cried Sally Bannocks, our own particular help of many
years, from the like position.

"Our detective band," resumed my uncle, "looked at one another in
amazement, and after some hard swearing from a few of the roughest, and
the exchange of a hasty 'good-night,' dispersed, as far as convenient in
companies of two or three, and departed, a good deal disconcerted, to
their several places of abode. The same experiment was tried on two or
three other occasions, as I was informed by friends, with no better
success. Spectre or not, he always found means to elude them; and there
were always those who, having no other means of accounting for his
evasion, insisted upon it that he must have had confederates among those
who sought to arrest him."

"Could he not have escaped slyly into the house?" asked some incredulous
inquirer.

"That was hardly likely, with so many eyes upon him. Besides there was
nobody there but women and children, excessively alarmed themselves, the
husband, Captain Y----, being at sea, and one of those who was afterwards
known to have been lost with all his crew, upon nearing our dangerous
coast."

"But why did not the city government make a piece of work of putting an
end to such a scandal?" inquired a doubter in spectral visitations.

"Well, I suspect a whole body of police could do little towards capturing
an actual ghost; and then, too, there was at that time no city and no
such force. Our town government consisted of mostly ancient citizens, and
three or four constables, all of whom, probably, preferred to remain
quietly and comfortably at home, instead of venturing out into the wintry
night air, to hunt up ghosts."

"Why didn't somebody try the effect of a bullet?" inquired another.

"Well, shooting was a rather violent remedy; and as for firing at a
ghost, I believe every one was afraid."

"Wasn't it strange, considering that he must have had some particular
object in haunting that spot, and was likely, therefore, to be found out
by some of the neighborhood by his face, or dress, or figure, or gait, or
in some way or other, if a real person, that he never was recognized?"
asked another of our evening guests.

"It was strange enough," said my uncle; "but few, if any, got very near
him, and they perhaps, casual passers-by, who paid no attention to the
fact. As for him, he only walked steadily backward and forward, turning
neither to the right nor to the left, except at each end of his beat;
r