Peter C. Smith (ed.) – The Phantom Coach

[dem bones]

Peter C. Smith (ed.) – The Phantom Coach: Thirteen Journeys into the Unknown (William Kimber, 1979)

Peter Archer

Amelia B. Edwards – The Phantom Coach
James Turner – Love Me Love My Car
Charles Dickens – No 1 Branch Line: The Signalman
Mary Williams – No Ticket
E. Nesbit – John Charrington’s Wedding
Rick Ferreira – Silent Stowaway
Ambrose Bierce – The Realm of the Unreal
Ann Bridge – The Buick Saloon
E. F. Benson – In the Tube
Alex Hamilton – The Attic Express
Peter Hackett – The Woman in Black
Peter C. Smith – Synopsis of a Nightmare
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – Non-Paying Passengers

Blurb:

Hurry along and open the doors to Peter C. Smith's new collection of stories of the supernatural — this time with thirteen tales of journeys that turn out not quite as expected. You will travel by a variety of routes and by conveyances both ancient and modern; by coach and four, by bus, tube, train and car, but neither your destination nor your fellow passengers are likely to be those of your normal choosing.
Whether it be a rush-hour journey on the London Underground, a tramp steamer bound for Liverpool or a saloon car in old Peking, pay your fare now for a mystery tour of the macabre that no-one should miss.


Ann Bridge [Mary O’Malley] - The Buick Saloon: (Cornhill Magazine, June 1930). When her husband's banking career takes them to Peking, Mrs. Bowlby buys a second hand car to get her around the city. It's haunted by the ghost of an amorous young French woman pining an illicit lover.

Peter Hackett - The Woman in Black: (R. Chetwynd-Hayes [ed.], 11th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, 1975). Kept late at the office, Jeffrey Layne boards the 23.05 home from Fenchurch Street. As they near Essex he suddenly finds he is sharing the compartment with an old woman in mourning dress whose own face resembles that of a waxen corpse. Sure enough …

On disembarking at Chalkwell, Layne learns from the ticket collector that his ghost is that of Clare Bowman, who ran off with lover intent on marriage once they reached Southend — provided, that is, they both survived the rail journey.

E. Nesbit - John Charrington's Wedding: (Temple Bar, Sept. 1891). Brixham, Devon. "My dear, my dear, I believe I should come back from the grave if you wanted me!" Nightmare wedding of May Forster, the village beauty, whose beloved, unfortunately, proves true to his promise. Regarded by the author as her best short story.

[dem bones]

"He put out his hand, as if entreating me to do something, and with a cowardice from which I cannot forgive myself, I shrank from him, for I knew, by the sign that I have told you, that this was one from the dead, and my flesh quaked before him, drowning for the moment all pity and all desire to help him, if that was possible. Certainly he had something which he wanted of me, but I recoiled from him. And by now the train was emerging from the tunnel, and next moment, with a dreadful gesture of despair, he threw himself in front of it."

E. F. Benson - In the Tube: (Hutchinson’s Magazine, Dec. 1922; Visible and Invisible, 1923). Anthony Carling, powerfully clairvoyant, is tormented by a vivid premonition of Sir Henry Payle throwing himself before a train at Dover Street. By the time Carling confides in Benson, the presentiment has been fulfilled, and there is a duty he need perform to set the suicide's soul to rest.

Peter C. Smith - Synopsis of a Nightmare: Problems at Bloomsbury-based publishing house Symond & Steele when Stuart Davidson, their Mr. Dependable, fails to deliver his annual novel. The author apologises to Roger Blair, the managing editor, insisting a recurring nightmare of a nuclear strike on Britain has reduced him to a nervous wreck. The company man reassures him as best he can, but within an hour of Davidson's departure home, Blair takes a call from his tearful widow ....

James Turner - Love Me Love My Car: (The Way Shadows Fall, 1975). A year into their marriage, Ted and Meg invest £150 in a second-hand mid-sixties Austin Countryman prior to embarking on a holiday in Penzance. The car is haunted by the ghosts of previous owners, the Sutcliffe family, and the phantom doubles of a bearded man and golden haired girl Ted mistakes for a couple making love in the back seat. As Meg is soon to find half, the former is no amorous boyfriend.

[dem bones]

Rick Ferreira – Silent Stowaway: Original to collection. Set in 1954 aboard a Dutch freighter travelling from Paramaribo to Southampton. Among the ten passengers, Tobagonian medic Dr. McPhee; four perma-drunk sugar planters; the insufferable Mrs Halliwell and her sweet fifteen-year-old daughter, Clare; a young widower, Jonathan Carey, and his two-year-old son, Theo, who crew, passengers and the phantom stowaway - Saskia, the boy's late Surinamese mother - dote upon.

The prejudice and snobbery of Mrs Halliwell apart, there doesn't appear anything too ghastly to concern us – Saskia, is a benign loving presence – until Dr. McPhee intercepts a telegram from Carey's racist mother informing him that Theo is no grandson of hers and will never be welcome at her house ....

Mary Williams – No Ticket: "There is no return from here. No one leaves once they've come. No one." First publication of a phantom bus minor classic. Stranded in thick fog on the moorland road above Wikka, Rogers, a London journalist convalescing in Cornwall following a breakdown, is initially relieved at the arrival of a bus bound for 'Abmut', even if the driver and the dozen fellow passengers are a sepulchral lot. Destination proves to be an ancient burial ground where once stood a stone circle ....

Ambrose Bierce – The Realm of the Unreal: (San Francisco Examiner, July 20, 1890). Narrator Manrich twice falls foul of Dr. Valentine Dorrimore, a master hypnotist, originally of Calcutta, who does not appreciate loud mouth Westerners dismissing the feats of magic worked by Hindu fakirs as phooey. On this second occasion, the American is incensed to discover Dorrimore arm in arm with his fiancée in the graveyard. Manrich attacks his love rival, only to awaken back at the hotel, a mass of cuts and bruises. He later learns that his bride-to-be was at home in Oakland the while. A newspaper report on Dorimore's extraordinary performance in Baltimore — where he held the entire audience under hypnotic spell — suggests that, once aware of a person's concerns, he can manufacture the hallucination to suit.

Didn't have the highest hopes for this one as several of the selections are familiar - or seemed to be. It had been so long since I'd read the Nesbit, Williams, Bridge, Hackett and Benson stories they were fresh again. Of those new to me Love Me Love My Car and Silent Stowaway are excellent.