the interrupted narrative
the story was a strange one, sufficient
to hold our interest around the fire, tired as we were after the long day.
it was a cold windy night in december,
and the serpents were howling outside.
morweather, our host, was known as a man
of most brooding sensibility.
all of us, except perhaps peterson, were
in the habit of retiring early.
morweather, despite his own well attested
accomplishments, was perhaps better known for the terrible fates which had
befallen his ancestors.
on the night of which i speak, he had
just received a most unfortunate correspondence from his landlord.
i could not help noticing that lady
alice, with her usual lack of tact, was yawning ostentatiously.
carstairs, as usual, stared straight ahead into the
fire.
given the state of the weather outside,
we little anticipated any interruption to morweather's tale.
suddenly lady alice gave a start, and
turned toward the window.
"i thought i heard a noise,"
she announced in her peculiar high-pitched voice, " a damned queer noise
such as i have not heard since prince albert was hanged at tyburn."
withers, the landlord of morweather's
whom i mentioned earlier in the narrative, and who had stayed on after dinner
because of the raging storm, laughed scornfully.
"perhaps it is the ghost of my late
wife," he announced. he laughed
heartily at this weak jest, but was not joined in doing so by any of the
company, not even monsieur dustairs, who laughed at everything. the attempted witticism was in especially
poor taste, considering that his late
wife had been murdered under most suspicious circumstances, with the heaviest
suspicion falling most decidedly upon himself.
"the time has come," announced
lady alice's companion, miss nethers. "to hear the trumpet of doom."
none of the company seemed the least bit
put out by this pronouncement, except morweather himself, who blanched visibly.
"well, go on with your tale, old
fellow," sir jasper rasped. "you had us all enthralled just a moment
ago."
suddenly a bolt of lightning hit the
house, knocking a hideous old painting - apparently, but by no means
absolutely, meant to depict a naval
battle - off the wall with a loud crash.
carstairs laughed. for the first time within the memory of those
assembled.
"it's those damned serpents,"
the marchioness of l-------- declared.
"they will interrupt everything."
"not quite everything," sir
jasper replied. "they were quiet
enough, weren't they, when poor gladstone went to the guillotine."
mockton,
morweather's personal servant ,accompanied by a most sinister looking
handyman, had arrived to take away the painting, after a sign from withers that
they should not bother hanging it back up.
"i propose," said morweather,
mopping his brow with an enormous handkerchief, "that we all take a brief
pause for some brandy and biscuits. i
will then resume my narrative, as it appears that none of us are going anywhere
tonight."
"hear, hear," sir jasper
cried. "i second that most
opportune suggestion."
none of us, not even lady alice, was of a
mind to contradict sir jasper.
a curious silence, broken only by the
continued howlings of the wind and the serpents, descended on the company as
the servants were summoned, and the excellent brandy and rather less appetizing
biscuits were passed around.
for my part, i continued to wonder if the
bridge would, in fact, be passable in the morning. but i refrained from sharing my fears.
there seemed little possibility of any of
us getting off the island alive.
sources:
jane eyre, by charlotte bronte
wuthering heights, by emily bronte
alice's adventures in wonderland, by
lewis carroll
the turn of the screw, by henry james
the three impostors, by arthur machen
swann's way, by marcel proust
the counterfeiters, by andre gide
chivalry, by rafael sabatini
1984, by george orwell
vengeance is mine, by mickey spillane
one lonely night, by mickey spillane
on the road, by jack kerouac
the bell jar, by sylvia plath
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