The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1904-12-30
A GHOST
IN THE CAB

. LIN l. I1E LAB G
o-O-O-O-O-o-cO-o-O-O-o-o-o
1t was past midnight. The city
streets were deserted, and il was
time TO 60 home. So thought cabby
No. IL, shivering in his rusty over
coat He had watched 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 10 shake with the
cold
Not a fare this whole blasted
night f" he muttered, reaching down
and pulling the blanket from his
horse.
As he did so he felt the carriage
give a great jar on It's springs. He
turned quickly. Some one had flung
himself into the seat behind him.
What DO you wsnt?" said the
cabby roughly.
There was pause; then voice
came through the darkness, thick
and nasty as a gurgle Of black oil:
Drive me TO Judas Withers',
and, in the name Of heaven, drive
fast"
Judas Withers has been dead
and MS soul with the devil this
many a YEAR" answered the cab
man, staring behind him.
The house still stands, but |
have lost ms way Go on. you fool"
The figure reached over and,
catching the whip from lis place,
gave the horse lash. The old beast
plunged forward. banging and rat
ting down the street, while the
cursing cabman tried 10 clutch at
the reins, but a hand, chilly and
clinging as the belly Of a snake,
fastened on his wrist, and the thick
voice came close 10 his ear:
"Now will YOU show me nv way ?"
The driver sank into his place
again, while the old cab rocked ike
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.
AT last came the command,
"Stop; / see it noww And the next
instant the cab was empty.
my fare" yelled the cabman,
leaping 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 a line with the fir tops
Before him rose a vague blackness,
the house of Judas Wlthers, tenant
less but for the old wife. who still
clung 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 a miserlv carcass,
grudging the very skin shat hung
his bones togcihes.
The house stood back from the
road and was surrounded by a gar
den, now lying gray and lonesome
under the moon. As the cabby peer
ed toward it he saw the figure of a
man come into the moonshine. Ii
sprang across the open space in soft
leaps like a great black bubble, its
every movement full Of a dreadful
Then il was gone. As the
driver himself turned TO 90 he saw
a tiny red spark flash out from the
house before him, and one after the ,
other the windows on the lower floor
glowed red, as a crawlin- blotch Of
sparkles will eat across SCOT.
The man was there-the man who
owed him money-and all fear fled
but the fear of loss. The cabby tied /
his horse and went creeping up the .
path under cover of the hedges.
When he reached the house he rais- !
ed himself gently and looked in at
one of the windows. Before him lay ,
IN empty room. On the floor, thrown
from a window opposite. was a great ]
,heckered flag Of moonlight-noth- !
ng more, nothing but those blue {
squares in the darkness. ,
Suddenly tie cabman ducked his
head, for he saw that a man had
ylided into the rcoEi. He carried I
! candle high above his head, and ,
his greo; pale face was bloated and |
oose as a curd.
The cabinan crouched low. A
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