[00:01.080]--- lesson 30 The death of a ghost
[00:05.840]--- Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
[00:11.480]--- Why did the two brothers keep the secret?
[00:16.640]For years, villagers believed that Endley Farm was hunted.
[00:21.720]The farm was owned by two brothers, Joe and Bob Cox.
[00:26.480]They employed a few farmhands, but no one was willing to work there long.
[00:31.520]Every time a worker gave up his job, he told the same story.
[00:36.400]Farm labourers said that they always woke up to find that work had been done overnight.
[00:42.760]Hay had been cut and cowsheds had been cleaned.
[00:47.000]A farm worker, who stayed up all night claimed to have seen a figure cutting corn in the moonlight.
[00:53.800]In time, it became an accepted fact that the Cox brothers employed a conscientious ghost that did most of their work for them.
[01:03.560]No one suspected that there might be someone else on the farm who had never been seen.
[01:09.560]This was indeed the case.
[01:11.360]A short time ago, villagers were astonished to learn that the ghost of Endley had died.
[01:18.560]Everyone went to the funeral, for the 'ghost' was none other than Eric Cox, a third brother who was supposed to have died as a young man.
[01:28.440]After the funeral, Joe and Bob revealed a secret which they had kept for over fifty years.
[01:35.800]Eric had been the eldest son of the family, very much older than his two brothers.
[01:41.640]He had been obliged to join the army during the Second World War.
[01:45.680]As he hated army life, he decided to desert his regiment.
[01:49.960]When he learnt that he would be sent abroad, he returned to the farm and his father hid him until the end of the war.
[01:58.000]Fearing the authorities, Eric remained in hiding after the war as well.
[02:02.760]His father told everybody that Eric had been killed in action.
[02:07.080]The only other people who knew the secret were Joe and Bob.
[02:11.680]They did not even tell their wives.
[02:14.280]When their father died, they thought it their duty to keep Eric in hiding.
[02:18.800]All these years, Eric had lived as a recluse.
[02:22.800]He used to sleep during the day and work at night, quite unaware of the fact that he had become the ghost of Endley.
[02:31.040]When he died, however, his brothers found it impossible to keep the secret any longer.