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