In Charles Dickens’s story, a railway signalman explains that one night when the moon was bright he saw a figure at the mouth of the nearby tunnel, gesticulating and warning of disaster. But when he went to talk to whoever it was, the figure suddenly vanished, and a search inside the tunnel proved vain.

The signalman searched not only the tunnel but the signal outside it, still without finding anyone. He communicated with colleagues up and down the line, but they reported nothing to warrant the mysterious figure’s frantic warnings of disaster. The narrator of the tale began to rationalise it all, but it seemed that there was more to hear.

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