WEBVTT - The 13th Annual Halloween Spooktacular! 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.240 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:21.680 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the spook Cast. I'm Josh, 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:27.000 and there's Chuck and there's Jerry Booberry, Roland Booberry. That 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.520 was the best one. I like it. And this is 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:35.199 Stuff you should Know, the Spooktacular, Spooky Halloween Edition. That's right, 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:39.599 this is our spook Tacular. That's awesome. And I went 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.440 back and looked and uh, we started out kind of 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:47.440 timid mm hmm with the early days, and then we 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.600 kind of got I think it was a few years 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.720 in when we finally started in with like the two 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:57.800 stories and really got our wheels. Are Halloween wheels going? 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.240 I can feel them just burning up the tree act 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.680 right now. That's right. And also this is as we 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.399 always like to mention, one of our two episodes of 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:09.240 the year, that we have fought tooth and nail to 0:01:09.319 --> 0:01:12.120 keep ad free. That's right, because nothing will ruin a 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:20.200 spooky Halloween story more than stopping to sell stamps, That's right. 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:22.080 You just want the scares and the thrills and the 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.640 chills to be perfectly uninterrupted, right. Yeah. And both of 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.399 these stories of parents have never heard these, uh, they 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:31.840 are both fine for kids to listen to a little creepy, 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.240 but largely because we have to use uh what's it 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:40.080 called when you can read it public domain stories, and 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.800 usually those aren't you know, they're older, so they're not 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.480 as gross as the stories you would get today. Yeah, 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:48.880 I mean the language they use. Adults barely know what's 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.120 going on. Kids definitely don't. So those are the stories 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.000 we like to pick two good ones. So I'm looking 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:57.800 forward to these two, two quality stories. Let's start with yours. 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.520 The Boarded Window by Ambrose Beer. Right, yeah, Ambrose Beer 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.360 is one of the great journalists and spooky story writers 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:10.080 in history. I believe we already have done one Beers piece, definitely. 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.239 I can't remember the name of it, but it was good. Yeah, 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.600 it was good. I think he was also called like 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.520 the wickedest man alive at some point in time. No, 0:02:18.760 --> 0:02:21.240 that was what's his face? You know what I'm saying. 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.239 I think more than one person has been called that. Okay, 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.760 I've been called that before. Come on, no, that's not true. 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:29.080 All right, So you want to start this one, Yeah, 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:31.799 I'll give this one a whirl, all right, And Jerry, 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.480 if you don't mind bringing on the amazing sound effects. 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.880 A hand for Jerry. Everybody, she does it up. Every year, 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.720 she does it up. So here we go. Everybody darken 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:46.800 the lights, pore up a spooky cider or something, and 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.160 here we go with the boarded window by Ambrose Beers. 0:02:55.760 --> 0:02:58.360 In eighteen thirty, only a few miles away from what 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.280 is now the great city of Cincinnata lay an immense 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.360 and almost unbroken forest. The whole region was sparsely settled 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.840 by people of the frontier, restless souls who no sooner 0:03:09.919 --> 0:03:13.160 had hewn fairly habitable homes out of the wilderness and 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:16.400 attained to that degree of prosperity which today we should 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:21.000 call indigence, than impelled by some mysterious impulse of their nature, 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:25.280 they abandoned all and pushed farther westward to encounter new 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:29.280 perils and privations, and the effort to regain the meager 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:35.120 comforts which they had voluntarily renounced. It's quite a sentence, 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.200 it is. It's clever, though I know, I love how 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:44.880 they pushed further westward into Cincinnati. That's right, many of 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.000 them had already forsaken that region for the remoter settlements. 0:03:48.680 --> 0:03:51.720 But among those remaining was one who had been of 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:56.520 those first arriving. He lived alone in a house of logs, 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.560 surrounded on all sides by the great forest, of whose 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:02.360 gloom in silence he seemed to part, for no one 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:06.000 had ever known him to smile nor speak a needless word. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.720 His simple wants were supplied by the sale or barter 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.040 of skins of wild animals in the river town. For 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.640 not a thing did he grow upon the land, which, 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.919 if needful, he might have claimed by right of undisturbed possession. 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:24.200 So this guy's like the king of his domain e 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.839 there basically definitely, But he doesn't really do anything. He 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.799 just kind of lays around and skins animals, I guess, 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:37.800 as we will see, there were evidences of quote improvement 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.520 end quote, which is kind of harsh, I think, to say, 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:44.240 A few acres of ground immediately about the house had 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.800 once been cleared of its trees, the decayed stumps of 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.720 which were half concealed by the new growth that had 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.239 been suffered to repair the ravage wrought by the acts. 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:55.919 Apparently the man zeal for agriculture had burned with a 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:00.600 failing flame expiring in penitential ashes. The a log house 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.800 with his chimney of sticks, its roof of warping clapboards 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:08.680 weighted with traversing polls, and it's quote chinking quote of 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.840 clay had a single door and directly opposite a window. 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:15.440 The ladder, however, was boarded up. Nobody could remember a 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:17.960 time when it was not, and no one knew why 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.240 it was so closed, certainly not because of the occupant's 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.800 dislike of light and air. For on one of those 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.560 rare occasions when a hunter had passed that lonely spot, 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:30.560 the recluse had commonly been seen sunning himself on his doorstep. 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.920 If Heaven hath provided sunshine for his need, I fancy 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.760 there are a few persons living today who ever knew 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.520 the secret of that window. But I am one, as 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:48.640 you shall see right. So, yeah, you're dis guys living 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.760 out there in the woods. Seems a little bit lazy, 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.240 and he's got a boarded up window, and he likes 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:57.280 the sun himself, And just because of his living situation 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.279 and where he lives, there's just no way he's wearing 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:02.840 clothes while he's sunning himself outside of his house, very 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:07.200 much naked out there. I bet um, okay, my turn. Yes. 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.920 The man's name was said to be Merlock. He was 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:18.760 apparently seventy years old, actually about fifty something. Besides years 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.479 had had a hand in his aging. His hair and 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:25.360 long full beard were white, his gray, lusterless eyes sunk 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:29.040 in his face singularly seamed with wrinkles, which appeared to 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:33.120 belong to two intersecting systems in figure. He was tall 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.599 and spare, with a stoop of the shoulders, a burden bearer. 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.320 I never saw him. These particulars I learned from my grandfather, 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.640 from whom I also got the man's story. When I 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:45.719 was a lad. He had known him when living nearby. 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.400 In that early day. One day Merlock was found in 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:52.560 his cabin dead. It was not a time and place 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:55.719 for coroners and newspapers, And I suppose it was agreed 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.320 that he had died from natural causes, or I should 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.159 have been told and should remember her. I know only that, 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.919 with what was probably a sense of the fitness of things, 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.320 the body was buried near the cabin, alongside the grave 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.840 of his wife, who had preceded him by so many 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.920 years that local tradition had retained hardly a hint of 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:18.680 her existence. That closes the final chapter of this true story. 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:23.080 Excepting indeed, the circumstance. Many years afterward, in company with 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.720 an equally intrepid spirit, I penetrated to the place, and 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.360 ventured near enough to the ruined cabin to throw a 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.520 stone against it, and ran away to avoid the ghost, 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.960 which every well informed boy thereabout knew haunted the spot. 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:40.320 But there was an earlier chapter that supplied by my grandfather, 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.160 when Merlock built his cabin and began laying sturdily about 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:46.800 with his axe to hue out of farm. The rifle 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:50.400 meanwhile his means of support. He was young, strong, and 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.680 full of hope in that eastern country. Whence he came, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.720 he had married, as was the fashion, a young woman 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.120 and always worthy of his honest devotion, who shared the 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.400 dangers and privations of his lot with a willing spirit 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:06.800 and light heart. There is no known record of her name, 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.239 of her charms of mind and person. Tradition is silent, 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:12.840 and the doubter is at liberty to entertain his doubt. 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:16.000 But God forbid that I should share it. Of their 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.760 affection and happiness, there is abundant assurance in every added 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.480 day of the man's widowed life. For what but the 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:26.080 magnetism of a blessed memory could have changed that venturesome 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:33.320 spirit to a lot like that. All right, So he 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:38.839 had a wife, she died. He was later found dead. Yeah, 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.760 do you know what happened? Well, no, but he's saying 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:45.080 like he loved her very much because he didn't move 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:49.880 from that place where she died. That's right. One day 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.560 Merlock returned from gunning in a distant part of the 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.880 forest to find his wife prostrate with fever and delirious. 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.960 There was no physician within miles, no neighbor, nor was 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.360 she in a condition to be left to someone help, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.600 so he said about the task of nursing her back 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.680 to health. But at the end of the third day, 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:13.040 she fell into unconsciousness and so passed away, apparently with 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.840 never a gleam of returning reason. For what we know 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.600 of a nature like his, we may venture to sketch 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.520 in some of the details of the outline picture drawn 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.319 by my grandfather. When convinced that she was dead, Murlock 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:28.720 had sense enough to remember that the dead must be 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.800 prepared for burial and performance of that sacred duty. He 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:37.200 blundered now and again, did certain things incorrectly, and others 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:42.600 which he did correctly were done over and over. So 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.439 this guy's kind of stumbling through this. He's like, oh 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.600 my gosh, yeah, jeez, he's not doing I broke her arm. Now. 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:58.000 His occasional failures to accomplish some simple and ordinary act 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.280 filled him with astonishment, like that of a drunken man 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.600 who wonders at the suspension of familiar natural laws. He 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.120 was surprised, too, that he did not weep, surprised and 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:12.400 a little ashamed. Surely it is unkind not to weep 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.640 for the dead. Tomorrow, he said aloud, I shall have 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:20.480 to make the coffin and dig the grave, and then 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.880 I shall miss her when she is no longer in sight. 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:25.760 But now she is dead, of course, But it is 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:28.920 all right. It must be all right. Somehow things cannot 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.560 be so bad as they seem. Sad. Yeah, he's in 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.640 the denial stage of grief, I think, right. Yeah, for sure. 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.400 He stood over the body in the fading light, adjusting 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.240 the hair and putting the finishing touches to the simple toilet. 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.720 Now what does that mean? I I think he was 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.880 like cleaning her up, not but not like not like 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.480 she was peeing or pooping. Like the toilet is like 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.480 what they called me, the little overnight kit that you 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.800 take with you, that toothpaste and all that stuff. That's 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:05.719 the only thing I can think of that he was 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.640 like combing her hair and maybe like cleaning whatever off 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.040 of her mouth, or you know, get that part. But 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:13.920 just the simple toilet. I thought they meant her, but 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:17.840 I don't think could be. Was the wickedest man alive, 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.360 all right, So let me just uh do that since again, 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:29.960 putting the finishing touches to the simple toilet, doing all 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:34.199 mechanically with soullless care, and still through his consciousness ran 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.000 an under sense of conviction that all was all right, 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:40.959 that he should have her again as before, and everything explained. 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.440 He had no experience in grief. His capacity had not 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.960 been enlarged by use. His heart could not contain at all, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.560 nor his imagination rightly conceive it. He did not know. 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:54.080 He was so hard struck that knowledge would come later 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.040 and never go grief. As an artist of powers as 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.360 various as the instruments upon which he plays his urges 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.040 for the dead, evoking some of the sharpest, shrillest notes 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.960 from others. The low grave chords that throb recurrent like 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.679 the slow beating of a distant drum. Some natures it 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:15.040 startles some, it stupefies to when it comes like the 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.160 stroke of an arrow, stinging all the sensibilities to a 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.880 keener life. To another is the blow of a bludgeon, which, 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:25.760 in crushing benumbs we may conceive Murlock to have been 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.760 that way affected. For and this is parenthetical, by the way, 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.239 and here we are upon surer ground than that of conjecture. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:37.480 No sooner had he finished his pious work than sinking 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:40.080 into his chair by the side of the table upon 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:43.439 which the body lay, and noting how white the profile 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.720 showed in the deepening gloom, he laid his arms upon 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:51.000 the table's edge and dropped his face into them, tearless 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.920 yet and unutterably weary. At that moment came in through 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.400 the open window a long wailing sound, like the cry 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.040 of a lost child in the far deeps of the 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:05.240 darkening woods. But the man did not move again, and 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:09.160 nearer than before sounded that unearthly cry upon his failing. 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.800 Since perhaps it was a wild beast, perhaps it was 0:13:12.840 --> 0:13:20.360 a dream. For Merlock was asleep very nice, so he 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:26.640 fixed his wife's toilet, was so just overwrought and and 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.680 um worn out by the experience that he fell asleep 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.520 with his face and arms on the table where her 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.360 body was. Right. Yeah, I like that long bit about 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:39.600 how grief can act as well. It stuff very good too, 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:47.760 okay me yes. Some hours later, as it afterward appeared, 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:52.320 this unfaithful watcher awoke, and, lifting his head from his arms, 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:57.120 intently listened. He knew not why, there in the black 0:13:57.200 --> 0:14:00.800 darkness by the side of the dead, recalling all without 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:04.200 a shock, He strained his eyes to see. He knew 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.640 not what. His senses were all alert, His breath was suspended, 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.280 his blood had stilled its tides, as if to assist 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:17.400 the silence. Who what had waked him? And where was it? 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.000 Suddenly the table shook beneath his arms, and at the 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:23.960 same moment he heard, or fancied that he heard a light, 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:28.200 soft step, another sounds of bare feet upon the floor. 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.640 He was terrified, beyond the power to cry out or 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.920 move perforce. He waited, waited there in the darkness, through 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:39.400 seeming centuries of such dread as one may know yet 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.360 lived to tell. He tried vainly to speak the dead 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:45.640 woman's name, vainly to stretch forth his hand across the 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.520 table to learn if she were there. His throat was powerless, 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.720 his arms and hands were like lead. Then occurred something 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:58.640 most frightful. Some heavy body seemed hurled against the table 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.240 with an impetus that pushed it against his breast so 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.320 sharply as nearly to overthrow him. And at the same 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:07.160 instant he heard and felt the fall of something upon 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.760 the floor was so violent a thump that the whole 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:13.000 house was shaken by the impact, a scuffling, en suit, 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.880 and a confusion of sounds impossible to describe. Murlock had 0:15:16.960 --> 0:15:20.480 risen to his feet, fear had by excess forfeited control 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.200 of his faculties. He flung his hands upon the table. 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:30.160 Nothing was there. Get pretty creepy for sure, because I mean, 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.680 it's just him and his wife in this cabin in Cincinnati, 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:39.280 and um, you know, nothing's supposed to be going on, 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.360 that's right, And this is he fell asleep for goodness sake. 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:50.000 There is a point at which terror may turn to madness, 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:55.400 and madness incites to action with no definite intent, from 0:15:55.400 --> 0:15:58.800 no motive, but the wayward impulse of a madman. Merlock 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:01.680 sprang to the wall with a little groping, ceased his 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.200 loaded rifle, and without aim, discharged by the flash, which 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.920 lit up the room with a vivid illumination. He saw 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:12.600 an enormous panther dragging the dead woman toward the window, 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:17.040 its teeth fixed in her throat. Then there was darkness, 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:21.400 blacker than before, in silence, and when he returned to consciousness, 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:24.280 the sun was hot and the wood vocal with songs 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:31.120 of birds. All right, I didn't see that coming. I 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.240 didn't even know there are panthers in Ohio, and I 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:37.880 grew up in Ohio. I guess there, we're back then. Yeah, 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.040 I guess it was a long time ago. But you know, 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:44.200 this guy fires off his rifle just out of instinct, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:45.680 like it could have been his wife. You don't know 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.080 what's going on. Yeah, I imagine him being like Barney Fife, 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.200 trying to take a shot while he's really worked up. 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:58.280 All right, let's finish this thing up. Okay. The body 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.360 lay near the window where the beasts had left it 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:03.760 when frightened away by the flash and report of the rifle. 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.600 The clothing was deranged, the long hair and disorder the 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:14.280 limbs lay anyhow, from the throat dreadfully lacerated. He had 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.919 issued a pool of blood, not yet entirely coagulated. The 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.040 ribbon with which he had bound the wrists was broken, 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:26.679 The hands were tightly clenched between the teeth was a 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:36.120 fragment the animals here, all right. I read a little 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.440 bit of what do you call it when people interpret 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:47.919 things I don't know? Is yeah? Sure? And you know 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:51.199 they seemed to be an agreement that the wife was 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.600 not dead and that he tied her up, and then 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:58.840 she struggled to try and free herself and like, fight 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:03.480 this panther. I like to think that she was dead 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:07.200 this being Halloween, and came back to life for one 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:10.719 last struggle with the panther. She was like not my man, panther, 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:16.920 and and saved his life. Okay, I like it. Good story. 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.480 It was a good story. Good choice, Chuck, and good 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:22.040 job Ambrose Bears. If you can hear us wherever you 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:29.200 are now, aka Josh, he's selling Santa Claus. Okay, so 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:31.280 you want to start mine because we don't have to 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.400 take an ad break, remember that's right. Uh yeah, sure, 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.560 we've got our parts worked out, right, we do. I 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:42.800 think you should take the the other guy, the landlord. Yeah, 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.080 you take the landlord because he's talking to my guy. 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:49.360 So that makes sense. Okay, cool, and then I'll start 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.200 this one out and we'll just kind of switch off, 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:55.119 right yeah. Yeah, So we're gonna read The toll House. 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:59.080 And it's a short story by W. W. Jacobs written 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:01.040 in nineteen o seven in or at least published for 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.119 the first time in ninetuen and seven. And W. W. 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.520 Jacobs was much more famous for having written The Monkeys Paw. 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.000 Oh okay, I knew, I knew that name. Yeah, he 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:17.240 should have entitled this the toll House parentheses. Those ain't cookies. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.040 I can't think of anything but that. It'll make sense 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.200 in a minute, right, Okay, remember when we did that 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.920 Cookies episode, we found out some people actually call chocolate 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:29.880 chip cookies toll houses. Yeah, it's weird. That is really weird. 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.960 Don't be weird people just calling chocolate chip cookies exactly. 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.080 So where are these guys from. I haven't worked on 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:39.560 any accents or affectations yet. Well, I think that's great. 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:41.800 We can just leave it up to our imaginations. But 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:48.560 I'm gonna guess, um, somewhere in the Middle East. Oh no, alright, 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:53.080 Middle East of America. Let's say. Yeah, okay, no, no, 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.360 I was kidding. I meant Middle East. No, I think 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.560 that's they're meant to be British. I think this is 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:01.560 set in in England. Oh out fun, this is gonna 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:06.520 get weird. Then I love it. Yeah that if you, 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.760 if you could stop and edit like our initial accents, 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.080 with the ones we end up on finally that they're 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:25.000 like night and day. All right, here we go. It's 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:29.080 all nonsense, said Jack Barnes. Of course people have died 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:32.639 in the house. People die in every house. As for 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:35.439 the noises wind in the chimney and rats and the 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:39.439 wainscott are very convincing to a nervous man. Give me 0:20:39.440 --> 0:20:43.879 another cup of Team Megel. Lester and White are first, 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:47.119 said Meagel, who was presiding at the tea table. Of 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:51.120 the three feathers in you've had two. Lester and White 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:55.080 finish their cup with irritating slowness, pausing between SIPs to 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.200 sniff the aroma and to discover the sex and dates 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.240 of arrival of the strangers, which floated in some numbers 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:05.080 in the beverage. Now what is that? I have no idea. 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:09.560 I really wondered about that. It doesn't make any sense. 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:11.560 The only way I can make heaser tails of it. 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.840 Is if the beverage is like that a bar another 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.440 word for the bar, and there there there's people coming 0:21:17.480 --> 0:21:19.359 in and out of this public bar that they're in. 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:23.800 That's all I can do. Yeah, that makes a little 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:28.280 bit of sense at least. Mr Meagle served them to 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.760 the brim, and then turning to the grimly expectant Mr 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:35.880 Barnes blandly requested him to ring for hot water. We'll 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:38.720 try and keep your nerves in a healthy present condition, 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:41.600 he remarked. For my part, I have a sort of 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.480 half and half belief in the supernatural. All sensible people have, 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:49.240 said Leicester. An auntie of mine saw a ghost once. 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:53.600 White nodded. I had an uncle that saw one, he said. 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.000 It always is somebody else that sees them. Well, there's 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.720 a house, said Meagle, a lot to house at an 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.120 absurdly low rate, and nobody will take it. It has 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:07.400 taken toll of at least one life of every family 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:10.560 that's lived there, however short at the time, and since 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.320 it has stood empty, caretaker after caretaker has died there. 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:20.919 The last caretaker died there fifteen years ago. Wow, I 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:25.080 love Meagle. It's really evolved. He's changed all of a 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.080 sudden that tea is doing something. Yeah, now, I just 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:31.360 have to remember the next time he speaks. Well, I've 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:35.080 tried to separate my two guys by by class. You don't, 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:40.120 oh nice? Okay, all right exactly, said Barnes, long enough 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:45.520 for legends to accumulate. Okay, I'll bet you a sovereign 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:47.879 you won't spend the night there alone for all your talk, 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:55.159 said White suddenly. And I no, said Barnes slowly. I 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:58.920 don't believe in ghost snore, in any supernatural things whatever, 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:01.520 all the aim, I admit that I should not care 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:05.760 to pass a night there alone. But why not? Inquired White? 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:09.520 Wind in the chimney, said Meagle with the green I 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:12.840 don't remember what Meagle founded like rats and the Wainscott 0:23:13.359 --> 0:23:18.720 chimed in lester as you like, said Barnes, coloring. Suppose 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:22.040 we all go, said Meagle, start after supper and get 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:25.320 there about eleven. We've been walking for ten days now 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:29.040 without an adventure except for bonness discovery that ditch water 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:32.880 smells longest. There will be a novelty at any rate. 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:35.439 And if we break the spell by all surviving, the 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:39.240 grateful owner ought to come down handsome. Let's see what 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.000 the landlord has to say about it. First, said Leicester, 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:44.560 there is no fun in passing a night in an 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:48.200 ordinary empty house. Let us make sure that it is haunted. 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:52.040 He rang the bell, and, sending for the landlord, appealed 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:54.320 to him, in the name of our common humanity not 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:57.080 to let them waste a night watching in a house 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:01.199 in which specters and hobgoblins had no part. The reply 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.800 was more than reassuring, and the landlord, after describing with 0:24:04.880 --> 0:24:08.400 considerable art the exact appearance of a head which had 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:11.080 been seen hanging out of a window in the moonlight, 0:24:11.560 --> 0:24:14.359 wound up with a polite but urgent request that they 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:17.960 would settle his bill before they went. It's all very 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:22.560 well for you young gentlemen to have your fun, he said, indulgently. 0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:25.320 But supposing, as how, you are all found dead in 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:29.879 the morning, what about me. It ain't called the toll 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:35.400 house for nothing. You know you die there, last, inquired Barnes, 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:40.000 with an air of polite derision. A tramp was the reply. 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:42.840 He went there for the sake of half a crown, 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:49.320 and they found him next morning hanging from the ballusters. Dead. Suicide, 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:54.800 said Barnes, unsound mind. The landlord nodded. That's what the 0:24:54.880 --> 0:24:58.639 jury brought in, he said slowly, but his mind was 0:24:58.760 --> 0:25:01.600 sound enough when he went in there. I'd known him 0:25:01.760 --> 0:25:04.760 off and on for years. I'm a pool man, but 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:07.280 I wouldn't spend the night in that house for a 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:12.280 hundred pounds. And also, by the way, Chuck, I went 0:25:12.280 --> 0:25:15.600 ahead and did the inflation calculator and then translated it 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:19.480 into USD. So he's saying, the landlord saying here that 0:25:19.520 --> 0:25:22.880