The Yale expositor., 1922-11-23
The Mardi Cras Mystery

Fell's lips awry. "In fact, they
bought it from a man named HAM
mond as the evidence will show very
clearly"
Ben Chacherre started, since he had
sold that car himself. Then a slow
grin came into his thin features-a
grin that widened into noiseless
laugh.
Master, you are magnificent !" he
said, and rose. "Well, if there is norn-
ing further on hand, 1 shall go to bed"
"An excellent program" said Jachin
Fell, and took his hat from the desk.
II must get some sleep myself"
They left the Office and the build
ing together.
Three hours afterward the dawn
had set ina cold, gray and dismal
dawn that rose upon city Uttered
with the aftermath OF carnival. Lean
Wednesday" it was, in, sober fact.
Thus far, the city in general was ig-
norant of the tragedy which had taken
place at the very conclusion of it's
gayest carnival season. Within few
hours business and social circles
would be swept by the fact OF Joseph
Mallard's murder, but at this early
point Of the day the city slept. The
morning papers, which today carried
news story that promised to shock
and stun the entire community, were
not yet distributed.
Rising before daylight, Henry Gra-
mont and Hammond breakfasted early
and were off by six in the car. They
were well outside town and sweeping
on their way to Terrebonne parish
and the town of Paradis before they
realized that the day was not going
to brighten appreciably. Instead, it
remained very cloudy and gloomy,
with chill threat of rain in the air.
Weather mattered little TO Gramont.
When finally the excellent highway
was left behind, and they started on
the last lap Of their seventy-mile ride,
they found the parish roads execrable
and the going slow. Thus, noon was
at hand when they at length pulled in
to Paradis, the town closest to Lucie
Ledanois' bayou land. The rain was
still holding Off
TOO cold to rain" observed Gra-
mont. Lets hit for the hotel and
| get something to eat. I'll have to
locate the land, which is somewhere
near town"
They discovered the hotel to be an
ancient structure, and boasting prices
worthy of Lafitte and his buccaneers.
AS in many small towns of Louisiana,
however, the food proved fit for a
king. After light luncheon of quail,
crayfish bisque, and probably illegal
venison, Gramont sighed regret that
he could eat no more, and set about
inquiring where the Ledanois farm lay
There was very little, indeed, to
Paradis, which lay on the bayou but
well away from the railroad. 1t was a
desolate spot, unpainted and unkempt
The parish seat of Houma had robbed
IT of all life and growth on the one
hand; on the other, the new oil and
gas district had not yet touched It.
Southwark lay the swamp-fully
forty miles Of 1t, merging by degrees
into the Gulf. Forty miles of cypress
marsh and winding bayou, uncharted,
unexplOred save by occasional hunters
or semi-occasional sheriffs. No man
knew who or what might be in those
swamps, and no one cared to know.
| The man who brought In fish or
oysters in his skiff might be a bayou
fisherman, and he might be a MUIR
derer wanted in ten states. Curiosity
was apt to prove extremely unhealthy.
Like the Atchafalaya, where chance
travellers find themselves abruptly or
dered elsewhere, the Terrebonne
swamps have their own secrets and
know how to keep them.
Gramont had no difficulty in locat-
ing the Ledanois land, and he found
that it was by no means in the swamp.
part of it, lying closer to Houma,
had been sold and was now included
in the new oil district; 1t was this por-
tion which Joseph Maillard had sold
off.
The remainder, and the largest por-
ton, lay north of Paradis and ran
along the west bank of the bayou for
half a mile. A long-abandoned farm,
it was high ground with the timber
well cleared off and excellently To-
Gated; but tenants were hard TO get
and shiftless when obtained. so that
the place had not been farmed for the
last FIVE years or more. After getting
these facts, Gramont consulted with
Hammond.
"We'd better buy some grub here in
town and arrange to stay a couple Of
nights on the farm. II necessary" he
said. "There are some buildings there,
so Wen find shelter. Along the bayou
are summer cottages-I believe some
Of them rather pretentlous places
and we ought to find the road pretty
decent. It's only three or four miles
out of town.
With some provisions piled in the
car. they set forth. The road wound
along the bayou side, past ancient
'Cajun farms and the squat homes Of
| fishermen Here and there had been