Great Ghost Stories
Page 14
‘I can’t tell you; I mayn’t tell you,’ said the voice very faint. ‘That is part——’ and it died away altogether.
Dr Teesdale waited a little, but there was no further sound of any kind, except the chuckling and croaking of the instrument. He put the receiver on to its hook again, and then became aware for the first time that his forehead was streaming with some cold dew of horror. His ears sang; his heart beat very quick and faint, and he sat down to recover himself, Once or twice he asked himself if it was possible that some terrible joke was being played on him, but he knew that could not be so; he felt perfectly sure that he had been speaking with a soul in torment of contrition for the terrible and irremediable act it had committed. It was no delusion of his senses, either; here in this comfortable room of his in Bedford Square, with London cheerfully roaring round him, he had spoken with the spirit of Charles Linkworth.
But he had no time (nor indeed inclination, for somehow his soul sat shuddering within him) to indulge in meditation. First of all he rang up the prison.
‘Warder Draycott?’ he asked.
There was a perceptible tremor in the man’s voice as he answered.
‘Yes, sir. Is it Dr Teesdale?’
‘Yes. Has anything happened here with you?’
Twice it seemed that the man tried to speak and could not. At the third attempt the words came.
‘Yes, sir. He has been here. I saw him go into the room where the telephone is.’
‘Ah! Did you speak to him?’
‘No, sir: I sweated and prayed. And there’s half a dozen men as have been screaming in their sleep tonight. But it’s quiet again now. I think he has gone into the execution shed.’
‘Yes. Well, I think there will be no more disturbance now. By the way, please give me Mr Dawkins’s home address.’
This was given him, and Dr Teesdale proceeded to write to the chaplain, asking him to dine with him on the following night. But suddenly he found that he could not write at his accustomed desk, with the telephone standing close to him, and he went upstairs to the drawing-room which he seldom used, except when he entertained his friends. There he recaptured the serenity of his nerves, and could control his hand. The note simply asked Mr Dawkins to dine with him next night, when he wished to tell him a very strange history and ask his help. ‘Even if you have any other engagement,’ he concluded, ‘I seriously request you to give it up. Tonight, I did the same. I should bitterly have regretted it if I had not.’
Next night accordingly, the two sat at their dinner in the doctor’s dining-room, and when they were left to their cigarettes and coffee the doctor spoke.
‘You must not think me mad, my dear Dawkins,’ he said, ‘when you hear what I have got to tell you.’
Mr Dawkins laughed.
‘I will certainly promise not to do that,’ he said.
‘Good. Last night and the night before, a little later in the evening than this, I spoke through the telephone with the spirit of the man we saw executed two days ago. Charles Linkworth.’
The chaplain did not laugh. He pushed back his chair, looking annoyed.
‘Teesdale,’ he said, ‘is it to tell me this—I don’t want to be rude—but this bogey-tale that you have brought me here this evening?’
‘Yes. You have not heard half of it. He asked me last night to get hold of you. He wants to tell you something. We can guess, I think, what it is.’
Dawkins got up.
‘Please let me hear no more of it,’ he said. ‘The dead do not return. In what state or under what condition they exist has not been revealed to us. But they have done with all material things.’
‘But I must tell you more,’ said the doctor. ‘Two nights ago I was rung up, but very faintly, and could only hear whispers. I instantly inquired where the call came from and was told it came from the prison. I rang up the prison, and Warder Draycott told me that nobody had rung me up. He, too, was conscious of a presence.’
‘I think that man drinks,’ said Dawkins, sharply.
The doctor paused a moment.
‘My dear fellow, you should not say that sort of thing,’ he said. ‘He is one of the steadiest men we have got. And if he drinks, why not I also?’
The chaplain sat down again.
‘You must forgive me,’ he said, ‘but I can’t go into this. These are dangerous matters to meddle with. Besides, how do you know it is not a hoax?’
‘Played by whom?’ asked the doctor. ‘Hark!’
The telephone bell suddenly rang. It was clearly audible to the doctor.
‘Don’t you hear it?’ he said.
‘Hear what?’
‘The telephone bell ringing.’
‘I hear no bell,’ said the chaplain, rather angrily. ‘There is no bell ringing.’
The doctor did not answer, but went through into his study, and turned on the lights. Then he took the receiver and mouthpiece off its hook.
‘Yes?’ he said, in a voice that trembled. ‘Who is it? Yes: Mr Dawkins is here. I will try and get him to speak to you.’
He went back into the other room.
‘Dawkins,’ he said, ‘there is a soul in agony. I pray you to listen. For God’s sake come and listen.’
The chaplain hesitated a moment.
‘As you will,’ he said.
He took up the receiver and put it to his ear.
‘I am Mr Dawkins,’ he said.
He waited.
‘I can hear nothing whatever,’ he said at length. ‘Ah, there was something there. The faintest whisper.’
‘Ah, try to hear, try to hear!’ said the doctor.
Again the chaplain listened. Suddenly he laid the instrument down, frowning.
‘Something—somebody said, “I killed her, I confess it. I want to be forgiven.” It’s a hoax, my dear Teesdale. Somebody knowing your spiritualistic leanings is playing a very grim joke on you. I can’t believe it.’
Dr Teesdale took up the receiver.
‘I am Dr Teesdale,’ he said. ‘Can you give Mr Dawkins some sign that it is you?’
Then he laid it down again.
‘He says he thinks he can,’ he said. ‘We must wait.’
The evening was again very warm, and the window into the paved yard at the back of the house was open. For five minutes or so the two men stood in silence, waiting, and nothing happened. Then the chaplain spoke.
‘I think that is sufficiently conclusive,’ he said.
Even as he spoke a very cold draught of air suddenly blew into the room, making the papers on the desk rustle. Dr Teesdale went to the window and closed it.
‘Did you feel that?’ he asked.
‘Yes, a breath of air. Chilly.’
Once again in the closed room it stirred again.
‘And did you feel that?’ asked the doctor.
The chaplain nodded. He felt his heart hammering in his throat suddenly.
‘Defend us from all peril and danger of this coming night,’ he exclaimed.
‘Something is coming!’ said the doctor.
As he spoke it came. In the centre of the room not three yards away from them stood the figure of a man with his head bent over on to his shoulder, so that the face was not visible. Then he took his head in both his hands and raised it like a weight, and looked them in the face. The eyes and tongue protruded, a livid mark was round the neck. Then there came a sharp rattle on the boards of the floor, and the figure was no longer there. But on the floor there lay a new rope.
For a long while neither spoke. The sweat poured off the doctors face, and the chaplain’s white lips whispered prayers. Then by a huge effort the doctor pulled himself together. He pointed at the rope.
‘It has been missing since the execution,’ he said.
Then again the telephone bell rang. This time the chaplain needed no prompting. He went to it at once and the ringing ceased. For a while he listened in silence.
‘Charles Linkworth,’ he said at length, ‘in the sight of God, in whose pre
sence you stand, are you truly sorry for your sin?’
Some answer inaudible to the doctor came, and the chaplain closed his eyes. And Dr Teesdale knelt as he heard the words of the Absolution.
At the close there was silence again.
‘I can hear nothing more,’ said the chaplain, replacing the receiver.
Presently the doctor’s man-servant came in with the tray of spirits and syphon. Dr Teesdale pointed without looking to where the apparition had been.
‘Take the rope that is there and burn it, Parker,’ he said.
There was a moment’s silence.
‘There is no rope, sir,’ said Parker.
DOVER · THRIFT · EDITIONS
FICTION
MADAME BOVARY, Gustave Flaubert. 256pp. 29257-6 $2.00
WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD, E. M. Forster. 128pp. (Available in U.S. only) 27791-7 $1.50
A ROOM WITH A VIEW, E. M. Forster. 176pp. (Available in U.S. only) 28467-0 $2.00
THE OVERCOAT AND OTHER STORIES, Nikolai Gogol. 112pp. 27057-2 $1.50
GREAT GHOST STORIES, John Grafton (ed.). 112pp. 27270-2 $1.00
“THE MOONLIT ROAD” AND OTHER GHOST AND HORROR STORIES, Ambrose Bierce (John Grafton, ed.) 96pp. 40056-5 $1.00
THE MABINOGION, Lady Charlotte E. Guest. 192pp. 29541-9 $2.00
WINESBURG, OHIO, Sherwood Anderson. 160pp. 28269-4 $2.00
THE LUCK OF ROARING CAMP AND OTHER STORIES, Bret Harte. 96pp. 27271-0 $1.00
THIS SIDE OF PARADISE, F. Scott Fitzgerald. 208pp. 28999-0 $2.00
“THE DIAMOND AS BIG AS THE RITZ” AND OTHER STORIES, F. Scott Fitzgerald. 29991-0 $2.00
THE SCARLET LETTER, Nathaniel Hawthorne. 192pp. 28048-9 $2.00
YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN AND OTHER STORIES, Nathaniel Hawthorne. 128pp. 27060-2 $1.00
THE GIFT OF THE MAGI AND OTHER SHORT STORIES, O. Henry. 96pp. 27061-0 $1.00
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE GOLDEN POT, E. T. A. Hoffmann. 128pp. 27806-9 $1.00
THE BEAST IN THE JUNGLE AND OTHER STORIES, Henry James. 128pp. 27552-3 $1.00
DAISY MILLER, Henry James. 64pp. 28773-4 $1.00
WASHINGTON SQUARE, Henry James. 176pp. 40431-5 $2.00
THE TURN OF THE SCREW, Henry James. 96pp. 26684-2 $1.00
DUBLINERS, James Joyce. 160pp. 26870-5 $1.00
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, James Joyce. 192pp. 28050-0 $2.00
DEATH IN VENICE, Thomas Mann. 96pp. (Available in U.S. only) 28714-9 $1.00
THE METAMORPHOSIS AND OTHER STORIES, Franz Kafka. 96pp. 29030-1 $1.50
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING AND OTHER STORIES, Rudyard Kipling. 128pp. 28051-9 $1.50
SREDNI VASHTAR AND OTHER STORIES, Saki (H. H. Munro). 96pp. 28521-9 $1.00
THE OIL JAR AND OTHER STORIES, Luigi Pirandello. 96pp. 28459-X $1.00
SELECTED SHORT STORIES, D. H. Lawrence. 128pp. 27794-1 $1.00
GREEN TEA AND OTHER GHOST STORIES, J. Sheridan LeFanu. 96pp. 27795-X $1.00
SHORT STORIES, Theodore Dreiser. 112pp. 28215-5 $1.50
THE CALL OF THE WILD, Jack London. 64pp. 26472-6 $1.00
FIVE GREAT SHORT STORIES, Jack London. 96pp. 27063-7 $1.00
WHITE FANG, Jack London. 160pp. 26968-X $1.00
THE NECKLACE AND OTHER SHORT STORIES, Guy de Maupassant. 128pp. 27064-5 $1.00
BARTLEBY AND BENITO CERENO, Herman Melville. 112pp. 26473-4 $1.00
THE GOLD-BUG AND OTHER TALES, Edgar Allan Poe. 128pp. 26875-6 $1.00
TALES OF TERROR AND DETECTION, Edgar Allan Poe. 96pp. 28744-0 $1.00
DETECTION BY GASLIGHT, Douglas G. Greene (ed.). 272pp. 29928-7 $2.00
THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS, John Buchan. 96pp. 28201-5 $1.50
THE QUEEN OF SPADES AND OTHER STORIES, Alexander Pushkin. 128pp. 28054-3 $1.50
FIRST LOVE AND DIARY OF A SUPERFLUOUS MAN, Ivan Turgenev. 96pp. 28775-0 $1.50
FATHERS AND SONS, Ivan Turgenev. 176pp. 40073-5 $2.00
FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley. 176pp. 28211-2 $1.00
THREE LIVES, Gertrude Stein. 176pp. (Available in U.S. only) 28059-4 $2.00
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, Robert Louis Stevenson. 64pp. 26688-5 $1.00
TREASURE ISLAND, Robert Louis Stevenson. 160pp. 27559-0 $1.50
THE LOST WORLD, Arthur Conan Doyle. 176pp. 40060-3 $1.50
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, Jonathan Swift. 240pp. 29273-8 $2.00
ROBINSON CRUSOE, Daniel Defoe. 288pp. 40427-7 $2.00
THE KREUTZER SONATA AND OTHER SHORT STORIES, Leo Tolstoy. 144pp. 27805-0 $1.50
THE IMMORALIST, André Gide. 112pp. (Available in U.S. only) 29237-1 $1.50
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twain. 224pp. 28061-6 $2.00
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, Mark Twain. 192pp. 40077-8 $2.00
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AND OTHER STORIES, Mark Twain. 128pp. 27069-6 $1.00
HUMOROUS STORIES AND SKETCHES, Mark Twain. 80pp. 29279-7 $1.00
You KNOW ME AL, Ring Lardner. 128pp. 2851.3-8 $1.00
MOLL FLANDERS, Daniel Defoe. 256pp. 29093-X $2.00
CANDIDE, Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet). 112pp. 26689-3 $1.00
“THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND” AND OTHER SCIENCE-FICTION STORIES, H. G. Wells. 160pp. (Available in U.S. only) 29569-9 $1.00
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, H. G. Wells. (Available in U.S. only) 29027-1 $1.00
THE INVISIBLE MAN, H. G. Wells. 112pp. (Available in U.S. only) 27071-8 $1.00
THE TIME MACHINE, H. G. Wells. 80pp. (Available in U.S. only) 28472-7 $1.00
LOOKING BACKWARD, Edward Bellamy. 160pp. 29038-7 $2.00
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, H. G. Wells. 160pp. (Available in U.S. only) 29506-0 $1.00
ETHAN FROME, Edith Wharton. 96pp. 26690-7 $1.00
SHORT STORIES, Edith Wharton. 128pp. 28235-X $1.00
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Edith Wharton. 288pp. 29803-5 $2.00
THE MOON AND SIXPENCE, W. Somerset Maugham. 176pp. (Available in U.S. only) 28731-9 $2.00
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, Oscar Wilde. 192pp. 27807-7 $1.50
MONDAY OR TUESDAY: Eight Stories, Virginia Woolf. 64pp. (Available in U.S. only) 29453-6 $1.00
JACOB’S ROOM, Virginia Woolf. 144pp. (Available in U.S. only) 40109-X $1.50
NONFICTION
THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY, Ambrose Bierce. 144pp. 27542-6 $1.00
DE PROFUNDIS, Oscar Wilde. 64pp. 29308-4 $1.00
OSCAR WILDE’S WIT AND WISDOM: A BOOk of Quotations, Oscar Wilde. 64pp. 40146-4 $1.00
THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK, W. E. B. Du Bois. 176pp. 28041-1 $2.00
NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, Frederick Douglass. 96pp. 28499-9 $1.00
NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH, Sojourned Truth. 80pp. 29899-X $1.00
UP FROM SLAVERY, Booker T. Washington. 160pp. 28738-6 $2.00
A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN, Mary Wollstonecraft. 224pp. 29036-0 $2.00
THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN, John Stuart Mill. 112pp. 29601-6 $1.50
TAO TE CHING, Lao Tze. 112pp. 29792-6 $1.00
THE ANALECTS, Confucius. 128pp. 28484-0 $2.00
SELF-RELIANCE AND OTHER ESSAYS, Ralph Waldo Emerson. 128pp. 27790-9 $1.00
SELECTED ESSAYS, Michel de Montaigne. 96pp. 29109-X $1.50
FICTION
THE QUEEN OF SPADES AND OTHER STORIES, Alexander Pushkin. 128pp. 28054-3
THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN FARM, Olive Schreiner. 256pp. 40165-0
FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley. 176pp. 28211-2
THE JUNGLE, Upton Sinclair. 320pp. (Available in U.S. only.) 41923-1
THREE LIVES, Gertrude Stein. 176pp. (Available in U.S. only.) 28059-4
THE BODY SNATCHER AND OTHER TALES, Robert Louis Stevenson. 80pp. 41924-X
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, Robert Louis Stevenson. 64pp. 26688-5
TREASURE ISLAND, Robert Louis Stevenson. 160pp. 27559-0
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, Jonathan Swift. 240pp. 29273-8
THE KREUTZER SONATA AND OTHER SHORT STORIES, Leo Tolstoy. 144pp. 27805-0
THE WARDEN, Anthony Trollope. 176pp. 40076-X
FATHERS AND SONS, Ivan Turgenev. 176pp. 40073-5
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twain. 224pp. 28061-6
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER, Mark Twain. 192pp. 40077-8
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AND OTHER STORIES, Mark Twain. 128pp. 27069-6
HUMOROUS STORIES AND SKETCHES, Mark Twain. 80pp. 29279-7
AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, Jules Verne. 160pp. 41111-7
CANDIDE, Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet). 112pp. 26689-3
GREAT SHORT STORIES BY AMERICAN WOMEN, Candace Ward (ed.). 192pp. 28776-9
“THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND” AND OTHER SCIENCE-FICTION STORIES, H. G. Wells. 160pp. (Not available in Europe or United Kingdom.) 29569-9
THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, H. G. Wells. 112pp. (Not available in Europe or United Kingdom.) 29027-1
THE INVISIBLE MAN, H. G. Wells. 112pp. (Not available in Europe or United Kingdom.) 27071-8
THE TIME MACHINE, H. G. Wells. 80pp. (Not available in Europe or United Kingdom.) 28472-7
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, H. G. Wells. 160pp. (Not available in Europe or United Kingdom.) 29506-0
ETHAN FROME, Edith Wharton. 96pp. 26690-7
SHORT STORIES, Edith Wharton. 128pp. 28235-X
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Edith Wharton. 288pp. 29803-5
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, Oscar Wilde. 192pp. 27807-7
JACOB’s ROOM, Virginia Woolf. 144pp. (Not available in Europe or United Kingdom.) 40109-X
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1 Quieta non movere: do not disturb things at rest.