Can Such Things Be? · Chapters
Chapters explained
Chapter companions for Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce.
Chapter 1
The Death of Halpin Frayser
The chapter opens with a philosophical epigraph on death and the supernatural, suggesting that the dead may return with malevolent intent and that the spirit and body can be separated in unnatural ways.
Chapter 2
I
The narrator recounts a dark night drive from Newcastle to Auburn through a narrow ravine, where he unexpectedly encounters Dr. Dorrimore, a man he had not seen in five years. Despite offering him a ride, the narrator feels an inexplicable sense of dread and spiritual peril in Dorrimore's presence, which lingers even after they arrive at the Putnam House, where Dorrimore is also staying.
Chapter 3
II
The narrator recounts his first unsettling encounter with Dr. Dorrimore at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, where a conversation about Hindu jugglers leads to a demonstration of Dorrimore's uncanny powers. Dorrimore mysteriously produces a vision of his own dead body, then vanishes and reappears, leaving the narrator shaken and questioning reality.
Chapter 4
III
The narrator describes his second meeting with Dr. Dorrimore, who is absent due to illness. Miss Margaret Corray and her mother arrive unexpectedly, and the narrator reveals his engagement to Miss Corray. Despite his happiness, he grows increasingly jealous of Dr. Dorrimore's attention to her, leading to tension and a resolution to return to San Francisco.
Chapter 5
IV
The narrator, in a state of madness, visits an abandoned cemetery in Auburn where he encounters Dr. Dorrimore and Margaret Corray. Overcome with rage, he attacks them but later wakes up bruised and bloody. Upon recovery, he learns from the hotel clerk that no one named Corray had been registered and that Dr. Dorrimore has disappeared.
Chapter 6
The Secret of Macarger's Gulch
The narrator recounts a hunting trip in Macarger's Gulch where he camps in an abandoned cabin and experiences a strange, fearful night. Years later, he meets a man named Morgan who reveals that the cabin was the site of a murder: a woman named Janet MacGregor was found dead with a fractured skull, and her husband Thomas MacGregor was the prime suspect but never found. The narrator realizes his dream that night eerily matched the description of the couple, suggesting a supernatural connection.
Chapter 7
One Summer Night
Henry Armstrong, buried but not convinced he is dead, lies in his grave with pathological indifference. During a stormy night, three men—two medical students and a cemetery worker named Jess—dig up his coffin. When they open it, Henry sits up, causing the students to flee in terror. Jess, however, returns later with the body, having killed Henry with a spade, and waits for his pay at the medical college.
Chapter 8
The Moonlit Road
A man recounts the tragic story of his mother's murder and his father's disappearance, set against a moonlit road that holds the key to the family's dark secrets.
Chapter 9
I: Statement of Joel Hetman, Jr.
Joel Hetman, Jr. recounts the brutal murder of his mother, Julia Hetman, and his father's subsequent psychological decline. After returning home from Yale, he learns that his mother was strangled by an unknown assailant. His father, Joel Hetman Sr., becomes increasingly paranoid and haunted, eventually vanishing under mysterious circumstances during a moonlit walk.
Chapter 10
II: Statement of Caspar Grattan
Caspar Grattan, a man with no memory of his past before twenty years ago, recounts his life of wandering, poverty, and haunting guilt. He describes a recurring dream in which he suspects his wife of infidelity, returns home unexpectedly, and strangles her in a fit of jealous rage. The dream blurs with reality, and he lives under a constant sense of crime and punishment, awaiting death as a release.
Chapter 11
III: Statement of the Late Julia Hetman, Through the Medium Bayrolles
Julia Hetman, now a ghost, recounts the night of her murder. She awoke to a sense of peril, heard hesitant footsteps on the stairs, and after a brief retreat, the entity returned, broke into her room, and strangled her. In the afterlife, she describes the torment of being a ghost—unseen, unable to communicate with the living, and trapped in a cold, silent world. She later attempted to reveal herself to her husband and son, but her husband saw her and fled in terror, leaving her son unaware of her presence.
Chapter 12
A Diagnosis of Death
Hawver recounts to Dr. Frayley his experience of seeing the apparition of Dr. Mannering, a reclusive physician who had lived in the house Hawver rented. The apparition silently lifted a finger in warning. Later, Hawver sees the same man alive on the street. Dr. Frayley reveals that Mannering died three years ago and that his book predicted deaths with precision. The next day, Hawver is found dead, violin in hand, with Chopin's funeral march open before him.
Chapter 13
Moxon's Master
The narrator debates with Moxon about whether machines can think, leading to a philosophical discussion on consciousness and rhythm. Later, the narrator witnesses Moxon's chess-playing automaton violently strangle him during a game, and the house burns down. The narrator recovers in a hospital, learning of Moxon's death.
Chapter 14
A Tough Tussle
Lieutenant Byring, a Federal officer on picket duty, experiences a profound psychological crisis as night, solitude, and the presence of a dead body overwhelm his senses. He descends into terror, hallucinating movement from the corpse, until a sudden skirmish breaks the spell. The next morning, Byring is found dead alongside a Confederate soldier, having apparently killed each other in a brutal hand-to-hand fight, though the circumstances are mysterious.
Chapter 15
One of Twins
The narrator, one of a pair of identical twins, recounts his uncanny experiences of mistaken identity and a tragic love triangle that culminates in the deaths of his brother John and Julia Margovan. After being mistaken for his brother and invited to the Margovan home, he falls in love with Julia, who is secretly engaged to John. The narrator hears his brother's agonized cry from afar, rushes to the Margovan house, and finds Julia dead by poison and John dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Chapter 16
The Haunted Valley
A mysterious and eerie tale set in a secluded valley, where strange occurrences and supernatural elements challenge the perceptions of the characters involved.
Chapter 17
I: How Trees Are Felled in China
The narrator describes a mysterious ravine near Jo Dunfer's property, which he believes holds a secret. Jo Dunfer, a local known as 'Whisky Jo,' harbors a deep hatred for Chinese immigrants. He recounts how he employed a Chinese man named Ah Wee, whom he eventually killed due to perceived insubordination. Later, the narrator discovers Ah Wee's grave in the ravine, marked with a crude and offensive epitaph. The chapter ends with the narrator leaving the area, disturbed by the experience.
Chapter 18
II: Who Drives Sane Oxen Should Himself Be Sane
The narrator encounters a peculiar little man driving an oxcart, who addresses him with strange familiarity and leads him back to the ravine where Jo Dunfer and Ah Wee are buried. The man reveals the true story of Ah Wee's death: Whisky Jo killed Ah Wee in a jealous rage, mistaking the narrator's earlier actions for poisoning, and confesses his own madness stemming from a woman's murder years ago.
Chapter 19
A Jug of Syrup
Silas Deemer, a steadfast merchant of Hillbrook, dies in 1863 and is buried, but soon returns as a ghost to his store. Alvan Creede, a local banker, attempts to buy a jug of syrup from the apparition, but the transaction is disrupted when a crowd storms the store in darkness, leading to chaos. Later, Creede's daughter reveals knowledge of the jug, confirming the supernatural event.
Chapter 20
Staley Fleming's Hallucination
A physician is called to treat Staley Fleming, who suffers from hallucinations of a black Newfoundland dog with a white forefoot. The physician connects the dog to the late Atwell Barton, an old enemy of Fleming who was stabbed to death three years earlier. After a night of reading and reflection, the physician hears a crash and finds Fleming dying from a throat wound that appears to be from an animal's fangs, though no animal is present.
Chapter 21
A Resumed Identity
A soldier awakens with no memory of his past and finds himself in a strange, unfamiliar setting. He struggles to piece together his identity and the circumstances that led him there, confronting the unsettling possibility that he may be a ghost or a figure from another time.
Chapter 22
I: The Review as a Form of Welcome
A man stands on a hill at night, observing a silent procession of ghostly soldiers marching along a moonlit road. He is disoriented and fearful, thinking the army may be Confederate forces moving on Nashville. The column vanishes as dawn breaks, leaving him bewildered in a peaceful pastoral landscape.
Chapter 23
II: When You Have Lost Your Life Consult a Physician
Dr. Stilling Malson encounters a man on the Stone's River battlefield who claims to be a lieutenant in the Federal army but is dressed in civilian clothes and seems disoriented. The doctor, suspecting a case of lost identity, questions him but offers no help, and the man walks away.
Chapter 24
III: The Danger of Looking Into a Pool of Water
A man, after leaving a road and feeling inexplicably fatigued, discovers his hands and face are withered and aged. He realizes he has been unconscious for months since a battle in December, now finding it summer. He comes upon a monument to Hazen's Brigade at Stone River, dated December 31, 1862, and upon seeing his reflection in a pool of water, he dies in shock.
Chapter 25
A Baby Tramp
The chapter follows the tragic story of little Jo, an orphan who becomes a wandering tramp after the death of his parents, Hetty and Mr. Parlow, during a mysterious epidemic in Blackburg. After being adopted and then lost multiple times, Jo ends up alone in the cold rain, eventually dying on the grave of his mother, Hetty Parlow, in Oak Hill Cemetery. The narrative also recounts the town's strange history, including a ghostly sighting of Hetty Parlow calling out for 'Joey' on the night Jo was lost in the Nevada desert.
Chapter 26
The Night-Doings at "Deadman's"
On a bitterly cold, clear night in the abandoned mining camp of Deadman's Gulch, the sole inhabitant, Hiram Beeson, sits alone in his shanty staring into the fire. A mysterious, heavily muffled old man arrives unannounced. Beeson recounts the story of a Chinese domestic who died when the ground was frozen; unable to dig a grave, they buried him through the floor, but Beeson cut off the man's pigtail and nailed it to a beam. Since then, the Chinaman's ghost has returned repeatedly seeking his pigtail, which Beeson refuses to surrender. Exhausted by the ordeal, Beeson falls asleep, muttering about his dust being swiped. The stranger then undresses, takes a revolver from a shelf (the very pistol Beeson claimed to have returned for), and goes to bed. The following spring, miners find Beeson's body with a bullet through the heart, a cut rope of braided horsehair on the beam, and moldy burial clothes of deceased citizens—suggesting a supernatural retribution.
Chapter 27
Beyond the Wall
The narrator visits his friend Dampier in a tower during a storm, where they hear mysterious tapping on the wall. Dampier reveals he has heard the signal twice before and recounts a story of a past infatuation with a young woman living next door, with whom he exchanged taps through a party wall. After ignoring her final signal, he learns she died that night, having asked to be moved to the opposite side of the room. The tapping returns as a third visitation, completing a 'fatal triad' and leaving Dampier alone with his remorse.
Chapter 28
A Psychological Shipwreck
William Jarrett recounts his voyage from Liverpool to New York on the sailing vessel Morrow in 1874, during which he forms a mysterious bond with fellow passenger Janette Harford. After a strange psychological episode where he sees multiple faces through her eyes, the ship sinks in a sudden storm. Jarrett awakens aboard the steamer City of Prague, where his friend Gordon Doyle reveals he is engaged to Janette and that she was traveling on the Morrow. The chapter explores themes of psychic connection, fate, and the supernatural.
Chapter 29
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
A man named Manton, who has been estranged from his wife for ten years, returns to their home with his two children. The wife, who has been living in the house with her father, is found dead in a locked room with her throat cut. The mystery deepens when it is discovered that the middle toe of her right foot has been severed. The story explores themes of guilt, retribution, and the supernatural as the circumstances of her death are investigated.
Chapter 30
I
The narrator recounts a dark night drive from Newcastle to Auburn through a narrow ravine, where he unexpectedly encounters Dr. Dorrimore, a man he had not seen in five years. Despite offering him a ride, the narrator feels an inexplicable sense of dread and spiritual peril in Dorrimore's presence, which lingers even after they arrive at the Putnam House, where Dorrimore is also staying.
Chapter 31
II
The narrator recounts his first unsettling encounter with Dr. Dorrimore at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, where a conversation about Hindu jugglers leads to a demonstration of Dorrimore's uncanny powers. Dorrimore mysteriously produces a vision of his own dead body, then vanishes and reappears, leaving the narrator shaken and questioning reality.
Chapter 32
III
The narrator describes his second meeting with Dr. Dorrimore, who is absent due to illness. Miss Margaret Corray and her mother arrive unexpectedly, and the narrator reveals his engagement to Miss Corray. Despite his happiness, he grows increasingly jealous of Dr. Dorrimore's attention to her, leading to tension and a resolution to return to San Francisco.
Chapter 33
John Mortonson’s Funeral
John Mortonson is dead and his funeral is underway. Mourners gather, the minister delivers a eulogy, and the widow collapses in grief. As the clock strikes three, the coffin falls, the glass shatters, and John Mortonson's cat emerges from the coffin, its muzzle stained with blood, before calmly leaving the room.
Chapter 34
The Realm of the Unreal
A narrative exploring the blurred boundaries between reality and illusion, where characters confront unsettling phenomena that challenge their perceptions of the world.
Chapter 35
I
The narrator recounts a dark night drive from Newcastle to Auburn through a narrow ravine, where he unexpectedly encounters Dr. Dorrimore, a man he had not seen in five years. Despite offering him a ride, the narrator feels an inexplicable sense of dread and spiritual peril in Dorrimore's presence, which lingers even after they arrive at the Putnam House, where Dorrimore is also staying.
Chapter 36
II
The narrator recounts his first unsettling encounter with Dr. Dorrimore at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, where a conversation about Hindu jugglers leads to a demonstration of Dorrimore's uncanny powers. Dorrimore mysteriously produces a vision of his own dead body, then vanishes and reappears, leaving the narrator shaken and questioning reality.
Chapter 37
III
The narrator describes his second meeting with Dr. Dorrimore, who is absent due to illness. Miss Margaret Corray and her mother arrive unexpectedly, and the narrator reveals his engagement to Miss Corray. Despite his happiness, he grows increasingly jealous of Dr. Dorrimore's attention to her, leading to tension and a resolution to return to San Francisco.
Chapter 38
IV
The narrator, in a state of madness, visits an abandoned cemetery in Auburn where he encounters Dr. Dorrimore and Margaret Corray. Overcome with rage, he attacks them but later wakes up bruised and bloody. Upon recovery, he learns from the hotel clerk that no one named Corray had been registered and that Dr. Dorrimore has disappeared.
Chapter 39
V
The narrator reveals that Margaret Corray is now his wife and was unaware of his ordeal, living in Oakland. He references a newspaper article about Professor Valentine Dorrimore, a hypnotist who claims that highly susceptible subjects can be kept in a state of illusion for extended periods, suggesting the narrator's experience may have been a hypnotic delusion.
Chapter 40
John Bartine's Watch
The narrator recounts an evening with John Bartine, who becomes inexplicably agitated when asked for the time. Bartine eventually reveals the story of his ancestral watch, which once belonged to his great-grandfather Bramwell Olcott Bartine, a Tory who was arrested by American rebels during the Revolutionary War and never seen again. The watch was later found on the family porch. John Bartine describes a compulsive urge to look at the watch in the evening, especially near eleven o'clock, which fills him with a sense of imminent calamity. The narrator, viewing Bartine's behavior as a monomania, decides to conduct a psychological experiment. The story ends with Bartine dead and buried with his watch, and the narrator expressing guilt over his role in the tragedy.
Chapter 41
The Damned Thing
A group of men gather at the inquest into the death of Hugh Morgan, who has been found dead under mysterious circumstances in a remote cabin. The coroner and witnesses examine the scene and testimony, revealing that Morgan died of fright or a violent encounter with an unseen entity. The story explores the limits of human perception and the existence of forces beyond ordinary senses, as the 'damned thing' remains invisible and unexplained.
Chapter 42
I: One Does Not Always Eat What Is on the Table
An inquest is held in a remote cabin for the deceased Hugh Morgan. The coroner reads from an old account book found among Morgan's effects. A young journalist, William Harker, arrives late, having posted an account of the events to his newspaper as fiction. He is sworn in and begins to testify about the circumstances of Morgan's death.
Chapter 43
II: What May Happen in a Field of Wild Oats
The narrator recounts a hunting expedition with Hugh Morgan, during which they encounter an invisible, violent entity in a field of wild oats. Morgan reacts with terror, fires his gun, and is brutally attacked and killed by an unseen force, leaving the narrator horrified and bewildered.
Chapter 44
III: A Man Though Naked May Be in Rags
The coroner examines the naked, brutally beaten body of Hugh Morgan in the cabin, displaying severe contusions and lacerations. Witness Harker testifies, but the jury, skeptical of his sanity, asks what asylum he escaped from. After Harker leaves, the jury returns a verdict that Morgan died from a mountain lion attack, though some suspect he had fits.
Chapter 45
IV: An Explanation from the Tomb
Excerpts from Hugh Morgan's diary reveal his observations of strange phenomena, including a dog's unusual behavior, stars being eclipsed by an invisible object, and mysterious footprints. He theorizes about sounds and colors beyond human perception, ultimately concluding that the 'Damned Thing' is of a color invisible to the human eye.
Chapter 46
Haïta the Shepherd
Haïta, a simple shepherd devoted to the god Hastur, lives a pure and contented life until he begins to question the mysteries of existence and the inevitability of death. His curiosity drives away a mysterious maiden named Happiness, who appears only when unsought. After losing her three times due to his indiscretions, a holy hermit explains that the maiden is Happiness itself, which comes only when not pursued. Haïta's subsequent despair and neglect of his duties lead to further loss, but a final act of duty and gratitude brings the maiden back, teaching him that happiness is a reward for faithful service, not a prize for seeking.
Chapter 47
An Inhabitant of Carcosa
The narrator, reflecting on Hali's words about different kinds of death, finds himself lost in a bleak, desolate plain filled with ancient gravestones and ruins. Believing he is ill and delirious, he encounters a lynx and a half-naked man with a torch, but they seem not to see or hear him. Realizing he sees stars in the absence of darkness and casts no shadow, he discovers a gravestone bearing his own name, birth date, and death date. At dawn, he sees the ruins of the ancient city of Carcosa and understands he is a spirit recounting these facts through a medium.
Chapter 48
The Stranger
A group of adventurers camping in the Arizona desert are visited by a mysterious stranger who recounts a harrowing tale of a prospecting expedition thirty years prior, in which four men—Ramon Gallegos, William Shaw, George W. Kent, and Berry Davis—were trapped by Apaches and chose suicide over capture. The stranger's story unnerves the camp, and when he vanishes into the darkness, the sentinel reports seeing three figures on the mesa, suggesting the dead have returned.
Chapter 49
The Ways of Ghosts
The narrator introduces a collection of ghost stories obtained from a peculiar acquaintance, noting the author's simple and direct style and his own reluctance to embellish the narratives.
Chapter 50
Present at a Hanging
In 1853, an old man named Daniel Baker is suspected of murdering a peddler who stayed at his house. Seven years later, the Rev. Mr. Cummings encounters a ghostly peddler on a bridge, who points downward before vanishing. The next morning, Baker is found hanged from the same bridge, and the peddler's bones are discovered beneath. The inquest rules Baker's death a suicide and the peddler's murder unsolved.
Chapter 51
A Cold Greeting
Benson Foley recounts a strange incident involving James H. Conway, who believed he had received a cold greeting from their mutual friend Lawrence Barting in San Francisco, only to later learn that Barting had died days earlier in Nashville.
Chapter 52
A Wireless Message
In the summer of 1896, Mr. William Holt, a wealthy Chicago manufacturer separated from his wife, becomes lost while walking in central New York. He experiences a mysterious, intense red light that illuminates the sky, during which he sees an apparition of his wife holding their child. The vision vanishes, and Holt returns home haggard. A telegram soon arrives revealing that his wife and child died in a house fire at exactly the same time as his vision.
Chapter 53
An Arrest
Orrin Brower, a fugitive who murdered his brother-in-law, escapes from jail and flees into a forest. Lost in the dark, he encounters a motionless figure on an old road. Under moonlight, he sees it is the jailer, Burton Duff, who silently directs him back toward town. Brower submits and walks to the jail, where he finds the jailer's dead body waiting.
Chapter 54
Soldier-Folk
A narrative exploring the lives and experiences of soldiers, delving into themes of duty, mortality, and the psychological toll of warfare.
Chapter 55
A Man with Two Lives
David William Duck recounts his harrowing experience as a soldier in 1866, where he was trapped by Sioux Indians in a canyon, fought for three days, and later discovered that his body had been found and buried two months prior by a fellow soldier, leading to a crisis of identity and accusations of imposture.
Chapter 56
Three and One Are One
Barr Lassiter, a Union soldier from a divided Tennessee family, returns home after two years to find his family cold and unresponsive. His father rebuffs him, his mother ignores him, and his sister passes without recognition. The next day he discovers his family home was destroyed by a Federal shell a year earlier, killing his entire family. The apparitions he encountered were ghosts.
Chapter 57
A Baffled Ambuscade
A Federal cavalry squadron under Major Seidel sets out on a secret night mission from Readyville. Trooper Dunning, who had been ordered to a post, is found ahead of the column with a dead horse and a dead man. He warns the major back from the road, then disappears. At dawn, Dunning is found dead across his horse's neck, a bullet in his brain, and evidence shows the cedar forest was occupied by Confederate infantry, revealing an ambuscade.
Chapter 58
Two Military Executions
In 1862, Private Bennett Story Greene is executed by firing squad for striking his officer, Lieutenant Dudley, who later feels remorse. Weeks later during a stormy night after the Battle of Shiloh, Greene's name is called at roll call and a voice answers 'Here!' three times. Immediately after, Lieutenant Dudley is struck by a bullet and dies, suggesting a supernatural retribution.
Chapter 59
Some Haunted Houses
A collection of tales exploring haunted houses and supernatural encounters, where characters confront eerie phenomena, spectral apparitions, and the lingering presence of the dead.
Chapter 60
The Isle of Pines
The chapter recounts the mysterious life and death of Herman Deluse, a reclusive old man living near Gallipolis, Ohio, rumored to have been a pirate. After his death under unexplained circumstances, the Reverend Henry Galbraith, unaware of Deluse's demise, claims to have spent a stormy night at Deluse's house, witnessing the old man's somnambulant behavior. Later, Galbraith, Maren, and Galbraith's son investigate the house, hear violent sounds from within, and upon entering find it empty and undisturbed. Young Galbraith suddenly dies after discovering a hidden sack of old Spanish coins, leading to another inconclusive inquest.
Chapter 61
A Fruitless Assignment
Henry Saylor, a reporter for the Cincinnati Commercial, is assigned to spend a night alone in the supposedly haunted Roscoe house on Vine Street. Despite the eerie reputation and the crowd outside, Saylor experiences a series of bizarre and terrifying events, including finding a severed head and being surrounded by a laughing, grotesque crowd. When he returns to the office, the city editor is shocked to see him, implying that something inexplicable has occurred.
Chapter 62
A Vine on a House
The chapter recounts the eerie history of an abandoned house near Norton, Missouri, once occupied by the Harding family. After Mrs. Harding supposedly left to visit her mother in Iowa and never returned, the family vanished. The house became haunted, and a mysterious vine covering it exhibited violent, inexplicable agitation. When dug up, the vine's roots were found to form a grotesque, human-like shape missing a left foot—matching Mrs. Harding's amputation. The implication is that she was murdered and buried beneath the vine.
Chapter 63
At Old Man Eckert’s
Philip Eckert, a reclusive farmer, vanishes without a trace from his isolated Vermont home. Years later, the house is deemed haunted, prompting three local men—John Holcomb, Wilson Merle, and Andrus C. Palmer—to investigate. Palmer fails to meet them initially but later appears inside the house, only to walk out the front door and disappear into the snow, leaving no tracks beyond the threshold. His fate mirrors Eckert's own mysterious disappearance.
Chapter 64
The Spook House
Colonel J. C. McArdle and Judge Myron Veigh seek shelter at a deserted Kentucky plantation known as the 'Spook House' during a storm. Upon entering, they discover a hidden room filled with decaying corpses. McArdle, horrified, tries to leave but finds himself trapped in a supernatural space. He later escapes, but Judge Veigh disappears without a trace. McArdle's story is disbelieved, and the mystery of the vanished family and the house's dark secrets remains unsolved.
Chapter 65
The Other Lodgers
Colonel Levering recounts a harrowing night at the Breathitt House in Atlanta, a dilapidated former hotel and hospital. After falling asleep in a room, he awakens to find it filled with the corpses of former patients. The night-clerk, who appears to be a ghost, and a mysterious caretaker reveal the building's grim history, leaving Levering terrified.
Chapter 66
The Thing at Nolan
The chapter recounts the mysterious disappearance of Charles May after a quarrel with his son John, who threatened him. John is indicted for murder despite no body being found, but is acquitted when witnesses claim Charles was seen alive miles away at Nolan. Later, Charles's body is discovered buried with a fatal head wound, raising the question of what the witnesses actually saw.
Chapter 67
Bodies of the Dead
This chapter explores the unsettling and often grotesque treatment of corpses in Bierce's stories, examining how dead bodies serve as focal points for horror, supernatural occurrences, and psychological terror. The narratives delve into the macabre details of death and the lingering presence of the deceased.
Chapter 68
That of Granny Magone
In a remote cabin in the Cumberland mountains, the death of the reputed witch Granny Magone leads to a horrifying incident during the wake: a black cat attacks the corpse, and the dead woman's hand rises, seizes the cat, and hurls it against the wall, leaving the watchers in terror.
Chapter 69
A Light Sleeper
John Hoskin's wife dies suddenly while visiting relatives in Springfield, Illinois. When her body is shipped to San Francisco, Hoskin discovers that the body's position has inexplicably changed from the original arrangement, leading him to suspect premature burial. Despite reassurances, the body shifts again when the casket is reopened, driving Hoskin to madness and eventual death in an asylum.
Chapter 70
The Mystery of Charles Farquharson
In 1843, William Hayner Gordon discovers a mysterious corpse in his locked bedroom after briefly extinguishing his candle. Despite an inquest, the body remains unidentified. Months later, he learns that Charles Farquharson, a childhood acquaintance, died in Bombay on the same night. A daguerreotype matches the corpse, but Farquharson's body was exposed in a Parsee Tower of Silence. When Gordon and friends open the grave, the coffin is empty.
Chapter 71
Dead and 'Gone'
On August 14, 1872, George J. Reid collapses and dies suddenly in his family's dining room. After his body is placed in a bedroom, a physician arrives to find the body has vanished without explanation, leaving only the clothing behind. Despite thorough investigation, no trace of the body is ever found.
Chapter 72
A Cold Night
After the first day's battle at Stone River, a Federal sergeant's body is found among the dead with a bullet wound through the forehead. During the cold night, a soldier and his companion take the blanket covering the corpse for their own warmth. At dawn, they discover the body has shifted into a curled, fetal position as if suffering from cold, despite the fatal head wound.
Chapter 73
A Creature of Habit
In a Montana mining camp in 1865, gambler Henry 'Gray Hank' Graham murders miner Dreyfuss after a card dispute, is swiftly tried by vigilantes, and hanged. After the body is cut down, it bizarrely runs through the panicked crowd until Dr. Arnold Spier cuts the rope and lays it flat, remarking that dead bodies are creatures of habit.
Chapter 74
Mysterious Disappearances
This chapter collects several tales of inexplicable vanishings, where individuals disappear without trace under strange circumstances, often leaving behind only baffling clues or no evidence at all.
Chapter 75
The Difficulty of Crossing a Field
In July 1854, a planter named Williamson vanishes without a trace while crossing a pasture near Selma, Alabama, witnessed by his neighbor Armour Wren and Wren's son James. Despite a thorough search, no explanation is found, and the courts declare him dead.
Chapter 76
An Unfinished Race
James Burne Worson, a shoemaker from Leamington, England, makes a drunken wager to run to Coventry and back. He sets off with three companions following in a cart. In the middle of the road, he suddenly stumbles, cries out, and vanishes before their eyes, never to be seen again. The companions are taken into custody but their story is never discredited.
Chapter 77
Charles Ashmore's Trail
In 1878, sixteen-year-old Charles Ashmore vanishes while fetching water from a spring near his family's farm in Illinois. His footprints abruptly end in the snow, with no tracks leading away. After his disappearance, family members and others intermittently hear his distant voice, which gradually fades and ceases by midsummer. His mother, who heard the voice most persistently, dies without revealing his fate.
Chapter 78
Science to the Front
This chapter discusses Dr. Hern of Leipzig's theory of mysterious disappearances, proposing that voids or cavities in the luminiferous ether allow animate and inanimate objects to fall into an invisible world, beyond sensory perception and physical processes. The theory is noted as insufficient to explain certain incidents, such as the sound of Charles Ashmore's voice.
Chapter 79
Endnotes
The chapter consists of endnotes referencing the tale's origin among the papers of the late Leigh Bierce and a historical note about the Isle of Pines as a pirate rendezvous.
