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Speaker 1: The Green and Gold Bug by J. M. Alviy. The

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inquest was over. The coroner had gone, and so had

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the twelve men who formed his jury. The police officials

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and reporters for the press had ceased to ring our doorbell.

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The undertaker, polite and slow spoken, had got his work

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well in hand, and the two coffins lay side by

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side in the dimly lighted parlor. An odd silence was

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in the house where, only a few hours ago, grim

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tragedy stalked its hideous way. But I am starting my

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story at the wrong end. Let us turn back forty

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eight hours to the beginning. It was on Wednesday night,

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and my uncle and I, dressed for dinner, sat each

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at a window in the living room, watching every passing

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taxi on the street. At last one stopped outside. Two

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figures stepped out into the cold night, and while one

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paid the taxi driver, the other rushed up the front

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steps and came into the front hall and flung her

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arms around my uncle's neck. It was my kid's sister, Joe,

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back from a five month honeymoon in the far distant

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and mysterious countries of the Orient. Well, well, said my

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uncle is the little rosebud, glad to be home again

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and rest once more in her uncle's arms. And Joe

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said yes, oh, yes, and burst out crying, and hid

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her face on my uncle's oversized vest and held his

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coat lapels each with a tiny girlish hand. I went

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out to greet her husband, but fell back before him

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as he advanced. Shocked was I at the the change

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in his appearance. From a handsome youth, well built and smiling,

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he had become a pale, shriveled figure which staggered under

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the weight of the light hand baggage he was dragging

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into the house. My uncle and I had planned to

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give the travelers a royal welcome. Our plans, however, were

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rudely swept aside, and the bridegroom was rushed upstairs to bed,

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and the doctor summoned. Just what the sick man's ailment was.

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The physician was unable to determine. There were times when

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his heart raised like fury, and his breath came in gasps,

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and his neck swelled and his eyes bulged. At such

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time he clutched the bedclothes with an iron claw and

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tried to raise himself. Then the spell would pass like

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a snap of the fingers, and the patient would relax

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and fall back, as if exhausted from a violent struggle.

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About midnight, he rested easily, and Joe, my uncle, and

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I sat down to the untasted dinner. A month ago

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in China, said Joe. We went up into the mountains

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one day to a temple where a horrible old creature

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sat on the floor with incense burning all around him.

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He was a magician or priest or soothsayer or something,

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and had power with the Chinese gods. But Dick laughed

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at him and said the poor Chinamen were suckers to

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fall for his line. And the magician was angry and

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rose up in his ugliness and put a curse on

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Dick and on his family. Dick was going to fight

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him right there, and we would have been murdered, I'm sure.

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Only I pulled him away and made him take me

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quickly back into the city, And that night, said Joe,

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Dick had the first atack. Josephine cried, my uncle, do

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you know what you are saying? I'm confound it, my dear,

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what nonsense? Put a curse on him? You know better

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than to believe such trash curse. The devil. My dear,

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Dick has got some low down foreign plague. It doesn't

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matter whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in power.

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There's no place like the USA con found these outlandish,

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god forsaken, evil smelling places where all the pests and

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misery of the world are bred. Dick's got the bubonic plague,

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or the berry berry, or some such foolish thing. Joe

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told us that Dick got over the first attack in

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a few hours, but two weeks later, on the first

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night out at sea, on the way home, he had

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the second, and it was worse than the first. After that,

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they became more frequent and more violent, and Dick was

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wasting away, and poor Joe's heart was breaking. Fiddle sticks,

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said my uncle Bosh, and Tommy Rot curse my eye.

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I'm no doctor, but the lad's got some heathen disorder.

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But cheer up, little woman. We'll have your lover overhauled

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and in a one shape in a jiffy. It might

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take a month to get real sick in China, but

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that's China. You're home now, my dear, and it doesn't

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take all day to get a pain in the tummy here,

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nor all night to get over it. Just smile, little girl,

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and get ready to go to housekeeping. That's what it

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was two o'clock before the house settled down. It was

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three when I heard a noise outside my door. I

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went out to see what it was. The light at

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the top of the stairs had been left burning, and

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as I opened my door there was enough light to

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show me the deformed creature that was creeping along the

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wall of the hallway. A hideous man, a weird beast,

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some terrible imp from hell. What I could not say?

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So awful? Was it, so unlike anything I have ever

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seen or heard of or fancied. And this thing opened

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the door of the honeymooner's room and passed in. I

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had no revolver, so I took up a dumbbell that

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I used in the morning for exercise and went to

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the door of the room where the thing had entered.

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I opened it and reached in and snapped on the lights.

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In the bed lay the travelers sound asleep. I went

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over and touched them to make sure they were only sleeping.

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I looked under the bed, in the closet, and out

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on the porch roof under the windows. There was nothing there.

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Joe open mouthed and wide eyed, caused me to pull

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my head in from the window. What's the matter, what's

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the matter? Nothing, I said, don't be frightened. I thought

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I heard the fire engines going downtown and came over

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to look. I went downstairs to look around a bit.

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The hall, the parlors, the dining room were all empty.

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But in the little passage that runs from the dining

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room to the kitchen, I thought I heard a footstep.

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I was sure I did. I stood and listened. Then

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somebody sneezed. I pulled the swinging door open. There stood

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my uncle in his night shirt. God bless my soul,

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he said, I was about to shoot you. You're catching cold.

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I told him go to bed. What are you tramping

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around here for this time of night? Why are you, sir?

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I heard a noise, I explained, So did I, and

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I thought I saw something thought he cried. Thought, Hell,

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I did you did? Where? You saw it too? Yes,

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in the corner outside my room. You're lucky, said my uncle.

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I saw it in my room. He smiled, a grim smile.

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I was so shocked that I could not move. After

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it left, I got up and came down here. I

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thought it might have come this way. Now, I said,

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it came past my room and went into their room.

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The next day, the sick man was much improved, Joe

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was brighter, My uncle smiled in spite of his troubled mind.

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I said nothing. That night. We went to bed early.

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I was tired out and soon fell asleep. It was

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three o'clock again when I heard a noise. This time

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I rushed out and came face to face with the

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unearthly visitor. It gave me one mighty crack on the

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chin and sent me back into my room. I lay

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on the floor in a semi day's condition for full

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five minutes, as well as I can estimate. Then I

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grabbed my dumbbell and went out again. As on the

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previous night. I went to the door of Joe's room

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and opened it and switched on the lights. On the

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floor lay Joe, blood at her mouth and nose. Across

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the foot of the bed. Lay her husband, looking more

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like his old self than I had seen him since

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the day of his wedding. I told my story at

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the inquest. The police officials laughed at it. The reporters

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seized upon it as great stuff for the papers. The

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coroner's jury considered it gravely and then gave it as

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their verdict that Josephine Blackton was murdered by her husband,

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Richard Blackton, who afterward died by his own hand. They

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were right, and yet they were wrong. I have found

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new evidence. I shall make it known. In the trunks

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of the honeymooners which arrived tonight, was a collection of curios.

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Among them was a small bottle containing a strange insect,

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a green and gold colored bug, and the bottle was

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labeled shang Tang January fifteenth, the strange bug that stung

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Dick last night. We believe that someone threw it in

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the window. I don't like the idea of a murder

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and a suicide in our family. I don't want the

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coroner's verdict to stand. I'm going to prove that an

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enraged old magician in the mountains near shang Tung caused

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the green and gold bug to be thrown in the

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window where the Americans were staying, and it poisoned Dick

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and slowly drove him mad, destroying his human qualities, mind

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and body. And that the two who lay side by

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side in their coffins were both murdered, and that the

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murderer sits among his incense burners seven thousand miles away.

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I'm going to prove it if I have to go

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to China. The End of the Green and Gold Bug

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by J. M. Alvey