The Deep Lake Mystery

“Who asked you now?”

“Mrs. Moore, sir, and then Mr. Moore, and then yourself.”

“Yes, I see. Well, Jennie, can you keep this story secret for a time?”

“If nobody asks me about it.”

“But look here, girl, you are in the command of the law, and I order you not to tell this. You’re bound to obey me, or you will be put in prison. See, in prison!”

“I shouldn’t like that, sir.”

But even this avowal brought no change of countenance or gleam of fear to the gray eyes.

“You bet you wouldn’t. But that’s what you’ll get if you tell.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Will you keep still about it?”

“If nobody asks me, sir.”

March looked utterly disgusted, but Lora took the matter in hand.

“Leave it to me, Mr. March,” she said. “I think I can answer for Jennie’s obedience to your order so long as she stays with me.”

“I like you,” said Jennie, gazing at her.

“Of course you do,” said Lora, heartily, “and I like you. We’re going to be great friends. Now, Mr. March, any more questions before I put our star witness to bed?”

“A few only. Jennie, did you see Miss Remsen come to the house, or only go away?”

“Only go away.”

“Do you suppose she came to the house in her boat?”

“She must have done so, she always comes that way. But she could not have gone in by the window.”

“No. How did she get in, then?”

“By the door, I suppose. Miss Remsen had a key.”

“Then, why did she leave by the window?”

“That’s what I don’t know,” the gray eyes clouded. “That’s what I can’t make out.”

“It is a hard problem. What time was it when you saw her go away?”

“I’ve no idea. We all go to bed at ten, if it isn’t our night out. So I went to my room about ten, but I couldn’t sleep.”

“Hadn’t you been asleep at all, when you saw the girl and the boat?”

“Yes, I think so. I’m quite sure I had. But my watch wasn’t going, and so I don’t know what time it was.”

“Don’t you have a timepiece to get up by?”

“Mrs. Fenn raps on our doors, sir, then we get up.”

“I see. Well, you say it was moonlight. Do you know where the moon was, in the sky?”

“Oh, yes, it was just disappearing behind Mr. Tracy’s wing.”

“Then we can track the time down by that,” said March, with a nod of satisfaction. “Given the date and the position of the moon, that’s easy.”

“Jennie,” said Keeley, thoughtfully, “did Miss Remsen have anything in her hands when she dived from the window?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you that. You see, her canoe was just below, right down from the window. She leaned out first, and dropped a bundle of something into the boat. Then, she stepped on the sill, and I could see she did have something in one hand. A sort of stick, I think.”

“The Totem Pole,” said March, decidedly.

“That’s all, Jennie, you may go now.”

Lora left the room with the girl, but soon returned, Not a word had been spoken by us in her absence.

“Well,” she said, as she came back, and March responded, “not well at all. About as bad as it can be.”

“You believe that balderdash, then?” I asked, angrily, and Keeley said, “Yes, Gray, and so do you. I think, March, we must revert to the mentally deficient theory.”

“I think so, too,” March said, shaking his head. “I wish Doctor Rogers was at home.”

CHAPTER XVI

WHISTLING REEDS

March called in at Variable Winds on his way to the Tracy funeral. We were all ready to go, for though none of us wanted to, it was a matter of convention and the whole village would have commented unkindly had we stayed away.

I, especially, dreaded it, for I dislike funerals, and I hated the thought of the entire community sitting up there, casting glances at Alma and making whispered remarks about her.

But I had to go, so I made the best of it, and, garbed in appropriate black, I sat with the others awaiting the time to start.

March came in, looking harassed and worn.

“It’s all too dreadful,” he said, sinking into a chair. “Everything seems to point to Alma Remsen, yet I am not convinced of her guilt.”

I started to speak, but thought better of it. Since March held that opinion nothing I could say would help any. I’d better keep still.

“I’m going to the funeral,” March went on, “because it’s wiser to show myself there. But I shall slip out, during the service, and go over to the island house. How about going with me, Mr. Norris?”

“What for?” I asked, a little suspicious of his motives.