ome along about
midnight I was worried about one of the hosses that had been actin' sick
like. So I walked over here, not wantin' to wait till mornin'. Just when
I was agoin' back I seen a light movin' around over at the house, and I
stopped a minute to watch the same."

"Yes, go on; a week ago, you say?" the farmer remarked, as Jo paused to
catch his breath again.

"On Thursday night it was, Mr. Rollins," the other went on. "Well, just
then I saw the back door open, and somebody stepped out. I seen it was
you, and about the queerest part of it all was that it looked to me as
if you might be walkin' around in your pajamas! Do you remember comin'
outdoors on that night for anything, sir?"

"I don't even remember walking around that way," replied Mr. Rollins,
hastily, and looking as though he did not know whether Jo were trying to
play some sort of joke on him, or not, "but go on and tell the rest.
What did I do? Did you stop long enough to see?"

"Well," continued the farm hand, "I saw you go over to the old Dutch
oven that hasn't been used this twenty years, and move around there a
bit; but it wasn't none of my business, Mr. Rollins, and so I went along
home. I guess any gentleman's got the right to go wanderin' around his
own premises in the middle of the night, if he wants to, and nobody
ain't got any right to complain because he don't make the trouble to put
on his day clothes."

The farmer looked helplessly at Paul. Plainly his wits were in a stupor,
and he could not make head or tail of what Jo was telling him.

"Can you get a pointer on to what it all means?" he asked, almost
piteously.

Paul had conceived a wonderful idea that seemed to give great promise of
solving the dark puzzle.

"You just as much as said that you could not remember having come out of
your house that night; and that you never knew yourself to walk around
out of doors in your pajamas; is that so, sir?" he asked.

"That's what I meant; and if I was put on the stand right now, I could
lift my right hand, and take my solemn affidavit that I didn't do any
such thing--unless by George! I was walking in my sleep!"

"That's just the point I'm trying to get at, Mr. Rollins," said Paul,
quietly. "Jo, here, says he _saw_ you as plain as anything, and yet you
don't recollect doing it. See here, sir, can you ever remember walking
in your sleep?"

"Why, not for a great many years," answered the farmer, somewhat
confused, and yet with a new gl