The Four Pools Mystery

, 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 epis

r 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 M

n 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 h

-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 o

ich 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.

se. 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

ther 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

amazement, "what on ear

without rai

ere hole, an' he's skulkin' dar now thinkin' like he gwine to fool me. Bu

ded to smash its head with a stone. I shut my eyes during the operation and when I opened

ried, aghast. "What are y

l, sah, to scar

g 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

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 entire

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

ground 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 r

r cigars was the one visible point in the scenery-when Mose came bounding across the lawn wit

sho nuff ha'nt all dressed in blac

ied. "Get on your fee

hattered. "His face was bl

s where you belong, and don't let me see you again until you are sober," a

. 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 be

is infested with ghosts; they'll be invading the house next and we won

b to lay a ghost when there were twenty niggers on the place, but th

e door, and Radnor appeared. He was unusually restless and ill at ease. He referred in a jestin

you lend me

I think so; how

e 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 g

check and ha

hink 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

s hand; I know that he wanted to give it b

e affairs, only," I laughed, "I do want to see you win out ahead of

ng you're afraid of, you can ease your mind, for I've sworn off. It's not a poker debt I want this money

ive woman who was living in the deserted cabins under your connivance. I didn't believ

sed his he

nd then fixed themselves miserably on my

urned, "I fa

ble with a quick

e! And it comes f

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

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?uvre 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 str

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 matc

what's happen

I gasped, "I'm g

as 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 w

assert themselves and with an oath he cuf

ool, and tell us what you m

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 tha

the dining-room. In spite of my man?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, an