THE GHOST OF THE SWIMMING BATH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 36, 10 February 1906, Page 13

THE GHOST OF THE SWIMMING BATH.

Jl SXBASGE AfI'ARmDS. A correspondent of tlte "Referee" writes i follows: — As you and your readers appear to be t-erested in tie subject of apparitions or ►-called ghosts, I to bring to your >tlce a well-antlientlcated instance of the nd. It was related to Tne by a young lady horn' I will call Miss. K. I nave tnown her >r several years, and would willingly stake y life on her perfect honesty and verac ty. will give you the story tn Mies X.'s own ords:— "It was in India, some 16 years ago, when was a 'kiddy, , about nine years of age, a lend of my mother's, a Mrs S., had taken house in Luckiiow for a few months, and ie Invited mother and mc to pay tier a tort visit. The house she had taken had irmerly been a boye' school, but had been for about two years before she KJk it. I may mention that Mrs S. had a m, Ernest, whom I was very anxious to eet, and whom we expected to find home ir his holidays on our arrival. I had never sen him. "We arrived rather late In the evening ■om Moradabad. Ernest had not yet ap?ared, but his mother assured us he was Ttain to arrive in the course of the eveniß. As it was then pretty late I was given y tea aud put to bod, while the 'grownps' sat down to dinner. "The room which I was to occupy with y mother opened on . one side into the ning-room, and on the other side Into a isused swimmiDg-bath, which had never een filled since the place was a school, aortly after I had lain down, the door of ie swimming-batb opened,and a boy dressed bathing costume, with a towel over his -m, passed through my room. He was a :ry fair boy, with light hair, apparently x>ut 10 or 12 years old. I thought it must i Ernest, and called, out his name, but he >ok not the slightest notice of mc, and •seed apparently Into the dining-room. I t once jumped out of bed and followed jn, greatly excited. " 'Why, where is ErneetT I asked Mrs S. " 'He is not here; lie has not yet arrived,' ie reulied. " 'But I saw him come In here,' I said. Ie had been having a bath,' and I related hat I had seen. " 'No, , said Mrs R.. looking at mc G lought) rather oddly; 'he is not yet come, ut I think you and your mother bad better >mc into my room for to-night.' And wi> oved in accordingly. "Ernest arrived next morning, and proved « be rather a dark-complexioned boy, quite fferent from the one I had seen. But thp atter never troubled mc, and, childlike, I ;ver gave it a second thought; Indeed, I id almost forgotten It when, four yearr ter, I met Mrs S. on tho eteamer coming ime. Then she told mc all about it "It appeared that a few years before the ite of our visit, when the house was occued as a school, one of the boys was drown--1 In the swimming-bath. One report said ; had been held under water by one of his imrades and drowned, but this was never mflrmed. Anyway, from that time th-e >y's figure was constantly seen in the room here I lay, until at last no one would take ie house at any price. Mrs S. bad heard ■ports about this apparition, and put mc 3d mother In the room as a crucial test of ieir truth; for if we, who knew nothing hatever about the story, saw th.c boy, iere could be no doubt about It. After mc iveral people saw the figure, and at last ir S. himself encountered it. He promptly moved from the house, and soon after that wms pulled down. "A few years later I n*et the mother of ie boy who had been drowned. She told ie that, from my description, the figure 1 iw was certainly that of her son."