The Deep Lake Mystery
The Deep Lake MysteryCHAPTER I “A STATELY PLEASURE DOME ...”CHAPTER II THE GIRL IN THE CANOECHAPTER III THE TRAGEDYCHAPTER IV THE NAILCHAPTER V THE LADY OF THE LAKECHAPTER VI THE WATCH IN THE WATER PITCHERCHAPTER VII THE INQUESTCHAPTER VII ALMA’S STATEMENTSCHAPTER IX CLUESCHAPTER X DISCUSSIONCHAPTER XI EVIDENCECHAPTER XII MY SECRETCHAPTER XIII AS TO TUESDAY AFTERNOONCHAPTER XIV POSY MAYCHAPTER XV JENNIECHAPTER XVI WHISTLING REEDSCHAPTER XVII AMES TAKES A HANDCHAPTER XVIII ALL RIGHT AT LASTCopyright
The Deep Lake Mystery
Carolyn Wells
CHAPTER I “A STATELY PLEASURE DOME ...”
As I look back on my life, eventful enough in spots, but
placid, even monotonous in the long stretches between spots, I
think the greatest thrill I ever experienced was when I saw the
dead body of Sampson Tracy.Imagine to yourself a man, dead in his own bed, with no sign
of violence or maltreatment. Eyes partly closed, as he might be
peacefully thinking, and no expression of fear or horror on his
calm face.Now add to your mental picture the fact that he had round his
brow a few flowers arranged as a wreath. More flowers diagonally
across his breast, like a garland. Clasped in his right hand,
against his heart, an ivory crucifix, and in his left hand an
orange.Sticking up from behind his head showed the plume of a red
feather duster!And draped round all this, like a frame, was a red chiffon
scarf, a filmy but voluminous affair, deftly tucked in here and
there, and encircling all the strange and bizarre details I have
enumerated.On a pillow, near the dead face, lay two small crackers and a
clean, folded handkerchief.As I stared, my imagination flew to the Indians or the
ancient Egyptians, who provided their dead with food and toilet
implements, which were buried with them.But in this case...I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said: “If you have a
story to tell, begin at the beginning, go through with the tale,
and leave off at the ending.” So, as I most assuredly have a story
to tell, I will begin at the beginning and follow the prescribed
directions.It all began, I suppose, the night Keeley Moore came to see
me about fishing tackle. Kee is a wonderful detective and all that,
but when it comes to fishing he’s mighty glad to ask my
advice.And Lord knows I’m glad to give it to him.We used to go fishing together, every summer. Then Kee took
it into his silly head to get married, and to a girl who cares
nothing about fishing.So from that you can see how things are.But this time Kee seemed really excited about his prospects
of fishing through the summer months.
“ We’re going to Wisconsin,” he told me, with a note of
joyousness in his voice, “and, Gray, do you know, there are more
than two thousand lakes in one county out in that foolish old
state?”
“ I’d like to fish in all of ’em,” I said, with my usual lack
of moderation.
“ You can’t do that, but you can fish in a few, if you like.
Lora sends you, and I back it up, an invitation to come out there
as soon as we get settled and stay as long as you
can.”
“ That’s a tempting bid,” I told him, “but I can’t impose on
newlyweds like that. I’ll go to the inn or lodge or whatever they
have out there, and see you every day.”
“ No, we want you with us. We’ve taken a fairly good-sized
house for the season, and you must be our guest. Lora’s asking a
few of her friends and I want you.”Well, he had little trouble in persuading me, once I felt
convinced that his wife’s invitation was in good faith, and I
planned to go out there early in August.They were going in July, which left them time enough to get
settled and get their home in running order.So I went to Wisconsin in August, glad enough to get away
from the city’s heat and noise and dirt.Deep Lake, the choice of the Moores, was in Oneida County,
which is designated among the Scenic Sections of Wisconsin as North
Woods—Eastern.And scenic it surely was. The last part of the train ride had
shown me that, and when we were motoring from the railroad station
to the Moore bungalow, I was impressed with the weird beauty all
about.It was dusk, and the tall trees looked black against the sky.
Long shadows of hemlocks and poplars fell across the road, as the
last glow of the sunset was fading, and the reflection in the lakes
of surrounding scenery was clear, though dark and
eerie-looking.We passed several lakes before we reached the journey’s
end.
“ Here we are!” Moore cried at last, as we turned in at the
gates of a most attractive estate.A short road led to the front door and Lora came out to greet
us.I liked Kee Moore’s wife, though I never felt I knew her very
well. She was of a reserved type and while amiable and cordial, she
was not responsive and never seemed to offer or invite
confidence.But she greeted me heartily, and expressed real pleasure at
having me there.She was very good looking—a wholesome, bonny type, with an
air of executive ability and absolutesavoir
faire.Her hair was dead gold, bobbed and worn straight, I think
they call it a Dutch bob. Anyway, she had a trace of Dutch effect
and reminded me of that early picture of Queen
Wilhelmina.She sent me to my room to brush up but told me I needn’t
change as the bungalow was run informally.The place rejoiced in the name of “Variable Winds,” and
though the Moores guyed the idea of having a name for such an
unpretentious affair, they admitted it was at least
appropriate.I returned to the living room to find the group augmented by
a few more people: one house guest and two or three
neighbours.Cocktails appeared and the cheery atmosphere dispelled the
darksome and gloomy effects that had marked our drive from the
station.I found myself next my fellow guest, a pleasant-faced lady,
who introduced herself.
“ I’m Maud Merrill,” she vouchsafed. “I’m staying here, so
you must learn to like me.”
“ No trouble at all,” I told her, and honestly, for I liked
her at once.She was a widow, perhaps thirty or so, with white hair and
deep blue eyes. I judged her hair was prematurely grayed, for her
face was young and attractive.
“ I’m an old schoolmate of Lora Moore’s,” she disclosed
further, “and I’m up here for a fortnight. Are you staying
long?”
“ I’m invited indefinitely,” I returned. “I’ll stay a month,
I think, if they seem to want me.”
“ Oh, they will. They’ve both looked forward to your coming
with real delight. And you’ll like it here. There’s no end of
things to do. Fishing of course, and bathing and boating and golf
and tennis and dancing and flirting—in fact, you can have just
whatever sport you want.”
“ Sounds rather strenuous. I had hoped for a restful
time.”
“ Yes, you can have that if you really want it. Let me give
you a hint of the other guests. The beautiful woman is Katherine
Dallas. She’s about to be married to our next-door neighbour. He
isn’t here to-night. But one of his house guests is here. That
tall, thin man,—he’s Harper Ames.”I thanked her for her hints, though I wasn’t terribly
interested. But it’s good to know a little about new acquaintances,
and often prevents unfortunate speeches. Especially with me. For
I’ve a shocking habit of saying the wrong thing and making enemies
thereby.At the table I found myself seated at my hostess’s right hand
and the beautiful Mrs. Dallas on my other side.It was a comfortable sort of party. The conversation, while
not specially brilliant, was unforced and gayly bantering. Two
youngsters were present, who added their flapper slang to the
general fund of amusement.These two were Posy May and Dick Hardy, and though apparently
about twenty they seemed to have world-wide knowledge and world-old
wisdom.
“ My canoe upset this afternoon,” Posy told the company with
an air of being a heroine.
“ You upset it on purpose,” declared Dick.
“ Didn’t, either. I turned around too quickly——”
“ Yes, and if I hadn’t been on the job you’d be turning
around there yet.”
“ Posy,” Keeley said, reproachfully, “you must be more
careful. Deep Lake is one of the deepest and most treacherous lakes
in all Wisconsin. Now, don’t cut up silly tricks in a
canoe.”
“ Oh, I know how to manage a canoe.”
“ You managed to upset,” said Lora Moore, accusingly, and
pretty Posy changed the subject.After dinner there was a little bridge, but the youngsters
were going to a dance, and Mrs. Dallas seemed to want to go home
early, so Ames carried her off, and our own quartet was left
alone.I was glad of it, for I like a chat with a few better than
the rattle of the crowd. And it was not very long before Lora and
Mrs. Merrill left us, and Keeley and I had the porch to
ourselves.
“ Pleasant people,” I said, by way of being decently
gracious.
“ Good enough,” he agreed. “To-morrow, Gray, we’ll fish. It’s
open season for everything now and the limits are generous. Except
muskellonge. You may bag only one per day of those. But trout, all
kinds, bass, all kinds, pickerel, rock sturgeon—oh, we’ll have the
biggest time!”
“ Sounds good to me,” I returned, heartily. “I’m happy to be
here, old scout, and we’ll fish and all that, but don’t put
yourself about to entertain me.”
“ I sha’n’t; but you must fall in with Lora’s plans, won’t
you? I mean, seem pleased to attend her kettledrums and whatnot,
even if it bores you.”
“ Of course I will. Your lady’s word is law. She’s a brick,
isn’t she?”
“ Yes,” and Moore smiled happily at my somewhat crude
compliment. “She’s just that. And such a help in my
work.”
“ Your detective work?”
“ What else? She’s more than a Watson, she’s a real helpmate.
Her insight and intuition are marvellous, and she sees through a
bit of evidence and gets the very gist of it quicker than I
can.”
“ Then you surely got the right one.”
“ I certainly did. But I hope to Heaven there’ll be no cases
this summer. I want a real vacation, that’s why I came ’way off
here, to get away from all crime calls.”
“ Don’t crow before you’re out of the woods. Crimes can
happen even in Wisconsin. And to me, this whole country round looks
like a perfect setting for a first-class criminal to work
in.”
“ Hush! I’m not superstitious, but your suggestion of such a
thing might bring it about. And I don’t want it!”
“ You think you don’t,” I smiled a little, “but deep in your
heart you do. You can’t fish all the time, and you’re even now
restively hankering to be back in harness.”
“ Shut up!” he growled. “Talk of something pleasanter. How do
you like the Dallas queen?”
“ Stunning, seductive, and serpentine,” I summed up the lady
in question.Moore laughed outright. “I must tell Lora that,” he said.
“You see, she agrees with you. Now, I think the right words are
stately, gracious, and charming.”
“ All right,” I said, “you know her better than I do, She is
very beautiful, I concede.”
“ What do you mean, concede? Are you against
her?”
“ How you do snap a fellow up! No, not exactly. But I
wouldn’t trust her as far as I could see her,—and I’m
near-sighted.”
“ Sometimes I think I’m no detective after all,” Moore said,
slowly. “Now she gives me no effect of hypocrisy or
insincerity.”
“ But she does hint those things to Lora?”
“ Y—yes, in a way.”
“ Then Lora’s more of a detective than you are. But after I
see more of the siren, I may change my mind. I didn’t talk with her
alone at all. What about the grumpy Mr. Ames? Is he in love with
the Dallas?”
“ Not at all. In the first place, he wouldn’t dare be, for
she is engaged to Sampson Tracy, and Tracy is not one to take
kindly to any poaching on his domain. Besides that, Ames is a woman
hater, also a man hater, and I think, an animal
hater.”
“ Pleasant man!”
“ Yes. He’s always in a fierce mood. I don’t know, but I
imagine he had an affair once....”
“ Oh, crossed in love and it made him queer.”
“ Rather say, queered in love and it made him
cross.”
“ Yes, he looks cross. Does he always?”
“ Always. He and Samp Tracy are old friends, and Samp can
manage him, but nobody else can.”
“ Pleasant guest for Mr. Tracy to have about.”
“ He doesn’t mind. Pleasure Dome is usually full of guests
and if any want to sulk they are at liberty to do so.”
“ Pleasure Dome?”
“ Yes, that’s the Tracy place. It’s next to this, but it’s
some distance off. You see, Deep Lake has a most irregular boundary
line. It has all sorts of coves and inlets, and there’s one that
juts in behind the Tracy house. It’s so deep and black and so
surrounded by trees that it’s called the Sunless Sea.”
“ Why, that’s from Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan,’
too.”
“ Yes, these are the lines:
“ In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately Pleasure Dome decree;Where Alph, the sacred river ranThrough caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea.
“ You know it, of course, but that will refresh your memory.
Well, old Tracy——”
“ Is he old?”
“ Oh, no, he’s forty-five, but he seems older, somehow. Well,
anyway, he’s romantic and poetic and imaginative. And he has a fad
for Coleridge. Collects editions of him and all that. So he built
his enormous and gorgeous house and called it Pleasure Dome. And
the deep arm of the lake, which is right beneath his own window, he
calls the Sunless Sea. And it is. It’s on the north side of the
house, and so hemmed in with great firs and cypresses that the sun
never gets a look-in.”
“ Must make a delightful sleeping room!”
“ Oh, there’s plenty of sunlight from the east and west. His
rooms are in a wing, a long L, and you bet they have sunlight and
all other modern improvements. The house is a palace.”
“ That all sounds nice for Mrs. Dallas.”
“ It is. And Samp is so drivellingly, so besottedly in love
with her, that she will have everything her own way when she takes
up the sceptre.”
“ Nobody else in the family? The Tracy family, I
mean.”
“ No. Not now. There was. You see, Tracy’s sister, Mrs.
Remsen, and her daughter used to live with him. Then Mrs. Remsen
died, about a year ago, or a little more, and then Mrs. Dallas came
into the picture, and some think it was at her request Tracy put
his niece out——”
“ The brute!”
“ Oh, come now, you don’t know anything about it. Alma is a
lovely girl, but she’s a high-handed sort—all the Tracys are—and
her uncle gave her a beautiful home on a near-by
island——”
“ On an island? A girl, alone!”
“ She has with her an old family nurse, who took care of her
as a baby, and old nurse’s husband is her gardener and houseman,
and old nurse’s daughter is her waitress, and oh, Lord, Alma Remsen
is fixed all right.”
“ But on an island!”
“ But she likes being on an island. It was her own choice.
She didn’t want to stay with the new wife any more than the new
wife wanted to have her. You always fly off
half-cocked!”
“ All right, all right,” I soothed him. “Tell me
more.”
“ Well, that’s all about Alma. She’s a general favourite, has
lots of friends, and all that, but of course, when the new mistress
of Pleasure Dome comes in at the door, Alma’s prospects will fly
out of the window.”
“ Cut off entirely?”
“ I’m not sure, but I’ve heard so. I suppose her uncle will
always take care of her, but she will no longer be the Tracy
heiress.”
“ And how does Miss Alma take that?”
“ Not so good. She has had several talks with the family
lawyer, and she has tried to wheedle her uncle, but he’s a queer
dick, is Samp Tracy, and he obstinately refuses to make a new will
or even consider its terms until after he’s married.”
“ And his present will?”
“ Leaves everything to Alma. She’s his only living relative.
But his marriage will automatically cancel that will, and his wife
will be sole inheritor unless he fixes the matter up.”
“ Which he will doubtless do.”
“ Oh, I hope so. I hope the new wife will see to it that he
does. But there’s where Lora has her doubts. She doesn’t like
Katherine Dallas, somehow.”
“ Lora is of great perspicacity,” I said. “Where does Ames
come in?”
“ Regarding the fortune? Nowhere, that I know of. He is an
old friend of Tracy’s, both socially and in a business way. They’re
as different as day and night. Ames is surly, sulky, and blunt.
Tracy is suave, gentle, and of the pleasantest
manners.”
“ Miss Remsen’s parents both dead?”
“ Oh, yes. Her father died about fifteen years ago. Her
mother recently. Had her mother lived, I suppose Tracy would have
put them both out of the house, just the same. But Mrs. Remsen
being gone, he sent Alma and the servants to the island
house.”
“ Then the girl is utterly alone in the world except for the
suave uncle and her faithful servants.”
“ Just that. There was a sister. Alma had a twin. But she
died as a baby, or as a small child. Her little grave is in a small
God’s Acre on the Pleasure Dome grounds. The mother and father are
buried there too. And some other relatives.”
“ I didn’t know they had homestead cemeteries in Wisconsin. I
thought they were confined to the New England states.”
“ It isn’t usual, I believe. But the Tracys are New England
stock, and, anyway, the graves are there. And beautifully kept and
tended, as everything about the place has to be.”
“ Sounds interesting. Shall I see the high-strung
Alma?”
“ I didn’t say high-strung. She is a normal, lovely nature.
But I did say high-handed, for she is a determined sort, and if she
sets her mind to a thing it has to go through.”
“ She has admirers?”
“ Oh, of course. But she rather flouts them. One of Tracy’s
secretaries is frightfully in love with her. But she scarcely
notices him.”
“ Our friend has a multiplicity of secretaries,
then?”
“ Two, that’s all. But Sampson Tracy is a man of large
interests, and I fancy he keeps the two busy. Billy Dean is the one
in love with Alma, but the other, Charles Everett, is his
superior.”
“ He’s the chap who, they tell me, craves the Dallas
lady.”
“ Yes, though of course Tracy doesn’t know it. Everett
wouldn’t be there if he did.”
“ And Mrs. Dallas? What is her attitude toward the
presumptuous secretary?”
“ Hard to say. I think she favours him, but she is too good a
financier to throw over her millionaire for his
underling.”
“ Well, I think I’ve had about all the local history I can
stand for one night. Let’s go in the house.”To my surprise, Lora Moore and Mrs. Merrill were in the
lounge, waiting for us.The house was admirably arranged. The great central room,
with doors back and front, was called the lounge, and served as
both hall and living room. Off this were two smaller rooms: the
card room and the music room. To one side of these rooms were the
bedrooms, and on the other side, the dining room and kitchen
quarters.The furnishings were simple and attractive, with no “Mission”
pieces or attempts at camping effects.I sat down on a wide davenport beside Lora, and said,
tentatively:
“ I believe you and I agree in our estimate of the Dallas
beauty.”
“ Then you have real good sense,” exclaimed Lora, heartily.
“Kee won’t see her as I do.”
“ I won’t either,” put in Maud Merrill. “It’s disgraceful to
knock a woman just because she’s going to marry a rich man. Rich
men want wives as well as poor men. I’m all for Katherine Dallas.
You’re jealous, Lora, because she is so beautiful.”Lora only smiled at this, and said:
“ I’ve really nothing against her, except that I believe she
had Alma turned out of her uncle’s house.”
“ And why not?” demanded Maud Merrill. “No house is big
enough for two families; and though I don’t know Miss Remsen well
at all, I do know that she is a girl of strong will and decided
opinions. They’d never be happy if Alma stayed there.”
“ I can’t say as to all that,” I put in, determined to have
my word, “but I think, with Lora, that the Dallas is a lady of deep
finesse and Machiavellian cleverness.”
“ Yes, just that!” cried Keeley Moore’s wife.
“ Well, then,” said Maud, “if she snared that millionaire by
her cleverness, she deserves her reward. And she deserves a
peaceful home, which I doubt she’d have with a young girl bossing
around, too.”
“ Oh, you women!” and Moore wrung his hands in mock despair,
“you’re making up all this. You don’t know a thing about it,
really.”
“ We can see,” said Lora, sagely. “And there’s no use
prolonging this futile discussion. Time will show you how right I
am, and meantime, we’d better all go to bed.”
CHAPTER II THE GIRL IN THE CANOE
My room at Variable Winds was cheery and comfortable.
Bright-hued curtains, painted furniture and bowls full of
exquisitely tinted California poppies gave the place a colourful
effect that pleased my aesthetic tastes. A perfectly appointed
bathroom added to my content and I concluded I would stay with the
Moores as long as I could keep my welcome in good working
order.Keeley Moore was one of the best if not the best known
detectives of the day, and while a quiet vacation would do him
good, I was certain he was already itching to get back to his
problems and mysteries, with which the city always supplied
him.I threw off my coat and put on a dressing gown, for the lake
breezes were chill, and sat at a window for a final
smoke.I felt at peace with the world. Some houses give you that
feeling, just as some others make you unreasonably nervous and
irritable.The moon had risen, a three-quarter or nearly full moon, and
its shimmering light across the lake made me turn off my room
lights and gaze out at the scene before me.My room looked out on the lake, and the house itself was not
more than a dozen yards from the water. The ground sloped gently
down to a tiny bit of beach, a little crescent that had been
selected for the site of the house. On the right of this placid
little piece of shore was the boathouse, a large one, with canoes,
rowboats and motor boats. Under the same roof was the bath house,
and in front of that, out in the lake, were springboards, diving
ladders and all the contrivances on which the bathers like to
disport themselves.To the left was a bit of wild, rocky shore, for the edge of
the lake was greatly diversified and rocks abounded, both in and
out of the water.A line of light came across the lake, but was now and then
blotted out as the swiftly drifting clouds obscured the
moon.I liked it better in the darkness, for the sight was
impressive.From my window I could see a great stretch of water, and as a
background, dense black growth of trees, which came in many places
down to the water’s edge.Often these trees were on a slope and rose to a height almost
to be called a hill, while again the ground stretched on a
low-lying level.As I looked, the details of the landscape became clearer and
I discerned a few faint lights here and there in the
houses.The big house nearest us I took to be Pleasure Dome. Not only
because it was the next house, but because I could dimly
distinguish a large building surmounted by a gilded
dome.How could any man in his sober senses construct such a place
to live in?It seemed like a cross between the Boston State House and the
Taj Mahal.I was really anxious to go over there and see the thing at
closer range. I decided to ask Moore to take me over the next
day.Suddenly the lights all went out and the house and its dome
disappeared from view. Looking at my watch I saw it was just one
o’clock and concluded that the master of the house had his home
darkened at that hour.But after I again accustomed my eyes to the darkness I could
see the outlines of Pleasure Dome, and it looked infinitely more
attractive in the half light than it had done in the brightness of
its own illumination.As a whole, though, the lake scene was depressing. It had a
melancholy, dismal air that seemed to lay a damper on my spirits.
It was like a cold, clammy hand resting on my forehead. I even
shook my head impatiently, as if to fling it off, and then smiled
at my own foolishness. But it persisted. The lake was mournful, it
even seemed menacing.With an exclamation of disgust at my own impressionableness,
I sprang up from my chair, flashed on the lights and prepared for
bed.The bright, pleasant room restored my equilibrium or
equanimity or whatever it was that had been jarred, and I found
myself all ready for bed, in a peaceful, happy frame of
mind.I turned off the lights, and then the lake lured me back to a
last glimpse of its wild, eerie beauty.Again I flung on my robe and sat at the window. It seemed as
if I couldn’t leave it. The black, sinister water, the dark shores,
with deep hollows here and there, the waving, soughing trees, with
thick underbrush beneath them, all seemed possessed of a spirit of
evil, a frightful, uncanny spirit, that made me shiver with an
unreasonable apprehension, that held me in thrall.I have no use for premonitions, I have no faith in
presentiments, but I had to admit to myself then a fear, a
foreboding of some intangible, ghastly horror. Then would come the
moonlight, pale and sickly now, and lasting but a moment before the
clouds again blotted it out.Yet I liked the darkness better, for the moon cast such
horrendous shadows of those black trees into the lake that it
seemed to people the lake with monstrous, maleficent beings, who
leered and danced like devils.Though I knew the hobgoblins were only the waving trees,
distorted in the moonlight, I was none the less weak-minded enough
to see portentous spectres that made my flesh creep.With a half laugh and a half groan at my utter imbecility, I
declared to myself that I would go to bed and go to
sleep.But as I started to rise from my chair, I saw something that
made me sink back again.The moon now was behind a light, translucent cloud, that
caused a faint light on the lake.Round a jutting corner I saw a canoe come into my line of
vision.A moment’s attention convinced me that it was no ghostly
craft, but an ordinary canoe, propelled by a pair of human
arms.This touch of human companionship put to rout all my feelings
of fear and even my forebodings of tragedy.Normally interested now, I watched to see who might be out at
that time of night, and for what purpose.The cloud dispersed itself, and the full clear moonlight
shone down on the boat and its occupant. To my surprise it was a
girl, a young-appearing girl, and she was paddling softly, but with
a skilled stroke that told of long practice.Her hair seemed to be silver in the moonlight, but I realized
the light was deceptive and the curly bob might be either flaxen or
gold.She wore a white sweater and a white skirt—that much I could
see plainly, but I could distinguish little more. She had no hat
on, and I could see white stockings and shoes as the craft passed
the house.She seemed intent on her work, and her beautiful paddling
aroused my intense admiration. She did not look up at our house at
all; indeed, she seemed like an enchanted princess, doomed to
paddle for her life, so earnestly did she bend to her occupation.
She passed the house and kept on, in the direction of Pleasure
Dome.Could she be going there? I hardly thought so, yet I watched
carefully, hanging out of my window to do so.To my surprise she did steer her little craft straight to the
great house next door, and turned as if to land there.The Tracy house was on a line with the Moore bungalow, that
is, on a curving line. They were both on the same large crescent of
lake shore. Pleasure Dome had a cove or inlet behind it, Moore had
told me, but that was not visible from my window. The front of the
house was, however, and I distinctly saw the girl beach her canoe,
step lightly out and then disappear among the trees in the
direction of the house.I still sat staring at the point where she had been lost to
my vision. I let the picture sink into my mind. I could see her as
plainly in retrospect as I had in reality. That lissome, slender
figure, that graceful springy walk—but she had limped, a very
little. Not as if she were really lame, but as if she had hurt her
foot or strained her ankle recently.I speculated on who she might be. Kee had told me of no young
girl living in the Tracy house now, since the niece had left
there.Ah, the niece. Could this be Sampson Tracy’s niece, perhaps
staying at her uncle’s for a visit and coming home late from a
party? But she would have had an escort or chaperon or
maid—somebody would have been with her.Yet, how could I tell that? Kee had said she was high-handed,
and might she not elect to go about unescorted at any
hour?I concluded it must be the niece, for who else could it be?
Then I remembered that there might be other guests at Pleasure Dome
besides the morose and glum-looking Ames. This, then, might be
another house guest, and perhaps the young people of the Deep Lake
community were in the habit of running wild in this
fashion.Anyway, the whole episode had helped to dispel the gloom
engendered by the oppressive and harrowing atmosphere of the lake
scene, and I felt more cheerful. And as there was no sign of the
girl’s returning, I concluded she had reached the house in safety
and had doubtless already gone to bed.I tarried quite a while longer, listening to the quivering,
whispering sounds of the poplars, and an occasional note from a
bird or from some small animal scurrying through the woods, and
finally, with a smile at my own thoughts, I snapped off the lights
and got into bed.I couldn’t sleep at first, and then, just as I was about to
fall asleep, I heard the light plash of a paddle.As soon as I realized what the sound was, I sprang up and
hurried to the window. But I saw no boat. Whether the same girl or
some one else, the boat and whoever paddled it, were out of sight,
and though I heard, or imagined I heard, a faint and diminishing
sound as of paddling, I could see no craft of any
sort.I strained my eyes to see if her canoe was still beached in
front of Pleasure Dome, but the moon was unfriendly now, and I
could not distinguish objects on the beach.Again I began to feel that sickening dread of calamity, that
nameless horror of tragedy, and I resolutely went back to bed with
a determination to stay there till morning, no matter what that
God-forsaken lake did next.I carried out this plan, and when the morning broke in a riot
of sunshine, singing birds, blooming flowers and a smiling lake, I
forgot all the night thoughts and their burdens and gave myself
over to a joyous outlook.Breakfast was at eight-thirty and was served on an enclosed
porch looking out on the lake.
“ You know, you don’t have to get up at this ungodly hour,”
Lora said, as she smiled her greeting, “but we are wideawakes
here.”
“ Suits me perfectly,” I told her. “I’ve no love for the
feathers after the day has really begun.”Twice during our cosy breakfast I was moved to tell about the
girl in the canoe, but both times I suddenly decided not to do so.
I couldn’t tell why, but something forbade the telling of that
tale, and I concluded to defer it, at any rate.The chat was light and trifling. Somehow it drifted round to
the subject of happiness.
“ My idea of happiness,” Lora said, “which I know full well I
shall never attain, is to do something I want to do without feeling
that I ought to be doing something else.”
“ Heavens and earth,” exploded her husband, “any one would
think you a veritable slave! What are these onerous duties you have
to perform that keep you from doing your ruthers?”Lora laughed. “Oh, not all the time, but there is much to do
in a house where the servants are ill-trained and
incompetent——”
“ And where one has guests,” Maud Merrill smiled at her, and
I smiled, too.
“ I’m out of it,” I cried. “You ought to help your friend
out, Mrs. Merrill, but, being a mere man, I can’t do anything to
help around the house.”Lora laughed gaily, and said, “Don’t take it all too
seriously. I do as I please most of the time, but—well, I suppose
the truth is, I’m too conscientious.”
“ That’s it,” Kee agreed. “And you know, conscience is only a
form of vanity. One wants to do right, so one can pat oneself on
the back, and feel a glow of holy satisfaction.”
“ That’s so, Kee,” Lora quickly agreed, “and I oughtn’t to
pamper my vanity. So, I won’t make that blackberry shortcake you’re
so fond of this morning, I’ll read a novel, and bear with a smile
the slings and arrows of my conscience as it reproves
me.”
“ No,” Kee told her, “that’s carrying your vanity scourging
too far. Make the shortcake, dear girl, not so much for me, as for
Norris here. I want him to see what a bird of a cook you
are.”Lora shook her head, but I somehow felt that the shortcake
would materialize, and then Kee and I went out on the
lake.We went in a small motor launch, and he proposed that I
should have a survey of the lake before we began to
fish.
“ It’s one of the most beautiful and picturesque lakes in the
county,” he said, and I could easily believe that, as we
continually came upon more and more rugged coves and strange rock
formations.
“ Those are dells,” Kee said, pointing to weird and wonderful
rocks that disclosed caves, grottoes, chasms, natural bridges and
here and there cascades and waterfalls. “Please be duly impressed,
Gray, for they are really wonderful. You know Wisconsin is the
oldest state of all, I mean as to its birth. Geologists say that
this whole continent was an ocean, and when the first island was
thrust up above the surface of the waters, it was Wisconsin itself.
Then the earth kindly threw up the other states, and so, here we
are.”
“ I thought all these lakes were glacial.”
“ Oh, yes, so they are. But you don’t know much, do you? The
glacial period came along a lot later, and as the slow-moving
fields of ice plowed down through this section they scooped out the
Mississippi valley, the beds of the Great Lakes and also the beds
of innumerable little lakes. There are seven thousand in Wisconsin,
and two thousand in Oneida County alone.”
“ I am duly impressed, Kee, but quite as much by the way you
rattle off this information as by the knowledge itself. Where’d you
get it all?”
“ Out of the Automobile Book,” he returned, unabashed. “Most
interesting reading. Better have a shy at it some
time.”
“ I will. Now is this Pleasure Dome we’re coming
to?”
“ Yes. Thought you’d like to see it. It’s really a wonder
house, you know. We’ll be invited there to dine or something, but I
want you to see it now as a picture.”It was impressive, the great pile rising against the
background of dark trees, and with a foreground of brilliant flower
beds, fountains, and arbours.A critic might call it too ornate, too elaborate, but he
would have to admit it was beautiful.A building of pure white marble, its lines were simple and
true, its proportions vast and noble, and save for the gilded dome,
all its effects were of the utmost dignity and
perfection.And the dome, to my way of thinking, was in keeping with the
majesty of it all. No lesser type of architecture could have stood
it, but this semi-barbaric pile proudly upheld its glittering crown
with a sublime daring that justified the whole.There were numerous and involved terraces, all of white
marble, that disappeared and reappeared among the trees in a
fascinating way. White pergolas bore masses of beautiful flowers or
vines, and back of it all rose the black, wooded slopes that
surrounded most of the lake.
“ We’ll slip around for a glimpse of the Sunless Sea,” Kee
said, and I almost cried out as we came upon the
place.A strange chance had made a huge pool of water, almost
square, as an arm of the lake, and this, stretched behind the
house, was like a midnight sea.Dark, even in broad daytime, because of the dense woods all
round it, it also looked deep and treacherous. A slight breeze was
blowing but this proved enough to ruffle the waters of the Sunless
Sea in a dangerous-looking way.
“ Don’t go in there!” I cried, and Kee turned
aside.
“ I didn’t intend to,” he said, “I was just throwing a scare
into you. It’s really devilish. A sudden wave can suck you down to
interminable depths. You’re not afraid, really?”
“ Oh, no,” I assured him, “but it’s pesky frightensome to
look at, especially——”Again I was on the verge of telling him of the scene on the
lake the night before, and again I stopped, held back by some force
outside myself.
“ Especially why?” he asked, curiously, but I evaded the
issue by saying, “Especially when one is on a
holiday.”He laughed and we turned away from Pleasure
Dome.
“ Now I’ll show you the island,” he said, “and then we’ll
tackle the tackle.”We went rapidly back past Pleasure Dome, on down the lake,
past Moore’s own place, and then on a bit farther to the
Island.
“ They call it ‘Whistling Reeds’, and it’s a good name,” he
said. “When the wind’s a certain way, and it’s quiet otherwise, you
can hear the reeds whistle like birds.”
“ You do have most interesting places,” I said. “And who
lives here? And where’s the house?”
“ Alma Remsen lives here, the niece of Sampson Tracy I told
you about last night. You can’t see the house, the trees are so
thick.”
“ I should say they were!” and I stared at the dense black
mass. “Why doesn’t she cut a vista, at least?”
“ She doesn’t want it, I believe. Thinks it’s more
picturesque like this.”
“ I’d be scared to death to live there!”
“ No reason to be. Nothing untoward ever happens up here. All
peaceable citizens.”
“ But fancy living in such a place. How do they get
provisions and all that?”
“ Oh, that’s easy. Lots of the dealers deliver their stuff in
canoes or motor boats. See, there’s the boathouse. Some day we’ll
call here. Alma likes my wife, she’ll be glad to see
us.”
“ I suppose she’s a canoeist.”
“ Everybody’s that, around here. I mean the people who live
all the year round. A good many people live on islands. They like
it. This island, you see, is a big one. About two or three acres,
say. That gives Miss Remsen room for tennis courts and gardens and
pretty much anything she wants, and the house is very pleasant.
Nothing like Pleasure Dome, but a bigger house than the one we’re
in.”We turned then, and started off toward the spot where Kee
elected to do his fishing.
“