I must, at this point, [confound it! I am sure Dr. M. would give permission to elaborate if he were only here! HS] drop an impenetrable veil of secrecy over certain episodes, for reasons which I have already stated.
I am, however, in a position to state with absolute authority that there was NO apparition at Major Watling’s horse barn at milking time the evening of—
[Steady on, Hardeign. Think. Think. Major W. turned. I looked about No apparitions, spooks, goblins. Just Major W. and myself. He looked at me and made a curious sort of face. No. Nonono. Can’t be. Oh, my God! / was the—Fault all mine. Duel, feud. Traitor to dear Eleusis. Feel sick. . . . HS]
DOCUMENT TWO
Being a note delivered by Mrs. Irving McGuinness, Domestic, to Miss Agnes DeW. Stolp, President, the Tuscarora Township Historical Society
“The Elms”
Wednesday Dear Miss Stolp,
Pray forgive my failure to attend the last meeting of the Society to read my paper. I was writing the last words when —I can tell you no more. Young Dr. Scantt has been in constant attendance at my bedside, and my temperature has not fallen below 99.8 degrees in the past 48 hours. I have been, I am, a sick and suffering man. I abjectly hope that you and everybody in Eleusis will bear this in mind if certain facts should come to your attention.
I cannot close without a warning against that rascal, “Dr.” Caspar Mord. A pledge prevents me from entering into de-
tails, but I urge you, should he dare to rear his head in Eleusis again, to hound him out of town as he was hounded out of Peoria in 1929. Verbum sapientibus satifc.
Hardeign Spoynte