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"Who else?" asked Benelaius.

"Barthelm, possibly. A father will go to great lengths to defend his daughter's honor."

"In which case," my master added with a crooked smile, "Grodoveth had best look out, eh?"

I nodded. "Kendra would be another suspect. Dovo was quite offensive to her, and if she were to come upon Fastred's ghost, she is not the type who would run. She might very well strike before she knew the ghost was a hoax. And she cannot account for her whereabouts."

"And what about Grodoveth?" asked Lindavar. "From what Aunsible Durn told you, Jasper, he was furious at Dovo for some reason."

Benelaius gently removed the cats from his lap, stood up, waddled over to the sideboard, and took from it the cloak and hat that had belonged to Dovo. "And what do these suggest?"

I looked at Lindavar, wondering if it wasn't his turn again, but he didn't want the ball. "They suggest," I said, "that Dovo might have been using the Bold Bard as a center of operations, hiding his clothes there while he engaged in his ghostly masquerade."

"Have we discussed," Benelaius said, "the matter of who stood to benefit most from the appearance of the ghost?"

"I would think," Lindavar said, "that it would be this dwarf who owns the Bold Bard… what was it, Shortlegs?"

"Shortshanks," I corrected. "That's true. Anything that kept folks away from the Swamp Rat would help the Bold Bard." I grinned. "Maybe Shortshanks supplies them with their watered ale and pickled eggs."

" There's more to me than you might think,'" Benelaius quoted. "Dovo said that to Kendra, correct?"

"Yes…" I thought for a moment."You think that Dovo might have been playing ghost to-"

"To help Shortshanks!" Lindavar said."That makes sense. But was Shortshanks in on it?"

"I doubt if Dovo has ever done a thing in his life," I said, "except for profit or to impress a woman. I think it altogether possible that the dwarf hired Dovo to scare people away from the Swamp Rat."

"You know, there's another possibility that's just occurred to me," Lindavar said. "Jasper, you said just now that Kendra might have struck before she even knew the ghost was a counterfeit. What then would prevent some other armed and fearless traveler from doing the same?"

"A random occurrence, you mean," said Benelaius. "A reasonable hypothesis. But we may be overlooking something." From beneath Dovo's cloak, he took out the account book from the Bold Bard. "Have you had a chance to look at this, Jasper?" I shook my head."Then I suggest you do so now-both of you-along with Jasper's list of ghostly sightings."

He set them on the table, and Lindavar and I pulled our chairs close together to examine the documents. After many minutes of perusal, Lindavar spoke tentatively. "Master Shortshanks appears to keep his books meticulously. Yet I see nothing in the nature of payments made to another party for say, advertisement or promotion. Only money in, money out, this girl Sunfirth's salary, and customers' accounts."

Benelaius eyed me. "Jasper?"

"I think," I said carefully, not wanting to contradict my master's guest, "that Shortshanks might not readily put down on paper evidence of something that is, if not illegal, then at least of doubtful, um… scrupulosity."

"I think the word you're searching for is scrupulousness" said Benelaius, "though integrity may be more correct. But you make a good point. Shortshanks would doubtless make any such payments off the books. And speaking of books, what else do you find there? In conjunction with your list, Jasper?"

We compared the dates with the account book entries. The answer was obvious, and I let Lindavar make the discovery. "At the time of every ghost sighting but one," he said, "it seems that Grodoveth was passing through the town."

"Yes," I agreed. "From these accounts, it seems that Grodoveth comes to Ghars every two weeks or so, and that also seems to be the interval between most of the sightings. With, as you say, my lord, one"-I looked again-"nay, two exceptions."

"And those are?" asked Benelaius.