The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-10-29 00:00:00

......... .
'lt's all true that they say. I've seen it:
'The ghost?'

'Yes.'
Where?'

'Just where the others saw it, standing by the pit
yonder. l'm sober. I haven't had enough to-day to
unsettle my wits, and if I'd been blind drunk what
I've seen would have sobered me. Mr. Hatherleigh's
there, Barney. I've been face to face with him. It
was a sight to freeze one's blood. It well nigh turned
mine to ice.'
Nonsense,' Barney said, quietly. It's a hoax. Some
clevepfellow has been getting it up to frighten people.
You must help me to getto the bottom of it, Donovan.
Tell me exactly what it was like, and where you saw
it, and how it went away. if we think it over quietly
we et.all come to some light, and we'll spoil the fun.
Some one may be frightened to death if this sort of
thing goes on.
Barney spoke lightly, but he felt uneasy for all that.
As Donovan said, he was not a man to be
frightened by shadows, and it was more than probable
if any one had been playing off a hoax on hint that he
would have sprung u -on them and handled them
rather roughly. He had seen something, that was
very evident, and something, too, that he could not
account for.
Donovan's story was in effect the same as Mr. Met-
calf's. He had come upon Frank Hatherleigh stand-
ing by the side of the hole, looking down into it.
There Fad been sufficient light for him to see the white
face and glittering eyes distinctly, and the spectre had
turned and looked at him as it had done at the un-
lucky draper.
It was him,' he said. 'His very self. There was
the very clothes he used to wear, and the ring. I saw
it shining on his f n rr. I never saw it but once
when he was alive, but I remember it. I thought then
I should 1-ke to have the worth of it. He had taken
his glove off over on the other side of the water to
took at a terrier-pup, and the chaps were talking about
that ring after he was gone. It was like a spark of
fire. •
Mr. Metcalf spoke of a ring, too,' Barney said, re-
flectively. Look here, Donovan. If you have seen a
' ghost, why you have, and there's truth in. such things.
I don't think there is myself.. You and I will watch
for it. It must come tcPme Otte. time., lam in. the
wood so much, and Pie an idea that when we catch
that ghost we shall catch the murderer.'
You may hunt ghosts for younelf,' Donovan said,
shivering. 'I wouldn't stand face to face with that
thing again for any money that eould be offered nie.
You think you could because you have never seen it.
I tell you, man, it's no mortal thing. - It's the dead
come back again.'
ttoillldth me en.
something Ghsta daebno'utt a
ye
When I see it I'll believe it,' Barney said. Not
erainrgrtiphgast,paonordMMr. th
r:HJaarvis
e'
leigh had.. To find that ring woiald beta find the.mur-
ts-
derer. The man does not want people to go into the
wood too much. There's something there he wan
to get at on the quiet,Juad this scare is a good plan for
keeping them away.
may be,' Donovan said. It. will keep me away
from that part of it for some time. I was 's fool to go
there now. I'll do anything in reason to 'find out
what I want to, but I can't face that again;
Where did it go to? That's the thing to find
out.'
'Lord, how you talk! Where should it go to ? It
vanished while I was looking at it—into the ground
or the air, or somewhere. It was there one 'minute,
and the next I was all alone, with the trees whispering
and shivering, and a creepy rustling in the bracken,
till I thought I should have died of fright and horror.
yourself you will believe what I
When you've seen it
. .

.".

1.1111

I don't believe it's a spirit,' Barney persisted.
But I can believe h3w frightened people have been
who think it is. Are you going home?'
Yes.'
SDo something in the town for me.' .

• What is it
Find out for me what the parson has been up
to this last few days. If he has been out this even-
ing,'
'Do you think it was him?'
I wouldn't put it past him,' Barney said, and the
two men looked at each other with meaning in their
eyes that both understood, though neither spoke.
Whatever Barney thought Mr. Gayford had been
doing he was mistaken in this case. The ghost could
not have been any hoax of that gentleman's hatching,
for he had not been out for two days. He had had a
bad cold, and been very unwell, and Mrs. Brown
reported that the report of the apparition in the
wood coming to his ears had upset him very much.
He had seemed quite sick and faint when he heard of
It. Mr. Gayford was hardly aware how much
certain people were interested in his movements, or he
might have chosen some other place of residence, and
abandoned Hillford altogether.
Barney Grubb spent the night of Donovan's
adventure in watching and waiting, as he had spent
many more since the report of the ghost, but he saw
nothing. The spirit did not vouchsafe an appearance
to him, but he came upon the fulfilment of a great
desire of his in the morning. He net Mr. Stone face
to face. He was on the other side of the wood, about
the place,where witnesses had sworn to seeing Frank
tlatherleigh on the fatal night when he entered the
wood never to leave it again to the knowledge of any-
one, and he saw the figure he had come to know so
well by sight advancing towards him.
Now I shall see what he is like,' he thought, and
quickened his pace a little, but Mr. Stone saw him,
and, as he believed, turned abruptly to avoid him.
Be must have been walking carelessly, for he twisted
his foot and stumbled, catching at some branches to
save himself from falling. He missed them, and fell
forward on his face just too late for Barney to
prevent him. The boatman lifted him up, and asked
him if he were hurt. There was not much the matter
except a shaking and a dusty coat. But Barney's
--
curiosity was satisfied at last.
(To be continued.)