in Bengal not far from my home there is a big Jack-fruit
tree which is said to be haunted.

I visited this place once--the local zamindar had sent me his elephant.
The Gomashta (estate manager) who knew that I had come to see the
haunted tree, told me that I should probably see nothing during the day,
but the elephant would not go near the tree.

I passed the tree. It was about 3 miles from the Railway Station. There
was nothing extraordinary about it. This was about 11 o'clock in the
morning. Then I went to the Shooting Box (usually called the Cutchery or
Court house--where the zamindars and their servants put up when they
pay a visit to this part of their possessions) to have my bath and
breakfast most hospitably provided by my generous host. I ordered the
elephant to be put under this tree, and this was done though the people
there told me that the elephant would not remain there long.

At about 2 P.M. I heard an extraordinary noise from the tree.

It was only the elephant. It was wailing and was looking as bad as it
possibly could.

We all went there but found nothing. The elephant was not ill.

I ordered it to be taken away from under the tree. As soon as the chain
was removed from the animal's foot it rushed away like a race horse and
would not stop within 200 yards of the tree. I was vastly amused. I had
never seen an elephant running before. But under the tree we found
nothing. What made the elephant so afraid has remained a secret.

The servants told me (what I had heard before) that it was only
elephants, horses and dogs that did not stay long under that tree. No
human eyes have ever seen anything supernatural or fearful there.

THE STARVING MILLIONAIRE.

This story was also in the papers. It created a sensation at the time,
now it has been almost forgotten. The story shows that black art with
all its mysteries is not a thing of the past.

This was what happened.

* * * * *

There was a certain rich European Contractor in the Central Provinces in
India.

Let us call him Anderson. He used to supply stone ballast to the Railway
Companies and had been doing this business for over a quarter of a
century. He had accumulated wealth and was a multi-millionaire and one
of the richest men in his part of the country. The district which he
made his head quarters was a large one. It was a second class military
station and there were two European regiments and one Indi