744 B. From Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 57. The following incident occurred to a gentleman personally known to me. The initials here given are not the true ones. On October 12th, 1888, Mr. J. gave me viva voce the following account of his experience in the X. Library, in 1884, which I took down from memory next day, and which he revised and corrected:-

In 1880 I succeeded a Mr. Q. as librarian of the X. Library. I had never seen Mr. Q., nor any photograph or likeness of him, when the following incidents occurred. I may, of course, have heard the library assistants describe his appearance, though I have no recollection of this. I was sitting alone in the library one evening late in March, 1884, finishing some work after hours, when it suddenly occurred to me that I should miss the last train to H., where I was then living, if I did not make haste. It was then 10.55, and the last train left X. at 11.5. I gathered up some books in one hand, took the lamp in the other, and prepared to leave the librarian's room, which communicated by a passage with the main room of the library. As my lamp illumined this passage, I saw apparently at the further end of it a man's face. I instantly thought a thief had got into the library. This was by no means impossible, and the probability of it had occurred to me before. I turned back into my room, put down the books, and took a revolver from the safe, and, holding the lamp cautiously behind me, I made my way along the passage - which had a corner, behind which I thought my thief might be lying in wait - into the main room. Here I saw no one, but the room was large and encumbered with bookcases.

I called out loudly to the intruder to show himself several times, more with the hope of attracting a passing policeman than of drawing the intruder. Then I saw a face looking round one of the bookcases. I say looking round, but it had an odd appearance as if the body were in the bookcase, as the face came so closely to the edge and I could see no body. The face was pallid and hairless, and the orbits of the eyes were very deep. I advanced towards it, and as I did so I saw an old man with high shoulders seem to rotate out of the end of the bookcase, and with his back towards me and with a shuffling gait walk rather quickly from the bookcase to the door of a small lavatory, which opened from the library and had no other access. I heard no noise. I followed the man at once into the lavatory; and to my extreme surprise found no one there. I examined the window (about 14 in. X 12 in.), and found it closed and fastened. I opened it and looked out. It opened into a well, the bottom of which, ten feet below, was a sky-light, and the top open to the sky some twenty feet above. It was in the middle of the building, and no one could have dropped into it without smashing the glass nor climbed out of it without a ladder - but no one was there.

Nor had there been anything like time for a man to get out of the window, as I followed the intruder instantly. Completely mystified, I even looked into the little cupboard under the fixed basin. There was nowhere hiding for a child, and I confess I began to experience for the first time what novelists describe as an "eerie" feeling.

I left the library, and found I had missed my train.

Next morning I mentioned what I had seen to a local clergyman, who on hearing my description, said, "Why, that's old Q.!" Soon after I saw a photograph (from a drawing) of Q., and the resemblance was certainly striking. Q. had lost all his hair, eyebrows and all, from (I believe) a gunpowder accident. His walk was a peculiar, rapid, high-shouldered shuffle. Later inquiry proved he had died at about the time of year at which I saw the figure.

I have no theory as to this occurrence, and have never given special attention to such matters. I have only on one other occasion seen a phantasmal figure [that of his mother, seen when he was a boy of ten].

When I saw the figure of [Q.] I was in good health and spirits.

The evidential value of the above account is enhanced by the fact that the principal assistant in the library, Mr. R., and a junior clerk, Mr. P., independently witnessed a singular phenomenon, thus described by Mr. R. in 1889:-

A few years ago I was engaged in a large building in the --, and during the busy times was often there till late in the evening. On one particular night I was at work along with a junior clerk till about 11 p.m., in the room marked A on the annexed sketch [sketch omitted]. All the lights in the place had been out for hours except those in the room which we occupied. Before leaving we turned out the gas. We then looked into the fireplace, but not a spark was to be seen. The night was very dark, but being thoroughly accustomed to the place we carried no light. On reaching the bottom of the staircase (B), I happened to look up; when, to my surprise, the room which we had just left appeared to be lighted. I turned to my companion and pointed out the light, and sent him back to see what was wrong. He went at once and I stood looking through the open door, but I was not a little astonished to see that as soon as he got within a few yards of the room the light went out quite suddenly. My companion, from the position he was in at the moment, could not see the light go out, but on his reaching the door everything was in total darkness. He entered, however, and when he returned, reported that both gas and fire were completely out.

The light in the daytime was got by means of a glass roof, there being no windows on the sides of the room, and the night in question was so dark that the moon shining through the roof was out of the question. Although I have often been in the same room till long after dark, both before and since, I have never seen anything unusual at any other time.

Mr. P. endorses this: "I confirm the foregoing statement." Mr. R. states that he has never had any other hallucination. The light was seen after the phantom; but those who saw the light were not aware that the phantom had been seen, for Mr. J. mentioned the circumstance only to his wife and to one other friend (who has confirmed to us the fact that it was mentioned to him), and he was naturally particularly careful to give no hint of the matter to his assistants in the library.