It moves! he exclaimed, in a tone of conviction. No, it does not, he added, after a minute.
If it were the jarring of the screw, said I, it would have opened during the day; but I found it this evening jammed tight as I left it this morning.
I rose and tried the nut. It was certainly loosened, for by an effort I could move it with my hands.
The queer thing, said the captain, is that the second man who was lost is supposed to have got through that very port. We had a terrible time over it. It was in the middle of the night, and the weather was very heavy; there was an alarm that one of the ports was open and the sea running in. I came below and found everything flooded, the water pouring in every time she rolled, and the whole port swinging from the top bolts not the porthole in the middle. Well, we managed to shut it, but the water did some damage. Ever since that the place smells of sea-water from time to time. We supposed the passenger had thrown himself out, though the Lord only knows how he did it. The steward kept telling me that he cannot keep anything shut here. Upon my word I can smell it now, cannot you? he enquired, sniffing the air suspiciously.
Yes distinctly, I said, and I shuddered as that same odor of stagnant sea-water grew stronger in the cabin. Now, to smell like this, the place must be damp, I continued, and yet when I examined it with the carpenter this morning everything was perfectly dry. It is most extraordinary hallo!
My reading lantern, which had been placed in the upper berth, was suddenly extinguished. There was still a good deal of light from the pane of ground glass near the door, behind which loomed the regulation lamp. The ship rolled heavily, and the curtain of the upper berth swung far out into the state-room and back again. I rose quickly from my seat on the edge of the bed, and the captain at the same moment started to his feet with a loud cry of surprise. I had turned with the intention of taking down the lantern to examine it, when I heard his exclamation, and immediately afterwards his call for help. I sprang towards him. He was wrestling with all his might with the brass loop of the port. It seemed to turn against his hands in spite of all his efforts. I caught up my cane, a heavy oak stick I always used to carry, and thrust it through the ring and bore on it with all my strength. But the strong wood snapped suddenly and I fell upon the couch. When I rose again the port was wide open, and the captain was standing with his back against the door, pale to the lips.
There is something in that berth! he cried, in a strange voice, his eyes almost starting from his head. Hold the door, while I look it shall not escape us, whatever it is!
But instead of taking his place, I sprang upon the lower bed, and seized something which lay in the upper berth.
It was something ghostly, horrible beyond words, and it moved in my grip. It was like the body of a man long drowned, and yet it moved, and had the strength of ten men living; but I gripped it with all my might the slippery, oozy, horrible thing the dead white eyes seemed to stare at me out of the dusk; the putrid odor of rank sea-water was about it, and its shiny hair hung in foul wet curls over its dead face. I wrestled with the dead thing; it thrust itself upon me and forced me back and nearly broke my arms; it wound its corpses arms about my neck, the living death, and overpowered me, so that I, at last, cried aloud and fell, and left my hold.
As I fell the thing sprang across me, and seemed to throw itself upon the captain. When I last saw him on his feet his face was white and his lips set. It seemed to me that he struck a violent blow at the dead being, and then he, too, fell forward upon his face, with an inarticulate cry of horror.
The thing paused an instant, seeming to hover over his prostrate body, and I could have screamed again for very fright, but I had no voice left. The thing vanished suddenly, and it seemed to my disturbed senses that it made its exit through the open port, though how that was possible, considering the smallness of the aperture, is more than any one can tell. I lay a long time on the floor, and the captain lay beside me. At last I partially recovered my senses and moved, and instantly I knew that my arm was broken the small bone of my left forearm near the wrist.
I got upon my feet somehow, and with my remaining hand I tried to raise the captain. He groaned and moved, and at last came to himself. He was not hurt, but he seemed badly stunned.
Well, do you want to hear any more? There is nothing more. That is the end of my story. The carpenter carried out his scheme of running half a dozen four-inch screws through the door of one hundred and five; and if ever you take a passage in the Kamtschatka, you may ask for a berth in that state-room. You will be told that it is engaged yes it is engaged by that dead thing.
I finished the trip in the surgeons cabin. He doctored my broken arm, and advised me not to fiddle about with ghosts and things any more. The captain was very silent, and never sailed again in that ship, though it is still running. And I will not sail in her either. It was a very disagreeable experience, and I was very badly frightened, which is a thing I do not like. That is all. That is how I saw a ghost if it was a ghost. It was dead, anyhow.
Montague Rhodes James
Oh, Whistle, and Ill Come to You, My Lad
I suppose you will be getting away pretty soon, now Full term is over, Professor, said a person not in the story to the Professor of Ontography,[21] soon after they had sat down next to each other at a feast in the hospitable hall of St. Jamess College.
The Professor was young, neat, and precise in speech.
Yes, he said; my friends have been making me take up golf this term, and I mean to go to the East Coast in point of fact to Burnstow (I dare say you know it) for a week or ten days, to improve my game. I hope to get off tomorrow.
Oh, Parkins, said his neighbour on the other side, if you are going to Burnstow, I wish you would look at the site of the Templars preceptory, and let me know if you think it would be any good to have a dig there in the summer.
It was, as you might suppose, a person of antiquarian pursuits who said this, but, since he merely appears in this prologue, there is no need to give his entitlements.
Certainly, said Parkins, the Professor: if you will describe to me whereabouts the site is, I will do my best to give you an idea of the lie of the land when I get back; or I could write to you about it, if you would tell me where you are likely to be.
Dont trouble to do that, thanks. Its only that Im thinking of taking my family in that direction in the Long, and it occurred to me that, as very few of the English preceptories have ever been properly planned, I might have an opportunity of doing something useful on off-days.
The Professor rather sniffed at the idea that planning out a preceptory could be described as useful. His neighbour continued:
The site I doubt if there is anything showing above ground must be down quite close to the beach now. The sea has encroached tremendously, as you know, all along that bit of coast. I should think, from the map, that it must be about three-quarters of a mile from the Globe Inn, at the north end of the town. Where are you going to stay?
Well, at the Globe Inn, as a matter of fact, said Parkins; I have engaged a room there. I couldnt get in anywhere else; most of the lodging-houses are shut up in winter, it seems; and, as it is, they tell me that the only room of any size I can have is really a double-bedded one, and that they havent a corner in which to store the other bed, and so on. But I must have a fairly large room, for I am taking some books down, and mean to do a bit of work; and though I dont quite fancy having an empty bed not to speak of two in what I may call for the time being my study, I suppose I can manage to rough it for the short time I shall be there.
Well, at the Globe Inn, as a matter of fact, said Parkins; I have engaged a room there. I couldnt get in anywhere else; most of the lodging-houses are shut up in winter, it seems; and, as it is, they tell me that the only room of any size I can have is really a double-bedded one, and that they havent a corner in which to store the other bed, and so on. But I must have a fairly large room, for I am taking some books down, and mean to do a bit of work; and though I dont quite fancy having an empty bed not to speak of two in what I may call for the time being my study, I suppose I can manage to rough it for the short time I shall be there.
Do you call having an extra bed in your room roughing it, Parkins? said a bluff person opposite. Look here, I shall come down and occupy it for a bit; itll be company for you.
The Professor quivered, but managed to laugh in a courteous manner.
By all means, Rogers; theres nothing I should like better. But Im afraid you would find it rather dull; you dont play golf, do you?
No, thank Heaven! said rude Mr. Rogers.
Well, you see, when Im not writing I shall most likely be out on the links,[22] and that, as I say, would be rather dull for you, Im afraid.
Oh, I dont know! Theres certain to be somebody I know in the place; but, of course, if you dont want me, speak the word. Parkins; I shant be offended. Truth, as you always tell us, is never offensive.
Parkins was, indeed, scrupulously polite and strictly truthful. It is to be feared that Mr. Rogers sometimes practised upon his knowledge of these characteristics. In Parkinss breast there was a conflict now raging, which for a moment or two did not allow him to answer. That interval being over, he said:
Well, if you want the exact truth, Rogers, I was considering whether the room I speak of would really be large enough to accommodate us both comfortably; and also whether (mind, I shouldnt have said this if you hadnt pressed me) you would not constitute something in the nature of a hindrance to my work.
Rogers laughed loudly.
Well done, Parkins! he said. Its all right. I promise not to interrupt your work; dont you disturb yourself about that. No, I wont come if you dont want me; but I thought I should do so nicely to keep the ghosts off. Here he might have been seen to wink and to nudge his next neighbour. Parkins might also have been seen to become pink. I beg pardon, Parkins, Rogers continued; I oughtnt to have said that. I forgot you didnt like levity on these topics.
Well, Parkins said, as you have mentioned the matter, I freely own that I do not like careless talk about what you call ghosts. A man in my position, he went on, raising his voice a little, cannot, I find, be too careful about appearing to sanction the current beliefs on such subjects. As you know, Rogers, or as you ought to know; for I think I have never concealed my views
No, you certainly have not, old man, put in Rogers sotto voce.[23]
I hold that any semblance, any appearance of concession to the view that such things might exist is to me a renunciation of all that I hold most sacred. But Im afraid I have not succeeded in securing your attention.
Your undivided attention, was what Dr. Blimber actually said, Rogers interrupted, with every appearance of an earnest desire for accuracy. But I beg your pardon, Parkins: Im stopping you.
No, not at all, said Parkins. I dont remember Blimber perhaps he was before my time. But I neednt go on. Im sure you know what I mean.
Yes, yes, said Rogers, rather hastily just so. Well go into it fully at Burnstow, or somewhere.
In repeating the above dialogue I have tried to give the impression which it made on me, that Parkins was something of an old woman rather henlike, perhaps, in his little ways; totally destitute, alas! of the sense of humour, but at the same time dauntless and sincere in his convictions, and a man deserving of the greatest respect. Whether or not the reader has gathered so much, that was the character which Parkins had.
On the following day Parkins did, as he had hoped, succeed in getting away from his college, and in arriving at Burnstow. He was made welcome at the Globe Inn, was safely installed in the large double-bedded room of which we have heard, and was able before retiring to rest to arrange his materials for work in apple-pie order[24] upon a commodious table which occupied the outer end of room, and was surrounded on three sides by windows looking out seaward; that is to say the central window looked straight out to sea, and those on the left and right commanding prospects along the shore to the north and south respectively. On the south you saw the village of Burnstow. On the north no houses were to be seen, but only the beach and the low cliff backing it Immediately in front was a strip not considerable of rough grass, dotted with old anchors, capstans, and so forth; then a broad path; then the beach. Whatever may have been the original distance between the Globe Inn and the sea, not more than sixty yards now separated them.
The rest of the population of the inn was of course, a golfing one, and included few elements that call for a special description. The most conspicuous figure was, perhaps that of an ancien militaire,[25] secretary of London club, and possessed of a voice of incredible strength, and of views of a pronouncedly Protestant type. These were apt to find utterance after his attendance upon the ministrations of the Vicar, an estimable man with inclinations towards a picturesque ritual, which he gallantly kept down as far as he could out of deference to East Anglian tradition.
Professor Parkins, one of whose principal characteristics was pluck, spent the greater part of the day following his arrival at Burnstow in what he had called improving his game, in company with this Colonel Wilson: and during the afternoon whether the process of improvement were to blame or not, I am not sure the Colonels demeanour assumed a colouring so lurid that even Parkins jibbed at the thought of walking home with him from the links. He determined, after a short and furtive look at that bristling moustache and those incarnadined features, that it would be wiser to allow the influences of tea and tobacco to do what they could with the Colonel before the dinner-hour should render a meeting inevitable.
I might walk home to-night along the beach, he reflected yes, and take a look there will be light enough for that at the ruins of which Disney was talking. I dont exactly know where they are, by the way; but I expect I can hardly help stumbling on them.
This he accomplished, I may say, in the most literal sense, for in picking his way from the links to the shingle beach his foot caught, partly in a gorse-root and partly in a biggish stone, and over he went. When he got up and surveyed his surroundings, he found himself in a patch of somewhat broken ground covered with small depressions and mounds. These latter, when he came to examine them, proved to be simply masses of flints embedded in mortar and grown over with turf. He must, he quite rightly concluded, be on the site of the preceptory he had promised to look at. It seemed not unlikely to reward the spade of the explorer; enough of the foundations was probably left at no great depth to throw a good deal of light on the general plan. He remembered vaguely that the Templars,[26] to whom this site had belonged, were in the habit of building round churches, and he thought a particular series of the humps or mounds near him did appear to be arranged in something of a circular form. Few people can resist the temptation to try a little amateur research in a department quite outside their own, if only for the satisfaction of showing how successful they would have been had they only taken it up seriously. Our Professor, however, if he felt something of this mean desire, was also truly anxious to oblige Mr. Disney. So he paced with care the circular area he had noticed, and wrote down its rough dimensions in his pocket-book. Then he proceeded to examine an oblong eminence which lay east of the centre of the circle, and seemed to his thinking likely to be the base of a platform or altar. At one end of it, the northern, a patch of the turf was gone removed by some boy or other creature ferae naturae.[27] It might, he thought, be as well to probe the soil here for evidences of masonry, and he took out his knife and began scraping away the earth. And now followed another little discovery: a portion of soil fell inward as he scraped, and disclosed a small cavity. He lighted one match after another to help him to see of what nature the hole was, but the wind was too strong for them all. By tapping and scratching the sides with his knife, however, he was able to make out that it must be an artificial hole in masonry. It was rectangular, and the sides, top, and bottom, if not actually plastered, were smooth and regular. Of course it was empty. No! As he withdrew the knife he heard a metallic clink, and when he introduced his hand it met with a cylindrical object lying on the floor of the hole. Naturally enough, he picked it up, and when he brought it into the light, now fast fading, he could see that it, too, was of mans making a metal tube about four inches long, and evidently of some considerable age.