A young, scientifically minded college professor finds an old bronze whistle while exploring the ruins of a Knights Templars' preceptory. That night, he blows on the whistle and a vision comes to him of a dark expanse with a lonely figure in its midst. The sound also appears to call up a gust of wind, but the sensible professor dismisses it as a coincidence. More strange incidents follow, however, to shake his disbelief in the supernatural.

'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad' is named after a 1793 poem by Robert Burns. The story was read at a Christmas gathering in 1903 then published the following year as part of the anthology Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. It has previously been adapted for radio and television.