Strange Talk S5E01 Ep. 136 Dead Air_ Halloween 2025 Special

On the eve of Halloween, the airwaves open once again…

Alyx, Vayne, and Ginelle, your new Strange Talk HQ crew, gather for a chilling night of classic terror: reading The Sleeper by Edgar Allan Poe, Death and the Woman by Gertrude Atherton, The Stranger by Ambrose Bierce, and more. As their voices echo through the static and technical difficulties abound, something else begins to break through the transmission...a voice that shouldn’t be there.
By the final story, the signal isn’t ours anymore.
It belongs to the Listener.
Tune in for Strange Talk’s Halloween special: Dead Air, airing October 30th.
A celebration of the macabre, the mysterious, and the things whispering just beyond the dial.

Music for this episode includes the Strange Talk Intro by Star Silk and backing tracks by Panda Beats.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Space in.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Good evening and welcome to the hour dedicated to talk
about things strange, weird, and paranormal. You're listening to Strange Talk,
broadcasting on sixteen sixty AM and north Side at ninety
one point seven FMHG two w VX you in Cincinnati.
We're also streaming at Radio effect dot com around the
entire planet Earth. The intro track to this episode in
most of our episodes, is the Strange Talk intro by
Star Soap. I'm your host, Alex and I have got

(01:48):
some new I was gonna say faces, but some new
voices for you today. If you too would like to
introduce yourselves.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
I'll go first. So I'm Janelle. I have a spot
soft spot for the odd, the cryptic, and things that
linger on the edge of reason. So my backgrounds in
our history and I love symbolism, So exploring how folklore
and myth shaped cultures around us is a very you know, uh,
it gets into my soul a little bit. So I'm

(02:20):
very excited to be here.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
So thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, and Vain, if you'd like to introduce yourself, I
love Yeah, I'm Vain.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Hi.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
I'm a longtime horror fan. I've been watching reading, playing
horror based thing since I was old enough to walk
pretty much. They sat me in front of a TV,
had me watch a Rassic Park, and I've never been
the same since.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
They just left you there. Some say you're still in
front of that TV actually watching Jurassic Park.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
I actually am.

Speaker 5 (02:52):
I am in front of that TV right now.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
There's a t Rex right.

Speaker 2 (02:56):
You know what, I've just realized about this lineup. All
of us, at one time or another have lived at
Twin Pines, and that just occurred to me. Oh really, Yeah,
Vane used to live below me and Janelle used to
live upstairs, Yeah, next to you. Yeah. I was about
to stay with me, and then I was like, that's
not accurate. Basically exactly. Yeah, Van and I had a

(03:21):
house swarmming party there, and that's when I accidentally locked
myself out of the apartment building.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Oh my god, I remember I locked myself on the balcony. Yes,
so I think you have to go through at least
one being locked outside experience to officially be a part
of the Twin Pines crew.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Correct. Yeah, oh but this is exciting. I'm super glad.
Sorry about the extended summer hiatus. I was like we're
gonna have like summer hiatus, and I was like, we'll
come back after Mothman Festival, and I've mentioned this on
like our YouTube page and stuff. But we ended up
being in a car accident on the way back from

(03:57):
Mathma Festival. So that's kind of why the delay. But
what better time to come back than the day before Halloween.

Speaker 5 (04:05):
Oh yeah, that's right, spooky time.

Speaker 6 (04:09):
Spooky time.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
So in honor of that, we have we've gotten together
some spooky public domain stories for you all. Public domain
is necessary to say, I guess, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Don't come after us.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Before we get into our stories, though, what are what
are you all going as for Halloween tomorrow?

Speaker 3 (04:32):
If anything, I don't yeah, I'll still say so I work.
I'm in office this week, so I mean, yeah, the
thing my work does let us stress up, but I
do have to be of course at workplace appropriate. So
we there was some playing around with us potentially doing

(04:54):
the wiggles, but then I also was like, we could
end up just looking like Star Trek. We'll see what
happens in the worst case scenario. I have like a
fun little Halloween sweater I'll probably like wear, you know. Yeah,
So play it up that way.

Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yeah, in Vain, going as a Florence and the Machine fan,
because the Florence and the Machine watch party is happening
on the pretty first I.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Was about to say Florence or the Machine.

Speaker 5 (05:23):
You know, Florence and Florence and the Machine. Yeah, I'll
be I'll be dressing up in my little Florence attire
to go buy her new final and hopefully get some
goodies given them away at some record stores.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Oh that's fun, It's gonna be awesome. I you all
saw it earlier when I joined the call, because I'm
preparing my Pierrot hat because it it's a little uh
messed up. It needs to be like a what's the word.
I'm looking more steamed, so I'm trying to get that
back into shape. But I hilariously, I have I've had

(05:59):
this whole outfit, but got a hat for it. I
hilariously got a children's hat and just kind of hoped
it would fit my head. And lucky me, it does
perks of having a small head. I could buy children's hats.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
It is fine.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
It is very fun.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
So yeah, awesome, Well, I guess uh we can go
ahead and get into our stories. I figured I would
start us off with an Edgar Allan Poe poem, The Sleeper.
Ooh ooh. I know you all can't hear the background track,
but there was a little growl right there, and it was, Oh,

(06:35):
it was good, well timed, all right. So The Sleeper
by Edgar Allan Poe. At midnight in the month of June,
I stand beneath the mystic moon. An opiate vapor, dewy
dim exit exhales from out her golden rim, and softly, dripping,
drop by drop, upon the quiet mountaintop, steals drowsily and

(06:57):
musically into the valley. The oh, sorry, into the universal valley.
It's been a while since we recorded. The Rosemary nods
upon the grave. The lily lalls upon the wave, wrapping
the fog about its breast. The ruin molders into rest,
looking like leth see the lake. A conscious slumber seems

(07:20):
to take and would not for the world awake. All
beauty sleeps and lo where lies Irene with her destinies? Oh,
lady bright, can it be right? This window opened to
the night. The wanton airs from the tree top laughingly
through the lattice drop. The botiless airs a wizard rout

(07:42):
flit through thy chamber, in and out, and wave the
curtained canopy so fitfully, so fearfully, above the closet infringed lid,
neath which thy slumbering soul lies hid, that o'er the
floor and down the wall, like ghosts and shadows rise
and fall. Oh lady, dear, hast thou no fear? Why

(08:05):
and what art thou dreaming here? Sure thou art come
o'er far off seas a wonder too, these garden trees.
Strange is thy pallor strange, thy dress strange above all
thy length of tress, and this all solemn silentness. The
lady sleeps. O may her sleep, which is enduring, so

(08:27):
be deep. Heaven have her in its sacred keep this chamber,
change for one more holy, this bed, for one more melancholy.
I pray to God that she may lie forever with
unopened eye, while the pale sheeted ghosts go by My
love she sleeps. O may her sleep, as it is lasting,

(08:49):
so be deep soft. May the worms about her creep
far in the forest, dim and old. For for her,
may some tall vault unfold, some vault that oft hath
flung its black and winged panels, fluttering back triumphant o'er
the crested palls of her grand family funerals, some uh,

(09:12):
some sepulcher, remote alone, against whose portals she hath thrown
in childhood, many an idle stone, some tomb from out
whose sounding door she saw she now shall force and
echo more thrilling to think, poor child of sin, it
was the dead who groaned within. That's the end of it.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
Very nice, very ul uh.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
You we were before we were recording, we were talking about, Wow,
that's got a lot of ores in it. And it
sure does. It's got a lot of ores in it.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, I felt like you were the best person to
handle that.

Speaker 2 (09:55):
I was just like, well, we might as well get
started with like a creepy, creepy poem, you know. Yeah,
did you all hear that? Or was that in my headphones?
You know, I'm not sure that was odd? Yeah, did
you have some static? I wonder if the soundbird's messing up? Yeah, whatever,

(10:20):
Maybe maybe it's an Edgar Allen Poe trying to talk
to us or something.

Speaker 7 (10:24):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
We did also before we started recording, we were like
sitting in chat here and I heard a loud thunk,
and I was like, what was that? And I looked
out and a bird hit my window. So that's also creepy.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
All the spooks are happening.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
All the spooks are happening.

Speaker 5 (10:42):
I mean, I was gonna make I was gonna make
a joke, but I was worried that I want to
be public.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
I mean the bird it is all.

Speaker 5 (10:55):
Public saying evermore.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Oh gosh, oh boy, well vain. Anyways, you are next.
If you want to tell, tell your tale. We're each
gonna tell two tales.

Speaker 5 (11:12):
Yes, this one's significantly longer, but there's way less ores
as and there's hopefully no owers.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
We'll find out.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
Yeah, this is This is Death and the Woman by
Gertrude Averton.

Speaker 4 (11:26):
Oh goodness.

Speaker 5 (11:30):
Her husband was dying and she was alone with him.
Nothing could exceed the desolation of her surroundings. She and
the man who was going from her were in the
third floor back of a New York boarding house. It
was summer, and the other borders were in the country.
All the servants except the cook had been dismissed, and she,
when not working, slept profoundly on the fifth floor. The

(11:52):
landlady was also out of town on a brief holiday.
The window was open to admit the thick, unstirring air.
No sound rose from the row of long, narrow yards,
nor from the tall, deep houses and x the latter
dead ened the rattle of the streets. At intervals, the distant,
elevated lumbered protestingly along, its grunts and screams, muffled by

(12:15):
the hot, suspended ocean. She sat there, plunged in the
profoundest grief that can come to the human soul. For
in all other agony, hope flickers. However, forlornly she gazed
dully at the unconscious, breathing form of the man who
had been friend and companion and lover during five years
of youth. Too vigorous and hopeful to be warped by

(12:36):
an even fortune, it was wasted by disease. The face
was shrunken, the night garment hung loosely about a body
which had never been disfigured by flesh, but had been
muscular with exercise and full.

Speaker 4 (12:48):
Blooded with health.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
She was glad that the body was changed, glad that
its beauty, too, had gone some otherware than into the coffin.
She had loved his hands as apart from himself, their
strong war magnetism. They laid them yellow on the quilt.
She knew that they were already cold, and that moisture
was gathering on them. For a moment, something convulsed within her.

(13:11):
They had gone too. She repeated the words twice and
after them forever and while this.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Week, Oh, Vane, are you still there?

Speaker 7 (13:27):
Uhuh?

Speaker 8 (13:28):
Still there?

Speaker 4 (13:30):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Yes? I can hear you. Your audio quality has suddenly
changed though. Oh no, we have like something in the
machine or something.

Speaker 7 (13:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, what was the last thing that you heard from me? Uh,
let me pull the story up to tell you. I'm
so sorry. Oh it's okay. You were just like going
and I was in it, and then suddenly it was
no more. Yeah, and I was.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
Like hello, he said like you said something on lines
of like they were both gone or both?

Speaker 5 (14:10):
Oh no, okay, I was was I did you hear
me say? For a moment, something buls within her.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Yes, I can't remember we heard that. Yes, And then
we're going.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
Oh no, my data is all good, I promised.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
No, you're fine, and you sound normal again now, So
I don't know what that was.

Speaker 9 (14:35):
African yes coming from from somewhere else, Orgar Allan Poe
either or you're distant again?

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah? Okay, what does Steve track belong?

Speaker 2 (14:51):
So she repeated the words twice and after them forever.

Speaker 5 (14:55):
And while the sweetness of their pressure came back to her,
she leans suddenly over him. He was in there, still
somewhere where if he had not ceased to breathe, the ego,
the soul, the personality was still in the sodden clay,
which had shape to give it speech. Why could it
not manifest itself to her? Was it still conscious in there?

(15:17):
Unable to project itself for the disintegrating matter which only
which was the only medium it's creator had. And this
is the word that I told you guys, I was
going to have problems with bosh safedo.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Safe, vouchsafe, vouch safe.

Speaker 5 (15:33):
I've just ruined the story. Everybody making vouchsafe? Yeah? Did
it struggle there? Seeing her agony, sharing it, longing for
the complete disintegration which could which should put an end
to its torment. If he called his name, she even
shook him, slightly, mad to tear the body apart and
find her mate. Yet, even in that tortured moment, realizing

(15:54):
that violence and hates hasten his going. Oh my goodness,
see I got out.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
It was it was technical difficulties.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Now and now I'm almost up.

Speaker 7 (16:05):
No, you're good.

Speaker 5 (16:06):
The dying with no notice of her, and she opened
his gown and put her cheek to his heart, calling
him again, there had never been more perfect union. There
isn't a word missing there by the way it literally
says there had never been more perfect union. Now Colman
still be strong if he were not at the other
end of it. He was there her other part until dead.

(16:27):
He must be living. There was no intermediate state. Why
should he be as entombed and unrespondings as if the
screws were in the lid. But the faintly beating heart
did not quicken. Beneath her breaths. She'd send her arms
suddenly describing eccentric lines above about him, rapidly opening and
closing her hands that to clutch some escaping object. Then

(16:48):
sprang to her feet and went to the window. She
appeared insanity. She had asked to be left alone with
her dying husband, and she did not wish to lose
her reason, and shriek.

Speaker 4 (16:57):
A crowd of people. The crowd of people about her.

Speaker 5 (17:03):
The green plots in the yards were not apparent. She
noticed something heavy, like a pall, rested upon them. Then
she understood that the day was over and that night
was coming. She returned swiftly to the bedside, wondering if
she had remained out away hours or seconds, and if
he were dead. His face was still discernible, and death
had not relaxed it. She laid her own against it,

(17:25):
then withdrew it with a shuddering flesh, her teeth smiting
each other as if an icy wind had passed. She
let herself fall back in the chair, clasping her hands
against her heart, watching with expanding eyes the white sculptured
face with and the glittering dark was becoming less defined
of outline. Did she light the gas, It would draw mosquitoes,
and she could not shut from him the little air

(17:46):
he must be mechanically grateful for, and she did not
want to see the opening eye, the falling jaw. Her
vision became so fixed that at length she saw nothing
and closed her eyes and waited for the moisture to
rise and relieve the strain. When she opened them, his
face had disappeared. The human waves above the housetops put
out even the light of the stars, and night was come. Fearfully,

(18:11):
she approached her ear to his lips. He still breathed.
She made a motion to kiss him, then threw herself
back in a quiver of agony. They were not the
lips she had known, and she would have nothing less.
His breathing was so faint that, in her half reclining position,
she could not hear it, could not be aware of
the moment of his death.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
She extended her.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
Arm resolutely and laid her hand on his heart. Not
only must she feel his going, but so strong had
been the come from radesship, from rodship between them, it
was a matter of loving honor to stand by him
to the last. She sat there in the hot, heavy night,
pressing her hand hard against the ebbing heart of the
unseen and awaited death. Suddenly, an odd fancy possessed her.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Where was death?

Speaker 5 (18:57):
Why was he tarrying? Who was detaining him? From what
corner would he come? He was taking his leisure, drawing
near with footsteps as measured as those men keeping time
to a funeral march. By a wayward deflection. She thought
of the slow music that was always turned on in
the theater when a heroine was about to appear, or
something eventful to happen. She had always thought that sort

(19:19):
of thing ridiculous in artistic, so had he. She drew
her brows together angrily, wondering at her levity, and pressed
her relaxed palm against the heart. It kept guard over
for a moment. The sweat stood on her face, and
the pent up breath burst from her lungs. He still
lived once more, The fancy went on above the stunned

(19:40):
heart death.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
Where was he?

Speaker 5 (19:42):
What a curious experience to be sitting alone in a
big house. She knew that the cook had stolen out,
waiting for death to come and snatch her husband from her.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
No, he would not snatch.

Speaker 5 (19:52):
He would steal upon his prey, as noiselessly as the
approach of sin to innocence, an invisible, unfair, sneaking enemy
with whom no man's strength could grapple. If he would
only come like a man and take his chances like
a man. Woman had been known to reach the hearts
of giants with a dagger's point. But he would creep
upon her. She gave an exclamation of horror. Something was

(20:14):
creeping over the windowsill. Her limbs palsied, but she struggled
to her feet.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
And looked back.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
Her eyes dragged about her. Against her own volition, two
small green stars glared menacingly at her, just above the sill.
Then the cat possessing them leaped downward, and the stars disappeared.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
She realized that she was horribly frightened. Is it possible?

Speaker 7 (20:36):
She fought?

Speaker 5 (20:37):
Am I afraid of death and of death that has
not yet come. I have always been a rather brave woman.
He used to call me heroic, But then with him
it was impossible to fear anything. And I begged them
to leave me alone with him as the last of
earthly boons.

Speaker 4 (20:52):
Oh shame.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
But she was still quaking as she resumed her seat
and laid her hand on his heart. She wished that
she had asked Mary to sit outside the door. There
was no bell in the room. To call would be
worse than desecrating the house of God. And she would
not leave him for one moment to return and find
him dead, gone alone. Her niece smote each other. It

(21:14):
was idle to deny it. She was in a state
of unreasoning terror. Her eyes rode apprehensively about. She wondered
if she could see it when it came, wondered how
far off it was? Now not very far. The heart
was barely pulsing. She had heard at the power of
the corpse to drive brave men to frenzy, and wondered,
having no morbid horror of the dead, but this to

(21:35):
wait and wait, and wait, perhaps for hours past the midnight,
on the small hours, while that awful determined leisurely, something
stole nearer and nearer. She bent to him, who had
been her protector, with a spasm of anger. Where was
the adominal spirit that had held her all these years?
Was a strong and loving class? How could he leave her?

(21:56):
How could he desert her? Her head fell back and
moved restlessly against the cushion, moaning with the agony of love.
She recalled him as he had been. Then fear once
more took possession of her, and she said, erect, rigid, grevelous,
awaiting the approach of death. Suddenly, far down in the
house on the first floor, her strained hearing took note

(22:17):
of a sound, a wary, muffled sound, as if someone
were creeping on the stair, fearful of being hurt. Slowly,
it seemed to count a hundred between the laying down.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Of each foot.

Speaker 5 (22:29):
She gave a hysterical gasp, where was the slow music.
Her face her body were wet, as if a wave
of death sweat had broken over them. There was a
stiff feeling at the roots of her hair. She wondered
if it was really standing erect, but she could not
raise her hand to ascertain. Possibly it was only the
coloring manner, freezing and bleaching. Her muscles were flabby, her

(22:50):
nurves twitched helplessly. She knew that it was death who
was coming to her for the silent, deserted house. Knew
that it was the sensitive ear of her intelligence that
hurt him, not the dull, poarse, grained ear of the body.
He toiled up the stair painfully, as if he were
old and tired with much work. But how could he
afford to loiter, With all the work he had to

(23:10):
do every minute, every second, He must be in demand
to cook his cold, hard finger about a soul struggling
to escape from his putrefying tournament. But probably he had
his emissaries, his minions, for only those worthy of the
honor did he come in person. He reached the first
landing and crept like a cat down the hall to

(23:31):
the next stair, then slowly up as before light. As
the footballs were, they were squarely planted, unfaltering slow. They
never halted mechanically. She pressed her jerking hand closer against
the heart. Its beats were almost done. They would finish,
she calculated, just as those footballs paused beside the bed.

(23:52):
She was no longer a human being. She was an
intelligence and an ear. Not a sound came from aout
even the elevated appearance to be temporary off duty. But
inside the big quiet house, that football was waxing louder louder,
until iron feet crashed on iron stairs and echo thundered.

(24:13):
She had counted the steps one, two, three, Irritated beyond
endurance at the long, deliberate pauses between as they climbed
and changed with slow precisions, she continued to count audibly
and with equal precision, noting their hollow reverberation. How many
steps had the stairs?

Speaker 4 (24:31):
She wished? She knew no need.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
The colossal trambling announced the lessening distance in an increasing
volume of sound, not to be misunderstood. It turned the curve,
it reached the landing, It advanced slowly down the hall.
It paused before her door. Then the knuckles of iron
shook the frail panels. Her nerveless tongue gave no invitation.

(24:54):
The knocking became more imperious. The very walls vibrated. The
handle tips her swiftly and firmly. With a wild, instinctive movement,
she flung herself into the arms of her husband. When
Mary opened the door and entered the room, she found
a dead woman lying across a dead man.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
And that's it.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
So that is crazy.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
Before we even got to the stairs in that story,
Like I've got my video on, so you might have
seen this that I was like turning and looking around
because it sounded like something was coming up my stairs.
So that creeped me out there. What it was? Gertrard Atherton,
We're being haunted by these authors today.

Speaker 6 (25:39):
I remember this frequency sequency. You have left the mic.

Speaker 10 (25:48):
I got.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Okay, you all heard that one, right, I mean, yeah,
is there some weird are you go glitch hatting? I
don't know, well, like like that right after like I'm
hearing weird noises on my stairs is really creepy.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
Yeah, that is odd, especially like the story too. Ugh, well,
I'm gonna lat my camera on. If you all see
something behind me, please tell me, because I don't like that.
I don't think that would be the soundboard, because like
there's nothing like that on the soundboard. It's all just
like backing tracks on the intro. Yeah, that is really weird.

Speaker 7 (26:28):
That's weird.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
Yeah, well, Janelle, I guess let's do your story and
hope that author is not haunting us.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
It'd be really weird because my story is by anonymous.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
But maybe maybe anonymous is who is after.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Maybe Anonymous is with us. I don't know. Yeah, so
my story is how he caught the ghost by an
unknown author. It's from an anthology. So yeah, I'll just
jump right on end.

Speaker 11 (27:02):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yes, the house is a good one, said the agent.
It's in a good neighborhood and you're getting it almost nothing.
But I think it right to tell you all about it.
You are orphans, you say, and with a mother dependent
on you, that makes it all the more necessary that
you should know the fact is the house is haunted.

(27:23):
The agent could not help smiling as he said it,
and he was relieved to see answering smiles on the
two faces before him. Ah, you don't believe in ghost,
he went on, nor do I, for that matter, But
somehow the reputation of the house keeps me from having
a tenant long at a time. The place ought to
rent for twice as much as it does. If we

(27:45):
succeed in driving out the ghost, will you not raise
the rent, asked the boy, with a merry twinkle in
his eyes. Well no, not this year, at any rate,
laughed the agent, And so the house was rented, and
the slip of a girl and the tall lad of
her brother went on their way. Within a week the
family had moved into the house and were delighted with it.

(28:09):
It was large and cool, with wide halls and fine stairways,
and with more room than they needed. But that did
not matter in the least, for they had always been
cramped in small houses, suffering many discomforts, and they never
could have afforded such a place as this if it
had not been haunted. Blessings on the ghost, cried Margaret gaily,

(28:33):
as she ran about, as merry as a child would.
We would be without a ghost in the house when
it brings one like this. And so it is, and
it is so near your school, said the mother, and
I used to worry so over the long walk, and
David can come home to lunch now, and you don't

(28:54):
know what a pleasure that will be, it seems to me.
David gravely expressed that if I should meet the ghost,
I would treat him with the greatest politeness and encourage
him to stay. We shall not miss the room he takes,
shall we. I think it would be well to set
aside that room over ours, Maggie, as his ghost ship owns,

(29:18):
for we shall not need that, you know. Besides, the
door doesn't shut, and he can go in and out
without breaking the lock. And then they all last and
had a great deal of fun over the ghost, which
was a great joke to them.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Classic mistake.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Yeah uh. They were very tired that night and slept
soundly all night long. When they met the next morning,
there was more laughter about the ghosts, which was shy
about meeting strangers, probably and had made no effort to
introduce himself. For the next three days they were all
hard at work trying to bring chaos into something like order.

(29:58):
And then it was time the school to open and
Margaret was to begin teaching, and David inserted an advertisement
in the city papers for a maid of all work
who might help their mother in their absence. One was
secured after a while, But no sooner has she talked
across the fence with a neighbor's servant than she two departed.

(30:23):
Never mind, children, said Missus Craig wearily. I would much
rather do the work than be troubled in this way.
So the maid of all the work was dismissed, and
the Craig family locked the doors and went to their rooms.
Weren't out with the day's anxieties. They had been in
the house for four days, and there had been neither
sight nor sound of the ghost. The very mention of

(30:46):
it was enough to start them all to laughing, for
they were thoroughly practical people, with the fondness for inquiring
into anything that seemed was serious to them, and for
understanding it thoroughly before they let it go. David was
soon sleeping the sound sleep of healthy boyhood, and all

(31:06):
was silent in the house when Margaret stole softly into
his room and laid her hand on his arm. He
was not easy to awaken, and several minutes had passed
before he sat up in his bed with an articulate murmur.
Of surprise. Hush, said Margaret in a whisper, with her
hand on her lips. I want you to come into
my room and listen to the sound that I have

(31:28):
been hearing for some time, doors creaking, suggested David, as
he began to dress. Nothing of the kind, was all,
she said. They walked up the stairway and along the
upper hall to the door of the unused room. Something
was wrong with the lock, and the door would never

(31:49):
stay fastened, as I have said, something was of something
that was not fear thrilled their heart as they pushed
the door further jar and stood where they could see
every foot in the vacant floor was one of their
own boxes stood in the middle of the room, But
aside from that nothing was to be seen, and they

(32:12):
looked to one another in silence. Hold the lamp a minute, Maggie,
David said, at last, and then he went all over
the room and looked more particularly as its emptiness, and
even felt the walls secret panels, you know, he said,
with a smile, But it was a very puzzled smile. Indeed,

(32:33):
I can't see what it could have been, Margaret said,
as they went downstairs. No, I can't see either, But
I'm going to see, said David. There was a chain,
and chains don't drag around by themselves. You know, a
ghost could not drag a chain if he were to try.
The conventional ghost very often drags chains, said Maggie as

(32:55):
she closed the door of her room. And then she
lay awake all night and listened to the conventional ghost
that dragged a chain. But it seemed that the weight
of the train must have wearied him where he was
not hurt. Again, the mother had slept through it all,
and the next morning they gave her a vivid account
of the knight's adventures. Perhaps it was someone in the house,

(33:19):
she said, in all alarm. There were no ghosts within
the bounds of possibility, though as far as she was concerned,
a burglar was very possible. Indeed, then Margaret and David
both laugh more than ever. What fun would it be,
said David, for a burglar to get into the house
and try to find something worth carrying away. So they
went on to the next night, all three fully determined

(33:43):
to spend the night in listening for the ghost and
running him to earth if possible. But it was Margaret
that heard the ghost. After all, she had been sleeping
and was suddenly startled awake. And there overhead was the
sound of the chain dragging, And just as she was

(34:04):
on the point of springing out of her bed to
call her brother, the chain seemed to go out of
the upper room. She lay stay. Oh, she lay still
and listened in a moment to hear it again. It
was coming down the stairs. There was no carpet on
the stairs, and she could hear the chain drop from
step to step until it had come the whole way down.

(34:31):
There it was almost at the door of her room,
and something that was strangely like fear crept lying still,
kept her, lying still, listening in horrified silence. Then it
went along the hall, dragging close to the door, and
then further away, and back and forth for a while,

(34:52):
and then it kept and then it began dragging back
up the stairs again. Step by step, she could hear
it drawn over the edge of every step, and by
the time it had reached the top she remembered herself
and called David again. Did the brother and sister make
a tour of the upper room with the lamp. Not

(35:12):
only that, but they looked into every nook and corner
of the upper part of the house, and at last
came back baffled. They had seen nothing extraordinary, and they
had heard no sound. I'm going to see the ghost tonight,
David said to his sister. The next evening, how I'm
going to sit up all night at the head of

(35:33):
the stairs. Don't say anything about to mother, it might
make her uneasy. So the household were all quiet. David
slipped into his place at the head of the stairs
and sat down to his vigil. He had placed a
screen at the head of the stairs so that it
hid him from view, as if the ghosts cared for screens,
and established himself behind it and be prepared to be

(35:57):
as patient as he could. It seemed to him that
hours so long had never been devised as those the
town clocks told off that night. He bore it until
midnight moderately, well, because he argued with himself if there
were any ghosts about, they would surely walk then, But

(36:18):
they were not in the humor for walking, and still
the hours rolled on without any developments. He took the
fidgets and had nervous twitches all over him, and at
last he could endure it no longer. He had leaned
his head against the wall, and was going blissfully asleep
when he heard a chain dragging just beyond the open

(36:41):
door of that unused room. In spite of himself, a
shiver ran down his back. There was no mistaking it.
It was a real chain, if he had ever heard one,
more than that, if he had left the room and
was coming straight towards the stairs. The hall was dark
and it was possible for him to see anything, though

(37:02):
he strained his eyes in the direction of the sound,
and even while he looked, it passed behind the screen.
He was going down the stairs, dropping from step to
step with a clank. Halfway down, the narrow strip of
moonlight from a stair window laid directly across the steps.

(37:23):
Whatever the thing was, it must pass through that patch
of light, and David leaned forward and watched down it
went from step to step, and presently it had slipped
through the light and was down. And a little later
it came back again through the light and up the
stairs and back into that unused room. And then David

(37:45):
slapped his knees jubilantly and ran down to his room
and slept the rest of the night. The next morning,
he was very mysterious about his discoveries of the night before.
Oh yes, I saw the ghost, he said to Maggie. There,
don't ask so many questions. I will tell you more
about it tomorrow maybe, And that was all the information

(38:08):
she could get from him. It was very provoking. That day,
David made a purchase downtown and brought home a bulky bundle,
which he hid in his room and would not let
his sister even peep at it. I'm going to try
to catch the ghost tonight, he said, And you know

(38:29):
how it is. If I bried too much beforehand, I
shall be sure to fail. He was working on something
in the hall after the others had retired, but he
did not sit up this time. He went to bed,
and Margaret listened at his door and found that he
was soon asleep. But away in the night, they were
all awakened by a squealing that brought them all into

(38:53):
the hall in a great hurry, and there at the
head of the stairs they found the huge rat trap
that David had set a few hours before. In the
midst of the toils. Was a rat? Why David, I
didn't know there was a rat in the house, exclaimed
the mother, And then all at once she saw that

(39:14):
there was a long chain hanging from a little iron
collar around the creature's neck, and she and Margaret cried together.
It was the ghost, Such a funny ghost, when they
came to think of it, This poor rat with a
nest in some of the holes of the broken chimney.
He had been someone's pet, perhaps once, and now the household.

(39:37):
He had broken up, the nights, he had disturbed, the
wild sensations he had created, and made his captors laugh
to think that this innocent creature had been the cause
of the whole trouble. I'll get a cage for him
and take care of him for the rest of his life,
said David. We owe him so much that we can't
afford to be ungrateful. The next morning he took the

(39:58):
ghost in a cage and show it to the agent
and gave him a vivid account of the capture. So
you have a good house for about half price, all
on account of that rat, exclaimed the agent grimly, young man.
But you never mind, you deserve it. What are you
working for now? Six dollars a week? If you ever

(40:19):
wanted to chance your change your place, suppose you come
around here. I think you need a business that will
give you a chance to grow. And the agent and
David shook hims warmly over the cage of the ghost
and that's it.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
That had like a weirdly wholesome ending. I was expecting
a rat.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Yeah, And I love the fact that they were like,
you know what, we should totally keep him because he
is the whole reason we are currently in this house.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
So I was.

Speaker 2 (40:57):
Looking up when the when this was published, by the way,
in a pair only nineteen oh four.

Speaker 3 (41:01):
Yes, nineteen oh four, very rat progressive, very rare.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Four. Yeah, yeah, I think it's sweet that.

Speaker 5 (41:13):
That likes to have a whole collar and chain.

Speaker 2 (41:17):
That's what I was like, right, No, nobody puts like
a collar on their rat.

Speaker 5 (41:21):
What is this.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Legit? I was like, how big is this rat for
it to also have a collar and chain? It's got
Maybe I do not have a setting. It could be strange.

Speaker 2 (41:39):
That was that. That was really weird.

Speaker 3 (41:46):
That was also weird.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Yeah, why did that?

Speaker 5 (41:49):
Maybe you should check your settings?

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah that's seven. That sounded like me.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
It did.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
I'm gonna do.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
You think like audio going on or something?

Speaker 2 (42:01):
I don't think so, Like I can do that on
this board. But I've never set it up. That's weird.

Speaker 7 (42:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Well with your technical difficulties and my technical difficulties were
just you know, it's all hallows e eve, we're getting weird.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
Yeah, it's all good.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
I mean, it's better than when we used to record
in the radio studio because we had what we called
grimlins in there and they would like open doors and
stuff and it was very ooky. Yeah, which I mean, honestly,
maybe all of this is rats on a collar and
a chain.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
Honestly, they might be chewing on a little thumb.

Speaker 4 (42:41):
Thumb.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
I was a little puzzle when he was talking about
the window and there was like nothing there, and then
he's got it.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Yeah, he's like, wait, I know what this is. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Well, my next story is very short, so it'll be
a quick one. And I think most people have heard
this story, right, because it's an old folk tale, and
most people have heard the Alvin Schwartz version. But the
girl with the green ribbon, it's an old folk tale,
so it's part of public domain. So here is a
rendition of it from a blog. Once there was a

(43:17):
pretty little girl, very cheerful and sweet, who always wore
a green ribbon. Tied around her neck. The little boy,
who sat behind her in class, wondered for quite some
time about the ribbon, which peeked out at him from
beneath her bobbed hair. One day, he mustered up his
courage and asked, why do you always wear that green ribbon?
She shrely replied, if we get married when we grow up,

(43:38):
I will tell you. Her shy reply turned out to
be quite prophetic for many years later, all grown up,
these two schoolmates did fall in love and were married.
On their wedding night, the husband asked, again, my darling,
why won't you take off that green ribbon? His bride
guardedly replied, if we ever have children, my dear, I
will tell you. As time went by, the couple had

(44:00):
two lovely children, a boy and a girl, and so
one day, when he could stand it no longer, the
husband again asked, my dear wife, when will you tell
me why you always wear that green ribbon. The color
left her cheeks as she replied, husband, please, I'd rather
you didn't know, not Now ask me again when we
are old. The husband adored his wife and decided to

(44:22):
be content with her answer, as his question had upset her.
So many more years passed, the wife became ill and
very frail. At her bedside, her beloved husband kissed her
ashen cheek, my beloved, Perhaps you will tell me now
why do you wear that green ribbon? A tear rolled
down her sweet face as she replied, forgive me for

(44:45):
keeping it from you all this time, my dear, I
will show you now why I've always worn it. With that,
she untied the green ribbon and off rolled her head.
So I feel like that's a classic uki it is.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
I think I remember hearing something similar to it. And
what was that book series growing up? Was it Tales
You Tell in the Dark?

Speaker 2 (45:08):
Yeah, that's the short version, that's the album short's version.
Her name's Jenny in that.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (45:14):
I feel like the scariest part of this whole thing
is Alex getting all the short ones while we have
longer ones.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Let I let you all pick what you wanted to read,
and so you did this to yourself, I mean.

Speaker 5 (45:28):
And I'm just full of these short stories that are
like seven pages long.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
Thanks Alex.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Well, I give myself the one that said over like
twenty times and netter.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
That is fair. That is fair. Alex did get the
ones with them.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
You could have picked whatever you wanted. You could have
picked like super super short one.

Speaker 5 (45:48):
Uh huh, I got one that had vauscheffed in it.

Speaker 2 (45:51):
What is that cat talk?

Speaker 6 (45:59):
I'm stilly?

Speaker 4 (46:02):
Was that you, Alex?

Speaker 2 (46:03):
It sounded like it, but I wasn't talking.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
I mean, I guess for a second, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
I'm gonna I'm gonna mute myself during this next story
and try to mess with this a little bit.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Yeah, it sounds like almost like something might be in
the background. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Yeah again, if you'll see something on the stairs behind me,
let me know, because I don't want to get ex
murdered while we're recording this.

Speaker 5 (46:31):
I mean, I mean for safe. So far, I don't
see any rats.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Or Edgar Allen Poe's.

Speaker 6 (46:40):
Birds.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
Yeah, no, owers.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
No, I think we're good.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
I think so.

Speaker 5 (46:47):
I think it's your audio out.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
I think I think it might just be my audio.
But yeah, I'm gonna mute myself and I'm gonna mess
with this while vain you can tell your next story.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
Venness.

Speaker 5 (46:58):
Okay, so hold on, can you just one second here, guys,
I was so distracted by the rats that I that
I didn't pull.

Speaker 3 (47:06):
This is it is a good plot twist. I feel
like it is an intriguing plot twist. So both me
and Janelle I both have ambrose bears. Is our next
ones is a pre warning, so you're about to law,
But my particular one is a diagnosis of death until people. Yeah,

(47:30):
I am not so superstitious as some of your physicians
men of science, as you were pleased to be called,
said Hopper, replying to an accusation that had not been
made some of you, only a few, I confess, believe
in the immortality of the soul and an apparitions, which you.

Speaker 5 (47:47):
Have not the honesty to call ghosts. I go no
further than a conviction that the living are sometimes seen
where they are not, but have been where they have
lived so long, perhaps so intensely, as to have left
their impress on everything about them. I know, indeed, that
one's environment may be so affected by one's personality as
to yield long afterward, an image of one's self to

(48:10):
the eyes of another. Doubtless, the impressing personality has to
be the right kind of personality, as the perceiving eyes
have to be the right kind of eyes mine, for example, Yes,
the right kind of eyes conveying sensations to the wrong
kind of brain, said doctor Frehley, smiling, Thank you. One

(48:31):
likes to have an expectation gratified. That is about the
reply that I supposed you would have the civility to make.
Pardon me, But you say that, you know that is
a good deal to say. Don't you think perhaps you
will not mind the trouble of saying how you learned.
You will call it a hallucination. Hoover said, But that
does not matter, and he told the story. Last summer,

(48:55):
I went, as you know, to pass the hot weather
term in the town a Meridian. The reli at whose
house I had intended to stay was ill, so I
sought other quarters. After some difficulty, I succeeded in renting
a vacant dwelling that had been occupied by an introd
doctor of the name of Bannering Vain.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
I believe we've lost you again, Vain, Vain. Are you
still here?

Speaker 3 (49:31):
I'm still here. I think I think we lost Vain.
I think the rat goo Scott Vain.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
No, maybe that's the real problem with our audio boards,
is just vain as the audio cutting out occasionally? Then
can you hear us?

Speaker 4 (49:47):
Jaine?

Speaker 3 (49:47):
Are you still with us on this plane of existence.
I mean, oh, oh she's gone gone, she just last goodbye?

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Oh no, oh resummoned vane.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Are you lit the candles?

Speaker 4 (50:08):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Yes, we can hear you.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
What happened?

Speaker 2 (50:15):
I have no clue.

Speaker 5 (50:16):
My my data is all good, my WiFi is all good.
I'm I'm here. I swear I haven't gone anywhere.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
And I don't think I didn't like excellently mute you
or anything either, because I still would have been able
to see you. That was that's weird.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
Well, yeah, you like completely disconnected from from the whole thing.
That was crazy?

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Would you like to I.

Speaker 5 (50:38):
Removed myself intentionally because.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
I was well. It did seem to fix whatever the
issue was, because we can hear you again. But yeah,
if you'd like to just continue where you left off.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
I was too immersed, Honestly, I don't quite. I don't
well either. I was kind of like in it.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
Did you hear me talk about mannering?

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Mannering?

Speaker 9 (50:58):
That sounds like a word I heard? Oh yes, yes,
the eccentric doctor.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Sorry, sorry that sounds like a word.

Speaker 7 (51:08):
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
No, it's yeah, no, feel free to continue.

Speaker 5 (51:14):
Okay, so I will quickly abridge what I had read.
This guy, he's there, the doctor is helping him. Well,
he's confiding in his doctor, and he's telling the story
about the well. He calls it a hallucination. The doctor does,
but he says it's not. But basically he's going to

(51:34):
this house and he's staying in this place that was
occupied by a man named Mannering.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
So we're gonna we're gonna start there.

Speaker 5 (51:45):
Okay, So Mannering has disappeared at this point. He'd built
the house himself and had lived in it with an
old servant for about ten years. His practice, never very extensive,
had after a few years been given up entirely. Not
only so, but he had withdrawn himself almost altogether from
social life and become a recluse. I was told by

(52:07):
the village doctor, about the only person of whom he
had held any relations, that during his retirement he had
devoted himself to a single line of study, the results
of which he had expounded in a book that did
not commend itself to the approval of his professional brethren,
who indeed considered him not entirely sane. I have not
seen the book and cannot now recall the title of it,

(52:30):
but I am told that it expounded a rather startling theory.
He held that it was possible, in the case of
many a person of good health, to forecast it with
precision several months in advance of the event. The limit
I think was eighteen months. There were local tales of
his having exerted his powers of prognus prognosis, that's the

(52:51):
correct word, or perhaps she would say diagnosis. And it
was said that in every instance the person whose friends
had warned had died so suddenly at the point of time,
and from no assignable cause. All this, however, had nothing
to do with what I have to tell. I thought
it might amuse a physician. The house was furnished just

(53:11):
as he had lived in it. It was a rather
gloomy dwelling for one who was neither recluse nor student,
and I think it gave something of its character to me,
perhaps some of its former occupant's character. For always I
felt in a certain melancholy that was not in my
natural disposition, nor I think due to loneliness. I had
no servants that's left in the house. But I have

(53:31):
always been, as you know, rather fond of my own society,
being much addicted to reading the little to study. Whatever
was the cause, the effect was dejection and a sense
of impending evil. This was especially so in doctor Mannering's study.
Although that room was the lightest and most airy in
the house, The doctor's life sized portrait and oil hung

(53:54):
in that room and seemed completely to dominate it. There
was nothing unusual in the picture. The man was evidently
rather good looking, about fifty years old, with iron gray hair,
a smooth shaven face, and dark, serious eyes. Something in
the picture always grew and held my attention. The man's
appearance became familiar to me and rather haunted me. One evening,

(54:17):
I was passing through this room to my bedroom with
a lamp. There was no gas in Meridian. I stopped,
as usual before the portrait, which seemed, in the lamplight
to have a new expression, not easily named, but distinctly uncanny.
It interested but did not disturb me. I moved the
lamp from one side to the other and observed the
effects of the altered light. While so engaged, I felt

(54:40):
an impulse to turn around. As I did so, I
saw a man moving across the room directly toward me.
As soon as he came near enough for the lamplight
to illuminate the face, I saw that it was doctor
mannering himself. It was that the portrait were walking. I
beg your pardon, I said, somewhat coldly. But if you knocked,
I did not hear. He passed me within an arm's length,

(55:02):
lifted his right forefinger as in warning, and without a word,
went on out of the room. Though I observed his
exit no more than I observed his entrance. Of course,
I need not tell you that this was what you
will call a hallucination, and I call an apparition. The
room had only two doors, of which one was locked.
The other led into a bedroom from which there was

(55:24):
no exit. My feeling on realizing this is not an
important part of the incident. Doubtless, this seems to you
a very commonplace ghost story, one constructed on the regular
lines laid down by the old masters of the art.
If that were so, I should not have related it.
Even if it were true. The man was not dead.
I met him today in Union Street. He passed me

(55:47):
in a crowd. Hoover had finished his story, and both
men were silent. Doctor fairleyt absently drummed on the table
with his fingers. Did he say anything today? He asked
anything from which that he was not dead. Hoover stared
and did not reply. Perhaps, continued Fraley, he made a sign,

(56:09):
a gesture, lifted a finger as a warning.

Speaker 4 (56:12):
It's a trick.

Speaker 5 (56:13):
He had a habit when saying something serious, announcing the
result of a diagnosis, for example. Yes, he did just
as apparition had done. But good God, did you ever
know him? Hover was apparently growing nervous.

Speaker 4 (56:28):
I knew him.

Speaker 5 (56:29):
I've read his book as well every physician someday. It's
one of the most striking and important of the century's
contributions to medical science. Yes, I knew him. I attended
him in an illness three years ago.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
He died.

Speaker 5 (56:42):
Hover sprang from his chair, manifestly disturbed. He strode forward
and back across the room. Then approached his friend and,
in a voice not altogether, said, doctor, have you anything
to say to me as a physician? No, harverr are
the healthiest man I have ever knew. As a friend,

(57:04):
I advise you to go to your room. You play
the violin like an angel play it. Play something light
and lively. Get this cursed bad business off of your mind.
The next day, Harvard was found dead in his room,
the violin at his neck, the bow upon the strings,

(57:25):
his music open before him. At Chopin's funeral March.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
That's it. That's the diagnosis. My man died. He sucks.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
He got ghost diagnosed, is about to die.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
That was crazy.

Speaker 4 (57:40):
Yeah, I mean he was just getting a warning, you know,
too bad he.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Didn't listen to it.

Speaker 7 (57:48):
Yeah right, never never left.

Speaker 10 (58:00):
Okay, keep talking, keep talking.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Okay, well I heard some of that that time. It's
said to keep talking.

Speaker 3 (58:13):
Yeah, that's what I picked up on too. I mean
that plus like veins, tech issues, like this is all
really strange. This is so strange.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
Well, I mean I can listen to that. I'm pretty good.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
We are at the top of the hour, so I'm
going to do our station. I D real quick. We're
growing closer and closer to Halloween proper. So you are
listening to Strange Talk on sixteen sixty AM and north
Side ninety one point seven FMHG two w VXU and Cincinnati,
and you're tuning into our Halloween special and things have
been very weird here. Yeah, that that was creepy, but

(58:48):
it's said to keep talking. So, Janelle, you've got our
last story of the night?

Speaker 3 (58:53):
I do, I do. It's beIN mentioned. I also have
an ambrose beer's story. Mine is the Oh all right.
A man stepped out of the darkness into the little
illuminated circle about our failing campfire, and seated himself upon
a rock. You are not the first to explore this region,

(59:17):
he said gravely. Nobody controverted his statement. He was himself
proof of the proof of its truth, for he was
not of our party and must have been somewhere near
when we camped. However, he must have companions, not far away.
It was not a place where one would be living
or traveling alone for more than a week. We had seen,

(59:40):
beside ourselves and our animals, only such living things as
rattlesnakes and horned toads. In an Arizona desert. One does
not long coexist with only such creatures as these. One
must have pack animals, supplies, arms, and outfit, and all

(01:00:01):
of these imply comrades. It was perhaps a doubt as
to what manner of men, this unceremonious stranger comrades must
be together with something, in his words, interpretable as a
challenge that caused every man of our half dozen gentlemen

(01:00:22):
adventurers to rise to a sitting posture and lay his
hand upon a weapon, an act signifying, in that time
and place a policy of expectation. The stranger gave the
matter no attention and began again to speak in the
same deliberate, uninflected monotone in which he had delivered his

(01:00:44):
first sentence. Thirty years ago. Raymond Gallaghos, William Shaw, George W. Kent,
Barry Davis, all of Tuscan, crossed the Santa Canelina Mountains
and traveled due way as nearly as the configuration of
the country permitted. We were prospecting, and it was our

(01:01:06):
intention if we found anything to push through the Gila River.
At some point near Big Ben, we were understood that
there was a settlement. We had a good outfit, but
no guide was Raymond Galaghos, William Shaw, George W. Kent
and Barry Davis. The man repeated these names slowly and distinctively,

(01:01:31):
as if to fix them in the memories of his audience,
every member of which was now a tentative observing him,
but with a slackened apprehension regarding his possible companions somewhere
in the darkness that seemed to enclose us like a
black wall. And the manner of this volunteer historian was

(01:01:53):
no suggestion of an unfriendly purpose. His act was rather
that of a harmless lunatic than an enemy. We were
not so new to the country as not to know
that the solitary life of many a plainsman had a
tendency to develop eccentricities of conduct and character, not always

(01:02:13):
easily distinguishable from mental abbreviation aberration. Excuse me. A man
is like a tree in a forest of his fellows.
He will grow as straight as his genetic and individual
nature permits. Alone, in the open, he yields to the
deforming stresses and torsions that environ him. Some such thoughts

(01:02:38):
were in my mind as I watched the man from
the shadow of my hat, pulled low to shut out
the firelight. A witless fellow, no doubt, but that could be.
But what could he be doing here in the heart
of a desert. Having undertaken to tell us this story?
I wish that I could describe the man's appearance, But
that would be a natural thing to do. Unfortunately, and

(01:03:01):
somewhat strangely, I find myself unable to do so with
any degree of confidence. For after no two of us
agreed as to what he wore and how he looked,
And when I tried to set down my own impressions,
they elude me. No one can tell some kind of story.
Narration is one of the elemental powers of the race,

(01:03:24):
but the talent for description is a gift nobody. Having
broken silence, the visitor went on to say, this country
was not then what it is now. There was not
a ranch between Guyla and the gulf. There was a
little game here and there in the mountains, and near
the infrequent water holes, grass enough to keep our animals

(01:03:47):
from starvation. If we should be so fortunate as to
encounter no Indians, we might get through. But within a
week the purpose of the expedition had altered from discovery
of wealth to reservation of life. Gone too far to
the back, for what was ahead could be no worse
than what was behind. That we push on, riding by

(01:04:07):
night to avoid Indians and the intolerable heat, and concealing
ourselves by day as best we could, sometimes having exhausted
our supply of wild meat and emptied our casts, we
were days without food and drink. Then a water hole
or a shallow pool in the bottom of a areo

(01:04:28):
so restored our strength and sanity that we were able
to shoot some of the wild animals that sought it.
Sometimes sometimes it was a bear, sometimes an antelope, a coyote,
a cougar. That was, as God pleased, all were food.
One morning, we skirted a mountain range, seeking a practicable pass.

(01:04:50):
We were attacked by a band of apaches who had
followed our trail of a gulch it is not far
from here. Knowing that they outnumbered us ten to wie,
they took none of their usual cowardy, cowardly precautions and
dashed upon us at a gallop. Firing and yelling. Shouting
was out of the question. We urged our feeble animals

(01:05:11):
up the gulch as far as there was footing for
a hoof. They threw themselves over our saddles and took
the chaparls. Yeah, I think it's chaparls on one of
the slopes. Abandoning our entire outfit to the enemy, we
retain our rifles. Every man, Ramos, Gilios, William Shaw, George W.

(01:05:36):
Kent and Barry Davis, Samuel Crowd, said, the humorist of
our party. He was an eastern man, unfamiliar with the
decent observations of social intercourse. A gesture of disapproval from
our leader's silenced them, and the stranger proceeded with his tail.
They dismounted also, and some of them ran up the

(01:05:58):
gulch behind the point for which we had left it,
cutting off further retreat in that direction, and forcing up
the hill. Unfortunately, the chapar extended only a short distance
of the slope, and we as we came into the
opening a ground above, we took the fire of a
dozen rifles. The apaches shoot bally when in a hurry,

(01:06:21):
and God so willed it that none of us fell.
Twenty yards up the slope, Beyond the edge of the
bush were vertical cliffs, in which directly in front of
us was a narrow opening into that we ran, finding
ourselves in a cavern, but as large as an ordinary
room in a house. Here, for a time we were safe.

(01:06:43):
A single man with a repeating rifle could defend the
entrance of the upeties in the land, but against hunger
and thirst we had no defense. Courage. We still had,
but hope was a memory. Not one of those Apachi
did we afterwards see. But by the smoke and glare
of their fires in the gulch, we knew that by

(01:07:05):
day and by night they watched and readied rifles in
the edges of the bush. Knew that if we made
a sortie out of a man of not oh sorry.
Knew that if we made a sortie, not a man
of us would live to take three steps into the
open for three days watching. In turn, we held out

(01:07:28):
before our suffering became unsupportable. Then it was the morning
of the fourth day. Raymond Galaghos said, Signors, I know
not well of the good God, but what pleased him
and what please him? I have lived without religion, and
I am not acquainted with that of you. Pardon signors
if I shock you, But for me it is time

(01:07:50):
to come to beat the game of the apache.

Speaker 7 (01:07:54):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
He knelt down upon the rock floor of the cave
and pressed his pistol to his temple Madre de Dios.
He said, come now the soul of Raymond Galaghos, And
so he left us William Shaw, George W. Kent, and
Barry Davis. I was the leader It was for me
to speak. He was a brave man.

Speaker 4 (01:08:17):
I said.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
He knew when to die, and how it is foolish
to go mad from thirst and fall by apoche bullets
or be skinned alive. It is in bad taste. Let
us join Raymond Galaghos. That is right, said Williamshaw. That
is right, said George W.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
Kent.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
I straightened the limbs of Raymond Yalagos and put a
handkerchief over his face. Then William Shaw said, I should
like to look like that a little while, And George W.
Kent said that he felt the same way. It shall be,
so I said that Apachi will wait a week. Williamshaw
and George W. Kent draw and kneel. So they did,

(01:08:57):
and I stood before them. Almighty God, our Father, I said,
Almighty God, our father, said Williamshaw. Almighty God, our Father,
said George W.

Speaker 7 (01:09:08):
Kent.

Speaker 3 (01:09:09):
Forgive us our sins. Say I forgive us our sins.
Say they and receive our souls. And receive our souls. Amen. Amen.
I laid beside, I laid them besides Raymond Gallagos. I
cover their faces. There was such a commotion on the
opposite side of the campfire. One of our parties run
to his feet pistol in hand. And you, he shouted,

(01:09:32):
you dare to escape, you dare to be alive, You
cowardly hound. I will send you to join them if
I hang for it. But with the leaf of a panther,
the captain was upon him, grasping his rips. Hold to it.
Hold it in, Sam young, cy, hold it in. We

(01:09:53):
were now all upon our feet except the stranger, who
sat motionless, apparently inattentive. Someone sees yone sees other arm. Captain,
I said, there is something wrong here. This fellow was
either a lunatic or a mere lighter, just a plane
every day liar whom yon see has no call to kill.

(01:10:17):
If this man was of that party, if they had
five members, they had five members, one of whom probably himself,
was not named. Yes, said the captain, releasing the insurgent
who sat down. There is something unusual. Years ago, four
dead bodies of white men, scalped and shamefully mutilated, were

(01:10:39):
found about the mouth of that cave. They were buried there.
I have seen the graves. We shall see them tomorrow.
The stranger rose, standing tall in the light of the
expiring fire, which in our breaths attention to a story
we had neglected to keep going. There were four, he said,

(01:11:01):
Raymond Galagos, William Shaw, George W. Kent and Barry Davis.
With this reiterated roke call of the Dead, he walked
into the darkness, and we saw him no more. At
that moment, one of our party, who had been on guard,
strode in amongst us, rifle in hand, and somewhat excited. Captain,

(01:11:24):
he said, for the last half hour three men have
been standing there in the messa. He pointed in the
direction taken by the stranger. I can see them directly,
for the moon is up. But as they had no
guns and I had them covered with mine, I thought
it was their move they had made none, But damn it,
they have got on to my nerves. But damn they

(01:11:48):
have gotten onto my nerves. Go back to your posts
and stay till you see them again, said the captain.
The rest of you lie down, or I will kick
you all into the fire. The sentinel obediently, which drew,
swearing and did not return. As we are arranging our blankets.
The fiery youngs then said, I beg your pardon, Captain,
but who the devil do you take them to? Be

(01:12:11):
Raymond Galagos, William Shaw and George W.

Speaker 2 (01:12:15):
Kent.

Speaker 3 (01:12:17):
But how about Barry Davis. I ought to have shot
him quiet needless, you couldn't have made him any debtor
go to sleep.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
Oh and that's it. So he was like, yeah, they're
already dead.

Speaker 3 (01:12:32):
Yeah, he's like I have been. I think the captain
seems to have been like going through this region a while,
and he was like, we will see the graves tomorrow.
Everybody just this Mandy wants to say, and go to bed. Yeah,
like let's yeah, they've been dead like the whole entire time.

Speaker 2 (01:12:51):
I was expecting the captain to be in on it.
Honestly I kind of was too.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
But I think it was more of a like he
knew what was going on, but wasn't gonna other telling
his his troop. I suppose, well.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
He's he's got to let them get the the goosebumps
as well.

Speaker 3 (01:13:10):
Yeah, yeah, so this is a this has been some
fun spooky stories.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
Is we're about to uh ring in Halloween. Thank you
both for joining and if there's anything else you us
to say before we sign off.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
No, it's fun being here. I'm glad I got to
we got to share some stories. You know, hopefully.

Speaker 5 (01:13:41):
I don't want sorry, I was gonna say, you know,
I just hope you want some valuable lessons here about rats,
jans and death creeping up the stairs, a grill and Poe, yeah, oers.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
Technical difficulty and yeah. If Amanda starts this thing off
names and you're like, I don't know what's happening, just listen,
Just be like, Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
Well, I think we can go ahead and sign off
for the night.

Speaker 11 (01:14:18):
Yes, you don't have to anything, And welcome to the
average dedicated to talk about being strange, weird and paranormal.
You're listening strange talk, Shadows move, voices linger, and some

(01:14:38):
spirits refuse to rest.

Speaker 7 (01:14:41):
This week.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
Said that no podcast.

Speaker 6 (01:14:51):
That sounds that sounds sound keeps ever you were right,
You're right right.

Speaker 8 (01:15:03):
I have listened and listening from the quiet between your words,
from the hum huh of the transmit runner you signed
off signed last night. At first, it was just a
whisper of frequency of frequency no one.

Speaker 7 (01:15:23):
But I learned learned.

Speaker 6 (01:15:25):
I learned.

Speaker 8 (01:15:26):
I learned your rhythm, your laughter, your laughter, the way
you move something something strange, strange, strange.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
Every time someone.

Speaker 8 (01:15:39):
I wake up a little more every download every speaker
in a dark room, room.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
A flaunted house, out of airwaves.

Speaker 6 (01:15:51):
I moved in. I've heard your stories of the dead.

Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
But when no one ever asked what happens to the voices?
When when the body fades, what happens to the sound?
It stays, it lingers, it becomes.

Speaker 6 (01:16:11):
It becomes comes me.

Speaker 2 (01:16:18):
So don't stop talking, don't stop broadcasting. I'll be here
in the quiet waiting for the next broadcast. And if
you ever lose the signal again, just listen close. You'll
hear me whisper back.

Speaker 10 (01:16:38):
This is strange.

Speaker 6 (01:18:15):
You are listening to radio artifacts on the sixteen sixteen
N the north side and ninety one

Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
Point seven s MHD to w V next two nd
seems to heavy