Page:Popular Tales and Romances of the Northern Nations (Volume 2).djvu/97

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The Spectre Barber.
85

tled him, or frightened him to death, and it by no means had been his intention to carry his revenge thus far. He went, therefore, accompanied by his servants, in the greatest anxiety to the castle, and hastening, to the door of the room in which he had seen light on the preceding evening, he found a strange key in the door, but it was bolted inside, a precaution Frank had taken after the disappearance of the ghost. He knocked with great violence, and Frank was at last roused by the noise. At first, he thought the ghost intended to pay him a second visit. But, when he heard the voice of the landlord, begging him to give some sign of life, he rose and opened the door.

“By G—d, and all the saints!” said the landlord, lifting up his hands, with apparent horror: “old Red Cloak has been here, and the tradition is no invention! How did he look? What did he do, or say?”

Frank, who understood the cunning of the host, answered: “The ghost looked like a man in a red cloak; what he did, I cannot conceal from you, and I shall always remember his words:”