I think it was the morning after Clancy's departure that Solomon handed me a pale blue envelope bearing in the upper left-hand corner the device of the Post-Dispatch. I laughed as I ripped it open; I had almost forgotten Terry's existence. It contained a characteristic pencil scrawl6 slanting7 across a sheet of yellow copy paper.
"Arnold Crosby, Esq.,
"Dear Sir:
"Enclosed please find clipping. Are the facts straight and have the missing bonds turned up? If not, don't you want me to run down and find them for you? Should like to meet an authenticated10 ghost. Wouldn't be a bad Sunday feature article. Give it my love. Is it a man or lady? Things are also moving nicely in New York—two murders and a child abducted11 in one week.
"How are crops?
"Yours truly,
"T. P.
"Wire me if you want me."
The clipping was headed, "Spook Cracks Safe," and was a fairly accurate account of the ha'nt and the robbery. It ended with the remark that the mystery was as yet unsolved, but that the best detective talent in the country had been engaged on the case.
I tossed the letter to Radnor with a laugh; he had already heard of Terry's connection with the Patterson-Pratt affair.
"Perhaps we couldn't do better than to get him down," I suggested; "he's most abnormally keen at ferreting out a mystery that promises any news—if any one can learn the truth about those bonds, he can."
And this had been his attitude from the moment the detective left. My own insistence13 that it was our duty to track down the thief met with nothing but a shrug14. Another person might have suspected that this apathy15 only proved his own culpability16 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 temperament17 that ended the matter. Though I did not comprehend his attitude, still I took him at his word. There was something about Rad's straightforward18 way of looking one in the eye that impelled19 belief. As I had heard the Colonel boast, a Gaylord could not tell a lie.
The things a Gaylord could and could not do, were, I acknowledge, to a Northern ethical20 sense a trifle mystifying. A Gaylord might drink and gamble and fail to pay his debts (not his gambling21 debts; his tailor and his 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 killing22 in the family annals—but under no circumstances would his "honah" permit him to tell a lie. The reservation struck me somewhat humorously as an anti-climax. But nevertheless I believed it. When Rad said he knew nothing of the stolen bonds I dismissed the possibility from my mind.
Though I was relieved to feel that he was not guilty, still I was worried and nervous over the matter. I felt that it was criminal not to do something, and yet my hands were tied. I could scarcely undertake an investigation23 myself, for every clue led across the trail of the ha'nt, and that, Rad made it clear, was forbidden ground. The Colonel, meanwhile, was comparatively quiet, as he supposed the detective was still working on the case. I accordingly did nothing, but I kept my eyes open, hoping that something would turn up.
Rad's temper was absolutely unbearable24 for the first week after the detective left. The reason had nothing to do with the stolen bonds, but was concerned entirely25 with Polly Mathers's behavior. She barely noticed Rad's existence, so occupied was she with the ecstatic young sheriff. What the trouble was, I did not know, but I suspected that it was the whispered conjectures26 in regard to the ha'nt.
I remember one evening in particular that she snubbed him in the face of the entire neighborhood. We had arrived at a party a trifle late to find Polly as usual the center of a laughing group of young men, all clamoring for dances. They widened their circle to admit Rad in a way which tacitly acknowledged his prior claim. He inquired with his most deferential27 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. Rad shrugged28 nonchalantly, and sauntering toward the door, disappeared for the rest of the night. When he turned up at Four-Pools early in the morning, his horse, Uncle Jake informed me, looked as if it had been ridden by "de debbil hisself."
With Radnor in this state, and the Colonel growing daily more irritable over the continued mystery of the bonds, it is not strange that matters between them were at a high state of tension. As I saw more of the Colonel's treatment of Rad, I came to realize that there was considerable excuse for Jefferson's wildness. While 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 struck him, whereupon Radnor had turned on his heel and walked out of the house, and had only consented to come back two weeks later when he heard that the old man was ill. If two men ever needed a woman to manage them, these were the two. I think that if my aunt had lived, most of the trouble would have been avoided.
Rad was not the only one, however, who felt the Colonel's irritation29 over the robbery. His treatment of the servants was harsh and even cruel. Everybody on the place went about in a half-cowed fashion. He treated Mose like a dog. Why 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 plantation30 was in the manner of a despot. Everybody—from his own son to the merest pickaninny—was at the mercy of his caprice. When he was in good humor, he was kindness itself to the darkies; when he was in bad humor, he vented31 his anger on whoever happened to be nearest.
I shall never forget the feeling of indignation with which I first saw him strike a man. A strange negro was caught one morning in the neighborhood of the chicken coop, and was brought up to the house by two of the stable-men. My uncle, who was standing32 on the portico33 steps waiting for his horse, was in a particularly savage34 mood, as he had just come from an altercation35 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 fit of blind rage, slashing36 him half a dozen times over the head and shoulders with his heavy riding crop. The negro, who was a powerfully built fellow, instead of standing up and defending himself like a man, crouched37 on the ground with his arms over his head.
"Please, Cunnel Gaylord," he whimpered, "le' me go! I ain't done nuffen. I ain't steal no chickens. For Gord's sake, doan whip me!"
I sprang forward with an angry exclamation38 and grasped my uncle's arm. The fellow was on his feet instantly and off down the lane without once glancing back. The Colonel stood a moment looking from my indignant face to the man disappearing in the distance, and burst out laughing.
"I reckon I won't be troubled with him any more," he remarked as he mounted and rode away, his good humor apparently39 quite restored.
I confess that it took me some time to get over that scene. But the worst of it was that he treated his own servants in the same summary fashion. The thing that puzzled me most was the way in which they received it. Mose, being always at hand, was cuffed40 about more than any negro on the place, but as far as I could make out, it only seemed to increase his love and veneration41 for the Colonel. I don't believe the situation could ever be intelligible42 to a Northern man.
So matters stood when I had been a month at Four-Pools. My vacation had lasted long enough, but I was supremely43 comfortable and very loath44 to go. The first few weeks of May had been, to my starved city eyes, a dazzling pageant45 of beauty. The landscape glowed with yellow daffodils, pink peach blossoms, and the bright green of new wheat; the fields were alive with the frisky46 joyousness47 of spring lambs and colts, turned out to pasture. It was with a keen feeling of reluctance48 that I faced the prospect49 of New York's brick and stone and asphalt. My work was calling, but I lazily postponed50 my departure from day to day.
Things at the plantation seemed to have settled into their old routine. The whereabouts of the bonds was still a mystery, but the ha'nt had returned to his grave—at least, in so far as any manifestations51 affected52 the house. I believe that the "sperrit of de spring-hole" had been seen rising once or twice from a cloud of sulphurous smoke, but the excitement was confined strictly53 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's presence. Relations between Rad and his father were rather less strained, and matters on the whole were going pleasantly enough, when there suddenly fell from a clear sky the strange and terrible series of events which changed everything at Four-Pools.
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1
irritable
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| adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的 | |
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moody
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| adj.心情不稳的，易怒的，喜怒无常的 | |
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sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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4
confide
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| v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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brokers
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| n.（股票、外币等）经纪人( broker的名词复数 )；中间人；代理商；（订合同的）中人v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的第三人称单数 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排… | |
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6
scrawl
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| vt.潦草地书写；n.潦草的笔记，涂写 | |
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7
slanting
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| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
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8
turnips
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| 芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表 | |
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pumpkin
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| n.南瓜 | |
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10
authenticated
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| v.证明是真实的、可靠的或有效的( authenticate的过去式和过去分词 )；鉴定，使生效 | |
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11
abducted
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| 劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展 | |
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12
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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13
insistence
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| n.坚持；强调；坚决主张 | |
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14
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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15
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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culpability
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| n.苛责，有罪 | |
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temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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18
straightforward
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| adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的 | |
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19
impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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20
ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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22
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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24
unbearable
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| adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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26
conjectures
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| 推测，猜想( conjecture的名词复数 ) | |
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27
deferential
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| adj. 敬意的，恭敬的 | |
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28
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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29
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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30
plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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31
vented
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| 表达，发泄（感情，尤指愤怒）( vent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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33
portico
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| n.柱廊，门廊 | |
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34
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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35
altercation
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| n.争吵，争论 | |
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36
slashing
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| adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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37
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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39
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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40
cuffed
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| v.掌打，拳打( cuff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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42
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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43
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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44
loath
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| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
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45
pageant
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| n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧 | |
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46
frisky
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| adj.活泼的，欢闹的；n.活泼，闹着玩；adv.活泼地，闹着玩地 | |
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47
joyousness
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| 快乐，使人喜悦 | |
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48
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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49
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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50
postponed
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| vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发） | |
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51
manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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52
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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53
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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