The Four Pools Mystery

wed 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

was true. As to the stolen bonds, their whereabouts was as much a mystery as ever, and Rad appeared to take not the

e upper left-hand corner the device of the Post-Dispatch. I laughed as I ripped it open; I had almost forgott

Crosby

rm, Pumpkin

ar

run down and find them for you? Should like to meet an authenticated ghost. Wouldn't be a bad Sunday feature article. Gi

are c

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.

if you

he ha'nt and the robbery. It ended with the remark that the mystery was as yet unsol

ugh; he had already heard of Terry's co

"he's most abnormally keen at ferreting out a mystery that promises

th," Radnor growled. "I'm sic

ved 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 n

s 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 "hona

ed. 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, meanwh

ds, but was concerned entirely with Polly Mathers's behavior. She barely noticed Rad's existence, so occupied was she with the ecsta

d 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.

hile 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

hy 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.

e 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 fi

' me go! I ain't done nuffen. I ain't steal

feet instantly and off down the lane without once glancing back. The Colonel stood a moment l

ore," he remarked as he mounted and rode awa

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 c

, 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

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