1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:11,039 The Thing in the Forest by Bernard Capes. Raven speaks into the snow locked 2 00:00:11,119 --> 00:00:19,800 forests of Upper Hungary steel wolves in winter, but there is a footfall worse 3 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:28,239 than theirs to knock upon the heart of the lonely traveler. One December evening, 4 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:35,640 Elsbet, the young, newly wetted wife of the woodman Stefan, came 5 00:00:35,719 --> 00:00:40,759 hurrying over the lower slopes of the White Mountains from the town, where she 6 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:48,000 had been all day marketing. She carried a basket with provisions on her arm. 7 00:00:49,079 --> 00:00:55,320 Her plump cheeks were like a couple of cold apples. Her breath spoke 8 00:00:55,439 --> 00:01:03,479 short, but more from nervousness than exhaustion. It was nearing dusk, and 9 00:01:03,679 --> 00:01:10,239 she was glad to see the little lonely church in the hollow below the hub, 10 00:01:10,359 --> 00:01:15,680 as it were of many radiating paths through the trees, one of which 11 00:01:15,879 --> 00:01:21,959 was the road to her own warm cottage, yet a half mile away. 12 00:01:23,079 --> 00:01:30,400 She paused a moment at the foot of the slope, undecided about entering the 13 00:01:30,519 --> 00:01:37,159 little, chill, silent building and making her plea for protection to the great 14 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:44,480 battered stone image of our Lady of Succor, which stood within by the confessional 15 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:53,159 box. But the stillness and the growing darkness decided her, and she went 16 00:01:53,239 --> 00:02:01,599 on. A spark of fire glowing through the presbytery window seemed to repel rather 17 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:07,719 than attract her, and she was glad when the convolutions of the path hid 18 00:02:07,759 --> 00:02:14,800 it from her sight. Being new to the district, she had seen very 19 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:22,680 little of father rule as yet, and somehow the penetrating knowledge and burning eyes 20 00:02:22,800 --> 00:02:30,840 of the pastor made her feel uncomfortable. The soft drift, the lane of 21 00:02:31,039 --> 00:02:40,360 tall, motionless pines stretched on in a quiet like death. Somewhere, the 22 00:02:40,479 --> 00:02:47,639 sun, like a dead fire, had fallen into opalescent embers. Faintly luminous, 23 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:57,919 they were enough only to touch the shadows with a ghastlier pallor. It 24 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:05,360 was so still that the light crunch in the snow of the girl's own footfalls 25 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:14,039 trod on her heart like a desecration. Suddenly there was something near her that 26 00:03:14,159 --> 00:03:20,439 had not been before. It had come like a shadow, without more sound 27 00:03:20,599 --> 00:03:29,840 or warning. It was here there behind her. She turned in mortal panic 28 00:03:30,039 --> 00:03:37,919 and saw a wolf with a strangled cry and trembling limbs. She strove to 29 00:03:38,039 --> 00:03:44,960 hurry on her way, and always she knew, though there was no whisper 30 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:53,039 of pursuit that the gliding shadow followed in her wake. Desperate in her terror, 31 00:03:53,599 --> 00:04:00,639 she stopped once more and faced it. A wolf? Was it a 32 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:08,240 wolf? Oh? Who could doubt it? Yet the wild expression in those 33 00:04:08,319 --> 00:04:16,360 famished eyes, so lost, so pitiful, so mingled of insatiable hunger and 34 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:27,959 human need, condemned for its unspeakable sins to take this form with sunset and 35 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:33,639 so howl and snuffle about the doors of men until the blessed day released it. 36 00:04:35,199 --> 00:04:44,560 A werewolf, not a wolf. That terrific realization of the truth smote 37 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:50,000 the girl as with a knife out of darkness. For an instant she came 38 00:04:50,120 --> 00:05:00,160 near fainting, And then a low moan broke into her heart and flood at 39 00:05:00,199 --> 00:05:10,560 it with pity, so lost, so infinitely hopeless, and so pitiful. 40 00:05:12,079 --> 00:05:19,399 Yes, in spite of all, so pitiful, it had sinned, beyond 41 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:29,399 any sinning that her innocence knew or her experience could gauge. But she was 42 00:05:29,519 --> 00:05:35,199 a woman, very blest, very happy in her store of comforts and her 43 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:43,120 surety of love. She knew that it was forbidden to succor these damned and 44 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:53,480 nameless outcasts, to help or sympathize with them in any way, But there 45 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:59,319 was a good store of meat in her basket, and who need ever know 46 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:09,160 tell? With shaking hands she found and threw a sop to the desolate brute, 47 00:06:10,439 --> 00:06:17,360 then, turning, sped upon her way. But at home, her 48 00:06:17,399 --> 00:06:25,279 secret sin stood up before her, and, interposing between her husband and herself, 49 00:06:26,279 --> 00:06:32,959 threw its shadow upon both their faces. What had she dared? What 50 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:42,360 done by her own act, forfeited her birthright of innocence, by her own 51 00:06:42,439 --> 00:06:47,920 act, placed herself in the power of the evil to which she had ministered. 52 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:58,160 All that night she lay in shame and horror, and all the next 53 00:06:58,240 --> 00:07:03,600 day until Fan had come about his dinner and gone again. She moved in 54 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:14,279 a dumb agony, then driven unendurably by the memory of his troubled, bewildered 55 00:07:14,319 --> 00:07:20,800 face. As twilight threatened, she put on her cloak and went down to 56 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:29,360 the little church in the hollow to confess her sin. Mother, forgive and 57 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:36,480 save me, she whispered as she passed the statue after ringing the bell for 58 00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:43,439 the confessor. She had not knelt long at the confessional box in the dim 59 00:07:43,519 --> 00:07:50,000 chapel, cold and empty as a waiting vault. When the chancel rail clicked 60 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:59,040 and the footsteps of Father Rule were heard rustling over the stones, he came. 61 00:08:00,079 --> 00:08:07,279 He took his seat behind the grating, and with many sighs and falterings, 62 00:08:07,079 --> 00:08:16,360 elspet avowed her guilt, and as with bowed head she ended. A 63 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:26,720 strange sound answered her. It was like a little laugh, and yet not 64 00:08:26,959 --> 00:08:33,360 so much like a laugh as a snarl, with a shock, as of 65 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:39,120 death. She raised her face. It was Father Rule who sat there, 66 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:46,759 And yet it was not Father Rule. In that time of twilight. His 67 00:08:46,919 --> 00:08:58,080 face was already changing, narrowing, becoming wolfish, the eyes rounded, and 68 00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:07,440 the jaw slavered. She gasped and shrunk back, and at that, barking 69 00:09:07,519 --> 00:09:13,120 and snapping at the grating with a wicked look, he dropped, and she 70 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:20,600 heard him coming. Sheer horror, lent her wings with a scream. She 71 00:09:20,679 --> 00:09:28,480 sprang to her feet and fled her cloak caught in something. There was a 72 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:37,679 wrench and crash, and like a flood, oblivion overswept her. It was 73 00:09:37,799 --> 00:09:45,960 the old, deaf and near senile Sacristan who found them lying there, the 74 00:09:46,039 --> 00:09:54,200 woman unhurt but insensible, the priest crushed out of life by the fall of 75 00:09:54,240 --> 00:10:03,080 the ancient statue, long tottering to its collapse, she recovered for her part. 76 00:10:03,759 --> 00:10:11,360 For his No one knows where he lies buried, but there were dark 77 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:18,240 stories of a baying pack that night, and of an empty, blood stained 78 00:10:18,279 --> 00:10:26,919 pavement when they came to seek it for the body, and of the thing 79 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:28,600 in the forest.