"The Shout" is told within a "frame"; that is, the actual narrator retells a story he heard Crossley tell at a cricket match, which "frames" the beginning and ending of the story. It is the presence of the outside narrator that gives the story its mixture of reality and unreality. The Crossley that the narrator meets is "a man of unusual force" who knows that he is insane and in an asylum. In the narrator's world, Richard and Rachel know of Crossley only through seeing a magic act he put on at the asylum as the "Australian Illusionist"; Crossley's detailed description of Rachel and scant one of Richard may have the ordinary explanation that Crossley "looked at [Rachel] all the time" during his performance. The tale may be no more than a madman's fantasy. On the other hand, Crossley and his physician get into a pushing match when...