AN AUSTRALIAN GHOST STORY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1613, 19 July 1887, Page 4

AN AUSTRALIAN GHOST STORY.

«. — , We take the fallowing from the columns of an exchange : — Mr B was a magistrate for New Liverpool, Australia, at the time the circumstance occurred, now many years ago. Bis sister and mother lived wiih him. Ooe evening ha returned from New Liverpool after attending a magistrate*' meeting, pale and agitated to an extraordinary degree. He refused to inform them of the cauße of hia distress, bus cent at once for the nearest cisrgyman (a missionary) and shut himself up with him. We will not inflict on out readers a y share of the cariosity of the ladies of Mr B— — 'b family, bat relate at once that whioh they learned, only after the affair waa ended. Aa he eras riding, uaatteaded, down a narrow lane not far from hia home m itie bright moonlight, hia horse suddenly Btcod still, shaking and quivering m every limb, and could aot be induced to m >va onwards. Mr B— , supposing that fiooie deadly snake, perceptible to the quick senses of the animal, lay m the path, or that some Blmilar savage danger lurked before him, glanced perplexedly around, and hs gszs waa at once fascinated by a hideous vision- On the otier Bide of tha hedgo bounding the narrow way stood tha figure of a man m his sLirt, distinctly visible m a singular light which floated around it. The shirt was dripping with blood ,the throat of the apparition— cat from ear to oar— gaped horribly upon him. With a c?y of horror Mr B urged on his ateed which, no longer resisting, bore him home at full gallop. The missionary who listened to this story was inclined to think that tha ghost was a mere figment of the brain, overexcited as Mr B 'a occasionally was, by the horrid cases brought before him m his .magisterial capacity. Hu ooaeented, however, to accompany Mr B the next evening to the same epot, on the chanca of seeing the ghcßb, with nerves braced for the occasion . They went — and not m vain. Again the ghastly shadow etood m its lurid light beside the hedge. But now they paused and watched it. By slow degrees, gliding mournfully away, tha apparition reached the middle of the field, aud there tppeared to sink into tue earth. ' Much astonished, the two gentlemen looked at each other.' ' What does this m3.ni ?' asked Mr B . ' That murder has be?n done, I should thiDk. At any rate, to-morrow morning, if I were yon, I would have the centre of the field dug up,' replied his friend . Me B assented, Bending early for constable*, etc., from &ew Liverpool, to be on thn spot. The animated reciter of thiß Mory brought the scene vividly before us. The men wiih pickax ea, the constables, the wondering multitnde assembled m that green meadow of the far off world ; while at a distance, crouching b&hini the bushwood of the hedge, lurked one who gazsd with wondering and awe-struck eyes, and had no power to turn himself Lorn the epot. They found the tarf had been recently cut and replaced, the earth disturbed, They dug, guided by those traces, and m a short time there lay exposed before the sun a corps m its bkody e-hirt and with its gaping ihroar. A cry of horror went up from th^ people, and the fellow (skulking by the nedge drew ue rar — like a moth to the flime. 'Its John Hare, who lived with Convict Brown ! ' cried a constable. ' Why, we thought he was on his road to the Old Country. H!s time of tramporta tion was up, and he set out, aa we believed, fonr or five days ago.' •Briug the man with whom he lived hither,' commanded the magistrate. ' 1 hey had not far to seek him ; he was recognised as the skulking felloe by the hedge, who forthwith had turned and fl.d. He was overtaken, brought back, and placed beside the unholy grave, and there falling on hia knees, confessed m a great silence, which made every word audible, that he had muidered Hare for i he sake of the hoarded gold the ex-convict waa about to carry home with him. They tad worked asticket-oMeave men t >gethar, and ho kcew how rich the m-n whose fenal eervitudo had expired wa3 growi*. So he let him bid farewell to the few neighbors and comrades they had (purposing aa ha did, poor fel'ow. to Joavo at dawn of the n-xt ni-rn'm), and at midalght he murdered him. "He buried the body m the field the very night the magistrate had seen the ghoslly revealer f the secret Seeing that the earth could not hide his slain, he confessed his crime at once and the full particulars of ita eingular discovery are recorded m the town archive of New Liverpool, where, if any of our readers like to eeek for them they may now be found.