Wandering ghostsCrawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
Science
Wandering ghosts
Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)
American fiction; Ghost stories; Horror tales; Short stories
"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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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