Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

The Familiar illustrated Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

An atheist ship captain starts to doubt his sanity when he finds himself stalked by a goblin who bears an uncanny resemblance to an old acquaintance from the Navy - a dead acquaintance. Our beleaguered Captain Barton, like Rev. Jennings in "Green Tea," is deeply traumatized by the guilt that these appearances make, reminding him of his checkered past: the ghost is that of a sailor whose daughter the Captain seduced and ruined, who died as a result of a brutal flogging he was given after confronting his officer on the matter. James modelled "A Warning to the Curious," "Count Magnus," and "Casting the Runes" on the mounting climax which follows Barton as he is chased across northwest Europe, culminating with a deathbed confrontation with a gigantic, spectral owl. The haunting begins with the sound of a telltale limp, followed by a visual manifestation of the dead man -- a hobbling dwarf in a fur travelling cap -- stalking the Captain during his nightly walks. Devastated by the thought that he may be doomed to suffer this judgment for the rest of his life, he flees to France only to spot the dwarf in a crowd. Returning to England to die, he hides in his room, filled with terror. His servants are puzzled but fearful nonetheless. When cries ring out from his room -- declaring that the ghost is squatting at the foot of his bed and advancing -- the door is burst open only to reveal an enormous owl hunched over the Captain's corpse.