Goblins and Ghosties (3 page)

‘That's not what I heard,' said the first man. ‘The way I heard it, there was this fisherman on his way to work who found his way blocked by the Moddey-dhoo and had to
go
home again. The boat he should have been on was lost with all hands.'

‘There you are, then. Death!'

‘Not for the man who saw it.'

‘What you're saying is, we're all right then?'

‘What I'm saying,' said the sergeant, ‘is if we don't bother it, it won't bother us. Right?'

They tried to go on as if the dog wasn't there, chatting and playing cards, but of course it was there and though every time they looked it seemed to be asleep, they couldn't get over the feeling that it was watching them.

Whenever the duty man got up, took the keys and went to the door to go on his rounds, the dog was there at his heels.

So one of the others went with him, to keep one eye on his comrade, the other on the Moddey-dhoo.

All three of them came back safe and sound. No problem.

At first light the dog got up, strolled to the door and disappeared. Not a whisker of it was to be seen up and down the corridor outside.

But,
the next night, it was back again. And the night after that. It didn't come every night but often enough that the soldiers got into the habit of going round in pairs, just in case they met the Moddey-dhoo on the way.

Then, one of the four got transferred to another posting. A mainlander took his place. A Londoner they called Mad Jack.

Mad Jack just laughed when they warned him about the Moddey-dhoo.

‘You're having me on!' he said. ‘It's just a big, black dog, right? I'm good with dogs. Where are you, Moddey-doody-dhoo? Here, boy! Come!'

Suddenly, the dog was there in the doorway, fixing Mad Jack with its red-rimmed eyes, padding past him on its paws the size of tea plates to its favourite spot by the fire.

‘Like I said,' laughed Jack. ‘It's just a dog.'

The time came for the duty man to go on his rounds. ‘I'll go!' said Mad Jack. ‘No need to come with me. Old Moddey-dhoo will keep me company. Come on, boy. Walkies!'

Straightaway, the dog was on its feet and
at
Mad Jack's heels as he swaggered out of the room. Following so close that it might have been his shadow.

The other three men sat listening, as the sound of Mad Jack's footsteps and the jangling of the keys faded into the distance.

Silence. Long enough for a man to count to ten, very slowly, but then broken by a terrible, blood-curdling scream.

And silence again, until the first light of morning when the three men crept out to see what had happened to Mad Jack and the Moddey-dhoo.

Although they searched the castle from top to bottom, they found not one trace of either.

Note: In the old Manx language Moddey-dhoo would be pronounced moor-tha-doo.

The Bride Who Waited

Native American

She was a maiden of the Brule Sioux and he was a wandering white man.

The tribe didn't care much for white men in general, but this one was quietly spoken. He respected their ways and knew their language, so they welcomed him into their camp.

All that summer he lived as one of the tribe, hunting with the men by day and in the evening, when the whole tribe gathered round the camp
fire,
he told them tales of the places he'd been.

The things he'd seen! He told them about the Californian goldfields where a man could make enough in a day to keep him in comfort for the rest of his life. And the Mississippi river boats where he could lose it all at the gambling tables just as fast. He described the cities of the east, with buildings towering up taller than the tallest tree and so brightly lit by night that the stars hid their light for shame.

Always as he talked his eyes seemed to seek her out, as if he were telling these stories just for her.

‘Marry me,' he whispered, ‘and I'll take you there.'

‘You must speak to my father,' she said.

So he spoke to her father, who consulted the tribal elders, who all agreed that it might not be such a bad thing, in view of the way the world was changing, to have a member of the tribe living in the white man's world, learning their ways, their customs.

So the white man and the Sioux maiden were married.

‘
When will you take me there?' she asked him. ‘When will you take me to this brave new world of yours?'

‘Just as soon as I've found a place for us to live,' he promised. ‘Will you wait for me?'

‘You know I will. I am your wife. However long it takes, you'll find me here, waiting.'

So off he went.

Summer ended. The tribe was packing up, moving south to their winter camp.

‘I must stay here,' she said, ‘and wait for my husband.'

So they left her there with a stash of food and fuel to see her through the winter.

All the long winter she waited but he didn't come.

He'd scarcely ridden a few days from the summer camp when the wanderlust took hold of him again. It would be good, he thought, to ride the Mississippi river boats one last time, maybe double his money at the gambling tables, so he could buy a better house.

Maybe not. Soon, he'd not one red cent to his name. Nothing for it but to try his
luck
in the California gold fields. When that didn't pan out, he headed east again, joining a cattle drive, though that didn't pay more than enough to keep body and soul together along the way. Nothing left over for setting up house with his pretty little Indian bride.

She'd promised to wait for him, but how long was it now that he'd been gone?

Too long, he told himself, looking in the mirror one day as he shaved, seeing the grey threads in his hair among the brown. She'll have forgotten me by now.

Still, more and more she haunted his dreams. Sometimes, he seemed to hear her voice calling him, no more than a whispering in the wind. Sometimes, among the bustling crowds, he'd see her standing, holding out her arms to him.

So one day he turned westward, seeking the place, never expecting to find it again – but glory be! There it was. A lone tipi standing in the midst of that vast empty plain, looking as fresh and new as it did on their wedding night.

And there in the doorway was his Indian
bride,
not a grey hair on her head among the raven black. ‘You stayed away too long,' she said. And the sound of her voice was soft as the wind rustling through long grass. ‘I know,' he said. ‘And I'm truly sorry.'

The scent of her skin when he took her in his arms was as sweet as summer rain.

‘This time,' she whispered, ‘I'm never going to let you go.'

It was a party of homesteaders heading west that found them, not long after. A white man lying stone dead under the ragged remains of an old tipi, holding in his arms a bundle of sun-bleached bones and a strand of raven-black hair twined in his fingers.

The Vampire of Croglin Grange

England

It was the perfect place for a summer holiday, an old manor house set among wooded valleys and rolling moors where they could walk all day and never see another human soul.

‘And in the evenings,' said Amelia, ‘we'll tell each other ghost stories by candlelight. Croglin Grange! It does sound so wonderfully gothic!'

There
was even an old chapel in the grounds. Sadly, the door was shut.

‘Never mind,' she said. ‘We can ask in the village. Somebody must have a key.'

‘How did you manage to rent the place so cheaply?' Edward asked their brother.

‘Well, I'm afraid there's no electricity and no servants,' said Michael.

‘That doesn't matter!' said Edward. ‘We can fend for ourselves. Cook our own food, come and go as we like. Without servants hovering around, looking all disapproving, we can do as we please.'

Next morning, the brothers were up bright and early, all set for a day exploring the moors.

Amelia hadn't slept a wink. ‘I couldn't sleep for the sound of the rain rattling against my window.'

The boys looked puzzled.

‘It didn't rain last night,' said Edward. ‘The ground's as dry as a bone.'

Amelia yawned. ‘Then it must have been a branch blown by the wind. Tap-tap-tap! All night long.'

‘
There isn't a tree that close to the house,' said Michael.

‘Perhaps it was mice you heard?' said Edward, grinning.

‘Perhaps it was.' Amelia grinned back. She wasn't the sort of girl to be frightened by mice.

The next night she was woken by the same tap-tapping on the window.

That is definitely not mice, she thought. And if it isn't rain either, and it isn't a branch, well, the only way to find out what it is, is to go and look.

So up she got and went to the window, pulled back the curtain and looked out. Staring back at her was a hideous face!

Amelia screamed so loudly that her brothers came running.

‘There's a man out there,' she said, ‘looking in at the window!'

But, when the brothers pulled back the curtain…

‘There's nobody there,' said Edward.

‘How could there be?' said Michael. ‘We're on the first floor and there's no way anyone could climb up.'

‘
It must have been your own reflection you saw,' they said. ‘Either that, or you were still half asleep and dreaming.'

Amelia knew it wasn't her own reflection she'd seen. And that she'd been wide awake when she saw it.

The next night, instead of going to bed, she sat up in a chair, waiting.

Sure enough – tap, tap, tap came at the window.

She drew back the curtain and there was the same man's face staring back.

This time, being ready, she decided it wasn't such a scary face after all. In fact, he was quite handsome.

‘Who are you?' she asked him. ‘And how did you get up there?'

‘Let me in, Amelia,' he said, ‘and I'll tell you.'

‘How do you know my name?' she asked him.

‘I'll tell you that, too,' he said. ‘But it's hard trying to talk with the window between us. Won't you please open it, Amelia dear?'

So she opened the window.

‘I'm still waiting for you to invite me in,' the stranger said.

‘
Of course,' said Amelia. ‘Where are my manners? Please, do come in.'

‘Take my hand, then, and help me.'

So she took hold of his hand to help him. And the touch of that hand was as cold as death.

He smiled at the shocked look on her face. She saw his teeth, like fangs, and they were stained with blood.

Suddenly she was very, very afraid: too afraid even to scream.

So maybe it was the draught of cold air from the open window that woke her brothers, or maybe it was some sixth sense that told them their sister was in deadly danger, but just in the nick of time they burst in at the door. Together, they fought off the intruder until he fled, half-running, half-flying – so it seemed – like a wounded bat, towards the old chapel where they lost sight of him.

The brothers went down there at once, but found the place locked tight, just as it had been before. First thing next morning they fetched the vicar, who brought the key. After him flocked the villagers, who'd all heard tales from their
grandparents'
time of strange goings-on up at the grange. Not the sort of tales that you shared with townies, of course, when they turned up for the summer with money to spend.

At first sight, when the door of the church was opened, everything looked just as it should, apart from one tomb whose lid was slightly askew.

‘Lift it off!' said the vicar.

Inside, staring up at them with red-rimmed eyes, lay the body of Amelia's night visitor, his fangs bared in a hideous grin. The corpse was as fresh as on the day when it had been laid to rest more than a hundred years before, if the inscription on the tomb was to be believed.