e.

"On the next point to be mentioned the popular belief was
divided. The more intelligent class held that the Negro lynched
was not Bud Harper, but some strange Negro resembling him. When
confronted with the fact that Dilsy Harper accepted it as the
body of her son Bud, they shrugged their shoulders and said
that that report came from the white officers who would pretend
that a Negro had said just anything and that Aunt Dilsy would
hardly know Bud after the mob got through mutilating him. They
believed that Bud was living and that he had come home while
the body supposed to be his was lying there. The more
superstitious among them held that Bud was unjustly killed and
his ghost had come to the wake, and that it could be seen
almost any night on the bridge.

"I found whispered around in a rather select circle the belief
that Arthur Daleman, Jr., had killed Alene. It was thought that
Arthur was secretly in love with his foster sister and
in a fit of uncontrollable jealousy had murdered her. A Negro
woman, who went to the Daleman's to care for the house, was
reputed to have found in Arthur's room appliances for making
one assume the appearance of a Negro.

"Now all of these rumors I investigated and I came to the
conclusion that the truth of the matter was as follows:

"1. Bud Harper did not kill Alene.

"2. Bud Harper was not hanged.

"3. Bud Harper and not his ghost appeared at his home.

"4. Dilsy Harper accepted the body as that of Bud to prevent a
further quest of Bud.

"5. Arthur Daleman, Jr., bore some relation to Alene's murder.

"The fifth conclusion was forced upon me by the guilty
hangdog appearance of Arthur Daleman, Jr., which some people
mistook for sorrow over Alene's death.

"Now let me tell you the strange manner in which I received
confirmation of these things. On taking up my abode at Dilsy
Harper's I noticed that she and her husband had no dealings
with each other, though they lived in the same house. To-day I
came home and found the door unbarred and Silas Harper sitting
in his wife's room, his face all wreathed in smiles. Mrs.
Harper had been called away and he proceeded to unfold the
cause of his previous strained relations with his wife and his
present happy state. He had separated himsel