Chapter VII

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Episode Transcript

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Chapter seven of Sinister House by LelandHall. This Clebrivox recording is in the
public domain, read by Ben Tucker, Chapter seven thoroughly ashamed too. That's
the word. Books which teach etiquetteof the drawing room had better put in

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a special clause to warn students againstbehaving before their hosts, as if they
were seeing the hideous family specter passalong the wall of the dwellings in which
they are being entertained. My behaviorcould hardly have been courteous, and a
look I caught in Giles's eye onceor twice made me fairly cringed with shame.
I dared not look at Julia.Not once during supper did I catch

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her eye. As for Eric,he was quiet, but no more so
than usual. Yet I think hissmiles were only a subdued reflection of Julia's
excessive merriment. Giles was, ofcourse the life of the table, life
with a good deal of stinging snapin it. If only I could have
consoled myself with conviction that there wasan undercurrent of something mysterious. But I

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assure you there was not the slightestsign of such a thing. Annette thought
I wasn't very well, that's allmy sudden understandings and my horrid vision.
I might as well have had astomach ache just the same, deep down
in my heart or stomach, ifyou will, I knew I had not
been dreaming, and also that Ihad suffered from no ordinary ill turn.

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My weird experience was I knew overlaidwith my usual habits of thought and expression,
I had been the first to denythem too. Yet that experience had
startled into shivering sensitiveness, an unfamiliarnerve within me, one of which I
had not learned control, thanks tomy own rational way of living and to
the conduct of those about me attable. The thrill of it was subsiding,

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but it had been laid bare,It had been awakened. It was
tuned to respond to the slightest vibrations, and it was not to leave me
long and quiet. On the wallof the dining room opposite me there hung
a long, rich curtain. Ithink I knew there was a door behind
it, though how I knew Icannot say at any rate. I am
not by nature inquisitive, and Ihave never wondered into what passage, closet

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or room it gave access I foundduring supper that if I looked at that
curtain, the new nerve trembled withinme. This was inexplicable. There was
little enough design on the cloth,no shape I could recognize, faded,
heavy gold embroidery that stood out onlyfaintly from the deep blue velvet. Yet
I found I could not look atthat curtain for long without beginning to shiver

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inside. Mind you, I wascrushed enough. I controlled myself. I
did not tell anybody what I felt. Heaven forbid, I didn't even let
anyone catch me looking at it.But once or twice I caught Eric looking
very sharply at it, and veryintently, as if he were trying to
place a noise that came from behindit. That made me feel queer too.

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Now, when we rose from thetable, Eric went straight to that
curtain. I began to shudder aswith an a dew. Bobby began to
whimper, though he had been wellbehaved throughout the meal. Eric drew the
curtain a little to one side.I saw the door knob, and I
saw Eric put his hand on itand turn it. He bent his head
to the panel of the door,as if listening. He pushed the door

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gently, but it did not open. Suddenly, like a flash, Julia
rushed up to him, put hersmall hand over his on the knob,
and, laughing but quite pale,said, now, my dear, remember
what you promised me about that room. She couldn't have moved his hand from
the knob, however, Was itbecause of that? She began backing slowly
from him? Was it because ofthat her face took on the haggard look

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I had seen on it before.For my own part, I began to
feel cold again, and in spiteof all my efforts to control myself,
I shivered so that my teeth chattered. I could have jumped at Eric and
thrown him from that door. Atthat moment, Giles caught sight of Eric.
Where does that door lead to greer, he called out, going over
to stand beside him. I haveoften been curious about it. Julius stamped

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her foot and gave a shrill laugh. I will not have you men fooling
round that horrid place, she said, And then she told us that the
shape of the room was so uglythat she could not bear it. That
from the first she had made upher mind never to have it opened.
That she had thrown a lot oftheir useless and broken down furniture into it
and locked it up. It hasn'tbeen cleaned for ages, she said to

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Giles, and you would hate itas much as I do. Then to
Eric, why do you think ofopening that place to night? Dear?
Let us all go into the otherroom and have our coffee. Well,
said Eric, I thought I heardsomething in there. It was a great
relief to me to see him takehis hand from the knob. Yet,
in spite of my own sensations,I couldn't help wondering why he should grant

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Julia's request with such reluctance, Forhe was reluctant. He let go the
knob very slowly, and even afterhe had done so, he still held
the curtain from the door and stoodlooking very hard at the panels. Why,
said Julia, it's probably a squirrel. He won't do any harm in
there. Let him run around abit. Come away now into the front

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room, all of you. Shewas actually trying to coax him. Never
before had I seen him arry aninstant to grant the least of her requests.
He turned to Giles and said tohim with a laugh, that had
a note of grimness in it.Well, I can't get into it anyhow,
so we might as well go on. Then it came out, Julia,
snatching the story from her husband's lipsand laughing over it, that she

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had not found a bolt on thisside of the door safeguard enough against some
one's opening it, perhaps quite innocently, and she had sent to New York
for a locksmith to come and seta Yale lock on it, and she
promptly mislaid the key. Eric concludedall this was in itself innocent enough,
but that new nerve of mine wouldn'tcease shivering until they had all stepped away
from the door. And then Ialmost jumped a foot into the air when

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Giles roared out the name of Bluebeard. There's another fearful story for you.
Of course, we had told itto Bobby many times. He was familiar
with all the details of it.I think to my stars that a net
had already made off with him downthe corridor towards the living room. Julia
darted ahead of us men and joinedmy wife. We followed them down the
narrow rosy way. Eric was halfsmiling again, but there wasn't much lightness

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face. I remember he told Gilesas we went along that the only irrational
thing he had ever discovered in Juliawas her attitude towards that room. Against
it, she had taken a suddenand inflexible aversion for which he could conceive
of no reason. It wasn't ahideous room, and it gave on the
river too, But she had evenexacted from him a promise never to open

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the door of it while she wasin the house. When we were all
in the living room, Giles beganto tease Julia a little bit about such
things as forbidden rooms. Julia wasvery smart and quick with him, and
Giles was splendid at raillery. Whilethey were at it, I slipped out
quietly into the hall, took abig candle, and went out to put
a patch into the blown out shoeof my ford. I made no noise,

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for I did not want wish tointerrupt the others. The front door
closed behind me without a sound,and I was greatly relieved to be alone.
Even in the dark night. Iwas glad there was the patchwork to
be done. There's nothing like afamiliar, unpleasant job to keep the mind
from brooding. The little light fromthe candle I carried went with me through
the black archway of hemlocks like awarm, though feeble friend. I laughed

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to hear myself talk to it.When I set it down on the running
board of the car. I didmy work carefully and well. I put
my mind wholly on it. Iknew just what I was up against,
and that was a comfort. YetI couldn't have been myself, because when
just as I was making ready topump up the mended tire, I thought
I heard the sound of footsteps comingup from under the hemlocks, the cold

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sweat broke out all over me.I listened and strained my eyes. For
a hundred dollars, I could nothave picked up the candle and walked to
the place where I fancied the soundhad come. I just stood still,
thoroughly scared. In a moment ortwo, I heard the same sound again.
It's a wonder to me. Ididn't turn and run. Something white
was moving up towards me from thedriveway. The sight of it took all

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power of motion from my legs.It took the strength from under my stomach,
and that organ felt as if ithad dropped a foot inside me.
When the thing came nearer and Irecognized Julia, I could not speak for
the huskiness in my throat. ThereI stood beside the ford in my shirt
sleeves, the pump dangling from onehand, and there she stood beside me

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in her white evening dress. Andthe only light in all the world to
shine on us, too, wasfrom the candle on the running board.
Pierre, she said, without waitingfor me to speak, do you think
I'm crazy? I tried to callher name, but a queer noise came
out of my restricted throat. Doyou think I'm crazy? She repeated,

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What a question? I said?At last, we were both hardly more
than whispering. Never mind, doyou answer me? For Heaven's sake,
of course not, Julia, deargood, she said. Then she came
very close to me and whispered,neither do I think you are? I

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know you saw something in my houseto night. She took my sleeve and
looked up at me, but herface was not more than a deep shadow.
I was afraid her skirt would catchfire. It was very near the
candle flame. I bent down andmoved the candle, and our shadows vague
and enormous on the mass of foliagebehind us made a gigantic swing. Tell

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me, she went on, stillwhispering. How many did you see?
One? I answered, feeling Idon't know why. Shamefaced, I thought,
so the woman yes. I beganto be calmed by her matter of
factness. While I could not butfeel she was highly wrought. Her voice,

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her manner, and her quiet actionsassured me that she faced whatever the
situation was without dismay. It wasa business to make the heart sick,
but in the certainty that it existed, I found something soothing. After a
moment or two of silence, Iasked, is there more than one?
Two? She answered, an oldman. Besides, he isn't so so

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vile, but he makes it allthe harder for me. She comes first,
he comes later. She shan't doit alone. Ever, Do what
Julia alone? I asked, thewords catching in my throat and almost strangling
me. Kill me, Julia repliedquietly. I thought she might be going
to faint. Her voice was solow that I had better have worried about

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myself. It was I who wasnearest quaking. My blood was like ice
water in my veins, I longedto run with her back to the warm
house, haunted, though I believedit to be to sit near warm fire,
to escape from our cold, lonelinessand our soundless, grotesque, vast
black shadows. But when she nextspoke, her words stiffened me with the

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thought that ever again, to escapefrom this horror must be at the price
of quitting her. They have nearlydone for me. She said, you
have come in the nick of time, for God's sake. Then I cried
out, leave this dreadful house.It is not the house Pierre. I
don't know what I was thinking of. I had perhaps no connected thoughts and

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no suspicion. I just spoke.I just said Eric, Eric. Julia
repeated after me, and I feltas if my mind had been split from
my body. So instantly did amillion terrible and vague thoughts spring up and
multiply in it. Julia was shiveringagainst me, and I said, you

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are cold. Then I put mycoat round her. For ten minutes she
talked to me, not rapidly andconsecutively, but in sentences, or even
fragments of sentences, some of whichwere like sparks to the tender of my
imagination. While others left me stillin the dark. Julia was proud and
high spirited. It was not easyfor her to ask help of me in

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her more than distressful situation. Ithink, however, she wanted me to
understand. She needed, let ussay, my comradeship and what might lie
ahead of her As to her ownconduct up to the present that I could
see had been governed by her entireand unquestioning love of Eric, which was
also the source of that strength ofhers more valiant and enduring than I or

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anyone else can appreciate. For instance, she and her husband had not been
settled in the house a week beforeshe acknowledged to herself that there was an
influence in the place, not naturaland not good, which was trying to
alienate her from her husband's companionship.It was insidious, but it was real.
She had had even a vague suspicionthat the evil something emanated from Eric,

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but this was so intolerable that bysheer force of will, she banished
it utterly from her mind. Shefaced the possibility that the house was haunted.
This was, she thought at thetime, a grotesque and an unsubstantiated
fear. She fancied, she feltthings. That was all. She had
bad dreams. She was in dangerof letting her imagination run away with her.

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Up to the time that Eric firstwent away, she could not say
that she had really seen anything,just once or twice, the outline perhaps
of a woman, no body,no substance. But this had appeared in
the middle of the night while Ericslept peacefully at her side. She held
his evidence against the soundness of herown mind. The feebly, restraining touch

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of cold finger tips on her facewhen she turned towards her husband she took
as a symptom of slightly disordered circulation. Never then had she thought of telling
Eric she should have been ashamed forone thing after urging him to take that
particular house. Then too, therewas it was, something was vile.

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She should have suffered almost anything,rather than let Eric even hear of it.
I knew, we all knew thatEric was to be protected, and
I used to think that he wasprotecting her. When Eric went away the
first time, she meant to stayalone in that house and defeat whatever haunted
it. She had already begun tosuspect that the secret ghost of evil had

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decoyed her into it in the firstplace. Decoyed was Annett's word. I
remembered. She was not then afraid. But the ghost had left her alone.
During the time of his absence.She had not once felt the pressure
of the evil thing. Only whenEric came back. The thought of this
unnerved her somewhat. She apprehended thatwhat she said might make me think evil

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of Eric, whereas there was nothingevil in Eric. He was entirely without
blame. He was entirely innocent.One of the most terrible things she had
had to bear was his misunderstanding ofher behavior. She had had to protect
herself against violent onslaught. The thething that had been most vicious when she
tried to approach her husband had beenviolent to when her husband approached her.

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She had to acknowledge she had becomeafraid that the nearness of her husband was
becoming more and more dreadful to her. She had fought thought with all her
strength to keep beside him, topreserve their intimacy. She couldn't explain to
Eric. It was all unbelievable.She could substantiate nothing. Eric saw nothing.
The greater the effort she made todraw near him. On the other

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hand, the more that malevolent thingbecame incandescent, she was terrified by the
visible appearance she was losing her strength. Eric was in an anguish of mind.
He said little, but she knewthat he could explain her conduct only
one way. He thought that shewas losing her love for him, that
he was unpleasant to her, Andshe could do nothing but protest in words,

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her will to act, Her insatiabledesire to act aborted through fear.
She simply was powerless to explain toEric. There was something so loathsome,
the malice of that fiend, thatshe could not speak of it to Eric,
whose ultra sensitive nature would have beensickened and revolted beyond endurance. Once
she had tried, I knew thename. She had heard it too.

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Yes, once she had mentioned itto Eric, the effect upon him was
indescribable. She would not speak ofit to him again. No, she
would not leave the house. Itwas plain to her that the house was
not infected. The source of theevil was in She couldn't utter that,
but I guessed what she had inmind. Undoubtedly the evil was, for

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some unknown and unimaginable reason, strongestin that house. But what a veil
to go elsewhere with Eric, thesecret ghost would follow him. Did I
not remember Annette had said that Erichad brought nightmares to my son. There
would be nightmares everywhere for Julia.If the horror were to be utterly routed,
then it must be overcome in itsstrongth what she cried out in torment.

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Has this specter to do with Eric? And what has Eric to do
with this house? She made amovement of despair with her arms, grotesquely
and furtively, imitated by the hugeblack shadows on the foliage of the hemlocks.
I believe, Julia, I replied, trying to speak calmly, that
Eric is the final object of itsmalevolence, that Eric is the marked victim.

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I believe that it is pursuing theonly course that can end in mortal
torture to him. I know it, she said, with a sob me
principally, But everyone who loves him. He has so few friends, only
you. She took me by thearm and leaned close to whisper in my
ear. Children, they all usedto love Eric. I am insane with

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fear for them. You must notbring Bobby to the house again, I
shuddered in a moment's revulsion of feeling, I swore to myself I would see
Eric dead on the gran elithic walkto my house rather than let him cross
the threshold again. What terrible knowledgeand experience had not these few weeks brought
to Julia and to me, Greatheavens, There was the hellish mockery of
our furtive black shadows, a devilishsoundless, lightless burlesque of our gestures before

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the candle. But what a realityin our fear and despair. The feeble
restraining drawing of clammy fingers over Julia'scheek had become the clutch of cold ghost
hands at her throat. They hadbeen at my boy, those hands,
and the suspicion of the source ofthat evil, once banished, intolerable to
the mind, had become Eric mustspeak, I called out. Julia laid

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her hand over my mouth that blasphemedthe man who, in spite of all
she had undergone, remained to herdearest of all things upon the earth.
Don't, she whispered? Oh,don't perhaps something in his life? You
don't know him as I know him, too terrible, for I cannot dig
him open like a grave. Wecannot rifle him. Say nothing, Say

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nothing to Eric, and due timehe is great souled, and due time
his time. There was an endto our talk. We started back to
the house, but I had thetire still to pump. I begged her
to go on without me, forthe wind was cold and she was most
denly clad, but she insisted uponstanding by while I pumped. The exercise

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brought up my spirits a little.I asked her to try a hand,
not wholly jokingly, but knowing theexercise would warm her as it had warmed
me. Yet she hardly heard me. She did not speak again until we
went together up the steps to thefront door, and then it was to
implore me to respect Eric's dumb grief. We entered the rose colored hallway.

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Before we reached the door to theliving room, Eric had come out to
meet us. He looked anxiously atJulia, my dearest girl. He said,
reproachfully out of doors this cold nightwithout a rap. Never mind,
Eric, dear, I have beenhelping Pierre mind the tire. She went
gaily into the living room, andI, rubbing my hands Eric's touch affectionately

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upon my shoulder, followed her.It was late, and when Annette saw
me come in, she immediately stoodup and prepared to go home. Julia
would have had us all stay.She wanted company. Giles, too,
feeling I dare say that he hadbeen cheated of Julia's society, was all
four settling down into another hour's talk. But Annette was right, She's always
right. We had to go onfor Bobby's sake, for nothing else.

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All right, dear, I calledout cheerfully, and for a second I
could not believe that the cheerful voiceand the homely words were my own.
I had been out in another world. So we left Julia alone with her
husband. What else we left withher? Only I could imagine. And
I carried into our living room thatnight for the first time, a worry
that as I took my easy chairgrew heavier, not lighter. Annette betook

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herself at once upstairs with Bobby.Giles began walking up and down, his
chin in his hand automatically. Ifilled my pipe, and I didn't know
whether I was an idiot, agood fellow, or a conspirator. I'd
left behind me more than a vividpicture. I'd left a shocking reality.
I'd left a delicate, charming woman, defenseless against powers, bent on doing

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her mischief, perhaps the one irremediablemischief. That very night. You will
understand that I was unpleasantly nervous,well, just as if nothing had happened.
Annette came down, lit the fireon the hearth for us, and
brought in some beer from the kitchen. Then she sat down and said,
quite calmly, I will never takemy boy into that dreadful house again.

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Huh, Giles grunted scornfully. Areyou crazy too? No, I said
emphatically, she isn't. She's perfectlyright. But Giles went on, as
if I had said nothing, thatboy of yours should be spanked for behaving
as he did, A good whippingnow and then would take such nonsense out
of him. So that was allit meant to Giles, a fit of

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unruly temper and a spoiled child.I started to give him a call down,
Giles, you think your darn smart? That word tripped me up.
Well, go on, what haveyou got to say? Nothing out with
it? Annette looked at me anxiously. Once or twice already she had laid
her hand on my forehead to findif I had a fever. She could

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see that I wasn't myself. Shetried to change the drift of our talk.
I don't think she said that Robertis the only one who was rude
there tonight. It was hardly courteousof Julie to run off and leave me
alone as she did. And afterher urging me to stay too, don't,
Annette, I cried, for Heaven'ssake, don't. I got up
and paced the room a couple oftimes, and I guess Annette didn't know

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what to make of me. Finally, sitting down again, I said to
Giles as calmly and impressively as Icould, that house is haunted. He
merely laughed loudly and called me apoor simpleton. And I added the ghosts
that haunted are trying to murder JuliaGreer. That at last impressed him,

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but not as I had thought itwould do. His face became hard,
and fixing me with his eyes,he said, in a cynical tone,
the one word ghosts. He puta world of meaning into his tone.
It was not ghosts in that housethat were hurting Julia. The fear that
I might have betrayed Eric made melight headed. I loved that man and

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pitied him. Ghosts, I affirmed, who are they? To night,
I said, I heard the nameSnart. At that, Annette leaned forward
and whispered, not really, so, cried Giles in a flash. You've
heard that unsavory name before a mannamed Morgan Snart built the house, Annett

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explained, with a troubled look atme. Good, said Charles. I've
tried to find out from Greer whobuilt that house. He is not the
man to ask Morgan's Snart. Imustn't forget that he took a little book
from his pocket and wrote the namedown in it, talking to me sarcastically
all the time. And of coursehe was insane, This Morgan Snart a
murderer, a suicide or something.It's only such unfortunates that come back to

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earth, isn't it, Pierre?Nothing else would do? He scribbled away.
I don't know anything about him,I grumbled, except that he's dead,
Yes, of course dead to That'sthe perfect idea of a ghost,
isn't it, Pierre? And then, closing the little book with a slap,
he said cuttingly, I tell youmy idea of a ghost is something

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quite different. Dead men rise up, never read even your poets. Ghosts
breed in the living. That's wherewe'll catch them. He stood up and
started for the little room under thestair, looking at his watch. What
are you going to do, Giles, I asked, it's only eleven.
I'm going to telephone to a friendof mine in New York, a lawyer.

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I don't suppose your ghosts ever walkmuch before midnight, do they.
Maybe we'll lay this one before thewitching hour strikes. I sprang up.
For the love of Mike, Giles, I cried, stop this damn mockery.
You think I'm nuts, all right, But I tell you there's a
woman in that rotten old house thatI have entire confidence in. Julia,

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he said coolly. She is arational and an invincible woman. You are
sure of that, are you,I asked, equally, calm perfectly.
Well, then Julia may have somethingto say that will change your opinions.
I shall have something to say,he answered, scornfully that will change yours.

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End of Chapter seven