The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-15


than / had found them ia the lonely hut.
and : could look all around me as 1 work
! ed, without constantly forseeing the hut
| door darkened by some apparition that
might be welcome enough, but which must
certainly startle me when it came. The
events which l have already chronicled
| lay heavy on my nerves. | was only IS
years of age, and l was cursed with an
imagination.
Nothing therefore, could have been bet
! ter for me than the play l made during
| the next few hours with the long-handled
shovel Now and then I knocked off TO
rest my back and smoke my pipe; but,
once started, / stuck to my work pretty
closely up to O'Clock by the old Waltham
watch in the leather pouch on my belt.
And it punished every muscle in my body;
the shoulders felt il as ] plunged the
shovel into the heavy wet sand, the arms
and shoulders as I swung ii out loaded,
while the strain upon back and legs was
continuous. My task was the harder ow-
| ing to the shovel having been bent and
blunted By some misuse; yet, so far from
loathing il, 1 was never prouder of any
thing than of the Internationally yards
of submerged trough which I uncovered
| and cleared that January afternoon,
To tire the body out is the surest way of
cleansing and purifying the mind and /
can honestly say that / returned to the
hut without any morbid fancy in my head,
indeed, with no anxiety about anything but
the fire. which / had foolshly forgotten.
Judge then, Of the sensations with which
] stood .still on the threshold The hut had
no windows, but the afternoon had turn
ed out very fine, the sun shone merriiy
through a hundred crevices, and there, on
the foot of the same bunk, sat the lost
| rabbiter, precisely as 1 had seen him sit
ting the night before.
I hnx he. aafu
ed do not know. 1 remember a hollow
voice calling his name. / remember the
patterng of my own totterng feet, my
nerVeless fingers clutching the empty air,
my trembling body flung headlong~on the
other bunk, and the sobs that shook it as
81 lay. For then / knew that Henry Pow
ell was already dead, and for the second
time had seen his ghost.
Not a particle of doubt remained in my
mind, ] gould not be mistaken twice.
was perfectly certain that / had never
/ been mistaken at all. This time, however,
, there was no dun red glow to play con-
ceivable tricks in the darkness, for the
fire was out. and 1t was almost as light
in the hut as it was outside Yet there
had seen him, in the self-same attitude,
on the self-same spot, his hands covering
his face, his beard showing between his
wrists his elbows planted on his thighs. /
could have counted the checks in his Cri-
mean SHIRT, and this time the glasses were
still upon my nose.
Yes, l was absolutely certain of whae'I
had seen, and that certainly was now
my consolation. The worst is worst of all
before it happens; and the knowledge that
had seen ghost was much more sup
portable than the doubt as to whether 7
had seen one or not. The ghost could not
harm me after all; and instead of sym
pathizing with myself, / should grieve for
the poor fellow. who was already beyond
the reach of succor.
Had they found him yet? Had they
found the body? And, If so, would the
whim-drver return to his post at once
and set me free? My heart beat fast with
the hope in defiance of'my head. Iemight
reason with myself that a poor ghost was
no fit companion, but how l longed to get
away Even then, however, my courage
! failed me in another place. Who would
believe my yarn? So / stayed where 1 was
and have held my tongue TIL now.
Shutdown reused me, for must have my
tea, ghost or no ghost, and TO make tea
/ must relighi the fire. Here an obstacle
confronted and ultimately vanquished me.
There was a wood-heap outside but, of
course, the wood was damp, and though l
looked for the ak, to chop TO the dry heart
of the wet logs, / had not found il when
night fell hastily, forcing me TO abandon
the search.
SO / went without my tea but ate with
what appetite l had and washed down the
mutton and damper with pannikins of wat
er from the 900 gallon tank outside. / had
lighted the slush-lamp (mole-skn wick in
| tin of mutton faD, and 1 sat watching
! the foot OF the dead mans bunk as | ate,
but no further vision interrupted my meal
And afterward, when / was smoking my
| pipe in the open air, would look in every
few minutes, and past where the light was
/ burning, for / had an odd idea that l must
see the apparition thrice. And l wish
had. Yet of what l saw twice am as
4 positive now as / was then.
] 1t was a magnificent night; the rain had
drawn the fever from the sun-baked plains
and left even that clear air clearer than
l had known it yet Every star was
diamond in the dark-blue vault, and my
little pipe made the only clouds between
earth and heaven. Often as l filed it.
! had 10 light il still oftener at the fame
which ] had left burning in the hut, for
/ was rapt in thought. You are nowhere
nearer to God than when alone in the bush
beneath the undimmed ropic stars. cam
not say what brought ii home to me- or
by what chain Of thought CHANGED on the
conclusion, but all at once / stood still and
knew that the hand of God was in the ap
partition which 1 had seen. 1t meant
something.
What did it mean? There must be some
/ reason why I alone and not Wylie for
example had been made 10 see the lost
man, Powell, sitting on his bunk. Thea
what could that reason be?
| thought, and thought, and thought.
sauntering round and round the hut the
while. Al last, entered, but moi to light
my pipe. 1 do not know what / meant
TO do; only know what did. / walked
to the foot of PowelFs bunk, and sat
! down where l had seen Powell sitting
with vague feeling, l believe, that In
! that spot and in his own attitude my spirit
might receive some subtle communication
from that of the rabbter What 1 did
receive was quite nasty tumble; for the
! foot of the bunk gave way beneath me,
and | found myself deposited on the
ground instead. Yet he, whom had seen
sitting there, had been in life a much
heavier man than myself
These hunks, or bush bedsteads rather,
are constructed upon universal and very
simple lines. Four uprights are driven
into the earth floor of the hut or tent, and
then connected by horizontal poles with
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