The Ghost-Leech by Bernard Capes
Kelvin tells his sceptical companion of his belief that the dead can communicate with the living and retain not only consciousness but humour. On a stormy evening, a white moth enters Kelvin’s study, settles on his hand, and then flies into the fire after he dismisses it with the words “Ite missa est!” Kelvin says it is the soul of little Patsy, a village child who has been dying, come to keep a compact by bidding him farewell. He asks his companion to note the time: half-past eight. Kelvin then explains why he believes in such things. His son Bobo had once been wasting away in an incurable illness, continually moaning and apparently near death. While Kelvin stayed in a west-coast Irish village, an ancient old man told him of Baruch, a solitary and feared inhabitant of a remote cabin. Baruch was believed to have been compelled by ghosts to serve as goal-keeper for seven years in the hurling matches of the dead. According to the tale, two neighbouring hamlets had maintained a hereditary feud originating in old rivalries over hurling. Though the living had abandoned the game, the dead continued it, meeting in graveyards beneath the full moon and using skulls as balls and shank-bones as clubs. Each side required a living bachelor to keep goal. A chosen man would be summoned at night by a dead figure at his cabin door and forced to serve; most victims did not survive their term. Those who did received a strange reward: the power to cure any human sickness by touch. Desperate for Bobo, Kelvin visits Baruch. The man’s youthful face bears the expression of terrible, unearthly suffering, and Kelvin’s scepticism collapses. Baruch agrees to help, telling him to return after the moon has passed its full. During the following week Bobo struggles against death. On the day after the full moon, Kelvin secretly carries the child to Baruch’s cabin. Baruch greets them with an air of joyful release, lays his hands on Bobo’s head, and Bobo is restored enough to walk home with his father. As Kelvin finishes the story, his housekeeper enters and confirms that Patsy has died in her bed at half-past eight, the very time Kelvin had made his companion record.
By Bernard Capes · First published 1909 · Genre: Supernatural Horror, Ghost Story, Gothic Fiction · 3,290 words
First lines
Kelvin, not I, is responsible for this story, which he told me sitting smoking by his study window.
What this Textopian page supports
The Ghost-Leech is listed on Textopian as a short story by Bernard Capes, dated 1909 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Bernard Capes
- Date: 1909 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Supernatural Horror, Ghost Story, Gothic Fiction, Weird Fiction, Folklore Horror
- Length: 3,290 words
- Structure: 1 section, 78 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Ghost-Leech by Bernard Capes
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Similar titles
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- Poor Lucy Rivers by Bernard Capes
- A Dream Of Red Hands by Bram Stoker
- Halloween by Virna Sheard
- Two Of The Damned by Ambrose Bierce
Genres
- Supernatural Horror — The tale centres on ghosts who compel living men to serve as goalkeepers in spectral hurling matches, graveyard games played with human remains, and the terror endured by Baruch during his supernatural bondage.
- Ghost Story — Dead villagers remain active and malicious after death, appear to the living, summon chosen victims, and communicate through uncanny manifestations such as the moth associated with Patsy's departing soul.
- Gothic Fiction — Its stormy nocturnal frame, isolated rural setting, moonlit moors, decaying cabins, death imagery, superstition, and atmosphere of dread are strongly Gothic.
- Weird Fiction — The story treats an irrational supernatural folklore system as a disturbing reality, combining dark humour, rural legend, bodily suffering, and an uncanny logic beyond ordinary explanation.
Tags
Gothic horror · ghost story · supernatural fiction · Irish folklore · rural Ireland · Irish west coast · early twentieth century · frame narrative · skeptical narrator · life after death · communication with the dead · souls as moths