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Speaker 1: My own true ghost Story by Rudiered Kipling. As I

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came through the desert, Thus it was, as I came

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through the desert, this city of dreadful night, somewhere in

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the other world, where there are books and pictures in plays,

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and shop windows to look at, and thousands of men

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who spend their lives in building up all four lives

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a gentleman who writes real stories about the real insides

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of people. And his name is mister Walter Besant. But

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he will insist upon treating his ghosts. He has published

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half a workshopful of them with levity. He makes his

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ghost seers talk familiarly, and in some cases flirt outrageously

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with the phantoms. You may treat anything from a viceroy

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to a vernacular paper with levity, but you must behave

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reverently toward a ghost, and particularly an Indian one. There

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are in this land ghosts who take the form of fat,

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cold pobby corpses and hide in trees near the roadside

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till a traveler passes. Then they drop upon his neck

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and remain. There are also terrible ghosts of women who

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have died in child bed. These wander along the pathways

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at dusk, or hide in the crops near a village

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and call seductively. But to answer their call is death

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in this world, and the next their feet are turned

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backward that all sober men may recognize them. There are

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ghosts of little children who have been thrown into wells.

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These haunt well cerbs and the fringes of jungles and

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under the stars, or catch women by their wrist and

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beg to be taken up and carried. These and the

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corpse ghosts, however, are only vernacular articles, and do not

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attack Sahib's. No native ghost has yet been authentically reported

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to have frightened an Englishman, but many English ghosts have

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scared the life out of both white and black. Nearly

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every other station owns a ghost. There are said to

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be two at Simla, not counting the women who blows

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the bellows. At Syree Dak Bungalore on the Old Road,

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Mussouri has a house haunted of a very lively thing.

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A white lady is supposed to do night watchmen round

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the house. In Lahore, Dalhousi says that one of her

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houses repeats on autumn evenings all the incidents of a

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horrible horse and precipice accident. Marie has a merry ghost,

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and now that she has been swept by cholera, will

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have room for a sorrowful one. There are officers quarters

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in Mia Mia whose doors open without reason, and whose

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furniture is guaranteed to creak not with the heat of June,

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but with the weight of invisibles who come to lounge

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in the chairs. Peshawar possesses houses that none will willingly rent,

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and there is something not fever wrong with a big

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bungalow in Allahabad. The other provinces simply bristle with haunted

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houses and march phantom armies along their main thoroughfares. Some

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of the dark bungalows on the Grand Trunk Road have

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handy little cemeteries on their compound, witnesses to the changes

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and chances of this mortal life. In the days when

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men drove from Kolkatta to the northwest. These bungalows are

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objectionable places to put up in. They are generally very old,

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always dirty. While the Khansama is as ancient as the bungalow,

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he either chatters senali or falls into the long trances

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of age. In both moods. He is useless if you

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get angry with him. He refers to some sahib dead

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and buried these dirty years, and says that when he

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was in the Tahib's service, not a khansamac in the

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province could touch him. Then he jabbers and mows and

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trembles and fidgets among the dishes, and you repent of

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your irritation. In these dark bungalows, ghosts are most likely

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to be found, and when found, they should be made

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a note of. Not long ago, it was my business

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to live in dark bungalows. I never inhabited the same

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house for three nights running, and grew to be learned

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in the breed. I lived in government built ones with

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red brick walls and rail ceilings, an inventory of the

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furniture posted in every room, and an excited snake at

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the threshold to give welcome. I lived in converted ones,

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old houses officiating as dark bungalows, where nothing was in

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its proper place, and there wasn't even a fowl for dinner.

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I lived in second hand palaces, where the wind blew

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through open work marble tracery just as uncomfortably as through

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a broken pane. I lived in dark bungalows where the

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last entry in the visitor's book was fifteen months old,

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and where they slashed off the curry kid's head with

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a sword. It was my good luck to meet all

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sorts of men, from sober traveling missionaries and deserters flying

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from British regiments, to drunken loafers who threw whiskey bottles

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at all who passed, and my still greater good fortune

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to just escape a maternity case. Seeing that a fair

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proportion of the tragedy of our lives out here acted

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itself in dark bungalows, I wondered that I had met

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no ghosts. A ghost that would voluntarily hang about a

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dark bungalow would be mad, of course, But so many

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men have died mad in dark bungalows that there must

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be a fair percentage of lunatic ghosts. In due time

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I found my ghost, or ghosts rather, for there were

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two of them up till that hour. I had sympathized

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with mister Besant's method of handling them, as shown in

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the Strange Case of Mister Lucraft and other stories. I

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am now in the opposition. We will call the bungalow

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cut mine dark bungalow. But that was the smallest part

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of the horror. A man with a sensitive hide has

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no right to sleep in dark bungalows. He should marry

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cut mine. Dark bungalow was old and rotten and unrepaired.

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The floor was of worn brick, the walls were filthy,

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and the windows were nearly black with grime. It stood

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on a bypath largely used by native sub deputy assistance

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of all kinds from finance to forests, but real Sahibs

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were rare. The kan Summer, who was nearly bent double

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with old age, said so. When I arrived, there was

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a fitful, undecided rain on the face of the land,

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accompanied by a restless wind, and every gust made a

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noise like the rattling of dry bones in the stiff

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holly palms outside. The Khan Sama completely lost his head

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on my arrival. He had served the sahib once. Did

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I know that t sahib? He gave me the name

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of a well known man who has been buried for

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more than a quarter of a century, and showed me

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an ancient the guratype of that man in his prehistoric use.

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I had seen his still engraving of him at the

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head of a double volume of memoirs a month before,

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and I felt ancient beyond telling. Did they shut in?

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And the Khan Samak went to get me food. He

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did not go through the pretence of calling it Khana

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man's victuals. He said ratub and that means, among other things,

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grub dog's rations. There was no insult in his choice

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of the term. He had forgotten the other word, I

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suppose while he was cutting up the dead bodies of animals.

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I settled myself down after exploring the dark bungalow. There

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were three rooms beside my own, which was a corner kennel,

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each giving in to the other through dingy white doors

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fastened with long iron bars. The bungalow was a very

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solid one, but the partition walls of the rooms were

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almost cherry built in their flimsiness. Every step or bang

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of a trunk echoed from my room down the other three,

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and every footfall came back tremulously from the far walls.

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For this reason I shut the door. There were no lamps,

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only candles in long glass shades. An oil wick was

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set in the bathroom for bleak unadultered misery that dark

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bungalow was the worst of the many that I had

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ever set foot in. There was no fireplace, and the

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window would not open, so a brazure of charcoal would

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have been useless. The rain and the wind splashed and

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gurgled and moaned round the house, and the tardy palms

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rattled and roared. Half a dozen jackals went through the

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compound singing, and the hyaena stood afar off and mocked them.

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A hyaena would convince us to sea of the resurrection

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of the dead, the worst sort of dead. Then came

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the ratub, a curious meal half Native and half English

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in composition, with the old Khan Shamma babbling behind my

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chair about dead and gone English people, and the wind

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blown candles playing shadow bo peep with the bed and

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the mosquito curtains. It was just a sort of dinner

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and the evening. To make a man think of every

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single one of his past sins, and of all the

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others that he intended to commit if he lived. Sleep

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for several hundred reasons was not easy. The lamp in

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the bathroom threw the most absurd shadows into the room,

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and the wind was beginning to talk nonsense just when

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the reasons were drowsy with blood sucking, I heard the

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regular let us take and heave him over grunt ave

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duly bearers in the compound. First one dully came in,

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then a second, and then a third. I heard the

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dully stumped on the ground, and the shutter in front

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of my door shook. That's some one trying to come in,

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I said. But no one spoke, and I persuaded myself

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that it was the gusty wind. The shutter of the

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room next to mine was attacked, flung back, and the

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inner door opened. That's some sub deputy assistant, I said.

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And he has brought friends with him. Now they'll talk

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and spit and smoke for an hour. But there were

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no voices and no footsteps. No one was putting his

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luggage into the next room. The door shut, and I

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thanked providence that I was to be left in peace.

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But I was curious to know where the doolies had gone.

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I got out of bed and looked into the darkness.

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There was never a sign of a doolly. Just as

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I was getting into bed again, I heard in the

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next room the sound that no man in his senses

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can possibly mistake there were of a billiard ball down

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the lanth of the slates when the striker is stringing

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for break. No other sound is like it. A minute

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afterwards words, there was another whir, and I got into bed.

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I was not frightened, indeed I was not. I was

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very curious to know what had become of the doolies.

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I jumped into bed for that reason. Next minute I

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heard the double click of a cannon, and my hair

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sat up. It is a mistake to say that hare

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stands up. The skin of the head tightens, and you

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can feel a faint, prickly bristling all over the scalp,

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that is the hair sitting up. There was a whir

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and a click, and both sounds could only have been

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made by one thing, a billet ball. I argued the

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matter out at great length with myself, and the more

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I argued, the less probable it seemed that one bed,

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one table, and two chairs, all the furniture of the

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room next to mine could so exactly duplicate the sounds

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of a game of billiards. After another cannon, a three

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cushioned one, to judge by the whir, I argued no more,

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I had found my ghost and would have given worlds

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to have escaped from that dark bungalow. I listened, and

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with each listen the game grew clearer. There was war

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on whir and click on click. Sometimes there was a

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double click and a whir and another click. Beyond any

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sort of doubt, people were playing billiards in the next room,

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and the next room was not big enough to hold

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a billiard table. Between the pauses of the wind, I

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heard the game go forward, stroke after stroke. I tried

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to believe that I could not hear voices, but that

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attempt was a failure. Do you know what fear is?

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Not or the very fear of insult, injury, or death,

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but abject, quivering dread of something that you cannot say,

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Fare that trues the inside of the mouth and half

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of the throat. Fear that makes you sweat on the

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palms of the hands and gulp in order to keep

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the uvula at work. This is a fine fear, a

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great cowardice, and must be felt to be appreciated. The

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very improbability of billiards in a dark bungalow proved the

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reality of the thing. No man, drunk or sober could

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imagine a game at billiards or invent the spitting crack

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of a screw cannon. A severe course of dark bungalows

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has disadvantage. It breeds infinite credulity. If a man said

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to a confirmed dark bungaloo hunter, there is a corpse

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in the next room, and there's a mad girl in

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the next but one, and the woman and man on

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dad's camel have just eloped from a play sixty miles away,

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the hearer would not disbelieve, because he would know that

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nothing is too wild, grotesque, or horrible to happen in

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a dark bungalow. This credulity, unfortunately extends to ghosts. A

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rational person fresh from his own house would have turned

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on his side and slept. I did not so surely

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as I was given up as a bad carcass, but

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the scores of things in the bed because the bulk

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of my blood was in my heart. So surely did

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I hear every stroke of a long game at Billiard's,

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played in the echoing room behind the iron barred door.

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My dominant fear was that the players might want a marker.

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It was an absurd fear, because creed who could play

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in the dark would be above such superfluities. I only

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know that that was my terror, and it was real.

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After a long, long while, the game stopped and the

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door banged. I slept because I was dead tired. Otherwise

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I should have preferred to have kept awake. Not for

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everything in Asia, would I have dropped the door bar

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and peered into the dark of the next room. When

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the morning came, I considered that I had done well

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and wisely, and inquired for the means of departure by

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the way Kanesomer, I said, what were these three dulies

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doing in my compound in the night? There were no dulies,

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said the Consummer. I went into the next room, and

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the daylight streamed through the open door. I was immensely brave.

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I would at that hour have played blackpool with the

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owner of the big black pool down below. Has this

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place always been a dark bungalow, I asked, No, said

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the Kansummer, ten or twenty years ago. I have forgotten

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how long it was a billiard room, a ham much

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a billiard room for the Sahibs who built the railway.

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I was Kanzamaeden in the big house where all the

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railway Sahibs lived and I used to come across with

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Brandy Schwab. These three rooms were all one, and they

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held a big table on which the Sahibs played every evening.

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But the Sahibs are all dead now, and the railway

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runs you say nearly to Kabul. Do you remember anything

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about the Sahibs. It is long ago, but I remember

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that one Tzahib, a fat man and always angry, was

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playing here one night and he said to me, Mangar Khan,

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Brandy Panny do. And I filled the glass, and he

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bent over the table to strike, and his head fell

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lower and lower till it hit the table, and his

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spectacles came off. And when we the Sahibs and I

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myself ran to lift him, he was dead. I helped

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to carry him out. Ah. He was a strong Sahib,

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but he is dead. And I ough to Mangar Khan,

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I am still living by your favor. That was more

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than enough. I had my ghost a first hand, authenticated

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article I would write to the Society for Psychical Research.

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I would paralyze the Empire with the news. But I

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would first of all put eighty miles of a cessed

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cropland between myself and that dark bungalow, but for nightfall

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the Society might send a regular agent to investigate. Later on,

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I went into my own room and prepared to pack,

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after noting down the facts of the case. As I smoked,

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I heard the game begin again with a miss in

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balk Tis time, for the whir was a short one.

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The door was open, and I could see into the room. Click, click,

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that was a cannon. I entered the room without fear,

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for there was sunlight within and a fresh breeze. Without

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the unseen game was going on at a tremendous rate,

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And well it might when a restless little rat was

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running to and fro inside the dingy ceiling cloth, and

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a piece of loose window sash was making fifty bricks

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off the window boat as it shook in the breeze.

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Impossible to mistake the sound of billiard balls, Impossible to

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mistake the whirr of a ball over the slate. But

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I was to be excused. Even when I shut my

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enlightening eyes, the sound was marvelously like that of a

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fast gain. Entered angrily, the faithful partner of my sorrows,

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Kadir Baksh. The spungalow is very bad and low cast.

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I wondered the presence was disturbed and is speckled. Three

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sets of duly bearers came to the Bungaloo last night

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when I was sleeping outside, and said that it was

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their accustom to rest in the room set apart for

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the English people. What to honor has the kansammer. They

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tried to enter, but I told them to go. No

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wonder these oorias have been here and the presence is

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sorely spotted. It is shane and the work of a

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dirty man. Kadir Baksh did not say that he had

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taken from each two annas for rent in advance and

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then beyond my ear shot had beaten them with the

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big green umbrella, whose use I could never before divine.

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But Kudeobaksh had no notions of morality. There was an

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interview with the consumer, but as he promptly lost his head,

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Rath gave place to pity, and pity led to a

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long conversation, in the course of which he put the

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fat engineer Sahib's tragic death in three separate stations, two

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of them fifty miles away. The third shift was to Kalkutta,

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and there the Sahib died while driving a dog cart.

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If I had encouraged him, the Kansumer would have wandered

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all through Bengal with his corpse. I did not go

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away as soon as I intended. I stayed for the

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night while the wind and the rat, and the sash

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and the window bolt played a ding dong hundred and

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fifty up. Then the wind ran out and the billiard stopped,

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and I felt that I had ruined my one genuine,

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hall marked ghost story. Had I only stopped at the

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proper time, I could have made anything out of it.

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That was the bitterest thought of all, and