Our Haunted Shores: Tales from the Coasts of the British Isles by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gothic classics, beach reading, kraken stories, regional tales, Lovecraftian horror, dark folk tales, lost ghost stories
Publisher: British Library Publishing
Published: 2022-06-21T06:00:00+00:00

Arthur Markam made up his mind not to tell his family of his terrible adventure—until at least such time as he should be complete master of himself. Now that the fatal double—his other self—had been engulfed in the quicksand he felt something like his old peace of mind.

That night he slept soundly and did not dream at all; and in the morning was quite his old self. It really seemed as though his newer and lower self had disappeared for ever; and strangely enough Saft Tammie was absent from his post that morning and never appeared there again, but sat in his old place watching nothing, as of old, with lack-lustre eye. In accordance with his resolution Markam did not wear his Highland suit again, but one evening tied it up in a bundle,—claymore, dirk, and philibeg and all,—and bringing it secretly with him threw it into the quicksand. With a feeling of intense pleasure he saw it sucked below the sand, which closed above it into marble smoothness. Then he went home and announced cheerily to his family assembled for evening prayers:

“Well! my dears, you will be glad to hear that I have abandoned my idea of wearing the Highland dress. I see now what a vain old fool I was, and how ridiculous I made myself! You shall never see it again!”

“Where is it, father?” asked one of the girls, wishing to say something so that such a self-sacrificing announcement as her father’s should not be passed in absolute silence. His answer was so sweetly given that the girl rose from her seat and came and kissed him. It was:

“In the quicksand, my dear! and I hope that my lower self is buried there along with it—for ever.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.