At the edge of an old riverside district in Australia, a night watchman noticed a lantern glowing inside a warehouse that had been locked for many years. Local people had warned him never to answer a knock after midnight, because the former keeper had disappeared during a flood. He dismissed the warning until three slow knocks sounded from the other side of the door.
He opened the inspection hatch and saw a narrow corridor filled with shallow water, although the night was dry. A woman carrying a brass lantern stood at the far end. She asked whether the ferry had arrived. Before he could reply, every clock in the building stopped at 1:17. The woman walked closer without disturbing the water, placed the lantern on the floor, and vanished when the emergency lights came on.
At sunrise the warehouse was dry again. Beneath the lantern, the watchman found an old passenger ticket bearing the date of the historic flood. He never worked alone afterward. New guards say that on rainy nights the same three knocks return, followed by a quiet voice asking for the last ferry home. Years later, the lantern remains locked in a glass cabinet, yet every stormy morning it is found beside the warehouse door.