Can Such Things Be? · Chapter
Charles Ashmore's Trail explained
In 1878, sixteen-year-old Charles Ashmore vanishes while fetching water from a spring near his family's farm in Illinois.
What happens
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.
Themes in this chapter
The Uncanny and the Grotesque
The abrupt termination of footprints in unbroken snow and the subsequent disembodied voice create an uncanny, inexplicable phenomenon.
Isolation and Terror
The family's isolation on a remote farm amplifies the terror of Charles's inexplicable disappearance and the haunting voice.
Death and the Supernatural
The vanishing and the voice suggest a supernatural death or transition, with the mother's death hinting at a shared secret.
Characters to notice
- Charles Ashmore
The sixteen-year-old son who mysteriously disappears while fetching water from the spring.
Key passages
“After going a little more than halfway—perhaps seventy-five yards—the father, who was in advance, halted, and elevating his lantern stood peering intently into the darkness ahead.”
About seventy-five yards from the house, Mr. Ashmore stopped and raised his lantern to look closely into the dark.
The moment of discovery when the trail ends.
“The trail of the young man had abruptly ended, and all beyond was smooth, unbroken snow.”
Charles's footprints simply stopped, and the snow ahead was completely undisturbed.
The central mystery of the story.
“Four days later the grief-stricken mother herself went to the spring for water. She came back and related that in passing the spot where the footprints had ended she had heard the voice of her son and had been eagerly calling to him.”
Four days after Charles vanished, his mother went to the spring and heard her son's voice near where his footprints ended.
The first reported hearing of the ghostly voice.