“Wait a moment, constable,” he said, “and we’ll come with you.”
He cast a swiftly furtive glance around him as he spoke, then, blowing out the lights, he caught me by the arm and dragged me away.
“But the dog, sir,” the policeman said, as the front door closed behind us with a bang; “it ain’t come out!”
“And it never will,” McKaye responded grimly. “You have seen the ghost, constable, or at least one of them.”
I have never had an opportunity of visiting the house again, but for aught I know to the contrary, it still stands there, and is still haunted.
From Glasgow I went on to Inverary, where I had the most delightful time, fishing and shooting.
I then went to Perth, and there, quite by chance, met a Mr. and Mrs. Rowlandson, who informed me that they were just quitting a badly haunted house on the outskirts of the town. The name of the house was “Bocarthe.” It was their own, and had only been built a year, but they could not possibly remain in it, they told me, owing to the perpetual disturbance to which they were subjected. They were just beginning a detailed description of the manifestations, when I begged them to desist. I would like, I explained, with their permission, to investigate the case, and I thought it would be better to do so without knowing the nature of the hauntings, as in these circumstances—should my experience happen to tally with theirs—there could be no question either of suggestion or of imagination.
I had resolved to conduct all my investigations with an absolutely open mind, and I intended, when once I had satisfied myself that the phenomena were objective, to try and alight upon some code whereby I could communicate with them, and learn from them something certain—something definite, at all events, about the other world. To what extent I have succeeded I shall make it the purpose of this volume to reveal.
But to continue: “What strikes us as so extraordinary about the whole thing,” the Rowlandsons said, “is that a new house, with absolutely no history attached to it, for we were the first people who ever inhabited it, and we can assure you,” they added laughingly, “there were no murders or suicides there during our occupancy, should be haunted. Our neighbours declare that we must have brought the ghost with us.”