Mr Gudgin is doing a spot of gardening and digs up an old bell buried by highwayman Captain Narcissus Bullock, (a former companion of Fanny Uproar. If the bell is rung, it banishes ghosts. Narcissus wants to ring it so that he and Fanny can preside over the hall and entertain all sorts of unscrupulous spirits, but the other ghosts are Fanny's friends.