The ghost panicked, which was the natural thing to do when something like this happens. He ran to the staircase, but found Washington Otis waiting for him there with the big garden shovel.

He was surrounded by his enemies on every side, with almost no way to escape, so he vanished into the great iron stove. Fortunately for him, it was not lit, but he had to go home through the chimney pipes. He arrived at his own room in a terrible state of dirt, disorder, and despair.

After this he was not seen to go out at night again. The twins tried to catch him several times. They put nutshells in the passages every night to hear him walking, but this only made their parents and the servants very annoyed.

It was quite evident that the ghost's feelings were so hurt that he would not appear. So Mr Otis went back to writing the history of the Democratic Party, as he had been doing for some years. Mrs Otis organised a wonderful clam-bake, which amazed the whole county; the boys started playing lacrosse, poker, and other American games.

Virginia rode about the roads on her pony, accompanied by the young Duke of Cheshire, who had come to spend the last week of his holidays at Canterville Chase.

Everyone thought that the ghost had gone away. In fact, Mr Otis wrote a letter to Lord Canterville and told him that. Lord Canterville replied that he was pleased to hear the news, and sent congratulations to Mrs Otis.