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diff --git a/1289-h/1289-h.htm b/1289-h/1289-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0505727 --- /dev/null +++ b/1289-h/1289-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2725 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Three Ghost Stories, by Charles Dickens</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Three Ghost Stories, by Charles Dickens + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Three Ghost Stories + + +Author: Charles Dickens + + + +Release Date: March 9, 2013 [eBook #1289] +[This file was first posted on April 5, 1998] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE GHOST STORIES*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1894 Chapman and Hall edition of +“Christmas Stories” by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>THREE GHOST STORIES</h1> +<p style="text-align: center">by Charles Dickens</p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p>The Haunted House</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page121">121</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Trial For Murder</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page303">303</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The Signal-Man</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page312">312</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="page121"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 121</span>THE +HAUNTED HOUSE.<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">IN TWO CHAPTERS.</span> <a +name="citation121"></a><a href="#footnote121" +class="citation">[121]</a></h2> +<p style="text-align: center">[1859.]</p> +<h3>THE MORTALS IN THE HOUSE.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">Under</span> none of the accredited +ghostly circumstances, and environed by none of the conventional +ghostly surroundings, did I first make acquaintance with the +house which is the subject of this Christmas piece. I saw +it in the daylight, with the sun upon it. There was no +wind, no rain, no lightning, no thunder, no awful or unwonted +circumstance, of any kind, to heighten its effect. More +than that: I had come to it direct from a railway station: it was +not more than a mile distant from the railway station; and, as I +stood outside the house, looking back upon the way I had come, I +could see the goods train running smoothly along the embankment +in the valley. I will not say that everything was utterly +commonplace, because I doubt if anything can be that, except to +utterly commonplace people—and there my vanity steps in; +but, I will take it on myself to say that anybody might see the +house as I saw it, any fine autumn morning.</p> +<p>The manner of my lighting on it was this.</p> +<p>I was travelling towards London out of the North, intending to +stop by the way, to look at the house. My health required a +temporary residence in the country; and a friend of mine who knew +that, and who had happened to drive past the house, had written +to me to suggest it as a likely place. I had got into the +train at midnight, and had fallen asleep, and had woke up and had +sat looking out of window at the brilliant Northern Lights in the +sky, and had fallen asleep again, and had woke up again to find +the night gone, with the usual discontented conviction on me that +I hadn’t been to sleep at all;—upon which question, +in the first imbecility of that condition, I am ashamed to +believe that I would have done wager by battle with the <a +name="page122"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 122</span>man who sat +opposite me. That opposite man had had, through the +night—as that opposite man always has—several legs +too many, and all of them too long. In addition to this +unreasonable conduct (which was only to be expected of him), he +had had a pencil and a pocket-book, and had been perpetually +listening and taking notes. It had appeared to me that +these aggravating notes related to the jolts and bumps of the +carriage, and I should have resigned myself to his taking them, +under a general supposition that he was in the civil-engineering +way of life, if he had not sat staring straight over my head +whenever he listened. He was a goggle-eyed gentleman of a +perplexed aspect, and his demeanour became unbearable.</p> +<p>It was a cold, dead morning (the sun not being up yet), and +when I had out-watched the paling light of the fires of the iron +country, and the curtain of heavy smoke that hung at once between +me and the stars and between me and the day, I turned to my +fellow-traveller and said:</p> +<p>“I <i>beg</i> your pardon, sir, but do you observe +anything particular in me?” For, really, he appeared +to be taking down, either my travelling-cap or my hair, with a +minuteness that was a liberty.</p> +<p>The goggle-eyed gentleman withdrew his eyes from behind me, as +if the back of the carriage were a hundred miles off, and said, +with a lofty look of compassion for my insignificance:</p> +<p>“In you, sir?—B.”</p> +<p>“B, sir?” said I, growing warm.</p> +<p>“I have nothing to do with you, sir,” returned the +gentleman; “pray let me listen—O.”</p> +<p>He enunciated this vowel after a pause, and noted it down.</p> +<p>At first I was alarmed, for an Express lunatic and no +communication with the guard, is a serious position. The +thought came to my relief that the gentleman might be what is +popularly called a Rapper: one of a sect for (some of) whom I +have the highest respect, but whom I don’t believe +in. I was going to ask him the question, when he took the +bread out of my mouth.</p> +<p>“You will excuse me,” said the gentleman +contemptuously, “if I am too much in advance of common +humanity to trouble myself at all about it. I have passed +the night—as indeed I pass the whole of my time +now—in spiritual intercourse.”</p> +<p>“O!” said I, somewhat snappishly.</p> +<p>“The conferences of the night began,” continued +the gentleman, turning several leaves of his note-book, +“with this message: ‘Evil communications corrupt good +manners.’”</p> +<p>“Sound,” said I; “but, absolutely +new?”</p> +<p>“New from spirits,” returned the gentleman.</p> +<p>I could only repeat my rather snappish “O!” and +ask if I might be favoured with the last communication.</p> +<p>“‘A bird in the hand,’” said the +gentleman, reading his last entry with great solemnity, +“‘is worth two in the Bosh.’”</p> +<p><a name="page123"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +123</span>“Truly I am of the same opinion,” said I; +“but shouldn’t it be Bush?”</p> +<p>“It came to me, Bosh,” returned the gentleman.</p> +<p>The gentleman then informed me that the spirit of Socrates had +delivered this special revelation in the course of the +night. “My friend, I hope you are pretty well. +There are two in this railway carriage. How do you +do? There are seventeen thousand four hundred and +seventy-nine spirits here, but you cannot see them. +Pythagoras is here. He is not at liberty to mention it, but +hopes you like travelling.” Galileo likewise had +dropped in, with this scientific intelligence. “I am +glad to see you, <i>amico</i>. <i>Come sta</i>? Water +will freeze when it is cold enough. +<i>Addio</i>!” In the course of the night, also, the +following phenomena had occurred. Bishop Butler had +insisted on spelling his name, “Bubler,” for which +offence against orthography and good manners he had been +dismissed as out of temper. John Milton (suspected of +wilful mystification) had repudiated the authorship of Paradise +Lost, and had introduced, as joint authors of that poem, two +Unknown gentlemen, respectively named Grungers and +Scadgingtone. And Prince Arthur, nephew of King John of +England, had described himself as tolerably comfortable in the +seventh circle, where he was learning to paint on velvet, under +the direction of Mrs. Trimmer and Mary Queen of Scots.</p> +<p>If this should meet the eye of the gentleman who favoured me +with these disclosures, I trust he will excuse my confessing that +the sight of the rising sun, and the contemplation of the +magnificent Order of the vast Universe, made me impatient of +them. In a word, I was so impatient of them, that I was +mightily glad to get out at the next station, and to exchange +these clouds and vapours for the free air of Heaven.</p> +<p>By that time it was a beautiful morning. As I walked +away among such leaves as had already fallen from the golden, +brown, and russet trees; and as I looked around me on the wonders +of Creation, and thought of the steady, unchanging, and +harmonious laws by which they are sustained; the +gentleman’s spiritual intercourse seemed to me as poor a +piece of journey-work as ever this world saw. In which +heathen state of mind, I came within view of the house, and +stopped to examine it attentively.</p> +<p>It was a solitary house, standing in a sadly neglected garden: +a pretty even square of some two acres. It was a house of +about the time of George the Second; as stiff, as cold, as +formal, and in as bad taste, as could possibly be desired by the +most loyal admirer of the whole quartet of Georges. It was +uninhabited, but had, within a year or two, been cheaply repaired +to render it habitable; I say cheaply, because the work had been +done in a surface manner, and was already decaying as to the +paint and plaster, though the colours were fresh. A +lop-sided board drooped over the garden wall, announcing that it +was “to let on very reasonable terms, well <a +name="page124"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +124</span>furnished.” It was much too closely and +heavily shadowed by trees, and, in particular, there were six +tall poplars before the front windows, which were excessively +melancholy, and the site of which had been extremely ill +chosen.</p> +<p>It was easy to see that it was an avoided house—a house +that was shunned by the village, to which my eye was guided by a +church spire some half a mile off—a house that nobody would +take. And the natural inference was, that it had the +reputation of being a haunted house.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p121b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The haunted house" +title= +"The haunted house" +src="images/p121s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>No period within the four-and-twenty hours of day and night is +so solemn to me, as the early morning. In the summer-time, +I often rise very early, and repair to my room to do a +day’s work before breakfast, and I am always on those +occasions deeply impressed by the stillness and solitude around +me. Besides that there is something awful in the being +surrounded by familiar faces asleep—in the knowledge that +those who are dearest to us and to whom we are dearest, are +profoundly unconscious of us, in an impassive state, anticipative +of that mysterious condition to which we are all +tending—the stopped life, the broken threads of yesterday, +the deserted seat, the closed book, the unfinished but abandoned +occupation, all are images of Death. The tranquillity of +the hour is the tranquillity of Death. The colour and the +chill have the same association. Even a certain air that +familiar household objects take upon them when they first emerge +from the shadows of the night into the morning, of being newer, +and as they used to be long ago, has its counterpart in the +subsidence of the worn face of maturity or age, in death, into +the old youthful look. Moreover, I once saw the apparition +of my father, at this hour. He was alive and well, and +nothing ever came of it, but I saw him in the daylight, sitting +with his back towards me, on a seat that stood beside my +bed. His head was resting on his hand, and whether he was +slumbering or grieving, I could not discern. Amazed to see +him there, I sat up, moved my position, leaned out of bed, and +watched him. As he did not move, I spoke to him more than +once. As he did not move then, I became alarmed and laid my +hand upon his shoulder, as I thought—and there was no such +thing.</p> +<p>For all these reasons, and for others less easily and briefly +statable, I find the early morning to be my most ghostly +time. Any house would be more or less haunted, to me, in +the early morning; and a haunted house could scarcely address me +to greater advantage than then.</p> +<p>I walked on into the village, with the desertion of this house +upon my mind, and I found the landlord of the little inn, sanding +his door-step. I bespoke breakfast, and broached the +subject of the house.</p> +<p>“Is it haunted?” I asked.</p> +<p>The landlord looked at me, shook his head, and answered, +“I say nothing.”</p> +<p>“Then it <i>is</i> haunted?”</p> +<p><a name="page125"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +125</span>“Well!” cried the landlord, in an outburst +of frankness that had the appearance of +desperation—“I wouldn’t sleep in it.”</p> +<p>“Why not?”</p> +<p>“If I wanted to have all the bells in a house ring, with +nobody to ring ’em; and all the doors in a house bang, with +nobody to bang ’em; and all sorts of feet treading about, +with no feet there; why, then,” said the landlord, +“I’d sleep in that house.”</p> +<p>“Is anything seen there?”</p> +<p>The landlord looked at me again, and then, with his former +appearance of desperation, called down his stable-yard for +“Ikey!”</p> +<p>The call produced a high-shouldered young fellow, with a round +red face, a short crop of sandy hair, a very broad humorous +mouth, a turned-up nose, and a great sleeved waistcoat of purple +bars, with mother-of-pearl buttons, that seemed to be growing +upon him, and to be in a fair way—if it were not +pruned—of covering his head and overunning his boots.</p> +<p>“This gentleman wants to know,” said the landlord, +“if anything’s seen at the Poplars.”</p> +<p>“’Ooded woman with a howl,” said Ikey, in a +state of great freshness.</p> +<p>“Do you mean a cry?”</p> +<p>“I mean a bird, sir.”</p> +<p>“A hooded woman with an owl. Dear me! Did +you ever see her?”</p> +<p>“I seen the howl.”</p> +<p>“Never the woman?”</p> +<p>“Not so plain as the howl, but they always keeps +together.”</p> +<p>“Has anybody ever seen the woman as plainly as the +owl?”</p> +<p>“Lord bless you, sir! Lots.”</p> +<p>“Who?”</p> +<p>“Lord bless you, sir! Lots.”</p> +<p>“The general-dealer opposite, for instance, who is +opening his shop?”</p> +<p>“Perkins? Bless you, Perkins wouldn’t go +a-nigh the place. No!” observed the young man, with +considerable feeling; “he an’t overwise, an’t +Perkins, but he an’t such a fool as <i>that</i>.”</p> +<p>(Here, the landlord murmured his confidence in Perkins’s +knowing better.)</p> +<p>“Who is—or who was—the hooded woman with the +owl? Do you know?”</p> +<p>“Well!” said Ikey, holding up his cap with one +hand while he scratched his head with the other, “they say, +in general, that she was murdered, and the howl he ’ooted +the while.”</p> +<p>This very concise summary of the facts was all I could learn, +except that a young man, as hearty and likely a young man as ever +I see, had been took with fits and held down in ’em, after +seeing the hooded woman. Also, that a personage, dimly +described as “a hold chap, a <a name="page126"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 126</span>sort of one-eyed tramp, answering to +the name of Joby, unless you challenged him as Greenwood, and +then he said, ‘Why not? and even if so, mind your own +business,’” had encountered the hooded woman, a +matter of five or six times. But, I was not materially +assisted by these witnesses: inasmuch as the first was in +California, and the last was, as Ikey said (and he was confirmed +by the landlord), Anywheres.</p> +<p>Now, although I regard with a hushed and solemn fear, the +mysteries, between which and this state of existence is +interposed the barrier of the great trial and change that fall on +all the things that live; and although I have not the audacity to +pretend that I know anything of them; I can no more reconcile the +mere banging of doors, ringing of bells, creaking of boards, and +such-like insignificances, with the majestic beauty and pervading +analogy of all the Divine rules that I am permitted to +understand, than I had been able, a little while before, to yoke +the spiritual intercourse of my fellow-traveller to the chariot +of the rising sun. Moreover, I had lived in two haunted +houses—both abroad. In one of these, an old Italian +palace, which bore the reputation of being very badly haunted +indeed, and which had recently been twice abandoned on that +account, I lived eight months, most tranquilly and pleasantly: +notwithstanding that the house had a score of mysterious +bedrooms, which were never used, and possessed, in one large room +in which I sat reading, times out of number at all hours, and +next to which I slept, a haunted chamber of the first +pretensions. I gently hinted these considerations to the +landlord. And as to this particular house having a bad +name, I reasoned with him, Why, how many things had bad names +undeservedly, and how easy it was to give bad names, and did he +not think that if he and I were persistently to whisper in the +village that any weird-looking, old drunken tinker of the +neighbourhood had sold himself to the Devil, he would come in +time to be suspected of that commercial venture! All this +wise talk was perfectly ineffective with the landlord, I am bound +to confess, and was as dead a failure as ever I made in my +life.</p> +<p>To cut this part of the story short, I was piqued about the +haunted house, and was already half resolved to take it. +So, after breakfast, I got the keys from Perkins’s +brother-in-law (a whip and harness maker, who keeps the Post +Office, and is under submission to a most rigorous wife of the +Doubly Seceding Little Emmanuel persuasion), and went up to the +house, attended by my landlord and by Ikey.</p> +<p>Within, I found it, as I had expected, transcendently +dismal. The slowly changing shadows waved on it from the +heavy trees, were doleful in the last degree; the house was +ill-placed, ill-built, ill-planned, and ill-fitted. It was +damp, it was not free from dry rot, there was a flavour of rats +in it, and it was the gloomy victim of that indescribable decay +which settles on all the work of man’s hands whenever +it’s not turned to man’s account. The kitchens +and offices <a name="page127"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +127</span>were too large, and too remote from each other. +Above stairs and below, waste tracts of passage intervened +between patches of fertility represented by rooms; and there was +a mouldy old well with a green growth upon it, hiding like a +murderous trap, near the bottom of the back-stairs, under the +double row of bells. One of these bells was labelled, on a +black ground in faded white letters, <span +class="smcap">Master</span> B. This, they told me, was the +bell that rang the most.</p> +<p>“Who was Master B.?” I asked. “Is it +known what he did while the owl hooted?”</p> +<p>“Rang the bell,” said Ikey.</p> +<p>I was rather struck by the prompt dexterity with which this +young man pitched his fur cap at the bell, and rang it +himself. It was a loud, unpleasant bell, and made a very +disagreeable sound. The other bells were inscribed +according to the names of the rooms to which their wires were +conducted: as “Picture Room,” “Double +Room,” “Clock Room,” and the like. +Following Master B.’s bell to its source I found that young +gentleman to have had but indifferent third-class accommodation +in a triangular cabin under the cock-loft, with a corner +fireplace which Master B. must have been exceedingly small if he +were ever able to warm himself at, and a corner chimney-piece +like a pyramidal staircase to the ceiling for Tom Thumb. +The papering of one side of the room had dropped down bodily, +with fragments of plaster adhering to it, and almost blocked up +the door. It appeared that Master B., in his spiritual +condition, always made a point of pulling the paper down. +Neither the landlord nor Ikey could suggest why he made such a +fool of himself.</p> +<p>Except that the house had an immensely large rambling loft at +top, I made no other discoveries. It was moderately well +furnished, but sparely. Some of the furniture—say, a +third—was as old as the house; the rest was of various +periods within the last half-century. I was referred to a +corn-chandler in the market-place of the county town to treat for +the house. I went that day, and I took it for six +months.</p> +<p>It was just the middle of October when I moved in with my +maiden sister (I venture to call her eight-and-thirty, she is so +very handsome, sensible, and engaging). We took with us, a +deaf stable-man, my bloodhound Turk, two women servants, and a +young person called an Odd Girl. I have reason to record of +the attendant last enumerated, who was one of the Saint +Lawrence’s Union Female Orphans, that she was a fatal +mistake and a disastrous engagement.</p> +<p>The year was dying early, the leaves were falling fast, it was +a raw cold day when we took possession, and the gloom of the +house was most depressing. The cook (an amiable woman, but +of a weak turn of intellect) burst into tears on beholding the +kitchen, and requested that her silver watch might be delivered +over to her sister (2 Tuppintock’s Gardens, Liggs’s +Walk, Clapham Rise), in the event of anything happening to her +from the damp. Streaker, the housemaid, feigned <a +name="page128"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +128</span>cheerfulness, but was the greater martyr. The Odd +Girl, who had never been in the country, alone was pleased, and +made arrangements for sowing an acorn in the garden outside the +scullery window, and rearing an oak.</p> +<p>We went, before dark, through all the natural—as opposed +to supernatural—miseries incidental to our state. +Dispiriting reports ascended (like the smoke) from the basement +in volumes, and descended from the upper rooms. There was +no rolling-pin, there was no salamander (which failed to surprise +me, for I don’t know what it is), there was nothing in the +house, what there was, was broken, the last people must have +lived like pigs, what could the meaning of the landlord be? +Through these distresses, the Odd Girl was cheerful and +exemplary. But within four hours after dark we had got into +a supernatural groove, and the Odd Girl had seen +“Eyes,” and was in hysterics.</p> +<p>My sister and I had agreed to keep the haunting strictly to +ourselves, and my impression was, and still is, that I had not +left Ikey, when he helped to unload the cart, alone with the +women, or any one of them, for one minute. Nevertheless, as +I say, the Odd Girl had “seen Eyes” (no other +explanation could ever be drawn from her), before nine, and by +ten o’clock had had as much vinegar applied to her as would +pickle a handsome salmon.</p> +<p>I leave a discerning public to judge of my feelings, when, +under these untoward circumstances, at about half-past ten +o’clock Master B.’s bell began to ring in a most +infuriated manner, and Turk howled until the house resounded with +his lamentations!</p> +<p>I hope I may never again be in a state of mind so unchristian +as the mental frame in which I lived for some weeks, respecting +the memory of Master B. Whether his bell was rung by rats, +or mice, or bats, or wind, or what other accidental vibration, or +sometimes by one cause, sometimes another, and sometimes by +collusion, I don’t know; but, certain it is, that it did +ring two nights out of three, until I conceived the happy idea of +twisting Master B.’s neck—in other words, breaking +his bell short off—and silencing that young gentleman, as +to my experience and belief, for ever.</p> +<p>But, by that time, the Odd Girl had developed such improving +powers of catalepsy, that she had become a shining example of +that very inconvenient disorder. She would stiffen, like a +Guy Fawkes endowed with unreason, on the most irrelevant +occasions. I would address the servants in a lucid manner, +pointing out to them that I had painted Master B.’s room +and balked the paper, and taken Master B.’s bell away and +balked the ringing, and if they could suppose that that +confounded boy had lived and died, to clothe himself with no +better behaviour than would most unquestionably have brought him +and the sharpest particles of a birch-broom into close +acquaintance in the present imperfect state of existence, could +they also suppose a mere poor human being, such as I was, capable +by <a name="page129"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 129</span>those +contemptible means of counteracting and limiting the powers of +the disembodied spirits of the dead, or of any spirits?—I +say I would become emphatic and cogent, not to say rather +complacent, in such an address, when it would all go for nothing +by reason of the Odd Girl’s suddenly stiffening from the +toes upward, and glaring among us like a parochial +petrifaction.</p> +<p>Streaker, the housemaid, too, had an attribute of a most +discomfiting nature. I am unable to say whether she was of +an unusually lymphatic temperament, or what else was the matter +with her, but this young woman became a mere Distillery for the +production of the largest and most transparent tears I ever met +with. Combined with these characteristics, was a peculiar +tenacity of hold in those specimens, so that they didn’t +fall, but hung upon her face and nose. In this condition, +and mildly and deplorably shaking her head, her silence would +throw me more heavily than the Admirable Crichton could have done +in a verbal disputation for a purse of money. Cook, +likewise, always covered me with confusion as with a garment, by +neatly winding up the session with the protest that the Ouse was +wearing her out, and by meekly repeating her last wishes +regarding her silver watch.</p> +<p>As to our nightly life, the contagion of suspicion and fear +was among us, and there is no such contagion under the sky. +Hooded woman? According to the accounts, we were in a +perfect Convent of hooded women. Noises? With that +contagion downstairs, I myself have sat in the dismal parlour, +listening, until I have heard so many and such strange noises, +that they would have chilled my blood if I had not warmed it by +dashing out to make discoveries. Try this in bed, in the +dead of the night: try this at your own comfortable fire-side, in +the life of the night. You can fill any house with noises, +if you will, until you have a noise for every nerve in your +nervous system.</p> +<p>I repeat; the contagion of suspicion and fear was among us, +and there is no such contagion under the sky. The women +(their noses in a chronic state of excoriation from +smelling-salts) were always primed and loaded for a swoon, and +ready to go off with hair-triggers. The two elder detached +the Odd Girl on all expeditions that were considered doubly +hazardous, and she always established the reputation of such +adventures by coming back cataleptic. If Cook or Streaker +went overhead after dark, we knew we should presently hear a bump +on the ceiling; and this took place so constantly, that it was as +if a fighting man were engaged to go about the house, +administering a touch of his art which I believe is called The +Auctioneer, to every domestic he met with.</p> +<p>It was in vain to do anything. It was in vain to be +frightened, for the moment in one’s own person, by a real +owl, and then to show the owl. It was in vain to discover, +by striking an accidental discord on the piano, that Turk always +howled at particular notes and combinations. <a +name="page130"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 130</span>It was in +vain to be a Rhadamanthus with the bells, and if an unfortunate +bell rang without leave, to have it down inexorably and silence +it. It was in vain to fire up chimneys, let torches down +the well, charge furiously into suspected rooms and +recesses. We changed servants, and it was no better. +The new set ran away, and a third set came, and it was no +better. At last, our comfortable housekeeping got to be so +disorganised and wretched, that I one night dejectedly said to my +sister: “Patty, I begin to despair of our getting people to +go on with us here, and I think we must give this up.”</p> +<p>My sister, who is a woman of immense spirit, replied, +“No, John, don’t give it up. Don’t be +beaten, John. There is another way.”</p> +<p>“And what is that?” said I.</p> +<p>“John,” returned my sister, “if we are not +to be driven out of this house, and that for no reason whatever, +that is apparent to you or me, we must help ourselves and take +the house wholly and solely into our own hands.”</p> +<p>“But, the servants,” said I.</p> +<p>“Have no servants,” said my sister, boldly.</p> +<p>Like most people in my grade of life, I had never thought of +the possibility of going on without those faithful +obstructions. The notion was so new to me when suggested, +that I looked very doubtful. “We know they come here +to be frightened and infect one another, and we know they are +frightened and do infect one another,” said my sister.</p> +<p>“With the exception of Bottles,” I observed, in a +meditative tone.</p> +<p>(The deaf stable-man. I kept him in my service, and +still keep him, as a phenomenon of moroseness not to be matched +in England.)</p> +<p>“To be sure, John,” assented my sister; +“except Bottles. And what does that go to +prove? Bottles talks to nobody, and hears nobody unless he +is absolutely roared at, and what alarm has Bottles ever given, +or taken! None.”</p> +<p>This was perfectly true; the individual in question having +retired, every night at ten o’clock, to his bed over the +coach-house, with no other company than a pitchfork and a pail of +water. That the pail of water would have been over me, and +the pitchfork through me, if I had put myself without +announcement in Bottles’s way after that minute, I had +deposited in my own mind as a fact worth remembering. +Neither had Bottles ever taken the least notice of any of our +many uproars. An imperturbable and speechless man, he had +sat at his supper, with Streaker present in a swoon, and the Odd +Girl marble, and had only put another potato in his cheek, or +profited by the general misery to help himself to beefsteak +pie.</p> +<p>“And so,” continued my sister, “I exempt +Bottles. And considering, John, that the house is too +large, and perhaps too lonely, to be kept well in hand by +Bottles, you, and me, I propose that we cast about among our +friends for a certain selected number of the most reliable and +willing—form a Society here for three months—wait +upon ourselves <a name="page131"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +131</span>and one another—live cheerfully and +socially—and see what happens.”</p> +<p>I was so charmed with my sister, that I embraced her on the +spot, and went into her plan with the greatest ardour.</p> +<p>We were then in the third week of November; but, we took our +measures so vigorously, and were so well seconded by the friends +in whom we confided, that there was still a week of the month +unexpired, when our party all came down together merrily, and +mustered in the haunted house.</p> +<p>I will mention, in this place, two small changes that I made +while my sister and I were yet alone. It occurring to me as +not improbable that Turk howled in the house at night, partly +because he wanted to get out of it, I stationed him in his kennel +outside, but unchained; and I seriously warned the village that +any man who came in his way must not expect to leave him without +a rip in his own throat. I then casually asked Ikey if he +were a judge of a gun? On his saying, “Yes, sir, I +knows a good gun when I sees her,” I begged the favour of +his stepping up to the house and looking at mine.</p> +<p>“<i>She’s</i> a true one, sir,” said Ikey, +after inspecting a double-barrelled rifle that I bought in New +York a few years ago. “No mistake about <i>her</i>, +sir.”</p> +<p>“Ikey,” said I, “don’t mention it; I +have seen something in this house.”</p> +<p>“No, sir?” he whispered, greedily opening his +eyes. “’Ooded lady, sir?”</p> +<p>“Don’t be frightened,” said I. +“It was a figure rather like you.”</p> +<p>“Lord, sir?”</p> +<p>“Ikey!” said I, shaking hands with him warmly: I +may say affectionately; “if there is any truth in these +ghost-stories, the greatest service I can do you, is, to fire at +that figure. And I promise you, by Heaven and earth, I will +do it with this gun if I see it again!”</p> +<p>The young man thanked me, and took his leave with some little +precipitation, after declining a glass of liquor. I +imparted my secret to him, because I had never quite forgotten +his throwing his cap at the bell; because I had, on another +occasion, noticed something very like a fur cap, lying not far +from the bell, one night when it had burst out ringing; and +because I had remarked that we were at our ghostliest whenever he +came up in the evening to comfort the servants. Let me do +Ikey no injustice. He was afraid of the house, and believed +in its being haunted; and yet he would play false on the haunting +side, so surely as he got an opportunity. The Odd +Girl’s case was exactly similar. She went about the +house in a state of real terror, and yet lied monstrously and +wilfully, and invented many of the alarms she spread, and made +many of the sounds we heard. I had had my eye on the two, +and I know it. It is not necessary for me, here, to account +for this preposterous state of mind; I content myself with +remarking that it is familiarly known to every intelligent man +who <a name="page132"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 132</span>has +had fair medical, legal, or other watchful experience; that it is +as well established and as common a state of mind as any with +which observers are acquainted; and that it is one of the first +elements, above all others, rationally to be suspected in, and +strictly looked for, and separated from, any question of this +kind.</p> +<p>To return to our party. The first thing we did when we +were all assembled, was, to draw lots for bedrooms. That +done, and every bedroom, and, indeed, the whole house, having +been minutely examined by the whole body, we allotted the various +household duties, as if we had been on a gipsy party, or a +yachting party, or a hunting party, or were shipwrecked. I +then recounted the floating rumours concerning the hooded lady, +the owl, and Master B.: with others, still more filmy, which had +floated about during our occupation, relative to some ridiculous +old ghost of the female gender who went up and down, carrying the +ghost of a round table; and also to an impalpable Jackass, whom +nobody was ever able to catch. Some of these ideas I really +believe our people below had communicated to one another in some +diseased way, without conveying them in words. We then +gravely called one another to witness, that we were not there to +be deceived, or to deceive—which we considered pretty much +the same thing—and that, with a serious sense of +responsibility, we would be strictly true to one another, and +would strictly follow out the truth. The understanding was +established, that any one who heard unusual noises in the night, +and who wished to trace them, should knock at my door; lastly, +that on Twelfth Night, the last night of holy Christmas, all our +individual experiences since that then present hour of our coming +together in the haunted house, should be brought to light for the +good of all; and that we would hold our peace on the subject till +then, unless on some remarkable provocation to break silence.</p> +<p>We were, in number and in character, as follows:</p> +<p>First—to get my sister and myself out of the +way—there were we two. In the drawing of lots, my +sister drew her own room, and I drew Master B.’s. +Next, there was our first cousin John Herschel, so called after +the great astronomer: than whom I suppose a better man at a +telescope does not breathe. With him, was his wife: a +charming creature to whom he had been married in the previous +spring. I thought it (under the circumstances) rather +imprudent to bring her, because there is no knowing what even a +false alarm may do at such a time; but I suppose he knew his own +business best, and I must say that if she had been <i>my</i> +wife, I never could have left her endearing and bright face +behind. They drew the Clock Room. Alfred Starling, an +uncommonly agreeable young fellow of eight-and-twenty for whom I +have the greatest liking, was in the Double Room; mine, usually, +and designated by that name from having a dressing-room within +it, with two large and cumbersome windows, which no wedges +<i>I</i> was ever able to make, would keep from shaking, in any +weather, <a name="page133"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +133</span>wind or no wind. Alfred is a young fellow who +pretends to be “fast” (another word for loose, as I +understand the term), but who is much too good and sensible for +that nonsense, and who would have distinguished himself before +now, if his father had not unfortunately left him a small +independence of two hundred a year, on the strength of which his +only occupation in life has been to spend six. I am in +hopes, however, that his Banker may break, or that he may enter +into some speculation guaranteed to pay twenty per cent.; for, I +am convinced that if he could only be ruined, his fortune is +made. Belinda Bates, bosom friend of my sister, and a most +intellectual, amiable, and delightful girl, got the Picture +Room. She has a fine genius for poetry, combined with real +business earnestness, and “goes in”—to use an +expression of Alfred’s—for Woman’s mission, +Woman’s rights, Woman’s wrongs, and everything that +is woman’s with a capital W, or is not and ought to be, or +is and ought not to be. “Most praiseworthy, my dear, +and Heaven prosper you!” I whispered to her on the first +night of my taking leave of her at the Picture-Room door, +“but don’t overdo it. And in respect of the +great necessity there is, my darling, for more employments being +within the reach of Woman than our civilisation has as yet +assigned to her, don’t fly at the unfortunate men, even +those men who are at first sight in your way, as if they were the +natural oppressors of your sex; for, trust me, Belinda, they do +sometimes spend their wages among wives and daughters, sisters, +mothers, aunts, and grandmothers; and the play is, really, not +<i>all</i> Wolf and Red Riding-Hood, but has other parts in +it.” However, I digress.</p> +<p>Belinda, as I have mentioned, occupied the Picture Room. +We had but three other chambers: the Corner Room, the Cupboard +Room, and the Garden Room. My old friend, Jack Governor, +“slung his hammock,” as he called it, in the Corner +Room. I have always regarded Jack as the finest-looking +sailor that ever sailed. He is gray now, but as handsome as +he was a quarter of a century ago—nay, handsomer. A +portly, cheery, well-built figure of a broad-shouldered man, with +a frank smile, a brilliant dark eye, and a rich dark +eyebrow. I remember those under darker hair, and they look +all the better for their silver setting. He has been +wherever his Union namesake flies, has Jack, and I have met old +shipmates of his, away in the Mediterranean and on the other side +of the Atlantic, who have beamed and brightened at the casual +mention of his name, and have cried, “You know Jack +Governor? Then you know a prince of men!” That +he is! And so unmistakably a naval officer, that if you +were to meet him coming out of an Esquimaux snow-hut in +seal’s skin, you would be vaguely persuaded he was in full +naval uniform.</p> +<p>Jack once had that bright clear eye of his on my sister; but, +it fell out that he married another lady and took her to South +America, where she died. This was a dozen years ago or +more. He brought down with him to our haunted house a +little cask of salt beef; for, he <a name="page134"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 134</span>is always convinced that all salt +beef not of his own pickling, is mere carrion, and invariably, +when he goes to London, packs a piece in his portmanteau. +He had also volunteered to bring with him one “Nat +Beaver,” an old comrade of his, captain of a +merchantman. Mr. Beaver, with a thick-set wooden face and +figure, and apparently as hard as a block all over, proved to be +an intelligent man, with a world of watery experiences in him, +and great practical knowledge. At times, there was a +curious nervousness about him, apparently the lingering result of +some old illness; but, it seldom lasted many minutes. He +got the Cupboard Room, and lay there next to Mr. Undery, my +friend and solicitor: who came down, in an amateur capacity, +“to go through with it,” as he said, and who plays +whist better than the whole Law List, from the red cover at the +beginning to the red cover at the end.</p> +<p>I never was happier in my life, and I believe it was the +universal feeling among us. Jack Governor, always a man of +wonderful resources, was Chief Cook, and made some of the best +dishes I ever ate, including unapproachable curries. My +sister was pastrycook and confectioner. Starling and I were +Cook’s Mate, turn and turn about, and on special occasions +the chief cook “pressed” Mr. Beaver. We had a +great deal of out-door sport and exercise, but nothing was +neglected within, and there was no ill-humour or misunderstanding +among us, and our evenings were so delightful that we had at +least one good reason for being reluctant to go to bed.</p> +<p>We had a few night alarms in the beginning. On the first +night, I was knocked up by Jack with a most wonderful +ship’s lantern in his hand, like the gills of some monster +of the deep, who informed me that he “was going aloft to +the main truck,” to have the weathercock down. It was +a stormy night and I remonstrated; but Jack called my attention +to its making a sound like a cry of despair, and said somebody +would be “hailing a ghost” presently, if it +wasn’t done. So, up to the top of the house, where I +could hardly stand for the wind, we went, accompanied by Mr. +Beaver; and there Jack, lantern and all, with Mr. Beaver after +him, swarmed up to the top of a cupola, some two dozen feet above +the chimneys, and stood upon nothing particular, coolly knocking +the weathercock off, until they both got into such good spirits +with the wind and the height, that I thought they would never +come down. Another night, they turned out again, and had a +chimney-cowl off. Another night, they cut a sobbing and +gulping water-pipe away. Another night, they found out +something else. On several occasions, they both, in the +coolest manner, simultaneously dropped out of their respective +bedroom windows, hand over hand by their counterpanes, to +“overhaul” something mysterious in the garden.</p> +<p>The engagement among us was faithfully kept, and nobody +revealed anything. All we knew was, if any one’s room +were haunted, no one looked the worse for it.</p> +<h3><a name="page135"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 135</span>THE +GHOST IN MASTER B.’S ROOM.</h3> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> I established myself in the +triangular garret which had gained so distinguished a reputation, +my thoughts naturally turned to Master B. My speculations +about him were uneasy and manifold. Whether his Christian +name was Benjamin, Bissextile (from his having been born in Leap +Year), Bartholomew, or Bill. Whether the initial letter +belonged to his family name, and that was Baxter, Black, Brown, +Barker, Buggins, Baker, or Bird. Whether he was a +foundling, and had been baptized B. Whether he was a +lion-hearted boy, and B. was short for Briton, or for Bull. +Whether he could possibly have been kith and kin to an +illustrious lady who brightened my own childhood, and had come of +the blood of the brilliant Mother Bunch?</p> +<p>With these profitless meditations I tormented myself +much. I also carried the mysterious letter into the +appearance and pursuits of the deceased; wondering whether he +dressed in Blue, wore Boots (he couldn’t have been Bald), +was a boy of Brains, liked Books, was good at Bowling, had any +skill as a Boxer, even in his Buoyant Boyhood Bathed from a +Bathing-machine at Bognor, Bangor, Bournemouth, Brighton, or +Broadstairs, like a Bounding Billiard Ball?</p> +<p>So, from the first, I was haunted by the letter B.</p> +<p>It was not long before I remarked that I never by any hazard +had a dream of Master B., or of anything belonging to him. +But, the instant I awoke from sleep, at whatever hour of the +night, my thoughts took him up, and roamed away, trying to attach +his initial letter to something that would fit it and keep it +quiet.</p> +<p>For six nights, I had been worried thus in Master B.’s +room, when I began to perceive that things were going wrong.</p> +<p>The first appearance that presented itself was early in the +morning when it was but just daylight and no more. I was +standing shaving at my glass, when I suddenly discovered, to my +consternation and amazement, that I was shaving—not +myself—I am fifty—but a boy. Apparently Master +B.!</p> +<p>I trembled and looked over my shoulder; nothing there. I +looked again in the glass, and distinctly saw the features and +expression of a boy, who was shaving, not to get rid of a beard, +but to get one. Extremely troubled in my mind, I took a few +turns in the room, and went back to the looking-glass, resolved +to steady my hand and complete the operation in which I had been +disturbed. Opening my eyes, which I had shut while +recovering my firmness, I now met in the glass, looking straight +at me, the eyes of a young man of four or five and twenty. +Terrified by this new ghost, I closed my eyes, and made a strong +effort to recover myself. Opening them again, I saw, +shaving his cheek in the glass, my father, who has long been +dead. Nay, I even saw my grandfather too, whom I never did +see in my life.</p> +<p><a name="page136"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +136</span>Although naturally much affected by these remarkable +visitations, I determined to keep my secret, until the time +agreed upon for the present general disclosure. Agitated by +a multitude of curious thoughts, I retired to my room, that +night, prepared to encounter some new experience of a spectral +character. Nor was my preparation needless, for, waking +from an uneasy sleep at exactly two o’clock in the morning, +what were my feelings to find that I was sharing my bed with the +skeleton of Master B.!</p> +<p>I sprang up, and the skeleton sprang up also. I then +heard a plaintive voice saying, “Where am I? What is +become of me?” and, looking hard in that direction, +perceived the ghost of Master B.</p> +<p>The young spectre was dressed in an obsolete fashion: or +rather, was not so much dressed as put into a case of inferior +pepper-and-salt cloth, made horrible by means of shining +buttons. I observed that these buttons went, in a double +row, over each shoulder of the young ghost, and appeared to +descend his back. He wore a frill round his neck. His +right hand (which I distinctly noticed to be inky) was laid upon +his stomach; connecting this action with some feeble pimples on +his countenance, and his general air of nausea, I concluded this +ghost to be the ghost of a boy who had habitually taken a great +deal too much medicine.</p> +<p>“Where am I?” said the little spectre, in a +pathetic voice. “And why was I born in the Calomel +days, and why did I have all that Calomel given me?”</p> +<p>I replied, with sincere earnestness, that upon my soul I +couldn’t tell him.</p> +<p>“Where is my little sister,” said the ghost, +“and where my angelic little wife, and where is the boy I +went to school with?”</p> +<p>I entreated the phantom to be comforted, and above all things +to take heart respecting the loss of the boy he went to school +with. I represented to him that probably that boy never +did, within human experience, come out well, when +discovered. I urged that I myself had, in later life, +turned up several boys whom I went to school with, and none of +them had at all answered. I expressed my humble belief that +that boy never did answer. I represented that he was a +mythic character, a delusion, and a snare. I recounted how, +the last time I found him, I found him at a dinner party behind a +wall of white cravat, with an inconclusive opinion on every +possible subject, and a power of silent boredom absolutely +Titanic. I related how, on the strength of our having been +together at “Old Doylance’s,” he had asked +himself to breakfast with me (a social offence of the largest +magnitude); how, fanning my weak embers of belief in +Doylance’s boys, I had let him in; and how, he had proved +to be a fearful wanderer about the earth, pursuing the race of +Adam with inexplicable notions concerning the currency, and with +a proposition that the Bank of England should, on pain of being +abolished, instantly strike off and circulate, God knows how many +thousand millions of ten-and-sixpenny notes.</p> +<p><a name="page137"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 137</span>The +ghost heard me in silence, and with a fixed stare. +“Barber!” it apostrophised me when I had +finished.</p> +<p>“Barber?” I repeated—for I am not of that +profession.</p> +<p>“Condemned,” said the ghost, “to shave a +constant change of customers—now, me—now, a young +man—now, thyself as thou art—now, thy +father—now, thy grandfather; condemned, too, to lie down +with a skeleton every night, and to rise with it every +morning—”</p> +<p>(I shuddered on hearing this dismal announcement.)</p> +<p>“Barber! Pursue me!”</p> +<p>I had felt, even before the words were uttered, that I was +under a spell to pursue the phantom. I immediately did so, +and was in Master B.’s room no longer.</p> +<p>Most people know what long and fatiguing night journeys had +been forced upon the witches who used to confess, and who, no +doubt, told the exact truth—particularly as they were +always assisted with leading questions, and the Torture was +always ready. I asseverate that, during my occupation of +Master B.’s room, I was taken by the ghost that haunted it, +on expeditions fully as long and wild as any of those. +Assuredly, I was presented to no shabby old man with a +goat’s horns and tail (something between Pan and an old +clothesman), holding conventional receptions, as stupid as those +of real life and less decent; but, I came upon other things which +appeared to me to have more meaning.</p> +<p>Confident that I speak the truth and shall be believed, I +declare without hesitation that I followed the ghost, in the +first instance on a broom-stick, and afterwards on a +rocking-horse. The very smell of the animal’s +paint—especially when I brought it out, by making him +warm—I am ready to swear to. I followed the ghost, +afterwards, in a hackney coach; an institution with the peculiar +smell of which, the present generation is unacquainted, but to +which I am again ready to swear as a combination of stable, dog +with the mange, and very old bellows. (In this, I appeal to +previous generations to confirm or refute me.) I pursued +the phantom, on a headless donkey: at least, upon a donkey who +was so interested in the state of his stomach that his head was +always down there, investigating it; on ponies, expressly born to +kick up behind; on roundabouts and swings, from fairs; in the +first cab—another forgotten institution where the fare +regularly got into bed, and was tucked up with the driver.</p> +<p>Not to trouble you with a detailed account of all my travels +in pursuit of the ghost of Master B., which were longer and more +wonderful than those of Sinbad the Sailor, I will confine myself +to one experience from which you may judge of many.</p> +<p>I was marvellously changed. I was myself, yet not +myself. I was conscious of something within me, which has +been the same all through my life, and which I have always +recognised under all its phases and varieties as never altering, +and yet I was not the I who had gone to bed in Master B.’s +room. I had the smoothest of faces and the <a +name="page138"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 138</span>shortest of +legs, and I had taken another creature like myself, also with the +smoothest of faces and the shortest of legs, behind a door, and +was confiding to him a proposition of the most astounding +nature.</p> +<p>This proposition was, that we should have a Seraglio.</p> +<p>The other creature assented warmly. He had no notion of +respectability, neither had I. It was the custom of the +East, it was the way of the good Caliph Haroun Alraschid (let me +have the corrupted name again for once, it is so scented with +sweet memories!), the usage was highly laudable, and most worthy +of imitation. “O, yes! Let us,” said the +other creature with a jump, “have a Seraglio.”</p> +<p>It was not because we entertained the faintest doubts of the +meritorious character of the Oriental establishment we proposed +to import, that we perceived it must be kept a secret from Miss +Griffin. It was because we knew Miss Griffin to be bereft +of human sympathies, and incapable of appreciating the greatness +of the great Haroun. Mystery impenetrably shrouded from +Miss Griffin then, let us entrust it to Miss Bule.</p> +<p>We were ten in Miss Griffin’s establishment by Hampstead +Ponds; eight ladies and two gentlemen. Miss Bule, whom I +judge to have attained the ripe age of eight or nine, took the +lead in society. I opened the subject to her in the course +of the day, and proposed that she should become the +Favourite.</p> +<p>Miss Bule, after struggling with the diffidence so natural to, +and charming in, her adorable sex, expressed herself as flattered +by the idea, but wished to know how it was proposed to provide +for Miss Pipson? Miss Bule—who was understood to have +vowed towards that young lady, a friendship, halves, and no +secrets, until death, on the Church Service and Lessons complete +in two volumes with case and lock—Miss Bule said she could +not, as the friend of Pipson, disguise from herself, or me, that +Pipson was not one of the common.</p> +<p>Now, Miss Pipson, having curly hair and blue eyes (which was +my idea of anything mortal and feminine that was called Fair), I +promptly replied that I regarded Miss Pipson in the light of a +Fair Circassian.</p> +<p>“And what then?” Miss Bule pensively asked.</p> +<p>I replied that she must be inveigled by a Merchant, brought to +me veiled, and purchased as a slave.</p> +<p>[The other creature had already fallen into the second male +place in the State, and was set apart for Grand Vizier. He +afterwards resisted this disposal of events, but had his hair +pulled until he yielded.]</p> +<p>“Shall I not be jealous?” Miss Bule inquired, +casting down her eyes.</p> +<p>“Zobeide, no,” I replied; “you will ever be +the favourite Sultana; the first place in my heart, and on my +throne, will be ever yours.”</p> +<p><a name="page139"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 139</span>Miss +Bule, upon that assurance, consented to propound the idea to her +seven beautiful companions. It occurring to me, in the +course of the same day, that we knew we could trust a grinning +and good-natured soul called Tabby, who was the serving drudge of +the house, and had no more figure than one of the beds, and upon +whose face there was always more or less black-lead, I slipped +into Miss Bule’s hand after supper, a little note to that +effect; dwelling on the black-lead as being in a manner deposited +by the finger of Providence, pointing Tabby out for Mesrour, the +celebrated chief of the Blacks of the Hareem.</p> +<p>There were difficulties in the formation of the desired +institution, as there are in all combinations. The other +creature showed himself of a low character, and, when defeated in +aspiring to the throne, pretended to have conscientious scruples +about prostrating himself before the Caliph; wouldn’t call +him Commander of the Faithful; spoke of him slightingly and +inconsistently as a mere “chap;” said he, the other +creature, “wouldn’t play”—Play!—and +was otherwise coarse and offensive. This meanness of +disposition was, however, put down by the general indignation of +an united Seraglio, and I became blessed in the smiles of eight +of the fairest of the daughters of men.</p> +<p>The smiles could only be bestowed when Miss Griffin was +looking another way, and only then in a very wary manner, for +there was a legend among the followers of the Prophet that she +saw with a little round ornament in the middle of the pattern on +the back of her shawl. But every day after dinner, for an +hour, we were all together, and then the Favourite and the rest +of the Royal Hareem competed who should most beguile the leisure +of the Serene Haroun reposing from the cares of State—which +were generally, as in most affairs of State, of an arithmetical +character, the Commander of the Faithful being a fearful boggler +at a sum.</p> +<p>On these occasions, the devoted Mesrour, chief of the Blacks +of the Hareem, was always in attendance (Miss Griffin usually +ringing for that officer, at the same time, with great +vehemence), but never acquitted himself in a manner worthy of his +historical reputation. In the first place, his bringing a +broom into the Divan of the Caliph, even when Haroun wore on his +shoulders the red robe of anger (Miss Pipson’s pelisse), +though it might be got over for the moment, was never to be quite +satisfactorily accounted for. In the second place, his +breaking out into grinning exclamations of “Lork you +pretties!” was neither Eastern nor respectful. In the +third place, when specially instructed to say +“Bismillah!” he always said +“Hallelujah!” This officer, unlike his class, +was too good-humoured altogether, kept his mouth open far too +wide, expressed approbation to an incongruous extent, and even +once—it was on the occasion of the purchase of the Fair +Circassian for five hundred thousand purses of gold, and cheap, +too—embraced the Slave, the Favourite, and the Caliph, all +round. <a name="page140"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +140</span>(Parenthetically let me say God bless Mesrour, and may +there have been sons and daughters on that tender bosom, +softening many a hard day since!)</p> +<p>Miss Griffin was a model of propriety, and I am at a loss to +imagine what the feelings of the virtuous woman would have been, +if she had known, when she paraded us down the Hampstead Road two +and two, that she was walking with a stately step at the head of +Polygamy and Mahomedanism. I believe that a mysterious and +terrible joy with which the contemplation of Miss Griffin, in +this unconscious state, inspired us, and a grim sense prevalent +among us that there was a dreadful power in our knowledge of what +Miss Griffin (who knew all things that could be learnt out of +book) didn’t know, were the main-spring of the preservation +of our secret. It was wonderfully kept, but was once upon +the verge of self-betrayal. The danger and escape occurred +upon a Sunday. We were all ten ranged in a conspicuous part +of the gallery at church, with Miss Griffin at our head—as +we were every Sunday—advertising the establishment in an +unsecular sort of way—when the description of Solomon in +his domestic glory happened to be read. The moment that +monarch was thus referred to, conscience whispered me, +“Thou, too, Haroun!” The officiating minister +had a cast in his eye, and it assisted conscience by giving him +the appearance of reading personally at me. A crimson +blush, attended by a fearful perspiration, suffused my +features. The Grand Vizier became more dead than alive, and +the whole Seraglio reddened as if the sunset of Bagdad shone +direct upon their lovely faces. At this portentous time the +awful Griffin rose, and balefully surveyed the children of +Islam. My own impression was, that Church and State had +entered into a conspiracy with Miss Griffin to expose us, and +that we should all be put into white sheets, and exhibited in the +centre aisle. But, so Westerly—if I may be allowed +the expression as opposite to Eastern associations—was Miss +Griffin’s sense of rectitude, that she merely suspected +Apples, and we were saved.</p> +<p>I have called the Seraglio, united. Upon the question, +solely, whether the Commander of the Faithful durst exercise a +right of kissing in that sanctuary of the palace, were its +peerless inmates divided. Zobeide asserted a counter-right +in the Favourite to scratch, and the fair Circassian put her +face, for refuge, into a green baize bag, originally designed for +books. On the other hand, a young antelope of transcendent +beauty from the fruitful plains of Camden Town (whence she had +been brought, by traders, in the half-yearly caravan that crossed +the intermediate desert after the holidays), held more liberal +opinions, but stipulated for limiting the benefit of them to that +dog, and son of a dog, the Grand Vizier—who had no rights, +and was not in question. At length, the difficulty was +compromised by the installation of a very youthful slave as +Deputy. She, raised upon a stool, officially received upon +her cheeks the salutes intended by the <a +name="page141"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 141</span>gracious +Haroun for other Sultanas, and was privately rewarded from the +coffers of the Ladies of the Hareem.</p> +<p>And now it was, at the full height of enjoyment of my bliss, +that I became heavily troubled. I began to think of my +mother, and what she would say to my taking home at Midsummer +eight of the most beautiful of the daughters of men, but all +unexpected. I thought of the number of beds we made up at +our house, of my father’s income, and of the baker, and my +despondency redoubled. The Seraglio and malicious Vizier, +divining the cause of their Lord’s unhappiness, did their +utmost to augment it. They professed unbounded fidelity, +and declared that they would live and die with him. Reduced +to the utmost wretchedness by these protestations of attachment, +I lay awake, for hours at a time, ruminating on my frightful +lot. In my despair, I think I might have taken an early +opportunity of falling on my knees before Miss Griffin, avowing +my resemblance to Solomon, and praying to be dealt with according +to the outraged laws of my country, if an unthought-of means of +escape had not opened before me.</p> +<p>One day, we were out walking, two and two—on which +occasion the Vizier had his usual instructions to take note of +the boy at the turnpike, and if he profanely gazed (which he +always did) at the beauties of the Hareem, to have him bowstrung +in the course of the night—and it happened that our hearts +were veiled in gloom. An unaccountable action on the part +of the antelope had plunged the State into disgrace. That +charmer, on the representation that the previous day was her +birthday, and that vast treasures had been sent in a hamper for +its celebration (both baseless assertions), had secretly but most +pressingly invited thirty-five neighbouring princes and +princesses to a ball and supper: with a special stipulation that +they were “not to be fetched till twelve.” This +wandering of the antelope’s fancy, led to the surprising +arrival at Miss Griffin’s door, in divers equipages and +under various escorts, of a great company in full dress, who were +deposited on the top step in a flush of high expectancy, and who +were dismissed in tears. At the beginning of the double +knocks attendant on these ceremonies, the antelope had retired to +a back attic, and bolted herself in; and at every new arrival, +Miss Griffin had gone so much more and more distracted, that at +last she had been seen to tear her front. Ultimate +capitulation on the part of the offender, had been followed by +solitude in the linen-closet, bread and water and a lecture to +all, of vindictive length, in which Miss Griffin had used +expressions: Firstly, “I believe you all of you knew of +it;” Secondly, “Every one of you is as wicked as +another;” Thirdly, “A pack of little +wretches.”</p> +<p>Under these circumstances, we were walking drearily along; and +I especially, with my Moosulmaun responsibilities heavy on me, +was in a very low state of mind; when a strange man accosted Miss +Griffin, and, after walking on at her side for a little while and +talking with her, looked at me. Supposing him to be a +minion of the law, and that <a name="page142"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 142</span>my hour was come, I instantly ran +away, with the general purpose of making for Egypt.</p> +<p>The whole Seraglio cried out, when they saw me making off as +fast as my legs would carry me (I had an impression that the +first turning on the left, and round by the public-house, would +be the shortest way to the Pyramids), Miss Griffin screamed after +me, the faithless Vizier ran after me, and the boy at the +turnpike dodged me into a corner, like a sheep, and cut me +off. Nobody scolded me when I was taken and brought back; +Miss Griffin only said, with a stunning gentleness, This was very +curious! Why had I run away when the gentleman looked at +me?</p> +<p>If I had had any breath to answer with, I dare say I should +have made no answer; having no breath, I certainly made +none. Miss Griffin and the strange man took me between +them, and walked me back to the palace in a sort of state; but +not at all (as I couldn’t help feeling, with astonishment) +in culprit state.</p> +<p>When we got there, we went into a room by ourselves, and Miss +Griffin called in to her assistance, Mesrour, chief of the dusky +guards of the Hareem. Mesrour, on being whispered to, began +to shed tears. “Bless you, my precious!” said +that officer, turning to me; “your Pa’s took bitter +bad!”</p> +<p>I asked, with a fluttered heart, “Is he very +ill?”</p> +<p>“Lord temper the wind to you, my lamb!” said the +good Mesrour, kneeling down, that I might have a comforting +shoulder for my head to rest on, “your Pa’s +dead!”</p> +<p>Haroun Alraschid took to flight at the words; the Seraglio +vanished; from that moment, I never again saw one of the eight of +the fairest of the daughters of men.</p> +<p>I was taken home, and there was Debt at home as well as Death, +and we had a sale there. My own little bed was so +superciliously looked upon by a Power unknown to me, hazily +called “The Trade,” that a brass coal-scuttle, a +roasting-jack, and a birdcage, were obliged to be put into it to +make a Lot of it, and then it went for a song. So I heard +mentioned, and I wondered what song, and thought what a dismal +song it must have been to sing!</p> +<p>Then, I was sent to a great, cold, bare, school of big boys; +where everything to eat and wear was thick and clumpy, without +being enough; where everybody, large and small, was cruel; where +the boys knew all about the sale, before I got there, and asked +me what I had fetched, and who had bought me, and hooted at me, +“Going, going, gone!” I never whispered in that +wretched place that I had been Haroun, or had had a Seraglio: +for, I knew that if I mentioned my reverses, I should be so +worried, that I should have to drown myself in the muddy pond +near the playground, which looked like the beer.</p> +<p>Ah me, ah me! No other ghost has haunted the boy’s +room, my friends, since I have occupied it, than the ghost of my +own childhood, the ghost of my own innocence, the ghost of my own +airy belief. <a name="page143"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +143</span>Many a time have I pursued the phantom: never with this +man’s stride of mine to come up with it, never with these +man’s hands of mine to touch it, never more to this +man’s heart of mine to hold it in its purity. And +here you see me working out, as cheerfully and thankfully as I +may, my doom of shaving in the glass a constant change of +customers, and of lying down and rising up with the skeleton +allotted to me for my mortal companion.</p> +<h2><a name="page303"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 303</span>THE +TRIAL FOR MURDER. <a name="citation303"></a><a +href="#footnote303" class="citation">[303]</a></h2> +<p>I <span class="smcap">have</span> always noticed a prevalent +want of courage, even among persons of superior intelligence and +culture, as to imparting their own psychological experiences when +those have been of a strange sort. Almost all men are +afraid that what they could relate in such wise would find no +parallel or response in a listener’s internal life, and +might be suspected or laughed at. A truthful traveller, who +should have seen some extraordinary creature in the likeness of a +sea-serpent, would have no fear of mentioning it; but the same +traveller, having had some singular presentiment, impulse, vagary +of thought, vision (so-called), dream, or other remarkable mental +impression, would hesitate considerably before he would own to +it. To this reticence I attribute much of the obscurity in +which such subjects are involved. We do not habitually +communicate our experiences of these subjective things as we do +our experiences of objective creation. The consequence is, +that the general stock of experience in this regard appears +exceptional, and really is so, in respect of being miserably +imperfect.</p> +<p>In what I am going to relate, I have no intention of setting +up, opposing, or supporting, any theory whatever. I know +the history of the Bookseller of Berlin, I have studied the case +of the wife of a late Astronomer Royal as related by Sir David +Brewster, and I have followed the minutest details of a much more +remarkable case of Spectral Illusion occurring within my private +circle of friends. It may be necessary to state as to this +last, that the sufferer (a lady) was in no degree, however +distant, related to me. A mistaken assumption on that head +might suggest an explanation of a part of my own case,—<a +name="page304"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 304</span>but only a +part,—which would be wholly without foundation. It +cannot be referred to my inheritance of any developed +peculiarity, nor had I ever before any at all similar experience, +nor have I ever had any at all similar experience since.</p> +<p>It does not signify how many years ago, or how few, a certain +murder was committed in England, which attracted great +attention. We hear more than enough of murderers as they +rise in succession to their atrocious eminence, and I would bury +the memory of this particular brute, if I could, as his body was +buried, in Newgate Jail. I purposely abstain from giving +any direct clue to the criminal’s individuality.</p> +<p>When the murder was first discovered, no suspicion +fell—or I ought rather to say, for I cannot be too precise +in my facts, it was nowhere publicly hinted that any suspicion +fell—on the man who was afterwards brought to trial. +As no reference was at that time made to him in the newspapers, +it is obviously impossible that any description of him can at +that time have been given in the newspapers. It is +essential that this fact be remembered.</p> +<p>Unfolding at breakfast my morning paper, containing the +account of that first discovery, I found it to be deeply +interesting, and I read it with close attention. I read it +twice, if not three times. The discovery had been made in a +bedroom, and, when I laid down the paper, I was aware of a +flash—rush—flow—I do not know what to call +it,—no word I can find is satisfactorily +descriptive,—in which I seemed to see that bedroom passing +through my room, like a picture impossibly painted on a running +river. Though almost instantaneous in its passing, it was +perfectly clear; so clear that I distinctly, and with a sense of +relief, observed the absence of the dead body from the bed.</p> +<p>It was in no romantic place that I had this curious sensation, +but in chambers in Piccadilly, very near to the corner of St. +James’s Street. It was entirely new to me. I +was in my easy-chair at the moment, and the sensation was +accompanied with a peculiar shiver which started the chair from +its position. (But it is to be noted that the chair ran +easily on castors.) I went to one of the windows (there are +two in the room, and the room is on the second floor) to refresh +my eyes with the moving objects down in Piccadilly. It was +a bright autumn morning, and the street was sparkling and +cheerful. The wind was high. As I looked out, it +brought down from the Park a quantity of fallen leaves, which a +gust took, and whirled into a spiral pillar. As the pillar +fell and the leaves dispersed, I saw two men on the opposite side +of the way, going from West to East. They were one behind +the other. The foremost man often looked back over his +shoulder. The second man followed him, at a distance of +some thirty paces, with his right hand menacingly raised. +First, the singularity and steadiness of this threatening gesture +in so public a thoroughfare attracted my attention; and next, the +more remarkable circumstance that nobody heeded it. Both +men threaded their way among the <a name="page305"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 305</span>other passengers with a smoothness +hardly consistent even with the action of walking on a pavement; +and no single creature, that I could see, gave them place, +touched them, or looked after them. In passing before my +windows, they both stared up at me. I saw their two faces +very distinctly, and I knew that I could recognise them +anywhere. Not that I had consciously noticed anything very +remarkable in either face, except that the man who went first had +an unusually lowering appearance, and that the face of the man +who followed him was of the colour of impure wax.</p> +<p>I am a bachelor, and my valet and his wife constitute my whole +establishment. My occupation is in a certain Branch Bank, +and I wish that my duties as head of a Department were as light +as they are popularly supposed to be. They kept me in town +that autumn, when I stood in need of change. I was not ill, +but I was not well. My reader is to make the most that can +be reasonably made of my feeling jaded, having a depressing sense +upon me of a monotonous life, and being “slightly +dyspeptic.” I am assured by my renowned doctor that +my real state of health at that time justifies no stronger +description, and I quote his own from his written answer to my +request for it.</p> +<p>As the circumstances of the murder, gradually unravelling, +took stronger and stronger possession of the public mind, I kept +them away from mine by knowing as little about them as was +possible in the midst of the universal excitement. But I +knew that a verdict of Wilful Murder had been found against the +suspected murderer, and that he had been committed to Newgate for +trial. I also knew that his trial had been postponed over +one Sessions of the Central Criminal Court, on the ground of +general prejudice and want of time for the preparation of the +defence. I may further have known, but I believe I did not, +when, or about when, the Sessions to which his trial stood +postponed would come on.</p> +<p>My sitting-room, bedroom, and dressing-room, are all on one +floor. With the last there is no communication but through +the bedroom. True, there is a door in it, once +communicating with the staircase; but a part of the fitting of my +bath has been—and had then been for some years—fixed +across it. At the same period, and as a part of the same +arrangement,—the door had been nailed up and canvased +over.</p> +<p>I was standing in my bedroom late one night, giving some +directions to my servant before he went to bed. My face was +towards the only available door of communication with the +dressing-room, and it was closed. My servant’s back +was towards that door. While I was speaking to him, I saw +it open, and a man look in, who very earnestly and mysteriously +beckoned to me. That man was the man who had gone second of +the two along Piccadilly, and whose face was of the colour of +impure wax.</p> +<p>The figure, having beckoned, drew back, and closed the +door. With no longer pause than was made by my crossing the +bedroom, I <a name="page306"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +306</span>opened the dressing-room door, and looked in. I +had a lighted candle already in my hand. I felt no inward +expectation of seeing the figure in the dressing-room, and I did +not see it there.</p> +<p>Conscious that my servant stood amazed, I turned round to him, +and said: “Derrick, could you believe that in my cool +senses I fancied I saw a —” As I there laid my +hand upon his breast, with a sudden start he trembled violently, +and said, “O Lord, yes, sir! A dead man +beckoning!”</p> +<p>Now I do not believe that this John Derrick, my trusty and +attached servant for more than twenty years, had any impression +whatever of having seen any such figure, until I touched +him. The change in him was so startling, when I touched +him, that I fully believe he derived his impression in some +occult manner from me at that instant.</p> +<p>I bade John Derrick bring some brandy, and I gave him a dram, +and was glad to take one myself. Of what had preceded that +night’s phenomenon, I told him not a single word. +Reflecting on it, I was absolutely certain that I had never seen +that face before, except on the one occasion in Piccadilly. +Comparing its expression when beckoning at the door with its +expression when it had stared up at me as I stood at my window, I +came to the conclusion that on the first occasion it had sought +to fasten itself upon my memory, and that on the second occasion +it had made sure of being immediately remembered.</p> +<p>I was not very comfortable that night, though I felt a +certainty, difficult to explain, that the figure would not +return. At daylight I fell into a heavy sleep, from which I +was awakened by John Derrick’s coming to my bedside with a +paper in his hand.</p> +<p>This paper, it appeared, had been the subject of an +altercation at the door between its bearer and my servant. +It was a summons to me to serve upon a Jury at the forthcoming +Sessions of the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey. I +had never before been summoned on such a Jury, as John Derrick +well knew. He believed—I am not certain at this hour +whether with reason or otherwise—that that class of Jurors +were customarily chosen on a lower qualification than mine, and +he had at first refused to accept the summons. The man who +served it had taken the matter very coolly. He had said +that my attendance or non-attendance was nothing to him; there +the summons was; and I should deal with it at my own peril, and +not at his.</p> +<p>For a day or two I was undecided whether to respond to this +call, or take no notice of it. I was not conscious of the +slightest mysterious bias, influence, or attraction, one way or +other. Of that I am as strictly sure as of every other +statement that I make here. Ultimately I decided, as a +break in the monotony of my life, that I would go.</p> +<p>The appointed morning was a raw morning in the month of +November. There was a dense brown fog in Piccadilly, and it +became positively black and in the last degree oppressive East of +Temple Bar. I found the passages and staircases of the +Court-House <a name="page307"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +307</span>flaringly lighted with gas, and the Court itself +similarly illuminated. I <i>think</i> that, until I was +conducted by officers into the Old Court and saw its crowded +state, I did not know that the Murderer was to be tried that +day. I <i>think</i> that, until I was so helped into the +Old Court with considerable difficulty, I did not know into which +of the two Courts sitting my summons would take me. But +this must not be received as a positive assertion, for I am not +completely satisfied in my mind on either point.</p> +<p>I took my seat in the place appropriated to Jurors in waiting, +and I looked about the Court as well as I could through the cloud +of fog and breath that was heavy in it. I noticed the black +vapour hanging like a murky curtain outside the great windows, +and I noticed the stifled sound of wheels on the straw or tan +that was littered in the street; also, the hum of the people +gathered there, which a shrill whistle, or a louder song or hail +than the rest, occasionally pierced. Soon afterwards the +Judges, two in number, entered, and took their seats. The +buzz in the Court was awfully hushed. The direction was +given to put the Murderer to the bar. He appeared +there. And in that same instant I recognised in him the +first of the two men who had gone down Piccadilly.</p> +<p>If my name had been called then, I doubt if I could have +answered to it audibly. But it was called about sixth or +eighth in the panel, and I was by that time able to say, +“Here!” Now, observe. As I stepped into +the box, the prisoner, who had been looking on attentively, but +with no sign of concern, became violently agitated, and beckoned +to his attorney. The prisoner’s wish to challenge me +was so manifest, that it occasioned a pause, during which the +attorney, with his hand upon the dock, whispered with his client, +and shook his head. I afterwards had it from that +gentleman, that the prisoner’s first affrighted words to +him were, “<i>At all hazards</i>, <i>challenge that +man</i>!” But that, as he would give no reason for +it, and admitted that he had not even known my name until he +heard it called and I appeared, it was not done.</p> +<p>Both on the ground already explained, that I wish to avoid +reviving the unwholesome memory of that Murderer, and also +because a detailed account of his long trial is by no means +indispensable to my narrative, I shall confine myself closely to +such incidents in the ten days and nights during which we, the +Jury, were kept together, as directly bear on my own curious +personal experience. It is in that, and not in the +Murderer, that I seek to interest my reader. It is to that, +and not to a page of the Newgate Calendar, that I beg +attention.</p> +<p>I was chosen Foreman of the Jury. On the second morning +of the trial, after evidence had been taken for two hours (I +heard the church clocks strike), happening to cast my eyes over +my brother jurymen, I found an inexplicable difficulty in +counting them. I counted them several times, yet always +with the same difficulty. In short, I made them one too +many.</p> +<p><a name="page308"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 308</span>I +touched the brother jurymen whose place was next me, and I +whispered to him, “Oblige me by counting us.” +He looked surprised by the request, but turned his head and +counted. “Why,” says he, suddenly, “we are +Thirt—; but no, it’s not possible. No. We +are twelve.”</p> +<p>According to my counting that day, we were always right in +detail, but in the gross we were always one too many. There +was no appearance—no figure—to account for it; but I +had now an inward foreshadowing of the figure that was surely +coming.</p> +<p>The Jury were housed at the London Tavern. We all slept +in one large room on separate tables, and we were constantly in +the charge and under the eye of the officer sworn to hold us in +safe-keeping. I see no reason for suppressing the real name +of that officer. He was intelligent, highly polite, and +obliging, and (I was glad to hear) much respected in the +City. He had an agreeable presence, good eyes, enviable +black whiskers, and a fine sonorous voice. His name was Mr. +Harker.</p> +<p>When we turned into our twelve beds at night, Mr. +Harker’s bed was drawn across the door. On the night +of the second day, not being disposed to lie down, and seeing Mr. +Harker sitting on his bed, I went and sat beside him, and offered +him a pinch of snuff. As Mr. Harker’s hand touched +mine in taking it from my box, a peculiar shiver crossed him, and +he said, “Who is this?”</p> +<p>Following Mr. Harker’s eyes, and looking along the room, +I saw again the figure I expected,—the second of the two +men who had gone down Piccadilly. I rose, and advanced a +few steps; then stopped, and looked round at Mr. Harker. He +was quite unconcerned, laughed, and said in a pleasant way, +“I thought for a moment we had a thirteenth juryman, +without a bed. But I see it is the moonlight.”</p> +<p>Making no revelation to Mr. Harker, but inviting him to take a +walk with me to the end of the room, I watched what the figure +did. It stood for a few moments by the bedside of each of +my eleven brother jurymen, close to the pillow. It always +went to the right-hand side of the bed, and always passed out +crossing the foot of the next bed. It seemed, from the +action of the head, merely to look down pensively at each +recumbent figure. It took no notice of me, or of my bed, +which was that nearest to Mr. Harker’s. It seemed to +go out where the moonlight came in, through a high window, as by +an aërial flight of stairs.</p> +<p>Next morning at breakfast, it appeared that everybody present +had dreamed of the murdered man last night, except myself and Mr. +Harker.</p> +<p>I now felt as convinced that the second man who had gone down +Piccadilly was the murdered man (so to speak), as if it had been +borne into my comprehension by his immediate testimony. But +even this took place, and in a manner for which I was not at all +prepared.</p> +<p>On the fifth day of the trial, when the case for the +prosecution was <a name="page309"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +309</span>drawing to a close, a miniature of the murdered man, +missing from his bedroom upon the discovery of the deed, and +afterwards found in a hiding-place where the Murderer had been +seen digging, was put in evidence. Having been identified +by the witness under examination, it was handed up to the Bench, +and thence handed down to be inspected by the Jury. As an +officer in a black gown was making his way with it across to me, +the figure of the second man who had gone down Piccadilly +impetuously started from the crowd, caught the miniature from the +officer, and gave it to me with his own hands, at the same time +saying, in a low and hollow tone,—before I saw the +miniature, which was in a locket,—“<i>I was younger +then</i>, <i>and my face was not then drained of +blood</i>.” It also came between me and the brother +juryman to whom I would have given the miniature, and between him +and the brother juryman to whom he would have given it, and so +passed it on through the whole of our number, and back into my +possession. Not one of them, however, detected this.</p> +<p>At table, and generally when we were shut up together in Mr. +Harker’s custody, we had from the first naturally discussed +the day’s proceedings a good deal. On that fifth day, +the case for the prosecution being closed, and we having that +side of the question in a completed shape before us, our +discussion was more animated and serious. Among our number +was a vestryman,—the densest idiot I have ever seen at +large,—who met the plainest evidence with the most +preposterous objections, and who was sided with by two flabby +parochial parasites; all the three impanelled from a district so +delivered over to Fever that they ought to have been upon their +own trial for five hundred Murders. When these mischievous +blockheads were at their loudest, which was towards midnight, +while some of us were already preparing for bed, I again saw the +murdered man. He stood grimly behind them, beckoning to +me. On my going towards them, and striking into the +conversation, he immediately retired. This was the +beginning of a separate series of appearances, confined to that +long room in which we were confined. Whenever a knot of my +brother jurymen laid their heads together, I saw the head of the +murdered man among theirs. Whenever their comparison of +notes was going against him, he would solemnly and irresistibly +beckon to me.</p> +<p>It will be borne in mind that down to the production of the +miniature, on the fifth day of the trial, I had never seen the +Appearance in Court. Three changes occurred now that we +entered on the case for the defence. Two of them I will +mention together, first. The figure was now in Court +continually, and it never there addressed itself to me, but +always to the person who was speaking at the time. For +instance: the throat of the murdered man had been cut straight +across. In the opening speech for the defence, it was +suggested that the deceased might have cut his own throat. +At that very moment, the figure, with its throat in the dreadful +condition <a name="page310"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +310</span>referred to (this it had concealed before), stood at +the speaker’s elbow, motioning across and across its +windpipe, now with the right hand, now with the left, vigorously +suggesting to the speaker himself the impossibility of such a +wound having been self-inflicted by either hand. For +another instance: a witness to character, a woman, deposed to the +prisoner’s being the most amiable of mankind. The +figure at that instant stood on the floor before her, looking her +full in the face, and pointing out the prisoner’s evil +countenance with an extended arm and an outstretched finger.</p> +<p>The third change now to be added impressed me strongly as the +most marked and striking of all. I do not theorise upon it; +I accurately state it, and there leave it. Although the +Appearance was not itself perceived by those whom it addressed, +its coming close to such persons was invariably attended by some +trepidation or disturbance on their part. It seemed to me +as if it were prevented, by laws to which I was not amenable, +from fully revealing itself to others, and yet as if it could +invisibly, dumbly, and darkly overshadow their minds. When +the leading counsel for the defence suggested that hypothesis of +suicide, and the figure stood at the learned gentleman’s +elbow, frightfully sawing at its severed throat, it is undeniable +that the counsel faltered in his speech, lost for a few seconds +the thread of his ingenious discourse, wiped his forehead with +his handkerchief, and turned extremely pale. When the +witness to character was confronted by the Appearance, her eyes +most certainly did follow the direction of its pointed finger, +and rest in great hesitation and trouble upon the +prisoner’s face. Two additional illustrations will +suffice. On the eighth day of the trial, after the pause +which was every day made early in the afternoon for a few +minutes’ rest and refreshment, I came back into Court with +the rest of the Jury some little time before the return of the +Judges. Standing up in the box and looking about me, I +thought the figure was not there, until, chancing to raise my +eyes to the gallery, I saw it bending forward, and leaning over a +very decent woman, as if to assure itself whether the Judges had +resumed their seats or not. Immediately afterwards that +woman screamed, fainted, and was carried out. So with the +venerable, sagacious, and patient Judge who conducted the +trial. When the case was over, and he settled himself and +his papers to sum up, the murdered man, entering by the +Judges’ door, advanced to his Lordship’s desk, and +looked eagerly over his shoulder at the pages of his notes which +he was turning. A change came over his Lordship’s +face; his hand stopped; the peculiar shiver, that I knew so well, +passed over him; he faltered, “Excuse me, gentlemen, for a +few moments. I am somewhat oppressed by the vitiated +air;” and did not recover until he had drunk a glass of +water.</p> +<p>Through all the monotony of six of those interminable ten +days,—the same Judges and others on the bench, the same +Murderer in the dock, the same lawyers at the table, the same +tones of question and <a name="page311"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 311</span>answer rising to the roof of the +court, the same scratching of the Judge’s pen, the same +ushers going in and out, the same lights kindled at the same hour +when there had been any natural light of day, the same foggy +curtain outside the great windows when it was foggy, the same +rain pattering and dripping when it was rainy, the same footmarks +of turnkeys and prisoner day after day on the same sawdust, the +same keys locking and unlocking the same heavy +doors,—through all the wearisome monotony which made me +feel as if I had been Foreman of the Jury for a vast period of +time, and Piccadilly had flourished coevally with Babylon, the +murdered man never lost one trace of his distinctness in my eyes, +nor was he at any moment less distinct than anybody else. I +must not omit, as a matter of fact, that I never once saw the +Appearance which I call by the name of the murdered man look at +the Murderer. Again and again I wondered, “Why does +he not?” But he never did.</p> +<p>Nor did he look at me, after the production of the miniature, +until the last closing minutes of the trial arrived. We +retired to consider, at seven minutes before ten at night. +The idiotic vestryman and his two parochial parasites gave us so +much trouble that we twice returned into Court to beg to have +certain extracts from the Judge’s notes re-read. Nine +of us had not the smallest doubt about those passages, neither, I +believe, had any one in the Court; the dunder-headed triumvirate, +having no idea but obstruction, disputed them for that very +reason. At length we prevailed, and finally the Jury +returned into Court at ten minutes past twelve.</p> +<p>The murdered man at that time stood directly opposite the +Jury-box, on the other side of the Court. As I took my +place, his eyes rested on me with great attention; he seemed +satisfied, and slowly shook a great gray veil, which he carried +on his arm for the first time, over his head and whole +form. As I gave in our verdict, “Guilty,” the +veil collapsed, all was gone, and his place was empty.</p> +<p>The Murderer, being asked by the Judge, according to usage, +whether he had anything to say before sentence of Death should be +passed upon him, indistinctly muttered something which was +described in the leading newspapers of the following day as +“a few rambling, incoherent, and half-audible words, in +which he was understood to complain that he had not had a fair +trial, because the Foreman of the Jury was prepossessed against +him.” The remarkable declaration that he really made +was this: “<i>My Lord</i>, <i>I knew I was a doomed +man</i>, <i>when the Foreman of my Jury came into the +box</i>. <i>My Lord</i>, <i>I knew he would never let me +off</i>, <i>because</i>, <i>before I was taken</i>, <i>he somehow +got to my bedside in the night</i>, <i>woke me</i>, <i>and put a +rope round my neck</i>.”</p> +<h2><a name="page312"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 312</span>THE +SIGNAL-MAN. <a name="citation312"></a><a href="#footnote312" +class="citation">[312]</a></h2> +<p>“<span class="smcap">Halloa</span>! Below +there!”</p> +<p>When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at +the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its +short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature +of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter +the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the +top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself +about, and looked down the Line. There was something +remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have +said for my life what. But I know it was remarkable enough +to attract my notice, even though his figure was foreshortened +and shadowed, down in the deep trench, and mine was high above +him, so steeped in the glow of an angry sunset, that I had shaded +my eyes with my hand before I saw him at all.</p> +<p>“Halloa! Below!”</p> +<p>From looking down the Line, he turned himself about again, +and, raising his eyes, saw my figure high above him.</p> +<p>“Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to +you?”</p> +<p>He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him +without pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle +question. Just then there came a vague vibration in the +earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation, and an +oncoming rush that caused me to start back, as though it had +force to draw me down. When such vapour as rose to my +height from this rapid train had passed me, and was skimming away +over the landscape, I looked down again, and saw him refurling +the flag he had shown while the train went by.</p> +<p>I repeated my inquiry. After a pause, during which he +seemed to regard me with fixed attention, he motioned with his +rolled-up flag towards a point on my level, some two or three +hundred yards distant. I called down to him, “All +right!” and made for that point. There, by dint of +looking closely about me, I found a rough zigzag descending path +notched out, which I followed.</p> +<p>The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually +precipitate. It was made through a clammy stone, that +became oozier and wetter as I went down. For these reasons, +I found the way long enough to give me time to recall a singular +air of reluctance or compulsion with which he had pointed out the +path.</p> +<p>When I came down low enough upon the zigzag descent to see him +again, I saw that he was standing between the rails on the way by +<a name="page313"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 313</span>which +the train had lately passed, in an attitude as if he were waiting +for me to appear. He had his left hand at his chin, and +that left elbow rested on his right hand, crossed over his +breast. His attitude was one of such expectation and +watchfulness that I stopped a moment, wondering at it.</p> +<p>I resumed my downward way, and stepping out upon the level of +the railroad, and drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark, +sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. +His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I +saw. On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, +excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way +only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter +perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red +light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose +massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and +forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its way to +this spot, that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold +wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had +left the natural world.</p> +<p>Before he stirred, I was near enough to him to have touched +him. Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped +back one step, and lifted his hand.</p> +<p>This was a lonesome post to occupy (I said), and it had +riveted my attention when I looked down from up yonder. A +visitor was a rarity, I should suppose; not an unwelcome rarity, +I hoped? In me, he merely saw a man who had been shut up +within narrow limits all his life, and who, being at last set +free, had a newly-awakened interest in these great works. +To such purpose I spoke to him; but I am far from sure of the +terms I used; for, besides that I am not happy in opening any +conversation, there was something in the man that daunted me.</p> +<p>He directed a most curious look towards the red light near the +tunnel’s mouth, and looked all about it, as if something +were missing from it, and then looked at me.</p> +<p>That light was part of his charge? Was it not?</p> +<p>He answered in a low voice,—“Don’t you know +it is?”</p> +<p>The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the +fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a +man. I have speculated since, whether there may have been +infection in his mind.</p> +<p>In my turn, I stepped back. But in making the action, I +detected in his eyes some latent fear of me. This put the +monstrous thought to flight.</p> +<p>“You look at me,” I said, forcing a smile, +“as if you had a dread of me.”</p> +<p>“I was doubtful,” he returned, “whether I +had seen you before.”</p> +<p>“Where?”</p> +<p>He pointed to the red light he had looked at.</p> +<p><a name="page314"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +314</span>“There?” I said.</p> +<p>Intently watchful of me, he replied (but without sound), +“Yes.”</p> +<p>“My good fellow, what should I do there? However, +be that as it may, I never was there, you may swear.”</p> +<p>“I think I may,” he rejoined. “Yes; I +am sure I may.”</p> +<p>His manner cleared, like my own. He replied to my +remarks with readiness, and in well-chosen words. Had he +much to do there? Yes; that was to say, he had enough +responsibility to bear; but exactness and watchfulness were what +was required of him, and of actual work—manual +labour—he had next to none. To change that signal, to +trim those lights, and to turn this iron handle now and then, was +all he had to do under that head. Regarding those many long +and lonely hours of which I seemed to make so much, he could only +say that the routine of his life had shaped itself into that +form, and he had grown used to it. He had taught himself a +language down here,—if only to know it by sight, and to +have formed his own crude ideas of its pronunciation, could be +called learning it. He had also worked at fractions and +decimals, and tried a little algebra; but he was, and had been as +a boy, a poor hand at figures. Was it necessary for him +when on duty always to remain in that channel of damp air, and +could he never rise into the sunshine from between those high +stone walls? Why, that depended upon times and +circumstances. Under some conditions there would be less +upon the Line than under others, and the same held good as to +certain hours of the day and night. In bright weather, he +did choose occasions for getting a little above these lower +shadows; but, being at all times liable to be called by his +electric bell, and at such times listening for it with redoubled +anxiety, the relief was less than I would suppose.</p> +<p>He took me into his box, where there was a fire, a desk for an +official book in which he had to make certain entries, a +telegraphic instrument with its dial, face, and needles, and the +little bell of which he had spoken. On my trusting that he +would excuse the remark that he had been well educated, and (I +hoped I might say without offence) perhaps educated above that +station, he observed that instances of slight incongruity in such +wise would rarely be found wanting among large bodies of men; +that he had heard it was so in workhouses, in the police force, +even in that last desperate resource, the army; and that he knew +it was so, more or less, in any great railway staff. He had +been, when young (if I could believe it, sitting in that +hut,—he scarcely could), a student of natural philosophy, +and had attended lectures; but he had run wild, misused his +opportunities, gone down, and never risen again. He had no +complaint to offer about that. He had made his bed, and he +lay upon it. It was far too late to make another.</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p314b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"The signal-man" +title= +"The signal-man" +src="images/p314s.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<p>All that I have here condensed he said in a quiet manner, with +his grave, dark regards divided between me and the fire. He +threw in the word, “Sir,” from time to time, and +especially when he referred <a name="page315"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 315</span>to his youth,—as though to +request me to understand that he claimed to be nothing but what I +found him. He was several times interrupted by the little +bell, and had to read off messages, and send replies. Once +he had to stand without the door, and display a flag as a train +passed, and make some verbal communication to the driver. +In the discharge of his duties, I observed him to be remarkably +exact and vigilant, breaking off his discourse at a syllable, and +remaining silent until what he had to do was done.</p> +<p>In a word, I should have set this man down as one of the +safest of men to be employed in that capacity, but for the +circumstance that while he was speaking to me he twice broke off +with a fallen colour, turned his face towards the little bell +when it did <span class="GutSmall">NOT</span> ring, opened the +door of the hut (which was kept shut to exclude the unhealthy +damp), and looked out towards the red light near the mouth of the +tunnel. On both of those occasions, he came back to the +fire with the inexplicable air upon him which I had remarked, +without being able to define, when we were so far asunder.</p> +<p>Said I, when I rose to leave him, “You almost make me +think that I have met with a contented man.”</p> +<p>(I am afraid I must acknowledge that I said it to lead him +on.)</p> +<p>“I believe I used to be so,” he rejoined, in the +low voice in which he had first spoken; “but I am troubled, +sir, I am troubled.”</p> +<p>He would have recalled the words if he could. He had +said them, however, and I took them up quickly.</p> +<p>“With what? What is your trouble?”</p> +<p>“It is very difficult to impart, sir. It is very, +very difficult to speak of. If ever you make me another +visit, I will try to tell you.”</p> +<p>“But I expressly intend to make you another visit. +Say, when shall it be?”</p> +<p>“I go off early in the morning, and I shall be on again +at ten to-morrow night, sir.”</p> +<p>“I will come at eleven.”</p> +<p>He thanked me, and went out at the door with me. +“I’ll show my white light, sir,” he said, in +his peculiar low voice, “till you have found the way +up. When you have found it, don’t call out! And +when you are at the top, don’t call out!”</p> +<p>His manner seemed to make the place strike colder to me, but I +said no more than, “Very well.”</p> +<p>“And when you come down to-morrow night, don’t +call out! Let me ask you a parting question. What +made you cry, ‘Halloa! Below there!’ +to-night?”</p> +<p>“Heaven knows,” said I. “I cried +something to that effect—”</p> +<p>“Not to that effect, sir. Those were the very +words. I know them well.”</p> +<p>“Admit those were the very words. I said them, no +doubt, because I saw you below.”</p> +<p><a name="page316"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +316</span>“For no other reason?”</p> +<p>“What other reason could I possibly have?”</p> +<p>“You had no feeling that they were conveyed to you in +any supernatural way?”</p> +<p>“No.”</p> +<p>He wished me good-night, and held up his light. I walked +by the side of the down Line of rails (with a very disagreeable +sensation of a train coming behind me) until I found the +path. It was easier to mount than to descend, and I got +back to my inn without any adventure.</p> +<p>Punctual to my appointment, I placed my foot on the first +notch of the zigzag next night, as the distant clocks were +striking eleven. He was waiting for me at the bottom, with +his white light on. “I have not called out,” I +said, when we came close together; “may I speak +now?” “By all means, sir.” +“Good-night, then, and here’s my hand.” +“Good-night, sir, and here’s mine.” With +that we walked side by side to his box, entered it, closed the +door, and sat down by the fire.</p> +<p>“I have made up my mind, sir,” he began, bending +forward as soon as we were seated, and speaking in a tone but a +little above a whisper, “that you shall not have to ask me +twice what troubles me. I took you for some one else +yesterday evening. That troubles me.”</p> +<p>“That mistake?”</p> +<p>“No. That some one else.”</p> +<p>“Who is it?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know.”</p> +<p>“Like me?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know. I never saw the face. +The left arm is across the face, and the right arm is +waved,—violently waved. This way.”</p> +<p>I followed his action with my eyes, and it was the action of +an arm gesticulating, with the utmost passion and vehemence, +“For God’s sake, clear the way!”</p> +<p>“One moonlight night,” said the man, “I was +sitting here, when I heard a voice cry, ‘Halloa! +Below there!’ I started up, looked from that door, +and saw this Some one else standing by the red light near the +tunnel, waving as I just now showed you. The voice seemed +hoarse with shouting, and it cried, ‘Look out! Look +out!’ And then again, ‘Halloa! Below +there! Look out!’ I caught up my lamp, turned +it on red, and ran towards the figure, calling, +‘What’s wrong? What has happened? +Where?’ It stood just outside the blackness of the +tunnel. I advanced so close upon it that I wondered at its +keeping the sleeve across its eyes. I ran right up at it, +and had my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it +was gone.”</p> +<p>“Into the tunnel?” said I.</p> +<p>“No. I ran on into the tunnel, five hundred +yards. I stopped, and held my lamp above my head, and saw +the figures of the measured distance, and saw the wet stains +stealing down the walls and trickling <a name="page317"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 317</span>through the arch. I ran out +again faster than I had run in (for I had a mortal abhorrence of +the place upon me), and I looked all round the red light with my +own red light, and I went up the iron ladder to the gallery atop +of it, and I came down again, and ran back here. I +telegraphed both ways, ‘An alarm has been given. Is +anything wrong?’ The answer came back, both ways, +‘All well.’”</p> +<p>Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my +spine, I showed him how that this figure must be a deception of +his sense of sight; and how that figures, originating in disease +of the delicate nerves that minister to the functions of the eye, +were known to have often troubled patients, some of whom had +become conscious of the nature of their affliction, and had even +proved it by experiments upon themselves. “As to an +imaginary cry,” said I, “do but listen for a moment +to the wind in this unnatural valley while we speak so low, and +to the wild harp it makes of the telegraph wires.”</p> +<p>That was all very well, he returned, after we had sat +listening for a while, and he ought to know something of the wind +and the wires,—he who so often passed long winter nights +there, alone and watching. But he would beg to remark that +he had not finished.</p> +<p>I asked his pardon, and he slowly added these words, touching +my arm,—</p> +<p>“Within six hours after the Appearance, the memorable +accident on this Line happened, and within ten hours the dead and +wounded were brought along through the tunnel over the spot where +the figure had stood.”</p> +<p>A disagreeable shudder crept over me, but I did my best +against it. It was not to be denied, I rejoined, that this +was a remarkable coincidence, calculated deeply to impress his +mind. But it was unquestionable that remarkable +coincidences did continually occur, and they must be taken into +account in dealing with such a subject. Though to be sure I +must admit, I added (for I thought I saw that he was going to +bring the objection to bear upon me), men of common sense did not +allow much for coincidences in making the ordinary calculations +of life.</p> +<p>He again begged to remark that he had not finished.</p> +<p>I again begged his pardon for being betrayed into +interruptions.</p> +<p>“This,” he said, again laying his hand upon my +arm, and glancing over his shoulder with hollow eyes, “was +just a year ago. Six or seven months passed, and I had +recovered from the surprise and shock, when one morning, as the +day was breaking, I, standing at the door, looked towards the red +light, and saw the spectre again.” He stopped, with a +fixed look at me.</p> +<p>“Did it cry out?”</p> +<p>“No. It was silent.”</p> +<p>“Did it wave its arm?”</p> +<p>“No. It leaned against the shaft of the light, +with both hands before the face. Like this.”</p> +<p><a name="page318"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 318</span>Once +more I followed his action with my eyes. It was an action +of mourning. I have seen such an attitude in stone figures +on tombs.</p> +<p>“Did you go up to it?”</p> +<p>“I came in and sat down, partly to collect my thoughts, +partly because it had turned me faint. When I went to the +door again, daylight was above me, and the ghost was +gone.”</p> +<p>“But nothing followed? Nothing came of +this?”</p> +<p>He touched me on the arm with his forefinger twice or thrice +giving a ghastly nod each time:—</p> +<p>“That very day, as a train came out of the tunnel, I +noticed, at a carriage window on my side, what looked like a +confusion of hands and heads, and something waved. I saw it +just in time to signal the driver, Stop! He shut off, and +put his brake on, but the train drifted past here a hundred and +fifty yards or more. I ran after it, and, as I went along, +heard terrible screams and cries. A beautiful young lady +had died instantaneously in one of the compartments, and was +brought in here, and laid down on this floor between +us.”</p> +<p>Involuntarily I pushed my chair back, as I looked from the +boards at which he pointed to himself.</p> +<p>“True, sir. True. Precisely as it happened, +so I tell it you.”</p> +<p>I could think of nothing to say, to any purpose, and my mouth +was very dry. The wind and the wires took up the story with +a long lamenting wail.</p> +<p>He resumed. “Now, sir, mark this, and judge how my +mind is troubled. The spectre came back a week ago. +Ever since, it has been there, now and again, by fits and +starts.”</p> +<p>“At the light?”</p> +<p>“At the Danger-light.”</p> +<p>“What does it seem to do?”</p> +<p>He repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, +that former gesticulation of, “For God’s sake, clear +the way!”</p> +<p>Then he went on. “I have no peace or rest for +it. It calls to me, for many minutes together, in an +agonised manner, ‘Below there! Look out! Look +out!’ It stands waving to me. It rings my +little bell—”</p> +<p>I caught at that. “Did it ring your bell yesterday +evening when I was here, and you went to the door?”</p> +<p>“Twice.”</p> +<p>“Why, see,” said I, “how your imagination +misleads you. My eyes were on the bell, and my ears were +open to the bell, and if I am a living man, it did <span +class="GutSmall">NOT</span> ring at those times. No, nor at +any other time, except when it was rung in the natural course of +physical things by the station communicating with you.”</p> +<p>He shook his head. “I have never made a mistake as to +that yet, sir. I have never confused the spectre’s +ring with the man’s. The ghost’s ring is a +strange vibration in the bell that it derives from <a +name="page319"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 319</span>nothing +else, and I have not asserted that the bell stirs to the +eye. I don’t wonder that you failed to hear it. +But <i>I</i> heard it.”</p> +<p>“And did the spectre seem to be there, when you looked +out?”</p> +<p>“It <span class="GutSmall">WAS</span> there.”</p> +<p>“Both times?”</p> +<p>He repeated firmly: “Both times.”</p> +<p>“Will you come to the door with me, and look for it +now?”</p> +<p>He bit his under lip as though he were somewhat unwilling, but +arose. I opened the door, and stood on the step, while he +stood in the doorway. There was the Danger-light. +There was the dismal mouth of the tunnel. There were the +high, wet stone walls of the cutting. There were the stars +above them.</p> +<p>“Do you see it?” I asked him, taking particular +note of his face. His eyes were prominent and strained, but +not very much more so, perhaps, than my own had been when I had +directed them earnestly towards the same spot.</p> +<p>“No,” he answered. “It is not +there.”</p> +<p>“Agreed,” said I.</p> +<p>We went in again, shut the door, and resumed our seats. +I was thinking how best to improve this advantage, if it might be +called one, when he took up the conversation in such a +matter-of-course way, so assuming that there could be no serious +question of fact between us, that I felt myself placed in the +weakest of positions.</p> +<p>“By this time you will fully understand, sir,” he +said, “that what troubles me so dreadfully is the question, +What does the spectre mean?”</p> +<p>I was not sure, I told him, that I did fully understand.</p> +<p>“What is its warning against?” he said, +ruminating, with his eyes on the fire, and only by times turning +them on me. “What is the danger? Where is the +danger? There is danger overhanging somewhere on the +Line. Some dreadful calamity will happen. It is not +to be doubted this third time, after what has gone before. +But surely this is a cruel haunting of me. What can I +do?”</p> +<p>He pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped the drops from his +heated forehead.</p> +<p>“If I telegraph Danger, on either side of me, or on +both, I can give no reason for it,” he went on, wiping the +palms of his hands. “I should get into trouble, and +do no good. They would think I was mad. This is the +way it would work,—Message: ‘Danger! Take +care!’ Answer: ‘What Danger? +Where?’ Message: ‘Don’t know. But, +for God’s sake, take care!’ They would displace +me. What else could they do?”</p> +<p>His pain of mind was most pitiable to see. It was the +mental torture of a conscientious man, oppressed beyond endurance +by an unintelligible responsibility involving life.</p> +<p>“When it first stood under the Danger-light,” he +went on, putting his dark hair back from his head, and drawing +his hands outward <a name="page320"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +320</span>across and across his temples in an extremity of +feverish distress, “why not tell me where that accident was +to happen,—if it must happen? Why not tell me how it +could be averted,—if it could have been averted? When +on its second coming it hid its face, why not tell me, instead, +‘She is going to die. Let them keep her at +home’? If it came, on those two occasions, only to +show me that its warnings were true, and so to prepare me for the +third, why not warn me plainly now? And I, Lord help +me! A mere poor signal-man on this solitary station! +Why not go to somebody with credit to be believed, and power to +act?”</p> +<p>When I saw him in this state, I saw that for the poor +man’s sake, as well as for the public safety, what I had to +do for the time was to compose his mind. Therefore, setting +aside all question of reality or unreality between us, I +represented to him that whoever thoroughly discharged his duty +must do well, and that at least it was his comfort that he +understood his duty, though he did not understand these +confounding Appearances. In this effort I succeeded far +better than in the attempt to reason him out of his +conviction. He became calm; the occupations incidental to +his post as the night advanced began to make larger demands on +his attention: and I left him at two in the morning. I had +offered to stay through the night, but he would not hear of +it.</p> +<p>That I more than once looked back at the red light as I +ascended the pathway, that I did not like the red light, and that +I should have slept but poorly if my bed had been under it, I see +no reason to conceal. Nor did I like the two sequences of +the accident and the dead girl. I see no reason to conceal +that either.</p> +<p>But what ran most in my thoughts was the consideration how +ought I to act, having become the recipient of this +disclosure? I had proved the man to be intelligent, +vigilant, painstaking, and exact; but how long might he remain +so, in his state of mind? Though in a subordinate position, +still he held a most important trust, and would I (for instance) +like to stake my own life on the chances of his continuing to +execute it with precision?</p> +<p>Unable to overcome a feeling that there would be something +treacherous in my communicating what he had told me to his +superiors in the Company, without first being plain with himself +and proposing a middle course to him, I ultimately resolved to +offer to accompany him (otherwise keeping his secret for the +present) to the wisest medical practitioner we could hear of in +those parts, and to take his opinion. A change in his time +of duty would come round next night, he had apprised me, and he +would be off an hour or two after sunrise, and on again soon +after sunset. I had appointed to return accordingly.</p> +<p>Next evening was a lovely evening, and I walked out early to +enjoy it. The sun was not yet quite down when I traversed +the field-path near the top of the deep cutting. I would +extend my walk for an <a name="page321"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 321</span>hour, I said to myself, half an hour +on and half an hour back, and it would then be time to go to my +signal-man’s box.</p> +<p>Before pursuing my stroll, I stepped to the brink, and +mechanically looked down, from the point from which I had first +seen him. I cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me, +when, close at the mouth of the tunnel, I saw the appearance of a +man, with his left sleeve across his eyes, passionately waving +his right arm.</p> +<p>The nameless horror that oppressed me passed in a moment, for +in a moment I saw that this appearance of a man was a man indeed, +and that there was a little group of other men, standing at a +short distance, to whom he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he +made. The Danger-light was not yet lighted. Against +its shaft, a little low hut, entirely new to me, had been made of +some wooden supports and tarpaulin. It looked no bigger +than a bed.</p> +<p>With an irresistible sense that something was +wrong,—with a flashing self-reproachful fear that fatal +mischief had come of my leaving the man there, and causing no one +to be sent to overlook or correct what he did,—I descended +the notched path with all the speed I could make.</p> +<p>“What is the matter?” I asked the men.</p> +<p>“Signal-man killed this morning, sir.”</p> +<p>“Not the man belonging to that box?”</p> +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> +<p>“Not the man I know?”</p> +<p>“You will recognise him, sir, if you knew him,” +said the man who spoke for the others, solemnly uncovering his +own head, and raising an end of the tarpaulin, “for his +face is quite composed.”</p> +<p>“O, how did this happen, how did this happen?” I +asked, turning from one to another as the hut closed in +again.</p> +<p>“He was cut down by an engine, sir. No man in +England knew his work better. But somehow he was not clear +of the outer rail. It was just at broad day. He had +struck the light, and had the lamp in his hand. As the +engine came out of the tunnel, his back was towards her, and she +cut him down. That man drove her, and was showing how it +happened. Show the gentleman, Tom.”</p> +<p>The man, who wore a rough dark dress, stepped back to his +former place at the mouth of the tunnel.</p> +<p>“Coming round the curve in the tunnel, sir,” he +said, “I saw him at the end, like as if I saw him down a +perspective-glass. There was no time to check speed, and I +knew him to be very careful. As he didn’t seem to +take heed of the whistle, I shut it off when we were running down +upon him, and called to him as loud as I could call.”</p> +<p>“What did you say?”</p> +<p>“I said, ‘Below there! Look out! Look +out! For God’s sake, clear the way!’”</p> +<p>I started.</p> +<p>“Ah! it was a dreadful time, sir. I never left off +calling to him. <a name="page322"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 322</span>I put this arm before my eyes not to +see, and I waved this arm to the last; but it was no +use.”</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p>Without prolonging the narrative to dwell on any one of its +curious circumstances more than on any other, I may, in closing +it, point out the coincidence that the warning of the +Engine-Driver included, not only the words which the unfortunate +Signal-man had repeated to me as haunting him, but also the words +which I myself—not he—had attached, and that only in +my own mind, to the gesticulation he had imitated.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES.</h2> +<p><a name="footnote121"></a><a href="#citation121" +class="footnote">[121]</a> The original has eight chapters, +which will be found in <i>All the Year Round</i>, vol. ii., old +series; but those not printed here, excepting a page at the +close, were not written by Mr. Dickens.</p> +<p><a name="footnote303"></a><a href="#citation303" +class="footnote">[303]</a> This paper appeared as a chapter +“To be taken with a Grain of Salt,” in Doctor +Marigold’s Prescriptions.</p> +<p><a name="footnote312"></a><a href="#citation312" +class="footnote">[312]</a> This story appeared as a portion +of the Christmas number for 1866, “Mugby Junction,” +of which other portions follow in “Barbox Brothers” +and “The Boy at Mugby.”</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE GHOST STORIES***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 1289-h.htm or 1289-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/2/8/1289 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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