Northern Weekly Gazette. — 1907-08-24 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

THE GHOST.  I bad been travelling in railway trains all day, and was now engaged in that most interestinging occupation of tiying to keep awake when every fibre of the aody wa6 full of weariness and the mind was longing for rest.  But the lolowledge I would soon be home buoyed me up somewhat, and as I nestled in the owner of the compartment (I was quite Lame) visions of a. sift downy bed, with which I was very familiar, arose in my mind's eye, and I thought with eager .anticipation of the pleasure I would have in throwing my wearied limbs upon it. I pulled out my watch and found I should get to Belbury in ten minutes. and then I took up a newspaper to peep myself awake. Suddenly a mist seemed to rise before my eyes, the newspaper transformed itsalf into various fantagtic objects, while the carriage seemed to have the power of assuming any fashion it liked, and, moreover, seemed determined to use its power to the utmost.  Suddenly I started bolt upright in my seat, my heart almost ceased to beat, my hair assumed perpendicular propensities, and a cold shivering feeling crept into my very marrow, for there, sitting in the opposite corner of the compartme.nt, was the figure of a man, dressed apparently in ondina.ry apparel, but, as it seemed to me, with that halo of ghostliness surrounding it, that every one associate* with the inmates of the spirit world. A deadly fear possessed me, and, as is the case when a. peason is drowning, so it was with me, a panorama of my lift., seemed presented to me, everything wrong that I had done stood out with aborting vividness, while every little misdeed seemed magnified. I began. forming reslutions, and. •inwanxily determined that, tihould. I be delivered from this extremity I would in future live a model and blameless life. But all this while the ghost (for what else could it be?) never stirred from its earner, and seemed quite oblivious of my presence but this, I concluded, was luerely assumed in,difference, and soon it would tommence operations. -  --- --Why, oh why, had it appeared to me. I had murdered nobody; and then, thinking of murders, I came to what I judged might be the solution of the mystery. I had read many stories of railway murders, and I now remembered, according to fiction writers the ghost of the murdered man haunted the carriage where the deed had taken place. This, then, I concluded, was the spirit of some one who had been murdered, maybe in this very compartment; and then a horrible ide.a pcssessed me: perhaps it had come for revenge and I began to wonder whether or not ghost; retained any memory for faces, for, if not, then perhaps this one would think I was the murderer—and I huddered. After a while, however, I grew calmer, and even ventured to look carefully at the ghost, and I found, spmewhat to my surprise, that it seemed to breathe, at leaA, I could see the rising and falling of the chest, and even detected a noise similar to that made by ordinary human p:rsons when breathing. It Boomed to sleep How I prayed -,,hat it might sleep en for a few more minutes, fen. soon I should be at Belbury. But how to set out, that wan the question, for the ghostly figure was on the platform  I roved I would get out an to the lineu And then, to my great joy, the train slackened, and admost before it stopped. I sprang to the door, opened it, jumped out, and climbed up the opposite platform. The platforrm was in ooanplete darkuvm, but that, I judged, was all the berbter.  And then, for the second time that night, Toy heart nearly stopped beating. I stopped and listened intently. No; there could be no take; it it was not Belbury the porters were about). mg, it was " Bilston!' I had slept past my station, and the &mil had got in at Belbury. . _  As-I was tramping- home it gradmity da.wsed upon me that I had lost something—l had left hat, umbrella, and handbag itu the train !—C. W. Beishaw, 17, Ellasmeav-terraoe, Middlesbrough.