The room in the tower, and other storiesBenson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
General
The room in the tower, and other stories
Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)
English fiction -- 20th century; Ghost stories, English; Horror tales, English; Short stories, English
“Exactly a month afterwards I was in London again, but only for the day.
I arrived at Victoria about eleven, and took the underground to Sloane
Square in order to see if you were in town and would give me lunch. It
was a baking hot morning, and I intended to take a bus from the King’s
Road as far as Graeme Street. There was one standing at the corner just
as I came out of the station, but I saw that the top was full, and the
inside appeared to be full also. Just as I came up to it the conductor
who, I suppose, had been inside, collecting fares or what not, came out
on to the step within a few feet of me. He wore grey trousers, brown
boots, a black coat buttoned, a straw hat, and over his shoulder was a
strap on which hung his little machine for punching tickets. I saw his
face, too; it was the face of the driver of the hearse, with a mole on
the left cheek. Then he spoke to me, jerking his thumb over his
shoulder.
“‘Just room for one inside, sir,’ he said.
“At that a sort of panic-terror took possession of me, and I knew I
gesticulated wildly with my arms, and cried, ‘No, no!’ But at that
moment I was living not in the hour that was then passing, but in that
hour which had passed a month ago, when I leaned from the window of your
bedroom here just before the dawn broke. At this moment too I knew that
my spy-hole had been opposite the spy-hole into the spiritual world.
What I had seen there had some significance, now being fulfilled, beyond
the significance of the trivial happenings of to-day and to-morrow. The
Powers of which we know so little were visibly working before me. And I
stood there on the pavement shaking and trembling.
“I was opposite the post-office at the corner, and just as the bus
started my eye fell on the clock in the window there. I need not tell
you what the time was.
“Perhaps I need not tell you the rest, for you probably conjecture it,
since you will not have forgotten what happened at the corner of Sloane
Square at the end of July, the summer before last. The bus pulled out
from the pavement into the street in order to get round a van that was
standing in front of it. At the moment there came down the King’s Road a
big motor going at a hideously dangerous pace. It crashed full into the
bus, burrowing into it as a gimlet burrows into a board.”
He paused.
“And that’s my story,” he said.
THE MAN WHO WENT TOO FAR
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account