The Halifax Comet. — 1893-06-03 (Halifax, West Yorkshire, England)

THE COMET.  Her terror struck me as being so very curious that the same evening I told Jack all about it.  "Why, Charlie," he exclaimed, "you, an Englishman, surely have a mind above such paltry superstition; even if the fellow Isere murdered here, there are no such things as ghosts, so banish the idea from your head." "What do you mean?" I cried. " I did not say that there had been a murder in the room, nor was any mention made of ghosts." "No", he replied; "but, of course, you have been brooding over that cock-and-bull story of the missing peddler until you fancy you can see him." "I really do not understand what you are talking about," I exclaimed; "I have heard nothing about any peddler." As I said this Is& sprang from his chair and looked at me doubtingly. "Are you sure that you have not ? " he cried. "Well, that is strange; but there can be nothing in the notion, so I advise you to think no more about it!'  He had succeeded in thoroughly arousing my curiosity, however, and I gave him no peace until he told me the whole story. "Many years ago," he began, "this inn was kept by a man of the name of Grentin ; he had rather a suspicious character, and was supposed to be in league with several gangs of robbers.  "Nevertheless, years rolled on, and he still held his position in (Tito of the efforts of the authorities to .find evidence against him. "One very severe winter, however, a great many robberies and several murders. were committed. One gentleman, after being pillaged and left for dead, recovered, and his description of one of his assailanta tallied exactly with the person Grentin. "Again, however, he escaped their vigilance, proving an alibi in the shape of a fever, and called several witnesses, who confirmed his story. At the close of winter, however, when the snow lay thick upon the ground, a travelling peddler passed on his yearly round through Freiburg, and was last seen entering the Black Forest. He had his pack on his bask, and was, as usual, commissioned by the good people of Freiburg to carry.various presents, messages, and letters to their friends on the other side of the forest.  "One old couple in particular charged him with a letter to their son, which required a speedy answer. Not receiving it, and hearing several of their neighbours saying a similar thing, a search was instituted for the missing peddler, partly in anger, partly in alarm; but beyond a certain point no trace of him could be found.  "He had been seen to enter the forest at dusk one evening, and a little way from old Grentin's inn his neckkerchief was found. From some mysterious quarter it was insinuated that he had been heard to remark that. he meant to break his journey at the inn. At first thin was only a rumour, whispered beneath the breath, but it spread, and ran like wild-fire through the country, until the officials began to take notice of it, and old Grentin, taking fright, fled by stealth at night and was never seen in that part of the country more.  "The ho-use was forced open, but nothing suspicious found, until, after the offi4sl search was over, the peasants started one of their own, and their pains were rewarded by the discovery of a half-burned letter in the kitchen-grate, which, beingunabletodecipher