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Read Ebook: The Ghost of Jerry Bundler by Jacobs W W William Wymark Rock Charles
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THE GHOST OF JERRY BUNDLER
W. W. JACOBS and CHARLES ROCK
Adapted from W. W. Jacob's Story "Jerry Bundler"
Caution: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that "The Ghost of Jerry Bundler," being fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, is subject to a royalty, and anyone presenting the play without the consent of the owners or their authorized agents will be liable to the penalties by law provided. Applications for professional and amateur acting rights must be made to Samuel French, 25 West 45th Street, New York.
New York: London: Samuel French Samuel French, Ltd. Publisher 26 Southampton Street 25 West 45th Street Strand All Rights Reserved
Especial notice should be taken that the possession of this book without a valid contract for production first having been obtained from the publisher, confers no right or license to professionals or amateurs to produce the play publicly or in private for gain or charity.
In its present form this play is dedicated to the reading public only, and no performance, representation, production, recitation, or public reading, or radio broadcasting may be given except by special arrangement with Samuel French, 25 West 45th Street, New York.
This play may be presented by amateurs upon payment of a royalty of Five Dollars for each performance, payable to Samuel French, 25 West 45th Street, New York, one week before the date when the play is given.
Attention is called to the penalty provided by law for any infringement of the author's rights, as follows.
"SECTION 4966:--Any person publicly performing or representing any dramatic or musical composition for which copyright has been obtained, without the consent of the proprietor of said dramatic or musical composition, or his heirs and assigns, shall be liable for damages thereof, such damages, in all cases to be assessed at such sum, not less than one hundred dollars for the first and fifty dollars for every subsequent performance, as to the court shall appear to be just. If the unlawful performance and representation be wilful and for profit, such person or persons shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be imprisoned for a period not exceeding one year."--U. S. Revised Statutes: Title 60, Chap. 3.
THE GHOST OF JERRY BUNDLER.
Cast at The Haymarket Theatre.
SEPT. 9, 1902.
HIRST Mr. Cyril Maude. PENFOLD Mr. George Trollope. MALCOLM Mr. Lewis Broughton. SOMERS Mr. Marsh Allen. BELDON Mr. H. Norton. DR. LEEK Mr. Wilfred Forster. GEORGE Mr. Charles Rock.
NOTE.--Penfold, Malcolm, and Beldon represent different types of Commercial Travellers.
Original Cast.
PENFOLD Mr. Holman Clarke. MALCOLM Mr. Holmes Gore. HIRST Mr. Cyril Maude. SOMERS Mr. Frank Gillmore. DOCTOR LEEK Mr. C. M. Hallard. BELDON Mr. Cecil Ramsay. GEORGE Mr. Mark Kinghorne.
THE GHOST OF JERRY BUNDLER.
OMNES. Oh, I say, that sounds impossible, etc.
SOMERS. Haunted or not haunted, the fact remains that no one stays in the house long. It's been let to several tenants since the time of the murder, but they never completed their tenancy. The last tenant held out for a month, but at last he gave up like the rest, and cleared out, although he had done the place up thoroughly, and must have been pounds out of pocket by the transaction.
MALCOLM. Well, it's a capital ghost story, I admit, that is, as a story, but I for one can't swallow it.
HIRST. I don't know, it is not nearly so improbable as some I have heard. Of course it's an old idea that spirits like to get into the company of human beings. A man told me once, that he travelled down by the Great Western, with a ghost as fellow passenger, and hadn't the slightest suspicion of it, until the inspector came for tickets. My friend said, the way that ghost tried to keep up appearances, by feeling in all its pockets, and even looking on the floor for its ticket, was quite touching. Ultimately it gave it up, and with a loud groan vanished through the ventilator.
BELDON. Oh, I say come now, that'll do.
PENFOLD . Personally I don't think it's a subject for jesting. I have never seen an apparition myself, but I have known people who have, and I consider that they form a very interesting link between us and the after life. There's a ghost story connected with this house, you know.
OMNES. Eh! Oh? Really!
MALCOLM . Well, I have used this house for some years now. I travel for Blennet and Burgess--wool--and come here regularly three times a year, and I've never heard of it.
LEEK. And I've been here pretty often too, though I have only been in practice here for a couple of years, and I have never heard it mentioned, and I must say I don't believe in anything of the sort. In my opinion ghosts are the invention of weak-minded idiots.
PENFOLD. Weak-minded idiots or not, there is a ghost story connected with this house, but it dates a long time back.
Oh, here's George, he'll bear me out. You've heard of Jerry Bundler, George?
GEORGE . Well, I've just 'eard odds and ends, sir, but I never put much count to 'em. There was one chap 'ere, who was under me when fust I come, he said he seed it, and the Guv'nor sacked him there and then.
PENFOLD. Well, my father was a native of this town, and he knew the story well. He was a truthful man and a steady churchgoer. But I have heard him declare that once in his life he saw the ghost of Jerry Bundler in this house; let me see, George, you don't remember my old dad, do you?
GEORGE. No, sir. I come here forty years ago next Easter, but I fancy he was before my time.
PENFOLD. Yes, though not by long. He died when I was twenty, and I shall be sixty-two next month, but that's neither here nor there.
LEEK. Who was this Jerry Bundler?
PENFOLD. A London thief, pickpocket, highwayman--anything he could turn his dishonest hand to, and he was run to earth in this house some eighty years ago.
He took his last supper in this room.
That night soon after he had gone to bed, a couple of Bow Street runners, the predecessors of our present detective force turned up here. They had followed him from London, but had lost scent a bit, so didn't arrive till late. A word to the landlord, whose description of the stranger who had retired to rest, pointed to the fact that he was the man they were after, of course enlisted his aid and that of the male servants and stable hands. The officers crept quietly up to Jerry's bedroom and tried the door, it wouldn't budge. It was of heavy oak and bolted from within.
Leaving his comrade and a couple of grooms to guard the bedroom door, the other officer went into the yard, and, procuring a short ladder, by this means reached the window of the room in which Jerry was sleeping. The Inn servants and stable hands saw him get on to the sill and try to open the window. Suddenly there was a crash of glass, and with a cry, he fell in a heap on to the stones at their feet. Then in the moonlight, they saw the face of the highwayman peering over the sill.
They sent for the blacksmith, and with his sledge-hammer he battered in the strong oak panels, and the first thing that met their eyes was the body of Jerry Bundler dangling from the top of the four-post bed by his own handkerchief.
SOMERS. I say, which bedroom was it? .
PENFOLD. That I can't tell you, but the story goes that Jerry still haunts this house, and my father used to declare positively that the last time he slept here, the ghost of Jerry Bundler lowered itself from the top of his four-post bed and tried to strangle him.
BELDON . O, I say, that'll do. I wish you'd thought to ask your father which bedroom it was.
PENFOLD. What for?
BELDON. Well, I should take jolly good care not to sleep in it, that's all.
PENFOLD. There's nothing to fear. I don't believe for a moment that ghosts could really hurt one. In fact, my father used to say that it was only the unpleasantness of the thing that upset him, and that, for all practical purposes, Jerry's fingers might have been made of cotton wool for all the harm they could do.
BELDON. That's all very fine, a ghost story is a ghost story, but when a gentleman tells a tale of a ghost that haunts the house in which one is going to sleep, I call it most ungentlemanly.
PENFOLD. Pooh! Nonsense. .
Ghosts can't hurt you. For my own part, I should rather like to see one.
PENFOLD. Well, I'll bid you good-night, gentlemen.
OMNES. Good-night.
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