Nonsense! This rubbish about ghosts was unworthy of a moment's consideration. It was puerile, old-womanish, contemptible. Besides, ghosts did not, as far as he knew, knock up the proprietor of a general shop and buy or any way carry away heavy bundles on their backs. He must not waste time with such rubbish again.
But what about Fahey? Fahey was more of a ghost than his own ghost. Either Fahey was dead or he was not. To jump into the Puffing Hole, was, every one said, certain death. Fahey had been seen to jump into the Puffing Hole--seen by two witnesses incapable of making a mistake in the matter. The word of one man in a case of this kind would be open to doubt, but two men said they saw Fahey jump into the Puffing Hole years ago. That very day he (O'Brien) had seen a figure which Jim Phelan recognised as that of Fahey, and that figure had vanished near the hideous caldron, but without having time to get near it, and in face of the fact that there was not another means of accounting for its disappearance.
What on earth could he make of this? And now here was a mysterious figure getting a shop opened at night, and in the face of a fierce storm starting over the downs in the direction of the Black Rock.
But the whole thing wasn't worth thinking of. What was it to him if Fahey's ghost were fictitious or real, or if Fahey were alive or dead? He'd put the whole thing from him, and think of where exactly he should build that house for Madge.
Next morning, before starting for Kilbarry, he took a stroll and turned into M'Grath's shop to buy a strap for his rugs. They sold everything at M'Grath's--twine, and candles, and bread, and gunpowder, and kettles, and vinegar, and calico, and tea, and butter, and sweetmeats, and fishing-hooks, and hoops, and wooden spades, and white lead, and garden seeds, and flowers of sulphur, and dried haddock, and camp-stools, and crockery-ware, and pious pictures, and wall-hooks, and penny bugles, and cod-liver oil, and bran, and a thousand other things--to make a list of which would puzzle the most experienced auctioneer or valuer.
"You had a late customer last night," said O'Brien, when he had selected the strap.
"Yes, sir. He came to buy a few articles he wanted. He said that in my father's time he often bought things in this shop, and that as he was passing through the village late he wanted to see this place again for the sake of old times."
"How long is it since he was here, did he say?"
"Thirty-seven years since he saw Kilcash."
"Then he is not young."