Mr. William Patterson Henry had narrated an authentic Indian ghost story from Ceylon, when he and his family were living at a bungalow some hundreds of acres. on a large tea and coffee plantation of
The Henrys found existence in Ceylon, with its fragrant winds and delightful climate, ideal. The charming bungalow, situated on a hill overlooking a valley, formed three sides of a square with a wing at each end, a veranda ran the entire length f the house, and continued round the north, or nursey-end. Mr. and Mrs. Henry slept in the middle of the building, and it was customary with them to go to the nursery wing every night before going to bed to see that everything was well with their two children.
One night Mr. Henry awoke with the feeling that someone was in the room... He switched on the light, but, except for himself, the bedroom was empty, and he was just dropping off to sleep, when he heard the sound of knocking, proceeding from the door of the children's room. At this moment Mrs. Henry came in.
"Whatever is the matter?” said she. "Whoever can be knocking at this time of night? Do go and find out."
Whereupon her husband, hastily putting on a pair of ippers, went outside to discover the cause of this deliberate knocking of six distinct knocks, one after the other.
Nothing was visible... and the puzzled Mr. Henry s about to go back to bed, when he caught sight of crouching under a large shrub, who, on being discovered, ood upright, bolted along the path, with Mt. Henry in close punan until the retreating figure put on such speed that he was oblige to give up the chase. Shouting lurid threats of shooting ass and imprisonment, Mr. Henry returned empty-handed to the bungalow sas
He described what he had seen to his wife. "It was costa a native," said he, and a native well over the average height lic wore an enormous turban, and, as far as 1 could make our robe of Madras muslin-" But he stopped short, remembering something more than curious about the flying figure.
"What's the matter?" asked Mrs. Henry, alarmed at be husband's expression. "Are you ill?"
Mr. Henry said: "My dear, it has struck me that I could no lower limbs, and I never heard the suspicion of a sound a footsteps, as I watched it speeding down the road."
After this the Henrys very wisely said no more and again went to bed.
Next day when Mr. Henry came back after a tour of inspection round the plantation, he found that his wife had been employing part of the morning in trying to find out who the midnight visitor might have been. To her surprise, her inquiries were taken entirely as a matter of course.
"Why," chorused the household, thats only the ghest - apparently taking it for granted that the ghost "went" with the bungalow as a supernatural fixture.
The tea-planter was nothing if not through. He summoned the newly engaged servants, mostly Tamils and Sinhalese. 0 his office, and subjected them to a gruelling cross-examination.But one and all agreed in a starling manner to the the presence of the ghost in their midst.
The gardener, the first w for the "ghowihy" defence, erd that one morning when me to work in the coal hours of dawn, he had seen a figure creeping round outside the every door But thinking it was some stray coolie, he ok ne notice, until the following morning, when he saw in agam and hailed in, received no reply. On the third morning, thinking that the mysterious person was up to no good, he tried to seE hold of it, but his hand grasped the ait, and he hurried mo the kitchen in a state of mingled panic and excitement
There's nothing whatever to be frightened of," said the
Cingalese natives of the country. "You've only me the ghost!" Wb ghost?" asked the Tamil gardener. "Why the bungalow ghost-everybody sees it."
The evidence of the keeper of the cartel, and MMr. Henry's groom, went to show that the figure occasionally haunted the Yoad leading to the cattle shed, and the groom had seen in standing at the stable door. The butler, the cook, the kitchen man, and the "boy" gave similar evidence, and one and all described the ghost as that of a tall man dressed in white, the exaggerated size of whose turban would make him noticeable anywhere
More than ever mystified, the Henrys decided to question the children's ayah privately on her return (she had been away at her village for a few days) and prevent any collusion with the other ghost scers; but when the secret inquiry took place the ayah told her employers quite unconcernedly that she was often awkened by knocking on the nursery door.
"Sometimes," said she, "there is nothing-sometimes I see a tall man in white robes, who walks away when I open the door. But," she continued, "the knocking is always strange. Just 1x distinct knacks.
*Always the same number?" asked Mr. Henry.
"Always six knocks," replied the ayah.
"And when did you last hear it?"
"It happens so often, that I never take any notice of it," said
the ayah.
All subsequent inquiries proved useless. The ghost presented an unsolvable mystery, and the "legless' man, dressed in Madras muslin, continued to make periodical visits to the banglow. For months Mr. Henry vainly tried by every means in his power to throw some light on this recurrent phenomena, but as it was impossible for him to give up his position on the estate, and as the children were spared meeting the ghost, the Henrys decided to see things through. However, it was not conducive to a a steady "nerve” condition—to fall asleep, knowing that they might be awakened at any moment by the six knocks, and also, that somewhere in the tropical darkness an uneasy "return" from another world wandered, seeking rest, and finding none.