Chapter IX

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Episode Transcript

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Chapter nine of Sinister House by LelandHall. This LibriVox recording was in the
public domain. Read by Ben Tucker. Chapter nine. It was with mixed
feelings of fear and love that Istarted out with Giles early the next afternoon
to walk over to Eric's. Ihad slept until nearly noon and felt,
if not refreshed, at least calm. I realized instinctively that I had need

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to be calm. I felt thatwe were walking on to the conclusion of
the drama. Annette had telephoned todoctor Gresham, Eric's line being still out
of order. I guess the poorfellow hadn't thought to do anything about it,
and had learned that Julia was sufferingonly from a heavy cold. The
doctor wouldn't say much, but hehinted that Julia's nerves were highly wrought up

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that she ought to have a change. The sky was overcast, it was
cold, and the wind was rising. Giles and I swung along the road
against it, silent for a goodquarter of an hour, during which,
thanks to the healthy exercise and thebuffeting wind, I straightened out my mind
and arrived at a rational decision asto my stand and conduct in this affair.

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Believe me, there was one starkfact I could not but face.
I had turned Eric away from myhouse as I would have turned a carrier
of pestilence. I felt for Ericas keenly as I had ever felt,
but with the difference much as Iknew he was suffering. I tried to
harden my mind to believe that itwas his own fault. Yet it really
wasn't. I mean, he wasnot entirely blameworthy. He was acting almost

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as an animal would act, becausesomething in his life had beaten him down
to just that. He was determinedto shun what had wickedly maltreated him.
But by Gemini, a man hasn'ta right to his own life, not
even to his own past. Ifhe wishes to live wholly alone, that's
different. But there's hardly a manwho can do that. Life does not
let him. You know that mysympathies are easily aroused. They had been

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greatly excited by the suffering, visibleacutely only to me of my two friends.
Recent events, however, had shownme that sympathy, all in the
guise of understanding, may be absurdlyand dangerously blind. I was beginning to
understand that afternoon. What more thoughtfulnatures than mine understand an early manhood,
What certain temperaments are aware of instinctivelyfrom the first. The conventions of society

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and the activities of business all pointto the fact that a man is only
a piece in a machine, reallynot self important, but important only in
his relations to others. Oh,I thought many things that are probably old
and stale to the world, nomatter how new, to what Net calls
my simple nature. It isn't worthwhile recounting them. But I wasn't wholly

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converted. I could not turn Ericaway from my house when he was in
trouble. I had to turn himaway or my own flesh and blood,
my son would suffer cruelly. Justthe same, I resented Giles prodding into
Eric's past life, as if Gilesand I had been thinking along the same
line. He turned to me afterwe had gone a mile or so and
said, I'm sorry, Pierre,you didn't hear the story of the Snarts

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as I told it last night.Greer has been mixed up with them in
the past. It's a remarkable Don'tfor Heaven's sake tell it to me.
I cried, it's an evil soundingname, and I'm sure it was an
evil family it was, said Gileslaconically. Then it's rotten luck that Julia
and Eric, who are the saltof the earth, should have come to

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a house they had anything to dowith luck. Oh no, not luck.
There's a queer streak in human natures. Men come back to places for
secret reasons, for feelings they cannotresist more than men come back. I
said, look here, Pierre,Giles began sharply. You know that,
simple minded as you are, youindulge yourself too much in the luxury of

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the dramatic, of the melodramatic.Indeed, you'll pass for a gentle soul,
not too fiery, content with whatthe French call the menus pleasure.
You're honest and kind and trustworthy.But upon my soul, sometimes I think
you're a good deal of a damnedfool. I cannot keep from smiling,
partly because it was so like Giles, so true to type, as he

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would say, to pitch in tome with interpretations of myself. Partly because
to be called a damned fool onthat afternoon was strangely comforting. But I
didn't say anything. I think thatperhaps it's because I held my mouth shut
so much during these horrid days thatI ever wrote the story at all.
I used to feel ashamed, thennow I don't well. Giles went on

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in regard to this affair between misterand missus Greer, They're nervous, sensitive,
and highly strung, not the sortof people you have seen much of
or can be expected to understand.Therefore, they take on in your mind
and heroic shape, and trail youalong into a world of myths and goblins.
The house they live in, whichI grant is not up to date,

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gives you the creeps, the figuresof speech they use aszoom in your
imagination, a grotesque reality. Onsuch things, your simple mind loves to
dwell, and you think them overand over until your too easily stimulated imagination
jumps out of your control and youare no longer responsible for what you claim
to see and hear. You mustcontrol your mind and use it. You

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must take facts for what they are. He would have gone on and on,
but I said, Giles, youare a wiser man than I,
and for these few remarks on myself, many thinks I suppose experience teaches us
to know ourselves, and I amlearning in this which will always remain one
of the most horrible in my life. I know that Annette thinks my mind
is diseased. You think that itis unexercised, uncontrolled. Strangely enough,

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I think that my wits are aboutme. Now let me talk a little
more. There are what you callfacts well and good. You can say
that in French for me if youwant to. I will grant that my
keen sympathy for Julia and for Erictoo may have made me a little blind,
but they like me. There's onefact in Neither an unexercized mine nor
a too keen sympathy can do awaywith the fact that Julia and I too

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have You know, I could notsay it. The great fact, Giles
broke in, is that Eric Greerhas kept to himself something that, by
praying on him, has begun topray on his wife and on his friends.
True crime or misadventure. And Iam inclined to think there are both,

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the one perhaps palliated by the other, something in his past life which
demands an accounting or a confession.There's my explanation, what's yours? Remember,
I can substantiate what I claim.I preferred to keep silent, and
we walked on without a word,tramp tramp against the wind along the flat
highway until the hemlocks by Eric's househove in view. Then Giles turned suddenly

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to me and said, when there'sa rotten thing in a man, the
surgeon must cut it out. WatchEric, whatever happens this afternoon, I
am glad Julia will not be present. That took the wind out of me.
I could not imagine what Giles hadarranged for my dear little Flivver was
standing in the driveway by the door, and just as we came up,
Eric stepped from the house, evidentlyabout to drive it back to me.

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When he saw us, however,he stood waiting, a finger on his
lips. How I whispered, isJulia, she is asleep? Just now?
He whispered back. The doctor judgesthat her cold is not serious.
But I think we will go awayfor a change in a day or two.
He looked pale and haggard, andhis hand, as I took it,
felt cold. Giles had little tosay. I cannot fancy that Eric

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and Giles could ever have had muchto say to each other. The one
visionary and reserved the other rather cynicaland very outspoken. There was a pause
of a minute or so, embarrassingto all of us. But though Eric
was preoccupied, I think he didnot want us to jump into the ford
and go back at once. Aftera while, he collected himself enough to

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invite us to be seated on thelittle veranda to the left of the front
door. There happened to be threeold chairs there. Giles looked at his
watch. It's about four. Hesaid to me. I say, career,
could you give us a drop oftea? I've told you that such
bluntness was what I envied in GilesPharaoh. Eric responded, I'm sorry.

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I think the household is a littledisorganized, and since Julia's asleep now,
perhaps we'd better stay out of doorsand will have to indulge me. Anyhow,
I've got a hundred things to doabout shutting up the house. My
mind's disturbed too, But we cansit here a little while if you like,
though, we'd better talk quietly.Julia's right up there, and he
pointed to the corner room. Havea cigar, then, Eric I offered,

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forgetting that he did not smoke,He declined it and tipped his chair
back against the wall. Giles andI were both facing him from the way.
He pulled his cap down over hiseyes and rested his head against the
wall. I thought he must betired, and his face, what I
could see of it, was hollowand lined. So you're going to leave
us, I began, Where areyou going? Julia will go to stay

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with her cousin in a little townup state. You are not going with
her. No, Eric replied ina very low voice. I I it
sounded as if he had made uphis mind to say he had to go
elsewhere for reasons of business, buthe broke off. I wondered if Julia
and he had come to an understanding. I saw Giles look at his watch

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again, and it struck me asqueer, because not five minutes could have
passed since he had looked at itbefore. Alongside the veranda, the dead
leaves on the bushes were rattling inthe cold wind, which tore round the
corner of the house. I fanciedI heard a sort of banging in the
distance, as of a loosened shudder. Everything was restless, gray and chill,
and we three men alone on thebleak Veranda must have looked forlorn,

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Eric pulling his cap yet lower overhis face so that all I could see
of it was his mouth, andChin said to me, I suppose,
Pierre, you don't know of anyonewho would hire this house furnished. Why?
Perhaps that depends the thought of Eric'sleaving the neighborhood. Together with the
cold, dreariness of the day,the knowledge that the sprightly Julia who used

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to enliven us so was lying sickin one of the gloomy rooms above us,
and the premonition that something disagreeable wasgoing to happen, made an ordinary
business conversation strange. Indeed, NowI thought the chances very unfavorable tenants for
that sort of house would be rarein these days, anyhow, and at
this time of the year, etcetera, et cetera, if I felt

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like selling Pierre, Eric went on, in a dreary voice, how much
would the place spring? How muchland you own? What you see here
within the trees, and perhaps outto the road. Well, it wouldn't
bring very much, I'm afraid,Eric, perhaps twenty five hundred, possibly
three thousand. So little I sawa bitter smile, twist his lips so

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little, he repeated, and thecold wind swept his words away. It
was hardly worth it. I turnedround to size up the land, to
do anything, rather than submit tothe spirit of desolation that was moaning about
us. There it was, theshort empty driveway curving from under the hemlocks
as from a tunnel, the halfmoon of land within it, the little

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bit of lawn on either side,where the grass was already dead and brownish.
Fraid not more, Eric, Isighed, and turned back to face
him. I'm afraid not more.Though I could not see his eyes,
I knew that he had suddenly fixedthem upon something behind me, something that
must have come into the driveway inthe last second. So sure was I

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of this that out of curiosity Ishould have turned round again, but for
the amazing transformation which came over him, and which held me fixed in my
chair and powerless to move. Hisjaw dropped so that his mouth hung open.
He put up a trembling hand tocover his eyes, pushing back the
cap from his brow as he didso. Then, very slowly, as

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if at the cost of great effort, over himself, he brought that hand
back to the arm of his chair. I saw his eyes dilated, horrified,
starting out of their sockets, stillwith a slowness that to me was
excruciating. He lowered one foot fromthe wrong of the chair, feeling for
the floor of the verandah, findingit, and then he let the chair,

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which had been tilted back against thewall of the house, come forward
on its four legs. Slowly,terribly slowly. He regained control of himself,
closed his mouth, set his jawbehind me. I heard the crunching
of steps on the gravel. Someonewas approaching, more or less hesitatingly,
but steadily, someone whose appearance musthave been to Eric as unspeakably what shall

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I say, a blasting, asthe apparition of the female specter of malice
had been to me. Even Gilesgroaned, overcome by the look on Eric's
face, that ever fine handsome features, so often a glow with ardor and
love, could become such a maskof hateful tragedy. He was getting to
his feet, his loose raincoat fastenedby only one button, flapping and almost

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tearing in the wind. Instinctively,I put out a hand towards him.
He did not see it, Hesaw nothing but what was approaching him?
With steps that were beginning to falterunder his breath, he said, come
on, I am not afraid ofyou, you rotting white devil. It
was not more than a whisper,but it was terrible. Suddenly he stiffened

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to his full height. He snatchedhis cap from his head and flung it
on the floor. Nostrils dilated andquivering, eyes blazing, he stamped on
the floor. His hair blew likea wild man's in the strong cold wind.
He cried out, with all thepower of his full voice, come
on, I say, what doyou want? There was about him at
that moment, and nobleness of rage, a majesty of defiance, something greatly

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heroic. I was fascinated by him. I could not take my eyes from
him, and I only heard whatwent on A rather lisping voice. A
woman's answered, I want to seemister Greer. Mister Greer replied Eric,
still in that extraordinarily resonant, trumpetlike voice, is not at home.

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He has gone away, Oh,said the woman. Then I will come
again. I heard her footsteps asshe retreated, and when they had grown
faint, in my mind told methat the woman had descended into the tunnel,
through the hemlocks, and gone outof sight. Then I saw Eric
lay a hand on the veranda rail, vault over it and light on the

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brown grass just beyond the bushes.He stumbled but did not fall. I
turned to watch him, crouching likea tiger. He darted across the lawn
to the right, paused a secondon a spot. Whence he could see
that woman, now out of mysight, pursuing her way through the gloomily
shadowed tunnel. Darted a little farther, always to keep her in view,

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across the lawn, down the driveway, into the tunnel. Maybe he stalked
her. Thus as far as theroad, I saw no more of him
till he returned to us. Heavensave us. I groaned, what have
you done? Giles? But allGiles would say, and he said it
again and again was she must havebeen dreadful. She must have been dreadful.

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We waited without saying anything more,chilled by the comfortless, harsh wind,
vague to each other in the failinggray light. And then Eric came
back to us. Think of it. He was dazed, and he mounted
the veranda steps wearily. The forceof the wind had torn the button from
his coat, so that the bodyof it flapped behind him. From his

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manner, it was evident that hewas quite unconscious of the staggering effect his
dramatic lie had had upon us.And indeed our amazement might well, from
his point of view, have beenquite negligible. Our moral sensibilities had been
stunned, perhaps, but he well. He stopped and caught up his cap
as the wind was blowing it away. Then he half sat on the rickety

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railing of the verandah, looking downat his cap, which he still held
in his hands, and slowly fingered. His face was relaxed, I thought,
he said, at last, itwas a woman who I know is
dead. He dropped his cap andtook hold of the railing. Hold a

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snart, Giles asked, in alow, cold tone. I was shocked.
But the effect of that name onEric was like that of the touch
of red hot iron on a maddenedanimal. He sprang to his feet,
wrenching the rail with such force asto tear it from its standards. It
was rotten anyhow, but his wildnesslasted only a few seconds. With what

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must have been a more than normallyhuman effort, he calmed himself. What
makes you think that pharaoh? Hereturned, speaking quite evenly. Because this
woman who has given you such astart is her cousin, and is said
to look astonishingly like her. Therecould never have been more than two such
as they calm yourself, Greer,I am calm, said Eric. I

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took a long breath, tentatively tomake sure my lungs could function. Giles's
temerity had knocked me breathless. Itwas a sanctimonious family, Giles remarked,
apparently incongruously. Was it, yes, singularly colorless before the world, like
that blanched fungus which grows in dampcellars. There was a sort of secret

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evil name in the neighborhood, thoughthat was colorless too. They were cold
blooded, all abnormally blonde. Iwas going to tell you last night when
you interrupted me that Morgan Snart builtthis house. I'm surprised you are not
more curious about it. Who me, yes, especially you. You bought
the house, you know, Isuppose through Grimmer and Strode. Eric's reply

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was spoken quietly. But if thegale had burst into a hurricane, I
could not have been more startled,or our mask of tranquility more wildly swept
away. None of your business.That's what he said. For the first
and only time I saw Giles flabbergasted. He paled with anger. He stood
up and began speaking rapidly, thewords almost tumbling over each other. I

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happen to know that Grimmer and Strodewere Morgan Snart's executors. Through them,
I know that this house was neverfor sale. I know that on the
death of Morgan Snart, this housepassed to his daughter, and on the
death of a few hours later ofhis daughter, it passed to the name.
If ever it was spoken, wasdrowned. And Eric's loud, insane
laughter. He threw back his headand laughed at the sky peal after peal.

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It made me almost sick to hearhim. I had not known laughter
could be such a voice of anguish. All the time, the wind was
flapping his raincoat behind him, flatteninghis trousers against his thin legs. His
long black hair mixed with gray,tossed about his head and face. He
laughed until I thought I must stuffmy fingers in my ears. He lifted

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his hands high before him, andthe section of the rotten railing he still
held, fell from them with adull noise to the floor. Then he
went slowly into the house, cryingthrough his laughter. Oh my wife,
Julia, Oh, my wife,Julia. His terrible laughter still came to
us from within. I was speechless, Giles said, damned, madman.

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Listen, Pierre, shut up.I cried not a word. You've driven
him mad. Keep your facts toyourself. Present, and not more than
a minute, Eric came out again. His laughter had been in our ears,
but at the sight of us,whose presence he may have forgotten,
he ceased laughing. Suddenly. Thesudden silence was in itself unnerving. No,

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he said, eyeing us mournfully.I may not go to my wife
Julia. I am forbidden. Helooked curiously at Giles and pointed a finger
at him in the silence before hespoke again. I heard the distant banging
of the loosened shudder. I thinkyou are a ghoul in a dead man's
grave, he said, in hishabitual melancholy voice. But you have not

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learned all. Even you do notknow who died first. Before Giles could
make any reply to this crazy statement, Eric stepped from the porch and walked
out of our sight into the blacknessof the hemlocks. He did not leave
us to silence. There was alwaysthe wind and the banging of that shutter.
And then I heard a weak voiceabove my head, calling Eric,

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Eric. Oh, but it soundedmiles away over a wind torn sea,
Herrick, Herik. I knew Ericwas out of his head. I ran
into the house. Darkness was fallingoutside. Within was already deepest gloom.
I rushed upstairs like a wanderer ina nightmare. I knew not where or

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which door for me to find.But I paused and listened and tried,
and at last I opened the doorand walked into a chamber, where,
almost invisible in the dusk, littleJulia lay in a great bed. Julia,
I said, going softly to thebedside. Eric is away. I
am, Pierre, stay with me. A moment. I am frightened.
I dreamed I heard Eric laughing likea man gone mad. What a horrid

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dream, Julia, Where is Eric? I will find him, Yes,
find me Eric. He must notbe alone with his black thoughts. I
will find him, Julia. Butis it best to bring him back to
you? You are not strong thenight is here. Though the whole house
was trembling in the force of thewind, cheerless, dark, and full
of drafts, yet for the timebeing it was empty of evil. Never

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did those sinister spirits lurk in itscorners or lope along its shadowy walls.
While the Master was away. Onlythe memory of dread now haunted it.
For the present, all was actuallywell, though dreary and under the spell
of a foreboding. I should havebeen glad to prevail upon Julia, not
to call back Eric from wandering abroadwith his black thoughts, with his malevolent

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familiars. If only he could haveslipped them a mile or so away upon
the road, and left them bobbingand fluttering against the wind, powerless to
follow him. But that he couldnot do. They would come into the
house with him. They were strongafter sundown. Julia was weak this night.
The odds would be with them.Julia, I will find Eric,

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but let me take him away withme. I am afraid to be a
I will fetch a Nette. Shewill stay with you tonight. Giles is
downstairs too, Pierre, she said, calmly, thinking for my boy.
You cannot take Eric to your house. You know, Yes, I know,
I repeated, shuddering. If Iam to die tonight, I want

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Eric with me. You will notdie tonight, Julia. Not of your
cold. No, not of mycold, she whispered hoarsely. It was
so dark I could hardly make outher form in the bed, but I
knew she had relapsed into a stateof exhaustion. So I went downstairs to
the ford. Giles was sitting whereI had left him. He was still

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angry, but puzzled more to knowwhat Eric's last cryptic words had meant.
I requested him to stay at thehouse at least until I returned with the
net. Then I started off,but I did not go at once to
my own home. I drove amile up the highway in the other direction,
looking for Eric. The twilight haddeepened into night. If Eric had
left the road, I could nothope to see him. But until I

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turned back towards my house, Ithought my lights might pick him out ahead
of me. Even after I turned, I rather thought I had guessed wrong
on the direction he had taken,and that I should discover him on the
road the other way. But Ididn't, though my eyes were strained for
the sight of him. Where washe on this wild night? I will
say that I had never imagined himgone to the high cliffs over the river

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to make an end of himself.I apprehended nothing worse than roaming half the
night in search of him, andpassing the other half beside him, still
tramping, perhaps, but perhaps beforea fire at the Carraway club, that
could be arranged. As I drewnear my home, having missed him so
far on the way, I puton all speed. There was a chance

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that he had set out for myhouse. I meant that he should not
enter it. He wasn't there.The children were in the kitchen with a
net, having their supper. Ikissed them good night there and called Annette
into the living room. A firewas blazing on the hearth, and the
room was warm and cheerful. Itwas hard to tell my wife we must
leave it. But I can't leavethe children alone to night, she cried,

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I can't do it. You know. The telephone is out of order
too. Yet I persuaded her tocome with me. She saw that I
dreaded what was ahead of me.That night. We hoped. I don't
know what we hoped, but Ihad a premonition that the matter was going
to be settled one way or theother. It might be settled early,
it might be settled late. Iremember one poignant detail of our departure.

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That was the sound of the boltsshot too behind us. It seemed like
a defiance to Eric. Why Annetteput the children to bed herself in our
room. She made Felicia promise tosleep on a couch in the same room
and to lock the room door.She insisted upon Felicia's closing the front door
behind us, almost before we hadcrossed the threshold, and she would not

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leave the porch until she had heardthe click of the bolt shot home,
and sighed against Eric, who waswandering half crazed with some terrible secret grief
through a cold, wild and friendlessnight. I see a Nette now making
her way down the granelithic walk inthe light of the forward lamps, holding
her hat on her head against thewind, her wide mouthed knitting bag inflated

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and pulling at her arm, herskirts slashing like the canvas flap of a
tent. She went first, andI followed her. So we had often
gone to the theater, and nowthe curtain was about to rise on the
last act of the strangest drama andthe most terrible I have ever witnessed.
End of Chapter nine