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The man who lived next door to
himself by Frank Owen, I had not

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lived in the old house on Sheridan
Square. A week before I received a

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visit from my next door neighbor,
and at once my interest was aroused.

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His name was Aladina Vizeraine, and
he was full blooded Persian from Sultanabad.

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Never have I met a man who
was more learned and cultured than he.

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The Oriental and the Occidental had contributed
their best to his knowledge. He was

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both a doctor of medicine and philosophy, and an ardent devotee of research work

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of any kind. There was nothing
about his appearance that would have caused comment

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as he passed along the street,
unless one remarked on his finely molded,

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clear cut features and the intense brilliance
of his keen black eyes. He dressed

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simply in dark clothes of American make, and the quietness of his manner gave

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him dignity and even charm. His
voice was as distinct and clear as though

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he had studied elocution for years,
Yet so soft did he speak, though

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words seem to be but echoes of
a dream. Since we are evidently to

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be neighbors, for a considerable time, he said slowly. I thought it

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would not be out of place for
me to call and introduce myself. As

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a rule, when a man moves
into a country town, all the neighbors

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visit him almost immediately. This is
not the custom in the city. Yet,

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how much more loathsome and cold is
the great metropolis. To walk among

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crowds and to behold no familiar face
is worse than to journey alone through the

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desert. At my invitation, he
seated himself in a great chair by the

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side of the open hearth, a
companion one to mine, and together we

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talked about a miscellania of trivial things
until an unearthly hour. It was,

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I thought, the beginning of a
friendship which was to continue for many a

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long day. But if I had
known that evening, how close that friendship

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was destined to be, my eyes
would have bulged from their sockets in stark,

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raving terror. That evening was one
of many which we spent together.

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We had much in common, we
found, for we were both writers,

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and both of us were intensely interested
in unusual things. For years, said

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Aladdin of Vishrain one evening, as
we sat smoking cigars before the fire in

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my rooms. I have been somewhat
a student of psychology, psychoanalysis, spiritualism,

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and the transition of souls. In
our religion, we are all like

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children. The Christian scoff at the
Yogi and the Theosophist, the Buddhists and

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the Mohammedans look down on people of
all other religions? Is it not amusing

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every man thinks his own belief is
the true religion. The south Sea islander

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worshiping the moon and the stars,
and the Siamese refusing to kill rattlesnakes and

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looking with awe at sacred tigers,
the natives of India bowing before sick white

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elephants. Is not life a most
interesting enigma? We imagine that we have

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advanced a great deal since the Stone
Age, but have we actually progressed at

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all? Does not the recent European
conflict prove that the caveman is still very

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much alive within us? The changes
recorded have been solely in exterior things such

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as stress and manners. Man scoffed
at Morse when he spoke of his telegraph.

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But it came to be, and
now we have radio as well.

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We have learned to pick up messages
from the very ether about us. Someday

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other things will be accomplished quite easily, which are now only spoken of in

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theory. Science is still very much
in its infancy. For more than ten

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years, I have believed that it
would be possible for two men to exchange

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their souls if they were in the
proper key, in perfect harmony, and

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tuned with one another. That is
to say, to put it more concisely,

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I believe that it might be possible
for your soul to enter my body

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and my soul to enter your body. And when I speak of a soul,

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I mean all that intangible part of
a person that is mental, his

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mind, thoughts, likes and dislikes, ideas, et cetera. The great

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Caruso used to tap a glass with
a knife and then sing the same note

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as came from the tinkling glass.
When the two notes met at exactly the

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same moment, the glass was shattered
to atoms. You see, the notes

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opposed each other. Now, if
two natures or souls were in perfect harmony,

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without opposition of any kind, who
knows what might be accomplished if the

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impulse of both were toward the same
object. I am deeply interested in what

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you say. I told him it
is a rather wild theory. But I

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am sufficient of a scientist never to
laugh at anything. Only fools ridicule that

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which they do not understand. I
am glad to hear you speak like that,

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he went on, for had your
manner been otherwise, I would have

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turned dominated the present conversation when I
finished speaking a moment ago. However,

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since you are so obviously interested,
I will proceed to acquaint you with my

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theory. As he spoke, he
drew from his pocket a round crystal ball,

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about three inches in diameter. It
was so clear and polished that it

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shone in the fire glow like a
great round diamond. It was so clear

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and polished that it shone in the
fire glow like a great round diamond.

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This thoughts fear came from the east, he said slowly. And there are

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many legendary tales connected with it.
It is said that he who possesses it

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can have what he desires. Whether
or not there is any truth in this,

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I cannot say. And yet you
are my friend. Our personalities are

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in harmony, and that is all
I desire. If you are agreeable,

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00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:06,959
we will attempt right now to materialize
my theory. He did not wait for

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me to assent. He took my
acquiescence for granted. He walked over and

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placed the ball in the center of
the small teakwood table. Then he placed

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two chairs beside the table so that
they were directly opposite each other. As

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he did so, he said,
come, and who knows, perhaps it

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will be your good fortune to be
a participant in one of the greatest discoveries

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of the age. He seated himself
at the table. Before you sit down,

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he directed, swish off the lights
for a room in darkness save for

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the glow of the fire. He
is far more fitting for such an experiment

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as we are to attempt, than
one that is brilliantly lighted. After doing

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as he desired, plunging the room
in semi darkness, I sat down opposite

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him. Now he said, slowly, you must concentrate your whole mind on

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this experiment. KU says that the
imagination controls the will. Perhaps he is

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right. I never argue, but
I think the imagination and the will both

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react on one another. We are
desirous of exchanging souls, or perhaps I

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should say personalities, for the word
soul at best is a rather ambiguous term

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suited mostly to the art of poets. You must let your gaze rest intently

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on the crystal ball. You must
will it to make the exchange, and

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you must let your imagination make you
believe that the exchange has been effected.

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I will do the same thing.
And if we can make our desires coincide

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perfectly at the exact moment through the
medium of the crystal ball, what we

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desire will assuredly come to pass.
It is written that a man can have

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what he wishes if he wants it
sufficiently enough. He ceased speaking, and

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we both focused our gaze intently on
the crystal ball. The room was in

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utter silence. It was in the
back of the house, so no discordant

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sound from the street shattered the solitude, which was so intense that it seemed

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to hang about the room in folds, and the far corners of the room

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seemed to be enveloped in curtains of
velvet black. No object was discernible except

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that queer little crystal globulate, which
shimmered fantastically in the fire glow, seeming

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to scintillate with a dozen different prismatic
colors. And now, as we sat

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staring at it. It suddenly commenced
to glow with a strange blue light.

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All the other tones of color faded. Evidently the fire in the grate had

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burned low, and only a bit
of blue flame remained. And yet the

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color of the crystal ball increased steadily. The light intensified. It was almost

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blinding. It blurred my vision.
Everything grew hazy, as though I were

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enveloped in a fog. The silence
was as cold as death. I seemed

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to be losing consciousness. Then steadily
the crystal ball came back into focus again,

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My vision cleared, the blue flame
had died out, and again the

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scintillating colors returned. It was the
most odd experience, But odter still was

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the realization that I was gazing at
the crystal ball from the other side of

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the table. It was as though
I had changed my seat. With a

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cry of surprise, I jumped to
my feet, for I knew that I

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had not moved since I had seated
myself at the table. As I rose,

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I knocked over the table and the
crystal ball crashed to the ground and

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was shattered into a thousand glittering pieces. This rain quickly switched on the lights.

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What have you done? He fairly
shrieked. Now we are engulfed in

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a frightful calamity. We can never
again get back our own personalities. As

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I looked into his eyes, my
blood turned cold, for I was gazing

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into my own face. The experiment
had proved successful. I scarcely know how

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to set down the events that followed. There is so much that I would

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like to write, so much I
wished to record, and yet it is

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hard to set down the things that
have an important bearing on my particular case.

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For a while that night, vis
Rain and I raved about that room

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as though we were mad. We
cursed and raved as though we had ceased

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to be human. Often we hear
folks envying each other, expressing a desire

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to be in someone else's place.
Now that particular position had been vouchsafed to

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me, and I found little pleasure
in it. I longed to be in

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my own body again. The body, at best is but a shell in

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which we live. But it is
the shell by which we are known,

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the tangible thing by which our friends
recognize us. Probably the day will eventually

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come when men will cease to form
opinions and impressions from exteriors. Again,

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we had raved about the room for
an hour, or perhaps it was longer,

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for neither of us had any thought
of time. We sat down beside

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the open fire again and tried to
sanely reason out the strange problem with which

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we were confronted. We had changed
bodies. I say we advisedly, because

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the real old man lives inside each
one of us. The smug, hypocritical

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smile, and the exaggerated burst of
assumed enthusiasm are not the earmarks of a

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real person. This Rain's soul and
personality were within my body, but nevertheless,

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he was still this Rain. After
we had talked and argued and theorized

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for a great while, we finally
decided that we would change houses voluntarily,

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even as we had changed bodies.
This would mechanically prevent people from talking,

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and besides, we were not to
be inconvenienced in the slightest because we could

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visit back and forth as often as
we desired. It was thus that I

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found myself in the peculiar position of
living next door to myself. Luckily,

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both Visrain and I lived alone,
so there was no one to complicate matters.

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Although that is not strictly true.
For Visrain had a Japanese servant named

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Koto, who was the very acme
off. He seemed to anticipate his master's

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every want, and it was a
source of keen enjoyment to be waited on

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by him. My nearest relative Dwelt
in San Francisco, an aunt with whom

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I never corresponded. She was as
interested in me as though I did not

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exist at all, And as for
myself, I heartily reciprocated the compliment.

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I was not anxious to build up
a friendship with the eccentric old lady,

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because I realized that by so doing
I might be bothered with visits from her,

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and this I wish to avoid.
At best. I have but little

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patience, and can only tolerate people
with whom I have much in common.

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Such a person was Vera Gray,
an artist who lived in Greenwich Village and

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earned a splendid living drawing cover designs
for the national magazines. Vera was a

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girl in a million, a deep
thinker, and at the same same time

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more beautiful than any of the mudels
who posed for her. She had skin

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like old ivory, and the olive
tone to her complexion, together with her

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wondrous taste in dress made of her
a most alluring girl. She was tall

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and slim, and her white hands
were the most graceful and expressive I have

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ever beheld. They made almost a
symphony in loveliness. I suppose I am

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writing rather madly, Yet I assure
you I am sane enough. I have

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00:15:33,559 --> 00:15:39,679
recently been examined by three alienists,
and while they admit that I am somewhat

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queer, they have unanimously stated that
my mentality is far above the average.

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But I am getting ahead of my
story. It is hard, when writing

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a narrative of this sort to keep
the sequence of events in their proper order.

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Although I hated to mention Vera Gray
to his reign, I knew that

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I had to do so, for
if I had disappeared entirely, she would

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have immediately raised an alarm and publicity
more than anything else we desired to avoid.

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You must call on Vera Gray,
I told VI Rain, and I

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think it might be wise for me
to accompany you. That will help to

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lessen the chances of your making a
bad blunder. Talk very little, and

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consult me whenever the opportunity presents itself. At this interview. We must be

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00:16:33,799 --> 00:16:41,399
extremely careful. A few evenings later
we visited Vera. Gray Luck was with

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us, for there were several other
persons in her apartment, and one young

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fellow in particular, Gordon Harris,
wished to do all the talking. He

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00:16:51,399 --> 00:16:56,840
went into ecstasies over Vera's paintings and
had something to say about every one she

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exhibited. Only once did she I
get an opportunity to converse together. I

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am delighted that you came tonight,
she said, sincerely, because you interest

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me in a rather strange way.
You seem to remind me of someone I

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00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:17,359
know very well. Yet I am
positive that I have never beheld your face

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before until tonight. Sometime, I
hope you will come to tea and we

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can have a rather interesting chat together
when none of these ceaseless talkers are present.

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I suppose it is rather unconventional for
me to invite you when you are

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a total stranger to me, But
I feel that we have something in common,

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as though we knew each other years
ago. She laughed softly. Perhaps,

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00:17:42,839 --> 00:17:47,599
she said, the theosophists are right, after all, and you and

194
00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:52,839
I were friends more than ten thousand
years ago. I had no time to

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00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:56,559
answer for Gordon Harris came and claimed
her attention, and I cannot say that

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00:17:56,599 --> 00:18:02,480
I was sorry for under the circumstances
to such a speech. What is there

197
00:18:02,519 --> 00:18:08,680
for me to say? As we
walked home, another complication arose. This

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00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:15,000
Rain confessed to me that he loved
her. She is the most adorably perfect

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00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,920
girl I have ever known, he
told me, And I am the most

200
00:18:18,039 --> 00:18:22,480
miserable of men, no doubt.
As long as my personality is in your

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00:18:22,559 --> 00:18:26,759
body, I could go in and
win her. But I hate the deception,

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00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:32,559
and I wouldn't want to do anything
that was unfair to you. For

203
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already I think I have caused you
trouble enough. But despite his words to

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the contrary, this Rain did make
love to Vera Gray, and she seemed

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far more attracted to him than she
had ever been to me. I am

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never unhappy when I am with you, she told him frankly, No matter

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how trivial is the subject we discuss, I am always interested. You used

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to bore me sometimes, but now
all that has passed. This Rain placed

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his arm about her. Something stronger
than life, stronger than death, is

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drawing us together, he breathed tensely. There is no use in either of

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us fighting against it. It is
destiny Allah wills that we should live united.

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He drew her, unresisting to him. Promise me. He said that

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you will marry me before summer comes, And in a fit of recklessness,

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she promised. Late that night,
this rain made known his perfidity to me.

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In all fairness to him, I
must admit that he confessed everything quite

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openly. There is no use fighting
against love, he cried. It is

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the most subtle, poisoned known.
Do you think I am happy? I

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am the most miserable man in all
the world. First, I rob you

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of your now, I have robbed
you of your love. Nowhere on earth

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is there so vile a thief as
I. But I am poisoned by love.

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I cannot. I will not live
without vera gray Yet I am unworthy

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of her. He stormed and raged
up and down the room like a caged

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beast. I said no word,
because I realized that none was needed.

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His own conscience was scouring his soul
far worse than anything I could have said.

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I just sat there, carved of
stone, watching the torment which he

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was suffering. His eyes glistened as
though he were almost mad. He tore

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up and down the room, as
though he wished to escape from himself.

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But that is not strictly true.
He was unhappy because he wished to escape

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from myself. It was my body
which had caused him all his sorrow.

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Finally I arose from my chair.
I think I will go to bed,

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I told him simply. He made
no answer, and I left the room

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and walked back to the house next
door. He in five minutes. I

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was in bed, but I could
not sleep. I lay and tossed upon

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my pillow, as though I were
the victim of acute insomnia. And yet

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somehow, although I feigned weariness,
I knew that I was really far from

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sleep. There seemed to be an
ominous silence in the air, a calm

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such as might proceed a deadly tropical
storm. It seemed to me as though

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some dreadful calamity was imminent. But
what that calamity was, I had not

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the faintest idea My room was as
dark as the inside of a coffin.

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I could not distinguish a thing because
of the heavy curtains, which were carefully

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drawn across the windows. The blackness
was so intense that it seemed people with

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all sorts of wild wraiths and distorted
forms. I knew the hallucinations were but

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the imagining of my overwrought nerves.
Yet the great bulk of blackness seemed to

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bear down upon me as though it
were a solid thing. I felt as

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though I were suffocating, as though
I were engulfed alive in a pit of

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blackness. My forehead was cold with
a dank sweat, and my hands shook

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as though I were a hundred years
old. I switched on the electric lights

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and looked at my face, or
rather, I should say Visrain's face in

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the mirror. It was ashen gray. Hastily I dressed. I seemed impelled

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onward by some great hidden force.
When I had finished dressing, I crept

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cautiously down the stairs. I was
careful to make no sound that would awaken

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Koto, who slept in a little
room off the lower hall silent. I

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crept from the house and stole to
the house next door. I unlocked the

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front door and entered like a thief. I had no trouble in effecting an

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entrance. Because this Rain and I
carried keys to both houses. We believed

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it would more readily facilitate matters if
we did so. Inside, I found

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the light in the living room still
burning. I walked to the threshold,

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and there I stopped, as though
frozen to ice. And well I might,

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for the sight which I beheld was
the most awful man ever gazed upon.

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In the chair was my own body. Blood was trickling sluggishly from a

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bullet wound in the right temple.
By the side of the table lay a

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revolver facing a problem which he could
not solve. This rain had blown out

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his brains. For one brief moment
I gazed at the ghastly sight. Then

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my overwrought nerves brod, and I
slipped to the floor, unconscious. How

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long I remained so I do not
know, for when I opened my eyes

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it was broad daylight. In the
chair, the body still sat, and

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I imagined an eerie smile hovered over
the rigid lips, as though it were

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grinning at me. I rose to
my feet. My head ached dully,

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and I walked like a man who
had been ill for ages. I could

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scarcely drag one foot after the other. I seated myself in a chair opposite

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the lifeless body and stared at it
as though my very gaze could rekindle it

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with life again. Now my predicament
was worse than ever. My body was

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dead, sitting grotesquely before me in
a great chair. I was surprised that

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the expression on its face could ever
be so frightful. Lost to me,

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also was my friend. What had
happened to his soul? I did not

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know. Perhaps it also was in
the room with me. I shuddered as

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I thought that now his rain would
try to reclaim his body. The days

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that immediately followed I can only look
back on as a nightmare. I did

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not employ an undertaker to embomb the
body, nor did I make any attempt

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to see that it was decently buried. Under the circumstances, I doubt if

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any one else would have done so
either. Despite the ghastly, blood clotted,

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repulsive face, the body was mine
and I was still alive. I

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could not make myself believe that my
body was really dead. As the days

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dragged on, I found myself more
and more often creeping into the house next

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door to gaze into that face,
which was turning a sickly blue. Sometimes

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I used to frantically shake the loathesome
corpse, as though it were only sleeping,

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and that if I tried hard enough, I could awaken it. It

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drew me to it like a magnet. Many a night I remained with the

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hideous thing till dawn. I think
at the time I must have been slightly

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insane. Yet, as I have
written, three alienists have recently examined me,

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00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:30,599
and they pronounced my mind to be
in excellent condition. Still, my

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00:26:30,759 --> 00:26:37,000
actions were not those of a sane
person. I used to sit and talk

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to the corpse by the hour.
I argued and expostulated with it. Sometimes

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I attempted to make it eat and
drink. Once I even succeeded in pouring

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00:26:48,160 --> 00:26:53,200
a bit of liquor through the set
lips. A thing which gave me hope

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00:26:53,519 --> 00:26:57,880
was the fact that the beard on
the face continued to grow. How could

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00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:03,559
a corpse be dead, I argued, and the beard still grow. I

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00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:08,240
have since learned that it is a
perfectly natural phenomenon, that it is quite

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usual for a man's hair to grow
after he has ceased to live. And

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00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,119
now it seemed to me that my
cup of despair was filled to the brim,

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that no further calamity could be added
to it. Yet the figure had

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00:27:23,599 --> 00:27:29,799
still another horror in store for me. One night, as I bent over

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the corpse, I suddenly became conscious
that I was not alone in the house.

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00:27:34,599 --> 00:27:38,640
I had not heard a sound,
nor had I caught the faintest glimpse

305
00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:44,680
of anyone. But still I was
sure there was at least one other person

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00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:49,440
in the house besides myself. At
such moments, it seems as though a

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00:27:49,519 --> 00:27:56,480
man has a supernatural sixth sense buried
in his subconscious mind, which warns him

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of approaching danger. To say I
was shocked would not nearly have described my

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condition. I was in a panic. Fear made of me a total wreck.

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The very marrow froze in my bones, and I felt as sick and

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00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:18,799
weak, as though I were a
plague victim. Even in my fear,

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I realized that I was in a
most unexplainable position, unless the hidden personage

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should prove to be the soul of
Alladina Visrayn. As the thought came to

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me, the curtains at the end
of the room parted slightly, and through

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00:28:33,599 --> 00:28:37,319
the opening I could see the muzzle
of a revolver leveled directly at me.

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00:28:38,079 --> 00:28:42,599
As I beheld it, I quickly
switched off the electric lights plunging the room

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into absolute darkness. Then I made
a wild leap for the other door.

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But in the darkness I tripped over
the corpse with such force that I dragged

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00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:56,839
it from the chair, and together
we fell to the floor with a dull

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thud. Now had me absolutely in
its power, I lost my reason.

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00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:08,759
Instead of trying to get away,
I commenced wrestling with a lifeless body,

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00:29:10,559 --> 00:29:15,200
and as I wrestled, there came
to my already weakened nerves another severe shock.

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As we writhed about the floor,
two hands clutched at my throat and

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00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:27,240
anchored there with a frightful grip.
It seemed as though the dead had come

325
00:29:27,319 --> 00:29:33,920
back to life again. Then other
hands grasped my arms and legs. There

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00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,400
seemed to be at least a half
dozen bodies bending over me. In that

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00:29:37,599 --> 00:29:45,000
moment, my strength seemed to multiply. Dread made of me a formidable opponent.

328
00:29:45,039 --> 00:29:51,400
I became a machine. I flung
my arms about in every direction like

329
00:29:51,559 --> 00:29:56,720
flails. Sometimes my fists crashed against
warm flesh, and I could hear the

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00:29:56,759 --> 00:30:03,400
grunts of my adversaries as the blo
struck home. But the hands around my

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00:30:03,519 --> 00:30:10,119
throat gripped tighter I could scarcely breathe. I struggled terribly for breath. For

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00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,559
one bit of air, I would
have given all I possessed in the world.

333
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:18,559
Finally, someone mercifully turned on the
lights, and to my horror,

334
00:30:18,559 --> 00:30:25,400
I found myself surrounded by policemen,
none too gently. They slipped a pair

335
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:30,480
of handcuffs over my wrists, but
I did not care for the one who

336
00:30:30,519 --> 00:30:37,319
held my throat released his grip and
I could breathe again. Now I am

337
00:30:37,400 --> 00:30:41,359
sitting in a prison cell. I
am to be tried next week for murder,

338
00:30:41,839 --> 00:30:45,039
the murder of my own self.
They would not allow me to be

339
00:30:45,079 --> 00:30:48,799
released on bail, for in the
eyes of the world, I have taken

340
00:30:48,799 --> 00:30:53,759
a human life. Ever since my
disappearance, detectives have been searching for me.

341
00:30:55,519 --> 00:30:59,720
It was Vera Gray who raised the
alarm. Now I am writing the

342
00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,720
truth story of all that has transpired. I intend to present it at my

343
00:31:03,839 --> 00:31:08,559
trial. What the verdict will be, I cannot say, nor do I

344
00:31:08,599 --> 00:31:14,000
really care. For they have buried
my body, and Vera has gone into

345
00:31:14,079 --> 00:31:19,119
mourning because she believes I am dead. Even if I am acquitted, What

346
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:25,039
does a future hold in store for
me? I have been examined by three

347
00:31:25,079 --> 00:31:30,279
alienists since I have been in prison. They are unanimous in declaring me,

348
00:31:30,359 --> 00:31:36,759
saying, perhaps this will help my
case somewhat. I also intend to see

349
00:31:36,839 --> 00:31:41,279
Vera. I shall recall to her
countless little incidents that happened in the past,

350
00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:47,880
that are known only to her and
me. I believe in time,

351
00:31:48,319 --> 00:31:52,839
when my story becomes known, I
will be acquitted, but it may take

352
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,799
months. And afterwards. What have
I to look forward to? Nothing but

353
00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:02,880
memories, memories of very which are
sadly beautiful, Memories of my dead bodies

354
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:07,279
sitting upright in the house next door, which are so ghastly that they will

355
00:32:07,319 --> 00:32:12,960
haunt me forever. I will be
just a poor, broken down bit of

356
00:32:13,039 --> 00:32:17,680
humanity, a man who once lived
next door to himself and has ceased to

357
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:25,039
be happy now that his neighbor is
gone. The End of the Man who

358
00:32:25,119 --> 00:32:29,000
lived next door to Himself by Frank
Owen