Dearest - H Beam Piper

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dearest by h beam piper. Colonel Ashley hamped and chewed
his cigar and forced himself to relax, his glance slowly
traversing the room, lingering on the mosaic of book spines
in the tall cases, the sunlight splashed on the faded
pastel colors of the carpet, the soft tinted autumn landscape

(00:22):
outside the French windows, the trophies of Indian and Filipino
and German weapons on the walls. He could easily feign
relaxation here in the Library of grey Rock, as long
as he looked only at these familiar, inanimate things and
avoided the five people gathered in the room with him,
for all of them were enemies. There was his nephew,

(00:44):
Stephen Hampton, graying at the temples, but youthfully dressed in
sports clothes, leaning with an obvious, if slightly premature proprietorship
against the fireplace, a whisky and soda in his hand.
There was Myra, Stephen's smart, sophisticated looking blonde wife, reclining
in the chair beside the desk. For these two he

(01:06):
felt an implacable hatred. The others were no less enemies,
perhaps more dangerous enemies, but they were only the tools
of Stephen and Myra. For instance, t Bornwell Powell, prim
and self satisfied, sitting on the edge of his chair
and clutching the briefcase on his lap as though it
were a restless pet which might attempt to escape. He

(01:29):
was an honest man, as lawyers went painfully ethical, no
doubt he had convinced himself that his clients were acting
from the noblest and most disinterested motives. And Doctor Alexis Verner,
with his Van Dyke beard and his Viennese accent as
phony as a Soviet controlled election, who had preempted the

(01:49):
chair at Colonel Hampton's desk. This rankled the old soldier,
but doctor Verner would want to assume the position which
would give him appearance of commanding the situation. He probably
felt that Colonel Hampton was no longer master of gray Rock.
The fifth, a Neanderthal type in a white jacket, was
doctor Werner's attendant and bodyguard. He could be ignored like

(02:12):
an enlisted man, unthinkingly obeying the orders of his superior.
But you are not cooperating, Colonel Hampton, the psychiatrist complained,
how can I help you if you do not cooperate.
Colonel Hampton took the cigar from his mouth, his white
mustache tinged a faint yellow by habitual smoking. Twitched angrily.
Oh you call it helping me, do you? He asked, acidly,

(02:37):
Why a some I here? The doctor parried, You're here
because my loving nephew and his charming wife can't wait
to see me buried in the family cemetery. They want
to bury me alive in that private bedlam of yours.
Colonel Hampton replied, see Myra, Hampton turned to the psychiatrist.
We are persecuting him. We are all envious of him,

(02:58):
we are plotting against him. Of course, this sullen, suspicious
silence is a common paranoid symptom. One often finds such
symptoms in the cases of see now dementia. Doctor Werner agreed.
Colonel Hampton snorted contemptuously, see now dementia. Well, he must
have been seen now and demanded to bring this pair

(03:18):
of snakes into his home because he felt the obligation
to his dead brother's memory, and he willed gray Rock
and his money and everything to Stephen. Only Myra couldn't
wait till he died. She laidy Macbeth her husband into
this insanity accusation. However, I must fully satisfy myself before

(03:39):
I consign the commitment. The psychiatrist was saying, after all,
the patient is a man of advanced age seventy eight
to be exact, seventy eight, almost eighty. Colonel Hampton could
hardly realize they had been around so long. He had
been a little boy playing soldiers. He had been a
young man breaking the family tradition of Harvard and wangling

(04:03):
an appointment to West Point. He had been a new
second lieutenant at a little post in Wyoming. In the
last dying flicker of the Indian Wars. He had been
a first lieutenant, trying to make soldiers of militiamen and
hoping for orders to Cuba before the Spaniards gave up.
He had been the hard bitten captain of a hard
bitten company fighting Moros in the jungles of Mindanao. Then,

(04:27):
through the early years of the twentieth century, after his
father's death, he had been that Rara Avis in the
American Service, a really wealthy professional officer. He played polo
and served a turn as military at Tache at the
Paris Embassy. He had commanded a regiment in France in
nineteen eighteen, and in the post war years he had

(04:49):
rounded out his service in command of a regiment of
Negro cavalry before retiring to grey Rock. Too old for
active service or even a desk at the Pentagon, he
had drilled a home guard company of forour F's en
boys and paunchy Middle Ages through the Second World War.
Then he had been an old man sitting alone in

(05:10):
the sunlight until a wonderful thing happened. Get him to
tell you about this invisible playmate of his. Stephen suggested,
If that won't satisfy you, I don't know what will.
It had begun a year ago, last June, he had
been sitting on a bench on the east lawn watching

(05:30):
a kitten playing with a crumpled bit of paper on
the walk, circling warily around it as though it were
some living prey, stalking cautiously, pouncing and striking the paper
ball with a paw, and then pursuing it madly. The kitten,
whose name was smoke Ball, was a friend of his.
Soon she would tire of her game and jump up

(05:51):
beside him to be petted. Then suddenly he seemed to
hear a girl's voice beside him. Oh what a darling
little cat. What's its name, smoke Ball, he said, without thinking.
She's about the color of a shrapnel burst. Then he
stopped short, looking about. There was nobody in sight, and

(06:12):
he realized that the voice had been inside his head
rather than in his ear. What the devil, he asked himself.
Am I going nuts? There was a happy little laugh
inside of him, like bubbles rising in a glass of champagne.
Oh no, I'm really here, the voice, inaudible but mentally present,
assured him. You can't see me, or touch me, or

(06:36):
even really hear me. But I'm not something you just imagined.
I'm just as real as has smoke Ball there, only
I'm a different kind of reality. Watch. The voice stopped,
and something that had seemed to be close to him
left him immediately. The kitten stopped playing with the crumpled
paper and cocked her head to one side, staring fixedly

(06:59):
as at something of her. He had seen cats do
that before, stare wide eyed and entrance, as though at
something wonderful which was hidden from human eyes. Then, still
looking up and to the side, Smokeball trotted over and
jumped into his lap, but even as he stroked her,
she was looking at an invisible something beside him. At

(07:20):
the same time, he had a warm and pleasant feeling,
as of a happy and affectionate presence near him. No,
he said, slowly and judicially, that's not just my imagination.
But who or what are you? I'm oh, I don't
know how to think it so that you'll understand. The

(07:41):
voice inside his head seemed baffled, like a physicist trying
to explain atomic energy to a hottentot. I'm not material
if you can imagine a mind that doesn't need a
brain to think with. Oh, I can't explain it now,
But when I'm talking to you like this, I'm really
think thinking inside your brain along with your own mind,

(08:03):
and you hear the words without there being any sound,
and you just don't know any words that would express it.
He had never thought much, one way or another about spiritualism.
There had been old people when he had been a boy,
who had told stories of ghosts and apparitions with the
firmest conviction that they were true. And there had been

(08:24):
an irishman in his old company in the Philippines who
swore that the ghost of a dead comrade walked post
with him when he was on guard. Are you a spirit,
he asked, I mean somebody who once lived in a
body like me. No, the voice inside him seemed doubtful.
That is, I don't think so. I know about spirits.

(08:47):
They're all around everywhere, but I don't think I'm one.
At least I've always been like I am now as
long as I can remember. Most spirits don't seem to
sense me. I can't reach mostly giving people. Either their
minds are closed to me, or they have such disgusting
minds I can't bear to touch them. Children are open

(09:07):
to me, but when they tell their parents about me,
they are laughed at or punished for lying, and then
they close up against me. You're the first grown up
person I've been able to reach for a long time,
probably getting into my second childhood. Colonel Hampton grunted, Oh,
but you mustn't be ashamed of that. The invisible entity

(09:28):
told him, that's the beginning of real wisdom, becoming childlike again.
One of your religious teachers said something like that. Long ago,
and a long time before that, there was a Chinaman
whom people called venerable child because his wisdom had turned
back again to a child's simplicity. That was loud, say,
Colonel Hampton said, a little surprised. Don't tell me you've

(09:51):
been around that long. Oh, but I have longer than that, oh,
for very long. And yet the voice he seemed to
be hearing was the voice of a young girl. You
don't mind my coming to talk to you, it continued.
I get so lonely, so dreadfully lonely, you see, ern
so do I? Colonel Hampton admitted, I'm probably going bats,

(10:16):
But what the hell, it's a nice way to go bats.
I'll say that. Stick a round, whoever you are, and
let's get acquainted. I sort of like you. A feeling
of warmth suffused him, as though he had been hugged
by some one young and happy and loving. Oh I'm
glad I like you too. You're nice, Yes, of course.

(10:37):
Doctor Werner nodded sagely. That is a schizoid tendency, the
flight from reality into a dream world people by creatures
of the imagination. You understand there is usually a mixture
of psychotic conditions in cases like this. We will say
that this case begins with simple sin now dementia, physical

(10:58):
brain degeneration a result of advanced age. Then the paranoid
symptoms appear. He imagines himself surrounded by envious enemies who
are conspiring against him. The patient then withdraws into himself,
and in his self imposed isolation, he conjures up imaginary companionship.
I have no doubt in the beginning he had suspected

(11:21):
that this unseen visitor was no more than a figment
of his own lonely imagination. But as the days passed,
this suspicion vanished. Whatever this entity might be an entity,
it was entirely distinct from his own conscious or subconscious mind.
At first, she he had early to come to think
of the being as feminine, had seemed timid, fearful. Lest

(11:46):
her intrusions into his mind prove a nuisance, it took
some time for him to assure her that she was
always welcome. With time, too, his impression of her grew
stronger and more concrete. He found that he was able
to visualize her as he might visualize something remembered or
conceived of in imagination. A lovely young girl, slender and

(12:09):
clothed in something loose and filmy, with flowers in her
honey colored hair and clear blue eyes, a pert, cheerful face,
a wide smiling mouth with an impudently up tilted nose.
He realized that this image was merely a sort of
allegorical representation, his own private object, abstraction from a reality

(12:30):
which his senses could never picture as it existed. It
was about this time that he begun to call her dearest.
She had given him no name, and seemed quite satisfied
with that one. I've been thinking, she said, I ought
to have a name for you too. Do you mind
if I call you popsy? Humph? He had been really

(12:51):
startled at that. If he needed any further proof of
Dearest's independent existence, that was it. Never in the utmost
depth of his subconscious would he have ever been likely
to label himself popsy. Know what they used to call
me in the army? He asked, slaughter House Hampton. They
claimed I needed a truckload of sawdust to follow me

(13:13):
around and cover up the blood, He chuckled, Nobody, but
you would think of calling me popsy. There was a
price he found that he must pay for Dearest's companionship,
the price of eternal vigilance. He found that he was
acquiring the habit of opening doors and then needlessly standing
aside to allow her to precede him. And although she

(13:35):
insisted that he need not speak aloud to her, that
she could understand any thought which he directed to her,
he could not help actually pronouncing the words, if only
in a faint whisper. He was glad that he had learned,
before the end of his plea beer at West Point,
to speak without moving his lips. Besides himself and the

(13:55):
kitten's smoke ball, there was one other at Gray Rock
who was aware, if only faintly, of Dearest's presence. That
was Old Sergeant Williamson, the colonel's Negro servant, a retired
first sergeant from the regiment he had last commanded. With
increasing frequency, he would notice the old Negro pause at
his work, as though trying to identify something too subtle

(14:18):
for his senses, and then shake his head in bewilderment.
One afternoon in early October, just about a year ago,
he had been reclining in a chair on the West Verandah,
smoking the cigar and trying to recreate for his companion
a mental picture of an Indian camp as he had
seen it in Wyoming in the middle of the nineties

(14:39):
when Sergeant Williamson came out from the house carrying a
pair of the colonel's field boots and a polishing kit.
Unaware of the colonel's presence, he set down his burden,
squatted on the floor, and began polishing the boots, humming
softly to himself. Then he must have caught a whiff
of the colonel's cigar. Raising his head, he saw the
colonel and and made as though to pick up the

(15:01):
boots and the polishing equipment. Oh that's all right, sergeant,
the colonel told him, carry on with what you're doing.
There's room enough for both of us here, Yes, sir,
Thank you, sir. The old sergeant resumed his soft humming,
keeping time with the brush in his hand. You know, Popsy,
I think he knows i'm here, dearest, said, nothing definite,

(15:22):
of course. He just feels there's something here that he
can't see. I wonder I've noticed something like that. Funny,
he doesn't seem to mind either. Colored people are usually
scary about ghosts and spirits and the like. I'm going
to ask him, he raised his voice, Sergeant, do you
seem to notice anything peculiar around here? Lightly. The repetitious,

(15:47):
little two toned melody broke off short. The soldier's servant
lifted his face and looked into the colonel's His brow wrinkled,
as though he were trying to express the thought for
which he had no words. You notice that too, sa,
he asked. Why. Yes, sirh Coonel, I don't know exactly
how to say it, but there is something at that

(16:08):
It seems like like a kind of a kind of blessedness.
He chuckled. That's it, Connel, is a blessedness. Wonder if
and I get in religion? Now, well, all this is
very interesting, I'm sure, doctor t barn while Paul was saying,
polishing his glasses on a piece of tissue and keeping

(16:28):
one elbow on his briefcase at the same time. But
really it's not getting us anywhere, So to say, you know,
we must have that commitment signed by you. Now, is
it or is it not your opinion that this man
is of unsound mind? Now have patience, mister Powell, the
psychiatrist soothed him. You must admit that as long as

(16:49):
this gentleman refuses to talk, I cannot be said to
have interviewed him. But what if he won't talk? Stephen
Hampton burst out. We've told you about his behavior, how
he sits for hours mumbling to this imaginary person he
thinks is with him, and how he always steps aside
when he opens the door to let somebody who isn't
there go through ahead of him, And how, oh hell,

(17:12):
what's the use? If he were in his right mind,
he'd speak up and try to prove it, wouldn't he.
What do you say, Myra? Myra was silent, and Colonel
Hampton found himself watching her with interest. Her mouth had
twisted into a wry grimace, and she was clutching the
arms of her chair until her knuckles whitened. She seemed

(17:33):
to be in some intense pain. Colonel Hampton hoped she
were preferably something slightly fatal. Sergeant Williamson's suspicion that he
might be getting religion became a reality for a time
that winter. After the miracle, it had been a blustery
day in mid January, with a high wind driving swirls

(17:55):
of snow across the fields, and Colonel Hampton, fretting indoors
for several days, decided to go out and fill his
lungs with fresh air. Bundled warmly swinging his blackthorn cane,
he had set out, accompanied by Dearest, to tramp cross
country to the village three miles from Gray Rock. They
had enjoyed the walk through the white, wind swept desolation,

(18:17):
the old man and his invisible companion until the accident
had happened. A sheet of glassy ice had lain treacherously
hidden under a skiff of snow. When he stepped on it,
his feet shot out from under him. The stick flew
from his hand, and he went down. When he tried
to rise, he found that he could not. Dearest had

(18:39):
been almost frantic. Oh, Popsy, you must get up, she cried.
You'll freeze if you don't. Come on, Popsy, try again,
he tried in vain. His old body would not obey
his will. It's no use, Dearest, I can't. Maybe it's
just as well, he said, freezing's in easynes. And you

(19:01):
say people live on his spirits after they die. Maybe
we can always be together now, I don't know. I
don't want you to die yet, Popsy. I never was
able to get through to a spirit, and I'm afraid wait,
can you crawl a little enough to get over under
those young pines. I think so. His left leg was numb,

(19:22):
and he believed that it was broken. I can try.
He managed to roll onto his back and with his
head towards the clump of pine seedlings. Using both hands
in his right heel, he was able to propel himself
slowly through the snow until he was out of the
worst of the wind. That's good. Now, try to cover yourself, dearest, advised,

(19:44):
put your hands in your coat pockets and wait here.
I'll try to get help. Then she left him. For
what seemed a long time, he lay motionless in the
scant protection of the young pines, suffering lisardly. He began
to grow dropp As soon as he realized what was happening,
he was frightened, and the fright pulled him awake again.

(20:07):
Soon he felt himself drowsing again. By shifting his position,
he caused a jab of pain from his broken leg,
which brought him back to wakefulness. Then the deadly drowsiness returned.
This time he was wakened by a sharp voice mingled
with a throbbing sound that seemed to be part of
a dream of the cannonading in the Argonne da look Ada.

(20:32):
It was he realized Sergeant Williamson's voice getting soft in
the head. Is ah ye, Old Wealthley's no count. He
turned his face to see the battered jeep from Gray Rock,
driven by Arthur, the stableman and gardener, with Sergeant Williamson
beside him. The older Negro jumped to the ground and
ran toward him. At the same time, he felt dearest

(20:53):
with him again. We made it, Popsy, we made it,
she was exulting. I was afraid I'd never make him understand,
but I did, and you should have seen him bully
that other men into driving the jeep. Are you all right, Popsy?
Is you all right? Connel? Sergeant Williamson was asking My
leg's broken, I think, but outside of that, I'm all right,

(21:16):
he answered both of them. How did you happen to
find me? Sergeant? The old Negro soldier rolled his eyes upward. Colonel,
it wore a miracle of the blessed lad he replied, solemnly.
An angel of the Lord Don appeared to me. He
shook his head slowly as a sinful man, Connel, I
couldn't see the angel face to face, but the glory

(21:39):
of the Angel was before me and guided me. They
used his cane and a broken off bow to split
his leg. They wrapped him in a horse blanket and
hauled him back to gray Rock and put him to bed,
with Dearest clinging solicitously to him. The fractured leg knit slowly,
though the physician was amazed at the speed with which,

(22:00):
considering his age, he made recovery, and with his unfeeling cheerfulness.
He did not know, of course, that he was being
assisted by an invisible nurse. For all that, however, the
leaves on the oaks around gray Rock were green again
before Colonel Hampton could leave his bed and hobble about
the house on a cane. Arthur, the young negro who

(22:22):
had driven the jeep, had become one of the most
solid pillars of the Little A. M. E Church beyond
the village. As a result, Sergeant Williamson had also become
an attendant at the church for a while and then stopped.
Without being able to define or spell or even pronounce
the term, Sergeant Williamson was a strict pragmatist. Most Africans are,

(22:44):
even after five generations removed from the slave ship that
brought their forefathers from the dark Continent, and Sergeant Williamson
could not find the Blessedness at the church. Instead, it
seemed to center about the room where his employer and
former regiment commander lay. That, to his mind, was quite reasonable.
If an angel of the Lord was going to tarry

(23:06):
upon earth, the celestial being would naturally prefer the society
of a retired u S a colonel to that of
a passel of trifle, and no counts at an old
clapword church house. Be that as it may. He could
always find the Blessedness in Colonel Hampton's room, and sometimes
when the Colonel would be asleep, the Blessedness would follow

(23:28):
him out and linger with him for a while. Colonel
Hampton wondered anxiously where Dearest was now. He had not
felt her presence since his nephew had brought his lawyer
and the psychiatrist into the house. He wondered if she
had voluntarily separated herself from him for fear that he
might give her some sign of recognition that these harpies

(23:49):
would fasten upon as an evidence of unsound mind. He
could not believe that she deserted him entirely now when
he needed her most. Well, what can I do? Doctor
Werner was complaining, you bring me here to interview him,
and he just sits there and does nothing. Will you
consent to my giving him an injection of sodium pentathal? Well,

(24:12):
I don't know, now, t Bornwell, Powell objected, I've heard
of that drug, one of the so called truth serum drugs.
I doubt if testimony taken under its influence could be
admissible in a court. This is not a court, mister Powell,
the doctor explained patiently, and I am not taking testimony.
I am making a diagnosis. Pentethal is a recognized diagnostic agent.

(24:37):
Go ahead, Stephen, Hamilton said, anything to get this over with,
you agree, Myra, Myra said nothing. She simply sat with
staring eyes and clutched the arms of her chair, as
though to keep from slipping into some dreadful abyss. Once
a low moan escaped her lips. My wife is naturally

(24:58):
overwrought by this painful business, Stephen said, I trust that
you gentlemen will excuse her. Hadn't you better go and
lie down somewhere? Myra, She shook her head violently, moaning again.
Both the doctor and the attorney were looking at her curiously. Well,
I object to being drugged, Colonel Hampton said, rising, and

(25:19):
what's more, I won't submit to it, Albert, doctor Werner said, sharply,
nodding towards the colonel. The bif thecanth PoID attendant in
the white jacket, hastened forward, pinned his arms behind him,
and dragged him down into the chair. For an instant,
the old man tried to resist, then, realizing the futility

(25:39):
and indignity of struggling, subsided. The psychiatrist had taken a
leather case from his pocket and was selecting a hypodermic needle.
Then Myra Hampton leaped to her feet, her face working hideously. No, stop, stop,
she cried. Everyone looked at her in surprise. Colonel Hampton,

(26:00):
no less than the others. Stephen Hampton, called out her
name sharply. No, you shan't do this to me, You shan't.
You're torturing me. You are all devils, she screamed, devils, devils. Myra.
Her husband barked, stepping forward. With a twist, she eluded him,
dashing around the desk and pulling open a drawer. For

(26:22):
an instant she fumbled inside it, and when she brought
her hand up she had Colonel Hampton's forty five automatic
in it. She drew back the slide and released it,
loading the chamber. Doctor Werner, the hypodermic in his hand, turned,
Stephen Hampton sprang at her, dropping his drink, and Albert,
the prognathous attendant, released Colonel Hampton and leaped at the

(26:45):
woman with the pistol with an unthinking promptness of a
dog whose master is in danger. Stephen Hampton was the
closest to her. She shot him first, point blank in
the chest. The heavy bullet knocked him backwards against a
small table. He and it fell over together. While he
was falling, the woman turned, dipped the muzzle of her

(27:06):
pistol slightly, and fired again. Doctor Werner's leg gave way
under him, and he went down, the hypodermic flying from
his hand and landing at Colonel Hampton's feet. At the
same time, the attendant Albert, was almost upon her. Quickly,
she reversed the heavy colt, pressed the muzzle against her heart,
and fired a third shot. T Barnwell Powell had let

(27:29):
the briefcase slip to the floor. He was staring slack
jawed at the tableau of violence which had been enacted
before him. The attendant, having reached Myra, was looking down
at her stupidly. Then he stooped and straightened. She's dead,
he said, unbelievingly. Colonel Hampton rose put his heel on

(27:49):
the hypodermic and crushing it. Of course she's dead, he barked.
Do you have any first aid training? Then look after
these other people, doctor Werner first. The other remains unconscious.
He'll wait, No, look after the other man first, Doctor
Verner said. Albert gaped back and forth between them. God,

(28:10):
damn it, you'll hurt me, Colonel Hampton roared. It was slaughter.
Hoss Hampton, whose service Ribbons started with the Indian campaigns,
speaking an officer who never for an instant imagined that
his orders would not be obeyed. Get a tournacle on
that man's leg. You, He moderated his voice and manner
about half a degree and spoke to Werner. You're not

(28:32):
the doctor, you're the patient. Now you'll do as you're told.
Don't you know that a man shot in the leg
with a forty five can bleed to death without half trying?
You all do like the colonel says, Oh, for God,
you're all going to wish you had, Sergeant william said,
entering the room, get a move on. He stood just
inside the doorway holding a silver banded Malacca walking stick

(28:54):
that he had taken from the hall stand. He was
grasping it in his left hand below the band with
the crook out, holding it at his side as though
it were a sword in a scabbard, which was exactly
what that walking stick was. Albert looked at him and
then back at Colonel Hampton. Then whipping off his necktie,
he went down on his knees beside Doctor Verner, skillfully

(29:18):
applying the improvised tournique, twisting it tight with an eighteen
inch ruler. The colonel took from the desk and handed
to him. Go and get the first aid kit, sergeant,
the colonel said, and hurry, mister Stevens been shot too, Yes, sah.
Sergeant Williamson executed an automatic salute and about face and
raced from the room. The colonel picked up the telephone

(29:39):
on the desk. The County Hospital was three miles from
grey Rock, the State Police substation A good five. He
dowed the State Police number, First Sergeant Mallard, Colonel Hampton
at Greyrock. We've had a little trouble here. My nephew's
wife just went juramentado with one of my pistols and

(30:00):
wounded her husband and another man, and then shot and
killed herself. Yes, indeed it is, Sergeant. I wish you'd
send somebody over here as soon as possible to take charge.
Oh you will, that's good. No, it's all over, and
nobody to arrest, just the formalities. Well, thank you, sergeant.

(30:20):
The old Negro cavalryman re entered the room without the
sword cane and carrying a heavy leather box on a
strap over his shoulder. He set this on the floor
and opened it, then knelt beside Stephen Hampton. The colonel
was calling the hospital gunshot wounds. He was saying, one
man in the chest and the other in the leg,
both with a forty five pistol, and you'd better send

(30:42):
a doctor who's qualified to write a death certificate. There
was a woman killed two Yes, certainly the state police
have been notified. This ain't so bad, colonel. Sergeant Williamson
raised his head to say us seen men shot was
in this That was mock duty inside month, suh. Colonel
Hampton nodded, Well, get him fixed up as best you

(31:05):
can till the ambulance gets here. And there's whiskey and
glasses on that table over there. Better give doctor Werner
a drink. He looked at Tea Barnwell Powell, still frozen
to his chair, aghast at the carnage around him. And
give mister Powell a drink too, he needs one. He did. Indeed,
Colonel Hampton could have used a drink too. The library

(31:27):
looked like beef day at an Indian agency, but he
was still Slaughterhouse Hampton, and consequently could not afford to
exhibit queasiness. It was then, for the first time since
the business had started, that he felt the presence of dearest, Oh, Popsy,
are you all right? The voice inside his head was asking,
it's all over now, you won't have anything to worry

(31:49):
about anymore. But oh, I was afraid I wouldn't be
able to do it. My god, dearest, He almost spoke aloud,
Did you make her do that? Popsy? The voice in
his mind was grief stricken you you're afraid of me.
Never be afraid of dearest Popsy, and don't hate me

(32:11):
for this. It was the only thing I could do.
If he had given you that injection He could have
made you tell him all about us, and then he'd
have been sure you were crazy, and di'd have taken
you away, and they treat people dreadfully at that place
of his. You'd have been driven really crazy before long,
and then your mind would have been closed to me,

(32:32):
so that I wouldn't have been able to get through
to you anymore. What I did was the only thing
I could do. I don't hate you, dearest, he replied mentally,
and I don't blame you. It was a little disconcerting, though,
to discover the extent of your capabilities. How did you
manage it? You remember how I made the sergeant see
an angel the time that you were down in the snow.

(32:55):
Colonel Hampton nodded, well, I made her see things that
weren't Aim, Dearest, continued. After I'd driven her almost to distraction,
I was able to get into her mind and take
control of her. Colonel Hampton felt a shudder inside of him.
That was horrible. That woman had a mind like a sewer.
I still feel dirty from it. I made her get

(33:17):
the pistol. I knew where you kept it, and I
knew how to use it, even if she didn't remember
when we were shooting muskrats that time along the river.
Uh huh. I wondered how she knew enough to unlock
the action and load the chamber. He turned and faced
the others. Doctor Verner was sitting on the floor with
his back to the chair Colonel Hampton had occupied, his

(33:39):
injured leg stretched out in front of him. Albert was
hovering over him with mother Hen's solicitude, Tea Barn, while
Powell was finishing his whisky and recovering a fraction of
his normal poise. Well, I suppose you, gentlemen, see now
who was really crazy around here? Colonel Hampton addressed them, bitingly.

(34:00):
That woman has been dangerously close to the borderline of
sanity for as long as she's been here. I think
my precious nephew trumped up this ridiculous insanity complaint against
me as much to discredit any testimony and might ever
give about his wife's mental condition, as because he wanted
to get control of my estate. I also suppose that

(34:20):
the tension she was under here this afternoon was too
much for her, and the scheme boomeranged on its originators.
Curious case of poetic justice. But I'm sorry you had
to be included in it. Doctor had a boy. Popsy
Dearest enthused, Now you have them on the run, don't
give them a chance to reform. You know what Patten

(34:40):
always said, Grab him by the nose and kick him
in the pants. Colonel Hampton relighted his cigar. Patten only
said pants when he was talking for publication, he told her,
sado vuce. Then he noticed the unsigned commitment paper lying
on the desk. He picked it up, crumpled it, and
threw it into the fire. I don't think you'll be

(35:01):
needing that, he said. You know, this isn't the first
time my loving nephew has expressed doubts about my sanity.
He sat down in the chair at the desk, motioning
to a servant to bring him a drink and see
to the other gentleman's glasses. Sergeant, he directed back. In
nineteen twenty nine, Stephen thought I was crazy as a
bed bug to sell all my securities and take a

(35:23):
paper loss around the first of September. After October twenty fourth,
I bought them back at about twenty percent of what
I'd sold them for. After he'd lost his shirt that
he knew would have an effect on t Barnwell Powell,
and in December nineteen forty four, I was just plain nuts,
selling all my munition shares and investing in a company

(35:46):
that manufactured baby food. Stephen thought that runschtets our Den
counter offensive would put off the end of the war
for another year and a half. Baby food, eh, Doctor
Werner chuckled Colonel Hampton's zipped his whiskey slowly, then puffed
on his cigar. No, this pair were competent liars, he replied.

(36:07):
A good workmanlike liar never makes up a story out
of the whole cloth. He always takes a fabric of
truth and embroiders it to suit the situation. He smiled grimly.
That was an accurate description of his own tactical procedure
at the moment. I hadn't intended this to come out, doctor,
But it happens that I am a convinced believer in spiritualism.

(36:29):
I suppose you'll think that that's a delusional belief, too well,
Doctor Werner pursed his lips. I reject the idea of
survival after death myself, but I think that people who
believe in such a theory are merely misevaluating evidence. It
is definitely not, in itself a symptom of a psychotic condition.

(36:51):
Thank you, doctor, the colonel gestured with a cigar. Now
I'll admit their statements about my appearing to be in
conversation with some in visible or imaginary being, that's all
quite true. I'm convinced that I am in direct voice
communication with the spirit of a young girl who was
killed by the Indians in this section about one hundred

(37:12):
and seventy five years ago. At first she communicated by
automatic writing. Later we established direct voice communication. Well, naturally,
a man in my position would dislike the label of
spirit medium. There are too many invidious associations connected with
the term, But there it is. I trust both of you, gentlemen,

(37:33):
will remember the ethics of your respective professions and keep
this confidential. Oh brother dearest was fairly hugging him with delight.
When bigger and better lies are told, we tell him,
don't we popsy yes, and try and prove otherwise, Colonel
Hampton replied around his cigar. Then he blew a jet

(37:54):
of smoke and spoke to the men in front of him.
I intend paying for my nephew's hospital lifeation and for
his wife's funeral he said, And then I'm going to
pack up all his personal belongings and all of hers
when he's just charged from the hospital. I'll ship them
wherever he wants them, but he won't be allowed to
come back here after this business. I'm through with him.

(38:17):
T Barnwell Powell nodded primly. I don't blame you in
the least, Colonel, he said, I think you have been
abominably treated, and your attitude is most generous. He was
about to say something else when the doorbell tinkled and
Sergeant Williamson went out into the hall. Oh dear, I
suppose that's the police now, the lawyer said. He grimaced

(38:40):
like a small boy in a dentist's chair. Colonel Hampton
felt Dearest leave him for a moment. Then she was
back the ambulance. Then he caught a sparkle of mischief
in her mood. Let's have some fun, popsy. The doctor
is a young man with brown hair and a mustache, horn,
rim glasses, a blue tie, and a tan leather bag.

(39:01):
One of the ambulance men has red hair, and the
other has a curiochrome stain on his left sleeve. Tell
them your spirit guide told you the old soldier's tobacco
yellowed mustache twitched in amusement. No, gentlemen, it is the ambulance.
He corrected. My spirit control says he relaid Dearest's descriptions

(39:22):
to them. T. Barnwell Powell blinked, a speculative look came
into the psychiatrist's eyes. He was probably wishing the commitment
paper hadn't been destroyed. Then the doctor came bustling in
brown mustached, blue tied spectacled, carrying a tan bag, and
behind him followed the two ambulance men, one with a

(39:44):
thatch of flaming red hair and the other with a
stain of mecurichrome on his jacket sleeve. For an instant,
the lawyer and the psychiatrist gaped at them. Then T.
Barnwell Powell put one hand to his mouth and made
a small gibbering sound, and doctor Ernard gave a faint squawk,
And then both men grabbed simultaneously for the whisky bottle.

(40:06):
The laughter of Dearest tinkled inaudibly through the rumbling mirth
of Colonel Hampton. The end End of Dearest by h
Beam Piper