Told After Supper | Page 7

money. They
make sure they know the card, they fancy they saw it. They don't grasp
the idea that it is the quickness of the hand that has deceived their eye."
He said he had known young men go off to a boat race, or a cricket
match, with pounds in their pocket, and come home, early in the
afternoon, stone broke; having lost all their money at this demoralising
game.
He said he should take Mr. Coombes's half-crown, because it would
teach Mr. Coombes a very useful lesson, and probably be the means of
saving Mr. Coombes's money in the future; and he should give the
two-and-sixpence to the blanket fund.
"Don't you worry about that," retorted old Mr. Coombes. "Don't you
take the half-crown OUT of the blanket fund: that's all."
And he put his money on the middle card, and turned it up.
Sure enough, it really was the queen!
We were all very much surprised, especially the curate.
He said that it did sometimes happen that way, though--that a man did
sometimes lay on the right card, by accident.
Our curate said it was, however, the most unfortunate thing a man
could do for himself, if he only knew it, because, when a man tried and
won, it gave him a taste for the so-called sport, and it lured him on into
risking again and again; until he had to retire from the contest, a broken
and ruined man.
Then he did the trick again. Mr. Coombes said it was the card next the
coal-scuttle this time, and wanted to put five shillings on it.
We laughed at him, and tried to persuade him against it. He would
listen to no advice, however, but insisted on plunging.
Our curate said very well then: he had warned him, and that was all that
he could do. If he (Mr. Coombes) was determined to make a fool of
himself, he (Mr. Coombes) must do so.
Our curate said he should take the five shillings and that would put
things right again with the blanket fund.
So Mr. Coombes put two half-crowns on the card next the coal- scuttle

and turned it up.
Sure enough, it was the queen again!
After that, Uncle John had a florin on, and HE won.
And then we all played at it; and we all won. All except the curate, that
is. He had a very bad quarter of an hour. I never knew a man have such
hard luck at cards. He lost every time.
We had some more punch after that; and Uncle made such a funny
mistake in brewing it: he left out the whisky. Oh, we did laugh at him,
and we made him put in double quantity afterwards, as a forfeit.
Oh, we did have such fun that evening!
And then, somehow or other, we must have got on to ghosts; because
the next recollection I have is that we were telling ghost stories to each
other.

TEDDY BIFFLES' STORY

Teddy Biffles told the first story, I will let him repeat it here in his own
words.
(Do not ask me how it is that I recollect his own exact words-- whether
I took them down in shorthand at the time, or whether he had the story
written out, and handed me the MS. afterwards for publication in this
book, because I should not tell you if you did. It is a trade secret.)
Biffles called his story -
JOHNSON AND EMILY OR THE FAITHFUL GHOST (Teddy
Biffles' Story)
I was little more than a lad when I first met with Johnson. I was home
for the Christmas holidays, and, it being Christmas Eve, I had been
allowed to sit up very late. On opening the door of my little bedroom,
to go in, I found myself face to face with Johnson, who was coming out.
It passed through me, and uttering a long low wail of misery,
disappeared out of the staircase window.
I was startled for the moment--I was only a schoolboy at the time, and
had never seen a ghost before,--and felt a little nervous about going to
bed. But, on reflection, I remembered that it was only sinful people that
spirits could do any harm to, and so tucked myself up, and went to
sleep.
In the morning I told the Pater what I had seen.

"Oh yes, that was old Johnson," he answered. "Don't you be frightened
of that; he lives here." And then he told me the poor thing's history.
It seemed that Johnson, when it was alive, had loved, in early life, the
daughter of a former lessee of our house, a very beautiful girl, whose
Christian name had been Emily. Father did not know her other name.
Johnson was too