Nightshade and Damnations by Gerald Kersh

Author:Gerald Kersh [Kersh, Gerald]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Valancourt Books
Published: 2013-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

Another lever made it sit down. As the thighs and legs made an angle of ninety degrees, the phonograph automatically started. Choking imprecations, together with groans of pain came out of the mouth. All the time the dummy shook and quivered, while a perfectly simple, concertina-shaped bellows inside the head sucked in the air and blew it out, so that the moustache that concealed the mouth was constantly in motion, and you could hear a kind of wheezy breathing.

It was all quite life-like, especially when we dressed it in clothes which we borrowed from the king’s wardrobe. As the king’s clockmaker, I was a person of great consequence in the palace. Everybody knew what had happened to Tancredy; they all went out of their way to be polite to me. I could even have had intrigues with duchesses if I had been so disposed. I had no difficulty in getting from the master of the king’s wardrobe a complete outfit of the royal clothes, including fur slippers, a sable dressing-gown and a round velvet cap such as his Majesty invariably wore. When the dummy was dressed we sat it in a deep red velvet chair in the workshop, covered it with a sheet, and waited. At last the moment came. De Kock and I were excited, like children who have prepared a wonderful surprise for a beloved parent and are impatient to reveal it.

The king came in, with his doctor and his attendant holding him up, and was lowered, groaning and cursing, into his usual chair.

“What have you got there?” he asked.

I said: “A little surprise for your Majesty.” Then I pressed two of the levers and whisked away the sheet all in one movement, and the dummy got up, walked twelve paces, which brought it face to face with his Majesty, and turned scornfully on its heel. I had measured my distance. Following it, I pressed another lever and it walked straight back to the chair and turned on its heel again. Another touch and it sat down, and the gramophone started and the great groaning voice bellowed dirty language right into the king’s face.

I looked towards him laughing in anticipation of his delight, but what I saw horrified me. His face had become blue. His eyes seemed to be trying to push themselves out of their sockets. His mouth opened, and he uttered a terrible rattling scream. I still hear that scream in my dreams.

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