His Unquiet Ghost | Page 3

in the cove that Minta Elladine Biggs hev
gin him the mitten, anyhow, on account of his gamesome ways, playin'
kyerds, a-bet-tin' his money, drinkin' apple-jack, an' sech."
The newly constituted ghost roused himself with great vitality as if to
retort floutingly; but as he turned, his jaw suddenly fell; his eyes
widened with a ghastly distension. With an unsteady arm extended he
pointed silently. Distinctly outlined on the lid of-the coffin was the
simulacrum of the figure of aman.
One of his comrades, seated on the tailboard of the wagon, had
discerned a significance in the abrupt silence. As he turned, he, too,
caught a fleeting glimpse of that weird image on the coffin-lid. But he
was of a more mundane pulse. The apparition roused in him only a
wonder whence could come this shadow in the midst of the
moon-flooded road. He lifted his eyes to the verge of the bluff above,
and there he descried an indistinct human form, which suddenly
disappeared as he looked, and at that moment the simulacrum vanished
from the lid of the box.
The mystery was of instant elucidation. They were suspected, followed.
The number of their pursuers of course they could not divine, but at
least one of the revenue-officers had trailed the wagon between the
precipice and the great wall of the ascent on the right, which had

gradually dwindled to a diminished height. Deep gullies were here and
there washed out by recent rains, and one of these indentations might
have afforded an active man access to the summit. Thus the pursuer had
evidently kept abreast of them, speeding along in great leaps through
the lush growth of huckleberry bushes, wild grasses, pawpaw thickets,
silvered by the moon, all fringing the great forests that had given way
on the shelving verge of the steeps where the road ran. Had he
overheard their unguarded, significant words? Who could divine, so
silent were the windless mountains, so deep a-dream the darksome
woods, so spellbound the mute and mystic moonlight?
The group maintained a cautious reticence now, each revolving the
problematic disclosure of their secret, each canvassing the question
whether the pursuer himself was aware of his betrayal of his stealthy
proximity. Not till they had reached the ford of the river did they
venture on a low-toned colloquy. The driver paused in midstream and
stepped out on the pole between the horses to let down the check-reins,
as the team manifested an inclination to drink in transit; and thence, as
he stood thus perched, he gazed to and fro, the stretch of dark and
lustrous ripples baffling all approach within ear-shot, the watering of
the horses justifying the pause and cloaking its significance to any
distant observer.
But the interval was indeed limited; the mental processes of such men
are devoid of complexity, and their decisions prompt. They advanced
few alternatives; their prime object was to be swiftly rid of the coffin
and its inculpating contents, and with the "revenuer" so hard on their
heels this might seem a troublous problem enough.
"Put it whar a coffin b'longs--in the churchyard," said Wyatt; for at a
considerable distance beyond the rise of the opposite bank could be
seen a barren clearing in which stood a gaunt, bare, little white frame
building that served all the country-side for its infrequent religious
services.
"We couldn't dig a grave before that spy--ef he be a revenuer sure
enough--could overhaul us," Eugene Barker objected.

"We could turn the yearth right smart, though," persisted Wyatt, for
pickax and shovel had been brought in the wagon for the sake of an
aspect of verisimilitude and to mask their true intent.
Eugene Barker acceded to this view. "That's the dinctum--dig a few jes
fer a blind. We kin slip the coffin-box under the church-house 'fore he
gits in sight,--he'll be feared ter follow too close,--an' leave it thar till
the other boys kin wagon it ter the cross-roads' store ter-morrer night."
The horses, hitherto held to the sober gait of funeral travel, were now
put to a speedy trot, unmindful of whatever impression of flight the
pace might give to the revenue-raider in pursuit. The men were soon
engrossed in their deceptive enterprise in the churchyard, plying pickax
and shovel for dear life; now and again they paused to listen vainly for
the sound of stealthy approach. They knew that there was the most
precarious and primitive of foot-bridges across the deep stream, to
traverse which would cost an unaccustomed wayfarer both time and
pains; thus the interval was considerable before the resonance of rapid
footfalls gave token that their pursuer had found himself obliged to
sprint smartly along the country road to keep any hope of ever again'
viewing the wagon which the intervening water-course had withdrawn
from his sight.