The Four Pools Mystery

ler, 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 So

k for it, when the door burst open and Solomon appeared empty-han

's sperrited off de chicken. Right ou

l severely, "what are you

I's tellin' yuh. Dat ha'nt has fotched dat chicken

at chicken in and don't

, 'deed I cayn't. Dere

d get us some ham and e

and we three look

ng of this?" the Colon

into it after supper. When the ha'nt begins abstracting

adily enough, but I noticed that the Colonel appeared restless under the inquiry, and the amused suspicion crossed my mind that he did not ent

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 subseq

which pended strings of garlic, red peppers and herbs. The light was supplied ostensibly by two tallow

about a woman with a yellow turban on her head, who

in de air! I can smel

olonel sharply as we

on us a pair of frenzied eyes with

she cried. "Sabe yuhself while dere's time.

order if you don't keep still," he returned grimly. "Now sto

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

ly 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 approxim

ped out into the gallery again, I glanced back at the dancing firelight, the weird cross shadows, and the circle of dusky faces, with, I c

?" I asked as we strolled

lesh and blood appetite. Nancy has been frightened and she believes her own story. There's never any use in t

ost," I returned. "And that'

shook h

o steal chickens. He

lly, "is the one person on the plac

toward us across the open stretch of lawn that lay between us and the old negro cabins. In another momen

beckoning," was all we could

ed in a frenzied circle about the writhing woman. Mose, I note

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 w

and he and I and Radnor set out for the cabins. I noticed that none of the other negroes volunteered to assist

sped, more intent on the negro tha

aughed. "There are a good many things abou

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 res

wn, old Aunt Sukie's beckoning ha'nt would turn out to b

coming on top of the chi

breakfast, dinner and supper during the rest of your sta

huge four windowed affair, furnished with a canopied bed and a mahogany wardrobe as big as a small house. The nights s

's room," he

ing about the shadowy interi

r things are all packed away in the attic." He picked up a candle and held it so that it l

her the moment I saw it. She

ere. He kept the door locked until the news came that she was dead, then he turne

ee that he felt keenly on the subject. After a few desultory words, he som

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 arti

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

fore 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

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 b