The Internet Wiretap Electronic Edition of

               CAN SUCH THINGS BE

                       by

                 AMBROSE BIERCE

                    New York

        Johnathan Cape and Harrison Smith

   Copyright 1909 by Albert and Charles Boni Inc.

        This text is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN.

               Released July 1993

          Proofread by Rebecca Crowley 

             <rcrowley@zso.dec.com>

CONTENTS

THE DEATH OF HALPIN FRAYSER
THE SECRET OF MACARGER'S GULCH
ONE SUMMER NIGHT
THE MOONLIT ROAD
A DIAGNOSIS OF DEATH
MOXON'S MASTER
A TOUGH TUSSLE
ONE OF TWINS
THE HAUNTED VALLEY
A JUG OF SYRUP
STALEY FLEMING'S HALLUCINATION
A RESUMED IDENTITY
A BABY TRAMP
THE NIGHT-DOINGS AT 'DEADMAN'S'
BEYOND THE WALL
A PSYCHOLOGICAL SHIPWRECK
THE MIDDLE TOE OF THE RIGHT FOOT
JOHN MORTONSON'S FUNERAL
THE REALM OF THE UNREAL
JOHN BARTINE'S WATCH
THE DAMNED THING
HAITA THE SHEPHERD
AN INHABITANT OF CARCOSA
THE STRANGER

   THE DEATH OF HALPIN FRAYSER

	     1

  For by death is wrought greater change than hath been
shown. Whereas in general the spirit that removed cometh
back upon occasion, and is sometimes seen of those in flesh
(appearing in the form of the body it bore) yet it hath
happened that the veritable body without the spirit hath
walked. And it is attested of those encountering who have
lived to speak thereon that a lich so raised up hath no
natural affection, nor remembrance thereof, but only hate.
Also, it is known that some spirits which in life were benign
become by death evil altogether.--HALL.

ONE dark night in midsummer a man waking from
a dreamless sleep in a forest lifted his head from the
earth, and staring a few moments into the black-
ness, said: 'Catharine Larue.' He said nothing
more; no reason was known to him why he should
have said so much.

  The man was Halpin Frayser. He lived in St.
Helena, but where he lives now is uncertain, for he
is dead. One who practises sleeping in the woods
with nothing under him but the dry leaves and
the damp earth, and nothing over him but the
branches from which the leaves have fallen and the
sky from which the earth has fallen, cannot hope for
great longevity, and Frayser had already attained
the age of thirty-two. There are persons in this
world, millions of persons, and far and away the
best persons, who regard that as a very advanced
age. They are the children. To those who view the
voyage of life from the port of departure the
bark that has accomplished any considerable dis-
tance appears already in close approach to the far-
ther shore. However, it is not certain that Halpin
Frayser came to his death by exposure.

  He had been all day in the hills west of the Napa
Valley, looking for doves and such small game as
was in season. Late in the afternoon it had come
on to be cloudy, and he had lost his bearings; and al-
though he had only to go always downhill--every-
where the way to safety when one is lost--the ab-
sence of trails had so impeded him that he was
overtaken by night while still in the forest. Unable
in the darkness to penetrate the thickets of man-