POLLY MAKES A PROPOSAL
I was dropped in Kennisburg to attend to the legal formalities
respecting Radnor's release, while Terry appropriated the horses and
drove to Mathers Hall. His last word to Mattison and me was not to let a
whisper reach Radnor's ear as to the outcome of the investigation. He
wanted a spectacular dénouement. The sheriff assented very soberly. The
truth had at last forced itself upon him that his chances with Polly
were over.
Terry reappeared, two hours later, with a very excited young woman
beside him. They joined us in the bare little parlor of the jail, and if
Mattison needed any further proof that the end had come, Polly's
greeting furnished it. An embarrassed flush rose to her face as she saw
him, but she shook hands in a studiously impersonal way and asked
immediately for Radnor.
Mattison met the situation with a dignity I had scarcely expected. He
called a deputy and turned us over to him; and with the remark that his
services were happily no longer needed, he bowed himself out. I saw him
two minutes later recklessly galloping down the street. Polly's eyes,
also, followed the rider, and for a second I detected a shade of
remorse.
As we climbed the stairs Terry fell back and whispered to me, "I tell
you, I laid down the law coming over; we'll see if she's game."
As the door of the cell was thrown open, Rad raised his head and
regarded us with a look of bewildered astonishment. Polly walked
straight in and laid her hand on his shoulder.
"Radnor," she said, "you told me you would never ask me again to marry
you. Did you really mean it?"
Rad still stared confusedly from her to Terry and me.
"Well!" Polly sighed. "If you did mean it, then I suppose I'll have to
ask you. Will you marry me, Radnor?"
I laid a hand on Terry's arm and backed him, much against his will, into
the corridor.
"Jove! You don't suppose he's going to refuse her?" he inquired in a
stage whisper.
"No such luck," I laughed.
We took a couple of turns up and down the corridor and cautiously
presented ourselves in the doorway. Polly was telling, between laughing
and crying, the story of Mose's discovery. Radnor came to meet us, his
left arm still around Polly, his right hand extended to Terry.
"Will you shake hands, Patten?" he asked. "I'm afraid I wasn't very
decent, but you know--"
"Oh, that's no matter," said Terry, easily. "I wasn't holding it up
against you. But I hope you realize, Gaylord, that it's owing to me
you've won Miss Mathers. She never would have got up the courage to ask
you, if--"
"Yes, I should!" flashed Polly. "I wanted him too much ever to let him
slip through my fingers again."
Terry's boast came true and Radnor dined at Four-Pools Plantation that
night. The news of his release had in some way preceded us, and as we
drove up to the house, all the negroes came crowding out on the portico
to welcome home "young Marse Rad." But the one person who--whatever the
circumstances--had always been first to welcome him back, was missing;
and the poor boy felt his home-coming a very barren festival.
Terry was steadfast in the assertion that he had an engagement in New
York the next day, and as soon as supper was over I drove him to the
station. He was in an ecstatically self-satisfied frame of mind.
"Do you know I'm a pretty all-round fellow," he observed in a burst of
confidence. "I've always known better than the proprietor how the paper
ought to be run, and I can give the police points about detective work.
I'm something of a cook, and I can play the hand-organ like Paderewski;
but this is the first time I ever tried my hand at matchmaking and it
comes as easy as a murder mystery!"
"You think that their engagement is due to you?"
"But isn't it? If it weren't for me they'd have it all to go over again
from the beginning, and there's no telling how long they'd take about
it."
"I hope they appreciate your services, Terry. You're so modest that what
you do is in danger of being overlooked."
"They appreciate me fast enough," returned Terry, imperturbably. "I
promised Polly to spend my first vacation with 'em after they're
married--Oh, you'll see; I'll make a farmer one of these days!"
I laughed and then said seriously:
"Whether you made the marriage or not, you have cleared Radnor's name
from any suspicion of dishonor, and I don't know how we can ever
sufficiently show our gratitude."
"That's all right," said Terry with a deprecatory wave of his hand. "I
enjoyed it. Never did anything just like it before. I've arranged a good
many funerals of one sort or another, but this is the first time I ever
arranged a marriage. And Jove! but I could make a story out of it," he
added regretfully, "if she'd only let me tell the truth."
The events which I have chronicled happened a number of years ago, and
Four-Pools has never since figured in the papers. I trust that its
public life is ended. In spite of the most far-reaching search, the
murderer of Colonel Gaylord was never found. Radnor and I have always
believed that he was lynched by a mob in West Virginia some two years
later. The description of the man tallied exactly with the appearance of
the tramp my uncle had thrashed, and something he said in his
ante-mortem statement, made us very sure of the fact.
Mose, until the time of his death, was an honored member of the
household, but he did not long outlive the Colonel. The memory of the
tragedy he had witnessed seemed to follow him constantly; an unreasoning
terror looked from his eyes, and he started and shivered at every sound.
The poor fellow had lost what few wits he had ever possessed, but the
one rational gleam that stayed with him to the end, was his love for his
old master. When he lay dying. Radnor tells me, he roused after hours of
unconsciousness, to call the Colonel's name. I have always felt that
this devotion spoke equally well for both of them. The old man must have
had some splendid traits underneath his crusty exterior to awaken such
unquestioning love in a person of Mose's instinctive perceptions.
Perhaps after all, half idiot though he was, Mose could see clearer than
the rest of us. He now lies in the little family burying-ground on the
edge of the plantation, a stone's throw from the grave of Colonel
Gaylord.
There has never been any further rumor of a ha'nt at Four-Pools, and we
hope that the family ghost is laid forever. The deserted cabins have
been torn down, and the fourth pool dredged and confined, prosaically
enough, within its banks. Its mysterious charm is gone, but it yields,
every season, some fifteen barrels of watercress.
It was the following April--a year from the time of my first
visit--that Terry and I snatched a couple of days from our work,
purchased new frock coats, and served as ushers at Polly's wedding. She
and Radnor have been living happily at Four-Pools ever since, and the
house with a young mistress is a very different place from the house as
it used to be. Marriage and responsibility have improved Radnor
immensely. He has developed from a recklessly headstrong boy into a
keen, rational, upright man; I am sure that Polly has never for a moment
had cause to regret her choice.
When the estate was settled, Radnor, very justly, insisted on breaking
his father's will and giving to Jeff his rightful share of the property.
Jeff has since become middle-aged and respectable. He owns a raisin
ranch in southern California with fifty Chinamen to run it. When he
comes back to Four-Pools Plantation on an occasional visit, he occupies
the guest room.