STRANGE STORIES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 23, 4 June 1892, Page 576

STRANGE STORIES.

A BAD CASE OF TELEPATHY. (•) T was, I need hardly say, a great shock to me tjf when I saw my cousin George’s ghost. George CrJI 1 and 1 had been very good friends, though we gXi'll .£<_'., may have had our little differences ; and I was «Wl v " no less grieved than, to be quite candid, terrifei bed when George, who had been to New Zealand to look after our property there, and ' W as on his way home, appeared by my bedside, dripping wet, his pallid lips seeming to mutter inaudible words. In fact, I was so startled that I jumped up in bed and, as I sleep in an attic, struck my head against a beam and inflicted a cut from which the blood flowed freely. By the time I had staunched it with my eider-down quilt George was gone. Yes, I was shocked. But as poor George had fallen overboard and met a watery death, I was at last in a position to carry out my views as to the disposal of the two estates, to which, under Uncle Nicholas’ will, George and I were entitled as joint tenants. I had always wished to sell the English estate and keep the New Zealand one. George, who had very little business faculty, advocated selling the New Zealand one and retaining the English in our own hands ; and neither of us would consent to a partition so long as the other refused to be in some degree reasonable in his views. Now, by one of those strange decrees at which it does not become us to cavil, poor George was beyond caring for or interfering in such matters and I, as the survivor, took the whole estate, and was at liberty to deal with it in the most prudent way. Next morning I plastered up my head, put on a black necktie out of respect to George, and went off to my solicitor’s. I told him of poor George’s death, adding that legal evidence would follow as soon as the ship touched at a port, and gave him instructions to find a purchaser as soon as possible for the English land. Of course I did not trouble him with the details of George’s apparition ; lawyers think they show sagacity by the most narrow-minded incredulity. I soon found a purchaser, and a few weeks passed while 1 was screwing him up to my price. I had no news of George yet; but 1 was not much surprised at that, as the poor fellow had very probably left no address, and therefore tidings might not reach me till the ship herself arrived. At last one morning I read in my paper that she had arrived ; at the same time a letter from my purchaser reached me, accepting the price I had asked. I determined to close, ami went down to put my hat on and go to the lawyer’s. At this moment the door-bell rang. Being in the hall I opened the door myself. I staggered back in fright, holding my hand over my eyes ; for before me stood Geoige—himself or his phantom. ‘ Leave me. leave me !’ I cried. ‘ Restless spirit, what ails thee?’ To my great surprise, the form—or, I may as well say, Geoige—also staggered back, with his hand before his eyes, exclaiming in agitated tones, ‘ Peace, peace, poor ghost ! Canst thou not rest ?’ To do George justice, be has never been given to buffoonery in life ; and I was sure he would not descend to it after death, although the spirits of some people, who ought to be above it, seem to do so. Beckoning to George, I entered the dining-room ; we would have an explanation. George followed. ‘Once in a way,’ I began, ‘at night, I do not object to your coming. It is inconvenient, but I put up with it. But in broad daylight, on the door-step—really, it s inconsiderate.’

George looked at me with a puzzled air. Then he walked towards the bell rope and said, as if to himself, ‘ I’ll send for a parson and lay him.’ He was not at all wet, and looked very substantial. I did not quite understand. ‘George,’ said I, ‘I suppose there is no mistake. You are nothing but a ghost ?’ ‘lf you come to that, what are you?’ asked George angrily. ‘ Pray be calm,’ I answered. ‘ You appeared to me by night, dripping wet on the 9th of November last.’ ‘I appeared to you ? Nonsense! You appeared to me, you mean.’ ‘Do be serious, George. Eor a person in your—er position this levity— ’

‘ Yon did, man, with blood streaming from your head.’ I remembered the beam and my wounded head. ‘ Do you mean to say you’re not dead ?’ asked George with less joy than he might have shown. • I was never in better health in my life,’ I answered coldly.

• Then what the deuce do you mean by haunting me with blood all over you ?'

‘ What do you mean, George, by haunting me with water dripping from you ?’ ‘ Prove it !’ said George, defiantly. I motioned him to a seat and related what had happened. ‘Of course,’ I concluded, ‘if you honestly assure me that you are alive ’ ‘ Alive ! of course lam alive. I—by Jove, I’ve got it ! That night a young fool on board stretched a string across my cabin floor, and I ’ ‘ Tripped and fell through the porthole ?’ ‘ Porthole. Bless the man, no. I fell slap into my bath ; deuced hot the water was too. And it was just when I was swearing ’ ‘ Yes ; you appeared to be swearing.’ ‘ That you chose to come and haunt me, looking like a stuck pig. If you’re not dead, kindly account for that.’ ‘lt s all your fault. You frightened meso that I knocked my head against the ceiling and cut it.’ ‘ Honour bright ?’ ‘ I eive you my word.’ ‘ It’s a little awkward,’said George rubbing his hands, ‘ because you see, old fellow, relying on your intelligence, the first port we came to I wired to New Zealand telling the agent to sell the estate. I thought you wouldn’t, under the circumstances, you know, feel hurt at my acting on my own responsibility.’ ‘ You’ve been idiot enough ?’ ‘ Well, I always told you the English one was the one to keep.’ ‘ I’ve sold that,’ I said grimly. ‘lf you behave as if you were dead, a business-man will treat you as dead.’ ‘ I was no worse than you were.’ ‘ It’s quite clear that you began it,’ said I. ‘ I was merely sympathetic.’ ‘ I never meant to do it at all,’ declared George. I rose and took him by the hand. ‘We have been the victims of a deception, George. Recriminations are of no use. What is to be done ?’ ‘ Somebody ought to be run in,’ said George. ‘ If,’ I said, ‘ one is to be at the mercy of irresponsible apparitions, business cannot be carried on.’ ‘ And there is an end of free institutions,’ said George. We put on our hats and went to call on the secretary of the Psycholetic Society. We wanted to know what he had to say for himself. ‘ A most interesting case !’ he exclaimed joyfully—‘ a most interesting case !’ ‘ Perhaps,’ said I ; ‘ but will you favour us with the name of a solicitor who will accept service on your behalf ?’ ‘ What do you mean ?’ he asked. ‘ Why, if we lose over having to break off the negotiations for sale, we shall look to your society for a remedy. You disseminate broadcast literature of this description and then disclaim responsibility for what happens !’ ‘ It isn’t common honesty,’ said George. ‘ I admit no liability,’ said the secretary firmly. ‘ You must learn to control your own phantasmata.’ We took our hats. He looked at us in a curious way. ‘One moment, gentlemen,’ he said. ‘Although refusing to recognize any legal liability, yet I think I may say that the society would be prepared to do the handsome thing if— ’

‘ Well !’ we exclaimed eagerly. ‘ If you would be so kind as to hand over to us the letters you each of you no doubt wrote giving an account of your strange experience.’ ‘ With pleasure,’ said I, sitting down and taking a pen. ‘ Pardon me—a contemporaneous document is what I mean.’

‘ I didn’t write to him. I thought he was dead.’ ‘ And you didn’t write either, sir?’ he asked George. ‘ What do you take me for ?’ said George, who was still annoyed.

‘ Then there are no contemporaneous documents ?’ ‘ None,' we replied. He hid his face in his hands, and said, in a broken voice, ‘ There never are ! There never are • It’s too hard !’

He seemed so overcome that George and I, being tenderhearted men, tried to console him by promising to take no proceedings to enforce our claim. He would not be comforted, and we left him rocking himself to and fro and murmuring, ‘ I only ask for one letter—only one—just one little letter !’

I was quite linn about the English estate, and George was as obstinate as possible about the New Zealand one. In the result we each had to pay a hundred pounds to be off our bargain. My object in making the affair public is to ask how long society is to be exposed to this kind of thing ? What is to prevent some idle good-for-nothing phantom personating me, and running me in for an action for a breach of promise or I don’t know what? Nobody's safe. That's what I say ; and George agrees with me. I believe they call the sort of fraud which I have exposed telepathy. A long name does not make a thing honest; and, in my opinion, if the law does not reach such practices, the sooner it is altered the better. I have written to our member to tell him so. I am a large employer of labour, and if he does not introduce a Bill he will probably hear of it.