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,