accompany him back again to Bruges,
and I--declined!

* * * * *

He wrote to me afterwards to say that he had discovered the history of
the house--a man, a music-hall artist, answering to the description of
the figure in the bed--had once lived there with a performing ape, an
orang-outang, and happening to annoy the animal one day, the latter had
killed him. The brute was eventually shot!

"This experience of mine," Tristram added, "is of the greatest value,
for it has thoroughly convinced me of one thing at least--and that--that
apes have spirits! And if that be so, so must all other kinds of
animals. Of course they must."

_Phantasms of Cat and Baboon_

A sister of a well-known author tells me there used to be a house called
"The Swallows," standing in two acres of land, close to a village near
Basingstoke.

In 1840 a Mr. Bishop of Tring bought the house, which had long stood
empty, and went to live there in 1841. After being there a fortnight two
servants gave notice to leave, stating that the place was haunted by a
large cat and a big baboon, which they constantly saw stealing down the
staircases and passages. They also testified to hearing sounds as of
somebody being strangled, proceeding from an empty attic near where
they slept, and of the screams and groans of a number of people being
horribly tortured in the cellars just underneath the dairy. On going to
see what was the cause of the disturbances, nothing was ever visible. By
and by other members of the household began to be harassed by similar
manifestations. The news spread through the village, and crowds of
people came to the house with lights and sticks, to see if they could
witness anything.

One night, at about twelve o'clock, when several of the watchers were
stationed on guard in the empty courtyard, they all saw the forms of a
huge cat and a baboon rise from the closed grating of the large cellar
under the old dairy, rush past them, and disappear in a dark angle of
the walls. The same figures were repeatedly seen afterwards by many
other persons. Early in December, 1841, Mr. Bishop, hearing fearful
screams, accompanied by deep and hoarse jabberings, apparently coming
from the top of the house, rushed upstairs, whereupon all was instantly
silent, and he could discover nothing. After that, Mr. Bishop set to
work to get rid of the house, and was fortunate enough to find as a
purchaser a retired colonel, who was s