the fight had now fairly begun. the district attorney was working up the side of the prosecution, aided, i was sure, by the over-zealous sheriff. it remained for me to map out some definite plan of action and organize the defence.
as i rode back to four-pools in the early evening after the inquest, i continued to dwell upon the evidence, searching blindly for some clue. the question which returned most persistently to my mind was "what has become of cat-eye mose?" it was clear now that upon the answer to this question hinged the ultimate solution of the mystery. i still clung to the belief that he was guilty and in hiding. but five days had elapsed since the murder, and no trace of him had been discovered. it seemed incredible that a man,however well he might know his ground, could, with a whole county on his track, elude detection so effectually.
supposing after all that he were not guilty, but the sheriff's theory that he had been killed and the body concealed, were true; then who, besides radnor, could have had any motive for committing the crime? there was nothing from the past that afforded even the suggestion of a clue. the old man seemed to have had no enemies but his sons. his sons? the thought of jeff suddenly sprang into my mind. if anyone on earth owed the colonel a grudge it was his elder son. and jeff had more than his share of the gaylord spirit which could not lightly forgive an injury. could he have returned secretly to the neighborhood, and, following his father into the cave, have quarreled with him? heaven knows he had cause enough! he may, in his anger, have struck the old man without knowing what he was doing, and overcome with horror at the result, have left him and fled.
i was almost as reluctant to believe him guilty of the crime as to believe it of radnor, but the thought having once come, would not be dismissed. i knew that he had sunk pretty low in the nine years since his disappearance, but i could never think of him otherwise than as i myself remembered him. he had been the hero of my boyhood and i revolted from the thought of deliberately setting out to prove him guilty of his father's murder.
i spurred my horse into a gallop, miserably trying to escape from my suspicion; but the more i put it from me as impossible, the surer i became that at last i had stumbled on a clue. automatically, i began adjusting the evidence to fit this new theory, and reluctant as i was to see it, every circumstance from the beginning fitted it perfectly.
jeff had returned secretly to the neighborhood, had taken up his abode in the old negro cabins and made his presence known only to mose. mose had stolen the chicken for him, and the various other missing articles. they had resurrected the ha'nt to frighten the negroes away from the laurel walk, and the night of the party rad, in his masquerade, had accidentally discovered his brother. jeff demanded money, and rad undertook to supply it in order to get him away without his father's knowing. that was why he had borrowed the hundred dollars from me, and had written to his brokers to sell the bonds. it was jeff who was sitting beside radnor the night they drove across the lawn. but unknown to rad, jeff had found his way back and had robbed the safe, and rad suspecting it, had refused to make an investigation.
during the eleven days that intervened between the robbery and the murder jeff had still been hiding in the vicinity—possibly in the neighborhood of luray, certainly no longer in the cabins, for he had no desire to meet his brother.
but on the day of the picnic they had met and quarreled. rad had charged him with the robbery and they had parted in a high state of anger. this would explain rad's actions in the hotel, his white face later when i found him in the summer house. and jeff, still quivering from the boy's accusation, had gone back into the cave and met his father as the old man was coming from the little gallery of the broken column with polly mathers's coat. what had happened there i did not like to consider; they both had uncontrolled tempers, and in the past there had been wrongs on both sides. probably jeff's blow had been harder than he meant.
in the evening when mattison and i brought the news of the murder, rad must have known instantly who was the real culprit. that was why he had kept silent; that was why he so vehemently insisted on mose's innocence. i had found the light at last—though the darkness had been almost better.
what must i do? i asked myself. was it my duty to search out jefferson and convict him of this crime? no one could tell what provocation he may have had. why not let matters take their course? there was nothing but circumstantial evidence against radnor. surely no jury would convict him on that. i could work up a sufficient case against mose to assure his acquittal. he would be released with a blot on his name, he would be regarded for the rest of his life with suspicion; but in any event there seemed to be no outcome which would not involve the family in endless trouble and disgrace. and besides, if he himself elected to be silent, had i any right to speak? then i pulled myself together. yes, it was not only right for me to speak; it was my duty. rad should not be allowed to sacrifice himself. the truth, at whatever cost, must be brought out.
my first move must be to discover jeff's whereabouts on the day of his father's murder. it ought not to be difficult to trace a man who had come more than once under the surveillance of the police. having made up my mind as to the necessary course, i lost no time in putting it into action. i barely waited to snatch a hasty supper before riding back to the village. from there i sent a fifty-word telegram to the chief of police in seattle asking for any information as to the whereabouts of jefferson gaylord on the nineteenth of may.
it was ten o'clock the next morning before an answer came. so sure was i of what it was going to contain, that i read the words twice before comprehending them.
"jefferson gaylord spent may nineteenth in lumber camp thirty miles from seattle. well-known character. mistaken identity impossible.
"henry waterson,
"police commissioner."
i had become so obsessed with the horror of my new theory; so sure that jeff was the murderer of his father that i could not readjust my thoughts to the idea that he had been at the time of the crime three thousand miles away. the case, then, still stood exactly where it had stood from the beginning. six days had passed since the murder and i was not one inch nearer the truth. six days! i realized it with a dull feeling of hopelessness. every day now that was allowed to pass only lessened the chance of our ever finding mose and solving the mystery.
i still stood with the telegram in my hand staring at the words. i was vaguely aware that a boy from "miller's place" had ridden up to the house on a bicycle, but not until solomon approached with a second yellow envelope in his hand was i jostled back into a state of comprehension.
"nurr telegram, mars' arnold."
i snatched it from him and ripped it open, hoping against hope that at last a clue had turned up.
"new york, may 25.
"post-dispatch wants correspondent on spot. if you have any facts to give out, save them for me. arrive lambert junction three-fifty.
"terence k. patten."
under the terrible strain of the past six days i had completely forgotten terry's existence and now the memory of his cool impertinence came back to me with a rush. for the first moment i felt too angry to think; i had not credited even his presumption with anything like this. his interference in the patterson-pratt business was bad enough, but he might have realized that this was a personal matter. he was calmly proposing to turn this horrible tragedy into a story for the sunday papers—and that to a member of the murdered man's own family. hot with indignation, i tore the telegram into shreds and stalked into the house. i paced up and down the hall for fifteen minutes, planning what i should say to him when he arrived; and then, as i calmed down, i commenced to see the thing in its true light.
the whole account of the crime to the minutest detail, had already appeared in every newspaper in the country, together with the most outrageous stories of radnor's past career. at least nothing could be worse than what had already been said. and after all, was not the truth—any truth—better than these vague suspicions, this terrible suspense? terry could find the truth if any man on earth could do it. he had, i knew, unraveled other tangles as mysterious as this. he was used to this sort of work, and bringing to the matter a fresh mind, would see light where it was only darkness to me. i had been under such a terrific strain for so long and had borne so much responsibility, that the very thought of having someone with whom i could share it gave me new strength. my feeling toward[pg 205] him veered suddenly from indignation to gratitude. his irrepressible confidence in himself inspired me with a like confidence, and i wondered what i had been thinking of that i had not sent for him at once. to my jaded mind his promised arrival appeared better than a clue—it was almost equal to a solution.
