Cinder Path Tales

104 CINDER-PATH TALES with which a lazy nurse once kept me in bounds when I was a little lad of seven summers. I could see the ghost plainly enough as he came toward us in the gloom, following along the otherside of the track, walking as a hurdler would when the sticks were up and he was going to the start. I felt a bit queer, Isay, for there wasno such noise as Paddy had described. Indeed, the spook made nonoise at all that I could distinguish ; to which fact Paddy calledmy attention in a husky, "Sure, 'tis a torobred spook, an'no mistake; an' faith, Misther Brown, I think we could see it better from furder off." I quietedPaddy asbest I could, and kept a good grip onhis arm. The moon just now coming out of the clouds, wecould see the tall, white figure plainly enough, the white robe ghastly in the light, and I thought I could hear a slight flutter from the draperies as the wind blew them. The spook looked taller than mortal man, and when he paused at the start, showed amost portentous figure, as if the flesh had left the bones, andnothing but askeleton was within. He was quietbut a few seconds, and Paddy gave a grip to my arm when the ghostly hurdler goton the mark, set himself for the start, putout a long spectral arm, and then