, 1881-11-05

- hcO OISo PAONNotihS LILO liAhONNhSNs
His wife and friends were firmly convinced
that although he had been in the fight, it
was not by his hands the fatal blow had
been dealt. In addition to this, | had
good reason to believe that the real muir
derer was still at large. You can easily
imagine my establishment when Mr.. A.
thus suddenly yentured up0n forbidden
ground, and abruptly declared that the spi.
rit of a man who had suffered the capital
penalty, and whose personal appearance
exactly conceded with that of the unfOr.
tunate lrishman, was actually following
the servant about the house proclaiming
his innocence in accents which. although
lnaudible to me, my guest declared were
perfectly audible to him. ! had heard
that Mr.. A had been a ~"seer,' but I was
not a little startled at this striking illus.
tration of his peculiar faculty. / remark
ed that it was very strange, and informed
him that the woman whom he had just seen
for the first time with her ghostly compan-
ion was really the widow of an executed
telOn. Some time afterwards he eXclaim-
ed ''There he is again, repeating the
same words ~ Intensely interested by
this sudden and apparently supernatural
confirmation Of my suspicious, | determin-
ed to put the Seership of my guest to
what regarded as a crucial test. | told
Mr.. A. that shortly afterwards | was going
into the town, and as | should be passing
the spot where the murder was committed
perhaps his ghOstly v~iSitant~ might. indl-
cate the place where the dead man lay.
Some time afterwards we started for the
town. When We left the house Mr., A.
remarked. 8 There he is following us"
abiding to the /" spirit" When We had
proceeded part of the way along the rood,
,uhin1, uraS nIjtn nnl.nOUn tO my friend.
] made a detour to make a business call
and went along another street, Mr..
A. following me. just as, without a
word on my part, we were turn
ing out of the main road, Mr.. A. said,
''The spirit is standing at the corner. He
says we are not going the right way
towards the place where the murder was
committed. and which he has promised to
point out to me" / replied, sob, we shall
come out in the main road again by-ands by
before we reach the spot" We proceeded
on about a quarter of a mile, and having
done my business and struck the main
road again-which differed, | may remark,
fIom none of the other roads We had Ia
verscd-Mr. A. soon after declared, "There
is that man just on there, waiting for u.s.
AS we continued our walk, l purposely
refrained from uttering a word, or even
from thinking, as far as / could about the
murder, so as to prevent any possibility OF
my companion obtaining any clue. AS we
were passing through one Of the lowest
parts of the town, Mr., A. suddenly ex.
claimed He tells me that it was here the
murder was committed. 1t was just there
Ipointing to the place in the road where
the murdered man fell. | see the hubbub
and confusion rise up before me as a pic.
ture, with the people round. He, however,
again tells me that he lid not strike the.
fatal blow. He does not excuse himself
from being morally guilty as being mixed
up with those who accomplished the
death of the man, bnt strongly maintains
that he was not the murderer" l will
only add In relation to the last incident
that Mr.. A. described the exact spot where
the murder was committed, and the Cir
cumstanceS in connection Herewith. How
can you account for that? Mr.. A. had
never been in the town before !; he had
never lived within q couple of hundred
miles of it; ne did not know till within Q
day or two before he arrived that he would
ever visit 1t he could not by any possibili-
ty have known that the poor woman in my
employ was the widow of a man who was
hanged. He had no conceivable interest
in deceiving me, nor was he concerned TO
prosecute the matter any further. Ihave
i'll vain attempted to account for bis, story,
nor can | on any of the popular hypothesis
explain to my own satisfaction how he saw
that ghost at noon-day. That he did see
it he assured me, much to my surprise,
ruhnn NO. o,,o oUn0afaI INV cs.<1, varrolo <inn .