Terry reappeared, two hours later, with a very excited young woman beside him. They joined us in the bare little parlor3 of the jail, and if Mattison needed any further proof that the end had come, Polly's greeting furnished it. An embarrassed flush rose to her face as she saw him, but she shook hands in a studiously impersonal4 way and asked immediately for Radnor.
Mattison met the situation with a dignity I had scarcely expected. He called a deputy and turned us over to him; and with the remark that his services were happily no longer needed, he bowed himself out. I saw him two minutes later recklessly galloping5 down the street. Polly's eyes, also, followed the rider, and for a second I detected a shade of remorse6.
As we climbed the stairs Terry fell back and whispered to me, "I tell you, I laid down the law coming over; we'll see if she's game."
As the door of the cell was thrown open, Rad raised his head and regarded us with a look of bewildered astonishment7. Polly walked straight in and laid her hand on his shoulder.
"Radnor," she said, "you told me you would never ask me again to marry you. Did you really mean it?"
Rad still stared confusedly from her to Terry and me.
"Well!" Polly sighed. "If you did mean it, then I suppose I'll have to ask you. Will you marry me, Radnor?"
I laid a hand on Terry's arm and backed him, much against his will, into the corridor.
"Jove! You don't suppose he's going to refuse her?" he inquired in a stage whisper.
"No such luck," I laughed.
We took a couple of turns up and down the corridor and cautiously presented ourselves in the doorway8. Polly was telling, between laughing and crying, the story of Mose's discovery. Radnor came to meet us, his left arm still around Polly, his right hand extended to Terry.
"Will you shake hands, Patten?" he asked. "I'm afraid I wasn't very decent, but you know—"
"Oh, that's no matter," said Terry, easily. "I wasn't holding it up against you. But I hope you realize, Gaylord, that it's owing to me you've won Miss Mathers. She never would have got up the courage to ask you, if—"
"Yes, I should!" flashed Polly. "I wanted him too much ever to let him slip through my fingers again."
Terry's boast came true and Radnor dined at Four-Pools Plantation9 that night. The news of his release had in some way preceded us, and as we drove up to the house, all the negroes came crowding out on the portico10 to welcome home "young Marse Rad." But the one person who—whatever the circumstances—had always been first to welcome him back, was missing; and the poor boy felt his home-coming a very barren festival.
Terry was steadfast11 in the assertion that he had an engagement in New York the next day, and as soon as supper was over I drove him to the station. He was in an ecstatically self-satisfied frame of mind.
"Do you know I'm a pretty all-round fellow," he observed in a burst of confidence. "I've always known better than the proprietor12 how the paper ought to be run, and I can give the police points about detective work. I'm something of a cook, and I can play the hand-organ like Paderewski; but this is the first time I ever tried my hand at matchmaking and it comes as easy as a murder mystery!"
"You think that their engagement is due to you?"
"But isn't it? If it weren't for me they'd have it all to go over again from the beginning, and there's no telling how long they'd take about it."
"I hope they appreciate your services, Terry. You're so modest that what you do is in danger of being overlooked."
"They appreciate me fast enough," returned Terry,
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CHAPTER XXIII MOSE TELLS HIS STORY
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