“‘I might say the same to you,’ the lawyer replied. ‘What brought you here?’
“‘Davidson,’ Delaney said. ‘Do you know, I can’t help associating him with this pool. It is damnably fascinating.’
“‘I can’t help associating him with that cry,’ Hartney remarked. ‘I am certain it was his voice! Good God! what’s that?’ And he pointed frantically at the white thing bobbing up and down in the water, just where the moonbeams fell thickest, and not half a dozen yards from where they stood.
“‘Where?’ Delaney said, pressing close to him in a great state of excitement. ‘Where? Ah! I see it now. It’s looking towards us. That—well, if you wish to know what it is——’ He left off abruptly. There was a wild scream, a heavy splash, and he continued his sentence. ‘That, Mr. Hartney, is the solution you seek to the mystery.’ And he went back to the inn alone, chuckling.
“The sequel to this narrative comes as a surprise. Hartney was not drowned. Being a very powerful swimmer, and lightly clad, he got to the other side of the pool, and, clambering up the bank, he wrung the water from his clothes and ran all the way to the inn. On arriving there, to his intense astonishment, he found Davidson, safe and sound, and dressed in clothes two or three sizes too small for him. Davidson’s experience had been very similar to his own. Delaney had suddenly seized him round the waist and hurled him into the middle of the pool. There, he declared, he felt something like very big and icy cold hands trying to pull him down. He cried for help and prayed, and, as he prayed, the hands relaxed their grasp, and he managed to struggle safely to shore. The shock of what he had gone through, however, was so great that he felt too ill to get back to the inn, and he was compelled to rest awhile at a farm, where he obtained a hot bath and a suit of clothes. As Davidson knew Delaney’s wife and family, he begged Hartney, for their sake, to keep the affair as secret as possible.
“The doctor, who was called in to examine Delaney, could not certify him as being actually insane. However, he strongly recommended him to go into a private home for a time, where he would be kept under constant supervision, and Delaney did as the doctor advised. But after being in the home about a month he escaped, and was eventually found drowned in the lonely pool near Llanginney.
“From the description given me of Delaney, I am under the impression that the figure I saw in the mackintosh was his ghost. But what about the figure Hartney was positive he saw floating in the water? Was it the phantom of someone who had perished there, or had Davidson again unconsciously projected himself? I incline to the latter. This is the case in toto, and it was told to me by Hartney, who got all the details, apart from those he had himself experienced, direct from Davidson and Delaney.”
CHAPTER XIV
I GO ON WITH THE HISTORY OF MY LIFE, AND NARRATE A GHOSTLY HAPPENING IN LIVERPOOL
I gave up acting directly I became engaged to be married. I had no alternative, as my fiancée’s parents strongly disapproved of the Stage, and so long as I was on it, they would, I knew, never consent to my union with their daughter. But it was rather a wrench, for I really liked acting, and, with the exception of the Sunday travelling, the life suited me well. What other occupation to choose was a poser. All the difficulties that had faced me on my return from the States once again presented themselves, and were aggravated by the fact that I was many years older. I was racking my brain to know what to do for the best, when I received a letter from an old friend in Cornwall, who suggested that I should go down there and open up a small Preparatory Boys’ School. It was Hobson’s choice, and in due course of time I found myself once again engaged in the profession I loathed. I started with four or five pupils, and had worked up my connection till I had nearly thirty, when someone, with more money than I, set up on a much bigger scale, and my numbers gradually decreased.