The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-02-10

with the news that the glOst had b1ea
discovered. Prepared for what L was
to see, l approached the investigation of
the supernatural Vis.ta1t with graf
~ntrepidity l made i crit Cal eXamiIa-
ton of it. But it didn't walk in the
garden. 1t was hanging around a little
old dismantled ruin, d oae-stOry, two
roomed stone building used fir a
chicken house and instead Of lost mon
ely, it might have been looking for lost
eggs, so far as its appearance wvnt.
For instead of being in rmO or trunk
hose, it was dressed in squalid fashion.
~Seftonbury began to be as much GisIp-
pointed at finding such a ghost, as he
would at finding no ghost at all.
anyhow. its a ghost. and that is
something to start on said L.
"A lot to start on. This shed isn't Self
tonbury Hall and this ghost isn't the
first Lord SeftonbUry."
1t is true it doesn't look the way the
ghost was said TO look. But those two
descriptions were not alike. The worst
thing about il is thai he is down here
nround this chicken house instead Of
the hall"
The mex day l went over to Salisbury
On business and got to talking with The
Roy. James Wardrop, d. D., the czle-
DRAFTED antiquarian.
That's a fine old place, %Sertonpury
Hail." said he. "Originally il was
nothing but that little building that ~
now a chicken house. That is the DID
est part Of all"
That belonged to the first LORD SET
tonbury! He lived there!''
You seem to forget that he was the
first Lord ~SeftOnbury. There was a
time when he was not a lord. There
was even a time When he was a very
Door man, a weaveri. and lived right
there IN that little building"
Got him, got him." 1 exclaimed to
the ~astUnished DR.. Wardrop, and ran
from his presence. But though had
established the identity of the ghOet. ]
was still as far, apparently, as ever from
what We were after, the buried money.
If he's the ghost of the first Lord
Seftonbury, why does not he go through
the performances he was said to G.
through? Explain that" said Seton
bury, when | had returned.
couldn't explain it, I don't believe
| ever would have explained it. if there
hadn't come DR.. Wardrop, who was so
curious to know what | meant by my
strange actions, that he had fol OVID
me over from Salisbury. He didn't
ike to pitch right in and ask questions.
so he began ~palavering in q general
way and the first words he said were.
This is the finest example Of the archi-
lecture of Queen Anne's time that ]
have ever seen"
Queen Anne! A great light shot
through my mind. Why. the first LORD
Seftonbury had lived one hundred and
fifty years before Queen Anne Of
course he wasn't haunting q house built
after he was dead.
There was. then" said I, trembling
with eagerness. another part Of the
building. now gone. which was Older
than this"
Yes. the. old priory, torn down forty
years ago. Older than the manor but
newer than the old chicken house."
"Rebuild the old priory." said I to
Seftonbury.
Rebuild nothing" said he. "or to be
more explicit. I lave nothing TO rebuild
It with"
IF you rebuild il. he'll have the s7r,e
old building he used to haunt when he
was a lord and had buried none and
will leave OF haunting this house he
had when he was Il weaver and well
see where he buried that money"
You've reasoned this all out very
we'll. But you'll have to be smarter
still, If you can reason out a way to
build a building without money. We
Are no nearer the treasure than ever"
You watch me-" said 1. III have p
way In the morline."
49, 7 ga -.
ture Of a ghost? II can't feel anything.
That is shown by the fact hat it goes
right through a stone wall. All there
is to 1T is something 20 see and all it
can do Is to see. That's it's only sense.
Sense Of SIGHT. though perhaps it can
hear. anyway, it can't feel. Such be-
ing the Gaze, the whole thing is simple
enough. Well get u scene painter
doWn from London and fix up a great
stage priory u of painted canvas. DR..
Wardrop can probably roof up q pc
ture OF the old building in some u
try boo OF other. In the night, this
canvas priory will look just like a real
one and will do as we'll as a ton one.
It will be all dark inside and the ghost
will never know the difference"
So we built the canvas priory and the
night it was done. there the old ghost
came, ont of the main entrance, all ac-
corning to Hoyle. l threw a lime light
on him from a magic-lantern and we
beheld him. just as the inn-keeper had
said. in trunk hose, fur-trimmed tunic.
gold chain. and all. But he didn't walk
into the ~shrubbery. Nor did he the next
night, nor the next.
Whats the NATTER" said Seton
bury. Wen never get the money"
Don't get discouraged" said 1. I'VE
Amt at the end Of our rope yet. The