the Ways of Ghosts Ambrose Bierce

my peculiar relation_to_the writer of_the following narratives is such that I_must ask_the reader to overlook the absence of explanation as_to how they came into my possession . withal, my knowledge of him is so meager that i_should rather not undertake to_say if he were himself persuaded of_the truth of what he relates; certainly such inquiries as I_have thought it worth while to set about have_not in every instance tended to confirmation of_the statements made . yet his style, for_the most part devoid alike of artifice and art, almost baldly simple and direct, seems hardly compatible with_the disingenuousness of a merely literary intention; one would call it the manner of one more concerned for_the fruits of research than for_the flowers of expression . in transcribing his notes and fortifying their claim to attention by giving them something of an orderly arrangement, I_have conscientiously refrained from embellishing them with_such small ornaments of diction as I_may_have felt myself able to bestow, which would_not only have_been impertinent, even if pleasing, but would_have given me a somewhat closer relation_to_the work than i_should care to_have and to avow .