They were not deceived.

Slowly and sadly, as if reluctantly, the Ghost rose up from behind the tomb, and confronted our friends. An expression of outraged dignity added no little to the majesty of his appearance, as he gently but firmly remonstrated with the disturbers of his peace.

Bart was frightened; but Hans, to whom the sight of his enemy seemed to give new life, demanded of the Ghost his instant cure in return for the restoration of the tomb to its pristine condition.

The Ghost hesitated; and Bart, recovering his courage, determined to bring matters to a crisis. Seizing a leg of the deceased porker, he hurled it with all the force he could command at the head of the Ghost. It hit him in the mouth, and broke two of his front teeth short off.

The Ghost yelled a short sharp yell—not unlike the bark of a dog.

Hans tremblingly awaited the result of this temerity; but Bart had not yet finished. Seizing a calabash of holy-water which he had deposited in readiness prior to commencing operations, he dashed its contents over the outraged Ghost.

Oh, then, wasn't there a fizzing and a spluttering, and a cursing! The Ghost howled and danced about as if possessed, while Bart fairly rolled on the ground in fits of laughter at his contortions.

But now a terrible thing happened. From every tomb around there rose up the ghost of a departed Hebrew. The celebrated ghost-scene in "Robert the Devil" was a fool to it. Huddling around their offended brother, the ghosts jibbered and gnashed their fleshless jaws together till it seemed as if they were bent on smashing every tooth left them.

Hans curled up in deadly terror at the bottom of the litter, but the undaunted Bart boldly confronted them. At the outset he had, it is true, for a moment, given way; but his spirit rose as the peril approached, and he reflected that he was a Christian knight—and, as such (in his opinion), able for a thousand Jews, dead or alive.

Meanwhile, the Ghost marshalled his brethren into something like order, and prepared to attack his enemies.

Bart, however, was a man of resources, and had come prepared for any emergency. Once more he put his hand into the litter, and this time drew forth a bone.

Yes- -a common leg-bone.

The Ghost thought it might be pig, and, snorting with disgust, advanced to the attack. Ere, however, he had approached nigh enough to seize his intended victim, he was undeceived.

Bart waived the bone in the air, and every ghost felt himself at once compelled to drop on his knees. Another waive, and they sank upon their faces, grovelling to the earth—their rusty joints cricking and grinding like a cart-wheel that needs greasing.

The bone was a relic.

It was one of the fourteen thigh-bones of St. Godolphus which are preserved in various parts of Europe.

Bart, by aid of great interest, had succeeded in obtaining the loan of it from the cathedral.

St. Godolphus, in his lifetime, had burned many a Jew, and was proportionately dreaded by the race.

The victory was complete.

Not a single ghost dared to resist so powerful a spell; and, when Bart demanded their instant departure, they disappeared as one man-leaving only behind them the Ghost, whom Bart had specially excepted.

An agreement was then drawn up by which Hans, for his part, undertook to preserve inviolate the tombs in the Hebrew cemetery and restore the defiled one to its former condition. He also agreed not to persecute the Jews to any greater extent than former rulers of Bohemia had done. In return for this, the Ghost undertook to restore him to health, and to ensure him a perfect immunity from all diseases as long as he lived. This was duly signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of the noble Graf Bart von Schinkenstein; and the Ghost then stooped, and, raising a handful of dirt, flung it over Hans and incontinently cured