The Horror Megapack_ 25 Classic and Modern Horror Stories ( PDFDrive )

VI
“I say, Towneley, I’ll trouble you for that twenty-five hundred dollar reward
you offered for laying the ghost,” Professor Forrester announced as he and
Rosalie let themselves in the front door of Towneley Towers and surveyed a
surprised group in the lower hall.
“Eh, what’s that?” demanded his host, eyeing him suspiciously. “Where have
you been? I thought you went upstairs drunk a while ago. Speak up, man, if
you’re sober. We’re in the devil of a fix. Now it’s Procter who’s disappeared,
and—”
“Wrong, my boy, quite wrong you are,” the Professor contradicted with a grin.
“Procter may not be present, but I’ll guarantee to produce him when wanted.
He’s the ghost of Towneley Towers.”
“What?”
“Your ghost’s name is James Allerton Procter, sometime butler to Eugene
Towneley, Esquire, of Baltimore and St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Before he
entered your employ he was popularly known to the aristocracy of the
underworld as English Jimmie, and he was one of the cleverest counterfeiters
—‘queer shooters,’ I believe the technical term is—in the entire nefarious
business. I suppose you’ll recall that, no matter how much dread of the ghost he
displayed, Procter never offered to leave your service?”
“Er—yes, that’s right,” Towneley agreed.
“Quite so. But he was forever harping on the subject to the other servants, and
was largely responsible for your big labor turnover.
“You’ll also remember that he presented himself as an applicant for the
position of butler after three negro butlers had been scared off the premises.
Very well. I’ve been talking with Mr. Procter, and he’s been quite confidential.
Miss Osterhaut—” he shot a sidelong, humorous glance at the demure Rosalie,
who stood at his elbow—“seemed to have quite an influence over him, and I’m
sure she induced him to tell me things he never would have divulged without her
persuasion.
“Now, to go back a little while. This Procter person had been head of a
counterfeiting gang for some time, and had been using this location as a
manufacturing plant. It’s conveniently inaccessible, you know, and offered an
ideal location. When you decided to recondition the Towers and live here, while
it didn’t materially interfere with his work, since it was literally carried on
underground, it did render the danger of detection much greater, so he and his