Pope was a man who lived in the post oak grove near what is now
Thorndale. He lived entirely alone, and, as that part of the country
was then newly settled, there was not a house within miles of Pope’s
log hut. It would, therefore, be easy to attack him some night as he
came along the road, kill him, and steal his hoard of gold. The murder
could be committed, and the murderer could escape into Mexico and live
in luxury on the stolen money, with nothing to fear save his own
conscience. Such must have been the idea of the villain who murdered
Pope one dark night just as Pope turned into the gap to go to his hut.
Perhaps the gold was hidden too well for the murderer to find it. No
one knows. At any rate, after Pope’s body was found and decently
buried, his spirit was apparently not at rest; near the gap for a long
time thereafter a strange dog was seen. It was undoubtedly the ghost of
Pope, for no other dog would venture near it, much less fight it.
Horses shied at it when they met it in the road. When a man hit it with
a stone, it refused to move, and a bullet had not the slightest effect
upon it. Some tried to touch the dog, but when they were about to lay
hand upon it, it disappeared. Whoever rode by the gap at sunset was
almost sure to see it; often, however, if a party of several persons
came by, it would be invisible to all save a particular individual. The
ghost dog continued to appear for several years, but after a time he
disappeared forever. [93] The gate, however, that has taken the place
of the gap near which Pope was killed, will not stay shut. No matter
how you close it, it will open of itself and remain open.