‘Where does he walk?’
‘Round and round Corston Point every full moon, wringing his hands and asking for his money. They say it’s terrible to see him.’
‘Have you ever seen him, Barnes?’
Larry coloured deeply and shook his head. The peasantry all over England are very susceptible to superstition, and the Corston folk were not behindhand in their fear of ghosts, hobgoblins, and apparitions of all sorts. This young fellow would have stood up in a fight with the best man there, but the idea of seeing a ghost made his blood curdle.
‘Dear me, miss, no,’ said Lizzie, answering for him, ‘and I hope he never may. Why, it would kill him.’
‘Nonsense, Lizzie. Barnes is not such a coward, I hope.’
Something in Miss Murray’s tone made the blood leap to her retainer’s face.
‘I’m not a coward, miss,’ he answered quickly.
‘Of course not; I said so. But any man would be so who refused to go to Corston Point by night for fear of seeing old Whisker’s ghost. He walks at full moon, you say! Why, he must be at it to-night, then! There never was a lovelier moon.’