"Never tell me that it was my fancy, or that it was any other soundwhich I mistook for that I tell you of. I heard the wind whistlethrough the arches of the church. I heard the steeple strain andcreak. I heard the rain as it came driving against the walls. Ifelt the bells shake. I saw the ropes sway to and fro. And Iheard that voice."
"What did it say?" asked Tom Cobb.
"I don"t know what; I don"t know that it spoke. It gave a kind ofcry, as any one of us might do, if something dreadful followed usin a dream, and came upon us unawares; and then it died off:
seeming to pass quite round the church."
"I don"t see much in that," said John, drawing a long breath, andlooking round him like a man who felt relieved.
"Perhaps not," returned his friend, "but that"s not all."
"What more do you mean to say, sir, is to come?" asked John,pausing in the act of wiping his face upon his apron. "What areyou a-going to tell us of next?"
"What I saw."
"Saw!" echoed all three, bending forward.
"When I opened the church-door to come out," said the little man,with an expression of face which bore ample testimony to thesincerity of his conviction, "when I opened the church-door to comeout, which I did suddenly, for I wanted to get it shut again beforeanother gust of wind came up, there crossed me--so close, that bystretching out my finger I could have touched it--something in thelikeness of a man. It was bare-headed to the storm. It turned itsface without stopping, and fixed its eyes on mine. It was a ghost-a spirit."
"Whose?" they all three cried together.
In the excess of his emotion (for he fell back trembling in hischair, and waved his hand as if entreating them to question him nofurther), his answer was lost on all but old John Willet, whohappened to be seated close beside him.
"Who!" cried Parkes and Tom Cobb, looking eagerly by turns atSolomon Daisy and at Mr Willet. "Who was it?"
"Gentlemen," said Mr Willet after a long pause, "you needn"t ask.
The likeness of a murdered man. This is the nineteenth of March."
A profound silence ensued.
"If you"ll take my advice," said John, "we had better, one and all,keep this a secret. Such tales would not be liked at the Warren.
Let us keep it to ourselves for the present time at all events, orwe may get into trouble, and Solomon may lose his place. Whetherit was really as he says, or whether it wasn"t, is no matter.
Right or wrong, nobody would believe him. As to the probabilities,I don"t myself think," said Mr Willet, eyeing the corners of theroom in a manner which showed that, like some other philosophers,he was not quite easy in his theory, "that a ghost as had been aman of sense in his lifetime, would be out a-walking in suchweather--I only know that I wouldn"t, if I was one."
But this heretical doctrine was strongly opposed by the otherthree, who quoted a great many precedents to show that bad weatherwas the very time for such appearances; and Mr Parkes (who had hada ghost in his family, by the mother"s side) argued the matter withso much ingenuity and force of illustration, that John was onlysaved from having to retract his opinion by the opportuneappearance of supper, to which they applied themselves with adreadful relish. Even Solomon Daisy himself, by dint of theelevating influences of fire, lights, brandy, and good company, sofar recovered as to handle his knife and fork in a highlycreditable manner, and to display a capacity both of eating anddrinking, such as banished all fear of his having sustained anylasting injury from his fright.
Supper done, they crowded round the fire again, and, as is commonon such occasions, propounded all manner of leading questionscalculated to surround the story with new horrors and surprises.
But Solomon Daisy, notwithstanding these temptations, adhered sosteadily to his original account, and repeated it so often, withsuch slight variations, and with such solemn asseverations of itstruth and reality, that his hearers were (with good reason) moreastonished than at first. As he took John Willet"s view of thematter in regard to the propriety of not bruiting the tale abroad,unless the spirit should appear to him again, in which case itwould be necessary to take immediate counsel with the clergyman, itwas solemnly resolved that it should be hushed up and kept quiet.
And as most men like to have a secret to tell which may exalt theirown importance, they arrived at this conclusion with perfectunanimity.
As it was by this time growing late, and was long past their usualhour of separating, the cronies parted for the night. SolomonDaisy, with a fresh candle in his lantern, repaired homewards underthe escort of long Phil Parkes and Mr Cobb, who were rather morenervous than himself. Mr Willet, after seeing them to the door,returned to collect his thoughts with the assistance of the boiler,and to listen to the storm of wind and rain, which had not yetabated one jot of its fury.