August 12, 2025 • 29 mins
Presents tales filled with suspense and intrigue, each episode unraveling mysteries that keep listeners engaged and guessing until the end.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I was in my twenty second year and I just
left college. I was free to choose a career, and
I choose it too quickly. Afterwards, I abandoned it with
great speed. But I've never regretted the two years I
spent in Cambridge as a student of Divinity. Cambridge for
the lovers of woods and trees has changed for the
worse since those days, of course, but I remember the Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I want to remember.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
One gray December afternoon, I went to the town of Medford.
I was late in starting back for my lodgings, and
as dusk was falling, I came to a narrow road
I did not recognize I was about three miles away
from home, but I reckoned the road offered me as
good as shortcut as any.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
The road was obviously seldom used.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
The wheelwrights looked old, and after ten minutes walking I
came to the house and so began one of the
strangest and for a time, one of the most terrifying
episodes in the whole of my life. Biotechs The New
(01:25):
Soak and Preshbuder presents Beyond Midnight by Michael McCain.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Just Soak, Just.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Soak in biotechs. Just soak, just soak in biotechs. Just soak,
just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
If you have wondered how to get your washing really
stain free, understand this. Biotechs removes the stains and dirt.
Washing won't just soak, just soak in biotechs. Stains, grass stains, tiresome,
collar and cut stains, ingrain, dirt.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Soil and grime out. They all come. And you don't
stir a finger.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Biotechs with natural enzymes is the pre wash powder with
the most enzymes to give you extra pre wash powder
absolutely no rubbing, no color loss, no fabric ware. Use
it for cottons, silks, woolen, synthetics, use it to make
you again. Soaking in biotechs removes the stains and dirt
that washing won't just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
It was huge to the house, hardly and yet beautiful.
The apple orchared that surrounded it was tangled and overgrown.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Something bad. Me go up and trying the door.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
It is locked, and so I continued on my way.
I have thought about the old house and en Off
during my studies and A few days later I returned there.
I found it again without thing difficulty. I approached as before,
and the door was locked and barred as before. I
(03:08):
was about to walk away when I heard someone approach.
I hid myself immediately.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It was a little old man.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
He wore a cloak. He came to the door, bowed
before it, felt in my pocket, produced a key and
turned it in the lock. After a moment, he applied
pressure to one of the door panels, and the door opened,
(03:46):
and he went in. After a little while, candle light
appeared faintly through the shuttered wind those, and squinting through
a crack, I saw a lighted room, and grotesquely out
of proportion, I saw a shadow of someone seated gridgidly,
(04:10):
as if being interviewed by someone or something. After a while,
the candle light went and the little old man came out,
locked the door bowed in the same strange way, and
hobbled away again down the road without a backward glance.
(04:32):
I went home that night, strangely disturned. Why I could
not then think I was disturbed, but fascinated too. However,
I tried to put all thoughts of the house and
the old gentleman out of my mind, for I had
a lot of study to occupy me. Some days later
(04:53):
I took a stroll through Mount Auburn Cemetery, and it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Was here that I saw my little old gentleman again.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
He was sitting upon a seat, staring straight in front
of him, with a kind of terrific dignity mixed with
a strange, inexplicable sorrow. I watched him for a long time,
and then I slowly approached. His clothes were shabby, but neat.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
This old blue cloak had known half a century's brushing.
Good day to you.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
We're having wonderfully mild weather for this time of the year.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Don't you think this is a very comfortable place.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
I'm very fond of walking in graveyards walking. Yes, take
your exercise now. Some day you'll have to settle down
in a graveyard in a fixed position, very too, may I.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
May I sit down?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Of course?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
He yes, very true.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
But there are some people who are said to take
exercise even.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
After that day. He stayed at me as if I
said something odd or profound, and then.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
He looked away.
Speaker 6 (06:06):
You you don't understand well, some people, you know, walk
after death.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I don't know why I was talking like Chris. I
suppose being a student of divinity is banned for some
of us, makes us small.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Bid you don't believe that?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
How do you know?
Speaker 6 (06:25):
I don't e because you are young and foolish. I'm
I'm young, certainly, but on the whole, I don't think
I'm foolish.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
But I don't believe in ghosts or anything.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And most people be on my side, and that most
people are fools. Are you a student yes, of divinity?
Of divinity theology.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
I'm studying for the ministry. There are certain things you
ought too to know them?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Well? What things do you mean?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I've a great desire for knowledge.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I like your appearance.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
You seem to me soberly enough.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I'm perfectly ciber alright.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
You seem fair minded. I no longer strike you as foolish.
Then I stick to what I said about people who
deny the power of departed spirits to return.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
They are fools.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You have seen a ghost.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
I have not had to pry into old books to
learn what to believe.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I know.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
With these eyes I have beheld the departed spirits standing
before me as cruse.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
As you are now. And was it very terrible.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
I am an old soldier. I am not afraid.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
When was it? Where was it?
Speaker 6 (07:56):
H You must forgive me for not going into details.
Just remember that you've met an honest old man who
has seen a ghost. Well, I cannot tell you now
who let me mention my name? It is Captain Diamond, Sir,
(08:18):
I have seen service.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I I hope I may have the pleasure of meeting
you again. The same to you, sir, And brandishing his stick,
he marched stiffly away. I asked several people if they
knew the history of a Captain Diamond, but I could
find no one had even heard of him. I could
not put him out of my mind, though, and could
(08:42):
not forget.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
The house and his strange visit to it.
Speaker 7 (08:46):
A sackle I am.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And then I thought of Miss Deborah, the tiny deformed
sister of my landlady with whom I've enjoyed many and
enlighten conversation.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
She sat all day by the window between.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
A bird cage and a flower pot, sewing small linen articles.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Was her passion, lovely.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Hard suckle, I am your.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Good morning before.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Today. Thank you very You sit here all days sewing.
You never go out, and yet you're so full of knowledge.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And so you observe so much, no, so much.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Sometimes I feel quite ashamed. Tell me, have you heard
of a captain Diamond?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Of course?
Speaker 7 (09:48):
Oh, he was much talked about many years ago. I
hadn't seen him for a long time, But one supposes
he survived.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
For the scandal, scandal he killed his daughter, killed her
but how I mean.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
Oh, not with a pistol or a dagger, or a
dose of arsenic.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
With his tongue.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
He cursed her, and she died cursed.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Oh what on earth had she done?
Speaker 7 (10:19):
She had received a visit from a young man who
loved her, and whom he had forbidden into the house
that the captain.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
That is the house, Yes, the house out in the country,
two or three miles from here, near the crossroad.
Speaker 7 (10:32):
Oh you know about the house, then, a little.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I've seen it. Will you tell me more? The captain
and his daughter.
Speaker 7 (10:43):
He was a very high tempered old man. He loved
her very much, but his word was law. He had
picked out a husband for her. Her mother was dead.
They lived alone together. The poor girl's lover was a
young man with whiskers from Boston in America, and the
captain came home one evening and found them together. His
(11:08):
rage must have seen terrible.
Speaker 8 (11:15):
You do not understand her. She is my wife. Get on,
he cannot be true. I don't want to get out
of it.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
You're not come back.
Speaker 9 (11:27):
You never worry.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
Reasonable came up, The young woman fainted, and Captain Darmond
left the house in rage. Several hours later he came
back and found a note saying the American had killed
the captain's daughter and had carried the body away in
a game. The captain wrote a terrible letter saying he
(11:51):
didn't believe she was dead, but that she was in
any case dead to him. A week later, in the
middle of the night, he saw her ghost, and thereafter,
little by little she began.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
To haunt the house.
Speaker 7 (12:09):
The captain's anger passed into grief. He tried to sell
or rent the house, but the story of the haunting
was abroad and no one would take it. With the farm,
the property was the old man's only means of livelihood,
and because no one would buy the place, and because
he couldn't live in it, he took his staff, put
(12:30):
on his old cloak, and wandered away. But occasionally he
was drawn back to the house and the ghost relented
and proposed a compromise.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Leave the house to me.
Speaker 8 (12:46):
I have marked it for my own.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Go and live elsewhere.
Speaker 9 (12:52):
But to enable you to live, I will be your tenant,
since you can find no other.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I will rent the house and pay you with some money.
Speaker 7 (13:03):
And the old man consented to accept. The sun the
ghost named, and he goes every quarter to collect his rent.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I feel like a new man. It's a lovely day
to day.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
I took a Grandpa headache powder, and I'm world's better
when cos and flu are about, Grandpa, headache powders are
what you need. Grandpa headache powders work fast because they
dissolve almost immediately. Grandpa makes all those ritful flu symptoms
disappear quickly.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So whenever you're in pain.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Get fast relief, get Grandpa headache powders.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Ah, Grandpa.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Stains, grass stains, color and cuff stains, ingrain, dirt, soil
and grime.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Out they come, and you don't stir a finger.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Biotechs with natural enzymes is the pre washpowder with the
most enzymes to give you extra pre wash power, absolutely
no rubbing, no color loss, no fabric ware. Soaking in
biotechs removes the stains and dirt that washing won't just.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Diamond has no other means of living none.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
The ghost supports him. A haunted house is valuable property,
and in what coin does a ghost pay souvera? But
all the pieces gate from before the Gholst deaths. I'm
sure it was part of the bargain which he should
go in person to collect his rent. So for him,
life goes on, and he keeps this secret which you
(15:05):
mus keep too, now that you share it, well, now
it's time for my sleep, mister James, if you'll excuse me,
storytelling has quite warm me up.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
My first sight of him had been on December the
thirty first, and it was likely that he would return
to his haunted house on the last day of March
the end of the next quarter.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
When the thirty first.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Of March came, I was there at the house watching.
He came and went as before, bowing and letting himself
in just the same, and I felt an enormous pity
for him. A month after this, I met him again
in Lunt Auburn Cemetery.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
What do you want of me?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I want to enjoy your conversation again.
Speaker 6 (15:52):
You don't find me correct, Correct, my dear sign, I
say this man in the country, I believe you. I
will tell you. I once committed unintentionally a great crime.
Now I pay the penalty.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I killed my own child, you know, struck her to
the ground. That they could not hang me.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
More is the pity, because I struck her with words,
not with my hands. And I know that her soul
is immortal, sir, for we have an appointment to meet
four times a year.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Her her spirit, you mean her spirit.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
She has never forgiven you.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
She has forgiven me as the Angel forgive.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That's what I can't stand.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
The soft, quiet way she looks at me, and rather
she twisted a knife about in my heart.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I must go my way. I must be creeping along.
I I shall perhaps see you here again.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
Oh I'm a stiff, jointed old fellow, and this is
rather far for me to come. But I should like
to see you again someday.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Perhaps.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
What is your name, James, Roger, James, Look, please please
keep this little book.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
It's Pascal's thoughts. My name is written on the fly sheet.
It's the book I'm very fond of. Perhaps it will
tell you something about me.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
I'm not much about reading, but I shan't refuse the
first present I've received since my my troubles.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Ank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He took his departure of me, an old shuffling figure,
terribly sad broken. On June the thirtieth, I decided what
I would do that quarter. I would wait at the house,
but this time I would not conceal myself. He was
a little earlier this time, and the candlelight already shone
(18:09):
through the window shutters.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
When I arrived. And when at last he came out,
he found me waiting on the doorstep. I knew you
were here. I came on purpose. I I hope you'll
forgive me, but you did encourage me.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
You are very clever.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I've I've been hoping for a chance to see inside.
Speaker 10 (18:36):
Do you know what it is?
Speaker 3 (18:39):
I see?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
How can I know except my experiencing. Please take me in,
Take you in.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
I wouldn't go in again before my time's up. For
a thousand times the sun I sticked.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
To my bag in no less, no more.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
If you'll go in alone, your welcome. Will you wait
for me? H, yes, you will not stop very long,
but for the house is pitch dark when you go.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
You have lights here, take these.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
You'll find two candlesticks with candles on the table in
the hall, and let them take one in each hand.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Go ahead, where were?
Speaker 6 (19:21):
It's like your anywhere everywhere. Trust the ghost to find you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
A white staircase, old fashioned parlor, empty chairs, blank walls,
a din room where I might have written my name
in the deep dust upon the furniture, kitchen beyond pots
and pans eternally curled deep darkness.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I came back to the stairs and looked up.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Suddenly, with an inexpressible sensation, I became aware that this
gloom was animated.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It seemed to move and gather itself.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Then I began to perceive a definite figure standing at
the top of the stairs. Two white hands appeared, and
they were raised to what would have been the level
of the head. They were pressed together, and then the
face was disclosed. It was white, strange and in every
way ghostly. Then one of the hands was waved to
and fro, as if in attitude of dismissal. I left
(20:43):
the house. I did not look back outside again. The
captain looked at me but said nothing. I felt something
I could never explain. It was fear, yes, but something
deeper beyond fear. I hadn't the heart to disturbed. The
old man's next schedule came the thirtieth of September. I
(21:05):
was sitting in my room alone when there came a
knock upon the door.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I've come from the old gentleman, Captain Diamond.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
He's right down, seek and must see you.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I'm dying. Uh, but never mind that I'm doing at
the house. It's his rem day. But you can't go.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
I can't go, and if you lose my money, I'm dying,
I I I I want to pay the doctor and
I want to be buried.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Like a respectable man. It's this evening at Sunset Shop. Uh,
I can't go. I lose my money. What would the
money be paid to another person? Looka I I I'm
I'm dying. I tell her that and she might trust you.
(21:59):
Are you afraid? It's fifty pounds. She'll see your face,
She'll see there's no harm in you. You'll have your
money by nine o'clock tonight. I'll go. He ast you
goodbye for the moment. I waited for a long time.
(22:28):
At last I saw it, the figure the same as before.
Speaker 6 (22:33):
I've come in place of Captain Diamond at his request.
He's very ill, unable to leave his bed, and so
please pay me the money. Captain Diamond would have come
himself if you were able to move.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
At this the figure came slowly down the stairs, and
I saw the white face.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Instinctively, I backed away. The figure reached the.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Bottom of the stairs and advanced. As it drew near,
I saw that the face was perfectly human. We gazed
at each other. When the voice came. There was nothing
ghostly at all about It.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
Is my father, dangerously ill.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
It was no apparition, just a very beautiful woman.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Quickly, I stretched forward a hand and pushed sharply at
the veil. She was about thirty five and had her
father's features. Her face was sorrow wan and pale.
Speaker 9 (23:35):
My father, I suppose sent you here to insult me.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Jack is your money?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I stooped to pick up the purse of money, and
she seemed to glide away. She disappeared, not up the stairs,
but into one of the rooms leading from the hallway.
I knew she was no ghost.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I had turned to go, and she screamed, your father,
who were he's in white in his shirt. Is not
your father? He's in bad, ill, badly ill. I hope,
(24:17):
hope not. Oh, who drink? I have just seen his ghost.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Ghost.
Speaker 9 (24:29):
It's a punishment for my my long long holly, the
punishment of my violence.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Take me away from this place.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
You've been playing all these years again. The last time
I came, you frightened me a lot. You remember, it
was a game, but it was the only way.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Had he not forgiven you.
Speaker 9 (25:04):
So long as he thought me dead, yes, would have
been things in my life which he could not forgive.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
And where is your husband?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I have no husband.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
I never had a husband.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
With both he my.
Speaker 9 (25:28):
Father, I thought, I am leaving this place. Now you're
going to my father directly. Will you let me know
tomorrow what you have found with pleasure?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
But how will I communicate with you?
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Come?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And she led me outside into the night and said.
Speaker 9 (25:56):
Right, just a few words and put them under that stone,
the stone there by the well.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
Good night.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
But listen, it's all right, I.
Speaker 9 (26:10):
Know my road.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Everything is arranged. It's a note story, Betsy. How how
is he.
Speaker 7 (26:25):
He's gone to glory?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Dead? He's as big a ghost as any of them.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Now.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
I returned to my lodgings, meaning to write the note
for the captain's daughter and leave it under the stone
by the well.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
The next morning. That night, late preparing for.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Bed, I noticed a red glow in the northwestern sky.
A house was on fire in the country and burning fast.
I thought no more about it. I went to sleep.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yes, of course you've guessed the house on fire. That's right,
I remembered I had left one of the candles a night.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
If it was not that one, it was the one
she had dropped when she thought she had seen her
father's ghost.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
The house was a mass of charred beams and smoldering ashes.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
The world cover had been pulled off in crest of
water by the neighbors. The loose stones were displaced, and
the earth had been trampled into bottles. To the best
of my knowledge, no one ever saw again the beautiful
lady who had haunted in the flesh her father for
so many years.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs. Just soak, just soak
in biotakes. Just soak, just soak in biotakes.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
If you have wondered how to get your washing really
staying free. Understand this, Biotechs removes the stains and dirt.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Washing won't just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Stains, grass, stains, tiresome colour and cufstains, ingrain, dirt, soil
and grime out. They all come and you don't stir
a finger.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
Biotechs with natural enzymes is the pre washpowder with the
most enzymes to give you extra pre wash powder absolutely
no rubbing, no color loss, no fabric ware. Use it
for cottons, silks, woolens, synthetics.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Use it to make new again.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Soaking in Biotechs removes the stains and dirt that washing.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Won't just soak, just soak in Biotechs.
Speaker 10 (28:46):
Beyond Midnight is presented every Friday night at half past
nine by Biotechs, the new soak and pre washpowder. The
program is adapted for broadcasting and produced by Michael McCain.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
It
I was in my twenty second year and I just
left college. I was free to choose a career, and
I choose it too quickly. Afterwards, I abandoned it with
great speed. But I've never regretted the two years I
spent in Cambridge as a student of Divinity. Cambridge for
the lovers of woods and trees has changed for the
worse since those days, of course, but I remember the Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I want to remember.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
One gray December afternoon, I went to the town of Medford.
I was late in starting back for my lodgings, and
as dusk was falling, I came to a narrow road
I did not recognize I was about three miles away
from home, but I reckoned the road offered me as
good as shortcut as any.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
The road was obviously seldom used.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
The wheelwrights looked old, and after ten minutes walking I
came to the house and so began one of the
strangest and for a time, one of the most terrifying
episodes in the whole of my life. Biotechs The New
(01:25):
Soak and Preshbuder presents Beyond Midnight by Michael McCain.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Just Soak, Just.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Soak in biotechs. Just soak, just soak in biotechs. Just soak,
just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
If you have wondered how to get your washing really
stain free, understand this. Biotechs removes the stains and dirt.
Washing won't just soak, just soak in biotechs. Stains, grass stains, tiresome,
collar and cut stains, ingrain, dirt.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Soil and grime out. They all come. And you don't
stir a finger.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Biotechs with natural enzymes is the pre wash powder with
the most enzymes to give you extra pre wash powder
absolutely no rubbing, no color loss, no fabric ware. Use
it for cottons, silks, woolen, synthetics, use it to make
you again. Soaking in biotechs removes the stains and dirt
that washing won't just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
It was huge to the house, hardly and yet beautiful.
The apple orchared that surrounded it was tangled and overgrown.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Something bad. Me go up and trying the door.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
It is locked, and so I continued on my way.
I have thought about the old house and en Off
during my studies and A few days later I returned there.
I found it again without thing difficulty. I approached as before,
and the door was locked and barred as before. I
(03:08):
was about to walk away when I heard someone approach.
I hid myself immediately.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
It was a little old man.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
He wore a cloak. He came to the door, bowed
before it, felt in my pocket, produced a key and
turned it in the lock. After a moment, he applied
pressure to one of the door panels, and the door opened,
(03:46):
and he went in. After a little while, candle light
appeared faintly through the shuttered wind those, and squinting through
a crack, I saw a lighted room, and grotesquely out
of proportion, I saw a shadow of someone seated gridgidly,
(04:10):
as if being interviewed by someone or something. After a while,
the candle light went and the little old man came out,
locked the door bowed in the same strange way, and
hobbled away again down the road without a backward glance.
(04:32):
I went home that night, strangely disturned. Why I could
not then think I was disturbed, but fascinated too. However,
I tried to put all thoughts of the house and
the old gentleman out of my mind, for I had
a lot of study to occupy me. Some days later
(04:53):
I took a stroll through Mount Auburn Cemetery, and it.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Was here that I saw my little old gentleman again.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
He was sitting upon a seat, staring straight in front
of him, with a kind of terrific dignity mixed with
a strange, inexplicable sorrow. I watched him for a long time,
and then I slowly approached. His clothes were shabby, but neat.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
This old blue cloak had known half a century's brushing.
Good day to you.
Speaker 6 (05:25):
We're having wonderfully mild weather for this time of the year.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Don't you think this is a very comfortable place.
Speaker 6 (05:32):
I'm very fond of walking in graveyards walking. Yes, take
your exercise now. Some day you'll have to settle down
in a graveyard in a fixed position, very too, may I.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
May I sit down?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Of course?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
He yes, very true.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
But there are some people who are said to take
exercise even.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
After that day. He stayed at me as if I
said something odd or profound, and then.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
He looked away.
Speaker 6 (06:06):
You you don't understand well, some people, you know, walk
after death.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
I don't know why I was talking like Chris. I
suppose being a student of divinity is banned for some
of us, makes us small.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
Bid you don't believe that?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
How do you know?
Speaker 6 (06:25):
I don't e because you are young and foolish. I'm
I'm young, certainly, but on the whole, I don't think
I'm foolish.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
But I don't believe in ghosts or anything.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And most people be on my side, and that most
people are fools. Are you a student yes, of divinity?
Of divinity theology.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
I'm studying for the ministry. There are certain things you
ought too to know them?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Well? What things do you mean?
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I've a great desire for knowledge.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
I like your appearance.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
You seem to me soberly enough.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I'm perfectly ciber alright.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
You seem fair minded. I no longer strike you as foolish.
Then I stick to what I said about people who
deny the power of departed spirits to return.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
They are fools.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
You have seen a ghost.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
I have not had to pry into old books to
learn what to believe.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
I know.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
With these eyes I have beheld the departed spirits standing
before me as cruse.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
As you are now. And was it very terrible.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
I am an old soldier. I am not afraid.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
When was it? Where was it?
Speaker 6 (07:56):
H You must forgive me for not going into details.
Just remember that you've met an honest old man who
has seen a ghost. Well, I cannot tell you now
who let me mention my name? It is Captain Diamond, Sir,
(08:18):
I have seen service.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I I hope I may have the pleasure of meeting
you again. The same to you, sir, And brandishing his stick,
he marched stiffly away. I asked several people if they
knew the history of a Captain Diamond, but I could
find no one had even heard of him. I could
not put him out of my mind, though, and could
(08:42):
not forget.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
The house and his strange visit to it.
Speaker 7 (08:46):
A sackle I am.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And then I thought of Miss Deborah, the tiny deformed
sister of my landlady with whom I've enjoyed many and
enlighten conversation.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
She sat all day by the window between.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
A bird cage and a flower pot, sewing small linen articles.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Was her passion, lovely.
Speaker 7 (09:15):
Hard suckle, I am your.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Good morning before.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Today. Thank you very You sit here all days sewing.
You never go out, and yet you're so full of knowledge.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And so you observe so much, no, so much.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Sometimes I feel quite ashamed. Tell me, have you heard
of a captain Diamond?
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Of course?
Speaker 7 (09:48):
Oh, he was much talked about many years ago. I
hadn't seen him for a long time, But one supposes
he survived.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
For the scandal, scandal he killed his daughter, killed her
but how I mean.
Speaker 7 (10:05):
Oh, not with a pistol or a dagger, or a
dose of arsenic.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
With his tongue.
Speaker 7 (10:12):
He cursed her, and she died cursed.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Oh what on earth had she done?
Speaker 7 (10:19):
She had received a visit from a young man who
loved her, and whom he had forbidden into the house
that the captain.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
That is the house, Yes, the house out in the country,
two or three miles from here, near the crossroad.
Speaker 7 (10:32):
Oh you know about the house, then, a little.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I've seen it. Will you tell me more? The captain
and his daughter.
Speaker 7 (10:43):
He was a very high tempered old man. He loved
her very much, but his word was law. He had
picked out a husband for her. Her mother was dead.
They lived alone together. The poor girl's lover was a
young man with whiskers from Boston in America, and the
captain came home one evening and found them together. His
(11:08):
rage must have seen terrible.
Speaker 8 (11:15):
You do not understand her. She is my wife. Get on,
he cannot be true. I don't want to get out
of it.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
You're not come back.
Speaker 9 (11:27):
You never worry.
Speaker 7 (11:29):
Reasonable came up, The young woman fainted, and Captain Darmond
left the house in rage. Several hours later he came
back and found a note saying the American had killed
the captain's daughter and had carried the body away in
a game. The captain wrote a terrible letter saying he
(11:51):
didn't believe she was dead, but that she was in
any case dead to him. A week later, in the
middle of the night, he saw her ghost, and thereafter,
little by little she began.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
To haunt the house.
Speaker 7 (12:09):
The captain's anger passed into grief. He tried to sell
or rent the house, but the story of the haunting
was abroad and no one would take it. With the farm,
the property was the old man's only means of livelihood,
and because no one would buy the place, and because
he couldn't live in it, he took his staff, put
(12:30):
on his old cloak, and wandered away. But occasionally he
was drawn back to the house and the ghost relented
and proposed a compromise.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Leave the house to me.
Speaker 8 (12:46):
I have marked it for my own.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Go and live elsewhere.
Speaker 9 (12:52):
But to enable you to live, I will be your tenant,
since you can find no other.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I will rent the house and pay you with some money.
Speaker 7 (13:03):
And the old man consented to accept. The sun the
ghost named, and he goes every quarter to collect his rent.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
I feel like a new man. It's a lovely day
to day.
Speaker 6 (13:29):
I took a Grandpa headache powder, and I'm world's better
when cos and flu are about, Grandpa, headache powders are
what you need. Grandpa headache powders work fast because they
dissolve almost immediately. Grandpa makes all those ritful flu symptoms
disappear quickly.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So whenever you're in pain.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
Get fast relief, get Grandpa headache powders.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Ah, Grandpa.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Stains, grass stains, color and cuff stains, ingrain, dirt, soil
and grime.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Out they come, and you don't stir a finger.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (14:08):
Biotechs with natural enzymes is the pre washpowder with the
most enzymes to give you extra pre wash power, absolutely
no rubbing, no color loss, no fabric ware. Soaking in
biotechs removes the stains and dirt that washing won't just.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Diamond has no other means of living none.
Speaker 7 (14:42):
The ghost supports him. A haunted house is valuable property,
and in what coin does a ghost pay souvera? But
all the pieces gate from before the Gholst deaths. I'm
sure it was part of the bargain which he should
go in person to collect his rent. So for him,
life goes on, and he keeps this secret which you
(15:05):
mus keep too, now that you share it, well, now
it's time for my sleep, mister James, if you'll excuse me,
storytelling has quite warm me up.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
My first sight of him had been on December the
thirty first, and it was likely that he would return
to his haunted house on the last day of March
the end of the next quarter.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
When the thirty first.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Of March came, I was there at the house watching.
He came and went as before, bowing and letting himself
in just the same, and I felt an enormous pity
for him. A month after this, I met him again
in Lunt Auburn Cemetery.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
What do you want of me?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I want to enjoy your conversation again.
Speaker 6 (15:52):
You don't find me correct, Correct, my dear sign, I
say this man in the country, I believe you. I
will tell you. I once committed unintentionally a great crime.
Now I pay the penalty.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I killed my own child, you know, struck her to
the ground. That they could not hang me.
Speaker 6 (16:17):
More is the pity, because I struck her with words,
not with my hands. And I know that her soul
is immortal, sir, for we have an appointment to meet
four times a year.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Her her spirit, you mean her spirit.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I mean.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
She has never forgiven you.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
She has forgiven me as the Angel forgive.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
That's what I can't stand.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
The soft, quiet way she looks at me, and rather
she twisted a knife about in my heart.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
I must go my way. I must be creeping along.
I I shall perhaps see you here again.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
Oh I'm a stiff, jointed old fellow, and this is
rather far for me to come. But I should like
to see you again someday.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Perhaps.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
What is your name, James, Roger, James, Look, please please
keep this little book.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
It's Pascal's thoughts. My name is written on the fly sheet.
It's the book I'm very fond of. Perhaps it will
tell you something about me.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
I'm not much about reading, but I shan't refuse the
first present I've received since my my troubles.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Ank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
He took his departure of me, an old shuffling figure,
terribly sad broken. On June the thirtieth, I decided what
I would do that quarter. I would wait at the house,
but this time I would not conceal myself. He was
a little earlier this time, and the candlelight already shone
(18:09):
through the window shutters.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
When I arrived. And when at last he came out,
he found me waiting on the doorstep. I knew you
were here. I came on purpose. I I hope you'll
forgive me, but you did encourage me.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
You are very clever.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
I've I've been hoping for a chance to see inside.
Speaker 10 (18:36):
Do you know what it is?
Speaker 3 (18:39):
I see?
Speaker 2 (18:41):
How can I know except my experiencing. Please take me in,
Take you in.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
I wouldn't go in again before my time's up. For
a thousand times the sun I sticked.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
To my bag in no less, no more.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
If you'll go in alone, your welcome. Will you wait
for me? H, yes, you will not stop very long,
but for the house is pitch dark when you go.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
You have lights here, take these.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
You'll find two candlesticks with candles on the table in
the hall, and let them take one in each hand.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Go ahead, where were?
Speaker 6 (19:21):
It's like your anywhere everywhere. Trust the ghost to find you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
A white staircase, old fashioned parlor, empty chairs, blank walls,
a din room where I might have written my name
in the deep dust upon the furniture, kitchen beyond pots
and pans eternally curled deep darkness.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
I came back to the stairs and looked up.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Suddenly, with an inexpressible sensation, I became aware that this
gloom was animated.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
It seemed to move and gather itself.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Then I began to perceive a definite figure standing at
the top of the stairs. Two white hands appeared, and
they were raised to what would have been the level
of the head. They were pressed together, and then the
face was disclosed. It was white, strange and in every
way ghostly. Then one of the hands was waved to
and fro, as if in attitude of dismissal. I left
(20:43):
the house. I did not look back outside again. The
captain looked at me but said nothing. I felt something
I could never explain. It was fear, yes, but something
deeper beyond fear. I hadn't the heart to disturbed. The
old man's next schedule came the thirtieth of September. I
(21:05):
was sitting in my room alone when there came a
knock upon the door.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
I've come from the old gentleman, Captain Diamond.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
He's right down, seek and must see you.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I'm dying. Uh, but never mind that I'm doing at
the house. It's his rem day. But you can't go.
Speaker 6 (21:28):
I can't go, and if you lose my money, I'm dying,
I I I I want to pay the doctor and
I want to be buried.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Like a respectable man. It's this evening at Sunset Shop. Uh,
I can't go. I lose my money. What would the
money be paid to another person? Looka I I I'm
I'm dying. I tell her that and she might trust you.
(21:59):
Are you afraid? It's fifty pounds. She'll see your face,
She'll see there's no harm in you. You'll have your
money by nine o'clock tonight. I'll go. He ast you
goodbye for the moment. I waited for a long time.
(22:28):
At last I saw it, the figure the same as before.
Speaker 6 (22:33):
I've come in place of Captain Diamond at his request.
He's very ill, unable to leave his bed, and so
please pay me the money. Captain Diamond would have come
himself if you were able to move.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
At this the figure came slowly down the stairs, and
I saw the white face.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Instinctively, I backed away. The figure reached the.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Bottom of the stairs and advanced. As it drew near,
I saw that the face was perfectly human. We gazed
at each other. When the voice came. There was nothing
ghostly at all about It.
Speaker 6 (23:17):
Is my father, dangerously ill.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
It was no apparition, just a very beautiful woman.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Quickly, I stretched forward a hand and pushed sharply at
the veil. She was about thirty five and had her
father's features. Her face was sorrow wan and pale.
Speaker 9 (23:35):
My father, I suppose sent you here to insult me.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Jack is your money?
Speaker 1 (23:43):
I stooped to pick up the purse of money, and
she seemed to glide away. She disappeared, not up the stairs,
but into one of the rooms leading from the hallway.
I knew she was no ghost.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I had turned to go, and she screamed, your father,
who were he's in white in his shirt. Is not
your father? He's in bad, ill, badly ill. I hope,
(24:17):
hope not. Oh, who drink? I have just seen his ghost.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Ghost.
Speaker 9 (24:29):
It's a punishment for my my long long holly, the
punishment of my violence.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Take me away from this place.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
You've been playing all these years again. The last time
I came, you frightened me a lot. You remember, it
was a game, but it was the only way.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Had he not forgiven you.
Speaker 9 (25:04):
So long as he thought me dead, yes, would have
been things in my life which he could not forgive.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
And where is your husband?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I have no husband.
Speaker 6 (25:18):
I never had a husband.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
With both he my.
Speaker 9 (25:28):
Father, I thought, I am leaving this place. Now you're
going to my father directly. Will you let me know
tomorrow what you have found with pleasure?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
But how will I communicate with you?
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Come?
Speaker 2 (25:54):
And she led me outside into the night and said.
Speaker 9 (25:56):
Right, just a few words and put them under that stone,
the stone there by the well.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
Good night.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
But listen, it's all right, I.
Speaker 9 (26:10):
Know my road.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Everything is arranged. It's a note story, Betsy. How how
is he.
Speaker 7 (26:25):
He's gone to glory?
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Dead? He's as big a ghost as any of them.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Now.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
I returned to my lodgings, meaning to write the note
for the captain's daughter and leave it under the stone
by the well.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
The next morning. That night, late preparing for.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Bed, I noticed a red glow in the northwestern sky.
A house was on fire in the country and burning fast.
I thought no more about it. I went to sleep.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yes, of course you've guessed the house on fire. That's right,
I remembered I had left one of the candles a night.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
If it was not that one, it was the one
she had dropped when she thought she had seen her
father's ghost.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
The house was a mass of charred beams and smoldering ashes.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
The world cover had been pulled off in crest of
water by the neighbors. The loose stones were displaced, and
the earth had been trampled into bottles. To the best
of my knowledge, no one ever saw again the beautiful
lady who had haunted in the flesh her father for
so many years.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
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in biotakes. Just soak, just soak in biotakes.
Speaker 5 (27:54):
If you have wondered how to get your washing really
staying free. Understand this, Biotechs removes the stains and dirt.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Washing won't just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (28:06):
Stains, grass, stains, tiresome colour and cufstains, ingrain, dirt, soil
and grime out. They all come and you don't stir
a finger.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Just soak, just soak in biotechs.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
Biotechs with natural enzymes is the pre washpowder with the
most enzymes to give you extra pre wash powder absolutely
no rubbing, no color loss, no fabric ware. Use it
for cottons, silks, woolens, synthetics.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Use it to make new again.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
Soaking in Biotechs removes the stains and dirt that washing.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Won't just soak, just soak in Biotechs.
Speaker 10 (28:46):
Beyond Midnight is presented every Friday night at half past
nine by Biotechs, the new soak and pre washpowder. The
program is adapted for broadcasting and produced by Michael McCain.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
It
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