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.