1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:07,120
The jungle presence by Dick Heine.
I believe that if I had been less

2
00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:12,640
fatigued mentally and physically, I should
have escaped in some degree the agony of

3
00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:17,160
that terrible night, the night that
shall never be forgotten. While I linger

4
00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:23,079
in the flesh, the berman sun
had finished its gorching course of the day

5
00:00:23,519 --> 00:00:29,359
and was sinking behind a dust and
haze horizon, painting the sky and leaving

6
00:00:29,519 --> 00:00:36,320
very little breeze to cool the tired
men and beasts whose day was done.

7
00:00:36,719 --> 00:00:41,880
The quiet of the evening fell upon
me as I walked toward my bungalow through

8
00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:47,359
the lanes of thirsty green. I
had worked hard that day. The company's

9
00:00:47,399 --> 00:00:52,560
warehouse men would have his hands full
to handle the large number of boxes I

10
00:00:52,640 --> 00:00:58,159
had shipped. I rested outside half
an hour before going in for a bath

11
00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:03,239
and clean white cloathes. Then,
refreshed and cool, I ate the light

12
00:01:03,319 --> 00:01:11,319
supper my Chinese boy Lun Ku had
prepared for me. The moon had risen

13
00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:15,040
when I went to the veranda to
sit in smoke. I propped my feet

14
00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:21,840
up and faced the wide grove and
lawn. The jagged edge of a large

15
00:01:21,879 --> 00:01:26,519
palm leaf hung over the face of
the moon, cutting the yellow disk into

16
00:01:26,519 --> 00:01:33,920
triangles. I sat quietly for an
hour and enjoyed pipe after pipe. As

17
00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:38,040
I was thinking of retiring, I
felt a hot breeze coming from the grove.

18
00:01:38,159 --> 00:01:44,400
The air was hot, oppressive,
beyond anything I had ever experienced.

19
00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:51,719
At evening, at once I became
uneasy. The nicotine had made me restless,

20
00:01:52,079 --> 00:01:57,319
and a sinking, apprehensive feeling came
over me. Then came the hint

21
00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:04,000
of the presence, the evil presence. The realization that I was being watched

22
00:02:04,319 --> 00:02:09,759
filled me with horrid dread. The
thought of impending danger, an indescribable something

23
00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:15,639
about me that sought to do me
hurt made my heart quake with fear,

24
00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:22,680
a man shaking, sickened, terrorized
with fear. The very shame of it

25
00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:27,599
cut me to the quick. I
leapt to my feet and dashed into the

26
00:02:27,639 --> 00:02:31,800
house. My forehead was wet with
sweat, and my cheeks were pale.

27
00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:38,319
I drank some liquor and paced the
room. After three quarters of an hour,

28
00:02:38,599 --> 00:02:43,319
I managed to brace up my nerves
a little. I would not yield

29
00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:49,120
to the evil will of the presence
without and so determined that I would not

30
00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:53,520
be driven from my own veranda by
an imaginary danger. I returned to the

31
00:02:53,560 --> 00:03:00,960
porch and stood by the roof post. The hot wave still veiled, and

32
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:07,120
I felt my nervousness returning. Then, as I looked into the moonlit grove,

33
00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:12,680
I heard a sigh very near me, but in front, behind,

34
00:03:13,039 --> 00:03:17,400
or where, I could not tell, only near. A moment later,

35
00:03:17,479 --> 00:03:23,400
there came to my nostrils a peculiar
smell, a foul scent from the far

36
00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:29,199
hung tangles of rotting vegetation. I
stood still and thought I saw in the

37
00:03:29,240 --> 00:03:34,840
air before my face two little green
sparks of light, shining with a brilliance

38
00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:42,039
of polished diamonds. My strength came. I had seen something material and feared

39
00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:46,879
no longer. The sweat cooled,
I passed my hands before my face,

40
00:03:47,360 --> 00:03:52,360
and the lights were gone. I
felt that I had met and conquered a

41
00:03:52,439 --> 00:03:59,240
foe, half material and perhaps half
illusion. I could retire and sleep in

42
00:03:59,319 --> 00:04:03,919
peace. Lun Ku slept in the
rear of the bungalow and had gone to

43
00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:09,560
bed when I went in the second
time. My room was in front,

44
00:04:09,759 --> 00:04:14,360
with a window opening to the porch. I found the room cooler with the

45
00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:19,879
windows closed, as it barred the
hot breeze for fifteen minutes. I deliberated

46
00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:26,759
with myself about the needle. I
ended by using it. I shot it

47
00:04:26,879 --> 00:04:32,319
home pitilessly, and my pierced muscle
quivered under the thrust. There were many

48
00:04:32,399 --> 00:04:39,079
little marks on my arms. I
felt ashamed. But the sleep, the

49
00:04:39,319 --> 00:04:45,839
RESTful oblivion, could anything be sweeter? Before the drug had begun to work,

50
00:04:46,079 --> 00:04:49,319
I fastened the room up tight and
lay down. It was close,

51
00:04:49,439 --> 00:04:55,959
of course, But why should I
mind that I should sleep? My breath

52
00:04:56,079 --> 00:05:01,839
came deep and long, falling through
spain, weightless and devoid of reason.

53
00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:11,279
A million miles that's not far to
fall ten times a million miles I fell.

54
00:05:11,920 --> 00:05:15,680
I fell the stars and planets but
sparks of light, and I myself

55
00:05:16,199 --> 00:05:24,240
only a small golden pin head.
What is myself? The river was deep,

56
00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:29,560
the grass was green. I am
taller than he is. His mouth

57
00:05:29,639 --> 00:05:34,360
is funny, his eyes are green, They are diamonds. What makes him

58
00:05:34,399 --> 00:05:41,319
move his head? So he wheezes? He sighs. That's old, mother

59
00:05:41,399 --> 00:05:47,879
Hubbard. That spider works, sand, salt water, blue rainbow colors?

60
00:05:48,519 --> 00:05:57,279
What senseless? And falling through space? What is space? It all happened

61
00:05:57,319 --> 00:06:01,360
in a fraction of a second.
Crazy nothings distractions of a tortured brain.

62
00:06:02,519 --> 00:06:10,399
Was I dreaming? Am I dreaming? Am I dreaming? Something seems awfully

63
00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:15,759
heavy? Hot, oppressive, magnetic. It's not heavy near my face.

64
00:06:15,160 --> 00:06:18,680
It has no weight on my face, but down on my legs. The

65
00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:25,079
weight is terrible. What makes it
so heavy? The coverings are not pulled

66
00:06:25,079 --> 00:06:30,920
over me? Spending months in a
moment, decades in a second. I

67
00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:35,920
broke the spell and became conscious.
This state constituted only a few perceptions.

68
00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:43,279
My eyes were closed. I was
myself resting where I always rested, in

69
00:06:43,399 --> 00:06:47,279
space. For I am space,
the beginning and the ending of space.

70
00:06:48,839 --> 00:06:56,199
I was somewhere. There was an
evil presence. The hot presence there hovered

71
00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:00,720
over me, the hint of danger, not now, but in. If

72
00:07:00,759 --> 00:07:06,120
I knew what the danger was,
I might resist. The weight of the

73
00:07:06,279 --> 00:07:12,800
hint bored down upon my upper body, a spiritual weight with a crushing force.

74
00:07:14,079 --> 00:07:18,759
The heavy material weight on my abdomen
and legs was nothing compared to it.

75
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:26,199
The greater the power of evil,
the heavier was its atmosphere. I

76
00:07:26,319 --> 00:07:30,439
had thought that this idea of crushing
weight had been part of the dream,

77
00:07:30,319 --> 00:07:35,720
but consciousness proved it to be real. I began to be more aware of

78
00:07:35,759 --> 00:07:42,399
my body. My hands were folded
across my chest and suffered from the pressure.

79
00:07:43,399 --> 00:07:47,079
My eyes would not open. There
seemed to be a power above me

80
00:07:47,279 --> 00:07:51,800
that kept them closed, and I
did not want to open them. I

81
00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:56,839
felt that when they did open.
I felt that when they did open,

82
00:07:57,079 --> 00:08:01,639
I would lose the poise of my
high strung nerves. The sweat steeped from

83
00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:07,959
my skin. My forehead felt as
if the most powerful magnet in existence were

84
00:08:07,959 --> 00:08:13,120
trying to draw out my brains.
If I opened my eyes, the magnet

85
00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:18,720
would get in its work. Then
it occurred to me that perhaps I had

86
00:08:18,759 --> 00:08:24,319
seemingly died, been buried, alive, come to life again, and that

87
00:08:24,399 --> 00:08:30,040
the heaviness torturing me was the foul
air of the coffin. I had no

88
00:08:30,199 --> 00:08:35,039
record of time. Suddenly I felt
the veil of weight beginning to lift.

89
00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:43,200
My eyelids twitched they would open.
Unable to resist, I opened my eyes

90
00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:48,639
wide. Apparently I was in my
room. The moonlight came in wan swords

91
00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:54,399
through the slits and the blinds.
There was barely enough light to make objects

92
00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:58,240
perceptible. I heard a faint sigh, though somewhat louder than the one I

93
00:08:58,279 --> 00:09:05,080
had heard on the veranda. Then
there came the jungle odor, that putrid

94
00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:11,240
breath from distant wilds. Turning my
eyes upward, I perceived the cause of

95
00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:16,559
my terror. There, with its
expanded neck and devilish head, poised in

96
00:09:16,639 --> 00:09:22,000
a curve within six inches of my
face, its eyes staring straight into the

97
00:09:22,039 --> 00:09:26,519
depth of mine, its body coiled
on my lower limbs, was the horror

98
00:09:26,559 --> 00:09:33,320
of creation, the giant cobra di
Capello. Somehow, a strange calm came

99
00:09:33,399 --> 00:09:37,399
over me, and I looked away
from the snake. Then I closed my

100
00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:43,399
eyes and accepted darkness and death.
It seemed that I waited hours for the

101
00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:48,679
blow. If I made a movement, perhaps it would come. I decided

102
00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:54,720
to end the agony by moving.
Just as I felt the muscles respond for

103
00:09:54,840 --> 00:10:00,519
the movement of my legs, I
changed my mind. What little reason I

104
00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:05,679
had left, I would try thought. I thought of Coo. If he

105
00:10:05,799 --> 00:10:11,200
were asleep, I could not wake
him by sound, but perhaps I could

106
00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:18,360
by thought. I turned on the
full current. Coo Coo, Coo,

107
00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:24,440
Coo coo A hundred times. I
thought his name and blessed his yellow skin.

108
00:10:26,039 --> 00:10:31,559
After what seemed an interminable period,
I heard a light footfall somewhere.

109
00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:37,320
I opened my eyes. A silent
flash streamed toward me from the other side

110
00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:41,919
of the room, near the hall
door. The snake lifted its coils from

111
00:10:41,919 --> 00:10:48,960
my lower limbs, its oppressive magnetism
from my upper body, and with a

112
00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:52,559
mighty leap, collected its length in
a writhing mass upon the bedroom floor.

113
00:10:54,080 --> 00:11:00,600
Coo had risked my life by piercing
the snake's head with a silence bullet,

114
00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:05,279
just a fraction of a second before
it was to have struck. The leap

115
00:11:05,279 --> 00:11:09,759
from the bed was aided by the
tense muscles prepared for the blow at me.

116
00:11:11,279 --> 00:11:16,519
I sprang from the bed and switched
on the light. Loon. Coup

117
00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:22,399
stood with pistol trained on the now
harmless head, and the reptile's reflex action

118
00:11:24,039 --> 00:11:28,000
thrashed its tail about the floor.
How did you know, Cou, I

119
00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:35,240
asked, Hot breeze died down,
night, cool off me feelum dwarf and

120
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:41,600
wakey. Hear something in hall?
See snaky haunt? Long time for gun?

121
00:11:41,799 --> 00:11:48,360
Then shoot? And Ku smiled calm
and collected, as is ever his

122
00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:52,440
kind. I looked into the mirror
to attest the agony I had suffered.

123
00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:58,559
I saw that my eyebrows stood straight
out from the skin, and my forehead

124
00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:07,480
was speed with little beads of sweated
blood. The End of the Jungle Presence

125
00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:09,200
by Dick Heine