"The head of the institution has so many fairy stories told him by prisoners who want only a chance to slip away, that he would not listen to such a thing. After repeated failures to get his case heard, it seems that Lasher conspired with one of his fellows. The result was the break from confinement, the pursuit, and his final escape by means of the pepper he must have carried with him for just such a purpose."
"I never heard anything so strange, Mr. Dodd. It certainly sounds like a fairy story, and I can't wonder at the head warden for doubting it. But Will, here, who is something of an authority, says that photographic part is easy enough," declared Frank, thinking that he was expected to say something.
"Well, as I said, we lost all track of the man. Nobody knows where he was hidden all these long weeks. I came up into the hills to investigate, and found it just as he declared. There were the ruins of an old homestead near the road across the lake yonder, and they told me that an old man by the name of Fletcher had once lived there. That was the real name of the dead convict thief.
"I haunted the place for a week, but saw no signs of my man. Then I concluded that he must have been there, hunted for the plunder, found it, and perhaps carried it away, determined that since he had paid the penalty for the robbery he might as well enjoy the fruits."
"Do you think so now?" asked Frank during another pause.
"No, I don't. The appearance of this so-called ghost set me to thinking. Then in a roundabout way I learned, only recently, that one night a man was seen sneaking away from the little humble house where Mrs. Lasher and her children live. So you see, I began to piece things together, and finally I came to a conclusion.
"I believed that Thaddeus Lasher had finally come to hunt for the plunder hidden by Fletcher, and that he was having much more trouble finding the same than he had expected. In order not to be bothered in his labor he had hit on this ghost dodge to scare the country jays off. I remembered that he had been an actor in his better days, before he began to drink and get in bad company.
"Accordingly, I finally concluded that it would pay me to make another trip up to the vicinity of Sunset Lake, this time fetching along several deputies, for I did not know how desperate a man Lasher might prove. I heard from Adolphus that your party was up here, and wondered if by any chance you might have run across the man I am hunting for; but I reckon you haven't up to now."
Mr. Dodd smiled as he once more glanced at the warning that had been fastened to the oak tree, as if that circumstance aided him more or less in coming to the conclusion he had.