clearly outlined against the gray background of a misty forest. The
man had something strapped on his back and carried a heavy stick--
obviously an itinerant peddler. His attitude had in it a suggestion
of abstraction, like that of a sleepwalker. Mr. Cummings reined in
his horse when he arrived in front of him, gave him a pleasant
salutation and invited him to a seat in the vehicle--"if you are
going my way," he added. The man raised his head, looked him full
in the face, but neither answered nor made any further movement.
The minister, with good-natured persistence, repeated his
invitation. At this the man threw his right hand forward from his
side and pointed downward as he stood on the extreme edge of the
bridge. Mr. Cummings looked past him, over into the ravine, saw
nothing unusual and withdrew his eyes to address the man again. He
had disappeared. The horse, which all this time had been uncommonly
restless, gave at the same moment a snort of terror and started to
run away. Before he had regained control of the animal the minister
was at the crest of the hill a hundred yards along. He looked back
and saw the figure again, at the same place and in the same attitude
as when he had first observed it. Then for the first time he was
conscious of a sense of the supernatural and drove home as rapidly
as his willing horse would go.

On arriving at home he related his adventure to his family, and
early the next morning, accompanied by two neighbors, John White
Corwell and Abner Raiser, returned to the spot. They found the body
of old man Baker hanging by the neck from one of the beams of the
bridge, immediately beneath the spot where the apparition had stood.
A thick coating of dust, slightly dampened by the mist, covered the
floor of the bridge, but the only footprints were those of Mr.
Cummings' horse.