AN INCIDENT FROM BORDERLAND.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9289, 14 December 1895, Page 2

AN INCIDENT FROM BORDERLAND.

"Is that cigar all right, Probyn? And the toddy ? You are sure ? Because I am going to "try your patience a little, old chap, I have a bit of a yarn to spin. Only—there is a surprise for you at the end of it." " Then let us come to the surprise as fast as we can, Houghton." . That is one of the things that I like in Jack Probyn. With an old chum he never hesitates to speak straight out what he thinks.

He leaned bock in the armchair I had given him, and fixed his eyes on the smoke climbing towards the ceiling. Ido not mind admitting that his face expressed a shade of patient resignation. " All right," I assented ; I will be brief. Yon know that I have this fine old house at a ridiculous rent ? "

" Because your landlord is a fool." "Or because he could not get anyone to pay more—noi*, indeed, let the house at all; till I took it."

"On account of the apparition, ghost, Bpirit, spook, or the Lord knows what! Only you are not going to tell mc about that, Houghton, I hope. lam quite able to understand the tenaut's assarting the thing to exist if that reduces the rent. But that anyone behoves it, you will permit mc to doubt." " The servants believe it, iv consequence of which nothing will persuade them to stay. Yon will admit that it i 3 a nuisance never to be able to keep any domestics. lam reduced to my coloured man, Pompay, who would not leave mc were I quartered in Hades. Fortunately the boys are at Oxford, and as I have sent my wife and the girls to Brighton I manage somehow. You have heard, I presume, what my wife and the girls say? They have got the ghost a little on the nerves."

"A little you call it? You did quite right to pack them off. Women imagine all sorts of things when a notion once gets into their heas|s."

" Only I am getting rather sick of it all; that is why I want to talk to you about it."

" Well, I take it you have not seen the ghost?" "The first time I did so I took a blue

pill." Probyn removed his cigar from his lips. "Don't be an ass, Houghton." " A man is not an ass because he takes a blue pill. And when it happened again I went at once to see my medical man. A man has no right to see things of that kind.' " Certainly not, I should say." ' I noticed that he was fidgeting with his shoulders. " Do yon feel a draught ?" I asked. " No," but I fancy it is rather cold." I put sotio morse coals on the lire. *' What did the doctor say ? I am a little curious to hear that," asked" Probyn, as I resumed my seat. " Asked a lot of questions, and seemed a good deal puzzled. I could not make out that he. had understood what had happened any better than I did." " Doctor seems to belong to the same class as landlord. I should chat g > him." " I thought of that, too. Then, to cut it

short, I jjvl him f> mm* round hero one evening, whsn it hapai.ied tha:- hi was as much in need of meuical treatment a? myself." " You don't mean that he saw the spook, too ?"' "He did. Though he sU-cmped afterwards to deny it, and was us savage ab:>.;t the whole business .us a ban v." Probyn broke into a frank roar of laughter. Whea it ended, I asked. " Would you mind looking behind you, in the direction of the b:x>kshelve_ ou your right?" For the last three or four minutes I had seen seated there, on something rescmMiug tiie dim outline of a high backed chair, & shadowy form with which I was bocotnln.* tolerably iamiliar. Ie wa; that of an old gentium an, with a pale, thin fa tie, who wor.a puce coloured coat that had wide lapp-ds and trim in 3d with gold lace, a Mower?-1 satin waisti-o.i:, a white cravat with iaes.l ends, silk knea breeches and stockings, and shoes with buckles. His hair wa<* powderpd i and tied at the back with a ribbon. The : colours of his garments ware a little difficult to distinguish! They seemed to come and go like an uncertain light that eludes the eyjs. But th.? pale, translucent figure, and the darker, tail h.vike.l <:hair. were wy clearly I defined, although' the floor and the _ wall beyond could be plainly seen through them. The old man's thin hands rested upon a gold headed cane. Not and then he would re.-t \ his pointed chin upon them. At suah moments the light in his eyes appeared to mc to become more distinct, and to tarn in j different directions, as it" he was looking '■ about the room. Otherwise he never moved. "By Jo v.?! " exclaim-?! Probyn. " I say, Houghton, how is that done ? " He continued to smoke whilst looking at the shadowy figure, perfectly at his ease. That is another thing I like in Jack Probyn : nothing ever disturbs his astounding mental equilibrium. The old man dropped his chin upon the top of his cane, and returned his regard. '•On my soul, Houghton, that's damned clever," said Probyn. " How the deuce do you manage it ? " He was looking round him in search of some explanation of an optical delusion. Finding none, he rose and began walking about the room, turning his head to sea whether the figure always remained visible. " You can walk through him, it" you like," I remarked. You will find it rather cold, that is all." He immediately acted on my suggestion. " That was a deuced queer sensation," In remarked, after making the expsriment. "Have you tried with a thermometer ? Does it go down if you put it into him ? " S "It does not. 1 tried." " Look here,"would you mind leaving the room for a minute, Houghton ? " "Not at all." On my return I asked, " Well ? " "I fancied it depended on your presence. I see it does not. If we lower the gas— Ah !" he had done so as he spoke—" now he is not so clear." " Wait till your eyes are accustomed to the gloom." "By Jove, you are right. He is more distinct than ever, only you can't see the colour of his clothes so well. How is it done, Houghton?" " That is what I want to know." He was going round tiie room, looking under t'ae chairs and tables, and moving the furniture. " It fairly beats mc," he said at last with a laugh. "Let us go into the dining-voom then. Because it is rather cold here, is it not ? We can come back by-and-bye, if you like. He will be here until three o'clock in the morning." 11. In the dining-room Probyn refilled his glass and lit another cigar ; we had brought the cigars and spirits with us. Then, leaning his shoulders against the chimneypiece, h-i said, " That is about the cleverest thing I have ever seen. Hug-ton. Bat tell in? straight, old chayj-r-Lieeausa I shall tike your word, you know —it is not an optical Hodge, but I am under some influence— hypnotic, or mesmeric, or someLhing of that kind ?" " Not at all." " There is some hanky-panky, old chap ?' " None. You have simply seen what all the rest have seen; what the doctor saw ; ■what any one may see in the library from eleven o'clock on Saturday evening till three on Sunday morning—that is the old boy's time. I have watched him for some weeks now, and know." " On your word of honour, old chap ?" /. " On my word of honour." Probyn sat do*n, and smoked for som9 minutes in .silence. " Then I have seen a ghost," he said at last. " I did not believe that it was possible, but it seems that it was possible. One lives and learns." "I do not say that it is a ghost. I only say that it is there ; that anyone can see it who ciioos23, and that I cannot account for it." A*»ain Prohvn wassilent for some minutes. Then lie asked, " Have you spoken to him,. Houghton?" /• = " Yes. I asked him his name." "Did he answer?" "I fancy I heard a sort of answer—in the. air ; just as if someone had said " Simon." But you know that vulgar report asserts the house to hi haunted by a Sir Simon Sheriff, who lived here in the latter half of the eighteenth century. And I may have been self-deceived." "Possibly. That was all you could get him to say ? " " I asked some other questions, but I could not make out that I received any answer." " You have not had the floor up under the spot where he sits ? Or received any hints from him about what he wants ? He has not been pointing to a chink in the wall where a thousand pounds lie concealed, or anything of that sort ? " " I regret to say that he has not. But I did have tiie floor up. I insisted that there was fen escape of gns, or of something, and made them go down twenty feet, to find it. Only they found nothing. And I paid a long biU'for my folly. I fancy I deserved it, you know." " Perhaps you did deserve it. What I said was nonsense."

He had risen, and, was again standing before the fire, smoking meditatively. "lam thinking, Houghton," he remarked, after a minute or two, "your landlord is a fool. There cannot be two opinions about that. Now, look here, what would you pay to see a real ghost ? " '• Taking into consideration the old gentleman in the next room, I don't think I would pay anything. I might give something to be rid of one."

" Yes ; but how many people do you suppose tliere are in London who would give ten _uine»s on the nail without an instant's hesitation to see a real apparition ? Don't you perceive that there is money in that old gentleman in the next room? Why. Houghton, you might make a fortune out of him."

I replied that I did not see exactly how that wos to be done.

"You cannot do it alone." admitted Probyn. "We must get hold of one of those medium impostors, who knows all the patter, and will work the whole concern in a superior way. Deuce take it, man, cannot you see that it is grand ? You have a show here that would make the fortune of any Spiritualist in London."

And gently pushing off his cigar ash against the edge of the mantelpiece, he added, " One of the things which has always convinced mc that there are no haunted houses is the money that might be made out of one, if it existed."

When Probyn has once taken a notion into his head there is no getting it out again. I had hoped that he might assist mc to be rid of my nocturnal visitor. Instead, he had arrived at the conclusion that our old gentleman was a guest of the profitable kind. I did not see it. But I had to let him have his own way, and, after all, the result proved satisfactory. I had before that found things placed in Jack Probyn's hands turn out satisfactorily, even when I least anticipated it. For which reason I assented? the more easily to his proposals. But I need not enter into the reasons why our choice ot a " medium " finally fell upon the celebrated Professor Sobieszczanski. We attended a seance conducted by the Professor (for which privilege we paid handsomely) Knd he certainly showed us some fir.st-clas3 hanky-panky. "Only he is not in it with us, Houghton." said Probyn. Nevertheless, we gave Professor Sobieszczanski to understand that we had been very much im-

p-e3*od. (I was very impressed with his patter, which wa's really remarkable.) And we left him, I am, sure, in the enjoyment of an agreeable conviction that we were going to let ourcelvc ■ bo-ile-cari easily; for which i-«-*sa« 113 also a-josptea an invitation to dive with mc on th*> following Siiturdav.

It was .10"nit half-pjst. ten when we m wed tr.:n the dining-ro.v.n to >the library to Kin ike. Of cour-ij I'l-jbyn was with v,s. Daring dinuev h-- had li-iug with giv-.il attention upon such words of wisdom as IVo feasor Sobic'jccr.i-iski vouchsafed v-;. They were not to? ui.ny, for the fellow waa an accomplished imujilui. Nature herself had lent her to hi-* stioees • in thai direction. In parson he was a tall man. whoso closely shorn and sallow fa.cc. framed

in his long extraordinary blaik hair (dyed. I think) assisted the pa we:* to arrest attention of a singularly expressive mouth, and queer, dark, restless eyes, that could, when he e-io.se, fasten upon one with a disagreeable fixity. But his sreat gift was a soft, cultivated voice, in which he could talk in magnificent rounded periods, and with an air of superior knowledge, upon all theinostabstruse question's of humifi philosophy and psychology. H* w.-is never i'tv.' a moment at a loss. Occasionally he made hideous blunders that proved a eras'; ignorance of history, science and everything "else. Bit, he wis never daunted.* Coolly presuming upon the still profounder ignorance of his hearers, ho continued to roll out his sort periods until he reached whatsover pretence or paradox he pleaded. It was not the ordinary patter of his tribe. It was equally ridiculous and nonsensical, but was couched in language of Ids own. He spoke with a slight accent. I will not say that it was not a Polish one, being unacquainted with that tongue. But it seemed to mc to belong fo a land a good deal nearer the Entdish Channel. Towards the. end of dinner Probyn had dropped one or two-hints that the house we were in was said to be haunted. The wary Sobiezczanski was instantly on his guard, and assured us that " Though manifestations were undoubtedly to be looked for through the intervention "of a responsive personality, ignorant rumours, based upon no sufficient a"r<naint.v.ice with the laws of the supernatural agencies, could not be accepted as evidence ot any spiritual presence." We found that he did not smoke, nor would he aeeept anything in the shape of drink, except a. petit rerre. Probyn had placed him in the position which lie had himself occupied on the evening when I introduced Sir Simon to him, and began agaiu to talk about the house being haunted. The great spiritualist smiled. " An apparition seen by the maid servants, presumably?" he suggested. " By so:ii? of them, I believe." Professor took a sip from his petit verre. "It is singular." he remarked, " that when the odylic forces necessary to evoke the visible spiritual personality are admitted by all the initiated to be of jure occurrence even in the greatest mediums, every chance wench you may meet imagines that she can distinctly see an apparition. "Then to see is not so easy, even when the ghost is there ?" asked Probyn. " Tliey are always there," replied the Professor gravely. " You don't say so ! But how do you know that ?" "The initiated possesses a susceptibility to the subtle impressions of their vicinity." Probyn looked at mc. Sir Simon had taken his seat opposite us about a minute before. It did not appear from the manner in which Sobieszez anski sipped his petit verre that he was at all aware of the fact. "Don't you think it rather cold here?" a3ked Probyn. "Do you feel chilly, Professor Sobieszczanski ?" "It is, perhaps, a little chilly. But the night is cold." " Come nearer the fire ?" I proposed. Rising, I placed another seat for our visitor at my side. There he would be face to face with* Sir Simon. He er.-H.se.l over, and was on the point of sitting down, when he. gave a sodden stare. " Mon Dieu ! What is that ? " His sallow face wa3 the colour of ashes. He staggered, and for a moment I believed he would fail, and put out my hands to save him. Then, casting hisdigaity to the winds, he jumped with sudden agility over the chair on which I Seated, and made a bolt for the door. /""

Probyn and I had taken the pree_t}!tion of looking it. ' '._»'■ ■ ""•'"- "Open the door, Spen the'door '." He stood iv the corner, shaking with fear, fumbling at the handle and quite unconscious, in his fright, that the.key had been turned in the lock.

"I am afraid that you are not feeling well, Professor Sobieszczanski," I said, coming to him. " Permit me— -" J .. I opened the door, and he shot out of the room like an arrow. He would, I believe, have bolted from the house, if he had not been too confused to know where his hit and coat were, or which was the way to the front door. As it was we got him into the diningroom. There I thought the fellow would have fainted. Probyn made him drink a stiff glass of brandy and water. That pulled him together a little. "I am afraid you have never seen a real ?;host before, Professor Sobieszazanski," said 'robyn. - Hfewas leaning back against the sideboard smoking very complacently. The Professor looked ac him and then at mc. He was fairly dished—and he knew it. I am convinced that he must have been in other hobbles of the same kind before, because he came out of this one so neatly. " You took ma so completely by surprise," he remarked. And he held out his hand for the brandy, which stood by Probyn on the sideboard. Probyn passed it him, and also offered his cigar case. "Thanks," said the Professor, and at once accepted a weed. " You took mc completely by surprise," he repeated, with a smile of a very peculiar kind,* as he threw the vesta Probyn had handed him into the fire, and crossed his lens unceremoniously, -whilst puffing a great cloud of smoke. "That was clever, too. I should like to sect it done again presently. Only, of course, this is entre uous. I mean " " Oh, we perfectly understand," returned Probyn. "We are not going to blab. It is not our cue." The Professor looked relieved. " You see, Sobieszczanski," continued Probyn, " yours is very pretty hanky-panky. You amused us very tolerably the other evening." " Qh, but you know, there is really something in it," replied the professor. " There are supernatural agencies against whose " " You can just stow all that, proiessor, at once," interrupted Probyo, taking a seat at the table opposite him. " " Your show is all fudge, and you know it. But you are a firstclass Bhowman, and that is why we want to talk business to you— buniness, yon understand. What we have here is "a real apparition. It is a magnificent opening, but wo don't see our way to Work it. That is why we want you to come in with us, and do the show properly." "W T hat do you mean by a real apparition !" inquired Sobieszczanski. "The house is haunted. That is a real ghost you saw in the other room. He is there every Saturday, from 11 o'clock in the evening till 3 on Sunday morning." Professor Sobieszczanski took his cigar from his mouth, and poked his tongue into his thin cheek. The action was vulgar, but expressive.

"I understand your disbelieving it, Professor Sobieszczanski," I remarked, " but I assure yon that such is the cose. You are at liberty to come here any Saturday night you please to satisfy yourself." "Only you don't blow the gaff; and when you have satisfied yonraelf you go into the business with U3," added Probyn. " If not, we shall talk to Dr. Harris," I concluded. That made the professor think. Dr. Harris was running him very close. "I'll go and look at it again," he said at last. How many minutes must I give you to get ready ? " " There is nothing to get ready." The professor regarded us mistrustfully. But he took a good pull at his glas3and said, " I'll go at once then." . We returned together to the library. As we entered the room the old gentleman dropped his chin on his bands and regarded us. Sobieszczanski stood looking at him. *' It is the best illusion I have ever seen," he said.

He hsgvi going round the room just as Probyn had done, but scrutinising everything in a much more professional way. " Walk through him," said Probyn. Sobieszc-anski did so, and came back to

" You have beaten us all," he said, in a tone of real admiration. We returned to the ditiin-jroom. Ihe library was so confoundedly cold. " Well '! " I asked. "I'll give a thousand pounds to know how it is^done," s-iM the profe_3o:\ "I should think you would," replied Probvn: "only it. is not done at all. \oa havo'at last seen a ghost. Tho question is wliat will you pay U> be allowed to bring a. sin ill party here on Saturday night t" * Tiie professor fidgeted in his chair. He knew too much of the tricks of his own traue to be quite able to credit what we told him. On the other hand, lie had talked too much about _hosts to be able to disbelieve in thnm ; and courage was evidently not- his leading characteristic. Half scared, and wxiolly irresolute, lie was an amusing spjeimen or a man drawn one way by his fears and another by his can-id it v. ' " If you funk it," said Probyn, " well go to Harris." " No. no. Don't go to Hirris." " All right. Tnen let- us come to terms. Professor Sobie-zj/anski showed an inclination to temporise. I believe now that tiie man was in a much greater fright than we suspected. The considerable quantity ot spirits that he had drank had also loosened his tongue, and he wanted ns to listen to some of his rodomontade. But at last he agreed to pay 10 guineas for the privilege of bringing asm ill, select party to the house on the following Saturday. " It is dirt cheap, and we shall not let you come on those terms a second time, you know," s\id Probyn. I had doubts whether he would come at all. Probvn laughed at mc. And he was right-. The professor's cupidity was more powerful than his fears. He arrived at about a quarter-past ten with his party, eight laities and two gentlemen ; not very intellectual specimens of humanity. "Give mc a glass/of something stiff," he gasped, coming into the dining-room, " or I shall never get through it." " Take care; you are pretty well on already, you know," observed Probyn. The assistant was arranging the spectators in the library. "We ought to have something preliminary ; a" few manifestations of the ordinary kind, to lead up to the final materialisation," said Sobieszczanski. "Another time I'll arrange a little show, just to work up the effect. I can't to-night. I must be content with speaking a few words. If it comes off, anyhow Harris will be nowhere." The perspiration wa3 standing in beads on his forehead. We propelled to the library, and tli9 professor spoke ins few words. Speaking when he was more than half-seas over was cvi; dently not new to him. A silence of breathless exoeetation followed. Stepping back to where we stood, behind the semi-circle of Beated watchers, the professor placed himself by our side, and began wiping the perspiration from his forehead. He was as white as a sheet, aud shaking like an aspen. One of tiie women saw Sir Simon first, and gave such a shriek as I never heard in my life. Two minutes afterwards we were eugaged in carrying out of the library four others who had fainted. The situation was one perfectly familiar to the professor and his assistant, and caused them no embarrassment : indeed, I am convinced that the professor was glad of the excuse for leaving the haunted room. Our old gentleman was evidently surprised by the number of his visitors, and had immediately dropped his chin on his hands. He seemed to mc, also, anything but pleased. We got rid of our party before midnignt. Sobieszczanski was a3 sober as a judge, and in high spirits. "It will be all over the place to-morrow, and Harris will be fit to eat his hat," he said. Bat the real seance wa9 reserved for Probyn and myself. As"we returned to the dinm-jf-voom after locking the front door—l, with Sobieszezanski's cheque for ten guineas in my land —-what was my surprise to sco Sir Simon standing at the'ooan door of the library ! ' " Hufloa, Sir Simon !" exclaimed Probyn. The man turned to mc. "I am not going to be treated like this, sir; to be mode a spectacle of in my own house," I heard him say distinctly and angrily, in that thin voice of the dead who, according to Shake3peare, can but "gibber and squeak." I made a bow. " 1 beg your pardon, Sir S' m(in » I am tH ° tenant of the house. I can show you my landlord's agreement, and his receipt for my last quarters rent. If you insist upon occupying one of our most convenient rooms, and making us ail very uncomfortable, it is at least fair that you should contribute something towards the rout—and other expenses." I snowed him the cheque. " I am not going to be'inade a spectacle of for money, sir !" retorted the thin voice. We left him, and lighted our cigars in the dining-room. "Tne old boy is put out," remarked Probyn presently, whilst we discussed the events of the evening. " I wonder whether he has gone back to his chair." He left the room, and in a minute returned with the intelligence, " Sir Simon has disappeared '" " What is the time?"

" Only half-past twelve." Aud we never saw him again, though Probyn and I watched for him for weeks, until we »ere convinced that he had taken his final departure. When the hope, or fear, of hia reappearance was over Professor Sobieszczansj-.t wept. "I had that charlatan Harris on toast," he said. " And now he is going about saying it was a mare optical delusion, like his own contemptible dodges."

For my part, I gave the ten guineas to a hospital," and was glad to be relieved of the old gentleman.

But the other day when I was talking to Probyn about it, lie" said, " Wo made a pair of fools of ourselves over that business, Houghton. We killed the goose with the golden eggs. To think what might have been made'out of that old boy if he had been properly managed!"