352 files changed, 21896 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/21264-8.txt b/21264-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52ebe52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7260 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Four Pools Mystery, by Jean Webster
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Four Pools Mystery
+
+Author: Jean Webster
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2007 [EBook #21264]
+[Last updated: March 22, 2011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOUR POOLS MYSTERY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FOUR-POOLS MYSTERY
+
+
+BY
+JEAN WEBSTER
+
+
+NEW YORK
+THE CENTURY CO.
+1908
+
+
+Copyright, 1907, 1908, by
+THE CENTURY CO.
+
+Published, _March, 1908_
+
+
+THE DE VINNE PRESS
+
+[Illustration: In the Cave]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                             PAGE
+      I INTRODUCING TERRY PATTEN                       3
+     II I ARRIVE AT FOUR-POOLS PLANTATION             14
+    III I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE HA'NT          26
+     IV THE HA'NT GROWS MYSTERIOUS                    39
+      V CAT-EYE MOSE CREATES A SENSATION              58
+     VI WE SEND FOR A DETECTIVE                       76
+    VII WE SEND HIM BACK AGAIN                        92
+   VIII THE ROBBERY REMAINS A MYSTERY                108
+     IX THE EXPEDITION TO LURAY                      119
+      X THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAVE                      135
+     XI THE SHERIFF VISITS FOUR-POOLS                143
+    XII I MAKE A PROMISE TO POLLY                    151
+   XIII THE INQUEST                                  168
+    XIV THE JURY'S VERDICT                           186
+     XV FALSE CLUES                                  196
+    XVI TERRY COMES                                  206
+   XVII WE SEARCH THE ABANDONED CABINS               222
+  XVIII TERRY ARRIVES AT A CONCLUSION                247
+    XIX TERRY FINDS THE BONDS                        262
+     XX POLLY MAKES A CONFESSION                     271
+    XXI MR. TERENCE KIRKWOOD PATTEN OF NEW YORK      285
+   XXII THE DISCOVERY OF CAT-EYE MOSE                296
+  XXIII MOSE TELLS HIS STORY                         314
+   XXIV POLLY MAKES A PROPOSAL                       329
+
+
+
+
+THE FOUR-POOLS MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCING TERRY PATTEN
+
+
+It was through the Patterson-Pratt forgery case that I first made the
+acquaintance of Terry Patten, and at the time I should have been more
+than willing to forego the pleasure.
+
+Our firm rarely dealt with criminal cases, but the Patterson family were
+long standing clients, and they naturally turned to us when the trouble
+came. Ordinarily, so important a matter would have been put in the hands
+of one of the older men, but it happened that I was the one who had
+drawn up the will for Patterson Senior the night before his suicide,
+therefore the brunt of the work devolved upon me. The most unpleasant
+part of the whole affair was the notoriety. Could we have kept it from
+the papers, it would not have been so bad, but that was a physical
+impossibility; Terry Patten was on our track, and within a week he had
+brought down upon us every newspaper in New York.
+
+The first I ever heard of Terry, a card was sent in bearing the
+inscription, "Mr. Terence K. Patten," and in the lower left-hand corner,
+"of the Post-Dispatch." I shuddered as I read it. The Post-Dispatch was
+at that time the yellowest of the yellow journals. While I was still
+shuddering, Terry walked in through the door the office boy had
+inadvertently left open.
+
+He nodded a friendly good morning, helped himself to a chair, tossed his
+hat and gloves upon the table, crossed his legs comfortably, and looked
+me over. I returned the scrutiny with interest while I was mentally
+framing a polite formula for getting rid of him without giving rise to
+any ill feeling. I had no desire to annoy unnecessarily any of the
+Post-Dispatch's young men.
+
+At first sight my caller did not strike me as unlike a dozen other
+reporters. His face was the face one feels he has a right to expect of a
+newspaper man--keen, alert, humorous; on the look-out for opportunities.
+But with a second glance I commenced to feel interested. I wondered
+where he had come from and what he had done in the past. His features
+were undeniably Irish; but that which chiefly awakened my curiosity, was
+his expression. It was not only wide-awake and intelligent; it was
+something more. "Knowing" one would say. It carried with it the mark of
+experience, the indelible stamp of the street. He was a man who has had
+no childhood, whose education commenced from the cradle.
+
+I did not arrive at all of these conclusions at once, however, for he
+had finished his inspection before I had fairly started mine. Apparently
+he found me satisfactory. The smile which had been lurking about the
+corners of his mouth broadened to a grin, and I commenced wondering
+uncomfortably what there was funny about my appearance. Then suddenly
+he leaned forward and began talking in a quick, eager way, that required
+all my attention to keep abreast of him. After a short preamble in which
+he set forth his view of the Patterson-Pratt case--and a clearsighted
+view it was--he commenced asking questions. They were such amazingly
+impudent questions that they nearly took my breath away. But he asked
+them in a manner so engagingly innocent that I found myself answering
+them before I was aware of it. There was a confiding air of _bonne
+camaraderie_ about the fellow which completely put one off one's guard.
+
+At the end of fifteen minutes he was on the inside track of most of my
+affairs, and was giving me advice through a kindly desire to keep me
+from getting things in a mess. The situation would have struck me as
+ludicrous had I stopped to think of it; but it is a fact I have noted
+since, that, with Terry, one does not appreciate situations until it is
+too late.
+
+When he had got from me as much information as I possessed, he shook
+hands cordially, said he was happy to have made my acquaintance, and
+would try to drop in again some day. After he had gone, and I had had
+time to review our conversation, I began to grow hot over the matter. I
+grew hotter still when I read his report in the paper the next morning.
+I could not understand why I had not kicked him out at first sight, and
+I sincerely hoped that he would drop in again, that I might avail myself
+of the opportunity.
+
+He did drop in, and I received him with the utmost cordiality. There was
+something entirely disarming about Terry's impudence. And so it went. He
+continued to comment upon the case in the most sensational manner
+possible, and I railed against him and forgave him with unvarying
+regularity. In the end we came to be quite friendly over the affair. I
+found him diverting at a time when I was in need of diversion, though
+just what attraction he found in me, I have never been able to fathom.
+It was certainly not that he saw a future source of "stories," for he
+frankly regarded corporation law as a pursuit devoid of interest.
+Criminal law was the one branch of the profession for which he felt any
+respect.
+
+We frequently had lunch together; or breakfast, in his case. His day
+commenced about noon and lasted till three in the morning. "Well, Terry,
+what's the news at the morgue today?" I would inquire as we settled
+ourselves at the table. And Terry would rattle off the details of the
+latest murder mystery with a cheerfully matter-of-fact air that would
+have been disgusting had it not been so funny.
+
+It was at this time that I learned his history prior to the days of the
+Post-Dispatch. He was entirely frank about himself, and if one half of
+his stories were true, he has achieved some amazing adventures. I
+strongly suspected at times that the reporting instinct got ahead of the
+facts, and that he embroidered incidents as he went along.
+
+His father, Terry Senior, had been an Irish politician of considerable
+ability and some prominence on the East River side of the city. The
+boy's early education had been picked up in the streets (his father had
+got the truant officer his position) and it was thorough. Later he had
+received a more theoretical training in the University of New York, but
+I think it was his early education which stuck by him longest, and
+which, in the end, was probably the more useful of the two. Armed with
+this equipment, it was inevitable that he should develop into a star
+reporter. Not only did he write his news in an entertaining form, but he
+first made the news he wrote about. When any sensational crime had been
+committed which puzzled the police, Terry had an annoying way of solving
+the mystery himself, and publishing the full particulars in the
+Post-Dispatch with the glory blatantly attributed to "our reporter." The
+paper was fully aware that Terence K. Patten was an acquisition to its
+staff. It had sent him on various commissions to various entertaining
+quarters of the globe, and in the course of his duty he had encountered
+experiences. One is forced to admit that he was not always fastidious as
+to the rôle he played. He had cruised about the Mediterranean as
+assistant cook on a millionaire's yacht, and had listened to secrets
+between meals. He had wandered about the country with a monkey and a
+hand-organ in search of a peddler he suspected of a crime. He had helped
+along a revolution in South America, and had gone up in a captive war
+balloon which had broken loose and floated off.
+
+But all this is of no concern at present. I am merely going to chronicle
+his achievement in one instance--in what he himself has always referred
+to as the "Four-Pools Mystery." It has already been written up in
+reporter style as the details came to light from day to day. But a
+ten-year-old newspaper story is as dead as if it were written on
+parchment, and since the part Terry played was rather remarkable, and
+many of the details were at the time suppressed, I think it deserves a
+more permanent form.
+
+It was through the Patterson-Pratt business by a roundabout way that I
+got mixed up in the Four-Pools affair. I had been working very hard over
+the forgery case; I spent every day on it for nine weeks--and nearly
+every night. I got into the way of lying awake, puzzling over the
+details, when I should have been sleeping, and that is the sort of work
+which finishes a man. By the middle of April, when the strain was over,
+I was as near being a nervous wreck as an ordinarily healthy chap can
+get.
+
+At this stage my doctor stepped in and ordered a rest in some quiet
+place out of reach of the New York papers; he suggested a fishing
+expedition to Cape Cod. I apathetically fell in with the idea, and
+invited Terry to join me. But he jeered at the notion of finding either
+pleasure or profit in any such trip. It was too far from the center of
+crime to contain any interest for Terry.
+
+"Heavens, man! I'd as lief spend a vacation in the middle of the Sahara
+Desert."
+
+"Oh, the fishing would keep things going," I said.
+
+"Fishing! We'd die of ennui before we had a bite. I'd be murdering you
+at the end of the first week just for some excitement. If you need a
+rest--and you are rather seedy--forget all about this Patterson business
+and plunge into something new. The best rest in the world is a
+counter-irritant."
+
+This was Terry all over; he himself was utterly devoid of nerves, and he
+could not appreciate the part they played in a man of normal make-up. My
+being threatened with nervous prostration he regarded as a joke. His
+pleasantries rather damped my interest in deep-sea fishing, however, and
+I cast about for something else. It was at this juncture that I thought
+of Four-Pools Plantation. "Four-Pools" was the somewhat fantastic name
+of a stock farm in the Shenandoah Valley, belonging to a great-uncle
+whom I had not seen since I was a boy.
+
+A few months before, I had had occasion to settle a little legal matter
+for Colonel Gaylord (he was a colonel by courtesy; so far as I could
+discover he had never had his hands on a gun except for rabbit shooting)
+and in the exchange of amenities which followed, he had given me a
+standing invitation to make the plantation my home whenever I should
+have occasion to come South. As I had no prospect of leaving New York, I
+thought nothing of it at the time; but now I determined to take the old
+gentleman at his word, and spend my enforced vacation in getting
+acquainted with my Virginia relatives.
+
+This plan struck Terry as just one degree funnier than the fishing
+expedition. The doctor, however, received the idea with enthusiasm. A
+farm, he said, with plenty of outdoor life and no excitement, was just
+the thing I needed. But could he have foreseen the events which were to
+happen there, I doubt if he would have recommended the place for a
+nervous man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+I ARRIVE AT FOUR-POOLS PLANTATION
+
+
+As I rolled southward in the train--"jerked" would be a fitter word; the
+roadbeds of western Virginia are anything but level--I strove to recall
+my old time impressions of Four-Pools Plantation. It was one of the big
+plantations in that part of the state, and had always been noted for its
+hospitality. My vague recollection of the place was a kaleidoscopic
+vision of music and dancing and laughter, set in the moonlit background
+of the Shenandoah Valley. I knew, however, that in the eighteen years
+since my boyhood visit everything had changed.
+
+News had come of my aunt's death, and of Nan's runaway marriage against
+her father's wishes, and of how she too had died without ever returning
+home. Poor unhappy Nannie! I was but a boy of twelve when I had seen
+her last, but she had impressed even my unimpressionable age with a
+sense of her charm. I had heard that Jeff, the elder of the two boys,
+had gone completely to the bad, and having broken with his father, had
+drifted off to no one knew where. This to me was the saddest news of
+all; Jeff had been the object of my first case of hero worship.
+
+I knew that Colonel Gaylord, now an old man, was living alone with
+Radnor, who I understood had grown into a fine young fellow, all that
+his brother had promised. My only remembrance of the Colonel was of a
+tall dark man who wore riding boots and carried a heavy trainer's whip,
+and of whom I was very much afraid. My only remembrance of Rad was of a
+pretty little chap of four, eternally in mischief. It was with a mingled
+feeling of eagerness and regret that I looked forward to the
+visit--eagerness to see again the scenes which were so pleasantly
+associated with my boyhood, and regret that I must renew my memories
+under such sadly changed conditions.
+
+As I stepped from the train, a tall broad-shouldered young man of
+twenty-three or thereabouts, came forward to meet me. I should have
+recognized him for Radnor anywhere, so striking was his resemblance to
+the brother I had known. He wore a loose flannel shirt and a
+broad-brimmed felt hat cocked on one side, and he looked so exactly the
+typical Southern man of the stage that I almost laughed as I greeted
+him. His welcome was frank and cordial and I liked him from the first.
+He asked after my health with an amused twinkle in his eyes. Nervous
+prostration evidently struck him as humorously as it did Terry. Lest I
+resent his apparent lack of sympathy however, he added, with a hearty
+whack on my shoulder, that I had come to the right place to get cured.
+
+A drive over sweet smelling country roads behind blooded horses was a
+new experience to me, fresh from city streets and the rumble of elevated
+trains. I leaned back with a sigh of content, feeling already as if I
+had got my boyhood back again.
+
+Radnor enlivened the three miles with stories of the houses we passed
+and the people who lived in them, and to my law-abiding Northern ears,
+the recital indubitably smacked of the South. This old gentleman--so Rad
+called him--had kept an illicit still in his cellar for fifteen years,
+and it had not been discovered until after his death (of delirium
+tremens). The young lady who lived in that house--one of the belles of
+the county--had eloped with the best man on the night before the wedding
+and the rightful groom had shot himself. The one who lived here had
+eloped with her father's overseer, and had rowed across the river in the
+only available boat, leaving her outraged parent on the opposite bank.
+
+I finally burst out laughing.
+
+"Does everyone in the South run away to get married? Don't you ever have
+any legitimate weddings with cake and rice and old shoes?" As I spoke I
+remembered Nannie and wondered if I had touched on a delicate subject.
+
+But Radnor returned my laugh.
+
+"We do have a good many elopements," he acknowledged. "Maybe there are
+more cruel parents in the South." Then he suddenly sobered. "I suppose
+you remember Nan?" he inquired with an air of hesitation.
+
+"A little," I assented.
+
+"Poor girl!" he said. "I'm afraid she had a pretty tough time. You'd
+best not mention her to the old gentleman--or Jeff either."
+
+"Does the Colonel still feel hard toward them?"
+
+Radnor frowned slightly.
+
+"He doesn't forgive," he returned.
+
+"What was the trouble with Jeff?" I ventured. "I have never heard any
+particulars."
+
+"He and my father didn't agree. I don't remember very much about it
+myself; I was only thirteen when it happened. But I know there was the
+devil of a row."
+
+"Do you know where he is?" I asked.
+
+Radnor shook his head.
+
+"I sent him some money once or twice, but my father found it out and
+shut down on my bank account. I've lost track of him lately--he isn't in
+need of money though. The last I heard he was running a gambling place
+in Seattle."
+
+"It's a great pity!" I sighed. "He was a fine chap when I knew him."
+
+Radnor echoed my sigh but he did not choose to follow up the subject,
+and we passed the rest of the way in silence until we turned into the
+lane that led to Four-Pools. After the manner of many Southern places
+the house was situated well toward the middle of the large plantation,
+and entirely out of sight from the road. The private lane which led to
+it was bordered by a hawthorn hedge, and wound for half a mile or so
+between pastures and flowering peach orchards. I delightedly breathed in
+the fresh spring odors, wondering meanwhile how it was that I had let
+that happy Virginia summer of my boyhood slip so entirely from my mind.
+
+As we rounded a clump of willow trees we came in sight of the house, set
+on a little rise of ground and approached by a rolling sweep of lawn. It
+was a good example of colonial--white with green blinds, the broad brick
+floored veranda, which extended the length of the front, supported by
+lofty Doric columns. On the south side a huge curved portico bulged out
+to meet the driveway. Stretching away behind the house was a sleepy
+box-bordered garden, and behind this, screened by a row of evergreens,
+were clustered the barns and out-buildings. Some little distance to the
+left, in a slight hollow and half hidden by an overgrowth of laurels,
+stood a row of one-story weather-beaten buildings--the old negro cabins,
+left over from the slave days.
+
+"It's just as I remember it!" I exclaimed delightedly as I noted one
+familiar object after another. "Nothing has changed."
+
+"Nothing does change in the South," said Radnor, "except the people, and
+I suppose they change everywhere."
+
+"And those are the deserted negro cabins?" I added, my eye resting on
+the cluster of gray roofs showing above the shrubbery.
+
+"Just at present they are not so deserted as we should like," he
+returned with a suggestive undertone in his voice. "You visit the
+plantation at an interesting time. The Gaylord ha'nt has reappeared."
+
+"The Gaylord ha'nt!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "What on earth is
+that?"
+
+Radnor laughed.
+
+"One of our godless ancestors once beat a slave to death and his ghost
+comes back, off and on, to haunt the negro cabins. We hadn't heard
+anything of him for a good many years and had almost forgotten the
+story, when last week he reappeared. Devil fires have been seen dancing
+in the laurels at night, and mysterious moanings have been heard around
+the cabins. If you have ever had anything to do with negroes, you can
+know the state our servants are in."
+
+"Well!" said I, "that promises entertainment. I shall look forward to
+meeting the ha'nt."
+
+We had reached the house by this time, and as we drew up before the
+portico the Colonel stood on the top step waiting to welcome me. He was
+looking much as I remembered him except that his hair had turned from
+black to white, and his former imperious bearing had become a trifle
+querulous. I jumped out and grasped his outstretched hand.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, my boy! I'm glad to see you," he said cordially.
+
+My heart warmed toward the old man's "my boy." It had been a good many
+years since anyone had called me that.
+
+"You've grown since I saw you last," he chuckled, as he led the way into
+the house through the group of negro servants who had gathered to see me
+arrive.
+
+My first fleeting glimpse through the open doors told me that it was
+indeed true, as Radnor had said, nothing had changed. The furniture was
+the same old-fashioned, solidly simple furniture that the house had
+contained since it was built. I was amused to see the Colonel's gloves
+and whip thrown carelessly on a chair in the hall. The whip was the one
+token by which I remembered him.
+
+"So you've been working too hard, have you, Arnold?" the old man
+inquired, looking me over with twinkling eyes. "We'll give you something
+to do that will make you forget you've ever seen work before! There are
+half a dozen colts in the pasture just spoiling to be broken in; you may
+try your hand at that, sir. And now I reckon supper's about ready," he
+added. "Nancy doesn't allow any loitering when it's a question of beat
+biscuits. Take him up to his room, Rad--and you Mose," he called to one
+of the negroes hanging about the portico, "come and carry up Marse
+Arnold's things."
+
+At this one of them shambled forward and began picking up my traps which
+had been dumped in a pile on the steps. His appearance struck me with
+such an instant feeling of repugnance, that even after I was used to the
+fellow, I never quite overcame that first involuntary shudder. He was
+not a full-blooded negro but an octoroon. His color was a muddy yellow,
+his features were sharp instead of flat, and his hair hung across his
+forehead almost straight. But these facts alone did not account for his
+queerness; the most uncanny thing about him was the color of his eyes.
+They had a yellow glint and narrowed in the light. The creature was
+bare-footed and wore a faded suit of linsey-woolsey; I wondered at that,
+for the other servants who had crowded out to see me, were dressed in
+very decent livery.
+
+Radnor noticed my surprise, and remarked as he led the way up the
+winding staircase, "Mose isn't much of a beauty, for a fact."
+
+I made no reply as the man was close behind, and the feeling that his
+eyes were boring into the middle of my back was far from pleasant. But
+after he had deposited his load on the floor of my room, and, with a
+sidewise glance which seemed to take in everything without looking
+directly at anything, had shambled off again, I turned to Rad.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" I demanded.
+
+Radnor threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"You look as if you'd seen the ha'nt! There's nothing to be afraid of.
+He doesn't bite. The poor fellow's half witted--at least in some
+respects; in others he's doubly witted."
+
+"Who is he?" I persisted. "Where did he come from?"
+
+"Oh, he's lived here all his life--raised on the place. We're as fond of
+Mose as if he were a member of the family. He's my father's body servant
+and he follows him around like a dog. We don't keep him dressed for the
+part because shoes and stockings make him unhappy."
+
+"But his eyes," I said. "What the deuce is the matter with his eyes?"
+
+Radnor shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Born that way. His eyes _are_ a little queer, but if you've ever
+noticed it, niggers' eyes are often yellow. The people on the place call
+him 'Cat-Eye Mose.' You needn't be afraid of him," he added with another
+laugh, "he's harmless."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE HA'NT
+
+
+We had a sensation at supper that night, and I commenced to realize that
+I was a good many miles from New York. In response to the invitation of
+Solomon, the old negro butler, we seated ourselves at the table and
+commenced on the cold dishes before us, while he withdrew to bring in
+the hot things from the kitchen. As is often the case in Southern
+plantation houses the kitchen was under a separate roof from the main
+house, and connected with it by a long open gallery. We waited some time
+but no supper arrived. The Colonel, becoming impatient, was on the point
+of going to look for it, when the door burst open and Solomon appeared
+empty-handed, every hair on his woolly head pointing a different
+direction.
+
+"De ha'nt, Marse Cunnel, de ha'nt! He's sperrited off de chicken. Right
+outen de oven from under Nancy's eyes."
+
+"Solomon," said the Colonel severely, "what are you trying to say? Talk
+sense."
+
+"Sho's yuh bohn, Marse Cunnel; it's de libbin' truf I's tellin' yuh. Dat
+ha'nt has fotched dat chicken right outen de oven, an' it's vanished in
+de air."
+
+"You go out and bring that chicken in and don't let me hear another
+word."
+
+"I cayn't, Marse Cunnel, 'deed I cayn't. Dere ain't no chicken dere."
+
+"Very well, then! Go and get us some ham and eggs and stop this fuss."
+
+Solomon withdrew and we three looked at each other.
+
+"Rad, what's the meaning of this?" the Colonel demanded querulously.
+
+"Some foolishness on the part of the niggers. I'll look into it after
+supper. When the ha'nt begins abstracting chickens from the oven I think
+it's time to investigate."
+
+Being naturally curious over the matter, I commenced asking questions
+about the history and prior appearances of the ha'nt. Radnor answered
+readily enough, but I noticed that the Colonel appeared restless under
+the inquiry, and the amused suspicion crossed my mind that he did not
+entirely discredit the story. When a man has been born and brought up
+among negroes he comes, in spite of himself, to be tinged with their
+ideas.
+
+Supper finished, the three of us turned down the gallery toward the
+kitchen. As we approached the door we heard a murmur of voices, one
+rising every now and then in a shrill wail which furnished a sort of
+chorus. Radnor whispered in my ear that he reckoned Nancy had "got um"
+again. Though I did not comprehend at the moment, I subsequently learned
+that "um" referred to a sort of emotional ecstasy into which Nancy
+occasionally worked herself, the motive power being indifferently ghosts
+or religion.
+
+The kitchen was a large square room, with brick floor, rough shack walls
+and smoky rafters overhead from which pended strings of garlic, red
+peppers and herbs. The light was supplied ostensibly by two tallow dips,
+but in reality by the glowing wood embers of the great open stove
+bricked into one side of the wall.
+
+Five or six excited negroes were grouped in a circle about a woman with
+a yellow turban on her head, who was rocking back and forth and shouting
+at intervals:
+
+"Oh-h, dere's sperrits in de air! I can smell um. I can smell um."
+
+"Nancy!" called the Colonel sharply as we stepped into the room.
+
+Nancy paused a moment and turned upon us a pair of frenzied eyes with
+nothing much but the whites showing.
+
+"Marse Cunnel, dere's sperrits in de air," she cried. "Sabe yuhself
+while dere's time. We's all a-treadin' de road to destruction."
+
+"You'll be treading the road to destruction in mighty short order if you
+don't keep still," he returned grimly. "Now stop this foolishness and
+tell me what's gone with that chicken."
+
+After a great deal of questioning and patching together, we finally got
+her story, but I cannot say that it threw much light upon the matter.
+She had put the chicken in the oven, and then she felt powerful queer,
+as if something were going to happen. Suddenly she felt a cold wind blow
+through the room, the candles went out, and she could hear the rustle of
+"ghostly gahments" sweeping past her. The oven door sprang open of its
+own accord; she looked inside, and "dere wa'n't no chicken dere!"
+
+Repeated questioning only brought out the same statement but with more
+circumstantial details. The other negroes backed her up, and the story
+grew rapidly in magnitude and horror. Nancy's seizures, it appeared,
+were contagious, and the others by this time were almost as excited as
+she. The only approximately calm one among them was Cat-Eye Mose who sat
+in the doorway watching the scene with half furtive eyes and something
+resembling a grin on his face.
+
+The Colonel, observing that it was a good deal of commotion for the sake
+of one small chicken, disgustedly dropped the inquiry. As we stepped out
+into the gallery again, I glanced back at the dancing firelight, the
+weird cross shadows, and the circle of dusky faces, with, I confess, a
+somewhat creepy feeling. I could see that in such an atmosphere, it
+would not take long for superstition to lay its hold on a man.
+
+"What's the meaning of it?" I asked as we strolled slowly toward the
+house.
+
+"The meaning of it," Radnor shrugged, "is that some of them are lying.
+The ha'nt, I could swear, has a good flesh and blood appetite. Nancy has
+been frightened and she believes her own story. There's never any use in
+trying to sift a negro's lies; they have so much imagination that after
+five minutes they believe themselves."
+
+"I think I could spot the ghost," I returned. "And that's your precious
+Cat-Eye Mose."
+
+Radnor shook his head.
+
+"Mose doesn't need to steal chickens. He gets all he wants."
+
+"Mose," the Colonel added emphatically, "is the one person on the place
+who is absolutely to be trusted."
+
+We had almost reached the house, when we were suddenly startled by a
+series of shrieks and screams coming toward us across the open stretch
+of lawn that lay between us and the old negro cabins. In another moment
+an old woman, her face twitching with terror, had thrown herself at our
+feet in a species of convulsion.
+
+"De ha'nt! De ha'nt! He's a-beckoning," was all we could make out
+between her moans.
+
+The other negroes came pouring out from the kitchen and gathered in a
+frenzied circle about the writhing woman. Mose, I noted, was among them;
+he could at least prove an alibi this time.
+
+"Here Mose, quick! Get us some torches," Radnor called. "We'll fetch
+that ha'nt up here to answer for himself.--It's old Aunt Sukie," he
+added to me, nodding toward the woman on the ground whose spasms by this
+time were growing somewhat quieter. "She lives on the next plantation
+and was probably taking a cross cut through the laurel path that leads
+by the cabins. She's almost a hundred and is pretty nearly a witch
+herself."
+
+Mose shambled up with some torches--pine knots dipped in tar, such as
+they used for hunting 'possums at night, and he and I and Radnor set out
+for the cabins. I noticed that none of the other negroes volunteered to
+assist; I also noticed that Mose went on ahead with a low whining cry
+which sent chills chasing up and down my back.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" I gasped, more intent on the negro than
+the ghost we had come to search.
+
+"That's the way he always hunts," Radnor laughed. "There are a good many
+things about Mose that you will have to get used to."
+
+We searched the whole region of the abandoned quarters with a
+considerable degree of thoroughness. Three or four of the larger cabins
+were used as store houses for fodder; the rest were empty. We poked into
+all of them, but found nothing more terrifying than a few bats and owls.
+Though I did not give much consideration to the fact at the time, I
+later remembered that there was one of the cabins which we didn't
+explore as thoroughly as the rest. Mose dropped his torch as we
+entered, and in the confusion of relighting it, the interior was
+somewhat slighted. In any case we unearthed no ha'nt that night; and we
+finally gave up the search and turned back to the house.
+
+"I suspect," Radnor laughed, "that if the truth were known, old Aunt
+Sukie's beckoning ha'nt would turn out to be nothing more alarming than
+a white cow waving her tail."
+
+"It's rather suggestive coming on top of the chicken episode," I
+observed.
+
+"Oh, this won't be the end! We'll have ha'nt served for breakfast,
+dinner and supper during the rest of your stay. When the niggers begin
+to see things they keep it up."
+
+When I went upstairs that night, Rad followed close on my heels to see
+that I had everything I needed. The room was a huge four windowed
+affair, furnished with a canopied bed and a mahogany wardrobe as big as
+a small house. The nights still being chilly, a roaring wood fire had
+been built, adding a note of cheerfulness to an otherwise sombre
+apartment.
+
+"This was Nan's room," he said suddenly.
+
+"Nan's room!" I echoed glancing about the shadowy interior. "Rather
+heavy for a girl."
+
+"It is a trifle severe," he agreed, "but I dare say it was different
+when she was here. Her things are all packed away in the attic." He
+picked up a candle and held it so that it lighted the face of a portrait
+over the mantle. "That's Nan--painted when she was eighteen."
+
+"Yes," I nodded. "I recognized her the moment I saw it. She was like
+that when I knew her."
+
+"It used to hang down stairs but after her marriage my father had it
+brought up here. He kept the door locked until the news came that she
+was dead, then he turned it into a guest room. He never comes in
+himself; he won't look at the picture."
+
+Radnor spoke shortly, but with an underlying note of bitterness. I could
+see that he felt keenly on the subject. After a few desultory words, he
+somewhat brusquely said good night, and left me to the memories of the
+place.
+
+Instead of going to bed I set about unpacking. I was tired but wide
+awake. Aunt Sukie's convulsions and our torch light hunt for ghosts were
+novel events in my experience, and they acted as anything but a
+sedative. The unpacking finished, I settled myself in an easy chair
+before the fire and fell to studying the portrait. It was a huge canvas
+in the romantic fashion of Romney, with a landscape in the background.
+The girl was dressed in flowing pink drapery, a garden hat filled with
+roses swinging from her arm, a Scotch collie with great lustrous eyes
+pressed against her side. The pose, the attributes, were artificial; but
+the painter had caught the spirit. Nannie's face looked out of the frame
+as I remembered it from long ago. Youth and gaiety and goodness trembled
+on her lips and laughed in her eyes. The picture seemed a prophecy of
+all the happiness the future was to bring. Nannie at eighteen with life
+before her!
+
+And three years later she was dying in a dreary little Western town,
+separated from her girlhood friends, without a word of forgiveness from
+her father. What had she done to deserve this fate? Merely set up her
+will against his, and married the man she loved. Her husband was poor,
+but from all I ever heard, a very decent chap. As I studied the eager
+smiling face, I felt a hot wave of anger against her father. What a
+power of vindictiveness the man must have, still to cherish rancour
+against a daughter fifteen years in her grave! There was something too
+poignantly sad about the unfulfilled hope of the picture. I blew out the
+candles to rid my mind of poor little Nannie's smile.
+
+I sat for some time my eyes fixed moodily on the glowing embers, till I
+was roused by the deep boom of the hall clock as it slowly counted
+twelve. I rose with a laugh and a yawn. The first of the doctor's orders
+had been, "Early to bed!" I hastily made ready, but before turning in,
+paused for a moment by the open window, enticed by the fresh country
+smells of plowed land and sprouting green things, that blew in on the
+damp breeze. It was a wild night with a young moon hanging low in the
+sky. Shadows chased themselves over the lawn and the trees waved and
+shifted in the wind. It had been a long time since I had looked out on
+such a scene of peaceful tranquillity as this. New York with the hurry
+and rush of its streets, with the horrors of Terry's morgue, seemed to
+lie in another continent.
+
+But suddenly I was recalled to the present by hearing, almost beneath
+me, the low shuddering squeak of an opening window. I leaned out
+silently alert, and to my surprise I saw Cat-Eye Mose--though it was
+pretty dark I could not be mistaken in his long loping run--slink out
+from the shadow of the house and make across the open space of lawn
+toward the deserted negro cabins. As he ran he was bent almost double
+over a large black bundle which he carried in his arms. Though I
+strained my eyes to follow him I could make out nothing more before he
+had plunged into the shadow of the laurels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE HA'NT GROWS MYSTERIOUS
+
+
+I waked early and hurried through with my dressing, eager to get down
+stairs and report my last night's finding in regard to Mose. My first
+impulse had been to rouse the house, but on soberer second thoughts I
+had decided to wait till morning. I was glad now that I had; for with
+the sunlight streaming in through the eastern windows, with the fresh
+breeze bringing the sound of twittering birds, life seemed a more
+cheerful affair than it had the night before, and the whole aspect of
+the ha'nt took on a distinctly humorous tone.
+
+A ghost who wafted roast chickens through the air and out of doors on a
+breeze of its own constructing, appealed to me as having an original
+mind. Since my midnight discovery I felt pretty certain that I could
+identify the ghost; and as I recalled the masterly way in which Mose
+had led and directed the hunt, I decided that he was cleverer than Rad
+had given him credit for. I went down stairs with my eyes and ears wide
+open prepared for further revelations. The problems of my profession had
+never led me into any consideration of the supernatural, and the rather
+evanescent business of hunting down a ha'nt came as a welcome contrast
+to the very material details of my recent forgery case. I had found what
+Terry would call a counter-irritant.
+
+It was still early, and neither the Colonel nor Radnor had appeared; but
+Solomon was sweeping off the portico steps and I addressed myself to
+him. He was rather coy at first about discussing the matter of the
+ha'nt, as he scented my scepticism, but in the end he volunteered:
+
+"Some says de ha'nt's a woman dat one o' de Gaylords long time ago,
+should o' married an' didn't, an' dat pined away an' died. An' some says
+it's a black man one o' dem whupped to deaf."
+
+"Which do you think it is?" I inquired.
+
+"Bress yuh, Marse Arnold, I ain't thinkin' nuffen. Like es not hit's
+bofe. When one sperrit gits oneasy 'pears like he stir up all de odders.
+Dey gets so lonely like lyin' all by dereselves in de grave dat dey're
+'most crazy for company. An' when dey cayn't get each odder dey'll take
+humans. De human what's consorted wid a gohs, Marse Arnold, he's nebber
+hisself no moah. He's sort uh half-minded like Mose."
+
+"Is that what's the matter with Mose?" I pursued tentatively. "Does he
+consort with ghosts?"
+
+"Mose was bawn dat way, but I reckon maybe dat was what was de matter
+wid his mudder, an' he cotched it."
+
+"That was rather an unusual thing, last night, wasn't it, for a ha'nt to
+steal a chicken?"
+
+"'Pears like ha'nts must have dere jokes like odder folkses," was as far
+as Solomon would go.
+
+At breakfast I repeated what I had seen the night before, and to my
+indignation both Radnor and my uncle took it calmly.
+
+"Mose is only a poor half witted fellow but he's as honest as the day,"
+the Colonel declared, "and I won't have him turned into a villain for
+your entertainment."
+
+"He may be honest," I persisted, "but just the same he knows what became
+of that chicken! And what's more, if you look about the house you'll
+find there's something else missing."
+
+The Colonel laughed good-naturedly.
+
+"If it raises your suspicions to have Mose prowling around in the night,
+you'll have to get used to suspicions; for you'll have 'em during the
+rest of your stay. I've known Mose to stop out in the woods for three
+nights running--he's as much an animal as he is a man; but he's a tame
+animal, and you needn't be afraid of him. If you'd followed him and his
+bundle last night I reckon you'd have made a mighty queer discovery. He
+has his own little amusements and they aren't exactly ours, but since he
+doesn't hurt anybody what's the use in bothering? I've known Mose for
+well on to thirty years, and I've never yet known him to do a meanness
+to any human being. There aren't many white folks I can say the same
+of."
+
+I did not pursue the subject with the Colonel, but I later suggested to
+Rad that we continue our investigation. He echoed his father's laugh. If
+we set out to investigate all the imaginings that came into the niggers'
+heads we should have our hands full, was his reply. I dropped the matter
+for the time being, but I was none the less convinced that Mose and the
+ghost were near relations; and I determined to keep an eye on him in the
+future, at least in so far as one could keep an eye on so slippery an
+individual.
+
+In pursuance of this design, I took the opportunity that first morning,
+while Rad and his father were engaged with the veterinary surgeon who
+had come to doctor a sick colt, of strolling in the direction of the
+deserted cabins.
+
+It was a damp malarious looking spot, though I dare say in the old days
+when the land was drained, it had been healthy enough. Just below the
+cabins lay the largest of the four pools which gave the plantation its
+name. The other three lying in the pastures higher up were used for
+watering the stock and were kept clean and free from plant growth. But
+the lower pool, abandoned like the cabins, had been allowed to overflow
+its banks until it was completely surrounded with rushes and lily pads.
+A rank growth of willow trees hung over the water and shut out all but
+the merest glint of sunlight.
+
+Above this pool the cabins stretched in a double row occupying the base
+of the declivity on which the "big house" stood. There were as many as a
+dozen, I should think, built of logs and unpainted shack, consisting for
+the most part of a single large room, though a few had a loft above and
+a rough lean-to in the rear. A walk bordered by laurels stretched down
+the center between the two rows, and as the trees had not been clipped
+for a good many years, the shade was somewhat sombre. Add to this the
+fact that one or two of the roofs had fallen in, that the hinges were
+missing from several doors, that there was not a whole pane of glass in
+all the dozen cabins, and it will readily be seen that the place gave
+rise to no very cheerful fancies. I wondered that the Colonel did not
+have the houses pulled down; they were not a souvenir of past times
+which I myself should have cared to preserve.
+
+The damp earth where the shade was thickest, plainly showed the marks of
+foot-prints--some made by bare feet, some by shoes--but I could not
+follow them for more than a yard or so, and I could not be certain they
+were not our own traces of the night before. I poked into every one of
+the cabins, but found nothing suspicious about their appearance. I did
+not, to be sure, ascend to any of the half dozen lofts, as there were no
+stairs and no suggestion of a ladder anywhere about. The open traps
+however which led to them were so thickly festooned with spider webs and
+dirt, that it did not seem possible that anyone had passed through for a
+dozen years. Finding no sign of habitation, either human or spiritual, I
+finally turned back to the house with a philosophic shrug and the
+reflection that Cat-Eye Mose's nocturnal vagaries were no affair of
+mine.
+
+During the next few days we in the front part of the house heard only
+faint echoes of the excitement, though I believe that the ha'nt, both
+past and present, was the chief topic of conversation among the negroes,
+not only at Four-Pools but among the neighboring plantations as well. I
+spent my time those first few days in getting acquainted with my new
+surroundings. The chief business of the farm was horse raising, and the
+Colonel kept a well stocked stable. A riding horse was put at my
+disposal, and in company with Radnor I explored the greater part of the
+valley.
+
+We visited at a number of houses in the neighborhood, but there was one
+in particular where we stopped most frequently, and it did not take me
+long to discover the reason. "Mathers Hall", an ivy-covered rambling
+structure, red brick with white trimmings--in style half colonial, half
+old English--was situated a mile or so from Four-Pools. The Hall had
+sheltered three generations of Matherses, and the fourth generation was
+growing up. There was a huge family, mostly girls, who had married and
+moved away to Washington or Richmond or Baltimore. They all came back in
+the summer however bringing their babies with them, and the place was
+the center of gaiety in the neighborhood. There was just one unmarried
+daughter left--Polly, nineteen years old, and the most heartlessly
+charming young person it has ever been my misfortune to meet. As is
+likely to be the case with the baby of a large family, Polly was
+thoroughly spoiled, but that fact did not in the least diminish her
+charm.
+
+Report had it, at the time of my arrival, that after refusing every
+marriageable man in the county, she was now trying to make up her mind
+between Jim Mattison and Radnor. Whether or not these statistics were
+exaggerated, I cannot say, but in any case the many other aspirants for
+her favor had tacitly dropped out of the running, and the race was
+clearly between the two.
+
+It seemed to me, had I been Polly, that it would not take me long to
+decide. Rad was as likable a young fellow as one would ever meet; he
+came from one of the best families in the county, with the prospect of
+inheriting at his father's death a very fair sized fortune. It struck me
+that a girl would have to search a good while before discovering an
+equally desirable husband. But I was surprised to find that this was not
+the general opinion in the neighborhood. Radnor's reputation, I learned
+with something of a shock, was far from what it should have been. I was
+told with a meaning undertone that he "favored" his brother Jeff. Though
+many of the stories were doubtless exaggerated, I learned subsequently
+that there was too much truth in some of them. It was openly said that
+Polly Mathers would be doing a great deal better if she chose young
+Mattison, for though he might not have the prospect of as much money as
+Radnor Gaylord, he was infinitely the steadier of the two. Mattison was
+a good-looking and rather ill-natured young giant, but it did not strike
+me at the time, nor later in the light of succeeding events, that he was
+particularly endowed with brains. By way of occupation, he was described
+as being in "politics"; at that time he was sheriff of the county, and
+was fully aware of the importance of the office.
+
+I fear that Polly had a good deal of the coquette in her make-up, and
+she thoroughly enjoyed the jealousy between the two young men. Whenever
+Radnor by any chance incurred her displeasure, she retaliated by
+transferring her smiles to Mattison; and the virtuous young sheriff took
+good care that if Rad committed any slips, Polly should hear of them. As
+a result, they succeeded in keeping his temper in a very inflammable
+state.
+
+I had not been long at Four-Pools before I commenced to see that there
+was an undercurrent to the life of the household which I had not at
+first suspected. The Colonel had grown strict as he grew old; his
+experience with his elder son had made him bitter, and he did not adopt
+the most diplomatic way of dealing with Radnor. The boy had inherited a
+good share of his father's stubborn temper and indomitable will; the
+two, living alone, inevitably clashed. Radnor at times seemed possessed
+of the very devil of perversity; and if he ever drank or gambled, it
+was as much to assert his independence as for any other reason. There
+were days when he and his father were barely on speaking terms.
+
+Life at the plantation, however, was for the most part easy-going and
+flexible, as is likely to be the case in a bachelor establishment. We
+dropped cigar ashes anywhere we pleased, cocked our feet on the parlor
+table if we saw fit, and let the dogs troop all over the place. I spent
+the greater part of my time on horseback, riding about the country with
+Radnor on business for the farm. He, I soon discovered, did most of the
+actual work, though his father was still the nominal head of affairs.
+The raising of thorough-breds is no longer the lucrative business that
+it used to be, and it required a good manager to bring the balance out
+on the right side of the ledger. Rad was such a spectacular looking
+young fellow that I was really surprised to find what sound business
+judgment he possessed. He insisted upon introducing modern methods where
+his father would have been content to drift along in the casual manner
+of the old South, and his clear-sightedness more than doubled the
+income of the place.
+
+In the healthy out-of-door life I soon forgot that nerves existed. The
+only thing which at all marred the enjoyment of those first few days was
+the knowledge of occasional clashings between Radnor and his father. I
+think that they were both rather ashamed of these outbreaks, and I
+noticed that they tried to conceal the fact from me by an elaborate if
+somewhat stiff courtesy toward each other.
+
+In order to make clear the puzzling series of events which followed, I
+must go back to, I believe, the fifth night of my arrival. Radnor was
+giving a dance at Four-Pools for the purpose, he said, of introducing me
+into society; though as a matter of fact Polly Mathers was the guest of
+honor. In any case the party was given, and everyone in the neighborhood
+(the term "neighborhood" is broad in Virginia; it describes a ten mile
+radius) both young and old came in carriages or on horseback; the
+younger ones to dance half the night, the older ones to play cards and
+look on. I met a great many pretty girls that evening--the South
+deserves its reputation--but Polly Mathers was by far the prettiest; and
+the contest for her favors between Radnor and young Mattison was
+spirited and open. Had Rad consulted his private wishes, the sheriff
+would not have been among the guests.
+
+It was getting on toward the end of the evening and the musicians, a
+band of negro fiddlers made up from the different plantations, were
+resting after a Virginia reel that had been more a romp than a dance,
+when someone--I think it was Polly herself--suggested that the company
+adjourn to the laurel walk to see if the ha'nt were visible. The story
+of old Aunt Sukie's convulsions and of the spirited roast chicken had
+spread through the countryside, and there had been a good many laughing
+allusions to it during the evening. Running upstairs in search of a hat
+I met Rad on the landing, buttoning something white inside his coat,
+something that to my eyes looked suspiciously like a sheet. He laughed
+and put his finger on his lips as he went on down to join the others.
+
+It was a bright moonlight night almost as light as day. We moved across
+the open lawn in a fairly compact body. The girls, though they had been
+laughing all the evening at the exploits of the ha'nt, showed a cautious
+tendency to keep on the inside. Rad was in the front ranks leading the
+hunt, but I noticed as we entered the shrubbery that he disappeared
+among the shadows, and I for one was fairly certain that our search
+would be rewarded. We paused in a group at the nearer end of the row of
+cabins and stood waiting for the ha'nt to show himself. He was obliging.
+Four or five minutes, and a faint flutter of white appeared in the
+distance at the farther end of the laurel walk. Then as we stood with
+expectant eyes fixed on the spot, we saw a tall white figure sway across
+a patch of moonlight with a beckoning gesture in our direction, while
+the breeze bore a faintly whispered, "Come! Come!" We were none of us
+overbold; our faith was not strong enough to run the risk of spoiling
+the illusion. With shrieks and laughter we turned and made
+helter-skelter for the house, breaking in among the elder members of
+the party with the panting announcement, "We've seen the ha'nt!"
+
+Polly loitered on the veranda while supper was being served, waiting, I
+suspect for Radnor to reappear. I joined her, very willing indeed that
+the young man should delay. Polly, her white dress gleaming in the
+moonlight, her eyes filled with laughter, her cheeks glowing with
+excitement, was the most entrancing little creature I have ever seen.
+She was so bubbling over with youth and light-heartedness that I felt,
+in contrast, as if I were already tottering on the brink of the grave. I
+was just thirty that summer, but if I live to be a hundred I shall never
+feel so old again.
+
+"Well Solomon," I remarked as I helped myself to some cakes he was
+passing, "we've been consorting with ghosts tonight."
+
+"I reckon dis yere gohs would answer to de name o' Marse Radnah," said
+Solomon, with a wise shake of his head. "But just de same it ain't safe
+to mock at ha'nts. Dey'll get it back at you when you ain't expectin'
+it!"
+
+After an intermission of half an hour or so the music commenced again,
+but still no Radnor. Polly cast more than one glance in the direction of
+the laurels and the sparkle in her eyes grew ominous. Presently young
+Mattison appeared in the doorway and asked her to come in and dance, but
+she said that she was tired, and we three stood laughing and chatting
+for some ten minutes longer, when a step suddenly sounded on the gravel
+path and Radnor rounded the corner of the house. As the bright moonlight
+fell on his face, I stared at him in astonishment. He was pale to his
+very lips and there were strained anxious lines beneath his eyes.
+
+"What's the matter, Radnor?" Polly cried. "You look as if you'd found
+the ha'nt!"
+
+He made an effort at composure and laughed in return, though to my ears
+the laugh sounded very hollow.
+
+"I believe this is my dance, isn't it, Polly?" he asked, joining us with
+rather an over-acted air of carelessness.
+
+"Your dance was over half an hour ago," Polly returned. "This is Mr.
+Mattison's."
+
+She turned indoors with the young man, and Rad following on their
+heels, made his way to the punch bowl where I saw him toss off three or
+four glasses with no visible interval between them. I, decidedly
+puzzled, watched him for the rest of the evening. He appeared to have
+some disturbing matter on his mind, and his gaiety was clearly forced.
+
+It was well on toward morning when the party broke up, and after some
+slight conversation of a desultory sort the Colonel, Rad and I went up
+to our rooms. Whether it was the excitement of the evening or the coffee
+I had drunk, in any case I was not sleepy. I turned in, only to lie for
+an hour or more with my eyes wide open staring at a patch of moonlight
+on the ceiling. My old trouble of insomnia had overtaken me again. I
+finally rose and paced the floor in sheer desperation, and then paused
+to stare out of the window at the peaceful moonlit picture before me.
+
+Suddenly I heard, as on the night of my arrival, the soft creaking of
+the French window in the library, which opened on to the veranda just
+below me. Quickly alert, I leaned forward determined to learn if
+possible the reason for Mose's midnight wanderings. To my astonishment
+it was Radnor who stepped out from the shadow of the house, carrying a
+large black bundle in his arms. I clutched the frame of the window and
+stared after him in dumb amazement, as he crossed the strip of moonlit
+lawn and plunged into the shadows of the laurel growth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CAT-EYE MOSE CREATES A SENSATION
+
+
+For the next week or so things went rather strangely on the plantation.
+I knew very well that there was an undercurrent of which I was supposed
+to know nothing, and I appeared politely unconscious; but I won't say
+but that I kept my eyes and ears as wide open as was possible without
+appearing to spy. The chicken episode and Aunt Sukie's convulsions
+turned out to be only the beginning of the ha'nt excitement; scarcely a
+day passed without some fresh supernatural visitation. Radnor
+pooh-poohed over the matter before the Colonel and me, but with the
+negroes I know that he encouraged rather than discouraged their fears,
+until there was not a man on our own or any of the neighboring
+plantations who would have ventured to step foot within the laurel
+walk, either at night or in the daytime--at least there was only one.
+Cat-Eye Mose took the matter of the ha'nt without undue emotion, a point
+which struck me as suggestive, for I knew that Mose was as superstitious
+as the rest when the occasion warranted.
+
+Once at least I saw Radnor and Mose in consultation, and though I did
+not know the subject of the conference my suspicions were very near the
+surface. I came upon them in the stables talking in low tones, Rad
+apparently explaining, and Mose listening with the air of strained
+attention which the slightest mental effort always called to his face.
+At my appearance Radnor raised his voice and added one or two directions
+as to how his guns were to be cleaned. It was evident that the subject
+had been changed.
+
+Everything that was missing about the place--and there seemed to be an
+abnormal amount--was attributed to the ha'nt. I do not doubt but that
+the servants made the ha'nt a convenient scapegoat to answer for their
+own shortcomings, but still there were several suggestive
+depredations--horse blankets from the stable, clothes from the line and
+more edibles than roast chicken from Nancy's larder. The climax of
+absurdity was reached when there disappeared a rather trashy French
+novel, which I had left in the summer house. I asked Solomon about it,
+thinking that one of the servants might have brought it in. Solomon
+rolled his eyes and suggested that the ha'nt had cotched it. I
+laughingly commented upon the occurrence at the supper table and the
+next day Rad handed me the book; Mose had found it, he said, and had
+brought it up to his room.
+
+All of these minor occurrences were stretched over a period of, say ten
+days after the party, and though it gave me the uncomfortable feeling
+that there was something in the air which I did not understand, I did
+not let it worry me unduly. Radnor seemed to be on the inside track of
+whatever was going on, and he was old enough to take care of his own
+affairs. I knew that he had more than once visited the laurel walk after
+the house was supposed to be asleep; but I kept this knowledge to
+myself, and allowed no hint to reach the Colonel.
+
+I had, during these first few weeks, all the opportunity I wished of
+studying Mose's character. Radnor was occupied a good deal of the
+time--spring on a big river plantation is a busy season--and as I had
+professed myself fond of shooting, the Colonel turned me over to the
+care of Cat-Eye Mose. Had I myself been choosing, I should have selected
+another guide. But Mose was the best hunter on the place, and as the
+Colonel was quite untroubled by his vagaries, it never occurred to him
+that I might not be equally confident. In time I grew used to the
+fellow, but I will admit that at first I accepted his services with some
+honest trepidation. As I watched him going ahead of me, crouching behind
+bushes, springing from hummock to hummock, silent and alert, quivering
+like an animal in search of prey, my attention was centered on him
+rather than on any possible quarry.
+
+I shall never forget running across him in the woods one afternoon when
+I had gone out snipe shooting alone. Whether he had followed me or
+whether we had chosen the same vicinity by chance, I do not know; but at
+any rate as I came out from the underbrush on the edge of a low, swampy
+place, I almost stepped on the man. He was stretched face downward on
+the black, oozy soil with his arm buried in a hole at the foot of a
+tree.
+
+"Why Mose!" I cried in amazement, "what on earth are you doing here?"
+
+He responded without raising his head.
+
+"I's aftah a snake, sah. I see a big fat gahtah snake a-lopin' into dis
+yere hole, an' he's skulkin' dar now thinkin' like he gwine to fool me.
+But he cayn't do dat, sah. I's got 'im by de tail, an' I'll fotch 'im
+out."
+
+He drew forth as he spoke a huge black and yellow snake, writhing and
+hissing, and proceeded to smash its head with a stone. I shut my eyes
+during the operation and when I opened them again I saw to my horror
+that he was stuffing the carcass in the front of his shirt.
+
+"Good heavens, Mose!" I cried, aghast. "What are you going to do with
+that?"
+
+"Boil it into oil, sah, to scar de witches off."
+
+Inquiry at the house that night brought out the fact that this was one
+of Mose's regular occupations. Snake's oil was in general favor among
+the negroes as a specific against witches, and Mose was the chief
+purveyor of the lotion. Taken all in all he was about as queer a human
+being as I have ever come across, and I fancy, had I been a psychologist
+instead of a lawyer, I might have found him an entertaining study.
+
+I heard about this time some fresh rumors in regard to Radnor; one--and
+it came pretty straight--that he'd just lost a hundred dollars at poker.
+A hundred dollars may not sound like a very big loss in these days of
+bridge, but it was large for that place, and it represented to Radnor
+exactly two months' pay. As overseer of the plantation, the Colonel paid
+him six hundred dollars a year, a little enough sum considering the work
+he did. Rad had nothing in his own right; aside from his salary he was
+entirely dependent on his father, and it struck me as more than foolish
+for a young man who was contemplating marriage to throw away two months'
+earnings in a single game of poker. The conviction crossed my mind that
+perhaps after all Polly was wise to delay.
+
+I heard another rumor however which was graver than the poker affair; it
+was only a rumor, and when traced to its source turned out to be nothing
+more tangible than somebody's hazarded guess, but without the slightest
+cause the same suspicion had already presented itself to me. And that
+was, that the ha'nt was a very flesh and blood woman. Radnor was clearly
+in some sort of trouble; he was moody and irritable, so sharp with the
+farm hands that several of them left, and unusually taciturn with the
+Colonel and me. To make matters worse Polly Mathers was treating him
+with marked indifference, and openly bestowing her smiles upon Mattison;
+what the trouble was I could only conjecture, but I feared that she too
+had been hearing rumors.
+
+The ha'nt stories had been repeated and exaggerated until they contained
+no semblance of truth. By this time, not only the laurel walk was
+haunted, but the spring-hole as well; and it soon became a region of
+even greater fear than the deserted cabins. The "spring-hole" was a
+natural cavity in the side of a hill a half mile or so back from the
+house. It was out of this cavity that the underground stream flowed
+which fed the pools, and furnished such valuable irrigation to the
+place. All that part of Virginia is undermined with limestone caverns,
+and my uncle's was by no means the only plantation that could boast the
+distinction of a private cave. The entrance was half hidden among rugged
+piled-up boulders dripping with moisture; and was not inviting. I
+remembered chasing a rabbit into this cavern when I was a boy, and
+though it would have been an easy matter to follow him, I preferred to
+stay outside in the sunshine. The spring-hole, then, was haunted. This
+did not strike me as strange. I rather wondered that it had not been
+from the first; it was a likely place for ghosts. But the thing which
+did surprise me, was the fact that it was Mose who brought the news.
+
+We were sitting on the portico after supper one night--it was almost
+dark and the glow from our cigars was the one visible point in the
+scenery--when Mose came bounding across the lawn with his peculiar
+loping run and fairly groveled at Radnor's feet, his teeth chattering
+with fear.
+
+"I's seen de ha'nt, Marse Rad; de sho nuff ha'nt all dressed in black
+an' risin' outen de spring-hole."
+
+"You fool!" Radnor cried. "Get on your feet and behave yourself."
+
+"It was de debbil," Mose chattered. "His face was black an' his eyes was
+fire."
+
+"You've been drinking, Mose," Radnor said sharply. "Get off to the
+quarters where you belong, and don't let me see you again until you are
+sober," and he shunted the fellow out of the way before he had time to
+say any more.
+
+I myself was tolerably certain that Mose had not been drinking; that, at
+least, was not in the list of his peculiar vices. He appeared to be
+thoroughly frightened--if not, he was a most consummate actor. In the
+light of what I already knew, I was considerably puzzled by this fresh
+manifestation. The Colonel fretted and fumed up and down the veranda,
+muttering something about these fool niggers all being alike. He had
+bragged considerably about Mose's immunity in respect to ha'nts, and I
+think he was rather dashed at his favorite's falling-off. I held my
+peace, and Radnor returned in a few minutes.
+
+"Rad," said the Colonel, "this thing's going too far. The whole place is
+infested with ghosts; they'll be invading the house next and we won't
+have a servant left on the place. Can't you do something to stop it?"
+
+Radnor shrugged his shoulders and said that it was a pretty tough job to
+lay a ghost when there were twenty niggers on the place, but that he
+would see what he could do; and he presently drifted off again.
+
+That same night about ten o'clock I was reading before going to bed,
+when a knock sounded on the door, and Radnor appeared. He was unusually
+restless and ill at ease. He referred in a jesting fashion to the ha'nt,
+discussed some neighborhood gossip, and finally quite abruptly inquired:
+
+"Arnold, can you lend me some money?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "I think so; how much do you want?"
+
+"A hundred dollars if you can spare it. Fact is I'm a little hard up,
+and I've got a bill to meet. I have some money invested but I can't put
+my hands on it just this minute. I'll pay you in a week or so as soon as
+I get some cash--I wouldn't ask you, only my father is so blamed
+reluctant about paying my salary ahead of time."
+
+I wrote out a check and handed it to him.
+
+"Rad," I said, "you're perfectly welcome to the money; I'm glad to
+accommodate you, but if you'll excuse my mentioning it, I think you
+ought to pull up a bit on this poker business. You don't earn so much
+that if you're thinking of getting married you can afford to throw any
+of it away.--I'm only speaking for your good; it's no affair of mine," I
+added as I saw his face flush.
+
+He hesitated a moment with the check in his hand; I know that he wanted
+to give it back, but he was evidently too hard pressed.
+
+"Oh, keep the money!" I said. "I don't want to pry into your private
+affairs, only," I laughed, "I do want to see you win out ahead of
+Mattison, and I'm afraid you're not going about it the right way."
+
+"Thank you, Arnold," he returned, "I want to win a great deal more than
+you want me to--and if it's gambling you're afraid of, you can ease your
+mind, for I've sworn off. It's not a poker debt I want this money for
+tonight; I wouldn't be so secretive about the business, only it concerns
+another person more than me."
+
+"Radnor," I said, "I heard an ugly rumor the other day. I heard that the
+ghost was a live woman who was living in the deserted cabins under your
+connivance. I didn't believe it, but just the same it is not a story
+which you can afford to have even whispered."
+
+Radnor raised his head sharply.
+
+"Ah, I see!" His eyes wavered a moment and then fixed themselves
+miserably on my face. "Has--has Polly Mathers heard that?"
+
+"Yes," I returned, "I fancy she has."
+
+He struck the table with a quick flash of anger.
+
+"It's a damned lie! And it comes from Jim Mattison."
+
+
+And now as to the events which followed during the night. I've repeated
+them so many times to so many different persons that it is difficult for
+me to recall just what were my original sensations. I went to bed but I
+didn't go to sleep; this ha'nt business was getting on my nerves almost
+as badly as the Patterson-Pratt case. After a time I heard someone let
+himself softly out of the house; I knew well that it was Radnor and I
+didn't get up to look. I didn't want the appearance even to myself of
+spying upon him. After three quarters of an hour or so I was suddenly
+startled alert by hearing the squeak-squeak of a whippletree out on the
+lawn. It was the Colonel's buckboard which stood in need of oiling; I
+recognized the sound. Curiosity was too much for me this time. I slipped
+out of bed and hurried to the window. It was pretty dark outside, but
+there was a faint glimmer of starlight.
+
+"Whoa, Jennie Loo; whoa!" I heard Rad's voice scarcely above a whisper,
+and I saw the outline of the cart plainly with Rad driving, and either
+some person or some large bundle on the seat beside him. It was on the
+side farthest from me, and was too vague to be distinguished. He made a
+wide detour of the house across the grass, and struck the driveway at
+the foot of the lawn; the reason for this manoeuvre was evident--the
+gravel drive from the stables passed directly under the Colonel's
+window. I went back to bed half worried, half relieved. I strongly
+suspected that this was the end of the ghost; but I could not help
+puzzling over the part that Radnor had played in the little comedy--if
+comedy it were. The stories that I had heard about some of his
+disreputable associates returned to my mind with unpleasant emphasis.
+
+I had gradually dozed off, when half waking, half sleeping, I heard the
+patter of bare feet on the veranda floor. The impression was not
+distinct enough to arouse me, and I have never been perfectly sure that
+I was not dreaming. I do not know how much time elapsed after this--I
+was sound asleep--when I was suddenly startled awake by a succession of
+the most horrible screams I have ever heard. In an instant I was on my
+feet in the middle of the floor. Striking a match and lighting a candle,
+I grabbed an umbrella--it was the only semblance of a weapon anywhere at
+hand--and dashed into the hall. The Colonel's door was flung open at the
+same instant, and he appeared on the threshold, revolver in hand.
+
+"Eh, Arnold, what's happened?" he cried.
+
+"I don't know," I gasped, "I'm going down to see."
+
+We tumbled down stairs at such a rate that the candle went out, and we
+groped along in total darkness toward the rear of the house from where
+the sounds were coming. The cries had died down by this time into a
+horrible inarticulate wail, half animal, half human. I recognized the
+tones with a cold thrill; it was Mose. We found him groveling on the
+floor of the little passage that led from the dining-room to the serving
+room. I struck a light and we bent over him. I hated to look, expecting
+from the noise he was making to find him lying in a pool of blood. But
+he was entirely whole; there was no blood visible and we could find no
+broken bones. Apparently there was nothing the matter beyond fear, and
+of that he was nearly dead. He crawled to the Colonel and clung to his
+feet chattering an unintelligible gibberish. His eyes rolling wildly in
+the dim light, showed an uncanny yellow gleam. I could see where he got
+his name.
+
+The Colonel's own nerves were beginning to assert themselves and with an
+oath he cuffed the fellow back to a state of coherence.
+
+"Stand up, you blithering fool, and tell us what you mean by raising
+such a fuss."
+
+Mose finally found his tongue but we still could make nothing of his
+story. He had been out "prospectin' 'round," and when he came in to go
+to bed--the house servants slept in a wing over the rear gallery--he met
+the ha'nt face to face standing in the dining-room doorway. He was so
+tall that his head reached the ceiling and he was so thin that you could
+see right through him. At the remembrance Mose began to shiver again.
+We propped him up with some whiskey and sent him off to bed still
+twittering with terror.
+
+The Colonel was bent on routing out Radnor to share the excitement and I
+with some difficulty restrained him, knowing full well that Rad was not
+in the house. We made a search of the premises to assure ourselves that
+there was nothing tangible about Mose's ha'nt; but I was in such a hurry
+to get the Colonel safely upstairs again, that our search was somewhat
+cursory. We both overlooked the little office that opened off the
+dining-room. In spite of my manoeuvres the Colonel entered the library
+first and discovered that the French window was open; he laid no stress
+on this however, supposing that Mose was the guilty one. He bolted it
+with unusual care, and I with equal care slipped back and unbolted it. I
+finally persuaded him that Mose's ha'nt was merely the result of a
+fevered imagination fed on a two weeks' diet of ghost stories, and
+succeeded in getting him back to bed without discovering Radnor's
+absence. I lay awake until I heard the sound of carriage wheels
+returning across the lawn, and, a few minutes later, footsteps enter
+the house and tip-toe upstairs. Then as daylight was beginning to show
+in the east I finally fell asleep, worn out with puzzling my head for an
+explanation which should cover at once Rad's nocturnal drive and Mose's
+ha'nt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WE SEND FOR A DETECTIVE
+
+
+I slept late the next morning, and came down stairs to find the Colonel
+pacing the length of the dining-room, his head bent, a worried frown
+upon his brow. He came to a sudden halt at my appearance and regarded me
+a moment without speaking. I could see that something of moment had
+happened, but I could fathom nothing of its nature from his expression.
+
+"Good morning, Arnold," he said with a certain grim pleasantness. "I
+have just been making a discovery. It appears that Mose's ha'nt amounted
+to more than we gave him credit for. The safe was robbed during the
+night."
+
+"The safe robbed!" I cried. "How much was taken?"
+
+"Something over a hundred dollars in cash, and a number of important
+papers."
+
+He threw open the door of the little office, and waved his hand toward
+the safe which occupied one end. The two iron doors were wide open, the
+interior showing a succession of yawning pigeon holes with the cash
+drawer, half pulled out and empty. Several papers were spilled on the
+floor underneath.
+
+"He evidently had no use for my will nor for Kennisburg street railway
+stock--I don't blame him; it wouldn't sell for the paper it's written
+on."
+
+Radnor's step sounded on the stair as he came running down--whistling I
+noted.
+
+"Ah--Rad," the Colonel called from the office doorway. "You're a good
+sleeper."
+
+Radnor stopped his whistle as his eye fell upon our faces, and his own
+took on a look of anxiety.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked. "Has anything happened?"
+
+"It appears the ha'nt has robbed the safe."
+
+"The ha'nt?" Rad's face went visibly white, and then in a moment it
+cleared; his expression was divided between relief and dismay.
+
+"Oh!" he said, "you've missed the money? I meant to get down first and
+tell you about it, but overslept. I took a hundred dollars out of the
+safe last night because I wanted the cash--you had gone to bed so I
+didn't say anything about it. I will ride into the village this morning
+and get it out of the bank in time to pay the men."
+
+"You took a hundred dollars," the Colonel repeated. "And did you take
+the securities also and the bag of coin?" He waved his hand toward the
+safe. Radnor's eye followed and his jaw dropped.
+
+"I didn't touch anything but the roll of bills in the cash drawer.
+What's missing?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars in bonds, a couple of insurance policies and one
+or two deeds--also the bag of coin. Mose saw the ha'nt in the night, and
+Arnold and I came down to investigate; we unfortunately neglected the
+office in our search, or we might have cornered him. Do you happen to
+remember whether or not you closed the safe after you took out the
+money, and would you mind telling me why you needed a hundred dollars in
+such a hurry that you couldn't wait until the bank opened?"
+
+The troubled line on Radnor's brow deepened.
+
+"I think I closed the safe," he said, "but I don't remember. It's barely
+possible that I didn't lock it; you know we haven't always kept it
+locked, especially when there wasn't money in it.--It never occurred to
+me that anyone would steal the bonds. I can't imagine what it means."
+
+"You haven't answered my question.--Why did you need a hundred dollars
+in cash after ten o'clock last night?"
+
+"I am sorry, father, but I can't answer that question. It's a private
+matter."
+
+"Indeed! You are sure that you did not take the bonds as well and have
+forgotten it?"
+
+"I took one hundred dollars in bills and nothing else. I took that
+merely because it was my only way of cashing a check. I have frequently
+cashed my private checks, when we had a surplus on hand and I didn't
+want the bother of going in to the bank. So long as I balance the books
+all right, I see no reason why I should not do so."
+
+"H'm!" said the Colonel. "Two days ago you came to me and wanted two
+months' pay in advance because you had overdrawn your bank account, and
+I refused to give it to you. Where, may I ask, were you intending to get
+the hundred dollars to pay back this amount?"
+
+A quick flush spread over Radnor's face.
+
+"I already had it--Arnold will tell you that, for I borrowed it of him."
+
+"Certainly," I put in pacifically--"that's all settled between Rad and
+me. I have his note and was glad to accommodate him."
+
+"Don't you get enough from me, that you must ask the guests in my house
+to supply you with money?"
+
+Radnor's flush deepened but he said nothing. I could see by his eyes
+however that he would not stand much more.
+
+"Then after you had helped yourself to the money, the bonds were stolen
+by someone else?" said the Colonel.
+
+"So it appears," said Radnor.
+
+"And have you any theory as to the identity of the thief?"
+
+Rad hesitated a visible instant before replying. The flush left his face
+and the pallor came back, but in the end he raised his eyes and answered
+steadily.
+
+"No, father, I have not. I am as much mystified as you are."
+
+"And you heard nothing in the night? As I said before, you are an
+excellent sleeper!"
+
+Rad caught an ironical undertone in his father's voice.
+
+"I don't understand," he said.
+
+"I am a trifle deaf myself, but still he wakened me.--It's strange that
+you should be the only one in the house who could sleep through it."
+
+"Sleep through what? I don't know what you're talking about."
+
+I cut in hastily and explained our adventure with Mose's ha'nt.
+
+Radnor listened with troubled eyes but made no comment at the end. His
+father was watching him keenly, and I don't know whether it was
+intuition or some knowledge of the truth that made him suddenly put the
+question:
+
+"You were of course in the house all night?"
+
+"No," Radnor returned, "I was not. I didn't get in till early this
+morning and I suppose the excitement occurred during my absence."
+
+"I suppose I may not be permitted to inquire where you spent the
+night--that too is a private matter?"
+
+"Yes," said Radnor, easily, "that too is a private matter."
+
+"And would throw no light on the robbery?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+Solomon brought in the breakfast and we three sat down, but not to a
+very cheerful meal. The Colonel wore an angry frown and Rad an air of
+anxious perplexity. Neither of them indulged in any unnecessary
+conversation. I knew that the Colonel was more upset by his son's
+reticence than by the robbery of the bonds, and that it was my presence
+alone which restrained him from giving vent to his anger. As we rose
+from the table he said stiffly:
+
+"Well, Rad, have you any suggestion as to how we shall set to work to
+track down the thief?"
+
+Radnor slowly shook his head.
+
+"I shall have to talk with Mose first and find out what he really saw."
+
+"Mose!" The Colonel laughed shortly. "He's like all the rest of the
+niggers. He doesn't know what he saw--No sir! I've had enough of this
+ha'nt business; it's one thing when he spirits chickens from the oven,
+it's another when he takes to spiriting securities from the safe. I
+shall telegraph to Washington for a first class detective."
+
+"If you take my advice," said Rad, "you'll not do that. A detective's
+not much good outside the covers of a book. He'll stir up a lot of
+notoriety and present a bill; and you'll be no wiser than you were
+before."
+
+"Whoever stole those bonds will be marketing them within a few days; the
+interest falls due the first of May. I am not so rich that I can let
+five thousand dollars go without a move to get it back. I shall
+telegraph today for a detective."
+
+"Just as you please," said Radnor with a shrug, and he turned toward the
+door that opened on the gallery. Mose was visible at the end evidently
+recounting to an excited audience his experiences of the night. Rad
+beckoned to him and the two turned together across the lawn toward the
+laurel walk.
+
+It was an hour or so later that Rad presented himself at my door. His
+colloquy with Mose had increased rather than lessened the mystified look
+on his face. He waited for no preliminaries this time, but plunged
+immediately into the matter that was on his mind.
+
+"Arnold, for heaven's sake, stop my father from getting a detective down
+here. I don't dare say anything, for my opposition will only make him do
+it the more. But you have some influence with him; tell him you're a
+lawyer, and will take charge of it yourself."
+
+"Why don't you want a detective?" I asked.
+
+"Good Lord, hasn't our family had notoriety enough? Here's Nan eloping
+with the overseer, and Jeff the scandal of the county for five years. I
+can't turn around but some malicious interpretation is put on it, and
+now that the family ghost has taken to cracking safes gossip will never
+stop. Get a detective down here who goes nosing about the neighborhood
+in search of information and there's no telling where the thing will
+end. Those bonds can't be far. Aren't we more likely to get at the
+truth, if we lie low and don't let on we're after the thief?"
+
+"Radnor," I said, "will you tell me the absolute truth? Have you any
+suspicion as to who took those securities? Do you know any facts which
+might lead to the apprehension of the thief?"
+
+He remained silent a moment, then he parried my question with another.
+
+"What time did all that row occur in the night?"
+
+"I don't know; I didn't think to look, but I should say it was somewhere
+in the neighborhood of three o'clock. I didn't go to sleep again, and it
+was about half an hour later that you drove in."
+
+"You heard me?"
+
+"I heard you go and I heard you come; but I did not mention that fact
+to the Colonel."
+
+Rad laughed shortly.
+
+"I can at least prove an alibi," he said. "You can swear that I was not
+Mose's devil."
+
+He remained silent a moment with his elbows on his knees and his chin in
+his hands studying the floor; then he raised his eyes to mine with a
+puzzled shake of the head.
+
+"No, Arnold, I haven't the slightest suspicion as to who took those
+securities. I can't make it out. The robbery must have occurred while I
+was away. Of course the deeds and insurance policies and coin may have
+been taken as a blind; but it's queer. The money was in five and ten
+cent pieces and pennies--we always keep a lot of change on hand to pay
+the piece-workers during planting season. There was nearly a quart of it
+altogether and it must have weighed a ton. I can't imagine anyone
+stealing Government four-per-cents and pennies at the same haul."
+
+"Did you get any light from Mose?" I asked.
+
+"No, I can't make head nor tail out of his story. He isn't given to
+seeing visions, and as you know, he isn't afraid of the dark. He saw
+something that scared him; but what it was, I'll be darned if I know!"
+
+"Then why not get a detective down and see if he can't find out?"
+
+Radnor lowered his eyes a moment, then raised them frankly to mine.
+
+"Oh, hang it, Arnold; I'm in the deuce of a hole! There's something else
+that I don't want found out. It's absolutely unconnected with the
+robbery, but you bring a detective down here and he's certain to stumble
+on that instead of the other. I'd tell you if I could, but really I
+can't just now. It's nothing I'm to blame for--my conduct lately has
+been immaculate. You get my father to abandon this detective plan, and
+we'll buckle down together and root out the truth about the robbery."
+
+"Well," I promised, "I'll see what I can do; but as the Colonel says,
+five thousand dollars is a good deal of money to let slip through your
+hands without making an effort to get it back. You and I will have to
+finish the business if we undertake it."
+
+"We will!" he assured me. "We can certainly get at the truth better
+than an outsider who doesn't know any of the facts. You switch off the
+old gentleman from putting it in the hands of the police and everything
+will come out right."
+
+He went off actually whistling again. Whatever had been troubling him
+for the past two weeks had been sloughed off during the night, and all
+that remained now was the danger of detection; with this removed he was
+his old careless self. The loss of the securities was apparently not
+bothering him. Radnor always did exhibit a lordly disregard in money
+matters.
+
+I lost no time in taking my errand to the Colonel, but I could discover
+him in none of the down stairs rooms nor anywhere else about the place.
+It occurred to me, after half an hour of searching, to see if his horse
+were in the stable; as I had surmised it was not. He had ordered it
+saddled immediately after breakfast and had ridden off in the direction
+of the village, one of the stable-men informed me. I had my own horse
+saddled, and ten minutes later was riding after him. It surprised me
+that he should have acted so quickly; the Colonel was usually rather
+given to procrastination, while Rad was the one who acted. His
+promptness proved that he was angry.
+
+Four-Pools is about two miles from the village of Lambert Corners which
+consists of a single shady square. Two sides of the square are taken up
+with shops, the other two with the school, a couple of churches, and a
+dozen or so of dwellings. This composes as much of the town as is
+visible, the aristocracy being scattered over the outlying plantations,
+and regarding the "Corners" merely as a source of mail and drinks. Three
+miles farther down the pike lies Kennisburg, the county seat, which
+answers the varied purposes of a metropolis.
+
+I reined in before "Miller's place," a spacious structure comprising a
+general store on the right, the post and telegraph office on the left,
+and in the rear a commodious room where a white man may quench his
+thirst. A negro must pass on to "Jake's place," two doors below. A
+number of horses were tied to the iron railing in front and among them I
+recognized Red Pepper. I found the Colonel in the back room, a glass of
+mint julep at his elbow, an interested audience before him. He was
+engaged in recounting the story of the missing bonds, and it was too
+late for me to interrupt. He referred in the most casual manner to the
+hundred dollars his son had taken from the safe the night before, a
+fortunate circumstance, he added, or that too would have been stolen.
+There was not the slightest suggestion in his tone that he and his son
+had had any words over this same hundred dollars. The Gaylord pride
+could be depended on for hiding from the world what the world had no
+business in knowing.
+
+The telegram to the detective agency, I found, had already been
+dispatched, and the Colonel was awaiting his answer. It came in a few
+moments and was delivered by word of mouth, the clerk seeing no reason
+why he should put himself to the trouble of writing it out.
+
+"They say they'll put one o' their best men on the case, Colonel, an'
+he'll get to the Junction at five-forty tonight."
+
+The Colonel and I rode home together, he in a more placable frame of
+mind. Though I dare say he disliked as much as ever the idea of losing
+his bonds, still the éclat of a robbery, of a magnitude that demanded a
+detective, was something of a palliative. It was not everyone of his
+listeners who had five thousand dollars in bonds to lose. I knew that it
+would be useless to try to head off the detective now, and I wisely kept
+silent. My mind was by no means at rest however; for an unknown reason I
+did not want a detective any more than Radnor. I had the intangible
+feeling that there was something in the air which might better not be
+discovered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WE SEND HIM BACK AGAIN
+
+
+The detective came. He was an inoffensive young man, and he set to work
+to unravel the mystery of the ha'nt with visible delight at the unusual
+nature of the job. Radnor received him in a spirit of almost anxious
+hospitality. A horse was given him to ride, guns and fishing tackle were
+placed at his disposal, a box of the Colonel's best cigars stood on the
+table of his room, and Solomon at his elbow presented a succession of
+ever freshly mixed mint juleps. I think that he was dazed and a trifle
+suspicious at these unexpected attentions; he was not used to the
+largeness of Southern hospitality. However, he set to work with an
+admirable zeal.
+
+He interviewed the servants and farm-hands, and the information he
+received in regard to things supernatural would have filled three
+volumes; he was staggered by the amount of evidence at hand rather than
+the scarcity. He examined the safe and the library window with a
+microscope, crawled about the laurel walk on his hands and knees, sent
+off telegrams and gossiped with the loungers at "Miller's place." He
+interviewed the Colonel and Radnor, cross-examined me, and wrote down
+always copious notes. The young man's manner was preëminently
+professional.
+
+Finally one evening--it was four days after his arrival--he joined me as
+I was strolling in the garden smoking an after dinner pipe.
+
+"May I have just a word with you, Mr. Crosby?" he asked.
+
+"I am at your service, Mr. Clancy," said I.
+
+His manner was gravely portentous and prepared me for the statement that
+was coming.
+
+"I have spotted my man," he said. "I know who stole the securities; but
+I am afraid that the information will not be welcome. Under the
+circumstances it seemed wisest to make my report to you rather than to
+Colonel Gaylord, and we can decide between us what is best to do."
+
+"What do you mean?" I demanded. In spite of my effort at composure,
+there was anxiety in my tone.
+
+"The thief is Radnor Gaylord."
+
+I laughed.
+
+"That is absolutely untenable. Rad is incapable of such an act in the
+first place, and in the second, he was not in the house when the robbery
+occurred."
+
+"Ah! Then you know that? And where was he, pray?"
+
+"That," said I, "is his own affair; if he did not tell you, it is
+because it is not connected with the case."
+
+"So! It is just because it _is_ connected with the case that he did not
+tell me. I will tell you, however, where he spent the night; he drove to
+Kennisburg--a larger town than Lambert Corners, where an unusual letter
+would create no comment--and mailed the bonds to a Washington firm of
+brokers with whom he has had some dealings. He took the bag of coin and
+several unimportant papers in order to deflect suspicion, and his
+opening the safe the night before for the hundred dollars was merely a
+ruse to allow him to forget and leave it open, so that the bonds could
+appear to be stolen by someone else. Just what led him to commit the act
+I won't say; he has been in a tight place for several months back in
+regard to money. Last January he turned a two-thousand dollar mortgage,
+that his father had given him on his twenty-first birthday, into cash,
+and what he did with the cash I haven't been able to discover. In any
+case his father knows nothing of the transaction; he thinks that Radnor
+still holds the mortgage. This spring the young man was hard up again,
+and no more mortgages left to sell. He probably did not regard the
+appropriation of the bonds as stealing, since everything by his father's
+will was to come to him ultimately.
+
+"As to all this hocus-pocus about the ha'nt, that is easily explained.
+He needed a scapegoat on whom to turn the blame when the bonds should
+disappear; so he and this Cat-Eye Mose between them invented a ghost.
+The negro is a half crazy fellow who from the first has been young
+Gaylord's tool; I don't think he knew what he was doing sufficiently to
+be blamed. As for Gaylord himself, I fancy there was a third person
+somewhere in the background who was pressing him for money and who
+couldn't be shaken off till the money was forthcoming. But whatever his
+motive for taking the bonds, there is no doubt about the fact, and I
+have come to you with the story rather than to his father."
+
+"It is absolutely impossible," I returned. "Radnor, whatever his faults,
+is an honorable man in regard to money matters. I have his word that he
+knows no more about the robbery of those bonds than I do."
+
+The detective laughed.
+
+"There is just one kind of evidence that doesn't count for much in my
+profession, and that is a man's word. We look for something a little
+more tangible--such as this for example."
+
+He drew from his pocket an envelope, took from it a letter, and handed
+it to me. It was a typewritten communication from a firm of brokers in
+Washington.
+
+
+     "RADNOR F. GAYLORD, Esq.,
+          "Four-Pools Plantation, Lambert Corners, Va.
+
+     "_Dear Mr. Gaylord_:
+
+     "We are in receipt of your favor of April 29th. in regard to the
+     sale of the bonds. The market is rather slow at present and we
+     shall have to sell at 98¼. If you care to hold on to them a few
+     months longer, there is every chance of the market picking up, and
+     we feel sure that in the end you will find them a good investment.
+
+     "Awaiting your further orders and thanking you for past favors,
+
+                  "We are,
+                     "Very truly yours,
+                        "JACOBY, HAIGHT & CO."
+
+
+"Where did you get hold of that?" I asked. "It strikes me it's a private
+letter."
+
+"Very private," the young man agreed. "I had trouble enough in getting
+hold of it; I had to do some fishing with a hook and pole over the
+transom of Mr. Gaylord's door. He had very kindly put the tackle at my
+disposal."
+
+"You weren't called down here to open the family's private letters," I
+said hotly.
+
+"I was called down here to find out who stole Colonel Gaylord's bonds,
+and I've done it."
+
+I was silent for a moment. This letter from the brokers staggered me.
+April twenty-ninth was the date of the robbery, and I could think of no
+explanation. Clancy, noticing my silence, elaborated his theory with a
+growing air of triumph.
+
+"This Mose was left behind the night of the robbery with orders to rouse
+the house while Radnor was away. Mose is a good actor and he fooled you.
+The obvious suspicion was that the ghost had stolen the bonds and you
+set out to find him--a somewhat difficult task as he existed only in
+Mose's imagination. I think when you reflect upon the evidence, you will
+see that my explanation is convincing."
+
+"It isn't in the least convincing," I retorted. "Mose was not acting;
+he saw something that frightened him half out of his senses. And that
+something was not Radnor masquerading as a ghost, for Radnor was out of
+the house when the robbery took place."
+
+"Not necessarily. The robbery took place early in the evening before all
+this rumpus occurred. Even if Mose did see a ghost, the ghost had
+nothing to do with it."
+
+"You have absolutely no proof of that; it is nothing but surmise."
+
+Clancy smiled with an air of patient tolerance.
+
+"How about the letter?" he inquired. "How do you explain that?"
+
+"I don't explain it; it is none of my business. But I dare say Radnor
+will do so readily enough--there he is going toward the stables; we will
+call him over."
+
+"No, hold on, I haven't finished what I want to say. I was employed by
+Colonel Gaylord to find out who stole the bonds and I have done so. But
+the Colonel did not suspect the direction my investigations would take
+or he never would have engaged me. Now I am wondering if it would not be
+kinder not to let him know? He's had trouble enough with his elder son;
+Radnor is all he has left. The young man seems to me like a really
+decent fellow--I dare say he'll straighten up and amount to something
+yet. Probably he considered the money as practically his already; anyway
+he's been decent to me and I should like to do him a service. Now say we
+three talk it over together and settle it out of court as it were. I've
+put in my time down here and I've got to have my pay, but perhaps it
+would be better all around if I took it from the young man rather than
+his father."
+
+This struck me as the best way out of the muddle, and a very fair
+proposition, considering Clancy's point of view. I myself did not for an
+instant credit his suspicions, but I thought the wisest thing to do was
+to tell Rad just how the matter stood and let him explain in regard to
+the letter. I left Clancy waiting in the summer house while I went in
+search of Rad. I wished to be the one to do the explaining as I knew he
+was not likely to take any such accusation calmly.
+
+I found him in the stables, and putting my hand on his shoulder, marched
+him back toward the garden.
+
+"Rad," I said, "Clancy has formed his conclusions as to how the bonds
+left the safe, and I want you to convince him that he is mistaken."
+
+"Well? Let's hear his conclusions."
+
+"He thinks that you took them when you took the money."
+
+"You mean that I stole them?"
+
+"That's what he thinks."
+
+"He does, does he? Well he can prove it!"
+
+Radnor broke away from me and strode toward the summer house. The
+detective received his onslaught placidly; his manner suggested that he
+was used to dealing with excitable young men.
+
+"Sit down, Mr. Gaylord, and let's discuss this matter quietly. If you
+listen to reason, I assure you it will go no further."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you accuse me of stealing those bonds?" Radnor
+shouted.
+
+Clancy held up a warning hand.
+
+"Don't talk so loud; someone will hear you. Sit down." He nodded toward
+a seat on the other side of the little rustic table. "I will explain the
+matter as I see it, and if you can disprove any of my statements I shall
+be more than glad to have you."
+
+Radnor subsided and listened scowlingly while the detective outlined his
+theory in a perfectly non-personal way, and ended by producing the
+letter.
+
+"Where did you get that?" Rad demanded.
+
+"Out of your coat pocket which I hooked over the transom of the door."
+He made the statement imperturbably; it was evidently a matter of
+everyday routine.
+
+"So you enter gentlemen's houses as their guest and spend your time
+sneaking about reading their private correspondence?"
+
+An angry gleam appeared in Clancy's eye and he rose to his feet.
+
+"I did not come to your house as your guest. I came on business for
+Colonel Gaylord. Now that my business is completed I will make my report
+to him and go."
+
+Radnor rose also.
+
+"It's a lie, and you haven't a word of proof to show."
+
+Clancy significantly tapped the pocket that held the letter.
+
+"That," said Radnor contemptuously, "refers to two bonds which I bought
+last winter with some money I got from selling a mortgage. I preferred
+to have the investment in bonds because they are more readily
+negotiable. I left them at my broker's as collateral for another
+investment I was making. Last week I needed some ready money and wrote
+to them to sell. My statement can easily be substantiated; no reputable
+detective would ever base any such absurd charge on the contents of a
+letter he did not understand."
+
+"Of course," said the detective, "we have tried to get at the matter
+from the other end; but Jacoby, Haight & Company refuse to discuss the
+affairs of their clients. I did not press the point as I did not want to
+stir up comment. However," he smiled, "I must confess, Mr. Gaylord, that
+I think your explanation a trifle fishy. Perhaps you will answer one
+question. Did you mail your letter to them in Kennisburg the night of
+the robbery with a special delivery stamp?"
+
+"It happens that I did, but it was merely a coincidence and has nothing
+to do with the robbery."
+
+"Will you be kind enough to explain why you drove to Kennisburg in the
+night and why you needed the money so suddenly?"
+
+"No, I will not. That is a matter which concerns, me alone."
+
+"Very well! As it happens I do not base my charge on the letter; I had
+already formed my opinion before I knew of its existence. Do you deny
+that you yourself have encouraged the belief in the ghost among the
+negroes? That on more than one occasion, you, or your accomplice,
+Cat-Eye Mose, have masqueraded as the ghost? That, while you were
+pretending to Colonel Gaylord to be as much puzzled by the matter as he,
+you were in truth at the bottom of the whole business?"
+
+Radnor glanced uneasily at me and hesitated before replying.
+
+"No," he said at length, "I don't deny that, but I do affirm that it
+has nothing to do with the robbery."
+
+The detective laughed.
+
+"You must excuse me, Mr. Gaylord, if I stick to the opinion that I have
+solved the puzzle."
+
+He turned with a motion toward the house, and Radnor barred the
+entrance.
+
+"Do you think I lie when I say I know nothing of those bonds?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Gaylord, I do."
+
+For a moment I thought that Radnor was going to strike him, but I pulled
+him back and turned to Clancy.
+
+"He knows nothing about the bonds," said I, "but nevertheless you must
+not take any such story to Colonel Gaylord. He is an old man, and while
+he would not believe his son guilty of theft, still it would worry him.
+There is something else that happened that night--entirely
+uncriminal--but which we do not wish him to hear about. Therefore I am
+not going to let you go to him with this nonsensical tale that you have
+cooked up."
+
+This was a trial shot on my part but it hit the bull's-eye. Radnor
+stared but said nothing; and the detective visibly wavered.
+
+"Now," I added, taking out my checkbook, "suppose I pay you what you
+would have received had you discovered the bonds, and dispense with your
+further services?"
+
+"That's just as you say. I feel that I've done the job and am entitled
+to the money. If you wish to pay it, all right; otherwise I get it from
+Colonel Gaylord. I received a retaining fee and was to have two hundred
+dollars more when I located the bonds. In order not to stir up any bad
+feeling I'm willing to take that two hundred dollars from you and drop
+the matter."
+
+"It's blackmail!" said Radnor.
+
+"Keep still, Rad," I said. "It's very accommodating of Mr. Clancy to see
+it this way."
+
+I wrote out a check and tossed it to the detective.
+
+"Now go to Colonel Gaylord," I said, "tell him that you have been
+unsuccessful in finding any clue; that the bonds will almost certainly
+be marketed in the city, and that your only hope of tracing them is to
+work from the other end. Then pack your bag and go. A carriage will be
+ready to take you to the Junction in half an hour."
+
+"Just wait a moment, Mr. Clancy," Rad called after him as he turned
+away. He drew a note book from his pocket and ripping out a page
+scrawled across the face:
+
+
+     "JACOBY, HAIGHT AND CO.
+
+     "_Gentlemen_:--You will oblige me by answering any questions which
+     the bearer of this note may ask concerning my past transactions
+     with you.
+
+                  "RADNOR F. GAYLORD."
+
+
+"There," said Rad, thrusting it toward him, "kindly make use of that
+when you get to Washington, and in the future I should advise you to
+base your charges on something a little more substantial."
+
+His manner was insultingly contemptuous, but Clancy swallowed it with
+smiling good nature.
+
+"I shall be interested in continuing the investigation," he observed as
+he pocketed the paper and withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE ROBBERY REMAINS A MYSTERY
+
+
+So we got rid of the detective. But matters did not readily settle down
+again into their old relations. The Colonel was irritable, and Rad was
+moody and sullen. He showed no tendency to confide in me as to the truth
+about the ha'nt, and I did not probe the matter further. In a day or so
+he brought me three hundred dollars, to cover the amount I had loaned
+him, together with the "blackmail," as he insisted upon calling it. The
+money, he informed me, was from the proceeds of the bonds he had sold.
+He showed me at the same time several letters from his brokers
+establishing beyond a doubt that the story he had told was true. As to
+the stolen bonds, their whereabouts was as much a mystery as ever, and
+Rad appeared to take not the slightest interest in the matter. Since the
+detective had been summoned, he had washed his hands of all
+responsibility.
+
+I think it was the morning after Clancy's departure that Solomon handed
+me a pale blue envelope bearing in the upper left-hand corner the device
+of the Post-Dispatch. I laughed as I ripped it open; I had almost
+forgotten Terry's existence. It contained a characteristic pencil scrawl
+slanting across a sheet of yellow copy paper.
+
+
+
+     "Arnold Crosby, Esq.
+          "Turnips Farm, Pumpkin Corners, Va.
+
+     "_Dear Sir_:
+
+     "Enclosed please find clipping. Are the facts straight and have the
+     missing bonds turned up? If not, don't you want me to run down and
+     find them for you? Should like to meet an authenticated ghost.
+     Wouldn't be a bad Sunday feature article. Give it my love. Is it a
+     man or lady? Things are also moving nicely in New York--two murders
+     and a child abducted in one week.
+
+     "How are crops?
+                 "Yours truly,
+                                                   "T. P.
+     "Wire me if you want me."
+
+
+The clipping was headed, "Spook Cracks Safe," and was a fairly accurate
+account of the ha'nt and the robbery. It ended with the remark that the
+mystery was as yet unsolved, but that the best detective talent in the
+country had been engaged on the case.
+
+I tossed the letter to Radnor with a laugh; he had already heard of
+Terry's connection with the Patterson-Pratt affair.
+
+"Perhaps we couldn't do better than to get him down," I suggested; "he's
+most abnormally keen at ferreting out a mystery that promises any
+news--if any one can learn the truth about those bonds, he can."
+
+"I don't want to know the truth," Radnor growled. "I'm sick of the very
+name of bonds."
+
+And this had been his attitude from the moment the detective left. My
+own insistence that it was our duty to track down the thief met with
+nothing but a shrug. Another person might have suspected that this
+apathy only proved his own culpability in the theft, but such a
+suspicion never for a moment crossed my mind. He was, as he said, sick
+of the very name of bonds, and with a person of his temperament that
+ended the matter. Though I did not comprehend his attitude, still I took
+him at his word. There was something about Rad's straightforward way of
+looking one in the eye that impelled belief. As I had heard the Colonel
+boast, a Gaylord could not tell a lie.
+
+The things a Gaylord could and could not do, were, I acknowledge, to a
+Northern ethical sense a trifle mystifying. A Gaylord might drink and
+gamble and fail to pay his debts (not his gambling debts; his tailor and
+his grocer); he might be the hero of many doubtful affairs with women;
+he might in a sudden fit of passion commit a murder--there was more than
+one killing in the family annals--but under no circumstances would his
+"honah" permit him to tell a lie. The reservation struck me somewhat
+humorously as an anti-climax. But nevertheless I believed it. When Rad
+said he knew nothing of the stolen bonds I dismissed the possibility
+from my mind.
+
+Though I was relieved to feel that he was not guilty, still I was
+worried and nervous over the matter. I felt that it was criminal not to
+do something, and yet my hands were tied. I could scarcely undertake an
+investigation myself, for every clue led across the trail of the ha'nt,
+and that, Rad made it clear, was forbidden ground. The Colonel,
+meanwhile, was comparatively quiet, as he supposed the detective was
+still working on the case. I accordingly did nothing, but I kept my eyes
+open, hoping that something would turn up.
+
+Rad's temper was absolutely unbearable for the first week after the
+detective left. The reason had nothing to do with the stolen bonds, but
+was concerned entirely with Polly Mathers's behavior. She barely noticed
+Rad's existence, so occupied was she with the ecstatic young sheriff.
+What the trouble was, I did not know, but I suspected that it was the
+whispered conjectures in regard to the ha'nt.
+
+I remember one evening in particular that she snubbed him in the face of
+the entire neighborhood. We had arrived at a party a trifle late to
+find Polly as usual the center of a laughing group of young men, all
+clamoring for dances. They widened their circle to admit Rad in a way
+which tacitly acknowledged his prior claim. He inquired with his most
+deferential bow what dances she had saved for him. Polly replied in an
+off-hand manner that she was sorry but her card was already full. Rad
+shrugged nonchalantly, and sauntering toward the door, disappeared for
+the rest of the night. When he turned up at Four-Pools early in the
+morning, his horse, Uncle Jake informed me, looked as if it had been
+ridden by "de debbil hisself."
+
+With Radnor in this state, and the Colonel growing daily more irritable
+over the continued mystery of the bonds, it is not strange that matters
+between them were at a high state of tension. As I saw more of the
+Colonel's treatment of Rad, I came to realize that there was
+considerable excuse for Jefferson's wildness. While he was a kind man at
+heart, still he had an ungovernable temper, and an absolutely tyrannical
+desire to rule every one about him. His was the only free will allowed
+on the place. He attempted to treat Rad at twenty-two much as he had
+done at twelve. A few months before my arrival (I heard this later) he
+had even struck him, whereupon Radnor had turned on his heel and walked
+out of the house, and had only consented to come back two weeks later
+when he heard that the old man was ill. If two men ever needed a woman
+to manage them, these were the two. I think that if my aunt had lived,
+most of the trouble would have been avoided.
+
+Rad was not the only one, however, who felt the Colonel's irritation
+over the robbery. His treatment of the servants was harsh and even
+cruel. Everybody on the place went about in a half-cowed fashion. He
+treated Mose like a dog. Why the fellow stood it, I don't know. The
+Colonel seemed never to have learned that the old slave days were over
+and that he no longer owned the negroes body and soul. His government of
+the plantation was in the manner of a despot. Everybody--from his own
+son to the merest pickaninny--was at the mercy of his caprice. When he
+was in good humor, he was kindness itself to the darkies; when he was in
+bad humor, he vented his anger on whoever happened to be nearest.
+
+I shall never forget the feeling of indignation with which I first saw
+him strike a man. A strange negro was caught one morning in the
+neighborhood of the chicken coop, and was brought up to the house by two
+of the stable-men. My uncle, who was standing on the portico steps
+waiting for his horse, was in a particularly savage mood, as he had just
+come from an altercation with Radnor. The man said that he was hungry
+and asked for work. But the Colonel, almost without waiting to hear him
+speak, fell upon him in a fit of blind rage, slashing him half a dozen
+times over the head and shoulders with his heavy riding crop. The negro,
+who was a powerfully built fellow, instead of standing up and defending
+himself like a man, crouched on the ground with his arms over his head.
+
+"Please, Cunnel Gaylord," he whimpered, "le' me go! I ain't done nuffen.
+I ain't steal no chickens. For Gord's sake, doan whip me!"
+
+I sprang forward with an angry exclamation and grasped my uncle's arm.
+The fellow was on his feet instantly and off down the lane without once
+glancing back. The Colonel stood a moment looking from my indignant face
+to the man disappearing in the distance, and burst out laughing.
+
+"I reckon I won't be troubled with _him_ any more," he remarked as he
+mounted and rode away, his good humor apparently quite restored.
+
+I confess that it took me some time to get over that scene. But the
+worst of it was that he treated his own servants in the same summary
+fashion. The thing that puzzled me most was the way in which they
+received it. Mose, being always at hand, was cuffed about more than any
+negro on the place, but as far as I could make out, it only seemed to
+increase his love and veneration for the Colonel. I don't believe the
+situation could ever be intelligible to a Northern man.
+
+So matters stood when I had been a month at Four-Pools. My vacation had
+lasted long enough, but I was supremely comfortable and very loath to
+go. The first few weeks of May had been, to my starved city eyes, a
+dazzling pageant of beauty. The landscape glowed with yellow daffodils,
+pink peach blossoms, and the bright green of new wheat; the fields were
+alive with the frisky joyousness of spring lambs and colts, turned out
+to pasture. It was with a keen feeling of reluctance that I faced the
+prospect of New York's brick and stone and asphalt. My work was calling,
+but I lazily postponed my departure from day to day.
+
+Things at the plantation seemed to have settled into their old routine.
+The whereabouts of the bonds was still a mystery, but the ha'nt had
+returned to his grave--at least, in so far as any manifestations
+affected the house. I believe that the "sperrit of de spring-hole" had
+been seen rising once or twice from a cloud of sulphurous smoke, but the
+excitement was confined strictly to the negro quarters. No man on the
+place who valued a whole skin would have dared mention the word "ha'nt"
+in Colonel Gaylord's presence. Relations between Rad and his father
+were rather less strained, and matters on the whole were going
+pleasantly enough, when there suddenly fell from a clear sky the strange
+and terrible series of events which changed everything at Four-Pools.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE EXPEDITION TO LURAY
+
+
+Toward eleven o'clock one morning, the Colonel, Radnor and I were
+established in lounging chairs in the shade of a big catalpa tree on the
+lawn. It was a warm day, and Rad and I were just back from a tramp to
+the upper pasture--a full mile from the house. We were addressing
+ourselves with considerable zest to the frosted glasses that Solomon had
+just placed on the table, when we became aware of the sound of galloping
+hoofs, and a moment later Polly Mathers and her sorrel mare, Tiger
+Lilly, appeared at the end of the sunflecked lane. An Irish setter
+romped at her side, and the three of them made a picture. The horse's
+shining coat, the dog's silky hair and Polly's own red gold curls were
+almost of a color. I believe the little witch had chosen the two on
+purpose. In her dark habit and mannish hat, with sparkling cheeks and
+laughing eyes, she was as pretty an apparition as ever enhanced a May
+morning. She waved her crop gaily and rode toward us across the lawn.
+
+"Howdy!" she called, in a droll imitation of the mountain dialect.
+"Ain't you-uns guine to ask me to 'light a while, an' set a bit, an'
+talk a spell?"
+
+Radnor's face had flushed quickly as he perceived who the rider was, but
+he held himself stiffly in the background while the Colonel and I did
+the honors. It was the first time, I know, that Polly and Rad had met
+since the night she refused to dance with him; and her appearance could
+only be interpreted as a desire to make amends.
+
+She sprang lightly to the ground, turned Tiger Lilly loose to graze
+about the lawn, and airily perched herself on the arm of a chair. There
+was nothing in her manner, at least, to suggest that her relations with
+any one of us were strained. After a few moments of neighborly gossip
+with the Colonel and me--Rad was monosyllabic and remote--she arrived
+at her errand. Some friends from Savannah were stopping at the Hall on
+their way to the Virginia hot springs, and, as is usual, when strangers
+visit the valley, they were planning an expedition to Luray Cave. The
+cave was on the other side of the mountains about ten miles from
+Four-Pools. Since I had not yet visited it (that was at least the reason
+she gave) she had come to ask the three of us to join the party on the
+following day.
+
+Rad was sulky at first, and rather curtly declined on the ground that he
+had to attend to some business. But Polly scouted his excuse, and added
+significantly that Jim Mattison had not been asked. He accepted this
+mark of repentance with a pleased flush, and before she rode away, he
+had become his former cheerful self again. The Colonel also demurred on
+the ground that he was getting too old for such diversions, but Polly
+laid her hands upon his shoulders and coaxed him into acquiescence--even
+a mummy must have unbent before such persuasion. As a matter of fact
+though, the Colonel was only too pleased with his invitation. It
+flattered him to be included with the young people, and he was
+immensely fond of Polly.
+
+It struck me suddenly as I watched her, how like she was to that other
+girl, of eighteen years before. There danced in Polly's eyes the same
+eager joy of life that vitalized the face of the portrait over the
+mantelpiece upstairs. The resemblance for a moment was almost startling;
+I believe the same thought had come to Colonel Gaylord. The old man's
+eyes dwelt upon her with a sadly wistful air; and I like to feel that it
+was of Nannie he was thinking.
+
+Radnor and I had been invited to a dance that same evening at a
+neighboring country house, but when the time came, I begged off on the
+plea of wishing to rest for the ride the next morning. The real reason,
+I fancy, was that I too was suffering from a touch of Radnor's trouble;
+and, since I had no chance of winning her, it was the part of wisdom to
+keep out of hearing of Polly's laugh. In any case, I went to bed and to
+sleep, while Rad went to the party, and I have never known exactly what
+happened that night.
+
+I rose early the next morning, and as I went down stairs I saw Solomon
+crawling around on his hands and knees on the parlor floor, collecting
+the remnants of a French clock which had stood on the mantelpiece.
+
+"How did that clock come to be broken?" I asked a trifle sharply,
+thinking I had caught him in a bad piece of carelessness.
+
+"Cayn't say, sah," Solomon returned, rising on his knees and looking at
+me mournfully. "I specs ole Marsa been chastisin' young Marsa again.
+It's powe'ful destructive on de brick-yuh-brack."
+
+I went on out of doors, wondering sadly if Radnor could have been
+drinking, and accusing myself for not having gone to the party and kept
+him straight. It was evident at breakfast that something serious had
+happened between him and his father. The Colonel appeared unusually
+grave, and Rad, after a gruff "good morning," sat staring at his plate
+in a dogged silence. Throughout the meal he scarcely so much as
+exchanged a glance with his father. I tried to talk as if I noticed
+nothing; and in the course of the somewhat one-sided conversation,
+happened to mention our proposed trip to Luray. Rad returned that he had
+visited the cave a good many times and did not care about going. I was
+puzzled at this, for I knew that the cave was not the chief attraction,
+but I discreetly dropped the subject and shortly after we rose from the
+table.
+
+As I left the room I saw the Colonel walk over and lay his hand on
+Radnor's arm.
+
+"You will change your mind and go, my boy," he said.
+
+But Rad shook the hand off roughly and turned away. As I went on out to
+the stables to give orders about the horses, I felt in anything but the
+proper spirits for a day of merry-making. However much the Colonel may
+have been to blame in their quarrel of the night before--and the French
+clock told its own story--still I could not help but feel that Rad
+should have borne with him more patiently. The scene I had just
+witnessed in the dining-room made me miserable. The Colonel was a proud
+man and apology came hard for him, his son might at least have met him
+half way.
+
+Going upstairs to my room a few minutes later, I caught a glimpse
+through the open door, of someone standing before the mantelpiece.
+Thinking it was Radnor waiting to consult me, I hurried forward and
+reached the threshold before I realized that it was the Colonel. He was
+standing with folded arms before the picture, his eyes, gleaming from
+under beetling brows, were devouring it hungrily, line by line. His face
+was set rigidly with a look--whether of sorrow or loneliness or remorse,
+I do not know; but I do know that it was the saddest expression I have
+ever seen on any human face. It was as if, in a single illuminating
+flash, he had looked into his own soul, and seen the ruin that his
+ungoverned pride and passion had wrought against those he loved the
+most.
+
+So absorbed had he been with his thoughts, that he had not heard my
+step. I turned and stole away, realizing suddenly that he was an old
+man, broken, infirm; that his life with its influence for good or evil
+was already at an end; he could never change his character now, no
+matter how keenly he might realize his defects. Poor little Nannie's
+wilfulness was at last forgiven, but the forgiveness was fifteen years
+too late. Why could not that moment of insight have come earlier to
+Colonel Gaylord, have come in time to save him from his mistakes?
+
+I passed out of doors again, pondering somewhat bitterly the exigencies
+of human life. The bright spring morning with its promise of youth and
+joy seemed jarringly out of tune. The beauty was but surface deep, I
+told myself pessimistically; underneath it was a cruel world. Before me
+in the garden path, a jubilant robin was pulling an unhappy angle worm
+from the ground, and a little farther on, under a blossoming apple tree,
+the kitchen cat was breakfasting on a baby robin. The double spectacle
+struck me as significant of life. I was casting about for some
+philosophical truths to fit it, when my revery was interrupted by a
+shout from Radnor.
+
+I turned to find the horses--three of them--waiting at the portico
+steps. Rad was going then after all. He and his father had evidently
+patched up some sort of a truce, but I soon saw that it was only a
+truce. The two avoided crossing eyes, and as we rode along they talked
+to me instead of to each other.
+
+The party met at Mathers Hall. The plan was for us to ride to Luray that
+morning, spend most of the afternoon there, and then return to the Hall
+for a supper and dance in the evening. The elder ladies took the
+carriage, while the rest of us went on horseback, a couple of servants
+following in the buckboard with the luncheon. Mose, bare-feet,
+linsey-woolsey and all, was brought along to act as guide and he was
+fairly purring with contentment at the importance it gave him over the
+other negroes. It seems that he had been in the habit of finding his way
+around in the cave ever since he was a little shaver, and he knew the
+route, Radnor told me, better than the professional guides. He knew it
+so well, in fact, that the entire neighborhood was in the habit of
+borrowing him whenever expeditions were being planned to Luray.
+
+We left our horses at the village hotel, and after eating a picnic lunch
+in the woods, set out to make the usual round of the cave. Luray has
+since been lighted with electricity and laid out in cement walks, but
+the time of which I am writing was before its exploitation by the
+railroad, and the cavern was still in its natural state. Each of us
+carried either candles or a torch, and the guides were supplied with
+calcium lights which they touched off at intervals whenever there was
+any special object of interest. This was the first cavern of any size
+that I had ever visited and I was so taken up with examining the rock
+formations and keeping my torch from burning my hands that I did not pay
+much attention to the disposal of the rest of the party. It took over
+two hours to make the round, and we must have walked about five miles.
+What with the heavy damp air and the slippery path, I, for one, was glad
+to get out into the sunshine again.
+
+I joined the group about Polly Mathers and casually asked if she knew
+where Radnor had gone.
+
+"I haven't seen him for some time; I think he must have come out before
+us," she replied. "And unless I am mistaken, Colonel Gaylord," she
+added, turning to my uncle, "he left my coat on that broken column above
+Crystal Lake. I am afraid that he isn't a very good cavalier."
+
+The Colonel, I imagine, had been a very good cavalier in his own youth,
+and I do not think that he had entirely outgrown it.
+
+"I will repair his fault, Miss Polly," the old man returned with a
+courtly bow, "and prove to you that the boy does not take after his
+father in lack of gallantry."
+
+"No, indeed, Colonel Gaylord!" Polly exclaimed. "I was only joking; I
+shouldn't think of letting you go back after it. One of the servants can
+get it."
+
+I shortly after ran across Mose and sent him back for the coat, and the
+incident was forgotten. We straggled back to the hotel in twos and
+threes; the horses were brought out, and we got off amidst general
+confusion.
+
+I rode beside the carriage for a couple of miles exchanging courtesies
+with Mrs. Mathers, and then galloped ahead to join the other riders. I
+was surprised to see neither my uncle nor Radnor anywhere in sight, and
+inquired as to their whereabouts.
+
+"I thought they were riding with you," said Polly, wheeling to my side.
+"You don't suppose," she asked quickly, "that the Colonel was foolish
+enough to go back for my coat, and we've left him behind?"
+
+One of the men laughed.
+
+"He has a horse, Miss Polly, and he knows how to use it. I dare say,
+even if we did leave him behind, that he can find his way home."
+
+"I sent Mose back for the coat," I remarked. "The Colonel probably feels
+that he has had enough frivolity for one day, and has preferred to ride
+straight on to Four-Pools."
+
+It occurred to me that Rad and his father had ridden home together to
+make up their quarrel, and the reflection added considerably to my peace
+of mind. I had felt vaguely uncomfortable over the matter all day, for I
+knew that the old man was always miserable after a misunderstanding with
+his son, and I strongly suspected that Radnor himself was far from
+happy.
+
+When we arrived at Mathers Hall, Polly slipped from her saddle and came
+running up to me as I was about to dismount. She laid her hand on the
+bridle and asked, in the sweetest way possible, if I would mind riding
+back to the plantation to see if the Colonel were really there, as she
+could not help feeling anxious about him. I noticed with a smile that
+she made no comment on the younger man's defection, though I strongly
+suspected that she was no less interested in that. I turned about and
+galloped off again, willing enough to do her bidding, though I could not
+help reflecting that it would have been just as easy for her, and
+considerably easier for me, had she developed her anxiety a few miles
+back.
+
+When I reached the four corners where the road to Four-Pools branches
+off from the valley turnpike, I saw the wagon coming with the two
+Mathers negroes in it, but without any sign of Mose. I drew up and
+waited for them.
+
+"Hello, boys!" I called. "What's become of Mose?"
+
+"Dat's moh 'n I can say, Mista Ahnold," one of the men returned. "We
+waited foh him a powe'ful while, but it 'pears like he's 'vaporated. I
+reckon he's took to de woods an' is gwine to walk home. Dat Cat-Eye
+Mose, he's monstrous fond ob walkin'!"
+
+I do not know why this incident should have aroused my own anxiety, but
+I pushed on to the plantation with a growing feeling of uneasiness.
+Nothing had been seen of either the Colonel or Mose, Solomon informed
+me, but he added with an excited rolling of his eyes:
+
+"Marse Rad, he come back nearly an hour ago an' stomp roun' like he mos'
+crazy, an' den went out to de gahden."
+
+I followed him and found him sitting in the summer house with his elbows
+on his knees and his head in his hands.
+
+"What's the matter, Rad?" I cried in alarm. "Has anything happened to
+your father?"
+
+He looked up with a start at the sound of my voice, and I saw that his
+face was pale.
+
+"My father?" he asked in a dazed way. "I left him in the cave. Why do
+you ask?"
+
+"He didn't come back with the rest of us, and Polly asked me to find
+him."
+
+"He's old enough to take care of himself," said Radnor without looking
+up.
+
+I hesitated a moment, uncertain what to do, and then turned back to the
+stables to order a fresh horse. To my astonishment I found the
+stable-men gathered in a group about Rad's mare, Jennie Loo. She was
+dashed with foam and trembling, and appeared to be about used up. The
+men fell back and eyed me silently as I approached.
+
+"What's happened to the horse?" I cried. "Did she run away?"
+
+One of the men "reckoned" that "Marse Rad" had been whipping her.
+
+"Whipping her!" I exclaimed in dismay. It was unbelievable, for no one
+as a rule was kinder to animals than Radnor; and as for his own Jennie
+Loo, he couldn't have cared more for her if she had been a human being.
+There was no mistaking it however. She was crossed and recrossed with
+thick welts about the withers; it was evident that the poor beast had
+been disgracefully handled.
+
+Uncle Jake volunteered that Rad had galloped straight into the stable,
+had dropped the bridle and walked off without a word; and he added the
+opinion that a "debbil had done conjured him." I was inclined to agree.
+There seemed to be something in the air that I did not understand, and
+my anxiety for the Colonel suddenly rushed back fourfold. I wheeled
+about and ordered a horse in an unnecessarily sharp tone, and the men
+jumped to obey me.
+
+It was just sunset as I mounted again and galloped down the lane. For
+the second time that day I set out along the lonely mountain road
+leading to Luray, but this time with a vague fear gripping at my heart.
+Why had Radnor acted so strangely, I asked myself again and again. Could
+it be connected with last night's quarrel? And where was the Colonel,
+and where was Mose?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAVE
+
+
+It was almost dark by the time I reached the village of Luray. I
+galloped up to the hotel where we had left our horses that morning and
+without dismounting called out to the loafers on the veranda to ask if
+anyone had seen Colonel Gaylord. Two or three of them, glad of a
+diversion, got up and sauntered out to the stepping-stone where I
+waited, to discuss the situation.
+
+What was the matter? they inquired. Hadn't the Colonel gone home with
+the rest of the party?
+
+No, he had not, I returned impatiently, and I wanted to know if any of
+them had seen him.
+
+They consulted together and finally decided that no one had seen him,
+and at this the stable boy vouchsafed the information that Red Pepper
+was still in the barn.
+
+"I thought maybe the Colonel was intending to make me a present of that
+horse," the landlord observed with a grin, as he joined the group.
+
+A chuckle ran around the circle at this sally. It was evident that the
+Colonel did not have a reputation in the county for making presents. I
+impatiently gathered up my reins and one of the men remarked:
+
+"I reckon young Gaylord got home in good time. He was in an almighty
+hurry when he started. He didn't stop for no farewells."
+
+With numerous interruptions and humorous interpolations, they finally
+managed to tell me in their exasperatingly slow drawl that Rad had come
+back to the hotel that afternoon before the rest of the party, had drunk
+two glasses of brandy, called for his horse, and galloped off without
+speaking a word to anyone except to swear at the stable boy. The speaker
+finished with the assertion that in his opinion Rad Gaylord and Jeff
+Gaylord were cut out of the same block.
+
+I shifted my seat uneasily. This information did not tend to throw any
+light on the question of the Colonel's whereabouts, and I was in no
+mood just then to listen to any more gossip about Rad.
+
+"I'm not looking for young Gaylord," I said shortly. "I know where he
+is. It's the Colonel I'm after. Neither he nor Cat-Eye Mose have come
+back, and I'm afraid they're lost in the cave."
+
+The men laughed at this. People didn't get lost in the cave, they said.
+All anyone had to do was to follow the path; and besides, if the Colonel
+was with Mose he couldn't get lost if he tried. Mose knew the cave so
+well that he could find his way around it in the dark. Colonel Gaylord
+had probably met some friends in the village and driven home with them.
+
+But I would not be satisfied with an explanation of that sort. The
+Colonel, I knew, was not in the habit of abandoning horses in any such
+casual manner; and even supposing he had gone home with some friends, he
+would scarcely have taken Mose along.
+
+I dismounted, turned my horse over to the stable boy, and announced that
+the cave must be searched. This request was received with some
+amusement. The idea of getting out a search party for Cat-Eye Mose
+struck them as peculiarly ludicrous. But I insisted, and finally one of
+the men who was in the habit of acting as guide, took his feet down from
+the veranda railing with a grunt of disapproval and shambled into the
+house after some candles and a lantern. Two or three of the others
+joined the expedition after a good deal of chaffing at my expense.
+
+We set out for the mouth of the cave by a short cut that led across the
+fields. It was quite dark by this time, and as there was no moon our one
+lantern did not go far toward lighting the path. We stumbled along over
+plowed ground and through swampy pastures to the music of croaking frogs
+and whip-poor-wills. At first the way was enlivened by humorous
+suggestions on the part of my companions as to what had become of
+Colonel Gaylord, but as I did not respond very freely to their
+bantering, they finally fell silent with only an occasional imprecation
+as someone stubbed his toe or caught his clothing on a brier. After a
+half hour or so of plodding we came to a clear path through the woods
+and in a few minutes reached the mouth of the cave.
+
+A rough little shanty was built over the entrance. It was closed by a
+ramshackle door which a child could have opened without any difficulty;
+there was at least no danger of the Colonel's having been locked inside.
+Lighting our candles, we descended the rough stone staircase into the
+first great vault, which forms a sort of vestibule to the caverns. With
+our hands to our mouths we hallooed several times and then held our
+breath while we waited for an answer. The only sound which came out of
+the stillness was the occasional drip of water or the flap of a bat's
+wing. Had the Colonel been lost in any of the winding passages he must
+have heard us and replied, for the slightest sound is audible in such a
+cavern, echoing and re-echoing as it does through countless vaulted
+galleries. The silence, however, instead of assuring me that he was not
+there only increased my uneasiness. What if he had slipped on the wet
+clay, and having injured himself, was lying unconscious in the
+darkness?
+
+The men wished to turn back, but I insisted that we go as far as the
+broken column which lies in a little gallery above Crystal Lake. That
+was the place where the coat had been left, and we could at least find
+out if either the Colonel or Mose had returned for it. We set out in
+single file along the damp clay path, the light from our few candles
+only serving to intensify the blackness around us. The huge white forms
+of the stalactites seemed to follow us like ghosts in the gloom; every
+now and then a bat flapped past our faces, and I wondered with a shiver
+how anyone could get up courage to go alone into such a hole as that.
+
+"Crystal Lake" is a shallow pool lying in a sort of bowl. On the farther
+side the path runs up seven or eight feet above the water along the
+broken edge of a cliff. A few steps beyond the pool the path diverges
+sharply to the left and opens into the little gallery of the broken
+column.
+
+Just as we were about to ascend the two or three stone steps leading to
+the incline, the guide in front stopped short, and clutching me by the
+arm pointed a shaking forefinger toward the pool.
+
+"What's that?" he gasped.
+
+I strained my eyes into the darkness but I could see nothing.
+
+"There, that black thing under the bank," he said, raising his candle
+and throwing the light over the water.
+
+We all saw it now and recognized it with a thrill of horror. It was the
+body of Colonel Gaylord. He was lying on his face at the bottom of the
+pool, and with outstretched arms was clutching the mud in his hands. The
+still water above him was as clear as crystal but was tinged with red.
+
+"It's my uncle!" I cried, springing forward. "He's fallen over the bank.
+He may not be dead."
+
+But they held me back.
+
+"He's as dead as he ever will be," the guide said grimly. "An' what's
+more, Colonel Gaylord warn't the man to drown in three foot o' water
+without making a struggle. This ain't no accident. It's murder! We must
+go back an' get the coroner. It's agen the law to touch the body until
+he comes."
+
+It went to my heart to leave the old man lying there at the bottom of
+that pool, but I could not prevail on one of them to help me move him.
+The coroner must be brought, they stubbornly insisted, and they
+restrained me forcibly when I would have waded into the water. We turned
+back with shaking knees and hurried toward the mouth of the cave,
+slipping and sliding in the wet clay as we ran. I, for one, felt as
+though a dozen assassins were following our footsteps in the dark. And
+all the time I had a sickening feeling that my uncle's death only
+foreshadowed a more terrible tragedy. The guide's: "This ain't no
+accident; it's murder," kept running in my head, and much as I tried to
+drive the thought from me, a horrible suspicion came creeping to my mind
+that I knew who the murderer must be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE SHERIFF VISITS FOUR-POOLS
+
+
+We found the coroner and told our story. He sent word to Kennisburg, the
+county-seat, for the sheriff to come; and then having called a doctor
+and three or four other witnesses, we set out again for the cave. The
+news of the tragedy had spread like wild-fire, and half the town of
+Luray would have accompanied us had the coroner not forcibly prevented
+it. He stationed two men at the entrance of the cave to keep the crowd
+from pushing in. I myself should have been more than willing to wait
+outside, but I felt that it was my duty by Radnor to be present. If any
+discoveries were made I wished to be the first to know it.
+
+It was sad business and I will not dwell upon it. One side of the old
+man's head had been fractured by a heavy blow. He had been dead several
+hours when we found him, but the doctor could not be certain whether
+drowning, or the injury he had sustained, had been the immediate cause
+of death. Dangling from a jagged piece of rock half way down the cliff,
+we found Polly Mathers's coat, torn and drabbled with mud. The clay path
+above the pool was trampled in every direction 'way out to the brink of
+the precipice; it was evident, even to the most untrained observer, that
+a fierce struggle of some sort had taken place. I was the first one to
+examine the marks, and as I knelt down and held the light to the ground,
+I saw with a thrill of mingled horror and hope that one pair of feet had
+been bare. Mose had taken part in the struggle, and dreadful as was the
+assurance, it was infinitely better than that other suspicion.
+
+"It was Mose who committed the murder!" I cried to the coroner as I
+pointed to the foot-prints in the clay.
+
+He bent over beside me and examined the marks.
+
+"Ah----Mose was present," he said slowly, "but so was someone else. See,
+here is the print of the Colonel's boot and there beside it is the
+print of another boot; it is fully an inch broader."
+
+But it was difficult to make out anything clearly, so trampled was the
+path. Our whole party had passed over the very spot not an hour before
+the tragedy. Whatever the others could see, I, myself, was blind to
+everything but the indisputable fact that Mose had been there.
+
+As we were making ready to start back to the mouth of the cave, a cry
+from one of the men called our attention again to the scene of the
+struggle. He held up in his hand a small, gleaming object which he had
+found trodden into the path. It was a silver match box covered with
+dents and mud and marked "R. F. G." I recognized it instantly; I had
+seen Radnor take it from his pocket a hundred times. As I looked at it
+now my hope seemed to vanish and that same sickening suspicion rushed
+over me again. The men eyed each other silently, and I did not have to
+ask what they were thinking of. We turned without comments and started
+on our journey back to the village. The body was carried to the hotel
+to await the coroner's permission to take it home to Four-Pools. There
+was nothing more for me to do, and with a heavy heart I mounted again to
+return to the plantation.
+
+Scarcely had I left the stable yard when I heard hoofs pounding along
+behind me in the darkness, and Jim Mattison galloped up with two of his
+men.
+
+"If you are going to Four-Pools we will ride with you," he said, falling
+into pace beside me while the officers dropped behind. "I might as well
+tell you," he added, "that it looks black for Radnor. I'm sorry, but
+it's my duty to keep him under arrest until some pretty strong
+counter-evidence turns up."
+
+"Where's Cat-Eye Mose?" I cried. "Why don't you arrest him?"
+
+The sheriff made a gesture of disdain.
+
+"That's nonsense. Everyone in the county knows Cat-Eye Mose. He wouldn't
+hurt a fly. If he was present at the time of the crime it was to help
+his master, and the man who killed Colonel Gaylord killed him too. I've
+known him all my life and I can swear he's innocent."
+
+"You've known Radnor all your life," I returned bitterly.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I have--and Jefferson Gaylord, too."
+
+I rode on in silence and I do not think I ever hated anyone as, for the
+moment, I hated the man beside me. I knew that he was thinking of Polly
+Mathers, and I imagined that I could detect an undertone of triumph in
+his voice.
+
+"It's well known," he went on, half to himself and half to me, "that
+Radnor sometimes had high words with his father; and to-day, they tell
+me at the hotel, he came back alone without waiting for the others, and
+while his horse was being saddled he drank off two glasses of brandy as
+if they had been water. All the men on the veranda marked how white his
+face was, and how he cursed the stable boy for being slow. It was
+evident that something had happened in the cave, and what with finding
+his match box at the scene of the crime--circumstantial evidence is
+pretty strong against him."
+
+I was too miserable to think of any answer; and, the fellow finally
+having the decency to keep quiet, we galloped the rest of the way in
+silence.
+
+Though it must have been long after midnight when we reached the house,
+lights were still burning in the downstairs rooms. We rode up to the
+portico with considerable clamor and dismounted. One of the men held the
+horses while Mattison and the other followed me into the house. Rad
+himself, hearing the noise of our arrival, came to the door to meet us.
+He was quite composed again and spoke in his usual manner.
+
+"Hello, Arnold! Did you find him, and is the party over?"
+
+He stopped uncertainly as he caught sight of the others. They stepped
+into the hall and stood watching him a moment without saying anything. I
+tried to tell him but the words seemed to stick in my throat.
+
+"A--a terrible thing has happened, Rad," I stammered out.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked, a sudden look of anxiety springing to his
+face.
+
+"I am sorry, Rad," Mattison replied, "but it is my duty to arrest you."
+
+"To arrest me, for what?" he asked with a half laugh.
+
+"For the murder of your father."
+
+Radnor put out his hand against the wall to steady himself, and his lips
+showed white in the lamp light. At the sight of his face I could have
+sworn that he was not acting, and that the news came with as much of a
+shock to him as it had to me.
+
+"My father murdered!" he gasped. "What do you mean?"
+
+"His dead body was found in the cave, and circumstantial evidence points
+to you."
+
+He seemed too dazed to grasp the words and Mattison said it twice before
+he comprehended.
+
+"Do you mean he's dead?" Rad repeated. "And I quarrelled with him last
+night and wouldn't make it up--and now it's too late."
+
+"I must warn you," the sheriff returned, "that whatever you say will be
+used against you."
+
+"I am innocent," said Radnor, brokenly, and without another word he
+prepared to go. Mattison drew some hand-cuffs from his pocket, and
+Radnor looked at them with a dark flush.
+
+"You needn't be afraid. I am not going to run away," he said. Mattison
+dropped them back again with a muttered apology.
+
+I went out to the stable with one of the men and helped to saddle Jennie
+Loo. I felt all the time as though I had hold of the rope that was going
+to hang him. When we came back he and the sheriff were standing on the
+portico, waiting. Rad appeared to be more composed than any of us, but
+as I wrung his hand I noticed that it was icy cold.
+
+"I'll attend to everything," I said, "and don't worry, my boy. We'll get
+you off."
+
+"Don't worry!" He laughed shortly as he leaped into the saddle. "It's
+not myself I'm worrying over; I am innocent," and he suddenly leaned
+forward and scanned my face in the light from the open door. "You
+believe me?" he asked quickly.
+
+"Yes," I cried, "I do! And what's more, I'll _prove_ you're innocent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+I MAKE A PROMISE TO POLLY
+
+
+The next few days were a nightmare to me. Even now I cannot think of
+that horrible period of suspense and doubt without a shudder. The
+coroner set to work immediately upon his preliminary investigation, and
+every bit of evidence that turned up only seemed to make the proof
+stronger against Radnor.
+
+It is strange how ready public opinion is to believe the worst of a man
+when he is down. No one appeared to doubt Rad's guilt, and feeling ran
+high against him. Colonel Gaylord was a well-known character in the
+countryside, and in spite of his quick temper and rather imperious
+bearing he had been a general favorite. At the news of his death a wave
+of horror and indignation swept through the valley. Among the roughs in
+the village I heard not infrequent hints of lynching; and even among
+the more conservative element, the general opinion seemed to be that
+lawful hanging was too honorable a death for the perpetrator of so
+brutal a crime.
+
+I have never been able to understand the quick and general belief in the
+boy's guilt, but I have always suspected that the sheriff did not do all
+in his power to quiet the feeling. It was to a large extent, however,
+the past reasserting itself. Though Radnor's record was not so black as
+it was painted, still, it was not so white as it should have been.
+People shook their heads and repeated stories of how wild he had been as
+a boy, and how they had always foreseen some such end as this. Reports
+of the quarrels with his father were told and retold until they were
+magnified beyond all recognition. The old scandals about Jeff were
+revived again, and the general opinion seemed to be that the Gaylord
+boys were degenerates through and through. Rad's personal friends stood
+by him staunchly; but they formed a pitifully small minority compared to
+the general sensation-seeking public.
+
+I visited Radnor in the Kennisburg jail on the morning of my uncle's
+funeral and found him quite broken in spirit. He had had time to think
+over the past, and with his father lying dead at Four-Pools, it had not
+been pleasant thinking. Now that it was too late, he seemed filled with
+remorse over his conduct toward the old man, and he dwelt continually on
+the fact of his having been unwilling to make up the quarrel of the
+night before the murder. In this mood of contrition he mercilessly
+accused himself of things I am sure he had never done. I knew that the
+jailer was listening to every word outside, and I became unspeakably
+nervous for fear he would say something which could be twisted into an
+incriminating confession. He did not seem to comprehend in the least the
+danger of his own position; he was entirely taken up with the horror of
+his father's death. As I was leaving, however, he suddenly grasped my
+hand with tears in his eyes.
+
+"Tell me, Arnold, do people really believe me guilty?"
+
+I knew by "people" he meant Polly Mathers; but I had not had an
+opportunity to speak with her alone since the day of the tragedy.
+
+"I haven't talked to anyone but the sheriff," I returned.
+
+"Mattison would be glad enough to prove it," Radnor said bitterly, and
+he turned his back and stood staring through the iron bars of the
+window, while I went out and the jailer closed the door and locked it.
+
+All through the funeral that afternoon I could scarcely keep my eyes
+from Polly Mathers's face. She appeared so changed since the day of the
+picnic that I should scarcely have known her for the same person; it
+seemed incredible that three days could make such a difference in a
+bright, healthy, vigorous girl. All her youthful vivacity was gone; she
+was pale and spiritless with deep rings beneath her eyes and the lids
+red with crying. After the services were over, I approached her a moment
+as she stood in her black dress aloof from the others at the edge of the
+little family burying-ground. She greeted me with a tremulous smile, and
+then as her glance wandered back to the pile of earth that two men were
+already shoveling into the grave, her eyes quickly filled with tears.
+
+"I loved him as much as if he were my own father," she cried, "and it's
+my fault that he's dead. I made him go!"
+
+"No, Polly, it is not your fault," I said decisively. "It was a thing
+which no one could foresee and no one could help."
+
+She waited a moment trying to steady her voice, then she looked up
+pleadingly in my face.
+
+"Radnor is innocent; tell me you believe it."
+
+"I am sure he is innocent," I replied.
+
+"Then you can clear him--you're a lawyer. I know you can clear him!"
+
+"You may trust me to do my best, Polly."
+
+"I hate Jim Mattison!" she exclaimed, with a flash of her old fire. "He
+swears that Rad is guilty and that he will prove him so. Rad may have
+done some bad things, but he's a good man--better than Jim Mattison ever
+thought of being."
+
+"Polly," I said with a touch of bitterness, "I wish you might have
+realized that truth earlier. Rad is at heart as splendid a chap as ever
+lived, and his friends ought never to have allowed him to go astray."
+
+She looked away without answering, and then in a moment turned back to
+me and held out her hand.
+
+"Good-by. When you see him again please tell him what I said."
+
+As she turned away I looked after her, puzzled. I was sure at last that
+she was in love with Radnor, and I was equally sure that he did not know
+it; for in spite of his sorrow at his father's death and of the
+suspicion that rested on him, I knew that he would not have been so
+completely crushed had he felt that she was with him. Why must this come
+to him now too late to do him any good, when he had needed it so much
+before? I felt momentarily enraged at Polly. It seemed somehow as if the
+trouble might have been avoided had she been more straightforward. Then
+at the memory of her pale face and pleading eyes I relented. However
+thoughtless she had been before, she was changed now; this tragedy had
+somehow made a woman of her over night. When Radnor came at last to
+claim her, they would each, perhaps, be worthier of the other.
+
+I returned to the empty house that night and sat down to look the facts
+squarely in the face. I had hitherto been so occupied with the necessary
+preparations for the funeral, and with instituting a search for Cat-Eye
+Mose, that I had scarcely had time to think, let alone map out any
+logical plan of action. Radnor was so stunned by the blow that he could
+barely talk coherently, and as yet I had had no satisfactory interview
+with him.
+
+Immediately after the Colonel's death, I had very hastily run over his
+private papers, but had found little to suggest a clue. Among some old
+letters were several from Nannie's husband, written at the time of her
+sickness and death; their tone was bitter. Could the man have
+accomplished a tardy revenge for past insults? I asked myself. But
+investigation showed this theory to be most untenable. He was still
+living in the little Kansas village where she had died, had married
+again, and become a peaceful plodding citizen. It required all his
+present energy to support his wife and children--I dare say the brief
+episode of his first marriage had almost faded from his mind. There was
+not the slightest chance that he could be implicated.
+
+I sifted the papers again, thoroughly and painstakingly, but found
+nothing that would throw any light upon the mystery. While I was still
+engaged with this task, a message came from the coroner saying that the
+formal inquest would begin at ten o'clock the next morning in the
+Kennisburg court-house. This gave me no chance to plan any sort of
+campaign, and I could do little more than let matters take their course.
+I hoped however that in the progress of the inquest, some clue would be
+brought to light which would render Radnor's being remanded for trial
+impossible.
+
+So far, I had to acknowledge, the evidence against him appeared
+overwhelming. A motive was supplied in the fact that the Colonel's death
+would leave him his own master and a rich man. The well-known fact of
+their frequent quarrels, coupled with Radnor's fierce temper and
+somewhat revengeful disposition, was a very strong point in his
+disfavor; added to this, the suspicious circumstances of the day of the
+tragedy--the fact that he was not with the rest of the party when the
+crime must have been committed, the alleged print of his boots and the
+finding of the match box, his subsequent perturbed condition--everything
+pointed to him as the author of the crime. It was a most convincing
+chain of circumstantial evidence.
+
+Considering the data that had come to light, there seemed to be only one
+alternative, and that was that Cat-Eye Mose had committed the murder. I
+clung tenaciously to this belief; but I found, in the absence of any
+further proof or any conceivable motive, that few people shared it with
+me. The marks of his bare feet proved conclusively that he had been, in
+whatever capacity, an active participator in the struggle.
+
+"He was there to aid his master," the sheriff affirmed, "and being a
+witness to the crime, it was necessary to put him out of the way."
+
+"Why hide the body of one and not the other?" I asked.
+
+"To throw suspicion on Mose."
+
+This was the universal opinion; no one, from the beginning, would listen
+to a word against Mose. In his case, as well as in Radnor's, the past
+was speaking. Through all his life, they said, he had faithfully loved
+and served the Colonel, and if necessity required, he would willingly
+have died for him.
+
+But for myself, I continued to believe in the face of all opposition,
+that Mose was guilty. It was more a matter of feeling with me than of
+reasoning. I had always been suspicious of the fellow; a man with eyes
+like that was capable of anything. The objection which the sheriff
+raised that Colonel Gaylord was both larger and stronger than Mose and
+could easily have overcome him, proved nothing to my mind. Mose was a
+small man, but he was long-armed and wirey, doubtless far stronger than
+he looked; besides, he had been armed, and the nature of his weapon was
+clear. The floor of the cave was strewn with scores of broken
+stalactites; nothing could have made a more formidable weapon than one
+of these long pieces of jagged stone used as a club.
+
+As to the motive for the crime, who could tell what went on in the slow
+workings of his mind? The Colonel had struck him more than
+once--unjustly, I did not doubt--and though he seemed at the moment to
+take it meekly, might he not have been merely biding his time? His final
+revenge may have been the outcome of many hoarded grievances that no one
+knew existed. The fellow was more than half insane. What more likely
+than that he had attacked his master in a fit of animal passion; and
+then, terrified at the result, escaped to the woods? That seemed to me
+the only plausible explanation.
+
+No facts had come out concerning the ha'nt or the robbery, and I do not
+think that either was connected in the public mind with the murder. But
+to my mind the death of Colonel Gaylord was but the climax of the long
+series of events which commenced on the night of my arrival with the
+slight and ludicrous episode of the stolen roast chicken. I had been
+convinced at the time that Mose was at the bottom of it, and I was
+convinced now that he was also at the bottom of the robbery and the
+murder. How Radnor had got drawn into the muddle of the ha'nt, I could
+not fathom; but I suspected that Mose had hoodwinked him as he had the
+rest of us.
+
+Assuming that my theory was right, then Mose was hiding; and all my
+energies from the beginning had been bent toward his discovery. The low
+range of mountains which lay between Four-Pools Plantation and the Luray
+valley was covered thickly with woods and very sparsely settled. Mose
+knew every foot of the ground; he had wandered over these mountains for
+days at a time, and must have been familiar with many hiding places. It
+was in this region that I hoped to find him.
+
+Immediately after the Colonel's death I had offered a large reward
+either for Mose's capture, or for any information regarding his
+whereabouts. His description had been telegraphed all up and down the
+valley and every farmer was on the alert. Bands of men had been formed
+and the woods scoured for him, but as yet without result. I was hourly
+expecting, however, that some clue would come to light.
+
+The sheriff, on the other hand, in pursuance of his theory that Mose had
+been murdered, had been no less indefatigable in his search for the
+body. The river had been dragged, the cave and surrounding woods
+searched, but nothing had been found. Mose had simply vanished from the
+earth and left no trace.
+
+To my disappointment the morning still brought no news; I had hoped to
+have something definite before the inquest opened. I rode into
+Kennisburg early in order to hold a conference with Radnor, and get from
+him the facts in regard to his own and Mose's connection with the ha'nt.
+My former passivity in the matter struck me now as almost criminal;
+perhaps had I insisted in probing it to the bottom, my uncle might have
+been living still. I entered Radnor's cell determined not to leave it
+until I knew the truth.
+
+But I met with an unexpected obstacle. He refused absolutely to discuss
+the question.
+
+"Radnor," I cried at last, "are you trying to shield any one? Do you
+know who killed your father?"
+
+"I know no more about who killed my father than you do."
+
+"Do you know about the ha'nt?"
+
+"Yes," he said desperately, "I do; but it is not connected with either
+the robbery or the murder and I cannot talk about it."
+
+I argued and pleaded but to no effect. He sat on his cot, his head in
+his hands staring at the floor, stubbornly refusing to open his lips. I
+gave over pleading and stormed.
+
+"It's no use, Arnold," he said finally. "I won't tell you anything about
+the ha'nt; it doesn't enter into the case."
+
+I sat down again and patiently outlined my theory in regard to Mose.
+
+"It is impossible," he declared. "I have known Mose all my life, and I
+have never yet known him to betray a trust. He loved my father as much
+as I did, and if my life depended on it, I should swear that he was
+faithful."
+
+"Rad," I beseeched, "I am not only your attorney, I am your friend;
+whatever you say to me is as if it had never been said. I _must_ know
+the truth."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I have nothing to say."
+
+"You have _got_ to have something to say," I cried. "You have got to go
+on the stand and make an absolutely open and straightforward statement
+of everything bearing on the case. You have got to appear anxious to
+find and punish the man who murdered your father. You have got to gain
+public sympathy, and before you go on the stand you owe it to yourself
+and me to leave nothing unexplained between us."
+
+He raised his eyes miserably to mine.
+
+"Must I go on?" he asked. "Can't I refuse to testify--I don't see that
+they can punish me for contempt of court; I'm already in prison."
+
+"They can hang you," said I, bluntly.
+
+He buried his face in his hands with a groan.
+
+"Arnold," he pleaded, "don't make me face all those people. You can see
+what a state my nerves are in; I haven't slept for three nights." He
+held out his hand to show me how it trembled. "I can't talk--I don't
+know what I'm saying. You don't know what you're urging me to do."
+
+My anger at his stubbornness vanished in a sudden spasm of pity. The
+poor fellow was scarcely more than a boy! Though I was completely in the
+dark as to what he was holding back and why he was doing it, yet I felt
+instinctively that his motives were honorable.
+
+"Rad," I said, "it would help your cause to be open with me, and if you
+are remanded for trial before the grand jury you must in the end tell me
+everything. But now I will not insist. Probably nothing will come up
+about the ha'nt. I can of course refuse to let you speak on the ground
+of incriminating evidence, but that is the last stand I wish to take. We
+must gain public opinion on our side and to that end you must testify
+yourself. You must force every person present to believe that you are
+incapable of telling a falsehood--I believe that already and so does
+Polly Mathers."
+
+Radnor's face flushed and a quick light sprang into his eyes.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+I repeated what Polly had said and I added my own interpretation. The
+effect was electrical. He straightened his shoulders with an air of
+trying to throw off his despondency.
+
+"I'll do my best," he promised. "Heaven knows I'd like to know the truth
+as well as you--this doubt is simply hell!"
+
+A knock sounded on the door and a sheriff's officer informed us that the
+hearing was about to begin.
+
+"You haven't explained your actions on the day of the murder," I said
+hurriedly. "I must have a reason."
+
+"That's all right--it will come out. If you just keep 'em off the ha'nt,
+I'll clear everything else."
+
+"If you do that," said I, immeasurably relieved, "there'll be no danger
+of your being held for trial." I rose and held out my hand. "Courage, my
+boy; remember that you are going to prove your innocence, not only for
+your own, but for Polly's sake."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE INQUEST
+
+
+The coroner's court was packed; and though here and there I caught a
+face that I knew to be friendly to Radnor, the crowd was made up for the
+most part of morbid sensation seekers, eager to hear and believe the
+worst.
+
+The District Attorney was present; indeed he and the coroner and Jim
+Mattison were holding a whispered consultation when I entered the room,
+and I did not doubt but that the three had been working up the case
+together. The thought was not reassuring; a coroner, with every
+appearance of fairness, may still bias a jury by the form his questions
+take. And I myself was scarcely in a position to turn the trend of the
+inquiry; I doubt if a lawyer ever went to an inquisition with less
+command of the facts than I had.
+
+The first witness called was the doctor who made the autopsy. After his
+testimony had been dwelt upon with what seemed to me needless detail,
+the facts relating to the finding of the body were brought forward. From
+this, the investigation veered to the subject of Radnor's strange
+behavior on the afternoon of the murder. The landlord, stable boy and
+several hangers-on of the Luray Hotel were called to the stand; their
+testimony was practically identical, and I did not attempt to question
+its truth.
+
+"What time did Radnor Gaylord come back to the hotel?" the coroner asked
+of "old man Tompkins," the landlord.
+
+"I reckon it must 'a' been 'long about three in the afternoon."
+
+"Please describe exactly what occurred."
+
+"Well, we was sittin' on the veranda talkin' about one thing and another
+when we see young Gaylord comin' across the lot, his head down and his
+hands in his pockets walkin' fast. He yelled to Jake, who was washin'
+off a buggy at the pump, to saddle his horse and be quick about it. Then
+he come up the steps and into the bar-room and called for brandy. He
+drunk two glasses straight off without blinkin'."
+
+"Had he ordered anything to drink in the morning when they left their
+horses?" the coroner interrupted at this point.
+
+"No, he didn't go into the bar-room--and it wasn't usually his custom to
+slight us either."
+
+A titter ran around the room and the coroner rapped for order. "This is
+not the place for any cheap witticisms; you will kindly confine yourself
+to answering my questions.--Did Mr. Gaylord appear to have been drinking
+when he returned from the cave?"
+
+The landlord closed his right eye speculatively. "No, I can't say as he
+exactly appeared like he'd been drinking," he said with the air of a
+connoisseur, "but he did seem to be considerably upset about something.
+He looked mad enough to bite; his face was pale, and his hand trembled
+when he raised his glass. Three or four noticed it and wondered--"
+
+"Very well," interrupted the coroner, "what did he do next?"
+
+"He went out to the stable yard and swore at the boy for being slow.
+And he tightened the surcingle himself with such a jerk that the mare
+plunged and he struck her. He is usually pretty cranky about the way
+horses is treated, and we wondered--"
+
+He was stopped again and invited to go on without wondering.
+
+"Well, let me see," said the witness, imperturbably. "He jumped into the
+saddle and slashing the mare across the flanks, started off in a cloud
+o' dust, without so much as looking back. We was all surprised at this
+'cause he's usually pretty friendly, and we talked about it after; but
+we didn't think nothing particular till the news o' the murder come that
+evening, when we naturally commenced to put two and two together."
+
+At this point I protested and the landlord was excused. "Jake" Henley,
+the stable boy, was called. His testimony practically covered the same
+ground and corroborated what the landlord had said.
+
+"You say he swore at you for being slow?" the coroner asked.
+
+Jake nodded with a grin. "I don't remember just the words--I get swore
+at so much that it don't make the impression it might--but it was good
+straight cussin' all right."
+
+"And he struck you as being agitated?"
+
+Jake's grin broadened. "I think you might say agitated," he admitted
+guardedly. "He was mad enough to begin with, an' now the brandy was
+gettin' to work. Besides, he was in an all-fired hurry to leave before
+the rest o' the party come back, an' while I was bringin' out the horse,
+he heard 'em laughin'. They wasn't in sight yet, but they was makin' a
+lot o' noise. One o' the girls had stepped on a snake an' was squealin'
+loud enough to hear her two miles off."
+
+"And Gaylord left before any of them saw him?"
+
+The boy nodded. "He got off all right. 'You forgot to pay for your
+horse,' I yelled after him, and he threw me fifty cents and it landed in
+the watering-trough."
+
+This ended his testimony.
+
+Several members of the picnic party were next called upon, and nothing
+very damaging to Radnor was produced. He seemed to be in his usual
+spirits before entering the cave, and no one, it transpired, had seen
+him after he came out, though this was not noted at the time. Also, no
+one had noticed him in conversation with his father. The coroner dwelt
+upon this point, but elicited no information one way or the other.
+
+Polly Mathers was not present. She had been subpoenaed, but had become
+too ill and nervous to stand the strain, and the doctor had forbidden
+her attendance. The coroner, however, had taken her testimony at the
+house, and his clerk read it aloud to the jury. It dealt merely with the
+matter of the coat and where she had last seen Radnor.
+
+"_Question._ 'Did you notice anything peculiar in the behavior of Radnor
+Gaylord on the day of his father's death?'
+
+"_Answer._ 'Nothing especially peculiar--no.'
+
+"_Q._ 'Did you see any circumstance which led you to suspect that he and
+his father were not on good terms?'
+
+"_A._ 'No, they both appeared as usual.'
+
+"_Q._ 'Did you speak to Radnor in the cave?'
+
+"_A._ 'Yes, we strolled about together for a time and he was carrying my
+coat. He laid it down on the broken column and forgot it. I forgot it
+too and didn't think of it again until we were out of the cave. Then I
+happened to mention it in Colonel Gaylord's presence, and I suppose he
+went back for it.'
+
+"_Q._ 'You didn't see Radnor Gaylord after he left the cave?'
+
+"_A._ 'No, I didn't see him after we left the gallery of the broken
+column. The guide struck off a calcium light to show us the formation of
+the ceiling. We spent about five minutes examining the room, and after
+that we all went on in a group. Radnor had not waited to see the room,
+but had gone on ahead in the direction of the entrance.'"
+
+So much for Polly's testimony--which added nothing.
+
+Solomon, frightened almost out of his wits, was called on next, and his
+testimony brought out the matter of the quarrel between Colonel Gaylord
+and Radnor. Solomon told of finding the French clock, and a great many
+things besides which I am sure he made up. I wished to have his
+testimony ruled out, but the coroner seemed to feel that it was
+suggestive--as it undoubtedly was--and he allowed it to remain.
+
+Radnor himself was next called to the stand. As he took his place a
+murmur of excitement swept over the room and there was a general
+straining forward. He was composed and quiet, and very very sober--every
+bit of animation had left his face.
+
+The coroner commenced immediately with the subject of the quarrel with
+his father on the night before the murder, and Radnor answered all the
+questions frankly and openly. He made no attempt to gloss over any of
+the details. What put the matter in a peculiarly bad light, was the fact
+that the cause of the quarrel had been over a question of money. Rad had
+requested his father to settle a definite amount on him so that he would
+be independent in the future, and his father had refused. They had lost
+their tempers and had gone further than usual; in telling the story
+Radnor openly took the blame upon himself where, in several instances,
+I strongly suspected that it should have been laid at the door of the
+Colonel. But in spite of the fact that the story revealed a pitiable
+state of affairs as between father and son, his frankness in assuming
+the responsibility won for him more sympathy than had been shown since
+the murder.
+
+"How did the clock get broken?" the coroner asked.
+
+"My father knocked it off the mantelpiece onto the floor."
+
+"He did not throw it at you as Solomon surmised?"
+
+Radnor raised his head with a glint of anger.
+
+"It fell on the floor and broke."
+
+"Have you often had quarrels with your father?"
+
+"Occasionally. He had a quick temper and always wished his own way, and
+I was not so patient with him as I should have been."
+
+"What did you quarrel about?"
+
+"Different things."
+
+"What, for instance?"
+
+"Sometimes because he thought I spent too much money, sometimes over a
+question of managing the estate; occasionally because he had heard
+gossip about me."
+
+"What do you mean by 'gossip'?"
+
+"Stories that I'd been gambling or drinking too much."
+
+"Were the stories true?"
+
+"They were always exaggerated."
+
+"And this quarrel the night before his death was more serious than
+usual?"
+
+"Possibly--yes."
+
+"You did not speak to each other at the breakfast table?"
+
+"No."
+
+Radnor's face was set in strained lines; it was evident that this was a
+very painful subject.
+
+"Did you have any conversation later?"
+
+"Only a few words."
+
+"Please repeat what was said."
+
+Radnor appeared to hesitate and then replied a trifle wearily that he
+did not remember the exact words; that it was merely a recapitulation of
+what had been said the night before. Upon being urged to give the gist
+of the conversation he replied that his father had wished to make up
+their quarrel, but on the old basis, and he had refused. The Colonel had
+repeated that he was still too young a man to give over his affairs into
+the hands of another,--that he had a good many years before him in which
+he intended to be his own master. Radnor had replied that he was too old
+a man to be treated any longer as a boy, and that he would go away and
+work where he would be paid for what he did.
+
+"And may I ask," the coroner inquired placidly, "whether you had any
+particular work in mind when you made that statement, or was it merely a
+figure of rhetoric calculated to bring Colonel Gaylord to terms?"
+
+Rad scowled and said nothing, and the rest of his answers were terseness
+itself.
+
+"Did you and your father have any further conversation on the ride over,
+or in the course of the day?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You purposely avoided meeting each other?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Then those words after breakfast when you threatened to leave home were
+absolutely the last words you ever spoke to your father?"
+
+It was a subject Radnor did not like to think about. His lips trembled
+slightly and he answered with a visible effort.
+
+"Yes."
+
+A slight murmur ran around the room, partly of sympathy, partly of
+doubt.
+
+The coroner put the same question again and Radnor repeated his answer,
+this time with a flush of anger. The coroner paused a moment and then
+continued without comment:
+
+"You entered the cave with the rest of the party?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But you left the others before they had made the complete round?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why was that?"
+
+"I was not particularly interested. I had seen the cave many times
+before."
+
+"Where did you leave the party?"
+
+"I believe in the gallery of the broken column."
+
+"You left the cave immediately?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you enter it again?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You forgot Miss Mathers's coat and left it in the gallery of the broken
+column?"
+
+"So it would seem."
+
+"Did you not think of that later and go back for it?"
+
+Radnor snapped out his answer. "No, I didn't think anything about the
+coat."
+
+"Are you in the habit of leaving young ladies' coats about in that
+off-hand way?"
+
+A titter ran about the room, and Rad did not deign to notice this
+question.
+
+I was indignant that the boy should be made to face such an ordeal. This
+was not a regular trial and the coroner had no right to be more
+obnoxious than his calling required. There was a glint of anger in
+Radnor's eyes; and I was uneasily aware that he no longer cared what
+impression he made. His answers to the rest of the questions were as
+short as the English language permitted.
+
+"What did you do after leaving the cave?"
+
+"Went home."
+
+"Please go into more detail. What did you do immediately after leaving
+the cave?"
+
+"Strolled through the woods."
+
+"For how long?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"How long do you think?"
+
+"Possibly half an hour."
+
+"Then what did you do?"
+
+"Returned to the hotel, ordered my horse and rode home."
+
+"Why did you not wait for the rest of the party?"
+
+"Didn't feel like it."
+
+The question was repeated in several ways, but Radnor stubbornly refused
+to discuss the matter. He had promised me, the last thing before coming
+to the hearing, that he would clear up the suspicious points in regard
+to his conduct on the day of the crime. I took him in hand myself, but I
+could get nothing more from him than the coroner had elicited. For some
+reason he had veered completely, and his manner warned me not to push
+the matter. I took my seat and the questioning continued.
+
+"Mr. Gaylord," said the coroner, severely, "you have heard the evidence
+respecting your peculiar behavior when you returned to the hotel. Three
+witnesses have stated that you were in an unnaturally perturbed
+condition. Is this true?"
+
+Radnor supposed it must be true. He did not wish to question the
+gentlemen's veracity. He did not remember himself what he had done, but
+there seemed to be plenty of witnesses who did remember.
+
+"Can you give any reasons for your strange conduct?"
+
+"I have told you several times already that I can not. I did not feel
+well, and that is all there was to it."
+
+A low murmur of incredulity ran around the room. It was evident to
+everyone that he was holding something back, and I could see that he was
+fast losing the sympathy he had gained in the beginning. I myself was at
+a loss to account for his behavior; as I was absolutely in the dark,
+however, I could do nothing but let matters take their course. Radnor
+was excused with this, and the next half hour was spent in a
+consideration of the foot-prints that were found in the clay path at the
+scene of the murder. The marks of Cat-Eye Mose were admitted
+immediately, but the others occasioned considerable discussion.
+Facsimiles of the prints were produced and compared with the riding
+boots which the Colonel and Radnor had worn at the time. The Colonel's
+print was unmistakable, but I myself did not think that the alleged
+print of Radnor's boot tallied very perfectly with the boot itself. The
+jury seemed satisfied however, and Radnor was called upon for an
+explanation. His only conjecture was that it was the print he had left
+when he passed over the path on his way to the entrance.
+
+The print was not in the path, he was informed; it was in the wet clay
+on the edge of the precipice.
+
+Radnor shrugged. In that case it could not be the print of his boot. He
+had kept to the path.
+
+In regard to the match box he was equally unsatisfactory. He
+acknowledged that it was his, but could no more account for its presence
+in the path than the coroner himself.
+
+"When do you remember having seen it last?" the coroner inquired.
+
+Radnor pondered. "I remember lending it to Mrs. Mathers when she was
+building a fire in the woods to make the coffee; after that I don't
+remember anything about it."
+
+"How do you account for its presence at the scene of the murder?"
+
+"I can only conjecture that it must have dropped from my pocket without
+my noticing it on my way out of the cave."
+
+The coroner observed that it was an unfortunate coincidence that he had
+dropped it in just that particular spot.
+
+This effectually stopped Radnor's testimony. Not another word could be
+elicited from him on the subject, and he was finally dismissed and Mrs.
+Mathers called to the stand.
+
+She remembered borrowing the match box, but then someone had called her
+away and she could not remember what she had done with it. She thought
+she must have returned it because she always did return things, but she
+was not at all sure. Very possibly she had kept it, and dropped it
+herself on her way out of the cave.
+
+It was evident that she did not wish to say anything which would
+incriminate Radnor; and she was really too perturbed to remember what
+she had done. Several other people were questioned, but no further light
+could be thrown on the subject of the match box; and so it remained in
+the end, as it had been in the beginning, merely a very nasty piece of
+circumstantial evidence.
+
+This ended the hearing for the day, and the inquest was postponed until
+ten o'clock the following morning. So far, no word had been dropped
+touching the ha'nt, but I was filled with apprehension as to what the
+next day would bring forth. I knew that if the subject came up, it would
+end once for all Radnor's chances of escaping trial before the grand
+jury. And that would mean, at the best, two months more of prison. What
+it would mean at the worst I did not like to consider.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE JURY'S VERDICT
+
+
+My first glance about the room the next morning, showed me only too
+plainly what direction the inquiry was going to take. In the farther
+corner half hidden by Mattison's broad back sat Clancy, the Washington
+detective. I recognized him with an angry feeling of discouragement. If
+we were to have his version of the stolen bonds, Radnor's last hope of
+gaining public sympathy was gone.
+
+Radnor was the first person to be called to the stand. He had not
+noticed the detective, and I did not have a chance to inform him of his
+presence. The coroner plunged immediately into the question of the
+robbery and the ha'nt, and it was only too evident from Radnor's
+troubled eyes that it was a subject he did not wish to talk about.
+
+"You have recently had a robbery at your house, Mr. Gaylord?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Please describe just what was stolen."
+
+"Five bonds--Government four per cents--a bag of coin--about twenty
+dollars in all--and two deeds and an insurance policy."
+
+"You have not been able to trace the thief?"
+
+"No."
+
+"In spite of every effort?"
+
+"Well, we naturally looked into the matter."
+
+"But you have been able to form no theory as to how the bonds were
+stolen?"
+
+"No, I have no theory whatever."
+
+"You employed a detective I believe?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he arrived at no theory?"
+
+Radnor hesitated visibly while he framed an answer.
+
+"He arrived at no theory which successfully covered the facts."
+
+"But he did have a theory as to the whereabouts of the bonds, did he
+not?"
+
+"Yes--but it was without any foundation and I prefer not to go into it."
+
+The coroner abandoned the point. "Mr. Gaylord, there has lately been a
+rumor among the negroes working at your place, in regard to the
+appearance of a ghost, has there not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can you offer any light on the subject?"
+
+"The negroes are superstitious and easily frightened, when the rumor of
+a ghost gets started it grows. The most of the stories existed only in
+their own imaginations."
+
+"You believe then that there was no foundation whatever to any of the
+stories?"
+
+"I should rather not go into that."
+
+"Mr. Gaylord, do you believe that the ghost had any connection with the
+robbery?"
+
+"No, I do not."
+
+"Do you think that the ghost had any connection with the murder of your
+father?"
+
+"No!" said Radnor.
+
+"That is all, Mr. Gaylord.--James Clancy."
+
+At the name Radnor suddenly raised his head and half turned back as if
+to speak, but thinking better of it, he resumed his chair and watched
+the approach of the detective with an angry frown. Clancy did not glance
+at Radnor, but gave his evidence in a quick incisive way which forced
+the breathless attention of every one in the room. He told without
+interruption the story of his arrival at Four-Pools and his conclusions
+in regard to the ha'nt and the theft; he omitted, however, all mention
+of the letter.
+
+"Am I to understand that you never made your conclusions known to
+Colonel Gaylord?" the coroner asked.
+
+"No, I had been employed by him, but I thought under the circumstances
+it was kinder to leave him in ignorance."
+
+"That was a generous stand to take. I suppose you lost something in the
+way of a fee?"
+
+The detective looked slightly uncomfortable over the question.
+
+"Well, no, as it happened I didn't. There was a sort of cousin--Mr.
+Crosby"--he nodded toward me--"visiting in the house and he footed the
+bill. He seemed to think the young man hadn't intended to steal, and
+that it would be pleasanter all around if I left it for them to settle
+between themselves."
+
+"I protest!" I cried. "I distinctly stated my conviction that Radnor
+Gaylord knew nothing of the bonds, and I paid him to get rid of him
+because I did not wish him troubling Colonel Gaylord with any such
+made-up story."
+
+"Mr. Clancy is testifying," observed the coroner. "Now, Mr. Clancy, as I
+understand it, you discovered as you supposed the guilty man, and
+instead of going to your employer with the story and receiving your pay
+from him, you accepted it from the person you had accused--or at least
+from his friend?"
+
+"I've explained the circumstances; it was a mere matter of
+accommodation."
+
+"I suppose you know what such accommodation is called?"
+
+"If you mean it was blackmail--that's false! At least," he added,
+quickly relapsing into good nature, "it was a mighty generous kind of
+blackmail. I could have got my pay fast enough from the Colonel but I
+didn't want to stir up trouble. We all know that it isn't the innocent
+who pay blackmail," he added parenthetically.
+
+"Do you mean to insinuate that Mr. Crosby is implicated?"
+
+"Lord no! He's as innocent as a lamb. Young Gaylord was too smart for
+him; he hoodwinked him as well as the Colonel into believing the bonds
+were stolen while he was out of the house."
+
+A smile ran around the room and the detective was excused. I sprang to
+my feet.
+
+"One moment!" I said. "I should like to ask Mr. Clancy some questions."
+
+The young man was turned over to me, plainly against his wishes.
+
+"What proof have you, Mr. Clancy, that the bonds were not stolen while
+Mr. Gaylord was out of the house?"
+
+"Well, my investigations led me to the belief that he stole them, and
+that being the case, it must have been done before he left the house."
+
+"I see! And your investigations concerned themselves largely with a
+letter which you filched from Mr. Gaylord's coat pocket in the night,
+did they not?"
+
+"Not entirely--the letter merely struck me as corroborative evidence,
+though I have since learned--"
+
+"Mr. Clancy," I interrupted sternly, "did you not tell me at the time,
+that that letter was absolute proof of his guilt--yes or no?"
+
+"I may have said so but--"
+
+"Mr. Clancy, will you kindly repeat what was in that letter."
+
+"It referred to some bonds; I don't know that I can recall the exact
+words."
+
+"Then I must request you to read it," I returned, picking it out from a
+bundle of papers on the table and handing it to him. "I am sorry to take
+up so much time with a matter that has nothing to do with the murder," I
+added to the coroner, "but you yourself brought up the subject and it is
+only fair to hear the whole story."
+
+He nodded permission, and ordered Clancy to read the letter. The
+detective did so amidst an astonished hush. It struck everyone as a
+proof of guilt, and no one could understand why I had forced it to the
+front.
+
+"Now Mr. Clancy," said I, "please tell the jury Mr. Gaylord's
+explanation of this letter."
+
+Clancy with a somewhat sheepish air gave the gist of what Radnor had
+said.
+
+"Did you believe that story when you first heard it?" I asked.
+
+"No," said he, "I did not, because--"
+
+"Very well! But you later went to the office of Jacoby, Haight & Co.,
+and looked over the files of their correspondence with Radnor Gaylord
+and verified his statement in every particular, did you not?"
+
+"Yes, I did, but still--"
+
+"That is all I wish to ask, Mr. Clancy. I think the reason is evident,"
+I added, turning to the jury, "why I was willing to pay in order to get
+rid of him. Nobody's character, nobody's correspondence, was safe while
+he was in the house."
+
+The detective retired amidst general laughter and I could see that
+feeling had veered again in Radnor's favor. The total effect of the
+evidence respecting the ha'nt and the robbery was good rather than bad,
+and I more than fancied that I was indebted to the sheriff for it.
+
+Radnor was not called again and that was the end of the testimony in
+regard to him. The rest of the time was taken up with a consideration of
+Cat-Eye Mose and some further questioning of the negroes in regard to
+the ha'nt. Old Nancy created considerable diversion with her account of
+the spirited roast chicken. It had changed materially since I heard it
+last. She was emphatic in her statement that "Marse Rad didn't have
+nuffen to do wif him. He was a sho' nuff ha'nt an' his gahments smelt o'
+de graveyard."
+
+The evidence respecting Mose brought out nothing of any consequence, and
+with that the hearing was brought to a close. The coroner instructed the
+jury on two or three points of law and ended with the brief formula:
+
+"You have heard the testimony given by these witnesses. It remains for
+you to do your duty."
+
+After an interminable half hour the jury-men filed back to their seats
+and the clerk read the verdict:
+
+"We find that the said Richard Gaylord came to his death in Luray Cavern
+on the 19th day of May, by cerebral hemorrhage, the result of a wound
+inflicted by some blunt weapon in the hands of a person or persons
+unknown. We recommend that Radnor Fanshaw Gaylord be held for trial
+before the Grand Jury."
+
+Rad appeared dazed at the verdict; though in the face of the evidence
+and his own stubborn refusal to explain it, I don't see how he could
+have expected any other outcome. As for myself, it was better than I had
+feared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+FALSE CLUES
+
+
+The fight had now fairly begun. The district attorney was working up the
+side of the prosecution, aided, I was sure, by the over-zealous sheriff.
+It remained for me to map out some definite plan of action and organize
+the defence.
+
+As I rode back to Four-Pools in the early evening after the inquest, I
+continued to dwell upon the evidence, searching blindly for some clue.
+The question which returned most persistently to my mind was "What has
+become of Cat-Eye Mose?" It was clear now that upon the answer to this
+question hinged the ultimate solution of the mystery. I still clung to
+the belief that he was guilty and in hiding. But five days had elapsed
+since the murder, and no trace of him had been discovered. It seemed
+incredible that a man, however well he might know his ground, could,
+with a whole county on his track, elude detection so effectually.
+
+Supposing after all that he were not guilty, but the sheriff's theory
+that he had been killed and the body concealed, were true; then who,
+besides Radnor, could have had any motive for committing the crime?
+There was nothing from the past that afforded even the suggestion of a
+clue. The old man seemed to have had no enemies but his sons. His sons?
+The thought of Jeff suddenly sprang into my mind. If anyone on earth
+owed the Colonel a grudge it was his elder son. And Jeff had more than
+his share of the Gaylord spirit which could not lightly forgive an
+injury. Could he have returned secretly to the neighborhood, and,
+following his father into the cave, have quarreled with him? Heaven
+knows he had cause enough! He may, in his anger, have struck the old man
+without knowing what he was doing, and overcome with horror at the
+result, have left him and fled.
+
+I was almost as reluctant to believe him guilty of the crime as to
+believe it of Radnor, but the thought having once come, would not be
+dismissed. I knew that he had sunk pretty low in the nine years since
+his disappearance, but I could never think of him otherwise than as I
+myself remembered him. He had been the hero of my boyhood and I revolted
+from the thought of deliberately setting out to prove him guilty of his
+father's murder.
+
+I spurred my horse into a gallop, miserably trying to escape from my
+suspicion; but the more I put it from me as impossible, the surer I
+became that at last I had stumbled on a clue. Automatically, I began
+adjusting the evidence to fit this new theory, and reluctant as I was to
+see it, every circumstance from the beginning fitted it perfectly.
+
+Jeff had returned secretly to the neighborhood, had taken up his abode
+in the old negro cabins and made his presence known only to Mose. Mose
+had stolen the chicken for him, and the various other missing articles.
+They had resurrected the ha'nt to frighten the negroes away from the
+laurel walk, and the night of the party Rad, in his masquerade, had
+accidentally discovered his brother. Jeff demanded money, and Rad
+undertook to supply it in order to get him away without his father's
+knowing. That was why he had borrowed the hundred dollars from me, and
+had written to his brokers to sell the bonds. It was Jeff who was
+sitting beside Radnor the night they drove across the lawn. But unknown
+to Rad, Jeff had found his way back and had robbed the safe, and Rad
+suspecting it, had refused to make an investigation.
+
+During the eleven days that intervened between the robbery and the
+murder Jeff had still been hiding in the vicinity--possibly in the
+neighborhood of Luray, certainly no longer in the cabins, for he had no
+desire to meet his brother.
+
+But on the day of the picnic they had met and quarreled. Rad had charged
+him with the robbery and they had parted in a high state of anger. This
+would explain Rad's actions in the hotel, his white face later when I
+found him in the summer house. And Jeff, still quivering from the boy's
+accusation, had gone back into the cave and met his father as the old
+man was coming from the little gallery of the broken column with Polly
+Mathers's coat. What had happened there I did not like to consider; they
+both had uncontrolled tempers, and in the past there had been wrongs on
+both sides. Probably Jeff's blow had been harder than he meant.
+
+In the evening when Mattison and I brought the news of the murder, Rad
+must have known instantly who was the real culprit. That was why he had
+kept silent; that was why he so vehemently insisted on Mose's innocence.
+I had found the light at last--though the darkness had been almost
+better.
+
+What must I do? I asked myself. Was it my duty to search out Jefferson
+and convict him of this crime? No one could tell what provocation he may
+have had. Why not let matters take their course? There was nothing but
+circumstantial evidence against Radnor. Surely no jury would convict him
+on that. I could work up a sufficient case against Mose to assure his
+acquittal. He would be released with a blot on his name, he would be
+regarded for the rest of his life with suspicion; but in any event there
+seemed to be no outcome which would not involve the family in endless
+trouble and disgrace. And besides, if he himself elected to be silent,
+had I any right to speak? Then I pulled myself together. Yes, it was not
+only right for me to speak; it was my duty. Rad should not be allowed to
+sacrifice himself. The truth, at whatever cost, must be brought out.
+
+My first move must be to discover Jeff's whereabouts on the day of his
+father's murder. It ought not to be difficult to trace a man who had
+come more than once under the surveillance of the police. Having made up
+my mind as to the necessary course, I lost no time in putting it into
+action. I barely waited to snatch a hasty supper before riding back to
+the village. From there I sent a fifty-word telegram to the chief of
+police in Seattle asking for any information as to the whereabouts of
+Jefferson Gaylord on the nineteenth of May.
+
+It was ten o'clock the next morning before an answer came. So sure was I
+of what it was going to contain, that I read the words twice before
+comprehending them.
+
+
+     "Jefferson Gaylord spent May nineteenth in lumber camp thirty
+     miles from Seattle. Well-known character. Mistaken identity
+     impossible.
+
+                                "HENRY WATERSON,
+                                   "_Police Commissioner_."
+
+
+I had become so obsessed with the horror of my new theory; so sure that
+Jeff was the murderer of his father that I could not readjust my
+thoughts to the idea that he had been at the time of the crime three
+thousand miles away. The case, then, still stood exactly where it had
+stood from the beginning. Six days had passed since the murder and I was
+not one inch nearer the truth. Six days! I realized it with a dull
+feeling of hopelessness. Every day now that was allowed to pass only
+lessened the chance of our ever finding Mose and solving the mystery.
+
+I still stood with the telegram in my hand staring at the words. I was
+vaguely aware that a boy from "Miller's place" had ridden up to the
+house on a bicycle, but not until Solomon approached with a second
+yellow envelope in his hand was I jostled back into a state of
+comprehension.
+
+"Nurr telegram, Mars' Arnold."
+
+I snatched it from him and ripped it open, hoping against hope that at
+last a clue had turned up.
+
+
+                                               "NEW YORK, May 25.
+     "Post-Dispatch wants correspondent on spot. If you have any facts
+     to give out, save them for me. Arrive Lambert Junction three-fifty.
+                                            "TERENCE K. PATTEN."
+
+
+Under the terrible strain of the past six days I had completely
+forgotten Terry's existence and now the memory of his cool impertinence
+came back to me with a rush. For the first moment I felt too angry to
+think; I had not credited even his presumption with anything like this.
+His interference in the Patterson-Pratt business was bad enough, but he
+might have realized that this was a personal matter. He was calmly
+proposing to turn this horrible tragedy into a story for the Sunday
+papers--and that to a member of the murdered man's own family. Hot with
+indignation, I tore the telegram into shreds and stalked into the house.
+I paced up and down the hall for fifteen minutes, planning what I should
+say to him when he arrived; and then, as I calmed down, I commenced to
+see the thing in its true light.
+
+The whole account of the crime to the minutest detail, had already
+appeared in every newspaper in the country, together with the most
+outrageous stories of Radnor's past career. At least nothing could be
+worse than what had already been said. And after all, was not the
+truth--any truth--better than these vague suspicions, this terrible
+suspense? Terry could find the truth if any man on earth could do it. He
+had, I knew, unraveled other tangles as mysterious as this. He was used
+to this sort of work, and bringing to the matter a fresh mind, would see
+light where it was only darkness to me. I had been under such a terrific
+strain for so long and had borne so much responsibility, that the very
+thought of having someone with whom I could share it gave me new
+strength. My feeling toward him veered suddenly from indignation to
+gratitude. His irrepressible confidence in himself inspired me with a
+like confidence, and I wondered what I had been thinking of that I had
+not sent for him at once. To my jaded mind his promised arrival appeared
+better than a clue--it was almost equal to a solution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TERRY COMES
+
+
+The moment I caught sight of Terry as he swung off the train I felt
+involuntarily that my troubles were near their end. His sharp, eager
+face with its firm jaw and quick eye inspired one with the feeling that
+he could find the bottom of any mystery. It was with a deep breath of
+relief that I held out my hand.
+
+"Hello, old man! How are you?" he exclaimed with a smile of cordiality
+as he grasped it. And then recalling the gravity of the situation, he
+with some difficulty pulled a sober face. "I'm sorry that we meet again
+under such sad circumstances," he added perfunctorily. "I suppose you
+think I've meddled enough in your affairs already; and on my word, I
+intended to stay out of this. But of course I've been watching it in the
+papers; partly because it was interesting and partly because I knew
+you. It struck me yesterday afternoon as I was thinking things over that
+you weren't making much headway and might like a little help; so I
+induced the Post-Dispatch to send down their best man. I hope I shall
+get at the truth." He paused a moment and looked at me sharply. "Do you
+want me to stay? I will go back if you'd rather have me."
+
+I was instantly ashamed of my distrust of the afternoon. Whatever might
+be Terry's failings, I could not doubt, as I looked into his face, that
+his Irish heart was in the right place.
+
+"I am not afraid of the truth," I returned steadily. "If you can
+discover it, for Heaven's sake do so!"
+
+"That's what I'm paid for," said Terry. "The Post-Dispatch doesn't deal
+in fiction any more than it can help."
+
+As we climbed into the carriage he added briskly, "It's a horrible
+affair! The details as I have them from the papers are not full enough,
+but you can tell them to me as we drive along."
+
+I should have laughed had I been feeling less anxious. His greeting was
+so entirely characteristic in the way he shuffled through the necessary
+condolences and jumped, with such evident relish, to the gruesome
+details.
+
+As I gathered up the reins and backed away from the hitching-post, Terry
+broke out with:
+
+"Here, hold on a minute. Where are you going?"
+
+"Back to Four-Pools," I said in some surprise. "I thought you'd want to
+unpack your things and get settled."
+
+"Haven't much time to get settled," he laughed. "I have an engagement in
+New York the day after to-morrow. How about the cave? Is it too late to
+visit it now?"
+
+"Well," I said dubiously, "it's ten miles across the mountains and
+pretty heavy roads. It would be dark before we got there."
+
+"As far as that goes, we could visit the cave at night as well as in the
+daytime. But I want to examine the neighborhood and interview some of
+the people; so I suppose," he added with an impatient sigh, "we'll have
+to wait till morning. And now, where's this young Gaylord?"
+
+"He's in the Kennisburg jail."
+
+"And where's that?"
+
+"About three miles from here and six miles from the plantation."
+
+"Ah--suppose we pay him a visit first. There are one or two points
+concerning his whereabouts on the night of the robbery and his actions
+on the day of the murder that I should like to have him clear up."
+
+I smiled slightly as I turned the horses' heads toward Kennisburg.
+Radnor in his present uncommunicative frame of mind was not likely to
+afford Terry much satisfaction.
+
+"There isn't any time to waste," he added as we drove along. "Just let
+me have your account of everything that happened, beginning with the
+first appearance of the ghost."
+
+I briefly sketched the situation at Four-Pools as I had found it on my
+arrival, and the events preceding the robbery and the murder. Terry
+interrupted me once or twice with questions. He was particularly
+interested in the three-cornered situation concerning Radnor, Polly
+Mathers, and Jim Mattison, and I was as brief as possible in my replies;
+I did not care to make Polly the heroine of a Sunday feature article. He
+was also persistent in regard to Jefferson's past. I told him all I
+knew, added the story of my own suspicions, and ended by producing the
+telegram proving his alibi.
+
+"H'm!" said Terry folding it thoughtfully and putting it in his pocket.
+"It had occurred to me too that Jeff might be our man--this puts an end
+to the theory that he personally committed the murder. There are some
+very peculiar points about this case," he added. "As a matter of fact, I
+don't believe that Radnor Gaylord is any more guilty of the crime than I
+am--or I shouldn't have come. But it won't do for me to jump at
+conclusions until I get more data. I suppose you realize what is the
+peculiarly significant point about the murder?"
+
+"You mean Mose's disappearance?"
+
+"Well, no. I didn't have that in mind. That's significant enough to be
+sure, but nothing but what you would naturally expect. The crime was
+committed, if your data is straight, either by him or in his presence,
+and of course he disappears. You could scarcely have expected to find
+him sitting there waiting for you, in either case."
+
+"You mean Radnor's behavior on the day of the murder and his refusal to
+explain it?" I asked uneasily.
+
+"No," Terry laughed. "That may be significant and it may not--I strongly
+suspect that it is not. What I mean, is the peculiar place in which the
+crime was committed. No person on earth could have foreseen that Colonel
+Gaylord would go alone into that cave. There is an accidental element
+about the murder. It must have been committed on the spur of the moment
+by someone who had not premeditated it--at least at that time. This is
+the point we must keep in mind."
+
+He sat for a few moments staring at the dashboard with a puzzled frown.
+
+"Broadly speaking," he said slowly, "I have found that you can place the
+motive of every wilful murder under one of three heads--avarice, fear or
+revenge. Suppose we consider the first. Could avarice have been the
+motive for Colonel Gaylord's murder? The body had not been robbed, you
+tell me?"
+
+"No, we found a gold watch and considerable money in the pockets."
+
+"Then, you see, if the motive were avarice, it could not have been
+immediate gain. That throws out the possibility that the murderer was
+some unknown thief who merely took advantage of a chance opportunity. If
+we are to conceive of avarice as the motive, the crime must have been
+committed by some person who would benefit more remotely by the
+Colonel's death. Did anyone owe him money that you know of?"
+
+"There is no record of anything of the sort and he was a careful
+business man. I do not think he would have loaned money without making
+some memorandum of it. He held several mortgages but they, of course,
+revert to his heirs."
+
+"I understood that Radnor was the only heir."
+
+"He is, practically. There are a few minor bequests to the servants and
+to some old friends."
+
+"Did the servants know that anything was to go to them?"
+
+"No, I don't think they did."
+
+"And this Cat-Eye Mose, did he receive a share?"
+
+"Yes, larger than any of the others."
+
+"It seems that Colonel Gaylord, at least, had confidence in him. And how
+about the other son? Did he know that he was to be disinherited?"
+
+"I think that the Colonel made it plain at the time they parted."
+
+Terry shook his head and frowned.
+
+"This disinheriting business is bad. I don't like it and I never shall.
+It stirs up more ill-feeling than anything I know of. Jeff seems to have
+proved an alibi, however, and we will dismiss him for the present."
+
+"Rad has always sympathized with Jeff," I said.
+
+"Then," continued Terry, "if the servants did not know the contents of
+the will, and we have all of the data, Radnor is the only one who could
+knowingly have benefited by the Colonel's death. Suppose we take a
+glance at motives of fear. Do you know of anyone who had reason to stand
+in fear of the Colonel? He wasn't oppressing anybody? No damaging
+evidence against any person in his possession? Not levying blackmail
+was he?"
+
+"Not that I know of," and I smiled slightly.
+
+"It's not likely," mused Terry, "but you never can tell what is going to
+come out when a respectable man is dead.--And now as to revenge. With a
+man of Colonel Gaylord's character, there were likely to be a good many
+people who owed him a bad turn. He seems to have been a peppery old
+gentleman. It's quite on the cards that he had some enemies among his
+neighbors?"
+
+"No, so far as I can discover, he was very popular in the neighborhood.
+The indignation over his death was something tremendous. When it first
+got out that Rad was accused of the crime, there was even talk of
+lynching him."
+
+"So?--Servants all appeared to be fond of him?"
+
+"The old family servants were broken-hearted at the news of his death.
+They had been, for the most part, born and bred on the place, and in
+spite of his occasional harshness they loved the Colonel with the
+old-fashioned devotion of the slave toward his master. He was in his way
+exceedingly kind to them. When old Uncle Eben died my uncle watched all
+night by his bed."
+
+"It's a queer situation," Terry muttered, and relapsed into silence till
+we reached the jail.
+
+It was an ivy-covered brick building set back from the street and shaded
+by trees.
+
+"Rather more home-like than the Tombs," Terry commented. "Shouldn't mind
+taking a rest in it myself."
+
+We found Radnor pacing up and down the small room in which he was
+confined, like a caged animal; the anxiety and seclusion were beginning
+to tell on his nerves. He faced about quickly as the door opened and at
+sight of me his face lightened. He was growing pathetically pleased at
+having anyone with whom he could talk.
+
+"Rad," I said with an air of cheerfulness which was not entirely
+assumed, "I hope we're nearing the end of our trouble at last. This is
+Mr. Patten--Terry Patten of New York, who has come to help me unravel
+the mystery."
+
+It was an unfortunate beginning; I had told him before of Terry's
+connection with the Patterson-Pratt affair. He had half held out his
+hand as I commenced to speak, but he dropped it now with a slight frown.
+
+"I don't think I care to be interviewed," he remarked curtly. "I have
+nothing to say for the benefit of the Post-Dispatch."
+
+"You'd better," said Terry, imperturbably. "The Post-Dispatch prints the
+truth, you know, and some of the other papers don't. The truth's always
+the best in the end. I merely want to find out what information you can
+give me in regard to the ghost."
+
+"I will tell you nothing," Radnor growled. "I am not giving statements
+to the press."
+
+"Mr. Gaylord," said Terry, with an assumption of gentle patience, "if
+you will excuse my referring to what I know must be a painful subject,
+would you mind telling me if the suspicion has ever crossed your mind
+that your brother Jefferson may have returned secretly, have abstracted
+the bonds from the safe, and, two weeks later, quite accidentally, have
+met Colonel Gaylord alone in the cave--"
+
+Radnor turned upon him in a sudden fury; I thought for a moment he was
+going to strike him and I sprang forward and caught his arm.
+
+"The Gaylords may be a bad lot but they are not liars and they are not
+cowards. They do not run away; they stand by the consequences of their
+acts."
+
+Terry bowed gravely.
+
+"Just one more question, and I am through. What happened to you that day
+in the cave?"
+
+"It's none of your damned business!"
+
+I glanced apprehensively at Terry, uncertain as to how he would take
+this; but he did not appear to resent it. He looked Radnor over with an
+air of interested approval and his smile slowly broadened.
+
+"I'm glad to see you're game," he remarked.
+
+"I tell you I don't know who killed my father any more than you do,"
+Radnor cried. "You needn't come here asking me questions. Go and find
+the murderer if you can, and if you can't, hang me and be done with it."
+
+"I don't know that we need take up any more of Mr. Gaylord's time," said
+Terry to me. "I've found out about all I wished to know. We'll drop in
+again," he added reassuringly to Radnor. "Good afternoon."
+
+As we went out of the door he turned back a moment and added with a
+slightly sharp undertone in his voice:
+
+"And the next time I come, Gaylord, you'll shake hands!" Fumbling in his
+pocket he drew out my telegram from the police commissioner, and tossed
+it onto the cot. "In the meantime there's something for you to think
+about. Good by."
+
+"Do you mean," I asked as we climbed back into the carriage, "that
+Radnor did believe Jeff guilty?"
+
+"Well, not exactly. I fancy he will be relieved, though, to find that
+Jeff was three thousand miles away when the murder was committed."
+
+Only once during the drive home did Terry exhibit any interest in his
+surroundings, and that was when we passed through the village of Lambert
+Corners. He made me slow down to a walk and explain the purpose of
+everyone of the dozen or so buildings along the square. At "Miller's
+place" he suddenly decided that he needed some stamps and I waited
+outside while he obtained them together with a drink in the private back
+room.
+
+"Nothing like getting the lay of the land," he remarked as he climbed
+back into the carriage. "That Miller is a picturesque old party. He
+thinks it's all tommy-rot that Radnor Gaylord had anything to do with
+the crime--Rad's a customer of his, and it's a downright imposition to
+lock the boy up where he can't spend money."
+
+For the rest of the drive Terry kept silence and I did not venture to
+interrupt it. I had come to have a superstitious feeling that his
+silences were portentous. It was not until I stopped to open the gate
+into our own home lane, that he suddenly burst out with the question:
+
+"Where do the Mathers people live?"
+
+"A couple of miles farther down the pike--they have no connection
+whatever with the business, and don't know a thing about it."
+
+"Ah--perhaps not. Would it be too late to drive over to-night?"
+
+"Yes," said I, "it would."
+
+"Oh, very well," said he, good-humoredly. "There'll be time enough in
+the morning."
+
+I let this pass without comment, but on one thing I was resolved; and
+that was that Polly Mathers should never fall into Terry's clutches.
+
+"There are a lot of questions I want to ask about your ghost, but I'll
+wait till I get my bearings--and my dinner," he added with a laugh.
+"There wasn't any dining car on that train, and I breakfasted early and
+omitted lunch."
+
+"Here we are," I said, as we came in sight of the house. "The cook is
+expecting us."
+
+"So that is the Gaylord house is it? A fine old place! When was it
+built?"
+
+"About 1830, I imagine."
+
+"Let me see, Sheridan rode up the Shenandoah Valley and burned
+everything in sight. How did this place happen to escape?"
+
+"I don't know just how it did. You see it's a mile back from the main
+road and well hidden by trees--I suppose they were in a hurry and it
+escaped their attention."
+
+"And that row of shanties down there?"
+
+"Are the haunted negro cabins."
+
+"Ah!" Terry rose in his seat and scanned them eagerly. "We'll have a
+look at them as soon as I get something to eat. Really, a farm isn't so
+bad," he remarked as he stepped out upon the portico. "And is this
+Solomon?" he inquired as the old negro came forward to take his bag.
+"Well, Solomon, I've been reading about you in the papers! You and I are
+going to have a talk by and by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+WE SEARCH THE ABANDONED CABINS
+
+
+"Now," said Terry, as Solomon and the suitcase disappeared upstairs,
+"let's you and I have a look at those haunted cabins."
+
+"I thought you were hungry!"
+
+"Starving--but I still have strength enough to get that far. Solomon
+says supper won't be ready for half an hour, and we haven't half an hour
+to waste. I'm due in the city the day after to-morrow, remember."
+
+"You won't find anything," I said. "I've searched every one of those
+cabins myself and the ha'nt didn't leave a trace behind him."
+
+"I think I'll just glance about with my own eyes," laughed Terry.
+"Reporters sometimes see things, you know, where corporation lawyers
+don't."
+
+"Just as you please," I replied. "Four-Pools is at your disposal."
+
+I led the way across the lawn and into the laurel growth. Terry
+followed with eyes eagerly alert; the gruesome possibilities of the
+place appealed to him. He pushed through the briars that surrounded the
+first cabin and came out on the slope behind, where he stood gazing down
+delightedly at the dark waters of the fourth pool.
+
+"My word! This is great. We'll run a half-page picture and call it the
+'Haunted Tarn.' Didn't know such places really existed--thought writers
+made 'em up. Come on," he called, plunging back to the laurel walk, "we
+must catch our ghost; I don't want this scenery to go to waste."
+
+We commenced at the first cabin and went down the row thoroughly and
+systematically. At Terry's insistence one of the stable men brought a
+ladder and we climbed into every loft, finding nothing but spiders and
+dust. The last on the left, being more weatherproof than the others, was
+used as a granary. A space six feet square was left inside the door, but
+for the rest the room was filled nearly to the ceiling with sacks of
+Indian meal.
+
+"How about this--did you examine this cabin?"
+
+"Well, really, Terry; there isn't much room for a ghost here."
+
+"Ghosts don't require much room; how about the loft?"
+
+"I didn't go up--you can't get at the trap without moving all the meal."
+
+"I see!" Terry was examining the three walls of sacks before us. "Now
+here is a sack rather dirtier than the rest and squashy. It looks to me
+as if it had had a good deal of rough handling."
+
+He pulled it to the floor as he spoke, and another with it. A space some
+three feet high was visible; by crawling one could make his way along
+without hitting the ceiling.
+
+"Come on!" said Terry, scrambling to the top of the pile and pulling me
+after him, "we've struck the trail of our ghostly friend unless I'm very
+much mistaken.--Look at that!" He pointed to a muddy foot-mark plainly
+outlined on one of the sacks. "Don't disturb it; we may want to compare
+it with the marks in the cave.--Hello! What's this? The print of a bare
+foot--that's our friend, Mose."
+
+He took out a pocket rule and made careful measurements of both prints;
+the result he set down in a note book. I was quite as excited now as
+Terry. We crawled along on all fours until we reached the open trap;
+there was no trace here of either spider-webs or dust. We scrambled into
+the loft without much difficulty, and found a large room with sloping
+beams overhead and two small windows, innocent of glass, at either end.
+The room was empty but clean; it had been thoroughly swept, and
+recently. Terry poked about but found nothing.
+
+"H'm!" he grunted. "Mose cleaned well.--Ah! Here we are!"
+
+He paused before a horizontal beam along the side wall and pointed to a
+little pile of ashes and a cigar stub.
+
+"He smokes cigars, and good strong ones--at least he isn't a lady. Did
+you ever see a cigar like that before?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "that's the kind the Colonel always smoked--a fresh box
+was stolen from the dining-room cupboard a day or so after I got here.
+Solomon said it was the ha'nt, but we suspected it was Solomon."
+
+"Was the cupboard unlocked?"
+
+"Oh, yes; any of the house servants could have got at it."
+
+"Well," said Terry, poking his head from the windows for a view of the
+ground beneath, "that's all there seems to be here; we might as well go
+down."
+
+We boosted up the two meal bags again, and started back toward the
+house. Terry's eyes studied his surroundings keenly, whether for the
+sake of the story he was planning to write or the mystery he was trying
+to solve, I could only conjecture. His glance presently fixed on the
+stables where old Uncle Jake was visible sitting on an upturned pail in
+the doorway.
+
+"You go on," he ordered, "and have 'em put dinner or supper or whatever
+you call it on the table, and I'll be back in three minutes. I want to
+see what that old fellow over there has to say in regard to the ghost."
+
+It was fifteen minutes later that Terry reappeared.
+
+"Well," I inquired as I led the way to the dining-room, "did you get any
+news of the ghost?"
+
+"Did I! The Society for Psychical Research ought to investigate this
+neighborhood. They'd find more spirits in half an hour than they've
+found in their whole past history."
+
+Terry's attention during supper was chiefly directed toward Nancy's
+fried chicken and beat biscuits. When he did make any remarks he
+addressed them to Solomon rather than to me. Solomon was loquacious
+enough in general, but he had his own ideas of table decorum, and it was
+evident that the friendly advances of my guest considerably scandalized
+him. When the coffee and cigars were brought on, Terry appeared to be on
+the point of inviting Solomon to sit down and have a cigar with us; but
+he thought better of it, and contented himself with talking to the old
+man across my shoulder. He confined his questions to matters concerning
+the household and the farm, and Solomon in vain endeavored to confine
+his replies to "yes, sah," "no, sah," "jes' so, sah!" In five minutes he
+was well started, and it would have required a flood-gate to stop him.
+
+In the midst of it Terry rose and dismissing me with a brief, "I'll join
+you in the library later; I want to talk to Solomon a few minutes," he
+bowed me out and shut the door.
+
+I was amused rather than annoyed by this summary dismissal. Terry had
+been in the house not quite two hours, and I am sure that a third
+person, looking on, would have picked me out for the stranger. Terry's
+way of being at home in any surroundings was absolutely inimitable. Had
+he ever had occasion to visit Windsor Castle I am sure that he would
+have set about immediately making King Edward feel at home.
+
+He appeared in the library in the course of half an hour with the
+apology: "I hope you didn't mind being turned out. Servants are
+sometimes embarrassed, you know, about telling the truth before any of
+the family."
+
+"You didn't get much truth out of Solomon," I retorted.
+
+"I don't know that I did," Terry admitted with a laugh. "There are the
+elements of a good reporter in Solomon; he has an imagination which I
+respect. The Gaylords appear to be an interesting family with hereditary
+tempers. The ghost, I hear, beat a slave to death, and to pay for it is
+doomed to pace the laurel walk till the day of judgment."
+
+"That's the story," I nodded, "and the beating is at least authentic."
+
+"H'm!" Terry frowned. "And Solomon tells me tales of the Colonel himself
+whipping the negroes--there can't be any truth in that?"
+
+"But there is," I said. "He didn't hesitate to strike them when he was
+angry. I myself saw him beat a nigger a few days ago," and I recounted
+the story of the chicken thief.
+
+"So! A man of that sort is likely to have enemies he doesn't suspect.
+How about Cat-Eye Mose? Was Colonel Gaylord in the habit of whipping
+him?"
+
+"Often," I nodded, "but the more the Colonel abused Mose, the fonder
+Mose appeared to grow of the Colonel."
+
+"It's a puzzling situation," said Terry pacing up and down the room
+with a thoughtful frown. "Well!" he exclaimed with a sudden access of
+energy, "I suppose we might as well sit down and tackle it."
+
+He took off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves; then shoving
+everything back from one end of the big library table, he settled
+himself in a chair and motioned me to one opposite.
+
+"Tomorrow morning," he said as he took out from his pockets a roll of
+newspaper clippings and a yellow copy pad, "we will drive over and have
+a look at that cave; it ought to tell its own story. But in the
+meantime--" he looked up with a laugh--"suppose we use our brains a
+little."
+
+I did not resent the inference. Terry was his old impudent self, and I
+was so relieved at having him there, assuming the responsibility, that
+he might have wiped the floor with me and welcome.
+
+"Our object," he commenced, "is not to prove your cousin innocent of the
+murder, but to find out who is guilty. The most logical method would be
+to study the scene of the crime first, but as that does not appear
+feasible until morning, we will examine such data as we have. On the
+face of it the only two who appear to be implicated are Radnor and this
+Cat-Eye Mose--who is a most picturesque character," Terry added, the
+reporter for the moment getting ahead of the detective.
+
+He paused and examined the end of his fountain pen speculatively, and
+then ran through the pile of clippings before him.
+
+"Well, now, as for Radnor. Suppose we look into his case a little." He
+glanced over one of the newspaper slips and tossed it across to me.
+
+"There's a clipping from the 'Baltimore Censor'--a tolerably
+conservative journal. What have you to say in regard to it?"
+
+I picked it up and glanced it over. It was dated May twenty-third--four
+days after the murder--and was the same in substance as many other
+articles I had read in the past week.
+
+
+     "No new evidence has come to light in regard to the sensational
+     murder of Colonel Gaylord whose body was discovered in Luray Cave,
+     Virginia, a few days ago. The authorities now concur in the belief
+     that the crime was committed by the son of the murdered man. The
+     accused is awaiting trial in the Kennisburg jail.
+
+     "It seems impossible that any man, however depraved, could in cold
+     blood commit so brutal and unnatural a crime as that with which
+     Radnor Gaylord is accused. It is only in the light of his past
+     history that the action can be understood. Coming from one of the
+     oldest families of Virginia, an heir to wealth and an honored name,
+     he is but another example of the many who have sold their
+     birth-right for a mess of pottage. A drunkard and a spendthrift, he
+     wasted his youth in gambling and betting on the races while honest
+     men were toiling for their daily bread.
+
+     "Several times has Radnor Gaylord been disinherited and turned
+     adrift, but Colonel Gaylord, weak in his love for his youngest son,
+     invariably received him back again into the house he had
+     dishonored. Finally, pressed beyond the point of endurance, the old
+     man took a firm stand and refused to meet his son's inordinate
+     demands for money. Young Gaylord, rendered desperate by debts, took
+     the most obvious method of gaining his inheritance. His part in the
+     tragedy of Colonel Gaylord's death is as good as proved, though he
+     persistently and defiantly denies all knowledge of the crime. No
+     sympathy can be felt for him. The wish of every right-minded man in
+     the country must be that the law will take its course--and that as
+     speedily as possible."
+
+
+"Well?" said Terry as I finished.
+
+"It's a lie," I cried hotly.
+
+"All of it?"
+
+"Every word of it!"
+
+"Oh, see here," said Terry. "There's no use in your trying to hide
+things. That account is an exaggeration of course, but it must have some
+foundation. You told me you weren't afraid of the truth. Just be so kind
+as to tell it to me, then. Exactly what sort of a fellow is Radnor? I
+want to know for several reasons."
+
+"Well, he did drink a good deal for a youngster," I admitted, "though
+never to such an extent as has been reported. Of late he had stopped
+entirely. As for gambling, the young men around here have got into a bad
+way of playing for high stakes, but during the past month or so Rad had
+pulled up in that too. He sometimes backed one of their own horses from
+the Gaylord stables, but so did the Colonel; it's the regular thing in
+Virginia. As for his ever having been disinherited, that is a newspaper
+story, pure and simple. I never heard anything of the sort, and the
+neighborhood has told me pretty much all there is to know within the
+last few days."
+
+"His father never turned him out of the house then?"
+
+"Never that I heard of. He did leave home once because his father
+insulted him, but he came back again."
+
+"That was forgiving," commented Terry. "In general, though, I understand
+that the relations between the two were rather strained?"
+
+"At times they were," I admitted, "but things had been going rather
+better for the last few days."
+
+"Until the night before the murder. They quarreled then? And over a
+matter of money?"
+
+"Yes. Radnor makes no secret of it. He wanted his father to settle
+something on him, and upon his father's refusal some words passed
+between them."
+
+"And a French clock," suggested Terry.
+
+I acknowledged the clock and Terry pondered the question with one eye
+closed meditatively.
+
+"Had Radnor ever asked for anything of the sort before?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"Why did he ask then?"
+
+"Well, it's rather galling for a man of his age to be dependent on his
+father for every cent he gets. The Colonel always gave him plenty, but
+he did not want to take it in that way."
+
+"In just what way did he want to take it?" Terry inquired. "Since he was
+so infernally independent why didn't he get to work and earn something?"
+
+"Earn something!" I returned sharply. "Rad has managed the whole
+plantation for the last three years. His father was getting too old for
+business and if Rad hadn't taken hold, things would have gone to the
+deuce long ago. All he got as a regular salary was fifty dollars a
+month; I think it was time he was paid for his services."
+
+"Oh, very well," Terry laughed. "I was merely asking the question. And
+if you will allow me to go a step further, why did Colonel Gaylord
+object to settling something on the boy?"
+
+"He wanted to keep him under his thumb. The Colonel liked to rule, and
+he wished everyone around him to be dependent on his will."
+
+"I see!" said Terry. "Radnor had a real grievance, then, after all--just
+one thing more on this point. Why did he choose that particular time to
+make his request? You say he has had practical charge of affairs for the
+past three years. Why did he not wish to be independent last year? Or
+why did he not postpone the desire until next year?"
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"You'll have to ask Radnor that." I had my own suspicions, but I did
+not wish to drag Polly Mathers's name into the discussion.
+
+Terry watched me a moment without saying anything, and then he too
+shrugged his shoulders as he turned back to the newspaper clippings.
+
+"I won't go into the matter of Radnor's connection with the ha'nt just
+now; I should like to consider first his actions on the day of the
+murder. I have here a report of the testimony taken at the inquest, but
+it is not so full as I could wish in some particulars. I should like to
+have you give me the details. First, you say that Radnor and his father
+did not speak at the breakfast table? How was it when you started?"
+
+"They both appeared to be in pretty good spirits, but I noticed that
+they avoided each other."
+
+"Very well, tell me exactly what you did after you arrived at Luray."
+
+"We left our horses at the hotel and walked about a mile across the
+fields to the mouth of the cave. We had lunch in the woods and at about
+one o'clock we started through the cave. We came out at a little after
+three, and, I should say, started to drive back about half past four."
+
+"Did you notice Radnor through the day?"
+
+"Not particularly."
+
+"Did you see either him or the Colonel in the cave?"
+
+"Yes, I was with the Colonel most of the time."
+
+"And how about Radnor? Didn't you see him at all?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I remember talking to him once about some queerly shaped
+stalagmites. He didn't hang around me, naturally, while I was with his
+father."
+
+"And when you talked to him about the stalagmites--was there anyone else
+with him at the time?"
+
+"I believe Miss Mathers was there."
+
+"And he was carrying her coat?"
+
+"I didn't notice."
+
+"At least he left it later in what you call the gallery of the broken
+column?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I see," said Terry glancing over the printed report of the inquest,
+"that the coroner asked at this point if Radnor were in the habit of
+forgetting young ladies' coats. That's more pertinent than many of the
+questions he asked. How about it? Was he in the habit of forgetting
+young ladies' coats?"
+
+"I really don't know, Terry," I said somewhat testily.
+
+"It's a pity you're not more observing," he returned, "for it's
+important, on the whole. But never mind. I'll find that out for myself.
+Did you notice when he left the rest of the party?"
+
+"No, there was such a crowd of us that I didn't miss him."
+
+"Very well, we'll have a look at his testimony. He left the rest of you
+in this same gallery of the broken column, went straight out, strolled
+about the woods for half an hour or so and then returned to the hotel. I
+fancy 'strolled' is not precisely the right word, but at any rate it's
+the word he uses. Now that half hour in the woods is an unfortunate
+circumstance. Had he gone directly to the hotel from the cave, we could
+have proved an alibi without any difficulty. As it is, he had plenty of
+time after the others came out to remember that he had forgotten the
+coat, return for it, renew the quarrel with his father, and after the
+fatal result make his way to the hotel while the rest of the party were
+still loitering in the woods."
+
+"Terry--" I began.
+
+He waved his hand in a gesture of dissent.
+
+"Oh, I'm not saying that's what _did_ happen. I'm just showing you that
+the district attorney's theory is a physical possibility. Let's glance
+at the landlord's testimony a moment. When Radnor returned for his horse
+he appeared angry, excited and in a hurry. Those are the landlord's
+words, and they are corroborated by the stable boy and several loungers
+about the hotel.
+
+"He was in a hurry--why? Because he wished to get away before the others
+came back. He had suddenly decided while he was in the woods--probably
+when he heard them laughing and talking as they came out of the
+cave--that he did not wish to see anyone. He was angry--mark that. All
+of the witnesses agree there, and I think that his actions carry out
+their evidence. He drank two glasses of brandy--by the way, I understood
+you to say he had stopped drinking. He ordered the stable boy about
+sharply. He swore at him for being slow. He lashed his horse quite
+unnecessarily as he galloped off. He rode home at an outrageous rate.
+And he was not, Solomon gives me to understand, in the habit of
+maltreating horses.
+
+"Now what do you make of all this? Here is a young man with an
+unexpended lot of temper on his hands--bent on being reckless; bent on
+being just as bad as he can be. It's as clear as daylight. That boy
+never committed any crime. A man who had just murdered his father would
+not be filled with anger, no matter what the provocation had been. He
+might be overcome with horror, fear, remorse--a dozen different
+emotions, but anger would not be among them. And further, a man who had
+committed a crime and intended to deny it later, would not proclaim his
+feelings in quite that blatant manner. Young Gaylord had not injured
+anyone; he himself had been injured. He was mad through and through, and
+he didn't care who knew it. He expended--you will remember--the most of
+his belligerency on his horse on the way home, and you found him in the
+summer house undergoing the natural reaction. By evening he had got
+himself well in hand again and was probably considerably ashamed of his
+conduct. He doesn't care to talk about the matter for several reasons.
+Fortunately Solomon is not so scrupulous."
+
+"I don't know what you're driving at, Terry," said I.
+
+"Don't you?" he inquired. "Well, really, it's about time that I came
+down!" He paused while he scrawled one or two sentences on his copy pad,
+then he glanced up with a laugh. "I don't know myself, but I think I can
+make a pretty good guess. We'll call on Miss Polly Mathers in the
+morning and see if she can't help us out."
+
+"Terry," I expostulated, "that girl knows no more about the matter than
+I do. She has already given her testimony, and I positively will not
+have her name mentioned in connection with the affair."
+
+"I don't see how you can help it," was his cool reply. "If she's in,
+she's in, and I'm not to blame. However, we won't quarrel about it now;
+we'll pay her a call in the morning." He ran his eyes over the clippings
+again, then added, "There are just two more points connecting Radnor
+Gaylord with the murder that need explaining: the foot-prints in the
+cave and the match box. The foot-prints I will dismiss for the present
+because I have not seen them myself and I can't make any deductions from
+hearsay evidence. But the question of the match box may repay a little
+investigation. I want you to tell me precisely what happened in the
+woods before you went into the cave. In the first place, how many older
+people were there in the party?"
+
+"Mr. and Mrs. Mathers, a lady who was visiting them and Colonel
+Gaylord."
+
+"There were two servants, I understand, besides this Mose, to help about
+the lunch. What did they do?"
+
+"Well, I don't know exactly. I wasn't paying much attention. I believe
+they carried things over from the hotel, collected wood for the fire,
+and then went to a farm house for water."
+
+"But Mrs. Mathers, it seems, attended to lighting the fire?"
+
+"Yes, she and the Colonel made the fire and started the coffee."
+
+"Ah!" said Terry with a note of satisfaction in his voice. "The matter
+begins to clear. Was Colonel Gaylord in the habit of smoking?"
+
+"He smoked one cigar after every meal."
+
+"Never any more than that?"
+
+"No, the doctor had limited him. The Colonel grumbled about it
+regularly, and always smoked the biggest blackest cigar he could find."
+
+"And where did he get his matches?"
+
+"Solomon passed the brass match box from the dining-room mantelpiece
+just as he passed it to us to-night."
+
+"Colonel Gaylord was not in the habit of carrying matches in his pockets
+then?"
+
+"No, I think not."
+
+"We may safely assume," said Terry, "that in this matter of making the
+fire, if the two were working together, the Colonel was on his knees
+arranging the sticks while Mrs. Mathers was standing by, giving
+directions. That, I believe, is the usual division of labor. Well, then,
+they get to the point of needing a light. The Colonel feels through his
+pockets, finds that he hasn't a match and--what happens?"
+
+"What did happen," I broke in, "was that Mrs. Mathers turned to a group
+of us who were standing talking at one side, and asked if any of us had
+a match, and Rad handed her his box. That is the last anyone remembers
+about it."
+
+"Exactly!" said Terry. "And I think I can tell you the rest. You can see
+for yourself what took place. Mrs. Mathers went back to the spot where
+they were building the fire, and the Colonel took the match box from
+her. No man is ever going to stand by and watch a woman strike a
+match--he can do it so much better himself. At this point, Mrs.
+Mathers--by her own testimony--was called away, and she doesn't
+remember anything further about the box. She thinks that she returned
+it. Why? For no reason on earth except that she usually returns things.
+As a matter of fact, however, she didn't do it this time. She was called
+away and the Colonel was left to light the fire alone. He recognized the
+box as his son's and he dropped it into his pocket. At another time
+perhaps he would have walked over and handed it back; but not then. The
+two were not speaking to each other. Later, at the time of the struggle
+in the cave, the box fell from the old man's pocket, and formed a most
+damaging piece of circumstantial evidence against his son.
+
+"On the whole," Terry finished, "I do not think we shall have a very
+difficult time in clearing Radnor. I had arrived at my own conclusions
+concerning him from reading the papers; what extra data I needed, I
+managed to glean from Solomon's lies. And as for you," he added, gazing
+across at me with an imperturbable grin, "I think you were wise in
+deciding to be a corporation lawyer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+TERRY ARRIVES AT A CONCLUSION
+
+
+"And now," said Terry, lighting a fresh cigar, and after a few
+preliminary puffs, settling down to work again, "we will consider the
+case of Cat-Eye Mose--a beautiful name, by the way, and apparently a
+beautiful character. It won't be my fault if we don't make a beautiful
+story out of him. You, yourself, I believe, hold the opinion that he
+committed the murder?"
+
+"I am sure of it," I cried.
+
+"In that case," laughed Terry, "I should be inclined to think him
+innocent."
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. There was nothing to be gained by getting
+angry. If Terry chose to regard the solving of a murder mystery in the
+light of a joke, I had nothing to say; though I did think he might have
+realized that to me, at least, it was a serious matter.
+
+"And you base your suspicions, do you not, upon the fact that he has
+queer eyes?"
+
+"Not entirely."
+
+"Upon what then?"
+
+"Upon the fact that he took part in the struggle which ended in my
+uncle's death."
+
+"Well, certainly, that does seem rather conclusive--there is no mistake
+about the foot-prints?"
+
+"None whatever; the Mathers niggers both wore shoes, and anyway they
+didn't go into the cave."
+
+"In that case I suppose it's fair to assume that Mose took part in the
+struggle. Whether he was the only man or whether there was still a
+third, the cave itself ought to tell a pretty clear story."
+
+Terry rose and paced up and down the room once or twice, and then came
+back and picked up one of the newspaper clippings.
+
+"It says here that the boot marks of two different men are visible."
+
+"That's the sheriff's opinion," I replied. "Though I myself, can't make
+out anything but the marks of Mose and the Colonel. I examined
+everything carefully, but it's awfully mixed up, you know. One really
+can't tell much about it."
+
+Terry impatiently flung himself into the chair again.
+
+"I ought to have come down last week! If I had supposed you people could
+muddle matters up so thoroughly I should. I dare say you've trampled the
+whole place over till there isn't one of the original marks left."
+
+"Look here, Terry," I said. "You act as if Virginia belonged to you.
+We've all been working our heads off over this business, and you come in
+at the last moment and quarrel with our data. You can go over tomorrow
+morning and collect your own evidence if you think it's so far superior
+to anyone else's. The marks are just as they were. Boards have been laid
+over them and nothing's been disturbed."
+
+"You're rather done up, old man," Terry remarked, smiling across at me
+good-humoredly. "Of course it's quite on the cards that Cat-Eye Mose
+committed the crime--but there are a number of objections. As I
+understand it, he has the reputation of being a harmless, peaceable
+fellow not very bright but always good-natured. He never resented an
+injury, was never known to quarrel with anyone, took what was given him
+and said thank you. He loved Colonel Gaylord and watched over his
+interests as jealously as a dog. Well now, is a man who has had this
+reputation all his life, a man whom everybody trusts, very likely to go
+off the hook as suddenly as that and--with no conceivable
+motive--brutally kill the master he has served so faithfully? A man's
+future is in a large measure determined by his past."
+
+"That may all be true enough," I said, "but it is very possible that
+people were deceived in Mose. I have been suspicious of him from the
+moment I laid eyes on him. You may think it unfair to judge a man from
+his physical appearance, but I wish you could once see Cat-Eye Mose
+yourself, and you would know what I mean. The people around here are
+used to him and don't notice it so much, but his eyes are
+yellow--positively yellow, and they narrow in the light just like a
+cat's. One night he drove Radnor and me home from a party, and I could
+actually see his eyes shining in the dark. It's the most gruesome thing
+I ever saw; and take that on top of his habits--he carries snakes around
+in the front of his shirt--really, one suspects him of anything."
+
+"I hope he isn't dead," Terry murmured wistfully. "I'd like a personal
+interview."
+
+He sat sunk down in his chair for several minutes intently examining the
+end of his fountain pen.
+
+"Well," he said rousing himself, "it's time we had a shy at the ghost.
+We must find out in what way Radnor and Mose were connected with him,
+and in what way he was connected with the robbery. Radnor could help us
+considerably if he would only talk--the fact that he won't talk is very
+suggestive. We'll get at the truth without him, though. Suppose you
+begin and tell me everything from the first appearance of the ha'nt. I
+should like to get him tabulated."
+
+"The first definite thing that reached the house," I replied, "was the
+night of my arrival when the roast chicken was stolen--I've told you
+that in detail."
+
+"And it was that same night that Aunt What-Ever-Her-Name-Is saw the
+ghost in the laurel walk?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"Did she say what it looked like?"
+
+"It was white."
+
+"And when you searched the cabins did you go into the one where the
+grain is stored?"
+
+"No, Mose dropped his torch at the entrance. And anyway Rad said there
+was no use in searching it; it was already full to the brim with sacks
+of corn meal."
+
+"Do you think that Radnor was trying to divert you from the scene?"
+
+"No, I am sure he hadn't a suspicion himself."
+
+"And what did the thing look like that you saw Mose carrying to the
+cabins in the night?"
+
+"It seemed to be a large black bundle. I have thought since that it
+might have been clothes or blankets or something of that sort."
+
+"So much for the first night," said Terry. "Now, how soon did the ghost
+appear again?"
+
+"Various things were stolen after that, and the servants attributed it
+to the ha'nt, but the first direct knowledge I had was the night of the
+party when Radnor acted so strangely. I told you of his going back in
+the night."
+
+"He was carrying something too?"
+
+"Yes, he had a black bundle--it might have been clothes."
+
+"And after that he and Mose were in constant consultation?"
+
+"Yes--they both encouraged the belief in the ha'nt among the negroes and
+did their best to keep everyone away from the laurel walk. I overheard
+Mose several times telling stories to the other negroes about the
+terrible things the ha'nt would do if it caught them."
+
+"And he himself didn't show any fear over the stories?"
+
+"Not the slightest--appeared rather to enjoy them."
+
+"And Radnor--how did he take the matter?"
+
+"He was moody and irritable. I could see that something was preying on
+his mind."
+
+"How did you explain the matter to yourself?"
+
+"I was afraid he had fallen into the clutches of someone who was
+threatening him, possibly levying blackmail."
+
+"But you didn't make any attempt to discover the truth?"
+
+"Well, it was Rad's own affair, and I didn't want the appearance of
+spying. I did keep my eyes open as much as I could."
+
+"And the Colonel, how did he take all this excitement about the ha'nt?"
+
+"It bothered him considerably, but Rad kept him from hearing it as much
+as he could."
+
+"When did the ha'nt appear again after the party?"
+
+"Oh, by that time all sorts of rumors were running about among the
+negroes. The whole place was haunted and several of the plantation hands
+had left. But the next thing that we heard directly was in the early
+evening before the robbery when Mose, appearing terribly frightened,
+said he had seen the ha'nt rising in a cloud of blue smoke out of the
+spring-hole."
+
+"And how did the Colonel and Radnor take this?"
+
+"The Colonel was angry because he had been bragging about Mose not
+being afraid, and Rad was dazed. He didn't know what to think; he
+hustled Mose out of the way before we could ask any questions."
+
+"And what did you think?"
+
+"Well, I fancied at the time that he had really seen something, but as I
+thought it over in the light of later events I came to the conclusion
+that he was shamming, both then and in the middle of the night when he
+roused the house."
+
+"That is, you wished to think him shamming, in order to prove his
+complicity in the robbery and the murder; and so you twisted the facts
+to suit your theory?"
+
+"I don't think you can say that," I returned somewhat hotly. "It's
+merely a question of interpreting the facts."
+
+"He didn't gain much by raising all that hullabaloo in the middle of the
+night."
+
+"Why yes, that was done in order to throw suspicion on the ha'nt."
+
+"Oh, I see!" laughed Terry. "Well, now, let's get to the end of this
+matter. Was any more seen of the ha'nt after that night?"
+
+"No, at least not directly. For five or six days everyone was so taken
+up with the robbery that the ha'nt excitement rather died down. Then I
+believe there were some rumors among the negroes but nothing much
+reached the house."
+
+"And since the murder nothing whatever has been seen of the ha'nt?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Just give me a list of the things that were stolen."
+
+"Well, the roast chicken, a box of cigars, some shirts off the line, a
+suit of Rad's pajamas, a French novel, some brandy, quite a lot of
+things to eat--fresh loaves of bread, preserves, a boiled ham, sugar,
+coffee--oh, any amount of stuff! The niggers simply helped themselves
+and laid it to the ha'nt. One of the carriages was left out one night,
+and in the morning the cushions were gone and two lap robes. At the same
+time a water pail was taken and a pair of Jake's overalls. And then to
+end up came the robbery of the safe."
+
+"The ha'nt had catholic tastes. Any of the things turned up since?"
+
+"Yes, a number of things, such as blankets and clothes and dishes have
+gradually drifted back."
+
+"The carriage cushions and lap robes--ever find them?"
+
+"Never a trace--and why anyone should want 'em, I don't know!"
+
+"What color were the lap robes?"
+
+"Plain black broadcloth."
+
+Terry got up and paced about a few moments and then came back and sat
+down.
+
+"One thing is clear," he said, "there are two ha'nts."
+
+"Two ha'nts! What do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say. Suppose for convenience we call them ha'nt number one,
+and ha'nt number two. Number one occupied apartments over the grain bin
+and haunted the laurel walk. He was white--I don't wonder at that if he
+spent much time crawling over those flour sacks. He smoked cigars and
+read French novels; Mose waited on him and Radnor knew about him--and
+didn't get much enjoyment out of the knowledge. It took money to get
+rid of him--a hundred dollars down and the promise of more to come.
+Radnor himself drove him off in the carriage the night he left, and Mose
+obliterated all traces of his presence. So much for number one.
+
+"As for number two, he appeared three or four days before the robbery
+and haunted pretty much the whole place, especially the region of the
+spring-hole. In appearance he was nine feet tall, transparent, and
+black. Smoke came from his mouth and blue flames from his eyes. There
+was a sulphurous odor about him. He was first seen rising out of the
+spring-hole, and there is a passage in the bottom of the spring-hole
+that leads straight down to hell. Solomon is my authority.
+
+"I asked him how he explained the apparition and he reckoned it was the
+ghost of the slave who was beaten to death, and that since his old
+master had come back to haunt the laurel walk, he had come back to haunt
+his old master. That sounds to me like a plausible explanation. As soon
+as it's light I'll have a look at the spring-hole."
+
+"Terry," I said disgustedly, "that may make a very picturesque
+newspaper story, but it doesn't help much in unravelling the mystery."
+
+"It helps a good deal. I would not like to swear to the flames or
+sulphur or the passage down to hell, but the fact that he was tall and
+black and comes from the spring-hole is significant. He was black--mark
+that--so were the stolen lap robes.
+
+"Now you see how the matter stands on the night of the robbery. While
+ghost number one was out driving with Radnor, ghost number two entered
+the house through the open library window, found the safe ajar and
+helped himself. Let's consider what he took--five thousand dollars in
+government bonds, two deeds, an insurance policy, and a quart of small
+change--a very suggestive lot of loot if you think about it enough.
+After the robbery he disappeared, nothing seen of him for five or six
+days; then he turned up again for a day or so, and finally disappeared
+forever. So much for ha'nt number two. He's the party we're after. He
+pretty certainly robbed the safe and he possibly committed the
+murder--as to that I won't have any proof until I see the cave."
+
+He stretched his arms with a laugh.
+
+"Oh, this isn't so bad! All we've got to do now is to identify those two
+ghosts."
+
+"I'm glad if you think it's so easy," I said somewhat sullenly. "But I
+will tell you one thing, if you go to basing any deductions on Solomon's
+stories you'll find yourself bumping against a stone wall."
+
+"We'll have Rad over to dinner with us tomorrow night," Terry declared.
+
+He rose and pulled out his watch.
+
+"It's a quarter before ten. I think it's time you went to bed. You look
+about played out. You haven't been sleeping much of late?"
+
+"No, I can't say that I have."
+
+"I ought to have come down at once," said Terry, "but I'm always so
+blamed afraid of hurting people's feelings."
+
+I stared slightly. I had never considered that one of Terry's weak
+points, but as he seemed to be quite in earnest, I let the remark pass.
+
+"Do you think I could knock up one of the stable-men to drive me to the
+village? I know it's pretty late but I've got to send a couple of
+telegrams."
+
+"Telegrams?" I demanded. "Where to?"
+
+Terry laughed.
+
+"Well, I must send a word to the Post-Dispatch to the effect that the
+Luray mystery grows more mysterious every hour. That the police have
+been wasting their energies on the wrong scent, but that the
+Post-Dispatch's special correspondent has arrived on the scene, and that
+we may accordingly look for a speedy solution."
+
+"What is the second one?" I asked.
+
+"To your friend, the police commissioner of Seattle."
+
+"You don't think that Jeff--?"
+
+"My dear fellow, I don't think, unless I have facts to think
+about.--Don't look so nervous; I'm not accusing him of anything. I
+merely want more details than you got; I'm a newspaper man, remember,
+and I like local color even in telegrams. And now, go to bed; and for
+heaven's sake, go to sleep. The case is in the hands of the
+Post-Dispatch's young man, and you needn't worry any more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+TERRY FINDS THE BONDS
+
+
+I was wakened the next morning by Terry clumping into my room dressed in
+riding breeches and boots freshly spattered with mud.
+
+They were Radnor's clothes--Terry had taken me at my word and was
+thoroughly at home.
+
+"Hello, old man!" he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Been
+asleep, haven't you? Sorry to wake you, but we've got a day's work
+ahead. Hope you don't mind my borrowing Radnor's togs. Didn't come down
+prepared for riding. Solomon gave 'em to me--seemed to think that Radnor
+wouldn't need 'em any more. Oh, Solomon and I are great friends!" he
+added with a laugh, as he suddenly appeared to remember the object of
+his visit and commenced a search through his pockets.
+
+I sat up in bed and watched him impatiently. It was evident that he had
+some news, and equally evident that he was going to be as leisurely as
+possible about imparting it.
+
+"This is a pretty country," he remarked as he finished with his coat
+pockets and commenced on the waistcoat. "It would be almost worth living
+in if many little affairs like this occurred to keep things going."
+
+"Really, Terry," I said, "when you refer to my uncle's murder as a
+'little affair' I think you're going too far!"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," he returned good-naturedly, "I guess I am
+incorrigible. I didn't know Colonel Gaylord personally, you see, and I'm
+so used to murders that I've come to think it's the only natural way of
+dying. Anyhow," he added, as he finally produced a yellow envelope,
+"I've got something here that will interest you. It explains why our
+young friend Radnor didn't want to talk."
+
+He tossed the envelope on the bed and I eagerly tore out the telegram.
+It was from the police commissioner in Seattle and it ran:
+
+
+     "Jefferson Gaylord returned Seattle May fifth after absence six
+     weeks. Said to have visited old home Virginia. Had been wanted by
+     police. Suspected implication in case obtaining money false
+     pretences. Mistaken charge. Case dismissed."
+
+
+"What does it mean?" I asked.
+
+"It means," said Terry, "that we've spotted ghost number one. It was
+clear from the first that Radnor was trying to shield someone, even at
+the expense of his own reputation. Leaving women out of the case, that
+pointed pretty straight toward his elder brother. Part of your theory
+was correct, the only trouble being that you carried it too far. You
+made Jeff commit both the robbery and the murder, while as a matter of
+fact he did neither. Then when you found a part of your theory was
+untenable you rejected the whole of it.
+
+"This is how the matter stood: Jeff Gaylord was pretty desperately in
+need of money. I suspect that the charge against him, whatever it was,
+was true. The money he had taken had to be returned and somebody's
+silence bought before the thing could be hushed up. Anyway, Seattle was
+too hot to hold him and he lit out and came East. He applied to Radnor,
+but Radnor was in a tight place himself and couldn't lay his hands on
+anything except what his father had given him for a birthday present.
+That was tied up in another investment and if he converted it into cash
+it would be at a sacrifice. So it ran along for a week or so, while Rad
+was casting about for a means of getting his brother out of the way
+without any fresh scandal. But Mose's suddenly taking to seeing ha'nts
+precipitated matters. Realizing that his father's patience had reached
+its limit, and that he couldn't keep you off the scent much longer, he
+determined to borrow the money for Jeff's journey back to Seattle, and
+to close up his own investment.
+
+"That same night he drove Jeff to the station at Kennisburg. The
+Washington express does not stop at Lambert Junction, and anyway
+Kennisburg is a bigger station and travellers excite less comment. This
+isn't deduction; it's fact. I rode to Kennisburg this morning and
+proved it. The station man remembers selling Radnor Gaylord a ticket to
+Washington in the middle of the night about three weeks ago. Some man
+who waited outside and whose face the agent did not see, boarded the
+train, and Rad drove off alone. The ticket seller does not know Rad
+personally but he knows him by sight--so much for that. Rad came home
+and went to bed. When he came down stairs in the morning he was met by
+the information that the ha'nt had robbed the safe. You can see what
+instantly jumped into his mind--some way, somehow, Jeff had taken those
+bonds--and yet figure on it as he might, he could not see how it was
+possible. The robbery seemed to have occurred while he was away. Could
+Jeff merely have pretended to leave? Might he have slipped off the train
+again and come back? Those are the questions that were bothering Radnor.
+He was honest in saying that he could not imagine how the bonds had been
+stolen, and yet he was also honest in not wanting to know the truth."
+
+"He might have confided in me," I said.
+
+"It would have been a good deal better if he had. But in order to
+understand Rad's point of view, you must take into account Jeff's
+character. He appears to have been a reckless, dashing, headstrong, but
+exceedingly attractive fellow. His father put up with his excesses for
+six years before the final quarrel. Cat-Eye Mose, so old Jake tells me,
+moped for months after his disappearance. Rad, as a little fellow,
+worshipped his bad but charming brother.--There you have it. Jeff turns
+up again with a hard luck story, and Mose and Radnor both go back to
+their old allegiance.
+
+"Jeff is in a bad hole, a fugitive from justice with the penitentiary
+waiting for him. He confesses the whole thing to Radnor--extenuating
+circumstances plausibly to the fore. He has been dishonest, but
+unintentionally so. He wishes to straighten up and lead a respectable
+life. If he had, say fifteen hundred dollars, he could quash the
+indictment against him. He is Radnor's brother and the Colonel's son,
+but Rad is to receive a fortune while he is to be disinherited. The
+money he asks now is only his right. If he receives it he will disappear
+and trouble Rad no more.--That, I fancy, is the line of argument our
+returned prodigal used. Anyway, he won Rad over. Radnor was thinking of
+getting married, had plenty of use for all the money he could lay his
+hands on, but he seems to be a generous chap, and he sacrificed himself.
+
+"For obvious reasons Jeff wished his presence kept a secret, and Rad and
+Mose respected his wishes. After the robbery Radnor was too sick at the
+thought that his brother may have betrayed him, to want to do anything
+but hush the matter up. At the news of the murder he did not know what
+to think; he would not believe Jeff guilty, and yet he did not see any
+other way out."
+
+Terry paused a moment and leaned forward with an excited gleam in his
+eye.
+
+"That," he said, "is the whole truth about ghost number one. Our
+business now is to track down number two, and here, as a starter are the
+missing bonds."
+
+He tossed a pile of mildewed papers on the bed and met my astonishment
+with a triumphant chuckle.
+
+It was true--all five of the missing bonds were there, the May first
+coupons still uncut. Also the deeds and insurance policy, exactly as
+they had left the safe, except that they were damp and mud-stained.
+
+I stared for a moment too amazed to speak. Finally, "Where did you find
+them?" I gasped.
+
+Terry regarded me with a tantalizing laugh.
+
+"Exactly where I thought I'd find them. Oh, I've been out early this
+morning! I saw the sun rise, and breakfasted in Kennisburg at six
+forty-five. I'm ready for another breakfast though. Hurry up and dress.
+We've got a day's work before us. I'm off to the stables to talk
+'horses' with Uncle Jake; when you're ready for breakfast send Solomon
+after me."
+
+"Terry," I implored, "where on the face of the earth did you find those
+bonds?"
+
+"At the mouth of the passage to hell," said Terry gravely, "but I'm not
+quite sure myself who put them there."
+
+"Mose?" I queried eagerly.
+
+"It might have been--and it might not." He waved his hand airily and
+withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+POLLY MAKES A CONFESSION
+
+
+At breakfast Terry drank two cups of coffee and subsided into thought. I
+could get no more from him on the subject of the bonds; he was not sure
+himself, was all the satisfaction he would give. When the meal was half
+over, to Solomon's dismay, he suddenly rose without noticing a new dish
+of chicken livers that had just appeared at his elbow.
+
+"Come on," he said impatiently, "you've had enough to eat. I've got to
+see those marks while they're still there. I'm desperately afraid an
+earthquake will swallow that cave before I get a chance at them."
+
+Fifteen minutes later we were bowling down the lane behind the fastest
+pair of horses in the Gaylord stables, and through the prettiest country
+in the State of Virginia. Terry sat with his hands in his pockets and
+his eyes on the dash-board. As we came to the four corners at the
+valley-pike I reined in.
+
+"Would you rather go the short way over the mountains by a very rough
+road, or the long way through Kennisburg?" I inquired.
+
+"What's that?" he asked. "Oh, the short way by all means--but first I
+want to call at the Mathers's."
+
+"It would simply be a waste of time."
+
+"It won't take long--and since Radnor won't talk I've got to get at the
+facts from the other end. Besides, I want to see Polly myself."
+
+"Miss Mathers knows nothing about the matter," said I as stiffly as
+possible.
+
+"Doesn't she!" said Terry. "She knows a good many things, and it's about
+time she told them.--At any rate, you must admit that she's the owner of
+the unfortunate coat that caused the trouble; I want to ask her some
+questions about that. Why can't girls learn to carry their own coats? It
+would save a lot of trouble."
+
+It ended by my driving, with a very bad grace, to Mathers Hall.
+
+"You wait here until I come out," said Terry, coolly, as I drew up by
+the stepping stone and commenced fumbling for a hitching strap.
+
+"Not much!" said I. "If you interview Polly Mathers I shall be present
+at the interview."
+
+"Oh, very well!" he returned resignedly. "If you'd let me go about it my
+own way, though, I'd get twice as much out of her."
+
+The family were at breakfast, the servant informed me. I left Terry in
+the parlor while I went on to the dining-room to explain the object of
+our visit.
+
+"There is a friend of mine here from New York to help us about the
+trial"--I thought it best to suppress his real profession--"and he wants
+to interview Miss Polly in regard to the coat. I am very sorry--"
+
+"Certainly," said Mrs. Mathers, "Polly is only too glad to help in any
+way possible."
+
+And to my chagrin Polly excused herself and withdrew to the parlor,
+while her father kept me listening to a new and not very valuable
+theory of his in regard to the disappearance of Mose. It was fifteen
+minutes before I made my escape and knocked on the parlor door. I turned
+the knob and went in without waiting for a summons.
+
+The Mathers's parlor is a long cool dim room with old-fashioned mahogany
+furniture and jars of roses scattered about. It was so dark after the
+bright sunshine of the rest of the house, that for a moment I didn't
+discover the occupants until the sound of Polly's sobbing proclaimed
+their whereabouts. I was somewhat taken aback to find her sitting in a
+corner of the big horsehair sofa, her head buried in the cushions, while
+Terry, nonchalantly leaning back in his chair, regarded her with much
+the expression that he might have worn at a "first night" at the
+theatre. It might also be noted that Polly wore a white dress with a big
+bunch of roses in her belt, that her hair was becomingly rumpled by the
+cushion, and that she was not crying hard enough to make her eyes red.
+
+"Hello, old man!" said Terry and I fancied that his tone was not
+entirely cordial. "Just sit down and listen to this. We've been having
+some interesting disclosures."
+
+Polly raised her head and cast him a reproachful glance, while with a
+limp wave of the hand she indicated a chair.
+
+I settled myself and inquired reassuringly, "Well, Polly, what's the
+trouble?"
+
+"You tell him," said Polly to Terry, as she settled herself to cry
+again.
+
+"I'll tell you," said Terry, glancing warily at me, "but it's a secret,
+remember. You mustn't let any of those horrid newspaper men get hold of
+it. Miss Mathers would hate awfully to have anything like this get into
+the papers."
+
+"Oh, go on, Terry," said I, crossly, "if you've got anything to tell,
+for heaven's sake tell it!"
+
+"Well, as far as we'd got when you interrupted, was that that afternoon
+in the cave she and Radnor had somehow got separated from the rest of
+the party and gone on ahead. They sat down to wait for the others on the
+fallen column, and while they were waiting Radnor asked her to marry
+him, for the seventh--or was it the eighth time?"
+
+"The seventh, I think," said Polly.
+
+"It's happened so often that, she's sort of lost track; but anyway, she
+replied by asking him if he knew the truth about the ghost. He said,
+yes, he did, but he couldn't tell her; it was somebody else's secret. On
+his word of honor though there was nothing that he was to blame for. She
+said she wouldn't marry a man who had secrets. He said that unless she
+took him now, she would never have the chance again; it was the last
+time he was going to ask her--is that straight, Miss Mathers?"
+
+"Y-yes," sobbed Polly from the depths of her cushion.
+
+Terry proceeded with a fast broadening smile; it was evident that he
+enjoyed the recital.
+
+"And then being naturally angry that any man should presume to propose
+for the last time, she proceeded to be 'perfectly horrid' to him.--Go
+on, Miss Mathers. That's as far as you'd got."
+
+"I--I told him--you won't tell anyone?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I told him I'd decided to marry Jim Mattison."
+
+"Ah--" said Terry. "Now we're getting at it! If you don't mind my
+asking, Miss Mathers, was that just a bluff on your part, or had Mr.
+Mattison really asked you?"
+
+Polly sat up and eyed him with a sparkle of resentment.
+
+"Certainly, he'd asked me--a dozen times."
+
+"I beg pardon!" murmured Terry. "So now you're engaged to Mr. Mattison?"
+
+"Oh, no!" cried Polly. "Jim doesn't know I said it--I didn't mean it; I
+just wanted to make Radnor mad."
+
+"I see! So it was a bluff after all? Were you successful in making him
+mad?"
+
+She nodded dismally.
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"Oh, he was awfully angry! He said that if he never amounted to anything
+it would be my fault."
+
+"And then what?"
+
+"We heard the others coming and he started off. I called after him and
+asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to the d--devil."
+
+Polly began to cry again, and Terry chuckled slightly.
+
+"As a good many other young men have said under similar circumstances.
+But where he did go, was to the hotel; and there, it appears, he drank
+two glasses of brandy and swore at the stable boy.--Is that all, Miss
+Mathers?"
+
+"Yes; it's the last time I ever saw him and he thinks I'm engaged to Jim
+Mattison."
+
+"See here, Polly," said I with some excusable heat, "now why in thunder
+didn't you tell me all this before?"
+
+"You didn't ask me."
+
+"She was afraid that it would get into the papers," said Terry,
+soothingly. "It would be a terrible scandal to have anything like that
+get out. The fact that Radnor Gaylord was likely to be hanged for a
+murder he never committed, was in comparison a minor affair."
+
+Polly turned upon him with a flash of gray eyes.
+
+"I was going to tell before the trial. I didn't know the inquest made
+any difference. I would have told the coroner the morning he came to
+take my testimony, only he brought Jim Mattison with him as a witness,
+and I couldn't explain before Jim."
+
+"That would have been awkward," Terry agreed.
+
+"Polly," said I, severely. "This is inexcusable! If you had explained to
+me in the first place, the jury would never have remanded Radnor for
+trial."
+
+"But I thought you would find the real murderer, and then Radnor would
+be set free. It would be awful to tell that story before a whole room
+full of people and have Jim Mattison hear it. I detest Jim Mattison!"
+
+"Be careful what you say," said Terry. "You may have to take Jim
+Mattison after all. Radnor Gaylord will never ask you again."
+
+"Then I'll ask him!" said Polly.
+
+Terry laughed and rose.
+
+"He's in a bad hole, Miss Mathers, but I'm not sure but that I envy him
+after all."
+
+Polly dimpled through her tears; this was the language she understood.
+
+"Good by," she said. "You'll remember your promise?"
+
+"Never a syllable will I breathe," said Terry, and he put a hand on my
+shoulder and marched me off.
+
+"She's a fascinating young person," he observed, as we turned into the
+road.
+
+"You are not the first to discover that," said I.
+
+"I fancy I'm not!" he retorted with a sidewise glance at me.
+
+Terry gazed at the landscape a few moments with a pensive light in his
+eyes, then he threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"Thank heaven, women don't go in for crime to any great extent! You're
+never safe in forming any theory about 'em--their motives and their
+actions don't match."
+
+He paused to light a cigar and as soon as he got it well started took up
+the conversation again.
+
+"It's just as I suspected in regard to Rad, though I will say the papers
+furnished mighty few clues. It was the coat that put me on the track
+coupled with his behavior at the hotel. You see his emotions when he
+came out of that cave were mixed. There was probably a good deal of
+disappointment and grief down below his anger, but that for the moment
+was decidedly in the lead. He had been badly treated, and he knew it.
+What's more, he didn't care who else knew it. He was in a thoroughly
+vicious mood and ready to wreak his anger on the first thing that came
+to hand. That happened to be his horse. By the time he got home he had
+expended the most of his temper and his disappointment had come to the
+top. You found him wrestling with that. By evening he had brought his
+philosophy into play, and had probably decided to brace up and try
+again. And that," he finished, "is the whole story of our young
+gentleman's erratic behavior."
+
+"I wonder I didn't think of it myself," I said.
+
+Terry smiled and said nothing.
+
+"Radnor is naturally not loquacious about the matter," he resumed
+presently. "For one thing, because he does not wish to drag Polly's name
+into it, for another, I suppose he feels that if anyone is to do the
+explaining, she ought to be the one. He supposed that she would be
+present at the inquest and that her testimony would bring out sufficient
+facts to clear him. When he found that she was not there, and that her
+testimony did not touch on any important phase of the matter, he simply
+shut his mouth and said, 'Very well! If she won't tell, I won't.' Also,
+the coroner's manner was unfortunate. He showed that his sympathy was on
+the other side; and Radnor stubbornly determined not to say one word
+more than was dragged out of him by main force. It is much the attitude
+of the little boy who has been unfairly punished, and who derives an
+immense amount of satisfaction from the thought of how sorry his friends
+will be when he is dead. And now, I think we have Rad's case well in
+hand. In spite of the fact that he seems bound to be hung, we shall not
+have much difficulty in getting him off."
+
+"But what I can't understand," I grumbled, "is why that little wretch
+didn't tell me a word of all this. She came and informed me off-hand
+that he was innocent and asked me to clear him, with never a hint that
+she could explain the most suspicious circumstance against him."
+
+"You've got me," Terry laughed. "I give up when it comes to finding out
+why women do things. If you had _asked_ her, you know, she would have
+told you; but you never said a word about it."
+
+"How could I ask her when I didn't know anything about it?"
+
+"I managed to ask her," said Terry, "and what's more," he added
+gloomily, "I promised it shouldn't go any further--that is, than is
+necessary to get Rad off. Now don't you call that pretty tough luck,
+after coming 'way down here just to find out the truth, not to be
+allowed to print it when I've got it? How in the deuce am I to account
+for Rad's behavior without mentioning her?"
+
+"You needn't have promised," I suggested.
+
+"Oh, well," Terry grinned, "I'm human!"
+
+I let this pass and he added hastily, "We've disposed of Jeff; we've
+disposed of Radnor, but the real murderer is still to be found."
+
+"And that," I declared, "is Cat-Eye Mose."
+
+"It's possible," agreed Terry with a shrug. "But I have just the
+tiniest little entering wedge of a suspicion that the real murderer is
+not Cat-Eye Mose."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+MR. TERENCE KIRKWOOD PATTEN OF NEW YORK
+
+
+"There is Luray," I said, pointing with my whip to the scattered houses
+of the village as they lay in the valley at our feet.
+
+Terry stretched out a hand and pulled the horses to a standstill.
+
+"Whoa, just a minute till I get my bearings. Now, in which direction is
+the cave?"
+
+"It extends all along underneath us. The entrance is over there in the
+undergrowth about a mile to the east."
+
+"And the woods extend straight across the mountain in an unbroken line?"
+
+"Pretty much so. There are a few farms scattered in."
+
+"How about the farmers? Are they well-to-do around here?"
+
+"I think on the whole they are."
+
+"Which do they employ mostly to work in the fields, negroes or white
+men?"
+
+"As to that I can't say. It depends largely on circumstances. I think
+the smaller farms are more likely to employ white men."
+
+"Let me see," said Terry, "this is just about planting time. Are the
+farmers likely to take on extra men at this season?"
+
+"No, I don't think so; harvest time is when they are more likely to need
+help."
+
+"Farming is new to me," laughed Terry. "East Side problems don't involve
+it. A man of Mose's habits could hide pretty effectually in those woods
+if he chose." He scanned the hills again and then brought his eyes back
+to the village. "I suppose we might as well go on to the hotel first. I
+should like to interview some of the people there. And by the way," he
+added, "it's as well not to let them know I'm a friend of yours--or a
+newspaper man either. I think I'll be a detective. Your young man from
+Washington seems to have made quite a stir in regard to the robbery;
+we'll see if I can't beat him. There's nothing that so impresses a rural
+population as a detective. They look upon him as omnipotent and
+omniscient, and every man squirms before him in the fear that his own
+little sins will be brought to light." Terry laughed in prospect.
+"Introduce me as a detective by all means!"
+
+"Anything you like," I laughed in return. "I'll introduce you as the
+Pope if you think it will do any good." There was no keeping Terry
+suppressed, and his exuberance was contagious. I was beginning to feel
+light-hearted myself.
+
+The hotel at Luray was a long rambling structure which had been casually
+added to from time to time. It was painted a sickly, mustard yellow (a
+color which, the landlord assured me, would last forever) but it's
+brilliancy was somewhat toned by a thick coating of dust. A veranda
+extended across the front of the building flush with the wooden
+side-walk. The veranda was furnished with a railing, and the railing was
+furnished at all times of the day--except for a brief nooning from
+twelve to half-past--with a line of boot-soles in assorted sizes.
+
+We drew up with a flourish before the wooden steps in front of the
+hotel, and I threw the lines to the stable boy who came forward to
+receive us with an amusing air of importance. His connection with the
+Luray tragedy conferred a halo of distinction, and he realized the fact.
+It was not every one in the neighborhood who had had the honor of being
+cursed by a murderer. As we alighted Terry stopped to ask him a few
+questions. The boy had told his story to so many credulous audiences
+that by this time it was well-nigh unrecognizable. As he repeated it now
+for Terry's benefit, the evidence against Radnor appeared conclusive. A
+full confession of guilt could scarcely have been more damning.
+
+Terry threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"Take care, young man," he warned, "you'll be eating your words one of
+these days, and some of them will be pretty hard to swallow."
+
+As we mounted the steps I nodded to several of the men whom I remembered
+having seen before; and they returned an interested, "How-dy-do?
+Pleasant day," as they cast a reconnoitering glance at my companion.
+
+"Gentlemen," I said with a wave of my hand toward Terry, "let me
+introduce Mr. Terence Kirkwood Patten, the well-known detective of New
+York, who has come down to look into this matter for us."
+
+The chairs which were tipped back against the wall came down with a
+thud, and an awed and somewhat uneasy shuffling of feet ensued.
+
+"I wish to go through the cave," Terry remarked in the crisp, incisive
+tones a detective might be supposed to employ, "and I should like to
+have the same guide who conducted Mr. Crosby the time the body was
+discovered."
+
+"That's Pete Moser, he's out in the back lot plowin'," a half dozen
+voices responded.
+
+"Ah, thank you; will some one kindly call him? We will wait here."
+
+Terry proceeded with his usual ease to make himself at home. He tipped
+back his hat, inclined his chair at the same dubious angle as the
+others, and ranged his feet along the railing. He produced cigars from
+various pockets, and the atmosphere became less strained. They were
+beginning to realize that detectives are made of the same flesh and
+blood as other people. I gave Terry the lead--perhaps it would be more
+accurate to say that he took it--but it did not strike me that he set
+about his interviewing in a very business-like manner. He did not so
+much as refer to the case we had come to investigate, but chatted along
+pleasantly about the weather and the crops and the difficulty of finding
+farm-hands.
+
+We had not been settled very long when, to my surprise, Jim Mattison
+strolled out from the bar-room. What he was doing in Luray, I could
+easily conjecture. Mattison's assumption of interest in the case all
+along had angered me beyond measure. It is not, ordinarily, a part of
+the sheriff's duties to assist the prosecution in making out a case
+against one of his prisoners; and owing to the peculiar relation he bore
+to Radnor, his interference was not only bad law but excruciatingly bad
+taste. My dislike of the man had grown to such an extent that I could
+barely be civil to him. It was only because it was policy on my part
+not to make him an active enemy that I tolerated his presence at all.
+
+I presented Terry; though Mattison took his calling more calmly than the
+others, still I caught several sidewise glances in his direction, and I
+think he was impressed.
+
+"Happy to know you, Mr. Patten," he remarked as he helped himself to a
+chair and settled it at the general angle. "This is a pretty mysterious
+case in some respects. I rode over myself this morning to look into a
+few points and I shall be glad to have some help--though I'm afraid
+we'll not find anything that'll please you."
+
+"Anything pleases me, so long as it's the truth," Terry threw off, as he
+studied the sheriff, with a gleam of amusement in his eyes; he was
+thinking, I knew, of Polly Mathers. "I hope," he added, assuming a
+severely professional tone, "that you haven't let a lot of people crowd
+into the cave and tramp up all the marks."
+
+The landlord, who was standing in the doorway, chuckled at this.
+
+"There ain't many people that you could drive into that there cave at
+the point of the pistol," he assured us. "They think it's haunted;
+leastways the niggers do."
+
+"Have niggers been in the habit of going in much?"
+
+"Oh, more or less," the sheriff returned, "when they want to make
+themselves inconspicuous for any reason. I had a horse thief hide in
+there for two weeks last year while we were scouring the country for
+him. There are so many little holes; it's almost impossible to find a
+man. Tramps occasionally spend the night there in cold weather."
+
+"Do you have many tramps around here?"
+
+"Not a great many. Once in a while a nigger comes along and asks for
+something to eat."
+
+"More often he takes it without asking," one of the men broke in. "A
+week or so ago my ole woman had a cheese an' a ham an' two whole pies
+that she'd got ready for a church social just disappear without a word,
+out o' the pantry winder. If that ain't the mark of a nigger, I miss my
+guess."
+
+Terry laughed.
+
+"If that happened in the North we should look around the neighborhood
+for a sick small boy."
+
+"It wasn't no boy this time--leastways not a very small one," the man
+affirmed, "for that same day a pair o' my boots that I'd left in the
+wood house just naturally walked off by theirselves, an' I found 'em the
+next day at the bottom o' the pasture. It would take a pretty sizeable
+fellow that my boots was too small for," he finished with a grin.
+
+"They _are_ a trifle conspicuous," one of the others agreed with his
+eyes on the feet in question.
+
+I caught an interested look in Terry's glance as he mentally took their
+measure, and I wondered what he was up to; but as our messenger and Pete
+Moser appeared around the corner at the moment, I had no time for
+speculation. Terry let his chair slip with a bang and rose to his feet.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Moser! I'm glad to see you," he exclaimed with an air of
+relief. "It's getting late," he added, looking at his watch, "and I must
+get this business settled as soon as possible; I have another little
+affair waiting for me in New York. Bring plenty of calcium light,
+please. We want to see what we're doing."
+
+As the four of us were preparing to start, Terry paused on the top step
+and nodded pleasantly to the group on the veranda.
+
+"Thank you for your information, gentlemen. I have no doubt but that it
+will be of the greatest importance," and he turned away with a laugh at
+their puzzled faces.
+
+The sheriff and I were equally puzzled. I should have suspected that
+Terry, in the rôle of detective, was playing a joke on them, had he not
+very evidently got something on his mind. He was of a sudden in a frenzy
+of impatience to reach the cave, and he kept well ahead of us most of
+the way.
+
+"I suppose," said Mattison as he climbed a fence with tantalizing
+deliberation--we were going by way of the fields as that was shorter--"I
+suppose that you are trying to prove that Radnor Gaylord had nothing to
+do with this murder?"
+
+"That will be easy enough," Terry threw back over his shoulder. "I
+dropped _him_ long ago. The one I'm after now is the real murderer."
+
+Mattison scowled slightly.
+
+"If you can explain what it was that happened in that cave that upset
+him so mightily, I'd come a little nearer to believing you."
+
+Terry laughed and fell back beside him.
+
+"It's a thing which I imagine may have happened to one or two other
+young men of this neighborhood--not inconceivably yourself included."
+
+Mattison, seeing no meaning in this sally, preserved a sulky silence and
+Terry added:
+
+"The thing for us to do now is to bend all our energies toward finding
+Cat-Eye Mose. I doubt if we can completely explain the mystery until he
+is discovered."
+
+"And that," said the sheriff, "will be never! You may mark my words;
+whoever killed the Colonel, killed Mose, too."
+
+"It's possible," said Terry with an air of sadness, "but I hope not. I
+came all the way down from New York on purpose to see Mose, and I should
+hate to miss him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF CAT-EYE MOSE
+
+
+Having lighted our candles, we descended into the cave and set out along
+the path I now knew so well. When we reached the pool the guide lit a
+calcium light which threw a fierce white glare over the little body of
+water and the limestone cliffs, and even penetrated to the stalactite
+draped roof far above our heads. For a moment we stood blinking our eyes
+scarcely able to see, so sudden was the change from the semi-darkness of
+our four flickering candles. Then Terry stepped forward.
+
+"Show me where you found the body and point out the spot where the
+struggle took place."
+
+He spoke in quick, eager tones, so excited that he almost stuttered. It
+was not necessary for him to act the part of detective any longer. He
+had forgotten that he ever was a reporter--he had forgotten almost that
+he was a human being.
+
+From where we stood we pointed out the place above the pool where the
+struggle had occurred, the spot under the cliff where the body had lain,
+and the jagged piece of rock on which we had found the coat. Moser even
+laid down upon the ground and spread out his arms in the position in
+which we had discovered the Colonel's body.
+
+"Very well, I see," said Terry. "Now the rest of you stay back there on
+the boards; I don't want you to make a mark."
+
+He stepped forward carefully to the edge of the water and bent over to
+examine the soft, yellow clay which formed the border of the pool on the
+lower side. Instantly he straightened up with a sharp exclamation of
+surprise.
+
+"Did any negroes come in with you to recover the body?" he asked.
+
+"No," returned the sheriff, "as old man Tompkins said, you couldn't hire
+a nigger to stick his head in here after the Colonel was found. They
+say they can hear something wailing around the pool and they think his
+ghost is haunting it."
+
+"They can hear something wailing, can they?" Terry repeated queerly.
+"Well I begin to believe they can! What is the meaning of this?" he
+demanded, facing around at us. "How do you account for these peculiar
+foot-prints?"
+
+"What prints?" I asked as we all pressed forward.
+
+At the moment the calcium light with a final flare, died out, and we
+were left again in the flickering candle light which seemed darkness to
+us now.
+
+"Quick, touch off another calcium!" said Terry, with suppressed
+impatience. He laid a hand on my shoulder and my arm ached from the
+tightness of his grip. "There," he said pointing with his finger as the
+light flared up again. "What do you make of those?"
+
+I bent over and plainly traced the prints of bare feet, going and coming
+and over-lapping one another, just as an animal would make in pacing a
+cage. I shivered slightly. It was a terribly uncanny sight.
+
+"Well?" said Terry sharply. The place was beginning to get on his nerves
+too.
+
+"Terry," I said uneasily, "I never saw them before. I thought I examined
+everything thoroughly, but I was so excited I suppose--"
+
+"What did you make of them?" he interrupted, whirling about on Mattison
+who was looking over our shoulders.
+
+"I--I didn't see them," Mattison stammered.
+
+"For heaven's sake, men," said Terry impatiently. "Do you mean they
+weren't there or you didn't notice them?"
+
+The sheriff and I looked at each other blankly, and neither answered.
+
+Terry stood with his hands in his pockets frowning down at the marks,
+while the rest of us waited silently, scarcely daring to think. Finally
+he turned away without saying a word, and, motioning us to keep back,
+commenced examining the path which led up the incline. He mounted the
+three stone steps, and with his eyes on the ground, slowly advanced to
+the spot where the struggle had taken place.
+
+"How tall a man did you say Mose was?" he called down to us.
+
+"Little short fellow--not more than five feet high," returned the
+sheriff.
+
+Terry took his ruler from his pocket and bent over to study the marks at
+the scene of the struggle. He straightened up with an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Now I want you men to look carefully at those marks on the lower
+borders of the pool, and then come up here and look at these. Come along
+up in single file, please, and keep to the middle of the path."
+
+He spoke in the tone of one giving a demonstration before a kindergarten
+class. We obeyed him silently and ranged in a row along the boards.
+
+"Come here," he said. "Bend over where you can see. Now look at those
+marks. Do you see anything different in them from the marks below?"
+
+The sheriff and I gazed intently at the prints of bare feet which
+marked the entire vicinity of the struggle. We had both examined them
+more than once before, and we saw nothing now but what had already
+appeared. We straightened up and shook our heads.
+
+"They're the prints of bare feet," said Mattison, stolidly. "But I don't
+see that they're any different from any other bare feet."
+
+Terry handed him the ruler.
+
+"Measure them," he said. "Measure this one that's flat on the ground.
+Now go down and measure one of those prints by the borders of the pool."
+
+Mattison took the ruler and complied. As he bent over the marks on the
+lower border we could see by the light of his candle the look of
+astonishment that sprang into his face.
+
+"Well, what do you find?" Terry asked.
+
+"The marks up there are nearly two inches longer and an inch broader."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Terry," I said, "you can't blame us for not finding that out. We
+examined everything when we took away the body, and those marks below
+were simply not there. Someone has been in since."
+
+"So I conclude. Now, Mattison," he added to the sheriff, "come here and
+show me the marks of Radnor Gaylord's riding boots."
+
+Mattison returned and pointed out the mark which he had produced at the
+inquest, but his assurance, I noticed, was somewhat shaken.
+
+"That," said Terry half contemptuously, "is the mark of Colonel Gaylord.
+You must remember that he was struggling with his assailant. He did not
+plant his foot squarely every time. Sometimes we have only the heel
+mark: sometimes only the toe. In this case we have more than the mark of
+the whole foot. How do I account for it? Simply enough. The Colonel's
+foot slipped sideways. The mark is, you see, exactly the same in length
+as the others, but disproportionately broad. At the heel and toe it is
+smudged, and on the inside where the weight was thrown, it is heavier
+than on the outside. The thing is easy enough to understand. You ought
+to have been able to deduce it for yourselves. And besides, how did you
+account for the fact that there was only one mark? A man engaged in a
+struggle must have left more than that behind him. No; it is quite
+clear. At this point on the edge of the bank there was no third person.
+We are dealing with only two men--Colonel Gaylord and his murderer; and
+the murderer was bare-footed."
+
+"Mose?" I asked.
+
+"No," said Terry, patiently, "not Mose."
+
+"Then who?"
+
+"That--remains to be seen. I will follow him up and find out where he
+comes from."
+
+Terry held his candle close to the ground and followed along the path.
+At the entrance to the little gallery of the broken column it diverged,
+one part leading into the gallery, and the other into a sort of blind
+alley at one side. Terry paused at the opening.
+
+"Give me some more calcium light," he called to the guide. "I want to
+look into this passage. And just hand me some of those boards," he
+added. "It's very necessary that we keep the marks clear."
+
+The rest of us stood in a huddled group on the one or two boards he had
+left us and watched him curiously as he made his way down the passage.
+He paused at the end and examined the ground. We saw him stoop and pick
+up something. Then he rose quickly with a cry of triumph and came
+running back to us holding his hands behind him.
+
+"It's just as I suspected," he said, his eyes shining with excitement.
+"Colonel Gaylord had an enemy he did not know."
+
+"What do you mean?" we asked, crowding around.
+
+"Here's the proof," and he held out towards us a well gnawed ham bone in
+one hand and a cheese rind in the other. "These were the provisions
+intended for the church social; the pies, I fancy, have disappeared."
+
+We stared at him a moment in silent wonder. The sheriff was the first to
+assert himself.
+
+"What have these to do with the crime?" he asked, viewing the trophies
+with an air of disgust.
+
+"Everything. The man who stole those is the man who robbed the safe and
+who murdered Colonel Gaylord."
+
+The sheriff uttered a low laugh of incredulity, and the guide and I
+stared open-mouthed.
+
+"And what's more, I will tell you what he looks like. He is a large,
+very black negro something over six feet tall. When last seen, he was
+dressed in a blue and white checked blouse and ragged overalls. His
+shoes were much the worse for wear, and have since been thrown away. He
+was bare-footed at the time he committed the crime. In short," Terry
+added, "he is the chicken thief whom Colonel Gaylord whipped a couple of
+days before he died," and he briefly repeated the incident I had told
+him.
+
+"You mean," I asked, "that he was the ha'nt?"
+
+"Yes," said Terry, "he was the second ha'nt. He has been hiding for two
+or three weeks in the spring-hole at Four-Pools, keeping hidden during
+the day and coming out at night to prowl around and steal whatever he
+could lay his hands on. He doubtless deserved punishment, but that fact
+would not make him the less bitter over the Colonel's beating. When I
+heard that story, I said to myself, 'there is a man who would be ready
+for revenge if chance put the opportunity in his way.'"
+
+"But," I expostulated, "how did he happen to be in the cave?"
+
+"As to that I cannot say. After the Colonel's beating he probably did
+not dare to hang about Four-Pools any longer. He took to the woods and
+came in this direction; being engaged in petty thieving about the
+neighborhood, it was necessary to find a hiding place during the daytime
+and the cave was his most natural refuge. We know that he is not afraid
+of the dark--the spring-hole at Four-Pools is about as dismal a place as
+a man could find. He established himself in this passage in order to be
+near the water. See, here in the corner are drops of candle grease and
+the remains of a fire. On the day of the Mathers's picnic he doubtless
+saw the party pass through and recognized Colonel Gaylord. It brought to
+his mind the thrashing he had received. While he was still brooding
+over the matter, the Colonel came back alone, and it flashed into the
+fellow's mind that this was his chance. He may have been afraid at first
+or he may have hesitated through kindlier motives. At any rate he did
+not attack the Colonel immediately, but retreated into the passage, and
+the old man passed him without seeing him and went on into the gallery
+and got the coat.
+
+"In the meantime, the negro had made up his mind, and as the Colonel
+came back, he crept along behind him. It is hard to trace the marks, for
+another bare-footed man has walked over them since. But see, in this
+place at the edge of the path, there's the mark of a palm, showing where
+the assassin's hand rested when he crouched on the ground. He sprang
+upon the old man from the rear and they struggled together over the
+water--touch off a light, please--you see how the clay is all trampled
+over on both sides of the path, 'way out to the brink of the pool. There
+is no second set of marks here to obliterate it; we are dealing with
+just two people--Colonel Gaylord and his assassin."
+
+Terry bent low and picked up from a crevice what looked like a piece of
+stone covered with clay.
+
+"Here, you see, is the end of the Colonel's candle. He probably dropped
+it when the man first sprang, and in the darkness he could not tell who
+or what had attacked him. In his frenzy to have a light he snatched out
+his match box--Radnor's box--and that too was dropped in the scuffle.
+
+"Now, even if the original motive of the crime were not robbery but
+revenge--as I fancy it was--at any rate the murderer, being a tramp and
+a thief, would have robbed the body. But he did not. Why was that?
+Because he saw or heard something that frightened him, and what could
+that have been but Mose running to his master's assistance?"
+
+Terry strode over to the steps which led to the incline, and motioning
+us to follow, pointed out some marks on the sloping bank at the side of
+the path.
+
+"See, here are Mose's tracks. He was in such a hurry that he could not
+wait to come up by the steps; he tried to take a cross cut. He scrambled
+up the slippery bank so fast that he fell on his hands and knees in
+this place and slid back. That accounts for those long dragging marks,
+which none of you appear to have noticed. Mose did his best, but he
+could not reach his master in time. The murderer seeing--or rather
+hearing him, for it must have been dark--was seized with sudden fear,
+and with a convulsive effort he threw the old man against the rock wall
+here, where his head struck on this broken stalactite. If you look
+carefully you can see the marks of blood. He then hurled him into the
+pool and fled."
+
+"It sounds plausible enough," said the sheriff slowly, "but there are
+one or two points which I'm afraid will not bear examining. Suppose your
+man did thrown the Colonel into the water and run for it, then what, I
+should like to know, has become of Cat-Eye Mose?"
+
+"That," said Terry, knitting his brows, "is still a mystery and a fairly
+deep one. There is something uncommonly strange about those tracks on
+the lower borders of the pool and I confess they puzzle me. Only one
+explanation occurs to me now and that is not pleasant to think of. We
+have some clues to work with however, and we ought not to be long in
+getting at the truth. If I had had your chance of examining the cave on
+the day of the crime," he added, "I think I should know."
+
+"You might, and again you might not," said Mattison. "It's easy enough
+for you fellows to come down here and make up a story about a lot of
+people you've never seen, but I'll tell you one thing, and that is that
+you're not so likely to hit the truth as the men who've been brought up
+in the country. In the first place it comes natural to niggers to be
+whipped and they don't mind it. In the second place if your tramp _did_
+want to take it out on the Colonel why should he be scared by Mose, who
+was a little bit of a sawed-off cuss that I could lick with one hand
+tied behind me? You may be able to impress a New York jury with a ham
+bone and a cheese rind, Mr. Patten, but I can tell you, sir, that a
+Virginia jury wants witnesses."
+
+"We shall do our best to provide some," said Terry, coolly.
+
+"And perhaps you can tell," added Mattison with the triumphant air of
+clinching the matter, "what has become of the five thousand dollars in
+bonds? You can never make me believe that any nigger--"
+
+"Oh, they're back in the safe at Four-Pools. I found 'em this morning in
+the spring-hole where the man had thrown them away.--Now, gentlemen," he
+added with a touch of impatience, "I want to try a little experiment
+before we leave the cave. Will you all please put out your lights? I
+want to see how dark it really is in here."
+
+We blew out our candles and stood a moment in silence. At first all was
+black around us, but as our eyes became accustomed to the darkness, we
+saw that a faint light filtered in from somewhere in the roof above our
+heads. We could make out the pale blur of the white rock wall on one
+side and the merest glimmer of the pool below.
+
+"No," Terry began, "he could have seen nothing; he must have--" He broke
+off suddenly and gripping my arm whispered out, "What's that?"
+
+"Where?" I asked.
+
+"Up there; straight ahead."
+
+I looked up and saw two round eyes which glittered like a wild beast's,
+staring at us out of the darkness. A cold chill ran up my back and I
+instinctively huddled closer to the others. For a moment no one spoke
+and I heard the click of Terry's revolver as he cocked it. Then it
+suddenly came over me what it was, and I cried out:
+
+"It's Cat-Eye Mose!"
+
+"Good Lord, he can see in the dark! Strike a light, some one," Terry
+said huskily.
+
+The sheriff struck a match. We lit our candles with trembling hands and
+pressed forward (in a body) to the spot where the eyes had appeared.
+
+Crouched in a corner of a little recess half way up the irregular wall,
+we found Mose, shivering with fear and looking down at us with dumb,
+animal eyes. We had to drag him out by main force. The poor fellow was
+nearly famished and so weak he could scarcely stand. What little sense
+he had ever possessed seemed to have left him, and he jabbered in a
+tongue that was scarcely English.
+
+We bolstered him up with a few drops of whisky from Mattison's flask,
+and half carried him out into the light. The guide ran ahead to get a
+carriage, spreading the news as he ran, that Cat-Eye Mose had been
+found. Half the town of Luray came out to the cave to escort us back,
+and I think the feeling of regret was general, in that there had not
+been time enough to collect a brass band.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MOSE TELLS HIS STORY
+
+
+We took Mose back to the hotel, shut out the crowd, and gave him
+something to eat. He was quite out of his head and it was only by dint
+of the most patient questioning that we finally got his story. It was,
+in substance, as Terry had sketched it in the cave.
+
+In obedience to my request, Mose had gone back after the coat, not
+knowing that the Colonel was before him. Suddenly, as he came near the
+pool he heard a scream and looked up in time to see a big negro--the one
+my uncle had struck with his crop--spring upon the Colonel with the cry,
+"It's my tu'n, now, Cunnel Gaylord. You whup me, an' I'll let you see
+what it feels like."
+
+The Colonel turned and clinched with his assailant, and in the struggle
+the light was dropped. Mose, with a cry, ran forward to his master's
+assistance, but when the negro saw him climbing up the bank he suddenly
+screamed, and hurling the old man from him, turned and fled.
+
+"The fellow must have taken him for the devil when he saw those eyes,
+and I don't wonder!" Terry interpolated at this point.
+
+After the Colonel's murder, it seems that Mose, crazed by grief and
+fear, had watched us carry the body away, and then had stayed by the
+spot where his master had died. This accounted for the marks on the
+border of the pool. Knowing all of the intricate passages and hiding
+places as he did, it had been an easy matter for him to evade the party
+that had searched for his body. He ate the food the murderer had left,
+but this being exhausted, he would, I haven't a doubt, have died there
+himself with the unreasoning faithfulness of a dog.
+
+When he finished his rambling and in some places scarcely intelligible
+account, we sat for a moment with our eyes upon his face, fascinated by
+his look. Every bit of repugnance I had ever felt toward him had
+vanished, and there was left in its place only a sense of pity. Mose's
+cheeks were hollow, his features sharper than ever, and his face was
+almost pale. From underneath his straight, black, matted hair his eyes
+glittered feverishly, and their expression of uncomprehending anguish
+was pitiful to see. He seemed like a dumb animal that has come into
+contact with death for the first time and asks the reason.
+
+Terry took his eyes from Mose's face and looked down at the table with a
+set jaw. I do not think that he was deriving as much pleasure from the
+sight as he had expected. We all of us experienced a feeling of relief
+when the doctor appeared at the door. We turned Mose over to him with
+instructions to do what he could for the poor fellow and to take him
+back to Four-Pools.
+
+As the door shut behind them, the sheriff said (with a sigh, I thought),
+"This business proves one thing: it's never safe to lynch a man until
+you are sure of the facts."
+
+"It proves another thing," said Terry, dryly, "which is a thing you
+people don't seem to have grasped; and that is that negroes are human
+beings and have feelings like the rest of us. Poor old Colonel Gaylord
+paid a terrible price for not having learned it earlier in life."
+
+We pondered this in silence for a moment, then the sheriff voiced a
+feeling which, to a slight extent, had been lurking in the background of
+my own consciousness, in spite of my relief at the dénouement.
+
+"It's kind of disappointing when you've got your mind worked up to
+something big, to find in the end that there was nothing but a chance
+nigger at the bottom of all that mystery. Seems sort of a let-down."
+
+Terry eyed him with an air of grim humor, then he leaned across the
+table and spoke with a ring of conviction that carried his message home.
+
+"You are mistaken, Mattison, the murderer of Colonel Gaylord was not a
+chance nigger. There was no chance about it. Colonel Gaylord killed
+himself. He committed suicide--as truly as if he had blown out his
+brains with a gun. He did it with his uncontrollable temper. The man
+was an egoist. He has always looked upon his own desires and feelings as
+of supreme importance. He has tried to crush the life and spirit and
+independence from everyone about him. But once too often he wreaked his
+anger upon an innocent person--at least upon a person that for all he
+knew was innocent--and at one stroke his past injustices were avenged.
+It was not chance that killed Colonel Gaylord. It was the inevitable law
+of cause and effect. 'Way back in his boyhood when he gave way to his
+first fit of passion, he sentenced himself to some such end as this.
+Every unjust act in his after-life piled up the score against him.
+
+"Oh, I've seen it a hundred times! It's character that tells. I've seen
+it happen to a political boss--a man whose business it was to make
+friends with every voter high and low. I've seen him forget, just once,
+and turn on a man, humiliate him, wound his pride, crush him under foot
+and think no more of the matter than if he had stepped on a worm. And
+I've seen that man, the most insignificant of the politician's
+followers, work and plot and scheme to overthrow him; and in the end
+succeed. The big man never knew what struck him. He thought it was luck,
+chance, a turn of the wheel. He never dreamed that it was his own
+character hitting back. I've seen it so often, I'm a fatalist. I don't
+believe in chance. It was Colonel Gaylord who killed himself, and he
+commenced it fifty years ago."
+
+"It's God's own truth, Terry!" I said solemnly.
+
+The sheriff had listened to Terry's words with an anxiously reminiscent
+air. I wondered if he were reviewing his own political past, to see if
+by chance he also had unwittingly crushed a worm. He raised his eyes to
+Terry's face with a gleam of admiration.
+
+"You've been pretty clever, Mr. Patten, in finding out the truth about
+this crime," he acknowledged generously. "But you couldn't have expected
+me to find out," he added, "for I didn't know any of the circumstances.
+I had never even heard that such a man existed as that chicken
+thief--and as to there being two ghosts instead of one, there wasn't a
+suggestion of it brought out at the inquest."
+
+Terry looked at him with his usual slowly broadening smile. He opened
+his mouth to say something, but he changed his mind and--with a visible
+effort--shut it again.
+
+"Terry," I asked, "how _did_ you find out about the chicken thief? I
+confess I don't understand it yet."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
+
+"Nothing simpler. The trouble with you people was that you were
+searching for something lurid, and the little common-place things which,
+in a case like this, are the most suggestive, you overlooked. As soon as
+I read the story of the crime in the papers I saw that in all
+probability Rad was innocent. His behavior was far too suspicious for
+him really to be guilty; unless he were a fool he would have covered up
+his tracks. There was of course the possibility that Mose had committed
+the murder, but in the light of his past devotion to the Colonel it did
+not seem likely.
+
+"I had already been reading a lot of sensational stuff about the ghost
+of Four-Pools, and when the murder followed so close on the heels of
+the robbery, I commenced to look about for a connecting link. It was
+evident that Radnor had nothing to do with it, but whether or not he
+suspected someone was not so clear. His reticence in regard to the ha'nt
+made me think that he did. I came South with pretty strong suspicions
+against the elder son, but with a mind still open to conviction. The
+telegram showing that he was in Seattle at the time of the murder,
+proved his innocence of that, but he might still be connected with the
+ha'nt. I tried the suggestion on Radnor, and his manner of taking it
+proved pretty conclusively that I had stumbled on the truth. The ha'nt
+business, I dare say, was started as a joke, and was kept up as being a
+convenient method of warding off eavesdroppers. Why Jefferson came back
+and why Radnor gave him money are not matters that concern us; if they
+prefer to keep it a secret that's their own affair.
+
+"Jeff helped himself pretty freely to cigars, roast chickens, jam,
+pajamas, books, brandy, and anything else he needed to make himself
+comfortable in the cabin, but he took nothing of any great value. In the
+meantime, though, other things commenced disappearing--things that
+Radnor knew his brother had no use for--and he supposed the workers
+about the place were stealing and laying it to the ghost, as a
+convenient scapegoat.
+
+"But as a matter of fact they were not. A second ghost had appeared on
+the scene. This tramp negro had taken up his quarters in the spring-hole
+and was prowling about at night seeking what he might devour. He ran
+across Jeff dressed in a sheet, and decided to do some masquerading on
+his own account. Sheets were no longer left on the line all night, so he
+had to put up with lap robes. As a result, the spring-hole shortly
+became haunted by a jet black spirit nine feet tall with blue flames and
+sulphur, and all the other accessories.
+
+"This made little impression at the house until Mose himself was
+frightened; then Radnor saw that the hoax had reached the point where it
+was no longer funny, and he determined to get rid of Jeff immediately.
+While he drove him to the station he left Mose behind to straighten up
+the loft; and Mose, coming into the house to put some things away, met
+ghost number two just after he had robbed the safe. If Mose's eyes
+looked as they did to-day I fancy the fright was mutual. The ghost, in
+his excitement, dropped one package of papers, but bolted with the rest.
+He made for his lair in the spring-hole and examined his booty. The
+bonds were no more than old paper; he tossed them aside. But the pennies
+and five-cent pieces were real; he lit out for the village with them.
+The robbery was not discovered till morning and by that time the fellow
+was at 'Jake's place' on his way toward being the drunkest nigger in the
+county.
+
+"He stayed at the Corners a week or so until the money was gone, then he
+came back to the spring-hole. But he made the mistake of venturing out
+by daylight; the stable-men caught him and took him to the Colonel, and
+you know the rest.
+
+"As soon as I heard the story of the beating I decided to follow it up;
+and when I heard of a jet black spirit rising from the spring-hole, I
+decided to follow that up too. At daylight this morning I routed out one
+of the stable-men, and we went down and examined the spring-hole; at
+least I examined it while he stood outside and shivered. It yielded an
+even bigger find than I had hoped for. Chucked off in a corner and
+trampled with mud I found the bonds. A pile of clothing and carriage
+cushions formed a bed. There were the remains of several fires and of a
+great many chickens--the whole place was strewn with feathers and bones;
+he had evidently raided the roosts more than once.
+
+"When I finished with the spring-hole it still lacked something of six
+o'clock and I rode over to the village hoping to get an answer to my
+telegram. I wanted to get Jeff's case settled. 'Miller's store' was not
+open but 'Jake's place' was, and it was not long before I got on the
+track of my man. There was no doubt but that I had him accounted for up
+to the time of the thrashing; after that I could only conjecture. He
+had not appeared in the village again; the supposition was that he had
+taken to the woods. Now he might or he might not have come in the
+direction of Luray. All the facts I had to go upon were, a man of
+criminal proclivities, who owed Colonel Gaylord a grudge, and who was
+used to hiding in caves. It was pure supposition that he had come in
+this direction and it had to be checked at every point by fact. I didn't
+mention my suspicions because there was no use in raising false hopes
+and because, well--"
+
+"You wanted to be dramatic," I suggested.
+
+"Oh, yes, certainly, that's my business. Well, anyway I felt I was
+getting warm, and I came over here this morning with my eyes open, ready
+to see what there was to see.
+
+"The first thing I unearthed was this story of the church social
+provisions. There had, then, been a thief of some sort in the
+neighborhood just at the time of Colonel Gaylord's murder. The further
+theft of the boots fitted very neatly into the theory. If the fellow had
+been tramping for a couple of days his shoes, already worn, had given
+out and been discarded. The new ones, as we know, were too small--he
+left them at the bottom of the pasture--and went bare-footed. The marks
+therefore in the cave, which everyone ascribed to Mose, were in all
+probability, not the marks of Mose at all. Actual investigation proved
+that to be the case. The rest, I think, you know. The Four-Pools mystery
+has turned out to be a very simple affair--as most mysteries
+unfortunately do."
+
+"I reckon you're a pretty good detective, Mr. Patten," said Mattison
+with a shade of envy in his voice.
+
+Terry bowed his thanks and laughed.
+
+"As a matter of fact," he returned, "I am not a detective of any
+sort--at least not officially. I merely assume the part once in a while
+when there seems to be a demand. Officially," he added, "I am the
+representative of the New York Post-Dispatch, a paper which, you may
+know, has solved a good many mysteries before now. In this case, the
+Post-Dispatch will of course take the credit, but it wants a little more
+than that. It wants to be the only paper tomorrow morning to print the
+true details. We four are the only ones who know them. I should,
+perhaps, have been a little more circumspect, and kept the facts to
+myself, but I knew that I could trust you."
+
+His eye dwelt upon the sheriff a moment and then wandered to Pete Moser
+who had sat silently listening throughout the colloquy.
+
+"Would it be too much," Terry inquired, "to ask you to keep silent until
+tomorrow morning?"
+
+"You can trust me to keep quiet," said Mattison, holding out his hand.
+
+"Me too," said Moser. "I reckon I can make up something that'll satisfy
+the boys about as well as the real thing."
+
+"Thank you," Terry said. "I guess you can all right! There doesn't seem
+to be anything the matter with your imaginations down here."
+
+"And now," said Mattison, rising, "I suppose the first thing, is to see
+about Radnor's release, though I swear I don't know yet what was the
+matter with him on the day of the crime."
+
+"I believe you have the honor of Miss Polly Mathers's acquaintance?
+Perhaps she will enlighten you," suggested Terry.
+
+A look of illumination flashed over Mattison's face. Terry laughed and
+rose.
+
+"I have a reason for suspecting that Miss Mathers has changed her mind
+and, if it is not too irregular, I should like by way of payment to
+drive her to the Kennisburg jail myself and let her be the first to tell
+him--I want to give her a reason for remembering me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+POLLY MAKES A PROPOSAL
+
+
+I was dropped in Kennisburg to attend to the legal formalities
+respecting Radnor's release, while Terry appropriated the horses and
+drove to Mathers Hall. His last word to Mattison and me was not to let a
+whisper reach Radnor's ear as to the outcome of the investigation. He
+wanted a spectacular dénouement. The sheriff assented very soberly. The
+truth had at last forced itself upon him that his chances with Polly
+were over.
+
+Terry reappeared, two hours later, with a very excited young woman
+beside him. They joined us in the bare little parlor of the jail, and if
+Mattison needed any further proof that the end had come, Polly's
+greeting furnished it. An embarrassed flush rose to her face as she saw
+him, but she shook hands in a studiously impersonal way and asked
+immediately for Radnor.
+
+Mattison met the situation with a dignity I had scarcely expected. He
+called a deputy and turned us over to him; and with the remark that his
+services were happily no longer needed, he bowed himself out. I saw him
+two minutes later recklessly galloping down the street. Polly's eyes,
+also, followed the rider, and for a second I detected a shade of
+remorse.
+
+As we climbed the stairs Terry fell back and whispered to me, "I tell
+you, I laid down the law coming over; we'll see if she's game."
+
+As the door of the cell was thrown open, Rad raised his head and
+regarded us with a look of bewildered astonishment. Polly walked
+straight in and laid her hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Radnor," she said, "you told me you would never ask me again to marry
+you. Did you really mean it?"
+
+Rad still stared confusedly from her to Terry and me.
+
+"Well!" Polly sighed. "If you did mean it, then I suppose I'll have to
+ask you. Will you marry me, Radnor?"
+
+I laid a hand on Terry's arm and backed him, much against his will, into
+the corridor.
+
+"Jove! You don't suppose he's going to refuse her?" he inquired in a
+stage whisper.
+
+"No such luck," I laughed.
+
+We took a couple of turns up and down the corridor and cautiously
+presented ourselves in the doorway. Polly was telling, between laughing
+and crying, the story of Mose's discovery. Radnor came to meet us, his
+left arm still around Polly, his right hand extended to Terry.
+
+"Will you shake hands, Patten?" he asked. "I'm afraid I wasn't very
+decent, but you know--"
+
+"Oh, that's no matter," said Terry, easily. "I wasn't holding it up
+against you. But I hope you realize, Gaylord, that it's owing to me
+you've won Miss Mathers. She never would have got up the courage to ask
+you, if--"
+
+"Yes, I should!" flashed Polly. "I wanted him too much ever to let him
+slip through my fingers again."
+
+Terry's boast came true and Radnor dined at Four-Pools Plantation that
+night. The news of his release had in some way preceded us, and as we
+drove up to the house, all the negroes came crowding out on the portico
+to welcome home "young Marse Rad." But the one person who--whatever the
+circumstances--had always been first to welcome him back, was missing;
+and the poor boy felt his home-coming a very barren festival.
+
+Terry was steadfast in the assertion that he had an engagement in New
+York the next day, and as soon as supper was over I drove him to the
+station. He was in an ecstatically self-satisfied frame of mind.
+
+"Do you know I'm a pretty all-round fellow," he observed in a burst of
+confidence. "I've always known better than the proprietor how the paper
+ought to be run, and I can give the police points about detective work.
+I'm something of a cook, and I can play the hand-organ like Paderewski;
+but this is the first time I ever tried my hand at matchmaking and it
+comes as easy as a murder mystery!"
+
+"You think that their engagement is due to you?"
+
+"But isn't it? If it weren't for me they'd have it all to go over again
+from the beginning, and there's no telling how long they'd take about
+it."
+
+"I hope they appreciate your services, Terry. You're so modest that what
+you do is in danger of being overlooked."
+
+"They appreciate me fast enough," returned Terry, imperturbably. "I
+promised Polly to spend my first vacation with 'em after they're
+married--Oh, you'll see; I'll make a farmer one of these days!"
+
+I laughed and then said seriously:
+
+"Whether you made the marriage or not, you have cleared Radnor's name
+from any suspicion of dishonor, and I don't know how we can ever
+sufficiently show our gratitude."
+
+"That's all right," said Terry with a deprecatory wave of his hand. "I
+enjoyed it. Never did anything just like it before. I've arranged a good
+many funerals of one sort or another, but this is the first time I ever
+arranged a marriage. And Jove! but I could make a story out of it," he
+added regretfully, "if she'd only let me tell the truth."
+
+
+The events which I have chronicled happened a number of years ago, and
+Four-Pools has never since figured in the papers. I trust that its
+public life is ended. In spite of the most far-reaching search, the
+murderer of Colonel Gaylord was never found. Radnor and I have always
+believed that he was lynched by a mob in West Virginia some two years
+later. The description of the man tallied exactly with the appearance of
+the tramp my uncle had thrashed, and something he said in his
+ante-mortem statement, made us very sure of the fact.
+
+Mose, until the time of his death, was an honored member of the
+household, but he did not long outlive the Colonel. The memory of the
+tragedy he had witnessed seemed to follow him constantly; an unreasoning
+terror looked from his eyes, and he started and shivered at every sound.
+The poor fellow had lost what few wits he had ever possessed, but the
+one rational gleam that stayed with him to the end, was his love for his
+old master. When he lay dying. Radnor tells me, he roused after hours of
+unconsciousness, to call the Colonel's name. I have always felt that
+this devotion spoke equally well for both of them. The old man must have
+had some splendid traits underneath his crusty exterior to awaken such
+unquestioning love in a person of Mose's instinctive perceptions.
+Perhaps after all, half idiot though he was, Mose could see clearer than
+the rest of us. He now lies in the little family burying-ground on the
+edge of the plantation, a stone's throw from the grave of Colonel
+Gaylord.
+
+There has never been any further rumor of a ha'nt at Four-Pools, and we
+hope that the family ghost is laid forever. The deserted cabins have
+been torn down, and the fourth pool dredged and confined, prosaically
+enough, within its banks. Its mysterious charm is gone, but it yields,
+every season, some fifteen barrels of watercress.
+
+It was the following April--a year from the time of my first
+visit--that Terry and I snatched a couple of days from our work,
+purchased new frock coats, and served as ushers at Polly's wedding. She
+and Radnor have been living happily at Four-Pools ever since, and the
+house with a young mistress is a very different place from the house as
+it used to be. Marriage and responsibility have improved Radnor
+immensely. He has developed from a recklessly headstrong boy into a
+keen, rational, upright man; I am sure that Polly has never for a moment
+had cause to regret her choice.
+
+When the estate was settled, Radnor, very justly, insisted on breaking
+his father's will and giving to Jeff his rightful share of the property.
+Jeff has since become middle-aged and respectable. He owns a raisin
+ranch in southern California with fifty Chinamen to run it. When he
+comes back to Four-Pools Plantation on an occasional visit, he occupies
+the guest room.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Four Pools Mystery, by Jean Webster
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOUR POOLS MYSTERY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 21264-8.txt or 21264-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/6/21264/
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/21264-8.zip b/21264-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..841ade5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-8.zip
diff --git a/21264-h.zip b/21264-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20978eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-h.zip
diff --git a/21264-h/21264-h.htm b/21264-h/21264-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ac5030
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-h/21264-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,7360 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Four-pools Mystery, by Jean Webster.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    hr.smler { width: 10%; }
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+            /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+                position: absolute;
+                left: 92%;
+                font-size: smaller;
+                text-align: right;
+                text-indent: 0px;
+              } /* page numbers */
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    .right            {text-align: right;}
+    .tbrk	  {  margin-top: 2.75em;
+                   text-align: justify;
+                   margin-bottom: .75em;}
+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem div        {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem div.i8     {display: block; margin-left: 8em;}
+    .poem div.i10     {display: block; margin-left: 10em;}
+    .poem div.i12     {display: block; margin-left: 12em;}
+
+    /* index */
+
+    div.index ul { list-style: none; }
+    div.index ul li span.mono {font-family: monospace;}
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Four Pools Mystery, by Jean Webster
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Four Pools Mystery
+
+Author: Jean Webster
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2007 [EBook #21264]
+[Last updated: March 22, 2011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOUR POOLS MYSTERY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>THE FOUR-POOLS<br />MYSTERY</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+
+<h2>JEAN WEBSTER</h2>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>NEW YORK<br />THE CENTURY CO.<br />1908</h3>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p class="center"><img src="images/cover.jpg" width='462' height='700' alt="cover" /></p>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1907, 1908, by<br />
+<span class="smcap">The Century Co.</span><br /><br />Published, <i>March, 1908</i></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE DE VINNE PRESS</p>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<p class="center"><img src="images/frontispiece.png" width='460' height='700' alt="In the Cave" /></p>
+
+<p class="center">In the Cave</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Introducing Terry Patten</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">I Arrive at Four-Pools Plantation</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">I Make the Acquaintance of the Ha'nt</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Ha'nt Grows Mysterious</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Cat-Eye Mose Creates a Sensation</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">We Send for a Detective</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">We Send Him Back Again</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Robbery Remains a Mystery</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Expedition to Luray</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Tragedy of the Cave</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Sheriff Visits Four-Pools</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">I Make a Promise to Polly</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Inquest</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Jury's Verdict</span></li>
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">False Clues</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Terry Comes</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">We Search the Abandoned Cabins</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Terry Arrives at a Conclusion</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Terry Finds the Bonds</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Polly Makes a Confession</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Mr. Terence Kirkwood Patten of New York</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">The Discovery of Cat-Eye Mose</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Mose Tells His Story</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="smcap">Polly Makes a Proposal</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>THE FOUR-POOLS<br />MYSTERY</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>INTRODUCING TERRY PATTEN</h3>
+
+<p>It was through the Patterson-Pratt forgery case that I first made the
+acquaintance of Terry Patten, and at the time I should have been more
+than willing to forego the pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Our firm rarely dealt with criminal cases, but the Patterson family were
+long standing clients, and they naturally turned to us when the trouble
+came. Ordinarily, so important a matter would have been put in the hands
+of one of the older men, but it happened that I was the one who had
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>drawn up the will for Patterson Senior the night before his suicide,
+therefore the brunt of the work devolved upon me. The most unpleasant
+part of the whole affair was the notoriety. Could we have kept it from
+the papers, it would not have been so bad, but that was a physical
+impossibility; Terry Patten was on our track, and within a week he had
+brought down upon us every newspaper in New York.</p>
+
+<p>The first I ever heard of Terry, a card was sent in bearing the
+inscription, "Mr. Terence K. Patten," and in the lower left-hand corner,
+"of the Post-Dispatch." I shuddered as I read it. The Post-Dispatch was
+at that time the yellowest of the yellow journals. While I was still
+shuddering, Terry walked in through the door the office boy had
+inadvertently left open.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded a friendly good morning, helped himself to a chair, tossed his
+hat and gloves upon the table, crossed his legs comfortably, and looked
+me over. I returned the scrutiny with interest while I was mentally
+framing a polite formula for getting rid of him without giving rise to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>any ill feeling. I had no desire to annoy unnecessarily any of the
+Post-Dispatch's young men.</p>
+
+<p>At first sight my caller did not strike me as unlike a dozen other
+reporters. His face was the face one feels he has a right to expect of a
+newspaper man&mdash;keen, alert, humorous; on the look-out for opportunities.
+But with a second glance I commenced to feel interested. I wondered
+where he had come from and what he had done in the past. His features
+were undeniably Irish; but that which chiefly awakened my curiosity, was
+his expression. It was not only wide-awake and intelligent; it was
+something more. "Knowing" one would say. It carried with it the mark of
+experience, the indelible stamp of the street. He was a man who has had
+no childhood, whose education commenced from the cradle.</p>
+
+<p>I did not arrive at all of these conclusions at once, however, for he
+had finished his inspection before I had fairly started mine. Apparently
+he found me satisfactory. The smile which had been lurking about the
+corners of his mouth broadened to a grin, and I commenced wondering
+uncomfortably what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> there was funny about my appearance. Then suddenly
+he leaned forward and began talking in a quick, eager way, that required
+all my attention to keep abreast of him. After a short preamble in which
+he set forth his view of the Patterson-Pratt case&mdash;and a clearsighted
+view it was&mdash;he commenced asking questions. They were such amazingly
+impudent questions that they nearly took my breath away. But he asked
+them in a manner so engagingly innocent that I found myself answering
+them before I was aware of it. There was a confiding air of <i>bonne
+camaraderie</i> about the fellow which completely put one off one's guard.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of fifteen minutes he was on the inside track of most of my
+affairs, and was giving me advice through a kindly desire to keep me
+from getting things in a mess. The situation would have struck me as
+ludicrous had I stopped to think of it; but it is a fact I have noted
+since, that, with Terry, one does not appreciate situations until it is
+too late.</p>
+
+<p>When he had got from me as much information as I possessed, he shook
+hands <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>cordially, said he was happy to have made my acquaintance, and
+would try to drop in again some day. After he had gone, and I had had
+time to review our conversation, I began to grow hot over the matter. I
+grew hotter still when I read his report in the paper the next morning.
+I could not understand why I had not kicked him out at first sight, and
+I sincerely hoped that he would drop in again, that I might avail myself
+of the opportunity.</p>
+
+<p>He did drop in, and I received him with the utmost cordiality. There was
+something entirely disarming about Terry's impudence. And so it went. He
+continued to comment upon the case in the most sensational manner
+possible, and I railed against him and forgave him with unvarying
+regularity. In the end we came to be quite friendly over the affair. I
+found him diverting at a time when I was in need of diversion, though
+just what attraction he found in me, I have never been able to fathom.
+It was certainly not that he saw a future source of "stories," for he
+frankly regarded corporation law as a pursuit devoid of interest.
+Criminal law was the one branch<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> of the profession for which he felt any
+respect.</p>
+
+<p>We frequently had lunch together; or breakfast, in his case. His day
+commenced about noon and lasted till three in the morning. "Well, Terry,
+what's the news at the morgue today?" I would inquire as we settled
+ourselves at the table. And Terry would rattle off the details of the
+latest murder mystery with a cheerfully matter-of-fact air that would
+have been disgusting had it not been so funny.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this time that I learned his history prior to the days of the
+Post-Dispatch. He was entirely frank about himself, and if one half of
+his stories were true, he has achieved some amazing adventures. I
+strongly suspected at times that the reporting instinct got ahead of the
+facts, and that he embroidered incidents as he went along.</p>
+
+<p>His father, Terry Senior, had been an Irish politician of considerable
+ability and some prominence on the East River side of the city. The
+boy's early education had been picked up in the streets (his father had
+got the truant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> officer his position) and it was thorough. Later he had
+received a more theoretical training in the University of New York, but
+I think it was his early education which stuck by him longest, and
+which, in the end, was probably the more useful of the two. Armed with
+this equipment, it was inevitable that he should develop into a star
+reporter. Not only did he write his news in an entertaining form, but he
+first made the news he wrote about. When any sensational crime had been
+committed which puzzled the police, Terry had an annoying way of solving
+the mystery himself, and publishing the full particulars in the
+Post-Dispatch with the glory blatantly attributed to "our reporter." The
+paper was fully aware that Terence K. Patten was an acquisition to its
+staff. It had sent him on various commissions to various entertaining
+quarters of the globe, and in the course of his duty he had encountered
+experiences. One is forced to admit that he was not always fastidious as
+to the r&ocirc;le he played. He had cruised about the Mediterranean as
+assistant cook on a millionaire's yacht, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> had listened to secrets
+between meals. He had wandered about the country with a monkey and a
+hand-organ in search of a peddler he suspected of a crime. He had helped
+along a revolution in South America, and had gone up in a captive war
+balloon which had broken loose and floated off.</p>
+
+<p>But all this is of no concern at present. I am merely going to chronicle
+his achievement in one instance&mdash;in what he himself has always referred
+to as the "Four-Pools Mystery." It has already been written up in
+reporter style as the details came to light from day to day. But a
+ten-year-old newspaper story is as dead as if it were written on
+parchment, and since the part Terry played was rather remarkable, and
+many of the details were at the time suppressed, I think it deserves a
+more permanent form.</p>
+
+<p>It was through the Patterson-Pratt business by a roundabout way that I
+got mixed up in the Four-Pools affair. I had been working very hard over
+the forgery case; I spent every day on it for nine weeks&mdash;and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> nearly
+every night. I got into the way of lying awake, puzzling over the
+details, when I should have been sleeping, and that is the sort of work
+which finishes a man. By the middle of April, when the strain was over,
+I was as near being a nervous wreck as an ordinarily healthy chap can
+get.</p>
+
+<p>At this stage my doctor stepped in and ordered a rest in some quiet
+place out of reach of the New York papers; he suggested a fishing
+expedition to Cape Cod. I apathetically fell in with the idea, and
+invited Terry to join me. But he jeered at the notion of finding either
+pleasure or profit in any such trip. It was too far from the center of
+crime to contain any interest for Terry.</p>
+
+<p>"Heavens, man! I'd as lief spend a vacation in the middle of the Sahara
+Desert."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the fishing would keep things going," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Fishing! We'd die of ennui before we had a bite. I'd be murdering you
+at the end of the first week just for some excitement. If you need a
+rest&mdash;and you are rather seedy&mdash;forget all about this Patterson business
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> plunge into something new. The best rest in the world is a
+counter-irritant."</p>
+
+<p>This was Terry all over; he himself was utterly devoid of nerves, and he
+could not appreciate the part they played in a man of normal make-up. My
+being threatened with nervous prostration he regarded as a joke. His
+pleasantries rather damped my interest in deep-sea fishing, however, and
+I cast about for something else. It was at this juncture that I thought
+of Four-Pools Plantation. "Four-Pools" was the somewhat fantastic name
+of a stock farm in the Shenandoah Valley, belonging to a great-uncle
+whom I had not seen since I was a boy.</p>
+
+<p>A few months before, I had had occasion to settle a little legal matter
+for Colonel Gaylord (he was a colonel by courtesy; so far as I could
+discover he had never had his hands on a gun except for rabbit shooting)
+and in the exchange of amenities which followed, he had given me a
+standing invitation to make the plantation my home whenever I should
+have occasion to come South. As I had no prospect of leaving New York, I
+thought nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> of it at the time; but now I determined to take the old
+gentleman at his word, and spend my enforced vacation in getting
+acquainted with my Virginia relatives.</p>
+
+<p>This plan struck Terry as just one degree funnier than the fishing
+expedition. The doctor, however, received the idea with enthusiasm. A
+farm, he said, with plenty of outdoor life and no excitement, was just
+the thing I needed. But could he have foreseen the events which were to
+happen there, I doubt if he would have recommended the place for a
+nervous man.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>I ARRIVE AT FOUR-POOLS PLANTATION</h3>
+
+<p>As I rolled southward in the train&mdash;"jerked" would be a fitter word; the
+roadbeds of western Virginia are anything but level&mdash;I strove to recall
+my old time impressions of Four-Pools Plantation. It was one of the big
+plantations in that part of the state, and had always been noted for its
+hospitality. My vague recollection of the place was a kaleidoscopic
+vision of music and dancing and laughter, set in the moonlit background
+of the Shenandoah Valley. I knew, however, that in the eighteen years
+since my boyhood visit everything had changed.</p>
+
+<p>News had come of my aunt's death, and of Nan's runaway marriage against
+her father's wishes, and of how she too had died without ever returning
+home. Poor unhappy Nannie! I was but a boy of twelve when I had seen
+her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> last, but she had impressed even my unimpressionable age with a
+sense of her charm. I had heard that Jeff, the elder of the two boys,
+had gone completely to the bad, and having broken with his father, had
+drifted off to no one knew where. This to me was the saddest news of
+all; Jeff had been the object of my first case of hero worship.</p>
+
+<p>I knew that Colonel Gaylord, now an old man, was living alone with
+Radnor, who I understood had grown into a fine young fellow, all that
+his brother had promised. My only remembrance of the Colonel was of a
+tall dark man who wore riding boots and carried a heavy trainer's whip,
+and of whom I was very much afraid. My only remembrance of Rad was of a
+pretty little chap of four, eternally in mischief. It was with a mingled
+feeling of eagerness and regret that I looked forward to the
+visit&mdash;eagerness to see again the scenes which were so pleasantly
+associated with my boyhood, and regret that I must renew my memories
+under such sadly changed conditions.</p>
+
+<p>As I stepped from the train, a tall <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>broad-shouldered young man of
+twenty-three or thereabouts, came forward to meet me. I should have
+recognized him for Radnor anywhere, so striking was his resemblance to
+the brother I had known. He wore a loose flannel shirt and a
+broad-brimmed felt hat cocked on one side, and he looked so exactly the
+typical Southern man of the stage that I almost laughed as I greeted
+him. His welcome was frank and cordial and I liked him from the first.
+He asked after my health with an amused twinkle in his eyes. Nervous
+prostration evidently struck him as humorously as it did Terry. Lest I
+resent his apparent lack of sympathy however, he added, with a hearty
+whack on my shoulder, that I had come to the right place to get cured.</p>
+
+<p>A drive over sweet smelling country roads behind blooded horses was a
+new experience to me, fresh from city streets and the rumble of elevated
+trains. I leaned back with a sigh of content, feeling already as if I
+had got my boyhood back again.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor enlivened the three miles with stories of the houses we passed
+and the people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> who lived in them, and to my law-abiding Northern ears,
+the recital indubitably smacked of the South. This old gentleman&mdash;so Rad
+called him&mdash;had kept an illicit still in his cellar for fifteen years,
+and it had not been discovered until after his death (of delirium
+tremens). The young lady who lived in that house&mdash;one of the belles of
+the county&mdash;had eloped with the best man on the night before the wedding
+and the rightful groom had shot himself. The one who lived here had
+eloped with her father's overseer, and had rowed across the river in the
+only available boat, leaving her outraged parent on the opposite bank.</p>
+
+<p>I finally burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Does everyone in the South run away to get married? Don't you ever have
+any legitimate weddings with cake and rice and old shoes?" As I spoke I
+remembered Nannie and wondered if I had touched on a delicate subject.</p>
+
+<p>But Radnor returned my laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"We do have a good many elopements," he acknowledged. "Maybe there are
+more cruel parents in the South." Then he suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> sobered. "I suppose
+you remember Nan?" he inquired with an air of hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>"A little," I assented.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor girl!" he said. "I'm afraid she had a pretty tough time. You'd
+best not mention her to the old gentleman&mdash;or Jeff either."</p>
+
+<p>"Does the Colonel still feel hard toward them?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor frowned slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"He doesn't forgive," he returned.</p>
+
+<p>"What was the trouble with Jeff?" I ventured. "I have never heard any
+particulars."</p>
+
+<p>"He and my father didn't agree. I don't remember very much about it
+myself; I was only thirteen when it happened. But I know there was the
+devil of a row."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know where he is?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I sent him some money once or twice, but my father found it out and
+shut down on my bank account. I've lost track of him lately&mdash;he isn't in
+need of money though. The last I heard he was running a gambling place
+in Seattle."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a great pity!" I sighed. "He was a fine chap when I knew him."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p><p>Radnor echoed my sigh but he did not choose to follow up the subject,
+and we passed the rest of the way in silence until we turned into the
+lane that led to Four-Pools. After the manner of many Southern places
+the house was situated well toward the middle of the large plantation,
+and entirely out of sight from the road. The private lane which led to
+it was bordered by a hawthorn hedge, and wound for half a mile or so
+between pastures and flowering peach orchards. I delightedly breathed in
+the fresh spring odors, wondering meanwhile how it was that I had let
+that happy Virginia summer of my boyhood slip so entirely from my mind.</p>
+
+<p>As we rounded a clump of willow trees we came in sight of the house, set
+on a little rise of ground and approached by a rolling sweep of lawn. It
+was a good example of colonial&mdash;white with green blinds, the broad brick
+floored veranda, which extended the length of the front, supported by
+lofty Doric columns. On the south side a huge curved portico bulged out
+to meet the driveway. Stretching away behind the house was a sleepy
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>box-bordered garden, and behind this, screened by a row of evergreens,
+were clustered the barns and out-buildings. Some little distance to the
+left, in a slight hollow and half hidden by an overgrowth of laurels,
+stood a row of one-story weather-beaten buildings&mdash;the old negro cabins,
+left over from the slave days.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just as I remember it!" I exclaimed delightedly as I noted one
+familiar object after another. "Nothing has changed."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing does change in the South," said Radnor, "except the people, and
+I suppose they change everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"And those are the deserted negro cabins?" I added, my eye resting on
+the cluster of gray roofs showing above the shrubbery.</p>
+
+<p>"Just at present they are not so deserted as we should like," he
+returned with a suggestive undertone in his voice. "You visit the
+plantation at an interesting time. The Gaylord ha'nt has reappeared."</p>
+
+<p>"The Gaylord ha'nt!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "What on earth is
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"One of our godless ancestors once beat a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> slave to death and his ghost
+comes back, off and on, to haunt the negro cabins. We hadn't heard
+anything of him for a good many years and had almost forgotten the
+story, when last week he reappeared. Devil fires have been seen dancing
+in the laurels at night, and mysterious moanings have been heard around
+the cabins. If you have ever had anything to do with negroes, you can
+know the state our servants are in."</p>
+
+<p>"Well!" said I, "that promises entertainment. I shall look forward to
+meeting the ha'nt."</p>
+
+<p>We had reached the house by this time, and as we drew up before the
+portico the Colonel stood on the top step waiting to welcome me. He was
+looking much as I remembered him except that his hair had turned from
+black to white, and his former imperious bearing had become a trifle
+querulous. I jumped out and grasped his outstretched hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad to see you, my boy! I'm glad to see you," he said cordially.</p>
+
+<p>My heart warmed toward the old man's "my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> boy." It had been a good many
+years since anyone had called me that.</p>
+
+<p>"You've grown since I saw you last," he chuckled, as he led the way into
+the house through the group of negro servants who had gathered to see me
+arrive.</p>
+
+<p>My first fleeting glimpse through the open doors told me that it was
+indeed true, as Radnor had said, nothing had changed. The furniture was
+the same old-fashioned, solidly simple furniture that the house had
+contained since it was built. I was amused to see the Colonel's gloves
+and whip thrown carelessly on a chair in the hall. The whip was the one
+token by which I remembered him.</p>
+
+<p>"So you've been working too hard, have you, Arnold?" the old man
+inquired, looking me over with twinkling eyes. "We'll give you something
+to do that will make you forget you've ever seen work before! There are
+half a dozen colts in the pasture just spoiling to be broken in; you may
+try your hand at that, sir. And now I reckon supper's about ready," he
+added. "Nancy doesn't allow any loitering when it's a question of beat
+biscuits.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> Take him up to his room, Rad&mdash;and you Mose," he called to one
+of the negroes hanging about the portico, "come and carry up Marse
+Arnold's things."</p>
+
+<p>At this one of them shambled forward and began picking up my traps which
+had been dumped in a pile on the steps. His appearance struck me with
+such an instant feeling of repugnance, that even after I was used to the
+fellow, I never quite overcame that first involuntary shudder. He was
+not a full-blooded negro but an octoroon. His color was a muddy yellow,
+his features were sharp instead of flat, and his hair hung across his
+forehead almost straight. But these facts alone did not account for his
+queerness; the most uncanny thing about him was the color of his eyes.
+They had a yellow glint and narrowed in the light. The creature was
+bare-footed and wore a faded suit of linsey-woolsey; I wondered at that,
+for the other servants who had crowded out to see me, were dressed in
+very decent livery.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor noticed my surprise, and remarked as he led the way up the
+winding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> staircase, "Mose isn't much of a beauty, for a fact."</p>
+
+<p>I made no reply as the man was close behind, and the feeling that his
+eyes were boring into the middle of my back was far from pleasant. But
+after he had deposited his load on the floor of my room, and, with a
+sidewise glance which seemed to take in everything without looking
+directly at anything, had shambled off again, I turned to Rad.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with him?" I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor threw back his head and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You look as if you'd seen the ha'nt! There's nothing to be afraid of.
+He doesn't bite. The poor fellow's half witted&mdash;at least in some
+respects; in others he's doubly witted."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is he?" I persisted. "Where did he come from?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he's lived here all his life&mdash;raised on the place. We're as fond of
+Mose as if he were a member of the family. He's my father's body servant
+and he follows him around like a dog. We don't keep him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> dressed for the
+part because shoes and stockings make him unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"But his eyes," I said. "What the deuce is the matter with his eyes?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"Born that way. His eyes <i>are</i> a little queer, but if you've ever
+noticed it, niggers' eyes are often yellow. The people on the place call
+him 'Cat-Eye Mose.' You needn't be afraid of him," he added with another
+laugh, "he's harmless."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE HA'NT</h3>
+
+<p>We had a sensation at supper that night, and I commenced to realize that
+I was a good many miles from New York. In response to the invitation of
+Solomon, the old negro butler, we seated ourselves at the table and
+commenced on the cold dishes before us, while he withdrew to bring in
+the hot things from the kitchen. As is often the case in Southern
+plantation houses the kitchen was under a separate roof from the main
+house, and connected with it by a long open gallery. We waited some time
+but no supper arrived. The Colonel, becoming impatient, was on the point
+of going to look for it, when the door burst open and Solomon appeared
+empty-handed, every hair on his woolly head pointing a different
+direction.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p><p>"De ha'nt, Marse Cunnel, de ha'nt! He's sperrited off de chicken. Right
+outen de oven from under Nancy's eyes."</p>
+
+<p>"Solomon," said the Colonel severely, "what are you trying to say? Talk
+sense."</p>
+
+<p>"Sho's yuh bohn, Marse Cunnel; it's de libbin' truf I's tellin' yuh. Dat
+ha'nt has fotched dat chicken right outen de oven, an' it's vanished in
+de air."</p>
+
+<p>"You go out and bring that chicken in and don't let me hear another
+word."</p>
+
+<p>"I cayn't, Marse Cunnel, 'deed I cayn't. Dere ain't no chicken dere."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then! Go and get us some ham and eggs and stop this fuss."</p>
+
+<p>Solomon withdrew and we three looked at each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Rad, what's the meaning of this?" the Colonel demanded querulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Some foolishness on the part of the niggers. I'll look into it after
+supper. When the ha'nt begins abstracting chickens from the oven I think
+it's time to investigate."</p>
+
+<p>Being naturally curious over the matter, I commenced asking questions
+about the history<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> and prior appearances of the ha'nt. Radnor answered
+readily enough, but I noticed that the Colonel appeared restless under
+the inquiry, and the amused suspicion crossed my mind that he did not
+entirely discredit the story. When a man has been born and brought up
+among negroes he comes, in spite of himself, to be tinged with their
+ideas.</p>
+
+<p>Supper finished, the three of us turned down the gallery toward the
+kitchen. As we approached the door we heard a murmur of voices, one
+rising every now and then in a shrill wail which furnished a sort of
+chorus. Radnor whispered in my ear that he reckoned Nancy had "got um"
+again. Though I did not comprehend at the moment, I subsequently learned
+that "um" referred to a sort of emotional ecstasy into which Nancy
+occasionally worked herself, the motive power being indifferently ghosts
+or religion.</p>
+
+<p>The kitchen was a large square room, with brick floor, rough shack walls
+and smoky rafters overhead from which pended strings of garlic, red
+peppers and herbs. The light was supplied ostensibly by two tallow dips,
+but in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> reality by the glowing wood embers of the great open stove
+bricked into one side of the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Five or six excited negroes were grouped in a circle about a woman with
+a yellow turban on her head, who was rocking back and forth and shouting
+at intervals:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh-h, dere's sperrits in de air! I can smell um. I can smell um."</p>
+
+<p>"Nancy!" called the Colonel sharply as we stepped into the room.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy paused a moment and turned upon us a pair of frenzied eyes with
+nothing much but the whites showing.</p>
+
+<p>"Marse Cunnel, dere's sperrits in de air," she cried. "Sabe yuhself
+while dere's time. We's all a-treadin' de road to destruction."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll be treading the road to destruction in mighty short order if you
+don't keep still," he returned grimly. "Now stop this foolishness and
+tell me what's gone with that chicken."</p>
+
+<p>After a great deal of questioning and patching together, we finally got
+her story, but I cannot say that it threw much light<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> upon the matter.
+She had put the chicken in the oven, and then she felt powerful queer,
+as if something were going to happen. Suddenly she felt a cold wind blow
+through the room, the candles went out, and she could hear the rustle of
+"ghostly gahments" sweeping past her. The oven door sprang open of its
+own accord; she looked inside, and "dere wa'n't no chicken dere!"</p>
+
+<p>Repeated questioning only brought out the same statement but with more
+circumstantial details. The other negroes backed her up, and the story
+grew rapidly in magnitude and horror. Nancy's seizures, it appeared,
+were contagious, and the others by this time were almost as excited as
+she. The only approximately calm one among them was Cat-Eye Mose who sat
+in the doorway watching the scene with half furtive eyes and something
+resembling a grin on his face.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel, observing that it was a good deal of commotion for the sake
+of one small chicken, disgustedly dropped the inquiry. As we stepped out
+into the gallery again, I glanced back at the dancing firelight,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> the
+weird cross shadows, and the circle of dusky faces, with, I confess, a
+somewhat creepy feeling. I could see that in such an atmosphere, it
+would not take long for superstition to lay its hold on a man.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the meaning of it?" I asked as we strolled slowly toward the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"The meaning of it," Radnor shrugged, "is that some of them are lying.
+The ha'nt, I could swear, has a good flesh and blood appetite. Nancy has
+been frightened and she believes her own story. There's never any use in
+trying to sift a negro's lies; they have so much imagination that after
+five minutes they believe themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I could spot the ghost," I returned. "And that's your precious
+Cat-Eye Mose."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Mose doesn't need to steal chickens. He gets all he wants."</p>
+
+<p>"Mose," the Colonel added emphatically, "is the one person on the place
+who is absolutely to be trusted."</p>
+
+<p>We had almost reached the house, when we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> were suddenly startled by a
+series of shrieks and screams coming toward us across the open stretch
+of lawn that lay between us and the old negro cabins. In another moment
+an old woman, her face twitching with terror, had thrown herself at our
+feet in a species of convulsion.</p>
+
+<p>"De ha'nt! De ha'nt! He's a-beckoning," was all we could make out
+between her moans.</p>
+
+<p>The other negroes came pouring out from the kitchen and gathered in a
+frenzied circle about the writhing woman. Mose, I noted, was among them;
+he could at least prove an alibi this time.</p>
+
+<p>"Here Mose, quick! Get us some torches," Radnor called. "We'll fetch
+that ha'nt up here to answer for himself.&mdash;It's old Aunt Sukie," he
+added to me, nodding toward the woman on the ground whose spasms by this
+time were growing somewhat quieter. "She lives on the next plantation
+and was probably taking a cross cut through the laurel path that leads
+by the cabins. She's almost a hundred and is pretty nearly a witch
+herself."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>Mose shambled up with some torches&mdash;pine knots dipped in tar, such as
+they used for hunting 'possums at night, and he and I and Radnor set out
+for the cabins. I noticed that none of the other negroes volunteered to
+assist; I also noticed that Mose went on ahead with a low whining cry
+which sent chills chasing up and down my back.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter with him?" I gasped, more intent on the negro than
+the ghost we had come to search.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the way he always hunts," Radnor laughed. "There are a good many
+things about Mose that you will have to get used to."</p>
+
+<p>We searched the whole region of the abandoned quarters with a
+considerable degree of thoroughness. Three or four of the larger cabins
+were used as store houses for fodder; the rest were empty. We poked into
+all of them, but found nothing more terrifying than a few bats and owls.
+Though I did not give much consideration to the fact at the time, I
+later remembered that there was one of the cabins which we didn't
+explore as thoroughly as the rest. Mose dropped his torch as we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+entered, and in the confusion of relighting it, the interior was
+somewhat slighted. In any case we unearthed no ha'nt that night; and we
+finally gave up the search and turned back to the house.</p>
+
+<p>"I suspect," Radnor laughed, "that if the truth were known, old Aunt
+Sukie's beckoning ha'nt would turn out to be nothing more alarming than
+a white cow waving her tail."</p>
+
+<p>"It's rather suggestive coming on top of the chicken episode," I
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, this won't be the end! We'll have ha'nt served for breakfast,
+dinner and supper during the rest of your stay. When the niggers begin
+to see things they keep it up."</p>
+
+<p>When I went upstairs that night, Rad followed close on my heels to see
+that I had everything I needed. The room was a huge four windowed
+affair, furnished with a canopied bed and a mahogany wardrobe as big as
+a small house. The nights still being chilly, a roaring wood fire had
+been built, adding a note of cheerfulness to an otherwise sombre
+apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"This was Nan's room," he said suddenly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><p>"Nan's room!" I echoed glancing about the shadowy interior. "Rather
+heavy for a girl."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a trifle severe," he agreed, "but I dare say it was different
+when she was here. Her things are all packed away in the attic." He
+picked up a candle and held it so that it lighted the face of a portrait
+over the mantle. "That's Nan&mdash;painted when she was eighteen."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I nodded. "I recognized her the moment I saw it. She was like
+that when I knew her."</p>
+
+<p>"It used to hang down stairs but after her marriage my father had it
+brought up here. He kept the door locked until the news came that she
+was dead, then he turned it into a guest room. He never comes in
+himself; he won't look at the picture."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor spoke shortly, but with an underlying note of bitterness. I could
+see that he felt keenly on the subject. After a few desultory words, he
+somewhat brusquely said good night, and left me to the memories of the
+place.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of going to bed I set about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>unpacking. I was tired but wide
+awake. Aunt Sukie's convulsions and our torch light hunt for ghosts were
+novel events in my experience, and they acted as anything but a
+sedative. The unpacking finished, I settled myself in an easy chair
+before the fire and fell to studying the portrait. It was a huge canvas
+in the romantic fashion of Romney, with a landscape in the background.
+The girl was dressed in flowing pink drapery, a garden hat filled with
+roses swinging from her arm, a Scotch collie with great lustrous eyes
+pressed against her side. The pose, the attributes, were artificial; but
+the painter had caught the spirit. Nannie's face looked out of the frame
+as I remembered it from long ago. Youth and gaiety and goodness trembled
+on her lips and laughed in her eyes. The picture seemed a prophecy of
+all the happiness the future was to bring. Nannie at eighteen with life
+before her!</p>
+
+<p>And three years later she was dying in a dreary little Western town,
+separated from her girlhood friends, without a word of forgiveness from
+her father. What had she done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> to deserve this fate? Merely set up her
+will against his, and married the man she loved. Her husband was poor,
+but from all I ever heard, a very decent chap. As I studied the eager
+smiling face, I felt a hot wave of anger against her father. What a
+power of vindictiveness the man must have, still to cherish rancour
+against a daughter fifteen years in her grave! There was something too
+poignantly sad about the unfulfilled hope of the picture. I blew out the
+candles to rid my mind of poor little Nannie's smile.</p>
+
+<p>I sat for some time my eyes fixed moodily on the glowing embers, till I
+was roused by the deep boom of the hall clock as it slowly counted
+twelve. I rose with a laugh and a yawn. The first of the doctor's orders
+had been, "Early to bed!" I hastily made ready, but before turning in,
+paused for a moment by the open window, enticed by the fresh country
+smells of plowed land and sprouting green things, that blew in on the
+damp breeze. It was a wild night with a young moon hanging low in the
+sky. Shadows chased themselves over the lawn and the trees waved and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+shifted in the wind. It had been a long time since I had looked out on
+such a scene of peaceful tranquillity as this. New York with the hurry
+and rush of its streets, with the horrors of Terry's morgue, seemed to
+lie in another continent.</p>
+
+<p>But suddenly I was recalled to the present by hearing, almost beneath
+me, the low shuddering squeak of an opening window. I leaned out
+silently alert, and to my surprise I saw Cat-Eye Mose&mdash;though it was
+pretty dark I could not be mistaken in his long loping run&mdash;slink out
+from the shadow of the house and make across the open space of lawn
+toward the deserted negro cabins. As he ran he was bent almost double
+over a large black bundle which he carried in his arms. Though I
+strained my eyes to follow him I could make out nothing more before he
+had plunged into the shadow of the laurels.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HA'NT GROWS MYSTERIOUS</h3>
+
+<p>I waked early and hurried through with my dressing, eager to get down
+stairs and report my last night's finding in regard to Mose. My first
+impulse had been to rouse the house, but on soberer second thoughts I
+had decided to wait till morning. I was glad now that I had; for with
+the sunlight streaming in through the eastern windows, with the fresh
+breeze bringing the sound of twittering birds, life seemed a more
+cheerful affair than it had the night before, and the whole aspect of
+the ha'nt took on a distinctly humorous tone.</p>
+
+<p>A ghost who wafted roast chickens through the air and out of doors on a
+breeze of its own constructing, appealed to me as having an original
+mind. Since my midnight discovery I felt pretty certain that I could
+identify the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> ghost; and as I recalled the masterly way in which Mose
+had led and directed the hunt, I decided that he was cleverer than Rad
+had given him credit for. I went down stairs with my eyes and ears wide
+open prepared for further revelations. The problems of my profession had
+never led me into any consideration of the supernatural, and the rather
+evanescent business of hunting down a ha'nt came as a welcome contrast
+to the very material details of my recent forgery case. I had found what
+Terry would call a counter-irritant.</p>
+
+<p>It was still early, and neither the Colonel nor Radnor had appeared; but
+Solomon was sweeping off the portico steps and I addressed myself to
+him. He was rather coy at first about discussing the matter of the
+ha'nt, as he scented my scepticism, but in the end he volunteered:</p>
+
+<p>"Some says de ha'nt's a woman dat one o' de Gaylords long time ago,
+should o' married an' didn't, an' dat pined away an' died. An' some says
+it's a black man one o' dem whupped to deaf."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>"Which do you think it is?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"Bress yuh, Marse Arnold, I ain't thinkin' nuffen. Like es not hit's
+bofe. When one sperrit gits oneasy 'pears like he stir up all de odders.
+Dey gets so lonely like lyin' all by dereselves in de grave dat dey're
+'most crazy for company. An' when dey cayn't get each odder dey'll take
+humans. De human what's consorted wid a gohs, Marse Arnold, he's nebber
+hisself no moah. He's sort uh half-minded like Mose."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that what's the matter with Mose?" I pursued tentatively. "Does he
+consort with ghosts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mose was bawn dat way, but I reckon maybe dat was what was de matter
+wid his mudder, an' he cotched it."</p>
+
+<p>"That was rather an unusual thing, last night, wasn't it, for a ha'nt to
+steal a chicken?"</p>
+
+<p>"'Pears like ha'nts must have dere jokes like odder folkses," was as far
+as Solomon would go.</p>
+
+<p>At breakfast I repeated what I had seen the night before, and to my
+indignation both Radnor and my uncle took it calmly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><p>"Mose is only a poor half witted fellow but he's as honest as the day,"
+the Colonel declared, "and I won't have him turned into a villain for
+your entertainment."</p>
+
+<p>"He may be honest," I persisted, "but just the same he knows what became
+of that chicken! And what's more, if you look about the house you'll
+find there's something else missing."</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel laughed good-naturedly.</p>
+
+<p>"If it raises your suspicions to have Mose prowling around in the night,
+you'll have to get used to suspicions; for you'll have 'em during the
+rest of your stay. I've known Mose to stop out in the woods for three
+nights running&mdash;he's as much an animal as he is a man; but he's a tame
+animal, and you needn't be afraid of him. If you'd followed him and his
+bundle last night I reckon you'd have made a mighty queer discovery. He
+has his own little amusements and they aren't exactly ours, but since he
+doesn't hurt anybody what's the use in bothering? I've known Mose for
+well on to thirty years, and I've never yet known him to do a meanness
+to any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> human being. There aren't many white folks I can say the same
+of."</p>
+
+<p>I did not pursue the subject with the Colonel, but I later suggested to
+Rad that we continue our investigation. He echoed his father's laugh. If
+we set out to investigate all the imaginings that came into the niggers'
+heads we should have our hands full, was his reply. I dropped the matter
+for the time being, but I was none the less convinced that Mose and the
+ghost were near relations; and I determined to keep an eye on him in the
+future, at least in so far as one could keep an eye on so slippery an
+individual.</p>
+
+<p>In pursuance of this design, I took the opportunity that first morning,
+while Rad and his father were engaged with the veterinary surgeon who
+had come to doctor a sick colt, of strolling in the direction of the
+deserted cabins.</p>
+
+<p>It was a damp malarious looking spot, though I dare say in the old days
+when the land was drained, it had been healthy enough. Just below the
+cabins lay the largest of the four pools which gave the plantation its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+name. The other three lying in the pastures higher up were used for
+watering the stock and were kept clean and free from plant growth. But
+the lower pool, abandoned like the cabins, had been allowed to overflow
+its banks until it was completely surrounded with rushes and lily pads.
+A rank growth of willow trees hung over the water and shut out all but
+the merest glint of sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>Above this pool the cabins stretched in a double row occupying the base
+of the declivity on which the "big house" stood. There were as many as a
+dozen, I should think, built of logs and unpainted shack, consisting for
+the most part of a single large room, though a few had a loft above and
+a rough lean-to in the rear. A walk bordered by laurels stretched down
+the center between the two rows, and as the trees had not been clipped
+for a good many years, the shade was somewhat sombre. Add to this the
+fact that one or two of the roofs had fallen in, that the hinges were
+missing from several doors, that there was not a whole pane of glass in
+all the dozen cabins, and it will readily be seen that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> place gave
+rise to no very cheerful fancies. I wondered that the Colonel did not
+have the houses pulled down; they were not a souvenir of past times
+which I myself should have cared to preserve.</p>
+
+<p>The damp earth where the shade was thickest, plainly showed the marks of
+foot-prints&mdash;some made by bare feet, some by shoes&mdash;but I could not
+follow them for more than a yard or so, and I could not be certain they
+were not our own traces of the night before. I poked into every one of
+the cabins, but found nothing suspicious about their appearance. I did
+not, to be sure, ascend to any of the half dozen lofts, as there were no
+stairs and no suggestion of a ladder anywhere about. The open traps
+however which led to them were so thickly festooned with spider webs and
+dirt, that it did not seem possible that anyone had passed through for a
+dozen years. Finding no sign of habitation, either human or spiritual, I
+finally turned back to the house with a philosophic shrug and the
+reflection that Cat-Eye Mose's nocturnal vagaries were no affair of
+mine.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p><p>During the next few days we in the front part of the house heard only
+faint echoes of the excitement, though I believe that the ha'nt, both
+past and present, was the chief topic of conversation among the negroes,
+not only at Four-Pools but among the neighboring plantations as well. I
+spent my time those first few days in getting acquainted with my new
+surroundings. The chief business of the farm was horse raising, and the
+Colonel kept a well stocked stable. A riding horse was put at my
+disposal, and in company with Radnor I explored the greater part of the
+valley.</p>
+
+<p>We visited at a number of houses in the neighborhood, but there was one
+in particular where we stopped most frequently, and it did not take me
+long to discover the reason. "Mathers Hall", an ivy-covered rambling
+structure, red brick with white trimmings&mdash;in style half colonial, half
+old English&mdash;was situated a mile or so from Four-Pools. The Hall had
+sheltered three generations of Matherses, and the fourth generation was
+growing up. There was a huge family, mostly girls, who had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>married and
+moved away to Washington or Richmond or Baltimore. They all came back in
+the summer however bringing their babies with them, and the place was
+the center of gaiety in the neighborhood. There was just one unmarried
+daughter left&mdash;Polly, nineteen years old, and the most heartlessly
+charming young person it has ever been my misfortune to meet. As is
+likely to be the case with the baby of a large family, Polly was
+thoroughly spoiled, but that fact did not in the least diminish her
+charm.</p>
+
+<p>Report had it, at the time of my arrival, that after refusing every
+marriageable man in the county, she was now trying to make up her mind
+between Jim Mattison and Radnor. Whether or not these statistics were
+exaggerated, I cannot say, but in any case the many other aspirants for
+her favor had tacitly dropped out of the running, and the race was
+clearly between the two.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me, had I been Polly, that it would not take me long to
+decide. Rad was as likable a young fellow as one would ever meet; he
+came from one of the best families<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> in the county, with the prospect of
+inheriting at his father's death a very fair sized fortune. It struck me
+that a girl would have to search a good while before discovering an
+equally desirable husband. But I was surprised to find that this was not
+the general opinion in the neighborhood. Radnor's reputation, I learned
+with something of a shock, was far from what it should have been. I was
+told with a meaning undertone that he "favored" his brother Jeff. Though
+many of the stories were doubtless exaggerated, I learned subsequently
+that there was too much truth in some of them. It was openly said that
+Polly Mathers would be doing a great deal better if she chose young
+Mattison, for though he might not have the prospect of as much money as
+Radnor Gaylord, he was infinitely the steadier of the two. Mattison was
+a good-looking and rather ill-natured young giant, but it did not strike
+me at the time, nor later in the light of succeeding events, that he was
+particularly endowed with brains. By way of occupation, he was described
+as being in "politics"; at that time he was sheriff of the county,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> and
+was fully aware of the importance of the office.</p>
+
+<p>I fear that Polly had a good deal of the coquette in her make-up, and
+she thoroughly enjoyed the jealousy between the two young men. Whenever
+Radnor by any chance incurred her displeasure, she retaliated by
+transferring her smiles to Mattison; and the virtuous young sheriff took
+good care that if Rad committed any slips, Polly should hear of them. As
+a result, they succeeded in keeping his temper in a very inflammable
+state.</p>
+
+<p>I had not been long at Four-Pools before I commenced to see that there
+was an undercurrent to the life of the household which I had not at
+first suspected. The Colonel had grown strict as he grew old; his
+experience with his elder son had made him bitter, and he did not adopt
+the most diplomatic way of dealing with Radnor. The boy had inherited a
+good share of his father's stubborn temper and indomitable will; the
+two, living alone, inevitably clashed. Radnor at times seemed possessed
+of the very devil of perversity; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> if he ever drank or gambled, it
+was as much to assert his independence as for any other reason. There
+were days when he and his father were barely on speaking terms.</p>
+
+<p>Life at the plantation, however, was for the most part easy-going and
+flexible, as is likely to be the case in a bachelor establishment. We
+dropped cigar ashes anywhere we pleased, cocked our feet on the parlor
+table if we saw fit, and let the dogs troop all over the place. I spent
+the greater part of my time on horseback, riding about the country with
+Radnor on business for the farm. He, I soon discovered, did most of the
+actual work, though his father was still the nominal head of affairs.
+The raising of thorough-breds is no longer the lucrative business that
+it used to be, and it required a good manager to bring the balance out
+on the right side of the ledger. Rad was such a spectacular looking
+young fellow that I was really surprised to find what sound business
+judgment he possessed. He insisted upon introducing modern methods where
+his father would have been content to drift along in the casual manner
+of the old South, and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> clear-sightedness more than doubled the
+income of the place.</p>
+
+<p>In the healthy out-of-door life I soon forgot that nerves existed. The
+only thing which at all marred the enjoyment of those first few days was
+the knowledge of occasional clashings between Radnor and his father. I
+think that they were both rather ashamed of these outbreaks, and I
+noticed that they tried to conceal the fact from me by an elaborate if
+somewhat stiff courtesy toward each other.</p>
+
+<p>In order to make clear the puzzling series of events which followed, I
+must go back to, I believe, the fifth night of my arrival. Radnor was
+giving a dance at Four-Pools for the purpose, he said, of introducing me
+into society; though as a matter of fact Polly Mathers was the guest of
+honor. In any case the party was given, and everyone in the neighborhood
+(the term "neighborhood" is broad in Virginia; it describes a ten mile
+radius) both young and old came in carriages or on horseback; the
+younger ones to dance half the night, the older ones to play cards and
+look on. I met a great many pretty girls<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> that evening&mdash;the South
+deserves its reputation&mdash;but Polly Mathers was by far the prettiest; and
+the contest for her favors between Radnor and young Mattison was
+spirited and open. Had Rad consulted his private wishes, the sheriff
+would not have been among the guests.</p>
+
+<p>It was getting on toward the end of the evening and the musicians, a
+band of negro fiddlers made up from the different plantations, were
+resting after a Virginia reel that had been more a romp than a dance,
+when someone&mdash;I think it was Polly herself&mdash;suggested that the company
+adjourn to the laurel walk to see if the ha'nt were visible. The story
+of old Aunt Sukie's convulsions and of the spirited roast chicken had
+spread through the countryside, and there had been a good many laughing
+allusions to it during the evening. Running upstairs in search of a hat
+I met Rad on the landing, buttoning something white inside his coat,
+something that to my eyes looked suspiciously like a sheet. He laughed
+and put his finger on his lips as he went on down to join the others.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p><p>It was a bright moonlight night almost as light as day. We moved across
+the open lawn in a fairly compact body. The girls, though they had been
+laughing all the evening at the exploits of the ha'nt, showed a cautious
+tendency to keep on the inside. Rad was in the front ranks leading the
+hunt, but I noticed as we entered the shrubbery that he disappeared
+among the shadows, and I for one was fairly certain that our search
+would be rewarded. We paused in a group at the nearer end of the row of
+cabins and stood waiting for the ha'nt to show himself. He was obliging.
+Four or five minutes, and a faint flutter of white appeared in the
+distance at the farther end of the laurel walk. Then as we stood with
+expectant eyes fixed on the spot, we saw a tall white figure sway across
+a patch of moonlight with a beckoning gesture in our direction, while
+the breeze bore a faintly whispered, "Come! Come!" We were none of us
+overbold; our faith was not strong enough to run the risk of spoiling
+the illusion. With shrieks and laughter we turned and made
+helter-skelter for the house, breaking in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> among the elder members of
+the party with the panting announcement, "We've seen the ha'nt!"</p>
+
+<p>Polly loitered on the veranda while supper was being served, waiting, I
+suspect for Radnor to reappear. I joined her, very willing indeed that
+the young man should delay. Polly, her white dress gleaming in the
+moonlight, her eyes filled with laughter, her cheeks glowing with
+excitement, was the most entrancing little creature I have ever seen.
+She was so bubbling over with youth and light-heartedness that I felt,
+in contrast, as if I were already tottering on the brink of the grave. I
+was just thirty that summer, but if I live to be a hundred I shall never
+feel so old again.</p>
+
+<p>"Well Solomon," I remarked as I helped myself to some cakes he was
+passing, "we've been consorting with ghosts tonight."</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon dis yere gohs would answer to de name o' Marse Radnah," said
+Solomon, with a wise shake of his head. "But just de same it ain't safe
+to mock at ha'nts. Dey'll get it back at you when you ain't expectin'
+it!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>After an intermission of half an hour or so the music commenced again,
+but still no Radnor. Polly cast more than one glance in the direction of
+the laurels and the sparkle in her eyes grew ominous. Presently young
+Mattison appeared in the doorway and asked her to come in and dance, but
+she said that she was tired, and we three stood laughing and chatting
+for some ten minutes longer, when a step suddenly sounded on the gravel
+path and Radnor rounded the corner of the house. As the bright moonlight
+fell on his face, I stared at him in astonishment. He was pale to his
+very lips and there were strained anxious lines beneath his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Radnor?" Polly cried. "You look as if you'd found
+the ha'nt!"</p>
+
+<p>He made an effort at composure and laughed in return, though to my ears
+the laugh sounded very hollow.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe this is my dance, isn't it, Polly?" he asked, joining us with
+rather an over-acted air of carelessness.</p>
+
+<p>"Your dance was over half an hour ago," Polly returned. "This is Mr.
+Mattison's."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p><p>She turned indoors with the young man, and Rad following on their
+heels, made his way to the punch bowl where I saw him toss off three or
+four glasses with no visible interval between them. I, decidedly
+puzzled, watched him for the rest of the evening. He appeared to have
+some disturbing matter on his mind, and his gaiety was clearly forced.</p>
+
+<p>It was well on toward morning when the party broke up, and after some
+slight conversation of a desultory sort the Colonel, Rad and I went up
+to our rooms. Whether it was the excitement of the evening or the coffee
+I had drunk, in any case I was not sleepy. I turned in, only to lie for
+an hour or more with my eyes wide open staring at a patch of moonlight
+on the ceiling. My old trouble of insomnia had overtaken me again. I
+finally rose and paced the floor in sheer desperation, and then paused
+to stare out of the window at the peaceful moonlit picture before me.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly I heard, as on the night of my arrival, the soft creaking of
+the French window in the library, which opened on to the veranda just
+below me. Quickly alert, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> leaned forward determined to learn if
+possible the reason for Mose's midnight wanderings. To my astonishment
+it was Radnor who stepped out from the shadow of the house, carrying a
+large black bundle in his arms. I clutched the frame of the window and
+stared after him in dumb amazement, as he crossed the strip of moonlit
+lawn and plunged into the shadows of the laurel growth.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>CAT-EYE MOSE CREATES A SENSATION</h3>
+
+<p>For the next week or so things went rather strangely on the plantation.
+I knew very well that there was an undercurrent of which I was supposed
+to know nothing, and I appeared politely unconscious; but I won't say
+but that I kept my eyes and ears as wide open as was possible without
+appearing to spy. The chicken episode and Aunt Sukie's convulsions
+turned out to be only the beginning of the ha'nt excitement; scarcely a
+day passed without some fresh supernatural visitation. Radnor
+pooh-poohed over the matter before the Colonel and me, but with the
+negroes I know that he encouraged rather than discouraged their fears,
+until there was not a man on our own or any of the neighboring
+plantations who would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> have ventured to step foot within the laurel
+walk, either at night or in the daytime&mdash;at least there was only one.
+Cat-Eye Mose took the matter of the ha'nt without undue emotion, a point
+which struck me as suggestive, for I knew that Mose was as superstitious
+as the rest when the occasion warranted.</p>
+
+<p>Once at least I saw Radnor and Mose in consultation, and though I did
+not know the subject of the conference my suspicions were very near the
+surface. I came upon them in the stables talking in low tones, Rad
+apparently explaining, and Mose listening with the air of strained
+attention which the slightest mental effort always called to his face.
+At my appearance Radnor raised his voice and added one or two directions
+as to how his guns were to be cleaned. It was evident that the subject
+had been changed.</p>
+
+<p>Everything that was missing about the place&mdash;and there seemed to be an
+abnormal amount&mdash;was attributed to the ha'nt. I do not doubt but that
+the servants made the ha'nt a convenient scapegoat to answer for their
+own shortcomings, but still there were several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> suggestive
+depredations&mdash;horse blankets from the stable, clothes from the line and
+more edibles than roast chicken from Nancy's larder. The climax of
+absurdity was reached when there disappeared a rather trashy French
+novel, which I had left in the summer house. I asked Solomon about it,
+thinking that one of the servants might have brought it in. Solomon
+rolled his eyes and suggested that the ha'nt had cotched it. I
+laughingly commented upon the occurrence at the supper table and the
+next day Rad handed me the book; Mose had found it, he said, and had
+brought it up to his room.</p>
+
+<p>All of these minor occurrences were stretched over a period of, say ten
+days after the party, and though it gave me the uncomfortable feeling
+that there was something in the air which I did not understand, I did
+not let it worry me unduly. Radnor seemed to be on the inside track of
+whatever was going on, and he was old enough to take care of his own
+affairs. I knew that he had more than once visited the laurel walk after
+the house was supposed to be asleep; but I kept this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>knowledge to
+myself, and allowed no hint to reach the Colonel.</p>
+
+<p>I had, during these first few weeks, all the opportunity I wished of
+studying Mose's character. Radnor was occupied a good deal of the
+time&mdash;spring on a big river plantation is a busy season&mdash;and as I had
+professed myself fond of shooting, the Colonel turned me over to the
+care of Cat-Eye Mose. Had I myself been choosing, I should have selected
+another guide. But Mose was the best hunter on the place, and as the
+Colonel was quite untroubled by his vagaries, it never occurred to him
+that I might not be equally confident. In time I grew used to the
+fellow, but I will admit that at first I accepted his services with some
+honest trepidation. As I watched him going ahead of me, crouching behind
+bushes, springing from hummock to hummock, silent and alert, quivering
+like an animal in search of prey, my attention was centered on him
+rather than on any possible quarry.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget running across him in the woods one afternoon when
+I had gone out snipe shooting alone. Whether he had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>followed me or
+whether we had chosen the same vicinity by chance, I do not know; but at
+any rate as I came out from the underbrush on the edge of a low, swampy
+place, I almost stepped on the man. He was stretched face downward on
+the black, oozy soil with his arm buried in a hole at the foot of a
+tree.</p>
+
+<p>"Why Mose!" I cried in amazement, "what on earth are you doing here?"</p>
+
+<p>He responded without raising his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I's aftah a snake, sah. I see a big fat gahtah snake a-lopin' into dis
+yere hole, an' he's skulkin' dar now thinkin' like he gwine to fool me.
+But he cayn't do dat, sah. I's got 'im by de tail, an' I'll fotch 'im
+out."</p>
+
+<p>He drew forth as he spoke a huge black and yellow snake, writhing and
+hissing, and proceeded to smash its head with a stone. I shut my eyes
+during the operation and when I opened them again I saw to my horror
+that he was stuffing the carcass in the front of his shirt.</p>
+
+<p>"Good heavens, Mose!" I cried, aghast. "What are you going to do with
+that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Boil it into oil, sah, to scar de witches off."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p><p>Inquiry at the house that night brought out the fact that this was one
+of Mose's regular occupations. Snake's oil was in general favor among
+the negroes as a specific against witches, and Mose was the chief
+purveyor of the lotion. Taken all in all he was about as queer a human
+being as I have ever come across, and I fancy, had I been a psychologist
+instead of a lawyer, I might have found him an entertaining study.</p>
+
+<p>I heard about this time some fresh rumors in regard to Radnor; one&mdash;and
+it came pretty straight&mdash;that he'd just lost a hundred dollars at poker.
+A hundred dollars may not sound like a very big loss in these days of
+bridge, but it was large for that place, and it represented to Radnor
+exactly two months' pay. As overseer of the plantation, the Colonel paid
+him six hundred dollars a year, a little enough sum considering the work
+he did. Rad had nothing in his own right; aside from his salary he was
+entirely dependent on his father, and it struck me as more than foolish
+for a young man who was contemplating marriage to throw away two months'
+earnings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> in a single game of poker. The conviction crossed my mind that
+perhaps after all Polly was wise to delay.</p>
+
+<p>I heard another rumor however which was graver than the poker affair; it
+was only a rumor, and when traced to its source turned out to be nothing
+more tangible than somebody's hazarded guess, but without the slightest
+cause the same suspicion had already presented itself to me. And that
+was, that the ha'nt was a very flesh and blood woman. Radnor was clearly
+in some sort of trouble; he was moody and irritable, so sharp with the
+farm hands that several of them left, and unusually taciturn with the
+Colonel and me. To make matters worse Polly Mathers was treating him
+with marked indifference, and openly bestowing her smiles upon Mattison;
+what the trouble was I could only conjecture, but I feared that she too
+had been hearing rumors.</p>
+
+<p>The ha'nt stories had been repeated and exaggerated until they contained
+no semblance of truth. By this time, not only the laurel walk was
+haunted, but the spring-hole as well;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> and it soon became a region of
+even greater fear than the deserted cabins. The "spring-hole" was a
+natural cavity in the side of a hill a half mile or so back from the
+house. It was out of this cavity that the underground stream flowed
+which fed the pools, and furnished such valuable irrigation to the
+place. All that part of Virginia is undermined with limestone caverns,
+and my uncle's was by no means the only plantation that could boast the
+distinction of a private cave. The entrance was half hidden among rugged
+piled-up boulders dripping with moisture; and was not inviting. I
+remembered chasing a rabbit into this cavern when I was a boy, and
+though it would have been an easy matter to follow him, I preferred to
+stay outside in the sunshine. The spring-hole, then, was haunted. This
+did not strike me as strange. I rather wondered that it had not been
+from the first; it was a likely place for ghosts. But the thing which
+did surprise me, was the fact that it was Mose who brought the news.</p>
+
+<p>We were sitting on the portico after supper one night&mdash;it was almost
+dark and the glow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> from our cigars was the one visible point in the
+scenery&mdash;when Mose came bounding across the lawn with his peculiar
+loping run and fairly groveled at Radnor's feet, his teeth chattering
+with fear.</p>
+
+<p>"I's seen de ha'nt, Marse Rad; de sho nuff ha'nt all dressed in black
+an' risin' outen de spring-hole."</p>
+
+<p>"You fool!" Radnor cried. "Get on your feet and behave yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"It was de debbil," Mose chattered. "His face was black an' his eyes was
+fire."</p>
+
+<p>"You've been drinking, Mose," Radnor said sharply. "Get off to the
+quarters where you belong, and don't let me see you again until you are
+sober," and he shunted the fellow out of the way before he had time to
+say any more.</p>
+
+<p>I myself was tolerably certain that Mose had not been drinking; that, at
+least, was not in the list of his peculiar vices. He appeared to be
+thoroughly frightened&mdash;if not, he was a most consummate actor. In the
+light of what I already knew, I was considerably puzzled by this fresh
+manifestation. The Colonel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> fretted and fumed up and down the veranda,
+muttering something about these fool niggers all being alike. He had
+bragged considerably about Mose's immunity in respect to ha'nts, and I
+think he was rather dashed at his favorite's falling-off. I held my
+peace, and Radnor returned in a few minutes.</p>
+
+<p>"Rad," said the Colonel, "this thing's going too far. The whole place is
+infested with ghosts; they'll be invading the house next and we won't
+have a servant left on the place. Can't you do something to stop it?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor shrugged his shoulders and said that it was a pretty tough job to
+lay a ghost when there were twenty niggers on the place, but that he
+would see what he could do; and he presently drifted off again.</p>
+
+<p>That same night about ten o'clock I was reading before going to bed,
+when a knock sounded on the door, and Radnor appeared. He was unusually
+restless and ill at ease. He referred in a jesting fashion to the ha'nt,
+discussed some neighborhood gossip, and finally quite abruptly inquired:</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold, can you lend me some money?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p><p>"Yes," I said, "I think so; how much do you want?"</p>
+
+<p>"A hundred dollars if you can spare it. Fact is I'm a little hard up,
+and I've got a bill to meet. I have some money invested but I can't put
+my hands on it just this minute. I'll pay you in a week or so as soon as
+I get some cash&mdash;I wouldn't ask you, only my father is so blamed
+reluctant about paying my salary ahead of time."</p>
+
+<p>I wrote out a check and handed it to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Rad," I said, "you're perfectly welcome to the money; I'm glad to
+accommodate you, but if you'll excuse my mentioning it, I think you
+ought to pull up a bit on this poker business. You don't earn so much
+that if you're thinking of getting married you can afford to throw any
+of it away.&mdash;I'm only speaking for your good; it's no affair of mine," I
+added as I saw his face flush.</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated a moment with the check in his hand; I know that he wanted
+to give it back, but he was evidently too hard pressed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, keep the money!" I said. "I don't want to pry into your private
+affairs, only," I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> laughed, "I do want to see you win out ahead of
+Mattison, and I'm afraid you're not going about it the right way."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Arnold," he returned, "I want to win a great deal more than
+you want me to&mdash;and if it's gambling you're afraid of, you can ease your
+mind, for I've sworn off. It's not a poker debt I want this money for
+tonight; I wouldn't be so secretive about the business, only it concerns
+another person more than me."</p>
+
+<p>"Radnor," I said, "I heard an ugly rumor the other day. I heard that the
+ghost was a live woman who was living in the deserted cabins under your
+connivance. I didn't believe it, but just the same it is not a story
+which you can afford to have even whispered."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor raised his head sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, I see!" His eyes wavered a moment and then fixed themselves
+miserably on my face. "Has&mdash;has Polly Mathers heard that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I returned, "I fancy she has."</p>
+
+<p>He struck the table with a quick flash of anger.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p><p>"It's a damned lie! And it comes from Jim Mattison."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>And now as to the events which followed during the night. I've repeated
+them so many times to so many different persons that it is difficult for
+me to recall just what were my original sensations. I went to bed but I
+didn't go to sleep; this ha'nt business was getting on my nerves almost
+as badly as the Patterson-Pratt case. After a time I heard someone let
+himself softly out of the house; I knew well that it was Radnor and I
+didn't get up to look. I didn't want the appearance even to myself of
+spying upon him. After three quarters of an hour or so I was suddenly
+startled alert by hearing the squeak-squeak of a whippletree out on the
+lawn. It was the Colonel's buckboard which stood in need of oiling; I
+recognized the sound. Curiosity was too much for me this time. I slipped
+out of bed and hurried to the window. It was pretty dark outside, but
+there was a faint glimmer of starlight.</p>
+
+<p>"Whoa, Jennie Loo; whoa!" I heard Rad's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> voice scarcely above a whisper,
+and I saw the outline of the cart plainly with Rad driving, and either
+some person or some large bundle on the seat beside him. It was on the
+side farthest from me, and was too vague to be distinguished. He made a
+wide detour of the house across the grass, and struck the driveway at
+the foot of the lawn; the reason for this man&oelig;uvre was evident&mdash;the
+gravel drive from the stables passed directly under the Colonel's
+window. I went back to bed half worried, half relieved. I strongly
+suspected that this was the end of the ghost; but I could not help
+puzzling over the part that Radnor had played in the little comedy&mdash;if
+comedy it were. The stories that I had heard about some of his
+disreputable associates returned to my mind with unpleasant emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>I had gradually dozed off, when half waking, half sleeping, I heard the
+patter of bare feet on the veranda floor. The impression was not
+distinct enough to arouse me, and I have never been perfectly sure that
+I was not dreaming. I do not know how much time elapsed after this&mdash;I
+was sound asleep&mdash;when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> I was suddenly startled awake by a succession of
+the most horrible screams I have ever heard. In an instant I was on my
+feet in the middle of the floor. Striking a match and lighting a candle,
+I grabbed an umbrella&mdash;it was the only semblance of a weapon anywhere at
+hand&mdash;and dashed into the hall. The Colonel's door was flung open at the
+same instant, and he appeared on the threshold, revolver in hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Eh, Arnold, what's happened?" he cried.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," I gasped, "I'm going down to see."</p>
+
+<p>We tumbled down stairs at such a rate that the candle went out, and we
+groped along in total darkness toward the rear of the house from where
+the sounds were coming. The cries had died down by this time into a
+horrible inarticulate wail, half animal, half human. I recognized the
+tones with a cold thrill; it was Mose. We found him groveling on the
+floor of the little passage that led from the dining-room to the serving
+room. I struck a light and we bent over him. I hated to look, expecting
+from the noise he was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>making to find him lying in a pool of blood. But
+he was entirely whole; there was no blood visible and we could find no
+broken bones. Apparently there was nothing the matter beyond fear, and
+of that he was nearly dead. He crawled to the Colonel and clung to his
+feet chattering an unintelligible gibberish. His eyes rolling wildly in
+the dim light, showed an uncanny yellow gleam. I could see where he got
+his name.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel's own nerves were beginning to assert themselves and with an
+oath he cuffed the fellow back to a state of coherence.</p>
+
+<p>"Stand up, you blithering fool, and tell us what you mean by raising
+such a fuss."</p>
+
+<p>Mose finally found his tongue but we still could make nothing of his
+story. He had been out "prospectin' 'round," and when he came in to go
+to bed&mdash;the house servants slept in a wing over the rear gallery&mdash;he met
+the ha'nt face to face standing in the dining-room doorway. He was so
+tall that his head reached the ceiling and he was so thin that you could
+see right through him. At the remembrance Mose began to shiver again.
+We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> propped him up with some whiskey and sent him off to bed still
+twittering with terror.</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel was bent on routing out Radnor to share the excitement and I
+with some difficulty restrained him, knowing full well that Rad was not
+in the house. We made a search of the premises to assure ourselves that
+there was nothing tangible about Mose's ha'nt; but I was in such a hurry
+to get the Colonel safely upstairs again, that our search was somewhat
+cursory. We both overlooked the little office that opened off the
+dining-room. In spite of my man&oelig;uvres the Colonel entered the library
+first and discovered that the French window was open; he laid no stress
+on this however, supposing that Mose was the guilty one. He bolted it
+with unusual care, and I with equal care slipped back and unbolted it. I
+finally persuaded him that Mose's ha'nt was merely the result of a
+fevered imagination fed on a two weeks' diet of ghost stories, and
+succeeded in getting him back to bed without discovering Radnor's
+absence. I lay awake until I heard the sound of carriage wheels
+returning across the lawn, and, a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> minutes later, footsteps enter
+the house and tip-toe upstairs. Then as daylight was beginning to show
+in the east I finally fell asleep, worn out with puzzling my head for an
+explanation which should cover at once Rad's nocturnal drive and Mose's
+ha'nt.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>WE SEND FOR A DETECTIVE</h3>
+
+<p>I slept late the next morning, and came down stairs to find the Colonel
+pacing the length of the dining-room, his head bent, a worried frown
+upon his brow. He came to a sudden halt at my appearance and regarded me
+a moment without speaking. I could see that something of moment had
+happened, but I could fathom nothing of its nature from his expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Good morning, Arnold," he said with a certain grim pleasantness. "I
+have just been making a discovery. It appears that Mose's ha'nt amounted
+to more than we gave him credit for. The safe was robbed during the
+night."</p>
+
+<p>"The safe robbed!" I cried. "How much was taken?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><p>"Something over a hundred dollars in cash, and a number of important
+papers."</p>
+
+<p>He threw open the door of the little office, and waved his hand toward
+the safe which occupied one end. The two iron doors were wide open, the
+interior showing a succession of yawning pigeon holes with the cash
+drawer, half pulled out and empty. Several papers were spilled on the
+floor underneath.</p>
+
+<p>"He evidently had no use for my will nor for Kennisburg street railway
+stock&mdash;I don't blame him; it wouldn't sell for the paper it's written
+on."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor's step sounded on the stair as he came running down&mdash;whistling I
+noted.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;Rad," the Colonel called from the office doorway. "You're a good
+sleeper."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor stopped his whistle as his eye fell upon our faces, and his own
+took on a look of anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" he asked. "Has anything happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"It appears the ha'nt has robbed the safe."</p>
+
+<p>"The ha'nt?" Rad's face went visibly white, and then in a moment it
+cleared; his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> expression was divided between relief and dismay.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" he said, "you've missed the money? I meant to get down first and
+tell you about it, but overslept. I took a hundred dollars out of the
+safe last night because I wanted the cash&mdash;you had gone to bed so I
+didn't say anything about it. I will ride into the village this morning
+and get it out of the bank in time to pay the men."</p>
+
+<p>"You took a hundred dollars," the Colonel repeated. "And did you take
+the securities also and the bag of coin?" He waved his hand toward the
+safe. Radnor's eye followed and his jaw dropped.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't touch anything but the roll of bills in the cash drawer.
+What's missing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Five thousand dollars in bonds, a couple of insurance policies and one
+or two deeds&mdash;also the bag of coin. Mose saw the ha'nt in the night, and
+Arnold and I came down to investigate; we unfortunately neglected the
+office in our search, or we might have cornered him. Do you happen to
+remember whether or not you closed the safe after you took out the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+money, and would you mind telling me why you needed a hundred dollars in
+such a hurry that you couldn't wait until the bank opened?"</p>
+
+<p>The troubled line on Radnor's brow deepened.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I closed the safe," he said, "but I don't remember. It's barely
+possible that I didn't lock it; you know we haven't always kept it
+locked, especially when there wasn't money in it.&mdash;It never occurred to
+me that anyone would steal the bonds. I can't imagine what it means."</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't answered my question.&mdash;Why did you need a hundred dollars
+in cash after ten o'clock last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sorry, father, but I can't answer that question. It's a private
+matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed! You are sure that you did not take the bonds as well and have
+forgotten it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I took one hundred dollars in bills and nothing else. I took that
+merely because it was my only way of cashing a check. I have frequently
+cashed my private checks, when we had a surplus on hand and I didn't
+want the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> bother of going in to the bank. So long as I balance the books
+all right, I see no reason why I should not do so."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said the Colonel. "Two days ago you came to me and wanted two
+months' pay in advance because you had overdrawn your bank account, and
+I refused to give it to you. Where, may I ask, were you intending to get
+the hundred dollars to pay back this amount?"</p>
+
+<p>A quick flush spread over Radnor's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I already had it&mdash;Arnold will tell you that, for I borrowed it of him."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," I put in pacifically&mdash;"that's all settled between Rad and
+me. I have his note and was glad to accommodate him."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you get enough from me, that you must ask the guests in my house
+to supply you with money?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor's flush deepened but he said nothing. I could see by his eyes
+however that he would not stand much more.</p>
+
+<p>"Then after you had helped yourself to the money, the bonds were stolen
+by someone else?" said the Colonel.</p>
+
+<p>"So it appears," said Radnor.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>"And have you any theory as to the identity of the thief?"</p>
+
+<p>Rad hesitated a visible instant before replying. The flush left his face
+and the pallor came back, but in the end he raised his eyes and answered
+steadily.</p>
+
+<p>"No, father, I have not. I am as much mystified as you are."</p>
+
+<p>"And you heard nothing in the night? As I said before, you are an
+excellent sleeper!"</p>
+
+<p>Rad caught an ironical undertone in his father's voice.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a trifle deaf myself, but still he wakened me.&mdash;It's strange that
+you should be the only one in the house who could sleep through it."</p>
+
+<p>"Sleep through what? I don't know what you're talking about."</p>
+
+<p>I cut in hastily and explained our adventure with Mose's ha'nt.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor listened with troubled eyes but made no comment at the end. His
+father was watching him keenly, and I don't know whether it was
+intuition or some knowledge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> of the truth that made him suddenly put the
+question:</p>
+
+<p>"You were of course in the house all night?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," Radnor returned, "I was not. I didn't get in till early this
+morning and I suppose the excitement occurred during my absence."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose I may not be permitted to inquire where you spent the
+night&mdash;that too is a private matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Radnor, easily, "that too is a private matter."</p>
+
+<p>"And would throw no light on the robbery?"</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever."</p>
+
+<p>Solomon brought in the breakfast and we three sat down, but not to a
+very cheerful meal. The Colonel wore an angry frown and Rad an air of
+anxious perplexity. Neither of them indulged in any unnecessary
+conversation. I knew that the Colonel was more upset by his son's
+reticence than by the robbery of the bonds, and that it was my presence
+alone which restrained him from giving vent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> to his anger. As we rose
+from the table he said stiffly:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Rad, have you any suggestion as to how we shall set to work to
+track down the thief?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor slowly shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have to talk with Mose first and find out what he really saw."</p>
+
+<p>"Mose!" The Colonel laughed shortly. "He's like all the rest of the
+niggers. He doesn't know what he saw&mdash;No sir! I've had enough of this
+ha'nt business; it's one thing when he spirits chickens from the oven,
+it's another when he takes to spiriting securities from the safe. I
+shall telegraph to Washington for a first class detective."</p>
+
+<p>"If you take my advice," said Rad, "you'll not do that. A detective's
+not much good outside the covers of a book. He'll stir up a lot of
+notoriety and present a bill; and you'll be no wiser than you were
+before."</p>
+
+<p>"Whoever stole those bonds will be marketing them within a few days; the
+interest falls due the first of May. I am not so rich that I can let
+five thousand dollars go without a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> move to get it back. I shall
+telegraph today for a detective."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you please," said Radnor with a shrug, and he turned toward the
+door that opened on the gallery. Mose was visible at the end evidently
+recounting to an excited audience his experiences of the night. Rad
+beckoned to him and the two turned together across the lawn toward the
+laurel walk.</p>
+
+<p>It was an hour or so later that Rad presented himself at my door. His
+colloquy with Mose had increased rather than lessened the mystified look
+on his face. He waited for no preliminaries this time, but plunged
+immediately into the matter that was on his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold, for heaven's sake, stop my father from getting a detective down
+here. I don't dare say anything, for my opposition will only make him do
+it the more. But you have some influence with him; tell him you're a
+lawyer, and will take charge of it yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't you want a detective?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord, hasn't our family had notoriety enough? Here's Nan eloping
+with the overseer, and Jeff the scandal of the county<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> for five years. I
+can't turn around but some malicious interpretation is put on it, and
+now that the family ghost has taken to cracking safes gossip will never
+stop. Get a detective down here who goes nosing about the neighborhood
+in search of information and there's no telling where the thing will
+end. Those bonds can't be far. Aren't we more likely to get at the
+truth, if we lie low and don't let on we're after the thief?"</p>
+
+<p>"Radnor," I said, "will you tell me the absolute truth? Have you any
+suspicion as to who took those securities? Do you know any facts which
+might lead to the apprehension of the thief?"</p>
+
+<p>He remained silent a moment, then he parried my question with another.</p>
+
+<p>"What time did all that row occur in the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know; I didn't think to look, but I should say it was somewhere
+in the neighborhood of three o'clock. I didn't go to sleep again, and it
+was about half an hour later that you drove in."</p>
+
+<p>"You heard me?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p><p>"I heard you go and I heard you come; but I did not mention that fact
+to the Colonel."</p>
+
+<p>Rad laughed shortly.</p>
+
+<p>"I can at least prove an alibi," he said. "You can swear that I was not
+Mose's devil."</p>
+
+<p>He remained silent a moment with his elbows on his knees and his chin in
+his hands studying the floor; then he raised his eyes to mine with a
+puzzled shake of the head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Arnold, I haven't the slightest suspicion as to who took those
+securities. I can't make it out. The robbery must have occurred while I
+was away. Of course the deeds and insurance policies and coin may have
+been taken as a blind; but it's queer. The money was in five and ten
+cent pieces and pennies&mdash;we always keep a lot of change on hand to pay
+the piece-workers during planting season. There was nearly a quart of it
+altogether and it must have weighed a ton. I can't imagine anyone
+stealing Government four-per-cents and pennies at the same haul."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you get any light from Mose?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can't make head nor tail out of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> story. He isn't given to
+seeing visions, and as you know, he isn't afraid of the dark. He saw
+something that scared him; but what it was, I'll be darned if I know!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then why not get a detective down and see if he can't find out?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor lowered his eyes a moment, then raised them frankly to mine.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, hang it, Arnold; I'm in the deuce of a hole! There's something else
+that I don't want found out. It's absolutely unconnected with the
+robbery, but you bring a detective down here and he's certain to stumble
+on that instead of the other. I'd tell you if I could, but really I
+can't just now. It's nothing I'm to blame for&mdash;my conduct lately has
+been immaculate. You get my father to abandon this detective plan, and
+we'll buckle down together and root out the truth about the robbery."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," I promised, "I'll see what I can do; but as the Colonel says,
+five thousand dollars is a good deal of money to let slip through your
+hands without making an effort to get it back. You and I will have to
+finish the business if we undertake it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p><p>"We will!" he assured me. "We can certainly get at the truth better
+than an outsider who doesn't know any of the facts. You switch off the
+old gentleman from putting it in the hands of the police and everything
+will come out right."</p>
+
+<p>He went off actually whistling again. Whatever had been troubling him
+for the past two weeks had been sloughed off during the night, and all
+that remained now was the danger of detection; with this removed he was
+his old careless self. The loss of the securities was apparently not
+bothering him. Radnor always did exhibit a lordly disregard in money
+matters.</p>
+
+<p>I lost no time in taking my errand to the Colonel, but I could discover
+him in none of the down stairs rooms nor anywhere else about the place.
+It occurred to me, after half an hour of searching, to see if his horse
+were in the stable; as I had surmised it was not. He had ordered it
+saddled immediately after breakfast and had ridden off in the direction
+of the village, one of the stable-men informed me. I had my own horse
+saddled, and ten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> minutes later was riding after him. It surprised me
+that he should have acted so quickly; the Colonel was usually rather
+given to procrastination, while Rad was the one who acted. His
+promptness proved that he was angry.</p>
+
+<p>Four-Pools is about two miles from the village of Lambert Corners which
+consists of a single shady square. Two sides of the square are taken up
+with shops, the other two with the school, a couple of churches, and a
+dozen or so of dwellings. This composes as much of the town as is
+visible, the aristocracy being scattered over the outlying plantations,
+and regarding the "Corners" merely as a source of mail and drinks. Three
+miles farther down the pike lies Kennisburg, the county seat, which
+answers the varied purposes of a metropolis.</p>
+
+<p>I reined in before "Miller's place," a spacious structure comprising a
+general store on the right, the post and telegraph office on the left,
+and in the rear a commodious room where a white man may quench his
+thirst. A negro must pass on to "Jake's place," two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> doors below. A
+number of horses were tied to the iron railing in front and among them I
+recognized Red Pepper. I found the Colonel in the back room, a glass of
+mint julep at his elbow, an interested audience before him. He was
+engaged in recounting the story of the missing bonds, and it was too
+late for me to interrupt. He referred in the most casual manner to the
+hundred dollars his son had taken from the safe the night before, a
+fortunate circumstance, he added, or that too would have been stolen.
+There was not the slightest suggestion in his tone that he and his son
+had had any words over this same hundred dollars. The Gaylord pride
+could be depended on for hiding from the world what the world had no
+business in knowing.</p>
+
+<p>The telegram to the detective agency, I found, had already been
+dispatched, and the Colonel was awaiting his answer. It came in a few
+moments and was delivered by word of mouth, the clerk seeing no reason
+why he should put himself to the trouble of writing it out.</p>
+
+<p>"They say they'll put one o' their best men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> on the case, Colonel, an'
+he'll get to the Junction at five-forty tonight."</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel and I rode home together, he in a more placable frame of
+mind. Though I dare say he disliked as much as ever the idea of losing
+his bonds, still the &eacute;clat of a robbery, of a magnitude that demanded a
+detective, was something of a palliative. It was not everyone of his
+listeners who had five thousand dollars in bonds to lose. I knew that it
+would be useless to try to head off the detective now, and I wisely kept
+silent. My mind was by no means at rest however; for an unknown reason I
+did not want a detective any more than Radnor. I had the intangible
+feeling that there was something in the air which might better not be
+discovered.</p>
+
+<hr />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>WE SEND HIM BACK AGAIN</h3>
+
+<p>The detective came. He was an inoffensive young man, and he set to work
+to unravel the mystery of the ha'nt with visible delight at the unusual
+nature of the job. Radnor received him in a spirit of almost anxious
+hospitality. A horse was given him to ride, guns and fishing tackle were
+placed at his disposal, a box of the Colonel's best cigars stood on the
+table of his room, and Solomon at his elbow presented a succession of
+ever freshly mixed mint juleps. I think that he was dazed and a trifle
+suspicious at these unexpected attentions; he was not used to the
+largeness of Southern hospitality. However, he set to work with an
+admirable zeal.</p>
+
+<p>He interviewed the servants and farm-hands, and the information he
+received in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>regard to things supernatural would have filled three
+volumes; he was staggered by the amount of evidence at hand rather than
+the scarcity. He examined the safe and the library window with a
+microscope, crawled about the laurel walk on his hands and knees, sent
+off telegrams and gossiped with the loungers at "Miller's place." He
+interviewed the Colonel and Radnor, cross-examined me, and wrote down
+always copious notes. The young man's manner was pre&euml;minently
+professional.</p>
+
+<p>Finally one evening&mdash;it was four days after his arrival&mdash;he joined me as
+I was strolling in the garden smoking an after dinner pipe.</p>
+
+<p>"May I have just a word with you, Mr. Crosby?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I am at your service, Mr. Clancy," said I.</p>
+
+<p>His manner was gravely portentous and prepared me for the statement that
+was coming.</p>
+
+<p>"I have spotted my man," he said. "I know who stole the securities; but
+I am afraid that the information will not be welcome.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> Under the
+circumstances it seemed wisest to make my report to you rather than to
+Colonel Gaylord, and we can decide between us what is best to do."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" I demanded. In spite of my effort at composure,
+there was anxiety in my tone.</p>
+
+<p>"The thief is Radnor Gaylord."</p>
+
+<p>I laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"That is absolutely untenable. Rad is incapable of such an act in the
+first place, and in the second, he was not in the house when the robbery
+occurred."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Then you know that? And where was he, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"That," said I, "is his own affair; if he did not tell you, it is
+because it is not connected with the case."</p>
+
+<p>"So! It is just because it <i>is</i> connected with the case that he did not
+tell me. I will tell you, however, where he spent the night; he drove to
+Kennisburg&mdash;a larger town than Lambert Corners, where an unusual letter
+would create no comment&mdash;and mailed the bonds to a Washington firm of
+brokers with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> whom he has had some dealings. He took the bag of coin and
+several unimportant papers in order to deflect suspicion, and his
+opening the safe the night before for the hundred dollars was merely a
+ruse to allow him to forget and leave it open, so that the bonds could
+appear to be stolen by someone else. Just what led him to commit the act
+I won't say; he has been in a tight place for several months back in
+regard to money. Last January he turned a two-thousand dollar mortgage,
+that his father had given him on his twenty-first birthday, into cash,
+and what he did with the cash I haven't been able to discover. In any
+case his father knows nothing of the transaction; he thinks that Radnor
+still holds the mortgage. This spring the young man was hard up again,
+and no more mortgages left to sell. He probably did not regard the
+appropriation of the bonds as stealing, since everything by his father's
+will was to come to him ultimately.</p>
+
+<p>"As to all this hocus-pocus about the ha'nt, that is easily explained.
+He needed a scapegoat on whom to turn the blame when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> bonds should
+disappear; so he and this Cat-Eye Mose between them invented a ghost.
+The negro is a half crazy fellow who from the first has been young
+Gaylord's tool; I don't think he knew what he was doing sufficiently to
+be blamed. As for Gaylord himself, I fancy there was a third person
+somewhere in the background who was pressing him for money and who
+couldn't be shaken off till the money was forthcoming. But whatever his
+motive for taking the bonds, there is no doubt about the fact, and I
+have come to you with the story rather than to his father."</p>
+
+<p>"It is absolutely impossible," I returned. "Radnor, whatever his faults,
+is an honorable man in regard to money matters. I have his word that he
+knows no more about the robbery of those bonds than I do."</p>
+
+<p>The detective laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"There is just one kind of evidence that doesn't count for much in my
+profession, and that is a man's word. We look for something a little
+more tangible&mdash;such as this for example."</p>
+
+<p>He drew from his pocket an envelope, took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> from it a letter, and handed
+it to me. It was a typewritten communication from a firm of brokers in
+Washington.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Radnor F. Gaylord</span>, Esq.,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"Four-Pools Plantation, Lambert      Corners, Va.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dear Mr. Gaylord</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"We are in receipt of your favor of April 29th. in regard to the
+sale of the bonds. The market is rather slow at present and we
+shall have to sell at 98&frac14;. If you care to hold on to them a few
+months longer, there is every chance of the market picking up, and
+we feel sure that in the end you will find them a good investment.</p>
+
+<p>"Awaiting your further orders and thanking you for past favors,</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class='stanza'><div class="i8">"We are,</div>
+<div class="i10">"Very truly yours,</div>
+<div class="i12">"<span class="smcap">Jacoby, Haight &amp; Co.</span>"</div></div>
+</div></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Where did you get hold of that?" I asked. "It strikes me it's a private
+letter."</p>
+
+<p>"Very private," the young man agreed. "I had trouble enough in getting
+hold of it; I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> had to do some fishing with a hook and pole over the
+transom of Mr. Gaylord's door. He had very kindly put the tackle at my
+disposal."</p>
+
+<p>"You weren't called down here to open the family's private letters," I
+said hotly.</p>
+
+<p>"I was called down here to find out who stole Colonel Gaylord's bonds,
+and I've done it."</p>
+
+<p>I was silent for a moment. This letter from the brokers staggered me.
+April twenty-ninth was the date of the robbery, and I could think of no
+explanation. Clancy, noticing my silence, elaborated his theory with a
+growing air of triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"This Mose was left behind the night of the robbery with orders to rouse
+the house while Radnor was away. Mose is a good actor and he fooled you.
+The obvious suspicion was that the ghost had stolen the bonds and you
+set out to find him&mdash;a somewhat difficult task as he existed only in
+Mose's imagination. I think when you reflect upon the evidence, you will
+see that my explanation is convincing."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't in the least convincing," I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>retorted. "Mose was not acting;
+he saw something that frightened him half out of his senses. And that
+something was not Radnor masquerading as a ghost, for Radnor was out of
+the house when the robbery took place."</p>
+
+<p>"Not necessarily. The robbery took place early in the evening before all
+this rumpus occurred. Even if Mose did see a ghost, the ghost had
+nothing to do with it."</p>
+
+<p>"You have absolutely no proof of that; it is nothing but surmise."</p>
+
+<p>Clancy smiled with an air of patient tolerance.</p>
+
+<p>"How about the letter?" he inquired. "How do you explain that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't explain it; it is none of my business. But I dare say Radnor
+will do so readily enough&mdash;there he is going toward the stables; we will
+call him over."</p>
+
+<p>"No, hold on, I haven't finished what I want to say. I was employed by
+Colonel Gaylord to find out who stole the bonds and I have done so. But
+the Colonel did not suspect the direction my investigations would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> take
+or he never would have engaged me. Now I am wondering if it would not be
+kinder not to let him know? He's had trouble enough with his elder son;
+Radnor is all he has left. The young man seems to me like a really
+decent fellow&mdash;I dare say he'll straighten up and amount to something
+yet. Probably he considered the money as practically his already; anyway
+he's been decent to me and I should like to do him a service. Now say we
+three talk it over together and settle it out of court as it were. I've
+put in my time down here and I've got to have my pay, but perhaps it
+would be better all around if I took it from the young man rather than
+his father."</p>
+
+<p>This struck me as the best way out of the muddle, and a very fair
+proposition, considering Clancy's point of view. I myself did not for an
+instant credit his suspicions, but I thought the wisest thing to do was
+to tell Rad just how the matter stood and let him explain in regard to
+the letter. I left Clancy waiting in the summer house while I went in
+search of Rad. I wished to be the one to do the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>explaining as I knew he
+was not likely to take any such accusation calmly.</p>
+
+<p>I found him in the stables, and putting my hand on his shoulder, marched
+him back toward the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"Rad," I said, "Clancy has formed his conclusions as to how the bonds
+left the safe, and I want you to convince him that he is mistaken."</p>
+
+<p>"Well? Let's hear his conclusions."</p>
+
+<p>"He thinks that you took them when you took the money."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean that I stole them?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what he thinks."</p>
+
+<p>"He does, does he? Well he can prove it!"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor broke away from me and strode toward the summer house. The
+detective received his onslaught placidly; his manner suggested that he
+was used to dealing with excitable young men.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit down, Mr. Gaylord, and let's discuss this matter quietly. If you
+listen to reason, I assure you it will go no further."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that you accuse me of stealing those bonds?" Radnor
+shouted.</p>
+
+<p>Clancy held up a warning hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p><p>"Don't talk so loud; someone will hear you. Sit down." He nodded toward
+a seat on the other side of the little rustic table. "I will explain the
+matter as I see it, and if you can disprove any of my statements I shall
+be more than glad to have you."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor subsided and listened scowlingly while the detective outlined his
+theory in a perfectly non-personal way, and ended by producing the
+letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get that?" Rad demanded.</p>
+
+<p>"Out of your coat pocket which I hooked over the transom of the door."
+He made the statement imperturbably; it was evidently a matter of
+everyday routine.</p>
+
+<p>"So you enter gentlemen's houses as their guest and spend your time
+sneaking about reading their private correspondence?"</p>
+
+<p>An angry gleam appeared in Clancy's eye and he rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not come to your house as your guest. I came on business for
+Colonel Gaylord. Now that my business is completed I will make my report
+to him and go."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor rose also.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>"It's a lie, and you haven't a word of proof to show."</p>
+
+<p>Clancy significantly tapped the pocket that held the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Radnor contemptuously, "refers to two bonds which I bought
+last winter with some money I got from selling a mortgage. I preferred
+to have the investment in bonds because they are more readily
+negotiable. I left them at my broker's as collateral for another
+investment I was making. Last week I needed some ready money and wrote
+to them to sell. My statement can easily be substantiated; no reputable
+detective would ever base any such absurd charge on the contents of a
+letter he did not understand."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said the detective, "we have tried to get at the matter
+from the other end; but Jacoby, Haight &amp; Company refuse to discuss the
+affairs of their clients. I did not press the point as I did not want to
+stir up comment. However," he smiled, "I must confess, Mr. Gaylord, that
+I think your explanation a trifle fishy. Perhaps you will answer one
+question. Did you mail your letter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> to them in Kennisburg the night of
+the robbery with a special delivery stamp?"</p>
+
+<p>"It happens that I did, but it was merely a coincidence and has nothing
+to do with the robbery."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be kind enough to explain why you drove to Kennisburg in the
+night and why you needed the money so suddenly?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I will not. That is a matter which concerns, me alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! As it happens I do not base my charge on the letter; I had
+already formed my opinion before I knew of its existence. Do you deny
+that you yourself have encouraged the belief in the ghost among the
+negroes? That on more than one occasion, you, or your accomplice,
+Cat-Eye Mose, have masqueraded as the ghost? That, while you were
+pretending to Colonel Gaylord to be as much puzzled by the matter as he,
+you were in truth at the bottom of the whole business?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor glanced uneasily at me and hesitated before replying.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said at length, "I don't deny that,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> but I do affirm that it
+has nothing to do with the robbery."</p>
+
+<p>The detective laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You must excuse me, Mr. Gaylord, if I stick to the opinion that I have
+solved the puzzle."</p>
+
+<p>He turned with a motion toward the house, and Radnor barred the
+entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I lie when I say I know nothing of those bonds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Gaylord, I do."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I thought that Radnor was going to strike him, but I pulled
+him back and turned to Clancy.</p>
+
+<p>"He knows nothing about the bonds," said I, "but nevertheless you must
+not take any such story to Colonel Gaylord. He is an old man, and while
+he would not believe his son guilty of theft, still it would worry him.
+There is something else that happened that night&mdash;entirely
+uncriminal&mdash;but which we do not wish him to hear about. Therefore I am
+not going to let you go to him with this nonsensical tale that you have
+cooked up."</p>
+
+<p>This was a trial shot on my part but it hit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> the bull's-eye. Radnor
+stared but said nothing; and the detective visibly wavered.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," I added, taking out my checkbook, "suppose I pay you what you
+would have received had you discovered the bonds, and dispense with your
+further services?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's just as you say. I feel that I've done the job and am entitled
+to the money. If you wish to pay it, all right; otherwise I get it from
+Colonel Gaylord. I received a retaining fee and was to have two hundred
+dollars more when I located the bonds. In order not to stir up any bad
+feeling I'm willing to take that two hundred dollars from you and drop
+the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"It's blackmail!" said Radnor.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep still, Rad," I said. "It's very accommodating of Mr. Clancy to see
+it this way."</p>
+
+<p>I wrote out a check and tossed it to the detective.</p>
+
+<p>"Now go to Colonel Gaylord," I said, "tell him that you have been
+unsuccessful in finding any clue; that the bonds will almost certainly
+be marketed in the city, and that your only hope of tracing them is to
+work from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> other end. Then pack your bag and go. A carriage will be
+ready to take you to the Junction in half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Just wait a moment, Mr. Clancy," Rad called after him as he turned
+away. He drew a note book from his pocket and ripping out a page
+scrawled across the face:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Jacoby, Haight and Co.</span></p>
+
+<p>"<i>Gentlemen</i>:&mdash;You will oblige me by answering any questions which
+the bearer of this note may ask concerning my past transactions
+with you.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Radnor F. Gaylord.</span>"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"There," said Rad, thrusting it toward him, "kindly make use of that
+when you get to Washington, and in the future I should advise you to
+base your charges on something a little more substantial."</p>
+
+<p>His manner was insultingly contemptuous, but Clancy swallowed it with
+smiling good nature.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be interested in continuing the investigation," he observed as
+he pocketed the paper and withdrew.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE ROBBERY REMAINS A MYSTERY</h3>
+
+<p>So we got rid of the detective. But matters did not readily settle down
+again into their old relations. The Colonel was irritable, and Rad was
+moody and sullen. He showed no tendency to confide in me as to the truth
+about the ha'nt, and I did not probe the matter further. In a day or so
+he brought me three hundred dollars, to cover the amount I had loaned
+him, together with the "blackmail," as he insisted upon calling it. The
+money, he informed me, was from the proceeds of the bonds he had sold.
+He showed me at the same time several letters from his brokers
+establishing beyond a doubt that the story he had told was true. As to
+the stolen bonds, their whereabouts was as much a mystery as ever, and
+Rad appeared to take not the slightest interest in the matter. Since the
+detective had been summoned, he had washed his hands of all
+responsibility.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>I think it was the morning after Clancy's departure that Solomon handed
+me a pale blue envelope bearing in the upper left-hand corner the device
+of the Post-Dispatch. I laughed as I ripped it open; I had almost
+forgotten Terry's existence. It contained a characteristic pencil scrawl
+slanting across a sheet of yellow copy paper.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">Arnold Crosby, Esq.</span>,</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Turnips Farm, Pumpkin Corners, Va.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Dear Sir</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"Enclosed please find clipping. Are the facts straight and have the
+missing bonds turned up? If not, don't you want me to run down and
+find them for you? Should like to meet an authenticated ghost.
+Wouldn't be a bad Sunday feature article. Give it my love. Is it a
+man or lady? Things are also moving nicely in New York&mdash;two murders
+and a child abducted in one week.</p>
+
+<p>"How are crops?</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="right">"T. P.</p>
+
+<p>"Wire me if you want me."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><p>The clipping was headed, "Spook Cracks Safe," and was a fairly accurate
+account of the ha'nt and the robbery. It ended with the remark that the
+mystery was as yet unsolved, but that the best detective talent in the
+country had been engaged on the case.</p>
+
+<p>I tossed the letter to Radnor with a laugh; he had already heard of
+Terry's connection with the Patterson-Pratt affair.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps we couldn't do better than to get him down," I suggested; "he's
+most abnormally keen at ferreting out a mystery that promises any
+news&mdash;if any one can learn the truth about those bonds, he can."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to know the truth," Radnor growled. "I'm sick of the very
+name of bonds."</p>
+
+<p>And this had been his attitude from the moment the detective left. My
+own insistence that it was our duty to track down the thief met with
+nothing but a shrug. Another person might have suspected that this
+apathy only proved his own culpability in the theft, but such a
+suspicion never for a moment crossed my mind. He was, as he said, sick
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the very name of bonds, and with a person of his temperament that
+ended the matter. Though I did not comprehend his attitude, still I took
+him at his word. There was something about Rad's straightforward way of
+looking one in the eye that impelled belief. As I had heard the Colonel
+boast, a Gaylord could not tell a lie.</p>
+
+<p>The things a Gaylord could and could not do, were, I acknowledge, to a
+Northern ethical sense a trifle mystifying. A Gaylord might drink and
+gamble and fail to pay his debts (not his gambling debts; his tailor and
+his grocer); he might be the hero of many doubtful affairs with women;
+he might in a sudden fit of passion commit a murder&mdash;there was more than
+one killing in the family annals&mdash;but under no circumstances would his
+"honah" permit him to tell a lie. The reservation struck me somewhat
+humorously as an anti-climax. But nevertheless I believed it. When Rad
+said he knew nothing of the stolen bonds I dismissed the possibility
+from my mind.</p>
+
+<p>Though I was relieved to feel that he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> not guilty, still I was
+worried and nervous over the matter. I felt that it was criminal not to
+do something, and yet my hands were tied. I could scarcely undertake an
+investigation myself, for every clue led across the trail of the ha'nt,
+and that, Rad made it clear, was forbidden ground. The Colonel,
+meanwhile, was comparatively quiet, as he supposed the detective was
+still working on the case. I accordingly did nothing, but I kept my eyes
+open, hoping that something would turn up.</p>
+
+<p>Rad's temper was absolutely unbearable for the first week after the
+detective left. The reason had nothing to do with the stolen bonds, but
+was concerned entirely with Polly Mathers's behavior. She barely noticed
+Rad's existence, so occupied was she with the ecstatic young sheriff.
+What the trouble was, I did not know, but I suspected that it was the
+whispered conjectures in regard to the ha'nt.</p>
+
+<p>I remember one evening in particular that she snubbed him in the face of
+the entire neighborhood. We had arrived at a party a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> trifle late to
+find Polly as usual the center of a laughing group of young men, all
+clamoring for dances. They widened their circle to admit Rad in a way
+which tacitly acknowledged his prior claim. He inquired with his most
+deferential bow what dances she had saved for him. Polly replied in an
+off-hand manner that she was sorry but her card was already full. Rad
+shrugged nonchalantly, and sauntering toward the door, disappeared for
+the rest of the night. When he turned up at Four-Pools early in the
+morning, his horse, Uncle Jake informed me, looked as if it had been
+ridden by "de debbil hisself."</p>
+
+<p>With Radnor in this state, and the Colonel growing daily more irritable
+over the continued mystery of the bonds, it is not strange that matters
+between them were at a high state of tension. As I saw more of the
+Colonel's treatment of Rad, I came to realize that there was
+considerable excuse for Jefferson's wildness. While he was a kind man at
+heart, still he had an ungovernable temper, and an absolutely tyrannical
+desire to rule every one about him. His was the only free will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>allowed
+on the place. He attempted to treat Rad at twenty-two much as he had
+done at twelve. A few months before my arrival (I heard this later) he
+had even struck him, whereupon Radnor had turned on his heel and walked
+out of the house, and had only consented to come back two weeks later
+when he heard that the old man was ill. If two men ever needed a woman
+to manage them, these were the two. I think that if my aunt had lived,
+most of the trouble would have been avoided.</p>
+
+<p>Rad was not the only one, however, who felt the Colonel's irritation
+over the robbery. His treatment of the servants was harsh and even
+cruel. Everybody on the place went about in a half-cowed fashion. He
+treated Mose like a dog. Why the fellow stood it, I don't know. The
+Colonel seemed never to have learned that the old slave days were over
+and that he no longer owned the negroes body and soul. His government of
+the plantation was in the manner of a despot. Everybody&mdash;from his own
+son to the merest pickaninny&mdash;was at the mercy of his caprice. When he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+was in good humor, he was kindness itself to the darkies; when he was in
+bad humor, he vented his anger on whoever happened to be nearest.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the feeling of indignation with which I first saw
+him strike a man. A strange negro was caught one morning in the
+neighborhood of the chicken coop, and was brought up to the house by two
+of the stable-men. My uncle, who was standing on the portico steps
+waiting for his horse, was in a particularly savage mood, as he had just
+come from an altercation with Radnor. The man said that he was hungry
+and asked for work. But the Colonel, almost without waiting to hear him
+speak, fell upon him in a fit of blind rage, slashing him half a dozen
+times over the head and shoulders with his heavy riding crop. The negro,
+who was a powerfully built fellow, instead of standing up and defending
+himself like a man, crouched on the ground with his arms over his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Cunnel Gaylord," he whimpered, "le' me go! I ain't done nuffen.
+I ain't steal no chickens. For Gord's sake, doan whip me!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p><p>I sprang forward with an angry exclamation and grasped my uncle's arm.
+The fellow was on his feet instantly and off down the lane without once
+glancing back. The Colonel stood a moment looking from my indignant face
+to the man disappearing in the distance, and burst out laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon I won't be troubled with <i>him</i> any more," he remarked as he
+mounted and rode away, his good humor apparently quite restored.</p>
+
+<p>I confess that it took me some time to get over that scene. But the
+worst of it was that he treated his own servants in the same summary
+fashion. The thing that puzzled me most was the way in which they
+received it. Mose, being always at hand, was cuffed about more than any
+negro on the place, but as far as I could make out, it only seemed to
+increase his love and veneration for the Colonel. I don't believe the
+situation could ever be intelligible to a Northern man.</p>
+
+<p>So matters stood when I had been a month at Four-Pools. My vacation had
+lasted long enough, but I was supremely comfortable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> and very loath to
+go. The first few weeks of May had been, to my starved city eyes, a
+dazzling pageant of beauty. The landscape glowed with yellow daffodils,
+pink peach blossoms, and the bright green of new wheat; the fields were
+alive with the frisky joyousness of spring lambs and colts, turned out
+to pasture. It was with a keen feeling of reluctance that I faced the
+prospect of New York's brick and stone and asphalt. My work was calling,
+but I lazily postponed my departure from day to day.</p>
+
+<p>Things at the plantation seemed to have settled into their old routine.
+The whereabouts of the bonds was still a mystery, but the ha'nt had
+returned to his grave&mdash;at least, in so far as any manifestations
+affected the house. I believe that the "sperrit of de spring-hole" had
+been seen rising once or twice from a cloud of sulphurous smoke, but the
+excitement was confined strictly to the negro quarters. No man on the
+place who valued a whole skin would have dared mention the word "ha'nt"
+in Colonel Gaylord's presence. Relations between Rad and his father
+were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> rather less strained, and matters on the whole were going
+pleasantly enough, when there suddenly fell from a clear sky the strange
+and terrible series of events which changed everything at Four-Pools.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EXPEDITION TO LURAY</h3>
+
+<p>Toward eleven o'clock one morning, the Colonel, Radnor and I were
+established in lounging chairs in the shade of a big catalpa tree on the
+lawn. It was a warm day, and Rad and I were just back from a tramp to
+the upper pasture&mdash;a full mile from the house. We were addressing
+ourselves with considerable zest to the frosted glasses that Solomon had
+just placed on the table, when we became aware of the sound of galloping
+hoofs, and a moment later Polly Mathers and her sorrel mare, Tiger
+Lilly, appeared at the end of the sunflecked lane. An Irish setter
+romped at her side, and the three of them made a picture. The horse's
+shining coat, the dog's silky hair and Polly's own red gold curls were
+almost of a color. I believe the little witch had chosen the two on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+purpose. In her dark habit and mannish hat, with sparkling cheeks and
+laughing eyes, she was as pretty an apparition as ever enhanced a May
+morning. She waved her crop gaily and rode toward us across the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Howdy!" she called, in a droll imitation of the mountain dialect.
+"Ain't you-uns guine to ask me to 'light a while, an' set a bit, an'
+talk a spell?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor's face had flushed quickly as he perceived who the rider was, but
+he held himself stiffly in the background while the Colonel and I did
+the honors. It was the first time, I know, that Polly and Rad had met
+since the night she refused to dance with him; and her appearance could
+only be interpreted as a desire to make amends.</p>
+
+<p>She sprang lightly to the ground, turned Tiger Lilly loose to graze
+about the lawn, and airily perched herself on the arm of a chair. There
+was nothing in her manner, at least, to suggest that her relations with
+any one of us were strained. After a few moments of neighborly gossip
+with the Colonel and me&mdash;Rad was monosyllabic and remote&mdash;she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> arrived
+at her errand. Some friends from Savannah were stopping at the Hall on
+their way to the Virginia hot springs, and, as is usual, when strangers
+visit the valley, they were planning an expedition to Luray Cave. The
+cave was on the other side of the mountains about ten miles from
+Four-Pools. Since I had not yet visited it (that was at least the reason
+she gave) she had come to ask the three of us to join the party on the
+following day.</p>
+
+<p>Rad was sulky at first, and rather curtly declined on the ground that he
+had to attend to some business. But Polly scouted his excuse, and added
+significantly that Jim Mattison had not been asked. He accepted this
+mark of repentance with a pleased flush, and before she rode away, he
+had become his former cheerful self again. The Colonel also demurred on
+the ground that he was getting too old for such diversions, but Polly
+laid her hands upon his shoulders and coaxed him into acquiescence&mdash;even
+a mummy must have unbent before such persuasion. As a matter of fact
+though, the Colonel was only too pleased with his invitation. It
+flattered him to be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>included with the young people, and he was
+immensely fond of Polly.</p>
+
+<p>It struck me suddenly as I watched her, how like she was to that other
+girl, of eighteen years before. There danced in Polly's eyes the same
+eager joy of life that vitalized the face of the portrait over the
+mantelpiece upstairs. The resemblance for a moment was almost startling;
+I believe the same thought had come to Colonel Gaylord. The old man's
+eyes dwelt upon her with a sadly wistful air; and I like to feel that it
+was of Nannie he was thinking.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor and I had been invited to a dance that same evening at a
+neighboring country house, but when the time came, I begged off on the
+plea of wishing to rest for the ride the next morning. The real reason,
+I fancy, was that I too was suffering from a touch of Radnor's trouble;
+and, since I had no chance of winning her, it was the part of wisdom to
+keep out of hearing of Polly's laugh. In any case, I went to bed and to
+sleep, while Rad went to the party, and I have never known exactly what
+happened that night.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p><p>I rose early the next morning, and as I went down stairs I saw Solomon
+crawling around on his hands and knees on the parlor floor, collecting
+the remnants of a French clock which had stood on the mantelpiece.</p>
+
+<p>"How did that clock come to be broken?" I asked a trifle sharply,
+thinking I had caught him in a bad piece of carelessness.</p>
+
+<p>"Cayn't say, sah," Solomon returned, rising on his knees and looking at
+me mournfully. "I specs ole Marsa been chastisin' young Marsa again.
+It's powe'ful destructive on de brick-yuh-brack."</p>
+
+<p>I went on out of doors, wondering sadly if Radnor could have been
+drinking, and accusing myself for not having gone to the party and kept
+him straight. It was evident at breakfast that something serious had
+happened between him and his father. The Colonel appeared unusually
+grave, and Rad, after a gruff "good morning," sat staring at his plate
+in a dogged silence. Throughout the meal he scarcely so much as
+exchanged a glance with his father. I tried to talk as if I noticed
+nothing; and in the course of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> somewhat one-sided conversation,
+happened to mention our proposed trip to Luray. Rad returned that he had
+visited the cave a good many times and did not care about going. I was
+puzzled at this, for I knew that the cave was not the chief attraction,
+but I discreetly dropped the subject and shortly after we rose from the
+table.</p>
+
+<p>As I left the room I saw the Colonel walk over and lay his hand on
+Radnor's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"You will change your mind and go, my boy," he said.</p>
+
+<p>But Rad shook the hand off roughly and turned away. As I went on out to
+the stables to give orders about the horses, I felt in anything but the
+proper spirits for a day of merry-making. However much the Colonel may
+have been to blame in their quarrel of the night before&mdash;and the French
+clock told its own story&mdash;still I could not help but feel that Rad
+should have borne with him more patiently. The scene I had just
+witnessed in the dining-room made me miserable. The Colonel was a proud
+man and apology came hard for him, his son might at least have met him
+half way.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p><p>Going upstairs to my room a few minutes later, I caught a glimpse
+through the open door, of someone standing before the mantelpiece.
+Thinking it was Radnor waiting to consult me, I hurried forward and
+reached the threshold before I realized that it was the Colonel. He was
+standing with folded arms before the picture, his eyes, gleaming from
+under beetling brows, were devouring it hungrily, line by line. His face
+was set rigidly with a look&mdash;whether of sorrow or loneliness or remorse,
+I do not know; but I do know that it was the saddest expression I have
+ever seen on any human face. It was as if, in a single illuminating
+flash, he had looked into his own soul, and seen the ruin that his
+ungoverned pride and passion had wrought against those he loved the
+most.</p>
+
+<p>So absorbed had he been with his thoughts, that he had not heard my
+step. I turned and stole away, realizing suddenly that he was an old
+man, broken, infirm; that his life with its influence for good or evil
+was already at an end; he could never change his character now, no
+matter how keenly he might realize his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>defects. Poor little Nannie's
+wilfulness was at last forgiven, but the forgiveness was fifteen years
+too late. Why could not that moment of insight have come earlier to
+Colonel Gaylord, have come in time to save him from his mistakes?</p>
+
+<p>I passed out of doors again, pondering somewhat bitterly the exigencies
+of human life. The bright spring morning with its promise of youth and
+joy seemed jarringly out of tune. The beauty was but surface deep, I
+told myself pessimistically; underneath it was a cruel world. Before me
+in the garden path, a jubilant robin was pulling an unhappy angle worm
+from the ground, and a little farther on, under a blossoming apple tree,
+the kitchen cat was breakfasting on a baby robin. The double spectacle
+struck me as significant of life. I was casting about for some
+philosophical truths to fit it, when my revery was interrupted by a
+shout from Radnor.</p>
+
+<p>I turned to find the horses&mdash;three of them&mdash;waiting at the portico
+steps. Rad was going then after all. He and his father had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>evidently
+patched up some sort of a truce, but I soon saw that it was only a
+truce. The two avoided crossing eyes, and as we rode along they talked
+to me instead of to each other.</p>
+
+<p>The party met at Mathers Hall. The plan was for us to ride to Luray that
+morning, spend most of the afternoon there, and then return to the Hall
+for a supper and dance in the evening. The elder ladies took the
+carriage, while the rest of us went on horseback, a couple of servants
+following in the buckboard with the luncheon. Mose, bare-feet,
+linsey-woolsey and all, was brought along to act as guide and he was
+fairly purring with contentment at the importance it gave him over the
+other negroes. It seems that he had been in the habit of finding his way
+around in the cave ever since he was a little shaver, and he knew the
+route, Radnor told me, better than the professional guides. He knew it
+so well, in fact, that the entire neighborhood was in the habit of
+borrowing him whenever expeditions were being planned to Luray.</p>
+
+<p>We left our horses at the village hotel, and after eating a picnic lunch
+in the woods, set<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> out to make the usual round of the cave. Luray has
+since been lighted with electricity and laid out in cement walks, but
+the time of which I am writing was before its exploitation by the
+railroad, and the cavern was still in its natural state. Each of us
+carried either candles or a torch, and the guides were supplied with
+calcium lights which they touched off at intervals whenever there was
+any special object of interest. This was the first cavern of any size
+that I had ever visited and I was so taken up with examining the rock
+formations and keeping my torch from burning my hands that I did not pay
+much attention to the disposal of the rest of the party. It took over
+two hours to make the round, and we must have walked about five miles.
+What with the heavy damp air and the slippery path, I, for one, was glad
+to get out into the sunshine again.</p>
+
+<p>I joined the group about Polly Mathers and casually asked if she knew
+where Radnor had gone.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't seen him for some time; I think he must have come out before
+us," she replied.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> "And unless I am mistaken, Colonel Gaylord," she
+added, turning to my uncle, "he left my coat on that broken column above
+Crystal Lake. I am afraid that he isn't a very good cavalier."</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel, I imagine, had been a very good cavalier in his own youth,
+and I do not think that he had entirely outgrown it.</p>
+
+<p>"I will repair his fault, Miss Polly," the old man returned with a
+courtly bow, "and prove to you that the boy does not take after his
+father in lack of gallantry."</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, Colonel Gaylord!" Polly exclaimed. "I was only joking; I
+shouldn't think of letting you go back after it. One of the servants can
+get it."</p>
+
+<p>I shortly after ran across Mose and sent him back for the coat, and the
+incident was forgotten. We straggled back to the hotel in twos and
+threes; the horses were brought out, and we got off amidst general
+confusion.</p>
+
+<p>I rode beside the carriage for a couple of miles exchanging courtesies
+with Mrs. Mathers, and then galloped ahead to join the other riders. I
+was surprised to see neither my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>uncle nor Radnor anywhere in sight, and
+inquired as to their whereabouts.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought they were riding with you," said Polly, wheeling to my side.
+"You don't suppose," she asked quickly, "that the Colonel was foolish
+enough to go back for my coat, and we've left him behind?"</p>
+
+<p>One of the men laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"He has a horse, Miss Polly, and he knows how to use it. I dare say,
+even if we did leave him behind, that he can find his way home."</p>
+
+<p>"I sent Mose back for the coat," I remarked. "The Colonel probably feels
+that he has had enough frivolity for one day, and has preferred to ride
+straight on to Four-Pools."</p>
+
+<p>It occurred to me that Rad and his father had ridden home together to
+make up their quarrel, and the reflection added considerably to my peace
+of mind. I had felt vaguely uncomfortable over the matter all day, for I
+knew that the old man was always miserable after a misunderstanding with
+his son, and I strongly suspected that Radnor himself was far from
+happy.</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived at Mathers Hall, Polly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> slipped from her saddle and came
+running up to me as I was about to dismount. She laid her hand on the
+bridle and asked, in the sweetest way possible, if I would mind riding
+back to the plantation to see if the Colonel were really there, as she
+could not help feeling anxious about him. I noticed with a smile that
+she made no comment on the younger man's defection, though I strongly
+suspected that she was no less interested in that. I turned about and
+galloped off again, willing enough to do her bidding, though I could not
+help reflecting that it would have been just as easy for her, and
+considerably easier for me, had she developed her anxiety a few miles
+back.</p>
+
+<p>When I reached the four corners where the road to Four-Pools branches
+off from the valley turnpike, I saw the wagon coming with the two
+Mathers negroes in it, but without any sign of Mose. I drew up and
+waited for them.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, boys!" I called. "What's become of Mose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dat's moh 'n I can say, Mista Ahnold," one of the men returned. "We
+waited foh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> him a powe'ful while, but it 'pears like he's 'vaporated. I
+reckon he's took to de woods an' is gwine to walk home. Dat Cat-Eye
+Mose, he's monstrous fond ob walkin'!"</p>
+
+<p>I do not know why this incident should have aroused my own anxiety, but
+I pushed on to the plantation with a growing feeling of uneasiness.
+Nothing had been seen of either the Colonel or Mose, Solomon informed
+me, but he added with an excited rolling of his eyes:</p>
+
+<p>"Marse Rad, he come back nearly an hour ago an' stomp roun' like he mos'
+crazy, an' den went out to de gahden."</p>
+
+<p>I followed him and found him sitting in the summer house with his elbows
+on his knees and his head in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Rad?" I cried in alarm. "Has anything happened to
+your father?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked up with a start at the sound of my voice, and I saw that his
+face was pale.</p>
+
+<p>"My father?" he asked in a dazed way. "I left him in the cave. Why do
+you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't come back with the rest of us, and Polly asked me to find
+him."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>"He's old enough to take care of himself," said Radnor without looking
+up.</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated a moment, uncertain what to do, and then turned back to the
+stables to order a fresh horse. To my astonishment I found the
+stable-men gathered in a group about Rad's mare, Jennie Loo. She was
+dashed with foam and trembling, and appeared to be about used up. The
+men fell back and eyed me silently as I approached.</p>
+
+<p>"What's happened to the horse?" I cried. "Did she run away?"</p>
+
+<p>One of the men "reckoned" that "Marse Rad" had been whipping her.</p>
+
+<p>"Whipping her!" I exclaimed in dismay. It was unbelievable, for no one
+as a rule was kinder to animals than Radnor; and as for his own Jennie
+Loo, he couldn't have cared more for her if she had been a human being.
+There was no mistaking it however. She was crossed and recrossed with
+thick welts about the withers; it was evident that the poor beast had
+been disgracefully handled.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Jake volunteered that Rad had galloped straight into the stable,
+had dropped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> the bridle and walked off without a word; and he added the
+opinion that a "debbil had done conjured him." I was inclined to agree.
+There seemed to be something in the air that I did not understand, and
+my anxiety for the Colonel suddenly rushed back fourfold. I wheeled
+about and ordered a horse in an unnecessarily sharp tone, and the men
+jumped to obey me.</p>
+
+<p>It was just sunset as I mounted again and galloped down the lane. For
+the second time that day I set out along the lonely mountain road
+leading to Luray, but this time with a vague fear gripping at my heart.
+Why had Radnor acted so strangely, I asked myself again and again. Could
+it be connected with last night's quarrel? And where was the Colonel,
+and where was Mose?</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAVE</h3>
+
+<p>It was almost dark by the time I reached the village of Luray. I
+galloped up to the hotel where we had left our horses that morning and
+without dismounting called out to the loafers on the veranda to ask if
+anyone had seen Colonel Gaylord. Two or three of them, glad of a
+diversion, got up and sauntered out to the stepping-stone where I
+waited, to discuss the situation.</p>
+
+<p>What was the matter? they inquired. Hadn't the Colonel gone home with
+the rest of the party?</p>
+
+<p>No, he had not, I returned impatiently, and I wanted to know if any of
+them had seen him.</p>
+
+<p>They consulted together and finally decided that no one had seen him,
+and at this the stable boy vouchsafed the information that Red Pepper
+was still in the barn.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p><p>"I thought maybe the Colonel was intending to make me a present of that
+horse," the landlord observed with a grin, as he joined the group.</p>
+
+<p>A chuckle ran around the circle at this sally. It was evident that the
+Colonel did not have a reputation in the county for making presents. I
+impatiently gathered up my reins and one of the men remarked:</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon young Gaylord got home in good time. He was in an almighty
+hurry when he started. He didn't stop for no farewells."</p>
+
+<p>With numerous interruptions and humorous interpolations, they finally
+managed to tell me in their exasperatingly slow drawl that Rad had come
+back to the hotel that afternoon before the rest of the party, had drunk
+two glasses of brandy, called for his horse, and galloped off without
+speaking a word to anyone except to swear at the stable boy. The speaker
+finished with the assertion that in his opinion Rad Gaylord and Jeff
+Gaylord were cut out of the same block.</p>
+
+<p>I shifted my seat uneasily. This information did not tend to throw any
+light on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> question of the Colonel's whereabouts, and I was in no
+mood just then to listen to any more gossip about Rad.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not looking for young Gaylord," I said shortly. "I know where he
+is. It's the Colonel I'm after. Neither he nor Cat-Eye Mose have come
+back, and I'm afraid they're lost in the cave."</p>
+
+<p>The men laughed at this. People didn't get lost in the cave, they said.
+All anyone had to do was to follow the path; and besides, if the Colonel
+was with Mose he couldn't get lost if he tried. Mose knew the cave so
+well that he could find his way around it in the dark. Colonel Gaylord
+had probably met some friends in the village and driven home with them.</p>
+
+<p>But I would not be satisfied with an explanation of that sort. The
+Colonel, I knew, was not in the habit of abandoning horses in any such
+casual manner; and even supposing he had gone home with some friends, he
+would scarcely have taken Mose along.</p>
+
+<p>I dismounted, turned my horse over to the stable boy, and announced that
+the cave must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> be searched. This request was received with some
+amusement. The idea of getting out a search party for Cat-Eye Mose
+struck them as peculiarly ludicrous. But I insisted, and finally one of
+the men who was in the habit of acting as guide, took his feet down from
+the veranda railing with a grunt of disapproval and shambled into the
+house after some candles and a lantern. Two or three of the others
+joined the expedition after a good deal of chaffing at my expense.</p>
+
+<p>We set out for the mouth of the cave by a short cut that led across the
+fields. It was quite dark by this time, and as there was no moon our one
+lantern did not go far toward lighting the path. We stumbled along over
+plowed ground and through swampy pastures to the music of croaking frogs
+and whip-poor-wills. At first the way was enlivened by humorous
+suggestions on the part of my companions as to what had become of
+Colonel Gaylord, but as I did not respond very freely to their
+bantering, they finally fell silent with only an occasional imprecation
+as someone stubbed his toe or caught his clothing on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> brier. After a
+half hour or so of plodding we came to a clear path through the woods
+and in a few minutes reached the mouth of the cave.</p>
+
+<p>A rough little shanty was built over the entrance. It was closed by a
+ramshackle door which a child could have opened without any difficulty;
+there was at least no danger of the Colonel's having been locked inside.
+Lighting our candles, we descended the rough stone staircase into the
+first great vault, which forms a sort of vestibule to the caverns. With
+our hands to our mouths we hallooed several times and then held our
+breath while we waited for an answer. The only sound which came out of
+the stillness was the occasional drip of water or the flap of a bat's
+wing. Had the Colonel been lost in any of the winding passages he must
+have heard us and replied, for the slightest sound is audible in such a
+cavern, echoing and re-echoing as it does through countless vaulted
+galleries. The silence, however, instead of assuring me that he was not
+there only increased my uneasiness. What if he had slipped on the wet
+clay, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> having injured himself, was lying unconscious in the
+darkness?</p>
+
+<p>The men wished to turn back, but I insisted that we go as far as the
+broken column which lies in a little gallery above Crystal Lake. That
+was the place where the coat had been left, and we could at least find
+out if either the Colonel or Mose had returned for it. We set out in
+single file along the damp clay path, the light from our few candles
+only serving to intensify the blackness around us. The huge white forms
+of the stalactites seemed to follow us like ghosts in the gloom; every
+now and then a bat flapped past our faces, and I wondered with a shiver
+how anyone could get up courage to go alone into such a hole as that.</p>
+
+<p>"Crystal Lake" is a shallow pool lying in a sort of bowl. On the farther
+side the path runs up seven or eight feet above the water along the
+broken edge of a cliff. A few steps beyond the pool the path diverges
+sharply to the left and opens into the little gallery of the broken
+column.</p>
+
+<p>Just as we were about to ascend the two or three stone steps leading to
+the incline, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> guide in front stopped short, and clutching me by the
+arm pointed a shaking forefinger toward the pool.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" he gasped.</p>
+
+<p>I strained my eyes into the darkness but I could see nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"There, that black thing under the bank," he said, raising his candle
+and throwing the light over the water.</p>
+
+<p>We all saw it now and recognized it with a thrill of horror. It was the
+body of Colonel Gaylord. He was lying on his face at the bottom of the
+pool, and with outstretched arms was clutching the mud in his hands. The
+still water above him was as clear as crystal but was tinged with red.</p>
+
+<p>"It's my uncle!" I cried, springing forward. "He's fallen over the bank.
+He may not be dead."</p>
+
+<p>But they held me back.</p>
+
+<p>"He's as dead as he ever will be," the guide said grimly. "An' what's
+more, Colonel Gaylord warn't the man to drown in three foot o' water
+without making a struggle. This ain't no accident. It's murder! We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> must
+go back an' get the coroner. It's agen the law to touch the body until
+he comes."</p>
+
+<p>It went to my heart to leave the old man lying there at the bottom of
+that pool, but I could not prevail on one of them to help me move him.
+The coroner must be brought, they stubbornly insisted, and they
+restrained me forcibly when I would have waded into the water. We turned
+back with shaking knees and hurried toward the mouth of the cave,
+slipping and sliding in the wet clay as we ran. I, for one, felt as
+though a dozen assassins were following our footsteps in the dark. And
+all the time I had a sickening feeling that my uncle's death only
+foreshadowed a more terrible tragedy. The guide's: "This ain't no
+accident; it's murder," kept running in my head, and much as I tried to
+drive the thought from me, a horrible suspicion came creeping to my mind
+that I knew who the murderer must be.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SHERIFF VISITS FOUR-POOLS</h3>
+
+<p>We found the coroner and told our story. He sent word to Kennisburg, the
+county-seat, for the sheriff to come; and then having called a doctor
+and three or four other witnesses, we set out again for the cave. The
+news of the tragedy had spread like wild-fire, and half the town of
+Luray would have accompanied us had the coroner not forcibly prevented
+it. He stationed two men at the entrance of the cave to keep the crowd
+from pushing in. I myself should have been more than willing to wait
+outside, but I felt that it was my duty by Radnor to be present. If any
+discoveries were made I wished to be the first to know it.</p>
+
+<p>It was sad business and I will not dwell upon it. One side of the old
+man's head had been fractured by a heavy blow. He had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> dead several
+hours when we found him, but the doctor could not be certain whether
+drowning, or the injury he had sustained, had been the immediate cause
+of death. Dangling from a jagged piece of rock half way down the cliff,
+we found Polly Mathers's coat, torn and drabbled with mud. The clay path
+above the pool was trampled in every direction 'way out to the brink of
+the precipice; it was evident, even to the most untrained observer, that
+a fierce struggle of some sort had taken place. I was the first one to
+examine the marks, and as I knelt down and held the light to the ground,
+I saw with a thrill of mingled horror and hope that one pair of feet had
+been bare. Mose had taken part in the struggle, and dreadful as was the
+assurance, it was infinitely better than that other suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>"It was Mose who committed the murder!" I cried to the coroner as I
+pointed to the foot-prints in the clay.</p>
+
+<p>He bent over beside me and examined the marks.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;&mdash;Mose was present," he said slowly, "but so was someone else. See,
+here is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> print of the Colonel's boot and there beside it is the
+print of another boot; it is fully an inch broader."</p>
+
+<p>But it was difficult to make out anything clearly, so trampled was the
+path. Our whole party had passed over the very spot not an hour before
+the tragedy. Whatever the others could see, I, myself, was blind to
+everything but the indisputable fact that Mose had been there.</p>
+
+<p>As we were making ready to start back to the mouth of the cave, a cry
+from one of the men called our attention again to the scene of the
+struggle. He held up in his hand a small, gleaming object which he had
+found trodden into the path. It was a silver match box covered with
+dents and mud and marked "R. F. G." I recognized it instantly; I had
+seen Radnor take it from his pocket a hundred times. As I looked at it
+now my hope seemed to vanish and that same sickening suspicion rushed
+over me again. The men eyed each other silently, and I did not have to
+ask what they were thinking of. We turned without comments and started
+on our journey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> back to the village. The body was carried to the hotel
+to await the coroner's permission to take it home to Four-Pools. There
+was nothing more for me to do, and with a heavy heart I mounted again to
+return to the plantation.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had I left the stable yard when I heard hoofs pounding along
+behind me in the darkness, and Jim Mattison galloped up with two of his
+men.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are going to Four-Pools we will ride with you," he said, falling
+into pace beside me while the officers dropped behind. "I might as well
+tell you," he added, "that it looks black for Radnor. I'm sorry, but
+it's my duty to keep him under arrest until some pretty strong
+counter-evidence turns up."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Cat-Eye Mose?" I cried. "Why don't you arrest him?"</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff made a gesture of disdain.</p>
+
+<p>"That's nonsense. Everyone in the county knows Cat-Eye Mose. He wouldn't
+hurt a fly. If he was present at the time of the crime it was to help
+his master, and the man who killed Colonel Gaylord killed him too. I've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+known him all my life and I can swear he's innocent."</p>
+
+<p>"You've known Radnor all your life," I returned bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I have&mdash;and Jefferson Gaylord, too."</p>
+
+<p>I rode on in silence and I do not think I ever hated anyone as, for the
+moment, I hated the man beside me. I knew that he was thinking of Polly
+Mathers, and I imagined that I could detect an undertone of triumph in
+his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"It's well known," he went on, half to himself and half to me, "that
+Radnor sometimes had high words with his father; and to-day, they tell
+me at the hotel, he came back alone without waiting for the others, and
+while his horse was being saddled he drank off two glasses of brandy as
+if they had been water. All the men on the veranda marked how white his
+face was, and how he cursed the stable boy for being slow. It was
+evident that something had happened in the cave, and what with finding
+his match box at the scene of the crime&mdash;circumstantial evidence is
+pretty strong against him."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p><p>I was too miserable to think of any answer; and, the fellow finally
+having the decency to keep quiet, we galloped the rest of the way in
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>Though it must have been long after midnight when we reached the house,
+lights were still burning in the downstairs rooms. We rode up to the
+portico with considerable clamor and dismounted. One of the men held the
+horses while Mattison and the other followed me into the house. Rad
+himself, hearing the noise of our arrival, came to the door to meet us.
+He was quite composed again and spoke in his usual manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Arnold! Did you find him, and is the party over?"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped uncertainly as he caught sight of the others. They stepped
+into the hall and stood watching him a moment without saying anything. I
+tried to tell him but the words seemed to stick in my throat.</p>
+
+<p>"A&mdash;a terrible thing has happened, Rad," I stammered out.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" he asked, a sudden look of anxiety springing to his
+face.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p><p>"I am sorry, Rad," Mattison replied, "but it is my duty to arrest you."</p>
+
+<p>"To arrest me, for what?" he asked with a half laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"For the murder of your father."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor put out his hand against the wall to steady himself, and his lips
+showed white in the lamp light. At the sight of his face I could have
+sworn that he was not acting, and that the news came with as much of a
+shock to him as it had to me.</p>
+
+<p>"My father murdered!" he gasped. "What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"His dead body was found in the cave, and circumstantial evidence points
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>He seemed too dazed to grasp the words and Mattison said it twice before
+he comprehended.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean he's dead?" Rad repeated. "And I quarrelled with him last
+night and wouldn't make it up&mdash;and now it's too late."</p>
+
+<p>"I must warn you," the sheriff returned, "that whatever you say will be
+used against you."</p>
+
+<p>"I am innocent," said Radnor, brokenly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> and without another word he
+prepared to go. Mattison drew some hand-cuffs from his pocket, and
+Radnor looked at them with a dark flush.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't be afraid. I am not going to run away," he said. Mattison
+dropped them back again with a muttered apology.</p>
+
+<p>I went out to the stable with one of the men and helped to saddle Jennie
+Loo. I felt all the time as though I had hold of the rope that was going
+to hang him. When we came back he and the sheriff were standing on the
+portico, waiting. Rad appeared to be more composed than any of us, but
+as I wrung his hand I noticed that it was icy cold.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll attend to everything," I said, "and don't worry, my boy. We'll get
+you off."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't worry!" He laughed shortly as he leaped into the saddle. "It's
+not myself I'm worrying over; I am innocent," and he suddenly leaned
+forward and scanned my face in the light from the open door. "You
+believe me?" he asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I cried, "I do! And what's more, I'll <i>prove</i> you're innocent."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>I MAKE A PROMISE TO POLLY</h3>
+
+<p>The next few days were a nightmare to me. Even now I cannot think of
+that horrible period of suspense and doubt without a shudder. The
+coroner set to work immediately upon his preliminary investigation, and
+every bit of evidence that turned up only seemed to make the proof
+stronger against Radnor.</p>
+
+<p>It is strange how ready public opinion is to believe the worst of a man
+when he is down. No one appeared to doubt Rad's guilt, and feeling ran
+high against him. Colonel Gaylord was a well-known character in the
+countryside, and in spite of his quick temper and rather imperious
+bearing he had been a general favorite. At the news of his death a wave
+of horror and indignation swept through the valley. Among the roughs in
+the village I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> heard not infrequent hints of lynching; and even among
+the more conservative element, the general opinion seemed to be that
+lawful hanging was too honorable a death for the perpetrator of so
+brutal a crime.</p>
+
+<p>I have never been able to understand the quick and general belief in the
+boy's guilt, but I have always suspected that the sheriff did not do all
+in his power to quiet the feeling. It was to a large extent, however,
+the past reasserting itself. Though Radnor's record was not so black as
+it was painted, still, it was not so white as it should have been.
+People shook their heads and repeated stories of how wild he had been as
+a boy, and how they had always foreseen some such end as this. Reports
+of the quarrels with his father were told and retold until they were
+magnified beyond all recognition. The old scandals about Jeff were
+revived again, and the general opinion seemed to be that the Gaylord
+boys were degenerates through and through. Rad's personal friends stood
+by him staunchly; but they formed a pitifully small minority compared to
+the general sensation-seeking public.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p><p>I visited Radnor in the Kennisburg jail on the morning of my uncle's
+funeral and found him quite broken in spirit. He had had time to think
+over the past, and with his father lying dead at Four-Pools, it had not
+been pleasant thinking. Now that it was too late, he seemed filled with
+remorse over his conduct toward the old man, and he dwelt continually on
+the fact of his having been unwilling to make up the quarrel of the
+night before the murder. In this mood of contrition he mercilessly
+accused himself of things I am sure he had never done. I knew that the
+jailer was listening to every word outside, and I became unspeakably
+nervous for fear he would say something which could be twisted into an
+incriminating confession. He did not seem to comprehend in the least the
+danger of his own position; he was entirely taken up with the horror of
+his father's death. As I was leaving, however, he suddenly grasped my
+hand with tears in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me, Arnold, do people really believe me guilty?"</p>
+
+<p>I knew by "people" he meant Polly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>Mathers; but I had not had an
+opportunity to speak with her alone since the day of the tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't talked to anyone but the sheriff," I returned.</p>
+
+<p>"Mattison would be glad enough to prove it," Radnor said bitterly, and
+he turned his back and stood staring through the iron bars of the
+window, while I went out and the jailer closed the door and locked it.</p>
+
+<p>All through the funeral that afternoon I could scarcely keep my eyes
+from Polly Mathers's face. She appeared so changed since the day of the
+picnic that I should scarcely have known her for the same person; it
+seemed incredible that three days could make such a difference in a
+bright, healthy, vigorous girl. All her youthful vivacity was gone; she
+was pale and spiritless with deep rings beneath her eyes and the lids
+red with crying. After the services were over, I approached her a moment
+as she stood in her black dress aloof from the others at the edge of the
+little family burying-ground. She greeted me with a tremulous smile, and
+then as her glance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>wandered back to the pile of earth that two men were
+already shoveling into the grave, her eyes quickly filled with tears.</p>
+
+<p>"I loved him as much as if he were my own father," she cried, "and it's
+my fault that he's dead. I made him go!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Polly, it is not your fault," I said decisively. "It was a thing
+which no one could foresee and no one could help."</p>
+
+<p>She waited a moment trying to steady her voice, then she looked up
+pleadingly in my face.</p>
+
+<p>"Radnor is innocent; tell me you believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure he is innocent," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can clear him&mdash;you're a lawyer. I know you can clear him!"</p>
+
+<p>"You may trust me to do my best, Polly."</p>
+
+<p>"I hate Jim Mattison!" she exclaimed, with a flash of her old fire. "He
+swears that Rad is guilty and that he will prove him so. Rad may have
+done some bad things, but he's a good man&mdash;better than Jim Mattison ever
+thought of being."</p>
+
+<p>"Polly," I said with a touch of bitterness, "I wish you might have
+realized that truth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> earlier. Rad is at heart as splendid a chap as ever
+lived, and his friends ought never to have allowed him to go astray."</p>
+
+<p>She looked away without answering, and then in a moment turned back to
+me and held out her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-by. When you see him again please tell him what I said."</p>
+
+<p>As she turned away I looked after her, puzzled. I was sure at last that
+she was in love with Radnor, and I was equally sure that he did not know
+it; for in spite of his sorrow at his father's death and of the
+suspicion that rested on him, I knew that he would not have been so
+completely crushed had he felt that she was with him. Why must this come
+to him now too late to do him any good, when he had needed it so much
+before? I felt momentarily enraged at Polly. It seemed somehow as if the
+trouble might have been avoided had she been more straightforward. Then
+at the memory of her pale face and pleading eyes I relented. However
+thoughtless she had been before, she was changed now; this tragedy had
+somehow made a woman of her over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> night. When Radnor came at last to
+claim her, they would each, perhaps, be worthier of the other.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to the empty house that night and sat down to look the facts
+squarely in the face. I had hitherto been so occupied with the necessary
+preparations for the funeral, and with instituting a search for Cat-Eye
+Mose, that I had scarcely had time to think, let alone map out any
+logical plan of action. Radnor was so stunned by the blow that he could
+barely talk coherently, and as yet I had had no satisfactory interview
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after the Colonel's death, I had very hastily run over his
+private papers, but had found little to suggest a clue. Among some old
+letters were several from Nannie's husband, written at the time of her
+sickness and death; their tone was bitter. Could the man have
+accomplished a tardy revenge for past insults? I asked myself. But
+investigation showed this theory to be most untenable. He was still
+living in the little Kansas village where she had died, had married
+again, and become a peaceful plodding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> citizen. It required all his
+present energy to support his wife and children&mdash;I dare say the brief
+episode of his first marriage had almost faded from his mind. There was
+not the slightest chance that he could be implicated.</p>
+
+<p>I sifted the papers again, thoroughly and painstakingly, but found
+nothing that would throw any light upon the mystery. While I was still
+engaged with this task, a message came from the coroner saying that the
+formal inquest would begin at ten o'clock the next morning in the
+Kennisburg court-house. This gave me no chance to plan any sort of
+campaign, and I could do little more than let matters take their course.
+I hoped however that in the progress of the inquest, some clue would be
+brought to light which would render Radnor's being remanded for trial
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p>So far, I had to acknowledge, the evidence against him appeared
+overwhelming. A motive was supplied in the fact that the Colonel's death
+would leave him his own master and a rich man. The well-known fact of
+their frequent quarrels, coupled with Radnor's fierce temper and
+somewhat revengeful disposition,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> was a very strong point in his
+disfavor; added to this, the suspicious circumstances of the day of the
+tragedy&mdash;the fact that he was not with the rest of the party when the
+crime must have been committed, the alleged print of his boots and the
+finding of the match box, his subsequent perturbed condition&mdash;everything
+pointed to him as the author of the crime. It was a most convincing
+chain of circumstantial evidence.</p>
+
+<p>Considering the data that had come to light, there seemed to be only one
+alternative, and that was that Cat-Eye Mose had committed the murder. I
+clung tenaciously to this belief; but I found, in the absence of any
+further proof or any conceivable motive, that few people shared it with
+me. The marks of his bare feet proved conclusively that he had been, in
+whatever capacity, an active participator in the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>"He was there to aid his master," the sheriff affirmed, "and being a
+witness to the crime, it was necessary to put him out of the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Why hide the body of one and not the other?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p><p>"To throw suspicion on Mose."</p>
+
+<p>This was the universal opinion; no one, from the beginning, would listen
+to a word against Mose. In his case, as well as in Radnor's, the past
+was speaking. Through all his life, they said, he had faithfully loved
+and served the Colonel, and if necessity required, he would willingly
+have died for him.</p>
+
+<p>But for myself, I continued to believe in the face of all opposition,
+that Mose was guilty. It was more a matter of feeling with me than of
+reasoning. I had always been suspicious of the fellow; a man with eyes
+like that was capable of anything. The objection which the sheriff
+raised that Colonel Gaylord was both larger and stronger than Mose and
+could easily have overcome him, proved nothing to my mind. Mose was a
+small man, but he was long-armed and wirey, doubtless far stronger than
+he looked; besides, he had been armed, and the nature of his weapon was
+clear. The floor of the cave was strewn with scores of broken
+stalactites; nothing could have made a more formidable weapon than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> one
+of these long pieces of jagged stone used as a club.</p>
+
+<p>As to the motive for the crime, who could tell what went on in the slow
+workings of his mind? The Colonel had struck him more than
+once&mdash;unjustly, I did not doubt&mdash;and though he seemed at the moment to
+take it meekly, might he not have been merely biding his time? His final
+revenge may have been the outcome of many hoarded grievances that no one
+knew existed. The fellow was more than half insane. What more likely
+than that he had attacked his master in a fit of animal passion; and
+then, terrified at the result, escaped to the woods? That seemed to me
+the only plausible explanation.</p>
+
+<p>No facts had come out concerning the ha'nt or the robbery, and I do not
+think that either was connected in the public mind with the murder. But
+to my mind the death of Colonel Gaylord was but the climax of the long
+series of events which commenced on the night of my arrival with the
+slight and ludicrous episode of the stolen roast chicken. I had been
+convinced at the time that Mose was at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> bottom of it, and I was
+convinced now that he was also at the bottom of the robbery and the
+murder. How Radnor had got drawn into the muddle of the ha'nt, I could
+not fathom; but I suspected that Mose had hoodwinked him as he had the
+rest of us.</p>
+
+<p>Assuming that my theory was right, then Mose was hiding; and all my
+energies from the beginning had been bent toward his discovery. The low
+range of mountains which lay between Four-Pools Plantation and the Luray
+valley was covered thickly with woods and very sparsely settled. Mose
+knew every foot of the ground; he had wandered over these mountains for
+days at a time, and must have been familiar with many hiding places. It
+was in this region that I hoped to find him.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after the Colonel's death I had offered a large reward
+either for Mose's capture, or for any information regarding his
+whereabouts. His description had been telegraphed all up and down the
+valley and every farmer was on the alert. Bands of men had been formed
+and the woods scoured for him, but as yet without result. I was hourly
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>expecting, however, that some clue would come to light.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff, on the other hand, in pursuance of his theory that Mose had
+been murdered, had been no less indefatigable in his search for the
+body. The river had been dragged, the cave and surrounding woods
+searched, but nothing had been found. Mose had simply vanished from the
+earth and left no trace.</p>
+
+<p>To my disappointment the morning still brought no news; I had hoped to
+have something definite before the inquest opened. I rode into
+Kennisburg early in order to hold a conference with Radnor, and get from
+him the facts in regard to his own and Mose's connection with the ha'nt.
+My former passivity in the matter struck me now as almost criminal;
+perhaps had I insisted in probing it to the bottom, my uncle might have
+been living still. I entered Radnor's cell determined not to leave it
+until I knew the truth.</p>
+
+<p>But I met with an unexpected obstacle. He refused absolutely to discuss
+the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Radnor," I cried at last, "are you trying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> to shield any one? Do you
+know who killed your father?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know no more about who killed my father than you do."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know about the ha'nt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said desperately, "I do; but it is not connected with either
+the robbery or the murder and I cannot talk about it."</p>
+
+<p>I argued and pleaded but to no effect. He sat on his cot, his head in
+his hands staring at the floor, stubbornly refusing to open his lips. I
+gave over pleading and stormed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's no use, Arnold," he said finally. "I won't tell you anything about
+the ha'nt; it doesn't enter into the case."</p>
+
+<p>I sat down again and patiently outlined my theory in regard to Mose.</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible," he declared. "I have known Mose all my life, and I
+have never yet known him to betray a trust. He loved my father as much
+as I did, and if my life depended on it, I should swear that he was
+faithful."</p>
+
+<p>"Rad," I beseeched, "I am not only your attorney, I am your friend;
+whatever you say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> to me is as if it had never been said. I <i>must</i> know
+the truth."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to say."</p>
+
+<p>"You have <i>got</i> to have something to say," I cried. "You have got to go
+on the stand and make an absolutely open and straightforward statement
+of everything bearing on the case. You have got to appear anxious to
+find and punish the man who murdered your father. You have got to gain
+public sympathy, and before you go on the stand you owe it to yourself
+and me to leave nothing unexplained between us."</p>
+
+<p>He raised his eyes miserably to mine.</p>
+
+<p>"Must I go on?" he asked. "Can't I refuse to testify&mdash;I don't see that
+they can punish me for contempt of court; I'm already in prison."</p>
+
+<p>"They can hang you," said I, bluntly.</p>
+
+<p>He buried his face in his hands with a groan.</p>
+
+<p>"Arnold," he pleaded, "don't make me face all those people. You can see
+what a state my nerves are in; I haven't slept for three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> nights." He
+held out his hand to show me how it trembled. "I can't talk&mdash;I don't
+know what I'm saying. You don't know what you're urging me to do."</p>
+
+<p>My anger at his stubbornness vanished in a sudden spasm of pity. The
+poor fellow was scarcely more than a boy! Though I was completely in the
+dark as to what he was holding back and why he was doing it, yet I felt
+instinctively that his motives were honorable.</p>
+
+<p>"Rad," I said, "it would help your cause to be open with me, and if you
+are remanded for trial before the grand jury you must in the end tell me
+everything. But now I will not insist. Probably nothing will come up
+about the ha'nt. I can of course refuse to let you speak on the ground
+of incriminating evidence, but that is the last stand I wish to take. We
+must gain public opinion on our side and to that end you must testify
+yourself. You must force every person present to believe that you are
+incapable of telling a falsehood&mdash;I believe that already and so does
+Polly Mathers."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>Radnor's face flushed and a quick light sprang into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>I repeated what Polly had said and I added my own interpretation. The
+effect was electrical. He straightened his shoulders with an air of
+trying to throw off his despondency.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll do my best," he promised. "Heaven knows I'd like to know the truth
+as well as you&mdash;this doubt is simply hell!"</p>
+
+<p>A knock sounded on the door and a sheriff's officer informed us that the
+hearing was about to begin.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't explained your actions on the day of the murder," I said
+hurriedly. "I must have a reason."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right&mdash;it will come out. If you just keep 'em off the ha'nt,
+I'll clear everything else."</p>
+
+<p>"If you do that," said I, immeasurably relieved, "there'll be no danger
+of your being held for trial." I rose and held out my hand. "Courage, my
+boy; remember that you are going to prove your innocence, not only for
+your own, but for Polly's sake."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE INQUEST</h3>
+
+<p>The coroner's court was packed; and though here and there I caught a
+face that I knew to be friendly to Radnor, the crowd was made up for the
+most part of morbid sensation seekers, eager to hear and believe the
+worst.</p>
+
+<p>The District Attorney was present; indeed he and the coroner and Jim
+Mattison were holding a whispered consultation when I entered the room,
+and I did not doubt but that the three had been working up the case
+together. The thought was not reassuring; a coroner, with every
+appearance of fairness, may still bias a jury by the form his questions
+take. And I myself was scarcely in a position to turn the trend of the
+inquiry; I doubt if a lawyer ever went to an inquisition with less
+command of the facts than I had.</p>
+
+<p>The first witness called was the doctor who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> made the autopsy. After his
+testimony had been dwelt upon with what seemed to me needless detail,
+the facts relating to the finding of the body were brought forward. From
+this, the investigation veered to the subject of Radnor's strange
+behavior on the afternoon of the murder. The landlord, stable boy and
+several hangers-on of the Luray Hotel were called to the stand; their
+testimony was practically identical, and I did not attempt to question
+its truth.</p>
+
+<p>"What time did Radnor Gaylord come back to the hotel?" the coroner asked
+of "old man Tompkins," the landlord.</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon it must 'a' been 'long about three in the afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Please describe exactly what occurred."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we was sittin' on the veranda talkin' about one thing and another
+when we see young Gaylord comin' across the lot, his head down and his
+hands in his pockets walkin' fast. He yelled to Jake, who was washin'
+off a buggy at the pump, to saddle his horse and be quick about it. Then
+he come up the steps and into the bar-room and called for brandy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> He
+drunk two glasses straight off without blinkin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Had he ordered anything to drink in the morning when they left their
+horses?" the coroner interrupted at this point.</p>
+
+<p>"No, he didn't go into the bar-room&mdash;and it wasn't usually his custom to
+slight us either."</p>
+
+<p>A titter ran around the room and the coroner rapped for order. "This is
+not the place for any cheap witticisms; you will kindly confine yourself
+to answering my questions.&mdash;Did Mr. Gaylord appear to have been drinking
+when he returned from the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>The landlord closed his right eye speculatively. "No, I can't say as he
+exactly appeared like he'd been drinking," he said with the air of a
+connoisseur, "but he did seem to be considerably upset about something.
+He looked mad enough to bite; his face was pale, and his hand trembled
+when he raised his glass. Three or four noticed it and wondered&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," interrupted the coroner, "what did he do next?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>"He went out to the stable yard and swore at the boy for being slow.
+And he tightened the surcingle himself with such a jerk that the mare
+plunged and he struck her. He is usually pretty cranky about the way
+horses is treated, and we wondered&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He was stopped again and invited to go on without wondering.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let me see," said the witness, imperturbably. "He jumped into the
+saddle and slashing the mare across the flanks, started off in a cloud
+o' dust, without so much as looking back. We was all surprised at this
+'cause he's usually pretty friendly, and we talked about it after; but
+we didn't think nothing particular till the news o' the murder come that
+evening, when we naturally commenced to put two and two together."</p>
+
+<p>At this point I protested and the landlord was excused. "Jake" Henley,
+the stable boy, was called. His testimony practically covered the same
+ground and corroborated what the landlord had said.</p>
+
+<p>"You say he swore at you for being slow?" the coroner asked.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p><p>Jake nodded with a grin. "I don't remember just the words&mdash;I get swore
+at so much that it don't make the impression it might&mdash;but it was good
+straight cussin' all right."</p>
+
+<p>"And he struck you as being agitated?"</p>
+
+<p>Jake's grin broadened. "I think you might say agitated," he admitted
+guardedly. "He was mad enough to begin with, an' now the brandy was
+gettin' to work. Besides, he was in an all-fired hurry to leave before
+the rest o' the party come back, an' while I was bringin' out the horse,
+he heard 'em laughin'. They wasn't in sight yet, but they was makin' a
+lot o' noise. One o' the girls had stepped on a snake an' was squealin'
+loud enough to hear her two miles off."</p>
+
+<p>"And Gaylord left before any of them saw him?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy nodded. "He got off all right. 'You forgot to pay for your
+horse,' I yelled after him, and he threw me fifty cents and it landed in
+the watering-trough."</p>
+
+<p>This ended his testimony.</p>
+
+<p>Several members of the picnic party were next called upon, and nothing
+very damaging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> to Radnor was produced. He seemed to be in his usual
+spirits before entering the cave, and no one, it transpired, had seen
+him after he came out, though this was not noted at the time. Also, no
+one had noticed him in conversation with his father. The coroner dwelt
+upon this point, but elicited no information one way or the other.</p>
+
+<p>Polly Mathers was not present. She had been subp&oelig;naed, but had become
+too ill and nervous to stand the strain, and the doctor had forbidden
+her attendance. The coroner, however, had taken her testimony at the
+house, and his clerk read it aloud to the jury. It dealt merely with the
+matter of the coat and where she had last seen Radnor.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Question.</i> 'Did you notice anything peculiar in the behavior of Radnor
+Gaylord on the day of his father's death?'</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Answer.</i> 'Nothing especially peculiar&mdash;no.'</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Q.</i> 'Did you see any circumstance which led you to suspect that he and
+his father were not on good terms?'</p>
+
+<p>"<i>A.</i> 'No, they both appeared as usual.'</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p><p>"<i>Q.</i> 'Did you speak to Radnor in the cave?'</p>
+
+<p>"<i>A.</i> 'Yes, we strolled about together for a time and he was carrying my
+coat. He laid it down on the broken column and forgot it. I forgot it
+too and didn't think of it again until we were out of the cave. Then I
+happened to mention it in Colonel Gaylord's presence, and I suppose he
+went back for it.'</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Q.</i> 'You didn't see Radnor Gaylord after he left the cave?'</p>
+
+<p>"<i>A.</i> 'No, I didn't see him after we left the gallery of the broken
+column. The guide struck off a calcium light to show us the formation of
+the ceiling. We spent about five minutes examining the room, and after
+that we all went on in a group. Radnor had not waited to see the room,
+but had gone on ahead in the direction of the entrance.'"</p>
+
+<p>So much for Polly's testimony&mdash;which added nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Solomon, frightened almost out of his wits, was called on next, and his
+testimony brought out the matter of the quarrel between Colonel Gaylord
+and Radnor. Solomon told of finding the French clock, and a great many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+things besides which I am sure he made up. I wished to have his
+testimony ruled out, but the coroner seemed to feel that it was
+suggestive&mdash;as it undoubtedly was&mdash;and he allowed it to remain.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor himself was next called to the stand. As he took his place a
+murmur of excitement swept over the room and there was a general
+straining forward. He was composed and quiet, and very very sober&mdash;every
+bit of animation had left his face.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner commenced immediately with the subject of the quarrel with
+his father on the night before the murder, and Radnor answered all the
+questions frankly and openly. He made no attempt to gloss over any of
+the details. What put the matter in a peculiarly bad light, was the fact
+that the cause of the quarrel had been over a question of money. Rad had
+requested his father to settle a definite amount on him so that he would
+be independent in the future, and his father had refused. They had lost
+their tempers and had gone further than usual; in telling the story
+Radnor openly took the blame upon himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> where, in several instances,
+I strongly suspected that it should have been laid at the door of the
+Colonel. But in spite of the fact that the story revealed a pitiable
+state of affairs as between father and son, his frankness in assuming
+the responsibility won for him more sympathy than had been shown since
+the murder.</p>
+
+<p>"How did the clock get broken?" the coroner asked.</p>
+
+<p>"My father knocked it off the mantelpiece onto the floor."</p>
+
+<p>"He did not throw it at you as Solomon surmised?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor raised his head with a glint of anger.</p>
+
+<p>"It fell on the floor and broke."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you often had quarrels with your father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Occasionally. He had a quick temper and always wished his own way, and
+I was not so patient with him as I should have been."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you quarrel about?"</p>
+
+<p>"Different things."</p>
+
+<p>"What, for instance?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p><p>"Sometimes because he thought I spent too much money, sometimes over a
+question of managing the estate; occasionally because he had heard
+gossip about me."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by 'gossip'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Stories that I'd been gambling or drinking too much."</p>
+
+<p>"Were the stories true?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were always exaggerated."</p>
+
+<p>"And this quarrel the night before his death was more serious than
+usual?"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly&mdash;yes."</p>
+
+<p>"You did not speak to each other at the breakfast table?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor's face was set in strained lines; it was evident that this was a
+very painful subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you have any conversation later?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only a few words."</p>
+
+<p>"Please repeat what was said."</p>
+
+<p>Radnor appeared to hesitate and then replied a trifle wearily that he
+did not remember the exact words; that it was merely a recapitulation of
+what had been said the night before.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> Upon being urged to give the gist
+of the conversation he replied that his father had wished to make up
+their quarrel, but on the old basis, and he had refused. The Colonel had
+repeated that he was still too young a man to give over his affairs into
+the hands of another,&mdash;that he had a good many years before him in which
+he intended to be his own master. Radnor had replied that he was too old
+a man to be treated any longer as a boy, and that he would go away and
+work where he would be paid for what he did.</p>
+
+<p>"And may I ask," the coroner inquired placidly, "whether you had any
+particular work in mind when you made that statement, or was it merely a
+figure of rhetoric calculated to bring Colonel Gaylord to terms?"</p>
+
+<p>Rad scowled and said nothing, and the rest of his answers were terseness
+itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you and your father have any further conversation on the ride over,
+or in the course of the day?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You purposely avoided meeting each other?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p><p>"I suppose so."</p>
+
+<p>"Then those words after breakfast when you threatened to leave home were
+absolutely the last words you ever spoke to your father?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a subject Radnor did not like to think about. His lips trembled
+slightly and he answered with a visible effort.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>A slight murmur ran around the room, partly of sympathy, partly of
+doubt.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner put the same question again and Radnor repeated his answer,
+this time with a flush of anger. The coroner paused a moment and then
+continued without comment:</p>
+
+<p>"You entered the cave with the rest of the party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"But you left the others before they had made the complete round?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Why was that?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was not particularly interested. I had seen the cave many times
+before."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p><p>"Where did you leave the party?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe in the gallery of the broken column."</p>
+
+<p>"You left the cave immediately?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you enter it again?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"You forgot Miss Mathers's coat and left it in the gallery of the broken
+column?"</p>
+
+<p>"So it would seem."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you not think of that later and go back for it?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor snapped out his answer. "No, I didn't think anything about the
+coat."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you in the habit of leaving young ladies' coats about in that
+off-hand way?"</p>
+
+<p>A titter ran about the room, and Rad did not deign to notice this
+question.</p>
+
+<p>I was indignant that the boy should be made to face such an ordeal. This
+was not a regular trial and the coroner had no right to be more
+obnoxious than his calling required. There was a glint of anger in
+Radnor's eyes; and I was uneasily aware that he no longer cared what
+impression he made. His answers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> to the rest of the questions were as
+short as the English language permitted.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you do after leaving the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>"Went home."</p>
+
+<p>"Please go into more detail. What did you do immediately after leaving
+the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>"Strolled through the woods."</p>
+
+<p>"For how long?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"How long do you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Possibly half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what did you do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Returned to the hotel, ordered my horse and rode home."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did you not wait for the rest of the party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't feel like it."</p>
+
+<p>The question was repeated in several ways, but Radnor stubbornly refused
+to discuss the matter. He had promised me, the last thing before coming
+to the hearing, that he would clear up the suspicious points in regard
+to his conduct on the day of the crime. I took him in hand myself, but I
+could get nothing more from him than the coroner had elicited. For<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> some
+reason he had veered completely, and his manner warned me not to push
+the matter. I took my seat and the questioning continued.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Gaylord," said the coroner, severely, "you have heard the evidence
+respecting your peculiar behavior when you returned to the hotel. Three
+witnesses have stated that you were in an unnaturally perturbed
+condition. Is this true?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor supposed it must be true. He did not wish to question the
+gentlemen's veracity. He did not remember himself what he had done, but
+there seemed to be plenty of witnesses who did remember.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you give any reasons for your strange conduct?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have told you several times already that I can not. I did not feel
+well, and that is all there was to it."</p>
+
+<p>A low murmur of incredulity ran around the room. It was evident to
+everyone that he was holding something back, and I could see that he was
+fast losing the sympathy he had gained in the beginning. I myself was at
+a loss to account for his behavior; as I was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>absolutely in the dark,
+however, I could do nothing but let matters take their course. Radnor
+was excused with this, and the next half hour was spent in a
+consideration of the foot-prints that were found in the clay path at the
+scene of the murder. The marks of Cat-Eye Mose were admitted
+immediately, but the others occasioned considerable discussion.
+Facsimiles of the prints were produced and compared with the riding
+boots which the Colonel and Radnor had worn at the time. The Colonel's
+print was unmistakable, but I myself did not think that the alleged
+print of Radnor's boot tallied very perfectly with the boot itself. The
+jury seemed satisfied however, and Radnor was called upon for an
+explanation. His only conjecture was that it was the print he had left
+when he passed over the path on his way to the entrance.</p>
+
+<p>The print was not in the path, he was informed; it was in the wet clay
+on the edge of the precipice.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor shrugged. In that case it could not be the print of his boot. He
+had kept to the path.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p><p>In regard to the match box he was equally unsatisfactory. He
+acknowledged that it was his, but could no more account for its presence
+in the path than the coroner himself.</p>
+
+<p>"When do you remember having seen it last?" the coroner inquired.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor pondered. "I remember lending it to Mrs. Mathers when she was
+building a fire in the woods to make the coffee; after that I don't
+remember anything about it."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you account for its presence at the scene of the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can only conjecture that it must have dropped from my pocket without
+my noticing it on my way out of the cave."</p>
+
+<p>The coroner observed that it was an unfortunate coincidence that he had
+dropped it in just that particular spot.</p>
+
+<p>This effectually stopped Radnor's testimony. Not another word could be
+elicited from him on the subject, and he was finally dismissed and Mrs.
+Mathers called to the stand.</p>
+
+<p>She remembered borrowing the match box, but then someone had called her
+away and she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> could not remember what she had done with it. She thought
+she must have returned it because she always did return things, but she
+was not at all sure. Very possibly she had kept it, and dropped it
+herself on her way out of the cave.</p>
+
+<p>It was evident that she did not wish to say anything which would
+incriminate Radnor; and she was really too perturbed to remember what
+she had done. Several other people were questioned, but no further light
+could be thrown on the subject of the match box; and so it remained in
+the end, as it had been in the beginning, merely a very nasty piece of
+circumstantial evidence.</p>
+
+<p>This ended the hearing for the day, and the inquest was postponed until
+ten o'clock the following morning. So far, no word had been dropped
+touching the ha'nt, but I was filled with apprehension as to what the
+next day would bring forth. I knew that if the subject came up, it would
+end once for all Radnor's chances of escaping trial before the grand
+jury. And that would mean, at the best, two months more of prison. What
+it would mean at the worst I did not like to consider.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE JURY'S VERDICT</h3>
+
+<p>My first glance about the room the next morning, showed me only too
+plainly what direction the inquiry was going to take. In the farther
+corner half hidden by Mattison's broad back sat Clancy, the Washington
+detective. I recognized him with an angry feeling of discouragement. If
+we were to have his version of the stolen bonds, Radnor's last hope of
+gaining public sympathy was gone.</p>
+
+<p>Radnor was the first person to be called to the stand. He had not
+noticed the detective, and I did not have a chance to inform him of his
+presence. The coroner plunged immediately into the question of the
+robbery and the ha'nt, and it was only too evident from Radnor's
+troubled eyes that it was a subject he did not wish to talk about.</p>
+
+<p>"You have recently had a robbery at your house, Mr. Gaylord?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p><p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Please describe just what was stolen."</p>
+
+<p>"Five bonds&mdash;Government four per cents&mdash;a bag of coin&mdash;about twenty
+dollars in all&mdash;and two deeds and an insurance policy."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not been able to trace the thief?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p>"In spite of every effort?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we naturally looked into the matter."</p>
+
+<p>"But you have been able to form no theory as to how the bonds were
+stolen?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I have no theory whatever."</p>
+
+<p>"You employed a detective I believe?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"And he arrived at no theory?"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor hesitated visibly while he framed an answer.</p>
+
+<p>"He arrived at no theory which successfully covered the facts."</p>
+
+<p>"But he did have a theory as to the whereabouts of the bonds, did he
+not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;but it was without any foundation and I prefer not to go into it."</p>
+
+<p>The coroner abandoned the point. "Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> Gaylord, there has lately been a
+rumor among the negroes working at your place, in regard to the
+appearance of a ghost, has there not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Can you offer any light on the subject?"</p>
+
+<p>"The negroes are superstitious and easily frightened, when the rumor of
+a ghost gets started it grows. The most of the stories existed only in
+their own imaginations."</p>
+
+<p>"You believe then that there was no foundation whatever to any of the
+stories?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should rather not go into that."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Gaylord, do you believe that the ghost had any connection with the
+robbery?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I do not."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that the ghost had any connection with the murder of your
+father?"</p>
+
+<p>"No!" said Radnor.</p>
+
+<p>"That is all, Mr. Gaylord.&mdash;James Clancy."</p>
+
+<p>At the name Radnor suddenly raised his head and half turned back as if
+to speak, but thinking better of it, he resumed his chair and watched
+the approach of the detective with an angry frown. Clancy did not glance
+at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>Radnor, but gave his evidence in a quick incisive way which forced
+the breathless attention of every one in the room. He told without
+interruption the story of his arrival at Four-Pools and his conclusions
+in regard to the ha'nt and the theft; he omitted, however, all mention
+of the letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Am I to understand that you never made your conclusions known to
+Colonel Gaylord?" the coroner asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I had been employed by him, but I thought under the circumstances
+it was kinder to leave him in ignorance."</p>
+
+<p>"That was a generous stand to take. I suppose you lost something in the
+way of a fee?"</p>
+
+<p>The detective looked slightly uncomfortable over the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no, as it happened I didn't. There was a sort of cousin&mdash;Mr.
+Crosby"&mdash;he nodded toward me&mdash;"visiting in the house and he footed the
+bill. He seemed to think the young man hadn't intended to steal, and
+that it would be pleasanter all around if I left it for them to settle
+between themselves."</p>
+
+<p>"I protest!" I cried. "I distinctly stated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> my conviction that Radnor
+Gaylord knew nothing of the bonds, and I paid him to get rid of him
+because I did not wish him troubling Colonel Gaylord with any such
+made-up story."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Clancy is testifying," observed the coroner. "Now, Mr. Clancy, as I
+understand it, you discovered as you supposed the guilty man, and
+instead of going to your employer with the story and receiving your pay
+from him, you accepted it from the person you had accused&mdash;or at least
+from his friend?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've explained the circumstances; it was a mere matter of
+accommodation."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you know what such accommodation is called?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you mean it was blackmail&mdash;that's false! At least," he added,
+quickly relapsing into good nature, "it was a mighty generous kind of
+blackmail. I could have got my pay fast enough from the Colonel but I
+didn't want to stir up trouble. We all know that it isn't the innocent
+who pay blackmail," he added parenthetically.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p><p>"Do you mean to insinuate that Mr. Crosby is implicated?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lord no! He's as innocent as a lamb. Young Gaylord was too smart for
+him; he hoodwinked him as well as the Colonel into believing the bonds
+were stolen while he was out of the house."</p>
+
+<p>A smile ran around the room and the detective was excused. I sprang to
+my feet.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment!" I said. "I should like to ask Mr. Clancy some questions."</p>
+
+<p>The young man was turned over to me, plainly against his wishes.</p>
+
+<p>"What proof have you, Mr. Clancy, that the bonds were not stolen while
+Mr. Gaylord was out of the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my investigations led me to the belief that he stole them, and
+that being the case, it must have been done before he left the house."</p>
+
+<p>"I see! And your investigations concerned themselves largely with a
+letter which you filched from Mr. Gaylord's coat pocket in the night,
+did they not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not entirely&mdash;the letter merely struck me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> as corroborative evidence,
+though I have since learned&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Clancy," I interrupted sternly, "did you not tell me at the time,
+that that letter was absolute proof of his guilt&mdash;yes or no?"</p>
+
+<p>"I may have said so but&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Clancy, will you kindly repeat what was in that letter."</p>
+
+<p>"It referred to some bonds; I don't know that I can recall the exact
+words."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must request you to read it," I returned, picking it out from a
+bundle of papers on the table and handing it to him. "I am sorry to take
+up so much time with a matter that has nothing to do with the murder," I
+added to the coroner, "but you yourself brought up the subject and it is
+only fair to hear the whole story."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded permission, and ordered Clancy to read the letter. The
+detective did so amidst an astonished hush. It struck everyone as a
+proof of guilt, and no one could understand why I had forced it to the
+front.</p>
+
+<p>"Now Mr. Clancy," said I, "please tell<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> the jury Mr. Gaylord's
+explanation of this letter."</p>
+
+<p>Clancy with a somewhat sheepish air gave the gist of what Radnor had
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you believe that story when you first heard it?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said he, "I did not, because&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Very well! But you later went to the office of Jacoby, Haight &amp; Co.,
+and looked over the files of their correspondence with Radnor Gaylord
+and verified his statement in every particular, did you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I did, but still&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That is all I wish to ask, Mr. Clancy. I think the reason is evident,"
+I added, turning to the jury, "why I was willing to pay in order to get
+rid of him. Nobody's character, nobody's correspondence, was safe while
+he was in the house."</p>
+
+<p>The detective retired amidst general laughter and I could see that
+feeling had veered again in Radnor's favor. The total effect of the
+evidence respecting the ha'nt and the robbery was good rather than bad,
+and I more than fancied that I was indebted to the sheriff for it.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p><p>Radnor was not called again and that was the end of the testimony in
+regard to him. The rest of the time was taken up with a consideration of
+Cat-Eye Mose and some further questioning of the negroes in regard to
+the ha'nt. Old Nancy created considerable diversion with her account of
+the spirited roast chicken. It had changed materially since I heard it
+last. She was emphatic in her statement that "Marse Rad didn't have
+nuffen to do wif him. He was a sho' nuff ha'nt an' his gahments smelt o'
+de graveyard."</p>
+
+<p>The evidence respecting Mose brought out nothing of any consequence, and
+with that the hearing was brought to a close. The coroner instructed the
+jury on two or three points of law and ended with the brief formula:</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard the testimony given by these witnesses. It remains for
+you to do your duty."</p>
+
+<p>After an interminable half hour the jury-men filed back to their seats
+and the clerk read the verdict:</p>
+
+<p>"We find that the said Richard Gaylord came to his death in Luray Cavern
+on the 19th<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> day of May, by cerebral hemorrhage, the result of a wound
+inflicted by some blunt weapon in the hands of a person or persons
+unknown. We recommend that Radnor Fanshaw Gaylord be held for trial
+before the Grand Jury."</p>
+
+<p>Rad appeared dazed at the verdict; though in the face of the evidence
+and his own stubborn refusal to explain it, I don't see how he could
+have expected any other outcome. As for myself, it was better than I had
+feared.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>FALSE CLUES</h3>
+
+<p>The fight had now fairly begun. The district attorney was working up the
+side of the prosecution, aided, I was sure, by the over-zealous sheriff.
+It remained for me to map out some definite plan of action and organize
+the defence.</p>
+
+<p>As I rode back to Four-Pools in the early evening after the inquest, I
+continued to dwell upon the evidence, searching blindly for some clue.
+The question which returned most persistently to my mind was "What has
+become of Cat-Eye Mose?" It was clear now that upon the answer to this
+question hinged the ultimate solution of the mystery. I still clung to
+the belief that he was guilty and in hiding. But five days had elapsed
+since the murder, and no trace of him had been discovered. It seemed
+incredible that a man, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>however well he might know his ground, could,
+with a whole county on his track, elude detection so effectually.</p>
+
+<p>Supposing after all that he were not guilty, but the sheriff's theory
+that he had been killed and the body concealed, were true; then who,
+besides Radnor, could have had any motive for committing the crime?
+There was nothing from the past that afforded even the suggestion of a
+clue. The old man seemed to have had no enemies but his sons. His sons?
+The thought of Jeff suddenly sprang into my mind. If anyone on earth
+owed the Colonel a grudge it was his elder son. And Jeff had more than
+his share of the Gaylord spirit which could not lightly forgive an
+injury. Could he have returned secretly to the neighborhood, and,
+following his father into the cave, have quarreled with him? Heaven
+knows he had cause enough! He may, in his anger, have struck the old man
+without knowing what he was doing, and overcome with horror at the
+result, have left him and fled.</p>
+
+<p>I was almost as reluctant to believe him guilty of the crime as to
+believe it of Radnor,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> but the thought having once come, would not be
+dismissed. I knew that he had sunk pretty low in the nine years since
+his disappearance, but I could never think of him otherwise than as I
+myself remembered him. He had been the hero of my boyhood and I revolted
+from the thought of deliberately setting out to prove him guilty of his
+father's murder.</p>
+
+<p>I spurred my horse into a gallop, miserably trying to escape from my
+suspicion; but the more I put it from me as impossible, the surer I
+became that at last I had stumbled on a clue. Automatically, I began
+adjusting the evidence to fit this new theory, and reluctant as I was to
+see it, every circumstance from the beginning fitted it perfectly.</p>
+
+<p>Jeff had returned secretly to the neighborhood, had taken up his abode
+in the old negro cabins and made his presence known only to Mose. Mose
+had stolen the chicken for him, and the various other missing articles.
+They had resurrected the ha'nt to frighten the negroes away from the
+laurel walk, and the night of the party Rad, in his masquerade, had
+accidentally discovered his brother. Jeff<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> demanded money, and Rad
+undertook to supply it in order to get him away without his father's
+knowing. That was why he had borrowed the hundred dollars from me, and
+had written to his brokers to sell the bonds. It was Jeff who was
+sitting beside Radnor the night they drove across the lawn. But unknown
+to Rad, Jeff had found his way back and had robbed the safe, and Rad
+suspecting it, had refused to make an investigation.</p>
+
+<p>During the eleven days that intervened between the robbery and the
+murder Jeff had still been hiding in the vicinity&mdash;possibly in the
+neighborhood of Luray, certainly no longer in the cabins, for he had no
+desire to meet his brother.</p>
+
+<p>But on the day of the picnic they had met and quarreled. Rad had charged
+him with the robbery and they had parted in a high state of anger. This
+would explain Rad's actions in the hotel, his white face later when I
+found him in the summer house. And Jeff, still quivering from the boy's
+accusation, had gone back into the cave and met his father as the old
+man was coming from the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> gallery of the broken column with Polly
+Mathers's coat. What had happened there I did not like to consider; they
+both had uncontrolled tempers, and in the past there had been wrongs on
+both sides. Probably Jeff's blow had been harder than he meant.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening when Mattison and I brought the news of the murder, Rad
+must have known instantly who was the real culprit. That was why he had
+kept silent; that was why he so vehemently insisted on Mose's innocence.
+I had found the light at last&mdash;though the darkness had been almost
+better.</p>
+
+<p>What must I do? I asked myself. Was it my duty to search out Jefferson
+and convict him of this crime? No one could tell what provocation he may
+have had. Why not let matters take their course? There was nothing but
+circumstantial evidence against Radnor. Surely no jury would convict him
+on that. I could work up a sufficient case against Mose to assure his
+acquittal. He would be released with a blot on his name, he would be
+regarded for the rest of his life with suspicion; but in any event there
+seemed to be no outcome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> which would not involve the family in endless
+trouble and disgrace. And besides, if he himself elected to be silent,
+had I any right to speak? Then I pulled myself together. Yes, it was not
+only right for me to speak; it was my duty. Rad should not be allowed to
+sacrifice himself. The truth, at whatever cost, must be brought out.</p>
+
+<p>My first move must be to discover Jeff's whereabouts on the day of his
+father's murder. It ought not to be difficult to trace a man who had
+come more than once under the surveillance of the police. Having made up
+my mind as to the necessary course, I lost no time in putting it into
+action. I barely waited to snatch a hasty supper before riding back to
+the village. From there I sent a fifty-word telegram to the chief of
+police in Seattle asking for any information as to the whereabouts of
+Jefferson Gaylord on the nineteenth of May.</p>
+
+<p>It was ten o'clock the next morning before an answer came. So sure was I
+of what it was going to contain, that I read the words twice before
+comprehending them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><blockquote><p>"Jefferson Gaylord spent May nineteenth in lumber camp thirty
+miles from Seattle. Well-known character. Mistaken identity
+impossible.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Henry Waterson</span>,&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<br />
+"<i>Police Commissioner</i>."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>I had become so obsessed with the horror of my new theory; so sure that
+Jeff was the murderer of his father that I could not readjust my
+thoughts to the idea that he had been at the time of the crime three
+thousand miles away. The case, then, still stood exactly where it had
+stood from the beginning. Six days had passed since the murder and I was
+not one inch nearer the truth. Six days! I realized it with a dull
+feeling of hopelessness. Every day now that was allowed to pass only
+lessened the chance of our ever finding Mose and solving the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>I still stood with the telegram in my hand staring at the words. I was
+vaguely aware that a boy from "Miller's place" had ridden up to the
+house on a bicycle, but not until Solomon approached with a second
+yellow <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>envelope in his hand was I jostled back into a state of
+comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>"Nurr telegram, Mars' Arnold."</p>
+
+<p>I snatched it from him and ripped it open, hoping against hope that at
+last a clue had turned up.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="right">"<span class="smcap">New York</span>, May 25.</p>
+
+<p>"Post-Dispatch wants correspondent on spot. If you have any facts
+to give out, save them for me. Arrive Lambert Junction three-fifty.</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="smcap">Terence K. Patten.</span>"</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Under the terrible strain of the past six days I had completely
+forgotten Terry's existence and now the memory of his cool impertinence
+came back to me with a rush. For the first moment I felt too angry to
+think; I had not credited even his presumption with anything like this.
+His interference in the Patterson-Pratt business was bad enough, but he
+might have realized that this was a personal matter. He was calmly
+proposing to turn this horrible tragedy into a story for the Sunday
+papers&mdash;and that to a member of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> murdered man's own family. Hot with
+indignation, I tore the telegram into shreds and stalked into the house.
+I paced up and down the hall for fifteen minutes, planning what I should
+say to him when he arrived; and then, as I calmed down, I commenced to
+see the thing in its true light.</p>
+
+<p>The whole account of the crime to the minutest detail, had already
+appeared in every newspaper in the country, together with the most
+outrageous stories of Radnor's past career. At least nothing could be
+worse than what had already been said. And after all, was not the
+truth&mdash;any truth&mdash;better than these vague suspicions, this terrible
+suspense? Terry could find the truth if any man on earth could do it. He
+had, I knew, unraveled other tangles as mysterious as this. He was used
+to this sort of work, and bringing to the matter a fresh mind, would see
+light where it was only darkness to me. I had been under such a terrific
+strain for so long and had borne so much responsibility, that the very
+thought of having someone with whom I could share it gave me new
+strength. My feeling toward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> him veered suddenly from indignation to
+gratitude. His irrepressible confidence in himself inspired me with a
+like confidence, and I wondered what I had been thinking of that I had
+not sent for him at once. To my jaded mind his promised arrival appeared
+better than a clue&mdash;it was almost equal to a solution.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>TERRY COMES</h3>
+
+<p>The moment I caught sight of Terry as he swung off the train I felt
+involuntarily that my troubles were near their end. His sharp, eager
+face with its firm jaw and quick eye inspired one with the feeling that
+he could find the bottom of any mystery. It was with a deep breath of
+relief that I held out my hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, old man! How are you?" he exclaimed with a smile of cordiality
+as he grasped it. And then recalling the gravity of the situation, he
+with some difficulty pulled a sober face. "I'm sorry that we meet again
+under such sad circumstances," he added perfunctorily. "I suppose you
+think I've meddled enough in your affairs already; and on my word, I
+intended to stay out of this. But of course I've been watching it in the
+papers; partly because it was interesting and partly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> because I knew
+you. It struck me yesterday afternoon as I was thinking things over that
+you weren't making much headway and might like a little help; so I
+induced the Post-Dispatch to send down their best man. I hope I shall
+get at the truth." He paused a moment and looked at me sharply. "Do you
+want me to stay? I will go back if you'd rather have me."</p>
+
+<p>I was instantly ashamed of my distrust of the afternoon. Whatever might
+be Terry's failings, I could not doubt, as I looked into his face, that
+his Irish heart was in the right place.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not afraid of the truth," I returned steadily. "If you can
+discover it, for Heaven's sake do so!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I'm paid for," said Terry. "The Post-Dispatch doesn't deal
+in fiction any more than it can help."</p>
+
+<p>As we climbed into the carriage he added briskly, "It's a horrible
+affair! The details as I have them from the papers are not full enough,
+but you can tell them to me as we drive along."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p><p>I should have laughed had I been feeling less anxious. His greeting was
+so entirely characteristic in the way he shuffled through the necessary
+condolences and jumped, with such evident relish, to the gruesome
+details.</p>
+
+<p>As I gathered up the reins and backed away from the hitching-post, Terry
+broke out with:</p>
+
+<p>"Here, hold on a minute. Where are you going?"</p>
+
+<p>"Back to Four-Pools," I said in some surprise. "I thought you'd want to
+unpack your things and get settled."</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't much time to get settled," he laughed. "I have an engagement in
+New York the day after to-morrow. How about the cave? Is it too late to
+visit it now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," I said dubiously, "it's ten miles across the mountains and
+pretty heavy roads. It would be dark before we got there."</p>
+
+<p>"As far as that goes, we could visit the cave at night as well as in the
+daytime. But I want to examine the neighborhood and interview some of
+the people; so I suppose," he added with an impatient sigh, "we'll have
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> wait till morning. And now, where's this young Gaylord?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's in the Kennisburg jail."</p>
+
+<p>"And where's that?"</p>
+
+<p>"About three miles from here and six miles from the plantation."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;suppose we pay him a visit first. There are one or two points
+concerning his whereabouts on the night of the robbery and his actions
+on the day of the murder that I should like to have him clear up."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled slightly as I turned the horses' heads toward Kennisburg.
+Radnor in his present uncommunicative frame of mind was not likely to
+afford Terry much satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"There isn't any time to waste," he added as we drove along. "Just let
+me have your account of everything that happened, beginning with the
+first appearance of the ghost."</p>
+
+<p>I briefly sketched the situation at Four-Pools as I had found it on my
+arrival, and the events preceding the robbery and the murder. Terry
+interrupted me once or twice with questions. He was particularly
+interested in the three-cornered situation concerning Radnor,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> Polly
+Mathers, and Jim Mattison, and I was as brief as possible in my replies;
+I did not care to make Polly the heroine of a Sunday feature article. He
+was also persistent in regard to Jefferson's past. I told him all I
+knew, added the story of my own suspicions, and ended by producing the
+telegram proving his alibi.</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" said Terry folding it thoughtfully and putting it in his pocket.
+"It had occurred to me too that Jeff might be our man&mdash;this puts an end
+to the theory that he personally committed the murder. There are some
+very peculiar points about this case," he added. "As a matter of fact, I
+don't believe that Radnor Gaylord is any more guilty of the crime than I
+am&mdash;or I shouldn't have come. But it won't do for me to jump at
+conclusions until I get more data. I suppose you realize what is the
+peculiarly significant point about the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"You mean Mose's disappearance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no. I didn't have that in mind. That's significant enough to be
+sure, but nothing but what you would naturally expect.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> The crime was
+committed, if your data is straight, either by him or in his presence,
+and of course he disappears. You could scarcely have expected to find
+him sitting there waiting for you, in either case."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean Radnor's behavior on the day of the murder and his refusal to
+explain it?" I asked uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>"No," Terry laughed. "That may be significant and it may not&mdash;I strongly
+suspect that it is not. What I mean, is the peculiar place in which the
+crime was committed. No person on earth could have foreseen that Colonel
+Gaylord would go alone into that cave. There is an accidental element
+about the murder. It must have been committed on the spur of the moment
+by someone who had not premeditated it&mdash;at least at that time. This is
+the point we must keep in mind."</p>
+
+<p>He sat for a few moments staring at the dashboard with a puzzled frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Broadly speaking," he said slowly, "I have found that you can place the
+motive of every wilful murder under one of three heads&mdash;avarice, fear or
+revenge. Suppose we <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>consider the first. Could avarice have been the
+motive for Colonel Gaylord's murder? The body had not been robbed, you
+tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, we found a gold watch and considerable money in the pockets."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, you see, if the motive were avarice, it could not have been
+immediate gain. That throws out the possibility that the murderer was
+some unknown thief who merely took advantage of a chance opportunity. If
+we are to conceive of avarice as the motive, the crime must have been
+committed by some person who would benefit more remotely by the
+Colonel's death. Did anyone owe him money that you know of?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no record of anything of the sort and he was a careful
+business man. I do not think he would have loaned money without making
+some memorandum of it. He held several mortgages but they, of course,
+revert to his heirs."</p>
+
+<p>"I understood that Radnor was the only heir."</p>
+
+<p>"He is, practically. There are a few minor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> bequests to the servants and
+to some old friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Did the servants know that anything was to go to them?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't think they did."</p>
+
+<p>"And this Cat-Eye Mose, did he receive a share?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, larger than any of the others."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems that Colonel Gaylord, at least, had confidence in him. And how
+about the other son? Did he know that he was to be disinherited?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think that the Colonel made it plain at the time they parted."</p>
+
+<p>Terry shook his head and frowned.</p>
+
+<p>"This disinheriting business is bad. I don't like it and I never shall.
+It stirs up more ill-feeling than anything I know of. Jeff seems to have
+proved an alibi, however, and we will dismiss him for the present."</p>
+
+<p>"Rad has always sympathized with Jeff," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," continued Terry, "if the servants did not know the contents of
+the will, and we have all of the data, Radnor is the only one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> who could
+knowingly have benefited by the Colonel's death. Suppose we take a
+glance at motives of fear. Do you know of anyone who had reason to stand
+in fear of the Colonel? He wasn't oppressing anybody? No damaging
+evidence against any person in his possession? Not levying blackmail
+was he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I know of," and I smiled slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not likely," mused Terry, "but you never can tell what is going to
+come out when a respectable man is dead.&mdash;And now as to revenge. With a
+man of Colonel Gaylord's character, there were likely to be a good many
+people who owed him a bad turn. He seems to have been a peppery old
+gentleman. It's quite on the cards that he had some enemies among his
+neighbors?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, so far as I can discover, he was very popular in the neighborhood.
+The indignation over his death was something tremendous. When it first
+got out that Rad was accused of the crime, there was even talk of
+lynching him."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p><p>"So?&mdash;Servants all appeared to be fond of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"The old family servants were broken-hearted at the news of his death.
+They had been, for the most part, born and bred on the place, and in
+spite of his occasional harshness they loved the Colonel with the
+old-fashioned devotion of the slave toward his master. He was in his way
+exceedingly kind to them. When old Uncle Eben died my uncle watched all
+night by his bed."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a queer situation," Terry muttered, and relapsed into silence till
+we reached the jail.</p>
+
+<p>It was an ivy-covered brick building set back from the street and shaded
+by trees.</p>
+
+<p>"Rather more home-like than the Tombs," Terry commented. "Shouldn't mind
+taking a rest in it myself."</p>
+
+<p>We found Radnor pacing up and down the small room in which he was
+confined, like a caged animal; the anxiety and seclusion were beginning
+to tell on his nerves. He faced about quickly as the door opened and at
+sight of me his face lightened. He was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>growing pathetically pleased at
+having anyone with whom he could talk.</p>
+
+<p>"Rad," I said with an air of cheerfulness which was not entirely
+assumed, "I hope we're nearing the end of our trouble at last. This is
+Mr. Patten&mdash;Terry Patten of New York, who has come to help me unravel
+the mystery."</p>
+
+<p>It was an unfortunate beginning; I had told him before of Terry's
+connection with the Patterson-Pratt affair. He had half held out his
+hand as I commenced to speak, but he dropped it now with a slight frown.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I care to be interviewed," he remarked curtly. "I have
+nothing to say for the benefit of the Post-Dispatch."</p>
+
+<p>"You'd better," said Terry, imperturbably. "The Post-Dispatch prints the
+truth, you know, and some of the other papers don't. The truth's always
+the best in the end. I merely want to find out what information you can
+give me in regard to the ghost."</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you nothing," Radnor growled. "I am not giving statements
+to the press."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Gaylord," said Terry, with an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>assumption of gentle patience, "if
+you will excuse my referring to what I know must be a painful subject,
+would you mind telling me if the suspicion has ever crossed your mind
+that your brother Jefferson may have returned secretly, have abstracted
+the bonds from the safe, and, two weeks later, quite accidentally, have
+met Colonel Gaylord alone in the cave&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Radnor turned upon him in a sudden fury; I thought for a moment he was
+going to strike him and I sprang forward and caught his arm.</p>
+
+<p>"The Gaylords may be a bad lot but they are not liars and they are not
+cowards. They do not run away; they stand by the consequences of their
+acts."</p>
+
+<p>Terry bowed gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Just one more question, and I am through. What happened to you that day
+in the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's none of your damned business!"</p>
+
+<p>I glanced apprehensively at Terry, uncertain as to how he would take
+this; but he did not appear to resent it. He looked Radnor over with an
+air of interested approval and his smile slowly broadened.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p><p>"I'm glad to see you're game," he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you I don't know who killed my father any more than you do,"
+Radnor cried. "You needn't come here asking me questions. Go and find
+the murderer if you can, and if you can't, hang me and be done with it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that we need take up any more of Mr. Gaylord's time," said
+Terry to me. "I've found out about all I wished to know. We'll drop in
+again," he added reassuringly to Radnor. "Good afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>As we went out of the door he turned back a moment and added with a
+slightly sharp undertone in his voice:</p>
+
+<p>"And the next time I come, Gaylord, you'll shake hands!" Fumbling in his
+pocket he drew out my telegram from the police commissioner, and tossed
+it onto the cot. "In the meantime there's something for you to think
+about. Good by."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean," I asked as we climbed back into the carriage, "that
+Radnor did believe Jeff guilty?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not exactly. I fancy he will be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>relieved, though, to find that
+Jeff was three thousand miles away when the murder was committed."</p>
+
+<p>Only once during the drive home did Terry exhibit any interest in his
+surroundings, and that was when we passed through the village of Lambert
+Corners. He made me slow down to a walk and explain the purpose of
+everyone of the dozen or so buildings along the square. At "Miller's
+place" he suddenly decided that he needed some stamps and I waited
+outside while he obtained them together with a drink in the private back
+room.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing like getting the lay of the land," he remarked as he climbed
+back into the carriage. "That Miller is a picturesque old party. He
+thinks it's all tommy-rot that Radnor Gaylord had anything to do with
+the crime&mdash;Rad's a customer of his, and it's a downright imposition to
+lock the boy up where he can't spend money."</p>
+
+<p>For the rest of the drive Terry kept silence and I did not venture to
+interrupt it. I had come to have a superstitious feeling that his
+silences were portentous. It was not until I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> stopped to open the gate
+into our own home lane, that he suddenly burst out with the question:</p>
+
+<p>"Where do the Mathers people live?"</p>
+
+<p>"A couple of miles farther down the pike&mdash;they have no connection
+whatever with the business, and don't know a thing about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;perhaps not. Would it be too late to drive over to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said I, "it would."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well," said he, good-humoredly. "There'll be time enough in
+the morning."</p>
+
+<p>I let this pass without comment, but on one thing I was resolved; and
+that was that Polly Mathers should never fall into Terry's clutches.</p>
+
+<p>"There are a lot of questions I want to ask about your ghost, but I'll
+wait till I get my bearings&mdash;and my dinner," he added with a laugh.
+"There wasn't any dining car on that train, and I breakfasted early and
+omitted lunch."</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are," I said, as we came in sight of the house. "The cook is
+expecting us."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p><p>"So that is the Gaylord house is it? A fine old place! When was it
+built?"</p>
+
+<p>"About 1830, I imagine."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see, Sheridan rode up the Shenandoah Valley and burned
+everything in sight. How did this place happen to escape?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know just how it did. You see it's a mile back from the main
+road and well hidden by trees&mdash;I suppose they were in a hurry and it
+escaped their attention."</p>
+
+<p>"And that row of shanties down there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are the haunted negro cabins."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" Terry rose in his seat and scanned them eagerly. "We'll have a
+look at them as soon as I get something to eat. Really, a farm isn't so
+bad," he remarked as he stepped out upon the portico. "And is this
+Solomon?" he inquired as the old negro came forward to take his bag.
+"Well, Solomon, I've been reading about you in the papers! You and I are
+going to have a talk by and by."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>WE SEARCH THE ABANDONED CABINS</h3>
+
+<p>"Now," said Terry, as Solomon and the suitcase disappeared upstairs,
+"let's you and I have a look at those haunted cabins."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were hungry!"</p>
+
+<p>"Starving&mdash;but I still have strength enough to get that far. Solomon
+says supper won't be ready for half an hour, and we haven't half an hour
+to waste. I'm due in the city the day after to-morrow, remember."</p>
+
+<p>"You won't find anything," I said. "I've searched every one of those
+cabins myself and the ha'nt didn't leave a trace behind him."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'll just glance about with my own eyes," laughed Terry.
+"Reporters sometimes see things, you know, where corporation lawyers
+don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you please," I replied. "Four-Pools is at your disposal."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p><p>I led the way across the lawn and into the laurel growth. Terry
+followed with eyes eagerly alert; the gruesome possibilities of the
+place appealed to him. He pushed through the briars that surrounded the
+first cabin and came out on the slope behind, where he stood gazing down
+delightedly at the dark waters of the fourth pool.</p>
+
+<p>"My word! This is great. We'll run a half-page picture and call it the
+'Haunted Tarn.' Didn't know such places really existed&mdash;thought writers
+made 'em up. Come on," he called, plunging back to the laurel walk, "we
+must catch our ghost; I don't want this scenery to go to waste."</p>
+
+<p>We commenced at the first cabin and went down the row thoroughly and
+systematically. At Terry's insistence one of the stable men brought a
+ladder and we climbed into every loft, finding nothing but spiders and
+dust. The last on the left, being more weatherproof than the others, was
+used as a granary. A space six feet square was left inside the door, but
+for the rest the room was filled nearly to the ceiling with sacks of
+Indian meal.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p><p>"How about this&mdash;did you examine this cabin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, really, Terry; there isn't much room for a ghost here."</p>
+
+<p>"Ghosts don't require much room; how about the loft?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't go up&mdash;you can't get at the trap without moving all the meal."</p>
+
+<p>"I see!" Terry was examining the three walls of sacks before us. "Now
+here is a sack rather dirtier than the rest and squashy. It looks to me
+as if it had had a good deal of rough handling."</p>
+
+<p>He pulled it to the floor as he spoke, and another with it. A space some
+three feet high was visible; by crawling one could make his way along
+without hitting the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on!" said Terry, scrambling to the top of the pile and pulling me
+after him, "we've struck the trail of our ghostly friend unless I'm very
+much mistaken.&mdash;Look at that!" He pointed to a muddy foot-mark plainly
+outlined on one of the sacks. "Don't disturb it; we may want to compare
+it with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> marks in the cave.&mdash;Hello! What's this? The print of a bare
+foot&mdash;that's our friend, Mose."</p>
+
+<p>He took out a pocket rule and made careful measurements of both prints;
+the result he set down in a note book. I was quite as excited now as
+Terry. We crawled along on all fours until we reached the open trap;
+there was no trace here of either spider-webs or dust. We scrambled into
+the loft without much difficulty, and found a large room with sloping
+beams overhead and two small windows, innocent of glass, at either end.
+The room was empty but clean; it had been thoroughly swept, and
+recently. Terry poked about but found nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" he grunted. "Mose cleaned well.&mdash;Ah! Here we are!"</p>
+
+<p>He paused before a horizontal beam along the side wall and pointed to a
+little pile of ashes and a cigar stub.</p>
+
+<p>"He smokes cigars, and good strong ones&mdash;at least he isn't a lady. Did
+you ever see a cigar like that before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said, "that's the kind the Colonel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> always smoked&mdash;a fresh box
+was stolen from the dining-room cupboard a day or so after I got here.
+Solomon said it was the ha'nt, but we suspected it was Solomon."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the cupboard unlocked?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; any of the house servants could have got at it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Terry, poking his head from the windows for a view of the
+ground beneath, "that's all there seems to be here; we might as well go
+down."</p>
+
+<p>We boosted up the two meal bags again, and started back toward the
+house. Terry's eyes studied his surroundings keenly, whether for the
+sake of the story he was planning to write or the mystery he was trying
+to solve, I could only conjecture. His glance presently fixed on the
+stables where old Uncle Jake was visible sitting on an upturned pail in
+the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"You go on," he ordered, "and have 'em put dinner or supper or whatever
+you call it on the table, and I'll be back in three minutes. I want to
+see what that old fellow over there has to say in regard to the ghost."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p><p>It was fifteen minutes later that Terry reappeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," I inquired as I led the way to the dining-room, "did you get any
+news of the ghost?"</p>
+
+<p>"Did I! The Society for Psychical Research ought to investigate this
+neighborhood. They'd find more spirits in half an hour than they've
+found in their whole past history."</p>
+
+<p>Terry's attention during supper was chiefly directed toward Nancy's
+fried chicken and beat biscuits. When he did make any remarks he
+addressed them to Solomon rather than to me. Solomon was loquacious
+enough in general, but he had his own ideas of table decorum, and it was
+evident that the friendly advances of my guest considerably scandalized
+him. When the coffee and cigars were brought on, Terry appeared to be on
+the point of inviting Solomon to sit down and have a cigar with us; but
+he thought better of it, and contented himself with talking to the old
+man across my shoulder. He confined his questions to matters concerning
+the household and the farm, and Solomon in vain endeavored to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> confine
+his replies to "yes, sah," "no, sah," "jes' so, sah!" In five minutes he
+was well started, and it would have required a flood-gate to stop him.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of it Terry rose and dismissing me with a brief, "I'll join
+you in the library later; I want to talk to Solomon a few minutes," he
+bowed me out and shut the door.</p>
+
+<p>I was amused rather than annoyed by this summary dismissal. Terry had
+been in the house not quite two hours, and I am sure that a third
+person, looking on, would have picked me out for the stranger. Terry's
+way of being at home in any surroundings was absolutely inimitable. Had
+he ever had occasion to visit Windsor Castle I am sure that he would
+have set about immediately making King Edward feel at home.</p>
+
+<p>He appeared in the library in the course of half an hour with the
+apology: "I hope you didn't mind being turned out. Servants are
+sometimes embarrassed, you know, about telling the truth before any of
+the family."</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't get much truth out of Solomon," I retorted.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p><p>"I don't know that I did," Terry admitted with a laugh. "There are the
+elements of a good reporter in Solomon; he has an imagination which I
+respect. The Gaylords appear to be an interesting family with hereditary
+tempers. The ghost, I hear, beat a slave to death, and to pay for it is
+doomed to pace the laurel walk till the day of judgment."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the story," I nodded, "and the beating is at least authentic."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" Terry frowned. "And Solomon tells me tales of the Colonel himself
+whipping the negroes&mdash;there can't be any truth in that?"</p>
+
+<p>"But there is," I said. "He didn't hesitate to strike them when he was
+angry. I myself saw him beat a nigger a few days ago," and I recounted
+the story of the chicken thief.</p>
+
+<p>"So! A man of that sort is likely to have enemies he doesn't suspect.
+How about Cat-Eye Mose? Was Colonel Gaylord in the habit of whipping
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Often," I nodded, "but the more the Colonel abused Mose, the fonder
+Mose appeared to grow of the Colonel."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a puzzling situation," said Terry <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>pacing up and down the room
+with a thoughtful frown. "Well!" he exclaimed with a sudden access of
+energy, "I suppose we might as well sit down and tackle it."</p>
+
+<p>He took off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves; then shoving
+everything back from one end of the big library table, he settled
+himself in a chair and motioned me to one opposite.</p>
+
+<p>"Tomorrow morning," he said as he took out from his pockets a roll of
+newspaper clippings and a yellow copy pad, "we will drive over and have
+a look at that cave; it ought to tell its own story. But in the
+meantime&mdash;" he looked up with a laugh&mdash;"suppose we use our brains a
+little."</p>
+
+<p>I did not resent the inference. Terry was his old impudent self, and I
+was so relieved at having him there, assuming the responsibility, that
+he might have wiped the floor with me and welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Our object," he commenced, "is not to prove your cousin innocent of the
+murder, but to find out who is guilty. The most logical method would be
+to study the scene of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> crime first, but as that does not appear
+feasible until morning, we will examine such data as we have. On the
+face of it the only two who appear to be implicated are Radnor and this
+Cat-Eye Mose&mdash;who is a most picturesque character," Terry added, the
+reporter for the moment getting ahead of the detective.</p>
+
+<p>He paused and examined the end of his fountain pen speculatively, and
+then ran through the pile of clippings before him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, as for Radnor. Suppose we look into his case a little." He
+glanced over one of the newspaper slips and tossed it across to me.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a clipping from the 'Baltimore Censor'&mdash;a tolerably
+conservative journal. What have you to say in regard to it?"</p>
+
+<p>I picked it up and glanced it over. It was dated May twenty-third&mdash;four
+days after the murder&mdash;and was the same in substance as many other
+articles I had read in the past week.</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"No new evidence has come to light in regard to the sensational
+murder of Colonel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> Gaylord whose body was discovered in Luray Cave,
+Virginia, a few days ago. The authorities now concur in the belief
+that the crime was committed by the son of the murdered man. The
+accused is awaiting trial in the Kennisburg jail.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems impossible that any man, however depraved, could in cold
+blood commit so brutal and unnatural a crime as that with which
+Radnor Gaylord is accused. It is only in the light of his past
+history that the action can be understood. Coming from one of the
+oldest families of Virginia, an heir to wealth and an honored name,
+he is but another example of the many who have sold their
+birth-right for a mess of pottage. A drunkard and a spendthrift, he
+wasted his youth in gambling and betting on the races while honest
+men were toiling for their daily bread.</p>
+
+<p>"Several times has Radnor Gaylord been disinherited and turned
+adrift, but Colonel Gaylord, weak in his love for his youngest son,
+invariably received him back again into the house he had
+dishonored. Finally, pressed beyond the point of endurance, the old
+man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> took a firm stand and refused to meet his son's inordinate
+demands for money. Young Gaylord, rendered desperate by debts, took
+the most obvious method of gaining his inheritance. His part in the
+tragedy of Colonel Gaylord's death is as good as proved, though he
+persistently and defiantly denies all knowledge of the crime. No
+sympathy can be felt for him. The wish of every right-minded man in
+the country must be that the law will take its course&mdash;and that as
+speedily as possible."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Terry as I finished.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a lie," I cried hotly.</p>
+
+<p>"All of it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Every word of it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, see here," said Terry. "There's no use in your trying to hide
+things. That account is an exaggeration of course, but it must have some
+foundation. You told me you weren't afraid of the truth. Just be so kind
+as to tell it to me, then. Exactly what sort of a fellow is Radnor? I
+want to know for several reasons."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he did drink a good deal for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> youngster," I admitted, "though
+never to such an extent as has been reported. Of late he had stopped
+entirely. As for gambling, the young men around here have got into a bad
+way of playing for high stakes, but during the past month or so Rad had
+pulled up in that too. He sometimes backed one of their own horses from
+the Gaylord stables, but so did the Colonel; it's the regular thing in
+Virginia. As for his ever having been disinherited, that is a newspaper
+story, pure and simple. I never heard anything of the sort, and the
+neighborhood has told me pretty much all there is to know within the
+last few days."</p>
+
+<p>"His father never turned him out of the house then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never that I heard of. He did leave home once because his father
+insulted him, but he came back again."</p>
+
+<p>"That was forgiving," commented Terry. "In general, though, I understand
+that the relations between the two were rather strained?"</p>
+
+<p>"At times they were," I admitted, "but things had been going rather
+better for the last few days."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p><p>"Until the night before the murder. They quarreled then? And over a
+matter of money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Radnor makes no secret of it. He wanted his father to settle
+something on him, and upon his father's refusal some words passed
+between them."</p>
+
+<p>"And a French clock," suggested Terry.</p>
+
+<p>I acknowledged the clock and Terry pondered the question with one eye
+closed meditatively.</p>
+
+<p>"Had Radnor ever asked for anything of the sort before?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I know of."</p>
+
+<p>"Why did he ask then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's rather galling for a man of his age to be dependent on his
+father for every cent he gets. The Colonel always gave him plenty, but
+he did not want to take it in that way."</p>
+
+<p>"In just what way did he want to take it?" Terry inquired. "Since he was
+so infernally independent why didn't he get to work and earn something?"</p>
+
+<p>"Earn something!" I returned sharply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> "Rad has managed the whole
+plantation for the last three years. His father was getting too old for
+business and if Rad hadn't taken hold, things would have gone to the
+deuce long ago. All he got as a regular salary was fifty dollars a
+month; I think it was time he was paid for his services."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well," Terry laughed. "I was merely asking the question. And
+if you will allow me to go a step further, why did Colonel Gaylord
+object to settling something on the boy?"</p>
+
+<p>"He wanted to keep him under his thumb. The Colonel liked to rule, and
+he wished everyone around him to be dependent on his will."</p>
+
+<p>"I see!" said Terry. "Radnor had a real grievance, then, after all&mdash;just
+one thing more on this point. Why did he choose that particular time to
+make his request? You say he has had practical charge of affairs for the
+past three years. Why did he not wish to be independent last year? Or
+why did he not postpone the desire until next year?"</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged my shoulders.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p><p>"You'll have to ask Radnor that." I had my own suspicions, but I did
+not wish to drag Polly Mathers's name into the discussion.</p>
+
+<p>Terry watched me a moment without saying anything, and then he too
+shrugged his shoulders as he turned back to the newspaper clippings.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't go into the matter of Radnor's connection with the ha'nt just
+now; I should like to consider first his actions on the day of the
+murder. I have here a report of the testimony taken at the inquest, but
+it is not so full as I could wish in some particulars. I should like to
+have you give me the details. First, you say that Radnor and his father
+did not speak at the breakfast table? How was it when you started?"</p>
+
+<p>"They both appeared to be in pretty good spirits, but I noticed that
+they avoided each other."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, tell me exactly what you did after you arrived at Luray."</p>
+
+<p>"We left our horses at the hotel and walked about a mile across the
+fields to the mouth of the cave. We had lunch in the woods and at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> about
+one o'clock we started through the cave. We came out at a little after
+three, and, I should say, started to drive back about half past four."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you notice Radnor through the day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not particularly."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you see either him or the Colonel in the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I was with the Colonel most of the time."</p>
+
+<p>"And how about Radnor? Didn't you see him at all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I remember talking to him once about some queerly shaped
+stalagmites. He didn't hang around me, naturally, while I was with his
+father."</p>
+
+<p>"And when you talked to him about the stalagmites&mdash;was there anyone else
+with him at the time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I believe Miss Mathers was there."</p>
+
+<p>"And he was carrying her coat?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't notice."</p>
+
+<p>"At least he left it later in what you call the gallery of the broken
+column?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p><p>"I see," said Terry glancing over the printed report of the inquest,
+"that the coroner asked at this point if Radnor were in the habit of
+forgetting young ladies' coats. That's more pertinent than many of the
+questions he asked. How about it? Was he in the habit of forgetting
+young ladies' coats?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really don't know, Terry," I said somewhat testily.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity you're not more observing," he returned, "for it's
+important, on the whole. But never mind. I'll find that out for myself.
+Did you notice when he left the rest of the party?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, there was such a crowd of us that I didn't miss him."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, we'll have a look at his testimony. He left the rest of you
+in this same gallery of the broken column, went straight out, strolled
+about the woods for half an hour or so and then returned to the hotel. I
+fancy 'strolled' is not precisely the right word, but at any rate it's
+the word he uses. Now that half hour in the woods is an unfortunate
+circumstance. Had he gone directly to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>hotel from the cave, we could
+have proved an alibi without any difficulty. As it is, he had plenty of
+time after the others came out to remember that he had forgotten the
+coat, return for it, renew the quarrel with his father, and after the
+fatal result make his way to the hotel while the rest of the party were
+still loitering in the woods."</p>
+
+<p>"Terry&mdash;" I began.</p>
+
+<p>He waved his hand in a gesture of dissent.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'm not saying that's what <i>did</i> happen. I'm just showing you that
+the district attorney's theory is a physical possibility. Let's glance
+at the landlord's testimony a moment. When Radnor returned for his horse
+he appeared angry, excited and in a hurry. Those are the landlord's
+words, and they are corroborated by the stable boy and several loungers
+about the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>"He was in a hurry&mdash;why? Because he wished to get away before the others
+came back. He had suddenly decided while he was in the woods&mdash;probably
+when he heard them laughing and talking as they came out of the
+cave&mdash;that he did not wish to see anyone. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> was angry&mdash;mark that. All
+of the witnesses agree there, and I think that his actions carry out
+their evidence. He drank two glasses of brandy&mdash;by the way, I understood
+you to say he had stopped drinking. He ordered the stable boy about
+sharply. He swore at him for being slow. He lashed his horse quite
+unnecessarily as he galloped off. He rode home at an outrageous rate.
+And he was not, Solomon gives me to understand, in the habit of
+maltreating horses.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what do you make of all this? Here is a young man with an
+unexpended lot of temper on his hands&mdash;bent on being reckless; bent on
+being just as bad as he can be. It's as clear as daylight. That boy
+never committed any crime. A man who had just murdered his father would
+not be filled with anger, no matter what the provocation had been. He
+might be overcome with horror, fear, remorse&mdash;a dozen different
+emotions, but anger would not be among them. And further, a man who had
+committed a crime and intended to deny it later, would not proclaim his
+feelings in quite that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> blatant manner. Young Gaylord had not injured
+anyone; he himself had been injured. He was mad through and through, and
+he didn't care who knew it. He expended&mdash;you will remember&mdash;the most of
+his belligerency on his horse on the way home, and you found him in the
+summer house undergoing the natural reaction. By evening he had got
+himself well in hand again and was probably considerably ashamed of his
+conduct. He doesn't care to talk about the matter for several reasons.
+Fortunately Solomon is not so scrupulous."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what you're driving at, Terry," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you?" he inquired. "Well, really, it's about time that I came
+down!" He paused while he scrawled one or two sentences on his copy pad,
+then he glanced up with a laugh. "I don't know myself, but I think I can
+make a pretty good guess. We'll call on Miss Polly Mathers in the
+morning and see if she can't help us out."</p>
+
+<p>"Terry," I expostulated, "that girl knows no more about the matter than
+I do. She has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> already given her testimony, and I positively will not
+have her name mentioned in connection with the affair."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how you can help it," was his cool reply. "If she's in,
+she's in, and I'm not to blame. However, we won't quarrel about it now;
+we'll pay her a call in the morning." He ran his eyes over the clippings
+again, then added, "There are just two more points connecting Radnor
+Gaylord with the murder that need explaining: the foot-prints in the
+cave and the match box. The foot-prints I will dismiss for the present
+because I have not seen them myself and I can't make any deductions from
+hearsay evidence. But the question of the match box may repay a little
+investigation. I want you to tell me precisely what happened in the
+woods before you went into the cave. In the first place, how many older
+people were there in the party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. and Mrs. Mathers, a lady who was visiting them and Colonel
+Gaylord."</p>
+
+<p>"There were two servants, I understand, besides this Mose, to help about
+the lunch. What did they do?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p><p>"Well, I don't know exactly. I wasn't paying much attention. I believe
+they carried things over from the hotel, collected wood for the fire,
+and then went to a farm house for water."</p>
+
+<p>"But Mrs. Mathers, it seems, attended to lighting the fire?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she and the Colonel made the fire and started the coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" said Terry with a note of satisfaction in his voice. "The matter
+begins to clear. Was Colonel Gaylord in the habit of smoking?"</p>
+
+<p>"He smoked one cigar after every meal."</p>
+
+<p>"Never any more than that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, the doctor had limited him. The Colonel grumbled about it
+regularly, and always smoked the biggest blackest cigar he could find."</p>
+
+<p>"And where did he get his matches?"</p>
+
+<p>"Solomon passed the brass match box from the dining-room mantelpiece
+just as he passed it to us to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Colonel Gaylord was not in the habit of carrying matches in his pockets
+then?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p><p>"No, I think not."</p>
+
+<p>"We may safely assume," said Terry, "that in this matter of making the
+fire, if the two were working together, the Colonel was on his knees
+arranging the sticks while Mrs. Mathers was standing by, giving
+directions. That, I believe, is the usual division of labor. Well, then,
+they get to the point of needing a light. The Colonel feels through his
+pockets, finds that he hasn't a match and&mdash;what happens?"</p>
+
+<p>"What did happen," I broke in, "was that Mrs. Mathers turned to a group
+of us who were standing talking at one side, and asked if any of us had
+a match, and Rad handed her his box. That is the last anyone remembers
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly!" said Terry. "And I think I can tell you the rest. You can see
+for yourself what took place. Mrs. Mathers went back to the spot where
+they were building the fire, and the Colonel took the match box from
+her. No man is ever going to stand by and watch a woman strike a
+match&mdash;he can do it so much better himself. At this point, Mrs.
+Mathers&mdash;by her own testimony&mdash;was called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> away, and she doesn't
+remember anything further about the box. She thinks that she returned
+it. Why? For no reason on earth except that she usually returns things.
+As a matter of fact, however, she didn't do it this time. She was called
+away and the Colonel was left to light the fire alone. He recognized the
+box as his son's and he dropped it into his pocket. At another time
+perhaps he would have walked over and handed it back; but not then. The
+two were not speaking to each other. Later, at the time of the struggle
+in the cave, the box fell from the old man's pocket, and formed a most
+damaging piece of circumstantial evidence against his son.</p>
+
+<p>"On the whole," Terry finished, "I do not think we shall have a very
+difficult time in clearing Radnor. I had arrived at my own conclusions
+concerning him from reading the papers; what extra data I needed, I
+managed to glean from Solomon's lies. And as for you," he added, gazing
+across at me with an imperturbable grin, "I think you were wise in
+deciding to be a corporation lawyer."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>TERRY ARRIVES AT A CONCLUSION</h3>
+
+<p>"And now," said Terry, lighting a fresh cigar, and after a few
+preliminary puffs, settling down to work again, "we will consider the
+case of Cat-Eye Mose&mdash;a beautiful name, by the way, and apparently a
+beautiful character. It won't be my fault if we don't make a beautiful
+story out of him. You, yourself, I believe, hold the opinion that he
+committed the murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure of it," I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"In that case," laughed Terry, "I should be inclined to think him
+innocent."</p>
+
+<p>I shrugged my shoulders. There was nothing to be gained by getting
+angry. If Terry chose to regard the solving of a murder mystery in the
+light of a joke, I had nothing to say; though I did think he might have
+realized that to me, at least, it was a serious matter.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p><p>"And you base your suspicions, do you not, upon the fact that he has
+queer eyes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not entirely."</p>
+
+<p>"Upon what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon the fact that he took part in the struggle which ended in my
+uncle's death."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, certainly, that does seem rather conclusive&mdash;there is no mistake
+about the foot-prints?"</p>
+
+<p>"None whatever; the Mathers niggers both wore shoes, and anyway they
+didn't go into the cave."</p>
+
+<p>"In that case I suppose it's fair to assume that Mose took part in the
+struggle. Whether he was the only man or whether there was still a
+third, the cave itself ought to tell a pretty clear story."</p>
+
+<p>Terry rose and paced up and down the room once or twice, and then came
+back and picked up one of the newspaper clippings.</p>
+
+<p>"It says here that the boot marks of two different men are visible."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the sheriff's opinion," I replied. "Though I myself, can't make
+out anything but the marks of Mose and the Colonel. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>examined
+everything carefully, but it's awfully mixed up, you know. One really
+can't tell much about it."</p>
+
+<p>Terry impatiently flung himself into the chair again.</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to have come down last week! If I had supposed you people could
+muddle matters up so thoroughly I should. I dare say you've trampled the
+whole place over till there isn't one of the original marks left."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Terry," I said. "You act as if Virginia belonged to you.
+We've all been working our heads off over this business, and you come in
+at the last moment and quarrel with our data. You can go over tomorrow
+morning and collect your own evidence if you think it's so far superior
+to anyone else's. The marks are just as they were. Boards have been laid
+over them and nothing's been disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>"You're rather done up, old man," Terry remarked, smiling across at me
+good-humoredly. "Of course it's quite on the cards that Cat-Eye Mose
+committed the crime&mdash;but there are a number of objections. As I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>understand it, he has the reputation of being a harmless, peaceable
+fellow not very bright but always good-natured. He never resented an
+injury, was never known to quarrel with anyone, took what was given him
+and said thank you. He loved Colonel Gaylord and watched over his
+interests as jealously as a dog. Well now, is a man who has had this
+reputation all his life, a man whom everybody trusts, very likely to go
+off the hook as suddenly as that and&mdash;with no conceivable
+motive&mdash;brutally kill the master he has served so faithfully? A man's
+future is in a large measure determined by his past."</p>
+
+<p>"That may all be true enough," I said, "but it is very possible that
+people were deceived in Mose. I have been suspicious of him from the
+moment I laid eyes on him. You may think it unfair to judge a man from
+his physical appearance, but I wish you could once see Cat-Eye Mose
+yourself, and you would know what I mean. The people around here are
+used to him and don't notice it so much, but his eyes are
+yellow&mdash;positively yellow, and they narrow in the light just like a
+cat's. One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> night he drove Radnor and me home from a party, and I could
+actually see his eyes shining in the dark. It's the most gruesome thing
+I ever saw; and take that on top of his habits&mdash;he carries snakes around
+in the front of his shirt&mdash;really, one suspects him of anything."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope he isn't dead," Terry murmured wistfully. "I'd like a personal
+interview."</p>
+
+<p>He sat sunk down in his chair for several minutes intently examining the
+end of his fountain pen.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said rousing himself, "it's time we had a shy at the ghost.
+We must find out in what way Radnor and Mose were connected with him,
+and in what way he was connected with the robbery. Radnor could help us
+considerably if he would only talk&mdash;the fact that he won't talk is very
+suggestive. We'll get at the truth without him, though. Suppose you
+begin and tell me everything from the first appearance of the ha'nt. I
+should like to get him tabulated."</p>
+
+<p>"The first definite thing that reached the house," I replied, "was the
+night of my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>arrival when the roast chicken was stolen&mdash;I've told you
+that in detail."</p>
+
+<p>"And it was that same night that Aunt What-Ever-Her-Name-Is saw the
+ghost in the laurel walk?"</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Did she say what it looked like?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was white."</p>
+
+<p>"And when you searched the cabins did you go into the one where the
+grain is stored?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mose dropped his torch at the entrance. And anyway Rad said there
+was no use in searching it; it was already full to the brim with sacks
+of corn meal."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that Radnor was trying to divert you from the scene?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am sure he hadn't a suspicion himself."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did the thing look like that you saw Mose carrying to the
+cabins in the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seemed to be a large black bundle. I have thought since that it
+might have been clothes or blankets or something of that sort."</p>
+
+<p>"So much for the first night," said Terry. "Now, how soon did the ghost
+appear again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Various things were stolen after that, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> the servants attributed it
+to the ha'nt, but the first direct knowledge I had was the night of the
+party when Radnor acted so strangely. I told you of his going back in
+the night."</p>
+
+<p>"He was carrying something too?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he had a black bundle&mdash;it might have been clothes."</p>
+
+<p>"And after that he and Mose were in constant consultation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;they both encouraged the belief in the ha'nt among the negroes and
+did their best to keep everyone away from the laurel walk. I overheard
+Mose several times telling stories to the other negroes about the
+terrible things the ha'nt would do if it caught them."</p>
+
+<p>"And he himself didn't show any fear over the stories?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not the slightest&mdash;appeared rather to enjoy them."</p>
+
+<p>"And Radnor&mdash;how did he take the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"He was moody and irritable. I could see that something was preying on
+his mind."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you explain the matter to yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was afraid he had fallen into the clutches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> of someone who was
+threatening him, possibly levying blackmail."</p>
+
+<p>"But you didn't make any attempt to discover the truth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was Rad's own affair, and I didn't want the appearance of
+spying. I did keep my eyes open as much as I could."</p>
+
+<p>"And the Colonel, how did he take all this excitement about the ha'nt?"</p>
+
+<p>"It bothered him considerably, but Rad kept him from hearing it as much
+as he could."</p>
+
+<p>"When did the ha'nt appear again after the party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, by that time all sorts of rumors were running about among the
+negroes. The whole place was haunted and several of the plantation hands
+had left. But the next thing that we heard directly was in the early
+evening before the robbery when Mose, appearing terribly frightened,
+said he had seen the ha'nt rising in a cloud of blue smoke out of the
+spring-hole."</p>
+
+<p>"And how did the Colonel and Radnor take this?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p><p>"The Colonel was angry because he had been bragging about Mose not
+being afraid, and Rad was dazed. He didn't know what to think; he
+hustled Mose out of the way before we could ask any questions."</p>
+
+<p>"And what did you think?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I fancied at the time that he had really seen something, but as I
+thought it over in the light of later events I came to the conclusion
+that he was shamming, both then and in the middle of the night when he
+roused the house."</p>
+
+<p>"That is, you wished to think him shamming, in order to prove his
+complicity in the robbery and the murder; and so you twisted the facts
+to suit your theory?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think you can say that," I returned somewhat hotly. "It's
+merely a question of interpreting the facts."</p>
+
+<p>"He didn't gain much by raising all that hullabaloo in the middle of the
+night."</p>
+
+<p>"Why yes, that was done in order to throw suspicion on the ha'nt."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I see!" laughed Terry. "Well, now, let's get to the end of this
+matter. Was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> any more seen of the ha'nt after that night?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, at least not directly. For five or six days everyone was so taken
+up with the robbery that the ha'nt excitement rather died down. Then I
+believe there were some rumors among the negroes but nothing much
+reached the house."</p>
+
+<p>"And since the murder nothing whatever has been seen of the ha'nt?"</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"Just give me a list of the things that were stolen."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the roast chicken, a box of cigars, some shirts off the line, a
+suit of Rad's pajamas, a French novel, some brandy, quite a lot of
+things to eat&mdash;fresh loaves of bread, preserves, a boiled ham, sugar,
+coffee&mdash;oh, any amount of stuff! The niggers simply helped themselves
+and laid it to the ha'nt. One of the carriages was left out one night,
+and in the morning the cushions were gone and two lap robes. At the same
+time a water pail was taken and a pair of Jake's overalls. And then to
+end up came the robbery of the safe."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p><p>"The ha'nt had catholic tastes. Any of the things turned up since?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a number of things, such as blankets and clothes and dishes have
+gradually drifted back."</p>
+
+<p>"The carriage cushions and lap robes&mdash;ever find them?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never a trace&mdash;and why anyone should want 'em, I don't know!"</p>
+
+<p>"What color were the lap robes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Plain black broadcloth."</p>
+
+<p>Terry got up and paced about a few moments and then came back and sat
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"One thing is clear," he said, "there are two ha'nts."</p>
+
+<p>"Two ha'nts! What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just what I say. Suppose for convenience we call them ha'nt number one,
+and ha'nt number two. Number one occupied apartments over the grain bin
+and haunted the laurel walk. He was white&mdash;I don't wonder at that if he
+spent much time crawling over those flour sacks. He smoked cigars and
+read French novels; Mose waited on him and Radnor knew about him&mdash;and
+didn't get much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> enjoyment out of the knowledge. It took money to get
+rid of him&mdash;a hundred dollars down and the promise of more to come.
+Radnor himself drove him off in the carriage the night he left, and Mose
+obliterated all traces of his presence. So much for number one.</p>
+
+<p>"As for number two, he appeared three or four days before the robbery
+and haunted pretty much the whole place, especially the region of the
+spring-hole. In appearance he was nine feet tall, transparent, and
+black. Smoke came from his mouth and blue flames from his eyes. There
+was a sulphurous odor about him. He was first seen rising out of the
+spring-hole, and there is a passage in the bottom of the spring-hole
+that leads straight down to hell. Solomon is my authority.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked him how he explained the apparition and he reckoned it was the
+ghost of the slave who was beaten to death, and that since his old
+master had come back to haunt the laurel walk, he had come back to haunt
+his old master. That sounds to me like a plausible explanation. As soon
+as it's light I'll have a look at the spring-hole."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p><p>"Terry," I said disgustedly, "that may make a very picturesque
+newspaper story, but it doesn't help much in unravelling the mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"It helps a good deal. I would not like to swear to the flames or
+sulphur or the passage down to hell, but the fact that he was tall and
+black and comes from the spring-hole is significant. He was black&mdash;mark
+that&mdash;so were the stolen lap robes.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you see how the matter stands on the night of the robbery. While
+ghost number one was out driving with Radnor, ghost number two entered
+the house through the open library window, found the safe ajar and
+helped himself. Let's consider what he took&mdash;five thousand dollars in
+government bonds, two deeds, an insurance policy, and a quart of small
+change&mdash;a very suggestive lot of loot if you think about it enough.
+After the robbery he disappeared, nothing seen of him for five or six
+days; then he turned up again for a day or so, and finally disappeared
+forever. So much for ha'nt number two. He's the party we're after. He
+pretty certainly robbed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> safe and he possibly committed the
+murder&mdash;as to that I won't have any proof until I see the cave."</p>
+
+<p>He stretched his arms with a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, this isn't so bad! All we've got to do now is to identify those two
+ghosts."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad if you think it's so easy," I said somewhat sullenly. "But I
+will tell you one thing, if you go to basing any deductions on Solomon's
+stories you'll find yourself bumping against a stone wall."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have Rad over to dinner with us tomorrow night," Terry declared.</p>
+
+<p>He rose and pulled out his watch.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a quarter before ten. I think it's time you went to bed. You look
+about played out. You haven't been sleeping much of late?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I can't say that I have."</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to have come down at once," said Terry, "but I'm always so
+blamed afraid of hurting people's feelings."</p>
+
+<p>I stared slightly. I had never considered that one of Terry's weak
+points, but as he seemed to be quite in earnest, I let the remark pass.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I could knock up one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> stable-men to drive me to the
+village? I know it's pretty late but I've got to send a couple of
+telegrams."</p>
+
+<p>"Telegrams?" I demanded. "Where to?"</p>
+
+<p>Terry laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I must send a word to the Post-Dispatch to the effect that the
+Luray mystery grows more mysterious every hour. That the police have
+been wasting their energies on the wrong scent, but that the
+Post-Dispatch's special correspondent has arrived on the scene, and that
+we may accordingly look for a speedy solution."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the second one?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"To your friend, the police commissioner of Seattle."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't think that Jeff&mdash;?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear fellow, I don't think, unless I have facts to think
+about.&mdash;Don't look so nervous; I'm not accusing him of anything. I
+merely want more details than you got; I'm a newspaper man, remember,
+and I like local color even in telegrams. And now, go to bed; and for
+heaven's sake, go to sleep. The case is in the hands of the
+Post-Dispatch's young man, and you needn't worry any more."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>TERRY FINDS THE BONDS</h3>
+
+<p>I was wakened the next morning by Terry clumping into my room dressed in
+riding breeches and boots freshly spattered with mud.</p>
+
+<p>They were Radnor's clothes&mdash;Terry had taken me at my word and was
+thoroughly at home.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, old man!" he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Been
+asleep, haven't you? Sorry to wake you, but we've got a day's work
+ahead. Hope you don't mind my borrowing Radnor's togs. Didn't come down
+prepared for riding. Solomon gave 'em to me&mdash;seemed to think that Radnor
+wouldn't need 'em any more. Oh, Solomon and I are great friends!" he
+added with a laugh, as he suddenly appeared to remember the object of
+his visit and commenced a search through his pockets.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p><p>I sat up in bed and watched him impatiently. It was evident that he had
+some news, and equally evident that he was going to be as leisurely as
+possible about imparting it.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a pretty country," he remarked as he finished with his coat
+pockets and commenced on the waistcoat. "It would be almost worth living
+in if many little affairs like this occurred to keep things going."</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Terry," I said, "when you refer to my uncle's murder as a
+'little affair' I think you're going too far!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I beg your pardon," he returned good-naturedly, "I guess I am
+incorrigible. I didn't know Colonel Gaylord personally, you see, and I'm
+so used to murders that I've come to think it's the only natural way of
+dying. Anyhow," he added, as he finally produced a yellow envelope,
+"I've got something here that will interest you. It explains why our
+young friend Radnor didn't want to talk."</p>
+
+<p>He tossed the envelope on the bed and I eagerly tore out the telegram.
+It was from the police commissioner in Seattle and it ran:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Jefferson Gaylord returned Seattle May fifth after absence six
+weeks. Said to have visited old home Virginia. Had been wanted by
+police. Suspected implication in case obtaining money false
+pretences. Mistaken charge. Case dismissed."</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>"What does it mean?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"It means," said Terry, "that we've spotted ghost number one. It was
+clear from the first that Radnor was trying to shield someone, even at
+the expense of his own reputation. Leaving women out of the case, that
+pointed pretty straight toward his elder brother. Part of your theory
+was correct, the only trouble being that you carried it too far. You
+made Jeff commit both the robbery and the murder, while as a matter of
+fact he did neither. Then when you found a part of your theory was
+untenable you rejected the whole of it.</p>
+
+<p>"This is how the matter stood: Jeff Gaylord was pretty desperately in
+need of money. I suspect that the charge against him, whatever it was,
+was true. The money he had taken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> had to be returned and somebody's
+silence bought before the thing could be hushed up. Anyway, Seattle was
+too hot to hold him and he lit out and came East. He applied to Radnor,
+but Radnor was in a tight place himself and couldn't lay his hands on
+anything except what his father had given him for a birthday present.
+That was tied up in another investment and if he converted it into cash
+it would be at a sacrifice. So it ran along for a week or so, while Rad
+was casting about for a means of getting his brother out of the way
+without any fresh scandal. But Mose's suddenly taking to seeing ha'nts
+precipitated matters. Realizing that his father's patience had reached
+its limit, and that he couldn't keep you off the scent much longer, he
+determined to borrow the money for Jeff's journey back to Seattle, and
+to close up his own investment.</p>
+
+<p>"That same night he drove Jeff to the station at Kennisburg. The
+Washington express does not stop at Lambert Junction, and anyway
+Kennisburg is a bigger station and travellers excite less comment. This
+isn't <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>deduction; it's fact. I rode to Kennisburg this morning and
+proved it. The station man remembers selling Radnor Gaylord a ticket to
+Washington in the middle of the night about three weeks ago. Some man
+who waited outside and whose face the agent did not see, boarded the
+train, and Rad drove off alone. The ticket seller does not know Rad
+personally but he knows him by sight&mdash;so much for that. Rad came home
+and went to bed. When he came down stairs in the morning he was met by
+the information that the ha'nt had robbed the safe. You can see what
+instantly jumped into his mind&mdash;some way, somehow, Jeff had taken those
+bonds&mdash;and yet figure on it as he might, he could not see how it was
+possible. The robbery seemed to have occurred while he was away. Could
+Jeff merely have pretended to leave? Might he have slipped off the train
+again and come back? Those are the questions that were bothering Radnor.
+He was honest in saying that he could not imagine how the bonds had been
+stolen, and yet he was also honest in not wanting to know the truth."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p><p>"He might have confided in me," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been a good deal better if he had. But in order to
+understand Rad's point of view, you must take into account Jeff's
+character. He appears to have been a reckless, dashing, headstrong, but
+exceedingly attractive fellow. His father put up with his excesses for
+six years before the final quarrel. Cat-Eye Mose, so old Jake tells me,
+moped for months after his disappearance. Rad, as a little fellow,
+worshipped his bad but charming brother.&mdash;There you have it. Jeff turns
+up again with a hard luck story, and Mose and Radnor both go back to
+their old allegiance.</p>
+
+<p>"Jeff is in a bad hole, a fugitive from justice with the penitentiary
+waiting for him. He confesses the whole thing to Radnor&mdash;extenuating
+circumstances plausibly to the fore. He has been dishonest, but
+unintentionally so. He wishes to straighten up and lead a respectable
+life. If he had, say fifteen hundred dollars, he could quash the
+indictment against him. He is Radnor's brother and the Colonel's son,
+but Rad is to receive a fortune while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> he is to be disinherited. The
+money he asks now is only his right. If he receives it he will disappear
+and trouble Rad no more.&mdash;That, I fancy, is the line of argument our
+returned prodigal used. Anyway, he won Rad over. Radnor was thinking of
+getting married, had plenty of use for all the money he could lay his
+hands on, but he seems to be a generous chap, and he sacrificed himself.</p>
+
+<p>"For obvious reasons Jeff wished his presence kept a secret, and Rad and
+Mose respected his wishes. After the robbery Radnor was too sick at the
+thought that his brother may have betrayed him, to want to do anything
+but hush the matter up. At the news of the murder he did not know what
+to think; he would not believe Jeff guilty, and yet he did not see any
+other way out."</p>
+
+<p>Terry paused a moment and leaned forward with an excited gleam in his
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>"That," he said, "is the whole truth about ghost number one. Our
+business now is to track down number two, and here, as a starter are the
+missing bonds."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p><p>He tossed a pile of mildewed papers on the bed and met my astonishment
+with a triumphant chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>It was true&mdash;all five of the missing bonds were there, the May first
+coupons still uncut. Also the deeds and insurance policy, exactly as
+they had left the safe, except that they were damp and mud-stained.</p>
+
+<p>I stared for a moment too amazed to speak. Finally, "Where did you find
+them?" I gasped.</p>
+
+<p>Terry regarded me with a tantalizing laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly where I thought I'd find them. Oh, I've been out early this
+morning! I saw the sun rise, and breakfasted in Kennisburg at six
+forty-five. I'm ready for another breakfast though. Hurry up and dress.
+We've got a day's work before us. I'm off to the stables to talk
+'horses' with Uncle Jake; when you're ready for breakfast send Solomon
+after me."</p>
+
+<p>"Terry," I implored, "where on the face of the earth did you find those
+bonds?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p><p>"At the mouth of the passage to hell," said Terry gravely, "but I'm not
+quite sure myself who put them there."</p>
+
+<p>"Mose?" I queried eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"It might have been&mdash;and it might not." He waved his hand airily and
+withdrew.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>POLLY MAKES A CONFESSION</h3>
+
+<p>At breakfast Terry drank two cups of coffee and subsided into thought. I
+could get no more from him on the subject of the bonds; he was not sure
+himself, was all the satisfaction he would give. When the meal was half
+over, to Solomon's dismay, he suddenly rose without noticing a new dish
+of chicken livers that had just appeared at his elbow.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on," he said impatiently, "you've had enough to eat. I've got to
+see those marks while they're still there. I'm desperately afraid an
+earthquake will swallow that cave before I get a chance at them."</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen minutes later we were bowling down the lane behind the fastest
+pair of horses in the Gaylord stables, and through the prettiest country
+in the State of Virginia. Terry sat with his hands in his pockets and
+his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> eyes on the dash-board. As we came to the four corners at the
+valley-pike I reined in.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you rather go the short way over the mountains by a very rough
+road, or the long way through Kennisburg?" I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" he asked. "Oh, the short way by all means&mdash;but first I
+want to call at the Mathers's."</p>
+
+<p>"It would simply be a waste of time."</p>
+
+<p>"It won't take long&mdash;and since Radnor won't talk I've got to get at the
+facts from the other end. Besides, I want to see Polly myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Mathers knows nothing about the matter," said I as stiffly as
+possible.</p>
+
+<p>"Doesn't she!" said Terry. "She knows a good many things, and it's about
+time she told them.&mdash;At any rate, you must admit that she's the owner of
+the unfortunate coat that caused the trouble; I want to ask her some
+questions about that. Why can't girls learn to carry their own coats? It
+would save a lot of trouble."</p>
+
+<p>It ended by my driving, with a very bad grace, to Mathers Hall.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p><p>"You wait here until I come out," said Terry, coolly, as I drew up by
+the stepping stone and commenced fumbling for a hitching strap.</p>
+
+<p>"Not much!" said I. "If you interview Polly Mathers I shall be present
+at the interview."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well!" he returned resignedly. "If you'd let me go about it my
+own way, though, I'd get twice as much out of her."</p>
+
+<p>The family were at breakfast, the servant informed me. I left Terry in
+the parlor while I went on to the dining-room to explain the object of
+our visit.</p>
+
+<p>"There is a friend of mine here from New York to help us about the
+trial"&mdash;I thought it best to suppress his real profession&mdash;"and he wants
+to interview Miss Polly in regard to the coat. I am very sorry&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," said Mrs. Mathers, "Polly is only too glad to help in any
+way possible."</p>
+
+<p>And to my chagrin Polly excused herself and withdrew to the parlor,
+while her father kept me listening to a new and not very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>valuable
+theory of his in regard to the disappearance of Mose. It was fifteen
+minutes before I made my escape and knocked on the parlor door. I turned
+the knob and went in without waiting for a summons.</p>
+
+<p>The Mathers's parlor is a long cool dim room with old-fashioned mahogany
+furniture and jars of roses scattered about. It was so dark after the
+bright sunshine of the rest of the house, that for a moment I didn't
+discover the occupants until the sound of Polly's sobbing proclaimed
+their whereabouts. I was somewhat taken aback to find her sitting in a
+corner of the big horsehair sofa, her head buried in the cushions, while
+Terry, nonchalantly leaning back in his chair, regarded her with much
+the expression that he might have worn at a "first night" at the
+theatre. It might also be noted that Polly wore a white dress with a big
+bunch of roses in her belt, that her hair was becomingly rumpled by the
+cushion, and that she was not crying hard enough to make her eyes red.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, old man!" said Terry and I fancied that his tone was not
+entirely cordial. "Just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> sit down and listen to this. We've been having
+some interesting disclosures."</p>
+
+<p>Polly raised her head and cast him a reproachful glance, while with a
+limp wave of the hand she indicated a chair.</p>
+
+<p>I settled myself and inquired reassuringly, "Well, Polly, what's the
+trouble?"</p>
+
+<p>"You tell him," said Polly to Terry, as she settled herself to cry
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you," said Terry, glancing warily at me, "but it's a secret,
+remember. You mustn't let any of those horrid newspaper men get hold of
+it. Miss Mathers would hate awfully to have anything like this get into
+the papers."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, go on, Terry," said I, crossly, "if you've got anything to tell,
+for heaven's sake tell it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, as far as we'd got when you interrupted, was that that afternoon
+in the cave she and Radnor had somehow got separated from the rest of
+the party and gone on ahead. They sat down to wait for the others on the
+fallen column, and while they were waiting Radnor asked her to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> marry
+him, for the seventh&mdash;or was it the eighth time?"</p>
+
+<p>"The seventh, I think," said Polly.</p>
+
+<p>"It's happened so often that, she's sort of lost track; but anyway, she
+replied by asking him if he knew the truth about the ghost. He said,
+yes, he did, but he couldn't tell her; it was somebody else's secret. On
+his word of honor though there was nothing that he was to blame for. She
+said she wouldn't marry a man who had secrets. He said that unless she
+took him now, she would never have the chance again; it was the last
+time he was going to ask her&mdash;is that straight, Miss Mathers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Y-yes," sobbed Polly from the depths of her cushion.</p>
+
+<p>Terry proceeded with a fast broadening smile; it was evident that he
+enjoyed the recital.</p>
+
+<p>"And then being naturally angry that any man should presume to propose
+for the last time, she proceeded to be 'perfectly horrid' to him.&mdash;Go
+on, Miss Mathers. That's as far as you'd got."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I told him&mdash;you won't tell anyone?"</p>
+
+<p>"No."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p><p>"I told him I'd decided to marry Jim Mattison."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah&mdash;" said Terry. "Now we're getting at it! If you don't mind my
+asking, Miss Mathers, was that just a bluff on your part, or had Mr.
+Mattison really asked you?"</p>
+
+<p>Polly sat up and eyed him with a sparkle of resentment.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, he'd asked me&mdash;a dozen times."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg pardon!" murmured Terry. "So now you're engaged to Mr. Mattison?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" cried Polly. "Jim doesn't know I said it&mdash;I didn't mean it; I
+just wanted to make Radnor mad."</p>
+
+<p>"I see! So it was a bluff after all? Were you successful in making him
+mad?"</p>
+
+<p>She nodded dismally.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he was awfully angry! He said that if he never amounted to anything
+it would be my fault."</p>
+
+<p>"And then what?"</p>
+
+<p>"We heard the others coming and he started off. I called after him and
+asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to the d&mdash;devil."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p><p>Polly began to cry again, and Terry chuckled slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"As a good many other young men have said under similar circumstances.
+But where he did go, was to the hotel; and there, it appears, he drank
+two glasses of brandy and swore at the stable boy.&mdash;Is that all, Miss
+Mathers?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it's the last time I ever saw him and he thinks I'm engaged to Jim
+Mattison."</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Polly," said I with some excusable heat, "now why in thunder
+didn't you tell me all this before?"</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't ask me."</p>
+
+<p>"She was afraid that it would get into the papers," said Terry,
+soothingly. "It would be a terrible scandal to have anything like that
+get out. The fact that Radnor Gaylord was likely to be hanged for a
+murder he never committed, was in comparison a minor affair."</p>
+
+<p>Polly turned upon him with a flash of gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I was going to tell before the trial. I didn't know the inquest made
+any difference.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> I would have told the coroner the morning he came to
+take my testimony, only he brought Jim Mattison with him as a witness,
+and I couldn't explain before Jim."</p>
+
+<p>"That would have been awkward," Terry agreed.</p>
+
+<p>"Polly," said I, severely. "This is inexcusable! If you had explained to
+me in the first place, the jury would never have remanded Radnor for
+trial."</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought you would find the real murderer, and then Radnor would
+be set free. It would be awful to tell that story before a whole room
+full of people and have Jim Mattison hear it. I detest Jim Mattison!"</p>
+
+<p>"Be careful what you say," said Terry. "You may have to take Jim
+Mattison after all. Radnor Gaylord will never ask you again."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I'll ask him!" said Polly.</p>
+
+<p>Terry laughed and rose.</p>
+
+<p>"He's in a bad hole, Miss Mathers, but I'm not sure but that I envy him
+after all."</p>
+
+<p>Polly dimpled through her tears; this was the language she understood.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p><p>"Good by," she said. "You'll remember your promise?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never a syllable will I breathe," said Terry, and he put a hand on my
+shoulder and marched me off.</p>
+
+<p>"She's a fascinating young person," he observed, as we turned into the
+road.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not the first to discover that," said I.</p>
+
+<p>"I fancy I'm not!" he retorted with a sidewise glance at me.</p>
+
+<p>Terry gazed at the landscape a few moments with a pensive light in his
+eyes, then he threw back his head and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank heaven, women don't go in for crime to any great extent! You're
+never safe in forming any theory about 'em&mdash;their motives and their
+actions don't match."</p>
+
+<p>He paused to light a cigar and as soon as he got it well started took up
+the conversation again.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just as I suspected in regard to Rad, though I will say the papers
+furnished mighty few clues. It was the coat that put me on the track
+coupled with his behavior at the hotel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> You see his emotions when he
+came out of that cave were mixed. There was probably a good deal of
+disappointment and grief down below his anger, but that for the moment
+was decidedly in the lead. He had been badly treated, and he knew it.
+What's more, he didn't care who else knew it. He was in a thoroughly
+vicious mood and ready to wreak his anger on the first thing that came
+to hand. That happened to be his horse. By the time he got home he had
+expended the most of his temper and his disappointment had come to the
+top. You found him wrestling with that. By evening he had brought his
+philosophy into play, and had probably decided to brace up and try
+again. And that," he finished, "is the whole story of our young
+gentleman's erratic behavior."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder I didn't think of it myself," I said.</p>
+
+<p>Terry smiled and said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Radnor is naturally not loquacious about the matter," he resumed
+presently. "For one thing, because he does not wish to drag Polly's name
+into it, for another, I suppose he feels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> that if anyone is to do the
+explaining, she ought to be the one. He supposed that she would be
+present at the inquest and that her testimony would bring out sufficient
+facts to clear him. When he found that she was not there, and that her
+testimony did not touch on any important phase of the matter, he simply
+shut his mouth and said, 'Very well! If she won't tell, I won't.' Also,
+the coroner's manner was unfortunate. He showed that his sympathy was on
+the other side; and Radnor stubbornly determined not to say one word
+more than was dragged out of him by main force. It is much the attitude
+of the little boy who has been unfairly punished, and who derives an
+immense amount of satisfaction from the thought of how sorry his friends
+will be when he is dead. And now, I think we have Rad's case well in
+hand. In spite of the fact that he seems bound to be hung, we shall not
+have much difficulty in getting him off."</p>
+
+<p>"But what I can't understand," I grumbled, "is why that little wretch
+didn't tell me a word of all this. She came and informed me off-hand
+that he was innocent and asked me to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> clear him, with never a hint that
+she could explain the most suspicious circumstance against him."</p>
+
+<p>"You've got me," Terry laughed. "I give up when it comes to finding out
+why women do things. If you had <i>asked</i> her, you know, she would have
+told you; but you never said a word about it."</p>
+
+<p>"How could I ask her when I didn't know anything about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I managed to ask her," said Terry, "and what's more," he added
+gloomily, "I promised it shouldn't go any further&mdash;that is, than is
+necessary to get Rad off. Now don't you call that pretty tough luck,
+after coming 'way down here just to find out the truth, not to be
+allowed to print it when I've got it? How in the deuce am I to account
+for Rad's behavior without mentioning her?"</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't have promised," I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well," Terry grinned, "I'm human!"</p>
+
+<p>I let this pass and he added hastily, "We've disposed of Jeff; we've
+disposed of Radnor, but the real murderer is still to be found."</p>
+
+<p>"And that," I declared, "is Cat-Eye Mose."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>"It's possible," agreed Terry with a shrug. "But I have just the
+tiniest little entering wedge of a suspicion that the real murderer is
+not Cat-Eye Mose."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>MR. TERENCE KIRKWOOD PATTEN OF NEW YORK</h3>
+
+<p>"There is Luray," I said, pointing with my whip to the scattered houses
+of the village as they lay in the valley at our feet.</p>
+
+<p>Terry stretched out a hand and pulled the horses to a standstill.</p>
+
+<p>"Whoa, just a minute till I get my bearings. Now, in which direction is
+the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>"It extends all along underneath us. The entrance is over there in the
+undergrowth about a mile to the east."</p>
+
+<p>"And the woods extend straight across the mountain in an unbroken line?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty much so. There are a few farms scattered in."</p>
+
+<p>"How about the farmers? Are they well-to-do around here?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think on the whole they are."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p><p>"Which do they employ mostly to work in the fields, negroes or white
+men?"</p>
+
+<p>"As to that I can't say. It depends largely on circumstances. I think
+the smaller farms are more likely to employ white men."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me see," said Terry, "this is just about planting time. Are the
+farmers likely to take on extra men at this season?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I don't think so; harvest time is when they are more likely to need
+help."</p>
+
+<p>"Farming is new to me," laughed Terry. "East Side problems don't involve
+it. A man of Mose's habits could hide pretty effectually in those woods
+if he chose." He scanned the hills again and then brought his eyes back
+to the village. "I suppose we might as well go on to the hotel first. I
+should like to interview some of the people there. And by the way," he
+added, "it's as well not to let them know I'm a friend of yours&mdash;or a
+newspaper man either. I think I'll be a detective. Your young man from
+Washington seems to have made quite a stir in regard to the robbery;
+we'll see if I can't beat him. There's nothing that so impresses a rural
+population as a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>detective. They look upon him as omnipotent and
+omniscient, and every man squirms before him in the fear that his own
+little sins will be brought to light." Terry laughed in prospect.
+"Introduce me as a detective by all means!"</p>
+
+<p>"Anything you like," I laughed in return. "I'll introduce you as the
+Pope if you think it will do any good." There was no keeping Terry
+suppressed, and his exuberance was contagious. I was beginning to feel
+light-hearted myself.</p>
+
+<p>The hotel at Luray was a long rambling structure which had been casually
+added to from time to time. It was painted a sickly, mustard yellow (a
+color which, the landlord assured me, would last forever) but it's
+brilliancy was somewhat toned by a thick coating of dust. A veranda
+extended across the front of the building flush with the wooden
+side-walk. The veranda was furnished with a railing, and the railing was
+furnished at all times of the day&mdash;except for a brief nooning from
+twelve to half-past&mdash;with a line of boot-soles in assorted sizes.</p>
+
+<p>We drew up with a flourish before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> wooden steps in front of the
+hotel, and I threw the lines to the stable boy who came forward to
+receive us with an amusing air of importance. His connection with the
+Luray tragedy conferred a halo of distinction, and he realized the fact.
+It was not every one in the neighborhood who had had the honor of being
+cursed by a murderer. As we alighted Terry stopped to ask him a few
+questions. The boy had told his story to so many credulous audiences
+that by this time it was well-nigh unrecognizable. As he repeated it now
+for Terry's benefit, the evidence against Radnor appeared conclusive. A
+full confession of guilt could scarcely have been more damning.</p>
+
+<p>Terry threw back his head and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care, young man," he warned, "you'll be eating your words one of
+these days, and some of them will be pretty hard to swallow."</p>
+
+<p>As we mounted the steps I nodded to several of the men whom I remembered
+having seen before; and they returned an interested, "How-dy-do?
+Pleasant day," as they cast a reconnoitering glance at my companion.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p><p>"Gentlemen," I said with a wave of my hand toward Terry, "let me
+introduce Mr. Terence Kirkwood Patten, the well-known detective of New
+York, who has come down to look into this matter for us."</p>
+
+<p>The chairs which were tipped back against the wall came down with a
+thud, and an awed and somewhat uneasy shuffling of feet ensued.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to go through the cave," Terry remarked in the crisp, incisive
+tones a detective might be supposed to employ, "and I should like to
+have the same guide who conducted Mr. Crosby the time the body was
+discovered."</p>
+
+<p>"That's Pete Moser, he's out in the back lot plowin'," a half dozen
+voices responded.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, thank you; will some one kindly call him? We will wait here."</p>
+
+<p>Terry proceeded with his usual ease to make himself at home. He tipped
+back his hat, inclined his chair at the same dubious angle as the
+others, and ranged his feet along the railing. He produced cigars from
+various pockets, and the atmosphere became less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> strained. They were
+beginning to realize that detectives are made of the same flesh and
+blood as other people. I gave Terry the lead&mdash;perhaps it would be more
+accurate to say that he took it&mdash;but it did not strike me that he set
+about his interviewing in a very business-like manner. He did not so
+much as refer to the case we had come to investigate, but chatted along
+pleasantly about the weather and the crops and the difficulty of finding
+farm-hands.</p>
+
+<p>We had not been settled very long when, to my surprise, Jim Mattison
+strolled out from the bar-room. What he was doing in Luray, I could
+easily conjecture. Mattison's assumption of interest in the case all
+along had angered me beyond measure. It is not, ordinarily, a part of
+the sheriff's duties to assist the prosecution in making out a case
+against one of his prisoners; and owing to the peculiar relation he bore
+to Radnor, his interference was not only bad law but excruciatingly bad
+taste. My dislike of the man had grown to such an extent that I could
+barely be civil to him. It was only because it was policy on my part
+not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> to make him an active enemy that I tolerated his presence at all.</p>
+
+<p>I presented Terry; though Mattison took his calling more calmly than the
+others, still I caught several sidewise glances in his direction, and I
+think he was impressed.</p>
+
+<p>"Happy to know you, Mr. Patten," he remarked as he helped himself to a
+chair and settled it at the general angle. "This is a pretty mysterious
+case in some respects. I rode over myself this morning to look into a
+few points and I shall be glad to have some help&mdash;though I'm afraid
+we'll not find anything that'll please you."</p>
+
+<p>"Anything pleases me, so long as it's the truth," Terry threw off, as he
+studied the sheriff, with a gleam of amusement in his eyes; he was
+thinking, I knew, of Polly Mathers. "I hope," he added, assuming a
+severely professional tone, "that you haven't let a lot of people crowd
+into the cave and tramp up all the marks."</p>
+
+<p>The landlord, who was standing in the doorway, chuckled at this.</p>
+
+<p>"There ain't many people that you could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> drive into that there cave at
+the point of the pistol," he assured us. "They think it's haunted;
+leastways the niggers do."</p>
+
+<p>"Have niggers been in the habit of going in much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, more or less," the sheriff returned, "when they want to make
+themselves inconspicuous for any reason. I had a horse thief hide in
+there for two weeks last year while we were scouring the country for
+him. There are so many little holes; it's almost impossible to find a
+man. Tramps occasionally spend the night there in cold weather."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you have many tramps around here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a great many. Once in a while a nigger comes along and asks for
+something to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"More often he takes it without asking," one of the men broke in. "A
+week or so ago my ole woman had a cheese an' a ham an' two whole pies
+that she'd got ready for a church social just disappear without a word,
+out o' the pantry winder. If that ain't the mark of a nigger, I miss my
+guess."</p>
+
+<p>Terry laughed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p><p>"If that happened in the North we should look around the neighborhood
+for a sick small boy."</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't no boy this time&mdash;leastways not a very small one," the man
+affirmed, "for that same day a pair o' my boots that I'd left in the
+wood house just naturally walked off by theirselves, an' I found 'em the
+next day at the bottom o' the pasture. It would take a pretty sizeable
+fellow that my boots was too small for," he finished with a grin.</p>
+
+<p>"They <i>are</i> a trifle conspicuous," one of the others agreed with his
+eyes on the feet in question.</p>
+
+<p>I caught an interested look in Terry's glance as he mentally took their
+measure, and I wondered what he was up to; but as our messenger and Pete
+Moser appeared around the corner at the moment, I had no time for
+speculation. Terry let his chair slip with a bang and rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Mr. Moser! I'm glad to see you," he exclaimed with an air of
+relief. "It's getting late," he added, looking at his watch, "and I must
+get this business settled as soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> as possible; I have another little
+affair waiting for me in New York. Bring plenty of calcium light,
+please. We want to see what we're doing."</p>
+
+<p>As the four of us were preparing to start, Terry paused on the top step
+and nodded pleasantly to the group on the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for your information, gentlemen. I have no doubt but that it
+will be of the greatest importance," and he turned away with a laugh at
+their puzzled faces.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff and I were equally puzzled. I should have suspected that
+Terry, in the r&ocirc;le of detective, was playing a joke on them, had he not
+very evidently got something on his mind. He was of a sudden in a frenzy
+of impatience to reach the cave, and he kept well ahead of us most of
+the way.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose," said Mattison as he climbed a fence with tantalizing
+deliberation&mdash;we were going by way of the fields as that was shorter&mdash;"I
+suppose that you are trying to prove that Radnor Gaylord had nothing to
+do with this murder?"</p>
+
+<p>"That will be easy enough," Terry threw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> back over his shoulder. "I
+dropped <i>him</i> long ago. The one I'm after now is the real murderer."</p>
+
+<p>Mattison scowled slightly.</p>
+
+<p>"If you can explain what it was that happened in that cave that upset
+him so mightily, I'd come a little nearer to believing you."</p>
+
+<p>Terry laughed and fell back beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a thing which I imagine may have happened to one or two other
+young men of this neighborhood&mdash;not inconceivably yourself included."</p>
+
+<p>Mattison, seeing no meaning in this sally, preserved a sulky silence and
+Terry added:</p>
+
+<p>"The thing for us to do now is to bend all our energies toward finding
+Cat-Eye Mose. I doubt if we can completely explain the mystery until he
+is discovered."</p>
+
+<p>"And that," said the sheriff, "will be never! You may mark my words;
+whoever killed the Colonel, killed Mose, too."</p>
+
+<p>"It's possible," said Terry with an air of sadness, "but I hope not. I
+came all the way down from New York on purpose to see Mose, and I should
+hate to miss him."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE DISCOVERY OF CAT-EYE MOSE</h3>
+
+<p>Having lighted our candles, we descended into the cave and set out along
+the path I now knew so well. When we reached the pool the guide lit a
+calcium light which threw a fierce white glare over the little body of
+water and the limestone cliffs, and even penetrated to the stalactite
+draped roof far above our heads. For a moment we stood blinking our eyes
+scarcely able to see, so sudden was the change from the semi-darkness of
+our four flickering candles. Then Terry stepped forward.</p>
+
+<p>"Show me where you found the body and point out the spot where the
+struggle took place."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in quick, eager tones, so excited that he almost stuttered. It
+was not necessary for him to act the part of detective any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> longer. He
+had forgotten that he ever was a reporter&mdash;he had forgotten almost that
+he was a human being.</p>
+
+<p>From where we stood we pointed out the place above the pool where the
+struggle had occurred, the spot under the cliff where the body had lain,
+and the jagged piece of rock on which we had found the coat. Moser even
+laid down upon the ground and spread out his arms in the position in
+which we had discovered the Colonel's body.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I see," said Terry. "Now the rest of you stay back there on
+the boards; I don't want you to make a mark."</p>
+
+<p>He stepped forward carefully to the edge of the water and bent over to
+examine the soft, yellow clay which formed the border of the pool on the
+lower side. Instantly he straightened up with a sharp exclamation of
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Did any negroes come in with you to recover the body?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned the sheriff, "as old man Tompkins said, you couldn't hire
+a nigger to stick his head in here after the Colonel was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> found. They
+say they can hear something wailing around the pool and they think his
+ghost is haunting it."</p>
+
+<p>"They can hear something wailing, can they?" Terry repeated queerly.
+"Well I begin to believe they can! What is the meaning of this?" he
+demanded, facing around at us. "How do you account for these peculiar
+foot-prints?"</p>
+
+<p>"What prints?" I asked as we all pressed forward.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment the calcium light with a final flare, died out, and we
+were left again in the flickering candle light which seemed darkness to
+us now.</p>
+
+<p>"Quick, touch off another calcium!" said Terry, with suppressed
+impatience. He laid a hand on my shoulder and my arm ached from the
+tightness of his grip. "There," he said pointing with his finger as the
+light flared up again. "What do you make of those?"</p>
+
+<p>I bent over and plainly traced the prints of bare feet, going and coming
+and over-lapping one another, just as an animal would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> make in pacing a
+cage. I shivered slightly. It was a terribly uncanny sight.</p>
+
+<p>"Well?" said Terry sharply. The place was beginning to get on his nerves
+too.</p>
+
+<p>"Terry," I said uneasily, "I never saw them before. I thought I examined
+everything thoroughly, but I was so excited I suppose&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What did you make of them?" he interrupted, whirling about on Mattison
+who was looking over our shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I didn't see them," Mattison stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"For heaven's sake, men," said Terry impatiently. "Do you mean they
+weren't there or you didn't notice them?"</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff and I looked at each other blankly, and neither answered.</p>
+
+<p>Terry stood with his hands in his pockets frowning down at the marks,
+while the rest of us waited silently, scarcely daring to think. Finally
+he turned away without saying a word, and, motioning us to keep back,
+commenced examining the path which led up the incline. He mounted the
+three stone steps,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> and with his eyes on the ground, slowly advanced to
+the spot where the struggle had taken place.</p>
+
+<p>"How tall a man did you say Mose was?" he called down to us.</p>
+
+<p>"Little short fellow&mdash;not more than five feet high," returned the
+sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>Terry took his ruler from his pocket and bent over to study the marks at
+the scene of the struggle. He straightened up with an air of
+satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I want you men to look carefully at those marks on the lower
+borders of the pool, and then come up here and look at these. Come along
+up in single file, please, and keep to the middle of the path."</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in the tone of one giving a demonstration before a kindergarten
+class. We obeyed him silently and ranged in a row along the boards.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here," he said. "Bend over where you can see. Now look at those
+marks. Do you see anything different in them from the marks below?"</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff and I gazed intently at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> prints of bare feet which
+marked the entire vicinity of the struggle. We had both examined them
+more than once before, and we saw nothing now but what had already
+appeared. We straightened up and shook our heads.</p>
+
+<p>"They're the prints of bare feet," said Mattison, stolidly. "But I don't
+see that they're any different from any other bare feet."</p>
+
+<p>Terry handed him the ruler.</p>
+
+<p>"Measure them," he said. "Measure this one that's flat on the ground.
+Now go down and measure one of those prints by the borders of the pool."</p>
+
+<p>Mattison took the ruler and complied. As he bent over the marks on the
+lower border we could see by the light of his candle the look of
+astonishment that sprang into his face.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what do you find?" Terry asked.</p>
+
+<p>"The marks up there are nearly two inches longer and an inch broader."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly."</p>
+
+<p>"Terry," I said, "you can't blame us for not finding that out. We
+examined everything when we took away the body, and those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> marks below
+were simply not there. Someone has been in since."</p>
+
+<p>"So I conclude. Now, Mattison," he added to the sheriff, "come here and
+show me the marks of Radnor Gaylord's riding boots."</p>
+
+<p>Mattison returned and pointed out the mark which he had produced at the
+inquest, but his assurance, I noticed, was somewhat shaken.</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Terry half contemptuously, "is the mark of Colonel Gaylord.
+You must remember that he was struggling with his assailant. He did not
+plant his foot squarely every time. Sometimes we have only the heel
+mark: sometimes only the toe. In this case we have more than the mark of
+the whole foot. How do I account for it? Simply enough. The Colonel's
+foot slipped sideways. The mark is, you see, exactly the same in length
+as the others, but disproportionately broad. At the heel and toe it is
+smudged, and on the inside where the weight was thrown, it is heavier
+than on the outside. The thing is easy enough to understand. You ought
+to have been able to deduce it for yourselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> And besides, how did you
+account for the fact that there was only one mark? A man engaged in a
+struggle must have left more than that behind him. No; it is quite
+clear. At this point on the edge of the bank there was no third person.
+We are dealing with only two men&mdash;Colonel Gaylord and his murderer; and
+the murderer was bare-footed."</p>
+
+<p>"Mose?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Terry, patiently, "not Mose."</p>
+
+<p>"Then who?"</p>
+
+<p>"That&mdash;remains to be seen. I will follow him up and find out where he
+comes from."</p>
+
+<p>Terry held his candle close to the ground and followed along the path.
+At the entrance to the little gallery of the broken column it diverged,
+one part leading into the gallery, and the other into a sort of blind
+alley at one side. Terry paused at the opening.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me some more calcium light," he called to the guide. "I want to
+look into this passage. And just hand me some of those boards," he
+added. "It's very necessary that we keep the marks clear."</p>
+
+<p>The rest of us stood in a huddled group on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> the one or two boards he had
+left us and watched him curiously as he made his way down the passage.
+He paused at the end and examined the ground. We saw him stoop and pick
+up something. Then he rose quickly with a cry of triumph and came
+running back to us holding his hands behind him.</p>
+
+<p>"It's just as I suspected," he said, his eyes shining with excitement.
+"Colonel Gaylord had an enemy he did not know."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?" we asked, crowding around.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's the proof," and he held out towards us a well gnawed ham bone in
+one hand and a cheese rind in the other. "These were the provisions
+intended for the church social; the pies, I fancy, have disappeared."</p>
+
+<p>We stared at him a moment in silent wonder. The sheriff was the first to
+assert himself.</p>
+
+<p>"What have these to do with the crime?" he asked, viewing the trophies
+with an air of disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything. The man who stole those is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> the man who robbed the safe and
+who murdered Colonel Gaylord."</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff uttered a low laugh of incredulity, and the guide and I
+stared open-mouthed.</p>
+
+<p>"And what's more, I will tell you what he looks like. He is a large,
+very black negro something over six feet tall. When last seen, he was
+dressed in a blue and white checked blouse and ragged overalls. His
+shoes were much the worse for wear, and have since been thrown away. He
+was bare-footed at the time he committed the crime. In short," Terry
+added, "he is the chicken thief whom Colonel Gaylord whipped a couple of
+days before he died," and he briefly repeated the incident I had told
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"You mean," I asked, "that he was the ha'nt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Terry, "he was the second ha'nt. He has been hiding for two
+or three weeks in the spring-hole at Four-Pools, keeping hidden during
+the day and coming out at night to prowl around and steal whatever he
+could lay his hands on. He doubtless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>deserved punishment, but that fact
+would not make him the less bitter over the Colonel's beating. When I
+heard that story, I said to myself, 'there is a man who would be ready
+for revenge if chance put the opportunity in his way.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But," I expostulated, "how did he happen to be in the cave?"</p>
+
+<p>"As to that I cannot say. After the Colonel's beating he probably did
+not dare to hang about Four-Pools any longer. He took to the woods and
+came in this direction; being engaged in petty thieving about the
+neighborhood, it was necessary to find a hiding place during the daytime
+and the cave was his most natural refuge. We know that he is not afraid
+of the dark&mdash;the spring-hole at Four-Pools is about as dismal a place as
+a man could find. He established himself in this passage in order to be
+near the water. See, here in the corner are drops of candle grease and
+the remains of a fire. On the day of the Mathers's picnic he doubtless
+saw the party pass through and recognized Colonel Gaylord. It brought to
+his mind the thrashing he had received. While he was still brooding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>
+over the matter, the Colonel came back alone, and it flashed into the
+fellow's mind that this was his chance. He may have been afraid at first
+or he may have hesitated through kindlier motives. At any rate he did
+not attack the Colonel immediately, but retreated into the passage, and
+the old man passed him without seeing him and went on into the gallery
+and got the coat.</p>
+
+<p>"In the meantime, the negro had made up his mind, and as the Colonel
+came back, he crept along behind him. It is hard to trace the marks, for
+another bare-footed man has walked over them since. But see, in this
+place at the edge of the path, there's the mark of a palm, showing where
+the assassin's hand rested when he crouched on the ground. He sprang
+upon the old man from the rear and they struggled together over the
+water&mdash;touch off a light, please&mdash;you see how the clay is all trampled
+over on both sides of the path, 'way out to the brink of the pool. There
+is no second set of marks here to obliterate it; we are dealing with
+just two people&mdash;Colonel Gaylord and his assassin."</p>
+
+<p>Terry bent low and picked up from a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>crevice what looked like a piece of
+stone covered with clay.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, you see, is the end of the Colonel's candle. He probably dropped
+it when the man first sprang, and in the darkness he could not tell who
+or what had attacked him. In his frenzy to have a light he snatched out
+his match box&mdash;Radnor's box&mdash;and that too was dropped in the scuffle.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, even if the original motive of the crime were not robbery but
+revenge&mdash;as I fancy it was&mdash;at any rate the murderer, being a tramp and
+a thief, would have robbed the body. But he did not. Why was that?
+Because he saw or heard something that frightened him, and what could
+that have been but Mose running to his master's assistance?"</p>
+
+<p>Terry strode over to the steps which led to the incline, and motioning
+us to follow, pointed out some marks on the sloping bank at the side of
+the path.</p>
+
+<p>"See, here are Mose's tracks. He was in such a hurry that he could not
+wait to come up by the steps; he tried to take a cross cut. He scrambled
+up the slippery bank so fast that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> fell on his hands and knees in
+this place and slid back. That accounts for those long dragging marks,
+which none of you appear to have noticed. Mose did his best, but he
+could not reach his master in time. The murderer seeing&mdash;or rather
+hearing him, for it must have been dark&mdash;was seized with sudden fear,
+and with a convulsive effort he threw the old man against the rock wall
+here, where his head struck on this broken stalactite. If you look
+carefully you can see the marks of blood. He then hurled him into the
+pool and fled."</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds plausible enough," said the sheriff slowly, "but there are
+one or two points which I'm afraid will not bear examining. Suppose your
+man did thrown the Colonel into the water and run for it, then what, I
+should like to know, has become of Cat-Eye Mose?"</p>
+
+<p>"That," said Terry, knitting his brows, "is still a mystery and a fairly
+deep one. There is something uncommonly strange about those tracks on
+the lower borders of the pool and I confess they puzzle me. Only one
+explanation occurs to me now and that is not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>pleasant to think of. We
+have some clues to work with however, and we ought not to be long in
+getting at the truth. If I had had your chance of examining the cave on
+the day of the crime," he added, "I think I should know."</p>
+
+<p>"You might, and again you might not," said Mattison. "It's easy enough
+for you fellows to come down here and make up a story about a lot of
+people you've never seen, but I'll tell you one thing, and that is that
+you're not so likely to hit the truth as the men who've been brought up
+in the country. In the first place it comes natural to niggers to be
+whipped and they don't mind it. In the second place if your tramp <i>did</i>
+want to take it out on the Colonel why should he be scared by Mose, who
+was a little bit of a sawed-off cuss that I could lick with one hand
+tied behind me? You may be able to impress a New York jury with a ham
+bone and a cheese rind, Mr. Patten, but I can tell you, sir, that a
+Virginia jury wants witnesses."</p>
+
+<p>"We shall do our best to provide some," said Terry, coolly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p><p>"And perhaps you can tell," added Mattison with the triumphant air of
+clinching the matter, "what has become of the five thousand dollars in
+bonds? You can never make me believe that any nigger&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they're back in the safe at Four-Pools. I found 'em this morning in
+the spring-hole where the man had thrown them away.&mdash;Now, gentlemen," he
+added with a touch of impatience, "I want to try a little experiment
+before we leave the cave. Will you all please put out your lights? I
+want to see how dark it really is in here."</p>
+
+<p>We blew out our candles and stood a moment in silence. At first all was
+black around us, but as our eyes became accustomed to the darkness, we
+saw that a faint light filtered in from somewhere in the roof above our
+heads. We could make out the pale blur of the white rock wall on one
+side and the merest glimmer of the pool below.</p>
+
+<p>"No," Terry began, "he could have seen nothing; he must have&mdash;" He broke
+off suddenly and gripping my arm whispered out, "What's that?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p><p>"Where?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Up there; straight ahead."</p>
+
+<p>I looked up and saw two round eyes which glittered like a wild beast's,
+staring at us out of the darkness. A cold chill ran up my back and I
+instinctively huddled closer to the others. For a moment no one spoke
+and I heard the click of Terry's revolver as he cocked it. Then it
+suddenly came over me what it was, and I cried out:</p>
+
+<p>"It's Cat-Eye Mose!"</p>
+
+<p>"Good Lord, he can see in the dark! Strike a light, some one," Terry
+said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff struck a match. We lit our candles with trembling hands and
+pressed forward (in a body) to the spot where the eyes had appeared.</p>
+
+<p>Crouched in a corner of a little recess half way up the irregular wall,
+we found Mose, shivering with fear and looking down at us with dumb,
+animal eyes. We had to drag him out by main force. The poor fellow was
+nearly famished and so weak he could scarcely stand. What little sense
+he had ever possessed seemed to have left him, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> he jabbered in a
+tongue that was scarcely English.</p>
+
+<p>We bolstered him up with a few drops of whisky from Mattison's flask,
+and half carried him out into the light. The guide ran ahead to get a
+carriage, spreading the news as he ran, that Cat-Eye Mose had been
+found. Half the town of Luray came out to the cave to escort us back,
+and I think the feeling of regret was general, in that there had not
+been time enough to collect a brass band.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>MOSE TELLS HIS STORY</h3>
+
+<p>We took Mose back to the hotel, shut out the crowd, and gave him
+something to eat. He was quite out of his head and it was only by dint
+of the most patient questioning that we finally got his story. It was,
+in substance, as Terry had sketched it in the cave.</p>
+
+<p>In obedience to my request, Mose had gone back after the coat, not
+knowing that the Colonel was before him. Suddenly, as he came near the
+pool he heard a scream and looked up in time to see a big negro&mdash;the one
+my uncle had struck with his crop&mdash;spring upon the Colonel with the cry,
+"It's my tu'n, now, Cunnel Gaylord. You whup me, an' I'll let you see
+what it feels like."</p>
+
+<p>The Colonel turned and clinched with his assailant, and in the struggle
+the light was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> dropped. Mose, with a cry, ran forward to his master's
+assistance, but when the negro saw him climbing up the bank he suddenly
+screamed, and hurling the old man from him, turned and fled.</p>
+
+<p>"The fellow must have taken him for the devil when he saw those eyes,
+and I don't wonder!" Terry interpolated at this point.</p>
+
+<p>After the Colonel's murder, it seems that Mose, crazed by grief and
+fear, had watched us carry the body away, and then had stayed by the
+spot where his master had died. This accounted for the marks on the
+border of the pool. Knowing all of the intricate passages and hiding
+places as he did, it had been an easy matter for him to evade the party
+that had searched for his body. He ate the food the murderer had left,
+but this being exhausted, he would, I haven't a doubt, have died there
+himself with the unreasoning faithfulness of a dog.</p>
+
+<p>When he finished his rambling and in some places scarcely intelligible
+account, we sat for a moment with our eyes upon his face, fascinated by
+his look. Every bit of repugnance I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> had ever felt toward him had
+vanished, and there was left in its place only a sense of pity. Mose's
+cheeks were hollow, his features sharper than ever, and his face was
+almost pale. From underneath his straight, black, matted hair his eyes
+glittered feverishly, and their expression of uncomprehending anguish
+was pitiful to see. He seemed like a dumb animal that has come into
+contact with death for the first time and asks the reason.</p>
+
+<p>Terry took his eyes from Mose's face and looked down at the table with a
+set jaw. I do not think that he was deriving as much pleasure from the
+sight as he had expected. We all of us experienced a feeling of relief
+when the doctor appeared at the door. We turned Mose over to him with
+instructions to do what he could for the poor fellow and to take him
+back to Four-Pools.</p>
+
+<p>As the door shut behind them, the sheriff said (with a sigh, I thought),
+"This business proves one thing: it's never safe to lynch a man until
+you are sure of the facts."</p>
+
+<p>"It proves another thing," said Terry, dryly, "which is a thing you
+people don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> seem to have grasped; and that is that negroes are human
+beings and have feelings like the rest of us. Poor old Colonel Gaylord
+paid a terrible price for not having learned it earlier in life."</p>
+
+<p>We pondered this in silence for a moment, then the sheriff voiced a
+feeling which, to a slight extent, had been lurking in the background of
+my own consciousness, in spite of my relief at the d&eacute;nouement.</p>
+
+<p>"It's kind of disappointing when you've got your mind worked up to
+something big, to find in the end that there was nothing but a chance
+nigger at the bottom of all that mystery. Seems sort of a let-down."</p>
+
+<p>Terry eyed him with an air of grim humor, then he leaned across the
+table and spoke with a ring of conviction that carried his message home.</p>
+
+<p>"You are mistaken, Mattison, the murderer of Colonel Gaylord was not a
+chance nigger. There was no chance about it. Colonel Gaylord killed
+himself. He committed suicide&mdash;as truly as if he had blown out his
+brains with a gun. He did it with his uncontrollable <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>temper. The man
+was an egoist. He has always looked upon his own desires and feelings as
+of supreme importance. He has tried to crush the life and spirit and
+independence from everyone about him. But once too often he wreaked his
+anger upon an innocent person&mdash;at least upon a person that for all he
+knew was innocent&mdash;and at one stroke his past injustices were avenged.
+It was not chance that killed Colonel Gaylord. It was the inevitable law
+of cause and effect. 'Way back in his boyhood when he gave way to his
+first fit of passion, he sentenced himself to some such end as this.
+Every unjust act in his after-life piled up the score against him.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've seen it a hundred times! It's character that tells. I've seen
+it happen to a political boss&mdash;a man whose business it was to make
+friends with every voter high and low. I've seen him forget, just once,
+and turn on a man, humiliate him, wound his pride, crush him under foot
+and think no more of the matter than if he had stepped on a worm. And
+I've seen that man, the most insignificant of the politician's
+followers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> work and plot and scheme to overthrow him; and in the end
+succeed. The big man never knew what struck him. He thought it was luck,
+chance, a turn of the wheel. He never dreamed that it was his own
+character hitting back. I've seen it so often, I'm a fatalist. I don't
+believe in chance. It was Colonel Gaylord who killed himself, and he
+commenced it fifty years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"It's God's own truth, Terry!" I said solemnly.</p>
+
+<p>The sheriff had listened to Terry's words with an anxiously reminiscent
+air. I wondered if he were reviewing his own political past, to see if
+by chance he also had unwittingly crushed a worm. He raised his eyes to
+Terry's face with a gleam of admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"You've been pretty clever, Mr. Patten, in finding out the truth about
+this crime," he acknowledged generously. "But you couldn't have expected
+me to find out," he added, "for I didn't know any of the circumstances.
+I had never even heard that such a man existed as that chicken
+thief&mdash;and as to there being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> two ghosts instead of one, there wasn't a
+suggestion of it brought out at the inquest."</p>
+
+<p>Terry looked at him with his usual slowly broadening smile. He opened
+his mouth to say something, but he changed his mind and&mdash;with a visible
+effort&mdash;shut it again.</p>
+
+<p>"Terry," I asked, "how <i>did</i> you find out about the chicken thief? I
+confess I don't understand it yet."</p>
+
+<p>He shrugged his shoulders and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing simpler. The trouble with you people was that you were
+searching for something lurid, and the little common-place things which,
+in a case like this, are the most suggestive, you overlooked. As soon as
+I read the story of the crime in the papers I saw that in all
+probability Rad was innocent. His behavior was far too suspicious for
+him really to be guilty; unless he were a fool he would have covered up
+his tracks. There was of course the possibility that Mose had committed
+the murder, but in the light of his past devotion to the Colonel it did
+not seem likely.</p>
+
+<p>"I had already been reading a lot of sensational stuff about the ghost
+of Four-Pools,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> and when the murder followed so close on the heels of
+the robbery, I commenced to look about for a connecting link. It was
+evident that Radnor had nothing to do with it, but whether or not he
+suspected someone was not so clear. His reticence in regard to the ha'nt
+made me think that he did. I came South with pretty strong suspicions
+against the elder son, but with a mind still open to conviction. The
+telegram showing that he was in Seattle at the time of the murder,
+proved his innocence of that, but he might still be connected with the
+ha'nt. I tried the suggestion on Radnor, and his manner of taking it
+proved pretty conclusively that I had stumbled on the truth. The ha'nt
+business, I dare say, was started as a joke, and was kept up as being a
+convenient method of warding off eavesdroppers. Why Jefferson came back
+and why Radnor gave him money are not matters that concern us; if they
+prefer to keep it a secret that's their own affair.</p>
+
+<p>"Jeff helped himself pretty freely to cigars, roast chickens, jam,
+pajamas, books, brandy, and anything else he needed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> make himself
+comfortable in the cabin, but he took nothing of any great value. In the
+meantime, though, other things commenced disappearing&mdash;things that
+Radnor knew his brother had no use for&mdash;and he supposed the workers
+about the place were stealing and laying it to the ghost, as a
+convenient scapegoat.</p>
+
+<p>"But as a matter of fact they were not. A second ghost had appeared on
+the scene. This tramp negro had taken up his quarters in the spring-hole
+and was prowling about at night seeking what he might devour. He ran
+across Jeff dressed in a sheet, and decided to do some masquerading on
+his own account. Sheets were no longer left on the line all night, so he
+had to put up with lap robes. As a result, the spring-hole shortly
+became haunted by a jet black spirit nine feet tall with blue flames and
+sulphur, and all the other accessories.</p>
+
+<p>"This made little impression at the house until Mose himself was
+frightened; then Radnor saw that the hoax had reached the point where it
+was no longer funny, and he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>determined to get rid of Jeff immediately.
+While he drove him to the station he left Mose behind to straighten up
+the loft; and Mose, coming into the house to put some things away, met
+ghost number two just after he had robbed the safe. If Mose's eyes
+looked as they did to-day I fancy the fright was mutual. The ghost, in
+his excitement, dropped one package of papers, but bolted with the rest.
+He made for his lair in the spring-hole and examined his booty. The
+bonds were no more than old paper; he tossed them aside. But the pennies
+and five-cent pieces were real; he lit out for the village with them.
+The robbery was not discovered till morning and by that time the fellow
+was at 'Jake's place' on his way toward being the drunkest nigger in the
+county.</p>
+
+<p>"He stayed at the Corners a week or so until the money was gone, then he
+came back to the spring-hole. But he made the mistake of venturing out
+by daylight; the stable-men caught him and took him to the Colonel, and
+you know the rest.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as I heard the story of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>beating I decided to follow it up;
+and when I heard of a jet black spirit rising from the spring-hole, I
+decided to follow that up too. At daylight this morning I routed out one
+of the stable-men, and we went down and examined the spring-hole; at
+least I examined it while he stood outside and shivered. It yielded an
+even bigger find than I had hoped for. Chucked off in a corner and
+trampled with mud I found the bonds. A pile of clothing and carriage
+cushions formed a bed. There were the remains of several fires and of a
+great many chickens&mdash;the whole place was strewn with feathers and bones;
+he had evidently raided the roosts more than once.</p>
+
+<p>"When I finished with the spring-hole it still lacked something of six
+o'clock and I rode over to the village hoping to get an answer to my
+telegram. I wanted to get Jeff's case settled. 'Miller's store' was not
+open but 'Jake's place' was, and it was not long before I got on the
+track of my man. There was no doubt but that I had him accounted for up
+to the time of the thrashing; after that I could only conjecture. He
+had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> not appeared in the village again; the supposition was that he had
+taken to the woods. Now he might or he might not have come in the
+direction of Luray. All the facts I had to go upon were, a man of
+criminal proclivities, who owed Colonel Gaylord a grudge, and who was
+used to hiding in caves. It was pure supposition that he had come in
+this direction and it had to be checked at every point by fact. I didn't
+mention my suspicions because there was no use in raising false hopes
+and because, well&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You wanted to be dramatic," I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, certainly, that's my business. Well, anyway I felt I was
+getting warm, and I came over here this morning with my eyes open, ready
+to see what there was to see.</p>
+
+<p>"The first thing I unearthed was this story of the church social
+provisions. There had, then, been a thief of some sort in the
+neighborhood just at the time of Colonel Gaylord's murder. The further
+theft of the boots fitted very neatly into the theory. If the fellow had
+been tramping for a couple of days his shoes, already worn, had given
+out and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> been discarded. The new ones, as we know, were too small&mdash;he
+left them at the bottom of the pasture&mdash;and went bare-footed. The marks
+therefore in the cave, which everyone ascribed to Mose, were in all
+probability, not the marks of Mose at all. Actual investigation proved
+that to be the case. The rest, I think, you know. The Four-Pools mystery
+has turned out to be a very simple affair&mdash;as most mysteries
+unfortunately do."</p>
+
+<p>"I reckon you're a pretty good detective, Mr. Patten," said Mattison
+with a shade of envy in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>Terry bowed his thanks and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"As a matter of fact," he returned, "I am not a detective of any
+sort&mdash;at least not officially. I merely assume the part once in a while
+when there seems to be a demand. Officially," he added, "I am the
+representative of the New York Post-Dispatch, a paper which, you may
+know, has solved a good many mysteries before now. In this case, the
+Post-Dispatch will of course take the credit, but it wants a little more
+than that. It wants to be the only paper tomorrow morning to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> print the
+true details. We four are the only ones who know them. I should,
+perhaps, have been a little more circumspect, and kept the facts to
+myself, but I knew that I could trust you."</p>
+
+<p>His eye dwelt upon the sheriff a moment and then wandered to Pete Moser
+who had sat silently listening throughout the colloquy.</p>
+
+<p>"Would it be too much," Terry inquired, "to ask you to keep silent until
+tomorrow morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can trust me to keep quiet," said Mattison, holding out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Me too," said Moser. "I reckon I can make up something that'll satisfy
+the boys about as well as the real thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," Terry said. "I guess you can all right! There doesn't seem
+to be anything the matter with your imaginations down here."</p>
+
+<p>"And now," said Mattison, rising, "I suppose the first thing, is to see
+about Radnor's release, though I swear I don't know yet what was the
+matter with him on the day of the crime."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p><p>"I believe you have the honor of Miss Polly Mathers's acquaintance?
+Perhaps she will enlighten you," suggested Terry.</p>
+
+<p>A look of illumination flashed over Mattison's face. Terry laughed and
+rose.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a reason for suspecting that Miss Mathers has changed her mind
+and, if it is not too irregular, I should like by way of payment to
+drive her to the Kennisburg jail myself and let her be the first to tell
+him&mdash;I want to give her a reason for remembering me."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>POLLY MAKES A PROPOSAL</h3>
+
+<p>I was dropped in Kennisburg to attend to the legal formalities
+respecting Radnor's release, while Terry appropriated the horses and
+drove to Mathers Hall. His last word to Mattison and me was not to let a
+whisper reach Radnor's ear as to the outcome of the investigation. He
+wanted a spectacular d&eacute;nouement. The sheriff assented very soberly. The
+truth had at last forced itself upon him that his chances with Polly
+were over.</p>
+
+<p>Terry reappeared, two hours later, with a very excited young woman
+beside him. They joined us in the bare little parlor of the jail, and if
+Mattison needed any further proof that the end had come, Polly's
+greeting furnished it. An embarrassed flush rose to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> face as she saw
+him, but she shook hands in a studiously impersonal way and asked
+immediately for Radnor.</p>
+
+<p>Mattison met the situation with a dignity I had scarcely expected. He
+called a deputy and turned us over to him; and with the remark that his
+services were happily no longer needed, he bowed himself out. I saw him
+two minutes later recklessly galloping down the street. Polly's eyes,
+also, followed the rider, and for a second I detected a shade of
+remorse.</p>
+
+<p>As we climbed the stairs Terry fell back and whispered to me, "I tell
+you, I laid down the law coming over; we'll see if she's game."</p>
+
+<p>As the door of the cell was thrown open, Rad raised his head and
+regarded us with a look of bewildered astonishment. Polly walked
+straight in and laid her hand on his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Radnor," she said, "you told me you would never ask me again to marry
+you. Did you really mean it?"</p>
+
+<p>Rad still stared confusedly from her to Terry and me.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p><p>"Well!" Polly sighed. "If you did mean it, then I suppose I'll have to
+ask you. Will you marry me, Radnor?"</p>
+
+<p>I laid a hand on Terry's arm and backed him, much against his will, into
+the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>"Jove! You don't suppose he's going to refuse her?" he inquired in a
+stage whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"No such luck," I laughed.</p>
+
+<p>We took a couple of turns up and down the corridor and cautiously
+presented ourselves in the doorway. Polly was telling, between laughing
+and crying, the story of Mose's discovery. Radnor came to meet us, his
+left arm still around Polly, his right hand extended to Terry.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you shake hands, Patten?" he asked. "I'm afraid I wasn't very
+decent, but you know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's no matter," said Terry, easily. "I wasn't holding it up
+against you. But I hope you realize, Gaylord, that it's owing to me
+you've won Miss Mathers. She never would have got up the courage to ask
+you, if&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I should!" flashed Polly. "I wanted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> him too much ever to let him
+slip through my fingers again."</p>
+
+<p>Terry's boast came true and Radnor dined at Four-Pools Plantation that
+night. The news of his release had in some way preceded us, and as we
+drove up to the house, all the negroes came crowding out on the portico
+to welcome home "young Marse Rad." But the one person who&mdash;whatever the
+circumstances&mdash;had always been first to welcome him back, was missing;
+and the poor boy felt his home-coming a very barren festival.</p>
+
+<p>Terry was steadfast in the assertion that he had an engagement in New
+York the next day, and as soon as supper was over I drove him to the
+station. He was in an ecstatically self-satisfied frame of mind.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know I'm a pretty all-round fellow," he observed in a burst of
+confidence. "I've always known better than the proprietor how the paper
+ought to be run, and I can give the police points about detective work.
+I'm something of a cook, and I can play the hand-organ like Paderewski;
+but this is the first time I ever tried my hand at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>matchmaking and it
+comes as easy as a murder mystery!"</p>
+
+<p>"You think that their engagement is due to you?"</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't it? If it weren't for me they'd have it all to go over again
+from the beginning, and there's no telling how long they'd take about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope they appreciate your services, Terry. You're so modest that what
+you do is in danger of being overlooked."</p>
+
+<p>"They appreciate me fast enough," returned Terry, imperturbably. "I
+promised Polly to spend my first vacation with 'em after they're
+married&mdash;Oh, you'll see; I'll make a farmer one of these days!"</p>
+
+<p>I laughed and then said seriously:</p>
+
+<p>"Whether you made the marriage or not, you have cleared Radnor's name
+from any suspicion of dishonor, and I don't know how we can ever
+sufficiently show our gratitude."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right," said Terry with a deprecatory wave of his hand. "I
+enjoyed it. Never did anything just like it before. I've arranged a good
+many funerals of one sort or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> another, but this is the first time I ever
+arranged a marriage. And Jove! but I could make a story out of it," he
+added regretfully, "if she'd only let me tell the truth."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>The events which I have chronicled happened a number of years ago, and
+Four-Pools has never since figured in the papers. I trust that its
+public life is ended. In spite of the most far-reaching search, the
+murderer of Colonel Gaylord was never found. Radnor and I have always
+believed that he was lynched by a mob in West Virginia some two years
+later. The description of the man tallied exactly with the appearance of
+the tramp my uncle had thrashed, and something he said in his
+ante-mortem statement, made us very sure of the fact.</p>
+
+<p>Mose, until the time of his death, was an honored member of the
+household, but he did not long outlive the Colonel. The memory of the
+tragedy he had witnessed seemed to follow him constantly; an unreasoning
+terror looked from his eyes, and he started and shivered at every sound.
+The poor fellow had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> lost what few wits he had ever possessed, but the
+one rational gleam that stayed with him to the end, was his love for his
+old master. When he lay dying. Radnor tells me, he roused after hours of
+unconsciousness, to call the Colonel's name. I have always felt that
+this devotion spoke equally well for both of them. The old man must have
+had some splendid traits underneath his crusty exterior to awaken such
+unquestioning love in a person of Mose's instinctive perceptions.
+Perhaps after all, half idiot though he was, Mose could see clearer than
+the rest of us. He now lies in the little family burying-ground on the
+edge of the plantation, a stone's throw from the grave of Colonel
+Gaylord.</p>
+
+<p>There has never been any further rumor of a ha'nt at Four-Pools, and we
+hope that the family ghost is laid forever. The deserted cabins have
+been torn down, and the fourth pool dredged and confined, prosaically
+enough, within its banks. Its mysterious charm is gone, but it yields,
+every season, some fifteen barrels of watercress.</p>
+
+<p>It was the following April&mdash;a year from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> the time of my first
+visit&mdash;that Terry and I snatched a couple of days from our work,
+purchased new frock coats, and served as ushers at Polly's wedding. She
+and Radnor have been living happily at Four-Pools ever since, and the
+house with a young mistress is a very different place from the house as
+it used to be. Marriage and responsibility have improved Radnor
+immensely. He has developed from a recklessly headstrong boy into a
+keen, rational, upright man; I am sure that Polly has never for a moment
+had cause to regret her choice.</p>
+
+<p>When the estate was settled, Radnor, very justly, insisted on breaking
+his father's will and giving to Jeff his rightful share of the property.
+Jeff has since become middle-aged and respectable. He owns a raisin
+ranch in southern California with fifty Chinamen to run it. When he
+comes back to Four-Pools Plantation on an occasional visit, he occupies
+the guest room.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Four Pools Mystery, by Jean Webster
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOUR POOLS MYSTERY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 21264-h.htm or 21264-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/6/21264/
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/21264-h/images/cover.jpg b/21264-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67dd3b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/21264-h/images/frontispiece.png b/21264-h/images/frontispiece.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..17bda28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-h/images/frontispiece.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/c001.jpg b/21264-page-images/c001.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1fad8f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/c001.jpg
diff --git a/21264-page-images/f001.jpg b/21264-page-images/f001.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e94029
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/f001.jpg
diff --git a/21264-page-images/f002.png b/21264-page-images/f002.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b61025
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/f002.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/f003.png b/21264-page-images/f003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d2f964
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/f003.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/f004.png b/21264-page-images/f004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..849228d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/f004.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/f005.png b/21264-page-images/f005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3ea9e36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/f005.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/f006.png b/21264-page-images/f006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d7907e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/f006.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p003.png b/21264-page-images/p003.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c038741
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p003.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p004.png b/21264-page-images/p004.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25b87cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p004.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p005.png b/21264-page-images/p005.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b5c183
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p005.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p006.png b/21264-page-images/p006.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..66ba972
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p006.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p007.png b/21264-page-images/p007.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c392dae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p007.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p008.png b/21264-page-images/p008.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd108b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p008.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p009.png b/21264-page-images/p009.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c19df47
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p009.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p010.png b/21264-page-images/p010.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d12dff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p010.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p011.png b/21264-page-images/p011.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..201fbb2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p011.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p012.png b/21264-page-images/p012.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00496b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p012.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p013.png b/21264-page-images/p013.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8aa8cda
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p013.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p014.png b/21264-page-images/p014.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..84d7934
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p014.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p015.png b/21264-page-images/p015.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..12d0a96
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p015.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p016.png b/21264-page-images/p016.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85e1eba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p016.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p017.png b/21264-page-images/p017.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ffbc041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p017.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p018.png b/21264-page-images/p018.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de96963
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p018.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p019.png b/21264-page-images/p019.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..22586b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p019.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p020.png b/21264-page-images/p020.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c618c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p020.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p021.png b/21264-page-images/p021.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6586ac8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p021.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p022.png b/21264-page-images/p022.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3f2f63e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p022.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p023.png b/21264-page-images/p023.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..979aeac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p023.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p024.png b/21264-page-images/p024.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58f8cee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p024.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p025.png b/21264-page-images/p025.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0dca597
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p025.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p026.png b/21264-page-images/p026.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f161d22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p026.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p027.png b/21264-page-images/p027.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3c333a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p027.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p028.png b/21264-page-images/p028.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2d9e7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p028.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p029.png b/21264-page-images/p029.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..677876e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p029.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p030.png b/21264-page-images/p030.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62059c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p030.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p031.png b/21264-page-images/p031.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed26391
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p031.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p032.png b/21264-page-images/p032.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f593ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p032.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p033.png b/21264-page-images/p033.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..19be007
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p033.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p034.png b/21264-page-images/p034.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea8e8bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p034.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p035.png b/21264-page-images/p035.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ff189e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p035.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p036.png b/21264-page-images/p036.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16c0901
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p036.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p037.png b/21264-page-images/p037.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..790d6e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p037.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p038.png b/21264-page-images/p038.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b7a615
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p038.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p039.png b/21264-page-images/p039.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d7958c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p039.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p040.png b/21264-page-images/p040.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..773a163
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p040.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p041.png b/21264-page-images/p041.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6472c16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p041.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p042.png b/21264-page-images/p042.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57523e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p042.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p043.png b/21264-page-images/p043.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..930dd4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p043.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p044.png b/21264-page-images/p044.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f180e81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p044.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p045.png b/21264-page-images/p045.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab9f76c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p045.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p046.png b/21264-page-images/p046.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52349cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p046.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p047.png b/21264-page-images/p047.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e0347b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p047.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p048.png b/21264-page-images/p048.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..59dead8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p048.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p049.png b/21264-page-images/p049.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6319201
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p049.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p050.png b/21264-page-images/p050.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ec87c51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p050.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p051.png b/21264-page-images/p051.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05d0f3d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p051.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p052.png b/21264-page-images/p052.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e6c60dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p052.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p053.png b/21264-page-images/p053.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed22fd6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p053.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p054.png b/21264-page-images/p054.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4fa3b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p054.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p055.png b/21264-page-images/p055.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9cfbcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p055.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p056.png b/21264-page-images/p056.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53bc6c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p056.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p057.png b/21264-page-images/p057.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1fe40d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p057.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p058.png b/21264-page-images/p058.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed82653
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p058.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p059.png b/21264-page-images/p059.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31d6125
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p059.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p060.png b/21264-page-images/p060.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a63d286
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p060.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p061.png b/21264-page-images/p061.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..65d0270
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p061.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p062.png b/21264-page-images/p062.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f8931fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p062.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p063.png b/21264-page-images/p063.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fea9bfe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p063.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p064.png b/21264-page-images/p064.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68ba62e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p064.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p065.png b/21264-page-images/p065.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85a0b9e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p065.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p066.png b/21264-page-images/p066.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e88b9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p066.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p067.png b/21264-page-images/p067.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5c30be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p067.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p068.png b/21264-page-images/p068.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c544366
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p068.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p069.png b/21264-page-images/p069.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9574d5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p069.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p070.png b/21264-page-images/p070.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b28c059
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p070.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p071.png b/21264-page-images/p071.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5954674
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p071.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p072.png b/21264-page-images/p072.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8491eb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p072.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p073.png b/21264-page-images/p073.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6423ebc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p073.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p074.png b/21264-page-images/p074.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a07f893
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p074.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p075.png b/21264-page-images/p075.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efb460d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p075.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p076.png b/21264-page-images/p076.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82dbde3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p076.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p077.png b/21264-page-images/p077.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d5a84b6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p077.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p078.png b/21264-page-images/p078.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9f5bb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p078.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p079.png b/21264-page-images/p079.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..500afdd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p079.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p080.png b/21264-page-images/p080.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e60cea4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p080.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p081.png b/21264-page-images/p081.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0881098
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p081.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p082.png b/21264-page-images/p082.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1a1a0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p082.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p083.png b/21264-page-images/p083.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8015cbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p083.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p084.png b/21264-page-images/p084.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..178d054
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p084.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p085.png b/21264-page-images/p085.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d172e74
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p085.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p086.png b/21264-page-images/p086.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..804d7bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p086.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p087.png b/21264-page-images/p087.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2bea50c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p087.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p088.png b/21264-page-images/p088.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..867ce9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p088.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p089.png b/21264-page-images/p089.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5713f83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p089.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p090.png b/21264-page-images/p090.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e007d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p090.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p091.png b/21264-page-images/p091.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a00b683
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p091.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p092.png b/21264-page-images/p092.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08024f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p092.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p093.png b/21264-page-images/p093.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4dffb18
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p093.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p094.png b/21264-page-images/p094.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..45fcfe2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p094.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p095.png b/21264-page-images/p095.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96b9200
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p095.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p096.png b/21264-page-images/p096.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71b44b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p096.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p097.png b/21264-page-images/p097.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dfc7a09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p097.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p098.png b/21264-page-images/p098.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de2194f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p098.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p099.png b/21264-page-images/p099.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1be556d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p099.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p100.png b/21264-page-images/p100.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..399abf4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p100.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p101.png b/21264-page-images/p101.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7aeff7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p101.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p102.png b/21264-page-images/p102.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dcc4a76
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p102.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p103.png b/21264-page-images/p103.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f23c0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p103.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p104.png b/21264-page-images/p104.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b60daee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p104.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p105.png b/21264-page-images/p105.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9a447a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p105.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p106.png b/21264-page-images/p106.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..368ca8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p106.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p107.png b/21264-page-images/p107.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9625a15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p107.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p108.png b/21264-page-images/p108.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd58242
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p108.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p109.png b/21264-page-images/p109.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..10ba043
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p109.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p110.png b/21264-page-images/p110.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c98ccc9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p110.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p111.png b/21264-page-images/p111.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d9581f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p111.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p112.png b/21264-page-images/p112.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e22bc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p112.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p113.png b/21264-page-images/p113.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f67d0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p113.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p114.png b/21264-page-images/p114.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c5f8aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p114.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p115.png b/21264-page-images/p115.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6495da6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p115.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p116.png b/21264-page-images/p116.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8e1442c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p116.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p117.png b/21264-page-images/p117.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9cfb700
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p117.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p118.png b/21264-page-images/p118.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8ee208
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p118.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p119.png b/21264-page-images/p119.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..55f9efc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p119.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p120.png b/21264-page-images/p120.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9086b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p120.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p121.png b/21264-page-images/p121.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5a50283
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p121.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p122.png b/21264-page-images/p122.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d51189b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p122.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p123.png b/21264-page-images/p123.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c540baf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p123.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p124.png b/21264-page-images/p124.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1764809
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p124.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p125.png b/21264-page-images/p125.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cfc9e34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p125.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p126.png b/21264-page-images/p126.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..685ccf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p126.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p127.png b/21264-page-images/p127.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d913b8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p127.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p128.png b/21264-page-images/p128.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b7055cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p128.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p129.png b/21264-page-images/p129.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f1b0886
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p129.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p130.png b/21264-page-images/p130.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..beffa6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p130.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p131.png b/21264-page-images/p131.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6367069
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p131.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p132.png b/21264-page-images/p132.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5096318
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p132.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p133.png b/21264-page-images/p133.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..035b99a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p133.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p134.png b/21264-page-images/p134.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43c84d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p134.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p135.png b/21264-page-images/p135.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4c06d69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p135.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p136.png b/21264-page-images/p136.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bdc701d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p136.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p137.png b/21264-page-images/p137.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ab7fce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p137.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p138.png b/21264-page-images/p138.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99f4eee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p138.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p139.png b/21264-page-images/p139.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94b7618
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p139.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p140.png b/21264-page-images/p140.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea3ea28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p140.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p141.png b/21264-page-images/p141.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c840c4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p141.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p142.png b/21264-page-images/p142.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..594c3bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p142.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p143.png b/21264-page-images/p143.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..339ab60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p143.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p144.png b/21264-page-images/p144.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cf4c1a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p144.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p145.png b/21264-page-images/p145.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..729d2ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p145.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p146.png b/21264-page-images/p146.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f6398b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p146.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p147.png b/21264-page-images/p147.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c6f6668
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p147.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p148.png b/21264-page-images/p148.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52b7cc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p148.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p149.png b/21264-page-images/p149.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..32febb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p149.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p150.png b/21264-page-images/p150.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cff0da2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p150.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p151.png b/21264-page-images/p151.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d8f82d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p151.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p152.png b/21264-page-images/p152.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efee4af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p152.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p153.png b/21264-page-images/p153.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31dbdad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p153.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p154.png b/21264-page-images/p154.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..361c691
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p154.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p155.png b/21264-page-images/p155.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8ba5740
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p155.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p156.png b/21264-page-images/p156.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c536a6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p156.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p157.png b/21264-page-images/p157.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..120f898
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p157.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p158.png b/21264-page-images/p158.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c631643
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p158.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p159.png b/21264-page-images/p159.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f59a8f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p159.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p160.png b/21264-page-images/p160.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e6e6414
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p160.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p161.png b/21264-page-images/p161.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bdd6c1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p161.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p162.png b/21264-page-images/p162.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2dcd2d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p162.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p163.png b/21264-page-images/p163.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bc202c1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p163.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p164.png b/21264-page-images/p164.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..953d688
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p164.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p165.png b/21264-page-images/p165.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9cdc7fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p165.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p166.png b/21264-page-images/p166.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58173df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p166.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p167.png b/21264-page-images/p167.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c81f5fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p167.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p168.png b/21264-page-images/p168.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..698bde0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p168.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p169.png b/21264-page-images/p169.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e7d2d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p169.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p170.png b/21264-page-images/p170.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6884823
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p170.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p171.png b/21264-page-images/p171.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54706e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p171.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p172.png b/21264-page-images/p172.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58094f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p172.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p173.png b/21264-page-images/p173.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de013e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p173.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p174.png b/21264-page-images/p174.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b1442e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p174.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p175.png b/21264-page-images/p175.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..deed24d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p175.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p176.png b/21264-page-images/p176.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e5224a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p176.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p177.png b/21264-page-images/p177.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d77bbe4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p177.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p178.png b/21264-page-images/p178.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2dd9099
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p178.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p179.png b/21264-page-images/p179.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4bb4f42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p179.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p180.png b/21264-page-images/p180.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e84d040
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p180.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p181.png b/21264-page-images/p181.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3060e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p181.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p182.png b/21264-page-images/p182.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b5f97e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p182.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p183.png b/21264-page-images/p183.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5191bf2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p183.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p184.png b/21264-page-images/p184.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6049db7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p184.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p185.png b/21264-page-images/p185.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c02a034
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p185.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p186.png b/21264-page-images/p186.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d9a259
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p186.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p187.png b/21264-page-images/p187.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e845ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p187.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p188.png b/21264-page-images/p188.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82762f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p188.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p189.png b/21264-page-images/p189.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8344ce6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p189.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p190.png b/21264-page-images/p190.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c99ec8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p190.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p191.png b/21264-page-images/p191.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ccfc529
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p191.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p192.png b/21264-page-images/p192.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0605c4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p192.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p193.png b/21264-page-images/p193.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..634578a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p193.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p194.png b/21264-page-images/p194.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f805b27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p194.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p195.png b/21264-page-images/p195.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..593849a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p195.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p196.png b/21264-page-images/p196.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0f6a011
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p196.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p197.png b/21264-page-images/p197.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f2d09fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p197.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p198.png b/21264-page-images/p198.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f9bffd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p198.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p199.png b/21264-page-images/p199.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8edc35d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p199.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p200.png b/21264-page-images/p200.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be88d8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p200.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p201.png b/21264-page-images/p201.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf95107
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p201.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p202.png b/21264-page-images/p202.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e15f37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p202.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p203.png b/21264-page-images/p203.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4639a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p203.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p204.png b/21264-page-images/p204.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..061d443
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p204.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p205.png b/21264-page-images/p205.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c28690
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p205.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p206.png b/21264-page-images/p206.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a9de04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p206.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p207.png b/21264-page-images/p207.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23352d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p207.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p208.png b/21264-page-images/p208.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9a6862
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p208.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p209.png b/21264-page-images/p209.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a362da0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p209.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p210.png b/21264-page-images/p210.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c761f21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p210.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p211.png b/21264-page-images/p211.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2637547
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p211.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p212.png b/21264-page-images/p212.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1270b7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p212.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p213.png b/21264-page-images/p213.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a85c2b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p213.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p214.png b/21264-page-images/p214.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..51452d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p214.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p215.png b/21264-page-images/p215.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2e4341
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p215.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p216.png b/21264-page-images/p216.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c988b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p216.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p217.png b/21264-page-images/p217.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3b05447
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p217.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p218.png b/21264-page-images/p218.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7632f43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p218.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p219.png b/21264-page-images/p219.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e60666
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p219.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p220.png b/21264-page-images/p220.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f74a8c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p220.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p221.png b/21264-page-images/p221.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95b3ed7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p221.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p222.png b/21264-page-images/p222.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..54d9051
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p222.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p223.png b/21264-page-images/p223.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..76ee213
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p223.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p224.png b/21264-page-images/p224.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1345027
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p224.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p225.png b/21264-page-images/p225.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c8ec3f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p225.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p226.png b/21264-page-images/p226.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6081ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p226.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p227.png b/21264-page-images/p227.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fcb8300
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p227.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p228.png b/21264-page-images/p228.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2cf91e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p228.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p229.png b/21264-page-images/p229.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e573afe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p229.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p230.png b/21264-page-images/p230.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4b0b05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p230.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p231.png b/21264-page-images/p231.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c5ebd32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p231.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p232.png b/21264-page-images/p232.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42af8c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p232.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p233.png b/21264-page-images/p233.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9d672a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p233.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p234.png b/21264-page-images/p234.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..64b6865
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p234.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p235.png b/21264-page-images/p235.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d95ddb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p235.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p236.png b/21264-page-images/p236.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2def17c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p236.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p237.png b/21264-page-images/p237.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c0d387
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p237.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p238.png b/21264-page-images/p238.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2acfc6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p238.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p239.png b/21264-page-images/p239.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f785739
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p239.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p240.png b/21264-page-images/p240.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..13a26f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p240.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p241.png b/21264-page-images/p241.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d691c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p241.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p242.png b/21264-page-images/p242.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87bf8e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p242.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p243.png b/21264-page-images/p243.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6b6bbe3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p243.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p244.png b/21264-page-images/p244.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0741432
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p244.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p245.png b/21264-page-images/p245.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e825a98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p245.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p246.png b/21264-page-images/p246.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..293a775
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p246.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p247.png b/21264-page-images/p247.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6af07e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p247.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p248.png b/21264-page-images/p248.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e120cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p248.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p249.png b/21264-page-images/p249.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43d6bb0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p249.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p250.png b/21264-page-images/p250.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d1842c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p250.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p251.png b/21264-page-images/p251.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1bc3cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p251.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p252.png b/21264-page-images/p252.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a7963c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p252.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p253.png b/21264-page-images/p253.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da09129
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p253.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p254.png b/21264-page-images/p254.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d825b38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p254.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p255.png b/21264-page-images/p255.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..271630d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p255.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p256.png b/21264-page-images/p256.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6f22367
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p256.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p257.png b/21264-page-images/p257.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..deeaefe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p257.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p258.png b/21264-page-images/p258.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99a28c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p258.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p259.png b/21264-page-images/p259.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b33a6b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p259.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p260.png b/21264-page-images/p260.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d350026
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p260.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p261.png b/21264-page-images/p261.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5a5cd13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p261.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p262.png b/21264-page-images/p262.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42ae6c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p262.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p263.png b/21264-page-images/p263.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25ff0f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p263.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p264.png b/21264-page-images/p264.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58541e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p264.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p265.png b/21264-page-images/p265.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79e369d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p265.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p266.png b/21264-page-images/p266.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a0126a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p266.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p267.png b/21264-page-images/p267.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37d533b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p267.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p268.png b/21264-page-images/p268.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8df256c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p268.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p269.png b/21264-page-images/p269.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..47dd424
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p269.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p270.png b/21264-page-images/p270.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0981ef6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p270.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p271.png b/21264-page-images/p271.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9a12fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p271.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p272.png b/21264-page-images/p272.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..62980a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p272.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p273.png b/21264-page-images/p273.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8eced6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p273.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p274.png b/21264-page-images/p274.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..058d44f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p274.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p275.png b/21264-page-images/p275.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d903787
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p275.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p276.png b/21264-page-images/p276.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05b6544
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p276.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p277.png b/21264-page-images/p277.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f5e601
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p277.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p278.png b/21264-page-images/p278.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0ce3c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p278.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p279.png b/21264-page-images/p279.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..09aab40
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p279.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p280.png b/21264-page-images/p280.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..58a162e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p280.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p281.png b/21264-page-images/p281.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c00bb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p281.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p282.png b/21264-page-images/p282.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..edd24a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p282.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p283.png b/21264-page-images/p283.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6570032
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p283.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p284.png b/21264-page-images/p284.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..346e09e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p284.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p285.png b/21264-page-images/p285.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f91793
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p285.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p286.png b/21264-page-images/p286.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..22baa6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p286.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p287.png b/21264-page-images/p287.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..53d2335
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p287.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p288.png b/21264-page-images/p288.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05c6d07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p288.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p289.png b/21264-page-images/p289.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8b03b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p289.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p290.png b/21264-page-images/p290.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d625b8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p290.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p291.png b/21264-page-images/p291.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e03916c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p291.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p292.png b/21264-page-images/p292.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..acbc747
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p292.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p293.png b/21264-page-images/p293.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bcc40de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p293.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p294.png b/21264-page-images/p294.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fd125e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p294.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p295.png b/21264-page-images/p295.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..66a63d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p295.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p296.png b/21264-page-images/p296.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..322bf50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p296.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p297.png b/21264-page-images/p297.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..316f1c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p297.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p298.png b/21264-page-images/p298.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3d0a13
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p298.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p299.png b/21264-page-images/p299.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1f868be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p299.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p300.png b/21264-page-images/p300.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0d75095
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p300.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p301.png b/21264-page-images/p301.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8287c50
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p301.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p302.png b/21264-page-images/p302.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c2da88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p302.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p303.png b/21264-page-images/p303.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d49580
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p303.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p304.png b/21264-page-images/p304.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ff5ca30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p304.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p305.png b/21264-page-images/p305.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..abfcb53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p305.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p306.png b/21264-page-images/p306.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c572a30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p306.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p307.png b/21264-page-images/p307.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4e508a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p307.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p308.png b/21264-page-images/p308.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85eafe6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p308.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p309.png b/21264-page-images/p309.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc5f783
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p309.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p310.png b/21264-page-images/p310.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f5d7f84
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p310.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p311.png b/21264-page-images/p311.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c5bda6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p311.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p312.png b/21264-page-images/p312.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35b1ac5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p312.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p313.png b/21264-page-images/p313.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..685f0f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p313.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p314.png b/21264-page-images/p314.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf343f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p314.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p315.png b/21264-page-images/p315.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d181971
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p315.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p316.png b/21264-page-images/p316.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dc730e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p316.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p317.png b/21264-page-images/p317.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f4a254d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p317.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p318.png b/21264-page-images/p318.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4968fab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p318.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p319.png b/21264-page-images/p319.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..22c4579
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p319.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p320.png b/21264-page-images/p320.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8804d69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p320.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p321.png b/21264-page-images/p321.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9fdf9a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p321.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p322.png b/21264-page-images/p322.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74e7405
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p322.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p323.png b/21264-page-images/p323.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42957d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p323.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p324.png b/21264-page-images/p324.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..04f58ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p324.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p325.png b/21264-page-images/p325.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24f53d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p325.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p326.png b/21264-page-images/p326.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..23f0808
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p326.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p327.png b/21264-page-images/p327.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2c89cb8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p327.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p328.png b/21264-page-images/p328.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..904fd85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p328.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p329.png b/21264-page-images/p329.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0702f7e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p329.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p330.png b/21264-page-images/p330.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..128ca73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p330.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p331.png b/21264-page-images/p331.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ff311d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p331.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p332.png b/21264-page-images/p332.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..30d8d25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p332.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p333.png b/21264-page-images/p333.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b671e6d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p333.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p334.png b/21264-page-images/p334.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39e27a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p334.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p335.png b/21264-page-images/p335.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37aa3e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p335.png
diff --git a/21264-page-images/p336.png b/21264-page-images/p336.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb50196
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264-page-images/p336.png
diff --git a/21264.txt b/21264.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..881d946
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7260 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Four Pools Mystery, by Jean Webster
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Four Pools Mystery
+
+Author: Jean Webster
+
+Release Date: April 30, 2007 [EBook #21264]
+[Last updated: March 22, 2011]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOUR POOLS MYSTERY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FOUR-POOLS MYSTERY
+
+
+BY
+JEAN WEBSTER
+
+
+NEW YORK
+THE CENTURY CO.
+1908
+
+
+Copyright, 1907, 1908, by
+THE CENTURY CO.
+
+Published, _March, 1908_
+
+
+THE DE VINNE PRESS
+
+[Illustration: In the Cave]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                             PAGE
+      I INTRODUCING TERRY PATTEN                       3
+     II I ARRIVE AT FOUR-POOLS PLANTATION             14
+    III I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE HA'NT          26
+     IV THE HA'NT GROWS MYSTERIOUS                    39
+      V CAT-EYE MOSE CREATES A SENSATION              58
+     VI WE SEND FOR A DETECTIVE                       76
+    VII WE SEND HIM BACK AGAIN                        92
+   VIII THE ROBBERY REMAINS A MYSTERY                108
+     IX THE EXPEDITION TO LURAY                      119
+      X THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAVE                      135
+     XI THE SHERIFF VISITS FOUR-POOLS                143
+    XII I MAKE A PROMISE TO POLLY                    151
+   XIII THE INQUEST                                  168
+    XIV THE JURY'S VERDICT                           186
+     XV FALSE CLUES                                  196
+    XVI TERRY COMES                                  206
+   XVII WE SEARCH THE ABANDONED CABINS               222
+  XVIII TERRY ARRIVES AT A CONCLUSION                247
+    XIX TERRY FINDS THE BONDS                        262
+     XX POLLY MAKES A CONFESSION                     271
+    XXI MR. TERENCE KIRKWOOD PATTEN OF NEW YORK      285
+   XXII THE DISCOVERY OF CAT-EYE MOSE                296
+  XXIII MOSE TELLS HIS STORY                         314
+   XXIV POLLY MAKES A PROPOSAL                       329
+
+
+
+
+THE FOUR-POOLS MYSTERY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+INTRODUCING TERRY PATTEN
+
+
+It was through the Patterson-Pratt forgery case that I first made the
+acquaintance of Terry Patten, and at the time I should have been more
+than willing to forego the pleasure.
+
+Our firm rarely dealt with criminal cases, but the Patterson family were
+long standing clients, and they naturally turned to us when the trouble
+came. Ordinarily, so important a matter would have been put in the hands
+of one of the older men, but it happened that I was the one who had
+drawn up the will for Patterson Senior the night before his suicide,
+therefore the brunt of the work devolved upon me. The most unpleasant
+part of the whole affair was the notoriety. Could we have kept it from
+the papers, it would not have been so bad, but that was a physical
+impossibility; Terry Patten was on our track, and within a week he had
+brought down upon us every newspaper in New York.
+
+The first I ever heard of Terry, a card was sent in bearing the
+inscription, "Mr. Terence K. Patten," and in the lower left-hand corner,
+"of the Post-Dispatch." I shuddered as I read it. The Post-Dispatch was
+at that time the yellowest of the yellow journals. While I was still
+shuddering, Terry walked in through the door the office boy had
+inadvertently left open.
+
+He nodded a friendly good morning, helped himself to a chair, tossed his
+hat and gloves upon the table, crossed his legs comfortably, and looked
+me over. I returned the scrutiny with interest while I was mentally
+framing a polite formula for getting rid of him without giving rise to
+any ill feeling. I had no desire to annoy unnecessarily any of the
+Post-Dispatch's young men.
+
+At first sight my caller did not strike me as unlike a dozen other
+reporters. His face was the face one feels he has a right to expect of a
+newspaper man--keen, alert, humorous; on the look-out for opportunities.
+But with a second glance I commenced to feel interested. I wondered
+where he had come from and what he had done in the past. His features
+were undeniably Irish; but that which chiefly awakened my curiosity, was
+his expression. It was not only wide-awake and intelligent; it was
+something more. "Knowing" one would say. It carried with it the mark of
+experience, the indelible stamp of the street. He was a man who has had
+no childhood, whose education commenced from the cradle.
+
+I did not arrive at all of these conclusions at once, however, for he
+had finished his inspection before I had fairly started mine. Apparently
+he found me satisfactory. The smile which had been lurking about the
+corners of his mouth broadened to a grin, and I commenced wondering
+uncomfortably what there was funny about my appearance. Then suddenly
+he leaned forward and began talking in a quick, eager way, that required
+all my attention to keep abreast of him. After a short preamble in which
+he set forth his view of the Patterson-Pratt case--and a clearsighted
+view it was--he commenced asking questions. They were such amazingly
+impudent questions that they nearly took my breath away. But he asked
+them in a manner so engagingly innocent that I found myself answering
+them before I was aware of it. There was a confiding air of _bonne
+camaraderie_ about the fellow which completely put one off one's guard.
+
+At the end of fifteen minutes he was on the inside track of most of my
+affairs, and was giving me advice through a kindly desire to keep me
+from getting things in a mess. The situation would have struck me as
+ludicrous had I stopped to think of it; but it is a fact I have noted
+since, that, with Terry, one does not appreciate situations until it is
+too late.
+
+When he had got from me as much information as I possessed, he shook
+hands cordially, said he was happy to have made my acquaintance, and
+would try to drop in again some day. After he had gone, and I had had
+time to review our conversation, I began to grow hot over the matter. I
+grew hotter still when I read his report in the paper the next morning.
+I could not understand why I had not kicked him out at first sight, and
+I sincerely hoped that he would drop in again, that I might avail myself
+of the opportunity.
+
+He did drop in, and I received him with the utmost cordiality. There was
+something entirely disarming about Terry's impudence. And so it went. He
+continued to comment upon the case in the most sensational manner
+possible, and I railed against him and forgave him with unvarying
+regularity. In the end we came to be quite friendly over the affair. I
+found him diverting at a time when I was in need of diversion, though
+just what attraction he found in me, I have never been able to fathom.
+It was certainly not that he saw a future source of "stories," for he
+frankly regarded corporation law as a pursuit devoid of interest.
+Criminal law was the one branch of the profession for which he felt any
+respect.
+
+We frequently had lunch together; or breakfast, in his case. His day
+commenced about noon and lasted till three in the morning. "Well, Terry,
+what's the news at the morgue today?" I would inquire as we settled
+ourselves at the table. And Terry would rattle off the details of the
+latest murder mystery with a cheerfully matter-of-fact air that would
+have been disgusting had it not been so funny.
+
+It was at this time that I learned his history prior to the days of the
+Post-Dispatch. He was entirely frank about himself, and if one half of
+his stories were true, he has achieved some amazing adventures. I
+strongly suspected at times that the reporting instinct got ahead of the
+facts, and that he embroidered incidents as he went along.
+
+His father, Terry Senior, had been an Irish politician of considerable
+ability and some prominence on the East River side of the city. The
+boy's early education had been picked up in the streets (his father had
+got the truant officer his position) and it was thorough. Later he had
+received a more theoretical training in the University of New York, but
+I think it was his early education which stuck by him longest, and
+which, in the end, was probably the more useful of the two. Armed with
+this equipment, it was inevitable that he should develop into a star
+reporter. Not only did he write his news in an entertaining form, but he
+first made the news he wrote about. When any sensational crime had been
+committed which puzzled the police, Terry had an annoying way of solving
+the mystery himself, and publishing the full particulars in the
+Post-Dispatch with the glory blatantly attributed to "our reporter." The
+paper was fully aware that Terence K. Patten was an acquisition to its
+staff. It had sent him on various commissions to various entertaining
+quarters of the globe, and in the course of his duty he had encountered
+experiences. One is forced to admit that he was not always fastidious as
+to the role he played. He had cruised about the Mediterranean as
+assistant cook on a millionaire's yacht, and had listened to secrets
+between meals. He had wandered about the country with a monkey and a
+hand-organ in search of a peddler he suspected of a crime. He had helped
+along a revolution in South America, and had gone up in a captive war
+balloon which had broken loose and floated off.
+
+But all this is of no concern at present. I am merely going to chronicle
+his achievement in one instance--in what he himself has always referred
+to as the "Four-Pools Mystery." It has already been written up in
+reporter style as the details came to light from day to day. But a
+ten-year-old newspaper story is as dead as if it were written on
+parchment, and since the part Terry played was rather remarkable, and
+many of the details were at the time suppressed, I think it deserves a
+more permanent form.
+
+It was through the Patterson-Pratt business by a roundabout way that I
+got mixed up in the Four-Pools affair. I had been working very hard over
+the forgery case; I spent every day on it for nine weeks--and nearly
+every night. I got into the way of lying awake, puzzling over the
+details, when I should have been sleeping, and that is the sort of work
+which finishes a man. By the middle of April, when the strain was over,
+I was as near being a nervous wreck as an ordinarily healthy chap can
+get.
+
+At this stage my doctor stepped in and ordered a rest in some quiet
+place out of reach of the New York papers; he suggested a fishing
+expedition to Cape Cod. I apathetically fell in with the idea, and
+invited Terry to join me. But he jeered at the notion of finding either
+pleasure or profit in any such trip. It was too far from the center of
+crime to contain any interest for Terry.
+
+"Heavens, man! I'd as lief spend a vacation in the middle of the Sahara
+Desert."
+
+"Oh, the fishing would keep things going," I said.
+
+"Fishing! We'd die of ennui before we had a bite. I'd be murdering you
+at the end of the first week just for some excitement. If you need a
+rest--and you are rather seedy--forget all about this Patterson business
+and plunge into something new. The best rest in the world is a
+counter-irritant."
+
+This was Terry all over; he himself was utterly devoid of nerves, and he
+could not appreciate the part they played in a man of normal make-up. My
+being threatened with nervous prostration he regarded as a joke. His
+pleasantries rather damped my interest in deep-sea fishing, however, and
+I cast about for something else. It was at this juncture that I thought
+of Four-Pools Plantation. "Four-Pools" was the somewhat fantastic name
+of a stock farm in the Shenandoah Valley, belonging to a great-uncle
+whom I had not seen since I was a boy.
+
+A few months before, I had had occasion to settle a little legal matter
+for Colonel Gaylord (he was a colonel by courtesy; so far as I could
+discover he had never had his hands on a gun except for rabbit shooting)
+and in the exchange of amenities which followed, he had given me a
+standing invitation to make the plantation my home whenever I should
+have occasion to come South. As I had no prospect of leaving New York, I
+thought nothing of it at the time; but now I determined to take the old
+gentleman at his word, and spend my enforced vacation in getting
+acquainted with my Virginia relatives.
+
+This plan struck Terry as just one degree funnier than the fishing
+expedition. The doctor, however, received the idea with enthusiasm. A
+farm, he said, with plenty of outdoor life and no excitement, was just
+the thing I needed. But could he have foreseen the events which were to
+happen there, I doubt if he would have recommended the place for a
+nervous man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+I ARRIVE AT FOUR-POOLS PLANTATION
+
+
+As I rolled southward in the train--"jerked" would be a fitter word; the
+roadbeds of western Virginia are anything but level--I strove to recall
+my old time impressions of Four-Pools Plantation. It was one of the big
+plantations in that part of the state, and had always been noted for its
+hospitality. My vague recollection of the place was a kaleidoscopic
+vision of music and dancing and laughter, set in the moonlit background
+of the Shenandoah Valley. I knew, however, that in the eighteen years
+since my boyhood visit everything had changed.
+
+News had come of my aunt's death, and of Nan's runaway marriage against
+her father's wishes, and of how she too had died without ever returning
+home. Poor unhappy Nannie! I was but a boy of twelve when I had seen
+her last, but she had impressed even my unimpressionable age with a
+sense of her charm. I had heard that Jeff, the elder of the two boys,
+had gone completely to the bad, and having broken with his father, had
+drifted off to no one knew where. This to me was the saddest news of
+all; Jeff had been the object of my first case of hero worship.
+
+I knew that Colonel Gaylord, now an old man, was living alone with
+Radnor, who I understood had grown into a fine young fellow, all that
+his brother had promised. My only remembrance of the Colonel was of a
+tall dark man who wore riding boots and carried a heavy trainer's whip,
+and of whom I was very much afraid. My only remembrance of Rad was of a
+pretty little chap of four, eternally in mischief. It was with a mingled
+feeling of eagerness and regret that I looked forward to the
+visit--eagerness to see again the scenes which were so pleasantly
+associated with my boyhood, and regret that I must renew my memories
+under such sadly changed conditions.
+
+As I stepped from the train, a tall broad-shouldered young man of
+twenty-three or thereabouts, came forward to meet me. I should have
+recognized him for Radnor anywhere, so striking was his resemblance to
+the brother I had known. He wore a loose flannel shirt and a
+broad-brimmed felt hat cocked on one side, and he looked so exactly the
+typical Southern man of the stage that I almost laughed as I greeted
+him. His welcome was frank and cordial and I liked him from the first.
+He asked after my health with an amused twinkle in his eyes. Nervous
+prostration evidently struck him as humorously as it did Terry. Lest I
+resent his apparent lack of sympathy however, he added, with a hearty
+whack on my shoulder, that I had come to the right place to get cured.
+
+A drive over sweet smelling country roads behind blooded horses was a
+new experience to me, fresh from city streets and the rumble of elevated
+trains. I leaned back with a sigh of content, feeling already as if I
+had got my boyhood back again.
+
+Radnor enlivened the three miles with stories of the houses we passed
+and the people who lived in them, and to my law-abiding Northern ears,
+the recital indubitably smacked of the South. This old gentleman--so Rad
+called him--had kept an illicit still in his cellar for fifteen years,
+and it had not been discovered until after his death (of delirium
+tremens). The young lady who lived in that house--one of the belles of
+the county--had eloped with the best man on the night before the wedding
+and the rightful groom had shot himself. The one who lived here had
+eloped with her father's overseer, and had rowed across the river in the
+only available boat, leaving her outraged parent on the opposite bank.
+
+I finally burst out laughing.
+
+"Does everyone in the South run away to get married? Don't you ever have
+any legitimate weddings with cake and rice and old shoes?" As I spoke I
+remembered Nannie and wondered if I had touched on a delicate subject.
+
+But Radnor returned my laugh.
+
+"We do have a good many elopements," he acknowledged. "Maybe there are
+more cruel parents in the South." Then he suddenly sobered. "I suppose
+you remember Nan?" he inquired with an air of hesitation.
+
+"A little," I assented.
+
+"Poor girl!" he said. "I'm afraid she had a pretty tough time. You'd
+best not mention her to the old gentleman--or Jeff either."
+
+"Does the Colonel still feel hard toward them?"
+
+Radnor frowned slightly.
+
+"He doesn't forgive," he returned.
+
+"What was the trouble with Jeff?" I ventured. "I have never heard any
+particulars."
+
+"He and my father didn't agree. I don't remember very much about it
+myself; I was only thirteen when it happened. But I know there was the
+devil of a row."
+
+"Do you know where he is?" I asked.
+
+Radnor shook his head.
+
+"I sent him some money once or twice, but my father found it out and
+shut down on my bank account. I've lost track of him lately--he isn't in
+need of money though. The last I heard he was running a gambling place
+in Seattle."
+
+"It's a great pity!" I sighed. "He was a fine chap when I knew him."
+
+Radnor echoed my sigh but he did not choose to follow up the subject,
+and we passed the rest of the way in silence until we turned into the
+lane that led to Four-Pools. After the manner of many Southern places
+the house was situated well toward the middle of the large plantation,
+and entirely out of sight from the road. The private lane which led to
+it was bordered by a hawthorn hedge, and wound for half a mile or so
+between pastures and flowering peach orchards. I delightedly breathed in
+the fresh spring odors, wondering meanwhile how it was that I had let
+that happy Virginia summer of my boyhood slip so entirely from my mind.
+
+As we rounded a clump of willow trees we came in sight of the house, set
+on a little rise of ground and approached by a rolling sweep of lawn. It
+was a good example of colonial--white with green blinds, the broad brick
+floored veranda, which extended the length of the front, supported by
+lofty Doric columns. On the south side a huge curved portico bulged out
+to meet the driveway. Stretching away behind the house was a sleepy
+box-bordered garden, and behind this, screened by a row of evergreens,
+were clustered the barns and out-buildings. Some little distance to the
+left, in a slight hollow and half hidden by an overgrowth of laurels,
+stood a row of one-story weather-beaten buildings--the old negro cabins,
+left over from the slave days.
+
+"It's just as I remember it!" I exclaimed delightedly as I noted one
+familiar object after another. "Nothing has changed."
+
+"Nothing does change in the South," said Radnor, "except the people, and
+I suppose they change everywhere."
+
+"And those are the deserted negro cabins?" I added, my eye resting on
+the cluster of gray roofs showing above the shrubbery.
+
+"Just at present they are not so deserted as we should like," he
+returned with a suggestive undertone in his voice. "You visit the
+plantation at an interesting time. The Gaylord ha'nt has reappeared."
+
+"The Gaylord ha'nt!" I exclaimed in astonishment. "What on earth is
+that?"
+
+Radnor laughed.
+
+"One of our godless ancestors once beat a slave to death and his ghost
+comes back, off and on, to haunt the negro cabins. We hadn't heard
+anything of him for a good many years and had almost forgotten the
+story, when last week he reappeared. Devil fires have been seen dancing
+in the laurels at night, and mysterious moanings have been heard around
+the cabins. If you have ever had anything to do with negroes, you can
+know the state our servants are in."
+
+"Well!" said I, "that promises entertainment. I shall look forward to
+meeting the ha'nt."
+
+We had reached the house by this time, and as we drew up before the
+portico the Colonel stood on the top step waiting to welcome me. He was
+looking much as I remembered him except that his hair had turned from
+black to white, and his former imperious bearing had become a trifle
+querulous. I jumped out and grasped his outstretched hand.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, my boy! I'm glad to see you," he said cordially.
+
+My heart warmed toward the old man's "my boy." It had been a good many
+years since anyone had called me that.
+
+"You've grown since I saw you last," he chuckled, as he led the way into
+the house through the group of negro servants who had gathered to see me
+arrive.
+
+My first fleeting glimpse through the open doors told me that it was
+indeed true, as Radnor had said, nothing had changed. The furniture was
+the same old-fashioned, solidly simple furniture that the house had
+contained since it was built. I was amused to see the Colonel's gloves
+and whip thrown carelessly on a chair in the hall. The whip was the one
+token by which I remembered him.
+
+"So you've been working too hard, have you, Arnold?" the old man
+inquired, looking me over with twinkling eyes. "We'll give you something
+to do that will make you forget you've ever seen work before! There are
+half a dozen colts in the pasture just spoiling to be broken in; you may
+try your hand at that, sir. And now I reckon supper's about ready," he
+added. "Nancy doesn't allow any loitering when it's a question of beat
+biscuits. Take him up to his room, Rad--and you Mose," he called to one
+of the negroes hanging about the portico, "come and carry up Marse
+Arnold's things."
+
+At this one of them shambled forward and began picking up my traps which
+had been dumped in a pile on the steps. His appearance struck me with
+such an instant feeling of repugnance, that even after I was used to the
+fellow, I never quite overcame that first involuntary shudder. He was
+not a full-blooded negro but an octoroon. His color was a muddy yellow,
+his features were sharp instead of flat, and his hair hung across his
+forehead almost straight. But these facts alone did not account for his
+queerness; the most uncanny thing about him was the color of his eyes.
+They had a yellow glint and narrowed in the light. The creature was
+bare-footed and wore a faded suit of linsey-woolsey; I wondered at that,
+for the other servants who had crowded out to see me, were dressed in
+very decent livery.
+
+Radnor noticed my surprise, and remarked as he led the way up the
+winding staircase, "Mose isn't much of a beauty, for a fact."
+
+I made no reply as the man was close behind, and the feeling that his
+eyes were boring into the middle of my back was far from pleasant. But
+after he had deposited his load on the floor of my room, and, with a
+sidewise glance which seemed to take in everything without looking
+directly at anything, had shambled off again, I turned to Rad.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" I demanded.
+
+Radnor threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"You look as if you'd seen the ha'nt! There's nothing to be afraid of.
+He doesn't bite. The poor fellow's half witted--at least in some
+respects; in others he's doubly witted."
+
+"Who is he?" I persisted. "Where did he come from?"
+
+"Oh, he's lived here all his life--raised on the place. We're as fond of
+Mose as if he were a member of the family. He's my father's body servant
+and he follows him around like a dog. We don't keep him dressed for the
+part because shoes and stockings make him unhappy."
+
+"But his eyes," I said. "What the deuce is the matter with his eyes?"
+
+Radnor shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Born that way. His eyes _are_ a little queer, but if you've ever
+noticed it, niggers' eyes are often yellow. The people on the place call
+him 'Cat-Eye Mose.' You needn't be afraid of him," he added with another
+laugh, "he's harmless."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE HA'NT
+
+
+We had a sensation at supper that night, and I commenced to realize that
+I was a good many miles from New York. In response to the invitation of
+Solomon, the old negro butler, we seated ourselves at the table and
+commenced on the cold dishes before us, while he withdrew to bring in
+the hot things from the kitchen. As is often the case in Southern
+plantation houses the kitchen was under a separate roof from the main
+house, and connected with it by a long open gallery. We waited some time
+but no supper arrived. The Colonel, becoming impatient, was on the point
+of going to look for it, when the door burst open and Solomon appeared
+empty-handed, every hair on his woolly head pointing a different
+direction.
+
+"De ha'nt, Marse Cunnel, de ha'nt! He's sperrited off de chicken. Right
+outen de oven from under Nancy's eyes."
+
+"Solomon," said the Colonel severely, "what are you trying to say? Talk
+sense."
+
+"Sho's yuh bohn, Marse Cunnel; it's de libbin' truf I's tellin' yuh. Dat
+ha'nt has fotched dat chicken right outen de oven, an' it's vanished in
+de air."
+
+"You go out and bring that chicken in and don't let me hear another
+word."
+
+"I cayn't, Marse Cunnel, 'deed I cayn't. Dere ain't no chicken dere."
+
+"Very well, then! Go and get us some ham and eggs and stop this fuss."
+
+Solomon withdrew and we three looked at each other.
+
+"Rad, what's the meaning of this?" the Colonel demanded querulously.
+
+"Some foolishness on the part of the niggers. I'll look into it after
+supper. When the ha'nt begins abstracting chickens from the oven I think
+it's time to investigate."
+
+Being naturally curious over the matter, I commenced asking questions
+about the history and prior appearances of the ha'nt. Radnor answered
+readily enough, but I noticed that the Colonel appeared restless under
+the inquiry, and the amused suspicion crossed my mind that he did not
+entirely discredit the story. When a man has been born and brought up
+among negroes he comes, in spite of himself, to be tinged with their
+ideas.
+
+Supper finished, the three of us turned down the gallery toward the
+kitchen. As we approached the door we heard a murmur of voices, one
+rising every now and then in a shrill wail which furnished a sort of
+chorus. Radnor whispered in my ear that he reckoned Nancy had "got um"
+again. Though I did not comprehend at the moment, I subsequently learned
+that "um" referred to a sort of emotional ecstasy into which Nancy
+occasionally worked herself, the motive power being indifferently ghosts
+or religion.
+
+The kitchen was a large square room, with brick floor, rough shack walls
+and smoky rafters overhead from which pended strings of garlic, red
+peppers and herbs. The light was supplied ostensibly by two tallow dips,
+but in reality by the glowing wood embers of the great open stove
+bricked into one side of the wall.
+
+Five or six excited negroes were grouped in a circle about a woman with
+a yellow turban on her head, who was rocking back and forth and shouting
+at intervals:
+
+"Oh-h, dere's sperrits in de air! I can smell um. I can smell um."
+
+"Nancy!" called the Colonel sharply as we stepped into the room.
+
+Nancy paused a moment and turned upon us a pair of frenzied eyes with
+nothing much but the whites showing.
+
+"Marse Cunnel, dere's sperrits in de air," she cried. "Sabe yuhself
+while dere's time. We's all a-treadin' de road to destruction."
+
+"You'll be treading the road to destruction in mighty short order if you
+don't keep still," he returned grimly. "Now stop this foolishness and
+tell me what's gone with that chicken."
+
+After a great deal of questioning and patching together, we finally got
+her story, but I cannot say that it threw much light upon the matter.
+She had put the chicken in the oven, and then she felt powerful queer,
+as if something were going to happen. Suddenly she felt a cold wind blow
+through the room, the candles went out, and she could hear the rustle of
+"ghostly gahments" sweeping past her. The oven door sprang open of its
+own accord; she looked inside, and "dere wa'n't no chicken dere!"
+
+Repeated questioning only brought out the same statement but with more
+circumstantial details. The other negroes backed her up, and the story
+grew rapidly in magnitude and horror. Nancy's seizures, it appeared,
+were contagious, and the others by this time were almost as excited as
+she. The only approximately calm one among them was Cat-Eye Mose who sat
+in the doorway watching the scene with half furtive eyes and something
+resembling a grin on his face.
+
+The Colonel, observing that it was a good deal of commotion for the sake
+of one small chicken, disgustedly dropped the inquiry. As we stepped out
+into the gallery again, I glanced back at the dancing firelight, the
+weird cross shadows, and the circle of dusky faces, with, I confess, a
+somewhat creepy feeling. I could see that in such an atmosphere, it
+would not take long for superstition to lay its hold on a man.
+
+"What's the meaning of it?" I asked as we strolled slowly toward the
+house.
+
+"The meaning of it," Radnor shrugged, "is that some of them are lying.
+The ha'nt, I could swear, has a good flesh and blood appetite. Nancy has
+been frightened and she believes her own story. There's never any use in
+trying to sift a negro's lies; they have so much imagination that after
+five minutes they believe themselves."
+
+"I think I could spot the ghost," I returned. "And that's your precious
+Cat-Eye Mose."
+
+Radnor shook his head.
+
+"Mose doesn't need to steal chickens. He gets all he wants."
+
+"Mose," the Colonel added emphatically, "is the one person on the place
+who is absolutely to be trusted."
+
+We had almost reached the house, when we were suddenly startled by a
+series of shrieks and screams coming toward us across the open stretch
+of lawn that lay between us and the old negro cabins. In another moment
+an old woman, her face twitching with terror, had thrown herself at our
+feet in a species of convulsion.
+
+"De ha'nt! De ha'nt! He's a-beckoning," was all we could make out
+between her moans.
+
+The other negroes came pouring out from the kitchen and gathered in a
+frenzied circle about the writhing woman. Mose, I noted, was among them;
+he could at least prove an alibi this time.
+
+"Here Mose, quick! Get us some torches," Radnor called. "We'll fetch
+that ha'nt up here to answer for himself.--It's old Aunt Sukie," he
+added to me, nodding toward the woman on the ground whose spasms by this
+time were growing somewhat quieter. "She lives on the next plantation
+and was probably taking a cross cut through the laurel path that leads
+by the cabins. She's almost a hundred and is pretty nearly a witch
+herself."
+
+Mose shambled up with some torches--pine knots dipped in tar, such as
+they used for hunting 'possums at night, and he and I and Radnor set out
+for the cabins. I noticed that none of the other negroes volunteered to
+assist; I also noticed that Mose went on ahead with a low whining cry
+which sent chills chasing up and down my back.
+
+"What's the matter with him?" I gasped, more intent on the negro than
+the ghost we had come to search.
+
+"That's the way he always hunts," Radnor laughed. "There are a good many
+things about Mose that you will have to get used to."
+
+We searched the whole region of the abandoned quarters with a
+considerable degree of thoroughness. Three or four of the larger cabins
+were used as store houses for fodder; the rest were empty. We poked into
+all of them, but found nothing more terrifying than a few bats and owls.
+Though I did not give much consideration to the fact at the time, I
+later remembered that there was one of the cabins which we didn't
+explore as thoroughly as the rest. Mose dropped his torch as we
+entered, and in the confusion of relighting it, the interior was
+somewhat slighted. In any case we unearthed no ha'nt that night; and we
+finally gave up the search and turned back to the house.
+
+"I suspect," Radnor laughed, "that if the truth were known, old Aunt
+Sukie's beckoning ha'nt would turn out to be nothing more alarming than
+a white cow waving her tail."
+
+"It's rather suggestive coming on top of the chicken episode," I
+observed.
+
+"Oh, this won't be the end! We'll have ha'nt served for breakfast,
+dinner and supper during the rest of your stay. When the niggers begin
+to see things they keep it up."
+
+When I went upstairs that night, Rad followed close on my heels to see
+that I had everything I needed. The room was a huge four windowed
+affair, furnished with a canopied bed and a mahogany wardrobe as big as
+a small house. The nights still being chilly, a roaring wood fire had
+been built, adding a note of cheerfulness to an otherwise sombre
+apartment.
+
+"This was Nan's room," he said suddenly.
+
+"Nan's room!" I echoed glancing about the shadowy interior. "Rather
+heavy for a girl."
+
+"It is a trifle severe," he agreed, "but I dare say it was different
+when she was here. Her things are all packed away in the attic." He
+picked up a candle and held it so that it lighted the face of a portrait
+over the mantle. "That's Nan--painted when she was eighteen."
+
+"Yes," I nodded. "I recognized her the moment I saw it. She was like
+that when I knew her."
+
+"It used to hang down stairs but after her marriage my father had it
+brought up here. He kept the door locked until the news came that she
+was dead, then he turned it into a guest room. He never comes in
+himself; he won't look at the picture."
+
+Radnor spoke shortly, but with an underlying note of bitterness. I could
+see that he felt keenly on the subject. After a few desultory words, he
+somewhat brusquely said good night, and left me to the memories of the
+place.
+
+Instead of going to bed I set about unpacking. I was tired but wide
+awake. Aunt Sukie's convulsions and our torch light hunt for ghosts were
+novel events in my experience, and they acted as anything but a
+sedative. The unpacking finished, I settled myself in an easy chair
+before the fire and fell to studying the portrait. It was a huge canvas
+in the romantic fashion of Romney, with a landscape in the background.
+The girl was dressed in flowing pink drapery, a garden hat filled with
+roses swinging from her arm, a Scotch collie with great lustrous eyes
+pressed against her side. The pose, the attributes, were artificial; but
+the painter had caught the spirit. Nannie's face looked out of the frame
+as I remembered it from long ago. Youth and gaiety and goodness trembled
+on her lips and laughed in her eyes. The picture seemed a prophecy of
+all the happiness the future was to bring. Nannie at eighteen with life
+before her!
+
+And three years later she was dying in a dreary little Western town,
+separated from her girlhood friends, without a word of forgiveness from
+her father. What had she done to deserve this fate? Merely set up her
+will against his, and married the man she loved. Her husband was poor,
+but from all I ever heard, a very decent chap. As I studied the eager
+smiling face, I felt a hot wave of anger against her father. What a
+power of vindictiveness the man must have, still to cherish rancour
+against a daughter fifteen years in her grave! There was something too
+poignantly sad about the unfulfilled hope of the picture. I blew out the
+candles to rid my mind of poor little Nannie's smile.
+
+I sat for some time my eyes fixed moodily on the glowing embers, till I
+was roused by the deep boom of the hall clock as it slowly counted
+twelve. I rose with a laugh and a yawn. The first of the doctor's orders
+had been, "Early to bed!" I hastily made ready, but before turning in,
+paused for a moment by the open window, enticed by the fresh country
+smells of plowed land and sprouting green things, that blew in on the
+damp breeze. It was a wild night with a young moon hanging low in the
+sky. Shadows chased themselves over the lawn and the trees waved and
+shifted in the wind. It had been a long time since I had looked out on
+such a scene of peaceful tranquillity as this. New York with the hurry
+and rush of its streets, with the horrors of Terry's morgue, seemed to
+lie in another continent.
+
+But suddenly I was recalled to the present by hearing, almost beneath
+me, the low shuddering squeak of an opening window. I leaned out
+silently alert, and to my surprise I saw Cat-Eye Mose--though it was
+pretty dark I could not be mistaken in his long loping run--slink out
+from the shadow of the house and make across the open space of lawn
+toward the deserted negro cabins. As he ran he was bent almost double
+over a large black bundle which he carried in his arms. Though I
+strained my eyes to follow him I could make out nothing more before he
+had plunged into the shadow of the laurels.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE HA'NT GROWS MYSTERIOUS
+
+
+I waked early and hurried through with my dressing, eager to get down
+stairs and report my last night's finding in regard to Mose. My first
+impulse had been to rouse the house, but on soberer second thoughts I
+had decided to wait till morning. I was glad now that I had; for with
+the sunlight streaming in through the eastern windows, with the fresh
+breeze bringing the sound of twittering birds, life seemed a more
+cheerful affair than it had the night before, and the whole aspect of
+the ha'nt took on a distinctly humorous tone.
+
+A ghost who wafted roast chickens through the air and out of doors on a
+breeze of its own constructing, appealed to me as having an original
+mind. Since my midnight discovery I felt pretty certain that I could
+identify the ghost; and as I recalled the masterly way in which Mose
+had led and directed the hunt, I decided that he was cleverer than Rad
+had given him credit for. I went down stairs with my eyes and ears wide
+open prepared for further revelations. The problems of my profession had
+never led me into any consideration of the supernatural, and the rather
+evanescent business of hunting down a ha'nt came as a welcome contrast
+to the very material details of my recent forgery case. I had found what
+Terry would call a counter-irritant.
+
+It was still early, and neither the Colonel nor Radnor had appeared; but
+Solomon was sweeping off the portico steps and I addressed myself to
+him. He was rather coy at first about discussing the matter of the
+ha'nt, as he scented my scepticism, but in the end he volunteered:
+
+"Some says de ha'nt's a woman dat one o' de Gaylords long time ago,
+should o' married an' didn't, an' dat pined away an' died. An' some says
+it's a black man one o' dem whupped to deaf."
+
+"Which do you think it is?" I inquired.
+
+"Bress yuh, Marse Arnold, I ain't thinkin' nuffen. Like es not hit's
+bofe. When one sperrit gits oneasy 'pears like he stir up all de odders.
+Dey gets so lonely like lyin' all by dereselves in de grave dat dey're
+'most crazy for company. An' when dey cayn't get each odder dey'll take
+humans. De human what's consorted wid a gohs, Marse Arnold, he's nebber
+hisself no moah. He's sort uh half-minded like Mose."
+
+"Is that what's the matter with Mose?" I pursued tentatively. "Does he
+consort with ghosts?"
+
+"Mose was bawn dat way, but I reckon maybe dat was what was de matter
+wid his mudder, an' he cotched it."
+
+"That was rather an unusual thing, last night, wasn't it, for a ha'nt to
+steal a chicken?"
+
+"'Pears like ha'nts must have dere jokes like odder folkses," was as far
+as Solomon would go.
+
+At breakfast I repeated what I had seen the night before, and to my
+indignation both Radnor and my uncle took it calmly.
+
+"Mose is only a poor half witted fellow but he's as honest as the day,"
+the Colonel declared, "and I won't have him turned into a villain for
+your entertainment."
+
+"He may be honest," I persisted, "but just the same he knows what became
+of that chicken! And what's more, if you look about the house you'll
+find there's something else missing."
+
+The Colonel laughed good-naturedly.
+
+"If it raises your suspicions to have Mose prowling around in the night,
+you'll have to get used to suspicions; for you'll have 'em during the
+rest of your stay. I've known Mose to stop out in the woods for three
+nights running--he's as much an animal as he is a man; but he's a tame
+animal, and you needn't be afraid of him. If you'd followed him and his
+bundle last night I reckon you'd have made a mighty queer discovery. He
+has his own little amusements and they aren't exactly ours, but since he
+doesn't hurt anybody what's the use in bothering? I've known Mose for
+well on to thirty years, and I've never yet known him to do a meanness
+to any human being. There aren't many white folks I can say the same
+of."
+
+I did not pursue the subject with the Colonel, but I later suggested to
+Rad that we continue our investigation. He echoed his father's laugh. If
+we set out to investigate all the imaginings that came into the niggers'
+heads we should have our hands full, was his reply. I dropped the matter
+for the time being, but I was none the less convinced that Mose and the
+ghost were near relations; and I determined to keep an eye on him in the
+future, at least in so far as one could keep an eye on so slippery an
+individual.
+
+In pursuance of this design, I took the opportunity that first morning,
+while Rad and his father were engaged with the veterinary surgeon who
+had come to doctor a sick colt, of strolling in the direction of the
+deserted cabins.
+
+It was a damp malarious looking spot, though I dare say in the old days
+when the land was drained, it had been healthy enough. Just below the
+cabins lay the largest of the four pools which gave the plantation its
+name. The other three lying in the pastures higher up were used for
+watering the stock and were kept clean and free from plant growth. But
+the lower pool, abandoned like the cabins, had been allowed to overflow
+its banks until it was completely surrounded with rushes and lily pads.
+A rank growth of willow trees hung over the water and shut out all but
+the merest glint of sunlight.
+
+Above this pool the cabins stretched in a double row occupying the base
+of the declivity on which the "big house" stood. There were as many as a
+dozen, I should think, built of logs and unpainted shack, consisting for
+the most part of a single large room, though a few had a loft above and
+a rough lean-to in the rear. A walk bordered by laurels stretched down
+the center between the two rows, and as the trees had not been clipped
+for a good many years, the shade was somewhat sombre. Add to this the
+fact that one or two of the roofs had fallen in, that the hinges were
+missing from several doors, that there was not a whole pane of glass in
+all the dozen cabins, and it will readily be seen that the place gave
+rise to no very cheerful fancies. I wondered that the Colonel did not
+have the houses pulled down; they were not a souvenir of past times
+which I myself should have cared to preserve.
+
+The damp earth where the shade was thickest, plainly showed the marks of
+foot-prints--some made by bare feet, some by shoes--but I could not
+follow them for more than a yard or so, and I could not be certain they
+were not our own traces of the night before. I poked into every one of
+the cabins, but found nothing suspicious about their appearance. I did
+not, to be sure, ascend to any of the half dozen lofts, as there were no
+stairs and no suggestion of a ladder anywhere about. The open traps
+however which led to them were so thickly festooned with spider webs and
+dirt, that it did not seem possible that anyone had passed through for a
+dozen years. Finding no sign of habitation, either human or spiritual, I
+finally turned back to the house with a philosophic shrug and the
+reflection that Cat-Eye Mose's nocturnal vagaries were no affair of
+mine.
+
+During the next few days we in the front part of the house heard only
+faint echoes of the excitement, though I believe that the ha'nt, both
+past and present, was the chief topic of conversation among the negroes,
+not only at Four-Pools but among the neighboring plantations as well. I
+spent my time those first few days in getting acquainted with my new
+surroundings. The chief business of the farm was horse raising, and the
+Colonel kept a well stocked stable. A riding horse was put at my
+disposal, and in company with Radnor I explored the greater part of the
+valley.
+
+We visited at a number of houses in the neighborhood, but there was one
+in particular where we stopped most frequently, and it did not take me
+long to discover the reason. "Mathers Hall", an ivy-covered rambling
+structure, red brick with white trimmings--in style half colonial, half
+old English--was situated a mile or so from Four-Pools. The Hall had
+sheltered three generations of Matherses, and the fourth generation was
+growing up. There was a huge family, mostly girls, who had married and
+moved away to Washington or Richmond or Baltimore. They all came back in
+the summer however bringing their babies with them, and the place was
+the center of gaiety in the neighborhood. There was just one unmarried
+daughter left--Polly, nineteen years old, and the most heartlessly
+charming young person it has ever been my misfortune to meet. As is
+likely to be the case with the baby of a large family, Polly was
+thoroughly spoiled, but that fact did not in the least diminish her
+charm.
+
+Report had it, at the time of my arrival, that after refusing every
+marriageable man in the county, she was now trying to make up her mind
+between Jim Mattison and Radnor. Whether or not these statistics were
+exaggerated, I cannot say, but in any case the many other aspirants for
+her favor had tacitly dropped out of the running, and the race was
+clearly between the two.
+
+It seemed to me, had I been Polly, that it would not take me long to
+decide. Rad was as likable a young fellow as one would ever meet; he
+came from one of the best families in the county, with the prospect of
+inheriting at his father's death a very fair sized fortune. It struck me
+that a girl would have to search a good while before discovering an
+equally desirable husband. But I was surprised to find that this was not
+the general opinion in the neighborhood. Radnor's reputation, I learned
+with something of a shock, was far from what it should have been. I was
+told with a meaning undertone that he "favored" his brother Jeff. Though
+many of the stories were doubtless exaggerated, I learned subsequently
+that there was too much truth in some of them. It was openly said that
+Polly Mathers would be doing a great deal better if she chose young
+Mattison, for though he might not have the prospect of as much money as
+Radnor Gaylord, he was infinitely the steadier of the two. Mattison was
+a good-looking and rather ill-natured young giant, but it did not strike
+me at the time, nor later in the light of succeeding events, that he was
+particularly endowed with brains. By way of occupation, he was described
+as being in "politics"; at that time he was sheriff of the county, and
+was fully aware of the importance of the office.
+
+I fear that Polly had a good deal of the coquette in her make-up, and
+she thoroughly enjoyed the jealousy between the two young men. Whenever
+Radnor by any chance incurred her displeasure, she retaliated by
+transferring her smiles to Mattison; and the virtuous young sheriff took
+good care that if Rad committed any slips, Polly should hear of them. As
+a result, they succeeded in keeping his temper in a very inflammable
+state.
+
+I had not been long at Four-Pools before I commenced to see that there
+was an undercurrent to the life of the household which I had not at
+first suspected. The Colonel had grown strict as he grew old; his
+experience with his elder son had made him bitter, and he did not adopt
+the most diplomatic way of dealing with Radnor. The boy had inherited a
+good share of his father's stubborn temper and indomitable will; the
+two, living alone, inevitably clashed. Radnor at times seemed possessed
+of the very devil of perversity; and if he ever drank or gambled, it
+was as much to assert his independence as for any other reason. There
+were days when he and his father were barely on speaking terms.
+
+Life at the plantation, however, was for the most part easy-going and
+flexible, as is likely to be the case in a bachelor establishment. We
+dropped cigar ashes anywhere we pleased, cocked our feet on the parlor
+table if we saw fit, and let the dogs troop all over the place. I spent
+the greater part of my time on horseback, riding about the country with
+Radnor on business for the farm. He, I soon discovered, did most of the
+actual work, though his father was still the nominal head of affairs.
+The raising of thorough-breds is no longer the lucrative business that
+it used to be, and it required a good manager to bring the balance out
+on the right side of the ledger. Rad was such a spectacular looking
+young fellow that I was really surprised to find what sound business
+judgment he possessed. He insisted upon introducing modern methods where
+his father would have been content to drift along in the casual manner
+of the old South, and his clear-sightedness more than doubled the
+income of the place.
+
+In the healthy out-of-door life I soon forgot that nerves existed. The
+only thing which at all marred the enjoyment of those first few days was
+the knowledge of occasional clashings between Radnor and his father. I
+think that they were both rather ashamed of these outbreaks, and I
+noticed that they tried to conceal the fact from me by an elaborate if
+somewhat stiff courtesy toward each other.
+
+In order to make clear the puzzling series of events which followed, I
+must go back to, I believe, the fifth night of my arrival. Radnor was
+giving a dance at Four-Pools for the purpose, he said, of introducing me
+into society; though as a matter of fact Polly Mathers was the guest of
+honor. In any case the party was given, and everyone in the neighborhood
+(the term "neighborhood" is broad in Virginia; it describes a ten mile
+radius) both young and old came in carriages or on horseback; the
+younger ones to dance half the night, the older ones to play cards and
+look on. I met a great many pretty girls that evening--the South
+deserves its reputation--but Polly Mathers was by far the prettiest; and
+the contest for her favors between Radnor and young Mattison was
+spirited and open. Had Rad consulted his private wishes, the sheriff
+would not have been among the guests.
+
+It was getting on toward the end of the evening and the musicians, a
+band of negro fiddlers made up from the different plantations, were
+resting after a Virginia reel that had been more a romp than a dance,
+when someone--I think it was Polly herself--suggested that the company
+adjourn to the laurel walk to see if the ha'nt were visible. The story
+of old Aunt Sukie's convulsions and of the spirited roast chicken had
+spread through the countryside, and there had been a good many laughing
+allusions to it during the evening. Running upstairs in search of a hat
+I met Rad on the landing, buttoning something white inside his coat,
+something that to my eyes looked suspiciously like a sheet. He laughed
+and put his finger on his lips as he went on down to join the others.
+
+It was a bright moonlight night almost as light as day. We moved across
+the open lawn in a fairly compact body. The girls, though they had been
+laughing all the evening at the exploits of the ha'nt, showed a cautious
+tendency to keep on the inside. Rad was in the front ranks leading the
+hunt, but I noticed as we entered the shrubbery that he disappeared
+among the shadows, and I for one was fairly certain that our search
+would be rewarded. We paused in a group at the nearer end of the row of
+cabins and stood waiting for the ha'nt to show himself. He was obliging.
+Four or five minutes, and a faint flutter of white appeared in the
+distance at the farther end of the laurel walk. Then as we stood with
+expectant eyes fixed on the spot, we saw a tall white figure sway across
+a patch of moonlight with a beckoning gesture in our direction, while
+the breeze bore a faintly whispered, "Come! Come!" We were none of us
+overbold; our faith was not strong enough to run the risk of spoiling
+the illusion. With shrieks and laughter we turned and made
+helter-skelter for the house, breaking in among the elder members of
+the party with the panting announcement, "We've seen the ha'nt!"
+
+Polly loitered on the veranda while supper was being served, waiting, I
+suspect for Radnor to reappear. I joined her, very willing indeed that
+the young man should delay. Polly, her white dress gleaming in the
+moonlight, her eyes filled with laughter, her cheeks glowing with
+excitement, was the most entrancing little creature I have ever seen.
+She was so bubbling over with youth and light-heartedness that I felt,
+in contrast, as if I were already tottering on the brink of the grave. I
+was just thirty that summer, but if I live to be a hundred I shall never
+feel so old again.
+
+"Well Solomon," I remarked as I helped myself to some cakes he was
+passing, "we've been consorting with ghosts tonight."
+
+"I reckon dis yere gohs would answer to de name o' Marse Radnah," said
+Solomon, with a wise shake of his head. "But just de same it ain't safe
+to mock at ha'nts. Dey'll get it back at you when you ain't expectin'
+it!"
+
+After an intermission of half an hour or so the music commenced again,
+but still no Radnor. Polly cast more than one glance in the direction of
+the laurels and the sparkle in her eyes grew ominous. Presently young
+Mattison appeared in the doorway and asked her to come in and dance, but
+she said that she was tired, and we three stood laughing and chatting
+for some ten minutes longer, when a step suddenly sounded on the gravel
+path and Radnor rounded the corner of the house. As the bright moonlight
+fell on his face, I stared at him in astonishment. He was pale to his
+very lips and there were strained anxious lines beneath his eyes.
+
+"What's the matter, Radnor?" Polly cried. "You look as if you'd found
+the ha'nt!"
+
+He made an effort at composure and laughed in return, though to my ears
+the laugh sounded very hollow.
+
+"I believe this is my dance, isn't it, Polly?" he asked, joining us with
+rather an over-acted air of carelessness.
+
+"Your dance was over half an hour ago," Polly returned. "This is Mr.
+Mattison's."
+
+She turned indoors with the young man, and Rad following on their
+heels, made his way to the punch bowl where I saw him toss off three or
+four glasses with no visible interval between them. I, decidedly
+puzzled, watched him for the rest of the evening. He appeared to have
+some disturbing matter on his mind, and his gaiety was clearly forced.
+
+It was well on toward morning when the party broke up, and after some
+slight conversation of a desultory sort the Colonel, Rad and I went up
+to our rooms. Whether it was the excitement of the evening or the coffee
+I had drunk, in any case I was not sleepy. I turned in, only to lie for
+an hour or more with my eyes wide open staring at a patch of moonlight
+on the ceiling. My old trouble of insomnia had overtaken me again. I
+finally rose and paced the floor in sheer desperation, and then paused
+to stare out of the window at the peaceful moonlit picture before me.
+
+Suddenly I heard, as on the night of my arrival, the soft creaking of
+the French window in the library, which opened on to the veranda just
+below me. Quickly alert, I leaned forward determined to learn if
+possible the reason for Mose's midnight wanderings. To my astonishment
+it was Radnor who stepped out from the shadow of the house, carrying a
+large black bundle in his arms. I clutched the frame of the window and
+stared after him in dumb amazement, as he crossed the strip of moonlit
+lawn and plunged into the shadows of the laurel growth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CAT-EYE MOSE CREATES A SENSATION
+
+
+For the next week or so things went rather strangely on the plantation.
+I knew very well that there was an undercurrent of which I was supposed
+to know nothing, and I appeared politely unconscious; but I won't say
+but that I kept my eyes and ears as wide open as was possible without
+appearing to spy. The chicken episode and Aunt Sukie's convulsions
+turned out to be only the beginning of the ha'nt excitement; scarcely a
+day passed without some fresh supernatural visitation. Radnor
+pooh-poohed over the matter before the Colonel and me, but with the
+negroes I know that he encouraged rather than discouraged their fears,
+until there was not a man on our own or any of the neighboring
+plantations who would have ventured to step foot within the laurel
+walk, either at night or in the daytime--at least there was only one.
+Cat-Eye Mose took the matter of the ha'nt without undue emotion, a point
+which struck me as suggestive, for I knew that Mose was as superstitious
+as the rest when the occasion warranted.
+
+Once at least I saw Radnor and Mose in consultation, and though I did
+not know the subject of the conference my suspicions were very near the
+surface. I came upon them in the stables talking in low tones, Rad
+apparently explaining, and Mose listening with the air of strained
+attention which the slightest mental effort always called to his face.
+At my appearance Radnor raised his voice and added one or two directions
+as to how his guns were to be cleaned. It was evident that the subject
+had been changed.
+
+Everything that was missing about the place--and there seemed to be an
+abnormal amount--was attributed to the ha'nt. I do not doubt but that
+the servants made the ha'nt a convenient scapegoat to answer for their
+own shortcomings, but still there were several suggestive
+depredations--horse blankets from the stable, clothes from the line and
+more edibles than roast chicken from Nancy's larder. The climax of
+absurdity was reached when there disappeared a rather trashy French
+novel, which I had left in the summer house. I asked Solomon about it,
+thinking that one of the servants might have brought it in. Solomon
+rolled his eyes and suggested that the ha'nt had cotched it. I
+laughingly commented upon the occurrence at the supper table and the
+next day Rad handed me the book; Mose had found it, he said, and had
+brought it up to his room.
+
+All of these minor occurrences were stretched over a period of, say ten
+days after the party, and though it gave me the uncomfortable feeling
+that there was something in the air which I did not understand, I did
+not let it worry me unduly. Radnor seemed to be on the inside track of
+whatever was going on, and he was old enough to take care of his own
+affairs. I knew that he had more than once visited the laurel walk after
+the house was supposed to be asleep; but I kept this knowledge to
+myself, and allowed no hint to reach the Colonel.
+
+I had, during these first few weeks, all the opportunity I wished of
+studying Mose's character. Radnor was occupied a good deal of the
+time--spring on a big river plantation is a busy season--and as I had
+professed myself fond of shooting, the Colonel turned me over to the
+care of Cat-Eye Mose. Had I myself been choosing, I should have selected
+another guide. But Mose was the best hunter on the place, and as the
+Colonel was quite untroubled by his vagaries, it never occurred to him
+that I might not be equally confident. In time I grew used to the
+fellow, but I will admit that at first I accepted his services with some
+honest trepidation. As I watched him going ahead of me, crouching behind
+bushes, springing from hummock to hummock, silent and alert, quivering
+like an animal in search of prey, my attention was centered on him
+rather than on any possible quarry.
+
+I shall never forget running across him in the woods one afternoon when
+I had gone out snipe shooting alone. Whether he had followed me or
+whether we had chosen the same vicinity by chance, I do not know; but at
+any rate as I came out from the underbrush on the edge of a low, swampy
+place, I almost stepped on the man. He was stretched face downward on
+the black, oozy soil with his arm buried in a hole at the foot of a
+tree.
+
+"Why Mose!" I cried in amazement, "what on earth are you doing here?"
+
+He responded without raising his head.
+
+"I's aftah a snake, sah. I see a big fat gahtah snake a-lopin' into dis
+yere hole, an' he's skulkin' dar now thinkin' like he gwine to fool me.
+But he cayn't do dat, sah. I's got 'im by de tail, an' I'll fotch 'im
+out."
+
+He drew forth as he spoke a huge black and yellow snake, writhing and
+hissing, and proceeded to smash its head with a stone. I shut my eyes
+during the operation and when I opened them again I saw to my horror
+that he was stuffing the carcass in the front of his shirt.
+
+"Good heavens, Mose!" I cried, aghast. "What are you going to do with
+that?"
+
+"Boil it into oil, sah, to scar de witches off."
+
+Inquiry at the house that night brought out the fact that this was one
+of Mose's regular occupations. Snake's oil was in general favor among
+the negroes as a specific against witches, and Mose was the chief
+purveyor of the lotion. Taken all in all he was about as queer a human
+being as I have ever come across, and I fancy, had I been a psychologist
+instead of a lawyer, I might have found him an entertaining study.
+
+I heard about this time some fresh rumors in regard to Radnor; one--and
+it came pretty straight--that he'd just lost a hundred dollars at poker.
+A hundred dollars may not sound like a very big loss in these days of
+bridge, but it was large for that place, and it represented to Radnor
+exactly two months' pay. As overseer of the plantation, the Colonel paid
+him six hundred dollars a year, a little enough sum considering the work
+he did. Rad had nothing in his own right; aside from his salary he was
+entirely dependent on his father, and it struck me as more than foolish
+for a young man who was contemplating marriage to throw away two months'
+earnings in a single game of poker. The conviction crossed my mind that
+perhaps after all Polly was wise to delay.
+
+I heard another rumor however which was graver than the poker affair; it
+was only a rumor, and when traced to its source turned out to be nothing
+more tangible than somebody's hazarded guess, but without the slightest
+cause the same suspicion had already presented itself to me. And that
+was, that the ha'nt was a very flesh and blood woman. Radnor was clearly
+in some sort of trouble; he was moody and irritable, so sharp with the
+farm hands that several of them left, and unusually taciturn with the
+Colonel and me. To make matters worse Polly Mathers was treating him
+with marked indifference, and openly bestowing her smiles upon Mattison;
+what the trouble was I could only conjecture, but I feared that she too
+had been hearing rumors.
+
+The ha'nt stories had been repeated and exaggerated until they contained
+no semblance of truth. By this time, not only the laurel walk was
+haunted, but the spring-hole as well; and it soon became a region of
+even greater fear than the deserted cabins. The "spring-hole" was a
+natural cavity in the side of a hill a half mile or so back from the
+house. It was out of this cavity that the underground stream flowed
+which fed the pools, and furnished such valuable irrigation to the
+place. All that part of Virginia is undermined with limestone caverns,
+and my uncle's was by no means the only plantation that could boast the
+distinction of a private cave. The entrance was half hidden among rugged
+piled-up boulders dripping with moisture; and was not inviting. I
+remembered chasing a rabbit into this cavern when I was a boy, and
+though it would have been an easy matter to follow him, I preferred to
+stay outside in the sunshine. The spring-hole, then, was haunted. This
+did not strike me as strange. I rather wondered that it had not been
+from the first; it was a likely place for ghosts. But the thing which
+did surprise me, was the fact that it was Mose who brought the news.
+
+We were sitting on the portico after supper one night--it was almost
+dark and the glow from our cigars was the one visible point in the
+scenery--when Mose came bounding across the lawn with his peculiar
+loping run and fairly groveled at Radnor's feet, his teeth chattering
+with fear.
+
+"I's seen de ha'nt, Marse Rad; de sho nuff ha'nt all dressed in black
+an' risin' outen de spring-hole."
+
+"You fool!" Radnor cried. "Get on your feet and behave yourself."
+
+"It was de debbil," Mose chattered. "His face was black an' his eyes was
+fire."
+
+"You've been drinking, Mose," Radnor said sharply. "Get off to the
+quarters where you belong, and don't let me see you again until you are
+sober," and he shunted the fellow out of the way before he had time to
+say any more.
+
+I myself was tolerably certain that Mose had not been drinking; that, at
+least, was not in the list of his peculiar vices. He appeared to be
+thoroughly frightened--if not, he was a most consummate actor. In the
+light of what I already knew, I was considerably puzzled by this fresh
+manifestation. The Colonel fretted and fumed up and down the veranda,
+muttering something about these fool niggers all being alike. He had
+bragged considerably about Mose's immunity in respect to ha'nts, and I
+think he was rather dashed at his favorite's falling-off. I held my
+peace, and Radnor returned in a few minutes.
+
+"Rad," said the Colonel, "this thing's going too far. The whole place is
+infested with ghosts; they'll be invading the house next and we won't
+have a servant left on the place. Can't you do something to stop it?"
+
+Radnor shrugged his shoulders and said that it was a pretty tough job to
+lay a ghost when there were twenty niggers on the place, but that he
+would see what he could do; and he presently drifted off again.
+
+That same night about ten o'clock I was reading before going to bed,
+when a knock sounded on the door, and Radnor appeared. He was unusually
+restless and ill at ease. He referred in a jesting fashion to the ha'nt,
+discussed some neighborhood gossip, and finally quite abruptly inquired:
+
+"Arnold, can you lend me some money?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "I think so; how much do you want?"
+
+"A hundred dollars if you can spare it. Fact is I'm a little hard up,
+and I've got a bill to meet. I have some money invested but I can't put
+my hands on it just this minute. I'll pay you in a week or so as soon as
+I get some cash--I wouldn't ask you, only my father is so blamed
+reluctant about paying my salary ahead of time."
+
+I wrote out a check and handed it to him.
+
+"Rad," I said, "you're perfectly welcome to the money; I'm glad to
+accommodate you, but if you'll excuse my mentioning it, I think you
+ought to pull up a bit on this poker business. You don't earn so much
+that if you're thinking of getting married you can afford to throw any
+of it away.--I'm only speaking for your good; it's no affair of mine," I
+added as I saw his face flush.
+
+He hesitated a moment with the check in his hand; I know that he wanted
+to give it back, but he was evidently too hard pressed.
+
+"Oh, keep the money!" I said. "I don't want to pry into your private
+affairs, only," I laughed, "I do want to see you win out ahead of
+Mattison, and I'm afraid you're not going about it the right way."
+
+"Thank you, Arnold," he returned, "I want to win a great deal more than
+you want me to--and if it's gambling you're afraid of, you can ease your
+mind, for I've sworn off. It's not a poker debt I want this money for
+tonight; I wouldn't be so secretive about the business, only it concerns
+another person more than me."
+
+"Radnor," I said, "I heard an ugly rumor the other day. I heard that the
+ghost was a live woman who was living in the deserted cabins under your
+connivance. I didn't believe it, but just the same it is not a story
+which you can afford to have even whispered."
+
+Radnor raised his head sharply.
+
+"Ah, I see!" His eyes wavered a moment and then fixed themselves
+miserably on my face. "Has--has Polly Mathers heard that?"
+
+"Yes," I returned, "I fancy she has."
+
+He struck the table with a quick flash of anger.
+
+"It's a damned lie! And it comes from Jim Mattison."
+
+
+And now as to the events which followed during the night. I've repeated
+them so many times to so many different persons that it is difficult for
+me to recall just what were my original sensations. I went to bed but I
+didn't go to sleep; this ha'nt business was getting on my nerves almost
+as badly as the Patterson-Pratt case. After a time I heard someone let
+himself softly out of the house; I knew well that it was Radnor and I
+didn't get up to look. I didn't want the appearance even to myself of
+spying upon him. After three quarters of an hour or so I was suddenly
+startled alert by hearing the squeak-squeak of a whippletree out on the
+lawn. It was the Colonel's buckboard which stood in need of oiling; I
+recognized the sound. Curiosity was too much for me this time. I slipped
+out of bed and hurried to the window. It was pretty dark outside, but
+there was a faint glimmer of starlight.
+
+"Whoa, Jennie Loo; whoa!" I heard Rad's voice scarcely above a whisper,
+and I saw the outline of the cart plainly with Rad driving, and either
+some person or some large bundle on the seat beside him. It was on the
+side farthest from me, and was too vague to be distinguished. He made a
+wide detour of the house across the grass, and struck the driveway at
+the foot of the lawn; the reason for this manoeuvre was evident--the
+gravel drive from the stables passed directly under the Colonel's
+window. I went back to bed half worried, half relieved. I strongly
+suspected that this was the end of the ghost; but I could not help
+puzzling over the part that Radnor had played in the little comedy--if
+comedy it were. The stories that I had heard about some of his
+disreputable associates returned to my mind with unpleasant emphasis.
+
+I had gradually dozed off, when half waking, half sleeping, I heard the
+patter of bare feet on the veranda floor. The impression was not
+distinct enough to arouse me, and I have never been perfectly sure that
+I was not dreaming. I do not know how much time elapsed after this--I
+was sound asleep--when I was suddenly startled awake by a succession of
+the most horrible screams I have ever heard. In an instant I was on my
+feet in the middle of the floor. Striking a match and lighting a candle,
+I grabbed an umbrella--it was the only semblance of a weapon anywhere at
+hand--and dashed into the hall. The Colonel's door was flung open at the
+same instant, and he appeared on the threshold, revolver in hand.
+
+"Eh, Arnold, what's happened?" he cried.
+
+"I don't know," I gasped, "I'm going down to see."
+
+We tumbled down stairs at such a rate that the candle went out, and we
+groped along in total darkness toward the rear of the house from where
+the sounds were coming. The cries had died down by this time into a
+horrible inarticulate wail, half animal, half human. I recognized the
+tones with a cold thrill; it was Mose. We found him groveling on the
+floor of the little passage that led from the dining-room to the serving
+room. I struck a light and we bent over him. I hated to look, expecting
+from the noise he was making to find him lying in a pool of blood. But
+he was entirely whole; there was no blood visible and we could find no
+broken bones. Apparently there was nothing the matter beyond fear, and
+of that he was nearly dead. He crawled to the Colonel and clung to his
+feet chattering an unintelligible gibberish. His eyes rolling wildly in
+the dim light, showed an uncanny yellow gleam. I could see where he got
+his name.
+
+The Colonel's own nerves were beginning to assert themselves and with an
+oath he cuffed the fellow back to a state of coherence.
+
+"Stand up, you blithering fool, and tell us what you mean by raising
+such a fuss."
+
+Mose finally found his tongue but we still could make nothing of his
+story. He had been out "prospectin' 'round," and when he came in to go
+to bed--the house servants slept in a wing over the rear gallery--he met
+the ha'nt face to face standing in the dining-room doorway. He was so
+tall that his head reached the ceiling and he was so thin that you could
+see right through him. At the remembrance Mose began to shiver again.
+We propped him up with some whiskey and sent him off to bed still
+twittering with terror.
+
+The Colonel was bent on routing out Radnor to share the excitement and I
+with some difficulty restrained him, knowing full well that Rad was not
+in the house. We made a search of the premises to assure ourselves that
+there was nothing tangible about Mose's ha'nt; but I was in such a hurry
+to get the Colonel safely upstairs again, that our search was somewhat
+cursory. We both overlooked the little office that opened off the
+dining-room. In spite of my manoeuvres the Colonel entered the library
+first and discovered that the French window was open; he laid no stress
+on this however, supposing that Mose was the guilty one. He bolted it
+with unusual care, and I with equal care slipped back and unbolted it. I
+finally persuaded him that Mose's ha'nt was merely the result of a
+fevered imagination fed on a two weeks' diet of ghost stories, and
+succeeded in getting him back to bed without discovering Radnor's
+absence. I lay awake until I heard the sound of carriage wheels
+returning across the lawn, and, a few minutes later, footsteps enter
+the house and tip-toe upstairs. Then as daylight was beginning to show
+in the east I finally fell asleep, worn out with puzzling my head for an
+explanation which should cover at once Rad's nocturnal drive and Mose's
+ha'nt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WE SEND FOR A DETECTIVE
+
+
+I slept late the next morning, and came down stairs to find the Colonel
+pacing the length of the dining-room, his head bent, a worried frown
+upon his brow. He came to a sudden halt at my appearance and regarded me
+a moment without speaking. I could see that something of moment had
+happened, but I could fathom nothing of its nature from his expression.
+
+"Good morning, Arnold," he said with a certain grim pleasantness. "I
+have just been making a discovery. It appears that Mose's ha'nt amounted
+to more than we gave him credit for. The safe was robbed during the
+night."
+
+"The safe robbed!" I cried. "How much was taken?"
+
+"Something over a hundred dollars in cash, and a number of important
+papers."
+
+He threw open the door of the little office, and waved his hand toward
+the safe which occupied one end. The two iron doors were wide open, the
+interior showing a succession of yawning pigeon holes with the cash
+drawer, half pulled out and empty. Several papers were spilled on the
+floor underneath.
+
+"He evidently had no use for my will nor for Kennisburg street railway
+stock--I don't blame him; it wouldn't sell for the paper it's written
+on."
+
+Radnor's step sounded on the stair as he came running down--whistling I
+noted.
+
+"Ah--Rad," the Colonel called from the office doorway. "You're a good
+sleeper."
+
+Radnor stopped his whistle as his eye fell upon our faces, and his own
+took on a look of anxiety.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked. "Has anything happened?"
+
+"It appears the ha'nt has robbed the safe."
+
+"The ha'nt?" Rad's face went visibly white, and then in a moment it
+cleared; his expression was divided between relief and dismay.
+
+"Oh!" he said, "you've missed the money? I meant to get down first and
+tell you about it, but overslept. I took a hundred dollars out of the
+safe last night because I wanted the cash--you had gone to bed so I
+didn't say anything about it. I will ride into the village this morning
+and get it out of the bank in time to pay the men."
+
+"You took a hundred dollars," the Colonel repeated. "And did you take
+the securities also and the bag of coin?" He waved his hand toward the
+safe. Radnor's eye followed and his jaw dropped.
+
+"I didn't touch anything but the roll of bills in the cash drawer.
+What's missing?"
+
+"Five thousand dollars in bonds, a couple of insurance policies and one
+or two deeds--also the bag of coin. Mose saw the ha'nt in the night, and
+Arnold and I came down to investigate; we unfortunately neglected the
+office in our search, or we might have cornered him. Do you happen to
+remember whether or not you closed the safe after you took out the
+money, and would you mind telling me why you needed a hundred dollars in
+such a hurry that you couldn't wait until the bank opened?"
+
+The troubled line on Radnor's brow deepened.
+
+"I think I closed the safe," he said, "but I don't remember. It's barely
+possible that I didn't lock it; you know we haven't always kept it
+locked, especially when there wasn't money in it.--It never occurred to
+me that anyone would steal the bonds. I can't imagine what it means."
+
+"You haven't answered my question.--Why did you need a hundred dollars
+in cash after ten o'clock last night?"
+
+"I am sorry, father, but I can't answer that question. It's a private
+matter."
+
+"Indeed! You are sure that you did not take the bonds as well and have
+forgotten it?"
+
+"I took one hundred dollars in bills and nothing else. I took that
+merely because it was my only way of cashing a check. I have frequently
+cashed my private checks, when we had a surplus on hand and I didn't
+want the bother of going in to the bank. So long as I balance the books
+all right, I see no reason why I should not do so."
+
+"H'm!" said the Colonel. "Two days ago you came to me and wanted two
+months' pay in advance because you had overdrawn your bank account, and
+I refused to give it to you. Where, may I ask, were you intending to get
+the hundred dollars to pay back this amount?"
+
+A quick flush spread over Radnor's face.
+
+"I already had it--Arnold will tell you that, for I borrowed it of him."
+
+"Certainly," I put in pacifically--"that's all settled between Rad and
+me. I have his note and was glad to accommodate him."
+
+"Don't you get enough from me, that you must ask the guests in my house
+to supply you with money?"
+
+Radnor's flush deepened but he said nothing. I could see by his eyes
+however that he would not stand much more.
+
+"Then after you had helped yourself to the money, the bonds were stolen
+by someone else?" said the Colonel.
+
+"So it appears," said Radnor.
+
+"And have you any theory as to the identity of the thief?"
+
+Rad hesitated a visible instant before replying. The flush left his face
+and the pallor came back, but in the end he raised his eyes and answered
+steadily.
+
+"No, father, I have not. I am as much mystified as you are."
+
+"And you heard nothing in the night? As I said before, you are an
+excellent sleeper!"
+
+Rad caught an ironical undertone in his father's voice.
+
+"I don't understand," he said.
+
+"I am a trifle deaf myself, but still he wakened me.--It's strange that
+you should be the only one in the house who could sleep through it."
+
+"Sleep through what? I don't know what you're talking about."
+
+I cut in hastily and explained our adventure with Mose's ha'nt.
+
+Radnor listened with troubled eyes but made no comment at the end. His
+father was watching him keenly, and I don't know whether it was
+intuition or some knowledge of the truth that made him suddenly put the
+question:
+
+"You were of course in the house all night?"
+
+"No," Radnor returned, "I was not. I didn't get in till early this
+morning and I suppose the excitement occurred during my absence."
+
+"I suppose I may not be permitted to inquire where you spent the
+night--that too is a private matter?"
+
+"Yes," said Radnor, easily, "that too is a private matter."
+
+"And would throw no light on the robbery?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+Solomon brought in the breakfast and we three sat down, but not to a
+very cheerful meal. The Colonel wore an angry frown and Rad an air of
+anxious perplexity. Neither of them indulged in any unnecessary
+conversation. I knew that the Colonel was more upset by his son's
+reticence than by the robbery of the bonds, and that it was my presence
+alone which restrained him from giving vent to his anger. As we rose
+from the table he said stiffly:
+
+"Well, Rad, have you any suggestion as to how we shall set to work to
+track down the thief?"
+
+Radnor slowly shook his head.
+
+"I shall have to talk with Mose first and find out what he really saw."
+
+"Mose!" The Colonel laughed shortly. "He's like all the rest of the
+niggers. He doesn't know what he saw--No sir! I've had enough of this
+ha'nt business; it's one thing when he spirits chickens from the oven,
+it's another when he takes to spiriting securities from the safe. I
+shall telegraph to Washington for a first class detective."
+
+"If you take my advice," said Rad, "you'll not do that. A detective's
+not much good outside the covers of a book. He'll stir up a lot of
+notoriety and present a bill; and you'll be no wiser than you were
+before."
+
+"Whoever stole those bonds will be marketing them within a few days; the
+interest falls due the first of May. I am not so rich that I can let
+five thousand dollars go without a move to get it back. I shall
+telegraph today for a detective."
+
+"Just as you please," said Radnor with a shrug, and he turned toward the
+door that opened on the gallery. Mose was visible at the end evidently
+recounting to an excited audience his experiences of the night. Rad
+beckoned to him and the two turned together across the lawn toward the
+laurel walk.
+
+It was an hour or so later that Rad presented himself at my door. His
+colloquy with Mose had increased rather than lessened the mystified look
+on his face. He waited for no preliminaries this time, but plunged
+immediately into the matter that was on his mind.
+
+"Arnold, for heaven's sake, stop my father from getting a detective down
+here. I don't dare say anything, for my opposition will only make him do
+it the more. But you have some influence with him; tell him you're a
+lawyer, and will take charge of it yourself."
+
+"Why don't you want a detective?" I asked.
+
+"Good Lord, hasn't our family had notoriety enough? Here's Nan eloping
+with the overseer, and Jeff the scandal of the county for five years. I
+can't turn around but some malicious interpretation is put on it, and
+now that the family ghost has taken to cracking safes gossip will never
+stop. Get a detective down here who goes nosing about the neighborhood
+in search of information and there's no telling where the thing will
+end. Those bonds can't be far. Aren't we more likely to get at the
+truth, if we lie low and don't let on we're after the thief?"
+
+"Radnor," I said, "will you tell me the absolute truth? Have you any
+suspicion as to who took those securities? Do you know any facts which
+might lead to the apprehension of the thief?"
+
+He remained silent a moment, then he parried my question with another.
+
+"What time did all that row occur in the night?"
+
+"I don't know; I didn't think to look, but I should say it was somewhere
+in the neighborhood of three o'clock. I didn't go to sleep again, and it
+was about half an hour later that you drove in."
+
+"You heard me?"
+
+"I heard you go and I heard you come; but I did not mention that fact
+to the Colonel."
+
+Rad laughed shortly.
+
+"I can at least prove an alibi," he said. "You can swear that I was not
+Mose's devil."
+
+He remained silent a moment with his elbows on his knees and his chin in
+his hands studying the floor; then he raised his eyes to mine with a
+puzzled shake of the head.
+
+"No, Arnold, I haven't the slightest suspicion as to who took those
+securities. I can't make it out. The robbery must have occurred while I
+was away. Of course the deeds and insurance policies and coin may have
+been taken as a blind; but it's queer. The money was in five and ten
+cent pieces and pennies--we always keep a lot of change on hand to pay
+the piece-workers during planting season. There was nearly a quart of it
+altogether and it must have weighed a ton. I can't imagine anyone
+stealing Government four-per-cents and pennies at the same haul."
+
+"Did you get any light from Mose?" I asked.
+
+"No, I can't make head nor tail out of his story. He isn't given to
+seeing visions, and as you know, he isn't afraid of the dark. He saw
+something that scared him; but what it was, I'll be darned if I know!"
+
+"Then why not get a detective down and see if he can't find out?"
+
+Radnor lowered his eyes a moment, then raised them frankly to mine.
+
+"Oh, hang it, Arnold; I'm in the deuce of a hole! There's something else
+that I don't want found out. It's absolutely unconnected with the
+robbery, but you bring a detective down here and he's certain to stumble
+on that instead of the other. I'd tell you if I could, but really I
+can't just now. It's nothing I'm to blame for--my conduct lately has
+been immaculate. You get my father to abandon this detective plan, and
+we'll buckle down together and root out the truth about the robbery."
+
+"Well," I promised, "I'll see what I can do; but as the Colonel says,
+five thousand dollars is a good deal of money to let slip through your
+hands without making an effort to get it back. You and I will have to
+finish the business if we undertake it."
+
+"We will!" he assured me. "We can certainly get at the truth better
+than an outsider who doesn't know any of the facts. You switch off the
+old gentleman from putting it in the hands of the police and everything
+will come out right."
+
+He went off actually whistling again. Whatever had been troubling him
+for the past two weeks had been sloughed off during the night, and all
+that remained now was the danger of detection; with this removed he was
+his old careless self. The loss of the securities was apparently not
+bothering him. Radnor always did exhibit a lordly disregard in money
+matters.
+
+I lost no time in taking my errand to the Colonel, but I could discover
+him in none of the down stairs rooms nor anywhere else about the place.
+It occurred to me, after half an hour of searching, to see if his horse
+were in the stable; as I had surmised it was not. He had ordered it
+saddled immediately after breakfast and had ridden off in the direction
+of the village, one of the stable-men informed me. I had my own horse
+saddled, and ten minutes later was riding after him. It surprised me
+that he should have acted so quickly; the Colonel was usually rather
+given to procrastination, while Rad was the one who acted. His
+promptness proved that he was angry.
+
+Four-Pools is about two miles from the village of Lambert Corners which
+consists of a single shady square. Two sides of the square are taken up
+with shops, the other two with the school, a couple of churches, and a
+dozen or so of dwellings. This composes as much of the town as is
+visible, the aristocracy being scattered over the outlying plantations,
+and regarding the "Corners" merely as a source of mail and drinks. Three
+miles farther down the pike lies Kennisburg, the county seat, which
+answers the varied purposes of a metropolis.
+
+I reined in before "Miller's place," a spacious structure comprising a
+general store on the right, the post and telegraph office on the left,
+and in the rear a commodious room where a white man may quench his
+thirst. A negro must pass on to "Jake's place," two doors below. A
+number of horses were tied to the iron railing in front and among them I
+recognized Red Pepper. I found the Colonel in the back room, a glass of
+mint julep at his elbow, an interested audience before him. He was
+engaged in recounting the story of the missing bonds, and it was too
+late for me to interrupt. He referred in the most casual manner to the
+hundred dollars his son had taken from the safe the night before, a
+fortunate circumstance, he added, or that too would have been stolen.
+There was not the slightest suggestion in his tone that he and his son
+had had any words over this same hundred dollars. The Gaylord pride
+could be depended on for hiding from the world what the world had no
+business in knowing.
+
+The telegram to the detective agency, I found, had already been
+dispatched, and the Colonel was awaiting his answer. It came in a few
+moments and was delivered by word of mouth, the clerk seeing no reason
+why he should put himself to the trouble of writing it out.
+
+"They say they'll put one o' their best men on the case, Colonel, an'
+he'll get to the Junction at five-forty tonight."
+
+The Colonel and I rode home together, he in a more placable frame of
+mind. Though I dare say he disliked as much as ever the idea of losing
+his bonds, still the eclat of a robbery, of a magnitude that demanded a
+detective, was something of a palliative. It was not everyone of his
+listeners who had five thousand dollars in bonds to lose. I knew that it
+would be useless to try to head off the detective now, and I wisely kept
+silent. My mind was by no means at rest however; for an unknown reason I
+did not want a detective any more than Radnor. I had the intangible
+feeling that there was something in the air which might better not be
+discovered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+WE SEND HIM BACK AGAIN
+
+
+The detective came. He was an inoffensive young man, and he set to work
+to unravel the mystery of the ha'nt with visible delight at the unusual
+nature of the job. Radnor received him in a spirit of almost anxious
+hospitality. A horse was given him to ride, guns and fishing tackle were
+placed at his disposal, a box of the Colonel's best cigars stood on the
+table of his room, and Solomon at his elbow presented a succession of
+ever freshly mixed mint juleps. I think that he was dazed and a trifle
+suspicious at these unexpected attentions; he was not used to the
+largeness of Southern hospitality. However, he set to work with an
+admirable zeal.
+
+He interviewed the servants and farm-hands, and the information he
+received in regard to things supernatural would have filled three
+volumes; he was staggered by the amount of evidence at hand rather than
+the scarcity. He examined the safe and the library window with a
+microscope, crawled about the laurel walk on his hands and knees, sent
+off telegrams and gossiped with the loungers at "Miller's place." He
+interviewed the Colonel and Radnor, cross-examined me, and wrote down
+always copious notes. The young man's manner was preeminently
+professional.
+
+Finally one evening--it was four days after his arrival--he joined me as
+I was strolling in the garden smoking an after dinner pipe.
+
+"May I have just a word with you, Mr. Crosby?" he asked.
+
+"I am at your service, Mr. Clancy," said I.
+
+His manner was gravely portentous and prepared me for the statement that
+was coming.
+
+"I have spotted my man," he said. "I know who stole the securities; but
+I am afraid that the information will not be welcome. Under the
+circumstances it seemed wisest to make my report to you rather than to
+Colonel Gaylord, and we can decide between us what is best to do."
+
+"What do you mean?" I demanded. In spite of my effort at composure,
+there was anxiety in my tone.
+
+"The thief is Radnor Gaylord."
+
+I laughed.
+
+"That is absolutely untenable. Rad is incapable of such an act in the
+first place, and in the second, he was not in the house when the robbery
+occurred."
+
+"Ah! Then you know that? And where was he, pray?"
+
+"That," said I, "is his own affair; if he did not tell you, it is
+because it is not connected with the case."
+
+"So! It is just because it _is_ connected with the case that he did not
+tell me. I will tell you, however, where he spent the night; he drove to
+Kennisburg--a larger town than Lambert Corners, where an unusual letter
+would create no comment--and mailed the bonds to a Washington firm of
+brokers with whom he has had some dealings. He took the bag of coin and
+several unimportant papers in order to deflect suspicion, and his
+opening the safe the night before for the hundred dollars was merely a
+ruse to allow him to forget and leave it open, so that the bonds could
+appear to be stolen by someone else. Just what led him to commit the act
+I won't say; he has been in a tight place for several months back in
+regard to money. Last January he turned a two-thousand dollar mortgage,
+that his father had given him on his twenty-first birthday, into cash,
+and what he did with the cash I haven't been able to discover. In any
+case his father knows nothing of the transaction; he thinks that Radnor
+still holds the mortgage. This spring the young man was hard up again,
+and no more mortgages left to sell. He probably did not regard the
+appropriation of the bonds as stealing, since everything by his father's
+will was to come to him ultimately.
+
+"As to all this hocus-pocus about the ha'nt, that is easily explained.
+He needed a scapegoat on whom to turn the blame when the bonds should
+disappear; so he and this Cat-Eye Mose between them invented a ghost.
+The negro is a half crazy fellow who from the first has been young
+Gaylord's tool; I don't think he knew what he was doing sufficiently to
+be blamed. As for Gaylord himself, I fancy there was a third person
+somewhere in the background who was pressing him for money and who
+couldn't be shaken off till the money was forthcoming. But whatever his
+motive for taking the bonds, there is no doubt about the fact, and I
+have come to you with the story rather than to his father."
+
+"It is absolutely impossible," I returned. "Radnor, whatever his faults,
+is an honorable man in regard to money matters. I have his word that he
+knows no more about the robbery of those bonds than I do."
+
+The detective laughed.
+
+"There is just one kind of evidence that doesn't count for much in my
+profession, and that is a man's word. We look for something a little
+more tangible--such as this for example."
+
+He drew from his pocket an envelope, took from it a letter, and handed
+it to me. It was a typewritten communication from a firm of brokers in
+Washington.
+
+
+     "RADNOR F. GAYLORD, Esq.,
+          "Four-Pools Plantation, Lambert Corners, Va.
+
+     "_Dear Mr. Gaylord_:
+
+     "We are in receipt of your favor of April 29th. in regard to the
+     sale of the bonds. The market is rather slow at present and we
+     shall have to sell at 981/4. If you care to hold on to them a few
+     months longer, there is every chance of the market picking up, and
+     we feel sure that in the end you will find them a good investment.
+
+     "Awaiting your further orders and thanking you for past favors,
+
+                  "We are,
+                     "Very truly yours,
+                        "JACOBY, HAIGHT & CO."
+
+
+"Where did you get hold of that?" I asked. "It strikes me it's a private
+letter."
+
+"Very private," the young man agreed. "I had trouble enough in getting
+hold of it; I had to do some fishing with a hook and pole over the
+transom of Mr. Gaylord's door. He had very kindly put the tackle at my
+disposal."
+
+"You weren't called down here to open the family's private letters," I
+said hotly.
+
+"I was called down here to find out who stole Colonel Gaylord's bonds,
+and I've done it."
+
+I was silent for a moment. This letter from the brokers staggered me.
+April twenty-ninth was the date of the robbery, and I could think of no
+explanation. Clancy, noticing my silence, elaborated his theory with a
+growing air of triumph.
+
+"This Mose was left behind the night of the robbery with orders to rouse
+the house while Radnor was away. Mose is a good actor and he fooled you.
+The obvious suspicion was that the ghost had stolen the bonds and you
+set out to find him--a somewhat difficult task as he existed only in
+Mose's imagination. I think when you reflect upon the evidence, you will
+see that my explanation is convincing."
+
+"It isn't in the least convincing," I retorted. "Mose was not acting;
+he saw something that frightened him half out of his senses. And that
+something was not Radnor masquerading as a ghost, for Radnor was out of
+the house when the robbery took place."
+
+"Not necessarily. The robbery took place early in the evening before all
+this rumpus occurred. Even if Mose did see a ghost, the ghost had
+nothing to do with it."
+
+"You have absolutely no proof of that; it is nothing but surmise."
+
+Clancy smiled with an air of patient tolerance.
+
+"How about the letter?" he inquired. "How do you explain that?"
+
+"I don't explain it; it is none of my business. But I dare say Radnor
+will do so readily enough--there he is going toward the stables; we will
+call him over."
+
+"No, hold on, I haven't finished what I want to say. I was employed by
+Colonel Gaylord to find out who stole the bonds and I have done so. But
+the Colonel did not suspect the direction my investigations would take
+or he never would have engaged me. Now I am wondering if it would not be
+kinder not to let him know? He's had trouble enough with his elder son;
+Radnor is all he has left. The young man seems to me like a really
+decent fellow--I dare say he'll straighten up and amount to something
+yet. Probably he considered the money as practically his already; anyway
+he's been decent to me and I should like to do him a service. Now say we
+three talk it over together and settle it out of court as it were. I've
+put in my time down here and I've got to have my pay, but perhaps it
+would be better all around if I took it from the young man rather than
+his father."
+
+This struck me as the best way out of the muddle, and a very fair
+proposition, considering Clancy's point of view. I myself did not for an
+instant credit his suspicions, but I thought the wisest thing to do was
+to tell Rad just how the matter stood and let him explain in regard to
+the letter. I left Clancy waiting in the summer house while I went in
+search of Rad. I wished to be the one to do the explaining as I knew he
+was not likely to take any such accusation calmly.
+
+I found him in the stables, and putting my hand on his shoulder, marched
+him back toward the garden.
+
+"Rad," I said, "Clancy has formed his conclusions as to how the bonds
+left the safe, and I want you to convince him that he is mistaken."
+
+"Well? Let's hear his conclusions."
+
+"He thinks that you took them when you took the money."
+
+"You mean that I stole them?"
+
+"That's what he thinks."
+
+"He does, does he? Well he can prove it!"
+
+Radnor broke away from me and strode toward the summer house. The
+detective received his onslaught placidly; his manner suggested that he
+was used to dealing with excitable young men.
+
+"Sit down, Mr. Gaylord, and let's discuss this matter quietly. If you
+listen to reason, I assure you it will go no further."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you accuse me of stealing those bonds?" Radnor
+shouted.
+
+Clancy held up a warning hand.
+
+"Don't talk so loud; someone will hear you. Sit down." He nodded toward
+a seat on the other side of the little rustic table. "I will explain the
+matter as I see it, and if you can disprove any of my statements I shall
+be more than glad to have you."
+
+Radnor subsided and listened scowlingly while the detective outlined his
+theory in a perfectly non-personal way, and ended by producing the
+letter.
+
+"Where did you get that?" Rad demanded.
+
+"Out of your coat pocket which I hooked over the transom of the door."
+He made the statement imperturbably; it was evidently a matter of
+everyday routine.
+
+"So you enter gentlemen's houses as their guest and spend your time
+sneaking about reading their private correspondence?"
+
+An angry gleam appeared in Clancy's eye and he rose to his feet.
+
+"I did not come to your house as your guest. I came on business for
+Colonel Gaylord. Now that my business is completed I will make my report
+to him and go."
+
+Radnor rose also.
+
+"It's a lie, and you haven't a word of proof to show."
+
+Clancy significantly tapped the pocket that held the letter.
+
+"That," said Radnor contemptuously, "refers to two bonds which I bought
+last winter with some money I got from selling a mortgage. I preferred
+to have the investment in bonds because they are more readily
+negotiable. I left them at my broker's as collateral for another
+investment I was making. Last week I needed some ready money and wrote
+to them to sell. My statement can easily be substantiated; no reputable
+detective would ever base any such absurd charge on the contents of a
+letter he did not understand."
+
+"Of course," said the detective, "we have tried to get at the matter
+from the other end; but Jacoby, Haight & Company refuse to discuss the
+affairs of their clients. I did not press the point as I did not want to
+stir up comment. However," he smiled, "I must confess, Mr. Gaylord, that
+I think your explanation a trifle fishy. Perhaps you will answer one
+question. Did you mail your letter to them in Kennisburg the night of
+the robbery with a special delivery stamp?"
+
+"It happens that I did, but it was merely a coincidence and has nothing
+to do with the robbery."
+
+"Will you be kind enough to explain why you drove to Kennisburg in the
+night and why you needed the money so suddenly?"
+
+"No, I will not. That is a matter which concerns, me alone."
+
+"Very well! As it happens I do not base my charge on the letter; I had
+already formed my opinion before I knew of its existence. Do you deny
+that you yourself have encouraged the belief in the ghost among the
+negroes? That on more than one occasion, you, or your accomplice,
+Cat-Eye Mose, have masqueraded as the ghost? That, while you were
+pretending to Colonel Gaylord to be as much puzzled by the matter as he,
+you were in truth at the bottom of the whole business?"
+
+Radnor glanced uneasily at me and hesitated before replying.
+
+"No," he said at length, "I don't deny that, but I do affirm that it
+has nothing to do with the robbery."
+
+The detective laughed.
+
+"You must excuse me, Mr. Gaylord, if I stick to the opinion that I have
+solved the puzzle."
+
+He turned with a motion toward the house, and Radnor barred the
+entrance.
+
+"Do you think I lie when I say I know nothing of those bonds?"
+
+"Yes, Mr. Gaylord, I do."
+
+For a moment I thought that Radnor was going to strike him, but I pulled
+him back and turned to Clancy.
+
+"He knows nothing about the bonds," said I, "but nevertheless you must
+not take any such story to Colonel Gaylord. He is an old man, and while
+he would not believe his son guilty of theft, still it would worry him.
+There is something else that happened that night--entirely
+uncriminal--but which we do not wish him to hear about. Therefore I am
+not going to let you go to him with this nonsensical tale that you have
+cooked up."
+
+This was a trial shot on my part but it hit the bull's-eye. Radnor
+stared but said nothing; and the detective visibly wavered.
+
+"Now," I added, taking out my checkbook, "suppose I pay you what you
+would have received had you discovered the bonds, and dispense with your
+further services?"
+
+"That's just as you say. I feel that I've done the job and am entitled
+to the money. If you wish to pay it, all right; otherwise I get it from
+Colonel Gaylord. I received a retaining fee and was to have two hundred
+dollars more when I located the bonds. In order not to stir up any bad
+feeling I'm willing to take that two hundred dollars from you and drop
+the matter."
+
+"It's blackmail!" said Radnor.
+
+"Keep still, Rad," I said. "It's very accommodating of Mr. Clancy to see
+it this way."
+
+I wrote out a check and tossed it to the detective.
+
+"Now go to Colonel Gaylord," I said, "tell him that you have been
+unsuccessful in finding any clue; that the bonds will almost certainly
+be marketed in the city, and that your only hope of tracing them is to
+work from the other end. Then pack your bag and go. A carriage will be
+ready to take you to the Junction in half an hour."
+
+"Just wait a moment, Mr. Clancy," Rad called after him as he turned
+away. He drew a note book from his pocket and ripping out a page
+scrawled across the face:
+
+
+     "JACOBY, HAIGHT AND CO.
+
+     "_Gentlemen_:--You will oblige me by answering any questions which
+     the bearer of this note may ask concerning my past transactions
+     with you.
+
+                  "RADNOR F. GAYLORD."
+
+
+"There," said Rad, thrusting it toward him, "kindly make use of that
+when you get to Washington, and in the future I should advise you to
+base your charges on something a little more substantial."
+
+His manner was insultingly contemptuous, but Clancy swallowed it with
+smiling good nature.
+
+"I shall be interested in continuing the investigation," he observed as
+he pocketed the paper and withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE ROBBERY REMAINS A MYSTERY
+
+
+So we got rid of the detective. But matters did not readily settle down
+again into their old relations. The Colonel was irritable, and Rad was
+moody and sullen. He showed no tendency to confide in me as to the truth
+about the ha'nt, and I did not probe the matter further. In a day or so
+he brought me three hundred dollars, to cover the amount I had loaned
+him, together with the "blackmail," as he insisted upon calling it. The
+money, he informed me, was from the proceeds of the bonds he had sold.
+He showed me at the same time several letters from his brokers
+establishing beyond a doubt that the story he had told was true. As to
+the stolen bonds, their whereabouts was as much a mystery as ever, and
+Rad appeared to take not the slightest interest in the matter. Since the
+detective had been summoned, he had washed his hands of all
+responsibility.
+
+I think it was the morning after Clancy's departure that Solomon handed
+me a pale blue envelope bearing in the upper left-hand corner the device
+of the Post-Dispatch. I laughed as I ripped it open; I had almost
+forgotten Terry's existence. It contained a characteristic pencil scrawl
+slanting across a sheet of yellow copy paper.
+
+
+
+     "Arnold Crosby, Esq.
+          "Turnips Farm, Pumpkin Corners, Va.
+
+     "_Dear Sir_:
+
+     "Enclosed please find clipping. Are the facts straight and have the
+     missing bonds turned up? If not, don't you want me to run down and
+     find them for you? Should like to meet an authenticated ghost.
+     Wouldn't be a bad Sunday feature article. Give it my love. Is it a
+     man or lady? Things are also moving nicely in New York--two murders
+     and a child abducted in one week.
+
+     "How are crops?
+                 "Yours truly,
+                                                   "T. P.
+     "Wire me if you want me."
+
+
+The clipping was headed, "Spook Cracks Safe," and was a fairly accurate
+account of the ha'nt and the robbery. It ended with the remark that the
+mystery was as yet unsolved, but that the best detective talent in the
+country had been engaged on the case.
+
+I tossed the letter to Radnor with a laugh; he had already heard of
+Terry's connection with the Patterson-Pratt affair.
+
+"Perhaps we couldn't do better than to get him down," I suggested; "he's
+most abnormally keen at ferreting out a mystery that promises any
+news--if any one can learn the truth about those bonds, he can."
+
+"I don't want to know the truth," Radnor growled. "I'm sick of the very
+name of bonds."
+
+And this had been his attitude from the moment the detective left. My
+own insistence that it was our duty to track down the thief met with
+nothing but a shrug. Another person might have suspected that this
+apathy only proved his own culpability in the theft, but such a
+suspicion never for a moment crossed my mind. He was, as he said, sick
+of the very name of bonds, and with a person of his temperament that
+ended the matter. Though I did not comprehend his attitude, still I took
+him at his word. There was something about Rad's straightforward way of
+looking one in the eye that impelled belief. As I had heard the Colonel
+boast, a Gaylord could not tell a lie.
+
+The things a Gaylord could and could not do, were, I acknowledge, to a
+Northern ethical sense a trifle mystifying. A Gaylord might drink and
+gamble and fail to pay his debts (not his gambling debts; his tailor and
+his grocer); he might be the hero of many doubtful affairs with women;
+he might in a sudden fit of passion commit a murder--there was more than
+one killing in the family annals--but under no circumstances would his
+"honah" permit him to tell a lie. The reservation struck me somewhat
+humorously as an anti-climax. But nevertheless I believed it. When Rad
+said he knew nothing of the stolen bonds I dismissed the possibility
+from my mind.
+
+Though I was relieved to feel that he was not guilty, still I was
+worried and nervous over the matter. I felt that it was criminal not to
+do something, and yet my hands were tied. I could scarcely undertake an
+investigation myself, for every clue led across the trail of the ha'nt,
+and that, Rad made it clear, was forbidden ground. The Colonel,
+meanwhile, was comparatively quiet, as he supposed the detective was
+still working on the case. I accordingly did nothing, but I kept my eyes
+open, hoping that something would turn up.
+
+Rad's temper was absolutely unbearable for the first week after the
+detective left. The reason had nothing to do with the stolen bonds, but
+was concerned entirely with Polly Mathers's behavior. She barely noticed
+Rad's existence, so occupied was she with the ecstatic young sheriff.
+What the trouble was, I did not know, but I suspected that it was the
+whispered conjectures in regard to the ha'nt.
+
+I remember one evening in particular that she snubbed him in the face of
+the entire neighborhood. We had arrived at a party a trifle late to
+find Polly as usual the center of a laughing group of young men, all
+clamoring for dances. They widened their circle to admit Rad in a way
+which tacitly acknowledged his prior claim. He inquired with his most
+deferential bow what dances she had saved for him. Polly replied in an
+off-hand manner that she was sorry but her card was already full. Rad
+shrugged nonchalantly, and sauntering toward the door, disappeared for
+the rest of the night. When he turned up at Four-Pools early in the
+morning, his horse, Uncle Jake informed me, looked as if it had been
+ridden by "de debbil hisself."
+
+With Radnor in this state, and the Colonel growing daily more irritable
+over the continued mystery of the bonds, it is not strange that matters
+between them were at a high state of tension. As I saw more of the
+Colonel's treatment of Rad, I came to realize that there was
+considerable excuse for Jefferson's wildness. While he was a kind man at
+heart, still he had an ungovernable temper, and an absolutely tyrannical
+desire to rule every one about him. His was the only free will allowed
+on the place. He attempted to treat Rad at twenty-two much as he had
+done at twelve. A few months before my arrival (I heard this later) he
+had even struck him, whereupon Radnor had turned on his heel and walked
+out of the house, and had only consented to come back two weeks later
+when he heard that the old man was ill. If two men ever needed a woman
+to manage them, these were the two. I think that if my aunt had lived,
+most of the trouble would have been avoided.
+
+Rad was not the only one, however, who felt the Colonel's irritation
+over the robbery. His treatment of the servants was harsh and even
+cruel. Everybody on the place went about in a half-cowed fashion. He
+treated Mose like a dog. Why the fellow stood it, I don't know. The
+Colonel seemed never to have learned that the old slave days were over
+and that he no longer owned the negroes body and soul. His government of
+the plantation was in the manner of a despot. Everybody--from his own
+son to the merest pickaninny--was at the mercy of his caprice. When he
+was in good humor, he was kindness itself to the darkies; when he was in
+bad humor, he vented his anger on whoever happened to be nearest.
+
+I shall never forget the feeling of indignation with which I first saw
+him strike a man. A strange negro was caught one morning in the
+neighborhood of the chicken coop, and was brought up to the house by two
+of the stable-men. My uncle, who was standing on the portico steps
+waiting for his horse, was in a particularly savage mood, as he had just
+come from an altercation with Radnor. The man said that he was hungry
+and asked for work. But the Colonel, almost without waiting to hear him
+speak, fell upon him in a fit of blind rage, slashing him half a dozen
+times over the head and shoulders with his heavy riding crop. The negro,
+who was a powerfully built fellow, instead of standing up and defending
+himself like a man, crouched on the ground with his arms over his head.
+
+"Please, Cunnel Gaylord," he whimpered, "le' me go! I ain't done nuffen.
+I ain't steal no chickens. For Gord's sake, doan whip me!"
+
+I sprang forward with an angry exclamation and grasped my uncle's arm.
+The fellow was on his feet instantly and off down the lane without once
+glancing back. The Colonel stood a moment looking from my indignant face
+to the man disappearing in the distance, and burst out laughing.
+
+"I reckon I won't be troubled with _him_ any more," he remarked as he
+mounted and rode away, his good humor apparently quite restored.
+
+I confess that it took me some time to get over that scene. But the
+worst of it was that he treated his own servants in the same summary
+fashion. The thing that puzzled me most was the way in which they
+received it. Mose, being always at hand, was cuffed about more than any
+negro on the place, but as far as I could make out, it only seemed to
+increase his love and veneration for the Colonel. I don't believe the
+situation could ever be intelligible to a Northern man.
+
+So matters stood when I had been a month at Four-Pools. My vacation had
+lasted long enough, but I was supremely comfortable and very loath to
+go. The first few weeks of May had been, to my starved city eyes, a
+dazzling pageant of beauty. The landscape glowed with yellow daffodils,
+pink peach blossoms, and the bright green of new wheat; the fields were
+alive with the frisky joyousness of spring lambs and colts, turned out
+to pasture. It was with a keen feeling of reluctance that I faced the
+prospect of New York's brick and stone and asphalt. My work was calling,
+but I lazily postponed my departure from day to day.
+
+Things at the plantation seemed to have settled into their old routine.
+The whereabouts of the bonds was still a mystery, but the ha'nt had
+returned to his grave--at least, in so far as any manifestations
+affected the house. I believe that the "sperrit of de spring-hole" had
+been seen rising once or twice from a cloud of sulphurous smoke, but the
+excitement was confined strictly to the negro quarters. No man on the
+place who valued a whole skin would have dared mention the word "ha'nt"
+in Colonel Gaylord's presence. Relations between Rad and his father
+were rather less strained, and matters on the whole were going
+pleasantly enough, when there suddenly fell from a clear sky the strange
+and terrible series of events which changed everything at Four-Pools.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE EXPEDITION TO LURAY
+
+
+Toward eleven o'clock one morning, the Colonel, Radnor and I were
+established in lounging chairs in the shade of a big catalpa tree on the
+lawn. It was a warm day, and Rad and I were just back from a tramp to
+the upper pasture--a full mile from the house. We were addressing
+ourselves with considerable zest to the frosted glasses that Solomon had
+just placed on the table, when we became aware of the sound of galloping
+hoofs, and a moment later Polly Mathers and her sorrel mare, Tiger
+Lilly, appeared at the end of the sunflecked lane. An Irish setter
+romped at her side, and the three of them made a picture. The horse's
+shining coat, the dog's silky hair and Polly's own red gold curls were
+almost of a color. I believe the little witch had chosen the two on
+purpose. In her dark habit and mannish hat, with sparkling cheeks and
+laughing eyes, she was as pretty an apparition as ever enhanced a May
+morning. She waved her crop gaily and rode toward us across the lawn.
+
+"Howdy!" she called, in a droll imitation of the mountain dialect.
+"Ain't you-uns guine to ask me to 'light a while, an' set a bit, an'
+talk a spell?"
+
+Radnor's face had flushed quickly as he perceived who the rider was, but
+he held himself stiffly in the background while the Colonel and I did
+the honors. It was the first time, I know, that Polly and Rad had met
+since the night she refused to dance with him; and her appearance could
+only be interpreted as a desire to make amends.
+
+She sprang lightly to the ground, turned Tiger Lilly loose to graze
+about the lawn, and airily perched herself on the arm of a chair. There
+was nothing in her manner, at least, to suggest that her relations with
+any one of us were strained. After a few moments of neighborly gossip
+with the Colonel and me--Rad was monosyllabic and remote--she arrived
+at her errand. Some friends from Savannah were stopping at the Hall on
+their way to the Virginia hot springs, and, as is usual, when strangers
+visit the valley, they were planning an expedition to Luray Cave. The
+cave was on the other side of the mountains about ten miles from
+Four-Pools. Since I had not yet visited it (that was at least the reason
+she gave) she had come to ask the three of us to join the party on the
+following day.
+
+Rad was sulky at first, and rather curtly declined on the ground that he
+had to attend to some business. But Polly scouted his excuse, and added
+significantly that Jim Mattison had not been asked. He accepted this
+mark of repentance with a pleased flush, and before she rode away, he
+had become his former cheerful self again. The Colonel also demurred on
+the ground that he was getting too old for such diversions, but Polly
+laid her hands upon his shoulders and coaxed him into acquiescence--even
+a mummy must have unbent before such persuasion. As a matter of fact
+though, the Colonel was only too pleased with his invitation. It
+flattered him to be included with the young people, and he was
+immensely fond of Polly.
+
+It struck me suddenly as I watched her, how like she was to that other
+girl, of eighteen years before. There danced in Polly's eyes the same
+eager joy of life that vitalized the face of the portrait over the
+mantelpiece upstairs. The resemblance for a moment was almost startling;
+I believe the same thought had come to Colonel Gaylord. The old man's
+eyes dwelt upon her with a sadly wistful air; and I like to feel that it
+was of Nannie he was thinking.
+
+Radnor and I had been invited to a dance that same evening at a
+neighboring country house, but when the time came, I begged off on the
+plea of wishing to rest for the ride the next morning. The real reason,
+I fancy, was that I too was suffering from a touch of Radnor's trouble;
+and, since I had no chance of winning her, it was the part of wisdom to
+keep out of hearing of Polly's laugh. In any case, I went to bed and to
+sleep, while Rad went to the party, and I have never known exactly what
+happened that night.
+
+I rose early the next morning, and as I went down stairs I saw Solomon
+crawling around on his hands and knees on the parlor floor, collecting
+the remnants of a French clock which had stood on the mantelpiece.
+
+"How did that clock come to be broken?" I asked a trifle sharply,
+thinking I had caught him in a bad piece of carelessness.
+
+"Cayn't say, sah," Solomon returned, rising on his knees and looking at
+me mournfully. "I specs ole Marsa been chastisin' young Marsa again.
+It's powe'ful destructive on de brick-yuh-brack."
+
+I went on out of doors, wondering sadly if Radnor could have been
+drinking, and accusing myself for not having gone to the party and kept
+him straight. It was evident at breakfast that something serious had
+happened between him and his father. The Colonel appeared unusually
+grave, and Rad, after a gruff "good morning," sat staring at his plate
+in a dogged silence. Throughout the meal he scarcely so much as
+exchanged a glance with his father. I tried to talk as if I noticed
+nothing; and in the course of the somewhat one-sided conversation,
+happened to mention our proposed trip to Luray. Rad returned that he had
+visited the cave a good many times and did not care about going. I was
+puzzled at this, for I knew that the cave was not the chief attraction,
+but I discreetly dropped the subject and shortly after we rose from the
+table.
+
+As I left the room I saw the Colonel walk over and lay his hand on
+Radnor's arm.
+
+"You will change your mind and go, my boy," he said.
+
+But Rad shook the hand off roughly and turned away. As I went on out to
+the stables to give orders about the horses, I felt in anything but the
+proper spirits for a day of merry-making. However much the Colonel may
+have been to blame in their quarrel of the night before--and the French
+clock told its own story--still I could not help but feel that Rad
+should have borne with him more patiently. The scene I had just
+witnessed in the dining-room made me miserable. The Colonel was a proud
+man and apology came hard for him, his son might at least have met him
+half way.
+
+Going upstairs to my room a few minutes later, I caught a glimpse
+through the open door, of someone standing before the mantelpiece.
+Thinking it was Radnor waiting to consult me, I hurried forward and
+reached the threshold before I realized that it was the Colonel. He was
+standing with folded arms before the picture, his eyes, gleaming from
+under beetling brows, were devouring it hungrily, line by line. His face
+was set rigidly with a look--whether of sorrow or loneliness or remorse,
+I do not know; but I do know that it was the saddest expression I have
+ever seen on any human face. It was as if, in a single illuminating
+flash, he had looked into his own soul, and seen the ruin that his
+ungoverned pride and passion had wrought against those he loved the
+most.
+
+So absorbed had he been with his thoughts, that he had not heard my
+step. I turned and stole away, realizing suddenly that he was an old
+man, broken, infirm; that his life with its influence for good or evil
+was already at an end; he could never change his character now, no
+matter how keenly he might realize his defects. Poor little Nannie's
+wilfulness was at last forgiven, but the forgiveness was fifteen years
+too late. Why could not that moment of insight have come earlier to
+Colonel Gaylord, have come in time to save him from his mistakes?
+
+I passed out of doors again, pondering somewhat bitterly the exigencies
+of human life. The bright spring morning with its promise of youth and
+joy seemed jarringly out of tune. The beauty was but surface deep, I
+told myself pessimistically; underneath it was a cruel world. Before me
+in the garden path, a jubilant robin was pulling an unhappy angle worm
+from the ground, and a little farther on, under a blossoming apple tree,
+the kitchen cat was breakfasting on a baby robin. The double spectacle
+struck me as significant of life. I was casting about for some
+philosophical truths to fit it, when my revery was interrupted by a
+shout from Radnor.
+
+I turned to find the horses--three of them--waiting at the portico
+steps. Rad was going then after all. He and his father had evidently
+patched up some sort of a truce, but I soon saw that it was only a
+truce. The two avoided crossing eyes, and as we rode along they talked
+to me instead of to each other.
+
+The party met at Mathers Hall. The plan was for us to ride to Luray that
+morning, spend most of the afternoon there, and then return to the Hall
+for a supper and dance in the evening. The elder ladies took the
+carriage, while the rest of us went on horseback, a couple of servants
+following in the buckboard with the luncheon. Mose, bare-feet,
+linsey-woolsey and all, was brought along to act as guide and he was
+fairly purring with contentment at the importance it gave him over the
+other negroes. It seems that he had been in the habit of finding his way
+around in the cave ever since he was a little shaver, and he knew the
+route, Radnor told me, better than the professional guides. He knew it
+so well, in fact, that the entire neighborhood was in the habit of
+borrowing him whenever expeditions were being planned to Luray.
+
+We left our horses at the village hotel, and after eating a picnic lunch
+in the woods, set out to make the usual round of the cave. Luray has
+since been lighted with electricity and laid out in cement walks, but
+the time of which I am writing was before its exploitation by the
+railroad, and the cavern was still in its natural state. Each of us
+carried either candles or a torch, and the guides were supplied with
+calcium lights which they touched off at intervals whenever there was
+any special object of interest. This was the first cavern of any size
+that I had ever visited and I was so taken up with examining the rock
+formations and keeping my torch from burning my hands that I did not pay
+much attention to the disposal of the rest of the party. It took over
+two hours to make the round, and we must have walked about five miles.
+What with the heavy damp air and the slippery path, I, for one, was glad
+to get out into the sunshine again.
+
+I joined the group about Polly Mathers and casually asked if she knew
+where Radnor had gone.
+
+"I haven't seen him for some time; I think he must have come out before
+us," she replied. "And unless I am mistaken, Colonel Gaylord," she
+added, turning to my uncle, "he left my coat on that broken column above
+Crystal Lake. I am afraid that he isn't a very good cavalier."
+
+The Colonel, I imagine, had been a very good cavalier in his own youth,
+and I do not think that he had entirely outgrown it.
+
+"I will repair his fault, Miss Polly," the old man returned with a
+courtly bow, "and prove to you that the boy does not take after his
+father in lack of gallantry."
+
+"No, indeed, Colonel Gaylord!" Polly exclaimed. "I was only joking; I
+shouldn't think of letting you go back after it. One of the servants can
+get it."
+
+I shortly after ran across Mose and sent him back for the coat, and the
+incident was forgotten. We straggled back to the hotel in twos and
+threes; the horses were brought out, and we got off amidst general
+confusion.
+
+I rode beside the carriage for a couple of miles exchanging courtesies
+with Mrs. Mathers, and then galloped ahead to join the other riders. I
+was surprised to see neither my uncle nor Radnor anywhere in sight, and
+inquired as to their whereabouts.
+
+"I thought they were riding with you," said Polly, wheeling to my side.
+"You don't suppose," she asked quickly, "that the Colonel was foolish
+enough to go back for my coat, and we've left him behind?"
+
+One of the men laughed.
+
+"He has a horse, Miss Polly, and he knows how to use it. I dare say,
+even if we did leave him behind, that he can find his way home."
+
+"I sent Mose back for the coat," I remarked. "The Colonel probably feels
+that he has had enough frivolity for one day, and has preferred to ride
+straight on to Four-Pools."
+
+It occurred to me that Rad and his father had ridden home together to
+make up their quarrel, and the reflection added considerably to my peace
+of mind. I had felt vaguely uncomfortable over the matter all day, for I
+knew that the old man was always miserable after a misunderstanding with
+his son, and I strongly suspected that Radnor himself was far from
+happy.
+
+When we arrived at Mathers Hall, Polly slipped from her saddle and came
+running up to me as I was about to dismount. She laid her hand on the
+bridle and asked, in the sweetest way possible, if I would mind riding
+back to the plantation to see if the Colonel were really there, as she
+could not help feeling anxious about him. I noticed with a smile that
+she made no comment on the younger man's defection, though I strongly
+suspected that she was no less interested in that. I turned about and
+galloped off again, willing enough to do her bidding, though I could not
+help reflecting that it would have been just as easy for her, and
+considerably easier for me, had she developed her anxiety a few miles
+back.
+
+When I reached the four corners where the road to Four-Pools branches
+off from the valley turnpike, I saw the wagon coming with the two
+Mathers negroes in it, but without any sign of Mose. I drew up and
+waited for them.
+
+"Hello, boys!" I called. "What's become of Mose?"
+
+"Dat's moh 'n I can say, Mista Ahnold," one of the men returned. "We
+waited foh him a powe'ful while, but it 'pears like he's 'vaporated. I
+reckon he's took to de woods an' is gwine to walk home. Dat Cat-Eye
+Mose, he's monstrous fond ob walkin'!"
+
+I do not know why this incident should have aroused my own anxiety, but
+I pushed on to the plantation with a growing feeling of uneasiness.
+Nothing had been seen of either the Colonel or Mose, Solomon informed
+me, but he added with an excited rolling of his eyes:
+
+"Marse Rad, he come back nearly an hour ago an' stomp roun' like he mos'
+crazy, an' den went out to de gahden."
+
+I followed him and found him sitting in the summer house with his elbows
+on his knees and his head in his hands.
+
+"What's the matter, Rad?" I cried in alarm. "Has anything happened to
+your father?"
+
+He looked up with a start at the sound of my voice, and I saw that his
+face was pale.
+
+"My father?" he asked in a dazed way. "I left him in the cave. Why do
+you ask?"
+
+"He didn't come back with the rest of us, and Polly asked me to find
+him."
+
+"He's old enough to take care of himself," said Radnor without looking
+up.
+
+I hesitated a moment, uncertain what to do, and then turned back to the
+stables to order a fresh horse. To my astonishment I found the
+stable-men gathered in a group about Rad's mare, Jennie Loo. She was
+dashed with foam and trembling, and appeared to be about used up. The
+men fell back and eyed me silently as I approached.
+
+"What's happened to the horse?" I cried. "Did she run away?"
+
+One of the men "reckoned" that "Marse Rad" had been whipping her.
+
+"Whipping her!" I exclaimed in dismay. It was unbelievable, for no one
+as a rule was kinder to animals than Radnor; and as for his own Jennie
+Loo, he couldn't have cared more for her if she had been a human being.
+There was no mistaking it however. She was crossed and recrossed with
+thick welts about the withers; it was evident that the poor beast had
+been disgracefully handled.
+
+Uncle Jake volunteered that Rad had galloped straight into the stable,
+had dropped the bridle and walked off without a word; and he added the
+opinion that a "debbil had done conjured him." I was inclined to agree.
+There seemed to be something in the air that I did not understand, and
+my anxiety for the Colonel suddenly rushed back fourfold. I wheeled
+about and ordered a horse in an unnecessarily sharp tone, and the men
+jumped to obey me.
+
+It was just sunset as I mounted again and galloped down the lane. For
+the second time that day I set out along the lonely mountain road
+leading to Luray, but this time with a vague fear gripping at my heart.
+Why had Radnor acted so strangely, I asked myself again and again. Could
+it be connected with last night's quarrel? And where was the Colonel,
+and where was Mose?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAVE
+
+
+It was almost dark by the time I reached the village of Luray. I
+galloped up to the hotel where we had left our horses that morning and
+without dismounting called out to the loafers on the veranda to ask if
+anyone had seen Colonel Gaylord. Two or three of them, glad of a
+diversion, got up and sauntered out to the stepping-stone where I
+waited, to discuss the situation.
+
+What was the matter? they inquired. Hadn't the Colonel gone home with
+the rest of the party?
+
+No, he had not, I returned impatiently, and I wanted to know if any of
+them had seen him.
+
+They consulted together and finally decided that no one had seen him,
+and at this the stable boy vouchsafed the information that Red Pepper
+was still in the barn.
+
+"I thought maybe the Colonel was intending to make me a present of that
+horse," the landlord observed with a grin, as he joined the group.
+
+A chuckle ran around the circle at this sally. It was evident that the
+Colonel did not have a reputation in the county for making presents. I
+impatiently gathered up my reins and one of the men remarked:
+
+"I reckon young Gaylord got home in good time. He was in an almighty
+hurry when he started. He didn't stop for no farewells."
+
+With numerous interruptions and humorous interpolations, they finally
+managed to tell me in their exasperatingly slow drawl that Rad had come
+back to the hotel that afternoon before the rest of the party, had drunk
+two glasses of brandy, called for his horse, and galloped off without
+speaking a word to anyone except to swear at the stable boy. The speaker
+finished with the assertion that in his opinion Rad Gaylord and Jeff
+Gaylord were cut out of the same block.
+
+I shifted my seat uneasily. This information did not tend to throw any
+light on the question of the Colonel's whereabouts, and I was in no
+mood just then to listen to any more gossip about Rad.
+
+"I'm not looking for young Gaylord," I said shortly. "I know where he
+is. It's the Colonel I'm after. Neither he nor Cat-Eye Mose have come
+back, and I'm afraid they're lost in the cave."
+
+The men laughed at this. People didn't get lost in the cave, they said.
+All anyone had to do was to follow the path; and besides, if the Colonel
+was with Mose he couldn't get lost if he tried. Mose knew the cave so
+well that he could find his way around it in the dark. Colonel Gaylord
+had probably met some friends in the village and driven home with them.
+
+But I would not be satisfied with an explanation of that sort. The
+Colonel, I knew, was not in the habit of abandoning horses in any such
+casual manner; and even supposing he had gone home with some friends, he
+would scarcely have taken Mose along.
+
+I dismounted, turned my horse over to the stable boy, and announced that
+the cave must be searched. This request was received with some
+amusement. The idea of getting out a search party for Cat-Eye Mose
+struck them as peculiarly ludicrous. But I insisted, and finally one of
+the men who was in the habit of acting as guide, took his feet down from
+the veranda railing with a grunt of disapproval and shambled into the
+house after some candles and a lantern. Two or three of the others
+joined the expedition after a good deal of chaffing at my expense.
+
+We set out for the mouth of the cave by a short cut that led across the
+fields. It was quite dark by this time, and as there was no moon our one
+lantern did not go far toward lighting the path. We stumbled along over
+plowed ground and through swampy pastures to the music of croaking frogs
+and whip-poor-wills. At first the way was enlivened by humorous
+suggestions on the part of my companions as to what had become of
+Colonel Gaylord, but as I did not respond very freely to their
+bantering, they finally fell silent with only an occasional imprecation
+as someone stubbed his toe or caught his clothing on a brier. After a
+half hour or so of plodding we came to a clear path through the woods
+and in a few minutes reached the mouth of the cave.
+
+A rough little shanty was built over the entrance. It was closed by a
+ramshackle door which a child could have opened without any difficulty;
+there was at least no danger of the Colonel's having been locked inside.
+Lighting our candles, we descended the rough stone staircase into the
+first great vault, which forms a sort of vestibule to the caverns. With
+our hands to our mouths we hallooed several times and then held our
+breath while we waited for an answer. The only sound which came out of
+the stillness was the occasional drip of water or the flap of a bat's
+wing. Had the Colonel been lost in any of the winding passages he must
+have heard us and replied, for the slightest sound is audible in such a
+cavern, echoing and re-echoing as it does through countless vaulted
+galleries. The silence, however, instead of assuring me that he was not
+there only increased my uneasiness. What if he had slipped on the wet
+clay, and having injured himself, was lying unconscious in the
+darkness?
+
+The men wished to turn back, but I insisted that we go as far as the
+broken column which lies in a little gallery above Crystal Lake. That
+was the place where the coat had been left, and we could at least find
+out if either the Colonel or Mose had returned for it. We set out in
+single file along the damp clay path, the light from our few candles
+only serving to intensify the blackness around us. The huge white forms
+of the stalactites seemed to follow us like ghosts in the gloom; every
+now and then a bat flapped past our faces, and I wondered with a shiver
+how anyone could get up courage to go alone into such a hole as that.
+
+"Crystal Lake" is a shallow pool lying in a sort of bowl. On the farther
+side the path runs up seven or eight feet above the water along the
+broken edge of a cliff. A few steps beyond the pool the path diverges
+sharply to the left and opens into the little gallery of the broken
+column.
+
+Just as we were about to ascend the two or three stone steps leading to
+the incline, the guide in front stopped short, and clutching me by the
+arm pointed a shaking forefinger toward the pool.
+
+"What's that?" he gasped.
+
+I strained my eyes into the darkness but I could see nothing.
+
+"There, that black thing under the bank," he said, raising his candle
+and throwing the light over the water.
+
+We all saw it now and recognized it with a thrill of horror. It was the
+body of Colonel Gaylord. He was lying on his face at the bottom of the
+pool, and with outstretched arms was clutching the mud in his hands. The
+still water above him was as clear as crystal but was tinged with red.
+
+"It's my uncle!" I cried, springing forward. "He's fallen over the bank.
+He may not be dead."
+
+But they held me back.
+
+"He's as dead as he ever will be," the guide said grimly. "An' what's
+more, Colonel Gaylord warn't the man to drown in three foot o' water
+without making a struggle. This ain't no accident. It's murder! We must
+go back an' get the coroner. It's agen the law to touch the body until
+he comes."
+
+It went to my heart to leave the old man lying there at the bottom of
+that pool, but I could not prevail on one of them to help me move him.
+The coroner must be brought, they stubbornly insisted, and they
+restrained me forcibly when I would have waded into the water. We turned
+back with shaking knees and hurried toward the mouth of the cave,
+slipping and sliding in the wet clay as we ran. I, for one, felt as
+though a dozen assassins were following our footsteps in the dark. And
+all the time I had a sickening feeling that my uncle's death only
+foreshadowed a more terrible tragedy. The guide's: "This ain't no
+accident; it's murder," kept running in my head, and much as I tried to
+drive the thought from me, a horrible suspicion came creeping to my mind
+that I knew who the murderer must be.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE SHERIFF VISITS FOUR-POOLS
+
+
+We found the coroner and told our story. He sent word to Kennisburg, the
+county-seat, for the sheriff to come; and then having called a doctor
+and three or four other witnesses, we set out again for the cave. The
+news of the tragedy had spread like wild-fire, and half the town of
+Luray would have accompanied us had the coroner not forcibly prevented
+it. He stationed two men at the entrance of the cave to keep the crowd
+from pushing in. I myself should have been more than willing to wait
+outside, but I felt that it was my duty by Radnor to be present. If any
+discoveries were made I wished to be the first to know it.
+
+It was sad business and I will not dwell upon it. One side of the old
+man's head had been fractured by a heavy blow. He had been dead several
+hours when we found him, but the doctor could not be certain whether
+drowning, or the injury he had sustained, had been the immediate cause
+of death. Dangling from a jagged piece of rock half way down the cliff,
+we found Polly Mathers's coat, torn and drabbled with mud. The clay path
+above the pool was trampled in every direction 'way out to the brink of
+the precipice; it was evident, even to the most untrained observer, that
+a fierce struggle of some sort had taken place. I was the first one to
+examine the marks, and as I knelt down and held the light to the ground,
+I saw with a thrill of mingled horror and hope that one pair of feet had
+been bare. Mose had taken part in the struggle, and dreadful as was the
+assurance, it was infinitely better than that other suspicion.
+
+"It was Mose who committed the murder!" I cried to the coroner as I
+pointed to the foot-prints in the clay.
+
+He bent over beside me and examined the marks.
+
+"Ah----Mose was present," he said slowly, "but so was someone else. See,
+here is the print of the Colonel's boot and there beside it is the
+print of another boot; it is fully an inch broader."
+
+But it was difficult to make out anything clearly, so trampled was the
+path. Our whole party had passed over the very spot not an hour before
+the tragedy. Whatever the others could see, I, myself, was blind to
+everything but the indisputable fact that Mose had been there.
+
+As we were making ready to start back to the mouth of the cave, a cry
+from one of the men called our attention again to the scene of the
+struggle. He held up in his hand a small, gleaming object which he had
+found trodden into the path. It was a silver match box covered with
+dents and mud and marked "R. F. G." I recognized it instantly; I had
+seen Radnor take it from his pocket a hundred times. As I looked at it
+now my hope seemed to vanish and that same sickening suspicion rushed
+over me again. The men eyed each other silently, and I did not have to
+ask what they were thinking of. We turned without comments and started
+on our journey back to the village. The body was carried to the hotel
+to await the coroner's permission to take it home to Four-Pools. There
+was nothing more for me to do, and with a heavy heart I mounted again to
+return to the plantation.
+
+Scarcely had I left the stable yard when I heard hoofs pounding along
+behind me in the darkness, and Jim Mattison galloped up with two of his
+men.
+
+"If you are going to Four-Pools we will ride with you," he said, falling
+into pace beside me while the officers dropped behind. "I might as well
+tell you," he added, "that it looks black for Radnor. I'm sorry, but
+it's my duty to keep him under arrest until some pretty strong
+counter-evidence turns up."
+
+"Where's Cat-Eye Mose?" I cried. "Why don't you arrest him?"
+
+The sheriff made a gesture of disdain.
+
+"That's nonsense. Everyone in the county knows Cat-Eye Mose. He wouldn't
+hurt a fly. If he was present at the time of the crime it was to help
+his master, and the man who killed Colonel Gaylord killed him too. I've
+known him all my life and I can swear he's innocent."
+
+"You've known Radnor all your life," I returned bitterly.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I have--and Jefferson Gaylord, too."
+
+I rode on in silence and I do not think I ever hated anyone as, for the
+moment, I hated the man beside me. I knew that he was thinking of Polly
+Mathers, and I imagined that I could detect an undertone of triumph in
+his voice.
+
+"It's well known," he went on, half to himself and half to me, "that
+Radnor sometimes had high words with his father; and to-day, they tell
+me at the hotel, he came back alone without waiting for the others, and
+while his horse was being saddled he drank off two glasses of brandy as
+if they had been water. All the men on the veranda marked how white his
+face was, and how he cursed the stable boy for being slow. It was
+evident that something had happened in the cave, and what with finding
+his match box at the scene of the crime--circumstantial evidence is
+pretty strong against him."
+
+I was too miserable to think of any answer; and, the fellow finally
+having the decency to keep quiet, we galloped the rest of the way in
+silence.
+
+Though it must have been long after midnight when we reached the house,
+lights were still burning in the downstairs rooms. We rode up to the
+portico with considerable clamor and dismounted. One of the men held the
+horses while Mattison and the other followed me into the house. Rad
+himself, hearing the noise of our arrival, came to the door to meet us.
+He was quite composed again and spoke in his usual manner.
+
+"Hello, Arnold! Did you find him, and is the party over?"
+
+He stopped uncertainly as he caught sight of the others. They stepped
+into the hall and stood watching him a moment without saying anything. I
+tried to tell him but the words seemed to stick in my throat.
+
+"A--a terrible thing has happened, Rad," I stammered out.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked, a sudden look of anxiety springing to his
+face.
+
+"I am sorry, Rad," Mattison replied, "but it is my duty to arrest you."
+
+"To arrest me, for what?" he asked with a half laugh.
+
+"For the murder of your father."
+
+Radnor put out his hand against the wall to steady himself, and his lips
+showed white in the lamp light. At the sight of his face I could have
+sworn that he was not acting, and that the news came with as much of a
+shock to him as it had to me.
+
+"My father murdered!" he gasped. "What do you mean?"
+
+"His dead body was found in the cave, and circumstantial evidence points
+to you."
+
+He seemed too dazed to grasp the words and Mattison said it twice before
+he comprehended.
+
+"Do you mean he's dead?" Rad repeated. "And I quarrelled with him last
+night and wouldn't make it up--and now it's too late."
+
+"I must warn you," the sheriff returned, "that whatever you say will be
+used against you."
+
+"I am innocent," said Radnor, brokenly, and without another word he
+prepared to go. Mattison drew some hand-cuffs from his pocket, and
+Radnor looked at them with a dark flush.
+
+"You needn't be afraid. I am not going to run away," he said. Mattison
+dropped them back again with a muttered apology.
+
+I went out to the stable with one of the men and helped to saddle Jennie
+Loo. I felt all the time as though I had hold of the rope that was going
+to hang him. When we came back he and the sheriff were standing on the
+portico, waiting. Rad appeared to be more composed than any of us, but
+as I wrung his hand I noticed that it was icy cold.
+
+"I'll attend to everything," I said, "and don't worry, my boy. We'll get
+you off."
+
+"Don't worry!" He laughed shortly as he leaped into the saddle. "It's
+not myself I'm worrying over; I am innocent," and he suddenly leaned
+forward and scanned my face in the light from the open door. "You
+believe me?" he asked quickly.
+
+"Yes," I cried, "I do! And what's more, I'll _prove_ you're innocent."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+I MAKE A PROMISE TO POLLY
+
+
+The next few days were a nightmare to me. Even now I cannot think of
+that horrible period of suspense and doubt without a shudder. The
+coroner set to work immediately upon his preliminary investigation, and
+every bit of evidence that turned up only seemed to make the proof
+stronger against Radnor.
+
+It is strange how ready public opinion is to believe the worst of a man
+when he is down. No one appeared to doubt Rad's guilt, and feeling ran
+high against him. Colonel Gaylord was a well-known character in the
+countryside, and in spite of his quick temper and rather imperious
+bearing he had been a general favorite. At the news of his death a wave
+of horror and indignation swept through the valley. Among the roughs in
+the village I heard not infrequent hints of lynching; and even among
+the more conservative element, the general opinion seemed to be that
+lawful hanging was too honorable a death for the perpetrator of so
+brutal a crime.
+
+I have never been able to understand the quick and general belief in the
+boy's guilt, but I have always suspected that the sheriff did not do all
+in his power to quiet the feeling. It was to a large extent, however,
+the past reasserting itself. Though Radnor's record was not so black as
+it was painted, still, it was not so white as it should have been.
+People shook their heads and repeated stories of how wild he had been as
+a boy, and how they had always foreseen some such end as this. Reports
+of the quarrels with his father were told and retold until they were
+magnified beyond all recognition. The old scandals about Jeff were
+revived again, and the general opinion seemed to be that the Gaylord
+boys were degenerates through and through. Rad's personal friends stood
+by him staunchly; but they formed a pitifully small minority compared to
+the general sensation-seeking public.
+
+I visited Radnor in the Kennisburg jail on the morning of my uncle's
+funeral and found him quite broken in spirit. He had had time to think
+over the past, and with his father lying dead at Four-Pools, it had not
+been pleasant thinking. Now that it was too late, he seemed filled with
+remorse over his conduct toward the old man, and he dwelt continually on
+the fact of his having been unwilling to make up the quarrel of the
+night before the murder. In this mood of contrition he mercilessly
+accused himself of things I am sure he had never done. I knew that the
+jailer was listening to every word outside, and I became unspeakably
+nervous for fear he would say something which could be twisted into an
+incriminating confession. He did not seem to comprehend in the least the
+danger of his own position; he was entirely taken up with the horror of
+his father's death. As I was leaving, however, he suddenly grasped my
+hand with tears in his eyes.
+
+"Tell me, Arnold, do people really believe me guilty?"
+
+I knew by "people" he meant Polly Mathers; but I had not had an
+opportunity to speak with her alone since the day of the tragedy.
+
+"I haven't talked to anyone but the sheriff," I returned.
+
+"Mattison would be glad enough to prove it," Radnor said bitterly, and
+he turned his back and stood staring through the iron bars of the
+window, while I went out and the jailer closed the door and locked it.
+
+All through the funeral that afternoon I could scarcely keep my eyes
+from Polly Mathers's face. She appeared so changed since the day of the
+picnic that I should scarcely have known her for the same person; it
+seemed incredible that three days could make such a difference in a
+bright, healthy, vigorous girl. All her youthful vivacity was gone; she
+was pale and spiritless with deep rings beneath her eyes and the lids
+red with crying. After the services were over, I approached her a moment
+as she stood in her black dress aloof from the others at the edge of the
+little family burying-ground. She greeted me with a tremulous smile, and
+then as her glance wandered back to the pile of earth that two men were
+already shoveling into the grave, her eyes quickly filled with tears.
+
+"I loved him as much as if he were my own father," she cried, "and it's
+my fault that he's dead. I made him go!"
+
+"No, Polly, it is not your fault," I said decisively. "It was a thing
+which no one could foresee and no one could help."
+
+She waited a moment trying to steady her voice, then she looked up
+pleadingly in my face.
+
+"Radnor is innocent; tell me you believe it."
+
+"I am sure he is innocent," I replied.
+
+"Then you can clear him--you're a lawyer. I know you can clear him!"
+
+"You may trust me to do my best, Polly."
+
+"I hate Jim Mattison!" she exclaimed, with a flash of her old fire. "He
+swears that Rad is guilty and that he will prove him so. Rad may have
+done some bad things, but he's a good man--better than Jim Mattison ever
+thought of being."
+
+"Polly," I said with a touch of bitterness, "I wish you might have
+realized that truth earlier. Rad is at heart as splendid a chap as ever
+lived, and his friends ought never to have allowed him to go astray."
+
+She looked away without answering, and then in a moment turned back to
+me and held out her hand.
+
+"Good-by. When you see him again please tell him what I said."
+
+As she turned away I looked after her, puzzled. I was sure at last that
+she was in love with Radnor, and I was equally sure that he did not know
+it; for in spite of his sorrow at his father's death and of the
+suspicion that rested on him, I knew that he would not have been so
+completely crushed had he felt that she was with him. Why must this come
+to him now too late to do him any good, when he had needed it so much
+before? I felt momentarily enraged at Polly. It seemed somehow as if the
+trouble might have been avoided had she been more straightforward. Then
+at the memory of her pale face and pleading eyes I relented. However
+thoughtless she had been before, she was changed now; this tragedy had
+somehow made a woman of her over night. When Radnor came at last to
+claim her, they would each, perhaps, be worthier of the other.
+
+I returned to the empty house that night and sat down to look the facts
+squarely in the face. I had hitherto been so occupied with the necessary
+preparations for the funeral, and with instituting a search for Cat-Eye
+Mose, that I had scarcely had time to think, let alone map out any
+logical plan of action. Radnor was so stunned by the blow that he could
+barely talk coherently, and as yet I had had no satisfactory interview
+with him.
+
+Immediately after the Colonel's death, I had very hastily run over his
+private papers, but had found little to suggest a clue. Among some old
+letters were several from Nannie's husband, written at the time of her
+sickness and death; their tone was bitter. Could the man have
+accomplished a tardy revenge for past insults? I asked myself. But
+investigation showed this theory to be most untenable. He was still
+living in the little Kansas village where she had died, had married
+again, and become a peaceful plodding citizen. It required all his
+present energy to support his wife and children--I dare say the brief
+episode of his first marriage had almost faded from his mind. There was
+not the slightest chance that he could be implicated.
+
+I sifted the papers again, thoroughly and painstakingly, but found
+nothing that would throw any light upon the mystery. While I was still
+engaged with this task, a message came from the coroner saying that the
+formal inquest would begin at ten o'clock the next morning in the
+Kennisburg court-house. This gave me no chance to plan any sort of
+campaign, and I could do little more than let matters take their course.
+I hoped however that in the progress of the inquest, some clue would be
+brought to light which would render Radnor's being remanded for trial
+impossible.
+
+So far, I had to acknowledge, the evidence against him appeared
+overwhelming. A motive was supplied in the fact that the Colonel's death
+would leave him his own master and a rich man. The well-known fact of
+their frequent quarrels, coupled with Radnor's fierce temper and
+somewhat revengeful disposition, was a very strong point in his
+disfavor; added to this, the suspicious circumstances of the day of the
+tragedy--the fact that he was not with the rest of the party when the
+crime must have been committed, the alleged print of his boots and the
+finding of the match box, his subsequent perturbed condition--everything
+pointed to him as the author of the crime. It was a most convincing
+chain of circumstantial evidence.
+
+Considering the data that had come to light, there seemed to be only one
+alternative, and that was that Cat-Eye Mose had committed the murder. I
+clung tenaciously to this belief; but I found, in the absence of any
+further proof or any conceivable motive, that few people shared it with
+me. The marks of his bare feet proved conclusively that he had been, in
+whatever capacity, an active participator in the struggle.
+
+"He was there to aid his master," the sheriff affirmed, "and being a
+witness to the crime, it was necessary to put him out of the way."
+
+"Why hide the body of one and not the other?" I asked.
+
+"To throw suspicion on Mose."
+
+This was the universal opinion; no one, from the beginning, would listen
+to a word against Mose. In his case, as well as in Radnor's, the past
+was speaking. Through all his life, they said, he had faithfully loved
+and served the Colonel, and if necessity required, he would willingly
+have died for him.
+
+But for myself, I continued to believe in the face of all opposition,
+that Mose was guilty. It was more a matter of feeling with me than of
+reasoning. I had always been suspicious of the fellow; a man with eyes
+like that was capable of anything. The objection which the sheriff
+raised that Colonel Gaylord was both larger and stronger than Mose and
+could easily have overcome him, proved nothing to my mind. Mose was a
+small man, but he was long-armed and wirey, doubtless far stronger than
+he looked; besides, he had been armed, and the nature of his weapon was
+clear. The floor of the cave was strewn with scores of broken
+stalactites; nothing could have made a more formidable weapon than one
+of these long pieces of jagged stone used as a club.
+
+As to the motive for the crime, who could tell what went on in the slow
+workings of his mind? The Colonel had struck him more than
+once--unjustly, I did not doubt--and though he seemed at the moment to
+take it meekly, might he not have been merely biding his time? His final
+revenge may have been the outcome of many hoarded grievances that no one
+knew existed. The fellow was more than half insane. What more likely
+than that he had attacked his master in a fit of animal passion; and
+then, terrified at the result, escaped to the woods? That seemed to me
+the only plausible explanation.
+
+No facts had come out concerning the ha'nt or the robbery, and I do not
+think that either was connected in the public mind with the murder. But
+to my mind the death of Colonel Gaylord was but the climax of the long
+series of events which commenced on the night of my arrival with the
+slight and ludicrous episode of the stolen roast chicken. I had been
+convinced at the time that Mose was at the bottom of it, and I was
+convinced now that he was also at the bottom of the robbery and the
+murder. How Radnor had got drawn into the muddle of the ha'nt, I could
+not fathom; but I suspected that Mose had hoodwinked him as he had the
+rest of us.
+
+Assuming that my theory was right, then Mose was hiding; and all my
+energies from the beginning had been bent toward his discovery. The low
+range of mountains which lay between Four-Pools Plantation and the Luray
+valley was covered thickly with woods and very sparsely settled. Mose
+knew every foot of the ground; he had wandered over these mountains for
+days at a time, and must have been familiar with many hiding places. It
+was in this region that I hoped to find him.
+
+Immediately after the Colonel's death I had offered a large reward
+either for Mose's capture, or for any information regarding his
+whereabouts. His description had been telegraphed all up and down the
+valley and every farmer was on the alert. Bands of men had been formed
+and the woods scoured for him, but as yet without result. I was hourly
+expecting, however, that some clue would come to light.
+
+The sheriff, on the other hand, in pursuance of his theory that Mose had
+been murdered, had been no less indefatigable in his search for the
+body. The river had been dragged, the cave and surrounding woods
+searched, but nothing had been found. Mose had simply vanished from the
+earth and left no trace.
+
+To my disappointment the morning still brought no news; I had hoped to
+have something definite before the inquest opened. I rode into
+Kennisburg early in order to hold a conference with Radnor, and get from
+him the facts in regard to his own and Mose's connection with the ha'nt.
+My former passivity in the matter struck me now as almost criminal;
+perhaps had I insisted in probing it to the bottom, my uncle might have
+been living still. I entered Radnor's cell determined not to leave it
+until I knew the truth.
+
+But I met with an unexpected obstacle. He refused absolutely to discuss
+the question.
+
+"Radnor," I cried at last, "are you trying to shield any one? Do you
+know who killed your father?"
+
+"I know no more about who killed my father than you do."
+
+"Do you know about the ha'nt?"
+
+"Yes," he said desperately, "I do; but it is not connected with either
+the robbery or the murder and I cannot talk about it."
+
+I argued and pleaded but to no effect. He sat on his cot, his head in
+his hands staring at the floor, stubbornly refusing to open his lips. I
+gave over pleading and stormed.
+
+"It's no use, Arnold," he said finally. "I won't tell you anything about
+the ha'nt; it doesn't enter into the case."
+
+I sat down again and patiently outlined my theory in regard to Mose.
+
+"It is impossible," he declared. "I have known Mose all my life, and I
+have never yet known him to betray a trust. He loved my father as much
+as I did, and if my life depended on it, I should swear that he was
+faithful."
+
+"Rad," I beseeched, "I am not only your attorney, I am your friend;
+whatever you say to me is as if it had never been said. I _must_ know
+the truth."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"I have nothing to say."
+
+"You have _got_ to have something to say," I cried. "You have got to go
+on the stand and make an absolutely open and straightforward statement
+of everything bearing on the case. You have got to appear anxious to
+find and punish the man who murdered your father. You have got to gain
+public sympathy, and before you go on the stand you owe it to yourself
+and me to leave nothing unexplained between us."
+
+He raised his eyes miserably to mine.
+
+"Must I go on?" he asked. "Can't I refuse to testify--I don't see that
+they can punish me for contempt of court; I'm already in prison."
+
+"They can hang you," said I, bluntly.
+
+He buried his face in his hands with a groan.
+
+"Arnold," he pleaded, "don't make me face all those people. You can see
+what a state my nerves are in; I haven't slept for three nights." He
+held out his hand to show me how it trembled. "I can't talk--I don't
+know what I'm saying. You don't know what you're urging me to do."
+
+My anger at his stubbornness vanished in a sudden spasm of pity. The
+poor fellow was scarcely more than a boy! Though I was completely in the
+dark as to what he was holding back and why he was doing it, yet I felt
+instinctively that his motives were honorable.
+
+"Rad," I said, "it would help your cause to be open with me, and if you
+are remanded for trial before the grand jury you must in the end tell me
+everything. But now I will not insist. Probably nothing will come up
+about the ha'nt. I can of course refuse to let you speak on the ground
+of incriminating evidence, but that is the last stand I wish to take. We
+must gain public opinion on our side and to that end you must testify
+yourself. You must force every person present to believe that you are
+incapable of telling a falsehood--I believe that already and so does
+Polly Mathers."
+
+Radnor's face flushed and a quick light sprang into his eyes.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+I repeated what Polly had said and I added my own interpretation. The
+effect was electrical. He straightened his shoulders with an air of
+trying to throw off his despondency.
+
+"I'll do my best," he promised. "Heaven knows I'd like to know the truth
+as well as you--this doubt is simply hell!"
+
+A knock sounded on the door and a sheriff's officer informed us that the
+hearing was about to begin.
+
+"You haven't explained your actions on the day of the murder," I said
+hurriedly. "I must have a reason."
+
+"That's all right--it will come out. If you just keep 'em off the ha'nt,
+I'll clear everything else."
+
+"If you do that," said I, immeasurably relieved, "there'll be no danger
+of your being held for trial." I rose and held out my hand. "Courage, my
+boy; remember that you are going to prove your innocence, not only for
+your own, but for Polly's sake."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE INQUEST
+
+
+The coroner's court was packed; and though here and there I caught a
+face that I knew to be friendly to Radnor, the crowd was made up for the
+most part of morbid sensation seekers, eager to hear and believe the
+worst.
+
+The District Attorney was present; indeed he and the coroner and Jim
+Mattison were holding a whispered consultation when I entered the room,
+and I did not doubt but that the three had been working up the case
+together. The thought was not reassuring; a coroner, with every
+appearance of fairness, may still bias a jury by the form his questions
+take. And I myself was scarcely in a position to turn the trend of the
+inquiry; I doubt if a lawyer ever went to an inquisition with less
+command of the facts than I had.
+
+The first witness called was the doctor who made the autopsy. After his
+testimony had been dwelt upon with what seemed to me needless detail,
+the facts relating to the finding of the body were brought forward. From
+this, the investigation veered to the subject of Radnor's strange
+behavior on the afternoon of the murder. The landlord, stable boy and
+several hangers-on of the Luray Hotel were called to the stand; their
+testimony was practically identical, and I did not attempt to question
+its truth.
+
+"What time did Radnor Gaylord come back to the hotel?" the coroner asked
+of "old man Tompkins," the landlord.
+
+"I reckon it must 'a' been 'long about three in the afternoon."
+
+"Please describe exactly what occurred."
+
+"Well, we was sittin' on the veranda talkin' about one thing and another
+when we see young Gaylord comin' across the lot, his head down and his
+hands in his pockets walkin' fast. He yelled to Jake, who was washin'
+off a buggy at the pump, to saddle his horse and be quick about it. Then
+he come up the steps and into the bar-room and called for brandy. He
+drunk two glasses straight off without blinkin'."
+
+"Had he ordered anything to drink in the morning when they left their
+horses?" the coroner interrupted at this point.
+
+"No, he didn't go into the bar-room--and it wasn't usually his custom to
+slight us either."
+
+A titter ran around the room and the coroner rapped for order. "This is
+not the place for any cheap witticisms; you will kindly confine yourself
+to answering my questions.--Did Mr. Gaylord appear to have been drinking
+when he returned from the cave?"
+
+The landlord closed his right eye speculatively. "No, I can't say as he
+exactly appeared like he'd been drinking," he said with the air of a
+connoisseur, "but he did seem to be considerably upset about something.
+He looked mad enough to bite; his face was pale, and his hand trembled
+when he raised his glass. Three or four noticed it and wondered--"
+
+"Very well," interrupted the coroner, "what did he do next?"
+
+"He went out to the stable yard and swore at the boy for being slow.
+And he tightened the surcingle himself with such a jerk that the mare
+plunged and he struck her. He is usually pretty cranky about the way
+horses is treated, and we wondered--"
+
+He was stopped again and invited to go on without wondering.
+
+"Well, let me see," said the witness, imperturbably. "He jumped into the
+saddle and slashing the mare across the flanks, started off in a cloud
+o' dust, without so much as looking back. We was all surprised at this
+'cause he's usually pretty friendly, and we talked about it after; but
+we didn't think nothing particular till the news o' the murder come that
+evening, when we naturally commenced to put two and two together."
+
+At this point I protested and the landlord was excused. "Jake" Henley,
+the stable boy, was called. His testimony practically covered the same
+ground and corroborated what the landlord had said.
+
+"You say he swore at you for being slow?" the coroner asked.
+
+Jake nodded with a grin. "I don't remember just the words--I get swore
+at so much that it don't make the impression it might--but it was good
+straight cussin' all right."
+
+"And he struck you as being agitated?"
+
+Jake's grin broadened. "I think you might say agitated," he admitted
+guardedly. "He was mad enough to begin with, an' now the brandy was
+gettin' to work. Besides, he was in an all-fired hurry to leave before
+the rest o' the party come back, an' while I was bringin' out the horse,
+he heard 'em laughin'. They wasn't in sight yet, but they was makin' a
+lot o' noise. One o' the girls had stepped on a snake an' was squealin'
+loud enough to hear her two miles off."
+
+"And Gaylord left before any of them saw him?"
+
+The boy nodded. "He got off all right. 'You forgot to pay for your
+horse,' I yelled after him, and he threw me fifty cents and it landed in
+the watering-trough."
+
+This ended his testimony.
+
+Several members of the picnic party were next called upon, and nothing
+very damaging to Radnor was produced. He seemed to be in his usual
+spirits before entering the cave, and no one, it transpired, had seen
+him after he came out, though this was not noted at the time. Also, no
+one had noticed him in conversation with his father. The coroner dwelt
+upon this point, but elicited no information one way or the other.
+
+Polly Mathers was not present. She had been subpoenaed, but had become
+too ill and nervous to stand the strain, and the doctor had forbidden
+her attendance. The coroner, however, had taken her testimony at the
+house, and his clerk read it aloud to the jury. It dealt merely with the
+matter of the coat and where she had last seen Radnor.
+
+"_Question._ 'Did you notice anything peculiar in the behavior of Radnor
+Gaylord on the day of his father's death?'
+
+"_Answer._ 'Nothing especially peculiar--no.'
+
+"_Q._ 'Did you see any circumstance which led you to suspect that he and
+his father were not on good terms?'
+
+"_A._ 'No, they both appeared as usual.'
+
+"_Q._ 'Did you speak to Radnor in the cave?'
+
+"_A._ 'Yes, we strolled about together for a time and he was carrying my
+coat. He laid it down on the broken column and forgot it. I forgot it
+too and didn't think of it again until we were out of the cave. Then I
+happened to mention it in Colonel Gaylord's presence, and I suppose he
+went back for it.'
+
+"_Q._ 'You didn't see Radnor Gaylord after he left the cave?'
+
+"_A._ 'No, I didn't see him after we left the gallery of the broken
+column. The guide struck off a calcium light to show us the formation of
+the ceiling. We spent about five minutes examining the room, and after
+that we all went on in a group. Radnor had not waited to see the room,
+but had gone on ahead in the direction of the entrance.'"
+
+So much for Polly's testimony--which added nothing.
+
+Solomon, frightened almost out of his wits, was called on next, and his
+testimony brought out the matter of the quarrel between Colonel Gaylord
+and Radnor. Solomon told of finding the French clock, and a great many
+things besides which I am sure he made up. I wished to have his
+testimony ruled out, but the coroner seemed to feel that it was
+suggestive--as it undoubtedly was--and he allowed it to remain.
+
+Radnor himself was next called to the stand. As he took his place a
+murmur of excitement swept over the room and there was a general
+straining forward. He was composed and quiet, and very very sober--every
+bit of animation had left his face.
+
+The coroner commenced immediately with the subject of the quarrel with
+his father on the night before the murder, and Radnor answered all the
+questions frankly and openly. He made no attempt to gloss over any of
+the details. What put the matter in a peculiarly bad light, was the fact
+that the cause of the quarrel had been over a question of money. Rad had
+requested his father to settle a definite amount on him so that he would
+be independent in the future, and his father had refused. They had lost
+their tempers and had gone further than usual; in telling the story
+Radnor openly took the blame upon himself where, in several instances,
+I strongly suspected that it should have been laid at the door of the
+Colonel. But in spite of the fact that the story revealed a pitiable
+state of affairs as between father and son, his frankness in assuming
+the responsibility won for him more sympathy than had been shown since
+the murder.
+
+"How did the clock get broken?" the coroner asked.
+
+"My father knocked it off the mantelpiece onto the floor."
+
+"He did not throw it at you as Solomon surmised?"
+
+Radnor raised his head with a glint of anger.
+
+"It fell on the floor and broke."
+
+"Have you often had quarrels with your father?"
+
+"Occasionally. He had a quick temper and always wished his own way, and
+I was not so patient with him as I should have been."
+
+"What did you quarrel about?"
+
+"Different things."
+
+"What, for instance?"
+
+"Sometimes because he thought I spent too much money, sometimes over a
+question of managing the estate; occasionally because he had heard
+gossip about me."
+
+"What do you mean by 'gossip'?"
+
+"Stories that I'd been gambling or drinking too much."
+
+"Were the stories true?"
+
+"They were always exaggerated."
+
+"And this quarrel the night before his death was more serious than
+usual?"
+
+"Possibly--yes."
+
+"You did not speak to each other at the breakfast table?"
+
+"No."
+
+Radnor's face was set in strained lines; it was evident that this was a
+very painful subject.
+
+"Did you have any conversation later?"
+
+"Only a few words."
+
+"Please repeat what was said."
+
+Radnor appeared to hesitate and then replied a trifle wearily that he
+did not remember the exact words; that it was merely a recapitulation of
+what had been said the night before. Upon being urged to give the gist
+of the conversation he replied that his father had wished to make up
+their quarrel, but on the old basis, and he had refused. The Colonel had
+repeated that he was still too young a man to give over his affairs into
+the hands of another,--that he had a good many years before him in which
+he intended to be his own master. Radnor had replied that he was too old
+a man to be treated any longer as a boy, and that he would go away and
+work where he would be paid for what he did.
+
+"And may I ask," the coroner inquired placidly, "whether you had any
+particular work in mind when you made that statement, or was it merely a
+figure of rhetoric calculated to bring Colonel Gaylord to terms?"
+
+Rad scowled and said nothing, and the rest of his answers were terseness
+itself.
+
+"Did you and your father have any further conversation on the ride over,
+or in the course of the day?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You purposely avoided meeting each other?"
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Then those words after breakfast when you threatened to leave home were
+absolutely the last words you ever spoke to your father?"
+
+It was a subject Radnor did not like to think about. His lips trembled
+slightly and he answered with a visible effort.
+
+"Yes."
+
+A slight murmur ran around the room, partly of sympathy, partly of
+doubt.
+
+The coroner put the same question again and Radnor repeated his answer,
+this time with a flush of anger. The coroner paused a moment and then
+continued without comment:
+
+"You entered the cave with the rest of the party?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But you left the others before they had made the complete round?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Why was that?"
+
+"I was not particularly interested. I had seen the cave many times
+before."
+
+"Where did you leave the party?"
+
+"I believe in the gallery of the broken column."
+
+"You left the cave immediately?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Did you enter it again?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You forgot Miss Mathers's coat and left it in the gallery of the broken
+column?"
+
+"So it would seem."
+
+"Did you not think of that later and go back for it?"
+
+Radnor snapped out his answer. "No, I didn't think anything about the
+coat."
+
+"Are you in the habit of leaving young ladies' coats about in that
+off-hand way?"
+
+A titter ran about the room, and Rad did not deign to notice this
+question.
+
+I was indignant that the boy should be made to face such an ordeal. This
+was not a regular trial and the coroner had no right to be more
+obnoxious than his calling required. There was a glint of anger in
+Radnor's eyes; and I was uneasily aware that he no longer cared what
+impression he made. His answers to the rest of the questions were as
+short as the English language permitted.
+
+"What did you do after leaving the cave?"
+
+"Went home."
+
+"Please go into more detail. What did you do immediately after leaving
+the cave?"
+
+"Strolled through the woods."
+
+"For how long?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"How long do you think?"
+
+"Possibly half an hour."
+
+"Then what did you do?"
+
+"Returned to the hotel, ordered my horse and rode home."
+
+"Why did you not wait for the rest of the party?"
+
+"Didn't feel like it."
+
+The question was repeated in several ways, but Radnor stubbornly refused
+to discuss the matter. He had promised me, the last thing before coming
+to the hearing, that he would clear up the suspicious points in regard
+to his conduct on the day of the crime. I took him in hand myself, but I
+could get nothing more from him than the coroner had elicited. For some
+reason he had veered completely, and his manner warned me not to push
+the matter. I took my seat and the questioning continued.
+
+"Mr. Gaylord," said the coroner, severely, "you have heard the evidence
+respecting your peculiar behavior when you returned to the hotel. Three
+witnesses have stated that you were in an unnaturally perturbed
+condition. Is this true?"
+
+Radnor supposed it must be true. He did not wish to question the
+gentlemen's veracity. He did not remember himself what he had done, but
+there seemed to be plenty of witnesses who did remember.
+
+"Can you give any reasons for your strange conduct?"
+
+"I have told you several times already that I can not. I did not feel
+well, and that is all there was to it."
+
+A low murmur of incredulity ran around the room. It was evident to
+everyone that he was holding something back, and I could see that he was
+fast losing the sympathy he had gained in the beginning. I myself was at
+a loss to account for his behavior; as I was absolutely in the dark,
+however, I could do nothing but let matters take their course. Radnor
+was excused with this, and the next half hour was spent in a
+consideration of the foot-prints that were found in the clay path at the
+scene of the murder. The marks of Cat-Eye Mose were admitted
+immediately, but the others occasioned considerable discussion.
+Facsimiles of the prints were produced and compared with the riding
+boots which the Colonel and Radnor had worn at the time. The Colonel's
+print was unmistakable, but I myself did not think that the alleged
+print of Radnor's boot tallied very perfectly with the boot itself. The
+jury seemed satisfied however, and Radnor was called upon for an
+explanation. His only conjecture was that it was the print he had left
+when he passed over the path on his way to the entrance.
+
+The print was not in the path, he was informed; it was in the wet clay
+on the edge of the precipice.
+
+Radnor shrugged. In that case it could not be the print of his boot. He
+had kept to the path.
+
+In regard to the match box he was equally unsatisfactory. He
+acknowledged that it was his, but could no more account for its presence
+in the path than the coroner himself.
+
+"When do you remember having seen it last?" the coroner inquired.
+
+Radnor pondered. "I remember lending it to Mrs. Mathers when she was
+building a fire in the woods to make the coffee; after that I don't
+remember anything about it."
+
+"How do you account for its presence at the scene of the murder?"
+
+"I can only conjecture that it must have dropped from my pocket without
+my noticing it on my way out of the cave."
+
+The coroner observed that it was an unfortunate coincidence that he had
+dropped it in just that particular spot.
+
+This effectually stopped Radnor's testimony. Not another word could be
+elicited from him on the subject, and he was finally dismissed and Mrs.
+Mathers called to the stand.
+
+She remembered borrowing the match box, but then someone had called her
+away and she could not remember what she had done with it. She thought
+she must have returned it because she always did return things, but she
+was not at all sure. Very possibly she had kept it, and dropped it
+herself on her way out of the cave.
+
+It was evident that she did not wish to say anything which would
+incriminate Radnor; and she was really too perturbed to remember what
+she had done. Several other people were questioned, but no further light
+could be thrown on the subject of the match box; and so it remained in
+the end, as it had been in the beginning, merely a very nasty piece of
+circumstantial evidence.
+
+This ended the hearing for the day, and the inquest was postponed until
+ten o'clock the following morning. So far, no word had been dropped
+touching the ha'nt, but I was filled with apprehension as to what the
+next day would bring forth. I knew that if the subject came up, it would
+end once for all Radnor's chances of escaping trial before the grand
+jury. And that would mean, at the best, two months more of prison. What
+it would mean at the worst I did not like to consider.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE JURY'S VERDICT
+
+
+My first glance about the room the next morning, showed me only too
+plainly what direction the inquiry was going to take. In the farther
+corner half hidden by Mattison's broad back sat Clancy, the Washington
+detective. I recognized him with an angry feeling of discouragement. If
+we were to have his version of the stolen bonds, Radnor's last hope of
+gaining public sympathy was gone.
+
+Radnor was the first person to be called to the stand. He had not
+noticed the detective, and I did not have a chance to inform him of his
+presence. The coroner plunged immediately into the question of the
+robbery and the ha'nt, and it was only too evident from Radnor's
+troubled eyes that it was a subject he did not wish to talk about.
+
+"You have recently had a robbery at your house, Mr. Gaylord?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Please describe just what was stolen."
+
+"Five bonds--Government four per cents--a bag of coin--about twenty
+dollars in all--and two deeds and an insurance policy."
+
+"You have not been able to trace the thief?"
+
+"No."
+
+"In spite of every effort?"
+
+"Well, we naturally looked into the matter."
+
+"But you have been able to form no theory as to how the bonds were
+stolen?"
+
+"No, I have no theory whatever."
+
+"You employed a detective I believe?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And he arrived at no theory?"
+
+Radnor hesitated visibly while he framed an answer.
+
+"He arrived at no theory which successfully covered the facts."
+
+"But he did have a theory as to the whereabouts of the bonds, did he
+not?"
+
+"Yes--but it was without any foundation and I prefer not to go into it."
+
+The coroner abandoned the point. "Mr. Gaylord, there has lately been a
+rumor among the negroes working at your place, in regard to the
+appearance of a ghost, has there not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can you offer any light on the subject?"
+
+"The negroes are superstitious and easily frightened, when the rumor of
+a ghost gets started it grows. The most of the stories existed only in
+their own imaginations."
+
+"You believe then that there was no foundation whatever to any of the
+stories?"
+
+"I should rather not go into that."
+
+"Mr. Gaylord, do you believe that the ghost had any connection with the
+robbery?"
+
+"No, I do not."
+
+"Do you think that the ghost had any connection with the murder of your
+father?"
+
+"No!" said Radnor.
+
+"That is all, Mr. Gaylord.--James Clancy."
+
+At the name Radnor suddenly raised his head and half turned back as if
+to speak, but thinking better of it, he resumed his chair and watched
+the approach of the detective with an angry frown. Clancy did not glance
+at Radnor, but gave his evidence in a quick incisive way which forced
+the breathless attention of every one in the room. He told without
+interruption the story of his arrival at Four-Pools and his conclusions
+in regard to the ha'nt and the theft; he omitted, however, all mention
+of the letter.
+
+"Am I to understand that you never made your conclusions known to
+Colonel Gaylord?" the coroner asked.
+
+"No, I had been employed by him, but I thought under the circumstances
+it was kinder to leave him in ignorance."
+
+"That was a generous stand to take. I suppose you lost something in the
+way of a fee?"
+
+The detective looked slightly uncomfortable over the question.
+
+"Well, no, as it happened I didn't. There was a sort of cousin--Mr.
+Crosby"--he nodded toward me--"visiting in the house and he footed the
+bill. He seemed to think the young man hadn't intended to steal, and
+that it would be pleasanter all around if I left it for them to settle
+between themselves."
+
+"I protest!" I cried. "I distinctly stated my conviction that Radnor
+Gaylord knew nothing of the bonds, and I paid him to get rid of him
+because I did not wish him troubling Colonel Gaylord with any such
+made-up story."
+
+"Mr. Clancy is testifying," observed the coroner. "Now, Mr. Clancy, as I
+understand it, you discovered as you supposed the guilty man, and
+instead of going to your employer with the story and receiving your pay
+from him, you accepted it from the person you had accused--or at least
+from his friend?"
+
+"I've explained the circumstances; it was a mere matter of
+accommodation."
+
+"I suppose you know what such accommodation is called?"
+
+"If you mean it was blackmail--that's false! At least," he added,
+quickly relapsing into good nature, "it was a mighty generous kind of
+blackmail. I could have got my pay fast enough from the Colonel but I
+didn't want to stir up trouble. We all know that it isn't the innocent
+who pay blackmail," he added parenthetically.
+
+"Do you mean to insinuate that Mr. Crosby is implicated?"
+
+"Lord no! He's as innocent as a lamb. Young Gaylord was too smart for
+him; he hoodwinked him as well as the Colonel into believing the bonds
+were stolen while he was out of the house."
+
+A smile ran around the room and the detective was excused. I sprang to
+my feet.
+
+"One moment!" I said. "I should like to ask Mr. Clancy some questions."
+
+The young man was turned over to me, plainly against his wishes.
+
+"What proof have you, Mr. Clancy, that the bonds were not stolen while
+Mr. Gaylord was out of the house?"
+
+"Well, my investigations led me to the belief that he stole them, and
+that being the case, it must have been done before he left the house."
+
+"I see! And your investigations concerned themselves largely with a
+letter which you filched from Mr. Gaylord's coat pocket in the night,
+did they not?"
+
+"Not entirely--the letter merely struck me as corroborative evidence,
+though I have since learned--"
+
+"Mr. Clancy," I interrupted sternly, "did you not tell me at the time,
+that that letter was absolute proof of his guilt--yes or no?"
+
+"I may have said so but--"
+
+"Mr. Clancy, will you kindly repeat what was in that letter."
+
+"It referred to some bonds; I don't know that I can recall the exact
+words."
+
+"Then I must request you to read it," I returned, picking it out from a
+bundle of papers on the table and handing it to him. "I am sorry to take
+up so much time with a matter that has nothing to do with the murder," I
+added to the coroner, "but you yourself brought up the subject and it is
+only fair to hear the whole story."
+
+He nodded permission, and ordered Clancy to read the letter. The
+detective did so amidst an astonished hush. It struck everyone as a
+proof of guilt, and no one could understand why I had forced it to the
+front.
+
+"Now Mr. Clancy," said I, "please tell the jury Mr. Gaylord's
+explanation of this letter."
+
+Clancy with a somewhat sheepish air gave the gist of what Radnor had
+said.
+
+"Did you believe that story when you first heard it?" I asked.
+
+"No," said he, "I did not, because--"
+
+"Very well! But you later went to the office of Jacoby, Haight & Co.,
+and looked over the files of their correspondence with Radnor Gaylord
+and verified his statement in every particular, did you not?"
+
+"Yes, I did, but still--"
+
+"That is all I wish to ask, Mr. Clancy. I think the reason is evident,"
+I added, turning to the jury, "why I was willing to pay in order to get
+rid of him. Nobody's character, nobody's correspondence, was safe while
+he was in the house."
+
+The detective retired amidst general laughter and I could see that
+feeling had veered again in Radnor's favor. The total effect of the
+evidence respecting the ha'nt and the robbery was good rather than bad,
+and I more than fancied that I was indebted to the sheriff for it.
+
+Radnor was not called again and that was the end of the testimony in
+regard to him. The rest of the time was taken up with a consideration of
+Cat-Eye Mose and some further questioning of the negroes in regard to
+the ha'nt. Old Nancy created considerable diversion with her account of
+the spirited roast chicken. It had changed materially since I heard it
+last. She was emphatic in her statement that "Marse Rad didn't have
+nuffen to do wif him. He was a sho' nuff ha'nt an' his gahments smelt o'
+de graveyard."
+
+The evidence respecting Mose brought out nothing of any consequence, and
+with that the hearing was brought to a close. The coroner instructed the
+jury on two or three points of law and ended with the brief formula:
+
+"You have heard the testimony given by these witnesses. It remains for
+you to do your duty."
+
+After an interminable half hour the jury-men filed back to their seats
+and the clerk read the verdict:
+
+"We find that the said Richard Gaylord came to his death in Luray Cavern
+on the 19th day of May, by cerebral hemorrhage, the result of a wound
+inflicted by some blunt weapon in the hands of a person or persons
+unknown. We recommend that Radnor Fanshaw Gaylord be held for trial
+before the Grand Jury."
+
+Rad appeared dazed at the verdict; though in the face of the evidence
+and his own stubborn refusal to explain it, I don't see how he could
+have expected any other outcome. As for myself, it was better than I had
+feared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+FALSE CLUES
+
+
+The fight had now fairly begun. The district attorney was working up the
+side of the prosecution, aided, I was sure, by the over-zealous sheriff.
+It remained for me to map out some definite plan of action and organize
+the defence.
+
+As I rode back to Four-Pools in the early evening after the inquest, I
+continued to dwell upon the evidence, searching blindly for some clue.
+The question which returned most persistently to my mind was "What has
+become of Cat-Eye Mose?" It was clear now that upon the answer to this
+question hinged the ultimate solution of the mystery. I still clung to
+the belief that he was guilty and in hiding. But five days had elapsed
+since the murder, and no trace of him had been discovered. It seemed
+incredible that a man, however well he might know his ground, could,
+with a whole county on his track, elude detection so effectually.
+
+Supposing after all that he were not guilty, but the sheriff's theory
+that he had been killed and the body concealed, were true; then who,
+besides Radnor, could have had any motive for committing the crime?
+There was nothing from the past that afforded even the suggestion of a
+clue. The old man seemed to have had no enemies but his sons. His sons?
+The thought of Jeff suddenly sprang into my mind. If anyone on earth
+owed the Colonel a grudge it was his elder son. And Jeff had more than
+his share of the Gaylord spirit which could not lightly forgive an
+injury. Could he have returned secretly to the neighborhood, and,
+following his father into the cave, have quarreled with him? Heaven
+knows he had cause enough! He may, in his anger, have struck the old man
+without knowing what he was doing, and overcome with horror at the
+result, have left him and fled.
+
+I was almost as reluctant to believe him guilty of the crime as to
+believe it of Radnor, but the thought having once come, would not be
+dismissed. I knew that he had sunk pretty low in the nine years since
+his disappearance, but I could never think of him otherwise than as I
+myself remembered him. He had been the hero of my boyhood and I revolted
+from the thought of deliberately setting out to prove him guilty of his
+father's murder.
+
+I spurred my horse into a gallop, miserably trying to escape from my
+suspicion; but the more I put it from me as impossible, the surer I
+became that at last I had stumbled on a clue. Automatically, I began
+adjusting the evidence to fit this new theory, and reluctant as I was to
+see it, every circumstance from the beginning fitted it perfectly.
+
+Jeff had returned secretly to the neighborhood, had taken up his abode
+in the old negro cabins and made his presence known only to Mose. Mose
+had stolen the chicken for him, and the various other missing articles.
+They had resurrected the ha'nt to frighten the negroes away from the
+laurel walk, and the night of the party Rad, in his masquerade, had
+accidentally discovered his brother. Jeff demanded money, and Rad
+undertook to supply it in order to get him away without his father's
+knowing. That was why he had borrowed the hundred dollars from me, and
+had written to his brokers to sell the bonds. It was Jeff who was
+sitting beside Radnor the night they drove across the lawn. But unknown
+to Rad, Jeff had found his way back and had robbed the safe, and Rad
+suspecting it, had refused to make an investigation.
+
+During the eleven days that intervened between the robbery and the
+murder Jeff had still been hiding in the vicinity--possibly in the
+neighborhood of Luray, certainly no longer in the cabins, for he had no
+desire to meet his brother.
+
+But on the day of the picnic they had met and quarreled. Rad had charged
+him with the robbery and they had parted in a high state of anger. This
+would explain Rad's actions in the hotel, his white face later when I
+found him in the summer house. And Jeff, still quivering from the boy's
+accusation, had gone back into the cave and met his father as the old
+man was coming from the little gallery of the broken column with Polly
+Mathers's coat. What had happened there I did not like to consider; they
+both had uncontrolled tempers, and in the past there had been wrongs on
+both sides. Probably Jeff's blow had been harder than he meant.
+
+In the evening when Mattison and I brought the news of the murder, Rad
+must have known instantly who was the real culprit. That was why he had
+kept silent; that was why he so vehemently insisted on Mose's innocence.
+I had found the light at last--though the darkness had been almost
+better.
+
+What must I do? I asked myself. Was it my duty to search out Jefferson
+and convict him of this crime? No one could tell what provocation he may
+have had. Why not let matters take their course? There was nothing but
+circumstantial evidence against Radnor. Surely no jury would convict him
+on that. I could work up a sufficient case against Mose to assure his
+acquittal. He would be released with a blot on his name, he would be
+regarded for the rest of his life with suspicion; but in any event there
+seemed to be no outcome which would not involve the family in endless
+trouble and disgrace. And besides, if he himself elected to be silent,
+had I any right to speak? Then I pulled myself together. Yes, it was not
+only right for me to speak; it was my duty. Rad should not be allowed to
+sacrifice himself. The truth, at whatever cost, must be brought out.
+
+My first move must be to discover Jeff's whereabouts on the day of his
+father's murder. It ought not to be difficult to trace a man who had
+come more than once under the surveillance of the police. Having made up
+my mind as to the necessary course, I lost no time in putting it into
+action. I barely waited to snatch a hasty supper before riding back to
+the village. From there I sent a fifty-word telegram to the chief of
+police in Seattle asking for any information as to the whereabouts of
+Jefferson Gaylord on the nineteenth of May.
+
+It was ten o'clock the next morning before an answer came. So sure was I
+of what it was going to contain, that I read the words twice before
+comprehending them.
+
+
+     "Jefferson Gaylord spent May nineteenth in lumber camp thirty
+     miles from Seattle. Well-known character. Mistaken identity
+     impossible.
+
+                                "HENRY WATERSON,
+                                   "_Police Commissioner_."
+
+
+I had become so obsessed with the horror of my new theory; so sure that
+Jeff was the murderer of his father that I could not readjust my
+thoughts to the idea that he had been at the time of the crime three
+thousand miles away. The case, then, still stood exactly where it had
+stood from the beginning. Six days had passed since the murder and I was
+not one inch nearer the truth. Six days! I realized it with a dull
+feeling of hopelessness. Every day now that was allowed to pass only
+lessened the chance of our ever finding Mose and solving the mystery.
+
+I still stood with the telegram in my hand staring at the words. I was
+vaguely aware that a boy from "Miller's place" had ridden up to the
+house on a bicycle, but not until Solomon approached with a second
+yellow envelope in his hand was I jostled back into a state of
+comprehension.
+
+"Nurr telegram, Mars' Arnold."
+
+I snatched it from him and ripped it open, hoping against hope that at
+last a clue had turned up.
+
+
+                                               "NEW YORK, May 25.
+     "Post-Dispatch wants correspondent on spot. If you have any facts
+     to give out, save them for me. Arrive Lambert Junction three-fifty.
+                                            "TERENCE K. PATTEN."
+
+
+Under the terrible strain of the past six days I had completely
+forgotten Terry's existence and now the memory of his cool impertinence
+came back to me with a rush. For the first moment I felt too angry to
+think; I had not credited even his presumption with anything like this.
+His interference in the Patterson-Pratt business was bad enough, but he
+might have realized that this was a personal matter. He was calmly
+proposing to turn this horrible tragedy into a story for the Sunday
+papers--and that to a member of the murdered man's own family. Hot with
+indignation, I tore the telegram into shreds and stalked into the house.
+I paced up and down the hall for fifteen minutes, planning what I should
+say to him when he arrived; and then, as I calmed down, I commenced to
+see the thing in its true light.
+
+The whole account of the crime to the minutest detail, had already
+appeared in every newspaper in the country, together with the most
+outrageous stories of Radnor's past career. At least nothing could be
+worse than what had already been said. And after all, was not the
+truth--any truth--better than these vague suspicions, this terrible
+suspense? Terry could find the truth if any man on earth could do it. He
+had, I knew, unraveled other tangles as mysterious as this. He was used
+to this sort of work, and bringing to the matter a fresh mind, would see
+light where it was only darkness to me. I had been under such a terrific
+strain for so long and had borne so much responsibility, that the very
+thought of having someone with whom I could share it gave me new
+strength. My feeling toward him veered suddenly from indignation to
+gratitude. His irrepressible confidence in himself inspired me with a
+like confidence, and I wondered what I had been thinking of that I had
+not sent for him at once. To my jaded mind his promised arrival appeared
+better than a clue--it was almost equal to a solution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TERRY COMES
+
+
+The moment I caught sight of Terry as he swung off the train I felt
+involuntarily that my troubles were near their end. His sharp, eager
+face with its firm jaw and quick eye inspired one with the feeling that
+he could find the bottom of any mystery. It was with a deep breath of
+relief that I held out my hand.
+
+"Hello, old man! How are you?" he exclaimed with a smile of cordiality
+as he grasped it. And then recalling the gravity of the situation, he
+with some difficulty pulled a sober face. "I'm sorry that we meet again
+under such sad circumstances," he added perfunctorily. "I suppose you
+think I've meddled enough in your affairs already; and on my word, I
+intended to stay out of this. But of course I've been watching it in the
+papers; partly because it was interesting and partly because I knew
+you. It struck me yesterday afternoon as I was thinking things over that
+you weren't making much headway and might like a little help; so I
+induced the Post-Dispatch to send down their best man. I hope I shall
+get at the truth." He paused a moment and looked at me sharply. "Do you
+want me to stay? I will go back if you'd rather have me."
+
+I was instantly ashamed of my distrust of the afternoon. Whatever might
+be Terry's failings, I could not doubt, as I looked into his face, that
+his Irish heart was in the right place.
+
+"I am not afraid of the truth," I returned steadily. "If you can
+discover it, for Heaven's sake do so!"
+
+"That's what I'm paid for," said Terry. "The Post-Dispatch doesn't deal
+in fiction any more than it can help."
+
+As we climbed into the carriage he added briskly, "It's a horrible
+affair! The details as I have them from the papers are not full enough,
+but you can tell them to me as we drive along."
+
+I should have laughed had I been feeling less anxious. His greeting was
+so entirely characteristic in the way he shuffled through the necessary
+condolences and jumped, with such evident relish, to the gruesome
+details.
+
+As I gathered up the reins and backed away from the hitching-post, Terry
+broke out with:
+
+"Here, hold on a minute. Where are you going?"
+
+"Back to Four-Pools," I said in some surprise. "I thought you'd want to
+unpack your things and get settled."
+
+"Haven't much time to get settled," he laughed. "I have an engagement in
+New York the day after to-morrow. How about the cave? Is it too late to
+visit it now?"
+
+"Well," I said dubiously, "it's ten miles across the mountains and
+pretty heavy roads. It would be dark before we got there."
+
+"As far as that goes, we could visit the cave at night as well as in the
+daytime. But I want to examine the neighborhood and interview some of
+the people; so I suppose," he added with an impatient sigh, "we'll have
+to wait till morning. And now, where's this young Gaylord?"
+
+"He's in the Kennisburg jail."
+
+"And where's that?"
+
+"About three miles from here and six miles from the plantation."
+
+"Ah--suppose we pay him a visit first. There are one or two points
+concerning his whereabouts on the night of the robbery and his actions
+on the day of the murder that I should like to have him clear up."
+
+I smiled slightly as I turned the horses' heads toward Kennisburg.
+Radnor in his present uncommunicative frame of mind was not likely to
+afford Terry much satisfaction.
+
+"There isn't any time to waste," he added as we drove along. "Just let
+me have your account of everything that happened, beginning with the
+first appearance of the ghost."
+
+I briefly sketched the situation at Four-Pools as I had found it on my
+arrival, and the events preceding the robbery and the murder. Terry
+interrupted me once or twice with questions. He was particularly
+interested in the three-cornered situation concerning Radnor, Polly
+Mathers, and Jim Mattison, and I was as brief as possible in my replies;
+I did not care to make Polly the heroine of a Sunday feature article. He
+was also persistent in regard to Jefferson's past. I told him all I
+knew, added the story of my own suspicions, and ended by producing the
+telegram proving his alibi.
+
+"H'm!" said Terry folding it thoughtfully and putting it in his pocket.
+"It had occurred to me too that Jeff might be our man--this puts an end
+to the theory that he personally committed the murder. There are some
+very peculiar points about this case," he added. "As a matter of fact, I
+don't believe that Radnor Gaylord is any more guilty of the crime than I
+am--or I shouldn't have come. But it won't do for me to jump at
+conclusions until I get more data. I suppose you realize what is the
+peculiarly significant point about the murder?"
+
+"You mean Mose's disappearance?"
+
+"Well, no. I didn't have that in mind. That's significant enough to be
+sure, but nothing but what you would naturally expect. The crime was
+committed, if your data is straight, either by him or in his presence,
+and of course he disappears. You could scarcely have expected to find
+him sitting there waiting for you, in either case."
+
+"You mean Radnor's behavior on the day of the murder and his refusal to
+explain it?" I asked uneasily.
+
+"No," Terry laughed. "That may be significant and it may not--I strongly
+suspect that it is not. What I mean, is the peculiar place in which the
+crime was committed. No person on earth could have foreseen that Colonel
+Gaylord would go alone into that cave. There is an accidental element
+about the murder. It must have been committed on the spur of the moment
+by someone who had not premeditated it--at least at that time. This is
+the point we must keep in mind."
+
+He sat for a few moments staring at the dashboard with a puzzled frown.
+
+"Broadly speaking," he said slowly, "I have found that you can place the
+motive of every wilful murder under one of three heads--avarice, fear or
+revenge. Suppose we consider the first. Could avarice have been the
+motive for Colonel Gaylord's murder? The body had not been robbed, you
+tell me?"
+
+"No, we found a gold watch and considerable money in the pockets."
+
+"Then, you see, if the motive were avarice, it could not have been
+immediate gain. That throws out the possibility that the murderer was
+some unknown thief who merely took advantage of a chance opportunity. If
+we are to conceive of avarice as the motive, the crime must have been
+committed by some person who would benefit more remotely by the
+Colonel's death. Did anyone owe him money that you know of?"
+
+"There is no record of anything of the sort and he was a careful
+business man. I do not think he would have loaned money without making
+some memorandum of it. He held several mortgages but they, of course,
+revert to his heirs."
+
+"I understood that Radnor was the only heir."
+
+"He is, practically. There are a few minor bequests to the servants and
+to some old friends."
+
+"Did the servants know that anything was to go to them?"
+
+"No, I don't think they did."
+
+"And this Cat-Eye Mose, did he receive a share?"
+
+"Yes, larger than any of the others."
+
+"It seems that Colonel Gaylord, at least, had confidence in him. And how
+about the other son? Did he know that he was to be disinherited?"
+
+"I think that the Colonel made it plain at the time they parted."
+
+Terry shook his head and frowned.
+
+"This disinheriting business is bad. I don't like it and I never shall.
+It stirs up more ill-feeling than anything I know of. Jeff seems to have
+proved an alibi, however, and we will dismiss him for the present."
+
+"Rad has always sympathized with Jeff," I said.
+
+"Then," continued Terry, "if the servants did not know the contents of
+the will, and we have all of the data, Radnor is the only one who could
+knowingly have benefited by the Colonel's death. Suppose we take a
+glance at motives of fear. Do you know of anyone who had reason to stand
+in fear of the Colonel? He wasn't oppressing anybody? No damaging
+evidence against any person in his possession? Not levying blackmail
+was he?"
+
+"Not that I know of," and I smiled slightly.
+
+"It's not likely," mused Terry, "but you never can tell what is going to
+come out when a respectable man is dead.--And now as to revenge. With a
+man of Colonel Gaylord's character, there were likely to be a good many
+people who owed him a bad turn. He seems to have been a peppery old
+gentleman. It's quite on the cards that he had some enemies among his
+neighbors?"
+
+"No, so far as I can discover, he was very popular in the neighborhood.
+The indignation over his death was something tremendous. When it first
+got out that Rad was accused of the crime, there was even talk of
+lynching him."
+
+"So?--Servants all appeared to be fond of him?"
+
+"The old family servants were broken-hearted at the news of his death.
+They had been, for the most part, born and bred on the place, and in
+spite of his occasional harshness they loved the Colonel with the
+old-fashioned devotion of the slave toward his master. He was in his way
+exceedingly kind to them. When old Uncle Eben died my uncle watched all
+night by his bed."
+
+"It's a queer situation," Terry muttered, and relapsed into silence till
+we reached the jail.
+
+It was an ivy-covered brick building set back from the street and shaded
+by trees.
+
+"Rather more home-like than the Tombs," Terry commented. "Shouldn't mind
+taking a rest in it myself."
+
+We found Radnor pacing up and down the small room in which he was
+confined, like a caged animal; the anxiety and seclusion were beginning
+to tell on his nerves. He faced about quickly as the door opened and at
+sight of me his face lightened. He was growing pathetically pleased at
+having anyone with whom he could talk.
+
+"Rad," I said with an air of cheerfulness which was not entirely
+assumed, "I hope we're nearing the end of our trouble at last. This is
+Mr. Patten--Terry Patten of New York, who has come to help me unravel
+the mystery."
+
+It was an unfortunate beginning; I had told him before of Terry's
+connection with the Patterson-Pratt affair. He had half held out his
+hand as I commenced to speak, but he dropped it now with a slight frown.
+
+"I don't think I care to be interviewed," he remarked curtly. "I have
+nothing to say for the benefit of the Post-Dispatch."
+
+"You'd better," said Terry, imperturbably. "The Post-Dispatch prints the
+truth, you know, and some of the other papers don't. The truth's always
+the best in the end. I merely want to find out what information you can
+give me in regard to the ghost."
+
+"I will tell you nothing," Radnor growled. "I am not giving statements
+to the press."
+
+"Mr. Gaylord," said Terry, with an assumption of gentle patience, "if
+you will excuse my referring to what I know must be a painful subject,
+would you mind telling me if the suspicion has ever crossed your mind
+that your brother Jefferson may have returned secretly, have abstracted
+the bonds from the safe, and, two weeks later, quite accidentally, have
+met Colonel Gaylord alone in the cave--"
+
+Radnor turned upon him in a sudden fury; I thought for a moment he was
+going to strike him and I sprang forward and caught his arm.
+
+"The Gaylords may be a bad lot but they are not liars and they are not
+cowards. They do not run away; they stand by the consequences of their
+acts."
+
+Terry bowed gravely.
+
+"Just one more question, and I am through. What happened to you that day
+in the cave?"
+
+"It's none of your damned business!"
+
+I glanced apprehensively at Terry, uncertain as to how he would take
+this; but he did not appear to resent it. He looked Radnor over with an
+air of interested approval and his smile slowly broadened.
+
+"I'm glad to see you're game," he remarked.
+
+"I tell you I don't know who killed my father any more than you do,"
+Radnor cried. "You needn't come here asking me questions. Go and find
+the murderer if you can, and if you can't, hang me and be done with it."
+
+"I don't know that we need take up any more of Mr. Gaylord's time," said
+Terry to me. "I've found out about all I wished to know. We'll drop in
+again," he added reassuringly to Radnor. "Good afternoon."
+
+As we went out of the door he turned back a moment and added with a
+slightly sharp undertone in his voice:
+
+"And the next time I come, Gaylord, you'll shake hands!" Fumbling in his
+pocket he drew out my telegram from the police commissioner, and tossed
+it onto the cot. "In the meantime there's something for you to think
+about. Good by."
+
+"Do you mean," I asked as we climbed back into the carriage, "that
+Radnor did believe Jeff guilty?"
+
+"Well, not exactly. I fancy he will be relieved, though, to find that
+Jeff was three thousand miles away when the murder was committed."
+
+Only once during the drive home did Terry exhibit any interest in his
+surroundings, and that was when we passed through the village of Lambert
+Corners. He made me slow down to a walk and explain the purpose of
+everyone of the dozen or so buildings along the square. At "Miller's
+place" he suddenly decided that he needed some stamps and I waited
+outside while he obtained them together with a drink in the private back
+room.
+
+"Nothing like getting the lay of the land," he remarked as he climbed
+back into the carriage. "That Miller is a picturesque old party. He
+thinks it's all tommy-rot that Radnor Gaylord had anything to do with
+the crime--Rad's a customer of his, and it's a downright imposition to
+lock the boy up where he can't spend money."
+
+For the rest of the drive Terry kept silence and I did not venture to
+interrupt it. I had come to have a superstitious feeling that his
+silences were portentous. It was not until I stopped to open the gate
+into our own home lane, that he suddenly burst out with the question:
+
+"Where do the Mathers people live?"
+
+"A couple of miles farther down the pike--they have no connection
+whatever with the business, and don't know a thing about it."
+
+"Ah--perhaps not. Would it be too late to drive over to-night?"
+
+"Yes," said I, "it would."
+
+"Oh, very well," said he, good-humoredly. "There'll be time enough in
+the morning."
+
+I let this pass without comment, but on one thing I was resolved; and
+that was that Polly Mathers should never fall into Terry's clutches.
+
+"There are a lot of questions I want to ask about your ghost, but I'll
+wait till I get my bearings--and my dinner," he added with a laugh.
+"There wasn't any dining car on that train, and I breakfasted early and
+omitted lunch."
+
+"Here we are," I said, as we came in sight of the house. "The cook is
+expecting us."
+
+"So that is the Gaylord house is it? A fine old place! When was it
+built?"
+
+"About 1830, I imagine."
+
+"Let me see, Sheridan rode up the Shenandoah Valley and burned
+everything in sight. How did this place happen to escape?"
+
+"I don't know just how it did. You see it's a mile back from the main
+road and well hidden by trees--I suppose they were in a hurry and it
+escaped their attention."
+
+"And that row of shanties down there?"
+
+"Are the haunted negro cabins."
+
+"Ah!" Terry rose in his seat and scanned them eagerly. "We'll have a
+look at them as soon as I get something to eat. Really, a farm isn't so
+bad," he remarked as he stepped out upon the portico. "And is this
+Solomon?" he inquired as the old negro came forward to take his bag.
+"Well, Solomon, I've been reading about you in the papers! You and I are
+going to have a talk by and by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+WE SEARCH THE ABANDONED CABINS
+
+
+"Now," said Terry, as Solomon and the suitcase disappeared upstairs,
+"let's you and I have a look at those haunted cabins."
+
+"I thought you were hungry!"
+
+"Starving--but I still have strength enough to get that far. Solomon
+says supper won't be ready for half an hour, and we haven't half an hour
+to waste. I'm due in the city the day after to-morrow, remember."
+
+"You won't find anything," I said. "I've searched every one of those
+cabins myself and the ha'nt didn't leave a trace behind him."
+
+"I think I'll just glance about with my own eyes," laughed Terry.
+"Reporters sometimes see things, you know, where corporation lawyers
+don't."
+
+"Just as you please," I replied. "Four-Pools is at your disposal."
+
+I led the way across the lawn and into the laurel growth. Terry
+followed with eyes eagerly alert; the gruesome possibilities of the
+place appealed to him. He pushed through the briars that surrounded the
+first cabin and came out on the slope behind, where he stood gazing down
+delightedly at the dark waters of the fourth pool.
+
+"My word! This is great. We'll run a half-page picture and call it the
+'Haunted Tarn.' Didn't know such places really existed--thought writers
+made 'em up. Come on," he called, plunging back to the laurel walk, "we
+must catch our ghost; I don't want this scenery to go to waste."
+
+We commenced at the first cabin and went down the row thoroughly and
+systematically. At Terry's insistence one of the stable men brought a
+ladder and we climbed into every loft, finding nothing but spiders and
+dust. The last on the left, being more weatherproof than the others, was
+used as a granary. A space six feet square was left inside the door, but
+for the rest the room was filled nearly to the ceiling with sacks of
+Indian meal.
+
+"How about this--did you examine this cabin?"
+
+"Well, really, Terry; there isn't much room for a ghost here."
+
+"Ghosts don't require much room; how about the loft?"
+
+"I didn't go up--you can't get at the trap without moving all the meal."
+
+"I see!" Terry was examining the three walls of sacks before us. "Now
+here is a sack rather dirtier than the rest and squashy. It looks to me
+as if it had had a good deal of rough handling."
+
+He pulled it to the floor as he spoke, and another with it. A space some
+three feet high was visible; by crawling one could make his way along
+without hitting the ceiling.
+
+"Come on!" said Terry, scrambling to the top of the pile and pulling me
+after him, "we've struck the trail of our ghostly friend unless I'm very
+much mistaken.--Look at that!" He pointed to a muddy foot-mark plainly
+outlined on one of the sacks. "Don't disturb it; we may want to compare
+it with the marks in the cave.--Hello! What's this? The print of a bare
+foot--that's our friend, Mose."
+
+He took out a pocket rule and made careful measurements of both prints;
+the result he set down in a note book. I was quite as excited now as
+Terry. We crawled along on all fours until we reached the open trap;
+there was no trace here of either spider-webs or dust. We scrambled into
+the loft without much difficulty, and found a large room with sloping
+beams overhead and two small windows, innocent of glass, at either end.
+The room was empty but clean; it had been thoroughly swept, and
+recently. Terry poked about but found nothing.
+
+"H'm!" he grunted. "Mose cleaned well.--Ah! Here we are!"
+
+He paused before a horizontal beam along the side wall and pointed to a
+little pile of ashes and a cigar stub.
+
+"He smokes cigars, and good strong ones--at least he isn't a lady. Did
+you ever see a cigar like that before?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "that's the kind the Colonel always smoked--a fresh box
+was stolen from the dining-room cupboard a day or so after I got here.
+Solomon said it was the ha'nt, but we suspected it was Solomon."
+
+"Was the cupboard unlocked?"
+
+"Oh, yes; any of the house servants could have got at it."
+
+"Well," said Terry, poking his head from the windows for a view of the
+ground beneath, "that's all there seems to be here; we might as well go
+down."
+
+We boosted up the two meal bags again, and started back toward the
+house. Terry's eyes studied his surroundings keenly, whether for the
+sake of the story he was planning to write or the mystery he was trying
+to solve, I could only conjecture. His glance presently fixed on the
+stables where old Uncle Jake was visible sitting on an upturned pail in
+the doorway.
+
+"You go on," he ordered, "and have 'em put dinner or supper or whatever
+you call it on the table, and I'll be back in three minutes. I want to
+see what that old fellow over there has to say in regard to the ghost."
+
+It was fifteen minutes later that Terry reappeared.
+
+"Well," I inquired as I led the way to the dining-room, "did you get any
+news of the ghost?"
+
+"Did I! The Society for Psychical Research ought to investigate this
+neighborhood. They'd find more spirits in half an hour than they've
+found in their whole past history."
+
+Terry's attention during supper was chiefly directed toward Nancy's
+fried chicken and beat biscuits. When he did make any remarks he
+addressed them to Solomon rather than to me. Solomon was loquacious
+enough in general, but he had his own ideas of table decorum, and it was
+evident that the friendly advances of my guest considerably scandalized
+him. When the coffee and cigars were brought on, Terry appeared to be on
+the point of inviting Solomon to sit down and have a cigar with us; but
+he thought better of it, and contented himself with talking to the old
+man across my shoulder. He confined his questions to matters concerning
+the household and the farm, and Solomon in vain endeavored to confine
+his replies to "yes, sah," "no, sah," "jes' so, sah!" In five minutes he
+was well started, and it would have required a flood-gate to stop him.
+
+In the midst of it Terry rose and dismissing me with a brief, "I'll join
+you in the library later; I want to talk to Solomon a few minutes," he
+bowed me out and shut the door.
+
+I was amused rather than annoyed by this summary dismissal. Terry had
+been in the house not quite two hours, and I am sure that a third
+person, looking on, would have picked me out for the stranger. Terry's
+way of being at home in any surroundings was absolutely inimitable. Had
+he ever had occasion to visit Windsor Castle I am sure that he would
+have set about immediately making King Edward feel at home.
+
+He appeared in the library in the course of half an hour with the
+apology: "I hope you didn't mind being turned out. Servants are
+sometimes embarrassed, you know, about telling the truth before any of
+the family."
+
+"You didn't get much truth out of Solomon," I retorted.
+
+"I don't know that I did," Terry admitted with a laugh. "There are the
+elements of a good reporter in Solomon; he has an imagination which I
+respect. The Gaylords appear to be an interesting family with hereditary
+tempers. The ghost, I hear, beat a slave to death, and to pay for it is
+doomed to pace the laurel walk till the day of judgment."
+
+"That's the story," I nodded, "and the beating is at least authentic."
+
+"H'm!" Terry frowned. "And Solomon tells me tales of the Colonel himself
+whipping the negroes--there can't be any truth in that?"
+
+"But there is," I said. "He didn't hesitate to strike them when he was
+angry. I myself saw him beat a nigger a few days ago," and I recounted
+the story of the chicken thief.
+
+"So! A man of that sort is likely to have enemies he doesn't suspect.
+How about Cat-Eye Mose? Was Colonel Gaylord in the habit of whipping
+him?"
+
+"Often," I nodded, "but the more the Colonel abused Mose, the fonder
+Mose appeared to grow of the Colonel."
+
+"It's a puzzling situation," said Terry pacing up and down the room
+with a thoughtful frown. "Well!" he exclaimed with a sudden access of
+energy, "I suppose we might as well sit down and tackle it."
+
+He took off his coat and rolled up his shirt sleeves; then shoving
+everything back from one end of the big library table, he settled
+himself in a chair and motioned me to one opposite.
+
+"Tomorrow morning," he said as he took out from his pockets a roll of
+newspaper clippings and a yellow copy pad, "we will drive over and have
+a look at that cave; it ought to tell its own story. But in the
+meantime--" he looked up with a laugh--"suppose we use our brains a
+little."
+
+I did not resent the inference. Terry was his old impudent self, and I
+was so relieved at having him there, assuming the responsibility, that
+he might have wiped the floor with me and welcome.
+
+"Our object," he commenced, "is not to prove your cousin innocent of the
+murder, but to find out who is guilty. The most logical method would be
+to study the scene of the crime first, but as that does not appear
+feasible until morning, we will examine such data as we have. On the
+face of it the only two who appear to be implicated are Radnor and this
+Cat-Eye Mose--who is a most picturesque character," Terry added, the
+reporter for the moment getting ahead of the detective.
+
+He paused and examined the end of his fountain pen speculatively, and
+then ran through the pile of clippings before him.
+
+"Well, now, as for Radnor. Suppose we look into his case a little." He
+glanced over one of the newspaper slips and tossed it across to me.
+
+"There's a clipping from the 'Baltimore Censor'--a tolerably
+conservative journal. What have you to say in regard to it?"
+
+I picked it up and glanced it over. It was dated May twenty-third--four
+days after the murder--and was the same in substance as many other
+articles I had read in the past week.
+
+
+     "No new evidence has come to light in regard to the sensational
+     murder of Colonel Gaylord whose body was discovered in Luray Cave,
+     Virginia, a few days ago. The authorities now concur in the belief
+     that the crime was committed by the son of the murdered man. The
+     accused is awaiting trial in the Kennisburg jail.
+
+     "It seems impossible that any man, however depraved, could in cold
+     blood commit so brutal and unnatural a crime as that with which
+     Radnor Gaylord is accused. It is only in the light of his past
+     history that the action can be understood. Coming from one of the
+     oldest families of Virginia, an heir to wealth and an honored name,
+     he is but another example of the many who have sold their
+     birth-right for a mess of pottage. A drunkard and a spendthrift, he
+     wasted his youth in gambling and betting on the races while honest
+     men were toiling for their daily bread.
+
+     "Several times has Radnor Gaylord been disinherited and turned
+     adrift, but Colonel Gaylord, weak in his love for his youngest son,
+     invariably received him back again into the house he had
+     dishonored. Finally, pressed beyond the point of endurance, the old
+     man took a firm stand and refused to meet his son's inordinate
+     demands for money. Young Gaylord, rendered desperate by debts, took
+     the most obvious method of gaining his inheritance. His part in the
+     tragedy of Colonel Gaylord's death is as good as proved, though he
+     persistently and defiantly denies all knowledge of the crime. No
+     sympathy can be felt for him. The wish of every right-minded man in
+     the country must be that the law will take its course--and that as
+     speedily as possible."
+
+
+"Well?" said Terry as I finished.
+
+"It's a lie," I cried hotly.
+
+"All of it?"
+
+"Every word of it!"
+
+"Oh, see here," said Terry. "There's no use in your trying to hide
+things. That account is an exaggeration of course, but it must have some
+foundation. You told me you weren't afraid of the truth. Just be so kind
+as to tell it to me, then. Exactly what sort of a fellow is Radnor? I
+want to know for several reasons."
+
+"Well, he did drink a good deal for a youngster," I admitted, "though
+never to such an extent as has been reported. Of late he had stopped
+entirely. As for gambling, the young men around here have got into a bad
+way of playing for high stakes, but during the past month or so Rad had
+pulled up in that too. He sometimes backed one of their own horses from
+the Gaylord stables, but so did the Colonel; it's the regular thing in
+Virginia. As for his ever having been disinherited, that is a newspaper
+story, pure and simple. I never heard anything of the sort, and the
+neighborhood has told me pretty much all there is to know within the
+last few days."
+
+"His father never turned him out of the house then?"
+
+"Never that I heard of. He did leave home once because his father
+insulted him, but he came back again."
+
+"That was forgiving," commented Terry. "In general, though, I understand
+that the relations between the two were rather strained?"
+
+"At times they were," I admitted, "but things had been going rather
+better for the last few days."
+
+"Until the night before the murder. They quarreled then? And over a
+matter of money?"
+
+"Yes. Radnor makes no secret of it. He wanted his father to settle
+something on him, and upon his father's refusal some words passed
+between them."
+
+"And a French clock," suggested Terry.
+
+I acknowledged the clock and Terry pondered the question with one eye
+closed meditatively.
+
+"Had Radnor ever asked for anything of the sort before?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"Why did he ask then?"
+
+"Well, it's rather galling for a man of his age to be dependent on his
+father for every cent he gets. The Colonel always gave him plenty, but
+he did not want to take it in that way."
+
+"In just what way did he want to take it?" Terry inquired. "Since he was
+so infernally independent why didn't he get to work and earn something?"
+
+"Earn something!" I returned sharply. "Rad has managed the whole
+plantation for the last three years. His father was getting too old for
+business and if Rad hadn't taken hold, things would have gone to the
+deuce long ago. All he got as a regular salary was fifty dollars a
+month; I think it was time he was paid for his services."
+
+"Oh, very well," Terry laughed. "I was merely asking the question. And
+if you will allow me to go a step further, why did Colonel Gaylord
+object to settling something on the boy?"
+
+"He wanted to keep him under his thumb. The Colonel liked to rule, and
+he wished everyone around him to be dependent on his will."
+
+"I see!" said Terry. "Radnor had a real grievance, then, after all--just
+one thing more on this point. Why did he choose that particular time to
+make his request? You say he has had practical charge of affairs for the
+past three years. Why did he not wish to be independent last year? Or
+why did he not postpone the desire until next year?"
+
+I shrugged my shoulders.
+
+"You'll have to ask Radnor that." I had my own suspicions, but I did
+not wish to drag Polly Mathers's name into the discussion.
+
+Terry watched me a moment without saying anything, and then he too
+shrugged his shoulders as he turned back to the newspaper clippings.
+
+"I won't go into the matter of Radnor's connection with the ha'nt just
+now; I should like to consider first his actions on the day of the
+murder. I have here a report of the testimony taken at the inquest, but
+it is not so full as I could wish in some particulars. I should like to
+have you give me the details. First, you say that Radnor and his father
+did not speak at the breakfast table? How was it when you started?"
+
+"They both appeared to be in pretty good spirits, but I noticed that
+they avoided each other."
+
+"Very well, tell me exactly what you did after you arrived at Luray."
+
+"We left our horses at the hotel and walked about a mile across the
+fields to the mouth of the cave. We had lunch in the woods and at about
+one o'clock we started through the cave. We came out at a little after
+three, and, I should say, started to drive back about half past four."
+
+"Did you notice Radnor through the day?"
+
+"Not particularly."
+
+"Did you see either him or the Colonel in the cave?"
+
+"Yes, I was with the Colonel most of the time."
+
+"And how about Radnor? Didn't you see him at all?"
+
+"Oh, yes. I remember talking to him once about some queerly shaped
+stalagmites. He didn't hang around me, naturally, while I was with his
+father."
+
+"And when you talked to him about the stalagmites--was there anyone else
+with him at the time?"
+
+"I believe Miss Mathers was there."
+
+"And he was carrying her coat?"
+
+"I didn't notice."
+
+"At least he left it later in what you call the gallery of the broken
+column?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I see," said Terry glancing over the printed report of the inquest,
+"that the coroner asked at this point if Radnor were in the habit of
+forgetting young ladies' coats. That's more pertinent than many of the
+questions he asked. How about it? Was he in the habit of forgetting
+young ladies' coats?"
+
+"I really don't know, Terry," I said somewhat testily.
+
+"It's a pity you're not more observing," he returned, "for it's
+important, on the whole. But never mind. I'll find that out for myself.
+Did you notice when he left the rest of the party?"
+
+"No, there was such a crowd of us that I didn't miss him."
+
+"Very well, we'll have a look at his testimony. He left the rest of you
+in this same gallery of the broken column, went straight out, strolled
+about the woods for half an hour or so and then returned to the hotel. I
+fancy 'strolled' is not precisely the right word, but at any rate it's
+the word he uses. Now that half hour in the woods is an unfortunate
+circumstance. Had he gone directly to the hotel from the cave, we could
+have proved an alibi without any difficulty. As it is, he had plenty of
+time after the others came out to remember that he had forgotten the
+coat, return for it, renew the quarrel with his father, and after the
+fatal result make his way to the hotel while the rest of the party were
+still loitering in the woods."
+
+"Terry--" I began.
+
+He waved his hand in a gesture of dissent.
+
+"Oh, I'm not saying that's what _did_ happen. I'm just showing you that
+the district attorney's theory is a physical possibility. Let's glance
+at the landlord's testimony a moment. When Radnor returned for his horse
+he appeared angry, excited and in a hurry. Those are the landlord's
+words, and they are corroborated by the stable boy and several loungers
+about the hotel.
+
+"He was in a hurry--why? Because he wished to get away before the others
+came back. He had suddenly decided while he was in the woods--probably
+when he heard them laughing and talking as they came out of the
+cave--that he did not wish to see anyone. He was angry--mark that. All
+of the witnesses agree there, and I think that his actions carry out
+their evidence. He drank two glasses of brandy--by the way, I understood
+you to say he had stopped drinking. He ordered the stable boy about
+sharply. He swore at him for being slow. He lashed his horse quite
+unnecessarily as he galloped off. He rode home at an outrageous rate.
+And he was not, Solomon gives me to understand, in the habit of
+maltreating horses.
+
+"Now what do you make of all this? Here is a young man with an
+unexpended lot of temper on his hands--bent on being reckless; bent on
+being just as bad as he can be. It's as clear as daylight. That boy
+never committed any crime. A man who had just murdered his father would
+not be filled with anger, no matter what the provocation had been. He
+might be overcome with horror, fear, remorse--a dozen different
+emotions, but anger would not be among them. And further, a man who had
+committed a crime and intended to deny it later, would not proclaim his
+feelings in quite that blatant manner. Young Gaylord had not injured
+anyone; he himself had been injured. He was mad through and through, and
+he didn't care who knew it. He expended--you will remember--the most of
+his belligerency on his horse on the way home, and you found him in the
+summer house undergoing the natural reaction. By evening he had got
+himself well in hand again and was probably considerably ashamed of his
+conduct. He doesn't care to talk about the matter for several reasons.
+Fortunately Solomon is not so scrupulous."
+
+"I don't know what you're driving at, Terry," said I.
+
+"Don't you?" he inquired. "Well, really, it's about time that I came
+down!" He paused while he scrawled one or two sentences on his copy pad,
+then he glanced up with a laugh. "I don't know myself, but I think I can
+make a pretty good guess. We'll call on Miss Polly Mathers in the
+morning and see if she can't help us out."
+
+"Terry," I expostulated, "that girl knows no more about the matter than
+I do. She has already given her testimony, and I positively will not
+have her name mentioned in connection with the affair."
+
+"I don't see how you can help it," was his cool reply. "If she's in,
+she's in, and I'm not to blame. However, we won't quarrel about it now;
+we'll pay her a call in the morning." He ran his eyes over the clippings
+again, then added, "There are just two more points connecting Radnor
+Gaylord with the murder that need explaining: the foot-prints in the
+cave and the match box. The foot-prints I will dismiss for the present
+because I have not seen them myself and I can't make any deductions from
+hearsay evidence. But the question of the match box may repay a little
+investigation. I want you to tell me precisely what happened in the
+woods before you went into the cave. In the first place, how many older
+people were there in the party?"
+
+"Mr. and Mrs. Mathers, a lady who was visiting them and Colonel
+Gaylord."
+
+"There were two servants, I understand, besides this Mose, to help about
+the lunch. What did they do?"
+
+"Well, I don't know exactly. I wasn't paying much attention. I believe
+they carried things over from the hotel, collected wood for the fire,
+and then went to a farm house for water."
+
+"But Mrs. Mathers, it seems, attended to lighting the fire?"
+
+"Yes, she and the Colonel made the fire and started the coffee."
+
+"Ah!" said Terry with a note of satisfaction in his voice. "The matter
+begins to clear. Was Colonel Gaylord in the habit of smoking?"
+
+"He smoked one cigar after every meal."
+
+"Never any more than that?"
+
+"No, the doctor had limited him. The Colonel grumbled about it
+regularly, and always smoked the biggest blackest cigar he could find."
+
+"And where did he get his matches?"
+
+"Solomon passed the brass match box from the dining-room mantelpiece
+just as he passed it to us to-night."
+
+"Colonel Gaylord was not in the habit of carrying matches in his pockets
+then?"
+
+"No, I think not."
+
+"We may safely assume," said Terry, "that in this matter of making the
+fire, if the two were working together, the Colonel was on his knees
+arranging the sticks while Mrs. Mathers was standing by, giving
+directions. That, I believe, is the usual division of labor. Well, then,
+they get to the point of needing a light. The Colonel feels through his
+pockets, finds that he hasn't a match and--what happens?"
+
+"What did happen," I broke in, "was that Mrs. Mathers turned to a group
+of us who were standing talking at one side, and asked if any of us had
+a match, and Rad handed her his box. That is the last anyone remembers
+about it."
+
+"Exactly!" said Terry. "And I think I can tell you the rest. You can see
+for yourself what took place. Mrs. Mathers went back to the spot where
+they were building the fire, and the Colonel took the match box from
+her. No man is ever going to stand by and watch a woman strike a
+match--he can do it so much better himself. At this point, Mrs.
+Mathers--by her own testimony--was called away, and she doesn't
+remember anything further about the box. She thinks that she returned
+it. Why? For no reason on earth except that she usually returns things.
+As a matter of fact, however, she didn't do it this time. She was called
+away and the Colonel was left to light the fire alone. He recognized the
+box as his son's and he dropped it into his pocket. At another time
+perhaps he would have walked over and handed it back; but not then. The
+two were not speaking to each other. Later, at the time of the struggle
+in the cave, the box fell from the old man's pocket, and formed a most
+damaging piece of circumstantial evidence against his son.
+
+"On the whole," Terry finished, "I do not think we shall have a very
+difficult time in clearing Radnor. I had arrived at my own conclusions
+concerning him from reading the papers; what extra data I needed, I
+managed to glean from Solomon's lies. And as for you," he added, gazing
+across at me with an imperturbable grin, "I think you were wise in
+deciding to be a corporation lawyer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+TERRY ARRIVES AT A CONCLUSION
+
+
+"And now," said Terry, lighting a fresh cigar, and after a few
+preliminary puffs, settling down to work again, "we will consider the
+case of Cat-Eye Mose--a beautiful name, by the way, and apparently a
+beautiful character. It won't be my fault if we don't make a beautiful
+story out of him. You, yourself, I believe, hold the opinion that he
+committed the murder?"
+
+"I am sure of it," I cried.
+
+"In that case," laughed Terry, "I should be inclined to think him
+innocent."
+
+I shrugged my shoulders. There was nothing to be gained by getting
+angry. If Terry chose to regard the solving of a murder mystery in the
+light of a joke, I had nothing to say; though I did think he might have
+realized that to me, at least, it was a serious matter.
+
+"And you base your suspicions, do you not, upon the fact that he has
+queer eyes?"
+
+"Not entirely."
+
+"Upon what then?"
+
+"Upon the fact that he took part in the struggle which ended in my
+uncle's death."
+
+"Well, certainly, that does seem rather conclusive--there is no mistake
+about the foot-prints?"
+
+"None whatever; the Mathers niggers both wore shoes, and anyway they
+didn't go into the cave."
+
+"In that case I suppose it's fair to assume that Mose took part in the
+struggle. Whether he was the only man or whether there was still a
+third, the cave itself ought to tell a pretty clear story."
+
+Terry rose and paced up and down the room once or twice, and then came
+back and picked up one of the newspaper clippings.
+
+"It says here that the boot marks of two different men are visible."
+
+"That's the sheriff's opinion," I replied. "Though I myself, can't make
+out anything but the marks of Mose and the Colonel. I examined
+everything carefully, but it's awfully mixed up, you know. One really
+can't tell much about it."
+
+Terry impatiently flung himself into the chair again.
+
+"I ought to have come down last week! If I had supposed you people could
+muddle matters up so thoroughly I should. I dare say you've trampled the
+whole place over till there isn't one of the original marks left."
+
+"Look here, Terry," I said. "You act as if Virginia belonged to you.
+We've all been working our heads off over this business, and you come in
+at the last moment and quarrel with our data. You can go over tomorrow
+morning and collect your own evidence if you think it's so far superior
+to anyone else's. The marks are just as they were. Boards have been laid
+over them and nothing's been disturbed."
+
+"You're rather done up, old man," Terry remarked, smiling across at me
+good-humoredly. "Of course it's quite on the cards that Cat-Eye Mose
+committed the crime--but there are a number of objections. As I
+understand it, he has the reputation of being a harmless, peaceable
+fellow not very bright but always good-natured. He never resented an
+injury, was never known to quarrel with anyone, took what was given him
+and said thank you. He loved Colonel Gaylord and watched over his
+interests as jealously as a dog. Well now, is a man who has had this
+reputation all his life, a man whom everybody trusts, very likely to go
+off the hook as suddenly as that and--with no conceivable
+motive--brutally kill the master he has served so faithfully? A man's
+future is in a large measure determined by his past."
+
+"That may all be true enough," I said, "but it is very possible that
+people were deceived in Mose. I have been suspicious of him from the
+moment I laid eyes on him. You may think it unfair to judge a man from
+his physical appearance, but I wish you could once see Cat-Eye Mose
+yourself, and you would know what I mean. The people around here are
+used to him and don't notice it so much, but his eyes are
+yellow--positively yellow, and they narrow in the light just like a
+cat's. One night he drove Radnor and me home from a party, and I could
+actually see his eyes shining in the dark. It's the most gruesome thing
+I ever saw; and take that on top of his habits--he carries snakes around
+in the front of his shirt--really, one suspects him of anything."
+
+"I hope he isn't dead," Terry murmured wistfully. "I'd like a personal
+interview."
+
+He sat sunk down in his chair for several minutes intently examining the
+end of his fountain pen.
+
+"Well," he said rousing himself, "it's time we had a shy at the ghost.
+We must find out in what way Radnor and Mose were connected with him,
+and in what way he was connected with the robbery. Radnor could help us
+considerably if he would only talk--the fact that he won't talk is very
+suggestive. We'll get at the truth without him, though. Suppose you
+begin and tell me everything from the first appearance of the ha'nt. I
+should like to get him tabulated."
+
+"The first definite thing that reached the house," I replied, "was the
+night of my arrival when the roast chicken was stolen--I've told you
+that in detail."
+
+"And it was that same night that Aunt What-Ever-Her-Name-Is saw the
+ghost in the laurel walk?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"Did she say what it looked like?"
+
+"It was white."
+
+"And when you searched the cabins did you go into the one where the
+grain is stored?"
+
+"No, Mose dropped his torch at the entrance. And anyway Rad said there
+was no use in searching it; it was already full to the brim with sacks
+of corn meal."
+
+"Do you think that Radnor was trying to divert you from the scene?"
+
+"No, I am sure he hadn't a suspicion himself."
+
+"And what did the thing look like that you saw Mose carrying to the
+cabins in the night?"
+
+"It seemed to be a large black bundle. I have thought since that it
+might have been clothes or blankets or something of that sort."
+
+"So much for the first night," said Terry. "Now, how soon did the ghost
+appear again?"
+
+"Various things were stolen after that, and the servants attributed it
+to the ha'nt, but the first direct knowledge I had was the night of the
+party when Radnor acted so strangely. I told you of his going back in
+the night."
+
+"He was carrying something too?"
+
+"Yes, he had a black bundle--it might have been clothes."
+
+"And after that he and Mose were in constant consultation?"
+
+"Yes--they both encouraged the belief in the ha'nt among the negroes and
+did their best to keep everyone away from the laurel walk. I overheard
+Mose several times telling stories to the other negroes about the
+terrible things the ha'nt would do if it caught them."
+
+"And he himself didn't show any fear over the stories?"
+
+"Not the slightest--appeared rather to enjoy them."
+
+"And Radnor--how did he take the matter?"
+
+"He was moody and irritable. I could see that something was preying on
+his mind."
+
+"How did you explain the matter to yourself?"
+
+"I was afraid he had fallen into the clutches of someone who was
+threatening him, possibly levying blackmail."
+
+"But you didn't make any attempt to discover the truth?"
+
+"Well, it was Rad's own affair, and I didn't want the appearance of
+spying. I did keep my eyes open as much as I could."
+
+"And the Colonel, how did he take all this excitement about the ha'nt?"
+
+"It bothered him considerably, but Rad kept him from hearing it as much
+as he could."
+
+"When did the ha'nt appear again after the party?"
+
+"Oh, by that time all sorts of rumors were running about among the
+negroes. The whole place was haunted and several of the plantation hands
+had left. But the next thing that we heard directly was in the early
+evening before the robbery when Mose, appearing terribly frightened,
+said he had seen the ha'nt rising in a cloud of blue smoke out of the
+spring-hole."
+
+"And how did the Colonel and Radnor take this?"
+
+"The Colonel was angry because he had been bragging about Mose not
+being afraid, and Rad was dazed. He didn't know what to think; he
+hustled Mose out of the way before we could ask any questions."
+
+"And what did you think?"
+
+"Well, I fancied at the time that he had really seen something, but as I
+thought it over in the light of later events I came to the conclusion
+that he was shamming, both then and in the middle of the night when he
+roused the house."
+
+"That is, you wished to think him shamming, in order to prove his
+complicity in the robbery and the murder; and so you twisted the facts
+to suit your theory?"
+
+"I don't think you can say that," I returned somewhat hotly. "It's
+merely a question of interpreting the facts."
+
+"He didn't gain much by raising all that hullabaloo in the middle of the
+night."
+
+"Why yes, that was done in order to throw suspicion on the ha'nt."
+
+"Oh, I see!" laughed Terry. "Well, now, let's get to the end of this
+matter. Was any more seen of the ha'nt after that night?"
+
+"No, at least not directly. For five or six days everyone was so taken
+up with the robbery that the ha'nt excitement rather died down. Then I
+believe there were some rumors among the negroes but nothing much
+reached the house."
+
+"And since the murder nothing whatever has been seen of the ha'nt?"
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Just give me a list of the things that were stolen."
+
+"Well, the roast chicken, a box of cigars, some shirts off the line, a
+suit of Rad's pajamas, a French novel, some brandy, quite a lot of
+things to eat--fresh loaves of bread, preserves, a boiled ham, sugar,
+coffee--oh, any amount of stuff! The niggers simply helped themselves
+and laid it to the ha'nt. One of the carriages was left out one night,
+and in the morning the cushions were gone and two lap robes. At the same
+time a water pail was taken and a pair of Jake's overalls. And then to
+end up came the robbery of the safe."
+
+"The ha'nt had catholic tastes. Any of the things turned up since?"
+
+"Yes, a number of things, such as blankets and clothes and dishes have
+gradually drifted back."
+
+"The carriage cushions and lap robes--ever find them?"
+
+"Never a trace--and why anyone should want 'em, I don't know!"
+
+"What color were the lap robes?"
+
+"Plain black broadcloth."
+
+Terry got up and paced about a few moments and then came back and sat
+down.
+
+"One thing is clear," he said, "there are two ha'nts."
+
+"Two ha'nts! What do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say. Suppose for convenience we call them ha'nt number one,
+and ha'nt number two. Number one occupied apartments over the grain bin
+and haunted the laurel walk. He was white--I don't wonder at that if he
+spent much time crawling over those flour sacks. He smoked cigars and
+read French novels; Mose waited on him and Radnor knew about him--and
+didn't get much enjoyment out of the knowledge. It took money to get
+rid of him--a hundred dollars down and the promise of more to come.
+Radnor himself drove him off in the carriage the night he left, and Mose
+obliterated all traces of his presence. So much for number one.
+
+"As for number two, he appeared three or four days before the robbery
+and haunted pretty much the whole place, especially the region of the
+spring-hole. In appearance he was nine feet tall, transparent, and
+black. Smoke came from his mouth and blue flames from his eyes. There
+was a sulphurous odor about him. He was first seen rising out of the
+spring-hole, and there is a passage in the bottom of the spring-hole
+that leads straight down to hell. Solomon is my authority.
+
+"I asked him how he explained the apparition and he reckoned it was the
+ghost of the slave who was beaten to death, and that since his old
+master had come back to haunt the laurel walk, he had come back to haunt
+his old master. That sounds to me like a plausible explanation. As soon
+as it's light I'll have a look at the spring-hole."
+
+"Terry," I said disgustedly, "that may make a very picturesque
+newspaper story, but it doesn't help much in unravelling the mystery."
+
+"It helps a good deal. I would not like to swear to the flames or
+sulphur or the passage down to hell, but the fact that he was tall and
+black and comes from the spring-hole is significant. He was black--mark
+that--so were the stolen lap robes.
+
+"Now you see how the matter stands on the night of the robbery. While
+ghost number one was out driving with Radnor, ghost number two entered
+the house through the open library window, found the safe ajar and
+helped himself. Let's consider what he took--five thousand dollars in
+government bonds, two deeds, an insurance policy, and a quart of small
+change--a very suggestive lot of loot if you think about it enough.
+After the robbery he disappeared, nothing seen of him for five or six
+days; then he turned up again for a day or so, and finally disappeared
+forever. So much for ha'nt number two. He's the party we're after. He
+pretty certainly robbed the safe and he possibly committed the
+murder--as to that I won't have any proof until I see the cave."
+
+He stretched his arms with a laugh.
+
+"Oh, this isn't so bad! All we've got to do now is to identify those two
+ghosts."
+
+"I'm glad if you think it's so easy," I said somewhat sullenly. "But I
+will tell you one thing, if you go to basing any deductions on Solomon's
+stories you'll find yourself bumping against a stone wall."
+
+"We'll have Rad over to dinner with us tomorrow night," Terry declared.
+
+He rose and pulled out his watch.
+
+"It's a quarter before ten. I think it's time you went to bed. You look
+about played out. You haven't been sleeping much of late?"
+
+"No, I can't say that I have."
+
+"I ought to have come down at once," said Terry, "but I'm always so
+blamed afraid of hurting people's feelings."
+
+I stared slightly. I had never considered that one of Terry's weak
+points, but as he seemed to be quite in earnest, I let the remark pass.
+
+"Do you think I could knock up one of the stable-men to drive me to the
+village? I know it's pretty late but I've got to send a couple of
+telegrams."
+
+"Telegrams?" I demanded. "Where to?"
+
+Terry laughed.
+
+"Well, I must send a word to the Post-Dispatch to the effect that the
+Luray mystery grows more mysterious every hour. That the police have
+been wasting their energies on the wrong scent, but that the
+Post-Dispatch's special correspondent has arrived on the scene, and that
+we may accordingly look for a speedy solution."
+
+"What is the second one?" I asked.
+
+"To your friend, the police commissioner of Seattle."
+
+"You don't think that Jeff--?"
+
+"My dear fellow, I don't think, unless I have facts to think
+about.--Don't look so nervous; I'm not accusing him of anything. I
+merely want more details than you got; I'm a newspaper man, remember,
+and I like local color even in telegrams. And now, go to bed; and for
+heaven's sake, go to sleep. The case is in the hands of the
+Post-Dispatch's young man, and you needn't worry any more."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+TERRY FINDS THE BONDS
+
+
+I was wakened the next morning by Terry clumping into my room dressed in
+riding breeches and boots freshly spattered with mud.
+
+They were Radnor's clothes--Terry had taken me at my word and was
+thoroughly at home.
+
+"Hello, old man!" he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Been
+asleep, haven't you? Sorry to wake you, but we've got a day's work
+ahead. Hope you don't mind my borrowing Radnor's togs. Didn't come down
+prepared for riding. Solomon gave 'em to me--seemed to think that Radnor
+wouldn't need 'em any more. Oh, Solomon and I are great friends!" he
+added with a laugh, as he suddenly appeared to remember the object of
+his visit and commenced a search through his pockets.
+
+I sat up in bed and watched him impatiently. It was evident that he had
+some news, and equally evident that he was going to be as leisurely as
+possible about imparting it.
+
+"This is a pretty country," he remarked as he finished with his coat
+pockets and commenced on the waistcoat. "It would be almost worth living
+in if many little affairs like this occurred to keep things going."
+
+"Really, Terry," I said, "when you refer to my uncle's murder as a
+'little affair' I think you're going too far!"
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon," he returned good-naturedly, "I guess I am
+incorrigible. I didn't know Colonel Gaylord personally, you see, and I'm
+so used to murders that I've come to think it's the only natural way of
+dying. Anyhow," he added, as he finally produced a yellow envelope,
+"I've got something here that will interest you. It explains why our
+young friend Radnor didn't want to talk."
+
+He tossed the envelope on the bed and I eagerly tore out the telegram.
+It was from the police commissioner in Seattle and it ran:
+
+
+     "Jefferson Gaylord returned Seattle May fifth after absence six
+     weeks. Said to have visited old home Virginia. Had been wanted by
+     police. Suspected implication in case obtaining money false
+     pretences. Mistaken charge. Case dismissed."
+
+
+"What does it mean?" I asked.
+
+"It means," said Terry, "that we've spotted ghost number one. It was
+clear from the first that Radnor was trying to shield someone, even at
+the expense of his own reputation. Leaving women out of the case, that
+pointed pretty straight toward his elder brother. Part of your theory
+was correct, the only trouble being that you carried it too far. You
+made Jeff commit both the robbery and the murder, while as a matter of
+fact he did neither. Then when you found a part of your theory was
+untenable you rejected the whole of it.
+
+"This is how the matter stood: Jeff Gaylord was pretty desperately in
+need of money. I suspect that the charge against him, whatever it was,
+was true. The money he had taken had to be returned and somebody's
+silence bought before the thing could be hushed up. Anyway, Seattle was
+too hot to hold him and he lit out and came East. He applied to Radnor,
+but Radnor was in a tight place himself and couldn't lay his hands on
+anything except what his father had given him for a birthday present.
+That was tied up in another investment and if he converted it into cash
+it would be at a sacrifice. So it ran along for a week or so, while Rad
+was casting about for a means of getting his brother out of the way
+without any fresh scandal. But Mose's suddenly taking to seeing ha'nts
+precipitated matters. Realizing that his father's patience had reached
+its limit, and that he couldn't keep you off the scent much longer, he
+determined to borrow the money for Jeff's journey back to Seattle, and
+to close up his own investment.
+
+"That same night he drove Jeff to the station at Kennisburg. The
+Washington express does not stop at Lambert Junction, and anyway
+Kennisburg is a bigger station and travellers excite less comment. This
+isn't deduction; it's fact. I rode to Kennisburg this morning and
+proved it. The station man remembers selling Radnor Gaylord a ticket to
+Washington in the middle of the night about three weeks ago. Some man
+who waited outside and whose face the agent did not see, boarded the
+train, and Rad drove off alone. The ticket seller does not know Rad
+personally but he knows him by sight--so much for that. Rad came home
+and went to bed. When he came down stairs in the morning he was met by
+the information that the ha'nt had robbed the safe. You can see what
+instantly jumped into his mind--some way, somehow, Jeff had taken those
+bonds--and yet figure on it as he might, he could not see how it was
+possible. The robbery seemed to have occurred while he was away. Could
+Jeff merely have pretended to leave? Might he have slipped off the train
+again and come back? Those are the questions that were bothering Radnor.
+He was honest in saying that he could not imagine how the bonds had been
+stolen, and yet he was also honest in not wanting to know the truth."
+
+"He might have confided in me," I said.
+
+"It would have been a good deal better if he had. But in order to
+understand Rad's point of view, you must take into account Jeff's
+character. He appears to have been a reckless, dashing, headstrong, but
+exceedingly attractive fellow. His father put up with his excesses for
+six years before the final quarrel. Cat-Eye Mose, so old Jake tells me,
+moped for months after his disappearance. Rad, as a little fellow,
+worshipped his bad but charming brother.--There you have it. Jeff turns
+up again with a hard luck story, and Mose and Radnor both go back to
+their old allegiance.
+
+"Jeff is in a bad hole, a fugitive from justice with the penitentiary
+waiting for him. He confesses the whole thing to Radnor--extenuating
+circumstances plausibly to the fore. He has been dishonest, but
+unintentionally so. He wishes to straighten up and lead a respectable
+life. If he had, say fifteen hundred dollars, he could quash the
+indictment against him. He is Radnor's brother and the Colonel's son,
+but Rad is to receive a fortune while he is to be disinherited. The
+money he asks now is only his right. If he receives it he will disappear
+and trouble Rad no more.--That, I fancy, is the line of argument our
+returned prodigal used. Anyway, he won Rad over. Radnor was thinking of
+getting married, had plenty of use for all the money he could lay his
+hands on, but he seems to be a generous chap, and he sacrificed himself.
+
+"For obvious reasons Jeff wished his presence kept a secret, and Rad and
+Mose respected his wishes. After the robbery Radnor was too sick at the
+thought that his brother may have betrayed him, to want to do anything
+but hush the matter up. At the news of the murder he did not know what
+to think; he would not believe Jeff guilty, and yet he did not see any
+other way out."
+
+Terry paused a moment and leaned forward with an excited gleam in his
+eye.
+
+"That," he said, "is the whole truth about ghost number one. Our
+business now is to track down number two, and here, as a starter are the
+missing bonds."
+
+He tossed a pile of mildewed papers on the bed and met my astonishment
+with a triumphant chuckle.
+
+It was true--all five of the missing bonds were there, the May first
+coupons still uncut. Also the deeds and insurance policy, exactly as
+they had left the safe, except that they were damp and mud-stained.
+
+I stared for a moment too amazed to speak. Finally, "Where did you find
+them?" I gasped.
+
+Terry regarded me with a tantalizing laugh.
+
+"Exactly where I thought I'd find them. Oh, I've been out early this
+morning! I saw the sun rise, and breakfasted in Kennisburg at six
+forty-five. I'm ready for another breakfast though. Hurry up and dress.
+We've got a day's work before us. I'm off to the stables to talk
+'horses' with Uncle Jake; when you're ready for breakfast send Solomon
+after me."
+
+"Terry," I implored, "where on the face of the earth did you find those
+bonds?"
+
+"At the mouth of the passage to hell," said Terry gravely, "but I'm not
+quite sure myself who put them there."
+
+"Mose?" I queried eagerly.
+
+"It might have been--and it might not." He waved his hand airily and
+withdrew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+POLLY MAKES A CONFESSION
+
+
+At breakfast Terry drank two cups of coffee and subsided into thought. I
+could get no more from him on the subject of the bonds; he was not sure
+himself, was all the satisfaction he would give. When the meal was half
+over, to Solomon's dismay, he suddenly rose without noticing a new dish
+of chicken livers that had just appeared at his elbow.
+
+"Come on," he said impatiently, "you've had enough to eat. I've got to
+see those marks while they're still there. I'm desperately afraid an
+earthquake will swallow that cave before I get a chance at them."
+
+Fifteen minutes later we were bowling down the lane behind the fastest
+pair of horses in the Gaylord stables, and through the prettiest country
+in the State of Virginia. Terry sat with his hands in his pockets and
+his eyes on the dash-board. As we came to the four corners at the
+valley-pike I reined in.
+
+"Would you rather go the short way over the mountains by a very rough
+road, or the long way through Kennisburg?" I inquired.
+
+"What's that?" he asked. "Oh, the short way by all means--but first I
+want to call at the Mathers's."
+
+"It would simply be a waste of time."
+
+"It won't take long--and since Radnor won't talk I've got to get at the
+facts from the other end. Besides, I want to see Polly myself."
+
+"Miss Mathers knows nothing about the matter," said I as stiffly as
+possible.
+
+"Doesn't she!" said Terry. "She knows a good many things, and it's about
+time she told them.--At any rate, you must admit that she's the owner of
+the unfortunate coat that caused the trouble; I want to ask her some
+questions about that. Why can't girls learn to carry their own coats? It
+would save a lot of trouble."
+
+It ended by my driving, with a very bad grace, to Mathers Hall.
+
+"You wait here until I come out," said Terry, coolly, as I drew up by
+the stepping stone and commenced fumbling for a hitching strap.
+
+"Not much!" said I. "If you interview Polly Mathers I shall be present
+at the interview."
+
+"Oh, very well!" he returned resignedly. "If you'd let me go about it my
+own way, though, I'd get twice as much out of her."
+
+The family were at breakfast, the servant informed me. I left Terry in
+the parlor while I went on to the dining-room to explain the object of
+our visit.
+
+"There is a friend of mine here from New York to help us about the
+trial"--I thought it best to suppress his real profession--"and he wants
+to interview Miss Polly in regard to the coat. I am very sorry--"
+
+"Certainly," said Mrs. Mathers, "Polly is only too glad to help in any
+way possible."
+
+And to my chagrin Polly excused herself and withdrew to the parlor,
+while her father kept me listening to a new and not very valuable
+theory of his in regard to the disappearance of Mose. It was fifteen
+minutes before I made my escape and knocked on the parlor door. I turned
+the knob and went in without waiting for a summons.
+
+The Mathers's parlor is a long cool dim room with old-fashioned mahogany
+furniture and jars of roses scattered about. It was so dark after the
+bright sunshine of the rest of the house, that for a moment I didn't
+discover the occupants until the sound of Polly's sobbing proclaimed
+their whereabouts. I was somewhat taken aback to find her sitting in a
+corner of the big horsehair sofa, her head buried in the cushions, while
+Terry, nonchalantly leaning back in his chair, regarded her with much
+the expression that he might have worn at a "first night" at the
+theatre. It might also be noted that Polly wore a white dress with a big
+bunch of roses in her belt, that her hair was becomingly rumpled by the
+cushion, and that she was not crying hard enough to make her eyes red.
+
+"Hello, old man!" said Terry and I fancied that his tone was not
+entirely cordial. "Just sit down and listen to this. We've been having
+some interesting disclosures."
+
+Polly raised her head and cast him a reproachful glance, while with a
+limp wave of the hand she indicated a chair.
+
+I settled myself and inquired reassuringly, "Well, Polly, what's the
+trouble?"
+
+"You tell him," said Polly to Terry, as she settled herself to cry
+again.
+
+"I'll tell you," said Terry, glancing warily at me, "but it's a secret,
+remember. You mustn't let any of those horrid newspaper men get hold of
+it. Miss Mathers would hate awfully to have anything like this get into
+the papers."
+
+"Oh, go on, Terry," said I, crossly, "if you've got anything to tell,
+for heaven's sake tell it!"
+
+"Well, as far as we'd got when you interrupted, was that that afternoon
+in the cave she and Radnor had somehow got separated from the rest of
+the party and gone on ahead. They sat down to wait for the others on the
+fallen column, and while they were waiting Radnor asked her to marry
+him, for the seventh--or was it the eighth time?"
+
+"The seventh, I think," said Polly.
+
+"It's happened so often that, she's sort of lost track; but anyway, she
+replied by asking him if he knew the truth about the ghost. He said,
+yes, he did, but he couldn't tell her; it was somebody else's secret. On
+his word of honor though there was nothing that he was to blame for. She
+said she wouldn't marry a man who had secrets. He said that unless she
+took him now, she would never have the chance again; it was the last
+time he was going to ask her--is that straight, Miss Mathers?"
+
+"Y-yes," sobbed Polly from the depths of her cushion.
+
+Terry proceeded with a fast broadening smile; it was evident that he
+enjoyed the recital.
+
+"And then being naturally angry that any man should presume to propose
+for the last time, she proceeded to be 'perfectly horrid' to him.--Go
+on, Miss Mathers. That's as far as you'd got."
+
+"I--I told him--you won't tell anyone?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I told him I'd decided to marry Jim Mattison."
+
+"Ah--" said Terry. "Now we're getting at it! If you don't mind my
+asking, Miss Mathers, was that just a bluff on your part, or had Mr.
+Mattison really asked you?"
+
+Polly sat up and eyed him with a sparkle of resentment.
+
+"Certainly, he'd asked me--a dozen times."
+
+"I beg pardon!" murmured Terry. "So now you're engaged to Mr. Mattison?"
+
+"Oh, no!" cried Polly. "Jim doesn't know I said it--I didn't mean it; I
+just wanted to make Radnor mad."
+
+"I see! So it was a bluff after all? Were you successful in making him
+mad?"
+
+She nodded dismally.
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"Oh, he was awfully angry! He said that if he never amounted to anything
+it would be my fault."
+
+"And then what?"
+
+"We heard the others coming and he started off. I called after him and
+asked him where he was going, and he said he was going to the d--devil."
+
+Polly began to cry again, and Terry chuckled slightly.
+
+"As a good many other young men have said under similar circumstances.
+But where he did go, was to the hotel; and there, it appears, he drank
+two glasses of brandy and swore at the stable boy.--Is that all, Miss
+Mathers?"
+
+"Yes; it's the last time I ever saw him and he thinks I'm engaged to Jim
+Mattison."
+
+"See here, Polly," said I with some excusable heat, "now why in thunder
+didn't you tell me all this before?"
+
+"You didn't ask me."
+
+"She was afraid that it would get into the papers," said Terry,
+soothingly. "It would be a terrible scandal to have anything like that
+get out. The fact that Radnor Gaylord was likely to be hanged for a
+murder he never committed, was in comparison a minor affair."
+
+Polly turned upon him with a flash of gray eyes.
+
+"I was going to tell before the trial. I didn't know the inquest made
+any difference. I would have told the coroner the morning he came to
+take my testimony, only he brought Jim Mattison with him as a witness,
+and I couldn't explain before Jim."
+
+"That would have been awkward," Terry agreed.
+
+"Polly," said I, severely. "This is inexcusable! If you had explained to
+me in the first place, the jury would never have remanded Radnor for
+trial."
+
+"But I thought you would find the real murderer, and then Radnor would
+be set free. It would be awful to tell that story before a whole room
+full of people and have Jim Mattison hear it. I detest Jim Mattison!"
+
+"Be careful what you say," said Terry. "You may have to take Jim
+Mattison after all. Radnor Gaylord will never ask you again."
+
+"Then I'll ask him!" said Polly.
+
+Terry laughed and rose.
+
+"He's in a bad hole, Miss Mathers, but I'm not sure but that I envy him
+after all."
+
+Polly dimpled through her tears; this was the language she understood.
+
+"Good by," she said. "You'll remember your promise?"
+
+"Never a syllable will I breathe," said Terry, and he put a hand on my
+shoulder and marched me off.
+
+"She's a fascinating young person," he observed, as we turned into the
+road.
+
+"You are not the first to discover that," said I.
+
+"I fancy I'm not!" he retorted with a sidewise glance at me.
+
+Terry gazed at the landscape a few moments with a pensive light in his
+eyes, then he threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"Thank heaven, women don't go in for crime to any great extent! You're
+never safe in forming any theory about 'em--their motives and their
+actions don't match."
+
+He paused to light a cigar and as soon as he got it well started took up
+the conversation again.
+
+"It's just as I suspected in regard to Rad, though I will say the papers
+furnished mighty few clues. It was the coat that put me on the track
+coupled with his behavior at the hotel. You see his emotions when he
+came out of that cave were mixed. There was probably a good deal of
+disappointment and grief down below his anger, but that for the moment
+was decidedly in the lead. He had been badly treated, and he knew it.
+What's more, he didn't care who else knew it. He was in a thoroughly
+vicious mood and ready to wreak his anger on the first thing that came
+to hand. That happened to be his horse. By the time he got home he had
+expended the most of his temper and his disappointment had come to the
+top. You found him wrestling with that. By evening he had brought his
+philosophy into play, and had probably decided to brace up and try
+again. And that," he finished, "is the whole story of our young
+gentleman's erratic behavior."
+
+"I wonder I didn't think of it myself," I said.
+
+Terry smiled and said nothing.
+
+"Radnor is naturally not loquacious about the matter," he resumed
+presently. "For one thing, because he does not wish to drag Polly's name
+into it, for another, I suppose he feels that if anyone is to do the
+explaining, she ought to be the one. He supposed that she would be
+present at the inquest and that her testimony would bring out sufficient
+facts to clear him. When he found that she was not there, and that her
+testimony did not touch on any important phase of the matter, he simply
+shut his mouth and said, 'Very well! If she won't tell, I won't.' Also,
+the coroner's manner was unfortunate. He showed that his sympathy was on
+the other side; and Radnor stubbornly determined not to say one word
+more than was dragged out of him by main force. It is much the attitude
+of the little boy who has been unfairly punished, and who derives an
+immense amount of satisfaction from the thought of how sorry his friends
+will be when he is dead. And now, I think we have Rad's case well in
+hand. In spite of the fact that he seems bound to be hung, we shall not
+have much difficulty in getting him off."
+
+"But what I can't understand," I grumbled, "is why that little wretch
+didn't tell me a word of all this. She came and informed me off-hand
+that he was innocent and asked me to clear him, with never a hint that
+she could explain the most suspicious circumstance against him."
+
+"You've got me," Terry laughed. "I give up when it comes to finding out
+why women do things. If you had _asked_ her, you know, she would have
+told you; but you never said a word about it."
+
+"How could I ask her when I didn't know anything about it?"
+
+"I managed to ask her," said Terry, "and what's more," he added
+gloomily, "I promised it shouldn't go any further--that is, than is
+necessary to get Rad off. Now don't you call that pretty tough luck,
+after coming 'way down here just to find out the truth, not to be
+allowed to print it when I've got it? How in the deuce am I to account
+for Rad's behavior without mentioning her?"
+
+"You needn't have promised," I suggested.
+
+"Oh, well," Terry grinned, "I'm human!"
+
+I let this pass and he added hastily, "We've disposed of Jeff; we've
+disposed of Radnor, but the real murderer is still to be found."
+
+"And that," I declared, "is Cat-Eye Mose."
+
+"It's possible," agreed Terry with a shrug. "But I have just the
+tiniest little entering wedge of a suspicion that the real murderer is
+not Cat-Eye Mose."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+MR. TERENCE KIRKWOOD PATTEN OF NEW YORK
+
+
+"There is Luray," I said, pointing with my whip to the scattered houses
+of the village as they lay in the valley at our feet.
+
+Terry stretched out a hand and pulled the horses to a standstill.
+
+"Whoa, just a minute till I get my bearings. Now, in which direction is
+the cave?"
+
+"It extends all along underneath us. The entrance is over there in the
+undergrowth about a mile to the east."
+
+"And the woods extend straight across the mountain in an unbroken line?"
+
+"Pretty much so. There are a few farms scattered in."
+
+"How about the farmers? Are they well-to-do around here?"
+
+"I think on the whole they are."
+
+"Which do they employ mostly to work in the fields, negroes or white
+men?"
+
+"As to that I can't say. It depends largely on circumstances. I think
+the smaller farms are more likely to employ white men."
+
+"Let me see," said Terry, "this is just about planting time. Are the
+farmers likely to take on extra men at this season?"
+
+"No, I don't think so; harvest time is when they are more likely to need
+help."
+
+"Farming is new to me," laughed Terry. "East Side problems don't involve
+it. A man of Mose's habits could hide pretty effectually in those woods
+if he chose." He scanned the hills again and then brought his eyes back
+to the village. "I suppose we might as well go on to the hotel first. I
+should like to interview some of the people there. And by the way," he
+added, "it's as well not to let them know I'm a friend of yours--or a
+newspaper man either. I think I'll be a detective. Your young man from
+Washington seems to have made quite a stir in regard to the robbery;
+we'll see if I can't beat him. There's nothing that so impresses a rural
+population as a detective. They look upon him as omnipotent and
+omniscient, and every man squirms before him in the fear that his own
+little sins will be brought to light." Terry laughed in prospect.
+"Introduce me as a detective by all means!"
+
+"Anything you like," I laughed in return. "I'll introduce you as the
+Pope if you think it will do any good." There was no keeping Terry
+suppressed, and his exuberance was contagious. I was beginning to feel
+light-hearted myself.
+
+The hotel at Luray was a long rambling structure which had been casually
+added to from time to time. It was painted a sickly, mustard yellow (a
+color which, the landlord assured me, would last forever) but it's
+brilliancy was somewhat toned by a thick coating of dust. A veranda
+extended across the front of the building flush with the wooden
+side-walk. The veranda was furnished with a railing, and the railing was
+furnished at all times of the day--except for a brief nooning from
+twelve to half-past--with a line of boot-soles in assorted sizes.
+
+We drew up with a flourish before the wooden steps in front of the
+hotel, and I threw the lines to the stable boy who came forward to
+receive us with an amusing air of importance. His connection with the
+Luray tragedy conferred a halo of distinction, and he realized the fact.
+It was not every one in the neighborhood who had had the honor of being
+cursed by a murderer. As we alighted Terry stopped to ask him a few
+questions. The boy had told his story to so many credulous audiences
+that by this time it was well-nigh unrecognizable. As he repeated it now
+for Terry's benefit, the evidence against Radnor appeared conclusive. A
+full confession of guilt could scarcely have been more damning.
+
+Terry threw back his head and laughed.
+
+"Take care, young man," he warned, "you'll be eating your words one of
+these days, and some of them will be pretty hard to swallow."
+
+As we mounted the steps I nodded to several of the men whom I remembered
+having seen before; and they returned an interested, "How-dy-do?
+Pleasant day," as they cast a reconnoitering glance at my companion.
+
+"Gentlemen," I said with a wave of my hand toward Terry, "let me
+introduce Mr. Terence Kirkwood Patten, the well-known detective of New
+York, who has come down to look into this matter for us."
+
+The chairs which were tipped back against the wall came down with a
+thud, and an awed and somewhat uneasy shuffling of feet ensued.
+
+"I wish to go through the cave," Terry remarked in the crisp, incisive
+tones a detective might be supposed to employ, "and I should like to
+have the same guide who conducted Mr. Crosby the time the body was
+discovered."
+
+"That's Pete Moser, he's out in the back lot plowin'," a half dozen
+voices responded.
+
+"Ah, thank you; will some one kindly call him? We will wait here."
+
+Terry proceeded with his usual ease to make himself at home. He tipped
+back his hat, inclined his chair at the same dubious angle as the
+others, and ranged his feet along the railing. He produced cigars from
+various pockets, and the atmosphere became less strained. They were
+beginning to realize that detectives are made of the same flesh and
+blood as other people. I gave Terry the lead--perhaps it would be more
+accurate to say that he took it--but it did not strike me that he set
+about his interviewing in a very business-like manner. He did not so
+much as refer to the case we had come to investigate, but chatted along
+pleasantly about the weather and the crops and the difficulty of finding
+farm-hands.
+
+We had not been settled very long when, to my surprise, Jim Mattison
+strolled out from the bar-room. What he was doing in Luray, I could
+easily conjecture. Mattison's assumption of interest in the case all
+along had angered me beyond measure. It is not, ordinarily, a part of
+the sheriff's duties to assist the prosecution in making out a case
+against one of his prisoners; and owing to the peculiar relation he bore
+to Radnor, his interference was not only bad law but excruciatingly bad
+taste. My dislike of the man had grown to such an extent that I could
+barely be civil to him. It was only because it was policy on my part
+not to make him an active enemy that I tolerated his presence at all.
+
+I presented Terry; though Mattison took his calling more calmly than the
+others, still I caught several sidewise glances in his direction, and I
+think he was impressed.
+
+"Happy to know you, Mr. Patten," he remarked as he helped himself to a
+chair and settled it at the general angle. "This is a pretty mysterious
+case in some respects. I rode over myself this morning to look into a
+few points and I shall be glad to have some help--though I'm afraid
+we'll not find anything that'll please you."
+
+"Anything pleases me, so long as it's the truth," Terry threw off, as he
+studied the sheriff, with a gleam of amusement in his eyes; he was
+thinking, I knew, of Polly Mathers. "I hope," he added, assuming a
+severely professional tone, "that you haven't let a lot of people crowd
+into the cave and tramp up all the marks."
+
+The landlord, who was standing in the doorway, chuckled at this.
+
+"There ain't many people that you could drive into that there cave at
+the point of the pistol," he assured us. "They think it's haunted;
+leastways the niggers do."
+
+"Have niggers been in the habit of going in much?"
+
+"Oh, more or less," the sheriff returned, "when they want to make
+themselves inconspicuous for any reason. I had a horse thief hide in
+there for two weeks last year while we were scouring the country for
+him. There are so many little holes; it's almost impossible to find a
+man. Tramps occasionally spend the night there in cold weather."
+
+"Do you have many tramps around here?"
+
+"Not a great many. Once in a while a nigger comes along and asks for
+something to eat."
+
+"More often he takes it without asking," one of the men broke in. "A
+week or so ago my ole woman had a cheese an' a ham an' two whole pies
+that she'd got ready for a church social just disappear without a word,
+out o' the pantry winder. If that ain't the mark of a nigger, I miss my
+guess."
+
+Terry laughed.
+
+"If that happened in the North we should look around the neighborhood
+for a sick small boy."
+
+"It wasn't no boy this time--leastways not a very small one," the man
+affirmed, "for that same day a pair o' my boots that I'd left in the
+wood house just naturally walked off by theirselves, an' I found 'em the
+next day at the bottom o' the pasture. It would take a pretty sizeable
+fellow that my boots was too small for," he finished with a grin.
+
+"They _are_ a trifle conspicuous," one of the others agreed with his
+eyes on the feet in question.
+
+I caught an interested look in Terry's glance as he mentally took their
+measure, and I wondered what he was up to; but as our messenger and Pete
+Moser appeared around the corner at the moment, I had no time for
+speculation. Terry let his chair slip with a bang and rose to his feet.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Moser! I'm glad to see you," he exclaimed with an air of
+relief. "It's getting late," he added, looking at his watch, "and I must
+get this business settled as soon as possible; I have another little
+affair waiting for me in New York. Bring plenty of calcium light,
+please. We want to see what we're doing."
+
+As the four of us were preparing to start, Terry paused on the top step
+and nodded pleasantly to the group on the veranda.
+
+"Thank you for your information, gentlemen. I have no doubt but that it
+will be of the greatest importance," and he turned away with a laugh at
+their puzzled faces.
+
+The sheriff and I were equally puzzled. I should have suspected that
+Terry, in the role of detective, was playing a joke on them, had he not
+very evidently got something on his mind. He was of a sudden in a frenzy
+of impatience to reach the cave, and he kept well ahead of us most of
+the way.
+
+"I suppose," said Mattison as he climbed a fence with tantalizing
+deliberation--we were going by way of the fields as that was shorter--"I
+suppose that you are trying to prove that Radnor Gaylord had nothing to
+do with this murder?"
+
+"That will be easy enough," Terry threw back over his shoulder. "I
+dropped _him_ long ago. The one I'm after now is the real murderer."
+
+Mattison scowled slightly.
+
+"If you can explain what it was that happened in that cave that upset
+him so mightily, I'd come a little nearer to believing you."
+
+Terry laughed and fell back beside him.
+
+"It's a thing which I imagine may have happened to one or two other
+young men of this neighborhood--not inconceivably yourself included."
+
+Mattison, seeing no meaning in this sally, preserved a sulky silence and
+Terry added:
+
+"The thing for us to do now is to bend all our energies toward finding
+Cat-Eye Mose. I doubt if we can completely explain the mystery until he
+is discovered."
+
+"And that," said the sheriff, "will be never! You may mark my words;
+whoever killed the Colonel, killed Mose, too."
+
+"It's possible," said Terry with an air of sadness, "but I hope not. I
+came all the way down from New York on purpose to see Mose, and I should
+hate to miss him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE DISCOVERY OF CAT-EYE MOSE
+
+
+Having lighted our candles, we descended into the cave and set out along
+the path I now knew so well. When we reached the pool the guide lit a
+calcium light which threw a fierce white glare over the little body of
+water and the limestone cliffs, and even penetrated to the stalactite
+draped roof far above our heads. For a moment we stood blinking our eyes
+scarcely able to see, so sudden was the change from the semi-darkness of
+our four flickering candles. Then Terry stepped forward.
+
+"Show me where you found the body and point out the spot where the
+struggle took place."
+
+He spoke in quick, eager tones, so excited that he almost stuttered. It
+was not necessary for him to act the part of detective any longer. He
+had forgotten that he ever was a reporter--he had forgotten almost that
+he was a human being.
+
+From where we stood we pointed out the place above the pool where the
+struggle had occurred, the spot under the cliff where the body had lain,
+and the jagged piece of rock on which we had found the coat. Moser even
+laid down upon the ground and spread out his arms in the position in
+which we had discovered the Colonel's body.
+
+"Very well, I see," said Terry. "Now the rest of you stay back there on
+the boards; I don't want you to make a mark."
+
+He stepped forward carefully to the edge of the water and bent over to
+examine the soft, yellow clay which formed the border of the pool on the
+lower side. Instantly he straightened up with a sharp exclamation of
+surprise.
+
+"Did any negroes come in with you to recover the body?" he asked.
+
+"No," returned the sheriff, "as old man Tompkins said, you couldn't hire
+a nigger to stick his head in here after the Colonel was found. They
+say they can hear something wailing around the pool and they think his
+ghost is haunting it."
+
+"They can hear something wailing, can they?" Terry repeated queerly.
+"Well I begin to believe they can! What is the meaning of this?" he
+demanded, facing around at us. "How do you account for these peculiar
+foot-prints?"
+
+"What prints?" I asked as we all pressed forward.
+
+At the moment the calcium light with a final flare, died out, and we
+were left again in the flickering candle light which seemed darkness to
+us now.
+
+"Quick, touch off another calcium!" said Terry, with suppressed
+impatience. He laid a hand on my shoulder and my arm ached from the
+tightness of his grip. "There," he said pointing with his finger as the
+light flared up again. "What do you make of those?"
+
+I bent over and plainly traced the prints of bare feet, going and coming
+and over-lapping one another, just as an animal would make in pacing a
+cage. I shivered slightly. It was a terribly uncanny sight.
+
+"Well?" said Terry sharply. The place was beginning to get on his nerves
+too.
+
+"Terry," I said uneasily, "I never saw them before. I thought I examined
+everything thoroughly, but I was so excited I suppose--"
+
+"What did you make of them?" he interrupted, whirling about on Mattison
+who was looking over our shoulders.
+
+"I--I didn't see them," Mattison stammered.
+
+"For heaven's sake, men," said Terry impatiently. "Do you mean they
+weren't there or you didn't notice them?"
+
+The sheriff and I looked at each other blankly, and neither answered.
+
+Terry stood with his hands in his pockets frowning down at the marks,
+while the rest of us waited silently, scarcely daring to think. Finally
+he turned away without saying a word, and, motioning us to keep back,
+commenced examining the path which led up the incline. He mounted the
+three stone steps, and with his eyes on the ground, slowly advanced to
+the spot where the struggle had taken place.
+
+"How tall a man did you say Mose was?" he called down to us.
+
+"Little short fellow--not more than five feet high," returned the
+sheriff.
+
+Terry took his ruler from his pocket and bent over to study the marks at
+the scene of the struggle. He straightened up with an air of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Now I want you men to look carefully at those marks on the lower
+borders of the pool, and then come up here and look at these. Come along
+up in single file, please, and keep to the middle of the path."
+
+He spoke in the tone of one giving a demonstration before a kindergarten
+class. We obeyed him silently and ranged in a row along the boards.
+
+"Come here," he said. "Bend over where you can see. Now look at those
+marks. Do you see anything different in them from the marks below?"
+
+The sheriff and I gazed intently at the prints of bare feet which
+marked the entire vicinity of the struggle. We had both examined them
+more than once before, and we saw nothing now but what had already
+appeared. We straightened up and shook our heads.
+
+"They're the prints of bare feet," said Mattison, stolidly. "But I don't
+see that they're any different from any other bare feet."
+
+Terry handed him the ruler.
+
+"Measure them," he said. "Measure this one that's flat on the ground.
+Now go down and measure one of those prints by the borders of the pool."
+
+Mattison took the ruler and complied. As he bent over the marks on the
+lower border we could see by the light of his candle the look of
+astonishment that sprang into his face.
+
+"Well, what do you find?" Terry asked.
+
+"The marks up there are nearly two inches longer and an inch broader."
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"Terry," I said, "you can't blame us for not finding that out. We
+examined everything when we took away the body, and those marks below
+were simply not there. Someone has been in since."
+
+"So I conclude. Now, Mattison," he added to the sheriff, "come here and
+show me the marks of Radnor Gaylord's riding boots."
+
+Mattison returned and pointed out the mark which he had produced at the
+inquest, but his assurance, I noticed, was somewhat shaken.
+
+"That," said Terry half contemptuously, "is the mark of Colonel Gaylord.
+You must remember that he was struggling with his assailant. He did not
+plant his foot squarely every time. Sometimes we have only the heel
+mark: sometimes only the toe. In this case we have more than the mark of
+the whole foot. How do I account for it? Simply enough. The Colonel's
+foot slipped sideways. The mark is, you see, exactly the same in length
+as the others, but disproportionately broad. At the heel and toe it is
+smudged, and on the inside where the weight was thrown, it is heavier
+than on the outside. The thing is easy enough to understand. You ought
+to have been able to deduce it for yourselves. And besides, how did you
+account for the fact that there was only one mark? A man engaged in a
+struggle must have left more than that behind him. No; it is quite
+clear. At this point on the edge of the bank there was no third person.
+We are dealing with only two men--Colonel Gaylord and his murderer; and
+the murderer was bare-footed."
+
+"Mose?" I asked.
+
+"No," said Terry, patiently, "not Mose."
+
+"Then who?"
+
+"That--remains to be seen. I will follow him up and find out where he
+comes from."
+
+Terry held his candle close to the ground and followed along the path.
+At the entrance to the little gallery of the broken column it diverged,
+one part leading into the gallery, and the other into a sort of blind
+alley at one side. Terry paused at the opening.
+
+"Give me some more calcium light," he called to the guide. "I want to
+look into this passage. And just hand me some of those boards," he
+added. "It's very necessary that we keep the marks clear."
+
+The rest of us stood in a huddled group on the one or two boards he had
+left us and watched him curiously as he made his way down the passage.
+He paused at the end and examined the ground. We saw him stoop and pick
+up something. Then he rose quickly with a cry of triumph and came
+running back to us holding his hands behind him.
+
+"It's just as I suspected," he said, his eyes shining with excitement.
+"Colonel Gaylord had an enemy he did not know."
+
+"What do you mean?" we asked, crowding around.
+
+"Here's the proof," and he held out towards us a well gnawed ham bone in
+one hand and a cheese rind in the other. "These were the provisions
+intended for the church social; the pies, I fancy, have disappeared."
+
+We stared at him a moment in silent wonder. The sheriff was the first to
+assert himself.
+
+"What have these to do with the crime?" he asked, viewing the trophies
+with an air of disgust.
+
+"Everything. The man who stole those is the man who robbed the safe and
+who murdered Colonel Gaylord."
+
+The sheriff uttered a low laugh of incredulity, and the guide and I
+stared open-mouthed.
+
+"And what's more, I will tell you what he looks like. He is a large,
+very black negro something over six feet tall. When last seen, he was
+dressed in a blue and white checked blouse and ragged overalls. His
+shoes were much the worse for wear, and have since been thrown away. He
+was bare-footed at the time he committed the crime. In short," Terry
+added, "he is the chicken thief whom Colonel Gaylord whipped a couple of
+days before he died," and he briefly repeated the incident I had told
+him.
+
+"You mean," I asked, "that he was the ha'nt?"
+
+"Yes," said Terry, "he was the second ha'nt. He has been hiding for two
+or three weeks in the spring-hole at Four-Pools, keeping hidden during
+the day and coming out at night to prowl around and steal whatever he
+could lay his hands on. He doubtless deserved punishment, but that fact
+would not make him the less bitter over the Colonel's beating. When I
+heard that story, I said to myself, 'there is a man who would be ready
+for revenge if chance put the opportunity in his way.'"
+
+"But," I expostulated, "how did he happen to be in the cave?"
+
+"As to that I cannot say. After the Colonel's beating he probably did
+not dare to hang about Four-Pools any longer. He took to the woods and
+came in this direction; being engaged in petty thieving about the
+neighborhood, it was necessary to find a hiding place during the daytime
+and the cave was his most natural refuge. We know that he is not afraid
+of the dark--the spring-hole at Four-Pools is about as dismal a place as
+a man could find. He established himself in this passage in order to be
+near the water. See, here in the corner are drops of candle grease and
+the remains of a fire. On the day of the Mathers's picnic he doubtless
+saw the party pass through and recognized Colonel Gaylord. It brought to
+his mind the thrashing he had received. While he was still brooding
+over the matter, the Colonel came back alone, and it flashed into the
+fellow's mind that this was his chance. He may have been afraid at first
+or he may have hesitated through kindlier motives. At any rate he did
+not attack the Colonel immediately, but retreated into the passage, and
+the old man passed him without seeing him and went on into the gallery
+and got the coat.
+
+"In the meantime, the negro had made up his mind, and as the Colonel
+came back, he crept along behind him. It is hard to trace the marks, for
+another bare-footed man has walked over them since. But see, in this
+place at the edge of the path, there's the mark of a palm, showing where
+the assassin's hand rested when he crouched on the ground. He sprang
+upon the old man from the rear and they struggled together over the
+water--touch off a light, please--you see how the clay is all trampled
+over on both sides of the path, 'way out to the brink of the pool. There
+is no second set of marks here to obliterate it; we are dealing with
+just two people--Colonel Gaylord and his assassin."
+
+Terry bent low and picked up from a crevice what looked like a piece of
+stone covered with clay.
+
+"Here, you see, is the end of the Colonel's candle. He probably dropped
+it when the man first sprang, and in the darkness he could not tell who
+or what had attacked him. In his frenzy to have a light he snatched out
+his match box--Radnor's box--and that too was dropped in the scuffle.
+
+"Now, even if the original motive of the crime were not robbery but
+revenge--as I fancy it was--at any rate the murderer, being a tramp and
+a thief, would have robbed the body. But he did not. Why was that?
+Because he saw or heard something that frightened him, and what could
+that have been but Mose running to his master's assistance?"
+
+Terry strode over to the steps which led to the incline, and motioning
+us to follow, pointed out some marks on the sloping bank at the side of
+the path.
+
+"See, here are Mose's tracks. He was in such a hurry that he could not
+wait to come up by the steps; he tried to take a cross cut. He scrambled
+up the slippery bank so fast that he fell on his hands and knees in
+this place and slid back. That accounts for those long dragging marks,
+which none of you appear to have noticed. Mose did his best, but he
+could not reach his master in time. The murderer seeing--or rather
+hearing him, for it must have been dark--was seized with sudden fear,
+and with a convulsive effort he threw the old man against the rock wall
+here, where his head struck on this broken stalactite. If you look
+carefully you can see the marks of blood. He then hurled him into the
+pool and fled."
+
+"It sounds plausible enough," said the sheriff slowly, "but there are
+one or two points which I'm afraid will not bear examining. Suppose your
+man did thrown the Colonel into the water and run for it, then what, I
+should like to know, has become of Cat-Eye Mose?"
+
+"That," said Terry, knitting his brows, "is still a mystery and a fairly
+deep one. There is something uncommonly strange about those tracks on
+the lower borders of the pool and I confess they puzzle me. Only one
+explanation occurs to me now and that is not pleasant to think of. We
+have some clues to work with however, and we ought not to be long in
+getting at the truth. If I had had your chance of examining the cave on
+the day of the crime," he added, "I think I should know."
+
+"You might, and again you might not," said Mattison. "It's easy enough
+for you fellows to come down here and make up a story about a lot of
+people you've never seen, but I'll tell you one thing, and that is that
+you're not so likely to hit the truth as the men who've been brought up
+in the country. In the first place it comes natural to niggers to be
+whipped and they don't mind it. In the second place if your tramp _did_
+want to take it out on the Colonel why should he be scared by Mose, who
+was a little bit of a sawed-off cuss that I could lick with one hand
+tied behind me? You may be able to impress a New York jury with a ham
+bone and a cheese rind, Mr. Patten, but I can tell you, sir, that a
+Virginia jury wants witnesses."
+
+"We shall do our best to provide some," said Terry, coolly.
+
+"And perhaps you can tell," added Mattison with the triumphant air of
+clinching the matter, "what has become of the five thousand dollars in
+bonds? You can never make me believe that any nigger--"
+
+"Oh, they're back in the safe at Four-Pools. I found 'em this morning in
+the spring-hole where the man had thrown them away.--Now, gentlemen," he
+added with a touch of impatience, "I want to try a little experiment
+before we leave the cave. Will you all please put out your lights? I
+want to see how dark it really is in here."
+
+We blew out our candles and stood a moment in silence. At first all was
+black around us, but as our eyes became accustomed to the darkness, we
+saw that a faint light filtered in from somewhere in the roof above our
+heads. We could make out the pale blur of the white rock wall on one
+side and the merest glimmer of the pool below.
+
+"No," Terry began, "he could have seen nothing; he must have--" He broke
+off suddenly and gripping my arm whispered out, "What's that?"
+
+"Where?" I asked.
+
+"Up there; straight ahead."
+
+I looked up and saw two round eyes which glittered like a wild beast's,
+staring at us out of the darkness. A cold chill ran up my back and I
+instinctively huddled closer to the others. For a moment no one spoke
+and I heard the click of Terry's revolver as he cocked it. Then it
+suddenly came over me what it was, and I cried out:
+
+"It's Cat-Eye Mose!"
+
+"Good Lord, he can see in the dark! Strike a light, some one," Terry
+said huskily.
+
+The sheriff struck a match. We lit our candles with trembling hands and
+pressed forward (in a body) to the spot where the eyes had appeared.
+
+Crouched in a corner of a little recess half way up the irregular wall,
+we found Mose, shivering with fear and looking down at us with dumb,
+animal eyes. We had to drag him out by main force. The poor fellow was
+nearly famished and so weak he could scarcely stand. What little sense
+he had ever possessed seemed to have left him, and he jabbered in a
+tongue that was scarcely English.
+
+We bolstered him up with a few drops of whisky from Mattison's flask,
+and half carried him out into the light. The guide ran ahead to get a
+carriage, spreading the news as he ran, that Cat-Eye Mose had been
+found. Half the town of Luray came out to the cave to escort us back,
+and I think the feeling of regret was general, in that there had not
+been time enough to collect a brass band.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+MOSE TELLS HIS STORY
+
+
+We took Mose back to the hotel, shut out the crowd, and gave him
+something to eat. He was quite out of his head and it was only by dint
+of the most patient questioning that we finally got his story. It was,
+in substance, as Terry had sketched it in the cave.
+
+In obedience to my request, Mose had gone back after the coat, not
+knowing that the Colonel was before him. Suddenly, as he came near the
+pool he heard a scream and looked up in time to see a big negro--the one
+my uncle had struck with his crop--spring upon the Colonel with the cry,
+"It's my tu'n, now, Cunnel Gaylord. You whup me, an' I'll let you see
+what it feels like."
+
+The Colonel turned and clinched with his assailant, and in the struggle
+the light was dropped. Mose, with a cry, ran forward to his master's
+assistance, but when the negro saw him climbing up the bank he suddenly
+screamed, and hurling the old man from him, turned and fled.
+
+"The fellow must have taken him for the devil when he saw those eyes,
+and I don't wonder!" Terry interpolated at this point.
+
+After the Colonel's murder, it seems that Mose, crazed by grief and
+fear, had watched us carry the body away, and then had stayed by the
+spot where his master had died. This accounted for the marks on the
+border of the pool. Knowing all of the intricate passages and hiding
+places as he did, it had been an easy matter for him to evade the party
+that had searched for his body. He ate the food the murderer had left,
+but this being exhausted, he would, I haven't a doubt, have died there
+himself with the unreasoning faithfulness of a dog.
+
+When he finished his rambling and in some places scarcely intelligible
+account, we sat for a moment with our eyes upon his face, fascinated by
+his look. Every bit of repugnance I had ever felt toward him had
+vanished, and there was left in its place only a sense of pity. Mose's
+cheeks were hollow, his features sharper than ever, and his face was
+almost pale. From underneath his straight, black, matted hair his eyes
+glittered feverishly, and their expression of uncomprehending anguish
+was pitiful to see. He seemed like a dumb animal that has come into
+contact with death for the first time and asks the reason.
+
+Terry took his eyes from Mose's face and looked down at the table with a
+set jaw. I do not think that he was deriving as much pleasure from the
+sight as he had expected. We all of us experienced a feeling of relief
+when the doctor appeared at the door. We turned Mose over to him with
+instructions to do what he could for the poor fellow and to take him
+back to Four-Pools.
+
+As the door shut behind them, the sheriff said (with a sigh, I thought),
+"This business proves one thing: it's never safe to lynch a man until
+you are sure of the facts."
+
+"It proves another thing," said Terry, dryly, "which is a thing you
+people don't seem to have grasped; and that is that negroes are human
+beings and have feelings like the rest of us. Poor old Colonel Gaylord
+paid a terrible price for not having learned it earlier in life."
+
+We pondered this in silence for a moment, then the sheriff voiced a
+feeling which, to a slight extent, had been lurking in the background of
+my own consciousness, in spite of my relief at the denouement.
+
+"It's kind of disappointing when you've got your mind worked up to
+something big, to find in the end that there was nothing but a chance
+nigger at the bottom of all that mystery. Seems sort of a let-down."
+
+Terry eyed him with an air of grim humor, then he leaned across the
+table and spoke with a ring of conviction that carried his message home.
+
+"You are mistaken, Mattison, the murderer of Colonel Gaylord was not a
+chance nigger. There was no chance about it. Colonel Gaylord killed
+himself. He committed suicide--as truly as if he had blown out his
+brains with a gun. He did it with his uncontrollable temper. The man
+was an egoist. He has always looked upon his own desires and feelings as
+of supreme importance. He has tried to crush the life and spirit and
+independence from everyone about him. But once too often he wreaked his
+anger upon an innocent person--at least upon a person that for all he
+knew was innocent--and at one stroke his past injustices were avenged.
+It was not chance that killed Colonel Gaylord. It was the inevitable law
+of cause and effect. 'Way back in his boyhood when he gave way to his
+first fit of passion, he sentenced himself to some such end as this.
+Every unjust act in his after-life piled up the score against him.
+
+"Oh, I've seen it a hundred times! It's character that tells. I've seen
+it happen to a political boss--a man whose business it was to make
+friends with every voter high and low. I've seen him forget, just once,
+and turn on a man, humiliate him, wound his pride, crush him under foot
+and think no more of the matter than if he had stepped on a worm. And
+I've seen that man, the most insignificant of the politician's
+followers, work and plot and scheme to overthrow him; and in the end
+succeed. The big man never knew what struck him. He thought it was luck,
+chance, a turn of the wheel. He never dreamed that it was his own
+character hitting back. I've seen it so often, I'm a fatalist. I don't
+believe in chance. It was Colonel Gaylord who killed himself, and he
+commenced it fifty years ago."
+
+"It's God's own truth, Terry!" I said solemnly.
+
+The sheriff had listened to Terry's words with an anxiously reminiscent
+air. I wondered if he were reviewing his own political past, to see if
+by chance he also had unwittingly crushed a worm. He raised his eyes to
+Terry's face with a gleam of admiration.
+
+"You've been pretty clever, Mr. Patten, in finding out the truth about
+this crime," he acknowledged generously. "But you couldn't have expected
+me to find out," he added, "for I didn't know any of the circumstances.
+I had never even heard that such a man existed as that chicken
+thief--and as to there being two ghosts instead of one, there wasn't a
+suggestion of it brought out at the inquest."
+
+Terry looked at him with his usual slowly broadening smile. He opened
+his mouth to say something, but he changed his mind and--with a visible
+effort--shut it again.
+
+"Terry," I asked, "how _did_ you find out about the chicken thief? I
+confess I don't understand it yet."
+
+He shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
+
+"Nothing simpler. The trouble with you people was that you were
+searching for something lurid, and the little common-place things which,
+in a case like this, are the most suggestive, you overlooked. As soon as
+I read the story of the crime in the papers I saw that in all
+probability Rad was innocent. His behavior was far too suspicious for
+him really to be guilty; unless he were a fool he would have covered up
+his tracks. There was of course the possibility that Mose had committed
+the murder, but in the light of his past devotion to the Colonel it did
+not seem likely.
+
+"I had already been reading a lot of sensational stuff about the ghost
+of Four-Pools, and when the murder followed so close on the heels of
+the robbery, I commenced to look about for a connecting link. It was
+evident that Radnor had nothing to do with it, but whether or not he
+suspected someone was not so clear. His reticence in regard to the ha'nt
+made me think that he did. I came South with pretty strong suspicions
+against the elder son, but with a mind still open to conviction. The
+telegram showing that he was in Seattle at the time of the murder,
+proved his innocence of that, but he might still be connected with the
+ha'nt. I tried the suggestion on Radnor, and his manner of taking it
+proved pretty conclusively that I had stumbled on the truth. The ha'nt
+business, I dare say, was started as a joke, and was kept up as being a
+convenient method of warding off eavesdroppers. Why Jefferson came back
+and why Radnor gave him money are not matters that concern us; if they
+prefer to keep it a secret that's their own affair.
+
+"Jeff helped himself pretty freely to cigars, roast chickens, jam,
+pajamas, books, brandy, and anything else he needed to make himself
+comfortable in the cabin, but he took nothing of any great value. In the
+meantime, though, other things commenced disappearing--things that
+Radnor knew his brother had no use for--and he supposed the workers
+about the place were stealing and laying it to the ghost, as a
+convenient scapegoat.
+
+"But as a matter of fact they were not. A second ghost had appeared on
+the scene. This tramp negro had taken up his quarters in the spring-hole
+and was prowling about at night seeking what he might devour. He ran
+across Jeff dressed in a sheet, and decided to do some masquerading on
+his own account. Sheets were no longer left on the line all night, so he
+had to put up with lap robes. As a result, the spring-hole shortly
+became haunted by a jet black spirit nine feet tall with blue flames and
+sulphur, and all the other accessories.
+
+"This made little impression at the house until Mose himself was
+frightened; then Radnor saw that the hoax had reached the point where it
+was no longer funny, and he determined to get rid of Jeff immediately.
+While he drove him to the station he left Mose behind to straighten up
+the loft; and Mose, coming into the house to put some things away, met
+ghost number two just after he had robbed the safe. If Mose's eyes
+looked as they did to-day I fancy the fright was mutual. The ghost, in
+his excitement, dropped one package of papers, but bolted with the rest.
+He made for his lair in the spring-hole and examined his booty. The
+bonds were no more than old paper; he tossed them aside. But the pennies
+and five-cent pieces were real; he lit out for the village with them.
+The robbery was not discovered till morning and by that time the fellow
+was at 'Jake's place' on his way toward being the drunkest nigger in the
+county.
+
+"He stayed at the Corners a week or so until the money was gone, then he
+came back to the spring-hole. But he made the mistake of venturing out
+by daylight; the stable-men caught him and took him to the Colonel, and
+you know the rest.
+
+"As soon as I heard the story of the beating I decided to follow it up;
+and when I heard of a jet black spirit rising from the spring-hole, I
+decided to follow that up too. At daylight this morning I routed out one
+of the stable-men, and we went down and examined the spring-hole; at
+least I examined it while he stood outside and shivered. It yielded an
+even bigger find than I had hoped for. Chucked off in a corner and
+trampled with mud I found the bonds. A pile of clothing and carriage
+cushions formed a bed. There were the remains of several fires and of a
+great many chickens--the whole place was strewn with feathers and bones;
+he had evidently raided the roosts more than once.
+
+"When I finished with the spring-hole it still lacked something of six
+o'clock and I rode over to the village hoping to get an answer to my
+telegram. I wanted to get Jeff's case settled. 'Miller's store' was not
+open but 'Jake's place' was, and it was not long before I got on the
+track of my man. There was no doubt but that I had him accounted for up
+to the time of the thrashing; after that I could only conjecture. He
+had not appeared in the village again; the supposition was that he had
+taken to the woods. Now he might or he might not have come in the
+direction of Luray. All the facts I had to go upon were, a man of
+criminal proclivities, who owed Colonel Gaylord a grudge, and who was
+used to hiding in caves. It was pure supposition that he had come in
+this direction and it had to be checked at every point by fact. I didn't
+mention my suspicions because there was no use in raising false hopes
+and because, well--"
+
+"You wanted to be dramatic," I suggested.
+
+"Oh, yes, certainly, that's my business. Well, anyway I felt I was
+getting warm, and I came over here this morning with my eyes open, ready
+to see what there was to see.
+
+"The first thing I unearthed was this story of the church social
+provisions. There had, then, been a thief of some sort in the
+neighborhood just at the time of Colonel Gaylord's murder. The further
+theft of the boots fitted very neatly into the theory. If the fellow had
+been tramping for a couple of days his shoes, already worn, had given
+out and been discarded. The new ones, as we know, were too small--he
+left them at the bottom of the pasture--and went bare-footed. The marks
+therefore in the cave, which everyone ascribed to Mose, were in all
+probability, not the marks of Mose at all. Actual investigation proved
+that to be the case. The rest, I think, you know. The Four-Pools mystery
+has turned out to be a very simple affair--as most mysteries
+unfortunately do."
+
+"I reckon you're a pretty good detective, Mr. Patten," said Mattison
+with a shade of envy in his voice.
+
+Terry bowed his thanks and laughed.
+
+"As a matter of fact," he returned, "I am not a detective of any
+sort--at least not officially. I merely assume the part once in a while
+when there seems to be a demand. Officially," he added, "I am the
+representative of the New York Post-Dispatch, a paper which, you may
+know, has solved a good many mysteries before now. In this case, the
+Post-Dispatch will of course take the credit, but it wants a little more
+than that. It wants to be the only paper tomorrow morning to print the
+true details. We four are the only ones who know them. I should,
+perhaps, have been a little more circumspect, and kept the facts to
+myself, but I knew that I could trust you."
+
+His eye dwelt upon the sheriff a moment and then wandered to Pete Moser
+who had sat silently listening throughout the colloquy.
+
+"Would it be too much," Terry inquired, "to ask you to keep silent until
+tomorrow morning?"
+
+"You can trust me to keep quiet," said Mattison, holding out his hand.
+
+"Me too," said Moser. "I reckon I can make up something that'll satisfy
+the boys about as well as the real thing."
+
+"Thank you," Terry said. "I guess you can all right! There doesn't seem
+to be anything the matter with your imaginations down here."
+
+"And now," said Mattison, rising, "I suppose the first thing, is to see
+about Radnor's release, though I swear I don't know yet what was the
+matter with him on the day of the crime."
+
+"I believe you have the honor of Miss Polly Mathers's acquaintance?
+Perhaps she will enlighten you," suggested Terry.
+
+A look of illumination flashed over Mattison's face. Terry laughed and
+rose.
+
+"I have a reason for suspecting that Miss Mathers has changed her mind
+and, if it is not too irregular, I should like by way of payment to
+drive her to the Kennisburg jail myself and let her be the first to tell
+him--I want to give her a reason for remembering me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+POLLY MAKES A PROPOSAL
+
+
+I was dropped in Kennisburg to attend to the legal formalities
+respecting Radnor's release, while Terry appropriated the horses and
+drove to Mathers Hall. His last word to Mattison and me was not to let a
+whisper reach Radnor's ear as to the outcome of the investigation. He
+wanted a spectacular denouement. The sheriff assented very soberly. The
+truth had at last forced itself upon him that his chances with Polly
+were over.
+
+Terry reappeared, two hours later, with a very excited young woman
+beside him. They joined us in the bare little parlor of the jail, and if
+Mattison needed any further proof that the end had come, Polly's
+greeting furnished it. An embarrassed flush rose to her face as she saw
+him, but she shook hands in a studiously impersonal way and asked
+immediately for Radnor.
+
+Mattison met the situation with a dignity I had scarcely expected. He
+called a deputy and turned us over to him; and with the remark that his
+services were happily no longer needed, he bowed himself out. I saw him
+two minutes later recklessly galloping down the street. Polly's eyes,
+also, followed the rider, and for a second I detected a shade of
+remorse.
+
+As we climbed the stairs Terry fell back and whispered to me, "I tell
+you, I laid down the law coming over; we'll see if she's game."
+
+As the door of the cell was thrown open, Rad raised his head and
+regarded us with a look of bewildered astonishment. Polly walked
+straight in and laid her hand on his shoulder.
+
+"Radnor," she said, "you told me you would never ask me again to marry
+you. Did you really mean it?"
+
+Rad still stared confusedly from her to Terry and me.
+
+"Well!" Polly sighed. "If you did mean it, then I suppose I'll have to
+ask you. Will you marry me, Radnor?"
+
+I laid a hand on Terry's arm and backed him, much against his will, into
+the corridor.
+
+"Jove! You don't suppose he's going to refuse her?" he inquired in a
+stage whisper.
+
+"No such luck," I laughed.
+
+We took a couple of turns up and down the corridor and cautiously
+presented ourselves in the doorway. Polly was telling, between laughing
+and crying, the story of Mose's discovery. Radnor came to meet us, his
+left arm still around Polly, his right hand extended to Terry.
+
+"Will you shake hands, Patten?" he asked. "I'm afraid I wasn't very
+decent, but you know--"
+
+"Oh, that's no matter," said Terry, easily. "I wasn't holding it up
+against you. But I hope you realize, Gaylord, that it's owing to me
+you've won Miss Mathers. She never would have got up the courage to ask
+you, if--"
+
+"Yes, I should!" flashed Polly. "I wanted him too much ever to let him
+slip through my fingers again."
+
+Terry's boast came true and Radnor dined at Four-Pools Plantation that
+night. The news of his release had in some way preceded us, and as we
+drove up to the house, all the negroes came crowding out on the portico
+to welcome home "young Marse Rad." But the one person who--whatever the
+circumstances--had always been first to welcome him back, was missing;
+and the poor boy felt his home-coming a very barren festival.
+
+Terry was steadfast in the assertion that he had an engagement in New
+York the next day, and as soon as supper was over I drove him to the
+station. He was in an ecstatically self-satisfied frame of mind.
+
+"Do you know I'm a pretty all-round fellow," he observed in a burst of
+confidence. "I've always known better than the proprietor how the paper
+ought to be run, and I can give the police points about detective work.
+I'm something of a cook, and I can play the hand-organ like Paderewski;
+but this is the first time I ever tried my hand at matchmaking and it
+comes as easy as a murder mystery!"
+
+"You think that their engagement is due to you?"
+
+"But isn't it? If it weren't for me they'd have it all to go over again
+from the beginning, and there's no telling how long they'd take about
+it."
+
+"I hope they appreciate your services, Terry. You're so modest that what
+you do is in danger of being overlooked."
+
+"They appreciate me fast enough," returned Terry, imperturbably. "I
+promised Polly to spend my first vacation with 'em after they're
+married--Oh, you'll see; I'll make a farmer one of these days!"
+
+I laughed and then said seriously:
+
+"Whether you made the marriage or not, you have cleared Radnor's name
+from any suspicion of dishonor, and I don't know how we can ever
+sufficiently show our gratitude."
+
+"That's all right," said Terry with a deprecatory wave of his hand. "I
+enjoyed it. Never did anything just like it before. I've arranged a good
+many funerals of one sort or another, but this is the first time I ever
+arranged a marriage. And Jove! but I could make a story out of it," he
+added regretfully, "if she'd only let me tell the truth."
+
+
+The events which I have chronicled happened a number of years ago, and
+Four-Pools has never since figured in the papers. I trust that its
+public life is ended. In spite of the most far-reaching search, the
+murderer of Colonel Gaylord was never found. Radnor and I have always
+believed that he was lynched by a mob in West Virginia some two years
+later. The description of the man tallied exactly with the appearance of
+the tramp my uncle had thrashed, and something he said in his
+ante-mortem statement, made us very sure of the fact.
+
+Mose, until the time of his death, was an honored member of the
+household, but he did not long outlive the Colonel. The memory of the
+tragedy he had witnessed seemed to follow him constantly; an unreasoning
+terror looked from his eyes, and he started and shivered at every sound.
+The poor fellow had lost what few wits he had ever possessed, but the
+one rational gleam that stayed with him to the end, was his love for his
+old master. When he lay dying. Radnor tells me, he roused after hours of
+unconsciousness, to call the Colonel's name. I have always felt that
+this devotion spoke equally well for both of them. The old man must have
+had some splendid traits underneath his crusty exterior to awaken such
+unquestioning love in a person of Mose's instinctive perceptions.
+Perhaps after all, half idiot though he was, Mose could see clearer than
+the rest of us. He now lies in the little family burying-ground on the
+edge of the plantation, a stone's throw from the grave of Colonel
+Gaylord.
+
+There has never been any further rumor of a ha'nt at Four-Pools, and we
+hope that the family ghost is laid forever. The deserted cabins have
+been torn down, and the fourth pool dredged and confined, prosaically
+enough, within its banks. Its mysterious charm is gone, but it yields,
+every season, some fifteen barrels of watercress.
+
+It was the following April--a year from the time of my first
+visit--that Terry and I snatched a couple of days from our work,
+purchased new frock coats, and served as ushers at Polly's wedding. She
+and Radnor have been living happily at Four-Pools ever since, and the
+house with a young mistress is a very different place from the house as
+it used to be. Marriage and responsibility have improved Radnor
+immensely. He has developed from a recklessly headstrong boy into a
+keen, rational, upright man; I am sure that Polly has never for a moment
+had cause to regret her choice.
+
+When the estate was settled, Radnor, very justly, insisted on breaking
+his father's will and giving to Jeff his rightful share of the property.
+Jeff has since become middle-aged and respectable. He owns a raisin
+ranch in southern California with fifty Chinamen to run it. When he
+comes back to Four-Pools Plantation on an occasional visit, he occupies
+the guest room.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Four Pools Mystery, by Jean Webster
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FOUR POOLS MYSTERY ***
+
+***** This file should be named 21264.txt or 21264.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/6/21264/
+
+Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Martin Pettit and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/21264.zip b/21264.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..724676b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/21264.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..853b94d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #21264 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21264)