“You’d better tell Dr. Tully the rest of the story about Duff,” Father Jackson said.

So I told him about the trouble in school and the car accident and the rest of it, including the attacks on Franny and Stephanie.

“But Duff can’t ride a horse,” I concluded lamely.

“But General Caine could, and very well too, from all accounts,” said Dr. Tully. “This is very interesting. Now let me tell you something else I’ve learned about the apparent comings of the General. They’ve usually occurred in periodic sequences over the years and each sequence has been marked by other unusual happenings as well. There have been other murders like Stephanie Weber’s and other violent deaths, often explained as suicides. Most of these deaths occurred between the 1870s and the early 1900s. Most of the murder victims were young women and the crimes were usually unsolved. The suicides generally were young men, teenagers like your son or a bit older.

“Many people linked the suicides to the murders and decided that the young men had killed the girls and then in remorse killed themselves. The last such combination of murder and suicide occurred about five years ago, within a week or two after Mrs. Danforth saw the General. The body of a young girl was found in an alley in Cainesville. You must remember the case, Father. A couple of weeks later a nineteen year old boy, a sopho­more here at Ashland College, cut his throat. His name was Carrothers and I think his father’s farm is on the next road north of the Caine road.”

“I remember both deaths,” said Father Jackson, “but I don’t remember that anyone ever made a connection between the two.”

“I did,” said Dr. Tully, “but, to be honest with you, it was only a moment ago. The conjunction of murders and suicides and visitations by General Caine has occurred to me before as a possible line of investigation, but until you told me about your son Duff, Mrs. Caine, I hadn’t associated the deaths of Howard Carrothers and Lydia Graham, the girl who was murdered in Gainesville.”

“And what made you think of it now?” I asked.

“Your saying that you thought Duff had been attending the ceremonies at the Weber house. You see, Howard Carrothers had been going there too, or at least he was there the night I attended. He came in late and recognized me, and that’s when I was asked to leave.”

“Are you suggesting that now that Stephanie has been killed, Duff will commit suicide?” In my alarm I was speaking too loudly and I saw the proprietor come out of the kitchen and look toward our table.