The ghost appeared again for the second time on a Sunday night. The Otis family had gone to bed. But soon afterward they were suddenly woken up by a very loud noise in the hall.

They hurried downstairs, where they found that a large suit of armour had fallen over on to the stone floor. The Canterville ghost was sitting in a chair. He was rubbing his knees and the expression on his face showed that he was in very great pain.

The twins had brought their pea-shooters with them. Now they started to shoot at the ghost. They hit him too, because of the great amount of practice that they had got from shooting the pea-shooters at their teachers.

The United States Ambassador pointed his gun at the ghost and told him to put up his hands. (This is the correct way to do things in California.) The ghost jumped up and screamed with anger, and floated through them like a mist. As he passed the family, he blew out Washington Otis' candle. This left them all in complete darkness.

When he got to the top of the staircase, the ghost turned around. He had decideed to give his famous horrible laugh. He had used this laugh in the past and it had been very useful to him.

This laugh had turned Lord Raker's wig grey in a single night. Also the laugh had once made three of Lady Canterville's French teachers leave Canterville Chase in a hurry.