 Chapter 1 of The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Chad Horner from Balli Clare. The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Al Gurnon Blackwood Chapter 1 The Empty House Certain houses, like certain persons, manage somehow to proclaim at once their character for evil. In the case of the latter, no particular feature need betray them. And they may boast an open countenance and an ingenious smile. And yet a little of their company leaves the unalterable conviction that there is something radically amiss with their being, that they are evil. Willy Nelly, they seem to communicate an atmosphere of secret and wicked thoughts which makes those in their immediate neighborhood shrink from them as from a thing diseased. And perhaps with houses the same principle is operative and it is the aroma of evil deeds committed under a particular riff long after the actual dears have passed away that makes the goose flesh come and the hair rise. Something of the original passion of the evil deer and of the horror felt by his victim enters the heart of the innocent watcher and he becomes suddenly conscious of tinkling nerves creeping skin and a chilling of the blood. He is tear stricken without apparent cause. There was manifestly nothing in the external appearance of this particular house to bear out the tales of the horror that was said to reign within. It was neither lonely nor unkempt. It stood crowded into a corner of the square and looked exactly like the house's on either side of it. It had the same number of windows as its neighbors. The same balcony overlooking the gardens. The same white steps leading up to the heavy black front door and in the rear there was the same narrow strip of green with neat box borders running up the wall that divided it from the backs of the adjoining houses. Apparently to the number of chimney pots on the riff was the same. The breadth and angle of the eaves and even the height of the dirty area railings. And yet this house in the square that seemed precisely similar to its 50 ugly neighbors was, as a matter of fact, entirely different, horribly different. Wherein lay this marked invisible difference is impossible to say. It cannot be ascribed wholly to the imagination because persons who had spent some time in the house knowing nothing of the facts had declared positively that certain rooms were so disagreeable that they would rather die than enter them again and that the atmosphere at the whole house produced in them symptoms of a genuine terror. While the series of innocent tenants who had tried to live in it have been forced to decamp at the shortest possible notice was indeed little less than a scandal in the town. When Shorthouse arrived to pay a weekend visit to his Aunt Julia in her little house on the seafront at the other end of the town he found her charged to the brim with mystery and excitement. He had only received her telegram that morning and he had come anticipating boredom. But the moment he touched her hand and kissed her apple skin wrinkled cheek he caught the first wave of her electrical condition. The impression deepened when he learned that there were to be no other visitors and that he had been telegraphed for with a great special object. Something was in the wind and the something would doubtless spare for it. For this elderly spinster Aunt with a mania for psychical research had brains as well as will power and by hook or by crook she usually managed to accomplish her ends. The revelation was made soon after dinner and she saddled close up to him as they paced slowly along the seafront in the dusk. I've got the keys she announced in a delight yet half awesome voice got them to Monday. The keys of the bathing machine or he asked innocently looking from the sea to the town nothing brought her so quickly to the point as feigning stupidly. Neither she whispered I've got the keys of the haunted house in the square and I'm going there tonight. Shorthouse was conscious of the slightest possible tremor down his back. He dripped his teasing tone. Something in her voice and manner thrilled him. She was in earnest but she can't go alone he began. That's why I wired for you. She said with decision. He turned to look at her. The ugly lined enigmatic face was alive with excitement. There was the glow of genuine enthusiasm rounded like a halo. The eyes shone. He caught another wave of her excitement and a second tremor more marked than the first accompanied it. Thanks Angelia he said politely thanks awfully. I should not dare to go quite alone. She went on raising her voice but with you I should enjoy it immensely. You're afraid of nothing I know. Thanks so much he began again or is anything likely to happen? A great deal has happened she whispered though it's been most cleverly hushed up. Three tenants have come and gone in the last few months and the house is said to be empty for good now. In spite of himself short house became interested. His aunt was so very much in earnest. The house is very old indeed she went on and the story an unpleasant one dates a long way back. It has to do with the murder committed by a jealous stableman who had some affair with a servant in the house. One night he managed to secrete himself in the cellar and when everyone was asleep he crept upstairs at the servant's quarters chased the girl down to the next landing and before anyone could come to the rescue threw her bodily over the banisters into the hall below and the stableman was caught I believe and hanged for murder but it all happened a century ago and I've not been able to get more details of the story. Short house now felt his interest thoroughly arised but though he was not particularly nervous for himself he hesitated a little on his aunt's account. On one condition he said at length nothing will prevent my going she said firmly but I may as well hear your condition that you guarantee your power of self-control if anything really horrible happens I mean that you are sure you won't get too frightened Jim she said scornfully I'm not young I know nor are my nerves but with you I should be afraid of nothing in the world. This of course settled it for short house had no pretensions to being other than a very ordinary young man and an appeal to his vanity was irresistible he agreed to go instinctively by a sort of subconscious preparation he kept himself and his forces well in hand the whole evening compelling and accumulative reserve of control by that nameless inward process of gradually putting all the emotions away and turning the key upon them a process difficult to describe but wonderfully effective was all men who have lived through severe trials of the inner man well understand later it stood him in good stead but it was not until half past ten when they stood in the hall when in the glare of friendly lamps and still surrounded by comforting human influences that he had to make the first call upon this store of collected strengths for once the door was closed and he saw the deserted silent street stretching away white in the moonlight before it it came to him clearly that the real test that night would be in dealing with two fears instead of one he would have to carry his aunt's fear as well as his own and as he glanced down at her sphinx-like countenance and realised that it might assume no pleasant aspect in a rush of real terror he felt satisfied with only one thing in the whole adventure that he had confidence in his own will and power to stand against any shock that might come slowly they walked along the empty streets of the town a bright autumn moon silvered the rifts casting deep shadows there was no breath of wind and the trees in the formal gardens by the seafront watched them silently as they passed along to his aunt's occasional remarks short house made no reply realising that she was simply surrounding herself with mental buffers saying ordinary things to prevent herself thinking of extraordinary things few windows showed lights and from scarcely a single chimney came smoke or sparks short house had already begun to notice everything even the smallest details presently they stopped at the street corner and looked up at the name on the side of the house full in the moonlight and with one accord but without remark turned into the square and crossed over to the side of it that lay in shadow the number of the house is 13 whispered a voice at his side and neither of them made the obvious reference but passed along the broad sheet of moonlight and began to march up the pavement in silence it was about half way up the square that short house filled an arm slipped quietly but significantly into his own and knew then that their adventure had begun in earnest and that his companion was already yielding imperceptibly to the influences against him she needed support a few minutes later they stopped before a tall narrow house that rose before them into the night ugly in shape and painted a dingy white shortest windows without blinds stared down upon them shining here and there in the moonlight there were weller streaks in the wall and cracks in the paint and the balcony bulged out from the first floor a little unnaturally but beyond this general forlorn appearance of an unoccupied house there was nothing at first sight to single out this particular mansion for the evil character it had most certainly acquired taking a look over their shoulders to make sure they had not been followed they went boldly up the steps and stood against the huge black door that fronted them forbiddingly but the first wave of nervousness was now upon them and short house fumbled a long time with the key before he could fit it into the log at all for a moment if truth were told they both hoped it would not open for they were a prey to various unpleasant emotions as they stood there on the threshold of their ghostly adventure short house shuffling with the key and hampered by the steady weight on his arm certainly felt the solemnity of the moment it was as if the whole world for all experience seemed at that instant concentrated in his own conscientiousness were listening to the grating noise of that key a stray puff of wind wandering down the empty street woke a momentary rustling in the trees behind them but otherwise this fatling of the key was the only sound audible and at last it turned in the log and the heavy door swung open and revealed a yawning gulf of doubtness beyond with the last glance of the moonlit square they passed quickly in and the doors span behind them with the roar that echoed prodigiously three empty halls and passages but instantly with the echoes another sound made itself heard and Aunt Julia leaned suddenly so heavily upon him that he had to take a step backwards to save himself from falling a man had coughed close beside them so close that it seemed they must have been actually by his side in the darkness with the possibility of practical jokes in his mind short house at once swung his heavy stick in the direction of the sound but it meant nothing more solid than air he heard his aunt give a little gasp beside him there's someone here she whispered I heard him be quiet he said sternly it was nothing but the noise of the front door oh get a light quick she added as her nephew fumbling with a box of matches opened it upside down and let them all fall with a rattle onto the stone floor the sound however was not repeated and there was no evidence of retreating footsteps in another minute they had a candle burning using an empty end of a cigar case as a holder and when the first flare had died down he held the impromptu lamp aloft and surveyed the scene and it was dreary enough in all conscience for there is nothing more desolate in all the abodes of men than an unfurnished house dimly lit silent and forsaken and yet tenanted by rimmer with the memories of evil and violent histories they were standing in a wide hallway on their left was the open door of a spacious dining room and in front the hall ran ever narrowing into a long dark passage that led apparently to the top of the kitchen stairs the broad uncovered staircase rose in a sweep before them everywhere draped in shadows except for a single spot about half way up where the moonlight came in through the windows and fell on a bright patch on the boards this shaft of light shed a faint radiance above and below it leading to the objects within its reach a misty outline that was infinitely more suggestive and ghostly than complete darkness filtered moonlight always seems to paint faces on the surrounding gloom and a short house paired up into the well of darkness and thought of the countless empty rooms and passages in the upper part of the old house he caught himself longing again for the safety of the moonlit square or the cozy bright drawing room they had left an hour before then realising that these thoughts were dangerous he thrust them away again and summoned all his energy for concentration on the present Aunt Jillia, he said aloud severely we must now go through the house from top to bottom and make a thorough search the echoes of his voice died away slowly all over the building and in the intense silence that followed he turned to look at her in the candlelight he saw that her face was already ghastly pale but she dropped his arm for a moment and said in a whisper, stepping close in front of him I agree we must be sure there's no one hiding that's the first thing she spoke with evident effort and he looked at her with admiration you feel quite sure of yourself, it's not too late I think so, she whispered her eyes shifting nervously toward the shadows behind quite sure only one thing what's that? you must never leave me alone for an instant as long as you understand that any sound or appearance must be investigated at once for to hesitate means to admit fear that is fair agreed, she said a little shagily after a moment's hesitation I'll try arm in arm short house holding the dripping candle and the stick while the Zant carried the cloak over her shoulders figures of utter comedy to all but themselves they began a systematic search stealthily walking on tip two and shading the candle lest it should betray their presence through the shutterless windows they went first into the big dining room there was not a stick of furniture to be seen bare walls, ugly mantelpieces and empty grates stared at them everything they felt resented their intrusion watching them as it were with veiled eyes whispers followed them shadows flitted noiselessly to right and left something seemed ever at their back watching, waiting an opportunity to do them injury there was the inevitable sense that operations which went on when the room was empty had been temporarily suspended till they were well out of the way again the whole dark interior of the old building seemed to become a malignant presence that rose up warning them to desist and mind their own business every moment the strain on the nerves increased out of the gloomy dining room they passed through large folding doors into a sort of library or smoking room wrapped equally in silence, darkness and dust and from this they regained the hall near the top of the back stairs here a pitch black tunnel opened before them into the lower regions and it must be confessed they hesitated but only for a minute with the worst of the night still to come it was essential to turn from nothing Aunt Julia stumbled at the top step of the dark descent ill lit by the flickering candle an even short house felt at least half the decision to go out of his legs come on, he said, preemptorily and his voice ran on and lost itself in the dark empty spaces below I'm coming, she faltered catching his arm with unnecessary violence they went a little unsteadily down the stone steps as a cold damp air meeting them in the face close and malodorous the kitchen into which the stairs led along a narrow passage was large with a lofty ceiling several doors opened out of it some into cupboards with empty jars still standing on the shelves and others into horrible little ghostly bag offices each colder and less inviting than the last black beetles scurried over the floor and once when they knocked against a deal table standing in a corner something about the size of a cat jumped down with a rush and fled scumpering across the stone floor into the darkness everywhere there was a sense of recent occupation and impression of sadness and gloom leaving the main kitchen they next went towards the scullery the door was standing ajar and as they pushed it open to its full extent Aunt Julia uttered a piercing scream which she instantly tried to stifle by placing her hand over her mouth for a second, short house stood stalked still, catching his breath he felt as if his spine had suddenly become hollow and someone had filled it with particles of ice facing them, directly in their way between the door posts stood the figure of a woman she had dishevelled her and wildly staring eyes and her face was terrified and white as death she stood there motionless for the space of a single second then the candle flickered and she was gone gone utterly and the door framed nothing but empty darkness only the beastly jumping candlelight he said quickly in a voice that sounded like someone else's and was only half under control come on, aunt, there's nothing there he dragged her forward with a clattering of feet and a great appearance of boldness they went on but over his body the skin moved as if crawling aunts covered it and he knew by the weight of his arm that he was supplying the force of locomotion for two the scullery was cold, bare and empty more like a large prison cell than anything else they went round it and tried the door into the yard and the windows but found them all fast and securely his aunt moved beside him like a person in a dream her eyes were tightly shut and she seemed merely to follow the pressure of his arm her courage filled him with amazement at the same time he noticed that a certain odd change had come over her face a change which somehow evaded his power of analysis there's nothing here, aren't they? he repeated aloud quickly let's go upstairs and see the rest of the house then we'll choose a room to wait up in she followed him obediently keeping close to his side and they locked the kitchen door behind them it was a relief to get up again in the hall there was more light than before for the moon had travelled a little further down the stairs cautiously they began to go up into the dark vault of the upper house the boards creaking under their weight on the first floor they found the large double drawing rooms a search of which revealed nothing here also was no sign of furniture or recent occupancy nothing but dust and neglect and shadows they opened the big folding doors between front and back drawing rooms and then came out again to the landing and went on upstairs they had not gone up more than a dozen steps when they both simultaneously stopped a lesson looking into each other's eyes with a new apprehension across the flickering candle flame from the room they had left hardly 10 seconds before came the sound of doors quietly closing it was beyond all question they heard the booming noise that accompanies the shutting of heavy doors followed by the sharp catching of the latch we must go back and say, said Shorthouse briefly in a low tone and turning to go downstairs again somehow she managed to drag after him her feet catching in her dress, her face livid when they entered the front drawing room it was plain that the folding doors had been closed half a minute before without hesitation Shorthouse opened them he almost expected to see someone facing him in the back room but only darkness and cold air met him they went through both rooms finding nothing unusual they tried in every way to make the doors close off themselves but there was not wind enough even to set the candle flame flickering the doors would not move without strong pressure all was silent as the grave undeniably the rooms were utterly empty and the house utterly still its beginning whispered a voice at his elbow which he hardly recognised as his aunt's he nodded acquiescence taking out his watch to note the time it was 15 minutes before midnight he made the entry of exactly what had occurred in his notebook setting the candle in its case upon the floor in order to do so it took a moment or two to balance it safely against the wall Aunt Julia always declared that at this moment she was not actually watching him but had turned her head towards the end of her room where she fancied she heard something moving but at any rate both positively agreed that there came a sound of rushing feet heavy and very swift and the next instant the candle was out but to Shorthouse himself had come more than this and he has always thanked his fortunate stars that it came to him alone and not to his aunt too for as he rose from the stepping position of balancing the candle and before it was actually extinguished a face thrust itself forward so close to his own that he could almost have touched it with his lips it was a face working with passion a man's face dark with thick features and angry savage eyes it belonged to a common man and it was evil in its ordinary normal expression no doubt but as he saw it alive with intensive aggressive emotion it was a malignant and terrible human countenance there was no movement of the air nothing but the sound of rushing feet stalking or muffled feet the apparition of the face and the almost simultaneous extinguishing of the candle in spite of himself Shorthouse uttered a little cry nearly losing his balance as his aunt clung to him with her whole weight in one moment of real uncontrollable terror she made no sound but simply seized him bodily fortunately however she had seen nothing but had only heard the rushing feet for her control returned almost at once and he was able to disentangle himself and strike a match the shadows ran away on all sides before the glare and his aunt stood down and grouped for the cigar case with the precious candle then they discovered that the candle had not been blown out at all it had been crushed out the whip was pressed down into the wax which was flattened as if by some smooth heavy instrument Howe his companions so quickly overcame her terror Shorthouse never properly understood but his admiration for her self-control increased tenfold and at the same time served to feed his own dying flame for which he was undeniably grateful equally inexplicable to him was the evidence of physical force they had just witnessed he at once suppressed the memory of stories he had heard of physical mediums and their dangerous phenomena for if these were true and either his aunt or himself was unwittingly a physical medium it meant that they were simply aiding to focus the forces of a haunted house already charged to the brim it was like walking with unprotected lamps among uncovered stores of gunpowder so with as little reflection as possible he simply relet the candle and went up to the next floor the arm in his trembled it is true and his own tread was often uncertain but they went on with thoroughness and after a search revealing nothing they climbed the last flight of stairs to the top floor of all here they found a perfect nest of small servants rooms with broken pieces of furniture dirty cane-bottomed chairs chess of drawers cracked mirrors and decrepit bedsteads the rooms had low sloping ceilings already hung here and there with cobwebs small windows and badly plastered walls a depressing and dismal region which they were glad to leave behind it was on the stroke of midnight when they entered a small room on the third floor close to the top of the stairs and arranged to make themselves comfortable for the remainder of their adventure it was absolutely bare and was said to be the room then used as a closed closet into which the infuriated groom had chased his victim and finally caught her outside across the narrow landing began the stairs leading up to the floor above and the servants quarters where they had just searched in spite of the chilliness of the night there was something in the air of this room that cried for an open window but there was more than this short house could only describe it by saying that he felt less master of himself here than in any part of the house there was something that acted directly on the nerves tiring the resolution and febling the will he was conscious of this result before he had been in the room five minutes and it was in the short time they stayed there that he suffered the wholesale depletion of his vital forces which was for himself the chief horror of the whole experience they put the candle on the floor of the cupboard leaving the door a few inches ajar so that there was no glare to confuse the eyes and no shadow to shift about on walls and ceilings then they spread the cloak on the floor and sat down to wait with their backs against the wall short house was within two feet of the door on to the landing his position commanded a good view of the main staircase leading down into the darkness and also of the beginning of the servant stairs going to the floor above the heavy stick lay beside him with an easy reach the moon was now high above the house through the open window they could see the comforting stars like friendly eyes watching in the sky one by one the clocks of the town struck midnight and when the signs died away the deep silence of the windless night fell again over everything only the boom of the sea far away and lugubrious filled the air with hollow murmurs inside the house the silence became awful awful he thought because any minute now it might be broken by sounds pretending terror the strain of waiting told more and more severely on the nerves they talked and whispers when they talked at all for their voices allowed sounded queer and unnatural a chilliness not altogether due to the night air invaded the room and made them cold the influences against them whatever these might be were slowly robbing them of self-confidence and the power of decisive action their forces were on the wane and the possibility of real fear took on a new and terrible meaning he began to tremble for the elderly woman by his side whose pluck could hardly save her beyond a certain extent he heard the blood singing in his veins it sometimes seemed so loud that he fancied it prevented his hearing properly certain other sounds that were beginning very faintly to make themselves audible in the depths of the house every time he fastened his attention on these sounds they instantly ceased they certainly came no near yet he could not rid himself of the idea that movement was going on somewhere in the lower regions of the house the drawing room floor where the doors have been so strangely closed seemed too near the sounds were further off than that he thought of the great kitchen with the scurrying black beetles and of the dismal little scullery but somehow or other they did not seem to come from there either surely they were not outside the house then suddenly the truth flashed into his mind and for the space of a minute he felt as if his blood had stopped flowing and turned to ice the sounds were not downstairs at all they were upstairs upstairs somewhere among those horrid gloomy little servants rooms with their bits of broken furniture loose ceilings and cramped windows upstairs where the victim had first been disturbed and stalked to her death and the moment he discovered where the sounds were he began to hear them more clearly it was the sound of feet moving stilfully along the passage overhead and in and out among the rooms and past the furniture he turned quickly to seal a glance at the motionless figure seated beside him to note whether she had shared his discovery the faint candlelight coming through the crack in the cupboard door through her strongly marked face into vivid relief against the white of the wall but it was something else that made him catch his breath and stare again an extraordinary something had come into her face and seemed to spread over her features like a mask it smoothed out the deep lines and drew the skin everywhere a little tighter so that the wrinkles disappeared it brought into the face with the sole exception of the old eyes and the parents of youth and almost of childhood he stared in speechless amazement amazement that was dangerously near to horror it was his aunt's face indeed but it was her face of 40 years ago the vacant innocent face of a girl he had heard stories of that strange effect of terror which could wipe a human countenance clean of other emotions obliterating all previous expressions but he had never realised that it could be literally true or could mean anything so simply horrible as what he now saw for the dreadful signature of overmasking fear was written plainly in that utter vacancy of the girlish face beside him and when feeling his intense gaze she turned to look at him he instinctively closed his eyes tightly to shut out the sight yet when he turned a minute later his feelings well in hand he saw to his intense relief another expression his aunt was smiling and though the face was deathly white the awful feel had lifted and the normal look was returning anything wrong was all he could think of to say at the moment and the answer was eloquent coming from such a woman I feel cold and a little frightened she whispered he offered to close the window but she seized hold of him and begged him not to leave her side even for an instant it's upstairs I know she whispered with an odd half laugh but I can't possibly go up but shorthouse thought otherwise knowing that in action lay their best hope of self-control he took the brandy flask and poured out a glass of neat spirit stiff enough to help anybody over anything she swallowed it with a little shiver his only idea now was to get out of the house before her collapse became inevitable but this could not safely be done by turning tail and running from the enemy in action was no longer possible every minute he was growing less master of himself and desperate aggressive measures were imperative without further delay moreover the action must be taken towards the enemy not away from it the climax if necessary and unavoidable would have to be faced boldly he could do it now but in 10 minutes he might not have the force left to act for himself much less for both upstairs the sounds were meanwhile becoming louder and closer accompanied by occasional creaking of the boards someone was moving stealthily about stumbling now and then awkwardly against the furniture awaiting a few moments to allow the tremendous dose of spirit to produce its effect and knowing this would last but a short time under the circumstances short-housed and quietly got to his feet saying in a determined voice Nianjilia we'll go upstairs and find out what all this noise is about you must come too it's what we agreed he picked up a stick and went to the cupboard for the candle a limp form rose shakily beside him breathing hard and he heard a voice say very faintly something about being ready to come the woman's courage amazed him it was so much greater than his own and as they advanced holding aloft the dripping candle some subtle force exhaled from this trembling white-faced old woman at his side that was the true source of his inspiration it held something really great that shamed him and gave him the support without which he would have proved far less equal to the occasion they crossed the dark landing avoiding with their eyes the deep black space over the banisters then they began to mount the narrow staircase to meet the sounds which minute by minute grew louder and nearer about half way up the stairs Nianjilia stumbled and short house turned to catch her by the arm and just at that moment there came a terrific crash in the servant's corridor overhead it was instantly followed by a shrill agonised scream that was a cry of terror and a cry for help melt it into one before they could move aside or go down a single step someone came rushing along the passage overhead blundering horribly racing madly at full speed three times at a minute down the very staircase where they stood the steps were light and uncertain but clues behind them sounded the heavier tread of another person and the staircase seemed to shake short house and his companion just had time to flatten themselves against the wall when the jumble of flying steps was upon them and two persons with the slightest possible interval between them dashed past at full speed it was a perfect whirlwind of sound-breaking and upon the midnight silence of the empty building the two runners, pursuer and pursued had passed, cleaned through them where they stood and already with a thud the boards below had received first one then the other yet they had seen absolutely nothing not a hand or arm or face or even a shred of flying clothing there came a seconds pause then the first one, the lighter of the two obviously the pursued one ran with uncertain footsteps into the little room with short house and his antics left the heavier one followed there was a sound of scuffling, gasping and smothered screaming and then out on to the landing came the step of a single person treading waitily a dead silence followed for the space of half a minute and then was heard a rushing sound through the air it was followed by a dull crashing thud in the steps of the house below on the stone floor of the hall utter silence reigned after nothing moved the flame of the candle was steady it had been steady the whole time and the air had been undisturbed by any movement whatsoever pulsed with terror and gilia without waiting for her companion began fumbling her way downstairs she was crying gently to herself and when short house put his arm round her and half carried her he felt that she was trembling like a leaf he went into the little room and picked up the clock from the floor and arm in arm walking very slowly without speaking a word or looking once behind them they marched down the three flights into the hall in the hall they saw nothing but the whole way down the stairs they were conscious that someone followed them step by step when they went faster it was left behind and when they went more slowly it caught them up but never once did they look behind to see and at each turning of the staircase they lowered their eyes for fear of the following horror they might see upon the stairs above with trembling hands short house opened the front door and they walked out into the moonlight and drew a deep breath of the cold night air blowing in from the sea End of Chapter 1 Recording by Chad Horner from Ballet Claire Chapter 2 of The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Algern and Blackwood Chapter 2 A Haunted Island The following events occurred on a small island of isolated position in a large Canadian lake to whose cool waters the inhabitants of Montreal and Toronto flee for rest and recreation in the hot months It is only to be regretted that events of such peculiar interest to the genuine student of the Psychicle should be entirely uncorroborated Such, unfortunately, however, is the case Our own party of nearly twenty had returned to Montreal that very day and I was left in solitary possession for a week or two longer in order to accomplish some important reading for the law which I had foolishly neglected during the summer It was late in September and the big trout and mathkinongi were stirring themselves in the depths of the lake and beginning slowly to move up to the surface waters as the north winds and early frosts lowered their temperature Already the maples were crimson and gold and the wild laughter of the loons echoed in sheltered bays that never knew their strange cry in the summer With a whole island to oneself a two-storey cottage, a canoe and only the chipmunks and the farmer's weekly visit with eggs and bread to disturb one the opportunities for hard reading might be very great It all depends The rest of the party had gone off with many warnings to beware of Indians and not to stay late enough to be the victim of a frost that thinks nothing of forty below zero After they had gone the loneliness of the situation made itself unpleasantly felt There were no other islands within six or seven miles and although the mainland forests lay a couple of miles behind me they stretched for a very great distance unbroken by any signs of human habitation But though the island was completely deserted and silent the rocks and trees that had echoed human laughter and voices almost every hour of the day for two months could not fail to retain some memories of it all and I was not surprised to fancy I heard a shout or a cry as I passed from rock to rock and more than once to imagine that I heard my own name called aloud In the cottage there were six tiny little bedrooms divided from one another by plain unvarnished partitions of pine a wooden bedstead, a mattress and a chair stood in each room but I only found two mirrors and one of these was broken The boards creaked a good deal as I moved about and the signs of occupation were so recent that I could hardly believe I was alone I half expected to find someone left behind still trying to crowd into a box more than it was hold The door of one room was stiff and refused for a moment to open and it required very little persuasion to imagine someone was holding the handle on the inside and that when it opened I should meet a pair of human eyes A thorough search of the floor led me to select as my own sleeping quarters a little room with a diminutive balcony over the veranda roof The room was very small but the bed was large and had the best mattress of them all It was situated directly over the sitting room where I should live and do my reading and the miniature window looked out to the rising sun With the exception of a narrow path which led from the front door and veranda through the trees to the boat landing the island was densely covered with maples, hemlocks and cedars The trees gathered in round the cottage so closely that the slightest wind made the branches scrape the roof and tap the wooden walls A few moments after sunset the darkness became impenetrable and ten yards beyond the glare of the lamps that shone through the sitting-room windows of which there were four you could not see an inch before your nose nor move a step without running up against a tree The rest of that day I spent moving my belongings from my tent to the sitting-room taking stock of the contents of the larder and chopping enough wood for the stove to last me for a week After that, just before sunset I went round the island a couple of times in my canoe for precaution's sake I had never dreamed of doing this before but when a man is alone he does things that never occur to him when he is one of a large party How lonely the island seemed when I landed again The sun was down and twilight is unknown in these northern regions The darkness comes up at once The canoe safely pulled up and turned over on her face I groped my way up the little narrow pathway to the veranda The six lamps were soon burning merrily in the front-room but the kitchen where I dined the shadows were so gloomy and the lamp-light was so inadequate that the stars could be seen peeping through the cracks between the rafters I turned in early that night though it was calm and there was no wind the creaking of my bed-stead and the musical gurgle of the water over the rocks below were not the only sounds that reached my ears As I lay awake the appalling emptiness of the house grew upon me The corridors and vacant rooms seemed to echo innumerable footsteps, shufflings the rustle of skirts and a constant undertone of whispering When sleep at length overtook me the breathings and noises, however, passed gently to mingle with the voices of my dreams a weak part by and the reading progressed favourably On the tenth day of my solitude a strange thing happened I awoke after a good night's sleep to find myself possessed with a marked repugnance for my room The air seemed to stifle me The more I tried to define the cause of this dislike the more unreasonable it appeared There was something about the room that made me afraid Absurd as it seems this feeling clung to me obstinately while dressing and more than once I caught myself shivering and conscious of an inclination to get out of the room as quickly as possible The more I tried to laugh it away the more real it became and when at last I was dressed and went out into the passage and downstairs into the kitchen it was with feelings of relief such as I might imagine would accompany one's escape from the presence of a dangerous contagious disease While cooking my breakfast I carefully recalled every night spent in the room in the hope that I might in some way connect the dislike I now felt with some disagreeable incident that had occurred in it but the only thing I could recall was one stormy night when I suddenly awoke and heard the boards creaking so loudly in the corridor that I was convinced there were people in the house so certain was I of this that I had descended the stairs gun in hand only to find the doors and windows securely fastened and the mice and black beetles in sole possession of the floor This was certainly not sufficient to account for the strength of my feelings The morning hours I spent in steady reading and when I broke off in the middle of the day for a swim and luncheon I was very much surprised if not a little alarmed to find that my dislike for the room had, if anything, grown stronger Going upstairs to get a book I experienced the most marked aversion to entering the room and while within I was conscious all the time of an uncomfortable feeling that was half uneasiness and half apprehension The result of it was that instead of reading I spent the afternoon on the water paddling and fishing and when I got home about sundown brought with me half a dozen delicious black baths for the supper table and the larger As sleep was an important matter to me at this time I had decided that if my aversion to the room was so strongly marked on my return as it had been before I would move my bed down into the sitting room and sleep there This was, I argued, in no sense a concession to the absurd and fanciful fear but simply precaution to ensure a good night's sleep A bad night involved the loss of the next day's reading a loss I was not prepared to incur I accordingly moved my bed downstairs into a corner of the sitting room facing the door and was moreover uncommonly glad when the operation was completed and the door of the bedroom closed finally upon the shadows, the silence and the strange fear that shared the room with them the croaking stroke of the kitchen clock sounded the hour of eight as I finished washing up my few dishes and closed the kitchen door behind me passed into the front room all the lamps were lit and their reflectors which I had polished up during the day threw a blaze of light into the room outside the night was still and warm not a breath of air was stirring the waves were silent the trees motionless and heavy clouds hung like an oppressive curtain over the heavens the darkness seemed to have rolled up with unusual swiftness and not the faintest glow of colour remained to show where the sun had set there was present in the atmosphere that ominous and overwhelming silence which so often precedes the most violent storms I sat down to my books with my brain unusually clear and in my heart the pleasant satisfaction of knowing that five black baths were lying in the ice house and that tomorrow morning the old farmer would arrive with fresh bread and eggs I was soon absorbed in my books as the night wore on the silence deepened even the chipmunks were still and the boards of the floors and walls ceased creaking I read on steadily till from the gloomy shadows of the kitchen came the horse sound of the clock striking nine how loud the stroke sounded they were like blows of a big hammer I closed one book and opened another feeling that I was just warming up to my work this however did not last long I presently found that I was reading the same paragraphs over twice simple paragraphs that did not require such effort then I noticed that my mind began to wander to other things and the effort to recall my thoughts became harder with each digression concentration was growing momentarily more difficult presently I discovered that I had turned over two pages instead of one and had not noticed my mistake until I was well down the page this was becoming serious what was the disturbing influence it could not be physical fatigue on the contrary my mind was unusually alert and in a more receptive condition than usual I made a new and determined effort to read and for a short time succeeded in giving my whole attention to my subject but in a very few moments again I found myself leaning back in my chair staring vacantly into space something was evidently at work in my subconsciousness there was something I had neglected to do perhaps the kitchen door and windows were not fastened I accordingly went to see and found that they were the fire perhaps needed attention I went in to see and found that it was all right I looked at the lamps went upstairs into every bedroom in turn and then went round the house and even into the ice house nothing was wrong everything was in its place yet something was wrong the conviction grew stronger and stronger within me when I at length settled down to my books again and tried to read I became aware for the first time that the room seemed growing cold yet the day had been oppressively warm and evening had brought no relief the six big lamps moreover gave out heat enough to warm the room pleasantly but a chilliness that perhaps crept up from the lake made itself felt in the room and caused me to get up and close the glass door opening onto the veranda for a brief moment I stood looking out at the shaft of light that fell from the windows and shone some little distance down the pathway and out for a few feet into the lake as I looked I saw a canoe glide into the pathway of light and immediately crossing it pass out of sight again into the darkness it was perhaps a hundred feet from the shore and it moved swiftly I was surprised that a canoe should pass the island at that time of night for all the summer visitors from the other side of the lake had gone home weeks before and the island was a long way out of any line of water traffic my reading from this moment did not make very good progress for somehow the picture of that canoe gliding so dimly and swiftly across the narrow track of light on the black waters silhouetted itself against the background of my mind with singular vividness it kept coming between my eyes and the printed page the more I thought about it the more surprised I became it was of larger build than any I had seen during the past summer months and it was more like the old Indian walker news with the high curving boughs and stern and wide beam the more I tried to read the less success attended my efforts and finally I closed my books and went out on the veranda to walk up and down a bit and shake the chilliness out of my bones the night was perfectly still and as dark as imaginable I stumbled down the path to a little landing-warf where the water made the very faintest of gurgling under the timbers the sound of a big tree falling in the mainland forest far across the lake stirred echoes in the heavy air like the first guns of a distant night attack no other sound disturbed the stillness that reigned supreme as I stood upon the wharf in the broad splash of light that followed me from the sitting-room windows I saw another canoe cross the pathway of uncertain light upon the water and disappear at once into the impenetrable gloom that lay beyond this time I saw more distinctly than before it was like the former canoe, a big birch bark with high-quested boughs and stern and broad beam it was paddled by two Indians of whom the one in the stern, the steerer, appeared to be a very large man I could see this very plainly and though the second canoe was much nearer the island than the first I judged that they were both on their way home to the government reservation which was situated some fifteen miles away upon the mainland I was wondering in my mind what could possibly bring any Indians down to this part of the lake at such an hour of the night when a third canoe of precisely similar build and also occupied by two Indians passed silently round the end of the wharf this time the canoe was very much near ashore and it suddenly flashed into my mind that the three canoes were in reality one and the same and that only one canoe was circling the island this was by no means a pleasant reflection because if it were the correct solution of the unusual appearance of the three canoes in this lonely part of the lake at so late an hour the purpose of the two men could only reasonably be considered to be in some way connected with myself I had never known of the Indians attempting any violence upon the settlers who shared the wild inhospitable country with them at the same time it was not beyond the region of possibility to suppose but then I did not care even to think of such hideous possibilities and my imagination immediately sought relief in all manner of other solutions to the problem which indeed came readily enough to my mind but did not succeed in recommending themselves to my reason meanwhile by a sort of instinct I stepped back out of the bright light in which I had hitherto been standing and waited in the deep shadow of a rock to see if the canoe would again make its appearance here I could see without being seen and the precaution seemed a wise one after less than five minutes the canoe as I had anticipated made its fourth appearance this time it was not twenty yards from the wharf and I saw that the Indians meant to land I recognized the two men as those who had passed before and the steerer was certainly an immense fellow it was unquestionably the same canoe there could be no longer any doubt that for some purpose of their own the men had been going round and round the island for some time waiting for an opportunity to land I strained my eyes to follow them in the darkness but the night had completely swallowed them up and not even the faintest swish of the paddles reached my ears as the Indians plied their long and powerful strokes the canoe would be round again in a few moments and this time it was possible that the men might land it was well to be prepared I knew nothing of their intentions and two to one when the two were big Indians late at night on a lonely island was not exactly my idea of pleasant intercourse in a corner of the sitting room leaning up against the back wall stood my marlin rifle with ten cartridges in the magazine and one lying snugly in the greased breach there was just time to get up to the house and take up a position of defence in that corner without an instance hesitation I ran up to the veranda carefully picking my way among the trees so as to avoid being seen in the light entering the room I shut the door leading to the veranda and as quickly as possible turned out every one of the six lamps to be in a room so brilliantly lighted where my every movement could be observed from outside while I could see nothing but impenetrable darkness at every window was by all laws of warfare an unnecessary concession to the enemy and this enemy if enemy it was to be was far too wily and dangerous to be granted any such advantages I stood in the corner of the room with my back against the wall and my hand on the cold rifle barrel the table covered with my books lay between me and the door but for the first few minutes after the lights were out the darkness was so intense that nothing could be discerned at all then very gradually the outline of the room became visible and the framework of the windows began to shape itself dimly before my eyes after a few minutes the door it's up a half of glass and the two windows that looked out upon the veranda became especially distinct and I was glad that this was so because if the Indians came up to the house I should be able to see their approach and gather something of their plans nor was I mistaken for their presently came to my ears the peculiar hollow sound of a canoe landing and being carefully dragged up over the rocks the paddles I distinctly heard being placed underneath and the silence that ensued there upon I rightly interpreted to mean that the Indians were stealthily approaching the house while it would be absurd to claim that I was not alarmed even frightened at the gravity of the situation and its possible outcome I speak the whole truth when I say that I was not overwhelmingly afraid for myself I was conscious that even at this stage of the night I was passing into a psychical condition in which my sensation seemed no longer normal physical fear at no time entered into the nature of my feelings and though I kept my hand upon my rifle the greater part of the night I was all the time conscious that its assistance would be of little avail against the terrors that I had to face more than once I seemed to feel most curiously that I was in no real sense a part of the proceedings nor actually involved in them but that I was playing the part of a spectator a spectator moreover on a psychic rather than on a material plane many of my sensations at night were too vague for definite description and analysis but the main feeling that will stay with me to the end of my days is the awful horror of it all and the miserable sensation that if the strain had lasted a little longer than was actually the case my mind must inevitably have given way meanwhile I stood still in my corner and waited patiently for what was to come the house was as still as the grave but the inarticulate voices of the night sang in my ears and I seemed to hear the blood running in my veins and dancing in my pulses if the Indians came to the back of the house they would find the kitchen door and windows securely fastened they could not get in there without making considerable noise which I was bound to hear the only mode of getting in was by means of the door that faced me and I kept my eyes glued on that door without taking them off for the smallest fraction of a second my sight adapted itself every minute better to the darkness I saw the table that nearly filled the room and left only a narrow passage on each side I could also make out the straight backs of the wooden chairs pressed up against it and could even distinguish my papers and ink stand lying on the white oilcloth covering I thought of the gay faces that had gathered round that table during the summer and I longed for the sunlight as I had never longed for it before less than three feet to my left the passageway led to the kitchen and the stairs leading to the bedrooms above commenced in this passageway but almost in the sitting room itself through the windows I could see the dim motionless outlines of the trees not a leaf stirred not a branch moved a few moments of this awful silence and then I was aware of a soft tread on the boards of the veranda so stealthy that it seemed in impression directly on my brain rather than upon the nerves of hearing immediately afterwards a black figure darkened the glass door and I perceived that a face was pressed against the upper panes a shiver ran down my back and my hair was conscious of a tendency to rise and stand at right angles to my head it was the figure of an Indian broad-shouldered and immense indeed the largest figure of a man I have ever seen outside of a circus hall by some power of light that seemed to generate itself in the brain I saw the strong dark face with the aquiline nose and high cheekbones flattened against the glass the direction of the gaze I could not determine but faint gleams of light as the big eyes rolled round and showed their whites told me plainly that no corner of the room escaped their searching for what seemed fully five minutes the dark figure stood there with the huge shoulders bent forward so as to bring the head down to the level of the glass while behind him though not nearly so large the shadowy form of the other Indian swayed to and fro like a bent tree while I waited in an agony of suspense and agitation for their next movement little currents of icy sensation ran up and down my spine and my heart seemed alternately to stop beating and then start off again with terrifying rapidity they must have heard its thumping and the singing of the blood in my head moreover I was conscious as I felt a cold stream of perspiration trickle down my face of a desire to scream to shout to bang the walls like a child to make a noise or do anything that would relieve the suspense and bring things to a speedy climax it was probably this incarnation that led me to another discovery for when I tried to bring my rifle from behind my back to raise it and have it pointed at the door ready to fire I found that I was powerless to move the muscles paralyzed by this strange fear refused to obey the will here indeed was a terrifying complication there was a faint sound of rattling at the brass knob and the door was pushed open a couple of inches a pause of a few seconds and it was pushed open still further without a sound of footsteps that was appreciable to my ears the two figures glided into the room and the man behind gently closed the door after him they were alone with me between the four walls could they see me standing there so still and straight in my corner had they perhaps already seen me my blood surged and sang like the role of drums in an orchestra and though I did my best to suppress my breathing it sounded like the rushing of wind through a pneumatic tube my suspense as to the next move was soon at an end only however to give place to a new and keener alarm the men had hitherto exchanged no words and no signs but here were general indications of a movement across the room and whichever way they went they would have to pass round the table if they came my way they would have to pass within six inches of my person while I was considering this very disagreeable possibility I perceived that the smaller Indian smaller by comparison suddenly raised his arm and pointed to the ceiling the other fellow raised his head and followed the direction of his companion's arm I began to understand at last they were going upstairs and the room directly overhead to which they pointed had been until this night my bedroom it was the room in which I had experienced that very morning so strange a sensation of fear but for which I should then have been lying asleep in a narrow bed against the window the Indians then began to move silently around the room they were going upstairs and they were coming round my side of the table so stealthy were their movements that but for the abnormally sensitive state of the nerves I should never have heard them as it was their cat-like tread was distinctly audible like two monstrous black cats they came round the table to warn me and for the first time I perceived that the smaller of the two dragged something along the floor behind him as it trailed along over the floor with a soft sweeping sound I somehow got the impression that it was a large dead thing with outstretched wings or a large spreading cedar branch whatever it was I was unable to see it even in outline and I was too terrified even had I possessed the power over my muscles to move my neck forward in the effort to determine its nature nearer and nearer they came the leader rested a giant hand upon the table as he moved my lips were glued together and the air seemed to burn in my nostrils I tried to close my eyes so that I might not see as they passed me but my eyelids had stiffened and refused to obey would they never get by me? sensation seemed also to have left my legs and it was as if I was standing or mere supports of wood or stone worse still I was conscious that I was losing the power of balance the power to stand upright or even to lean backwards against the wall some force was drawing me forward and a dizzy terror seized me that I should lose my balance and topple forward against the Indians just as they were in the act of passing me even moments drawn out into hours must come to an end some time and almost before I knew it the figures had passed me and had their feet upon the lower step of the stairs leading to the upper bedrooms there could not have been six inches between us and yet I was conscious only of a current of cold air that followed them they had not touched me and I was convinced that they had not seen me even the trailing thing on the floor behind them had not touched my feet as I had dreaded it would and on such an occasion as this I was grateful even for the smallest mercies the absence of the Indians from my immediate neighborhood brought little sense of relief I stood shivering and shuddering in my corner and beyond being able to breathe more freely I felt no wit less uncomfortable also I was aware that a certain light which without apparent source or rays had enabled me to follow their every gesture and movement had gone out of the room with their departure and our natural darkness now filled the room and pervaded its every corner so that I could barely make out the positions of the windows and the glass doors as I said before my condition was evidently an abnormal one the capacity for feeling surprised seemed as in my dreams to be wholly absent my senses recorded with unusual accuracy every smallest occurrence but I was able to draw only the simplest deductions the Indians soon reached the top of the stairs and there they halted for a moment I had not the faintest clue as to their next movement they appeared to hesitate they were listening attentively then I heard one of them who by the weight of his soft tread must have been the giant crossed the narrow corridor and entered the room directly overhead my own little bedroom but for the insistence of that unaccountable dread I had experienced there in the morning I should at that very moment have been lying in the bed with the big Indian in the room standing beside me for the space of a hundred seconds there was silence such as might have existed before the birth of sound it was followed by a long quivering shriek of terror which ran out into the night and ended in a short gulp before it had run its full course at the same moment the other Indian left his place at the head of the stairs and joined his companion in the bedroom I heard the thing trailing behind him along the floor I thought followed as of something heavy falling and then all became as still and silent as before it was at this point that the atmosphere surcharged all day with the electricity of a fierce storm found relief in a dancing flash of brilliant lightning simultaneously with a crash of loudest thunder for five seconds every article in the room was visible to me with amazing distinctness and through the windows I saw the tree trunks standing in solemn rows the thunder peeled and echoed across the lake and among the distant islands and the floodgates of heaven then opened and let out their rain in streaming torrents the drops fell with a swift rushing sound upon the still waters of the lake which leaped up to meet them and pattered with the rattle of shot on the leaves of the maples and the roof of the cottage a moment later and another flash even more brilliant and of longer duration than the first lit up the sky from zenith to horizon and bathed the room momentarily in dazzling whiteness I could see the rain glistening on the leaves and branches outside the wind rose suddenly and in less than a minute the storm that had been gathering all day burst forth in its full fury above all the noisy voices of the elements the slightest sounds in the room overhead made themselves heard and in the few seconds of deep silence that followed the shriek of terror and pain I was aware that the movements had commenced again the men were leaving the room and approaching the top of the stairs a short pause and they began to descend behind them tumbling from step to step I could hear that trailing thing that dragged along it had become ponderous I awaited their approach with a degree of calmness almost of apathy which was only explicable on the ground that after a certain point nature applies her own anaesthetic and a merciful condition of numbness supervenes on they came step by step nearer and nearer with the shuffling sound of the burden behind growing louder as they approached they were already half way down the stairs when I was galvanised afresh into a condition of terror by the consideration of a new and horrible possibility it was the reflection that if another vivid flash of lightning were to come when the shadowy procession was in the room perhaps when it was actually passing in front of me I should see everything in detail and worse be seen myself I could only hold my breath and wait wait while the minutes lengthened into hours and the procession made it slow progress round the room the Indians had reached the foot of the staircase the form of the huge leader loomed in the doorway of the passage and the burden with an ominous thud had dropped from the last step to the floor there was a moment's pause while I saw the Indian turn and stooped to assist his companion then the procession moved forward again entered the room close on my left and began to move slowly round my side of the table the leader was already beyond me and his companion dragging on the floor behind him the burden whose confused outline I could only dimly make out was exactly in front of me when the cavalcade came to a dead halt at the same moment with the strange suddenness of thunderstorms the splash of the rain ceased altogether and the wind died away into utter silence for the space of five seconds my heart seemed to stop beating and then the worst came a double flash of lightning lit up the room and its contents with merciless vividness the huge Indian leader stood a few feet past me on my right one leg was stretched forward in the act of taking a step his immense shoulders were turned towards his companion and in all their magnificent fierceness I saw the outline of his features his gaze was directed upon the burden his companion was dragging along the floor but his profile with the big aquiline nose high cheekbone straight black hair and bold chin burnt itself in that brief instant into my brain never again to fade dwarfish compared to this giant figure appeared the proportions of the other Indian who within 12 inches of my face was stooping over the thing he was dragging in a position that lent to his person the additional horror of deformity and the burden lying upon a sweeping cedar branch which he held and dragged by a long stem was the body of a white man the scalp had been neatly lifted and blood lay in a broad smear upon the cheeks and forehead then for the first time that night the terror that had paralysed my muscles and my will lifted its unholy spell from my soul with a loud cry I stretched out my arms to seize the big indian by the throat and grasping only air tumbled forward unconscious upon the ground I had recognised the body and the face was my own it was bright daylight when a man's voice recalled me to consciousness I was lying where I had fallen and the farmer was standing in the room with the loaves of bread in his hands the horror of the night was still in my heart and as the bluff settler helped me to my feet and picked up the rifle which had fallen with me with many questions and expressions of condolence I imagine my brief replies were neither self-explanatory nor even intelligible that day after a thorough and fruitless search of the house I left the island and went over to spend my last ten days with the farmer and when the time came for me to leave the necessary reading had been accomplished and my nerves had completely recovered their balance on the day of my departure the farmer started early in his big boat with my belongings to row to the point twelve miles distant where a little steamer ran twice a week for the accommodation of hunters late in the afternoon I went off in another direction in my canoe wishing to see the island once again where I had been the victim of so strange an experience in due course I arrived there and made a tour of the island I also made a search of the little house and it was not without a curious sensation in my heart that I entered the little upstairs bedroom there seemed nothing unusual just after I re-embarked I saw a canoe gliding ahead of me around the curve of the island a canoe was an unusual sight at this time of the year and this one seemed to have sprung from nowhere altering my course a little I watched it disappear around the next projecting point of rock it had high curving boughs and there were two Indians in it I lingered with some excitement to see if it would appear again round the other side of the island and in less than five minutes it came into view there were less than two hundred yards between us and the Indians sitting on their haunches were paddling swiftly in my direction I never paddled faster in my life than I did in those next few minutes when I turned to look again the Indians had altered their course and were again circling the island the sun was sinking behind the forests of the mainland and the crimson-coloured cloud of sunset were reflected in the waters of the lake when I looked round for the last time and saw the big bark canoe and its two dusky occupants still going round the island then the shadows deepened rapidly the lake grew black and the night wind blew its first breath in my face as I turned a corner and a projecting bluff of rock hid from my view both island and canoe End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Ian Verley The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Algernon Blackwood Chapter 3 A Case of Eavesdropping Jim Shorthouse was the sort of fellow who always made a mess of things everything with which his hands or mind came into contact issued from such contact in an unqualified and irremediable state of mess his college days were a mess he was twice rusticated his school days were a mess he went a half a dozen each passing him on to the next with a worse character and in a more developed state of mess his early boyhood was the sort of mess that copybooks and dictionaries spell with a big M and his babyhood was the embodiment of howling yowling screaming mess at the age of forty however there came a change in his troubled life when he met a girl with a half a million in her own right who consented to marry him and who very soon succeeded in reducing his most messy existence into a state of comparative order and system certain incidents important and otherwise of jim's life would never have come to be told here but for the fact that in getting into his messes and out of them again he succeeded in drawing himself into the atmosphere of peculiar circumstances and strange happenings he attracted to his path the curious adventures of life is unfailingly as meet attracts flies and jam wasps it is to the meet and jam of his life so to speak that he owes his experiences his afterlife was all pudding which attracts nothing but greedy children with marriage the interest of his life ceased for all but one person and his path became regular as the sons instead of erratic as a comets the first experience in order of time that he related to me shows that somewhere late in behind his disarranged nervous system there lay psychic perceptions of an uncommon order about the age of twenty two i think after his second rustication his father's purse and patients had equally given out and jim found himself stranded high and dry in a large american city high and dry and the only clothes that had no holes in them safely in the keeping of his uncle's wardrobe careful reflection on a bench in one of the city parks led them to the conclusion that the only thing to do was to persuade the city editor of one of the daily journals that he possessed an observant mind and a ready pen and that he could do good work for your papers sir as a reporter this then he did standing at a most unnatural angle between the editor and the window to conceal the whereabouts of the holes guess will have to give you a week's trial said the editor who ever on the lookout for good chance material took on shows of men in that way and retained on the average one man per show anyhow it gave jim short house the wherewithal to sew up the holes and relieve his uncle's wardrobe of its burden then he went to find living quarters and in this proceeding his unique characteristics already referred to what theosophists will call his karma began unmistakably to assert themselves for it was in the house he eventually selected that this sad tale took place there are no diggings in american cities the alternatives for small incomes are grim enough rooms in a boarding house where meals are served or in a room house where no meals are served not even breakfast rich people live in palaces of course but jim had nothing to do with sitch like his horizon was bounded by boarding houses and room houses and owing to the necessary irregularity of his meals and hours he took the latter it was a large gaunt looking place in a side street with thirty windows and a creaking iron gate but the rooms were large and the one he selected and paid for in advance was on the top floor the landlady looked gaunt and dusty as the house and quite as old her eyes were green and faded and her features large wow she twanged with her electrifying western drawl that's the room if you like it and that's the price I said now if you want it why just say so and if you don't why it don't hurt me any jim wanted to shake her but he feared the clouds of long accumulated dust in her clothes and as the price and size of the room suited him he decided to take it anyone else on this floor he asked she looked at him clearly out of her faded eyes before she answered none of my guests ever put such questions to me before she said but I guess you're different why there's no one at all but an old gent that stayed here every bit of five years he's over there pointing to the end of the passage ah I see said short house feebly so I'm alone up here reckon you are pretty near she twanged out ending the conversation abruptly by turning her back on her new guest and going slowly and deliberately downstairs the newspaper work kept short house out most of the night three times a week he got home at one a.m. and three times at three a.m. the room proved comfortable enough and he paid for a second week his unusual hours had so far prevented his meeting any inmates of the house and not a sound had been heard from the old gent who shared the floor with him it seemed a very quiet house one night about the middle of the second week he came home tired after a long day's work the lamp that usually stood all night in the hall had burned itself out and he had to stumble upstairs in the dark he made considerable noise in doing so but nobody seemed to be disturbed the whole house was utterly quiet and probably everybody was asleep there were no lights under any of the doors all was in darkness it was after two o'clock after reading some English letters that had come during the day and dipping for a few minutes into a book he became drowsy and got ready for bed just as he was about to get in between the sheets he stopped for a moment and listened there rose in the night as he did so the sound of steps somewhere in the house below listening attentively he heard that it was somebody coming upstairs a heavy tread and the owner taking no pains to step quietly on it came up the stairs tramp, tramp, tramp evidently the tread of a big man and one in something of a hurry at once thoughts connected somehow with fire and police flashed through Jim's brain but there were no sounds of voices with the steps and he reflected in the same moment that it could only be the old gentleman keeping late hours and tumbling upstairs in the darkness he was in the act of turning out the gas and stepping into bed when the house resumed its former stillness by the footsteps suddenly coming to a dead stop immediately outside of his own room with his hand on the gas short house paused a moment before turning it out to see if the steps would go on again when he was startled by a loud knocking on his door instantly in obedience to a curious and unexplained instinct he turned out the light leaving himself and the room in total darkness he had scarcely taken a step across the room to open the door when a voice from the other side of the wall so close it almost sounded in his ear exclaimed in German is that you father? come in the speaker was a man in the next room and the knocking after all had not been on his own door but on that of the adjoining chamber which he had supposed to be vacant almost before the man in the passage had time to answer in German let me in at once Jim heard someone cross the floor and had locked the door then it was slammed to with a bang and there was audible the sound of footsteps about the room and of chairs being drawn up to a table and knocking against furniture on the way the men seemed wholly regardless of their neighbors comfort for they made noise enough to awaken the dead serves me right for taking a room in such a cheap hole reflected Jim in the darkness I wonder whom she's let the room to the two rooms the landlady had told him were originally one she had put up a thin partition just a row of boards to increase her income the doors were adjacent and only separated by the massive upright beam between them when one was opened or shut the other rattled with utter indifference to the comfort of the other sleepers in the house the two Germans had meanwhile commenced to talk both at once and at the top of their voices they talked emphatically even angrily the words father and auto were freely used short house understood German but as he stood listening for the first minute or two an eavesdropper in spite of himself it was difficult to make head or tail of the talk for neither would give way to the other and the jumble of guttural sounds and unfinished sentences was wholly unintelligible then very suddenly both voices dropped together and after a moment's pause the deep tones of one of them who seemed to be the father said with the utmost distinctness you mean auto that you refuse to get it there was a sound of someone shuffling in the chair before the answer came i mean that i don't know how to get it it is so much father it is too much a part of it a part of it cried the other with an angry oath a part of it when ruin and disgrace are already in the house is worse than useless if you can get half you can get all you wretched fool half measures only damn all concerned you told me last time began the other firmly but was not allowed to finish a succession of horrible oaths drowned his sentence and the father went on in a voice vibrating with anger you know she'll give you anything you have only been married a few months if you ask and give a plausible reason you can get all we want and more you can ask it temporarily all will be paid back it'll reestablish the firm and she will never know what was done with it with that amount auto you know i can recoup all those terrible losses and in less than a year all will be repaid but without it you must get it auto hear me you must am i to be arrested for the misuse of trust monies is our honored name to be cursed and spat on the old man choked and stammered in his anger and desperation short house stood shivering in the darkness and listening in spite of himself the conversation had carried him along with it and he had been for some reason afraid to let his neighborhood be known but at this point he realized that he had listened too long and that he must inform the two men that they could be overheard to every single syllable so he coughed loudly and at the same time rattled the handle of his door it seemed to have no effect for the voices continued just as loudly as before the sun protesting and the father growing more and more angry he coughed again persistently and also contrived purposely in the darkness to tumble against the partition feeling the thin boards yield easily under his weight and making a considerable noise in so doing but the voices went on unconcernedly and louder than ever could it be possible they had not heard? by this time Jim was more concerned about his own sleep than the morality of overhearing the private scandals of his neighbors and he went out into the passage and knocked smartly at their door instantly as if by magic the sounds ceased everything dropped into utter silence there was no light under the door not a whisper could be heard within he knocked again but received no answer gentlemen he began at length with his lips close to the keyhole and in German please do not talk so loud I can overhear all you say in the next room besides it is very late and I wished to sleep he paused and listened but no answer was forthcoming he turned the handle and found the door was locked not a sound broke the stillness of the night except the faint swish of the wind over the skylight and the creaking of a board here and there in the house below the cold air of a very early morning crept down the passage and made him shiver the silence of the house began to impress him disagreeably he looked behind him and about him hoping and yet fearing that something would break the stillness the voices still seemed to ring on in his ears but that sudden silence when he knocked at the door affected him far more unpleasantly than the voices and put strange thoughts in his brain thoughts he did not like or approve moving stealthily from the door he peered over the banisters into the space below it was like a deep vault that might conceal in its shadows anything that was not good it was not difficult to fancy he saw an indistinct moving to and fro below him was that a figure sitting on the stairs peering up obliquely at him out of hideous eyes was that a sound of whispering and shuffling down there in the dark halls and forsaken landings was it something more than the inarticulate murmur of the night the wind made an effort overhead singing over the skylight and the door behind him rattled and made him start he turned to go back to his room and the draught closed the door slowly in his face as if there was someone pressing against it from the other side when he pushed it open and went in a hundred shadowy forms seemed to draft swiftly and silently back to their corners and hiding places but in the adjoining room the sounds had entirely ceased and short house soon crept into bed and left the house with its inmates waking or sleeping to take care of themselves while he entered the region of dreams and silence next day strong in the common sense that the sunlight brings he determined to lodge a complaint against the noisy occupants of the next room and make the landlady request them to modify their voices at such late hours of the night and morning but it so happened that she was not to be seen that day and when he returned from the office at midnight it was of course too late looking under the door as he came up to bed he noticed that there was no light and concluded that the Germans were not in so much the better he went to sleep about one o'clock fully decided that if they came up later and woke him with their horrible noises he would not rest till he had roused the landlady and made a reproof them with that authoritative twang in which every word was like the lash of a metallic whip however there proved to be no need for such drastic measures for short house slumbered peacefully all night and his dreams chiefly of the fields of grain and flocks of sheep on the far away farms of his father's estate were permitted to run their fanciful course unbroken two nights later however when he came home tired out after a difficult day and wet and blown about by one of the wickedest storms he had ever seen his dreams always of the fields and sheep were not destined to be so undisturbed he had already dozed off in that delicious glow that follows the removal of wet clothes and the immediate snuggling under warm blankets when his consciousness hovering on the borderland between sleep and waking was vaguely troubled by a sound that rose indistinctly from the depths of the house and between the gusts of wind and rain reached his ears with an accompanying sense of uneasiness and discomfort it rose on the night air with some pretense of regularity dying away again in the roar of the wind to reassert itself distantly in the deep brief hushes of the storm for a few minutes jim's dreams were colored only tinged as it were by this impression of fear approaching from somewhere insensibly upon him his consciousness at first refused to be drawn back from that enchanted region where it had wandered and he did not immediately awaken but the nature of his dreams changed unpleasantly he saw the sheep suddenly run huddled together as though frightened by the neighborhood of an enemy while the fields of waving corn became agitated as though some monster were moving uncouthly among the crowded stalks the sky grew dark and in his dream an awful sound came somewhere from the clouds it was in reality the sound downstairs growing more distinct short house shifted uneasily across the bed with something like a groan of distress the next minute he awoke and found himself sitting straight up in bed listening was it a nightmare? had he been dreaming evil dreams? that his flesh crawled and the hair stirred on his head the room was dark and silent but outside the wind howled dismally and drove the rain with repeated assaults against the rattling windows how nice it would be the thought flashed through his mind if all winds, like the west wind, went down with the sun they made such fiendish noises at night like the crying of angry voices in the daytime they had such a different sound if only hark it was no dream after all for the sound was momentarily growing louder and its cause was coming up the stairs he found himself speculating feebly what this cause might be but the sound was still too indistinct to enable him to arrive at any definite conclusion the voice of a church clock striking too made itself heard above the wind it was just about the hour when the Germans had commenced the performance three nights before shorthouse made up his mind that if they began it again he would not put up with it for very long yet he was already horribly conscious of the difficulty he would have of getting out of bed the clothes were so warm and comforting against his back the sound, still steadily coming nearer had by this time become differentiated from the confused clamor of the elements and had resolved itself into the footsteps of one or more persons the Germans, hang em! thought Jim but what on earth is the matter with me? I never felt so queer in all my life he was trembling all over and felt as cold as though he were in a freezing atmosphere his nerves were steady enough and he felt no diminution of physical courage but he was conscious of a curious sense of malaise and trepidation such as even the most vigorous men have been known to experience when in the first grip of some horrible and deadly disease as the footsteps approached this feeling of weakness increased he felt a strange lassitude creeping over him a sort of exhaustion accompanied by a growing numbness in the extremities and a sensation of dreaminess in the head as if perhaps the consciousness were leaving its accustomed seat in the brain and preparing to act on another plane yet strange to say as the vitality was slowly withdrawn from his body his senses seemed to grow more acute meanwhile the steps were already on the landing at the top of the stairs and short house still sitting upright in bed heard a heavy body brush past his door and along the wall outside almost immediately afterwards the loud knocking of someone's knuckles on the door of the adjoining room instantly though so far not a sound had proceeded from within he heard through the thin partition a chair pushed back and a man quickly crossed the floor and opened the door ah, it's you he heard in the son's voice had the fellow then been sitting silently in there all this time waiting for his father's arrival to short house it came not as a pleasant reflection by any means there was no answer to this dubious greeting but the door was closed quickly and then there was a sound as if a bag or parcel had been thrown on a wooden table and had slid some distance across it before stopping what's that? asked the son with anxiety in his tone you may know before I go returned the other gruffly indeed his voice was more than gruff it betrayed ill suppressed passion short house was conscious of a strong desire to stop the conversation before it proceeded any further but somehow or other his will was not as equal to the task and he could not get out of bed the conversation went on every tone and inflection distinctly audible above the noise of the storm in a low voice the father continued Jim missed some of the words at the beginning of the sentence it ended with but now they've all left and I've managed to get up to you you know what I've come for there was a distinct menace in his tone yes returned the other I've been waiting and the money asked the father impatiently no answer you've had three days to get it in and I've contrived to stave off the worst so far but tomorrow is the end no answer speak Otto what have you got for me speak my son for God's sake tell me there was a moment's silence during which the old man's vibrating accents seemed to echo through the room then came in a low voice the answer I have nothing Otto cried the other with passion nothing I can get nothing came almost in a whisper you lie cried the other in a half stifled voice I swear you lie give me the money a chair was heard scraping along the floor evidently the men had been sitting over the table and one of them had risen short house heard the bag or parcel drawn across the table and then a step as if one of the men was crossing to the door father what's in that I must know said Otto with the first signs of determination in his voice there must have been an effort on the son's part to gain possession of the parcel in question and on the father's to retain it for between them it fell to the ground a curious rattle followed its contact with the floor instantly there were sounds of a scuffle the men were struggling for the possession of the box the elder man with oaths and blasphemous implications the other with short gasps that betoken the strength of his efforts it was of short duration and the younger man had evidently won for a minute later was heard his angry exclamation I knew it heard jewels you scoundrel you shall never have them it is a crime the elder man uttered a short guttural laugh which froze Jim's blood and made his skin creep no word was spoken and for the space of ten seconds there was a living silence then the air trembled with the sound of a thud followed immediately by a groan and the crash of a heavy body falling over onto the table a second later there was a lurching from the table onto the floor and against the partition that separated the rooms the bed quivered an instant at the shock but the unholy spell was lifted from his soul and Jim's short house sprang out of bed and across the floor in a single bound he knew that ghastly murder had been done the murder by a father of his son with shaking fingers but a determined heart he lit the gas and the first thing in which his eyes corroborated the evidence of his ears was the horrifying detail that the lower portion of the partition bulged unnaturally into his own room the glaring paper with which it was covered had cracked under the tension and the boards beneath it bent inwards towards him what hideous load was behind them he shuddered to think all this he saw in less than a second since the final lurch against the wall not a sound had proceeded from the room not even a groan or a footstep all was still but the howl of the wind which to his ears had in it a note of triumphant horror short house was in the act of leaving the room to rouse the house and send for the police in fact his hand was already on the doorknob when something in the room arrested his attention out of the corner of his eyes he thought he caught sight of something moving he was sure of it and turning his eyes in the direction he found he was not mistaken something was creeping slowly towards him along the floor it was something dark and serpentine in shape and it came from the place where the partition bulged he stooped down to examine it with feelings of intense horror and repugnance and he discovered that it was moving toward him from the other side of the wall his eyes were fascinated and for the moment he was unable to move silently slowly from side to side like a thick worm he crawled forward into the room beneath his frightened eyes until at length he could stand it no longer and stretched out his arm to touch it but at the instant of contact he withdrew his hand with a suppressed scream it was sluggish and it was warm and he saw that his fingers were stained with living crimson a second more and shorthouse was out in the passage with his hand on the door of the next room it was locked he plunged forward with all his weight against it and the lock giving way he fell headlong into a room that was pitch dark and very cold in a moment he was on his feet again and trying to penetrate the blackness not a sound not a movement not even the sense of a presence it was empty miserably empty across the room he could trace the outline of a window with rain streaming down the outside and the blurred lights of the city beyond but the room was empty appallingly empty and so still he stood there cold as ice staring shivering listening suddenly there was a step behind him and a light flashed into the room and when he turned quickly with his arm up as if to ward off a terrific blow he found himself face to face with the landlady instantly the reaction began to set in it was nearly three o'clock in the morning and he was standing there with bare feet and striped pajamas in a small room which in the merciful light he perceived to be absolutely empty carpetless and without a stick of furniture or even a window blind there he stood staring at the disagreeable landlady and there she stood too staring and silent in a black wrapper her head almost bald her face white as chalk shading a sputtering candle with one bony hand and peering over it at him with her blinking green eyes she looked positively hideous wall she drawled at length i heard you're right enough guess you couldn't sleep or just prowl around a bit is that it? the empty room the absence of all traces of the recent tragedy the silence the hour his striped pajamas and bare feet everything together combined to deprive him momentarily of speech he stared at her blankly without a word wall clanked the awful voice my dear woman he burst out finally there's been something awful so far his desperation took him but no farther he positively stuck at the substantive oh there hasn't been nothing she said slowly still peering at him i reckon you've only seen and heard what the others did i never can keep folks on this floor long most of them catch on sooner or later that is the ones that's kind of quick and sensitive only you being an Englishman i thought you wouldn't mind nothing really happens it's only thinking like short house was beside himself he felt ready to pick her up and drop her over the banisters candle and all look there he said pointing at her within an inch of her blinking eyes with the fingers that had touched the oozing blood look there my good woman is that only thinking she stared a minute as if not knowing what he meant i guess so she said at length he followed her eyes and to his amazement saw that his fingers were as white as usual and quite free from the awful stain that had been there ten minutes before there was no sign of blood no amount of staring could bring it back had he gone out of his mind had his eyes and ears played such tricks with him had his senses become false and perverted he dashed past the landlady out into the passage and gained his own room in a couple of strides whew the partition no longer bulged the paper was not torn there was no creeping crawling thing on the faded old carpet it's all over now draw the metallic voice behind him i'm going to bed again he turned and saw the landlady slowly going downstairs again still shading the candle with her hand and peering up at him from time to time as she moved a black, ugly, unwholesome object he thought as she disappeared into the darkness below and the last flicker of her candle threw a queer-shaped shadow along the wall and over the ceiling without hesitating a moment short house threw himself into his clothes and went out of the house he preferred the storm to the horrors of the top floor and he walked the streets till daylight in the evening he told the landlady he would leave next day in spite of her assurances that nothing more would happen it never comes back she said that is not after he's killed short house gasped you gave me a lot for my money he growled well it aren't my show she drawled i'm no spirit medium you take chances some will sleep right along and never hear nothing others like yourself are different and get the whole thing who's the old gentleman does he hear it asked jim there's no gentleman at all she answered coolly i just told you that to make you feel easy like in case you did hear anything you were all alone on that floor say now she went on after a pause in which short house could think of nothing to say but unpublishable things say now do tell did you feel sort of cold when the show was on sort of tired and weak as if you might be going to die how can i say he answered savagely what i felt god only knows well but he won't tell she drawled out only i was wondering how you really did feel because the man who had the room last was found one morning in bed in bed he was dead he was the one before you though you don't need to get rattled so you're all right and it all really happened they do say this house used to be a private residence some twenty five years ago and a german family of the name of steinhardt lived here they had a big business in wall street and stood way up in things said her listener oh yes they did right at the top to one fine day it all bust and the old man skipped with the bootle skipped with the bootle that's so she said got clear away with all the money and the son was found dead in his house committed suicide it was thought though there was some said he couldn't have stabbed himself and fallen in that position they said he was murdered the father died in prison they tried to fasten the murder on him but there was no motive or no evidence or no something i forget now very pretty said short house i'll show you something mighty queer anyways she drawled if you'll come upstairs a minute i've heard the steps and voices lots of times they don't fees me any i just as life here so many dogs barking you'll find the whole story in the newspapers if you look it up not what goes on here but the story of the germans my house would be ruined if they told all and i'd sue for damages they reached the bedroom and the woman went in and pulled up the edge of the carpet where short house had seen the blood soaking in the previous night look there if you feel like it said the old hag stooping down he saw dark dull stain in the boards that corresponded exactly to the shape and position of the blood as he had seen it that night he slept in a hotel and the following day he sought new quarters in the newspapers on file in his office after a long search he found twenty years back the detailed story substantially as the woman had said of steinhardt and coz failure the absconding and subsequent arrest of the senior partner and the suicide or murder of his son auto the landlady's room house had formerly in their private residents end of chapter three recording by ean verly