00:00Gates of Imagination presents A Pursuit Race by Ernest Hemingway, read by Jacob Rivers.
00:09William Campbell had been in a pursuit race with a burlesque show ever since Pittsburgh.
00:14In a pursuit race, in bicycle racing, riders start at equal intervals to ride after one another.
00:21They ride very fast because the race is usually limited to a short distance,
00:25and if they slow their riding, another rider who maintains his pace will make up the space that separated them equally at the start.
00:32As soon as a rider is caught and passed, he's out of the race and must get down from his bicycle and leave the track.
00:39If none of the riders are caught, the winner of the race is the one who has gained the most distance.
00:44In most pursuit races, if there are only two riders, one of the riders is caught inside of six miles.
00:51The burlesque show caught William Campbell at Kansas City.
00:55William Campbell had hoped to hold a slight lead over the burlesque show until they reached the Pacific Coast.
01:01As long as he preceded the burlesque show as advance man, he was being paid.
01:06When the burlesque show caught up with him, he was in bed.
01:10He was in bed when the manager of the burlesque troupe came into his room,
01:14and after the manager had gone out, he decided that he might as well stay in bed.
01:19It was very cold in Kansas City, and he was in no hurry to go out.
01:23He did not like Kansas City.
01:26He reached under the bed for a bottle and drank.
01:29It made his stomach feel better.
01:32Mr. Turner, the manager of the burlesque show, had refused a drink.
01:36William Campbell's interview with Mr. Turner had been a little strange.
01:40Mr. Turner had knocked on the door.
01:42Campbell had said,
01:43When Mr. Turner came into the room, he saw clothing on a chair, an open suitcase,
01:50the bottle on a chair beside the bed, and someone lying in the bed completely covered by the bedclothes.
01:55Mr. Campbell, Mr. Turner said.
01:59You can't fire me, William Campbell said from underneath the covers.
02:04It was warm and white and close under the covers.
02:08You can't fire me because I've got down off my bicycle.
02:11You're drunk, Mr. Turner said.
02:14Oh, yes, William Campbell said, speaking directly against the sheet and feeling the texture with his lips.
02:22You're a fool, Mr. Turner said.
02:25He turned off the electric light.
02:27The electric light had been burning all night.
02:29It was now ten o'clock in the morning.
02:32You're a drunken fool.
02:34When did you get into this town?
02:36I got into this town last night, William Campbell said, speaking against the sheet.
02:41He found he liked to talk through a sheet.
02:42Did you ever talk through a sheet?
02:46Don't try to be funny.
02:47You aren't funny.
02:48I'm not being funny.
02:50I'm just talking through a sheet.
02:52You're talking through a sheet, all right.
02:55You can go now, Mr. Turner, Campbell said.
02:58I don't work for you anymore.
03:00You know that anyway.
03:03I know a lot, William Campbell said.
03:06He pulled down the sheet and looked at Mr. Turner.
03:09I know enough, so I don't mind looking at you at all.
03:12Do you want to hear what I know?
03:14No.
03:16Good, said William Campbell.
03:19Because really, I don't know anything at all.
03:22I was just talking.
03:23He pulled the sheet up over his face again.
03:26I love it under a sheet, he said.
03:29Mr. Turner stood beside the bed.
03:32He was a middle-aged man with a large stomach and a bald head, and he had many things to do.
03:38You ought to stop off here, Billy, and take a cure, he said.
03:42I'll fix it up if you want to do it.
03:45I don't want to take a cure, William Campbell said.
03:48I don't want to take a cure at all.
03:50I am perfectly happy all my life.
03:53I have been perfectly happy.
03:55How long have you been this way?
03:57What a question.
03:59William Campbell breathed in and out through the sheet.
04:02How long have you been stewed, Billy?
04:06Haven't I done my work?
04:08Sure.
04:09I just asked you how long you've been stewed, Billy.
04:13I don't know.
04:14But I've got my wolf back.
04:16He touched the sheet with his tongue.
04:18I've had him for a week.
04:20The hell you have.
04:22Oh, yes, my dear wolf.
04:25Every time I take a drink, he goes outside the room.
04:28He can't stand alcohol.
04:30The poor little fellow.
04:32He moved his tongue round and round on the sheet.
04:37He's a lovely wolf.
04:39He's just like he always was.
04:42William Campbell shut his eyes and took a deep breath.
04:46You got to take a cure, Billy, Mr. Turner said.
04:49You won't mind the keely.
04:51It isn't bad.
04:52The keely, William Campbell said.
04:55It isn't far from London.
04:57He shut his eyes and opened them, moving the eyelashes against the sheet.
05:02I just love sheets, he said.
05:06He looked at Mr. Turner.
05:08Listen, you think I'm drunk.
05:10You are drunk.
05:12No, I'm not.
05:13You're drunk and you've had DTs.
05:17No.
05:18William Campbell held the sheet around his head.
05:21Dear sheet, he said.
05:23He breathed against it gently.
05:26Pretty sheet.
05:28You love me, don't you, sheet?
05:30It's all in the price of the room.
05:32Just like in Japan.
05:34No, he said.
05:36Listen, Billy, dear sliding Billy.
05:38I have a surprise for you.
05:40I'm not drunk.
05:40I'm hopped to the eyes.
05:43No, said Mr. Turner.
05:47Take a look.
05:49William Campbell pulled up the right sleeve of his pajama jacket under the sheet,
05:53then shoved the right forearm out.
05:55Look at that.
05:57On the forearm, from just above the wrist to the elbow,
06:01were small blue circles around tiny dark blue punctures.
06:04The circles almost touched one another.
06:08That's the new development, William Campbell said.
06:11I drink a little now once in a while, just to drive the wolf out of the room.
06:16They got a cure for that, sliding Billy, Turner said.
06:21No, William Campbell said.
06:23They haven't got a cure for anything.
06:26You can't just quit like that, Billy, Turner said.
06:30He sat on the bed.
06:32Be careful of my sheet, William Campbell said.
06:36You can't just quit at your age and take to pumping yourself full of that stuff
06:40just because you got in a jam.
06:43There's a law against it, if that's what you mean.
06:46No, I mean you gotta fight it out.
06:49Billy Campbell caressed the sheet with his lips and his tongue.
06:52Dear sheet, he said.
06:55I can kiss this sheet and see right through it at the same time.
07:00Cut it out about the sheet.
07:02You can't just take to that stuff, Billy.
07:05William Campbell shut his eyes.
07:07He was beginning to feel a slight nausea.
07:10He knew that this nausea would increase steadily,
07:13without there ever being the relief of sickness,
07:16until something were done against it.
07:18It was at this point that he suggested that Mr. Turner have a drink.
07:23Mr. Turner declined.
07:25William Campbell took a drink from the bottle.
07:28It was a temporary measure.
07:30Mr. Turner watched him.
07:32Mr. Turner had been in this room much longer than he should have been.
07:36He had many things to do.
07:38Although living in daily association with people who use drugs,
07:41he had a horror of drugs, and he was very fond of William Campbell.
07:46He did not wish to leave him.
07:49He was very sorry for him, and he felt a cure might help.
07:53He knew there were good cures in Kansas City.
07:56But he had to go.
07:58He stood up.
07:59Listen, Billy, William Campbell said.
08:01I want to tell you something.
08:03You're called sliding Billy.
08:05That's because you can slide.
08:07I'm called just Billy.
08:09Billy, that's because I never could slide at all.
08:11I can't slide, Billy.
08:13I can't slide.
08:15It just catches.
08:16Every time I try it, it catches.
08:19He shut his eyes.
08:20I can't slide, Billy.
08:22It's awful when you can't slide.
08:25Yes, said sliding Billy Turner.
08:29Yes, what?
08:30William Campbell looked at him.
08:32You were saying?
08:34No, said William Campbell.
08:36I wasn't saying.
08:37It must have been a mistake.
08:39You were saying about sliding.
08:42No, it couldn't have been about sliding.
08:45But listen, Billy, and I'll tell you a secret.
08:49Stick to sheets, Billy.
08:51Keep away from women and horses and, and.
08:55He stopped.
08:57Eagles, Billy.
08:58If you love horses, you'll get horses.
09:01And if you love eagles, you'll get eagles.
09:04He stopped and put his head under the sheet.
09:08I got to go, said sliding Billy Turner.
09:12If you love women, you'll get a dose, William Campbell said.
09:16If you love horses?
09:18Yes, you said that.
09:20Said what?
09:21About horses and eagles.
09:24Oh, yes.
09:25And if you love sheets.
09:27He breathed on the sheet and stroked his nose against it.
09:30I don't know about sheets, he said.
09:33I just started to love this sheet.
09:35I have to go, Mr. Turner said.
09:38I got a lot to do.
09:41That's all right, William Campbell said.
09:44Everybody's got to go.
09:46I better go.
09:47All right, you go.
09:49Are you all right, Billy?
09:51I was never so happy in my life.
09:54And you're all right?
09:55I'm fine.
09:57You go along.
09:58I'll just lie here for a little while.
10:00Around noon, I'll get up.
10:03But when Mr. Turner came up to William Campbell's room at noon,
10:07William Campbell was sleeping.
10:09And as Mr. Turner was a man who knew what things in life were very valuable,
10:14he did not wake him.
10:15He said.
10:18Thank you so much for listening to this audiobook.
10:22If you enjoyed the story, feel free to like, subscribe,
10:25and explore the channel for more captivating tales.
10:28See you in the next recording.
10:30See you in the next recording.
10:33You
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