Algernon Blackwood

“ A characteristic belonging to them all is noticeable, and perhaps significant: that the strange sounds were heard by men in a state of physical exhaustion. The ship’s crew, after weeks of battling with terrific weather, were worn out, and climbers, at the end of a long day which has started probably before dawn, are in a condition of severe bodily fatigue. Nerves and muscles are both weary.
The other cases of queer or ghostly happenings I have jotted down from my reading are, I think, of a more interesting and significant kind, more convincing, at any rate. ”

“ The first is told by the famous rock-climber, George D. Abraham, the author of many thrilling books of mountain adventure, and the hero of more than one escape. He was in a hut on the Dôm, 9,400 feet up, with a couple of porters. “Just at twilight,” he writes, “a curious thing happened. We were all sitting round the cold stove, wrapped in blankets, when a terribly human yell, as of pain, sounded outside quite close to the hut, and just for the moment it caused the bravest of us to shudder. Two of us wrenched open the snowed-up door, fully expecting to revive someone in distress. ”

“ The river emptied into Grand Lake after all. The few entries the dying Hubbard made in his diary during the last awful solitude are among the most moving and poignant imaginable.
Two other capital true ghost stories carry us from bleak and frozen Labrador to the genial heat of the Tropics⁠—Borneo and New Guinea. Most of the European houses in Borneo, to take that first, are “berhantu” (haunted) according to the natives, and the following ghost story is told by Oscar Cook, late District Officer, North Borneo Civil Service, in his enchanting volume, Borneo: Stealer of Hearts. ”

“ The face is not seen, it will be noticed; no sound of footsteps stumbling among the rocks is audible; there is no detailed description of the figure, beyond that it is that of a man; nor is any attempt at speech recorded, either between the author and the ghostly appearance, nor between the author, again, and his two companions. ”

“ And Hubbard was leader of the expedition. In the end they decided to sleep on it.
The third member of this desperate party was George Elson, a half-breed Cree Indian from James Bay, engaged for the expedition by the Hudson Bay Company Post at Missanambie, Ontario. He was a stalwart in every sense of the term; a fine fellow, calm, cheerful, companionable, faithful, a man of character. He was, in addition, a man of immense experience. It was through this Indian that the “otherworldly intervention” came⁠—a dream. ”

“ What one man hears may easily be set down as hallucination, but a collective hallucination is more difficult to accept. Mountains, on the other hand, are notorious for strange noises: wind, ice splitting off, rocks falling, snow settling (the dull boom of a snowfield settling is an unpleasant sound) , to say nothing of the tricks that echo may play. Experienced climbers, on the other hand, are familiar with these odd sounds and could hardly ascribe them to a human yell. ”

“ All rushed to the rail, mate and men too, and stared into the blackness to windward. “The starbowlines, tired men asleep in their bunks below, poured up on deck, If ever men were horror-struck, we were. ”

“ They hold life cheap. Their books, respectively, prove them men of courage and resource. And when men of this stamp tell a queer story and vouch for its veracity, the story is usually impressive. Not all of the tales I shall quote from are, strictly speaking, ghost stories, but all are interesting, suggestive, and, to say the least, mighty queer. ”

“ He was asked to tell it.
“It was a strange dream,” he repeated, and hesitated. Hubbard urged him to go on.
“Well,” he said, “I dreamed the Lord stood before me, very beautiful and bright, and He had a mighty kind look on His face. And He said to me: ‘George, don’t leave this river. Just stick to it and it will take you out to Grand Lake, where you’ll find the cache with lots of grub, and then you’ll be all right and safe. I can’t spare you any more fish, George, and if you leave this river you won’t get any more. Just stick to this river and I’ll take you out safe. ”

“ Being True Ghost Stories from Labrador, Borneo, New Guinea, the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Pacific Ocean Genuinely true ghost stories are hard to come by, as anyone who takes the trouble to track them to their origin may know. ”

“ A sound that keeps the crew of a windjammer out of their beds all night and put the fear of God into the ship’s officers as well, to say nothing of the Old Man, may well have been of a fairly convincing nature! ”

“ When all three senses are impressed, to say nothing of smell and taste, the result may be considered highly interesting, though not necessarily more evidential.
Commander H. G. Stoker, D.S.O., R.N., gives a curious account of a visible appearance in his book Straws in the Wind, when he describes his escape with two companions from the Turkish Prison Camp at Hissar, in the centre of Asia Minor and 130 miles from the nearest sea. The characteristic of physical exhaustion and intense nervous strain is again noticeable, as will be seen. ”

“ I asked my men, “what do you make of it?”
“No man living could have passed unseen,” was Poruma’s reply. “It’s either the spirit of a dead man, or a devil.”
Whatever Captain Monckton may have thought, and he offers no opinion or explanation, he moved to the ship for the night and slept on board. ”

“ The overwrought condition of mind and nerves is frankly admitted, yet the visible appearance, the ghost, which was seen by him when in this state, was seen by his two escaping pals as well. Here is the point of interest in this curious account. We hear much about “extended telepathy” nowadays. Did Commander Stoker’s strong personality transfer a visual hallucination of his own to the receptive minds of his two companions? ”