CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
165 
pedestrians who chanced to view the accident. Those holding 
his fate in their hands agreed among themselves that it was 
an “hallucination.” 
A similar occurrence once came within our experience, 
though no harm came of it. On a straight and lonely stretch 
of highway we met a great transcontinental bus. Under such 
circumstances one will instinctively keep their eyes open and 
on guard until the danger is past. The sun was to our back, 
thus giving the front part of the bus 100 per cent illumination. 
Passing the bus safely, we breathed a sigh of relief, seeing 
that we had passed each other without mishap. Looking 
straight down the highway, and again blinking our eyes, we 
were amused to see a “ghost bus,” in the tracks of the real 
one. Now there exists little doubt in our minds but that the 
bus operator in question had a similar experience. It is by no 
means impossible that the true cause of the accident was a 
lingering image upon the retina of the eye. Had he been 
familiar with the principle involved, and had he been suffi¬ 
ciently alert to recognize it as the image of a child he had 
looked upon, possibly a mile or two back down the highway, 
then no accident would have resulted. 
There is just one point in the testimony of the lady pre¬ 
viously referred to which is left open to dispute, or seemingly 
so. Just why was it, if true, that when she looked back upon 
the coiled form of the rattler, the lingering image of the rep¬ 
tile was expunged from the retina of the eye, for a brief in¬ 
stant, giving the false impression that the ground upon which 
he was actually coiled was wholly free from his menacing 
form? This part of her testimony is, seemingly, out of line 
with what is known concerning the principle governing such 
matters. Inasmuch as she happens to be the only person of 
whom we ever heard who lived through such an ordeal, the 
writer would be the last person to deny that what she related 
actually happened, or thus appeared. 
Does the behavior of small animals under the same trying 
circumstances tend to shed any light upon the subject? If they 
could but speak up it might be possible, with the aid of their 
testimony, to clear the entire matter of all the mystery with 
