The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1908-09-03

authenticated ghost. Apply, ETC."
the Morning Post, and guessed at once
that my friend Thursdon was respon
sible for it-perhaps it would be fair
| er for me to take the blame-it fell
out in this wise:
When Roger Thursdon came home
from South Africa on the strength OF
somewhat suddenly acquired pile
was one of the first of his friends oil
former days whom he sought out.
Roger was a sensible, hard-headed
fellow who had contrived to make a
comfortable fortune mparatively
early in life. A year previously he
had married a girl out in South Africa
and it was chiefly for her sake he had
returned to England to settle down
A prettier little woman | have seldom
met. She was colonial born and
soon discovered that her great ambi-
ton was to become member Of the
English aristocracy.
Roger was a simple, straightforward
fellow, palpably and publicly in love
with his wife. All the genius for
overcoming obstacles which had been
instrumental in making his fortune
was now diverted to the gratifying OF
Mrs. Thursdon's whims, of which, like
all pretty women she possessed not a
few.
One morning, about month after
their return, Thursdon came into my
rooms looking rather harassed.
Bulls and bears?" l asked sympa.
theticalIy.
mo" he said, only Fanny's dead
set on our taking haunted house,
She says she won't live in one unless
it's got a ghost"
Thai was how the advertisement
came to appear.
Thursdon had no end of difficulty
In finding house to suit his wife's
somewhat original requirements.
Haunted houses by the dozen We're to
be had but the ghosts were seldom sat.
isfactory.
They had almost given up the
search as a bad job and settled on a
commonplace modern residence at
West Hampstead, when one day
Thursdon came to my rooms looking
rather as though he were recovering
from a rise in the markets.
We've found a place" he an
nounccd
You don't mean it? Ghost and
all"
Eyes, rather, and a rafting good
authenticated spoOk. It's the ghost OF
Sir Oswald Oswalden, Thursdon CON
tinued "Fanny's delighted He lived
somewhere about Elizabeth's time.
There's quite a legend about him"
When | called to congratulate Mrs.
Roger on their discovery she was
radiant
ITS just perfect" she declared. "Oh,
] shall love it, You must come down
directly were settled and see the loves
of secret chambers where those poor
dear Jesuits were hidden and starved to
death because their attendants could
not get al them. And the ghost is
Sir Oswald Oswalden. One of the old
family. you know. The legend is that
he was 50 eXtravagant that he ran
into debt with his tailor, and the
Wretched tailor impOrtuned him so for
payment for his Sunday doublet that
poor Sir Oswald shot himself after
mathis one Sunday and they buried
him at midnight just as he was in the
chapel and every night his ghost
comes back and walls over his tomb
IN the ruined chapel attached to the
house"
The Thursdons had been some few
weeks in their new abode when
fulfilled my promise of spending a
weekend with them.
Roger was at the station to meet
me with the motor. | thought Thurs
don looked rather down in the mouth.
noticed he spoke with modified en-
thusiasm about his new domain.
Seen the ghost?" | asked, when
other subjects failed.
was quite unprepared for the out
burst that followed.
Hang the ghost" he said.
Does it annoy you?" | inquired, be
ginning to get interested. II hope
you're not going TO put me in the
haunted chamber"
Look here, dry up about that con.
founded fable" responded my host.
with unlooked-for irritability. IF
you heard nothing but that ghost all
day long you'd find it annoying. Fan
ny talks of nothing else, and it's get
ting rather firing
Fanny Thursdon, looking more be-
witching than ever met us at the
imposing portal. She was absolutely
superlative about her new home.
Everything was just perfeCt-quite
ieudal, in fact
Have you seen much of him-the
ghost, | mean?" ! inquired rather
mschievously.
He doesn't always appear, you
know" she said. And the chapel's
rather draughty after dark don t
care much to go there. Still | feel
that he's there all the same" Then
she said something of psychic at.
mosphere" and 'unsympathetic sur
roundings.'
| noticed that Roger became very
quiet and grumpy when the ghost was
under discussion, and | began to see
where the tragedy OF my friends posi-
ton came in.
It was some weeks before | saw
any more of ThursdOn. Then | ran
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