Silas shook his head. “Years ago, before there was a lighthouse to warn sailors about the shallow rocks at the bottom of these craggy cliffs, many ships and lives were lost. Apparently, someone was watching for the ship of a family member one night when they saw a light in the fog. Next day, a body washed up on shore and they found the wreckage on the rocks – no survivors and no other bodies. The body was not identified and it was thought that he had tried to swim for help but got caught in the current. Well, you know how stories change as they are retold and this soon became a Restless Spirit.”
“So this is an old story.”
“Older than the lighthouse itself.” Silas took a mouthful of coffee.” Growing up, I was fascinated with the place, thought there was a sense of mystery out there for some reason. I became friends with Eli Jacobs, the Keeper at the time, and made a real pest of myself, asking so many questions.”
Harry chuckled. “Did he brush you off as a nosy kid?”
“No,” Silas replied, smiling. “He seemed to be glad of the company and very eager to talk about the place… and the Spirit. It caught my interest enough that I went to see the retired Keeper, a man known to everyone as Uncle Ben. He’d seen it often during his years out there. Then I went to the Library and read everything I could find about the history of the town, searching for any mention of the lighthouse or the spirit.”
“I never knew you were interested in such things,” Harry said.
Silas shook his head. “I’m not… not really, but this was connected to the lighthouse. Anyway, to make a long story short, I kept journals, filled with what I learned about it, including where I got the information and the date. After I became the Lightkeeper, I read the old log books and copied everything in them.”
“Did you see this… whatever it was… while you were working out there?”
“Many times… and every sighting was noted in the log books and in my journals. I also recorded the one time I reported it to the police… wasted effort. But then, how could they investigate a dim light that only appears in dense fog?”
“No record of it ever being seen in other weather conditions? That’s interesting,” Harry said.
“Right,” Silas agreed. “Even more interesting is that the Spirit is still out there. I saw it last night.”
“You didn’t go out there last night in that fog? Silas, what were you thinking?”
Silas shook his head. “I remembered something I’d forgotten to do earlier, but I didn’t get far. The fog was too dense to see where I was walking, even with a flashlight. Common sense prevailed and I came back… but not before I saw the Spirit.”
“And was it just the same as when you’d seen it before?”
