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diff --git a/old/20387.txt b/old/20387.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e48b8a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20387.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3252 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Thin Ghost and Others, by M. R. (Montague +Rhodes) James + + +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: A Thin Ghost and Others + + +Author: M. R. (Montague Rhodes) James + + + +Release Date: January 16, 2007 [eBook #20387] +[Last updated: January 18, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS*** + + +E-text prepared by Diane Monico and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/c/) + + + +A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS + +by + +MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES, LITT.D. + +Provost Of Eton College +Author of "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary," "More Ghost Stories," etc. + +Third Impression + + + + + + + +New York +Longmans, Green & Co. +London: Edward Arnold +1920 +(All rights reserved) + + + + +PREFACE + + +Two of these stories, the third and fourth, have appeared in print in +the _Cambridge Review_, and I wish to thank the proprietor for +permitting me to republish them here. + +I have had my doubts about the wisdom of publishing a third set of +tales; sequels are, not only proverbially but actually, very hazardous +things. However, the tales make no pretence but to amuse, and my +friends have not seldom asked for the publication. So not a great deal +is risked, perhaps, and perhaps also some one's Christmas may be the +cheerfuller for a storybook which, I think, only once mentions the +war. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER 1 + +THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER 49 + +AN EPISODE OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY 73 + +THE STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE AND AN APPEARANCE 107 + +TWO DOCTORS 135 + + + + +THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER + + + + +A Thin Ghost and Others + +THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER + + +Dr. Ashton--Thomas Ashton, Doctor of Divinity--sat in his study, +habited in a dressing-gown, and with a silk cap on his shaven +head--his wig being for the time taken off and placed on its block on +a side table. He was a man of some fifty-five years, strongly made, of +a sanguine complexion, an angry eye, and a long upper lip. Face and +eye were lighted up at the moment when I picture him by the level ray +of an afternoon sun that shone in upon him through a tall sash window, +giving on the west. The room into which it shone was also tall, lined +with book-cases, and, where the wall showed between them, panelled. On +the table near the doctor's elbow was a green cloth, and upon it what +he would have called a silver standish--a tray with inkstands--quill +pens, a calf-bound book or two, some papers, a churchwarden pipe and +brass tobacco-box, a flask cased in plaited straw, and a liqueur +glass. The year was 1730, the month December, the hour somewhat past +three in the afternoon. + +I have described in these lines pretty much all that a superficial +observer would have noted when he looked into the room. What met Dr. +Ashton's eye when he looked out of it, sitting in his leather +arm-chair? Little more than the tops of the shrubs and fruit-trees of +his garden could be seen from that point, but the red brick wall of it +was visible in almost all the length of its western side. In the +middle of that was a gate--a double gate of rather elaborate iron +scroll-work, which allowed something of a view beyond. Through it he +could see that the ground sloped away almost at once to a bottom, +along which a stream must run, and rose steeply from it on the other +side, up to a field that was park-like in character, and thickly +studded with oaks, now, of course, leafless. They did not stand so +thick together but that some glimpse of sky and horizon could be seen +between their stems. The sky was now golden and the horizon, a horizon +of distant woods, it seemed, was purple. + +But all that Dr. Ashton could find to say, after contemplating this +prospect for many minutes, was: "Abominable!" + +A listener would have been aware, immediately upon this, of the sound +of footsteps coming somewhat hurriedly in the direction of the study: +by the resonance he could have told that they were traversing a much +larger room. Dr. Ashton turned round in his chair as the door opened, +and looked expectant. The incomer was a lady--a stout lady in the +dress of the time: though I have made some attempt at indicating the +doctor's costume, I will not enterprise that of his wife--for it was +Mrs. Ashton who now entered. She had an anxious, even a sorely +distracted, look, and it was in a very disturbed voice that she almost +whispered to Dr. Ashton, putting her head close to his, "He's in a +very sad way, love, worse, I'm afraid." "Tt--tt, is he really?" and he +leaned back and looked in her face. She nodded. Two solemn bells, high +up, and not far away, rang out the half-hour at this moment. Mrs. +Ashton started. "Oh, do you think you can give order that the minster +clock be stopped chiming to-night? 'Tis just over his chamber, and +will keep him from sleeping, and to sleep is the only chance for him, +that's certain." "Why, to be sure, if there were need, real need, it +could be done, but not upon any light occasion. This Frank, now, do +you assure me that his recovery stands upon it?" said Dr. Ashton: his +voice was loud and rather hard. "I do verily believe it," said his +wife. "Then, if it must be, bid Molly run across to Simpkins and say +on my authority that he is to stop the clock chimes at sunset: +and--yes--she is after that to say to my lord Saul that I wish to see +him presently in this room." Mrs. Ashton hurried off. + +Before any other visitor enters, it will be well to explain the +situation. + +Dr. Ashton was the holder, among other preferments, of a prebend in +the rich collegiate church of Whitminster, one of the foundations +which, though not a cathedral, survived dissolution and reformation, +and retained its constitution and endowments for a hundred years after +the time of which I write. The great church, the residences of the +dean and the two prebendaries, the choir and its appurtenances, were +all intact and in working order. A dean who flourished soon after 1500 +had been a great builder, and had erected a spacious quadrangle of red +brick adjoining the church for the residence of the officials. Some of +these persons were no longer required: their offices had dwindled +down to mere titles, borne by clergy or lawyers in the town and +neighbourhood; and so the houses that had been meant to accommodate +eight or ten people were now shared among three, the dean and the two +prebendaries. Dr. Ashton's included what had been the common parlour +and the dining-hall of the whole body. It occupied a whole side of the +court, and at one end had a private door into the minster. The other +end, as we have seen, looked out over the country. + +So much for the house. As for the inmates, Dr. Ashton was a wealthy +man and childless, and he had adopted, or rather undertaken to bring +up, the orphan son of his wife's sister. Frank Sydall was the lad's +name: he had been a good many months in the house. Then one day came a +letter from an Irish peer, the Earl of Kildonan (who had known Dr. +Ashton at college), putting it to the doctor whether he would consider +taking into his family the Viscount Saul, the Earl's heir, and acting +in some sort as his tutor. Lord Kildonan was shortly to take up a post +in the Lisbon Embassy, and the boy was unfit to make the voyage: "not +that he is sickly," the Earl wrote, "though you'll find him whimsical, +or of late I've thought him so, and to confirm this, 'twas only +to-day his old nurse came expressly to tell me he was possess'd: but +let that pass; I'll warrant you can find a spell to make all straight. +Your arm was stout enough in old days, and I give you plenary +authority to use it as you see fit. The truth is, he has here no boys +of his age or quality to consort with, and is given to moping about in +our raths and graveyards: and he brings home romances that fright my +servants out of their wits. So there are you and your lady +forewarned." It was perhaps with half an eye open to the possibility +of an Irish bishopric (at which another sentence in the Earl's letter +seemed to hint) that Dr. Ashton accepted the charge of my Lord +Viscount Saul and of the 200 guineas a year that were to come with +him. + +So he came, one night in September. When he got out of the chaise that +brought him, he went first and spoke to the postboy and gave him some +money, and patted the neck of his horse. Whether he made some movement +that scared it or not, there was very nearly a nasty accident, for the +beast started violently, and the postilion being unready was thrown +and lost his fee, as he found afterwards, and the chaise lost some +paint on the gateposts, and the wheel went over the man's foot who was +taking out the baggage. When Lord Saul came up the steps into the +light of the lamp in the porch to be greeted by Dr. Ashton, he was +seen to be a thin youth of, say, sixteen years old, with straight +black hair and the pale colouring that is common to such a figure. He +took the accident and commotion calmly enough, and expressed a proper +anxiety for the people who had been, or might have been, hurt: his +voice was smooth and pleasant, and without any trace, curiously, of an +Irish brogue. + +Frank Sydall was a younger boy, perhaps of eleven or twelve, but Lord +Saul did not for that reject his company. Frank was able to teach him +various games he had not known in Ireland, and he was apt at learning +them; apt, too, at his books, though he had had little or no regular +teaching at home. It was not long before he was making a shift to +puzzle out the inscriptions on the tombs in the minster, and he would +often put a question to the doctor about the old books in the library +that required some thought to answer. It is to be supposed that he +made himself very agreeable to the servants, for within ten days of +his coming they were almost falling over each other in their efforts +to oblige him. At the same time, Mrs. Ashton was rather put to it to +find new maidservants; for there were several changes, and some of the +families in the town from which she had been accustomed to draw seemed +to have no one available. She was forced to go further afield than was +usual. + +These generalities I gather from the doctor's notes in his diary and +from letters. They are generalities, and we should like, in view of +what has to be told, something sharper and more detailed. We get it in +entries which begin late in the year, and, I think, were posted up all +together after the final incident; but they cover so few days in all +that there is no need to doubt that the writer could remember the +course of things accurately. + +On a Friday morning it was that a fox, or perhaps a cat, made away +with Mrs. Ashton's most prized black cockerel, a bird without a single +white feather on its body. Her husband had told her often enough that +it would make a suitable sacrifice to AEsculapius; that had discomfited +her much, and now she would hardly be consoled. The boys looked +everywhere for traces of it: Lord Saul brought in a few feathers, +which seemed to have been partially burnt on the garden rubbish-heap. +It was on the same day that Dr. Ashton, looking out of an upper +window, saw the two boys playing in the corner of the garden at a game +he did not understand. Frank was looking earnestly at something in the +palm of his hand. Saul stood behind him and seemed to be listening. +After some minutes he very gently laid his hand on Frank's head, and +almost instantly thereupon, Frank suddenly dropped whatever it was +that he was holding, clapped his hands to his eyes, and sank down on +the grass. Saul, whose face expressed great anger, hastily picked the +object up, of which it could only be seen that it was glittering, put +it in his pocket, and turned away, leaving Frank huddled up on the +grass. Dr. Ashton rapped on the window to attract their attention, and +Saul looked up as if in alarm, and then springing to Frank, pulled him +up by the arm and led him away. When they came in to dinner, Saul +explained that they had been acting a part of the tragedy of +Radamistus, in which the heroine reads the future fate of her father's +kingdom by means of a glass ball held in her hand, and is overcome by +the terrible events she has seen. During this explanation Frank said +nothing, only looked rather bewilderedly at Saul. He must, Mrs. Ashton +thought, have contracted a chill from the wet of the grass, for that +evening he was certainly feverish and disordered; and the disorder was +of the mind as well as the body, for he seemed to have something he +wished to say to Mrs. Ashton, only a press of household affairs +prevented her from paying attention to him; and when she went, +according to her habit, to see that the light in the boys' chamber had +been taken away, and to bid them good-night, he seemed to be sleeping, +though his face was unnaturally flushed, to her thinking: Lord Saul, +however, was pale and quiet, and smiling in his slumber. + +Next morning it happened that Dr. Ashton was occupied in church and +other business, and unable to take the boys' lessons. He therefore set +them tasks to be written and brought to him. Three times, if not +oftener, Frank knocked at the study door, and each time the doctor +chanced to be engaged with some visitor, and sent the boy off rather +roughly, which he later regretted. Two clergymen were at dinner this +day, and both remarked--being fathers of families--that the lad seemed +sickening for a fever, in which they were too near the truth, and it +had been better if he had been put to bed forthwith: for a couple of +hours later in the afternoon he came running into the house, crying +out in a way that was really terrifying, and rushing to Mrs. Ashton, +clung about her, begging her to protect him, and saying, "Keep them +off! keep them off!" without intermission. And it was now evident that +some sickness had taken strong hold of him. He was therefore got to +bed in another chamber from that in which he commonly lay, and the +physician brought to him: who pronounced the disorder to be grave and +affecting the lad's brain, and prognosticated a fatal end to it if +strict quiet were not observed, and those sedative remedies used which +he should prescribe. + +We are now come by another way to the point we had reached before. The +minster clock has been stopped from striking, and Lord Saul is on the +threshold of the study. + +"What account can you give of this poor lad's state?" was Dr. Ashton's +first question. "Why, sir, little more than you know already, I fancy. +I must blame myself, though, for giving him a fright yesterday when we +were acting that foolish play you saw. I fear I made him take it more +to heart than I meant." "How so?" "Well, by telling him foolish tales +I had picked up in Ireland of what we call the second sight." +"_Second_ sight! What kind of sight might that be?" "Why, you know our +ignorant people pretend that some are able to foresee what is to +come--sometimes in a glass, or in the air, maybe, and at Kildonan we +had an old woman that pretended to such a power. And I daresay I +coloured the matter more highly than I should: but I never dreamed +Frank would take it so near as he did." "You were wrong, my lord, very +wrong, in meddling with such superstitious matters at all, and you +should have considered whose house you were in, and how little +becoming such actions are to my character and person or to your own: +but pray how came it that you, acting, as you say, a play, should fall +upon anything that could so alarm Frank?" "That is what I can hardly +tell, sir: he passed all in a moment from rant about battles and +lovers and Cleodora and Antigenes to something I could not follow at +all, and then dropped down as you saw." "Yes: was that at the moment +when you laid your hand on the top of his head?" Lord Saul gave a +quick look at his questioner--quick and spiteful--and for the first +time seemed unready with an answer. "About that time it may have +been," he said. "I have tried to recollect myself, but I am not sure. +There was, at any rate, no significance in what I did then." "Ah!" +said Dr. Ashton, "well, my lord, I should do wrong were I not to tell +you that this fright of my poor nephew may have very ill consequences +to him. The doctor speaks very despondingly of his state." Lord Saul +pressed his hands together and looked earnestly upon Dr. Ashton. "I am +willing to believe you had no bad intention, as assuredly you could +have no reason to bear the poor boy malice: but I cannot wholly free +you from blame in the affair." As he spoke, the hurrying steps were +heard again, and Mrs. Ashton came quickly into the room, carrying a +candle, for the evening had by this time closed in. She was greatly +agitated. "O come!" she cried, "come directly. I'm sure he is going." +"Going? Frank? Is it possible? Already?" With some such incoherent +words the doctor caught up a book of prayers from the table and ran +out after his wife. Lord Saul stopped for a moment where he was. +Molly, the maid, saw him bend over and put both hands to his face. If +it were the last words she had to speak, she said afterwards, he was +striving to keep back a fit of laughing. Then he went out softly, +following the others. + +Mrs. Ashton was sadly right in her forecast. I have no inclination to +imagine the last scene in detail. What Dr. Ashton records is, or may +be taken to be, important to the story. They asked Frank if he would +like to see his companion, Lord Saul, once again. The boy was quite +collected, it appears, in these moments. "No," he said, "I do not want +to see him; but you should tell him I am afraid he will be very cold." +"What do you mean, my dear?" said Mrs. Ashton. "Only that;" said +Frank, "but say to him besides that I am free of them now, but he +should take care. And I am sorry about your black cockerel, Aunt +Ashton; but he said we must use it so, if we were to see all that +could be seen." + +Not many minutes after, he was gone. Both the Ashtons were grieved, +she naturally most; but the doctor, though not an emotional man, felt +the pathos of the early death: and, besides, there was the growing +suspicion that all had not been told him by Saul, and that there was +something here which was out of his beaten track. When he left the +chamber of death, it was to walk across the quadrangle of the +residence to the sexton's house. A passing bell, the greatest of the +minster bells, must be rung, a grave must be dug in the minster yard, +and there was now no need to silence the chiming of the minster clock. +As he came slowly back in the dark, he thought he must see Lord Saul +again. That matter of the black cockerel--trifling as it might +seem--would have to be cleared up. It might be merely a fancy of the +sick boy, but if not, was there not a witch-trial he had read, in +which some grim little rite of sacrifice had played a part? Yes, he +must see Saul. + +I rather guess these thoughts of his than find written authority for +them. That there was another interview is certain: certain also that +Saul would (or, as he said, could) throw no light on Frank's words: +though the message, or some part of it, appeared to affect him +horribly. But there is no record of the talk in detail. It is only +said that Saul sat all that evening in the study, and when he bid +good-night, which he did most reluctantly, asked for the doctor's +prayers. + +The month of January was near its end when Lord Kildonan, in the +Embassy at Lisbon, received a letter that for once gravely disturbed +that vain man and neglectful father. Saul was dead. The scene at +Frank's burial had been very distressing. The day was awful in +blackness and wind: the bearers, staggering blindly along under the +flapping black pall, found it a hard job, when they emerged from the +porch of the minster, to make their way to the grave. Mrs. Ashton was +in her room--women did not then go to their kinsfolk's funerals--but +Saul was there, draped in the mourning cloak of the time, and his face +was white and fixed as that of one dead, except when, as was noticed +three or four times, he suddenly turned his head to the left and +looked over his shoulder. It was then alive with a terrible expression +of listening fear. No one saw him go away: and no one could find him +that evening. All night the gale buffeted the high windows of the +church, and howled over the upland and roared through the woodland. It +was useless to search in the open: no voice of shouting or cry for +help could possibly be heard. All that Dr. Ashton could do was to warn +the people about the college, and the town constables, and to sit up, +on the alert for any news, and this he did. News came early next +morning, brought by the sexton, whose business it was to open the +church for early prayers at seven, and who sent the maid rushing +upstairs with wild eyes and flying hair to summon her master. The two +men dashed across to the south door of the minster, there to find Lord +Saul clinging desperately to the great ring of the door, his head sunk +between his shoulders, his stockings in rags, his shoes gone, his legs +torn and bloody. + +This was what had to be told to Lord Kildonan, and this really ends +the first part of the story. The tomb of Frank Sydall and of the Lord +Viscount Saul, only child and heir to William Earl of Kildonan, is +one: a stone altar tomb in Whitminster churchyard. + +Dr. Ashton lived on for over thirty years in his prebendal house, I do +not know how quietly, but without visible disturbance. His successor +preferred a house he already owned in the town, and left that of the +senior prebendary vacant. Between them these two men saw the +eighteenth century out and the nineteenth in; for Mr. Hindes, the +successor of Ashton, became prebendary at nine-and-twenty and died at +nine-and-eighty. So that it was not till 1823 or 1824 that any one +succeeded to the post who intended to make the house his home. The man +who did was Dr. Henry Oldys, whose name may be known to some of my +readers as that of the author of a row of volumes labelled _Oldys's +Works_, which occupy a place that must be honoured, since it is so +rarely touched, upon the shelves of many a substantial library. + +Dr. Oldys, his niece, and his servants took some months to transfer +furniture and books from his Dorsetshire parsonage to the quadrangle +of Whitminster, and to get everything into place. But eventually the +work was done, and the house (which, though untenanted, had always +been kept sound and weather-tight) woke up, and like Monte Cristo's +mansion at Auteuil, lived, sang, and bloomed once more. On a certain +morning in June it looked especially fair, as Dr. Oldys strolled in +his garden before breakfast and gazed over the red roof at the minster +tower with its four gold vanes, backed by a very blue sky, and very +white little clouds. + +"Mary," he said, as he seated himself at the breakfast table and laid +down something hard and shiny on the cloth, "here's a find which the +boy made just now. You'll be sharper than I if you can guess what it's +meant for." It was a round and perfectly smooth tablet--as much as an +inch thick--of what seemed clear glass. "It is rather attractive at +all events," said Mary: she was a fair woman, with light hair and +large eyes, rather a devotee of literature. "Yes," said her uncle, "I +thought you'd be pleased with it. I presume it came from the house: it +turned up in the rubbish-heap in the corner." "I'm not sure that I do +like it, after all," said Mary, some minutes later. "Why in the world +not, my dear?" "I don't know, I'm sure. Perhaps it's only fancy." +"Yes, only fancy and romance, of course. What's that book, now--the +name of that book, I mean, that you had your head in all yesterday?" +"_The Talisman_, Uncle. Oh, if this should turn out to be a talisman, +how enchanting it would be!" "Yes, _The Talisman_: ah, well, you're +welcome to it, whatever it is: I must be off about my business. Is all +well in the house? Does it suit you? Any complaints from the servants' +hall?" "No, indeed, nothing could be more charming. The only _soupcon_ +of a complaint besides the lock of the linen closet, which I told you +of, is that Mrs. Maple says she cannot get rid of the sawflies out of +that room you pass through at the other end of the hall. By the way, +are you sure you like your bedroom? It is a long way off from any one +else, you know." "Like it? To be sure I do; the further off from you, +my dear, the better. There, don't think it necessary to beat me: +accept my apologies. But what are sawflies? will they eat my coats? If +not, they may have the room to themselves for what I care. We are not +likely to be using it." "No, of course not. Well, what she calls +sawflies are those reddish things like a daddy-longlegs, but +smaller,[1] and there are a great many of them perching about that +room, certainly. I don't like them, but I don't fancy they are +mischievous." "There seem to be several things you don't like this +fine morning," said her uncle, as he closed the door. Miss Oldys +remained in her chair looking at the tablet, which she was holding in +the palm of her hand. The smile that had been on her face faded slowly +from it and gave place to an expression of curiosity and almost +strained attention. Her reverie was broken by the entrance of Mrs. +Maple, and her invariable opening, "Oh, Miss, could I speak to you a +minute?" + +A letter from Miss Oldys to a friend in Lichfield, begun a day or two +before, is the next source for this story. It is not devoid of traces +of the influence of that leader of female thought in her day, Miss +Anna Seward, known to some as the Swan of Lichfield. + +"My sweetest Emily will be rejoiced to hear that we are at length--my +beloved uncle and myself--settled in the house that now calls us +master--nay, master and mistress--as in past ages it has called so +many others. Here we taste a mingling of modern elegance and hoary +antiquity, such as has never ere now graced life for either of us. The +town, small as it is, affords us some reflection, pale indeed, but +veritable, of the sweets of polite intercourse: the adjacent country +numbers amid the occupants of its scattered mansions some whose polish +is annually refreshed by contact with metropolitan splendour, and +others whose robust and homely geniality is, at times, and by way of +contrast, not less cheering and acceptable. Tired of the parlours and +drawing-rooms of our friends, we have ready to hand a refuge from the +clash of wits or the small talk of the day amid the solemn beauties of +our venerable minster, whose silvern chimes daily 'knoll us to +prayer,' and in the shady walks of whose tranquil graveyard we muse +with softened heart, and ever and anon with moistened eye, upon the +memorials of the young, the beautiful, the aged, the wise, and the +good." + +Here there is an abrupt break both in the writing and the style. + +"But my dearest Emily, I can no longer write with the care which you +deserve, and in which we both take pleasure. What I have to tell you +is wholly foreign to what has gone before. This morning my uncle +brought in to breakfast an object which had been found in the garden; +it was a glass or crystal tablet of this shape (a little sketch is +given), which he handed to me, and which, after he left the room, +remained on the table by me. I gazed at it, I know not why, for some +minutes, till called away by the day's duties; and you will smile +incredulously when I say that I seemed to myself to begin to descry +reflected in it objects and scenes which were not in the room where I +was. You will not, however, be surprised that after such an experience +I took the first opportunity to seclude myself in my room with what I +now half believed to be a talisman of mickle might. I was not +disappointed. I assure you, Emily, by that memory which is dearest to +both of us, that what I went through this afternoon transcends the +limits of what I had before deemed credible. In brief, what I saw, +seated in my bedroom, in the broad daylight of summer, and looking +into the crystal depth of that small round tablet, was this. First, a +prospect, strange to me, of an enclosure of rough and hillocky grass, +with a grey stone ruin in the midst, and a wall of rough stones about +it. In this stood an old, and very ugly, woman in a red cloak and +ragged skirt, talking to a boy dressed in the fashion of maybe a +hundred years ago. She put something which glittered into his hand, +and he something into hers, which I saw to be money, for a single coin +fell from her trembling hand into the grass. The scene passed--I +should have remarked, by the way, that on the rough walls of the +enclosure I could distinguish bones, and even a skull, lying in a +disorderly fashion. Next, I was looking upon two boys; one the figure +of the former vision, the other younger. They were in a plot of +garden, walled round, and this garden, in spite of the difference in +arrangement, and the small size of the trees, I could clearly +recognize as being that upon which I now look from my window. The boys +were engaged in some curious play, it seemed. Something was +smouldering on the ground. The elder placed his hands upon it, and +then raised them in what I took to be an attitude of prayer: and I +saw, and started at seeing, that on them were deep stains of blood. +The sky above was overcast. The same boy now turned his face towards +the wall of the garden, and beckoned with both his raised hands, and +as he did so I was conscious that some moving objects were becoming +visible over the top of the wall--whether heads or other parts of some +animal or human forms I could not tell. Upon the instant the elder boy +turned sharply, seized the arm of the younger (who all this time had +been poring over what lay on the ground), and both hurried off. I then +saw blood upon the grass, a little pile of bricks, and what I thought +were black feathers scattered about. That scene closed, and the next +was so dark that perhaps the full meaning of it escaped me. But what I +seemed to see was a form, at first crouching low among trees or bushes +that were being threshed by a violent wind, then running very swiftly, +and constantly turning a pale face to look behind him, as if he feared +a pursuer: and, indeed, pursuers were following hard after him. Their +shapes were but dimly seen, their number--three or four, perhaps, +only guessed. I suppose they were on the whole more like dogs than +anything else, but dogs such as we have seen they assuredly were not. +Could I have closed my eyes to this horror, I would have done so at +once, but I was helpless. The last I saw was the victim darting +beneath an arch and clutching at some object to which he clung: and +those that were pursuing him overtook him, and I seemed to hear the +echo of a cry of despair. It may be that I became unconscious: +certainly I had the sensation of awaking to the light of day after an +interval of darkness. Such, in literal truth, Emily, was my vision--I +can call it by no other name--of this afternoon. Tell me, have I not +been the unwilling witness of some episode of a tragedy connected with +this very house?" + +The letter is continued next day. "The tale of yesterday was not +completed when I laid down my pen. I said nothing of my experiences to +my uncle--you know, yourself, how little his robust common-sense would +be prepared to allow of them, and how in his eyes the specific remedy +would be a black draught or a glass of port. After a silent evening, +then--silent, not sullen--I retired to rest. Judge of my terror, +when, not yet in bed, I heard what I can only describe as a distant +bellow, and knew it for my uncle's voice, though never in my hearing +so exerted before. His sleeping-room is at the further extremity of +this large house, and to gain access to it one must traverse an +antique hall some eighty feet long and a lofty panelled chamber, and +two unoccupied bedrooms. In the second of these--a room almost devoid +of furniture--I found him, in the dark, his candle lying smashed on +the floor. As I ran in, bearing a light, he clasped me in arms that +trembled for the first time since I have known him, thanked God, and +hurried me out of the room. He would say nothing of what had alarmed +him. 'To-morrow, to-morrow,' was all I could get from him. A bed was +hastily improvised for him in the room next to my own. I doubt if his +night was more restful than mine. I could only get to sleep in the +small hours, when daylight was already strong, and then my dreams were +of the grimmest--particularly one which stamped itself on my brain, +and which I must set down on the chance of dispersing the impression +it has made. It was that I came up to my room with a heavy foreboding +of evil oppressing me, and went with a hesitation and reluctance I +could not explain to my chest of drawers. I opened the top drawer, in +which was nothing but ribbons and handkerchiefs, and then the second, +where was as little to alarm, and then, O heavens, the third and last: +and there was a mass of linen neatly folded: upon which, as I looked +with curiosity that began to be tinged with horror, I perceived a +movement in it, and a pink hand was thrust out of the folds and began +to grope feebly in the air. I could bear it no more, and rushed from +the room, clapping the door after me, and strove with all my force to +lock it. But the key would not turn in the wards, and from within the +room came a sound of rustling and bumping, drawing nearer and nearer +to the door. Why I did not flee down the stairs I know not. I +continued grasping the handle, and mercifully, as the door was plucked +from my hand with an irresistible force, I awoke. You may not think +this very alarming, but I assure you it was so to me. + +"At breakfast to-day my uncle was very uncommunicative, and I think +ashamed of the fright he had given us; but afterwards he inquired of +me whether Mr. Spearman was still in town, adding that he thought that +was a young man who had some sense left in his head. I think you +know, my dear Emily, that I am not inclined to disagree with him +there, and also that I was not unlikely to be able to answer his +question. To Mr. Spearman he accordingly went, and I have not seen him +since. I must send this strange budget of news to you now, or it may +have to wait over more than one post." + +The reader will not be far out if he guesses that Miss Mary and Mr. +Spearman made a match of it not very long after this month of June. +Mr. Spearman was a young spark, who had a good property in the +neighbourhood of Whitminster, and not unfrequently about this time +spent a few days at the "King's Head," ostensibly on business. But he +must have had some leisure, for his diary is copious, especially for +the days of which I am telling the story. It is probable to me that he +wrote this episode as fully as he could at the bidding of Miss Mary. + +"Uncle Oldys (how I hope I may have the right to call him so before +long!) called this morning. After throwing out a good many short +remarks on indifferent topics, he said 'I wish, Spearman, you'd listen +to an odd story and keep a close tongue about it just for a bit, till +I get more light on it.' 'To be sure,' said I, 'you may count on me.' +'I don't know what to make of it,' he said. 'You know my bedroom. It +is well away from every one else's, and I pass through the great hall +and two or three other rooms to get to it.' 'Is it at the end next the +minster, then?' I asked. 'Yes, it is: well, now, yesterday morning my +Mary told me that the room next before it was infested with some sort +of fly that the housekeeper couldn't get rid of. That may be the +explanation, or it may not. What do you think?' 'Why,' said I, 'you've +not yet told me what has to be explained.' 'True enough, I don't +believe I have; but by-the-by, what are these sawflies? What's the +size of them?' I began to wonder if he was touched in the head. 'What +I call a sawfly,' I said very patiently, 'is a red animal, like a +daddy-longlegs, but not so big, perhaps an inch long, perhaps less. It +is very hard in the body, and to me'--I was going to say 'particularly +offensive,' but he broke in, 'Come, come; an inch or less. That won't +do.' 'I can only tell you,' I said, 'what I know. Would it not be +better if you told me from first to last what it is that has puzzled +you, and then I may be able to give you some kind of an opinion.' He +gazed at me meditatively. 'Perhaps it would,' he said. 'I told Mary +only to-day that I thought you had some vestiges of sense in your +head.' (I bowed my acknowledgements.) 'The thing is, I've an odd kind +of shyness about talking of it. Nothing of the sort has happened to me +before. Well, about eleven o'clock last night, or after, I took my +candle and set out for my room. I had a book in my other hand--I +always read something for a few minutes before I drop off to sleep. A +dangerous habit: I don't recommend it: but I know how to manage my +light and my bed curtains. Now then, first, as I stepped out of my +study into the great half that's next to it, and shut the door, my +candle went out. I supposed I had clapped the door behind me too +quick, and made a draught, and I was annoyed, for I'd no tinder-box +nearer than my bedroom. But I knew my way well enough, and went on. +The next thing was that my book was struck out of my hand in the dark: +if I said twitched out of my hand it would better express the +sensation. It fell on the floor. I picked it up, and went on, more +annoyed than before, and a little startled. But as you know, that hall +has many windows without curtains, and in summer nights like these it +is easy to see not only where the furniture is, but whether there's +any one or anything moving, and there was no one--nothing of the kind. +So on I went through the hall and through the audit chamber next to +it, which also has big windows, and then into the bedrooms which lead +to my own, where the curtains were drawn, and I had to go slower +because of steps here and there. It was in the second of those rooms +that I nearly got my _quietus_. The moment I opened the door of it I +felt there was something wrong. I thought twice, I confess, whether I +shouldn't turn back and find another way there is to my room rather +than go through that one. Then I was ashamed of myself, and thought +what people call better of it, though I don't know about "better" in +this case. If I was to describe my experience exactly, I should say +this: there was a dry, light, rustling sound all over the room as I +went in, and then (you remember it was perfectly dark) something +seemed to rush at me, and there was--I don't know how to put it--a +sensation of long thin arms, or legs, or feelers, all about my face, +and neck, and body. Very little strength in them, there seemed to be, +but Spearman, I don't think I was ever more horrified or disgusted in +all my life, that I remember: and it does take something to put me +out. I roared out as loud as I could, and flung away my candle at +random, and, knowing I was near the window, I tore at the curtain and +somehow let in enough light to be able to see something waving which I +knew was an insect's leg, by the shape of it: but, Lord, what a size! +Why the beast must have been as tall as I am. And now you tell me +sawflies are an inch long or less. What do you make of it, Spearman?' + +"'For goodness sake finish your story first,' I said. 'I never heard +anything like it.' 'Oh,' said he, 'there's no more to tell. Mary ran +in with a light, and there was nothing there. I didn't tell her what +was the matter. I changed my room for last night, and I expect for +good.' 'Have you searched this odd room of yours?' I said. 'What do +you keep in it?' 'We don't use it,' he answered. 'There's an old press +there, and some little other furniture.' 'And in the press?' said I. +'I don't know; I never saw it opened, but I do know that it's locked.' +'Well, I should have it looked into, and, if you had time, I own to +having some curiosity to see the place myself.' 'I didn't exactly like +to ask you, but that's rather what I hoped you'd say. Name your time +and I'll take you there.' 'No time like the present,' I said at once, +for I saw he would never settle down to anything while this affair was +in suspense. He got up with great alacrity, and looked at me, I am +tempted to think, with marked approval. 'Come along,' was all he said, +however; and was pretty silent all the way to his house. My Mary (as +he calls her in public, and I in private) was summoned, and we +proceeded to the room. The Doctor had gone so far as to tell her that +he had had something of a fright there last night, of what nature he +had not yet divulged; but now he pointed out and described, very +briefly, the incidents of his progress. When we were near the +important spot, he pulled up, and allowed me to pass on. 'There's the +room,' he said. 'Go in, Spearman, and tell us what you find.' Whatever +I might have felt at midnight, noonday I was sure would keep back +anything sinister, and I flung the door open with an air and stepped +in. It was a well-lighted room, with its large window on the right, +though not, I thought, a very airy one. The principal piece of +furniture was the gaunt old press of dark wood. There was, too, a +four-post bedstead, a mere skeleton which could hide nothing, and +there was a chest of drawers. On the window-sill and the floor near it +were the dead bodies of many hundred sawflies, and one torpid one +which I had some satisfaction in killing. I tried the door of the +press, but could not open it: the drawers, too, were locked. +Somewhere, I was conscious, there was a faint rustling sound, but I +could not locate it, and when I made my report to those outside, I +said nothing of it. But, I said, clearly the next thing was to see +what was in those locked receptacles. Uncle Oldys turned to Mary. +'Mrs. Maple,' he said, and Mary ran off--no one, I am sure, steps like +her--and soon came back at a soberer pace, with an elderly lady of +discreet aspect. + +"'Have you the keys of these things, Mrs. Maple?' said Uncle Oldys. +His simple words let loose a torrent (not violent, but copious) of +speech: had she been a shade or two higher in the social scale, Mrs. +Maple might have stood as the model for Miss Bates. + +"'Oh, Doctor, and Miss, and you too, sir,' she said, acknowledging my +presence with a bend, 'them keys! who was that again that come when +first we took over things in this house--a gentleman in business it +was, and I gave him his luncheon in the small parlour on account of us +not having everything as we should like to see it in the large +one--chicken, and apple-pie, and a glass of madeira--dear, dear, +you'll say I'm running on, Miss Mary; but I only mention it to bring +back my recollection; and there it comes--Gardner, just the same as it +did last week with the artichokes and the text of the sermon. Now that +Mr. Gardner, every key I got from him were labelled to itself, and +each and every one was a key of some door or another in this house, +and sometimes two; and when I say door, my meaning is door of a room, +not like such a press as this is. Yes, Miss Mary, I know full well, +and I'm just making it clear to your uncle and you too, sir. But now +there _was_ a box which this same gentleman he give over into my +charge, and thinking no harm after he was gone I took the liberty, +knowing it was your uncle's property, to rattle it: and unless I'm +most surprisingly deceived, in that box there was keys, but what keys, +that, Doctor, is known Elsewhere, for open the box, no that I would +not do.' + +"I wondered that Uncle Oldys remained as quiet as he did under this +address. Mary, I knew, was amused by it, and he probably had been +taught by experience that it was useless to break in upon it. At any +rate he did not, but merely said at the end, 'Have you that box handy, +Mrs. Maple? If so, you might bring it here.' Mrs. Maple pointed her +finger at him, either in accusation or in gloomy triumph. 'There,' she +said, 'was I to choose out the very words out of your mouth, Doctor, +them would be the ones. And if I've took it to my own rebuke one +half-a-dozen times, it's been nearer fifty. Laid awake I have in my +bed, sat down in my chair I have, the same you and Miss Mary gave me +the day I was twenty year in your service, and no person could desire +a better--yes, Miss Mary, but it _is_ the truth, and well we know who +it is would have it different if he could. "All very well," says I to +myself, "but pray, when the Doctor calls you to account for that box, +what are you going to say?" No, Doctor, if you was some masters I've +heard of and I was some servants I could name, I should have an easy +task before me, but things being, humanly speaking, what they are, the +one course open to me is just to say to you that without Miss Mary +comes to my room and helps me to my recollection, which her wits +_may_ manage what's slipped beyond mine, no such box as that, small +though it be, will cross your eyes this many a day to come.' + +"'Why, dear Mrs. Maple, why didn't you tell me before that you wanted +me to help you to find it?' said my Mary. 'No, never mind telling me +why it was: let us come at once and look for it.' They hastened off +together. I could hear Mrs. Maple beginning an explanation which, I +doubt not, lasted into the furthest recesses of the housekeeper's +department. Uncle Oldys and I were left alone. 'A valuable servant,' +he said, nodding towards the door. 'Nothing goes wrong under her: the +speeches are seldom over three minutes.' 'How will Miss Oldys manage +to make her remember about the box?' I asked. + +"'Mary? Oh, she'll make her sit down and ask her about her aunt's last +illness, or who gave her the china dog on the mantel-piece--something +quite off the point. Then, as Maple says, one thing brings up another, +and the right one will come round sooner than you could suppose. +There! I believe I hear them coming back already.' + +"It was indeed so, and Mrs. Maple was hurrying on ahead of Mary with +the box in her outstretched hand, and a beaming face. 'What was it,' +she cried as she drew near, 'what was it as I said, before ever I come +out of Dorsetshire to this place? Not that I'm a Dorset woman myself, +nor had need to be. "Safe bind, safe find," and there it was in the +place where I'd put it--what?--two months back, I daresay.' She handed +it to Uncle Oldys, and he and I examined it with some interest, so +that I ceased to pay attention to Mrs. Ann Maple for the moment, +though I know that she went on to expound exactly where the box had +been, and in what way Mary had helped to refresh her memory on the +subject. + +"It was an oldish box, tied with pink tape and sealed, and on the lid +was pasted a label inscribed in old ink, 'The Senior Prebendary's +House, Whitminster.' On being opened it was found to contain two keys +of moderate size, and a paper, on which, in the same hand as the +label, was 'Keys of the Press and Box of Drawers standing in the +disused Chamber.' Also this: 'The Effects in this Press and Box are +held by me, and to be held by my successors in the Residence, in trust +for the noble Family of Kildonan, if claim be made by any survivor of +it. I having made all the Enquiry possible to myself am of the +opinion that that noble House is wholly extinct: the last Earl having +been, as is notorious, cast away at sea, and his only Child and Heire +deceas'd in my House (the Papers as to which melancholy Casualty were +by me repos'd in the same Press in this year of our Lord 1753, 21 +March). I am further of opinion that unless grave discomfort arise, +such persons, not being of the Family of Kildonan, as shall become +possess'd of these keys, will be well advised to leave matters as they +are: which opinion I do not express without weighty and sufficient +reason; and am Happy to have my Judgment confirm'd by the other +Members of this College and Church who are conversant with the Events +referr'd to in this Paper. Tho. Ashton, _S.T.P._, _Praeb. senr._ Will. +Blake, _S.T.P._, _Decanus_. Hen. Goodman, _S.T.B._, _Praeb. junr._' + +"'Ah!' said Uncle Oldys, 'grave discomfort! So he thought there might +be something. I suspect it was that young man,' he went on, pointing +with the key to the line about the 'only Child and Heire.' 'Eh, Mary? +The viscounty of Kildonan was Saul.' 'How _do_ you know that, Uncle?' +said Mary. 'Oh, why not? it's all in Debrett--two little fat books. +But I meant the tomb by the lime walk. He's there. What's the story, I +wonder? Do you know it, Mrs. Maple? and, by the way, look at your +sawflies by the window there.' + +"Mrs. Maple, thus confronted with two subjects at once, was a little +put to it to do justice to both. It was no doubt rash in Uncle Oldys +to give her the opportunity. I could only guess that he had some +slight hesitation about using the key he held in his hand. + +"'Oh them flies, how bad they was, Doctor and Miss, this three or four +days: and you, too, sir, you wouldn't guess, none of you! And how they +come, too! First we took the room in hand, the shutters was up, and +had been, I daresay, years upon years, and not a fly to be seen. Then +we got the shutter bars down with a deal of trouble and left it so for +the day, and next day I sent Susan in with the broom to sweep about, +and not two minutes hadn't passed when out she come into the hall like +a blind thing, and we had regular to beat them off her. Why her cap +and her hair, you couldn't see the colour of it, I do assure you, and +all clustering round her eyes, too. Fortunate enough she's not a girl +with fancies, else if it had been me, why only the tickling of the +nasty things would have drove me out of my wits. And now there they +lay like so many dead things. Well, they was lively enough on the +Monday, and now here's Thursday, is it, or no, Friday. Only to come +near the door and you'd hear them pattering up against it, and once +you opened it, dash at you, they would, as if they'd eat you. I +couldn't help thinking to myself, "If you was bats, where should we be +this night?" Nor you can't cresh 'em, not like a usual kind of a fly. +Well, there's something to be thankful for, if we could but learn by +it. And then this tomb, too,' she said, hastening on to her second +point to elude any chance of interruption, 'of them two poor young +lads. I say poor, and yet when I recollect myself, I was at tea with +Mrs. Simpkins, the sexton's wife, before you come, Doctor and Miss +Mary, and that's a family has been in the place, what? I daresay a +hundred years in that very house, and could put their hand on any tomb +or yet grave in all the yard and give you name and age. And his +account of that young man, Mr. Simpkins's I mean to say--_well_!' She +compressed her lips and nodded several times. 'Tell us, Mrs. Maple,' +said Mary. 'Go on,' said Uncle Oldys. 'What about him?' said I. +'Never was such a thing seen in this place, not since Queen Mary's +times and the Pope and all,' said Mrs. Maple. 'Why, do you know he +lived in this very house, him and them that was with him, and for all +I can tell in this identical room' (she shifted her feet uneasily on +the floor). 'Who was with him? Do you mean the people of the house?' +said Uncle Oldys suspiciously. 'Not to call people, Doctor, dear no,' +was the answer; 'more what he brought with him from Ireland, I believe +it was. No, the people in the house was the last to hear anything of +his goings-on. But in the town not a family but knew how he stopped +out at night: and them that was with him, why they were such as would +strip the skin from the child in its grave; and a withered heart makes +an ugly thin ghost, says Mr. Simpkins. But they turned on him at the +last, he says, and there's the mark still to be seen on the minster +door where they run him down. And that's no more than the truth, for I +got him to show it to myself, and that's what he said. A lord he was, +with a Bible name of a wicked king, whatever his godfathers could have +been thinking of.' 'Saul was the name,' said Uncle Oldys. 'To be sure +it was Saul, Doctor, and thank you; and now isn't it King Saul that we +read of raising up the dead ghost that was slumbering in its tomb till +he disturbed it, and isn't that a strange thing, this young lord to +have such a name, and Mr. Simpkins's grandfather to see him out of his +window of a dark night going about from one grave to another in the +yard with a candle, and them that was with him following through the +grass at his heels: and one night him to come right up to old Mr. +Simpkins's window that gives on the yard and press his face up against +it to find out if there was any one in the room that could see him: +and only just time there was for old Mr. Simpkins to drop down like, +quiet, just under the window and hold his breath, and not stir till he +heard him stepping away again, and this rustling-like in the grass +after him as he went, and then when he looked out of his window in the +morning there was treadings in the grass and a dead man's bone. Oh, he +was a cruel child for certain, but he had to pay in the end, and +after.' 'After?' said Uncle Oldys, with a frown. 'Oh yes, Doctor, +night after night in old Mr. Simpkins's time, and his son, that's our +Mr. Simpkins's father, yes, and our own Mr. Simpkins too. Up against +that same window, particular when they've had a fire of a chilly +evening, with his face right on the panes, and his hands fluttering +out, and his mouth open and shut, open and shut, for a minute or more, +and then gone off in the dark yard. But open the window at such times, +no, that they dare not do, though they could find it in their heart to +pity the poor thing, that pinched up with the cold, and seemingly +fading away to a nothink as the years passed on. Well, indeed, I +believe it is no more than the truth what our Mr. Simpkins says on his +own grandfather's word, "A withered heart makes an ugly thin ghost."' +'I daresay,' said Uncle Oldys suddenly: so suddenly that Mrs. Maple +stopped short. 'Thank you. Come away, all of you.' 'Why, _Uncle_,' +said Mary, 'are you not going to open the press after all?' Uncle +Oldys blushed, actually blushed. 'My dear,' he said, 'you are at +liberty to call me a coward, or applaud me as a prudent man, whichever +you please. But I am neither going to open that press nor that chest +of drawers myself, nor am I going to hand over the keys to you or to +any other person. Mrs. Maple, will you kindly see about getting a man +or two to move those pieces of furniture into the garret?' 'And when +they do it, Mrs. Maple,' said Mary, who seemed to me--I did not then +know why--more relieved than disappointed by her uncle's decision, 'I +have something that I want put with the rest; only quite a small +packet.' + +"We left that curious room not unwillingly, I think. Uncle Oldys's +orders were carried out that same day. And so," concludes Mr. +Spearman, "Whitminster has a Bluebeard's chamber, and, I am rather +inclined to suspect, a Jack-in-the-box, awaiting some future occupant +of the residence of the senior prebendary." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Apparently the ichneumon fly (_Ophion obscurum_), and not +the true sawfly, is meant.] + + + + +THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER + + + + +THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER + + +The sale-room of an old and famous firm of book auctioneers in London +is, of course, a great meeting-place for collectors, librarians, +dealers: not only when an auction is in progress, but perhaps even +more notably when books that are coming on for sale are upon view. It +was in such a sale-room that the remarkable series of events began +which were detailed to me not many months ago by the person whom they +principally affected, namely, Mr. James Denton, M.A., F.S.A., etc., +etc., some time of Trinity Hall, now, or lately, of Rendcomb Manor in +the county of Warwick. + +He, on a certain spring day not many years since, was in London for a +few days upon business connected principally with the furnishing of +the house which he had just finished building at Rendcomb. It may be a +disappointment to you to learn that Rendcomb Manor was new; that I +cannot help. There had, no doubt, been an old house; but it was not +remarkable for beauty or interest. Even had it been, neither beauty +nor interest would have enabled it to resist the disastrous fire which +about a couple of years before the date of my story had razed it to +the ground. I am glad to say that all that was most valuable in it had +been saved, and that it was fully insured. So that it was with a +comparatively light heart that Mr. Denton was able to face the task of +building a new and considerably more convenient dwelling for himself +and his aunt who constituted his whole _menage_. + +Being in London, with time on his hands, and not far from the +sale-room at which I have obscurely hinted, Mr. Denton thought that he +would spend an hour there upon the chance of finding, among that +portion of the famous Thomas collection of MSS., which he knew to be +then on view, something bearing upon the history or topography of his +part of Warwickshire. + +He turned in accordingly, purchased a catalogue and ascended to the +sale-room, where, as usual, the books were disposed in cases and some +laid out upon the long tables. At the shelves, or sitting about at the +tables, were figures, many of whom were familiar to him. He exchanged +nods and greetings with several, and then settled down to examine his +catalogue and note likely items. He had made good progress through +about two hundred of the five hundred lots--every now and then rising +to take a volume from the shelf and give it a cursory glance--when a +hand was laid on his shoulder, and he looked up. His interrupter was +one of those intelligent men with a pointed beard and a flannel shirt, +of whom the last quarter of the nineteenth century was, it seems to +me, very prolific. + +It is no part of my plan to repeat the whole conversation which ensued +between the two. I must content myself with stating that it largely +referred to common acquaintances, e.g., to the nephew of Mr. Denton's +friend who had recently married and settled in Chelsea, to the +sister-in-law of Mr. Denton's friend who had been seriously +indisposed, but was now better, and to a piece of china which Mr. +Denton's friend had purchased some months before at a price much below +its true value. From which you will rightly infer that the +conversation was rather in the nature of a monologue. In due time, +however, the friend bethought himself that Mr. Denton was there for a +purpose, and said he, "What are you looking out for in particular? I +don't think there's much in this lot." "Why, I thought there might be +some Warwickshire collections, but I don't see anything under Warwick +in the catalogue." "No, apparently not," said the friend. "All the +same, I believe I noticed something like a Warwickshire diary. What +was the name again? Drayton? Potter? Painter--either a P or a D, I +feel sure." He turned over the leaves quickly. "Yes, here it is. +Poynter. Lot 486. That might interest you. There are the books, I +think: out on the table. Some one has been looking at them. Well, I +must be getting on. Good-bye, you'll look us up, won't you? Couldn't +you come this afternoon? we've got a little music about four. Well, +then, when you're next in town." He went off. Mr. Denton looked at his +watch and found to his confusion that he could spare no more than a +moment before retrieving his luggage and going for the train. The +moment was just enough to show him that there were four largish +volumes of the diary--that it concerned the years about 1710, and that +there seemed to be a good many insertions in it of various kinds. It +seemed quite worth while to leave a commission of five and twenty +pounds for it, and this he was able to do, for his usual agent entered +the room as he was on the point of leaving it. + +That evening he rejoined his aunt at their temporary abode, which was +a small dower-house not many hundred yards from the Manor. On the +following morning the two resumed a discussion that had now lasted for +some weeks as to the equipment of the new house. Mr. Denton laid +before his relative a statement of the results of his visit to +town--particulars of carpets, of chairs, of wardrobes, and of bedroom +china. "Yes, dear," said his aunt, "but I don't see any chintzes here. +Did you go to ----?" Mr. Denton stamped on the floor (where else, +indeed, could he have stamped?). "Oh dear, oh dear," he said, "the one +thing I missed. I _am_ sorry. The fact is I was on my way there and I +happened to be passing Robins's." His aunt threw up her hands. +"Robins's! Then the next thing will be another parcel of horrible old +books at some outrageous price. I do think, James, when I am taking +all this trouble for you, you might contrive to remember the one or +two things which I specially begged you to see after. It's not as if I +was asking it for myself. I don't know whether you think I get any +pleasure out of it, but if so I can assure you it's very much the +reverse. The thought and worry and trouble I have over it you have no +idea of, and _you_ have simply to go to the shops and order the +things." Mr. Denton interposed a moan of penitence. "Oh, aunt----" +"Yes, that's all very well, dear, and I don't want to speak sharply, +but you _must_ know how very annoying it is: particularly as it delays +the whole of our business for I can't tell how long: here is +Wednesday--the Simpsons come to-morrow, and you can't leave them. Then +on Saturday we have friends, as you know, coming for tennis. Yes, +indeed, you spoke of asking them yourself, but, of course, I had to +write the notes, and it is ridiculous, James, to look like that. We +must occasionally be civil to our neighbours: you wouldn't like to +have it said we were perfect bears. What was I saying? Well, anyhow it +comes to this, that it must be Thursday in next week at least, before +you can go to town again, and until we have decided upon the chintzes +it is impossible to settle upon one single other thing." + +Mr. Denton ventured to suggest that as the paint and wallpapers had +been dealt with, this was too severe a view: but this his aunt was +not prepared to admit at the moment. Nor, indeed, was there any +proposition he could have advanced which she would have found herself +able to accept. However, as the day went on, she receded a little from +this position: examined with lessening disfavour the samples and price +lists submitted by her nephew, and even in some cases gave a qualified +approval to his choice. + +As for him, he was naturally somewhat dashed by the consciousness of +duty unfulfilled, but more so by the prospect of a lawn-tennis party, +which, though an inevitable evil in August, he had thought there was +no occasion to fear in May. But he was to some extent cheered by the +arrival on the Friday morning of an intimation that he had secured at +the price of L12 10s. the four volumes of Poynter's manuscript diary, +and still more by the arrival on the next morning of the diary itself. + +The necessity of taking Mr. and Mrs. Simpson for a drive in the car on +Saturday morning and of attending to his neighbours and guests that +afternoon prevented him from doing more than open the parcel until the +party had retired to bed on the Saturday night. It was then that he +made certain of the fact, which he had before only suspected, that he +had indeed acquired the diary of Mr. William Poynter, Squire of +Acrington (about four miles from his own parish)--that same Poynter +who was for a time a member of the circle of Oxford antiquaries, the +centre of which was Thomas Hearne, and with whom Hearne seems +ultimately to have quarrelled--a not uncommon episode in the career of +that excellent man. As is the case with Hearne's own collections, the +diary of Poynter contained a good many notes from printed books, +descriptions of coins and other antiquities that had been brought to +his notice, and drafts of letters on these subjects, besides the +chronicle of everyday events. The description in the sale-catalogue +had given Mr. Denton no idea of the amount of interest which seemed to +lie in the book, and he sat up reading in the first of the four +volumes until a reprehensibly late hour. + +On the Sunday morning, after church, his aunt came into the study and +was diverted from what she had been going to say to him by the sight +of the four brown leather quartos on the table. "What are these?" she +said suspiciously. "New, aren't they? Oh! are these the things that +made you forget my chintzes? I thought so. Disgusting. What did you +give for them, I should like to know? Over Ten Pounds? James, it is +really sinful. Well, if you have money to throw away on this kind of +thing, there _can_ be no reason why you should not subscribe--and +subscribe handsomely--to my anti-Vivisection League. There is not, +indeed, James, and I shall be very seriously annoyed if----. Who did +you say wrote them? Old Mr. Poynter, of Acrington? Well, of course, +there is some interest in getting together old papers about this +neighbourhood. But Ten Pounds!" She picked up one of the volumes--not +that which her nephew had been reading--and opened it at random, +dashing it to the floor the next instant with a cry of disgust as a +earwig fell from between the pages. Mr. Denton picked it up with a +smothered expletive and said, "Poor book! I think you're rather hard +on Mr. Poynter." "Was I, my dear? I beg his pardon, but you know I +cannot abide those horrid creatures. Let me see if I've done any +mischief." "No, I think all's well: but look here what you've opened +him on." "Dear me, yes, to be sure! how very interesting. Do unpin it, +James, and let me look at it." + +It was a piece of patterned stuff about the size of the quarto page, +to which it was fastened by an old-fashioned pin. James detached it +and handed it to his aunt, carefully replacing the pin in the paper. + +Now, I do not know exactly what the fabric was; but it had a design +printed upon it, which completely fascinated Miss Denton. She went +into raptures over it, held it against the wall, made James do the +same, that she might retire to contemplate it from a distance: then +pored over it at close quarters, and ended her examination by +expressing in the warmest terms her appreciation of the taste of the +ancient Mr. Poynter who had had the happy idea of preserving this +sample in his diary. "It is a most charming pattern," she said, "and +remarkable too. Look, James, how delightfully the lines ripple. It +reminds one of hair, very much, doesn't it. And then these knots of +ribbon at intervals. They give just the relief of colour that is +wanted. I wonder----" "I was going to say," said James with deference, +"I wonder if it would cost much to have it copied for our curtains." +"Copied? how could you have it copied, James?" "Well, I don't know the +details, but I suppose that is a printed pattern, and that you could +have a block cut from it in wood or metal." "Now, really, that is a +capital idea, James. I am almost inclined to be glad that you were +so--that you forgot the chintzes on Monday. At any rate, I'll promise +to forgive and forget if you get this _lovely_ old thing copied. No +one will have anything in the least like it, and mind, James, we won't +allow it to be sold. Now I _must_ go, and I've totally forgotten what +it was I came in to say: never mind, it'll keep." + +After his aunt had gone James Denton devoted a few minutes to +examining the pattern more closely than he had yet had a chance of +doing. He was puzzled to think why it should have struck Miss Denton +so forcibly. It seemed to him not specially remarkable or pretty. No +doubt it was suitable enough for a curtain pattern: it ran in vertical +bands, and there was some indication that these were intended to +converge at the top. She was right, too, in thinking that these main +bands resembled rippling--almost curling--tresses of hair. Well, the +main thing was to find out by means of trade directories, or +otherwise, what firm would undertake the reproduction of an old +pattern of this kind. Not to delay the reader over this portion of +the story, a list of likely names was made out, and Mr. Denton fixed a +day for calling on them, or some of them, with his sample. + +The first two visits which he paid were unsuccessful: but there is +luck in odd numbers. The firm in Bermondsey which was third on his +list was accustomed to handling this line. The evidence they were able +to produce justified their being entrusted with the job. "Our Mr. +Cattell" took a fervent personal interest in it. "It's 'eartrending, +isn't it, sir," he said, "to picture the quantity of reelly lovely +medeevial stuff of this kind that lays well-nigh unnoticed in many of +our residential country 'ouses: much of it in peril, I take it, of +being cast aside as so much rubbish. What is it Shakespeare +says--unconsidered trifles. Ah, I often say he 'as a word for us all, +sir. I say Shakespeare, but I'm well aware all don't 'old with me +there--I 'ad something of an upset the other day when a gentleman came +in--a titled man, too, he was, and I think he told me he'd wrote on +the topic, and I 'appened to cite out something about 'Ercules and the +painted cloth. Dear me, you never see such a pother. But as to this, +what you've kindly confided to us, it's a piece of work we shall take +a reel enthusiasm in achieving it out to the very best of our ability. +What man 'as done, as I was observing only a few weeks back to another +esteemed client, man can do, and in three to four weeks' time, all +being well, we shall 'ope to lay before you evidence to that effect, +sir. Take the address, Mr. 'Iggins, if you please." + +Such was the general drift of Mr. Cattell's observations on the +occasion of his first interview with Mr. Denton. About a month later, +being advised that some samples were ready for his inspection, Mr. +Denton met him again, and had, it seems, reason to be satisfied with +the faithfulness of the reproduction of the design. It had been +finished off at the top in accordance with the indication I mentioned, +so that the vertical bands joined. But something still needed to be +done in the way of matching the colour of the original. Mr. Cattell +had suggestions of a technical kind to offer, with which I need not +trouble you. He had also views as to the general desirability of the +pattern which were vaguely adverse. "You say you don't wish this to be +supplied excepting to personal friends equipped with a authorization +from yourself, sir. It shall be done. I quite understand your wish to +keep it exclusive: lends a catchit, does it not, to the suite? +What's every man's, it's been said, is no man's." + +"Do you think it would be popular if it were generally obtainable?" +asked Mr. Denton. + +"I 'ardly think it, sir," said Cattell, pensively clasping his beard. +"I 'ardly think it. Not popular: it wasn't popular with the man that +cut the block, was it, Mr. 'Iggins?" + +"Did he find it a difficult job?" + +"He'd no call to do so, sir; but the fact is that the artistic +temperament--and our men are artists, sir, every man of them--true +artists as much as many that the world styles by that term--it's apt +to take some strange 'ardly accountable likes or dislikes, and here +was an example. The twice or thrice that I went to inspect his +progress: language I could understand, for that's 'abitual to him, but +reel distaste for what I should call a dainty enough thing, I did not, +nor am I now able to fathom. It seemed," said Mr. Cattell, looking +narrowly upon Mr. Denton, "as if the man scented something almost +Hevil in the design." + +"Indeed? did he tell you so? I can't say I see anything sinister in it +myself." + +"Neether can I, sir. In fact I said as much. 'Come, Gatwick,' I said, +'what's to do here? What's the reason of your prejudice--for I can +call it no more than that?' But, no! no explanation was forthcoming. +And I was merely reduced, as I am now, to a shrug of the shoulders, +and a _cui bono_. However, here it is," and with that the technical +side of the question came to the front again. + +The matching of the colours for the background, the hem, and the knots +of ribbon was by far the longest part of the business, and +necessitated many sendings to and fro of the original pattern and of +new samples. During part of August and September, too, the Dentons +were away from the Manor. So that it was not until October was well in +that a sufficient quantity of the stuff had been manufactured to +furnish curtains for the three or four bedrooms which were to be +fitted up with it. + +On the feast of Simon and Jude the aunt and nephew returned from a +short visit to find all completed, and their satisfaction at the +general effect was great. The new curtains, in particular, agreed to +admiration with their surroundings. When Mr. Denton was dressing for +dinner, and took stock of his room, in which there was a large amount +of the chintz displayed, he congratulated himself over and over again +on the luck which had first made him forget his aunt's commission and +had then put into his hands this extremely effective means of +remedying his mistake. The pattern was, as he said at dinner, so +restful and yet so far from being dull. And Miss Denton--who, by the +way, had none of the stuff in her own room--was much disposed to agree +with him. + +At breakfast next morning he was induced to qualify his satisfaction +to some extent--but very slightly. "There is one thing I rather +regret," he said, "that we allowed them to join up the vertical bands +of the pattern at the top. I think it would have been better to leave +that alone." + +"Oh?" said his aunt interrogatively. + +"Yes: as I was reading in bed last night they kept catching my eye +rather. That is, I found myself looking across at them every now and +then. There was an effect as if some one kept peeping out between the +curtains in one place or another, where there was no edge, and I think +that was due to the joining up of the bands at the top. The only other +thing that troubled me was the wind." + +"Why, I thought it was a perfectly still night." + +"Perhaps it was only on my side of the house, but there was enough to +sway my curtains and rustle them more than I wanted." + +That night a bachelor friend of James Denton's came to stay, and was +lodged in a room on the same floor as his host, but at the end of a +long passage, halfway down which was a red baize door, put there to +cut off the draught and intercept noise. + +The party of three had separated. Miss Denton a good first, the two +men at about eleven. James Denton, not yet inclined for bed, sat him +down in an arm-chair and read for a time. Then he dozed, and then he +woke, and bethought himself that his brown spaniel, which ordinarily +slept in his room, had not come upstairs with him. Then he thought he +was mistaken: for happening to move his hand which hung down over the +arm of the chair within a few inches of the floor, he felt on the back +of it just the slightest touch of a surface of hair, and stretching it +out in that direction he stroked and patted a rounded something. But +the feel of it, and still more the fact that instead of a responsive +movement, absolute stillness greeted his touch, made him look over +the arm. What he had been touching rose to meet him. It was in the +attitude of one that had crept along the floor on its belly, and it +was, so far as could be collected, a human figure. But of the face +which was now rising to within a few inches of his own no feature was +discernible, only hair. Shapeless as it was, there was about it so +horrible an air of menace that as he bounded from his chair and rushed +from the room he heard himself moaning with fear: and doubtless he did +right to fly. As he dashed into the baize door that cut the passage in +two, and--forgetting that it opened towards him--beat against it with +all the force in him, he felt a soft ineffectual tearing at his back +which, all the same, seemed to be growing in power, as if the hand, or +whatever worse than a hand was there, were becoming more material as +the pursuer's rage was more concentrated. Then he remembered the trick +of the door--he got it open--he shut it behind him--he gained his +friend's room, and that is all we need know. + +It seems curious that, during all the time that had elapsed since the +purchase of Poynter's diary, James Denton should not have sought an +explanation of the presence of the pattern that had been pinned into +it. Well, he had read the diary through without finding it mentioned, +and had concluded that there was nothing to be said. But, on leaving +Rendcomb Manor (he did not know whether for good), as he naturally +insisted upon doing on the day after experiencing the horror I have +tried to put into words, he took the diary with him. And at his +seaside lodgings he examined more narrowly the portion whence the +pattern had been taken. What he remembered having suspected about it +turned out to be correct. Two or three leaves were pasted together, +but written upon, as was patent when they were held up to the light. +They yielded easily to steaming, for the paste had lost much of its +strength, and they contained something relevant to the pattern. + +The entry was made in 1707. + + "Old Mr. Casbury, of Acrington, told me this day much of + young Sir Everard Charlett, whom he remember'd Commoner of + University College, and thought was of the same Family as + Dr. Arthur Charlett, now master of ye Coll. This Charlett + was a personable young gent., but a loose atheistical + companion, and a great Lifter, as they then call'd the hard + drinkers, and for what I know do so now. He was noted, and + subject to severall censures at different times for his + extravagancies: and if the full history of his debaucheries + had bin known, no doubt would have been expell'd ye Coll., + supposing that no interest had been imploy'd on his behalf, + of which Mr. Casbury had some suspicion. He was a very + beautiful person, and constantly wore his own Hair, which + was very abundant, from which, and his loose way of living, + the cant name for him was Absalom, and he was accustom'd to + say that indeed he believ'd he had shortened old David's + days, meaning his father, Sir Job Charlett, an old worthy + cavalier. + + "Note that Mr. Casbury said that he remembers not the year + of Sir Everard Charlett's death, but it was 1692 or 3. He + died suddenly in October. [Several lines describing his + unpleasant habits and reputed delinquencies are omitted.] + Having seen him in such topping spirits the night before, + Mr. Casbury was amaz'd when he learn'd the death. He was + found in the town ditch, the hair as was said pluck'd clean + off his head. Most bells in Oxford rung out for him, being a + nobleman, and he was buried next night in St. Peter's in the + East. But two years after, being to be moved to his country + estate by his successor, it was said the coffin, breaking by + mischance, proved quite full of Hair: which sounds fabulous, + but yet I believe precedents are upon record, as in Dr. + Plot's _History of Staffordshire_. + + "His chambers being afterwards stripp'd, Mr. Casbury came by + part of the hangings of it, which 'twas said this Charlett + had design'd expressly for a memoriall of his Hair, giving + the Fellow that drew it a lock to work by, and the piece + which I have fasten'd in here was parcel of the same, which + Mr. Casbury gave to me. He said he believ'd there was a + subtlety in the drawing, but had never discover'd it + himself, nor much liked to pore upon it." + + * * * * * + +The money spent upon the curtains might as well have been thrown into +the fire, as they were. Mr. Cattell's comment upon what he heard of +the story took the form of a quotation from Shakespeare. You may guess +it without difficulty. It began with the words "There are more +things." + + + + +AN EPISODE OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY + + + + +AN EPISODE OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY + + +There was once a learned gentleman who was deputed to examine and +report upon the archives of the Cathedral of Southminster. The +examination of these records demanded a very considerable expenditure +of time: hence it became advisable for him to engage lodgings in the +city: for though the Cathedral body were profuse in their offers of +hospitality, Mr. Lake felt that he would prefer to be master of his +day. This was recognized as reasonable. The Dean eventually wrote +advising Mr. Lake, if he were not already suited, to communicate with +Mr. Worby, the principal Verger, who occupied a house convenient to +the church and was prepared to take in a quiet lodger for three or +four weeks. Such an arrangement was precisely what Mr. Lake desired. +Terms were easily agreed upon, and early in December, like another Mr. +Datchery (as he remarked to himself), the investigator found himself +in the occupation of a very comfortable room in an ancient and +"cathedraly" house. + +One so familiar with the customs of Cathedral churches, and treated +with such obvious consideration by the Dean and Chapter of this +Cathedral in particular, could not fail to command the respect of the +Head Verger. Mr. Worby even acquiesced in certain modifications of +statements he had been accustomed to offer for years to parties of +visitors. Mr. Lake, on his part, found the Verger a very cheery +companion, and took advantage of any occasion that presented itself +for enjoying his conversation when the day's work was over. + +One evening, about nine o'clock, Mr. Worby knocked at his lodger's +door. "I've occasion," he said, "to go across to the Cathedral, Mr. +Lake, and I think I made you a promise when I did so next I would give +you the opportunity to see what it looks like at night time. It is +quite fine and dry outside, if you care to come." + +"To be sure I will; very much obliged to you, Mr. Worby, for thinking +of it, but let me get my coat." + +"Here it is, sir, and I've another lantern here that you'll find +advisable for the steps, as there's no moon." + +"Any one might think we were Jasper and Durdles, over again, mightn't +they," said Lake, as they crossed the close, for he had ascertained +that the Verger had read _Edwin Drood_. + +"Well, so they might," said Mr. Worby, with a short laugh, "though I +don't know whether we ought to take it as a compliment. Odd ways, I +often think, they had at that Cathedral, don't it seem so to you, sir? +Full choral matins at seven o'clock in the morning all the year round. +Wouldn't suit our boys' voices nowadays, and I think there's one or +two of the men would be applying for a rise if the Chapter was to +bring it in--particular the alltoes." + +They were now at the south-west door. As Mr. Worby was unlocking it, +Lake said, "Did you ever find anybody locked in here by accident?" + +"Twice I did. One was a drunk sailor; however he got in I don't know. +I s'pose he went to sleep in the service, but by the time I got to him +he was praying fit to bring the roof in. Lor'! what a noise that man +did make! said it was the first time he'd been inside a church for ten +years, and blest if ever he'd try it again. The other was an old +sheep: them boys it was, up to their games. That was the last time +they tried it on, though. There, sir, now you see what we look like; +our late Dean used now and again to bring parties in, but he preferred +a moonlight night, and there was a piece of verse he'd coat to 'em, +relating to a Scotch cathedral, I understand; but I don't know; I +almost think the effect's better when it's all dark-like. Seems to add +to the size and heighth. Now if you won't mind stopping somewhere in +the nave while I go up into the choir where my business lays, you'll +see what I mean." + +Accordingly Lake waited, leaning against a pillar, and watched the +light wavering along the length of the church, and up the steps into +the choir, until it was intercepted by some screen or other furniture, +which only allowed the reflection to be seen on the piers and roof. +Not many minutes had passed before Worby reappeared at the door of the +choir and by waving his lantern signalled to Lake to rejoin him. + +"I suppose it _is_ Worby, and not a substitute," thought Lake to +himself, as he walked up the nave. There was, in fact, nothing +untoward. Worby showed him the papers which he had come to fetch out +of the Dean's stall, and asked him what he thought of the spectacle: +Lake agreed that it was well worth seeing. "I suppose," he said, as +they walked towards the altar-steps together, "that you're too much +used to going about here at night to feel nervous--but you must get a +start every now and then, don't you, when a book falls down or a door +swings to." + +"No, Mr. Lake, I can't say I think much about noises, not nowadays: +I'm much more afraid of finding an escape of gas or a burst in the +stove pipes than anything else. Still there have been times, years +ago. Did you notice that plain altar-tomb there--fifteenth century we +say it is, I don't know if you agree to that? Well, if you didn't look +at it, just come back and give it a glance, if you'd be so good." It +was on the north side of the choir, and rather awkwardly placed: only +about three feet from the enclosing stone screen. Quite plain, as the +Verger had said, but for some ordinary stone panelling. A metal cross +of some size on the northern side (that next to the screen) was the +solitary feature of any interest. + +Lake agreed that it was not earlier than the Perpendicular period: +"but," he said, "unless it's the tomb of some remarkable person, +you'll forgive me for saying that I don't think it's particularly +noteworthy." + +"Well, I can't say as it is the tomb of anybody noted in 'istory," +said Worby, who had a dry smile on his face, "for we don't own any +record whatsoever of who it was put up to. For all that, if you've +half an hour to spare, sir, when we get back to the house, Mr. Lake, I +could tell you a tale about that tomb. I won't begin on it now; it +strikes cold here, and we don't want to be dawdling about all night." + +"Of course I should like to hear it immensely." + +"Very well, sir, you shall. Now if I might put a question to you," he +went on, as they passed down the choir aisle, "in our little local +guide--and not only there, but in the little book on our Cathedral in +the series--you'll find it stated that this portion of the building +was erected previous to the twelfth century. Now of course I should be +glad enough to take that view, but--mind the step, sir--but, I put it +to you--does the lay of the stone 'ere in this portion of the wall +(which he tapped with his key) does it to your eye carry the flavour +of what you might call Saxon masonry? No, I thought not; no more it +does to me: now, if you'll believe me, I've said as much to those +men--one's the librarian of our Free Libry here, and the other came +down from London on purpose--fifty times, if I have once, but I might +just as well have talked to that bit of stonework. But there it is, I +suppose every one's got their opinions." + +The discussion of this peculiar trait of human nature occupied Mr. +Worby almost up to the moment when he and Lake re-entered the former's +house. The condition of the fire in Lake's sitting-room led to a +suggestion from Mr. Worby that they should finish the evening in his +own parlour. We find them accordingly settled there some short time +afterwards. + +Mr. Worby made his story a long one, and I will not undertake to tell +it wholly in his own words, or in his own order. Lake committed the +substance of it to paper immediately after hearing it, together with +some few passages of the narrative which had fixed themselves +_verbatim_ in his mind; I shall probably find it expedient to condense +Lake's record to some extent. + +Mr. Worby was born, it appeared, about the year 1828. His father +before him had been connected with the Cathedral, and likewise his +grandfather. One or both had been choristers, and in later life both +had done work as mason and carpenter respectively about the fabric. +Worby himself, though possessed, as he frankly acknowledged, of an +indifferent voice, had been drafted into the choir at about ten years +of age. + +It was in 1840 that the wave of the Gothic revival smote the Cathedral +of Southminster. "There was a lot of lovely stuff went then, sir," +said Worby, with a sigh. "My father couldn't hardly believe it when he +got his orders to clear out the choir. There was a new dean just come +in--Dean Burscough it was--and my father had been 'prenticed to a good +firm of joiners in the city, and knew what good work was when he saw +it. Crool it was, he used to say: all that beautiful wainscot oak, as +good as the day it was put up, and garlands-like of foliage and fruit, +and lovely old gilding work on the coats of arms and the organ pipes. +All went to the timber yard--every bit except some little pieces +worked up in the Lady Chapel, and 'ere in this overmantel. Well--I may +be mistook, but I say our choir never looked as well since. Still +there was a lot found out about the history of the church, and no +doubt but what it did stand in need of repair. There was very few +winters passed but what we'd lose a pinnicle." Mr. Lake expressed his +concurrence with Worby's views of restoration, but owns to a fear +about this point lest the story proper should never be reached. +Possibly this was perceptible in his manner. + +Worby hastened to reassure him, "Not but what I could carry on about +that topic for hours at a time, and do do when I see my opportunity. +But Dean Burscough he was very set on the Gothic period, and nothing +would serve him but everything must be made agreeable to that. And one +morning after service he appointed for my father to meet him in the +choir, and he came back after he'd taken off his robes in the vestry, +and he'd got a roll of paper with him, and the verger that was then +brought in a table, and they begun spreading it out on the table with +prayer books to keep it down, and my father helped 'em, and he saw it +was a picture of the inside of a choir in a Cathedral; and the +Dean--he was a quick spoken gentleman--he says, 'Well, Worby, what do +you think of that?' 'Why', says my father, 'I don't think I 'ave the +pleasure of knowing that view. Would that be Hereford Cathedral, Mr. +Dean?' 'No, Worby,' says the Dean, 'that's Southminster Cathedral as +we hope to see it before many years.' 'In-deed, sir,' says my father, +and that was all he did say--leastways to the Dean--but he used to +tell me he felt really faint in himself when he looked round our +choir as I can remember it, all comfortable and furnished-like, and +then see this nasty little dry picter, as he called it, drawn out by +some London architect. Well, there I am again. But you'll see what I +mean if you look at this old view." + +Worby reached down a framed print from the wall. "Well, the long and +the short of it was that the Dean he handed over to my father a copy +of an order of the Chapter that he was to clear out every bit of the +choir--make a clean sweep--ready for the new work that was being +designed up in town, and he was to put it in hand as soon as ever he +could get the breakers together. Now then, sir, if you look at that +view, you'll see where the pulpit used to stand: that's what I want +you to notice, if you please." It was, indeed, easily seen; an +unusually large structure of timber with a domed sounding-board, +standing at the east end of the stalls on the north side of the choir, +facing the bishop's throne. Worby proceeded to explain that during the +alterations, services were held in the nave, the members of the choir +being thereby disappointed of an anticipated holiday, and the organist +in particular incurring the suspicion of having wilfully damaged the +mechanism of the temporary organ that was hired at considerable +expense from London. + +The work of demolition began with the choir screen and organ loft, and +proceeded gradually eastwards, disclosing, as Worby said, many +interesting features of older work. While this was going on, the +members of the Chapter were, naturally, in and about the choir a great +deal, and it soon became apparent to the elder Worby--who could not +help overhearing some of their talk--that, on the part of the senior +Canons especially, there must have been a good deal of disagreement +before the policy now being carried out had been adopted. Some were of +opinion that they should catch their deaths of cold in the +return-stalls, unprotected by a screen from the draughts in the nave: +others objected to being exposed to the view of persons in the choir +aisles, especially, they said, during the sermons, when they found it +helpful to listen in a posture which was liable to misconstruction. +The strongest opposition, however, came from the oldest of the body, +who up to the last moment objected to the removal of the pulpit. "You +ought not to touch it, Mr. Dean," he said with great emphasis one +morning, when the two were standing before it: "you don't know what +mischief you may do." "Mischief? it's not a work of any particular +merit, Canon." "Don't call me Canon," said the old man with great +asperity, "that is, for thirty years I've been known as Dr. Ayloff, +and I shall be obliged, Mr. Dean, if you would kindly humour me in +that matter. And as to the pulpit (which I've preached from for thirty +years, though I don't insist on that) all I'll say is, I _know_ you're +doing wrong in moving it." "But what sense could there be, my dear +Doctor, in leaving it where it is, when we're fitting up the rest of +the choir in a totally different _style_? What reason could be +given--apart from the look of the thing?" "Reason! reason!" said old +Dr. Ayloff; "if you young men--if I may say so without any disrespect, +Mr. Dean--if you'd only listen to reason a little, and not be always +asking for it, we should get on better. But there, I've said my say." +The old gentleman hobbled off, and as it proved, never entered the +Cathedral again. The season--it was a hot summer--turned sickly on a +sudden. Dr. Ayloff was one of the first to go, with some affection of +the muscles of the thorax, which took him painfully at night. And at +many services the number of choirmen and boys was very thin. + +Meanwhile the pulpit had been done away with. In fact, the +sounding-board (part of which still exists as a table in a +summer-house in the palace garden) was taken down within an hour or +two of Dr. Ayloff's protest. The removal of the base--not effected +without considerable trouble--disclosed to view, greatly to the +exultation of the restoring party, an altar-tomb--the tomb, of course, +to which Worby had attracted Lake's attention that same evening. Much +fruitless research was expended in attempts to identify the occupant; +from that day to this he has never had a name put to him. The +structure had been most carefully boxed in under the pulpit-base, so +that such slight ornament as it possessed was not defaced; only on the +north side of it there was what looked like an injury; a gap between +two of the slabs composing the side. It might be two or three inches +across. Palmer, the mason, was directed to fill it up in a week's +time, when he came to do some other small jobs near that part of the +choir. + +The season was undoubtedly a very trying one. Whether the church was +built on a site that had once been a marsh, as was suggested, or for +whatever reason, the residents in its immediate neighbourhood had, +many of them, but little enjoyment of the exquisite sunny days and +the calm nights of August and September. To several of the older +people--Dr. Ayloff, among others, as we have seen--the summer proved +downright fatal, but even among the younger, few escaped either a +sojourn in bed for a matter of weeks, or at the least, a brooding +sense of oppression, accompanied by hateful nightmares. Gradually +there formulated itself a suspicion--which grew into a conviction--that +the alterations in the Cathedral had something to say in the matter. +The widow of a former old verger, a pensioner of the Chapter of +Southminster, was visited by dreams, which she retailed to her +friends, of a shape that slipped out of the little door of the south +transept as the dark fell in, and flitted--taking a fresh direction +every night--about the close, disappearing for a while in house after +house, and finally emerging again when the night sky was paling. She +could see nothing of it, she said, but that it was a moving form: only +she had an impression that when it returned to the church, as it +seemed to do in the end of the dream, it turned its head: and then, +she could not tell why, but she thought it had red eyes. Worby +remembered hearing the old lady tell this dream at a tea-party in the +house of the chapter clerk. Its recurrence might, perhaps, he said, be +taken as a symptom of approaching illness; at any rate before the end +of September the old lady was in her grave. + +The interest excited by the restoration of this great church was not +confined to its own county. One day that summer an F.S.A., of some +celebrity, visited the place. His business was to write an account of +the discoveries that had been made, for the Society of Antiquaries, +and his wife, who accompanied him, was to make a series of +illustrative drawings for his report. In the morning she employed +herself in making a general sketch of the choir; in the afternoon she +devoted herself to details. She first drew the newly exposed +altar-tomb, and when that was finished, she called her husband's +attention to a beautiful piece of diaper-ornament on the screen just +behind it, which had, like the tomb itself, been completely concealed +by the pulpit. Of course, he said, an illustration of that must be +made; so she seated herself on the tomb and began a careful drawing +which occupied her till dusk. + +Her husband had by this time finished his work of measuring and +description, and they agreed that it was time to be getting back to +their hotel. "You may as well brush my skirt, Frank," said the lady, +"it must have got covered with dust, I'm sure." He obeyed dutifully; +but, after a moment, he said, "I don't know whether you value this +dress particularly, my dear, but I'm inclined to think it's seen its +best days. There's a great bit of it gone." "Gone? Where?" said she. +"I don't know where it's gone, but it's off at the bottom edge behind +here." She pulled it hastily into sight, and was horrified to find a +jagged tear extending some way into the substance of the stuff; very +much, she said, as if a dog had rent it away. The dress was, in any +case, hopelessly spoilt, to her great vexation, and though they looked +everywhere, the missing piece could not be found. There were many +ways, they concluded, in which the injury might have come about, for +the choir was full of old bits of woodwork with nails sticking out of +them. Finally, they could only suppose that one of these had caused +the mischief, and that the workmen, who had been about all day, had +carried off the particular piece with the fragment of dress still +attached to it. + +It was about this time, Worby thought, that his little dog began to +wear an anxious expression when the hour for it to be put into the +shed in the back yard approached. (For his mother had ordained that it +must not sleep in the house.) One evening, he said, when he was just +going to pick it up and carry it out, it looked at him "like a +Christian, and waved its 'and, I was going to say--well, you know 'ow +they do carry on sometimes, and the end of it was I put it under my +coat, and 'uddled it upstairs--and I'm afraid I as good as deceived my +poor mother on the subject. After that the dog acted very artful with +'iding itself under the bed for half-an-hour or more before bed-time +came, and we worked it so as my mother never found out what we'd +done." Of course Worby was glad of its company anyhow, but more +particularly when the nuisance that is still remembered in +Southminster as "the crying" set in. + +"Night after night," said Worby, "that dog seemed to know it was +coming; he'd creep out, he would, and snuggle into the bed and cuddle +right up to me shivering, and when the crying come he'd be like a wild +thing, shoving his head under my arm, and I was fully near as bad. Six +or seven times we'd hear it, not more, and when he'd dror out his 'ed +again I'd know it was over for that night. What was it like, sir? +Well, I never heard but one thing that seemed to hit it off. I +happened to be playing about in the Close, and there was two of the +Canons met and said 'Good morning' one to another. 'Sleep well last +night?' says one--it was Mr. Henslow that one, and Mr. Lyall was the +other--'Can't say I did,' says Mr. Lyall, 'rather too much of Isaiah +34. 14 for me.' '34. 14,' says Mr. Henslow, 'what's that?' 'You call +yourself a Bible reader!' says Mr. Lyall. (Mr. Henslow, you must know, +he was one of what used to be termed Simeon's lot--pretty much what we +should call the Evangelical party.) 'You go and look it up.' I wanted +to know what he was getting at myself, and so off I ran home and got +out my own Bible, and there it was: 'the satyr shall cry to his +fellow.' Well, I thought, is that what we've been listening to these +past nights? and I tell you it made me look over my shoulder a time or +two. Of course I'd asked my father and mother about what it could be +before that, but they both said it was most likely cats: but they +spoke very short, and I could see they was troubled. My word! that was +a noise--'ungry-like, as if it was calling after some one that +wouldn't come. If ever you felt you wanted company, it would be when +you was waiting for it to begin again. I believe two or three nights +there was men put on to watch in different parts of the Close; but +they all used to get together in one corner, the nearest they could to +the High Street, and nothing came of it. + +"Well, the next thing was this. Me and another of the boys--he's in +business in the city now as a grocer, like his father before him--we'd +gone up in the Close after morning service was over, and we heard old +Palmer the mason bellowing to some of his men. So we went up nearer, +because we knew he was a rusty old chap and there might be some fun +going. It appears Palmer'd told this man to stop up the chink in that +old tomb. Well, there was this man keeping on saying he'd done it the +best he could, and there was Palmer carrying on like all possessed +about it. 'Call that making a job of it?' he says. 'If you had your +rights you'd get the sack for this. What do you suppose I pay you your +wages for? What do you suppose I'm going to say to the Dean and +Chapter when they come round, as come they may do any time, and see +where you've been bungling about covering the 'ole place with mess +and plaster and Lord knows what?' 'Well, master, I done the best I +could,' says the man; 'I don't know no more than what you do 'ow it +come to fall out this way. I tamped it right in the 'ole,' he says, +'and now it's fell out,' he says, 'I never see.' + +"'Fell out?' says old Palmer, 'why it's nowhere near the place. Blowed +out, you mean,' and he picked up a bit of plaster, and so did I, that +was laying up against the screen, three or four feet off, and not dry +yet; and old Palmer he looked at it curious-like, and then he turned +round on me and he says, 'Now then, you boys, have you been up to some +of your games here?' 'No,' I says, 'I haven't, Mr. Palmer; there's +none of us been about here till just this minute,' and while I was +talking the other boy, Evans, he got looking in through the chink, and +I heard him draw in his breath, and he came away sharp and up to us, +and says he, 'I believe there's something in there. I saw something +shiny.' 'What! I daresay,' says old Palmer; 'Well, I ain't got time to +stop about there. You, William, you go off and get some more stuff and +make a job of it this time; if not, there'll be trouble in my yard,' +he says. + +"So the man he went off, and Palmer too, and us boys stopped behind, +and I says to Evans, 'Did you really see anything in there?' 'Yes,' he +says, 'I did indeed.' So then I says, 'Let's shove something in and +stir it up.' And we tried several of the bits of wood that was laying +about, but they were all too big. Then Evans he had a sheet of music +he'd brought with him, an anthem or a service, I forget which it was +now, and he rolled it up small and shoved it in the chink; two or +three times he did it, and nothing happened. 'Give it me, boy,' I +said, and I had a try. No, nothing happened. Then, I don't know why I +thought of it, I'm sure, but I stooped down just opposite the chink +and put my two fingers in my mouth and whistled--you know the way--and +at that I seemed to think I heard something stirring, and I says to +Evans, 'Come away,' I says; 'I don't like this.' 'Oh, rot,' he says, +'Give me that roll,' and he took it and shoved it in. And I don't +think ever I see any one go so pale as he did. 'I say, Worby,' he +says, 'it's caught, or else some one's got hold of it.' 'Pull it out +or leave it,' I says, 'Come and let's get off.' So he gave a good +pull, and it came away. Leastways most of it did, but the end was +gone. Torn off it was, and Evans looked at it for a second and then he +gave a sort of a croak and let it drop, and we both made off out of +there as quick as ever we could. When we got outside Evans says to me, +'Did you see the end of that paper.' 'No,' I says, 'only it was torn.' +'Yes, it was,' he says, 'but it was wet too, and black!' Well, partly +because of the fright we had, and partly because that music was wanted +in a day or two, and we knew there'd be a set-out about it with the +organist, we didn't say nothing to any one else, and I suppose the +workmen they swept up the bit that was left along with the rest of the +rubbish. But Evans, if you were to ask him this very day about it, +he'd stick to it he saw that paper wet and black at the end where it +was torn." + +After that the boys gave the choir a wide berth, so that Worby was not +sure what was the result of the mason's renewed mending of the tomb. +Only he made out from fragments of conversation dropped by the workmen +passing through the choir that some difficulty had been met with, and +that the governor--Mr. Palmer to wit--had tried his own hand at the +job. A little later, he happened to see Mr. Palmer himself knocking at +the door of the Deanery and being admitted by the butler. A day or so +after that, he gathered from a remark his father let fall at breakfast +that something a little out of the common was to be done in the +Cathedral after morning service on the morrow. "And I'd just as soon +it was to-day," his father added, "I don't see the use of running +risks." "'Father,' I says, 'what are you going to do in the Cathedral +to-morrow?' and he turned on me as savage as I ever see him--he was a +wonderful good-tempered man as a general thing, my poor father was. +'My lad,' he says, 'I'll trouble you not to go picking up your elders' +and betters' talk: it's not manners and it's not straight. What I'm +going to do or not going to do in the Cathedral to-morrow is none of +your business: and if I catch sight of you hanging about the place +to-morrow after your work's done, I'll send you home with a flea in +your ear. Now you mind that.' Of course I said I was very sorry and +that, and equally of course I went off and laid my plans with Evans. +We knew there was a stair up in the corner of the transept which you +can get up to the triforium, and in them days the door to it was +pretty well always open, and even if it wasn't we knew the key usually +laid under a bit of matting hard by. So we made up our minds we'd be +putting away music and that, next morning while the rest of the boys +was clearing off, and then slip up the stairs and watch from the +triforium if there was any signs of work going on. + +"Well, that same night I dropped off asleep as sound as a boy does, +and all of a sudden the dog woke me up, coming into the bed, and +thought I, now we're going to get it sharp, for he seemed more +frightened than usual. After about five minutes sure enough came this +cry. I can't give you no idea what it was like; and so near +too--nearer than I'd heard it yet--and a funny thing, Mr. Lake, you +know what a place this Close is for an echo, and particular if you +stand this side of it. Well, this crying never made no sign of an echo +at all. But, as I said, it was dreadful near this night; and on the +top of the start I got with hearing it, I got another fright; for I +heard something rustling outside in the passage. Now to be sure I +thought I was done; but I noticed the dog seemed to perk up a bit, and +next there was some one whispered outside the door, and I very near +laughed out loud, for I knew it was my father and mother that had got +out of bed with the noise. 'Whatever is it?' says my mother. 'Hush! I +don't know,' says my father, excited-like, 'don't disturb the boy. I +hope he didn't hear nothing.' + +"So, me knowing they were just outside, it made me bolder, and I +slipped out of bed across to my little window--giving on the +Close--but the dog he bored right down to the bottom of the bed--and I +looked out. First go off I couldn't see anything. Then right down in +the shadow under a buttress I made out what I shall always say was two +spots of red--a dull red it was--nothing like a lamp or a fire, but +just so as you could pick 'em out of the black shadow. I hadn't but +just sighted 'em when it seemed we wasn't the only people that had +been disturbed, because I see a window in a house on the left-hand +side become lighted up, and the light moving. I just turned my head to +make sure of it, and then looked back into the shadow for those two +red things, and they were gone, and for all I peered about and stared, +there was not a sign more of them. Then come my last fright that +night--something come against my bare leg--but that was all right: +that was my little dog had come out of bed, and prancing about, making +a great to-do, only holding his tongue, and me seeing he was quite in +spirits again, I took him back to bed and we slept the night out! + +"Next morning I made out to tell my mother I'd had the dog in my room, +and I was surprised, after all she'd said about it before, how quiet +she took it. 'Did you?' she says. 'Well, by good rights you ought to +go without your breakfast for doing such a thing behind my back: but I +don't know as there's any great harm done, only another time you ask +my permission, do you hear?' A bit after that I said something to my +father about having heard the cats again. '_Cats_,' he says, and he +looked over at my poor mother, and she coughed and he says, 'Oh! ah! +yes, cats. I believe I heard 'em myself.' + +"That was a funny morning altogether: nothing seemed to go right. The +organist he stopped in bed, and the minor Canon he forgot it was the +19th day and waited for the _Venite_; and after a bit the deputy he +set off playing the chant for evensong, which was a minor; and then +the Decani boys were laughing so much they couldn't sing, and when it +came to the anthem the solo boy he got took with the giggles, and made +out his nose was bleeding, and shoved the book at me what hadn't +practised the verse and wasn't much of a singer if I had known it. +Well, things was rougher, you see, fifty years ago, and I got a nip +from the counter-tenor behind me that I remembered. + +"So we got through somehow, and neither the men nor the boys weren't +by way of waiting to see whether the Canon in residence--Mr. Henslow +it was--would come to the vestries and fine 'em, but I don't believe +he did: for one thing I fancy he'd read the wrong lesson for the first +time in his life, and knew it. Anyhow Evans and me didn't find no +difficulty in slipping up the stairs as I told you, and when we got up +we laid ourselves down flat on our stomachs where we could just +stretch our heads out over the old tomb, and we hadn't but just done +so when we heard the verger that was then, first shutting the iron +porch-gates and locking the south-west door, and then the transept +door, so we knew there was something up, and they meant to keep the +public out for a bit. + +"Next thing was, the Dean and the Canon come in by their door on the +north, and then I see my father, and old Palmer, and a couple of their +best men, and Palmer stood a talking for a bit with the Dean in the +middle of the choir. He had a coil of rope and the men had crows. All +of 'em looked a bit nervous. So there they stood talking, and at last +I heard the Dean say, 'Well, I've no time to waste, Palmer. If you +think this'll satisfy Southminster people, I'll permit it to be done; +but I must say this, that never in the whole course of my life have I +heard such arrant nonsense from a practical man as I have from you. +Don't you agree with me, Henslow?' As far as I could hear Mr. Henslow +said something like 'Oh! well we're told, aren't we, Mr. Dean, not to +judge others?' and the Dean he gave a kind of sniff, and walked +straight up to the tomb, and took his stand behind it with his back to +the screen, and the others they come edging up rather gingerly. +Henslow, he stopped on the south side and scratched on his chin, he +did. Then the Dean spoke up: 'Palmer,' he says, 'which can you do +easiest, get the slab off the top, or shift one of the side slabs?' + +"Old Palmer and his men they pottered about a bit looking round the +edge of the top slab and sounding the sides on the south and east and +west and everywhere but the north. Henslow said something about it +being better to have a try at the south side, because there was more +light and more room to move about in. Then my father, who'd been +watching of them, went round to the north side, and knelt down and +felt of the slab by the chink, and he got up and dusted his knees and +says to the Dean: 'Beg pardon, Mr. Dean, but I think if Mr. Palmer'll +try this here slab he'll find it'll come out easy enough. Seems to me +one of the men could prize it out with his crow by means of this +chink.' 'Ah! thank you, Worby,' says the Dean; 'that's a good +suggestion. Palmer, let one of your men do that, will you?' + +"So the man come round, and put his bar in and bore on it, and just +that minute when they were all bending over, and we boys got our heads +well out over the edge of the triforium, there come a most fearful +crash down at the west end of the choir, as if a whole stack of big +timber had fallen down a flight of stairs. Well, you can't expect me +to tell you everything that happened all in a minute. Of course there +was a terrible commotion. I heard the slab fall out, and the crowbar +on the floor, and I heard the Dean say 'Good God!' + +"When I looked down again I saw the Dean tumbled over on the floor, +the men was making off down the choir, Henslow was just going to help +the Dean up, Palmer was going to stop the men, as he said afterwards, +and my father was sitting on the altar step with his face in his +hands. The Dean he was very cross. 'I wish to goodness you'd look +where you're coming to, Henslow,' he says. 'Why you should all take +to your heels when a stick of wood tumbles down I cannot imagine,' and +all Henslow could do, explaining he was right away on the other side +of the tomb, would not satisfy him. + +"Then Palmer came back and reported there was nothing to account for +this noise and nothing seemingly fallen down, and when the Dean +finished feeling of himself they gathered round--except my father, he +sat where he was--and some one lighted up a bit of candle and they +looked into the tomb. 'Nothing there,' says the Dean, 'what did I tell +you? Stay! here's something. What's this: a bit of music paper, and a +piece of torn stuff--part of a dress it looks like. Both quite +modern--no interest whatever. Another time perhaps you'll take the +advice of an educated man'--or something like that, and off he went, +limping a bit, and out through the north door, only as he went he +called back angry to Palmer for leaving the door standing open. Palmer +called out 'Very sorry, sir,' but he shrugged his shoulders, and +Henslow says, 'I fancy Mr. Dean's mistaken. I closed the door behind +me, but he's a little upset.' Then Palmer says, 'Why, where's Worby?' +and they saw him sitting on the step and went up to him. He was +recovering himself, it seemed, and wiping his forehead, and Palmer +helped him up on to his legs, as I was glad to see. + +"They were too far off for me to hear what they said, but my father +pointed to the north door in the aisle, and Palmer and Henslow both of +them looked very surprised and scared. After a bit, my father and +Henslow went out of the church, and the others made what haste they +could to put the slab back and plaster it in. And about as the clock +struck twelve the Cathedral was opened again and us boys made the best +of our way home. + +"I was in a great taking to know what it was had given my poor father +such a turn, and when I got in and found him sitting in his chair +taking a glass of spirits, and my mother standing looking anxious at +him, I couldn't keep from bursting out and making confession where I'd +been. But he didn't seem to take on, not in the way of losing his +temper. 'You was there, was you? Well did you see it?' 'I see +everything, father,' I said, 'except when the noise came.' 'Did you +see what it was knocked the Dean over?' he says, 'that what come out +of the monument? You didn't? Well, that's a mercy.' 'Why, what was it, +father?' I said. 'Come, you must have seen it,' he says. '_Didn't_ +you see? A thing like a man, all over hair, and two great eyes to it?' + +"Well, that was all I could get out of him that time, and later on he +seemed as if he was ashamed of being so frightened, and he used to put +me off when I asked him about it. But years after, when I was got to +be a grown man, we had more talk now and again on the matter, and he +always said the same thing. 'Black it was,' he'd say, 'and a mass of +hair, and two legs, and the light caught on its eyes.' + +"Well, that's the tale of that tomb, Mr. Lake; it's one we don't tell +to our visitors, and I should be obliged to you not to make any use of +it till I'm out of the way. I doubt Mr. Evans'll feel the same as I +do, if you ask him." + +This proved to be the case. But over twenty years have passed by, and +the grass is growing over both Worby and Evans; so Mr. Lake felt no +difficulty about communicating his notes--taken in 1890--to me. He +accompanied them with a sketch of the tomb and a copy of the short +inscription on the metal cross which was affixed at the expense of Dr. +Lyall to the centre of the northern side. It was from the Vulgate of +Isaiah xxxiv., and consisted merely of the three words-- + +IBI CUBAVIT LAMIA. + + + + +THE STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE +AND AN APPEARANCE + + + + +THE STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE +AND AN APPEARANCE + + +The letters which I now publish were sent to me recently by a person +who knows me to be interested in ghost stories. There is no doubt +about their authenticity. The paper on which they are written, the +ink, and the whole external aspect put their date beyond the reach of +question. + +The only point which they do not make clear is the identity of the +writer. He signs with initials only, and as none of the envelopes of +the letters are preserved, the surname of his correspondent--obviously +a married brother--is as obscure as his own. No further preliminary +explanation is needed, I think. Luckily the first letter supplies all +that could be expected. + + +LETTER I + + GREAT CHRISHALL, _Dec. 22, 1837_. + +MY DEAR ROBERT,--It is with great regret for the enjoyment I am +losing, and for a reason which you will deplore equally with myself, +that I write to inform you that I am unable to join your circle for +this Christmas: but you will agree with me that it is unavoidable when +I say that I have within these few hours received a letter from Mrs. +Hunt at B----, to the effect that our Uncle Henry has suddenly and +mysteriously disappeared, and begging me to go down there immediately +and join the search that is being made for him. Little as I, or you +either, I think, have ever seen of Uncle, I naturally feel that this +is not a request that can be regarded lightly, and accordingly I +propose to go to B---- by this afternoon's mail, reaching it late in +the evening. I shall not go to the Rectory, but put up at the King's +Head, and to which you may address letters. I enclose a small draft, +which you will please make use of for the benefit of the young people. +I shall write you daily (supposing me to be detained more than a +single day) what goes on, and you may be sure, should the business be +cleared up in time to permit of my coming to the Manor after all, I +shall present myself. I have but a few minutes at disposal. With +cordial greetings to you all, and many regrets, believe me, your +affectionate Bro., + +W. R. + + +LETTER II + + KING'S HEAD, _Dec. 23, '37_. + +MY DEAR ROBERT,--In the first place, there is as yet no news of Uncle +H., and I think you may finally dismiss any idea--I won't say +hope--that I might after all "turn up" for Xmas. However, my thoughts +will be with you, and you have my best wishes for a really festive +day. Mind that none of my nephews or nieces expend any fraction of +their guineas on presents for me. + +Since I got here I have been blaming myself for taking this affair of +Uncle H. too easily. From what people here say, I gather that there is +very little hope that he can still be alive; but whether it is +accident or design that carried him off I cannot judge. The facts are +these. On Friday the 19th, he went as usual shortly before five +o'clock to read evening prayers at the Church; and when they were over +the clerk brought him a message, in response to which he set off to +pay a visit to a sick person at an outlying cottage the better part of +two miles away. He paid the visit, and started on his return journey +at about half-past six. This is the last that is known of him. The +people here are very much grieved at his loss; he had been here many +years, as you know, and though, as you also know, he was not the most +genial of men, and had more than a little of the _martinet_ in his +composition, he seems to have been active in good works, and unsparing +of trouble to himself. + +Poor Mrs. Hunt, who has been his housekeeper ever since she left +Woodley, is quite overcome: it seems like the end of the world to her. +I am glad that I did not entertain the idea of taking quarters at the +Rectory; and I have declined several kindly offers of hospitality from +people in the place, preferring as I do to be independent, and finding +myself very comfortable here. + +You will, of course, wish to know what has been done in the way of +inquiry and search. First, nothing was to be expected from +investigation at the Rectory; and to be brief, nothing has transpired. +I asked Mrs. Hunt--as others had done before--whether there was either +any unfavourable symptom in her master such as might portend a sudden +stroke, or attack of illness, or whether he had ever had reason to +apprehend any such thing: but both she, and also his medical man, were +clear that this was not the case. He was quite in his usual health. +In the second place, naturally, ponds and streams have been dragged, +and fields in the neighbourhood which he is known to have visited +last, have been searched--without result. I have myself talked to the +parish clerk and--more important--have been to the house where he paid +his visit. + +There can be no question of any foul play on these people's part. The +one man in the house is ill in bed and very weak: the wife and the +children of course could do nothing themselves, nor is there the +shadow of a probability that they or any of them should have agreed to +decoy poor Uncle H. out in order that he might be attacked on the way +back. They had told what they knew to several other inquirers already, +but the woman repeated it to me. The Rector was looking just as usual: +he wasn't very long with the sick man--"He ain't," she said, "like +some what has a gift in prayer; but there, if we was all that way, +'owever would the chapel people get their living?" He left some money +when he went away, and one of the children saw him cross the stile +into the next field. He was dressed as he always was: wore his +bands--I gather he is nearly the last man remaining who does so--at +any rate in this district. + +You see I am putting down everything. The fact is that I have nothing +else to do, having brought no business papers with me; and, moreover, +it serves to clear my own mind, and may suggest points which have been +overlooked. So I shall continue to write all that passes, even to +conversations if need be--you may read or not as you please, but pray +keep the letters. I have another reason for writing so fully, but it +is not a very tangible one. + +You may ask if I have myself made any search in the fields near the +cottage. Something--a good deal--has been done by others, as I +mentioned; but I hope to go over the ground to-morrow. Bow Street has +now been informed, and will send down by to-night's coach, but I do +not think they will make much of the job. There is no snow, which +might have helped us. The fields are all grass. Of course I was on the +_qui vive_ for any indication to-day both going and returning; but +there was a thick mist on the way back, and I was not in trim for +wandering about unknown pastures, especially on an evening when bushes +looked like men, and a cow lowing in the distance might have been the +last trump. I assure you, if Uncle Henry had stepped out from among +the trees in a little copse which borders the path at one place, +carrying his head under his arm, I should have been very little more +uncomfortable than I was. To tell you the truth, I was rather +expecting something of the kind. But I must drop my pen for the +moment: Mr. Lucas, the curate, is announced. + +_Later._ Mr. Lucas has been, and gone, and there is not much beyond +the decencies of ordinary sentiment to be got from him. I can see that +he has given up any idea that the Rector can be alive, and that, so +far as he can be, he is truly sorry. I can also discern that even in a +more emotional person than Mr. Lucas, Uncle Henry was not likely to +inspire strong attachment. + +Besides Mr. Lucas, I have had another visitor in the shape of my +Boniface--mine host of the "King's Head"--who came to see whether I +had everything I wished, and who really requires the pen of a Boz to +do him justice. He was very solemn and weighty at first. "Well, sir," +he said, "I suppose we must bow our 'ead beneath the blow, as my poor +wife had used to say. So far as I can gather there's been neither +hide nor yet hair of our late respected incumbent scented out as yet; +not that he was what the Scripture terms a hairy man in any sense of +the word." + +I said--as well as I could--that I supposed not, but could not help +adding that I had heard he was sometimes a little difficult to deal +with. Mr. Bowman looked at me sharply for a moment, and then passed in +a flash from solemn sympathy to impassioned declamation. "When I +think," he said, "of the language that man see fit to employ to me in +this here parlour over no more a matter than a cask of beer--such a +thing as I told him might happen any day of the week to a man with a +family--though as it turned out he was quite under a mistake, and that +I knew at the time, only I was that shocked to hear him I couldn't lay +my tongue to the right expression." + +He stopped abruptly and eyed me with some embarrassment. I only said, +"Dear me, I'm sorry to hear you had any little differences; I suppose +my uncle will be a good deal missed in the parish?" Mr. Bowman drew a +long breath. "Ah, yes!" he said; "your uncle! You'll understand me +when I say that for the moment it had slipped my remembrance that he +was a relative; and natural enough, I must say, as it should, for as +to you bearing any resemblance to--to him, the notion of any such a +thing is clean ridiculous. All the same, 'ad I 'ave bore it in my +mind, you'll be among the first to feel, I'm sure, as I should have +abstained my lips, or rather I should _not_ have abstained my lips +with no such reflections." + +I assured him that I quite understood, and was going to have asked him +some further questions, but he was called away to see after some +business. By the way, you need not take it into your head that he has +anything to fear from the inquiry into poor Uncle Henry's +disappearance--though, no doubt, in the watches of the night it will +occur to him that _I_ think he has, and I may expect explanations +to-morrow. + +I must close this letter: it has to go by the late coach. + + +LETTER III + + _Dec. 25, '37_. + +MY DEAR ROBERT,--This is a curious letter to be writing on Christmas +Day, and yet after all there is nothing much in it. Or there may +be--you shall be the judge. At least, nothing decisive. The Bow +Street men practically say that they have no clue. The length of time +and the weather conditions have made all tracks so faint as to be +quite useless: nothing that belonged to the dead man--I'm afraid no +other word will do--has been picked up. + +As I expected, Mr. Bowman was uneasy in his mind this morning; quite +early I heard him holding forth in a very distinct voice--purposely +so, I thought--to the Bow Street officers in the bar, as to the loss +that the town had sustained in their Rector, and as to the necessity +of leaving no stone unturned (he was very great on this phrase) in +order to come at the truth. I suspect him of being an orator of repute +at convivial meetings. + +When I was at breakfast he came to wait on me, and took an opportunity +when handing a muffin to say in a low tone, "I 'ope, sir, you reconize +as my feelings towards your relative is not actuated by any taint of +what you may call melignity--you can leave the room, Eliza, I will see +the gentleman 'as all he requires with my own hands--I ask your +pardon, sir, but you must be well aware a man is not always master of +himself: and when that man has been 'urt in his mind by the +application of expressions which I will go so far as to say 'ad not +ought to have been made use of (his voice was rising all this time and +his face growing redder); no, sir; and 'ere, if you will permit of it, +I should like to explain to you in a very few words the exact state of +the bone of contention. This cask--I might more truly call it a +firkin--of beer--" + +I felt it was time to interpose, and said that I did not see that it +would help us very much to go into that matter in detail. Mr. Bowman +acquiesced, and resumed more calmly: + +"Well, sir, I bow to your ruling, and as you say, be that here or be +it there, it don't contribute a great deal, perhaps, to the present +question. All I wish you to understand is that I am prepared as you +are yourself to lend every hand to the business we have afore us, +and--as I took the opportunity to say as much to the Orficers not +three-quarters of an hour ago--to leave no stone unturned as may throw +even a spark of light on this painful matter." + +In fact, Mr. Bowman did accompany us on our exploration, but though I +am sure his genuine wish was to be helpful, I am afraid he did not +contribute to the serious side of it. He appeared to be under the +impression that we were likely to meet either Uncle Henry or the +person responsible for his disappearance, walking about the +fields--and did a great deal of shading his eyes with his hand and +calling our attention, by pointing with his stick, to distant cattle +and labourers. He held several long conversations with old women whom +we met, and was very strict and severe in his manner--but on each +occasion returned to our party saying, "Well, I find she don't seem to +'ave no connexion with this sad affair. I think you may take it from +me, sir, as there's little or no light to be looked for from that +quarter; not without she's keeping somethink back intentional." + +We gained no appreciable result, as I told you at starting; the Bow +Street men have left the town, whether for London or not, I am not +sure. + +This evening I had company in the shape of a bagman, a smartish +fellow. He knew what was going forward, but though he has been on the +roads for some days about here, he had nothing to tell of suspicious +characters--tramps, wandering sailors or gipsies. He was very full of +a capital Punch and Judy Show he had seen this same day at W----, and +asked if it had been here yet, and advised me by no means to miss it +if it does come. The best Punch and the best Toby dog, he said, he had +ever come across. Toby dogs, you know, are the last new thing in the +shows. I have only seen one myself, but before long all the men will +have them. + +Now why, you will want to know, do I trouble to write all this to you? +I am obliged to do it, because it has something to do with another +absurd trifle (as you will inevitably say), which in my present state +of rather unquiet fancy--nothing more, perhaps--I have to put down. It +is a dream, sir, which I am going to record, and I must say it is one +of the oddest I have had. Is there anything in it beyond what the +bagman's talk and Uncle Henry's disappearance could have suggested? +You, I repeat, shall judge: I am not in a sufficiently cool and +judicial frame to do so. + +It began with what I can only describe as a pulling aside of curtains: +and I found myself seated in a place--I don't know whether in doors or +out. There were people--only a few--on either side of me, but I did +not recognize them, or indeed think much about them. They never spoke, +but, so far as I remember, were all grave and pale-faced and looked +fixedly before them. Facing me there was a Punch and Judy Show, +perhaps rather larger than the ordinary ones, painted with black +figures on a reddish-yellow ground. Behind it and on each side was +only darkness, but in front there was a sufficiency of light. I was +"strung up" to a high degree of expectation and listened every moment +to hear the panpipes and the Roo-too-too-it. Instead of that there +came suddenly an enormous--I can use no other word--an enormous single +toll of a bell, I don't know from how far off--somewhere behind. The +little curtain flew up and the drama began. + +I believe someone once tried to re-write Punch as a serious tragedy; +but whoever he may have been, this performance would have suited him +exactly. There was something Satanic about the hero. He varied his +methods of attack: for some of his victims he lay in wait, and to see +his horrible face--it was yellowish white, I may remark--peering round +the wings made me think of the Vampyre in Fuseli's foul sketch. To +others he was polite and carneying--particularly to the unfortunate +alien who can only say _Shallabalah_--though what Punch said I never +could catch. But with all of them I came to dread the moment of death. +The crack of the stick on their skulls, which in the ordinary way +delights me, had here a crushing sound as if the bone was giving way, +and the victims quivered and kicked as they lay. The baby--it sounds +more ridiculous as I go on--the baby, I am sure, was alive. Punch +wrung its neck, and if the choke or squeak which it gave were not +real, I know nothing of reality. + +The stage got perceptibly darker as each crime was consummated, and at +last there was one murder which was done quite in the dark, so that I +could see nothing of the victim, and took some time to effect. It was +accompanied by hard breathing and horrid muffled sounds, and after it +Punch came and sat on the foot-board and fanned himself and looked at +his shoes, which were bloody, and hung his head on one side, and +sniggered in so deadly a fashion that I saw some of those beside me +cover their faces, and I would gladly have done the same. But in the +meantime the scene behind Punch was clearing, and showed, not the +usual house front, but something more ambitious--a grove of trees and +the gentle slope of a hill, with a very natural--in fact, I should say +a real--moon shining on it. Over this there rose slowly an object +which I soon perceived to be a human figure with something peculiar +about the head--what, I was unable at first to see. It did not stand +on its feet, but began creeping or dragging itself across the middle +distance towards Punch, who still sat back to it; and by this time, I +may remark (though it did not occur to me at the moment) that all +pretence of this being a puppet show had vanished. Punch was still +Punch, it is true, but, like the others, was in some sense a live +creature, and both moved themselves at their own will. + +When I next glanced at him he was sitting in malignant reflection; but +in another instant something seemed to attract his attention, and he +first sat up sharply and then turned round, and evidently caught sight +of the person that was approaching him and was in fact now very near. +Then, indeed, did he show unmistakable signs of terror: catching up +his stick, he rushed towards the wood, only just eluding the arm of +his pursuer, which was suddenly flung out to intercept him. It was +with a revulsion which I cannot easily express that I now saw more or +less clearly what this pursuer was like. He was a sturdy figure clad +in black, and, as I thought, wearing bands: his head was covered with +a whitish bag. + +The chase which now began lasted I do not know how long, now among the +trees, now along the slope of the field, sometimes both figures +disappearing wholly for a few seconds, and only some uncertain sounds +letting one know that they were still afoot. At length there came a +moment when Punch, evidently exhausted, staggered in from the left and +threw himself down among the trees. His pursuer was not long after +him, and came looking uncertainly from side to side. Then, catching +sight of the figure on the ground, he too threw himself down--his back +was turned to the audience--with a swift motion twitched the covering +from his head, and thrust his face into that of Punch. Everything on +the instant grew dark. + +There was one long, loud, shuddering scream, and I awoke to find +myself looking straight into the face of--what in all the world do you +think?--but a large owl, which was seated on my window-sill +immediately opposite my bed-foot, holding up its wings like two +shrouded arms. I caught the fierce glance of its yellow eyes, and then +it was gone. I heard the single enormous bell again--very likely, as +you are saying to yourself, the church clock; but I do not think +so--and then I was broad awake. + +All this, I may say, happened within the last half-hour. There was no +probability of my getting to sleep again, so I got up, put on clothes +enough to keep me warm, and am writing this rigmarole in the first +hours of Christmas Day. Have I left out anything? Yes, there was no +Toby dog, and the names over the front of the Punch and Judy booth +were Kidman and Gallop, which were certainly not what the bagman told +me to look out for. + +By this time, I feel a little more as if I could sleep, so this shall +be sealed and wafered. + + +LETTER IV + + _Dec. 26, '37._ + +MY DEAR ROBERT,--All is over. The body has been found. I do not make +excuses for not having sent off my news by last night's mail, for the +simple reason that I was incapable of putting pen to paper. The events +that attended the discovery bewildered me so completely that I needed +what I could get of a night's rest to enable me to face the situation +at all. Now I can give you my journal of the day, certainly the +strangest Christmas Day that ever I spent or am likely to spend. + +The first incident was not very serious. Mr. Bowman had, I think, been +keeping Christmas Eve, and was a little inclined to be captious: at +least, he was not on foot very early, and to judge from what I could +hear, neither men or maids could do anything to please him. The latter +were certainly reduced to tears; nor am I sure that Mr. Bowman +succeeded in preserving a manly composure. At any rate, when I came +downstairs, it was in a broken voice that he wished me the compliments +of the season, and a little later on, when he paid his visit of +ceremony at breakfast, he was far from cheerful: even Byronic, I might +almost say, in his outlook on life. + +"I don't know," he said, "if you think with me, sir; but every +Christmas as comes round the world seems a hollerer thing to me. Why, +take an example now from what lays under my own eye. There's my +servant Eliza--been with me now for going on fifteen years. I thought +I could have placed my confidence in Elizar, and yet this very +morning--Christmas morning too, of all the blessed days in the +year--with the bells a ringing and--and--all like that--I say, this +very morning, had it not have been for Providence watching over us +all, that girl would have put--indeed I may go so far to say, 'ad put +the cheese on your breakfast table----" He saw I was about to speak, +and waved his hand at me. "It's all very well for you to say, 'Yes, +Mr. Bowman, but you took away the cheese and locked it up in the +cupboard,' which I did, and have the key here, or if not the actual +key one very much about the same size. That's true enough, sir, but +what do you think is the effect of that action on me? Why it's no +exaggeration for me to say that the ground is cut from under my feet. +And yet when I said as much to Eliza, not nasty, mind you, but just +firm like, what was my return? 'Oh,' she says: 'Well,' she says, +'there wasn't no bones broke, I suppose.' Well, sir, it 'urt me, +that's all I can say: it 'urt me, and I don't like to think of it +now." + +There was an ominous pause here, in which I ventured to say something +like, "Yes, very trying," and then asked at what hour the church +service was to be. "Eleven o'clock," Mr. Bowman said with a heavy +sigh. "Ah, you won't have no such discourse from poor Mr. Lucas as +what you would have done from our late Rector. Him and me may have +had our little differences, and did do, more's the pity." + +I could see that a powerful effort was needed to keep him off the +vexed question of the cask of beer, but he made it. "But I will say +this, that a better preacher, nor yet one to stand faster by his +rights, or what he considered to be his rights--however, that's not +the question now--I for one, never set under. Some might say, 'Was he +a eloquent man?' and to that my answer would be: 'Well, there you've a +better right per'aps to speak of your own uncle than what I have.' +Others might ask, 'Did he keep a hold of his congregation?' and there +again I should reply, 'That depends.' But as I say--Yes, Eliza, my +girl, I'm coming--eleven o'clock, sir, and you inquire for the King's +Head pew." I believe Eliza had been very near the door, and shall +consider it in my vail. + +The next episode was church: I felt Mr. Lucas had a difficult task in +doing justice to Christmas sentiments, and also to the feeling of +disquiet and regret which, whatever Mr. Bowman might say, was clearly +prevalent. I do not think he rose to the occasion. I was +uncomfortable. The organ wolved--you know what I mean: the wind +died--twice in the Christmas Hymn, and the tenor bell, I suppose owing +to some negligence on the part of the ringers, kept sounding faintly +about once in a minute during the sermon. The clerk sent up a man to +see to it, but he seemed unable to do much. I was glad when it was +over. There was an odd incident, too, before the service. I went in +rather early, and came upon two men carrying the parish bier back to +its place under the tower. From what I overheard them saying, it +appeared that it had been put out by mistake, by some one who was not +there. I also saw the clerk busy folding up a moth-eaten velvet +pall--not a sight for Christmas Day. + +I dined soon after this, and then, feeling disinclined to go out, took +my seat by the fire in the parlour, with the last number of +_Pickwick_, which I had been saving up for some days. I thought I +could be sure of keeping awake over this, but I turned out as bad as +our friend Smith. I suppose it was half-past two when I was roused by +a piercing whistle and laughing and talking voices outside in the +market-place. It was a Punch and Judy--I had no doubt the one that my +bagman had seen at W----. I was half delighted, half not--the latter +because my unpleasant dream came back to me so vividly; but, anyhow, I +determined to see it through, and I sent Eliza out with a crown-piece +to the performers and a request that they would face my window if they +could manage it. + +The show was a very smart new one; the names of the proprietors, I +need hardly tell you, were Italian, Foresta and Calpigi. The Toby dog +was there, as I had been led to expect. All B---- turned out, but did +not obstruct my view, for I was at the large first-floor window and +not ten yards away. + +The play began on the stroke of a quarter to three by the church +clock. Certainly it was very good; and I was soon relieved to find +that the disgust my dream had given me for Punch's onslaughts on his +ill-starred visitors was only transient. I laughed at the demise of +the Turncock, the Foreigner, the Beadle, and even the baby. The only +drawback was the Toby dog's developing a tendency to howl in the wrong +place. Something had occurred, I suppose, to upset him, and something +considerable: for, I forget exactly at what point, he gave a most +lamentable cry, leapt off the foot board, and shot away across the +market-place and down a side street. There was a stage-wait, but only +a brief one. I suppose the men decided that it was no good going after +him, and that he was likely to turn up again at night. + +We went on. Punch dealt faithfully with Judy, and in fact with all +comers; and then came the moment when the gallows was erected, and the +great scene with Mr. Ketch was to be enacted. It was now that +something happened of which I can certainly not yet see the import +fully. You have witnessed an execution, and know what the criminal's +head looks like with the cap on. If you are like me, you never wish to +think of it again, and I do not willingly remind you of it. It was +just such a head as that, that I, from my somewhat higher post, saw in +the inside of the show-box; but at first the audience did not see it. +I expected it to emerge into their view, but instead of that there +slowly rose for a few seconds an uncovered face, with an expression of +terror upon it, of which I have never imagined the like. It seemed as +if the man, whoever he was, was being forcibly lifted, with his arms +somehow pinioned or held back, towards the little gibbet on the +stage. I could just see the nightcapped head behind him. Then there +was a cry and a crash. The whole show-box fell over backwards; kicking +legs were seen among the ruins, and then two figures--as some said; I +can only answer for one--were visible running at top speed across the +square and disappearing in a lane which leads to the fields. + +Of course everybody gave chase. I followed; but the pace was killing, +and very few were in, literally, at the death. It happened in a chalk +pit: the man went over the edge quite blindly and broke his neck. They +searched everywhere for the other, until it occurred to me to ask +whether he had ever left the market-place. At first everyone was sure +that he had; but when we came to look, he was there, under the +show-box, dead too. + +But in the chalk pit it was that poor Uncle Henry's body was found, +with a sack over the head, the throat horribly mangled. It was a +peaked corner of the sack sticking out of the soil that attracted +attention. I cannot bring myself to write in greater detail. + +I forgot to say the men's real names were Kidman and Gallop. I feel +sure I have heard them, but no one here seems to know anything about +them. + +I am coming to you as soon as I can after the funeral. I must tell you +when we meet what I think of it all. + + + + +TWO DOCTORS + + + + +TWO DOCTORS + + +It is a very common thing, in my experience, to find papers shut up in +old books; but one of the rarest things to come across any such that +are at all interesting. Still it does happen, and one should never +destroy them unlooked at. Now it was a practice of mine before the war +occasionally to buy old ledgers of which the paper was good, and which +possessed a good many blank leaves, and to extract these and use them +for my own notes and writings. One such I purchased for a small sum in +1911. It was tightly clasped, and its boards were warped by having for +years been obliged to embrace a number of extraneous sheets. +Three-quarters of this inserted matter had lost all vestige of +importance for any living human being: one bundle had not. That it +belonged to a lawyer is certain, for it is endorsed: _The strangest +case I have yet met_, and bears initials, and an address in Gray's +Inn. It is only materials for a case, and consists of statements by +possible witnesses. The man who would have been the defendant or +prisoner seems never to have appeared. The _dossier_ is not complete, +but, such as it is, it furnishes a riddle in which the supernatural +appears to play a part. You must see what you can make of it. + +The following is the setting and the tale as I elicit it. + +Dr. Abell was walking in his garden one afternoon waiting for his +horse to be brought round that he might set out on his visits for the +day. As the place was Islington, the month June, and the year 1718, we +conceive the surroundings as being countrified and pleasant. To him +entered his confidential servant, Luke Jennett, who had been with him +twenty years. + +"I said I wished to speak to him, and what I had to say might take +some quarter of an hour. He accordingly bade me go into his study, +which was a room opening on the terrace path where he was walking, and +came in himself and sat down. I told him that, much against my will, I +must look out for another place. He inquired what was my reason, in +consideration I had been so long with him. I said if he would excuse +me he would do me a great kindness, because (this appears to have +been common form even in 1718) I was one that always liked to have +everything pleasant about me. As well as I can remember, he said that +was his case likewise, but he would wish to know why I should change +my mind after so many years, and, says he, 'you know there can be no +talk of a remembrance of you in my will if you leave my service now.' +I said I had made my reckoning of that. + +"'Then,' says he, 'you must have some complaint to make, and if I +could I would willingly set it right.' And at that I told him, not +seeing how I could keep it back, the matter of my former affidavit and +of the bedstaff in the dispensing-room, and said that a house where +such things happened was no place for me. At which he, looking very +black upon me, said no more, but called me fool, and said he would pay +what was owing me in the morning; and so, his horse being waiting, +went out. So for that night I lodged with my sister's husband near +Battle Bridge and came early next morning to my late master, who then +made a great matter that I had not lain in his house and stopped a +crown out of my wages owing. + +"After that I took service here and there, not for long at a time, +and saw no more of him till I came to be Dr. Quinn's man at Dodds Hall +in Islington." + +There is one very obscure part in this statement, namely, the +reference to the former affidavit and the matter of the bedstaff. The +former affidavit is not in the bundle of papers. It is to be feared +that it was taken out to be read because of its special oddity, and +not put back. Of what nature the story was may be guessed later, but +as yet no clue has been put into our hands. + +The Rector of Islington, Jonathan Pratt, is the next to step forward. +He furnishes particulars of the standing and reputation of Dr. Abell +and Dr. Quinn, both of whom lived and practised in his parish. + +"It is not to be supposed," he says, "that a physician should be a +regular attendant at morning and evening prayers, or at the Wednesday +lectures, but within the measure of their ability I would say that +both these persons fulfilled their obligations as loyal members of the +Church of England. At the same time (as you desire my private mind) I +must say, in the language of the schools, _distinguo_. Dr. A. was to +me a source of perplexity, Dr. Q. to my eye a plain, honest believer, +not inquiring over closely into points of belief, but squaring his +practice to what lights he had. The other interested himself in +questions to which Providence, as I hold, designs no answer to be +given us in this state: he would ask me, for example, what place I +believed those beings now to hold in the scheme of creation which by +some are thought neither to have stood fast when the rebel angels +fell, nor to have joined with them to the full pitch of their +transgression. + +"As was suitable, my first answer to him was a question, What warrant +he had for supposing any such beings to exist? for that there was none +in Scripture I took it he was aware. It appeared--for as I am on the +subject, the whole tale may be given--that he grounded himself on such +passages as that of the satyr which Jerome tells us conversed with +Antony; but thought too that some parts of Scripture might be cited in +support. 'And besides,' said he, 'you know 'tis the universal belief +among those that spend their days and nights abroad, and I would add +that if your calling took you so continuously as it does me about the +country lanes by night, you might not be so surprised as I see you to +be by my suggestion.' 'You are then of John Milton's mind,' I said, +'and hold that + + Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth + Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.' + +"'I do not know,' he said, 'why Milton should take upon himself to say +"unseen"; though to be sure he was blind when he wrote that. But for +the rest, why, yes, I think he was in the right.' 'Well,' I said, +'though not so often as you, I am not seldom called abroad pretty +late; but I have no mind of meeting a satyr in our Islington lanes in +all the years I have been here; and if you have had the better luck, I +am sure the Royal Society would be glad to know of it.' + +"I am reminded of these trifling expressions because Dr. A. took them +so ill, stamping out of the room in a huff with some such word as that +these high and dry parsons had no eyes but for a prayerbook or a pint +of wine. + +"But this was not the only time that our conversation took a +remarkable turn. There was an evening when he came in, at first +seeming gay and in good spirits, but afterwards as he sat and smoked +by the fire falling into a musing way; out of which to rouse him I +said pleasantly that I supposed he had had no meetings of late with +his odd friends. A question which did effectually arouse him, for he +looked most wildly, and as if scared, upon me, and said, '_You_ were +never there? I did not see you. Who brought you?' And then in a more +collected tone, 'What was this about a meeting? I believe I must have +been in a doze.' To which I answered that I was thinking of fauns and +centaurs in the dark lane, and not of a witches' Sabbath; but it +seemed he took it differently. + +"'Well,' said he, 'I can plead guilty to neither; but I find you very +much more of a sceptic than becomes your cloth. If you care to know +about the dark lane you might do worse than ask my housekeeper that +lived at the other end of it when she was a child.' 'Yes,' said I, +'and the old women in the almshouse and the children in the kennel. If +I were you, I would send to your brother Quinn for a bolus to clear +your brain.' 'Damn Quinn,' says he; 'talk no more of him: he has +embezzled four of my best patients this month; I believe it is that +cursed man of his, Jennett, that used to be with me, his tongue is +never still; it should be nailed to the pillory if he had his +deserts.' This, I may say, was the only time of his showing me that he +had any grudge against either Dr. Quinn or Jennett, and as was my +business, I did my best to persuade him he was mistaken in them. Yet +it could not be denied that some respectable families in the parish +had given him the cold shoulder, and for no reason that they were +willing to allege. The end was that he said he had not done so ill at +Islington but that he could afford to live at ease elsewhere when he +chose, and anyhow he bore Dr. Quinn no malice. I think I now remember +what observation of mine drew him into the train of thought which he +next pursued. It was, I believe, my mentioning some juggling tricks +which my brother in the East Indies had seen at the court of the Rajah +of Mysore. 'A convenient thing enough,' said Dr. Abell to me, 'if by +some arrangement a man could get the power of communicating motion and +energy to inanimate objects.' 'As if the axe should move itself +against him that lifts it; something of that kind?' 'Well, I don't +know that that was in my mind so much; but if you could summon such a +volume from your shelf or even order it to open at the right page.' + +"He was sitting by the fire--it was a cold evening--and stretched out +his hand that way, and just then the fire-irons, or at least the +poker, fell over towards him with a great clatter, and I did not hear +what else he said. But I told him that I could not easily conceive of +an arrangement, as he called it, of such a kind that would not include +as one of its conditions a heavier payment than any Christian would +care to make; to which he assented. 'But,' he said, 'I have no doubt +these bargains can be made very tempting, very persuasive. Still, you +would not favour them, eh, Doctor? No, I suppose not.' + +"This is as much as I know of Dr. Abell's mind, and the feeling +between these men. Dr. Quinn, as I said, was a plain, honest creature, +and a man to whom I would have gone--indeed I have before now gone to +him for advice on matters of business. He was, however, every now and +again, and particularly of late, not exempt from troublesome fancies. +There was certainly a time when he was so much harassed by his dreams +that he could not keep them to himself, but would tell them to his +acquaintances and among them to me. I was at supper at his house, and +he was not inclined to let me leave him at my usual time. 'If you +go,' he said, 'there will be nothing for it but I must go to bed and +dream of the chrysalis.' 'You might be worse off,' said I. 'I do not +think it,' he said, and he shook himself like a man who is displeased +with the complexion of his thoughts. 'I only meant,' said I, 'that a +chrysalis is an innocent thing.' 'This one is not,' he said, 'and I do +not care to think of it.' + +"However, sooner than lose my company he was fain to tell me (for I +pressed him) that this was a dream which had come to him several times +of late, and even more than once in a night. It was to this effect, +that he seemed to himself to wake under an extreme compulsion to rise +and go out of doors. So he would dress himself and go down to his +garden door. By the door there stood a spade which he must take, and +go out into the garden, and at a particular place in the shrubbery +somewhat clear and upon which the moon shone, for there was always in +his dream a full moon, he would feel himself forced to dig. And after +some time the spade would uncover something light-coloured, which he +would perceive to be a stuff, linen or woollen, and this he must clear +with his hands. It was always the same: of the size of a man and +shaped like the chrysalis of a moth, with the folds showing a promise +of an opening at one end. + +"He could not describe how gladly he would have left all at this stage +and run to the house, but he must not escape so easily. So with many +groans, and knowing only too well what to expect, he parted these +folds of stuff, or, as it sometimes seemed to be, membrane, and +disclosed a head covered with a smooth pink skin, which breaking as +the creature stirred, showed him his own face in a state of death. The +telling of this so much disturbed him that I was forced out of mere +compassion to sit with him the greater part of the night and talk with +him upon indifferent subjects. He said that upon every recurrence of +this dream he woke and found himself, as it were, fighting for his +breath." + +Another extract from Luke Jennett's long continuous statement comes in +at this point. + +"I never told tales of my master, Dr. Abell, to anybody in the +neighbourhood. When I was in another service I remember to have spoken +to my fellow-servants about the matter of the bedstaff, but I am sure +I never said either I or he were the persons concerned, and it met +with so little credit that I was affronted and thought best to keep it +to myself. And when I came back to Islington and found Dr. Abell still +there, who I was told had left the parish, I was clear that it behoved +me to use great discretion, for indeed I was afraid of the man, and it +is certain I was no party to spreading any ill report of him. My +master, Dr. Quinn, was a very just, honest man, and no maker of +mischief. I am sure he never stirred a finger nor said a word by way +of inducement to a soul to make them leave going to Dr. Abell and come +to him; nay, he would hardly be persuaded to attend them that came, +until he was convinced that if he did not they would send into the +town for a physician rather than do as they had hitherto done. + +"I believe it may be proved that Dr. Abell came into my master's house +more than once. We had a new chambermaid out of Hertfordshire, and she +asked me who was the gentleman that was looking after the master, that +is Dr. Quinn, when he was out, and seemed so disappointed that he was +out. She said whoever he was he knew the way of the house well, +running at once into the study and then into the dispensing-room, and +last into the bed-chamber. I made her tell me what he was like, and +what she said was suitable enough to Dr. Abell; but besides she told +me she saw the same man at church and some one told her that was the +Doctor. + +"It was just after this that my master began to have his bad nights, +and complained to me and other persons, and in particular what +discomfort he suffered from his pillow and bedclothes. He said he must +buy some to suit him, and should do his own marketing. And accordingly +brought home a parcel which he said was of the right quality, but +where he bought it we had then no knowledge, only they were marked in +thread with a coronet and a bird. The women said they were of a sort +not commonly met with and very fine, and my master said they were the +comfortablest he ever used, and he slept now both soft and deep. Also +the feather pillows were the best sorted and his head would sink into +them as if they were a cloud: which I have myself remarked several +times when I came to wake him of a morning, his face being almost hid +by the pillow closing over it. + +"I had never any communication with Dr. Abell after I came back to +Islington, but one day when he passed me in the street and asked me +whether I was not looking for another service, to which I answered I +was very well suited where I was, but he said I was a tickle-minded +fellow and he doubted not he should soon hear I was on the world +again, which indeed proved true." + +Dr. Pratt is next taken up where he left off. + +"On the 16th I was called up out of my bed soon after it was +light--that is about five--with a message that Dr. Quinn was dead or +dying. Making my way to his house I found there was no doubt which was +the truth. All the persons in the house except the one that let me in +were already in his chamber and standing about his bed, but none +touching him. He was stretched in the midst of the bed, on his back, +without any disorder, and indeed had the appearance of one ready laid +out for burial. His hands, I think, were even crossed on his breast. +The only thing not usual was that nothing was to be seen of his face, +the two ends of the pillow or bolster appearing to be closed quite +over it. These I immediately pulled apart, at the same time rebuking +those present, and especially the man, for not at once coming to the +assistance of his master. He, however, only looked at me and shook +his head, having evidently no more hope than myself that there was +anything but a corpse before us. + +"Indeed it was plain to any one possessed of the least experience that +he was not only dead, but had died of suffocation. Nor could it be +conceived that his death was accidentally caused by the mere folding +of the pillow over his face. How should he not, feeling the +oppression, have lifted his hands to put it away? whereas not a fold +of the sheet which was closely gathered about him, as I now observed, +was disordered. The next thing was to procure a physician. I had +bethought me of this on leaving my house, and sent on the messenger +who had come to me to Dr. Abell; but I now heard that he was away from +home, and the nearest surgeon was got, who however could tell no more, +at least without opening the body, than we already knew. + +"As to any person entering the room with evil purpose (which was the +next point to be cleared), it was visible that the bolts of the door +were burst from their stanchions, and the stanchions broken away from +the door-post by main force; and there was a sufficient body of +witness, the smith among them, to testify that this had been done but +a few minutes before I came. The chamber being moreover at the top of +the house, the window was neither easy of access nor did it show any +sign of an exit made that way, either by marks upon the sill or +footprints below upon soft mould." + +The surgeon's evidence forms of course part of the report of the +inquest, but since it has nothing but remarks upon the healthy state +of the larger organs and the coagulation of blood in various parts of +the body, it need not be reproduced. The verdict was "Death by the +visitation of God." + +Annexed to the other papers is one which I was at first inclined to +suppose had made its way among them by mistake. Upon further +consideration I think I can divine a reason for its presence. + +It relates to the rifling of a mausoleum in Middlesex which stood in a +park (now broken up), the property of a noble family which I will not +name. The outrage was not that of an ordinary resurrection man. The +object, it seemed likely, was theft. The account is blunt and +terrible. I shall not quote it. A dealer in the North of London +suffered heavy penalties as a receiver of stolen goods in connexion +with the affair. + + * * * * * + +_Printed in Great Britain by_ +UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 20387.txt or 20387.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/3/8/20387 + + + +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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