Ghost Gleams: Tales of the Uncanny (1921) by W. J. Wintle
Part 2
Readers unfamiliar with Ghost Gleams may prefer to read these notes only after reading the collection
“The Voice in the Night” is a riveting folk horror thriller. Local Bannerton magistrate and landowner John Barron investigates a series of strange attacks in his rural community.
The affair had not happened to any member of his family or household. Why then should he not mind his own business? But he felt that it was his business. It had happened within the bounds of his manor and almost within sight of his windows. If anything tangible could be connected with it, he was the magistrate whose duty it would be to investigate the matter. But up till the present there was nothing tangible for him to deal with.
The whole business was a mystery: and John Barron disapproved of mysteries. Mysteries savoured of detectives and the police court. When unraveled they usually proved to be sordid and undesirable; and when not unraveled they brought with them a vague sense of discomfort and of danger. As a lawyer he held that mysteries had no right to exist. That they should continue to exist was a sort of reflection on the profession, as well as upon the public intelligence….
Barron’s chief concern is over an encounter where young parents almost lost their daughter:
The child's cot was in the living room into which the front door opened. As they went in, the screams ceased and a terrible gasping sound took their place. Then they saw that the cot was hidden by some dark body that seemed to be lying on it. This they hardly saw, though they were quite clear that it was there, for it seemed to melt away like a mist when they rushed into the room. Certainly it was nothing solid, for it completely disappeared without a sound. It could not have dashed out through the door, for the parents were hardly clear of the door when it vanished.
Soon local sheep farmers report their flocks are being imperiled. Barron begins to set his nets.
“The Light in the Dormitory” is one of Wintle's most concise short stories, and the first in the collection featuring an adolescent protagonist.
The phantom monk observed by students has a twofold mission familiar to most readers of the old gothic: guarding hidden treasure and revealing its location to the worthy.
“The Watcher in the Mill” begins with young Edward Sinclair experiencing a threatening atmosphere in a dilapidated mill on his property:
….He had two or three times wondered if it could not be turned to some useful purpose instead of being a mere ornament to the landscape. So he went into the building, and once more carefully considered its possibilities. And while he was there he had a vague sense of discomfort and of danger. As there was no nonsense about him, he had of course taken the sensible course and had tried to brush the foolish idea away. But it stuck to him all the same.
He at first wondered if the idea was due to some half-conscious doubt about the safety of the roof under which he was standing; and he had again very carefully examined it, with the result that he felt more sure than ever that it was perfectly sound. The more he thought it over, the less reason could he see for anything like a sense of danger; but still he could not shake it off.
….It was an odd fact that Sinclair's distant relative, in the will by which he had left the place to him, had expressed a strong wish that the mill should not be pulled down. Sinclair had often wondered why this had been mentioned but could never get any light on the subject.
Sinclair, after several strange experiences in the mill, takes his purebred bloodhound with him to explore; its response recalls the actions of the cat in “The Haunted House on the Hill”: it
started up, seemed to look up at the window for a moment, and then ran off at full speed with its tail between its legs.
Sinclair tracks the source of trouble to a large cupboard in an upstairs room of the mill. When he tries to pull its door open, Sinclair senses someone inside the cupboard is holding it shut.
…. he noticed some marks in the dust that covered the top of the table so thickly. They looked like very shaky writing, traced with a finger. The more Sinclair looked at them, the more he felt convinced of this; and he thought he could make out the word “Beware,” but of this he was not quite sure.
But of one thing he was quite sure: he had had enough of this! He was not disposed to have his peace of mind disturbed by nonsense of this sort. Either it was mere imagination, and therefore a waste of time: or there was something in it, in which case the sooner it was stopped the better. So he decided to have the mill pulled down. It was of no use; and the view from the house would look just as well without it. He would be going to London on the next day for business purposes, and he would then make some inquiry about having it removed.
It's an important lesson for young people: if the relative who bequeathed their wealth to you says “leave the mill alone,” then brother, leave it alone.
Joking aside, “The Watcher in the Mill” is a great horror short story: modest, but effective in its use of omniscient point of view. Were its revanent not deadly, it might be tempting to compare it to Jerome K. Jerome’s droll “The Haunted Mill; or, The Ruined Home,” in his 1891 collection Told After Supper.
There was no one in the room; but he was in time to see the door of the cupboard being closed. He dashed at it and tried to pull it open. But all in vain: it resisted as before, though he tried his hardest. Then the door suddenly flew open; and knocked him violently backwards.
The cupboard was empty: and yet—there was something strange and unnatural about it. Sinclair could see no one; but it seemed as if something was there after all, for he could not see a part of the back of the cupboard. It was as if an invisible person was there who could not be seen through. And then Sinclair experienced a horror that few men have ever known. He knew, though he could not have said how or why he knew, that the occupant of that cupboard was coming out. And for the first time in his life, he was fainting with sheer terror.
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Matt Cowan of the blog Horror Delve wrote about Ghost Gleams nine years ago. I decided not to read the blog before reading Wintle myself.
Audio links
About half the stories in Ghost Gleams: Tales of the Uncanny (1921) by W. J. Wintle have been posted as audio performances online:
They are of varying quality.
Jay
21 January2024
Thanks, Jay. Restacked and will seek out this new old author.