Part 3 (1/2)

”'Come along with me,' said I, 'and I will show you just what you want to know.'

”Then taking him by the hand I led him across the room to the seat I had just left; but though the sages who were present saw him cross the room, not one of them saw me, who was leading him by the hand.

”I took out a sheet of paper and began to draw figures and work formulae, the boy meanwhile standing by the side of my chair and saying not a word. When I had finished I said:

”'Do you understand?'

”'Perfectly,' he answered; 'I see it at last. Thank you ever so much.'

”'Now Billy,' I said, 'there is something you can do for _me_. I want you to stand on that chair and tell the people that the person they are making the fuss about is named Panhandle, that you know him, that he is real and quite harmless, and that he hopes they won't shoot at him any more, because it hurts. Say you are _quite certain_ he is real, because he has just told you how the planets are weighed.'

”'Dear Pan,' said Billy, 'don't ask me to do that. I never tell people about _you_; they would only laugh at me if I did. Let us keep just as we are, old fellow, and not tell our secret to anybody.'

”Unprepared for a style of address so familiar, 'Why, Billy,' I said, 'I have never seen you before.'

”'Are you quite sure you see me _now_?' he replied.

”Our positions had become reversed--Billy sitting in my study chair that he might read over what I had written about the planets, I standing by his side. I looked down to answer his last question, and for the briefest fraction of a second a vision pa.s.sed before me. The object beneath me was not my study chair, but a small iron bedstead on which there lay a boy, fast asleep. It pa.s.sed in the twinkling of an eye, and I found myself seated as before at my desk; the half-finished report was before me, and, save myself, not a soul was in the room. 'It is certain,' thought I, 'that I am haunting somebody. In the name of all the secret Powers that guide the fates of men--whom am I haunting?'”

”A marvellous story,” I cried; ”and more significant than even you, Panhandle, are aware. I knew Billy Burst. He and I were schoolmates, and practised magic together under the guidance of a mysterious Power whose name Billy would never disclose.”

”You knew Billy Burst!” exclaimed Panhandle. ”My friend, you fill me with astonishment and delight. Did I not say we were on the eve of great discoveries? Tell me all you know about Billy, for the matter is of the utmost importance.”

”You are making _me_ wait for the appearance of the ghost,” said I, ”and must not be aggrieved if I make _you_ wait for information about Billy.”

”I again pledge my word to you,” he answered, ”that you shall see a ghost this very night.”

”And I pledge mine to you that you shall hear all about Billy as soon as the ghost appears. But it is my turn first.”

”Let us make it a covenant,” he said.

”Agreed!” I answered.

”Then shake hands over the bargain.”

As he said this he stood up and extended his hand.

With the utmost eagerness I sprang to my feet and made the reciprocating gesture. For an instant I thought that excitement had unsteadied me, for my hand, seeking his, seemed to move at random in the vacant air. Then I made a second attempt, carefully noting the position of his extended palm, and this time the truth dawned upon me in a flash. My hand, indeed, grasped what seemed to be his. But there was no substance to resist my closing fingers, no hardness of interior bones, no softness of enveloping tissues, no pressure, no contact, no warmth.

”Panhandle,” I cried, ”you are a ghost!”

”Hus.h.!.+” he answered; ”we never use that term in addressing one another.

Whatever I _am_, you are also in process of _becoming_. You have been slow in making the discovery. I thought you had found me out when we stood among the cypress in the garden.”

I was trembling all over and had no control over the next words that came to my tongue. What they were I cannot remember, but Panhandle's reply seems to indicate that I had been imploring him to tell me what kind of a ghost he was.

”Certainly not a character taken out of a novel,” he was saying. ”Think of the other orders of spirits who I told you were haunting the house, and place me in the last and highest.”