“It is rather strange that uncle should have said she was here.” “Say, ain’t I done tol yo’ dat my ol man is de hugest-most liah in de worl’? My, my, yo’ don’ wanttuh go for to b’lieve wat dat man tells yo’. Tain’t safe, nohow. He suttinly is de onliest man I know what can’t tell de truth; he suttinly is.” “Well, auntie, maybe you can tell me how to go from here to Hague. I want to go there in the morning, after breakfast.” “In de mawnin’? Yo’ jes’ drives ’long de road. Dere ain’t nothin’ else to do. Reckon yo’ must ha’ come straight through Hague when you done come yere. When you is quite finished eatin’, sah, I’ll show you to your room whar you is to sleep, and you kin go to baid jes’ as soon as yo’ is a mind to.” “Oh, I won’t go to bed right away, auntie. I’ll sit out there on the veranda and smoke,” said the detective, rising, for he had eaten his fill. “You can show me where the room is, if you wish, and I will go to it after I have smoked my cigar.” “Lord bless yo’, sah, you is welcome to smoke right in yo’ room, all yo’ pleases,” said the woman hastily. So hastily that Nick decided at once that she wished to get him stowed away immediately. He was just turning over in his mind the question as to why the woman desired that, when he heard the sound of horses’ hoofs on the roadway, and then a musical voice called from the darkness: “Lize! Lize! Oh, uncle! Here I am!” The negro woman looked appealingly toward the detective, as if she wished that he would hide himself away somewhere. Nick stepped quickly to the door, threw it ajar, and then stood there, framed in the opening, with the light of the room behind him so that it fell full upon the face and figure of a woman who had pulled her saddle horse close to the stepping block, and was just gathering the reins in her hand preparatory to dismounting. She straightened quickly when she saw Nick, and for an instant it seemed to him as if she was on the point of urging the horse away again. But if she felt the impulse, she controlled it; and she said coolly: “Good evening, sir.” Then she called past Nick to the negress, adding: “Where is your mistress, Liza? I rode over to make a call upon her.” “She done gone out, missy, jes’ a lil’ while ago, for sure,” the negress replied quickly, and the detective could not repress a smile at the transparency of the falsehood, or, rather, at the attempt to deceive. It was evident that the woman on the horse’s back saw the expression on Nick Carter’s face, and read it correctly, for she instantly broke into a laugh, and exclaimed: “Oh, dear, it isn’t the slightest use to tell Aunt Liza to say that I’m not at home. She cannot understand how a person can be not at home and in the house at the same time. But I won’t try to deceive you, sir. I am Mrs. Dinwiddie, and if you are a stranger, you are welcome to such hospitality as I can provide.”