Ephraim Garnett’s grave, and looking over the wall.  An awful figure, of gigantic height, with ghostly white garments clinging round its headless body, and carrying under its left arm the head that should have been upon its shoulders.  On this there was neither flesh nor hair.  It seemed to be a bare skull, with fire gleaming through the hollow eye-sockets and the grinning teeth.  The right hand of the figure was outstretched as if in warning; and from the palms to the tips of the fingers was a mass of lambent flame.  When Bill saw this fearful apparition he screamed with hearty good will; but the noise he made was nothing to the yell of terror that came from beneath the shroud of the Yew-lane Ghost, who, on catching sight of the rival spectre, fled wildly up the lane, kicking the white sheet off as he went, and finally displaying, to Bill’s amazement, the form and features of Bully Tom.  But this was not all.  No sooner had the first ghost started, than the second (not to be behind-hand) jumped nimbly over the wall, and gave chase.  But fear had put wings on to Bully Tom’s feet; and the second ghost being somewhat encumbered by his costume, judged it wisdom to stop; and then taking the fiery skull in its flaming hands, shied it with such dexterity, that it hit Bully Tom in the middle of his back, and falling on to the wet ground, went out with a hiss.  This blow was an unexpected shock to the Bully, who thought the ghost must have come up to him with supernatural rapidity, and falling on his knees in the mud, began to roar most lustily: 

“Lord, have mercy upon me!  I’ll never do it no more!”

Mr. Lindsay was not likely to alter his opinion on the subject of bullies.  This one, like others, was a mortal coward.  Like other men, who have no fear of GOD before their eyes, he made up for it by having a very hearty fear of sickness, death, departed souls, and one or two other things, which the most self-willed sinner knows well enough to be in the hands of a Power which he cannot see, and does not wish to believe in.  Bully Tom had spoken the truth when he said that if he thought there was a ghost in Yew-lane he wouldn’t go near it.  If he had believed the stories with which he had alarmed poor Bill, the lad’s evening walk would never have been disturbed, as far as he was concerned.  Nothing but his spite against Bessy would have made him take so much trouble to vex the peace, and stop the schooling, of her pet brother; and as it was, the standing alone by the churchyard at night was a position so little to his taste, that he had drunk pretty heavily in the public-house for half an hour beforehand, to keep up his spirits.  And now he had been paid back in his own coin, and lay grovelling in the mud, and calling profanely on the Lord, Whose mercy such men always cry for in their trouble, if they never ask it for their sins.  He was so confused and blinded by drink and fright, that he did not see the second ghost divest himself of his encumbrances, or know that it was John Gardener, till that rosy-cheeked worthy, his clenched hands still flaming with brimstone, danced round him, and shouted scornfully, and with that vehemence of aspiration, in which he was apt to indulge when excited: