The Haunted Sentry Box of Porto Rico

HAUNTED SENTRY BOX, SAN CRISTOBAL, SAN JUAN
BY LEWIS MILLER
The Knickerbocker Press NEW YORK 1916
Copyright, 1916 BY LEWIS MILLER

The Haunted Sentry Box of Porto Rico
By Lewis Miller
Directly below the old fort of San Cristobal, in San Juan, Porto Rico, projecting out over the sea from a corner of the sea wall, is a sentry box. Years ago a sentry, placed on duty at this lonely post, utterly disappeared, leaving behind only his musket and side-arms. His disappearance was so mysterious that it was attributed to sea-devils, and the sentry box has ever since been given a wide berth by all superstitious natives.
The same night of this strange incident, a priest, the best liked and most admired of his sect in the city, disappeared. The only clue discovered in regard to his disappearance was the small gold cross, which constantly hung suspended from a chain around his neck, found before the door of the corner sentry box.
I heard many stories in regard to the disappearance of these two, but all were too preposterous to allow any thought of truth. At last, however, good luck brought me into the presence of a man who knew, and it is the story as I heard it from him which I am undertaking to recount.
. . . . . . .
The proprietor of one of the “tiendas” in Mayaguez, Juan Cordo by name, was a large, jovial old man full of stories of wild adventure, with which every Saturday night he entertained a gathering composed chiefly of the working men, who, their work over for the week, were ready to listen to any tale which would entertain them—and the old storekeeper was a good talker. It was at one of these gatherings, to which I was frequently drawn by a desire to hear the old man's ramblings, that I heard the story of the haunted sentry box.