aphasia , a fact which might help to fix Lang’s whimsical notion somewhere in his mind; (3) although numerous other observers saw the supposed ghost of Mr Smart, only Dr Spettigue heard it talk .
The subsequent history of the second Hawke Square haunting may be recounted in few words. The manifestations extended over a number of years but with diminishing definition and intensity, finally dying away into merely wraith-like appearances and feeble rappings and scratchings. But this was not before the phenomena had come within the perception of a surprisingly large number of persons, including at least two casual patients of Dr Spettigue’s in whom any state of specific expectation is most unlikely. One of these, indeed, who was brought into the Doctor’s surgery after having been knocked down by a hansom cab, had that morning stepped off a boat which had brought him home from a ten years’ sojourn in China. This is extremely interesting, but so too is the circumstance that neither Mrs Smart nor any of her children was ever perceptive of any supernormal phenomena whatever. The fact of the haunting, as was inevitable, became widely known, and was naturally associated with Mr Smart’s mysterious death. But the words heard by Dr Spettigue were wisely suppressed during the lifetime of those concerned, the interests of scientific enquiry being at the same time safeguarded by a confidential deposition made to the Logical Society’s committee for psychical investigation. The Proceedings of this body contain a very full report.
4
A museum, Appleby said to himself as he closed the book. A sort of ghost museum neatly housed in a rebuilt 37 Hawke Square. Lucy Rideout in the basement illustrating possession by demons; Mrs Nurse holding a seance in the drawing-room; Miss Mood crystal-gazing in the pantry; Hannah Metcalfe floating from room to room on a broomstick; Daffodil tap-tapping in the back yard; the spectres of Colonel Morell and Mr Smart toasting Yarmouth bloaters before the kitchen fire. And no doubt there would be more exotic exhibits as well: Maori Tohungas and Eskimo Angakuts , Peay-men from British Guiana, Dene Hareskins from North America and Birraarks from Australia. All with their attendant spirits: kenaimas and mrarts , jossakeeds and –
And Uncle Tom Cobley and all, thought Appleby, abruptly standing up. The thing was fantastic; it was as fantastic if one believed in ghosts as if one did not. And no one would believe such a story for a moment… He put the book back in its drawer. Writing with a nice, dry, scientific tone. Interesting, without a doubt. And perhaps rather alarming as well.
The cabin door opened and Hudspith came in – Hudspith fresh from the rising and falling prow. And Appleby spoke at once. ‘It’s Wine,’ he said. ‘It’s Wine who has made off with those women. He’s forming a monstrous museum of ghosts and marvels the Devil knows where. Mediums and Medicine Lodges, bugs and bogles.’
Hudspith sat down; his eye, returning from remote distances, focused slowly on Appleby; and almost as slowly his mind focused on the significant word. ‘A museum? I shouldn’t be surprised. You’d hardly believe what some of them collect. There was an old man in Brussels–’ He checked himself. ‘Did you say Wine?’
‘Emery Wine.’
Hudspith shook his head; his eye could be seen setting out again on its jong journey. ‘Impossible. He’s not the type – or rather not one of them. There are three types of man that traffic in women–’
‘But I tell you this affair has nothing to do with trafficking in women. It has to do with trafficking in marvels. This museum–’
Hudspith nodded – very absently. ‘I could tell you things about museums. There was an old man in Brussels–’
‘My dear Hudspith, keep him for a limerick. We’re confronted with something quite different. Wine, or somebody for whom Wine is acting, is assembling a museum of the uncanny in general. Anything
Allen McGill
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Kevin Hazzard
Joann Durgin
L. A. Witt
Andre Norton
Gennita Low
Graham Masterton
Michael Innes
Melanie Jackson