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The Phantom Coach by Amelia B.
Edwards. The circumstances I am about to

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relate to you have truth to recommend
them. They happen to myself, and

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my recollection of them is vivid as
if they had taken place only yesterday,

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twenty years ago. However, have
gone by since that night. During those

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twenty years I have told the story
to but one other person. I tell

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it now with a reluctance which I
find it difficult to overcome. All I

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entreat meanwhile, is that you will
abstain from forcing your own conclusions upon me.

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I want nothing explained away. I
desire no arguments. My mind on

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this subject is quite made up,
and having the testimony of my own senses

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to rely upon, I prefer to
abide by it. Well, it was

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just twenty years ago, and within
a day or two of the end of

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the grouse season I had been out
all day with my gun and had had

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no sport to speak of. The
wind was due east the month December.

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The place a bleak, wide moor
in the far north of England, and

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I had lost my way. It
was not a pleasant place in which to

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lose one's way. With the first
feathery flakes of a coming snow storm,

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just fluttering down upon the heather,
and the leaden evening closing in all around.

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I shaded my eyes with my hand
and stared anxiously into the gathering darkness,

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where the purple moorland melted into a
range of low hills, some ten

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or twelve miles distant. Not the
faintest smoke wreath, not the tiniest cultivated

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patch or fence or sheep track,
met my eyes in any direction. There

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was nothing for it but to move
on and take my chance of finding what

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shelter I could by the way.
So I shouldered my gun again and pushed

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wearily forward, for I had been
on foot since an hour after daybreak,

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and had eaten nothing since breakfast.
Meanwhile, the snow began to come down

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with ominous steadiness, and the wind
fell. After this, the cold became

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more intense, and the night came
rapidly up. As for me, my

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prospects darkened with the darkening sky,
and my heart grew heavy as I thought

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how my young wife was already watching
for me through the window of our little

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inn parlor, and thought of all
the suffering in store for her throughout this

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weary night. We had been married
four months, and, having spent out

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autumn in the Highlands, were now
lodging in a remote little village situated just

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on the verge of the great English
Moorlands. We were very much in love

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and of course very happy. This
morning when we parted. She had implored

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me to return before dusk, and
I had promised her that I would.

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What would I not have given to
have kept my word? Even now,

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weary as I was, I felt
that with a supper, an hour's rest,

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and a guide I might still get
back to her before midnight, if

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only guide and shelter could be found. And all this time the snow fell

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and the night thickened. I stopped
and shouted every now and then, but

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my shout seemed only to make the
silence deeper. Then a vague sense of

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uneasiness came upon me, and I
began to remember stories of travelers who had

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walked on and on in the falling
snow until wearied out they were fain to

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lie down and sleep their lives away. Would it be possible, i asked

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myself, to keep on thus through
all the long dark night. Would there

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not come a time when my limbs
must fail, and my resolution give way,

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when I too must sleep the sleep
of death. Death, I shuddered,

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How hard to die just now,
when life lay all so bright before

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me? How hard for my darling, whose whole loving heart but that thought

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was not to be borne? To
banish it? I shouted again, and

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again they echo followed. Then a
wavering speck of light came suddenly out of

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the dark, shifting, disappearing,
growing momentarily nearer and brighter. Running towards

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it at full speed, I found
myself, to my great joy, face

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to face with an old man and
a lantern. Thank God, was the

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exclamation that burst involuntarily from my lips. Blinking and frowning, he lifted his

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lantern and peered into my face.
What for, growled he sulkily, Well

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for you, I began to fear, I should be lost in the snow.

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And then folks do get cast away
hereabouts for a time to time.

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And what's to hinder you from being
cast away? Likewise? If the Lord

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so minded, if the Lord is
so minded, that you and I shall

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be lost together, my friend,
we must submit, I replied. But

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I don't mean to be lost without
you. How far am I now from

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Dwelding, a good twenty mile more
or less in the nearest village. The

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nearest village is Wike, and that's
twelve miles to the other side. Where

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do you live then, out yonder, said he, with a vague jerk

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of the lantern. You're going home, I presume maybe I am. Then

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I'm going with you. The old
man shook his head and rubbed his nose

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reflectively with the handle of the lantern. It ain't no use, growled he.

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He don't let you in, not
he. We'll see about that,

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I replied briskly. Who is he
the master? Who is the master?

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That's not to you? Was the
unceremonious reply. Well, well you lead

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the way and I'll engage that the
Master shall give me shelter and a supper

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tonight. Eh, you can try
him, muttered my reluctant guide, and

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still shaking his head, he hobbled
gnome like away through the falling snow.

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A large mass loomed up presently out
of the darkness, and a huge dog

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rushed out, barking furiously. Is
this the house? I asked? Ay,

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it's the house down bay, and
he fumbled in his pocket for the

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key. I drew up close behind
him, prepared to lose no chance of

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entrance, and saw in the little
circle of light shed by the lantern that

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the door was heavily studded with iron
nails, like the door of a prison.

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In another minute he had turned the
key, and I had pushed past

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him into the house. Once inside, I looked around with curiosity and found

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myself in a great rafted hall which
served apparently a variety of uses. One

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end was piled to the roof with
corn like a barn. The other was

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stored with four sacks, agricultural implements, casks, and all kinds of miscellaneous

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lumber, while from the beams overhead
hung rows of hams, flitches, and

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bunches of dried herbs for winter use. In the center of the floor stood

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some huge object, gauntly dressed in
a dingy wrapping doth and reaching halfway to

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the rafters. Lifting a corner of
this cloth, I saw, to my

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surprise a telescope of very considerable size, mounted on a rude movable platform with

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four small wheels. The tube was
made of painted wood, bound round with

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bands of metal, rudely fashioned thus
speculum. So far as I could estimate

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its size in the dim light,
measured at least fifteen inches in diameter.

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While I was yet examining the instrument
and asking myself whether it was not the

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work of some self taught optician,
a bell rang sharply. That's for you,

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said my guide with a malicious grin
yonders his room. He pointed to

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a low black door at the opposite
side of the hall. I crossed over,

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wrapped somewhat loudly, and went in
without waiting for an invitation. A

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huge, white haired old man rose
from a table covered with books and papers

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and confronted me sternly. Who are
you? Said he? How came you

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here? What do you want?
James Murray, barrister at law, on

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foot across the moor, meat,
drink and sleep. He bent his bushy

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brows into a portentous frown. Mine
is not a house of entertainment, he

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said, haughtily, Jacob, how
dare you admit this stranger? I didn't

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admit him, grumbled the old man. He followed me over the mirror and

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shouldered his way in before me.
I'm no match for six foot two,

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and pray, sir by, what
right have you forced an entrance? Into

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my house, the same by which
I should have clung to your boat if

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I were drowning the right of self
preservation, self preservation. There's an inch

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of snow on the ground already,
I replied briefly, and it would be

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deep enough to cover my body before
daybreak. He strode to the window,

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pulled aside a heavy black curtain,
and looked out. It is true,

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he said, you can stay,
if you choose, till morning. Jacob

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served the supper with this, He
waved me to a seat, resumed his

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own, and became at once absorbed
in the studies from which I had disturbed

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him. I placed my gun in
a corner, drew a chair to the

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hearth, and examined my quarters at
leisure. Smaller and less incongruous in its

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arrangements than the hall, this room
contained, nevertheless, much to awaken my

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curiosity. The floor was carpetless,
The whitewashed walls were in parts scrawled over

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with strange diagrams, and in others
covered with shelves crowded with philosophical instruments,

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the uses of many of which were
unknown to me. On one side of

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the fireplace stood a bookcase filled with
dingy folios. On the other a small

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organ fantastically decorate rated with painted carvings
of medieval saints and devils. Through the

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half open door of a cupboard at
the furtherer end of the room, I

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saw a long array of geological specimens, surgical preparations, crucibles, retorts,

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and jars of chemicals. While on
the mantelshelf beside me, amid a number

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of small objects, stood a model
of the solar system, a small galvanic

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battery, and a microscope. Every
chair had its burden, Every corner was

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heaped high with books. The very
floor was littered over with maps, casts,

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papers, tracings, and learned lumber
of all conceivable kinds. I stared

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about me with an amazement, increased
by every fresh object upon which my eyes

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chanced to rest. So stranger room
I had never seen, yet seemed it

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stranger still to find such a room
and a lone farmhouse amid those wild and

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solitary moor's. Over and over again, I looked from my host to his

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surroundings, and from his surroundings back
to my host, asking myself who and

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what he could be. His head
was singularly fine, but it was more

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the head of a poet than of
a philosopher, brought in the temples,

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prominent over the eyes, and clothed
with a rough profusion of perfectly white hair,

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had all the ideality and much of
the ruggedness that characterizes the head of

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Louis van Beethoven. There were the
same deep lines about the mouth, and

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the same stern furrows in the brow. There was the same concentration of expression.

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While I was yet observing him,
the door opened, and Jacob brought

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in the supper. His master then
closed his book, rose, and with

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more courtesy of manner than he had
yet shown, invited me to the table.

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A dish of ham and eggs,
a loaf of brown bread, and

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a bottle of admirable sherry were placed
before me. I have but the homeliest

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farmhouse fair to offer you, sir, said my entertainer. Your appetite,

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I trust, will make up for
the deficiencies of our larder. I had

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already fallen upon the viands, and
now protested, with the enthusiasm of a

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starving sportsman, that I had never
eaten anything so delicious. He bowed stiffly

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and sat down to his own supper, which consisted primitively of a jug of

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milk and a basin of porridge.
We ate in silence, and when we

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had done, Jacob removed the tray. I then drew my chair back to

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the fireside. My host, somewhat
to my surprise, did the same,

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and, turning abruptly towards me,
said, Sir, I have lived here

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in strict retirement for three and twenty
years. During that time I have not

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seen as many strange faces, and
I have not read a single newspaper the

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first stranger who has crossed my threshold
for more than four years. Will you

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favor me with a few words of
information respecting that outer world from which I

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have parted company? So long pray
interrogate me, I replied, I am

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heartily at your service. He bent
his head in acknowledgement, leaned forward,

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with his elbows resting on his knees
and his chin supported in the palms of

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his hands, stared fixedly into the
fire, and proceeded to question me.

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His inquiries related chiefly to scientific matters, with the later progress of which,

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as applied to the practical purposes of
life. He was almost wholly unacquainted.

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No student of science myself, I
replied, as well as my slight information

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permitted. But the task was far
from easy, and I was much relieved

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when passing from interrogation to discussion,
he began pouring forth his own conclusions upon

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the facts which I had been attempting
to place before him. He talked,

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and I listened, spellbound. He
talked till I believe he almost forgot my

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presence and only thought aloud, I
had never heard anything like it. Then

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I have never heard anything like it
since. Familiar with all systems of all

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philosophies, subtle in analysis, bold
in generalization, he poured forth his thoughts

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in an uninterrupted stream, and,
still leaning forward in the same moody attitude,

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with his eyes fixed upon the fire, wandered from topic to topic,

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from speculation to speculation, like an
inspired dreamer, from practical science to mental

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philosophy, from electricity in the wire
to electricity in the nerve, from watts

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to Mesmer, from Mesmer to Reichenbach, from Reichenbach to Swedenborg, Spinoza,

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Condolac, Descartes, Berkeley, Aristotle, Plato, and the Mesi and mystics

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of the East were transitions which,
however bewildering in their variety and scope seemed

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easy and harmonious upon his lips,
as sequences in music. By and by

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I forget now by what link of
conjecture or illustration he passed on to that

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field which lies beyond the boundary line
or even conjectural philosophy, and reaches no

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man knows whither. He spoke of
the soul, in its aspirations, of

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the spirit, and its powers of
second sight, of prophecy, of those

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phenomena which, under the names of
ghosts, specters, and supernatural appearances,

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have been denied by the skeptics and
attested by the credulous of all ages.

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The world, he said, grows
hourly more and more skeptical of all that

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lies beyond its own narrow radius.
And our men of science fostered the fatal

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tendency. They condemn as fable,
all that resists experiments, they reject as

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false, all that cannot be brought
to the test of the laboratory or the

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dissecting room. Against what superstition have
they waged so long in obstinate o war

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as against the belief and apparitions?
And yet what superstition has maintained its hold

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upon the minds of men so long
and so firmly show me any fact in

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physics, in history, an archaeology, which is supported by testimony so wide

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and so various, attested by all
races of men, in all ages and

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in all climates, by the soberest
sages of antiquity, by the rudest savage

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of today, by the Christian,
the pagan, the pantheist, the materialist.

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This phenomenon is treated as a nursery
tale by the philosophers of our century.

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Circumstantial evidence weighs with them as a
feather in the balance. The comparison

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of causes with effects, however valuable
in physical science, is put aside as

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worthless and unreliable. The evidence of
competent witnesses, however conclusive, in a

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00:17:07,079 --> 00:17:12,559
court of justice, counts for nothing. He who pauses before he pronounces is

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00:17:12,599 --> 00:17:18,440
condemned as a trifler. He who
believes is a dreamer or a fool.

205
00:17:18,200 --> 00:17:22,960
He spoke with bitterness, and having
said thus, relapsed for some minutes into

206
00:17:23,039 --> 00:17:29,079
silence. Presently he raised his head
from his hands and added, with an

207
00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:34,000
altered voice and manner, I sir, paused, investigated, believed, and

208
00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:38,920
was not ashamed to state my convictions
to the world. I too, was

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00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:45,319
branded as a visionary, held up
to ridicule by my contemporaries, and hooted

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00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,079
from that field of science in which
I had labored with honor during all the

211
00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:53,720
best years of my life. These
things happened just three and twenty years ago.

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00:17:55,599 --> 00:17:57,920
Since then, I have lived as
you see me living now, and

213
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:03,039
the world has forgotten in me,
as I have forgotten the world. You

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00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,799
have my history. It is a
very sad one, I murmured, scarcely

215
00:18:07,839 --> 00:18:11,839
knowing what to answer. It is
a very common one, he replied.

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00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:15,240
I have only suffered for the truth, as many a better and wiser man

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00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:21,799
has suffered before me. He rose, as if desirous of ending the conversation,

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00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:26,319
and went over to the window.
It has ceased snowing, he observed,

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00:18:26,599 --> 00:18:30,759
as he dropped the curtain and came
back to the fireside. Ceased,

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00:18:30,839 --> 00:18:34,440
I exclaimed, starting eagerly to my
feet. Oh, if it were only

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00:18:34,480 --> 00:18:40,079
possible, But no, it is
hopeless. Even if I could find my

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00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:45,440
way across the moor, I could
not walk twenty miles. Tonight walked twenty

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00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:48,880
miles. Tonight, repeated my host, What are you thinking of of my

224
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:53,839
wife? I replied, impatiently of
my young wife, who does not know

225
00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:57,559
that I have lost my way,
and who is at this moment breaking her

226
00:18:57,599 --> 00:19:04,359
heart with suspense and terror. Where
is she at Dwolding? Twenty miles away?

227
00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:11,039
At Dwolding, he echoed thoughtfully,
Yes, the distance, it is

228
00:19:11,079 --> 00:19:15,920
true, is twenty miles. But
are you so very anxious to save the

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00:19:15,960 --> 00:19:21,680
next six or eight hours, so
very very anxious that I would give ten

230
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:26,240
guineas at this moment for a guide
and a horse. Your wish can be

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00:19:26,279 --> 00:19:30,440
gratified at a less costly rate,
said he, smiling. The night mail

232
00:19:30,559 --> 00:19:34,319
from the North, which changes horses
at Dwolding, passes within five miles of

233
00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,359
this spot, and will be due
at a certain crossroad in about an hour

234
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:44,119
and a quarter. If Jacob were
to go with you across the moor and

235
00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,839
put you into the old coach road, you could find your way, I

236
00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:53,039
suppose to where it joins the new
one easily. Gladly, he smiled again,

237
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:57,359
rang the bell, gave the old
servant his directions, and, taking

238
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:00,839
a bottle of whiskey and wine glass
from the cupboard in which he kept his

239
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:07,279
chemical said, the snow lies deep
and it will be difficult walking tonight on

240
00:20:07,319 --> 00:20:12,000
the moor. A glass of us
caabah before you start. I would have

241
00:20:12,039 --> 00:20:17,039
declined the spirit, but he pressed
it on me and I drank it.

242
00:20:17,039 --> 00:20:19,880
It went down my throat like liquid
flame, and almost took my breath away.

243
00:20:22,079 --> 00:20:23,640
It is strong, he said,
but it will help to keep out

244
00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:30,440
the cold. And now you have
no moments to spare good night. I

245
00:20:30,519 --> 00:20:33,440
thanked him for his hospitality, and
would have shaken hands, but that he

246
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:37,720
had turned away before I could finish
my sentence. In another minute, I

247
00:20:37,759 --> 00:20:41,920
had traversed the hall, Jacob had
locked the outer door behind me, and

248
00:20:42,039 --> 00:20:48,519
we were out on the wide white
moor. Although the wind had fallen,

249
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,799
it was still bitterly cold. Not
a star glimmered in the black vault overhead.

250
00:20:53,559 --> 00:20:57,279
Not a sound save the rapid crunching
of the snow beneath our feet,

251
00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:03,039
disturbed the heavy stillness of the night. Jacob, not too well pleased with

252
00:21:03,079 --> 00:21:07,839
his mission, shambled on before in
sullen silence, his lantern in his hand

253
00:21:07,960 --> 00:21:12,720
and his shadow at his feet.
I followed with my gun over my shoulder,

254
00:21:12,839 --> 00:21:18,799
as little inclined for conversation as himself. My thoughts were full of my

255
00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:23,240
late host, his voice yet rang
in my ears. His eloquence yet held

256
00:21:23,279 --> 00:21:30,680
my imagination captive. I remember to
this day with surprise, how my overexcited

257
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:34,799
brain retained whole sentences and parts of
sentences, troops of brilliant images, and

258
00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:40,599
fragments of splendid reasoning in the very
words in which he had uttered them.

259
00:21:40,839 --> 00:21:45,240
Musing thus over what I had heard, and striving to recall a lost link

260
00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:49,319
here and there, I strode on
at the heel of my guide, absorbed

261
00:21:49,359 --> 00:21:53,880
and unobservant, presently at the end, as it seemed to me, of

262
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:59,319
only a few minutes. He came
to a sudden halt and said, yon,

263
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:03,400
Girot, keep the stone fence to
your right hand, and you can't

264
00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:07,480
fail of the way. This,
then, is the old coach road.

265
00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:11,759
I tiss, the old coach road. And how far do I go?

266
00:22:11,839 --> 00:22:18,400
Before I reached the crossroads? Nigh
upon three mile? I pulled out my

267
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:22,839
purse, and he became more communicative. The road's affair road enough, said

268
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:27,400
he for foot passengers, but twas
over steep and narrow for the northern traffic.

269
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:33,359
You'll mind where the parpit's broken away. Close again the signpost. It's

270
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:40,480
never been mended. Since the accident? What accident? Eh? The nightmail

271
00:22:40,559 --> 00:22:44,839
pitched right over into the valley below, a good fifty feet and more,

272
00:22:44,960 --> 00:22:49,200
just at the worst biddle road in
the whole county. Horrible were many lives

273
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:55,799
lost? All four were found dead, and to other two died next morning.

274
00:22:56,279 --> 00:23:02,839
How long is it since this happened
just nine year? Near the signpost?

275
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:07,680
You say, I will bear it
in mine. Good night, good

276
00:23:07,799 --> 00:23:11,839
night, Sit and thankee. Jacob
pocketed his half crown, made a faint

277
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:15,960
pretense of touching his hat, and
trudged back by the way he had come.

278
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,920
I watched the fight of his lantern
till it quite disappeared, and then

279
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:26,759
turned to pursue my way alone.
This was no longer matter of the slightest

280
00:23:26,799 --> 00:23:33,079
difficulty, for despite the dead darkness
overhead, the line of stone fence showed

281
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:37,480
distinctly enough against the pale gleam of
the snow. How silent it seemed,

282
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:42,720
now, with only my footsteps to
listen to, How silent and how solitary.

283
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:49,000
A strange, disagreeable sense of loneliness
stole over me. I walked faster,

284
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:53,359
I hummed a fragment of a tune. I cast up enormous sums in

285
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:59,880
my head and accumulated them at compound
interest. I did best, in short,

286
00:24:00,279 --> 00:24:03,160
to forget the startling speculations to which
I had but just been listening,

287
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:10,400
and to some extent I succeeded.
Meanwhile, the night air seemed to become

288
00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:14,599
colder and colder, and though I
walked fast, I found it impossible to

289
00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,640
keep myself warm. My feet were
like ice. I lost sensation in my

290
00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:25,640
hands and grasped my gun mechanically.
I even breathed with difficulty, as though

291
00:24:26,039 --> 00:24:30,279
instead of traversing a quiet north country
highway, I were scaling the uppermost heights

292
00:24:30,279 --> 00:24:37,079
of some gigantic alp. This last
symptom became presently so distressing that I was

293
00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:41,880
forced to stop for a few minutes
and lean against the stone fence. As

294
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,359
I did so, I chanced to
look back up the road, and there,

295
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,759
to my infinite relief, I saw
a distant point of light, like

296
00:24:48,839 --> 00:24:53,960
the gleam of an approaching lantern.
I at first concluded that Jacob had retraced

297
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:59,680
his steps and followed me. But
even as the conjecture presented itself, a

298
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:04,880
second light flashed into sight, a
light evidently parallel with the first and approaching

299
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:10,759
at the same rate of motion.
It needed no second thought to show me

300
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:15,160
that these must be the carriage lamps
of some private vehicle. Though it seemed

301
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:21,720
strange that any private vehicle should take
a road professedly disused and dangerous. There

302
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:25,079
could be no doubt, however,
of the fact, for the lamps grew

303
00:25:25,160 --> 00:25:29,599
larger and brighter every moment, and
I even fancied I could already see the

304
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,680
dark outline of the carriage between them. It was coming up very fast and

305
00:25:33,759 --> 00:25:38,960
quite noiselessly, the snow being nearly
a foot deep under the wheels, and

306
00:25:40,079 --> 00:25:45,440
now the body of the vehicle became
distinctly visible behind the lamps. It looked

307
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,799
strangely lofty. A sudden suspicion flashed
upon me. Was it possible that I

308
00:25:49,839 --> 00:25:55,079
had passed the crossroads in the dark
without observing the signpost? And could this

309
00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:59,359
be the very coach which I had
come to meet? No need to ask

310
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,759
myself that question a second time,
for here it came round the bend of

311
00:26:02,799 --> 00:26:07,319
the road, guard and driver,
one outside passenger, and four steaming grays,

312
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:11,440
all wrapped in a soft haze of
light, through which the lamps blazed

313
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:18,119
out like a pair of fiery meteors. I jumped forward, waved my hat

314
00:26:18,119 --> 00:26:22,279
and shouted. The mail came down
at full speed and passed me. For

315
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,559
a moment, I feared that I
had not been seen or heard, But

316
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:30,279
it was only for a moment.
The coachman pulled up the guard, muffled

317
00:26:30,279 --> 00:26:33,319
to the eyes and capes and comforters, and apparently sound asleep in the rumble.

318
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:38,160
Neither answered my hail, nor made
the slightest effort to dismount. The

319
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:42,799
outside passenger did not even turn his
head. I opened the door for myself

320
00:26:42,839 --> 00:26:48,160
and looked in. There were but
three travelers inside, so I stepped in,

321
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:52,079
shut the door, slipped into the
vacant corner, and congratulated myself of

322
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:59,000
my good fortune. The atmosphere of
the coach seemed, if possible, colder

323
00:26:59,039 --> 00:27:03,480
than that of the outer air,
and was pervaded by a singularly damp and

324
00:27:03,559 --> 00:27:08,359
disagreeable smell. I looked round at
my fellow passengers. They were all three

325
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:12,400
men, and all silent. They
did not seem to be asleep, but

326
00:27:12,559 --> 00:27:17,279
each leaned back in his corner of
the vehicle, as if absorbed in his

327
00:27:17,319 --> 00:27:22,079
own reflections. I attempted to open
a conversation, how intensely cold. It

328
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:26,559
is tonight, I said, addressing
my opposite neighbor. He lifted his head,

329
00:27:26,839 --> 00:27:32,000
looked at me, but made no
reply. The winter, I added,

330
00:27:32,039 --> 00:27:36,240
seems to have begun in earnest.
Although the corner in which he sat

331
00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:38,599
was so dim that I could distinguish
none of his features. Very clearly,

332
00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:44,000
I saw that his eyes were still
turned full upon me, and yet he

333
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:48,400
answered never a word. At any
other time I should have felt and perhaps

334
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,400
expressed some annoyance, but at the
moment I felt too ill to do either.

335
00:27:53,440 --> 00:27:57,000
The icy coldness of the night air
had struck a chill to my very

336
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:02,759
marrow, and the strange smell inside
the coach was affecting me with an intolerable

337
00:28:02,839 --> 00:28:07,720
nausea. I shivered from head to
foot, and, turning to my left

338
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:11,920
hand neighbor, asked if he had
any objection to an open window. He

339
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:17,359
neither spoke nor stirred. I repeated
the question somewhat more loudly, but with

340
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:21,559
the same result. Then I lost
my patience and let the sash down.

341
00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,799
As I did so, the leather
strap broke in my hand, and I

342
00:28:25,839 --> 00:28:30,400
observed that the glass was covered with
a thick coat of mildew, the accumulation

343
00:28:30,519 --> 00:28:36,119
apparently of years. My attention being
thus drawn to the condition of the coach,

344
00:28:36,599 --> 00:28:40,559
I examined it more narrowly, and
saw, by the uncertain light of

345
00:28:40,599 --> 00:28:45,000
the outer lamps that it was in
the last state of dilapidation. Every part

346
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,119
of it was not only out of
repair, but in a condition of decay.

347
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:53,359
The sashes splintered at a touch,
The leather fittings were crusted over with

348
00:28:53,480 --> 00:29:00,240
mold and literally rotting from the woodwork. The floor was almost breaking away beneath

349
00:29:00,319 --> 00:29:03,880
my feet. The whole machine,
in short, was foul with damp,

350
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:07,079
and had evidently been dragged from some
outhouse in which it had been moldering away

351
00:29:07,119 --> 00:29:11,359
for years to do another day or
two of duty on the road. I

352
00:29:11,440 --> 00:29:15,920
turned to the third passenger, whom
I had not yet addressed, and hazarded

353
00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,400
one more remark. This coach,
I said, is in deplorable condition.

354
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,960
The regular mail, I suppose is
under repair. He moved his head slowly

355
00:29:26,319 --> 00:29:30,400
and looked me in the face,
without speaking a word. I shall never

356
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:34,559
forget that look while I live.
I turned cold at heart under it.

357
00:29:36,039 --> 00:29:40,799
I turned cold at heart even now
when I recall it. His eyes glowed

358
00:29:40,839 --> 00:29:45,440
with a fiery, unnatural luster.
His face was livid as the face of

359
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,839
a corpse. His bloodless lips were
drawn back, as if in the agony

360
00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:55,240
of death, and showed the gleaming
teeth between the words that I was about

361
00:29:55,240 --> 00:30:00,480
to utter died upon my lips in
a strange horror, A dreadful horror came

362
00:30:00,559 --> 00:30:03,680
upon me. My sight had by
this time become used to the gloom of

363
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:08,640
the coach, and I could see
with tolerable distinctness. I turned to my

364
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:12,920
opposite neighbor. He too was looking
at me, with the same startling pallor

365
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:18,319
in his face and the same stony
glitter in his eyes. I passed my

366
00:30:18,359 --> 00:30:22,640
hand across my brow. I turned
to the passenger on the seat beside my

367
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:26,440
own, and saw, Oh Heaven, how shall I described what I saw?

368
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:30,119
I saw that he was no living
man, that none of them were

369
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:34,960
living men like myself. A pale
phosphorescent light, the light of putrefaction,

370
00:30:36,119 --> 00:30:40,160
played upon their awful faces, upon
their hair, dank with the dews of

371
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:45,279
the grave, upon their clothes,
earth stained and dropping to pieces, Upon

372
00:30:45,319 --> 00:30:49,160
their hands, which were as the
hands of corpses long buried. Only their

373
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:55,720
eyes, their terrible eyes were living, and those eyes were all turned menacingly

374
00:30:55,839 --> 00:31:00,640
upon me. A shriek of terror, a wild, unintelligent will cry for

375
00:31:00,720 --> 00:31:03,720
help and mercy burst from my lips
as I flung myself against the door and

376
00:31:03,799 --> 00:31:08,079
strove in vain to open it.
In that single instant, brief and vivid,

377
00:31:08,079 --> 00:31:11,640
as a landscape beheld in the flash
of summer lightning, I saw the

378
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:18,200
moon shining down through a rift of
stormy cloud, the ghastly signpost rearing its

379
00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:22,640
warning finger by the wayside, the
broken parapet, the plunging horses, the

380
00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,519
black gulf below. Then the coach
reeled like a ship at sea. Then

381
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:30,640
came a mighty crash, a sense
of crushing pain, and then darkness.

382
00:31:33,319 --> 00:31:36,920
It seemed as if years had gone
by when I awoke one morning from a

383
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:41,480
deep sleep and found my wife watching
by my bedside. I will pass over

384
00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:45,920
the scene that ensued and give you, in half a dozen words, the

385
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:49,000
tale, she told me, with
tears of thanksgiving. I had fallen over

386
00:31:49,039 --> 00:31:53,519
a precipice close against the junction of
the old coach road and the new,

387
00:31:55,119 --> 00:31:59,359
and had only been saved from certain
death by lighting upon a deep snow drift

388
00:31:59,359 --> 00:32:04,480
that accumulated at the foot of the
rock beneath in this snow drift, I

389
00:32:04,559 --> 00:32:07,240
was discovered at daybreak by a couple
of shepherds, who carried me to the

390
00:32:07,279 --> 00:32:12,880
nearest shelter and brought a surgeon to
my aid. The surgeon found me in

391
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,920
a state of raving delirium, with
a broken arm and a compound fracture of

392
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:21,839
the skull. The letters in my
pocketbook showed my name and address. My

393
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,119
wife was summoned to nurse me,
and thanks to youth and a fine constitution,

394
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:30,079
I came out of danger at last. The place of my fall,

395
00:32:30,319 --> 00:32:35,480
I need scarcely say, was precisely
that at which a frightful accident had happened

396
00:32:35,480 --> 00:32:40,200
to the North Mail nine years before. I never told my wife the fearful

397
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:45,839
events which I have just related to
you. I told the surgeon who attended

398
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,759
me, but he treated the whole
adventure as a mere dream born of the

399
00:32:49,799 --> 00:32:53,839
fever in my brain. We discussed
the question over and over again until we

400
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:58,480
found that we could discuss it with
temper no longer, and then we dropped

401
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:04,559
it. Others may form what conclusions
they please. I know that twenty years

402
00:33:04,559 --> 00:33:10,480
ago I was the fourth inside passenger
in that Phantom coach. End of the

403
00:33:10,519 --> 00:33:12,440
Phantom Coach,