Theres an old swamp out near where we hunt in Maine that the locals swear is haunted. Seems old man Clay used to live on a farm of sorts and his property came to the edge of this big ol cedar swamp. This old guy never came into town much but the rumor was the guy collected a big monthly check from one of the paper mills. Seems that he had some dirt on the owners of the mill and the old man had a good blackmailing thing going. Because he was such a greedy old man and didnt trust banks, people said he buried the money in Mason jars all over his property.
Now, the owners of the mill were two young brothers who were pretty much white trash themselves. The way they came about owning the mill was pretty questionable and they certainly didnt put too much back into. Machinery was old and often dangerous. Many of the men working for these two good 'ol boys got hurt running that junk equipment, plus they werent paid too good either. They treated their workers pretty bad and no one thought much of the brothers at all.
One night after the mill shut down for the day, the older brother got into the whiskey and began bitchin to his brother about having to pay Old Man Clay just to keep his mouth shut. Pretty soon they get the notion to sneak over there when it got dark and maybe theyd just shut that old mans mouth once and for all.
They snuck up on Old Man Clay and caught him out behind the barn burying a bunch of his Mason jars full of money. Them two brothers went crazy and they beat that old man to death, took his body and dragged it into the swamp. They went back to the farm, picked up the money and ran. They hadnt gotten very far before one of the brothers slipped along the path into the swamp mud. He went in over his knees and his brother had a pretty good laugh watching him flounder around for a while. Finally, the other brother decides to try to help him back onto the path, only problem is he gets pulled into the mud too and now theyre both stuck! Pretty soon they realize theyre not only stuck, theyre sinking! Well they struggled and they screamed, but they couldnt get out. The story goes that before they went completely under, they could hear Old Man Clay laughing in a voice as load as thunder.
Now that was over fifty years ago and if you go back by there again, there's a spot in the yard in back of that barn where the ground is always wet. They say that on certain nights if the moon is right and you're down by the dark footpath, you can hear two young men screaming and you can hear that old man laugh.
Now I couldn't believe it, I just had to find out for myself; I went down there and I learned that there's some things in this world you just can't explain.
:grin:
