"You want my Selbry?" Mr. Bogwater asked when the trio called at his cottage on the outskirts of the village. "He an't here, Miss, sirs. What d'you want the lad for?"
"We'd like to ask him a few questions, if you don't mind," said Frodo, guessing that Selbry was Sully's son or grandson. He, like Thimula, had immediately surmised that the trout poacher was a relative of the old caretaker when he'd first heard the name. They had come to find out, but Sully's "my Selbry" made the relationship clear even before any questions could be asked. "We're curious to know more about his trout-fishing with his friends in the stream that runs under the Old Sackville Place."
"What of it?" the old hobbit responded.
"You're meant to be looking after the property," said Sam.
"My property," Thimula interjected.
"Beg yer pardon, Miss," Mr. Bogwater said deferentially, "but it wasn't yers 'til recent. `Twas Missus Sackville-Baggins' property. Now she'd have no use for the trout, but she'd never let anybody else have the use of `em if I was to ask. Why shouldn't the lads catch a fish or two? No harm in it."
"It was more than a fish or two, Mr. Bagwater," said Frodo. "They've made a business of it."
"I made inquiries in Needlehole," Thimula added. "According to the shopkeepers, Selbry Bogwater used to come into town weekly on market days with his friends this past spring. They carted bundles of fresh trout by the dozens, wrapped in damp canvas. I wouldn't object to someone fishing the stream now and again, but that's really beyond a reasonable limit! Not to mention what's been going on in the house."
"The house, Miss?"
"They've been breaking into Miss Bracegirdle's house to clean the fish for market," Sam informed Mr. Bogwater. "Maybe that's something the shirriff up in Needlehole'd like to hear about."
Sully Bogwater looked blankly astounded.
"Surely you knew that was what was behind all those lights and noises up at the Sackville house at night," Frodo asked. "Isn't that why you spread stories about the house being haunted, to keep people from investigating? Is that why you made such efforts to keep Miss Bracegirdle from coming here and discouraged her from going into the house? You knew we'd find signs of hobbit trespassers instead of a ghost."
"I never spread stories, Mr. Baggins!" Mr. Bogwater objected indignantly. He did not deny the other accusations Frodo had made. "Folk hereabouts saw the lights and said there was a ghost. And there is a ghost! Selbry!" The old hobbit stepped away from the front door, which he had been standing at and holding half-open since his callers had arrived, and went around to the side of the cottage. "Selbry-lad! You come here!"
Evidently, 'an't here' had meant that Selbry was not actually inside the cottage, but was within ear-shot, for in response to this summons, a young hobbit appeared from the copse of trees in the neighboring field.
"Selbry-lad," said Mr. Bogwater once the boy was in the cottage door-yard, "you tell Miss Bracegirdle and the gents here what you saw up t' Old Place."
Selbry ducked his head and turned very red. "You said I wasn't to talk about that, Pop."
"Well, I changed my mind!" Mr. Bogwater retorted. "Mr. Baggins here says there isn't no ghost, and I made it all up to frighten folk. You tell 'm otherwise, lad."
"Besides," said Frodo, "we already know all about the trout stream you and your friends have been poaching from. We know you've been selling the fish in Needlehole, and using the dining room to clean them."
Selbry's head was still down; his face couldn't be seen under the mop of dark curls, but his ears remained red. "We couldn't use the kitchen," he answered in a mumble. "None o' us would set foot in that rubbish-dump."
"Who's this 'us'?" Sam asked him.
The boy was reluctant to name names, but surrounded by three stern strangers and his scowling father, he eventually came out with "Me, Turvy Rushdown at-the-inn, 'n' Jolo Mums as works for Mr. Hodberry," all in a rush. Then he lifted his head and fixed his eyes on Thimula as he explained, "We didn't mean no harm to the Old Place, Miss. That bit o' the stream's the best fishing for miles, but it belonged to the old lady. She'd never miss the trout, but she'd have the law on us if she knew. And we always cleaned up, like Pop said to, 'cept the last time."
Frodo noted that Mr. Bogwater had indeed known exactly what his son had been up to at the Old Sackville Place, but since it must have brought some money into their home, and revenged Lobelia for her neglect, had ignored or encouraged it as long as no damage was done. He didn't follow this line, however; there was a more interesting point to pursue. "You haven't been there in awhile?" he asked Selbry. "What happened that last time?"
"We an't been back, sir, not in a month or more," said Selbry. "Like Pop says, there's sommat odd in that house. We didn't like to be there at night, with the creaking doors when there wasn't no breeze, and the sound o' boots thumping down the hall."
"Boots..." murmured Frodo.
"Then we saw it!"
"Saw what?"
"The ghost!" The boy's eyes were wide. "We was in the dining room, just finishing up. We heard them footsteps, like before, only this time it came right past the door and stopped to peek in at us! It didn't look like no ghost. That is to say, we didn't know he was what he was. We thought he was really there, solid-like in the flesh, `til he vanished right afore our very eyes! Turvy'd already taken the last o' the fish out to the cart, and me 'n' Jolo went out as fast as we could after 'm! We didn't dare go back, not even in the light o' day. I'm sorry, Miss, if we left a mess o' fish," he apologized to Thimula.
Thimula accepted this graciously but, like Frodo and Sam, she was interested in hearing more about the ghost.
"What did it look like?" asked Frodo. "Was it like one of the Big Folk, in white robes?"
"No, sir," said Selbry. "He was a shriveled-up little thing, all hunched over so he wasn't much bigger'n a hobbit. Pop says it was Mr. Lotho's ghost, but he never saw it. It was a Big, but he wasn't wearing white. His face was white like a worm, and he had scraggly black hair."
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