The Four Pools Mystery

d bent, a worried frown upon his brow. He came to a sudden halt at my appearance and regarded me a moment without spe

e just been making a discovery. It appears that Mose's ha'nt amounted to

!" I cried. "How

dollars in cash, and a n

end. The two iron doors were wide open, the interior showing a succession of yawning pigeon holes w

nisburg street railway stock-I don't blame him;

the stair as he came runn

ed from the office doorway

s eye fell upon our faces, and h

?" he asked. "Has

e ha'nt has ro

and then in a moment it cleared; his expre

k a hundred dollars out of the safe last night because I wanted the cash-you had gone to bed so I didn't say a

u take the securities also and the bag of coin?" He waved his h

t the roll of bills in the

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

ine on Radnor'

't lock it; you know we haven't always kept it locked, especially when there wasn't money in

hy did you need a hundred dollars in

can't answer that questio

ou did not take the bonds as

g a check. I have frequently cashed my private checks, when we had a surplus on hand and I didn't want the bot

vance because you had overdrawn your bank account, and I refused to give it to you. Wh

spread over

d will tell you that, f

all settled between Rad and me. I have h

hat you must ask the guests in m

othing. I could see by his eyes howev

to the money, the bonds were stole

pears," s

heory as to the ide

e flush left his face and the pallor came back, but

not. I am as much my

e night? As I said before, y

ical undertone in

nderstand,

ed me.-It's strange that you should be the onl

I don't know what y

explained our adventu

ather was watching him keenly, and I don't know whether it was intuition

ourse in the h

get in till early this morning and I suppose

to inquire where you spent the n

easily, "that too

ow no light on

what

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 rob

stion as to how we shall set t

owly shoo

ith Mose first and find

! I've had enough of this ha'nt business; it's one thing when he spirits chickens from the oven, it's another w

not much good outside the covers of a book. He'll stir up a lot of not

st falls due the first of May. I am not so rich that I can let five thousand do

allery. Mose was visible at the end evidently recounting to an excited audience his experiences of

se had increased rather than lessened the mystified look on his face. He waited for no

dare say anything, for my opposition will only make him do it the more. But you have

want a detect

rpretation 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

you any suspicion as to who took those securities? Do you kno

ment, then he parried m

ll that row occu

omewhere in the neighborhood of three o'clock. I didn't go to sl

heard

you come; but I did not ment

ughed

bi," he said. "You can swear

and his chin in his hands studying the floor; then he r

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

ny light from

eeing visions, and as you know, he isn't afraid of the dark. He saw s

etective down and see

s a moment, then raise

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 fo

dollars is a good deal of money to let slip through your hands without making an e

utsider who doesn't know any of the facts. You switch off the old gentleman f

ng the night, and all that remained now was the danger of detection; with this removed he was his old careless self. Th

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

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 r

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

nel was awaiting his answer. It came in a few moments and was delivered by word of mouth

men on the case, Colonel, an' he'll ge

ctive, 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 silen