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Speaker 1: A strange Christmas game by missus J. H. Riddle, When,

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through the death of a distant relative I John Lester

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succeeded to the Martindale estate, there could not have been

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found in the length and breadth of England a happier

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pair than myself and my only sister Claire. We were

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not such utter hypocrites as to affect sorrow for the

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loss of our kinsman Paul Lester, a man we had

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never seen, of whom we had heard but little, and

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that little unfavorable, at whose hands we had never received

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a single benefit, who was in short as great a

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strange a to us as the then Prime Minister, the

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Emperor of Russia, or any other human being utterly removed

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from our extremely humble sphere of life. His loss was

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very certainly our gain. His death represented to us not

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a dreary parting from one long loved and highly hones,

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but the accession of lands, houses, consideration wealth to myself,

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John Lester, Esquire, Martindale, Bedfordshire, Willem Jack Lester, artist and

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second floor lodger at thirty two Great Smith Street, Bloomsbury.

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Not that Martindale was much of an estate, as county

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properties go. The Lesters who had succeeded to that domain

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from time to time during the course of a few

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hundred years, could by no stretch of courtesy, have been

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called prudent men in regard of their posterity. They were

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indeed scarcely honest, for they parted with manners and farms,

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with common rights and adversons, in a manner at once

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so baronial and so unbusinesslike that Martingdale, at length in

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the hands of Jeremy Leicester, the last resident owner, melted

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to a mere little dot in the map of Bedfordshire.

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Concerning this Jeremy Leicester, there was a mystery. No man

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could say what had become of him. He was in

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the oak parlor at Martindale one Christmas Eve, and before

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the next morning he had disappeared, to reappear in the

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flesh no more. Overnight one mister Worley, a great friend

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and boon companion of Jeremy's, had sat playing cards with

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him until after twelve o'clock chimed. Then he took leave

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of his host and rode home under the moonlight. After that,

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no person, as far as could be ascertained, ever saw

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Jeremy Lester alive. His ways of life had not been

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either the most regular or the most respectable, and it

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was not until a new year had come in without

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any tidings of his whereabouts reaching the house, that his

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servants became seriously alarmed concerning his absence. Then inquiries were

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set on foot concerning him, inquiries which grew more urgent

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as weeks and months passed by without the slightest clue

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being obtained as to his whereabouts. Rewards were offered, advertisements inserted,

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but still Jeremy made no sign, and so in course

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of time the heir at law, Paul Leicester, took possession

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of the house and went down to spend the summer

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months at Martingdale with his rich wife and her four

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children by a first husband. Paul Leicester was a barrister,

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an overworked barrister who every one supposed would be glad

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enough to leave the bar and settle at Martingdale, where

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his wife's money and the fortune he had accumulated could

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not have failed to give him a good standing even

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among the neighboring county families. And perhaps it was with

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some such intention that he went down into Bedfordshire. If

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this were so, however, he speedily changed his mind, for

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with the January snows, he returned to London, let off

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the land surrounding the house, shut up the hall, put

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in a caretaker, and never troubled himself further about his

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ancestral seat. Time went on, and people began and to

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say the house was haunted, that Paul Lester had seen something,

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and so forth, all which stories were duly repeated for

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our benefit. When forty one years after the disappearance of

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Jeremy Lester, Claire and I went down to inspect our inheritance,

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I say our, because Claire had stuck bravely to me

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in poverty, grinding poverty and prosperity was not going to

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part us now. What was mine was hers, and that

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she knew God bless her without my needing to tell her. So.

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The transition from rigid economy to comparative wealth was in

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our case the more delightful also because we had not,

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in the least degree anticipated it. We never expected Paul

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Leicester's shoes to come to us, and accordingly it was

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not upon our consciences that we had ever in our

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dreariest moods, wished him dead. Had he made a will,

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no doubt we never should have gone to Martindale, and

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I consequently never written this story. But luckily for us,

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he died intestate, and the Bedfordshire property came to me

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as for his fortune, he had spent it in traveling

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and in giving great entertainments at his grand house in

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Portman Square. Concerning his effects, Missus Lester and I came

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to a very amicable arrangement, and she did me the

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honor of inviting me to call upon her occasionally, and

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as I heard, spoke of me as a very worthy

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and presentable young man for my station, which, of course,

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coming from so good an authority, was gratifying. Moreover, she

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asked me if I intended residing at Martindale, and, on

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my replying in the affirmative, hoped I should like it.

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It struck me at the time that there was a

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certain significance in her tone. And when I went down

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to Martingdale and heard the absurd stories that were afloat

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concerning the house being haunted, I felt confident that if

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Missus Lester had hoped much, she feared more. Said mister

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Jeremy walked at Martindale, he had been seen. It was

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averred by poachers, by gamekeepers, by children who had come

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to use the park as a near cut to school,

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by lovers who kept their tryst under the elms and beeches.

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As for the caretaker and his wife, the third in

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residence since Jeremy Lester's disappearance, the man gravely shook his

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head when questioned, while the woman stated that wild horses

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were even wealth untold should not draw her into the

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red bedroom, nor into the Oak parlor after dark. I

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have heard my mother tell sir it was her as

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followed old missus Reynolds, the first caretaker. How there were

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things went on in those self same rooms as might

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make any Christian's hair stand on end, such stamping and

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swearing and knocking about of furniture, And then tramp tramp

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up the great staircase and along the corridor, and sow

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into the red bedroom, and then bang and tramp tramp again,

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They do say, sir, mister Paul Lester met him once,

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and from that time the Oak parlor has never been opened.

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I never was inside it myself. Upon hearing which fact,

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the first thing I did was to proceed to the

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Oak parlor, open the shutters, and let the August sun

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stream in upon the haunted chamber. It was an old fashioned,

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plainly furnished apartment, with a large table in the center,

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a smaller in a recess by the fireplace, chairs ranged

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against the walls, and a dusty, moth eaten carpet on

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the floor. There were dogs on the hearth, broken and rusty.

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There was a brass fender tarnished and battered, a picture

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of some sea fight over the mantelpiece, while another work

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of art about equal in merit hung between the windows.

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All together an utterly prosaic and yet not uncheerful apartment

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from out of which the ghosts flitted as soon as

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daylight was let into it, and which I proposed as

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soon as I felt my feet to redecorate, refurnish, and

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convert into a pleasant morning room. I was still under thirty,

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but I had learned prudence in that very good school Necessity,

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and it was not my intention to spend much money

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until I ascertained for certain what were the actual revenues

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derivable from the land still belonging to the Martindale estates

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and the charges upon them. In fact, I wanted to

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know what I was worth before committing myself to any

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great extravagance, and the place had for so long a

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time been neglected that I experienced some difficulty in arriving

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at the state of my real income. But in the meanwhile,

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Claire and I found great enjoyment in exploring every nook

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and corner of our domain, in turning over the contents

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of old chests and cupboards, in examining the faces of

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our ancestors looking down on us from the walls, in

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walking through the neglected gardens full of weeds, overgrown with

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shrubs and bird weed, where the boxes wood was eighteen

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inches high, and the shoots of the rose trees yards long.

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I have put the place in order. Since then there

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is no grass on the paths, there are no trailing

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brambles over the ground. The hedges have been cut and trimmed,

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and the trees pruned and the boxwood clipped. But I

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often say nowadays that spite of all my improvements, or

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rather in consequence of them, Martindale does not look one

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half so pretty as it did in its pristine state

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of uncivilized picturesqueness. Although I determined not to commence repairing

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and decorating the house till better informed concerning the rental

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of Martindale. Still, the state of my finances were so

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far satisfactory that Claire and I had decided on going

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abroad and take our long talked of holiday before the

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fine weather was passed. We could not tell what a

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year might bring forth. As Claire sagely remarked, it was

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wise to take our pleasure while we could, and accordingly,

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before the end of August arrived we were wandering about

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the continent, loitering at Rouen, visiting the galleries in Paris,

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and talking of extending our one month of enjoyment to three.

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What decided me on this course was the circumstance of

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our becoming acquainted with an English family who intended wintering

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in Rome. We met accidentally, but discovering we were near

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neighbors in England, in fact that mister Cronson's property lay

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close beside Martindale. The slight acquaintance soon ripened into intimacy,

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and ere long we were traveling in company. From the

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first Claire did not much like this arrangement. There was

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a little girl in England she wanted me to marry,

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and mister Cronson had a daughter who certainly was both

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handsome and attractive. The little girl had not despised John

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Lester artist, while Miss Cronson indisputably set her cap at

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John Lester of Martindale and would have turned away her

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pretty face from a poor man's admiring gaze. All this

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I can see plainly enough now, But I was blind

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then and should have proposed for Mary Bell, that was

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her name, before the winter was over. Had news not

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suddenly arrived of the illness of missus Cronson, in a moment,

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the program was changed. Our pleasant days of foreign travel

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were at an end. The Cronsons packed up and departed,

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while Claire and I returned more slowly to England, a

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little out of humor, it must be confessed with each other.

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It was the middle of November when we arrived at

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Martindale and found the place anything but romantic or pleasant.

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The walks were wet and sodden, the trees were leafless.

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There were no flowers save a few late pink roses

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blooming in the garden. It had been a wet season

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and the place looked miserable. Claire would not ask Alice

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down to keep her company in the winter months, as

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she had intended, and for myself the Cronsons were still

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absent in Norfolk, where they meant to spend Christmas with

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old missus Cronson, now recovered altogether, Martingdale seemed dreary enough,

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and the ghosts stories we had laughed at while sunshine

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flood of the rooms became less unreal when we had

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nothing but blazing fires and wax candles to dispel the gloom.

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They became more real also when servant after servant left

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us to seek situations elsewhere, when noises grew frequent in

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the house, when we ourselves, Claire and I, with our

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own ears, heard the tramp tramp, the banging, and the

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clattering which had been described to us. My dear reader,

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you doubtless are utterly free from superstitious fancies. You pooh

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pooh the existence of ghosts, and only wish you could

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find a haunted house in which to spend a night,

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which is all very brave and praiseworthy. But wait till

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you are left in a dreary, desolate, old country mansion,

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filled with the most unaccountable sounds, without a servant, with

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no one save an old caretaker and his wife, who

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living at the extremest end of the building, heard nothing

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of the tramp, tramp, bang bang, going on at all

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hours of the night. At first I imagined the noises

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were produced by some evil disposed persons who wished, for

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purposes of their own, to keep the house uninhabited. But

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by degrees Claire and I came to the conclusion the

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visitation must be supernatural, and Martindale, by consequence untenantable. Still

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being practical people, and unlike our predecessors, not having money

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to live where and how we liked, we decided to

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watch and see whether we could trace any human influence

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in the matter. If not, it was agreed we were

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to pull down the right wing of the house and

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the principal staircase for nights. And nights we sat up

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till two or three o'clock in the morning, Claire engaged

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in needlework, I reading with a revolver lying on the

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table beside me. But nothing, neither sound nor appearance, rewarded

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our vigil. This confirmed my first idea that the sounds

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were not supernatural. But just to test the matter, I

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determined on Christmas Eve, the anniversary of mister Jeremy Lester's disappearance,

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to keep watch by myself in the red bed chamber.

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Even to Claire, I never mentioned my intention. About ten.

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Tired out with our previous vigils, we each retired to rest,

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somewhat ostentatiously. Perhaps I noisily shut the door of my room,

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and when I opened it half an hour afterwards, no

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mouse could have pursued its way along the corridor with

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greater silence and caution than myself. Quite in the dark,

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I sat in the red room for over an hour.

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I might as well have been in my grave, for

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anything I could see in the apartment. But at the

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end of that time, the moon rose and cast strange

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lights across the floor and upon the wall of the

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haunted chamber. Hitherto I had kept my watch opposite the window.

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Now I changed my place to a corner near the door,

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where I was shaded from observation by the heavy hangings

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of the bed and an antique wardrobe. Still I sat on,

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but still no sound broke the silence. I was weary

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with many nights watching, and tired of my solitary vigil

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I dropped at last into a slumber, from which I

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was awakened by hearing the door softly opened. John, said

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my sister, almost in a whisper, John, are you here, Yes, Claire,

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I answered, but what are you doing up at this hour?

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Come downstairs, she replied, They are in the oak parlor.

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I did not need any explanation as to whom she meant,

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but crept downstairs after her warned by an uplifted hand

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of the necessity for silence and caution by the door.

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By the open door of the oak parlor, she paused,

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and we both looked in. There was the room we

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left in darkness over night, with a bright wood fire

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blazing on the hearth, candles on the chimney piece. The

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small table pulled out from its accustomed corner, and two

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men seated beside it, playing at cribbage. We could see

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the face of the younger player. It was that of

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a man of about five and twenty, of a man

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who had lived hard and wickedly, who had wasted his

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substance and his health, who had been while in the

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flesh Jeremy Lester. It would be difficult for me to

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say how I knew this, how in a moment I identified

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the features of the player with those of the man

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who had been missing for forty one years. Forty one

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years that very night, he was dressed in the costume

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of a by gone period. His hair was powdered, and

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round his wrists there were ruffles of lace. He looked

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like one who, having come from some great party, had

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sat down after his return home, to play at cards

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with an intimate friend. On his little finger there sparkled

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a ring. In the front of his shirt, there gleamed

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a valuable diamond. There were diamond buckles in his shoes,

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and according to the fashion of his time, he wore

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knee breeches and silk stockings, which showed off advantageously the

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shape of a remarkably good leg and ankle. He sat

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opposite to the door, but never once lifted his eyes

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to it. His attention seemed concentrated on the cards. For

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a time there was utter silence in the room, broken

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only by the momentous counting of the game. In the doorway.

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We stood holding our breath, terrified and yet fascinated by

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the scene which was being acted before us. The ashes

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dropped on the hearth softly, and like the snow. We

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could hear the rustle of the cards as they were

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dealt out and fell upon the table. We listened to

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the count fifteen one, fifteen two, and so forth there

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was no other words spoken till at length the player,

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whose face we could not see, exclaimed, I win the

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game is mine. Then his opponent took up the cards,

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sorted them over negligently in his hand, put them close together,

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and flung the whole pack in his guest's face, exclaiming, cheat, liar.

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Take that there was a bustle and confusion, a flinging

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over of chairs, and fierce gesticulation, and such a noise

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of passionate voices mingling that we could not hear a

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sentence which was uttered all at once. However, Jeremy Lester

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strode out of the room in so great a hurry

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that he almost touched us where we stood out of

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the room, and tramp tramp up the staircase to the

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red room, whence he descended in a few minutes with

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a couple of rapiers under his arm. When he re

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entered the room, he gave, as it seemed to us,

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the other man his choice of the weapons, and then

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he flung open the window, and, after ceremoniously giving place

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for his opponent to pass out first, he walked forth

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into the night air. Claire and eye following we went

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through the garden and down a narrow, winding walk to

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a smooth piece of turf, sheltered from the north by

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a plantation of young fir trees. It was a bright

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moonlight night by this time, and we could distinctly see

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Jeremy Leicester measuring off the ground. When you say three,

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he said at last to the man whose back was

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still towards us. They had drawn lots for the ground,

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and the lot had fallen against mister Lester. He stood thus,

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with the moonbeams falling full upon him, and a handsomer

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fellow I would never desire to behold one began the

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other two, and before our kinsman had the slightest suspicion

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of his design, he was upon him and his rapier

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00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:03,279
through Jeremy Lester's breast. At the sight of that cowardly treachery,

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Claire screamed aloud. In a moment, the combatants had disappeared,

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the moon was obscured behind a cloud, and we were

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standing in the shadow of the fir plantation, shivering with

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coal and terror. But we knew at last what had

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become of the late owner of Martindale. That he had

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fallen not in fair fight, but foully murdered by a

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false friend. When late on Christmas morning I awoke, it

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was to see a white world. To behold the ground

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and trees and shrubs all laden and covered with snow.

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There was snow everywhere, such snow as no person could

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remember having fallen for forty one years. It was on

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just such a Christmas as this that mister Cheremie disappeared,

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00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,160
remarked the old sexton to my sister, who had insisted

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on dragging me through the snow to church, whereupon Claire

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fainted away and was carried into the vestry, where I

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made a full confession to the vicar of all we

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had beheld the previous night. At first that worthy individual

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rather inclined to treat the matter lightly, But when a

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fortnight after the snow melted away and the fur plantation

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00:21:18,519 --> 00:21:21,359
came to be examined, he confessed that there might be

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more things in heaven and Earth than his limited philosophy

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had dreamed of. In a little clear space just within

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the plantation, Jeremy Lester's body was found. We knew it

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00:21:33,039 --> 00:21:36,279
by the ring and the diamond buckles, and the sparkling

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breastpin and mister Cronson, who in his capacity as magistrate,

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00:21:41,039 --> 00:21:44,759
came over to inspect these relics, was visibly perturbed at

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00:21:44,799 --> 00:21:49,440
my narrative. Pray, mister Lester, did you, in your dream

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00:21:49,559 --> 00:21:54,599
see the face of the gentleman your kinsman's opponent, No,

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I answered, He sat and stood with his back to

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us all the time. There is nothing more, of course,

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00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:05,799
to be done in the matter, observed mister Cronson. Nothing,

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I replied, and there the affair would doubtless have terminated.

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But that a few days afterwards, when we were dining

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at Cronson Park, Claire all of a sudden dropped a

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00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:20,720
glass of water she was carrying to her lips, and exclaiming, look, John,

355
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,279
there he is, rose from her seat, and, with a

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face as white as the tablecloth, pointed to a portrait

357
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hanging on the wall. I saw him for an instant

358
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when he turned his head towards the door as Jeremy

359
00:22:34,279 --> 00:22:39,119
Lester left it. She explained, that is he Of what

360
00:22:39,279 --> 00:22:43,160
followed after this identification, I have only the vaguest recollection.

361
00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:47,720
Servants rushed hither and thither missus Cronson dropped off her

362
00:22:47,799 --> 00:22:51,039
chair into hysterics. The young ladies gathered round their Mamma.

363
00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:55,400
Mister Cronson, trembling like one in an au fit, attempted

364
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:59,079
some kind of an explanation while Claire kept praying to

365
00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:03,720
be taken away, only to be taken away. I took

366
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:09,200
her away, not merely from Cronson Park, but from Martingdale.

367
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:12,319
Before we left the latter place, however, I had an

368
00:23:12,359 --> 00:23:15,599
interview with mister Cronson, who said the portrait Claire had

369
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:19,680
identified was that of his wife's father, the last person

370
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:23,720
who saw Jeremy Lester alive. He is an old man

371
00:23:23,839 --> 00:23:28,799
now finished, mister Cronson, a man of over eighty, who

372
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:33,960
has confessed everything to me. You won't bring further sorrow

373
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and disgrace upon us by making this matter public. I

374
00:23:37,759 --> 00:23:41,480
promised him I would keep silence. But the story gradually

375
00:23:41,559 --> 00:23:46,400
oozed out and the Cronsons left the country. My sister

376
00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:51,200
never returned to Martingdale. She married and is living in London.

377
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,839
Though I assure her there are no strange noises now

378
00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:58,759
in my house, she will not visit Bedfordshire, where the

379
00:23:58,839 --> 00:24:01,920
little girl she wanted me so long ago to think

380
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:05,440
of seriously is now my wife and the mother of

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00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:12,640
my children. End of a strange Christmas Game by Charlotte Riddell,