This was positive confirmation of Green’s story, and Forrester pondered before asking his next question. He remembered Joshua’s assertion that he had plainly heard words, so he asked: "Do you ever hear voices saying anything?" "Nothing distinctly. Just sighs and groans and sounds like that, as if somebody were in trouble." "You think, then," said Forrester, "that it is just some uneasy soul that haunts that tree?" "Yes," she replied. "But," protested Forrester, "what could a ghost want with good United States money?" "I don’t know," replied Lucy. "In my worship I sometimes commune with the spirits, but they have never told me how they could use money." "Have you ever tried to commune with this ghost?" asked Forrester. "No," replied Lucy. "I don’t think it belongs to my people." "Suppose I were to offer you a good sum of money to try to communicate with it?" suggested Forrester. "I don’t need money," she replied. "Don’t you have to work for a living?" "No." "How do you manage to live then?" "I don’t need money to live. I can get on." Forrester glanced around the room once more. The cookstove appeared to be without a fire and there were no signs of food. He wondered. Turning again to Lucy, Forrester said, "Strange about the ghost that haunts that tree, Lucy. Did you ever hear of anyone being murdered around here?" "No," she replied. Then added, after a slight pause, as she rose and walked toward the door, "Guess you have found out all I can tell you, Mister. You’d better go now—before my dog comes back." The uncanny atmosphere of the place, the nearby snakes in their glass prison, and the weird conversation regarding ghosts and singular forms of worship, had given Forrester a very uncomfortable feeling. He knew now why Green had temporarily lost his nerve, for he was quite willing to take the woman’s undisguised hint about his own immediate departure. Slipping his notebook into his pocket and putting on his cap, Forrester thanked her for the interview and hurriedly passed through the door, which was slammed on his heels. CHAPTER X—CROSSED THEORIES The long drive into the city from the North Shore delayed Forrester so that he did not reach the Nevins’ home until the funeral services had ended, and though he joined the cortège which followed the remains of the banker to the cemetery he did not have an opportunity to speak to his mother about the letter which the girl had entrusted to him. At dinner, however, he passed the letter across the table to his mother with the remark: "There’s a note I was requested to bring to you—and in which I am very much interested."