air. I wondered if he were reviewing his own political past, to see if
by chance he also had unwittingly crushed a worm. He raised his eyes to
Terry's face with a gleam of admiration.

"You've been pretty clever, Mr. Patten, in finding out the truth about
this crime," he acknowledged generously. "But you couldn't have expected
me to find out," he added, "for I didn't know any of the circumstances.
I had never even heard that such a man existed as that chicken
thief--and as to there being two ghosts instead of one, there wasn't a
suggestion of it brought out at the inquest."

Terry looked at him with his usual slowly broadening smile. He opened
his mouth to say something, but he changed his mind and--with a visible
effort--shut it again.

"Terry," I asked, "how _did_ you find out about the chicken thief? I
confess I don't understand it yet."

He shrugged his shoulders and laughed.

"Nothing simpler. The trouble with you people was that you were
searching for something lurid, and the little common-place things which,
in a case like this, are the most suggestive, you overlooked. As soon as
I read the story of the crime in the papers I saw that in all
probability Rad was innocent. His behavior was far too suspicious for
him really to be guilty; unless he were a fool he would have covered up
his tracks. There was of course the possibility that Mose had committed
the murder, but in the light of his past devotion to the Colonel it did
not seem likely.

"I had already been reading a lot of sensational stuff about the ghost
of Four-Pools, and when the murder followed so close on the heels of
the robbery, I commenced to look about for a connecting link. It was
evident that Radnor had nothing to do with it, but whether or not he
suspected someone was not so clear. His reticence in regard to the ha'nt
made me think that he did. I came South with pretty strong suspicions
against the elder son, but with a mind still open to conviction. The
telegram showing that he was in Seattle at the time of the murder,
proved his innocence of that, but he might still be connected with the
ha'nt. I tried the suggestion on Radnor, and his manner of taking it
proved pretty conclusively that I had stumbled on the truth. The ha'nt
business, I dare say, was started as a joke, and was kept up as being a
convenient method of warding off eavesdroppers. Why Jefferson came back
and why Radnor gave him money are not matters that concern us; if they
p