which was on one side of the road, and walk on rapidly in front of us. I
was not in the least frightened, but my two companions were very much
startled. What bothered me was that the woman, the child, and the dog,
instead of coming over the wall naturally one after the other, as would
have been necessary for them to do, had come over with a bound,
simultaneously leaping the wall, lighting on the road, and then hurrying
on without a word. Leaving my two companions, who were too frightened to
move, I walked rapidly after the trio. They walked on so quickly that it
was with difficulty that I got up to them. I spoke to the woman, she
never answered. I walked beside her for some little distance, and then
suddenly the woman, the child, and the Newfoundland dog disappeared. I
did not see them go anywhere, they simply were no longer there. I
examined the road minutely, at the spot where they had disappeared, to
see if it was possible for them to have gone through a hole in the wall
on either side; but it was quite impossible for a woman and a child to
get over a high dyke on either side. They had disappeared, and I only
regret that I did not try to pass my stick right through their bodies,
to see whether or not they had any resistance. Finding they had gone, I
returned to my lady friends, who were quite unnerved, and who, with
difficulty, were induced to go on to the end of their journey."

One of his companions, Mr. Stead goes on to explain, who heard him tell
the story at the time, corroborated the fact that it had made a great
impression on those who had seen it. Nothing was ever ascertained as to
any woman, child, or Newfoundland dog that had ever been in the district
before. When they got to Ballock they enquired of the keeper of the
bridge whether a woman, a child, and a dog had passed that way, but he
had seen nothing. The apparition had disappeared as suddenly as it had
appeared. Mr. Stead's article ends here. Of course, one can only surmise
as to the nature of the phenomena. No member of the Psychical Research