morning when our hosts came we were glad to bid
good-bye to the haunted house with our bones whole.

The funniest thing was that only those of my fellow guests had the worst
of it who had denied the existence of Ghosts. Those of us who had kept
respectfully silent had not been touched.

Those who had received a blow or two averred that the blows could not
have been given by invisible hands inasmuch as the blows were too
substantial. But all of us were certain that it was no trick played by
a human being.

The passing horses and the whispering passers-by had given us a queer
creepy sensation.

* * * * *

In this connection may be mentioned a few haunted houses in other parts
of India. There are one or two very well-known haunted houses in
Calcutta.

The "Hastings House" is one of them. It is situated at Alipore in the
Southern suburb of Calcutta. This is a big palatial building now owned
by the Government of Bengal. At one time it was the private residence of
the Governor-General of India whose name it bears. At present it is used
as the "State Guest House" in which the Indian Chiefs are put up when
they come to pay official visits to His Excellency in Calcutta. It
appears that in a lane not very far from this house was fought the
celebrated duel between Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of
India and Sir Philip Francis, a Member of his Council and the reputed
author of the "Letters of Junius."

While living in this house Warren Hastings married Baroness Imhoff
sometime during the first fortnight of August about 140 years ago. "The
event was celebrated by great festivities"; and, as expected, the bride
came home in a splendid equipage. It is said that this scene is
re-enacted on the anniversary of the wedding by supernatural agency and
a ghostly carriage duly enters the gate in the evening once every year.
The clatter of hoofs and the rattle of iron-tyred wheels are distinctly
heard advancing up to the portico; then there is the sound of the
opening and closing of the carriage door, and lastly the carriage
proceeds onwards, but it does not come out from under the porch. It
vanishes mysteriously.

To-day is the 15th of August and this famous equipage must have glided
in and out to the utter bewilderment of watchful eyes and ears within
the last fortnight.[2]

* * * * *

There is another well-known ghostly house in Calcutta in which the onl