III
Pope’s Ghost at the Gap
Pope was a man who lived in the post oak grove near what is now Thorndale. He lived entirely alone, and, as that part of the country was then newly settled, there was not a house within miles of Pope’s log hut. It would, therefore, be easy to attack him some night as he came along the road, kill him, and steal his hoard of gold. The murder could be committed, and the murderer could escape into Mexico and live in luxury on the stolen money, with nothing to fear save his own conscience. Such must have been the idea of the villain who murdered Pope one dark night just as Pope turned into the gap to go to his hut. Perhaps the gold was hidden too well for the murderer to find it. No one knows. At any rate, after Pope’s body was found and decently buried, his spirit was apparently not at rest; near the gap for a long time thereafter a strange dog was seen. It was undoubtedly the ghost of Pope, for no other dog would venture near it, much less fight it. Horses shied at it when they met it in the road. When a man hit it with a stone, it refused to move, and a bullet had not the slightest effect upon it. Some tried to touch the dog, but when they were about to lay hand upon it, it disappeared. Whoever rode by the gap at sunset was almost sure to see it; [[103]]often, however, if a party of several persons came by, it would be invisible to all save a particular individual. The ghost dog continued to appear for several years, but after a time he disappeared forever.[7] The gate, however, that has taken the place of the gap near which Pope was killed, will not stay shut. No matter how you close it, it will open of itself and remain open.
[1] Bolton, H. E., Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century, pp. 140–141. [↑]
[6] The legend may be compared with that of La Vaca de Lumbre (the Fiery Cow) of the City of Mexico, fabled to come forth at midnight from the Potrero de San Pablo and gallop through the streets like a blazing whirlwind, breathing from her nostrils smoke and fire. Janvier connects the story of La Vaca de Lumbre with that of the goblin, El Belludo de Grenada, “who comes forth at midnight from the Siete Suelos Tower of the Alhambra and scours the streets pursued by hell-hounds.” See Janvier, Thomas A., Legends of the City of Mexico, “La Vaca de Lumbre,” Harper Brothers, New York, 1910.—Editor. [↑]
[7] Skinner tells a tale of two young men who were digging for a treasure chest supposed to have been lost by a Spanish galleon at New London, Connecticut, in 1753. “They had dug down to water-level when they reached an iron chest, and they stooped to lift it—but, to their amazement, the iron was too hot to handle! Now they heard deep growls, and a giant dog peered at them from the pit-mouth.”—Chas. M. Skinner, Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, II, 282–283.
See also Pete Staples’ story of the ghost-dog as a guardian of treasure, page 54.—Editor. [↑]