Then the lamps went out, and we began to anticipate trouble.  Our hosts had all gone home leaving us to the tender mercies of the Ghost.

Shortly afterwards we began to feel as if we were lying on a public road and horses passing along the road within a yard of us.  We also imagined we could hear men passing close to us whispering.  Sleeping was impossible.  We all remained awake talking about different things, till a horse came very near.  And thus the night passed away.  At about four in the morning one of us got up and wanted to go out.

We shouted for the servant called Kallu and within a minute Kallu came with a lantern.  One of our fellow guests got up and went out of the room followed by Kallu.

We could hear him going along the dining hall to the head of the stairs.  Then we heard him shriek.  We all rushed out.  The lighted lantern was there at the head of the stairs and our fellow guest at the bottom.  Kallu had vanished.

We rushed down, picked up our friend and carried him upstairs.  He said that Kallu had given him a push and he had fallen down.  Fortunately he was not hurt.  We called the servants and they all came, Kallu among them.  He denied having come with a lantern or having pushed our friend down the stairs.  The other servants corroborated his statement.  They assured us that Kallu had never left the room in which they all were.

We were satisfied that this was also a ghostly trick.

At about seven in the morning when our hosts came we were glad to bid good-bye to the haunted house with our bones whole.

The funniest thing was that only those of my fellow guests had the worst of it who had denied the existence of Ghosts.  Those of us who had kept respectfully silent had not been touched.

Those who had received a blow or two averred that the blows could not have been given by invisible hands inasmuch as the blows were too substantial.  But all of us were certain that it was no trick played by a human being.

The passing horses and the whispering passers-by had given us a queer creepy sensation.

* * * * *

In this connection may be mentioned a few haunted houses in other parts of India.  There are one or two very well-known haunted houses in Calcutta.

The “Hastings House” is one of them.  It is situated at Alipore in the Southern suburb of Calcutta.  This is a big palatial building now owned by the Government of Bengal.  At one time it was the private residence of the Governor-General of India whose name it bears.  At present it is used as the “State Guest House” in which the Indian Chiefs are put up when they come to pay official visits to His Excellency in Calcutta.  It appears that in a lane not very far from this house was fought the celebrated duel between Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India and Sir Philip Francis, a Member of his Council and the reputed author of the “Letters of Junius.”