“A man! I seen a man. He was up on a cliff just by the golf course when I first seen him. I was comin’ along the path down by the Fort Beach an’ I looked up an’ there he was, shinin’ all white in the moonlight. An’ then before I could run, he came floatin’ down at me.”
“Floating?”
“Yes. He didn’t walk. He came down through the rocks. I could see the rocks of the cliff right through him.”
Don laughed at that. But neither he nor I could set this down as utter nonsense, for within the past week there had been many wild stories of ghosts among the colored people of Bermuda. The Negroes of Bermuda are not unduly superstitious, and certainly they are more intelligent, better educated than most of their race. But the little islands, this past week, were echoing with whispered tales of strange things seen at night. It had been mostly down at the lower end of the comparatively inaccessible Somerset; but now here it was in our own neighborhood.
“You’ve got the fever, Willie,” Don laughed. “I say, who told you you saw a man walking through rock?”
“Nobody told me. I seen him. It ain’t far if you—”
“You think he’s still there?”
“Maybe so. Mr. Don, he was standin’ still, with his arms folded. I ran, an’—”
“Let’s go see if he’s there,” I suggested. “I’d like to have a look at one of these ghosts.”
BUT even as I lightly said it, a queer thrill of fear shot through me. No one can contemplate an encounter with the supernatural without a shudder.