Considering we are near Halloween, I thought I would tell a ghost story my grandfather told me when I was a child. His tales of all sorts of things would inspire me to be a teller of stories.
One of the stories he related was of a time after he and my grandmother married and bought a ranch on the Nueces River in Texas. The ranch house was surrounded by rolling hills that swept up to the house where a large old oak tree grew in the front yard.
Shortly after my grandparents moved into the house, they began hearing strange noises. While inside the house, they often heard horses approaching and men talking. They could hear the horsemen ride up and stop at the old oak tree. Each time, my grandparents came out on the porch to greet the visitors, but no one was there. This happened often over the years they lived there.
After many years, my grandparents sold the ranch. Before leaving, they told the new owners about the sound of the men and horses with no one there. Then, several years later, my grandfather stopped by to talk to the new owner, and he asked him about the riders who weren’t there. The new owner smiled and replied they had heard the same thing for several years, as well. However, one day, they were digging in the ground at the base of the old oak tree, and they recovered a metal box. The man said, after that, the sound of riders, who were not there, never came back.
The new owner did not tell my grandfather what was in the box.