🎩 Hunted Down by Charles Dickens: A Gripping Victorian Mystery Audiobook 🔍 #audiobook
Dive into Hunted Down by Charles Dickens, a chilling Victorian mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat! 🔥 Set in the bustling streets of 19th-century London, this audiobook unravels the secrets of one man's dangerous double life. 🌆 Filled with intrigue, suspense, and Dickens' brilliant storytelling, it's a tale you won't forget! ✨
💡 Fun Facts:
Charles Dickens, best known for Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, wrote this gripping story in 1860 as a serialized tale. 📜
The story's inspiration came from real-life events involving a notorious 19th-century criminal. 🚨
It's one of Dickens' shortest works, yet packed with his signature wit and sharp social commentary. 💬
📖 Genre: Mystery, Suspense
📍 Set in: Victorian London
👨💼 About the Author:
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is one of the most celebrated authors of the 19th century. Known for his vivid characters and masterful storytelling, his works often shed light on the struggles of the poor and the complexities of human nature.
📚 Hunted Down highlights Dickens' fascination with crime and justice, showcasing his ability to craft suspenseful narratives.
Enjoy the audiobook and let us know your favorite part in the comments! 🖋️
Credits: Transcribed from the 1905 Chapman and Hall “Hard Times and Reprinted Pieces” edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org).
#charlesdickens #victorianmystery #audiobook #mysterythriller #hunteddown #classicliterature #literaryclassics #crimeandjustice #historicalfiction #storytimeclassics
Dive into Hunted Down by Charles Dickens, a chilling Victorian mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat! 🔥 Set in the bustling streets of 19th-century London, this audiobook unravels the secrets of one man's dangerous double life. 🌆 Filled with intrigue, suspense, and Dickens' brilliant storytelling, it's a tale you won't forget! ✨
💡 Fun Facts:
Charles Dickens, best known for Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, wrote this gripping story in 1860 as a serialized tale. 📜
The story's inspiration came from real-life events involving a notorious 19th-century criminal. 🚨
It's one of Dickens' shortest works, yet packed with his signature wit and sharp social commentary. 💬
📖 Genre: Mystery, Suspense
📍 Set in: Victorian London
👨💼 About the Author:
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is one of the most celebrated authors of the 19th century. Known for his vivid characters and masterful storytelling, his works often shed light on the struggles of the poor and the complexities of human nature.
📚 Hunted Down highlights Dickens' fascination with crime and justice, showcasing his ability to craft suspenseful narratives.
Enjoy the audiobook and let us know your favorite part in the comments! 🖋️
Credits: Transcribed from the 1905 Chapman and Hall “Hard Times and Reprinted Pieces” edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
Text sourced from Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org).
#charlesdickens #victorianmystery #audiobook #mysterythriller #hunteddown #classicliterature #literaryclassics #crimeandjustice #historicalfiction #storytimeclassics
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00Hunted down by Charles Dickens.
00:02Most of us see some romances in life.
00:05In my capacity as chief manager of a life assurance office, I think I have within the last 30 years seen more romances than the generality of men, however unpromising the opportunity may at first sight seem.
00:18As I have retired and live at my ease, I possess the means that I used to want of considering what I have seen at leisure.
00:25My experiences have a more remarkable aspect so reviewed than they had when they were in progress.
00:32I have come home from the play now and can recall the scenes of the drama upon which the curtain has fallen, free from the glare, bewilderment, and bustle of the theater.
00:42Let me recall one of these romances of the real world.
00:45There is nothing truer than physiognomy taken in connection with manner.
00:50The art of reading that book of which eternal wisdom obliges every human creature to present his or her own page with the individual character written on it is a difficult one, perhaps, and is little studied.
01:03It may require some natural aptitude, and it must require, for everything does, some patience and some pains.
01:11That these are not usually given to it.
01:13That numbers of people accept a few stock commonplace expressions of the face as the whole list of characteristics, and neither seek nor know the refinements that are truest.
01:23That you, for instance, give a great deal of time and attention to the reading of music, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Hebrew, if you please,
01:31and do not qualify yourself to read the face of the master or mistress looking over your shoulder teaching it to you.
01:38I assume to be five.
01:39A hundred times more probable than improbable.
01:43Perhaps a little self-sufficiency may be at the bottom of this.
01:47Facial expression requires no study from you.
01:50You think.
01:51It comes by nature to you to know enough about it, and you are not to be taken in.
01:55I confess, for my part, that I have been taken in over and over again.
02:00I have been taken in by acquaintances, and I have been taken in, of course, by friends, far oftener by friends than by any other class of persons.
02:07How came I to be so deceived?
02:10Had I quite misread their faces?
02:12No.
02:13Believe me, my first impression of those people, founded on face and manner alone, was invariably true.
02:21My mistake was in suffering them to come nearer to me and explain themselves away.
02:25The partition which separated my own office from our general outer office in the city was of thick plate glass.
02:32I could see through at what passed in the outer office, without hearing a word.
02:36I had it put up in place of a wall that had been there for years, ever since the house was built.
02:42It is no matter whether I did or did not make the change in order that I might derive my first impression of strangers,
02:49who came to us on business from their faces alone, without being influenced by anything they said.
02:55Enough to mention that I turned my glass partition to that account,
02:59and that a life assurance office is at all times exposed to be practiced upon by the most crafty and cruel of the human race.
03:06It was through my glass partition that I first saw the gentleman whose story I am going to tell.
03:11He had come in without my observing it, and had put his hat and umbrella on the broad counter,
03:17and was bending over it to take some papers from one of the clerks.
03:19He was about forty or so, dark, exceedingly well-dressed in black, being in mourning,
03:25and the hand he extended with a polite air had a particularly well-fitting black kid glove upon it.
03:31His hair, which was elaborately brushed and oiled, was parted straight up the middle,
03:36and he presented this parting to the clerk exactly, to my thinking,
03:40as if he had said, in so many words,
03:43You must take me, if you please, my friend, just as I show myself.
03:47Come straight up here, follow the gravel path, keep off the grass, allow no trespassing.
03:53I conceived a very great aversion to that man the moment I thus saw him.
03:58He had asked for some of our printed forms, and the clerk was giving them to him, and explaining them.
04:03An obliged and agreeable smile was on his face, and his eyes met those of the clerk with a sprightly look.
04:10I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face.
04:16Don't trust that conventional idea.
04:17Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance.
04:21Any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.
04:25I saw, in the corner of his eyelash, that he became aware of my looking at him.
04:30Immediately he turned the parting in his hair toward the glass partition,
04:34as if he said to me with a sweet smile,
04:36Straight up here if you please.
04:38Off the grass!
04:39In a few moments he had put on his hat, and taken up his umbrella, and was gone.
04:45I beckoned the clerk into my room, and asked,
04:48Who was that?
04:49He had the gentleman's card in his hand.
04:51Mr. Julius Slinkton, Middle Temple.
04:53A barrister, Mr. Adams?
04:55I think not, sir.
04:57I should have thought him a clergyman.
04:58But for his having no reverend here, said I.
05:01Probably from his appearance, Mr. Adams replied.
05:05He is reading for orders.
05:06I should mention that he wore a dainty white cravat, and dainty linen altogether.
05:11What did he want, Mr. Adams?
05:13Merely a form of proposal, sir, and form of reference.
05:17Recommended here?
05:18Did he say?
05:19Yes, he said he was recommended here by a friend of yours.
05:22He noticed you, but said that as he had not the pleasure of your personal acquaintance,
05:27he would not trouble you.
05:28Did he know my name?
05:29Oh, yes, sir.
05:31He said,
05:31There is Mr. Sampson.
05:33I see.
05:34A well-spoken gentleman, apparently.
05:37Remarkably so, sir.
05:39Insinuating manners, apparently.
05:41Very much so, indeed, sir.
05:43How said I?
05:44I want nothing at present, Mr. Adams.
05:47Within a fortnight of that day, I went to dine with a friend of mine, a merchant, a man
05:51of taste, who buys pictures and books, and the first man I saw among the company was Mr.
05:56Julius Slinkton.
05:57There he was, standing before the fire, with good large eyes and an open expression of face.
06:03But still, I thought, requiring everybody to come at him by the prepared way he offered,
06:09and by no other.
06:10I noticed him ask my friend to introduce him to Mr. Sampson, and my friend did so.
06:16Mr. Slinkton was very happy to see me.
06:19Not too happy.
06:20There was no overdoing of the matter.
06:23Happy in a thoroughly well-bred, perfectly unmeaning way.
06:27I thought you had met, our host observed.
06:30No, said Mr. Slinkton.
06:32I did look in at Mr. Sampson's office on your recommendation, but I really did not feel
06:37justified in troubling Mr. Sampson himself, on a point in the everyday routine of an ordinary
06:42clerk.
06:43I said I should have been glad to show him any attention on our friend's introduction.
06:47I am sure of that, said he, and am much obliged.
06:50At another time, perhaps, I may be less delicate.
06:54Only, however, if I have real business.
06:57For I know, Mr. Sampson, how precious business time is, and what a vast number of impertinent
07:02people there are in the world.
07:04I acknowledged his consideration with a slight bow.
07:07You were thinking, said I, of affecting a policy on your life.
07:12Oh dear, no.
07:12I am afraid I am not so prudent as you pay me the compliment of supposing me to be, Mr.
07:19Sampson.
07:19I merely inquired for a friend.
07:21But you know what friends are in such matters.
07:24Nothing may ever come of it.
07:25I have the greatest reluctance to trouble men of business with inquiries for friends, knowing
07:30the probabilities to be a thousand to one that the friends will never follow them up.
07:35People are so fickle, so selfish, so inconsiderate.
07:39Don't you, in your business, find them so every day, Mr. Sampson?
07:44I was going to give a qualified answer.
07:46But he turned his smooth, white parting on me with its straight up here, if you please.
07:51And I answered yes.
07:53I hear, Mr. Sampson.
07:54He resumed presently, for our friend had a new cook, and dinner was not so punctual as
08:00usual, that your profession has recently suffered a great loss.
08:04In money, said I.
08:05He laughed at my ready association of loss with money, and replied,
08:09No, in talent and vigor.
08:11Not at once following out his illusion, I considered for a moment.
08:15Has it sustained a loss of that kind?
08:17Said I.
08:18I was not aware of it.
08:19Understand me, Mr. Sampson.
08:21I don't imagine that you have retired.
08:24It is not so bad as that.
08:25But Mr. Meltam.
08:27Oh.
08:28To be sure, said I.
08:29Yes.
08:30Mr. Meltam.
08:31The young actuary of the inestimable.
08:35Just so.
08:36He returned in a consoling way.
08:38He is a great loss.
08:40He was at once the most profound, the most original, and the most energetic man I have
08:45ever known connected with life assurance.
08:47I spoke strongly.
08:49For I had a high esteem and admiration for Meltam.
08:52And my gentleman had indefinitely conveyed to me some suspicion that he wanted to sneer at
08:57him.
08:58He recalled me to my guard by presenting that trim pathway up his head, with its internal,
09:03not on the grass, if you please, the gravel.
09:06You knew him, Mr. Slinkton?
09:08Only by reputation.
09:10To have known him as an acquaintance or as a friend.
09:13Is an honor I should have sought if he had remained in society, though I might never have
09:17had the good fortune to attain it, being a man of far inferior mark.
09:21He was scarcely above thirty, I suppose.
09:24About thirty.
09:25Ah.
09:26He sighed in his former consoling way.
09:29What creatures we are.
09:30To break up, Mr. Sampson, and become incapable of business at that time of life.
09:36Any reason to sign for the melancholy fact.
09:39Humph.
09:40Thought I, as I looked at him.
09:42But I won't go up the track, and I will go on the grass.
09:45What reason have you heard a sign, Mr. Slinkton?
09:48I asked, point blank.
09:50Most likely a false one.
09:51You know what rumor is, Mr. Sampson.
09:53I never repeat what I hear.
09:55It is the only way of paring the nails and shaving the head of rumor.
10:00But when you ask me what reason I have heard a sign for Mr. Maltham's passing away from
10:05among men, it is another thing.
10:06I am not gratifying idle gossip then.
10:10I was told, Mr. Sampson, that Mr. Meltam had relinquished all his avocations and all his
10:15prospects, because he was, in fact, brokenhearted.
10:19A disappointed attachment, I heard, though it hardly seems probable, in the case of a
10:24man so distinguished and so attractive.
10:27Attractions and distinctions are no armor against death, said I.
10:31Oh, she died?
10:32Pray pardon me.
10:34I did not hear that.
10:35That, indeed, makes it very, very sad.
10:38Poor Mr. Maltham.
10:39She died.
10:40Oh, dear me.
10:41Lamentable.
10:42Lamentable.
10:43I still thought his pity was not quite genuine, and I still suspected an unaccountable sneer
10:49under all this, until he said, as we were parted like the other knots of talkers, by
10:54the announcement of dinner, Mr. Sampson, you are surprised to see me so moved on behalf
11:00of a man whom I have never known.
11:02I am not so disinterested, as you may suppose.
11:05I have suffered, and recently too, from death myself.
11:09I have lost one of two charming nieces, who were my constant companions.
11:14She died young, barely three and twenty, and even her remaining sister is far from strong.
11:20The world is a grave.
11:22He said this with deep feeling, and I felt reproach for the coldness of my manner.
11:27Coldness and distrust had been engendered in me.
11:30I knew, by my bad experiences, they were not natural to me.
11:34And I often thought how much I had lost in life, losing trustfulness, and how little
11:40I had gained, gaining hard caution.
11:43This state of mind, being habitual to me, I troubled myself more about this conversation
11:48than I might have troubled myself about a greater matter.
11:51I listened to his talk at dinner, and observed how readily other men responded to it, and with
11:56what a graceful instinct he adapted his subjects to the knowledge and habits of those he talked
12:01with, as, in talking with me, he had easily started the subject I might be supposed to
12:06understand best, and to be the most interested in so, in talking with others, he guided himself
12:11by the same rule.
12:12The company was of a varied character, but he was not at fault that I could discover
12:17with any member of it.
12:19He knew just as much of each man's pursuit as made him agreeable to that man in reference
12:24to it, and just as little as made it natural in him to seek modestly for information when
12:30the theme was broached.
12:31As he talked and talked, but really not too much, for the rest of us seemed to force it
12:35upon him, I became quite angry with myself.
12:39I took his face to pieces in my mind, like a watch, and examined it in detail.
12:43I could not say much against any of his features separately.
12:47I could say even less against them when they were put together.
12:51Then is it not monstrous, I asked myself, that because a man happens to part his hair straight
12:56up the middle of his head, I should permit myself to suspect, and even to detest him.
13:01I may stop to remark that this was no proof of my sense.
13:05An observer of men who finds himself steadily repelled by some apparently trifling thing
13:10in a stranger is right to give it great weight.
13:13It may be the clue to the whole mystery.
13:15A hair or two will show where a lion is hidden.
13:18A very little key will open a very heavy door.
13:21I took my part in the conversation with him after a time, and we got on remarkably well.
13:26In the drawing room, I asked the host how long he had known Mr. Slinkton.
13:31He answered, not many months.
13:33He had met him at the house of a celebrated painter then present, who had known him well
13:37when he was traveling with his nieces in Italy for their health.
13:41His plans in life being broken by the death of one of them.
13:44He was reading with the intention of going back to college as a matter of form, taking his
13:49degree, and going into orders.
13:51I could not but argue with myself that here was the true explanation of his interest in
13:55poor Meltam, and that I had been almost brutal in my distrust on that simple head.
14:01On the very next day, but when I was sitting behind my glass partition, as before, when
14:06he came into the outer office, as before.
14:08The moment I saw him again, without hearing him, I hated him worse than ever.
14:13It was only for a moment that I had this opportunity, for he waved his tight-fitting black glove the
14:19instant I looked at him, and came straight in.
14:22Mr. Sampson, good day.
14:24I presume, you see, upon your kind permission to intrude upon you.
14:29I don't keep my word in being justified by business, for my business here, if I may so
14:34abuse the word, is of the slightest nature.
14:37I asked, was it anything I could assist him in?
14:40I think, you know.
14:41I merely called to inquire outside whether my dilatory friend had been so false to himself
14:47as to be practical and sensible.
14:50But, of course, he has done nothing.
14:52I gave him your papers with my own hand, and he was hot upon the intention.
14:56But, of course, he has done nothing.
14:58Apart from the general human disinclination to do anything that ought to be done, I dare
15:04say there is a specialty about assuring one's life.
15:08You find it like will-making.
15:10People are so superstitious.
15:12And take it for granted they will die soon afterwards.
15:15Up here, if you please.
15:17Straight up here, Mr. Sampson.
15:19Neither to the right nor to the left.
15:21I almost fancied I could hear him breathe the words as he sat smiling at me.
15:25With that intolerable parting exactly opposite the bridge of my nose.
15:30There is such a feeling sometimes.
15:32No doubt, I replied.
15:34But I don't think it obtains to any great extent.
15:37Well, said he, with a shrug and a smile, I wish some good angel would influence my friend
15:43in the right direction.
15:44I rashly promised his mother and sister in Norfolk to see it done.
15:48And he promised them that he would do it.
15:50But I suppose he never will.
15:52He spoke for a minute or two on indifferent topics and went away.
15:56I had scarcely unlocked the drawers of my writing table next morning when he reappeared.
16:01I noticed that he came straight to the door in the glass partition and did not pause a
16:06single moment outside.
16:07Can you spare me two minutes, my dear Mr. Sampson?
16:10By all means.
16:11Much obliged.
16:13Laying his hat and umbrella on the table.
16:15I came early.
16:17Not to interrupt you.
16:18The fact is, I am taken by surprise in reference to this proposal my friend has made.
16:23Has he made one, said I.
16:25He answered, deliberately looking at me.
16:28And then a bright idea seemed to strike him.
16:30Or he only tells me he has.
16:32Perhaps that may be a new way of evading the matter.
16:36By Jupiter, I never thought of that.
16:38Mr. Adams was opening the morning's letters in the outer office.
16:42What is the name, Mr. Slankton?
16:44I asked.
16:45Beckwith.
16:46I looked out at the door and requested Mr. Adams, if there were a proposal in that name,
16:51to bring it in.
16:52He had already laid it out of his hand on the counter.
16:54It was easily selected from the rest, and he gave it me.
16:58Alfred Beckwith.
16:59Proposal to effect a policy with us for 2,000 pounds.
17:03Dated yesterday.
17:04From the middle temple.
17:06I see, Mr. Slankton.
17:07Yes.
17:08He lives on the same staircase with me.
17:11His door is opposite.
17:12I never thought he would make me his reference, though.
17:15It seems natural enough that he should.
17:17Quite so, Mr. Sampson.
17:19But I never thought of it.
17:20Let me see.
17:21He took the printed paper from his pocket.
17:23How am I to answer all these questions?
17:26According to the truth, of course, said I.
17:28Oh, of course, he answered, looking up from the paper with a smile.
17:33I meant they were so many.
17:35But you do write to be particular.
17:36It stands to reason that you must be particular.
17:40Will you allow me to use your pen and ink?
17:43Certainly.
17:43And your desk.
17:45Certainly.
17:46He had been hovering about between his hat and his umbrella for a place to write on.
17:50He now sat down in my chair, at my blotting paper and ink stand,
17:54with the long walk up his head and accurate perspective before me,
17:58as I stood with my back to the fire.
18:00Before answering each question, he ran over it aloud and discussed it.
18:04How long had he known Mr. Alfred Beckwith?
18:07That he had to calculate by years upon his fingers?
18:10What were his habits?
18:12No difficulty about them.
18:14Tempered in the last degree and took a little too much exercise, if anything.
18:18All the answers were satisfactory.
18:20When he had written them all, he looked them over and finally signed them in a very pretty hand.
18:25He supposed he had now done with the business.
18:28I told him he was not likely to be troubled any farther.
18:32Should he leave the papers there?
18:33If he pleased.
18:35Much obliged.
18:36Good morning.
18:37I had had one other visitor before him.
18:39Not at the office, but at my own house.
18:42That visitor had come to my bedside when it was not yet daylight,
18:46and had been seen by no one else but by my faithful confidential servant.
18:49A second reference paper, for we required always to, was sent down into Norfolk and was duly received back by post.
18:57This, likewise, was satisfactorily answered in every respect.
19:02Our forms were all complied with.
19:04We accepted the proposal, and the premium for one year was paid.
19:08For six or seven months, I saw no more of Mr. Slinkton.
19:12He called once at my house, but I was not at home,
19:15and he once asked me to dine with him in the temple, but I was engaged.
19:19His friend's assurance was effected in March.
19:22Late in September or early in October, I was down at Scarborough for a breath of sea air,
19:27where I met him on the beach.
19:29It was a hot evening.
19:30He came toward me with his hat in his hand,
19:32and there was the walk I had felt so strongly disinclined to take in perfect order again,
19:38exactly in front of the bridge of my nose.
19:40He was not alone, but had a young lady on his arm.
19:44She was dressed in mourning, and I looked at her with great interest.
19:47She had the appearance of being extremely delicate, and her face was remarkably pale and melancholy.
19:54But she was very pretty.
19:56He introduced her as his niece, Miss Niner.
19:59Are you strolling, Mr. Sampson?
20:01Is it possible you can be idle?
20:03It was possible, and I was strolling.
20:06Shall we stroll together?
20:07With pleasure.
20:08The young lady walked between us, and we walked on the cool sea sand, in the direction of Filey.
20:14There have been wheels here, said Mr. Slinkton.
20:17And now I look again.
20:19The wheels of a hand carriage.
20:21Margaret, my love.
20:23Your shadow without doubt.
20:25Miss Niner's shadow?
20:26I repeated, looking down at it on the sand.
20:29Not that one.
20:30Mr. Slinkton returned, laughing.
20:33Margaret, my dear.
20:34Tell Mr. Sampson.
20:35Indeed, said the young lady, turning to me.
20:38There is nothing to tell, except that I constantly see the same invalid old gentleman at all times, wherever I go.
20:46I have mentioned it to my uncle, and he calls the gentleman my shadow.
20:50Does he live in Scarborough?
20:51I asked.
20:53He is staying here.
20:54Do you live in Scarborough?
20:56No.
20:56I am staying here.
20:57My uncle has placed me with a family here for my health, and your shadow, said I, smiling.
21:04My shadow, she answered, smiling too, is, like myself, not very robust, I fear, for I lose my shadow sometimes, as my shadow loses me at other times.
21:16We both seem liable to confinement to the house.
21:19I have not seen my shadow for days and days, but it does oddly happen, occasionally, that wherever I go, for many days together, this gentleman goes.
21:29We have come together in the most unfrequented nooks on this shore.
21:34Is this he?
21:35Said I, pointing before us.
21:37The wheels had swept down to the water's edge, and described a great loop on the sand in turning.
21:43Bringing the loop back towards us, and spinning it out as it came, was a hand carriage, drawn by a man.
21:50Yes, said Miss Niner, this really is my shadow, uncle.
21:54As the carriage approached us, and we approached the carriage, I saw within it an old man, whose head was sunk on his breast, and who was enveloped in a variety of wrappers.
22:04He was drawn by a very quiet but very keen-looking man, with iron-gray hair, who was slightly lame.
22:11They had passed us, when the carriage stopped, and the old gentleman within, putting out his arm, called to me by my name.
22:19I went back, and was absent from Mr. Slinkton and his niece for about five minutes.
22:24When I rejoined them, Mr. Slinkton was the first to speak.
22:28Indeed, he said to me in a raised voice before I came up with him,
22:32It is well you have not been longer, or my niece might have died of curiosity to know who her shadow is, Mr. Sampson.
22:38An old East India director, said I, an intimate friend of our friend's, at whose house I first had the pleasure of meeting you.
22:46A certain major banks.
22:48You have heard of him?
22:49Never.
22:50Very rich, Miss Niner, but very old, and very crippled.
22:55An amiable man, sensible, much interested in you.
22:58He has just been expatiating on the affection that he has observed to exist between you and your uncle.
23:04Mr. Slinkton was holding his hat again, and he passed his hand up the straight walk, as if he himself went up it serenely, after me.
23:13Mr. Sampson, he said, tenderly pressing his niece's arm in his.
23:17Our affection was always a strong one, for we have had but few near ties.
23:22We have still fewer now.
23:24We have associations to bring us together, that are not of this world.
23:27Margaret, dear uncle, murmured the young lady, and turned her face aside to hide her tears.
23:34My niece, and I have such remembrances and regrets in common, Mr. Sampson, he feelingly pursued, that it would be strange indeed if the relations between us were cold or indifferent.
23:45If I remember a conversation we once had together, you will understand the reference I make.
23:50Cheer up, dear Margaret.
23:52Don't droop, don't droop.
23:54My Margaret, I cannot bear to see you droop.
23:57The poor young lady was very much affected, but controlled herself.
24:01His feelings, too, were very acute.
24:04In a word, he found himself under such great need of a restorative, that he presently went away, to take a bath of seawater, leaving the young lady and me sitting by a point of rock, and probably presuming, but that you will say was a pardonable indulgence and a luxury, that she would praise him with all her heart.
24:22She did poor thing.
24:24With all her confiding heart, she praised him to me, for his care of her dead sister, and for his untiring devotion in her last illness.
24:33The sister had wasted away very slowly, and wild and terrible fantasies had come over her toward the end.
24:39But he had never been impatient with her, or at a loss, had always been gentle, watchful, and self-possessed.
24:47The sister had known him, as she had known him, to be the best of men, the kindest of men, and yet a man of such admirable strength of character, as to be a very tower for the support of their weak natures while their poor lives endured.
25:00I shall leave him, Mr. Sampson, very soon, said the young lady.
25:05I know my life is drawing to an end, and when I am gone, I hope he will marry and be happy.
25:11I am sure he has lived single so long, only for my sake, and for my poor, poor sisters.
25:18The little hand carriage had made another great loop on the damp sand, and was coming back again, gradually spinning out a slim figure of eight, half a mile long.
25:27Young lady, said I, looking around, laying my hand upon her arm, and speaking in a low voice.
25:34Time presses.
25:35You hear the gentle murmur of that sea.
25:38She looked at me with the utmost wonder and alarm, saying, yes.
25:43And you know what a voice is in it when the storm comes?
25:46Yes.
25:47You see how quiet and peaceful it lies before us.
25:50And you know what an awful sight of power, without pity it might be, this very night.
25:55Yes, but if you had never heard or seen it, or heard of it in its cruelty, could you believe that it beats every inanimate thing in its way to pieces, without mercy, and destroys life without remorse?
26:09You terrify me, sir, by these questions?
26:12To save you, young lady, to save you.
26:16For God's sake, collect your strength and collect your firmness.
26:20If you were here alone, and hemmed in by the rising tide on the flow to fifty feet above your head, you could not be in greater danger than the danger you are now to be saved from.
26:31The figure on the sand was spun out, and straggled off into a crooked little jerk that ended at the cliff very near us.
26:37As I am, before heaven and the judge of all mankind, your friend and your dead sister's friend, I solemnly entreat you, Miss Niner, without one moment's loss of time, to come to this gentleman with me.
26:52If the little carriage had been less near to us, I doubt if I could have got her away, but it was so near that we were there before she had recovered the hurry of being urged from the rock.
27:01I did not remain there with her two minutes. Certainly within five, I had the inexpressible satisfaction of seeing her, from the point we had sat on, and to which I had returned.
27:13Half supported and half carried up some rude steps notched in the cliff by the figure of an active man.
27:19With that figure beside her, I knew she was safe anywhere.
27:23I sat alone on the rock, awaiting Mr. Slinkton's return.
27:26The twilight was deepening, and the shadows were heavy, when he came round the point, with his hat hanging at his buttonhole, smoothing his wet hair with one of his hands, and picking out the old path with the other in a pocket comb.
27:40My niece not here, Mr. Sampson, he said looking about.
27:43Miss Niner seemed to feel a chill in the air after the sun was down, and has gone home.
27:48He looked surprised, as though she were not accustomed to do anything without him, even to originate so slight a proceeding.
27:56I persuaded Miss Niner, I explained.
27:59I said it.
28:00She is easily persuaded for her good.
28:02Thank you, Mr. Sampson.
28:04She is better within doors.
28:06The bathing place was farther than I thought, to say the truth.
28:10Miss Niner is very delicate, I observed.
28:13He shook his head and drew a deep sigh.
28:15Very, very, very.
28:16You may recollect my saying so.
28:18The time that has since intervened has not strengthened her.
28:22The gloomy shadow that fell upon her sister so early in life seems, in my anxious eyes, to gather over her, ever darker, ever darker.
28:32Dear Margaret, dear Margaret, but we must hope.
28:35The hand carriage was spinning away before us at a most indecorous pace for an invalid vehicle, and was making most irregular curves upon the sand.
28:44Mr. Slinkton, noticing it after he had put his handkerchief to his eyes, said,
28:49If I may judge from appearances, your friend will be upset, Mr. Sampson.
28:53It looks probable, certainly, said I.
28:56The servant must be drunk.
28:58The servants of old gentlemen will get drunk sometimes, said I.
29:02The major draws very light, Mr. Sampson.
29:05The major does draw light, said I.
29:07By this time the carriage, much to my relief, was lost in the darkness.
29:12We walked on for a little, side-by-side over the sand in silence.
29:17After a short while he said, in a voice still affected by the emotion that his niece's state of health had awakened in him,
29:24Do you stay here long, Mr. Sampson?
29:27Why no?
29:28I am going away tonight.
29:29So soon?
29:30But business always holds you in request.
29:33Men like Mr. Sampson are too important to others, to be spared to their own need of relaxation and enjoyment.
29:40I don't know about that, said I.
29:42However, I am going back.
29:45To London?
29:46To London.
29:47I shall be there, too.
29:48Soon after you.
29:49I knew that as well as he did.
29:51But I did not tell him so.
29:53Any more than I told him what defensive weapon my right hand rested on in my pocket, as I walked by his side.
29:59Any more than I told him why I did not walk on the seaside of him with the night closing in.
30:04We left the beach, and our ways diverged.
30:07We exchanged good night, and it parted indeed, when he said, returning, Mr. Sampson, may I ask?
30:15Poor Meltam, whom we spoke of, dead yet.
30:19Not when I last heard of him, but too broken a man to live long, and hopelessly lost to his old calling.
30:26Dear, dear, dear, said he, with great feeling.
30:30Sad, sad, sad.
30:31The world is a grave.
30:33And so went his way.
30:34It was not his fault if the world were not a grave.
30:37But I did not call that observation after him.
30:40Any more than I had mentioned those other things just now enumerated.
30:43He went his way, and I went mine with all expedition.
30:47This happened, as I have said, either at the end of September or beginning of October.
30:52The next time I saw him, and the last time was late in November,
30:56I had a very particular engagement to breakfast in the temple.
30:59It was a bitter northeasterly morning, and the sleet and slush lay inches deep in the streets.
31:06I could get no conveyance, and was soon wet to the knees.
31:09But I should have been true to that appointment,
31:12though I had to wade to it up to my neck in the same impediments.
31:15The appointment took me to some chambers in the temple.
31:18They were at the top of a lonely corner house overlooking the river.
31:22The name, Mr. Alfred Beckwith, was painted on the outer door.
31:26On the door opposite, on the same landing, the name, Mr. Julius Slinkton.
31:31The doors of both sets of chambers stood open,
31:34so that anything said aloud in one set could be heard in the other.
31:37I had never been in those chambers before.
31:40They were dismal, close, unwholesome, and oppressive.
31:44The furniture, originally good and not yet old, was faded and dirty.
31:48The rooms were in great disorder.
31:51There was a strong prevailing smell of opium, brandy, and tobacco.
31:55The grate and fire irons were splashed all over with unsightly blotches of rust.
32:00And on a sofa by the fire, in the room where breakfast had been prepared,
32:04lay the host, Mr. Beckwith.
32:06A man with all the appearances of the worst kind of drunkard,
32:09very far advanced upon his.
32:12Shameful way, to death.
32:14Slinkton has not come yet, said this creature, staggering up when I went in.
32:19I'll call him, hello, Julius Caesar.
32:22Come and drink.
32:23As he hoarsely roared this out, he beat the poker and tongs together in a mad way,
32:28as if that were his usual manner of summoning his associate.
32:32The voice of Mr. Slinkton was heard through the clatter from the opposite side of the staircase,
32:36and he came in.
32:37He had not expected the pleasure of meeting me.
32:40I have seen several artful men brought to a stand,
32:43but I never saw a man so aghast as he was when his eyes rested on mine.
32:48Julius Caesar, cried Beckwith, staggering between us.
32:52Missed Samson.
32:53Missed Samson, Julius Caesar.
32:56Julius, Missed Samson, is the friend of my soul.
33:00Julius keeps me plied with liquor.
33:02Morning, noon, and night.
33:04Julius is a real benefactor.
33:07Julius threw the tea and coffee out of window when I used to have any.
33:10Julius empties all the water jugs of their contents, and fills Em with spirits.
33:17Julius winds me up and keeps me going to boil the brandy, Julius.
33:21There was a rusty and furred saucepan in the ashes.
33:25The ashes looked like the accumulation of weeks, and Beckwith, rolling and staggering between us,
33:31as if he were going to plunge headlong into the fire,
33:34got the saucepan out, and tried to force it into Slinkton's hand.
33:37Boil the brandy, Julius Caesar.
33:40Come, do your usual office.
33:43Boil the brandy.
33:44He became so fierce in his gesticulations with the saucepan,
33:48that I expected to see him lay open Slinkton's head with it.
33:52I therefore put out my hand to check him.
33:54He reeled back to the sofa, and sat there panting, shaking and red-eyed,
33:59in his rags of dressing gown, looking at us both.
34:02I noticed then that there was nothing to drink on the table but brandy,
34:06and nothing to eat but salted herrings, and a hot, sickly, highly peppered stew.
34:11At all events, Mr. Sampson, said Slinkton, offering me the smooth gravel path for the last time,
34:18I thank you for interfering between me and this unfortunate man's violence.
34:23However you came here, Mr. Sampson, or with whatever motive you came here,
34:27at least I thank you for that.
34:29Boil the brandy, muttered Beckwith.
34:31Without gratifying his desire to know how I came there, I said quietly,
34:36How is your niece, Mr. Slinkton?
34:38He looked hard at me, and I looked hard at him.
34:40I am sorry to say, Mr. Sampson, that my niece has proved treacherous and ungrateful to her best friend.
34:47She left me without a word of notice or explanation.
34:51She was misled, no doubt, by some designing rascal.
34:55Perhaps you may have heard of it.
34:56I did hear that she was misled by a designing rascal.
34:59In fact, I have proof of it.
35:02Are you sure of that?
35:03Said he.
35:04Quite.
35:05Boil the brandy, muttered Beckwith.
35:07Company to breakfast, Julius Caesar.
35:10Do your usual office.
35:11Provide the usual breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper.
35:15Boil the brandy.
35:17The eyes of Slinkton looked from him to me, and he said, after a moment's consideration,
35:22Mr. Sampson, you are a man of the world, and so am I.
35:26I will be playing with you.
35:27Oh no, you won't.
35:29Said I, shaking my head.
35:31I tell you, sir.
35:32I will be playing with you, and I tell you you will not.
35:35Said I.
35:36I know all about you.
35:37You playing with anyone?
35:39Nonsense, nonsense.
35:40I plainly tell you, Mr. Sampson.
35:43He went on, with a manner almost composed, that I understand your object.
35:47You want to save your funds and escape from your liabilities.
35:51These are old tricks of trade with you, office gentlemen.
35:53But you will not do it, sir.
35:55You will not succeed.
35:57You have not an easy adversary to play against when you play against me.
36:01We shall have to inquire, in due time, when and how Mr. Beckwith fell into his present
36:06habits.
36:07With that remark, sir, I put this poor creature, and his incoherent wanderings of speech, aside,
36:14and wish you a good morning and a better case next time.
36:17While he was saying this, Beckwith had filled a half-pint glass with brandy.
36:21At this moment, he threw the brandy at his face and threw the glass after it.
36:26Slinkton put his hands up, half-blinded with the spirit, and cut with the glass across the
36:32forehead.
36:32At the sound of the breakage, a fourth person came into the room, closed the door, and stood
36:38at it.
36:39He was a very quiet but very keen-looking man, with iron-gray hair and slightly lame.
36:45Slinkton pulled out his handkerchief, assuaged the pain in his smarting eyes, and dabbled the
36:50blood on his forehead.
36:51He was a long time about it, and I saw that in the doing of it, a tremendous change came
36:56over him, occasioned by the change in Beckwith, who ceased to pant and tremble, sat upright,
37:02and never took his eyes off him.
37:03I never in my life saw a face in which abhorrence and determination were so forcibly painted as
37:09in Beckwith's then.
37:11Look at me, you villain, said Beckwith, and see me as I really am.
37:15I took these rooms to make them a trap for you.
37:18I came into them as a drunkard, to bait the trap for you.
37:22You fell into the trap, and you will never leave it alive.
37:25On the morning when you last went to Mr. Sampson's office, I had seen him first.
37:30Your plot has been known to both of us, all along, and you have been counterplotted all
37:34along.
37:35What?
37:36Having been cajoled into putting that prize of 2,000 pounds in your power, I was to be
37:40done to death with Brandy, and, Brandy not proving quick enough, with something quicker?
37:45Have I never seen you, when you thought my sense is gone, pouring from your little bottle
37:50into my glass?
37:51Why, you murderer and forger, alone here with you in the dead of night, as I have so often
37:57been, I have had my hand upon the trigger of a pistol, twenty times, to blow your brains
38:02out.
38:03This sudden starting up of the thing that he had supposed to be his imbecile victim into
38:07a determined man, with a settled resolution to hunt him down and be the death of him,
38:12mercilessly expressed from head to foot, was, in the first shock, too much for him.
38:18Without any figure of speech, he staggered under it.
38:21But there is no greater mistake than to suppose that a man who is a calculating criminal is,
38:26in any phase of his guilt, otherwise than true to himself, and perfectly consistent with
38:31his whole character.
38:32Such a man commits murder, and murder is the natural culmination of his course.
38:38Such a man has to outface murder, and will do it with hardyhood and effrontery.
38:43It is a sort of fashion to express surprise that any notorious criminal, having such crime
38:48upon his conscience, can so brave it out.
38:51Do you think that if he had it on his conscience at all, or had a conscience to have it upon,
38:55he would ever have committed the crime?
38:57Perfectly consistent with himself, as I believe all such monsters to be, this slinkton recovered
39:04himself, and showed a defiance that was sufficiently cold and quiet.
39:09He was white, he was haggard, he was changed, but only as a sharper who had played for a great
39:13stake, and had been outwitted and had lost the game.
39:16Listen to me, you villain, said Beckwith, and let every word you hear me say be a stab in
39:22your wicked heart.
39:23When I took these rooms, to throw myself in your way, and lead you on to the scheme that
39:28I knew my appearance and supposed character and habits would suggest to such a devil,
39:32how did I know that?
39:33Because you were no stranger to me.
39:36I knew you well, and I knew you to be the cruel wretch who, for so much money, had killed
39:41one innocent girl while she trusted him implicitly, and who was by inches killing another.
39:46Slinkton took out a snuff box, took a pinch of snuff, and laughed.
39:50But see here, said Beckwith, never looking away, never raising his voice, never relaxing
39:57his face, never unclenching his hand.
40:00See what a dull wolf you have been, after all, the infatuated drunkard who never drank
40:05a fiftieth part of the liquor you plied him with, but poured it away, here, there, everywhere,
40:11almost before your eyes, who bought over the fellow you set to watch him and apply him,
40:16by outbidding you in his bribe, before he had been at his work three days, with whom
40:21you have observed no caution, yet who was so bent on ridding the earth of you as a wild
40:26beast, that he would have defeated you if you had been ever so prudent, that drunkard
40:31whom you have many, a time left on the floor of this room, and who has even let you go out
40:36of it, alive and undeceived, when you have turned him over with your foot, has almost as
40:42often, on the same night, within an hour, within a few minutes, watched you awake, had
40:47his hand at your pillow when you were asleep, turned over your papers, taken samples from
40:51your bottles and packets of powder, changed their contents, rifled every secret of your
40:56life.
40:57He had had another pinch of snuff in his hand, but had gradually let it drop from between
41:02his fingers to the floor, where he now smoothed it out with his foot, looking down at it the
41:07while.
41:07That drunkard, said Beckwith, who had free access to your rooms at all times, that he
41:13might drink the strong drinks that you left in his way, and be the sooner ended, holding
41:17no more terms with you than he would hold with a tiger, has had his master key for all
41:22your locks, his test for all your poisons, his clue to your cipher writing.
41:26He can tell you, as well as you can tell him, how long it took to complete that deed, what
41:32doses there were, what intervals, what signs of gradual decay upon mind and body, what distempered
41:38fancies were produced, what observable changes, what physical pain.
41:42He can tell you, as well as you can tell him, that all this was recorded day by day, as a
41:47lesson of experience for future service.
41:50He can tell you, better than you can tell him, where that journal is at this moment.
41:54Slinkton stopped the action of his foot, and looked at Beckwith.
41:58No, said the latter, as if answering a question from him, not in the drawer of the writing
42:03desk that opens with a spring.
42:06It is not there, and it never will be there again.
42:09Then you are a thief, said Slinkton, without any change whatever in the inflexible purpose,
42:15which it was quite terrific even to me to contemplate, and from the power of which I had
42:19always felt convinced it was impossible for this wretch to escape, Beckwith returned.
42:24And I am your niece's shadow, too.
42:27With an imprecation, Slinkton put his hand to his head, tore out some hair, and flung
42:32it to the ground.
42:33It was the end of the smooth walk.
42:36He destroyed it in the action, and it will soon be seen that his use for it was past.
42:41Beckwith went on,
42:42Whenever you left here, I left here, although I understood that you found it necessary to
42:47pause in the completion of that purpose.
42:50To avert suspicion, still I watched you close, with the poor confiding girl.
42:54When I had the diary, and could read it word by word, it was only about the night before
42:59your last visit to Scarborough.
43:01You remember the night?
43:02You slept with a small, flat, vial tied to your wrist.
43:06I sent to Mr. Sampson, who was kept out of view.
43:09This is Mr. Sampson's trusty servant standing by the door.
43:13We three saved your niece among us.
43:15Slinkton looked at us all, took an uncertain step or two from the place where he had stood,
43:21returned to it, and glanced about him in a very curious way, as one of the meaner reptiles
43:26might, looking for a hole to hide in.
43:28I noticed at the same time that a singular change took place in the figure of the man,
43:34as if it collapsed within his clothes, and they consequently became ill-shapen and ill-fitting.
43:39You shall know, said Beckwith, for I hope the knowledge will be bitter and terrible to you,
43:45why you have been pursued by one man, and why, when the whole interest that Mr. Sampson
43:50represents would have expended any money in hunting you down, you have been tracked to
43:55death at a single individual's charge.
43:57I hear you have had the name of Meltham on your lips sometimes.
44:00I saw, in addition to those other changes, a sudden stoppage come upon his breathing.
44:06When you sent the sweet girl whom you murdered, you know with what artfully made-out surroundings
44:11and probabilities you sent her, to Meltham's office, before taking her abroad to originate
44:16the transaction that doomed her to the grave, it fell to Meltham's lot to see her, and to
44:21speak with her.
44:22It did not fall to his lot to save her, though I know he would freely give his own life to
44:27have done it.
44:28He admired her.
44:29I would say he loved her deeply, if I thought it possible that you could understand the word.
44:34When she was sacrificed, he was thoroughly assured of your guilt.
44:38Having lost her, he had but one object left in life, and that was to avenge her and destroy
44:44you.
44:45I saw the villain's nostrils rise and fall convulsively, but I saw no moving at his mouth.
44:51That man Meltham, Beckwith steadily pursued, was as absolutely certain that you could never
44:57elude him in this world.
44:58If he devoted himself to your destruction with his utmost fidelity and earnestness, and if
45:04he divided the sacred duty with no other duty in life, as he was certain that in achieving
45:09it he would be a poor instrument in the hands of Providence, and would do well before heaven
45:14in striking you out from among living men.
45:17I am that man, and I thank God that I have done my work.
45:21If Slinkton had been running for his life from swift-footed savages a dozen miles, he could
45:26not have shown more emphatic signs of being oppressed at heart and laboring for breath
45:30than he showed now, when he looked at the pursuer who had so relentlessly hunted him down.
45:36You never saw me under my right name before.
45:39You see me under my right name now.
45:41You shall see me once again in the body, when you are tried for your life.
45:46You shall see me once again in the spirit, when the cord is round your neck, and the crowd
45:51are crying against you.
45:52When Meltem had spoken these last words, the miscreant suddenly turned away his face, and
45:58seemed to strike his mouth with his open hand.
46:01At the same instant, the room was filled with a new and powerful odor, and almost at the
46:06same instant, he broke into a crooked run, leap start, I have no name for the spasm, and
46:12fell with a dull weight that shook the heavy old doors and windows in their frames.
46:17That was the fitting end of him.
46:18When we saw that he was dead, we drew away from the room, and Meltem, giving me his hand,
46:25said, with a weary air, I have no more work on earth, my friend, but I shall see her again
46:31elsewhere.
46:32It was in vain that I tried to rally him.
46:34He might have saved her, he said.
46:36He had not saved her, and he reproached himself.
46:39He had lost her, and he was brokenhearted.
46:42The purpose that sustained me is over, Samson, and there is nothing now to hold me to life.
46:49I am not fit for life.
46:51I am weak and spiritless.
46:53I have no hope and no object.
46:56My day is done.
46:57In truth, I could hardly have believed that the broken man who then spoke to me was the
47:02man who had so strongly and so differently impressed me when his purpose was before him.
47:08I used such entreaties with him, as I could, but he still said and always said, in a patient,
47:14undemonstrative way, nothing could avail him.
47:18He was brokenhearted.
47:19He died early in the next spring.
47:21He was buried by the side of the poor young lady for whom he had cherished those tender
47:25and unhappy regrets, and he left all he had to her sister.
47:30She lived to be a happy wife and mother.
47:33She married my sister's son, who succeeded poor Meltem.
47:36She is living now, and her children ride about the garden on my walking stick when I go
47:41to see her.
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