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Speaker 1: The True Tale of the Phantom Coach by W. T. Lindskill.

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The great curtain had fallen after the pantomime, and I

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was standing chatting on the stage of the theater at Cambridge,

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when one of the stage men came to tell me

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I was wanted at the stage door, and I must

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hurry up at once. Thither I proceeded and found a

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lot of golfing boys, hunting boys, dramatic boys, and all

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sorts of other merry varsity boys who shouted out, come

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along quick to the Blue Pig. The Blue Pig is

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a Cambridge name for the Blue Boar Hotel. We want

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you to meet a fellow called Willie Carson, and there

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is to be supper, and he is something to tell us.

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The bogey man has gone on there now, so come

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right away, well off. We went to the Blue Boar

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Hotel and we found Carson sitting over a blazing fire

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with a capital supper set in his nice old fashioned room,

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lit up with candles, only the picture of comfort. Outside

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it was snowing hard and bitterly cold. After a talk

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over the merits of the pantomime, we did full justice

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to a most excellent supper, and then crowded round the

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blazing hearth to hear a story our host wanted to

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tell us. Did you ever hear the phantom coach at

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Saint Andrew's, He asked, turning to me suddenly and removing

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his cigar often. I replied, I have heard most extraordinary

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yarns about it from lots of people. But why do

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you ask? Because I've seen it, he replied softly and thoughtfully,

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some five years ago. It was very, very strange, not

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to be forgotten, and quite unexplainable. That is why I

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asked you here to night. I wanted to talk to

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you about it. He stooped over the fire and was

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silent for a few minutes. Tell us all about it,

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we all shouted at once. We won't make fun of it.

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There is nothing to make fun of. Indeed, it's a

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true solemn fact, he said. Listen, and I will try

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to tell you what I saw, but I can't half

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picture it properly. Five years ago, I had just come

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home from America. I went to stay at Saint Andrew's

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for some golf. I think it was the latter end

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of August, and must have been in the town about

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a week at least when one night. It was hot

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and stuffy, and about midnight I determined to take a

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good long country walk and struck out right along the

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road to Strathkinness. It was a hot, dark and stormy night,

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not wet. Fitful black clouds floated now and again at

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a rapid pace over the moon, which now and then

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shone out brightly in the distance. The sea made a

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perpetual moan, and at intervals the dark eastern sky was

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lit up by flashes of summer wild fire lightning over

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the distant cathedral towers. Now and again I could hear

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the mutter of far away thunder, and there were incessant

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gusts of wind. I must have been about two miles

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along the road when I could descend some very large

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object approaching me rapidly. As it came nearer, I noticed

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it resembled a co dark, heavy primitive. It seemed to

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have four large black horses, and the driver was a muffled,

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shapeless figure. It approached with a low humming or buzzing sound,

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which was most peculiar and unpleasant to hear. The horses

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made a hollow kind of ticking sound with their feet.

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Otherwise it was noiseless, no earthly coach of the kind

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could go without any ordinary sound. It was weird and

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aerie in the extreme. As it passed me, the moon

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shone out brightly, and I saw for a second a

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ghastly white face at the coach window. But I saw

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those four strange, silent black horses, the more extraordinary tall,

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swallowed up, shapeless driver, and the quaint black, gloomy ole

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coach with a coffin shaped box on the roof, only far,

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far too well. One most remarkable thing was that it

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threw no shadow of any kind. Just as it passed me,

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there was terrific roar of thunder and a blaze of

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lightning that nearly blinded me. And in the distance I

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saw that horrible, ghastly receding coach. Then clouds came over

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the moon, and all was black and darkness. One could

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fail a darkness of a shut up, smothering vault. I

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felt sick and dazed. For a minute or two. I

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could not make out if I had been struck by

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the lightning or was paralyzed. However, after a bit had

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passed off, it was a horrible, deathly failing. While it lasted,

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I never experienced a similar sensation before or since, and

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I hope I never may again. Another very curious thing

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was the behavior of my favorite Collie dog, usually frightened

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at nothing, on the approach of the phantom. For phantom

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it was, he crouched down, shivering and whining, and as

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it drew nearer, fled with a bark like a screech,

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and cowered down in the ditch at the roadside and

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gave forth low growls. Tell you boys, it's all right

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in this room to talk about it, But none of

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you would have liked to be in my place that queer,

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uncanny night on that lonely road. That it was supernatural.

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I am convinced it is a very thin veil between

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us and the unseen world of spirits. They say I

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possess a seventh sense, namely second sight, and I know

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I shall never forget that night's experience. But listen, the

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story has not yet ended. Next morning, a telegram arrived

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from my brother in Kent. Are you all right? I

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wondered much, and whired back that I was very well.

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The following day a letter came from my brother giving

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me a curious explanation. The following afternoon, of the day

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I saw the coach. My brother was looking out of

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the old manor house windows in Kent when he and

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several others noticed a large bird having most peculiar plumage,

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seated on the garden wall. No one had ever seen

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a bird of the king before. He was rushing off

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for a gun to shoot it, when her father, who

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looked very white and scared, stopped him. Do not shoot,

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he said, it would be of no use. That is

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the bird of ill Omen to all our race. It

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only appears before a death. I have only once seen

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it before that week your dear mother died. My brother

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was so alarmed at this that he sent the wire

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I have mentioned to me at Saint Andrew's. By the

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next maile from Australia, we learned that our eldest brother

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had died there the very day I saw the coach

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at Saint Andrew's and my brother saw the bird at

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her old home in Kent. Very odd, is it not?

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But what do you know about that coach? Only tales,

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I said. Many people swear they have heard it or

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seen it on stormy nights. I know a girl who

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swears to it, and also a doctor who has passed

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it on the road, and it nearly frightened his horse

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to death, and him too. The tale of the two

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tramps is funny. They were trudging into Saint Andrew's one

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wild stormy night when this uncanny coach overtook them. It stopped,

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the door opened, and a white hand beckoned towards them.

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One tramp brushed up and got in. Then suddenly the

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door noiselessly shut and the coach moved off, leaving the

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other tramp alone in the pitiless wind and rain. I

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never saw my old mate again, said the tramp when

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he told the tale, and I never shall that their

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old coach was nothing of this here world of ours.

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It took my old mate off to Davy Jones's locker.

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Mighty smart, poor fellow. They say his body was found

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in the sea some months afterwards, And the taiale goes

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that the phantom coach finishes its nocturnal journey in the

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waves of Saint Andrew's Bay. Whose coach is it asked

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all that were in the room, I cannot say. Some

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say Bethune, others Sharp and others Haxton. I do not

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know who is supposed to be the figure inside? And

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let it is his satanic majesty himself. At all events.

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It seems a certain fact that a phantom coach has

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been seen from time to time on the roads round

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Saint Andrew's. I have never seen any of these things myself,

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well said Carson, that awful coach does appear. It appeared

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to me, and doubtless, in the course of time, will

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appear to many others. It bodes no one any good,

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and I pity with all my heart anyone who meets it.

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Beware of those roads late at night, or like me,

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you may some day, to your injury, meet that ghastly,

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uncanny old phantom coach. If so, you will remember it

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to your dying day. Curious thing that about seeing the

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coach and the bird at the same time, and in

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two places so far apart, murmured the golfing Johnny, and

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then Carson's brother dying too. I'd sooner say the bird

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than the coach, said one guess. I'd rather not see

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ither of them, said an American present. Glad we have

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no phantom coaches in Yankee Land. This is the end

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of the true Tale of the Phantom Coach by W. T.

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Linskill