WEBVTT

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Chapter one of The Thirty Nine Steps
by John Buchan. This is a LibriVox

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recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or

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to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
org. Read by A. Cliff Stone

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of Sydney, Australia. The Thirty
Nine Steps by John Buckan, Chapter one,

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The Man who Died. I returned
from the city about three o'clock on

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that May afternoon, pretty well disgusted
with life. I had been three months

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in the Old Country and was fed
up with it. If anyone had told

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me a year ago that I would
have been feeling like that, I should

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have laughed at him. But there
was the fact the weather made me liverish

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to talk of the ordinary englishman made
me sick. I couldn't get enough exercise,

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and the amusements of London seemed as
flat as soda water that has been

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standing in the sun. Richard Hannay, I kept telling myself, you have

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got in the wrong ditch, my
friend, and you had better climb out.

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It made me bite my lips to
think of the plans I had been

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building up those last years in Bulawayo. I had got my pile not one

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of the big ones, but good
enough for me, and I had figured

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out all kinds of ways of enjoying
myself. My father had brought me out

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from Scotland at the age of six, and I had never been home since.

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So England was a sort of Arabian
nights to me, and I counted

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on stopping there for the rest of
my days. But from the first I

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was disappointed with it. In about
a week, I was tired of seeing

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sights. In less than a month, I had had enough of restaurants and

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theaters and race meetings. I had
no real power to go about with,

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which probably explains things. Plenty of
people invited me to their houses, but

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they didn't seem much interested in me. They would fling me a question or

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two about South Africa and then get
on with their own affairs. A lot

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of imperialist ladies asked me to Tea
to meet schoolmasters from New Zealand and editors

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from Vancouver. And that was the
dismallest business of all. Here was I,

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thirty seven years old, sound and
wind and limb, with enough money

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to have a good time, yawning
my head off all day. I had

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just about settled to clear out and
get back to the Veld, for I

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was the best bored man in the
United Kingdom. That afternoon I had been

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worrying my brokers about investments to give
my mind something to work on, and

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on my way home I turned into
my club, rather a pothouse which took

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in colonial members. I had a
long drink and read the evening papers.

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They were full of the row in
the Near East, and there was an

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article about Carolidi's the Greek premier.
I rather fancied the chap. From all

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accounts, he seemed the one big
man in the show, and he played

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a straight game too, which was
more than could be said for most of

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them. I gathered that they hated
him pretty blackly in Berlin and Vienna,

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but we were going to stick by
him. In One paper said that he

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was the only barrier between Europe and
armageddon. I remember wondering if I could

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get a job in those parts.
It struck me that Albania was the sort

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of place that might keep a man
from yawning. About six o'clock I went

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home, dressed, dined at the
Cafe Royal and turned into a music hall.

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It was a silly show, all
capering women and monkey faced men,

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and I did not stay long.
The night was fine and clear. As

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I walked back to the flat I
had hired near Portland Place, the crowd

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surged past me on the pavements,
busy and chattering, and I envied the

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people for having something to do.
These shop girls and clerks and dandies and

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policemen had some interest in life that
kept them going. I gave half a

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crown to a beggar because I saw
him yawn. He was a fellow sufferer

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at Oxford Circus. I looked up
into the spring sky and I made a

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vow. I would give the old
country another day to fit me into something.

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If nothing happened, I would take
the next boat for the Cape.

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My flat was the first floor in
a new block behind Langhom Place. There

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was a common staircase with a porter
and a liftman at the entrance, but

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there was no restaurant or anything of
that sort, and each flat was quite

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shut off from the others. I
hate servants on the premises, so I

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had a fellow to look after me, who came in by the day.

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He arrived before eight o'clock every morning
and used to depart at seven. For

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I never dined at home. I
was just fitting my key into the door

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when I noticed a man at my
elbow. I had not seen him approach,

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and the sudden appearance made me start. He was a slim man with

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a short brown beard and small,
gimlety blue eyes. I recognized him as

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the occupant of a flat on the
top floor with whom I had passed the

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time of day on the stairs.
Can I speak to you? He said?

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May I come in for a minute. He was steadying his voice with

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an effort, and his hand was
pouring my arm. I got my door

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open and motioned him in. No
sooner was he over the threshold than he

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made a dash for my back room, where I used to smoke and write

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my letters. Then he bolted back. Is the door locked, he asked

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feverishly, and he fastened the chain
with his own hand. I'm very sorry,

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he said, humbly. It's a
mighty liberty. But you look the

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kind of man who would understand.
I've had you in my mind all this

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week when things got troublesome, Say
will you do me a good turn?

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I'll listen to you, I said, that's all I promise. I was

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getting worried by the antics of this
nervous little chap. There was a tray

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of drinks on the table beside him, from which he filled himself a stiff

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whisky and soda. He drank it
off in three gulbs and cracked the glass

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as he set it down. Pardon, he said, I'm a bit rattled

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to night. You see, I
happen at this moment to be dead.

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I sat down in an arm chair
and lit my pipe. What does it

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feel like? I asked. I
was pretty certain that I had to deal

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with a madman. A smile flickered
over his drawn face. I'm not mad

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yet, say sir. I've been
watching you, and I reckon you're a

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cool customer. I reckon too,
You're an honest man and not afraid of

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playing a bold hand. I'm going
to confide in you. I need help

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worse than any man ever needed it, and I want to know if I

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can count you in. Get on
with your yarn, I said, and

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I'll tell you. He seemed to
brace himself for a great effort, and

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then started on the queerest rigmarole.
I didn't get hold of it at first,

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and I had to stop and ask
him questions. But here is the

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gist of it. He was an
American from Kentucky, and after college,

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being pretty well off, he had
started out to see the world. He

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wrote a bit and acted as war
correspondent for a Chicago paper, and spent

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a year or two in southeastern Europe. I gathered that he was a fine

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linkinguist and had got to know pretty
well the society in those parts. He

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spoke familiarly of many names that I
remembered to have seen in the newspapers.

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He had played about with politics,
he told me, at first for the

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interest of them, and then because
he couldn't help himself. I read him

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as a sharp, restless fellow who
always wanted to get down to the roots

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of things. He got a little
further down that he wanted. I am

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giving you what he told me as
well as I could make it out away.

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Behind all the governments and the armies, there was a big, subterranean

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movement going on, engineered by very
dangerous people. He had come on it

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by accident. It fascinated him.
He went further, and then he got

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caught. I gathered that most of
the people in it were the sort of

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educated anarchists that make revolutions, but
that Beside them, there were financiers who

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were playing for money. A clever
man can make big profits on a falling

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market, and it suited the book
of both classes to set Europe by the

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years. He told me some queer
things had explained a lot that had puzzled

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me. Things had happened in the
Balkan War, how one state suddenly came

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out on top, why alliances were
made and broken, why certain men disappeared,

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and where the sinews of war came
from, the aim of the whole

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conspiracy was to get Russia and Germany
at loggerheads. When I asked why,

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he said that the anarchist lot thought
it would give them their chance. Everything

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would be in the melting pot,
and they looked to see a new world

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emerge. The capitalists would rake in
the shekels and make fortunes by buying up

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wreckage. Capital, he said,
had no conscience and no farther land.

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Besides, the Jew was behind it, and the Jew hated Russia worse than

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hell. Do you wonder, he
cried, for three hundred years they have

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been persecuted, and this is the
return match for the programs. The Jew

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is everywhere, but you have to
go far down the back stairs to find

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him. Take any big Teutonic business
concern, if you have dealings with it.

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The first man you meet is Prince
von unsu Something, an elegant young

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man who talks Eton and harrow English, but he cuts no ice. If

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your business is big, you get
behind him and find a prognathis Westphalian with

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a retreating brow in the manners of
a hog. He is the German businessman

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that gives your English papers the shakes. But if you're the biggest kind of

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job and are bound to get to
the real boss, ten to one,

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you are brought up against a little
white faced Jew in a bath chair with

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an eye like a rattlesnake. Yes, sir, he is the man who

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is ruling the world just now,
and he has his knife in the Empire

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of the Czar. Because his aunt
was outraged and his father flogged in some

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one horse location on the Vulgar.
I could not help saying that his jew

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anarchists seem to have got left behind
a little. Yes, no, he

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said, they won up to a
point, but they struck a bigger thing

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than money, a thing that couldn't
be bought. The old elemental fighting instincts

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of man. If you're going to
be killed, you invent some kind of

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flag and country to fight for it, and if you survive, you get

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to love the thing. Those foolish
devils of soldiers have found something they care

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for, and that has upset the
pretty plan laid in Berlin and Vienna.

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But my friends haven't played their last
card. By a long sight. They've

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gotten the ace of their sleeves,
and unless I can keep alive for a

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month, they are going to play
it and win. But I thought you

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were dead. I put in Moore's
Janhavite. He smiled. I recognized the

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quotation. It was about all that
Latin. I knew I'm coming to that.

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But I've got to put you wise
about a lot of things. First,

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If you read your newspaper, I
guess you know the name of Constantine

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Karalides. I sat up for that, for I had been reading about him

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that very afternoon. He is the
man that has wrecked all their games.

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He is the one big brain in
the whole show, and he happens also

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to be an honest man. Therefore
he has been marked down these twelve months

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past. I found that out,
not that it was difficult for any fool

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could guess as much. But I
found out the way they were going to

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get him, and that knowledge was
deadly. That's why I have had to

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decease. He had another drink and
I mixed it for him myself, for

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I was getting interested in the beggar. They can't get him in his own

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land, for he has a bodyguard
of Epparotes that would skin their grandmothers.

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But on the fifteenth day of June
he is coming to this city. The

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British Foreign Office has taken to having
international tea parties, and the biggest of

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them is due on that date.
Now Karlides is reckoned the principal guest,

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and if my friends have their way, he will never return to his admiring

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countrymen. That's poor enough. Anyhow, I said, you can warn him

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and keep him at home and play
their game. He asked sharply. If

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he does not come, they win, for he's the only man that can

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straighten out the tangle. And if
his government are warned, he won't come,

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for he does not know how big
the stakes will be on June the

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fifteenth. What about the British government, I said, they're not going to

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let their guests be murdered. Tip
them the wink and they'll take extra precautions.

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No good. They might stuff your
city with plainclothes detectives and double the

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police, and Constantine would still be
a doomed man. My friends are not

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playing this game for candy. They
want a big occasion for the taking off,

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with the eyes of all Europe on
it. He'll be murdered by an

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Austrian and there'll be plenty of evidence
to show the connivance of the big folk

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in Vienna, in Berlin. It
will all be an infernal lie, of

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course, but the case will look
black enough to the world. I'm not

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talking hot he am my friend.
I happen to every detail of the hellish

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contrivance, and I can't tell you
it will be the most finished piece of

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black guardism since the Borges. But
it's not going to come off if there's

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a certain man who knows the wheels
of the business alive right here in London

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on the fifteenth day of June.
And that man is going to be your

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servant. Franklin P. Scudder.
I was getting to like the little chap.

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His jaw had shut like a rat
trap, and there was the fire

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battle in his gimlety eyes. If
he was spinning me a yarn, he

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could act up to it. Where
did you find out the story, I

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asked. I got the first hint
in an inn on the Arkansi in Tyrel.

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That set me inquiring, and I
collected my other clues in a first

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shop in the Galatian quarter of Buddha, in a stranger's club in Vienna,

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and in a little bookshop off the
Racknitztrasse and Lipzig. I completed my evidence

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ten days ago in Paris. I
can't tell you the details now, for

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it's something of a history. When
I was quite sure in my own mind,

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I judged at my business to disappear, and I reached a city by

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a mighty queer circuit. I left
Paris a dandified young French American, and

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I sailed from Hamburger Jue diamond merchant
in Norway. I was an English student

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of absent, collecting materials for lectures. But when I left Bergen I was

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a cinema man with special ski films, and I came here from Leith with

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a lot of pulp wood propositions in
my pocket to put before the London newspapers.

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Till yesterday. I thought I had
muddied my trail some and was feeling

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pretty happy. Then the recollection seemed
to upset him, and he gulped down

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some more whisky. Then I saw
a man standing in the street outside this

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block. I used to stay close
in my room all day and only slip

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out after dark for an hour or
two. I watched him for a bit

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from my window, and I thought
I recognized him. He came in and

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spoke to the porter. When I
came back from my walk last night,

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I found a card in my letter
box. It bore the name of the

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man I want least to meet on
God's Earth. I think that the look

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in my companion's eyes, the sheer
naked skier on his face, completed my

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conviction of his honesty. My own
voice sharpened a bed as I asked him

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what he did next. I realized
that I was bottled as sure as a

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pickled herring, and that there was
only one way out. I had to

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die. If my pursuers knew I
was dead, they would go to sleep

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00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:35.559
again. How did you manage it? I told the man that valets me

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that I was feeling pretty bad,
and I got myself up to look like

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death. That wasn't difficult for I
am no slouch at Disguis's. Then I

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got a corpse. You can always
get a body in London if you know

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where to go for it. I
fetched it back in a trunk on the

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top of a four wheeler, and
I had to be assisted upstairs to my

220
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room. You see, I had
to pile up some evidence for the inquest.

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I went to bed and got my
man to mix me a sleeping draft,

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and then told him to clear out. He wanted to fetch a doctor,

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but I swore some and said I
couldn't abide leeches. When I was

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left alone, I started to fake
up that corpse. He was my size,

225
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and I judged had perished from too
much alcohol, so I put some

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spirits handy about the place. The
jaw was the only weak point in the

227
00:16:22.399 --> 00:16:26.639
likeness, so I blew it away
with a revolver. I daresay there will

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00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:30.200
be somebody tomorrow to swear to having
heard a shot, But there are no

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neighbors on my floor, and I
guessed I could risk it. So I

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00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:37.679
left the body in bed, dressed
up in my pajamas, with a revolver

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lying on the bedclothes and a considerable
mess around. Then I got into a

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suit of clothes I had kept waiting
for emergencies. I didn't dare to shave

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for fear of leaving tracks. And
besides, there wasn't any kind of use

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my trying to get into the streets. I had had you in my mind

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all day, and there seemed nothing
to do but to make an appeal to

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you. I watched from my window
till I saw you come home, and

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then slipped down the stair to meet
you there. Sir, I guess you

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know about as much as me of
this business. He sat blinking like an

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00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:15.880
owl, fluttering with nerves, and
yet desperately determined. By this time I

240
00:17:15.960 --> 00:17:19.960
was pretty well convinced that he was
going straight with me. It was the

241
00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:25.279
wildest sort of narrative, but I
had heard in my time many steep tails

242
00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:27.440
which had turned out to be true, and I had made a practice of

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00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:32.799
judging the man rather than the story. If he had wanted to get a

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location in my flat and then cut
my throat, he would have pitched a

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00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:40.440
milder yarn. Hand me your key, I said, and I'll take a

246
00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:44.359
look at the corpse. Excuse my
caution, but I'm bound to verify a

247
00:17:44.359 --> 00:17:48.119
bit if I can. He shook
his head mournfully. I reckoned, you'd

248
00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:52.279
ask for that, but I haven't
got it. That's on my chain on

249
00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:55.559
the dressing table. I had to
leave it behind, for I couldn't leave

250
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any clues to breed suspicions the gentry
who are after me at bright eyed citizens.

251
00:18:00.839 --> 00:18:04.039
You'll have to take me on trust
for the night, and tomorrow you'll

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get proof of the corpse business.
Right enough, I thought for an instant

253
00:18:08.759 --> 00:18:12.759
or two. Right, I'll trust
you for the night. I will lock

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00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:18.359
you into this room and keep the
key. Just one word, mister Scudder,

255
00:18:18.920 --> 00:18:21.920
I believe you're straight, but if
so be, you are not,

256
00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:25.880
I should warn you that I'm a
handy man with a gun. Sure,

257
00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:30.359
he said, jumping up with some
briskness. I haven't the privilege of your

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00:18:30.440 --> 00:18:33.119
name, sir, but let me
tell you that you're a white man.

259
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:37.960
I'll thank you to lend me a
razor. I took him into my bedroom

260
00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:41.440
and turned him loose. In half
an hour's time, a figure came out

261
00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:45.920
that I scarcely recognize. Only his
gimlety, hungry eyes were the same.

262
00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:49.359
He was shaved clean, his hair
was parted in the middle, and he

263
00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:55.160
had cut his eyebrows further. He
carried himself as if he had been drilled,

264
00:18:55.160 --> 00:18:57.920
and was the very model, even
to the brown complexion of some British

265
00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:03.119
officer who had had a long spell
in India. He had a monocle two

266
00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.960
which he stuck in his eye,
and every trace of the American had gone

267
00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:11.960
out of his speech. My hat, mister Scudder, I stammered, Not

268
00:19:11.240 --> 00:19:17.519
mister Scudder, he corrected. Captain
Theophilis Digby of the forty of Gurkha's,

269
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presently home on leave. I'll thank
you to remember that, Sir. I

270
00:19:22.599 --> 00:19:25.519
made him up a bed in my
smoking room and sought my own couch,

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more cheerful than I had been for
the past month. Things did happen occasionally,

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00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:36.160
even in this god forgotten metropolis.
I awoke next morning to hear my

273
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man Paddock making the juice of a
row at the smoking room door. Paddock

274
00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:42.880
was a fellow I had done a
good turn to out on the salar key,

275
00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:47.000
and I had inspanned him as my
servant as soon as I got to

276
00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:51.759
England. He had about as much
gift of the gab as a hippopotamus and

277
00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:55.559
was not a great hand at valeting, but I knew I could count on

278
00:19:55.680 --> 00:20:00.559
his loyalty. Stop that row,
Paddock, I said, there's a friend

279
00:20:00.599 --> 00:20:06.359
of mine, Captain. Captain I
couldn't remember the name, Dossing down in

280
00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:11.359
there, get breakfast for two and
then come and speak to me. I

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00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:15.960
told Paddock a fine story about how
my friend was a great swell with his

282
00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:21.400
nerves pretty bad from overwork, who
wanted absolute rest and stillness. Nobody had

283
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:25.279
got to know he was here,
for he would be besieged by communications from

284
00:20:25.319 --> 00:20:29.119
the India Office and the Prime Minister, and his cure would be ruined.

285
00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:33.400
I am bound to say. Scudder
played up splendidly when he came to breakfast.

286
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:37.920
He fixed Paddock with his eyeglass just
like a British officer, asked him

287
00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:41.480
about the Boer War, and slung
out at me a lot of stuff about

288
00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:48.359
imaginary powers. Paddock couldn't learn to
call me sir, but he surred Scudder

289
00:20:48.680 --> 00:20:52.160
as if his life depended on it. I left him with the newspaper and

290
00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:56.559
a box of cigars and went down
to the city to luncheon. When I

291
00:20:56.599 --> 00:21:02.559
got back, the liftman had an
important face, nasty business here this morning,

292
00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:07.000
sir gent and number fifteen being and
shot hisself. They just took him

293
00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:11.880
to the moutary. The police are
up there now. I sent it to

294
00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:17.079
Number fifteen and found a couple of
bobbies and dan inspector busy making an examination.

295
00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:21.240
I asked a few idiotic questions,
and they soon kicked me out.

296
00:21:22.279 --> 00:21:26.000
Then I found the man that had
valeted Scudder and pumped him, but I

297
00:21:26.039 --> 00:21:30.119
could see he suspected nothing. He
was a whining fellow with a churchyard face,

298
00:21:30.599 --> 00:21:36.440
and half a crown went far to
console him. I attended the inquest

299
00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:41.240
next day. A partner of some
publishing firm gave evidence that the deceased had

300
00:21:41.279 --> 00:21:45.640
brought him would Pulp propositions and had
been, he believed, an agent of

301
00:21:45.720 --> 00:21:51.000
ourn American business. The jury found
it a case of suicide while of unsound

302
00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:53.799
mind, and the few effects were
handed over to the American consul to deal

303
00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:59.720
with. I gave Scudder a full
account of the affair, and it interested

304
00:21:59.759 --> 00:22:03.759
him greatly. He said he wished
he could have attended the inquest, for

305
00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:07.759
he reckoned it would be about as
spicy as to read one's own obituary notice.

306
00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:11.880
The first two days he stayed with
me in that back room. He

307
00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:15.640
was very peaceful. He read and
smoked a bit, and made a heap

308
00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:19.240
of jottings in a notebook, And
every night we had a game of chess,

309
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:23.440
at which he beat me hollow.
I think he was nursing his nerves

310
00:22:23.480 --> 00:22:27.720
back to health, for he had
had a pretty trying time. But on

311
00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:33.400
the third day I could see he
was beginning to get restless. He fixed

312
00:22:33.440 --> 00:22:36.680
up a list of the days till
June fifteenth, and ticked each off with

313
00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:41.119
a red pencil, making remarks in
shorthand against them. I would find him

314
00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:47.119
sunk in a brown study, with
his sharp eyes abstracted, and after those

315
00:22:47.160 --> 00:22:52.160
spells of meditation he was apt to
be very despondent. Then I could see

316
00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:56.599
that he began to get edgy again. He listened for little noises and was

317
00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:00.960
always asking me if Paddock could be
trusted. Once or twice he got very

318
00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.960
peevish, had apologized for it.
I didn't blame him. I made every

319
00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:10.480
allowance, for he had taken on
a fairly stiff job. It was not

320
00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:12.680
the safety of his own skin that
troubled him, but the success of the

321
00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:18.880
scheme. He had planned that little
man was clean grit all through, without

322
00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:25.079
a soft spot in him. One
night he was very solemn, say hannay.

323
00:23:25.119 --> 00:23:27.319
He said, I, judge,
I should let you a bit deeper

324
00:23:27.400 --> 00:23:32.400
into this business. I should hate
to go out without leaving somebody else to

325
00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:36.400
put up a fight. And he
began to tell me in detail what I

326
00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:41.359
had only heard from him vaguely.
I did not give him very close attention.

327
00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:45.920
The fact is I was more interested
in his own adventures than in his

328
00:23:45.079 --> 00:23:51.039
high politics. I reckoned that Carolidis
and his affairs were not my business,

329
00:23:51.240 --> 00:23:55.599
leaving all that to him. So
a lot that he said slipped clean out

330
00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:59.400
of my memory. I remember that
he was very clear that the danger to

331
00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:03.839
Calidi would not begin till he had
got to London, and would come from

332
00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:07.240
the very highest quarters, where there
would be no thought of suspicion. He

333
00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:12.039
mentioned the name of a woman,
Julia set in Ye as having something to

334
00:24:12.079 --> 00:24:17.279
do with the danger. She would
be the decoy I gathered to get Karalites

335
00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:21.440
out of the care of his guards. He talked too, about a black

336
00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:26.759
Stone and a man that listed in
his speech, and he described very particularly

337
00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:30.000
somebody that he never referred to without
a shudder, an old man with a

338
00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:34.720
young voice who could hood his eyes
like a hawk. He spoke a good

339
00:24:34.759 --> 00:24:40.359
deal about death too. He was
mortally anxious about winning through with his job,

340
00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:45.119
but he didn't care a rush for
his life. I reckon, it's

341
00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:48.119
like going to sleep when you are
pretty well tired out, and waking to

342
00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:52.319
find a summer day with the scent
of hay coming in at the window.

343
00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:56.920
I used to thank God for such
mornings way back in the blue Grass country,

344
00:24:56.480 --> 00:25:00.319
and I guess I'll thank him when
I wake up on the other side

345
00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:04.640
of Jordan next day. He was
much more cheerful and read the life of

346
00:25:04.680 --> 00:25:08.839
Stonewall Jackson much of the time.
I went out to dinner with a mining

347
00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:12.279
engineer I had got to see on
business, and came back about half past

348
00:25:12.279 --> 00:25:17.680
ten in time for our game of
chess. Before turning in, I had

349
00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:21.880
a cigar in my mouth. I
remember as I pushed open the smoking room

350
00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:25.960
door, the lights were not lit, which struck me as odd. I

351
00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:30.640
wondered if Scudderhead turned in already.
I snapped a switch, but there was

352
00:25:30.680 --> 00:25:34.160
nobody there. Then I saw something
in the far corner which made me drop

353
00:25:34.200 --> 00:25:40.680
my cigar and fall into a cold
sweat. My guest was lying sprawled on

354
00:25:40.759 --> 00:25:45.279
his back. There was a long
knife through his heart which skewered him to

355
00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:56.799
the floor. End of chapter one, Chapter two of the Thirty nine Steps

356
00:25:56.839 --> 00:26:02.039
by John Bucking. The Sleep of
Ox recording is in the public domain.

357
00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:07.279
Read by A. Cliff Stone of
Sydney, Australia. Chapter two, The

358
00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:14.960
Milkman sets out on his travels.
I sat down in an armchair and felt

359
00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:18.880
very sick. That lasted for maybe
five minutes, and was succeeded by a

360
00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:22.799
fit of the horrors. The poor, staring, white face on the floor

361
00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:26.039
was more than I could bear,
and I managed to get a tablecloth and

362
00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:30.920
cover it. Then I staggered to
a cupboard, found the brandy and swallowed

363
00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:37.519
several mouthfuls. I had seen men
die violently before, indeed I had killed

364
00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:41.640
a few myself in the Metabali War, but this cold blooded indoor business was

365
00:26:41.720 --> 00:26:47.480
different. Still, I managed to
pull myself together. I looked at my

366
00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:52.039
watch and saw that it was half
past ten. An idea seized me,

367
00:26:52.240 --> 00:26:56.319
and I went over the flat with
a small tooth comb. There was nobody

368
00:26:56.359 --> 00:27:00.680
there, nor any trace of anybody, but shuttered and bolted all the windows

369
00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:04.920
and put the chain on the door. By this time my wits were coming

370
00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:08.759
back to me, and I could
think again. It took me about an

371
00:27:08.759 --> 00:27:12.559
hour to figure the thing out,
and I did not hurry, for unless

372
00:27:12.599 --> 00:27:17.240
the murderer came back, I had
till about six o'clock in the morning for

373
00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:22.680
my cogitations. I was in the
soup. That was pretty clear. Any

374
00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:26.279
shadow of a doubt I might have
had about the truth of Scudder's tale was

375
00:27:26.359 --> 00:27:33.039
now gone. The proof of it
was lying under the tablecloth. The men

376
00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:37.279
who knew that he knew what he
knew had found him and had taken the

377
00:27:37.319 --> 00:27:41.960
best way to make certain of his
silence. Yes, but he had been

378
00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:45.319
in my rooms four days, and
his enemies must have reckoned that he had

379
00:27:45.359 --> 00:27:49.759
confided in me. So I would
be the next to go. It might

380
00:27:49.799 --> 00:27:53.559
be that very night, or next
day, or the day after. But

381
00:27:53.640 --> 00:27:59.720
my nubber was up all right.
Then suddenly I thought of another probability.

382
00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:03.400
Supposing I went out now and called
in the police, or went to bed

383
00:28:03.400 --> 00:28:07.200
and let Paddock find the body and
call them in the morning. What kind

384
00:28:07.240 --> 00:28:11.119
of a story was I to tell
about Scudder? I had lied to Paddock

385
00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:15.640
about him and the whole thing looked
desperately fishy. If I made a clean

386
00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:19.240
breast of it and told the police
everything he had told me, they would

387
00:28:19.279 --> 00:28:23.079
simply laugh at me. The odds
were a thousand to one that I would

388
00:28:23.119 --> 00:28:27.160
be charged with the murder, and
the circumstantial evidence was strong enough to hang

389
00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:32.440
me. Few people knew me in
England. I had no real power who

390
00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:37.400
could come forward and swear to my
character. Perhaps that was what those secret

391
00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:41.319
enemies were playing for. They were
clever enough for anything, and an English

392
00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:45.759
prison was as good a way of
getting rid of me to laughter June fifteenth

393
00:28:45.759 --> 00:28:48.880
as a knife in my chest.
Besides, if I told the whole story,

394
00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:52.799
and by any miracle was believed,
I would be playing their game,

395
00:28:53.599 --> 00:28:59.240
Karalides would stay at home, which
was what they wanted. Somehow or other,

396
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:03.599
the sight of Scudder's dead face had
made me a passionate believer in his

397
00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:07.279
scheme. He was gone, but
he had taken me into his confidence,

398
00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:12.119
and I was pretty well bound to
carry on his work. You may think

399
00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:15.960
this ridiculous for a man in danger
of his life, but that was the

400
00:29:17.039 --> 00:29:19.839
way I looked at it. I
am an ordinary sort of fellow, not

401
00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:23.440
braver than other people, But I
hate to see a good man down,

402
00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:27.200
and that long knife would not be
the end of Scudder if I could play

403
00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:32.759
the game in his place. It
took me an hour or two to think

404
00:29:32.799 --> 00:29:36.799
this out, and by that time
I had come to a decision. I

405
00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:41.279
must vanish somehow and keep vanished till
the end of the second week in June.

406
00:29:41.799 --> 00:29:44.880
Then I must somehow find a way
to get in touch with the government

407
00:29:44.920 --> 00:29:48.519
people and tell them what Scudder had
told me. I wished to heaven he

408
00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:52.039
had told me more, and that
I had listened more carefully to the little

409
00:29:52.119 --> 00:29:56.480
he had told me. I knew
nothing but the barest facts. There was

410
00:29:56.519 --> 00:30:00.680
a big risk that even if I
weathered the other day, I would not

411
00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:04.000
be believed in the end. I
must take my chance of that and hope

412
00:30:04.039 --> 00:30:08.440
that something might happen which would confirm
my tale in the eyes of the government.

413
00:30:11.079 --> 00:30:14.799
My first job was to keep going
for the next three weeks. It

414
00:30:14.920 --> 00:30:18.799
was now the twenty fourth day of
May, and that meant twenty days of

415
00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:22.160
hiding before I could venture to approach
the powers that be. I reckoned that

416
00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:26.920
two sets of people would be looking
for me, Scudder's enemies to put me

417
00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:30.039
out of existence, and the police
who would want me for Scudder's murder.

418
00:30:30.680 --> 00:30:33.720
It was going to be a giddy
hunt, and it was queer how the

419
00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.720
prospect comforted me. I had been
slacked so long that almost any chance of

420
00:30:38.759 --> 00:30:44.079
activity was welcome. When I had
to sit alone with their corpse and wait

421
00:30:44.119 --> 00:30:48.240
on fortune, I was no better
than a crushed worm. But if my

422
00:30:48.359 --> 00:30:51.640
neck safety was to hang on my
own wits, I was prepared to be

423
00:30:51.720 --> 00:30:56.519
cheerful about it. My next thought
was whether Scudder had any papers about him

424
00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:00.400
to give me a better clue to
the business. I drew back the tablecloth

425
00:31:00.440 --> 00:31:04.279
and searched his pockets, for I
had no longer any shrinking from the body.

426
00:31:06.240 --> 00:31:08.480
The face was wonderfully calm for a
man who had been struck down in

427
00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:12.160
a moment. There was nothing in
the breast pocket, and only a few

428
00:31:12.200 --> 00:31:17.839
loose coins and a cigar holder in
the waistcoat. The trousers held a little

429
00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:22.359
penknife in some silver, and the
side pocket off his jacket contained an old

430
00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:26.079
crocodile skinned cigar case. There was
no sign of the little black book in

431
00:31:26.200 --> 00:31:30.559
which I had seen him making notes
that had no doubt been taken by his

432
00:31:30.680 --> 00:31:36.039
murderer. But As I looked up
from my task, I saw that some

433
00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:40.480
drawers had been pulled out in the
writing table. Scudder would never have left

434
00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:45.240
them in that state, for he
was the tidiest of mortals. Someone must

435
00:31:45.279 --> 00:31:49.480
have been searching for something, perhaps
for the pocketbook. I went round the

436
00:31:49.480 --> 00:31:55.079
flat and found that everything had been
ransacked, the inside of books, drawers,

437
00:31:55.160 --> 00:31:59.200
cupboards, boxes, even the pockets
of the clothes in my wardrobe and

438
00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:02.000
the sideboard in the dining room.
There was no trace of the book.

439
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:06.799
Most likely the enemy had found it, but they had not found it on

440
00:32:06.839 --> 00:32:10.960
Scudder's body. Then I got out
a Natlas and looked at a big map

441
00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:15.920
of the British Isles. My notion
was to get off to some wild district

442
00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:19.359
where my veld craft would be of
some use to me, for I would

443
00:32:19.359 --> 00:32:22.960
be like a trapped rat in a
city. I considered that Scotland would be

444
00:32:22.960 --> 00:32:28.200
best, for my people were Scotch
and I could pass anywhere as an ordinary

445
00:32:28.200 --> 00:32:31.160
Scotsman. I had half an idea
at first to be a German tourist,

446
00:32:31.519 --> 00:32:36.200
for my father had had German partners, and I had been brought up to

447
00:32:36.200 --> 00:32:39.160
speak the tongue pretty fluently, not
to mention, having put in three years

448
00:32:39.279 --> 00:32:45.039
prospecting for copper in German to Maryland. But I calculated that it would be

449
00:32:45.160 --> 00:32:49.200
less conspicuous to be a scot and
less in a line with what the police

450
00:32:49.279 --> 00:32:52.279
might know of my past. I
fixed on Galloway as the best place to

451
00:32:52.359 --> 00:32:57.640
go. It was the nearest wild
part of Scotland so far as I could

452
00:32:57.640 --> 00:33:00.000
figure it out, and from the
look of the map, was not over

453
00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:07.200
thick with population. A search in
Bradshaw informed me that a train left Saint

454
00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:10.440
Pancras at seven ten, which would
land me at any Galloway station in the

455
00:33:10.519 --> 00:33:15.799
late afternoon. That was well enough, but a more important matter was how

456
00:33:15.880 --> 00:33:19.759
I was to make my way to
Saint Pancras, for I was pretty certain

457
00:33:19.799 --> 00:33:23.440
that Scudder's friends would be watching outside. This puzzled me for a bit.

458
00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:28.759
Then I had an inspiration, on
which I went to bed and slept for

459
00:33:28.839 --> 00:33:34.440
two troubled hours. I got up
at four and opened my bedroom shutters.

460
00:33:35.119 --> 00:33:38.079
The faint light of a fine summer
morning was flooding the skies, and the

461
00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:44.279
sparrows had begun to chatter. I
had a great revulsion of feeling and felt

462
00:33:44.319 --> 00:33:49.200
a god forgotten full my inclination was
to let things slide in trust to the

463
00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:53.119
British police taking a reasonable view of
my case. But as I reviewed the

464
00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:58.200
situation, I could find no arguments
to bring against my decision of the previous

465
00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:01.119
night. So with a iron mouth, I resolved to go on with my

466
00:34:01.200 --> 00:34:07.559
plan. I was not feeling in
any particular funk, only disinclined to go

467
00:34:07.680 --> 00:34:12.599
looking for trouble. If you understand
me, I hunted out a well used

468
00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:15.159
tweed suit, a pair of strong
naw boots, and a flannel shirt with

469
00:34:15.199 --> 00:34:20.239
a collar. Into my pockets.
I stuffed a spear shirt, a cloth

470
00:34:20.320 --> 00:34:24.400
cap, some handkerchiefs, and a
toothbrush. I had drawn a good sum

471
00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:29.239
in gold from the bank two days
before in case Scudder should want money,

472
00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:31.840
and I took fifty pounds of it
and sovereigns in a belt which I had

473
00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:37.679
brought back from Rhodesia. That was
about all I wanted. Then I had

474
00:34:37.719 --> 00:34:40.519
a bath and cut my mustache,
which was long and drooping into a short,

475
00:34:40.599 --> 00:34:47.039
stubbly fringe. Now came the next
step. Paddock used to arrive punctually

476
00:34:47.079 --> 00:34:52.320
at seven thirty and let himself in
with a latch key, But about twenty

477
00:34:52.360 --> 00:34:55.519
minutes to seven. As I knew
from bitter experience, the milkman turned up

478
00:34:55.559 --> 00:35:00.239
with a great clatter of cans and
deposited my share outside my door. I

479
00:35:00.360 --> 00:35:04.599
had seen that Melbourne sometimes when I
had gone out for an early ride.

480
00:35:05.320 --> 00:35:08.280
He was a young man about my
own height, with an ill nourished mustache,

481
00:35:08.480 --> 00:35:14.000
and he wore a white overall on
him. I staked all my chances.

482
00:35:15.320 --> 00:35:17.800
I went into the darkened smoking room, where the rays of morning light

483
00:35:17.840 --> 00:35:22.480
were beginning to creep through the shutters. There I breakfasted off a whiskey and

484
00:35:22.559 --> 00:35:27.800
soda and some biscuits from the cupboard. By this time it was getting on

485
00:35:27.880 --> 00:35:30.280
for six o'clock. I put a
pipe in my pocket and filled my pouch

486
00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:35.679
from the tobacco jar on the table
by the fireplace. As I poked into

487
00:35:35.719 --> 00:35:39.519
the tobacco, my fingers touched something
hard, and I drew out Scudder's little

488
00:35:39.519 --> 00:35:45.360
black pocketbook that seemed to me a
good omen. I lifted the cloth from

489
00:35:45.400 --> 00:35:49.639
the body and was amazed at the
peace and dignity of the dead face.

490
00:35:50.760 --> 00:35:53.639
Goodbye, old Chap, I said, I'm going to do my best for

491
00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:59.840
you. Wish me well wherever you
are. Then I hung about in the

492
00:35:59.840 --> 00:36:02.800
waiting for the milkman. That was
the worst part of the business, for

493
00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:07.800
I was fairly choking to get out
of doors. Six thirty past, then

494
00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:13.159
six forty, but still he did
not come. The fall had chosen this

495
00:36:13.239 --> 00:36:16.559
day, of all days, to
be late. At one minute after the

496
00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:22.000
quarter to seven, I heard the
rattle of the cans outside. I opened

497
00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:24.800
the front door, and there was
my man, singling out my cans from

498
00:36:24.800 --> 00:36:29.119
a bunch he carried, and whistling
through his teeth. He jumped a bit

499
00:36:29.239 --> 00:36:31.039
at the sight of me. Come
in here a moment. I said,

500
00:36:31.039 --> 00:36:35.159
I want to word with you,
and I led him into the dining room.

501
00:36:36.119 --> 00:36:37.519
I reckon, you're a bit of
a sportsman, I said, and

502
00:36:37.599 --> 00:36:42.199
I want you to do me a
service. Lend me your cap and overall

503
00:36:42.199 --> 00:36:45.679
for ten minutes, and here's a
sovereign for you. His eyes opened at

504
00:36:45.719 --> 00:36:50.239
the sight of the gold, and
he grinned broadly. What's the game,

505
00:36:50.719 --> 00:36:53.559
he asked, a bet, I
said, I haven't time to explain,

506
00:36:53.679 --> 00:36:57.440
but to win it, I've got
to be a milkman for the next ten

507
00:36:57.519 --> 00:37:00.079
minutes. All you've got to do
is to stay here till I come back.

508
00:37:00.599 --> 00:37:04.440
You'll be a bit late, but
nobody will complain and you will have

509
00:37:04.480 --> 00:37:07.760
that quid for yourself, right,
oh, he said cheerily. I ain't

510
00:37:07.800 --> 00:37:13.039
the man to spoil a bit of
sport. Here's the red Governor. I

511
00:37:13.079 --> 00:37:16.079
stuck on his flat blue hat and
his white overall, picked up the cans,

512
00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:22.039
banged my door and went whistling downstairs. The porter at the foot told

513
00:37:22.039 --> 00:37:24.440
me to shut my drawer, which
sounded as if my makeup was adequate.

514
00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:29.960
At first I thought there was nobody
in the street. Then I caught sight

515
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:32.960
of a policeman a hundred yards down, and a loafer shuffling past on the

516
00:37:32.960 --> 00:37:37.519
other side. Some impulse made me
raise my eyes to the house opposite,

517
00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:43.760
and there at the first floor window
was a face. As the loafer passed,

518
00:37:43.800 --> 00:37:47.599
he looked up, and I fancied
a signal was exchanged. I crossed

519
00:37:47.639 --> 00:37:52.280
the street, whistling gaily and imitating
the jaunty swing of the milkman. Then

520
00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:57.239
I took the first side street and
went up a left hand turning which led

521
00:37:57.239 --> 00:38:00.280
past a bit of vacant ground.
There was no one in the little street,

522
00:38:00.360 --> 00:38:04.760
so I dropped the milk cans inside
the hoarding and sent the cap and

523
00:38:04.840 --> 00:38:08.000
overall after them. I had only
just put on my cloth cap when a

524
00:38:08.039 --> 00:38:12.960
postman came round the corner. I
gave him good morning, and he answered

525
00:38:12.960 --> 00:38:17.360
me unsuspiciously. At the moment the
clock of a neighboring church struck the hour

526
00:38:17.440 --> 00:38:22.920
of seven, there was not a
second to spare. As soon as I

527
00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:25.639
got to Euston Road, I took
to my heels and ran. The clock

528
00:38:25.679 --> 00:38:30.119
at Euston station showed five minutes past
the hour. At Saint Pancras, I

529
00:38:30.159 --> 00:38:34.039
had no time to take a ticket. Let I own that I had not

530
00:38:34.119 --> 00:38:37.639
settled upon my destination. A porter
told me the platform, and as I

531
00:38:37.800 --> 00:38:43.119
entered it, I saw the train
already in motion. Two station officials blocked

532
00:38:43.119 --> 00:38:46.880
the way, but I dodged them
and clambered into the last carriage. Three

533
00:38:46.920 --> 00:38:52.400
minutes later, as we were roaring
through the Northern Tunnels and irate guard interviewed

534
00:38:52.440 --> 00:38:55.639
me. He wrote out for me
a ticket to Newton Stewart, a name

535
00:38:55.679 --> 00:39:00.519
which had suddenly come back to my
memory, and he conducted me from the

536
00:39:00.599 --> 00:39:06.079
first class compartment where I had ensconced
myself to a third class smoker occupied by

537
00:39:06.079 --> 00:39:09.440
a sailor and a stout woman with
a child. He went off grumbling,

538
00:39:09.760 --> 00:39:14.440
and as I mopped my brow,
I observed to my companions and my broadest

539
00:39:14.440 --> 00:39:17.960
scots that I was a sword job
catching trains. I had already entered upon

540
00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:23.159
my part the impotence O that geared, said the lady bitterly. He needed

541
00:39:23.159 --> 00:39:28.280
a Scotch tongue to pit him in
his place. He was complaining O this

542
00:39:28.400 --> 00:39:31.760
we and o'hayana ticket and her no
flower till August twelve month, and he

543
00:39:31.880 --> 00:39:38.440
was objecting to this gentleman spitting.
The sailor morosely agreed, and I started

544
00:39:38.440 --> 00:39:45.440
my new life in an atmosphere a
protest against authority. I reminded myself that

545
00:39:45.519 --> 00:39:51.800
a week ago I had been finding
the world dull end of chapter two,

546
00:39:57.719 --> 00:40:02.639
Chapter three of the Thirty Nine by
John bucking This LibriVox recording is in the

547
00:40:02.679 --> 00:40:08.360
public domain. Read by A cliff
Stone of Sydney, Australia. The Thirty

548
00:40:08.480 --> 00:40:15.400
nine Steps by John Buckan, Chapter
three, The Adventure of the Literary Innkeeper.

549
00:40:16.679 --> 00:40:22.039
I had a solemn time traveling north
that day. It was fine mayweather,

550
00:40:22.159 --> 00:40:25.440
with the hawthorn flowering on every hedge, and I asked myself why when

551
00:40:25.440 --> 00:40:29.599
I was still a free man I
had stayed on in London and not got

552
00:40:29.639 --> 00:40:32.880
the good of this heavenly country.
I didn't dare face the restaurant car,

553
00:40:34.320 --> 00:40:37.440
but I got a luncheon basket at
Leads and shared it with the fat woman.

554
00:40:37.400 --> 00:40:42.519
Also I got the morning's papers with
news about starters for the Derby in

555
00:40:42.559 --> 00:40:46.039
the beginning of the cricket season,
and some paragraphs about how Balkan affairs were

556
00:40:46.039 --> 00:40:52.440
settling down at a British squadron was
going to Keel. When I had done

557
00:40:52.480 --> 00:40:57.000
with them, I got out Scudder's
little black pocketbook and studied it. It

558
00:40:57.119 --> 00:41:00.119
was pretty well filled with jottings,
chiefly figures, though now and then a

559
00:41:00.280 --> 00:41:06.440
name was printed in. For example, I found the words Hofguard and Luneville

560
00:41:06.760 --> 00:41:12.440
and avocado pretty often, and especially
the word Pavia. Now, I was

561
00:41:12.519 --> 00:41:16.119
certain that Scudder never did anything without
a reason, and I was pretty sure

562
00:41:16.159 --> 00:41:21.400
that there was a cipher in all
this. That is a subject which has

563
00:41:21.440 --> 00:41:25.119
always interested me, and I did
a bit added myself once as an intelligence

564
00:41:25.159 --> 00:41:30.079
officer at Dalagoa Bay during the Boer
War. I have a head for things

565
00:41:30.159 --> 00:41:35.039
like chests and puzzles, and I
used to reckon myself pretty good at finding

566
00:41:35.039 --> 00:41:39.239
out cipher's. This one looked like
the numerical kind, where sets of figures

567
00:41:39.280 --> 00:41:45.239
correspond to the letters of the alphabet. But any fairly shrewd man can find

568
00:41:45.239 --> 00:41:47.880
the clue to that sort after an
hour or two's work. And I didn't

569
00:41:47.920 --> 00:41:53.239
think Scudder would have been content with
anything so easy, so I fastened on

570
00:41:53.360 --> 00:41:58.559
the printed words, for you can
make a pretty good numeracle cipher if you

571
00:41:58.639 --> 00:42:02.239
have a key word which gives you
the sequence of the letters. I tried

572
00:42:02.280 --> 00:42:07.280
for hours, but none of the
words answered. Then I fell asleep and

573
00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:09.800
woke at Dumfries, just in time
to bundle out and get into the slow

574
00:42:09.880 --> 00:42:15.199
Galloway train. There was a man
on the platform whose looks I didn't like,

575
00:42:15.639 --> 00:42:17.360
but he never glanced at me,
And when I caught sight of myself

576
00:42:17.400 --> 00:42:22.920
in the mirror of an automatic machine, I didn't wonder. With my brown

577
00:42:22.039 --> 00:42:25.719
face, my old tweeds, and
my slouch, I was the very model

578
00:42:25.760 --> 00:42:30.320
of one of the hill farmers who
were crowding into the third class carriages.

579
00:42:30.760 --> 00:42:35.519
I traveled with half a dozen in
an atmosphere of shag and clay pipes.

580
00:42:36.159 --> 00:42:38.239
They had come from the weekly market, and their mouths were full of prices.

581
00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:42.679
I heard accounts of how the lambing
had gone up in the Cairn,

582
00:42:42.840 --> 00:42:46.320
and the Douche, and a dozen
other mysterious waters above. Half the men

583
00:42:46.440 --> 00:42:51.960
had lunched heavily and were highly flavored
with whiskey, so they took no notice

584
00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:55.760
of me. We rumbled slowly into
a land of little wooded glens, and

585
00:42:55.840 --> 00:43:00.199
then to a great white moorland place
gleaming with locks, with high blue hills

586
00:43:00.239 --> 00:43:06.719
showing northwards. About five o'clock the
carriage had emptied and I was left alone.

587
00:43:06.719 --> 00:43:09.480
As I had hoped, I got
out at the next station, a

588
00:43:09.480 --> 00:43:14.079
little place whose name I scarcely noted, set right in the heart of a

589
00:43:14.119 --> 00:43:17.599
bog. It reminded me of one
of those forgotten little stations in the crew.

590
00:43:19.280 --> 00:43:22.239
An old station master was digging in
his garden, and with his spade

591
00:43:22.280 --> 00:43:25.840
over his shoulder, sauntered to the
train, took charge of a parcel,

592
00:43:25.880 --> 00:43:30.079
and went back to his potatoes.
A child of ten received my ticket,

593
00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:35.960
and I emerged on a white road
that straggled over the brown moor. It

594
00:43:36.039 --> 00:43:39.280
was a gorgeous spring evening, with
every hill showing as clear as a cut

595
00:43:39.320 --> 00:43:44.559
amethyst. The air had the queer
rooty smell of bogs. But it was

596
00:43:44.719 --> 00:43:47.960
as fresh as mid ocean, and
it had the strangest effect on my spirits.

597
00:43:49.519 --> 00:43:52.800
I actually felt lighthearted. I might
have been a boy out for a

598
00:43:52.840 --> 00:43:58.039
spring holiday tramp instead of a man
of thirty seven, very much wanted by

599
00:43:58.039 --> 00:44:01.159
the police. I felt just as
I used to fuel when I was starting

600
00:44:01.159 --> 00:44:05.960
for a big trek on a frosty
morning on the high Veld. If you

601
00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:10.039
believe me, I swung along that
road whistling. There was no plan of

602
00:44:10.239 --> 00:44:15.239
campaign in my head, only just
to go on and on in this blessed,

603
00:44:15.480 --> 00:44:19.599
honest smelling hill country. For every
mile put me in better humor with

604
00:44:19.679 --> 00:44:24.079
myself. In a roadside planting,
I cut a walking stick of hazel and

605
00:44:24.199 --> 00:44:29.199
presently struck off the highway up a
bypath which followed the glen of a brawling

606
00:44:29.280 --> 00:44:32.800
stream. I reckoned that I was
still far ahead of any pursuit, and

607
00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:37.800
for that night might please myself.
It was some hour since I had tasted

608
00:44:37.840 --> 00:44:42.440
food, and I was getting very
hungry when I came to a herd's cottage

609
00:44:42.519 --> 00:44:45.880
set in a nook beside a waterfall. A brown faced woman was standing by

610
00:44:45.920 --> 00:44:51.519
the door and greeted me with the
kindly shyness of Morland places. When I

611
00:44:51.559 --> 00:44:53.599
asked for a night's lodging, she
said I was welcome to the bed and

612
00:44:53.639 --> 00:44:58.320
the loft, and very soon she
set before me a hearty meal of ham

613
00:44:58.360 --> 00:45:02.800
and eggs, scones and sweet milk. At the darkening, her man came

614
00:45:02.840 --> 00:45:07.519
in from the hills, a lean
giant who in one step covered as much

615
00:45:07.519 --> 00:45:10.719
ground as three paces of ordinary mortals. They asked me no questions, for

616
00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:15.599
they had the perfect breeding of all
dwellers in the wilds. But I could

617
00:45:15.599 --> 00:45:17.960
see they set me down as a
kind of dealer, and I took some

618
00:45:19.039 --> 00:45:22.199
trouble to confirm their view. I
spoke a lot about cattle, of which

619
00:45:22.239 --> 00:45:25.599
my host knew little, and I
picked up from him a good deal about

620
00:45:25.599 --> 00:45:30.800
the local Galloway markets, which I
tucked away in my memory for future use.

621
00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:34.880
At ten, I was nodding in
my chair, and the bed in

622
00:45:34.920 --> 00:45:38.199
the loft received a weary man who
never opened his eyes till five o'clock set

623
00:45:38.239 --> 00:45:44.679
the little homestead of going once more. They refused any payment, and by

624
00:45:44.679 --> 00:45:50.480
sex I had breakfasts and was striding
southwards again. My notion was to return

625
00:45:50.519 --> 00:45:53.280
to the railway line a station or
two farther on than the place where I

626
00:45:53.320 --> 00:45:58.800
had alighted yesterday, and to double
back. I reckoned that that was the

627
00:45:58.840 --> 00:46:02.400
safest way. The police would naturally
assume that I was always making farther from

628
00:46:02.440 --> 00:46:07.039
London in the direction of some western
port. I thought I had still a

629
00:46:07.079 --> 00:46:10.480
good bit of a start, for, as I reasoned, it would take

630
00:46:10.559 --> 00:46:15.159
some hours to fix the blame on
me, and several more to identify the

631
00:46:15.199 --> 00:46:19.679
fellow who got on board the train. At Saint Pancras, it was the

632
00:46:19.760 --> 00:46:23.000
same jolly, clear spring weather,
and I simply could not contrive to feel

633
00:46:23.079 --> 00:46:27.639
care worn. Indeed, I was
in better spirits than I had been for

634
00:46:27.719 --> 00:46:31.480
months. Over a long ridge of
moorland, I took my road, skirting

635
00:46:31.559 --> 00:46:36.400
the side of a high hill which
the herd had called Cairnsmoor. A fleet

636
00:46:37.239 --> 00:46:42.119
nesting curlews and plovers were crying everywhere, and the links of green pasture by

637
00:46:42.119 --> 00:46:45.679
the streams were dotted with young lambs. All the slackness of the past months

638
00:46:45.760 --> 00:46:50.440
was slipping from my bones, and
I stepped out like a four year old.

639
00:46:51.239 --> 00:46:53.360
By and by I came to a
swell of moorland which dipped to the

640
00:46:53.519 --> 00:46:57.760
vale of a little river, and
a mile away in the heather, I

641
00:46:57.800 --> 00:47:01.599
saw the smoke of a train.
The station. When I reached it proved

642
00:47:01.599 --> 00:47:06.559
to be ideal for my purpose.
The moor surged up around it and left

643
00:47:06.599 --> 00:47:09.280
room only for the single line,
the slender siding, a waiting room,

644
00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:14.760
an office, the station master's cottage, and a tiny yard of gooseberries and

645
00:47:14.840 --> 00:47:19.519
sweet william. There seemed no road
to it from anywhere, and to increase

646
00:47:19.559 --> 00:47:22.360
the desolation, the waves of a
tarn lapped on their gray granite beach half

647
00:47:22.360 --> 00:47:28.000
a mile away. I waited in
the deep heather till I saw the smoke

648
00:47:28.039 --> 00:47:31.440
of an east going train on the
horizon. Then I approached the tiny booking

649
00:47:31.519 --> 00:47:37.679
office and took a ticket for Dumfries. The only occupants of the carriage were

650
00:47:37.679 --> 00:47:40.280
an old shepherd and his dog,
a war led brute that I mistrusted.

651
00:47:42.079 --> 00:47:45.079
The man was asleep, and on
the cushions beside him was that morning Scotsman.

652
00:47:45.840 --> 00:47:49.760
Eagerly I seized on it, for
I fancied it would tell me something.

653
00:47:50.800 --> 00:47:53.079
There were two columns about the Portland
Place murder, as it was called.

654
00:47:53.679 --> 00:47:59.039
My man Paddock had given the alarm
and had the milkman arrested poor devil.

655
00:47:59.400 --> 00:48:01.800
It looked as if the latter had
earned his sovereign hardly, but for

656
00:48:01.920 --> 00:48:06.239
me he had been cheap at the
price, for he seemed to have occupied

657
00:48:06.280 --> 00:48:09.320
the police for the better part of
the day. In the latest news I

658
00:48:09.360 --> 00:48:14.599
found a further installment of the story. The milkman had been released. I

659
00:48:14.719 --> 00:48:19.360
read and the true criminal, about
whose identity the police were reticent, was

660
00:48:19.400 --> 00:48:22.360
believed to have got away from London
by one of the northern lines. There

661
00:48:22.440 --> 00:48:25.760
was a short note about me as
the owner of the flat. I guessed

662
00:48:25.760 --> 00:48:30.920
the police had stuck that in as
a clumsy contrivance to persuade me that I

663
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:36.880
was unsuspected. There was nothing else
in the paper, nothing about foreign politics,

664
00:48:36.960 --> 00:48:40.320
or calides, or the things that
had interested Scudder. I laid it

665
00:48:40.360 --> 00:48:44.440
down and found that we were approaching
the station at which I had got out

666
00:48:44.519 --> 00:48:50.360
yesterday. The potato digging station master
had been gingered up into some activity,

667
00:48:50.719 --> 00:48:53.440
for the west going train was waiting
to let us pass, and from it

668
00:48:53.639 --> 00:48:59.480
had descended three men who were asking
him questions. I supposed that they were

669
00:48:59.519 --> 00:49:02.400
the local police, who had been
stirred up by Scotland Yard and had traced

670
00:49:02.440 --> 00:49:07.719
me as far as this one horse
siding, Sitting well back in the shadow.

671
00:49:07.119 --> 00:49:10.800
I watched them carefully. One of
them had a book and took down

672
00:49:10.880 --> 00:49:15.519
notes. The old potato digger seemed
to have turned peevish, but the child

673
00:49:15.519 --> 00:49:21.239
who had collected my ticket was talking
volubly. All the party looked out across

674
00:49:21.280 --> 00:49:24.039
the moor, where the white road
departed. I hoped they were going to

675
00:49:24.079 --> 00:49:29.880
take up my tracks there. As
we moved away from that station, my

676
00:49:29.960 --> 00:49:34.440
companion woke up. He fixed me
with a wandering glance, kicked his dog

677
00:49:34.559 --> 00:49:39.079
viciously, and inquired where he was. Clearly he was very drunk. That's

678
00:49:39.119 --> 00:49:45.519
what comes o beIN a teetotaller,
he observed. In bitter regret. I

679
00:49:45.639 --> 00:49:49.599
expressed my surprise that in him I
should have met a blue ribbon storeward.

680
00:49:50.280 --> 00:49:54.559
Aye, but I'm a strong teetotaler, he said pergnaciously. I took the

681
00:49:54.639 --> 00:50:00.480
pledge last Martinmas and having a touch
a drop o whiskey since the end,

682
00:50:00.159 --> 00:50:06.960
not even a hogmanate, though I
was attempted. He swung his heels up

683
00:50:06.960 --> 00:50:10.480
on the seat and burrowed a frowsy
head into the cushions. Now that's a

684
00:50:10.679 --> 00:50:15.079
get, he moaned, a head
better than a hell fire and tween in

685
00:50:15.239 --> 00:50:22.800
looking different ways for the Zabbath?
What did it? I asked a drink,

686
00:50:22.880 --> 00:50:27.280
They ca brandy. Being a teetot, I keep it off the whiskey,

687
00:50:27.360 --> 00:50:30.639
But I was nip nipping a day
at this brandy, and I doubt

688
00:50:30.679 --> 00:50:37.480
I'll know beweel for a fortnight.
His voice died away into a splutter and

689
00:50:37.679 --> 00:50:42.559
sleep once more laid his heavy hand
on him. My plan had been to

690
00:50:42.599 --> 00:50:45.320
get out at some station down the
line, but the train suddenly gave me

691
00:50:45.360 --> 00:50:49.480
a better chance, for it came
to a standstill at the end of a

692
00:50:49.519 --> 00:50:53.280
culvert which spanned a brawling, porter
colored river. I looked out and saw

693
00:50:53.320 --> 00:50:58.360
that every carriage window was closed and
no human figure appeared in the landscape.

694
00:50:59.079 --> 00:51:02.480
So I opened the door and dropped
quickly into the tangle of hazels which edged

695
00:51:02.480 --> 00:51:07.679
the line. It would have been
all right, but for that infernal dog,

696
00:51:07.320 --> 00:51:12.239
under the impression that I was decamping
with its master's belongings, it started

697
00:51:12.280 --> 00:51:15.679
to bark and all begot me by
the trousers. This woke up the herd,

698
00:51:15.719 --> 00:51:20.000
who stood balling at the carriage door
in the belief that I had committed

699
00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:23.519
suicide. I crawled through the thicket, reached the edge of the stream,

700
00:51:23.519 --> 00:51:27.400
and in cover of the bushes,
put a hundred yards or so behind me.

701
00:51:28.239 --> 00:51:31.559
Then from my shelter I peered back
and saw the guard and several passengers

702
00:51:31.559 --> 00:51:37.320
gathered round the open carriage door and
staring in my direction. I could not

703
00:51:37.400 --> 00:51:40.159
have made a more public departure if
I had left with a bugler and a

704
00:51:40.199 --> 00:51:46.119
brass band. Happily, the drunken
herd provided a diversion. He and his

705
00:51:46.239 --> 00:51:51.559
dog, which was attached by a
rope to his waist, suddenly cascaded out

706
00:51:51.559 --> 00:51:53.760
of the carriage, landed on their
heads on the track, and rolled some

707
00:51:53.840 --> 00:51:58.960
way down the bank towards the water. In the rescue which followed the dog

708
00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:02.719
bit somebody or I could hear the
sound of hard swearing. Presently they had

709
00:52:02.719 --> 00:52:07.159
forgotten me, And when after a
quarter of a mile's crawl I ventured to

710
00:52:07.159 --> 00:52:10.079
look back, the train had started
again and was vanishing into the cutting.

711
00:52:12.840 --> 00:52:15.800
I was in a wide semicircle of
moorland, with the Brown River as radius

712
00:52:16.039 --> 00:52:21.400
and the high hills forming the northern
circumference. There was not a sign or

713
00:52:21.480 --> 00:52:25.280
sound of a human being, only
the plashing water and the interminable crying of

714
00:52:25.360 --> 00:52:30.639
curlews. Yet, oddly enough,
for the first time, I felt the

715
00:52:30.760 --> 00:52:34.480
terror of the hunted on me.
It was not the police that I thought

716
00:52:34.480 --> 00:52:37.400
of, but the other folk,
who knew that I knew Scudder's sigarette and

717
00:52:37.519 --> 00:52:42.480
dared not let me live. I
was certain that they would pursue me with

718
00:52:42.559 --> 00:52:45.760
a keenness and vigilance unknown to the
British law, and that once the grip

719
00:52:45.840 --> 00:52:51.280
closed on me, I should find
no mercy. I looked back, and

720
00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:54.079
there was nothing in the landscape.
The sun glinted on the metals of the

721
00:52:54.159 --> 00:52:59.119
line and the wet stones in the
stream, and you could not have found

722
00:52:59.199 --> 00:53:02.800
a more peaceful sight in the world. Nevertheless, I started to run,

723
00:53:04.519 --> 00:53:07.400
Crouching low in the runnels of the
bog. I ran till the sweat blinded

724
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:12.159
my eyes. The mood did not
leave me till I had reached the rim

725
00:53:12.159 --> 00:53:15.320
of mountain and flung myself panting on
a ridge high above the young waters of

726
00:53:15.320 --> 00:53:21.880
the Brown River. From my vantage
ground, I could scan the whole moor,

727
00:53:22.079 --> 00:53:24.159
right away to the railway line and
to the south of it, where

728
00:53:24.199 --> 00:53:29.079
green fields took the place of heather. I have eyes like a hawk,

729
00:53:29.360 --> 00:53:32.800
but I could see nothing moving in
the whole countryside. Then I looked east

730
00:53:32.960 --> 00:53:37.880
beyond the ridge and saw a new
kind of landscape, shallow green valleys with

731
00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:43.880
plentiful fir plantations, and the faint
lines of dust which spoke of high roads.

732
00:53:44.559 --> 00:53:46.840
Last of all, I looked into
the blue May sky, and there

733
00:53:46.840 --> 00:53:52.559
I saw that which set my pulses
racing. Low down in the south,

734
00:53:52.800 --> 00:53:57.159
a monoplane was climbing into the heavens. I was as certain as if I

735
00:53:57.199 --> 00:54:00.840
had been told that that aeroplane was
looking for me, and that it did

736
00:54:00.880 --> 00:54:04.880
not belong to the police. For
an hour or two I watched it from

737
00:54:04.920 --> 00:54:07.679
a pit of heather. It flew
low along the hill tops, and then

738
00:54:07.719 --> 00:54:12.960
in narrow circles over the valley up
which I had come. Then it seemed

739
00:54:13.000 --> 00:54:15.480
to change its mind, rose to
a great height, and flew away back

740
00:54:15.519 --> 00:54:21.199
to the south. I did not
like this espionage from the air, and

741
00:54:21.239 --> 00:54:23.960
I began to think less well of
the countryside I had chosen for a refuge.

742
00:54:24.800 --> 00:54:29.360
These heather hills were no sort of
cover if my enemies were in the

743
00:54:29.400 --> 00:54:34.119
sky, and I must find a
different kind of sanctuary. I looked with

744
00:54:34.239 --> 00:54:37.360
more satisfaction to the green country beyond
the ridge, for there I should find

745
00:54:37.360 --> 00:54:43.199
woods and stone houses. About six
in the evening I came out of the

746
00:54:43.239 --> 00:54:45.960
moorland to a white ribbon of road
which wound up the narrow vale of a

747
00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:51.679
lowland stream. As I followed it, fields gave place to bent. The

748
00:54:51.760 --> 00:54:54.960
glen became a plateau, and presently
I had reached a kind of pass where

749
00:54:54.960 --> 00:55:00.480
a solitary house smoked in the twilight. The road swung over a bridge,

750
00:55:00.880 --> 00:55:05.199
and leaning on the parapet was a
young man. He was smoking a long

751
00:55:05.280 --> 00:55:08.719
clay pipe and studying the water with
spectacled eyes, in whose left hand was

752
00:55:08.760 --> 00:55:14.079
a small book with a finger Marking
the place. Slowly, he repeated,

753
00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:20.400
as when a gryphen through the wilderness
with wingered step o'er hill and maury Dale

754
00:55:20.960 --> 00:55:24.840
pursues the Aramaspian. He jumped around
as my step rung on the keystone,

755
00:55:25.039 --> 00:55:30.599
and I saw a pleasant sunburnt boyish
face. Good evening to you, he

756
00:55:30.679 --> 00:55:34.880
said, gravely. It's a fine
night for the road. The smell of

757
00:55:34.920 --> 00:55:38.800
pete smoke and of some savory roast
floated to me from the house. Is

758
00:55:38.840 --> 00:55:44.320
that place an end? I asked? At your service, he said politely.

759
00:55:44.760 --> 00:55:46.360
I am the landlord, sir,
and I hope you will stay the

760
00:55:46.480 --> 00:55:50.480
night, for to tell you the
truth, I have had no company for

761
00:55:50.519 --> 00:55:53.880
a week. I pulled myself up
on the parapet of the bridge and filled

762
00:55:53.920 --> 00:55:59.840
my pipe. I began to detect
an ally. You're young to be an

763
00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.000
inkeeper, I said. My father
died a year ago and left me the

764
00:56:04.039 --> 00:56:07.719
business. I live here with my
grandmother. It's a slow job for a

765
00:56:07.760 --> 00:56:13.400
young man, and it wasn't my
choice of profession. Which was he actually

766
00:56:13.400 --> 00:56:17.559
blushed. I want to write books, he said, And what better chance

767
00:56:17.559 --> 00:56:22.400
could you ask? I cried,
man. I've often thought that an innkeeper

768
00:56:22.440 --> 00:56:27.440
would make the best oryteller in the
world. Not now, he said eagerly.

769
00:56:27.880 --> 00:56:30.199
Maybe in the old days, when
you had pilgrims and ballad makers and

770
00:56:30.280 --> 00:56:36.239
highwaymen and mail coaches on the road, but not now. Nothing comes here

771
00:56:36.239 --> 00:56:39.039
but motor cars full of fat women
who stopped for lunch, and a fisherman

772
00:56:39.119 --> 00:56:43.920
or two in the spring, and
the shooting tenants in August. There is

773
00:56:43.920 --> 00:56:46.719
not much material to be got out
of that. I want to see life,

774
00:56:47.039 --> 00:56:52.800
to travel the world and write things
like Kipling and Conrad but the most

775
00:56:52.840 --> 00:56:57.760
I've done yet is to get some
verses printed in Chamber's journal. I looked

776
00:56:57.760 --> 00:57:01.519
at the inn, standing golden in
the sunset against the brown hills. I've

777
00:57:01.599 --> 00:57:06.000
knocked a bit around the world,
and I wouldn't despise such a hermitage.

778
00:57:06.440 --> 00:57:08.920
Do you think that adventure is found
only in the tropics or among gentry in

779
00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:15.800
red shirts? Maybe you're rubbing shoulders
were at this moment. That's what Keppling

780
00:57:15.880 --> 00:57:19.840
says. He said, his eyes
brightening, and he quoted some verse about

781
00:57:20.079 --> 00:57:24.320
romance brings up the nine fifteen.
Here's a true tale for you. Then

782
00:57:24.360 --> 00:57:28.679
I cried, and a month from
now you can make a novel out of

783
00:57:28.679 --> 00:57:32.360
it. Sitting on the bridge in
the soft May gloaming, I pitched him

784
00:57:32.360 --> 00:57:37.199
a lovely yarn. It was true
in essentials, too, though I altered

785
00:57:37.239 --> 00:57:40.920
the minor details. I made out
that I was a mining magnet from Kimberly

786
00:57:42.239 --> 00:57:45.679
who had had a lot of trouble
with IDB and had shown up a gang.

787
00:57:45.280 --> 00:57:49.800
They had pursued me across the ocean, and had killed my best friend

788
00:57:49.800 --> 00:57:53.360
and were now on my tracks.
I told the story well, though I

789
00:57:53.480 --> 00:57:58.639
say it, who shouldn't. I
pictured a flight across the Kalahari to German

790
00:57:58.679 --> 00:58:02.519
Africa, to crackling, parching days, the wonderful blue velvet nights. I

791
00:58:02.679 --> 00:58:07.000
described an attack on my life on
the voyage home, and I made a

792
00:58:07.039 --> 00:58:10.880
really horrid affair of the Portland place
murder. You're looking for adventure, I

793
00:58:10.920 --> 00:58:15.519
cried, Well, you've found it
here. The devils are after me,

794
00:58:15.760 --> 00:58:19.400
and the police are after them.
It's a race that I mean to win,

795
00:58:20.719 --> 00:58:23.960
by God, he whispered, drawing
his breath in sharply. It is

796
00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:29.559
all pure ride a Haggard and Cone
and Doyle. You believe me, I

797
00:58:29.599 --> 00:58:32.679
said, gratefully. Of course I
do, and he held out his hand.

798
00:58:34.320 --> 00:58:37.800
I believe everything out of the common. The only thing too distrust is

799
00:58:37.840 --> 00:58:42.039
the normal. He was very young, but he was the man for my

800
00:58:42.159 --> 00:58:45.599
money. I think they're off my
track for the moment, but I must

801
00:58:45.639 --> 00:58:50.159
lie close for a couple of days. Can you take me in? He

802
00:58:50.239 --> 00:58:53.280
caught my elbow in his eagerness and
drew me towards the house. You can

803
00:58:53.360 --> 00:58:57.400
lie a snug here as if you
were in a moss hole. I'll see

804
00:58:57.440 --> 00:59:00.800
that nobody blabs either, and you'll
give me some more material about your adventures.

805
00:59:02.320 --> 00:59:06.119
As I entered the inn porch,
I heard from far off the beat

806
00:59:06.159 --> 00:59:09.559
of an engine. There, silhouetted
against the dusky west, was my friend

807
00:59:09.960 --> 00:59:15.159
the monoplane. He gave me a
room at the back of the house with

808
00:59:15.239 --> 00:59:17.760
a fine outlook over the plateau,
and he made me free of his own

809
00:59:17.800 --> 00:59:22.519
study, which was stacked with cheap
editions of his favorite authors. I never

810
00:59:22.519 --> 00:59:28.000
saw the grandmother, so I guessed
she was bedridden. An old woman called

811
00:59:28.039 --> 00:59:30.679
Margaret brought me my meals, and
the innkeeper was around me at all hours.

812
00:59:31.119 --> 00:59:35.360
I wanted some time to myself,
so I invented a job for him.

813
00:59:36.079 --> 00:59:37.840
He had a motor bicycle, and
I sent him off next morning for

814
00:59:37.880 --> 00:59:43.079
the daily paper, which usually arrived
with the post in the late afternoon.

815
00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:47.039
I told him to keep his eyes
skinned and make note of any strange figures

816
00:59:47.079 --> 00:59:52.519
he saw, keeping a special sharp
lookout for motors and aeroplanes. Then I

817
00:59:52.559 --> 00:59:59.159
sat down in real earnest to Scudder's
notebook. He came back at midday with

818
00:59:59.239 --> 01:00:02.840
the Scotsman. There was nothing in
it except some further evidence of Paddock and

819
01:00:02.880 --> 01:00:07.639
the Milkman, and a repetition of
yesterday's statement that the murderer had gone north,

820
01:00:08.679 --> 01:00:14.199
but there was a long article reprinted
from the Times about Carlides and the

821
01:00:14.280 --> 01:00:17.000
state of affairs and the Balkans,
though there was no mention of any visit

822
01:00:17.039 --> 01:00:22.280
to England. I got rid of
the innkeeper for the afternoon, for I

823
01:00:22.320 --> 01:00:25.920
was getting very warm in my search
for the cipher. As I told you,

824
01:00:27.039 --> 01:00:30.360
it was a numerical cipher, and
by an elaborate system of experiments,

825
01:00:30.400 --> 01:00:36.559
I had pretty well discovered what were
the knolls and stops. The trouble was

826
01:00:36.599 --> 01:00:39.159
the key word, and when I
thought of the odd million words he might

827
01:00:39.199 --> 01:00:44.719
have used, I felt pretty hopeless. But about three o'clock I had a

828
01:00:44.760 --> 01:00:51.719
sudden inspiration. The name Julia Checkeny
flashed across my memory. Scudderhead said it

829
01:00:51.880 --> 01:00:54.719
was the key to the Carrillides business, and it occurred to me to try

830
01:00:54.719 --> 01:01:00.360
it on his cipher. It worked. The five letters of Julia gave me

831
01:01:00.440 --> 01:01:06.480
the position of the vows. A
was J the tenth letter of the alphabet,

832
01:01:06.760 --> 01:01:10.360
and so represented by X in the
cipher. E was you he calls

833
01:01:10.639 --> 01:01:15.360
X, X, I, and
so on. Chicken Ye gave me the

834
01:01:15.519 --> 01:01:20.119
numerals for the principal consonants. I
scribbled that scheme on a bit of paper

835
01:01:20.360 --> 01:01:23.440
and sat down to read Scudder's pages. In half an hour, I was

836
01:01:23.480 --> 01:01:29.519
reading with a whitish face and fingers
that drummed on the table. I glanced

837
01:01:29.519 --> 01:01:32.360
out of the window and saw a
big touring car coming up the glen towards

838
01:01:32.360 --> 01:01:36.320
the end. It drew up at
the door, and there was the sound

839
01:01:36.360 --> 01:01:40.000
of people alighting. There seemed to
be two of them, men in aquascutams

840
01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:45.280
and tweed caps. Ten minutes later, the innkeeper slipped into the room,

841
01:01:45.639 --> 01:01:50.119
his eyes bright with excitement. There's
two chats below looking for you, he

842
01:01:50.199 --> 01:01:53.360
whispered. They're in the dining room, having whiskeys and sodas. They asked

843
01:01:53.400 --> 01:01:57.920
about you, and said they had
hoped to meet you here. Oh,

844
01:01:57.920 --> 01:02:00.599
and they described you jolly well,
down to your boots and shirt. I

845
01:02:00.719 --> 01:02:04.960
told them you had been here last
night and had gone off on a motor

846
01:02:04.960 --> 01:02:07.880
bicycle this morning. And one of
the chaps swore like a navy. I

847
01:02:08.000 --> 01:02:12.800
made him tell me what they looked
like. One was a dark eyed,

848
01:02:12.840 --> 01:02:16.239
thin fellow with bushy eyebrows. The
other was always smiling, enlisted in his

849
01:02:16.400 --> 01:02:22.760
talk. Neither was any kind of
foreigner on this My young friend was positive.

850
01:02:22.760 --> 01:02:25.800
I took a bit of paper and
wrote these words in German, as

851
01:02:25.840 --> 01:02:30.960
if they were part of a letter. Blackstone Scudder had got on to this,

852
01:02:31.119 --> 01:02:35.199
but he could not act for a
fortnight. I doubt if I can

853
01:02:35.239 --> 01:02:39.000
do any good now, especially as
Karalides is uncertain about his plans. But

854
01:02:39.079 --> 01:02:45.119
if mister t advisers, I will
do the best. I I manufactured it

855
01:02:45.199 --> 01:02:49.039
rather neatly, so that it looked
like a loose page of a private letter.

856
01:02:50.159 --> 01:02:52.159
Take this down and say it was
found in my bedroom, and ask

857
01:02:52.239 --> 01:02:57.559
them to return it to me if
they overtake me. Three minutes later I

858
01:02:57.679 --> 01:03:00.440
heard the car begin to move,
and peeping behind the curtain, caught sight

859
01:03:00.480 --> 01:03:05.880
of the two figures. One was
slim, the other was sleek. That

860
01:03:06.079 --> 01:03:10.199
was the most I could make of
my reconnaissance. The innkeeper appeared in great

861
01:03:10.239 --> 01:03:15.440
excitement. Your paper woke them up, he said, gleefully. The dark

862
01:03:15.440 --> 01:03:19.239
fellow went as white as death and
cursed like blazers, and the fat one

863
01:03:19.239 --> 01:03:22.639
whistled and looked ugly. They paid
for their drinks with half a sovereign and

864
01:03:22.719 --> 01:03:27.920
wouldn't wait for change. Now I'll
tell you what I want you to do,

865
01:03:28.039 --> 01:03:30.880
I said, Get on your bicycle, and go off to Newton Stewart.

866
01:03:30.920 --> 01:03:36.239
To the chief constable, describe the
two men and say you suspect them

867
01:03:36.280 --> 01:03:39.920
of having had something to do with
the London murder. You can invent reasons.

868
01:03:40.400 --> 01:03:45.280
The two will come back. Never
fear not to night, for they'll

869
01:03:45.280 --> 01:03:49.519
follow me forty miles along the road. But first thing tomorrow morning, tell

870
01:03:49.559 --> 01:03:52.760
the police to be here, bright
and early. He set off like a

871
01:03:52.800 --> 01:03:58.920
docile child, while I worked at
Scudder's notes. When he came back,

872
01:03:58.960 --> 01:04:01.559
we dined together, and in common
decency I had to let him pump me.

873
01:04:02.239 --> 01:04:05.519
I gave him a lot of stuff
about lion hunts and the Marta belly

874
01:04:05.599 --> 01:04:10.880
war, thinking all the while what
tamed businesses these were compared to this I

875
01:04:10.960 --> 01:04:14.360
was now engaged in. When he
went to bed, I set up and

876
01:04:14.400 --> 01:04:17.760
finished Scudder. I smoked in a
chair till daylight, for I could not

877
01:04:17.920 --> 01:04:24.199
sleep. About eight next morning I
witnessed the arrival of two constables and a

878
01:04:24.239 --> 01:04:29.280
sergeant. They put their car in
a coach house under the innkeeper's instructions,

879
01:04:29.320 --> 01:04:32.599
and entered the house. Twenty minutes
later, I saw from my window a

880
01:04:32.679 --> 01:04:38.199
second car come across the plateau from
the opposite direction. Ed did not come

881
01:04:38.280 --> 01:04:41.519
up to the inn, but stopped
two hundred yards off in the shelter of

882
01:04:41.559 --> 01:04:45.719
a patch of wood. I noticed
that its occupants carefully reversed it before leaving

883
01:04:45.760 --> 01:04:50.039
it. A minute or two later
I heard their steps on the gravel outside

884
01:04:50.039 --> 01:04:55.239
the window. My plan had been
to lie hid in my bedroom and see

885
01:04:55.280 --> 01:04:58.920
what happened. I had a notion
that if I could bring the police and

886
01:04:59.079 --> 01:05:02.320
my other more dayangerous pursuers together,
something might work out of it to my

887
01:05:02.360 --> 01:05:08.599
advantage. But now I had a
better idea. I scribbled a line of

888
01:05:08.639 --> 01:05:12.960
thanks to my host, opened the
window, and dropped quietly into a gooseberry

889
01:05:12.960 --> 01:05:16.360
bush. Unobserved. I crossed the
dike, crawled down the side of a

890
01:05:16.440 --> 01:05:19.239
tributary burn, and won the high
road. On the far side of the

891
01:05:19.280 --> 01:05:24.360
patch of trees, there stood the
car, very spick and span in the

892
01:05:24.400 --> 01:05:28.119
morning sunlight, but with the dust
on her which told of a long journey.

893
01:05:28.760 --> 01:05:31.840
I started her, jumped into the
chauffeur's seat, and stole gently out

894
01:05:31.880 --> 01:05:36.679
onto the plateau. Almost at once
the road dipped so that I lost sight

895
01:05:36.719 --> 01:05:41.519
of the inn, but the wind
seemed to bring me the sound of angry

896
01:05:41.599 --> 01:05:54.280
voices. End of chapter three,
Chapter four of The Thirty nine Steps by

897
01:05:54.360 --> 01:06:00.000
John Buchan, their sleebrivox recordings in
the public domain, read by A cliffs

898
01:06:00.000 --> 01:06:04.480
Stone of Sydney, Australia. The
Thirty nine Steps by John Buckan, Chapter

899
01:06:04.559 --> 01:06:11.719
four, The Adventure of the Radical
Candidate. You may picture me driving that

900
01:06:11.840 --> 01:06:15.039
forty horsepower car for all she was
worth, over the Crisp Moor roads on

901
01:06:15.119 --> 01:06:20.400
that shining May morning, glancing back
at first over my shoulder and looking anxiously

902
01:06:20.440 --> 01:06:25.639
to the next turning, then driving
with a vague eye, just wide enough

903
01:06:25.639 --> 01:06:29.719
awake to keep on the highway.
For I was thinking desperately of what I

904
01:06:29.760 --> 01:06:33.800
had found in Scudder's pocketbook. The
little man had told me a pack of

905
01:06:33.880 --> 01:06:39.679
lies. All his yarns about the
Balkans and the jew anarchists and the Foreign

906
01:06:39.719 --> 01:06:45.000
Office conference were eyewashed, and so
was Carolides. And yet not quite as

907
01:06:45.039 --> 01:06:48.960
you shall hear. I had staked
everything on my belief in his story,

908
01:06:49.320 --> 01:06:54.840
and had been let down. Here
was his book telling me a different tale.

909
01:06:55.480 --> 01:07:00.239
And instead of being once bitten twice
shy, I believed it absolutely Why

910
01:07:01.000 --> 01:07:05.639
I don't know, it rang desperately
true. And the first yarn if you

911
01:07:05.719 --> 01:07:12.280
understand me had been in a queer
way true also in spirit. The fifteenth

912
01:07:12.400 --> 01:07:15.400
day of June was going to be
a day of destiny, a bigger destiny

913
01:07:15.440 --> 01:07:19.000
than the killing of a day ago. It was so big that I didn't

914
01:07:19.000 --> 01:07:23.280
blame Scudder for keeping me out of
the game and wanting to play a lone

915
01:07:23.280 --> 01:07:28.199
hand. That I was pretty clear
was his intention. He had told me

916
01:07:28.320 --> 01:07:31.599
something which sounded big enough, but
the real thing was so immortally big that

917
01:07:31.719 --> 01:07:35.480
he, the man who had found
it out, wanted it all for himself.

918
01:07:36.199 --> 01:07:40.360
I didn't blame him. It was
risks, after all, that he

919
01:07:40.440 --> 01:07:45.360
was chiefly greedy about. The whole
story was in the notes with gaps,

920
01:07:45.480 --> 01:07:48.320
you understand, which he would have
filled up from his memory. He stuck

921
01:07:48.360 --> 01:07:53.039
down his authorities, too, and
had an odd trick of giving them all

922
01:07:53.079 --> 01:07:58.440
a numerical value and then striking a
balance which stood for the reliability of each

923
01:07:58.440 --> 01:08:02.199
stage in the yarn. The four
names he had printed were authorities, and

924
01:08:02.400 --> 01:08:05.960
there was a man to Crosnie,
who got five out of a possible five,

925
01:08:06.599 --> 01:08:12.360
and another fellow, Amma's Foot,
who got three. The bare bones

926
01:08:12.360 --> 01:08:15.319
of the tale were all that was
in the book. These and one queer

927
01:08:15.359 --> 01:08:20.800
phrase which occurred half a dozen times
inside brackets. Thirty nine steps was the

928
01:08:20.840 --> 01:08:26.359
phrase, and at its last time
of use it ran thirty nine steps.

929
01:08:26.680 --> 01:08:31.199
I counted them high tide ten seventeen
p m. I could make nothing of

930
01:08:31.239 --> 01:08:36.760
that. The first thing I learned
was that it was no question of preventing

931
01:08:36.760 --> 01:08:43.079
a war that was coming, as
sure as Christmas had been arranged, said

932
01:08:43.119 --> 01:08:47.560
Scudder ever since February nineteen twelve.
Karalides was going to be the occasion.

933
01:08:48.000 --> 01:08:51.359
He was booked all right, and
was to hand in his checks on June

934
01:08:51.439 --> 01:08:57.720
fourteenth, two weeks and four days
from that May morning. I gathered from

935
01:08:57.760 --> 01:09:01.880
Scudder's notes that nothing on earth could
prevent that. His talk of eparody guards

936
01:09:01.920 --> 01:09:08.479
that would skin their own grandmothers was
all Billio. The second thing was that

937
01:09:08.560 --> 01:09:13.640
this war was going to come as
a mighty surprise to Britain. Carrollini's death

938
01:09:13.640 --> 01:09:16.720
would set the Balkans by the ears, and then Vienna would chip in with

939
01:09:16.760 --> 01:09:21.600
an ultimatum. Russia wouldn't like that, and there would be high words,

940
01:09:23.239 --> 01:09:28.039
but Berlin would play the peacemaker and
pour oil on the waters till suddenly she

941
01:09:28.039 --> 01:09:30.840
would find a good cause for a
quarrel, pick it up and in five

942
01:09:30.920 --> 01:09:35.319
hours let fly at us. That
was the idea, and a pretty good

943
01:09:35.319 --> 01:09:40.920
one too. Honey and fair speeches, and then a stroke in the dark.

944
01:09:41.680 --> 01:09:45.680
While we were talking about the goodwill
and good intentions of Germany, our

945
01:09:45.760 --> 01:09:49.840
coast would be silently ringed with mines
and submarines would be waiting for every battleship.

946
01:09:51.119 --> 01:09:55.920
But all this depended upon the third
thing, which was due to happen

947
01:09:56.000 --> 01:09:59.960
on June fifteenth. I would never
have grasped this if I hadn't won.

948
01:10:00.119 --> 01:10:03.840
Happened to meet a French staff officer
coming back from West Africa who had told

949
01:10:03.880 --> 01:10:08.520
me a lot of things. One
was that in spite of all the nonsense

950
01:10:08.560 --> 01:10:13.199
talked in Parliament, there was a
real working alliance between France and Britain,

951
01:10:13.640 --> 01:10:16.359
and that the two general staffs met
every now and then and made plans for

952
01:10:16.439 --> 01:10:21.000
joint action in case of war.
Well, in June, a very great

953
01:10:21.039 --> 01:10:25.840
swell was coming over from Paris,
and he was going to get nothing less

954
01:10:25.840 --> 01:10:30.720
than a statement of the disposition of
the British Home Fleet on mobilization. At

955
01:10:30.800 --> 01:10:34.479
least I gathered it was something like
that. Anyhow, it was something uncommonly

956
01:10:34.600 --> 01:10:40.479
important But on the fifteenth day of
June there were to be others in London,

957
01:10:40.640 --> 01:10:44.720
others at whom I could only guess. Scudder was content to call them

958
01:10:44.760 --> 01:10:49.319
collectively the black Stone. They represented
not our allies, but our deadly foes.

959
01:10:49.840 --> 01:10:55.159
And the information destined for France was
to be diverted too their pockets,

960
01:10:55.920 --> 01:10:59.359
and it was to be used,
remember, used a week or two later,

961
01:10:59.640 --> 01:11:02.720
with rate guns and swift torpedoes.
Suddenly, in the darkness of a

962
01:11:02.760 --> 01:11:09.319
summer night, this was the story
I had been deciphering in a back room

963
01:11:09.359 --> 01:11:13.520
of a country inn, overlooking a
cabbage garden. This was the story that

964
01:11:13.680 --> 01:11:16.119
hummed in my brain as I swung
in the big touring car from Glen to

965
01:11:16.199 --> 01:11:20.439
Glen. My first impulse had been
to write a letter to the Prime Minister,

966
01:11:21.000 --> 01:11:26.319
but a little reflection convinced me that
that would be useless. Who would

967
01:11:26.319 --> 01:11:30.760
believe my tale? I must show
a sign, some token in proof,

968
01:11:30.319 --> 01:11:34.520
and heaven knew what that could be. Above all, I must keep going

969
01:11:34.520 --> 01:11:39.600
myself, ready to act when things
got riper, and that was going to

970
01:11:39.640 --> 01:11:43.000
be no light job. With the
police of the British Isles and full cry

971
01:11:43.039 --> 01:11:45.960
after me and the watchers of the
black stone. Running silently and swiftly on

972
01:11:46.039 --> 01:11:50.640
my trail, I had no very
clear purpose in my journey, but I

973
01:11:50.720 --> 01:11:55.239
steered east by the sun, for
I remembered from the map that if I

974
01:11:55.279 --> 01:12:00.479
went north I would come into a
region of culpits and industrial towns. Presently

975
01:12:00.520 --> 01:12:04.119
I was down from the moorlands and
traversing the broad how of a river for

976
01:12:04.239 --> 01:12:08.640
miles. I ran alongside a park
wall, and in a break of the

977
01:12:08.680 --> 01:12:13.399
trees I saw a great castle.
I swung through little, old thatched villages

978
01:12:13.640 --> 01:12:17.840
and over peaceful lowland streams, and
passed gardens blazing with hawthorne and yellow labanum.

979
01:12:18.760 --> 01:12:23.840
The land was so deep in peace
that I could scarcely believe that somewhere

980
01:12:23.920 --> 01:12:29.279
behind me were those who sought my
life hi, and that in a month's

981
01:12:29.279 --> 01:12:33.000
time, unless I had the almightiest
of luck, these round country faces would

982
01:12:33.039 --> 01:12:38.319
be pinched and staring, and men
would be lying dead in English fields.

983
01:12:39.880 --> 01:12:44.119
About midday I entered a long,
straggling village and had a mind to stop

984
01:12:44.159 --> 01:12:46.840
and eat. Halfway down was the
post office, and on the steps of

985
01:12:46.840 --> 01:12:50.960
it stood the postmistress and a policeman, hard at work conning a telegram.

986
01:12:51.520 --> 01:12:55.960
When they saw me. They wakened
up, and the policeman advanced with raised

987
01:12:55.960 --> 01:13:00.840
hand and cried on me to stop. I nearly was full enough to bay.

988
01:13:00.960 --> 01:13:02.760
Then it flashed upon me that the
wire had to do with me,

989
01:13:03.399 --> 01:13:08.479
that my friends at the end had
come to an understanding and were united and

990
01:13:08.520 --> 01:13:12.159
desiring to see more of me,
and that it had been easy enough for

991
01:13:12.199 --> 01:13:15.119
them to why the description of me
and the car to thirty villages through which

992
01:13:15.159 --> 01:13:19.720
I might pass. I released the
brakes just in time, as it was.

993
01:13:19.800 --> 01:13:24.520
The policeman made a claw at the
hood and only dropped off when he

994
01:13:24.560 --> 01:13:29.119
got my left in his eye.
I saw that main roads were no place

995
01:13:29.159 --> 01:13:32.520
for me and turned into the byways. It wasn't an easy job without a

996
01:13:32.600 --> 01:13:36.159
map, for there was the risk
of getting onto a farm road and ending

997
01:13:36.199 --> 01:13:41.000
in a duck pond or a stable
yard, and I couldn't afford that kind

998
01:13:41.039 --> 01:13:45.119
of delay. I began to see
what an ass I had been to steal

999
01:13:45.159 --> 01:13:47.880
the car. The big green brute
would be the safest kind of clue to

1000
01:13:47.920 --> 01:13:51.359
me over the breadth of Scotland.
If I left it and took to my

1001
01:13:51.439 --> 01:13:55.199
feet, it would be discovered in
an hour or two, and I would

1002
01:13:55.239 --> 01:13:59.520
get no start in the race.
The immediate thing to do was to get

1003
01:13:59.600 --> 01:14:03.319
to the onliest roads. These I
soon found when I struck up a tributary

1004
01:14:03.479 --> 01:14:08.119
of the Big River and got into
a glen with steep hills all about me

1005
01:14:08.439 --> 01:14:12.279
and a corkscrew road at the end, which climbed over a pass. Here

1006
01:14:12.319 --> 01:14:15.039
I meant nobody, but it was
taking me too far north, so I

1007
01:14:15.079 --> 01:14:18.880
slewed east along a bad track,
and finally struck a big double line railway

1008
01:14:19.640 --> 01:14:24.439
away. Below me, I saw
another broadish valley, and it occurred to

1009
01:14:24.439 --> 01:14:27.920
me that if I crossed it,
I might find some remote end to pass

1010
01:14:27.960 --> 01:14:32.039
the night. The evening was now
drawing in, and I was furiously hungry,

1011
01:14:32.239 --> 01:14:35.560
for I had eaten nothing since breakfast, except a couple of buns I

1012
01:14:35.600 --> 01:14:41.159
had bought from a baker's cart.
Just then I heard a noise in the

1013
01:14:41.199 --> 01:14:45.720
sky, and lo and behold there
was that infernal aeroplane, flying low,

1014
01:14:45.960 --> 01:14:49.319
about a dozen miles to the south
end, rapidly coming towards me. I

1015
01:14:49.439 --> 01:14:54.159
had the sense to remember that on
a bare moor, I was at the

1016
01:14:54.199 --> 01:14:58.000
aeroplane's mercy, and that my only
chance was to get to the leafy cover

1017
01:14:58.079 --> 01:15:02.039
of the valley down hill, I
went like blue lightning, screwing my head

1018
01:15:02.159 --> 01:15:08.000
round whenever I dared to watch that
damned flying machine. Soon I was on

1019
01:15:08.039 --> 01:15:12.199
a road between hedges and dipping to
the deep cut glen of a stream.

1020
01:15:12.319 --> 01:15:16.199
Then came a bit of thick wood, where I slackened speed. Suddenly on

1021
01:15:16.319 --> 01:15:19.880
my left I heard the hoot of
another car, and realized, to my

1022
01:15:19.960 --> 01:15:24.279
horror that I was almost up on
a couple of gate posts through which a

1023
01:15:24.359 --> 01:15:29.880
private road debouched on the highway.
My horn gave an agonized roar, but

1024
01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:33.159
it was too late. I clapped
on my brakes, but my impetus was

1025
01:15:33.199 --> 01:15:36.880
too great, and there before me
a car was sliding athwart my course,

1026
01:15:38.479 --> 01:15:42.039
and a second there would have been
the juice of a wreck. I did

1027
01:15:42.079 --> 01:15:45.119
the only thing possible and ran slap
into the hedge on the right, trusting

1028
01:15:45.159 --> 01:15:51.359
to find something soft beyond. But
there I was mistaken. My car slithered

1029
01:15:51.399 --> 01:15:56.840
through the hedge like butter, and
then gave a sickening plunge forward. I

1030
01:15:56.920 --> 01:16:00.640
saw what was coming, leapt on
the seat and would have jumped out,

1031
01:16:00.640 --> 01:16:02.920
but a branch of hawthorne got me
in the chest, lifted me up and

1032
01:16:03.000 --> 01:16:08.800
held me while a ton or two
of expensive metal slipped below me. Bucked

1033
01:16:08.920 --> 01:16:13.000
and pitched, and then dropped with
an almighty smashed fifty feet to the bed

1034
01:16:13.000 --> 01:16:17.800
of the stream. Slowly that thorn
let me go. I subsided first on

1035
01:16:17.840 --> 01:16:23.439
the hedge and then very gently on
a bower of nettles. As I scrambled

1036
01:16:23.479 --> 01:16:26.399
to my feet, a hand took
me by the arm, and a sympathetic

1037
01:16:26.399 --> 01:16:30.159
and badly scared voice asked me if
I were hurt. I found myself looking

1038
01:16:30.159 --> 01:16:34.359
at a tall young man in goggles
and a leather ulster who kept on blessing

1039
01:16:34.359 --> 01:16:40.199
his soul and winnying apologies for myself. Once I got my wind back,

1040
01:16:40.319 --> 01:16:44.159
I was rather glad than otherwise.
This was one way of getting rid of

1041
01:16:44.159 --> 01:16:47.039
the car. My blame, sir, I answered him. It's lucky that

1042
01:16:47.119 --> 01:16:50.760
I did not add homicide to my
follies. That's the end of my Scotch

1043
01:16:50.800 --> 01:16:55.800
motor tour, but it might have
been the end of my life. He

1044
01:16:55.880 --> 01:16:59.640
plucked out a watch and studied it. You're the right sort of fellow,

1045
01:16:59.680 --> 01:17:01.479
he said. I can spare a
quarter of an hour, and my house

1046
01:17:01.560 --> 01:17:05.119
is just two minutes off. I'll
see you clothed and fed and snug in

1047
01:17:05.239 --> 01:17:09.600
bed. Where's your kit, by
the way, is it in the burn

1048
01:17:09.680 --> 01:17:14.199
along with the car? It's in
my pocket, I said, brandishing a

1049
01:17:14.279 --> 01:17:18.199
toothbrush. I'm a colonial and travel
light. A colonial, he cried,

1050
01:17:18.319 --> 01:17:21.560
by gadge or the very man I've
been praying for. Are you, by

1051
01:17:21.560 --> 01:17:27.239
any blessed chance? A free trader? I am, said I, without

1052
01:17:27.399 --> 01:17:31.279
the foggiest notion of what he meant. He patted my shoulder and hurried me

1053
01:17:31.319 --> 01:17:36.079
into his car. Three minutes later
we drew up before a comfortable looking shooting

1054
01:17:36.119 --> 01:17:41.680
box set among pine trees, and
he hushered me indoors. He took me

1055
01:17:41.760 --> 01:17:44.720
first to a bedroom and flung half
a dozen of his suits before me,

1056
01:17:45.199 --> 01:17:48.600
For my own had been pretty well
reduced to rags. I selected a loose

1057
01:17:48.680 --> 01:17:54.560
blue serge, which differed most conspicuously
from my former garments, and burrowed a

1058
01:17:54.560 --> 01:17:58.880
linen collar. Then he howled me
to the dining room, where the remnants

1059
01:17:58.880 --> 01:18:01.359
of a meal stood on the table, and announced that I had just five

1060
01:18:01.399 --> 01:18:05.000
minutes to feed. You can take
a snack in your pocket and we'll have

1061
01:18:05.039 --> 01:18:09.319
supper when we get back. I've
got to be at the Masonic hall at

1062
01:18:09.359 --> 01:18:14.039
eight o'clock, or my agent will
comb my hair. I had a cup

1063
01:18:14.079 --> 01:18:16.399
of coffee in some cold ham while
he yearned away on the hearth rug.

1064
01:18:17.800 --> 01:18:21.520
You find me in the juice of
a mess. Mister Bye the bye.

1065
01:18:21.880 --> 01:18:27.920
You haven't told me your name Twisden, any relation of old Tommy Twisden of

1066
01:18:27.960 --> 01:18:32.199
the sixtieth No. Well, you
see, I'm Liberal candidate for this part

1067
01:18:32.239 --> 01:18:36.119
of the world, and I had
a meeting on tonight at Brattleburn. That's

1068
01:18:36.159 --> 01:18:42.520
my chief town and an infernal Tory
stronghold. I had got the Colonial ex

1069
01:18:42.560 --> 01:18:45.319
Premier, fellow Crumpleton coming to speak
for me tonight, and had the thing

1070
01:18:45.319 --> 01:18:49.800
tremendously billed, and the whole place
ground baited. This afternoon I had a

1071
01:18:49.800 --> 01:18:55.119
wire from the Ruffian saying he had
got influenza at Blackpool. And here I

1072
01:18:55.199 --> 01:18:59.319
am left to do the whole thing
myself. I had meant to speak for

1073
01:18:59.359 --> 01:19:02.079
ten minutes. I must now go
on for forty, And though I've been

1074
01:19:02.199 --> 01:19:06.079
racking my brains for three hours to
think of something, I simply cannot last

1075
01:19:06.119 --> 01:19:10.520
the course. Now you've got to
be a good chap and help me.

1076
01:19:11.319 --> 01:19:15.359
You're a free trader and can tell
our people what a wash out protection as

1077
01:19:15.359 --> 01:19:18.119
in the colonies. All you fellows
have the gift of the gab I wish

1078
01:19:18.159 --> 01:19:23.680
to heaven I had it, I'll
be for evermore in your debt. I

1079
01:19:23.880 --> 01:19:27.760
had very few notions about free trade, one way or the other, but

1080
01:19:27.840 --> 01:19:30.960
I saw no other chance to get
what I wanted. My young gentleman was

1081
01:19:31.000 --> 01:19:35.159
far too absorbed in his own difficulties
to think how odd it was to ask

1082
01:19:35.159 --> 01:19:40.399
a stranger who had just missed death
by an ace and had lost a thousand

1083
01:19:40.439 --> 01:19:44.039
guinea car to address a meeting for
him on the spur of the moment.

1084
01:19:45.039 --> 01:19:49.000
But my necessities did not allow me
to contemplate oddnesses or to pick and choose

1085
01:19:49.039 --> 01:19:54.239
my supports. All right, I
said, I'm not much good as a

1086
01:19:54.279 --> 01:19:58.800
speaker, but I'll tell them a
bit about Australia. At my words,

1087
01:19:58.840 --> 01:20:01.880
the cares of the ages slipped from
his shoulders, and he was rapturous in

1088
01:20:01.960 --> 01:20:06.239
his thanks. He lent me a
big driving coat and never troubled to ask

1089
01:20:06.319 --> 01:20:11.640
why I had started on a motor
tour without possessing an ulster. And as

1090
01:20:11.680 --> 01:20:15.479
we slipped down the dusty roads,
poured into my ears the simple facts of

1091
01:20:15.560 --> 01:20:19.039
his history. He was an orphan, and his uncle had brought him up.

1092
01:20:19.239 --> 01:20:23.319
I've forgotten the uncle's name, but
he was in the cabinet, and

1093
01:20:23.399 --> 01:20:27.279
you can read his speeches in the
papers. He had gone round the world

1094
01:20:27.359 --> 01:20:30.760
after leaving Cambridge and then, being
short of a job, his uncle had

1095
01:20:30.800 --> 01:20:35.279
advised politics. I gathered that he
had no preference in parties. Good chaps

1096
01:20:35.279 --> 01:20:40.279
in both, he said, cheerfully, and plenty of blighters too. I'm

1097
01:20:40.319 --> 01:20:45.640
liberal because my family have always been
Whigs. But if he was lukewarm politically,

1098
01:20:45.000 --> 01:20:48.640
he had strong views on other things. He found out. I knew

1099
01:20:48.640 --> 01:20:53.760
a bit about horses and jawed away
about the Derby entries, and he was

1100
01:20:53.960 --> 01:20:58.880
full of plans for improving his shooting. Altogether, a very clean, decent,

1101
01:20:59.000 --> 01:21:02.359
callow young man. As we passed
through a little town, two policemen

1102
01:21:02.399 --> 01:21:06.680
signaled us to stop and flash their
lanterns on us. Beg pardon, sir,

1103
01:21:06.680 --> 01:21:11.199
Harry said one. We've got instructions
to look out for a car,

1104
01:21:11.399 --> 01:21:15.800
and the descriptions. No one like
yours, right O, said my host,

1105
01:21:15.119 --> 01:21:18.960
while I thanked Providence for the devious
ways I had been brought to safety.

1106
01:21:20.000 --> 01:21:23.920
After that, he spoke no more, for his mind began to labor

1107
01:21:23.960 --> 01:21:29.079
heavily with his coming speech. His
lips kept muttering, his eye wandered,

1108
01:21:29.399 --> 01:21:33.159
and I began to prepare myself for
a second catastrophe. I tried to think

1109
01:21:33.159 --> 01:21:38.039
of something to say myself, but
my mind was dry as a stone.

1110
01:21:38.840 --> 01:21:41.520
The next thing I knew, we
had drawn up outside a door in a

1111
01:21:41.600 --> 01:21:46.079
street and were being welcomed by some
noisy gentleman with rosettes. The hall had

1112
01:21:46.119 --> 01:21:50.039
about five hundred in it, women, mostly a lot of bald heads,

1113
01:21:50.079 --> 01:21:55.079
and a dozen or two young men. The chairman, a weasly minister with

1114
01:21:55.119 --> 01:22:00.680
a redgish nose, lamented Crumpleton's absence, soliloquised on his influenza, and gave

1115
01:22:00.720 --> 01:22:04.880
me a certificate as a trusted leader
of Australian thought. There were two policemen

1116
01:22:04.920 --> 01:22:10.319
at the door, and I hoped
they took note of that testimonial. Then

1117
01:22:10.560 --> 01:22:15.319
Sir Harry started. I never heard
anything like it. He didn't begin to

1118
01:22:15.359 --> 01:22:18.960
know how to talk. He had
about a bushel of notes from which he

1119
01:22:19.000 --> 01:22:23.680
read, and when he let go
of them, he fell into one prolonged

1120
01:22:23.760 --> 01:22:28.239
stutter. Every now and then he
remembered a phrase he had learned by heart,

1121
01:22:28.720 --> 01:22:31.880
straightened his back and gave it off
like Henry Irving, and the next

1122
01:22:31.920 --> 01:22:36.279
moment he was bent double and crooning
over his papers. It was the most

1123
01:22:36.359 --> 01:22:42.439
appalling rot too. He talked about
the German menace and said it was all

1124
01:22:42.479 --> 01:22:45.039
a Torry invention to cheat the poor
of their rights and keep back the great

1125
01:22:45.039 --> 01:22:50.399
flood of social reform. But that
organized labor realized this and laughed the Torries

1126
01:22:50.439 --> 01:22:55.560
to scorn. He was all for
reducing our navy as a proof of our

1127
01:22:55.600 --> 01:22:59.640
good faith, and then sending Germany
an ultimatum telling her to do the same,

1128
01:23:00.119 --> 01:23:03.000
or we would knock her into a
cocked hat. He said that but

1129
01:23:03.239 --> 01:23:08.319
for the Tories, Germany and Britain
would be fellow workers in peace and reform.

1130
01:23:09.479 --> 01:23:13.159
I thought of the little black book
in my pocket, a giddy lot.

1131
01:23:13.159 --> 01:23:17.159
Scudder's friends cared for peace and reform, yet in a queer way.

1132
01:23:17.319 --> 01:23:21.279
I liked the speech. You could
see the niceness of the chap shining out

1133
01:23:21.319 --> 01:23:26.439
behind the muck with which he had
been spoon fed. Also, it took

1134
01:23:26.439 --> 01:23:30.439
a load off my mind. I
mightn't be much of an orator, but

1135
01:23:30.560 --> 01:23:34.279
I was a thousand percent better than
Sir Harry. I didn't get on so

1136
01:23:34.359 --> 01:23:38.880
badly When it came to my turn, I simply told them all I could

1137
01:23:38.920 --> 01:23:43.880
remember about Australia, praying there should
be no Australian there, all about its

1138
01:23:43.960 --> 01:23:48.159
Labor Party and emigration and universal service. I doubt if I remembered to mention

1139
01:23:48.239 --> 01:23:53.479
free trade, but I said there
were no Tories in Australia, only labor

1140
01:23:53.640 --> 01:23:58.000
and liberals. That fetched a cheer, and I woke them up a bit

1141
01:23:58.039 --> 01:24:00.600
when I started in to tell them
the kind of glorious business I thought could

1142
01:24:00.600 --> 01:24:05.720
be made out of the Empire if
we really put our backs into it altogether.

1143
01:24:05.760 --> 01:24:10.560
I fancy I was rather a success. The Minister didn't like me,

1144
01:24:10.680 --> 01:24:14.399
though, and when he proposed a
vote of thanks, spoke of Sir Harry's

1145
01:24:14.399 --> 01:24:18.439
speech as statesman like and mine as
having the eloquence of an emigration agent.

1146
01:24:19.960 --> 01:24:24.239
When we were in the car again, my host was in wild spirits at

1147
01:24:24.239 --> 01:24:29.479
having got his job over a ripping
speech Twisden. He said, now you're

1148
01:24:29.479 --> 01:24:32.199
coming home with me. I'm all
alone, and if you'll stop a day

1149
01:24:32.319 --> 01:24:36.680
or two, I'll show you some
very decent fishing. We had a hot

1150
01:24:36.680 --> 01:24:41.680
supper and I wanted it pretty badly, and then drank grog in a big,

1151
01:24:41.760 --> 01:24:45.159
cheery smoking room with a crackling wood
fire. I thought the time had

1152
01:24:45.159 --> 01:24:48.920
come for me to put my cards
on the table. I saw by this

1153
01:24:48.960 --> 01:24:54.640
man's eye that he was the kind
you can trust. Listen, Sir Harry,

1154
01:24:54.840 --> 01:24:58.920
I said, I've something pretty important
to say to you. You're a

1155
01:24:58.960 --> 01:25:01.760
good fellow, and I'm to be
frank. Where on earth did you get

1156
01:25:01.800 --> 01:25:08.960
that poisonous rubbish you talk tonight?
His face fell. Was it as bad

1157
01:25:09.000 --> 01:25:13.319
as that? He asked? Ruefully? It did sound rather thin. I

1158
01:25:13.399 --> 01:25:16.399
got most of it out of the
progressive magazine and pamphlets that agent chap of

1159
01:25:16.439 --> 01:25:20.560
mine keeps sending me. But you
surely don't think Germany would ever go to

1160
01:25:20.640 --> 01:25:26.279
war with us. Ask that question
in six weeks and it won't need an

1161
01:25:26.279 --> 01:25:30.079
answer, I said, If you'll
give me your attention for half an hour,

1162
01:25:30.479 --> 01:25:33.720
I am going to tell you a
story. I can see yet that

1163
01:25:33.800 --> 01:25:38.399
bright room with the deers heads and
the old prince on the walls, Sir

1164
01:25:38.479 --> 01:25:43.039
Harry standing restlessly on the stone curb
of the hearth, and myself lying back

1165
01:25:43.079 --> 01:25:47.880
in an armchair speaking. I seemed
to be another person standing aside and listening

1166
01:25:47.920 --> 01:25:54.479
to my own voice and judging carefully
the reliability of my tale. It was

1167
01:25:54.520 --> 01:25:59.239
the first time I had ever told
anyone the exact truth so far as I

1168
01:25:59.319 --> 01:26:02.079
understood it, and it did me
no end of good, for it straightened

1169
01:26:02.119 --> 01:26:06.600
out the thing in my own mind. I blinked no detail. He heard

1170
01:26:06.640 --> 01:26:11.760
all about Scudder and the milkman,
and the note book and my doings in

1171
01:26:11.800 --> 01:26:15.840
Galloway. Presently he got very excited
and walked up and down the hearth rug.

1172
01:26:16.760 --> 01:26:20.760
So you see, I concluded,
you have got here in your house

1173
01:26:20.800 --> 01:26:26.199
the man that has wanted for the
Portland Place murder. Your duty is to

1174
01:26:26.239 --> 01:26:29.760
send your car for the police and
give me up. I don't think i'll

1175
01:26:29.800 --> 01:26:32.159
get very far. There'll be an
accident and i'll have a knife in my

1176
01:26:32.239 --> 01:26:38.359
ribs an hour or so after a
rest. Nevertheless, it's your duty as

1177
01:26:38.399 --> 01:26:43.279
a law abiding citizen. Perhaps in
a month's time you'll be sorry, but

1178
01:26:43.479 --> 01:26:46.399
you have no cause to think of
that. He was looking at me with

1179
01:26:46.520 --> 01:26:51.279
bright, steady eyes. What was
your job in Rhodesia, mister Hannay,

1180
01:26:51.640 --> 01:26:57.399
he asked, mining engineer. I
said, I've made my pile cleanly,

1181
01:26:57.399 --> 01:27:00.399
and I've had a good time in
the making of it. Not a profession

1182
01:27:00.439 --> 01:27:05.640
that weakens the nerves, is it? I laughed? Oh, as to

1183
01:27:05.720 --> 01:27:09.800
that, my nerves are good enough. I took down a hunting knife from

1184
01:27:09.800 --> 01:27:13.520
a stand on the wall and did
the old mush owner trick of tossing it

1185
01:27:13.520 --> 01:27:17.720
and catching it in my lips.
That wants a pretty steady heart, he

1186
01:27:17.800 --> 01:27:23.000
watched me with a smile. I
don't want proofs. I may be an

1187
01:27:23.000 --> 01:27:26.520
ass on the platform, but I
can size up a man. You're no

1188
01:27:26.680 --> 01:27:30.279
murderer, and you're no fool,
and I believe you are speaking the truth.

1189
01:27:30.760 --> 01:27:32.520
I'm going to back you up.
Now, what can I do?

1190
01:27:34.000 --> 01:27:38.079
First? If you want to write
a letter to your uncle, I've got

1191
01:27:38.119 --> 01:27:42.359
to get in touch with the government
people some time before the fifteenth of June.

1192
01:27:42.880 --> 01:27:46.399
He pulled his mustache. That won't
help you. This says foreign Office

1193
01:27:46.439 --> 01:27:49.880
business, and my uncle would have
nothing to do with it. Besides,

1194
01:27:50.119 --> 01:27:55.800
you'd never convince him. No,
I'll go one better. I'll write to

1195
01:27:55.840 --> 01:27:59.920
the Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office. He's my godfather and one of the

1196
01:28:00.159 --> 01:28:04.000
best going. What do you want? He sat down at a table and

1197
01:28:04.039 --> 01:28:08.920
wrote to my dictation. The gist
of it was that if a man called

1198
01:28:08.960 --> 01:28:13.399
Twisden, I thought I had better
stick to that name turned up before June

1199
01:28:13.439 --> 01:28:16.960
fifteenth. He was to entreat him
kindly. He said, Twisden would prove

1200
01:28:17.039 --> 01:28:24.479
his bona fiders by passing the word
black stone and whistling. Annie Laurie Good

1201
01:28:24.920 --> 01:28:28.960
said, Sir Harry, that's the
proper style. By the way, you'll

1202
01:28:28.960 --> 01:28:33.359
find my godfather. His name's Sir
Walter Boulevand down at his country cottage forwards

1203
01:28:33.399 --> 01:28:39.560
Suntide. It's close to Artinswell on
the kennet. That's done. Now,

1204
01:28:39.560 --> 01:28:44.800
what's the next thing. You're about
my height? Lend me the oldest tweed

1205
01:28:44.840 --> 01:28:46.960
suit you've got. Anything will do, so long as the color is the

1206
01:28:47.000 --> 01:28:51.159
opposite of the clothes I destroyed this
afternoon. Then show me a map of

1207
01:28:51.199 --> 01:28:57.479
the neighborhood and explain to me the
lie of the land. Lastly, if

1208
01:28:57.520 --> 01:29:00.600
the police come seeking me, just
show them the car in the glen.

1209
01:29:00.000 --> 01:29:03.479
If the other lot turn up,
tell them I caught the South Express after

1210
01:29:03.520 --> 01:29:09.960
your meeting. He did, or
promised to do all these things. I

1211
01:29:10.039 --> 01:29:14.279
shaved off the remnants of my mustache
and got inside an ancient suit of what

1212
01:29:14.359 --> 01:29:17.960
I believe is called heather mixture.
The map gave me some notion of my

1213
01:29:18.039 --> 01:29:23.159
whereabouts, and told me the two
things I wanted to know, where the

1214
01:29:23.199 --> 01:29:27.720
main railway to the south could be
joined, and what were the wildest districts

1215
01:29:27.760 --> 01:29:31.439
near at hand. At two o'clock
he wakened me from my slumbers in the

1216
01:29:31.439 --> 01:29:35.560
smoking room arm chair and led me
blinking into the dark, starry night.

1217
01:29:36.119 --> 01:29:42.159
An old bicycle was found in a
tool shed and handed over to me first,

1218
01:29:42.239 --> 01:29:45.359
turned to the right, up by
the long firward. He enjoined,

1219
01:29:45.800 --> 01:29:49.079
by daybreak you'll be well into the
hills. Then I should pitch the machine

1220
01:29:49.119 --> 01:29:53.399
into a bog and take to the
moors on foot. You can put in

1221
01:29:53.439 --> 01:29:56.439
a week among the shepherds and be
as safe as if you were in New

1222
01:29:56.439 --> 01:30:01.880
Guinea. I peddled diligently upstair roads
of hell gravel till the skies grew pale

1223
01:30:01.880 --> 01:30:06.600
with morning. As the mists cleared
before the sun, I found myself in

1224
01:30:06.640 --> 01:30:11.319
a wide, green world, with
glens falling on every side, and a

1225
01:30:11.399 --> 01:30:15.840
far away blue horizon. Here at
any rate I could get early news of

1226
01:30:15.920 --> 01:30:29.319
my enemies. End of chapter four, Chapter five of The Thirty Nine Steps

1227
01:30:29.399 --> 01:30:34.439
by John Buckan. This LibriVox recording
is in the public domain read by Cliff

1228
01:30:34.520 --> 01:30:41.840
Stone of Sydney, Australia. The
Thirty nine Steps by John Buchan, Chapter

1229
01:30:41.880 --> 01:30:47.439
five, The Adventure of the Spectacled
Roadman. I sat down on the very

1230
01:30:47.479 --> 01:30:53.279
crest of the pass and took stock
of my position. Behind me was the

1231
01:30:53.359 --> 01:30:56.920
road climbing through a long cleft in
the hills, which was the upper glend

1232
01:30:56.960 --> 01:31:00.279
of some notable river. In front
was a flat space of maybe a mile,

1233
01:31:00.760 --> 01:31:04.920
all pitted with bog holes and rough
with tussocks. And then beyond it

1234
01:31:05.000 --> 01:31:10.760
the road fell steeply down another glend
to a plane whose blue dimness melted into

1235
01:31:10.760 --> 01:31:15.680
the distance. To left and right
were round shouldered green hills, as smooth

1236
01:31:15.680 --> 01:31:19.319
as pancakes. But to the south, that is the left hand, there

1237
01:31:19.399 --> 01:31:23.920
was a glimpse of high, heathery
mountains, which I remembered from the map

1238
01:31:24.159 --> 01:31:27.239
as the big knot of hill,
which I had chosen for my sanctuary.

1239
01:31:28.520 --> 01:31:32.520
I was on the central boss of
a huge upland country and could see everything

1240
01:31:32.600 --> 01:31:38.000
moving for miles. In the meadows
below the road, half a mile back

1241
01:31:38.079 --> 01:31:42.960
a cottage smoke, but it was
the only sign of human life. Otherwise

1242
01:31:43.000 --> 01:31:47.680
there was only the cooling of plovers
and the tinkling of little streams. It

1243
01:31:47.760 --> 01:31:50.960
was now about seven o'clock, and
as I waited, I heard once again

1244
01:31:51.039 --> 01:31:56.439
that ominous beat in the air.
Then I realized that my vantage ground might

1245
01:31:56.479 --> 01:32:00.279
be in reality a trap. There
was no cover for a tom it in

1246
01:32:00.319 --> 01:32:04.159
those bald green places. I sat
quite still and hopeless while the beat grew

1247
01:32:04.159 --> 01:32:09.319
louder. Then I saw an aeroplane
coming up from the east. It was

1248
01:32:09.359 --> 01:32:12.640
flying high, but as I looked, it dropped several hundred feet and began

1249
01:32:12.680 --> 01:32:16.000
to circle round the knot of hill
in narrowing circles, just as a hawk

1250
01:32:16.039 --> 01:32:21.000
wheels before it pounces. Now it
was flying very low, and now the

1251
01:32:21.039 --> 01:32:25.520
observer on board caught sight of me. I could see one of the two

1252
01:32:25.560 --> 01:32:30.119
occupants examining me through glasses. Suddenly
it began to rise in swift halls,

1253
01:32:30.600 --> 01:32:34.600
and the next I knew it was
speeding eastward again, till it became a

1254
01:32:34.680 --> 01:32:41.960
speck in the blue morning. That
made me do some savage thinking my enemies

1255
01:32:41.960 --> 01:32:45.039
had located me and the next thing
would be a cordon round me. I

1256
01:32:45.079 --> 01:32:48.239
didn't know what force they could command, but I was certain it would be

1257
01:32:48.279 --> 01:32:54.279
sufficient. The aeroplane had seen my
bicycle and would conclude that I would try

1258
01:32:54.319 --> 01:32:58.079
to escape by the road. In
that case there might be a chance on

1259
01:32:58.119 --> 01:33:01.479
the moors to the right or left. I wheeled the machine a hundred yards

1260
01:33:01.479 --> 01:33:05.439
from the highway and plunged it into
a moss hole, where it sank among

1261
01:33:05.560 --> 01:33:10.800
pond weed and water buttercups. Then
I climbed to a knoll which gave me

1262
01:33:10.880 --> 01:33:15.000
a view of the two valleys.
Nothing was stirring on the long white ribbon

1263
01:33:15.079 --> 01:33:18.479
that threaded them. I have said
there was not cover in the whole place

1264
01:33:18.479 --> 01:33:23.319
to hide a rat. As the
day advanced, it was flooded with soft,

1265
01:33:23.399 --> 01:33:27.720
fresh light till it had the fragrant
sunniness of the South African beld.

1266
01:33:28.560 --> 01:33:31.279
At other times I would have liked
the place, but now it seemed to

1267
01:33:31.279 --> 01:33:36.039
suffocate me. The free moorlands were
prison walls, and the keen hill air

1268
01:33:36.159 --> 01:33:42.199
was the breath of a dungeon.
I tossed the coin heads right, tails

1269
01:33:42.279 --> 01:33:45.439
left, and it fell heads.
So I turned to the north. In

1270
01:33:45.520 --> 01:33:48.800
a little I came to the brow
of the ridge, which was the containing

1271
01:33:48.800 --> 01:33:53.520
wall of the pass. I saw
the high road for maybe ten miles,

1272
01:33:53.520 --> 01:33:57.199
and far down at something that was
moving, and that I took to be

1273
01:33:57.239 --> 01:34:00.239
a motor car. Beyond the ridge, I looked on a rolling green moor

1274
01:34:00.520 --> 01:34:05.640
which fell away into wooded glens.
Now my life on the Veld has given

1275
01:34:05.680 --> 01:34:10.079
me the eyes of a kite,
and I can see things for which most

1276
01:34:10.119 --> 01:34:14.520
men need a telescope. Away down
the slope, a couple of miles away,

1277
01:34:14.560 --> 01:34:18.359
several men were advancing like a row
of beaters at a chute. I

1278
01:34:18.479 --> 01:34:23.359
dropped out of sight behind the skyline. That way was shut to me,

1279
01:34:23.479 --> 01:34:27.279
and I must try the bigger hills
to the south beyond the highway. The

1280
01:34:27.359 --> 01:34:30.760
car I had noticed was getting nearer, but it was still a long way

1281
01:34:30.800 --> 01:34:34.479
off, with some very steep gradients
before it. I ran hard, crouching

1282
01:34:34.520 --> 01:34:39.039
low except in the hollows, And
as I ran, I kept scanning the

1283
01:34:39.039 --> 01:34:43.800
brow of the hill before me.
Was it imagination or did I see figures

1284
01:34:45.079 --> 01:34:49.439
two perhaps more moving in a glen
beyond the stream. If you are hemmed

1285
01:34:49.479 --> 01:34:53.359
in on all sides in a patch
of land, there was only one chance

1286
01:34:53.399 --> 01:34:57.960
of escape. You must stay in
the patch and let your enemies search it

1287
01:34:58.239 --> 01:35:01.159
and not find you. That was
good sense. But how on earth was

1288
01:35:01.199 --> 01:35:05.239
I to escape? Notice? In
that tablecloth of a place I would have

1289
01:35:05.319 --> 01:35:10.079
buried myself to the neck and mud, or laying below water, or climbed

1290
01:35:10.119 --> 01:35:14.399
the tallest tree. But there was
not a stick of wood. The bog

1291
01:35:14.479 --> 01:35:18.119
holes were little puddles, the stream
was a slender trickle. There was nothing

1292
01:35:18.119 --> 01:35:24.760
but short heather and bare held bent
in the white highway. Then in the

1293
01:35:24.840 --> 01:35:28.439
tiny bite of road, beside a
heap of stones, I found the roadman.

1294
01:35:29.199 --> 01:35:32.479
He had just arrived and was wearily
flinging down his hammer. He looked

1295
01:35:32.479 --> 01:35:36.479
at me with a fishy eye and
yawned. Can buffoon the day I ever

1296
01:35:36.560 --> 01:35:40.600
left the herden, he said,
as if to the world at large.

1297
01:35:41.079 --> 01:35:45.720
There I was my endmaster. Now
I'm a slave to the government. Tethered

1298
01:35:45.760 --> 01:35:49.680
to the roadside we seen and at
back like a suckle. He took up

1299
01:35:49.720 --> 01:35:54.119
the hammer, struck a stone,
dropped the implement with an oath, and

1300
01:35:54.159 --> 01:35:58.840
put both hands to his ears.
Mercy on me. My head's bursting,

1301
01:35:59.039 --> 01:36:02.359
he cried. He was a wild
figure, about my own size, but

1302
01:36:02.479 --> 01:36:06.079
much bent, with a week's beard
on his chin and a pair of big

1303
01:36:06.119 --> 01:36:11.399
horn spectacles. I can't dat,
he cried again. The serve. I

1304
01:36:11.439 --> 01:36:15.000
am orn, just report me.
I'm from my bed. I asked him

1305
01:36:15.000 --> 01:36:18.880
what was the trouble, though indeed
that was clear enough. The trouble is

1306
01:36:18.920 --> 01:36:24.239
that I'm no sober. Last night
my daughter Marian was wett it an they

1307
01:36:24.359 --> 01:36:28.720
danced till four an the buyer me
an some mither Chile sat down to the

1308
01:36:28.800 --> 01:36:31.960
drinkin' an here. I am pity
that I ever look at on the wine

1309
01:36:31.960 --> 01:36:38.520
when it was red. I agreed
with him about bed. It's easy speaking,

1310
01:36:38.640 --> 01:36:42.560
he moaned. But I got a
postcard yestern saying that the new road

1311
01:36:42.640 --> 01:36:45.479
Surveyor would be round the day.
He'll come and he'll no find me,

1312
01:36:45.920 --> 01:36:48.920
or else he'll find me foul.
And either way I'm a dune man.

1313
01:36:49.680 --> 01:36:54.000
I'll hour back to my bed,
an say I'm no wheel, but I

1314
01:36:54.119 --> 01:36:57.199
do. That'll no help me,
for they kin my kind. Oh no

1315
01:36:57.319 --> 01:37:02.199
wellness. Then I had an inspiration. Does the new surveyor know you?

1316
01:37:02.520 --> 01:37:06.159
I asked? Know him? He's
just been a week at the job.

1317
01:37:06.560 --> 01:37:11.520
He rings about in a wee motor
corps and wild spear the inside. Uda

1318
01:37:11.560 --> 01:37:16.119
awelke, where's your house? I
asked, and was directed by a wavering

1319
01:37:16.199 --> 01:37:20.119
finger to the cottage by the stream. Well back to your bed, I

1320
01:37:20.119 --> 01:37:24.079
said, and sleep in peace.
I'll take on your job for a bit

1321
01:37:24.119 --> 01:37:28.880
and see the surveyor. He stared
at me blankly. Then, as the

1322
01:37:29.000 --> 01:37:32.279
notion dawned on his fuddled brain,
his face broke into the vacant, drunken

1323
01:37:32.359 --> 01:37:38.840
smile. You're the billy, he
cried. It'll be easy, eunuch managed,

1324
01:37:39.319 --> 01:37:42.920
I've finished that being a stained so
you need a chap bony mare this

1325
01:37:43.039 --> 01:37:47.199
mornoon. Just take the barry a
weal, eunuch metal fray yon quarry dun

1326
01:37:47.319 --> 01:37:53.880
the rude to macnither bing the morn
My name's Alexander Trummel, and I've been

1327
01:37:54.079 --> 01:37:57.600
seven year at the trade, and
twenty or four that hurden on leath and

1328
01:37:57.680 --> 01:38:02.239
water. My friends, Calm and
while specky for I wear glasses being wake

1329
01:38:02.279 --> 01:38:08.159
eyed the sick. Just you speak
the surveyor fair and call him sir,

1330
01:38:08.760 --> 01:38:14.119
and he'll be fell pleased. I'll
be back or midday. I borrowed his

1331
01:38:14.159 --> 01:38:18.520
spectacles and filthy old hat, stripped
off coat, waistcoat and collar and gave

1332
01:38:18.600 --> 01:38:23.560
him them to carry home. Borrowed
too, the foul stump of a clay

1333
01:38:23.600 --> 01:38:28.520
pipe as an extra property. He
indicated my simple tasks, and without more

1334
01:38:28.560 --> 01:38:32.720
Ado set off at an amble bedwoods
bed may have been his chief object,

1335
01:38:32.760 --> 01:38:35.680
but I think there was also something
left in the foot of a bottle.

1336
01:38:36.479 --> 01:38:41.560
I prayed that he might be safe
under cover before my friends arrived on the

1337
01:38:41.560 --> 01:38:45.239
scene. Then I set to work
to dress for the part. I opened

1338
01:38:45.279 --> 01:38:48.800
the collar of my shirt. It
was a vulgar blue and white check,

1339
01:38:48.920 --> 01:38:54.079
such as plowman wear, and revealed
a neck as brown as any tinkers.

1340
01:38:54.640 --> 01:38:57.800
I rolled up my sleeves, and
there was a forearm which might have been

1341
01:38:57.840 --> 01:39:01.079
a blacksmith's, sunburnt and rough with
old ours. I got my boots and

1342
01:39:01.159 --> 01:39:04.640
trouser legs, all white from the
dust of the road, and hitched up

1343
01:39:04.640 --> 01:39:10.239
my trousers, tying them with string
below the knee. Then I set to

1344
01:39:10.239 --> 01:39:14.199
work on my face. With a
handful of dust, I made a water

1345
01:39:14.279 --> 01:39:17.960
mark round my neck, the place
where mister Turnbull's Sunday ablutions might be expected

1346
01:39:18.000 --> 01:39:23.039
to stop. I rubbed a good
deal of dirt, also into the sunburn

1347
01:39:23.119 --> 01:39:27.159
of my cheeks. A roadman's eyes
would no doubt be a little inflamed,

1348
01:39:27.199 --> 01:39:30.000
so I contrived to get some dust
in both of mine, and by dint

1349
01:39:30.039 --> 01:39:35.439
of vigorous rubbing, produced a bleary
effect the sandwiches Sir Harry had given me

1350
01:39:35.520 --> 01:39:40.319
head gone off with my coat,
but the roadman's lunch, tied up in

1351
01:39:40.319 --> 01:39:45.399
a red handkerchief, was at my
disposal. I ate with great relish several

1352
01:39:45.439 --> 01:39:47.680
of the thick slabs of scone and
cheese, and drank a little of the

1353
01:39:47.720 --> 01:39:53.279
cold tea. And the handkerchief was
a local paper, tied with string and

1354
01:39:53.319 --> 01:39:59.079
addressed to mister Turnbull, obviously meant
to solace his midday leisure. I did

1355
01:39:59.119 --> 01:40:02.880
up the bundle of game and put
the paper conspicuously beside it. My boots

1356
01:40:02.880 --> 01:40:08.000
did not satisfy me, but by
dint of kicking among the stones, I

1357
01:40:08.039 --> 01:40:13.079
reduced him to the granite like surface
which marks a roman's foot gear. Then

1358
01:40:13.119 --> 01:40:15.960
I bit and scraped my finger nails
till the edges were all cracked and uneven.

1359
01:40:16.680 --> 01:40:20.960
The men I was matched against would
miss no detail. I broke one

1360
01:40:21.000 --> 01:40:25.479
of the boot laces and retied it
in a clumsy knot, and loose to

1361
01:40:25.479 --> 01:40:30.119
the other, so that my thick
gray socks bulged over the uppers. Still

1362
01:40:30.159 --> 01:40:32.760
no sign of anything on the road. The motor I had observed half an

1363
01:40:32.800 --> 01:40:38.840
hour ago must have gone home.
My toilet complete, I took up the

1364
01:40:38.880 --> 01:40:42.840
barrow and began my journeys to and
from the quarry a hundred yards off.

1365
01:40:44.119 --> 01:40:47.399
I remember an old scout in Rhodesia, who had done many queer things in

1366
01:40:47.479 --> 01:40:51.239
his day, once telling me that
the secret of playing a part was to

1367
01:40:51.279 --> 01:40:55.880
think yourself into it. You could
never keep it up, he said,

1368
01:40:56.159 --> 01:41:00.960
unless you could manage to convince yourself
that you were it. So I shut

1369
01:41:00.000 --> 01:41:04.479
off all other thoughts and switched them
on to the road mending. I thought

1370
01:41:04.520 --> 01:41:09.239
of the little white cottage as my
home. I recalled the years I had

1371
01:41:09.279 --> 01:41:13.920
spent herding on leath and water.
I made my mind dwell lovingly on sleep

1372
01:41:13.960 --> 01:41:18.079
in a box bed and a bottle
of cheap whiskey. Still nothing appeared on

1373
01:41:18.159 --> 01:41:23.880
that long white road. Now and
then a sheep wandered off the heather to

1374
01:41:23.960 --> 01:41:27.680
stare at me. A heron flopped
down to a pool in the stream and

1375
01:41:27.720 --> 01:41:30.399
started to fish, taking no more
notice of me than if I had been

1376
01:41:30.399 --> 01:41:35.720
a milestone. On I went trundling
my loads of stone with the heavy step

1377
01:41:35.760 --> 01:41:41.399
of the professional. Soon I grew
warm, and the dust on my face

1378
01:41:41.560 --> 01:41:46.039
changed into solid and abiding grit.
I was already counting the hours till evening

1379
01:41:46.079 --> 01:41:53.119
should put a limit to mister Turnbull's
monotonous toil. Suddenly, a crisp voice

1380
01:41:53.159 --> 01:41:57.079
spoke from the road, and looking
up, I saw a little forward two

1381
01:41:57.119 --> 01:42:01.520
seater and a round faced young man
in a bowler hat. Are you Alexander

1382
01:42:01.560 --> 01:42:06.359
Turnbull? He asked. I am
the new County Road Surveyor. You live

1383
01:42:06.359 --> 01:42:11.199
at black Hope Foot and have charge
of the section from laid or Bears to

1384
01:42:11.279 --> 01:42:15.159
the rigs. Good a fair bit
of road, Turnbull, and not badly

1385
01:42:15.159 --> 01:42:19.439
engineered, A little soft about a
mile off, and the edges want cleaning.

1386
01:42:20.279 --> 01:42:25.000
See you look after that good morning. You'll know me the next time

1387
01:42:25.039 --> 01:42:29.640
you see me. Clearly, my
get up was good enough for the dreaded

1388
01:42:29.680 --> 01:42:32.479
surveyor. I went on with my
work, and as the morning grew towards

1389
01:42:32.520 --> 01:42:36.760
noon, I was cheered by a
little traffic. A baker's van breasted the

1390
01:42:36.880 --> 01:42:41.399
hill and sold me a bag of
ginger biscuits, which I stowed in my

1391
01:42:41.479 --> 01:42:46.520
trouser pockets against emergencies. Then a
herd passed with sheep and disturbed me somewhat

1392
01:42:46.520 --> 01:42:51.840
by asking loudy what had become o
specky in bed We the colic, I

1393
01:42:51.920 --> 01:42:58.039
replied, and the herd passed on. Just about midday, a big car

1394
01:42:58.199 --> 01:43:01.279
stole down the hill, glide,
passed and drew up a hundred yards beyond.

1395
01:43:02.119 --> 01:43:06.560
Its Three occupants descended as if to
stretch their legs, and sauntered towards

1396
01:43:06.600 --> 01:43:11.479
me. Two of the men I
had seen before from the window of the

1397
01:43:11.520 --> 01:43:16.039
Galloway Inn. One lean, sharp
and dark, the other comfortable and smiling.

1398
01:43:16.920 --> 01:43:20.439
The third had the look of a
countryman, a vet perhaps, or

1399
01:43:20.520 --> 01:43:25.720
a small farmer. He was dressed
in ill cut knickerbockers, and the eye

1400
01:43:25.720 --> 01:43:30.079
off his head was as bright and
weary as a hen's morning. Said the

1401
01:43:30.159 --> 01:43:34.359
last, that's a fine easy drop
of yours. I had not looked up

1402
01:43:34.359 --> 01:43:39.560
on their approach, and now,
when accosted, I slowly and painfully straightened

1403
01:43:39.640 --> 01:43:44.840
my back after the manner of roadmen, spat vigorously after the manner of the

1404
01:43:44.920 --> 01:43:50.000
low Scot, and regarded them steadily. Before replying, I confronted three pairs

1405
01:43:50.000 --> 01:43:56.520
of eyes that missed nothing. There's
were jobs, and there's better, I

1406
01:43:56.560 --> 01:44:00.760
said sententiously. I would rather have
yours sitting a day on your hinder lands

1407
01:44:00.800 --> 01:44:05.119
on day cushions. It's you and
your muckle, cause a rigged my roads.

1408
01:44:06.479 --> 01:44:10.359
If we a haad or roys,
ye should be made to mean what

1409
01:44:10.439 --> 01:44:15.840
ye break. The bright eyed man
was looking at the newspaper lying beside Turnbull's

1410
01:44:15.840 --> 01:44:19.079
bundle. I see you get your
papers in good time, he said,

1411
01:44:20.079 --> 01:44:26.640
I glanced at it casually. I
in good time, seeing that that paper

1412
01:44:26.720 --> 01:44:30.159
came out last Saturday, I'm just
six days late. He picked it up,

1413
01:44:30.640 --> 01:44:34.439
glanced at the superscription, and laid
it down again. One of the

1414
01:44:34.479 --> 01:44:38.720
others had been looking at my boots, and a word in German called the

1415
01:44:38.760 --> 01:44:43.439
speaker's attention to them. You've a
fine taste in boots. He said,

1416
01:44:43.800 --> 01:44:47.560
these were never made by a country
shoemaker. They were not, I said

1417
01:44:47.600 --> 01:44:51.359
readily. They were made in London. I got them free. The gentleman

1418
01:44:51.439 --> 01:44:56.159
that was here last year for the
shooting what was his name? Now?

1419
01:44:56.960 --> 01:45:01.479
And I scratched a forgetful head.
The sleek, one spoken German. Let

1420
01:45:01.560 --> 01:45:06.119
us get on, he said,
this fellow is all right. They asked

1421
01:45:06.199 --> 01:45:11.920
one last question. Did you see
anyone passed early this morning? He might

1422
01:45:11.960 --> 01:45:15.039
be on a bicycle, or he
might be on foot. I very nearly

1423
01:45:15.079 --> 01:45:19.079
fell into the trap and told a
story of a bicyclist hurrying past in the

1424
01:45:19.119 --> 01:45:25.319
gray dawn. But I had the
sense to see my danger. I pretended

1425
01:45:25.359 --> 01:45:30.159
to consider very deeply. I wasn't
up very early. I said, you're

1426
01:45:30.199 --> 01:45:32.680
seeing My daughter was merrit last night, and we keep it up late.

1427
01:45:33.239 --> 01:45:36.840
I opened the house store about Stephen, and there was neighbody on the road.

1428
01:45:36.880 --> 01:45:41.720
Then since I came up here,
there has just been the baker and

1429
01:45:41.800 --> 01:45:45.800
the ruckle heard beside you, gentlemen. One of them gave me a cigar,

1430
01:45:46.159 --> 01:45:50.600
which I smelt gingerly and stuck in
Turbull's bundle. They got into their

1431
01:45:50.600 --> 01:45:56.920
car and were out of sight in
three minutes. My heart leapt with an

1432
01:45:57.159 --> 01:46:01.159
enormous relief, but I went on
wheeling my z It was as well for

1433
01:46:01.279 --> 01:46:05.640
ten minutes later the car returned,
one of the occupants waving a hand to

1434
01:46:05.680 --> 01:46:12.920
me. Those gentry left nothing to
chance. I finished Turnbull's bread and cheese,

1435
01:46:12.960 --> 01:46:15.760
and pretty soon I had finished the
stones. The next step was what

1436
01:46:15.880 --> 01:46:19.880
puzzled me. I could not keep
up this road making business for long.

1437
01:46:20.560 --> 01:46:26.199
A merciful providence had kept mister Turnbull
indoors, but if he appeared on the

1438
01:46:26.239 --> 01:46:30.039
scene there would be trouble. I
had a notion that the cordon was still

1439
01:46:30.119 --> 01:46:32.279
tight round the glen, and that
if I walked in any direction, I

1440
01:46:32.319 --> 01:46:38.640
should meet with questioners. But get
out I must. No man's nerve could

1441
01:46:38.680 --> 01:46:43.159
stand more than a day of being
spied on. I stayed at my post

1442
01:46:43.199 --> 01:46:46.760
till five o'clock. By that time
I had resolved to go down to Turnbull's

1443
01:46:46.760 --> 01:46:50.880
cottage at nightfall and take my chance
of getting over the hills in the darkness.

1444
01:46:51.800 --> 01:46:56.880
But suddenly a new car came up
the road and slowed down a yard

1445
01:46:56.960 --> 01:47:00.079
or two from me. A fresh
wind had risen, and the occupant wanted

1446
01:47:00.079 --> 01:47:04.880
to light a cigarette. It was
a touring car with the tonneau full of

1447
01:47:04.920 --> 01:47:10.399
assortment of baggage. One man sat
in it, and by an amazing chance

1448
01:47:10.520 --> 01:47:15.159
I knew him. His name was
Marmaduke Jopley, and he was an offense

1449
01:47:15.239 --> 01:47:18.640
to creation. He was a sort
of blood stockbroker who did his business by

1450
01:47:18.960 --> 01:47:26.039
toadying eldest sons and rich young peers
and foolish old ladies. Marmee was a

1451
01:47:26.079 --> 01:47:30.680
familiar figure I understood at balls and
polo weeks in country houses. He was

1452
01:47:30.800 --> 01:47:36.239
an adroit scandalmonger and would crawl a
mile on his belly to anything that had

1453
01:47:36.279 --> 01:47:41.960
a title or a million. I
had a business introduction to his firm when

1454
01:47:41.960 --> 01:47:45.199
I came to London, and he
was good enough to ask me to dinner

1455
01:47:45.239 --> 01:47:48.560
at his club. There he showed
off at a great rate and patted about

1456
01:47:48.600 --> 01:47:53.960
his duchesses till the snobbery of the
creature turned me sick. I asked the

1457
01:47:54.039 --> 01:47:59.159
man afterwards why nobody kicked him,
and was told that Englishmen reverenced the weaker

1458
01:47:59.199 --> 01:48:03.560
sex. Anyhow, there he was, now Natalie, dressed in a fine

1459
01:48:03.600 --> 01:48:08.920
new car, obviously on his way
to visit some of his smart friends.

1460
01:48:09.880 --> 01:48:14.039
A sudden darfness took me, and
in a second I had jumped into the

1461
01:48:14.119 --> 01:48:17.720
tonneau and hat him by the shoulder. Hullo jopley, I sang out,

1462
01:48:17.920 --> 01:48:23.920
Well met, my lad. He
got a horrid fright. His chin dropped

1463
01:48:23.960 --> 01:48:27.640
as he stared at me. Who
the devil are you? He gasped.

1464
01:48:28.319 --> 01:48:33.079
My name's Hannay, I said,
from Rhodesia. You remember, good God,

1465
01:48:33.640 --> 01:48:39.760
the murderer. He choked just so, and there'll be a second murder.

1466
01:48:39.840 --> 01:48:43.119
My dear, if you don't do
as I tell you, gimme that

1467
01:48:43.199 --> 01:48:47.199
coat of yours, that cap too. He did as he was bid for.

1468
01:48:47.399 --> 01:48:53.159
He was blind with terror over my
dirty trousers and vulgar shirt. I

1469
01:48:53.199 --> 01:48:57.680
put on his smart driving coat,
which buttoned high at the top and thereby

1470
01:48:57.760 --> 01:49:01.159
hid the deficiencies of my collar.
I stuck the cap on my head and

1471
01:49:01.279 --> 01:49:05.359
added his gloves to my get up. The dusty roadman in a minute was

1472
01:49:05.399 --> 01:49:11.279
transformed into one of the neatest motorists
in Scotland. On mister Jopley's head,

1473
01:49:11.319 --> 01:49:16.199
I clapped Turnbull's unspeakable hat and told
him to keep it there. Then,

1474
01:49:16.279 --> 01:49:20.119
with some difficulty, I turned the
car. My plan was to go back

1475
01:49:20.159 --> 01:49:24.680
the road he had come, for
the watchers, having seen it before,

1476
01:49:24.760 --> 01:49:29.479
would probably let it pass unremarked,
and Marmie's figure was in no way like

1477
01:49:29.640 --> 01:49:34.119
mine. Now, my child,
I said, sit quite still and be

1478
01:49:34.199 --> 01:49:39.279
a good boy. I mean you
no harm. I'm only borrowing your car

1479
01:49:39.359 --> 01:49:42.720
for an hour or two. But
if you play me any tricks, and

1480
01:49:42.840 --> 01:49:45.479
above all, if you open your
mouth, as sure as there's a god

1481
01:49:45.520 --> 01:49:51.680
above me, I'll wring your neck, savvee. I enjoyed that evening's ride.

1482
01:49:53.079 --> 01:49:56.359
We ran eight miles down the valley, through a village or two and

1483
01:49:56.439 --> 01:50:00.840
I could not help noticing several strange
looking folk lounging by the roadside. These

1484
01:50:00.880 --> 01:50:04.399
were the watchers who would have had
much to say to me if I had

1485
01:50:04.399 --> 01:50:09.760
come in other garb or company.
As it was, they looked incuriously.

1486
01:50:09.800 --> 01:50:15.039
On one touched his cap and salute, and I responded graciously. As the

1487
01:50:15.119 --> 01:50:18.359
dark fowl, I turned up a
side glen, which, as I remember

1488
01:50:18.439 --> 01:50:23.760
from the map, led into an
unfrequented corner of the hills. Soon the

1489
01:50:23.840 --> 01:50:28.199
villagers were left behind, then the
farms, and then even the wayside cottage.

1490
01:50:29.079 --> 01:50:32.319
Presently we came to a lonely moor
where the night was blackening the sunset

1491
01:50:32.359 --> 01:50:38.439
gleam in the bog pools. Here
we stopped, and I obligingly reversed the

1492
01:50:38.520 --> 01:50:43.920
car and restored to mister Jopley his
belongings A thousand thanks, I said,

1493
01:50:44.319 --> 01:50:47.159
there's more use in you than I
thought. Now be off and find the

1494
01:50:47.199 --> 01:50:54.159
police. As I sat on the
hillside watching the towel like dwindle, I

1495
01:50:54.199 --> 01:50:59.319
reflected on the various kinds of crime
I had now sampled. Contrary to general

1496
01:50:59.359 --> 01:51:02.399
belief, was not a murderer,
but I had become an unholy liar,

1497
01:51:02.760 --> 01:51:10.079
a shameless impostor and a highwayman with
a marked taste for expensive motor cars.

1498
01:51:11.359 --> 01:51:20.880
End of chapter five, Chapter six
of The Thirty nine Steps by John Buckan.

1499
01:51:21.600 --> 01:51:27.600
This LibriVox recording is in the public
domain. Read by Cliff Stone of

1500
01:51:27.640 --> 01:51:32.159
Sydney, Australia. The Thirty nine
Steps by John Buckan, Chapter six,

1501
01:51:32.680 --> 01:51:38.960
The Adventure of the Bold Archeologist.
I spent the night on a shelf of

1502
01:51:39.000 --> 01:51:42.039
the hillside, in the lee of
a boulder, where the heather grew long

1503
01:51:42.079 --> 01:51:45.079
and soft. It was a cold
business, for I had neither coat nor

1504
01:51:45.119 --> 01:51:50.079
waistcoat. These were in mister Turnbull's
keeping, as was Scudder's little book,

1505
01:51:50.520 --> 01:51:55.680
my watch, and worst of all, my pipe and tobacco pouch. Only

1506
01:51:55.720 --> 01:51:59.600
my money accompanied me in my belt, and about half a pound of ginger

1507
01:51:59.640 --> 01:52:03.680
biscuits in my trousers pocket. I
supped off half those biscuits, and by

1508
01:52:03.760 --> 01:52:09.239
worming myself deep into the heather,
got some kind of warmth. My spirits

1509
01:52:09.239 --> 01:52:13.039
had risen, and I was beginning
to enjoy this crazy game of hide and

1510
01:52:13.079 --> 01:52:17.840
seek. So far I had been
miraculously lucky. The milkman, the literary

1511
01:52:17.960 --> 01:52:24.159
innkeeper, Sir Harry, the roadman, and the idiotic marmie were all pieces

1512
01:52:24.199 --> 01:52:28.920
of undeserved good fortune. Somehow,
the first success gave me a feeling that

1513
01:52:28.960 --> 01:52:33.079
I was going to pull the thing
through. My chief trouble was that I

1514
01:52:33.159 --> 01:52:38.720
was desperately hungry. When a Jew
shoots himself in the city and there is

1515
01:52:38.720 --> 01:52:43.760
an inquest, the newspapers usually report
that the deceased was well nourished. I

1516
01:52:43.880 --> 01:52:46.279
remember thinking that they would not call
me well nourished if I broke my neck

1517
01:52:46.319 --> 01:52:51.479
in a bog hole. I lay
and tortured myself for the ginger biscuits merely

1518
01:52:51.520 --> 01:52:56.680
emphasized the aching void. With the
memory of all the good food I had

1519
01:52:56.680 --> 01:53:00.159
thought so little of in London.
There were paddocks, crisp sausages, and

1520
01:53:00.279 --> 01:53:05.439
fragrant shavings of bacon and shapely poached
eggs. How often I had turned up

1521
01:53:05.439 --> 01:53:09.920
my nose at them. There were
the cutlets they did at the club,

1522
01:53:10.159 --> 01:53:14.439
and a particular hand that stood on
the cold table for which my soul lusted.

1523
01:53:15.560 --> 01:53:19.399
My thoughts hovered over all varieties of
mortal edible and finally settled on a

1524
01:53:19.479 --> 01:53:24.399
Porterhouse steak and a quarter of bitter, with a Welsh rabbit to follow.

1525
01:53:25.239 --> 01:53:30.680
In longing hopelessly for these dainties.
I fell asleep. I woke very cold

1526
01:53:30.720 --> 01:53:33.520
and stiff, about an hour after
dawn. It took me a little while

1527
01:53:33.560 --> 01:53:38.239
to remember where I was, for
I had been very weary and had slept

1528
01:53:38.319 --> 01:53:42.479
heavily. I saw first a pale
blue sky through a net of heather,

1529
01:53:42.920 --> 01:53:45.640
then a big shoulder of hell,
and then my own boots, placed neatly

1530
01:53:45.640 --> 01:53:49.960
in a blaberry bush. I raised
myself on my arms and looked down into

1531
01:53:49.960 --> 01:53:55.399
the valley, and that one look
set me lacing up my boots in mad

1532
01:53:55.479 --> 01:53:59.000
haste, for there were men below, not more than a quarter of a

1533
01:53:59.039 --> 01:54:02.319
mile off, stout on the hillside
like a fan, and beating the heather.

1534
01:54:03.239 --> 01:54:09.119
Marmie had not been slow in looking
for his revenge. I crawled out

1535
01:54:09.119 --> 01:54:12.479
of my shelf into the cover of
a boulder, and from it gained a

1536
01:54:12.520 --> 01:54:16.159
shallow trench which slanted up the mountain
face. This led me presently into the

1537
01:54:16.239 --> 01:54:19.560
narrow gully of a burn, by
way of which I scrambled to the top

1538
01:54:19.600 --> 01:54:24.880
of the ridge. From there I
looked back and saw that I was still

1539
01:54:24.960 --> 01:54:30.399
undiscovered. My pursuers were patiently quartering
the hillside and moving upwards, keeping behind

1540
01:54:30.439 --> 01:54:34.239
the sky line. I ran for
maybe half a mile till I judged I

1541
01:54:34.279 --> 01:54:39.560
was above the uppermost end of the
glen. Then I showed myself and was

1542
01:54:39.640 --> 01:54:43.239
instantly noted by one of the flankers, who passed the word to the others.

1543
01:54:44.000 --> 01:54:45.880
I heard cries coming up from below, and saw that the line of

1544
01:54:45.880 --> 01:54:50.960
search had changed its direction. I
pretended to retreat over the skyline, but

1545
01:54:51.119 --> 01:54:56.079
instead went back the way I had
come, and in twenty minutes was behind

1546
01:54:56.079 --> 01:55:00.760
the ridge overlooking my sleeping place.
From that viewpoint, I had the satisfaction

1547
01:55:00.800 --> 01:55:03.319
of seeing the pursued streaming up the
hill at the top of the glen on

1548
01:55:03.359 --> 01:55:09.079
a hopelessly false scent. I had
before me a choice of roots, and

1549
01:55:09.199 --> 01:55:12.000
I chose a ridge which made an
angle with the one I was on,

1550
01:55:12.439 --> 01:55:15.560
and so would soon put a deep
glen between me and my enemies. The

1551
01:55:15.640 --> 01:55:19.479
exercise had warmed my blood, and
I was beginning to enjoy myself amazingly.

1552
01:55:20.319 --> 01:55:25.199
As I went, I breakfasted on
the dusty remnants of the ginger biscuits.

1553
01:55:26.399 --> 01:55:30.039
I knew very little about the country, and I hadn't a notion what I

1554
01:55:30.079 --> 01:55:32.399
was going to do. I trusted
to the strength of my legs, but

1555
01:55:32.479 --> 01:55:35.760
I was well aware that those behind
me would be familiar with the lie of

1556
01:55:35.760 --> 01:55:41.479
the land, and that my ignorance
would be a heavy handicap. I saw

1557
01:55:41.560 --> 01:55:45.720
in front of me a sea of
hills, rising very high towards the south,

1558
01:55:45.079 --> 01:55:49.880
but northwards, breaking down into broad
ridges which separated wide and shallow dales.

1559
01:55:50.720 --> 01:55:55.520
The ridge I had chosen seemed to
sink after a mile or two to

1560
01:55:55.600 --> 01:55:59.680
a moor, which lay like a
pocket in the uplands. That seemed as

1561
01:55:59.720 --> 01:56:03.760
good a direction to take as any
other. My stratagem had given me a

1562
01:56:03.800 --> 01:56:08.319
fair start. Call it twenty minutes, and I had the width of a

1563
01:56:08.359 --> 01:56:12.920
glen behind me before I saw the
first heads of the pursuers. The police

1564
01:56:12.960 --> 01:56:15.640
had evidently called in local talent to
their aid, and the men I could

1565
01:56:15.680 --> 01:56:20.279
see had the appearance of herds or
gamekeepers. They hallooed at the sight of

1566
01:56:20.319 --> 01:56:25.560
me, and I waved my hand. Two dived into the glen and began

1567
01:56:25.600 --> 01:56:28.680
to climb my ridge, while the
others kept their side of the hill.

1568
01:56:29.159 --> 01:56:31.640
I felt as if I were taking
part in a schoolboy game of hare and

1569
01:56:31.720 --> 01:56:36.960
hounds, but very soon it began
to seem less of a game. Those

1570
01:56:36.960 --> 01:56:42.039
fellows behind were hefty men on their
native heath. Looking back, I saw

1571
01:56:42.079 --> 01:56:45.920
that only three were following direct and
I guessed that the others had fetched a

1572
01:56:45.920 --> 01:56:49.319
circuit to cut me off. My
lack of local knowledge might very well be

1573
01:56:49.399 --> 01:56:54.000
my undoing, and I resolved to
get out of this tangle of glens to

1574
01:56:54.079 --> 01:56:58.399
the pocket of more I had seen
from the tops. I must so increase

1575
01:56:58.479 --> 01:57:01.640
my distance as to get clear away
from them, and I believed I could

1576
01:57:01.680 --> 01:57:05.479
do this if I could find the
right ground for it. If there had

1577
01:57:05.520 --> 01:57:10.239
been cover, I would have tried
a bit of stalking, But on these

1578
01:57:10.279 --> 01:57:14.520
bare slopes you could see a fly
a mile off. My hope must be

1579
01:57:14.560 --> 01:57:17.039
in the length of my legs and
the soundness of my wind. But I

1580
01:57:17.119 --> 01:57:23.079
needed easier ground for that, for
I was not bred a mountaineer. How

1581
01:57:23.119 --> 01:57:27.880
I longed for a good Africander pony. I put on a great spurt and

1582
01:57:27.960 --> 01:57:30.439
got off my ridge and down into
the moor before any figures appeared on the

1583
01:57:30.439 --> 01:57:34.439
skyline behind me. I crossed a
burn and came out on a high road

1584
01:57:34.439 --> 01:57:39.279
which made a pass between two glens. All in front of me was a

1585
01:57:39.319 --> 01:57:43.159
big field of heather sloping up to
a crest, which was crowned with an

1586
01:57:43.159 --> 01:57:46.760
odd feather of trees, and the
dike by the roadside was a gate from

1587
01:57:46.800 --> 01:57:51.079
which a grass grown track led over
the first wave of the moor. I

1588
01:57:51.199 --> 01:57:55.520
jumped to dike and followed it,
and after a few hundred yards, as

1589
01:57:55.520 --> 01:57:58.880
soon as it was out of sight
of the highway, the grass stopped,

1590
01:57:58.880 --> 01:58:02.000
and it became a very respectable road, which was evidently kept with some care.

1591
01:58:02.800 --> 01:58:06.119
Clearly it ran to a house,
and I began to think of doing

1592
01:58:06.159 --> 01:58:11.439
the same. Hitherto my luck had
held, and it might be that my

1593
01:58:11.479 --> 01:58:15.880
best chance would be found in this
remote dwelling. Anyhow, there were trees

1594
01:58:15.880 --> 01:58:18.840
there, and that meant to cover. I did not follow the road,

1595
01:58:19.079 --> 01:58:23.760
but the burnside, which flanked it
on the right, where the bracken grew

1596
01:58:23.800 --> 01:58:27.920
deep and the high banks made a
tolerable screen. It was well I did

1597
01:58:27.920 --> 01:58:30.000
so, for no sooner had I
gained the hollow, than looking back,

1598
01:58:30.399 --> 01:58:35.359
I saw the pursuit topping the ridge
from which I had descended. After that

1599
01:58:35.399 --> 01:58:39.840
I did not look back. I
had no time. I ran up the

1600
01:58:39.880 --> 01:58:44.039
burnside, crawling over the open places, and for a large part, wading

1601
01:58:44.039 --> 01:58:47.479
in the shallow stream, I found
a deserted cottage with a row of phantom

1602
01:58:47.560 --> 01:58:53.680
peat stacks and an overgrown garden.
Then I was among young hay, and

1603
01:58:53.840 --> 01:58:57.239
very soon had come to the edge
of a plantation of wind blown furs.

1604
01:58:58.199 --> 01:59:00.600
From there I saw the chimneys of
the house smoking A few hundred yards to

1605
01:59:00.680 --> 01:59:06.000
my left. I forsook the burnside, crossed another dike, and almost before

1606
01:59:06.039 --> 01:59:10.800
I knew was on a rough lawn. A glance back told me that I

1607
01:59:10.880 --> 01:59:14.079
was well out of sight of the
pursuit, which had not yet passed the

1608
01:59:14.119 --> 01:59:18.079
first lift of the moor. The
lawn was a very rough place, cut

1609
01:59:18.119 --> 01:59:23.800
with a scythe instead of a mower, and planted with beds of scrubby rhododendrons.

1610
01:59:24.479 --> 01:59:27.960
A brace of black game, which
are not usually garden birds, rose

1611
01:59:28.000 --> 01:59:31.640
at my approach. The house before
me was the ordinary Morland farm, with

1612
01:59:31.720 --> 01:59:36.119
a more pretentious whitewashed wing. Added. Attached to this wing was a glass

1613
01:59:36.199 --> 01:59:41.479
veranda, and through the glass I
saw the face of an elderly gentleman,

1614
01:59:41.840 --> 01:59:46.000
meekly watching me. I stalked over
the border, of course held gravel,

1615
01:59:46.039 --> 01:59:50.920
and entered the open veranda door.
Within was a pleasant room, glass on

1616
01:59:50.920 --> 01:59:55.720
one side and on the other a
mass of books. More books showed in

1617
01:59:55.760 --> 01:59:59.760
an inner room. On the floor, instead of tables, stood cases such

1618
01:59:59.760 --> 02:00:02.840
as you see in a museum,
filled with coins and queer stone implements.

1619
02:00:03.760 --> 02:00:06.800
There was a knee whole desk in
the middle, and seated at it with

1620
02:00:06.960 --> 02:00:13.079
some papers and open volumes. Before
him was the benevolent old gentleman. His

1621
02:00:13.239 --> 02:00:16.920
face was round and shiny, like
mister Pickwick's. Big glasses were stuck on

1622
02:00:16.960 --> 02:00:19.800
the end of his nose, and
the top of his head was as bright

1623
02:00:19.840 --> 02:00:25.000
and bare as a glass bottle.
He never moved when I entered, but

1624
02:00:25.199 --> 02:00:30.199
raised his placid eyebrows and waited on
me to speak. It was not an

1625
02:00:30.239 --> 02:00:33.239
easy job, with about five minutes
to spare, to tell a stranger who

1626
02:00:33.319 --> 02:00:38.399
I was and what I wanted,
and to win his aid. I did

1627
02:00:38.479 --> 02:00:42.199
not attempt it. There was something
about the eye of the man before me,

1628
02:00:42.520 --> 02:00:45.920
something so keen and knowledgeable that I
could not find a word. I

1629
02:00:45.960 --> 02:00:50.920
simply stared at him and stuttered.
You seem in a hurry, my friend,

1630
02:00:51.560 --> 02:00:57.680
he said slowly. I nodded towards
the window. It gave a prospect

1631
02:00:57.720 --> 02:01:00.880
across the moor through a gap in
the plantation, and revealed certain figures half

1632
02:01:00.880 --> 02:01:05.760
a mile off, straggling through the
heather. Ah, I see, he

1633
02:01:05.800 --> 02:01:11.439
said, and took up a pair
of field glasses through which he patiently scrutinized

1634
02:01:11.479 --> 02:01:16.279
the figures. A fugitive from justice. Eh, well, we'll go into

1635
02:01:16.279 --> 02:01:20.640
the matter at our leisure. Meantime, I object to my privacy being broken

1636
02:01:20.640 --> 02:01:26.159
in upon by the clumsy rural policeman. Go into my study and you will

1637
02:01:26.199 --> 02:01:29.520
see two doors facing you. Take
the one on the left and close it

1638
02:01:29.520 --> 02:01:34.399
behind you. You will be perfectly
safe. And this extraordinary man took up

1639
02:01:34.439 --> 02:01:39.840
his pen. Again. I did
as I was bid, and found myself

1640
02:01:39.880 --> 02:01:43.640
in a little dark chamber which smelt
of chemicals and was lit only by a

1641
02:01:43.680 --> 02:01:47.079
tiny window high up in the wall. The door had swung behind me with

1642
02:01:47.119 --> 02:01:50.720
a click, like the door of
a safe. Once again, I had

1643
02:01:50.760 --> 02:01:58.199
found an unexpected sanctuary. All the
same, I was not comfortable. There

1644
02:01:58.319 --> 02:02:02.479
was something about the old gentleman which
puzzled and rather terrified me. He had

1645
02:02:02.520 --> 02:02:06.960
been too easy and ready, almost
as if he had expected me, and

1646
02:02:08.159 --> 02:02:13.520
his eyes had been horribly intelligent.
No sound came to me in that dark

1647
02:02:13.520 --> 02:02:15.600
place. For all I knew the
police might be searching the house, and

1648
02:02:15.720 --> 02:02:18.520
if they did, they would want
to know what was behind this door.

1649
02:02:19.680 --> 02:02:25.199
I tried to possess my soul in
patience and to forget how hungry I was.

1650
02:02:26.600 --> 02:02:30.720
Then I took a more cheerful view. The old gentleman could scarcely refuse

1651
02:02:30.760 --> 02:02:34.600
me a meal, and I fell
to reconstructing my breakfast. Bacon and eggs

1652
02:02:34.600 --> 02:02:39.199
would content me, but I wanted
the better part of a fletch of bacon

1653
02:02:39.319 --> 02:02:43.439
and half a hundred eggs. And
then, while my mouth was watering an

1654
02:02:43.479 --> 02:02:48.359
anticipation, there was a click and
the door stood open. I emerged into

1655
02:02:48.399 --> 02:02:51.800
the sunlight to find the master of
the house sitting in a deep arm chair

1656
02:02:51.880 --> 02:02:56.880
in the room he called his study, and regarding me with curious eyes.

1657
02:02:58.039 --> 02:03:01.920
Have they gone? I asked,
they have gone? I convinced him that

1658
02:03:02.000 --> 02:03:05.399
you had crossed the hill. I
do not choose that the police should come

1659
02:03:05.439 --> 02:03:10.680
between me and one whom I am
delighted to honor. This is a lucky

1660
02:03:10.720 --> 02:03:15.079
morning for you, mister Richard Hannay. As he spoke, his eyelids seemed

1661
02:03:15.119 --> 02:03:19.359
to tremble and to fall a little
over his keen gray eyes. In a

1662
02:03:19.399 --> 02:03:24.119
flash, the phrase of scudders came
back to me. When he had described

1663
02:03:24.159 --> 02:03:27.800
the man he most dreaded in the
world. He said that he could hood

1664
02:03:27.880 --> 02:03:31.479
his eyes like a hawk. Then
I saw that I had walked straight into

1665
02:03:31.479 --> 02:03:38.199
the enemy's headquarters. My first impulse
was to throttle the old Ruffian and make

1666
02:03:38.239 --> 02:03:42.560
for the open air. He seemed
to anticipate my intention, for he smiled

1667
02:03:42.600 --> 02:03:46.079
gently and nodded to the door behind
me. I turned and saw two men

1668
02:03:46.199 --> 02:03:51.119
servants who had me covered with pistols. He knew my name, but he

1669
02:03:51.159 --> 02:03:56.600
had never seen me before, And
as the reflection darted across my mind,

1670
02:03:56.680 --> 02:04:00.439
I saw a slender chance. I
don't know what you mean, I said,

1671
02:04:00.560 --> 02:04:05.000
roughly, And who are you calling? Richard Hannay? My name's Annsley,

1672
02:04:06.159 --> 02:04:11.000
so he said, still smiling.
But of course you have others.

1673
02:04:11.239 --> 02:04:15.039
We won't quarrel about a name.
I was pulling myself together now, and

1674
02:04:15.119 --> 02:04:19.680
I reflected that my garb, lacking
coat and waistcoat and collar, would at

1675
02:04:19.720 --> 02:04:24.920
any rate not betray me. I
put on my surliest face and shrugged my

1676
02:04:24.960 --> 02:04:29.520
shoulders. I suppose you're going to
give me up after all, and I

1677
02:04:29.680 --> 02:04:31.720
call it a damn dirty trick.
My god, I wish I had never

1678
02:04:31.760 --> 02:04:35.720
seen that cursed motor car. Here's
the money, and be damned to you,

1679
02:04:36.159 --> 02:04:41.439
and I flung four sovereigns on the
table. He opened his eyes a

1680
02:04:41.439 --> 02:04:45.279
little. Oh no, I shall
not give you up, my friends,

1681
02:04:45.279 --> 02:04:47.439
and I will have a little private
settlement with you. That is all.

1682
02:04:47.960 --> 02:04:51.920
You know a little too much,
mister Hannay. You are a clever actor,

1683
02:04:53.359 --> 02:04:58.039
but not quite clever enough. He
spoke with assurance, but I could

1684
02:04:58.039 --> 02:05:01.640
see the dawning of a doubt his
mind. Oh, for God's sake,

1685
02:05:01.800 --> 02:05:05.920
stop drawing, I cried. Everything's
against me. I haven't had a bit

1686
02:05:05.960 --> 02:05:10.479
of luck since I came on shore
at Leath. What's the harm in a

1687
02:05:10.520 --> 02:05:14.520
poor devil with an empty stomach picking
up some money he finds in a bust

1688
02:05:14.600 --> 02:05:17.720
up motor car. That's all I'd
done. And for that I've been chivvied

1689
02:05:17.800 --> 02:05:24.079
for two days by those blasted bobbies
over those blasted hills. I tell you,

1690
02:05:24.159 --> 02:05:26.960
I'm fair sick of it. You
can do what you like. Oh

1691
02:05:27.039 --> 02:05:31.399
boy, ned Ainsley's got no fight
left in him. I could see that

1692
02:05:31.479 --> 02:05:36.000
the doubt was gaining. Will you
oblige me with the story of your recent

1693
02:05:36.119 --> 02:05:41.159
doings? He asked, I can't
governor, I said, in a real

1694
02:05:41.239 --> 02:05:45.640
beggar's wine, I've not had a
bite to eat for two days. Give

1695
02:05:45.640 --> 02:05:48.960
me a mouthful of food and then
you'll hear God's truth. I must have

1696
02:05:49.039 --> 02:05:53.279
shown my hunger in my face,
for he signaled to one of the men

1697
02:05:53.319 --> 02:05:57.479
in the doorway a bit of cold
pie was broad and a glass of beer.

1698
02:05:57.760 --> 02:06:00.960
And I wolfed them down like a
pig, or rather like ned Ainsley,

1699
02:06:01.079 --> 02:06:04.840
for I was keeping up my character. In the middle of my meal.

1700
02:06:05.000 --> 02:06:09.479
He spoke suddenly to me in German, but I turned on him a

1701
02:06:09.560 --> 02:06:13.760
face as blank as a stone wall. Then I told him my story.

1702
02:06:14.119 --> 02:06:17.159
How I had come off an archangel's
ship at leathh a week ago and was

1703
02:06:17.239 --> 02:06:21.239
making my way overland to my brother
at Wigtown. I had run short of

1704
02:06:21.319 --> 02:06:26.159
cash, I hinted vaguely at a
spree, and I was pretty well on

1705
02:06:26.199 --> 02:06:29.880
my uppers when I had come on
a hole and a hedge, and looking

1706
02:06:29.920 --> 02:06:32.680
through, had seen a big motor
car lying in the burn. I had

1707
02:06:32.680 --> 02:06:36.720
poked about to see what had happened, and had found three sovereigns lying on

1708
02:06:36.760 --> 02:06:41.319
the seat and one on the floor. There was nobody there or any sign

1709
02:06:41.319 --> 02:06:45.680
of an owner, so I had
pocketed the cash. But somehow the law

1710
02:06:45.720 --> 02:06:48.159
had got after me. When I
had tried to change a sovereign in a

1711
02:06:48.199 --> 02:06:51.720
baker's shop, the woman had cried
on the police, and a little later,

1712
02:06:51.800 --> 02:06:55.760
when I was washing my face in
a burn, I had been nearly

1713
02:06:55.760 --> 02:06:59.920
gripped and had only got away by
leaving my coat and waistcoat behind me.

1714
02:07:00.239 --> 02:07:02.960
They can have the money back,
I cried, for a fat lot of

1715
02:07:03.000 --> 02:07:06.479
good. It's done me. Those
perishers are all down on a poor man.

1716
02:07:08.079 --> 02:07:10.680
Now. If it had been you, Governor, that had found the

1717
02:07:10.760 --> 02:07:15.800
quids, nobody would have troubled you. You're a good liar, Hannay,

1718
02:07:15.079 --> 02:07:20.199
he said. I flew into a
rage. Stop fooling, damn you.

1719
02:07:20.479 --> 02:07:25.640
I tell you my name's Annesley,
and I'd never heard of anyone called Hannay

1720
02:07:25.760 --> 02:07:29.359
in my born days. I'd sooner
have the police than you, with your

1721
02:07:29.399 --> 02:07:34.159
hannais and your monkey faced pistol tricks. No, Governor, I beg pardon.

1722
02:07:34.359 --> 02:07:38.439
I don't mean that. I'm much
obliged to you for the grub,

1723
02:07:38.640 --> 02:07:42.640
and I'll thank you to let me
go. Now the coast clear. It

1724
02:07:42.800 --> 02:07:46.000
was obvious that he was badly puzzled. You see, he had never seen

1725
02:07:46.039 --> 02:07:50.239
me, and my appearance must have
altered considerably from my photographs if he had

1726
02:07:50.279 --> 02:07:54.760
got one of them. I was
pretty smart and well dressed in London,

1727
02:07:55.079 --> 02:07:59.560
and now I was a regular tramp. I do not propose to let you

1728
02:07:59.640 --> 02:08:01.960
go. If you are what you
say you are, you will soon have

1729
02:08:03.000 --> 02:08:05.800
a chance of clearing yourself. If
you are what I believe you are,

1730
02:08:07.319 --> 02:08:11.439
I do not think you will see
the light much longer. He rang a

1731
02:08:11.439 --> 02:08:16.800
bell, and a third servant appeared
from the veranda. I want the lancaster

1732
02:08:16.880 --> 02:08:20.199
in five minutes, he said,
There will be three to luncheon. Then

1733
02:08:20.279 --> 02:08:24.199
he looked steadily at me, and
that was the hardest ordeal of all.

1734
02:08:26.119 --> 02:08:31.199
There was something weird and devilish in
those eyes, cold, malignant, unearthly,

1735
02:08:31.600 --> 02:08:37.199
and most hellishly clever. They fascinated
me like the bright eyes of a

1736
02:08:37.239 --> 02:08:41.520
snake. I had a strong impulse
to throw myself on his mercy and offer

1737
02:08:41.520 --> 02:08:45.039
to join his side. And if
you consider the way I felt about the

1738
02:08:45.039 --> 02:08:48.640
whole thing, you will see that
that impulse must have been purely physical,

1739
02:08:48.119 --> 02:08:54.520
the weakness of a brain mesmerized and
mastered by a stronger spirit. But I

1740
02:08:54.680 --> 02:08:58.239
managed to stick it out, and
even to grin. You'll know me next

1741
02:08:58.239 --> 02:09:03.840
time, guv'nor, I said Karl. He spoke in German to one of

1742
02:09:03.880 --> 02:09:07.079
the men in the doorway. You
will put this fellow in the store room

1743
02:09:07.119 --> 02:09:09.439
till I return, and you will
be answerable to me for his keeping.

1744
02:09:11.840 --> 02:09:16.239
I was marched out of the room
with a pistol at each year. The

1745
02:09:16.359 --> 02:09:18.880
store room was a damp chamber in
what had been the old farm house.

1746
02:09:20.199 --> 02:09:22.640
There was no carpet on the uneven
floor, and nothing to sit down on

1747
02:09:22.680 --> 02:09:28.039
but a school form. It was
black as pitch, for the windows were

1748
02:09:28.079 --> 02:09:33.239
heavily shuttered. I made out by
groping that the walls were lined with boxes

1749
02:09:33.239 --> 02:09:37.680
and barrels and sacks of some heavy
stuff. The whole place smelt of mold

1750
02:09:37.720 --> 02:09:41.880
and disuse. My jailers turned the
key in the door, and I could

1751
02:09:41.920 --> 02:09:46.399
hear them shifting their feet as they
stood on guard outside. I sat down

1752
02:09:46.399 --> 02:09:50.920
in that chilly darkness and a very
miserable frame of mind. The old boy

1753
02:09:52.000 --> 02:09:54.520
had gone off in a motor to
collect the two Ruffians who had interviewed me

1754
02:09:54.680 --> 02:10:00.439
yesterday. Now they had seen me
as the roadmen, and they would remember

1755
02:10:00.479 --> 02:10:03.880
me for I was in the same
rig. What was a Roman doing twenty

1756
02:10:03.920 --> 02:10:09.520
miles from his beat, pursued by
the police. A question or two would

1757
02:10:09.560 --> 02:10:13.000
put them on the track. Probably
they had seen mister Turnbull, probably MARMI

1758
02:10:13.079 --> 02:10:16.880
two. Most likely they could link
me up with Sir Harry, and then

1759
02:10:16.880 --> 02:10:22.479
the whole thing would be crystal clear. What chance had I in this Morland

1760
02:10:22.520 --> 02:10:28.560
house with three desperadoes and their armed
servants. I began to think wistfully of

1761
02:10:28.600 --> 02:10:33.479
the police now plotting over the hills
after my wraith. They at any rate,

1762
02:10:33.520 --> 02:10:37.000
were fellow countrymen and honest men,
and their tender mercies would be kinder

1763
02:10:37.000 --> 02:10:41.560
than these ghoulish aliens. But they
wouldn't have listened to me. That old

1764
02:10:41.640 --> 02:10:45.800
devil with the eyelids had not taken
long to get rid of them. I

1765
02:10:45.920 --> 02:10:50.520
thought he probably had some kind of
graft with the constabulary. Most likely he

1766
02:10:50.600 --> 02:10:54.359
had letters from cabinet ministers saying he
was to be given every facility for plotting

1767
02:10:54.359 --> 02:10:58.680
against Britain. That's the sort of
ourlish way we run our politics in this

1768
02:10:58.760 --> 02:11:03.880
job the old country. The three
would be back for lunch, so I

1769
02:11:03.920 --> 02:11:07.880
hadn't more than a couple of hours
to wait. It was simply waiting on

1770
02:11:07.000 --> 02:11:11.680
destruction, for I could see no
way out of this mess. I wished

1771
02:11:11.720 --> 02:11:16.279
that I had Scutter's courage, for
I am free to confess. I didn't

1772
02:11:16.279 --> 02:11:20.199
feel any great fortitude. The only
thing that kept me going was that I

1773
02:11:20.279 --> 02:11:24.439
was pretty furious. It made me
boil with rage to think of those three

1774
02:11:24.439 --> 02:11:28.720
spies getting the pull on me like
this. I hoped that at any rate

1775
02:11:28.760 --> 02:11:31.640
I might be able to twist one
of their necks before they downed me.

1776
02:11:31.960 --> 02:11:35.119
The more I thought of it,
the angrier I grew, and I had

1777
02:11:35.159 --> 02:11:39.560
to get up and move about the
room. I tried the shutters, but

1778
02:11:39.640 --> 02:11:41.680
they were the kind that locked with
the key, and I couldn't move them.

1779
02:11:43.399 --> 02:11:46.520
From the outside came the faint clucking
of hens in the warm sun.

1780
02:11:46.479 --> 02:11:50.640
Then I groped among the sacks and
boxes. I couldn't open the ladder,

1781
02:11:50.800 --> 02:11:54.119
and the sacks seemed to be full
of things like dog biscuits that smelt of

1782
02:11:54.159 --> 02:11:58.800
cinnamon. But as I circumnavigated the
room, I found a handle in the

1783
02:11:58.800 --> 02:12:03.399
wall which seemed worth investigating. There
was the door of a wall cupboard,

1784
02:12:03.720 --> 02:12:07.960
what they call a press in Scotland, and it was locked. I shook

1785
02:12:07.960 --> 02:12:11.600
it and it seemed rather flimsy.
For want of something better to do,

1786
02:12:11.680 --> 02:12:16.279
I put out my strength on that
door, getting some purchase on the handle

1787
02:12:16.319 --> 02:12:20.359
by looping my braces round it.
Presently the thing gave with a crash,

1788
02:12:20.520 --> 02:12:24.479
which I thought would bring in my
waters to inquire. I waited for a

1789
02:12:24.520 --> 02:12:28.560
bit and then started to explore the
covered shelves. There was a multitude of

1790
02:12:28.640 --> 02:12:33.880
queer things there. I found an
odd vestor or two in my trouser pockets

1791
02:12:33.880 --> 02:12:35.960
and struck a light. It was
out in a second, but it showed

1792
02:12:37.000 --> 02:12:41.159
me one thing. There was a
little stock of electric torches on one shelf.

1793
02:12:41.520 --> 02:12:45.399
I picked up one and found it
was in working order, with the

1794
02:12:45.439 --> 02:12:50.119
torch to help me. I investigated
further. There were bottles and cases of

1795
02:12:50.199 --> 02:12:54.000
queer smelling stuffs, chemicals, no
doubt for experiments, and there were coils

1796
02:12:54.000 --> 02:12:58.840
of fine copper wire and yanks and
yanks of thin oiled silk. There was

1797
02:12:58.840 --> 02:13:03.720
a box of detonators and a lot
of cord for fuses. Then away at

1798
02:13:03.720 --> 02:13:07.720
the back of the shelf I found
a stout brown cardboard box, and inside

1799
02:13:07.760 --> 02:13:13.000
it a wooden case. I managed
to wrench it open, and within lay

1800
02:13:13.039 --> 02:13:16.760
half a dozen little gray bricks,
each a couple of inches square. I

1801
02:13:16.880 --> 02:13:20.720
took up one and found that it
crumbled easily in my hand. Then I

1802
02:13:20.760 --> 02:13:26.039
smelt it and put my tongue to
it. After that I sat down to

1803
02:13:26.079 --> 02:13:30.840
think. I hadn't been a mining
engineer for nothing, and I knew lentter

1804
02:13:30.960 --> 02:13:35.000
night, when I saw it with
one of these bricks, I could blow

1805
02:13:35.039 --> 02:13:39.239
the house to smoother reens. I
had used the stuff in Rhodesia and knew

1806
02:13:39.279 --> 02:13:43.039
its power. But the trouble was
that my knowledge wasn't exact. I had

1807
02:13:43.039 --> 02:13:46.800
forgotten the proper charge and the right
way of preparing it, and I wasn't

1808
02:13:46.840 --> 02:13:52.119
sure about the timing. I had
only a vague notion too, as to

1809
02:13:52.159 --> 02:13:54.920
its power, for though I had
used it, I had not handled it

1810
02:13:54.960 --> 02:14:01.000
with my own fingers. But it
was a chance, the possible chance.

1811
02:14:01.479 --> 02:14:05.479
It was a mighty risk, but
against it was an absolute black certainty.

1812
02:14:05.079 --> 02:14:09.319
If I used it. The odds
were, as I reckoned, about five

1813
02:14:09.399 --> 02:14:13.359
to one in favor of my blowing
myself into the tree tops. But if

1814
02:14:13.359 --> 02:14:16.199
I didn't, I should very likely
be occupying a six foot hole in the

1815
02:14:16.239 --> 02:14:20.319
garden by the evening. That was
the way I had to look at it.

1816
02:14:20.680 --> 02:14:24.880
The prospect was pretty dark either way, but anyhow there was a chance,

1817
02:14:26.000 --> 02:14:31.560
both for myself and for my country. The remembrance of Little Scudder decided

1818
02:14:31.600 --> 02:14:35.840
me. It was about the beastliest
moment of my life, for I am

1819
02:14:35.880 --> 02:14:39.119
no good at these cold blooded resolutions. Still, I managed to rake up

1820
02:14:39.159 --> 02:14:43.520
the plug to set my teeth and
choke back. The horrid doubts of flooded

1821
02:14:43.560 --> 02:14:46.520
in on me. I simply shut
off my mind and pretended I was doing

1822
02:14:46.560 --> 02:14:52.920
an experiment as simple as Guy Fawkes
fireworks. I got a detonator and fixed

1823
02:14:52.960 --> 02:14:56.199
it to a couple of feet of
fuse. Then I took a quarter of

1824
02:14:56.239 --> 02:14:58.840
a lench Night brick and buried it
near the door below one of the sacks

1825
02:15:00.039 --> 02:15:03.920
and a crack of the floor,
fixing the detonator in it. For all

1826
02:15:03.960 --> 02:15:07.479
I knew half those boxes might be
dynamite. If the cupboard held such deadly

1827
02:15:07.520 --> 02:15:13.119
explosives, why not the boxes.
In that case there would be a glorious

1828
02:15:13.159 --> 02:15:16.960
skyward journey for me and the German
servants and about an acre of surrounding country.

1829
02:15:18.039 --> 02:15:22.319
There was also the risk that the
detonation might set off the other bricks

1830
02:15:22.319 --> 02:15:24.800
in the cupboard. For I had
forgotten most that I knew about lent night.

1831
02:15:26.680 --> 02:15:31.079
But it didn't do to begin thinking
about the possibilities. The odds were

1832
02:15:31.159 --> 02:15:35.119
horrible, but I had to take
them. I ensconced myself just below the

1833
02:15:35.159 --> 02:15:39.359
sill of the window and lit the
fuse. Then I waited for a moment

1834
02:15:39.479 --> 02:15:45.239
or two. There was dead silence, only a shuffle of heavy boots in

1835
02:15:45.279 --> 02:15:48.000
the passage and the peaceful cluck of
hens from the warm out of doors.

1836
02:15:48.760 --> 02:15:52.399
I commended my soul to my maker
and wondered where I would be. In

1837
02:15:52.479 --> 02:15:58.760
five seconds, A great wave of
heat seemed to surge upwards from the floor

1838
02:16:00.119 --> 02:16:03.680
and hang for a blistering instant in
the air. Then the wall opposite me

1839
02:16:03.760 --> 02:16:09.560
flashed into a golden yellow and dissolved
with a rending thunder that hammered my brain

1840
02:16:09.600 --> 02:16:13.600
into a pole. Something dropped on
me, catching the point of my left

1841
02:16:13.640 --> 02:16:18.960
shoulder, and then I think I
became unconscious. My stupor can scarcely have

1842
02:16:18.039 --> 02:16:22.960
lasted beyond a few seconds. I
felt myself being choked by thick yellow fumes

1843
02:16:24.079 --> 02:16:26.960
and struggled out of the debris to
my feet. Somewhere behind me, I

1844
02:16:28.000 --> 02:16:31.159
felt fresh air. The jambs of
the window had fallen and through the ragged

1845
02:16:31.200 --> 02:16:35.120
rent. The smoke was pouring out
to the summer noon. I stepped over

1846
02:16:35.159 --> 02:16:39.360
the broken into and found myself standing
in a yard and a dense and acrid

1847
02:16:39.399 --> 02:16:43.959
fog. I felt very sick and
ill, but I could move my limbs,

1848
02:16:43.959 --> 02:16:48.399
and I staggered blindly forward away from
the house. A small knaw laid

1849
02:16:48.520 --> 02:16:52.959
ran into a wooden aqueduct at the
other side of the yard, and into

1850
02:16:52.040 --> 02:16:56.239
this I fell. The cool water
revived me, and I had just enough

1851
02:16:56.319 --> 02:17:01.200
wits left to think of escape.
Squirmed up the laid among the slippery green

1852
02:17:01.239 --> 02:17:05.399
slime till I reached a mill wheel. Then I riggled through the axle hole

1853
02:17:05.440 --> 02:17:09.559
into the old mill and tumbled onto
a bed of chaff. A nail caught

1854
02:17:09.600 --> 02:17:13.200
the seat of my trousers, and
I left a wisp of heather mixture behind

1855
02:17:13.239 --> 02:17:18.920
me. The mill had been long
out of use, the ladders were rotten

1856
02:17:18.000 --> 02:17:22.360
with age, and in the loft
the rats had gnawed great holes in the

1857
02:17:22.440 --> 02:17:26.079
floor. Nauseus shook me and a
wheel, and my head kept turning while

1858
02:17:26.159 --> 02:17:31.440
my left shoulder and arms seemed to
be stricken with the palsy. I looked

1859
02:17:31.440 --> 02:17:35.360
out of the window and saw a
fog still hanging over the house and smoke

1860
02:17:35.520 --> 02:17:39.600
escaping from an upper window. Please
God, I had set the place on

1861
02:17:39.719 --> 02:17:43.600
fire, for I could hear confused
cries coming from the other side. But

1862
02:17:43.920 --> 02:17:48.600
I had no time to linger.
Since this mill was obviously a bad hiding

1863
02:17:48.600 --> 02:17:52.040
place. Anyone looking for me would
naturally follow the lad and I made certain

1864
02:17:52.079 --> 02:17:56.079
the search would begin as soon as
they found that my body was not in

1865
02:17:56.120 --> 02:17:58.920
the storeroom. From another window,
I saw that on the far side of

1866
02:18:00.079 --> 02:18:03.479
the mill stood an old stone dovecot. If I could get there without leaving

1867
02:18:03.520 --> 02:18:07.200
tracks, I might find a hiding
place. For I argued that my enemies,

1868
02:18:07.200 --> 02:18:11.719
if they thought I could move,
would conclude I had made for open

1869
02:18:11.760 --> 02:18:16.360
country and would go seeking me.
On the moor, I crawled down the

1870
02:18:16.399 --> 02:18:20.000
broken ladder, scattering chaff behind me
to cover my footsteps. I did the

1871
02:18:20.040 --> 02:18:24.360
same on the mill floor and on
the threshold, with the door hung on

1872
02:18:24.440 --> 02:18:28.639
broken hinges. Peeping out, I
saw that between me and the dovecot was

1873
02:18:28.680 --> 02:18:33.760
a piece of bare cobbled ground where
no footmarks would show. Also, it

1874
02:18:33.799 --> 02:18:37.399
was mercifully hid by the mill buildings
from any view from the house. I

1875
02:18:37.520 --> 02:18:41.360
slipped across the space, got to
the back of the dove cot and prospected

1876
02:18:41.360 --> 02:18:46.879
a way of ascent. That was
one of the hardest jobs I ever took.

1877
02:18:46.879 --> 02:18:50.000
On my shoulder and arm ate like
hell, and I was so sick

1878
02:18:50.040 --> 02:18:54.280
and giddy that I was always on
the verge of falling. But I managed

1879
02:18:54.319 --> 02:19:00.200
it somehow, by the use of
out jutting stones and gaps in the masonry

1880
02:19:00.479 --> 02:19:03.239
and a tough ivory route, I
got to the top. In the end

1881
02:19:03.000 --> 02:19:07.520
there was a little parapet behind which
I found space to lie down. Then

1882
02:19:07.600 --> 02:19:13.920
I proceeded to go off into an
old fashioned swoon. I woke with a

1883
02:19:13.959 --> 02:19:18.280
burning head and the sun glaring in
my face. For a long time I

1884
02:19:18.399 --> 02:19:22.799
lay motionless, for those horrible fumes
seemed to have loosened my joints and dulled

1885
02:19:22.840 --> 02:19:28.000
my brain. Sounds came to me
from the house men speaking throatily, and

1886
02:19:28.079 --> 02:19:31.440
the throbbing of a stationary car.
There was a little gap in the parapet

1887
02:19:31.440 --> 02:19:35.479
to which I wriggled, and from
which I had some sort of prospect of

1888
02:19:35.479 --> 02:19:39.719
the yard. I saw figures come
out, a servant with his head bound

1889
02:19:39.799 --> 02:19:43.719
up, and then a younger man
in knickerbockers. They were looking for something,

1890
02:19:43.920 --> 02:19:46.440
and moved towards the mill. Then
one of them caught sight of the

1891
02:19:46.479 --> 02:19:50.520
wisp of cloth on the nail and
cried out to the other. They both

1892
02:19:50.559 --> 02:19:54.680
went back to the house and brought
two more to look at it. I

1893
02:19:54.719 --> 02:19:58.479
saw the rotund figure of my late
captor, and I thought I made out

1894
02:19:58.520 --> 02:20:03.600
the man with the lisp. I
noticed that all had pistols. For half

1895
02:20:03.639 --> 02:20:07.479
an hour they ransacked the mill.
I could hear them kicking over the barrels

1896
02:20:07.479 --> 02:20:11.120
and pulling up the rotten planking.
Then they came outside and stood just below

1897
02:20:11.159 --> 02:20:16.239
the dovecot, arguing fiercely. The
servant with the bandage was being soundly rated.

1898
02:20:18.120 --> 02:20:20.079
I heard them fiddling with the door
of the dove cot, and for

1899
02:20:20.159 --> 02:20:24.319
one horrid moment I fancied they were
coming up. Then they thought better of

1900
02:20:24.360 --> 02:20:30.079
it and went back to the house. All that long, blistering afternoon I

1901
02:20:30.159 --> 02:20:35.159
lay baking on the rooftop. First
was my chief torment. My tongue was

1902
02:20:35.239 --> 02:20:37.840
like a stick, and to make
it worse, I could hear the cool

1903
02:20:37.959 --> 02:20:41.239
drip of water from the mill laid. I watched the course of the little

1904
02:20:41.280 --> 02:20:45.719
stream as it came in from the
moor, and my fancy followed it to

1905
02:20:45.719 --> 02:20:50.000
the top of the glen, where
it must issue from an icy fountain fringed

1906
02:20:50.040 --> 02:20:54.760
with cool ferns and mosses. I
would have given a thousand pounds to plunge

1907
02:20:54.799 --> 02:20:58.559
my face into that. I had
a fine prospect of the whole ring of

1908
02:20:58.559 --> 02:21:03.680
Moorland. I saw the car speed
away, with two occupants and a man

1909
02:21:03.840 --> 02:21:07.440
on a hill pony riding east.
I judged they were looking for me,

1910
02:21:07.719 --> 02:21:11.600
and I wished them joy of their
quest. But I saw something else more

1911
02:21:11.680 --> 02:21:16.719
interesting. The house stood almost on
the summit of a swell of moorland,

1912
02:21:16.719 --> 02:21:20.799
which crowned a sort of plateau,
and there was no higher point nearer than

1913
02:21:20.840 --> 02:21:24.879
the big Hills, six miles off. The actual summit, as I have

1914
02:21:24.000 --> 02:21:28.760
mentioned, was a biggish clump of
trees furs, mostly with a few ashes

1915
02:21:28.760 --> 02:21:33.520
and beaches. On the dovecot,
I was almost on a level with the

1916
02:21:33.559 --> 02:21:37.799
tree tops, and I could see
what lay beyond. The wood was not

1917
02:21:37.920 --> 02:21:41.360
solid, but only a ring,
and inside was an oval of green tarth

1918
02:21:41.760 --> 02:21:46.000
for all the world like a big
cricket field. I didn't take long to

1919
02:21:46.040 --> 02:21:50.239
guess what it was. It was
an aerodrome, and a secret one.

1920
02:21:50.959 --> 02:21:56.920
The place had been most cunningly chosen. For suppose anyone were watching an aeroplane

1921
02:21:56.920 --> 02:22:00.440
descending here, he would think it
had gone over the hill beyond the trees.

1922
02:22:01.079 --> 02:22:03.959
As the place was on top of
a rise in the midst of a

1923
02:22:03.000 --> 02:22:07.760
big amphitheater, any observer from any
direction would conclude it had passed out of

1924
02:22:07.840 --> 02:22:13.799
view behind the hill. Only a
man very close at hand would realize that

1925
02:22:13.840 --> 02:22:16.760
the aeroplane had not gone over,
but had descended in the midst of the

1926
02:22:16.799 --> 02:22:22.319
wood. An observer with a telescope
on one of the higher hills might have

1927
02:22:22.360 --> 02:22:26.920
discovered the truth, but only herds
went there, and herds do not carry

1928
02:22:26.920 --> 02:22:31.639
spyglasses. When I looked from the
dovecot, I could see far away a

1929
02:22:31.719 --> 02:22:35.559
blue line which I knew was the
sea, and I grew furious to think

1930
02:22:35.600 --> 02:22:41.239
that our enemies had the secret conning
tower to rake our waterways. Then I

1931
02:22:41.280 --> 02:22:43.959
reflected that if that aeroplane came back, the chances were ten to one that

1932
02:22:45.000 --> 02:22:48.639
I would be discovered. So through
the afternoon I lay and prayed for the

1933
02:22:48.680 --> 02:22:52.600
coming of darkness, and glad I
was when the sun went down over the

1934
02:22:52.639 --> 02:22:58.280
big western hills and the twilight haze
crept over the moor. The aeroplane was

1935
02:22:58.360 --> 02:23:03.239
late, the gloaming was far advanced
when I heard the bead of wings and

1936
02:23:03.319 --> 02:23:07.239
saw it vol plaining downward to its
home in the wood. Lights twinkled for

1937
02:23:07.319 --> 02:23:11.000
a bit, and there was much
coming and going from the house. Then

1938
02:23:11.239 --> 02:23:16.280
the dark fell in silence. Thank
god, it was a black night.

1939
02:23:16.879 --> 02:23:20.120
The moon was well on its last
quarter and would not rise till late.

1940
02:23:20.879 --> 02:23:24.760
My thirst was too great to allow
me to tarry, so about nine o'clock,

1941
02:23:24.879 --> 02:23:30.200
so far as I could judge,
I started to descend. It wasn't

1942
02:23:30.239 --> 02:23:33.399
easy, and half way down I
heard the back door of the house open

1943
02:23:33.680 --> 02:23:37.280
and saw the gleam of a lantern
against the mill wall. For some agonizing

1944
02:23:37.319 --> 02:23:41.479
minutes I hung by the ivy and
prayed that whoever it was would not come

1945
02:23:41.600 --> 02:23:46.600
round by the dove cot. Then
the light disappeared and I dropped as softly

1946
02:23:46.600 --> 02:23:50.920
as I could on to the hard
soil of the yard. I crawled on

1947
02:23:52.000 --> 02:23:54.040
my belly in the lee of a
stone dyke till I reached a fringe of

1948
02:23:54.120 --> 02:23:58.879
trees which surrounded the house. If
I had known how to do it,

1949
02:23:58.920 --> 02:24:01.639
I would have tried to put had
aeroplane out of action, but I realized

1950
02:24:01.680 --> 02:24:07.399
that any attempt would probably be futile. I was pretty certain that there would

1951
02:24:07.440 --> 02:24:09.360
be some kind of defense round the
house, so I went through the wood

1952
02:24:09.399 --> 02:24:15.360
on hands and knees, feeling carefully
every inch before me. It was as

1953
02:24:15.360 --> 02:24:18.280
well, for presently I came on
a wire about two feet from the ground.

1954
02:24:18.840 --> 02:24:22.840
If I had tripped over that,
it would doubtless have rung some bell

1955
02:24:22.920 --> 02:24:26.440
in the house, and I would
have been captured. A hundred yards farther

1956
02:24:26.559 --> 02:24:31.399
on I found another wire, cunningly
placed on the edge of a small stream.

1957
02:24:31.360 --> 02:24:35.799
Beyond that lay the moor, and
in five minutes I was deep in

1958
02:24:35.920 --> 02:24:39.559
bracken and heather. Soon I was
round the shoulder of the rise, and

1959
02:24:39.680 --> 02:24:45.000
in the little glen from which the
mill laid flowed. Ten minutes later my

1960
02:24:45.079 --> 02:24:48.440
face was in the spring, and
I was soaking down pints of the blessed

1961
02:24:48.440 --> 02:24:52.239
water. But I did not stop
till I had put half a dozen miles

1962
02:24:52.280 --> 02:25:05.879
between me and that a cursed dwelling. End of chapter six Chapter seven of

1963
02:25:05.920 --> 02:25:11.239
the Thirty nine Steps by John Buckin. This LibriVox recording is in the public

1964
02:25:11.319 --> 02:25:16.719
domain. Read by cliff Stone of
Sydney, Australia. The Thirty nine Steps

1965
02:25:16.920 --> 02:25:24.879
by John Buckan, Chapter seven,
The dry Fly Fisherman. I sat down

1966
02:25:24.920 --> 02:25:28.559
on a hilltop and took stock of
my position. I wasn't feeling very happy.

1967
02:25:28.879 --> 02:25:33.799
For my natural thankfulness at my escape
was clouded by my severe bodily discomfort.

1968
02:25:35.479 --> 02:25:39.479
Those lent night fumes had fairly poisoned
me, and the baking hours on

1969
02:25:39.479 --> 02:25:43.559
the dove cot hadn't helped matters.
I had a crushing headache and felt as

1970
02:25:43.639 --> 02:25:48.040
sick as a cat. Also,
my shoulder was in a bad way.

1971
02:25:48.879 --> 02:25:50.399
At first I thought it was only
a bruise, but it seemed to be

1972
02:25:50.440 --> 02:25:56.120
swelling, and I had no use
of my left arm. My plan was

1973
02:25:56.200 --> 02:26:01.280
to seek mister Turnbull's cottage, recover
my garments and especially as notebook, and

1974
02:26:01.360 --> 02:26:05.120
then make for the main line and
get back to the South. It seemed

1975
02:26:05.120 --> 02:26:07.959
to me that the sooner I got
in touch with the Foreign Office man,

1976
02:26:07.239 --> 02:26:11.799
Sir Walter Bulevant, the better.
I didn't see how I could get more

1977
02:26:11.840 --> 02:26:16.840
proof than I had got already.
He must just take or leave my story,

1978
02:26:16.920 --> 02:26:22.079
and anyway with him I would be
in better hands than those devilish Germans.

1979
02:26:22.959 --> 02:26:28.159
I had begun to feel quite kindly
towards the British police. It was

1980
02:26:28.200 --> 02:26:31.040
a wonderful starry night, and I
had not much difficulty about the road.

1981
02:26:31.680 --> 02:26:35.079
So Harry's map had given me the
lie of the land, and all I

1982
02:26:35.159 --> 02:26:39.639
had to do was steer a point
or two west of southwest to come to

1983
02:26:39.719 --> 02:26:43.600
the stream where I had met the
roadman. In all these travels I never

1984
02:26:43.639 --> 02:26:46.360
knew the names of the places,
but I believe the stream was no less

1985
02:26:46.360 --> 02:26:52.040
than the upper waters of the river
Tweed. I calculated I must be about

1986
02:26:52.079 --> 02:26:56.239
eighteen miles distant, and that meant
I could not get there before morning,

1987
02:26:56.879 --> 02:27:00.959
so I must lay up a day
somewhere, for I was too outrageous a

1988
02:27:01.000 --> 02:27:05.799
figure to be seen in the sunlight. I had neither coat, waistcoat collar,

1989
02:27:05.840 --> 02:27:09.799
nor hat. My trousers were badly
torn, and my face and hands

1990
02:27:09.799 --> 02:27:13.680
were black with the explosion. I
dare say I had other beauties, for

1991
02:27:13.799 --> 02:27:18.520
my eyes felt as if they were
furiously bloodshot. Altogether, I was no

1992
02:27:18.639 --> 02:27:24.000
spectacle for god fearing citizens to see
on a high road. Very soon after

1993
02:27:24.079 --> 02:27:28.639
daybreak, I made an attempt to
clean myself and a hell burn, and

1994
02:27:28.760 --> 02:27:31.479
then approached a herd's cottage, for
I was feeling the need of food.

1995
02:27:33.280 --> 02:27:37.120
The herd was away from home,
and his wife was alone with no neighbor

1996
02:27:37.159 --> 02:27:41.280
for five miles. She was a
decent old body, and a plucky one,

1997
02:27:41.680 --> 02:27:43.600
for though she got a fright when
she saw me. She had an

1998
02:27:43.639 --> 02:27:48.000
axe handy and would have used it
on any evil doer. I told her

1999
02:27:48.079 --> 02:27:52.559
that I had had a fall.
I didn't say how, and she saw

2000
02:27:52.639 --> 02:27:56.680
by my looks that I was pretty
sick. Like a true Samaritan, she

2001
02:27:56.760 --> 02:27:58.719
asked no questions, but gave me
a bowl of milk with a dash of

2002
02:27:58.719 --> 02:28:03.079
whisky in it, and let me
sit for a little by her kitchen fire.

2003
02:28:03.000 --> 02:28:07.159
She would have bathed my shoulder,
but it ached so badly that I

2004
02:28:07.200 --> 02:28:11.079
would not let her touch it.
I don't know what she took me for

2005
02:28:11.559 --> 02:28:15.360
a repentant burglar, perhaps, for
when I wanted to pay her for the

2006
02:28:15.440 --> 02:28:18.600
milk and tended a sovereign, which
was the smallest coin I had, she

2007
02:28:18.639 --> 02:28:22.200
shook her head and said something about
giving it to them that had a right

2008
02:28:22.280 --> 02:28:28.600
to it. At this I protested
so strongly that I think she believed me

2009
02:28:28.639 --> 02:28:31.760
honest, for she took the money
and gave me a warm new plaid for

2010
02:28:31.840 --> 02:28:35.440
it, and an old hat of
her man's. She showed me how to

2011
02:28:35.479 --> 02:28:39.319
wrap the plaide around my shoulders,
and when I left that cottage I was

2012
02:28:39.360 --> 02:28:43.440
the living image of the kind of
scotsman you see in the illustrations to Burn's

2013
02:28:43.479 --> 02:28:48.879
poems. But at any rate I
was more or less clad. It was

2014
02:28:50.000 --> 02:28:54.000
as well, for the weather changed
before midday to a thick drizzle of rain.

2015
02:28:54.520 --> 02:28:56.719
I found shelter below an overhanging rock
in the crook of a burn,

2016
02:28:58.079 --> 02:29:01.719
where a drift of dead brackens made
a tolerable bed. There I managed to

2017
02:29:01.760 --> 02:29:07.639
sleep till nightfall, waking very cramped
and wretched, with my shoulder gnawing like

2018
02:29:07.719 --> 02:29:11.159
a toothache. I ate the oatcake
and cheese the old wife had given me

2019
02:29:11.399 --> 02:29:16.280
and set out again. Just before
the darkening. I passed over the miseries

2020
02:29:16.319 --> 02:29:20.280
of that night among the wet hills. There were no stars to steer by,

2021
02:29:20.639 --> 02:29:24.159
and I had to do the best
I could from my memory of the

2022
02:29:24.200 --> 02:29:28.680
map. Twice I lost my way, and I had some nasty falls into

2023
02:29:28.680 --> 02:29:31.200
peat bogs. I had only about
ten miles to go, as the crow

2024
02:29:31.239 --> 02:29:37.000
flies, but my mistakes made it
nearer twenty. The last bit was completed

2025
02:29:37.040 --> 02:29:41.280
with set teeth and a very light
and dizzy head. But I managed it,

2026
02:29:41.559 --> 02:29:46.360
and in the early dawn I was
knocking at mister Turnbull's door. The

2027
02:29:46.440 --> 02:29:50.200
mist lay close and thick, and
from the cottage I could not see the

2028
02:29:50.280 --> 02:29:56.639
high road. Mister Turnbull himself opened
to me, sober and something more than

2029
02:29:56.719 --> 02:30:01.159
sober. He was primly dressed in
an ancient but well tendered suit of black.

2030
02:30:01.760 --> 02:30:05.520
He had been shaved not later than
the night before. He wore a

2031
02:30:05.600 --> 02:30:09.040
linen collar, and in his left
hand he carried a pocket bible. At

2032
02:30:09.040 --> 02:30:15.200
first he did not recognize me.
Way are ye that comes stravegan here on

2033
02:30:15.239 --> 02:30:18.760
the sabbath mornin, he asked,
I had lost all count of the days,

2034
02:30:20.159 --> 02:30:24.520
so the Sabbath was the reason for
this strange decorum. My head was

2035
02:30:24.559 --> 02:30:28.319
swimming so wildly that I could not
frame a coherent answer. But he recognized

2036
02:30:28.360 --> 02:30:33.360
me, and he saw that I
was ill. How ye got my specks,

2037
02:30:33.399 --> 02:30:37.120
he asked. I fetched them out
of my trousers pocket and gave him

2038
02:30:37.120 --> 02:30:41.079
them. Yell, hay, come
for your jacob and whistcoat, he said,

2039
02:30:41.879 --> 02:30:46.120
Come in by lush man year,
terrible dunny. The legs hod up

2040
02:30:46.159 --> 02:30:50.239
till I get ye to a chair. I perceived I was in for a

2041
02:30:50.239 --> 02:30:54.639
bout of malaria. I had a
good deal of fever in my bones,

2042
02:30:54.639 --> 02:30:58.239
and the wet night had brought it
out, while my shoulder and the effects

2043
02:30:58.239 --> 02:31:01.639
of the fumes combined to make me
feel pretty bad. Before I knew,

2044
02:31:01.760 --> 02:31:05.479
mister Turnbull was helping me off with
my clothes and putting me to bed in

2045
02:31:05.559 --> 02:31:11.079
one of the two cupboards that lined
the kitchen walls. He was a true

2046
02:31:11.120 --> 02:31:15.079
friend in need, that old roadman. His wife was dead years ago,

2047
02:31:15.319 --> 02:31:20.360
and since his daughter's marriage he lived
alone. For the better part of ten

2048
02:31:20.440 --> 02:31:24.200
days. He did all the rough
nursing I needed. I simply wanted to

2049
02:31:24.239 --> 02:31:28.000
be left in peace while the fever
took its course. And when my skin

2050
02:31:28.159 --> 02:31:31.200
was cool again, I found that
the bout had more or less cured my

2051
02:31:31.239 --> 02:31:35.159
shoulder. But it was a baddish
go and though I was out of bed

2052
02:31:35.200 --> 02:31:39.000
in five days, it took me
some time to get my legs again.

2053
02:31:39.559 --> 02:31:43.000
He went out each morning, leaving
me milk for the day and locking the

2054
02:31:43.040 --> 02:31:46.799
door behind him, and came in
in the evening to sit silent in the

2055
02:31:46.879 --> 02:31:52.040
chimney corner. Not a soul came
near the place when I was getting better.

2056
02:31:52.239 --> 02:31:56.079
He never bothered me with a question. Several times he fetched me a

2057
02:31:56.120 --> 02:32:01.200
two days old scotsman, and I
noticed at the interest in the Portland place,

2058
02:32:01.280 --> 02:32:03.840
murder seemed to have died down.
There was no mention of it,

2059
02:32:05.120 --> 02:32:09.319
and I could find very little about
anything except a thing called the General Assembly,

2060
02:32:09.879 --> 02:32:15.639
some ecclesiastical spree I gathered. One
day, he produced my belt from

2061
02:32:15.639 --> 02:32:18.479
a lock fast draw. There's a
terrible heap of cella in it, he

2062
02:32:18.520 --> 02:32:22.959
said, you'd better coot it to
see it. So there. He never

2063
02:32:24.000 --> 02:32:28.600
even sought my name. I asked
him if anybody had been around making inquiry

2064
02:32:28.719 --> 02:32:33.319
subsequent to my spell at the roadmaking
II, there was a man in a

2065
02:32:33.399 --> 02:32:37.000
murdor corps. He speared way had
tamed my place that day, and I

2066
02:32:37.120 --> 02:32:41.600
let on. I thought him daft, but he keepin it on at me,

2067
02:32:41.120 --> 02:32:43.639
and syin I said. He mourned
me, thinking, oh, my

2068
02:32:43.840 --> 02:32:48.159
good brother Frey, the clerk that
wilsmy lent me a horn. He was

2069
02:32:48.200 --> 02:32:52.239
a worsh looking soul, and I
couldna understand the half o'er his English tongue.

2070
02:32:54.520 --> 02:32:56.760
I was getting restless those last days, and as soon as I felt

2071
02:32:56.799 --> 02:33:01.479
myself fit, I decided to be
off That was not till the twelfth day

2072
02:33:01.479 --> 02:33:05.520
of June, and as luck would
have it, a drover when past that

2073
02:33:05.639 --> 02:33:09.399
morning taking some cattle to moffit.
He was a man named HiSLIP, a

2074
02:33:09.479 --> 02:33:13.959
friend of turnbulls, and he came
in to his breakfast with us and offered

2075
02:33:13.959 --> 02:33:18.600
to take me with him. I
made turnbull except five pounds for my lodging,

2076
02:33:18.920 --> 02:33:20.840
and a hard job I had of
it. There was never a more

2077
02:33:20.920 --> 02:33:26.840
independent being. He grew positively rude
when I pressed him, and shy and

2078
02:33:26.959 --> 02:33:30.559
read, and took the money at
last without a thank you. When I

2079
02:33:30.680 --> 02:33:33.760
told him how much I owed him, he grunted something about, oh gid

2080
02:33:33.760 --> 02:33:37.879
turn deserve in an ethera. You
would have thought from our leave taking that

2081
02:33:37.959 --> 02:33:43.200
we had parted in disgust. HiSLIP
was a cheery soul who chatted all the

2082
02:33:43.239 --> 02:33:48.239
way over the pass and down the
sunny vale of Annon. I talked of

2083
02:33:48.319 --> 02:33:52.159
Galloway markets and sheep prices, and
he made up his mind. I was

2084
02:33:52.200 --> 02:33:56.600
a pack shepherd from those parts.
Whatever that may be, my plaide and

2085
02:33:56.680 --> 02:34:00.520
my old hat, as I have
said, gave me a fine theatric Scot's

2086
02:34:00.559 --> 02:34:05.399
look. But driving cattle is a
mortally slow job, and we took the

2087
02:34:05.440 --> 02:34:09.520
better part of the day to cover
a dozen miles. If I had not

2088
02:34:09.639 --> 02:34:13.600
such an anxious heart, I would
have enjoyed that time. It was shining

2089
02:34:13.639 --> 02:34:18.760
blue weather, with a constantly changing
prospect of brown hills and far green meadows,

2090
02:34:18.799 --> 02:34:24.040
and a continual sound of larks and
curlews and falling streams. But I

2091
02:34:24.159 --> 02:34:28.239
had no mind for the summer,
and little for his slip's conversation. For

2092
02:34:28.399 --> 02:34:31.959
as the faithful fifteenth of June drew
near, I was overweighed by the hopeless

2093
02:34:33.000 --> 02:34:37.520
difficulties of my enterprise. I got
some dinner in a humble moffered public house

2094
02:34:37.559 --> 02:34:41.360
and walked the two miles to the
junction on the main line. The night

2095
02:34:41.440 --> 02:34:46.200
express for the South was not due
till the midnight, and to fill up

2096
02:34:46.280 --> 02:34:48.319
the time, I went up on
the hillside and fell asleep, For the

2097
02:34:48.360 --> 02:34:52.559
walk had tired me. I all
but slept too long and had to run

2098
02:34:52.639 --> 02:34:56.680
to the station to catch the train
with two minutes to spare. The feel

2099
02:34:56.719 --> 02:35:01.479
of the hard third class cushions and
smell of Stowe tobacco cheered me up wonderfully.

2100
02:35:03.040 --> 02:35:05.280
At any rate, I felt now
that I was getting to grips with

2101
02:35:05.399 --> 02:35:09.760
my job. I was decanted at
Crew in the small hours and had to

2102
02:35:09.760 --> 02:35:13.639
wait till six to get a train
for Birmingham. In the afternoon, I

2103
02:35:13.680 --> 02:35:18.120
got to reading and changed into a
local train which journeyed into the deeps of

2104
02:35:18.360 --> 02:35:24.479
Berkshire. Presently I was in a
land of lush water meadows and slow ready

2105
02:35:24.559 --> 02:35:30.079
streams about eight o'clock in the evening, a weary and travel stained being a

2106
02:35:30.120 --> 02:35:33.479
cross between a farm laborer and a
vet where they checked black and white plade

2107
02:35:33.479 --> 02:35:37.239
over his arm, for I did
not dare to wear it. South of

2108
02:35:37.319 --> 02:35:41.600
the border descended at the little station
of Artinswell. There were several people on

2109
02:35:41.639 --> 02:35:45.680
the platform, and I thought I
had better wait to ask my way till

2110
02:35:45.680 --> 02:35:48.559
I was clear of the place.
The road led through a wood of great

2111
02:35:48.600 --> 02:35:52.719
beaches, and then to a shallow
valley with the green backs of downs peeping

2112
02:35:52.760 --> 02:35:58.840
over the distant trees. After Scotland, the air smelt heavy and flat,

2113
02:35:58.239 --> 02:36:03.719
but infinitely sweet, for the limes
and chest nuts and lilac bushes were domes

2114
02:36:03.719 --> 02:36:07.440
of blossom. Presently I came to
a bridge, below which a clear,

2115
02:36:07.559 --> 02:36:13.399
slow stream flow between snowy beds of
water buttercups. A little above it was

2116
02:36:13.440 --> 02:36:16.159
a mill, and the lasher made
a pleasant cool sound in the scented dusk.

2117
02:36:18.319 --> 02:36:22.319
Somehow the place soothed me and put
me at my ease. I fell

2118
02:36:22.399 --> 02:36:26.159
to whistling as I looked into the
green depths, and the tune which came

2119
02:36:26.200 --> 02:36:31.360
to my lips was Annie Lorrie.
A fisherman came up from the water side,

2120
02:36:31.760 --> 02:36:35.239
and as he neared me, he
too began to whistle. The tune

2121
02:36:35.399 --> 02:36:39.559
was infectious, for he followed my
suit. He was a huge man in

2122
02:36:39.760 --> 02:36:43.120
untidy old flannels and a wide brimmed
hat, with a canvas bag slung on

2123
02:36:43.200 --> 02:36:48.000
his shoulder. He nodded to me, and I thought I had never seen

2124
02:36:48.040 --> 02:36:52.959
a shrewder or bitter tempered face.
He leaned whose delicate ten foot split cane

2125
02:36:52.040 --> 02:36:58.360
rod against the bridge and looked with
me at the water clear, isn't it?

2126
02:36:58.680 --> 02:37:01.680
He said? Pleasantly. I back
out kenned any day against the test.

2127
02:37:03.319 --> 02:37:07.200
Look at that big fellow four pounds
if he's an ounce. But the

2128
02:37:07.280 --> 02:37:11.399
evening rise is over and you can't
tempt him. I don't see him,

2129
02:37:11.760 --> 02:37:16.239
said I. Look there a yard
from the reeds, just above that stickle.

2130
02:37:18.360 --> 02:37:20.799
I've got him. Now you might
swear he was a black stone,

2131
02:37:22.040 --> 02:37:28.200
so he said, and whistled another
bar of any lorry. Twisden's the name,

2132
02:37:28.319 --> 02:37:33.000
isn't it, he said over his
shoulder, his eyes still fixed on

2133
02:37:33.079 --> 02:37:35.799
the stream. No, I said, I mean to say, yes,

2134
02:37:37.479 --> 02:37:41.760
I had forgotten all about my alias. It's a wise conspirator that knows his

2135
02:37:41.840 --> 02:37:46.239
own name, he observed, grinning
broadly at a more hen that emerged from

2136
02:37:46.280 --> 02:37:50.559
the bridgish shadow. I stood up
and looked at him, at the square,

2137
02:37:50.600 --> 02:37:54.520
cleft drawer and broad lined brow,
and the firm folds of cheek,

2138
02:37:56.040 --> 02:37:58.280
and began to think that here,
at last was an ally worth having.

2139
02:38:00.040 --> 02:38:05.879
His whimsical blue eyes seemed to go
very deep. Suddenly he frowned. I

2140
02:38:05.079 --> 02:38:09.680
call it disgraceful, he said,
raising his voice. Disgraceful that an able

2141
02:38:09.760 --> 02:38:13.479
bodied man like you should dare to
beg You can get a meal from my

2142
02:38:13.600 --> 02:38:18.040
kitchen, but you'll get no money
from me. A dog cart was passing,

2143
02:38:18.360 --> 02:38:22.479
driven by a young man, who
raised his whip to salute the fisherman.

2144
02:38:22.280 --> 02:38:26.760
When he had gone, he picked
up his rod. That's my house,

2145
02:38:26.799 --> 02:38:31.680
he said, pointing to a white
gate a hundred yards on. Wait

2146
02:38:31.719 --> 02:38:35.719
five minutes and then go round to
the back door, and with that he

2147
02:38:35.799 --> 02:38:39.760
left me. I did as I
was bidden. I found a pretty cottage

2148
02:38:39.760 --> 02:38:43.879
with a lawn running down to the
stream, and a perfect jungle of guelder,

2149
02:38:43.959 --> 02:38:48.239
rose and lilac flanking the path.
The back door stood open, and

2150
02:38:48.360 --> 02:38:54.319
a grave butler was awaiting me.
Come this way, sir, he said,

2151
02:38:54.879 --> 02:38:58.079
and he led me along a passage
and up a back staircase to a

2152
02:38:58.120 --> 02:39:03.559
pleasant bedroom looking towards the river.
There I found a complete outfit laid out

2153
02:39:03.600 --> 02:39:07.040
for me, dress clothes with all
the fixings, a brown flannel suit,

2154
02:39:07.600 --> 02:39:11.920
shirts, collars, ties, shaving
things and hair brushes, even a pair

2155
02:39:11.959 --> 02:39:16.239
of painted shoes. Sir Walter thought, as how, mister Reggie, things

2156
02:39:16.280 --> 02:39:20.840
would fit you, Sir, said
the butler. He keeps some clothes here

2157
02:39:20.879 --> 02:39:24.000
for he comes regular on the weekends. There's a bathroom next door, and

2158
02:39:24.159 --> 02:39:28.239
I prepared a hot bath dinner in
half an hour. Sir, you'll hear

2159
02:39:28.319 --> 02:39:35.159
the gong. The grave being withdrew
and I sat down in a chintz covered

2160
02:39:35.159 --> 02:39:39.120
easy chair and gaped. It was
like a pantomime to come suddenly out of

2161
02:39:39.200 --> 02:39:46.000
biggardom into this orderly comfort. Obviously, Sir Walter believed in me, though

2162
02:39:46.079 --> 02:39:50.319
why he did I could not guess. I looked at myself in the mirror

2163
02:39:50.360 --> 02:39:54.520
and saw a wild, haggard brown
fellow with a fortnight's ragged beard and dust

2164
02:39:54.559 --> 02:40:01.040
and ears and eyes, collarless,
vulgarly shirted, with shapeless old tweed clothes

2165
02:40:01.040 --> 02:40:03.879
and boots. It had not been
cleaned for the better part of a month.

2166
02:40:03.760 --> 02:40:07.399
I made a fine tramp and a
fair drover, And here I was

2167
02:40:07.520 --> 02:40:13.639
ushered by a prim butler into this
temple of gracious ease. And the best

2168
02:40:13.639 --> 02:40:16.920
part of it was that they did
not even know my name. I resolved

2169
02:40:18.040 --> 02:40:20.440
not to puzzle my head, but
to take the gifts the gods had provided.

2170
02:40:22.200 --> 02:40:26.840
I shaved and bathed luxuriously, and
got into the dress clothes and clean,

2171
02:40:26.920 --> 02:40:30.959
crackling shirt, which fitted me not
so badly. By the time I

2172
02:40:31.040 --> 02:40:35.719
had finished, the looking glass showed
a not unpersonable young man. Sir Walter

2173
02:40:35.879 --> 02:40:39.600
awaited me in a dusky dining room, where a little round table was lit

2174
02:40:39.639 --> 02:40:46.200
with silver candles. The sight of
him, so respectable and established and secure,

2175
02:40:46.559 --> 02:40:50.959
the embodiment of law and government and
all the conventions, took me aback

2176
02:40:50.959 --> 02:40:54.239
and made me feel an interloper.
He couldn't know the truth about me,

2177
02:40:54.559 --> 02:40:58.840
or he wouldn't treat me like this. I simply could not accept his hospitality

2178
02:41:00.000 --> 02:41:03.920
on false pretenses. I'm more obliged
to you than I could say, but

2179
02:41:05.000 --> 02:41:07.879
I'm bound to make things clear,
I said. I'm an innocent man,

2180
02:41:09.319 --> 02:41:11.639
but I'm wanted by the police.
I've got to tell you this, and

2181
02:41:11.680 --> 02:41:16.280
I won't be surprised if you kick
me out. He smiled, that's all

2182
02:41:16.399 --> 02:41:20.440
right, don't let that interfere with
your appetite. We can talk about these

2183
02:41:20.440 --> 02:41:26.239
things after dinner. I never ate
a meal with greater relish, for I

2184
02:41:26.280 --> 02:41:30.479
had had nothing all day. At
railway sandwiches, Sir Walter did me proud,

2185
02:41:30.799 --> 02:41:33.840
for we drank a good champagne and
had some uncommon fine port afterwards.

2186
02:41:35.559 --> 02:41:39.840
It made me almost hysterical to be
sitting there, waited on by a footman

2187
02:41:39.959 --> 02:41:43.760
and a sleek butler, and remember
that I had been living for three weeks

2188
02:41:43.760 --> 02:41:48.000
like a brigand with every man's hand
against me. I told Sir Walter about

2189
02:41:48.079 --> 02:41:52.399
tiger fish and the zambizi that bite
off your fingers if you give them a

2190
02:41:52.479 --> 02:41:56.280
chance, and we discussed sport up
and down, the globe, for he

2191
02:41:56.319 --> 02:42:00.840
had hunted a bit in his day. We went to his for coffee,

2192
02:42:01.200 --> 02:42:05.239
a jolly room full of books and
trophies and untidiness and comfort. I made

2193
02:42:05.280 --> 02:42:09.159
up my mind that if ever I
got rid of this business and had a

2194
02:42:09.200 --> 02:42:13.639
house of my own, I would
create just such a room. Then,

2195
02:42:13.719 --> 02:42:16.360
when the coffee cups were cleared away
and we had got our cigars alight,

2196
02:42:18.000 --> 02:42:22.120
my host swung his long legs over
the side of his chair and bade me

2197
02:42:22.440 --> 02:42:28.120
get started with my yarn. I've
obeyed Harry's instructions, he said, And

2198
02:42:28.200 --> 02:42:31.479
the bribe he offered me was that
you would tell me something to wake me

2199
02:42:31.559 --> 02:42:35.440
up. I'm ready, mister Hannay. I noticed with a start that he

2200
02:42:35.520 --> 02:42:41.799
called me by my proper name.
I began at the very beginning. I

2201
02:42:41.920 --> 02:42:45.239
told of my boredom in London,
and the night I had come back to

2202
02:42:45.280 --> 02:42:50.079
find Scudder gibbering on my doorstep.
I told him all Scudder had told me

2203
02:42:50.120 --> 02:42:54.600
about Carlides and the Foreign Office conference, and that made him purse his lips

2204
02:42:54.600 --> 02:42:58.319
and grin. Then I got to
the murder, and he grew solemn again.

2205
02:42:58.479 --> 02:43:03.239
He heard all about the milkman in
my time in Galloway, and by

2206
02:43:03.280 --> 02:43:07.559
deciphering Scudder's notes at the Inn.
You've got them here, he asked sharply,

2207
02:43:09.079 --> 02:43:11.680
and drew a long breath. When
I whipped the little book from my

2208
02:43:11.719 --> 02:43:16.760
pocket, I said nothing of the
contents. Then I described my meeting with

2209
02:43:16.799 --> 02:43:20.760
Sir Harry and the speeches at the
hall. At that he laughed uproariously.

2210
02:43:22.079 --> 02:43:26.959
Harry talked dashed nonsense, did he
I quite believe it. He's as good

2211
02:43:26.959 --> 02:43:31.360
a chap as ever breathed, But
his idiot of an uncle has stuffed his

2212
02:43:31.440 --> 02:43:37.559
head with maggots. Go on,
mister Hannay, my day as Rodman excited

2213
02:43:37.600 --> 02:43:41.280
him a bit. He made me
described the two fellows in the car very

2214
02:43:41.319 --> 02:43:45.799
closely, and seemed to be raking
back in his memory. He grew merrier

2215
02:43:45.799 --> 02:43:50.079
again when he heard of the fate
of that ass Jopley. But the old

2216
02:43:50.079 --> 02:43:54.000
man in the Morland House solemnized him
again. I had to describe every detail

2217
02:43:54.040 --> 02:43:58.520
of his appearance, bland and bald, headed, and hooded his eyes like

2218
02:43:58.600 --> 02:44:05.280
a bird. He sounds a sinister
while foul, and you dynamited his hermitage

2219
02:44:05.360 --> 02:44:09.440
after he had saved you from the
police. Spirited piece of work, that

2220
02:44:09.840 --> 02:44:15.479
presently I reached the end of my
wanderings. He got up slowly and looked

2221
02:44:15.520 --> 02:44:20.079
down at me from the hearth rug. You may dismiss the police from your

2222
02:44:20.079 --> 02:44:22.639
mind, he said, You're in
no danger from the law of this land.

2223
02:44:24.799 --> 02:44:28.879
Great Scott, I cried, have
they got the murderer? No,

2224
02:44:28.639 --> 02:44:33.079
but for the last fortnight they have
dropped you from the list of possibles.

2225
02:44:33.079 --> 02:44:39.200
Why, I asked in amazement.
Principally because I received a letter from Scudder.

2226
02:44:39.879 --> 02:44:43.239
I knew something of the man,
and he did several jobs for me.

2227
02:44:43.719 --> 02:44:46.520
He was half crank, half genius, but he was wholly honest.

2228
02:44:48.319 --> 02:44:52.639
The trouble about him was his partiality
for playing a lone hand. That made

2229
02:44:52.680 --> 02:44:56.959
him pretty well useless in any secret
service. A pity, for he had

2230
02:44:56.079 --> 02:45:01.200
uncommon gifts. I think he was
the bravest man in the world, for

2231
02:45:01.319 --> 02:45:03.760
he was always shivering with fright,
and yet nothing would choke him off.

2232
02:45:05.600 --> 02:45:09.239
I had a letter from him on
the thirty first of May, but he

2233
02:45:09.319 --> 02:45:13.879
had been dead a week by then. The letter was written and posted on

2234
02:45:13.920 --> 02:45:20.159
the twenty third. He evidently did
not anticipate an immediate decease. His communications

2235
02:45:20.239 --> 02:45:24.360
usually took a week to reach me, for they were sent under cover to

2236
02:45:24.440 --> 02:45:28.680
Spain and then to Newcastle. He
had a mania, you know, for

2237
02:45:28.799 --> 02:45:35.799
concealing his tracks. What did he
say? I stammered nothing, merely that

2238
02:45:35.920 --> 02:45:39.879
he was in danger but had found
shelter with a good friend, and that

2239
02:45:41.000 --> 02:45:43.959
I would hear from him before the
fifteenth of June. He gave me no

2240
02:45:45.040 --> 02:45:48.479
address, but said he was living
near Portland Place. I think his object

2241
02:45:48.559 --> 02:45:52.360
was to clear you if anything happened. When I got it, I went

2242
02:45:52.399 --> 02:45:56.760
to Scotland Yard, went over the
details of the inquest and concluded that you

2243
02:45:56.840 --> 02:46:01.440
were the friend. We made inquiries
about you, mister Hannay, and found

2244
02:46:01.440 --> 02:46:07.120
you were respectable. I thought I
knew the motives for your disappearance, not

2245
02:46:07.280 --> 02:46:11.239
only the police, the other one
too, And when I got Harry's scrawl,

2246
02:46:11.319 --> 02:46:15.520
I guessed at the rest I have
been expecting you any time this past

2247
02:46:15.559 --> 02:46:20.000
week. You can imagine what a
load this took off my mind. I

2248
02:46:20.120 --> 02:46:24.360
felt a free man once more,
for I was now up against my country's

2249
02:46:24.440 --> 02:46:30.399
enemies only, and not my country's
law. Now let us have the little

2250
02:46:30.440 --> 02:46:35.399
notebook, said Sir Walter. It
took us a good hour to work through

2251
02:46:35.399 --> 02:46:39.440
it. I explained the cipher,
and he was jolly quick at picking it

2252
02:46:39.559 --> 02:46:43.280
up. He amended my reading of
it on several points, but I had

2253
02:46:43.319 --> 02:46:46.879
been fairly correct on the whole.
His face was very grave before he had

2254
02:46:46.920 --> 02:46:52.040
finished, and he sat silent for
a while. I don't know what to

2255
02:46:52.079 --> 02:46:56.559
make of it, he said at
last, he is right about one thing.

2256
02:46:56.200 --> 02:47:01.559
What is going to happen the day
after tomorrow? How the devil can

2257
02:47:01.680 --> 02:47:05.000
it have got known? That is
ugly enough in itself. But all this

2258
02:47:05.159 --> 02:47:09.520
about war and the black Stone it
reathed like some wild, mellow drama.

2259
02:47:11.319 --> 02:47:16.479
If only I had more confidence in
Scudder's judgment. The trouble about him was

2260
02:47:16.520 --> 02:47:20.360
that he was too romantic. He
had the artistic temperament and wanted a story

2261
02:47:20.399 --> 02:47:24.959
to be better than God meant it
to be. He had a lot of

2262
02:47:24.000 --> 02:47:28.520
odd biases too. Jews, for
example, made him see red Jews in

2263
02:47:28.600 --> 02:47:35.360
the high finance the black Stone.
He repeated, dur schwartz Stein, it's

2264
02:47:35.399 --> 02:47:39.920
like a Penny novelette. And all
this stuff about Carlides, that is the

2265
02:47:39.959 --> 02:47:43.280
weak part of the tale. For
I happen to know that the virtuous Caillides

2266
02:47:43.399 --> 02:47:48.600
is likely to outlast us both there
is no state in Europe that wants him

2267
02:47:48.639 --> 02:47:52.280
gone. Besides, he has just
been playing up to Berlin and Vienna and

2268
02:47:52.360 --> 02:47:58.799
giving my chief some uneasy moments.
No Scudder has gone off the track there.

2269
02:47:58.479 --> 02:48:03.360
Frankly, Hannah, I don't believe
that part of his story. There's

2270
02:48:03.440 --> 02:48:07.520
some nasty business afoot and he found
out too much and lost his life over

2271
02:48:07.600 --> 02:48:11.479
it. But I am ready to
take my oath that it is ordinary spy

2272
02:48:11.559 --> 02:48:16.680
work. A certain great European power
makes a hobby of her spy system,

2273
02:48:16.760 --> 02:48:20.159
and her methods are not too particular. Since she plays by piece work.

2274
02:48:20.440 --> 02:48:24.520
Her blackguards are not likely to stick
at a murder or two. They want

2275
02:48:24.559 --> 02:48:30.319
our naval dispositions for their collection at
the Marinamt, but they will be pigeonholed,

2276
02:48:30.600 --> 02:48:35.280
nothing more. Just then the butler
entered the room. There's a trunk

2277
02:48:35.280 --> 02:48:39.680
a call from London, Sir Walter, it's mister Eath. He wants to

2278
02:48:39.680 --> 02:48:45.440
speak to you personally. My host
went off to the telephone. He returned

2279
02:48:45.479 --> 02:48:50.399
in five minutes with a whitish face. I apologize to the shade of Scudder,

2280
02:48:50.680 --> 02:48:54.000
he said. Karalides was shot dead
this evening at a few minutes after

2281
02:48:54.040 --> 02:49:07.479
seven. End of chapter seven chapter
eight of The Thirty Nine Steps by John

2282
02:49:07.520 --> 02:49:13.239
buckin the sleebrivox recording is in the
public domain. Read by Cliff Stone of

2283
02:49:13.319 --> 02:49:20.440
Sydney, Australia, The Thirty Nine
Steps by John buckin chapter eight, the

2284
02:49:20.559 --> 02:49:26.319
Coming of the black Stone. I
came down to breakfast next morning, after

2285
02:49:26.360 --> 02:49:31.079
eight hours of blessed, dreamless sleep, to find Sir Walter decoding a telegram

2286
02:49:31.120 --> 02:49:35.799
in the midst of muffins and marmalade. His fresh rosiness of yesterday seemed a

2287
02:49:35.840 --> 02:49:41.600
thought tarnished. I had a busy
hour on the telephone after you went to

2288
02:49:41.639 --> 02:49:45.479
bed, he said, I got
my chief to speak to the First Lord

2289
02:49:45.479 --> 02:49:48.440
and the Secretary of War, and
they are bringing Royer over a day sooner

2290
02:49:50.280 --> 02:49:54.280
this wire clinches it, he will
be in London of five odd that the

2291
02:49:54.360 --> 02:50:01.319
code word for a Sioux chef destas
major general should be porker. He directed

2292
02:50:01.399 --> 02:50:05.040
me to the hot dishes, and
went on, not that I think it

2293
02:50:05.079 --> 02:50:07.760
will do much good. If your
friends were clever enough to find out the

2294
02:50:07.799 --> 02:50:11.920
first arrangement, they are clever enough
to discover the change. I would give

2295
02:50:11.920 --> 02:50:16.600
my head to know where the leakers. We believe there are only five men

2296
02:50:16.639 --> 02:50:20.680
in England who knew about Rowyer's visit, And you may be certain there were

2297
02:50:20.719 --> 02:50:24.879
fewer in France, for they manage
these things better there. While I ate,

2298
02:50:24.920 --> 02:50:28.440
he continued to talk, making me, to my surprise, a present

2299
02:50:28.520 --> 02:50:33.639
of his full confidence. Can the
dispositions not be changed? I asked?

2300
02:50:35.680 --> 02:50:37.799
They could, he said, but
we want to avoid that. If possible,

2301
02:50:39.319 --> 02:50:41.639
they are the result of immense thought, and no alteration would be as

2302
02:50:41.680 --> 02:50:46.959
good. Besides, on one or
two points, change is simply impossible.

2303
02:50:48.079 --> 02:50:52.760
Still something could be done, I
suppose, if it were absolutely necessary.

2304
02:50:52.639 --> 02:50:56.680
But you see the difficulty, Hannay. Our enemies are not going to be

2305
02:50:56.840 --> 02:51:01.600
such fools as to pick Rowyer's pocket
or any childish game like that. They

2306
02:51:01.680 --> 02:51:05.239
know that would me to row and
put us on our guard. Their aim

2307
02:51:05.360 --> 02:51:09.120
is to get the details without any
one of us knowing, so that Royer

2308
02:51:09.159 --> 02:51:13.159
will go back to Paris in the
belief that the whole business is still deadly

2309
02:51:13.200 --> 02:51:18.479
secret. If they can't do that, they fail. For once we suspect

2310
02:51:20.000 --> 02:51:22.959
they know that the whole thing must
be altered, then we must stick by

2311
02:51:22.959 --> 02:51:26.760
the Frenchman's side till he is home
again. I said, If they thought

2312
02:51:26.840 --> 02:51:31.840
they could get the information, in
Paris, they would try there. It

2313
02:51:31.920 --> 02:51:35.159
means that they have some deep scheme
on foot in London, which they reckon

2314
02:51:35.319 --> 02:51:39.719
is going to win out. Rowyers
dines with my chief and then comes to

2315
02:51:39.799 --> 02:51:43.920
my house where four people will see
him, Whittaker, from the Admiralty,

2316
02:51:45.440 --> 02:51:50.760
myself, Sir Arthur Drew, and
General Winstanley. The first Lord is ill

2317
02:51:50.239 --> 02:51:54.719
and has gone to sharing him at
my house. He will get a certain

2318
02:51:54.799 --> 02:51:58.799
document from Whittaker, and after that
he will be motored to Portsmouth, where

2319
02:51:58.799 --> 02:52:03.159
a destroyer will take him to Harvard. His journey is too important for the

2320
02:52:03.280 --> 02:52:07.920
ordinary boat train. He will never
be left unattended for a moment till he

2321
02:52:07.040 --> 02:52:11.159
is safe on French soil, the
same with Whittaker, till he meets Royer.

2322
02:52:11.920 --> 02:52:15.959
That is the best we can do, and it's hard to see how

2323
02:52:16.000 --> 02:52:20.360
there can be any miscarriage. But
I don't mind admitting that I'm horribly nervous.

2324
02:52:22.000 --> 02:52:26.600
This murder of Karilides will play the
juice and the chancellries of Europe.

2325
02:52:26.719 --> 02:52:31.239
After breakfast, he asked me if
I could drive a car, Well,

2326
02:52:31.760 --> 02:52:35.920
you'll be my chauffeur today, and
where Hudson's rig You're about his size.

2327
02:52:35.440 --> 02:52:39.399
You have a hand in this business, and we are taking no risks.

2328
02:52:39.920 --> 02:52:43.120
There are desperate men against us who
will not respect the country retreat of an

2329
02:52:43.120 --> 02:52:48.639
overwhipped official. When I first came
to London, I had bought a car

2330
02:52:48.680 --> 02:52:52.040
and amused myself with running about the
south of England, so I knew something

2331
02:52:52.079 --> 02:52:56.760
of the geography. I took Sir
Walter to town by the Bath Road and

2332
02:52:56.840 --> 02:53:01.959
made good doing. It was a
soft, breathless June morning, with a

2333
02:53:01.000 --> 02:53:07.040
promise of sultriness later, but it
was delicious enough swinging through the little towns

2334
02:53:07.079 --> 02:53:11.639
with their freshly watered streets, and
past the summer gardens of the Thames Valley.

2335
02:53:11.520 --> 02:53:16.600
I landed Sir Walter at his house
in Queen Anne's Gate punctually by half

2336
02:53:16.600 --> 02:53:20.719
past eleven. The butler was coming
up by train with the luggage. The

2337
02:53:20.799 --> 02:53:24.520
first thing he did was to take
me round to Scotland Yard. There we

2338
02:53:24.600 --> 02:53:30.559
saw a prim gentleman with a clean
shaven lawyer's face. I brought you the

2339
02:53:30.639 --> 02:53:35.239
Portland Place. Murderer was Sir Walter's
introduction. The reply was a wry smile.

2340
02:53:37.200 --> 02:53:41.719
Edward have been a welcome present,
bulevand this I presume is mister Richard

2341
02:53:41.760 --> 02:53:46.319
Hannay, who for some days greatly
interested my department. Mister Hannay will interest

2342
02:53:46.360 --> 02:53:50.319
it again. He has much to
tell you, but not today for certain

2343
02:53:50.360 --> 02:53:54.520
grave reasons. His towel must wait
for four hours. Then I can promise

2344
02:53:54.559 --> 02:53:58.879
you you will be entertained and possibly
edified. I want you to assure mister

2345
02:54:00.000 --> 02:54:05.200
Hannay that he will suffer no further
inconvenience. This assurance was promptly given.

2346
02:54:05.040 --> 02:54:09.879
You can take up your life where
you left off. I was told your

2347
02:54:09.920 --> 02:54:13.959
flat, which probably you no longer
wish to occupy, is waiting for you,

2348
02:54:13.280 --> 02:54:18.280
and your man is still there.
As you were never publicly accused,

2349
02:54:18.360 --> 02:54:22.719
we considered that there was no need
of a public exculpation. But on that,

2350
02:54:22.799 --> 02:54:26.280
of course, you must please yourself. We may want your assistance later

2351
02:54:26.319 --> 02:54:31.399
on mc givoray, Sir Walter said, as we left, then he turned

2352
02:54:31.479 --> 02:54:35.840
me loose. Come and see me
to morrow, Hannay. I needn't tell

2353
02:54:35.840 --> 02:54:37.799
you to keep deadly quiet. If
while were you, I would go to

2354
02:54:37.879 --> 02:54:43.319
bed, for you must have considerable
areas of sleep to overtake. You had

2355
02:54:43.319 --> 02:54:46.639
better lie low, for if one
of your black Stone friends saw you,

2356
02:54:46.680 --> 02:54:52.319
there might be trouble. I felt
curiously at a loose end. At first,

2357
02:54:52.360 --> 02:54:54.600
it was very pleasant to be a
free man, able to go where

2358
02:54:54.600 --> 02:54:58.639
I wanted without fearing anything. I
had only been a month under the ban

2359
02:54:58.760 --> 02:55:03.559
of the law, and it was
quite enough for me. I went to

2360
02:55:03.600 --> 02:55:07.159
the Savoy and ordered very carefully a
very good luncheon, and then smoked the

2361
02:55:07.200 --> 02:55:11.520
best cigar of the house could provide. But I was still feeling nervous.

2362
02:55:13.120 --> 02:55:16.680
When I saw anybody look at me
in the lounge, I grew shy and

2363
02:55:16.840 --> 02:55:20.760
wondered if they were thinking about the
murder. After that, I took a

2364
02:55:20.840 --> 02:55:24.520
taxi and drove miles away up into
North London. I walked back through fields

2365
02:55:24.520 --> 02:55:28.520
and lines of villas and terraces,
and then slums and mean streets, and

2366
02:55:28.639 --> 02:55:33.360
it took me pretty nearly two hours. All the while my restlessness was growing

2367
02:55:33.399 --> 02:55:39.440
worse. I felt that great things, tremendous things were happening or about to

2368
02:55:39.479 --> 02:55:43.200
happen, and I, who was
the cog of the whole business, was

2369
02:55:43.239 --> 02:55:46.719
out of it. Royer would be
landing at Dover, Sir Walter would be

2370
02:55:46.799 --> 02:55:50.440
making plans with the few people in
England who were in the secret, and

2371
02:55:50.600 --> 02:55:56.040
somewhere in the darkness, the black
Stone would be working. I felt the

2372
02:55:56.120 --> 02:56:00.959
sense of danger and impending calamity,
and I had the cures feeling too that

2373
02:56:01.040 --> 02:56:05.399
I alone could avert it, alone
could grapple with it. But I was

2374
02:56:05.440 --> 02:56:09.479
out of the game now. How
could it be otherwise? It was not

2375
02:56:09.639 --> 02:56:15.639
likely that cabinet ministers and admiralty lords
and generals would admit me to their counsels.

2376
02:56:16.719 --> 02:56:18.719
I actually began to wish that I
could run up against one of my

2377
02:56:18.799 --> 02:56:24.000
three enemies that would lead to developments. I felt that I wanted enormously to

2378
02:56:24.040 --> 02:56:28.360
have a vulgar scrap with those gentry
where I could hit out and flatten something.

2379
02:56:28.959 --> 02:56:33.639
I was rapidly getting into a very
bad temper. I didn't feel like

2380
02:56:33.719 --> 02:56:37.399
going back to my flat. That
had to be faced sometime, but as

2381
02:56:37.440 --> 02:56:41.040
I still had sufficient money, I
thought I would put it off till next

2382
02:56:41.040 --> 02:56:46.079
morning and go to a hotel for
the night. My irritation lasted through dinner,

2383
02:56:46.280 --> 02:56:50.920
which I had at a restaurant in
Germine Street. I was no longer

2384
02:56:50.040 --> 02:56:54.639
hungry and let several courses passed untasted. I drank the best part of a

2385
02:56:54.680 --> 02:57:00.639
bottle of Burgundy, but it did
nothing to cheer me. An abominablelessness had

2386
02:57:00.680 --> 02:57:05.360
taken possession of me. Here was
I a very ordinary fellow, with no

2387
02:57:05.479 --> 02:57:09.479
particular brains, and yet I was
convinced that somehow I was needed to help

2388
02:57:09.520 --> 02:57:13.440
this business through, that without me
it would all go to blazes. I

2389
02:57:13.559 --> 02:57:18.040
told myself it was sheer silly conceit
that four or five of the cleverest people,

2390
02:57:18.079 --> 02:57:22.559
living with all the might of the
British Empire at their back, had

2391
02:57:22.600 --> 02:57:26.879
the job in hand. Yet I
couldn't be convinced. It seemed as if

2392
02:57:26.879 --> 02:57:30.440
a voice kept speaking in my ear, telling me to be up and doing

2393
02:57:30.920 --> 02:57:35.079
or I would never sleep again.
The upshot was at about half past nine.

2394
02:57:35.200 --> 02:57:39.840
I made up my mind to go
to Queen Anne's Gate. Very likely

2395
02:57:39.879 --> 02:57:41.760
I would not be admitted, but
it would ease my conscience to try.

2396
02:57:43.959 --> 02:57:46.399
I walked down Jemine Street and at
the corner of Duke Street, past a

2397
02:57:46.399 --> 02:57:50.680
group of young men. They were
in evening dress, had been dining somewhere

2398
02:57:50.760 --> 02:57:54.840
and were going on to a music
hall. One of them was mister Marmaduke

2399
02:57:56.000 --> 02:58:01.600
Jopley. He saw me and stopped
short by God the murderer. He cried,

2400
02:58:01.799 --> 02:58:03.840
here, you fellows, hold him
that's Hannay, the man who did

2401
02:58:03.879 --> 02:58:09.440
the Portland Place murder. He gripped
me by the arm and the others crowded

2402
02:58:09.520 --> 02:58:13.799
round. I wasn't looking for any
trouble, but my ill temper made me

2403
02:58:13.840 --> 02:58:16.600
play the full. A policeman came
up, and I should have told him

2404
02:58:16.639 --> 02:58:20.079
the truth, and if he didn't
believe it, demanded to be taken to

2405
02:58:20.120 --> 02:58:24.520
Scotland Yard, or for that matter, to the nearest police station. But

2406
02:58:24.639 --> 02:58:28.920
a delay at that moment seemed to
me unendurable, and the sight of Marmie's

2407
02:58:28.959 --> 02:58:33.040
imbecile face was more than I could
bear. I let out with my left

2408
02:58:33.319 --> 02:58:39.120
and had the satisfaction of seeing him
measure his length in the gutter. Then

2409
02:58:39.200 --> 02:58:43.319
began an unholy row. They were
all on me at once, and the

2410
02:58:43.399 --> 02:58:46.200
policeman took me in the rear.
I got in one or two good blows,

2411
02:58:46.280 --> 02:58:48.680
for I think with fair play,
I could have licked the lot of

2412
02:58:48.680 --> 02:58:52.440
them. But the policeman pinned me
behind and one of them got his fingers

2413
02:58:52.440 --> 02:58:58.000
on my throat. Through a black
cloud of rage, I heard the officer

2414
02:58:58.040 --> 02:59:01.360
of the law asking what was the
matter, and Marmie, between his broken

2415
02:59:01.399 --> 02:59:05.799
teeth, declaring that I was hannay
the murderer. Oh damn it all,

2416
02:59:05.879 --> 02:59:09.680
I cried, Make the fellow shut
up. I advise you to leave me

2417
02:59:09.760 --> 02:59:13.879
alone. Constable Scotland Yard knows all
about me, and you'll get a proper

2418
02:59:13.879 --> 02:59:18.319
wigging if you interfere with me.
You've got to come along with me,

2419
02:59:18.440 --> 02:59:22.559
young man, said the policeman.
I saw you strike that gentleman, cruel

2420
02:59:22.680 --> 02:59:26.799
ard. You began it too,
for he wasn't doing nothing. I've seen

2421
02:59:26.879 --> 02:59:31.200
you. Best go quietly, or
I'll have to fix you up. Exasperation

2422
02:59:31.319 --> 02:59:35.920
and an overwhelming sense that at no
cost must I delay gave me the strength

2423
02:59:35.920 --> 02:59:41.280
of a bull elephant. I fairly
wrenched the Constable off his feet, flawed

2424
02:59:41.319 --> 02:59:43.600
the man who was gripping my collar, and set off at my best pace

2425
02:59:43.680 --> 02:59:48.600
down Duke Street. I heard a
whistle being blown and the rush of men

2426
02:59:48.680 --> 02:59:52.159
behind me. I have a very
fair turn of speed, and that night

2427
02:59:52.360 --> 02:59:56.360
I had wings in a jiffy.
I was in Pall Mall and had turned

2428
02:59:56.360 --> 03:00:01.600
down towards Saint James's Park. I
dodged the policeman at the Palace gates,

2429
03:00:01.879 --> 03:00:05.479
dived through a press of carriages at
the entrance to the mall, and was

2430
03:00:05.520 --> 03:00:09.719
making for the bridge before my pursuers
had crossed the roadway. In the open

2431
03:00:09.760 --> 03:00:13.159
ways of the park, I put
on a spurt. Happily there were a

2432
03:00:13.159 --> 03:00:16.760
few people about, and no one
tried to stop me. I was staking

2433
03:00:16.840 --> 03:00:20.760
all on getting to Queen Ann's Gate. When I entered that quiet thoroughfare,

2434
03:00:20.799 --> 03:00:26.440
it seemed deserted. Sir Walter's house
was in the narrow part, and outside

2435
03:00:26.440 --> 03:00:30.879
it three or four motor cars were
drawn up. I slackened speed some yards

2436
03:00:30.879 --> 03:00:35.159
off and walked briskly up to the
door. If the butler refused me admission,

2437
03:00:35.239 --> 03:00:37.680
or if he even delayed to open
the door, I was done.

2438
03:00:37.479 --> 03:00:41.760
He didn't delay. I had scarcely
run before the door opened. I must

2439
03:00:41.840 --> 03:00:48.000
see Sir Walter. I pented.
My business is desperately important. That butler

2440
03:00:48.120 --> 03:00:50.479
was a great man. Without moving
a muscle, he held the door open

2441
03:00:50.639 --> 03:00:54.879
and then shut it behind me.
Sir Walter is engaged, Sir, and

2442
03:00:56.000 --> 03:01:01.000
I have orders to admit no one. Perhaps you will wait. The house

2443
03:01:01.440 --> 03:01:03.840
was of the old fashioned kind,
with a wide hall and rooms on both

2444
03:01:03.879 --> 03:01:07.479
sides of it. At the far
end was an alcove with a telephone and

2445
03:01:07.520 --> 03:01:13.159
a couple of chairs, and there
the butler offered me a seat. See

2446
03:01:13.239 --> 03:01:16.120
here, I whispered. There's trouble
about and I'm in it. But Sir

2447
03:01:16.159 --> 03:01:20.959
Walter knows, and I'm working for
him. If any one comes and asks

2448
03:01:20.959 --> 03:01:24.719
if I am here, tell him
a lie. He nodded, and presently

2449
03:01:24.719 --> 03:01:28.079
there was a noise of voices in
the street and a furious ringing at the

2450
03:01:28.120 --> 03:01:33.040
bell. I never admired a man
more than that butler. He opened the

2451
03:01:33.079 --> 03:01:37.239
door, and, with a face
like a graven image, waited to be

2452
03:01:37.360 --> 03:01:41.639
questioned. Then he gave them it. He told them whose house it was,

2453
03:01:41.920 --> 03:01:45.319
and what his orders were, and
simply froze them off the doorstep.

2454
03:01:45.719 --> 03:01:48.120
I could see it all from my
alcove, and it was better than any

2455
03:01:48.159 --> 03:01:52.719
play. I hadn't waited long till
there came another ring at the bell.

2456
03:01:54.399 --> 03:01:58.239
The butler made no bones about admitting
this new visitor. While he was taking

2457
03:01:58.239 --> 03:02:03.280
off his coat, I saw who
it was. You couldn't open a newspaper

2458
03:02:03.479 --> 03:02:07.079
or a magazine without seeing that face. The gray beard cut like a spade,

2459
03:02:07.360 --> 03:02:11.040
the firm fighting mouth, the blunt, square nose, and the keen

2460
03:02:11.079 --> 03:02:16.520
blue eyes. I recognized the first
Sea Lord, the man they say that

2461
03:02:16.639 --> 03:02:20.360
made the new British Navy. He
passed my alcove and was rushered into a

2462
03:02:20.440 --> 03:02:24.360
room at the back of the hall. As the door opened, I could

2463
03:02:24.399 --> 03:02:28.799
hear the sound of low voices.
It shut and I was left alone again.

2464
03:02:30.239 --> 03:02:33.920
For twenty minutes. I sat there, wondering what I was to do

2465
03:02:33.079 --> 03:02:39.040
next. I was still perfectly convinced
that I was wanted, but when or

2466
03:02:39.079 --> 03:02:43.600
how I had no notion. I
kept looking at my watch, and as

2467
03:02:43.639 --> 03:02:46.559
the time crept on to half past
ten, I began to think that the

2468
03:02:46.600 --> 03:02:50.680
conference must soon end. In a
quarter of an hour, Rowyer should be

2469
03:02:50.680 --> 03:02:54.680
speeding along the road to Portsmouth.
Then I heard a bell ring, and

2470
03:02:54.799 --> 03:03:00.399
the butler appeared. The door of
the back room opened and the first Sea

2471
03:03:00.440 --> 03:03:03.120
Lord came out. He walked past
me, and in passing King glanced in

2472
03:03:03.159 --> 03:03:07.639
my direction, and for a second
we looked each other in the face.

2473
03:03:07.840 --> 03:03:11.399
Only for a second, but it
was enough to make my heart jump.

2474
03:03:11.959 --> 03:03:16.559
I had never seen the great Man
before, and he had never seen me.

2475
03:03:16.079 --> 03:03:20.920
But in that fraction of time,
something sprang into his eyes, and

2476
03:03:20.040 --> 03:03:24.840
that something was recognition. You can't
mistake it. It is a flicker,

2477
03:03:26.040 --> 03:03:30.000
a spark of light, a minute
shade of difference, which means one thing

2478
03:03:30.280 --> 03:03:33.559
and one thing only. It came
involuntarily, for in a moment it died,

2479
03:03:33.680 --> 03:03:37.360
and he passed on in a maze
of wild fancies. I heard the

2480
03:03:37.399 --> 03:03:41.840
street door close behind him. I
picked up the telephone book and looked up

2481
03:03:41.879 --> 03:03:46.399
the number of his house. We
were connected at once, and I heard

2482
03:03:46.399 --> 03:03:50.559
a servant's voice. Is his lordship
at home? I asked? His lordship

2483
03:03:50.600 --> 03:03:54.799
returned half an hour ago, said
the voice, and has gone to bed.

2484
03:03:54.319 --> 03:03:58.479
He is not very well tonight.
Will you leave a message? Sir

2485
03:04:00.079 --> 03:04:03.040
rang off, and almost tumbled into
a chair. My part in this business

2486
03:04:03.200 --> 03:04:07.840
was not yet ended. It had
been a close shave, but I had

2487
03:04:07.840 --> 03:04:11.120
been in time. Not a moment
could be lost so much. Boldly to

2488
03:04:11.159 --> 03:04:16.159
the door of that back room and
entered without knocking. Five surprised faces looked

2489
03:04:16.239 --> 03:04:20.079
up from a round table. There
was Sir Walter and Drew, the war

2490
03:04:20.200 --> 03:04:24.920
minister, whom I knew from his
photographs. There was a slim, elderly

2491
03:04:24.920 --> 03:04:30.120
man who was probably Whittaker, the
admiralty official. And there was General Winstanley,

2492
03:04:30.399 --> 03:04:33.920
conspicuous from the long scar on his
forehead. Lastly, there was a

2493
03:04:33.959 --> 03:04:37.799
short, stout man with an iron
gray mustache and bushy eyebrows, who had

2494
03:04:37.799 --> 03:04:43.600
been arrested. In the middle of
a sentence, Sir Walter's face showed surprise

2495
03:04:43.840 --> 03:04:48.120
and annoyance. This is mister Hannay, of whom I have spoken to you,

2496
03:04:48.399 --> 03:04:52.440
he said apologetically to the company.
I am afraid, Hannay, this

2497
03:04:52.639 --> 03:04:56.719
visit is ill timed. I was
getting back my coolness that remains to be

2498
03:04:56.799 --> 03:05:00.719
seen, Sir, I said,
but I think it maybe in the nick

2499
03:05:00.719 --> 03:05:03.959
of time. For God's sake,
gentlemen, tell me who went out a

2500
03:05:03.959 --> 03:05:07.719
minute ago, Lord a Lower,
Sir Walter said, reddening with anger.

2501
03:05:09.120 --> 03:05:11.840
It was not, I cried.
It was his living image. But it

2502
03:05:11.959 --> 03:05:16.079
was not Lord a Lower. It
was someone who recognized me, someone I

2503
03:05:16.120 --> 03:05:20.120
have seen in the last month.
He had scarcely left the doorstep when I

2504
03:05:20.200 --> 03:05:24.559
rang up Lord a Lower's house and
was told he had come in half an

2505
03:05:24.559 --> 03:05:31.479
hour before and had gone to bed. Who who, Someone stammered the black

2506
03:05:31.600 --> 03:05:35.920
stone. I cried, and I
sat down in a chair so recently vacated,

2507
03:05:35.200 --> 03:05:48.000
and looked round at five badly scared
gentlemen. End of chapter eight Chapter

2508
03:05:48.120 --> 03:05:54.959
nine of The Thirty nine Steps by
John Buckan. This LibriVox recording is in

2509
03:05:54.000 --> 03:06:01.079
the public domain. Read by cliff
Stone of Sydney, Australia. The Thirty

2510
03:06:01.159 --> 03:06:09.079
nine Steps by John Bucking, Chapter
nine. The thirty nine Steps nonsense,

2511
03:06:09.360 --> 03:06:13.719
said the official from the Admiralty.
Sir Walter got up and left the room

2512
03:06:13.760 --> 03:06:18.040
while we looked blankly at the table. He came back in ten minutes with

2513
03:06:18.079 --> 03:06:22.719
a long face. I have spoken
to a Lower, he said, had

2514
03:06:22.840 --> 03:06:26.239
him out of bed, very grumpy. He went straight home after Mulross's dinner.

2515
03:06:28.280 --> 03:06:31.479
But it's madness broke in general,
WinCE Stanley, do you mean to

2516
03:06:31.520 --> 03:06:35.280
tell me that that man came here
and sat beside me for the best part

2517
03:06:35.319 --> 03:06:39.520
of half an hour, and that
I didn't detect the imposture? A lower

2518
03:06:39.639 --> 03:06:43.600
must be out of his mind,
don't you see the cleverness of it?

2519
03:06:43.680 --> 03:06:48.360
I said, you were too interested
in other things to have any eyes.

2520
03:06:48.120 --> 03:06:52.159
You took Lord a Lower for granted, if it had been anybody else you

2521
03:06:52.239 --> 03:06:56.920
might have looked more closely. But
it was natural for him to be here,

2522
03:06:56.200 --> 03:07:01.879
and that put you all to sleep. The Frenchman spoke very slowly and

2523
03:07:03.040 --> 03:07:09.399
in good English. The young man
is right. His psychology is good.

2524
03:07:09.000 --> 03:07:15.920
Our enemies have not been foolish he
bent his wise brows on the assembly.

2525
03:07:16.479 --> 03:07:20.319
I will tell you a tale,
he said. It happened many years ago

2526
03:07:20.399 --> 03:07:24.840
in Senegal. I was quartered in
a remote station, and to pass the

2527
03:07:24.879 --> 03:07:30.120
time used to go fishing for big
barbele in the river. A little Arab

2528
03:07:30.200 --> 03:07:33.280
mare used to carry my luncheon basket, one of the salted dunbreed you got

2529
03:07:33.319 --> 03:07:39.799
at Timbuctou in the old days.
Well, one morning I had good sport

2530
03:07:39.040 --> 03:07:45.000
and the mayor was unaccountably restless.
I could hear her whinnying and squealing and

2531
03:07:45.079 --> 03:07:48.000
stamping her feet, and I kept
soothing her with my voice while my mind

2532
03:07:48.120 --> 03:07:52.239
was intent on fish. I could
see her all the time as I thought,

2533
03:07:52.319 --> 03:07:56.559
out of a corner of my eye, tethered to a tree twenty yards

2534
03:07:56.600 --> 03:08:00.479
away. After a couple of hours, I began to think of food.

2535
03:08:00.760 --> 03:08:05.200
I collected my fish in a tarp
hallen bag and moved down the stream towards

2536
03:08:05.200 --> 03:08:07.959
the mare trolling my line. When
I got up to her, I flung

2537
03:08:09.000 --> 03:08:13.520
the tarp pallen on her back.
He paused and looked round. It was

2538
03:08:13.559 --> 03:08:18.159
the smell that gave me warning.
I turned my head and found myself looking

2539
03:08:18.200 --> 03:08:22.520
at a lion three feet off an
old man eater. That was the terror

2540
03:08:22.520 --> 03:08:26.040
of the village. What was left
of the mare, a mass of blood

2541
03:08:26.040 --> 03:08:31.719
and bones and hide, was behind
him. What happened, I asked.

2542
03:08:31.319 --> 03:08:35.319
I was enough of a hunter to
know a true yarn. When I heard

2543
03:08:35.319 --> 03:08:39.680
it, I stuffed my fishing rod
into his jaws, and I had a

2544
03:08:39.719 --> 03:08:43.879
pistol. Also, my servants came
presently with rifles. But he left his

2545
03:08:43.959 --> 03:08:48.079
mark on me. He held up
a hand which lacked three fingers. Consider

2546
03:08:48.200 --> 03:08:52.200
he said the mare had been dead
more than an hour, and the brute

2547
03:08:52.200 --> 03:08:56.079
had been patiently watching me ever since. I never saw the kill, for

2548
03:08:56.200 --> 03:09:01.159
I was accustomed to the mayor's fretting, and ever marked her absence, For

2549
03:09:01.360 --> 03:09:05.440
my consciousness of her was only of
something torny, and the lion filled that

2550
03:09:05.520 --> 03:09:09.399
part. If I could blunder thus, gentlemen, in a land where men's

2551
03:09:09.399 --> 03:09:15.479
senses are keen, why should we
busy preoccupied urban folk? Not err Also,

2552
03:09:16.760 --> 03:09:20.639
Sir Walter nodded. No one was
ready to gain see him, but

2553
03:09:20.799 --> 03:09:26.280
I don't see, went on when
Stanley. Their object was to get these

2554
03:09:26.319 --> 03:09:30.799
dispositions without our knowing it. Now
it only required one of us to mention

2555
03:09:30.840 --> 03:09:35.639
to a lower our meeting tonight for
the whole fraud to be exposed. Sir

2556
03:09:35.719 --> 03:09:41.319
Walter laughed dryly. The selection of
a lower shows their acumen. Which of

2557
03:09:41.399 --> 03:09:45.200
us was likely to speak to him
about to night? Or was he likely

2558
03:09:45.239 --> 03:09:50.479
to open the subject? I remembered
the first Sea lord's reputation for taciturnity and

2559
03:09:50.559 --> 03:09:54.600
shortness of temper. The one thing
that puzzles me, said the General,

2560
03:09:56.120 --> 03:10:00.200
is what good his visit here would
do that spy, fellow, he did

2561
03:10:00.239 --> 03:10:05.280
not carry away several pages of figures
and strange names in his head. That

2562
03:10:05.479 --> 03:10:09.840
is not difficult, the Frenchman replied. A good spy is trained to have

2563
03:10:09.920 --> 03:10:13.719
a photographic memory like your own.
Macaulay, You noticed he said nothing,

2564
03:10:15.079 --> 03:10:18.479
but went through these papers again and
again. I think we may assume that

2565
03:10:18.520 --> 03:10:22.639
he has every detail stamped on his
mind. When I was younger, I

2566
03:10:22.639 --> 03:10:28.520
could do the same trick. Well, I suppose there is nothing for it

2567
03:10:28.559 --> 03:10:33.159
but to change the plans, said
Sir Walter ruefully. Whittaker was looking very

2568
03:10:33.159 --> 03:10:37.159
glum. Did you tell Lord a
Lower what has happened? He asked?

2569
03:10:37.920 --> 03:10:43.760
No. Well, I can't speak
with absolute assurance, but I'm nearly certain

2570
03:10:43.799 --> 03:10:48.559
we can't make any serious changes unless
we alter the geography of England. Another

2571
03:10:48.600 --> 03:10:54.159
thing must be said. It was
Royer who spoke. I talked freely when

2572
03:10:54.200 --> 03:10:58.319
that man was here. I told
something of the military plans of my government.

2573
03:10:58.879 --> 03:11:03.120
I was permitted to say so much. But that information would be worth

2574
03:11:03.280 --> 03:11:07.959
many millions to our enemies. No, my friends, I see no other

2575
03:11:07.000 --> 03:11:11.280
way. The man who came here
and his confederates must be taken, and

2576
03:11:11.399 --> 03:11:16.920
taken at once. Good God,
I cried, and we have not a

2577
03:11:16.000 --> 03:11:22.040
rag of a clue. Besides,
said Whittaker, there is the post.

2578
03:11:22.440 --> 03:11:26.799
By this time the news will be
on its way. No, said the

2579
03:11:26.840 --> 03:11:31.159
Frenchman. You do not understand the
habits of the spy. He receives personally

2580
03:11:31.239 --> 03:11:37.879
his reward and he delivers personally his
intelligence. We in France know something of

2581
03:11:37.920 --> 03:11:41.879
the breed. There is still a
chance, mes Ami. These men must

2582
03:11:41.920 --> 03:11:46.319
cross the sea, and there are
ships to be searched and ports to be

2583
03:11:46.360 --> 03:11:50.799
watched. Believe me, the need
is desperate for both France and Britain.

2584
03:11:52.280 --> 03:11:56.799
Lawyer's grave good sense seemed to pull
us together. He was the man of

2585
03:11:56.840 --> 03:12:01.200
action among fumblers. But I saw
no hope in any face, and I

2586
03:12:01.319 --> 03:12:05.000
felt none where among the fifty millions
of these islands, and within a dozen

2587
03:12:05.040 --> 03:12:11.760
hours were we to lay hands on
the three cleverest rogues in Europe. Then

2588
03:12:11.879 --> 03:12:16.760
suddenly I had an inspiration. Where
is Scudder's book? I cried to Sir

2589
03:12:16.799 --> 03:12:20.399
Walter quick Man, I remember something
in it. He unlocked the door of

2590
03:12:20.399 --> 03:12:24.760
a bureau and gave it to me. I found the place. Thirty nine

2591
03:12:24.840 --> 03:12:30.719
steps I read, and again,
thirty nine steps I counted them. High

2592
03:12:30.760 --> 03:12:35.159
tide ten seventeen pm. The Admiralty
man was looking at me as if he

2593
03:12:35.200 --> 03:12:41.079
thought I had gone mad. Don't
you see it's a clue, I shouted.

2594
03:12:41.639 --> 03:12:45.280
Scudder knew where these fellows led.
He knew where they were going to

2595
03:12:45.360 --> 03:12:48.920
leave the country, though he kept
the name to himself. Tomorrow was the

2596
03:12:50.040 --> 03:12:52.840
day, and it was some place
where high tide was at ten seventeen.

2597
03:12:54.719 --> 03:12:58.959
They may have gone tonight. Someone
said not they They have their own snug,

2598
03:13:00.079 --> 03:13:03.360
secret way, and they won't be
hurried. I know Germans, and

2599
03:13:03.479 --> 03:13:05.879
they are mad about working to a
plan. Where the devil? Can I

2600
03:13:05.959 --> 03:13:11.879
get a book of tide tables?
Whittaker brightened up. It's a chance,

2601
03:13:11.959 --> 03:13:16.440
he said, Let's go over to
the Admiraltea. We got into two of

2602
03:13:16.440 --> 03:13:20.440
the waiting motor cars, all but
Sir Walter, who went off to Scotland

2603
03:13:20.520 --> 03:13:26.680
Yard to mobilize mc gillivray. So
he said. We marched through empty corridors

2604
03:13:26.680 --> 03:13:30.200
and big bear chambers, where the
charwomen were busy, till we reached a

2605
03:13:30.239 --> 03:13:35.200
little room lined with books and maps. A resident clerk was unearthed, who

2606
03:13:35.200 --> 03:13:39.319
presently fetched from the library the admiraltea
tide tables. I sat at the desk,

2607
03:13:39.360 --> 03:13:43.879
and the others stood round. For
somehow or other I had got charge

2608
03:13:43.879 --> 03:13:48.639
of this expedition. It was no
good. There were hundreds of entries,

2609
03:13:48.639 --> 03:13:52.399
and so far as I could see, ten seventeen might cover fifty places.

2610
03:13:52.159 --> 03:13:58.520
We had to find some way of
narrowing the possibilities. I took my head

2611
03:13:58.559 --> 03:14:03.159
in my hands and thought there must
be some way of reading this riddle.

2612
03:14:03.719 --> 03:14:09.200
What did Scudder mean by steps?
I thought of dock steps. But if

2613
03:14:09.200 --> 03:14:11.040
he had meant that, I didn't
think he would have mentioned the number.

2614
03:14:11.959 --> 03:14:16.000
It must be some place where there
were several staircases, and one marked out

2615
03:14:16.040 --> 03:14:22.360
from the others by having thirty nine
steps. Then I had a sudden thought

2616
03:14:22.799 --> 03:14:26.680
and hunted up all the steamer sailings. There was no boat which left for

2617
03:14:26.680 --> 03:14:33.319
the continent at ten seventeen p m. Why was high tide so important.

2618
03:14:33.200 --> 03:14:37.680
If it was a harbor, it
must be some little place where the tide

2619
03:14:37.719 --> 03:14:41.760
matted, or else it was a
heavy draft boat. But there was no

2620
03:14:41.879 --> 03:14:46.479
regular steamer sailing at that hour,
And somehow I didn't think they would travel

2621
03:14:46.559 --> 03:14:50.639
by a big boat from a regular
harbor. So it must be some little

2622
03:14:50.680 --> 03:14:54.920
harbor where the tide was important,
or perhaps no harbor at all. But

2623
03:14:56.000 --> 03:14:58.520
if it was a little port,
I couldn't see what the steps signified.

2624
03:15:00.360 --> 03:15:03.360
There were no sets of staircases on
any harbor that I had ever seen.

2625
03:15:05.200 --> 03:15:09.200
It must be some place which a
particular staircase identified and where the tide was

2626
03:15:09.239 --> 03:15:13.079
full at ten seventeen. On the
whole, it seemed to me that the

2627
03:15:13.120 --> 03:15:18.680
place must be a bit of open
coast, but the staircases kept puzzling me.

2628
03:15:20.040 --> 03:15:24.200
Then I went back too wider considerations. Whereabouts would a man be likely

2629
03:15:24.280 --> 03:15:28.840
to leave for Germany, a man
in a hurry who wanted a speedy and

2630
03:15:28.920 --> 03:15:33.360
a secret passage. Not from any
of the big harbors, and not from

2631
03:15:33.399 --> 03:15:37.399
the Channel or the West coast or
Scotland for remember he was starting from London.

2632
03:15:39.399 --> 03:15:41.319
I measured the distance on the map
and tried to put myself in the

2633
03:15:41.399 --> 03:15:46.399
enemy's shoes. I should try for
Ostend or Antwerp or Rotterdam, and I

2634
03:15:46.440 --> 03:15:52.559
should sail from somewhere on the east
coast between Cromer and dover All, this

2635
03:15:54.079 --> 03:15:58.719
was very loose guessing, and I
don't pretend it was ingenious or scientific.

2636
03:15:58.280 --> 03:16:03.959
I was an kind of Sherlock Holmes. But I have always fancied I had

2637
03:16:03.959 --> 03:16:07.959
a kind of instinct about questions like
this. I don't know if I can

2638
03:16:07.000 --> 03:16:11.479
explain myself, but I used to
use my brains as far as they went,

2639
03:16:11.000 --> 03:16:15.520
and after they came to a blank
wall, I guessed, and I

2640
03:16:15.639 --> 03:16:20.680
usually found my guess is pretty right. So I set out all my conclusions

2641
03:16:20.719 --> 03:16:26.319
on a bit of admiralty paper.
They ran like this fairly certain number one

2642
03:16:26.920 --> 03:16:31.680
place where there are several sets of
stairs. One that matters distinguished by having

2643
03:16:31.760 --> 03:16:39.159
thirty nine steps, two full tide
at ten seventeen PM, leaving show only

2644
03:16:39.200 --> 03:16:45.680
possible at full tide. Three steps
not dock steps, and so placed probably

2645
03:16:45.760 --> 03:16:52.719
not harbor. Four no regular night
steamer at ten seventeen means of transport must

2646
03:16:52.719 --> 03:16:58.200
be tramp unlikely yacht or fishing boat. There my reasoning stopped. I made

2647
03:16:58.200 --> 03:17:01.559
another list, which I headed guest, but I was just as sure of

2648
03:17:01.600 --> 03:17:09.440
the one as the other guest.
One place not harbor but open coast.

2649
03:17:09.280 --> 03:17:16.239
Two boats, small trawler, yacht
or launch. Three place somewhere on east

2650
03:17:16.280 --> 03:17:22.280
coast between Cromer and Dover. It
struck me as odd that I should be

2651
03:17:22.319 --> 03:17:26.079
sitting at that desk with a cabinet
minister, a field marshal, two high

2652
03:17:26.159 --> 03:17:31.879
government officials at a French general watching
me while from the scribble of a dead

2653
03:17:31.879 --> 03:17:35.200
man, I was trying to drag
a secret which meant life or death for

2654
03:17:35.319 --> 03:17:39.879
us. Sir Walter had joined us, and presently McGillivray arrived. He had

2655
03:17:39.920 --> 03:17:43.959
sent out instructions to watch the ports
and railway stations for the three men whom

2656
03:17:45.040 --> 03:17:48.479
I had described to Sir Walter,
not that he or anybody else thought that

2657
03:17:48.479 --> 03:17:52.520
that would do much good. Here's
the most I can make of it,

2658
03:17:52.639 --> 03:17:56.879
I said, we have got to
find a place where there are several staircases

2659
03:17:56.920 --> 03:18:01.319
down to the beach, one of
which thirty nine steps. I think it's

2660
03:18:01.319 --> 03:18:07.040
a piece of open coast with biggish
cliffs somewhere between the wash and the channel.

2661
03:18:07.799 --> 03:18:11.719
Also, it's a place where full
tired as at ten seventeen tomorrow night.

2662
03:18:13.120 --> 03:18:16.760
Then an idea struck me. Is
there no inspector of Coastguards, or

2663
03:18:16.799 --> 03:18:22.440
some fellow like that who knows the
east coast? Whittaker said there was,

2664
03:18:22.799 --> 03:18:26.120
and that he lived in Clapham.
He went off in a car to fetch

2665
03:18:26.200 --> 03:18:28.040
him, and the rest of us
sat about the little room and talked of

2666
03:18:28.079 --> 03:18:33.200
anything that came into our heads.
I lit a pipe and went over the

2667
03:18:33.239 --> 03:18:37.920
whole thing again till my brain grew
weary. About one in the morning,

2668
03:18:37.040 --> 03:18:41.760
the coastguard man arrived. He was
a fine old fellow, with the look

2669
03:18:41.760 --> 03:18:46.280
of a naval officer, and was
desperately respectful to the company. I left

2670
03:18:46.360 --> 03:18:48.600
the war Minister to cross examine him, for I felt he would think it

2671
03:18:48.680 --> 03:18:52.600
cheek in me to talk. We
want you to tell us the place as

2672
03:18:52.639 --> 03:18:56.280
you know of on the east coast, where there are cliffs and where several

2673
03:18:56.280 --> 03:19:01.399
sets of steps run down to the
beach. He thought for a bit,

2674
03:19:01.120 --> 03:19:05.840
what kind of steps d'you mean,
sir? There are plenty of places with

2675
03:19:05.000 --> 03:19:09.440
roads cut down through the cliffs,
and most roads have a step or two

2676
03:19:09.440 --> 03:19:13.360
in them, or do ye mean
regular staircases all steps, so to speak.

2677
03:19:15.399 --> 03:19:20.520
Sir Arthur looked towards me. We
mean regular staircases, I said.

2678
03:19:20.719 --> 03:19:24.520
He reflected a minute or two.
I don't know that I can think of

2679
03:19:24.600 --> 03:19:31.280
any Wait a second. There's a
place in Norfolk, Brattlesham, beside a

2680
03:19:31.319 --> 03:19:35.600
golf course where there are a couple
of staircases to let the gentleman get a

2681
03:19:35.600 --> 03:19:39.440
lost ball. That's not it,
I said, Then there are plenty of

2682
03:19:39.520 --> 03:19:43.520
marine parades. If that's what you
mean, every seaside resort has them.

2683
03:19:45.440 --> 03:19:48.200
I shook my head. It's got
to be more retired than that, I

2684
03:19:48.239 --> 03:19:54.680
said, Well, gentlemen, I
can't think of anywhere else. Of course,

2685
03:19:54.079 --> 03:20:00.319
there's the Roff what's that, I
asked, The big chalk headland Kent,

2686
03:20:00.719 --> 03:20:03.040
close to Bradgate. It's got a
lot of villas on the top and

2687
03:20:03.159 --> 03:20:07.200
some of the houses have staircases down
to a private beach. It's a very

2688
03:20:07.280 --> 03:20:11.479
high toned sort of place, and
the residents they are like to keep by

2689
03:20:11.520 --> 03:20:16.479
themselves. I tore opened the tide
tables and found Bradgate high tide. There

2690
03:20:16.639 --> 03:20:22.520
was at teen twenty seven pm on
the fifteenth of June. We're on the

2691
03:20:22.559 --> 03:20:26.360
scent at last, I cried,
excitedly. How can I find out what

2692
03:20:26.559 --> 03:20:28.639
is the tide at the roof?
I can tell you that, sir,

2693
03:20:28.920 --> 03:20:33.479
said the coastguard man. I once
was lent a house there in this very

2694
03:20:33.520 --> 03:20:35.639
month, and I used to go
out at night to the deep sea fishing

2695
03:20:37.280 --> 03:20:41.760
the tides. Ten minutes before Bradgate, I closed the book and looked round

2696
03:20:41.760 --> 03:20:46.360
at the company. If one of
those staircases has thirty nine steps, we

2697
03:20:46.440 --> 03:20:50.399
have solved the mystery, gentleman,
I said, I want the loan of

2698
03:20:50.440 --> 03:20:54.840
your car, Sir Walter, and
a map of the roads. If mister

2699
03:20:54.959 --> 03:20:58.440
mc gillivray will spare me ten minutes, I think we can prepare something for

2700
03:20:58.600 --> 03:21:03.079
tomorrow. It was ridiculous in me
to take charge of the business like this,

2701
03:21:03.239 --> 03:21:05.360
but they didn't seem to mind.
And after all, I had been

2702
03:21:05.399 --> 03:21:09.760
in the show from the start.
Besides, I was used to rough jobs,

2703
03:21:09.760 --> 03:21:13.600
and these eminent gentlemen were too clever
not to see it. Edwards,

2704
03:21:13.680 --> 03:21:18.399
General Royer, who gave me my
commission, I for one, he said,

2705
03:21:18.680 --> 03:21:22.319
AM content to leave the matter in
mister Hannay's hands. By half past

2706
03:21:22.319 --> 03:21:28.200
three, I was tearing past the
moonlit hedge grows of Kent, with McGillivray's

2707
03:21:28.239 --> 03:21:39.360
best man on the seat beside me. End of chapter nine, Chapter ten

2708
03:21:39.600 --> 03:21:45.799
of The Thirty Nine Steps by John
Buckan. This LibriVox recording is in the

2709
03:21:45.840 --> 03:21:52.200
public domain. Read by Cliff Stone
of Sydney, Australia. The Thirty Nine

2710
03:21:52.280 --> 03:22:00.040
Steps by John Buckan, Chapter ten, various parties converging on the sea in

2711
03:22:00.280 --> 03:22:05.040
blue June morning found me at Bradgate, looking from the Griffin Hotel over a

2712
03:22:05.120 --> 03:22:09.280
smooth sea to the lightship on the
cock Sands, which seemed the size of

2713
03:22:09.319 --> 03:22:13.159
a bellboy. A couple of miles
further south and much nearer the shore,

2714
03:22:13.319 --> 03:22:18.959
a small destroyer was anchored Scafe.
McGillivray's man, who had been in the

2715
03:22:18.079 --> 03:22:22.159
navy, knew the boat and told
me her name and her commanders. So

2716
03:22:22.239 --> 03:22:26.840
I sent off a wire to Sir
Walter. After breakfast, Scaife got from

2717
03:22:26.840 --> 03:22:31.239
a house agent a key for the
gates of the staircases on the rough.

2718
03:22:31.079 --> 03:22:35.239
I walked with him along the sands
and sat down in a nook on the

2719
03:22:35.280 --> 03:22:39.959
cliffs while he investigated the half dozen
of them. I didn't want to be

2720
03:22:39.040 --> 03:22:43.159
seen but the place at this hour
was quite deserted, and all the time

2721
03:22:43.200 --> 03:22:48.559
I was on that beach, I
saw nothing but seagulls. It took him

2722
03:22:48.559 --> 03:22:50.840
more than an hour to do the
job, and when I saw him coming

2723
03:22:50.840 --> 03:22:54.600
towards me conning a bit of paper, I can tell you my heart was

2724
03:22:54.639 --> 03:22:58.719
in my mouth. Everything depended,
you see on my guests proving right,

2725
03:23:00.840 --> 03:23:05.840
He read aloud the number of steps
in the different stairs thirty four, thirty

2726
03:23:05.920 --> 03:23:11.879
five, thirty nine, forty two, forty seven and twenty one where the

2727
03:23:11.879 --> 03:23:16.959
cliffs grew lower. I almost got
up and shouted. We hurried back to

2728
03:23:16.000 --> 03:23:20.719
the town and sent a wire to
mc gillivray. I wanted half a dozen

2729
03:23:20.760 --> 03:23:26.079
men, and I directed them to
divide themselves among different specified hotels. Then

2730
03:23:26.159 --> 03:23:28.840
Skape set out to prospect the house
at the end of the thirty nine steps.

2731
03:23:30.680 --> 03:23:35.360
He came back with news that both
puzzled and reassured me. The house

2732
03:23:35.440 --> 03:23:39.479
was called Trafalgar Lodge and belonged to
an old gentleman called Appleton, a retired

2733
03:23:39.520 --> 03:23:45.159
stockbroker. The house agent said mister
Appleton was there a good deal in the

2734
03:23:45.200 --> 03:23:48.120
summer and was in residence now,
had been for the better part of a

2735
03:23:48.159 --> 03:23:52.600
week. Scape could pick up very
little information about him, except that he

2736
03:23:52.760 --> 03:23:56.959
was a decent old fellow who paid
his bills regularly and was always good for

2737
03:23:58.000 --> 03:24:03.239
a fiver for a local charity.
Then Scafe seemed to have penetrated to the

2738
03:24:03.280 --> 03:24:07.120
back door of the house, pretending
he was an agent for sewing machines.

2739
03:24:07.920 --> 03:24:11.479
Only three servants were kept, a
cook, a parlor maid and a housemaid,

2740
03:24:11.719 --> 03:24:16.120
and they were just the sort you
would find in a respectable middle class

2741
03:24:16.120 --> 03:24:20.479
household. The cook was not the
gossiping kind and had pretty soon shut the

2742
03:24:20.520 --> 03:24:24.520
door in its face, but Scafe
said he was positive she knew nothing.

2743
03:24:24.559 --> 03:24:28.000
Next door, there was a new
house building which would give good cover for

2744
03:24:28.079 --> 03:24:33.600
observation, and the villa on the
other side was to let and its garden

2745
03:24:33.719 --> 03:24:39.280
was rough and shrubby. I borrowed
Skafe's telescope, and before lunch went for

2746
03:24:39.319 --> 03:24:43.600
a walk along the roof. I
kept well behind the rows of villas and

2747
03:24:43.639 --> 03:24:46.600
found a good observation point on the
edge of the golf course. There I

2748
03:24:46.639 --> 03:24:50.200
had a view of the line of
turf along the cliff top, with seats

2749
03:24:50.239 --> 03:24:56.079
placed at intervals, and the little
square plots railed in and planted with bushes.

2750
03:24:56.280 --> 03:25:01.239
Whence the staircases descended to the beach
saw Trafalgar Lodge very plainly, a

2751
03:25:01.319 --> 03:25:05.159
red brick villa with a veranda,
a tennis lawn behind, and in front

2752
03:25:05.200 --> 03:25:11.559
the ordinary seaside flower garden full of
margharitas and scraggy geraniums. There was a

2753
03:25:11.600 --> 03:25:18.879
flagstaff from which an enormous union jack
hung limply in the still air. Presently,

2754
03:25:18.959 --> 03:25:22.360
I observed someone leave the house and
saunter along the cliff. When I

2755
03:25:22.399 --> 03:25:26.159
got my glasses on him, I
saw it was an old man wearing white

2756
03:25:26.239 --> 03:25:31.000
flannel trousers, a blue serge jacket
and a straw hat. He carried field

2757
03:25:31.000 --> 03:25:35.079
glasses and a newspaper and sat down
on one of the iron seats and began

2758
03:25:35.120 --> 03:25:39.319
to read. Sometimes he would lay
down the paper and turn his glasses on

2759
03:25:39.399 --> 03:25:43.840
the sea. He looked for a
long time at the destroyer. I watched

2760
03:25:43.879 --> 03:25:46.520
him for half an hour till he
got up and went back to the house

2761
03:25:46.520 --> 03:25:52.879
for his luncheon. When I returned
to the hotel for mine, I wasn't

2762
03:25:52.920 --> 03:25:58.040
feeling very confident. This decent commonplace
dwelling was not what I had expected.

2763
03:25:58.680 --> 03:26:03.040
The man might be the ball archeologist
of that horrible moalland farm, or he

2764
03:26:03.120 --> 03:26:07.879
might not. He was exactly the
kind of satisfied old bird you will find

2765
03:26:07.920 --> 03:26:11.840
in every suburb and every holiday place. If you wanted a type of the

2766
03:26:11.920 --> 03:26:18.639
perfectly harmless person, you would probably
pitch on that. But after lunch,

2767
03:26:18.040 --> 03:26:22.600
as I sat in the hotel porch, I perked up, for I saw

2768
03:26:22.639 --> 03:26:26.280
the thing I had hoped for and
had dreaded to miss. A yacht came

2769
03:26:26.360 --> 03:26:31.079
up from the south and dropped anchor
pretty well opposite the Ruff. She seemed

2770
03:26:31.120 --> 03:26:35.399
about a hundred and fifty tons,
and I saw she belonged to the squadron

2771
03:26:35.440 --> 03:26:39.520
from the wide ensign. So Scaife
and I went down to the harbor and

2772
03:26:39.680 --> 03:26:46.680
hired a boatman for an afternoon's fishing. I spent a warm and peaceful afternoon.

2773
03:26:46.120 --> 03:26:50.079
We caught between us about twenty pounds
of cod and lithe and out in

2774
03:26:50.120 --> 03:26:54.600
that dancing blue sea, I took
a cheerier view of things Above the white

2775
03:26:54.639 --> 03:26:58.280
cliffs of the Ruff. I saw
the green and red of the villas,

2776
03:26:58.479 --> 03:27:03.280
and especially the great flagstaff of Trafalgar
Lodge. About four o'clock, when we

2777
03:27:03.360 --> 03:27:07.840
had fished enough, I made the
boatman row us round the yacht, which

2778
03:27:07.920 --> 03:27:11.479
lay like a delicate white bird,
ready at a moment to flee scape.

2779
03:27:11.520 --> 03:27:15.200
Said she must be a fast boat
for her build, and that she was

2780
03:27:15.239 --> 03:27:20.000
pretty heavily engined. Her name was
the Ariadne, as I discovered from the

2781
03:27:20.040 --> 03:27:22.719
cap of one of the men who
was polishing brass work. I spoke to

2782
03:27:22.799 --> 03:27:28.159
him and got an answer in the
soft dialect of Essex. Another hand that

2783
03:27:28.280 --> 03:27:33.479
came along past me the time of
day in an unmistakable English tongue. Our

2784
03:27:33.559 --> 03:27:37.120
boatman had an argument with one of
them about the weather, and for a

2785
03:27:37.159 --> 03:27:41.079
few minutes we lay our oars close
to the starboard bow. Then the men

2786
03:27:41.200 --> 03:27:46.079
suddenly disregarded us and bent their heads
to their work. As an officer came

2787
03:27:46.120 --> 03:27:50.360
along the deck. He was a
pleasant, clean looking young fellow, and

2788
03:27:50.479 --> 03:27:54.399
he put a question to us about
our fishing in very good English. But

2789
03:27:54.559 --> 03:27:58.559
there could be no doubt about him, his close cropped head and the cut

2790
03:27:58.600 --> 03:28:03.840
off his collar and tie never came
out of England. That did something to

2791
03:28:03.879 --> 03:28:07.559
reassure me, But as we rode
back to Bradgate, my obstinate doubts would

2792
03:28:07.600 --> 03:28:13.719
not be dismissed. The thing that
worried me was the reflection that my enemies

2793
03:28:13.799 --> 03:28:18.440
knew that I had got my knowledge
from Scudder, and it was Scudder who

2794
03:28:18.479 --> 03:28:22.639
had given me the clue to this
place. If they knew that Scudder had

2795
03:28:22.680 --> 03:28:28.079
this clue, would they not be
certain to change their plans? Too much

2796
03:28:28.120 --> 03:28:31.319
depended on their success for them to
take any risks. The whole question was

2797
03:28:31.440 --> 03:28:37.920
how much they understood about Scudder's knowledge. I had talked confidently last night about

2798
03:28:39.000 --> 03:28:43.719
Germans always sticking to a scheme.
But if they had any suspicions that I

2799
03:28:43.879 --> 03:28:46.760
was on their track, they would
be fools not to cover it. I

2800
03:28:46.799 --> 03:28:52.559
wondered if the man last night had
seen that I recognized him somehow I did

2801
03:28:52.600 --> 03:28:56.079
not think he had, and to
that I had clung. But the whole

2802
03:28:56.120 --> 03:29:01.920
business had never seemed so difficult as
that afternoon, when, by all calculations

2803
03:29:01.000 --> 03:29:07.600
I should have been rejoicing in a
short success. In the hotel, I

2804
03:29:07.639 --> 03:29:11.639
met the commander of the destroyer,
to whom Scaife introduced me, and with

2805
03:29:11.760 --> 03:29:15.239
whom I had a few words.
Then I thought I would put in an

2806
03:29:15.280 --> 03:29:20.479
hour or two watching Trafalgar Lodge.
I found a place farther up the hill,

2807
03:29:20.639 --> 03:29:22.920
in the garden of an empty house. From there, I had a

2808
03:29:22.959 --> 03:29:26.840
full view of the court on which
two figures were having a game of tennis.

2809
03:29:28.600 --> 03:29:31.680
One was the old man whom I
had already seen. The other was

2810
03:29:31.719 --> 03:29:35.440
a younger fellow, wearing some club
colors in the scarf round his middle.

2811
03:29:37.280 --> 03:29:41.200
They played with tremendous zest, like
two city agents who wanted hard exercise to

2812
03:29:41.239 --> 03:29:46.760
open their paws. You couldn't conceive
a more innocent spectacle. They shouted and

2813
03:29:46.879 --> 03:29:50.479
laughed and stopped for drinks. When
a maid brought out two tankards on a

2814
03:29:50.520 --> 03:29:54.799
saba, I rubbed my eyes and
asked myself if I was not the most

2815
03:29:54.920 --> 03:30:01.239
immortal fall on earth. Mystery and
darkness had hung about the men who hunted

2816
03:30:01.239 --> 03:30:05.079
me over the Scotch Moor in aeroplane
and motor car, and notably about that

2817
03:30:05.200 --> 03:30:11.360
infernal antiquarian. It was easy enough
to connect those folk with the knife that

2818
03:30:11.440 --> 03:30:15.120
pinned scudder to the floor, and
with fell designs on the world's piece.

2819
03:30:16.040 --> 03:30:20.479
But here were two guileless citizens,
taking their innocuous exercise, and soon about

2820
03:30:20.520 --> 03:30:26.040
to go indoors to a humdrum dinner, where they would talk of market prices

2821
03:30:26.239 --> 03:30:30.840
and the last cricket scores, and
the gossip of their native surbiton. I

2822
03:30:30.959 --> 03:30:35.399
had been making a net to catch
vultures and falcons, and low and behold,

2823
03:30:35.879 --> 03:30:41.680
two plump thrushes had blundered into it. Presently, a third figure arrived,

2824
03:30:41.000 --> 03:30:45.399
a young man on a bicycle with
a bag of golf clubs slung on

2825
03:30:45.479 --> 03:30:50.040
his back. He strolled round to
the tennis lawn and was welcomed riotously by

2826
03:30:50.079 --> 03:30:54.760
the players. Evidently they were chafing
him, and their chiefs sounded horribly English.

2827
03:30:54.840 --> 03:30:58.639
Then the plump man, mopping his
brow with a silk handkerchief, announced

2828
03:30:58.680 --> 03:31:03.680
that he must have a tub.
I heard his very words. I've got

2829
03:31:03.719 --> 03:31:07.440
into a proper lava. He said. This will bring down my weight and

2830
03:31:07.520 --> 03:31:11.159
my handicap. Bob, I'll take
you on tomorrow and give you a stroke

2831
03:31:11.200 --> 03:31:16.040
a hole. You couldn't find anything
more English than that. They all went

2832
03:31:16.079 --> 03:31:20.760
into the house and left me feeling
a precocious idiot. I had been barking

2833
03:31:20.840 --> 03:31:24.799
up the wrong tree this time.
These men might be acting, But if

2834
03:31:24.799 --> 03:31:30.159
they were, where was their audience? They didn't know I was sitting thirty

2835
03:31:30.239 --> 03:31:35.079
yards off in a road of Deendron. It was simply impossible to believe that

2836
03:31:35.120 --> 03:31:41.079
these three hearty fellows were anything but
what they seemed. Three ordinary game playing

2837
03:31:41.159 --> 03:31:48.399
suburban englishmen wearisome if you like,
but sordidly innocent. And yet there were

2838
03:31:48.479 --> 03:31:52.319
three of them, and one was
old and one was plump, and one

2839
03:31:52.399 --> 03:31:56.920
was lean and dark, and their
house chimed and with Scudder's notes, and

2840
03:31:56.040 --> 03:32:01.479
half a mile off was lying a
steam yacht with at least one German officer.

2841
03:32:01.360 --> 03:32:05.280
I thought of Carolides lying dead,
and all Europe trembling on the edge

2842
03:32:05.280 --> 03:32:09.959
of earthquake, and the men I
had left behind me in London who were

2843
03:32:09.000 --> 03:32:13.920
waiting anxiously for the events of the
next hours. There was no doubt that

2844
03:32:15.079 --> 03:32:20.440
hell was afoot somewhere. The black
Stone had won, and if it survived

2845
03:32:20.479 --> 03:32:26.360
this June night would bank its winnings. There seemed only one thing to do,

2846
03:32:26.959 --> 03:32:30.040
go forward, as if I had
no doubts, and if I was

2847
03:32:30.120 --> 03:32:33.440
going to make a fool of myself
to do it handsomely, Never in my

2848
03:32:33.520 --> 03:32:39.040
life have I faced the job with
greater disinclination. I would rather, in

2849
03:32:39.120 --> 03:32:41.680
my then mind, have walked into
a den of anarchists, each with his

2850
03:32:41.799 --> 03:32:46.399
browning handy, or faced a charging
line with a pop gun, than enter

2851
03:32:46.479 --> 03:32:52.200
that happy home of three cheerful englishmen
and tell them that their game was up.

2852
03:32:52.920 --> 03:32:56.559
How they would laugh at me.
But suddenly I remembered a thing I

2853
03:32:56.600 --> 03:33:01.200
once heard in Rhodesia from old p
A. Piana. I have quoted Peter

2854
03:33:01.280 --> 03:33:05.440
already in this narrative. He was
the best scout I ever knew, and

2855
03:33:05.520 --> 03:33:11.079
before he had turned respectable, he
had been pretty often on the windy side

2856
03:33:11.079 --> 03:33:16.319
of the law when he had been
wanted badly by the authorities. Peter once

2857
03:33:16.479 --> 03:33:20.760
discussed with me the question of disguises, and he had a theory which struck

2858
03:33:20.760 --> 03:33:26.280
me at the time. He said, barring absolute certainties like fingerprints, mere

2859
03:33:26.319 --> 03:33:31.000
physical traits were very little useful identification. If the fugitive really knew his business.

2860
03:33:31.799 --> 03:33:37.440
He laughed at things like dyed hair
and false beards and such childish follies.

2861
03:33:37.120 --> 03:33:43.159
The only thing that mattered was what
Peter called atmosphere. If a man

2862
03:33:43.239 --> 03:33:48.200
could get into perfectly different surroundings from
those in which he had been first observed,

2863
03:33:48.719 --> 03:33:54.280
and this is the important part,
rarely play up to these surroundings and

2864
03:33:54.360 --> 03:33:56.760
behave as if he had never been
out of them. He would puzzle the

2865
03:33:56.840 --> 03:34:01.079
cleverest detectives on earth, and he
used to tell a story of how he

2866
03:34:01.120 --> 03:34:05.040
once borrowed a black coat and went
to church and shared the same hymn book

2867
03:34:05.079 --> 03:34:09.079
with the man that was looking for
him. If that man had seen him

2868
03:34:09.159 --> 03:34:13.840
in decent company before, he would
have recognized him. But he had only

2869
03:34:13.879 --> 03:34:20.120
seen him snuffing the lights in a
public house with a revolver. The recollection

2870
03:34:20.159 --> 03:34:24.159
of Peter's talk gave me the first
real comfort that I had had that day.

2871
03:34:24.120 --> 03:34:28.280
Peter had been a wise old bird, and these fellows I was after

2872
03:34:28.399 --> 03:34:33.520
were about the pick of the avery. What if they were playing Peter's game.

2873
03:34:35.440 --> 03:34:39.680
A fool tries to look different,
A clever man looks the same and

2874
03:34:39.000 --> 03:34:43.840
is different again. There was that
other maxim of Peter's which had helped me

2875
03:34:43.879 --> 03:34:48.559
when I had been a roadman.
If you are playing a part, you

2876
03:34:48.600 --> 03:34:52.639
will never keep it up unless you
convince yourself that you are at That would

2877
03:34:52.680 --> 03:34:58.520
explain the game of tennis. Those
chaps didn't need to act. They just

2878
03:34:58.719 --> 03:35:03.280
turned a handle and asked into another
life, which came as naturally to them

2879
03:35:03.399 --> 03:35:07.000
as the first. It sounds a
platitude, but Peter used to say that

2880
03:35:07.120 --> 03:35:13.360
it was the big secret of all
the famous criminals. It was now getting

2881
03:35:13.399 --> 03:35:16.920
on for eight o'clock, and I
went back and saw Scaife to give him

2882
03:35:16.000 --> 03:35:20.440
his instructions. I arranged with him
how to place his men, and then

2883
03:35:20.479 --> 03:35:24.600
I went for a walk, for
I didn't feel up to any dinner.

2884
03:35:24.719 --> 03:35:28.120
I went round the deserted golf course
and then to a point on the cliffs

2885
03:35:28.200 --> 03:35:33.680
farther north, beyond the line of
the villas. On the little trim newly

2886
03:35:33.719 --> 03:35:37.440
made roads, I met people and
flannels coming back from tennis and the beach,

2887
03:35:37.799 --> 03:35:43.639
and a coastguard from the wireless station, and donkeys and pierrots padding homewards

2888
03:35:43.639 --> 03:35:46.600
out at sea. In the blue
dusk, I saw lights appear on the

2889
03:35:46.639 --> 03:35:50.280
Ariadne and on the destroyer away to
the south, and beyond the cock Sands

2890
03:35:50.319 --> 03:35:54.879
the bigger lights of steamers making for
the Thames. The whole scene was so

2891
03:35:54.959 --> 03:36:00.959
peaceful and ordinary that I got more
dashed in spirits every second, and it

2892
03:36:01.079 --> 03:36:07.280
took all my resolution to stroll towards
Trafalgar Lodge about half past nine. On

2893
03:36:07.360 --> 03:36:09.559
the way, I got a piece
of solid comfort from the sight of a

2894
03:36:09.639 --> 03:36:15.479
greyhound that was swinging along at a
nursemaid's heels. He reminded me of a

2895
03:36:15.559 --> 03:36:18.760
dog I used to have in Rhodesia, and of the time when I took

2896
03:36:18.840 --> 03:36:22.639
him hunting with me in the Parley
Hills. We were after Rebok the dunkind

2897
03:36:22.879 --> 03:36:26.479
and I recollected how we had followed
one beast, and both he and I

2898
03:36:26.520 --> 03:36:31.920
had clean lost it. A greyhound
works by sight, and my eyes are

2899
03:36:31.920 --> 03:36:35.879
good enough, but that buck simply
leaked out of the landscape. Afterwards I

2900
03:36:35.879 --> 03:36:39.639
found out how it managed it against
the gray rock of the cob Jeese.

2901
03:36:39.680 --> 03:36:43.799
It showed no more than a crow
against a thundercloud. It didn't need to

2902
03:36:43.879 --> 03:36:48.319
run away. All it had to
do was stand still and melt into the

2903
03:36:48.360 --> 03:36:54.239
background. Suddenly, as these memories
chased across my brain, I thought of

2904
03:36:54.280 --> 03:36:58.360
my present case and applied the moral. The black stone didn't need to bolt.

2905
03:37:00.079 --> 03:37:03.680
They were quietly absorbed into the landscape. I was on the right track,

2906
03:37:05.000 --> 03:37:07.360
and I jammed that down in my
mind and vowed never to forget it.

2907
03:37:09.040 --> 03:37:13.760
The last word was with Peter Piana. Scapesmen would be posted now,

2908
03:37:15.120 --> 03:37:18.879
but there was no sign of a
soul. The house stood as open as

2909
03:37:18.879 --> 03:37:22.719
a marketplace for anybody to observe.
A three foot railing separated it from the

2910
03:37:22.719 --> 03:37:28.159
cliff road. The windows on the
ground floor were all open and shaded.

2911
03:37:28.280 --> 03:37:31.920
Lights and the low sound of voices
revealed where the occupants were finishing dinner.

2912
03:37:33.000 --> 03:37:39.920
Everything was as public and above board
as a charity bazaar. Feeling the greatest

2913
03:37:39.920 --> 03:37:43.440
fall on earth, I opened the
gate and rang the bell. A man

2914
03:37:43.520 --> 03:37:46.959
of my sort, who has traveled
about the world and rough places, gets

2915
03:37:48.000 --> 03:37:52.440
on perfectly well with two classes,
what you may call the upper and the

2916
03:37:52.479 --> 03:37:56.840
lower. He understands them, and
they understand him. I was at home

2917
03:37:56.840 --> 03:38:01.000
with herds and tramps and roadmen,
and I was sufficient at my ease with

2918
03:38:01.040 --> 03:38:05.559
people like Sir Walter and the men
I had met the night before. I

2919
03:38:05.600 --> 03:38:09.639
can't explain why, but it is
a fact. But what fellows like me

2920
03:38:09.840 --> 03:38:15.920
don't understand is the great, comfortable, satisfied, middle class world, the

2921
03:38:16.040 --> 03:38:20.319
folk that live in villas and suburbs. He doesn't know how they look at

2922
03:38:20.399 --> 03:38:24.920
things. He doesn't understand their conventions, and he is as shy of them

2923
03:38:24.239 --> 03:38:28.360
as of a black member. When
a trim parlor maid opened the door,

2924
03:38:30.040 --> 03:38:35.399
I could hardly find my voice.
I asked for mister Rappleton and was ushered

2925
03:38:35.399 --> 03:38:39.440
in. My plan had been to
walk straight into the dining room, and

2926
03:38:39.559 --> 03:38:43.319
by a sudden appearance waken them in
that start of recognition which would confirm my

2927
03:38:43.399 --> 03:38:48.680
theory. But when I found myself
in that neat hall, the place mastered

2928
03:38:48.680 --> 03:38:54.239
me. There were the golf clubs
and tennis rackets, the straw hats and

2929
03:38:54.360 --> 03:38:58.120
caps, the rows of gloves,
the sheaf of walking sticks which you will

2930
03:38:58.200 --> 03:39:03.920
find in ten thousand British home.
A stack of neatly folded coats and waterproofs

2931
03:39:03.920 --> 03:39:07.319
covered the top of an old oak
chest. There was a grandfather clock ticking,

2932
03:39:07.760 --> 03:39:13.600
and some polished brass warming pans on
the walls, and a barometer and

2933
03:39:13.680 --> 03:39:18.639
a print of chiltern winning the Saint
Leger. The place was as orthodox as

2934
03:39:18.639 --> 03:39:22.479
an Anglican church. When the maid
asked me for my name, I gave

2935
03:39:22.520 --> 03:39:26.680
it automatically and were shown into the
smoking room on the right side of the

2936
03:39:26.719 --> 03:39:31.520
hall. That room was even worse. I hadn't time to examine it,

2937
03:39:31.559 --> 03:39:35.879
but I could see some framed group
photographs above the mantelpiece, and I could

2938
03:39:35.920 --> 03:39:41.000
have sworn they were English public school
or college. I had only one glance,

2939
03:39:41.000 --> 03:39:43.840
for I managed to pull myself together
and go after the maid, but

2940
03:39:45.239 --> 03:39:48.840
I was too late. She had
already entered the dining room and given my

2941
03:39:48.959 --> 03:39:52.479
name to her master, and I
had missed the chance of seeing how the

2942
03:39:52.479 --> 03:39:56.520
three took it. When I walked
into the room, the old man at

2943
03:39:56.520 --> 03:40:00.200
the head of the table had risen
and turned round to meet me. Was

2944
03:40:00.239 --> 03:40:03.840
an evening dress, a short coat
and black tie, as was the other,

2945
03:40:03.079 --> 03:40:07.799
whom I called in my own mind
the plump one. The third,

2946
03:40:07.079 --> 03:40:11.920
the dark fellow, wore a blue
serge suit and a soft white collar,

2947
03:40:11.239 --> 03:40:16.959
and the colors of some club or
school. The old man's manner was perfect,

2948
03:40:16.360 --> 03:40:20.520
mister Hannay, he said, hesitatingly, did you wish to see me?

2949
03:40:22.680 --> 03:40:24.959
One moment, you fellows, and
I'll rejoin you. We had better

2950
03:40:24.959 --> 03:40:30.440
go to the smoking room. Though
I hadn't an ounce of confidence in me,

2951
03:40:30.520 --> 03:40:33.959
I forced myself to play the game. I pulled up a chair and

2952
03:40:33.079 --> 03:40:37.000
sat down on it. I think
we have met before, I said,

2953
03:40:37.120 --> 03:40:41.600
and I guess you know my business. The light in the room was dim,

2954
03:40:41.680 --> 03:40:45.600
but so far as I could see
their faces, they played the part

2955
03:40:45.639 --> 03:40:50.559
of mystification very well. Maybe maybe, said the old man. I haven't

2956
03:40:50.559 --> 03:40:54.479
a very good memory, but I'm
afraid you must tell me your errand sir,

2957
03:40:54.639 --> 03:40:58.159
for I really don't know it well, then, I said, and

2958
03:40:58.239 --> 03:41:03.600
all the time I seemed to myself
to be talking pure foolishness. I have

2959
03:41:03.719 --> 03:41:07.120
come to tell you that the game's
up. I have a warrant for the

2960
03:41:07.200 --> 03:41:11.040
arrest of you three gentlemen. Arrest, said the old man, and he

2961
03:41:11.120 --> 03:41:16.760
looked really shocked. Arrest, good
God, what for for the murder of

2962
03:41:16.840 --> 03:41:22.920
Franklin Scudder in London on the twenty
third day of last month. I never

2963
03:41:22.920 --> 03:41:26.079
heard the name before, said the
old man, in a dazed voice.

2964
03:41:26.000 --> 03:41:31.159
One of the others spoke up.
That was the Portland Place murder. I

2965
03:41:31.200 --> 03:41:33.440
read about it, good heavens,
you must be mad, sir. Where

2966
03:41:33.440 --> 03:41:39.120
do you come from Scotland yard?
I said. After that, for a

2967
03:41:39.159 --> 03:41:43.639
minute there was utter silence. The
old man was staring at his plate and

2968
03:41:43.639 --> 03:41:50.040
fumbling with a nut, the very
model of innocent bewilderment. Then the plump

2969
03:41:50.079 --> 03:41:54.200
one spoke up. He stammered a
little, like a man picking his words.

2970
03:41:54.079 --> 03:41:58.799
Don't get flustered, uncle, he
said, It's all a ridiculous mistake.

2971
03:41:58.200 --> 03:42:01.159
But these things happened sometimes, and
we can easily set it right.

2972
03:42:01.760 --> 03:42:05.799
It won't be hard to prove our
innocence. I can show that I was

2973
03:42:05.840 --> 03:42:07.959
out of the country on the twenty
third of May, and Bob was in

2974
03:42:09.000 --> 03:42:11.760
a nursing home. You were in
London. But you can explain what you

2975
03:42:11.799 --> 03:42:16.360
were doing, right, Percy.
Of course, that's easy enough. The

2976
03:42:16.440 --> 03:42:22.639
twenty third that was the day after
Agatha's wedding. Let me see what was

2977
03:42:22.680 --> 03:42:26.200
I doing. I came up in
the morning from Woking and lunched at the

2978
03:42:26.239 --> 03:42:31.239
club with Charlie Simmons. Then,
oh yes, I dined with the fishmongers.

2979
03:42:31.760 --> 03:42:35.319
I remember, for the punch didn't
agree with me and I was seedy

2980
03:42:35.440 --> 03:42:39.760
next morning. Hang it all,
there's the cigar box I brought back from

2981
03:42:39.799 --> 03:42:45.239
the dinner. He pointed to an
object on the table and laughed nervously.

2982
03:42:46.360 --> 03:42:50.120
I think, sir, said the
young man, addressing me respectfully. You

2983
03:42:50.159 --> 03:42:54.959
will see you are mistaken. We
want to assist the law like all Englishmen,

2984
03:42:54.200 --> 03:42:58.200
and we don't want scondard Yard to
be making fools of themselves. That's

2985
03:42:58.280 --> 03:43:03.440
so uncle. Certainly, Bob,
the old fellow seemed to be recovering his

2986
03:43:03.559 --> 03:43:09.639
voice. Certainly will do anything in
our power to assist the authorities. But

2987
03:43:09.639 --> 03:43:13.440
but this is a bit too much. I can't get over it. How

2988
03:43:13.600 --> 03:43:16.600
Nellie will chuckle, said the plump
man. She always said that you would

2989
03:43:16.600 --> 03:43:20.239
die of boredom because nothing ever happened
to you, And now you've got it

2990
03:43:20.319 --> 03:43:26.200
thick and strong, and he began
to laugh very pleasantly. By jove,

2991
03:43:26.280 --> 03:43:28.520
yes, just think of it.
What a story to tell at the club,

2992
03:43:30.079 --> 03:43:33.200
really, mister Hannay, I suppose
I should be angry to show my

2993
03:43:33.280 --> 03:43:37.159
innocence, but it's too funny.
I almost forgive you the fright you gave

2994
03:43:37.200 --> 03:43:39.760
me. You looked so glum.
I thought I might have been walking in

2995
03:43:39.840 --> 03:43:46.319
my sleep and killing people. It
couldn't be acting. It was too confoundedly

2996
03:43:46.399 --> 03:43:50.559
genuine. My heart went into my
boots, and my first impulse was to

2997
03:43:50.600 --> 03:43:54.680
apologize and clear out. But I
told myself I must see it through,

2998
03:43:54.959 --> 03:43:58.920
even though I was to be the
laughing stock of Britain. The light from

2999
03:44:00.040 --> 03:44:03.159
the dinner table candlesticks was not very
good, and to cover my confusion,

3000
03:44:03.200 --> 03:44:07.520
I got up, walked to the
door and switched on the electric light.

3001
03:44:07.159 --> 03:44:11.399
The sudden glare made them blink,
and I stood scanning the three faces.

3002
03:44:13.319 --> 03:44:16.680
Well, I made nothing of it. One was old and bald, one

3003
03:44:16.840 --> 03:44:22.440
was stout, one was dark and
thin. There was nothing in their appearance

3004
03:44:22.440 --> 03:44:26.559
to prevent them being the three who
had hunted me in Scotland, But there

3005
03:44:26.639 --> 03:44:31.959
was nothing to identify them. I
simply can't explain why I, who as

3006
03:44:31.000 --> 03:44:35.479
a roadman had looked into two pairs
of eyes, and as ned Ainsley,

3007
03:44:35.719 --> 03:44:41.479
into another pair, Why I,
who have a good memory and reasonable powers

3008
03:44:41.479 --> 03:44:46.959
of observation, could find no satisfaction. They seemed exactly what they professed to

3009
03:44:46.000 --> 03:44:50.760
be, and I could not have
sworn to one of them. There in

3010
03:44:50.799 --> 03:44:54.600
that pleasant dining room, with etchings
on the walls and a picture of an

3011
03:44:54.639 --> 03:44:58.959
old lady in a bib above the
mantelpiece, I could see nothing to connect

3012
03:45:00.000 --> 03:45:03.600
and with the Moorland desperadoes. There
was a silver cigarette box beside me,

3013
03:45:03.760 --> 03:45:07.959
and I saw that it had been
won by Percival Appleton, Esquire of the

3014
03:45:09.000 --> 03:45:13.280
Saint Bede's Club, in a golf
tournament. I had to keep a firm

3015
03:45:13.360 --> 03:45:18.360
hold of Peter Piano to prevent myself
bolting out of that house. Well,

3016
03:45:18.840 --> 03:45:22.479
said the old man politely. Are
you reassured by your scrutiny, sir?

3017
03:45:22.639 --> 03:45:28.239
I couldn't find a word. I
hope you'll find it consistent with your duty

3018
03:45:28.280 --> 03:45:31.559
to drop this ridiculous business. I
make no complaint, but you'll see how

3019
03:45:31.600 --> 03:45:37.319
annoying it must be too respectable people. I shook my head. Oh lord,

3020
03:45:37.440 --> 03:45:41.280
said the young man, this is
a bit too thick. Do you

3021
03:45:41.360 --> 03:45:45.959
propose to march us off to the
police station, ask the plump one.

3022
03:45:46.520 --> 03:45:48.120
That might be the best way out
of it. But I suppose you won't

3023
03:45:48.159 --> 03:45:52.840
be content with the local branch.
I have the right to ask to see

3024
03:45:52.840 --> 03:45:56.920
your warrant, but I don't wish
to cast any aspersions upon you. You

3025
03:45:56.000 --> 03:46:01.120
are only doing your duty, But
you'll admit it's horrible, awkward. What

3026
03:46:01.159 --> 03:46:05.680
do you propose to do? There
was nothing to do except to call in

3027
03:46:05.760 --> 03:46:09.680
my men and have them arrested,
or to confess my blunder and clear out.

3028
03:46:09.719 --> 03:46:15.040
I felt mesmerized by the whole place, by the air of obvious innocence,

3029
03:46:15.520 --> 03:46:18.719
not innocence merely, but frank,
honest, bewilderment and concern in the

3030
03:46:18.799 --> 03:46:24.399
three faces. Oh Peter Piana,
I groaned inwardly, and for a moment

3031
03:46:24.440 --> 03:46:31.239
I was very near damning myself for
a fool and asking their pardon. Meantime,

3032
03:46:31.280 --> 03:46:33.840
I vote, we have a game
of bridge, said the plump one.

3033
03:46:33.280 --> 03:46:37.399
ED will give mister Hannay, time
to think over things. And you

3034
03:46:37.520 --> 03:46:39.559
know we have been wanting a fourth
player. Do you play, sir?

3035
03:46:41.639 --> 03:46:46.079
I accepted as if it had been
an ordinary invitation at the club. The

3036
03:46:46.120 --> 03:46:50.159
whole business had mesmerized me. We
went into the smoking room, where a

3037
03:46:50.200 --> 03:46:52.840
card table was set out, and
I was offered things to smoke and drink.

3038
03:46:54.559 --> 03:46:56.879
I took my place at the table
in a kind of dream. The

3039
03:46:56.959 --> 03:47:01.479
window was open, and the moon
was adding the cliffs and sea with a

3040
03:47:01.520 --> 03:47:05.399
great tide of yellow light. There
was Moonshine two in my head. The

3041
03:47:05.520 --> 03:47:11.159
three had recovered their composure and were
talking easily, just the kind of slangy

3042
03:47:11.200 --> 03:47:15.239
talk you will hear in any golf
clubhouse. I must have cut a rum

3043
03:47:15.319 --> 03:47:20.920
figure sitting there, knitting my brows
with my eyes wandering. My partner was

3044
03:47:20.959 --> 03:47:24.200
the young dark one. I play
a fair hand at bridge, but I

3045
03:47:24.280 --> 03:47:28.040
must have been ranked bad that night. They saw that they had got me

3046
03:47:28.079 --> 03:47:31.159
puzzled, and that put them more
than ever at their ease. I kept

3047
03:47:31.159 --> 03:47:35.159
looking at their faces, but they
conveyed nothing to me. It was not

3048
03:47:35.239 --> 03:47:39.639
that they looked different, they were
different. I clung desperately to the words

3049
03:47:39.639 --> 03:47:46.719
of Peter piano. Then something awoke
me. The old man laid down his

3050
03:47:46.799 --> 03:47:50.639
hand to light his cigar. He
didn't pick it up at once, but

3051
03:47:50.760 --> 03:47:54.840
sat back for a moment in his
chair with his fingers tapping on his knees.

3052
03:47:54.840 --> 03:47:58.399
It was the movement I remembered when
I had stood before him in the

3053
03:47:58.440 --> 03:48:03.520
Morland, with the pistols off,
his servants behind me. A little thing

3054
03:48:03.959 --> 03:48:07.639
lasting only a second, and the
odds were a thousand to one that I

3055
03:48:07.719 --> 03:48:11.600
might have had my eyes on my
cards at the time and missed it.

3056
03:48:13.280 --> 03:48:16.399
But I didn't, And in a
flash, the air seemed to clear,

3057
03:48:18.120 --> 03:48:22.159
Some shadow lifted from my brain,
and I was looking at the three men

3058
03:48:22.280 --> 03:48:28.200
with full and absolute recognition. The
clock on the mantelpiece struck ten o'clock.

3059
03:48:28.760 --> 03:48:33.360
The three faces seemed to change before
my eyes and reveal their secrets. The

3060
03:48:33.440 --> 03:48:37.159
young one was the murderer. Now
I saw cruelty and ruthlessness, where before

3061
03:48:37.360 --> 03:48:41.360
I had only seen good humor.
His knife, I made certain, had

3062
03:48:41.399 --> 03:48:46.680
skewered Scudder to the floor. His
kind had put the bullet in Karilidi's The

3063
03:48:46.760 --> 03:48:52.479
plump man's features seemed to dislim and
form again as I looked at them.

3064
03:48:52.559 --> 03:48:56.319
He hadn't a face, only a
hundred masks that he could assume when he

3065
03:48:56.360 --> 03:49:01.319
pleased. That Chap must have been
a superb actor. Perhaps he had been

3066
03:49:01.399 --> 03:49:05.680
lord, a lower of the night
before, perhaps not. It didn't matter.

3067
03:49:05.239 --> 03:49:09.040
I wondered if he was the fellow
who had first tracked Scudder and left

3068
03:49:09.079 --> 03:49:13.239
his card on him. Scudder had
said he lisped, and I could imagine

3069
03:49:13.239 --> 03:49:18.760
how the adoption of a lisp might
add terror. But the old man was

3070
03:49:18.799 --> 03:49:22.200
the pick of the lot. He
was sheer, brain, icy cool,

3071
03:49:22.319 --> 03:49:28.360
calculating, as ruthless as a steam
hammer. Now that my eyes were opened,

3072
03:49:28.360 --> 03:49:31.440
I wondered where I had seen the
benevolence. His jaw was like chilled

3073
03:49:31.559 --> 03:49:37.600
steel, and his eyes had the
inhuman luminosity of birds. I went on

3074
03:49:37.719 --> 03:49:39.879
playing. In every second, a
greater hate welled up in my heart.

3075
03:49:41.600 --> 03:49:45.000
It almost choked me, and I
couldn't answer. When my partner spoke.

3076
03:49:45.760 --> 03:49:50.079
Only a little longer could I endure
their company? Phew, Bob, look

3077
03:49:50.079 --> 03:49:54.159
at the time, said the old
man. You'd better think about catching your

3078
03:49:54.200 --> 03:49:56.760
train. Bob's got to go to
town to night, he added, turning

3079
03:49:56.760 --> 03:50:01.159
to me. The voice rang now
false as hell. I looked at the

3080
03:50:01.200 --> 03:50:05.680
clock, and it was nearly half
past ten. I'm afraid he must put

3081
03:50:05.680 --> 03:50:09.319
off his journey, I said.
Oh damn, said the young man.

3082
03:50:09.639 --> 03:50:13.520
I thought you had dropped that rot. I simply got to go. You

3083
03:50:13.600 --> 03:50:18.399
can have my address, and I'll
give any security you like. No,

3084
03:50:18.760 --> 03:50:22.639
I said, you must stay at
that. They must have realized that the

3085
03:50:22.719 --> 03:50:26.719
game was desperate. Their only chance
had been to convince me that I was

3086
03:50:26.799 --> 03:50:31.959
playing the fall, and that had
failed. But the old man spoke again,

3087
03:50:33.000 --> 03:50:37.360
I'll go bail for my nephew.
That ought to content you, mister

3088
03:50:37.440 --> 03:50:41.760
Hannay. Was it fancy or did
I detect some halt in the smoothness of

3089
03:50:41.799 --> 03:50:45.520
that voice? There must have been, for as I glanced at him,

3090
03:50:45.559 --> 03:50:50.760
his eyelids fell in that hawk like
hood which fear had stamped on my memory.

3091
03:50:50.879 --> 03:50:54.600
I blew my whistle. In an
instant, the lights were out.

3092
03:50:54.920 --> 03:50:58.559
A pair of strong arms gripped me
round the waist, covering the pockets in

3093
03:50:58.639 --> 03:51:03.440
which a man might be expected to
carry a pistol. Schnell Franz cried a

3094
03:51:03.520 --> 03:51:07.520
voice, dust boot, dust boot. As it spoke, I saw two

3095
03:51:07.559 --> 03:51:11.159
of my fellows emerge on the moonlit
lawn. The young dark man leaped for

3096
03:51:11.159 --> 03:51:15.799
the window, was through it and
over the low fence before a hand could

3097
03:51:15.840 --> 03:51:20.079
touch him. I grappled the old
chap and the room seemed to fill with

3098
03:51:20.159 --> 03:51:24.120
figures. I saw the plump one
collared, but my eyes were all for

3099
03:51:24.200 --> 03:51:28.479
the out of doors, where Franz
spread over the road towards the railed entrance

3100
03:51:28.520 --> 03:51:31.520
to the beach stairs. One man
followed him, but he had no chance.

3101
03:51:33.079 --> 03:51:35.959
The gate of the stairs locked behind
the fugitive, and I stood staring

3102
03:51:37.200 --> 03:51:39.799
with my hands on the old boy's
throat for such a time as a man

3103
03:51:39.920 --> 03:51:46.000
might take to descend those steps to
the sea. Suddenly my prisoner broke from

3104
03:51:46.040 --> 03:51:48.319
me and flung himself on the wall. There was a click, as if

3105
03:51:48.360 --> 03:51:54.639
a lever had been pulled. Then
came a low rumbling far below the ground,

3106
03:51:54.959 --> 03:51:58.719
and through the window I saw a
cloud of chalky dust pouring out of

3107
03:51:58.760 --> 03:52:03.600
the shaft of the stairway. Someone
switched on the light. The old man

3108
03:52:03.719 --> 03:52:07.680
was looking at me with blazing eyes. He is safe, he cried,

3109
03:52:07.840 --> 03:52:11.760
You cannot follow in time. He
is gone. He has triumphed. Dur

3110
03:52:11.840 --> 03:52:16.879
schwartzstein is dur sigurd scrun. There
was more in those eyes than any common

3111
03:52:16.920 --> 03:52:22.000
triumph. They had been hooded like
a bird of prey, and now they

3112
03:52:22.079 --> 03:52:26.760
flamed with a hawk's pride. A
white, fanatic heat burned in them,

3113
03:52:26.000 --> 03:52:31.000
and I realized for the first time
the terrible thing I had been up against.

3114
03:52:31.559 --> 03:52:35.000
This man was more than a spy
in his foul way, he had

3115
03:52:35.040 --> 03:52:39.920
been a patriot. As the handcuffs
clinked on his wrists, I said my

3116
03:52:41.000 --> 03:52:45.239
last word to him, I hope
Franz will bear his triumph. Well,

3117
03:52:46.000 --> 03:52:48.479
I ought to tell you that the
Ariadne for the last hour has been in

3118
03:52:48.559 --> 03:52:54.760
our hands. Seven weeks later,
as all the world knows, we went

3119
03:52:54.840 --> 03:52:58.280
to war. I joined the new
army the first week, and, owing

3120
03:52:58.319 --> 03:53:03.920
to my matter barely experienced, got
a captain's commission straight off. But I

3121
03:53:03.000 --> 03:53:07.879
had done my best service, I
think, before I put on khaki.

3122
03:53:09.399 --> 03:53:13.959
End of The Thirty Nine Steps by
John Buckan. Thank you for listening.