Mr. Blows, violently. "You go to them
interfering Camels and say you want your money--all of it. Say you're
going to Australia. Say it was my last dying wish."

Mrs. Blows puckered her brow.

"I'll keep quiet upstairs till you've got it," continued her husband,
rapidly. "There was only two men saw me, and I can see now that they
thought I was my own ghost. Send the kids off to your mother for a few
days."

His wife sent them off next morning, and a little later was able to tell
him that his surmise as to his friends' mistake was correct. All
Gravelton was thrilled by the news that the spiritual part of Mr. John
Blows was walking the earth, and much exercised as to his reasons for so
doing.

"Seemed such a monkey trick for 'im to do," complained Mr. Carter, to the
listening circle at the Peal o' Bells. "'I'm a-looking at you, Joe,' he
ses, and he waggled his 'ead as if it was made of india-rubber."

"He'd got something on 'is mind what he wanted to tell you," said a
listener, severely; "you ought to 'ave stopped, Joe, and asked 'im what
it was."

"I think I see myself," said the shivering Mr. Carter. "I think I see
myself."

"Then he wouldn't 'ave troubled you any more," said the other.

Mr. Carter turned pale and eyed him fixedly. "P'r'aps it was only a
death-warning," said another man.

"What d'ye mean, 'only a death-warning'?" demanded the unfortunate Mr.
Carter; "you don't know what you're talking about."

"I 'ad an uncle o' mine see a ghost once," said a third man, anxious to
relieve the tension.

"And what 'appened?" inquired the first speaker. "I'll tell you after
Joe's gone," said the other, with rare consideration.

Mr. Carter called for some more beer and told the barmaid to put a little
gin in it. In a pitiable state of "nerves" he sat at the extreme end of
a bench, and felt that he was an object of unwholesome interest to his
acquaintances. The finishing touch was put to his discomfiture when a
well-meaning friend in a vague and disjointed way advised him to give up
drink, swearing, and any other bad habits which he might have contracted.

[Illustration: "In a pitiable state of 'nerves' he sat at the extreme end
of a bench."]

The committee of the Ancient Order of Camels took the news calmly, and
classed it with pink rats and other abnormalities. In reply to Mrs.
Blows's request for the capital sum, they expressed astonishment that she
could be willing to tear herself away fr