"Hold Him, Tabb!"
(United States--Virginia)
Before the railroads were built in Virginia, supplies had to be carried from one town to another on wagons. One afternoon, late in December, a number of supply wagons traveling together were caught in a sudden snowstorm.
The drivers pushed on through the freezing cold and heavy snow until they came to an abandoned farm very near the road.
"Looks like a good place to sit out the storm," said a man named Tabb.
"I heard that the house is haunted," said another driver, heading toward the barn. "I'm going to bed down in one of the stalls with the horses."
Several other drivers said they had heard some pretty bad things about the house, too; one man said he'd heard that, for almost twenty-five years, not a single person who had stayed overnight remained alive to see the dawn. Most of the men decided they preferred to sleep in the barn with the animals.
"Well," said Tabb, who was braver than the rest, "I'm not afraid of any haunts. And I'm not about to sleep with horses and cowards when there's a real house just up the hill."
When he'd finished unhooking his horses, Tabb marched up to the house, which looked forlorn and run-down but not in the least daunting.
Inside he found a big potbellied stove and a healthy supply of wood. He built a cheery fire, cooked and ate his supper, and finally bedded down on a couch he dragged near the stove. He slept peacefully through the night, without being disturbed by anything except an odd bit of wood snapping inside the stove.
Just before sunrise he woke up, stretched, and said, "What a bunch of fools those other fellows are to have stayed down with the horses, when they could have stayed in here, just as warm and comfortable as me!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than he heard a rumbling laugh overhead.
Looking up to the ceiling, he saw a large man dressed in white clothes stretched out under the rafters, as though he were sticking to them.
Before Tabb could make a move, the man in white dropped right down on top of him. They started tussling, rolling back and forth across the floor, knocking the furniture in the room every which way. The two made so much noise that the men in the barn heard it and ran up the hill to see what was the matter.
Not daring to set foot in the house, they all clustered at the windows, prying open the shutters and leaning in. They saw the struggle going on. Tabb and the man in white seemed about equally matched: One minute, Tabb would be on top; the next, the man in white.
One of the drivers cried, "Hold him, Tabb! Hold him!"
"You can bet your soul I will!" yelled Tabb. "I've got him for sure!"
A minute later, the two fighters came crashing through a window, sending the drivers scattering.
"Hold him, Tabb! Hold him!" another driver shouted.
"You can bet your life I will!" cried Tabb. "I've got him right where I want him!"
The next moment, the man in white began whirling Tabb around and flung him onto the roof of the house. Then the stranger jumped up after him, so the drivers had to stand some distance away just to see what was happening.
"Hold him, Tabb! Hold him!" they yelled, one after another.
"You can just bet your boots I will!" said Tabb, panting. "He won't get away from me!"
Now the two wrestlers on the roof were so knotted together that the drivers down below had a hard time telling which arm or leg belonged to which. Then, as the drivers watched openmouthed, the fighters began floating up off the roof.
One of the drivers cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed, "Hold him, Tabb! Hold him!"
"I got him; and he's got me, too!" shouted Tabb.
Then the man in white carried Tabb straight up into the air until they were both out of sight.
And nothing was ever seen of Tabb after that.
Copyright © 2015 by Robert D. San Souci. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
