Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1915-03-24

One pleasant afternoon during the
past vacation | was with several of
my young friends at my home
town. Richland, South Carolina.
While we were laughing and talking,
/ noticed a rather showily dressed
young man come up and sit down on
a bench near us. He seemed to be
an utter stranger. | noticed that he
was wearing a fob, bearing on it the
seal of one of the greatest and most
popular techincal colleges OF the
South, so. being college student my
self, | went up and made myself
known to him. | introduced him to
some of my friends, and he was soon
conversing familiarly with them. |
did not at the time notice 1t, but |
have since considered 1T rather unu-
sual how soon he had turned the sub
ject of conversation to ghost stories
and mysterious topics in general. He
was soon telling of a very unusual eX
perience which he claimed to have re-
Gently had. He said that he was up
in this section of the country looking
for a small farm, and in wandering
about looking over some Of the farms
of the section, he had let night catch
him in what are .familiarly known to
the Richland people as Doyle's Hills.
These hills are really almost noun
famous, and are covered with heavy
forests. There are several of them,
and between two of them there is an
unusually large and dark hollow.
This young man claimed that far
mer with whom he was talking that
afternoon had warned him not to get
caught in these hills, and especially
warned him not to get into this dark
hollow, telling him that many years
ago "a very mean man had killed his
aged father, who was a miser and
claimed to have a large fortune bur
led in this hollow somewhere. He said
that the farmer had told him that the
"spirits" Of the old man appeared in
this hollow, and would chase off any
one who appeared after night as if
he were protecting his fortune. He
said that on the night before he was
wandering around in this hollow try
ing to find his directions, when upon
hearing something behind him, he
turned round, and, "Behold! there
stood a snowy-white figure" Just
as he turned to look at it, he said
that it groaned slightly, and started
toward l IN. 1t is of course useless
to say what happened. He did exact
ly what you or would have done
under similar circumstances--he ran.
This story created a good deal Of
excitement among the younger inhab-
itants of the community, and a good
many of the older ones, too. OF
course every time the tale was re-
peated it was enlarged upon, until
finally it got to be a pretty big tale
Somehow, from the very beginning,
could not make myself believe it; for
all OF my life ! had lived in sight of
Doyle's Hills, and had been all
through these hills oposSum hunting
and never Eefore had ! heard about
the old man. So it seemed rather odd
to me that a perfect stranger should
hear such a tale so soon. | talked
with him after my friends had left
and questioned him closely, but he
seemed always to tell the same story
so | concluded that he was either tell
ing the truth, or had some fixed pur-
pose in telling such tale. told
him to his face that did not believe
his story, and he dared me to go with
him the next night and see for my
self. After talking SO big about it
there was nothing for me to do but
go, so / agreed. We were to meet at
Richland the next evening just about
sunset and walk down together.
asked him, that in case he didn't
come, where | was to ask about him
but his answer was very indefinite, SO
! concluded he wanted to keen his
lodging place a secret. This con-
TRY 1T SUBSTITUTE