yards. I stopped and held my lamp above my
head, and saw the figures of the measured
distance, and saw the wet stains stealing down the
walls and trickling through the arch. I ran out
again, faster than I had run in (for I had a
mortal abhorrence of the place upon me), and I
looked all round the red light with my own red
light, and I went up the iron ladder to the
gallery atop of it, and I came down again, and
ran back here. I telegraphed both ways: 'An
alarm has been given, is anything wrong?' The
answer came back, both ways: 'All well.'"

Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger
tracing out my spine, I showed him how that
this figure must be a deception of his sense of
sight, and how that figures, originating in
disease of the delicate nerves that minister to the
functions of the eye, were known to have often
troubled patients, some of whom had become
conscious of the nature of their affliction, and
had even proved it by experiments upon themselves.
"As to an imaginary cry," said I, " do
but listen for a moment to the wind in this
unnatural valley while we speak so low, and to
the wild harp it makes of the telegraph wires!"

That was all very well, he returned, after
we had sat listening for a while, and he ought
to know something of the wind and the wires,
he who so often passed long winter nights there,
alone and watching. But he would beg to
remark that he had not finished.

I asked his pardon, and he slowly added
these words, touching my arm:

"Within six hours after the Appearance,
the memorable accident on this Line happened,
and within ten hours the dead and wounded were
brought along through the tunnel over the spot
where the figure had stood."

A disagreeable shudder crept over me, but
I did my best against it. It was not to be
denied, I rejoined, that this was a remarkable
coincidence, calculated deeply to impress his
mind. But, it was unquestionable that remarkable
coincidences did continually occur, and
they must be taken into account in dealing with
such a subject. Though to be sure I must
admit, I added (for I thought I saw that he
was going to bring the objection to bear upon
me), men of common sense did not allow much
for coincidences in making the ordinary calculations
of life.

He again begged to remark that he had not
finished.

I again begged his pardon for being betrayed
into interruptions.

"This," he said, again laying his hand upon
my arm, and glancing over his shoulder with
hollow eyes, " was just a year ago. Six or
seven months passed, and I had recovered from
the surprise and shock, when one morning, as
the day was breaking, I, standing at that door,
looked towards the red light, and saw the
spectre again," He stopped, with a fixed look
at me.

"Did it cry out?"

"No. It was silent."

"Did it wave its arm ':"

"No. It leaned against the shaft of the
light, with both hands before the face. Like
this."

Once more, I followed his action with my
eyes. It was an action of mourning. I have
seen such an attitude in stone figures on tombs.

"Did you go up to it?"

"I came in and sat down, partly to collect
my thoughts, partly because it had turned me
faint. When I went to the door again, daylight
was above me, and the ghost was gone."

' But nothing followed? Nothing came of
this?"

He touched me on the arm with his
forefinger twice or thrice, giving a ghastly nod each
time:

"That very day, as a train came out of the
tunnel, I noticed, at a carriage window on my
side, what looked like a confusion of hands and
heads, and something waved. I saw it, just in
time to signal the driver, Stop! He shut off,
and put his brake on, but the train drifted past
here a hundred and fifty yards or more. I
ran after it, and, as I went along, heard terrible
screams and cries. A beautiful young lady
had died instantaneously in one of the
compartments, and was brought in here, and laid
down on this floor between us."

Involuntarily, I pushed my chair back, as
I looked from the boards at which he pointed,
to himself.

"True, sir. True. Precisely as it happened,
so I tell it you."

I could think of nothing to say, to any purpose,
and my mouth was very dry. The wind
and the wires took up the story with a long
lamenting wail.

He resumed. "Now, sir, mark this, and
judge how my mind is troubled. The spectre
came back, a week ago. Ever since, it has
been there, now and again, by fits and starts."

"At the light?"

"At the Danger-light."

"What does it seem to do?"

He repeated, if possible with increased
passion and vehemence, that former gesticulation
of "For God's sake clear the way!"

Then, he went on. " I have no peace or rest
for it. It calls to me, for many minutes
together, in an agonised in manner, ' Below there!
Look out! Look out!' It stands waving to me.
It rings my little bell——"

I caught at that. ** Did it ring your bell
yesterday evening when I was here, and you
went to the door?"'

"Twice."

"Why, see," said I, " how your imagination
misleads you. My eyes were on the bell, and
my ears were open to the bell, and if I am a
living man, it did NOT ring at those times.
No, nor at any other time, except when it was
rung in the natural course of physical things by
the station communicating with you."

He shook his head. " I have never made a
mistake as to that, yet, sir. I have never
confused the spectre's ring with the man's. The
ghost's ring is a strange vibration in the bell
that it derives from nothing else, and I have
not asserted that the bell stirs to the eye. I