1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 1: The striding place by Gertrude Atherton Wegel continental and detached, 2 00:00:07,879 --> 00:00:12,080 tired early of grouse shooting, to stand propped against a 3 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:15,439 sad fence while his host's workmen routed up the birds 4 00:00:15,439 --> 00:00:18,480 with long poles and drove them towards the waiting guns. 5 00:00:19,359 --> 00:00:23,600 Made him feel himself a parody on the ancestors who 6 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,879 had roamed the moors and forests of this west riding 7 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:30,679 of Yorkshire in hot pursuit of game worth the killing. 8 00:00:31,559 --> 00:00:35,600 But when in England in August, he always accepted whatever 9 00:00:35,719 --> 00:00:39,479 proffered for the season, and invited his host to shoot 10 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,719 pheasants on his estates in the south. The amusements of life, 11 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:48,640 he argued, should be accepted with the same philosophy as 12 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:54,320 its ills. It had been a bad day. A heavy 13 00:00:54,399 --> 00:00:57,640 rain had made the moor so spongy that it fairly 14 00:00:57,679 --> 00:01:01,719 sprang beneath the feet. Whether or not the grouse had 15 00:01:01,759 --> 00:01:05,719 haunts of their own, wherein they were immune from rheumatism, 16 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:09,959 the bag had been small. The women, too, were an 17 00:01:10,079 --> 00:01:13,680 unusually dull lot, with the exception of a new minded 18 00:01:13,719 --> 00:01:17,680 debutante who bothered Wagle at dinner by demanding the verbal 19 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:21,920 restoration of the vague paintings on the vaulted roof above them. 20 00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:25,439 But it was no one of these things that sat 21 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:28,480 on Weagle's mind, as when the other men went up 22 00:01:28,519 --> 00:01:32,040 to bed, he let himself out of the castle and 23 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:37,400 sauntered down to the river. His intimate friend, the companion 24 00:01:37,439 --> 00:01:41,319 of his boyhood, the chum of his college days, his 25 00:01:41,439 --> 00:01:45,040 fellow traveler in many lands, the man for whom he 26 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:50,159 possessed stronger affection than for all men, had mysteriously disappeared 27 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:53,319 two days ago, and his track might have sprung to 28 00:01:53,359 --> 00:01:57,120 the upper air for all trace he had left behind him. 29 00:01:57,439 --> 00:01:59,799 He had been a guest on the adjoining estate during 30 00:01:59,799 --> 00:02:03,599 the past week, shooting with the fervor of the true sportsman, 31 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:09,000 making love in the intervals to Adeline Kavan, and apparently 32 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,479 in the best of spirits. As far as was known, 33 00:02:12,599 --> 00:02:15,719 there was nothing to lower his mental mercury, for his 34 00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,360 rent roll was a large one. Miss Kavan blushed whenever 35 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,400 he looked at her, and being one of the best 36 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:26,280 shots in England, he was never happier than in August. 37 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:31,319 The suicide theory was preposterous, all agreed, and there was 38 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:36,360 as little reason to believe him murdered Nevertheless, he had 39 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:39,400 walked out of march Abbey two nights ago without hat 40 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:45,360 or overcoat, and had not been seen since the country 41 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:49,639 was being patrolled night and day. A hundred keepers and 42 00:02:49,719 --> 00:02:52,599 workmen were beating the woods and poking the bogs on 43 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,919 the moors, but as yet not so much as a 44 00:02:55,960 --> 00:03:00,280 handkerchief had been found. Weigel did not believe for a 45 00:03:00,319 --> 00:03:04,080 moment that Wyatt Gifford was dead, and although it was 46 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,879 impossible not to be affected by the general uneasiness, he 47 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,400 was disposed to be more angry than frightened. At Cambridge, 48 00:03:12,599 --> 00:03:16,520 Gifford had been an incorrigible, practical joker, and by no 49 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,080 means had outgrown the habit. It would be like him 50 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:23,159 to cut across the country in his evening clothes, board 51 00:03:23,159 --> 00:03:26,759 a cattle train, and amuse himself touching up the picture 52 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:33,000 of the sensation in west Riding. However, Wagl's affection for 53 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:36,240 his friend was too deep to companion with tranquility in 54 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:39,800 the present state of doubt, and instead of going to 55 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,319 bed early with the other men, he determined to walk 56 00:03:43,520 --> 00:03:47,319 until ready for sleep. He went down to the river 57 00:03:47,719 --> 00:03:51,719 and followed the path through the woods. There was no moon, 58 00:03:52,479 --> 00:03:55,960 but the stars sprinkled their cold light upon the pretty 59 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:01,719 belt of water flowing placidly plast wood, and between green 60 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:06,840 masses of overhanging rocks or sloping banks, tangled with tree 61 00:04:06,879 --> 00:04:10,840 and shrub leaping occasionally over stones with the harsh notes 62 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,800 of an angry scold to recover its equanimity. The moment 63 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:19,519 the way was clear again, it was very dark in 64 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:23,800 the depths where Ragel trod. He smiled as he recalled 65 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,800 a remark of Gifford's. An English wood is like a 66 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:31,920 good many other things in life, very promising at a distance, 67 00:04:32,560 --> 00:04:36,560 but hollow mockery when you get within. You see daylight 68 00:04:36,639 --> 00:04:40,279 on both sides, and the sun freckles the very bracken. 69 00:04:41,399 --> 00:04:43,879 Our woods need the night to make them seem what 70 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:47,279 they ought to be, what they once were before our 71 00:04:47,319 --> 00:04:51,959 ancestors descendants demanded so much more money in these so 72 00:04:52,199 --> 00:04:59,319 much more various days. Wikel strolled along, smoking and thinking 73 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:03,360 of his friend, his pranks, many of which had done 74 00:05:03,399 --> 00:05:08,160 more credit to his imagination than this, and recalling conversations 75 00:05:08,199 --> 00:05:12,000 that had lasted the night through. Just before the end 76 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:15,360 of the London season, they had walked the streets one 77 00:05:15,399 --> 00:05:19,079 hot night after a party discussing the various theories of 78 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:22,639 the soul's destiny. That afternoon they had met at the 79 00:05:22,639 --> 00:05:25,639 coffin of a college friend whose mind had been a 80 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:30,399 blank for the past three years. Some months previously they 81 00:05:30,399 --> 00:05:34,240 had called at the asylum to see him. His expression 82 00:05:34,399 --> 00:05:38,639 had been senile, his face imprinted with the record of debauchery. 83 00:05:39,879 --> 00:05:46,439 In death. The face was placid, intelligent, without ignoble lineation, 84 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:51,160 the face of the man they had known at college. 85 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:54,360 Wagel and Gifford had had no time to comment there, 86 00:05:55,079 --> 00:05:59,360 and the afternoon and evening were full, but coming forth 87 00:05:59,399 --> 00:06:03,160 from the House of Festivity together they had reverted almost 88 00:06:03,199 --> 00:06:08,399 at once to the topic I cherished. The theory Gifford 89 00:06:08,439 --> 00:06:11,720 had said that the soul sometimes lingers in the body 90 00:06:11,759 --> 00:06:16,959 after death during madness. Of course, it is an impotent prisoner, 91 00:06:17,199 --> 00:06:21,399 albeit a conscious one. Fancy its agony and its horror. 92 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,800 What more natural than that, when the life spark goes out, 93 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:29,279 the tortured soul should take possession of the vacant skull 94 00:06:29,879 --> 00:06:33,120 and triumph once more for a few hours while old 95 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:36,519 friends look their last. It has had time to repent, 96 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,759 while compelled to crouch and behold the state of its work. 97 00:06:40,560 --> 00:06:43,959 And it has shrived itself into a state of comparative purity. 98 00:06:45,199 --> 00:06:48,079 If I had my way, I should stay inside my 99 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:51,439 bones until the coffie had gone into its niche, that 100 00:06:51,519 --> 00:06:54,800 I might aviate for my poor old comrade, the tragic 101 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:58,959 impersonality of death, and I should like to see justice 102 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:01,959 done to it as it were, to see it lowered 103 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:05,759 among its ancestors, with the ceremony and solemnity that are 104 00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:09,720 its due. I'm afraid that if I dissevered myself too quickly, 105 00:07:10,279 --> 00:07:13,600 I should yield to curiosity and hasten to investigate the 106 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:17,560 mysteries of space. You believe in the soul as an 107 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:22,040 independent entity, then that it and the vital principle are 108 00:07:22,079 --> 00:07:27,199 not one and the same. Absolutely, the body and the 109 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:33,360 soul are twins. Life comrades, sometimes friends, sometimes enemies, but 110 00:07:33,439 --> 00:07:37,759 always loyal. In the last instance, someday, when I am 111 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:40,720 tired of the world, I shall go to India and 112 00:07:40,759 --> 00:07:44,680 become a Mahatma, solely for the pleasure of receiving proof 113 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:50,360 during life of this independent relationship. Suppose you were not 114 00:07:50,439 --> 00:07:53,600 sealed up properly and returned after one of your astral 115 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:58,879 flights to find your earthly part unfit for habitation. It 116 00:07:58,959 --> 00:08:01,439 is an experiment I don't think I should care to try, 117 00:08:02,319 --> 00:08:07,680 unless even juggling with soul and flesh had palled, That 118 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:11,720 would not be an uninteresting predicament. I should rather enjoy 119 00:08:11,839 --> 00:08:18,079 experimenting with broken machinery. The high, wild roar of water 120 00:08:18,279 --> 00:08:21,439 suddenly smote upon a Weagel's ear, and checked his memories. 121 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:25,160 He left the wood and walked out on the huge 122 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,639 slippery stone which nearly closed the river wharf at this point, 123 00:08:29,959 --> 00:08:33,440 and watched the waters boil down into the narrow pass 124 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,840 with their furious, untiring energy. The black quiet of the 125 00:08:37,879 --> 00:08:42,840 woods rose high on either side. The stars seemed colder 126 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:47,519 and whiter. Just above. On either hand, the perspective of 127 00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:51,080 the river might have run into a rayless cavern. There 128 00:08:51,159 --> 00:08:55,159 was no lonelier spot in England, nor one which had 129 00:08:55,159 --> 00:08:59,159 the right to claim so many ghosts, if ghosts there were. 130 00:09:00,519 --> 00:09:04,440 Lakel was not a coward, but he recalled uncomfortably the 131 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:06,639 tales of those that had been done to death in 132 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:13,039 the Strid Footnote one. This striding place is called the Strid, 133 00:09:13,799 --> 00:09:17,159 a name which it took of yore a thousand years 134 00:09:17,159 --> 00:09:21,360 hath it borne the name and its shell. A thousand more. 135 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:27,559 Wordsworth's Boy of Egremond had been disposed of by the 136 00:09:27,559 --> 00:09:33,240 practical Whittaker, but countless others, more venturesome than wise, had 137 00:09:33,279 --> 00:09:37,360 gone down to that narrow boiling course, never to appear 138 00:09:37,399 --> 00:09:41,240 in the still pool A few yards beyond. Below the 139 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:44,360 great rocks which formed the walls of the strid was 140 00:09:44,399 --> 00:09:48,240 believed to be a natural vault, on to whose shells 141 00:09:48,279 --> 00:09:53,200 the dead were drawn. The spot had an ugly fascination 142 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:59,320 lakel stood, visioning skeletons, uncoffined and green, the home of 143 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:03,000 the eyeless things which had devoured all that had covered 144 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,559 and filled that rattling symbol of man's mortality. Then fell 145 00:10:07,639 --> 00:10:10,600 to wondering if any one had attempted to leap the 146 00:10:10,639 --> 00:10:15,399 strait of Late it was covered with slime. He had 147 00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:20,679 never seen it look so treacherous. He shuddered and turned away, 148 00:10:21,399 --> 00:10:26,200 impelled despite his manhood to flee the spot. As he 149 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:30,080 did so, something tossing in the foam below the fall, 150 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:35,240 something as white yet independent of it, caught his eye 151 00:10:35,279 --> 00:10:39,360 and arrested his step. Then he saw that it was 152 00:10:39,399 --> 00:10:43,679 describing a contrary motion to the rushing water, an upward 153 00:10:43,759 --> 00:10:50,120 backward motion. Weigel stood rigid, breathless. He fancied he heard 154 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:55,000 the crackling of his hair. Was that a hand? It 155 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:59,200 thrust itself still higher above the boiling foam, turned sidewise, 156 00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:02,720 and for poor frantic fingers were distinctly visible against the 157 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:08,679 black rock beyond. Weaggel's superstitious terror left him. A man 158 00:11:08,799 --> 00:11:12,200 was there, struggling to free himself from the suction beneath 159 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:16,720 the strid swept down doubtless but a moment before his arrival. 160 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:19,320 Perhaps as he stood with his back to the current, 161 00:11:20,879 --> 00:11:23,000 he stepped as close to the edge as he dared. 162 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:27,440 The hand doubled, as if in imprecation, shaking savagely in 163 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:30,240 the face of that force which leaves its creatures to 164 00:11:30,279 --> 00:11:36,639 immutable law. Then spread wide again, clutching, expanding, crying for 165 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:41,840 help as audibly as the human voice. Weggle dashed to 166 00:11:41,879 --> 00:11:44,840 the nearest tree, dragged and twisted off a branch with 167 00:11:44,879 --> 00:11:48,080 his strong arms, and returned as swiftly to the strid. 168 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:52,440 The hand was in the same place, still gesticulating as wildly. 169 00:11:52,919 --> 00:11:56,240 The body was undoubtedly caught in the rocks below, perhaps 170 00:11:56,320 --> 00:12:00,039 already half way along one of those hideous shelves. We 171 00:12:00,039 --> 00:12:03,639 wagele let himself down upon a lower rock, braced his 172 00:12:03,720 --> 00:12:07,919 shoulder against the mass beside him. Then, leaning out over 173 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:12,360 the water, thrust the branch into the hand. The fingers 174 00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:17,039 clutched at it convulsively. Wegel tugged powerfully, his own feet 175 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:21,559 dragged perilously near the edge. For a moment he produced 176 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:25,919 no impression. Then an arm shot above the waters. The 177 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:28,600 blood sprang to Weggil's head. He was choked with the 178 00:12:28,639 --> 00:12:31,679 impression that the strid had to him in her roaring hold, 179 00:12:31,879 --> 00:12:37,279 and he saw nothing. Then the mist cleared, The hand 180 00:12:37,399 --> 00:12:40,519 and arm were nearer, although the rest of the body 181 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:44,559 was still concealed by the foam. Weagel peered out with 182 00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:48,840 distended eyes. The meager light revealed in the cuff SLINKs 183 00:12:48,879 --> 00:12:53,279 of a peculiar device. The fingers clutching the branch were 184 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:58,919 as familiar. Wegel forgot the slippery stones, the terrible death 185 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:02,320 if he stepped too far. He pulled with passionate will, 186 00:13:02,399 --> 00:13:05,919 and muscle. Memories flung themselves into the hot light of 187 00:13:05,919 --> 00:13:09,960 his brain, trooping rapidly upon each other's heels, as in 188 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,840 the thought of the drowning. Most of the pleasures of 189 00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:16,480 his life, good and bad, were identified in some way 190 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:21,360 with this friend. Scenes of college, days of travel where 191 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:24,679 they had deliberately sought adventure, and stood between one another 192 00:13:24,759 --> 00:13:28,600 and death upon more occasions than one. Of hours of 193 00:13:28,639 --> 00:13:32,440 delightful companionship, among the treasures of art and others in 194 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:37,519 the pursuit of pleasure flashed like the changing particles of kaleidoscope. 195 00:13:37,759 --> 00:13:41,159 Weggl had loved several women, but he would have flouted 196 00:13:41,159 --> 00:13:43,720 in these moments the thought that he had ever loved 197 00:13:43,799 --> 00:13:47,919 any woman as he loved Wyat Gifford. There were so 198 00:13:48,080 --> 00:13:51,279 many charming women in the world, and in the thirty 199 00:13:51,279 --> 00:13:54,279 two years of his life, he had never known another 200 00:13:54,360 --> 00:13:57,360 man to whom he had cared to give his intimate friendship. 201 00:13:58,559 --> 00:14:02,279 He threw himself upon his face. His wrists were cracking, 202 00:14:02,639 --> 00:14:06,000 the skin was torn from his hands. The fingers still 203 00:14:06,039 --> 00:14:10,919 gripped the stick. There was life in them. Yet suddenly 204 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,799 something gave way. The hand swung about, tearing the branch 205 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:18,600 from Wegel's grasp. The body had been liberated and flung outward, 206 00:14:19,159 --> 00:14:23,519 though still submerged by the foam and spray. Weagel scrambled 207 00:14:23,559 --> 00:14:26,240 to his feet and sprang along the rocks, Knowing that 208 00:14:26,279 --> 00:14:29,240 the danger from suction was over, and that Gifford must 209 00:14:29,279 --> 00:14:33,480 be carried straight to the quiet pool. Gifford was a 210 00:14:33,519 --> 00:14:36,000 fish in the water and could live under it longer 211 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,240 than most men. If he survived this, it would not 212 00:14:39,279 --> 00:14:41,519 be the first time that his pluck and science had 213 00:14:41,559 --> 00:14:47,480 saved him from drowning. Weggel reached the pool. A man 214 00:14:47,519 --> 00:14:50,960 in his evening clothes floated on it. His face turned 215 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:54,440 towards a projecting rock over which his arm had fallen 216 00:14:55,240 --> 00:14:59,320 upholding the body. The hand that had held the branch 217 00:14:59,399 --> 00:15:03,279 hung limply over the rock, its white reflection visible in 218 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:08,519 the black water. Wagl plunged into the shallow pool, lifted 219 00:15:08,559 --> 00:15:13,240 Gifford in his arms, and returned to the bank. He 220 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:15,759 laid the body down and threw off his coat, that 221 00:15:15,840 --> 00:15:18,879 he might be the freer to practice the methods of resuscitation. 222 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:23,480 He was glad of the moment's respite. The valiant life 223 00:15:23,519 --> 00:15:26,480 in the man might have been exhausted in that last struggle. 224 00:15:27,639 --> 00:15:30,279 He had not dared to look at his face to 225 00:15:30,279 --> 00:15:34,120 put his ear to the heart. The hesitation lasted but 226 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:39,120 a moment. There was no time to lose. He turned 227 00:15:39,159 --> 00:15:44,120 to his prostrate friend. As he did so, something strange 228 00:15:44,159 --> 00:15:48,399 and disagreeable smote his senses. For a half moment, he 229 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:52,919 did not appreciate its nature. Then his teeth clacked together 230 00:15:53,519 --> 00:15:57,320 his feet, his outstretched arms pointed toward the woods. But 231 00:15:57,399 --> 00:15:59,200 he sprang to the side of the man and bent 232 00:15:59,279 --> 00:16:03,399 down and peered in to his face. There was no face.