One Halloween night a group of about twenty-five young men

went out together.  They were talking, laughing and singing
 
as they went along, exchanging the farmers’ gates and putting
 
black pigs with the neighbours’ white ones.


They sat down on the ground to cool off and plan their next
 
move.  The night was young and the moon was full.


One of the boys called out, “Somebody tell us a story, a scary
 
ghost story.”  One of them answered, “I will tell a story, but
 
if you see anything, please don’t run away and leave me.” 
  
Everybody laughed at that remark.  “Go ahead and tell the
 
story; we won’t leave you.  Who’s afraid of a Halloween ghost?”


The young man began his story by telling about the time the

church was being repaired.  The workers had only two days

to finish, because a service was to be held on the third day.


The moon was bright, almost like day, as the group of young men
 
listened to the story-teller.


“The men were working late at night.  The church had electric lights,

and suddenly, high up on a beam, the workers could see the figure of

a little man hardly three feet high, with a spear at the end of his tail.

The figure was waving to and fro as if to jump.”


The boys crept closer to each other.  Suddenly one of them said, “Stop

the story. Jack is cracking up with fright.”  They all turned to look at

Jack.  He was staring straight ahead, and as they followed his gaze they

saw a huge figure approaching.


This enormous thing was dark in colour and they could hear a hissing

sound as it kept on coming towards them.  They all jumped to their feet,

but the ‘thing’ covered each of them.  They were standing close together,

but when it covered them they could not see one another.


The young man who was telling the story was a ‘life-of-the-party’ and

he was not afraid of anything.  He had a small twenty-two revolver with

him and he shot it up into the air.  The ‘thing’ vanished but immediately

returned.


The boys started to run towards their homes.  They ran quickly, but the

black cloud was right behind them.  The story-teller got his gun and shot

again; the ‘thing’ disappeared.  They ran as fast as they could but soon
 
the cloud was coming again.  The young man said, “The next time I shoot,

run to the nearest farmhouse.”  They did this.

Meanwhile, all the dogs in the neighbourhood had heard the shots and

came running to the scene.  The boys could hear the dogs fighting the

‘thing’.  Since they knew they could frighten it away with gunshots, the

boys decided to make torches and go out there and help the dogs.


The boys ran with their torches towards where the dogs were fighting.

They could not see what happened, but suddenly the dogs just stopped

Barking and dropped to the ground, panting.  The ‘thing’ was gone.


The men examined the dogs.  There were no bites or scratches, but

each one had a peculiar odour.  They smelled as though it had been

sprayed with sulphur.