The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1876-12-15
THE PHANTOM LIGHT,
AN EXCEEDINGLY THRILLING BUT TRfrE
GHOST STONY.
1t was about II O'Clock at night.

COW IN onr drawing room, which she had
thrown wide open. The day had been
most oppressively hot, but now a faint
oieeze was coming in from the sea, most
reteshngiy welcome after the sultry, sti
fling heat of the day.
IL was quite dark-that soft, velvetv
darkness that belongs only to a perfectly
moonless, starless night.
Just down below our window Law the
yard or two of garden, then the long,
straight line Of the promenade, with its as.
phat walk and drive dimly defined by
shadowy row of white posts connected by
ornamental chains. Beyond the embank
;nent lay tie wide desolate waste of sands,
stretching away for miles and miles on Ell
theI hand,
he tide was Tar out, 50 far that only a
sort of pale-gray gleam on the horizon ill.,
dIcaJed where the sea was just beginning
to creep over the shoals and sand banks off
the Southport coast. Seven miles away to
the right, across the estuary of the Ribble.
the steady light from the Lytbam Light
/ House kept vigilsnt watch and ward over
the dangerous Horse Bank, that treacher-
Gus, dangerous shoal on which many good
ship has gone to its doom Of shipwfeck
and death.
Nellie was leaning ont of the window,
her elbow on the sill, her eyes fixed on the
misty, soft darkness outside. 1t was as
dark inside as out; we had no idea OF light
ing the gas that long summer evening.
How still il is - she saii dreamilv.
"What spell of solemn silence the night
lays on everything"
As if to contradict her words, faint
sound like lar-of voice seemed suddenly
to rise from The sands below, and swept by
with prolonged mournful cry.
What is t!;at?" she asked, startled.
Some one calling down on the sands
said. "Thc inteuse stiffness carries the
sound great distance at night"
u heard such = wild legend this morn
/ ing" she went on, connected with those
great deserts of sand that stretch over to-
wards Ly;ham. Old Joe, the boatman.
says they are haunted by phantom
voice"
GLOW thrilling - ! remarked sceptically,
( ''What does it say?'
( Don f. scoit Jean said Nellie, a little
/ vexedly. lit is most pathetic, dreadful
/ legend. Years ago, before there was
/ town here at all, people used to cross the
/ sands between here aud Lytham on horse
/ back. One stormy evening a traveller had
| crossed as usual, and had almost reached
! the shore, when suddenly a bright light
,,,aoraG l,nvrra1 f.,r n rnDron =, ,,.a,. . .,,,,t
! a yard or two away, and then vanished -
! At the same moment Il piteous, unearthly
! cry echoed all around. The horse became
! wild with terror, and broke loose, throwing
! his rider to tic ground. When he rccov
cred himself, lie found, lying on the ground
/ at his feet, the body of a beautiful young
/ girl. She was quite dead, with a ghastly
/ wound in her side, from which the blood
! had flowed all over her white dress.
''lAe traveller staggered away to :he
neaiest house. got assistance, and had the
! girls body laid in an upper room.
THAT night an awful storm arose. L
ship was wrecked on the Horse Bank, aud
/ only one man, the captain, saved, lie was
taken to the same house where the traveller
mistake, was put into the room where the
murdered girl was lying. At the sight OF
her lie gave an appalling shrek, and fell
down senseless. When he revived, he was
questioned, aud con fessed that the beauti-
full young girl was his wife, whom in a mo
ment of rage and jealously he had stabbed
to the heart and cast into the sea. And the
/ -.
had cast him on shore, and the murderer
( and his victim were face to face. And now
they say the voice OF the murdered gir
hauutS the place where she was found. II
seems TO rise from the sands and goes echo
lug and wailing along, calling, calling, as
if in mortal agony. The old boatman says
people have followed it, believing some one
was in peril, and have been lured on ant
on, till the tide has overtaken them, ana
they were drowned" ."
.NYhat horrible tale ?'' | said, with q
shudder. - W ish you had not told it tC
/ me-"
"And he says" went on Nellie, unheed
ing my remark, ''that whoever Lears the
voice is in isl of great peril or danger, oi
] some Eluu oI sotiO" VI eiOto4O 80 "DNN-' u
happen to linn"
Nellie's voice had unconsciously taken 9
tone of awe. The still, sombre darkness,
the m idnight hour, and the weird melan-
choly legend had Infected US both with an
underlined sensation of oppression and fear,
a presentiment of dread and evil.
We kept our places by the window, look
ing out into the deep velve:y darkness
with the far. away solitary light from the
light house cleaning like a red spark.
Suddenly. while we sat, the sound Of a
voice rose up again from the lonely sauCS