A dark tale from the streets of Victorian Paris. From the archives of the Society of Virtuous Pagans.
[00:00:09] When in May 1886 I found myself at last in Paris
[00:00:13] I naturally determined to throw myself on the charity of an old chum of mine
[00:00:19] Eugene Marie Dardesh who had forsaken our college at Boston a year or more ago on
[00:00:24] receiving word that an aunt was dead quite dead and as a result he was rich
[00:00:30] quite rich a
[00:00:33] Fancy this surprised him not a little for the relations between the aunt and nephew had never been
[00:00:38] Colgil judging from Eugene's remarks touching the lady who was it seems a more or less wicked and witchlike old person
[00:00:46] With a penchant for black magic at least such was the common report
[00:00:52] Why she would leave all her property to Eugene nobody could tell unless it was that she found his rather
[00:00:57] Hobbledy-Hoy tendencies toward Buddhism and the occult
[00:01:01] Might someday lead him to her own unhollowed hide of questionable illumination
[00:01:06] To be sure Dardesh reviled her as a bad old woman
[00:01:11] But in spite of his distant and repellent attitude
[00:01:14] Mademoiselle Blayy de Tartas made her American nephew her soul heir
[00:01:20] This to the violent wrath of a questionable old party known to infamy is the Sartory Vieja
[00:01:27] the king of sorcerers
[00:01:31] This malevolent old portent whose gray and crafty face was often seen in the room a real apprains during the life of the Mademoiselle
[00:01:38] Had it seems fully expected to enjoy her small wealth after her death
[00:01:43] When it appeared that she had left him the only contents of the gloomy old house in the Latin quarter
[00:01:48] Given the house itself and all else she possessed to her nephew
[00:01:51] The saw proceeded to remove everything from the place and then to curse it elaborately and comprehensively
[00:01:58] Together with all those who should ever dwell there within where upon he disappeared
[00:02:04] The final episode was the last word I received from Eugene, but I knew the number of the house
[00:02:11] 252 rue Marie Le Prance
[00:02:13] So after a day or two given to first a cursory survey of Paris
[00:02:18] I started across the same to find Eugene and compel him to do the honors of the city
[00:02:25] Everyone who knows the Latin quarter knows the street. It runs up the hill tall the garden of Luxembourg
[00:02:30] It is full of queer houses and odd corners or it was back in 86
[00:02:36] Uncertainly number 252 was when I found it queer as any
[00:02:40] It was nothing but a doorway really a black arch of old stone between them under two new houses painted yellow
[00:02:48] The effect of this bit of 17th century masonry with its dirty old doors and rusty broken lanterns sticking gone and grim
[00:02:56] Out of the narrow sidewalk
[00:02:58] Was in its frame of fresh plaster
[00:03:02] sinister in the extreme I
[00:03:05] Wondered if I had made a mistake in the number
[00:03:08] It was quite evident that no one lived behind those cobwebs
[00:03:11] So I went into the doorway of one of the new hotels and interviewed the concierge
[00:03:18] No
[00:03:19] Mishir Dardash did not live there. So to be sure he owned the mansion
[00:03:24] He himself lived in Mew-Done in the country house of the late mademoiselle
[00:03:28] Would Mishir like the number in the street?
[00:03:32] Mishir would like them extremely
[00:03:33] So I took the car that the concierge wrote for me and forthwith started for the river
[00:03:39] In order that I might take a riverboat to Mew-Done
[00:03:42] While one of those coincidences that happened so often however
[00:03:45] I'd not gone 20 paces down the street before I ran directly into the arms of Eugenia himself
[00:03:50] In three minutes we were sitting in the queer little garden of the chien blue
[00:03:54] drinking vermouth and absinthe and talking it all over
[00:03:59] You did not live in that old mansion. I said it last
[00:04:03] No, but if this thing keeps on I shall have to I like Mew-Done much better
[00:04:08] But there is something wrong with the house opposite. I can't keep attending it for more than four days
[00:04:14] I've had three all within six months
[00:04:16] But the stories have gone round and a man would sooner live in the Paris catacomb than live in number 252
[00:04:22] It is notorious. The fact is it is haunted in the worst way
[00:04:27] I laughed
[00:04:28] Well, Eugenia smiled that off
[00:04:31] That is all right. Will it is haunted all the same
[00:04:33] Or enough to keep it empty
[00:04:35] And the funny part is that no one knows how it is haunted
[00:04:39] Nothing is ever seen nothing is heard as far as I can find out people just have the horrors
[00:04:45] There and have them so bad that they have to go to the hospital afterwards
[00:04:49] I have one accident on bed rest now
[00:04:52] So the house stands empty and as it covers considerable ground and is taxed for a lot
[00:04:58] I don't know what to do about it
[00:05:00] I think I'll give it to that old child of sin Toravieja or or else I'll go and live it at myself
[00:05:06] I shouldn't mind the ghosts. I'm sure
[00:05:09] But did you have a stay there? I asked
[00:05:12] No, but I've always intended to and in fact I came up here today to see a couple of rake hell fellows
[00:05:17] I know Fargo and Ducane
[00:05:19] Doctors in the clinical hospital beyond here up by the park
[00:05:22] They promised me that they would spend the night with me sometime in the old house
[00:05:26] Which is called around here. You must know
[00:05:29] La bouche d'enfeure
[00:05:31] And I thought perhaps
[00:05:32] They would make it this week if they can get off duty
[00:05:36] Come up with me when I see them and we can go across the river to luncheon
[00:05:40] The plan suited me perfectly. So we went up to the hospital found Fargo
[00:05:44] Who declared that he and Ducane were ready for anything the nearer the real mouth of hell the better
[00:05:49] That the following thursday, they would both be off duty for the night
[00:05:53] And then on that day they would join in an attempt to out with the devil and clear up the mystery of number 252
[00:06:00] Does the american go with us?
[00:06:03] As Fargo
[00:06:04] He does I replied I intend to go and you must not refuse me Dardesh
[00:06:09] I decline to be put off
[00:06:11] Here is a choice for you to do the honors of your city and a manner which is faultless
[00:06:15] Show me a real live ghost
[00:06:18] So settled
[00:06:20] At luncheon Eugene told me all about his late aunt and the queer goings on in that old house
[00:06:27] Mademoiselle Bly-e lived it seems all alone except for one female servant of her own age
[00:06:33] No one was ever seen to enter the door of number 252
[00:06:36] Except gene the servant and the Sartor Viejar
[00:06:40] The latter coming constantly from non-new wither and always entering never leaving
[00:06:45] Indeed the neighbors who had for 11 years watched the old sorcerer
[00:06:50] Sile crab wise up to the bell almost every day declared that he had never been seen to leave the house
[00:06:57] Once when they decided to keep absolute guard the watcher after keeping his eyes fixed on the door from 10 a.m
[00:07:03] One morning when the saw arrived until four in the afternoon
[00:07:07] Nearly fell over when the unseen sinister figure of Torre Viejar sleep wickedly by him with the dry bed
[00:07:13] Don't miss you and disappeared again through the black doorway
[00:07:19] This was curious for number 252 was entirely surrounded by houses
[00:07:23] It's only windows opening on a courtyard and in which no eye could look from the hotels of the surrounding streets
[00:07:29] And the mystery it was one of the choice possessions of the Latin quarter
[00:07:34] Once a year the austerity of the place was broken
[00:07:37] And the dinners ends of the whole quarter stood open mouthed
[00:07:41] Watching many carriages drive up to 252
[00:07:45] Many of them were private and not a few with crests on the door panels from all of them descending veiled female figures
[00:07:52] And men with coat colors turned up
[00:07:55] Then followed curious sounds of music from within
[00:07:59] And those whose houses joined the blank walls of number 252 became for the moment popular
[00:08:05] So by placing the air against the wall
[00:08:07] Strange music could distinctly be heard and the sound of monotonous chanting voices now and then
[00:08:14] By dawn the last guests would have departed and for another year the house was ominously silent
[00:08:21] Eugene declared that he believed it was a celebration of Warpurgis knocked
[00:08:26] And certainly appearance is favored such a fancy
[00:08:29] A queer thing about the whole affair is
[00:08:32] He said
[00:08:34] The fact that everyone in the street swears that about a month ago while I was out in Concarno for a visit
[00:08:40] The music and voices were heard again
[00:08:42] Just as when my revered aunt was in the flesh
[00:08:44] The house was perfectly empty as I tell you so it is quite possible that the good people were enjoying an hallucination
[00:08:52] Now
[00:08:54] I must acknowledge to the society that these stories did not reassure me
[00:08:59] In fact as thursday came near I began to regret a little my determination to spend the night in the house
[00:09:05] I was too vain to back down however
[00:09:07] And the perfect coolness of the two doctors was enough to make me swear that I would die of fright rather than flinch
[00:09:13] I suppose I believe more less than ghosts
[00:09:16] I'm sure now that I am older. I believe in them. There are a few things I cannot believe
[00:09:24] Well to come to the memorable night of the 12th of june 1886
[00:09:29] We made our preparations and after depositing a bag inside the doors of number 252
[00:09:34] We went across to the shin blue where the doctors turned up promptly and we sat down to the best dinner peg or so could create
[00:09:44] I remember I hardly felt that the conversation was in good taste
[00:09:49] It began with various stories of indian focures and asian jugglery
[00:09:53] Madison which eugen was curiously well read
[00:09:56] Then it swerved to the horrors of the great sepulor mutiny and thus the reminiscences of the dissecting room
[00:10:03] By this time we were drunk more or less and dukein launched into a photographic and zola-esque account of the only time when he was possessed
[00:10:10] Of the panic of fear
[00:10:12] Namely one night when he was locked by accident in the dissecting room of the lucine
[00:10:17] Together with several cadavers of a rather
[00:10:19] unpleasant nature
[00:10:22] I ventured to protest mildly against the choice of subjects the result being a
[00:10:27] Perfect carnival of horrors so that when you finally drank our last cream to cacao and started for la bouche d'enferre
[00:10:33] My nerves were in a somewhat rocky condition
[00:10:37] It was just 10 o'clock when we came into the street
[00:10:40] A hot dead wind drifted in great puffs through the city and ragged masses of vapors swept the purple sky
[00:10:48] An unsavory night altogether
[00:10:50] One of those nights of hopeless lassitude when one feels if one is native to my part of the country
[00:10:56] Like doing nothing but drinking mint tulips
[00:11:00] Eugene opened the creaking door and tried to light one of the lanterns
[00:11:03] But the gusty wind blew out every match and we finally had to close the outer doors before we could get a light
[00:11:09] At last we had all the lanterns going and I was beginning to look around curiously
[00:11:15] We were in a long vaulted passage partly carriageway partly footpath
[00:11:20] Perfectly bare but for the street refuse which had drifted in with the eddying winds
[00:11:26] Beyond lay the courtyard
[00:11:28] A curious place rendered more curious still by the fitful moonlight and flashing of four dark lanterns
[00:11:35] The place had evidently once been a most noble palace
[00:11:37] Opposite rose the oldest portion a three-story wall at the time of francis the first with a great wisteria vine cover in half
[00:11:46] The wings on the other side were more modern 17th century and ugly while towards the street was nothing but a flat unbroken wall
[00:11:54] The great bear caught
[00:11:56] Litted with bits of paper blown in by the wind
[00:11:58] Fragments of packing cases and straw
[00:12:01] Mysterious with flashing lights and flaunting shadows while low masses of torn vapor drifted overhead
[00:12:08] Hiding than revealing the stars and all in absolute silence
[00:12:12] Was weird and uncanny in the extreme
[00:12:16] I must confess that already I had begun to feel a slight disposition toward the horrors
[00:12:21] But with a curious inconsequence which so often happens in the case of those who are deliberately growing scared
[00:12:27] I could do nothing more reassuring than think of those delicious verses by louis carroll
[00:12:33] Just the place for a snark i've said it twice that alone should encourage the crew
[00:12:39] Just the place for a snark i've said it thrice what i tell you three times is true
[00:12:46] Even the doctors had stopped their chaff and were studying the surroundings gravely
[00:12:51] There is one thing certain said fargo
[00:12:55] Anything might have happened here without the slightest chance of discovery
[00:12:59] Did you ever see such a perfect place for lawlessness?
[00:13:03] And anything might happen here now with the same certainty of impunity
[00:13:08] Continued duke hein lighting his pipe the snap of it making us all start
[00:13:13] Dardesh your limited relative was certainly well fixed. She has a full scope here for her traditional experiments in
[00:13:19] demonology
[00:13:23] Curse me if I don't believe that those same traditions were more or less founded on fact
[00:13:27] said eugen
[00:13:28] I never saw this cordon in those conditions before but I could believe anything now
[00:13:33] What's that?
[00:13:34] Yeah, nothing but a door slamming said duke hein
[00:13:38] Well, I said I wish doors wouldn't slam in houses that have been empty seven months
[00:13:46] It is irritating said duke hein slipping his arm through mine
[00:13:50] But we must take things as they come
[00:13:53] Remember we are here to deal not only with the spectral lumber left here by his scarlet hands
[00:13:58] But as well with the curse of that hell cat toravieha
[00:14:02] Come on. Let's get inside before the hour arrives for the sheet of dead to squeak and gibber in these lonely halls
[00:14:09] Light up your pipes light up and move on
[00:14:12] We open the hall door and entered a vaulted stone vestibule full of dust and cobwebby
[00:14:19] There was nothing on that first floor except lodging for the staff and offices
[00:14:23] I do not believe there is anything wrong with these
[00:14:27] Eugene said
[00:14:28] I never heard there was anyway. Let's go upstairs
[00:14:31] So far as we could see the house was perfectly uninteresting inside
[00:14:35] All 18th century work the facade of the main building being with the vestibule
[00:14:40] The only portion remaining from those days of francis the first
[00:14:46] The place was burned down during the terror
[00:14:49] Said Eugene for my great uncle from whom mademoiselle de tartos inherited it was a good and true royalist
[00:14:55] He went to spain after the revolution and did not come back until the accession of charles the tenth
[00:15:00] When he restored the house and then died enormously old this explains the way it is also new
[00:15:07] The old spanish sorcerer to whom mademoiselle de tartos had left her personal property
[00:15:12] Had done his work thoroughly
[00:15:14] The house was absolutely empty even the wardrobes and bookcases built in had been carried away
[00:15:20] We went through room after room
[00:15:21] Find it all absolutely dismantled
[00:15:24] Only the windows and doors were their casings the parquet floors and the floored renaissance mantles remaining
[00:15:33] I feel better remarked fugo the house may be haunted, but it don't look at certainly
[00:15:38] It is the most respectable place imaginable
[00:15:40] Who just do you wait replied Eugene
[00:15:44] These are only the state apartments which my great aunt seldom used except perhaps on her annual
[00:15:50] Walt purgis knocked come upstairs, and I will show you far better
[00:15:55] On this floor the rooms fronting the court the sleeping rooms were quite small
[00:16:00] There were four of them all just as ordinary in appearance as those below
[00:16:05] A corridor ran behind them connecting with the wing corridor
[00:16:08] And from this opened a door unlike any of the other doors in that it was covered with green bays
[00:16:14] Someone mouth-eating
[00:16:15] Eugene selected a key from the bunch he carried
[00:16:18] Unlocked the door and with some difficulty he forced it to swing inward. It was as heavy as the door of a safe
[00:16:25] We are now
[00:16:26] He said on the very threshold of hell itself
[00:16:30] These rooms in here were my scarlet ants unholy of holies
[00:16:33] I never let them with the rest of the house, but kept them as a curiosity
[00:16:38] I only wish Torri the a high had kept out as it was he looted them as he did the rest of the house
[00:16:44] They are something however and may suggest what the former condition must have been
[00:16:49] Trimble and enter
[00:16:52] The first apartment was a kind of ante room
[00:16:54] A cube of perhaps 20 feet each way without windows and with no doors except that by which we entered
[00:17:00] And another to the right
[00:17:03] Walls floor and ceiling were covered with a black lacquer
[00:17:06] Brilliantly polished that flashed the light of our lanterns in a thousand intricate reflections
[00:17:11] It was it was like the inside of an enormous Japanese puzzle box and about as empty
[00:17:17] From this we passed to another room and here we nearly dropped our lanterns
[00:17:22] The room was circular
[00:17:24] 30 feet of so in diameter covered by a hemispherical dome
[00:17:29] Walls and ceiling were dark blue spotted with gold stars
[00:17:33] Reaching from floor to floor across the dome
[00:17:35] Stressed a colossal figure in red lacquer
[00:17:39] a nude woman kneeling
[00:17:41] Her legs reaching out along the floor on either side her head touching the lintel of the door
[00:17:47] Through which we had entered her arms forming at sides with the forearms extending and stressing along the walls until they met the long feet
[00:17:56] The most astounding
[00:18:00] Misshapen absolutely terrifying thing. I think I ever saw
[00:18:06] From the naval hung a great white object like the traditional rose egg of the Arabian knights
[00:18:12] The floor was of red lacquer
[00:18:14] And in it was in later pentagram the size of the room made of wide strips of brass
[00:18:19] In the center of this pentagram was a circular disc of black stone
[00:18:24] Slightly saucer shaped with a small outlet in the middle
[00:18:28] The effect of the room was simply crushing
[00:18:31] With this gigantic red figure crouched over at all the staring eyes fixed on one no matter what his position
[00:18:39] None of us spoke so oppressive was the whole thing
[00:18:44] The third room was like the first in dimensions, but instead of being black
[00:18:49] It was entirely sheathed with plates of brass
[00:18:52] Walls of ceiling and floor
[00:18:54] Tarnished now and turning green but still brilliant under the lantern light
[00:18:58] In the middle stood an oblong altar of periphery
[00:19:03] It's longer dimensions on the axis of the suite of rooms and at one end opposite the range of doors
[00:19:10] A pedestal of black basalt
[00:19:13] This was all
[00:19:15] Three rooms stranger than these even in their emptiness. It would be hard to imagine
[00:19:20] In Egypt in India, they would not be entirely out of place
[00:19:24] But here in Paris on the rue Monsieur les princes
[00:19:29] They were incredible
[00:19:31] We retraced our steps
[00:19:34] Eugene closed the iron door with its bays covering
[00:19:38] And we went into one of the front chambers and sat down
[00:19:42] Looking at each other
[00:19:45] Nass pouty your aunt said far go
[00:19:48] Nass old pouty with amiable tastes. I'm glad we are not to spend the night in those rooms
[00:19:54] Yeah, what do you're supposed to did there?
[00:19:57] In choir du cane
[00:19:58] I know more or less about black art, but that series of rooms is too much for me
[00:20:04] My impression is said Dardesh
[00:20:06] That the brazen room was a kind of sanctuary
[00:20:09] Containing some image or other on the basalt base while the stone in front was really an altar
[00:20:14] What the nature of the sacrifice might be? I don't even guess
[00:20:18] The round room may have been used for invocations and incantations. The pentagram looks just like it
[00:20:24] Anyway, it is all just about as queer and unpleasant as I can well imagine
[00:20:29] Look here fellows. It is nearly 12. Let's dispose of ourselves if we are going to hunt this thing down
[00:20:36] The far chambers on this floor of the old house were those said to be haunted
[00:20:40] The wings being quite innocent and so far as we know the floor is below
[00:20:45] So it was arranged that we should each occupy a room
[00:20:48] Leaving the doors open with the lights burning and at the slightest cry or knock
[00:20:52] We were all to rush at once to the room from which the warning sound might come
[00:20:57] There was no communication between the rooms to be sure
[00:20:59] But as the doors all opened into the corridor every sound was plainly audible
[00:21:06] The last room fell to me and I looked it over carefully
[00:21:11] It seemed innocent enough a commonplace square rather lofty Parisian sleeping room
[00:21:16] Finished in wood painted white with a small marble mantle a dusty floor then laid maple and cherry walls hung with an ordinary
[00:21:24] French paper apparently quite new and two deeply embraced windows looking out on the court
[00:21:30] I opened the swinging sash with some trouble and sat down in the window seat with my lantern beside me trained on the only door
[00:21:38] Which gave on the corridor
[00:21:40] The wind had gone down. It was very still without
[00:21:43] Still and hot the masses of luminous vapor were gathering thickly overhead no longer urged by the gusty wind
[00:21:51] The great masses of rank wisteria leaves with here and there a second blossoming and purple flowers
[00:21:57] Hung dead over the windows in the sluggish air
[00:22:01] Across the roofs. I could hear the sound of a belated carriage in the streets below
[00:22:06] I filled my pipe again
[00:22:08] and waited
[00:22:10] For a time the voices of the men in the other rooms were a companionship
[00:22:14] And at first I shouted to them now and then
[00:22:16] But my voice echoed rather unpleasantly through the long corridors
[00:22:20] And had a suggestive way of reverberating around the left wing beside me and coming out at a broken window at its extremity like
[00:22:28] Like the voice of another man
[00:22:30] I soon gave up my attempts at conversation and devoted myself to that of keeping awake
[00:22:38] It was not easy
[00:22:40] Why did I eat so much? I should have known better
[00:22:43] It was making me irresistibly sleepy and wakefulness was absolutely necessary
[00:22:47] It was certainly gratifying to know that I could sleep
[00:22:51] That my courage was by me to that extent, but in the interest of science
[00:22:55] I must keep awake
[00:22:57] That said almost never it seemed had sleep looked so desirable
[00:23:03] Half a hundred times nearly I would dose for an instant only to awake with a start and to find my pipe gone out
[00:23:11] Nor did the exertion of relighting it pull me together
[00:23:15] I struck my match mechanically and with the first puff dropped off again
[00:23:20] It was most vexing. I got up and walked around the room. That was most annoying
[00:23:25] My cramped position had almost put both my legs to sleep
[00:23:29] I could hardly stand. I felt numb as though it's cold
[00:23:32] There was no longer any sound from the other rooms nor from without
[00:23:36] I sat down in my window seat
[00:23:38] How dark it was growing
[00:23:40] I turned up the lantern that pipe again how obstinately it kept going out
[00:23:45] And my last match was gone the lantern too. Was that going out?
[00:23:50] I lifted my hand to turn it up again. It felt like lead and fell beside me
[00:23:56] Then
[00:23:58] Then I awoke absolutely
[00:24:01] I remember the story of the haunt as in the haunted
[00:24:04] This was the horror
[00:24:07] I tried to rise to cry out. My body was like lead
[00:24:10] My tongue was paralyzed
[00:24:13] I could hardly move my eyes
[00:24:15] And the light was going out
[00:24:17] There was no question about that
[00:24:21] Darker and darker yet
[00:24:23] Little by little the pattern of the paper was swallowed up in the advance in night
[00:24:28] A prickly numbness gathered on every nerve
[00:24:30] My right arm slipped without feeling from my lap
[00:24:33] To my side
[00:24:36] And I could not raise it
[00:24:38] It swung helpless
[00:24:40] A thin keen hummin began in my head life could cater on a hillside in september
[00:24:47] The darkness was coming fast
[00:24:50] Yes
[00:24:51] This was it
[00:24:53] Something was subjecting me body and mind to slow paralysis
[00:24:58] Physically, I was already dead
[00:25:00] If I could only hold my mind my consciousness
[00:25:03] I might still be safe
[00:25:05] But could I could I resist the mad horror of the silence the deepening dark the creeping numbness?
[00:25:12] I knew that like the man in the ghost story
[00:25:15] My only safety lay here
[00:25:18] It had come at last
[00:25:20] My body was dead. I could no longer move my eyes
[00:25:23] They were fixed in that last look on the place where the door had been
[00:25:28] Now only a deepening of the dark
[00:25:31] But a night
[00:25:33] The last flicker of the lantern was gone
[00:25:36] I sat and waited my mind was still keen, but how long would it last?
[00:25:42] There was a limit even to the endurance of the utter panic of fear
[00:25:46] Then the end began
[00:25:50] In the velvet blackness came two white eyes
[00:25:54] Milky opalescent small far away
[00:25:57] Awful eyes like a dead dream
[00:26:01] More beautiful than I can describe
[00:26:03] The flakes of white moving in from the perimeter inward
[00:26:06] Disappearing in the center like a never-ending flow of opal water into circular tunnel
[00:26:12] I could not have moved my eyes had I possessed the power
[00:26:16] They devoured the fearful beautiful things that grew slowly slowly larger fixed on me
[00:26:21] Advancing growing more beautiful the white flakes of light sweeping more swiftly into the blazing vortices
[00:26:28] The awful fascination deepening in its insane intensity as the white vibrating eyes grew nearer
[00:26:36] Larger like a hideous and implacable engine of death
[00:26:40] The eyes of the unknown horror swelled and expanded until they were close before me
[00:26:46] enormous
[00:26:47] Terrible and I felt a slow cold wet breath propelled with mechanical
[00:26:52] Regularity against my face enveloping me in its fetid mist and its carnal house deadliness
[00:27:02] With ordinary fear goes always a physical terror
[00:27:05] But with me in the presence of this unspeakable thing was only the utter and awful terror of the mind
[00:27:11] The mad fear of a prolonged and ghostly nightmare
[00:27:15] Again and again, I tried to shriek to make some noise, but physically I was utterly dead
[00:27:20] I could only feel myself go mad with a terror of hideous death
[00:27:23] The eyes were close on me their movement so swift that they seemed to be but
[00:27:28] Palpatating flames the dead breath was around me like the depths of the deepest sea
[00:27:35] Suddenly a wet ice and mouth like that of a dead cuttlefish shapeless jelly like fell over mine
[00:27:43] The horror began to slowly draw my life from me
[00:27:46] But as enormous and shuddering folds of palpatating jelly swept sinuously around me
[00:27:51] My will came back my body awoke with a reaction of final fear and I closed with the nameless death that enfolded me
[00:28:00] What was it that I was fattened my arms sank through the unresisting mass that was turning me to ice
[00:28:06] Moment by moment new folds of cold jelly swept around me crushing me with a force of tattens
[00:28:12] I fought to rest my mouth from this awful thing that sealed it
[00:28:15] But if I ever succeeded and caught a single breath the wet sucking mass closed over my face again before I could cry out
[00:28:23] I think I fought for hours
[00:28:26] Desperately insanely in a silence that was more hideous than any sound
[00:28:32] Fought until I felt final depth at hand until the memory of all my life rushed over me like a flood
[00:28:38] Until I no longer had strength to wrench my face from that hellish succubus until with the last mechanical struggle
[00:28:46] I fell and yielded to death
[00:28:51] Then I heard a voice say
[00:28:54] If he is dead, I could never forgive myself. I was to blame
[00:28:59] Another replied he is not dead
[00:29:02] I know we can save him if only we reached the hospital in time drive like hell kosher 20 francs for you
[00:29:08] If you get there in three minutes
[00:29:11] Then there was night again and nothingness until I suddenly awoke and stared round
[00:29:17] I lay in a hospital ward very white and sunny
[00:29:20] Some yellow fluid release stood beside the head of the palette and a tall sister of mercy sat by my side
[00:29:27] To tell the story in a few words
[00:29:29] I was in the hotel du where the man had taken me that fearful night of the 12th of june
[00:29:35] I asked for fargo or dukeine and by and by the ladder came and sitting beside the bed told me all that I did not know
[00:29:43] It seems they had sat each in his room hour after hour hearing nothing very much bored and disappointed
[00:29:51] Soon after two o'clock fargo
[00:29:54] Who was in the next room?
[00:29:56] Called to ask me if I was awake
[00:29:59] I gave no reply and after shouting once or twice he took his lantern and came to investigate
[00:30:05] The door was locked on the inside
[00:30:09] He instantly called da dash and dukeine and together they hurled themselves against the door
[00:30:15] It resisted
[00:30:16] Within they could hear irregular footsteps dashing here and there with heavy breathing although frozen with terror
[00:30:22] They fought to destroy the door and finally succeeded by using a great slab of marble that formed the shelf of the mantle
[00:30:30] And fargo's room
[00:30:32] And as the door crashed in
[00:30:34] They were suddenly hurled back back against the walls of the corridor as though by an explosion
[00:30:40] The lanterns were extinguished and they found themselves in utter silence and darkness
[00:30:47] As soon as they were covered from the shock
[00:30:49] They leaped into the room and fell over my body in the middle of the floor
[00:30:53] They lighted one of the lanterns and saw the strangest sight that can be imagined
[00:30:58] The floor and walls to the height of about six feet were running with something that seemed like stagnant water
[00:31:04] thick
[00:31:06] glutinous
[00:31:07] sickening
[00:31:08] As for me, I was wrenched with the same cursed liquid. The odor of musk was nauseating
[00:31:14] They dragged me away stripped off my clothing wrapped me in their coats and hurried to the hospital
[00:31:20] Sickened me perhaps dead
[00:31:24] Soon after sunrise da dash left the hospital
[00:31:28] Being assured that I was in a fair way to recovery
[00:31:31] With time and with fargo went up to examine by daylight the traces of the adventure that was so nearly fatal
[00:31:39] They were too late
[00:31:41] Fire engines were rushing down the street as they passed the academy
[00:31:45] A neighbor rushed up to da dash
[00:31:48] Oh, monsieur what misfortune yet what fortune it is true la bush d'enferre
[00:31:54] I beg pardon the residents of the lamented mademoiselle de tartasse was burned
[00:31:59] But not holy only the ancient building
[00:32:02] The wings were saved and for that great clarity's dues a brave fireman
[00:32:06] Monsieur will remember them no doubt. It was quite true
[00:32:10] Whether a forgotten lantern overturned in the excitement had done the work or whether the origin of the fire was more supernatural
[00:32:18] It was certain that the mouth of hell was no more
[00:32:21] A last engine was pumping slowly as da dash came up
[00:32:24] Half a dozen limp and one distended hose stretched to the park co-chair and within only the facade of francis the first remained
[00:32:32] Draped still with the black stems of the wisteria
[00:32:36] Beyondly a great vacancy where thin smoke was rising slowly
[00:32:41] Every flaw was gone and the strings halls of mademoiselle blay de tartasse
[00:32:47] Were only a memory
[00:32:50] With our dash I visited the place last year
[00:32:53] But in the stead of the ancient walls was then only a new and ordinary building
[00:32:58] Fresh and respectable
[00:32:59] Yet the wonderful stores of the old bush d'enferre
[00:33:03] Still lingered in the quarter and will hold there. I do not doubt
[00:33:07] Until the day of judgment
[00:33:12] This broadcast has been provided with the assistance of the head archivist society of virtuous pagans
[00:33:18] Our players were august brotherton and guinevere mcgregor
[00:33:22] Our sound and editing were provided by the remarkable creative minds audio
[00:33:27] Our logo was designed by masface with the helios radio created by kiran bern
[00:33:34] This story was adapted by alex baghassi and is based upon a story by ralph adam's cram published in 1896
[00:33:43] It is used under public domain license
[00:33:46] All persons places and related media have been treated with the negoya mimetic
[00:33:51] Have faith we know