Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts: A Book of Stories

The stories in this book are of _revenants_: persons who either in spirit or in body revisit old scenes, return upon old selves or old emotions, or relate a message from a world...

I looked. The curtains of the imperial seat were still drawn close, but in a flash I saw the tiers beside it, and around, and away up to the sunlit crown of the amphitheatre, th...

They forced him to drink a couple of spoonfuls of rum, and wrapped him up warmly. Each man contributed some of his own bedding. Then the Gaffer called to morning prayers, and th...

"The code of--these mirrors. You won't do the thing because it's not the thing to do; because these fellows"--he waved a hand and the ghosts waved back at him--"don't do such th...

"Well, that is what I'm coming to. That, so to say, is just _it_. The woman not only had the rooms swept and dusted, and my meals prepared to the moment. In a hundred odd little...

Now the manner of the wreck was this, and our concern with it. So nearly as I can learn, the _Saint Andrew_ came ashore at two hours after noon: the date, the 20th of January, 1...

He had met Godolphin that morning and run him through the thigh. And that bitterest enemy of ours still wore a crutch a month later, when we faced Master Porson before the Commi...

Nor had the mildness of their address any effect but to raise a fresh commotion. For, their leader advancing with outstretched hands and making signals that he intended no misch...

And this, I think, was all we ever heard from her. On his return to Penzance, Mr. Scammell sent me a Norwegian dictionary; and with the help of it Obed and I soon managed to tal...

To what extent Obed remarked the change, I cannot tell. He now began to be pretty busy with his soundings and sketches of the coast. We had left Kadjak on the 9th of October, an...

"It is here in black and white," said my mother. I found the letter, years after, in her kist. It was written, as were all the letters we received from this Cornish venturer, in...

Now the fact is, I had just then a few guineas in my chest, and you know what a price gold fetched in 1807. I dare say that for twelve months together the most of my parishioner...

"I expected you to say no less. Now look you, sir--in a few minutes I leave you, I walk home and spend an hour or two before bedtime in adding figures, balancing accounts; to-mo...

By reason of this delay, the _Hand and Glove_ was taken unawares, and started well astern of the fleet, which numbered over twenty sail of merchantmen; and, being a sluggard in...

"Maybe an hour, maybe only three-quarters. Her name's Selina Widlake, and she owns this here public. What's more, her name isn't going to be Selina Widlake, but Selina Cummins....

I took the letter; and there, to be sure, read the words the old Admiral had quoted. But it struck me that Fritz Van der Knoope used a very ladylike handwriting, and of a sort n...

After this I had some painful minutes. As they dragged by, an abominable curiosity took hold of me, an itch to open the door of the shed, strike a match, and have a look at the...

"'For answer he pointed towards the surf, and lifting my lantern again, I detected a small cask floating a little beyond the breakers. Now before coming to Lansulyan I had heard...

"I'm glad of it. Iss, there's no denyin' that I'm main glad. From upstairs you can see right down the harbour, which is prettier again. Would'ee like to see it now? O' course yo...

"Truth doesn't overlook," she answered, with a hopeless scorn which puzzled him. "No, no," she went on rapidly, yet more gently, "Truth knows of the world outside, and is wakefu...