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Glam's Castle by Eliott O'Donnell. Of
all the hauntings in Scotland, none has

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gained such widespread notoriety as the hauntings
of Glam's Castle, the seat of the

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Earl of Strathmore and king Horn in
Forforshire. Part of the castle, that

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part which is the more frequently haunted, is of ancient, though uncertain date,

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and if there is any truth in
the tradition that Duncan was murdered there

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by Macbeth must at any rate have
been in existence at the commencement of the

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eleventh century. Of course, extra
buildings have from time to time been added

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and renovations made, but the original
structure remains pretty nearly the same as it

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always has been, and is included
in a square tower that occupies a central

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position and commands a complete view of
the entire castle. Within this tower,

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the walls of which are fifteen feet
thick, there is a room hidden in

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some unsuspected quarter that contains a secret
the keynote to one at least of the

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hauntings, which is known only to
the Earl his heir on the attainment of

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his twenty first birthday. In the
factor of the estate, in all probability,

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the mystery attached to this room would
challenge but little attention were it not

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for the fact that unearthly noises,
which at the time were supposed to proceed

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from this chamber, have been heard
by various visitors sleeping in the square tower.

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The following experience is said to have
happened to a lady named Bond.

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I appended, more or less in
her own words, it is a good

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many years since I stared at GLAMs. I was, in fact but little

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more than a child, and had
only just gone through my first season in

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town. But though young, I
was neither nervous nor imaginative, I was

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inclined to be what is termed stolid, that is to say, extremely matter

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of fact and practical. Indeed,
when my friends exclaimed, you don't mean

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to say you're going to stay in
GLAMs, don't you know it's haunted,

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I burst out laughing. Haunted,
I said, how ridiculous. There are

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no such things as ghosts. One
might as well believe in fairies. Of

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course, I did not go to
GLAMs alone. My mother and sister were

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with me. But whereas they slept
in the more modern part of the Castle.

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I was, at my own request, apportioned a room in the Square

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Tower. I cannot say that my
choice had anything to do with the secret

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chamber that, in the alleged mystery
had been dinned into my ears so often

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that I had grown thoroughly sick of
the whole thing. No, I wanted

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to sleep in the Square Tower for
quite a different reason, a reason of

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my own I kept in aviary.
The tower was old, and I naturally

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hoped its walls would be covered with
ivy and teeming with bird nests, of

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which I might be able to reach. And I am ashamed to say,

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plunder from my window. Alas for
my expectations, although the Square Tower was

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so ancient that in some places it
was actually crumbling away. Not the sign

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of a leaf, not the vestige
of a bird's nest, could I see

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anywhere. The walls were abominably brutally
bare. However, it was not long

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before my disappointment gave way to delight. For the air that blew in through

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the open window was so sweet,
so richly scented with heather and honeysuckle,

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and the view of the broad,
sweeping, thickly wooded grounds so indescribably charming,

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that despite my inartistic and unpoetical nature, I was entranced, entranced as

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I had never been before and never
have been since. Ghosts. I said

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to myself, Ghosts, how absurd, how preposterously absurd, Such an adorable

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spot as this can only harbor sunshine
and flowers. I well remember, too,

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for as I have already said,
I was not poetical how much I

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enjoyed my first dinner at Clams.
The long journey and keen mountain air had

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made me hungry, and I thought
I had never tasted such delicious food,

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such ideal salmon from the esk,
and such heavenly fruit. But I must

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tell you that although I ate heartily
as a healthy girl should, by the

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time I went to bed, I
had thoroughly digested my mail, and was

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in fact quite ready to partake of
a few oatmeal biscuits I found in my

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dressing case and remembered having bought at
Perth. It was about eleven o'clock when

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my maid left me, and I
sat for some minutes, wrapped in my

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dressing gown before the open window.
The night was very still, and,

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save for an occasional rustle of the
wind and the distant tree tops, the

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hooting of an owl, the melancholy
cry of a piot, and the hoarse

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barking of a dog. The silence
was undisturbed. The interior of my room

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was in nearly every particular modern.
The furniture was not old. There were

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no grim carvings, no grotesquely fashioned
tapestries on the walls, no dark cupboards,

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no gloomy corners. All was cozy
and cheerful, And when I got

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into bed, no thought of bogel
or mystery entered my mind. In a

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few minutes I was asleep, and
for some time there was nothing but a

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blank, a blank in which all
identity was annihilated. Then suddenly I found

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myself in an oddly shaped room,
with a lofty ceiling and a window situated

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at so great a distance from the
black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible

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from within. Feeble gleams of phosphorent
light made their way through the narrow panes

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and served to render distinct the more
prominent objects around, But my eyes struggled

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in vain to reach the remoter angles
of the wall, one of which inspired

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me with terror, such as I
had never felt before. The walls were

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covered with heavy draperies that were sufficient
in themselves to preclude the possibility of any

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save the loudest of sounds, penetrating
without the furniture, if such one could

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call it, puzzled me. It
seemed more fitted for the cell of a

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prison or lunatic asylum, or even
for a kennel, than for an ordinary

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dwelling room. I could see no
chair, only a coarse deal table,

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a straw mattress, and a kind
of trough. An air of irredeemable gloom

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and horror hung over and pervaded everything. As I stood there, I felt

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I was waiting for something, something
that was concealed in the corner of the

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room I dreaded. I tried to
reason with myself, to assure myself that

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there was nothing there that could hurt
me, nothing that could even terrify me.

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But my efforts were in vain.
My fears grew. Had I had

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some definite knowledge as to the cause
of my alarm, I should not have

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suffered so much. But it was
my ignorance of what was there, of

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what I feared, that made my
terror so poignant. Each second saw the

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agony of my suspense increase. I
dared not move, I hardly dare breathe,

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and I dreaded lest the violent pulsation
of my heart should attract the attention

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of the unknown presence and precipitate its
coming out. Yet, despite the perturbation

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of my mind, I caught myself
analyzing my feelings. It was not danger

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I abhorred so much as its absolute
effect fright. I shuddered at the bare

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thought of what result the most trivial
incident, the creaking of a board,

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ticking of a beetle, or hooting
of an owl, might have on the

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intolerable agitation of my soul. In
this unnerved and pitiable condition, I felt

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that the periode was bound to come
sooner or later, when I should have

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to abandon life and raison together in
the most desperate of struggles with fear at

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length, something moved. An icy
chill ran through my frame, and the

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horror of my anticipations immediately reached its
culminating point. The presence was about to

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reveal itself. The gentle rubbing of
a soft body in the floor, the

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crack of a bony joint, breathing
another crack, And then was it my

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own excited imagination, or the disturbing
influence of the atmosphere, or the uncertain

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twilight of the chamber that produced before
me, in the stadian darkness of the

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recess, the facilitating and indistinct outline
of something luminous and horrid. I would

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gladly have risked futurity to have looked
elsewhere. I could not. My eyes

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were fixed. I was compelled to
gaze steadily in front of me, slowly,

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very slowly. The thing, whatever
it was, took shape, legs

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crooked, misshapen human legs, a
body tawny and hunged, arms long and

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spidery, with crooked, knotted fingers. A head large and beasteel and covered

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with a tangled mass of gray hair
that hung around its protruding forehead, and

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pointed airs in ghastly mockery of curls. A face and hearin was the realization

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of all my direst expectations. A
face white and staring, pig like information,

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malevolent in expression, a hellish combination
of all things foul in animal,

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and yet withal not without a touch
of pathos. As I stared at it

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aghast, it reared itself on its
haunches. After the manner of an ape,

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and layered piteously at me, then
shuffling forward, it rolled over and

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lay sprawled out like some ungainly turtle, and wallowed as for warmth in the

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cold gray beams of early dawn.
At this juncture the handle of the chamber

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door turned, some one entered.
There was a loud cry, and I

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awoke, awoke to find the whole
tower, walls and rafters, ringing with

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the most appalling screams I have ever
heard, screams of something or of some

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one, for there was in them
a strong element of what was human as

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well as animal, in the great
distress. Wondering what it meant, and

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more than ever terrified, I sat
up in bed and listened, listened whilst

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a conviction, the result of intuition, suggestion, or what you will by

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a conviction, all the same forced
me to associate the sounds with a thing

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in my dream, and I associate
them still. It was, I think,

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in the same year, in the
year that the foregoing account was narrated

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to me, that I heard another
story of the huntings at GLAMs, a

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story in connection with a lady whom
I will call Miss mc guinney. I

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append her experience as nearly as possible, as she has stated to have told

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it. I seldom talk about my
adventure, Miss mc guinney announced, because

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so many people ridicule the superphysical and
laugh at the mere mention of ghosts.

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I own I did the same myself
till I stayed at Glam's. But a

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week there quite cured me of skepticism, and I came away a confirmed believer.

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The incident occurred nearly twenty years ago, shortly after my return from India,

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where my father was then stationed.
It was years since I had been

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to Scotland. Indeed, I had
only once crossed the border, and that

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when I was a babe. Consequently, I was delighted to receive an invitation

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to spend a few weeks in the
land of my birth. I went to

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Edinburgh first, I was born in
Drumshay Gardens, and thence to GLAMs.

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It was late in the autumn,
the weather was intensely cold, and I

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arrived at the castle in a blizzard. Indeed, I do not recollect ever

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having been out in such a frightful
storm. It was as much as the

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horses could do to make headway,
and when we reached the castle, we

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found a crowd of anxious faces eagerly
awaiting us in the hall chilled. I

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was chilled to the bone, and
I thought I never should thaw. But

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the huge fires and bright and cozy
atmosphere of the rooms for the interior of

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GLAMs was modernized throughout soon set me
right, and by tea time I felt

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nicely warm and comfortable. My bedroom
was in the oldest part of the castle,

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the square tower, But although I
had been worn by some of the

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guests that it might be haunted,
I can assure you that when I went

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to bed, no subject was farther
from my thoughts than the subject of ghosts.

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I returned to my room at about
half past eleven. The storm was

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then at its height, all with
babel and confusion, impenetrable darkness mingled with

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the wildest roaring and shrieking, and
when I peeped through my casement window I

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could see nothing. Panes were shrouded
in snow, snow which was incessantly dashed

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against them with cyclonic fury. I
fixed a comb in the window frame so

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as not to be kept awake by
the constant jarring, and with the caution

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characteristic of my sex, looked into
the wardrobe and under the bed for burglars,

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though Heaven knows what I should have
done had I found one. There,

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placed a candlestick and matchbox on the
table by my bedside, lest the

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roof or window should be blown in
during the night, or any other catastrophe

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happen. And after all these preparations
got into bed. At this period of

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my life, I was of sounds, and, being somewhat unusually tired after

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my journey, I was soon in
a dreamless slumber. What awoke me I

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cannot say, but I came to
myself with a violent start, such as

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might have been occasioned by a loud
noise. Indeed, that was at first

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my impression, and I strained my
ears to try and ascertain the cause of

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it. All was, however,
silent. The storm had abated, and

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the castle and grounds were wrapped in
an almost preternatural hush. The sky had

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cleared, and the room was partially
illuminated by a broad stream of silvery light

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that filtered softly in through the white
and tightly drawn blinds. A feeling that

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there was something unnatural in the air, that the stillness was but the prelude

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to some strange and startling event gradually
came over me. I strove to reason

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with myself, to argue that the
failing was wholly due to the novelty of

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my surroundings. But my efforts were
fruitless, and soon there stole upon me

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a sensation to which I had been
hitherto an utter stranger. I became afraid.

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An irrepressible tremor pervaded my frame,
my teeth chattered, my blood froze.

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Obeying an impulse, an impulse I
could not resist, and lifted myself

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up from the pillows, and peering
fearfully into the shadowy glows, and laid

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directly in front of me, listened. Why I listened, I do not

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know, saving that an instinctive spirit
prompted me. At first I could hear

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nothing, and then from a direction
I could not divine, there came a

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noise, lo distinct, uninterpretive.
It was repeated in rapid succession, and

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speedily construed itself into the sound of
mailed footsteps racing up the long flight of

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stairs at the end of the corridor
leading to my room. Dreading to think

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what it might be, and seized
with a wild sentiment of self preservation.

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I made frantic endeavors to get out
of bed and barricade my door. My

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limbs, however, refused to move. I was paralyzed. Nearer and nearer

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drew the sounds, and I could
at length distinguish with a clearness that petrified

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my very soul, the banging and
clanging of sword scabbards, and the panting

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and gasping of men sore pressed in
a wild and desperate race. And then

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the meaning of it all came to
me with hideous abruptness. It was a

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case of pursued and pursuing. The
race was for life outside my door.

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The fugitive halted, and from the
noise he made in trying to draw his

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breath, I knew he was dead
beat. His antagonist, however, gave

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him but scant time for recovery.
Bounding at him with prodigious leaps, he

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struck him a blow that sent him
rooling with such tremendous force against the door.

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With the panels, although composed of
the stoutest oak, quivered and strained

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like flimsy matchboard. The blow was
repeated. The cry that rose in the

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00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:11,559
victim's throat was converted into an abortive, gurgling groan, and I heard the

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00:17:11,599 --> 00:17:18,640
ponderous battle axe carve its way through
helmet, bone and brain. A moment

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00:17:18,720 --> 00:17:22,240
later came the sound of slithering armor, and the corpse, slipping sideways,

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00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:30,000
toppled to the ground with a sonorous
clang. A silence too awful for words.

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00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:34,960
Now ensued. Having finished his hideous
handiwork, the murderer was quietly deliberating

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00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:40,000
what to do next, which my
dreader of attracting his attention was so great

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00:17:40,079 --> 00:17:45,799
that I scarcely dare breath. This
intolerable state of things had already lasted for

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00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:51,480
what seemed to me a lifetime.
When glancing involuntarily at the floor, I

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00:17:51,519 --> 00:17:56,839
saw a stream of dark looking fluid, lazily lapping its way to me from

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00:17:56,839 --> 00:18:00,319
the direction of the door. Another
moment and it would reach my shoes.

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00:18:02,279 --> 00:18:07,319
In my dismay, I shrieked aloud. There was a sudden stir without a

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00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:11,680
significant clatter of steel, and the
next moment, despite the fact that it

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00:18:11,759 --> 00:18:17,359
was locked, the door slowly opened. The limits of my endurance had now

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00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:21,640
happily been reached. The overtaxed valves
of my heart could stand no more.

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00:18:22,279 --> 00:18:26,640
I fainted on my awakening to consciousness, it was morning, and the welcome

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00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:33,240
sun rays revealed no evidences of the
distressing drama I own. I had a

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00:18:33,279 --> 00:18:36,799
hard tussle before I could make up
my mind to spend another night in that

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00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:41,279
room, and my feelings as I
shut the door and my retreating maid and

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00:18:41,319 --> 00:18:47,319
prepared to grin to bed were nut
the most Inmabel. But nothing happened,

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00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:52,160
nor did I again experience anything of
the sort till the evening before I left.

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00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:56,000
I had lain down all the afternoon, for I was tired after a

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00:18:56,079 --> 00:19:00,720
long morning's tramp on the moors,
a thing I daily love, and I

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00:19:00,759 --> 00:19:04,759
was thinking it was about time to
get up, when a dark shadow suddenly

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00:19:04,759 --> 00:19:11,079
fell across my face. I looked
up hastily, and there standing by my

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00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:18,240
bedside and bending over me with a
gigantic figure in bright armor. Its visor

227
00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:22,519
was up, and what I saw
within the cask is stamped forever on my

228
00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:26,000
memory. It was the face of
the dead, the long since dead,

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00:19:26,559 --> 00:19:33,319
with the expression the subtly hellish expression
of the living. As I gazed helplessly

230
00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:37,759
at it, it bent lower.
I threw up my hands to ward it

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00:19:37,839 --> 00:19:41,160
off. There was a loud rap
at the door, and as my maid

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00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:47,359
softly entered to tell me tea was
ready, it vanished. The third account

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00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:51,079
of the Glamis hauntings was told me
as long ago as the summer of eighteen

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00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:55,640
ninety three. I was traveling by
rail from Perth to Glasgow, and the

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00:19:55,680 --> 00:20:00,079
only other occupant of my compartment was
an elderly gentleman, who, from his

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00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:03,759
general air and appearance, might have
been a dominie or member of some other

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00:20:03,880 --> 00:20:08,200
learned profession. I can see him
in my mind's eye now, a tall,

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00:20:08,279 --> 00:20:12,240
thin man with a premature stoop.
He had white hair which was brushed

239
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:17,000
forward down either side of his head
in such a manner as suggested awake,

240
00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:22,839
bushy eyebrows, dark piercing eyes,
and a stern, though somewhat sad mouth.

241
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:26,680
His features were fine and scholarly.
He was clean shaven. There was

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00:20:26,759 --> 00:20:32,240
something about him, something that marked
him from the general horde, something that

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00:20:32,279 --> 00:20:36,119
attracted me, and I began chatting
with him soon after we left Perth.

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00:20:37,200 --> 00:20:41,960
In the course of a conversation that
was at all events interesting to me,

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00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:47,920
I adroitly managed to introduce the subject
of ghosts. Then, as ever uppermost

246
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:52,400
in my thoughts. Well, he
said I can tell you of something rather

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00:20:52,559 --> 00:20:57,079
extraordinary that my mother used to say
happened to a friend of hers at GLAMs.

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00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:03,319
I have no doubt you are well
acquainted with the hackneyed stories in connection

249
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:07,920
with the hauntings at the castle,
for example Earl Beardy playing cards with the

250
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:11,400
Devil and the weeping Woman without hands
or tongue. You can read about them

251
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:15,960
in scores of books and magazines.
But what befel my mother's friend, whom

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00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:21,039
I will call Missus Gibbons, for
I have forgotten her proper name, was

253
00:21:21,079 --> 00:21:26,599
apparently of a novel nature. The
affair happened shortly before Missus Gibbons died,

254
00:21:26,680 --> 00:21:30,480
and I always thought that what took
place might have been in some way connected

255
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:34,880
with her death. She had driven
over to the castle one day during the

256
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,160
absence of the owner, to see
her cousin, who was in the employ

257
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:44,160
of the Earl and Countess. Never
having been at GLAMs before, but having

258
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:47,839
heard so much about it, Missus
Gibbins was not a little curious to see

259
00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:52,720
that part of the building called the
Square Tower, that bore the reputation of

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00:21:52,759 --> 00:21:57,079
being haunted. Tactfully biding an opportunity, she sounded her relative on the subject,

261
00:21:57,240 --> 00:22:02,759
and was laughingly informed that she might
go anywhere about the place she pleased,

262
00:22:03,319 --> 00:22:08,079
saving to one spot, namely Bluebeard's
chamber, and there she could certainly

263
00:22:08,119 --> 00:22:12,799
never succeed in poking her nose,
as its locality was known only to three

264
00:22:12,839 --> 00:22:18,640
people, all of whom were pledged
never to reveal it. At the commencement

265
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:22,319
of her tour of inspection, Missus
Gibbons was disappointed. She was disappointed in

266
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:27,039
the tower. She had expected to
see a gaunt, grim place, crumbling

267
00:22:27,079 --> 00:22:33,640
to pieces with age, full of
blood curdling spiral staircases and deep, dark

268
00:22:33,759 --> 00:22:38,240
dungeons, whereas everything was the reverse. The walls were an excellent state of

269
00:22:38,279 --> 00:22:44,640
preservation, absolutely intact, the rooms
bright and cheerful and equipped in the most

270
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:48,000
modern style. There were no dungeons, at least none on view, and

271
00:22:48,039 --> 00:22:53,720
the passages and staircases were suggestive of
nothing more alarming than bats. She was

272
00:22:53,759 --> 00:22:59,000
accompanied for some time by her relative, but on the latter being called away,

273
00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:03,960
Missus Gibbons continued her rambles alone.
She had explored the lower premises and

274
00:23:03,079 --> 00:23:08,359
was leisurely examining a handsomely furnished apartment
on the top floor. When in crossing

275
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:11,920
from one side of the room to
the other, she ran into something.

276
00:23:14,079 --> 00:23:18,200
She looked down nothing was to be
seen. Amazed beyond description, she thrust

277
00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:23,240
out her hands and they alighted on
an object which she had little difficulty in

278
00:23:23,279 --> 00:23:30,440
identifying. It was an enormous cask
or barrel, lying in a horizontal position.

279
00:23:30,319 --> 00:23:33,359
She bent down close to where she
felt it, but she could see

280
00:23:33,599 --> 00:23:37,720
nothing, nothing but the well polished
boards of the floor. To make sure

281
00:23:37,759 --> 00:23:41,119
again that the barrel was there,
she gave a little kick and drew back

282
00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:45,440
her foot with a cry of pain. She was not afraid. The sunshine

283
00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:51,599
in the room forbade fear, only
exasperated. She was certain a barrel was

284
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:56,279
there, that it was objective,
and she was angry with herself for not

285
00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,400
seeing it. She wondered if she
were going blind, but the fact that

286
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:06,079
other objects in the room were plainly
visible to her discountenanced such an idea.

287
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:10,799
For some minutes, she poked and
jabbed at the thing, and then seized

288
00:24:10,799 --> 00:24:15,400
with sudden and uncontrollable panic. She
turned round and fled, and as she

289
00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:18,799
tore out of the room, along
the passage and down the seemingly interminable flight,

290
00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:25,279
of stairs. She heard the barrel
behind her in close pursuit bump bump,

291
00:24:25,839 --> 00:24:29,839
bump. At the foot of the
staircase, Missus Gibbins met her cousin,

292
00:24:30,079 --> 00:24:33,079
and as she clutched the ladder for
support, the barrel shot past her,

293
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:38,519
still continuing its descent bump bump,
bump, though the steps as far

294
00:24:38,559 --> 00:24:42,960
as you could see, had ended, till the sounds gradually dwindled away in

295
00:24:44,039 --> 00:24:48,559
the far distance. Whilst the manifestations
lasted. Neither Missus Gibbons nor her cousin

296
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:52,519
spoke, but the latter, as
soon as the sounds had ceased, dragged

297
00:24:52,519 --> 00:24:56,000
Missus Gibbons away, and, in
a voice shaking with terror, cried,

298
00:24:56,079 --> 00:25:00,839
quick, quick, don't for heaven's
sake look around. Worse as yet to

299
00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:07,839
come. And pulling Missus Gibbons along
in breathless haste, she unceremoniously hustled her

300
00:25:07,079 --> 00:25:14,319
out of the tower. That was
no barrel. Missus gibbons cousin subsequently remarked,

301
00:25:14,319 --> 00:25:18,119
by way of explanation, I saw
it, I have seen it before,

302
00:25:18,559 --> 00:25:22,039
and don't ask me to describe it. I dare not, I dare

303
00:25:22,279 --> 00:25:26,559
not even think of it. Whenever
it appears a certain thing happens shortly afterwards.

304
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:32,759
Don't don't on any account say a
word about it to anyone here.

305
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:37,440
And missus Gibbons, my mother told
me, came away from GLAMs a thousand

306
00:25:37,519 --> 00:25:42,079
times more curious than she was when
she went. The last story I have

307
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:47,359
to relate is one I heard many
years ago when I was staying near bull

308
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:52,640
Morrow, and gentlemen named Vance,
with strong antiquarian tastes, was staying at

309
00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:56,240
an inn near the Strathmore estate and
roaming abroad. One afternoon, in a

310
00:25:56,279 --> 00:26:03,039
fit of absent mindedness, entered the
castles. It so happened, fortunately for

311
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:07,680
him, that the family were away, and he encountered no one more formidable

312
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:11,839
than a man he took to be
a gardener, an uncouth looking fellow with

313
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:15,839
a huge head covered with a mass
of red hair, hawklike features, and

314
00:26:17,039 --> 00:26:22,599
high cheekbones, high even for a
Scott. Struck with the appearance of the

315
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:26,559
individual, mister Van spoke, and, finding him wonderfully civil, asked whether

316
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:33,000
by any chance he ever came across
any fossils when digging in the gardens,

317
00:26:33,279 --> 00:26:37,000
add any keen the meaning of fossils, The man replied, what are they?

318
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:41,799
Mister Vance, explained, and a
look of cunning gradually pervaded the fellow's

319
00:26:41,799 --> 00:26:47,720
features. No, he said,
I've never found any of those things.

320
00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,440
But if you'll give me your word
to say nothing about it, I'll show

321
00:26:51,519 --> 00:26:55,480
you something I once dug up over
yonder by the square tower. Do you

322
00:26:55,519 --> 00:26:59,119
mean the Haunted Tower, the tower
that is supposed to contain the secret room,

323
00:26:59,319 --> 00:27:04,400
mister Vance exclaimed. An extraordinary expression, an expression such as mister Vans

324
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:10,119
found it impossible to analyze, came
into the man's eyes. Yes, that's

325
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:14,599
it, he nodded, what people
call and rightly call the Haunted Tower.

326
00:27:15,119 --> 00:27:19,000
I got it from there. But
don't you say nought about it. Mister

327
00:27:19,079 --> 00:27:23,559
Vance, who's curiosity was roused,
promised, and the man, politely requesting

328
00:27:23,599 --> 00:27:27,039
him to follow, led the way
to a cottage that stood nearby in the

329
00:27:27,079 --> 00:27:32,680
heart of a gloomy wood. To
mister Vance's astonishment, the treasure proved to

330
00:27:32,680 --> 00:27:37,160
be the skeleton of a hand,
a hand with abnormally large knuckles and the

331
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:42,400
first joint of both fingers and thumb
much shorter than the others. It was

332
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:47,559
the most extraordinarily shaped hand mister Vance
had ever seen, and he did not

333
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:52,119
know in the least how to classify
it. It repelled yet interested him,

334
00:27:52,279 --> 00:27:55,480
and he eventually offered the man a
good sum to allow him to keep it.

335
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,880
To his astonishment, that money was
refused. You may have the thing

336
00:28:00,039 --> 00:28:03,680
and welcome, the fellow said,
Only I advise you not to look at

337
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:07,559
it late at night or just before
getting into bed. If you do,

338
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,400
you may have bad dreams. I
will take my chance of that, mister

339
00:28:11,519 --> 00:28:15,880
Vance laughed, you see, being
a hard headed cockney, I am not

340
00:28:15,079 --> 00:28:19,960
superstitious. It is only you highlanders
and your first cousin of the Irish who

341
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:26,279
believed nowadays in bogels, omens and
such like. And packing the hand carefully

342
00:28:26,279 --> 00:28:30,759
in his knapsack, mister Vance bid
the strange looking creature good morning and went

343
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,319
on his way. For the rest
of the day, the hand was uppermost

344
00:28:33,319 --> 00:28:37,920
in his thoughts. Nothing had ever
fascinated him so much. He sat pondering

345
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:42,119
over it the whole evening, and
the bedtime found him still examining it.

346
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:48,119
Examining it upstairs in his room by
candle light, he had a hazy recollection

347
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,880
that some clock had struck twelve,
and he was beginning to feel that it

348
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,680
was about time to retire. When
in the mirror opposite him, he caught

349
00:28:56,839 --> 00:29:03,440
sight of the door. It was, by jove, that's odd, he

350
00:29:03,519 --> 00:29:07,720
said to himself, I could have
sworn I shut and bolted it. To

351
00:29:07,759 --> 00:29:11,400
make sure. He turned round.
The door was closed. An optical delusion,

352
00:29:11,519 --> 00:29:15,920
he murmured, I will try again. He looked into the mirror the

353
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:21,400
door reflected in it was open.
Utterly. At a loss to know how

354
00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:26,000
to explain the phenomenon, he leaned
forward in his seat to examine the glass

355
00:29:26,039 --> 00:29:29,000
more carefully, and as he did
so, he gave a start. On

356
00:29:29,079 --> 00:29:33,759
the threshold of the doorway was a
shadow, black and bulbous. A cold

357
00:29:33,759 --> 00:29:37,079
shiver ran down mister Vans's spine,
and just for a moment he felt afraid,

358
00:29:37,839 --> 00:29:42,400
terribly afraid, But he quickly composed
himself. It was nothing but an

359
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:47,519
illusion. There was no shadow there
in reality. He had only to turn

360
00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:52,039
round and the thing would be gone. It was amusing, entertaining. He

361
00:29:52,079 --> 00:29:57,640
would wait and see what happened.
The shadow moved, It moved slowly through

362
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:03,519
the air, like some huge spider
or odd shaped bird. He would not

363
00:30:03,559 --> 00:30:08,759
acknowledge that there was anything sinister about
it, only something droll, excruciatingly droll.

364
00:30:10,519 --> 00:30:14,000
Yet it did not make him laugh. When it had drawn a little

365
00:30:14,039 --> 00:30:18,119
nearer, he tried to diagnose it, to discover its material counterpart in one

366
00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:22,160
of the objects around him, But
he was obliged to acknowledge his attempts were

367
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:26,240
failures. There was nothing in the
room in the least degree like it.

368
00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:30,480
A vague feeling of uneasiness gradually crept
over him. Was the thing, the

369
00:30:30,559 --> 00:30:37,400
shadow of something with which he was
familiar but couldn't just then recall to mind.

370
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:42,319
Something he feared, something that was
sinister. He struggled against the idea.

371
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:48,319
He dismissed it as absurd, but
it returned, returned, and took

372
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:52,480
deeper root. As the shadow drew
nearer, he wished the house was not

373
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:56,559
quite so silent, that he could
hear some indication of life, anything,

374
00:30:56,960 --> 00:31:03,079
anything for companionship, and to rid
him of oppressive, the very oppressive sense

375
00:31:03,119 --> 00:31:08,240
of loneliness and isolation. Again,
a frill of terror ran through him.

376
00:31:08,599 --> 00:31:11,920
Look here, he exclaimed aloud,
glad to hear the sound of his own

377
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:15,920
voice. Look here. If this
goes on much longer, I shall begin

378
00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:18,839
to think I'm going mad. I
have had enough, and more than enough

379
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:22,880
of magic mirrors for one night.
It's high time I got into bed.

380
00:31:23,839 --> 00:31:29,319
He strove to rise from his chair, to move. He was unable to

381
00:31:29,319 --> 00:31:34,319
do either. Some strange tyrannical force
held him a prisoner. A change now

382
00:31:34,319 --> 00:31:38,759
took place in the shadow, the
blurred, dissipated, and the clearly defined

383
00:31:38,799 --> 00:31:45,599
outlines of an object, An object
that made mister Vans perfectly sick with apprehension,

384
00:31:45,119 --> 00:31:51,759
slowly disclosed themselves. His suspicions were
verified. It was the hand,

385
00:31:52,759 --> 00:31:57,759
the hand, no longer skeleton but
covered with green, moldering flesh, Feeling

386
00:31:57,759 --> 00:32:02,359
its way slyly and stealthily towards him, towards the back of his chair.

387
00:32:04,119 --> 00:32:08,599
He noted the murderous twitching of its
short, flat fingertips, the monstrous muscles

388
00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:15,359
of its hideous thumb, and the
great clumsy hollows of its clammy pam.

389
00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:20,160
It closed in upon him, Its
cold, slimy, detestable skin touched his

390
00:32:20,279 --> 00:32:24,960
coat, his shoulder, his neck, his head. It pressed him down,

391
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:30,480
squashed suffocated him. He saw it
all in the glass, and then

392
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:37,799
an extraordinary thing happened. Mister Vance
certainly became animated. He got up and

393
00:32:37,839 --> 00:32:45,319
peeped furtively round chairs, bed wardrobe
had all disappeared, so had the bedroom,

394
00:32:45,359 --> 00:32:50,359
and he found himself in a small, bare, comfortless, queerly constructed

395
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,200
apartment, without a door, and
with only a narrow slit of a window

396
00:32:53,279 --> 00:32:59,359
somewhere near the ceiling. He had
in one of his hands a knife with

397
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:02,039
a long, keen blade, and
his whole mind was bent on murder.

398
00:33:02,279 --> 00:33:07,279
Creeping stealthily forward, he approached a
corner of the room, where he now

399
00:33:07,359 --> 00:33:12,160
saw for the first time a mattress, a mattress on which lay a huddled

400
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:15,519
up for him. What the thing
was, whether human or animal, mister

401
00:33:15,519 --> 00:33:21,160
Advance did not know, did not
care. All he felt was that it

402
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:24,920
was there for him to kill.
That he loathed and hated it, hated

403
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:30,200
it with a hatred such as nothing
else could have produced. Tiptoeing gently out

404
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:34,799
to it, he bent down,
and, lifting his knife high above his

405
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:38,960
head, plunged it into the thing's
body with all the force he could command.

406
00:33:39,279 --> 00:33:43,920
He recrossed the room and found himself
once more in his apartment. At

407
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,079
the inn, he looked for the
skeleton hand. It was not where he

408
00:33:47,119 --> 00:33:52,240
had left it. It had vanished. Then he glanced at the mirror,

409
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:57,200
and on its brilliantly polished surface,
saw not his own face, but the

410
00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:00,640
face of the gardener, the man
who had given him the hand. Features,

411
00:34:01,079 --> 00:34:07,360
color, hair, all all were
identical, wonderfully hideously identical, And

412
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:14,519
as the eyes met his they smiled
devilishly. Early the next day mister Van

413
00:34:14,679 --> 00:34:16,880
set out for the spinning and cottage. They were not to be found.

414
00:34:17,519 --> 00:34:22,440
Nobody had ever heard of them.
He continued his travels, and some months

415
00:34:22,519 --> 00:34:25,559
later, at a lone collection of
pictures in a gallery in Edinburgh, he

416
00:34:25,599 --> 00:34:30,960
came to an abrupt, a very
abrupt halt, before the portrait of a

417
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:36,920
gentleman in ancient costume. The face
seemed strangely familiar. The huge head with

418
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:43,000
thick red hair, the hawk like
features, the thin and tightly compressed lips.

419
00:34:43,679 --> 00:34:46,559
Then in a trice, it all
came back to him. The face

420
00:34:46,639 --> 00:34:52,000
he looked at was that of the
uncouth gardener, the man who had given

421
00:34:52,079 --> 00:34:59,840
him the hand. And to clinch
the matter, the eyes leered end of

422
00:35:00,039 --> 00:35:00,840
Glam's Castle,