🕯️ The Lurking Fear by H.P. Lovecraft | Full Audiobook | Classic Cosmic Horror 🕯️
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We do not'}, {'start': '48.719', 'end': '52.719', 'text': 'claim ownership over any of the texts'}, {'start': '50.800', 'end': '55.120', 'text': 'and aim to make these timeless works'}, {'start': '52.719', 'end': '56.879', 'text': 'more accessible through audio format.'}, {'start': '55.120', 'end': '59.440', 'text': 'Thank you for listening and supporting'}, {'start': '56.879', 'end': '62.520', 'text': 'the preservation of classic literature.'}, {'start': '59.440', 'end': '66.040', 'text': 'The lurking fear by HP'}, {'start': '62.520', 'end': '68.560', 'text': 'Lovecraft. Chapter 1, The Shadow on the'}, {'start': '66.040', 'end': '70.240', 'text': 'Chimney. There was thunder in the air on'}, {'start': '68.560', 'end': '72.320', 'text': 'the night. I went to the deserted'}, {'start': '70.240', 'end': '75.360', 'text': 'mansion at top Tempest Mountain to find'}, {'start': '72.320', 'end': '77.119', 'text': 'the lurking fear. I was not alone, for'}, {'start': '75.360', 'end': '78.799', 'text': 'full hardiness was not then mixed with'}, {'start': '77.119', 'end': '80.720', 'text': 'that love of the grotesque and the'}, {'start': '78.799', 'end': '82.799', 'text': 'terrible, which has made my career a'}, {'start': '80.720', 'end': '85.360', 'text': 'series of quests for strange horrors in'}, {'start': '82.799', 'end': '87.439', 'text': 'literature and in life. With me were two'}, {'start': '85.360', 'end': '90.080', 'text': 'faithful and muscular men for whom I had'}, {'start': '87.439', 'end': '92.000', 'text': 'sent when the time came. Men long'}, {'start': '90.080', 'end': '93.840', 'text': 'associated with me in my ghastly'}, {'start': '92.000', 'end': '96.240', 'text': 'explorations because of their peculiar'}, {'start': '93.840', 'end': '97.920', 'text': 'fitness. We had started quietly from the'}, {'start': '96.240', 'end': '99.759', 'text': 'village because of the reporters who'}, {'start': '97.920', 'end': '102.240', 'text': 'still lingered about after the Eldrich'}, {'start': '99.759', 'end': '104.400', 'text': 'panic of a month before the nightmare'}, {'start': '102.240', 'end': '106.880', 'text': 'creeping death. Later I thought they'}, {'start': '104.400', 'end': '109.119', 'text': 'might aid me, but I did not want them'}, {'start': '106.880', 'end': '111.280', 'text': 'then. Would to God I had let them share'}, {'start': '109.119', 'end': '113.680', 'text': 'the search that I might not have had to'}, {'start': '111.280', 'end': '115.439', 'text': 'bear the secret alone so long. to bear'}, {'start': '113.680', 'end': '117.600', 'text': 'it alone for fear the world would call'}, {'start': '115.439', 'end': '119.920', 'text': 'me mad or go mad itself at the demon'}, {'start': '117.600', 'end': '122.159', 'text': 'implications of the thing. Now that I am'}, {'start': '119.920', 'end': '124.479', 'text': 'telling it anyway, lest the brooding'}, {'start': '122.159', 'end': '128.160', 'text': 'make me a maniac, I wish I had never'}, {'start': '124.479', 'end': '130.319', 'text': 'concealed it, for I and I only know what'}, {'start': '128.160', 'end': '132.800', 'text': 'manner of fear lurked on that spectral'}, {'start': '130.319', 'end': '134.800', 'text': 'and desolate mountain. In a small motor'}, {'start': '132.800', 'end': '136.959', 'text': 'car, we covered the miles of primeval'}, {'start': '134.800', 'end': '139.280', 'text': 'forest and hill until the wooded ascent'}, {'start': '136.959', 'end': '141.200', 'text': 'checked it. The country bore an aspect'}, {'start': '139.280', 'end': '143.120', 'text': 'more than usually sinister as we viewed'}, {'start': '141.200', 'end': '145.520', 'text': 'it by night and without the accustomed'}, {'start': '143.120', 'end': '147.280', 'text': 'crowds of investigators, so that we were'}, {'start': '145.520', 'end': '149.040', 'text': 'often tempted to use the acetylene'}, {'start': '147.280', 'end': '151.120', 'text': 'headlights despite the attention it'}, {'start': '149.040', 'end': '153.680', 'text': 'might attract. It was not a wholesome'}, {'start': '151.120', 'end': '155.360', 'text': 'landscape after dark, and I believe I'}, {'start': '153.680', 'end': '157.280', 'text': 'would have noticed its morbidity even'}, {'start': '155.360', 'end': '159.680', 'text': 'had I been ignorant of the terror that'}, {'start': '157.280', 'end': '161.760', 'text': 'stalked there. Of wild creatures there'}, {'start': '159.680', 'end': '163.920', 'text': 'were none. They are wise when death'}, {'start': '161.760', 'end': '165.920', 'text': 'lears close. The ancient lightning'}, {'start': '163.920', 'end': '168.160', 'text': 'scarred trees seemed unnaturally large'}, {'start': '165.920', 'end': '170.319', 'text': 'and twisted. And the other vegetation'}, {'start': '168.160', 'end': '172.720', 'text': 'unnaturally thick and feverish, while'}, {'start': '170.319', 'end': '174.640', 'text': 'curious mounds and hummocks in the wedi'}, {'start': '172.720', 'end': '176.800', 'text': 'fulgarite pitted earth reminded me of'}, {'start': '174.640', 'end': '179.599', 'text': "snakes and dead men's skulls swelled to"}, {'start': '176.800', 'end': '181.200', 'text': 'gigantic proportions. Fear had lurked on'}, {'start': '179.599', 'end': '183.760', 'text': 'Tempest Mountain for more than a'}, {'start': '181.200', 'end': '185.840', 'text': 'century. This I learned at once from'}, {'start': '183.760', 'end': '187.599', 'text': 'newspaper accounts of the catastrophe'}, {'start': '185.840', 'end': '190.000', 'text': 'which first brought the region to the'}, {'start': '187.599', 'end': '191.760', 'text': "world's notice. The place is a remote,"}, {'start': '190.000', 'end': '193.760', 'text': 'lonely elevation in that part of the'}, {'start': '191.760', 'end': '196.080', 'text': 'Catskills where Dutch civilization once'}, {'start': '193.760', 'end': '198.080', 'text': 'feebly and transiently penetrated,'}, {'start': '196.080', 'end': '200.000', 'text': 'leaving behind, as it receded, only a'}, {'start': '198.080', 'end': '201.920', 'text': 'few ruined mansions and a degenerate'}, {'start': '200.000', 'end': '204.400', 'text': 'squatter population inhabiting pitiful'}, {'start': '201.920', 'end': '206.560', 'text': 'hamlets on isolated slopes. Normal'}, {'start': '204.400', 'end': '208.959', 'text': 'beings seldom visited the locality till'}, {'start': '206.560', 'end': '211.680', 'text': 'the state police were formed, and even'}, {'start': '208.959', 'end': '213.840', 'text': 'now only infrequent troopers patrol it.'}, {'start': '211.680', 'end': '215.840', 'text': 'The fear, however, is an old tradition'}, {'start': '213.840', 'end': '217.840', 'text': 'throughout the neighboring villages,'}, {'start': '215.840', 'end': '219.519', 'text': 'since it is a prime topic in the simple'}, {'start': '217.840', 'end': '221.200', 'text': 'discourse of the poor mongrels, who'}, {'start': '219.519', 'end': '223.120', 'text': 'sometimes leave their valleys to trade'}, {'start': '221.200', 'end': '225.599', 'text': 'handwoven baskets for such primitive'}, {'start': '223.120', 'end': '228.080', 'text': 'necessities as they cannot shoot, raise,'}, {'start': '225.599', 'end': '230.480', 'text': 'or make. The lurking fear dwelt in the'}, {'start': '228.080', 'end': '232.159', 'text': "shunned and deserted Martin's mansion,"}, {'start': '230.480', 'end': '234.239', 'text': 'which crowned the high but gradual'}, {'start': '232.159', 'end': '235.920', 'text': 'eminence, whose liability to frequent'}, {'start': '234.239', 'end': '238.159', 'text': 'thunderstorms gave it the name of'}, {'start': '235.920', 'end': '241.120', 'text': 'Tempest Mountain. For over a hundred'}, {'start': '238.159', 'end': '242.720', 'text': 'years, the antique grovecled stonehouse'}, {'start': '241.120', 'end': '245.840', 'text': 'had been the subject of stories'}, {'start': '242.720', 'end': '247.920', 'text': 'incredibly wild and monstrously hideous.'}, {'start': '245.840', 'end': '250.159', 'text': 'Stories of a silent colossal creeping'}, {'start': '247.920', 'end': '251.680', 'text': 'death which stalked abroad in summer.'}, {'start': '250.159', 'end': '253.599', 'text': 'With whimpering insistence, the'}, {'start': '251.680', 'end': '256.320', 'text': 'squatters told tales of a demon which'}, {'start': '253.599', 'end': '258.079', 'text': 'seized lone wayfarers after dark, either'}, {'start': '256.320', 'end': '260.160', 'text': 'carrying them off or leaving them in a'}, {'start': '258.079', 'end': '261.919', 'text': 'frightful state of nod dismemberment,'}, {'start': '260.160', 'end': '264.320', 'text': 'while sometimes they whispered of blood'}, {'start': '261.919', 'end': '266.320', 'text': 'trails toward the distant mansion. Some'}, {'start': '264.320', 'end': '268.960', 'text': 'said the thunder called the lurking fear'}, {'start': '266.320', 'end': '271.199', 'text': 'out of its habitation, while others said'}, {'start': '268.960', 'end': '273.120', 'text': 'the thunder was its voice. No one'}, {'start': '271.199', 'end': '275.360', 'text': 'outside the backwoods had believed these'}, {'start': '273.120', 'end': '277.040', 'text': 'varying and conflicting stories with'}, {'start': '275.360', 'end': '279.280', 'text': 'their incoherent extravagant'}, {'start': '277.040', 'end': '281.280', 'text': 'descriptions of the half-glims fiend.'}, {'start': '279.280', 'end': '282.560', 'text': 'Yet not a farmer or villager doubted'}, {'start': '281.280', 'end': '284.720', 'text': "that the Martin's mansion was"}, {'start': '282.560', 'end': '286.880', 'text': 'ghoullishly haunted. Local history'}, {'start': '284.720', 'end': '289.120', 'text': 'forbade such a doubt, although no'}, {'start': '286.880', 'end': '290.880', 'text': 'ghostly evidence was ever found by such'}, {'start': '289.120', 'end': '292.720', 'text': 'investigators as had visited the'}, {'start': '290.880', 'end': '295.040', 'text': 'building after some especially vivid'}, {'start': '292.720', 'end': '296.800', 'text': 'tales of the squatters. Grandmothers'}, {'start': '295.040', 'end': '299.280', 'text': 'told strange myths of the Martin'}, {'start': '296.800', 'end': '301.680', 'text': 'spectre, myths concerning the Martins'}, {'start': '299.280', 'end': '304.160', 'text': 'family itself, its queer hereditary'}, {'start': '301.680', 'end': '306.400', 'text': 'dissimilarity of eyes, its long'}, {'start': '304.160', 'end': '308.560', 'text': 'unnatural annals, and the murder which'}, {'start': '306.400', 'end': '310.479', 'text': 'had cursed it. The terror which brought'}, {'start': '308.560', 'end': '312.160', 'text': 'me to the scene was a sudden and'}, {'start': '310.479', 'end': '315.120', 'text': 'portentous confirmation of the'}, {'start': '312.160', 'end': '317.360', 'text': 'mountaineers wildest legends. One summer'}, {'start': '315.120', 'end': '320.000', 'text': 'night, after a thunderstorm of'}, {'start': '317.360', 'end': '322.320', 'text': 'unprecedented violence, the countryside'}, {'start': '320.000', 'end': '324.560', 'text': 'was aroused by a squatter stampede which'}, {'start': '322.320', 'end': '326.720', 'text': 'no mere delusion could create. The'}, {'start': '324.560', 'end': '328.720', 'text': 'pitiful throngs of natives shrieked and'}, {'start': '326.720', 'end': '330.880', 'text': 'whined of the unnameable horror which'}, {'start': '328.720', 'end': '333.520', 'text': 'had descended upon them. And they were'}, {'start': '330.880', 'end': '335.280', 'text': 'not doubted. They had not seen it, but'}, {'start': '333.520', 'end': '337.360', 'text': 'had heard such cries from one of their'}, {'start': '335.280', 'end': '339.600', 'text': 'hamlets that they knew a creeping death'}, {'start': '337.360', 'end': '341.440', 'text': 'had come. In the morning, citizens and'}, {'start': '339.600', 'end': '343.039', 'text': 'state troopers followed the shuddering'}, {'start': '341.440', 'end': '345.120', 'text': 'mountaineers to the place where they'}, {'start': '343.039', 'end': '347.280', 'text': 'said the death had come. Death was'}, {'start': '345.120', 'end': '348.960', 'text': 'indeed there. The ground under one of'}, {'start': '347.280', 'end': '351.199', 'text': 'the squatters villages had caved in'}, {'start': '348.960', 'end': '353.759', 'text': 'after a lightning strike, destroying'}, {'start': '351.199', 'end': '355.280', 'text': 'several of the melodous shanties. But'}, {'start': '353.759', 'end': '357.199', 'text': 'upon this property damage was'}, {'start': '355.280', 'end': '359.680', 'text': 'superimposed an organic devastation'}, {'start': '357.199', 'end': '362.240', 'text': 'which pailed it to insignificance. Of a'}, {'start': '359.680', 'end': '364.960', 'text': 'possible 75 natives who had inhabited'}, {'start': '362.240', 'end': '366.880', 'text': 'this spot, not one living specimen was'}, {'start': '364.960', 'end': '368.800', 'text': 'visible. The disordered earth was'}, {'start': '366.880', 'end': '370.880', 'text': 'covered with blood and human debris'}, {'start': '368.800', 'end': '373.919', 'text': 'bespeaking too vividly the ravages of'}, {'start': '370.880', 'end': '376.160', 'text': 'demon teeth and talons. Yet no visible'}, {'start': '373.919', 'end': '378.560', 'text': 'trail led away from the carnage that'}, {'start': '376.160', 'end': '381.120', 'text': 'some hideous animal must be the cause.'}, {'start': '378.560', 'end': '383.120', 'text': 'Everyone quickly agreed. nor did any'}, {'start': '381.120', 'end': '385.199', 'text': 'tongue now revive the charge that such'}, {'start': '383.120', 'end': '387.680', 'text': 'cryptic deaths formed merely the sorted'}, {'start': '385.199', 'end': '389.840', 'text': 'murders common in decadent communities.'}, {'start': '387.680', 'end': '392.000', 'text': 'That charge was revived only when about'}, {'start': '389.840', 'end': '394.080', 'text': '25 of the estimated population were'}, {'start': '392.000', 'end': '396.000', 'text': 'found missing from the dead. And even'}, {'start': '394.080', 'end': '398.639', 'text': 'then it was hard to explain the murder'}, {'start': '396.000', 'end': '400.639', 'text': 'of 50 by half that number. But the fact'}, {'start': '398.639', 'end': '402.560', 'text': 'remained that on a summer night a bolt'}, {'start': '400.639', 'end': '404.639', 'text': 'had come out of the heavens and left a'}, {'start': '402.560', 'end': '408.160', 'text': 'dead village whose corpses were horribly'}, {'start': '404.639', 'end': '410.000', 'text': 'mangled, chewed, and clawed. The excited'}, {'start': '408.160', 'end': '411.440', 'text': 'countryside immediately connected the'}, {'start': '410.000', 'end': '413.759', 'text': "horror with the haunted Martin's"}, {'start': '411.440', 'end': '415.919', 'text': 'mansion, though the localities were over'}, {'start': '413.759', 'end': '418.160', 'text': 'three miles apart. The troopers were'}, {'start': '415.919', 'end': '420.560', 'text': 'more skeptical, including the mansion'}, {'start': '418.160', 'end': '422.400', 'text': 'only casually in their investigations,'}, {'start': '420.560', 'end': '424.639', 'text': 'and dropping it all together when they'}, {'start': '422.400', 'end': '427.039', 'text': 'found it thoroughly deserted. Country'}, {'start': '424.639', 'end': '429.280', 'text': 'and village people, however, canvased'}, {'start': '427.039', 'end': '431.440', 'text': 'the place with infinite care,'}, {'start': '429.280', 'end': '433.840', 'text': 'overturning everything in the house,'}, {'start': '431.440', 'end': '436.120', 'text': 'sounding ponds and brooks, beating down'}, {'start': '433.840', 'end': '439.520', 'text': 'bushes, and ransacking the nearby'}, {'start': '436.120', 'end': '441.520', 'text': 'forests. All was in vain. The death that'}, {'start': '439.520', 'end': '444.000', 'text': 'had come had left no trace save'}, {'start': '441.520', 'end': '446.000', 'text': 'destruction itself. By the second day of'}, {'start': '444.000', 'end': '448.639', 'text': 'the search, the affair was fully treated'}, {'start': '446.000', 'end': '450.880', 'text': 'by the newspapers whose reporters over'}, {'start': '448.639', 'end': '453.440', 'text': 'Ant Tempest Mountain. They described it'}, {'start': '450.880', 'end': '455.840', 'text': 'in much detail and with many interviews'}, {'start': '453.440', 'end': '458.000', 'text': 'to elucidate the horrors history as told'}, {'start': '455.840', 'end': '459.919', 'text': 'by local grandoms. I followed the'}, {'start': '458.000', 'end': '462.160', 'text': 'accounts languidly at first, for I am a'}, {'start': '459.919', 'end': '463.840', 'text': 'connoisseur in horrors. But after a week'}, {'start': '462.160', 'end': '467.360', 'text': 'I detected an atmosphere which stirred'}, {'start': '463.840', 'end': '468.880', 'text': 'me oddly, so that on August 5th, 1921, I'}, {'start': '467.360', 'end': '471.039', 'text': 'registered among the reporters who'}, {'start': '468.880', 'end': '472.880', 'text': "crowded the hotel at Leffort's Corners,"}, {'start': '471.039', 'end': '474.160', 'text': 'nearest village to Tempest Mountain, and'}, {'start': '472.880', 'end': '476.879', 'text': 'acknowledged headquarters of the'}, {'start': '474.160', 'end': '478.960', 'text': 'searchers. 3 weeks more and the'}, {'start': '476.879', 'end': '481.120', 'text': 'dispersal of the reporters left me free'}, {'start': '478.960', 'end': '483.120', 'text': 'to begin a terrible exploration based on'}, {'start': '481.120', 'end': '485.759', 'text': 'the minute inquiries and surveying with'}, {'start': '483.120', 'end': '487.599', 'text': 'which I had meanwhile busied myself. So'}, {'start': '485.759', 'end': '490.000', 'text': 'on this summer night, while distant'}, {'start': '487.599', 'end': '491.599', 'text': 'thunder rumbled, I left a silent motor'}, {'start': '490.000', 'end': '493.360', 'text': 'car and tramped with two armed'}, {'start': '491.599', 'end': '495.759', 'text': 'companions up the mound covered reaches'}, {'start': '493.360', 'end': '497.520', 'text': 'of Tempest Mountain, casting the beams'}, {'start': '495.759', 'end': '499.280', 'text': 'of an electric torch on the spectral'}, {'start': '497.520', 'end': '501.520', 'text': 'gray walls that began to appear through'}, {'start': '499.280', 'end': '503.400', 'text': 'the giant oaks ahead. In this morbid'}, {'start': '501.520', 'end': '505.919', 'text': "night's solitude and feeble shifting"}, {'start': '503.400', 'end': '507.919', 'text': 'illumination, the vast box-like pile'}, {'start': '505.919', 'end': '510.319', 'text': 'displayed obscure hints of terror which'}, {'start': '507.919', 'end': '512.560', 'text': 'day could not uncover. Yet I did not'}, {'start': '510.319', 'end': '515.200', 'text': 'hesitate, since I had come with fierce'}, {'start': '512.560', 'end': '517.039', 'text': 'resolution to test an idea. I believed'}, {'start': '515.200', 'end': '519.599', 'text': 'that the thunder called the death demon'}, {'start': '517.039', 'end': '522.000', 'text': 'out of some fearsome secret place. And'}, {'start': '519.599', 'end': '524.560', 'text': 'be that demon solid entity or vaporous'}, {'start': '522.000', 'end': '526.480', 'text': 'pestilence, I meant to see it. I had'}, {'start': '524.560', 'end': '529.279', 'text': 'thoroughly searched the ruin before,'}, {'start': '526.480', 'end': '531.279', 'text': 'hence knew my plan well. Choosing as the'}, {'start': '529.279', 'end': '533.680', 'text': 'seat of my vigil the old room of Jan'}, {'start': '531.279', 'end': '536.240', 'text': 'Martins, whose murder looms so great in'}, {'start': '533.680', 'end': '538.399', 'text': 'the rural legends, I felt subtly that'}, {'start': '536.240', 'end': '540.880', 'text': 'the apartment of this ancient victim was'}, {'start': '538.399', 'end': '543.680', 'text': 'best for my purposes. The chamber,'}, {'start': '540.880', 'end': '545.680', 'text': 'measuring about 20 ft square, contained,'}, {'start': '543.680', 'end': '548.160', 'text': 'like the other rooms some rubbish which'}, {'start': '545.680', 'end': '550.240', 'text': 'had once been furniture. It lay on the'}, {'start': '548.160', 'end': '552.320', 'text': 'second story on the southeast corner of'}, {'start': '550.240', 'end': '554.640', 'text': 'the house, and had an immense east'}, {'start': '552.320', 'end': '557.120', 'text': 'window and narrow south window, both'}, {'start': '554.640', 'end': '559.120', 'text': 'devoid of panes or shutters. Opposite'}, {'start': '557.120', 'end': '560.880', 'text': 'the large window was an enormous Dutch'}, {'start': '559.120', 'end': '563.040', 'text': 'fireplace with scriptural tiles'}, {'start': '560.880', 'end': '564.720', 'text': 'representing the prodigal son, and'}, {'start': '563.040', 'end': '567.120', 'text': 'opposite the narrow window was a'}, {'start': '564.720', 'end': '569.440', 'text': 'spacious bed built into the wall. As the'}, {'start': '567.120', 'end': '571.920', 'text': 'tree muffled thunder grew louder, I'}, {'start': '569.440', 'end': '574.000', 'text': 'arranged my plans details. First, I'}, {'start': '571.920', 'end': '576.000', 'text': 'fastened side by side on the ledge of'}, {'start': '574.000', 'end': '578.240', 'text': 'the large window three rope ladders'}, {'start': '576.000', 'end': '580.200', 'text': 'which I had brought with me. I knew they'}, {'start': '578.240', 'end': '583.279', 'text': 'reached a suitable spot on the grass'}, {'start': '580.200', 'end': '585.360', 'text': 'outside, for I had tested them. Then the'}, {'start': '583.279', 'end': '587.920', 'text': 'three of us dragged from another room a'}, {'start': '585.360', 'end': '590.160', 'text': 'wide for poster bedstead, crowding it'}, {'start': '587.920', 'end': '592.560', 'text': 'laterally against the window, having'}, {'start': '590.160', 'end': '595.279', 'text': 'strewn it with fur boughs, all now'}, {'start': '592.560', 'end': '597.680', 'text': 'rested on it with drawn automatics, two'}, {'start': '595.279', 'end': '599.920', 'text': 'relaxing while the third watched from'}, {'start': '597.680', 'end': '602.720', 'text': 'whatever direction the demon might come.'}, {'start': '599.920', 'end': '604.480', 'text': 'Our potential escape was provided. If it'}, {'start': '602.720', 'end': '607.040', 'text': 'came from within the house we had the'}, {'start': '604.480', 'end': '609.360', 'text': 'window ladders, if from outside the door'}, {'start': '607.040', 'end': '611.440', 'text': 'and the stairs, we did not think,'}, {'start': '609.360', 'end': '614.240', 'text': 'judging from precedent, that it would'}, {'start': '611.440', 'end': '616.800', 'text': 'pursue us far even at worst. I watched'}, {'start': '614.240', 'end': '619.120', 'text': 'from midnight to 1:00, when in spite of'}, {'start': '616.800', 'end': '621.279', 'text': 'the sinister house, the unprotected'}, {'start': '619.120', 'end': '624.399', 'text': 'window, and the approaching thunder and'}, {'start': '621.279', 'end': '626.959', 'text': 'lightning, I felt singularly drowsy. I'}, {'start': '624.399', 'end': '628.800', 'text': 'was between my two companions, George'}, {'start': '626.959', 'end': '631.120', 'text': 'Bennett being toward the window and'}, {'start': '628.800', 'end': '633.200', 'text': 'William Toby toward the fireplace.'}, {'start': '631.120', 'end': '635.440', 'text': 'Bennett was asleep, having apparently'}, {'start': '633.200', 'end': '638.000', 'text': 'felt the same anomalous drowsiness which'}, {'start': '635.440', 'end': '639.519', 'text': 'affected me, so I designated Toby for'}, {'start': '638.000', 'end': '642.160', 'text': 'the next watch, although even he was'}, {'start': '639.519', 'end': '644.399', 'text': 'nodding. It is curious how intently I'}, {'start': '642.160', 'end': '646.480', 'text': 'had been watching that fireplace. The'}, {'start': '644.399', 'end': '649.120', 'text': 'increasing thunder must have affected my'}, {'start': '646.480', 'end': '651.680', 'text': 'dreams, for in the brief time I slept,'}, {'start': '649.120', 'end': '654.480', 'text': 'there came to me apocalyptic visions.'}, {'start': '651.680', 'end': '656.640', 'text': 'Once I partly awd, probably because the'}, {'start': '654.480', 'end': '659.519', 'text': 'sleeper toward the window had restlessly'}, {'start': '656.640', 'end': '661.600', 'text': 'flung an arm across my chest. I was not'}, {'start': '659.519', 'end': '663.920', 'text': 'sufficiently awake to see whether Toby'}, {'start': '661.600', 'end': '666.160', 'text': 'was attending to his duties as sentinel,'}, {'start': '663.920', 'end': '668.800', 'text': 'but felt a distinct anxiety on that'}, {'start': '666.160', 'end': '671.600', 'text': 'score. Never before had the presence of'}, {'start': '668.800', 'end': '673.920', 'text': 'evil so poignantly oppressed me. Later,'}, {'start': '671.600', 'end': '676.079', 'text': 'I must have dropped to sleep again, for'}, {'start': '673.920', 'end': '678.000', 'text': 'it was out of a fantasmal chaos that my'}, {'start': '676.079', 'end': '679.839', 'text': 'mind leaped when the night grew hideous'}, {'start': '678.000', 'end': '682.320', 'text': 'with shrieks beyond anything in my'}, {'start': '679.839', 'end': '684.480', 'text': 'former experience or imagination. In'}, {'start': '682.320', 'end': '686.800', 'text': 'that shrieking, the inmost soul of human'}, {'start': '684.480', 'end': '689.440', 'text': 'fear and agony clawed hopelessly and'}, {'start': '686.800', 'end': '691.680', 'text': 'insanely at the ebony gates of oblivion.'}, {'start': '689.440', 'end': '694.320', 'text': 'I awoke to red madness and the mockery'}, {'start': '691.680', 'end': '696.720', 'text': 'of diabolism. As farther and farther'}, {'start': '694.320', 'end': '698.680', 'text': 'down, inconceivable vistas that phobic'}, {'start': '696.720', 'end': '701.279', 'text': 'and crystallin anguish retreated and'}, {'start': '698.680', 'end': '703.120', 'text': 'reverberated. There was no light, but I'}, {'start': '701.279', 'end': '705.680', 'text': 'knew from the empty space at my right'}, {'start': '703.120', 'end': '708.240', 'text': 'that Toby was gone. God alone knew'}, {'start': '705.680', 'end': '710.800', 'text': 'wither. Across my chest still lay the'}, {'start': '708.240', 'end': '712.640', 'text': 'heavy arm of the sleeper at my left.'}, {'start': '710.800', 'end': '714.000', 'text': 'Then came the devastating stroke of'}, {'start': '712.640', 'end': '716.399', 'text': 'lightning which shook the whole'}, {'start': '714.000', 'end': '718.959', 'text': 'mountain, lit the darkest crypts of the'}, {'start': '716.399', 'end': '721.519', 'text': 'hory grove, and splintered the patriarch'}, {'start': '718.959', 'end': '723.600', 'text': 'of the twisted trees. In the demon flash'}, {'start': '721.519', 'end': '725.519', 'text': 'of a monstrous fireball, the sleeper'}, {'start': '723.600', 'end': '727.120', 'text': 'started up suddenly while the glare from'}, {'start': '725.519', 'end': '728.959', 'text': 'beyond the window through his shadow'}, {'start': '727.120', 'end': '730.880', 'text': 'vividly upon the chimney above the'}, {'start': '728.959', 'end': '733.920', 'text': 'fireplace from which my eyes had never'}, {'start': '730.880', 'end': '736.720', 'text': 'strayed. That I am still alive and sane'}, {'start': '733.920', 'end': '738.560', 'text': 'is a marvel I cannot fathom. I cannot'}, {'start': '736.720', 'end': '740.320', 'text': 'fathom it, for the shadow on that'}, {'start': '738.560', 'end': '742.800', 'text': 'chimney was not that of George Bennett'}, {'start': '740.320', 'end': '744.639', 'text': 'or of any other human creature, but a'}, {'start': '742.800', 'end': '746.880', 'text': "blasphemous abnormality from hell's"}, {'start': '744.639', 'end': '748.800', 'text': 'nethermost craters, a nameless,'}, {'start': '746.880', 'end': '750.720', 'text': 'shapeless abomination which no mind'}, {'start': '748.800', 'end': '753.200', 'text': 'could fully grasp, and no pen even'}, {'start': '750.720', 'end': '756.440', 'text': 'partly describe. In another second, I'}, {'start': '753.200', 'end': '758.720', 'text': 'was alone in the mansion, shivering and'}, {'start': '756.440', 'end': '761.839', 'text': 'gibbering. George Bennett and William'}, {'start': '758.720', 'end': '763.680', 'text': 'Toby had left no trace, not even of a'}, {'start': '761.839', 'end': '768.240', 'text': 'struggle. They were never heard of'}, {'start': '763.680', 'end': '770.320', 'text': 'again. Chapter 2. A passer in the storm.'}, {'start': '768.240', 'end': '772.399', 'text': 'Four days after that hideous experience'}, {'start': '770.320', 'end': '774.720', 'text': 'in the forest swathed mansion, I lay'}, {'start': '772.399', 'end': '776.880', 'text': 'nervously exhausted in my hotel room at'}, {'start': '774.720', 'end': '778.560', 'text': "Leffort's Corners. I do not remember"}, {'start': '776.880', 'end': '780.880', 'text': 'exactly how I managed to reach the'}, {'start': '778.560', 'end': '783.360', 'text': 'motorc car, start it, and slip'}, {'start': '780.880', 'end': '785.279', 'text': 'unobserved back to the village. For I'}, {'start': '783.360', 'end': '787.760', 'text': 'retained no distinct impression save of'}, {'start': '785.279', 'end': '790.000', 'text': 'wild armed titan trees, demoniac'}, {'start': '787.760', 'end': '791.680', 'text': 'mutterings of thunder, and coronian'}, {'start': '790.000', 'end': '793.920', 'text': 'shadows a thwart the low mounds that'}, {'start': '791.680', 'end': '795.519', 'text': 'dotted and streaked the region. As I'}, {'start': '793.920', 'end': '797.839', 'text': 'shivered and brooded on the casting of'}, {'start': '795.519', 'end': '799.760', 'text': 'that brain blasting shadow, I knew that'}, {'start': '797.839', 'end': '802.160', 'text': "I had at last pried out one of Earth's"}, {'start': '799.760', 'end': '803.680', 'text': 'supreme horrors, one of those nameless'}, {'start': '802.160', 'end': '805.600', 'text': 'bllights of outer voids whose faint'}, {'start': '803.680', 'end': '807.839', 'text': 'demon scratchings we sometimes hear on'}, {'start': '805.600', 'end': '809.839', 'text': 'the farthest rim of space, yet from'}, {'start': '807.839', 'end': '812.160', 'text': 'which our own finite vision has given us'}, {'start': '809.839', 'end': '814.880', 'text': 'a merciful immunity. The shadow I had'}, {'start': '812.160', 'end': '817.279', 'text': 'seen, I hardly dared to analyze or'}, {'start': '814.880', 'end': '819.360', 'text': 'identify. Something had lain between me'}, {'start': '817.279', 'end': '821.200', 'text': 'and the window that night, but I'}, {'start': '819.360', 'end': '823.600', 'text': 'shuddered whenever I could not cast off'}, {'start': '821.200', 'end': '826.200', 'text': 'the instinct to classify it. If it had'}, {'start': '823.600', 'end': '828.079', 'text': 'only snarled or baed or laughed'}, {'start': '826.200', 'end': '830.639', 'text': 'titteringly, even that would have'}, {'start': '828.079', 'end': '833.440', 'text': 'relieved the abysmal hideousness, but it'}, {'start': '830.639', 'end': '836.560', 'text': 'was so silent. It had rested a heavy arm'}, {'start': '833.440', 'end': '839.920', 'text': 'or forleg on my chest. Obviously, it was'}, {'start': '836.560', 'end': '842.880', 'text': 'organic or had once been organic. Jan'}, {'start': '839.920', 'end': '844.560', 'text': 'Martins, whose room I had invaded, was'}, {'start': '842.880', 'end': '847.360', 'text': 'buried in the graveyard near the'}, {'start': '844.560', 'end': '850.160', 'text': 'mansion. I must find Bennett and Toby,'}, {'start': '847.360', 'end': '852.800', 'text': 'if they lived. Why had it picked them'}, {'start': '850.160', 'end': '856.320', 'text': 'and left me for the last? Drowsiness is'}, {'start': '852.800', 'end': '858.560', 'text': 'so stifling and dreams are so horrible.'}, {'start': '856.320', 'end': '860.720', 'text': 'In a short time, I realized that I must'}, {'start': '858.560', 'end': '863.199', 'text': 'tell my story to someone or break down'}, {'start': '860.720', 'end': '865.440', 'text': 'completely. I had already decided not to'}, {'start': '863.199', 'end': '867.440', 'text': 'abandon the quest for the lurking fear.'}, {'start': '865.440', 'end': '869.240', 'text': 'For in my rash ignorance, it seemed to'}, {'start': '867.440', 'end': '871.279', 'text': 'me that uncertainty was worse than'}, {'start': '869.240', 'end': '873.760', 'text': 'enlightenment, however terrible the'}, {'start': '871.279', 'end': '875.920', 'text': 'latter might prove to be. Accordingly, I'}, {'start': '873.760', 'end': '877.920', 'text': 'revolved in my mind the best course to'}, {'start': '875.920', 'end': '880.160', 'text': 'pursue, whom to select for my'}, {'start': '877.920', 'end': '882.160', 'text': 'confidences, and how to track down the'}, {'start': '880.160', 'end': '884.320', 'text': 'thing which had obliterated two men and'}, {'start': '882.160', 'end': '886.240', 'text': 'cast a nightmare shadow. My chief'}, {'start': '884.320', 'end': '888.399', 'text': "acquaintances at Leffort's corners had"}, {'start': '886.240', 'end': '890.560', 'text': 'been the affable reporters, of whom'}, {'start': '888.399', 'end': '892.959', 'text': 'several still remained to collect final'}, {'start': '890.560', 'end': '894.959', 'text': 'echoes of the tragedy. It was from these'}, {'start': '892.959', 'end': '896.639', 'text': 'that I determined to choose a colleague,'}, {'start': '894.959', 'end': '898.320', 'text': 'and the more I reflected, the more my'}, {'start': '896.639', 'end': '901.680', 'text': 'preference inclined toward one Arthur'}, {'start': '898.320', 'end': '904.000', 'text': 'Monroe, a dark, lean man of about 35,'}, {'start': '901.680', 'end': '905.680', 'text': 'whose education, taste, intelligence,'}, {'start': '904.000', 'end': '907.680', 'text': 'and temperament all seemed to mark him'}, {'start': '905.680', 'end': '910.240', 'text': 'as one not bound to conventional ideas'}, {'start': '907.680', 'end': '912.399', 'text': 'and experiences. On an afternoon in'}, {'start': '910.240', 'end': '914.720', 'text': 'early September, Arthur Monroe listened'}, {'start': '912.399', 'end': '916.440', 'text': 'to my story. I saw from the beginning'}, {'start': '914.720', 'end': '918.639', 'text': 'that he was both interested and'}, {'start': '916.440', 'end': '920.560', 'text': 'sympathetic, and when I had finished, he'}, {'start': '918.639', 'end': '923.120', 'text': 'analyzed and discussed the thing with'}, {'start': '920.560', 'end': '925.440', 'text': 'the greatest shrewdness and judgment.'}, {'start': '923.120', 'end': '927.360', 'text': 'His advice, moreover, was eminently'}, {'start': '925.440', 'end': '928.959', 'text': 'practical, for he recommended a'}, {'start': '927.360', 'end': '930.959', 'text': 'postponement of operations at the'}, {'start': '928.959', 'end': '933.040', 'text': "Martin's mansion until we might become"}, {'start': '930.959', 'end': '935.040', 'text': 'fortified with more detailed historical'}, {'start': '933.040', 'end': '936.800', 'text': 'and geographical data. On his'}, {'start': '935.040', 'end': '938.720', 'text': 'initiative, we combed the countryside'}, {'start': '936.800', 'end': '941.120', 'text': 'for information regarding the terrible'}, {'start': '938.720', 'end': '943.519', 'text': "Martin's family, and discovered a man"}, {'start': '941.120', 'end': '945.920', 'text': 'who possessed a marvelously illuminating'}, {'start': '943.519', 'end': '947.120', 'text': 'ancestral diary. We also talked at'}, {'start': '945.920', 'end': '949.120', 'text': 'length with such of the mountain'}, {'start': '947.120', 'end': '951.279', 'text': 'mongrels as had not fled from the terror'}, {'start': '949.120', 'end': '952.959', 'text': 'and confusion to remoter slopes and'}, {'start': '951.279', 'end': '955.199', 'text': 'arranged to proceed our culminating'}, {'start': '952.959', 'end': '956.880', 'text': 'task, the exhaustive and definitive'}, {'start': '955.199', 'end': '959.199', 'text': 'examination of the mansion in the light'}, {'start': '956.880', 'end': '961.279', 'text': 'of its detailed history with an equally'}, {'start': '959.199', 'end': '962.959', 'text': 'exhaustive and definitive examination of'}, {'start': '961.279', 'end': '965.040', 'text': 'spots associated with the various'}, {'start': '962.959', 'end': '966.880', 'text': 'tragedies of squatter legend. The'}, {'start': '965.040', 'end': '968.639', 'text': 'results of this examination were not at'}, {'start': '966.880', 'end': '970.480', 'text': 'first very enlightening, though our'}, {'start': '968.639', 'end': '973.120', 'text': 'tabulation of them seemed to reveal a'}, {'start': '970.480', 'end': '974.959', 'text': 'fairly significant trend, namely that'}, {'start': '973.120', 'end': '976.639', 'text': 'the number of reported horrors was by'}, {'start': '974.959', 'end': '978.560', 'text': 'far the greatest in areas either'}, {'start': '976.639', 'end': '980.160', 'text': 'comparatively near the avoided house or'}, {'start': '978.560', 'end': '982.399', 'text': 'connected with it by stretches of the'}, {'start': '980.160', 'end': '985.279', 'text': 'morbidly overnourished forest. There'}, {'start': '982.399', 'end': '986.959', 'text': 'were, it is true, exceptions. Indeed,'}, {'start': '985.279', 'end': '988.720', 'text': "the horror which had caught the world's"}, {'start': '986.959', 'end': '990.639', 'text': 'ear had happened in a treeless space'}, {'start': '988.720', 'end': '993.040', 'text': 'remote alike from the mansion and from'}, {'start': '990.639', 'end': '995.360', 'text': 'any connecting woods. As to the nature'}, {'start': '993.040', 'end': '997.279', 'text': 'and appearance of the lurking fear,'}, {'start': '995.360', 'end': '999.759', 'text': 'nothing could be gained from the scared'}, {'start': '997.279', 'end': '1001.519', 'text': 'and witless shanty dwellers. In the same'}, {'start': '999.759', 'end': '1004.639', 'text': 'breath, they called it a snake and a'}, {'start': '1001.519', 'end': '1007.199', 'text': 'giant, a thundervil and a bat, a vulture'}, {'start': '1004.639', 'end': '1009.199', 'text': 'and a walking tree. We did, however,'}, {'start': '1007.199', 'end': '1011.040', 'text': 'deem ourselves justified in assuming'}, {'start': '1009.199', 'end': '1013.360', 'text': 'that it was a living organism highly'}, {'start': '1011.040', 'end': '1014.639', 'text': 'susceptible to electrical storms. And'}, {'start': '1013.360', 'end': '1016.880', 'text': 'although certain of the stories'}, {'start': '1014.639', 'end': '1018.800', 'text': 'suggested wings, we believed that its'}, {'start': '1016.880', 'end': '1021.279', 'text': 'aversion for open spaces made land'}, {'start': '1018.800', 'end': '1023.120', 'text': 'locomotion a more probable theory. The'}, {'start': '1021.279', 'end': '1025.120', 'text': 'only thing really incompatible with the'}, {'start': '1023.120', 'end': '1027.120', 'text': 'latter view was the rapidity with which'}, {'start': '1025.120', 'end': '1029.199', 'text': 'the creature must have traveled in order'}, {'start': '1027.120', 'end': '1031.439', 'text': 'to perform all the deeds attributed to'}, {'start': '1029.199', 'end': '1033.919', 'text': 'it. When we came to know the squatters'}, {'start': '1031.439', 'end': '1037.120', 'text': 'better, we found them curiously likable'}, {'start': '1033.919', 'end': '1039.520', 'text': 'in many ways. Simple animals they were'}, {'start': '1037.120', 'end': '1041.520', 'text': 'gently descending the evolutionary scale'}, {'start': '1039.520', 'end': '1044.240', 'text': 'because of their unfortunate ancestry'}, {'start': '1041.520', 'end': '1046.400', 'text': 'and stoaltifying isolation. They feared'}, {'start': '1044.240', 'end': '1049.360', 'text': 'outsiders but slowly grew accustomed to'}, {'start': '1046.400', 'end': '1051.200', 'text': 'us. finally helping vastly when we beat'}, {'start': '1049.360', 'end': '1052.799', 'text': 'down all the thickets and tore out all'}, {'start': '1051.200', 'end': '1054.880', 'text': 'the partitions of the mansion in our'}, {'start': '1052.799', 'end': '1056.640', 'text': 'search for the lurking fear. When we'}, {'start': '1054.880', 'end': '1059.039', 'text': 'asked them to help us find Bennett and'}, {'start': '1056.640', 'end': '1061.039', 'text': 'Toby, they were truly distressed, for'}, {'start': '1059.039', 'end': '1062.960', 'text': 'they wanted to help us, yet knew that'}, {'start': '1061.039', 'end': '1065.039', 'text': 'these victims had gone as wholly out of'}, {'start': '1062.960', 'end': '1066.799', 'text': 'the world as their own missing people,'}, {'start': '1065.039', 'end': '1069.120', 'text': 'that great numbers of them had actually'}, {'start': '1066.799', 'end': '1071.520', 'text': 'been killed and removed, just as the'}, {'start': '1069.120', 'end': '1072.880', 'text': 'wild animals had long been exterminated.'}, {'start': '1071.520', 'end': '1075.200', 'text': 'We were, of course, thoroughly'}, {'start': '1072.880', 'end': '1077.679', 'text': 'convinced, and we waited apprehensively'}, {'start': '1075.200', 'end': '1079.679', 'text': 'for further tragedies to occur. By the'}, {'start': '1077.679', 'end': '1082.160', 'text': 'middle of October, we were puzzled by'}, {'start': '1079.679', 'end': '1084.080', 'text': 'our lack of progress. Owing to the clear'}, {'start': '1082.160', 'end': '1086.320', 'text': 'nights, no demoniac aggressions had'}, {'start': '1084.080', 'end': '1088.320', 'text': 'taken place, and the completeness of our'}, {'start': '1086.320', 'end': '1090.240', 'text': 'vain searches of house and country'}, {'start': '1088.320', 'end': '1093.120', 'text': 'almost drove us to regard the lurking'}, {'start': '1090.240', 'end': '1094.960', 'text': 'fear as a non-material agency. We feared'}, {'start': '1093.120', 'end': '1097.679', 'text': 'that the cold weather would come on and'}, {'start': '1094.960', 'end': '1099.679', 'text': 'halt our explorations, for all agreed'}, {'start': '1097.679', 'end': '1101.919', 'text': 'that the demon was generally quiet in'}, {'start': '1099.679', 'end': '1104.080', 'text': 'winter. Thus there was a kind of haste'}, {'start': '1101.919', 'end': '1106.720', 'text': 'and desperation in our last daylight'}, {'start': '1104.080', 'end': '1108.480', 'text': 'canvas of the horror visited hamlet. A'}, {'start': '1106.720', 'end': '1110.880', 'text': 'hamlet now deserted because of the'}, {'start': '1108.480', 'end': '1113.440', 'text': 'squatters fears. The ill- fated squatter'}, {'start': '1110.880', 'end': '1115.120', 'text': 'Hamlet had borne no name but had long'}, {'start': '1113.440', 'end': '1117.039', 'text': 'stood in a sheltered though treeless'}, {'start': '1115.120', 'end': '1119.039', 'text': 'cleft between two elevations called'}, {'start': '1117.039', 'end': '1121.440', 'text': 'respectively Cone Mountain and Maple'}, {'start': '1119.039', 'end': '1123.600', 'text': 'Hill. It was closer to Maple Hill than'}, {'start': '1121.440', 'end': '1125.840', 'text': 'to Cone Mountain. Some of the crude'}, {'start': '1123.600', 'end': '1128.240', 'text': 'abodess indeed being dugouts on the side'}, {'start': '1125.840', 'end': '1130.720', 'text': 'of the former eminence. Geographically,'}, {'start': '1128.240', 'end': '1133.120', 'text': 'it lay about 2 mi northwest of the base'}, {'start': '1130.720', 'end': '1135.200', 'text': 'of Tempest Mountain and three mi from'}, {'start': '1133.120', 'end': '1137.200', 'text': 'the Oakgurt mansion. Of the distance'}, {'start': '1135.200', 'end': '1139.360', 'text': 'between the hamlet and the mansion,'}, {'start': '1137.200', 'end': '1141.600', 'text': 'fully 2 mi and a quarter on the hamlet'}, {'start': '1139.360', 'end': '1143.360', 'text': 'side was entirely open country. The'}, {'start': '1141.600', 'end': '1144.960', 'text': 'plane being a fairly level character,'}, {'start': '1143.360', 'end': '1147.280', 'text': 'saved for some of the low snake-like'}, {'start': '1144.960', 'end': '1149.600', 'text': 'mounds, and having as vegetation only'}, {'start': '1147.280', 'end': '1151.600', 'text': 'grass and scattered weeds. Considering'}, {'start': '1149.600', 'end': '1153.360', 'text': 'this topography, we had finally'}, {'start': '1151.600', 'end': '1155.600', 'text': 'concluded that the demon must have come'}, {'start': '1153.360', 'end': '1157.440', 'text': 'by way of Cone Mountain, a wooded'}, {'start': '1155.600', 'end': '1158.880', 'text': 'southern prolongation of which ran to'}, {'start': '1157.440', 'end': '1161.120', 'text': 'within a short distance of the'}, {'start': '1158.880', 'end': '1162.880', 'text': 'westernmost spur of Tempest Mountain.'}, {'start': '1161.120', 'end': '1164.880', 'text': 'The upheaval of ground we traced'}, {'start': '1162.880', 'end': '1167.520', 'text': 'conclusively to a landslide from Maple'}, {'start': '1164.880', 'end': '1169.200', 'text': 'Hill, a tall lone splintered tree on'}, {'start': '1167.520', 'end': '1170.799', 'text': 'whose side had been the striking point'}, {'start': '1169.200', 'end': '1173.280', 'text': 'of the thunderbolt which summoned the'}, {'start': '1170.799', 'end': '1175.520', 'text': 'fiend. As for the 20th time or more,'}, {'start': '1173.280', 'end': '1177.840', 'text': 'Arthur Monroe and I went minutely over'}, {'start': '1175.520', 'end': '1178.799', 'text': 'every inch of the violated village. We'}, {'start': '1177.840', 'end': '1180.640', 'text': 'were filled with a certain'}, {'start': '1178.799', 'end': '1183.520', 'text': 'discouragement coupled with vague and'}, {'start': '1180.640', 'end': '1185.440', 'text': 'novel fears. It was acutely uncanny,'}, {'start': '1183.520', 'end': '1187.679', 'text': 'even when frightful and uncanny things'}, {'start': '1185.440', 'end': '1189.840', 'text': 'were common to encounter so blankly'}, {'start': '1187.679', 'end': '1192.000', 'text': 'clueless a scene after such overwhelming'}, {'start': '1189.840', 'end': '1194.640', 'text': 'occurrences, and we moved about beneath'}, {'start': '1192.000', 'end': '1196.559', 'text': 'the leen darkening sky with that tragic'}, {'start': '1194.640', 'end': '1198.720', 'text': 'directionless zeal which results from a'}, {'start': '1196.559', 'end': '1202.000', 'text': 'combined sense of futility and necessity'}, {'start': '1198.720', 'end': '1204.400', 'text': 'of action. Our care was gravely minute.'}, {'start': '1202.000', 'end': '1206.240', 'text': 'Every cottage was again entered. Every'}, {'start': '1204.400', 'end': '1208.720', 'text': 'hillside dugout again searched for'}, {'start': '1206.240', 'end': '1211.280', 'text': 'bodies. Every thorny foot of adjacent'}, {'start': '1208.720', 'end': '1214.080', 'text': 'slope again scanned for dens and caves,'}, {'start': '1211.280', 'end': '1216.240', 'text': 'but all without result. And yet, as I'}, {'start': '1214.080', 'end': '1218.559', 'text': 'have said, vague new fears hovered'}, {'start': '1216.240', 'end': '1220.640', 'text': 'menacingly over us, as if giant'}, {'start': '1218.559', 'end': '1222.240', 'text': 'bat-winged griffins squatted invisibly'}, {'start': '1220.640', 'end': '1223.760', 'text': 'on the mountaintops, and leared with'}, {'start': '1222.240', 'end': '1226.160', 'text': 'abadden eyes that had looked on'}, {'start': '1223.760', 'end': '1228.159', 'text': 'transcmic gulfs. As the afternoon'}, {'start': '1226.160', 'end': '1230.159', 'text': 'advanced, it became increasingly'}, {'start': '1228.159', 'end': '1232.240', 'text': 'difficult to see, and we heard the'}, {'start': '1230.159', 'end': '1234.799', 'text': 'rumble of a thunderstorm gathering over'}, {'start': '1232.240', 'end': '1237.200', 'text': 'Tempest Mountain. This sound in such a'}, {'start': '1234.799', 'end': '1239.200', 'text': 'locality naturally stirred us, though'}, {'start': '1237.200', 'end': '1241.600', 'text': 'less than it would have done at night.'}, {'start': '1239.200', 'end': '1244.000', 'text': 'As it was, we hoped desperately that the'}, {'start': '1241.600', 'end': '1245.520', 'text': 'storm would last until well after dark,'}, {'start': '1244.000', 'end': '1247.280', 'text': 'and with that hope turned from our'}, {'start': '1245.520', 'end': '1249.200', 'text': 'aimless hillside, searching toward the'}, {'start': '1247.280', 'end': '1251.000', 'text': 'nearest inhabited hamlet to gather a'}, {'start': '1249.200', 'end': '1254.000', 'text': 'body of squatters as helpers in the'}, {'start': '1251.000', 'end': '1255.840', 'text': 'investigation. Timid as they were, a few'}, {'start': '1254.000', 'end': '1258.080', 'text': 'of the younger men were sufficiently'}, {'start': '1255.840', 'end': '1260.320', 'text': 'inspired by our protective leadership to'}, {'start': '1258.080', 'end': '1262.320', 'text': 'promise such help. We had hardly more'}, {'start': '1260.320', 'end': '1264.240', 'text': 'than turned, however, when there'}, {'start': '1262.320', 'end': '1266.240', 'text': 'descended such a blinding sheet of'}, {'start': '1264.240', 'end': '1268.400', 'text': 'torrential rain that shelter became'}, {'start': '1266.240', 'end': '1270.400', 'text': 'imperative. The extreme, almost'}, {'start': '1268.400', 'end': '1272.559', 'text': 'nocturnal darkness of the sky caused us'}, {'start': '1270.400', 'end': '1274.400', 'text': 'to stumble sadly, but guided by the'}, {'start': '1272.559', 'end': '1276.000', 'text': 'frequent flashes of lightning, and by'}, {'start': '1274.400', 'end': '1277.840', 'text': 'our minute knowledge of the hamlet, we'}, {'start': '1276.000', 'end': '1280.000', 'text': 'soon reached the least porest cabin of'}, {'start': '1277.840', 'end': '1282.080', 'text': 'the lot. and heterogeneous combination'}, {'start': '1280.000', 'end': '1284.159', 'text': 'of logs and boards whose still existing'}, {'start': '1282.080', 'end': '1286.720', 'text': 'door and single tiny window both faced'}, {'start': '1284.159', 'end': '1289.039', 'text': 'Maple Hill. Barring the door after us'}, {'start': '1286.720', 'end': '1291.200', 'text': 'against the fury of the wind and rain,'}, {'start': '1289.039', 'end': '1292.880', 'text': 'we put in place the crude window shutter'}, {'start': '1291.200', 'end': '1295.200', 'text': 'which our frequent searches had taught'}, {'start': '1292.880', 'end': '1297.120', 'text': 'us where to find. It was dismal sitting'}, {'start': '1295.200', 'end': '1299.520', 'text': 'there on rickety boxes in the pitchy'}, {'start': '1297.120', 'end': '1301.440', 'text': 'darkness, but we smoked pipes and'}, {'start': '1299.520', 'end': '1303.520', 'text': 'occasionally flashed our pocket lamps'}, {'start': '1301.440', 'end': '1305.679', 'text': 'about. Now and then we could see the'}, {'start': '1303.520', 'end': '1307.760', 'text': 'lightning through cracks in the wall.'}, {'start': '1305.679', 'end': '1310.400', 'text': 'The afternoon was so incredibly dark'}, {'start': '1307.760', 'end': '1312.799', 'text': 'that each flash was extremely vivid. The'}, {'start': '1310.400', 'end': '1315.679', 'text': 'stormy vigil reminded me shudderingly of'}, {'start': '1312.799', 'end': '1317.440', 'text': 'my ghastly night on Tempest Mountain. My'}, {'start': '1315.679', 'end': '1318.880', 'text': 'mind turned to that odd question which'}, {'start': '1317.440', 'end': '1320.880', 'text': 'had kept recurring ever since the'}, {'start': '1318.880', 'end': '1323.039', 'text': 'nightmare thing had happened. And again'}, {'start': '1320.880', 'end': '1324.880', 'text': 'I wondered why the demon approaching the'}, {'start': '1323.039', 'end': '1327.120', 'text': 'three watchers either from the window or'}, {'start': '1324.880', 'end': '1328.880', 'text': 'the interior had begun with the men on'}, {'start': '1327.120', 'end': '1331.039', 'text': 'each side and left the middleman till'}, {'start': '1328.880', 'end': '1333.600', 'text': 'the last when the Titan fireball had'}, {'start': '1331.039', 'end': '1336.159', 'text': 'scared it away. Why had it not taken its'}, {'start': '1333.600', 'end': '1338.640', 'text': 'victims in natural order, with myself'}, {'start': '1336.159', 'end': '1340.799', 'text': 'second, from whichever direction it had'}, {'start': '1338.640', 'end': '1343.360', 'text': 'approached? With what manner of'}, {'start': '1340.799', 'end': '1345.679', 'text': 'far-reaching tentacles did it prey? Or'}, {'start': '1343.360', 'end': '1348.039', 'text': 'did it know that I was the leader, and'}, {'start': '1345.679', 'end': '1350.039', 'text': 'save me for a fate worse than that of my'}, {'start': '1348.039', 'end': '1352.559', 'text': 'companions? In the midst of these'}, {'start': '1350.039', 'end': '1355.360', 'text': 'reflections, as if dramatically arranged'}, {'start': '1352.559', 'end': '1357.360', 'text': 'to intensify them, there fell near by a'}, {'start': '1355.360', 'end': '1359.679', 'text': 'terrific bolt of lightning, followed by'}, {'start': '1357.360', 'end': '1362.320', 'text': 'the sound of sliding earth. At the same'}, {'start': '1359.679', 'end': '1365.039', 'text': 'time, the wolfish wind rose to demoniac'}, {'start': '1362.320', 'end': '1367.039', 'text': 'crescendos of ulation. We were sure that'}, {'start': '1365.039', 'end': '1369.440', 'text': 'the lone tree on Maple Hill had been'}, {'start': '1367.039', 'end': '1371.280', 'text': 'struck again, and Monroe rose from his'}, {'start': '1369.440', 'end': '1373.520', 'text': 'box and went to the tiny window to'}, {'start': '1371.280', 'end': '1375.360', 'text': 'ascertain the damage. When he took down'}, {'start': '1373.520', 'end': '1377.760', 'text': 'the shutter, the wind and rain howled'}, {'start': '1375.360', 'end': '1379.919', 'text': 'deafeningly in, so that I could not hear'}, {'start': '1377.760', 'end': '1381.960', 'text': 'what he said. But I waited while he'}, {'start': '1379.919', 'end': '1384.480', 'text': "leaned out and tried to fathom nature's"}, {'start': '1381.960', 'end': '1386.640', 'text': 'pandemonium. gradually a calming of the'}, {'start': '1384.480', 'end': '1389.360', 'text': 'wind and dispersal of the unusual'}, {'start': '1386.640', 'end': '1391.120', 'text': "darkness told of the storm's passing. I"}, {'start': '1389.360', 'end': '1393.840', 'text': 'had hoped it would last into the night'}, {'start': '1391.120', 'end': '1395.840', 'text': 'to help our quest, but a furt of sunbeam'}, {'start': '1393.840', 'end': '1398.080', 'text': 'from a knot hole behind me removed the'}, {'start': '1395.840', 'end': '1399.919', 'text': 'likelihood of such a thing, suggesting'}, {'start': '1398.080', 'end': '1402.400', 'text': 'to Monroe that we had better get some'}, {'start': '1399.919', 'end': '1404.799', 'text': 'light, even if more showers came. I'}, {'start': '1402.400', 'end': '1406.799', 'text': 'unbard and opened the crew door. The'}, {'start': '1404.799', 'end': '1409.200', 'text': 'ground outside was a singular mass of'}, {'start': '1406.799', 'end': '1411.679', 'text': 'mud and pools with fresh heaps of earth'}, {'start': '1409.200', 'end': '1413.520', 'text': 'from the slight landslide, but I saw'}, {'start': '1411.679', 'end': '1415.600', 'text': 'nothing to justify the interest which'}, {'start': '1413.520', 'end': '1418.320', 'text': 'kept my companion silently leaning out'}, {'start': '1415.600', 'end': '1420.880', 'text': 'the window. Crossing to where he leaned,'}, {'start': '1418.320', 'end': '1423.760', 'text': 'I touched his shoulder, but he did not'}, {'start': '1420.880', 'end': '1426.240', 'text': 'move. Then, as I playfully shook him and'}, {'start': '1423.760', 'end': '1428.559', 'text': 'turned him around, I felt the strangling'}, {'start': '1426.240', 'end': '1430.799', 'text': 'tendrils of a cancerous horror whose'}, {'start': '1428.559', 'end': '1432.640', 'text': 'roots reached into a limitable pasts and'}, {'start': '1430.799', 'end': '1435.280', 'text': 'fathomless abyisms of the night that'}, {'start': '1432.640', 'end': '1437.679', 'text': 'broods beyond time. For Arthur Monroe'}, {'start': '1435.280', 'end': '1439.679', 'text': 'was dead, and on what remained of his'}, {'start': '1437.679', 'end': '1443.280', 'text': 'chewed and gouged head, there was no'}, {'start': '1439.679', 'end': '1445.840', 'text': 'longer a face. Chapter 3. what the red'}, {'start': '1443.280', 'end': '1449.039', 'text': 'glare meant. On the tempest racked night'}, {'start': '1445.840', 'end': '1451.440', 'text': 'of November 8th, 1921, with a lantern'}, {'start': '1449.039', 'end': '1453.440', 'text': 'which cast charal shadows, I stood'}, {'start': '1451.440', 'end': '1456.000', 'text': 'digging alone and idiotically in the'}, {'start': '1453.440', 'end': '1458.159', 'text': 'grave of Jan Martins. I had begun to dig'}, {'start': '1456.000', 'end': '1460.480', 'text': 'in the afternoon because a thunderstorm'}, {'start': '1458.159', 'end': '1462.080', 'text': 'was brewing, and now that it was dark,'}, {'start': '1460.480', 'end': '1464.799', 'text': 'and the storm had burst above the'}, {'start': '1462.080', 'end': '1466.880', 'text': 'maniacally thick foliage, I was glad. I'}, {'start': '1464.799', 'end': '1469.360', 'text': 'believe that my mind was partly unhinged'}, {'start': '1466.880', 'end': '1470.960', 'text': 'by events since August 5th. the demon'}, {'start': '1469.360', 'end': '1472.960', 'text': 'shadow in the mansion, the general'}, {'start': '1470.960', 'end': '1474.480', 'text': 'strain and disappointment, and the thing'}, {'start': '1472.960', 'end': '1476.880', 'text': 'that occurred at the hamlet in an'}, {'start': '1474.480', 'end': '1479.039', 'text': 'October storm. After that thing, I had'}, {'start': '1476.880', 'end': '1481.440', 'text': 'dug a grave for one whose death I could'}, {'start': '1479.039', 'end': '1483.760', 'text': 'not understand. I knew that others could'}, {'start': '1481.440', 'end': '1486.159', 'text': 'not understand either, so let them think'}, {'start': '1483.760', 'end': '1488.480', 'text': 'Arthur Monroe had wandered away. They'}, {'start': '1486.159', 'end': '1490.880', 'text': 'searched, but found nothing. The'}, {'start': '1488.480', 'end': '1493.440', 'text': 'squatters might have understood, but I'}, {'start': '1490.880', 'end': '1496.080', 'text': 'dared not frighten them more. I myself'}, {'start': '1493.440', 'end': '1497.679', 'text': 'seemed strangely callous. That shock at'}, {'start': '1496.080', 'end': '1499.679', 'text': 'the mansion had done something to my'}, {'start': '1497.679', 'end': '1501.360', 'text': 'brain, and I could think only of the'}, {'start': '1499.679', 'end': '1504.400', 'text': 'quest for a horror now grown to'}, {'start': '1501.360', 'end': '1506.240', 'text': 'cataclysmic stature in my imagination, a'}, {'start': '1504.400', 'end': '1508.960', 'text': 'quest which the fate of Arthur Monroe'}, {'start': '1506.240', 'end': '1511.279', 'text': 'made me vow to keep silent and solitary.'}, {'start': '1508.960', 'end': '1513.679', 'text': 'The scene of my excavations would alone'}, {'start': '1511.279', 'end': '1516.360', 'text': 'have been enough to unnerve any ordinary'}, {'start': '1513.679', 'end': '1519.360', 'text': 'man. Baleful primal trees of unholy'}, {'start': '1516.360', 'end': '1520.799', 'text': 'size. Age and grotesquestness leared'}, {'start': '1519.360', 'end': '1523.440', 'text': 'above me like the pillars of some'}, {'start': '1520.799', 'end': '1525.760', 'text': 'hellish druidic temple. Muffling the'}, {'start': '1523.440', 'end': '1528.000', 'text': 'thunder, hushing the clawing wind, and'}, {'start': '1525.760', 'end': '1530.000', 'text': 'admitting but little rain. Beyond the'}, {'start': '1528.000', 'end': '1531.919', 'text': 'scarred trunks in the background,'}, {'start': '1530.000', 'end': '1534.559', 'text': 'illumined by faint flashes of filtered'}, {'start': '1531.919', 'end': '1536.640', 'text': 'lightning, rose the damp ivied stones of'}, {'start': '1534.559', 'end': '1538.400', 'text': 'the deserted mansion, while somewhat'}, {'start': '1536.640', 'end': '1540.320', 'text': 'nearer was the abandoned Dutch garden'}, {'start': '1538.400', 'end': '1543.279', 'text': 'whose walks and beds were polluted by a'}, {'start': '1540.320', 'end': '1545.679', 'text': 'white fungus fetted overnourished'}, {'start': '1543.279', 'end': '1548.000', 'text': 'vegetation that never saw full daylight.'}, {'start': '1545.679', 'end': '1550.080', 'text': 'And nearest of all was the graveyard,'}, {'start': '1548.000', 'end': '1551.840', 'text': 'where deformed trees tossed insane'}, {'start': '1550.080', 'end': '1554.080', 'text': 'branches as their roots displaced'}, {'start': '1551.840', 'end': '1556.799', 'text': 'unhallowed slabs and sucked venom from'}, {'start': '1554.080', 'end': '1558.960', 'text': 'what lay below. Now and then, beneath'}, {'start': '1556.799', 'end': '1560.880', 'text': 'the brown paw of leaves that rotted and'}, {'start': '1558.960', 'end': '1563.200', 'text': 'festered in the antidolivian forest'}, {'start': '1560.880', 'end': '1565.039', 'text': 'darkness, I could trace the sinister'}, {'start': '1563.200', 'end': '1566.559', 'text': 'outlines of some of these low mounds'}, {'start': '1565.039', 'end': '1569.039', 'text': 'which characterized the lightning'}, {'start': '1566.559', 'end': '1572.080', 'text': 'pierced region. History had led me to'}, {'start': '1569.039', 'end': '1574.400', 'text': 'this archaic grave. History indeed was'}, {'start': '1572.080', 'end': '1576.799', 'text': 'all I had after everything else ended in'}, {'start': '1574.400', 'end': '1579.360', 'text': 'mocking Satanism. I now believed that'}, {'start': '1576.799', 'end': '1581.520', 'text': 'the lurking fear was no material thing'}, {'start': '1579.360', 'end': '1583.919', 'text': 'but a wolf fanged ghost that rode the'}, {'start': '1581.520', 'end': '1585.760', 'text': 'midnight lightning. And I believed'}, {'start': '1583.919', 'end': '1587.840', 'text': 'because of the masses of local tradition'}, {'start': '1585.760', 'end': '1590.159', 'text': 'I had unearthed in my search with Arthur'}, {'start': '1587.840', 'end': '1593.840', 'text': 'Monroe that the ghost was that of Jan'}, {'start': '1590.159', 'end': '1596.159', 'text': 'Martins who died in 1762. That is why I'}, {'start': '1593.840', 'end': '1598.720', 'text': 'was digging idiotically in his grave.'}, {'start': '1596.159', 'end': '1601.520', 'text': 'The Martins mansion was built in 1670 by'}, {'start': '1598.720', 'end': '1603.440', 'text': 'Garrett Martins. A wealthy New Amsterdam'}, {'start': '1601.520', 'end': '1605.679', 'text': 'merchant who disliked the changing order'}, {'start': '1603.440', 'end': '1607.840', 'text': 'under British rule and had constructed'}, {'start': '1605.679', 'end': '1610.159', 'text': 'this magnificent doicile on a remote'}, {'start': '1607.840', 'end': '1612.559', 'text': 'woodland summit whose untrodden solitude'}, {'start': '1610.159', 'end': '1614.080', 'text': 'and unusual scenery pleased him. The'}, {'start': '1612.559', 'end': '1616.159', 'text': 'only substantial disappointment'}, {'start': '1614.080', 'end': '1618.000', 'text': 'encountered in this site was that which'}, {'start': '1616.159', 'end': '1620.240', 'text': 'concerned the prevalence of violent'}, {'start': '1618.000', 'end': '1622.240', 'text': 'thunderstorms in summer. When selecting'}, {'start': '1620.240', 'end': '1624.159', 'text': 'the hill and building his mansion,'}, {'start': '1622.240', 'end': '1626.320', 'text': 'Manair Martins had laid these frequent'}, {'start': '1624.159', 'end': '1628.720', 'text': 'natural outbursts to some peculiarity of'}, {'start': '1626.320', 'end': '1630.799', 'text': 'the year, but in time he perceived that'}, {'start': '1628.720', 'end': '1633.360', 'text': 'the locality was especially liable to'}, {'start': '1630.799', 'end': '1636.240', 'text': 'such phenomena. At length, having found'}, {'start': '1633.360', 'end': '1638.080', 'text': 'these storms injurious to his head, he'}, {'start': '1636.240', 'end': '1640.559', 'text': 'fitted up a cellar into which he could'}, {'start': '1638.080', 'end': '1642.799', 'text': 'retreat from their wildest pandemonium.'}, {'start': '1640.559', 'end': '1645.120', 'text': "of Garrett Martins's descendants less is"}, {'start': '1642.799', 'end': '1647.080', 'text': 'known than of himself, since they were'}, {'start': '1645.120', 'end': '1649.360', 'text': 'all reared in hatred of the English'}, {'start': '1647.080', 'end': '1651.840', 'text': 'civilization, and trained to shun such'}, {'start': '1649.360', 'end': '1654.240', 'text': 'of the colonists as accepted it. Their'}, {'start': '1651.840', 'end': '1656.320', 'text': 'life was exceedingly secluded, and'}, {'start': '1654.240', 'end': '1658.000', 'text': 'people declared that their isolation had'}, {'start': '1656.320', 'end': '1660.159', 'text': 'made them heavy of speech and'}, {'start': '1658.000', 'end': '1662.000', 'text': 'comprehension. In appearance, all were'}, {'start': '1660.159', 'end': '1664.480', 'text': 'marked by a peculiar inherited'}, {'start': '1662.000', 'end': '1666.720', 'text': 'dissimilarity of eyes, one generally'}, {'start': '1664.480', 'end': '1669.200', 'text': 'being blue and the other brown. Their'}, {'start': '1666.720', 'end': '1671.360', 'text': 'social contacts grew fewer and fewer'}, {'start': '1669.200', 'end': '1673.360', 'text': 'till at last they took to intermaring'}, {'start': '1671.360', 'end': '1675.720', 'text': 'with the numerous menial class about the'}, {'start': '1673.360', 'end': '1678.320', 'text': 'estate. Many of the crowded family'}, {'start': '1675.720', 'end': '1680.320', 'text': 'degenerated, moved across the valley,'}, {'start': '1678.320', 'end': '1682.159', 'text': 'and merged with the mongrel population,'}, {'start': '1680.320', 'end': '1684.559', 'text': 'which was later to produce the pitiful'}, {'start': '1682.159', 'end': '1686.960', 'text': 'squatters. The rest had stuck sullenly'}, {'start': '1684.559', 'end': '1689.760', 'text': 'to their ancestral mansion, becoming'}, {'start': '1686.960', 'end': '1691.760', 'text': 'more and more clanish and tacetern, yet'}, {'start': '1689.760', 'end': '1694.320', 'text': 'developing a nervous responsiveness to'}, {'start': '1691.760', 'end': '1696.000', 'text': 'the frequent thunderstorms. Most of this'}, {'start': '1694.320', 'end': '1698.320', 'text': 'information reached the outside world'}, {'start': '1696.000', 'end': '1700.399', 'text': 'through young Jan Martins who from some'}, {'start': '1698.320', 'end': '1702.480', 'text': 'kind of restlessness joined the colonial'}, {'start': '1700.399', 'end': '1704.799', 'text': 'army when news of the Albany Convention'}, {'start': '1702.480', 'end': '1706.480', 'text': 'reached Tempest Mountain. He was the'}, {'start': '1704.799', 'end': '1708.559', 'text': "first of Garrett's descendants to see"}, {'start': '1706.480', 'end': '1711.919', 'text': 'much of the world and when he returned'}, {'start': '1708.559', 'end': '1714.320', 'text': 'in 1760 after 6 years of campaigning he'}, {'start': '1711.919', 'end': '1716.480', 'text': 'was hated as an outsider by his father,'}, {'start': '1714.320', 'end': '1718.799', 'text': 'uncles, and brothers in spite of his'}, {'start': '1716.480', 'end': '1720.720', 'text': "dissimilar Martin's eyes. No longer"}, {'start': '1718.799', 'end': '1722.960', 'text': 'could he share the peculiarities and'}, {'start': '1720.720', 'end': '1724.880', 'text': 'prejudices of the Martinses. While the'}, {'start': '1722.960', 'end': '1727.279', 'text': 'very mountain thunderstorms failed to'}, {'start': '1724.880', 'end': '1730.080', 'text': 'intoxicate him as they had before,'}, {'start': '1727.279', 'end': '1732.080', 'text': 'instead his surroundings depressed him,'}, {'start': '1730.080', 'end': '1734.080', 'text': 'and he frequently wrote to a friend in'}, {'start': '1732.080', 'end': '1737.120', 'text': 'Albany of plans to leave the paternal'}, {'start': '1734.080', 'end': '1740.000', 'text': 'roof. In the spring of 1763, Jonathan'}, {'start': '1737.120', 'end': '1741.960', 'text': 'Gford, the Albany friend of Jan Martins,'}, {'start': '1740.000', 'end': '1744.320', 'text': 'became worried by his correspondent'}, {'start': '1741.960', 'end': '1746.240', 'text': 'silence, especially in view of the'}, {'start': '1744.320', 'end': '1748.559', 'text': 'conditions and quarrels at the Martins'}, {'start': '1746.240', 'end': '1750.799', 'text': 'mansion. Determined to visit Jan in'}, {'start': '1748.559', 'end': '1753.039', 'text': 'person, he went into the mountains on'}, {'start': '1750.799', 'end': '1755.000', 'text': 'horseback. His diary states that he'}, {'start': '1753.039', 'end': '1757.480', 'text': 'reached Tempest Mountain on September'}, {'start': '1755.000', 'end': '1760.000', 'text': '20th, finding the mansion in great'}, {'start': '1757.480', 'end': '1762.799', 'text': 'decrepitude. The sullen, oddeyed'}, {'start': '1760.000', 'end': '1764.720', 'text': 'martinses, whose unclean animal aspect'}, {'start': '1762.799', 'end': '1767.440', 'text': 'shocked him, told him in broken'}, {'start': '1764.720', 'end': '1769.679', 'text': 'gutturals than Jan was dead. He had,'}, {'start': '1767.440', 'end': '1772.240', 'text': 'they insisted, been struck by lightning'}, {'start': '1769.679', 'end': '1774.399', 'text': 'the autumn before, and now lay buried'}, {'start': '1772.240', 'end': '1776.480', 'text': 'behind the neglected sunken gardens.'}, {'start': '1774.399', 'end': '1778.799', 'text': 'They showed the visitor the grave,'}, {'start': '1776.480', 'end': '1780.720', 'text': 'barren and devoid of markers. Something'}, {'start': '1778.799', 'end': '1783.200', 'text': "in the Martins's manner gave Gford a"}, {'start': '1780.720', 'end': '1785.279', 'text': 'feeling of repulsion and suspicion, and'}, {'start': '1783.200', 'end': '1787.840', 'text': 'a week later he returned with spade and'}, {'start': '1785.279', 'end': '1790.240', 'text': 'Maddock to explore the sepulcr spot. He'}, {'start': '1787.840', 'end': '1792.799', 'text': 'found what he expected, a skull crushed'}, {'start': '1790.240', 'end': '1794.880', 'text': 'cruy, as if by savage blows. So'}, {'start': '1792.799', 'end': '1796.559', 'text': 'returning to Albany, he openly charged'}, {'start': '1794.880', 'end': '1799.440', 'text': 'the Martinses with the murder of their'}, {'start': '1796.559', 'end': '1801.480', 'text': 'kinsmen. Legal evidence was lacking, but'}, {'start': '1799.440', 'end': '1803.600', 'text': 'the story spread rapidly around the'}, {'start': '1801.480', 'end': '1806.240', 'text': 'countryside, and from that time, the'}, {'start': '1803.600', 'end': '1808.159', 'text': 'Martinses were ostracized by the world.'}, {'start': '1806.240', 'end': '1810.320', 'text': 'No one would deal with them, and their'}, {'start': '1808.159', 'end': '1812.720', 'text': 'distant manner was shunned as an oursed'}, {'start': '1810.320', 'end': '1814.559', 'text': 'place. Somehow they managed to live on'}, {'start': '1812.720', 'end': '1817.120', 'text': 'independently by the products of their'}, {'start': '1814.559', 'end': '1819.120', 'text': 'estate, for occasional lights glimpsed'}, {'start': '1817.120', 'end': '1821.279', 'text': 'from far away hills attested their'}, {'start': '1819.120', 'end': '1824.240', 'text': 'continued presence. These lights were'}, {'start': '1821.279', 'end': '1826.480', 'text': 'seen as late as 1810, but toward the'}, {'start': '1824.240', 'end': '1828.000', 'text': 'last they became very infrequent.'}, {'start': '1826.480', 'end': '1829.919', 'text': 'Meanwhile, there grew up about the'}, {'start': '1828.000', 'end': '1832.559', 'text': 'mansion and the mountain a body of'}, {'start': '1829.919', 'end': '1835.200', 'text': 'diabolic leandre. The place was avoided'}, {'start': '1832.559', 'end': '1837.120', 'text': 'with double deciduousness and invested'}, {'start': '1835.200', 'end': '1840.200', 'text': 'with every whispered myth tradition'}, {'start': '1837.120', 'end': '1842.720', 'text': 'could supply. It remained unvisited till'}, {'start': '1840.200', 'end': '1845.279', 'text': '1816 when the continued absence of'}, {'start': '1842.720', 'end': '1848.159', 'text': 'lights was noticed by the squatters. At'}, {'start': '1845.279', 'end': '1850.399', 'text': 'that time a party made investigations,'}, {'start': '1848.159', 'end': '1853.039', 'text': 'finding the house deserted and partly in'}, {'start': '1850.399', 'end': '1854.960', 'text': 'ruins. There were no skeletons about, so'}, {'start': '1853.039', 'end': '1857.360', 'text': 'that departure rather than death was'}, {'start': '1854.960', 'end': '1860.080', 'text': 'inferred. The clan seemed to have left'}, {'start': '1857.360', 'end': '1862.080', 'text': 'several years before, and improvised pen'}, {'start': '1860.080', 'end': '1864.480', 'text': 'houses showed how numerous it had grown'}, {'start': '1862.080', 'end': '1867.360', 'text': 'prior to its migration. Its cultural'}, {'start': '1864.480', 'end': '1869.039', 'text': 'level had fallen very low, as proved by'}, {'start': '1867.360', 'end': '1870.799', 'text': 'decaying furniture and scattered'}, {'start': '1869.039', 'end': '1873.039', 'text': 'silverware, which must have been long'}, {'start': '1870.799', 'end': '1875.279', 'text': 'abandoned when its owners left. But'}, {'start': '1873.039', 'end': '1877.840', 'text': 'though the dreaded martinses were gone,'}, {'start': '1875.279', 'end': '1880.240', 'text': 'the fear of the haunted house continued,'}, {'start': '1877.840', 'end': '1882.000', 'text': 'and grew very acute when new and strange'}, {'start': '1880.240', 'end': '1885.440', 'text': 'stories arose among the mountain'}, {'start': '1882.000', 'end': '1887.679', 'text': 'decadence. There it stood, deserted,'}, {'start': '1885.440', 'end': '1890.159', 'text': 'feared, and linked with the vengeful'}, {'start': '1887.679', 'end': '1892.240', 'text': 'ghost of Jan Martins. There it still'}, {'start': '1890.159', 'end': '1894.799', 'text': 'stood on the night I dug in Jan'}, {'start': '1892.240', 'end': '1897.440', 'text': "Martins's grave. I have described my"}, {'start': '1894.799', 'end': '1900.080', 'text': 'protracted digging as idiotic, and such'}, {'start': '1897.440', 'end': '1901.840', 'text': 'it indeed was in object and method. The'}, {'start': '1900.080', 'end': '1904.240', 'text': 'coffin of Jan Martins had been soon'}, {'start': '1901.840', 'end': '1906.960', 'text': 'unearthed. It now held only dust and'}, {'start': '1904.240', 'end': '1909.200', 'text': 'ner, but in my fury to exume his ghost,'}, {'start': '1906.960', 'end': '1911.440', 'text': 'I delved irrationally and clumsily down'}, {'start': '1909.200', 'end': '1914.080', 'text': 'beneath where he had lain. God knows'}, {'start': '1911.440', 'end': '1916.000', 'text': 'what I expected to find. I only felt'}, {'start': '1914.080', 'end': '1918.320', 'text': 'that I was digging in the grave of a man'}, {'start': '1916.000', 'end': '1920.480', 'text': 'whose ghost stalked by night. It is'}, {'start': '1918.320', 'end': '1923.039', 'text': 'impossible to say what monstrous depth I'}, {'start': '1920.480', 'end': '1925.519', 'text': 'had attained when my spade, and soon my'}, {'start': '1923.039', 'end': '1928.039', 'text': 'feet broke through the ground beneath.'}, {'start': '1925.519', 'end': '1930.320', 'text': 'The event under the circumstances was'}, {'start': '1928.039', 'end': '1932.960', 'text': 'tremendous. For in the existence of a'}, {'start': '1930.320', 'end': '1935.360', 'text': 'subterranean space here, my mad theories'}, {'start': '1932.960', 'end': '1937.679', 'text': 'had terrible confirmation. My slight'}, {'start': '1935.360', 'end': '1939.600', 'text': 'fall had extinguished the lantern, but I'}, {'start': '1937.679', 'end': '1941.760', 'text': 'produced an electric pocket lamp and'}, {'start': '1939.600', 'end': '1943.559', 'text': 'viewed the small horizontal tunnel which'}, {'start': '1941.760', 'end': '1946.080', 'text': 'led away indefinitely in both'}, {'start': '1943.559', 'end': '1948.240', 'text': 'directions. It was amply large for a man'}, {'start': '1946.080', 'end': '1950.320', 'text': 'to wrigle through, and though no sane'}, {'start': '1948.240', 'end': '1953.039', 'text': 'person would have tried it at that time,'}, {'start': '1950.320', 'end': '1955.200', 'text': 'I forgot danger, reason, and cleanliness'}, {'start': '1953.039', 'end': '1957.279', 'text': 'in my single-minded fever to unearth the'}, {'start': '1955.200', 'end': '1959.760', 'text': 'lurking fear. Choosing the direction'}, {'start': '1957.279', 'end': '1962.399', 'text': 'toward the house, I scrambled recklessly'}, {'start': '1959.760', 'end': '1964.880', 'text': 'into the narrow burrow, squirming ahead'}, {'start': '1962.399', 'end': '1967.360', 'text': 'blindly and rapidly, and flashing but'}, {'start': '1964.880', 'end': '1969.279', 'text': 'seldom the lamp I kept before me. What'}, {'start': '1967.360', 'end': '1972.000', 'text': 'language can describe the spectacle of a'}, {'start': '1969.279', 'end': '1975.519', 'text': 'man lost in infinitely abysmal earth?'}, {'start': '1972.000', 'end': '1977.440', 'text': 'Pawing, twisting, wheezing, scrambling'}, {'start': '1975.519', 'end': '1979.519', 'text': 'madly through sunken convolutions of'}, {'start': '1977.440', 'end': '1983.039', 'text': 'immemorial blackness without an idea of'}, {'start': '1979.519', 'end': '1985.200', 'text': 'time, safety, direction, or definite'}, {'start': '1983.039', 'end': '1987.840', 'text': 'object. There is something hideous in'}, {'start': '1985.200', 'end': '1990.799', 'text': 'it. But that is what I did. I did it for'}, {'start': '1987.840', 'end': '1992.640', 'text': 'so long that life faded to a far memory,'}, {'start': '1990.799', 'end': '1995.600', 'text': 'and I became one with the moles and'}, {'start': '1992.640', 'end': '1997.679', 'text': 'grubs of night depths. Indeed, it was'}, {'start': '1995.600', 'end': '1999.760', 'text': 'only by accident that after interminable'}, {'start': '1997.679', 'end': '2002.240', 'text': 'writhing, I jarred my forgotten electric'}, {'start': '1999.760', 'end': '2004.159', 'text': 'lamp a light, so that it shone eerily'}, {'start': '2002.240', 'end': '2006.320', 'text': 'along the burrow of caked lom that'}, {'start': '2004.159', 'end': '2008.640', 'text': 'stretched and curved ahead. I had been'}, {'start': '2006.320', 'end': '2010.720', 'text': 'scrambling in this way for some time, so'}, {'start': '2008.640', 'end': '2012.480', 'text': 'that my battery had burned very low,'}, {'start': '2010.720', 'end': '2014.720', 'text': 'when the passage suddenly inclined'}, {'start': '2012.480', 'end': '2017.200', 'text': 'sharply upward, altering my mode of'}, {'start': '2014.720', 'end': '2018.799', 'text': 'progress. And as I raised my glance, it'}, {'start': '2017.200', 'end': '2020.880', 'text': 'was without preparation that I saw'}, {'start': '2018.799', 'end': '2023.519', 'text': 'glistening in the distance two demoniac'}, {'start': '2020.880', 'end': '2025.440', 'text': 'reflections of my expiring lamp, two'}, {'start': '2023.519', 'end': '2027.919', 'text': 'reflections glowing with a baneful and'}, {'start': '2025.440', 'end': '2030.559', 'text': 'unmistakable eulgence, and provoking'}, {'start': '2027.919', 'end': '2032.399', 'text': 'maddeningly nebulous memories. I stopped'}, {'start': '2030.559', 'end': '2035.519', 'text': 'automatically, though lacking the brain'}, {'start': '2032.399', 'end': '2037.039', 'text': 'to retreat. The eyes approached. Yet of'}, {'start': '2035.519', 'end': '2039.360', 'text': 'the thing that bore them I could'}, {'start': '2037.039', 'end': '2042.080', 'text': 'distinguish only a claw. But what a'}, {'start': '2039.360', 'end': '2044.399', 'text': 'claw. Then far overhead I heard a faint'}, {'start': '2042.080', 'end': '2047.200', 'text': 'crashing which I recognized. It was the'}, {'start': '2044.399', 'end': '2049.679', 'text': 'wild thunder of the mountain raised to'}, {'start': '2047.200', 'end': '2051.760', 'text': 'hysteric fury. I must have been crawling'}, {'start': '2049.679', 'end': '2054.240', 'text': 'upward for some time so that the surface'}, {'start': '2051.760', 'end': '2056.720', 'text': 'was now quite near. And as the muffled'}, {'start': '2054.240', 'end': '2059.280', 'text': 'thunder clattered, those eyes still'}, {'start': '2056.720', 'end': '2061.520', 'text': 'stared with vacuous viciousness. Thank'}, {'start': '2059.280', 'end': '2063.839', 'text': 'God I did not then know what it was,'}, {'start': '2061.520', 'end': '2065.440', 'text': 'else I should have died. But I was saved'}, {'start': '2063.839', 'end': '2067.599', 'text': 'by the very thunder that had summoned'}, {'start': '2065.440', 'end': '2069.839', 'text': 'it. For after a hideous weight, there'}, {'start': '2067.599', 'end': '2071.919', 'text': 'burst from the unseen outside sky one of'}, {'start': '2069.839', 'end': '2073.839', 'text': 'those frequent mountain ward bolts whose'}, {'start': '2071.919', 'end': '2075.599', 'text': 'aftermath I had noticed here and there'}, {'start': '2073.839', 'end': '2077.839', 'text': 'as gashes of disturbed earth and'}, {'start': '2075.599', 'end': '2080.079', 'text': 'fulgarites of various sizes. With'}, {'start': '2077.839', 'end': '2082.639', 'text': 'cyclopian rage, it tore through the soil'}, {'start': '2080.079', 'end': '2085.200', 'text': 'above that damnable pit, blinding and'}, {'start': '2082.639', 'end': '2088.000', 'text': 'deafening me, yet not wholly reducing me'}, {'start': '2085.200', 'end': '2089.919', 'text': 'to a coma. In the chaos of sliding'}, {'start': '2088.000', 'end': '2091.679', 'text': 'shifting earth, I clawed and floundered'}, {'start': '2089.919', 'end': '2093.599', 'text': 'helplessly till the rain on my head'}, {'start': '2091.679', 'end': '2096.399', 'text': 'steadied me and I saw that I had come to'}, {'start': '2093.599', 'end': '2098.640', 'text': 'the surface in a familiar spot. A steep'}, {'start': '2096.399', 'end': '2100.480', 'text': 'unforested place on the southwest slope'}, {'start': '2098.640', 'end': '2102.560', 'text': 'of the mountain. Recurrent sheet'}, {'start': '2100.480', 'end': '2104.480', 'text': 'lightnings loomed the tumbled ground and'}, {'start': '2102.560', 'end': '2106.160', 'text': 'the remains of the curious low hummock'}, {'start': '2104.480', 'end': '2108.240', 'text': 'which had stretched down from the wooded'}, {'start': '2106.160', 'end': '2110.240', 'text': 'higher slope. But there was nothing in'}, {'start': '2108.240', 'end': '2112.560', 'text': 'the chaos to show my place of egress'}, {'start': '2110.240', 'end': '2115.200', 'text': 'from the lethal catacomb. My brain was'}, {'start': '2112.560', 'end': '2117.280', 'text': 'as great a chaos as the earth. And as a'}, {'start': '2115.200', 'end': '2119.200', 'text': 'distant red glare burst on the landscape'}, {'start': '2117.280', 'end': '2121.359', 'text': 'from the south, I hardly realized the'}, {'start': '2119.200', 'end': '2123.119', 'text': 'horror I had been through. But when two'}, {'start': '2121.359', 'end': '2125.680', 'text': 'days later the squatters told me what'}, {'start': '2123.119', 'end': '2127.359', 'text': 'the red glare meant, I felt more horror'}, {'start': '2125.680', 'end': '2129.920', 'text': 'than that which the mold burrow and the'}, {'start': '2127.359', 'end': '2131.119', 'text': 'claw and eyes had given. More horror'}, {'start': '2129.920', 'end': '2134.079', 'text': 'because of the overwhelming'}, {'start': '2131.119', 'end': '2136.079', 'text': 'implications. In a hamlet 20 m away, an'}, {'start': '2134.079', 'end': '2138.480', 'text': 'orgy of fear had followed the bolt which'}, {'start': '2136.079', 'end': '2140.240', 'text': 'brought me above ground, and a nameless'}, {'start': '2138.480', 'end': '2142.560', 'text': 'thing had dropped from an overhanging'}, {'start': '2140.240', 'end': '2144.960', 'text': 'tree into a weak roofed cabin. It had'}, {'start': '2142.560', 'end': '2146.720', 'text': 'done a deed, but the squatters had fired'}, {'start': '2144.960', 'end': '2148.800', 'text': 'the cabin in frenzy before it could'}, {'start': '2146.720', 'end': '2150.800', 'text': 'escape. It had been doing that deed at'}, {'start': '2148.800', 'end': '2153.359', 'text': 'the very moment the earth caved in on'}, {'start': '2150.800', 'end': '2157.040', 'text': 'the thing with the claw and eyes.'}, {'start': '2153.359', 'end': '2159.040', 'text': 'Chapter 4. The horror in the eyes. There'}, {'start': '2157.040', 'end': '2161.440', 'text': 'can be nothing normal in the mind of one'}, {'start': '2159.040', 'end': '2163.839', 'text': 'who, knowing what I knew of the horrors'}, {'start': '2161.440', 'end': '2165.839', 'text': 'of Tempest Mountain, would seek alone'}, {'start': '2163.839', 'end': '2167.760', 'text': 'for the fear that lurked there, that at'}, {'start': '2165.839', 'end': '2170.240', 'text': 'least two of the fears embodiment were'}, {'start': '2167.760', 'end': '2172.240', 'text': 'destroyed, formed but a slight guarantee'}, {'start': '2170.240', 'end': '2174.880', 'text': 'of mental and physical safety in this'}, {'start': '2172.240', 'end': '2176.640', 'text': 'acaron of multiform diabolism. Yet I'}, {'start': '2174.880', 'end': '2178.720', 'text': 'continued my quest with even greater'}, {'start': '2176.640', 'end': '2181.520', 'text': 'zeal as events and revelations became'}, {'start': '2178.720', 'end': '2183.119', 'text': 'more monstrous. When 2 days after my'}, {'start': '2181.520', 'end': '2185.280', 'text': 'frightful crawl through that crypt of'}, {'start': '2183.119', 'end': '2187.680', 'text': 'the eyes and claw, I learned that a'}, {'start': '2185.280', 'end': '2189.440', 'text': 'thing had malign hovered 20 mi away at'}, {'start': '2187.680', 'end': '2192.079', 'text': 'the same instant the eyes were glaring'}, {'start': '2189.440', 'end': '2194.640', 'text': 'at me. I experienced virtual convulsions'}, {'start': '2192.079', 'end': '2196.720', 'text': 'of fright. But that fright was so mixed'}, {'start': '2194.640', 'end': '2199.359', 'text': 'with wonder and alluring grotesqueness'}, {'start': '2196.720', 'end': '2201.599', 'text': 'that it was almost a pleasant sensation.'}, {'start': '2199.359', 'end': '2203.520', 'text': 'Sometimes in the throws of a nightmare'}, {'start': '2201.599', 'end': '2205.440', 'text': 'when unseen powers whirl one over the'}, {'start': '2203.520', 'end': '2208.240', 'text': 'roofs of strange dead cities toward the'}, {'start': '2205.440', 'end': '2210.320', 'text': 'grinning chasm of NIS. It is a relief'}, {'start': '2208.240', 'end': '2212.400', 'text': 'and even a delight to shriek wildly and'}, {'start': '2210.320', 'end': '2214.560', 'text': 'throw oneself voluntarily along with the'}, {'start': '2212.400', 'end': '2216.800', 'text': 'hideous vortex of dream doom down into'}, {'start': '2214.560', 'end': '2218.640', 'text': 'whatever bottomless gulf may yawn. And'}, {'start': '2216.800', 'end': '2221.119', 'text': 'so it was with the waking nightmare of'}, {'start': '2218.640', 'end': '2223.040', 'text': 'Tempest Mountain. The discovery that two'}, {'start': '2221.119', 'end': '2224.960', 'text': 'monsters had haunted the spot gave me'}, {'start': '2223.040', 'end': '2227.440', 'text': 'ultimately a mad craving to plunge into'}, {'start': '2224.960', 'end': '2229.520', 'text': 'the very earth of the region and with'}, {'start': '2227.440', 'end': '2231.680', 'text': 'bare hands dig out the death that leared'}, {'start': '2229.520', 'end': '2233.839', 'text': 'from every inch of the poisonous soil.'}, {'start': '2231.680', 'end': '2236.160', 'text': 'As soon as possible, I visited the grave'}, {'start': '2233.839', 'end': '2238.720', 'text': 'of Jan Martins and dug vainly where I'}, {'start': '2236.160', 'end': '2240.400', 'text': 'had dug before. Some extensive cave-in'}, {'start': '2238.720', 'end': '2242.640', 'text': 'had obliterated all trace of the'}, {'start': '2240.400', 'end': '2244.400', 'text': 'underground passage. While the rain had'}, {'start': '2242.640', 'end': '2246.079', 'text': 'washed so much earth back into the'}, {'start': '2244.400', 'end': '2248.400', 'text': 'excavation that I could not tell how'}, {'start': '2246.079', 'end': '2250.320', 'text': 'deeply I had dug that other day, I'}, {'start': '2248.400', 'end': '2252.079', 'text': 'likewise made a difficult trip to the'}, {'start': '2250.320', 'end': '2254.400', 'text': 'distant hamlet where the death creature'}, {'start': '2252.079', 'end': '2256.480', 'text': 'had been burnt, and was little repaid'}, {'start': '2254.400', 'end': '2259.200', 'text': 'for my trouble. In the ashes of the'}, {'start': '2256.480', 'end': '2261.680', 'text': 'fateful cabin, I found several bones,'}, {'start': '2259.200', 'end': '2263.599', 'text': 'but apparently none of the monsters. The'}, {'start': '2261.680', 'end': '2265.680', 'text': 'squatter said the thing had had only one'}, {'start': '2263.599', 'end': '2267.760', 'text': 'victim, but in this I judged them'}, {'start': '2265.680', 'end': '2269.599', 'text': 'inaccurate, since besides the complete'}, {'start': '2267.760', 'end': '2271.200', 'text': 'skull of a human being, there was'}, {'start': '2269.599', 'end': '2272.880', 'text': 'another bony fragment which seemed'}, {'start': '2271.200', 'end': '2275.040', 'text': 'certainly to have belonged to a human'}, {'start': '2272.880', 'end': '2277.520', 'text': 'skull at some time. Though the rapid'}, {'start': '2275.040', 'end': '2279.280', 'text': 'drop of the monster had been seen, no'}, {'start': '2277.520', 'end': '2281.599', 'text': 'one could say just what the creature was'}, {'start': '2279.280', 'end': '2284.079', 'text': 'like. Those who had glimpsed it called'}, {'start': '2281.599', 'end': '2286.160', 'text': 'it simply a devil. Examining the great'}, {'start': '2284.079', 'end': '2288.960', 'text': 'tree where it had lurked, I could'}, {'start': '2286.160', 'end': '2291.280', 'text': 'discern no distinctive marks. I tried to'}, {'start': '2288.960', 'end': '2293.200', 'text': 'find some trail into the black forest,'}, {'start': '2291.280', 'end': '2295.760', 'text': 'but on this occasion could not stand the'}, {'start': '2293.200', 'end': '2297.760', 'text': 'sight of those morbidly large bowls, or'}, {'start': '2295.760', 'end': '2299.920', 'text': 'of those vast serpent-like roots that'}, {'start': '2297.760', 'end': '2302.079', 'text': 'twisted so malevolently before they sank'}, {'start': '2299.920', 'end': '2304.000', 'text': 'into the earth. My next step was to'}, {'start': '2302.079', 'end': '2305.760', 'text': 'reexamine with microscopic care the'}, {'start': '2304.000', 'end': '2308.400', 'text': 'deserted hamlet, where death had come'}, {'start': '2305.760', 'end': '2310.160', 'text': 'most abundantly, and where Arthur Monroe'}, {'start': '2308.400', 'end': '2312.320', 'text': 'had seen something he never lived to'}, {'start': '2310.160', 'end': '2314.720', 'text': 'describe. Though my vain previous'}, {'start': '2312.320', 'end': '2317.040', 'text': 'searches had been exceedingly minute, I'}, {'start': '2314.720', 'end': '2318.960', 'text': 'now had new data to test. For my'}, {'start': '2317.040', 'end': '2320.480', 'text': 'horrible grave crawl convinced me that'}, {'start': '2318.960', 'end': '2322.240', 'text': 'at least one of the phases of the'}, {'start': '2320.480', 'end': '2324.640', 'text': 'monstrosity had been an underground'}, {'start': '2322.240', 'end': '2326.640', 'text': 'creature. This time on the 14th of'}, {'start': '2324.640', 'end': '2328.400', 'text': 'November, my quest concerned itself'}, {'start': '2326.640', 'end': '2330.079', 'text': 'mostly with the slopes of Cone Mountain'}, {'start': '2328.400', 'end': '2331.920', 'text': 'and Maple Hill, where they overlook the'}, {'start': '2330.079', 'end': '2333.599', 'text': 'unfortunate hamlet, and I gave'}, {'start': '2331.920', 'end': '2335.280', 'text': 'particular attention to the loose earth'}, {'start': '2333.599', 'end': '2337.440', 'text': 'of the landslide region on the latter'}, {'start': '2335.280', 'end': '2339.760', 'text': 'eminence. The afternoon of my search'}, {'start': '2337.440', 'end': '2341.760', 'text': 'brought nothing to light, and dusk came'}, {'start': '2339.760', 'end': '2343.760', 'text': 'as I stood on Maple Hill, looking down'}, {'start': '2341.760', 'end': '2345.599', 'text': 'at the hamlet, and across the valley to'}, {'start': '2343.760', 'end': '2347.920', 'text': 'Tempest Mountain. There had been a'}, {'start': '2345.599', 'end': '2350.400', 'text': 'gorgeous sunset, and now the moon came'}, {'start': '2347.920', 'end': '2352.560', 'text': 'up, nearly full, and shedding a silver'}, {'start': '2350.400', 'end': '2354.960', 'text': 'flood over the plane, the distant'}, {'start': '2352.560', 'end': '2357.040', 'text': 'mountainside, and the curious low mounds'}, {'start': '2354.960', 'end': '2359.440', 'text': 'that rose here and there. It was a'}, {'start': '2357.040', 'end': '2361.839', 'text': 'peaceful Arcadian scene, but knowing'}, {'start': '2359.440', 'end': '2364.800', 'text': 'what it hid, I hated it. I hated the'}, {'start': '2361.839', 'end': '2366.960', 'text': 'mocking moon, the hypocritical plain,'}, {'start': '2364.800', 'end': '2369.520', 'text': 'the festering mountain, and those'}, {'start': '2366.960', 'end': '2372.079', 'text': 'sinister mounds. Everything seemed to me'}, {'start': '2369.520', 'end': '2374.240', 'text': 'tainted with a loathome contagion, and'}, {'start': '2372.079', 'end': '2377.440', 'text': 'inspired by a noxious alliance with'}, {'start': '2374.240', 'end': '2379.560', 'text': 'distorted hidden powers. Presently, as I'}, {'start': '2377.440', 'end': '2382.079', 'text': 'gazed abstractedly at the moonlit'}, {'start': '2379.560', 'end': '2384.000', 'text': 'panorama, my eye became attracted by'}, {'start': '2382.079', 'end': '2386.000', 'text': 'something singular in the nature and'}, {'start': '2384.000', 'end': '2388.480', 'text': 'arrangement of a certain topographical'}, {'start': '2386.000', 'end': '2390.880', 'text': 'element. Without having any exact'}, {'start': '2388.480', 'end': '2392.880', 'text': 'knowledge of geology, I had from the'}, {'start': '2390.880', 'end': '2394.880', 'text': 'first been interested in the odd mounds'}, {'start': '2392.880', 'end': '2396.400', 'text': 'and hummocks of the region. I had'}, {'start': '2394.880', 'end': '2398.320', 'text': 'noticed that they were pretty widely'}, {'start': '2396.400', 'end': '2400.000', 'text': 'distributed around Tempest Mountain,'}, {'start': '2398.320', 'end': '2401.839', 'text': 'though less numerous on the plane than'}, {'start': '2400.000', 'end': '2403.839', 'text': 'near the hilltop itself, where'}, {'start': '2401.839', 'end': '2405.839', 'text': 'prehistoric glaciation had doubtless'}, {'start': '2403.839', 'end': '2408.480', 'text': 'found feebler opposition to its striking'}, {'start': '2405.839', 'end': '2410.400', 'text': 'and fantastic caprices. Now, in the'}, {'start': '2408.480', 'end': '2412.960', 'text': 'light of that low moon, which cast long,'}, {'start': '2410.400', 'end': '2414.880', 'text': 'weird shadows, it struck me forcibly'}, {'start': '2412.960', 'end': '2417.280', 'text': 'that the various points and lines of the'}, {'start': '2414.880', 'end': '2419.440', 'text': 'mound system had a peculiar relation to'}, {'start': '2417.280', 'end': '2421.520', 'text': 'the summit of Tempest Mountain. That'}, {'start': '2419.440', 'end': '2423.359', 'text': 'summit was undeniably a center from'}, {'start': '2421.520', 'end': '2426.079', 'text': 'which the lines or rows of points'}, {'start': '2423.359', 'end': '2428.079', 'text': 'radiated indefinitely and irregularly,'}, {'start': '2426.079', 'end': '2430.000', 'text': "as if the unh wholesome Martin's mansion"}, {'start': '2428.079', 'end': '2432.560', 'text': 'had thrown out visible tentacles of'}, {'start': '2430.000', 'end': '2435.040', 'text': 'terror. The idea of such tentacles gave'}, {'start': '2432.560', 'end': '2437.119', 'text': 'me an unexplained thrill, and I stopped'}, {'start': '2435.040', 'end': '2439.520', 'text': 'to analyze my reason for believing these'}, {'start': '2437.119', 'end': '2441.760', 'text': 'mounds glacial phenomena. The more I'}, {'start': '2439.520', 'end': '2443.680', 'text': 'analyzed, the less I believed, and'}, {'start': '2441.760', 'end': '2445.599', 'text': 'against my newly opened mind, there'}, {'start': '2443.680', 'end': '2447.839', 'text': 'began to beat grotesque and horrible'}, {'start': '2445.599', 'end': '2449.760', 'text': 'analogies based on superficial aspects'}, {'start': '2447.839', 'end': '2452.079', 'text': 'and upon my experience beneath the'}, {'start': '2449.760', 'end': '2455.280', 'text': 'earth. Before I knew it, I was uttering'}, {'start': '2452.079', 'end': '2458.800', 'text': 'frenzied and disjointed words to myself.'}, {'start': '2455.280', 'end': '2461.920', 'text': 'My god, Mole Hills, the damn place must'}, {'start': '2458.800', 'end': '2464.400', 'text': 'be honeycombed. How many? That night at'}, {'start': '2461.920', 'end': '2467.280', 'text': 'the mansion, they took Bennett and Toby'}, {'start': '2464.400', 'end': '2468.880', 'text': 'first on each side of us. Then I was'}, {'start': '2467.280', 'end': '2471.200', 'text': 'digging frantically into the mound which'}, {'start': '2468.880', 'end': '2473.240', 'text': 'had stretched nearest me. Digging'}, {'start': '2471.200', 'end': '2475.280', 'text': 'desperately, shiveringly, but almost'}, {'start': '2473.240', 'end': '2477.040', 'text': 'jubilantly, digging, and at last'}, {'start': '2475.280', 'end': '2478.880', 'text': 'shrieking aloud with some unplaced'}, {'start': '2477.040', 'end': '2480.400', 'text': 'emotion, as I came upon a tunnel or'}, {'start': '2478.880', 'end': '2482.240', 'text': 'burrow, just like the one through which'}, {'start': '2480.400', 'end': '2484.400', 'text': 'I had crawled on that other demoniac'}, {'start': '2482.240', 'end': '2487.119', 'text': 'night. After that, I recall running,'}, {'start': '2484.400', 'end': '2489.359', 'text': 'spade in hand, a hideous run across'}, {'start': '2487.119', 'end': '2491.599', 'text': 'moonlitten, moundmarked meadows and'}, {'start': '2489.359', 'end': '2494.160', 'text': 'through diseased, precipitous abysses of'}, {'start': '2491.599', 'end': '2496.560', 'text': 'haunted hillside forest, leaping,'}, {'start': '2494.160', 'end': '2498.720', 'text': 'screaming, panting, bounding toward the'}, {'start': '2496.560', 'end': '2500.720', 'text': "terrible Martins's mansion. I recall"}, {'start': '2498.720', 'end': '2503.520', 'text': 'digging unreasoningly in all parts of'}, {'start': '2500.720', 'end': '2505.520', 'text': 'the brier choked cellar, digging to find'}, {'start': '2503.520', 'end': '2507.760', 'text': 'the core and center of that malignant'}, {'start': '2505.520', 'end': '2509.720', 'text': 'universe of mounds. And then I recall'}, {'start': '2507.760', 'end': '2511.920', 'text': 'how I laughed when I stumbled on the'}, {'start': '2509.720', 'end': '2514.240', 'text': 'passageway. The hole at the base of the'}, {'start': '2511.920', 'end': '2516.240', 'text': 'old chimney, where the thick weeds grew'}, {'start': '2514.240', 'end': '2518.000', 'text': 'and cast queer shadows in the light of'}, {'start': '2516.240', 'end': '2520.240', 'text': 'the lone candle I had happened to have'}, {'start': '2518.000', 'end': '2522.800', 'text': 'with me. What still remained down in'}, {'start': '2520.240', 'end': '2525.200', 'text': 'that hellhive, lurking and waiting for'}, {'start': '2522.800', 'end': '2528.319', 'text': 'the thunder to arouse it. I did not'}, {'start': '2525.200', 'end': '2530.319', 'text': 'know. Two had been killed. Perhaps that'}, {'start': '2528.319', 'end': '2532.240', 'text': 'had finished it. But still there'}, {'start': '2530.319', 'end': '2534.640', 'text': 'remained that burning determination to'}, {'start': '2532.240', 'end': '2536.560', 'text': 'reach the innermost secret of the fear'}, {'start': '2534.640', 'end': '2539.520', 'text': 'which I had once more come to deem'}, {'start': '2536.560', 'end': '2541.359', 'text': 'definite, material, and organic. My'}, {'start': '2539.520', 'end': '2542.880', 'text': 'indecisive speculation whether to'}, {'start': '2541.359', 'end': '2544.720', 'text': 'explore the passage alone and'}, {'start': '2542.880', 'end': '2546.560', 'text': 'immediately with my pocket light, or to'}, {'start': '2544.720', 'end': '2548.400', 'text': 'try to assemble a band of squatters for'}, {'start': '2546.560', 'end': '2550.079', 'text': 'the quest, was interrupted after a time'}, {'start': '2548.400', 'end': '2552.000', 'text': 'by a sudden rush of wind from the'}, {'start': '2550.079', 'end': '2554.480', 'text': 'outside, which blew out the candle and'}, {'start': '2552.000', 'end': '2556.079', 'text': 'left me in stark blackness. The moon no'}, {'start': '2554.480', 'end': '2558.560', 'text': 'longer shone through the chinks and'}, {'start': '2556.079', 'end': '2560.880', 'text': 'apertures above me, and with a sense of'}, {'start': '2558.560', 'end': '2562.560', 'text': 'fateful alarm, I heard the sinister and'}, {'start': '2560.880', 'end': '2565.440', 'text': 'significant rumble of approaching'}, {'start': '2562.560', 'end': '2568.160', 'text': 'thunder. A confusion of associated ideas'}, {'start': '2565.440', 'end': '2570.000', 'text': 'possessed my brain, leading me to grope'}, {'start': '2568.160', 'end': '2573.040', 'text': 'back toward the farthest corner of the'}, {'start': '2570.000', 'end': '2574.720', 'text': 'cellar. My eyes, however, never turned'}, {'start': '2573.040', 'end': '2576.880', 'text': 'away from the horrible opening at the'}, {'start': '2574.720', 'end': '2578.560', 'text': 'base of the chimney, and I began to get'}, {'start': '2576.880', 'end': '2580.560', 'text': 'glimpses of the crumbling bricks and'}, {'start': '2578.560', 'end': '2582.400', 'text': 'unhealthy weeds as faint glows of'}, {'start': '2580.560', 'end': '2584.160', 'text': 'lightning penetrated the woods outside'}, {'start': '2582.400', 'end': '2586.800', 'text': 'and illumined the chinks in the upper'}, {'start': '2584.160', 'end': '2589.520', 'text': 'wall. Every second, I was consumed with'}, {'start': '2586.800', 'end': '2591.920', 'text': 'a mixture of fear and curiosity. What'}, {'start': '2589.520', 'end': '2594.319', 'text': 'would the storm call forth? Or was there'}, {'start': '2591.920', 'end': '2596.640', 'text': 'anything left for it to call? Guided by'}, {'start': '2594.319', 'end': '2599.119', 'text': 'a lightning flash, I settled myself down'}, {'start': '2596.640', 'end': '2600.800', 'text': 'behind a dense clump of vegetation'}, {'start': '2599.119', 'end': '2602.960', 'text': 'through which I could see the opening'}, {'start': '2600.800', 'end': '2605.599', 'text': 'without being seen. If heaven is'}, {'start': '2602.960', 'end': '2608.079', 'text': 'merciful, it will someday a face from my'}, {'start': '2605.599', 'end': '2610.640', 'text': 'consciousness the sight that I saw, and'}, {'start': '2608.079', 'end': '2612.960', 'text': 'let me live my last years in peace. I'}, {'start': '2610.640', 'end': '2615.280', 'text': 'cannot sleep at night now and have to'}, {'start': '2612.960', 'end': '2618.400', 'text': 'take opiates when it thunders. The thing'}, {'start': '2615.280', 'end': '2620.560', 'text': 'came abruptly and unannounced. A demon'}, {'start': '2618.400', 'end': '2623.040', 'text': 'ratlike scurrying from pits remote and'}, {'start': '2620.560', 'end': '2625.119', 'text': 'unimaginable. A hellish panting and'}, {'start': '2623.040', 'end': '2626.800', 'text': 'stifled grunting. And then from that'}, {'start': '2625.119', 'end': '2629.359', 'text': 'opening beneath the chimney a burst of'}, {'start': '2626.800', 'end': '2631.440', 'text': 'multitudinous and lepous life. A'}, {'start': '2629.359', 'end': '2633.280', 'text': 'loathome night spawned flood of organic'}, {'start': '2631.440', 'end': '2635.200', 'text': 'corruption more devastatingly hideous'}, {'start': '2633.280', 'end': '2637.440', 'text': 'than the blackest conjurations of mortal'}, {'start': '2635.200', 'end': '2639.599', 'text': 'madness and morbidity. Seething,'}, {'start': '2637.440', 'end': '2641.440', 'text': 'stewing, surging, bubbling like'}, {'start': '2639.599', 'end': '2643.520', 'text': "serpent's slime. It rolled up and out of"}, {'start': '2641.440', 'end': '2645.280', 'text': 'that yawning hole, spreading like a'}, {'start': '2643.520', 'end': '2647.599', 'text': 'septic contagion and streaming from the'}, {'start': '2645.280', 'end': '2649.520', 'text': 'cellar at every point of egress,'}, {'start': '2647.599', 'end': '2651.760', 'text': 'streaming out to scatter through these'}, {'start': '2649.520', 'end': '2654.319', 'text': 'midnight forests, and strew fear,'}, {'start': '2651.760', 'end': '2655.599', 'text': 'madness, and death. God knows how many'}, {'start': '2654.319', 'end': '2658.160', 'text': 'there were. There must have been'}, {'start': '2655.599', 'end': '2660.400', 'text': 'thousands. To see the stream of them in'}, {'start': '2658.160', 'end': '2662.240', 'text': 'that faint intermittent lightning was'}, {'start': '2660.400', 'end': '2663.880', 'text': 'shocking. When they had thinned out'}, {'start': '2662.240', 'end': '2666.560', 'text': 'enough to be glimpsed as separate'}, {'start': '2663.880', 'end': '2669.760', 'text': 'organisms, I saw that they were dwarfed,'}, {'start': '2666.560', 'end': '2671.839', 'text': 'deformed hairy devils or apes, monstrous'}, {'start': '2669.760', 'end': '2674.720', 'text': 'and diabolic caricatures of the monkey'}, {'start': '2671.839', 'end': '2676.560', 'text': 'tribe. They were so hideously silent.'}, {'start': '2674.720', 'end': '2678.240', 'text': 'There was hardly a squeal when one of'}, {'start': '2676.560', 'end': '2680.400', 'text': 'the last stragglers turned with the'}, {'start': '2678.240', 'end': '2682.079', 'text': 'skill of long practice to make a meal in'}, {'start': '2680.400', 'end': '2684.400', 'text': 'accustomed fashion on a weaker'}, {'start': '2682.079', 'end': '2686.880', 'text': 'companion. Others snapped up what it'}, {'start': '2684.400', 'end': '2689.040', 'text': 'left and ate with slavering relish.'}, {'start': '2686.880', 'end': '2692.240', 'text': 'Then, in spite of my days of fright and'}, {'start': '2689.040', 'end': '2694.160', 'text': 'disgust, my morbid curiosity triumphed.'}, {'start': '2692.240', 'end': '2696.000', 'text': 'And as the last of the monstrosities'}, {'start': '2694.160', 'end': '2698.640', 'text': 'oozed up alone from that netherworld of'}, {'start': '2696.000', 'end': '2700.640', 'text': 'unknown nightmare, I drew my automatic'}, {'start': '2698.640', 'end': '2703.040', 'text': 'pistol and shot it under cover of the'}, {'start': '2700.640', 'end': '2704.800', 'text': 'thunder, shrieking, slithering'}, {'start': '2703.040', 'end': '2706.400', 'text': 'torrential shadows of red viscous'}, {'start': '2704.800', 'end': '2709.040', 'text': 'madness chasing one another through'}, {'start': '2706.400', 'end': '2711.920', 'text': 'endless insanguined corridors of purple'}, {'start': '2709.040', 'end': '2714.240', 'text': 'fulgarous sky, formless fantasms, and'}, {'start': '2711.920', 'end': '2717.040', 'text': 'kaleidoscopic mutations of a ghoulish'}, {'start': '2714.240', 'end': '2718.800', 'text': 'remembered scene. Forests of monstrous'}, {'start': '2717.040', 'end': '2720.880', 'text': 'overnourished oaks with serpent roots'}, {'start': '2718.800', 'end': '2722.640', 'text': 'twisting and sucking unnameable juices'}, {'start': '2720.880', 'end': '2724.880', 'text': 'from an earth verminous with millions of'}, {'start': '2722.640', 'end': '2727.119', 'text': 'cannibal devils. Mound-like tentacles'}, {'start': '2724.880', 'end': '2730.000', 'text': 'groping from underground nuclei of'}, {'start': '2727.119', 'end': '2732.720', 'text': 'polipus perversion. Insane lightning'}, {'start': '2730.000', 'end': '2735.680', 'text': 'over malignant ivied walls and demon'}, {'start': '2732.720', 'end': '2737.520', 'text': 'arcades choked with fungus vegetation.'}, {'start': '2735.680', 'end': '2739.680', 'text': 'Heaven be thanked for the instinct which'}, {'start': '2737.520', 'end': '2742.400', 'text': 'led me unconscious to places where men'}, {'start': '2739.680', 'end': '2745.040', 'text': 'dwell to the peaceful village that slept'}, {'start': '2742.400', 'end': '2746.880', 'text': 'under the calm stars of clearing skies.'}, {'start': '2745.040', 'end': '2748.720', 'text': 'I had recovered enough in a week to send'}, {'start': '2746.880', 'end': '2750.720', 'text': 'to Albany for a gang of men to blow up'}, {'start': '2748.720', 'end': '2753.040', 'text': "the Martin's mansion and the entire top"}, {'start': '2750.720', 'end': '2755.200', 'text': 'of Tempest Mountain with dynamite, stop'}, {'start': '2753.040', 'end': '2757.119', 'text': 'up all the discoverable mound burrows,'}, {'start': '2755.200', 'end': '2759.200', 'text': 'and destroy certain overnourished trees'}, {'start': '2757.119', 'end': '2761.359', 'text': 'whose very existence seemed an insult to'}, {'start': '2759.200', 'end': '2763.920', 'text': 'sanity. I could sleep a little after'}, {'start': '2761.359', 'end': '2765.760', 'text': 'they had done this. But true rest will'}, {'start': '2763.920', 'end': '2768.319', 'text': 'never come as long as I remember that'}, {'start': '2765.760', 'end': '2770.480', 'text': 'nameless secret of the lurking fear. The'}, {'start': '2768.319', 'end': '2772.640', 'text': 'thing will haunt me. For who can say the'}, {'start': '2770.480', 'end': '2774.720', 'text': 'extermination is complete and that'}, {'start': '2772.640', 'end': '2777.240', 'text': 'analogous phenomena do not exist all'}, {'start': '2774.720', 'end': '2779.680', 'text': 'over the world? Who can with my'}, {'start': '2777.240', 'end': '2781.599', 'text': "knowledge think of the earth's unknown"}, {'start': '2779.680', 'end': '2783.920', 'text': 'caverns without a nightmare dread of'}, {'start': '2781.599', 'end': '2785.960', 'text': 'future possibilities? I cannot see a'}, {'start': '2783.920', 'end': '2788.240', 'text': 'well or a subway entrance without'}, {'start': '2785.960', 'end': '2790.480', 'text': 'shuddering. Why cannot the doctors give'}, {'start': '2788.240', 'end': '2792.800', 'text': 'me something to make me sleep or truly'}, {'start': '2790.480', 'end': '2795.040', 'text': 'calm my brain when it thunders? What I'}, {'start': '2792.800', 'end': '2796.960', 'text': 'saw in the glow of my flashlight after I'}, {'start': '2795.040', 'end': '2798.800', 'text': 'shot the unspeakable straggling object'}, {'start': '2796.960', 'end': '2800.640', 'text': 'was so simple that almost a minute'}, {'start': '2798.800', 'end': '2803.760', 'text': 'elapsed before I understood and went'}, {'start': '2800.640', 'end': '2805.920', 'text': 'delirious. The object was nauseous, a'}, {'start': '2803.760', 'end': '2808.560', 'text': 'filthy whitish gorilla thing with sharp'}, {'start': '2805.920', 'end': '2810.200', 'text': 'yellow fangs and matted fur. It was the'}, {'start': '2808.560', 'end': '2812.560', 'text': 'ultimate product of mamalian'}, {'start': '2810.200', 'end': '2815.440', 'text': 'degeneration, the frightful outcome of'}, {'start': '2812.560', 'end': '2817.520', 'text': 'isolated spawning, multiplication, and'}, {'start': '2815.440', 'end': '2819.680', 'text': 'cannibal nutrition above and below the'}, {'start': '2817.520', 'end': '2821.760', 'text': 'ground. the embodiment of all the'}, {'start': '2819.680', 'end': '2824.240', 'text': 'snarling chaos and grinning fear that'}, {'start': '2821.760', 'end': '2826.880', 'text': 'lurk behind life. It had looked at me as'}, {'start': '2824.240', 'end': '2828.800', 'text': 'it died, and its eyes had the same odd'}, {'start': '2826.880', 'end': '2830.640', 'text': 'quality that marked those other eyes'}, {'start': '2828.800', 'end': '2833.119', 'text': 'which had stared at me underground and'}, {'start': '2830.640', 'end': '2835.280', 'text': 'excited cloudy recollections. One eye'}, {'start': '2833.119', 'end': '2837.119', 'text': 'was blue, the other brown. They were the'}, {'start': '2835.280', 'end': '2839.680', 'text': "dissimilar Martin's eyes of the old"}, {'start': '2837.119', 'end': '2841.599', 'text': 'legends, and I knew in one inundating'}, {'start': '2839.680', 'end': '2843.839', 'text': 'cataclysm of voiceless horror what had'}, {'start': '2841.599', 'end': '2845.680', 'text': 'become of that vanished family, the'}, {'start': '2843.839', 'end': '2847.280', 'text': 'terrible and thunder-crazed house of'}, {'start': '2845.680', 'end': '2849.440', 'text': 'Martins.'}, {'start': '2847.280', 'end': '2852.760', 'text': 'Dear listener, we bring another tale to'}, {'start': '2849.440', 'end': '2855.040', 'text': 'a close. A journey woven with words,'}, {'start': '2852.760', 'end': '2857.760', 'text': 'imagination, and emotion here at The'}, {'start': '2855.040', 'end': '2860.160', 'text': 'Voice Voyage, where stories flow like a'}, {'start': '2857.760', 'end': '2862.480', 'text': "river's current, guiding you to distant"}, {'start': '2860.160', 'end': '2865.359', 'text': "realms and unexplored depths. We're"}, {'start': '2862.480', 'end': '2867.599', 'text': 'grateful you joined us. As always, we'}, {'start': '2865.359', 'end': '2869.520', 'text': 'invite you to stay a little longer.'}, {'start': '2867.599', 'end': '2872.079', 'text': 'Subscribe to our channel and uncover'}, {'start': '2869.520', 'end': '2875.119', 'text': 'more stories waiting to be heard. Each'}, {'start': '2872.079', 'end': '2878.079', 'text': 'one a cascade of voices, ideas, and'}, {'start': '2875.119', 'end': '2880.720', 'text': 'artistry. And remember, every great'}, {'start': '2878.079', 'end': '2883.040', 'text': 'story begins with a single word. Perhaps'}, {'start': '2880.720', 'end': '2885.680', 'text': 'the next one will begin with you until'}, {'start': '2883.040', 'end': '2888.800', 'text': 'our voices meet again. May your days be'}, {'start': '2885.680', 'end': '2890.800', 'text': 'filled with quiet moments, rich pages,'}, {'start': '2888.800', 'end': '2894.000', 'text': 'and the gentle comfort of a well-ld'}, {'start': '2890.800', 'end': '2897.000', 'text': 'tale. This is the Voice Voyage signing'}, {'start': '2894.000', 'end': '2897.000', 'text': 'off.'}]