A TRUE GHOST STORY 119 



"you have been staying in Mr. Lausier's since 

 your arrival, I hear? 5 ' 



"Yes, Father." 



"Did you notice anything strange about the 

 house, or hear any noises at night?" 



"Well, yes, I did hear some noise," and related 

 what I have previously described, adding that I 

 believed it was the servant or some one of the 

 family. "Not at all," said the good father, "the 

 inmates are all huddled together in one room and 

 don't dare to move." He then proceeded to re- 

 peat to me what Mr. Lausier had confided to 

 him. "Some eight or ten days previous to my 

 arrival, all the family had been awakened during 

 the night by an unearthly yell, and then the 

 tramp of footsteps in the house. The children 

 and the servant girl who were sleeping upstairs, 

 ran down screaming. The dog had also heard the 

 noise and was barking furiously. Lausier had 

 jumped out ot bed and lighted his lamp on hear- 

 ing the screech, and had then heard the tramping 

 and noise. With a gun in one hand and his lamp 

 in the other he had gone through every room in the 

 house and could find nothing. Every night since, 

 at about the same hour, the tramping and knock- 

 ing had been repeated. Lausier and his family 

 were so frightened and worried over the affair 

 that they had decided to leave the house, unless 

 some change took place. "Of course, you know," 

 added Father Arnaud, "that it was in that house 



