initial commit of ebook 23556HEADmain

12 files changed, 6548 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/23556-0.txt b/23556-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..38cc134
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23556-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1241 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: His Unquiet Ghost
+       1911
+
+Author: Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+Release Date: November 19, 2007 [EBook #23556]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HIS UNQUIET GHOST
+
+By Charles Egbert Craddock
+
+1911
+
+
+The moon was high in the sky. The wind was laid. So silent was the vast
+stretch of mountain wilderness, aglint with the dew, that the tinkle of
+a rill far below in the black abyss seemed less a sound than an evidence
+of the pervasive quietude, since so slight a thing, so distant, could
+compass so keen a vibration. For an hour or more the three men who
+lurked in the shadow of a crag in the narrow mountain-pass, heard
+nothing else. When at last they caught the dull reverberation of a slow
+wheel and the occasional metallic clank of a tire against a stone, the
+vehicle was fully three miles distant by the winding road in the valley.
+Time lagged. Only by imperceptible degrees the sound of deliberate
+approach grew louder on the air as the interval of space lessened. At
+length, above their ambush at the summit of the mountain's brow the
+heads of horses came into view, distinct in the moonlight between the
+fibrous pines and the vast expanse of the sky above the valley. Even
+then there was renewed delay. The driver of the wagon paused to rest the
+team.
+
+The three lurking men did not move; they scarcely ventured to breathe.
+Only when there was no retrograde possible, no chance of escape, when
+the vehicle was fairly on the steep declivity of the road, the precipice
+sheer on one side, the wall of the ridge rising perpendicularly on the
+other, did two of them, both revenue-raiders disguised as mountaineers,
+step forth from the shadow. The other, the informer, a genuine
+mountaineer, still skulked motionless in the darkness. The “revenuers,”
+ ascending the road, maintained a slow, lunging gait, as if they had
+toiled from far.
+
+Their abrupt appearance had the effect of a galvanic shock to the man
+handling the reins, a stalwart, rubicund fellow, who visibly paled. He
+drew up so suddenly as almost to throw the horses from their feet.
+
+“G'evenin',” ventured Browdie, the elder of the raiders, in a husky
+voice affecting an untutored accent. He had some special ability as a
+mimic, and, being familiar with the dialect and manners of the people,
+this gift greatly facilitated the rustic impersonation he had essayed.
+“Ye're haulin' late,” he added, for the hour was close to midnight.
+
+“Yes, stranger; haulin' late, from Eskaqua--a needcessity.”
+
+“What's yer cargo?” asked Browdie, seeming only ordinarily inquisitive.
+
+A sepulchral cadence was in the driver's voice, and the disguised
+raiders noted that the three other men on the wagon had preserved,
+throughout, a solemn silence. “What we-uns mus' all be one day,
+stranger--a corpus.”
+
+Browdie was stultified for a moment Then, sustaining his assumed
+character, he said: “I hope it be nobody I know. I be fairly well
+acquainted in Eskaqua, though I hail from down in Lonesome Cove. Who be
+dead!”
+
+There was palpably a moment's hesitation before the spokesman replied:
+“Watt Wyatt; died day 'fore yestiddy.”
+
+At the words, one of the silent men in the wagon turned his face
+suddenly, with such obvious amazement depicted upon it that it arrested
+the attention of the “rev-enuers.” This face was so individual that it
+was not likely to be easily mistaken or forgotten. A wild, breezy look
+it had, and a tricksy, incorporeal expression that might well befit
+some fantastic, fabled thing of the woods. It was full of fine script of
+elusive meanings, not registered in the lineaments of the prosaic man
+of the day, though perchance of scant utility, not worth interpretation.
+His full gray eyes were touched to glancing brilliancy by a moonbeam;
+his long, fibrously floating brown hair was thrown backward; his
+receding chin was peculiarly delicate; and though his well-knit frame
+bespoke a hardy vigor, his pale cheek was soft and thin. All the rustic
+grotesquery of garb and posture was cancelled by the deep shadow of a
+bough, and his delicate face showed isolated in the moonlight.
+
+Browdie silently pondered his vague suspicions for a moment “Whar did he
+die at?” he then demanded at a venture.
+
+“At his daddy's house, fur sure. Whar else?” responded the driver. “I
+hev got what's lef' of him hyar in the coffin-box. We expected ter make
+it ter Shiloh buryin'-ground 'fore dark; but the road is middlin' heavy,
+an' 'bout five mile' back Ben cast a shoe. The funeral warn't over much
+'fore noon.”
+
+“Whyn't they bury him in Eskaqua, whar he died!” persisted Browdie.
+
+“Waal, they planned ter bury him alongside his mother an' gran'dad, what
+used ter live in Tanglefoot Cove. But we air wastin' time hyar, an' we
+hev got none ter spare. Gee, Ben! Git up, John!”
+
+The wagon gave a lurch; the horses, holding back in bracing attitudes
+far from the pole, went teetering down the steep slant, the locked wheel
+dragging heavily; the four men sat silent, two in slouching postures at
+the head of the coffin; the third, with the driver, was at its foot. It
+seemed drearily suggestive, the last journey of this humble mortality,
+in all the splendid environment of the mountains, under the vast
+expansions of the aloof skies, in the mystic light of the unnoting moon.
+
+“Is this bona-fide?” asked Browdie, with a questioning glance at the
+informer, who had at length crept forth.
+
+“I dunno,” sullenly responded the mountaineer. He had acquainted the
+two officers, who were of a posse of revenue-raiders hovering in the
+vicinity, with the mysterious circumstance that a freighted wagon now
+and then made a midnight transit across these lonely ranges. He himself
+had heard only occasionally in a wakeful hour the roll of heavy wheels,
+but he interpreted this as the secret transportation of brush whisky
+from the still to its market. He had thought to fix the transgression
+on an old enemy of his own, long suspected of moonshining; but he was
+acquainted with none of the youngsters on the wagon, at whom he had
+peered cautiously from behind the rocks. His actuating motive in giving
+information to the emissaries of the government had been the rancor of
+an old feud, and his detection meant certain death. He had not expected
+the revenue-raiders to be outnumbered by the supposed moonshiners, and
+he would not fight in the open. He had no sentiment of fealty to the
+law, and the officers glanced at each other in uncertainty.
+
+“This evidently is not the wagon in question,” said Browdie,
+disappointed.
+
+“I'll follow them a bit,” volunteered Bonan, the younger and the more
+active of the two officers. “Seems to me they'll bear watching.”
+
+Indeed, as the melancholy cortège fared down and down the steep road,
+dwindling in the sheeny distance, the covert and half-suppressed
+laughter of the sepulchral escort was of so keen a relish that it was
+well that the scraping of the locked wheel aided the distance to mask
+the incongruous sound.
+
+“What ailed you-uns ter name _me_ as the corpus, 'Gene Barker?” demanded
+Walter Wyatt, when he had regained the capacity of coherent speech.
+
+“Oh, I hed ter do suddint murder on somebody,” declared the driver, all
+bluff and reassured and red-faced again, “an' I couldn't think quick
+of nobody else. Besides, I helt a grudge agin' you fer not stuffin' mo'
+straw 'twixt them jimmyjohns in the coffin-box.”
+
+“That's a fac'. Ye air too triflin' ter be let ter live, Watt,” cried
+one of their comrades. “I hearn them jugs clash tergether in the
+coffin-box when 'Gene checked the team up suddint, I tell you. An' them
+men sure 'peared ter me powerful suspectin'.”
+
+“_I_ hearn the clash of them jimmyjohns,” chimed in the driver. “I
+really thunk my hour war come. Some informer must hev set them men ter
+spyin' round fer moonshine.”
+
+“Oh, surely nobody wouldn't dare,” urged one of the group, uneasily; for
+the identity of an informer was masked in secrecy, and his fate, when
+discovered, was often gruesome.
+
+“They couldn't hev noticed the clash of them jimmyjohns, nohow,”
+ declared the negligent Watt, nonchalantly. “But namin' _me_ fur the dead
+one! Supposin' they air revenuers fur true, an' hed somebody along, hid
+out in the bresh, ez war acquainted with me by sight----”
+
+“Then they'd hev been skeered out'n thar boots, that's all,” interrupted
+the self-sufficient 'Gene. “They would hev 'lowed they hed viewed
+yer brazen ghost, bold ez brass, standin' at the head of yer own
+coffin-box.”
+
+“Or mebbe they mought hev recognized the Wyatt favor, ef they warn't
+acquainted with _me_,” persisted Watt, with his unique sense of injury.
+
+Eugene Barker defended the temerity of his inspiration. “They would hev
+jes thought ye war kin ter the deceased, an' at-tendin' him ter his long
+home.”
+
+“'Gene don't keer much fur ye ter be alive nohow, Watt Wyatt,” one of
+the others suggested tactlessly, “'count o' Minta Elladine Biggs.”
+
+Eugene Barker's off-hand phrase was incongruous with his sudden gravity
+and his evident rancor as he declared: “_I_ ain't carin' fur sech ez
+Watt Wyatt. An' they _do_ say 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. That this hope had grown tenuous was evident in his
+relinquishment of his former caution, for when they again caught a
+glimpse of him he was forging along in the middle of the road without
+any effort at concealment. But as the wagon appeared in the perspective,
+stationary, hitched to the hedge of the graveyard, he recurred to his
+previous methods. The four men still within the in-closure, now busied
+in shovelling the earth back again into the excavation they had so
+swiftly made, covertly watched him as he skulked into the shadow of the
+wayside. The little “church-house,” with all its windows whitely aglare
+in the moonlight, reflected the pervasive sheen, and silent, spectral,
+remote, it seemed as if it might well harbor at times its ghastly
+neighbors from the quiet cemetery without, dimly ranging themselves once
+more in the shadowy ranks of its pews or grimly stalking down the drear
+and deserted aisles. The fact that the rising ground toward the rear of
+the building necessitated a series of steps at the entrance, enabled the
+officer to mask behind this tall flight his crouching approach, and thus
+he ensconced himself in the angle between the wall and the steps, and
+looked forth in fancied security.
+
+The shadows multiplied the tale of the dead that the head-boards kept,
+each similitude askew in the moonlight on the turf below the slanting
+monument To judge by the motions of the men engaged in the burial and
+the mocking antics of their silhouettes on the ground, it must have been
+obvious to the spectator that they were already filling in the earth.
+The interment may have seemed to him suspiciously swift, but the
+possibility was obvious that the grave might have been previously dug
+in anticipation of their arrival. It was plain that he was altogether
+unprepared for the event when they came slouching forth to the wagon,
+and the stalwart and red-faced driver, with no manifestation of
+surprise, hailed him as he still crouched in his lurking-place. “Hello,
+stranger! Warn't that you-uns runnin' arter the wagon a piece back
+yonder jes a while ago?”
+
+The officer rose to his feet, with an intent look both dismayed and
+embarrassed. He did not venture on speech; he merely acceded with a nod.
+
+“Ye want a lift, I reckon.”
+
+The stranger was hampered by the incongruity between his rustic garb,
+common to the coves, and his cultivated intonation; for, unlike his
+comrade Browdie, he had no mimetic faculties whatever. Nevertheless, he
+was now constrained to “face the music.”
+
+“I didn't want to interrupt you,” he said, seeking such excuse as due
+consideration for the circumstances might afford; “but I'd like to ask
+where I could get lodging for the night.”
+
+“What's yer name?” demanded Barker, unceremoniously.
+
+“Francis Bonan,” the raider replied, with more assurance. Then he added,
+by way of explaining his necessity, “I'm a stranger hereabouts.”
+
+“Ye air so,” assented the sarcastic 'Gene. “Ye ain't even acquainted
+with yer own clothes. Ye be a town man.”
+
+“Well, I'm not the first man who has had to hide out,” Ronan parried,
+seeking to justify his obvious disguise.
+
+“Shot somebody?” asked 'Gene, with an apparent accession of interest.
+
+“It's best for me not to tell.”
+
+“So be.” 'Gene acquiesced easily. “Waal, ef ye kin put up with sech
+accommodations ez our'n, I'll take ye home with me.”
+
+Ronan stood aghast. But there was no door of retreat open. He was alone
+and helpless. He could not conceal the fact that the turn affairs had
+taken was equally unexpected and terrifying to him, and the moonshiners,
+keenly watchful, were correspondingly elated to discern that he had
+surely no reinforcements within reach to nerve him to resistance or
+to menace their liberty. He had evidently followed them too far, too
+recklessly; perhaps without the consent and against the counsel of his
+comrades, perhaps even without their knowledge of his movements and
+intention.
+
+Now and again as the wagon jogged on and on toward their distant haven,
+the moonlight gradually dulling to dawn, Wyatt gave the stranger
+a wondering, covert glance, vaguely, shrinkingly curious as to the
+sentiments of a man vacillating between the suspicion of capture and the
+recognition of a simple hospitality without significance or danger. The
+man's face appealed to him, young, alert, intelligent, earnest, and
+the anguish of doubt and anxiety it expressed went to his heart. In the
+experience of his sylvan life as a hunter Wyatt's peculiar and subtle
+temperament evolved certain fine-spun distinctions which were unique; a
+trapped thing had a special appeal to his commiseration that a creature
+ruthlessly slaughtered in the open was not privileged to claim. He did
+not accurately and in words discriminate the differences, but he felt
+that the captive had sounded all the gamut of hope and despair, shared
+the gradations of an appreciated sorrow that makes all souls akin and
+that even lifts the beast to the plane of brotherhood, the bond of
+emotional woe. He had often with no other or better reason liberated
+the trophy of his snare, calling after the amazed and franticly
+fleeing creature, “Bye-bye, Buddy!” with peals of his whimsical, joyous
+laughter.
+
+He was experiencing now a similar sequence of sentiments in noting the
+wild-eyed eagerness with which the captured raider took obvious heed of
+every minor point of worthiness that might mask the true character of
+his entertainers. But, indeed, these deceptive hopes might have been
+easily maintained by one not so desirous of reassurance when, in the
+darkest hour before the dawn, they reached a large log-cabin sequestered
+in dense woods, and he found himself an inmate of a simple, typical
+mountain household. It held an exceedingly venerable grandfather,
+wielding his infirmities as a rod of iron; a father and mother, hearty,
+hospitable, subservient to the aged tyrant, but keeping in filial check
+a family of sons and daughters-in-law, with an underfoot delegation of
+grandchildren, who seemed to spend their time in a bewildering manouver
+of dashing out at one door to dash in at another. A tumultuous rain
+had set in shortly after dawn, with lightning and wind,--“the tail of a
+harricane,” as the host called it,--and a terrible bird the actual storm
+must have been to have a tail of such dimensions. There was no getting
+forth, no living creature of free will “took water” in this elemental
+crisis. The numerous dogs crowded the children away from the hearth,
+and the hens strolled about the large living-room, clucking to scurrying
+broods. Even one of the horses tramped up on the porch and looked in
+ever and anon, solicitous of human company.
+
+“I brung Ben up by hand, like a bottle-fed baby,” the hostess
+apologized, “an' he ain't never fund out fur sure that he ain't folks.”
+
+There seemed no possible intimation of moonshine in this entourage, and
+the coffin filled with jugs, a-wagoning from some distillers' den in the
+range to the cross-roads' store, might well have been accounted only the
+vain phantasm of an overtired brain surcharged with the vexed problems
+of the revenue service. The disguised revenue-raider was literally
+overcome with drowsiness, the result of his exertions and his vigils,
+and observing this, his host gave him one of the big feather beds under
+the low slant of the eaves in the roof-room, where the other men, who
+had been out all night, also slept the greater portion of the day. In
+fact, it was dark when Wyatt wakened, and, leaving the rest still torpid
+with slumber and fatigue, descended to the large main room of the cabin.
+
+The callow members of the household had retired to rest, but the elders
+of the band of moonshiners were up and still actively astir, and Wyatt
+experienced a prescient vicarious qualm to note their lack of heed or
+secrecy--the noisy shifting of heavy weights (barrels, kegs, bags of
+apples, and peaches for pomace), the loud voices and unguarded words.
+When a door in the floor was lifted, the whiff of chill, subterranean
+air that pervaded the whole house was heavily freighted with spirituous
+odors, and gave token to the meanest intelligence, to the most
+unobservant inmate, that the still was operated in a cellar, peculiarly
+immune to suspicion, for a cellar is never an adjunct to the ordinary
+mountain cabin. Thus the infraction of the revenue law went on securely
+and continuously beneath the placid, simple, domestic life, with its
+reverent care for the very aged and its tender nurture of the very
+young.
+
+It was significant, indeed, that the industry should not be
+pretermitted, however, when a stranger was within the gates. The reason
+to Wyatt, familiar with the moonshiners' methods and habits of thought,
+was only too plain. They intended that the “revenuer” should never go
+forth to tell the tale. His comrades had evidently failed to follow
+his trail, either losing it in the wilderness or from ignorance of
+his intention. He had put himself hopelessly into the power of
+these desperate men, whom his escape or liberation would menace
+with incarceration for a long term as Federal prisoners in distant
+penitentiaries, if, indeed, they were not already answerable to the law
+for some worse crime than illicit distilling. His murder would be the
+extreme of brutal craft, so devised as to seem an accident, against the
+possibility of future investigation.
+
+The reflection turned Wyatt deathly cold, he who could not bear unmoved
+the plea of a wild thing's eye. He sturdily sought to pull himself
+together. It was none of his decree; it was none of his deed, he argued.
+The older moonshiners, who managed all the details of the enterprise,
+would direct the event with absolute authority and the immutability of
+fate. But whatever should be done, he revolted from any knowledge of
+it, as from any share in the act. He had risen to leave the place, all
+strange of aspect now, metamorphosed,--various disorderly details of
+the prohibited industry ever and anon surging up from the still-room
+below,--when a hoarse voice took cognizance of his intention with a
+remonstrance.
+
+“Why, Watt Wyatt, _ye_ can't go out in the cove. Ye air dead! Ye will
+let that t'other revenue-raider ye seen into the secret o' the bresh
+whisky in our wagon ef ye air viewed about whenst 'Gene hev spread the
+report that ye air dead. Wait till them raiders hev cleared out of the
+kentry.”
+
+The effort at detention, to interfere with his liberty, added redoubled
+impetus to Wyatt 's desire to be gone. He suddenly devised a cogent
+necessity. “I be feared my dad mought hear that fool tale. I ain't much
+loss, but dad would feel it.”
+
+“Oh, I sent Jack thar ter tell him better whenst he drove ter mill
+ter-day ter git the meal fer the mash. Jack made yer dad understand
+'bout yer sudden demise.”
+
+“Oh, yeh,” interposed the glib Jack; “an' he said ez _he_ couldn't abide
+sech jokes.”
+
+“Shucks!” cried the filial Wyatt. “Dad war full fresky himself in his
+young days; I hev hearn his old frien's say so.”
+
+“I tried ter slick things over,” said the diplomatic Jack. “I 'lowed
+young folks war giddy by nature. I 'lowed 't war jes a flash o' fun.
+An' he say: 'Flash o' fun be con-sarned! My son is more like a flash o'
+lightning; ez suddint an' mischeevious an' totally ondesirable.'”
+
+The reproach obviously struck home, for Wyatt maintained a disconsolate
+silence for a time. At length, apparently goaded by his thoughts to
+attempt a defense, he remonstrated:
+
+“Nobody ever war dead less of his own free will. I never elected ter
+be a harnt. 'Gene Barker hed no right ter nominate _me_ fer the dear
+departed, nohow.”
+
+One of the uncouth younger fellows, his shoulders laden with a sack of
+meal, paused on his way from the porch to the trap-door to look up from
+beneath his burden with a sly grin as he said, “'Gene war wishin' it war
+true, that's why.”
+
+“'Count o' Minta Elladine Riggs,” gaily chimed in another.
+
+“But 'Gene needn't gredge Watt foothold on this yearth fer sech; _she_
+ain't keerin' whether Watt lives or dies,” another contributed to the
+rough, rallying fun.
+
+But Wyatt was of sensitive fibre. He had flushed angrily; his eyes were
+alight; a bitter retort was trembling on his lips when one of the elder
+Barkers, discriminating the elements of an uncontrollable fracas, seized
+on the alternative.
+
+“Could you-uns _sure_ be back hyar by daybreak, Watt!” he asked, fixing
+the young fellow with a stern eye.
+
+“No 'spectable ghost roams around arter sun-up,” cried Wyatt, fairly
+jovial at the prospect of liberation.
+
+“Ye mus' be heedful not ter be viewed,” the senior admonished him.
+
+“I be goin' ter slip about keerful like a reg'lar, stiddy-goin' harnt,
+an' eavesdrop a bit. It's worth livin' a hard life ter view how a
+feller's friends will take his demise.”
+
+“I reckon ye kin make out ter meet the wagin kemin' back from the
+cross-roads' store. It went out this evenin' with that coffin full of
+jugs that ye lef' las' night under the church-house, whenst 'Gene seen
+you-uns war suspicioned. They will hev time ter git ter the cross-roads
+with the whisky on' back little arter midnight, special' ez we-uns hev
+got the raider that spied out the job hyar fast by the leg.”
+
+The mere mention of the young prisoner rendered Wyatt the more eager
+to be gone, to be out of sight and sound. But he had no agency in
+the disaster, he urged against some inward clamor of protest; the
+catastrophe was the logical result of the fool-hardiness of the officer
+in following these desperate men with no backing, with no power
+to apprehend or hold, relying on his flimsy disguise, and risking
+delivering himself into their hands, fettered as he was with the
+knowledge of his discovery of their secret.
+
+“It's nothin' ter _me_, nohow,” Wyatt was continually repeating to
+himself, though when he sprang through the door he could scarcely draw
+his breath because of some mysterious, invisible clutch at his throat.
+
+He sought to ascribe this symptom to the density of the pervasive fog
+without, that impenetrably cloaked all the world; one might wonder how a
+man could find his way through the opaque white vapor. It was, however,
+an accustomed medium to the young mountaineer, and his feet, too, had
+something of that unclassified muscular instinct, apart from reason,
+which guides in an oft-trodden path. Once he came to a halt, from no
+uncertainty of locality, but to gaze apprehensively through the blank,
+white mists over a shuddering shoulder. “I wonder ef thar be any other
+harnts aloose ter-night, a-boguing through the fog an' the moon,” he
+speculated. Presently he went on again, shaking his head sagely. “I
+ain't wantin' ter collogue with sech,” he averred cautiously.
+
+Occasionally the moonlight fell in expansive splendor through a rift in
+the white vapor; amidst the silver glintings a vague, illusory panorama
+of promontory and island, bay and inlet, far ripplings of gleaming
+deeps, was presented like some magic reminiscence, some ethereal replica
+of the past, the simulacrum of the seas of these ancient coves, long
+since ebbed away and vanished.
+
+The sailing moon visibly rocked, as the pulsing tides of the cloud-ocean
+rose and fell, and ever and anon this supernal craft was whelmed in
+its surgings, and once more came majestically into view, freighted with
+fancies and heading for the haven of the purple western shores.
+
+In one of these clearances of the mists a light of an alien type caught
+the eye of the wandering spectre--a light, red, mundane, of prosaic
+suggestion. It filtered through the crevice of a small batten shutter.
+
+The ghost paused, his head speculatively askew. “Who sits so late at the
+forge!” he marvelled, for he was now near the base of the mountain, and
+he recognized the low, dark building looming through the mists, its roof
+aslant, its chimney cold, the big doors closed, the shutter fast. As
+he neared the place a sudden shrill guffaw smote the air, followed by a
+deep, gruff tone of disconcerted remonstrance. Certain cabalistic words
+made the matter plain.
+
+“High, Low, Jack, _and_ game! Fork! Fork!” Once more there arose a high
+falsetto shriek of jubilant laughter.
+
+Walter Wyatt crept noiselessly down the steep slant toward the shutter.
+He had no sense of intrusion, for he was often one of the merry blades
+wont to congregate at the forge at night and take a hand at cards,
+despite the adverse sentiment of the cove and the vigilance of the
+constable of the district, bent on enforcing the laws prohibiting
+gaming. As Wyatt stood at the crevice of the shutter the whole interior
+was distinct before him--the disabled wagon-wheels against the walls,
+the horse-shoes on a rod across the window, the great hood of the forge,
+the silent bellows, with its long, motionless handle. A kerosene lamp,
+perched on the elevated hearth of the forge, illumined the group of wild
+young mountaineers clustered about a barrel on the head of which the
+cards were dealt. There were no chairs; one of the gamesters sat on a
+keg of nails; another on an inverted splint basket; two on a rude bench
+that was wont to be placed outside the door for the accommodation
+of customers waiting for a horse to be shod or a plow to be laid. An
+onlooker, not yet so proficient as to attain his ambition of admission
+to the play, had mounted the anvil, and from this coign of vantage
+beheld all the outspread landscape of the “hands.” More than once his
+indiscreet, inadvertent betrayal of some incident of his survey of the
+cards menaced him with a broken head. More innocuous to the interests of
+the play was a wight humbly ensconced on the shoeing-stool, which
+barely brought his head to the level of the board; but as he was densely
+ignorant of the game, he took no disadvantage from his lowly posture.
+His head was red, and as it moved erratically about in the gloom,
+Watt Wyatt thought for a moment that it was the smith's red setter. He
+grinned as he resolved that some day he would tell the fellow this as
+a pleasing gibe; but the thought was arrested by the sound of his own
+name.
+
+“Waal, sir,” said the dealer, pausing in shuffling the cards, “I s'pose
+ye hev all hearn 'bout Walter Wyatt's takin' off.”
+
+“An' none too soon, sartain.” A sour visage was glimpsed beneath the
+wide brim of the speaker's hat.
+
+“Waal,” drawled the semblance of the setter from deep in the
+clare-obscure, “Watt war jes a fool from lack o' sense.”
+
+“That kind o' fool can't be cured,” said another of the players. Then
+he sharply adjuxed the dealer. “Look out what ye be doin'! Ye hev gimme
+_two_ kyerds.”
+
+“'Gene Barker will git ter marry Minta Elladine Biggs now, I reckon,”
+ suggested the man on the anvil.
+
+“An' I'll dance at the weddin' with right good will an' a nimble toe,”
+ declared the dealer, vivaciously. “I'll be glad ter see that couple
+settled. That gal couldn't make up her mind ter let Walter Wyatt go, an'
+yit no woman in her senses would hev been willin, ter marry him. He war
+ez unresponsible ez--ez--fox-fire.”
+
+“An' ez onstiddy ez a harricane,” commented another.
+
+“An' no more account than a mole in the yearth,” said a third.
+
+The ghost at the window listened in aghast dismay and became pale in
+sober truth, for these boon companions he had accounted the best friends
+he had in the world. They had no word of regret, no simple human pity;
+even that facile meed of casual praise that he was “powerful pleasant
+company” was withheld. And for these and such as these he had bartered
+the esteem of the community at large and his filial duty and obedience;
+had spurned the claims of good citizenship and placed himself in
+jeopardy of the law; had forfeited the hand of the woman he loved.
+
+“Minta Elladine Biggs ain't keerin' nohow fer sech ez Watt,” said the
+semblance of the setter, with a knowing nod of his red head. “I war up
+thar at the mill whenst the news kem ter-day, an' she war thar ter git
+some seconds. I hev hearn women go off in high-strikes fer a lovyer's
+death--even Mis' Simton, though hern was jes her husband, an 'a mighty
+pore one at that. But Minta Elladine jes listened quiet an' composed,
+an' never said one word.”
+
+The batten shutter was trembling in the ghost's hand. In fact, so
+convulsive was his grasp that it shook the hook from the staple, and the
+shutter slowly opened as he stood at gaze.
+
+Perhaps it was the motion that attracted the attention of the dealer,
+perhaps the influx of a current of fresh air. He lifted his casual
+glance and beheld, distinct in the light from the kerosene lamp
+and imposed on the white background of the mist, that familiar and
+individual face, pallid, fixed, strange, with an expression that he had
+never seen it wear hitherto. One moment of suspended faculties, and he
+sprang up with a wild cry that filled the little shanty with its shrill
+terror. The others gazed astounded upon him, then followed the direction
+of his starting eyes, and echoed his frantic fright. There was a wild
+scurry toward the door. The overturning of the lamp was imminent, but
+it still burned calmly on the elevated hearth, while the shoeing-stool
+capsized in the rush, and the red head of its lowly occupant was lowlier
+still, rolling on the dirt floor. Even with this disadvantage, however,
+he was not the hindmost, and reached the exit unhurt. The only specific
+damage wrought by the panic was to the big barnlike doors of the place.
+They had been stanchly barred against the possible intrusion of
+the constable of the district, and the fastenings in so critical an
+emergency could not be readily loosed. The united weight and impetus of
+the onset burst the flimsy doors into fragments, and as the party fled
+in devious directions in the misty moonlight, the calm radiance entered
+at the wide-spread portal and illuminated the vacant place where late
+had been so merry a crew.
+
+Walter Wyatt had known the time when the incident would have held an
+incomparable relish for him. But now he gazed all forlorn into the empty
+building with a single thought in his mind. “Not one of 'em keered a
+mite! Nare good word, nare sigh, not even, 'Fare ye well, old mate!'”
+
+His breast heaved, his eyes flashed.
+
+“An' I hev loant money ter Jim, whenst I hed need myself; an' holped
+George in the mill, when his wrist war sprained, without a cent o' pay;
+an' took the blame when 'Dolphus war faulted by his dad fur lamin' the
+horse-critter; an' stood back an' let Pete git the meat whenst we-uns
+shot fur beef, bein' he hev got a wife an' chil'ren ter feed. All
+_leetle_ favors, but nare _leetle_ word.”
+
+He had turned from the window and was tramping absently down the road,
+all unmindful of the skulking methods of the spectral gentry. If he had
+chanced to be observed, his little farce, that had yet an element of
+tragedy in its presentation, must soon have reached its close. But
+the fog hung about him like a cloak, and when the moon cast aside the
+vapors, it was in a distant silver sheen illumining the far reaches of
+the valley. Only when its light summoned forth a brilliant and glancing
+reflection on a lower level, as if a thousand sabers were unsheathed at
+a word, he recognized the proximity of the river and came to a sudden
+halt.
+
+“Whar is this fool goin'?” he demanded angrily of space. “To the
+graveyard, I declar', ez ef I war a harnt fur true, an' buried sure
+enough. An' I wish I war. I wish I war.”
+
+He realized, after a moment's consideration, that he had been
+unconsciously actuated by the chance of meeting the wagon, returning by
+this route from the cross-roads' store. He was tired, disheartened; his
+spirit was spent; he would be glad of the lift. He reflected,
+however, that he must needs wait some time, for this was the date of a
+revival-meeting at the little church, and the distillers' wagon would
+lag, that its belated night journey might not be subjected to the
+scrutiny and comment of the church-goers. Indeed, even now Walter Wyatt
+saw in the distance the glimmer of a lantern, intimating homeward-bound
+worshipers not yet out of sight.
+
+“The saints kep' it up late ter-night,” he commented.
+
+He resolved to wait till the roll of wheels should tell of the return of
+the moonshiners' empty wagon.
+
+He crossed the river on the little footbridge and took his way languidly
+along the road toward the deserted church. He was close to the hedge
+that grew thick and rank about the little inclosure when he suddenly
+heard the sound of lamentation from within. He drew back precipitately,
+with a sense of sacrilege, but the branches of the unpruned growth had
+caught in his sleeve, and he sought to disengage the cloth without such
+rustling stir as might disturb or alarm the mourner, who had evidently
+lingered here, after the dispersal of the congregation, for a moment's
+indulgence of grief and despair. He had a glimpse through the shaking
+boughs and the flickering mist of a woman's figure kneeling on the
+crude red clods of a new-made grave. A vague, anxious wonder as to the
+deceased visited him, for in the sparsely settled districts a strong
+community sense prevails. Suddenly in a choking gust of sobs and burst
+of tears he recognized his own name in a voice of which every inflection
+was familiar. For a moment his heart seemed to stand still. His brain
+whirled with a realization of this unforeseen result of the fantastic
+story of his death in Eskaqua Cove, which the moonshiners, on the verge
+of detection and arrest, had circulated in Tanglefoot as a measure of
+safety. They had fancied that when the truth was developed it would be
+easy enough to declare the men drunk or mistaken. The “revenuers” by
+that time would be far away, and the pervasive security, always the
+sequence of a raid, successful or otherwise, would once more promote
+the manufacture of the brush whisky. The managers of the moon-shining
+interest had taken measures to guard Wyatt's aged father from this
+fantasy of woe, but they had not dreamed that the mountain coquette
+might care. He himself stood appalled that this ghastly fable should
+delude his heart's beloved, amazed that it should cost her one sigh,
+one sob. Her racking paroxysms of grief over this gruesome figment of a
+grave he was humiliated to hear, he was woeful to see. He felt that he
+was not worth one tear of the floods with which she bewept his name,
+uttered in every cadence of tender regret that her melancholy voice
+could compass. It must cease, she must know the truth at whatever cost.
+He broke through the hedge and stood in the flicker of the moonlight
+before her, pale, agitated, all unlike his wonted self.
+
+She did not hear, amid the tumult of her weeping, the rustling of the
+boughs, but some subtle sense took cognizance of his presence. She half
+rose, and with one hand holding back her dense yellow hair, which
+had fallen forward on her forehead, she looked up at him fearfully,
+tremulously, with all the revolt of the corporeal creature for the
+essence of the mysterious incorporeal. For a moment he could not speak.
+So much he must needs explain. The next instant he was whelmed in the
+avalanche of her words.
+
+“Te hev kem!” she exclaimed in a sort of shrill ecstasy. “Te hev kem so
+far ter hear the word that I would give my life ter hev said before. Te
+knowed it in heaven! an' how like ye ter kem ter gin me the chanst ter
+say it at last! How like the good heart of ye, worth all the hearts on
+yearth--an' _buried hyar!_”
+
+With her open palm she smote the insensate clods with a gesture of
+despair. Then she went on in a rising tide of tumultuous emotion. “I
+love ye! Oh, I _always_ loved ye! I never keered fur nobody else! an' I
+war tongue-tied, an' full of fool pride, an' faultin' ye fur yer ways;
+an' I wouldn't gin ye the word I knowed ye war wantin' ter hear. But now
+I kin tell the pore ghost of ye--I kin tell the pore, pore ghost!”
+
+She buried her swollen, tear-stained face in her hands, and shook her
+head to and fro with the realization of the futility of late repentance.
+As she once more lifted her eyes, she was obviously surprised to see
+him still standing there, and the crisis seemed to restore to him the
+faculty of speech.
+
+“Minta Elladine,” he said huskily and prosaically, “I ain't dead!”
+
+She sprang to her feet and stood gazing at him, intent and quivering.
+
+“I be truly alive an' kicking an' ez worthless ez ever,” he went on.
+
+She said not a word, but bent and pallid, and, quaking in every muscle,
+stood peering beneath her hand, which still held back her hair.
+
+“It's all a mistake,” he urged. “This ain't no grave. The top war dug a
+leetle ter turn off a revenuer's suspicions o' the moonshiners. They put
+that tale out.”
+
+Still, evidently on the verge of collapse, she did not speak.
+
+“Ye needn't be afeared ez I be goin' ter take fur true all I hearn
+ye say; folks air gin ter vauntin' the dead,” he paused for a moment,
+remembering the caustic comments over the deal of the cards, then added,
+“though I reckon _I_ hev hed some cur'ous 'speriences ez a harnt.”
+
+She suddenly threw up both arms with a shrill scream, half nervous
+exhaustion, half inexpressible delight. She swayed to and fro, almost
+fainting, her balance failing. He caught her in his arms, and she leaned
+sobbing against his breast.
+
+“I stand ter every word of it,” she cried, her voice broken and lapsed
+from control. “I love ye, an' I despise all the rest!”
+
+“I be powerful wild,” he suggested contritely.
+
+“I ain't keerin' ef ye be ez wild ez a deer.”
+
+“But I'm goin' to quit gamesome company an' playin' kyerds an' sech. I
+expec' ter mend my ways now,” he promised eagerly.
+
+“Ye kin mend 'em or let 'em stay tore, jes ez ye please,” she declared
+recklessly. “I ain't snatched my lovyer from the jaws o' death ter want
+him otherwise; ye be plumb true-hearted, _I know_.”
+
+“I mought ez well hev been buried in this grave fer the last ten year'
+fer all the use I hev been,” he protested solemnly; “but I hev learnt
+a lesson through bein' a harnt fer a while--I hev jes kem ter life. I'm
+goin' ter _live_ now. I'll make myself some use in the world, an' fust
+off I be goin' ter hinder the murder of a man what they hev got trapped
+up yander at the still.”
+
+This initial devoir of his reformation, however, Wyatt found no easy
+matter. The event had been craftily planned to seem an accident, a fall
+from a cliff in pursuing the wagon, and only the most ardent and
+cogent urgency on Wyatt's part prevailed at length. He argued that this
+interpretation of the disaster would not satisfy the authorities. To
+take the raider's life insured discovery, retribution. But as he had
+been brought to the still in the night, it was obvious that if he
+were conveyed under cover of darkness and by roundabout trails within
+striking distance of the settlements, he could never again find his
+way to the locality in the dense wilderness. In his detention he had
+necessarily learned nothing fresh, for the only names he could have
+overheard had long been obnoxious to suspicion of moonshining, and
+afforded no proof. Thus humanity, masquerading as caution, finally
+triumphed, and the officer, blindfolded, was conducted through devious
+and winding ways many miles distant, and released within a day's travel
+of the county town.
+
+Walter Wyatt was scarcely welcomed back to life by the denizens of the
+cove generally with the enthusiasm attendant on the first moments of his
+resuscitation, so to speak. He never forgot the solemn ecstasy of
+that experience, and in later years he was wont to annul any menace of
+discord with his wife by the warning, half jocose, half tender: “Ye hed
+better mind; ye'll be sorry some day fur treatin' me so mean. Remember,
+I hev viewed ye a-weepin' over my grave before now.”
+
+A reformation, however complete and salutary, works no change of
+identity, and although he developed into an orderly, industrious,
+law-abiding citizen, his prankish temperament remained recognizable
+in the fantastic fables which he delighted to recount at some genial
+fireside of what he had seen and heard as a ghost.
+
+“Pears like, Watt, ye hed more experiences whenst dead than living” said
+an auditor, as these stories multiplied.
+
+“I did, fur a fack,” Watt protested. “I war a powerful onchancy, onquiet
+ghost. I even did my courtin' whilst in my reg'lar line o' business
+a-hanatin' a graveyard.”
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23556-0.txt or 23556-0.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/5/5/23556/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
+Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation”
+ or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project
+Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.”
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right
+of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/23556-0.zip b/23556-0.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16b3a05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23556-0.zip
diff --git a/23556-8.txt b/23556-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5431324
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23556-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1240 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by 
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: His Unquiet Ghost
+       1911
+
+Author: Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+Release Date: November 19, 2007 [EBook #23556]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HIS UNQUIET GHOST
+
+By Charles Egbert Craddock
+
+1911
+
+
+The moon was high in the sky. The wind was laid. So silent was the vast
+stretch of mountain wilderness, aglint with the dew, that the tinkle of
+a rill far below in the black abyss seemed less a sound than an evidence
+of the pervasive quietude, since so slight a thing, so distant, could
+compass so keen a vibration. For an hour or more the three men who
+lurked in the shadow of a crag in the narrow mountain-pass, heard
+nothing else. When at last they caught the dull reverberation of a slow
+wheel and the occasional metallic clank of a tire against a stone, the
+vehicle was fully three miles distant by the winding road in the valley.
+Time lagged. Only by imperceptible degrees the sound of deliberate
+approach grew louder on the air as the interval of space lessened. At
+length, above their ambush at the summit of the mountain's brow the
+heads of horses came into view, distinct in the moonlight between the
+fibrous pines and the vast expanse of the sky above the valley. Even
+then there was renewed delay. The driver of the wagon paused to rest the
+team.
+
+The three lurking men did not move; they scarcely ventured to breathe.
+Only when there was no retrograde possible, no chance of escape, when
+the vehicle was fairly on the steep declivity of the road, the precipice
+sheer on one side, the wall of the ridge rising perpendicularly on the
+other, did two of them, both revenue-raiders disguised as mountaineers,
+step forth from the shadow. The other, the informer, a genuine
+mountaineer, still skulked motionless in the darkness. The "revenuers,"
+ascending the road, maintained a slow, lunging gait, as if they had
+toiled from far.
+
+Their abrupt appearance had the effect of a galvanic shock to the man
+handling the reins, a stalwart, rubicund fellow, who visibly paled. He
+drew up so suddenly as almost to throw the horses from their feet.
+
+"G'evenin'," ventured Browdie, the elder of the raiders, in a husky
+voice affecting an untutored accent. He had some special ability as a
+mimic, and, being familiar with the dialect and manners of the people,
+this gift greatly facilitated the rustic impersonation he had essayed.
+"Ye're haulin' late," he added, for the hour was close to midnight.
+
+"Yes, stranger; haulin' late, from Eskaqua--a needcessity."
+
+"What's yer cargo?" asked Browdie, seeming only ordinarily inquisitive.
+
+A sepulchral cadence was in the driver's voice, and the disguised
+raiders noted that the three other men on the wagon had preserved,
+throughout, a solemn silence. "What we-uns mus' all be one day,
+stranger--a corpus."
+
+Browdie was stultified for a moment Then, sustaining his assumed
+character, he said: "I hope it be nobody I know. I be fairly well
+acquainted in Eskaqua, though I hail from down in Lonesome Cove. Who be
+dead!"
+
+There was palpably a moment's hesitation before the spokesman replied:
+"Watt Wyatt; died day 'fore yestiddy."
+
+At the words, one of the silent men in the wagon turned his face
+suddenly, with such obvious amazement depicted upon it that it arrested
+the attention of the "rev-enuers." This face was so individual that it
+was not likely to be easily mistaken or forgotten. A wild, breezy look
+it had, and a tricksy, incorporeal expression that might well befit
+some fantastic, fabled thing of the woods. It was full of fine script of
+elusive meanings, not registered in the lineaments of the prosaic man
+of the day, though perchance of scant utility, not worth interpretation.
+His full gray eyes were touched to glancing brilliancy by a moonbeam;
+his long, fibrously floating brown hair was thrown backward; his
+receding chin was peculiarly delicate; and though his well-knit frame
+bespoke a hardy vigor, his pale cheek was soft and thin. All the rustic
+grotesquery of garb and posture was cancelled by the deep shadow of a
+bough, and his delicate face showed isolated in the moonlight.
+
+Browdie silently pondered his vague suspicions for a moment "Whar did he
+die at?" he then demanded at a venture.
+
+"At his daddy's house, fur sure. Whar else?" responded the driver. "I
+hev got what's lef' of him hyar in the coffin-box. We expected ter make
+it ter Shiloh buryin'-ground 'fore dark; but the road is middlin' heavy,
+an' 'bout five mile' back Ben cast a shoe. The funeral warn't over much
+'fore noon."
+
+"Whyn't they bury him in Eskaqua, whar he died!" persisted Browdie.
+
+"Waal, they planned ter bury him alongside his mother an' gran'dad, what
+used ter live in Tanglefoot Cove. But we air wastin' time hyar, an' we
+hev got none ter spare. Gee, Ben! Git up, John!"
+
+The wagon gave a lurch; the horses, holding back in bracing attitudes
+far from the pole, went teetering down the steep slant, the locked wheel
+dragging heavily; the four men sat silent, two in slouching postures at
+the head of the coffin; the third, with the driver, was at its foot. It
+seemed drearily suggestive, the last journey of this humble mortality,
+in all the splendid environment of the mountains, under the vast
+expansions of the aloof skies, in the mystic light of the unnoting moon.
+
+"Is this bona-fide?" asked Browdie, with a questioning glance at the
+informer, who had at length crept forth.
+
+"I dunno," sullenly responded the mountaineer. He had acquainted the
+two officers, who were of a posse of revenue-raiders hovering in the
+vicinity, with the mysterious circumstance that a freighted wagon now
+and then made a midnight transit across these lonely ranges. He himself
+had heard only occasionally in a wakeful hour the roll of heavy wheels,
+but he interpreted this as the secret transportation of brush whisky
+from the still to its market. He had thought to fix the transgression
+on an old enemy of his own, long suspected of moonshining; but he was
+acquainted with none of the youngsters on the wagon, at whom he had
+peered cautiously from behind the rocks. His actuating motive in giving
+information to the emissaries of the government had been the rancor of
+an old feud, and his detection meant certain death. He had not expected
+the revenue-raiders to be outnumbered by the supposed moonshiners, and
+he would not fight in the open. He had no sentiment of fealty to the
+law, and the officers glanced at each other in uncertainty.
+
+"This evidently is not the wagon in question," said Browdie,
+disappointed.
+
+"I'll follow them a bit," volunteered Bonan, the younger and the more
+active of the two officers. "Seems to me they'll bear watching."
+
+Indeed, as the melancholy cort�ge fared down and down the steep road,
+dwindling in the sheeny distance, the covert and half-suppressed
+laughter of the sepulchral escort was of so keen a relish that it was
+well that the scraping of the locked wheel aided the distance to mask
+the incongruous sound.
+
+"What ailed you-uns ter name _me_ as the corpus, 'Gene Barker?" demanded
+Walter Wyatt, when he had regained the capacity of coherent speech.
+
+"Oh, I hed ter do suddint murder on somebody," declared the driver, all
+bluff and reassured and red-faced again, "an' I couldn't think quick
+of nobody else. Besides, I helt a grudge agin' you fer not stuffin' mo'
+straw 'twixt them jimmyjohns in the coffin-box."
+
+"That's a fac'. Ye air too triflin' ter be let ter live, Watt," cried
+one of their comrades. "I hearn them jugs clash tergether in the
+coffin-box when 'Gene checked the team up suddint, I tell you. An' them
+men sure 'peared ter me powerful suspectin'."
+
+"_I_ hearn the clash of them jimmyjohns," chimed in the driver. "I
+really thunk my hour war come. Some informer must hev set them men ter
+spyin' round fer moonshine."
+
+"Oh, surely nobody wouldn't dare," urged one of the group, uneasily; for
+the identity of an informer was masked in secrecy, and his fate, when
+discovered, was often gruesome.
+
+"They couldn't hev noticed the clash of them jimmyjohns, nohow,"
+declared the negligent Watt, nonchalantly. "But namin' _me_ fur the dead
+one! Supposin' they air revenuers fur true, an' hed somebody along, hid
+out in the bresh, ez war acquainted with me by sight----"
+
+"Then they'd hev been skeered out'n thar boots, that's all," interrupted
+the self-sufficient 'Gene. "They would hev 'lowed they hed viewed
+yer brazen ghost, bold ez brass, standin' at the head of yer own
+coffin-box."
+
+"Or mebbe they mought hev recognized the Wyatt favor, ef they warn't
+acquainted with _me_," persisted Watt, with his unique sense of injury.
+
+Eugene Barker defended the temerity of his inspiration. "They would hev
+jes thought ye war kin ter the deceased, an' at-tendin' him ter his long
+home."
+
+"'Gene don't keer much fur ye ter be alive nohow, Watt Wyatt," one of
+the others suggested tactlessly, "'count o' Minta Elladine Biggs."
+
+Eugene Barker's off-hand phrase was incongruous with his sudden gravity
+and his evident rancor as he declared: "_I_ ain't carin' fur sech ez
+Watt Wyatt. An' they _do_ say 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. That this hope had grown tenuous was evident in his
+relinquishment of his former caution, for when they again caught a
+glimpse of him he was forging along in the middle of the road without
+any effort at concealment. But as the wagon appeared in the perspective,
+stationary, hitched to the hedge of the graveyard, he recurred to his
+previous methods. The four men still within the in-closure, now busied
+in shovelling the earth back again into the excavation they had so
+swiftly made, covertly watched him as he skulked into the shadow of the
+wayside. The little "church-house," with all its windows whitely aglare
+in the moonlight, reflected the pervasive sheen, and silent, spectral,
+remote, it seemed as if it might well harbor at times its ghastly
+neighbors from the quiet cemetery without, dimly ranging themselves once
+more in the shadowy ranks of its pews or grimly stalking down the drear
+and deserted aisles. The fact that the rising ground toward the rear of
+the building necessitated a series of steps at the entrance, enabled the
+officer to mask behind this tall flight his crouching approach, and thus
+he ensconced himself in the angle between the wall and the steps, and
+looked forth in fancied security.
+
+The shadows multiplied the tale of the dead that the head-boards kept,
+each similitude askew in the moonlight on the turf below the slanting
+monument To judge by the motions of the men engaged in the burial and
+the mocking antics of their silhouettes on the ground, it must have been
+obvious to the spectator that they were already filling in the earth.
+The interment may have seemed to him suspiciously swift, but the
+possibility was obvious that the grave might have been previously dug
+in anticipation of their arrival. It was plain that he was altogether
+unprepared for the event when they came slouching forth to the wagon,
+and the stalwart and red-faced driver, with no manifestation of
+surprise, hailed him as he still crouched in his lurking-place. "Hello,
+stranger! Warn't that you-uns runnin' arter the wagon a piece back
+yonder jes a while ago?"
+
+The officer rose to his feet, with an intent look both dismayed and
+embarrassed. He did not venture on speech; he merely acceded with a nod.
+
+"Ye want a lift, I reckon."
+
+The stranger was hampered by the incongruity between his rustic garb,
+common to the coves, and his cultivated intonation; for, unlike his
+comrade Browdie, he had no mimetic faculties whatever. Nevertheless, he
+was now constrained to "face the music."
+
+"I didn't want to interrupt you," he said, seeking such excuse as due
+consideration for the circumstances might afford; "but I'd like to ask
+where I could get lodging for the night."
+
+"What's yer name?" demanded Barker, unceremoniously.
+
+"Francis Bonan," the raider replied, with more assurance. Then he added,
+by way of explaining his necessity, "I'm a stranger hereabouts."
+
+"Ye air so," assented the sarcastic 'Gene. "Ye ain't even acquainted
+with yer own clothes. Ye be a town man."
+
+"Well, I'm not the first man who has had to hide out," Ronan parried,
+seeking to justify his obvious disguise.
+
+"Shot somebody?" asked 'Gene, with an apparent accession of interest.
+
+"It's best for me not to tell."
+
+"So be." 'Gene acquiesced easily. "Waal, ef ye kin put up with sech
+accommodations ez our'n, I'll take ye home with me."
+
+Ronan stood aghast. But there was no door of retreat open. He was alone
+and helpless. He could not conceal the fact that the turn affairs had
+taken was equally unexpected and terrifying to him, and the moonshiners,
+keenly watchful, were correspondingly elated to discern that he had
+surely no reinforcements within reach to nerve him to resistance or
+to menace their liberty. He had evidently followed them too far, too
+recklessly; perhaps without the consent and against the counsel of his
+comrades, perhaps even without their knowledge of his movements and
+intention.
+
+Now and again as the wagon jogged on and on toward their distant haven,
+the moonlight gradually dulling to dawn, Wyatt gave the stranger
+a wondering, covert glance, vaguely, shrinkingly curious as to the
+sentiments of a man vacillating between the suspicion of capture and the
+recognition of a simple hospitality without significance or danger. The
+man's face appealed to him, young, alert, intelligent, earnest, and
+the anguish of doubt and anxiety it expressed went to his heart. In the
+experience of his sylvan life as a hunter Wyatt's peculiar and subtle
+temperament evolved certain fine-spun distinctions which were unique; a
+trapped thing had a special appeal to his commiseration that a creature
+ruthlessly slaughtered in the open was not privileged to claim. He did
+not accurately and in words discriminate the differences, but he felt
+that the captive had sounded all the gamut of hope and despair, shared
+the gradations of an appreciated sorrow that makes all souls akin and
+that even lifts the beast to the plane of brotherhood, the bond of
+emotional woe. He had often with no other or better reason liberated
+the trophy of his snare, calling after the amazed and franticly
+fleeing creature, "Bye-bye, Buddy!" with peals of his whimsical, joyous
+laughter.
+
+He was experiencing now a similar sequence of sentiments in noting the
+wild-eyed eagerness with which the captured raider took obvious heed of
+every minor point of worthiness that might mask the true character of
+his entertainers. But, indeed, these deceptive hopes might have been
+easily maintained by one not so desirous of reassurance when, in the
+darkest hour before the dawn, they reached a large log-cabin sequestered
+in dense woods, and he found himself an inmate of a simple, typical
+mountain household. It held an exceedingly venerable grandfather,
+wielding his infirmities as a rod of iron; a father and mother, hearty,
+hospitable, subservient to the aged tyrant, but keeping in filial check
+a family of sons and daughters-in-law, with an underfoot delegation of
+grandchildren, who seemed to spend their time in a bewildering manouver
+of dashing out at one door to dash in at another. A tumultuous rain
+had set in shortly after dawn, with lightning and wind,--"the tail of a
+harricane," as the host called it,--and a terrible bird the actual storm
+must have been to have a tail of such dimensions. There was no getting
+forth, no living creature of free will "took water" in this elemental
+crisis. The numerous dogs crowded the children away from the hearth,
+and the hens strolled about the large living-room, clucking to scurrying
+broods. Even one of the horses tramped up on the porch and looked in
+ever and anon, solicitous of human company.
+
+"I brung Ben up by hand, like a bottle-fed baby," the hostess
+apologized, "an' he ain't never fund out fur sure that he ain't folks."
+
+There seemed no possible intimation of moonshine in this entourage, and
+the coffin filled with jugs, a-wagoning from some distillers' den in the
+range to the cross-roads' store, might well have been accounted only the
+vain phantasm of an overtired brain surcharged with the vexed problems
+of the revenue service. The disguised revenue-raider was literally
+overcome with drowsiness, the result of his exertions and his vigils,
+and observing this, his host gave him one of the big feather beds under
+the low slant of the eaves in the roof-room, where the other men, who
+had been out all night, also slept the greater portion of the day. In
+fact, it was dark when Wyatt wakened, and, leaving the rest still torpid
+with slumber and fatigue, descended to the large main room of the cabin.
+
+The callow members of the household had retired to rest, but the elders
+of the band of moonshiners were up and still actively astir, and Wyatt
+experienced a prescient vicarious qualm to note their lack of heed or
+secrecy--the noisy shifting of heavy weights (barrels, kegs, bags of
+apples, and peaches for pomace), the loud voices and unguarded words.
+When a door in the floor was lifted, the whiff of chill, subterranean
+air that pervaded the whole house was heavily freighted with spirituous
+odors, and gave token to the meanest intelligence, to the most
+unobservant inmate, that the still was operated in a cellar, peculiarly
+immune to suspicion, for a cellar is never an adjunct to the ordinary
+mountain cabin. Thus the infraction of the revenue law went on securely
+and continuously beneath the placid, simple, domestic life, with its
+reverent care for the very aged and its tender nurture of the very
+young.
+
+It was significant, indeed, that the industry should not be
+pretermitted, however, when a stranger was within the gates. The reason
+to Wyatt, familiar with the moonshiners' methods and habits of thought,
+was only too plain. They intended that the "revenuer" should never go
+forth to tell the tale. His comrades had evidently failed to follow
+his trail, either losing it in the wilderness or from ignorance of
+his intention. He had put himself hopelessly into the power of
+these desperate men, whom his escape or liberation would menace
+with incarceration for a long term as Federal prisoners in distant
+penitentiaries, if, indeed, they were not already answerable to the law
+for some worse crime than illicit distilling. His murder would be the
+extreme of brutal craft, so devised as to seem an accident, against the
+possibility of future investigation.
+
+The reflection turned Wyatt deathly cold, he who could not bear unmoved
+the plea of a wild thing's eye. He sturdily sought to pull himself
+together. It was none of his decree; it was none of his deed, he argued.
+The older moonshiners, who managed all the details of the enterprise,
+would direct the event with absolute authority and the immutability of
+fate. But whatever should be done, he revolted from any knowledge of
+it, as from any share in the act. He had risen to leave the place, all
+strange of aspect now, metamorphosed,--various disorderly details of
+the prohibited industry ever and anon surging up from the still-room
+below,--when a hoarse voice took cognizance of his intention with a
+remonstrance.
+
+"Why, Watt Wyatt, _ye_ can't go out in the cove. Ye air dead! Ye will
+let that t'other revenue-raider ye seen into the secret o' the bresh
+whisky in our wagon ef ye air viewed about whenst 'Gene hev spread the
+report that ye air dead. Wait till them raiders hev cleared out of the
+kentry."
+
+The effort at detention, to interfere with his liberty, added redoubled
+impetus to Wyatt 's desire to be gone. He suddenly devised a cogent
+necessity. "I be feared my dad mought hear that fool tale. I ain't much
+loss, but dad would feel it."
+
+"Oh, I sent Jack thar ter tell him better whenst he drove ter mill
+ter-day ter git the meal fer the mash. Jack made yer dad understand
+'bout yer sudden demise."
+
+"Oh, yeh," interposed the glib Jack; "an' he said ez _he_ couldn't abide
+sech jokes."
+
+"Shucks!" cried the filial Wyatt. "Dad war full fresky himself in his
+young days; I hev hearn his old frien's say so."
+
+"I tried ter slick things over," said the diplomatic Jack. "I 'lowed
+young folks war giddy by nature. I 'lowed 't war jes a flash o' fun.
+An' he say: 'Flash o' fun be con-sarned! My son is more like a flash o'
+lightning; ez suddint an' mischeevious an' totally ondesirable.'"
+
+The reproach obviously struck home, for Wyatt maintained a disconsolate
+silence for a time. At length, apparently goaded by his thoughts to
+attempt a defense, he remonstrated:
+
+"Nobody ever war dead less of his own free will. I never elected ter
+be a harnt. 'Gene Barker hed no right ter nominate _me_ fer the dear
+departed, nohow."
+
+One of the uncouth younger fellows, his shoulders laden with a sack of
+meal, paused on his way from the porch to the trap-door to look up from
+beneath his burden with a sly grin as he said, "'Gene war wishin' it war
+true, that's why."
+
+"'Count o' Minta Elladine Riggs," gaily chimed in another.
+
+"But 'Gene needn't gredge Watt foothold on this yearth fer sech; _she_
+ain't keerin' whether Watt lives or dies," another contributed to the
+rough, rallying fun.
+
+But Wyatt was of sensitive fibre. He had flushed angrily; his eyes were
+alight; a bitter retort was trembling on his lips when one of the elder
+Barkers, discriminating the elements of an uncontrollable fracas, seized
+on the alternative.
+
+"Could you-uns _sure_ be back hyar by daybreak, Watt!" he asked, fixing
+the young fellow with a stern eye.
+
+"No 'spectable ghost roams around arter sun-up," cried Wyatt, fairly
+jovial at the prospect of liberation.
+
+"Ye mus' be heedful not ter be viewed," the senior admonished him.
+
+"I be goin' ter slip about keerful like a reg'lar, stiddy-goin' harnt,
+an' eavesdrop a bit. It's worth livin' a hard life ter view how a
+feller's friends will take his demise."
+
+"I reckon ye kin make out ter meet the wagin kemin' back from the
+cross-roads' store. It went out this evenin' with that coffin full of
+jugs that ye lef' las' night under the church-house, whenst 'Gene seen
+you-uns war suspicioned. They will hev time ter git ter the cross-roads
+with the whisky on' back little arter midnight, special' ez we-uns hev
+got the raider that spied out the job hyar fast by the leg."
+
+The mere mention of the young prisoner rendered Wyatt the more eager
+to be gone, to be out of sight and sound. But he had no agency in
+the disaster, he urged against some inward clamor of protest; the
+catastrophe was the logical result of the fool-hardiness of the officer
+in following these desperate men with no backing, with no power
+to apprehend or hold, relying on his flimsy disguise, and risking
+delivering himself into their hands, fettered as he was with the
+knowledge of his discovery of their secret.
+
+"It's nothin' ter _me_, nohow," Wyatt was continually repeating to
+himself, though when he sprang through the door he could scarcely draw
+his breath because of some mysterious, invisible clutch at his throat.
+
+He sought to ascribe this symptom to the density of the pervasive fog
+without, that impenetrably cloaked all the world; one might wonder how a
+man could find his way through the opaque white vapor. It was, however,
+an accustomed medium to the young mountaineer, and his feet, too, had
+something of that unclassified muscular instinct, apart from reason,
+which guides in an oft-trodden path. Once he came to a halt, from no
+uncertainty of locality, but to gaze apprehensively through the blank,
+white mists over a shuddering shoulder. "I wonder ef thar be any other
+harnts aloose ter-night, a-boguing through the fog an' the moon," he
+speculated. Presently he went on again, shaking his head sagely. "I
+ain't wantin' ter collogue with sech," he averred cautiously.
+
+Occasionally the moonlight fell in expansive splendor through a rift in
+the white vapor; amidst the silver glintings a vague, illusory panorama
+of promontory and island, bay and inlet, far ripplings of gleaming
+deeps, was presented like some magic reminiscence, some ethereal replica
+of the past, the simulacrum of the seas of these ancient coves, long
+since ebbed away and vanished.
+
+The sailing moon visibly rocked, as the pulsing tides of the cloud-ocean
+rose and fell, and ever and anon this supernal craft was whelmed in
+its surgings, and once more came majestically into view, freighted with
+fancies and heading for the haven of the purple western shores.
+
+In one of these clearances of the mists a light of an alien type caught
+the eye of the wandering spectre--a light, red, mundane, of prosaic
+suggestion. It filtered through the crevice of a small batten shutter.
+
+The ghost paused, his head speculatively askew. "Who sits so late at the
+forge!" he marvelled, for he was now near the base of the mountain, and
+he recognized the low, dark building looming through the mists, its roof
+aslant, its chimney cold, the big doors closed, the shutter fast. As
+he neared the place a sudden shrill guffaw smote the air, followed by a
+deep, gruff tone of disconcerted remonstrance. Certain cabalistic words
+made the matter plain.
+
+"High, Low, Jack, _and_ game! Fork! Fork!" Once more there arose a high
+falsetto shriek of jubilant laughter.
+
+Walter Wyatt crept noiselessly down the steep slant toward the shutter.
+He had no sense of intrusion, for he was often one of the merry blades
+wont to congregate at the forge at night and take a hand at cards,
+despite the adverse sentiment of the cove and the vigilance of the
+constable of the district, bent on enforcing the laws prohibiting
+gaming. As Wyatt stood at the crevice of the shutter the whole interior
+was distinct before him--the disabled wagon-wheels against the walls,
+the horse-shoes on a rod across the window, the great hood of the forge,
+the silent bellows, with its long, motionless handle. A kerosene lamp,
+perched on the elevated hearth of the forge, illumined the group of wild
+young mountaineers clustered about a barrel on the head of which the
+cards were dealt. There were no chairs; one of the gamesters sat on a
+keg of nails; another on an inverted splint basket; two on a rude bench
+that was wont to be placed outside the door for the accommodation
+of customers waiting for a horse to be shod or a plow to be laid. An
+onlooker, not yet so proficient as to attain his ambition of admission
+to the play, had mounted the anvil, and from this coign of vantage
+beheld all the outspread landscape of the "hands." More than once his
+indiscreet, inadvertent betrayal of some incident of his survey of the
+cards menaced him with a broken head. More innocuous to the interests of
+the play was a wight humbly ensconced on the shoeing-stool, which
+barely brought his head to the level of the board; but as he was densely
+ignorant of the game, he took no disadvantage from his lowly posture.
+His head was red, and as it moved erratically about in the gloom,
+Watt Wyatt thought for a moment that it was the smith's red setter. He
+grinned as he resolved that some day he would tell the fellow this as
+a pleasing gibe; but the thought was arrested by the sound of his own
+name.
+
+"Waal, sir," said the dealer, pausing in shuffling the cards, "I s'pose
+ye hev all hearn 'bout Walter Wyatt's takin' off."
+
+"An' none too soon, sartain." A sour visage was glimpsed beneath the
+wide brim of the speaker's hat.
+
+"Waal," drawled the semblance of the setter from deep in the
+clare-obscure, "Watt war jes a fool from lack o' sense."
+
+"That kind o' fool can't be cured," said another of the players. Then
+he sharply adjuxed the dealer. "Look out what ye be doin'! Ye hev gimme
+_two_ kyerds."
+
+"'Gene Barker will git ter marry Minta Elladine Biggs now, I reckon,"
+suggested the man on the anvil.
+
+"An' I'll dance at the weddin' with right good will an' a nimble toe,"
+declared the dealer, vivaciously. "I'll be glad ter see that couple
+settled. That gal couldn't make up her mind ter let Walter Wyatt go, an'
+yit no woman in her senses would hev been willin, ter marry him. He war
+ez unresponsible ez--ez--fox-fire."
+
+"An' ez onstiddy ez a harricane," commented another.
+
+"An' no more account than a mole in the yearth," said a third.
+
+The ghost at the window listened in aghast dismay and became pale in
+sober truth, for these boon companions he had accounted the best friends
+he had in the world. They had no word of regret, no simple human pity;
+even that facile meed of casual praise that he was "powerful pleasant
+company" was withheld. And for these and such as these he had bartered
+the esteem of the community at large and his filial duty and obedience;
+had spurned the claims of good citizenship and placed himself in
+jeopardy of the law; had forfeited the hand of the woman he loved.
+
+"Minta Elladine Biggs ain't keerin' nohow fer sech ez Watt," said the
+semblance of the setter, with a knowing nod of his red head. "I war up
+thar at the mill whenst the news kem ter-day, an' she war thar ter git
+some seconds. I hev hearn women go off in high-strikes fer a lovyer's
+death--even Mis' Simton, though hern was jes her husband, an 'a mighty
+pore one at that. But Minta Elladine jes listened quiet an' composed,
+an' never said one word."
+
+The batten shutter was trembling in the ghost's hand. In fact, so
+convulsive was his grasp that it shook the hook from the staple, and the
+shutter slowly opened as he stood at gaze.
+
+Perhaps it was the motion that attracted the attention of the dealer,
+perhaps the influx of a current of fresh air. He lifted his casual
+glance and beheld, distinct in the light from the kerosene lamp
+and imposed on the white background of the mist, that familiar and
+individual face, pallid, fixed, strange, with an expression that he had
+never seen it wear hitherto. One moment of suspended faculties, and he
+sprang up with a wild cry that filled the little shanty with its shrill
+terror. The others gazed astounded upon him, then followed the direction
+of his starting eyes, and echoed his frantic fright. There was a wild
+scurry toward the door. The overturning of the lamp was imminent, but
+it still burned calmly on the elevated hearth, while the shoeing-stool
+capsized in the rush, and the red head of its lowly occupant was lowlier
+still, rolling on the dirt floor. Even with this disadvantage, however,
+he was not the hindmost, and reached the exit unhurt. The only specific
+damage wrought by the panic was to the big barnlike doors of the place.
+They had been stanchly barred against the possible intrusion of
+the constable of the district, and the fastenings in so critical an
+emergency could not be readily loosed. The united weight and impetus of
+the onset burst the flimsy doors into fragments, and as the party fled
+in devious directions in the misty moonlight, the calm radiance entered
+at the wide-spread portal and illuminated the vacant place where late
+had been so merry a crew.
+
+Walter Wyatt had known the time when the incident would have held an
+incomparable relish for him. But now he gazed all forlorn into the empty
+building with a single thought in his mind. "Not one of 'em keered a
+mite! Nare good word, nare sigh, not even, 'Fare ye well, old mate!'"
+
+His breast heaved, his eyes flashed.
+
+"An' I hev loant money ter Jim, whenst I hed need myself; an' holped
+George in the mill, when his wrist war sprained, without a cent o' pay;
+an' took the blame when 'Dolphus war faulted by his dad fur lamin' the
+horse-critter; an' stood back an' let Pete git the meat whenst we-uns
+shot fur beef, bein' he hev got a wife an' chil'ren ter feed. All
+_leetle_ favors, but nare _leetle_ word."
+
+He had turned from the window and was tramping absently down the road,
+all unmindful of the skulking methods of the spectral gentry. If he had
+chanced to be observed, his little farce, that had yet an element of
+tragedy in its presentation, must soon have reached its close. But
+the fog hung about him like a cloak, and when the moon cast aside the
+vapors, it was in a distant silver sheen illumining the far reaches of
+the valley. Only when its light summoned forth a brilliant and glancing
+reflection on a lower level, as if a thousand sabers were unsheathed at
+a word, he recognized the proximity of the river and came to a sudden
+halt.
+
+"Whar is this fool goin'?" he demanded angrily of space. "To the
+graveyard, I declar', ez ef I war a harnt fur true, an' buried sure
+enough. An' I wish I war. I wish I war."
+
+He realized, after a moment's consideration, that he had been
+unconsciously actuated by the chance of meeting the wagon, returning by
+this route from the cross-roads' store. He was tired, disheartened; his
+spirit was spent; he would be glad of the lift. He reflected,
+however, that he must needs wait some time, for this was the date of a
+revival-meeting at the little church, and the distillers' wagon would
+lag, that its belated night journey might not be subjected to the
+scrutiny and comment of the church-goers. Indeed, even now Walter Wyatt
+saw in the distance the glimmer of a lantern, intimating homeward-bound
+worshipers not yet out of sight.
+
+"The saints kep' it up late ter-night," he commented.
+
+He resolved to wait till the roll of wheels should tell of the return of
+the moonshiners' empty wagon.
+
+He crossed the river on the little footbridge and took his way languidly
+along the road toward the deserted church. He was close to the hedge
+that grew thick and rank about the little inclosure when he suddenly
+heard the sound of lamentation from within. He drew back precipitately,
+with a sense of sacrilege, but the branches of the unpruned growth had
+caught in his sleeve, and he sought to disengage the cloth without such
+rustling stir as might disturb or alarm the mourner, who had evidently
+lingered here, after the dispersal of the congregation, for a moment's
+indulgence of grief and despair. He had a glimpse through the shaking
+boughs and the flickering mist of a woman's figure kneeling on the
+crude red clods of a new-made grave. A vague, anxious wonder as to the
+deceased visited him, for in the sparsely settled districts a strong
+community sense prevails. Suddenly in a choking gust of sobs and burst
+of tears he recognized his own name in a voice of which every inflection
+was familiar. For a moment his heart seemed to stand still. His brain
+whirled with a realization of this unforeseen result of the fantastic
+story of his death in Eskaqua Cove, which the moonshiners, on the verge
+of detection and arrest, had circulated in Tanglefoot as a measure of
+safety. They had fancied that when the truth was developed it would be
+easy enough to declare the men drunk or mistaken. The "revenuers" by
+that time would be far away, and the pervasive security, always the
+sequence of a raid, successful or otherwise, would once more promote
+the manufacture of the brush whisky. The managers of the moon-shining
+interest had taken measures to guard Wyatt's aged father from this
+fantasy of woe, but they had not dreamed that the mountain coquette
+might care. He himself stood appalled that this ghastly fable should
+delude his heart's beloved, amazed that it should cost her one sigh,
+one sob. Her racking paroxysms of grief over this gruesome figment of a
+grave he was humiliated to hear, he was woeful to see. He felt that he
+was not worth one tear of the floods with which she bewept his name,
+uttered in every cadence of tender regret that her melancholy voice
+could compass. It must cease, she must know the truth at whatever cost.
+He broke through the hedge and stood in the flicker of the moonlight
+before her, pale, agitated, all unlike his wonted self.
+
+She did not hear, amid the tumult of her weeping, the rustling of the
+boughs, but some subtle sense took cognizance of his presence. She half
+rose, and with one hand holding back her dense yellow hair, which
+had fallen forward on her forehead, she looked up at him fearfully,
+tremulously, with all the revolt of the corporeal creature for the
+essence of the mysterious incorporeal. For a moment he could not speak.
+So much he must needs explain. The next instant he was whelmed in the
+avalanche of her words.
+
+"Te hev kem!" she exclaimed in a sort of shrill ecstasy. "Te hev kem so
+far ter hear the word that I would give my life ter hev said before. Te
+knowed it in heaven! an' how like ye ter kem ter gin me the chanst ter
+say it at last! How like the good heart of ye, worth all the hearts on
+yearth--an' _buried hyar!_"
+
+With her open palm she smote the insensate clods with a gesture of
+despair. Then she went on in a rising tide of tumultuous emotion. "I
+love ye! Oh, I _always_ loved ye! I never keered fur nobody else! an' I
+war tongue-tied, an' full of fool pride, an' faultin' ye fur yer ways;
+an' I wouldn't gin ye the word I knowed ye war wantin' ter hear. But now
+I kin tell the pore ghost of ye--I kin tell the pore, pore ghost!"
+
+She buried her swollen, tear-stained face in her hands, and shook her
+head to and fro with the realization of the futility of late repentance.
+As she once more lifted her eyes, she was obviously surprised to see
+him still standing there, and the crisis seemed to restore to him the
+faculty of speech.
+
+"Minta Elladine," he said huskily and prosaically, "I ain't dead!"
+
+She sprang to her feet and stood gazing at him, intent and quivering.
+
+"I be truly alive an' kicking an' ez worthless ez ever," he went on.
+
+She said not a word, but bent and pallid, and, quaking in every muscle,
+stood peering beneath her hand, which still held back her hair.
+
+"It's all a mistake," he urged. "This ain't no grave. The top war dug a
+leetle ter turn off a revenuer's suspicions o' the moonshiners. They put
+that tale out."
+
+Still, evidently on the verge of collapse, she did not speak.
+
+"Ye needn't be afeared ez I be goin' ter take fur true all I hearn
+ye say; folks air gin ter vauntin' the dead," he paused for a moment,
+remembering the caustic comments over the deal of the cards, then added,
+"though I reckon _I_ hev hed some cur'ous 'speriences ez a harnt."
+
+She suddenly threw up both arms with a shrill scream, half nervous
+exhaustion, half inexpressible delight. She swayed to and fro, almost
+fainting, her balance failing. He caught her in his arms, and she leaned
+sobbing against his breast.
+
+"I stand ter every word of it," she cried, her voice broken and lapsed
+from control. "I love ye, an' I despise all the rest!"
+
+"I be powerful wild," he suggested contritely.
+
+"I ain't keerin' ef ye be ez wild ez a deer."
+
+"But I'm goin' to quit gamesome company an' playin' kyerds an' sech. I
+expec' ter mend my ways now," he promised eagerly.
+
+"Ye kin mend 'em or let 'em stay tore, jes ez ye please," she declared
+recklessly. "I ain't snatched my lovyer from the jaws o' death ter want
+him otherwise; ye be plumb true-hearted, _I know_."
+
+"I mought ez well hev been buried in this grave fer the last ten year'
+fer all the use I hev been," he protested solemnly; "but I hev learnt
+a lesson through bein' a harnt fer a while--I hev jes kem ter life. I'm
+goin' ter _live_ now. I'll make myself some use in the world, an' fust
+off I be goin' ter hinder the murder of a man what they hev got trapped
+up yander at the still."
+
+This initial devoir of his reformation, however, Wyatt found no easy
+matter. The event had been craftily planned to seem an accident, a fall
+from a cliff in pursuing the wagon, and only the most ardent and
+cogent urgency on Wyatt's part prevailed at length. He argued that this
+interpretation of the disaster would not satisfy the authorities. To
+take the raider's life insured discovery, retribution. But as he had
+been brought to the still in the night, it was obvious that if he
+were conveyed under cover of darkness and by roundabout trails within
+striking distance of the settlements, he could never again find his
+way to the locality in the dense wilderness. In his detention he had
+necessarily learned nothing fresh, for the only names he could have
+overheard had long been obnoxious to suspicion of moonshining, and
+afforded no proof. Thus humanity, masquerading as caution, finally
+triumphed, and the officer, blindfolded, was conducted through devious
+and winding ways many miles distant, and released within a day's travel
+of the county town.
+
+Walter Wyatt was scarcely welcomed back to life by the denizens of the
+cove generally with the enthusiasm attendant on the first moments of his
+resuscitation, so to speak. He never forgot the solemn ecstasy of
+that experience, and in later years he was wont to annul any menace of
+discord with his wife by the warning, half jocose, half tender: "Ye hed
+better mind; ye'll be sorry some day fur treatin' me so mean. Remember,
+I hev viewed ye a-weepin' over my grave before now."
+
+A reformation, however complete and salutary, works no change of
+identity, and although he developed into an orderly, industrious,
+law-abiding citizen, his prankish temperament remained recognizable
+in the fantastic fables which he delighted to recount at some genial
+fireside of what he had seen and heard as a ghost.
+
+"Pears like, Watt, ye hed more experiences whenst dead than living" said
+an auditor, as these stories multiplied.
+
+"I did, fur a fack," Watt protested. "I war a powerful onchancy, onquiet
+ghost. I even did my courtin' whilst in my reg'lar line o' business
+a-hanatin' a graveyard."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by 
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23556-8.txt or 23556-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/5/5/23556/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/23556-8.zip b/23556-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f7235a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23556-8.zip
diff --git a/23556-h.zip b/23556-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3e9e488
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23556-h.zip
diff --git a/23556-h/23556-h.htm b/23556-h/23556-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..63a5bbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23556-h/23556-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,1406 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" />
+    <title>
+      His Unquiet Ghost, by Charles Egbert Craddock
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: His Unquiet Ghost
+       1911
+
+Author: Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+Release Date: November 19, 2007 [EBook #23556]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      HIS UNQUIET GHOST
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Charles Egbert Craddock <br /> <br /> 1911
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was high in the sky. The wind was laid. So silent was the vast
+      stretch of mountain wilderness, aglint with the dew, that the tinkle of a
+      rill far below in the black abyss seemed less a sound than an evidence of
+      the pervasive quietude, since so slight a thing, so distant, could compass
+      so keen a vibration. For an hour or more the three men who lurked in the
+      shadow of a crag in the narrow mountain-pass, heard nothing else. When at
+      last they caught the dull reverberation of a slow wheel and the occasional
+      metallic clank of a tire against a stone, the vehicle was fully three
+      miles distant by the winding road in the valley. Time lagged. Only by
+      imperceptible degrees the sound of deliberate approach grew louder on the
+      air as the interval of space lessened. At length, above their ambush at
+      the summit of the mountain's brow the heads of horses came into view,
+      distinct in the moonlight between the fibrous pines and the vast expanse
+      of the sky above the valley. Even then there was renewed delay. The driver
+      of the wagon paused to rest the team.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three lurking men did not move; they scarcely ventured to breathe.
+      Only when there was no retrograde possible, no chance of escape, when the
+      vehicle was fairly on the steep declivity of the road, the precipice sheer
+      on one side, the wall of the ridge rising perpendicularly on the other,
+      did two of them, both revenue-raiders disguised as mountaineers, step
+      forth from the shadow. The other, the informer, a genuine mountaineer,
+      still skulked motionless in the darkness. The &ldquo;revenuers,&rdquo; ascending the
+      road, maintained a slow, lunging gait, as if they had toiled from far.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their abrupt appearance had the effect of a galvanic shock to the man
+      handling the reins, a stalwart, rubicund fellow, who visibly paled. He
+      drew up so suddenly as almost to throw the horses from their feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;G'evenin',&rdquo; ventured Browdie, the elder of the raiders, in a husky voice
+      affecting an untutored accent. He had some special ability as a mimic,
+      and, being familiar with the dialect and manners of the people, this gift
+      greatly facilitated the rustic impersonation he had essayed. &ldquo;Ye're
+      haulin' late,&rdquo; he added, for the hour was close to midnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, stranger; haulin' late, from Eskaqua&mdash;a needcessity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's yer cargo?&rdquo; asked Browdie, seeming only ordinarily inquisitive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sepulchral cadence was in the driver's voice, and the disguised raiders
+      noted that the three other men on the wagon had preserved, throughout, a
+      solemn silence. &ldquo;What we-uns mus' all be one day, stranger&mdash;a
+      corpus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Browdie was stultified for a moment Then, sustaining his assumed
+      character, he said: &ldquo;I hope it be nobody I know. I be fairly well
+      acquainted in Eskaqua, though I hail from down in Lonesome Cove. Who be
+      dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was palpably a moment's hesitation before the spokesman replied:
+      &ldquo;Watt Wyatt; died day 'fore yestiddy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the words, one of the silent men in the wagon turned his face suddenly,
+      with such obvious amazement depicted upon it that it arrested the
+      attention of the &ldquo;rev-enuers.&rdquo; This face was so individual that it was not
+      likely to be easily mistaken or forgotten. A wild, breezy look it had, and
+      a tricksy, incorporeal expression that might well befit some fantastic,
+      fabled thing of the woods. It was full of fine script of elusive meanings,
+      not registered in the lineaments of the prosaic man of the day, though
+      perchance of scant utility, not worth interpretation. His full gray eyes
+      were touched to glancing brilliancy by a moonbeam; his long, fibrously
+      floating brown hair was thrown backward; his receding chin was peculiarly
+      delicate; and though his well-knit frame bespoke a hardy vigor, his pale
+      cheek was soft and thin. All the rustic grotesquery of garb and posture
+      was cancelled by the deep shadow of a bough, and his delicate face showed
+      isolated in the moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Browdie silently pondered his vague suspicions for a moment &ldquo;Whar did he
+      die at?&rdquo; he then demanded at a venture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At his daddy's house, fur sure. Whar else?&rdquo; responded the driver. &ldquo;I hev
+      got what's lef' of him hyar in the coffin-box. We expected ter make it ter
+      Shiloh buryin'-ground 'fore dark; but the road is middlin' heavy, an'
+      'bout five mile' back Ben cast a shoe. The funeral warn't over much 'fore
+      noon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whyn't they bury him in Eskaqua, whar he died!&rdquo; persisted Browdie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal, they planned ter bury him alongside his mother an' gran'dad, what
+      used ter live in Tanglefoot Cove. But we air wastin' time hyar, an' we hev
+      got none ter spare. Gee, Ben! Git up, John!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wagon gave a lurch; the horses, holding back in bracing attitudes far
+      from the pole, went teetering down the steep slant, the locked wheel
+      dragging heavily; the four men sat silent, two in slouching postures at
+      the head of the coffin; the third, with the driver, was at its foot. It
+      seemed drearily suggestive, the last journey of this humble mortality, in
+      all the splendid environment of the mountains, under the vast expansions
+      of the aloof skies, in the mystic light of the unnoting moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this bona-fide?&rdquo; asked Browdie, with a questioning glance at the
+      informer, who had at length crept forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dunno,&rdquo; sullenly responded the mountaineer. He had acquainted the two
+      officers, who were of a posse of revenue-raiders hovering in the vicinity,
+      with the mysterious circumstance that a freighted wagon now and then made
+      a midnight transit across these lonely ranges. He himself had heard only
+      occasionally in a wakeful hour the roll of heavy wheels, but he
+      interpreted this as the secret transportation of brush whisky from the
+      still to its market. He had thought to fix the transgression on an old
+      enemy of his own, long suspected of moonshining; but he was acquainted
+      with none of the youngsters on the wagon, at whom he had peered cautiously
+      from behind the rocks. His actuating motive in giving information to the
+      emissaries of the government had been the rancor of an old feud, and his
+      detection meant certain death. He had not expected the revenue-raiders to
+      be outnumbered by the supposed moonshiners, and he would not fight in the
+      open. He had no sentiment of fealty to the law, and the officers glanced
+      at each other in uncertainty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This evidently is not the wagon in question,&rdquo; said Browdie, disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll follow them a bit,&rdquo; volunteered Bonan, the younger and the more
+      active of the two officers. &ldquo;Seems to me they'll bear watching.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed, as the melancholy cortège fared down and down the steep road,
+      dwindling in the sheeny distance, the covert and half-suppressed laughter
+      of the sepulchral escort was of so keen a relish that it was well that the
+      scraping of the locked wheel aided the distance to mask the incongruous
+      sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What ailed you-uns ter name <i>me</i> as the corpus, 'Gene Barker?&rdquo;
+       demanded Walter Wyatt, when he had regained the capacity of coherent
+      speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I hed ter do suddint murder on somebody,&rdquo; declared the driver, all
+      bluff and reassured and red-faced again, &ldquo;an' I couldn't think quick of
+      nobody else. Besides, I helt a grudge agin' you fer not stuffin' mo' straw
+      'twixt them jimmyjohns in the coffin-box.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a fac'. Ye air too triflin' ter be let ter live, Watt,&rdquo; cried one
+      of their comrades. &ldquo;I hearn them jugs clash tergether in the coffin-box
+      when 'Gene checked the team up suddint, I tell you. An' them men sure
+      'peared ter me powerful suspectin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>I</i> hearn the clash of them jimmyjohns,&rdquo; chimed in the driver. &ldquo;I
+      really thunk my hour war come. Some informer must hev set them men ter
+      spyin' round fer moonshine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, surely nobody wouldn't dare,&rdquo; urged one of the group, uneasily; for
+      the identity of an informer was masked in secrecy, and his fate, when
+      discovered, was often gruesome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They couldn't hev noticed the clash of them jimmyjohns, nohow,&rdquo; declared
+      the negligent Watt, nonchalantly. &ldquo;But namin' <i>me</i> fur the dead one!
+      Supposin' they air revenuers fur true, an' hed somebody along, hid out in
+      the bresh, ez war acquainted with me by sight&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then they'd hev been skeered out'n thar boots, that's all,&rdquo; interrupted
+      the self-sufficient 'Gene. &ldquo;They would hev 'lowed they hed viewed yer
+      brazen ghost, bold ez brass, standin' at the head of yer own coffin-box.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or mebbe they mought hev recognized the Wyatt favor, ef they warn't
+      acquainted with <i>me</i>,&rdquo; persisted Watt, with his unique sense of
+      injury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugene Barker defended the temerity of his inspiration. &ldquo;They would hev
+      jes thought ye war kin ter the deceased, an' at-tendin' him ter his long
+      home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Gene don't keer much fur ye ter be alive nohow, Watt Wyatt,&rdquo; one of the
+      others suggested tactlessly, &ldquo;'count o' Minta Elladine Biggs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugene Barker's off-hand phrase was incongruous with his sudden gravity
+      and his evident rancor as he declared: &ldquo;<i>I</i> ain't carin' fur sech ez
+      Watt Wyatt. An' they <i>do</i> say 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.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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 &ldquo;revenuer&rdquo; so hard on their heels
+      this might seem a troublous problem enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put it whar a coffin b'longs&mdash;in the churchyard,&rdquo; 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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We couldn't dig a grave before that spy&mdash;ef he be a revenuer sure
+      enough&mdash;could overhaul us,&rdquo; Eugene Barker objected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We could turn the yearth right smart, though,&rdquo; 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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugene Barker acceded to this view. &ldquo;That's the dinctum&mdash;dig a few
+      jes fer a blind. We kin slip the coffin-box under the church-house 'fore
+      he gits in sight,&mdash;he'll be feared ter follow too close,&mdash;an'
+      leave it thar till the other boys kin wagon it ter the cross-roads' store
+      ter-morrer night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      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. That this hope had grown
+      tenuous was evident in his relinquishment of his former caution, for when
+      they again caught a glimpse of him he was forging along in the middle of
+      the road without any effort at concealment. But as the wagon appeared in
+      the perspective, stationary, hitched to the hedge of the graveyard, he
+      recurred to his previous methods. The four men still within the
+      in-closure, now busied in shovelling the earth back again into the
+      excavation they had so swiftly made, covertly watched him as he skulked
+      into the shadow of the wayside. The little &ldquo;church-house,&rdquo; with all its
+      windows whitely aglare in the moonlight, reflected the pervasive sheen,
+      and silent, spectral, remote, it seemed as if it might well harbor at
+      times its ghastly neighbors from the quiet cemetery without, dimly ranging
+      themselves once more in the shadowy ranks of its pews or grimly stalking
+      down the drear and deserted aisles. The fact that the rising ground toward
+      the rear of the building necessitated a series of steps at the entrance,
+      enabled the officer to mask behind this tall flight his crouching
+      approach, and thus he ensconced himself in the angle between the wall and
+      the steps, and looked forth in fancied security.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadows multiplied the tale of the dead that the head-boards kept,
+      each similitude askew in the moonlight on the turf below the slanting
+      monument To judge by the motions of the men engaged in the burial and the
+      mocking antics of their silhouettes on the ground, it must have been
+      obvious to the spectator that they were already filling in the earth. The
+      interment may have seemed to him suspiciously swift, but the possibility
+      was obvious that the grave might have been previously dug in anticipation
+      of their arrival. It was plain that he was altogether unprepared for the
+      event when they came slouching forth to the wagon, and the stalwart and
+      red-faced driver, with no manifestation of surprise, hailed him as he
+      still crouched in his lurking-place. &ldquo;Hello, stranger! Warn't that you-uns
+      runnin' arter the wagon a piece back yonder jes a while ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer rose to his feet, with an intent look both dismayed and
+      embarrassed. He did not venture on speech; he merely acceded with a nod.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye want a lift, I reckon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger was hampered by the incongruity between his rustic garb,
+      common to the coves, and his cultivated intonation; for, unlike his
+      comrade Browdie, he had no mimetic faculties whatever. Nevertheless, he
+      was now constrained to &ldquo;face the music.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't want to interrupt you,&rdquo; he said, seeking such excuse as due
+      consideration for the circumstances might afford; &ldquo;but I'd like to ask
+      where I could get lodging for the night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's yer name?&rdquo; demanded Barker, unceremoniously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Francis Bonan,&rdquo; the raider replied, with more assurance. Then he added,
+      by way of explaining his necessity, &ldquo;I'm a stranger hereabouts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye air so,&rdquo; assented the sarcastic 'Gene. &ldquo;Ye ain't even acquainted with
+      yer own clothes. Ye be a town man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm not the first man who has had to hide out,&rdquo; Ronan parried,
+      seeking to justify his obvious disguise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shot somebody?&rdquo; asked 'Gene, with an apparent accession of interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's best for me not to tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be.&rdquo; 'Gene acquiesced easily. &ldquo;Waal, ef ye kin put up with sech
+      accommodations ez our'n, I'll take ye home with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ronan stood aghast. But there was no door of retreat open. He was alone
+      and helpless. He could not conceal the fact that the turn affairs had
+      taken was equally unexpected and terrifying to him, and the moonshiners,
+      keenly watchful, were correspondingly elated to discern that he had surely
+      no reinforcements within reach to nerve him to resistance or to menace
+      their liberty. He had evidently followed them too far, too recklessly;
+      perhaps without the consent and against the counsel of his comrades,
+      perhaps even without their knowledge of his movements and intention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now and again as the wagon jogged on and on toward their distant haven,
+      the moonlight gradually dulling to dawn, Wyatt gave the stranger a
+      wondering, covert glance, vaguely, shrinkingly curious as to the
+      sentiments of a man vacillating between the suspicion of capture and the
+      recognition of a simple hospitality without significance or danger. The
+      man's face appealed to him, young, alert, intelligent, earnest, and the
+      anguish of doubt and anxiety it expressed went to his heart. In the
+      experience of his sylvan life as a hunter Wyatt's peculiar and subtle
+      temperament evolved certain fine-spun distinctions which were unique; a
+      trapped thing had a special appeal to his commiseration that a creature
+      ruthlessly slaughtered in the open was not privileged to claim. He did not
+      accurately and in words discriminate the differences, but he felt that the
+      captive had sounded all the gamut of hope and despair, shared the
+      gradations of an appreciated sorrow that makes all souls akin and that
+      even lifts the beast to the plane of brotherhood, the bond of emotional
+      woe. He had often with no other or better reason liberated the trophy of
+      his snare, calling after the amazed and franticly fleeing creature,
+      &ldquo;Bye-bye, Buddy!&rdquo; with peals of his whimsical, joyous laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was experiencing now a similar sequence of sentiments in noting the
+      wild-eyed eagerness with which the captured raider took obvious heed of
+      every minor point of worthiness that might mask the true character of his
+      entertainers. But, indeed, these deceptive hopes might have been easily
+      maintained by one not so desirous of reassurance when, in the darkest hour
+      before the dawn, they reached a large log-cabin sequestered in dense
+      woods, and he found himself an inmate of a simple, typical mountain
+      household. It held an exceedingly venerable grandfather, wielding his
+      infirmities as a rod of iron; a father and mother, hearty, hospitable,
+      subservient to the aged tyrant, but keeping in filial check a family of
+      sons and daughters-in-law, with an underfoot delegation of grandchildren,
+      who seemed to spend their time in a bewildering manouver of dashing out at
+      one door to dash in at another. A tumultuous rain had set in shortly after
+      dawn, with lightning and wind,&mdash;&ldquo;the tail of a harricane,&rdquo; as the
+      host called it,&mdash;and a terrible bird the actual storm must have been
+      to have a tail of such dimensions. There was no getting forth, no living
+      creature of free will &ldquo;took water&rdquo; in this elemental crisis. The numerous
+      dogs crowded the children away from the hearth, and the hens strolled
+      about the large living-room, clucking to scurrying broods. Even one of the
+      horses tramped up on the porch and looked in ever and anon, solicitous of
+      human company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I brung Ben up by hand, like a bottle-fed baby,&rdquo; the hostess apologized,
+      &ldquo;an' he ain't never fund out fur sure that he ain't folks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There seemed no possible intimation of moonshine in this entourage, and
+      the coffin filled with jugs, a-wagoning from some distillers' den in the
+      range to the cross-roads' store, might well have been accounted only the
+      vain phantasm of an overtired brain surcharged with the vexed problems of
+      the revenue service. The disguised revenue-raider was literally overcome
+      with drowsiness, the result of his exertions and his vigils, and observing
+      this, his host gave him one of the big feather beds under the low slant of
+      the eaves in the roof-room, where the other men, who had been out all
+      night, also slept the greater portion of the day. In fact, it was dark
+      when Wyatt wakened, and, leaving the rest still torpid with slumber and
+      fatigue, descended to the large main room of the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The callow members of the household had retired to rest, but the elders of
+      the band of moonshiners were up and still actively astir, and Wyatt
+      experienced a prescient vicarious qualm to note their lack of heed or
+      secrecy&mdash;the noisy shifting of heavy weights (barrels, kegs, bags of
+      apples, and peaches for pomace), the loud voices and unguarded words. When
+      a door in the floor was lifted, the whiff of chill, subterranean air that
+      pervaded the whole house was heavily freighted with spirituous odors, and
+      gave token to the meanest intelligence, to the most unobservant inmate,
+      that the still was operated in a cellar, peculiarly immune to suspicion,
+      for a cellar is never an adjunct to the ordinary mountain cabin. Thus the
+      infraction of the revenue law went on securely and continuously beneath
+      the placid, simple, domestic life, with its reverent care for the very
+      aged and its tender nurture of the very young.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was significant, indeed, that the industry should not be pretermitted,
+      however, when a stranger was within the gates. The reason to Wyatt,
+      familiar with the moonshiners' methods and habits of thought, was only too
+      plain. They intended that the &ldquo;revenuer&rdquo; should never go forth to tell the
+      tale. His comrades had evidently failed to follow his trail, either losing
+      it in the wilderness or from ignorance of his intention. He had put
+      himself hopelessly into the power of these desperate men, whom his escape
+      or liberation would menace with incarceration for a long term as Federal
+      prisoners in distant penitentiaries, if, indeed, they were not already
+      answerable to the law for some worse crime than illicit distilling. His
+      murder would be the extreme of brutal craft, so devised as to seem an
+      accident, against the possibility of future investigation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reflection turned Wyatt deathly cold, he who could not bear unmoved
+      the plea of a wild thing's eye. He sturdily sought to pull himself
+      together. It was none of his decree; it was none of his deed, he argued.
+      The older moonshiners, who managed all the details of the enterprise,
+      would direct the event with absolute authority and the immutability of
+      fate. But whatever should be done, he revolted from any knowledge of it,
+      as from any share in the act. He had risen to leave the place, all strange
+      of aspect now, metamorphosed,&mdash;various disorderly details of the
+      prohibited industry ever and anon surging up from the still-room below,&mdash;when
+      a hoarse voice took cognizance of his intention with a remonstrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Watt Wyatt, <i>ye</i> can't go out in the cove. Ye air dead! Ye will
+      let that t'other revenue-raider ye seen into the secret o' the bresh
+      whisky in our wagon ef ye air viewed about whenst 'Gene hev spread the
+      report that ye air dead. Wait till them raiders hev cleared out of the
+      kentry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The effort at detention, to interfere with his liberty, added redoubled
+      impetus to Wyatt 's desire to be gone. He suddenly devised a cogent
+      necessity. &ldquo;I be feared my dad mought hear that fool tale. I ain't much
+      loss, but dad would feel it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I sent Jack thar ter tell him better whenst he drove ter mill ter-day
+      ter git the meal fer the mash. Jack made yer dad understand 'bout yer
+      sudden demise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yeh,&rdquo; interposed the glib Jack; &ldquo;an' he said ez <i>he</i> couldn't
+      abide sech jokes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shucks!&rdquo; cried the filial Wyatt. &ldquo;Dad war full fresky himself in his
+      young days; I hev hearn his old frien's say so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tried ter slick things over,&rdquo; said the diplomatic Jack. &ldquo;I 'lowed young
+      folks war giddy by nature. I 'lowed 't war jes a flash o' fun. An' he say:
+      'Flash o' fun be con-sarned! My son is more like a flash o' lightning; ez
+      suddint an' mischeevious an' totally ondesirable.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reproach obviously struck home, for Wyatt maintained a disconsolate
+      silence for a time. At length, apparently goaded by his thoughts to
+      attempt a defense, he remonstrated:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nobody ever war dead less of his own free will. I never elected ter be a
+      harnt. 'Gene Barker hed no right ter nominate <i>me</i> fer the dear
+      departed, nohow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the uncouth younger fellows, his shoulders laden with a sack of
+      meal, paused on his way from the porch to the trap-door to look up from
+      beneath his burden with a sly grin as he said, &ldquo;'Gene war wishin' it war
+      true, that's why.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Count o' Minta Elladine Riggs,&rdquo; gaily chimed in another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But 'Gene needn't gredge Watt foothold on this yearth fer sech; <i>she</i>
+      ain't keerin' whether Watt lives or dies,&rdquo; another contributed to the
+      rough, rallying fun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Wyatt was of sensitive fibre. He had flushed angrily; his eyes were
+      alight; a bitter retort was trembling on his lips when one of the elder
+      Barkers, discriminating the elements of an uncontrollable fracas, seized
+      on the alternative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could you-uns <i>sure</i> be back hyar by daybreak, Watt!&rdquo; he asked,
+      fixing the young fellow with a stern eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No 'spectable ghost roams around arter sun-up,&rdquo; cried Wyatt, fairly
+      jovial at the prospect of liberation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye mus' be heedful not ter be viewed,&rdquo; the senior admonished him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I be goin' ter slip about keerful like a reg'lar, stiddy-goin' harnt, an'
+      eavesdrop a bit. It's worth livin' a hard life ter view how a feller's
+      friends will take his demise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon ye kin make out ter meet the wagin kemin' back from the
+      cross-roads' store. It went out this evenin' with that coffin full of jugs
+      that ye lef' las' night under the church-house, whenst 'Gene seen you-uns
+      war suspicioned. They will hev time ter git ter the cross-roads with the
+      whisky on' back little arter midnight, special' ez we-uns hev got the
+      raider that spied out the job hyar fast by the leg.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mere mention of the young prisoner rendered Wyatt the more eager to be
+      gone, to be out of sight and sound. But he had no agency in the disaster,
+      he urged against some inward clamor of protest; the catastrophe was the
+      logical result of the fool-hardiness of the officer in following these
+      desperate men with no backing, with no power to apprehend or hold, relying
+      on his flimsy disguise, and risking delivering himself into their hands,
+      fettered as he was with the knowledge of his discovery of their secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's nothin' ter <i>me</i>, nohow,&rdquo; Wyatt was continually repeating to
+      himself, though when he sprang through the door he could scarcely draw his
+      breath because of some mysterious, invisible clutch at his throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sought to ascribe this symptom to the density of the pervasive fog
+      without, that impenetrably cloaked all the world; one might wonder how a
+      man could find his way through the opaque white vapor. It was, however, an
+      accustomed medium to the young mountaineer, and his feet, too, had
+      something of that unclassified muscular instinct, apart from reason, which
+      guides in an oft-trodden path. Once he came to a halt, from no uncertainty
+      of locality, but to gaze apprehensively through the blank, white mists
+      over a shuddering shoulder. &ldquo;I wonder ef thar be any other harnts aloose
+      ter-night, a-boguing through the fog an' the moon,&rdquo; he speculated.
+      Presently he went on again, shaking his head sagely. &ldquo;I ain't wantin' ter
+      collogue with sech,&rdquo; he averred cautiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Occasionally the moonlight fell in expansive splendor through a rift in
+      the white vapor; amidst the silver glintings a vague, illusory panorama of
+      promontory and island, bay and inlet, far ripplings of gleaming deeps, was
+      presented like some magic reminiscence, some ethereal replica of the past,
+      the simulacrum of the seas of these ancient coves, long since ebbed away
+      and vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sailing moon visibly rocked, as the pulsing tides of the cloud-ocean
+      rose and fell, and ever and anon this supernal craft was whelmed in its
+      surgings, and once more came majestically into view, freighted with
+      fancies and heading for the haven of the purple western shores.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one of these clearances of the mists a light of an alien type caught
+      the eye of the wandering spectre&mdash;a light, red, mundane, of prosaic
+      suggestion. It filtered through the crevice of a small batten shutter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ghost paused, his head speculatively askew. &ldquo;Who sits so late at the
+      forge!&rdquo; he marvelled, for he was now near the base of the mountain, and he
+      recognized the low, dark building looming through the mists, its roof
+      aslant, its chimney cold, the big doors closed, the shutter fast. As he
+      neared the place a sudden shrill guffaw smote the air, followed by a deep,
+      gruff tone of disconcerted remonstrance. Certain cabalistic words made the
+      matter plain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;High, Low, Jack, <i>and</i> game! Fork! Fork!&rdquo; Once more there arose a
+      high falsetto shriek of jubilant laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walter Wyatt crept noiselessly down the steep slant toward the shutter. He
+      had no sense of intrusion, for he was often one of the merry blades wont
+      to congregate at the forge at night and take a hand at cards, despite the
+      adverse sentiment of the cove and the vigilance of the constable of the
+      district, bent on enforcing the laws prohibiting gaming. As Wyatt stood at
+      the crevice of the shutter the whole interior was distinct before him&mdash;the
+      disabled wagon-wheels against the walls, the horse-shoes on a rod across
+      the window, the great hood of the forge, the silent bellows, with its
+      long, motionless handle. A kerosene lamp, perched on the elevated hearth
+      of the forge, illumined the group of wild young mountaineers clustered
+      about a barrel on the head of which the cards were dealt. There were no
+      chairs; one of the gamesters sat on a keg of nails; another on an inverted
+      splint basket; two on a rude bench that was wont to be placed outside the
+      door for the accommodation of customers waiting for a horse to be shod or
+      a plow to be laid. An onlooker, not yet so proficient as to attain his
+      ambition of admission to the play, had mounted the anvil, and from this
+      coign of vantage beheld all the outspread landscape of the &ldquo;hands.&rdquo; More
+      than once his indiscreet, inadvertent betrayal of some incident of his
+      survey of the cards menaced him with a broken head. More innocuous to the
+      interests of the play was a wight humbly ensconced on the shoeing-stool,
+      which barely brought his head to the level of the board; but as he was
+      densely ignorant of the game, he took no disadvantage from his lowly
+      posture. His head was red, and as it moved erratically about in the gloom,
+      Watt Wyatt thought for a moment that it was the smith's red setter. He
+      grinned as he resolved that some day he would tell the fellow this as a
+      pleasing gibe; but the thought was arrested by the sound of his own name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal, sir,&rdquo; said the dealer, pausing in shuffling the cards, &ldquo;I s'pose ye
+      hev all hearn 'bout Walter Wyatt's takin' off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' none too soon, sartain.&rdquo; A sour visage was glimpsed beneath the wide
+      brim of the speaker's hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal,&rdquo; drawled the semblance of the setter from deep in the
+      clare-obscure, &ldquo;Watt war jes a fool from lack o' sense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That kind o' fool can't be cured,&rdquo; said another of the players. Then he
+      sharply adjuxed the dealer. &ldquo;Look out what ye be doin'! Ye hev gimme <i>two</i>
+      kyerds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Gene Barker will git ter marry Minta Elladine Biggs now, I reckon,&rdquo;
+       suggested the man on the anvil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' I'll dance at the weddin' with right good will an' a nimble toe,&rdquo;
+       declared the dealer, vivaciously. &ldquo;I'll be glad ter see that couple
+      settled. That gal couldn't make up her mind ter let Walter Wyatt go, an'
+      yit no woman in her senses would hev been willin, ter marry him. He war ez
+      unresponsible ez&mdash;ez&mdash;fox-fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' ez onstiddy ez a harricane,&rdquo; commented another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' no more account than a mole in the yearth,&rdquo; said a third.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ghost at the window listened in aghast dismay and became pale in sober
+      truth, for these boon companions he had accounted the best friends he had
+      in the world. They had no word of regret, no simple human pity; even that
+      facile meed of casual praise that he was &ldquo;powerful pleasant company&rdquo; was
+      withheld. And for these and such as these he had bartered the esteem of
+      the community at large and his filial duty and obedience; had spurned the
+      claims of good citizenship and placed himself in jeopardy of the law; had
+      forfeited the hand of the woman he loved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Minta Elladine Biggs ain't keerin' nohow fer sech ez Watt,&rdquo; said the
+      semblance of the setter, with a knowing nod of his red head. &ldquo;I war up
+      thar at the mill whenst the news kem ter-day, an' she war thar ter git
+      some seconds. I hev hearn women go off in high-strikes fer a lovyer's
+      death&mdash;even Mis' Simton, though hern was jes her husband, an 'a
+      mighty pore one at that. But Minta Elladine jes listened quiet an'
+      composed, an' never said one word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The batten shutter was trembling in the ghost's hand. In fact, so
+      convulsive was his grasp that it shook the hook from the staple, and the
+      shutter slowly opened as he stood at gaze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps it was the motion that attracted the attention of the dealer,
+      perhaps the influx of a current of fresh air. He lifted his casual glance
+      and beheld, distinct in the light from the kerosene lamp and imposed on
+      the white background of the mist, that familiar and individual face,
+      pallid, fixed, strange, with an expression that he had never seen it wear
+      hitherto. One moment of suspended faculties, and he sprang up with a wild
+      cry that filled the little shanty with its shrill terror. The others gazed
+      astounded upon him, then followed the direction of his starting eyes, and
+      echoed his frantic fright. There was a wild scurry toward the door. The
+      overturning of the lamp was imminent, but it still burned calmly on the
+      elevated hearth, while the shoeing-stool capsized in the rush, and the red
+      head of its lowly occupant was lowlier still, rolling on the dirt floor.
+      Even with this disadvantage, however, he was not the hindmost, and reached
+      the exit unhurt. The only specific damage wrought by the panic was to the
+      big barnlike doors of the place. They had been stanchly barred against the
+      possible intrusion of the constable of the district, and the fastenings in
+      so critical an emergency could not be readily loosed. The united weight
+      and impetus of the onset burst the flimsy doors into fragments, and as the
+      party fled in devious directions in the misty moonlight, the calm radiance
+      entered at the wide-spread portal and illuminated the vacant place where
+      late had been so merry a crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walter Wyatt had known the time when the incident would have held an
+      incomparable relish for him. But now he gazed all forlorn into the empty
+      building with a single thought in his mind. &ldquo;Not one of 'em keered a mite!
+      Nare good word, nare sigh, not even, 'Fare ye well, old mate!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His breast heaved, his eyes flashed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' I hev loant money ter Jim, whenst I hed need myself; an' holped
+      George in the mill, when his wrist war sprained, without a cent o' pay;
+      an' took the blame when 'Dolphus war faulted by his dad fur lamin' the
+      horse-critter; an' stood back an' let Pete git the meat whenst we-uns shot
+      fur beef, bein' he hev got a wife an' chil'ren ter feed. All <i>leetle</i>
+      favors, but nare <i>leetle</i> word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had turned from the window and was tramping absently down the road, all
+      unmindful of the skulking methods of the spectral gentry. If he had
+      chanced to be observed, his little farce, that had yet an element of
+      tragedy in its presentation, must soon have reached its close. But the fog
+      hung about him like a cloak, and when the moon cast aside the vapors, it
+      was in a distant silver sheen illumining the far reaches of the valley.
+      Only when its light summoned forth a brilliant and glancing reflection on
+      a lower level, as if a thousand sabers were unsheathed at a word, he
+      recognized the proximity of the river and came to a sudden halt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whar is this fool goin'?&rdquo; he demanded angrily of space. &ldquo;To the
+      graveyard, I declar', ez ef I war a harnt fur true, an' buried sure
+      enough. An' I wish I war. I wish I war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He realized, after a moment's consideration, that he had been
+      unconsciously actuated by the chance of meeting the wagon, returning by
+      this route from the cross-roads' store. He was tired, disheartened; his
+      spirit was spent; he would be glad of the lift. He reflected, however,
+      that he must needs wait some time, for this was the date of a
+      revival-meeting at the little church, and the distillers' wagon would lag,
+      that its belated night journey might not be subjected to the scrutiny and
+      comment of the church-goers. Indeed, even now Walter Wyatt saw in the
+      distance the glimmer of a lantern, intimating homeward-bound worshipers
+      not yet out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The saints kep' it up late ter-night,&rdquo; he commented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He resolved to wait till the roll of wheels should tell of the return of
+      the moonshiners' empty wagon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He crossed the river on the little footbridge and took his way languidly
+      along the road toward the deserted church. He was close to the hedge that
+      grew thick and rank about the little inclosure when he suddenly heard the
+      sound of lamentation from within. He drew back precipitately, with a sense
+      of sacrilege, but the branches of the unpruned growth had caught in his
+      sleeve, and he sought to disengage the cloth without such rustling stir as
+      might disturb or alarm the mourner, who had evidently lingered here, after
+      the dispersal of the congregation, for a moment's indulgence of grief and
+      despair. He had a glimpse through the shaking boughs and the flickering
+      mist of a woman's figure kneeling on the crude red clods of a new-made
+      grave. A vague, anxious wonder as to the deceased visited him, for in the
+      sparsely settled districts a strong community sense prevails. Suddenly in
+      a choking gust of sobs and burst of tears he recognized his own name in a
+      voice of which every inflection was familiar. For a moment his heart
+      seemed to stand still. His brain whirled with a realization of this
+      unforeseen result of the fantastic story of his death in Eskaqua Cove,
+      which the moonshiners, on the verge of detection and arrest, had
+      circulated in Tanglefoot as a measure of safety. They had fancied that
+      when the truth was developed it would be easy enough to declare the men
+      drunk or mistaken. The &ldquo;revenuers&rdquo; by that time would be far away, and the
+      pervasive security, always the sequence of a raid, successful or
+      otherwise, would once more promote the manufacture of the brush whisky.
+      The managers of the moon-shining interest had taken measures to guard
+      Wyatt's aged father from this fantasy of woe, but they had not dreamed
+      that the mountain coquette might care. He himself stood appalled that this
+      ghastly fable should delude his heart's beloved, amazed that it should
+      cost her one sigh, one sob. Her racking paroxysms of grief over this
+      gruesome figment of a grave he was humiliated to hear, he was woeful to
+      see. He felt that he was not worth one tear of the floods with which she
+      bewept his name, uttered in every cadence of tender regret that her
+      melancholy voice could compass. It must cease, she must know the truth at
+      whatever cost. He broke through the hedge and stood in the flicker of the
+      moonlight before her, pale, agitated, all unlike his wonted self.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not hear, amid the tumult of her weeping, the rustling of the
+      boughs, but some subtle sense took cognizance of his presence. She half
+      rose, and with one hand holding back her dense yellow hair, which had
+      fallen forward on her forehead, she looked up at him fearfully,
+      tremulously, with all the revolt of the corporeal creature for the essence
+      of the mysterious incorporeal. For a moment he could not speak. So much he
+      must needs explain. The next instant he was whelmed in the avalanche of
+      her words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Te hev kem!&rdquo; she exclaimed in a sort of shrill ecstasy. &ldquo;Te hev kem so
+      far ter hear the word that I would give my life ter hev said before. Te
+      knowed it in heaven! an' how like ye ter kem ter gin me the chanst ter say
+      it at last! How like the good heart of ye, worth all the hearts on yearth&mdash;an'
+      <i>buried hyar!</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With her open palm she smote the insensate clods with a gesture of
+      despair. Then she went on in a rising tide of tumultuous emotion. &ldquo;I love
+      ye! Oh, I <i>always</i> loved ye! I never keered fur nobody else! an' I
+      war tongue-tied, an' full of fool pride, an' faultin' ye fur yer ways; an'
+      I wouldn't gin ye the word I knowed ye war wantin' ter hear. But now I kin
+      tell the pore ghost of ye&mdash;I kin tell the pore, pore ghost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She buried her swollen, tear-stained face in her hands, and shook her head
+      to and fro with the realization of the futility of late repentance. As she
+      once more lifted her eyes, she was obviously surprised to see him still
+      standing there, and the crisis seemed to restore to him the faculty of
+      speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Minta Elladine,&rdquo; he said huskily and prosaically, &ldquo;I ain't dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She sprang to her feet and stood gazing at him, intent and quivering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I be truly alive an' kicking an' ez worthless ez ever,&rdquo; he went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She said not a word, but bent and pallid, and, quaking in every muscle,
+      stood peering beneath her hand, which still held back her hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all a mistake,&rdquo; he urged. &ldquo;This ain't no grave. The top war dug a
+      leetle ter turn off a revenuer's suspicions o' the moonshiners. They put
+      that tale out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, evidently on the verge of collapse, she did not speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye needn't be afeared ez I be goin' ter take fur true all I hearn ye say;
+      folks air gin ter vauntin' the dead,&rdquo; he paused for a moment, remembering
+      the caustic comments over the deal of the cards, then added, &ldquo;though I
+      reckon <i>I</i> hev hed some cur'ous 'speriences ez a harnt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She suddenly threw up both arms with a shrill scream, half nervous
+      exhaustion, half inexpressible delight. She swayed to and fro, almost
+      fainting, her balance failing. He caught her in his arms, and she leaned
+      sobbing against his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I stand ter every word of it,&rdquo; she cried, her voice broken and lapsed
+      from control. &ldquo;I love ye, an' I despise all the rest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I be powerful wild,&rdquo; he suggested contritely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't keerin' ef ye be ez wild ez a deer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I'm goin' to quit gamesome company an' playin' kyerds an' sech. I
+      expec' ter mend my ways now,&rdquo; he promised eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye kin mend 'em or let 'em stay tore, jes ez ye please,&rdquo; she declared
+      recklessly. &ldquo;I ain't snatched my lovyer from the jaws o' death ter want
+      him otherwise; ye be plumb true-hearted, <i>I know</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mought ez well hev been buried in this grave fer the last ten year' fer
+      all the use I hev been,&rdquo; he protested solemnly; &ldquo;but I hev learnt a lesson
+      through bein' a harnt fer a while&mdash;I hev jes kem ter life. I'm goin'
+      ter <i>live</i> now. I'll make myself some use in the world, an' fust off
+      I be goin' ter hinder the murder of a man what they hev got trapped up
+      yander at the still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This initial devoir of his reformation, however, Wyatt found no easy
+      matter. The event had been craftily planned to seem an accident, a fall
+      from a cliff in pursuing the wagon, and only the most ardent and cogent
+      urgency on Wyatt's part prevailed at length. He argued that this
+      interpretation of the disaster would not satisfy the authorities. To take
+      the raider's life insured discovery, retribution. But as he had been
+      brought to the still in the night, it was obvious that if he were conveyed
+      under cover of darkness and by roundabout trails within striking distance
+      of the settlements, he could never again find his way to the locality in
+      the dense wilderness. In his detention he had necessarily learned nothing
+      fresh, for the only names he could have overheard had long been obnoxious
+      to suspicion of moonshining, and afforded no proof. Thus humanity,
+      masquerading as caution, finally triumphed, and the officer, blindfolded,
+      was conducted through devious and winding ways many miles distant, and
+      released within a day's travel of the county town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walter Wyatt was scarcely welcomed back to life by the denizens of the
+      cove generally with the enthusiasm attendant on the first moments of his
+      resuscitation, so to speak. He never forgot the solemn ecstasy of that
+      experience, and in later years he was wont to annul any menace of discord
+      with his wife by the warning, half jocose, half tender: &ldquo;Ye hed better
+      mind; ye'll be sorry some day fur treatin' me so mean. Remember, I hev
+      viewed ye a-weepin' over my grave before now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A reformation, however complete and salutary, works no change of identity,
+      and although he developed into an orderly, industrious, law-abiding
+      citizen, his prankish temperament remained recognizable in the fantastic
+      fables which he delighted to recount at some genial fireside of what he
+      had seen and heard as a ghost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pears like, Watt, ye hed more experiences whenst dead than living&rdquo; said
+      an auditor, as these stories multiplied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did, fur a fack,&rdquo; Watt protested. &ldquo;I war a powerful onchancy, onquiet
+      ghost. I even did my courtin' whilst in my reg'lar line o' business
+      a-hanatin' a graveyard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23556-h.htm or 23556-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/5/5/23556/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&ldquo;the Foundation&rdquo;
+ or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; appears, or with which the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo; is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+&ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original &ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, &ldquo;Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.&rdquo;
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+&ldquo;Defects,&rdquo; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &ldquo;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&rdquo; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/23556.txt b/23556.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4224bc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23556.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,1240 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: His Unquiet Ghost
+       1911
+
+Author: Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+Release Date: November 19, 2007 [EBook #23556]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+HIS UNQUIET GHOST
+
+By Charles Egbert Craddock
+
+1911
+
+
+The moon was high in the sky. The wind was laid. So silent was the vast
+stretch of mountain wilderness, aglint with the dew, that the tinkle of
+a rill far below in the black abyss seemed less a sound than an evidence
+of the pervasive quietude, since so slight a thing, so distant, could
+compass so keen a vibration. For an hour or more the three men who
+lurked in the shadow of a crag in the narrow mountain-pass, heard
+nothing else. When at last they caught the dull reverberation of a slow
+wheel and the occasional metallic clank of a tire against a stone, the
+vehicle was fully three miles distant by the winding road in the valley.
+Time lagged. Only by imperceptible degrees the sound of deliberate
+approach grew louder on the air as the interval of space lessened. At
+length, above their ambush at the summit of the mountain's brow the
+heads of horses came into view, distinct in the moonlight between the
+fibrous pines and the vast expanse of the sky above the valley. Even
+then there was renewed delay. The driver of the wagon paused to rest the
+team.
+
+The three lurking men did not move; they scarcely ventured to breathe.
+Only when there was no retrograde possible, no chance of escape, when
+the vehicle was fairly on the steep declivity of the road, the precipice
+sheer on one side, the wall of the ridge rising perpendicularly on the
+other, did two of them, both revenue-raiders disguised as mountaineers,
+step forth from the shadow. The other, the informer, a genuine
+mountaineer, still skulked motionless in the darkness. The "revenuers,"
+ascending the road, maintained a slow, lunging gait, as if they had
+toiled from far.
+
+Their abrupt appearance had the effect of a galvanic shock to the man
+handling the reins, a stalwart, rubicund fellow, who visibly paled. He
+drew up so suddenly as almost to throw the horses from their feet.
+
+"G'evenin'," ventured Browdie, the elder of the raiders, in a husky
+voice affecting an untutored accent. He had some special ability as a
+mimic, and, being familiar with the dialect and manners of the people,
+this gift greatly facilitated the rustic impersonation he had essayed.
+"Ye're haulin' late," he added, for the hour was close to midnight.
+
+"Yes, stranger; haulin' late, from Eskaqua--a needcessity."
+
+"What's yer cargo?" asked Browdie, seeming only ordinarily inquisitive.
+
+A sepulchral cadence was in the driver's voice, and the disguised
+raiders noted that the three other men on the wagon had preserved,
+throughout, a solemn silence. "What we-uns mus' all be one day,
+stranger--a corpus."
+
+Browdie was stultified for a moment Then, sustaining his assumed
+character, he said: "I hope it be nobody I know. I be fairly well
+acquainted in Eskaqua, though I hail from down in Lonesome Cove. Who be
+dead!"
+
+There was palpably a moment's hesitation before the spokesman replied:
+"Watt Wyatt; died day 'fore yestiddy."
+
+At the words, one of the silent men in the wagon turned his face
+suddenly, with such obvious amazement depicted upon it that it arrested
+the attention of the "rev-enuers." This face was so individual that it
+was not likely to be easily mistaken or forgotten. A wild, breezy look
+it had, and a tricksy, incorporeal expression that might well befit
+some fantastic, fabled thing of the woods. It was full of fine script of
+elusive meanings, not registered in the lineaments of the prosaic man
+of the day, though perchance of scant utility, not worth interpretation.
+His full gray eyes were touched to glancing brilliancy by a moonbeam;
+his long, fibrously floating brown hair was thrown backward; his
+receding chin was peculiarly delicate; and though his well-knit frame
+bespoke a hardy vigor, his pale cheek was soft and thin. All the rustic
+grotesquery of garb and posture was cancelled by the deep shadow of a
+bough, and his delicate face showed isolated in the moonlight.
+
+Browdie silently pondered his vague suspicions for a moment "Whar did he
+die at?" he then demanded at a venture.
+
+"At his daddy's house, fur sure. Whar else?" responded the driver. "I
+hev got what's lef' of him hyar in the coffin-box. We expected ter make
+it ter Shiloh buryin'-ground 'fore dark; but the road is middlin' heavy,
+an' 'bout five mile' back Ben cast a shoe. The funeral warn't over much
+'fore noon."
+
+"Whyn't they bury him in Eskaqua, whar he died!" persisted Browdie.
+
+"Waal, they planned ter bury him alongside his mother an' gran'dad, what
+used ter live in Tanglefoot Cove. But we air wastin' time hyar, an' we
+hev got none ter spare. Gee, Ben! Git up, John!"
+
+The wagon gave a lurch; the horses, holding back in bracing attitudes
+far from the pole, went teetering down the steep slant, the locked wheel
+dragging heavily; the four men sat silent, two in slouching postures at
+the head of the coffin; the third, with the driver, was at its foot. It
+seemed drearily suggestive, the last journey of this humble mortality,
+in all the splendid environment of the mountains, under the vast
+expansions of the aloof skies, in the mystic light of the unnoting moon.
+
+"Is this bona-fide?" asked Browdie, with a questioning glance at the
+informer, who had at length crept forth.
+
+"I dunno," sullenly responded the mountaineer. He had acquainted the
+two officers, who were of a posse of revenue-raiders hovering in the
+vicinity, with the mysterious circumstance that a freighted wagon now
+and then made a midnight transit across these lonely ranges. He himself
+had heard only occasionally in a wakeful hour the roll of heavy wheels,
+but he interpreted this as the secret transportation of brush whisky
+from the still to its market. He had thought to fix the transgression
+on an old enemy of his own, long suspected of moonshining; but he was
+acquainted with none of the youngsters on the wagon, at whom he had
+peered cautiously from behind the rocks. His actuating motive in giving
+information to the emissaries of the government had been the rancor of
+an old feud, and his detection meant certain death. He had not expected
+the revenue-raiders to be outnumbered by the supposed moonshiners, and
+he would not fight in the open. He had no sentiment of fealty to the
+law, and the officers glanced at each other in uncertainty.
+
+"This evidently is not the wagon in question," said Browdie,
+disappointed.
+
+"I'll follow them a bit," volunteered Bonan, the younger and the more
+active of the two officers. "Seems to me they'll bear watching."
+
+Indeed, as the melancholy cortege fared down and down the steep road,
+dwindling in the sheeny distance, the covert and half-suppressed
+laughter of the sepulchral escort was of so keen a relish that it was
+well that the scraping of the locked wheel aided the distance to mask
+the incongruous sound.
+
+"What ailed you-uns ter name _me_ as the corpus, 'Gene Barker?" demanded
+Walter Wyatt, when he had regained the capacity of coherent speech.
+
+"Oh, I hed ter do suddint murder on somebody," declared the driver, all
+bluff and reassured and red-faced again, "an' I couldn't think quick
+of nobody else. Besides, I helt a grudge agin' you fer not stuffin' mo'
+straw 'twixt them jimmyjohns in the coffin-box."
+
+"That's a fac'. Ye air too triflin' ter be let ter live, Watt," cried
+one of their comrades. "I hearn them jugs clash tergether in the
+coffin-box when 'Gene checked the team up suddint, I tell you. An' them
+men sure 'peared ter me powerful suspectin'."
+
+"_I_ hearn the clash of them jimmyjohns," chimed in the driver. "I
+really thunk my hour war come. Some informer must hev set them men ter
+spyin' round fer moonshine."
+
+"Oh, surely nobody wouldn't dare," urged one of the group, uneasily; for
+the identity of an informer was masked in secrecy, and his fate, when
+discovered, was often gruesome.
+
+"They couldn't hev noticed the clash of them jimmyjohns, nohow,"
+declared the negligent Watt, nonchalantly. "But namin' _me_ fur the dead
+one! Supposin' they air revenuers fur true, an' hed somebody along, hid
+out in the bresh, ez war acquainted with me by sight----"
+
+"Then they'd hev been skeered out'n thar boots, that's all," interrupted
+the self-sufficient 'Gene. "They would hev 'lowed they hed viewed
+yer brazen ghost, bold ez brass, standin' at the head of yer own
+coffin-box."
+
+"Or mebbe they mought hev recognized the Wyatt favor, ef they warn't
+acquainted with _me_," persisted Watt, with his unique sense of injury.
+
+Eugene Barker defended the temerity of his inspiration. "They would hev
+jes thought ye war kin ter the deceased, an' at-tendin' him ter his long
+home."
+
+"'Gene don't keer much fur ye ter be alive nohow, Watt Wyatt," one of
+the others suggested tactlessly, "'count o' Minta Elladine Biggs."
+
+Eugene Barker's off-hand phrase was incongruous with his sudden gravity
+and his evident rancor as he declared: "_I_ ain't carin' fur sech ez
+Watt Wyatt. An' they _do_ say 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. That this hope had grown tenuous was evident in his
+relinquishment of his former caution, for when they again caught a
+glimpse of him he was forging along in the middle of the road without
+any effort at concealment. But as the wagon appeared in the perspective,
+stationary, hitched to the hedge of the graveyard, he recurred to his
+previous methods. The four men still within the in-closure, now busied
+in shovelling the earth back again into the excavation they had so
+swiftly made, covertly watched him as he skulked into the shadow of the
+wayside. The little "church-house," with all its windows whitely aglare
+in the moonlight, reflected the pervasive sheen, and silent, spectral,
+remote, it seemed as if it might well harbor at times its ghastly
+neighbors from the quiet cemetery without, dimly ranging themselves once
+more in the shadowy ranks of its pews or grimly stalking down the drear
+and deserted aisles. The fact that the rising ground toward the rear of
+the building necessitated a series of steps at the entrance, enabled the
+officer to mask behind this tall flight his crouching approach, and thus
+he ensconced himself in the angle between the wall and the steps, and
+looked forth in fancied security.
+
+The shadows multiplied the tale of the dead that the head-boards kept,
+each similitude askew in the moonlight on the turf below the slanting
+monument To judge by the motions of the men engaged in the burial and
+the mocking antics of their silhouettes on the ground, it must have been
+obvious to the spectator that they were already filling in the earth.
+The interment may have seemed to him suspiciously swift, but the
+possibility was obvious that the grave might have been previously dug
+in anticipation of their arrival. It was plain that he was altogether
+unprepared for the event when they came slouching forth to the wagon,
+and the stalwart and red-faced driver, with no manifestation of
+surprise, hailed him as he still crouched in his lurking-place. "Hello,
+stranger! Warn't that you-uns runnin' arter the wagon a piece back
+yonder jes a while ago?"
+
+The officer rose to his feet, with an intent look both dismayed and
+embarrassed. He did not venture on speech; he merely acceded with a nod.
+
+"Ye want a lift, I reckon."
+
+The stranger was hampered by the incongruity between his rustic garb,
+common to the coves, and his cultivated intonation; for, unlike his
+comrade Browdie, he had no mimetic faculties whatever. Nevertheless, he
+was now constrained to "face the music."
+
+"I didn't want to interrupt you," he said, seeking such excuse as due
+consideration for the circumstances might afford; "but I'd like to ask
+where I could get lodging for the night."
+
+"What's yer name?" demanded Barker, unceremoniously.
+
+"Francis Bonan," the raider replied, with more assurance. Then he added,
+by way of explaining his necessity, "I'm a stranger hereabouts."
+
+"Ye air so," assented the sarcastic 'Gene. "Ye ain't even acquainted
+with yer own clothes. Ye be a town man."
+
+"Well, I'm not the first man who has had to hide out," Ronan parried,
+seeking to justify his obvious disguise.
+
+"Shot somebody?" asked 'Gene, with an apparent accession of interest.
+
+"It's best for me not to tell."
+
+"So be." 'Gene acquiesced easily. "Waal, ef ye kin put up with sech
+accommodations ez our'n, I'll take ye home with me."
+
+Ronan stood aghast. But there was no door of retreat open. He was alone
+and helpless. He could not conceal the fact that the turn affairs had
+taken was equally unexpected and terrifying to him, and the moonshiners,
+keenly watchful, were correspondingly elated to discern that he had
+surely no reinforcements within reach to nerve him to resistance or
+to menace their liberty. He had evidently followed them too far, too
+recklessly; perhaps without the consent and against the counsel of his
+comrades, perhaps even without their knowledge of his movements and
+intention.
+
+Now and again as the wagon jogged on and on toward their distant haven,
+the moonlight gradually dulling to dawn, Wyatt gave the stranger
+a wondering, covert glance, vaguely, shrinkingly curious as to the
+sentiments of a man vacillating between the suspicion of capture and the
+recognition of a simple hospitality without significance or danger. The
+man's face appealed to him, young, alert, intelligent, earnest, and
+the anguish of doubt and anxiety it expressed went to his heart. In the
+experience of his sylvan life as a hunter Wyatt's peculiar and subtle
+temperament evolved certain fine-spun distinctions which were unique; a
+trapped thing had a special appeal to his commiseration that a creature
+ruthlessly slaughtered in the open was not privileged to claim. He did
+not accurately and in words discriminate the differences, but he felt
+that the captive had sounded all the gamut of hope and despair, shared
+the gradations of an appreciated sorrow that makes all souls akin and
+that even lifts the beast to the plane of brotherhood, the bond of
+emotional woe. He had often with no other or better reason liberated
+the trophy of his snare, calling after the amazed and franticly
+fleeing creature, "Bye-bye, Buddy!" with peals of his whimsical, joyous
+laughter.
+
+He was experiencing now a similar sequence of sentiments in noting the
+wild-eyed eagerness with which the captured raider took obvious heed of
+every minor point of worthiness that might mask the true character of
+his entertainers. But, indeed, these deceptive hopes might have been
+easily maintained by one not so desirous of reassurance when, in the
+darkest hour before the dawn, they reached a large log-cabin sequestered
+in dense woods, and he found himself an inmate of a simple, typical
+mountain household. It held an exceedingly venerable grandfather,
+wielding his infirmities as a rod of iron; a father and mother, hearty,
+hospitable, subservient to the aged tyrant, but keeping in filial check
+a family of sons and daughters-in-law, with an underfoot delegation of
+grandchildren, who seemed to spend their time in a bewildering manouver
+of dashing out at one door to dash in at another. A tumultuous rain
+had set in shortly after dawn, with lightning and wind,--"the tail of a
+harricane," as the host called it,--and a terrible bird the actual storm
+must have been to have a tail of such dimensions. There was no getting
+forth, no living creature of free will "took water" in this elemental
+crisis. The numerous dogs crowded the children away from the hearth,
+and the hens strolled about the large living-room, clucking to scurrying
+broods. Even one of the horses tramped up on the porch and looked in
+ever and anon, solicitous of human company.
+
+"I brung Ben up by hand, like a bottle-fed baby," the hostess
+apologized, "an' he ain't never fund out fur sure that he ain't folks."
+
+There seemed no possible intimation of moonshine in this entourage, and
+the coffin filled with jugs, a-wagoning from some distillers' den in the
+range to the cross-roads' store, might well have been accounted only the
+vain phantasm of an overtired brain surcharged with the vexed problems
+of the revenue service. The disguised revenue-raider was literally
+overcome with drowsiness, the result of his exertions and his vigils,
+and observing this, his host gave him one of the big feather beds under
+the low slant of the eaves in the roof-room, where the other men, who
+had been out all night, also slept the greater portion of the day. In
+fact, it was dark when Wyatt wakened, and, leaving the rest still torpid
+with slumber and fatigue, descended to the large main room of the cabin.
+
+The callow members of the household had retired to rest, but the elders
+of the band of moonshiners were up and still actively astir, and Wyatt
+experienced a prescient vicarious qualm to note their lack of heed or
+secrecy--the noisy shifting of heavy weights (barrels, kegs, bags of
+apples, and peaches for pomace), the loud voices and unguarded words.
+When a door in the floor was lifted, the whiff of chill, subterranean
+air that pervaded the whole house was heavily freighted with spirituous
+odors, and gave token to the meanest intelligence, to the most
+unobservant inmate, that the still was operated in a cellar, peculiarly
+immune to suspicion, for a cellar is never an adjunct to the ordinary
+mountain cabin. Thus the infraction of the revenue law went on securely
+and continuously beneath the placid, simple, domestic life, with its
+reverent care for the very aged and its tender nurture of the very
+young.
+
+It was significant, indeed, that the industry should not be
+pretermitted, however, when a stranger was within the gates. The reason
+to Wyatt, familiar with the moonshiners' methods and habits of thought,
+was only too plain. They intended that the "revenuer" should never go
+forth to tell the tale. His comrades had evidently failed to follow
+his trail, either losing it in the wilderness or from ignorance of
+his intention. He had put himself hopelessly into the power of
+these desperate men, whom his escape or liberation would menace
+with incarceration for a long term as Federal prisoners in distant
+penitentiaries, if, indeed, they were not already answerable to the law
+for some worse crime than illicit distilling. His murder would be the
+extreme of brutal craft, so devised as to seem an accident, against the
+possibility of future investigation.
+
+The reflection turned Wyatt deathly cold, he who could not bear unmoved
+the plea of a wild thing's eye. He sturdily sought to pull himself
+together. It was none of his decree; it was none of his deed, he argued.
+The older moonshiners, who managed all the details of the enterprise,
+would direct the event with absolute authority and the immutability of
+fate. But whatever should be done, he revolted from any knowledge of
+it, as from any share in the act. He had risen to leave the place, all
+strange of aspect now, metamorphosed,--various disorderly details of
+the prohibited industry ever and anon surging up from the still-room
+below,--when a hoarse voice took cognizance of his intention with a
+remonstrance.
+
+"Why, Watt Wyatt, _ye_ can't go out in the cove. Ye air dead! Ye will
+let that t'other revenue-raider ye seen into the secret o' the bresh
+whisky in our wagon ef ye air viewed about whenst 'Gene hev spread the
+report that ye air dead. Wait till them raiders hev cleared out of the
+kentry."
+
+The effort at detention, to interfere with his liberty, added redoubled
+impetus to Wyatt 's desire to be gone. He suddenly devised a cogent
+necessity. "I be feared my dad mought hear that fool tale. I ain't much
+loss, but dad would feel it."
+
+"Oh, I sent Jack thar ter tell him better whenst he drove ter mill
+ter-day ter git the meal fer the mash. Jack made yer dad understand
+'bout yer sudden demise."
+
+"Oh, yeh," interposed the glib Jack; "an' he said ez _he_ couldn't abide
+sech jokes."
+
+"Shucks!" cried the filial Wyatt. "Dad war full fresky himself in his
+young days; I hev hearn his old frien's say so."
+
+"I tried ter slick things over," said the diplomatic Jack. "I 'lowed
+young folks war giddy by nature. I 'lowed 't war jes a flash o' fun.
+An' he say: 'Flash o' fun be con-sarned! My son is more like a flash o'
+lightning; ez suddint an' mischeevious an' totally ondesirable.'"
+
+The reproach obviously struck home, for Wyatt maintained a disconsolate
+silence for a time. At length, apparently goaded by his thoughts to
+attempt a defense, he remonstrated:
+
+"Nobody ever war dead less of his own free will. I never elected ter
+be a harnt. 'Gene Barker hed no right ter nominate _me_ fer the dear
+departed, nohow."
+
+One of the uncouth younger fellows, his shoulders laden with a sack of
+meal, paused on his way from the porch to the trap-door to look up from
+beneath his burden with a sly grin as he said, "'Gene war wishin' it war
+true, that's why."
+
+"'Count o' Minta Elladine Riggs," gaily chimed in another.
+
+"But 'Gene needn't gredge Watt foothold on this yearth fer sech; _she_
+ain't keerin' whether Watt lives or dies," another contributed to the
+rough, rallying fun.
+
+But Wyatt was of sensitive fibre. He had flushed angrily; his eyes were
+alight; a bitter retort was trembling on his lips when one of the elder
+Barkers, discriminating the elements of an uncontrollable fracas, seized
+on the alternative.
+
+"Could you-uns _sure_ be back hyar by daybreak, Watt!" he asked, fixing
+the young fellow with a stern eye.
+
+"No 'spectable ghost roams around arter sun-up," cried Wyatt, fairly
+jovial at the prospect of liberation.
+
+"Ye mus' be heedful not ter be viewed," the senior admonished him.
+
+"I be goin' ter slip about keerful like a reg'lar, stiddy-goin' harnt,
+an' eavesdrop a bit. It's worth livin' a hard life ter view how a
+feller's friends will take his demise."
+
+"I reckon ye kin make out ter meet the wagin kemin' back from the
+cross-roads' store. It went out this evenin' with that coffin full of
+jugs that ye lef' las' night under the church-house, whenst 'Gene seen
+you-uns war suspicioned. They will hev time ter git ter the cross-roads
+with the whisky on' back little arter midnight, special' ez we-uns hev
+got the raider that spied out the job hyar fast by the leg."
+
+The mere mention of the young prisoner rendered Wyatt the more eager
+to be gone, to be out of sight and sound. But he had no agency in
+the disaster, he urged against some inward clamor of protest; the
+catastrophe was the logical result of the fool-hardiness of the officer
+in following these desperate men with no backing, with no power
+to apprehend or hold, relying on his flimsy disguise, and risking
+delivering himself into their hands, fettered as he was with the
+knowledge of his discovery of their secret.
+
+"It's nothin' ter _me_, nohow," Wyatt was continually repeating to
+himself, though when he sprang through the door he could scarcely draw
+his breath because of some mysterious, invisible clutch at his throat.
+
+He sought to ascribe this symptom to the density of the pervasive fog
+without, that impenetrably cloaked all the world; one might wonder how a
+man could find his way through the opaque white vapor. It was, however,
+an accustomed medium to the young mountaineer, and his feet, too, had
+something of that unclassified muscular instinct, apart from reason,
+which guides in an oft-trodden path. Once he came to a halt, from no
+uncertainty of locality, but to gaze apprehensively through the blank,
+white mists over a shuddering shoulder. "I wonder ef thar be any other
+harnts aloose ter-night, a-boguing through the fog an' the moon," he
+speculated. Presently he went on again, shaking his head sagely. "I
+ain't wantin' ter collogue with sech," he averred cautiously.
+
+Occasionally the moonlight fell in expansive splendor through a rift in
+the white vapor; amidst the silver glintings a vague, illusory panorama
+of promontory and island, bay and inlet, far ripplings of gleaming
+deeps, was presented like some magic reminiscence, some ethereal replica
+of the past, the simulacrum of the seas of these ancient coves, long
+since ebbed away and vanished.
+
+The sailing moon visibly rocked, as the pulsing tides of the cloud-ocean
+rose and fell, and ever and anon this supernal craft was whelmed in
+its surgings, and once more came majestically into view, freighted with
+fancies and heading for the haven of the purple western shores.
+
+In one of these clearances of the mists a light of an alien type caught
+the eye of the wandering spectre--a light, red, mundane, of prosaic
+suggestion. It filtered through the crevice of a small batten shutter.
+
+The ghost paused, his head speculatively askew. "Who sits so late at the
+forge!" he marvelled, for he was now near the base of the mountain, and
+he recognized the low, dark building looming through the mists, its roof
+aslant, its chimney cold, the big doors closed, the shutter fast. As
+he neared the place a sudden shrill guffaw smote the air, followed by a
+deep, gruff tone of disconcerted remonstrance. Certain cabalistic words
+made the matter plain.
+
+"High, Low, Jack, _and_ game! Fork! Fork!" Once more there arose a high
+falsetto shriek of jubilant laughter.
+
+Walter Wyatt crept noiselessly down the steep slant toward the shutter.
+He had no sense of intrusion, for he was often one of the merry blades
+wont to congregate at the forge at night and take a hand at cards,
+despite the adverse sentiment of the cove and the vigilance of the
+constable of the district, bent on enforcing the laws prohibiting
+gaming. As Wyatt stood at the crevice of the shutter the whole interior
+was distinct before him--the disabled wagon-wheels against the walls,
+the horse-shoes on a rod across the window, the great hood of the forge,
+the silent bellows, with its long, motionless handle. A kerosene lamp,
+perched on the elevated hearth of the forge, illumined the group of wild
+young mountaineers clustered about a barrel on the head of which the
+cards were dealt. There were no chairs; one of the gamesters sat on a
+keg of nails; another on an inverted splint basket; two on a rude bench
+that was wont to be placed outside the door for the accommodation
+of customers waiting for a horse to be shod or a plow to be laid. An
+onlooker, not yet so proficient as to attain his ambition of admission
+to the play, had mounted the anvil, and from this coign of vantage
+beheld all the outspread landscape of the "hands." More than once his
+indiscreet, inadvertent betrayal of some incident of his survey of the
+cards menaced him with a broken head. More innocuous to the interests of
+the play was a wight humbly ensconced on the shoeing-stool, which
+barely brought his head to the level of the board; but as he was densely
+ignorant of the game, he took no disadvantage from his lowly posture.
+His head was red, and as it moved erratically about in the gloom,
+Watt Wyatt thought for a moment that it was the smith's red setter. He
+grinned as he resolved that some day he would tell the fellow this as
+a pleasing gibe; but the thought was arrested by the sound of his own
+name.
+
+"Waal, sir," said the dealer, pausing in shuffling the cards, "I s'pose
+ye hev all hearn 'bout Walter Wyatt's takin' off."
+
+"An' none too soon, sartain." A sour visage was glimpsed beneath the
+wide brim of the speaker's hat.
+
+"Waal," drawled the semblance of the setter from deep in the
+clare-obscure, "Watt war jes a fool from lack o' sense."
+
+"That kind o' fool can't be cured," said another of the players. Then
+he sharply adjuxed the dealer. "Look out what ye be doin'! Ye hev gimme
+_two_ kyerds."
+
+"'Gene Barker will git ter marry Minta Elladine Biggs now, I reckon,"
+suggested the man on the anvil.
+
+"An' I'll dance at the weddin' with right good will an' a nimble toe,"
+declared the dealer, vivaciously. "I'll be glad ter see that couple
+settled. That gal couldn't make up her mind ter let Walter Wyatt go, an'
+yit no woman in her senses would hev been willin, ter marry him. He war
+ez unresponsible ez--ez--fox-fire."
+
+"An' ez onstiddy ez a harricane," commented another.
+
+"An' no more account than a mole in the yearth," said a third.
+
+The ghost at the window listened in aghast dismay and became pale in
+sober truth, for these boon companions he had accounted the best friends
+he had in the world. They had no word of regret, no simple human pity;
+even that facile meed of casual praise that he was "powerful pleasant
+company" was withheld. And for these and such as these he had bartered
+the esteem of the community at large and his filial duty and obedience;
+had spurned the claims of good citizenship and placed himself in
+jeopardy of the law; had forfeited the hand of the woman he loved.
+
+"Minta Elladine Biggs ain't keerin' nohow fer sech ez Watt," said the
+semblance of the setter, with a knowing nod of his red head. "I war up
+thar at the mill whenst the news kem ter-day, an' she war thar ter git
+some seconds. I hev hearn women go off in high-strikes fer a lovyer's
+death--even Mis' Simton, though hern was jes her husband, an 'a mighty
+pore one at that. But Minta Elladine jes listened quiet an' composed,
+an' never said one word."
+
+The batten shutter was trembling in the ghost's hand. In fact, so
+convulsive was his grasp that it shook the hook from the staple, and the
+shutter slowly opened as he stood at gaze.
+
+Perhaps it was the motion that attracted the attention of the dealer,
+perhaps the influx of a current of fresh air. He lifted his casual
+glance and beheld, distinct in the light from the kerosene lamp
+and imposed on the white background of the mist, that familiar and
+individual face, pallid, fixed, strange, with an expression that he had
+never seen it wear hitherto. One moment of suspended faculties, and he
+sprang up with a wild cry that filled the little shanty with its shrill
+terror. The others gazed astounded upon him, then followed the direction
+of his starting eyes, and echoed his frantic fright. There was a wild
+scurry toward the door. The overturning of the lamp was imminent, but
+it still burned calmly on the elevated hearth, while the shoeing-stool
+capsized in the rush, and the red head of its lowly occupant was lowlier
+still, rolling on the dirt floor. Even with this disadvantage, however,
+he was not the hindmost, and reached the exit unhurt. The only specific
+damage wrought by the panic was to the big barnlike doors of the place.
+They had been stanchly barred against the possible intrusion of
+the constable of the district, and the fastenings in so critical an
+emergency could not be readily loosed. The united weight and impetus of
+the onset burst the flimsy doors into fragments, and as the party fled
+in devious directions in the misty moonlight, the calm radiance entered
+at the wide-spread portal and illuminated the vacant place where late
+had been so merry a crew.
+
+Walter Wyatt had known the time when the incident would have held an
+incomparable relish for him. But now he gazed all forlorn into the empty
+building with a single thought in his mind. "Not one of 'em keered a
+mite! Nare good word, nare sigh, not even, 'Fare ye well, old mate!'"
+
+His breast heaved, his eyes flashed.
+
+"An' I hev loant money ter Jim, whenst I hed need myself; an' holped
+George in the mill, when his wrist war sprained, without a cent o' pay;
+an' took the blame when 'Dolphus war faulted by his dad fur lamin' the
+horse-critter; an' stood back an' let Pete git the meat whenst we-uns
+shot fur beef, bein' he hev got a wife an' chil'ren ter feed. All
+_leetle_ favors, but nare _leetle_ word."
+
+He had turned from the window and was tramping absently down the road,
+all unmindful of the skulking methods of the spectral gentry. If he had
+chanced to be observed, his little farce, that had yet an element of
+tragedy in its presentation, must soon have reached its close. But
+the fog hung about him like a cloak, and when the moon cast aside the
+vapors, it was in a distant silver sheen illumining the far reaches of
+the valley. Only when its light summoned forth a brilliant and glancing
+reflection on a lower level, as if a thousand sabers were unsheathed at
+a word, he recognized the proximity of the river and came to a sudden
+halt.
+
+"Whar is this fool goin'?" he demanded angrily of space. "To the
+graveyard, I declar', ez ef I war a harnt fur true, an' buried sure
+enough. An' I wish I war. I wish I war."
+
+He realized, after a moment's consideration, that he had been
+unconsciously actuated by the chance of meeting the wagon, returning by
+this route from the cross-roads' store. He was tired, disheartened; his
+spirit was spent; he would be glad of the lift. He reflected,
+however, that he must needs wait some time, for this was the date of a
+revival-meeting at the little church, and the distillers' wagon would
+lag, that its belated night journey might not be subjected to the
+scrutiny and comment of the church-goers. Indeed, even now Walter Wyatt
+saw in the distance the glimmer of a lantern, intimating homeward-bound
+worshipers not yet out of sight.
+
+"The saints kep' it up late ter-night," he commented.
+
+He resolved to wait till the roll of wheels should tell of the return of
+the moonshiners' empty wagon.
+
+He crossed the river on the little footbridge and took his way languidly
+along the road toward the deserted church. He was close to the hedge
+that grew thick and rank about the little inclosure when he suddenly
+heard the sound of lamentation from within. He drew back precipitately,
+with a sense of sacrilege, but the branches of the unpruned growth had
+caught in his sleeve, and he sought to disengage the cloth without such
+rustling stir as might disturb or alarm the mourner, who had evidently
+lingered here, after the dispersal of the congregation, for a moment's
+indulgence of grief and despair. He had a glimpse through the shaking
+boughs and the flickering mist of a woman's figure kneeling on the
+crude red clods of a new-made grave. A vague, anxious wonder as to the
+deceased visited him, for in the sparsely settled districts a strong
+community sense prevails. Suddenly in a choking gust of sobs and burst
+of tears he recognized his own name in a voice of which every inflection
+was familiar. For a moment his heart seemed to stand still. His brain
+whirled with a realization of this unforeseen result of the fantastic
+story of his death in Eskaqua Cove, which the moonshiners, on the verge
+of detection and arrest, had circulated in Tanglefoot as a measure of
+safety. They had fancied that when the truth was developed it would be
+easy enough to declare the men drunk or mistaken. The "revenuers" by
+that time would be far away, and the pervasive security, always the
+sequence of a raid, successful or otherwise, would once more promote
+the manufacture of the brush whisky. The managers of the moon-shining
+interest had taken measures to guard Wyatt's aged father from this
+fantasy of woe, but they had not dreamed that the mountain coquette
+might care. He himself stood appalled that this ghastly fable should
+delude his heart's beloved, amazed that it should cost her one sigh,
+one sob. Her racking paroxysms of grief over this gruesome figment of a
+grave he was humiliated to hear, he was woeful to see. He felt that he
+was not worth one tear of the floods with which she bewept his name,
+uttered in every cadence of tender regret that her melancholy voice
+could compass. It must cease, she must know the truth at whatever cost.
+He broke through the hedge and stood in the flicker of the moonlight
+before her, pale, agitated, all unlike his wonted self.
+
+She did not hear, amid the tumult of her weeping, the rustling of the
+boughs, but some subtle sense took cognizance of his presence. She half
+rose, and with one hand holding back her dense yellow hair, which
+had fallen forward on her forehead, she looked up at him fearfully,
+tremulously, with all the revolt of the corporeal creature for the
+essence of the mysterious incorporeal. For a moment he could not speak.
+So much he must needs explain. The next instant he was whelmed in the
+avalanche of her words.
+
+"Te hev kem!" she exclaimed in a sort of shrill ecstasy. "Te hev kem so
+far ter hear the word that I would give my life ter hev said before. Te
+knowed it in heaven! an' how like ye ter kem ter gin me the chanst ter
+say it at last! How like the good heart of ye, worth all the hearts on
+yearth--an' _buried hyar!_"
+
+With her open palm she smote the insensate clods with a gesture of
+despair. Then she went on in a rising tide of tumultuous emotion. "I
+love ye! Oh, I _always_ loved ye! I never keered fur nobody else! an' I
+war tongue-tied, an' full of fool pride, an' faultin' ye fur yer ways;
+an' I wouldn't gin ye the word I knowed ye war wantin' ter hear. But now
+I kin tell the pore ghost of ye--I kin tell the pore, pore ghost!"
+
+She buried her swollen, tear-stained face in her hands, and shook her
+head to and fro with the realization of the futility of late repentance.
+As she once more lifted her eyes, she was obviously surprised to see
+him still standing there, and the crisis seemed to restore to him the
+faculty of speech.
+
+"Minta Elladine," he said huskily and prosaically, "I ain't dead!"
+
+She sprang to her feet and stood gazing at him, intent and quivering.
+
+"I be truly alive an' kicking an' ez worthless ez ever," he went on.
+
+She said not a word, but bent and pallid, and, quaking in every muscle,
+stood peering beneath her hand, which still held back her hair.
+
+"It's all a mistake," he urged. "This ain't no grave. The top war dug a
+leetle ter turn off a revenuer's suspicions o' the moonshiners. They put
+that tale out."
+
+Still, evidently on the verge of collapse, she did not speak.
+
+"Ye needn't be afeared ez I be goin' ter take fur true all I hearn
+ye say; folks air gin ter vauntin' the dead," he paused for a moment,
+remembering the caustic comments over the deal of the cards, then added,
+"though I reckon _I_ hev hed some cur'ous 'speriences ez a harnt."
+
+She suddenly threw up both arms with a shrill scream, half nervous
+exhaustion, half inexpressible delight. She swayed to and fro, almost
+fainting, her balance failing. He caught her in his arms, and she leaned
+sobbing against his breast.
+
+"I stand ter every word of it," she cried, her voice broken and lapsed
+from control. "I love ye, an' I despise all the rest!"
+
+"I be powerful wild," he suggested contritely.
+
+"I ain't keerin' ef ye be ez wild ez a deer."
+
+"But I'm goin' to quit gamesome company an' playin' kyerds an' sech. I
+expec' ter mend my ways now," he promised eagerly.
+
+"Ye kin mend 'em or let 'em stay tore, jes ez ye please," she declared
+recklessly. "I ain't snatched my lovyer from the jaws o' death ter want
+him otherwise; ye be plumb true-hearted, _I know_."
+
+"I mought ez well hev been buried in this grave fer the last ten year'
+fer all the use I hev been," he protested solemnly; "but I hev learnt
+a lesson through bein' a harnt fer a while--I hev jes kem ter life. I'm
+goin' ter _live_ now. I'll make myself some use in the world, an' fust
+off I be goin' ter hinder the murder of a man what they hev got trapped
+up yander at the still."
+
+This initial devoir of his reformation, however, Wyatt found no easy
+matter. The event had been craftily planned to seem an accident, a fall
+from a cliff in pursuing the wagon, and only the most ardent and
+cogent urgency on Wyatt's part prevailed at length. He argued that this
+interpretation of the disaster would not satisfy the authorities. To
+take the raider's life insured discovery, retribution. But as he had
+been brought to the still in the night, it was obvious that if he
+were conveyed under cover of darkness and by roundabout trails within
+striking distance of the settlements, he could never again find his
+way to the locality in the dense wilderness. In his detention he had
+necessarily learned nothing fresh, for the only names he could have
+overheard had long been obnoxious to suspicion of moonshining, and
+afforded no proof. Thus humanity, masquerading as caution, finally
+triumphed, and the officer, blindfolded, was conducted through devious
+and winding ways many miles distant, and released within a day's travel
+of the county town.
+
+Walter Wyatt was scarcely welcomed back to life by the denizens of the
+cove generally with the enthusiasm attendant on the first moments of his
+resuscitation, so to speak. He never forgot the solemn ecstasy of
+that experience, and in later years he was wont to annul any menace of
+discord with his wife by the warning, half jocose, half tender: "Ye hed
+better mind; ye'll be sorry some day fur treatin' me so mean. Remember,
+I hev viewed ye a-weepin' over my grave before now."
+
+A reformation, however complete and salutary, works no change of
+identity, and although he developed into an orderly, industrious,
+law-abiding citizen, his prankish temperament remained recognizable
+in the fantastic fables which he delighted to recount at some genial
+fireside of what he had seen and heard as a ghost.
+
+"Pears like, Watt, ye hed more experiences whenst dead than living" said
+an auditor, as these stories multiplied.
+
+"I did, fur a fack," Watt protested. "I war a powerful onchancy, onquiet
+ghost. I even did my courtin' whilst in my reg'lar line o' business
+a-hanatin' a graveyard."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23556.txt or 23556.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/5/5/23556/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/23556.zip b/23556.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b460a5d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23556.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e3b163f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #23556 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23556)
diff --git a/old/23556-h.htm.2021-01-25 b/old/23556-h.htm.2021-01-25
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..572a2cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/23556-h.htm.2021-01-25
@@ -0,0 +1,1405 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      His Unquiet Ghost, by Charles Egbert Craddock
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: His Unquiet Ghost
+       1911
+
+Author: Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+Release Date: November 19, 2007 [EBook #23556]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      HIS UNQUIET GHOST
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Charles Egbert Craddock <br /> <br /> 1911
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moon was high in the sky. The wind was laid. So silent was the vast
+      stretch of mountain wilderness, aglint with the dew, that the tinkle of a
+      rill far below in the black abyss seemed less a sound than an evidence of
+      the pervasive quietude, since so slight a thing, so distant, could compass
+      so keen a vibration. For an hour or more the three men who lurked in the
+      shadow of a crag in the narrow mountain-pass, heard nothing else. When at
+      last they caught the dull reverberation of a slow wheel and the occasional
+      metallic clank of a tire against a stone, the vehicle was fully three
+      miles distant by the winding road in the valley. Time lagged. Only by
+      imperceptible degrees the sound of deliberate approach grew louder on the
+      air as the interval of space lessened. At length, above their ambush at
+      the summit of the mountain's brow the heads of horses came into view,
+      distinct in the moonlight between the fibrous pines and the vast expanse
+      of the sky above the valley. Even then there was renewed delay. The driver
+      of the wagon paused to rest the team.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three lurking men did not move; they scarcely ventured to breathe.
+      Only when there was no retrograde possible, no chance of escape, when the
+      vehicle was fairly on the steep declivity of the road, the precipice sheer
+      on one side, the wall of the ridge rising perpendicularly on the other,
+      did two of them, both revenue-raiders disguised as mountaineers, step
+      forth from the shadow. The other, the informer, a genuine mountaineer,
+      still skulked motionless in the darkness. The &ldquo;revenuers,&rdquo; ascending the
+      road, maintained a slow, lunging gait, as if they had toiled from far.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Their abrupt appearance had the effect of a galvanic shock to the man
+      handling the reins, a stalwart, rubicund fellow, who visibly paled. He
+      drew up so suddenly as almost to throw the horses from their feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;G'evenin',&rdquo; ventured Browdie, the elder of the raiders, in a husky voice
+      affecting an untutored accent. He had some special ability as a mimic,
+      and, being familiar with the dialect and manners of the people, this gift
+      greatly facilitated the rustic impersonation he had essayed. &ldquo;Ye're
+      haulin' late,&rdquo; he added, for the hour was close to midnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, stranger; haulin' late, from Eskaqua&mdash;a needcessity.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's yer cargo?&rdquo; asked Browdie, seeming only ordinarily inquisitive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A sepulchral cadence was in the driver's voice, and the disguised raiders
+      noted that the three other men on the wagon had preserved, throughout, a
+      solemn silence. &ldquo;What we-uns mus' all be one day, stranger&mdash;a
+      corpus.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Browdie was stultified for a moment Then, sustaining his assumed
+      character, he said: &ldquo;I hope it be nobody I know. I be fairly well
+      acquainted in Eskaqua, though I hail from down in Lonesome Cove. Who be
+      dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was palpably a moment's hesitation before the spokesman replied:
+      &ldquo;Watt Wyatt; died day 'fore yestiddy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the words, one of the silent men in the wagon turned his face suddenly,
+      with such obvious amazement depicted upon it that it arrested the
+      attention of the &ldquo;rev-enuers.&rdquo; This face was so individual that it was not
+      likely to be easily mistaken or forgotten. A wild, breezy look it had, and
+      a tricksy, incorporeal expression that might well befit some fantastic,
+      fabled thing of the woods. It was full of fine script of elusive meanings,
+      not registered in the lineaments of the prosaic man of the day, though
+      perchance of scant utility, not worth interpretation. His full gray eyes
+      were touched to glancing brilliancy by a moonbeam; his long, fibrously
+      floating brown hair was thrown backward; his receding chin was peculiarly
+      delicate; and though his well-knit frame bespoke a hardy vigor, his pale
+      cheek was soft and thin. All the rustic grotesquery of garb and posture
+      was cancelled by the deep shadow of a bough, and his delicate face showed
+      isolated in the moonlight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Browdie silently pondered his vague suspicions for a moment &ldquo;Whar did he
+      die at?&rdquo; he then demanded at a venture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;At his daddy's house, fur sure. Whar else?&rdquo; responded the driver. &ldquo;I hev
+      got what's lef' of him hyar in the coffin-box. We expected ter make it ter
+      Shiloh buryin'-ground 'fore dark; but the road is middlin' heavy, an'
+      'bout five mile' back Ben cast a shoe. The funeral warn't over much 'fore
+      noon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whyn't they bury him in Eskaqua, whar he died!&rdquo; persisted Browdie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal, they planned ter bury him alongside his mother an' gran'dad, what
+      used ter live in Tanglefoot Cove. But we air wastin' time hyar, an' we hev
+      got none ter spare. Gee, Ben! Git up, John!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wagon gave a lurch; the horses, holding back in bracing attitudes far
+      from the pole, went teetering down the steep slant, the locked wheel
+      dragging heavily; the four men sat silent, two in slouching postures at
+      the head of the coffin; the third, with the driver, was at its foot. It
+      seemed drearily suggestive, the last journey of this humble mortality, in
+      all the splendid environment of the mountains, under the vast expansions
+      of the aloof skies, in the mystic light of the unnoting moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this bona-fide?&rdquo; asked Browdie, with a questioning glance at the
+      informer, who had at length crept forth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dunno,&rdquo; sullenly responded the mountaineer. He had acquainted the two
+      officers, who were of a posse of revenue-raiders hovering in the vicinity,
+      with the mysterious circumstance that a freighted wagon now and then made
+      a midnight transit across these lonely ranges. He himself had heard only
+      occasionally in a wakeful hour the roll of heavy wheels, but he
+      interpreted this as the secret transportation of brush whisky from the
+      still to its market. He had thought to fix the transgression on an old
+      enemy of his own, long suspected of moonshining; but he was acquainted
+      with none of the youngsters on the wagon, at whom he had peered cautiously
+      from behind the rocks. His actuating motive in giving information to the
+      emissaries of the government had been the rancor of an old feud, and his
+      detection meant certain death. He had not expected the revenue-raiders to
+      be outnumbered by the supposed moonshiners, and he would not fight in the
+      open. He had no sentiment of fealty to the law, and the officers glanced
+      at each other in uncertainty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This evidently is not the wagon in question,&rdquo; said Browdie, disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'll follow them a bit,&rdquo; volunteered Bonan, the younger and the more
+      active of the two officers. &ldquo;Seems to me they'll bear watching.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Indeed, as the melancholy cortège fared down and down the steep road,
+      dwindling in the sheeny distance, the covert and half-suppressed laughter
+      of the sepulchral escort was of so keen a relish that it was well that the
+      scraping of the locked wheel aided the distance to mask the incongruous
+      sound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What ailed you-uns ter name <i>me</i> as the corpus, 'Gene Barker?&rdquo;
+       demanded Walter Wyatt, when he had regained the capacity of coherent
+      speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I hed ter do suddint murder on somebody,&rdquo; declared the driver, all
+      bluff and reassured and red-faced again, &ldquo;an' I couldn't think quick of
+      nobody else. Besides, I helt a grudge agin' you fer not stuffin' mo' straw
+      'twixt them jimmyjohns in the coffin-box.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's a fac'. Ye air too triflin' ter be let ter live, Watt,&rdquo; cried one
+      of their comrades. &ldquo;I hearn them jugs clash tergether in the coffin-box
+      when 'Gene checked the team up suddint, I tell you. An' them men sure
+      'peared ter me powerful suspectin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>I</i> hearn the clash of them jimmyjohns,&rdquo; chimed in the driver. &ldquo;I
+      really thunk my hour war come. Some informer must hev set them men ter
+      spyin' round fer moonshine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, surely nobody wouldn't dare,&rdquo; urged one of the group, uneasily; for
+      the identity of an informer was masked in secrecy, and his fate, when
+      discovered, was often gruesome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They couldn't hev noticed the clash of them jimmyjohns, nohow,&rdquo; declared
+      the negligent Watt, nonchalantly. &ldquo;But namin' <i>me</i> fur the dead one!
+      Supposin' they air revenuers fur true, an' hed somebody along, hid out in
+      the bresh, ez war acquainted with me by sight&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then they'd hev been skeered out'n thar boots, that's all,&rdquo; interrupted
+      the self-sufficient 'Gene. &ldquo;They would hev 'lowed they hed viewed yer
+      brazen ghost, bold ez brass, standin' at the head of yer own coffin-box.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Or mebbe they mought hev recognized the Wyatt favor, ef they warn't
+      acquainted with <i>me</i>,&rdquo; persisted Watt, with his unique sense of
+      injury.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugene Barker defended the temerity of his inspiration. &ldquo;They would hev
+      jes thought ye war kin ter the deceased, an' at-tendin' him ter his long
+      home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Gene don't keer much fur ye ter be alive nohow, Watt Wyatt,&rdquo; one of the
+      others suggested tactlessly, &ldquo;'count o' Minta Elladine Biggs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugene Barker's off-hand phrase was incongruous with his sudden gravity
+      and his evident rancor as he declared: &ldquo;<i>I</i> ain't carin' fur sech ez
+      Watt Wyatt. An' they <i>do</i> say 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.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      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 &ldquo;revenuer&rdquo; so hard on their heels
+      this might seem a troublous problem enough.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put it whar a coffin b'longs&mdash;in the churchyard,&rdquo; 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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We couldn't dig a grave before that spy&mdash;ef he be a revenuer sure
+      enough&mdash;could overhaul us,&rdquo; Eugene Barker objected.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We could turn the yearth right smart, though,&rdquo; 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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Eugene Barker acceded to this view. &ldquo;That's the dinctum&mdash;dig a few
+      jes fer a blind. We kin slip the coffin-box under the church-house 'fore
+      he gits in sight,&mdash;he'll be feared ter follow too close,&mdash;an'
+      leave it thar till the other boys kin wagon it ter the cross-roads' store
+      ter-morrer night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      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. That this hope had grown
+      tenuous was evident in his relinquishment of his former caution, for when
+      they again caught a glimpse of him he was forging along in the middle of
+      the road without any effort at concealment. But as the wagon appeared in
+      the perspective, stationary, hitched to the hedge of the graveyard, he
+      recurred to his previous methods. The four men still within the
+      in-closure, now busied in shovelling the earth back again into the
+      excavation they had so swiftly made, covertly watched him as he skulked
+      into the shadow of the wayside. The little &ldquo;church-house,&rdquo; with all its
+      windows whitely aglare in the moonlight, reflected the pervasive sheen,
+      and silent, spectral, remote, it seemed as if it might well harbor at
+      times its ghastly neighbors from the quiet cemetery without, dimly ranging
+      themselves once more in the shadowy ranks of its pews or grimly stalking
+      down the drear and deserted aisles. The fact that the rising ground toward
+      the rear of the building necessitated a series of steps at the entrance,
+      enabled the officer to mask behind this tall flight his crouching
+      approach, and thus he ensconced himself in the angle between the wall and
+      the steps, and looked forth in fancied security.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadows multiplied the tale of the dead that the head-boards kept,
+      each similitude askew in the moonlight on the turf below the slanting
+      monument To judge by the motions of the men engaged in the burial and the
+      mocking antics of their silhouettes on the ground, it must have been
+      obvious to the spectator that they were already filling in the earth. The
+      interment may have seemed to him suspiciously swift, but the possibility
+      was obvious that the grave might have been previously dug in anticipation
+      of their arrival. It was plain that he was altogether unprepared for the
+      event when they came slouching forth to the wagon, and the stalwart and
+      red-faced driver, with no manifestation of surprise, hailed him as he
+      still crouched in his lurking-place. &ldquo;Hello, stranger! Warn't that you-uns
+      runnin' arter the wagon a piece back yonder jes a while ago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The officer rose to his feet, with an intent look both dismayed and
+      embarrassed. He did not venture on speech; he merely acceded with a nod.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye want a lift, I reckon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The stranger was hampered by the incongruity between his rustic garb,
+      common to the coves, and his cultivated intonation; for, unlike his
+      comrade Browdie, he had no mimetic faculties whatever. Nevertheless, he
+      was now constrained to &ldquo;face the music.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't want to interrupt you,&rdquo; he said, seeking such excuse as due
+      consideration for the circumstances might afford; &ldquo;but I'd like to ask
+      where I could get lodging for the night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's yer name?&rdquo; demanded Barker, unceremoniously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Francis Bonan,&rdquo; the raider replied, with more assurance. Then he added,
+      by way of explaining his necessity, &ldquo;I'm a stranger hereabouts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye air so,&rdquo; assented the sarcastic 'Gene. &ldquo;Ye ain't even acquainted with
+      yer own clothes. Ye be a town man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, I'm not the first man who has had to hide out,&rdquo; Ronan parried,
+      seeking to justify his obvious disguise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shot somebody?&rdquo; asked 'Gene, with an apparent accession of interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's best for me not to tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So be.&rdquo; 'Gene acquiesced easily. &ldquo;Waal, ef ye kin put up with sech
+      accommodations ez our'n, I'll take ye home with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ronan stood aghast. But there was no door of retreat open. He was alone
+      and helpless. He could not conceal the fact that the turn affairs had
+      taken was equally unexpected and terrifying to him, and the moonshiners,
+      keenly watchful, were correspondingly elated to discern that he had surely
+      no reinforcements within reach to nerve him to resistance or to menace
+      their liberty. He had evidently followed them too far, too recklessly;
+      perhaps without the consent and against the counsel of his comrades,
+      perhaps even without their knowledge of his movements and intention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now and again as the wagon jogged on and on toward their distant haven,
+      the moonlight gradually dulling to dawn, Wyatt gave the stranger a
+      wondering, covert glance, vaguely, shrinkingly curious as to the
+      sentiments of a man vacillating between the suspicion of capture and the
+      recognition of a simple hospitality without significance or danger. The
+      man's face appealed to him, young, alert, intelligent, earnest, and the
+      anguish of doubt and anxiety it expressed went to his heart. In the
+      experience of his sylvan life as a hunter Wyatt's peculiar and subtle
+      temperament evolved certain fine-spun distinctions which were unique; a
+      trapped thing had a special appeal to his commiseration that a creature
+      ruthlessly slaughtered in the open was not privileged to claim. He did not
+      accurately and in words discriminate the differences, but he felt that the
+      captive had sounded all the gamut of hope and despair, shared the
+      gradations of an appreciated sorrow that makes all souls akin and that
+      even lifts the beast to the plane of brotherhood, the bond of emotional
+      woe. He had often with no other or better reason liberated the trophy of
+      his snare, calling after the amazed and franticly fleeing creature,
+      &ldquo;Bye-bye, Buddy!&rdquo; with peals of his whimsical, joyous laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was experiencing now a similar sequence of sentiments in noting the
+      wild-eyed eagerness with which the captured raider took obvious heed of
+      every minor point of worthiness that might mask the true character of his
+      entertainers. But, indeed, these deceptive hopes might have been easily
+      maintained by one not so desirous of reassurance when, in the darkest hour
+      before the dawn, they reached a large log-cabin sequestered in dense
+      woods, and he found himself an inmate of a simple, typical mountain
+      household. It held an exceedingly venerable grandfather, wielding his
+      infirmities as a rod of iron; a father and mother, hearty, hospitable,
+      subservient to the aged tyrant, but keeping in filial check a family of
+      sons and daughters-in-law, with an underfoot delegation of grandchildren,
+      who seemed to spend their time in a bewildering manouver of dashing out at
+      one door to dash in at another. A tumultuous rain had set in shortly after
+      dawn, with lightning and wind,&mdash;&ldquo;the tail of a harricane,&rdquo; as the
+      host called it,&mdash;and a terrible bird the actual storm must have been
+      to have a tail of such dimensions. There was no getting forth, no living
+      creature of free will &ldquo;took water&rdquo; in this elemental crisis. The numerous
+      dogs crowded the children away from the hearth, and the hens strolled
+      about the large living-room, clucking to scurrying broods. Even one of the
+      horses tramped up on the porch and looked in ever and anon, solicitous of
+      human company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I brung Ben up by hand, like a bottle-fed baby,&rdquo; the hostess apologized,
+      &ldquo;an' he ain't never fund out fur sure that he ain't folks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There seemed no possible intimation of moonshine in this entourage, and
+      the coffin filled with jugs, a-wagoning from some distillers' den in the
+      range to the cross-roads' store, might well have been accounted only the
+      vain phantasm of an overtired brain surcharged with the vexed problems of
+      the revenue service. The disguised revenue-raider was literally overcome
+      with drowsiness, the result of his exertions and his vigils, and observing
+      this, his host gave him one of the big feather beds under the low slant of
+      the eaves in the roof-room, where the other men, who had been out all
+      night, also slept the greater portion of the day. In fact, it was dark
+      when Wyatt wakened, and, leaving the rest still torpid with slumber and
+      fatigue, descended to the large main room of the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The callow members of the household had retired to rest, but the elders of
+      the band of moonshiners were up and still actively astir, and Wyatt
+      experienced a prescient vicarious qualm to note their lack of heed or
+      secrecy&mdash;the noisy shifting of heavy weights (barrels, kegs, bags of
+      apples, and peaches for pomace), the loud voices and unguarded words. When
+      a door in the floor was lifted, the whiff of chill, subterranean air that
+      pervaded the whole house was heavily freighted with spirituous odors, and
+      gave token to the meanest intelligence, to the most unobservant inmate,
+      that the still was operated in a cellar, peculiarly immune to suspicion,
+      for a cellar is never an adjunct to the ordinary mountain cabin. Thus the
+      infraction of the revenue law went on securely and continuously beneath
+      the placid, simple, domestic life, with its reverent care for the very
+      aged and its tender nurture of the very young.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was significant, indeed, that the industry should not be pretermitted,
+      however, when a stranger was within the gates. The reason to Wyatt,
+      familiar with the moonshiners' methods and habits of thought, was only too
+      plain. They intended that the &ldquo;revenuer&rdquo; should never go forth to tell the
+      tale. His comrades had evidently failed to follow his trail, either losing
+      it in the wilderness or from ignorance of his intention. He had put
+      himself hopelessly into the power of these desperate men, whom his escape
+      or liberation would menace with incarceration for a long term as Federal
+      prisoners in distant penitentiaries, if, indeed, they were not already
+      answerable to the law for some worse crime than illicit distilling. His
+      murder would be the extreme of brutal craft, so devised as to seem an
+      accident, against the possibility of future investigation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reflection turned Wyatt deathly cold, he who could not bear unmoved
+      the plea of a wild thing's eye. He sturdily sought to pull himself
+      together. It was none of his decree; it was none of his deed, he argued.
+      The older moonshiners, who managed all the details of the enterprise,
+      would direct the event with absolute authority and the immutability of
+      fate. But whatever should be done, he revolted from any knowledge of it,
+      as from any share in the act. He had risen to leave the place, all strange
+      of aspect now, metamorphosed,&mdash;various disorderly details of the
+      prohibited industry ever and anon surging up from the still-room below,&mdash;when
+      a hoarse voice took cognizance of his intention with a remonstrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Watt Wyatt, <i>ye</i> can't go out in the cove. Ye air dead! Ye will
+      let that t'other revenue-raider ye seen into the secret o' the bresh
+      whisky in our wagon ef ye air viewed about whenst 'Gene hev spread the
+      report that ye air dead. Wait till them raiders hev cleared out of the
+      kentry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The effort at detention, to interfere with his liberty, added redoubled
+      impetus to Wyatt 's desire to be gone. He suddenly devised a cogent
+      necessity. &ldquo;I be feared my dad mought hear that fool tale. I ain't much
+      loss, but dad would feel it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I sent Jack thar ter tell him better whenst he drove ter mill ter-day
+      ter git the meal fer the mash. Jack made yer dad understand 'bout yer
+      sudden demise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yeh,&rdquo; interposed the glib Jack; &ldquo;an' he said ez <i>he</i> couldn't
+      abide sech jokes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shucks!&rdquo; cried the filial Wyatt. &ldquo;Dad war full fresky himself in his
+      young days; I hev hearn his old frien's say so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tried ter slick things over,&rdquo; said the diplomatic Jack. &ldquo;I 'lowed young
+      folks war giddy by nature. I 'lowed 't war jes a flash o' fun. An' he say:
+      'Flash o' fun be con-sarned! My son is more like a flash o' lightning; ez
+      suddint an' mischeevious an' totally ondesirable.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reproach obviously struck home, for Wyatt maintained a disconsolate
+      silence for a time. At length, apparently goaded by his thoughts to
+      attempt a defense, he remonstrated:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nobody ever war dead less of his own free will. I never elected ter be a
+      harnt. 'Gene Barker hed no right ter nominate <i>me</i> fer the dear
+      departed, nohow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the uncouth younger fellows, his shoulders laden with a sack of
+      meal, paused on his way from the porch to the trap-door to look up from
+      beneath his burden with a sly grin as he said, &ldquo;'Gene war wishin' it war
+      true, that's why.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Count o' Minta Elladine Riggs,&rdquo; gaily chimed in another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But 'Gene needn't gredge Watt foothold on this yearth fer sech; <i>she</i>
+      ain't keerin' whether Watt lives or dies,&rdquo; another contributed to the
+      rough, rallying fun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Wyatt was of sensitive fibre. He had flushed angrily; his eyes were
+      alight; a bitter retort was trembling on his lips when one of the elder
+      Barkers, discriminating the elements of an uncontrollable fracas, seized
+      on the alternative.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Could you-uns <i>sure</i> be back hyar by daybreak, Watt!&rdquo; he asked,
+      fixing the young fellow with a stern eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No 'spectable ghost roams around arter sun-up,&rdquo; cried Wyatt, fairly
+      jovial at the prospect of liberation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye mus' be heedful not ter be viewed,&rdquo; the senior admonished him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I be goin' ter slip about keerful like a reg'lar, stiddy-goin' harnt, an'
+      eavesdrop a bit. It's worth livin' a hard life ter view how a feller's
+      friends will take his demise.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I reckon ye kin make out ter meet the wagin kemin' back from the
+      cross-roads' store. It went out this evenin' with that coffin full of jugs
+      that ye lef' las' night under the church-house, whenst 'Gene seen you-uns
+      war suspicioned. They will hev time ter git ter the cross-roads with the
+      whisky on' back little arter midnight, special' ez we-uns hev got the
+      raider that spied out the job hyar fast by the leg.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The mere mention of the young prisoner rendered Wyatt the more eager to be
+      gone, to be out of sight and sound. But he had no agency in the disaster,
+      he urged against some inward clamor of protest; the catastrophe was the
+      logical result of the fool-hardiness of the officer in following these
+      desperate men with no backing, with no power to apprehend or hold, relying
+      on his flimsy disguise, and risking delivering himself into their hands,
+      fettered as he was with the knowledge of his discovery of their secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's nothin' ter <i>me</i>, nohow,&rdquo; Wyatt was continually repeating to
+      himself, though when he sprang through the door he could scarcely draw his
+      breath because of some mysterious, invisible clutch at his throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sought to ascribe this symptom to the density of the pervasive fog
+      without, that impenetrably cloaked all the world; one might wonder how a
+      man could find his way through the opaque white vapor. It was, however, an
+      accustomed medium to the young mountaineer, and his feet, too, had
+      something of that unclassified muscular instinct, apart from reason, which
+      guides in an oft-trodden path. Once he came to a halt, from no uncertainty
+      of locality, but to gaze apprehensively through the blank, white mists
+      over a shuddering shoulder. &ldquo;I wonder ef thar be any other harnts aloose
+      ter-night, a-boguing through the fog an' the moon,&rdquo; he speculated.
+      Presently he went on again, shaking his head sagely. &ldquo;I ain't wantin' ter
+      collogue with sech,&rdquo; he averred cautiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Occasionally the moonlight fell in expansive splendor through a rift in
+      the white vapor; amidst the silver glintings a vague, illusory panorama of
+      promontory and island, bay and inlet, far ripplings of gleaming deeps, was
+      presented like some magic reminiscence, some ethereal replica of the past,
+      the simulacrum of the seas of these ancient coves, long since ebbed away
+      and vanished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sailing moon visibly rocked, as the pulsing tides of the cloud-ocean
+      rose and fell, and ever and anon this supernal craft was whelmed in its
+      surgings, and once more came majestically into view, freighted with
+      fancies and heading for the haven of the purple western shores.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one of these clearances of the mists a light of an alien type caught
+      the eye of the wandering spectre&mdash;a light, red, mundane, of prosaic
+      suggestion. It filtered through the crevice of a small batten shutter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ghost paused, his head speculatively askew. &ldquo;Who sits so late at the
+      forge!&rdquo; he marvelled, for he was now near the base of the mountain, and he
+      recognized the low, dark building looming through the mists, its roof
+      aslant, its chimney cold, the big doors closed, the shutter fast. As he
+      neared the place a sudden shrill guffaw smote the air, followed by a deep,
+      gruff tone of disconcerted remonstrance. Certain cabalistic words made the
+      matter plain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;High, Low, Jack, <i>and</i> game! Fork! Fork!&rdquo; Once more there arose a
+      high falsetto shriek of jubilant laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walter Wyatt crept noiselessly down the steep slant toward the shutter. He
+      had no sense of intrusion, for he was often one of the merry blades wont
+      to congregate at the forge at night and take a hand at cards, despite the
+      adverse sentiment of the cove and the vigilance of the constable of the
+      district, bent on enforcing the laws prohibiting gaming. As Wyatt stood at
+      the crevice of the shutter the whole interior was distinct before him&mdash;the
+      disabled wagon-wheels against the walls, the horse-shoes on a rod across
+      the window, the great hood of the forge, the silent bellows, with its
+      long, motionless handle. A kerosene lamp, perched on the elevated hearth
+      of the forge, illumined the group of wild young mountaineers clustered
+      about a barrel on the head of which the cards were dealt. There were no
+      chairs; one of the gamesters sat on a keg of nails; another on an inverted
+      splint basket; two on a rude bench that was wont to be placed outside the
+      door for the accommodation of customers waiting for a horse to be shod or
+      a plow to be laid. An onlooker, not yet so proficient as to attain his
+      ambition of admission to the play, had mounted the anvil, and from this
+      coign of vantage beheld all the outspread landscape of the &ldquo;hands.&rdquo; More
+      than once his indiscreet, inadvertent betrayal of some incident of his
+      survey of the cards menaced him with a broken head. More innocuous to the
+      interests of the play was a wight humbly ensconced on the shoeing-stool,
+      which barely brought his head to the level of the board; but as he was
+      densely ignorant of the game, he took no disadvantage from his lowly
+      posture. His head was red, and as it moved erratically about in the gloom,
+      Watt Wyatt thought for a moment that it was the smith's red setter. He
+      grinned as he resolved that some day he would tell the fellow this as a
+      pleasing gibe; but the thought was arrested by the sound of his own name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal, sir,&rdquo; said the dealer, pausing in shuffling the cards, &ldquo;I s'pose ye
+      hev all hearn 'bout Walter Wyatt's takin' off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' none too soon, sartain.&rdquo; A sour visage was glimpsed beneath the wide
+      brim of the speaker's hat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal,&rdquo; drawled the semblance of the setter from deep in the
+      clare-obscure, &ldquo;Watt war jes a fool from lack o' sense.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That kind o' fool can't be cured,&rdquo; said another of the players. Then he
+      sharply adjuxed the dealer. &ldquo;Look out what ye be doin'! Ye hev gimme <i>two</i>
+      kyerds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Gene Barker will git ter marry Minta Elladine Biggs now, I reckon,&rdquo;
+       suggested the man on the anvil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' I'll dance at the weddin' with right good will an' a nimble toe,&rdquo;
+       declared the dealer, vivaciously. &ldquo;I'll be glad ter see that couple
+      settled. That gal couldn't make up her mind ter let Walter Wyatt go, an'
+      yit no woman in her senses would hev been willin, ter marry him. He war ez
+      unresponsible ez&mdash;ez&mdash;fox-fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' ez onstiddy ez a harricane,&rdquo; commented another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' no more account than a mole in the yearth,&rdquo; said a third.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ghost at the window listened in aghast dismay and became pale in sober
+      truth, for these boon companions he had accounted the best friends he had
+      in the world. They had no word of regret, no simple human pity; even that
+      facile meed of casual praise that he was &ldquo;powerful pleasant company&rdquo; was
+      withheld. And for these and such as these he had bartered the esteem of
+      the community at large and his filial duty and obedience; had spurned the
+      claims of good citizenship and placed himself in jeopardy of the law; had
+      forfeited the hand of the woman he loved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Minta Elladine Biggs ain't keerin' nohow fer sech ez Watt,&rdquo; said the
+      semblance of the setter, with a knowing nod of his red head. &ldquo;I war up
+      thar at the mill whenst the news kem ter-day, an' she war thar ter git
+      some seconds. I hev hearn women go off in high-strikes fer a lovyer's
+      death&mdash;even Mis' Simton, though hern was jes her husband, an 'a
+      mighty pore one at that. But Minta Elladine jes listened quiet an'
+      composed, an' never said one word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The batten shutter was trembling in the ghost's hand. In fact, so
+      convulsive was his grasp that it shook the hook from the staple, and the
+      shutter slowly opened as he stood at gaze.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps it was the motion that attracted the attention of the dealer,
+      perhaps the influx of a current of fresh air. He lifted his casual glance
+      and beheld, distinct in the light from the kerosene lamp and imposed on
+      the white background of the mist, that familiar and individual face,
+      pallid, fixed, strange, with an expression that he had never seen it wear
+      hitherto. One moment of suspended faculties, and he sprang up with a wild
+      cry that filled the little shanty with its shrill terror. The others gazed
+      astounded upon him, then followed the direction of his starting eyes, and
+      echoed his frantic fright. There was a wild scurry toward the door. The
+      overturning of the lamp was imminent, but it still burned calmly on the
+      elevated hearth, while the shoeing-stool capsized in the rush, and the red
+      head of its lowly occupant was lowlier still, rolling on the dirt floor.
+      Even with this disadvantage, however, he was not the hindmost, and reached
+      the exit unhurt. The only specific damage wrought by the panic was to the
+      big barnlike doors of the place. They had been stanchly barred against the
+      possible intrusion of the constable of the district, and the fastenings in
+      so critical an emergency could not be readily loosed. The united weight
+      and impetus of the onset burst the flimsy doors into fragments, and as the
+      party fled in devious directions in the misty moonlight, the calm radiance
+      entered at the wide-spread portal and illuminated the vacant place where
+      late had been so merry a crew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walter Wyatt had known the time when the incident would have held an
+      incomparable relish for him. But now he gazed all forlorn into the empty
+      building with a single thought in his mind. &ldquo;Not one of 'em keered a mite!
+      Nare good word, nare sigh, not even, 'Fare ye well, old mate!'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His breast heaved, his eyes flashed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An' I hev loant money ter Jim, whenst I hed need myself; an' holped
+      George in the mill, when his wrist war sprained, without a cent o' pay;
+      an' took the blame when 'Dolphus war faulted by his dad fur lamin' the
+      horse-critter; an' stood back an' let Pete git the meat whenst we-uns shot
+      fur beef, bein' he hev got a wife an' chil'ren ter feed. All <i>leetle</i>
+      favors, but nare <i>leetle</i> word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He had turned from the window and was tramping absently down the road, all
+      unmindful of the skulking methods of the spectral gentry. If he had
+      chanced to be observed, his little farce, that had yet an element of
+      tragedy in its presentation, must soon have reached its close. But the fog
+      hung about him like a cloak, and when the moon cast aside the vapors, it
+      was in a distant silver sheen illumining the far reaches of the valley.
+      Only when its light summoned forth a brilliant and glancing reflection on
+      a lower level, as if a thousand sabers were unsheathed at a word, he
+      recognized the proximity of the river and came to a sudden halt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whar is this fool goin'?&rdquo; he demanded angrily of space. &ldquo;To the
+      graveyard, I declar', ez ef I war a harnt fur true, an' buried sure
+      enough. An' I wish I war. I wish I war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He realized, after a moment's consideration, that he had been
+      unconsciously actuated by the chance of meeting the wagon, returning by
+      this route from the cross-roads' store. He was tired, disheartened; his
+      spirit was spent; he would be glad of the lift. He reflected, however,
+      that he must needs wait some time, for this was the date of a
+      revival-meeting at the little church, and the distillers' wagon would lag,
+      that its belated night journey might not be subjected to the scrutiny and
+      comment of the church-goers. Indeed, even now Walter Wyatt saw in the
+      distance the glimmer of a lantern, intimating homeward-bound worshipers
+      not yet out of sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The saints kep' it up late ter-night,&rdquo; he commented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He resolved to wait till the roll of wheels should tell of the return of
+      the moonshiners' empty wagon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He crossed the river on the little footbridge and took his way languidly
+      along the road toward the deserted church. He was close to the hedge that
+      grew thick and rank about the little inclosure when he suddenly heard the
+      sound of lamentation from within. He drew back precipitately, with a sense
+      of sacrilege, but the branches of the unpruned growth had caught in his
+      sleeve, and he sought to disengage the cloth without such rustling stir as
+      might disturb or alarm the mourner, who had evidently lingered here, after
+      the dispersal of the congregation, for a moment's indulgence of grief and
+      despair. He had a glimpse through the shaking boughs and the flickering
+      mist of a woman's figure kneeling on the crude red clods of a new-made
+      grave. A vague, anxious wonder as to the deceased visited him, for in the
+      sparsely settled districts a strong community sense prevails. Suddenly in
+      a choking gust of sobs and burst of tears he recognized his own name in a
+      voice of which every inflection was familiar. For a moment his heart
+      seemed to stand still. His brain whirled with a realization of this
+      unforeseen result of the fantastic story of his death in Eskaqua Cove,
+      which the moonshiners, on the verge of detection and arrest, had
+      circulated in Tanglefoot as a measure of safety. They had fancied that
+      when the truth was developed it would be easy enough to declare the men
+      drunk or mistaken. The &ldquo;revenuers&rdquo; by that time would be far away, and the
+      pervasive security, always the sequence of a raid, successful or
+      otherwise, would once more promote the manufacture of the brush whisky.
+      The managers of the moon-shining interest had taken measures to guard
+      Wyatt's aged father from this fantasy of woe, but they had not dreamed
+      that the mountain coquette might care. He himself stood appalled that this
+      ghastly fable should delude his heart's beloved, amazed that it should
+      cost her one sigh, one sob. Her racking paroxysms of grief over this
+      gruesome figment of a grave he was humiliated to hear, he was woeful to
+      see. He felt that he was not worth one tear of the floods with which she
+      bewept his name, uttered in every cadence of tender regret that her
+      melancholy voice could compass. It must cease, she must know the truth at
+      whatever cost. He broke through the hedge and stood in the flicker of the
+      moonlight before her, pale, agitated, all unlike his wonted self.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not hear, amid the tumult of her weeping, the rustling of the
+      boughs, but some subtle sense took cognizance of his presence. She half
+      rose, and with one hand holding back her dense yellow hair, which had
+      fallen forward on her forehead, she looked up at him fearfully,
+      tremulously, with all the revolt of the corporeal creature for the essence
+      of the mysterious incorporeal. For a moment he could not speak. So much he
+      must needs explain. The next instant he was whelmed in the avalanche of
+      her words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Te hev kem!&rdquo; she exclaimed in a sort of shrill ecstasy. &ldquo;Te hev kem so
+      far ter hear the word that I would give my life ter hev said before. Te
+      knowed it in heaven! an' how like ye ter kem ter gin me the chanst ter say
+      it at last! How like the good heart of ye, worth all the hearts on yearth&mdash;an'
+      <i>buried hyar!</i>&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With her open palm she smote the insensate clods with a gesture of
+      despair. Then she went on in a rising tide of tumultuous emotion. &ldquo;I love
+      ye! Oh, I <i>always</i> loved ye! I never keered fur nobody else! an' I
+      war tongue-tied, an' full of fool pride, an' faultin' ye fur yer ways; an'
+      I wouldn't gin ye the word I knowed ye war wantin' ter hear. But now I kin
+      tell the pore ghost of ye&mdash;I kin tell the pore, pore ghost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She buried her swollen, tear-stained face in her hands, and shook her head
+      to and fro with the realization of the futility of late repentance. As she
+      once more lifted her eyes, she was obviously surprised to see him still
+      standing there, and the crisis seemed to restore to him the faculty of
+      speech.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Minta Elladine,&rdquo; he said huskily and prosaically, &ldquo;I ain't dead!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She sprang to her feet and stood gazing at him, intent and quivering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I be truly alive an' kicking an' ez worthless ez ever,&rdquo; he went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She said not a word, but bent and pallid, and, quaking in every muscle,
+      stood peering beneath her hand, which still held back her hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's all a mistake,&rdquo; he urged. &ldquo;This ain't no grave. The top war dug a
+      leetle ter turn off a revenuer's suspicions o' the moonshiners. They put
+      that tale out.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, evidently on the verge of collapse, she did not speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye needn't be afeared ez I be goin' ter take fur true all I hearn ye say;
+      folks air gin ter vauntin' the dead,&rdquo; he paused for a moment, remembering
+      the caustic comments over the deal of the cards, then added, &ldquo;though I
+      reckon <i>I</i> hev hed some cur'ous 'speriences ez a harnt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She suddenly threw up both arms with a shrill scream, half nervous
+      exhaustion, half inexpressible delight. She swayed to and fro, almost
+      fainting, her balance failing. He caught her in his arms, and she leaned
+      sobbing against his breast.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I stand ter every word of it,&rdquo; she cried, her voice broken and lapsed
+      from control. &ldquo;I love ye, an' I despise all the rest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I be powerful wild,&rdquo; he suggested contritely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I ain't keerin' ef ye be ez wild ez a deer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I'm goin' to quit gamesome company an' playin' kyerds an' sech. I
+      expec' ter mend my ways now,&rdquo; he promised eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ye kin mend 'em or let 'em stay tore, jes ez ye please,&rdquo; she declared
+      recklessly. &ldquo;I ain't snatched my lovyer from the jaws o' death ter want
+      him otherwise; ye be plumb true-hearted, <i>I know</i>.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I mought ez well hev been buried in this grave fer the last ten year' fer
+      all the use I hev been,&rdquo; he protested solemnly; &ldquo;but I hev learnt a lesson
+      through bein' a harnt fer a while&mdash;I hev jes kem ter life. I'm goin'
+      ter <i>live</i> now. I'll make myself some use in the world, an' fust off
+      I be goin' ter hinder the murder of a man what they hev got trapped up
+      yander at the still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This initial devoir of his reformation, however, Wyatt found no easy
+      matter. The event had been craftily planned to seem an accident, a fall
+      from a cliff in pursuing the wagon, and only the most ardent and cogent
+      urgency on Wyatt's part prevailed at length. He argued that this
+      interpretation of the disaster would not satisfy the authorities. To take
+      the raider's life insured discovery, retribution. But as he had been
+      brought to the still in the night, it was obvious that if he were conveyed
+      under cover of darkness and by roundabout trails within striking distance
+      of the settlements, he could never again find his way to the locality in
+      the dense wilderness. In his detention he had necessarily learned nothing
+      fresh, for the only names he could have overheard had long been obnoxious
+      to suspicion of moonshining, and afforded no proof. Thus humanity,
+      masquerading as caution, finally triumphed, and the officer, blindfolded,
+      was conducted through devious and winding ways many miles distant, and
+      released within a day's travel of the county town.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Walter Wyatt was scarcely welcomed back to life by the denizens of the
+      cove generally with the enthusiasm attendant on the first moments of his
+      resuscitation, so to speak. He never forgot the solemn ecstasy of that
+      experience, and in later years he was wont to annul any menace of discord
+      with his wife by the warning, half jocose, half tender: &ldquo;Ye hed better
+      mind; ye'll be sorry some day fur treatin' me so mean. Remember, I hev
+      viewed ye a-weepin' over my grave before now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A reformation, however complete and salutary, works no change of identity,
+      and although he developed into an orderly, industrious, law-abiding
+      citizen, his prankish temperament remained recognizable in the fantastic
+      fables which he delighted to recount at some genial fireside of what he
+      had seen and heard as a ghost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pears like, Watt, ye hed more experiences whenst dead than living&rdquo; said
+      an auditor, as these stories multiplied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did, fur a fack,&rdquo; Watt protested. &ldquo;I war a powerful onchancy, onquiet
+      ghost. I even did my courtin' whilst in my reg'lar line o' business
+      a-hanatin' a graveyard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His Unquiet Ghost, by
+Charles Egbert Craddock         (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree)
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS UNQUIET GHOST ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23556-h.htm or 23556-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/5/5/23556/
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo;), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (&ldquo;the Foundation&rdquo;
+ or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; appears, or with which the phrase &ldquo;Project
+Gutenberg&rdquo; is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase &ldquo;Project Gutenberg&rdquo; associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+&ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original &ldquo;Plain Vanilla ASCII&rdquo; or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, &ldquo;Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.&rdquo;
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+&ldquo;Defects,&rdquo; such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the &ldquo;Right
+of Replacement or Refund&rdquo; described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>