Psychological fiction; Railroad stations -- England -- London -- Fiction
A disagreeable shudder crept over me, but I did my best against it. It
was not to be denied, I rejoined, that this was a remarkable coincidence,
calculated deeply to impress his mind. But, it was unquestionable that
remarkable coincidences did continually occur, and they must be taken
into account in dealing with such a subject. Though to be sure I must
admit, I added (for I thought I saw that he was going to bring the
objection to bear upon me), men of common sense did not allow much for
coincidences in making the ordinary calculations of life.
He again begged to remark that he had not finished.
I again begged his pardon for being betrayed into interruptions.
“This,” he said, again laying his hand upon my arm, and glancing over his
shoulder with hollow eyes, “was just a year ago. Six or seven months
passed, and I had recovered from the surprise and shock, when one
morning, as the day was breaking, I, standing at that door, looked
towards the red light, and saw the spectre again.” He stopped, with a
fixed look at me.
“Did it cry out?”
“No. It was silent.”
“Did it wave its arm?”
“No. It leaned against the shaft of the light, with both hands before
the face. Like this.”
Once more, I followed his action with my eyes. It was an action of
mourning. I have seen such an attitude in stone figures on tombs.
“Did you go up to it?”
“I came in and sat down, partly to collect my thoughts, partly because it
had turned me faint. When I went to the door again, daylight was above
me, and the ghost was gone.”
“But nothing followed? Nothing came of this?”
He touched me on the arm with his forefinger twice or thrice, giving a
ghastly nod each time:
“That very day, as a train came out of the tunnel, I noticed, at a
carriage window on my side, what looked like a confusion of hands and
heads, and something waved. I saw it, just in time to signal the driver,
Stop! He shut off, and put his brake on, but the train drifted past here
a hundred and fifty yards or more. I ran after it, and, as I went along,
heard terrible screams and cries. A beautiful young lady had died
instantaneously in one of the compartments, and was brought in here, and
laid down on this floor between us.”
Involuntarily, I pushed my chair back, as I looked from the boards at
which he pointed, to himself.
“True, sir. True. Precisely as it happened, so I tell it you.”
I could think of nothing to say, to any purpose, and my mouth was very
dry. The wind and the wires took up the story with a long lamenting
wail.
He resumed. “Now, sir, mark this, and judge how my mind is troubled.
The spectre came back, a week ago. Ever since, it has been there, now
and again, by fits and starts.”
“At the light?”
“At the Danger-light.”
“What does it seem to do?”
He repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, that
former gesticulation of “For God’s sake clear the way!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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