andstill, not convinced, but agreeably
perplexed. The ghosts here are truly old-fashioned.

My story is, and must probably remain, entirely devoid of proof, as
far as any kind of ghostly influence is concerned. We find ghosts
appearing, and imposing a certain course of action on a living
witness, for definite purposes of their own. The course of action
prescribed was undeniably pursued, and apparently the purpose of the
ghosts was fulfilled, but what that purpose was their agent declines
to state, and conjecture is hopelessly baffled.

The documents in the affair have been published by the Society for
Psychical Research (Proceedings, vol. xi., p. 547), and are here used
for reference. But I think the matter will be more intelligible if I
narrate it exactly as it came under my own observation. The names of
persons and places are all fictitious, and are the same as those used
in the documents published by the S.P.R.

HALF-PAST ONE O'CLOCK

In October, 1893, I was staying at a town which we shall call
Rapingham. One night I and some kinsfolk dined with another old
friend of all of us, a Dr. Ferrier. In the course of dinner he asked
a propos de bottes:--

"Have you heard of the ghost in Blake Street?" a sunny, pleasant
street of respectable but uninteresting antiquity in Rapingham.

We had none of us heard of the ghost, and begged the doctor to
enlighten our ignorance. His story ran thus--I have it in his own
writing as far as its essence goes:--

"The house," he said, "belongs to my friends, the Applebys, who let
it, as they live elsewhere. A quiet couple took it and lived in it
for five years, when the husband died, and the widow went away. They
made no complaint while tenants. The house stood empty for some time,
and all I know personally about the matter is that I, my wife, and the
children were in the dining-room one Sunday when we heard unusual
noises in the drawing-room overhead. We went through the rooms but
could find no cause or explanation of the disturbance, and thought no
more about it.

"About six or seven years ago I let the house to a Mr. Buckley, who is
still the tenant. He was unmarried, and his family consisted of his
mother and sisters. They preceded him to put the place in order, and
before his arrival came to me in some irritation complaining that I
had let them _a haunted house_! They insisted that there were strange
noises, as if heavy weights were being dragged about, or hea