The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1891-06-12
AN oLD-FAsHIoNED GHOST STORY.


AN OLD-FAsHIONED GHOST STORY
"No," my companion assented, as he
took his fragrant Havana from his lips
and blew a great cloud of smoke from
his mouth and nostrils. "No, am moi
so old as look"
He looked old, and yet young. His
hair, his eyebrows, the delicate mustachC
that curled youthfully around the cor
ners of his mouth, even his eyelasheS
were as white as snow, while around his
eyes and on his brow were craven heavy
lines as by the chisel of time; but his
cheeks were round and flushed with
ruddy health, and his figure showed 1.-the
and muscular through his well-titting
suit.
SIN fact" he continued, II am scarce
| ly forty"
But you are gray" remarked, inter
negatively.
We were alone in the car, and had been
for hours; and our conversation, begun
in self-defense against ennui, had grad
ually drifted from mere platitudes, and
distant general topics, to almost familiar
personalities.
Sometimes a man turns gray in one
day. he reptile |, COmmunicatively, turn
ing bis sharp black eyes full upon me.
81 have heard of such cases. l re-
turned, ''but never met one"
'Well, am one, )" lie said, scntentious-
ly; then after long pause, which took
care not to break, feeling sure of an eX-
speak about it. | never think about it
when l can help myself, but | feel
strongly reminded it tonight" And
he turned in his seat, and tried to peer
out through the dripping window, against
which a howling blast was driving a flu
rious sleet as we whirled along through
the inky midnight. ''It was such anoth-
er night as this, and just such spirit
ridden gale"
cast quick, nervous glance at the
black pane and hitched an inch nearer to
the speaker, who meditatively paused to
knock the ashes from his cigar, and con-
| tinucd:
at was some ten years ago, and | was
at Bay ST. Louis, on the coast of Missis-
sippi, about bit of idle business, look
| ing up some old grant. You know that
some of the earliest settlements in the
| United States were made there, and one
day, sanntoring and smoking along the
shore OF the sound, | came to a place
where an old brick wall protrudes from
the bluff bank. The bank is some twelve
or fifteen feet high, and the wall juts out
as though built into the solid earth at
least ten feet below the surface. and ex-
posed to view by the washing away of
the earth around it by the waves, al
though at that time the water was at
least six feet below the bottom of the
wall, as nearly as | could make it out.
The wall was crumbling with age, and
marked as though by fire; and bits of
broken tiles and bricks were scattered
along the sands. On the other side of
the drive that skirts the bluff, amidst
ample but neglected grounds, is a large
old-fashiOned rambling mansion, unten-
anted and unca ed for. As | stood gaz-
ing at the wall, and idly specuiating how
it ever came to be built thus nnder-
ground, and almost in the sea, an old
negro stopped on the road above me, and
peeled curiOusly over the bank.
Hello uncle, said /, whose place is
this?' with n compr hcnsive wave of my
hand toward the mansion. Dis am de
Frelscn place, sah,' he answered politely.
And what's this? Iqueried, pointing to
the wall. The old mans face assumed Il
half-frightencd look, as he replied with
mysterious lowering of the voice, Dat
am de cabe, sah.' Il don't see any cave
| said carelessly. The old darky hobbled
closer to the edge of the bluff, and di-
rected my attention to small brick
arched opening in the bank, nearly
choked up with broken brick and dirt.
OATS it, sah.
"'Well, what's in there?' l said. He
shut his lips tight, and shook his white
wool slowly and impressively. A quar-
ter of dollar, backed by pull at my
pocket flask soon opened his mouth, and
he launched off into a long rambling
story of Spanish pirates, and horrible
murders, and hidden spirit guarded
treasures, to all of which | listened in
credulous. An nohody's neber bin able
to git into dat hole furder nor few feet,
an nobody can't lib in dat house fur de
sperits an de groanin', he continued. |
shrugged my shoulders and continued
my stroll, but presently l found myself
again before the cave, peering curiously
into its narrow opening, and pondering
the old negro's weird tale. He evidently
believed in it profoundly himself, and his
faith shook my incredulity. There
seemed to be certain verisimilitude in
tale of pirates and hidden treasure; as
| stood on this lonely shore and looked
out over the Spanish main my curiosity
was aroused to the possibilities of the
place.
81 was young and nervy, fond of adj
venture, and above all,poor. The longer
l pondered the story, the stronger
hold it took upon me; to make long
story short, midnight found me there
again, provided with a dark lantern, a
pair of revolvers and good knife, de
termined to possess any treasures that
the cave contained. l soon made way
through the debris that chOled the en-
trance, and uncovered the mouth of a
brick-arched tunnel about two feet high.
crawled cautiously in on my hands and
knees. and a short distance brought me
to the brink of pit A brief examina-