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"And that's your precious Cat-Eye Mose." Radnor shook his head. "Mose doesn't need to steal chickens. He gets all he wants." "Mose," the Colonel added emphatically, "is the one person on the place who is absolutely to be trusted."
Finding no sign of habitation, either human or spiritual, I finally turned back to the house with a philosophic shrug and the reflection that Cat-Eye Mose's nocturnal vagaries were no affair of mine.
Cat-Eye Mose took the matter of the ha'nt without undue emotion, a point which struck me as suggestive, for I knew that Mose was as superstitious as the rest when the occasion warranted. Once at least I saw Radnor and Mose in consultation, and though I did not know the subject of the conference my suspicions were very near the surface.
I leaned out silently alert, and to my surprise I saw Cat-Eye Mose though it was pretty dark I could not be mistaken in his long loping run slink out from the shadow of the house and make across the open space of lawn toward the deserted negro cabins. As he ran he was bent almost double over a large black bundle which he carried in his arms.
"We waited foh him a powe'ful while, but it 'pears like he's 'vaporated. I reckon he's took to de woods an' is gwine to walk home. Dat Cat-Eye Mose, he's monstrous fond ob walkin'!" I do not know why this incident should have aroused my own anxiety, but I pushed on to the plantation with a growing feeling of uneasiness.
The marks are just as they were. Boards have been laid over them and nothing's been disturbed." "You're rather done up, old man," Terry remarked, smiling across at me good-humoredly. "Of course it's quite on the cards that Cat-Eye Mose committed the crime but there are a number of objections.
If you look carefully you can see the marks of blood. He then hurled him into the pool and fled." "It sounds plausible enough," said the sheriff slowly, "but there are one or two points which I'm afraid will not bear examining. Suppose your man did thrown the Colonel into the water and run for it, then what, I should like to know, has become of Cat-Eye Mose?"
For a moment no one spoke and I heard the click of Terry's revolver as he cocked it. Then it suddenly came over me what it was, and I cried out: "It's Cat-Eye Mose!" "Good Lord, he can see in the dark! Strike a light, some one," Terry said huskily. The sheriff struck a match.
We bolstered him up with a few drops of whisky from Mattison's flask, and half carried him out into the light. The guide ran ahead to get a carriage, spreading the news as he ran, that Cat-Eye Mose had been found. Half the town of Luray came out to the cave to escort us back, and I think the feeling of regret was general, in that there had not been time enough to collect a brass band.
The most logical method would be to study the scene of the crime first, but as that does not appear feasible until morning, we will examine such data as we have. On the face of it the only two who appear to be implicated are Radnor and this Cat-Eye Mose who is a most picturesque character," Terry added, the reporter for the moment getting ahead of the detective.
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