Can Such Things Be? · Chapter
At Old Man Eckert’s explained
Philip Eckert, a reclusive farmer, vanishes without a trace from his isolated Vermont home.
What happens
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.
Themes in this chapter
The Uncanny and the Grotesque
The inexplicable disappearance of Eckert and later Palmer, with no physical trace, creates an unsettling, uncanny atmosphere.
Isolation and Terror
The remote, weather-stained house and the silent vigil in the dark evoke a deep sense of isolation and mounting terror.
Characters to notice
- Andrus C. Palmer
The schoolteacher who joins the investigation at the Eckert house and mysteriously vanishes after walking out the front door.
- Philip Eckert
The reclusive farmer who disappeared years earlier, setting the stage for the haunting and the subsequent investigation.
Key passages
“One day he disappeared and a prolonged search by his neighbors failed to turn him up or throw any light upon his whereabouts or whyabouts.”
Philip Eckert vanished without explanation, and despite an extensive search, no clues about his fate were ever found.
Establishes the central mystery of Eckert's disappearance.
“Palmer’s disappearance was as complete as that of “old man Eckert” himself—whom, indeed, the editor of the local paper somewhat graphically accused of having “reached out and pulled him in.””
Andrus Palmer vanished just as utterly as Eckert had, leading the local newspaper editor to jokingly suggest that Eckert's ghost had pulled Palmer into the same void.
Highlights the parallel between the two disappearances and the supernatural interpretation.