A station photographer developed a glass plate showing the platform after a busy evening train.

There was nothing unusual in the photograph.

Passengers stood beneath the lamps.

A porter pushed a trolley.

A woman waited near the bookstall.

Then the photographer noticed a man standing at the far end of the platform.

He was dressed in a dark coat.

His face was turned towards the camera.

The photographer recognised him immediately.

It was James Hargreaves.

Hargreaves had died two years earlier.

The photographer brought the plate to Cryer.

Cryer studied it beneath a magnifying glass.

He asked when the plate had been exposed.

Nine fifteen.

Cryer checked the station records.

Hargreaves' death had been recorded at nine fifteen on the same date, two years earlier.

The photographer insisted the man had not been standing on the platform when the picture was taken.

Cryer returned the following day.

The original glass plate had disappeared.

Only the print remained.

Cryer placed the print inside his journal.

Years later, when the journal was examined, the photograph was found still between its pages.

The man at the end of the platform was no longer visible.