strong, that, had the "Hag" arrived, the marriage would have been
publicly prevented. But no one appeared that seemed to answer to this
idea of an available tenant; and all inquiry of Mr. Hawkins as to his
intention in building a house, and not renting it, or occupying it,
failed to elicit any further information. The reasons that he gave were
felt to be vague, evasive, and unsatisfactory. He was in no hurry to
move, he said. When he WAS ready, it surely was not strange that he
should like to have his house all ready to receive him. He was often
seen upon the veranda, of a summer evening, smoking a cigar. It is
reported that one night the house was observed to be brilliantly lighted
from garret to basement; that a neighbor, observing this, crept toward
the open parlor-window, and, looking in, espied the "Fool" accurately
dressed in evening costume, lounging upon a sofa in the drawing-room,
with the easy air of socially entertaining a large party.
Notwithstanding this, the house was unmistakably vacant that evening,
save for the presence of the owner, as the witness afterward testified.
When this story was first related, a few practical men suggested the
theory that Mr. Hawkins was simply drilling himself in the elaborate
duties of hospitality against a probable event in his history. A few
ventured the belief that the house was haunted. The imaginative editor
of the Five Forks "Record" evolved from the depths of his professional
consciousness a story that Hawkins's sweetheart had died, and that
he regularly entertained her spirit in this beautifully furnished
mausoleum. The occasional spectacle of Hawkins's tall figure pacing the
veranda on moonlight nights lent some credence to this theory, until an
unlooked-for incident diverted all speculation into another channel.

It was about this time that a certain wild, rude valley, in the
neighborhood of Five Forks, had become famous as a picturesque resort.
Travellers had visited it, and declared that there were more cubic yards