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This episode is brought to you by ABC's

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hit drama, Will Trent. Special

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Agent Will Trent's strength is observing what

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others don't see. The crucial

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clues that make or break a case.

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Ramon Rodriguez stars as Will Trent. Special

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Agent from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation

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using his gifts of observation to solve

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thrilling and compelling cases week after week.

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Will Trent, season premiere Tuesday at 8, 7

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central on ABC and Stream on Hulu. The

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Shadow on

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the Moor by Stuart Strauss

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The shadow on the moor by

0:50

Stuart Strauss. The

0:52

stillness of the room was broken only

0:54

by the clicking of a typewriter, which

0:57

went on uninterruptedly for some time. Finally

1:00

a man arose and stretching himself

1:02

yawned and spoke to his companion.

1:05

It's too hot to work tonight and besides who

1:08

could write a horror story on a night

1:10

like this? The other

1:12

man raised his eyes from his book. I

1:14

suppose it should be thundering, lightning and raining

1:17

torrents with a wind that whistles round the

1:19

house stops. Come on, let's

1:21

hit the hay, Jerry. When

1:23

he had finished his preparations for bed, Jerry

1:26

Jarvis slipped out upon the balcony of

1:28

the inn for a final cigarette. He

1:32

stood there silent, gazing off across

1:34

the moor. The night

1:36

was very still and the

1:38

moon flooded everything with a soft silvery

1:40

light that brought all out in a

1:42

marble whiteness, a softness that

1:44

hid the grime in the dirt and gave

1:46

the commonplace an air of beauty unseen by

1:49

the glare of day. There

1:51

was only the faintest hint of a

1:53

breeze that soft as midnight velvet whipped

1:56

his dressing gown around his legs and

1:58

made the trees bend ev- ever so gracefully,

2:01

ever so slightly, seeming to bow

2:03

and quiver like dancers

2:05

on a polished ballroom floor. Jarvis

2:09

was silent, rapt, alone,

2:12

and lost in the beauty of the night.

2:15

For a long time he had heard

2:17

of this section of desolate country with

2:19

its memories and mementos of a lost

2:21

race. No other part

2:23

of England held its savage charm. Jarvis

2:26

had come here seeking new material,

2:28

new color, and new ideas. He

2:31

had been stagnating. Before

2:33

to him mystery had meant the East,

2:36

the Orient, but here at

2:38

home, in the quiet of old England,

2:40

was more mystery, more allure

2:43

than he had ever known. Far

2:46

away, across the moonlit bleakness of the

2:48

moor were the ruins, that

2:50

mass of toppled columns and

2:52

rough-hewn slabs set in crude

2:54

circles. The

2:57

stones glistened mistily and

2:59

threw huge sprawling shadows beneath them

3:01

like pools of blood on a

3:03

silver tray. Broken

3:06

only by the whispering of the trees, the

3:08

stillness gripped Jarvis, held

3:11

him tense, expectant, waiting.

3:15

But for what? For

3:17

there was only the stillness and the soft rustle of

3:19

the night wind among the trees. As

3:22

Jarvis was about to toss his finished

3:24

cigarette over the balcony rail and return

3:26

to his room, he paused

3:29

and glanced sharply across the empty

3:31

lawn. He'd

3:33

seen something. He

3:35

didn't know what. There

3:38

was movement where but a moment

3:40

before had been naught but moonlit

3:42

emptiness. He'd

3:45

heard nothing, but he was conscious of another presence. He

3:48

looked out again across the moor. All

3:51

was as before, but

3:53

here beneath the balcony was

3:55

something. Someone.

4:00

Not but the fleeting glimpse of a

4:02

shadow moving where before had been but

4:04

nothingness. It was

4:06

a shadow, the dim silhouette of a

4:08

woman. The time was long

4:10

past midnight, and the inhabitants of the

4:12

inn were all asleep. What

4:15

was a woman doing here alone on the

4:17

moor at this hour? The

4:19

sight of something alive here in this deserted

4:21

place and at this hour made

4:23

him shiver. It was so

4:25

out of all keeping with his thoughts and the place.

4:29

Lassy fingers of dread clutched his heart. Then

4:32

he shrugged his shoulders and smiled. It

4:35

was nothing. Some tourist out

4:37

to see the moor. But

4:40

what was a woman doing here alone at

4:42

this hour? Nonetheless, here

4:44

she was, moving slowly

4:46

across the silvery waste towards the ruins

4:48

that were so white and still in

4:50

the glow of the dying moon. Jarvis

4:54

rubbed his eyes, shook his head, and

4:57

looked again. The shadow

4:59

was still there, but becoming

5:01

fainter and more distant. He

5:04

paused, and suddenly a thought came to him. Shadows

5:07

were cast by bodies. There were

5:09

mere reflections of a concrete shape. Perhaps

5:12

a windblown tree had cast it. But

5:15

the shadow, which seemed a woman, was

5:18

bodyless. There was

5:20

only the shadow and no figure. There

5:23

were now no trees near the shadow

5:25

to cast such strange reflections. To

5:28

find that the shadow was actually

5:30

bodyless brought back all of

5:33

his first terror, the sense

5:35

of dread that he had first experienced. This

5:39

was not earthly. It was uncanny,

5:42

impossible, yet his

5:45

eyes told him that the impossible was

5:48

fact. Through

5:50

his mind raced all the tales

5:52

he had heard of this lonely,

5:54

lovely country of things that

5:57

should be dead, but

5:59

lived. Things spoken

6:01

of only in whispers and

6:03

never to be mentioned. The

6:07

shadow was moving towards the ruins. What

6:10

was happening here beneath his window? Strange,

6:13

weird, terrorizing.

6:16

There was but one thing to do. Follow.

6:22

Silently he dropped over the rail of the

6:24

low balcony, caught up with and followed behind

6:26

the shadow of the woman, if

6:29

a woman it were. It

6:32

seemed to Jarvis that this ghostly pursuit

6:34

lasted for hours. Now

6:36

he would lose it and would wait. Then

6:39

in a few moments he would see

6:41

the dim outlines again, before

6:43

him always moving toward

6:45

that heap of rocks, the

6:48

ruins that had held his fancy

6:50

with their starkness. Now

6:52

and then clouds scudded across the face

6:55

of the moon and the moor took

6:57

on strange lights and patches of color.

7:00

On and on he followed, and

7:03

suddenly stopped dead still, for

7:05

in the place of the one

7:07

shadow there now were many, all

7:10

hurrying in the same direction towards

7:13

the ruins, bodiless shapes

7:15

that moved noiselessly

7:17

before him. Now

7:20

that they were nearing the ruins, Jarvis

7:23

could make out how crude they

7:25

were, how rough hewn, yet withal

7:27

they held a subtle sense of

7:30

majestic power, of latent

7:32

evil, a sense of

7:34

darkness and decay, a sense of age

7:36

and forgotten secrets. He

7:39

wondered who were the people that had built them, what

7:42

strange gods they had worshipped and

7:45

how many savage cries of

7:47

exultation had risen on the

7:49

still moonlit air and

7:52

echoed far across the now deserted

7:54

moor. From

7:56

out of the silence came a weird

7:58

sound, then Music,

8:01

soft and low in the distance, soft

8:03

and yet with an eerie

8:05

strain that chilled his blood and echoed in

8:08

his brain. The

8:10

music increased its beat and tone,

8:13

and in it were savagery and cries of

8:15

lust and forbidden

8:17

desires. The

8:20

shadows, with Jarvis close behind,

8:22

were approaching the ruins, coming closer,

8:24

ever and

8:26

the moon, now setting in the

8:29

west, cast pale rays on

8:31

the rude stones that lay sprawling

8:33

in drunken rings. The

8:35

music became more terrible, tore at

8:38

his brain like iron fingers. Strange

8:42

voices whispered of

8:45

uncanny, revolting

8:47

mysteries, obscene

8:49

shapes floated before his

8:51

eyes, ever, ever

8:53

the music hammered at

8:56

his brain. He stumbled and

8:58

nearly fell, the gibbering in

9:00

his ears increased, became more

9:03

awful, more degrading, more passionately

9:05

revolting. The music

9:07

throbbed through all his senses. Frenzy

9:10

swayed him and swept away his last

9:12

touch of wisdom. He was

9:15

a primate, one of the first

9:17

men, uncivilized, terror-stricken, back

9:19

in the dawn of time.

9:22

Back with black terror and

9:25

the rolling drums. He

9:28

gave way to the madness of the

9:30

music, cast aside his garments, and ran

9:33

as naked as the first man after

9:35

the shadows that were converging

9:37

in a dark mass toward

9:39

the narrow entryway between the

9:41

two huge, rough-hewn pillars. With

9:45

a cry of exaltation, Jarvis sprang after

9:47

them, and then it seemed

9:49

to him that the whole world was shaken

9:51

by a thunderclap. A

9:53

heavy weight struck across his shoulder. He

9:56

moved forward, stumbled, and fell.

10:00

As through a mist he saw

10:02

flickering lights, and heard hoots

10:04

and bellows, and in

10:06

his brain echoed screeches and

10:08

catcalls. The music roared

10:11

into a terrifying crescendo. Then

10:13

blackness and oblivion came upon him. He

10:17

awoke to painful consciousness. In

10:20

the gray of an early dawn, shivering

10:22

and cold, surprised to find himself here

10:25

alone, naked upon the gray

10:27

and barren moor. How

10:29

had he gotten here? Then memory

10:32

came back to him. It recalled

10:34

how he had run screaming naked in the

10:36

moonlight, remembered the shadow and the

10:38

horror of the ruins. He

10:40

looked up and saw he was lying not

10:42

more than five feet from the entrance. Seen

10:46

in the light of dawn, the piles

10:49

were still sinister, but not

10:51

horrible. A mass of gray

10:53

tumbled down rocks and crude broken

10:55

columns. Sinister, but

10:57

surely no terror could lurk within them.

11:01

Soon Jarvis located his cast-off clothing and

11:03

wearily started to return to the inn,

11:06

which he could see in the distance, but

11:08

surely not the distance he had come on the

11:10

preceding night. Shakerly he

11:12

laughed, for he must have been running

11:14

round in circles. He decided

11:16

he would tell no one of his nocturnal

11:18

adventures. Unobserved, he

11:21

gained his room, and after bathing

11:23

and dressing he joined his friends

11:25

for breakfast. Nothing

11:27

was said concerning his experience, and

11:29

in the afternoon they returned

11:32

to London. Once

11:34

more at home, Jarvis plunged into work

11:36

with a new vigor, striving in it

11:39

to erase from his mind the events

11:41

of that night upon the moor, the

11:44

night with all its unexplained

11:46

mysterious happenings and horrors,

11:49

over which brooded those aged,

11:52

ageless ruins. Slowly

11:55

as time passed, the thing began to

11:57

slip from his memory to be the one who

11:59

had recalled only on moonlit nights

12:02

when he had stayed too long over his books.

12:06

As he was reading the paper one

12:08

morning, he ran across an item that

12:10

at once attracted his attention and caused

12:13

him to remember too vividly things

12:16

he wished to forget, things

12:19

that had tugged at his mind, despite

12:21

his desire to let them slip

12:23

into the place of unwanted memories.

12:27

The item was dated at the

12:29

little village where he had spent

12:31

the never-to-be-forgotten time. Dead

12:34

man found upon the moor. Early

12:37

this morning, the body of Charles Gilbert,

12:39

living at the Blue Boar Tavern, was

12:41

found on the moor near the ruined

12:43

temple, naked, and his head

12:46

crushed by a mammoth rock, apparently fallen

12:48

from the ruins. How

12:50

such a huge slab had been dislodged is

12:52

one of the mysteries that surround this case.

12:56

Near the body were found the nightclothes of the

12:58

dead man. No motive for

13:00

the crime was apparent. The

13:02

mere fact of the body's being

13:05

here has only deepened the mystery.

13:07

Gilbert was a famous student of

13:09

pre-druidistic culture and remains. To

13:13

Jarvis came an overwhelming desire to

13:15

revisit the moor, to see again

13:17

its sinister ruins and the bodiless

13:19

shadows. She wished

13:22

to solve, if possible, the enigma

13:24

hidden behind those rings of crouching

13:26

stones. Here was

13:28

something deadly, something dangerous that

13:31

had taken human life and would,

13:33

beyond all doubt, be unappeased

13:35

until moor had fallen under

13:37

its malevolent spell. Quietly

13:41

packed, as if fearing he might

13:43

change his mind, and returned to

13:45

the little inn that nestled on

13:47

the border of the Sombre Moor, where

13:50

such strange events had

13:53

taken place. He

13:55

found the place almost deserted. The

13:58

mysterious death of Gilbert had frightened him. tightened

14:00

away the casual tourists. The

14:02

innkeeper was pathetically glad to see Jarvis.

14:05

He baffled up, and after having

14:07

arranged with him about his room,

14:09

he asked, "'And what

14:11

you doin' here, Mr. Jarvis?' "'I

14:14

came up for a rest and a little quiet, Johnston.

14:16

"'Well, you'll get it here, sir. No

14:19

one comes here any more after Mr. Gilbert's

14:21

death, sir. "'It's the mooer.

14:23

She frightens them. She's

14:25

bad as the mooer. No one knows

14:28

her secrets, even if they do learn.'"

14:31

"'Well, they don't

14:33

come back, sir.'" Jarvis

14:35

looked at him for a moment, and then broke

14:38

the silence that followed the innkeeper's last remark. "'What

14:41

do you know about those ruins?' "'Well,

14:44

Mr. Jarvis, not much, sir, but I

14:46

know this. I wouldn't go there

14:48

for a million pounds. I wouldn't. There's

14:51

things there, sir, that a man better

14:53

not talk about. There's

14:55

death there. And

14:57

worse.'" "'Sure,

14:59

don't be an ass, Johnston,' said Jarvis

15:02

crossly and climbed the stairs to his

15:04

room. "'After his dinner, Jarvis

15:08

strolled towards the village, which

15:10

lay at no great distance from the inn. Lights

15:14

glimmered yellowly through shuttered

15:16

windows, but every house the

15:18

door was strongly barred. As

15:20

the dusk deepened into darkness, the

15:23

few people who were upon the

15:25

streets disappeared. And

15:28

except for the glow of a few

15:30

poor streetlamps, the village was

15:32

dead and deserted. Jarvis

15:34

returned to his lodging, ready to take

15:36

up his nocturnal vigil. He

15:39

sat in the unlighted room, trying

15:41

to pierce the mystery that lay

15:43

out there on the silent

15:45

moor. Downstairs the

15:47

inn clock struck two. The

15:50

fire that had played so merrily upon

15:53

its hearth was sending out its last

15:55

dying rays, and the lights

15:57

flickering over the walls made ghostlike

15:59

figures." The danced and rolled,

16:02

like souls in torture. Jarvis

16:06

arose with a sigh, and opening his

16:08

casement windows he stepped out upon the

16:10

balcony. The air was

16:12

cold, with a touch of winter in

16:14

his fingertips, brighter even than

16:17

that other night, six

16:19

months before. Shivering

16:22

slightly, he stood waiting, with his eyes

16:24

intent upon the patch of lawn where

16:26

first he had seen the shadow, which

16:29

had no body. Very

16:31

slowly time passed. Twice

16:34

he had heard the clock below, stairs strike the

16:36

hour. Finally, Jarvis

16:39

felt certain that nothing would occur this

16:41

night, went to bed, and at

16:43

once fell asleep. Dream

16:46

after dream pursued each other through

16:48

his brain, each more horrible than

16:50

the last. Their

16:52

bloated things danced with witches,

16:55

and a monstrous hairy being

16:57

without eyes performed strange rites.

17:00

The eerie music of the

17:03

moor echoed in his brain,

17:05

and in all these dreams the

17:07

ruins had their grim and

17:10

terrifying part, silently,

17:13

broodingly, overlooking the

17:16

obscenity within the

17:18

circle of crumbling rocks.

17:22

He awoke in a cold sweat of

17:24

terror, and lay for some time, almost

17:26

fearing to return to sleep, but finally

17:29

he dropped off into uncoupled rest. After

17:33

a meagre breakfast, he mapped

17:35

out his procedure for the day. He

17:37

had a letter to write, and then the rest of the

17:40

day to inspect the ruins. So after

17:42

posting a letter to a firm in London,

17:45

he showed at his knapsack of lunch, and

17:47

went to spend a day upon the moor.

17:52

When he had reached the ruins, he stood and

17:54

inspected them carefully. On

17:56

that sunshiny morning the grey pile of

17:58

rock looked very strange. very peaceful,

18:01

vines and mosses grew here and there

18:03

over them, on some

18:05

of the stones of crude, carbon figures

18:07

and designs half obliterated by storm and

18:10

decay. As

18:12

he was walking round the circle of

18:14

broken rocks, he soon saw the gateway

18:16

through which he had plunged on that

18:18

never-to-be-forgotten night. He

18:21

entered and found himself

18:23

in a hollowed circle, which was several

18:25

inches below the level of the moor. Nothing

18:28

was visible except hard-packed earth.

18:32

Carefully, he searched for footprints, but

18:34

found none. Then

18:36

from the inside he examined diligently

18:38

each post and stone for some

18:40

sign of recent use, but

18:42

again he drew a blank. Giving

18:46

up his quest for the time, he ate

18:48

his lunch and then continued the search

18:50

as frontlessly as before. As

18:53

far as appearances showed, there had been no

18:55

one here for ages, but here

18:58

a thought struck him. Before

19:01

the death of Gilbert, the ruins had

19:03

been frequently visited by tourists and yet

19:06

there was no sign of them. Certainly,

19:08

this was queer. It

19:10

was a puzzle he couldn't see. Tiring

19:13

of his useless search, he left the ruins and

19:15

started for the village and the inn. As

19:18

he reached the entrance of the ruins and

19:20

stooped over to pick up his nap-pack, he

19:23

noticed hidden in a crevice

19:25

between the stones a

19:27

fragment of paper. He

19:29

picked it up and looked at it

19:31

closely. It was dirty, torn and weather-beaten,

19:34

a leaf evidently torn from a notebook,

19:36

for the paper was small and could very

19:38

easily have fitted into the pocket. It

19:41

had been carelessly torn, but only

19:43

a part of the sentence was visible. The

19:46

handwriting was neat and painstaking.

19:49

This scrap of writing had neither beginning

19:51

nor end. Discovered

19:53

secret today. We'll return

19:55

for further investigation tonight. The altar is...

19:59

Then came the... tear, running clear

20:01

across the page, in the

20:03

still remaining upper corner were the initials

20:05

C. G. Evidently

20:08

the dead man on the moor

20:11

had found something that had eluded

20:13

Jarvis. The mention of

20:15

the altar puzzled him. Surely the

20:17

matter was becoming more involved, more

20:20

mystifying. Jarvis was as

20:22

much lost in darkness as he had

20:24

been before. The thing had

20:26

a deeper look. He could see

20:28

no beginning and no end.

20:31

Placing the scrap of paper in his wallet

20:34

and turning the jumble of thoughts over in

20:36

his mind, he returned

20:38

to his lodgings. As

20:40

he opened the door, Jarvis was impressed by

20:42

the bright hospitality of the place. The

20:45

inn's room was cheerily alight, a

20:47

huge fire blazed and flickered on

20:49

the hearth, and around it,

20:52

seated in the semicircle, were some of

20:54

the village worthies. The smoke

20:56

of their pipes wreathed about their heads. It

20:59

is, said Jarvis to himself, like a page

21:01

straight out of Dickens. The

21:04

opening of the door caused them to turn and stare

21:06

at him, and in the memorable

21:08

manner of all villagers, they spoke to

21:10

him courtiously. Little Johnson,

21:13

the innkeeper, bustled up and made a place

21:15

for him around the circle, and

21:17

when Jarvis had been made comfortable with a

21:19

cigar and glass of steaming toddy, the

21:22

innkeeper introduced him. This

21:24

is Mr. Jarvis, a writing gentleman who wants

21:26

to know somewhat about the mooer. Mr.

21:29

Jarvis, these are the mare and

21:31

the select men of the village. There

21:34

was a silence for some time as though all

21:36

were plunged deeply into thought. Finally,

21:39

an old grey beard, the mare shook his

21:41

head and spoke. There

21:43

ain't none of us here that knows much

21:45

about us, sir. Nothing at all, except George

21:47

here. George, he can't speak, poor

21:50

fellow, because he's dumb. These

21:53

followed the pointing finger and saw, huddled

21:55

in a corner, as close to the

21:57

fire as possible, a wisp. of

22:00

a man, so emaciated and dried

22:02

up that he looked like a mummy. Countless

22:05

centuries seemed to have passed over his

22:07

head. How old he

22:09

was, Jarvis couldn't judge. The

22:12

countenance was terrifying, not a face at

22:14

all, but a nastily caricature of a

22:16

human face. Always,

22:18

Jarvis thought, it would haunt

22:20

his dreams. Dreadful! Worse

22:23

than best, it leered at him from

22:25

across the room. The mouth,

22:27

a flabby gash from which

22:30

saliva trickled down the chin,

22:32

moved constantly, emitting little clucking

22:34

noises. The eyes

22:36

fascinated Jarvis like the eyes of

22:39

a snake. They

22:41

were round, full, nearly opaque,

22:43

of a dull, gray glassiness, short

22:45

with fine red lines. Why,

22:48

he's blind as well as dumb,

22:50

exclaimed Jarvis. That is,

22:52

sir. He walked too

22:55

late on the moor one moonlight

22:57

night and saw the shadows. The

23:01

last word shattered all

23:03

of Jarvis's fast-disappearing equanimity.

23:06

So the shadows were come and gossip.

23:09

The shadows, he exclaimed. Yes,

23:12

sir. The haunt

23:14

the moor neither ruins and mean

23:16

death nor worse, as

23:18

such as see them. But George isn't

23:20

dead. No, sir, he ran

23:23

away before he heard the music, and don't

23:25

you think he would be better dead? There

23:27

be strange things on the moor, cries

23:30

and shouts and lights where there

23:32

ain't nothing nor nobody. I tell

23:34

you, sir, we stay clear of the

23:37

moor on the moonlight nights, sir, in

23:39

the summer and late fall. Best

23:41

of the time nothing happens. It's

23:43

best not to go out the doors on them nights. Them

23:46

ruins is terrible. They'll be

23:48

haunted places, and it'd be wise not to

23:50

go anywhere close to them, sir. I

23:53

warned Mr. Gilbert, him that was killed, you

23:55

know. But he wouldn't pay no attention

23:57

to me. got

24:00

him. "'Who

24:03

are they?' asked

24:05

Jarvis, sensing that he

24:07

was getting to the crux of the matter at last. "'The

24:10

beshaddows, sir, shadows, they didn't got

24:12

no bodies,' saw I hear. "'I

24:15

ain't seen them yet, praise God.' Shortly

24:19

after this, Jarvis, tiring of the

24:21

now commonplace conversation, excused himself, and

24:24

leaving the circle round the fire, went to

24:26

his room. Sitting

24:29

on the light he noticed a package lying on

24:31

his table. It was the

24:33

book he'd ordered from London entitled

24:35

Pre-Druidistic Ruins in England. Sitting

24:39

himself in a chair beside the shaded reading

24:41

light, he was soon deeply engrossed

24:43

in his purchase. As

24:45

he read on and on he stopped with

24:47

a jerk, and then reread

24:49

more carefully the following two paragraphs.

24:53

Perhaps the most interesting of these ancient ruins

24:55

are those at Humboldon, which are the earliest

24:57

known so far as we have been able

25:00

to trace. How far back

25:02

beyond the Druids and their religion these

25:04

ruins of another race and age go,

25:06

we can only estimate.

25:09

It is, in fact, almost impossible to

25:11

tell. There is

25:13

another factor that makes the piles

25:15

at Humboldon of exceeding interest to

25:17

students. While it is,

25:19

as we have stated before, the oldest of

25:22

the ruins, it is, strangely, the best

25:24

preserved. And

25:26

so far as investigation can go, there

25:29

is no sound reason for this being

25:31

the case. The carving

25:33

in most cases is remarkably clear,

25:36

and the dancing ring almost in its original

25:38

state. Here, however, we

25:40

encounter the most peculiar factor in these

25:42

remains. While

25:44

the dancing ring is very wonderfully

25:46

preserved, the moon altar, which is

25:49

the distinguishing feature of most pre-Druidistic

25:51

piles, is missing. The

25:54

moon altar in all similar ruins discovered is

25:56

a huge stone carved in the shape of

25:58

a new moon. From all

26:00

evidence we can gather, the victim, or

26:02

the sacrifice, to turn it more fiddly,

26:05

was tied between the horns of these

26:07

altars, and then sacrificed by the

26:09

sacred knife that is shown in many carvings.

26:12

It seemingly carried a huge,

26:14

crescent-shaped blade, and must, from

26:16

the pictures, have had an edge

26:18

like a razor. In most

26:20

cases the altar is found in the exact

26:23

center of the dancing ring. There

26:25

has been intensive search made for the one

26:27

at Humboldt, but so far without

26:30

satisfaction. The absence of the altar

26:32

in this the best preserved of

26:34

all pre-druidistic remains makes one

26:36

of the most fascinating studies for the student

26:39

of these things. As

26:41

he finished reading, Jarvis remembered the

26:43

slip of paper he'd found on the moor

26:46

earlier that morning, the torn scrap

26:48

that ended so suddenly. The

26:50

altar is. What could

26:52

the rest of the sentence be? What

26:55

was lost by his not having the remaining

26:57

fragment? Undoubtedly Gilbert had

26:59

found the answer to the puzzle, and

27:02

the answer to the great secret of

27:04

the moor, a secret that had

27:06

eluded all the other students

27:08

and archaeologists. Why,

27:11

here in the best preserved of all

27:13

these ruins was there no moon altar.

27:16

Even in the most ravaged of the

27:18

others, the altar was conspicuous, but here

27:21

none could be found. At

27:24

last, Jarvis arose and stretched himself.

27:27

He was cramped and tired. He

27:29

looked at his watch. It was after two.

27:31

He had sat engrossed in

27:33

his reading longer than he had realized.

27:37

Pulling on a sweater, Jarvis opened

27:39

his casements and stepped upon the

27:41

balcony. Again it was

27:43

moonlight, for this was the

27:45

season of the moon when bright nights were

27:47

common, and the people of the

27:50

village kept behind barred doors. The

27:53

moor was white, cold, and

27:56

apparently tenetless. The

27:58

night was very still. Not

28:01

even the breath of a breeze stirred

28:03

in the trees, and the

28:05

shadows of the buildings and the shrubbery

28:08

were solid black patches of darkness on

28:10

the silver lawn. Over

28:13

the moor, far in the distance, were

28:15

the ruins, clear

28:17

cut and white beneath the

28:19

moon. But

28:21

there was also about them, Jarvis thought,

28:24

a majestic power holding

28:26

threats in the menace

28:28

of dark deeds, still

28:31

unfulfilled. He

28:33

stood looking intently at the patch of lawn where

28:35

he had first seen the shadow. He

28:39

waited, for what seemed to him hours

28:41

then? As his

28:43

glance wandered and came back, he

28:46

saw it, the shadow. Again

28:50

it was a woman who moved apparently

28:52

stealthily across the lawn, but

28:54

over the moor ever toward the ruins.

28:58

Stealthily, Jarvis followed after her. Emulating

29:01

Ulysses, he had stuffed his ears with

29:03

cotton because he had no desire to

29:05

hear the throb of the music that

29:09

turned his blood to flame.

29:13

On and on he followed the ghostly

29:15

chase. As before he

29:17

pursued the shadow, now losing it in

29:19

some patch of darkness, now seeing it

29:22

once more as it crossed an open

29:24

place, on and on,

29:27

keeping well behind the bodiless woman.

29:30

Though he could not hear, he could sense

29:32

that now the music was swelling out over

29:34

the moor. Because

29:36

of the cotton in his ears

29:38

he remained unmoved, the pace

29:40

of the shadow quickened, and

29:43

he hasten moved to it.

29:45

They were now at the gateway. For

29:48

some time Jarvis had been noticing the

29:50

growing number of shadowy forms, the

29:52

space before the entrance to the

29:55

dancing floor was crowded with wriggling,

29:57

hurrying black shapes. strangeness

30:00

of being able to see all this

30:02

that no other living person except dumb

30:05

George had ever seen thrilled

30:07

Jarvis deeply. But

30:09

then suddenly a thought came to him. The

30:12

sight had made that other both blind

30:14

and dumb, yet he

30:16

himself was not affected in the least.

30:20

What was the reason for this? Its

30:22

mystery eluded him, but

30:25

he dismissed it from his mind and sped

30:27

on after the shadows. He

30:29

could tell from the way the shadows were

30:31

moving that the music was now booming on

30:33

the air, full of hate and lust and

30:35

buisqueness. The very thought

30:37

made him think of those eerie, phantasmic

30:40

gory of the grand guignol. They

30:43

were now at the very threshold

30:45

of the dancing floor. Something

30:49

grasped Jarvis by the shoulders and

30:51

hurled him through the gateway, then,

30:53

hearing a crash behind him that penetrated even

30:55

through the cotton in his ear so close

30:58

he was to it, he turned and saw

31:00

a huge slab that had fallen from the

31:02

top of the archway and now lay in

31:04

the exact centre of the entrance. It

31:08

seemed to him that the huge

31:10

stone had an intention, a

31:12

purpose, a malevolent

31:14

design. Its

31:16

fall seemed time to the fraction of a

31:18

second. Had it not been

31:20

for that impetus from unseen forces, had

31:23

he been but a moment

31:25

slower, he would have

31:27

been crushed to pulp beneath its

31:29

ponderous weight. As

31:32

he now glanced at it, he

31:34

thought it seemed to have a

31:36

personality, a soul, old and

31:39

evil, longing to

31:41

crush to atoms the lives of

31:43

those who entered its once sacred

31:45

portals. The

31:47

mystery of Gilbert's death upon the

31:49

moor had now been solved. He

31:52

had been but a moment too late

31:54

to cross the threshold. Jarvis

31:58

swung around again and faced the the

32:00

hard-packed earth of the dancing floor. Here

32:03

the shadows were gathered in a

32:05

ring, circling, whirling

32:07

to the soundless music, now

32:09

turning this way, now spinning

32:11

that, in complete

32:14

silence, yet in a

32:17

mad frenzy of motion. As

32:21

Jarvis watched them, it seemed

32:23

as though he were becoming

32:25

paralyzed, and two, something was

32:27

affecting his eyes. Objects became

32:29

blurred and hazy, yet the

32:31

shadows themselves became more and

32:33

more distinct. With a

32:35

rush, the shadows came together and in

32:37

a mass. The

32:39

dance grew wilder and

32:42

more abandoned. Suddenly

32:45

they stopped, with shadowy arms

32:48

uplifted. In the exact

32:50

centre of the dancing floor, something

32:52

was rising, inch by inch, it

32:54

seemed to struggle through the hard-packed

32:57

earth. Finally, Jarvis

32:59

could partly distinguish what it was,

33:02

a huge stone, and by the paleness

33:04

of the moon, now dimming on the

33:06

horizon's edge, it could make out

33:08

its odd shape, which seemed

33:10

like a monstrous half-moon lying

33:12

on its back, with its

33:15

two sharp horns pointing skyward.

33:18

Beside it was another shadow, with

33:20

arms uplifted, that of

33:22

a man, huge and

33:25

powerful. Jarvis

33:27

had never seen a man of such stature.

33:31

He could see the shadow's

33:33

giant torso, the swelling chest,

33:35

the pillar-like legs, and the

33:37

arms long and muscular, with

33:39

great long-fingered prehensile hands, all

33:42

this cast in high relief against

33:44

the whiteness of the altar. For

33:47

altar, he now knew it

33:49

to be. At

33:51

last the Moor had given up to

33:53

him her deepest secret, and

33:56

he knew too why the

33:58

search of orbit Gilbert had been

34:00

unsuccessful, and Gilbert had

34:03

paid with his life for the secret. The

34:07

Shadow Man lowered his arms and

34:09

the multitude of shades threw themselves

34:11

on their faces, as the

34:13

altar finally came to rest upon the surface

34:15

of the floor. To

34:18

Jarvis it seemed as if

34:20

thick smoke rolled before

34:22

his eyes. As

34:25

through a cloud he saw the Shadow

34:27

Man rise and turn toward him and

34:29

point a commanding finger. For

34:32

the first time a real terror smote

34:34

him, and he knew such fear as

34:36

few men have ever known. He

34:38

tried to turn and run, but it was

34:41

as if he were turned to stone,

34:43

as heavy and solid as those silent

34:45

grey rocks about him. Amid

34:48

the gathering blackness he saw the

34:50

shadows. Now dimmed springs suddenly

34:52

upon him, he felt hot breaths

34:54

upon his cheeks. Shapeless,

34:56

shadowy hands tore at him, strong

34:59

hands they were. Surely

35:01

such strength could not belong to bodied

35:03

as shadows, but he could see no

35:05

one, just a rolling mass

35:08

of deeper blackness in the mist before

35:10

his eyes. The

35:12

shadows overbore him and carried

35:14

him along. Long arms

35:16

lifted him up, and now

35:19

he caught a stench as of

35:21

something long dead and of rottenness

35:23

beyond human ken. Yet

35:25

not dead, but alive.

35:28

For the dead have no strength,

35:31

and here was strength abundant. High,

35:34

high aloft he was lifted up, up

35:36

to the altar. The

35:38

mist that had been before his eyes

35:40

cleared, and he could still

35:42

feel unseen, shadowy hands that tugged at him,

35:44

pulled at his feet. Up

35:47

he went, until he could plainly see

35:49

the fearful carvings on the altar, too

35:52

horrible even to glance at again. He

35:55

felt himself wrenched and stretched out and

35:57

out, and then found

35:59

the light. himself strung between the horns

36:02

of the mighty altar. The

36:04

moon had almost sat, and it

36:07

was throwing its last dim rays across the plain.

36:10

Unseen fingers tore the cotton from

36:12

his ears, and at last he

36:14

heard what he had dreaded to

36:17

hear, that uncanny,

36:19

bestial music of the ruins.

36:22

It was playing, now softly,

36:25

now rising in a hellish

36:27

crescendo, while all about

36:29

him danced the shadows

36:31

noiselessly, ceaselessly. He turned

36:33

his eyes away and looked up. Towering

36:36

over him was the tremendous man,

36:38

or rather the shadow of some

36:40

giant from the ancient past, when

36:43

the world must have been young and

36:46

terrible. Stretching

36:49

his arms toward the dying

36:51

moon, the man knelt. The

36:54

music ceased with a throb, and

36:57

the shadows prostrated themselves in a ring about

36:59

the altar. The

37:01

sudden silence beat on Jarvis's frayed

37:03

nerves more horribly than the din

37:06

of the music. Long

37:08

it lasted this silent prayer

37:10

to the dying moon, but

37:13

finally the huge

37:15

shadow man arose, reached below

37:18

Jarvis and took from its

37:20

hiding place a

37:23

knife. There

37:25

was nothing shadowy about the knife. It

37:28

flashed fire in the light and

37:31

glistened evenly before his eyes. Fascinated,

37:34

Jarvis watched the shadowy arm

37:36

lift the crescent blade, point

37:38

foremost toward the moon, hold

37:41

it still, then lift it

37:43

again, now hilt

37:46

foremost, holding it quiveringly

37:48

high in the air. Down

37:51

came the mighty arm

37:53

towards Jarvis's chest. He

37:56

saw it begin slowly. Oh, so

37:59

slowly. down,

38:02

on, down, nearer."

38:07

Then the moon sat, and

38:09

all was blackness and

38:12

stillness on the moor. From

38:16

a London paper, noted

38:18

novelist disappears. The

38:21

mysterious disappearance of Gerald Jarvis, one

38:23

of England's most noted authors, has

38:25

caused one of the biggest sensations

38:27

of the day. Mr.

38:29

Jarvis was spending a weekend at Humboldon

38:31

on the moors. According

38:33

to Edward Johnson, the innkeeper, Mr. Jarvis

38:36

had sat in the main room of

38:38

the inn until late and then gone

38:40

to his room. From there

38:42

he disappeared. His

38:44

bed had not been slept in. Nor

38:47

had he undressed for the night. Mr.

38:50

Jarvis had no enemies, and

38:52

the police are unable to find a clue to

38:54

his whereabouts. This is

38:56

the second tragedy of the kind in the little

38:58

town in as many months. The

39:00

old wives of the village whisper of

39:03

strange things on the moor, and say

39:05

that Jarvis and Gilbert, who the man

39:07

found murdered last month, knew too much

39:10

about the ruins on the moor. However,

39:12

the police laugh at such ideas and believe

39:14

that Mr. Jarvis was a victim of foul

39:17

play. The authors league has

39:19

offered a reward of £1000 for

39:22

information as to his whereabouts. The

39:48

shadow on the moor by Stuart

39:50

Strauss published in 1928. is

40:00

now for

40:02

the 14% of you people who don't want to

40:04

hear this just stop now and go

40:06

and listen to something else. I've done hours and hours

40:08

of stories so please feel free to leave. I

40:11

won't be offended. So

40:13

I got this story

40:16

from the British Library Tales of the

40:18

Weird, the volume edited by Katie Sower,

40:21

Circles of Stone, Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and

40:23

Ancient Rites. So I've actually got this subscription to

40:26

the British Library Series. You can get one for

40:28

classic detective fiction as well which I was thinking

40:30

about doing but you end up with too many

40:32

books to read really but this is

40:34

one that comes out and

40:36

it's very modestly priced and

40:40

they do one every month so I pay

40:43

a tenner a month and I get a

40:45

book. Amazing. So let me tell

40:47

you about Stuart Strauss. There's very little information

40:49

says Katie Sower the editor available

40:51

at Strauss even EF Blyler's comprehensive

40:53

volume Science Fiction the early years

40:55

1990 simply says no information

40:59

in regard to him Strauss who

41:01

was which was presumably a pseudonym

41:04

good point is known to us solely through

41:06

his three publications in Weird Tales 2 in 1928 and

41:08

1 in 1934 the clenched hand 1928 is a supernatural

41:10

murder mystery while

41:14

the soul tube 1934 is

41:17

an occult science fiction tale the

41:19

shadow on the moor published in

41:21

February 1928 of Weird Tales who

41:24

described it as a creepy tale the pre-druidic

41:26

ruins of England out on the moor with

41:28

dancing and strange world music and death that

41:31

happens you know dancing strange world music and

41:33

death called a new-age rave those

41:36

were the days but

41:39

so I tell you one thing about him as an American how

41:42

do you know Tony well you may have got this certain

41:44

things about his language so he

41:46

says it's very similar

41:48

to British English and he's clearly

41:51

trying to write British a British

41:53

thing but he says Gotten which

41:55

young people these days have now

41:58

started to say in fact little children

42:00

play in American. They'll be talking in the

42:02

normal accents and then when they do play

42:04

because they've got so much American kids TV,

42:07

they start talking with American accents. It's utterly

42:09

weird. But yeah, and many, like

42:11

we never used to say, can

42:13

I get, we used to say, can I

42:16

have? But now it's ubiquitous now that young

42:18

people in Britain will go, can I get

42:20

a rather than can I have a,

42:22

which is an American usage? I'm not

42:24

decrying this. I'm just noting it. So

42:26

yeah, he says gotten, which although young

42:28

people do say that in the UK

42:30

these days, it was never a thing

42:33

until probably about 10 years ago. And

42:36

then he says toward, rather than towards what

42:38

you find is the British writers tend to

42:40

say towards and they put an S

42:42

on it and Americans

42:44

don't. And Americans

42:47

tend to prefer around, whereas

42:49

British writers say round other

42:51

things. He thought that a village

42:53

had a mare, it don't. And he thought that

42:55

the stones may have ivy on them. No

42:59

vines. No, no,

43:01

no, no, no vines. It's too cold.

43:04

We don't have vines, briars maybe

43:06

potentially, but ivy

43:08

potentially, but probably nothing. And

43:10

the carvings of course, I mean, it's clearly

43:12

hasn't been to many stone circles. I mean,

43:14

the two rings of drunken things that was

43:17

pretty well observed. I'm

43:19

not kind of this, the guy, I'm just saying

43:21

that those were clues to me of him. So

43:23

in our search for Stuart

43:25

Strauss, which probably just goes this far and

43:27

no further, but if any of you want

43:29

to take up this search, that's my little

43:31

hint for you. Look across the water in

43:33

the United States and I would say the

43:36

US rather than Canada. So in

43:38

the US, this guy, and

43:41

if we read these other stories, you may have other

43:43

clues as well. Didn't

43:45

you think it was like The Horror

43:47

Under Penmire by Adrian Coles, which I

43:50

did not long ago, sort of written

43:52

that story written a couple of decades

43:54

afterwards. Also, I

43:56

felt there was a strong Lovecraftian influence

43:59

there. So in the horror and

44:01

the penmire, this guy goes to a Cornish

44:03

village, which is full of

44:06

inbred, rustic

44:08

people, because

44:10

that's how people think. It's like in the countryside.

44:13

And it's a trope, isn't it? It's

44:16

a trope of folk horror. And

44:20

yeah, everybody in the countryside is mentally,

44:23

is inbred and mentally deficient or

44:26

has something wrong with them. And of course,

44:28

painting that picture of the poor unfortunate chap,

44:31

I suspect you couldn't write that these

44:33

days. But, but, but,

44:35

but. So I felt quite Lovecraftian.

44:39

Remember that Stuart Strauss had contributed to amazing

44:41

stories, so he's going to know the work

44:43

of Lovecraft without doubt. And also Lovecraftian circle

44:45

was certainly not above placing

44:47

stories in and even Poe, think

44:49

of the fall of House of

44:51

Usher, feels

44:54

English, although, you know, some of these

44:57

other stuff feels more European, but certainly

44:59

European anyway. And Lovecraft and Clark Ashton

45:01

Smith, I think we did the Nameless

45:03

thing or something from the bottom of

45:05

the Nameless thing. Nameless offspring, that's when they're on.

45:07

And that's set in some kind of remote mooring,

45:09

Cornwall. Of course, this could have been a moor

45:12

anywhere in the country. I've just done a plug

45:14

plug, the Hound of the Baskervilles for

45:17

the Classically Second Stories podcast. You want to

45:19

nip over there now. If you, yeah,

45:21

just the classic detective stories podcast, you should

45:24

find it. I find no problem Googling that

45:26

and finding it. But it maybe knows

45:28

who I am. Of course,

45:30

it knows who you are. It knows what you like,

45:32

who you are, where you live, what you like, baked

45:34

beans and toast with cheese and a bit of ransome

45:36

pickle, which I do. It

45:39

knows all of that. And it

45:41

certainly knows who I am. So it may not

45:43

know who you are. It will know who

45:45

you are, but it might not know you. I'm

45:48

losing myself now, are I? So, okay.

45:51

Yeah. So yeah,

45:54

so I'm used to these wild West Country moors,

45:56

so I thought I'd make it a bit northern.

46:00

And there's standing circles all over

46:02

the UK on Wild

46:04

Mowland, places up in Scotland, Orkney,

46:07

Callinish and the Isle of Lewis,

46:10

or Kilmartin. If you ever go to Argyle,

46:12

go to Kilmartin, that is a knockout place.

46:16

Don't forget the Pictish stones either in

46:19

Angus and places like that, where

46:22

some of my ancestors were from. Actually

46:25

not quite as North Perthshire really,

46:29

not quite as North as Angus. Anyway

46:32

so we're going to Orkney

46:34

this year I think. We hope

46:36

that it's proving quite difficult to book but

46:38

we hope to get up there to look

46:40

at some standing stones and prehistoric

46:43

ruins and stuff like that, Stone Age

46:45

ruins. Nothing can beat a Stone Age

46:47

ruin. I'd love to do

46:49

a modern antiquarian like Julian Coppen who

46:51

did that book called The Modern Antiquarian

46:53

and I think all of the stone

46:55

circles in the UK and

46:58

visited them all another really grand time.

47:01

And then Anya Maroney who is in

47:03

our book club, who is perhaps the

47:05

captain of our book club. She may

47:07

not know that but that's how I

47:09

look at her. And she, I

47:12

don't know if

47:14

she's a custodian of the

47:16

Douth complex

47:18

in the Boyne Valley so

47:21

hit some Irish stone circles as well and

47:24

let's all stop there. Let's head down to

47:26

Brittany and go to Carnac and then

47:28

you know, oh there's no stopping these things. I

47:32

love them. And you say one is stones

47:34

aren't they big stones? No,

47:36

no, no, no, they're just super

47:38

cool. Anyway so whatever I

47:40

said. So about Strauss, something about

47:42

where I got the book, British Library.

47:45

If you want to sign up to that, if you're interested in these things,

47:48

there's some good stories in them. And

47:51

they come out every month and it's only a teller,

47:53

amazing. I think it's actually post free. So

47:57

in the UK anyway, I can't speak for anywhere else. But

48:00

yeah, I thought it wasn't

48:03

a massively original story.

48:06

As we see, I've already talked about Adrian

48:09

Cole's stories after this one, so you could

48:11

say that Adrian Cole's borrowed his.

48:14

It is very folk horror. I liked the setting.

48:17

It was sort of predictable. I mean,

48:19

there was nothing startling about it really, was

48:21

there? But if you're reading your amazing stories,

48:23

it was entertaining. It was a

48:26

good old romp, I thought. I

48:28

liked the atmosphere. I thought there was going to

48:30

be something more about the

48:32

shadowy lady. I thought there

48:34

might be a kind of supernatural love interest, but

48:36

the story wasn't long enough for that.

48:39

So that's all we've got to say about the story, really. And

48:41

as you know, I now descend into other

48:44

blathering. I've been doing

48:46

long walks with the dogs at the

48:48

moment, and I'm following

48:50

the River Eden. And

48:53

we've had tons of rain down, and oh,

48:55

the river never even has been flooded. It's

48:59

taking big trees, loads of

49:01

trees, and it's very

49:04

boggy still, underfoot. Lots

49:07

of standing water still, but it is draining. I don't think

49:09

it's rained for two days now. So

49:11

that's pretty good. So we follow the river

49:13

up and under the motorway. And

49:16

I found a golf ball under the motorway bridge. How did that

49:18

get there? The other amazing thing is, I don't

49:20

know if you know what quavers are.

49:23

So quavers are a cheesy, curl, kind

49:25

of crisp, chip thing, if you're

49:27

American, I suppose, if you call them that.

49:30

But they're kind of made of bubbles. I'm absolutely certain

49:33

they're not very good for you. And

49:35

I hope I don't get sued by

49:37

quavers. But I'm

49:39

like looking all around, and there's lots

49:41

and lots of these multi-packet packets, just

49:45

plastic, all over

49:47

the place. And I thought, well, is

49:50

it just a fisherman by the river, it's a

49:52

good salmon river, who

49:55

likes quavers? And he comes and he just

49:57

is very careless with his rapping. And

50:00

I'm thinking, he's going to have to eat tons

50:02

of quavers. The occasion

50:04

was a bag of Wattsits. There's nothing in these

50:06

bags and you get the ripped up multi thing

50:09

and then the

50:11

quaver packets themselves and they're stuck on the barbed wire

50:14

and the fences, they're stuck

50:16

in trees and litter

50:18

the ground. So

50:21

it occurred to me and Sheila said, well, do

50:24

you remember there was a lorry got blown over

50:26

in the high winds and closed the motorway a

50:28

couple of weeks ago? I think it was a

50:30

quaver lorry and it was carrying a lorry. And

50:32

I wish I'd been there because even though they're

50:34

not very good for you, I quite like them. And

50:37

so I don't think I'd have eaten all of that many, but I would have eaten

50:39

one or two. So this is an X

50:41

mystery who ate all

50:44

the quavers. There was a lot

50:46

of quavers and

50:48

the mystery is solved because when

50:51

we were walking the other day, a huge

50:53

flock of barnacle geese lifted up and

50:56

they'd been eating things

50:58

in the field in this swampy field. And

51:01

I think it was them to date the quavers.

51:03

There's a lot of them. They could have easily

51:05

demolished the quavers. I'm not sure the dogs eat

51:07

them. They don't really like them, but

51:11

you shouldn't give dogs quavers. Okay. Because

51:14

who knows what they're made of. It's not done massively great. Oh,

51:17

I bet I'm just not going to get into this. Okay. I

51:20

don't know what I'm talking about. A lot of the time I don't

51:22

know what I'm talking about. People say you say random things. Yes, I

51:24

do. You are baiting. No, I'm

51:26

not baiting people. Random stuff comes into my,

51:29

it doesn't even go into my brain. It comes out just

51:31

straight out of my mouth. Where

51:33

it comes from, that's a mystery. Where

51:35

does your thoughts come from? Where do you feel that

51:37

you don't know what you're going to think or feel

51:39

the next second? Where they come from.

51:42

That's deeply mysterious. You need to be thinking about that.

51:45

Well, actually, you don't. You probably

51:47

won't do any harm if you never think about

51:49

that in your lives. So

51:51

that was it. And we went so far. And then

51:53

I started to panic, not

51:55

massively, but I'm like, we're going on and

51:58

on. There's a river. There's

52:00

this hugely boggy field and it's

52:02

big, big expanse of flat.

52:06

And I was like, oh, nobody

52:08

else, nobody else the whole way,

52:10

miles. And I'm like, oh, it's

52:12

like something out of a flipping classic

52:14

ghost story. I thought something was

52:16

going to happen. Come and pop out of the river and

52:19

no human beings, no dogs, no

52:22

nothing. Just some geese, seagulls,

52:25

no sheep. It's too boggy for them.

52:27

No cows. I think they go there when it's a bit

52:29

drier. No, I didn't see any salmon.

52:33

Particularly looking. Oh yeah,

52:35

I saw some ducks. And

52:37

it was kind of a flock of golden eye,

52:39

which are lovely little ducks. I think they went

52:42

to visitors to us. And

52:44

so that was nice. If you've

52:46

fallen asleep during the store and you've just woken up now,

52:48

I don't

52:51

know what to say. It

52:53

won't go one or two ways. You'll

52:55

either be, oh, he's just talking

52:57

about nothing. I can just, because

53:00

when I was younger, my grandfather gave

53:02

me a transistor radio that I used

53:04

to, no, it was a valve

53:06

radio, I think. And I used to take it

53:09

apart and take

53:11

the valves out, took it and put them back

53:13

again. And eventually I took, and every

53:15

time I take it more and more apart,

53:18

and eventually I got to the point where it didn't work

53:20

anymore. But I used to listen late

53:22

at night on this. I must've been 10, 11. And

53:29

the songs I remember, you can probably date when I

53:31

was doing it. From the songs,

53:33

there was Moon River, there

53:36

was Rhinestone Cowboy

53:38

and Feeling Groovy by

53:40

Simon and Garfunkel. Hicking around

53:42

the cobblestones. I loved

53:45

it. And there

53:48

isn't a point to this, but there is a kind

53:50

of thread in that. Late,

53:54

oh yeah, and Letter from America

53:56

by Alistair Cook. Fantastic.

54:00

The guy, and it didn't matter what he was

54:02

talking about, he had such a voice and I

54:04

used to listen to it and these things late at night

54:06

in the dark with my ear to the radio and

54:09

that kind of, if you've listened

54:11

to my late night sleep radio, YouTube

54:13

channel and podcast, I suppose I'm

54:16

trying to kind of replicate that feeling, not

54:20

talking about letters from America or playing

54:22

music but doing those things.

54:24

So yeah, if you were like the younger

54:26

me and there's

54:29

your shipping forecast, which

54:31

is a British Radio

54:33

4 thing whereby they

54:35

talk in this robotic voice, somebody was explaining

54:37

it, South of Sarah,

54:39

North of Sarah, 53, rising. Iceland,

54:44

73, rising. Fasten

54:46

it. You

54:50

know, I can't even remember them. Biscay,

54:55

German, Beit and all these things and these

54:57

are places that all the ships are out

54:59

and then I'll think about the sailors out

55:02

there on the trawlers and

55:05

other boats in the rolling seas,

55:07

you know, in the North Sea

55:09

and on the Atlantic and

55:13

way out, especially if the weather's up

55:16

and the waves and some of those waves

55:18

I've seen on Instagram

55:20

actually, probably

55:22

maybe a bit on YouTube. So

55:26

whoa, call blimey and it's

55:28

just, and there I am,

55:30

cozy, cozy, cozy. So

55:33

I'm either doing that for you now

55:35

and you've woke it up and there's this guy

55:38

rambling about nothing much and,

55:40

well I am, but it's not, it's inconsequential

55:42

isn't it? And you're

55:45

like, oh this is cozy. Or

55:47

you are the one of the 14% and you're going

55:50

to write a strongly worded comment. Not

55:54

that I'm bitter. Well I wish

55:56

I didn't take this. I don't, you know, I know

55:58

this is a fault. I know,

56:01

I just need to let

56:03

it go, let it go, let it go. So

56:06

you don't even have to tell me to let it go, because

56:08

I know I need to let it go. Anyways, let it go.

56:11

So I'm hoping you're the cosy. There's

56:15

a bit of jaggy energy in there, isn't

56:17

there? So let's just smooth that out. So

56:20

none of that. And

56:22

we're just being cosy. The

56:25

weather outside is frightful. They

56:28

apparently banned that song, didn't they?

56:32

No, no, I'm thinking the other one. It's

56:35

cold outside, they banned that one. But

56:37

the weather outside is frightful. My

56:41

memory is a bit like

56:43

a jigsaw puzzle. I

56:45

find pieces, but I'm not really sure how they

56:47

fit together. So there

56:50

we are. I think I'm tired actually,

56:52

it's been a long night. It's

56:56

just after 10pm, but I've been busy all

56:58

day. So I'm doing this

57:00

now because I wanted to get it ready because I've got things to do

57:03

tomorrow. So, oh yeah. The

57:06

final thing to say is, I'm

57:09

in pain because my boy dog

57:11

Jasper, I know he liked it.

57:13

I was saying to Sheila these days,

57:15

because now I'm working one

57:18

day a week and

57:21

doing psychiatric nursing and the rest of

57:23

the time I'm writing and

57:26

I'm podcasting and I'm writing a series of

57:28

stories set in a southern

57:30

English town called Ashridge, which

57:33

is very strange. And it's sort

57:36

of my influences there. The Prisoner, I

57:39

think a bit. You know Patrick

57:41

McGowan's series, a bit. Twin

57:44

Peaks definitely. David Lynch, Mark Frost,

57:46

massive fan of that. Gary

57:51

Spencer Millage's Strange Haven

57:53

graphic novel. If

57:55

you liked Twin Peaks and

57:58

you liked The Prisoner. and

58:00

you love English weirdness, then

58:02

Gary Spencer Millie, it's

58:05

just fantastic, I'm a massive fan boy, I always

58:07

have been. It's about this

58:09

guy who, his life has

58:12

fallen apart, so he finds himself in

58:14

this little village called Strangehaven,

58:17

and it kind

58:19

of sort of, it's no bubble like in the

58:21

prisoner, but you can't get out really,

58:24

because when you drive out, you go through these

58:26

little, and you end up

58:28

back again where you were, and it's full

58:30

of weird and wacky characters like Twin Peaks,

58:32

like the prisoner, and

58:35

so Ashridge is like that, but also

58:37

my other influences, Mark

58:40

Demielewski's The House of Leaves, which is

58:42

a fantastic story about a house where

58:44

they go spelunking in

58:46

the house, and the, I've got to

58:48

be careful how you say that, but,

58:52

and they find levels

58:55

and corridors and passages and

58:57

rooms rearrange themselves as if there's

58:59

some intelligence down there, but they

59:02

never actually meet anybody, and

59:04

I think that's it's wonderfulness, because as

59:06

you know, I'm also a big

59:09

fan of Robert Aikman, and

59:12

Robert Aikman's Off Kill

59:14

to Weirdness, and he takes

59:16

normal life, like kind of Strangehaven,

59:19

like the

59:22

prisoner sort of isn't really normal life, it's sort

59:24

of a little tiny bit normal life in that,

59:26

supposed to be this little friendly village where

59:29

everybody's nice to each other, but Aikman

59:31

takes the suburban ordinar, and

59:35

just shifts it, blue shifts it,

59:38

and it becomes pretty

59:40

unnerving, and you don't know why,

59:43

and I think also, you know, Daniel Levsky's House of

59:45

Leaves does that for me a little bit as well,

59:48

because the mundality is,

59:50

this is an all American, I

59:52

think it's somewhere in the Midwest, very

59:56

down to earth sort of thing, and then there's

59:58

this weird shit. happening

1:00:00

under the house. So

1:00:03

that's what I'm writing

1:00:05

and sometimes it's hard to write. Sometimes some

1:00:08

of the stories I don't know, it's like

1:00:10

pulling teeth honestly. And I get

1:00:12

the first draft down, once I got the first draft

1:00:14

down I'm rocking but with

1:00:17

this it's just flowing so I want to

1:00:19

get down to it every day. I don't

1:00:21

know what it's gonna be like in the

1:00:23

end, you never know. I'm getting a first

1:00:25

draft, the first draft is always ghastly. You

1:00:28

look at it but it's just getting it

1:00:30

down on paper so I don't know

1:00:32

when it's gonna come up. It's

1:00:34

kind of postponed. I've got a

1:00:36

volume of ghost stories, weird stories,

1:00:39

dark fairy stories come out called Twisted

1:00:41

Fairy Tales. I've written most of that but

1:00:43

I need more to write and Ashridge

1:00:45

is kind of taking me over so

1:00:47

that's what I'm doing at the moment. And

1:00:49

I'm podcasting, I'm doing this channel,

1:00:51

Classic Ghosts and I'm doing consecutive

1:00:54

stories. I'm outsourcing

1:00:56

a lot of it undetected because

1:00:59

I suppose

1:01:01

with all

1:01:04

of this I'm pleasing myself obviously,

1:01:06

don't think I'm completely being altruistic

1:01:08

because I'm not. But

1:01:10

also and so it has to

1:01:13

kind of have an audience, it

1:01:15

has to pay in some way which

1:01:18

is gonna lead me to my final point. By

1:01:20

the time I get to the final point the people

1:01:22

who are my key messages have all gone and

1:01:26

the ones who are sticking by me, I'm a

1:01:29

loyal cohort but

1:01:32

who don't need to hear it. But

1:01:38

I'm getting tired so yes, it's

1:01:43

detected so yeah, people like don't ever

1:01:45

do an American accent again. To

1:01:48

be fair, certain

1:01:51

other people have said don't do

1:01:53

our accent either. So that

1:01:55

limits me to doing this one. I

1:01:58

can do Posh ones, Posh people don't seem to matter. They're

1:02:00

lovely, they don't seem to mind. It

1:02:02

is quite much fine. It pretend to

1:02:04

be possible. We know you're not. And

1:02:06

we know it's just a pretense, but as long

1:02:09

as we're clear about that then fair enough. So,

1:02:12

but you know, I

1:02:15

think the Irish and Scots, not

1:02:18

how anybody else, people complain. Certainly I've

1:02:20

had some complaints about my southwest accent.

1:02:23

I've had complaints about my north accent, which is

1:02:25

extraordinary because it's a real one. But,

1:02:28

so I don't do

1:02:31

American. I've kind of

1:02:33

outsourced it and I've kind of found

1:02:35

some great, and I think I've found

1:02:38

some great American male voices.

1:02:41

I should say, skipping back, my dream is to do,

1:02:43

I don't know if you've come across Lime Town or

1:02:47

Alice Isn't Dead, and these are kind

1:02:49

of, or in

1:02:51

fact the Lovecraft Investigations, and

1:02:53

these are audio drama podcasts. I

1:02:56

would love to do Ashridge as an audio drama,

1:02:58

but I need English people,

1:03:01

and I need particularly English female

1:03:03

voices. I know

1:03:06

English male voices, but I don't know

1:03:08

any who can act actually. So

1:03:10

who can voice act and who can

1:03:13

supply me with lovely, clean, good

1:03:15

quality audio, remotely if

1:03:17

necessary. We could all meet up

1:03:19

at Costas,

1:03:22

the drive-thru Costas, just off London Road if

1:03:24

you want. I'm joking obviously.

1:03:29

I don't really go there. I walk past it, but

1:03:31

I don't go there. I'm not complaining

1:03:33

about it. I'm just saying I don't go. So

1:03:37

where was I? I'm

1:03:39

petering out. You think you

1:03:41

fall asleep. You fall asleep. What about me? I've

1:03:45

never fallen asleep while narrating a story. Now,

1:03:47

what is the final point? This

1:03:53

is the point that's wasted on

1:03:55

everybody who's listened thus far,

1:04:00

there have been

1:04:02

complaints about ads, both the fact they exist and what

1:04:04

they are, what they

1:04:12

form. So let's talk

1:04:14

about what they are first of

1:04:16

all. I have no control or

1:04:19

even knowledge of

1:04:22

what ads they put on my podcast.

1:04:26

And that is really the YouTube

1:04:28

or my current post, which

1:04:31

is Spotify. So I

1:04:34

don't, I mean, and if

1:04:36

you think it through, I can

1:04:38

go right, okay, from Malaysia I

1:04:40

think, what we need is something

1:04:43

advertising, cooking oil and then, oh

1:04:45

yeah, on the Australians we better have

1:04:47

a truck hire and

1:04:49

then in Mexico, you know, of course

1:04:52

I don't sit and plan. I don't

1:04:55

know what you want to be sold,

1:04:58

if you do want to be sold anything, oh

1:05:00

but YouTube and Spotify, no, believe me.

1:05:03

That's because that comes to the second one,

1:05:07

why have ads at all? So you

1:05:09

know, if you don't like Joe Biden

1:05:11

or Donald Trump or whatever, remember

1:05:13

I'm English, you know, I've got nothing to do

1:05:15

with them anyway, I don't put

1:05:17

them on. If somebody thinks you

1:05:19

want to hear that from your data,

1:05:22

what you had done on the internet, somebody's collected all

1:05:24

of that and has profiled you and is trying to

1:05:26

do that. So that is an issue for you to

1:05:29

take it with them. Second

1:05:31

point is, why should the be ads at

1:05:33

all? Well, nothing

1:05:35

in this life is free. And when you

1:05:37

watch your TV, if you watch it for

1:05:39

free, you're paying through it by ads,

1:05:42

you know, you buy a newspaper but

1:05:44

also it's subsidised by ads, a lot

1:05:47

of these free papers are paid completely

1:05:49

by ads, you know, so nothing is

1:05:51

free and if you're not paying for it

1:05:53

directly with cash, very often

1:05:55

you're paying through it by giving your

1:05:58

attention to these selling messages. and

1:06:00

that's how that works. If you

1:06:02

don't like the ads at all, so some people are

1:06:04

like, well, I just wanna fall asleep. I

1:06:07

want you to provide me with hours

1:06:09

of content exactly as

1:06:11

I want it for free. I

1:06:14

don't want any ads, I want black screen, I want

1:06:16

this, I want this, I want it to be so

1:06:18

long, I don't want any blathering in it, I want

1:06:20

this, I want this, I want this, and I want

1:06:22

it for nothing. The world

1:06:25

doesn't work like that. I

1:06:28

have a deal for you. If

1:06:30

you've listened to this phone, if you ask somebody who

1:06:32

hates ads, and

1:06:34

I do, I pay YouTube premium

1:06:36

because I don't want to hear the ads. I,

1:06:39

funnily enough, I did have Spotify, but I

1:06:42

don't at the moment because I've gone over

1:06:44

to Cobas because I wanted high quality, the

1:06:46

24-bit music, but that's by the by. So

1:06:52

become a patron, sign

1:06:55

up with my Patreon. I've got

1:06:57

a library of MP3 files of all

1:06:59

the stories I've ever done. So

1:07:01

that's hundreds of them. It's about

1:07:03

250 plus, maybe 200 plus, certainly

1:07:06

going on 250 stories. You can

1:07:08

download them, you can listen to

1:07:10

them whenever you want, there are

1:07:12

no ads on them, okay? And

1:07:15

if you're a patron, you will get

1:07:17

to hear the stories before they're released, no

1:07:19

ads. So if you don't like ads, here's my

1:07:22

deal. Sign up as a patron. Remember, nothing is

1:07:24

free. If you support me, of

1:07:26

course, patron, take a cut. Everybody takes a cut,

1:07:28

nothing is free. I

1:07:31

don't want to leave you with this thing, but that's just the

1:07:33

deal for you. If you really don't want the ad, sign up

1:07:35

as a patron, or you can have all the stories ad free.

1:07:39

And you can keep them, you can send them to your

1:07:41

friends, you can pirate them on the internet, but I don't

1:07:44

think anybody else would want them. But

1:07:47

there we are, that's it, what a deal. Become

1:07:49

a patron, no ads. If you don't like ads,

1:07:51

if you like ads, keep listening to the ads.

1:07:54

And that is it, I think. Oh yeah, I was gonna

1:07:56

tell you about my boy dog Jasper. Got

1:07:59

back to it, didn't I? So I've

1:08:02

got a sore back in my tummy because he

1:08:04

bit my fatness. I've got a little bit of

1:08:06

fatness on my tummy you see and for

1:08:09

some reason he doesn't like it. I

1:08:12

think it's a health message. I thought what? He nipped

1:08:14

me on it. And I'm

1:08:16

like Jasper, I thought you loved me. And

1:08:18

he's like I love you and that's why I need

1:08:20

you to look after your health mate so you can

1:08:22

be here with me for longer. I

1:08:24

thought that's really thoughtful. The other thing he does with

1:08:27

me is he cobs me. I didn't

1:08:29

know this was a thing and he gets

1:08:31

his front teeth and he goes and he kind of skims

1:08:36

my arms and thing and

1:08:39

apparently this is called cobbing. It's like how

1:08:41

you eat a corn on the cob. I

1:08:43

don't particularly eat it like that but

1:08:48

that's what he's doing and it's trying to

1:08:50

get me to parasite, fleas. So

1:08:53

I have imaginary conversations with him because I just spend

1:08:55

my time with the dogs obviously. I

1:08:57

do this and I spend my time with the dogs. I speak to Sheila sometimes

1:09:00

and I

1:09:02

said Jasper I don't have fleas. He goes

1:09:04

yeah you do. This

1:09:06

is him in my imaginary conversation. I go

1:09:08

Jasper I don't. He goes yeah how else

1:09:11

do you explain the state if you look

1:09:13

at your man you must have fleas. So

1:09:15

again once he's looking out for my health and

1:09:18

he's de-fleaing me and

1:09:20

if he catches a little bit of fantasy nips it

1:09:23

in order for me to watch

1:09:25

my diet. Anyway I think

1:09:29

I've run out now of even

1:09:32

bladder. So

1:09:34

I wish you, thank

1:09:37

you for putting up with all my oh yeah I've

1:09:39

got to say thank you for the condolence messages. So

1:09:41

many people reached out to me on the passing of

1:09:43

my mother and

1:09:46

gave me the condolences and you

1:09:49

know I didn't reply to all of them. I'm

1:09:53

sorry about that but it was quite a lot of

1:09:55

them and I've not been in the best. I'm

1:09:58

alright but I'm not being. in, you

1:10:00

know, I mean, well,

1:10:03

you know, it stirs you up emotions,

1:10:05

isn't it? So I haven't

1:10:07

been in a fantastic way to write lots

1:10:09

of things, but I do appreciate

1:10:11

it. It meant a lot to me, you know,

1:10:13

so thank you very much for that. And

1:10:16

thank you for putting up with all of this. I

1:10:19

realize these, it depends on the mood you get

1:10:21

me in and a bit

1:10:24

snarky, bit snarky, as you might say. Snarky

1:10:27

is more sarcastic, I think, but I think

1:10:29

I'm just grumpy.

1:10:34

I'm a grumpy old geezer, and a bit

1:10:36

sometimes I'm happy. And

1:10:39

I talk nonsense, but I speak

1:10:42

wisdom as well. I should just have one where

1:10:44

I just talk wisdom. None

1:10:46

of the nonsense, just wisdom, and you

1:10:48

go out feeling your

1:10:50

soul will be just, you know, warmer, cuddlier

1:10:52

place, because I'll tell you lovely things. Anyway,

1:10:54

I've absolutely run out of stuff now. I'm

1:10:57

kind of, you know, when you get, you're

1:10:59

sleepy sleepy, and you're just talking absolute

1:11:01

nonsense. That's me now. Good night, everybody.

1:11:04

I hope you're asleep. I

1:11:06

hope I didn't wake you, and I hope if I did wake you,

1:11:08

I work like a shipping forecast. It felt cozy

1:11:11

cozy cozy, and we

1:11:13

will meet again, I'm sure. Here,

1:11:16

same place, same time. You

1:12:30

You You

1:13:31

You