Mr. Hiram B. Otis was an American diplomat in London. One day he decided to buy Canterville Chase, a very old house in the English countryside. Lord Canterville, the owner, was an honest man, and he told Mr. Otis the truth.

“There is a ghost in the house,” he said. “My family does not want to live there anymore. My grand-aunt saw two skeleton hands on her shoulders one evening, and she never really recovered from the shock.”

“My lord,” said Mr. Otis, “I will buy the house and the ghost together. I come from a modern country. If there were such a thing as a ghost in Europe, we would have it in a museum in America very soon.”

So Mr. Otis bought the house, and the family moved there in July. The family was Mr. Otis; his wife, Mrs. Otis, a beautiful and healthy New York lady; their oldest son, Washington; their daughter, Virginia, a sweet girl of fifteen with big blue eyes, who rode her pony better than anybody; and the twins, two little boys who were always playing tricks.

When they arrived, the old housekeeper, Mrs. Umney, was waiting for them. She served them tea in the library. Mrs. Otis noticed a dark red stain on the floor near the fireplace.

“I am afraid something has been spilled there,” she said.

“Yes, madam,” said the old housekeeper in a low voice. “Blood has been spilled there. It is the blood of Lady Eleanore de Canterville. Her own husband, Sir Simon de Canterville, killed her on that very spot in 1575. Sir Simon lived nine more years and then disappeared suddenly, in a very mysterious way. His body was never found, but his guilty spirit still haunts the house. The bloodstain cannot be removed.”

“That is all nonsense,” cried Washington. “Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover will clean it in a moment.” He took a small black stick out of his pocket, rubbed the floor, and in a moment the stain was gone.

“I knew Pinkerton would do it!” he said proudly. But at that moment, there was a terrible flash of lightning and a great crash of thunder, and the old housekeeper fainted.

The next morning, the bloodstain was back on the floor. Washington cleaned it again, but the next morning it was there again. Even when Mr. Otis locked the library at night and took the key upstairs, the stain was back every morning.