Algernon Blackwood

Name: Ten Minute Stories — Violence
Author: Algernon Blackwood

Summary

“Ten Minute Stories — Violence”, is a work by Algernon Blackwood. It explores elements such as Leidall, Hancock and strait waistcoat.

Quotes from Ten Minute Stories — Violence (Algernon Blackwood)

Algernon Blackwood, Ten Minute Stories — Violence

“ He would fly into the place of rest, not sink or merely float; and he remembered the view from his bedroom window, high over old smoky London town, with a drop of eighty feet onto the pavements. Yes, that was the best way. He waited a moment, trying to think it all out clearly, but one moment the fish had it, and the next the birds. It was really impossible to decide. Was there no one who could help him, no one in all this enormous town who was sufficiently on his side to advise him on the point? Some clearheaded, experienced, kindly man?
And the face of Dr. Hancock flashed before his vision. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, Ten Minute Stories — Violence

“ Movement was cramped. “Ah, then I’ve had a stroke,” he thought, as Hancock pressed him, ever so gently, back into the big chair. “Do not get up,” he said soothingly but with authority; “sit where you are and rest. You must take it very easy for a bit; like all clever men who have overworked⁠—”
“I’ll get in the moment he turns,” thought Leidall. “I did it badly before. It must be through the back of his head, of course, where the spine runs up into the brain,” and he waited till Hancock should turn. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, Ten Minute Stories — Violence

“ But Hancock never turned. He kept his face towards him all the time, while he chatted, moving gradually nearer to the door. On Leidall’s face was the smile of an innocent child, but there lay a hideous cunning behind that smile, and the eyes were terrible.
“Are those bars firm and strong,” asked Leidall, “so that no one can get in?” He pointed craftily, and the doctor, caught for a second unawares, turned his head. That instant Leidall was upon him with a roar, then sank back powerless into the chair, unable to move his arms more than a few inches in any direction. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, Ten Minute Stories — Violence

“ His intuition had picked out the little doctor as a man in ten thousand. Why had he so curtly declined his gentle invitation? Dr. Hancock knew; he guessed his awful secret. But how? In what had he betrayed himself?
The weary self-questioning began again, till he sighed and groaned from sheer exhaustion. He must find people, companionship, someone to talk to. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, Ten Minute Stories — Violence

“ And she looked flippantly at Leidall, whose casual manners she resented. “People are put under restraint. It’s not in human nature to accept it⁠—healthy human nature, that is?” But for some reason no one took her question up. “That is so, I believe, yes,” a polite voice murmured, while the group at tea in the Dover Street Club turned with one accord to Leidall as to one whose interesting sentence still remained unfinished. He had hardly spoken before, and a silent man is ever credited with wisdom. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, Ten Minute Stories — Violence

“ No one cared to ask the direct question, but all hoped for revelations, possibly about people they actually knew. It was a very ordinary tea-party indeed. And this little man now spoke, though hardly in the desired vein. He addressed his remarks to Leidall across the disappointed lady.
“I think, probably, your explanation is the true one,” he said gently, “for madness in its commoner forms is merely want of proportion; the mind gets out of right and proper relations with its environment. The majority of madmen are mad on one thing only, while the rest of them is as sane as myself⁠—or you.” ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, Ten Minute Stories — Violence

“ He trembled dreadfully, and burst into tears. “For the sake of Heaven,” he implored, looking up, ashamed and keenly penitent, “put me under restraint. Fasten my hands before I try it again.” He held both hands out willingly, beseechingly, then looked down, following the direction of the other’s kind brown eyes. His wrists, he saw, already wore steel handcuffs, and a strait waistcoat was across his chest and arms and shoulders. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Algernon Blackwood, Ten Minute Stories — Violence

“ He hesitated, grew confused, and dropped his glance to the floor; and a smartly-dressed woman, eager to be heard, seized the opening. “Oh, come now,” she laughed; “one always hears of a man being put into a strait waistcoat. ”

Algernon Blackwood

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Quotes from Ten Minute Stories — Violence (Algernon Blackwood)

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