 section one of the light that failed this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the light that failed by Rudyard Kipling chapter one so we settled it all when the storm was done as comfy as comfy could be and I was awaiting the barn my dears because I was only three and Teddy would run to the rainbow's foot because he was five and a man and that's how it all began my dears and that's how it all began big barn stories what do you think she'd do if she caught us we oughtn't have it you know said Maisie beat me and lock you up in your bedroom dick answered without hesitation have you got the cartridges yes they're in my pocket but they're juggling horribly the pinfire cartridges go off of their own accord don't know take the revolver if you're afraid and let me carry them I'm not afraid Maisie strode forward swiftly a hand in her pocket and her chin in the air dick followed with a small pinfire revolver the children had discovered that their lives would be unendurable without pistol practice after much forethought and self-denial dick had saved seven shillings and sixpence the price of a badly constructed Belgian revolver Maisie could only contribute half a crown to the syndicate for the purchase of a hundred cartridges you can save better than I can dick she explained I like nice things to eat and it doesn't matter to you besides boys ought to do these things dick grumbled a little at the arrangement but went out and made the purchase which the children were then on their way to test revolvers did not lie in the scheme of their daily life as decreed for them by the guardian who was incorrectly supposed to stand in the place of a mother to these two orphans dick had been under her care for six years during which time she had made her profit of the allowances supposed to be expended on his clothes and partly through thoughtlessness partly through a natural desire to pain she was a widow of some years anxious to marry again had made his days burdensome on his young shoulders where he had looked for love she gave him first a version and then hate where he growing older had sought a little sympathy she gave him ridicule the many hours that she could spare from the ordering of her small house she devoted to what she called the home training of dick held are her religion manufactured in the main by her own intelligence and a keen study of the scriptures was an aid to her in this matter at such times as she herself was not personally displeased with dick she left him to understand that he had a heavy account to settle with his creator where for dick learned to love his god as intensely as he loathed mrs. jenad and this is not a wholesome frame of mind for the young since she chose to regard him as a hopeless liar but an economical and self-contained one never throwing away the least unnecessary fib and never hesitating at the blackest were it only plausible that might make his life a little easier the treatment taught him at least the power of living alone a power that was of service to him when he went to a public school and the boys laughed at his clothes which were poor in quality and much mended in the holidays he returned to the teachings of mrs. jenad and that the chain of discipline might not be weakened by association with the world was generally beaten on one account or another before he had been 12 hours under her roof the autumn of one year brought him a companion in bondage a long-haired grey-eyed little atom a self-contained as himself who moved about the house silently and for the first few weeks spoke only to the goat that was her chiefest friend on earth and lived in the back garden mrs. jenad objected to the goat on the grounds that he was un-christian which he certainly was then said the atom choosing her words very deliberately I shall write to my lawyer peoples and tell them that you are a very bad woman a mama is mine mine mine mrs. jenad made a movement to the hall where certain umbrellas and canes stood in a rack the atom understood as clearly as dick what this meant I have been beaten before she said still in the same passionless voice I have been beaten worse than you can ever beat me if you beat me I shall write to my lawyer peoples and tell them that you do not give me enough to eat I am not afraid of you mrs. jenad did not go into the hall and the atom after a pause to assure herself that all danger of war was passed went out to weep bitterly on a mama's neck dick learned to know her as mazy and at first mistrusted her profoundly for he feared that she might interfere with the small liberty of action left to him she did not however and she volunteered no friendliness until dick had taken the first steps long before the holidays were over the stress of punishment shared in common drove the children together if it were only to play into each other's hands as they prepared lies for mrs. jenad's use when dick returned to school mazy whispered now I shall be all alone to take care of myself but and she nodded her head bravely I can do it you promised to send a mama a grass collar send it soon a week later she asked for that collar by return of post and was not pleased when she learned that it took time to make when at last dick forwarded the gift she forgot to thank him for it many holidays had come and gone since that day and dick had grown into a lanky hobbledy high more than ever conscious of his bad clothes not for a moment had mrs. jenad relaxed her tender care of him but the average canings of a public school dick fell under punishment about three times a month filled him with contempt for her powers she doesn't hurt he explained to mazy who urged him to rebellion and she is kinder to you after she has whacked me dick shambled through the days unkempt in body and savage in soul as the smaller boys of the school learned to know for when the spirit moved him he would hit them cunningly and with science the same spirit made him more than once tried to tease mazy but the girl refused to be made unhappy we are both miserable as it is said she what is the use of trying to make things worse let's find things to do and forget things the pistol was the outcome of that search it could only be used on the muddiest foreshore of the beach far away from the bathing machines and pier heads below the grassy slopes of fort keeling the tide ran out nearly two miles on that coast and the many coloured mud banks touched by the sun sent up a lamentable smell of dead weed it was late in the afternoon when dick and mazy arrived on their ground a mama trotting patiently behind them said mazy sniffing the air I wonder what makes the sea so smelly I don't like it you never like anything that isn't made just for you said dick bluntly give me the cartridges and I'll try first shot how far does one of these little revolvers carry oh half a mile said mazy promptly at least it makes an awful noise be careful with the cartridges I don't like those jagged stick up things on the rim dick do be careful all right I know how to load I'll fire at the breakwater out there he fired and a mama ran away bleeding the bullet threw up a spurt of mud to the right of the wood-wreathed piles throws high into the right you try mazy mind it's loaded all round mazy took the pistol and stepped delicately to the verge of the mud her hand firmly closed on the but her mouth and left eye screwed up dick sat down on a tuft of bank and laughed a mama returned very cautiously he was accustomed to strange experiences in his afternoon walks and finding the cartridge box unguarded made investigations with his nose mazy fired but could not see where the bullet went I think it hit the post she said shading her eyes and looking out across the sailless sea I know it has gone out to the Marision bellboy said dick with a chuckle fire low and to the left then perhaps you'll get it oh look at a mama he's eating the cartridges mazy turned the revolver in her hand just in time to see a mama scampering away from the pebbles dick threw after him nothing is sacred to a billy goat being well fed and the adored of his mistress a mama had naturally swallowed two loaded pinfire cartridges mazy hurried up to assure herself that dick had not miscounted the tail yes he's eaten too horrid little beast then they'll juggle about inside him and blow up and serve him right oh dick have I killed you revolvers are tricky things for young hands to deal with mazy could not explain how it had happened but a veil of reeking smoke separated her from dick and she was quite certain that the pistol had gone off in his face then she heard him sputter and dropped on her knees beside him crying dick you aren't hurt are you I didn't mean it of course you didn't said dick coming out of the smoke and wiping his cheek but you nearly blinded me that powder stuff stings awfully a neat little splash of gray lead on a stone showed where the bullet had gone mazy began to whimper don't said dick jumping to his feet and shaking himself I'm not a bit hurt no but I might have killed you protested mazy the corners of her mouth drooping what should I have done then gone home and told mrs jenet dick grinned at the thought then softening please don't worry about it besides we are wasting time we've got to get back to tea I'll take the revolver for a bit mazy would have wept on the least encouragement but dick's indifference albeit his hand was shaking as he picked up the pistol restrained her she lay panting on the beach while dick methodically bombarded the breakwater got it at last he exclaimed as a lock of weed flew from the wood let me try said mazy imperiously I'm all right now they fired in turns till the rickety little revolver nearly shook itself to pieces and a mama the outcast because he might blow up at any moment browsed in the background and wondered why stones were thrown at him then they found a bulk of timber floating in a pool which was commanded by the seaward slope of fort keeling and they sat down together before this new target next holidays said dick as the now thoroughly fouled revolver kicked wildly in his hand we'll get another pistol central fire that will carry father there won't be any next holidays for me said mazy I'm going away where to I don't know my lawyers have written to mrs jenet and I've got to be educated somewhere in France perhaps I don't know where but I should be glad to go away I shan't like it a bit I suppose I shall be left look here mazy is it really true you're going then these holidays will be the last I shall see anything of you and I go back to school next week I wish the young blood turned his cheeks scarlet mazy was picking grass tufts and throwing them down the slope at a yellow sea poppy nodding all by itself to the illimitable levels of the mud flats and the milk white sea beyond I wish she said after a pause that I could see you again sometime you wish that too yes but it would have been better if if if you had shot straight over there down by the breakwater mazy looked with large eyes for a moment and this was the boy who only ten days before had decorated a momma's horns with cut paper ham frills and turned him out a bearded derision among the public ways then she dropped her eyes this was not the boy don't be stupid she said reprovingly and with a swift instinct attacked the side issue how selfish you are just think what I should have felt if that horrid thing had killed you I'm quite miserable enough already why because you're going away from mrs jenet no from me then no answer for a long time dick dared not look at her he felt though he did not know all that the past four years had been to him and this the more acutely since he had no knowledge to put his feelings in words I don't know she said I suppose it is mazy you must know I'm not supposing let's go home said mazy weekly but dick was not minded to retreat I can't say things he pleaded and I'm awfully sorry for teasing you about a momma the other day it's all different now mazy can't you see and you might have told me that you were going instead of leaving me to find out you didn't I did tell oh dick what's the use of worrying there isn't any but we've been together years and years and I didn't know how much I cared I don't believe you ever did care no I didn't but I do I care awfully now mazy he gulped mazy darling say you care too please I do indeed I do but it won't be any use why because I am going away yes but if you promise before you go only say will you a second darling came to his lips more easily than the first there were few endearments in dick's home or school life he had to find them by instinct dick caught the little hand blackened with the escaped gas of the revolver I promise she said solemnly but if I care there is no need for promising and do you care for the first time in the past few minutes their eyes met and spoke for them who had no skill in speech oh dick don't please don't it was all right when we said good morning but now it's all different a momma looked on from afar he had seen his property quarrel frequently but he had never seen kisses exchanged before the yellow sea poppy was wiser and nodded its head approvingly considered as a kiss that was a failure but since it was the first other than those demanded by duty in all the world that either had ever given or taken it opened to them new worlds and every one of them glorious so that they were lifted above the consideration of any worlds at all especially those in which tea is necessary and sat still holding each other's hands and saying not a word you can't forget now said dick at last there was that on his cheek that stung more than gunpowder I shouldn't have forgotten anyhow said mazy and they looked at each other and saw that each was changed from the companion of an hour ago to a wonder and a mystery they could not understand the sun began to set and a night wind thrashed along the vents of the foreshore we shall be awfully late for tea said mazy let's go home let's use the rest of the cartridges first said dick and he helped mazy down the slope of the fort to the sea a dissent that she was quite capable of covering at full speed equally gravely mazy took the grimy hand dick bent forward clumsily mazy drew the hand away and dick blushed it's very pretty he said poo said mazy with a little laugh of gratified vanity she stood close to dick as he loaded the revolver for the last time and fired over the sea with a vague notion at the back of his head that he was protecting mazy from all the evils in the world a puddle far across the mud caught the last rays of the sun and turned them into a rothful red disc the light held dick's attention for a moment and as he raised his revolver there fell upon him a renewed sense of the miraculous in that he was standing by mazy who had promised to care for him for an indefinite length of time till such date as a gust of the growing wind drove the girl's long black hair across his face as she stood with her hand on his shoulder calling her mama a little beast and for a moment he was in the dark a darkness that stung the bullet went singing out to the empty sea spoiled my aim said he shaking his head there aren't any more cartridges we shall have to run home but they did not run they walked very slowly arm in arm and it was a matter of indifference to them whether the neglected a mama with two pinfire cartridges in his inside blew up or trotted beside them for they had come into a golden heritage and were disposing of it with all the wisdom of all their years and i shall be quote dick valiantly then he checked himself i don't know what i shall be i don't seem to be able to pass any exams but i can make awful caricatures of the masters ho ho be an artist then said mazy you're always laughing at my trying to draw and it will do you good i'll never laugh at anything you do he answered i'll be an artist and i'll do things artists always want money don't they i've got a hundred and twenty pounds a year of my own my guardians tell me i'm to have it when i come of age that will be enough to begin with ah i'm rich said mazy i've got three hundred a year all my own when i'm twenty one that's why mrs jenet is kinder to me than she is to you i wish though that i had somebody that belonged to me just a father or a mother you belong to me said dick forever and ever yes we belong forever it's very nice she squeezed his arm the kindly darkness hid them both and emboldened because he could only just see the profile of mazy's cheek with the long lashes veiling the gray eyes dick at the front door delivered himself of the words he had been boggling over for the last two hours and i love you mazy he said in a whisper that seemed to him to ring across the world the world that he would tomorrow or the next day set out to conquer there was a scene not for the sake of discipline to be reported when mrs jenet would have fallen upon him first for disgraceful unpunctuality and secondly for nearly killing himself with a forbidden weapon i was playing with it and it went off by itself said dick when the powder pocked cheek could no longer be hidden but if you think you're going to lick me you're wrong you are never going to touch me again sit down and give me my tea you can't cheat us out of that anyhow mrs jenet gasped and became livid mazy said nothing but encouraged dick with her eyes and he behaved abominably all that evening mrs jenet prophesied an immediate judgment of providence and a dissent into toffet later but dick walked in paradise and would not hear only when he was going to bed mrs jenet recovered and asserted herself he had bitten mazy goodnight with down-dropped eyes and from a distance if you are a gentleman you might try to behave like one said mrs jenet spitefully you've been quarrelling with mazy again this meant that the usual goodnight kiss had been omitted mazy white to the lips thrust her cheek forward with a fine air of indifference and was duly pecked by dick who tramped out of the room read as fire that night he dreamed a wild dream he had won all the world and brought it to mazy in a cartridge box but she turned it over with her foot and instead of saying thank you cried where is the grass collar you promised for a mama oh how selfish you are end of section one section two of the lies that failed this is a livery box recording all livery box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liverybox.org the lies that failed by Rudyard Kipling chapter two then we brought the lances down then the bugles blew when we went to kandahar riding two and two riding riding riding two and two to rob a rob a rob a rob all the way to kandahar riding two and two brock room ballad i'm not angry with the british public but i wish we had a few thousand of them scattered among these rocks they wouldn't be in such a hurry to get at their morning papers then can't you imagine the regulation householder lover of justice constant reader tatterfamilias and all that lot frizzling on hot gravel with the blue veil over his head and his clothes and strips has any man here a needle i've got a piece of sugar sad i'll lend you a packing needle for six square inches of it then both my knees are worn through why not six square inches while you're about it but lend me the needle and i'll see what i can do with the salvage i don't think there's enough to protect my rural body from the cold blast as it is what are you doing with that everlasting sketchbook of yours dick study of our special correspondent repairing this wardrobe said dick gravely as the other man kicked off a pair of sorely worn riding breeches and began to fit a square of course canvas over the most obvious open space he grunted disconsolently as the vastness of the void developed itself sugar bags indeed hi you pilot man there lend me all the sales for that whale boat a fez crowned head bobbed up in the stern sheets divided itself into exact halves with one flash and grin and bobbed down again the man of the tattered breeches clad only in a northfolk jacket and a gray flannel shirt went on with his clumsy sewing while dick chuckled over the sketch some 20 whale boats were nuzzling a sandbanks which was dotted with English soldiery of half a dozen core bathing or washing their clothes a heap of boat rollers commissariat boxes sugar bags and flour and small arm ammunition cases showed where one of the whale boats have been compelled to unload hastily and a regimental carpenter was swearing aloud as he tried on a woolly insufficient allowance of white lead to plaster up the sun-tarch gaping seams of the boat itself first the blue and rudder snaps said to you to the world in general then the mask goes and then help me when she can't do nothing else she opens herself out like a cock-eyes chinese lotus exactly the case with my breeches whoever you are said the tailor without looking up dick i wonder when i shall see a decent sock again there's no answer save the incessant angry murmur of the nile as a raced round of the salt wall bend and foamed across a rock ridge half a mile upstream is as though the brown wade of the river would drive the white man back to their country the indescribable scent of nile mud in the air told that the stream was falling and the next few miles would be no light thing for the whale boats to overpass the desert ran down almost to the banks where among gray red and black hill cocks a camel core was encamped no man dared even for a day lose touch of the slow moving boats there have been no fighting for weeks past since we were all that time the nile had never buried them rapid had followed rapid rock rock and island group island group killed the right and file had long since lost all counter direction and very nearly all time they were moving somewhere they did not know why to do something they did not know what before them lay the nile and at the other end of it was one gordon fighting for the dear life in a town called cartel there were columns of bridge troops in the desert or in one of the many deserts there were yet more columns waiting to embark on the river there were fresh giraffes waiting at and I soon there were lies and rubbers running over the face of the hopeless land from sarkin to the sick cataract and men supposed generally that there must be someone in authority to direct the general theme of the many movements the duty of that particular river column was to keep the whale boats afloat in the water to avoid trampling on the villagers crops when the gangs cracked the boats with lines thrown from mid-stream to get as much sleep and food as was possible and above all to press on without delaying the peace of returning nile with the soldiers sweated and toiled the correspondence of the newspapers and they were almost as ignorant as their companions but it was the above all things necessary the england at breakfast should be amused and thrilled and interested whether gordon lived or died or half the british army went to pieces in the sands the sudan campaign with the picture s one and lent itself to vivid word painting now and again the special man is to get slain which is not altogether a disadvantage to the paper that employed him and more often the hand-in-hand nature of the fighting allowed the miraculous escapes which were worth telegraphing home at 18 pence the word there were many correspondence with many cores and columns from the reddened who had fallen on the hills of the cavalry that caught you hide caro in 82 what time arabi kasha called himself king who had seen the first miserable work round suckin when the centuries were cut up nightly and the scrubs swarmed the spheres to youngsters drifting to the business at the end of the telegraph water to take the places of their betters killed or invalidated among the seniors those who knew every shift and change in the perplexing postal arrangements the value of the seediest weediest Egyptian garon offered for sale in caro or alexandria who could talk a telegraph clerk in a liability and see the ruffled vanity of a newly appointed staff officer when press regulations became burdensome was the man in the flannel shirt with black browed torfing hell he represented the central southern syndicate in the campaign as he'd represented in the egyptian war and elsewhere the syndicate did not concern itself greatly with criticisms of attack and like it supplied the masses and all it demanded was picturesque and abundance of detail where there is more joy in england over soldiers who is insubordinately steps out of square to rescue comrades then over 20 generals slaving even the baldness at the great state of transfer and commissariat he had met at swack and a young man sitting at the odd edge of a recently abandoned redoubt about the sides of a hat box sketching a clump of cell torn bodies on the gravel of flames what are you for said corpon howe the greeting of the correspondent is that of the commercial traveler on the road my own hand so the young man without looking up have you any tobacco corpon howe waited till the sketch was finished and when he had looked said what's your business here nothing it was a ghost who i came i'm supposed to be doing something down at the painting slips among the boats or else i'm in charge of the condenser on one of the waterships i've forgotten which you cheek enough to build a readout with said corpon howe and took stock of the new appointed do you always draw like that the young man produced more sketches row on a chinese pig boat said he's sentinously shown them one after another chief mate jerk by a comprator junk of shore of hackaday some molly mulleteer being flawed star-shelled bursting over camp at berbera slave to howe being chased around to jerry bough soldier lying dead in the moonlight outside swankin wrote cut by fuzzies hmm said corpon howe can't say i care for verus chicken and water myself but there's no accounting for taste doing anything now are you no i've been using myself here corpon howe looked at the sketches again and nodded yes you're right to take your first chance when you can get it he rode away swiftly through the gate of the two warships rattled across the causeway into the town and wired to a syndicate got man here picture work good and cheap shall i arrange we'll do letter press with sketches the man on the readout set swing his legs and murmuring i knew the chance would come sooner or later by gaggle i have to sweat for it if i come through the business alive in the evening torpin howe was able to announce to his friend that the central salvin agency was willing to take him on trial paying expenses for three months and by the way what's your name said torpin howe held her did they give me a free hand they've taken you on chance you must justify the choice you better stick to me i'm going up country with a column and i'll do what i can for you give me some of your sketches taken here and i'll send them along to himself he said that's the best bargain the central salvin has ever made and they got me cheaply enough so it came to pass but after some purchase of horse flesh and arrangements financial and political dick was made free of the new and honorable fraternity of war correspondents who all put us to an i ability right of doing as much work as they can and getting as much for it as prominence in their own shop please to these things are at an end time if the brother would be worthy the power of glib speech that neither man nor women can resist when the meal or bed is in question the eye of horsecoped the skill of the cook the constitution of the bullock the digestion of an ostrich in an infinite adaptability to all circumstances that many died before they attained to wish to greet and the past masters in the craft appear for the most part in dressed clothes when they are in england and thus their glory is hidden from the multitude dick followed turban howl wherever the ladders fancy chose to lead them and between the two they managed to accomplish some work that almost satisfied themselves it was not an easy life in any way and under its influence the two were drawn very closely together for they ate from the same dish they sang the same water bottle and the most fighting tithe all their males went off together it was dick who managed to make gloriously drunk a telegraph clerk in a palm hut far beyond the second cataract and while the manland list on the floor possessed himself of some laboriously acquired exclusive information forwarded by a confiding correspondent of the position syndicat made a careful duplicate of the matter and brought the results of turban howl who said the always fair and level work correspondence and with an excellent descriptive article from his rivals riotous waste of words it was turban howl who but the tale of their adventures together and apart from filet to the waste wilderness of karabi and moella with bill mini books they had been pinned into a square side by side in deadly fear of being shot by overexcited soldiers they'd fought with baggage camels and the children they jogged along in silence and the blinding sun on indefinable little egyptian horses and they had elounded on the shelves of the mouth when the whale boat in which they found a berth chose to hit a hidden rock and rip out half her bottom planks now they were sitting on the sand bank and the whale boats were bringing up the remainder of the column yes said torban howl as he put the last rude stitches into his overlong neglected gear it has been a beautiful business patch of the campaign today don't think much of these are myself you want the early is brought up above the third counteract don't you an 81 ton gams at jack duel now i'm quite satisfied with my breaches he turned wrong gravely to exhibit himself after the manner of the clown it's very pretty especially the laddering on the sack gbt government block train that's a sack from india it's my initials gilbert belling torban howl i stole the cloth on purpose what the mystery by the camel forks doing yonder torban howl shaded his eyes and looked across the scrubs thrown gravel a bugle blew furiously and the men on the bank hurried to their arms in a cauldron pysons sold three surprised wall bathing remarked it calmly you remember the picture it's by michael angelo all beginners copy it that scrubs alive in me the camel corpse on the bank yelled the infantry to come to them and a horse shouting down the river showed the remainder of the call had wind of the trouble and was hastening to take sharing it as swiftly as a reach of still water is crisp by the wind the rock strong ridges and scrub top hills were troubled in the lives of armed men mercifully it occurred to these to stand far off for a time to shout and guess to kill eight joyously one man even delivered himself of the long story the camel corps did not fire they were only too glad a little freezing space until some sort of square could be formed the men on the sandbank ran to their side in the whale boats as they twirled up within shouting distance were thrust into the nearest bank and emptied of all saves the sick and few men to guard them the Arab orators ceased his outcries and his friends howled they looked like the motties men said torban howl elbowing himself into the cross of the square but what thousands of them there are the tribes hereabouts aren't against the sinel then the motties taken another town said dick and said all these yelping devils free to show us up lend us your glass our scouts should have told us of this we've been trapped said the snow valve turn aren't the camel guns ever going to begin hurry up you men there's no need of any orders the men long themselves panting against the sides of the square but they had good reason to know that who so was left outside when fighting against would probably die in an extremely unpleasant fashion the little hundred and fifty pound camel guns posted at one corner of the square opened the ball as the square moved forward by its right to get possession of the north of rising ground all had fought in this manner many times before and there was no novelty in the entertainment always the same hot and stifling formation the smell of dust and leather the same boat-like rush of the enemy the same pressure on the weakest side the few minutes of hand-to-hand scuffle and in the silence of the desert broken only by the gales of those who their handful of cavalry attempted to pursue they have become careless the camel guns spoke at intervals and the square slouched forward amid the protesting of the camels then came the attack of 3,000 men who would not learn from books that is impossible for troops in close order to attack against briefs loading fire a few dropping hits heralded their approach and a few horsemen led with the bulk of the force with naked humanity mad with rage and armed with the spear and the sword the instinct of the desert where there is always much war told them that the right flank of the square was the weakest for they swung clear of the front the camel guns shelled them as they cast and opened for an incident lanes to their midst most like those quick-closing visas in the kentish hot garden seen when the train races by at full speed and the infantry fire held till the opportune moment dropped them in close packing hundreds no civilized troops in the world could have endured the hell through which they came the living leaping high to avoid the dying who clutched at their heels the wounded cursing and staggering forward till they fell a torrent black as the sliding water above a mill dam full on the right flank of the square then the line of the dusty troops in the faint blue desert sky overhead went out and rolling smoke and the little stones on heated ground and the tender dry clumps of scrub became matters of surpassing interest for men measured their agonized retreat and recovery by these things counting mechanically and healing their way back to chosen pebble and branch there is no semblance of any concerted fighting for ought the men knew the enemy might be attempting all four sides of the square at once their business was to destroy what lay in front of them to bayonet in the back those who passed over them and dine to drag down the slayer till he could be knocked on the head by some venting gun butt dick waited with perp and howl and a young doctor till the stress grew unendurable it was hopeless to attend to the wounded till the attack was repulsed so the three men moved forward gingerly towards the weakest side of the square there was a rush from without the short ho ho of the stabbing spirit and a man on a horse followed by 30 or 40 others dashed through yelling and hacking the right flank of the square sucked in after them and the other side said help the wounded who knew that they had but a few hours more to live caught at the enemy's feet and brought them down or staggering into a discarded rifle fired blindly into this couple that raged in the center of the square was conscious that somebody had cut him violently across his helmet and that he had fired his revolver into a black foam-flucked face with fourth lit cease to bear any resemblance to face and that terpenhow had gone down under an air abbe when we had tried to collar lows turning over and over to this Catholic feeling for the man's eyes the doctor jabbed at eventually the bayonet and the helmet soldier fired over dick's shoulder the flying grain to powder's stung his cheek it was the terpenhow that dick turned by anti-distinct the representative of the central southern spindicat had shaken himself clear of his enemy and rose wiping his thumb on his trousers the air abbe both hands to his forehead screamed aloud and snatched up his spear and rushed at terpenhow who was panting under shelter of dick's revolver dick fired twice and the man's locked mentally his upturned face lacked one eye the musketeer fired redoubled but cheers mingled with it the rush had failed and the enemy was flying at the heart of the square where shambles the ground beyond the debauchery shop dick thrust his way forward between the madden men the remnant of the enemy were retiring as the few the very few in this cavalry rode down the laggards beyond the lines of the dead a broad blood-stained air of spear cast aside in the retreat lay across the stump of scrub and beyond this again the a limitable dark levels of the desert the sun caught the steel and turned it into a red disc someone behind him was saying uh get away you brute dick raced his revolver and pointed towards the desert his eye was held by the red splash in the distance and the clamor about him seemed to die down to a very far away whisper like the whisper of a level c there was the revolver in the red light and the voice of someone scaring something away exactly as had fallen somewhere before a darkness that stung he fired at it rammed him and the bullet went out across the desert as he muttered spool up my aim there aren't any more cartridges we shall have to run home he put his hand his head and brought it away covered with blood old man your cut rather badly said torpenhow i owe you something for this business thanks stand up i say you can't be ill here throughout the night when the troops were in camp by the whale boats a black figure danced in a strong night on the sandbar and shouted that cartown he accursed one was dead was dead was dead that two streamers were rock staked on the nile that saw the city and that all of their crews will remain not one and cartown was dead was dead was dead but torpenhow took no heed he was watching dick who called the labs of the restless nile for macy and again macy behold a phenomenon said torpenhow rearranging the blanket here is a man presumably human who mentions the name of one woman only and i've seen a good deal of dueling her in two dick here's some busy drink thank you macy said dick end of section two section three of the light that failed this is a libra box recording all libra box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra box or the light that failed by redyard kippling chapter three so he thinks he shall take to the sea again for one more cruise with his buccaneers to singe the beard of the king of spain and capture another dean of jane and sell him in algears a dutch picture long fellow the sudan campaign and dicks broken head had some months ended and mended and the central southern syndicate had paid dick a certain sum on account for work done which work they were careful to assure him was not altogether up to their standard dick heaved the letter into the nile at kyro cashed the draft in the same town and bade a warm farewell to torpenhow at the station i am going to lie up for a while and rest said torpenhow i don't know where i shall live in london but if god brings us to meet we shall meet are you staying here in the off chance of another row there will be none till the southern sudan is reoccupied by our troops mark that goodbye bless you come back when your money spent and give me your address dick loitered in kyro alexandria ismailia and port said especially port said there is iniquity in many parts of the world and vice in all but the concentrated essence of all the iniquities and all the vices in all the continents finds itself in port said and through the heart of that sand bordered hell where the mirage flickers day long above the bitter lake move if you will only wait most of the men and women you have known in this life dick established himself in quarters more riotous than respectable he spent his evenings on the key and boarded many ships and saw very many friends gracious english women with whom he had talked not too wisely in the veranda of shepherd's hotel hurrying war correspondents skippers of the contract troops ships employed in the campaign army officers by the score and others of less reputable trades he had choice of all the races of the east and west for studies and the advantage of seeing his subjects under the influence of strong excitement at the gaming tables saloons dancing halls and elsewhere for recreation there was the straight vista of the canal the blazing sands the procession of shipping and the white hospitals where the english soldiers lay he strove to set down in black and white in color all that providence sent him and when that supply was ended sought about for fresh material it was a fascinating employment but it ran away with his money and he had drawn in advance the hundred and twenty pounds to which he was entitled yearly now i shall have to work in star thought he and was addressing himself to this new fate when a mysterious telegram arrived from torpenhow in england which said come back quick you have caught on come a large smile over spread his face so soon that's a good hearing said he to himself there will be an orgy tonight i'll stand or fall by my luck faith it's time it came he deposited half of his funds in the hands of his well-known friends massier and madame bina and ordered himself a zanzibar dance of the finest massier bina was shaking with drink but madame smiles sympathetically massier needs a chair of course and of course massier will sketch massier amuses himself strangely bina raised a blue white face from a cot in the inner room i understand he quavered we all know massier massier is an artist as i have been dick knotted in the end said bina with gravity massier will descend alive into hell as i have descended and he laughed you must come to the dance too said dick i shall want you for my face i knew it would be so for my face my god and for my degradation so tremendous i will not take him away he is a devil or at least do thou celeste demand of him more the excellent bina began to kick and scream all things are for sale in port said said madame if my husband comes it will be so much more hey how you call alpha sovereign the money was paid and the mad dance was held at night in a wild courtyard at the back of madame bina's house the lady herself in faded mauve silk always about to slide from her yellow shoulders played the piano and to the tin pot music of a western waltz the naked zanzibari girls danced furiously by the light of kerosene lamps bina sat upon a chair and stared with eyes that saw nothing till the whirl of the dance and the clang of the rattling piano stole into the drink that took the place of blood in his veins and his face glistened dick took him by the chin brutally and turned that face to the light madame bina looked over her shoulder and smiled with many teeth dick leaned against the wall and sketched for an hour till the kerosene lamps began to smell and the girls threw themselves panting on the hard beaten ground then he shut his book with a snap and moved away bina plucking feebly at his elbow show me he whimpered i too was an artist even i he showed him the rough sketch am i that he screamed will you take that away with you and show all the world that it is i bina he moaned and wept monsieur has paid for all said madame to the pleasure of seeing monsieur again the courtyard gate shut and dick hurried up the sandy street to the nearest gambling hell where he was well known if the luck holds it's an omen if i lose i must stay here he placed his money picturesquely about the board hardly daring to look at what he did the luck held three turns of the wheel left him richer by twenty pounds and he went down to the shipping to make friends with the captain of a decayed cargo steamer who landed him in london with fewer pounds in his pocket than he cared to think about a thin gray fog hung over the city and the streets were very cold for summer was in england it's a cheerful wilderness and it hasn't the knack of altering much dick thought as he tramped from the docks westward now what must i do the packed houses gave no answer dick looked down the long lightless streets and at the appalling rush of traffic oh you rabbit hutches said he addressing a row of highly respectable semi-detached residences do you know what you've got to do later on you have to supply me with men's servants and maid servants here he smacked his lips and the peculiar treasure of kings mean time i'll close and boots and presently i will return and trample on you he stepped forward energetically he saw that one of his shoes was burst at the side as he stooped to make investigations a man jostled him into the gutter all right he said that's another nick in the score i'll jostle you later on good clothes and boots were not cheap and dick left his last shop with the certainty that he would be respectively arrayed for a time but with only fifty shillings in his pocket he returned to streets by the docks and lodged himself in one room where the sheets on the bed were almost audibly marked in case of theft and where nobody seemed to go to bed at all when his clothes arrived he sought the central southern syndicate for torpenhouse address and got it with the intimation that there was still some money waiting for him how much said dick as one who habitually dealt in millions between thirty and forty pounds if it would be any convenience to you of course we could let you have it at once but we usually settle accounts monthly if i show that i want anything now i'm lost he said to himself all i need i'll take later on then allowed it's hardly worthwhile and i'm going to the country for a month too wait till i come back and i'll see about it but we trust mr heldar that you do not intend to sever your connection with us dick's business in life was the study of faces and he watched the speaker keenly that man knows something he said i'll do no business till i've seen torpenhouse there's a big deal coming so he departed making no promises to his one little room by the docks and that day was the seventh of the month and that month he reckoned with awful distinctness had 31 days in it it is not easy for a man of catholic tastes and healthy appetites to exist for 24 days on 50 shillings nor is it cheering to begin the experiment alone in all the loneliness of london dick paid seven shillings a week for his lodging which left him rather less than a shilling a day for food and drink naturally his first purchase was of the materials of his craft he had been without them too long half a day's investigations in comparison brought him to the conclusion that sausages and mashed potatoes toughens a plate were the best food now sausages once or twice a week for breakfast are not unpleasant as lunch even with mashed potatoes they become monotonous at dinner they are impertinent at the end of three days dick sausages and going forth pond his watch to revel on sheep's head which is not as cheap as it looks owing to the bones in the gravy then he returned to sausages and mashed potatoes then he confined himself entirely to mashed potatoes for a day and was unhappy because of pain in his inside then he pond his waistcoat and his tie and thought regretfully of money thrown away in times past there are few things more edifying unto art than the actual belly pinch of hunger and dick in his few walks abroad he did not care for exercise he'd raised desires that could not be satisfied found himself dividing mankind into two classes those who looked as if they might give him something to eat and those who looked otherwise i never knew what i had to learn about the human face before he thought and as a reward for his humility providence caused a cab driver at a sausage shop where dick fed that night to leave half eaten a great chunk of bread dick took it would have fought all the world for its possession and it cheered him the month dragged through at last and nearly prancing with impatience he went to draw his money then he hastened to torpenhouse address and smelt the smell of cooking meats all along the corridors of the chambers torpenhouse was on the top floor and dick burst into his room to be received with a hug which nearly cracked his ribs as torpenhouse dragged him to the light and spoke of 20 different things in the same breath but you're looking tucked up he concluded got anything to eat said dick his eye roaming round the room i shall be having breakfast in a minute what do you say to sausages no anything but sausages torp i've been starving on that accursed horse flesh for 30 days and 30 nights now what lunacy has been your latest dick spoke of the last few weeks with unbridled speech then he opened his coat there was no waistcoat below i ran it fine awfully fine but i've just scraped through you haven't much sense but you've got a backbone anyhow eat and talk afterwards dick fell upon eggs and bacon and gorged till he could gorge no more torpenhouse handed him a filled pipe and he smoked as men smoke who for three weeks have been deprived of good tobacco oof said he that's heavenly well why in the world didn't you come to me couldn't i owe you too much already old man besides i had a sort of superstition that this temporary starvation that's what it was and it hurt would bring me luck later it's over and done with now and none of the syndicate know how hard up i was fire away what's the exact state of affairs as regards myself you had my wire you've cut on here people like your work immensely i don't know why but they do they say you have a fresh touch and a new way of drawing things and because they're chiefly homebred english they say you have insight you're wanted by half a dozen papers you're wanted to illustrate books dick grunted scornfully you're wanted to work up your smaller sketches and sell them to the dealers they seem to think the money sunk in you is a good investment good lord who can account for the fathomless folly of the public there are remarkably sensible people they are subject to fits if that's what you mean and you happen to be the object of the latest fit among those who are interested in what they call art just now you're a fashion a phenomenon or whatever you please i appeared to be the only person who knew anything about you here and i have been showing the most useful men a few of the sketches you gave me from time to time those coming after your work in the central southern syndicate appear to have done your business you're in luck ha call it luck do call it luck when a man has been kicking about the world like a dog waiting for it to come i'll lock them later on i want a place to work first come here said torpenhow crossing the landing this place is a big box room really but it will do for you there's your skylight or your north light or whatever window you call it and plenty of room to thrash about in and a bedroom beyond what more do you need good enough said dick looking around the large room that took up a third of the top story in the rickety chambers overlooking the thames a pale yellow sun shown through the skylight and showed the much dirt of the place three steps led from the door to the landing and three more to torpenhow's room the well of the staircase disappeared into darkness pricked by tiny gas jets and there were sounds of men talking indoors slamming seven flights below in the warm gloom do they give you a free hand here said dick cautiously he was ishmael enough to know the value of liberty anything you like latch keys and license unlimited we are permanent tenants for the most part here tisnt a place i would recommend for a young men's christian association but it will serve i took these rooms for you when i wired you're a great deal too kind old man you didn't suppose you were going away from me did you torpenhow put his hand on dick's shoulder and the two walked up and down the room hence forward to be called the studio in sweet and silent communion they heard rapping at torpenhow's door that some ruffian come up for a drink said torpenhow and he raised his voice cheerily there entered no one more ruffianly than a portly middle-aged gentleman in a satin-faced frock coat his lips were parted in pale and there were deep pouches under his eyes weak heart said dick to himself and as he shook hands very weak heart his pulse is shaking his fingers the man introduced himself as the head of the central southern syndicate and one of the most ardent admirers of your work mr. heldar i assure you in the name of the syndicate that we are immensely indebted to you and i trust mr. heldar you won't forget that we were largely instrumental in bringing you before the public he panted because of the seven flights of stairs dick glanced at torpenhow whose left eyelid laid for a moment dead on his cheek i shan't forget said dick every instinct of defense roused in him you've paid me so well that i couldn't you know by the way when i am settled in this place i should like to send and get my sketches there must be nearly a hundred and fifty of them with you that is or is what i came to speak about i fear we can't allow it exactly mr. heldar in the absence of any specified agreement the sketches are our property of course do you mean to say that you are going to keep them yes and we hope to have your help on your own terms mr. heldar to assist us in arranging a little exhibition which backed by our name and the influence we naturally command among the press should be of material service to you sketches such as yours belong to me you engaged me by wire you paid me the lowest rates you dared you can't mean to keep them good god a live man they're all i've got in the world torpenhow watch dick's face and whistle dick walked up and down thinking he saw the whole of his little stock in trade the first weapon of his equipment annexed at the outset of his campaign by an elderly gentleman whose name dick had not caught a right who said that he represented a syndicate which was a thing for which dick had not the least reverence the injustice of the proceedings did not much move him he had seen the strong hand prevail too often in other places to be squeamish over the moral aspects of right and wrong but he ardently desired the blood of the gentleman in the frock coat and when he spoke again it was with a strange sweetness that torpenhow knew well for the beginning of strife forgive me sir but you have no no younger man who can arrange this business with me i speak for the syndicate i see no reason for a third party to you will in a minute be good enough to give back my sketches the man stared blankly at dick and then at torpenhow who was leaning against the wall he was not used to ex-employees who ordered him to be good enough to do things yes it is rather a cold-blooded steal said torpenhow critically but i'm afraid i am very much afraid you've struck the wrong man be careful dick remember this isn't the sudan considering what services the syndicate have done for you in putting your name before the world this was not a fortunate remark it reminded dick of certain vagrant years lived out in loneliness and strife and unsatisfied desires the memory did not contrast well with the prosperous gentleman who proposed to enjoy the fruit of those years i don't know quite what to do with you began dick meditatively of course you're a thief and you ought to be half killed but in your case you'd probably die i don't want you dead on this floor and besides it's unlucky just as one's moving in don't hit sir you'll only excite yourself he put one hand on the man's forearm and ran the other down the plump body beneath the coat my goodness said he'd a torpenhow and this gray oaf dares to be a thief i have seen an esna camel driver have the black hide taken off his body in strips for stealing half a pound of wet dates and he was as tough as a whip cord this thing soft all over like a woman there are few things more poignantly humiliating than being handled by a man who does not intend to strike the head of the syndicate began to breathe heavily dick walked around him pying him as a cat paws a soft hearth rug then he traced with his forefinger the leaden pouches underneath the eyes and shook his head you were going to steal my things mine mine mine you who don't know when you may die write a note to your office you say you're the head of it and order them to give torpenhow my sketches every one of them wait a minute your hands shaking now he thrust a pocketbook before him the note was written torpenhow took it and departed without a word while dick walked round and round the spellbound captive giving him such advice as he conceived best for the welfare of his soul when torpenhow returned with a gigantic portfolio he heard dick say almost soothingly now i hope this will be a lesson to you and if you worry me when i have settled down to work with any nonsense about actions for assault believe me i'll catch you and manhandle you and you'll die you haven't very long to live anyhow go im she boots sock get out the man departed staggering in days dick drew a long breath phew what a lawless lot these people are the first thing a poor orphan meets is gang robbery organized burglary think of the hideous blackness of that man's mind are my sketches all right torp yes 147 of them well i must say dick you've begun well he was interfering with me it only meant a few pounds to him but it was everything to me i don't think he'll bring an action i gave him some medical advice gratis about the state of his body it was cheap at the little flurry it cost him now let's look at my things two minutes later dick had thrown himself down on the floor and was deep in the portfolio chuckling lovingly as he turned the drawings over and thought of the price at which they had been bought the afternoon was well advanced when torpenhow came to the door and saw dick dancing a wild saraband under the skylight i build it better than i knew torp he said without stopping the dance they're good they're damned good they'll go like flame i shall have an exhibition of them on my own brazen hook and that man would have cheated me out of it do you know that i am sorry now that i didn't actually hit him go out said torpenhow go out and pray to be delivered from the sin of arrogance which you never will be bring your things up from whatever place you're staying in and we'll try to make this barn a little more ship shape and then oh then said dick still capering we will spoil the egyptians end of section three section four of the light that failed this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by laurebeth davis the light that failed by rudyard kippling chapter four part one the wolf cub at even lay hid in the corn when the smoke of the cooking hung gray he knew where the doe made a couch for her fawn and he looked to his strength for his pray but the moon swept the smoke reeds away and he turned from his meal and the villagers close and he bade to the moon as she rose in xione well and how does success taste said torpenhouse some three months later he had just returned to chambers after a holiday in the country good said dick as he sat licking his lips before the easel in the studio i want more heaps more the lean years have passed and i approve of these fat ones be careful oh man that way lies bad work torpenhouse was sprawling in a long chair with a small fox terrier asleep on his chest while dick was preparing a canvas a dais a background and a lay figure were the only fixed objects in the place they rose from a wreck of oddments that began with felt covered water bottles belts and regimental badges and ended with a small bale of second hand uniforms and a stand of mixed arms the mark of muddy feet on the dais showed that a military model had just gone away the watery autumn sunlight was falling and shadows sat in the corners of the studio yes said dick deliberately i like the power i like the fun i like the fuss and above all i like the money i almost like the people who make the fuss and pay the money almost but they're a queer gang an amazingly queer gang they have been good enough to you at any rate than ten pot exhibitions of your sketches must have paid did you see that the papers called it the wild work show never mind i sold every shred of canvas i wanted to and on my word i believe it was because they believed i was a self-taught flagstone artist i should have got better prices if i worked my things on wool or scratched them on a camel bone instead of using mere black and white in color barely they are a queer gang these people limited isn't the word to describe them i met a fellow the other day who told me that it was impossible that shadows on white sand should be blue ultramarine as they are i found out later that the man had been as far as bright and beach but he knew all about art confound him he gave me a lecture on it and recommended me to go to school to learn technique i wonder what old commie would have said to that when were you under commie man of extraordinary beginnings i studied with him for two years in paris he taught by personal magnetism all he ever said was continue man vans and you had to make the best you could of that he had a divine touch and he knew something about color comma used to dream color i swear he could never have seen the genuine article but he evolved it it was good recollect some of those views in the sudan said torpenhow with a provoking draw dick squirmed in his place don't it makes me want to get out there again what color that was opal and umber and amber and claret and brick red and sulfur cockatoo crest sulfur against brown with a nigger black rock sticking up in the middle of it all and a decorative freeze of camels festooning in front of a pure pale turquoise sky he began to walk up and down and yet you know if you try to give these people the things as god gave it keyed down to their comprehension and according to the powers he has given you modest man go on half a dozen episcene young pagans who wouldn't have been to algears will tell you first that your notion is borrowed and secondly that it isn't art this comes from my leaving town for a month dickie you've been promenading among the toy shops and hearing people talk i couldn't help it's a dick pentatonic you weren't here and it was lonely these long evenings a man can't work forever a man might have gone to a pub and got decently drunk i wish i had but i foregathered with some men of sorts they said they were artists and i knew some of them could draw but they wouldn't draw they gave me tea tea had five in the afternoon and talked about art and the state of their souls as if their souls battered i've heard more about art and seen less of her in the last six months than in the whole of my life do you remember cassavetti who worked for some continental syndicate out with the desert column he was a regular christmas tree of contraptions when he took the field in full fig with his water bottle lanyard revolver riding case housewife gig lamps and the lord knows what all he used to fiddle about with them and show us how they worked but he never seemed to do much except fudge's reports from the nil guy see dear old nil guy he's in town fatter than ever he ought to be up here this evening i see the comparison perfectly you should have kept clear of all that man millinery serves you right and i hope it will unsettle your mind it won't it has taught me what art holy sacred art means you've learned something while i've been away what is art give them what they know and when you've done it once do it again dick dragged forward a canvas laid face to the wall here's a sample of real art it's going to be a facsimile reproduction for a weekly i called it his last shot it's worked up from the little watercolor i made outside elma grip well i lured my model a beautiful rifleman up here with drink i drawered him and i redrawed him and i redrawed him and i made him a flushed disheveled bedeviled scallowag with his helmet at the back of his head and the living fear of death in his eye and the blood oozing out of a cut over his ankle bone he wasn't pretty but he was all soldier and very much man once more modest child dick laughed well it's only to you i'm talking i did him just as well as i knew how making allowance for the slickness of oils then the art manager of that abandoned paper said that his subscribers wouldn't like it it was brutal and coarse and violent man being naturally gentle when he's fighting for his life they wanted something more restful with a little more color i could have said a good deal but you might as well talk to a sheep as an art manager i took my last shot back behold the result i put him in a lovely red coat without a speck on it that is art i polished his boots observed the highlight on the toe that is art i cleaned his rifle rifles are always clean on service because that is art i pipe clayed his helmet pipe clay is always used on active service and is indispensable to art i shaved his chin i washed his hands and gave him an air of fatted piece result military tailor's pattern plate price thank heaven twice as much as for the first sketch which was moderately decent and do you suppose you're going to give that thing out as your work why not i did it alone i did it in the interest of sacred homebread art and dickensons weekly torpenhouse smoked in silence for a while then came the verdict delivered from rolling clouds if you were only a mass of blathering vanity dick i wouldn't mind i let you go to the deuce on your own mouth stick but when i consider what you are to me and when i find that to vanity you add the tuppence half penny pick of a 12 year old girl then i'd be stir myself in your behalf thus the canvas ripped as torpenhouse booted foot shot through it and the terrier jumped down thinking rats were about if you have any bad language to use use it you have not i continue you are an idiot because no man born of woman is strong enough to take liberties with his public even though they be which they ain't all you say they are but they don't know any better what can you expect from creatures born in bread and this light dick pointed to the yellow fog if they want furniture polish let them have furniture polish so long as they pay for it they are only men and women you talk as if they were gods that sounds very fine but it has nothing to do with the case they are the people you have to do work for whether you like it or not they are your masters don't be deceived icky you aren't strong enough to trifle with them or with yourself which is more important moreover come back binky that red dog isn't going anywhere unless you take precious good care you will fall under the damnation of the checkbook and that's worse than death you will get drunk you're half drunk already on easily acquired money for that money and your own infernal vanity you are willing to deliberately turn out bad work you'll do quite enough bad work without knowing it and dicky as i love you and as i know you love me i am not going to let you cut off your nose despite your face for all the gold in england that's settled now swear don't know said dick i've been trying to make myself angry but i can't you're so abominably reasonable there'll be a row on dickinson's weekly i fancy why the dickins do you want to work on a weekly paper it's slow bleeding of power it brings in the very desirable dollar said dick his hands in his pockets torpenhouse watched him with large contempt why i thought it was a man said he it's a child no it isn't said dick wheeling quickly you've no notion of what the certainty of cash means to a man who has always wanted it badly nothing will pay me for my life's joys on that chinese pig boat for instance when we ate bread and jam for every meal because ho wang wouldn't allow us anything better and it all tasted a pig chinese pig i've worked for this i've sweated and i've starred for this line on line and month after month and now i've got it i am going to make the most of it while it lasts let them pay they've no knowledge what does your majesty please to want you can't smoke more than you do you won't drink you're a gross feeder and you dress in the dark by the look of you you wouldn't keep a horse the other day when i suggested because you said it might fall lame and whenever you cross the street you take a handsome even you are not foolish enough to suppose that theaters and all the live things you can buy they're about to mean life what earthly need have you for money it's there bless its golden heart so dick it's there all the time providence has sent me nuts while i have teeth to crack them with i haven't yet found the nut i wish to crack but i'm keeping my teeth filed perhaps someday you and i will go for a walk around the wide earth with no work to do nobody to worry us and nobody to compete with you would be unfit to speak to in a week besides i shouldn't go i don't care to profit by the price of a man's soul but that's what it would mean dick it's no use arguing you're a fool don't see it when i was on that chinese pig boat our captain got credit for saving about 25 000 very seasick little pigs when our old tramp of a steamer fell foul of a timber junk now taking those pigs as a parallel oh confound your parallels whenever i try to improve your soul you always drag in some anecdote from your very shady past pigs aren't the british public and self respect is self respect the world over go out for a walk and try to catch some self respect and i say if the nil guy comes up this evening can i show him your diggings surely and dick departed to take counsel with himself and the rapidly gathering london fog and a section four section five of the light that failed this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox dot org recording by laurebeth davis the light that failed by rudyard kippling chapter four part two half an hour after he had left the nil guy labored up the staircase he was the chiefest as he was the youngest of the war correspondence and his experiences dated from the birth of the needlegun saving only his ally kenyu the great war eagle there was no man higher in the craft than he and he always opened his conversations with the news that there would be trouble in the Balkans in the spring torben how laughed as he entered nevermind the trouble in the Balkans those little states are always screeching you've heard about dick's luck yes he has been called up to notoriety hasn't he i hope you keep him properly humble he wants oppressing from time to time he does he's beginning to take liberties with what he thinks is his reputation already by joe he has cheek i don't know about his reputation but he'll come a cropper if he tries that sort of thing so i told him i don't think he believes it they never do when they first start off what's that wreck on the ground there specimen of his latest impertinence torben how thrust the torn edges of the canvas together and showed the well-groomed picture to the nil guy who looked at it for a moment and whistled it's a chromo city a chromolith oleo margarine fake what possessed him to do it and yet how thoroughly he has caught the note that catches the public who think with their boots and read with their elbows the cold-blooded insolence of the work almost saves it but he mustn't go on with this hasn't he been praised and cockered up too much you know these people here have no sense of proportion they'll call him a second at all and a third mess on year while this fashion lasts it's windy diet for a cult i don't think it affects dick much you might as well call a young wolf a lion and expect him to take the compliment in exchange for a shin bone dick soul is in the bank he's working for cash now he is thrown up war work i suppose he doesn't see that the obligations of the service are just the same only the proprietors are changed how should he know he thinks he is his own master does he i could un-deceive him for his good if there's any virtue in print he wants the whiplash lay it on with science then i'd play him myself but i like him too much i have no scruples he had the audacity to try to cut me out with a woman at Cairo once i forgot that but i remember now did he cut you out you'll see when i have dealt with him but after all what's the good leave him alone and he'll come home if he has any stuff in him dragging or wagging his tail behind him there's more in a week of life than in a lively weekly nonetheless i'll slate him i'll slate him ponderously in the cataclysm good luck to you but i fancy nothing short of a crowbar would make dick wince his soul seems to have been fired before we came across him he's intensely suspicious and utterly lawless matter of temper said the nil guy it's the same with horses some you wallop and they work some you wallop and they jib and some you wallop and they go out for a walk with their hands in their pockets that's exactly what dick has done said torp and how wait till he comes back in the meantime you can begin your slating here i'll show you some of his last and worst work in his studio dick had instinctively sought running water for a comfort to his mood of mind he was leaning over the embankment wall watching the rush of the tims through the arches of the westminster bridge he began by thinking of torp and how's advice but as of custom lost himself in the study of the faces flocking past some had death written on their features and dick marveled that they could laugh others clumsy and course built for the most part were alight with love others were merely drawn and lined with work but there was something dick knew to be made out of them all the poor at least should suffer that he might learn and the rich should pay for the output of his learning thus his credit in the world and his cash balance at the bank would be increased so much the better for him he had suffered now he would take toll of the ills of others the fog was driven apart for a moment and the sun shone a blood-red wafer on the water dick watched the spot till he heard the voice of the tide between the piers die down like the wash of the sea at low tide a girl heart pressed by her lover shouted shamelessly i'll get away you beast and a shift of the same wind that had opened the fog drove across dick's face the black smoke of a river steamer at her birth below the wall he was blinded for the moment then spun round and found himself face to face with mazy there was no mistaking the years had turned the child to a woman but they had not altered the dark gray eyes the thin scarlet lips or the firmly modeled mouth and chin and that all should be as it was of old she wore a closely fitting gray dress since the human soul is finite and not in the least under its own command dick advancing said hello after the manner of schoolboys and nazy answered oh dick is that you then against his will and before the brain newly released from consideration of the cash balance had time to dictate to the nerves every pulse of dick's body throb furiously and his palate dried in his mouth the fog shut down again and mazy's face was pearl white through it no word was spoken but dick fell into step at her side and the two passed the embankment together keeping the step as perfectly as their afternoon excursions to the mudflats then dick a little hoarsely what has happened to a mama he died dick not cartridges overeating he was always greedy isn't it funny yes no do you mean a mama yes no this where do you come from over there he pointed eastward through the fog and you oh i'm in the north the black north across all the park i am very busy what do you do i paint a great deal that's all i have to do do why what's happened you had 300 a year i have that still i am painting that's all are you alone then there's a girl living with me don't walk so fast dick you're out of step then you noticed it too of course i did you're always out of step so i am i'm sorry you went on with the painting of course i said i should i was at the slade then at merton's in st john's wood the big studio then i pepper potted i mean i went to the national and now i'm working under commie but commie is in paris surely no he has his teaching studio in vitri sir marin i work with him in the summer and i live in london in the winter i'm a householder do you sell much now and again but not often there's my bus i must take it or lose half an hour goodbye dick goodbye mazy won't you tell me where you live i must see you again and perhaps i could help you i i paint a little myself i may be in the park tomorrow if there's no working light i walk from the marble arches down and back again that is my little excursion but of course i shall see you again she stepped into the omnibus and was swallowed up by the father well i am damned exclaimed dick and returned to the chambers torpenhouse and the kneel guy found himself sitting in the steps to the studio door repeating the phrase with an awful gravity you'll be more damned when i'm done with you said the kneel guy upheaving his bulk from behind torpenhouse shoulder and waving a sheaf of half dry manuscript dick it is of common report that you are suffering from swelled head hello kneel guy back again how are the Balkans and all the little Balkans one side of your face is out of drawing as usual nevermind that i am commissioned to smite you in print torpenhouse refuses from false delicacy i've been overhauling the pot boilers in your studio they are simply disgraceful oh that's it is it if you think you can slate me you're wrong you can only describe and you need as much room to turn in on paper as a p and o cargo boat but continue and be swift i'm going to bed the first part only deals with your pictures here's the perration for work done without conviction for power wasted on trivialities for labor expended with levity for the deliberate purpose of winning the easy applause of a fashion driven public that's his last shot second edition go on public there remains one end the oblivion that is preceded by toleration and synataft with contempt from that fate mr helder has yet to prove himself out of danger wow wow wow wow wow said dick profanely it's a clumsy ending and vile journalese but it's quite true and yet he sprang to his feet and snatched at the manuscript you scarred debauched battered old gladiator you're sent out when a war begins to minister to the blind brutal british public's beastial thirst for blood they have no arenas now but they must have special correspondence you're a fat gladiator who comes up through a trapdoor and talks of what he's seen you stand on precisely the same level as an energetic bishop an affable actress a devastating cyclone or mine own sweet self and you presume to lecture me about my work kneel guy if it were worthwhile i'd caricature you and four papers the kneel guy went he had not thought of this as it is i shall take the stuff and tear it small so the manuscript fluttered in slips down the dark well of the staircase go home kneel guy said dick go home to your lonely little bed and leave me in peace i'm about to turn in till tomorrow why it isn't seven yet said torpenhall with amazement it shall be two in the morning if i choose said dick backing to the studio door i go to grapple with a serious crisis and i shan't want any dinner the door shut and was locked what can you do with a man like that said the kneel guy leave him alone he's as mad as a hatter at eleven there was a kicking on the studio door is the kneel guy with you still said a voice from within then tell him he might have condensed the hole of his lumbering nonsense into an epigram only the free are bond and only the bond are free tell him he's an idiot torp and tell him i'm another all right come out and have supper you're smoking on an empty stomach there was no answer end of section five