wards me. It could not, however, catch me and I walked on with
vigorous strides. After I had passed the figure I nearly ran under the
trees, my heart beating like a sledge hammer within me.

"After a couple of minutes I saw two glaring eyes in front of me. This I
thought was the end. The eyes were advancing towards me at a rapid pace
and then I heard a shout like that of a cow in distress. I stopped where
I was. I hoped the ghost would pass along the road overlooking me. But
when the ghost was within say fifty yards of me it gave another howl
and I knew that it had seen me. A cry for help escaped my lips and I
fainted.

"When I regained consciousness I found myself on the grassy foot-path by
the side of the road, about 4 or 5 human beings hovering about me and a
motor car standing near.

"Then the whole mystery became clear as day-light. The eyes that I had
seen were the headlights of the 24 H.P. Silent Knight Minerva of
Captain ----. He had gone on a pleasure-trip to the next station and was
returning home with two friends and his wife in his motor car when in
that part of the road he saw something like a man standing in the middle
of the road and sounded his horn. As the figure in the middle of the
road would not move aside he slowed down and then heard my cry.

"The rest the reader may guess. The figure that had loomed so large with
out-stretched arm was only a municipal danger signal erected in the
middle of the road. A red lamp had been placed on the top of the
erection but it had been blown out."

This was the whole story of my friend. It shows how even our prosaic but
overwrought imagination sometimes gives to airy nothings a local
habitation and a name. My own personal experience which I shall describe
now will also, I am sure, be interesting.

It was on a brilliant moon-light night in the month of June that we were
sleeping in the open court-yard of our house.

Of course, the court-yard had a wall all round with a partition in the
middle; on one side of the partition slept three girls of the family and
on the other were the younger male members, four in number.

It was our custom to have a long chat after dinner and before retiring
to bed.

On this particular night the talk had been about ghosts. Of course, the
girls are always ready to believe everything and so when we left them we
knew that they would not sleep very comfortably that night. We retired
to our part of the court-yard, but we could overh