The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories (85 page)

He remained unconscious for a long time, and it was still dark when he opened his eyes and realized that he was lying, stiff and bruised, on the cold boards. Then the memory of what he had seen rushed back into his mind, and he promptly fainted again. When he woke the second time the wintry dawn was just beginning to peep in at the windows, painting the stairs a cheerless, dismal grey, and he managed to crawl into the front room, and cover himself with an overcoat in the armchair, where at length he fell asleep.

A great clamour woke him. He recognized Mrs. Monks's voice, loud and voluble.

'What! You ain't been to bed, sir! Are you ill, or has anything 'appened? And there's an urgent gentleman to see you, though it ain't seven o'clock yet, and-'

'Who is it?' he stammered. 'I'm all right, thanks. Fell asleep in my chair, I suppose.'

'Someone from Mr. Wilb'rim's, and he says he ought to see you quick before you go abroad, and I told him-'

'Show him up, please, at once,' said Johnson, whose head was whirling, and his mind was still full of dreadful visions.

Mr Wilbraham's man came in with many apologies, and explained briefly and quickly that an absurd mistake had been made, and that the wrong kit-bag had been sent over the night before.

'Henry somehow got hold of the one that came over from the courtoom, and Mr. Wilbraham only discovered it when he saw his own lying in his room, and asked why it had not gone to you,' the man said.

'Oh!' said Johnson stupidly.

'And he must have brought you the one from the murder case instead, sir, I'm afraid,' the man continued, without the ghost of an expression on his face. 'The one John Turk packed the dead body in. Mr Wilbraham's awful upset about it, sir, and told me to come over first thing this morning with the right one, as you were leaving by the boat.'

He pointed to a clean-looking kit-bag on the floor, which he had just brought. 'And I was to bring the other one back, sir,' he added casually.

For some minutes Johnson could not find his voice. At last he pointed in the direction of his bedroom. 'Perhaps you would kindly unpack it for me. Just empty the things out on the floor.'

The man disappeared into the other room, and was gone for five minutes. Johnson heard the shifting to and fro of the bag, and the rattle of the skates and boots being unpacked.

'Thank you, sir,' the man said, returning with the bag folded over his arm. 'And can I do anything more to help you, sir?'

'What is it?' asked Johnson, seeing that he still had something he wished to say.

The man shuffled and looked mysterious. 'Beg pardon, sir, but knowing your interest in the Turk case, I thought you'd maybe like to know what's happened-'

'Yes.'

'John Turk killed hisself last night with poison immediately on getting his release, and he left a note for Mr. Wilbraham saying as he'd be much obliged if they'd have him put away, same as the woman he murdered, in the old kit-bag.'

'What time—did he do it?' asked Johnson.

'Ten o'clock last night, sir, the warder says.'

SOURCES

The stories have been arranged in chronological order of publication. Usually this means a story's first appearance in a magazine; but where this information is either not known to the present editors or is not applicable, the date of first publication in book form is given. Place of publication is London unless otherwise stated.

'The Old Nurse's Story' by Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65). First published in Household Words (Christmas Number, 1852); reprinted in
Lizzie Leigh, and
O
ther
T
ales
(Chapman & Hall, 1855).

'An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street' by J[oseph] S[heridan] Le Fanu (1814-73). First published in the
Dublin University Magazine
(Dec. 1853); first reprinted in
Madam Cro
w
l's Ghost
, ed. M. R. James (Bell & Co., 1923).

'The Miniature' by John Yonge Akerman (1803-76). From
Legends of Old
London
(Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co., 1853). 'The Last House in C-Street' by Dinah Mulock(Mrs Craik, 1826-87).

First published in
Fraser's Magazine
(Aug. 1856); reprinted in
Nothing New
Tales
(Hurst & Blackett, 2 vols., 1857).

'To be Taken with a Grain of Salt' by Charles Dickens (1812-70). First published in
All the Year Round
(Christmas Number, 1865) as a companion to Rosa Mulholland's 'Not to be Taken at Bed-time'.

'The Botathen Ghost' by R. S. Hawker (1803-75). First published in
All the Year Round
(18 May 1867); reprinted in
The Prose Works of Rev. R. S. Hawker
, ed. J. S. Godwin (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood & Sons, 1893).

'The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth' by Rhoda Broughton (1840-1920). First published in
Temple Bar
(Feb. 1868); reprinted in
Tales for Christmas Eve
(Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1872; London: Bentley, 1873).

'The Romance of Certain Old Clothes' by Henry James (1843-1916). First published in the
Atlantic Monthly
(Feb. 1868); reprinted in
A Passionate Pilgrim, and
O
ther
T
ales
(Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1875).

'Pichon & Sons, of the Croix Rousse', Anon.
A Stable for Nightmares, the Christmas Number of Tinsleys'
Magazine for 1868
.

'Reality or Delusion?' by Mrs Henry Wood (nee Ellen Price, 1814-87). First published in
The Argosy
, owned and edited by Mrs. Henry Wood (Dec. 1868); reprinted in
Johnny Ludlow, First Series
(Bentley, 3 vols., 1874), with minor textual variations. The text followed here is 1874.

'Uncle Cornelius His Story' by George MacDonald (1824-1905). First published in
St Paul's Magazine
(Jan. 1869); reprinted in
Works of Fancy and Imagination
(Strahan & Co., 10 vols., 1871), Vol. X.

'The Shadow of a Shade' by Tom Hood (1835-74). First published in
Frozen In
, a series of stories related in a snow-storm,
Bow Bells Annual
(Christmas 1869).

'At Chrighton Abbey' by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915). First published in
Belgravia
(May 1871); reprinted in
Milly Darrell, and
O
ther
T
ales
(John Maxwell, 3 vols., 1873).

'No Living Voice' by Thomas Street Millington (1821-1906?). Published anonymously in
Temple Bar
(Apr. 1872). The story is ascribed to Millington, a clergyman whose output included adventure stories for boys, in the
Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals
.

'Miss Jeromette and the Clergyman' by Wilkie Collins (1824-89). First published (as 'The Clergyman's Confession') in
T
he Canadian Monthly
(Aug-Sept. 1875); reprinted in
Little Novels
(Chatto & Windus, 3 vols., 1887).

'The Story of Clifford House', Anon. Published in
The Mistletoe Bough
(Christmas 1878), edited by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It is tempting to suppose the story was written by Miss Braddon herself, but there is no evidence to support the ascription.

'Was It An Illusion?' by Amelia B[landford] Edwards (1831-92). From
Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual
(1881).

'The Open Door'by Mrs J. H. [Charlotte Elizabeth] Riddell (1832-1906). From
Weird Stories
(Hogg, 1882).

'The Captain of the "Pole-star"' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). First published in
Temple Bar
(Jan. 1883); reprinted in
The Captain of the 'Pole-star', and
O
ther
T
ales
(London and New York: Longman's, Green, 1890).

'The Body-Snatcher' by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94). First published in the
Pall Mall Magazine
(Christmas Number, 1884); issued in book form by the Merriam Company (New York, 1895); reprinted in
Tales and Fantasies
(Chatto & Windus, 1905).

'The Story of the Rippling Train' by Mary Louisa Molesworth (1839-1921). First published in
Longman's Magazine
(Oct. 1887); reprinted in
Four Ghost Stories
(Macmillan, 1888).

'At the End of the Passage' by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). First published in
Lippincott's Magazine
(Aug. 1890); reprinted in
Life's Handicap
(Macmillan, 1891).

'"To Let"' by B[ithia] M[ary] Croker (1849-1920). First published in
London Society
(Christmas Number, 1890); reprinted in
To Let
(Chatto & Windus, 1893).

'John Charrington's Wedding' by E[dith] Nesbit (1858-1924). First published in
Temple Bar
(Sept. 1891); reprinted in
Grim Tales
(A. D. Innes, 1893).

'The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly' by Rosa Mulholland (1841-1921). From
The Haunted Organist of Hurly Burly
(Hutchinson, n.d. [1891]).

'The Man of Science' by Jerome K[lapka] Jerome (1859-1927). First published in
The Idler
(edited by Jerome and Robert Barr, Sept. 1892). The story was told within part vi of the serialized
Novel Notes
(issued in book form by the Leadenhall Press, 1893). The title is the present editors'.

'Canon Alberic's Scrap-book', by M[ontague] R[hodes] James (1862-1936). First published in the
National Review
(Mar. 1895); reprinted in
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
(Edward Arnold, 1904)

'Jerry Bundler' by W. W.Jacobs (1863-1943). First published in the
Windsor Magazine
(Dec. 1897); reprinted in
Light Freights
(Methuen, 1901).

'An Edtly on the Floor' by Bernard Capes (1854-1918). From
At a Winter's Fire
(C. A. Pearson, 1899).

'The Tomb of Sarah' by F. G. Loring (1869-1951).
Pall Mall Magazine
(Dec. 1900).

'The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit'by Barry Pain (1865-1928). From
Stories in the Dark
(Grant Richards, 1901).

'The Shadows on the Wall' by Mary E[leanor] Wilkins (also known as Wilkins-Freeman, 1852-1930). First published in
Everybody 's Magazine
, vol. viii (1902); reprinted in
The Wind in the Rose-
B
ush
(John Murray, 1903).

'Father Macclesfield's Tale' by R. H. Benson (1871 -1914). from
A Mirror of Shalott
, composed of tales told at a symposium (Sir I. Pitman & Sons, 1907).

'Thurnley Abbey' by Perceval Landon (1869-1927). From
Raw Edges
(Heinemann, 1908).

'The Kit-bag' by Algernon Blackwood (1869-1951).
Pall Mall Magazine
(Dec. 1908).