On the second evening the girl suddenly became tense next to Adams.

"I hear it," she whispered.

Adams heard nothing. When Amy Castile's terror stricken eyes fixed on the holly hedge, Adams reached out with his left hand and closed it over the girl's left hand in a firm hold.

Instantly he saw a massive black hound, the largest he had ever seen, half emerged from the holly hedge. It was staring at them with bared fangs, and a low growl came to his ears.

He released the girl's hand and the dog immediately vanished, but as soon as he touched her hand he saw the dog again.

It came into the open and Adams, totally unafraid, realized he could see through it; the hound was completely transparent. It advanced a few paces toward the man and girl, then it turned and loped off up the lane.

Adams released his hold of the girl's hand and carefully examined the ground where he had seen the dog. There, clearly imprinted in the soft dust, was a set of prints made by the dog.

He took some photographs of the prints and that same night developed them, examining the still wet negatives under a light. In them he could see almost nothing, but when he took the negatives to a photographer the next day to be enlarged the faint impressions left by the dog's feet because visible.

Adams was satisfied that the dog was ghostly and that it came from one certain part of the holly hedge every time it was seen. With the help of a policeman he started investigating the glebe land behind the hedge the next day, prodding around until, toward afternoon, he found what he sough - a prt of the ground which appeared to be richer in surface vegetation than the immediately surrounding land.

Digging down carefully, Adams had not got far when he came upon the remains of a Hessian sack, rotted away and containing the bones of a huge hound. He studied the bones, which he laid out above, but could find no trace of any bone injury which would account for the dog's death. The nature of the cord's knot around the opening of the sack told Adams a fuller story than the bones.

It was quite apparent to him that the dog had been put in the bag, the mouth of the bag securely tied, and the dog was buried alive.