Speaker 1: Chapter four of The Feasting Dead by John Metcalf. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker.
Speaker 1: Chapter four. Disheartening news was confirmed in a letter from
Speaker 1: him the next morning, explaining that he would have joined
Speaker 1: me instantly had not his partner been somewhat indisposed and
Speaker 1: hardly capable till the promised Tuesday of shouldering the extra work. Well,
Speaker 1: it was more than I had had the right to
Speaker 1: hope that my friend should have been able to arrange
Speaker 1: to get away at all, and heaven knew I blessed him.
Speaker 1: During the weekend, however, my feeling of tension increased and
Speaker 1: was appreciably heightened, as it happened by my host's ill humor.
Speaker 1: Monsieur Viaillon, after our recent row, had offered me a
Speaker 1: somewhat grudging apology for his rudeness, but now he was
Speaker 1: exasperated again upon a different score. While I had had
Speaker 1: from Goderic a cheering and reassuring letter, he had received
Speaker 1: it seemed a violent and upsetting one. The aunt he
Speaker 1: told me, with whom Les Petite as been staying, had
Speaker 1: written saying she was compelled to visit Tunisi on business.
Speaker 1: It might be for several months, and must accordingly send
Speaker 1: her brother in law's children home. It is an excuse,
Speaker 1: he fumed, business pah Z cannot come here. Yet not
Speaker 1: yet my sympathy for him, when I remembered the plight
Speaker 1: of my own boy was not excessive, and privily I
Speaker 1: blamed no aunt for getting sick of young Marcel and Augustine.
Speaker 1: But the matter set my mind running with a revival
Speaker 1: of curiosity on the connection or, in the case of denis,
Speaker 1: actual relationship between our respective families. For it was through
Speaker 1: the sister of this same discredited and disobliging lady that
Speaker 1: it existed. She had been, before her marriage to Monsieur Vignon,
Speaker 1: a Mademoiselle Drouard, and by a common ancestor of regenerations back,
Speaker 1: a cousin, though I do not think they knew each
Speaker 1: other of my wife's. This train of thought led naturally
Speaker 1: to a reconsideration of the whole question of Monsieur Vignon's
Speaker 1: conduct and attitude throughout, and here I was, as far
Speaker 1: as ever from a satisfactory conclusion. He had blown hot
Speaker 1: and cold, and been by turns solicitous and callous, courteous
Speaker 1: and grossly and polite. He had been contrite enough, if
Speaker 1: it were that, to break off the holiday exchange arrangement,
Speaker 1: yet insufficiently honest to warn me plainly about Raoul. He
Speaker 1: had had the grace later to wire me twice after
Speaker 1: Dennis had run away to France, But then when I
Speaker 1: arrived for the retrieval of my truant had given me
Speaker 1: no help. There was no making the man out. I
Speaker 1: had been puzzling alone upon the Saturday evening over these
Speaker 1: and allied problems when I heard a confused noise of
Speaker 1: angry shouting. The sounds seemed to come from the direction
Speaker 1: of the stables, suggesting by their volume and persistence, that
Speaker 1: several persons, possibly a dozen or so, were engaged in
Speaker 1: a violent fracas. But by the time I had gone
Speaker 1: out to look, just as the hubbub had rather suddenly subsided.
Speaker 1: The disputants must evidently have stopped their fight and scattered.
Speaker 1: Crossing the basse cour However, I saw a man limping
Speaker 1: painfully and holding a blood stained rag to his face.
Speaker 1: I recognized him as a fellow I had noticed driving
Speaker 1: one of the wagons that carried hay or milk and
Speaker 1: butter from the Lettoi, and might have asked him what
Speaker 1: the trouble was, had I not, at that moment caught
Speaker 1: from somewhere within the shrilly furious tones of Monsieur Vignon
Speaker 1: As to this incident. It was again from dor Lot
Speaker 1: that I received enlightenment and complete though it was his
Speaker 1: master who made no allusion to the matter. Having retired
Speaker 1: immediately after dinner, he do'r low brought me my customary
Speaker 1: glass of lonely brandy in the library and said that
Speaker 1: passel of rascals from Sainte Aauvin were after Baptiste and
Speaker 1: your boys this afternoon and nearly had them too. What,
Speaker 1: I exclaimed, alarmed, After my boy, what for is he
Speaker 1: all right? The man replied coldly, addressing the ceiling. It appeared,
Speaker 1: rather than.
Speaker 2: Me, the young Monsieur is entirely unharmed since they were
Speaker 2: unable to catch him. But Baptiste, that one, he certainly
Speaker 2: got a scratcher too. But why why should they be attacked,
Speaker 2: Dorleo shrugged, spreading his hands. People here, monsieur are superstitious.
Speaker 2: They are believers in all kinds of nonsense, and possibly
Speaker 2: as a young Monsieur had been doing something quite inadvertently
Speaker 2: which caused them to suspect him song Deer most wrongfully
Speaker 2: of dealing in in such matters. I cannot tell enfant
Speaker 2: the two of them, he and Baptiste, were pursued by
Speaker 2: this band of ignor remesses and ruffians into our very yard,
Speaker 2: where they found a refuge. It is unfortunate, he added,
Speaker 2: as if meditatively, that certainly, even of our own servants,
Speaker 2: who should take sides with this rabber, enough, it is
Speaker 2: no longer my affair, or properly my concern. Dixis bleis tomorrow.
Speaker 2: I was exceedingly disturbed not only by Dorlau's story and
Speaker 2: its implications, but also, if to a less degree, by
Speaker 2: his announcement of departure. It would have been foolish to
Speaker 2: regard him as an ally. Yet he had not been
Speaker 2: actively hostile, and latterly had constituted almost my only source
Speaker 2: of news concerning Denis. As to the tale itself, more
Speaker 2: lay behind it, obviously than Dorleau would disclose. But of
Speaker 2: this I could guess at a good deal amongst the peasantry.
Speaker 2: Denis would but to naturally be a prime object of suspicion.
Speaker 2: And it was really a wonder he had evaded molestation
Speaker 2: if he had till now the man Batiste surmisably had
Speaker 2: been his friend or his associate, and fallen consequently under
Speaker 2: the same stigma. Evidently, the business had attained the proportions
Speaker 2: of a feud, and Monsieur Viallan's ranks within the chateau
Speaker 2: had been split. Dor Lo, I fancied, would not lack
Speaker 2: company upon the train tomorrow. While I was counting the
Speaker 2: hours to god arrival, with a fresh sense of urgency,
Speaker 2: I renewed vainly my efforts to lessen Dennis's hostility. I
Speaker 2: no longer hoped now for a full reconciliation so speedily,
Speaker 2: but short of that I would have liked before Goderic
Speaker 2: lent me what help he could to be at all
Speaker 2: events on speaking terms with my own child. Twice I
Speaker 2: tried to talk with him through his locked door, receiving
Speaker 2: on the first occasion no reply, and on the second
Speaker 2: the response, Oh go away, I hate you. And twice
Speaker 2: also I got with an undignified hailing distance of him
Speaker 2: in the grounds, only to be humiliated by his almost
Speaker 2: off handedly contemptuous flight. Obviously, at any time I might
Speaker 2: probably have rallied Monsieur Vagnon's odds and ends of still
Speaker 2: faithful retainers. A further couple had left with door low
Speaker 2: in the morning to round up my quarry, and then
Speaker 2: forced him as my prisoner, to parley. But such trappings
Speaker 2: or waylayings would have been very much against the grain, and,
Speaker 2: as I saw it, then, have done more harm than good.
Speaker 2: What I would wonder could be his view of the position,
Speaker 2: How in his own opinion was he faring Pretty Evidently
Speaker 2: he had expected, or at least hoped, to find his
Speaker 2: odious playmate here and had not. Monsieur Vignon told me
Speaker 2: that he Dennis, would do his best to get Raoul back,
Speaker 2: and that, however, so far as I could judge, he
Speaker 2: had been disappointed. What had become of the physical Raoul,
Speaker 2: of the physical aspect of him, I had no idea. Presumably,
Speaker 2: after my half throttling of him, he had returned somehow
Speaker 2: to France, but had not yet I trusted reappeared in
Speaker 2: his old haunts. Upon this point I could have to
Speaker 2: be sure no certainty. But whoever or whatever the creature was,
Speaker 2: its headquarters seemed to lie on this side of the channel,
Speaker 2: and the next step of minimum precaution was to transport
Speaker 2: Denis to the other Monday and tomorrow Godteric would be here. Indeed,
Speaker 2: a letter for him au Sooins de Monsieur Vignon had
Speaker 2: rather surprisingly preceded him, already arriving together with one from
Speaker 2: me from Jenny. The weather was still gloomy, rainless but boding,
Speaker 2: and again I strolled dejectedly around the nearer fields. The landscape,
Speaker 2: as before was sere and sullen, but its mood, to
Speaker 2: my imagining, had subtly changed, the sense of stealthy ferment
Speaker 2: and evil. Quickening had departed, and the drab acres had
Speaker 2: an empty look, as if delivered or relieved of something.
Speaker 2: Loth to accuse myself of being over fanciful, I stared
Speaker 2: about me, seeking for anything that might account more factually
Speaker 2: for this impression, but could find nothing. Merely the scarecrow
Speaker 2: I had noticed formerly had gone, having been removed and
Speaker 2: set up for whatever none too obvious reason, as I
Speaker 2: subsequently discovered in another field considerably closer to the house,
Speaker 2: I wandered slowly.
Speaker 1: Back to the chateau. Help was at last at hand,
Speaker 1: for Goderic should be here tomorrow evening. Yet my heart
Speaker 1: was curiously unlightened the countryside, lowering in secret with that
Speaker 1: discharged and voided aspect of an ominous fulfillment, seemed to
Speaker 1: wear a mien of hidden ridicule, of some kind of
Speaker 1: deceptive somnolence and inward mockery, as though it were laughing
Speaker 1: at me up its sleeve. Nonsense. I tried to think,
Speaker 1: what utter nonsense? With a derisive apt theatricality. A trio
Speaker 1: of stage property bats, encouraged by the dusk, skimmed past
Speaker 1: me as I turned by the corner of a barn,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly I had a shock. Hello, Daddy, said Denis.
Speaker 1: He was there in front of me, shyly, smiling and
Speaker 1: addressing me in this form he had discarded for some
Speaker 1: years as babyish. His clothes were stained and torn, and
Speaker 1: his cheeks wand under their grime. I did not believe
Speaker 1: he had washed properly for days. But it was far
Speaker 1: less his ragamuffin air that horrified me than his manner.
Speaker 1: It was flat and almost bored, yet confident, casual and unconstrained,
Speaker 1: and some utterly wrong way, as though he were so
Speaker 1: tired out with whatever he had been up to that
Speaker 1: he had forgotten even what it was. How could he
Speaker 1: else have carried it? Off with this weary this to
Speaker 1: me actually hideous a plume. He stood gazing at me
Speaker 1: in a sort of forlorn and rather vacant friendliness, as
Speaker 1: if nothing had happened, as if he were completely unconscious
Speaker 1: of my misery or his own. Come in, I think,
Speaker 1: I said to him, And and talk things over, shall we? Yes,
Speaker 1: he replied absently. All right, I'm hungry too, he paused,
Speaker 1: then added reconsideringly, and as a careful qualification, that is,
Speaker 1: you know, not really very We had begun to walk
Speaker 1: on from the barn, and the fading light shone briefly
Speaker 1: on his face, discovering there a look that sickened me,
Speaker 1: but is not easy to describe. It was at once
Speaker 1: wily and exhausted, an expression, so to speak, of a
Speaker 1: supreme irrelevance or perviousness, to the situation of a precarious unconcern,
Speaker 1: and hard frivolity or falsity, a falsity all the worse
Speaker 1: for being undeliberate and still childish. My gorge rose as
Speaker 1: at something odious. Rage filled me, and to my dismay,
Speaker 1: I found my fists clenched to strike him. It was
Speaker 1: with the greatest effort that I controlled the impulse, Denis,
Speaker 1: I heard myself saying, Dennis, my anger had turned suddenly
Speaker 1: to yearning, and I had him unresisting in my arms.
Speaker 1: He was light as a feather, limply yielding and weighing nothing,
Speaker 1: almost nothing, I felt, while I strained him to me,
Speaker 1: as if he were liable at any instant to melt
Speaker 1: away from my embrace into thin air. At the chateau,
Speaker 1: when we entered, Monsieur Viagnon had just come into the hall,
Speaker 1: gaping at us as though quite confounded. I do not
Speaker 1: really know how the next few hours passed, what words
Speaker 1: were said, or what was done in them, I do
Speaker 1: know and remmember that they were not happy or triumphant
Speaker 1: hours alas far from that, A deep emotional conviction of
Speaker 1: impending sorrow or calamity persisted, and I could not banish
Speaker 1: it superficially. It was to the good that the pursuits,
Speaker 1: the trappings and lassoings I had envisaged, were dispensed with.
Speaker 1: Yet what had I instead not, Denis? That was the trouble.
Speaker 1: It was only the curious shell of him I had.
Speaker 1: He was a wandling, almost changeling, something that most horribly
Speaker 1: denied each trait and feature of the Denis I recalled,
Speaker 1: and of which the contemplation could but be agonizing. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: as I say, this unexpected turn of events was a
Speaker 1: practical simplification. Presumably Denis would come quietly and not have
Speaker 1: to be dragged home a prisoner goderic when he arrived,
Speaker 1: would have nothing to do but go back with us again.
Speaker 1: And then are you tired? I believe, I asked once,
Speaker 1: after all the the camping out, he regarded me queerly,
Speaker 1: had cocked with the suspicious, quasi intelligent incomprehension. The notion
Speaker 1: visited me dreadfully of a parrot, A a little yes, er,
Speaker 1: a little that was all. But the manner, if not
Speaker 1: the matter of the reply, had remained vaguely hostile and
Speaker 1: violently unsatisfactory. His tone held a deplorable sort of cunning,
Speaker 1: or of fancied cunning, as if despite his sudden yielding,
Speaker 1: he still had an ace hidden somewhere in the pack,
Speaker 1: or thought he had what had prompted his surrender. Had
Speaker 1: he merely wearied of roughing it and craved the ordinary
Speaker 1: home comforts he had missed now for three weeks. Had
Speaker 1: his designs, whatever was their nature, been frustrated or miscarried,
Speaker 1: so that at last he had had to give them up.
Speaker 1: Or had he possibly decided that my reinforcement by Goderick,
Speaker 1: of whose coming, apart from servants gossip, he could have
Speaker 1: got wind in any case from the letter in the hall,
Speaker 1: be too much for him, and that he might as
Speaker 1: well cave in to me right away. I must wait
Speaker 1: to find out all that for the time was not propiteous.
Speaker 1: Yet I felt for direct catechizings. Fortunately, perhaps for that
Speaker 1: event at any rate, this question did not arise, as
Speaker 1: Denis professed himself so drowsy that as soon as he
Speaker 1: had had his tea and then a bath, he went
Speaker 1: to bed of Monsieur Villon. Save for his startled apparition
Speaker 1: in the hall, I had seen nothing since lunch. I
Speaker 1: dined alone, and after a couple of pipes in the
Speaker 1: Petit Sidon, was glad to get up to my room. Dennis,
Speaker 1: and I reflected, had forgotten, or at least perhaps on
Speaker 1: both sides, Simmy deliberately omitted to say good night to
Speaker 1: each other. I wondered whether he were yet awake, or
Speaker 1: if his sleep were half as troubled as I feared.
Speaker 1: Likely in his father's case, what dreams would visit him
Speaker 1: next day. I was in two minds about taking Denis
Speaker 1: with me to the station to meet Godderic, deciding finally
Speaker 1: against it. I did not think he would slip off again,
Speaker 1: and if he did, it would only prove his capitulation,
Speaker 1: no real capitulation after all. As to that, indeed, I
Speaker 1: still felt something disquietingly planned or spurious in it, But
Speaker 1: my misgivings did not include now any apprehensions of his
Speaker 1: renewed and literal bolting. Nothing much had happened during the morning.
Speaker 1: Monsieur Vaillon, encountering me just before lunch, congratulated me with
Speaker 1: a deathly simper on my improved entente with Dennis, and
Speaker 1: made no difficulties over lending me the car, which I
Speaker 1: was mightily relieved he did not propose to drive this
Speaker 1: time himself. God Eric would stay one night at the chateau,
Speaker 1: and tomorrow the three of us would return to England.
Speaker 1: I pictured my friend's surprise when he learned of the
Speaker 1: fresh development. In a sense, he would have had his
Speaker 1: journey for nothing. But I didn't think he would mind
Speaker 1: that a wire yesterday evening might just have caught and
Speaker 1: stopped him. But actually Dennis's unexpected surrender had put everything
Speaker 1: else out of my head, and I was selfishly glad
Speaker 1: now that it had. At the station, I had still
Speaker 1: ten minutes to wait, and outside the yard entrance to
Speaker 1: the baggage office, I noticed a wagon drawn up and
Speaker 1: a long box being unloaded from it and then carried
Speaker 1: into the clerk. The wagon I could recognize as from
Speaker 1: the chateau, and the fellow awkwardly shouldering the box was
Speaker 1: I was pretty sure that same batiste I had seen
Speaker 1: limping with the blood stained kerchief to his face in
Speaker 1: the basque cour two days ago. As he climbed again
Speaker 1: into his seat, the Chef de Guere himself came out
Speaker 1: to confer for a few moments with him in an undertone.
Speaker 1: But here, at last was Goderick's train. It had scarcely clinked,
Speaker 1: puffing to a standstill, before he leaped out and clasped
Speaker 1: my hand in his.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: He was saying, it's rather like one's twothaches fleeing on
Speaker 1: the dentist door step. If I hadn't come for nothing,
Speaker 1: as you are so kind as to suggest, you and
Speaker 1: your young Jackanapes would probably still be at Loggerheads. We
Speaker 1: were approaching the chateau when I wondered Goderick's hearty vigor.
Speaker 1: His very tone of cheerful likeness was a gust of
Speaker 1: health and hope from another world. And yet I doubted,
Speaker 1: and was even somehow shocked. If we're not still at
Speaker 1: Loggerheads as it is, I remembered, answering, you'll see for yourself.
Speaker 1: Presently we drove under the porte cochere and alighted. Monsieur
Speaker 1: Viagnon was there to greet us all politeness. A small
Speaker 1: dim figure hung back, hugging the shadows. Hello, scallywagg called
Speaker 1: Goderic II, come out of that. Dennis moved forwards, undecidedly,
Speaker 1: his face again horrified me by its hollow wanness. M
Speaker 1: Godderic commented, not altogether a walking advertisement of anything. I
Speaker 1: must say, that's the deserts of being a wall nineteen
Speaker 1: days adrift.
Speaker 2: Eh.
Speaker 1: But we won't clap him in the glass house this time,
Speaker 1: Sergeant Major. Once more, I gave a mental gasp. I
Speaker 1: did not know whether to admire or be scared out
Speaker 1: of my wits by Godderick's breeziness. Wasn't it I am
Speaker 1: misdoubted a trifle overdone. It jolted me, I think, not
Speaker 1: so much through a fear of its effect on Denis
Speaker 1: as by appearing almost too temporarious, a defiance of the
Speaker 1: evil gods. But Dennis did not seem to mind this joshing.
Speaker 1: He even smiled faintly as Goderic persevered with his hearty
Speaker 1: badinage and ate under the friendly bombardment a reasonably good tea. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: I could divine beneath his fun, poking that Goderic was concerned.
Speaker 1: When Denis had gone off to see the horses fed,
Speaker 1: he said, with Jiji, my friend's expression became grave. What
Speaker 1: do you make of this?
Speaker 2: Have good?
Speaker 1: He surprised me by inquiring I why I I want
Speaker 1: you to tell me, of course, but first I'd be
Speaker 1: interested in your opinions, so far as you have any.
Speaker 1: Do you, for instance? Really? He broke off, Wait a bit?
Speaker 1: Are we likely to be disturbed here? Our perfect host
Speaker 1: isn't liable to butt in, is he? I shouldn't think
Speaker 1: so completely haywire these days, and we probably won't see
Speaker 1: him again. This evening suits me and if but at
Speaker 1: this moment to falsify my prophecy monsieur Vallon did, but
Speaker 1: in insisting upon entertaining us with the most oddly vapid
Speaker 1: small talk until and throughout dinner. And it was only
Speaker 1: when he had at length proffered his excuses and retired
Speaker 1: that I and Goderic could continue our discussion. Dennis himself,
Speaker 1: as on the previous night, had gone early to his bed. Well,
Speaker 1: Goderiic resumed, what is your feeling about the whole thing now,
Speaker 1: for example, and putting a conceivable crack brained impersonation out
Speaker 1: of it, as I think we may. Do you actually
Speaker 1: believe that the pernicious loon we both knew down in
Speaker 1: Hampshire is the same privage whose grave you've said you
Speaker 1: saw near here last week. It it certainly sounds nonsense,
Speaker 1: I replied, nonsense, Yes, naturally it does. But even nonsense
Speaker 1: can be dynamic in its proper realm, where its writ
Speaker 1: runs and it holds sway. It isn't nonsense, and it
Speaker 1: can often effectually intrude into a sphere beyond its own.
Speaker 1: It has become at least mentally real for Dennis, and
Speaker 1: also up to a point for you. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to know how real. I tell you, I don't know
Speaker 1: it simply doesn't add up, all right, It doesn't if
Speaker 1: it did. For instance, this damned sallly door could eventually
Speaker 1: be detraced and be run in for something. But for
Speaker 1: what exactly in what terms could you prefer a charge?
Speaker 1: I'd hate to see you trying. The notion would be
Speaker 1: quite absurd, which just shows you that it can't add
Speaker 1: up for us in any ordinary way. But the next
Speaker 1: obvious practical step, anyhow, is to get your boy as
Speaker 1: clear of it all as we can, and pray that
Speaker 1: later he'll well respond to treatment. But what do you think, honestly?
Speaker 1: Is I faltered? I know what you're going to ask,
Speaker 1: Well is it? Or again is it? How can I tell? It?
Speaker 1: Was there that precious Gabie was, and it appeared to
Speaker 1: be more or less passibly a man, and for some
Speaker 1: revolting reason it wore mittens. Also, it had an arm
Speaker 1: which acted up pretty unorthodoxly. What I don't see is
Speaker 1: how a mere throttling, a semi throttling could have snuffed
Speaker 1: it out and cabashed it at all events, temporarily as
Speaker 1: it seems to have done. No doubt that rubbed in
Speaker 1: the fact that it wasn't too popular and would be
Speaker 1: a deterrent to some extent, but god Eric too hesitated,
Speaker 1: then went on, I don't fancy we can get much
Speaker 1: forward or along those lines. It's easy enough to say
Speaker 1: the whole thing's farcical, and if you could feel that
Speaker 1: as well as say it, it would be fine. What
Speaker 1: about the poltergeist noises? Did they still go on? I
Speaker 1: was told so, I've not heard them here myself and
Speaker 1: the haunted room where you're persuaded the original feefaw FuMB demised,
Speaker 1: how does that come into it? Did our host admit
Speaker 1: definitely that Privosh number one had died?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 1: Definitely no Indeed, he's never said anything definite or straightforward.
Speaker 1: When I did, as it were, challenge him to deny
Speaker 1: that the first prevoge had died where I felt he had.
Speaker 1: He just behaved quite weirdly and was abominably rude and
Speaker 1: accused me of going mad. For some while longer our
Speaker 1: talk continued without leading us to any more concrete conclusion
Speaker 1: than we had reached already. That our sole hope for
Speaker 1: Dennis lay in getting him away immediately, and that when
Speaker 1: this was done, it would be only in the nick
Speaker 1: of time. We thought god Erick and I that we
Speaker 1: were bringing Dennis home, and that morning we treated our
Speaker 1: precious freight as if no precaution for its safety could
Speaker 1: be excessive. Dennis was actually, and in literal truth, so
Speaker 1: worn and wasted that such an attitude would have been
Speaker 1: natural in any case, and I think we both felt
Speaker 1: that unless the greatest care were exercised, he might, as
Speaker 1: it were, collapse in our hands or be blown away
Speaker 1: by a puff. His eyes were lustreless and his skin dry,
Speaker 1: and his manner held some ingredient I could not define,
Speaker 1: at once apathetic and expectant, or perhaps apprehensive. The day
Speaker 1: had broken cloudily after for me a restless night. I
Speaker 1: had had dreams, but could not recall them clearly. Mostly
Speaker 1: they had been of absurdities of Monsieur Vaillon addressing a
Speaker 1: meeting of puppets in the library, of Dorlew roller skating
Speaker 1: somewhere overhead, and even of the ridiculous scarecrow shifting from
Speaker 1: field to field in a continued march towards the house.
Speaker 1: But their persisting savor was oppressive, and I had woken
Speaker 1: from them with nerves jangled. Our train was to leave
Speaker 1: Fawant at about ten thirty, and we had risen. We
Speaker 1: realized rather unnecessarily early. Denis, glancing at us distraightly from
Speaker 1: under lowered brows ate an extremely sketchy breakfast. Once he
Speaker 1: appeared lost in a kind of reverie, and then arousing
Speaker 1: from it with a start, upset his chocolate bowl. The
Speaker 1: slight mishap caused him to open his mouth aghastly in
Speaker 1: an unuttered scream. This time we wouldn't need our host's car.
Speaker 1: I had arranged yesterday for a taxi to come out
Speaker 1: for us from fo Want, and now I prayed it
Speaker 1: might be punctual. Our luggage was stacked in the hall.
Speaker 1: I had tipped the servants, and Monsieur Vignon, dressing gowned,
Speaker 1: had made a grisly mountebank descent to say good bye,
Speaker 1: bowing and stiffly shaking hands. He muttered something else that
Speaker 1: sounded like if it will let you at last, The
Speaker 1: three of us drove off for a while. My spirits lightened,
Speaker 1: and I breathed more freely. Are you all right, I
Speaker 1: asked Dennis.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: Yes, He was next me and facing Godderic, gazing dreamily
Speaker 1: or raptly out of the window. His expression was remote,
Speaker 1: as though he were attending to something we could not
Speaker 1: see or not appreciate his hair I noticed had grown
Speaker 1: long and wanted cutting. Suddenly, from under his seat issued
Speaker 1: a low bark Giji. How he had managed it, I
Speaker 1: did not know, but the little creature must have leaped
Speaker 1: in after Denis, and we should now have to ask
Speaker 1: the station master to restore him to his owner. This
Speaker 1: on a lighting from the taxi, we did, and presently
Speaker 1: the train drew in Denis for a second or two.
Speaker 1: As Godderic and I were about to board, it was
Speaker 1: not to be found, and my heart froze. But next
Speaker 1: moment he came scurrying from the direction of the conseil
Speaker 1: and clambered in with us, just in time. I was
Speaker 1: so thankful at retrieving him. A passion of yearning sympathy
Speaker 1: for my poor darling rose in me, and I pressed
Speaker 1: his arm. The train gathered speed, and I remember sighing
Speaker 1: in relief and thinking that every mile now was a
Speaker 1: mile further towards his safety. Actually, I had hardly expected
Speaker 1: or quite dared to hope we would ever do it,
Speaker 1: ever get away. I had feared all the while that something,
Speaker 1: though I couldn't guess how or what would happen, or
Speaker 1: put out a hand to halt us or detain us
Speaker 1: some sort of accident or hitch, and but my satisfaction
Speaker 1: ebbed and died. Dennis's manner suddenly alarmed me. He was distressed.
Speaker 1: I could not tell why that the scare. He seemed
Speaker 1: to be trying unsuccessfully to say something. Then, changing to
Speaker 1: French at linked, got out le pouvent sidon, He paused,
Speaker 1: and added with an urgency. I could not understand the
Speaker 1: one word Gigi. Sure enough, to my annoyed confusion, the
Speaker 1: dog was there and with us still, Whether or not
Speaker 1: with Dennis's a betting, I did not know. But it
Speaker 1: was not the dog's presence I was bothered over. It
Speaker 1: was the curious looks and bearing of my boy. Another train,
Speaker 1: which must be in Express, was overtaking us, coming up
Speaker 1: rapidly upon a parallel track. Our own train, as if
Speaker 1: inspired to a race, increased its speed, and the Express
Speaker 1: gained on us less swiftly. Gigi had burst in upon us,
Speaker 1: at first delightedly from the corridor, wagging his tail, but
Speaker 1: now appeared strangely subdued. With a short bark of half
Speaker 1: hearted challenge, he slunk cowering under the seat by Denis
Speaker 1: What is it, Dennis, what's the matter? I implored. Godderic
Speaker 1: had pulled out a brandy flask and held it to
Speaker 1: Dennis's lips. They moved slowly and bewilderedly. Le Pouventaire, the
Speaker 1: the scarecrow se Suddenly he broke from us, moaning, and
Speaker 1: dashed into the corridor. Both I and Godderic had grabbed
Speaker 1: at him ineffectually. The dog, as though torn between its
Speaker 1: fear and a kind of loyalty, had emerged from under
Speaker 1: the seat and stood whimpering in the doorway. Thrusting it
Speaker 1: aside with my boot, I followed Denis. The express was
Speaker 1: quickly overhauling us. I could just see at the moment
Speaker 1: the front of its locomotive showing level with the corridor's
Speaker 1: and then creeping foot by foot along our windows. Dennis, Dennis,
Speaker 1: I repeated, what is it? What are you doing? He
Speaker 1: was hunched oddly, staring out at the other train, with
Speaker 1: a quite indescribable look of terror on his face. His
Speaker 1: eyes were round with fright, and his body was pressed
Speaker 1: desperately against the corridor's inner wall, as if, despite his
Speaker 1: fascinated interest, he were trying to get as far from
Speaker 1: the pursuing coaches as he could. What followed has an
Speaker 1: ultra horror and grotesqueness which puts such a strain on
Speaker 1: ordinary credence that even I, who witnessed it, still find
Speaker 1: it hard, if not impossible, at times, to reconcile with
Speaker 1: or accept as literal truth. I cannot in any way
Speaker 1: explain it, but I believe now that something then went
Speaker 1: hideously wrong, went wrong from Denis's and Raoul's point of view,
Speaker 1: I mean, and that whatever sort of ghastly schemes and
Speaker 1: machinations may have been afoot were at the last moment bungled.
Speaker 1: What I did see, or what at all events I
Speaker 1: seemed to see, was the result I feel, of some
Speaker 1: czar and odious miscarriage. I had caught Denis's arm and
Speaker 1: shook it, but he paid no attention to me. Two
Speaker 1: men on the farther side of him stuck curious heads
Speaker 1: out of their compartment and gaped foolishly at us. Behind me,
Speaker 1: squeezed up in the narrow passage, gotderiic was shouting over
Speaker 1: my shoulder, above the uproar of the trains, Come on,
Speaker 1: young man, snap out of it, come back. His voice
Speaker 1: was cool, but he added in my ear, for Heaven's sake,
Speaker 1: get hold of him. Somehow, Dennis had wedged himself against
Speaker 1: the jamb of a half opened door. And it was now,
Speaker 1: as I was struggling in the cramp space to wrest
Speaker 1: him from it, that our own pace abruptly slackened, so
Speaker 1: that the Express began to flash by our windows at
Speaker 1: a rush. I learned later that it was then that
Speaker 1: Goderich had pulled the communication cord. Meanwhile, I still could
Speaker 1: not drag Dennis free. I was aware that he was
Speaker 1: in some awful danger, but tugged at him in vain,
Speaker 1: as in a nightmare. I strained till the sweat stood
Speaker 1: on my forehead, praying that the dream would break. It
Speaker 1: never did, or has. For an instant I had looked
Speaker 1: out of the window the guard's van of the Express
Speaker 1: was just passing us. Something, a long box like a coffin,
Speaker 1: cocked lewdly up and protruding slowly from it, flew out
Speaker 1: of it towards us, and crashed against us. The corridor
Speaker 1: was littered with shivered glass. The train had stopped with
Speaker 1: a violent jolt. People were running along the track, and
Speaker 1: already I caught from somewhere amazed exclamations, O epouvent deel.
Speaker 1: It was in that box there solely a scarecrow. I
Speaker 1: turned again to Denis, thinking I had heard his call Gigi.
Speaker 1: I fancied he had said, But what had happened to
Speaker 1: the dog I did not then or later know or care.
Speaker 1: My boy's face was seamed and wizened as that of
Speaker 1: an old man, and the starkest terror was graven on it.
Speaker 1: His body was now quite limp in my hands. Goderic
Speaker 1: and I carried him back to the compartment and laid
Speaker 1: him on a seat. And it was then I saw
Speaker 1: that before his last cry, his hair, which a change
Speaker 1: to elf locks, had gone white. End of Chapter four
Speaker 1: and end of The Feasting Dead by John Metcalf