."

"The ha'nt had catholic tastes. Any of the things turned up since?"

"Yes, a number of things, such as blankets and clothes and dishes have
gradually drifted back."

"The carriage cushions and lap robes--ever find them?"

"Never a trace--and why anyone should want 'em, I don't know!"

"What color were the lap robes?"

"Plain black broadcloth."

Terry got up and paced about a few moments and then came back and sat
down.

"One thing is clear," he said, "there are two ha'nts."

"Two ha'nts! What do you mean?"

"Just what I say. Suppose for convenience we call them ha'nt number one,
and ha'nt number two. Number one occupied apartments over the grain bin
and haunted the laurel walk. He was white--I don't wonder at that if he
spent much time crawling over those flour sacks. He smoked cigars and
read French novels; Mose waited on him and Radnor knew about him--and
didn't get much enjoyment out of the knowledge. It took money to get
rid of him--a hundred dollars down and the promise of more to come.
Radnor himself drove him off in the carriage the night he left, and Mose
obliterated all traces of his presence. So much for number one.

"As for number two, he appeared three or four days before the robbery
and haunted pretty much the whole place, especially the region of the
spring-hole. In appearance he was nine feet tall, transparent, and
black. Smoke came from his mouth and blue flames from his eyes. There
was a sulphurous odor about him. He was first seen rising out of the
spring-hole, and there is a passage in the bottom of the spring-hole
that leads straight down to hell. Solomon is my authority.

"I asked him how he explained the apparition and he reckoned it was the
ghost of the slave who was beaten to death, and that since his old
master had come back to haunt the laurel walk, he had come back to haunt
his old master. That sounds to me like a plausible explanation. As soon
as it's light I'll have a look at the spring-hole."

"Terry," I said disgustedly, "that may make a very picturesque
newspaper story, but it doesn't help much in unravelling the mystery."

"It helps a good deal. I would not like to swear to the flames or
sulphur or the passage down to hell, but the fact that he was tall and
black and comes from the spring-hole is significant. He was black--mark
that--so were the stolen lap robes.

"Now you see how the matter stands on the night of the robbery. While
ghost number one was out driving