[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
the one that was taken in the cellar. Parsket was developing and I had taken a
batch of the fixed
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
40
plates out into the lamplight to examine them.
'I had just gone carefully through the lot when I heard a shout from Parsket
and when I ran to him he was looking at a partlydeveloped negative which he
was holding up to the red lamp. It showed the girl plainly, looking upward as
I had seen her, but the thing that astonished me was the shadow of an enormous
hoof, right above her, as if it were coming down upon her out of the shadows.
And you know, I had run her bang into that danger. That was the thought that
was chief in my mind.
'As soon as the developing was complete I fixed the plate and examined it
carefully in a good light. There was no doubt about it at all, the thing above
Miss Hisgins was an enormous, shadowy hoof. Yet I was no nearer to coming to
any definite knowledge and the only thing I could do was to warn Parsket to
say nothing about it to the girl for it would only increase her fright, but I
showed the thing to her father for I considered it right that he should know.
'That night we took the same precaution for Miss Hisgins' safety as on the two
previous nights and Parsket kept me company; yet the dawn came in without
anything unusual having happened and I went off to bed.
'When I got down to lunch I learnt that Beaumont had wired to say that he
would be in soon after four; also that a message had been sent to the Rector.
Page 44
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
And it was generally plain that the ladies of the house were in a tremendous
fluster.
'Beaumont's train was late and he did not get home until five, but even then
the Rector had not put in an appearance and the butler came in to say that the
coachman had returned without him as he had been called away unexpectedly.
Twice more during the evening the carriage was sent down, but the clergyman
had not returned and we had to delay the marriage until the next day.
'That night I arranged the "Defense" round the girl's bed and the Captain and
his wife sat up with her as before. Beaumont, as I expected, insisted on
keeping watch with me and he seemed in a curiously frightened mood; not for
himself, you know, but for Miss Hisgins. He had a horrible feeling he told me,
that there would be a final, dreadful attempt on his sweetheart that night.
'This, of course, I told him was nothing but nerves; yet really, it made me
feel very anxious; for I have seen too much not to know that under such
circumstances a premonitory conviction of impending danger is not necessarily
to be put down entirely to nerves. In fact, Beaumont was so simply and
earnestly convinced that the night would bring some extraordinary
manifestation that I got Parsket to rig up a long cord from the wire of the
butler's bell, to come along the passage handy.
'To the butler himself I gave directions not to undress and to give the same
order to two of the footmen. If I
rang he was to come instantly, with the footmen, carrying lanterns and the
lanterns were to be kept ready lit all night. If for any reason the bell did
not ring and I blew my whistle, he was to take that as a signal in the place
of the bell.
'After I had arranged all these minor details I drew a pentacle about Beaumont
and warned him very particularly to stay within it, whatever happened. And
when this was done, there was nothing to do but wait and pray that the night
would go as quietly as the night before.
'We scarcely talked at all and by about one a.m. we were all very tense and
nervous so that at last Parsket got up and began to walk up and down the
corridor to steady himself a bit. Presently I slipped off my pumps and joined
him and we walked up and down, whispering occasionally for something over an
hour, until in turning
I caught my foot in the bellcord and went down on my face; but without hurting
myself or making a noise.
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
41
'When I got up Parsket nudged me.
'"Did you notice that the bell never rang?" he whispered.
'"Jove!" I said, "you're right."
'"Wait a minute," he answered. "I'll bet it's only a kink somewhere in the
cord." He left his gun and slipped along the passage and taking the top lamp,
tiptoed away into the house, carrying Beaumont's revolver ready in his right
hand. He was a plucky chap, I remember thinking then, and again, later.
'Just then Beaumont motioned to me for absolute quiet. Directly afterwards I
heard the thing for which he listened the sound of a horse galloping, out in
the night. I think that I may say I fairly shivered. The sound died away and
left a horrible, desolate, eerie feeling in the air, you know. I put my hand
out to the bellcord, hoping Parsket had got it clear. Then I waited, glancing
before and behind.
'Perhaps two minutes passed, full of what seemed like an almost unearthly
quiet. And then, suddenly, down the corridor at the lighted end there sounded
the clumping of a great hoof and instantly the lamp was thrown with a
tremendous crash and we were in the dark. I tugged hard on the cord and blew
the whistle; then I
raised my snapshot and fired the flashlight. The corridor blazed into
Page 45
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
brilliant light, but there was nothing, and then the darkness fell like
thunder. I heard the Captain at the bedroomdoor and shouted to him to bring
out a lamp, quick; but instead something started to kick the door and I heard
the Captain shouting within the bedroom and then the screaming of the women. I
had a sudden horrible fear that the monster had got into the bedroom, but in
the same instant from up the corridor there came abruptly the vile, gobbling
neighing that we had heard in the park and the cellar. I blew the whistle
again and groped blindly for the bellcord, shouting to
Beaumont to stay in the Pentacle, whatever happened. I yelled again to the
Captain to bring out a lamp and there came a smashing sound against the
bedroom door. Then I had my matches in my hand, to get some light before that
incredible, unseen Monster was upon us.
'The match scraped on the box and flared up dully and in the same instant I
heard a faint sound behind me. I
whipped round in a kind of mad terror and saw something in the light of the
matcha monstrous horsehead close to Beaumont.
'"Look out, Beaumont!" I shouted in a sort of scream. "It's behind you!"
'The match went out abruptly and instantly there came the huge bang of
Parsket's doublebarrel (both barrels at once), fired evidently singlehanded by
Beaumont close to my ear, as it seemed. I caught a momentary glimpse of the
great head in the flash and of an enormous hoof amid the belch of fire and
smoke seeming to be descending upon Beaumont. In the same instant I fired
three chambers of my revolver. There was the sound of a dull blow and then
that horrible, gobbling neigh broke out close to me. I fired twice at the
sound.
Immediately afterward something struck me and I was knocked backwards. I got
on to my knees and shouted for help at the top of my voice. I heard the women
screaming behind the closed door of the bedroom and was dully aware that the
door was being smashed from the inside, and directly afterwards I knew that
Beaumont was struggling with some hideous thing near to me. For an instant I
held back, stupidly, paralysed with funk and then, blindly and in a sort of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl chiara76.opx.pl
the one that was taken in the cellar. Parsket was developing and I had taken a
batch of the fixed
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
40
plates out into the lamplight to examine them.
'I had just gone carefully through the lot when I heard a shout from Parsket
and when I ran to him he was looking at a partlydeveloped negative which he
was holding up to the red lamp. It showed the girl plainly, looking upward as
I had seen her, but the thing that astonished me was the shadow of an enormous
hoof, right above her, as if it were coming down upon her out of the shadows.
And you know, I had run her bang into that danger. That was the thought that
was chief in my mind.
'As soon as the developing was complete I fixed the plate and examined it
carefully in a good light. There was no doubt about it at all, the thing above
Miss Hisgins was an enormous, shadowy hoof. Yet I was no nearer to coming to
any definite knowledge and the only thing I could do was to warn Parsket to
say nothing about it to the girl for it would only increase her fright, but I
showed the thing to her father for I considered it right that he should know.
'That night we took the same precaution for Miss Hisgins' safety as on the two
previous nights and Parsket kept me company; yet the dawn came in without
anything unusual having happened and I went off to bed.
'When I got down to lunch I learnt that Beaumont had wired to say that he
would be in soon after four; also that a message had been sent to the Rector.
Page 44
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
And it was generally plain that the ladies of the house were in a tremendous
fluster.
'Beaumont's train was late and he did not get home until five, but even then
the Rector had not put in an appearance and the butler came in to say that the
coachman had returned without him as he had been called away unexpectedly.
Twice more during the evening the carriage was sent down, but the clergyman
had not returned and we had to delay the marriage until the next day.
'That night I arranged the "Defense" round the girl's bed and the Captain and
his wife sat up with her as before. Beaumont, as I expected, insisted on
keeping watch with me and he seemed in a curiously frightened mood; not for
himself, you know, but for Miss Hisgins. He had a horrible feeling he told me,
that there would be a final, dreadful attempt on his sweetheart that night.
'This, of course, I told him was nothing but nerves; yet really, it made me
feel very anxious; for I have seen too much not to know that under such
circumstances a premonitory conviction of impending danger is not necessarily
to be put down entirely to nerves. In fact, Beaumont was so simply and
earnestly convinced that the night would bring some extraordinary
manifestation that I got Parsket to rig up a long cord from the wire of the
butler's bell, to come along the passage handy.
'To the butler himself I gave directions not to undress and to give the same
order to two of the footmen. If I
rang he was to come instantly, with the footmen, carrying lanterns and the
lanterns were to be kept ready lit all night. If for any reason the bell did
not ring and I blew my whistle, he was to take that as a signal in the place
of the bell.
'After I had arranged all these minor details I drew a pentacle about Beaumont
and warned him very particularly to stay within it, whatever happened. And
when this was done, there was nothing to do but wait and pray that the night
would go as quietly as the night before.
'We scarcely talked at all and by about one a.m. we were all very tense and
nervous so that at last Parsket got up and began to walk up and down the
corridor to steady himself a bit. Presently I slipped off my pumps and joined
him and we walked up and down, whispering occasionally for something over an
hour, until in turning
I caught my foot in the bellcord and went down on my face; but without hurting
myself or making a noise.
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
41
'When I got up Parsket nudged me.
'"Did you notice that the bell never rang?" he whispered.
'"Jove!" I said, "you're right."
'"Wait a minute," he answered. "I'll bet it's only a kink somewhere in the
cord." He left his gun and slipped along the passage and taking the top lamp,
tiptoed away into the house, carrying Beaumont's revolver ready in his right
hand. He was a plucky chap, I remember thinking then, and again, later.
'Just then Beaumont motioned to me for absolute quiet. Directly afterwards I
heard the thing for which he listened the sound of a horse galloping, out in
the night. I think that I may say I fairly shivered. The sound died away and
left a horrible, desolate, eerie feeling in the air, you know. I put my hand
out to the bellcord, hoping Parsket had got it clear. Then I waited, glancing
before and behind.
'Perhaps two minutes passed, full of what seemed like an almost unearthly
quiet. And then, suddenly, down the corridor at the lighted end there sounded
the clumping of a great hoof and instantly the lamp was thrown with a
tremendous crash and we were in the dark. I tugged hard on the cord and blew
the whistle; then I
raised my snapshot and fired the flashlight. The corridor blazed into
Page 45
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
brilliant light, but there was nothing, and then the darkness fell like
thunder. I heard the Captain at the bedroomdoor and shouted to him to bring
out a lamp, quick; but instead something started to kick the door and I heard
the Captain shouting within the bedroom and then the screaming of the women. I
had a sudden horrible fear that the monster had got into the bedroom, but in
the same instant from up the corridor there came abruptly the vile, gobbling
neighing that we had heard in the park and the cellar. I blew the whistle
again and groped blindly for the bellcord, shouting to
Beaumont to stay in the Pentacle, whatever happened. I yelled again to the
Captain to bring out a lamp and there came a smashing sound against the
bedroom door. Then I had my matches in my hand, to get some light before that
incredible, unseen Monster was upon us.
'The match scraped on the box and flared up dully and in the same instant I
heard a faint sound behind me. I
whipped round in a kind of mad terror and saw something in the light of the
matcha monstrous horsehead close to Beaumont.
'"Look out, Beaumont!" I shouted in a sort of scream. "It's behind you!"
'The match went out abruptly and instantly there came the huge bang of
Parsket's doublebarrel (both barrels at once), fired evidently singlehanded by
Beaumont close to my ear, as it seemed. I caught a momentary glimpse of the
great head in the flash and of an enormous hoof amid the belch of fire and
smoke seeming to be descending upon Beaumont. In the same instant I fired
three chambers of my revolver. There was the sound of a dull blow and then
that horrible, gobbling neigh broke out close to me. I fired twice at the
sound.
Immediately afterward something struck me and I was knocked backwards. I got
on to my knees and shouted for help at the top of my voice. I heard the women
screaming behind the closed door of the bedroom and was dully aware that the
door was being smashed from the inside, and directly afterwards I knew that
Beaumont was struggling with some hideous thing near to me. For an instant I
held back, stupidly, paralysed with funk and then, blindly and in a sort of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]