human
Did you ever have any experiences with lightning?
gpt
Oh, a few, he said.
human
A thunderbolt struck the Trinity steeple the very day we finished our work. We had just taken down our tackle and staging after gilding the cross when--by the way, they say there's a hundred dollars in gold under that cross.
gpt
Really? I exclaimed.
human
How did it get there?
gpt
Somebody ordered it put there when the steeple was built. People often do queer things like that. I painted a flagpole on a barn up in Massachusetts where there was four hundred dollars in gold hidden under the weather-vane. Everybody knew it was there, because the farmer who put it there told everybody, and my partner was crazy to saw off the end of that pole some night and fool 'em, but of course I wouldn't have it.
human
Well, resumed Merrill,
gpt
Frightened to death?
human
No, they said it was lightning; but it's queer how lightning could kill a man without being seen, isn't it?