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Speaker 1: The jungle presence by Dick Heine. I believe that if

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I had been less fatigued mentally and physically, I should

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have escaped in some degree the agony of that terrible night,

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the night that shall never be forgotten. While I linger

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in the flesh, the berman sun had finished its gorching

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course of the day and was sinking behind a dust

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and haze horizon, painting the sky and leaving very little

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breeze to cool the tired men and beasts whose day

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was done. The quiet of the evening fell upon me

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as I walked toward my bungalow through the lanes of

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thirsty green. I had worked hard that day. The company's

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warehouse men would have his hands full to handle the

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large number of boxes I had shipped. I rested outside

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half an hour before going in for a bath and

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clean white cloathes. Then, refreshed and cool, I ate the

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light supper my Chinese boy Lun Ku had prepared for me.

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The moon had risen when I went to the veranda

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to sit in smoke. I propped my feet up and

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faced the wide grove and lawn. The jagged edge of

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a large palm leaf hung over the face of the moon,

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cutting the yellow disk into triangles. I sat quietly for

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an hour and enjoyed pipe after pipe. As I was

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thinking of retiring, I felt a hot breeze coming from

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the grove. The air was hot, oppressive, beyond anything I

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had ever experienced. At evening, at once I became uneasy.

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The nicotine had made me restless, and a sinking, apprehensive

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feeling came over me. Then came the hint of the presence,

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the evil presence. The realization that I was being watched

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filled me with horrid dread. The thought of impending danger,

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an indescribable something about me that sought to do me

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hurt made my heart quake with fear, a man shaking, sickened,

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terrorized with fear. The very shame of it cut me

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to the quick. I leapt to my feet and dashed

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into the house. My forehead was wet with sweat, and

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my cheeks were pale. I drank some liquor and paced

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the room. After three quarters of an hour, I managed

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to brace up my nerves a little. I would not

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yield to the evil will of the presence without and

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so determined that I would not be driven from my

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own veranda by an imaginary danger. I returned to the

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porch and stood by the roof post. The hot wave

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still veiled, and I felt my nervousness returning. Then, as

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I looked into the moonlit grove, I heard a sigh

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very near me, but in front, behind, or where, I

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could not tell, only near. A moment later, there came

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to my nostrils a peculiar smell, a foul scent from

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the far hung tangles of rotting vegetation. I stood still

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and thought I saw in the air before my face

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two little green sparks of light, shining with a brilliance

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of polished diamonds. My strength came. I had seen something

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material and feared no longer. The sweat cooled, I passed

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my hands before my face, and the lights were gone.

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I felt that I had met and conquered a foe,

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half material and perhaps half illusion. I could retire and

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sleep in peace. Lun Ku slept in the rear of

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the bungalow and had gone to bed when I went

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in the second time. My room was in front, with

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a window opening to the porch. I found the room

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cooler with the windows closed, as it barred the hot

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breeze for fifteen minutes. I deliberated with myself about the needle.

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I ended by using it. I shot it home pitilessly,

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and my pierced muscle quivered under the thrust. There were

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many little marks on my arms. I felt ashamed. But

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the sleep, the RESTful oblivion, could anything be sweeter? Before

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the drug had begun to work, I fastened the room

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up tight and lay down. It was close, of course,

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But why should I mind that I should sleep? My

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breath came deep and long, falling through spain, weightless and

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devoid of reason. A million miles that's not far to

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fall ten times a million miles I fell. I fell

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the stars and planets but sparks of light, and I

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myself only a small golden pin head. What is myself?

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The river was deep, the grass was green. I am

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taller than he is. His mouth is funny, his eyes

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are green, They are diamonds. What makes him move his head?

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So he wheezes? He sighs. That's old, mother Hubbard. That

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spider works, sand, salt water, blue rainbow colors? What senseless?

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And falling through space? What is space? It all happened

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in a fraction of a second. Crazy nothings distractions of

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a tortured brain. Was I dreaming? Am I dreaming? Am

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I dreaming? Something seems awfully heavy? Hot, oppressive, magnetic. It's

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not heavy near my face. It has no weight on

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my face, but down on my legs. The weight is terrible.

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What makes it so heavy? The coverings are not pulled

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over me? Spending months in a moment, decades in a second.

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I broke the spell and became conscious. This state constituted

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only a few perceptions. My eyes were closed. I was

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myself resting where I always rested, in space. For I

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am space, the beginning and the ending of space. I

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was somewhere. There was an evil presence. The hot presence

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there hovered over me, the hint of danger, not now,

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but in. If I knew what the danger was, I

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might resist. The weight of the hint bored down upon

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my upper body, a spiritual weight with a crushing force.

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The heavy material weight on my abdomen and legs was

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nothing compared to it. The greater the power of evil,

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the heavier was its atmosphere. I had thought that this

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idea of crushing weight had been part of the dream,

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but consciousness proved it to be real. I began to

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be more aware of my body. My hands were folded

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across my chest and suffered from the pressure. My eyes

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would not open. There seemed to be a power above

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me that kept them closed, and I did not want

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to open them. I felt that when they did open.

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I felt that when they did open, I would lose

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the poise of my high strung nerves. The sweat steeped

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from my skin. My forehead felt as if the most

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powerful magnet in existence were trying to draw out my brains.

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If I opened my eyes, the magnet would get in

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its work. Then it occurred to me that perhaps I

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had seemingly died, been buried, alive, come to life again,

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and that the heaviness torturing me was the foul air

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of the coffin. I had no record of time. Suddenly

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I felt the veil of weight beginning to lift. My

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eyelids twitched they would open. Unable to resist, I opened

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my eyes wide. Apparently I was in my room. The

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moonlight came in wan swords through the slits and the blinds.

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There was barely enough light to make objects perceptible. I

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heard a faint sigh, though somewhat louder than the one

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I had heard on the veranda. Then there came the

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jungle odor, that putrid breath from distant wilds. Turning my

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eyes upward, I perceived the cause of my terror. There,

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with its expanded neck and devilish head, poised in a

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curve within six inches of my face, its eyes staring

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straight into the depth of mine, its body coiled on

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my lower limbs, was the horror of creation, the giant

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cobra di Capello. Somehow, a strange calm came over me,

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and I looked away from the snake. Then I closed

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my eyes and accepted darkness and death. It seemed that

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I waited hours for the blow. If I made a movement,

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perhaps it would come. I decided to end the agony

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by moving. Just as I felt the muscles respond for

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the movement of my legs, I changed my mind. What

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little reason I had left, I would try thought. I

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thought of Coo. If he were asleep, I could not

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wake him by sound, but perhaps I could by thought.

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I turned on the full current. Coo Coo, Coo, Coo

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coo A hundred times. I thought his name and blessed

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his yellow skin. After what seemed an interminable period, I

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heard a light footfall somewhere. I opened my eyes. A

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silent flash streamed toward me from the other side of

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the room, near the hall door. The snake lifted its

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coils from my lower limbs, its oppressive magnetism from my

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upper body, and with a mighty leap, collected its length

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in a writhing mass upon the bedroom floor. Coo had

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risked my life by piercing the snake's head with a

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silence bullet, just a fraction of a second before it

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was to have struck. The leap from the bed was

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aided by the tense muscles prepared for the blow at me.

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I sprang from the bed and switched on the light. Loon.

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Coup stood with pistol trained on the now harmless head,

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and the reptile's reflex action thrashed its tail about the floor.

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How did you know, Cou, I asked, Hot breeze died down, night,

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cool off me feelum dwarf and wakey. Hear something in hall?

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See snaky haunt? Long time for gun? Then shoot? And

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Ku smiled calm and collected, as is ever his kind.

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I looked into the mirror to attest the agony I

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had suffered. I saw that my eyebrows stood straight out

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from the skin, and my forehead was speed with little

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beads of sweated blood. The End of the Jungle Presence

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by Dick Heine