The Deep Lake Mystery

yself, "I shall see agai

ect of strong-mindedness, the girl showed in face and demeanour a certain self-reliance, an air of

th appealing brown eyes, she nodded a sort of greeting t

or Hart?" she said, in

Will you answer a f

o the best of

when did you last s

, Tuesday, that would be. I have not

ut stay, that was at one-thirty or thereabouts. Perhaps she salved

came over here perha

im in some surprise. "W

was amazed at her coolness a

ummone

ad been asked to

as her

died of apoplexy and I'd

you

on as I cou

seen-er-

es advised

from you, except a formal statement of your relat

and

e you goo

am his only living relative, except some distant cousins.

incere, yet I was somehow conscious of a reservation in her talk,

remembered that I had seen her canoeing over to Pleasure Do

ress?" The quest

at his will leaves the bulk of his estate to me, but he also told me that when he

u resen

per portion of his wealth, and that as long as he

nly child of

ter. She died fou

buried on

contains the graves of my parents and five

ry is on the grounds of the estate? It

she could visit it often. My uncle humoured her and also had the remains of my father sent here to be b

did your si

We both had it, but I pulled through, though

you went to live by yourself on

cle was to mar

n't like Mr

e clashes, and I told uncle I'd rather live by myself. He understood and agreed. So after some lo

t a house fo

ady there. He bought the wh

e it as

pier there than I co

u not l

have many boats and can get any place I wish to go in them. No, I am not so lonely as I sometimes was here in this great h

pest interest. I wondered what he would say if

f that. I knew I might be doing wrong, withholding such an impo

ut the alert figure before me and the white costume said plainly

few golden curls, and I well remembered the bar

time came I would tell Kee about it, but I certainly did not propos

ell. He may have been drawing her out in order to prove her complete innoce

st evening?" Hart sa

, I

out all the eve

n't leave

yself, "it's lucky she d

d killed her uncle, but knowing, as I did, that she had visited Plea

on some private business, and saw the murderer at his w

r or intruder. I thought a member of the family or household had done the deed, and, presumably, for the sake of inhe

with Kee, but I saw this

ing?" pursued Hart, and I lis

room with the book until I finished the story. Then I played on the piano a

en voice, and with the most clear an

n, with long, curling black lashes, and an expression of

msen, and never, to Kee Moore or to anybody else, wou

t know it. But I felt like a guardian toward her, and surely my

e asked, in his pleasant way, an

boat nearly every day. Uncle gives me vegetabl

his death," Kee went on. "Have you been tol

ity. "But I can't understand the meaning of such condi

ks it was the work

a. "Does he think a sma

flowers and those things were put where they were found by some misch

among the servants' families or in the neighbourhood at all. I don't agree with Doctor Rogers. It's too fantastic to

t how can we explain the feather

drive a nail into the head of a sleeping victim would have a distorted brain, and might ha

to be asking their help, and I marv

e friendly?" Coroner Ha

lder than I am. But we have never had an

iendly with

ever given him a thought save as a friend of my uncle's. I don't know Mr

n undercurrent of fear for her? She was utterly frank, perfectly straightforward, t

er attitude and expression of face, that I

Remsen carefully and to the exclusion of

I wasn't sure whether I should tell Moore eventually

o me of no real importance, Alma was

ferent typ

ed prematurely gray, almost white. She wore it short, a soft, cu

xion was perfect. That lovely creamy flesh, with a soft s

's bow, and her smile

ecause I couldn't

inner party, but she hadn't looked like this then. At

animated an

killed Sampson Tracy, wouldn't she adopt th

ady to dower her with everything heart could wish and put her at the head of his great establishment. Of course not. She had no motive, nor had she opportunity

oom in the dead of night, and had got away again, unseen, so far as we co

Hart was asking Mrs. Dallas he

th myself to realize that her voice had in it n

h interest, "whoever killed Mr. Tracy had to get out of that ro

," suggested Keeley, to

here, the Sunless Sea, is not only very deep, but it is full of hidden ro

secret passage," Moore went

structure, is modern and I'm quite sure it hasn't any concealed or subterran

feel so su

an he was confidential by nature and I've

nd the dinner last night a

le not really angry at me, just enough annoyed to stay home from the party. I think he

our disagre

I tell

'd better, M

ly prefe

must re

wanted to tell me something

ing unp

aid it was a thing I ought to know ab

t as to the purport

sten. I told him I didn't want t

ke that attitud

hree months. Now, he had never mentioned this thing before. So I had a feeling that he had

no curiosit

of Alma Remsen, and I was positive it couldn't be anything really serious. Perha

d words ov

tell me, and he so equally insistent that I

d it wi

I admit it was a foolish thing to quarrel about, but I

as this

Monday

ursday. You didn'

one yesterday and asked him if he was going to the Moores' dinne

eally ang

sorry about it all, and that he kept my scarf near him all the time. I know Mr. Tracy'

crimson scarf that was

f Katherine Dallas broke down and she

ng fingers and her tapping foot, and I knew sh

r, and as she stumbled through, we saw Alma Remsen

om and closed the door, and

luding both Hart and Keeley M

Kee declared. "I don't suppose anybody thought she

l?" asked Farrell,

!" Moore exclaimed. "I can't see

t lovely girl connected with a brutal, in

ere are we at?"

er, and we realized that he was

l sighed. "Get him

Farrell let her in and asked the result of

om and I can see," she reported,

ll placed a chair for her

the Tott

e w

otem Pole," said Moore, qu

Tracy's favourite toys. It was Indian, Griscom says, and it alwa

Keeley had taken the inquiry in

his Luck, that's w

arge w

oot or more with her hands. "Oh, i

rs, and a fac

t a norful fa

f shops round here that carry Indian trinkets. The little Totem Poles are interesting, and are called lucky. I have two

ir! His striped dark blue morey, an

ncy waistco

of beautiful stuff. Never gay or gaudy, but sof

hem are gone.

ner's or anything like that, for they're both nearly new. And he s

urious complications. This seems to prove a man did th

them, either?" Moore asked,