had stopped
entirely. As for gambling, the young men around here have got into a bad
way of playing for high stakes, but during the past month or so Rad had
pulled up in that too. He sometimes backed one of their own horses from
the Gaylord stables, but so did the Colonel; it's the regular thing in
Virginia. As for his ever having been disinherited, that is a newspaper
story, pure and simple. I never heard anything of the sort, and the
neighborhood has told me pretty much all there is to know within the
last few days."

"His father never turned him out of the house then?"

"Never that I heard of. He did leave home once because his father
insulted him, but he came back again."

"That was forgiving," commented Terry. "In general, though, I understand
that the relations between the two were rather strained?"

"At times they were," I admitted, "but things had been going rather
better for the last few days."

"Until the night before the murder. They quarreled then? And over a
matter of money?"

"Yes. Radnor makes no secret of it. He wanted his father to settle
something on him, and upon his father's refusal some words passed
between them."

"And a French clock," suggested Terry.

I acknowledged the clock and Terry pondered the question with one eye
closed meditatively.

"Had Radnor ever asked for anything of the sort before?"

"Not that I know of."

"Why did he ask then?"

"Well, it's rather galling for a man of his age to be dependent on his
father for every cent he gets. The Colonel always gave him plenty, but
he did not want to take it in that way."

"In just what way did he want to take it?" Terry inquired. "Since he was
so infernally independent why didn't he get to work and earn something?"

"Earn something!" I returned sharply. "Rad has managed the whole
plantation for the last three years. His father was getting too old for
business and if Rad hadn't taken hold, things would have gone to the
deuce long ago. All he got as a regular salary was fifty dollars a
month; I think it was time he was paid for his services."

"Oh, very well," Terry laughed. "I was merely asking the question. And
if you will allow me to go a step further, why did Colonel Gaylord
object to settling something on the boy?"

"He wanted to keep him under his thumb. The Colonel liked to rule, and
he wished everyone around him to be dependent on his will."

"I see!" said Terry. "Radnor had a real grievance, then, after all--just