William Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories and was a great friend and collaborator of Charles Dickens.

'The Ghost in the Cupboard Room' is a strange tale of a sailor who is captured by a vindictive enemy on the Spanish Main, who ties and gags him on the floor of the hold, which contains barrels of gunpowder...leaving a candle burning, to which, some way down, is attached a fuse leading to the explosives.

The sailor must watch helplessly as the candle burns its way slowly towards the fuse....