g to Worthing. Here, on this broad expanse of the
Downs, was a fairyland of soft sea air, sunshine and rest--rest from
mankind, from the shrill, unmusical voices of the crude and rude product
of the County Council schools.

I sat down; I never for one moment thought of phantasms; I fell asleep.
I awoke; the hot floodgates of the cloudless heaven were still open, the
air translucent over and around me, when straight in front of me, on a
gloriously gilded patch of grass, there fell a shadow--a shadow from no
apparent substance, for both air and ground were void of obstacles, and,
apart from myself, there was no living object in the near landscape. Yet
it was a shadow; a shadow that I could not diagnose; a waving,
fluctuating shadow, unpleasantly suggestive of something subtle and
horrid. It was, I instinctively knew, the shadow of the occult; a few
moments more, and a development would, in all probability, take place.
The blue sky, the golden sea, the tiny trails of smoke creeping up
lazily from the myriads of chimney-pots, the white house-tops, the red
house-tops, the church spire, the railway line, the puffing, humming,
shuffling goods-train, the glistening white roads, the breathing, busy
figures, and the bright and smiling mile upon mile of emerald turf rose
in rebellion against the likelihood of ghosts--yet, there was the
shadow. I looked away from it, and, as I did so, an icy touch fell on my
shoulder. I dared not turn; I sat motionless, petrified, frozen. The
touch passed to my forehead and from thence to my chin, my head swung
round forcibly, and I saw--nothing--only the shadow; but how different,
for out of the chaotic blotches there now appeared a well--a remarkably
well--defined outline, the outline of a head and hand, the head of a
fantastic beast, a repulsive beast, and the hand of a man. A flock of
swallows swirled overhead, a grasshopper chirped, a linnet sang, and,
with this sudden awakening of nature, the touch and shadow vanished
simultaneously. But the hillock had lost its attractions for me, and,
rising hastily, I dashed down the decline and hurried homewards. I
discovered no reason other than solitude, and the possible burial-place
of prehistoric man, for the presence of the occult; but the next time I
visited the spot, the same thing happened. I have been there twice
since, and the same, always the same thing--first the shadow, then the
touch, then the shadow, then the arrival of some form or other of