Ned and Burl Find Some Clues

Mrs. Tree said she thought it was best for now if just the two of them went. She promised to let everyone know if they found anything interesting.

“Sounds good to me,” said Ned as he shoveled in another mouthful of mashed potatoes.

And that’s how they discovered some clues about High Horse Harry.

Ned picked Mrs. Tree up at her house after they finished lunch. It was a good thing he had running boards on his truck or he might never have gotten that tiny lady up in the cab of his truck. They bumped along an old logging road for about a mile. Tarsal parked in a clearing in front of the cabin and helped Mrs. Tree get down from the cab. It was a sunny day, but the tall oak trees around it heavily shaded the cabin so Ned retrieved a couple of flashlights from his toolbox.

What Ned didn't notice was a dark Ford sedan following him almost all the way to Mrs. Tree’s. The stranger parked about a mile past her property and walked through the woods following them at a safe distance.

“I know High Horse Harry is gone, but it still doesn’t feel right entering this cabin,” remarked Mrs. Tree.

“I know what you mean,” said Ned. “ It feels kind of spooky here. Those crows are having a fit about something.”

Mrs. Tree didn’t seem to notice the crows, but Ned always paid attention to their calls. It was never idle chatter. As Mrs. Tree went ahead, Ned stood stock-still, looked around and listened for other sounds besides the raucous cawing. Nothing.

“Probably warning each other about a hawk or something,” he said as he caught up to Mrs. Tree. They entered a surprisingly clean and tidy cabin. It was apparent by the spareness of the cabin that High Horse Harry owned very little, which would make their search easier, but probably not too fruitful.

It hadn’t taken long for the mice to move in. As soon as Ned and Mrs. Tree walked in,  mice scattered everywhere.

“I’ll look high and you look low,” said Ned. Mrs. Tree nodded and they began their search in silence.

They looked in all the usual places, in the one cabinet in the kitchen, under the nasty old mattress, and the tall and surprisingly solid chest of drawers in the sleeping room. The chest of drawers did not contain clothes; every drawer was filled with books. As Ned and Mrs. Tree took a few books out to sample Harry’s reading tastes they were surprised to discover he apparently loved great works of literature, if, indeed, these were his books. His copy of War and Peace was filled with marginalia. They found the works of Voltaire, Dumas, and Descartes in the original French. In those volumes, the marginalia were in French.

“I guess there was way more to Harry than met the eye,” said Ned scratching his chin.

“It would be a shame to let the mice get to these wonderful books,” Mrs. Tree replied.“I’d be happy to store them, if you want to load them in your truck and take them to my house.”

“Good idea. I’ll come back tomorrow with some help and a wheel barrow and we’ll bring them to your house,” said Ned.

“Okay, but pick someone who’s not a gossip. It doesn’t feel right to have nosey nellies snooping around in here,” she said as Ned nodded in agreement.

They went back into the kitchen to have one more look around. Mrs. Tree even lifted the handles on the old wood cook stove. They were just about ready to give up when Mrs. Tree decided to check the ash pan under the stove. At first glance it looked like just a thick layer of ash, but she wanted to be sure. She went outside and got a stick so she wouldn’t have to touch the ash as she moved it around. The stick hit something solid.

She called Ned from the sleeping room. “Look at this,” she said as she carefully lifted an ash-covered envelope from the pan.

“Lay it on the table,” said Ned.

He pulled a rag from his hip pocket and carefully removed the contents of the envelope. They took the pages from the packet of papers and lay then out on the rickety old table. They looked like legal documents. They decided to take the papers back to Mrs. Tree’s where they could look at them more comfortably and in better light. As they headed to the truck, they heard a rustle and saw a shadow move around the corner of the cabin. Ned ran around the corner to check it out, but found no one there.

When they pulled into Mrs. Tree’s driveway her mutt Junebug came running out of the barn barking and yipping at Ned’s truck.

“She’s a great watchdog. She always lets me know when someone's around. She’ll stop barking when she sees you. It’s your truck she doesn’t recognize,” said Mrs. Tree. Sure enough, as soon as Ned stepped out of his truck Junebug came running up, wagging her tail.

While Ned was laying out the papers on Mrs. Tree’s dining room table, she made coffee and sliced up some pineapple upside down cake for them to nibble on. There were two people named in the documents: Porter Pander and Joshua Moot. It appeared they had entered into a business partnership producing a product named Quacks, which neither Ned nor Mrs. Tree had ever heard of.

“It looks like this one here is something about a law suit,” said Ned holding up a yellowed page.

“It’s hard to make out, but it looks like the name Bertram Benedict Bunnington, Attorney, or some such. They sat and discussed the possibilities of what these papers could mean over their cake and coffee. Ned sure did love Mrs. Tree’s pineapple upside down cake.

"I’d best be on my way. I’ve got to go back into town and stop by Steele’s Hardware Store. I don’t want to get into trouble for being late. It’s not good to get on the bad side of Gardenia. She might be named after a fragrant flower, but she can be as prickly as a cactus,” said Ned

“What should we do with these papers?” asked Mrs. Tree stifling a yawn. She had missed her afternoon nap and even the coffee wasn’t perking her up. It had been a big day for her.

“Boy, that’s a good question,” said Ned taking his cap off and scratching his head. “Why don’t you keep them until we have more time to read all of this legal mumbo jumbo and decide if there’s someone else who should know about this.”

“Sounds good. I’ll put them in my box of photographs I keep under the bed in the spare room,” she replied.

“Great. When I come back for the books tomorrow we’ll decide what our next step is going to be,” said Ned.

“Nighty, night,” said Mrs. Tree.

Ned didn’t notice the tall figure lurking in the shadows as he headed to his truck.