Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1896-08-15
A GHOST IN THE CAB.


were deserted, and it was time to go
home So thought cabby No. IL, SILVER
ing in his rnsty overcoat. He had watch
cd the electric light on the corner until
its ring of rainbow needles seemed to
stab his eyes and the big shadows on the
street below it to shake with the cold.
mot n fare this whole blasted night"
he muttcred, reaching down and pulling
the blanket from his horse.
AS he did so he felt the carriage give
great jar ON its springs He turned
quickly; some one had flung himself in
TO the seat behind him.
"What do you want?" said the cabby
roughly
There was pause, then a voice came
through tho darkness, thick and nasty
as gurgle Of black oil:
Drive me to Judas Withers, and, in
the name Of heaven, drive fastr'
Judas Withers has been dead and his
soul with the devil this many a year."
answered the cabman, staring behind
him.
1.-THE house still stands but have
lost my way. Go on, you fool!'
The figure reached over, and catching
the whip from its place gave the horse
lash. The old beast plunged forward,
banging and rafting down the street,
while the cursing cabman tried to clutch
at the reins, but hand, chilly and
clinging as the belly of a snake, fasten-
ed on his wrist, and the thick voice
came close to his ear:
UNn,,, ,,,;1I ,,o,, ehn,,y nm ,,,-
The driver sank into his place again,
while the old cab rocked like ship.
On they rushed, past closed stores and
lampless blocks of houses. now ripping
and wrenching across the car tracks and
now swinging along the deserted road,
on and on, until the pavements had been
left behind and the frost looked back
from the ruts like million little green
eyes.
see it noww and the next instant the
cab was empty.
my farep' yelled the cabman, leap
ing down.
There was no answer. He looked
about him. 1t was very dark where he
stood, but the waning moon, with its
gnawed and crumbled edges, hung on
line with the fir tops. Before him rose a
vague blackness the house of Judas
Withers, tenantless but for the old wife,
who still chung like some pale lichen to
its moldering stones. Perhaps she. too,
was dead. The cabby did not know. He
did know, though, that Judas Withers
had been misery carcass, grudging
the very skin that hung his bones to-
gether.
The house stood back from the road
and was surrounded by garden, now
lying gray and lonesome under the
moon. AS the cabby pecred toward it he
saw the figure of a man come into the
moonshine. 1t sprang across the open
space in soft leaps like great black
bubble, its every movement full of
dreadful vitality. Then it was gone. AS
the driver himself turned TO go, he saw
a tiny red spark flash out from the
house before him, and one after the 9TH
or the windows ON the lower floor
glowed red, rs a crawling blotch of
Sparklcs will cat across SCOT,
The man was there-the man who
owed him moroy-and all fear fed but
the fear o. loss The cabby tied his
horse aud went creeping up the path
under cover of the hedges. When he
reached the house, he raised himself
gently ard looked in at ono of the win
Gows Before him lay an empty ROOM
On the floor, thrown from window
opposite, was great checkered flag Of
Notwithstanding more, nothing but
those blue squares IN the darkness.
Suddenly the cabman ducked his
head, for he saw that man had glided
into the room. He carried candle high
above his head, and his great pale face
WINS bloated and loose rs q curd