Three days ago I wrote the story of “The Golden Arm,” a yarn that I told to my nephews and nieces long years ago. Today I am recording another of their favorites — “George.” I hope you enjoy.

Dave Cooper was a down-to-earth sort of fellow.  He had no truck with anything stupid like ghosts, UFOs or other such nonsense.  When someone offered a prize of $20,000 to anyone who would spend the night in the supposedly haunted Blair Manion he jumped at it.   Arrangements were soon made, and on the afternoon of September 15 Dave took up residence in the Blair.

Dave had a satisfying supper around 6 pm and waited for things to happen.  He figured that the prize people might try to scare him into leaving by some cheap trick, but he believed that he could deal with anything that might come his way.

All was quiet until 9 pm, at that time there was a knock on the front door.  Dave opened the door and encountered a weird looking little man, about four feet tall.  He had ghastly green colored skin  and strange dead-looking eyes.  He had the appearance of someone who had been dead at least weeks. He also had the aroma of death.  Dave thought it to be an obvious fake – a made-up job.   The makeup artists may have been true professionals, but they couldn’t fool Dave. The little man stood there for a few minutes, surveyed the room, and turned his dead eyes back toward Dave.

“Are you going to be here when George gets here? The man asked.   

“Get out of here”, Dave shouted.  “You ain’t nothing but a discombobulation.”

The little man turned and walked out the door.

Dave congratulated himself and began thinking about how he would spend the $20,000.

Around 10 pm there was another knock on the door.  When Dave opened the door he encountered a hulking monstrosity of a man who appeared to be about seven feet tall.  He had glowing red eyes, a long mane of jet black hair, and scaly skin that seemed to be covered with running sores.  The person emitted a nauseating stench.  If Dave had been an undertaker, he would have recognized the smell as akin to that of a cadaver that had passed from life several weeks ago.  As it was, Dave placed a handkerchief over his nose and waved the fellow in.  “What makeup,” he thought.

The huge man stood in the middle of the room, slowly looked around, and emitted a deep growling noise that could barely be recognized as English.

“Are you going to be here when George gets here?

Dave shuddered, but he wasn’t going to give up that easily.  He wanted that $20,000.

“Get out of here,” he shouted.

The big man looked at Dave, twisted his mouth in a wicked smile, and turned and left the room.

Dave breathed a sigh of relief.  He had that money made.  But it was only 10 pm.  The night was young, and there might be another visitor of two – including the mysterious George.  Dave pulled a package of crackers from his backpack and began firing up a large coffeemaker.  He was ready for anything.

Shortly before 11 pm the whole house began to shake,  A loud noise came from the front porch, and suddenly the door was ripped off its hinges.  Whatever was on the porch was too big for the front entrance, but it solved that problem by tearing out part of the wall and stepping into the room. 

Was it a man or a monster?  Whatever it was, it was hideous.  It had to stoop to avoid punching a hole in the ceiling, It was fully four feet broad, had huge hairy arms, and possessed a gigantic mouth with ugly yellow fangs.  Dave thought he could discern a dragon-like tail, but he wasn’t sure.  He was too concerned with the creature’s baleful eyes.  They seemed to be staring right at him and sizing him up for a post-dinner snack.

Suddenly the creature turned away from Dave and grabbed the large coffeemaker off the kitchen counter.  It was full of hot, scalding liquid.  The monster ripped the top off the pot and drank the contents in three large gulps.   Then it wiped its mouth on the back of a hairy arm, turned toward Dave, and asked the question.

“Are you going to be here when George gets here?

Dave grabbed his backpack and headed for the door.

“Man,” he said, “If you ain’t George, I’m gone,”