It was fun growing up in a neighborhood where the homes were built before and just after the Civil War. They were all different floor plans but they all were dark red brick with golden sandstone window stones, door stones and front corner stones.
One of the older homes had something very unusual that would catch any kid’s eye. They had a lattice screen back-porch that many of the homes had. However the lattice screen on one side was three feet from the wall of the house. There was a window in that wall. This area had the floor of the porch with no entrance to the lattice screened porch. The three-foot opening was completely open to the outside. All of this was eight feet or more off the ground.
Along with some neighborhood kids and my sister we found a plank against the house just the right length. We managed to scoot up the plank to our discovery. Mrs. Hamilton a very nice lady was sitting in the room by the window. We were caught! She opened the window and explained that it would be best not to climb into this space because someone could get hurt. I was always the leader and I asked her why this was made the way it was.
She laughed and said that went back to the Civil War. The house was being built when the husband joined Morgan’s Raiders. He wanted to come and go without anyone knowing he was in the area. He kept a ladder under the porch. He used the ladder to climb up to the area and the window was always open for him. She said if we would come by sometimes when she was out on the front porch she would tell us his story.
We kept watch and the first time we saw her on the porch we joined her. She gave us some lemonade and began her story.
Morgan’s Raider had been to Cincinnati where they had been raiding banks in that area. It was a very dark night and some of the raiders returned south. This gave them an opportunity to see their families. It was a very tiring ride with out any moonlight. Mr. Harris, Tom arrived at home unaware of watchful eyes in the darkness.
Tom put his horse Dancer in the barn. He never neglected Dancer. He saw that he was fed and had plenty of water. He also took the time to take the curry brushes to Dancer’s coat after he wiped the lather from him.
Then Tom took his heavy saddlebags that were filled with gold for the Confederacy to his house. The ladder was there under the porch. Just when he was ready to climb the ladder a shot rang out and Tom felt the hot sting of the lead when it entered his head. He gripped the ladder and pulled it to the ground with his fall.
In a flash a man from the darkness seized the saddlebags and then disappeared into the darkness of the night. Tom lay dying on the ground beside the fallen ladder where his wife Anna Lee found him. He died there in her shaking arms.
Tom’s death was just the start of the story. Anna Lee began to smell and see cigar smoke in the drawing room. That is the room where that window was. She dismissed it to her imagination. Anna Lee wanted it there because this was where Tom always smoked his cigars.
Next, Anna Lee heard someone in the barn in the middle of the night. She gathered all the courage she could and took her gun to investigate. Her hands trembled while she opened the barn door. The squeaking door sent a shiver down her spine. Dancer was not in his stall and his saddle was gone. There was no one in the barn. She reported the theft the next morning. A police officer came to investigate and there was Dancer and his saddle. The officer patted Dancer and found that his coat was still moist but he had been well groomed. The officer said that some one must have borrowed the horse for a midnight ride.
Anna Lee was not happy about this. No one had asked her permission to use the horse. Three more times she heard someone in the barn and Dancer was gone when she investigated. The next morning Dancer would be well cared for and was back in his stall.
Anna Lee had also found cigars gone from the humidor and she continued to find cigar smoke in the drawing room. Since the death of Tom she had kept the window locked. She checked the lock and it had not been tampered with in any way.
No one had harmed her except for the sleep that she was loosing on the nights when Dancer would disappear. She knew that she would need all the courage she could find but she was going to find out what was happening.
Anna Lee was awakened from her sleep and she knew that the noise came from the barn. The sky was covered with large black clouds making it a very dark night. Inside the barn was even darker. It took a little time but her eyes adjusted to the darkness and it was surprising how much she could see. This was the fifth time that she had gone to the barn to discover that Dancer and his saddle were gone. She took two bales of hay and fixed herself a place to sleep while she waited for Dancer to return. She tried to sleep while she waited. However the adventure of it all kept her eyes wide open.
An hour before daybreak she heard Dancer’s gait when he came into the yard. The barn door opened with its little squeak. Anna Lee huddled close to the corner and pulled her gun from her pocket. In came Dancer and no one was there. Next the straps of the horse’s saddled moved and were unhitched. No one was there. Then the saddle was pulled from the horse’s back and put in its place. No one was there. The curry brushes were picked-up and suspended in the air. She watched these brushes brush Dancer with the same loving care as Tom’s. No one was there. The stall door was closed and then the barn door with its squeak was closed.
Anna Lee moved to the window of the barn from there she saw a misty form rise from the ground and disappear through the closed drawing room window.
She knew in her heart that it was the apparition of her beloved Tom.
The Civil War came to an end and Dancer’s occasional middle of the night trips stopped. However there in the drawing room Anna Lee continued to see and smell the smoke of a cigar.
