“A sudden movement near the foot of the bed made me recollect my aunt’s admonition. I listened, experiencing none of those pleasant anticipations of which I had spoken so boastfully. “I knew no one could have entered the room, as I had taken the precaution to lock the door, having first of all looked under the bed and made a thorough examination of the hanging wardrobe. Consequently my visitor, unless a mouse or a rat, could be nothing material. “I devoutly wished I had slept in one of the other rooms. “A faint and sickly odour now became perceptible whilst the noise hitherto uninterpretable developed into a series of unequal knocks just as if some big animal were lying on the floor ‘scratching’ itself. “Determined not to appear frightened I put my hand out of bed and called ‘Trot! Trot! is that you?’ (Trot being the name of my auntie’s retriever.) “Something instantly jumped up and, coming round the bed, stood by my side. Wondering whether it could be Trot, though at a loss to understand how he could have got into the room without being seen, I stretched out my fingers and to my intense relief touched a furry coat--the stench at the same time becoming so truly awful that I retched. “I could, of course have satisfied myself as to the identity of my visitor by merely looking, but this, I am ashamed to say, I was too great a coward to do; a strange feeling telling me that I was in the presence of something unnatural. “Running my hand fearfully along the shaggy skin of the animal, I felt for its head, discovering to my intense horror that it had none, the neck terminating in a wet mass of something soft and spongy. “Unable to restrain myself any longer, I now looked, perceiving to my infinite terror a huge shock-haired spaniel, headless, and in the most abominable state of decomposition. “I gazed at it for some seconds too appalled either to stir or utter a sound--this paralytic condition continuing till an abortive effort of the phantasm to jump on the bed loosened my tongue and I shrieked for help. “The dog immediately vanished. “My feelings had been, however, so outraged by what I had witnessed that nothing would have induced me to pass the remainder of the night in that room--my own idea was to get out of it with the utmost celerity. “I did so--nor did I ever again--not even by daylight--venture to cross its threshold. “My aunt, poor dear, was very much upset at the occurrence. “She could not imagine how it was other people could see the ghost while she could not. And her scepticism was but natural; she was unable to grasp the idea that the psychic faculty is a gift, only granted to the few, and as rare as that either of music or painting. “Other reasons for her incredulity in this particular occult manifestation lay in the enigmatical nature and purport of the phenomenon. “In what category of ghosts would one classify a headless dog; Was it the spirit of a dog that had been decapitated on earth?