Is it too late to visit it now?"
"Well," I said dubiously, "it's ten miles across the mountains and pretty heavy roads.
It would be dark before we got there."
"As far as that goes, we could visit the cave at night as well as in the daytime.
But I want to examine the neighborhood and interview some of the people; so I suppose," he added with an impatient sigh, "we'll have to wait till morning.
And now, where's this young Gaylord?"
"He's in the Kennisburg jail."
"And where's that?"
"About three miles from here and six miles from the plantation."
"Ah—suppose we pay him a visit first.
There are one or two points concerning his whereabouts on the night of the robbery and his actions on the day of the murder that I should like to have him clear up."
I smiled slightly as I turned the horses' heads toward Kennisburg.
Radnor in his present uncommunicative frame of mind was not likely to afford Terry much satisfaction.
"There isn't any time to waste," he added as we drove along. "Just let me have your account of everything that happened, beginning with the first appearance of the ghost."
I briefly sketched the situation at Four-Pools as I had found it on my arrival, and the events preceding the robbery and the murder.
Terry interrupted me once or twice with questions.
He was particularly interested in the three-cornered situation concerning Radnor, Polly Mathers, and Jim Mattison, and I was as brief as possible in my replies; I did not care to make Polly the heroine of a Sunday feature article.
He was also persistent in regard to Jefferson's past.
I told him all I knew, added the story of my own suspicions, and ended by producing the telegram proving his alibi.
"H'm!" said Terry folding it thoughtfully and putting it in his pocket. "It had occurred to me too that Jeff might be our man—this puts an end to the theory that he personally committed the murder.
There are some very peculiar points about this case," he added. "As a matter of fact, I don't believe that Radnor Gaylord is any more guilty of the crime than I am—or I shouldn't have come.
But it won't do for me to jump at conclusions until I get more data.
I suppose you realize what is the peculiarly significant point about the murder?"
"You mean Mose's disappearance?"
"Well, no.
I didn't have that in mind.
That's significant enough to be sure, but nothing but what you would naturally expect.
The crime was committed, if your data is straight, either by him or in his presence, and of course he disappears.
You could scarcely have expected to find him sitting there waiting for you, in either case."
"You mean Radnor's behavior on the day of the murder and his refusal to explain it?" I asked uneasily.
"No," Terry laughed. "That may be significant and it may not—I strongly suspect that it is not.
What I mean, is the peculiar place in which the crime was committed.
No person on earth could have foreseen that Colonel Gaylord would go alone into that cave.
There is an accidental element about the murder.
It must have been committed on the spur of the moment by someone who had not premeditated it—at least at that time.
This is the point we must keep in mind."
He sat for a few moments staring at the dashboard with a puzzled frown.
"Broadly speaking," he said slowly, "I have found that you can place the motive of every wilful murder under one of three heads—avarice, fear or revenge.
Suppose we consider the first.
Could avarice have been the motive for Colonel Gaylord's murder?
The body had not been robbed, you tell me?"
"No, we found a gold watch and considerable money in the pockets."
"Then, you see, if the motive were avarice, it could not have been immediate gain.
That throws out the possibility that the murderer was some unknown thief who merely took advantage of a chance opportunity.
If we are to conceive of avarice as the motive, the crime must have been committed by some person who would benefit more remotely by the Colonel's death.
Did anyone owe him money that you know of?"
"There is no record of anything of the sort and he was a careful business man.
I do not think he would have loaned money without making some memorandum of it.
He held several mortgages but they, of course, revert to his heirs."
"I understood that Radnor was the only heir."