly arousing and glancing down at the tray placed very
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: near his hand, remarked, in some surprise, Dobbs seems to
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  Speaker 1: have forgotten me. Then indeed the unfortunate mister Cornell realized
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  Speaker 1: what he had done. It was the glass intended for
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: his host, which he had caught up and carried into
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  Speaker 1: the other room, The glass which he had been told
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  Speaker 1: contained a drug of what folly he had been guilty,
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  Speaker 1: And how tame would be any effort at excuse attempting nun.
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  Speaker 1: He rose, and with a hurried glance at mister Upjohn,
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  Speaker 1: who flushed in sympathy at his distress. He crossed to
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  Speaker 1: the door he had so lately closed upon mister Spielhagen, but,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: feeling his shoulder touched as his hand pressed the knob,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: he turned to meet the eye of mister van Brooklyn,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: fixed upon him with an expression which utterly confounded him.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Where are you going, that gentleman asked? The questioning tone,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: the severe look, expressive at once of displeasure and astonishment
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: were most disconcerting, but mister Cornell managed to stammer forth,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: mister Spielhagen is in here consulting his thesis. When your
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: man brought in the cordial I was awkward enough to
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: catch up your glass and carry it in to mister Spielhaggen.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: He'd drank it, and I I am anxious to see
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  Speaker 1: if it did him any harm. As he uttered the
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  Speaker 1: last word, he felt mister van Brooklyn's hand slip from
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  Speaker 1: his shoulder, but no word accompanied the action, nor did
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  Speaker 1: his host make the least move to follow him into
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  Speaker 1: the room. This was a matter of great regret to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: him later, as it left him for a moment out
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: of the range of every eye, during which he says
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: he simply stood in a state of shock at seeing
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: mister Spielhaggen still sitting there, manuscript in hand, but with
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: head fallen forward and eyes closed, dead asleep, or he
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: hardly knew what The sight so paralyzed him, whether or
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: not this was the exact truth and the whole truth,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: mister Cornell, certainly he looked very unlike himself as he
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: stepped back into mister Van Brooklyn's presence, and he was
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: only partially reassured when that gentleman protested that there was
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: no real harm in the drug and that mister Spielhagen
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: would be all right if left to wake naturally and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: without shock. However, as his present attitude was one of
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  Speaker 1: great discomfort, they decided to carry him back and lay
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: him on the library lounge. But before doing this, mister
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  Speaker 1: Upjohn drew from his flacid, grasp the precious manuscript, and,
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  Speaker 1: carrying it into the larger room, placed it on a
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  Speaker 1: remote table, where it remained undisturbed till mister Spielhagen, suddenly,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: coming to himself at the end of some fifteen minutes,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: missed the sheets from his hand, and, bounding up, crossed
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  Speaker 1: the room to repossess himself of them. His face as
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: he lifted them up and rapidly ran through them, with
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: ever accumulating anxiety, told them what they had done to expect.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: The page containing the formula was gone. Violet now saw
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  Speaker 1: her problem Part two. There was no doubt about the
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  Speaker 1: loss I have mentioned. All could see that page thirteen
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  Speaker 1: was not there in vain A second handling of every sheet,
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  Speaker 1: the one so numbered was not to be found. Page
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  Speaker 1: fourteen met the eye on the top of the pile,
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  Speaker 1: and page twelve finished it off at the bottom. But
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  Speaker 1: no page thirteen in between, or anywhere else where had
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  Speaker 1: it vanished? And through whose agency had this misadventure occurred?
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: No one could say, or at least no one there
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: made any attempt to do so, though everybody started to
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: look for it. But where look. The adjoining small room
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: offered no facilities for hiding a cigar end, much less
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: a square of shining white paper. Bare walls, a bare floor,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: and a single chair for furniture comprised all that was
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: to be seen in this direction. Nor could the room
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: in which they then stood be thought to hold it
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: unless it was on the person of some one of them?
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Could this be the explanation of the mystery? No man
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: looked his doubts, but mister Cornell, possibly divining the general feeling,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: stepped up to mister van Brooklyn, and, in a cool voice,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: but with the red burning hotly on either cheek, said,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: so as to be heard by every one present, I
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: demand to be searched at once and thoroughly. A moment's silence,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: then the common cry, we will all be searched. Is
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: mister Spielhoggen sure that the missing page was with the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: others when he sat down in the adjoining room to
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: read his thesis, asked their perturbed host. Very sure, came
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the emphatic reply. Indeed, I was just going through the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: formula itself when I fell asleep. You are ready to
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: assert this? I am ready to swear it. Mister Cornell
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: repeated his request. I demand that you make a thorough
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: search of my person. I must be cleared and instantly
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: of every suspicion, he gravely asserted, Or how can I
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: marry miss Digby tomorrow? After that, there was no further hesitation.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: One and all subjected themselves to the ordeal, suggested even
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: mister Spielhagen. But this effort was as futile as the rest.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: The lost page was not found. What were they to think?
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: What were they to do? There seemed to be nothing
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: left to do, And yet some further attempt must be
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: made towards the recovery of this important formula. Mister Cornell's
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: marriage and mister Spielhaggen's business success both depended upon its
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: being in the latter's hands before six in the morning,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: when he was engaged to and it over again to
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: a certain manufacturer sailing for Europe on an early steamer.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Five hours had mister van Brooklyn a suggestion to offer, No,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: he was as much at sea as the rest. Simultaneously
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: look crossed, Look, blankness was on every face. Let us
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: call the ladies, suggested one. It was done. And however
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: great the tension had been before, it was even greater
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: when Miss Digby stepped upon the scene. But she was
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: not a woman to be shaken from her poise, even
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: by a crisis of this importance. When the dilemma had
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: been presented to her and the full situation grasped, she
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: looked first at mister Cornell, and then at mister Spielhagen,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: and quietly said, there is but one explanation possible of
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: this matter. Mister Spielhagen will excuse me, but he is
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: evidently mistaken in thinking that he saw the lost page
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: among the rest. The condition into which he was thrown
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: by the unaccustomed drug he had drank made him liable
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: to hallucinations. I have not the least doubt he thought
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: he had been studying the formula at the time he
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: dropped off to sleep. I have every confidence in the
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: gentleman's candor, but so have I in that of mister Cornell.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: She supplemented with a smile, an exclamation from mister van Brooklyn,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and a subdued murmur from all. But mister Spielhagen testified
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: to the effect of this suggestion. And there is no
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: saying what might have been the result if mister Cornell
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: had not hurriedly put in this extraordinary and most unexpected protest.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Miss Digby has my gratitude, said he for a confidence
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: which I hope to prove to be deserved. But I
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: must say this for mister Spielhagen. He was correct in
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: stating that he was in gaged in looking over his
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: formula when I stepped into his presence with the glass
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: of cordial. If you were not in a position to
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: see the hurried way in which his hand instinctively spread
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: itself over the page he was reading, I was, And
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: if that does not seem conclusive to you, then I
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: feel bound to state that, in unconsciously following this movement
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: of his I plainly saw the number written on the
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: top of the page, and that number was thirteen. A
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: loud exclamation, this time from Spielhagen himself, announced his gratitude
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: and corresponding change of attitude toward the speaker. Wherever that
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: damn page has gone, he protested, advancing towards Cornell with
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: outstretched hand, you have nothing to do with its disappearance.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Instantly all constraint fled, and every countenance took on a
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: relieved expression. But the problem remained. Suddenly those very words
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: passed someone's lips, and with their utterance, mister Upjohn remembered how,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: at an extraordinary crisis in his own life, he had
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: been helped and an equally difficult problem settled by a
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: little lady secretly attached to a private detective agency. If
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: she could only be found and hurried here before morning,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: all might yet be well. He would make the effort.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Such wild schemes sometimes work. He telephoned to the office,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: and was there anything else Miss Strange would like to know?
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: And of the first part of Missing Page thirteen by
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Anna Catherine Greene. Second part of Missing Page thirteen by
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Anna Katherine Greene. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by d'arvigna.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: Missing Page thirteen by Anna Katherine Greene, Part three. Miss
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Strange thus appealed to asked where the gentleman were now.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: She was told that they were still altogether in the library.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: The ladies had been sent home. Then let us go
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: to them, said Violet, hiding under a smile. Her great
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: fear that here was an affair which might very easily
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: spell for her that dismal word failure. So great was
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: that fear, that, under all ordinary circumstances she would have
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: had no thought for anything else. In the short interim
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: between this stating of the problem and her bed the
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: entrance among the persons involved. But the circumstances of this
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: case were so far from ordinary. Or rather, let me
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: put it this way, the setting of the case was
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: so very extraordinary that she scarcely thought of the problem
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: before her in her great interest in the house through
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: whose rambling halls she was being so carefully guided. So
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: much that was tragic and heartrending had occurred here. The
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Van Brooklyn name, the Van Brooklyn history, above all, the
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Van Brooklyn tradition, which made the house unique in the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: country's annals, all made an appeal to her imagination and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: centered her thoughts on what she saw about her. There
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: was a door which no man ever opened, had never
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: opened since revolutionary times. Should she see it, should she
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: know it? If she did see it, then mister van
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Brooklyn himself. Just to meet him, under any conditions and
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: in any place, was an event. But to meet him here,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: under the pall of his own mystery, no wonder. She
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: had no words for her companions, or that her thoughts
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: clung to this anticipation in wonder and almost fearsome delight.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: His story was a well known one. A bachelor and
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: a misanthrope, he lived absolutely alone, save for a large
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: entroge of servants, all men and elderly ones. At that
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: he never visited. Though he now and then, as on
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: this occasion, entertained certain persons under his roof, he declined
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: every invitation for himself, avoiding, even with equal strictness, all
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: evening amusements of whatever kind which would detain him in
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: the city after ten at night. Perhaps this was to
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: ensure no break in his rule of life, never to
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: sleep out of his own bed. Though he was a
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: man well over fifty, he had not spent, according to
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: his own statement, but two nights out of his way
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: his own bed since his return from Europe in early boyhood,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: and those were in obedience to a judicial summons which
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: took him to Boston. This was his main eccentricity. But
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: he had another, which is apparent enough from what has
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: already been said. He avoided women, if thrown in with them.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: During his short visits into town. He was invariably polite
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and at all times companionable, but he never sought them out,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: nor had gossip, contrary to its usual habit, ever linked
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: his name with one of the sex. Yet he was
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: a man of more than ordinary attraction. His features were
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: fine and his figure impressive. He might have been the
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: cynosure of all eyes. Had he chosen to enter crowded
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: drawing rooms, or even to frequent public assemblages, But having
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: turned his back upon everything of the kind in his youth,
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: he had found it impossible to alter his habits with
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: advancing years, nor was he now expected to. The position
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: he had taken was respected. Leonard van Brooklyn was no
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: longer criticized. Was there any explanation for this strangely self
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: centered life. Those who knew him best seemed to think so.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: In the first place, he had sprung from an unfortunate stalk.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Events of an unusual and tragic nature had marked the
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: family of both parents. Nor had his parents themselves been
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: exempt from this seeming fatality. Antagonistic in tastes and temperament,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: they had dragged on an unhappy existence in the old
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: home till both natures rebelled and a separation ensued, which
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: not only disunited their lives, but sent them to opposite
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: sides of the globe, never to return again. At least
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: that was the inference drawn from the peculiar circumstances attending
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: the event On the morning of one never to be
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: forgotten day, John van Brooklyn, the grand father of the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: present representative of the family found the following note from
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: his son, lying on the library table. Father, life in
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: this house or any house with her is no longer endurable.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: One of us must go. The mother should not be
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: separated from her child. Therefore it is I whom you
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: will never see again. Forget me, but be considerate of
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: her and the boy William. Six hours later another note
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: was found, this time from the wife. Father tied to
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: a rotting corpse. What does one do? Lop off one's
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: arm if necessary to rid one of the contact? As
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: all love between your son and myself is dead. I
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: can no longer live within the sound of his voice.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: As this is his home, he is the one to
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: remain in it. May our child reap the benefit of
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: his mother's loss and his father's affection. Rhoda, both were
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: gone and gone forever simultaneous. In their departure. They preserved
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: each his own silence and sent no word back. If
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the one went east and the other west, they may
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: have met on the other side of the globe, but
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: never again in the home which sheltered their boy. For
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: him and for his grandfather, they had sunk from sight
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: in the great sea of humanity. Leaving them stranded on
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: an isolated and mournful shore. The grandfather steeled himself to
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: the double loss for the child's sake, but the boy
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: of eleven succumbed. Few of the world's great sufferers, of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: whatever age or condition, have mourned as this child mourned,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: or shown the effects of his grief so deeply or
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: so long. Not till he had passed his majority did
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the line carved in one day in his baby forehead
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: lose any of its intensity. And there are those who
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: declare that even later than that, the midnight stillness of
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: the house was disturbed from time to time by his
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: muffled shriek of mother Mother sending the servants from the house,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: and adding one more horror to the many which clung
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: about this accursed mansion. Of this cry Violet had heard,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: and it was that and the door. But I've already
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: told you about the door, which she was still looking
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: for when her two companions suddenly halted, and she found
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: herself on the threshold of the library, in full view
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: of mister van Brooklyn and his two guests. Slight and
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: fairylike in figure, with an air of modest reserve, more
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: in keeping with her youth and dainty, dimpling beauty than
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: with her errand her appearance produced an astonishment which none
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: of the gentlemen were able to disguise. This the clever
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: detective with a genius for social problems and odd elusive cases,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: This darling of the ball room in satin and pearls.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Mister Spielhagen glanced at mister Cornell, and mister Cornell at
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: mister Spielhagen, and both at mister Upjohn in very evident distrust.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: As for Violet, she had eyes only for mister van Brooklyn,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: who stood before her in a surprise equal to that
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: of the others, but with more restraint in its expression.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: She was not disappointed in him. She had expected to
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: see a man reserved almost to the point of austerity,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: and she found his first look even more awe compelling
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: than her imagination had pictured, So much so indeed, that
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: her resolution faltered, and she took a quick step backward,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: which seeing he smiled, and her heart and hopes grew
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: warm again. That he could smile and smile with absolute
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: sweetness was her great comfort when later, but I am
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: introducing you too hurriedly to the catastrophe. There is much
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: to be told. First, I pass over the preliminaries, and
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: come at once to the moment when Violet, having listened
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: to a repetition of the full facts, stood with downcast
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: eyes before these gentlemen, complaining in some alarm to herself.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: They expect me to tell them now, and without further
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: search or parley, just where this missing page is. I
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: shall have to balk that expectation without losing their confidence.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: But how summoning up her courage and meeting each inquiring
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: eye with a look which seemed to carry a different
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: message to each, she remarked, very quietly, this is not
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: a matter to guess at. I must have time, and
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I must look a little deeper into the facts just
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: given me. I presume that the table I see over
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: there is the one upon which mister Upjohn laid the
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: manuscript during mister Spielhagen's unconsciousness. All nodded, is it? I
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: mean the table in the same condition it was? Then?
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: Has nothing been taken from it except the manuscript? Nothing? Then?
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: The missing page is not there, she smiled, pointing to
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: its bare top. A pause during which she stood with
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: her gaze fixed on the floor before her, she was
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: thinking and thinking hard. Suddenly she came to a decision.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Addressing mister Upjohn, she asked if he were quite sure
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: that in taking the manuscript from mister Spielhagen's hand, he
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: had neither disarranged nor dropped one of its pages. The
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: answer was unequivocal. Then she declared, with quiet assurance and
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: a steady meeting with her own of every eye, as
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: the thirteenth page was not found among the others when
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: they were taken from this table, nor on the persons
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: of either mister Cornell or mister Spielhagen, it is still
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: in that inner room. Impossible, came from every lip, each
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: in a different tone. That room is absolutely empty. May
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: I have a look at its emptiness? She asked, with
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: a naive glance at mister van Brooklyn. There is positively
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: nothing in the room. But the chair mister Spielhoggen sat on,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: objected that gentleman, with a noticeable air of reluctance. Still,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: may I not have a look at it? She persisted,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: with that disarming smile she kept for great occasions. Mister
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: van Brooklyn bowed. He could not refuse a request, so urged,
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: But his step was slow, and his manner next to
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: ungracious as he led the way to the door of
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: the adjoining room and threw it open, just what she
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: had been told to expect, bare walls and floors and
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: an empty chair. Yet she did not instantly withdraw, but
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: stood silently contemplating the paneled wainscoting around her, as though
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: she suspected it of containing some secret hiding place not
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: apparent to the eye. Mister van Brooklyn, noting this, hastened
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: to say, the walls are sound miss strange. They contain
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: no hidden cupboards. And that door, she asked, pointing to
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: a portion of the wainscoting so exactly like the rest
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: that only the most experienced eye could detect the line
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: of deeper color, which marked an opening for an instant
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: mister van Brooklyn stood rigid. Then the immovable pallor, which
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: was one of his chief characteristics, gave way to a
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: deep flush, as he explained, there was a door there once,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: but it has been permanently closed with cement. He forced
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: himself to add, his countenance, losing its evanescent color till
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: it shone ghastly again in the strong light. With difficulty,
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Violet preserved her show of composure the door, She murmured
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: to herself, I have found it, the great historic door.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: But her tone was light as she ventured to say,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: then it can no longer be opened by your hand
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: or any other. It could not be opened with an axe.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Violet sighed in the midst of her triumph. Her curiosity
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: had been satisfied, but the problem she had been set
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: to solve looked inexplicable. But she was not one to
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: yield easily to discouragement. Marking the disappointment approaching to disdain
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: in every eye but mister Upjohn's, she drew herself up.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: She had not far to draw, and made this final
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: proposal a sheet of paper. She remarked, of the size
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: of this one cannot be spirited away or dissolved into
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: thin air. It exists, It is here, and all we
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: want is some happy thought in order to find it.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: I acknowledge that that happy thought has not come to
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: me yet, But sometimes I get it in what may
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: seem to you a very odd way forgetting myself. I
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: try to assume the individuality of the person who has
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: worked the mystery. If I can think with his thoughts,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: I possibly may follow him in his actions. In this case,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: I should like to make believe for a few moments
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: that I am mister Spielhagen. With what a delicious smile
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: she said this, I should like to hold his thesis
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: in my hand and be interrupted in my reading by
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: mister Cornell offering his glass of cordial. Then I should
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: like to nod and slip off mentally into a deep sleep.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Possibly in that sleep the dream may come which will
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: clarify the whole situation. Will you humor me? So far
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: a ridiculous concession, But finally she had her way. The
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: farce was enacted, and they left her as she had
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: requested them, to do alone with her dreams in the
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: small room. Suddenly they heard her cry out, and in
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: another moment she appeared before them. The picture of excitement.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Is this chair standing exactly as it did when mister
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: Spielhoggen occupied it? She asked, No, said mister Upjohn, It
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: faced the other way. She stepped back and twirled the
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: chair about with her disengaged hand. So mister Upjohn and
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: mister Spielhoggen both nodded, so did the others. When she
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: glanced at them with a sign of ill concealed satisfaction,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: she drew their attention to herself, then eagerly cried, gentlemen,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: look here. Seating herself, she allowed her whole body to
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: relax till she presented the picture of one calmly asleep. Then,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: as they continued to gaze at her with fascinated eyes,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: not knowing what to expect, they saw something white escape
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: from her lap and slide across the floor till it
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: touched and was stayed by the wainscoat. It was the
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: top page of the manuscript she held, And as some
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: inkling of the truth reached their astonished minds, she sprang
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: impetuously to her feet, and, pointing to the fallen sheet, cried,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: do you understand? Now? Look where it lies? And then
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: look here. She had bounded toward the wall and was
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: now on her knees, pointing to the bottom of the wainscoat,
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: just a few inches to the left of the fallen page.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: A crack, she cried, under what was once the door.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: It's a very thin one, hardly perceptible to the eye.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: But see here. She laid her finger on the fallen paper, and,
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: drawing it towards her, pushed it carefully against the lower
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: edge of the wainscoat. Half of it at once disappeared.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: I could easily slip it all through, she assured them,
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: withdrawing the sheet and leaping to her feet in triumph.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: You know now where the missing page lies, mister Spielhagen.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: All that remains is for mister van Brooklyn to get
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: it for you. Part four. The cries of mingled astonishment
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: and relief which greeted this simple elucidation of the mystery
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: were broken by a curiously choked, almost unintelligible cry. It
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: came from the man thus appealed to, who, unnoticed by
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: them all had started at her first word, and gradually,
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: as action followed action, withdrawn himself till he now stood
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: alone and in an attitude almost of defiance, behind the
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: large table in the center of the library. I am sorry,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: he began, with a brusqueness, which gradually toned down into
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: a forced urbanity, as he beheld every eye fixed upon
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: him in amazement. That circumstances forbid my being of assistance
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: to you in this unfortunate matter. If the paper lies
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: where you say, and I see no other explanation of
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: its loss, I am afraid it will. You'll have to
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: remain there for this night at least the cement in
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: which that door is embedded is thick as any wall.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: It would take men with pickaxes, possibly with dynamite, to
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: make a breach there wide enough for anyone to reach in,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: And we are far from any such help. In the
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: midst of the consternation caused by these words, the clock
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: on the mantel behind his back rang out the hour.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: It was but a double stroke, but that meant two
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: hours after midnight, and had the effect of a knell
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: in the hearts of those most interested. But I am
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: expected to give that formula into the hands of our
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: manager before six o'clock in the morning. The steamer sails
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: at a quarter after. Can't you reproduce a copy of
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: it from memory, someone asked, and insert it in its
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: proper place among the pages you hold there, the paper
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: would not be the same. That would lead to questions,
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: and the truth would come out, as the chief value
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: of the process contained in that formula lies in its secrecy.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: No explanation I could give would relieve me from the
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: suspicions which an acknowledgment of the existence of a third copy,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: however well hidden, would entail. I should lose my great opportunity.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: Mister Cornell's state of mind can be imagined in an
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: access of mingled regret and despair. He cast a glance
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: at Violet, who, with a nod of understanding, left the
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: little room in which they stood, and approached mister van Brooklyn,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: lifting up her head, for he was very tall, and
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: instinctively rising on her toes the nearer to reach his ear,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: she asked, in a cautious whisper, is there no other
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: way of reaching that place? She acknowledged afterwards that for
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: one moment her heart stood still from fear such a
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: change took place in his fae, though she says he
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: did not move a muscle. Then, just when she was
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: expecting from him some harsh or forbidding word, he wheeled
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: abruptly away from her, and, crossing to a window at
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: his side, lifted the shade and looked out. When he returned,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: he was his usual self, so far as she could see.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: There is a way, he now confided to her, in
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: a tone as low as her own. But it can
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: only be taken by a child, not by me, she asked,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: smiling down at her own childish proportions. For an instant
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: he seemed taken aback. Then she saw his hand begin
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: to tremble and his lips twitch. Somehow she knew not why.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: She began to pity him, and asked herself, as she felt,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: rather than saw, the struggle in his mind, that here
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: was a trouble which, if once understood, would greatly dwarf
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: that of the two men in the room behind them.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: I am discreet, she whisperingly declared. I have heard the
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: history of that door, how it was against the tradition
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: of the family to have it opened. There must have
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: been some very dreadful reason. But old superstitions do not
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: affect me. And if you will allow me to take
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: the way you mention, I will follow your bidding exactly,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: and will not trouble myself about anything but the recovery
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: of this paper, which must lie only a little way
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: inside that blocked up door. Was his look one of
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: rebuke at her presumption, or just the constrained expression of
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: a perturbed mind, probably the latter, for while she watched
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: him for some understanding of his mood, he reached out
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: his hand and touched one of the satin folds crossing
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: her shoulder. You would soil this irretrievably, said he there
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: is stuff in the stores for another. She smiled slowly.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: His touch deepened into pressure. Watching him, she saw the
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: crust of some old fear or dominant superstition melt under
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: her eyes, and was quite prepared when he remarked, with
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: what for him was a lightsome air, I will buy
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: the stuff if you will dare the darkness and intricacies
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: of our old cellar. I can give you no light.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: You will have to feel your way according to my direction.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: I am ready to dare anything. He left her abruptly.
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: I will warn miss Digby, he called back. She shall
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: go with you as far as the cellar. Part five. Violet,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: in her short career as an investigator of mysteries, had
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: been in many a situation calling for more than womanly
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: nerve and courage. But never, or so it seemed to
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: her at the time, had she experienced a greater depression
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: of spirit than when she stood with Miss Digby before
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: a small door at the stream end of the cellar
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: and understood that here was her road, a road which,
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: once entered, she must take alone. First. It was such
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: a small door no child older than eleven could possibly
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: squeeze through it, But she was of the size of
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: a child of eleven and might possibly manage that difficulty. Secondly,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: there are always some unforeseen possibilities in every situation, And
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: though she had listened carefully to mister van Brooklyn's directions
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: and was sure that she knew them by heart, she
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: wished she had kissed her father more tenderly in leaving
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: him that night for the ball, and that she had
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: not pouted so undutifully at some harsh stricture he had made.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Did this mean fear? She despised the feeling if it did. Thirdly,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: she hated darkness. She knew this when she offered herself
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: for this undertaking, but she was in a bright room
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: at the moment and only imagined what she must now
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: face as a reality. But one jet had been lit
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: in the cellar, and that near the entrance, mister van
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: Brooklyn seemed not to need light, even in his unfastening
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: of the small door, which Violet was sure had been
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: protected by more than one lock. Doubt shadow, and a
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: solitary climb between unknown walls with only a streak of
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: light for her goal, and the clinging pressure of Florence
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Digby's hand on her own for solace. Surely the prospect
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: was wont to tax the courage of her young heart
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: to its limit. But she had promised, and she would fulfill.
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: So with a brave smile, she stooped to the little door,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and in another moment had started on her journey. For journey,
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: the shortest distance may seem when every inch means a
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: heart throb, and one grows old in traversing a foot.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: At first, the way was easy. She had but to
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: crawl up a slight incline, with the comforting consciousness that
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: two people were within reach of her voice, almost within
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: sound of her beating heart. But presently she came to
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: a turn beyond which her fingers failed to reach any
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: wall on her left. Then came a step up which
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: she stumbled, and farther on a short flight, each tread
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: of which she had been told to test before she
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: ventured to climb it, lest the decay of innumerable years
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: should have weakened the wood too much to bear her weight.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: One two, three, four, five steps, Then a landing, with
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: an open space beyond. Half of her journey was done. Here,
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: she felt she could give a minute to drawing her
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: breath naturally if the air, unchanged in years, would allow
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: her to do so. Besides, here she had been enjoined
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: to do a certain thing, and to do it according
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: to instructions. Three matches had been given her and a
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: little night candle denied all light up to now. It
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: was at this point she was to light her candle
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: and place it on the floor, so that in returning
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: she should not miss the staircase and get a fall.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: She had promised to do this, and was only too
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: happy to see a spark of light scintillate into life
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: in the immeasurable darkness. She was now in a great
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: room long closed to the world, where once officers in
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: colonial wars had feasted, and more than one council had
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: been held, A room too which had seen more than
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: one tragic happening, as its almost unparalleled isolation proclaimed so
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: much mister Van Brooklyn had told her. But she was
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: warned to be careful in traversing it, and not upon
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: any pretext to swerve aside from the right hand wall
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: till she came to a huge mantelpiece. This passed, and
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: a sharp corner turned. She ought to see somewhere in
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: the dim s spases before her a streak of vivid
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: light shining through the crack at the bottom of the
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: block top door. The paper should be somewhere near this streak.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: All simple, all easy of accomplishment. If only that streak
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: of light were all she was likely to see or
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: think of, if the horror which was gripping her throat
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: should not take shape, if things would remain shrouded in
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: impenetrable darkness and not force themselves in shadowy suggestion upon
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: her excited fancy. But the blackness of the passageway through
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: which she had just struggled was not to be found here.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Whether it was the effect of that small flame flickering
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: at the top of the staircase behind her, or of
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: some change in her own powers of seeing, surely there
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: was a difference in her present outlook. Tall shapes were
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: becoming visible, The air was no longer blank. She could see.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: Then suddenly she saw why. In the wall high up
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: on her right was a window. It was small and
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: all but invisible, being covered on the outside with vines
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: and on the inside with the cobwebs of a sentry.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: But some small gleams from the starlight night came through,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: making phantasms out of ordinary things which unseen were horrible enough,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: and half seen choked her heart with terror. I cannot
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: bear it, she whispered to herself, even while creeping forward,
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: her hand upon the wall. I will close my eyes,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: was her next thought. I will make my own darkness,
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: And with a spasmodic forcing of her lids together, she
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: continued to creep on, passing the mantelpiece, where she knocked
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: against something, which fell with an awful clatter. This sound followed,
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: as it was, by that of smothered voices from the
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: excited group awaiting the result of her experiment from behind
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: the impenetraate wall. She should be nearing now if she
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: had followed her instructions aright. Freed her instantly from her fancies,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: and opening her eyes once more, she cast a look ahead, and,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: to her delight, saw but a few steps away the
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: thin streak of bright light which marked the end of
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: her journey. It took her but a moment after that
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: to find the missing page, and picking it up in
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: haste from the dusty floor, she turned herself quickly about
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: and joyfully began to retrace her steps. Why then, was
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: it that, in the course of a few minutes more
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: her voice suddenly broke into a wild, unearthly shriek, which,
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: ringing with terror, burst the bounds of that dungeon like room,
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: and sank a barbed shaft into the breasts of those
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: awaiting the result of her doubtful adventure. At either end
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: of this dread, no thoroughfare what had happened. If they
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: had thought to look out, they would have seen that
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: the moon, held in check by a bank of cloud
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: occupying half the heavens, had suddenly burst its bounds and
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: was sending long bars of revealing light into every uncurtained window.
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: End of the second part of Missing Page thirteen by
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: Anna Katherine green Third part of Missing Page thirteen by
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Anna Katherine Green. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Darviga.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Missing Page thirteen by Anna Catherine Greene Part six. Florence Digby,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: in her short and sheltered life, had possibly never known
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: any very great or deep emotion, But she touched the
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: bottom of extreme terror at that moment, as with her
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: ears still thrilling with Violet's piercing cry. She turned to
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: look at mister van Brooklyn and beheld the instantaneous wreck
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: it had made of this seemingly strong man. Not till
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: he came to lie in his coffin would he show
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: a more ghastly countenance. And trembling herself almost to the
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: point of falling, she caught him by the arm and
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: sought to read in his face what had happened, Something disastrous,
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: She was sure, something which he had feared and was
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: partially prepared for, yet which in happening had crushed him.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: Was it a pitfall into which the poor little lady
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: had fallen? If so, but he is speaking, mumbling low
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: words to himself, some of them she can hear. He
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: is reproaching himself, repeating over and over that he should
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: never have taken such a chance, that he should have
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: remembered her youth, the weakness of a young girl's nerve.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: He had been mad, and now and now, with the
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: repetition of this word, his murmuring ceased. All his energies
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: were now absorbed in listening at the low door separating
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: him from what he was agonizing to know, a door
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: impossible to enter, impossible to enlarge, a barrier to all help,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: an opening whereby sound might pass, but nothing else save
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: her own small body now lying. Where is she hurt?
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Faltered Florence stooping herself to listen. Can you hear anything? Anything?
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: For an instant he did not answer. Every faculty was
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: absorbed in the one sense. Then, slowly and in gasps,
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: he began to mutter, I think I hear something. Her step, No, no, no, step,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: All is as quiet as death, not a sound, not
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: a breath. She has fainted. Oh God, Oh God, why
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: this calamity on top of all. He had sprung to
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: his feet at the utterance of this invocation, but next
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: moment was down on his knees again listening. Listening. Never
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: was silence more profound. They were hearkening for murmurs from
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: a tomb. Florence began to sense the full horror of
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: it all, and was swaying helplessly when mister van Brooklyn
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: impulsively lifted his hand in an admonitory hush. And through
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: the days of her faculties, a small, far sound began
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: to make itself heard, growing louder as she waited, then
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: becoming faint again, then altogether ceasing only to renew itself
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: once more, till it resolved into an approaching step, faltering
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: in its course, but coming ever nearer and nearer. She's safe,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: She's not hurt. Sprang from Florence's lips in inexpressible relief,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: and expecting mister van Brooklyn to show an equal joy,
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: she turned toward him with the cheerful cry, Now, if
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: she has been so fortunate as to find that missing page,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: we shall all be repaid for our fright. A movement
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: on his part, a shifting of position, which brought him
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: finally to his feet, But he gave no other proof
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: of having heard her, nor did his countenance mirror her relief.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: It is as if he dreaded instead of hailed her return.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: Was Florence's inward comment, as she watched him involunt terorily
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: recoil at each fresh token of Violen's advance. Yet because
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: this seemed so very unnatural, she persisted in her efforts
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: to lighten the situation. And when he made no attempt
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: to encourage Violet in her approach, she herself stooped and
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: called out a cheerful welcome, which must have hung sweetly
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: in the poor little detective's ears, a sorry sight was
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: violet when helped by Florence, she finally crawled into view
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: through the narrow opening and stood once again on the
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: cellar floor. Pale, trembling and soiled with the dust of years,
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: she presented a helpless figure enough till the joy in
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Florence's face recalled some of her spirit. And, glancing down
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: at her hand, in which a sheet of paper was visible,
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: she asked for mister Spielhagen. I've got the formula, she said,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: if you will bring him, I will hand it over
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: to him here. Not a word of her adventure, nor
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: so much as one glance at mister van Brooklyn standing
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: far back in the shadows, nor was she more communicative.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: When the formula restored and everything made right with mister Spielhagen,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: they all came together again in the library for a
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: final word. I was frightened by the silence and the darkness,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: and so cried out, she explained, in answer to their questions.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: Any one would have done so who found himself alone
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: in so musty a place, She added, with an attempt
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: at lightsomeness, which deepened the pallor on mister van Brooklyn's cheek.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: Already sufficiently noticeable to have been remarked upon by more
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: than one. No ghosts, laughed mister Cornell, too happy in
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: the return of his hopes to be fully sensible of
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: the feelings of those about him. No whispers from impalpable
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: lips or touches from specter hand. Nothing to explain the
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: mystery of that room so long shut up that even
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: mister van Brooklyn declares himself ignorant of its secret. Nothing
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: returned Violet, showing her dimples in full force. Now, if
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: miss Strange had any such experiences, if she has anything
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: to tell worthy of so marked a curiosity, she will
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: tell it now came from the gentleman just alluded to
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: in tones so stern and strange that all show of
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: frivolity ceased on the instant. Have you anything to tell?
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: Miss Strange? Greatly startled, she regarded him with widening eyes
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: for a moment, then, with a move towards the door,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: remarked with a general look about her, mister van Brooklyn
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: knows his own house, and doubtless can relate its histories
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: if he will. I am a busy little body, who,
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: having finished my work, am now ready to return home.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: There to wait for the next problem which an indulgent
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: fate may offer me. She was near the threshold. She
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: was about to take her leave, when suddenly she felt
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: two hands fall on her shoulder, and turning, met the
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: eyes of mister Van Brooklyn. Burning into her own. You
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: saw dropped in an almost inaudible whisper from his lips.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: The shiver which shook her answered him better than any word.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: With an exclamation of despair. He withdrew his hands, and,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: facing the others now standing together, recovered some of his
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: self possession. I must ask for another hour of your company.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: I can no longer keep my sorrow to myself. A
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: dividing line has just been drawn across my life, and
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: I must have the sympathy of someone who knows my
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: past or. I shall go mad in my self imposed Soloude,
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: come back, miss Strange, You, of all others, have the
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: prior right to hear Part seven. I shall have to begin,
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: said he, when they were all seated and ready to listen,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: by giving you some idea. Not so much of the
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: family tradition as of the effect of this tradition upon
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: all who bore the name of Van Brooklyn. This is
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: not the only house, even in America, which contains a
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: room shut away from intrusion. In England there are many,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: but there is this difference between most of them and ours.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: No bars or locks forcibly held shut the door we
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: were forbidden to open. The command was enough that and
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: the superstitious fear which such a command, attended by a
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: long and unquestioning obedience, was likely to engender. I know
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: no more than you do why some early ancestor laid
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: his ban this room. But from my earliest years I
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: was given to understand that there was one latch in
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: the house which was never to be lifted, that any
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: fault would be forgiven sooner than that, that the honor
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: of the whole family stood in the way of disobedience,
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: and that I was to preserve that honor to my
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: dying day. You will say that all this is fantastic,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: and wonder that sane people in these modern times should
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: subject themselves to such a ridiculous restriction, especially when no
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: good reason was alleged, and the very source of the
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: tradition from which it sprung forgotten. You are right, But
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: if you look long into human nature, you will see
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: that the bonds which hold the firmest are not material ones,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: that an idea will make a man and mold a character,
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: that it lies at the source of all heroisms, and
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: is to be courted or feared, as the case may be.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: For me, it possessed a power proportionate to my loneliness.
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: I don't think there was ever a more lonely child.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: My father and mother were so unhappy in each other's
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: companionship that one or other of them was almost always away.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: But I saw little of either even when they were
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: at home. The constraint in their attitude toward each other
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: affected their conduct toward me. I have asked myself more
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: than once if either of them had any real affection
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: for me. To my father, I spoke of her, to her,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: of him, and never pleasurably this I am forced to say,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: or you cannot understand my story would to God? I
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: could tell another tale? Would to God. I had such
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: memories as other men have, of a father's clasp, a
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: mother's kiss. But no, my grief, already profound, might have
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: become abysmal. Perhaps it is best as it is, only
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: I might have been a different child and made for
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: myself a different fate. Who knows as it was, I
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: was thrown almost entirely upon my own resources for any amusement.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: This led me to a discovery I made one day.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: In a far part of the cellar, behind some heavy casks,
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: I found a little door. It was so low, so
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: exactly fitted to my small body, that I had the
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: greatest desire to enter it, but I could not get
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: around the casks. At last, an expedient occurred to me.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: We had an old servant who came nearer loving me
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: than any one else. One day, when I chanced to
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: be alone in the cellar, I took out my ball
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: and began throwing it about. Finally it landed behind the casks,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: and I ran with a beseeching cry to Michael to
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: move them. It was a task requiring no little strength
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: and address, but he managed, after a few herculean efforts,
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: to shift them aside, and I saw with delight my
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: way opened to that mysterious little door. But I did
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: not approach it. Then some instinct deterred me. But when
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: the opportunity came for me to venture there alone, I
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: did so in the most adventurous spirit, and began my
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: operations by sliding behind the casks and testing the handle
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: of the little door. It turned, and after a pull
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: or two, the door yielded. With my heart in my mouth,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: I stooped and peered in. I could see nothing, a
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: black hole and nothing more. This caused me a moment's hesitation.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: I was afraid of the dark had always been, But
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: to curiosity and the spirit of adventure triumphed, saying to
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: myself that I was Robinson Crusoe exploring the cave. I
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: crawled in, only to find that I had gained nothing.
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: It was as dark inside as it had looked to
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: be from without. There was no fun in this, so
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: I crawled back, And when I tried the experiment again,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: it was with a bit of candle in my hand
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: and a surreptitious match or two. What I saw when
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: with a very trembling little hand I had lighted one
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: of the matches would have been disappointing to most boys,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: but not to me. The litter and old boards I
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: saw in odd corners about me were full of possibilities,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: while in the dimness beyond I seemed to perceive a
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: sort of staircase which might lead I do not think
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: I made any attempt to answer that question, even in
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: my own mind. But when, after some hesitation and a
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: sense of great daring, I finally crept up those steps,
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: I remember very well my sensation at finding myself in
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: front of a narrow, closed door, it suggested too vividly
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: the one in grandfather's little room, the door in the wainscoat,
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: which we were never to open. I had my first
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: real trembling fit here, and at once fascinated and repelled
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: by this obstruction, I stumbled and lost my candle, which,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: going out in the fall, left me in total darkness
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: and a very frightened state of mind. For my imagination,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: which had been greatly stirred by my own vague thoughts
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: of the forbidden room, immediately began to people the space
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: about me with ghoulish figures. How should I escape them? However,
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: reach my own little room again, undetected and in safety.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: But these terrors, deep as they were, were nothing to
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: the real fright which seized me. When the darkness finally
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: braved and the way found back into the bright, wide
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: open halls of the house, I became conscious of having
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: dropped something besides the candle. My match box was gone.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: Not my match box, but my grandfather's, which I had
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: found lying on his table, and carried off on this
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: adventure in all the confidence of irresponsible youth, to make
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: use of it for a little while, trusting to his
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: not missing it. In the confusion I had noticed about
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: the house that morning. Was one thing to lose, it
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: was another. It was no common box, made of gold,
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: and cherished for some special reason well known to himself.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: I had often heard him say that some day I
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: would appreciate its value and be glad to own it.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: And I had left it in that hole, and at
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: any minute he might miss it, possibly ask for it.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: The day was one of torment. My mother was away
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: or shut up in her room. My father, I don't
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: know just what thoughts I had about him. He was
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: not to be seen either, and the servants cast strange
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: looks of when I spoke his name. But I little
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: realized the blow which had just fallen upon the house
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: in his definite departure, and only thought of my own trouble,
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: and of how I should meet my grandfather's eye when
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: the hour came for him to draw me to his
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: knee for his usual good night. That I was spared
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: this ordeal for the first time, this very night. First
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: comforted me, then added to my distress he had discovered
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: his loss and was angry. On the morrow he would
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: ask me for the box, and I would have to lie,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: for never could I find the courage to tell him
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: where I had been such an act of presumption he
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: would never forgive. Or so I thought, as I lay
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: and shivered in my little bed, that his coldness, his neglect,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: sprang from the discovery just made that my mother as
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: well as my father, had just fled the house forever
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: was as little known to me as the morning calamity.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: I had been given my usual tendance and was tucked
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: safely into bed. But the gloom, the silence which presently
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: settled upon the house had a very different explanation in
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: my mind from the real one. My sin for such
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: it loomed large in my mind by this time, colored
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: the whole situation and accounted for every event. At what
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: hour I slipped from my bed on to the cold floor,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: I shall never know. To me, it seemed to be
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: in the dead of night, but I doubt if it
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: were more than ten. So slowly creep away the moments
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: to a wakeful child, I had made a great resolve,
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: awful as the prospect seemed to me. Frightened as I
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: was by the very thought, I had determined in my
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: small mind to go down into the cellar and into
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: that midnight hole again in search of the lost box.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: I would take a candle and matches, this time from
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: my own mantle shelf, and if every one was asleep,
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: as appeared from the deathly quiet of the house, I
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: would be able to go and come without anybody ever
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: being the wiser. Dressing in the dark, I found my
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: matches and my candle, and, putting them in one of
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: my pockets, softly opened my door and looked out. Nobody
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: was stirring. Every light was out, except a solitary one
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: in the lower hall. That this still burned conveyed no
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: meaning to my mind. How could I know that the
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: house was so still and the room so dark because
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: everyone was out searching for some clue to my mother's
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: flight if I had looked at the clock. But I
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: did not. I was too intent upon my errand too
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: filled with the fever of my desperate undertaking to be
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: affected by anything not bearing directly upon it. Of the
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: terror caused by my own shadow on the wall. As
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: I made the turn, in the hall below. I have
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: as keen a recollection to day, as though it happened yesterday.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: But that did not deter me. Nothing deterred me till
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: safe in the cellar, I crouched down behind the casks
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: to get my breath again before entering the hole beyond.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: I had made some noise in feeling my way around
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 1: these casks, and I trembled lest these sounds had been
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: heard upstairs. But this fear soon gave place to one
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: far greater. Other sounds were making themselves heard, a din
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: of small screening feet above below on every side of me, rats,
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: rats in the wall, rats on the cellar bottom. How
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: I ever stirred from the spot, I do not know.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: But when I did stir, it was to go forward
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: and enter the uncanny hole. I had intended to light
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: my candle when I got inside, but for some reason
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: I went stumbling along in the dark, following the wall
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: till I got to the steps where I had dropped
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: the box. Here a light was necessary, but my hand
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: did not go to my pocket. I thought it better
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: to climb the steps first and softly. One foot found
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: the tread, and then another. I had only three more
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: to climb, and then my right hand, now feeling its
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: way along the wall, would be free to strike a match.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: I climbed the three steps and was steadying myself against
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: the door for a final plunge, when something happened, something
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: so strange, so unexpected, and so incredible that I wonder
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: I did not shriek aloud in my terror. The door
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: was moving under my hand. It was slowly opening inward.
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: I could feel the chill made by the widening crack.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: Moment by moment this chill increased. The gap was growing.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: A presence? Was there a presence before which I sank
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: in a small heap upon the landing. Would it advance
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: had it feet hands? Was it a presence which could
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: be felt? Whatever it was, it made no attempt to pass,
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: And presently I lifted my head only to quake anew
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: at the sound of a voice, A human voice, my
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: mother's voice, so near me that by putting out my
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: arms I might have touched her. She was speaking to
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: my father. I knew it from the tone. She was
• 1:20:34
  Speaker 1: saying words which little understood as they were made such
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: a havoc in my youthful mind that I have never
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: forgotten them. I have come, she said, they think I
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: have fled the house and are looking far and wide
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: for me. We shall not be disturbed. Who would think
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: of looking here for either you or me? Here? The
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: words sank like a plummet in my breast. I had
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: known for some few minutes that I was on the
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: threshold of the forbidden room, but they were in it.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: I can scarcely make you understand the tumult which this
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: awoke in my brain. Somehow, I had never thought that
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: any such braving of the house's law would be possible.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: I heard my father's answer, but it conveyed no meaning
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: to me. I also realized that he spoke from a distance,
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: that he was at one end of the room while
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: we were at the other. I was presently to have
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: this idea confirmed, for while I was striving with all
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: my might and main to subdue my very heart throbs
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: so that she would not hear me or suspect my presence,
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: the darkness, I should rather say, the blackness of the
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: place yielded to a flash of lightning, heat lightning, all
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: blare and no sound, and I caught an instantaneous vision
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: of my father's figure standing with gleaming things about him.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: Which affected me at the moment as supernatural, but which
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: in later years I decided to have been weapons hanging
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: on a wall. She saw him too, for she gave
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: a quick laugh and said that they would not need
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: any candles. And then there was another flash, and I
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: saw something in his hand and something in hers, And
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: though I did not yet understand, I felt myself turning
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: deathly sick, and gave a choking gasp, which was lost
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: in the rush she made into the center of the room,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: and the keenness of her swift, low cry Guardois. For
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: only one of us will ever leave this room alive.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: A duel, a duel to the death between this husband
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: and wife, this father and mother, in this hole of
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: dead tragedies, and within the sight and hearing of their child.
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: Has Satan ever devised a scheme more hideous for ruining
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: the life of an eleven year old boy. Not that
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: I took it all in at once. I was too
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: innocent and much too dazed to comprehend such hatred, much
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: less the passions which engendered it. I only knew that
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: something horrible, something beyond the conception of my childish mind,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: was going to take place in the darkness before me,
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: and the terror of it made me speechless. Would to
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: God it had made me deaf and blind and dead.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: She had dashed from her corner, and he had slid
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: away from his. As the next fantastic gleam which lit
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: up the room showed me, it also showed the weapons
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: in their hands, And for a moment I felt reassured
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: when I saw these were swords, for I had seen
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: them before with foils in their hands, practicing for exercise,
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: as they said in the great garret. But the swords
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: had buttons on them, and this time the tips were
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: sharp and shone in the keen life. An exclamation from
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: her and a growl of rage from him were followed
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: by movements I could scarcely hear, but which were terrifying
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: from their very quiet. Then the sound of a clash.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: The swords had crossed. Had the lightning flashed forth, then
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: the end of one of them might have occurred. But
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: the darkness remained undisturbed, and when the glare re lit
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: the great room again, they were already far apart. This
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: called out a word from him, the one sentence he spoke,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: I can never forget it, Rhoda, there's blood on your sleeve.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: I have wounded you. Shall we call it off and
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: fly as the poor creatures in there think we have,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: to the opposite ends of the earth. I almost spoke,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: I almost added my childish plea to his for them
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: to stop, to remember me, and stop. But not a
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: muscle in my throat responded to my agonized effort. Her cold,
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: clear no fell before my tongue was loosed, or my
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: heart freed from the ponderous weight crushing it. I have vowed,
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: and I keep my promises. She went on, in a
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: tone quite strange to me. What would either's life be
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: worth with the other alive and happy in this world?
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 1: He made no answer, and those subtle movements, shadows of movements,
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: I might almost call them, recommenced. Then there came a
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: sudden cry, shrill and poignant. Had Grandfather been in his room,
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: he would surely have heard it. And the flash, coming
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: almost simultaneously with its utterance, I saw what has haunted
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: my sleep from that day to this. My father pinned
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: against the wall, sword still in hand, and before him
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 1: my mother, fiercely triumphant, her staring eyes fixed on his,
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: and nature could bear no more. The band loosened from
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: my throat. The oppression lifted from my breast long enough
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: for me to give one wild wail, and she turned
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: saw Heaven sent its flashes quickly at this moment, and,
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: recognizing my childish form, all the horror of her deed,
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: or so I have fondly hoped, rose within her. And
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: she gave a start and fell full upon the point
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: upturned to receive her. A groan, then a gasping sigh
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: from him, and silence settled upon the room, and upon
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: my heart, and so far as I knew, upon the
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: whole created world, that is my story? Friends, do you
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: wonder that I have never been or lived like other men?
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: After a few moments of sympathetic silence, mister Van Brooklyn
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: went on to say, I don't think I ever had
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: a moment's doubt that my parents both lay dead on
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: the floor of that great room. When I came to myself,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: which may have been soon or may not have been
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: for a long while, the lightning had ceased to flash,
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: leaving the darkness stretching like a blank pall between me
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: and that spot in which were concentrated all the terrors
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: of which my imagination was capable. I dared not enter it.
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 1: I dared not take one step that way. My instinct
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: was to fly and hide my trembling body again in
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: my own bed, and associated with this, in fact, dominating
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: it and making me old before my time was another
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: never to tell, never to let any one, least of
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: all my grandfather, know what that forbidden room now contained.
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: I felt, in an irresistible sort of way, that my
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: father's and mother's honor was at stake. Besides, terror held
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: me back. I felt that I should die if I spoke.
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 1: Childhood has such terrors and such heroisms. Silence often covers
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: in such abysses of thought and feeling, which astonish us
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: in later years. There is no suffering like a child's
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 1: terrified by a secret. It dare not, for some reason
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: disclose events aided me when in desperation to see once
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: more the light and all the things which linked me
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: to life, my little bed, the toys on the window sill,
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 1: my squirrel in its cage. I forced myself to retraverse
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: the empty house, expecting at every turn to hear my
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: father's voice or come upon the image of my mother. Yes,
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: such was the confusion of my mind, though I knew
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: well enough even then that they were dead, and that
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: I should never hear the one or see the other.
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: I was so benumbed with the cold in my half
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: dressed condition, that I woke in a fever next morning
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: after a terrible dream, which forced from my lips the
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: cry of mother. Mother only that I was cautious even
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: in delirium. This delirium and my flushed cheeks and shining
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: eyes led them to be very careful to me. I
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: was told that my mother was away from home, and
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: when after two days of search, they were quite sure
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: that all efforts to find either her or my father
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: were likely to prove fruitless, that she had gone to Europe,
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: where we would follow her as soon as I was well.
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: This promise, offering as it did a prospect of immediate
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: release from the terrors which were consuming me, had an
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: extraordinary effect upon me. I got up out of my bed,
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: saying that I was well now and ready to start
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: on the instant. The doctor, finding my pulse equable and
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: my whole condition h wonderfully improved, and attributing it as
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: was natural to my hope of soon joining my mother,
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: advised my whim to be humored, and this hope kept
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: active till travel and intercourse with children should give me
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: strength and prepare me for the bitter truth ultimately awaiting me.
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: They listened to him, and in twenty four hours our
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: preparations were made. We saw the house closed, with what
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: emotions surging in one small breast I leave you to imagine,
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: and then started on our long tour. For five years
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: we wandered over the continent of Europe, my grandfather finding
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: distraction as well as myself in foreign scenes and associations.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: But return was inevitable. What I suffered on re entering
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: this house, God and my sleepless pillow alone know had
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: any discovery been made in our absence, or would it
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: be made now that renovation and repairs of all kinds
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: were necessary. Time finally answered me my secret was safe
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: and likely to continue. So and this fact, once settled,
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: life became endurable, if not cheerful. Since then, I have
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: spent only two nights out of this house, and they
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: were unavoidable. When my grandfather died, I had the wainscoat
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: door cemented in. It was done from this side, and
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: the cement painted to match the wood. No one opened
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: the door, nor have I ever crossed its threshold. Sometimes
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: I think I have been foolish, and sometimes I know
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: that I've been very wise. My reason has stood firm.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: How do I know that it would have done so
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: if I had subjected myself to the possible discovery that
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: one or both of them might have been saved, if
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: I had disclosed instead of concealed my adventure. A pause
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: during which white horror had shone on every face, Then,
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: with a final glance at Violet, he said, what sequel
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 1: do you see to this story? Miss Strange? I can
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: tell the past, I leave you to picture the future.
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: Rising she let her eye travel from face to face
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: till it rested on the one awaiting it. When she
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: answered dreamily, if some morning in the news column there
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: should appear an account of the ancient and historic home
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: of the Van Brooklyns having burnt to the ground in
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 1: the night, the whole country would mourn, and the city
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 1: feel defrauded of one of its treasures. But there are
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: five persons who would see in it the sequel which
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: you ask for. When this happened, as it did happen,
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: some few weeks later, the estor punishing discovery was made
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: that no insurance had been put upon this house Why
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: was it that, after such a loss, mister van Brooklyn
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: seemed to renew his youth. It was a constant source
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 1: of comment among his friends. End of the third part
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: of three of Missing Page thirteen by Anna Catherine Greene.