1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:05,839
Speaker 1: At Old Man Eckerts by Ambrose Bierce. Philip Eckert lived

2
00:00:05,879 --> 00:00:09,279
for many years in an old, weather stained wooden house

3
00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:13,640
about three miles from the little town of Marion in Vermont.

4
00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:17,039
There must be quite a number of persons living who

5
00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:21,320
remember him, not unkindly, I trust and know something of

6
00:00:21,359 --> 00:00:26,039
the story I am about to tell. Old Man Eckert,

7
00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,879
as he was called, was not of a sociable disposition

8
00:00:30,239 --> 00:00:33,920
and lived alone. As he was never known to speak

9
00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:38,240
of his own affairs. Nobody thereabout knew anything of his past,

10
00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:43,439
nor of his relatives, if he had any. Without being

11
00:00:43,520 --> 00:00:48,600
particularly ungracious or repellent in manner of speech, he managed

12
00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:53,799
somehow to be immune to impertinent curiosity, yet exempt from

13
00:00:53,799 --> 00:00:59,039
the evil reputation with which it commonly revenges itself when baffled.

14
00:01:00,079 --> 00:01:03,200
So far as I know, mister Eckerts, renowned as a

15
00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:07,200
reformed assassin or a retired pirate of the Spanish main,

16
00:01:07,799 --> 00:01:11,439
had not reached any ear in Marion. He got his

17
00:01:11,519 --> 00:01:16,599
living cultivating a small, not very fertile farm. One day

18
00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:20,719
he disappeared, and a prolonged search by his neighbors failed

19
00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:23,840
to turn him up or throw any light upon his

20
00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:31,079
whereabouts or whyabouts. Nothing indicated preparation to leave. All was

21
00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:32,879
as he might have left it to go to the

22
00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:37,079
spring for a bucket of water. For a few weeks,

23
00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:40,879
little else was talked of in that region. Then old

24
00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,079
man Eckert became a village tale for the ears of strangers.

25
00:01:46,159 --> 00:01:48,920
I do not know what was done regarding his property,

26
00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:54,799
the correct legal thing, doubtless, the house was standing still

27
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:59,400
vacant and conspicuously unfit when I last heard of it

28
00:02:00,239 --> 00:02:05,519
twenty years afterwards. Of course, it came to be considered haunted,

29
00:02:06,159 --> 00:02:11,240
and the customary tales were told of moving lights, dolorous sounds,

30
00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:16,919
and startling apparitions. At one time, about five years after

31
00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:22,439
the disappearance, these stories of the supernatural became so rife, or,

32
00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:27,280
through some attesting circumstance, seemed so important, that some of

33
00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:32,039
Marion's most serious citizens deemed it well to investigate, and

34
00:02:32,159 --> 00:02:35,080
to that end are arranged for a night's session on

35
00:02:35,199 --> 00:02:40,120
the premises. The parties to this undertaking were John Holcombe,

36
00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:45,360
an apothecary, Wilson Merle, a lawyer, and Andrews C. Palmer,

37
00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:49,599
the teacher of the public school, all men of consequence

38
00:02:49,759 --> 00:02:53,599
and repute. They were to meet at Holcombe's house at

39
00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:56,719
eight o'clock in the evening of the appointed day, and

40
00:02:56,879 --> 00:02:59,840
go together to the scene of their vigil, where certain

41
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,360
arrangements for their comfort a provision of fuel in the

42
00:03:03,599 --> 00:03:08,039
like where the season was winter had been already made.

43
00:03:08,599 --> 00:03:11,919
Palmer did not keep the engagement, and after waiting half

44
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:14,479
an hour for him, the others went to the Eckert

45
00:03:14,479 --> 00:03:18,800
house without him. They established themselves in the principal room,

46
00:03:19,199 --> 00:03:22,120
before a glowing fire, and without other light than it

47
00:03:22,199 --> 00:03:26,560
gave a waiting events he it had been agreed to

48
00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:30,280
speak as little as possible. They did not even renew

49
00:03:30,840 --> 00:03:35,319
or exchange views regarding the defection of Palmer, which had

50
00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:40,439
occupied their minds on the way. Probably an hour had

51
00:03:40,479 --> 00:03:45,360
passed without incident, when they heard, not without emotion, doubtless,

52
00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,120
the sound of an opening door in the rear of

53
00:03:48,159 --> 00:03:52,120
the house, followed by footfalls in the room adjoining that

54
00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:56,520
in which they sat. The watchers rose to their feet,

55
00:03:56,599 --> 00:04:01,639
but stood firm, prepared for whatever might ensue. A long

56
00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:06,479
silence followed. How long neither would afterward undertake to say.

57
00:04:07,759 --> 00:04:10,719
Then the door between the two rooms opened and a

58
00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:15,680
man entered. It was Palmer. He was pale, as if

59
00:04:15,719 --> 00:04:19,639
from excitement, as pale as the others felt themselves to be.

60
00:04:21,199 --> 00:04:25,319
His manner, too, was singularly distraught. He neither responded to

61
00:04:25,399 --> 00:04:29,759
their salutations, nor so much as looked at them, but

62
00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,519
walked slowly across the room in the light of the

63
00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:36,720
failing fire, and, opening the front door, passed out into

64
00:04:36,759 --> 00:04:40,519
the darkness. It seems to have been the first thought

65
00:04:40,519 --> 00:04:44,240
of both men that Palmer was suffering from fright, that

66
00:04:44,319 --> 00:04:48,439
something seen or heard or imagined in the back room

67
00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:53,040
had deprived him of his senses. Acting on the same

68
00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:56,439
friendly impulse, both ran after him through the open door.

69
00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:02,600
But neither they nor anyone ever again saw or heard

70
00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,959
of Andres Palmer. This much was ascertained the next morning,

71
00:05:09,319 --> 00:05:12,680
during the session of Messrs Holcombe and Merle at the

72
00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:16,839
Haunted House, a new snow had fallen to a depth

73
00:05:16,879 --> 00:05:22,600
of several inches upon the old. In this snow, Palmer's

74
00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:25,480
trail from his lodging in the village to the back

75
00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:30,240
door of the eckered house was conspicuous, But there it ended.

76
00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:34,800
From the front door nothing led away but the tracks

77
00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:38,360
of the two men, who swore that he preceded them

78
00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:43,920
Palmer's disappearance was as complete as that of Old Man

79
00:05:43,959 --> 00:05:49,439
Eckered himself, whom, indeed, the editor of the local paper

80
00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:54,439
somewhat graphically accused of having reached out and pulled him

81
00:05:54,439 --> 00:06:02,360
in the end of at Old Man Eats by Ambrose Bierce,