.

At last my expectations were realized. The teeth of the gigantic steed
closed down on me, its nostrils hissed resistance out of me--I swerved,
tottered, fell; and as I sank on the ground my senses left me.

On coming to I found myself in a propped-up position on the floor of a
tiny room with someone pouring brandy down my throat. Happily, beyond a
severe shock, I had sustained no injury--a sufficiently miraculous
circumstance, as the trap had come to grief in failing to clear the
lodge gates, the horse had skinned its knees, and the Colonel had
fractured his shoulder. Of the phantom horse not a glimpse had been
seen. Even the Colonel, strange to relate, though he had managed to peep
round, had not seen it. He had heard and felt a Presence, that was all;
and after listening to my experience, he owned he was truly thankful he
was only clair-audient.

"A gift like yours," he said, with more candour than kindness, "is a
curse, not a blessing. And now I have your corroboration, I might as
well tell you that we have long suspected the ghost to be a horse, and
have attributed its hauntings to the fact that, some time ago, when
exploring in the cave, several prehistoric remains of horses were
found, one of which we kept, whilst we presented the others to a
neighbouring museum. I dare say there are heaps more."

"Undoubtedly there are," I said, "but take my advice and leave them
alone--re-inter the remains you have already unearthed--and thus put a
stop to the hauntings. If you go on excavating and keep the bones you
find, the disturbances will, in all probability, increase, and the
hauntings will become not only many but multiform."

Needless to say the Colonel carried out my injunctions to the letter.
Far from continuing his work of excavation he lost no time in restoring
the bones he had kept to their original resting-place; after which, as I
predicted, the hauntings ceased.

This case, to me, is very satisfactory, as it testifies to what was
unquestionably an actual phantasm of the dead--of a dead horse--albeit
that horse was prehistoric; and such horses are all the more likely to
be earth-bound on account of their wild, untamed natures.

Here is another account of a phantom horse taken from Mr. Stead's _Real
Ghost Stories_. It is written by an Afrikander who, in a letter to Mr.
Stead, says:

"I am not a believer in ghosts, nor never was; but seeing you wanted a
census of them, I can't help giving you a remarkabl