SCREAM AT MIDNIGHT By JOSEPH PAYNE BRENNAN Macabre House New Haven, Connecticut 1963 Copyright Joseph Payne Brennan 1963 [Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] BOOKS BY JOSEPH PAYNE BRENNAN SHORT STORIES Nine Horrors and a Dream (1958) The Dark Returners (1959) POEMS Heart of Earth (1950) The Humming Stair (1953) The Wind of Time (1962) CONTENTS The Horror at Chilton Castle The Midnight Bus The Vampire Bat The Seventh Incantation Killer Cat The Dump The Tenants The Man Who Feared Masks The Visitor in the Vault THE HORROR AT CHILTON CASTLE I had decided to spend a leisurely summer in Europe, concentrating, if at all, on genealogical research. I went first to Ireland, journeying to Kilkenny where I unearthed a mine of legend and authentic lore concerning my remote Irish ancestors, the O'Braonains, chiefs of Ui Duach in the ancient kingdom of Ossory. The Brennans (as the name was later spelled) lost their estates in the British confiscation under Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. The thieving Earl, I am happy to report, was subsequently beheaded in the Tower. From Kilkenny I traveled to London and then to Chesterfield in search of maternal ancestors, the Holborns, Wilkersons, Searles, etc. Incomplete and fragmentary records left many great gaps, but my efforts were moderately successful and at length I decided to go further north and visit the vicinity of Chilton Castle, seat of Robert Chilton-Payne, the twelfth Earl of Chilton. My relationship to the Chilton-Paynes was a most distant one, and yet there existed a tenuous thread of past connection and I thought it would amuse me to glimpse the castle. Arriving in Wexwold, the tiny village near the castle, late in the afternoon, I engaged a room at the Inn of the Red Goose--the only one there was--unpacked and went down for a simple meal consisting of a small loaf, cheese and ale. By the time I finished this stark and yet satisfying repast, darkness had set in, and with it came wind and rain. I resigned myself to an evening at the inn. There was ale enough and I was in no hurry to go anywhere.