"You seem to be up in the vernacular," returned Terwilliger, with a smile.
"I"ll bet you are an old fraud of a modern ghost."
Here he discharged all six chambers of his pistol into the body of the spectre.
"No taikers," retorted the ghost, as the bullets whistled through her chest, and struck deep into the wall on the other side of the kitchen.
"That"s a noisy gun you"ve got, but you carn"t ly a ghost with cold lead hany more than you can ly a corner-stone with a chicken. H"I"m "ere to sty until I gets me waiges."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"What was the amount of your wages due at the time of your discharge?"
asked Hankinson.
"H"I was gettin" ten pounds a month," returned the spectre.
"Geewhittaker!" cried Terwilliger, "you must have been an all-fired fine cook."
"H"I was," a.s.sented the ghost, with a proud smile. "H"I cooked a boar"s "ead for "is Royal "Ighness King Charles when "e visited Baingletop "All as which was the finest "e hever taisted, so "e said, hand "e"d "ave knighted me hon the spot honly me s.e.x wasn"t suited to the t.i.tle. "You carn"t make a knight out of a woman," says the king, "but give "er my compliments, and tell "er "er monarch says as "ow she"s a cook as is too good for "er staition.""
"That was very nice," said Terwilliger. "No one could have desired a higher recommendation than that."
"My words hexackly when the baron"s privit secretary told me two dys laiter as "ow the baron"s heggs wasn"t done proper," said the ghost. "H"I says to "im, says I: "The baron"s heggs be blowed. My monarch"s hopinion is worth two of any ten barons"s livin", and Mister Baingletop," (h"I allus called "im mister when "e was ugly,) "can get "is heggs cooked helsewhere if "e don"t like the wy h"I boils "em." Hand what do you suppose the secretary said then?"
"I give it up," replied Terwilliger. "What?"
""E said as "ow h"I "ad the big "ead."
"How disgusting of him!" murmured Terwilliger. "That was simply low."
"Hand then "e accuged me of bein" himpudent."
"No!"
""E did, hindeed; hand then "e discharged me without me waiges. Hof course h"I wouldn"t sty after that; but h"I says to "im, "Hif I don"t get me py, h"I"ll "aunt this place from the dy of me death;" hand "e says, ""Aunt awy.""
"And you have kept your word."
"H"I "ave that! H"I"ve made it "ot for "em, too."
"Well, now, look here," said Terwilliger, "I"ll tell you what I"ll do.
I"ll pay you your wages if you"ll go back to Spookland and mind your own business. Ten pounds isn"t much when three-dollar shoes cost fifteen cents a pair and sell like hot waffles. Is it a bargain?"
"H"I was sent off with three months" money owin" me," said the ghost.
"Well, call it thirty pounds, then," replied Terwilliger.
"With hinterest--compound hinterest at six per cent.--for two "undred and thirty years," said the ghost.
"Phew!" whistled Terwilliger. "Have you any idea how much money that is?"
"Certingly," replied the ghost. "Hit"s just 63,609,609 pounds 6 shillings 4-1/2 pence. When h"I gets that, h"I flies; huntil I gets it h"I stys "ere an" I "aunts."
"Say," said Terwilliger, "haven"t you been chumming with an Italian ghost named Shylock over on the other sh.o.r.e?"
"Shylock!" said the ghost. "No, h"I"ve never "eard the naime. Perhaps "e"s stoppin" at the hother place."
"Very likely," said Terwilliger. "He is an eminent saint alongside of you.
But I say now, Mrs. Spook, or whatever your name is, this is rubbing it in, to try to collect as much money as that, particularly from me, who wasn"t to blame in any way, and on whom you haven"t the spook of a claim."
"H"I"m very sorry for you, Mr. Terwilliger," said the ghost. "But my vow must be kept sacrid."
"But why don"t you come down on the Bangletops up in London, and squeeze it out of them?"
"H"I carn"t. H"I"m bound to "aunt this "all, an" that"s hall there is about it. H"I carn"t find a better wy to ly them Baingletops low than by attachin" of their hincome, hand the rent of this "all is the honly bit of hincome within my reach."
"But I"ve leased the place for five years," said Terwilliger, in despair; "and I"ve paid the rent in advance."
"Carn"t "elp it," returned the ghost. "Hif you did that, hit"s your own fault."
"I wouldn"t have done it, except to advertise my shoe business," said Terwilliger, ruefully. "The items in the papers at home that arise from my occupancy of this house, together with the social cinch it gives me, are worth the money; but I"m hanged if it"s worth my while to pay back salaries to every grasping apparition that chooses to rise up out of the moat and dip his or her clammy hand into my surplus. The shoe trade is a blooming big thing, but the profits aren"t big enough to divide with tramp ghosts."
"Your tone is very "aughty, "Ankinson J. Terwilliger, but it don"t haff.e.c.k me. H"I don"t care "oo pys the money, an" h"I "aven"t got you into this scripe. You"ve done that yourself. Hon the other "and, sir, h"I"ve showed you "ow to get out of it."
"Well, perhaps you"re right," returned Hankinson. "I can"t say I blame you for not perjuring yourself, particularly since you"ve been dead long enough to have discovered what the probable consequences would be. But I do wish there was some other way out of it. _I_ couldn"t pay you all that money without losing a controlling interest in the shoe company, and that"s hardly worth my while, now is it?"
"No, Mr. Terwilliger; hit is not."
"I have a scheme," said Hankinson, after a moment or two of deep thought.
"Why don"t you go back to the spirit world and expose the Bangletops there? They have spooks, haven"t they?"
"Yes," replied the ghost, sadly. "But the spirit world his as bad as this "ere. The spook of a cook carn"t reach the spook of a baron there hany more than a scullery-maid can reach a markis "ere. H"I tried that when the baron died and came over to the hother world, but "e "ad "is spook flunkies on "and to tell me "e was hout drivin" with the ghost of William the Conqueror and the shide of Solomon. H"I knew "e wasn"t, but what could h"I do?"
"It was a mean game of bluff," said Terwilliger. "I suppose, though, if you were the shade of a d.u.c.h.ess, you could simply knock Bangletop silly?"
"Yes, and the Baron of Peddlington too. "E was the private secretary as said h"I "ad the big "ead."
"H"m!" said Terwilliger, meditatively. "Would you--er--would you consent to retire from this haunting business of yours, and give me a receipt for that bill for wages, interest and all, if I had you made over into the spook of a d.u.c.h.ess? Revenge is sweet, you know, and there are some revenges that are simply a thousand times more balmy than riches."
"Would h"I?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the ghost, rising and looking at the clock. "Would h"I?" she repeated. "Well, rather. If h"I could enter spook society as a d.u.c.h.ess, you can wager a year"s hincome them Bangletops wouldn"t be hin it."
"Good! I am glad to see that you are a spook of spirit. If you had veins, I believe there"d be sporting blood in them."
"Thainks," said the ghost, dryly. "But "ow can it hever be did?"
"Leave that to me," Terwilliger answered. "We"ll call a truce for two weeks, at the end of which time you must come back here, and we"ll settle on the final arrangements. Keep your own counsel in the matter, and don"t breathe a word about your intentions to anybody. Above all, keep sober."
"H"I"m no cannibal," retorted the ghost.
"Who said you were?" asked Terwilliger.