GHOST THAT DID THE HAT TRICK

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 122, 13 August 1927, Page 5

GHOST THAT DID THE HAT TRICK

TRUE STORY OF A POLICEMAN’S EERIE VIGIL Green Dragon Lane, a lonely road near Winchmore Hill, London, has. during the last few months, acquired a sinister reputaiion. On several occasions, men walking home alone in the evening have had their hats torn from their heads by a black form, with gleaming eyes, which would swoop down upon them, with an eerie screech, and then swish upward again into the darkness. Finally, a uniformed constable was told off to keep watch near a gnarled old oak. P.C. Gogy kept his lonely vigil, ever alert when the fitful moon peeped out from behind a scudding cloud, listen ing to the wind whispering with uncanny whine through the hedgerow. The last wayfarer had gone home, and nothing had happened. The constable, having decided that “it was all eyewash,” was about to move on when swish. Something sent his helmet spinning into the darkness, a ghostly scream rung in liis ears, and a rush of air fanned his face. At the station liis report was received with more than usual attention. The station sergeant, with another constable in reserve, set out with the narrator to see for himself. A long wait, and—nothing. Incredulous in his turn, the sergeant was about to leave, when—swish—his helmet fell in the road to the accompaniment of an unearthly scream. Metropolitan Police Force regulations make no provision for the taking of ghosts into custody, but the sergeant was not non-plussed. At that moment the moon came out and revealed the retreating figure of a Great Tawny Owl—a giant among the race of giants. Early the next morning a search was made at the foot of the gnarled oak, and over two dozen men’s felt hats Avere found in the grass, tattered and torn almost beyond recognition.