ly like on the back
of one of them; and that one was sure to fall sick next day, and die
soon after.

"No one ever met him in the park, or in the woods, or ever saw him,
except a good distance off. But they knew his gait and his figure well,
and the clothes he used to wear; and they could tell the beast he laid
his hand on by its color--white, dun, or black; and that beast was sure
to sicken and die. The neighbors grew shy of taking the path over the
park; and no one liked to walk in the woods, or come inside the bounds
of Barwyke; and the cattle went on sickening and dying, as before.

"At that time there was one Thomas Pyke; he had been a groom to the old
Squire; and he was in care of the place, and was the only one that used
to sleep in the house.

"Tom was vexed, hearing these stories; which he did not believe the half
on 'em; and more especial as he could not get man or boy to herd the
cattle; all being afeared. So he wrote to Matlock, in Derbyshire, for
his brother, Richard Pyke, a clever lad, and one that knew nout o' the
story of the old Squire walking.

"Dick came; and the cattle was better; folk said they could still see
the old Squire, sometimes, walking, as before, in openings of the wood,
with his stick in his hand; but he was shy of coming nigh the cattle,
whatever his reason might be, since Dickon Pyke came; and he used to
stand a long bit off, looking at them, with no more stir in him than a
trunk o' one of the old trees, for an hour at a time, till the shape
melted away, little by little, like the smoke of a fire that burns out.

"Tom Pyke and his brother Dickon, being the only living souls in the
house, lay in the big bed in the servants' room, the house being fast
barred and locked, one night in November.

"Tom was lying next the wall, and, he told me, as wide awake as ever he
was at noonday. His brother Dickon lay outside, and was sound asleep.

"Well, as Tom lay thinking, with his eyes turned toward the door, it
opens slowly, and who should come in but old Squire Bowes, his face
lookin' as dead as he was in his coffin.

"Tom's very breath left his body; he could not take his eyes off him;
and he felt the hair rising up on his head.

"The Squire came to the side of the bed, and put his arms under Dickon,
and lifted the boy--in a dead sleep all the time--and carried him out
so, at the door.

"Such was the appearance, to Tom Pyke's eyes, and he was ready to swear
to it, anywhere.

"When t