"He held up his hand as if to silence me.
"'Listen to me,' he said. 'You are not frightened of me?'
"'No,' I replied; nor did I feel the slightest awe or fear. I felt stimulated, a kind of electricity ran through my veins--I longed earnestly to learn something of the mysterious realm from which he came, but I had no vulgar or superstitious fear.
"'Nor need you have any dread,' he returned. 'I have no wish nor power to hurt you, but you must listen to my story. Once in fifty years I am allowed to leave my grave and revisit the scene of my tragical death, and this must always be on the 14th of April, which is the anniversary of the event.[4] I am also permitted to recount my story if I find anyone sleeping in this room who is willing to listen to me. Are you willing?'
[4] There is evidently some mistake here in the figures given by the ghost or received by the matron. If his death took place in 1741 (three years after landing in Georgia), his first spirit return was due in 1791, the second, 1841, and the third, not till 1891. It appears to have been anticipated by sixteen years, if the dates given are correct. A friend suggests that "once _in_ fifty years" does not necessitate exact _intervals_ of fifty years.
"I replied that I should gladly hear what he had to tell, but would he allow me to ask him one question?
"He inclined his head in assent, and I said I had always thought that the spirits of the dead, if they were allowed to appear on earth, came with shadowy and skeleton forms. Why did he appear with flesh like a living man?
"'Ah!' he said, 'that is owing to the peculiarity of my grave. I am buried in salt.'
"' Have you anything more to ask?' said my visitor.
"'Nothing more at present,' I replied. 'I am ready now to hear your story.'
"'I will make it as short as possible and not detain you long. You have noticed my portrait in the gallery?'
"'And that of the lady opposite, my cousin, Lucretia Carbury?'
"'Certainly.' (Here the red door was violently shaken).
"'She cannot open it,' said Captain Carbury, 'it is sealed.'
"'When I went out to Georgia,' he resumed, 'in 1738, I was engaged to be married to her; we had been betrothed by our parents in our childhood, and family reasons made it almost a necessity that we should be united, but as we grew up neither of us was very anxious to fulfil the engagement, and, to tell the truth, I was glad of the summons to join my regiment. However, after three years in that distant colony, I came home, having made up my mind I would marry Lucretia and settle down on the family property--which could only be enjoyed by that means--for we were the only representatives of the family, and the property was so left by our fathers that only by marrying could we enter into possession. _Either by marrying or by the death of one of us; when the whole of the property would go to the other._ I knew that Lucretia was at the old house at Grantwich, and I came straight to her.
