William Hope Hodgson Carnacki the Ghost Finder

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"What broke the seventh hair?" asked Taylor.
But Carnacki did not know. He thought it was probably nothing but being too
severely tensioned. He also explained that they found out that the men who had
run away, had not been up to mischief; but had come over secretly, merely to
hear the whistling, which, indeed, had suddenly become the talk of the whole
countryside.
"One other thing," said Arkright, "have you any idea what governs the use of
the Unknown Last Line of the
Saaamaaa Ritual? I know, of course, that it was used by the Abhuman Priests in
the Incantation of Raaaee;
but what used it on your behalf, and what made it?"
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"You had better read Harzan's Monograph, and my Addenda to it, on Astral and
Astarral Coordination and
Interference," said Carnacki. "It is an extraordinary subject, and I can only
say here that the humanvibration may not be insulated from the astarral (as is
always believed to be the case, in interferences by the
Abhuman), without immediate action being taken by those Forces which govern
the spinning of the outer circle. In other words, it is being proved, time
after time, that there is some inscrutable Protective Force constantly
intervening between the humansoul (not the body, mind you,) and the Outer
Monstrosities. Am I
clear?"
"Yes, I think so," I replied. "And you believe that the Room had become the
material expression of the ancient Jesterthat his soul, rotten with hatred,
had bred into a monstereh?" I asked.
"Yes," said Carnacki, nodding, "I think you've put my thought rather neatly.
It is a queer coincidence that
Miss Donnehue is supposed to be descended (so I have heard since) from the
same King Ernore. It makes one think some curious thoughts, doesn't it? The
marriage coming on, and the Room waking to fresh life. If she had gone into
that room, ever .. eh? IT had waited a long time. Sins of the fathers. Yes,
I've thought of that.
They're to be married next week, and I am to be best man, which is a thing I
hate. And he won his bets, rather! Just think, if every she had gone into that
room. Pretty horrible, eh?"
He nodded his head, grimly, and we four nodded back. Then he rose and took us
collectively to the door, and presently thrust us forth in friendly fashion on
the Embankment and into the fresh night air.
"Good night," we all called back, and went to our various homes. If she had,
eh? If she had? That is what I
kept thinking.
THE HORSE OF THE INVISIBLE
I had that afternoon received an invitation from Carnacki. When I reached his
place I found him sitting alone.
As I came into the room he rose with a perceptibly stiff movement and extended
his left hand. His face seemed to be badly scarred and bruised and his right
hand was bandaged. He shook hands and offered me his paper, which I refused.
Then he passed me a handful of photographs and returned to his reading.
Now, that is just Carnacki. Not a word had come from him and not a question
from me. He would tell us all about it later. I spent about half an hour
looking at the photographs which were chiefly 'snaps' (some by flashlight) of
an extraordinarily pretty girl; though in some of the photographs it was
wonderful that her prettiness was so evident for so frightened and startled
was her expression that it was difficult not to believe that she had been
photographed in the presence of some imminent and overwhelming danger.
The bulk of the photographs were of interiors of different rooms and passages
and in every one the girl might be seen, either full length in the distance or
closer, with perhaps little more than a hand or arm or portion of the head or
dress included in the photograph. All of these had evidently been taken with
some definite aim that did not have for its first purpose the picturing of the
girl, but obviously of her surroundings and they made me very curious, as you
can imagine.
Near the bottom of the pile, however, I came upon something DEFINITELY
extraordinary. It was a photograph of the girl standing abrupt and clear in
the great blaze of a flashlight, as was plain to be seen. Her face was turned
a little upward as if she had been frightened suddenly by some noise. Directly
above her, as though halfformed and coming down out of the shadows, was the
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shape of a single enormous hoof.
I examined this photograph for a long time without understanding it more than
that it had probably to do with some queer case in which Carnacki was
interested. When Jessop, Arkright and Taylor came in Carnacki quietly held out
his hand for the photographs which I returned in the same spirit and
afterwards we all went in
Carnacki The Ghost Finder
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32
to dinner. When we had spent a quiet hour at the table we pulled our chairs
round and made ourselves snug and Carnacki began:
'I've been North,' he said, speaking slowly and painfully between puffs at his
pipe. 'Up to Hisgins of East
Lancashire. It has been a pretty strange business all round, as I fancy you
chaps will think, when I have finished. I knew before I went, something about
the "horse story", as I have heard it called; but I never thought of it coming
my way, somehow. Also I know NOW that I never considered it seriouslyin spite
of my rule always to keep an open mind. Funny creatures, we humans!
'Well, I got a wire asking for an appointment, which of course told me that
there was some trouble. On the date I fixed old Captain Hisgins himself came
up to see me. He told me a great many new details about the horse story;
though naturally I had always known the main points and understood that if the
first child were a girl, that girl would be haunted by the Horse during her
courtship.
'It is, as you can see already, an extraordinary story and though I have
always known about it, I have never thought it to be anything more than an
oldtime legend, as I have already hinted. You see, for seven generations the
Hisgins family have had men children for their firstborn and even the Hisgins
themselves have long considered the tale to be little more than a myth.
'To come to the present, the eldest child of the reigning family is a girl and
she has been often teased and warned in jest by her friends and relations that
she is the first girl to be the eldest for seven generations and that she
would have to keep her men friends at arm's length or go into a nunnery if she
hoped to escape the haunting. And this, I think, shows us how thoroughly the
tale had grown to be considered as nothing worthy of the least serious
thought. Don't you think so?
'Two months ago Miss Hisgins became engaged to Beaumont, a young Naval
Officer, and on the evening of the very day of the engagement, before it was
even formally announced, a most extraordinary thing happened which resulted in
Captain Hisgins making the appointment and my ultimately going down to their
place to look into the thing.
'From the old family records and papers that were entrusted to me I found that
there could be no possible doubt that prior to something like a hundred and
fifty years ago there were some very extraordinary and disagreeable
coincidences, to put the thing in the least emotional way. In the whole of the
two centuries prior to that date there were five firstborn girls out of a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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