As Dastardly and Muttley walked the cold, dark streets of town to return home, they were approached by a constable (Quick Draw McGraw) and his deputy (Baba Looey).
"Merry Christmas, partner!" The constable smiled with the tip of his hat.
"Feliz Navidad!" The deputy took Dastardly's hand and shook it. "Prospero Año y Felicidad, my friend."
"Oh get lost, both of you!" Dastardly swiped his hand out of the deputy's hooves. "I've heard enough humbug for one day!"
"I beg your pardon sir…" The deputy tried to explain.
"We was only trying to be friendly, and you might wanna do the same, buster!" The constable told him. "It's Christmas Eve after all, and don't you forget it!"
"When I said get lost, I meant go away!" Dastardly scowled. "And I mean go away!"
Muttley growled at the constable and the deputy, and then chased them off the street.
The two fiends continued their walk home, when an alligator (Wally Gator) went up to them.
"Give a penny to the poor?" Asked Wally, holding a small basket.
"How many times are people like you gonna bother me with such stupid requests!?" Dastardly scowled. "Get out of my sight before I go stir crazy!"
Muttley growled at Wally and he and Dastardly walked away, giving him cold frowns.
Before they reached their home, Dastardly turned his head to his dog.
"Here we are, finally home at last." Dastardly sighed. "No one tonight except for you, me and another bowl of gruel, eh Muttley?"
"Rassuh-frazza-pazza gruel, yuck!" Muttley muttered.
Once they arrived home, Dastardly gave Muttley the key. When Muttley took the keys and went to the door, however, the door's knocker formed into the familiar, ghostly face of Dastardly and Muttley's deceased business partner, Jacob Sneekly (Sylvester Sneekly/the Hooded Claw) before Muttley's shocked eyes.
"Dastardly and Muttley!" Sneekly's ghostly voice moaned.
"Razzen-frazzen Jacob Sneekly?" Muttley jumped with fright and came running quickly to his master.
Muttley hugged Dastardly's head and shivered with fear.
"Get off me, Muttley!" Dastardly frowned as he broke Muttley's locked arms and legs from around his head and threw him to the ground. "What's gotten into you!?"
"Snazzen-frazzen backen ghost on the door!" Muttley whimpered.
"A ghost!?" Dastardly scoffed as he took Muttley to the door. "Don't be ridiculous! I don't see anything on that door! Everyone knows that there are no such things as ghosts! Now get inside! I don't want you getting on my last nerve, either!"
After Dastardly walked in, Muttley dashed through the door with fright, causing him to bump into Dastardly. After Muttley snickered, Dastardly hit him on the head.
The evil human-dog duo walked up the stairs. Muttley was wary and frightened, but Dastardly ignored him. The sound of chains rattling came to their ears.
Muttley whimpered and shivered, while Dastardly just gave a look of reluctance.
"Stop this foolishness Muttley. I'm sure it's just the wind."
A few minutes later, Dastardly was now seen in a striped lavender nightgown, a dark purple robe, and a lavender nightcap eating a bowl of gruel in his armchair by the fire. Muttley also sported a nightcap and was also eating gruel from his dog dish, to his displeasure.
All of a sudden, the fire disappeared.
"The fire's gone!" Dastardly gasped. "What gives!?"
He and Muttley soon heard the sound of the wind howling and chains rattling again.
"Ebenezer Dastardly!" Sneekly's voice moaned again.
A paranoid Muttley quickly locked the door, and even Dastardly started to get nervous.
"Who could it be?" He shivered, hiding in his armchair with Muttley. "Whoever you are, leave us be!"
The ghost of Sneekly walked through the locked door with an evil laugh that caught Dastardly and Muttley's attention. Sneekly's body and clothes were all ghostly white, a white strip of cloth was tied around his head, and he was carrying a variety of heavy chains.
"Got you pretty good, huh Dastardly?" Sneekly laughed.
Dastardly and Muttley hid in fear.
"You have no memory of me, do you, Dastardly? Don't you or that mutt remember me?"
"Who-who-who are you?" Dastardly stammered as he and Muttley got up from hiding.
"Earth to Dastardly, it's been a long time. Don't ask who I am. Ask who I was." Sneekly corrected him.
"Oh, alright." Dastardly muttered with a frown. "Who were you?"
"If you recall, or not, in life I was your business partner in Dastardly and Sneekly Mortgage." Sneekly explained. "Jacob Sneekly was my name."
"Oh yes, Jacob Sneekly. But Jacob Sneekly's died seven years ago today. How can this be?"
"You know, you're more stubborn and reluctant than ever before." Sneekly sneered. "How can doubt your senses?"
"Uh, well…" Dastardly stammered. "Anything could affect them. Take a slight disorder of one's stomach for instance. Perhaps you're an undigested beef, a crumb of moldy cheese…"
"Razzen-frazzen pazzen, blech!" Muttley stuck out his tongue and muttered.
"Or an underdone potato for all I know…"
"Alright, I've heard enough of your big mouth!" Sneekly interrupted him.
"We recognize you now, Sneekly! We believe in you! My, you haven't changed a bit since your death." Dastardly and Muttley gave Sneekly fearful smiles.
"Exactly! Dastardly, allow me to explain why I came to you in the first place!"
Dastardly and Muttley gulped.
"Back when I was still alive, I led a wicked, villainous, diabolical life. My life consisted of foul, evil, fiendish deeds…" Sneekly explained. "I swindled the widows and widowers and robbed the little orphans, and basically anyone in particular. But for the most part, I spent the remaining years of my life doing a scheme most fiendish!
"I do remember!" Dastardly grinned a wicked grin and snickered, but then forgot. "What did you do again?"
"Oh brother…" Sneekly slapped his face. "I was the guardian of a lovely young heiress to a vast fortune belonging to her family. If anything was to happen to Penelope, the aforementioned heiress, before she turned twenty-one, I would inherit her huge fortune, and I'd live a rich, lavish life. So in order to obtain that fortune, I turned into a masked, caped villain called the 'Hooded Claw,' and under my guise, I would continuously follow Penelope everywhere she traveled, capture her, and then place her in complex deathtraps as an attempt to bump her off; mostly with her being tied up in them."
"Oh yes…" Dastardly smiled, recalling those days. "One of your best dirty tricks of all if I say so myself."
"I was quite clever, huh?" Sneekly chuckled, before his look became serious. "But if you take one look at me, you'll see where my villainy got me!"
"I do see." Dastardly replied. "All those heavy chains, which were never on you at the time of your death. How did they end up on you like that?"
"These chains you see on me are my everlasting punishment for my evil ways." Sneekly told Dastardly. "Link by link and yard by yard, these heavy chains are the price I pay for the evil doing I've done! And if you don't change your ways, you, too, will endure the same fate, Dastardly!"
He pointed his finger to Muttley.
"And you, too, hairball!"
"Snazzen-frazzen who's a hairball!?" Muttley grumbled.
"No please, Sneekly!" Dastardly begged and sobbed. "Anything but that!"
"Lucky for the two of you, there's a way out of this, and I promise you there is." Sneekly grinned. "A chance for you to see the light, and to end your days as villains!"
"What's that?"
"Tonight, you will be visited by three different ghosts!" Sneekly told Dastardly and Muttley of their fate.
"Three different ghosts?" Dastardly gulped. "It's bad enough you're haunting me right now!"
"These ghosts will come to you one at a time." Sneekly explained. "When the clock strikes 1 at midnight, the first ghost will appear. When the clock strikes 2, ghost number two will come. Finally, when the clock strikes 3, you'll see ghost number three!"
"Can't I just see them all at once and get it over with?" Dastardly asked nervously. "Surely I can, right?"
"That's not how it works, buster." Sneekly approached Dastardly and Muttley closer in an intimidating manner. "You'll only see them every hour, after midnight. Do as they say, listen to them, and I mean all of them! If you refuse, you will also bear chains of punishment for your villainy, but they will be much heavier than mine!"
"Alright, alright!" Dastardly's heart pounded quickly with fear. "I'll do it! I can't afford to go through what you're going through!"
"I knew you'd say that." Sneekly gave one last evil laugh before he prepared to leave. "Farewell, Dastardly and Muttley, and good luck to you!"
From there, Sneekly's ghost faded into the night.
Later that night, Dastardly and Muttley were in their bedroom preparing for, what they hoped would be a good night's sleep. But they were still feeling scared after Sneekly came to them and about their upcoming encounters with the ghosts he told them about. How could anyone think they'll have a good night's sleep at such a time? A still-jittery Muttley checked the room and his bed for any ghosts.
"Will you get a hold of yourself Muttley?" Dastardly scolded him. "There's no spirits coming. They too, are all just a bunch of humbug. Now get to bed already."
Dastardly climbed into his bed, which had drapes on all four sides and closed the drapes to go to sleep. Muttley pulled the drapes on his similarly built dog bed.
"Christmas, ghosts. Bah humbug." Dastardly mumbled before he and Muttley fell asleep.