Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1901-12-05
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
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CHAPTER III. (Continued)

saw a tall, lanky youth, with curious
self-satistied smile upon his face, and
with his hands thrust under the skirts
of very long and very dingy New
market coat. \ hat, of G. sporting
shape, was stuck on the back of his
small, round head, ard there dropped
from one corner of his mouth a cigar
cite. from which little spiral of smoke
went up into one eye, causing him to
wink without meaning it. He might
have been. from his appearance, any
where from seventeen to twenty, and
was evidently one Of those persons-the
direct product of a democratic age
Who would have accosted prince of
the blood royal as readily as a gutter
urchin. He shuftied a little nearer to
Gilbert RickerbI. and turned the eye
into which the smoke was drifting to-
wards the house on the opposite side of
the road.
There's things a-goin on over there.
I give you my word,' he rluttered.
hoarsely. Are you en- the same lay as
tne?"
Gilbert drew back from him, frown-
tns little.
What do you mean?" he asked.
ooh. don't he upLish. I've seen YOU
standin' about ere this hour or more,
a-watchin' that crib. P'raps you're
tookin' for the ghost?"
"Ghast! What ghost??' asked GEL
bert, interested, in spite of himself. Il
know nothing about the house: I've
only heard about the man who belonged
there, and who is dead. Has he left
his ghost belind?" He asked the ques-
ton somewhat bitterly, thinking of his
own unhappy fate.
Give it up. They've talked about it
FOR years, I understand-about the
ghost that's in the side of the house
they don't use. None of the servants
will go near that. side for fear of it..
They say the old bloke's wife died
there, and as been 'aunting it ever
since. P'raps the dead chap'll join 'er
vOw"
"Well-and what have you to do with
ftp asked Gilbert Rickerby, somewhat
resentfully. II suppose they can look
after their own ghost, can't they?"
"P'r'aps they Garland p'r'aps they
can't responded the youth. That's
where my business comes in. Let me
ask you this ere: IVY ave they been
talkin' so bold about the ghost, this
last day or two-wy ave they been
tellin' everybody about 'ow it walks at
night-an' what it does-eh? tell you
there's summink behind it-or my name
amt 'Ubbard!"
us that your name?" asked Gilbert
"One of EN- replied the other. can
I'm going to keep my eye on that
'ouse-ghosts or no ghosts. I know e
bit do; an I'll know a bit more, be-
fore I've done.''
Before Gilbert Rickerby could reply,
the youth in the Newmarket coat
swung on his heel and went off, whist
ling. Gilbert looked after him, with
certain new thoughts beginning to take
shape in his mind.
Perhaps the dead chap will join
her! Why not? HEAVIER knows, if the
ghost of my poor, unhappy mother
haunts the place where she wept her
unhappy life away, there should be
nothing to fear from her. Why, in Il
sense I am ghost myself; so far as
the world knows, the body Of me lies
under the turf; Gilbert Rickerby is q
name, to be soon forgotten. Yet, before
he is quite forgotten, there is thing he
must do. Perhaps the dead chap will
ioir her! Yes-the dead chap shall!
That side of the house is deserted-and
know a way into it-a way ] have not
dead; but the ghost of him goes back
TO his fathers house tonight"
Four years before, when he had beer
turned out of the place, for. the last
time, by his father he had carried
away with him. quite unconsciously, a
very practical memento of his meetings
with his girlish sweetheart. The me-
mento was no other than the key of a
re- i,I,
into small alley at the back of the
house. The girl had given it to him in
order that he might creep in at night
to whisper his VOWS to her, without the
chance of discovery; and he had been
surprised at finding it in his pocket
months afterwards, when he was miles
away from London. But, remembering
the service it had rendered him, he
kept it, merely for sentimental reasons
and to remind him-if any reminder
were necessary-of those happy, stolen
meetings 1t was in his waistcoat pOck-
ct now; he took it out and looked at it
with smile.
"As a ghost, Gilbert Rickerby, you
are a Fraud he said. "All the decent
ghosts of which have ever read found
II quite easy to slip through cracks or
key-holes, or slide down chimney-pots:
you must needs go in like thing of
flesh and blood. Well, never mind; you
shall make up for it afterwards. Now,
to begin-it's we'll you have strong
nerves, Gilbert Rickerby, for suspect
yau'I want them"
he waited until he was certain that
no one was in sight, and then Slipped
round to that narrow little alley he re-
1romhered SO well. The bolt of the lock
had not been shot since the time-four
years ago-when ne crept in to see his
sweetheart; it moved uneasly and
complainingly. But still it moved; and
in a moment he had glided through and
had closed and locked the door behind
him, and stood in the darkness of the
garden, looking, up at the grim old
place that had been his mothers pris-
on.
About his feet chung the dark and
rotten leaves and weeds that had been
allowed to accumulate there for years:
the wind blew about him drearily, like
the signs and whicperings of ghostly
ShnHdarirO 4