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The open Window
ByH.H. Munro （SAKI）, edited version.
1. "My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel," said avery self-possessed young lady offifteen; "in the meantime you must try and put up with me." Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct things to flatter the niecewithout discounting the aunt thatwas to come. Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits tototal strangers would do much towards helping him cure his nerves.
2. "I know how it willbe," his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural retreat; "you will bury yourselfdown there and not speak to a living soul, and your nerves will be worse thanever. I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I knowthere. Some of them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice."
3. Mrs. Sappleton, the lady towhom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction came into the nice division. "Do you know many of thepeople round here?" asked the niece. "Hardly a soul," saidFramton. "My sister was staying here, at the rectory, you know, some four years ago, and she gave me letters of introductionto some of the people here."
4. He made the last statement in atone of regret. "Then you know practically nothing about my aunt?" pursued the self-possessed young lady. "Onlyher name and address," he admitted. He was wondering whether Mrs. Sappletonwas married or widowed.
5. "Her great tragedyhappened just three years ago," said the child; "that would be sinceyour sister's time." "Her tragedy?" asked Framton. "You maywonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon," saidthe niece, indicating a large French window that opened on to a lawn."It is quite warm for the time of the year," said Framton; "buthas that window got anything to do with the tragedy?" "Out throughthat window, three years ago to a day, her husband and her two young brotherswent off for their day's shooting. They never came back. They found themselves allthree suddenly in a treacherous piece of bog. Their bodies werenever recovered. That was the dreadful part of it."
6. Here the child's voice lost itsself-possessed tone and became human. "Poor aunt always thinks that theywill come back someday, they and the little brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in at that window just asthey used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening till it isquite dusk. Poor dear aunt, she has often told me how they went out, herhusband with his white waterproof coat over his arm, and Ronnie, her youngestbrother, singing. Do you know, sometimes on still, quiet evenings like this, Ialmost get a creepy feeling that they will all walk in through thatwindow--"
7. She broke off with a little shudder.It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whirl of apologies for being late in making herappearance. "I hope Vera has been amusing you?" she said. "She has been very interesting,"said Framton. "I hope you don't mind the open window," said Mrs.Sappleton briskly; "my husband and brothers will be home directly fromshooting, and they always come in this way. They've been out in the marshes today, so they'll make a finemess over my poor carpets. So like you menfolk, isn't it?"
8. She rattled on cheerfully. ToFramton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partiallysuccessful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic, he was conscious that his hostess was giving himonly a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly staring past himto the open window and the lawn beyond.
9. "The doctors are orderingme complete rest, absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of violentphysical exercise," announced Framton, "On the matter of diet theyare not so much in agreement," he continued. "No?" said Mrs.Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn. Then she suddenly cheered up:"Here they are at last!" she cried. "Just in time for tea, anddon't they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!" Framton shiveredslightly and turned towards the niece. The child was staring out through theopen window with horror in her eyes. In a shock of fear Framton looked in thesame direction.
10. In the deepening twilight three figures were walkingacross the lawn towards the window, they all carried guns under their arms, andone of them was burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tiredbrown spaniel walked close at their heels. Framton jumped up, grabbed wildly at his stick and hat and ran out.
11. "Here we are, my dear," said the bearer of the white mackintosh, coming in through thewindow, "fairly muddy, but most of it's dry. Who was that who bolted out as we came up?"
"A most extraordinaryman, a Mr. Nuttel," said Mrs. Sappleton; "could only talk about hisillnesses, and dashed off without aword of goodbye or apology when you arrived. One would think he had seen aghost." "I expect it was thespaniel," said the niece calmly; "he told me he had a horror of dogs.He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of dogs, and had to spend thenight in a newly dug grave with the creatures just above him. Enough to makeanyone lose their nerve."
Romance at short notice was her speciality.
18006502nah
A very interesting story, in fact we now humans need to do some more communications between us, and try to see and observe things happening arround us.