fascinating--I haven't heard a good 'hant' yarn
since old Mammy Chloe died, back at Meadow Green."

She pouted, for his cynicism struck home. Yet was she earnest, and
again she endeavored to impress him.

"Laugh, sir, as much as you please. My father laughed the same way. He
called them silly, ignorant peasant tales. He said he would show them
that it was now the twentieth century, and teach them how foolish were
their fears."

She hesitated. Her dark eyes burned as she continued slowly: "He went
there, Mr. Jarvis. He went there! He was never seen again!"

The Kentuckian leaned forward, engrossed.

"What happened?"

"No one knows. He disappeared--vanished utterly, without the slightest
clew. Grandfather's treasure was never found!"

"Oh, what treasure?" Jarvis was almost rude in his impatient interest.

"The fortune he left. You know, grandfather converted all his wealth
into Spanish gold to finance a Spanish colonization scheme in the West
Indies. It amounted to about a million dollars in your American money."

Warren whistled, and twisted his intertwined fingers about an elevated
knee--whose ache had been forgotten.

"That's a ripping good yarn. When did all this happen?"

"Fifteen years ago. Since then, two other men disappeared in the same
horrible manner as my father did. Not a trace of their leaving: it is
so horrible that it makes my heart creep to tell it. And yet you
scoff!"

"I'm sorry," he said penitently. "But what's the latest news from the
trenches?"

"Now the Duke tells me that my brother has entered the fatal castle ...
you see that daring runs in the blood! Up to a week ago he had sent me
a cable every day. Everything was well until Sunday. Then his messages
stopped. All this week there has not been a word, not even answering my
cables!"

Warren digested this in silence for a moment.

"Why did your Highness leave Spain, knowing all this?"

"Well, Mr. Jarvis, a part of the legend tells that my grandfather had
drawn a secret map showing exactly where his treasure was located. It
was not safe to let the public know where wealth was located, fifteen
years ago, in Spain."

"From the extremely businesslike devotion of that ghost, it doesn't
seem that conditions have improved in the district of your exalted
estates!"

"Oh, Mr. Jarvis, can't you be serious? I learned from an old letter to
my grandmother, from her husband the Prince, that this plan had been
hidden in the back-clasp of a l