The Deep Lake Mystery
tinted California poppies gave the place a colourful effect that pleased my aesthetic tastes. A perfectly appointed bathro
while a quiet vacation would do him good, I was certain he was already itching t
ng gown, for the lake breezes were chil
give you that feeling, just as some others
, and its shimmering light across the lake made me turn
t 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 th
the edge of the lake was greatly diversified a
t was now and then blotted out as the sw
the darkness, for the
, and as a background, dense black growth of trees,
a height almost to be called a hill, while a
e became clearer and I discerned a few f
nly because it was the next house, but because I could dim
sober senses construct
etween the Boston State
see the thing at closer range. I decided
d from view. Looking at my watch I saw it was just one o'clock and con
tlines of Pleasure Dome, and it looked infinitely more attractive in th
my spirits. It was like a cold, clammy hand resting on my forehead. I even shook my head impatiently, as if to fli
pressionableness, I sprang up from my chair
mity or whatever it was that had been jarred, and I found m
the lake lured me back to a last
es, with deep hollows here and there, the waving, soughing trees, with thick underbrush beneath them, all seemed possessed of
elf then a fear, a foreboding of some intangible, ghastly horror. Then would come the moonl
ows of those black trees into the lake that it seemed to people the lak
istorted in the moonlight, I was none the less weak-minded
y utter imbecility, I declared to mysel
m my chair, I saw something
t, translucent cloud, that cau
r I saw a canoe come
t was no ghostly craft, but an ordinary
ut to rout all my feelings of fear
to see who might be out at that t
t and its occupant. To my surprise it was a girl, a young-appearing girl, and
, but I realized the light was deceptive and
ainly, but I could distinguish little more. She had no hat on, and
p at our house at all; indeed, she seemed like an enchanted princess, doomed to paddle for her life, so ear
thought so, yet I watched carefully
e craft straight to the great house ne
e. 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, h
her as plainly in retrospect as I had in reality. That lissome, slender figure, that graceful springy walk-but she had
old me of no young girl living in the Tracy
er uncle's for a visit and coming home late from a party? But she would
she was high-handed, and might she not
ests at Pleasure Dome besides the morose and glum-looking Ames. This, then, might be another house guest,
ng atmosphere of the lake scene, and I felt more cheerful. And as there was no sign of the girl's
rs, and an occasional note from a bird or from some small animal scurrying through the woo
just as I was about to fall asleep,
her the same girl or some one else, the boat and whoever paddled it, were out of sight, and though I hea
d in front of Pleasure Dome, but the moon was unfriendl
ror of tragedy, and I resolutely went back to bed with a determination to
e, singing birds, blooming flowers and a smiling lake, I forgot all the
and was served on an enclosed
s ungodly hour," Lora said, as she smiled
. "I've no love for the feathers
, but both times I suddenly decided not to do so. I couldn't tell why, but some
ing. Somehow it drifted roun
ll I shall never attain, is to do something I want to do
think you a veritable slave! What are these onerous duties
there is much to do in a house where the
s," Maud Merrill smiled
r friend out, Mrs. Merrill, but, being a mere ma
seriously. I do as I please most of the time, but-w
a form of vanity. One wants to do right, so one can pat o
on't make that blackberry shortcake you're so fond of this morning, I'll read a nov
far. Make the shortcake, dear girl, not so much for me, as fo
that the shortcake would materialize,
he proposed that I should have a surv
ty," he said, and I could easily believe that, as we continually
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
l these lakes
fields of ice plowed down through this section they scooped out the Mississippi valley, the beds of the Great Lakes and
y the way you rattle off this information as b
ned, unabashed. "Most interesting read
his Pleasure Dome
er house, you know. We'll be invited there to dine or
he background of dark trees, and with a foreground
te, too elaborate, but he would
ue, its proportions vast and noble, and save for the gilded d
o lesser type of architecture could have stood it, but this semi-barbaric pile pr
ared among the trees in a fascinating way. White pergolas bore masses of beautiful flowers
he Sunless Sea," Kee said, and I almo
lmost square, as an arm of the lake, and this, st
so looked deep and treacherous. A slight breeze was blowing but this proved
e!" I cried, and
e into you. It's really devilish. A sudden wave can suck y
but it's pesky frightensom
scene on the lake the night before, and again I
, but I evaded the issue by saying, "
e turned away fr
land," he said, "and then
on down the lake, past Moore's own place,
he said. "When the wind's a certain way, and it's quie
places," I said. "And who live
on Tracy I told you about last night. You c
ared at the dense black mass. "Why
believe. Thinks it's mor
d to death to
ntoward ever happens up her
a place. How do they get
canoes or motor boats. See, there's the boathouse. Some day w
e she's a
his island, you see, is a big one. About two or three acres, say. That gives Miss Remsen room for tennis courts and gardens and pr
off toward the spot where Ke
moved on, "there's Alma
d of Whistling Reeds. I looked, to see a girl come down to the fl
elf I said it was the girl I had
seemed to me to be the same clothes, a white skirt and white sweater. She had on a small white felt hat, and I noticed
our eyes!" exclaimed Moore, an
ing her before, but the chaffing tone he
ed over by the Lady of the L
manages it so perfectly, she seems like a part of it. Of course, wherever she goes,
an awful
ikes it better than a motor. Look a
me to have paddled even more beautifully the night before. But, I said to myself, that
her beach her canoe and follow her with our eyes for a fe
d I saw in Keeley Moore for the time b
nial companion. And we were that. Though not friends of such very long standi
chose the same times. Often we would sit for half an hour in a soc
s glad, for I wanted to think things out; to learn, if possible, why I wa
ht before and again this morning, was that enough to make me feel
o it couldn't be that I had fallen for a prett
not to. A strange, vague instinct held m
e way, and not unnaturally I thought he had
ther evident preparations for bringing our fishing par
," he said, lik
at
t means come home at once. Lora only uses it i