The Water Ghost and Others

Water Ghost and Others

Project Gutenberg's The Water Ghost and Others, by John Kendrick
Bangs #9 in our series by John Kendrick Bangs
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Title: The Water Ghost and Others
Author: John Kendrick Bangs
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year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 4, 2003]
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[Illustration]
John Kendrick Bangs
THE WATER GHOST AND OTHERS

To Francis Sedgwick Bangs
CONTENTS
THE WATER GHOST OF HARROWBY HALL
THE SPECTRE COOK OF BANGLETOP
THE SPECK ON THE LENS
A MIDNIGHT VISITOR
A QUICKSILVER CASSANDRA
THE GHOST CLUB
A PSYCHICAL PRANK
THE LITERARY REMAINS OF THOMAS BRAGDON

ILLUSTRATIONS
"'WELCOME TO BANGLETOP'" A DEPARTING COOK THE
BARON'S BREAKFAST WAS NOT PAY-DAY TERWILLIGER TO
THE RESCUE "COOK!" HE WHISPERED THE PRESENCE HAD
ASSUMED SHAPE "'NO TALKERS,' RETORTED THE GHOST"
THEY SHOOK HANDS AND PARTED THE H'EARL, OF
MUGLEY "'TO ARIADNE, OF COURSE'" "A DUKE IS A DUKE
THE WORLD OVER" BACK TO THE SPIRIT VALE "MARTYRS'
NIGHT" "DO YOU HEAR THAT BOLT SLIDE?" THE VISITOR
ARRIVES "I LOOKED UPON MY REFLECTION IN THE GLASS"

THE RED TIE "NOT A CARD FELL" "'GRAB HOLD OF ME,
BOYS'" "I MUST HAVE FAINTED" THE MIND-READING FEATS
ON THE CLUB'S BUTLER "5010" "PEGGING SHOES LIKE A
GENTLEMAN" 5010 BECOMES EXCITED "NO LESS A PERSON
THAN HAWLEY HICKS" "'JUST WATCH ME'" NOAH AND
DAVY CROCKETT SOLOMON AND DOCTOR JOHNSON
MOZART TRIES HIS HAND AT THE BANJO WAITING FOR THE
CRITICS NAPOLEON BONAPARTE AND THE DUKE OF
WELLINGTON THE GIFT OF THE SPOONS "'LET ME SHAAK
DTHOT HAND'" "HE WAS IN AN UNUSUALLY EXUBERANT
MOOD" ON A SPIRIT SHIP "MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN THE
REALITY" GIUSEPPE ZOCCO "BUT FINALLY I OPENED THE
BOX" "GAZING INTO THE FIRE WAS TOM BRAGDON" "'YOU
GOIN' TO KEEP A DIARY?'"

THE WATER GHOST OF HARROWBY HALL
The trouble with Harrowby Hall was that it was haunted, and, what was
worse, the ghost did not content itself with merely appearing at the
bedside of the afflicted person who saw it, but persisted in remaining
there for one mortal hour before it would disappear.
It never appeared except on Christmas Eve, and then as the clock was
striking twelve, in which respect alone was it lacking in that originality
which in these days is a sine qua non of success in spectral life. The
owners of Harrowby Hall had done their utmost to rid themselves of
the damp and dewy lady who rose up out of the best bedroom floor at
midnight, but without avail. They had tried stopping the clock, so that
the ghost would not know when it was midnight; but she made her
appearance just the same, with that fearful miasmatic personality of
hers, and there she would stand until everything about her was
thoroughly saturated.
Then the owners of Harrowby Hall calked up every crack in the floor
with the very best quality of hemp, and over this was placed layers of
tar and canvas; the walls were made water-proof, and the doors and
windows likewise, the proprietors having conceived the notion that the
unexorcised lady would find it difficult to leak into the room after these
precautions had been taken; but even this did not suffice. The following
Christmas Eve she appeared as promptly as before, and frightened the

occupant of the room quite out of his senses by sitting down alongside
of him and gazing with her cavernous blue eyes into his; and he noticed,
too, that in her long, aqueously bony fingers bits of dripping sea-weed
were entwined, the ends hanging down, and these ends she drew across
his forehead until he became like one insane. And then he swooned
away, and was found unconscious in his bed the next