diff options
Diffstat (limited to '40386-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 40386-0.txt | 6573 |
1 files changed, 6573 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/40386-0.txt b/40386-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b06a2b1 --- /dev/null +++ b/40386-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6573 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40386 *** + +WANDERING GHOSTS + + +[Illustration: Logo] + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO +SAN FRANCISCO + +MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED + +LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA +MELBOURNE + +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. + +TORONTO + + +[Illustration: "What?... It's gone, man, the skull is gone!!"] + + +WANDERING GHOSTS + +BY F. MARION CRAWFORD + +AUTHOR OF "SARACINESCA," "A ROMAN SINGER," ETC. + +_WITH FRONTISPIECE_ + +New York + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +1911 + +_All rights reserved_ + + +COPYRIGHT, 1894, +BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. + +COPYRIGHT, 1899, +BY STREET AND SMITH. + +COPYRIGHT, 1903, +BY F. MARION CRAWFORD + +AND + +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +COPYRIGHT, 1905 AND 1908, +BY P. F. COLLIER AND SON. + +COPYRIGHT, 1911, +BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. + +Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1911. + +Norwood Press +J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +THE DEAD SMILE 1 + +THE SCREAMING SKULL 41 + +MAN OVERBOARD! 97 + +FOR THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE 165 + +THE UPPER BERTH 195 + +BY THE WATER OF PARADISE 235 + +THE DOLL'S GHOST 279 + + + + +THE DEAD SMILE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Sir Hugh Ockram smiled as he sat by the open window of his study, in the +late August afternoon; and just then a curiously yellow cloud obscured +the low sun, and the clear summer light turned lurid, as if it had been +suddenly poisoned and polluted by the foul vapours of a plague. Sir +Hugh's face seemed, at best, to be made of fine parchment drawn +skin-tight over a wooden mask, in which two eyes were sunk out of sight, +and peered from far within through crevices under the slanting, wrinkled +lids, alive and watchful like two toads in their holes, side by side and +exactly alike. But as the light changed, then a little yellow glare +flashed in each. Nurse Macdonald said once that when Sir Hugh smiled he +saw the faces of two women in hell--two dead women he had betrayed. +(Nurse Macdonald was a hundred years old.) And the smile widened, +stretching the pale lips across the discoloured teeth in an expression +of profound self-satisfaction, blended with the most unforgiving hatred +and contempt for the human doll. The hideous disease of which he was +dying had touched his brain. His son stood beside him, tall, white and +delicate as an angel in a primitive picture; and though there was deep +distress in his violet eyes as he looked at his father's face, he felt +the shadow of that sickening smile stealing across his own lips and +parting them and drawing them against his will. And it was like a bad +dream, for he tried not to smile and smiled the more. Beside him, +strangely like him in her wan, angelic beauty, with the same shadowy +golden hair, the same sad violet eyes, the same luminously pale face, +Evelyn Warburton rested one hand upon his arm. And as she looked into +her uncle's eyes, and could not turn her own away, she knew that the +deathly smile was hovering on her own red lips, drawing them tightly +across her little teeth, while two bright tears ran down her cheeks to +her mouth, and dropped from the upper to the lower lip while she +smiled--and the smile was like the shadow of death and the seal of +damnation upon her pure, young face. + +"Of course," said Sir Hugh very slowly, and still looking out at the +trees, "if you have made up your mind to be married, I cannot hinder +you, and I don't suppose you attach the smallest importance to my +consent----" + +"Father!" exclaimed Gabriel reproachfully. + +"No; I do not deceive myself," continued the old man, smiling terribly. +"You will marry when I am dead, though there is a very good reason why +you had better not--why you had better not," he repeated very +emphatically, and he slowly turned his toad eyes upon the lovers. + +"What reason?" asked Evelyn in a frightened voice. + +"Never mind the reason, my dear. You will marry just as if it did not +exist." There was a long pause. "Two gone," he said, his voice lowering +strangely, "and two more will be four--all together--for ever and ever, +burning, burning, burning bright." + +At the last words his head sank slowly back, and the little glare of the +toad eyes disappeared under the swollen lids; and the lurid cloud passed +from the westering sun, so that the earth was green again and the light +pure. Sir Hugh had fallen asleep, as he often did in his last illness, +even while speaking. + +Gabriel Ockram drew Evelyn away, and from the study they went out into +the dim hall, softly closing the door behind them, and each audibly drew +breath, as though some sudden danger had been passed. They laid their +hands each in the other's, and their strangely-like eyes met in a long +look, in which love and perfect understanding were darkened by the +secret terror of an unknown thing. Their pale faces reflected each +other's fear. + +"It is his secret," said Evelyn at last. "He will never tell us what it +is." + +"If he dies with it," answered Gabriel, "let it be on his own head!" + +"On his head!" echoed the dim hall. It was a strange echo, and some were +frightened by it, for they said that if it were a real echo it should +repeat everything and not give back a phrase here and there, now +speaking, now silent. But Nurse Macdonald said that the great hall would +never echo a prayer when an Ockram was to die, though it would give back +curses ten for one. + +"On his head!" it repeated quite softly, and Evelyn started and looked +round. + +"It is only the echo," said Gabriel, leading her away. + +They went out into the late afternoon light, and sat upon a stone seat +behind the chapel, which was built across the end of the east wing. It +was very still, not a breath stirred, and there was no sound near them. +Only far off in the park a song-bird was whistling the high prelude to +the evening chorus. + +"It is very lonely here," said Evelyn, taking Gabriel's hand nervously, +and speaking as if she dreaded to disturb the silence. "If it were dark, +I should be afraid." + +"Of what? Of me?" Gabriel's sad eyes turned to her. + +"Oh no! How could I be afraid of you? But of the old Ockrams--they say +they are just under our feet here in the north vault outside the chapel, +all in their shrouds, with no coffins, as they used to bury them." + +"As they always will--as they will bury my father, and me. They say an +Ockram will not lie in a coffin." + +"But it cannot be true--these are fairy tales--ghost stories!" Evelyn +nestled nearer to her companion, grasping his hand more tightly, and the +sun began to go down. + +"Of course. But there is the story of old Sir Vernon, who was beheaded +for treason under James II. The family brought his body back from the +scaffold in an iron coffin with heavy locks, and they put it in the +north vault. But ever afterwards, whenever the vault was opened to bury +another of the family, they found the coffin wide open, and the body +standing upright against the wall, and the head rolled away in a corner, +smiling at it." + +"As Uncle Hugh smiles?" Evelyn shivered. + +"Yes, I suppose so," answered Gabriel, thoughtfully. "Of course I never +saw it, and the vault has not been opened for thirty years--none of us +have died since then." + +"And if--if Uncle Hugh dies--shall you----" Evelyn stopped, and her +beautiful thin face was quite white. + +"Yes. I shall see him laid there too--with his secret, whatever it is." +Gabriel sighed and pressed the girl's little hand. + +"I do not like to think of it," she said unsteadily. "O Gabriel, what +can the secret be? He said we had better not marry--not that he forbade +it--but he said it so strangely, and he smiled--ugh!" Her small white +teeth chattered with fear, and she looked over her shoulder while +drawing still closer to Gabriel. "And, somehow, I felt it in my own +face--" + +"So did I," answered Gabriel in a low, nervous voice. "Nurse +Macdonald----" He stopped abruptly. + +"What? What did she say?" + +"Oh--nothing. She has told me things--they would frighten you, dear. +Come, it is growing chilly." He rose, but Evelyn held his hand in both +of hers, still sitting and looking up into his face. + +"But we shall be married, just the same--Gabriel! Say that we shall!" + +"Of course, darling--of course. But while my father is so very ill, it +is impossible----" + +"O Gabriel, Gabriel, dear! I wish we were married now!" cried Evelyn in +sudden distress. "I know that something will prevent it and keep us +apart." + +"Nothing shall!" + +"Nothing?" + +"Nothing human," said Gabriel Ockram, as she drew him down to her. + +And their faces, that were so strangely alike, met and touched--and +Gabriel knew that the kiss had a marvellous savour of evil, but on +Evelyn's lips it was like the cool breath of a sweet and mortal fear. +And neither of them understood, for they were innocent and young. Yet +she drew him to her by her lightest touch, as a sensitive plant shivers +and waves its thin leaves, and bends and closes softly upon what it +wants; and he let himself be drawn to her willingly, as he would if her +touch had been deadly and poisonous; for she strangely loved that half +voluptuous breath of fear, and he passionately desired the nameless evil +something that lurked in her maiden lips. + +"It is as if we loved in a strange dream," she said. + +"I fear the waking," he murmured. + +"We shall not wake, dear--when the dream is over it will have already +turned into death, so softly that we shall not know it. But until +then----" + +She paused, and her eyes sought his, and their faces slowly came nearer. +It was as if they had thoughts in their red lips that foresaw and +foreknew the deep kiss of each other. + +"Until then----" she said again, very low, and her mouth was nearer to +his. + +"Dream--till then," murmured his breath. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Nurse Macdonald was a hundred years old. She used to sleep sitting all +bent together in a great old leathern arm-chair with wings, her feet in +a bag footstool lined with sheepskin, and many warm blankets wrapped +about her, even in summer. Beside her a little lamp always burned at +night by an old silver cup, in which there was something to drink. + +Her face was very wrinkled, but the wrinkles were so small and fine and +near together that they made shadows instead of lines. Two thin locks of +hair, that was turning from white to a smoky yellow again, were drawn +over her temples from under her starched white cap. Every now and then +she woke, and her eyelids were drawn up in tiny folds like little pink +silk curtains, and her queer blue eyes looked straight before her +through doors and walls and worlds to a far place beyond. Then she slept +again, and her hands lay one upon the other on the edge of the blanket; +the thumbs had grown longer than the fingers with age, and the joints +shone in the low lamplight like polished crab-apples. + +It was nearly one o'clock in the night, and the summer breeze was +blowing the ivy branch against the panes of the window with a hushing +caress. In the small room beyond, with the door ajar, the girl-maid who +took care of Nurse Macdonald was fast asleep. All was very quiet. The +old woman breathed regularly, and her indrawn lips trembled each time as +the breath went out, and her eyes were shut. + +But outside the closed window there was a face, and violet eyes were +looking steadily at the ancient sleeper, for it was like the face of +Evelyn Warburton, though there were eighty feet from the sill of the +window to the foot of the tower. Yet the cheeks were thinner than +Evelyn's, and as white as a gleam, and the eyes stared, and the lips +were not red with life; they were dead, and painted with new blood. + +Slowly Nurse Macdonald's wrinkled eyelids folded themselves back, and +she looked straight at the face at the window while one might count ten. + +"Is it time?" she asked in her little old, faraway voice. + +While she looked the face at the window changed, for the eyes opened +wider and wider till the white glared all round the bright violet, and +the bloody lips opened over gleaming teeth, and stretched and widened +and stretched again, and the shadowy golden hair rose and streamed +against the window in the night breeze. And in answer to Nurse +Macdonald's question came the sound that freezes the living flesh. + +That low-moaning voice that rises suddenly, like the scream of storm, +from a moan to a wail, from a wail to a howl, from a howl to the +fear-shriek of the tortured dead--he who has heard knows, and he can +bear witness that the cry of the banshee is an evil cry to hear alone in +the deep night. When it was over and the face was gone, Nurse Macdonald +shook a little in her great chair, and still she looked at the black +square of the window, but there was nothing more there, nothing but the +night, and the whispering ivy branch. She turned her head to the door +that was ajar, and there stood the girl in her white gown, her teeth +chattering with fright. + +"It is time, child," said Nurse Macdonald. "I must go to him, for it is +the end." + +She rose slowly, leaning her withered hands upon the arms of the chair, +and the girl brought her a woollen gown and a great mantle, and her +crutch-stick, and made her ready. But very often the girl looked at the +window and was unjointed with fear, and often Nurse Macdonald shook her +head and said words which the maid could not understand. + +"It was like the face of Miss Evelyn," said the girl at last, trembling. + +But the ancient woman looked up sharply and angrily, and her queer blue +eyes glared. She held herself by the arm of the great chair with her +left hand, and lifted up her crutch-stick to strike the maid with all +her might. But she did not. + +"You are a good girl," she said, "but you are a fool. Pray for wit, +child, pray for wit--or else find service in another house than Ockram +Hall. Bring the lamp and help me under my left arm." + +The crutch-stick clacked on the wooden floor, and the low heels of the +woman's slippers clappered after her in slow triplets, as Nurse +Macdonald got toward the door. And down the stairs each step she took +was a labour in itself, and by the clacking noise the waking servants +knew that she was coming, very long before they saw her. + +No one was sleeping now, and there were lights, and whisperings, and +pale faces in the corridors near Sir Hugh's bedroom, and now some one +went in, and now some one came out, but every one made way for Nurse +Macdonald, who had nursed Sir Hugh's father more than eighty years ago. + +The light was soft and clear in the room. There stood Gabriel Ockram by +his father's bedside, and there knelt Evelyn Warburton, her hair lying +like a golden shadow down her shoulders, and her hands clasped nervously +together. And opposite Gabriel, a nurse was trying to make Sir Hugh +drink. But he would not, and though his lips were parted, his teeth were +set. He was very, very thin and yellow now, and his eyes caught the +light sideways and were as yellow coals. + +"Do not torment him," said Nurse Macdonald to the woman who held the +cup. "Let me speak to him, for his hour is come." + +"Let her speak to him," said Gabriel in a dull voice. + +So the ancient woman leaned to the pillow and laid the feather-weight of +her withered hand, that was like a brown moth, upon Sir Hugh's yellow +fingers, and she spoke to him earnestly, while only Gabriel and Evelyn +were left in the room to hear. + +"Hugh Ockram," she said, "this is the end of your life; and as I saw you +born, and saw your father born before you, I am come to see you die. +Hugh Ockram, will you tell me the truth?" + +The dying man recognised the little faraway voice he had known all his +life, and he very slowly turned his yellow face to Nurse Macdonald; but +he said nothing. Then she spoke again. + +"Hugh Ockram, you will never see the daylight again. Will you tell the +truth?" + +His toad-like eyes were not yet dull. They fastened themselves on her +face. + +"What do you want of me?" he asked, and each word struck hollow upon the +last. "I have no secrets. I have lived a good life." + +Nurse Macdonald laughed--a tiny, cracked laugh, that made her old head +bob and tremble a little, as if her neck were on a steel spring. But Sir +Hugh's eyes grew red, and his pale lips began to twist. + +"Let me die in peace," he said slowly. + +But Nurse Macdonald shook her head, and her brown, moth-like hand left +his and fluttered to his forehead. + +"By the mother that bore you and died of grief for the sins you did, +tell me the truth!" + +Sir Hugh's lips tightened on his discoloured teeth. + +"Not on earth," he answered slowly. + +"By the wife who bore your son and died heartbroken, tell me the truth!" + +"Neither to you in life, nor to her in eternal death." + +His lips writhed, as if the words were coals between them, and a great +drop of sweat rolled across the parchment of his forehead. Gabriel +Ockram bit his hand as he watched his father die. But Nurse Macdonald +spoke a third time. + +"By the woman whom you betrayed, and who waits for you this night, Hugh +Ockram, tell me the truth!" + +"It is too late. Let me die in peace." + +The writhing lips began to smile across the set yellow teeth, and the +toad eyes glowed like evil jewels in his head. + +"There is time," said the ancient woman. "Tell me the name of Evelyn +Warburton's father. Then I will let you die in peace." + +Evelyn started back, kneeling as she was, and stared at Nurse Macdonald, +and then at her uncle. + +"The name of Evelyn's father?" he repeated slowly, while the awful +smile spread upon his dying face. + +The light was growing strangely dim in the great room. As Evelyn looked, +Nurse Macdonald's crooked shadow on the wall grew gigantic. Sir Hugh's +breath came thick, rattling in his throat, as death crept in like a +snake and choked it back. Evelyn prayed aloud, high and clear. + +Then something rapped at the window, and she felt her hair rise upon her +head in a cool breeze, as she looked around in spite of herself. And +when she saw her own white face looking in at the window, and her own +eyes staring at her through the glass, wide and fearful, and her own +hair streaming against the pane, and her own lips dashed with blood, she +rose slowly from the floor and stood rigid for one moment, till she +screamed once and fell straight back into Gabriel's arms. But the shriek +that answered hers was the fear-shriek of the tormented corpse, out of +which the soul cannot pass for shame of deadly sins, though the devils +fight in it with corruption, each for their due share. + +Sir Hugh Ockram sat upright in his deathbed, and saw and cried aloud: + +"Evelyn!" His harsh voice broke and rattled in his chest as he sank +down. But still Nurse Macdonald tortured him, for there was a little +life left in him still. + +"You have seen the mother as she waits for you, Hugh Ockram. Who was +this girl Evelyn's father? What was his name?" + +For the last time the dreadful smile came upon the twisted lips, very +slowly, very surely now, and the toad eyes glared red, and the parchment +face glowed a little in the flickering light. For the last time words +came. + +"They know it in hell." + +Then the glowing eyes went out quickly, the yellow face turned waxen +pale, and a great shiver ran through the thin body as Hugh Ockram died. + +But in death he still smiled, for he knew his secret and kept it still, +on the other side, and he would take it with him, to lie with him for +ever in the north vault of the chapel where the Ockrams lie uncoffined +in their shrouds--all but one. Though he was dead, he smiled, for he had +kept his treasure of evil truth to the end, and there was none left to +tell the name he had spoken, but there was all the evil he had not +undone left to bear fruit. + +As they watched--Nurse Macdonald and Gabriel, who held Evelyn still +unconscious in his arms while he looked at the father--they felt the +dead smile crawling along their own lips--the ancient crone and the +youth with the angel's face. Then they shivered a little, and both +looked at Evelyn as she lay with her head on his shoulder, and, though +she was very beautiful, the same sickening smile was twisting her young +mouth too, and it was like the foreshadowing of a great evil which they +could not understand. + +But by and by they carried Evelyn out, and she opened her eyes and the +smile was gone. From far away in the great house the sound of weeping +and crooning came up the stairs and echoed along the dismal corridors, +for the women had begun to mourn the dead master, after the Irish +fashion, and the hall had echoes of its own all that night, like the +far-off wail of the banshee among forest trees. + +When the time was come they took Sir Hugh in his winding-sheet on a +trestle bier, and bore him to the chapel and through the iron door and +down the long descent to the north vault, with tapers, to lay him by his +father. And two men went in first to prepare the place, and came back +staggering like drunken men, and white, leaving their lights behind +them. + +But Gabriel Ockram was not afraid, for he knew. And he went in alone and +saw that the body of Sir Vernon Ockram was leaning upright against the +stone wall, and that its head lay on the ground near by with the face +turned up, and the dried leathern lips smiled horribly at the dried-up +corpse, while the iron coffin, lined with black velvet, stood open on +the floor. + +Then Gabriel took the thing in his hands, for it was very light, being +quite dried by the air of the vault, and those who peeped in from the +door saw him lay it in the coffin again, and it rustled a little, like a +bundle of reeds, and sounded hollow as it touched the sides and the +bottom. He also placed the head upon the shoulders and shut down the +lid, which fell to with a rusty spring that snapped. + +After that they laid Sir Hugh beside his father, with the trestle bier +on which they had brought him, and they went back to the chapel. + +But when they saw one another's faces, master and men, they were all +smiling with the dead smile of the corpse they had left in the vault, so +that they could not bear to look at one another until it had faded away. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +Gabriel Ockram became Sir Gabriel, inheriting the baronetcy with the +half-ruined fortune left by his father, and still Evelyn Warburton lived +at Ockram Hall, in the south room that had been hers ever since she +could remember anything. She could not go away, for there were no +relatives to whom she could have gone, and, besides, there seemed to be +no reason why she should not stay. The world would never trouble itself +to care what the Ockrams did on their Irish estates, and it was long +since the Ockrams had asked anything of the world. + +So Sir Gabriel took his father's place at the dark old table in the +dining-room, and Evelyn sat opposite to him, until such time as their +mourning should be over, and they might be married at last. And +meanwhile their lives went on as before, since Sir Hugh had been a +hopeless invalid during the last year of his life, and they had seen him +but once a day for a little while, spending most of their time together +in a strangely perfect companionship. + +But though the late summer saddened into autumn, and autumn darkened +into winter, and storm followed storm, and rain poured on rain through +the short days and the long nights, yet Ockram Hall seemed less gloomy +since Sir Hugh had been laid in the north vault beside his father. And +at Christmastide Evelyn decked the great hall with holly and green +boughs, and huge fires blazed on every hearth. Then the tenants were all +bidden to a New Year's dinner, and they ate and drank well, while Sir +Gabriel sat at the head of the table. Evelyn came in when the port wine +was brought, and the most respected of the tenants made a speech to +propose her health. + +It was long, he said, since there had been a Lady Ockram. Sir Gabriel +shaded his eyes with his hand and looked down at the table, but a faint +colour came into Evelyn's transparent cheeks. But, said the grey-haired +farmer, it was longer still since there had been a Lady Ockram so fair +as the next was to be, and he gave the health of Evelyn Warburton. + +Then the tenants all stood up and shouted for her, and Sir Gabriel stood +up likewise, beside Evelyn. And when the men gave the last and loudest +cheer of all there was a voice not theirs, above them all, higher, +fiercer, louder--a scream not earthly, shrieking for the bride of Ockram +Hall. And the holly and the green boughs over the great chimney-piece +shook and slowly waved as if a cool breeze were blowing over them. But +the men turned very pale, and many of them set down their glasses, but +others let them fall upon the floor for fear. And looking into one +another's faces, they were all smiling strangely, a dead smile, like +dead Sir Hugh's. One cried out words in Irish, and the fear of death was +suddenly upon them all, so that they fled in panic, falling over one +another like wild beasts in the burning forest, when the thick smoke +runs along before the flame; and the tables were over-set, and drinking +glasses and bottles were broken in heaps, and the dark red wine crawled +like blood upon the polished floor. + +Sir Gabriel and Evelyn stood alone at the head of the table before the +wreck of the feast, not daring to turn to see each other, for each knew +that the other smiled. But his right arm held her and his left hand +clasped her right as they stared before them; and but for the shadows of +her hair one might not have told their two faces apart. They listened +long, but the cry came not again, and the dead smile faded from their +lips, while each remembered that Sir Hugh Ockram lay in the north vault, +smiling in his winding-sheet, in the dark, because he had died with his +secret. + +So ended the tenants' New Year's dinner. But from that time on Sir +Gabriel grew more and more silent, and his face grew even paler and +thinner than before. Often, without warning and without words, he would +rise from his seat, as if something moved him against his will, and he +would go out into the rain or the sunshine to the north side of the +chapel, and sit on the stone bench, staring at the ground as if he could +see through it, and through the vault below, and through the white +winding-sheet in the dark, to the dead smile that would not die. + +Always when he went out in that way Evelyn came out presently and sat +beside him. Once, too, as in summer, their beautiful faces came suddenly +near, and their lids drooped, and their red lips were almost joined +together. But as their eyes met, they grew wide and wild, so that the +white showed in a ring all round the deep violet, and their teeth +chattered, and their hands were like hands of corpses, each in the +other's, for the terror of what was under their feet, and of what they +knew but could not see. + +Once, also, Evelyn found Sir Gabriel in the chapel alone, standing +before the iron door that led down to the place of death, and in his +hand there was the key to the door; but he had not put it into the lock. +Evelyn drew him away, shivering, for she had also been driven in waking +dreams to see that terrible thing again, and to find out whether it had +changed since it had lain there. + +"I'm going mad," said Sir Gabriel, covering his eyes with his hand as +he went with her. "I see it in my sleep, I see it when I am awake--it +draws me to it, day and night--and unless I see it I shall die!" + +"I know," answered Evelyn, "I know. It is as if threads were spun from +it, like a spider's, drawing us down to it." She was silent for a +moment, and then she started violently and grasped his arm with a man's +strength, and almost screamed the words she spoke. "But we must not go +there!" she cried. "We must not go!" + +Sir Gabriel's eyes were half shut, and he was not moved by the agony of +her face. + +"I shall die, unless I see it again," he said, in a quiet voice not like +his own. And all that day and that evening he scarcely spoke, thinking +of it, always thinking, while Evelyn Warburton quivered from head to +foot with a terror she had never known. + +She went alone, on a grey winter's morning, to Nurse Macdonald's room in +the tower, and sat down beside the great leathern easy-chair, laying her +thin white hand upon the withered fingers. + +"Nurse," she said, "what was it that Uncle Hugh should have told you, +that night before he died? It must have been an awful secret--and yet, +though you asked him, I feel somehow that you know it, and that you know +why he used to smile so dreadfully." + +The old woman's head moved slowly from side to side. + +"I only guess--I shall never know," she answered slowly in her cracked +little voice. + +"But what do you guess? Who am I? Why did you ask who my father was? You +know I am Colonel Warburton's daughter, and my mother was Lady Ockram's +sister, so that Gabriel and I are cousins. My father was killed in +Afghanistan. What secret can there be?" + +"I do not know. I can only guess." + +"Guess what?" asked Evelyn imploringly, and pressing the soft withered +hands, as she leaned forward. But Nurse Macdonald's wrinkled lids +dropped suddenly over her queer blue eyes, and her lips shook a little +with her breath, as if she were asleep. + +Evelyn waited. By the fire the Irish maid was knitting fast, and the +needles clicked like three or four clocks ticking against each other. +And the real clock on the wall solemnly ticked alone, checking off the +seconds of the woman who was a hundred years old, and had not many days +left. Outside the ivy branch beat the window in the wintry blast, as it +had beaten against the glass a hundred years ago. + +Then as Evelyn sat there she felt again the waking of a horrible +desire--the sickening wish to go down, down to the thing in the north +vault, and to open the winding-sheet, and see whether it had changed; +and she held Nurse Macdonald's hands as if to keep herself in her place +and fight against the appalling attraction of the evil dead. + +But the old cat that kept Nurse Macdonald's feet warm, lying always on +the bag footstool, got up and stretched itself, and looked up into +Evelyn's eyes, while its back arched, and its tail thickened and +bristled, and its ugly pink lips drew back in a devilish grin, showing +its sharp teeth. Evelyn stared at it, half fascinated by its ugliness. +Then the creature suddenly put out one paw with all its claws spread, +and spat at the girl, and all at once the grinning cat was like the +smiling corpse far down below, so that Evelyn shivered down to her small +feet, and covered her face with her free hand, lest Nurse Macdonald +should wake and see the dead smile there, for she could feel it. + +The old woman had already opened her eyes again, and she touched her cat +with the end of her crutch-stick, whereupon its back went down and its +tail shrunk, and it sidled back to its place on the bag footstool. But +its yellow eyes looked up sideways at Evelyn, between the slits of its +lids. + +"What is it that you guess, nurse?" asked the young girl again. + +"A bad thing--a wicked thing. But I dare not tell you, lest it might not +be true, and the very thought should blast your life. For if I guess +right, he meant that you should not know, and that you two should marry, +and pay for his old sin with your souls." + +"He used to tell us that we ought not to marry----" + +"Yes--he told you that, perhaps--but it was as if a man put poisoned +meat before a starving beast, and said 'do not eat,' but never raised +his hand to take the meat away. And if he told you that you should not +marry, it was because he hoped you would; for of all men living or dead, +Hugh Ockram was the falsest man that ever told a cowardly lie, and the +cruelest that ever hurt a weak woman, and the worst that ever loved a +sin." + +"But Gabriel and I love each other," said Evelyn very sadly. + +Nurse Macdonald's old eyes looked far away, at sights seen long ago, and +that rose in the grey winter air amid the mists of an ancient youth. + +"If you love, you can die together," she said, very slowly. "Why should +you live, if it is true? I am a hundred years old. What has life given +me? The beginning is fire; the end is a heap of ashes; and between the +end and the beginning lies all the pain of the world. Let me sleep, +since I cannot die." + +Then the old woman's eyes closed again, and her head sank a little lower +upon her breast. + +So Evelyn went away and left her asleep, with the cat asleep on the bag +footstool; and the young girl tried to forget Nurse Macdonald's words, +but she could not, for she heard them over and over again in the wind, +and behind her on the stairs. And as she grew sick with fear of the +frightful unknown evil to which her soul was bound, she felt a bodily +something pressing her, and pushing her, and forcing her on, and from +the other side she felt the threads that drew her mysteriously: and when +she shut her eyes, she saw in the chapel behind the altar, the low iron +door through which she must pass to go to the thing. + +And as she lay awake at night, she drew the sheet over her face, lest +she should see shadows on the wall beckoning to her; and the sound of +her own warm breath made whisperings in her ears, while she held the +mattress with her hands, to keep from getting up and going to the +chapel. It would have been easier if there had not been a way thither +through the library, by a door which was never locked. It would be +fearfully easy to take her candle and go softly through the sleeping +house. And the key of the vault lay under the altar behind a stone that +turned. She knew the little secret. She could go alone and see. + +But when she thought of it, she felt her hair rise on her head, and +first she shivered so that the bed shook, and then the horror went +through her in a cold thrill that was agony again, like myriads of icy +needles boring into her nerves. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The old clock in Nurse Macdonald's tower struck midnight. From her room +she could hear the creaking chains and weights in their box in the +corner of the staircase, and overhead the jarring of the rusty lever +that lifted the hammer. She had heard it all her life. It struck eleven +strokes clearly, and then came the twelfth, with a dull half stroke, as +though the hammer were too weary to go on, and had fallen asleep against +the bell. + +The old cat got up from the bag footstool and stretched itself, and +Nurse Macdonald opened her ancient eyes and looked slowly round the +room by the dim light of the night lamp. She touched the cat with her +crutch-stick, and it lay down upon her feet. She drank a few drops from +her cup and went to sleep again. + +But downstairs Sir Gabriel sat straight up as the clock struck, for he +had dreamed a fearful dream of horror, and his heart stood still, till +he awoke at its stopping, and it beat again furiously with his breath, +like a wild thing set free. No Ockram had ever known fear waking, but +sometimes it came to Sir Gabriel in his sleep. + +He pressed his hands to his temples as he sat up in bed, and his hands +were icy cold, but his head was hot. The dream faded far, and in its +place there came the master thought that racked his life; with the +thought also came the sick twisting of his lips in the dark that would +have been a smile. Far off, Evelyn Warburton dreamed that the dead smile +was on her mouth, and awoke, starting with a little moan, her face in +her hands, shivering. + +But Sir Gabriel struck a light and got up and began to walk up and down +his great room. It was midnight, and he had barely slept an hour, and in +the north of Ireland the winter nights are long. + +"I shall go mad," he said to himself, holding his forehead. He knew that +it was true. For weeks and months the possession of the thing had grown +upon him like a disease, till he could think of nothing without thinking +first of that. And now all at once it outgrew his strength, and he knew +that he must be its instrument or lose his mind--that he must do the +deed he hated and feared, if he could fear anything, or that something +would snap in his brain and divide him from life while he was yet alive. +He took the candlestick in his hand, the old-fashioned heavy candlestick +that had always been used by the head of the house. He did not think of +dressing, but went as he was, in his silk night clothes and his +slippers, and he opened the door. Everything was very still in the great +old house. He shut the door behind him and walked noiselessly on the +carpet through the long corridor. A cool breeze blew over his shoulder +and blew the flame of his candle straight out from him. Instinctively he +stopped and looked round, but all was still, and the upright flame +burned steadily. He walked on, and instantly a strong draught was behind +him, almost extinguishing the light. It seemed to blow him on his way, +ceasing whenever he turned, coming again when he went on--invisible, +icy. + +Down the great staircase to the echoing hall he went, seeing nothing but +the flaring flame of the candle standing away from him over the +guttering wax, while the cold wind blew over his shoulder and through +his hair. On he passed through the open door into the library, dark with +old books and carved bookcases; on through the door in the shelves, with +painted shelves on it, and the imitated backs of books, so that one +needed to know where to find it--and it shut itself after him with a +soft click. He entered the low-arched passage, and though the door was +shut behind him and fitted tightly in its frame, still the cold breeze +blew the flame forward as he walked. And he was not afraid; but his face +was very pale, and his eyes were wide and bright, looking before him, +seeing already in the dark air the picture of the thing beyond. But in +the chapel he stood still, his hand on the little turning stone tablet +in the back of the stone altar. On the tablet were engraved words: +"_Clavis sepulchri Clarissimorum Dominorum De Ockram_"--("the key to the +vault of the most illustrious lords of Ockram"). Sir Gabriel paused and +listened. He fancied that he heard a sound far off in the great house +where all had been so still, but it did not come again. Yet he waited at +the last, and looked at the low iron door. Beyond it, down the long +descent, lay his father uncoffined, six months dead, corrupt, terrible +in his clinging shroud. The strangely preserving air of the vault could +not yet have done its work completely. But on the thing's ghastly +features, with their half-dried, open eyes, there would still be the +frightful smile with which the man had died--the smile that haunted---- + +As the thought crossed Sir Gabriel's mind, he felt his lips writhing, +and he struck his own mouth in wrath with the back of his hand so +fiercely that a drop of blood ran down his chin, and another, and more, +falling back in the gloom upon the chapel pavement. But still his +bruised lips twisted themselves. He turned the tablet by the simple +secret. It needed no safer fastening, for had each Ockram been coffined +in pure gold, and had the door been open wide, there was not a man in +Tyrone brave enough to go down to that place, saving Gabriel Ockram +himself, with his angel's face and his thin, white hands, and his sad +unflinching eyes. He took the great old key and set it into the lock of +the iron door; and the heavy, rattling noise echoed down the descent +beyond like footsteps, as if a watcher had stood behind the iron and +were running away within, with heavy dead feet. And though he was +standing still, the cool wind was from behind him, and blew the flame of +the candle against the iron panel. He turned the key. + +Sir Gabriel saw that his candle was short. There were new ones on the +altar, with long candlesticks, and he lit one, and left his own burning +on the floor. As he set it down on the pavement his lip began to bleed +again, and another drop fell upon the stones. + +He drew the iron door open and pushed it back against the chapel wall, +so that it should not shut of itself, while he was within; and the +horrible draught of the sepulchre came up out of the depths in his face, +foul and dark. He went in, but though the fetid air met him, yet the +flame of the tall candle was blown straight from him against the wind +while he walked down the easy incline with steady steps, his loose +slippers slapping the pavement as he trod. + +He shaded the candle with his hand, and his fingers seemed to be made of +wax and blood as the light shone through them. And in spite of him the +unearthly draught forced the flame forward, till it was blue over the +black wick, and it seemed as if it must go out. But he went straight on, +with shining eyes. + +The downward passage was wide, and he could not always see the walls by +the struggling light, but he knew when he was in the place of death by +the larger, drearier echo of his steps in the greater space, and by the +sensation of a distant blank wall. He stood still, almost enclosing the +flame of the candle in the hollow of his hand. He could see a little, +for his eyes were growing used to the gloom. Shadowy forms were outlined +in the dimness, where the biers of the Ockrams stood crowded together, +side by side, each with its straight, shrouded corpse, strangely +preserved by the dry air, like the empty shell that the locust sheds in +summer. And a few steps before him he saw clearly the dark shape of +headless Sir Vernon's iron coffin, and he knew that nearest to it lay +the thing he sought. + +He was as brave as any of those dead men had been, and they were his +fathers, and he knew that sooner or later he should lie there himself, +beside Sir Hugh, slowly drying to a parchment shell. But he was still +alive, and he closed his eyes a moment, and three great drops stood on +his forehead. + +Then he looked again, and by the whiteness of the winding-sheet he knew +his father's corpse, for all the others were brown with age; and, +moreover, the flame of the candle was blown toward it. He made four +steps till he reached it, and suddenly the light burned straight and +high, shedding a dazzling yellow glare upon the fine linen that was all +white, save over the face, and where the joined hands were laid on the +breast. And at those places ugly stains had spread, darkened with +outlines of the features and of the tight-clasped fingers. There was a +frightful stench of drying death. + +As Sir Gabriel looked down, something stirred behind him, softly at +first, then more noisily, and something fell to the stone floor with a +dull thud and rolled up to his feet; he started back and saw a withered +head lying almost face upward on the pavement, grinning at him. He felt +the cold sweat standing on his face, and his heart beat painfully. + +For the first time in all his life that evil thing which men call fear +was getting hold of him, checking his heart-strings as a cruel driver +checks a quivering horse, clawing at his backbone with icy hands, +lifting his hair with freezing breath, climbing up and gathering in his +midriff with leaden weight. + +Yet presently he bit his lip and bent down, holding the candle in one +hand, to lift the shroud back from the head of the corpse with the +other. Slowly he lifted it. Then it clove to the half-dried skin of the +face, and his hand shook as if some one had struck him on the elbow, but +half in fear and half in anger at himself, he pulled it, so that it came +away with a little ripping sound. He caught his breath as he held it, +not yet throwing it back, and not yet looking. The horror was working in +him, and he felt that old Vernon Ockram was standing up in his iron +coffin, headless, yet watching him with the stump of his severed neck. + +While he held his breath he felt the dead smile twisting his lips. In +sudden wrath at his own misery, he tossed the death-stained linen +backward, and looked at last. He ground his teeth lest he should shriek +aloud. + +There it was, the thing that haunted him, that haunted Evelyn Warburton, +that was like a blight on all that came near him. + +The dead face was blotched with dark stains, and the thin, grey hair was +matted about the discoloured forehead. The sunken lids were half open, +and the candle light gleamed on something foul where the toad eyes had +lived. + +But yet the dead thing smiled, as it had smiled in life; the ghastly +lips were parted and drawn wide and tight upon the wolfish teeth, +cursing still, and still defying hell to do its worst--defying, cursing, +and always and for ever smiling alone in the dark. + +Sir Gabriel opened the winding-sheet where the hands were, and the +blackened, withered fingers were closed upon something stained and +mottled. Shivering from head to foot, but fighting like a man in agony +for his life, he tried to take the package from the dead man's hold. But +as he pulled at it the claw-like fingers seemed to close more tightly, +and when he pulled harder the shrunken hands and arms rose from the +corpse with a horrible look of life following his motion--then as he +wrenched the sealed packet loose at last, the hands fell back into their +place still folded. + +He set down the candle on the edge of the bier to break the seals from +the stout paper. And, kneeling on one knee, to get a better light, he +read what was within, written long ago in Sir Hugh's queer hand. + +He was no longer afraid. + +He read how Sir Hugh had written it all down that it might perchance be +a witness of evil and of his hatred; how he had loved Evelyn Warburton, +his wife's sister; and how his wife had died of a broken heart with his +curse upon her, and how Warburton and he had fought side by side in +Afghanistan, and Warburton had fallen; but Ockram had brought his +comrade's wife back a full year later, and little Evelyn, her child, had +been born in Ockram Hall. And next, how he had wearied of the mother, +and she had died like her sister with his curse on her. And then, how +Evelyn had been brought up as his niece, and how he had trusted that his +son Gabriel and his daughter, innocent and unknowing, might love and +marry, and the souls of the women he had betrayed might suffer another +anguish before eternity was out. And, last of all, he hoped that some +day, when nothing could be undone, the two might find his writing and +live on, not daring to tell the truth for their children's sake and the +world's word, man and wife. + +This he read, kneeling beside the corpse in the north vault, by the +light of the altar candle; and when he had read it all, he thanked God +aloud that he had found the secret in time. But when he rose to his feet +and looked down at the dead face it was changed, and the smile was gone +from it for ever, and the jaw had fallen a little, and the tired, dead +lips were relaxed. And then there was a breath behind him and close to +him, not cold like that which had blown the flame of the candle as he +came, but warm and human. He turned suddenly. + +There she stood, all in white, with her shadowy golden hair--for she had +risen from her bed and had followed him noiselessly, and had found him +reading, and had herself read over his shoulder. He started violently +when he saw her, for his nerves were unstrung--and then he cried out her +name in the still place of death: + +"Evelyn!" + +"My brother!" she answered softly and tenderly, putting out both hands +to meet his. + + + + +THE SCREAMING SKULL + + +I have often heard it scream. No, I am not nervous, I am not +imaginative, and I never believed in ghosts, unless that thing is one. +Whatever it is, it hates me almost as much as it hated Luke Pratt, and +it screams at me. + +If I were you, I would never tell ugly stories about ingenious ways of +killing people, for you never can tell but that some one at the table +may be tired of his or her nearest and dearest. I have always blamed +myself for Mrs. Pratt's death, and I suppose I was responsible for it in +a way, though heaven knows I never wished her anything but long life and +happiness. If I had not told that story she might be alive yet. That is +why the thing screams at me, I fancy. + +She was a good little woman, with a sweet temper, all things considered, +and a nice gentle voice; but I remember hearing her shriek once when she +thought her little boy was killed by a pistol that went off, though +every one was sure that it was not loaded. It was the same scream; +exactly the same, with a sort of rising quaver at the end; do you know +what I mean? Unmistakable. + +The truth is, I had not realised that the doctor and his wife were not +on good terms. They used to bicker a bit now and then when I was here, +and I often noticed that little Mrs. Pratt got very red and bit her lip +hard to keep her temper, while Luke grew pale and said the most +offensive things. He was that sort when he was in the nursery, I +remember, and afterward at school. He was my cousin, you know; that is +how I came by this house; after he died, and his boy Charley was killed +in South Africa, there were no relations left. Yes, it's a pretty little +property, just the sort of thing for an old sailor like me who has taken +to gardening. + +One always remembers one's mistakes much more vividly than one's +cleverest things, doesn't one? I've often noticed it. I was dining with +the Pratts one night, when I told them the story that afterwards made so +much difference. It was a wet night in November, and the sea was +moaning. Hush!--if you don't speak you will hear it now.... + +Do you hear the tide? Gloomy sound, isn't it? Sometimes, about this time +of year--hallo!--there it is! Don't be frightened, man--it won't eat +you--it's only a noise, after all! But I'm glad you've heard it, +because there are always people who think it's the wind, or my +imagination, or something. You won't hear it again to-night, I fancy, +for it doesn't often come more than once. Yes--that's right. Put another +stick on the fire, and a little more stuff into that weak mixture you're +so fond of. Do you remember old Blauklot the carpenter, on that German +ship that picked us up when the _Clontarf_ went to the bottom? We were +hove to in a howling gale one night, as snug as you please, with no land +within five hundred miles, and the ship coming up and falling off as +regularly as clockwork--"Biddy te boor beebles ashore tis night, poys!" +old Blauklot sang out, as he went off to his quarters with the +sail-maker. I often think of that, now that I'm ashore for good and all. + +Yes, it was on a night like this, when I was at home for a spell, +waiting to take the _Olympia_ out on her first trip--it was on the next +voyage that she broke the record, you remember--but that dates it. +Ninety-two was the year, early in November. + +The weather was dirty, Pratt was out of temper, and the dinner was bad, +very bad indeed, which didn't improve matters, and cold, which made it +worse. The poor little lady was very unhappy about it, and insisted on +making a Welsh rarebit on the table to counteract the raw turnips and +the half-boiled mutton. Pratt must have had a hard day. Perhaps he had +lost a patient. At all events, he was in a nasty temper. + +"My wife is trying to poison me, you see!" he said. "She'll succeed some +day." I saw that she was hurt, and I made believe to laugh, and said +that Mrs. Pratt was much too clever to get rid of her husband in such a +simple way; and then I began to tell them about Japanese tricks with +spun glass and chopped horsehair and the like. + +Pratt was a doctor, and knew a lot more than I did about such things, +but that only put me on my mettle, and I told a story about a woman in +Ireland who did for three husbands before any one suspected foul play. + +Did you never hear that tale? The fourth husband managed to keep awake +and caught her, and she was hanged. How did she do it? She drugged them, +and poured melted lead into their ears through a little horn funnel when +they were asleep.... No--that's the wind whistling. It's backing up to +the southward again. I can tell by the sound. Besides, the other thing +doesn't often come more than once in an evening even at this time of +year--when it happened. Yes, it was in November. Poor Mrs. Pratt died +suddenly in her bed not long after I dined here. I can fix the date, +because I got the news in New York by the steamer that followed the +_Olympia_ when I took her out on her first trip. You had the _Leofric_ +the same year? Yes, I remember. What a pair of old buffers we are coming +to be, you and I. Nearly fifty years since we were apprentices together +on the _Clontarf_. Shall you ever forget old Blauklot? "Biddy te boor +beebles ashore, poys!" Ha, ha! Take a little more, with all that water. +It's the old Hulstkamp I found in the cellar when this house came to me, +the same I brought Luke from Amsterdam five-and-twenty years ago. He had +never touched a drop of it. Perhaps he's sorry now, poor fellow. + +Where did I leave off? I told you that Mrs. Pratt died suddenly--yes. +Luke must have been lonely here after she was dead, I should think; I +came to see him now and then, and he looked worn and nervous, and told +me that his practice was growing too heavy for him, though he wouldn't +take an assistant on any account. Years went on, and his son was killed +in South Africa, and after that he began to be queer. There was +something about him not like other people. I believe he kept his senses +in his profession to the end; there was no complaint of his having made +bad mistakes in cases, or anything of that sort, but he had a look about +him---- + +Luke was a red-headed man with a pale face when he was young, and he +was never stout; in middle age he turned a sandy grey, and after his son +died he grew thinner and thinner, till his head looked like a skull with +parchment stretched over it very tight, and his eyes had a sort of glare +in them that was very disagreeable to look at. + +He had an old dog that poor Mrs. Pratt had been fond of, and that used +to follow her everywhere. He was a bull-dog, and the sweetest tempered +beast you ever saw, though he had a way of hitching his upper lip behind +one of his fangs that frightened strangers a good deal. Sometimes, of an +evening, Pratt and Bumble--that was the dog's name--used to sit and look +at each other a long time, thinking about old times, I suppose, when +Luke's wife used to sit in that chair you've got. That was always her +place, and this was the doctor's, where I'm sitting. Bumble used to +climb up by the footstool--he was old and fat by that time, and could +not jump much, and his teeth were getting shaky. He would look steadily +at Luke, and Luke looked steadily at the dog, his face growing more and +more like a skull with two little coals for eyes; and after about five +minutes or so, though it may have been less, old Bumble would suddenly +begin to shake all over, and all on a sudden he would set up an awful +howl, as if he had been shot, and tumble out of the easy-chair and trot +away, and hide himself under the sideboard, and lie there making odd +noises. + +Considering Pratt's looks in those last months, the thing is not +surprising, you know. I'm not nervous or imaginative, but I can quite +believe he might have sent a sensitive woman into hysterics--his head +looked so much like a skull in parchment. + +At last I came down one day before Christmas, when my ship was in dock +and I had three weeks off. Bumble was not about, and I said casually +that I supposed the old dog was dead. + +"Yes," Pratt answered, and I thought there was something odd in his tone +even before he went on after a little pause. "I killed him," he said +presently. "I could not stand it any longer." + +I asked what it was that Luke could not stand, though I guessed well +enough. + +"He had a way of sitting in her chair and glaring at me, and then +howling." Luke shivered a little. "He didn't suffer at all, poor old +Bumble," he went on in a hurry, as if he thought I might imagine he had +been cruel. "I put dionine into his drink to make him sleep soundly, and +then I chloroformed him gradually, so that he could not have felt +suffocated even if he was dreaming. It's been quieter since then." + +I wondered what he meant, for the words slipped out as if he could not +help saying them. I've understood since. He meant that he did not hear +that noise so often after the dog was out of the way. Perhaps he thought +at first that it was old Bumble in the yard howling at the moon, though +it's not that kind of noise, is it? Besides, I know what it is, if Luke +didn't. It's only a noise, after all, and a noise never hurt anybody +yet. But he was much more imaginative than I am. No doubt there really +is something about this place that I don't understand; but when I don't +understand a thing, I call it a phenomenon, and I don't take it for +granted that it's going to kill me, as he did. I don't understand +everything, by long odds, nor do you, nor does any man who has been to +sea. We used to talk of tidal waves, for instance, and we could not +account for them; now we account for them by calling them submarine +earthquakes, and we branch off into fifty theories, any one of which +might make earthquakes quite comprehensible if we only knew what they +are. I fell in with one of them once, and the inkstand flew straight up +from the table against the ceiling of my cabin. The same thing happened +to Captain Lecky--I dare say you've read about it in his "Wrinkles." +Very good. If that sort of thing took place ashore, in this room for +instance, a nervous person would talk about spirits and levitation and +fifty things that mean nothing, instead of just quietly setting it down +as a "phenomenon" that has not been explained yet. My view of that +voice, you see. + +Besides, what is there to prove that Luke killed his wife? I would not +even suggest such a thing to any one but you. After all, there was +nothing but the coincidence that poor little Mrs. Pratt died suddenly in +her bed a few days after I told that story at dinner. She was not the +only woman who ever died like that. Luke got the doctor over from the +next parish, and they agreed that she had died of something the matter +with her heart. Why not? It's common enough. + +Of course, there was the ladle. I never told anybody about that, and it +made me start when I found it in the cupboard in the bedroom. It was +new, too--a little tinned iron ladle that had not been in the fire more +than once or twice, and there was some lead in it that had been melted, +and stuck to the bottom of the bowl, all grey, with hardened dross on +it. But that proves nothing. A country doctor is generally a handy man, +who does everything for himself, and Luke may have had a dozen reasons +for melting a little lead in a ladle. He was fond of sea-fishing, for +instance, and he may have cast a sinker for a night-line; perhaps it was +a weight for the hall clock, or something like that. All the same, when +I found it I had a rather queer sensation, because it looked so much +like the thing I had described when I told them the story. Do you +understand? It affected me unpleasantly, and I threw it away; it's at +the bottom of the sea a mile from the Spit, and it will be jolly well +rusted beyond recognising if it's ever washed up by the tide. + +You see, Luke must have bought it in the village, years ago, for the man +sells just such ladles still. I suppose they are used in cooking. In any +case, there was no reason why an inquisitive housemaid should find such +a thing lying about, with lead in it, and wonder what it was, and +perhaps talk to the maid who heard me tell the story at dinner--for that +girl married the plumber's son in the village, and may remember the +whole thing. + +You understand me, don't you? Now that Luke Pratt is dead and gone, and +lies buried beside his wife, with an honest man's tombstone at his head, +I should not care to stir up anything that could hurt his memory. They +are both dead, and their son, too. There was trouble enough about Luke's +death, as it was. + +How? He was found dead on the beach one morning, and there was a +coroner's inquest. There were marks on his throat, but he had not been +robbed. The verdict was that he had come to his end "by the hands or +teeth of some person or animal unknown," for half the jury thought it +might have been a big dog that had thrown him down and gripped his +windpipe, though the skin of his throat was not broken. No one knew at +what time he had gone out, nor where he had been. He was found lying on +his back above high-water mark, and an old cardboard bandbox that had +belonged to his wife lay under his hand, open. The lid had fallen off. +He seemed to have been carrying home a skull in the box--doctors are +fond of collecting such things. It had rolled out and lay near his head, +and it was a remarkably fine skull, rather small, beautifully shaped and +very white, with perfect teeth. That is to say, the upper jaw was +perfect, but there was no lower one at all, when I first saw it. + +Yes, I found it here when I came. You see, it was very white and +polished, like a thing meant to be kept under a glass case, and the +people did not know where it came from, nor what to do with it; so they +put it back into the bandbox and set it on the shelf of the cupboard in +the best bedroom, and of course they showed it to me when I took +possession. I was taken down to the beach, too, to be shown the place +where Luke was found, and the old fisherman explained just how he was +lying, and the skull beside him. The only point he could not explain +was why the skull had rolled up the sloping sand toward Luke's head +instead of rolling downhill to his feet. It did not seem odd to me at +the time, but I have often thought of it since, for the place is rather +steep. I'll take you there to-morrow if you like--I made a sort of cairn +of stones there afterward. + +When he fell down, or was thrown down--whichever happened--the bandbox +struck the sand, and the lid came off, and the thing came out and ought +to have rolled down. But it didn't. It was close to his head, almost +touching it, and turned with the face toward it. I say it didn't strike +me as odd when the man told me; but I could not help thinking about it +afterward, again and again, till I saw a picture of it all when I closed +my eyes; and then I began to ask myself why the plaguey thing had rolled +up instead of down, and why it had stopped near Luke's head instead of +anywhere else, a yard away, for instance. + +You naturally want to know what conclusion I reached, don't you? None +that at all explained the rolling, at all events. But I got something +else into my head, after a time, that made me feel downright +uncomfortable. + +Oh, I don't mean as to anything supernatural! There may be ghosts, or +there may not be. If there are, I'm not inclined to believe that they +can hurt living people except by frightening them, and, for my part, I +would rather face any shape of ghost than a fog in the Channel when it's +crowded. No. What bothered me was just a foolish idea, that's all, and I +cannot tell how it began, nor what made it grow till it turned into a +certainty. + +I was thinking about Luke and his poor wife one evening over my pipe and +a dull book, when it occurred to me that the skull might possibly be +hers, and I have never got rid of the thought since. You'll tell me +there's no sense in it, no doubt; that Mrs. Pratt was buried like a +Christian and is lying in the churchyard where they put her, and that +it's perfectly monstrous to suppose her husband kept her skull in her +old bandbox in his bedroom. All the same, in the face of reason, and +common sense, and probability, I'm convinced that he did. Doctors do all +sorts of queer things that would make men like you and me feel creepy, +and those are just the things that don't seem probable, nor logical, nor +sensible to us. + +Then, don't you see?--if it really was her skull, poor woman, the only +way of accounting for his having it is that he really killed her, and +did it in that way, as the woman killed her husbands in the story, and +that he was afraid there might be an examination some day which would +betray him. You see, I told that too, and I believe it had really +happened some fifty or sixty years ago. They dug up the three skulls, +you know, and there was a small lump of lead rattling about in each one. +That was what hanged the woman. Luke remembered that, I'm sure. I don't +want to know what he did when he thought of it; my taste never ran in +the direction of horrors, and I don't fancy you care for them either, do +you? No. If you did, you might supply what is wanting to the story. + +It must have been rather grim, eh? I wish I did not see the whole thing +so distinctly, just as everything must have happened. He took it the +night before she was buried, I'm sure, after the coffin had been shut, +and when the servant girl was asleep. I would bet anything, that when +he'd got it, he put something under the sheet in its place, to fill up +and look like it. What do you suppose he put there, under the sheet? + +I don't wonder you take me up on what I'm saying! First I tell you that +I don't want to know what happened, and that I hate to think about +horrors, and then I describe the whole thing to you as if I had seen it. +I'm quite sure that it was her work-bag that he put there. I remember +the bag very well, for she always used it of an evening; it was made of +brown plush, and when it was stuffed full it was about the size of--you +understand. Yes, there I am, at it again! You may laugh at me, but you +don't live here alone, where it was done, and you didn't tell Luke the +story about the melted lead. I'm not nervous, I tell you, but sometimes +I begin to feel that I understand why some people are. I dwell on all +this when I'm alone, and I dream of it, and when that thing +screams--well, frankly, I don't like the noise any more than you do, +though I should be used to it by this time. + +I ought not to be nervous. I've sailed in a haunted ship. There was a +Man in the Top, and two-thirds of the crew died of the West Coast fever +inside of ten days after we anchored; but I was all right, then and +afterward. I have seen some ugly sights, too, just as you have, and all +the rest of us. But nothing ever stuck in my head in the way this does. + +You see, I've tried to get rid of the thing, but it doesn't like that. +It wants to be there in its place, in Mrs. Pratt's bandbox in the +cupboard in the best bedroom. It's not happy anywhere else. How do I +know that? Because I've tried it. You don't suppose that I've not tried, +do you? As long as it's there it only screams now and then, generally at +this time of year, but if I put it out of the house it goes on all +night, and no servant will stay here twenty-four hours. As it is, I've +often been left alone and have been obliged to shift for myself for a +fortnight at a time. No one from the village would ever pass a night +under the roof now, and as for selling the place, or even letting it, +that's out of the question. The old women say that if I stay here I +shall come to a bad end myself before long. + +I'm not afraid of that. You smile at the mere idea that any one could +take such nonsense seriously. Quite right. It's utterly blatant +nonsense, I agree with you. Didn't I tell you that it's only a noise +after all when you started and looked round as if you expected to see a +ghost standing behind your chair? + +I may be all wrong about the skull, and I like to think that I am--when +I can. It may be just a fine specimen which Luke got somewhere long ago, +and what rattles about inside when you shake it may be nothing but a +pebble, or a bit of hard clay, or anything. Skulls that have lain long +in the ground generally have something inside them that rattles, don't +they? No, I've never tried to get it out, whatever it is; I'm afraid it +might be lead, don't you see? And if it is, I don't want to know the +fact, for I'd much rather not be sure. If it really is lead, I killed +her quite as much as if I had done the deed myself. Anybody must see +that, I should think. As long as I don't know for certain, I have the +consolation of saying that it's all utterly ridiculous nonsense, that +Mrs. Pratt died a natural death and that the beautiful skull belonged to +Luke when he was a student in London. But if I were quite sure, I +believe I should have to leave the house; indeed I do, most certainly. +As it is, I had to give up trying to sleep in the best bedroom where the +cupboard is. + +You ask me why I don't throw it into the pond--yes, but please don't +call it a "confounded bugbear"--it doesn't like being called names. + +There! Lord, what a shriek! I told you so! You're quite pale, man. Fill +up your pipe and draw your chair nearer to the fire, and take some more +drink. Old Hollands never hurt anybody yet. I've seen a Dutchman in Java +drink half a jug of Hulstkamp in a morning without turning a hair. I +don't take much rum myself, because it doesn't agree with my rheumatism, +but you are not rheumatic and it won't damage you. Besides, it's a very +damp night outside. The wind is howling again, and it will soon be in +the southwest; do you hear how the windows rattle? The tide must have +turned too, by the moaning. + +We should not have heard the thing again if you had not said that. I'm +pretty sure we should not. Oh yes, if you choose to describe it as a +coincidence, you are quite welcome, but I would rather that you should +not call the thing names again, if you don't mind. It may be that the +poor little woman hears, and perhaps it hurts her, don't you know? +Ghost? No! You don't call anything a ghost that you can take in your +hands and look at in broad daylight, and that rattles when you shake it. +Do you, now? But it's something that hears and understands; there's no +doubt about that. + +I tried sleeping in the best bedroom when I first came to the house, +just because it was the best and the most comfortable, but I had to give +it up. It was their room, and there's the big bed she died in, and the +cupboard is in the thickness of the wall, near the head, on the left. +That's where it likes to be kept, in its bandbox. I only used the room +for a fortnight after I came, and then I turned out and took the little +room downstairs, next to the surgery, where Luke used to sleep when he +expected to be called to a patient during the night. + +I was always a good sleeper ashore; eight hours is my dose, eleven to +seven when I'm alone, twelve to eight when I have a friend with me. But +I could not sleep after three o'clock in the morning in that room--a +quarter past, to be accurate--as a matter of fact, I timed it with my +old pocket chronometer, which still keeps good time, and it was always +at exactly seventeen minutes past three. I wonder whether that was the +hour when she died? + +It was not what you have heard. If it had been that I could not have +stood it two nights. It was just a start and a moan and hard breathing +for a few seconds in the cupboard, and it could never have waked me +under ordinary circumstances, I'm sure. I suppose you are like me in +that, and we are just like other people who have been to sea. No natural +sounds disturb us at all, not all the racket of a square-rigger hove to +in a heavy gale, or rolling on her beam ends before the wind. But if a +lead pencil gets adrift and rattles in the drawer of your cabin table +you are awake in a moment. Just so--you always understand. Very well, +the noise in the cupboard was no louder than that, but it waked me +instantly. + +I said it was like a "start." I know what I mean, but it's hard to +explain without seeming to talk nonsense. Of course you cannot exactly +"hear" a person "start"; at the most, you might hear the quick drawing +of the breath between the parted lips and closed teeth, and the almost +imperceptible sound of clothing that moved suddenly though very +slightly. It was like that. + +You know how one feels what a sailing vessel is going to do, two or +three seconds before she does it, when one has the wheel. Riders say the +same of a horse, but that's less strange, because the horse is a live +animal with feelings of its own, and only poets and landsmen talk about +a ship being alive, and all that. But I have always felt somehow that +besides being a steaming machine or a sailing machine for carrying +weights, a vessel at sea is a sensitive instrument, and a means of +communication between nature and man, and most particularly the man at +the wheel, if she is steered by hand. She takes her impressions directly +from wind and sea, tide and stream, and transmits them to the man's +hand, just as the wireless telegraph picks up the interrupted currents +aloft and turns them out below in the form of a message. + +You see what I am driving at; I felt that something started in the +cupboard, and I felt it so vividly that I heard it, though there may +have been nothing to hear, and the sound inside my head waked me +suddenly. But I really heard the other noise. It was as if it were +muffled inside a box, as far away as if it came through a long-distance +telephone; and yet I knew that it was inside the cupboard near the head +of my bed. My hair did not bristle and my blood did not run cold that +time. I simply resented being waked up by something that had no +business to make a noise, any more than a pencil should rattle in the +drawer of my cabin table on board ship. For I did not understand; I just +supposed that the cupboard had some communication with the outside air, +and that the wind had got in and was moaning through it with a sort of +very faint screech. I struck a light and looked at my watch, and it was +seventeen minutes past three. Then I turned over and went to sleep on my +right ear. That's my good one; I'm pretty deaf with the other, for I +struck the water with it when I was a lad in diving from the foretopsail +yard. Silly thing to do, it was, but the result is very convenient when +I want to go to sleep when there's a noise. + +That was the first night, and the same thing happened again and several +times afterward, but not regularly, though it was always at the same +time, to a second; perhaps I was sometimes sleeping on my good ear, and +sometimes not. I overhauled the cupboard and there was no way by which +the wind could get in, or anything else, for the door makes a good fit, +having been meant to keep out moths, I suppose; Mrs. Pratt must have +kept her winter things in it, for it still smells of camphor and +turpentine. + +After about a fortnight I had had enough of the noises. So far I had +said to myself that it would be silly to yield to it and take the skull +out of the room. Things always look differently by daylight, don't they? +But the voice grew louder--I suppose one may call it a voice--and it got +inside my deaf ear, too, one night. I realised that when I was wide +awake, for my good ear was jammed down on the pillow, and I ought not to +have heard a fog-horn in that position. But I heard that, and it made me +lose my temper, unless it scared me, for sometimes the two are not far +apart. I struck a light and got up, and I opened the cupboard, grabbed +the bandbox and threw it out of the window, as far as I could. + +Then my hair stood on end. The thing screamed in the air, like a shell +from a twelve-inch gun. It fell on the other side of the road. The night +was very dark, and I could not see it fall, but I know it fell beyond +the road. The window is just over the front door, it's fifteen yards to +the fence, more or less, and the road is ten yards wide. There's a +quickset hedge beyond, along the glebe that belongs to the vicarage. + +I did not sleep much more that night. It was not more than half an hour +after I had thrown the bandbox out when I heard a shriek outside--like +what we've had to-night, but worse, more despairing, I should call it; +and it may have been my imagination, but I could have sworn that the +screams came nearer and nearer each time. I lit a pipe, and walked up +and down for a bit, and then took a book and sat up reading, but I'll be +hanged if I can remember what I read nor even what the book was, for +every now and then a shriek came up that would have made a dead man turn +in his coffin. + +A little before dawn some one knocked at the front door. There was no +mistaking that for anything else, and I opened my window and looked +down, for I guessed that some one wanted the doctor, supposing that the +new man had taken Luke's house. It was rather a relief to hear a human +knock after that awful noise. + +You cannot see the door from above, owing to the little porch. The +knocking came again, and I called out, asking who was there, but nobody +answered, though the knock was repeated. I sang out again, and said that +the doctor did not live here any longer. There was no answer, but it +occurred to me that it might be some old countryman who was stone deaf. +So I took my candle and went down to open the door. Upon my word, I was +not thinking of the thing yet, and I had almost forgotten the other +noises. I went down convinced that I should find somebody outside, on +the doorstep, with a message. I set the candle on the hall table, so +that the wind should not blow it out when I opened. While I was drawing +the old-fashioned bolt I heard the knocking again. It was not loud, and +it had a queer, hollow sound, now that I was close to it, I remember, +but I certainly thought it was made by some person who wanted to get in. + +It wasn't. There was nobody there, but as I opened the door inward, +standing a little on one side, so as to see out at once, something +rolled across the threshold and stopped against my foot. + +I drew back as I felt it, for I knew what it was before I looked down. I +cannot tell you how I knew, and it seemed unreasonable, for I am still +quite sure that I had thrown it across the road. It's a French window, +that opens wide, and I got a good swing when I flung it out. Besides, +when I went out early in the morning, I found the bandbox beyond the +thickset hedge. + +You may think it opened when I threw it, and that the skull dropped out; +but that's impossible, for nobody could throw an empty cardboard box so +far. It's out of the question; you might as well try to fling a ball of +paper twenty-five yards, or a blown bird's egg. + +To go back, I shut and bolted the hall door, picked the thing up +carefully, and put it on the table beside the candle. I did that +mechanically, as one instinctively does the right thing in danger +without thinking at all--unless one does the opposite. It may seem odd, +but I believe my first thought had been that somebody might come and +find me there on the threshold while it was resting against my foot, +lying a little on its side, and turning one hollow eye up at my face, as +if it meant to accuse me. And the light and shadow from the candle +played in the hollows of the eyes as it stood on the table, so that they +seemed to open and shut at me. Then the candle went out quite +unexpectedly, though the door was fastened and there was not the least +draught; and I used up at least half a dozen matches before it would +burn again. + +I sat down rather suddenly, without quite knowing why. Probably I had +been badly frightened, and perhaps you will admit there was no great +shame in being scared. The thing had come home, and it wanted to go +upstairs, back to its cupboard. I sat still and stared at it for a bit, +till I began to feel very cold; then I took it and carried it up and set +it in its place, and I remember that I spoke to it, and promised that it +should have its bandbox again in the morning. + +You want to know whether I stayed in the room till daybreak? Yes, but I +kept a light burning, and sat up smoking and reading, most likely out of +fright; plain, undeniable fear, and you need not call it cowardice +either, for that's not the same thing. I could not have stayed alone +with that thing in the cupboard; I should have been scared to death, +though I'm not more timid than other people. Confound it all, man, it +had crossed the road alone, and had got up the doorstep and had knocked +to be let in. + +When the dawn came, I put on my boots and went out to find the bandbox. +I had to go a good way round, by the gate near the highroad, and I found +the box open and hanging on the other side of the hedge. It had caught +on the twigs by the string, and the lid had fallen off and was lying on +the ground below it. That shows that it did not open till it was well +over; and if it had not opened as soon as it left my hand, what was +inside it must have gone beyond the road too. + +That's all. I took the box upstairs to the cupboard, and put the skull +back and locked it up. When the girl brought me my breakfast she said +she was sorry, but that she must go, and she did not care if she lost +her month's wages. I looked at her, and her face was a sort of greenish, +yellowish white. I pretended to be surprised, and asked what was the +matter; but that was of no use, for she just turned on me and wanted to +know whether I meant to stay in a haunted house, and how long I +expected to live if I did, for though she noticed I was sometimes a +little hard of hearing, she did not believe that even I could sleep +through those screams again--and if I could, why had I been moving about +the house and opening and shutting the front door, between three and +four in the morning? There was no answering that, since she had heard +me, so off she went, and I was left to myself. I went down to the +village during the morning and found a woman who was willing to come and +do the little work there is and cook my dinner, on condition that she +might go home every night. As for me, I moved downstairs that day, and I +have never tried to sleep in the best bedroom since. After a little +while I got a brace of middle-aged Scotch servants from London, and +things were quiet enough for a long time. I began by telling them that +the house was in a very exposed position, and that the wind whistled +round it a good deal in the autumn and winter, which had given it a bad +name in the village, the Cornish people being inclined to superstition +and telling ghost stories. The two hard-faced, sandy-haired sisters +almost smiled, and they answered with great contempt that they had no +great opinion of any Southern bogey whatever, having been in service in +two English haunted houses, where they had never seen so much as the +Boy in Gray, whom they reckoned no very particular rarity in +Forfarshire. + +They stayed with me several months, and while they were in the house we +had peace and quiet. One of them is here again now, but she went away +with her sister within the year. This one--she was the cook--married the +sexton, who works in my garden. That's the way of it. It's a small +village and he has not much to do, and he knows enough about flowers to +help me nicely, besides doing most of the hard work; for though I'm fond +of exercise, I'm getting a little stiff in the hinges. He's a sober, +silent sort of fellow, who minds his own business, and he was a widower +when I came here--Trehearn is his name, James Trehearn. The Scotch +sisters would not admit that there was anything wrong about the house, +but when November came they gave me warning that they were going, on the +ground that the chapel was such a long walk from here, being in the next +parish, and that they could not possibly go to our church. But the +younger one came back in the spring, and as soon as the banns could be +published she was married to James Trehearn by the vicar, and she seems +to have had no scruples about hearing him preach since then. I'm quite +satisfied, if she is! The couple live in a small cottage that looks +over the churchyard. + +I suppose you are wondering what all this has to do with what I was +talking about. I'm alone so much that when an old friend comes to see +me, I sometimes go on talking just for the sake of hearing my own voice. +But in this case there is really a connection of ideas. It was James +Trehearn who buried poor Mrs. Pratt, and her husband after her in the +same grave, and it's not far from the back of his cottage. That's the +connection in my mind, you see. It's plain enough. He knows something; +I'm quite sure that he does, by his manner, though he's such a reticent +beggar. + +Yes, I'm alone in the house at night now, for Mrs. Trehearn does +everything herself, and when I have a friend the sexton's niece comes in +to wait on the table. He takes his wife home every evening in winter, +but in summer, when there's light, she goes by herself. She's not a +nervous woman, but she's less sure than she used to be that there are no +bogies in England worth a Scotchwoman's notice. Isn't it amusing, the +idea that Scotland has a monopoly of the supernatural? Odd sort of +national pride, I call that, don't you? + +That's a good fire, isn't it? When driftwood gets started at last +there's nothing like it, I think. Yes, we get lots of it, for I'm sorry +to say there are still a great many wrecks about here. It's a lonely +coast, and you may have all the wood you want for the trouble of +bringing it in. Trehearn and I borrow a cart now and then, and load it +between here and the Spit. I hate a coal fire when I can get wood of any +sort. A log is company, even if it's only a piece of a deck-beam or +timber sawn off, and the salt in it makes pretty sparks. See how they +fly, like Japanese hand-fireworks! Upon my word, with an old friend and +a good fire and a pipe, one forgets all about that thing upstairs, +especially now that the wind has moderated. It's only a lull, though, +and it will blow a gale before morning. + +You think you would like to see the skull? I've no objection. There's no +reason why you shouldn't have a look at it, and you never saw a more +perfect one in your life, except that there are two front teeth missing +in the lower jaw. + +Oh yes--I had not told you about the jaw yet. Trehearn found it in the +garden last spring when he was digging a pit for a new asparagus bed. +You know we make asparagus beds six or eight feet deep here. Yes, yes--I +had forgotten to tell you that. He was digging straight down, just as he +digs a grave; if you want a good asparagus bed made, I advise you to +get a sexton to make it for you. Those fellows have a wonderful knack at +that sort of digging. + +Trehearn had got down about three feet when he cut into a mass of white +lime in the side of the trench. He had noticed that the earth was a +little looser there, though he says it had not been disturbed for a +number of years. I suppose he thought that even old lime might not be +good for asparagus, so he broke it out and threw it up. It was pretty +hard, he says, in biggish lumps, and out of sheer force of habit he +cracked the lumps with his spade as they lay outside the pit beside him; +the jawbone of a skull dropped out of one of the pieces. He thinks he +must have knocked out the two front teeth in breaking up the lime, but +he did not see them anywhere. He's a very experienced man in such +things, as you may imagine, and he said at once that the jaw had +probably belonged to a young woman, and that the teeth had been complete +when she died. He brought it to me, and asked me if I wanted to keep it; +if I did not, he said he would drop it into the next grave he made in +the churchyard, as he supposed it was a Christian jaw, and ought to have +decent burial, wherever the rest of the body might be. I told him that +doctors often put bones into quicklime to whiten them nicely, and that +I supposed Dr. Pratt had once had a little lime pit in the garden for +that purpose, and had forgotten the jaw. Trehearn looked at me quietly. + +"Maybe it fitted that skull that used to be in the cupboard upstairs, +sir," he said. "Maybe Dr. Pratt had put the skull into the lime to clean +it, or something, and when he took it out he left the lower jaw behind. +There's some human hair sticking in the lime, sir." + +I saw there was, and that was what Trehearn said. If he did not suspect +something, why in the world should he have suggested that the jaw might +fit the skull? Besides, it did. That's proof that he knows more than he +cares to tell. Do you suppose he looked before she was buried? Or +perhaps--when he buried Luke in the same grave---- + +Well, well, it's of no use to go over that, is it? I said I would keep +the jaw with the skull, and I took it upstairs and fitted it into its +place. There's not the slightest doubt about the two belonging together, +and together they are. + +Trehearn knows several things. We were talking about plastering the +kitchen a while ago, and he happened to remember that it had not been +done since the very week when Mrs. Pratt died. He did not say that the +mason must have left some lime on the place, but he thought it, and +that it was the very same lime he had found in the asparagus pit. He +knows a lot. Trehearn is one of your silent beggars who can put two and +two together. That grave is very near the back of his cottage, too, and +he's one of the quickest men with a spade I ever saw. If he wanted to +know the truth, he could, and no one else would ever be the wiser unless +he chose to tell. In a quiet village like ours, people don't go and +spend the night in the churchyard to see whether the sexton potters +about by himself between ten o'clock and daylight. + +What is awful to think of, is Luke's deliberation, if he did it; his +cool certainty that no one would find him out; above all, his nerve, for +that must have been extraordinary. I sometimes think it's bad enough to +live in the place where it was done, if it really was done. I always put +in the condition, you see, for the sake of his memory, and a little bit +for my own sake, too. + +I'll go upstairs and fetch the box in a minute. Let me light my pipe; +there's no hurry! We had supper early, and it's only half-past nine +o'clock. I never let a friend go to bed before twelve, or with less than +three glasses--you may have as many more as you like, but you shan't +have less, for the sake of old times. + +It's breezing up again, do you hear? That was only a lull just now, and +we are going to have a bad night. + +A thing happened that made me start a little when I found that the jaw +fitted exactly. I'm not very easily startled in that way myself, but I +have seen people make a quick movement, drawing their breath sharply, +when they had thought they were alone and suddenly turned and saw some +one very near them. Nobody can call that fear. You wouldn't, would you? +No. Well, just when I had set the jaw in its place under the skull, the +teeth closed sharply on my finger. It felt exactly as if it were biting +me hard, and I confess that I jumped before I realised that I had been +pressing the jaw and the skull together with my other hand. I assure you +I was not at all nervous. It was broad daylight, too, and a fine day, +and the sun was streaming into the best bedroom. It would have been +absurd to be nervous, and it was only a quick mistaken impression, but +it really made me feel queer. Somehow it made me think of the funny +verdict of the coroner's jury on Luke's death, "by the hand or teeth of +some person or animal unknown." Ever since that I've wished I had seen +those marks on his throat, though the lower jaw was missing then. + +I have often seen a man do insane things with his hands that he does +not realise at all. I once saw a man hanging on by an old awning stop +with one hand, leaning backward, outboard, with all his weight on it, +and he was just cutting the stop with the knife in his other hand when I +got my arms round him. We were in mid-ocean, going twenty knots. He had +not the smallest idea what he was doing; neither had I when I managed to +pinch my finger between the teeth of that thing. I can feel it now. It +was exactly as if it were alive and were trying to bite me. It would if +it could, for I know it hates me, poor thing! Do you suppose that what +rattles about inside is really a bit of lead? Well, I'll get the box +down presently, and if whatever it is happens to drop out into your +hands that's your affair. If it's only a clod of earth or a pebble, the +whole matter would be off my mind, and I don't believe I should ever +think of the skull again; but somehow I cannot bring myself to shake out +the bit of hard stuff myself. The mere idea that it may be lead makes me +confoundedly uncomfortable, yet I've got the conviction that I shall +know before long. I shall certainly know. I'm sure Trehearn knows, but +he's such a silent beggar. + +I'll go upstairs now and get it. What? You had better go with me? Ha, +ha! do you think I'm afraid of a bandbox and a noise? Nonsense! + +Bother the candle, it won't light! As if the ridiculous thing +understood what it's wanted for! Look at that--the third match. They +light fast enough for my pipe. There, do you see? It's a fresh box, just +out of the tin safe where I keep the supply on account of the dampness. +Oh, you think the wick of the candle may be damp, do you? All right, +I'll light the beastly thing in the fire. That won't go out, at all +events. Yes, it sputters a bit, but it will keep lighted now. It burns +just like any other candle, doesn't it? The fact is, candles are not +very good about here. I don't know where they come from, but they have a +way of burning low occasionally, with a greenish flame that spits tiny +sparks, and I'm often annoyed by their going out of themselves. It +cannot be helped, for it will be long before we have electricity in our +village. It really is rather a poor light, isn't it? + +You think I had better leave you the candle and take the lamp, do you? I +don't like to carry lamps about, that's the truth. I never dropped one +in my life, but I have always thought I might, and it's so confoundedly +dangerous if you do. Besides, I am pretty well used to these rotten +candles by this time. + +You may as well finish that glass while I'm getting it, for I don't mean +to let you off with less than three before you go to bed. You won't +have to go upstairs, either, for I've put you in the old study next to +the surgery--that's where I live myself. The fact is, I never ask a +friend to sleep upstairs now. The last man who did was Crackenthorpe, +and he said he was kept awake all night. You remember old Crack, don't +you? He stuck to the Service, and they've just made him an admiral. Yes, +I'm off now--unless the candle goes out. I couldn't help asking if you +remembered Crackenthorpe. If any one had told us that the skinny little +idiot he used to be was to turn out the most successful of the lot of +us, we should have laughed at the idea, shouldn't we? You and I did not +do badly, it's true--but I'm really going now. I don't mean to let you +think that I've been putting it off by talking! As if there were +anything to be afraid of! If I were scared, I should tell you so quite +frankly, and get you to go upstairs with me. + + * * * * * + +Here's the box. I brought it down very carefully, so as not to disturb +it, poor thing. You see, if it were shaken, the jaw might get separated +from it again, and I'm sure it wouldn't like that. Yes, the candle went +out as I was coming downstairs, but that was the draught from the leaky +window on the landing. Did you hear anything? Yes, there was another +scream. Am I pale, do you say? That's nothing. My heart is a little +queer sometimes, and I went upstairs too fast. In fact, that's one +reason why I really prefer to live altogether on the ground floor. + +Wherever that shriek came from, it was not from the skull, for I had the +box in my hand when I heard the noise, and here it is now; so we have +proved definitely that the screams are produced by something else. I've +no doubt I shall find out some day what makes them. Some crevice in the +wall, of course, or a crack in a chimney, or a chink in the frame of a +window. That's the way all ghost stories end in real life. Do you know, +I'm jolly glad I thought of going up and bringing it down for you to +see, for that last shriek settles the question. To think that I should +have been so weak as to fancy that the poor skull could really cry out +like a living thing! + +Now I'll open the box, and we'll take it out and look at it under the +bright light. It's rather awful to think that the poor lady used to sit +there, in your chair, evening after evening, in just the same light, +isn't it? But then--I've made up my mind that it's all rubbish from +beginning to end, and that it's just an old skull that Luke had when he +was a student; and perhaps he put it into the lime merely to whiten it, +and could not find the jaw. + +I made a seal on the string, you see, after I had put the jaw in its +place, and I wrote on the cover. There's the old white label on it +still, from the milliner's, addressed to Mrs. Pratt when the hat was +sent to her, and as there was room I wrote on the edge: "A skull, once +the property of the late Luke Pratt, M.D." I don't quite know why I +wrote that, unless it was with the idea of explaining how the thing +happened to be in my possession. I cannot help wondering sometimes what +sort of hat it was that came in the bandbox. What colour was it, do you +think? Was it a gay spring hat with a bobbing feather and pretty +ribands? Strange that the very same box should hold the head that wore +the finery--perhaps. No--we made up our minds that it just came from the +hospital in London where Luke did his time. It's far better to look at +it in that light, isn't it? There's no more connection between that +skull and poor Mrs. Pratt than there was between my story about the lead +and---- + +Good Lord! Take the lamp--don't let it go out, if you can help it--I'll +have the window fastened again in a second--I say, what a gale! There, +it's out! I told you so! Never mind, there's the firelight--I've got the +window shut--the bolt was only half down. Was the box blown off the +table? Where the deuce is it? There! That won't open again, for I've put +up the bar. Good dodge, an old-fashioned bar--there's nothing like it. +Now, you find the bandbox while I light the lamp. Confound those +wretched matches! Yes, a pipe spill is better--it must light in the +fire--I hadn't thought of it--thank you--there we are again. Now, +where's the box? Yes, put it back on the table, and we'll open it. + +That's the first time I have ever known the wind to burst that window +open; but it was partly carelessness on my part when I last shut it. +Yes, of course I heard the scream. It seemed to go all round the house +before it broke in at the window. That proves that it's always been the +wind and nothing else, doesn't it? When it was not the wind, it was my +imagination. I've always been a very imaginative man: I must have been, +though I did not know it. As we grow older we understand ourselves +better, don't you know? + +I'll have a drop of the Hulstkamp neat, by way of an exception, since +you are filling up your glass. That damp gust chilled me, and with my +rheumatic tendency I'm very much afraid of a chill, for the cold +sometimes seems to stick in my joints all winter when it once gets in. + +By George, that's good stuff! I'll just light a fresh pipe, now that +everything is snug again, and then we'll open the box. I'm so glad we +heard that last scream together, with the skull here on the table +between us, for a thing cannot possibly be in two places at the same +time, and the noise most certainly came from outside, as any noise the +wind makes must. You thought you heard it scream through the room after +the window was burst open? Oh yes, so did I, but that was natural enough +when everything was open. Of course we heard the wind. What could one +expect? + +Look here, please. I want you to see that the seal is intact before we +open the box together. Will you take my glasses? No, you have your own. +All right. The seal is sound, you see, and you can read the words of the +motto easily. "Sweet and low"--that's it--because the poem goes on "Wind +of the Western sea," and says, "blow him again to me," and all that. +Here is the seal on my watch-chain, where it's hung for more than forty +years. My poor little wife gave it to me when I was courting, and I +never had any other. It was just like her to think of those words--she +was always fond of Tennyson. + +It's of no use to cut the string, for it's fastened to the box, so I'll +just break the wax and untie the knot, and afterward we'll seal it up +again. You see, I like to feel that the thing is safe in its place, and +that nobody can take it out. Not that I should suspect Trehearn of +meddling with it, but I always feel that he knows a lot more than he +tells. + +You see, I've managed it without breaking the string, though when I +fastened it I never expected to open the bandbox again. The lid comes +off easily enough. There! Now look! + +What? Nothing in it? Empty? It's gone, man, the skull is gone! + + * * * * * + +No, there's nothing the matter with me. I'm only trying to collect my +thoughts. It's so strange. I'm positively certain that it was inside +when I put on the seal last spring. I can't have imagined that: it's +utterly impossible. If I ever took a stiff glass with a friend now and +then, I would admit that I might have made some idiotic mistake when I +had taken too much. But I don't, and I never did. A pint of ale at +supper and half a go of rum at bedtime was the most I ever took in my +good days. I believe it's always we sober fellows who get rheumatism and +gout! Yet there was my seal, and there is the empty bandbox. That's +plain enough. + +I say, I don't half like this. It's not right. There's something wrong +about it, in my opinion. You needn't talk to me about supernatural +manifestations, for I don't believe in them, not a little bit! Somebody +must have tampered with the seal and stolen the skull. Sometimes, when I +go out to work in the garden in summer, I leave my watch and chain, on +the table. Trehearn must have taken the seal then, and used it, for he +would be quite sure that I should not come in for at least an hour. + +If it was not Trehearn--oh, don't talk to me about the possibility that +the thing has got out by itself! If it has, it must be somewhere about +the house, in some out-of-the-way corner, waiting. We may come upon it +anywhere, waiting for us, don't you know?--just waiting in the dark. +Then it will scream at me; it will shriek at me in the dark, for it +hates me, I tell you! + +The bandbox is quite empty. We are not dreaming, either of us. There, I +turn it upside down. + +What's that? Something fell out as I turned it over. It's on the floor, +it's near your feet, I know it is, and we must find it. Help me to find +it, man. Have you got it? For God's sake, give it to me, quickly! + +Lead! I knew it when I heard it fall. I knew it couldn't be anything +else by the little thud it made on the hearth-rug. So it was lead after +all, and Luke did it. + +I feel a little bit shaken up--not exactly nervous, you know, but badly +shaken up, that's the fact. Anybody would, I should think. After all, +you cannot say that it's fear of the thing, for I went up and brought it +down--at least, I believed I was bringing it down, and that's the same +thing, and by George, rather than give in to such silly nonsense, I'll +take the box upstairs again and put it back in its place. It's not that. +It's the certainty that the poor little woman came to her end in that +way, by my fault, because I told the story. That's what is so dreadful. +Somehow, I had always hoped that I should never be quite sure of it, but +there is no doubting it now. Look at that! + +Look at it! That little lump of lead with no particular shape. Think of +what it did, man! Doesn't it make you shiver? He gave her something to +make her sleep, of course, but there must have been one moment of awful +agony. Think of having boiling lead poured into your brain. Think of +it. She was dead before she could scream, but only think of--oh! there +it is again--it's just outside--I know it's just outside--I can't keep +it out of my head!--oh!--oh! + + * * * * * + +You thought I had fainted? No, I wish I had, for it would have stopped +sooner. It's all very well to say that it's only a noise, and that a +noise never hurt anybody--you're as white as a shroud yourself. There's +only one thing to be done, if we hope to close an eye to-night. We must +find it and put it back into its bandbox and shut it up in the cupboard, +where it likes to be. I don't know how it got out, but it wants to get +in again. That's why it screams so awfully to-night--it was never so bad +as this--never since I first---- + +Bury it? Yes, if we can find it, we'll bury it, if it takes us all +night. We'll bury it six feet deep and ram down the earth over it, so +that it shall never get out again, and if it screams, we shall hardly +hear it so deep down. Quick, we'll get the lantern and look for it. It +cannot be far away; I'm sure it's just outside--it was coming in when I +shut the window, I know it. + +Yes, you're quite right. I'm losing my senses, and I must get hold of +myself. Don't speak to me for a minute or two; I'll sit quite still and +keep my eyes shut and repeat something I know. That's the best way. + +"Add together the altitude, the latitude, and the polar distance, divide +by two and subtract the altitude from the half-sum; then add the +logarithm of the secant of the latitude, the cosecant of the polar +distance, the cosine of the half-sum and the sine of the half-sum minus +the altitude"--there! Don't say that I'm out of my senses, for my memory +is all right, isn't it? + +Of course, you may say that it's mechanical, and that we never forget +the things we learned when we were boys and have used almost every day +for a lifetime. But that's the very point. When a man is going crazy, +it's the mechanical part of his mind that gets out of order and won't +work right; he remembers things that never happened, or he sees things +that aren't real, or he hears noises when there is perfect silence. +That's not what is the matter with either of us, is it? + +Come, we'll get the lantern and go round the house. It's not +raining--only blowing like old boots, as we used to say. The lantern is +in the cupboard under the stairs in the hall, and I always keep it +trimmed in case of a wreck. + +No use to look for the thing? I don't see how you can say that. It was +nonsense to talk of burying it, of course, for it doesn't want to be +buried; it wants to go back into its bandbox and be taken upstairs, poor +thing! Trehearn took it out, I know, and made the seal over again. +Perhaps he took it to the churchyard, and he may have meant well. I +daresay he thought that it would not scream any more if it were quietly +laid in consecrated ground, near where it belongs. But it has come home. +Yes, that's it. He's not half a bad fellow, Trehearn, and rather +religiously inclined, I think. Does not that sound natural, and +reasonable, and well meant? He supposed it screamed because it was not +decently buried--with the rest. But he was wrong. How should he know +that it screams at me because it hates me, and because it's my fault +that there was that little lump of lead in it? + +No use to look for it, anyhow? Nonsense! I tell you it wants to be +found--Hark! what's that knocking? Do you hear it? +Knock--knock--knock--three times, then a pause, and then again. It has a +hollow sound, hasn't it? + +It has come home. I've heard that knock before. It wants to come in and +be taken upstairs, in its box. It's at the front door. + +Will you come with me? We'll take it in. Yes, I own that I don't like to +go alone and open the door. The thing will roll in and stop against my +foot, just as it did before, and the light will go out. I'm a good deal +shaken by finding that bit of lead, and, besides, my heart isn't quite +right--too much strong tobacco, perhaps. Besides, I'm quite willing to +own that I'm a bit nervous to-night, if I never was before in my life. + +That's right, come along! I'll take the box with me, so as not to come +back. Do you hear the knocking? It's not like any other knocking I ever +heard. If you will hold this door open, I can find the lantern under the +stairs by the light from this room without bringing the lamp into the +hall--it would only go out. + +The thing knows we are coming--hark! It's impatient to get in. Don't +shut the door till the lantern is ready, whatever you do. There will be +the usual trouble with the matches, I suppose--no, the first one, by +Jove! I tell you it wants to get in, so there's no trouble. All right +with that door now; shut it, please. Now come and hold the lantern, for +it's blowing so hard outside that I shall have to use both hands. That's +it, hold the light low. Do you hear the knocking still? Here goes--I'll +open just enough with my foot against the bottom of the door--now! + +Catch it! it's only the wind that blows it across the floor, that's +all--there's half a hurricane outside, I tell you! Have you got it? The +bandbox is on the table. One minute, and I'll have the bar up. There! + +Why did you throw it into the box so roughly? It doesn't like that, you +know. + +What do you say? Bitten your hand? Nonsense, man! You did just what I +did. You pressed the jaws together with your other hand and pinched +yourself. Let me see. You don't mean to say you have drawn blood? You +must have squeezed hard, by Jove, for the skin is certainly torn. I'll +give you some carbolic solution for it before we go to bed, for they say +a scratch from a skull's tooth may go bad and give trouble. + +Come inside again and let me see it by the lamp. I'll bring the +bandbox--never mind the lantern, it may just as well burn in the hall, +for I shall need it presently when I go up the stairs. Yes, shut the +door if you will; it makes it more cheerful and bright. Is your finger +still bleeding? I'll get you the carbolic in an instant; just let me see +the thing. + +Ugh! There's a drop of blood on the upper jaw. It's on the eye-tooth. +Ghastly, isn't it? When I saw it running along the floor of the hall, +the strength almost went out of my hands, and I felt my knees bending; +then I understood that it was the gale, driving it over the smooth +boards. You don't blame me? No, I should think not! We were boys +together, and we've seen a thing or two, and we may just as well own to +each other that we were both in a beastly funk when it slid across the +floor at you. No wonder you pinched your finger picking it up, after +that, if I did the same thing out of sheer nervousness, in broad +daylight, with the sun streaming in on me. + +Strange that the jaw should stick to it so closely, isn't it? I suppose +it's the dampness, for it shuts like a vice--I have wiped off the drop +of blood, for it was not nice to look at. I'm not going to try to open +the jaws, don't be afraid! I shall not play any tricks with the poor +thing, but I'll just seal the box again, and we'll take it upstairs and +put it away where it wants to be. The wax is on the writing-table by the +window. Thank you. It will be long before I leave my seal lying about +again, for Trehearn to use, I can tell you. Explain? I don't explain +natural phenomena, but if you choose to think that Trehearn had hidden +it somewhere in the bushes, and that the gale blew it to the house +against the door, and made it knock, as if it wanted to be let in, +you're not thinking the impossible, and I'm quite ready to agree with +you. + +Do you see that? You can swear that you've actually seen me seal it this +time, in case anything of the kind should occur again. The wax fastens +the strings to the lid, which cannot possibly be lifted, even enough to +get in one finger. You're quite satisfied, aren't you? Yes. Besides, I +shall lock the cupboard and keep the key in my pocket hereafter. + +Now we can take the lantern and go upstairs. Do you know? I'm very much +inclined to agree with your theory that the wind blew it against the +house. I'll go ahead, for I know the stairs; just hold the lantern near +my feet as we go up. How the wind howls and whistles! Did you feel the +sand on the floor under your shoes as we crossed the hall? + +Yes--this is the door of the best bedroom. Hold up the lantern, please. +This side, by the head of the bed. I left the cupboard open when I got +the box. Isn't it queer how the faint odour of women's dresses will hang +about an old closet for years? This is the shelf. You've seen me set the +box there, and now you see me turn the key and put it into my pocket. So +that's done! + + * * * * * + +Good-night. Are you sure you're quite comfortable? It's not much of a +room, but I daresay you would as soon sleep here as upstairs to-night. +If you want anything, sing out; there's only a lath and plaster +partition between us. There's not so much wind on this side by half. +There's the Hollands on the table, if you'll have one more nightcap. No? +Well, do as you please. Good-night again, and don't dream about that +thing, if you can. + + * * * * * + +The following paragraph appeared in the _Penraddon News_, 23rd November, +1906: + + + "MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A RETIRED SEA CAPTAIN + + "The village of Tredcombe is much disturbed by the strange death of + Captain Charles Braddock, and all sorts of impossible stories are + circulating with regard to the circumstances, which certainly seem + difficult of explanation. The retired captain, who had successfully + commanded in his time the largest and fastest liners belonging to + one of the principal transatlantic steamship companies, was found + dead in his bed on Tuesday morning in his own cottage, a quarter of + a mile from the village. An examination was made at once by the + local practitioner, which revealed the horrible fact that the + deceased had been bitten in the throat by a human assailant, with + such amazing force as to crush the windpipe and cause death. The + marks of the teeth of both jaws were so plainly visible on the skin + that they could be counted, but the perpetrator of the deed had + evidently lost the two lower middle incisors. It is hoped that this + peculiarity may help to identify the murderer, who can only be a + dangerous escaped maniac. The deceased, though over sixty-five + years of age, is said to have been a hale man of considerable + physical strength, and it is remarkable that no signs of any + struggle were visible in the room, nor could it be ascertained how + the murderer had entered the house. Warning has been sent to all + the insane asylums in the United Kingdom, but as yet no information + has been received regarding the escape of any dangerous patient. + + "The coroner's jury returned the somewhat singular verdict that + Captain Braddock came to his death 'by the hands or teeth of some + person unknown.' The local surgeon is said to have expressed + privately the opinion that the maniac is a woman, a view he deduces + from the small size of the jaws, as shown by the marks of the + teeth. The whole affair is shrouded in mystery. Captain Braddock + was a widower, and lived alone. He leaves no children." + + +[_Note_.--Students of ghost lore and haunted houses will find the +foundation of the foregoing story in the legends about a skull which is +still preserved in the farm-house called Bettiscombe Manor, situated, I +believe, on the Dorsetshire coast.] + + + + +MAN OVERBOARD! + + +Yes--I have heard "Man overboard!" a good many times since I was a boy, +and once or twice I have seen the man go. There are more men lost in +that way than passengers on ocean steamers ever learn of. I have stood +looking over the rail on a dark night, when there was a step beside me, +and something flew past my head like a big black bat--and then there was +a splash! Stokers often go like that. They go mad with the heat, and +they slip up on deck and are gone before anybody can stop them, often +without being seen or heard. Now and then a passenger will do it, but he +generally has what he thinks a pretty good reason. I have seen a man +empty his revolver into a crowd of emigrants forward, and then go over +like a rocket. Of course, any officer who respects himself will do what +he can to pick a man up, if the weather is not so heavy that he would +have to risk his ship; but I don't think I remember seeing a man come +back when he was once fairly gone more than two or three times in all my +life, though we have often picked up the life-buoy, and sometimes the +fellow's cap. Stokers and passengers jump over; I never knew a sailor to +do that, drunk or sober. Yes, they say it has happened on hard ships, +but I never knew a case myself. Once in a long time a man is fished out +when it is just too late, and dies in the boat before you can get him +aboard, and--well, I don't know that I ever told that story since it +happened--I knew a fellow who went over, and came back dead. I didn't +see him after he came back; only one of us did, but we all knew he was +there. + +No, I am not giving you "sharks." There isn't a shark in this story, and +I don't know that I would tell it at all if we weren't alone, just you +and I. But you and I have seen things in various parts, and maybe you +will understand. Anyhow, you know that I am telling what I know about, +and nothing else; and it has been on my mind to tell you ever since it +happened, only there hasn't been a chance. + +It's a long story, and it took some time to happen; and it began a good +many years ago, in October, as well as I can remember. I was mate then; +I passed the local Marine Board for master about three years later. She +was the _Helen B. Jackson_, of New York, with lumber for the West +Indies, four-masted schooner, Captain Hackstaff. She was an +old-fashioned one, even then--no steam donkey, and all to do by hand. +There were still sailors in the coasting trade in those days, you +remember. She wasn't a hard ship, for the Old Man was better than most +of them, though he kept to himself and had a face like a monkey-wrench. +We were thirteen, all told, in the ship's company; and some of them +afterwards thought that might have had something to do with it, but I +had all that nonsense knocked out of me when I was a boy. I don't mean +to say that I like to go to sea on a Friday, but I _have_ gone to sea on +a Friday, and nothing has happened; and twice before that we have been +thirteen, because one of the hands didn't turn up at the last minute, +and nothing ever happened either--nothing worse than the loss of a light +spar or two, or a little canvas. Whenever I have been wrecked, we had +sailed as cheerily as you please--no thirteens, no Fridays, no dead men +in the hold. I believe it generally happens that way. + +I daresay you remember those two Benton boys that were so much alike? It +is no wonder, for they were twin brothers. They shipped with us as boys +on the old _Boston Belle_, when you were mate and I was before the mast. +I never was quite sure which was which of those two, even then; and when +they both had beards it was harder than ever to tell them apart. One was +Jim, and the other was Jack; James Benton and John Benton. The only +difference I ever could see was, that one seemed to be rather more +cheerful and inclined to talk than the other; but one couldn't even be +sure of that. Perhaps they had moods. Anyhow, there was one of them that +used to whistle when he was alone. He only knew one tune, and that was +"Nancy Lee," and the other didn't know any tune at all; but I may be +mistaken about that, too. Perhaps they both knew it. + +Well, those two Benton boys turned up on board the _Helen B. Jackson_. +They had been on half a dozen ships since the _Boston Belle_, and they +had grown up and were good seamen. They had reddish beards and bright +blue eyes and freckled faces; and they were quiet fellows, good workmen +on rigging, pretty willing, and both good men at the wheel. They managed +to be in the same watch--it was the port watch on the _Helen B._, and +that was mine, and I had great confidence in them both. If there was any +job aloft that needed two hands, they were always the first to jump into +the rigging; but that doesn't often happen on a fore-and-aft schooner. +If it breezed up, and the jibtopsail was to be taken in, they never +minded a wetting, and they would be out at the bowsprit end before there +was a hand at the downhaul. The men liked them for that, and because +they didn't blow about what they could do. I remember one day in a +reefing job, the downhaul parted and came down on deck from the peak of +the spanker. When the weather moderated, and we shook the reefs out, the +downhaul was forgotten until we happened to think we might soon need it +again. There was some sea on, and the boom was off, and the gaff was +slamming. One of those Benton boys was at the wheel, and before I knew +what he was doing, the other was out on the gaff with the end of the new +downhaul, trying to reeve it through its block. The one who was steering +watched him, and got as white as cheese. The other one was swinging +about on the gaff end, and every time she rolled to leeward, he brought +up with a jerk that would have sent anything but a monkey flying into +space. But he didn't leave it until he had rove the new rope, and he got +back all right. I think it was Jack at the wheel; the one that seemed +more cheerful, the one that whistled "Nancy Lee." He had rather have +been doing the job himself than watch his brother do it, and he had a +scared look; but he kept her as steady as he could in the swell, and he +drew a long breath when Jim had worked his way back to the peak-halliard +block, and had something to hold on to. I think it was Jim. + +They had good togs, too, and they were neat and clean men in the +forecastle. I knew they had nobody belonging to them ashore--no mother, +no sisters, and no wives; but somehow they both looked as if a woman +overhauled them now and then. I remember that they had one ditty bag +between them, and they had a woman's thimble in it. One of the men said +something about it to them, and they looked at each other; and one +smiled, but the other didn't. Most of their clothes were alike, but they +had one red guernsey between them. For some time I used to think it was +always the same one that wore it, and I thought that might be a way to +tell them apart. But then I heard one asking the other for it, and +saying that the other had worn it last. So that was no sign either. The +cook was a West Indiaman, called James Lawley; his father had been +hanged for putting lights in cocoanut trees where they didn't belong. +But he was a good cook, and knew his business; and it wasn't +soup-and-bully and dog's-body every Sunday. That's what I meant to say. +On Sunday the cook called both those boys Jim, and on weekdays he called +them Jack. He used to say he must be right sometimes if he did that, +because even the hands on a painted clock point right twice a day. + +What started me to trying for some way of telling the Bentons apart was +this. I heard them talking about a girl. It was at night, in our watch, +and the wind had headed us off a little rather suddenly, and when we had +flattened in the jibs, we clewed down the topsails, while the two Benton +boys got the spanker sheet aft. One of them was at the helm. I coiled +down the mizzen-topsail downhaul myself, and was going aft to see how +she headed up, when I stopped to look at a light, and leaned against the +deck-house. While I was standing there, I heard the two boys talking. It +sounded as if they had talked of the same thing before, and, as far as I +could tell, the voice I heard first belonged to the one who wasn't quite +so cheerful as the other--the one who was Jim when one knew which he +was. + +"Does Mamie know?" Jim asked. + +"Not yet," Jack answered quietly. He was at the wheel. "I mean to tell +her next time we get home." + +"All right." + +That was all I heard, because I didn't care to stand there listening +while they were talking about their own affairs; so I went aft to look +into the binnacle, and I told the one at the wheel to keep her so as +long as she had way on her, for I thought the wind would back up again +before long, and there was land to leeward. When he answered, his voice, +somehow, didn't sound like the cheerful one. Perhaps his brother had +relieved the wheel while they had been speaking, but what I had heard +set me wondering which of them it was that had a girl at home. There's +lots of time for wondering on a schooner in fair weather. + +After that I thought I noticed that the two brothers were more silent +when they were together. Perhaps they guessed that I had overheard +something that night, and kept quiet when I was about. Some men would +have amused themselves by trying to chaff them separately about the girl +at home, and I suppose whichever one it was would have let the cat out +of the bag if I had done that. But, somehow, I didn't like to. Yes, I +was thinking of getting married myself at that time, so I had a sort of +fellow-feeling for whichever one it was, that made me not want to chaff +him. + +They didn't talk much, it seemed to me; but in fair weather, when there +was nothing to do at night, and one was steering, the other was +everlastingly hanging round as if he were waiting to relieve the wheel, +though he might have been enjoying a quiet nap for all I cared in such +weather. Or else, when one was taking his turn at the lookout, the other +would be sitting on an anchor beside him. One kept near the other, at +night more than in the daytime. I noticed that. They were fond of +sitting on that anchor, and they generally tucked away their pipes under +it, for the _Helen B._ was a dry boat in most weather, and like most +fore-and-afters was better on a wind than going free. With a beam sea we +sometimes shipped a little water aft. We were by the stern, anyhow, on +that voyage, and that is one reason why we lost the man. + +We fell in with a southerly gale, southeast at first; and then the +barometer began to fall while you could watch it, and a long swell began +to come up from the south'ard. A couple of months earlier we might have +been in for a cyclone, but it's "October all over" in those waters, as +you know better than I. It was just going to blow, and then it was to +rain, that was all; and we had plenty of time to make everything snug +before it breezed up much. It blew harder after sunset, and by the time +it was quite dark it was a full gale. We had shortened sail for it, but +as we were by the stern we were carrying the spanker close reefed +instead of the storm trysail. She steered better so, as long as we +didn't have to heave to. I had the first watch with the Benton boys, and +we had not been on deck an hour when a child might have seen that the +weather meant business. + +The Old Man came up on deck and looked round, and in less than a minute +he told us to give her the trysail. That meant heaving to, and I was +glad of it; for though the _Helen B._ was a good vessel enough, she +wasn't a new ship by a long way, and it did her no good to drive her in +that weather. I asked whether I should call all hands, but just then the +cook came aft, and the Old Man said he thought we could manage the job +without waking the sleepers, and the trysail was handy on deck already, +for we hadn't been expecting anything better. We were all in oilskins, +of course, and the night was as black as a coal mine, with only a ray of +light from the slit in the binnacle shield, and you couldn't tell one +man from another except by his voice. The Old Man took the wheel; we got +the boom amidships, and he jammed her into the wind until she had hardly +any way. It was blowing now, and it was all that I and two others could +do to get in the slack of the downhaul, while the others lowered away at +the peak and throat, and we had our hands full to get a couple of turns +round the wet sail. It's all child's play on a fore-and-after compared +with reefing topsails in anything like weather, but the gear of a +schooner sometimes does unhandy things that you don't expect, and those +everlasting long halliards get foul of everything if they get adrift. I +remember thinking how unhandy that particular job was. Somebody +unhooked the throat-halliard block, and thought he had hooked it into +the head-cringle of the trysail, and sang out to hoist away, but he had +missed it in the dark, and the heavy block went flying into the lee +rigging, and nearly killed him when it swung back with the weather roll. +Then the Old Man got her up in the wind until the jib was shaking like +thunder; then he held her off, and she went off as soon as the headsails +filled, and he couldn't get her back again without the spanker. Then the +_Helen B._ did her favourite trick, and before we had time to say much, +we had a sea over the quarter and were up to our waists, with the +parrels of the trysail only half becketed round the mast, and the deck +so full of gear that you couldn't put your foot on a plank, and the +spanker beginning to get adrift again, being badly stopped, and the +general confusion and hell's delight that you can only have on a +fore-and-after when there's nothing really serious the matter. Of +course, I don't mean to say that the Old Man couldn't have steered his +trick as well as you or I or any other seaman; but I don't believe he +had ever been on board the _Helen B_. before, or had his hand on her +wheel till then; and he didn't know her ways. I don't mean to say that +what happened was his fault. I don't know whose fault it was. Perhaps +nobody was to blame. But I knew something happened somewhere on board +when we shipped that sea, and you'll never get it out of my head. I +hadn't any spare time myself, for I was becketing the rest of the +trysail to the mast. We were on the starboard tack, and the +throat-halliard came down to port as usual, and I suppose there were at +least three men at it, hoisting away, while I was at the beckets. + +Now I am going to tell you something. You have known me, man and boy, +several voyages; and you are older than I am; and you have always been a +good friend to me. Now, do you think I am the sort of man to think I +hear things where there isn't anything to hear, or to think I see things +when there is nothing to see? No, you don't. Thank you. Well now, I had +passed the last becket, and I sang out to the men to sway away, and I +was standing on the jaws of the spanker-gaff, with my left hand on the +bolt-rope of the trysail, so that I could feel when it was board-taut, +and I wasn't thinking of anything except being glad the job was over, +and that we were going to heave her to. It was as black as a +coal-pocket, except that you could see the streaks on the seas as they +went by, and abaft the deck-house I could see the ray of light from the +binnacle on the captain's yellow oilskin as he stood at the wheel--or, +rather, I might have seen it if I had looked round at that minute. But +I didn't look round. I heard a man whistling. It was "Nancy Lee," and I +could have sworn that the man was right over my head in the crosstrees. +Only somehow I knew very well that if anybody could have been up there, +and could have whistled a tune, there were no living ears sharp enough +to hear it on deck then. I heard it distinctly, and at the same time I +heard the real whistling of the wind in the weather rigging, sharp and +clear as the steam-whistle on a Dago's peanut-cart in New York. That was +all right, that was as it should be; but the other wasn't right; and I +felt queer and stiff, as if I couldn't move, and my hair was curling +against the flannel lining of my sou'wester, and I thought somebody had +dropped a lump of ice down my back. + +I said that the noise of the wind in the rigging was real, as if the +other wasn't, for I felt that it wasn't, though I heard it. But it was, +all the same; for the captain heard it, too. When I came to relieve the +wheel, while the men were clearing up decks, he was swearing. He was a +quiet man, and I hadn't heard him swear before, and I don't think I did +again, though several queer things happened after that. Perhaps he said +all he had to say then; I don't see how he could have said anything +more. I used to think nobody could swear like a Dane, except a +Neapolitan or a South American; but when I had heard the Old Man, I +changed my mind. There's nothing afloat or ashore that can beat one of +your quiet American skippers, if he gets off on that tack. I didn't need +to ask him what was the matter, for I knew he had heard "Nancy Lee," as +I had, only it affected us differently. + +He did not give me the wheel, but told me to go forward and get the +second bonnet off the staysail, so as to keep her up better. As we +tailed on to the sheet when it was done, the man next me knocked his +sou'wester off against my shoulder, and his face came so close to me +that I could see it in the dark. It must have been very white for me to +see it, but I only thought of that afterwards. I don't see how any light +could have fallen upon it, but I knew it was one of the Benton boys. I +don't know what made me speak to him. "Hullo, Jim! Is that you?" I +asked. I don't know why I said Jim, rather than Jack. + +"I am Jack," he answered. + +We made all fast, and things were much quieter. "The Old Man heard you +whistling 'Nancy Lee,' just now," I said, "and he didn't like it." + +It was as if there were a white light inside his face, and it was +ghastly. I know his teeth chattered. But he didn't say anything, and the +next minute he was somewhere in the dark trying to find his sou'wester +at the foot of the mast. + +When all was quiet, and she was hove to, coming to and falling off her +four points as regularly as a pendulum, and the helm lashed a little to +the lee, the Old Man turned in again, and I managed to light a pipe in +the lee of the deck-house, for there was nothing more to be done till +the gale chose to moderate, and the ship was as easy as a baby in its +cradle. Of course the cook had gone below, as he might have done an hour +earlier; so there were supposed to be four of us in the watch. There was +a man at the lookout, and there was a hand by the wheel, though there +was no steering to be done, and I was having my pipe in the lee of the +deck-house, and the fourth man was somewhere about decks, probably +having a smoke, too. I thought some skippers I had sailed with would +have called the watch aft, and given them a drink after that job, but it +wasn't cold, and I guessed that our Old Man wouldn't be particularly +generous in that way. My hands and feet were red-hot, and it would be +time enough to get into dry clothes when it was my watch below; so I +stayed where I was, and smoked. But by and by, things being so quiet, I +began to wonder why nobody moved on deck; just that sort of restless +wanting to know where every man is that one sometimes feels in a gale of +wind on a dark night. So when I had finished my pipe, I began to move +about. I went aft, and there was a man leaning over the wheel, with his +legs apart and both hands hanging down in the light from the binnacle, +and his sou'wester over his eyes. Then I went forward, and there was a +man at the lookout, with his back against the foremast, getting what +shelter he could from the staysail. I knew by his small height that he +was not one of the Benton boys. Then I went round by the weather side, +and poked about in the dark, for I began to wonder where the other man +was. But I couldn't find him, though I searched the decks until I got +right aft again. It was certainly one of the Benton boys that was +missing, but it wasn't like either of them to go below to change his +clothes in such warm weather. The man at the wheel was the other, of +course. I spoke to him. + +"Jim, what's become of your brother?" + +"I am Jack, sir." + +"Well, then, Jack, where's Jim? He's not on deck." + +"I don't know, sir." + +When I had come up to him he had stood up from force of instinct, and +had laid his hands on the spokes as if he were steering, though the +wheel was lashed; but he still bent his face down, and it was half +hidden by the edge of his sou'wester, while he seemed to be staring at +the compass. He spoke in a very low voice, but that was natural, for +the captain had left his door open when he turned in, as it was a warm +night in spite of the storm, and there was no fear of shipping any more +water now. + +"What put it into your head to whistle like that, Jack? You've been at +sea long enough to know better." + +He said something, but I couldn't hear the words; it sounded as if he +were denying the charge. + +"Somebody whistled," I said. + +He didn't answer, and then, I don't know why, perhaps because the Old +Man hadn't given us a drink, I cut half an inch off the plug of tobacco +I had in my oilskin pocket, and gave it to him. He knew my tobacco was +good, and he shoved it into his mouth with a word of thanks. I was on +the weather side of the wheel. + +"Go forward and see if you can find Jim," I said. + +He started a little, and then stepped back and passed behind me, and was +going along the weather side. Maybe his silence about the whistling had +irritated me, and his taking it for granted that because we were hove to +and it was a dark night, he might go forward any way he pleased. Anyhow, +I stopped him, though I spoke good-naturedly enough. + +"Pass to leeward, Jack," I said. + +He didn't answer, but crossed the deck between the binnacle and the +deck-house to the lee side. She was only falling off and coming to, and +riding the big seas as easily as possible, but the man was not steady on +his feet and reeled against the corner of the deck-house and then +against the lee rail. I was quite sure he couldn't have had anything to +drink, for neither of the brothers were the kind to hide rum from their +shipmates, if they had any, and the only spirits that were aboard were +locked up in the captain's cabin. I wondered whether he had been hit by +the throat-halliard block and was hurt. + +I left the wheel and went after him, but when I got to the corner of the +deck-house I saw that he was on a full run forward, so I went back. I +watched the compass for a while, to see how far she went off, and she +must have come to again half a dozen times before I heard voices, more +than three or four, forward; and then I heard the little West Indies +cook's voice, high and shrill above the rest: + +"Man overboard!" + +There wasn't anything to be done, with the ship hove to and the wheel +lashed. If there was a man overboard, he must be in the water right +alongside. I couldn't imagine how it could have happened, but I ran +forward instinctively. I came upon the cook first, half dressed in his +shirt and trousers, just as he had tumbled out of his bunk. He was +jumping into the main rigging, evidently hoping to see the man, as if +any one could have seen anything on such a night, except the +foam-streaks on the black water, and now and then the curl of a breaking +sea as it went away to leeward. Several of the men were peering over the +rail into the dark. I caught the cook by the foot, and asked who was +gone. + +"It's Jim Benton," he shouted down to me. "He's not aboard this ship!" + +There was no doubt about that. Jim Benton was gone; and I knew in a +flash that he had been taken off by that sea when we were setting the +storm trysail. It was nearly half an hour since then; she had run like +wild for a few minutes until we got her hove to, and no swimmer that +ever swam could have lived as long as that in such a sea. The men knew +it as well as I, but still they stared into the foam as if they had any +chance of seeing the lost man. I let the cook get into the rigging and +joined the men, and asked if they had made a thorough search on board, +though I knew they had and that it could not take long, for he wasn't on +deck, and there was only the forecastle below. + +"That sea took him over, sir, as sure as you're born," said one of the +men close beside me. + +We had no boat that could have lived in that, sea, of course, and we all +knew it. I offered to put one over, and let her drift astern two or +three cables' lengths by a line, if the men thought they could haul me +aboard again; but none of them would listen to that, and I should +probably have been drowned if I had tried it, even with a life-belt; for +it was a breaking sea. Besides, they all knew as well as I did that the +man could not be right in our wake. I don't know why I spoke again. + +"Jack Benton, are you there? Will you go if I will?" + +"No, sir," answered a voice; and that was all. + +By that time the Old Man was on deck, and I felt his hand on my shoulder +rather roughly, as if he meant to shake me. + +"I'd reckoned you had more sense, Mr. Torkeldsen," he said. "God knows I +would risk my ship to look for him, if it were any use; but he must have +gone half an hour ago." + +He was a quiet man, and the men knew he was right, and that they had +seen the last of Jim Benton when they were bending the trysail--if +anybody had seen him then. The captain went below again, and for some +time the men stood around Jack, quite near him, without saying +anything, as sailors do when they are sorry for a man and can't help +him; and then the watch below turned in again, and we were three on +deck. + +Nobody can understand that there can be much consolation in a funeral, +unless he has felt that blank feeling there is when a man's gone +overboard whom everybody likes. I suppose landsmen think it would be +easier if they didn't have to bury their fathers and mothers and +friends; but it wouldn't be. Somehow the funeral keeps up the idea of +something beyond. You may believe in that something just the same; but a +man who has gone in the dark, between two seas, without a cry, seems +much more beyond reach than if he were still lying on his bed, and had +only just stopped breathing. Perhaps Jim Benton knew that, and wanted to +come back to us. I don't know, and I am only telling you what happened, +and you may think what you like. + +Jack stuck by the wheel that night until the watch was over. I don't +know whether he slept afterwards, but when I came on deck four hours +later, there he was again, in his oilskins, with his sou'wester over his +eyes, staring into the binnacle. We saw that he would rather stand +there, and we left him alone. Perhaps it was some consolation to him to +get that ray of light when everything was so dark. It began to rain, +too, as it can when a southerly gale is going to break up, and we got +every bucket and tub on board, and set them under the booms to catch the +fresh water for washing our clothes. The rain made it very thick, and I +went and stood under the lee of the staysail, looking out. I could tell +that day was breaking, because the foam was whiter in the dark where the +seas crested, and little by little the black rain grew grey and steamy, +and I couldn't see the red glare of the port light on the water when she +went off and rolled to leeward. The gale had moderated considerably, and +in another hour we should be under way again. I was still standing there +when Jack Benton came forward. He stood still a few minutes near me. The +rain came down in a solid sheet, and I could see his wet beard and a +corner of his cheek, too, grey in the dawn. Then he stooped down and +began feeling under the anchor for his pipe. We had hardly shipped any +water forward, and I suppose he had some way of tucking the pipe in, so +that the rain hadn't floated it off. Presently he got on his legs again, +and I saw that he had two pipes in his hand. One of them had belonged to +his brother, and after looking at them a moment I suppose he recognized +his own, for he put it in his mouth, dripping with water. Then he looked +at the other fully a minute without moving. When he had made up his +mind, I suppose, he quietly chucked it over the lee rail, without even +looking round to see whether I was watching him. I thought it was a +pity, for it was a good wooden pipe, with a nickel ferrule, and somebody +would have been glad to have it. But I didn't like to make any remark, +for he had a right to do what he pleased with what had belonged to his +dead brother. He blew the water out of his own pipe, and dried it +against his jacket, putting his hand inside his oilskin; he filled it, +standing under the lee of the foremast, got a light after wasting two or +three matches, and turned the pipe upside down in his teeth, to keep the +rain out of the bowl. I don't know why I noticed everything he did, and +remember it now; but somehow I felt sorry for him, and I kept wondering +whether there was anything I could say that would make him feel better. +But I didn't think of anything, and as it was broad daylight I went aft +again, for I guessed that the Old Man would turn out before long and +order the spanker set and the helm up. But he didn't turn out before +seven bells, just as the clouds broke and showed blue sky to +leeward--"the Frenchman's barometer," you used to call it. + +Some people don't seem to be so dead, when they are dead, as others are. +Jim Benton was like that. He had been on my watch, and I couldn't get +used to the idea that he wasn't about decks with me. I was always +expecting to see him, and his brother was so exactly like him that I +often felt as if I did see him and forgot he was dead, and made the +mistake of calling Jack by his name; though I tried not to, because I +knew it must hurt. If ever Jack had been the cheerful one of the two, as +I had always supposed he had been, he had changed very much, for he grew +to be more silent than Jim had ever been. + +One fine afternoon I was sitting on the main-hatch, overhauling the +clockwork of the taffrail-log, which hadn't been registering very well +of late, and I had got the cook to bring me a coffee-cup to hold the +small screws as I took them out, and a saucer for the sperm oil I was +going to use. I noticed that he didn't go away, but hung round without +exactly watching what I was doing, as if he wanted to say something to +me. I thought if it were worth much, he would say it anyhow, so I didn't +ask him questions; and sure enough he began of his own accord before +long. There was nobody on deck but the man at the wheel, and the other +man away forward. + +"Mr. Torkeldsen," the cook began, and then stopped. + +I supposed he was going to ask me to let the watch break out a barrel +of flour, or some salt horse. + +"Well, doctor?" I asked, as he didn't go on. + +"Well, Mr. Torkeldsen," he answered, "I somehow want to ask you whether +you think I am giving satisfaction on this ship, or not?" + +"So far as I know, you are, doctor. I haven't heard any complaints from +the forecastle, and the captain has said nothing, and I think you know +your business, and the cabin-boy is bursting out of his clothes. That +looks as if you are giving satisfaction. What makes you think you are +not?" + +I am not good at giving you that West Indies talk, and shan't try; but +the doctor beat about the bush awhile, and then he told me he thought +the men were beginning to play tricks on him, and he didn't like it, and +thought he hadn't deserved it, and would like his discharge at our next +port. I told him he was a d----d fool, of course, to begin with; and +that men were more apt to try a joke with a chap they liked than with +anybody they wanted to get rid of; unless it was a bad joke, like +flooding his bunk, or filling his boots with tar. But it wasn't that +kind of practical joke. The doctor said that the men were trying to +frighten him, and he didn't like it, and that they put things in his +way that frightened him. So I told him he was a d----d fool to be +frightened, anyway, and I wanted to know what things they put in his +way. He gave me a queer answer. He said they were spoons and forks, and +odd plates, and a cup now and then, and such things. + +I set down the taffrail-log on the bit of canvas I had put under it, and +looked at the doctor. He was uneasy, and his eyes had a sort of hunted +look, and his yellow face looked grey. He wasn't trying to make trouble. +He was in trouble. So I asked him questions. + +He said he could count as well as anybody, and do sums without using his +fingers, but that when he couldn't count any other way, he did use his +fingers, and it always came out the same. He said that when he and the +cabin-boy cleared up after the men's meals there were more things to +wash than he had given out. There'd be a fork more, or there'd be a +spoon more, and sometimes there'd be a spoon and a fork, and there was +always a plate more. It wasn't that he complained of that. Before poor +Jim Benton was lost they had a man more to feed, and his gear to wash up +after meals, and that was in the contract, the doctor said. It would +have been if there were twenty in the ship's company; but he didn't +think it was right for the men to play tricks like that. He kept his +things in good order, and he counted them, and he was responsible for +them, and it wasn't right that the men should take more things than they +needed when his back was turned, and just soil them and mix them up with +their own, so as to make him think-- + +He stopped there, and looked at me, and I looked at him. I didn't know +what he thought, but I began to guess. I wasn't going to humour any such +nonsense as that, so I told him to speak to the men himself, and not +come bothering me about such things. + +"Count the plates and forks and spoons before them when they sit down to +table, and tell them that's all they'll get; and when they have +finished, count the things again, and if the count isn't right, find out +who did it. You know it must be one of them. You're not a green hand; +you've been going to sea ten or eleven years, and don't want any lessons +about how to behave if the boys play a trick on you." + +"If I could catch him," said the cook, "I'd have a knife into him before +he could say his prayers." + +Those West India men are always talking about knives, especially when +they are badly frightened. I knew what he meant, and didn't ask him, but +went on cleaning the brass cog-wheels of the patent log, and oiling the +bearings with a feather. "Wouldn't it be better to wash it out with +boiling water, sir?" asked the cook in an insinuating tone. He knew that +he had made a fool of himself, and was anxious to make it right again. + +I heard no more about the odd platter and gear for two or three days, +though I thought about his story a good deal. The doctor evidently +believed that Jim Benton had come back, though he didn't quite like to +say so. His story had sounded silly enough on a bright afternoon, in +fair weather, when the sun was on the water, and every rag was drawing +in the breeze, and the sea looked as pleasant and as harmless as a cat +that has just eaten a canary. But when it was toward the end of the +first watch, and the waning moon had not risen yet, and the water was +like still oil, and the jibs hung down flat and helpless like the wings +of a dead bird--it wasn't the same then. More than once I have started +then and looked round when a fish jumped, expecting to see a face +sticking out of the water with its eyes shut. I think we all felt +something like that at the time. + +One afternoon we were putting a fresh service on the jib-sheet-pennant. +It wasn't my watch, but I was standing by, looking on. Just then Jack +Benton came up from below, and went to look for his pipe under the +anchor. His face was hard and drawn, and his eyes were cold like steel +balls. He hardly ever spoke now, but he did his duty as usual, and +nobody had to complain of him, though we were all beginning to wonder +how long his grief for his dead brother was going to last like that. I +watched him as he crouched down, and ran his hand into the hiding-place +for the pipe. When he stood up, he had two pipes in his hand. + +Now, I remembered very well seeing him throw one of those pipes away, +early in the morning after the gale; and it came to me now, and I didn't +suppose he kept a stock of them under the anchor. I caught sight of his +face, and it was greenish white, like the foam on shallow water, and he +stood a long time looking at the two pipes. He wasn't looking to see +which was his, for I wasn't five yards from him as he stood, and one of +those pipes had been smoked that day, and was shiny where his hand had +rubbed it, and the bone mouthpiece was chafed white where his teeth had +bitten it. The other was water-logged. It was swelled and cracking with +wet, and it looked to me as if there were a little green weed on it. + +Jack Benton turned his head rather stealthily as I looked away, and then +he hid the thing in his trousers pocket, and went aft on the lee side, +out of sight. The men had got the sheet-pennant on a stretch to serve +it, but I ducked under it and stood where I could see what Jack did, +just under the fore-staysail. He couldn't see me, and he was looking +about for something. His hand shook as he picked up a bit of half-bent +iron rod, about a foot long, that had been used for turning an eye-bolt, +and had been left on the main-hatch. His hand shook as he got a piece of +marline out of his pocket, and made the water-logged pipe fast to the +iron. He didn't mean it to get adrift either, for he took his turns +carefully, and hove them taut and then rode them, so that they couldn't +slip, and made the end fast with two half-hitches round the iron, and +hitched it back on itself. Then he tried it with his hands, and looked +up and down the deck furtively, and then quietly dropped the pipe and +iron over the rail, so that I didn't even hear the splash. If anybody +was playing tricks on board, they weren't meant for the cook. + +I asked some questions about Jack Benton, and one of the men told me +that he was off his feed, and hardly ate anything, and swallowed all the +coffee he could lay his hands on, and had used up all his own tobacco +and had begun on what his brother had left. + +"The doctor says it ain't so, sir," said the man, looking at me shyly, +as if he didn't expect to be believed; "the doctor says there's as much +eaten from breakfast to breakfast as there was before Jim fell +overboard, though there's a mouth less and another that eats nothing. I +says it's the cabin-boy that gets it. He's bu'sting." + +I told him that if the cabin-boy ate more than his share, he must work +more than his share, so as to balance things. But the man laughed +queerly, and looked at me again. + +"I only said that, sir, just like that. We all know it ain't so." + +"Well, how is it?" + +"How is it?" asked the man, half-angry all at once. "I don't know how it +is, but there's a hand on board that's getting his whack along with us +as regular as the bells." + +"Does he use tobacco?" I asked, meaning to laugh it out of him, but as I +spoke, I remembered the water-logged pipe. + +"I guess he's using his own still," the man answered, in a queer, low +voice. "Perhaps he'll take some one else's when his is all gone." + +It was about nine o'clock in the morning, I remember, for just then the +captain called to me to stand by the chronometer while he took his fore +observation. Captain Hackstaff wasn't one of those old skippers who do +everything themselves with a pocket watch, and keep the key of the +chronometer in their waistcoat pocket, and won't tell the mate how far +the dead reckoning is out. He was rather the other way, and I was glad +of it, for he generally let me work the sights he took, and just ran +his eye over my figures afterwards. I am bound to say his eye was pretty +good, for he would pick out a mistake in a logarithm, or tell me that I +had worked the "Equation of Time" with the wrong sign, before it seemed +to me that he could have got as far as "half the sum, minus the +altitude." He was always right, too, and besides he knew a lot about +iron ships and local deviation, and adjusting the compass, and all that +sort of thing. I don't know how he came to be in command of a +fore-and-aft schooner. He never talked about himself, and maybe he had +just been mate on one of those big steel square-riggers, and something +had put him back. Perhaps he had been captain, and had got his ship +aground, through no particular fault of his, and had to begin over +again. Sometimes he talked just like you and me, and sometimes he would +speak more like books do, or some of those Boston people I have heard. I +don't know. We have all been shipmates now and then with men who have +seen better days. Perhaps he had been in the Navy, but what makes me +think he couldn't have been, was that he was a thorough good seaman, a +regular old windjammer, and understood sail, which those Navy chaps +rarely do. Why, you and I have sailed with men before the mast who had +their master's certificates in their pockets--English Board of Trade +certificates, too--who could work a double altitude if you would lend +them a sextant and give them a look at the chronometer, as well as many +a man who commands a big square-rigger. Navigation ain't everything, nor +seamanship either. You've got to have it in you, if you mean to get +there. + +I don't know how our captain heard that there was trouble forward. The +cabin-boy may have told him, or the men may have talked outside his door +when they relieved the wheel at night. Anyhow, he got wind of it, and +when he had got his sight that morning, he had all hands aft, and gave +them a lecture. It was just the kind of talk you might have expected +from him. He said he hadn't any complaint to make, and that so far as he +knew everybody on board was doing his duty, and that he was given to +understand that the men got their whack, and were satisfied. He said his +ship was never a hard ship, and that he liked quiet, and that was the +reason he didn't mean to have any nonsense, and the men might just as +well understand that, too. We'd had a great misfortune, he said, and it +was nobody's fault. We had lost a man we all liked and respected, and he +felt that everybody in the ship ought to be sorry for the man's brother, +who was left behind, and that it was rotten lubberly childishness, and +unjust and unmanly and cowardly, to be playing schoolboy tricks with +forks and spoons and pipes, and that sort of gear. He said it had got to +stop right now, and that was all, and the men might go forward. And so +they did. + +It got worse after that, and the men watched the cook, and the cook +watched the men, as if they were trying to catch each other; but I think +everybody felt that there was something else. One evening, at +supper-time, I was on deck, and Jack came aft to relieve the wheel while +the man who was steering got his supper. He hadn't got past the +main-hatch on the lee side, when I heard a man running in slippers that +slapped on the deck, and there was a sort of a yell and I saw the +coloured cook going for Jack, with a carving knife in his hand. I jumped +to get between them, and Jack turned round short, and put out his hand. +I was too far to reach them, and the cook jabbed out with his knife. But +the blade didn't get anywhere near Benton. The cook seemed to be jabbing +it into the air again and again, at least four feet short of the mark. +Then he dropped his right hand, and I saw the whites of his eyes in the +dusk, and he reeled up against the pin-rail, and caught hold of a +belaying-pin with his left. I had reached him by that time, and grabbed +hold of his knife-hand, and the other, too, for I thought he was going +to use the pin; but Jack Benton was standing staring stupidly at him, as +if he didn't understand. But instead, the cook was holding on because he +couldn't stand, and his teeth were chattering, and he let go of the +knife, and the point stuck into the deck. + +"He's crazy!" said Jack Benton, and that was all he said; and he went +aft. + +When he was gone, the cook began to come to, and he spoke quite low, +near my ear. + +"There were two of them! So help me God, there were two of them!" + +I don't know why I didn't take him by the collar, and give him a good +shaking; but I didn't. I just picked up the knife and gave it to him, +and told him to go back to his galley, and not to make a fool of +himself. You see, he hadn't struck at Jack, but at something he thought +he saw, and I knew what it was, and I felt that same thing, like a lump +of ice sliding down my back, that I felt that night when we were bending +the trysail. + +When the men had seen him running aft, they jumped up after him, but +they held off when they saw that I had caught him. By and by, the man +who had spoken to me before told me what had happened. He was a stocky +little chap, with a red head. + +"Well," he said, "there isn't much to tell. Jack Benton had been eating +his supper with the rest of us. He always sits at the after corner of +the table, on the port side. His brother used to sit at the end, next +him. The doctor gave him a thundering big piece of pie to finish up +with, and when he had finished he didn't stop for a smoke, but went off +quick to relieve the wheel. Just as he had gone, the doctor came in from +the galley, and when he saw Jack's empty plate he stood stock still +staring at it; and we all wondered what was the matter, till we looked +at the plate. There were two forks in it, sir, lying side by side. Then +the doctor grabbed his knife, and flew up through the hatch like a +rocket. The other fork was there all right, Mr. Torkeldsen, for we all +saw it and handled it; and we all had our own. That's all I know." + +I didn't feel that I wanted to laugh when he told me that story; but I +hoped the Old Man wouldn't hear it, for I knew he wouldn't believe it, +and no captain that ever sailed likes to have stories like that going +round about his ship. It gives her a bad name. But that was all anybody +ever saw except the cook, and he isn't the first man who has thought he +saw things without having any drink in him. I think, if the doctor had +been weak in the head, as he was afterwards, he might have done +something foolish again, and there might have been serious trouble. But +he didn't. Only, two or three times, I saw him looking at Jack Benton in +a queer, scared way, and once I heard him talking to himself. + +"There's two of them! So help me God, there's two of them!" + +He didn't say anything more about asking for his discharge, but I knew +well enough that if he got ashore at the next port we should never see +him again, if he had to leave his kit behind him, and his money, too. He +was scared all through, for good and all; and he wouldn't be right again +till he got another ship. It's no use to talk to a man when he gets like +that, any more than it is to send a boy to the main truck when he has +lost his nerve. + +Jack Benton never spoke of what happened that evening. I don't know +whether he knew about the two forks, or not; or whether he understood +what the trouble was. Whatever he knew from the other men, he was +evidently living under a hard strain. He was quiet enough, and too +quiet; but his face was set, and sometimes it twitched oddly when he was +at the wheel, and he would turn his head round sharp to look behind him. +A man doesn't do that naturally, unless there's a vessel that he thinks +is creeping up on the quarter. When that happens, if the man at the +wheel takes a pride in his ship, he will almost always keep glancing +over his shoulder to see whether the other fellow is gaining. But Jack +Benton used to look round when there was nothing there; and what is +curious, the other men seemed to catch the trick when they were +steering. One day the Old Man turned out just as the man at the wheel +looked behind him. + +"What are you looking at?" asked the captain. + +"Nothing, sir," answered the man. + +"Then keep your eye on the mizzen-royal," said the Old Man, as if he +were forgetting that we weren't a square-rigger. + +"Ay, ay, sir," said the man. + +The captain told me to go below and work up the latitude from the +dead-reckoning, and he went forward of the deck-house and sat down to +read, as he often did. When I came up, the man at the wheel was looking +round again, and I stood beside him and just asked him quietly what +everybody was looking at, for it was getting to be a general habit. He +wouldn't say anything at first, but just answered that it was nothing. +But when he saw that I didn't seem to care, and just stood there as if +there were nothing more to be said, he naturally began to talk. + +He said that it wasn't that he saw anything, because there wasn't +anything to see except the spanker sheet just straining a little, and +working in the sheaves of the blocks as the schooner rose to the short +seas. There wasn't anything to be seen, but it seemed to him that the +sheet made a queer noise in the blocks. It was a new manilla sheet; and +in dry weather it did make a little noise, something between a creak and +a wheeze. I looked at it and looked at the man, and said nothing; and +presently he went on. He asked me if I didn't notice anything peculiar +about the noise. I listened awhile, and said I didn't notice anything. + +Then he looked rather sheepish, but said he didn't think it could be his +own ears, because every man who steered his trick heard the same thing +now and then,--sometimes once in a day, sometimes once in a night, +sometimes it would go on a whole hour. + +"It sounds like sawing wood," I said, just like that. + +"To us it sounds a good deal more like a man whistling 'Nancy Lee.'" He +started nervously as he spoke the last words. "There, sir, don't you +hear it?" he asked suddenly. + +I heard nothing but the creaking of the manilla sheet. It was getting +near noon, and fine, clear weather in southern waters,--just the sort of +day and the time when you would least expect to feel creepy. But I +remembered how I had heard that same tune overhead at night in a gale of +wind a fortnight earlier, and I am not ashamed to say that the same +sensation came over me now, and I wished myself well out of the _Helen +B._, and aboard of any old cargo-dragger, with a windmill on deck, and +an eighty-nine-forty-eighter for captain, and a fresh leak whenever it +breezed up. + +Little by little during the next few days life on board that vessel came +to be about as unbearable as you can imagine. It wasn't that there was +much talk, for I think the men were shy even of speaking to each other +freely about what they thought. The whole ship's company grew silent, +until one hardly ever heard a voice, except giving an order and the +answer. The men didn't sit over their meals when their watch was below, +but either turned in at once or sat about on the forecastle, smoking +their pipes without saying a word. We were all thinking of the same +thing. We all felt as if there were a hand on board, sometimes below, +sometimes about decks, sometimes aloft, sometimes on the boom end; +taking his full share of what the others got, but doing no work for it. +We didn't only feel it, we knew it. He took up no room, he cast no +shadow, and we never heard his footfall on deck; but he took his whack +with the rest as regular as the bells, and--he whistled "Nancy Lee." It +was like the worst sort of dream you can imagine; and I daresay a good +many of us tried to believe it was nothing else sometimes, when we stood +looking over the weather rail in fine weather with the breeze in our +faces; but if we happened to turn round and look into each other's eyes, +we knew it was something worse than any dream could be; and we would +turn away from each other with a queer, sick feeling, wishing that we +could just for once see somebody who didn't know what we knew. + +There's not much more to tell about the _Helen B. Jackson_, so far as I +am concerned. We were more like a shipload of lunatics than anything +else when we ran in under Morro Castle and anchored in Havana. The cook +had brain fever, and was raving mad in his delirium; and the rest of the +men weren't far from the same state. The last three or four days had +been awful, and we had been as near to having a mutiny on board as I +ever want to be. The men didn't want to hurt anybody; but they wanted to +get away out of that ship, if they had to swim for it; to get away from +that whistling, from that dead shipmate who had come back, and who +filled the ship with his unseen self! I know that if the Old Man and I +hadn't kept a sharp lookout, the men would have put a boat over quietly +on one of those calm nights, and pulled away, leaving the captain and +me and the mad cook to work the schooner into harbour. We should have +done it somehow, of course, for we hadn't far to run if we could get a +breeze; and once or twice I found myself wishing that the crew were +really gone, for the awful state of fright in which they lived was +beginning to work on me too. You see I partly believed and partly +didn't; but, anyhow, I didn't mean to let the thing get the better of +me, whatever it was. I turned crusty, too, and kept the men at work on +all sorts of jobs, and drove them to it until they wished I was +overboard, too. It wasn't that the Old Man and I were trying to drive +them to desert without their pay, as I am sorry to say a good many +skippers and mates do, even now. Captain Hackstaff was as straight as a +string, and I didn't mean those poor fellows should be cheated out of a +single cent; and I didn't blame them for wanting to leave the ship, but +it seemed to me that the only chance to keep everybody sane through +those last days was to work the men till they dropped. When they were +dead tired they slept a little, and forgot the thing until they had to +tumble up on deck and face it again. That was a good many years ago. Do +you believe that I can't hear "Nancy Lee" now, without feeling cold down +my back? For I heard it, too, now and then, after the man had explained +why he was always looking over his shoulder. Perhaps it was +imagination. I don't know. When I look back it seems to me that I only +remember a long fight against something I couldn't see, against an +appalling presence, against something worse than cholera or Yellow Jack +or the plague--and, goodness knows, the mildest of them is bad enough +when it breaks out at sea. The men got as white as chalk, and wouldn't +go about decks alone at night, no matter what I said to them. With the +cook raving in his bunk, the forecastle would have been a perfect hell, +and there wasn't a spare cabin on board. There never is on a +fore-and-after. So I put him into mine, and he was more quiet there, and +at last fell into a sort of stupor as if he were going to die. I don't +know what became of him, for we put him ashore alive and left him in the +hospital. + +The men came aft in a body, quiet enough, and asked the captain if he +wouldn't pay them off, and let them go ashore. Some men wouldn't have +done it, for they had shipped for the voyage, and had signed articles. +But the captain knew that when sailors get an idea into their heads, +they're no better than children; and if he forced them to stay aboard, +he wouldn't get much work out of them, and couldn't rely on them in a +difficulty. So he paid them off, and let them go. When they had gone +forward to get their kits, he asked me whether I wanted to go, too, and +for a minute I had a sort of weak feeling that I might just as well. But +I didn't, and he was a good friend to me afterwards. Perhaps he was +grateful to me for sticking to him. + +When the men went off he didn't come on deck; but it was my duty to +stand by while they left the ship. They owed me a grudge for making them +work during the last few days, and most of them dropped into the boat +without so much as a word or a look, as sailors will. Jack Benton was +the last to go over the side, and he stood still a minute and looked at +me, and his white face twitched. I thought he wanted to say something. + +"Take care of yourself, Jack," said I. "So long!" + +It seemed as if he couldn't speak for two or three seconds; then his +words came thick. + +"It wasn't my fault, Mr. Torkeldsen. I swear it wasn't my fault!" + +That was all; and he dropped over the side, leaving me to wonder what he +meant. + +The captain and I stayed on board, and the ship-chandler got a West +India boy to cook for us. + +That evening, before turning in, we were standing by the rail having a +quiet smoke, watching the lights of the city, a quarter of a mile off, +reflected in the still water. There was music of some sort ashore, in a +sailors' dance-house, I daresay; and I had no doubt that most of the men +who had left the ship were there, and already full of jiggy-jiggy. The +music played a lot of sailors' tunes that ran into each other, and we +could hear the men's voices in the chorus now and then. One followed +another, and then it was "Nancy Lee," loud and clear, and the men +singing "Yo-ho, heave-ho!" + +"I have no ear for music," said Captain Hackstaff, "but it appears to me +that's the tune that man was whistling the night we lost the man +overboard. I don't know why it has stuck in my head, and of course it's +all nonsense; but it seems to me that I have heard it all the rest of +the trip." + +I didn't say anything to that, but I wondered just how much the Old Man +had understood. Then we turned in, and I slept ten hours without opening +my eyes. + +I stuck to the _Helen B. Jackson_ after that as long as I could stand a +fore-and-after; but that night when we lay in Havana was the last time I +ever heard "Nancy Lee" on board of her. The spare hand had gone ashore +with the rest, and he never came back, and he took his tune with him; +but all those things are just as clear in my memory as if they had +happened yesterday. + +After that I was in deep water for a year or more, and after I came home +I got my certificate, and what with having friends and having saved a +little money, and having had a small legacy from an uncle in Norway, I +got the command of a coastwise vessel, with a small share in her. I was +at home three weeks before going to sea, and Jack Benton saw my name in +the local papers, and wrote to me. + +He said that he had left the sea, and was trying farming, and he was +going to be married, and he asked if I wouldn't come over for that, for +it wasn't more than forty minutes by train; and he and Mamie would be +proud to have me at the wedding. I remembered how I had heard one +brother ask the other whether Mamie knew. That meant, whether she knew +he wanted to marry her, I suppose. She had taken her time about it, for +it was pretty nearly three years then since we had lost Jim Benton +overboard. + +I had nothing particular to do while we were getting ready for sea; +nothing to prevent me from going over for a day, I mean; and I thought +I'd like to see Jack Benton, and have a look at the girl he was going to +marry. I wondered whether he had grown cheerful again, and had got rid +of that drawn look he had when he told me it wasn't his fault. How could +it have been his fault, anyhow? So I wrote to Jack that I would come +down and see him married; and when the day came I took the train and +got there about ten o'clock in the morning. I wish I hadn't. Jack met me +at the station, and he told me that the wedding was to be late in the +afternoon, and that they weren't going off on any silly wedding trip, he +and Mamie, but were just going to walk home from her mother's house to +his cottage. That was good enough for him, he said. I looked at him hard +for a minute after we met. When we had parted I had a sort of idea that +he might take to drink, but he hadn't. He looked very respectable and +well-to-do in his black coat and high city collar; but he was thinner +and bonier than when I had known him, and there were lines in his face, +and I thought his eyes had a queer look in them, half shifty, half +scared. He needn't have been afraid of me, for I didn't mean to talk to +his bride about the _Helen B. Jackson._ + +He took me to his cottage first, and I could see that he was proud of +it. It wasn't above a cable's length from high-water mark, but the tide +was running out, and there was already a broad stretch of hard, wet sand +on the other side of the beach road. Jack's bit of land ran back behind +the cottage about a quarter of a mile, and he said that some of the +trees we saw were his. The fences were neat and well kept, and there was +a fair-sized barn a little way from the cottage, and I saw some +nice-looking cattle in the meadows; but it didn't look to me to be much +of a farm, and I thought that before long Jack would have to leave his +wife to take care of it, and go to sea again. But I said it was a nice +farm, so as to seem pleasant, and as I don't know much about these +things, I daresay it was, all the same. I never saw it but that once. +Jack told me that he and his brother had been born in the cottage, and +that when their father and mother died they leased the land to Mamie's +father, but had kept the cottage to live in when they came home from sea +for a spell. It was as neat a little place as you would care to see: the +floors as clean as the decks of a yacht, and the paint as fresh as a +man-o'-war. Jack always was a good painter. There was a nice parlour on +the ground floor, and Jack had papered it and had hung the walls with +photographs of ships and foreign ports, and with things he had brought +home from his voyages: a boomerang, a South Sea club, Japanese straw +hats, and a Gibraltar fan with a bull-fight on it, and all that sort of +gear. It looked to me as if Miss Mamie had taken a hand in arranging it. +There was a brand-new polished iron Franklin stove set into the old +fireplace, and a red table-cloth from Alexandria embroidered with those +outlandish Egyptian letters. It was all as bright and homelike as +possible, and he showed me everything, and was proud of everything, and +I liked him the better for it. But I wished that his voice would sound +more cheerful, as it did when we first sailed in the _Helen B._, and +that the drawn look would go out of his face for a minute. Jack showed +me everything, and took me upstairs, and it was all the same: bright and +fresh and ready for the bride. But on the upper landing there was a door +that Jack didn't open. When we came out of the bedroom I noticed that it +was ajar, and Jack shut it quickly and turned the key. + +"That lock's no good," he said, half to himself. "The door is always +open." + +I didn't pay much attention to what he said, but as we went down the +short stairs, freshly painted and varnished so that I was almost afraid +to step on them, he spoke again. + +"That was his room, sir. I have made a sort of store-room of it." + +"You may be wanting it in a year or so," I said, wishing to be pleasant. + +"I guess we won't use his room for that," Jack answered in a low voice. + +Then he offered me a cigar from a fresh box in the parlour, and he took +one, and we lit them, and went out; and as we opened the front door +there was Mamie Brewster standing in the path as if she were waiting for +us. She was a fine-looking girl, and I didn't wonder that Jack had been +willing to wait three years for her. I could see that she hadn't been +brought up on steam-heat and cold storage, but had grown into a woman by +the sea-shore. She had brown eyes, and fine brown hair, and a good +figure. + +"This is Captain Torkeldsen," said Jack. "This is Miss Brewster, +captain; and she is glad to see you." + +"Well, I am," said Miss Mamie, "for Jack has often talked to us about +you, captain." + +She put out her hand, and took mine and shook it heartily, and I suppose +I said something, but I know I didn't say much. + +The front door of the cottage looked toward the sea, and there was a +straight path leading to the gate on the beach road. There was another +path from the steps of the cottage that turned to the right, broad +enough for two people to walk easily, and it led straight across the +fields through gates to a larger house about a quarter of a mile away. +That was where Mamie's mother lived, and the wedding was to be there. +Jack asked me whether I would like to look round the farm before dinner, +but I told him I didn't know much about farms. Then he said he just +wanted to look round himself a bit, as he mightn't have much more chance +that day; and he smiled, and Mamie laughed. + +"Show the captain the way to the house, Mamie," he said. "I'll be along +in a minute." + +So Mamie and I began to walk along the path, and Jack went up toward the +barn. + +"It was sweet of you to come, captain," Miss Mamie began, "for I have +always wanted to see you." + +"Yes," I said, expecting something more. + +"You see, I always knew them both," she went on. "They used to take me +out in a dory to catch codfish when I was a little girl, and I liked +them both," she added thoughtfully. "Jack doesn't care to talk about his +brother now. That's natural. But you won't mind telling me how it +happened, will you? I should so much like to know." + +Well, I told her about the voyage and what happened that night when we +fell in with a gale of wind, and that it hadn't been anybody's fault, +for I wasn't going to admit that it was my old captain's, if it was. But +I didn't tell her anything about what happened afterwards. As she didn't +speak, I just went on talking about the two brothers, and how like they +had been, and how when poor Jim was drowned and Jack was left, I took +Jack for him. I told her that none of us had ever been sure which was +which. + +"I wasn't always sure myself," she said, "unless they were together. +Leastways, not for a day or two after they came home from sea. And now +it seems to me that Jack is more like poor Jim, as I remember him, than +he ever was, for Jim was always more quiet, as if he were thinking." + +I told her I thought so, too. We passed the gate and went into the next +field, walking side by side. Then she turned her head to look for Jack, +but he wasn't in sight. I shan't forget what she said next. + +"Are you sure now?" she asked. + +I stood stock-still, and she went on a step, and then turned and looked +at me. We must have looked at each other while you could count five or +six. + +"I know it's silly," she went on, "it's silly, and it's awful, too, and +I have got no right to think it, but sometimes I can't help it. You see +it was always Jack I meant to marry." + +"Yes," I said stupidly, "I suppose so." + +She waited a minute, and began walking on slowly before she went on +again. + +"I am talking to you as if you were an old friend, captain, and I have +only known you five minutes. It was Jack I meant to marry, but now he is +so like the other one." + +When a woman gets a wrong idea into her head, there is only one way to +make her tired of it, and that is to agree with her. That's what I did, +and she went on talking the same way for a little while, and I kept on +agreeing and agreeing until she turned round on me. + +"You know you don't believe what you say," she said, and laughed. "You +know that Jack is Jack, right enough; and it's Jack I am going to +marry." + +Of course I said so, for I didn't care whether she thought me a weak +creature or not. I wasn't going to say a word that could interfere with +her happiness, and I didn't intend to go back on Jack Benton; but I +remembered what he had said when he left the ship in Havana: that it +wasn't his fault. + +"All the same," Miss Mamie went on, as a woman will, without realising +what she was saying, "all the same, I wish I had seen it happen. Then I +should know." + +Next minute she knew that she didn't mean that, and was afraid that I +would think her heartless, and began to explain that she would really +rather have died herself than have seen poor Jim go overboard. Women +haven't got much sense, anyhow. All the same, I wondered how she could +marry Jack if she had a doubt that he might be Jim after all. I suppose +she had really got used to him since he had given up the sea and had +stayed ashore, and she cared for him. + +Before long we heard Jack coming up behind us, for we had walked very +slowly to wait for him. + +"Promise not to tell anybody what I said, captain," said Mamie, as girls +do as soon as they have told their secrets. + +Anyhow, I know I never did tell any one but you. This is the first time +I have talked of all that, the first time since I took the train from +that place. I am not going to tell you all about the day. Miss Mamie +introduced me to her mother, who was a quiet, hard-faced old New England +farmer's widow, and to her cousins and relations; and there were plenty +of them, too, at dinner, and there was the parson besides. He was what +they call a Hard-shell Baptist in those parts, with a long, shaven upper +lip and a whacking appetite, and a sort of superior look, as if he +didn't expect to see many of us hereafter--the way a New York pilot +looks round, and orders things about when he boards an Italian +cargo-dragger, as if the ship weren't up to much anyway, though it was +his business to see that she didn't get aground. That's the way a good +many parsons look, I think. He said grace as if he were ordering the men +to sheet home the topgallant-sail and get the helm up. After dinner we +went out on the piazza, for it was warm autumn weather; and the young +folks went off in pairs along the beach road, and the tide had turned +and was beginning to come in. The morning had been clear and fine, but +by four o'clock it began to look like a fog, and the damp came up out of +the sea and settled on everything. Jack said he'd go down to his cottage +and have a last look, for the wedding was to be at five o'clock, or soon +after, and he wanted to light the lights, so as to have things look +cheerful. + +"I will just take a last look," he said again, as we reached the house. +We went in, and he offered me another cigar, and I lit it and sat down +in the parlour. I could hear him moving about, first in the kitchen and +then upstairs, and then I heard him in the kitchen again; and then +before I knew anything I heard somebody moving upstairs again. I knew he +couldn't have got up those stairs as quick as that. He came into the +parlour, and he took a cigar himself, and while he was lighting it I +heard those steps again overhead. His hand shook, and he dropped the +match. + +"Have you got in somebody to help?" I asked. + +"No," Jack answered sharply, and struck another match. + +"There's somebody upstairs, Jack," I said. "Don't you hear footsteps?" + +"It's the wind, captain," Jack answered; but I could see he was +trembling. + +"That isn't any wind, Jack," I said; "it's still and foggy. I'm sure +there's somebody upstairs." + +"If you are so sure of it, you'd better go and see for yourself, +captain," Jack answered, almost angrily. + +He was angry because he was frightened. I left him before the fireplace, +and went upstairs. There was no power on earth that could make me +believe I hadn't heard a man's footsteps overhead. I knew there was +somebody there. But there wasn't. I went into the bedroom, and it was +all quiet, and the evening light was streaming in, reddish through the +foggy air; and I went out on the landing and looked in the little back +room that was meant for a servant-girl or a child. And as I came back +again I saw that the door of the other room was wide open, though I knew +Jack had locked it. He had said the lock was no good. I looked in. It +was a room as big as the bedroom, but almost dark, for it had shutters, +and they were closed. There was a musty smell, as of old gear, and I +could make out that the floor was littered with sea-chests, and that +there were oilskins and such stuff piled on the bed. But I still +believed that there was somebody upstairs, and I went in and struck a +match and looked round. I could see the four walls and the shabby old +paper, an iron bed and a cracked looking-glass, and the stuff on the +floor. But there was nobody there. So I put out the match, and came out +and shut the door and turned the key. Now, what I am telling you is the +truth. When I had turned the key, I heard footsteps walking away from +the door inside the room. Then I felt queer for a minute, and when I +went downstairs I looked behind me, as the men at the wheel used to look +behind them on board the _Helen B._ + +Jack was already outside on the steps, smoking. I have an idea that he +didn't like to stay inside alone. + +"Well?" he asked, trying to seem careless. + +"I didn't find anybody," I answered, "but I heard somebody moving +about." + +"I told you it was the wind," said Jack contemptuously. "I ought to +know, for I live here, and I hear it often." + +There was nothing to be said to that, so we began to walk down toward +the beach. Jack said there wasn't any hurry, as it would take Miss Mamie +some time to dress for the wedding. So we strolled along, and the sun +was setting through the fog, and the tide was coming in. I knew the +moon was full, and that when she rose the fog would roll away from the +land, as it does sometimes. I felt that Jack didn't like my having heard +that noise, so I talked of other things, and asked him about his +prospects, and before long we were chatting as pleasantly as possible. + +I haven't been at many weddings in my life, and I don't suppose you +have, but that one seemed to me to be all right until it was pretty near +over; and then, I don't know whether it was part of the ceremony or not, +but Jack put out his hand and took Mamie's and held it a minute, and +looked at her, while the parson was still speaking. + +Mamie turned as white as a sheet and screamed. It wasn't a loud scream, +but just a sort of stifled little shriek, as if she were half frightened +to death; and the parson stopped, and asked her what was the matter, and +the family gathered round. + +"Your hand's like ice," said Mamie to Jack, "and it's all wet!" + +She kept looking at it, as she got hold of herself again. + +"It don't feel cold to me," said Jack, and he held the back of his hand +against his cheek. "Try it again." + +Mamie held out hers, and touched the back of his hand, timidly at +first, and then took hold of it. + +"Why, that's funny," she said. + +"She's been as nervous as a witch all day," said Mrs. Brewster severely. + +"It is natural," said the parson, "that young Mrs. Benton should +experience a little agitation at such a moment." + +Most of the bride's relations lived at a distance, and were busy people, +so it had been arranged that the dinner we'd had in the middle of the +day was to take the place of a dinner afterwards, and that we should +just have a bite after the wedding was over, and then that everybody +should go home, and the young couple would walk down to the cottage by +themselves. When I looked out I could see the light burning brightly in +Jack's cottage, a quarter of a mile away. I said I didn't think I could +get any train to take me back before half-past nine, but Mrs. Brewster +begged me to stay until it was time, as she said her daughter would want +to take off her wedding dress before she went home; for she had put on +something white with a wreath that was very pretty, and she couldn't +walk home like that, could she? + +So when we had all had a little supper the party began to break up, and +when they were all gone Mrs. Brewster and Mamie went upstairs, and Jack +and I went out on the piazza to have a smoke, as the old lady didn't +like tobacco in the house. + +The full moon had risen now, and it was behind me as I looked down +toward Jack's cottage, so that everything was clear and white, and there +was only the light burning in the window. The fog had rolled down to the +water's edge, and a little beyond, for the tide was high, or nearly, and +was lapping up over the last reach of sand within fifty feet of the +beach road. + +Jack didn't say much as we sat smoking, but he thanked me for coming to +his wedding, and I told him I hoped he would be happy, and so I did. I +daresay both of us were thinking of those footsteps upstairs, just then, +and that the house wouldn't seem so lonely with a woman in it. By and by +we heard Mamie's voice talking to her mother on the stairs, and in a +minute she was ready to go. She had put on again the dress she had worn +in the morning. + +Well, they were ready to go now. It was all very quiet after the day's +excitement, and I knew they would like to walk down that path alone now +that they were man and wife at last. I bade them good-night, although +Jack made a show of pressing me to go with them by the path as far as +the cottage, instead of going to the station by the beach road. It was +all very quiet, and it seemed to me a sensible way of getting married; +and when Mamie kissed her mother good-night, I just looked the other +way, and knocked my ashes over the rail of the piazza. So they started +down the straight path to Jack's cottage, and I waited a minute with +Mrs. Brewster, looking after them, before taking my hat to go. They +walked side by side, a little shyly at first, and then I saw Jack put +his arm round her waist. As I looked he was on her left and I saw the +outline of the two figures very distinctly against the moonlight on the +path; and the shadow on Mamie's right was broad and black as ink, and it +moved along, lengthening and shortening with the unevenness of the +ground beside the path. + +I thanked Mrs. Brewster, and bade her good-night; and though she was a +hard New England woman, her voice trembled a little as she answered, but +being a sensible person, she went in and shut the door behind her as I +stepped out on the path. I looked after the couple in the distance a +last time, meaning to go down to the road, so as not to overtake them; +but when I had made a few steps I stopped and looked again, for I knew I +had seen something queer, though I had only realised it afterwards. I +looked again, and it was plain enough now; and I stood stock-still, +staring at what I saw. Mamie was walking between two men. The second man +was just the same height as Jack, both being about a half a head taller +than she; Jack on her left in his black tail-coat and round hat, and the +other man on her right--well, he was a sailor-man in wet oilskins. I +could see the moonlight shining on the water that ran down him, and on +the little puddle that had settled where the flap of his sou'wester was +turned up behind: and one of his wet, shiny arms was round Mamie's +waist, just above Jack's. I was fast to the spot where I stood, and for +a minute I thought I was crazy. We'd had nothing but some cider for +dinner, and tea in the evening, otherwise I'd have thought something had +got into my head, though I was never drunk in my life. It was more like +a bad dream after that. + +I was glad Mrs. Brewster had gone in. As for me, I couldn't help +following the three, in a sort of wonder to see what would happen, to +see whether the sailor-man in his wet togs would just melt away into the +moonshine. But he didn't. + +I moved slowly, and I remembered afterwards that I walked on the grass, +instead of on the path, as if I were afraid they might hear me coming. I +suppose it all happened in less than five minutes after that, but it +seemed as if it must have taken an hour. Neither Jack nor Mamie seemed +to notice the sailor. She didn't seem to know that his wet arm was round +her, and little by little they got near the cottage, and I wasn't a +hundred yards from them when they reached the door. Something made me +stand still then. Perhaps it was fright, for I saw everything that +happened just as I see you now. + +Mamie set her foot on the step to go up, and as she went forward, I saw +the sailor slowly lock his arm in Jack's, and Jack didn't move to go up. +Then Mamie turned round on the step, and they all three stood that way +for a second or two. She cried out then--I heard a man cry like that +once, when his arm was taken off by a steam-crane--and she fell back in +a heap on the little piazza. + +I tried to jump forward, but I couldn't move, and I felt my hair rising +under my hat. The sailor turned slowly where he stood, and swung Jack +round by the arm steadily and easily, and began to walk him down the +pathway from the house. He walked him straight down that path, as +steadily as Fate; and all the time I saw the moonlight shining on his +wet oilskins. He walked him through the gate, and across the beach road, +and out upon the wet sand, where the tide was high. Then I got my breath +with a gulp, and ran for them across the grass, and vaulted over the +fence, and stumbled across the road. But when I felt the sand under my +feet, the two were at the water's edge; and when I reached the water +they were far out, and up to their waists; and I saw that Jack Benton's +head had fallen forward on his breast, and his free arm hung limp beside +him, while his dead brother steadily marched him to his death. The +moonlight was on the dark water, but the fog-bank was white beyond, and +I saw them against it; and they went slowly and steadily down. The water +was up to their armpits, and then up to their shoulders, and then I saw +it rise up to the black rim of Jack's hat. But they never wavered; and +the two heads went straight on, straight on, till they were under, and +there was just a ripple in the moonlight where Jack had been. + +It has been on my mind to tell you that story, whenever I got a chance. +You have known me, man and boy, a good many years; and I thought I would +like to hear your opinion. Yes, that's what I always thought. It wasn't +Jim that went overboard; it was Jack, and Jim just let him go when he +might have saved him; and then Jim passed himself off for Jack with us, +and with the girl. If that's what happened, he got what he deserved. +People said the next day that Mamie found it out as they reached the +house, and that her husband just walked out into the sea, and drowned +himself; and they would have blamed me for not stopping him if they'd +known that I was there. But I never told what I had seen, for they +wouldn't have believed me. I just let them think I had come too late. + +When I reached the cottage and lifted Mamie up, she was raving mad. She +got better afterwards, but she was never right in her head again. + +Oh, you want to know if they found Jack's body? I don't know whether it +was his, but I read in a paper at a Southern port where I was with my +new ship that two dead bodies had come ashore in a gale down East, in +pretty bad shape. They were locked together, and one was a skeleton in +oilskins. + + + + +FOR THE BLOOD IS THE LIFE + + +We had dined at sunset on the broad roof of the old tower, because it +was cooler there during the great heat of summer. Besides, the little +kitchen was built at one corner of the great square platform, which made +it more convenient than if the dishes had to be carried down the steep +stone steps, broken in places and everywhere worn with age. The tower +was one of those built all down the west coast of Calabria by the +Emperor Charles V. early in the sixteenth century, to keep off the +Barbary pirates, when the unbelievers were allied with Francis I. +against the Emperor and the Church. They have gone to ruin, a few still +stand intact, and mine is one of the largest. How it came into my +possession ten years ago, and why I spend a part of each year in it, are +matters which do not concern this tale. The tower stands in one of the +loneliest spots in Southern Italy, at the extremity of a curving rocky +promontory, which forms a small but safe natural harbour at the southern +extremity of the Gulf of Policastro, and just north of Cape Scalea, the +birthplace of Judas Iscariot, according to the old local legend. The +tower stands alone on this hooked spur of the rock, and there is not a +house to be seen within three miles of it. When I go there I take a +couple of sailors, one of whom is a fair cook, and when I am away it is +in charge of a gnome-like little being who was once a miner and who +attached himself to me long ago. + +My friend, who sometimes visits me in my summer solitude, is an artist +by profession, a Scandinavian by birth, and a cosmopolitan by force of +circumstances. We had dined at sunset; the sunset glow had reddened and +faded again, and the evening purple steeped the vast chain of the +mountains that embrace the deep gulf to eastward and rear themselves +higher and higher toward the south. It was hot, and we sat at the +landward corner of the platform, waiting for the night breeze to come +down from the lower hills. The colour sank out of the air, there was a +little interval of deep-grey twilight, and a lamp sent a yellow streak +from the open door of the kitchen, where the men were getting their +supper. + +Then the moon rose suddenly above the crest of the promontory, flooding +the platform and lighting up every little spur of rock and knoll of +grass below us, down to the edge of the motionless water. My friend +lighted his pipe and sat looking at a spot on the hillside. I knew that +he was looking at it, and for a long time past I had wondered whether he +would ever see anything there that would fix his attention. I knew that +spot well. It was clear that he was interested at last, though it was a +long time before he spoke. Like most painters, he trusts to his own +eyesight, as a lion trusts his strength and a stag his speed, and he is +always disturbed when he cannot reconcile what he sees with what he +believes that he ought to see. + +"It's strange," he said. "Do you see that little mound just on this side +of the boulder?" + +"Yes," I said, and I guessed what was coming. + +"It looks like a grave," observed Holger. + +"Very true. It does look like a grave." + +"Yes," continued my friend, his eyes still fixed on the spot. "But the +strange thing is that I see the body lying on the top of it. Of course," +continued Holger, turning his head on one side as artists do, "it must +be an effect of light. In the first place, it is not a grave at all. +Secondly, if it were, the body would be inside and not outside. +Therefore, it's an effect of the moonlight. Don't you see it?" + +"Perfectly; I always see it on moonlight nights." + +"It doesn't seem to interest you much," said Holger. + +"On the contrary, it does interest me, though I am used to it. You're +not so far wrong, either. The mound is really a grave." + +"Nonsense!" cried Holger, incredulously. "I suppose you'll tell me what +I see lying on it is really a corpse!" + +"No," I answered, "it's not. I know, because I have taken the trouble to +go down and see." + +"Then what is it?" asked Holger. + +"It's nothing." + +"You mean that it's an effect of light, I suppose?" + +"Perhaps it is. But the inexplicable part of the matter is that it makes +no difference whether the moon is rising or setting, or waxing or +waning. If there's any moonlight at all, from east or west or overhead, +so long as it shines on the grave you can see the outline of the body on +top." + +Holger stirred up his pipe with the point of his knife, and then used +his finger for a stopper. When the tobacco burned well he rose from his +chair. + +"If you don't mind," he said, "I'll go down and take a look at it." + +He left me, crossed the roof, and disappeared down the dark steps. I did +not move, but sat looking down until he came out of the tower below. I +heard him humming an old Danish song as he crossed the open space in the +bright moonlight, going straight to the mysterious mound. When he was +ten paces from it, Holger stopped short, made two steps forward, and +then three or four backward, and then stopped again. I know what that +meant. He had reached the spot where the Thing ceased to be +visible--where, as he would have said, the effect of light changed. + +Then he went on till he reached the mound and stood upon it. I could see +the Thing still, but it was no longer lying down; it was on its knees +now, winding its white arms round Holger's body and looking up into his +face. A cool breeze stirred my hair at that moment, as the night wind +began to come down from the hills, but it felt like a breath from +another world. + +The Thing seemed to be trying to climb to its feet, helping itself up by +Holger's body while he stood upright, quite unconscious of it and +apparently looking toward the tower, which is very picturesque when the +moonlight falls upon it on that side. + +"Come along!" I shouted. "Don't stay there all night!" + +It seemed to me that he moved reluctantly as he stepped from the mound, +or else with difficulty. That was it. The Thing's arms were still round +his waist, but its feet could not leave the grave. As he came slowly +forward it was drawn and lengthened like a wreath of mist, thin and +white, till I saw distinctly that Holger shook himself, as a man does +who feels a chill. At the same instant a little wail of pain came to me +on the breeze--it might have been the cry of the small owl that lives +among the rocks--and the misty presence floated swiftly back from +Holger's advancing figure and lay once more at its length upon the +mound. + +Again I felt the cool breeze in my hair, and this time an icy thrill of +dread ran down my spine. I remembered very well that I had once gone +down there alone in the moonlight; that presently, being near, I had +seen nothing; that, like Holger, I had gone and had stood upon the +mound; and I remembered how, when I came back, sure that there was +nothing there, I had felt the sudden conviction that there was something +after all if I would only look behind me. I remembered the strong +temptation to look back, a temptation I had resisted as unworthy of a +man of sense, until, to get rid of it, I had shaken myself just as +Holger did. + +And now I knew that those white, misty arms had been round me too; I +knew it in a flash, and I shuddered as I remembered that I had heard the +night owl then too. But it had not been the night owl. It was the cry of +the Thing. + +I refilled my pipe and poured out a cup of strong southern wine; in less +than a minute Holger was seated beside me again. + +"Of course there's nothing there," he said, "but it's creepy, all the +same. Do you know, when I was coming back I was so sure that there was +something behind me that I wanted to turn round and look? It was an +effort not to." + +He laughed a little, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and poured +himself out some wine. For a while neither of us spoke, and the moon +rose higher, and we both looked at the Thing that lay on the mound. + +"You might make a story about that," said Holger after a long time. + +"There is one," I answered. "If you're not sleepy, I'll tell it to you." + +"Go ahead," said Holger, who likes stories. + + * * * * * + +Old Alario was dying up there in the village behind the hill. You +remember him, I have no doubt. They say that he made his money by +selling sham jewellery in South America, and escaped with his gains when +he was found out. Like all those fellows, if they bring anything back +with them, he at once set to work to enlarge his house, and as there are +no masons here, he sent all the way to Paola for two workmen. They were +a rough-looking pair of scoundrels--a Neapolitan who had lost one eye +and a Sicilian with an old scar half an inch deep across his left cheek. +I often saw them, for on Sundays they used to come down here and fish +off the rocks. When Alario caught the fever that killed him the masons +were still at work. As he had agreed that part of their pay should be +their board and lodging, he made them sleep in the house. His wife was +dead, and he had an only son called Angelo, who was a much better sort +than himself. Angelo was to marry the daughter of the richest man in the +village, and, strange to say, though the marriage was arranged by their +parents, the young people were said to be in love with each other. + +For that matter, the whole village was in love with Angelo, and among +the rest a wild, good-looking creature called Cristina, who was more +like a gipsy than any girl I ever saw about here. She had very red lips +and very black eyes, she was built like a greyhound, and had the tongue +of the devil. But Angelo did not care a straw for her. He was rather a +simple-minded fellow, quite different from his old scoundrel of a +father, and under what I should call normal circumstances I really +believe that he would never have looked at any girl except the nice +plump little creature, with a fat dowry, whom his father meant him to +marry. But things turned up which were neither normal nor natural. + +On the other hand, a very handsome young shepherd from the hills above +Maratea was in love with Cristina, who seems to have been quite +indifferent to him. Cristina had no regular means of subsistence, but +she was a good girl and willing to do any work or go on errands to any +distance for the sake of a loaf of bread or a mess of beans, and +permission to sleep under cover. She was especially glad when she could +get something to do about the house of Angelo's father. There is no +doctor in the village, and when the neighbours saw that old Alario was +dying they sent Cristina to Scalea to fetch one. That was late in the +afternoon, and if they had waited so long, it was because the dying +miser refused to allow any such extravagance while he was able to speak. +But while Cristina was gone matters grew rapidly worse, the priest was +brought to the bedside, and when he had done what he could he gave it as +his opinion to the bystanders that the old man was dead, and left the +house. + +You know these people. They have a physical horror of death. Until the +priest spoke, the room had been full of people. The words were hardly +out of his mouth before it was empty. It was night now. They hurried +down the dark steps and out into the street. + +Angelo, as I have said, was away, Cristina had not come back--the simple +woman-servant who had nursed the sick man fled with the rest, and the +body was left alone in the flickering light of the earthen oil lamp. + +Five minutes later two men looked in cautiously and crept forward toward +the bed. They were the one-eyed Neapolitan mason and his Sicilian +companion. They knew what they wanted. In a moment they had dragged from +under the bed a small but heavy iron-bound box, and long before any one +thought of coming back to the dead man they had left the house and the +village under cover of the darkness. It was easy enough, for Alario's +house is the last toward the gorge which leads down here, and the +thieves merely went out by the back door, got over the stone wall, and +had nothing to risk after that except the possibility of meeting some +belated countryman, which was very small indeed, since few of the people +use that path. They had a mattock and shovel, and they made their way +here without accident. + +I am telling you this story as it must have happened, for, of course, +there were no witnesses to this part of it. The men brought the box down +by the gorge, intending to bury it until they should be able to come +back and take it away in a boat. They must have been clever enough to +guess that some of the money would be in paper notes, for they would +otherwise have buried it on the beach in the wet sand, where it would +have been much safer. But the paper would have rotted if they had been +obliged to leave it there long, so they dug their hole down there, close +to that boulder. Yes, just where the mound is now. + +Cristina did not find the doctor in Scalea, for he had been sent for +from a place up the valley, halfway to San Domenico. If she had found +him, he would have come on his mule by the upper road, which is smoother +but much longer. But Cristina took the short cut by the rocks, which +passes about fifty feet above the mound, and goes round that corner. The +men were digging when she passed, and she heard them at work. It would +not have been like her to go by without finding out what the noise was, +for she was never afraid of anything in her life, and, besides, the +fishermen sometimes come ashore here at night to get a stone for an +anchor or to gather sticks to make a little fire. The night was dark, +and Cristina probably came close to the two men before she could see +what they were doing. She knew them, of course, and they knew her, and +understood instantly that they were in her power. There was only one +thing to be done for their safety, and they did it. They knocked her on +the head, they dug the hole deep, and they buried her quickly with the +iron-bound chest. They must have understood that their only chance of +escaping suspicion lay in getting back to the village before their +absence was noticed, for they returned immediately, and were found half +an hour later gossiping quietly with the man who was making Alario's +coffin. He was a crony of theirs, and had been working at the repairs in +the old man's house. So far as I have been able to make out, the only +persons who were supposed to know where Alario kept his treasure were +Angelo and the one woman-servant I have mentioned. Angelo was away; it +was the woman who discovered the theft. + +It is easy enough to understand why no one else knew where the money +was. The old man kept his door locked and the key in his pocket when he +was out, and did not let the woman enter to clean the place unless he +was there himself. The whole village knew that he had money somewhere, +however, and the masons had probably discovered the whereabouts of the +chest by climbing in at the window in his absence. If the old man had +not been delirious until he lost consciousness, he would have been in +frightful agony of mind for his riches. The faithful woman-servant +forgot their existence only for a few moments when she fled with the +rest, overcome by the horror of death. Twenty minutes had not passed +before she returned with the two hideous old hags who are always called +in to prepare the dead for burial. Even then she had not at first the +courage to go near the bed with them, but she made a pretence of +dropping something, went down on her knees as if to find it, and looked +under the bedstead. The walls of the room were newly whitewashed down to +the floor, and she saw at a glance that the chest was gone. It had been +there in the afternoon, it had therefore been stolen in the short +interval since she had left the room. + +There are no carabineers stationed in the village; there is not so much +as a municipal watchman, for there is no municipality. There never was +such a place, I believe. Scalea is supposed to look after it in some +mysterious way, and it takes a couple of hours to get anybody from +there. As the old woman had lived in the village all her life, it did +not even occur to her to apply to any civil authority for help. She +simply set up a howl and ran through the village in the dark, screaming +out that her dead master's house had been robbed. Many of the people +looked out, but at first no one seemed inclined to help her. Most of +them, judging her by themselves, whispered to each other that she had +probably stolen the money herself. The first man to move was the father +of the girl whom Angelo was to marry; having collected his household, +all of whom felt a personal interest in the wealth which was to have +come into the family, he declared it to be his opinion that the chest +had been stolen by the two journeyman masons who lodged in the house. He +headed a search for them, which naturally began in Alario's house and +ended in the carpenter's workshop, where the thieves were found +discussing a measure of wine with the carpenter over the half-finished +coffin, by the light of one earthen lamp filled with oil and tallow. The +search party at once accused the delinquents of the crime, and +threatened to lock them up in the cellar till the carabineers could be +fetched from Scalea. The two men looked at each other for one moment, +and then without the slightest hesitation they put out the single light, +seized the unfinished coffin between them, and using it as a sort of +battering ram, dashed upon their assailants in the dark. In a few +moments they were beyond pursuit. + +That is the end of the first part of the story. The treasure had +disappeared, and as no trace of it could be found the people naturally +supposed that the thieves had succeeded in carrying it off. The old man +was buried, and when Angelo came back at last he had to borrow money to +pay for the miserable funeral, and had some difficulty in doing so. He +hardly needed to be told that in losing his inheritance he had lost his +bride. In this part of the world marriages are made on strictly +business principles, and if the promised cash is not forthcoming on the +appointed day the bride or the bridegroom whose parents have failed to +produce it may as well take themselves off, for there will be no +wedding. Poor Angelo knew that well enough. His father had been +possessed of hardly any land, and now that the hard cash which he had +brought from South America was gone, there was nothing left but debts +for the building materials that were to have been used for enlarging and +improving the old house. Angelo was beggared, and the nice plump little +creature who was to have been his turned up her nose at him in the most +approved fashion. As for Cristina, it was several days before she was +missed, for no one remembered that she had been sent to Scalea for the +doctor, who had never come. She often disappeared in the same way for +days together, when she could find a little work here and there at the +distant farms among the hills. But when she did not come back at all, +people began to wonder, and at last made up their minds that she had +connived with the masons and had escaped with them. + + * * * * * + +_I paused and emptied my glass._ + +_"That sort of thing could not happen anywhere else," observed Holger, +filling his everlasting pipe again. "It is wonderful what a natural +charm there is about murder and sudden death in a romantic country like +this. Deeds that would be simply brutal and disgusting anywhere else +become dramatic and mysterious because this is Italy and we are living +in a genuine tower of Charles V. built against genuine Barbary +pirates."_ + +_"There's something in that" I admitted. Holger is the most romantic man +in the world inside of himself, but he always thinks it necessary to +explain why he feels anything._ + +_"I suppose they found the poor girl's body with the box," he said +presently._ + +_"As it seems to interest you," I answered, "I'll tell you the rest of +the story."_ + +_The moon had risen high by this time; the outline of the Thing on the +mound was clearer to our eyes than before._ + + * * * * * + +The village very soon settled down to its small, dull life. No one +missed old Alario, who had been away so much on his voyages to South +America that he had never been a familiar figure in his native place. +Angelo lived in the half-finished house, and because he had no money to +pay the old woman-servant she would not stay with him, but once in a +long time she would come and wash a shirt for him for old acquaintance' +sake. Besides the house, he had inherited a small patch of ground at +some distance from the village; he tried to cultivate it, but he had no +heart in the work, for he knew he could never pay the taxes on it and on +the house, which would certainly be confiscated by the Government, or +seized for the debt of the building material, which the man who had +supplied it refused to take back. + +Angelo was very unhappy. So long as his father had been alive and rich, +every girl in the village had been in love with him; but that was all +changed now. It had been pleasant to be admired and courted, and invited +to drink wine by fathers who had girls to marry. It was hard to be +stared at coldly, and sometimes laughed at because he had been robbed of +his inheritance. He cooked his miserable meals for himself, and from +being sad became melancholy and morose. + +At twilight, when the day's work was done, instead of hanging about in +the open space before the church with young fellows of his own age, he +took to wandering in lonely places on the outskirts of the village till +it was quite dark. Then he slunk home and went to bed to save the +expense of a light. But in those lonely twilight hours he began to have +strange waking dreams. He was not always alone, for often when he sat on +the stump of a tree, where the narrow path turns down the gorge, he was +sure that a woman came up noiselessly over the rough stones, as if her +feet were bare; and she stood under a clump of chestnut trees only half +a dozen yards down the path, and beckoned to him without speaking. +Though she was in the shadow he knew that her lips were red, and that +when they parted a little and smiled at him she showed two small sharp +teeth. He knew this at first rather than saw it, and he knew that it was +Cristina, and that she was dead. Yet he was not afraid; he only wondered +whether it was a dream, for he thought that if he had been awake he +should have been frightened. + +Besides, the dead woman had red lips, and that could only happen in a +dream. Whenever he went near the gorge after sunset she was already +there waiting for him, or else she very soon appeared, and he began to +be sure that she came a little nearer to him every day. At first he had +only been sure of her blood-red mouth, but now each feature grew +distinct, and the pale face looked at him with deep and hungry eyes. + +It was the eyes that grew dim. Little by little he came to know that +some day the dream would not end when he turned away to go home, but +would lead him down the gorge out of which the vision rose. She was +nearer now when she beckoned to him. Her cheeks were not livid like +those of the dead, but pale with starvation, with the furious and +unappeased physical hunger of her eyes that devoured him. They feasted +on his soul and cast a spell over him, and at last they were close to +his own and held him. He could not tell whether her breath was as hot as +fire or as cold as ice; he could not tell whether her red lips burned +his or froze them, or whether her five fingers on his wrists seared +scorching scars or bit his flesh like frost; he could not tell whether +he was awake or asleep, whether she was alive or dead, but he knew that +she loved him, she alone of all creatures, earthly or unearthly, and her +spell had power over him. + +When the moon rose high that night the shadow of that Thing was not +alone down there upon the mound. + +Angelo awoke in the cool dawn, drenched with dew and chilled through +flesh, and blood, and bone. He opened his eyes to the faint grey light, +and saw the stars still shining overhead. He was very weak, and his +heart was beating so slowly that he was almost like a man fainting. +Slowly he turned his head on the mound, as on a pillow, but the other +face was not there. Fear seized him suddenly, a fear unspeakable and +unknown; he sprang to his feet and fled up the gorge, and he never +looked behind him until he reached the door of the house on the +outskirts of the village. Drearily he went to his work that day, and +wearily the hours dragged themselves after the sun, till at last he +touched the sea and sank, and the great sharp hills above Maratea turned +purple against the dove-coloured eastern sky. + +Angelo shouldered his heavy hoe and left the field. He felt less tired +now than in the morning when he had begun to work, but he promised +himself that he would go home without lingering by the gorge, and eat +the best supper he could get himself, and sleep all night in his bed +like a Christian man. Not again would he be tempted down the narrow way +by a shadow with red lips and icy breath; not again would he dream that +dream of terror and delight. He was near the village now; it was half an +hour since the sun had set, and the cracked church bell sent little +discordant echoes across the rocks and ravines to tell all good people +that the day was done. Angelo stood still a moment where the path +forked, where it led toward the village on the left, and down to the +gorge on the right, where a clump of chestnut trees overhung the narrow +way. He stood still a minute, lifting his battered hat from his head and +gazing at the fast-fading sea westward, and his lips moved as he +silently repeated the familiar evening prayer. His lips moved, but the +words that followed them in his brain lost their meaning and turned into +others, and ended in a name that he spoke aloud--Cristina! With the +name, the tension of his will relaxed suddenly, reality went out and the +dream took him again, and bore him on swiftly and surely like a man +walking in his sleep, down, down, by the steep path in the gathering +darkness. And as she glided beside him, Cristina whispered strange, +sweet things in his ear, which somehow, if he had been awake, he knew +that he could not quite have understood; but now they were the most +wonderful words he had ever heard in his life. And she kissed him also, +but not upon his mouth. He felt her sharp kisses upon his white throat, +and he knew that her lips were red. So the wild dream sped on through +twilight and darkness and moonrise, and all the glory of the summer's +night. But in the chilly dawn he lay as one half dead upon the mound +down there, recalling and not recalling, drained of his blood, yet +strangely longing to give those red lips more. Then came the fear, the +awful nameless panic, the mortal horror that guards the confines of the +world we see not, neither know of as we know of other things, but which +we feel when its icy chill freezes our bones and stirs our hair with the +touch of a ghostly hand. Once more Angelo sprang from the mound and +fled up the gorge in the breaking day, but his step was less sure this +time, and he panted for breath as he ran; and when he came to the bright +spring of water that rises halfway up the hillside, he dropped upon his +knees and hands and plunged his whole face in and drank as he had never +drunk before--for it was the thirst of the wounded man who has lain +bleeding all night long upon the battle-field. + +She had him fast now, and he could not escape her, but would come to her +every evening at dusk until she had drained him of his last drop of +blood. It was in vain that when the day was done he tried to take +another turning and to go home by a path that did not lead near the +gorge. It was in vain that he made promises to himself each morning at +dawn when he climbed the lonely way up from the shore to the village. It +was all in vain, for when the sun sank burning into the sea, and the +coolness of the evening stole out as from a hiding-place to delight the +weary world, his feet turned toward the old way, and she was waiting for +him in the shadow under the chestnut trees; and then all happened as +before, and she fell to kissing his white throat even as she flitted +lightly down the way, winding one arm about him. And as his blood +failed, she grew more hungry and more thirsty every day, and every day +when he awoke in the early dawn it was harder to rouse himself to the +effort of climbing the steep path to the village; and when he went to +his work his feet dragged painfully, and there was hardly strength in +his arms to wield the heavy hoe. He scarcely spoke to any one now, but +the people said he was "consuming himself" for love of the girl he was +to have married when he lost his inheritance; and they laughed heartily +at the thought, for this is not a very romantic country. At this time, +Antonio, the man who stays here to look after the tower, returned from a +visit to his people, who live near Salerno. He had been away all the +time since before Alario's death and knew nothing of what had happened. +He has told me that he came back late in the afternoon and shut himself +up in the tower to eat and sleep, for he was very tired. It was past +midnight when he awoke, and when he looked out the waning moon was +rising over the shoulder of the hill. He looked out toward the mound, +and he saw something, and he did not sleep again that night. When he +went out again in the morning it was broad daylight, and there was +nothing to be seen on the mound but loose stones and driven sand. Yet he +did not go very near it; he went straight up the path to the village and +directly to the house of the old priest. + +"I have seen an evil thing this night," he said; "I have seen how the +dead drink the blood of the living. And the blood is the life." + +"Tell me what you have seen," said the priest in reply. + +Antonio told him everything he had seen. + +"You must bring your book and your holy water to-night," he added. "I +will be here before sunset to go down with you, and if it pleases your +reverence to sup with me while we wait, I will make ready." + +"I will come," the priest answered, "for I have read in old books of +these strange beings which are neither quick nor dead, and which lie +ever fresh in their graves, stealing out in the dusk to taste life and +blood." + +Antonio cannot read, but he was glad to see that the priest understood +the business; for, of course, the books must have instructed him as to +the best means of quieting the half-living Thing for ever. + +So Antonio went away to his work, which consists largely in sitting on +the shady side of the tower, when he is not perched upon a rock with a +fishing-line catching nothing. But on that day he went twice to look at +the mound in the bright sunlight, and he searched round and round it for +some hole through which the being might get in and out; but he found +none. When the sun began to sink and the air was cooler in the shadows, +he went up to fetch the old priest, carrying a little wicker basket with +him; and in this they placed a bottle of holy water, and the basin, and +sprinkler, and the stole which the priest would need; and they came down +and waited in the door of the tower till it should be dark. But while +the light still lingered very grey and faint, they saw something moving, +just there, two figures, a man's that walked, and a woman's that flitted +beside him, and while her head lay on his shoulder she kissed his +throat. The priest has told me that, too, and that his teeth chattered +and he grasped Antonio's arm. The vision passed and disappeared into the +shadow. Then Antonio got the leathern flask of strong liquor, which he +kept for great occasions, and poured such a draught as made the old man +feel almost young again; and he got the lantern, and his pick and +shovel, and gave the priest his stole to put on and the holy water to +carry, and they went out together toward the spot where the work was to +be done. Antonio says that in spite of the rum his own knees shook +together, and the priest stumbled over his Latin. For when they were yet +a few yards from the mound the flickering light of the lantern fell upon +Angelo's white face, unconscious as if in sleep, and on his upturned +throat, over which a very thin red line of blood trickled down into his +collar; and the flickering light of the lantern played upon another face +that looked up from the feast--upon two deep, dead eyes that saw in +spite of death--upon parted lips redder than life itself--upon two +gleaming teeth on which glistened a rosy drop. Then the priest, good old +man, shut his eyes tight and showered holy water before him, and his +cracked voice rose almost to a scream; and then Antonio, who is no +coward after all, raised his pick in one hand and the lantern in the +other, as he sprang forward, not knowing what the end should be; and +then he swears that he heard a woman's cry, and the Thing was gone, and +Angelo lay alone on the mound unconscious, with the red line on his +throat and the beads of deathly sweat on his cold forehead. They lifted +him, half-dead as he was, and laid him on the ground close by; then +Antonio went to work, and the priest helped him, though he was old and +could not do much; and they dug deep, and at last Antonio, standing in +the grave, stooped down with his lantern to see what he might see. + +His hair used to be dark brown, with grizzled streaks about the temples; +in less than a month from that day he was as grey as a badger. He was a +miner when he was young, and most of these fellows have seen ugly +sights now and then, when accidents have happened, but he had never seen +what he saw that night--that Thing which is neither alive nor dead, that +Thing that will abide neither above ground nor in the grave. Antonio had +brought something with him which the priest had not noticed. He had made +it that afternoon--a sharp stake shaped from a piece of tough old +driftwood. He had it with him now, and he had his heavy pick, and he had +taken the lantern down into the grave. I don't think any power on earth +could make him speak of what happened then, and the old priest was too +frightened to look in. He says he heard Antonio breathing like a wild +beast, and moving as if he were fighting with something almost as strong +as himself; and he heard an evil sound also, with blows, as of something +violently driven through flesh and bone; and then the most awful sound +of all--a woman's shriek, the unearthly scream of a woman neither dead +nor alive, but buried deep for many days. And he, the poor old priest, +could only rock himself as he knelt there in the sand, crying aloud his +prayers and exorcisms to drown these dreadful sounds. Then suddenly a +small iron-bound chest was thrown up and rolled over against the old +man's knee, and in a moment more Antonio was beside him, his face as +white as tallow in the flickering light of the lantern, shovelling the +sand and pebbles into the grave with furious haste, and looking over the +edge till the pit was half full; and the priest said that there was much +fresh blood on Antonio's hands and on his clothes. + + +_I had come to the end of my story. Holger finished his wine and leaned +back in his chair._ + +_"So Angelo got his own again," he said. "Did he marry the prim and +plump young person to whom he had been betrothed?"_ + +_"No; he had been badly frightened. He went to South America, and has +not been heard of since."_ + +_"And that poor thing's body is there still, I suppose," said Holger. +"Is it quite dead yet, I wonder?"_ + +_I wonder, too. But whether it be dead or alive, I should hardly care to +see it, even in broad daylight. Antonio is as grey as a badger, and he +has never been quite the same man since that night._ + + + + +THE UPPER BERTH + +CHAPTER I + + +Somebody asked for the cigars. We had talked long, and the conversation +was beginning to languish; the tobacco smoke had got into the heavy +curtains, the wine had got into those brains which were liable to become +heavy, and it was already perfectly evident that, unless somebody did +something to rouse our oppressed spirits, the meeting would soon come to +its natural conclusion, and we, the guests, would speedily go home to +bed, and most certainly to sleep. No one had said anything very +remarkable; it may be that no one had anything very remarkable to say. +Jones had given us every particular of his last hunting adventure in +Yorkshire. Mr. Tompkins, of Boston, had explained at elaborate length +those working principles, by the due and careful maintenance of which +the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad not only extended its +territory, increased its departmental influence, and transported live +stock without starving them to death before the day of actual delivery, +but, also, had for years succeeded in deceiving those passengers who +bought its tickets into the fallacious belief that the corporation +aforesaid was really able to transport human life without destroying it. +Signor Tombola had endeavoured to persuade us, by arguments which we +took no trouble to oppose, that the unity of his country in no way +resembled the average modern torpedo, carefully planned, constructed +with all the skill of the greatest European arsenals, but, when +constructed, destined to be directed by feeble hands into a region where +it must undoubtedly explode, unseen, unfeared, and unheard, into the +illimitable wastes of political chaos. + +It is unnecessary to go into further details. The conversation had +assumed proportions which would have bored Prometheus on his rock, which +would have driven Tantalus to distraction, and which would have impelled +Ixion to seek relaxation in the simple but instructive dialogues of Herr +Ollendorff, rather than submit to the greater evil of listening to our +talk. We had sat at table for hours; we were bored, we were tired, and +nobody showed signs of moving. + +Somebody called for cigars. We all instinctively looked towards the +speaker. Brisbane was a man of five-and-thirty years of age, and +remarkable for those gifts which chiefly attract the attention of men. +He was a strong man. The external proportions of his figure presented +nothing extraordinary to the common eye, though his size was about the +average. He was a little over six feet in height, and moderately broad +in the shoulder; he did not appear to be stout, but, on the other hand, +he was certainly not thin; his small head, was supported by a strong and +sinewy neck; his broad, muscular hands appeared to possess a peculiar +skill in breaking walnuts without the assistance of the ordinary +cracker, and seeing him in profile, one could not help remarking the +extraordinary breadth of his sleeves, and the unusual thickness of his +chest. He was one of those men who are commonly spoken of among men as +deceptive; that is to say, that though he looked exceedingly strong he +was in reality very much stronger than he looked. Of his features I need +say little. His head is small, his hair is thin, his eyes are blue, his +nose is large, he has a small moustache and a square jaw. Everybody +knows Brisbane, and when he asked for a cigar everybody looked at him. + +"It is a very singular thing," said Brisbane. + +Everybody stopped talking. Brisbane's voice was not loud, but possessed +a peculiar quality of penetrating general conversation, and cutting it +like a knife. Everybody listened. Brisbane, perceiving that he had +attracted their general attention, lit his cigar with great equanimity. + +"It is very singular," he continued, "that thing about ghosts. People +are always asking whether anybody has seen a ghost. I have." + +"Bosh! What, you? You don't mean to say so, Brisbane? Well, for a man of +his intelligence!" + +A chorus of exclamations greeted Brisbane's remarkable statement. +Everybody called for cigars, and Stubbs, the butler, suddenly appeared +from the depths of nowhere with a fresh bottle of dry champagne. The +situation was saved; Brisbane was going to tell a story. + +I am an old sailor, said Brisbane, and as I have to cross the Atlantic +pretty often, I have my favourites. Most men have their favourites. I +have seen a man wait in a Broadway bar for three-quarters of an hour for +a particular car which he liked. I believe the bar-keeper made at least +one-third of his living by that man's preference. I have a habit of +waiting for certain ships when I am obliged to cross that duck-pond. It +may be a prejudice, but I was never cheated out of a good passage but +once in my life. I remember it very well; it was a warm morning in June, +and the Custom House officials, who were hanging about waiting for a +steamer already on her way up from the Quarantine, presented a +peculiarly hazy and thoughtful appearance. I had not much luggage--I +never have. I mingled with a crowd of passengers, porters, and +officious individuals in blue coats and brass buttons, who seemed to +spring up like mushrooms from the deck of a moored steamer to obtrude +their unnecessary services upon the independent passenger. I have often +noticed with a certain interest the spontaneous evolution of these +fellows. They are not there when you arrive; five minutes after the +pilot has called "Go ahead!" they, or at least their blue coats and +brass buttons, have disappeared from deck and gangway as completely as +though they had been consigned to that locker which tradition +unanimously ascribes to Davy Jones. But, at the moment of starting, they +are there, clean shaved, blue coated, and ravenous for fees. I hastened +on board. The _Kamtschatka_ was one of my favourite ships. I say was, +because she emphatically no longer is. I cannot conceive of any +inducement which could entice me to make another voyage in her. Yes, I +know what you are going to say. She is uncommonly clean in the run aft, +she has enough bluffing off in the bows to keep her dry, and the lower +berths are most of them double. She has a lot of advantages, but I won't +cross in her again. Excuse the digression. I got on board. I hailed a +steward, whose red nose and redder whiskers were equally familiar to me. + +"One hundred and five, lower berth," said I, in the businesslike tone +peculiar to men who think no more of crossing the Atlantic than taking +a whiskey cocktail at down-town Delmonico's. + +The steward took my portmanteau, greatcoat, and rug. I shall never +forget the expression of his face. Not that he turned pale. It is +maintained by the most eminent divines that even miracles cannot change +the course of nature. I have no hesitation in saying that he did not +turn pale; but, from his expression, I judged that he was either about +to shed tears, to sneeze, or to drop my portmanteau. As the latter +contained two bottles of particularly fine old sherry presented to me +for my voyage by my old friend Snigginson van Pickyns, I felt extremely +nervous. But the steward did none of these things. + +"Well, I'm d----d!" said he in a low voice, and led the way. + +I supposed my Hermes, as he led me to the lower regions, had had a +little grog, but I said nothing and followed him. 105 was on the port +side, well aft. There was nothing remarkable about the state-room. The +lower berth, like most of those upon the _Kamtschatka_, was double. +There was plenty of room; there was the usual washing apparatus, +calculated to convey an idea of luxury to the mind of a North American +Indian; there were the usual inefficient racks of brown wood, in which +it is more easy to hang a large-sized umbrella than the common +tooth-brush of commerce. Upon the uninviting mattresses were carefully +folded together those blankets which a great modern humourist has aptly +compared to cold buckwheat cakes. The question of towels was left +entirely to the imagination. The glass decanters were filled with a +transparent liquid faintly tinged with brown, but from which an odour +less faint, but not more pleasing, ascended to the nostrils, like a +far-off sea-sick reminiscence of oily machinery. Sad-coloured curtains +half closed the upper berth. The hazy June daylight shed a faint +illumination upon the desolate little scene. Ugh! how I hate that +state-room! + +The steward deposited my traps and looked at me as though he wanted to +get away--probably in search of more passengers and more fees. It is +always a good plan to start in favour with those functionaries, and I +accordingly gave him certain coins there and then. + +"I'll try and make yer comfortable all I can," he remarked, as he put +the coins in his pocket. Nevertheless, there was a doubtful intonation +in his voice which surprised me. Possibly his scale of fees had gone up, +and he was not satisfied; but on the whole I was inclined to think that, +as he himself would have expressed it, he was "the better for a glass." +I was wrong, however, and did the man injustice. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Nothing especially worthy of mention occurred during that day. We left +the pier punctually, and it was very pleasant to be fairly under way, +for the weather was warm and sultry, and the motion of the steamer +produced a refreshing breeze. Everybody knows what the first day at sea +is like. People pace the decks and stare at each other, and occasionally +meet acquaintances whom they did not know to be on board. There is the +usual uncertainty as to whether the food will be good, bad, or +indifferent, until the first two meals have put the matter beyond a +doubt; there is the usual uncertainty about the weather, until the ship +is fairly off Fire Island. The tables are crowded at first, and then +suddenly thinned. Pale-faced people spring from their seats and +precipitate themselves towards the door, and each old sailor breathes +more freely as his seasick neighbour rushes from his side, leaving him +plenty of elbow-room and an unlimited command over the mustard. + +One passage across the Atlantic is very much like another, and we who +cross very often do not make the voyage for the sake of novelty. Whales +and icebergs are indeed always objects of interest, but, after all, one +whale is very much like another whale, and one rarely sees an iceberg at +close quarters. To the majority of us the most delightful moment of the +day on board an ocean steamer is when we have taken our last turn on +deck, have smoked our last cigar, and having succeeded in tiring +ourselves, feel at liberty to turn in with a clear conscience. On that +first night of the voyage I felt particularly lazy, and went to bed in +105 rather earlier than I usually do. As I turned in, I was amazed to +see that I was to have a companion. A portmanteau, very like my own, lay +in the opposite corner, and in the upper berth had been deposited a +neatly folded rug, with a stick and umbrella. I had hoped to be alone, +and I was disappointed; but I wondered who my room-mate was to be, and I +determined to have a look at him. + +Before I had been long in bed he entered. He was, as far as I could see, +a very tall man, very thin, very pale, with sandy hair and whiskers and +colourless grey eyes. He had about him, I thought, an air of rather +dubious fashion; the sort of man you might see in Wall Street, without +being able precisely to say what he was doing there--the sort of man who +frequents the Café Anglais, who always seems to be alone and who drinks +champagne; you might meet him on a racecourse, but he would never appear +to be doing anything there either. A little over-dressed--a little odd. +There are three or four of his kind on every ocean steamer. I made up +my mind that I did not care to make his acquaintance, and I went to +sleep saying to myself that I would study his habits in order to avoid +him. If he rose early, I would rise late; if he went to bed late I would +go to bed early. I did not care to know him. If you once know people of +that kind, they are always turning up. Poor fellow! I need not have +taken the trouble to come to so many decisions about him, for I never +saw him again after that first night in 105. + +I was sleeping soundly when I was suddenly waked by a loud noise. To +judge from the sound, my room-mate must have sprung with a single leap +from the upper berth to the floor. I heard him fumbling with the latch +and bolt of the door, which opened almost immediately, and then I heard +his footsteps as he ran at full speed down the passage, leaving the door +open behind him. The ship was rolling a little, and I expected to hear +him stumble or fall, but he ran as though he were running for his life. +The door swung on its hinges with the motion of the vessel, and the +sound annoyed me. I got up and shut it, and groped my way back to my +berth in the darkness. I went to sleep again; but I have no idea how +long I slept. + +When I awoke it was still quite dark, but I felt a disagreeable +sensation of cold, and it seemed to me that the air was damp. You know +the peculiar smell of a cabin which has been wet with sea-water. I +covered myself up as well as I could and dozed off again, framing +complaints to be made the next day, and selecting the most powerful +epithets in the language. I could hear my room-mate turn over in the +upper berth. He had probably returned while I was asleep. Once I thought +I heard him groan, and I argued that he was sea-sick. That is +particularly unpleasant when one is below. Nevertheless I dozed off and +slept till early daylight. + +The ship was rolling heavily, much more than on the previous evening, +and the grey light which came in through the porthole changed in tint +with every movement according as the angle of the vessel's side turned +the glass seawards or skywards. It was very cold--unaccountably so for +the month of June. I turned my head and looked at the porthole, and saw +to my surprise that it was wide open and hooked back. I believe I swore +audibly. Then I got up and shut it. As I turned back I glanced at the +upper berth. The curtains were drawn close together; my companion had +probably felt cold as well as I. It struck me that I had slept enough. +The state-room was uncomfortable, though, strange to say, I could not +smell the dampness which had annoyed me in the night. My room-mate was +still asleep--excellent opportunity for avoiding him, so I dressed at +once and went on deck. The day was warm and cloudy, with an oily smell +on the water. It was seven o'clock as I came out--much later than I had +imagined. I came across the doctor, who was taking his first sniff of +the morning air. He was a young man from the West of Ireland--a +tremendous fellow, with black hair and blue eyes, already inclined to be +stout; he had a happy-go-lucky, healthy look about him which was rather +attractive. + +"Fine morning," I remarked, by way of introduction. + +"Well," said he, eyeing me with an air of ready interest, "it's a fine +morning and it's not a fine morning. I don't think it's much of a +morning." + +"Well, no--it is not so very fine," said I. + +"It's just what I call fuggly weather," replied the doctor. + +"It was very cold last night, I thought," I remarked. "However, when I +looked about, I found that the porthole was wide open. I had not noticed +it when I went to bed. And the state-room was damp, too." + +"Damp!" said he. "Whereabouts are you?" + +"One hundred and five--" + +To my surprise the doctor started visibly, and stared at me. + +"What is the matter?" I asked. + +"Oh--nothing," he answered; "only everybody has complained of that +state-room for the last three trips." + +"I shall complain, too," I said. "It has certainly not been properly +aired. It is a shame!" + +"I don't believe it can be helped," answered the doctor. "I believe +there is something--well, it is not my business to frighten passengers." + +"You need not be afraid of frightening me," I replied. "I can stand any +amount of damp. If I should get a bad cold, I will come to you." + +I offered the doctor a cigar, which he took and examined very +critically. + +"It is not so much the damp," he remarked. "However, I dare say you will +get on very well. Have you a room-mate?" + +"Yes; a deuce of a fellow, who bolts out in the middle of the night, and +leaves the door open." + +Again the doctor glanced curiously at me. Then he lit the cigar and +looked grave. + +"Did he come back?" he asked presently. + +"Yes. I was asleep, but I waked up, and heard him moving. Then I felt +cold and went to sleep again. This morning I found the porthole open." + +"Look here," said the doctor quietly, "I don't care much for this ship. +I don't care a rap for her reputation. I tell you what I will do. I have +a good-sized place up here. I will share it with you, though I don't +know you from Adam." + +I was very much surprised at the proposition. I could not imagine why he +should take such a sudden interest in my welfare. However, his manner, +as he spoke of the ship, was peculiar. + +"You are very good, doctor," I said. "But, really, I believe even now +the cabin could be aired, or cleaned out, or something. Why do you not +care for the ship?" + +"We are not superstitious in our profession, sir," replied the doctor, +"but the sea makes people so. I don't want to prejudice you, and I don't +want to frighten you, but if you will take my advice you will move in +here. I would as soon see you overboard," he added earnestly, "as know +that you or any other man was to sleep in 105." + +"Good gracious! Why?" I asked. + +"Just because on the three last trips the people who have slept there +actually have gone overboard," he answered gravely. + +The intelligence was startling and exceedingly unpleasant, I confess. I +looked hard at the doctor to see whether he was making game of me, but +he looked perfectly serious. I thanked him warmly for his offer, but +told him I intended to be the exception to the rule by which every one +who slept in that particular state-room went overboard. He did not say +much, but looked as grave as ever, and hinted that, before we got +across, I should probably reconsider his proposal. In the course of time +we went to breakfast, at which only an inconsiderable number of +passengers assembled. I noticed that one or two of the officers who +breakfasted with us looked grave. After breakfast I went into my +state-room in order to get a book. The curtains of the upper berth were +still closely drawn. Not a sound was to be heard. My room-mate was +probably still asleep. + +As I came out I met the steward whose business it was to look after me. +He whispered that the captain wanted to see me, and then scuttled away +down the passage as if very anxious to avoid any questions. I went +toward the captain's cabin, and found him waiting for me. + +"Sir," said he, "I want to ask a favour of you." + +I answered that I would do anything to oblige him. + +"Your room-mate has disappeared," he said. "He is known to have turned +in early last night. Did you notice anything extraordinary in his +manner?" + +The question, coming as it did in exact confirmation of the fears the +doctor had expressed half an hour earlier, staggered me. + +"You don't mean to say he has gone overboard?" I asked. + +"I fear he has," answered the captain. + +"This is the most extraordinary thing--" I began. + +"Why?" he asked. + +"He is the fourth, then?" I explained. In answer to another question +from the captain, I explained, without mentioning the doctor, that I had +heard the story concerning 105. He seemed very much annoyed at hearing +that I knew of it. I told him what had occurred in the night. + +"What you say," he replied, "coincides almost exactly with what was told +me by the room-mates of two of the other three. They bolt out of bed and +run down the passage. Two of them were seen to go overboard by the +watch; we stopped and lowered boats, but they were not found. Nobody, +however, saw or heard the man who was lost last night--if he is really +lost. The steward, who is a superstitious fellow, perhaps, and expected +something to go wrong, went to look for him this morning, and found his +berth empty, but his clothes lying about, just as he had left them. The +steward was the only man on board who knew him by sight, and he has +been searching everywhere for him. He has disappeared! Now, sir, I want +to beg you not to mention the circumstance to any of the passengers; I +don't want the ship to get a bad name, and nothing hangs about an +ocean-goer like stories of suicides. You shall have your choice of any +one of the officers' cabins you like, including my own, for the rest of +the passage. Is that a fair bargain?" + +"Very," said I; "and I am much obliged to you. But since I am alone, and +have the state-room to myself, I would rather not move. If the steward +will take out that unfortunate man's things, I would as lief stay where +I am. I will not say anything about the matter, and I think I can +promise you that I will not follow my room-mate." + +The captain tried to dissuade me from my intention, but I preferred +having a state-room alone to being the chum of any officer on board. I +do not know whether I acted foolishly, but if I had taken his advice I +should have had nothing more to tell. There would have remained the +disagreeable coincidence of several suicides occurring among men who had +slept in the same cabin, but that would have been all. + +That was not the end of the matter, however, by any means. I +obstinately made up my mind that I would not be disturbed by such tales, +and I even went so far as to argue the question with the captain. There +was something wrong about the state-room, I said. It was rather damp. +The porthole had been left open last night. My room-mate might have been +ill when he came on board, and he might have become delirious after he +went to bed. He might even now be hiding somewhere on board, and might +be found later. The place ought to be aired and the fastening of the +port looked to. If the captain would give me leave, I would see that +what I thought necessary were done immediately. + +"Of course you have a right to stay where you are if you please," he +replied, rather petulantly; "but I wish you would turn out and let me +lock the place up, and be done with it." + +I did not see it in the same light, and left the captain, after +promising to be silent concerning the disappearance of my companion. The +latter had had no acquaintances on board, and was not missed in the +course of the day. Towards evening I met the doctor again, and he asked +me whether I had changed my mind. I told him I had not. + +"Then you will before long," he said, very gravely. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +We played whist in the evening, and I went to bed late. I will confess +now that I felt a disagreeable sensation when I entered my state-room. I +could not help thinking of the tall man I had seen on the previous +night, who was now dead, drowned, tossing about in the long swell, two +or three hundred miles astern. His face rose very distinctly before me +as I undressed, and I even went so far as to draw back the curtains of +the upper berth, as though to persuade myself that he was actually gone. +I also bolted the door of the state-room. Suddenly I became aware that +the porthole was open, and fastened back. This was more than I could +stand. I hastily threw on my dressing-gown and went in search of Robert, +the steward of my passage. I was very angry, I remember, and when I +found him I dragged him roughly to the door of 105, and pushed him +towards the open porthole. + +"What the deuce do you mean, you scoundrel, by leaving that port open +every night? Don't you know it is against the regulations? Don't you +know that if the ship heeled and the water began to come in, ten men +could not shut it? I will report you to the captain, you blackguard, for +endangering the ship!" + +I was exceedingly wroth. The man trembled and turned pale, and then +began to shut the round glass plate with the heavy brass fittings. + +"Why don't you answer me?" I said roughly. + +"If you please, sir," faltered Robert, "there's nobody on board as can +keep this 'ere port shut at night. You can try it yourself, sir. I ain't +a-going to stop hany longer on board o' this vessel, sir; I ain't, +indeed. But if I was you, sir, I'd just clear out and go and sleep with +the surgeon, or something, I would. Look 'ere, sir, is that fastened +what you may call securely, or not, sir? Try it, sir, see if it will +move a hinch." + +I tried the port, and found it perfectly tight. + +"Well, sir," continued Robert, triumphantly, "I wager my reputation as a +A1 steward that in 'arf an hour it will be open again; fastened back, +too, sir, that's the horful thing--fastened back!" + +I examined the great screw and the looped nut that ran on it. + +"If I find it open in the night, Robert, I will give you a sovereign. It +is not possible. You may go." + +"Soverin' did you say, sir? Very good, sir. Thank ye, sir. Good-night, +sir. Pleasant reepose, sir, and all manner of hinchantin' dreams, sir." + +Robert scuttled away, delighted at being released. Of course, I thought +he was trying to account for his negligence by a silly story, intended +to frighten me, and I disbelieved him. The consequence was that he got +his sovereign, and I spent a very peculiarly unpleasant night. + +I went to bed, and five minutes after I had rolled myself up in my +blankets the inexorable Robert extinguished the light that burned +steadily behind the ground-glass pane near the door. I lay quite still +in the dark trying to go to sleep, but I soon found that impossible. It +had been some satisfaction to be angry with the steward, and the +diversion had banished that unpleasant sensation I had at first +experienced when I thought of the drowned man who had been my chum; but +I was no longer sleepy, and I lay awake for some time, occasionally +glancing at the porthole, which I could just see from where I lay, and +which, in the darkness, looked like a faintly luminous soup-plate +suspended in blackness. I believe I must have lain there for an hour, +and, as I remember, I was just dozing into sleep when I was roused by a +draught of cold air, and by distinctly feeling the spray of the sea +blown upon my face. I started to my feet, and not having allowed in the +dark for the motion of the ship, I was instantly thrown violently across +the state-room upon the couch which was placed beneath the porthole. I +recovered myself immediately, however, and climbed upon my knees. The +porthole was again wide open and fastened back! + +Now these things are facts. I was wide awake when I got up, and I +should certainly have been waked by the fall had I still been dozing. +Moreover, I bruised my elbows and knees badly, and the bruises were +there on the following morning to testify to the fact, if I myself had +doubted it. The porthole was wide open and fastened back--a thing so +unaccountable that I remember very well feeling astonishment rather than +fear when I discovered it. I at once closed the plate again, and screwed +down the loop nut with all my strength. It was very dark in the +state-room. I reflected that the port had certainly been opened within +an hour after Robert had at first shut it in my presence, and I +determined to watch it, and see whether it would open again. Those brass +fittings are very heavy and by no means easy to move; I could not +believe that the clump had been turned by the shaking of the screw. I +stood peering out through the thick glass at the alternate white and +grey streaks of the sea that foamed beneath the ship's side. I must have +remained there a quarter of an hour. + +Suddenly, as I stood, I distinctly heard something moving behind me in +one of the berths, and a moment afterwards, just as I turned +instinctively to look--though I could, of course, see nothing in the +darkness--I heard a very faint groan. I sprang across the state-room, +and tore the curtains of the upper berth aside, thrusting in my hands to +discover if there were any one there. There was some one. + +I remember that the sensation as I put my hands forward was as though I +were plunging them into the air of a damp cellar, and from behind the +curtains came a gust of wind that smelled horribly of stagnant +sea-water. I laid hold of something that had the shape of a man's arm, +but was smooth, and wet, and icy cold. But suddenly, as I pulled, the +creature sprang violently forward against me, a clammy, oozy mass, as it +seemed to me, heavy and wet, yet endowed with a sort of supernatural +strength. I reeled across the state-room, and in an instant the door +opened and the thing rushed out. I had not had time to be frightened, +and quickly recovering myself, I sprang through the door and gave chase +at the top of my speed, but I was too late. Ten yards before me I could +see--I am sure I saw it--a dark shadow moving in the dimly lighted +passage, quickly as the shadow of a fast horse thrown before a dogcart +by the lamp on a dark night. But in a moment it had disappeared, and I +found myself holding on to the polished rail that ran along the bulkhead +where the passage turned towards the companion. My hair stood on end, +and the cold perspiration rolled down my face. I am not ashamed of it +in the least: I was very badly frightened. + +Still I doubted my senses, and pulled myself together. It was absurd, I +thought. The Welsh rarebit I had eaten had disagreed with me. I had been +in a nightmare. I made my way back to my state-room, and entered it with +an effort. The whole place smelled of stagnant sea-water, as it had when +I had waked on the previous evening. It required my utmost strength to +go in, and grope among my things for a box of wax lights. As I lighted a +railway reading lantern which I always carry in case I want to read +after the lamps are out, I perceived that the porthole was again open, +and a sort of creeping horror began to take possession of me which I +never felt before, nor wish to feel again. But I got a light and +proceeded to examine the upper berth, expecting to find it drenched with +sea-water. + +But I was disappointed. The bed had been slept in, and the smell of the +sea was strong; but the bedding was as dry as a bone. I fancied that +Robert had not had the courage to make the bed after the accident of the +previous night--it had all been a hideous dream. I drew the curtains +back as far as I could and examined the place very carefully. It was +perfectly dry. But the porthole was open again. With a sort of dull +bewilderment of horror I closed it and screwed it down, and thrusting +my heavy stick through the brass loop, wrenched it with all my might, +till the thick metal began to bend under the pressure. Then I hooked my +reading lantern into the red velvet at the head of the couch, and sat +down to recover my senses if I could. I sat there all night, unable to +think of rest--hardly able to think at all. But the porthole remained +closed, and I did not believe it would now open again without the +application of a considerable force. + +The morning dawned at last, and I dressed myself slowly, thinking over +all that had happened in the night. It was a beautiful day and I went on +deck, glad to get out into the early, pure sunshine, and to smell the +breeze from the blue water, so different from the noisome, stagnant +odour of my state-room. Instinctively I turned aft, towards the +surgeon's cabin. There he stood, with a pipe in his mouth, taking his +morning airing precisely as on the preceding day. + +"Good-morning," said he quietly, but looking at me with evident +curiosity. + +"Doctor, you were quite right," said I. "There is something wrong about +that place." + +"I thought you would change your mind," he answered, rather +triumphantly. "You have had a bad night, eh? Shall I make you a +pick-me-up? I have a capital recipe." + +"No, thanks," I cried. "But I would like to tell you what happened." + +I then tried to explain as clearly as possible precisely what had +occurred, not omitting to state that I had been scared as I had never +been scared in my whole life before. I dwelt particularly on the +phenomenon of the porthole, which was a fact to which I could testify, +even if the rest had been an illusion. I had closed it twice in the +night, and the second time I had actually bent the brass in wrenching it +with my stick. I believe I insisted a good deal on this point. + +"You seem to think I am likely to doubt the story," said the doctor, +smiling at the detailed account of the state of the porthole. "I do not +doubt it in the least. I renew my invitation to you. Bring your traps +here, and take half my cabin." + +"Come and take half of mine for one night," I said. "Help me to get at +the bottom of this thing." + +"You will get to the bottom of something else if you try," answered the +doctor. + +"What?" I asked. + +"The bottom of the sea. I am going to leave this ship. It is not canny." + +"Then you will not help me to find out--" + +"Not I," said the doctor, quickly. "It is my business to keep my wits +about me--not to go fiddling about with ghosts and things." + +"Do you really believe it is a ghost?" I enquired, rather +contemptuously. But as I spoke I remembered very well the horrible +sensation of the supernatural which had got possession of me during the +night. The doctor turned sharply on me. + +"Have you any reasonable explanation of these things to offer?" he +asked. "No; you have not. Well, you say you will find an explanation. I +say that you won't, sir, simply because there is not any." + +"But, my dear sir," I retorted, "do you, a man of science, mean to tell +me that such things cannot be explained?" + +"I do," he answered stoutly. "And, if they could, I would not be +concerned in the explanation." + +I did not care to spend another night alone in the state-room, and yet I +was obstinately determined to get at the root of the disturbances. I do +not believe there are many men who would have slept there alone, after +passing two such nights. But I made up my mind to try it, if I could not +get any one to share a watch with me. The doctor was evidently not +inclined for such an experiment. He said he was a surgeon, and that in +case any accident occurred on board he must be always in readiness. He +could not afford to have his nerves unsettled. Perhaps he was quite +right, but I am inclined to think that his precaution was prompted by +his inclination. On enquiry, he informed me that there was no one on +board who would be likely to join me in my investigations, and after a +little more conversation I left him. A little later I met the captain, +and told him my story. I said that, if no one would spend the night with +me, I would ask leave to have the light burning all night, and would try +it alone. + +"Look here," said he, "I will tell you what I will do. I will share your +watch myself, and we will see what happens. It is my belief that we can +find out between us. There may be some fellow skulking on board, who +steals a passage by frightening the passengers. It is just possible that +there may be something queer in the carpentering of that berth." + +I suggested taking the ship's carpenter below and examining the place; +but I was overjoyed at the captain's offer to spend the night with me. +He accordingly sent for the workman and ordered him to do anything I +required. We went below at once. I had all the bedding cleared out of +the upper berth, and we examined the place thoroughly to see if there +was a board loose anywhere, or a panel which could be opened or pushed +aside. We tried the planks everywhere, tapped the flooring, unscrewed +the fittings of the lower berth and took it to pieces--in short, there +was not a square inch of the state-room which was not searched and +tested. Everything was in perfect order, and we put everything back in +its place. As we were finishing our work, Robert came to the door and +looked in. + +"Well, sir--find anything, sir?" he asked, with a ghastly grin. + +"You were right about the porthole, Robert," I said, and I gave him the +promised sovereign. The carpenter did his work silently and skilfully, +following my directions. When he had done he spoke. + +"I'm a plain man, sir," he said. "But it's my belief you had better just +turn out your things, and let me run half a dozen four-inch screws +through the door of this cabin. There's no good never came o' this cabin +yet, sir, and that's all about it. There's been four lives lost out o' +here to my own remembrance, and that in four trips. Better give it up, +sir--better give it up!" + +"I will try it for one night more," I said. + +"Better give it up, sir--better give it up! It's a precious bad job," +repeated the workman, putting his tools in his bag and leaving the +cabin. + +But my spirits had risen considerably at the prospect of having the +captain's company, and I made up my mind not to be prevented from going +to the end of the strange business. I abstained from Welsh rarebits and +grog that evening, and did not even join in the customary game of whist. +I wanted to be quite sure of my nerves, and my vanity made me anxious to +make a good figure in the captain's eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The captain was one of those splendidly tough and cheerful specimens of +seafaring humanity whose combined courage, hardihood, and calmness in +difficulty leads them naturally into high positions of trust. He was not +the man to be led away by an idle tale, and the mere fact that he was +willing to join me in the investigation was proof that he thought there +was something seriously wrong, which could not be accounted for on +ordinary theories, nor laughed down as a common superstition. To some +extent, too, his reputation was at stake, as well as the reputation of +the ship. It is no light thing to lose passengers overboard, and he knew +it. + +About ten o'clock that evening, as I was smoking a last cigar, he came +up to me, and drew me aside from the beat of the other passengers who +were patrolling the deck in the warm darkness. + +"This is a serious matter, Mr. Brisbane," he said. "We must make up our +minds either way--to be disappointed or to have a pretty rough time of +it. You see I cannot afford to laugh at the affair, and I will ask you +to sign your name to a statement of whatever occurs. If nothing happens +to-night, we will try it again to-morrow and next day. Are you ready?" + +So we went below, and entered the state-room. As we went in I could see +Robert the steward, who stood a little further down the passage, +watching us, with his usual grin, as though certain that something +dreadful was about to happen. The captain closed the door behind us and +bolted it. + +"Supposing we put your portmanteau before the door," he suggested. "One +of us can sit on it. Nothing can get out then. Is the port screwed +down?" + +I found it as I had left it in the morning. Indeed, without using a +lever, as I had done, no one could have opened it. I drew back the +curtains of the upper berth so that I could see well into it. By the +captain's advice I lighted my reading lantern, and placed it so that it +shone upon the white sheets above. He insisted upon sitting on the +portmanteau, declaring that he wished to be able to swear that he had +sat before the door. + +Then he requested me to search the stateroom thoroughly, an operation +very soon accomplished, as it consisted merely in looking beneath the +lower berth and under the couch below the porthole. The spaces were +quite empty. + +"It is impossible for any human being to get in," I said, "or for any +human being to open the port." + +"Very good," said the captain, calmly. "If we see anything now, it must +be either imagination or something supernatural." + +I sat down on the edge of the lower berth. + +"The first time it happened," said the captain, crossing his legs and +leaning back against the door, "was in March. The passenger who slept +here, in the upper berth, turned out to have been a lunatic--at all +events, he was known to have been a little touched, and he had taken his +passage without the knowledge of his friends. He rushed out in the +middle of the night, and threw himself overboard, before the officer who +had the watch could stop him. We stopped and lowered a boat; it was a +quiet night, just before that heavy weather came on; but we could not +find him. Of course his suicide was afterwards accounted for on the +ground of his insanity." + +"I suppose that often happens?" I remarked, rather absently. + +"Not often--no," said the captain; "never before in my experience, +though I have heard of it happening on board of other ships. Well, as I +was saying, that occurred in March. On the very next trip--What are you +looking at?" he asked, stopping suddenly in his narration. + +I believe I gave no answer. My eyes were riveted upon the porthole. It +seemed to me that the brass loop-nut was beginning to turn very slowly +upon the screw--so slowly, however, that I was not sure it moved at all. +I watched it intently, fixing its position in my mind, and trying to +ascertain whether it changed. Seeing where I was looking, the captain +looked too. + +"It moves!" he exclaimed, in a tone of conviction. "No, it does not," he +added, after a minute. + +"If it were the jarring of the screw," said I, "it would have opened +during the day; but I found it this evening jammed tight as I left it +this morning." + +I rose and tried the nut. It was certainly loosened, for by an effort I +could move it with my hands. + +"The queer thing," said the captain, "is that the second man who was +lost is supposed to have got through that very port. We had a terrible +time over it. It was in the middle of the night, and the weather was +very heavy; there was an alarm that one of the ports was open and the +sea running in. I came below and found everything flooded, the water +pouring in every time she rolled, and the whole port swinging from the +top bolts--not the porthole in the middle. Well, we managed to shut it, +but the water did some damage. Ever since that the place smells of +sea-water from time to time. We supposed the passenger had thrown +himself out, though the Lord only knows how he did it. The steward kept +telling me that he cannot keep anything shut here. Upon my word--I can +smell it now, cannot you?" he enquired, sniffing the air suspiciously. + +"Yes--distinctly," I said, and I shuddered as that same odour of +stagnant sea-water grew stronger in the cabin. "Now, to smell like this, +the place must be damp," I continued, "and yet when I examined it with +the carpenter this morning everything was perfectly dry. It is most +extraordinary--hallo!" + +My reading lantern, which had been placed in the upper berth, was +suddenly extinguished. There was still a good deal of light from the +pane of ground glass near the door, behind which loomed the regulation +lamp. The ship rolled heavily, and the curtain of the upper berth swung +far out into the state-room and back again. I rose quickly from my seat +on the edge of the bed, and the captain at the same moment started to +his feet with a loud cry of surprise. I had turned with the intention of +taking down the lantern to examine it, when I heard his exclamation, +and immediately afterwards his call for help. I sprang towards him. He +was wrestling with all his might with the brass loop of the port. It +seemed to turn against his hands in spite of all his efforts. I caught +up my cane, a heavy oak stick I always used to carry, and thrust it +through the ring and bore on it with all my strength. But the strong +wood snapped suddenly, and I fell upon the couch. When I rose again the +port was wide open, and the captain was standing with his back against +the door, pale to the lips. + +"There is something in that berth!" he cried, in a strange voice, his +eyes almost starting from his head. "Hold the door, while I look--it +shall not escape us, whatever it is!" + +But instead of taking his place, I sprang upon the lower bed, and seized +something which lay in the upper berth. + +It was something ghostly, horrible beyond words, and it moved in my +grip. It was like the body of a man long drowned, and yet it moved, and +had the strength of ten men living; but I gripped it with all my +might--the slippery, oozy, horrible thing--the dead white eyes seemed to +stare at me out of the dusk; the putrid odour of rank sea-water was +about it, and its shiny hair hung in foul wet curls over its dead face. +I wrestled with the dead thing; it thrust itself upon me and forced me +back and nearly broke my arms; it wound its corpse's arms about my neck, +the living death, and overpowered me, so that I, at last, cried aloud +and fell, and left my hold. + +As I fell the thing sprang across me, and seemed to throw itself upon +the captain. When I last saw him on his feet his face was white and his +lips set. It seemed to me that he struck a violent blow at the dead +being, and then he, too, fell forward upon his face, with an +inarticulate cry of horror. + +The thing paused an instant, seeming to hover over his prostrate body, +and I could have screamed again for very fright, but I had no voice +left. The thing vanished suddenly, and it seemed to my disturbed senses +that it made its exit through the open port, though how that was +possible, considering the smallness of the aperture, is more than any +one can tell. I lay a long time upon the floor, and the captain lay +beside me. At last I partially recovered my senses and moved, and +instantly I knew that my arm was broken--the small bone of the left +forearm near the wrist. + +I got upon my feet somehow, and with my remaining hand I tried to raise +the captain. He groaned and moved, and at last came to himself. He was +not hurt, but he seemed badly stunned. + +Well, do you want to hear any more? There is nothing more. That is the +end of my story. The carpenter carried out his scheme of running half a +dozen four-inch screws through the door of 105; and if ever you take a +passage in the _Kamtschatka_, you may ask for a berth in that +state-room. You will be told that it is engaged--yes--it is engaged by +that dead thing. + +I finished the trip in the surgeon's cabin. He doctored my broken arm, +and advised me not to "fiddle about with ghosts and things" any more. +The captain was very silent, and never sailed again in that ship, though +it is still running. And I will not sail in her either. It was a very +disagreeable experience, and I was very badly frightened, which is a +thing I do not like. That is all. That is how I saw a ghost--if it was a +ghost. It was dead, anyhow. + + + + +BY THE WATERS OF PARADISE + + +I remember my childhood very distinctly. I do not think that the fact +argues a good memory, for I have never been clever at learning words by +heart, in prose or rhyme; so that I believe my remembrance of events +depends much more upon the events themselves than upon my possessing any +special facility for recalling them. Perhaps I am too imaginative, and +the earliest impressions I received were of a kind to stimulate the +imagination abnormally. A long series of little misfortunes, connected +with each other so as to suggest a sort of weird fatality, so worked +upon my melancholy temperament when I was a boy that, before I was of +age, I sincerely believed myself to be under a curse, and not only +myself, but my whole family, and every individual who bore my name. + +I was born in the old place where my father, and his father, and all his +predecessors had been born, beyond the memory of man. It is a very old +house, and the greater part of it was originally a castle, strongly +fortified, and surrounded by a deep moat supplied with abundant water +from the hills by a hidden aqueduct. Many of the fortifications have +been destroyed, and the moat has been filled up. The water from the +aqueduct supplies great fountains, and runs down into huge oblong basins +in the terraced gardens, one below the other, each surrounded by a broad +pavement of marble between the water and the flower-beds. The waste +surplus finally escapes through an artificial grotto, some thirty yards +long, into a stream, flowing down through the park to the meadows +beyond, and thence to the distant river. The buildings were extended a +little and greatly altered more than two hundred years ago, in the time +of Charles II., but since then little has been done to improve them, +though they have been kept in fairly good repair, according to our +fortunes. + +In the gardens there are terraces and huge hedges of box and evergreen, +some of which used to be clipped into shapes of animals, in the Italian +style. I can remember when I was a lad how I used to try to make out +what the trees were cut to represent, and how I used to appeal for +explanations to Judith, my Welsh nurse. She dealt in a strange mythology +of her own, and peopled the gardens with griffins, dragons, good genii +and bad, and filled my mind with them at the same time. My nursery +window afforded a view of the great fountains at the head of the upper +basin, and on moonlight nights the Welshwoman would hold me up to the +glass, and bid me look at the mist and spray rising into mysterious +shapes, moving mystically in the white light like living things. + +"It's the Woman of the Water," she used to say; and sometimes she would +threaten that, if I did not go to sleep, the Woman of the Water would +steal up to the high window and carry me away in her wet arms. + +The place was gloomy. The broad basins of water and the tall evergreen +hedges gave it a funereal look, and the damp-stained marble causeways by +the pools might have been made of tombstones. The grey and +weather-beaten walls and towers without, the dark and massively +furnished rooms within, the deep, mysterious recesses and the heavy +curtains, all affected my spirits. I was silent and sad from my +childhood. There was a great clock-tower above, from which the hours +rang dismally during the day and tolled like a knell in the dead of +night. There was no light nor life in the house, for my mother was a +helpless invalid, and my father had grown melancholy in his long task of +caring for her. He was a thin, dark man, with sad eyes; kind, I think, +but silent and unhappy. Next to my mother, I believe he loved me better +than anything on earth, for he took immense pains and trouble in +teaching me, and what he taught me I have never forgotten. Perhaps it +was his only amusement, and that may be the reason why I had no nursery +governess or teacher of any kind while he lived. + +I used to be taken to see my mother every day, and sometimes twice a +day, for an hour at a time. Then I sat upon a little stool near her +feet, and she would ask me what I had been doing, and what I wanted to +do. I dare say she saw already the seeds of a profound melancholy in my +nature, for she looked at me always with a sad smile, and kissed me with +a sigh when I was taken away. + +One night, when I was just six years old, I lay awake in the nursery. +The door was not quite shut, and the Welsh nurse was sitting sewing in +the next room. Suddenly I heard her groan, and say in a strange voice. +"One--two--one--two!" I was frightened, and I jumped up and ran to the +door, barefooted as I was. + +"What is it, Judith?" I cried, clinging to her skirts. I can remember +the look in her strange dark eyes as she answered. + +"One--two leaden coffins, fallen from the ceiling!" she crooned, working +herself in her chair. "One--two--a light coffin and a heavy coffin, +falling to the floor!" + +Then she seemed to notice me, and she took me back to bed and sang me to +sleep with a queer old Welsh song. + +I do not know how it was, but the impression got hold of me that she +had meant that my father and mother were going to die very soon. They +died in the very room where she had been sitting that night. It was a +great room, my day nursery, full of sun when there was any; and when the +days were dark it was the most cheerful place in the house. My mother +grew rapidly worse, and I was transferred to another part of the +building to make place for her. They thought my nursery was gayer for +her, I suppose; but she could not live. She was beautiful when she was +dead, and I cried bitterly. + +"The light one, the light one--the heavy one to come," crooned the +Welshwoman. And she was right. My father took the room after my mother +was gone, and day by day he grew thinner and paler and sadder. + +"The heavy one, the heavy one--all of lead," moaned my nurse, one night +in December, standing still, just as she was going to take away the +light after putting me to bed. Then she took me up again, and wrapped me +in a little gown, and led me away to my father's room. She knocked, but +no one answered. She opened the door, and we found him in his easy-chair +before the fire, very white, quite dead. + +So I was alone with the Welshwoman till strange people came, and +relations, whom I had never seen; and then I heard them saying that I +must be taken away to some more cheerful place. They were kind people, +and I will not believe that they were kind only because I was to be very +rich when I grew to be a man. The world never seemed to be a very bad +place to me, nor all the people to be miserable sinners, even when I was +most melancholy. I do not remember that any one ever did me any great +injustice, nor that I was ever oppressed or ill-treated in any way, even +by the boys at school. I was sad, I suppose, because my childhood was so +gloomy, and, later, because I was unlucky in everything I undertook, +till I finally believed I was pursued by fate, and I used to dream that +the old Welsh nurse and the Woman of the Water between them had vowed to +pursue me to my end. But my natural disposition should have been +cheerful, as I have often thought. + +Among lads of my age I was never last, or even among the last, in +anything; but I was never first. If I trained for a race, I was sure to +sprain my ankle on the day when I was to run. If I pulled an oar with +others, my oar was sure to break. If I competed for a prize, some +unforseen accident prevented my winning it at the last moment. Nothing +to which I put my hand succeeded, and I got the reputation of being +unlucky, until my companions felt it was always safe to bet against me, +no matter what the appearances might be. I became discouraged and +listless in everything. I gave up the idea of competing for any +distinction at the University, comforting myself with the thought that I +could not fail in the examination for the ordinary degree. The day +before the examination began I fell ill; and when at last I recovered, +after a narrow escape from death, I turned my back upon Oxford, and went +down alone to visit the old place where I had been born, feeble in +health and profoundly disgusted and discouraged. I was twenty-one years +of age, master of myself and of my fortune; but so deeply had the long +chain of small unlucky circumstances affected me, that I thought +seriously of shutting myself up from the world to live the life of a +hermit, and to die as soon as possible. Death seemed the only cheerful +possibility in my existence, and my thoughts soon dwelt upon it +altogether. + +I had never shown any wish to return to my own home since I had been +taken away as a little boy, and no one had ever pressed me to do so. The +place had been kept in order after a fashion, and did not seem to have +suffered during the fifteen years or more of my absence. Nothing earthly +could affect those old grey walls that had fought the elements for so +many centuries. The garden was more wild than I remembered it; the +marble causeways about the pools looked more yellow and damp than of +old, and the whole place at first looked smaller. It was not until I had +wandered about the house and grounds for many hours that I realised the +huge size of the home where I was to live in solitude. Then I began to +delight in it, and my resolution to live alone grew stronger. + +The people had turned out to welcome me, of course, and I tried to +recognise the changed faces of the old gardener and the old housekeeper, +and to call them by name. My old nurse I knew at once. She had grown +very grey since she heard the coffins fall in the nursery fifteen years +before, but her strange eyes were the same, and the look in them woke +all my old memories. She went over the house with me. + +"And how is the Woman of the Water?" I asked, trying to laugh a little. +"Does she still play in the moonlight?" + +"She is hungry," answered the Welshwoman, in a low voice. + +"Hungry? Then we will feed her." I laughed. But old Judith turned very +pale, and looked at me strangely. + +"Feed her? Ay--you will feed her well," she muttered, glancing behind +her at the ancient housekeeper, who tottered after us with feeble steps +through the halls and passages. + +I did not think much of her words. She had always talked oddly, as +Welshwomen will, and though I was very melancholy I am sure I was not +superstitious, and I was certainly not timid. Only, as in a far-off +dream, I seemed to see her standing with the light in her hand and +muttering, "The heavy one--all of lead," and then leading a little boy +through the long corridors to see his father lying dead in a great +easy-chair before a smouldering fire. So we went over the house, and I +chose the rooms where I would live; and the servants I had brought with +me ordered and arranged everything, and I had no more trouble. I did not +care what they did, provided I was left in peace, and was not expected +to give directions; for I was more listless than ever, owing to the +effects of my illness at college. + +I dined in solitary state, and the melancholy grandeur of the vast old +dining-room pleased me. Then I went to the room I had selected for my +study, and sat down in a deep chair, under a bright light, to think, or +to let my thoughts meander through labyrinths of their own choosing, +utterly indifferent to the course they might take. + +The tall windows of the room opened to the level of the ground upon the +terrace at the head of the garden. It was in the end of July, and +everything was open, for the weather was warm. As I sat alone I heard +the unceasing plash of the great fountains, and I fell to thinking of +the Woman of the Water. I rose, and went out into the still night, and +sat down upon a seat on the terrace, between two gigantic Italian +flower-pots. The air was deliciously soft and sweet with the smell of +the flowers, and the garden was more congenial to me than the house. Sad +people always like running water and the sound of it at night, though I +cannot tell why. I sat and listened in the gloom, for it was dark below, +and the pale moon had not yet climbed over the hills in front of me, +though all the air above was light with her rising beams. Slowly the +white halo in the eastern sky ascended in an arch above the wooded +crests, making the outline of the mountains more intensely black by +contrast, as though the head of some great white saint were rising from +behind a screen in a vast cathedral, throwing misty glories from below. +I longed to see the moon herself, and I tried to reckon the seconds +before she must appear. Then she sprang up quickly, and in a moment more +hung round and perfect in the sky. I gazed at her, and then at the +floating spray of the tall fountains, and down at the pools, where the +water-lilies were rocking softly in their sleep on the velvet surface +of the moonlit water. Just then a great swan floated out silently into +the midst of the basin, and wreathed his long neck, catching the water +in his broad bill, and scattering showers of diamonds around him. + +Suddenly, as I gazed, something came between me and the light. I looked +up instantly. Between me and the round disc of the moon rose a luminous +face of a woman, with great strange eyes, and a woman's mouth, full and +soft, but not smiling, hooded in black, staring at me as I sat still +upon my bench. She was close to me--so close that I could have touched +her with my hand. But I was transfixed and helpless. She stood still for +a moment, but her expression did not change. Then she passed swiftly +away, and my hair stood up on my head, while the cold breeze from her +white dress was wafted to my temples as she moved. The moonlight, +shining through the tossing spray of the fountain, made traceries of +shadow on the gleaming folds of her garments. In an instant she was +gone, and I was alone. + +I was strangely shaken by the vision, and some time passed before I +could rise to my feet, for I was still weak from my illness, and the +sight I had seen would have startled any one. I did not reason with +myself, for I was certain that I had looked on the unearthly, and no +argument could have destroyed that belief. At last I got up and stood +unsteadily, gazing in the direction in which I thought the figure had +gone; but there was nothing to be seen--nothing but the broad paths, the +tall, dark evergreen hedges, the tossing water of the fountains and the +smooth pool below. I fell back upon the seat and recalled the face I had +seen. Strange to say, now that the first impression had passed, there +was nothing startling in the recollection; on the contrary, I felt that +I was fascinated by the face, and would give anything to see it again. I +could retrace the beautiful straight features, the long dark eyes and +the wonderful mouth, most exactly in my mind, and, when I had +reconstructed every detail from memory, I knew that the whole was +beautiful, and that I should love a woman with such a face. + +"I wonder whether she is the Woman of the Water!" I said to myself. Then +rising once more I wandered down the garden, descending one short flight +of steps after another, from terrace to terrace by the edge of the +marble basins, through the shadow and through the moonlight; and I +crossed the water by the rustic bridge above the artificial grotto, and +climbed slowly up again to the highest terrace by the other side. The +air seemed sweeter, and I was very calm, so that I think I smiled to +myself as I walked, as though a new happiness had come to me. The +woman's face seemed always before me, and the thought of it gave me an +unwonted thrill of pleasure, unlike anything I had ever felt before. + +I turned, as I reached the house, and looked back upon the scene. It had +certainly changed in the short hour since I had come out, and my mood +had changed with it. Just like my luck, I thought, to fall in love with +a ghost! But in old times I would have sighed, and gone to bed more sad +than ever, at such a melancholy conclusion. To-night I felt happy, +almost for the first time in my life. The gloomy old study seemed +cheerful when I went in. The old pictures on the walls smiled at me, and +I sat down in my deep chair with a new and delightful sensation that I +was not alone. The idea of having seen a ghost, and of feeling much the +better for it, was so absurd that I laughed softly, as I took up one of +the books I had brought with me and began to read. + +That impression did not wear off. I slept peacefully, and in the morning +I threw open my windows to the summer air, and looked down at the +garden, at the stretches of green and at the coloured flower-beds, at +the circling swallows, and at the bright water. + +"A man might make a paradise of this place," I exclaimed. "A man and a +woman together!" + +From that day the old castle no longer seemed gloomy, and I think I +ceased to be sad; for some time, too, I began to take an interest in the +place, and to try and make it more alive. I avoided my old Welsh nurse, +lest she should damp my humour with some dismal prophecy, and recall my +old self by bringing back memories of my dismal childhood. But what I +thought of most was the ghostly figure I had seen in the garden that +first night after my arrival. I went out every evening and wandered +through the walks and paths; but, try as I might, I did not see my +vision again. At last, after many days, the memory grew more faint, and +my old moody nature gradually overcame the temporary sense of lightness +I had experienced. The summer turned to autumn, and I grew restless. It +began to rain. The dampness pervaded the gardens, and the outer halls +smelled musty, like tombs; the grey sky oppressed me intolerably. I left +the place as it was and went abroad, determined to try anything which +might possibly make a second break in the monotonous melancholy from +which I suffered. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Most people would be struck by the utter insignificance of the small +events which, after the death of my parents influenced my life and made +me unhappy. The gruesome forebodings of a Welsh nurse, which chanced to +be realised by an odd coincidence of events, should not seem enough to +change the nature of a child, and to direct the bent of his character in +after years. The little disappointments of schoolboy life, and the +somewhat less childish ones of an uneventful and undistinguished +academic career, should not have sufficed to turn me out at +one-and-twenty years of age a melancholic, listless idler. Some weakness +of my own character may have contributed to the result, but in a greater +degree it was due to my having a reputation for bad luck. However, I +will not try to analyse the causes of my state, for I should satisfy +nobody, least of all myself. Still less will I attempt to explain why I +felt a temporary revival of my spirits after my adventure in the garden. +It is certain that I was in love with the face I had seen, and that I +longed to see it again; that I gave up all hope of a second visitation, +grew more sad than ever, packed up my traps, and finally went abroad. +But in my dreams I went back to my home, and it always appeared to me +sunny and bright, as it had looked on that summer's morning after I had +seen the woman by the fountain. + +I went to Paris. I went further, and wandered about Germany. I tried to +amuse myself, and I failed miserably. With the aimless whims of an idle +and useless man, came all sorts of suggestions for good resolutions. One +day I made up my mind that I would go and bury myself in a German +university for a time, and live simply like a poor student. I started +with the intention of going to Leipzic, determined to stay there until +some event should direct my life or change my humour, or make an end of +me altogether. The express train stopped at some station of which I did +not know the name. It was dusk on a winter's afternoon, and I peered +through the thick glass from my seat. Suddenly another train came +gliding in from the opposite direction, and stopped alongside of ours. I +looked at the carriage which chanced to be abreast of mine, and idly +read the black letters painted on a white board swinging from the brass +handrail: "BERLIN--COLOGNE--PARIS." Then I looked up at the window +above. I started violently and the cold perspiration broke out upon my +forehead. In the dim light, not six feet from where I sat, I saw the +face of a woman, the face I loved, the straight, fine features, the +strange eyes, the wonderful mouth, the pale skin. Her head-dress was a +dark veil which seemed to be tied about her head and passed over the +shoulders under her chin. As I threw down the window and knelt on the +cushioned seat, leaning far out to get a better view, a long whistle +screamed through the station, followed by a quick series of dull, +clanking sounds; then there was a slight jerk, and my train moved on. +Luckily the window was narrow, being the one over the seat, beside the +door, or I believe I would have jumped out of it then and there. In an +instant the speed increased, and I was being carried swiftly away in the +opposite direction from the thing I loved. + +For a quarter of an hour I lay back in my place, stunned by the +suddenness of the apparition. At last one of the two other passengers, a +large and gorgeous captain of the White Königsberg Cuirassiers, civilly +but firmly suggested that I might shut my window, as the evening was +cold. I did so, with an apology, and relapsed into silence. The train +ran swiftly on for a long time, and it was already beginning to slacken +speed before entering another station when I roused myself, and made a +sudden resolution. As the carriage stopped before the brilliantly +lighted platform, I seized my belongings, saluted my fellow-passengers, +and got out, determined to take the first express back to Paris. + +This time the circumstances of the vision had been so natural that it +did not strike me that there was anything unreal about the face, or +about the woman to whom it belonged. I did not try to explain to myself +how the face, and the woman, could be travelling by a fast train from +Berlin to Paris on a winter's afternoon, when both were in my mind +indelibly associated with the moonlight and the fountains in my own +English home. I certainly would not have admitted that I had been +mistaken in the dusk, attributing to what I had seen a resemblance to my +former vision which did not really exist. There was not the slightest +doubt in my mind, and I was positively sure that I had again seen the +face I loved. I did not hesitate, and in a few hours I was on my way +back to Paris. I could not help reflecting on my ill-luck. Wandering as +I had been for many months, it might as easily have chanced that I +should be travelling in the same train with that woman, instead of going +the other way. But my luck was destined to turn for a time. + +I searched Paris for several days. I dined at the principal hotels; I +went to the theatres; I rode in the Bois de Boulogne in the morning, and +picked up an acquaintance, whom I forced to drive with me in the +afternoon. I went to mass at the Madeleine, and I attended the services +at the English Church. I hung about the Louvre and Notre Dame. I went +to Versailles. I spent hours in parading the Rue de Rivoli, in the +neighbourhood of Meurice's corner, where foreigners pass and re-pass +from morning till night. At last I received an invitation to a reception +at the English Embassy. I went, and I found what I had sought so long. + +There she was, sitting by an old lady in grey satin and diamonds, who +had a wrinkled but kindly face and keen grey eyes that seemed to take in +everything they saw, with very little inclination to give much in +return. But I did not notice the chaperon. I saw only the face that had +haunted me for months, and in the excitement of the moment I walked +quickly towards the pair, forgetting such a trifle as the necessity for +an introduction. + +She was far more beautiful than I had thought, but I never doubted that +it was she herself and no other. Vision or no vision before, this was +the reality, and I knew it. Twice her hair had been covered, now at last +I saw it, and the added beauty of its magnificence glorified the whole +woman. It was rich hair, fine and abundant, golden, with deep ruddy +tints in it like red bronze spun fine. There was no ornament in it, not +a rose, not a thread of gold, and I felt that it needed nothing to +enhance its splendour; nothing but her pale face, her dark strange +eyes, and her heavy eyebrows. I could see that she was slender, too, but +strong withal, as she sat there quietly gazing at the moving scene in +the midst of the brilliant lights and the hum of perpetual conversation. + +I recollected the detail of introduction in time, and turned aside to +look for my host. I found him at last. I begged him to present me to the +two ladies, pointing them out to him at the same time. + +"Yes--uh--by all means--uh--" replied his Excellency, with a pleasant +smile. He evidently had no idea of my name, which was not to be wondered +at. + +"I am Lord Cairngorm," I observed. + +"Oh--by all means," answered the Ambassador, with the same hospitable +smile. "Yes--uh--the fact is, I must try and find out who they are; such +lots of people, you know." + +"Oh, if you will present me, I will try and find out for you," said I, +laughing. + +"Ah, yes--so kind of you--come along," said my host. + +We threaded the crowd, and in a few minutes we stood before the two +ladies. + +"'Lowmintrduce L'd Cairngorm," he said; then, adding quickly to me, +"Come and dine to-morrow, won't you?" He glided away with his pleasant +smile, and disappeared in the crowd. + +I sat down beside the beautiful girl, conscious that the eyes of the +duenna were upon me. + +"I think we have been very near meeting before," I remarked, by way of +opening the conversation. + +My companion turned her eyes full upon me with an air of enquiry. She +evidently did not recall my face, if she had ever seen me. + +"Really--I cannot remember," she observed, in a low and musical voice. +"When?" + +"In the first place, you came down from Berlin by the express, ten days +ago. I was going the other way, and our carriages stopped opposite each +other. I saw you at the window." + +"Yes--we came that way, but I do not remember--" She hesitated. + +"Secondly," I continued, "I was sitting alone in my garden last +summer--near the end of July--do you remember? You must have wandered in +there through the park; you came up to the house and looked at me--" + +"Was that you?" she asked, in evident surprise. Then she broke into a +laugh. "I told everybody I had seen a ghost; there had never been any +Cairngorms in the place since the memory of man. We left the next day, +and never heard that you had come there; indeed, I did not know the +castle belonged to you." + +"Where were you staying?" I asked. + +"Where? Why, with my aunt, where I always stay. She is your neighbour, +since it _is_ you." + +"I--beg your pardon--but then--is your aunt Lady Bluebell? I did not +quite catch--" + +"Don't be afraid. She is amazingly deaf. Yes. She is the relict of my +beloved uncle, the sixteenth or seventeenth Baron Bluebell--I forget +exactly how many of them there have been. And I--do you know who I am?" +She laughed, well knowing that I did not. + +"No," I answered frankly. "I have not the least idea. I asked to be +introduced because I recognised you. Perhaps--perhaps you are a Miss +Bluebell?" + +"Considering that you are a neighbour, I will tell you who I am," she +answered. "No; I am of the tribe of Bluebells, but my name is Lammas, +and I have been given to understand that I was christened Margaret. +Being a floral family, they call me Daisy. A dreadful American man once +told me that my aunt was a Bluebell and that I was a Harebell--with two +l's and an e--because my hair is so thick. I warn you, so that you may +avoid making such a bad pun." + +"Do I look like a man who makes puns?" I asked, being very conscious of +my melancholy face and sad looks. + +Miss Lammas eyed me critically. + +"No; you have a mournful temperament. I think I can trust you," she +answered. "Do you think you could communicate to my aunt the fact that +you are a Cairngorm and a neighbour? I am sure she would like to know." + +I leaned towards the old lady, inflating my lungs for a yell. But Miss +Lammas stopped me. + +"That is not of the slightest use," she remarked. "You can write it on a +bit of paper. She is utterly deaf." + +"I have a pencil," I answered, "but I have no paper. Would my cuff do, +do you think?" + +"Oh yes!" replied Miss Lammas, with alacrity; "men often do that." + +I wrote on my cuff: "Miss Lammas wishes me to explain that I am your +neighbour, Cairngorm." Then I held out my arm before the old lady's +nose. She seemed perfectly accustomed to the proceeding, put up her +glasses, read the words, smiled, nodded, and addressed me in the +unearthly voice peculiar to people who hear nothing. + +"I knew your grandfather very well," she said. Then she smiled and +nodded to me again, and to her niece, and relapsed into silence. + +"It is all right," remarked Miss Lammas. "Aunt Bluebell knows she is +deaf, and does not say much, like the parrot. You see, she knew your +grandfather. How odd, that we should be neighbours! Why have we never +met before?" + +"If you had told me you knew my grandfather when you appeared in the +garden, I should not have been in the least surprised," I answered +rather irrelevantly. "I really thought you were the ghost of the old +fountain. How in the world did you come there at that hour?" + +"We were a large party, and we went out for a walk. Then we thought we +should like to see what your park was like in the moonlight, and so we +trespassed. I got separated from the rest, and came upon you by +accident, just as I was admiring the extremely ghostly look of your +house, and wondering whether anybody would ever come and live there +again. It looks like the castle of Macbeth, or a scene from the opera. +Do you know anybody here?" + +"Hardly a soul. Do you?" + +"No. Aunt Bluebell said it was our duty to come. It is easy for her to +go out; she does not bear the burden of the conversation." + +"I am sorry you find it a burden," said I. "Shall I go away?" + +Miss Lammas looked at me with a sudden gravity in her beautiful eyes, +and there was a sort of hesitation about the lines of her full, soft +mouth. + +"No," she said at last, quite simply, "don't go away. We may like each +other, if you stay a little longer--and we ought to because we are +neighbours in the country." + +I suppose I ought to have thought Miss Lammas a very odd girl. There is, +indeed, a sort of freemasonry between people who discover that they live +near each other, and that they ought to have known each other before. +But there was a sort of unexpected frankness and simplicity in the +girl's amusing manner which would have struck any one else as being +singular, to say the least of it. To me, however, it all seemed natural +enough. I had dreamed of her face too long not to be utterly happy when +I met her at last, and could talk to her as much as I pleased. To me, +the man of ill-luck in everything, the whole meeting seemed too good to +be true. I felt again that strange sensation of lightness which I had +experienced after I had seen her face in the garden. The great rooms +seemed brighter, life seemed worth living; my sluggish, melancholy blood +ran faster, and filled me with a new sense of strength. I said to myself +that without this woman I was but an imperfect being, but that with her +I could accomplish everything to which I should set my hand. Like the +great Doctor, when he thought he had cheated Mephistopheles at last, I +could have cried aloud to the fleeting moment, _Verweile doch du bist +so schön_! + +"Are you always gay?" I asked suddenly. "How happy you must be!" + +"The days would sometimes seem very long if I were gloomy," she answered +thoughtfully. "Yes, I think I find life very pleasant, and I tell it +so." + +"How can you 'tell life' anything?" I enquired. "If I could catch my +life and talk to it, I would abuse it prodigiously, I assure you." + +"I dare say. You have a melancholy temper. You ought to live out of +doors, dig potatoes, make hay, shoot, hunt, tumble into ditches, and +come home muddy and hungry for dinner. It would be much better for you +than moping in your rook tower, and hating everything." + +"It is rather lonely down there," I murmured apologetically, feeling +that Miss Lammas was quite right. + +"Then marry, and quarrel with your wife," she laughed. "Anything is +better than being alone." + +"I am a very peaceable person. I never quarrel with anybody. You can try +it. You will find it quite impossible." + +"Will you let me try?" she asked, still smiling. + +"By all means--especially if it is to be only a preliminary canter," I +answered rashly. + +"What do you mean?" she enquired, turning quickly upon me. + +"Oh--nothing. You might try my paces with a view to quarrelling in the +future. I cannot imagine how you are going to do it. You will have to +resort to immediate and direct abuse." + +"No. I will only say that if you do not like your life, it is your own +fault. How can a man of your age talk of being melancholy, or of the +hollowness of existence? Are you consumptive? Are you subject to +hereditary insanity? Are you deaf, like Aunt Bluebell? Are you poor, +like--lots of people? Have you been crossed in love? Have you lost the +world for a woman, or any particular woman for the sake of the world? +Are you feebleminded, a cripple, an outcast? Are you--repulsively ugly?" +She laughed again. "Is there any reason in the world why you should not +enjoy all you have got in life?" + +"No. There is no reason whatever, except that I am dreadfully unlucky, +especially in small things." + +"Then try big things, just for a change," suggested Miss Lammas. "Try +and get married, for instance, and see how it turns out." + +"If it turned out badly, it would be rather serious." + +"Not half so serious as it is to abuse everything unreasonably. If +abuse is your particular talent, abuse something that ought to be +abused. Abuse the Conservatives--or the Liberals--it does not matter +which, since they are always abusing each other. Make yourself felt by +other people. You will like it, if they don't. It will make a man of +you. Fill your mouth with pebbles, and howl at the sea, if you cannot do +anything else. It did Demosthenes no end of good, you know. You will +have the satisfaction of imitating a great man." + +"Really, Miss Lammas, I think the list of innocent exercises you +propose--" + +"Very well--if you don't care for that sort of thing, care for some +other sort of thing. Care for something, or hate something. Don't be +idle. Life is short, and though art may be long, plenty of noise answers +nearly as well." + +"I do care for something--I mean somebody," I said. + +"A woman? Then marry her. Don't hesitate." + +"I do not know whether she would marry me," I replied. "I have never +asked her." + +"Then ask her at once," answered Miss Lammas. "I shall die happy if I +feel I have persuaded a melancholy fellow-creature to rouse himself to +action. Ask her, by all means, and see what she says. If she does not +accept you at once, she may take you the next time. Meanwhile, you will +have entered for the race. If you lose, there are the 'All-aged Trial +Stakes,' and the 'Consolation Race.'" + +"And plenty of selling races into the bargain. Shall I take you at your +word, Miss Lammas?" + +"I hope you will," she answered. + +"Since you yourself advise me, I will. Miss Lammas, will you do me the +honour to marry me?" + +For the first time in my life the blood rushed to my head and my sight +swam. I cannot tell why I said it. It would be useless to try to explain +the extraordinary fascination the girl exercised over me, or the still +more extraordinary feeling of intimacy with her which had grown in me +during that half-hour. Lonely, sad, unlucky as I had been all my life, I +was certainly not timid, nor even shy. But to propose to marry a woman +after half an hour's acquaintance was a piece of madness of which I +never believed myself capable, and of which I should never be capable +again, could I be placed in the same situation. It was as though my +whole being had been changed in a moment by magic--by the white magic of +her nature brought into contact with mine. The blood sank back to my +heart, and a moment later I found myself staring at her with anxious +eyes. To my amazement she was as calm as ever, but her beautiful mouth +smiled, and there was a mischievous light in her dark-brown eyes. + +"Fairly caught," she answered. "For an individual who pretends to be +listless and sad you are not lacking in humour. I had really not the +least idea what you were going to say. Wouldn't it be singularly awkward +for you if I had said 'Yes'? I never saw anybody begin to practise so +sharply what was preached to him--with so very little loss of time!" + +"You probably never met a man who had dreamed of you for seven months +before being introduced." + +"No, I never did," she answered gaily. "It smacks of the romantic. +Perhaps you are a romantic character after all. I should think you were, +if I believed you. Very well; you have taken my advice, entered for a +Stranger's Race and lost it. Try the All-aged Trial Stakes. You have +another cuff, and a pencil. Propose to Aunt Bluebell; she would dance +with astonishment, and she might recover her hearing." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +That was how I first asked Margaret Lammas to be my wife, and I will +agree with any one who says I behaved very foolishly. But I have not +repented of it, and I never shall. I have long ago understood that I was +out of my mind that evening, but I think my temporary insanity on that +occasion has had the effect of making me a saner man ever since. Her +manner turned my head, for it was so different from what I had expected. +To hear this lovely creature, who, in my imagination, was a heroine of +romance, if not of tragedy, talking familiarly and laughing readily was +more than my equanimity could bear, and I lost my head as well as my +heart. But when I went back to England in the spring, I went to make +certain arrangements at the Castle--certain changes and improvements +which would be absolutely necessary. I had won the race for which I had +entered myself so rashly, and we were to be married in June. + +Whether the change was due to the orders I had left with the gardener +and the rest of the servants, or to my own state of mind, I cannot tell. +At all events, the old place did not look the same to me when I opened +my window on the morning after my arrival. There were the grey walls +below me, and the grey turrets flanking the huge building; there were +the fountains, the marble causeways, the smooth basins, the tall box +hedges, the water-lilies and the swans, just as of old. But there was +something else there, too--something in the air, in the water, and in +the greenness that I did not recognise--a light over everything by which +everything was transfigured. The clock in the tower struck seven, and +the strokes of the ancient bell sounded like a wedding chime. The air +sang with the thrilling treble of the song-birds, with the silvery music +of the plashing water, and the softer harmony of the leaves stirred by +the fresh morning wind. There was a smell of new-mown hay from the +distant meadows, and of blooming roses from the beds below, wafted up +together to my window. I stood in the pure sunshine and drank the air +and all the sounds and the odours that were in it; and I looked down at +my garden and said, "It is Paradise, after all. I think the men of old +were right when they called heaven a garden, and Eden a garden inhabited +by one man and one woman, the Earthly Paradise." + +I turned away, wondering what had become of the gloomy memories I had +always associated with my home. I tried to recall the impression of my +nurse's horrible prophecy before the death of my parents--an impression +which hitherto had been vivid enough. I tried to remember my own self, +my dejection, my listlessness, my bad luck, and my petty +disappointments. I endeavoured to force myself to think as I used to +think, if only to satisfy myself that I had not lost my individuality. +But I succeeded in none of these efforts. I was a different man, a +changed being, incapable of sorrow, of ill-luck, or of sadness. My life +had been a dream, not evil, but infinitely gloomy and hopeless. It was +now a reality, full of hope, gladness, and all manner of good. My home +had been like a tomb; to-day it was Paradise. My heart had been as +though it had not existed; to-day it beat with strength and youth, and +the certainty of realised happiness. I revelled in the beauty of the +world, and called loveliness out of the future to enjoy it before time +should bring it to me, as a traveller in the plains looks up to the +mountains, and already tastes the cool air through the dust of the road. + +Here, I thought, we will live and live for years. There we will sit by +the fountain towards evening and in the deep moonlight. Down those paths +we will wander together. On those benches we will rest and talk. Among +those eastern hills we will ride through the soft twilight, and in the +old house we will tell tales on winter nights, when the logs burn high, +and the holly berries are red, and the old clock tolls out the dying +year. On these old steps, in these dark passages and stately rooms, +there will one day be the sound of little pattering feet, and laughing +child-voices will ring up to the vaults of the ancient hall. Those tiny +footsteps shall not be slow and sad as mine were, nor shall the childish +words be spoken in an awed whisper. No gloomy Welshwoman shall people +the dusky corners with weird horrors, nor utter horrid prophecies of +death and ghastly things. All shall be young, and fresh, and joyful, and +happy, and we will turn the old luck again, and forget that there was +ever any sadness. + +So I thought, as I looked out of my window that morning and for many +mornings after that, and every day it all seemed more real than ever +before, and much nearer. But the old nurse looked at me askance, and +muttered odd sayings about the Woman of the Water. I cared little what +she said, for I was far too happy. + +At last the time came near for the wedding. Lady Bluebell and all the +tribe of Bluebells, as Margaret called them, were at Bluebell Grange, +for we had determined to be married in the country, and to come straight +to the Castle afterwards. We cared little for travelling, and not at +all for a crowded ceremony at St. George's in Hanover Square, with all +the tiresome formalities afterwards. I used to ride over to the Grange +every day, and very often Margaret would come with her aunt and some of +her cousins to the Castle. I was suspicious of my own taste, and was +only too glad to let her have her way about the alterations and +improvements in our home. + +We were to be married on the thirtieth of July, and on the evening of +the twenty-eighth Margaret drove over with some of the Bluebell party. +In the long summer twilight we all went out into the garden. Naturally +enough, Margaret and I were left to ourselves, and we wandered down by +the marble basins. + +"It is an odd coincidence," I said; "it was on this very night last year +that I first saw you." + +"Considering that it is the month of July," answered Margaret, with a +laugh, "and that we have been here almost every day, I don't think the +coincidence is so extraordinary, after all." + +"No, dear," said I, "I suppose not. I don't know why it struck me. We +shall very likely be here a year from to-day, and a year from that. The +odd thing, when I think of it, is that you should be here at all. But my +luck has turned. I ought not to think anything odd that happens now that +I have you. It is all sure to be good." + +"A slight change in your ideas since that remarkable performance of +yours in Paris," said Margaret. "Do you know, I thought you were the +most extraordinary man I had ever met." + +"I thought you were the most charming woman I have ever seen. I +naturally did not want to lose any time in frivolities. I took you at +your word, I followed your advice, I asked you to marry me, and this is +the delightful result--what's the matter?" + +Margaret had started suddenly, and her hand tightened on my arm. An old +woman was coming up the path, and was close to us before we saw her, for +the moon had risen, and was shining full in our faces. The woman turned +out to be my old nurse. + +"It's only old Judith, dear--don't be frightened," I said. Then I spoke +to the Welshwoman: "What are you about, Judith? Have you been feeding +the Woman of the Water?" + +"Ay--when the clock strikes, Willie--my lord, I mean," muttered the old +creature, drawing aside to let us pass, and fixing her strange eyes on +Margaret's face. + +"What does she mean?" asked Margaret, when we had gone by. + +"Nothing, darling. The old thing is mildly crazy, but she is a good +soul." + +We went on in silence for a few moments, and came to the rustic bridge +just above the artificial grotto through which the water ran out into +the park, dark and swift in its narrow channel. We stopped, and leaned +on the wooden rail. The moon was now behind us, and shone full upon the +long vista of basins and on the huge walls and towers of the Castle +above. + +"How proud you ought to be of such a grand old place!" said Margaret, +softly. + +"It is yours now, darling," I answered. "You have as good a right to +love it as I--but I only love it because you are to live in it, dear." + +Her hand stole out and lay on mine, and we were both silent. Just then +the clock began to strike far off in the tower. I counted the +strokes--eight--nine--ten--eleven--I looked at my +watch--twelve--thirteen--I laughed. The bell went on striking. + +"The old clock has gone crazy, like Judith," I exclaimed. Still it went +on, note after note ringing out monotonously through the still air. We +leaned over the rail, instinctively looking in the direction whence the +sound came. On and on it went. I counted nearly a hundred, out of sheer +curiosity, for I understood that something had broken and that the thing +was running itself down. + +Suddenly there was a crack as of breaking wood, a cry and a heavy +splash, and I was alone, clinging to the broken end of the rail of the +rustic bridge. + +I do not think I hesitated while my pulse beat twice. I sprang clear of +the bridge into the black rushing water, dived to the bottom, came up +again with empty hands, turned and swam downwards through the grotto in +the thick darkness, plunging and diving at every stroke, striking my +head and hands against jagged stones and sharp corners, clutching at +last something in my fingers, and dragging it up with all my might. I +spoke, I cried aloud, but there was no answer. I was alone in the pitchy +blackness with my burden, and the house was five hundred yards away. +Struggling still, I felt the ground beneath my feet, I saw a ray of +moonlight--the grotto widened, and the deep water became a broad and +shallow brook as I stumbled over the stones and at last laid Margaret's +body on the bank in the park beyond. + +"Ay, Willie, as the clock struck!" said the voice of Judith, the Welsh +nurse, as she bent down and looked at the white face. The old woman must +have turned back and followed us, seen the accident, and slipped out by +the lower gate of the garden. "Ay," she groaned, "you have fed the Woman +of the Water this night, Willie, while the clock was striking." + +I scarcely heard her as I knelt beside the lifeless body of the woman I +loved, chafing the wet white temples, and gazing wildly into the +wide-staring eyes. I remember only the first returning look of +consciousness, the first heaving breath, the first movement of those +dear hands stretching out towards me. + + +That is not much of a story, you say. It is the story of my life. That +is all. It does not pretend to be anything else. Old Judith says my luck +turned on that summer's night, when I was struggling in the water to +save all that was worth living for. A month later there was a stone +bridge above the grotto, and Margaret and I stood on it, and looked up +at the moonlit Castle, as we had done once before, and as we have done +many times since. For all those things happened ten years ago last +summer, and this is the tenth Christmas Eve we have spent together by +the roaring logs in the old hall, talking of old times; and every year +there are more old times to talk of. There are curly-headed boys, too, +with red-gold hair and dark-brown eyes like their mother's, and a little +Margaret, with solemn black eyes like mine. Why could she not look like +her mother, too, as well as the rest of them? + +The world is very bright at this glorious Christmas time, and perhaps +there is little use in calling up the sadness of long ago, unless it be +to make the jolly firelight seem more cheerful, the good wife's face +look gladder, and to give the children's laughter a merrier ring, by +contrast with all that is gone. Perhaps, too, some sad-faced, listless, +melancholy youth, who feels that the world is very hollow, and that life +is like a perpetual funeral service, just as I used to feel myself, may +take courage from my example, and having found the woman of his heart, +ask her to marry him after half an hour's acquaintance. But, on the +whole, I would not advise any man to marry, for the simple reason that +no man will ever find a wife like mine, and being obliged to go further, +he will necessarily fare worse. My wife has done miracles, but I will +not assert that any other woman is able to follow her example. + +Margaret always said that the old place was beautiful, and that I ought +to be proud of it. I dare say she is right. She has even more +imagination than I. But I have a good answer and a plain one, which is +this--that all the beauty of the Castle comes from her. She has breathed +upon it all, as the children blow upon the cold glass window-panes in +winter; and as their warm breath crystallises into landscapes from +fairyland, full of exquisite shapes and traceries upon the blank +surface, so her spirit has transformed every grey stone of the old +towers, every ancient tree and hedge in the gardens, every thought in my +once melancholy self. All that was old is young, and all that was sad is +glad, and I am the gladdest of all. Whatever heaven may be, there is no +earthly paradise without woman, nor is there anywhere a place so +desolate, so dreary, so unutterably miserable that a woman cannot make +it seem heaven to the man she loves, and who loves her. + +I hear certain cynics laugh, and cry that all that has been said before. +Do not laugh, my good cynic. You are too small a man to laugh at such a +great thing as love. Prayers have been said before now by many, and +perhaps you say yours, too. I do not think they lose anything by being +repeated, nor you by repeating them. You say that the world is bitter, +and full of the Waters of Bitterness. Love, and so live that you may be +loved--the world will turn sweet for you, and you shall rest like me by +the Waters of Paradise. + + + + +THE DOLL'S GHOST + + +It was a terrible accident, and for one moment the splendid machinery of +Cranston House got out of gear and stood still. The butler emerged from +the retirement in which he spent his elegant leisure, two grooms of the +chambers appeared simultaneously from opposite directions, there were +actually housemaids on the grand staircase, and those who remember the +facts most exactly assert that Mrs. Pringle herself positively stood +upon the landing. Mrs. Pringle was the housekeeper. As for the head +nurse, the under nurse, and the nursery maid, their feelings cannot be +described. The head nurse laid one hand upon the polished marble +balustrade and stared stupidly before her, the under nurse stood rigid +and pale, leaning against the polished marble wall, and the nursery-maid +collapsed and sat down upon the polished marble step, just beyond the +limits of the velvet carpet, and frankly burst into tears. + +The Lady Gwendolen Lancaster-Douglas-Scroop, youngest daughter of the +ninth Duke of Cranston, and aged six years and three months, picked +herself up quite alone, and sat down on the third step from the foot of +the grand staircase in Cranston House. + +"Oh!" ejaculated the butler, and he disappeared again. + +"Ah!" responded the grooms of the chambers, as they also went away. + +"It's only that doll," Mrs. Pringle was distinctly heard to say, in a +tone of contempt. + +The under nurse heard her say it. Then the three nurses gathered round +Lady Gwendolen and patted her, and gave her unhealthy things out of +their pockets, and hurried her out of Cranston House as fast as they +could, lest it should be found out upstairs that they had allowed the +Lady Gwendolen Lancaster-Douglas-Scroop to tumble down the grand +staircase with her doll in her arms. And as the doll was badly broken, +the nursery-maid carried it, with the pieces, wrapped up in Lady +Gwendolen's little cloak. It was not far to Hyde Park, and when they had +reached a quiet place they took means to find out that Lady Gwendolen +had no bruises. For the carpet was very thick and soft, and there was +thick stuff under it to make it softer. + +Lady Gwendolen Douglas-Scroop sometimes yelled, but she never cried. It +was because she had yelled that the nurse had allowed her to go +downstairs alone with Nina, the doll, under one arm, while she steadied +herself with her other hand on the balustrade, and trod upon the +polished marble steps beyond the edge of the carpet. So she had fallen, +and Nina had come to grief. + +When the nurses were quite sure that she was not hurt, they unwrapped +the doll and looked at her in her turn. She had been a very beautiful +doll, very large, and fair, and healthy, with real yellow hair, and +eyelids that would open and shut over very grown-up dark eyes. Moreover, +when you moved her right arm up and down she said "Pa-pa," and when you +moved the left she said "Ma-ma," very distinctly. + +"I heard her say 'Pa' when she fell," said the under nurse, who heard +everything. "But she ought to have said 'Pa-pa.'" + +"That's because her arm went up when she hit the step," said the head +nurse. "She'll say the other 'Pa' when I put it down again." + +"Pa," said Nina, as her right arm was pushed down, and speaking through +her broken face. It was cracked right across, from the upper corner of +the forehead, with a hideous gash, through the nose and down to the +little frilled collar of the pale green silk Mother Hubbard frock, and +two little three-cornered pieces of porcelain had fallen out. + +"I'm sure it's a wonder she can speak at all, being all smashed," said +the under nurse. + +"You'll have to take her to Mr. Puckler," said her superior. "It's not +far, and you'd better go at once." + +Lady Gwendolen was occupied in digging a hole in the ground with a +little spade, and paid no attention to the nurses. + +"What are you doing?" enquired the nursery-maid, looking on. + +"Nina's dead, and I'm diggin' her a grave," replied her ladyship +thoughtfully. + +"Oh, she'll come to life again all right," said the nursery-maid. + +The under nurse wrapped Nina up again and departed. Fortunately a kind +soldier, with very long legs and a very small cap, happened to be there; +and as he had nothing to do, he offered to see the under nurse safely to +Mr. Puckler's and back. + + +Mr. Bernard Puckler and his little daughter lived in a little house in a +little alley, which led out off a quiet little street not very far from +Belgrave Square. He was the great doll doctor, and his extensive +practice lay in the most aristocratic quarter. He mended dolls of all +sizes and ages, boy dolls and girl dolls, baby dolls in long clothes, +and grown-up dolls in fashionable gowns, talking dolls and dumb dolls, +those that shut their eyes when they lay down, and those whose eyes had +to be shut for them by means of a mysterious wire. His daughter Else was +only just over twelve years old, but she was already very clever at +mending dolls' clothes, and at doing their hair, which is harder than +you might think, though the dolls sit quite still while it is being +done. + +Mr. Puckler had originally been a German, but he had dissolved his +nationality in the ocean of London many years ago, like a great many +foreigners. He still had one or two German friends, however, who came on +Saturday evenings, and smoked with him and played picquet or "skat" with +him for farthing points, and called him "Herr Doctor," which seemed to +please Mr. Puckler very much. + +He looked older than he was, for his beard was rather long and ragged, +his hair was grizzled and thin, and he wore horn-rimmed spectacles. As +for Else, she was a thin, pale child, very quiet and neat, with dark +eyes and brown hair that was plaited down her back and tied with a bit +of black ribbon. She mended the dolls' clothes and took the dolls back +to their homes when they were quite strong again. + +The house was a little one, but too big for the two people who lived in +it. There was a small sitting-room on the street, and the workshop was +at the back, and there were three rooms upstairs. But the father and +daughter lived most of their time in the workshop, because they were +generally at work, even in the evenings. + +Mr. Puckler laid Nina on the table and looked at her a long time, till +the tears began to fill his eyes behind the horn-rimmed spectacles. He +was a very susceptible man, and he often fell in love with the dolls he +mended, and found it hard to part with them when they had smiled at him +for a few days. They were real little people to him, with characters and +thoughts and feelings of their own, and he was very tender with them +all. But some attracted him especially from the first, and when they +were brought to him maimed and injured, their state seemed so pitiful to +him that the tears came easily. You must remember that he had lived +among dolls during a great part of his life, and understood them. + +"How do you know that they feel nothing?" he went on to say to Else. +"You must be gentle with them. It costs nothing to be kind to the little +beings, and perhaps it makes a difference to them." + +And Else understood him, because she was a child, and she knew that she +was more to him than all the dolls. + +He fell in love with Nina at first sight, perhaps because her beautiful +brown glass eyes were something like Else's own, and he loved Else first +and best, with all his heart. And, besides, it was a very sorrowful +case. Nina had evidently not been long in the world, for her complexion +was perfect, her hair was smooth where it should be smooth, and curly +where it should be curly, and her silk clothes were perfectly new. But +across her face was that frightful gash, like a sabre-cut, deep and +shadowy within, but clean and sharp at the edges. When he tenderly +pressed her head to close the gaping wound, the edges made a fine +grating sound, that was painful to hear, and the lids of the dark eyes +quivered and trembled as though Nina were suffering dreadfully. + +"Poor Nina!" he exclaimed sorrowfully. "But I shall not hurt you much, +though you will take a long time to get strong." + +He always asked the names of the broken dolls when they were brought to +him, and sometimes the people knew what the children called them, and +told him. He liked "Nina" for a name. Altogether and in every way she +pleased him more than any doll he had seen for many years, and he felt +drawn to her, and made up his mind to make her perfectly strong and +sound, no matter how much labour it might cost him. + +Mr. Puckler worked patiently a little at a time, and Else watched him. +She could do nothing for poor Nina, whose clothes needed no mending. The +longer the doll doctor worked, the more fond he became of the yellow +hair and the beautiful brown glass eyes. He sometimes forgot all the +other dolls that were waiting to be mended, lying side by side on a +shelf, and sat for an hour gazing at Nina's face, while he racked his +ingenuity for some new invention by which to hide even the smallest +trace of the terrible accident. + +She was wonderfully mended. Even he was obliged to admit that; but the +scar was still visible to his keen eyes, a very fine line right across +the face, downwards from right to left. Yet all the conditions had been +most favourable for a cure, since the cement had set quite hard at the +first attempt and the weather had been fine and dry, which makes a great +difference in a dolls' hospital. + +At last he knew that he could do no more, and the under nurse had +already come twice to see whether the job was finished, as she coarsely +expressed it. + +"Nina is not quite strong yet," Mr. Puckler had answered each time, for +he could not make up his mind to face the parting. + +And now he sat before the square deal table at which he worked, and Nina +lay before him for the last time with a big brown paper box beside her. +It stood there like her coffin, waiting for her, he thought. He must put +her into it, and lay tissue paper over her dear face, and then put on +the lid, and at the thought of tying the string his sight was dim with +tears again. He was never to look into the glassy depths of the +beautiful brown eyes any more, nor to hear the little wooden voice say +"Pa-pa" and "Ma-ma." It was a very painful moment. + +In the vain hope of gaining time before the separation, he took up the +little sticky bottles of cement and glue and gum and colour, looking at +each one in turn, and then at Nina's face. And all his small tools lay +there, neatly arranged in a row, but he knew that he could not use them +again for Nina. She was quite strong at last, and in a country where +there should be no cruel children to hurt her she might live a hundred +years, with only that almost imperceptible line across her face to tell +of the fearful thing that had befallen her on the marble steps of +Cranston House. + +Suddenly Mr. Puckler's heart was quite full, and he rose abruptly from +his seat and turned away. + +"Else," he said unsteadily, "you must do it for me. I cannot bear to see +her go into the box." + +So he went and stood at the window with his back turned, while Else did +what he had not the heart to do. + +"Is it done?" he asked, not turning round. "Then take her away, my dear. +Put on your hat, and take her to Cranston House quickly, and when you +are gone I will turn round." + +Else was used to her father's queer ways with the dolls, and though she +had never seen him so much moved by a parting, she was not much +surprised. + +"Come back quickly," he said, when he heard her hand on the latch. "It +is growing late, and I should not send you at this hour. But I cannot +bear to look forward to it any more." + +When Else was gone, he left the window and sat down in his place before +the table again, to wait for the child to come back. He touched the +place where Nina had lain, very gently, and he recalled the softly +tinted pink face, and the glass eyes, and the ringlets of yellow hair, +till he could almost see them. + +The evenings were long, for it was late in the spring. But it began to +grow dark soon, and Mr. Puckler wondered why Else did not come back. She +had been gone an hour and a half, and that was much longer than he had +expected, for it was barely half a mile from Belgrave Square to Cranston +House. He reflected that the child might have been kept waiting, but as +the twilight deepened he grew anxious, and walked up and down in the dim +workshop, no longer thinking of Nina, but of Else, his own living child, +whom he loved. + +An undefinable, disquieting sensation came upon him by fine degrees, a +chilliness and a faint stirring of his thin hair, joined with a wish to +be in any company rather than to be alone much longer. It was the +beginning of fear. + +He told himself in strong German-English that he was a foolish old man, +and he began to feel about for the matches in the dusk. He knew just +where they should be, for he always kept them in the same place, close +to the little tin box that held bits of sealing-wax of various colours, +for some kinds of mending. But somehow he could not find the matches in +the gloom. + +Something had happened to Else, he was sure, and as his fear increased, +he felt as though it might be allayed if he could get a light and see +what time it was. Then he called himself a foolish old man again, and +the sound of his own voice startled him in the dark. He could not find +the matches. + +The window was grey still; he might see what time it was if he went +close to it, and he could go and get matches out of the cupboard +afterwards. He stood back from the table, to get out of the way of the +chair, and began to cross the board floor. + +Something was following him in the dark. There was a small pattering, as +of tiny feet upon the boards. He stopped and listened, and the roots of +his hair tingled. It was nothing, and he was a foolish old man. He made +two steps more, and he was sure that he heard the little pattering +again. He turned his back to the window, leaning against the sash so +that the panes began to crack, and he faced the dark. Everything was +quite still, and it smelt of paste and cement and wood-filings as usual. + +"Is that you, Else?" he asked, and he was surprised by the fear in his +voice. + +There was no answer in the room, and he held up his watch and tried to +make out what time it was by the grey dusk that was just not darkness. +So far as he could see, it was within two or three minutes of ten +o'clock. He had been a long time alone. He was shocked, and frightened +for Else, out in London, so late, and he almost ran across the room to +the door. As he fumbled for the latch, he distinctly heard the running +of the little feet after him. + +"Mice!" he exclaimed feebly, just as he got the door open. + +He shut it quickly behind him, and felt as though some cold thing had +settled on his back and were writhing upon him. The passage was quite +dark, but he found his hat and was out in the alley in a moment, +breathing more freely, and surprised to find how much light there still +was in the open air. He could see the pavement clearly under his feet, +and far off in the street to which the alley led he could hear the +laughter and calls of children, playing some game out of doors. He +wondered how he could have been so nervous, and for an instant he +thought of going back into the house to wait quietly for Else. But +instantly he felt that nervous fright of something stealing over him +again. In any case it was better to walk up to Cranston House and ask +the servants about the child. One of the women had perhaps taken a fancy +to her, and was even now giving her tea and cake. + +He walked quickly to Belgrave Square, and then up the broad streets, +listening as he went, whenever there was no other sound, for the tiny +footsteps. But he heard nothing, and was laughing at himself when he +rang the servants' bell at the big house. Of course, the child must be +there. + +The person who opened the door was quite an inferior person, for it was +a back door, but affected the manners of the front, and stared at Mr. +Puckler superciliously under the strong light. + +No little girl had been seen, and he knew "nothing about no dolls." + +"She is my little girl," said Mr. Puckler tremulously, for all his +anxiety was returning tenfold, "and I am afraid something has happened." + +The inferior person said rudely that "nothing could have happened to her +in that house, because she had not been there, which was a jolly good +reason why;" and Mr. Puckler was obliged to admit that the man ought to +know, as it was his business to keep the door and let people in. He +wished to be allowed to speak to the under nurse, who knew him; but the +man was ruder than ever, and finally shut the door in his face. + +When the doll doctor was alone in the street, he steadied himself by the +railing, for he felt as though he were breaking in two, just as some +dolls break, in the middle of the backbone. + +Presently he knew that he must be doing something to find Else, and that +gave him strength. He began to walk as quickly as he could through the +streets, following every highway and byway which his little girl might +have taken on her errand. He also asked several policemen in vain if +they had seen her, and most of them answered him kindly, for they saw +that he was a sober man and in his right senses, and some of them had +little girls of their own. + +It was one o'clock in the morning when he went up to his own door +again, worn out and hopeless and broken-hearted. As he turned the key in +the lock, his heart stood still, for he knew that he was awake and not +dreaming, and that he really heard those tiny footsteps pattering to +meet him inside the house along the passage. + +But he was too unhappy to be much frightened any more, and his heart +went on again with a dull regular pain, that found its way all through +him with every pulse. So he went in, and hung up his hat in the dark, +and found the matches in the cupboard and the candlestick in its place +in the corner. + +Mr. Puckler was so much overcome and so completely worn out that he sat +down in his chair before the work-table and almost fainted, as his face +dropped forward upon his folded hands. Beside him the solitary candle +burned steadily with a low flame in the still warm air. + +"Else! Else!" he moaned against his yellow knuckles. And that was all he +could say, and it was no relief to him. On the contrary, the very sound +of the name was a new and sharp pain that pierced his ears and his head +and his very soul. For every time he repeated the name it meant that +little Else was dead, somewhere out in the streets of London in the +dark. + +He was so terribly hurt that he did not even feel something pulling +gently at the skirt of his old coat, so gently that it was like the +nibbling of a tiny mouse. He might have thought that it was really a +mouse if he had noticed it. + +"Else! Else!" he groaned right against his hands. + +Then a cool breath stirred his thin hair, and the low flame of the one +candle dropped down almost to a mere spark, not flickering as though a +draught were going to blow it out, but just dropping down as if it were +tired out. Mr. Puckler felt his hands stiffening with fright under his +face; and there was a faint rustling sound, like some small silk thing +blown in a gentle breeze. He sat up straight, stark and scared, and a +small wooden voice spoke in the stillness. + +"Pa-pa," it said, with a break between the syllables. + +Mr. Puckler stood up in a single jump, and his chair fell over backwards +with a smashing noise upon the wooden floor. The candle had almost gone +out. + +It was Nina's doll voice that had spoken, and he should have known it +among the voices of a hundred other dolls. And yet there was something +more in it, a little human ring, with a pitiful cry and a call for help, +and the wail of a hurt child. Mr. Puckler stood up, stark and stiff, and +tried to look round, but at first he could not, for he seemed to be +frozen from head to foot. + +Then he made a great effort, and he raised one hand to each of his +temples, and pressed his own head round as he would have turned a +doll's. The candle was burning so low that it might as well have been +out altogether, for any light it gave, and the room seemed quite dark at +first. Then he saw something. He would not have believed that he could +be more frightened than he had been just before that. But he was, and +his knees shook, for he saw the doll standing in the middle of the +floor, shining with a faint and ghostly radiance, her beautiful glassy +brown eyes fixed on his. And across her face the very thin line of the +break he had mended shone as though it were drawn in light with a fine +point of white flame. + +Yet there was something more in the eyes, too; there was something +human, like Else's own, but as if only the doll saw him through them, +and not Else. And there was enough of Else to bring back all his pain +and to make him forget his fear. + +"Else! my little Else!" he cried aloud. + +The small ghost moved, and its doll-arm slowly rose and fell with a +stiff, mechanical motion. + +"Pa-pa," it said. + +It seemed this time that there was even more of Else's tone echoing +somewhere between the wooden notes that reached his ears so distinctly, +and yet so far away. Else was calling him, he was sure. + +His face was perfectly white in the gloom, but his knees did not shake +any more, and he felt that he was less frightened. + +"Yes, child! But where? Where?" he asked. "Where are you, Else?" + +"Pa-pa!" + +The syllables died away in the quiet room. There was a low rustling of +silk, the glassy brown eyes turned slowly away, and Mr. Puckler heard +the pitter-patter of the small feet in the bronze kid slippers as the +figure ran straight to the door. Then the candle burned high again, the +room was full of light, and he was alone. + +Mr. Puckler passed his hand over his eyes and looked about him. He could +see everything quite clearly, and he felt that he must have been +dreaming, though he was standing instead of sitting down, as he should +have been if he had just waked up. The candle burned brightly now. There +were the dolls to be mended, lying in a row with their toes up. The +third one had lost her right shoe, and Else was making one. He knew +that, and he was certainly not dreaming now. He had not been dreaming +when he had come in from his fruitless search and had heard the doll's +footsteps running to the door. He had not fallen asleep in his chair. +How could he possibly have fallen asleep when his heart was breaking? He +had been awake all the time. + +He steadied himself, set the fallen chair upon its legs, and said to +himself again very emphatically that he was a foolish old man. He ought +to be out in the streets looking for his child, asking questions, and +enquiring at the police stations, where all accidents were reported as +soon as they were known, or at the hospitals. + +"Pa-pa!" + +The longing, wailing, pitiful little wooden cry rang from the passage, +outside the door, and Mr. Puckler stood for an instant with white face, +transfixed and rooted to the spot. A moment later his hand was on the +latch. Then he was in the passage, with the light streaming from the +open door behind him. + +Quite at the other end he saw the little phantom shining clearly in the +shadow, and the right hand seemed to beckon to him as the arm rose and +fell once more. He knew all at once that it had not come to frighten him +but to lead him, and when it disappeared, and he walked boldly towards +the door, he knew that it was in the street outside, waiting for him. He +forgot that he was tired and had eaten no supper, and had walked many +miles, for a sudden hope ran through and through him, like a golden +stream of life. + +And sure enough, at the corner of the alley, and at the corner of the +street, and out in Belgrave Square, he saw the small ghost flitting +before him. Sometimes it was only a shadow, where there was other light, +but then the glare of the lamps made a pale green sheen on its little +Mother Hubbard frock of silk; and sometimes, where the streets were dark +and silent, the whole figure shone out brightly, with its yellow curls +and rosy neck. It seemed to trot along like a tiny child, and Mr. +Puckler could almost hear the pattering of the bronze kid slippers on +the pavement as it ran. But it went very fast, and he could only just +keep up with it, tearing along with his hat on the back of his head and +his thin hair blown by the night breeze, and his horn-rimmed spectacles +firmly set upon his broad nose. + +On and on he went, and he had no idea where he was. He did not even +care, for he knew certainly that he was going the right way. + +Then at last, in a wide, quiet street, he was standing before a big, +sober-looking door that had two lamps on each side of it, and a polished +brass bell-handle, which he pulled. + +And just inside, when the door was opened, in the bright light, there +was the little shadow, and the pale green sheen of the little silk +dress, and once more the small cry came to his ears, less pitiful, more +longing. + +"Pa-pa!" + +The shadow turned suddenly bright, and out of the brightness the +beautiful brown glass eyes were turned up happily to his, while the rosy +mouth smiled so divinely that the phantom doll looked almost like a +little angel just then. + +"A little girl was brought in soon after ten o'clock," said the quiet +voice of the hospital doorkeeper. "I think they thought she was only +stunned. She was holding a big brown-paper box against her, and they +could not get it out of her arms. She had a long plait of brown hair +that hung down as they carried her." + +"She is my little girl," said Mr. Puckler, but he hardly heard his own +voice. + +He leaned over Else's face in the gentle light of the children's ward, +and when he had stood there a minute the beautiful brown eyes opened and +looked up to his. + +"Pa-pa!" cried Else, softly, "I knew you would come!" + +Then Mr. Puckler did not know what he did or said for a moment, and what +he felt was worth all the fear and terror and despair that had almost +killed him that night. But by and by Else was telling her story, and the +nurse let her speak, for there were only two other children in the room, +who were getting well and were sound asleep. + +"They were big boys with bad faces," said Else, "and they tried to get +Nina away from me, but I held on and fought as well as I could till one +of them hit me with something, and I don't remember any more, for I +tumbled down, and I suppose the boys ran away, and somebody found me +there. But I'm afraid Nina is all smashed." + +"Here is the box," said the nurse. "We could not take it out of her arms +till she came to herself. Should you like to see if the doll is broken?" + +And she undid the string cleverly, but Nina was all smashed to pieces. +Only the gentle light of the children's ward made a pale green sheen in +the folds of the little Mother Hubbard frock. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wandering Ghosts, by F. Marion Crawford + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40386 *** |