1 v%»/ k3. JmuMtm \muM MEREDITH MICHOLSOM ClotneU Utttueratta Sihrarg Anonvrnou.^. Corner! University Library PS 3527.1 16R7 1907 Rosalind at Red Gate 3 1924 021 650 001 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924021650001 ROSALIND AT RED GATE Three white butterflies fluttered about her head. Page 265 ROSALIND AT RED GATE MEREDITH NICHOLSON WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY ARTHUR I. KELLER NEW YORK GEOSSET & DUNLAP U PUBLISHERS Copyright 1907 The Bobbs-Merrill Company November TO MY MOTHER Rosalmd- I thought thy heart had been wounded with the claws of a lion. Orlando: Wounded it is, but with the eyes of a lady. As You Like It. ^^Then dame Liones said unto Sir Gareth, Sir, I will lend you a ring, but I would pray you as ye love me heartily let me have it again when the townament is done, for that ring increaseth my beauty much more than it is of itself. And the virttie of my ring is that that is green it will turn to red, and that is red it will turn in likeness to green, and that is blue it will turn to likeness of white, and that is white, it will turn in likeness to blue, and so it will do of all manner of colours. ' ' MOBTE DaRTBUR. CONTENTS I A Telegram from Paul Stoddard 1 II Confidences .... 21 III I Meet Mr. Reginald Gillespie . 39 IV I Explore Tippecanoe Creek . 62 V A Fight on a House-Boat 74 VI A Sunday's Mixed Affairs 92 VII A Broken Oar .... 110 VIII A Lady of Shadows and Starlight 126 IX The Lights on St. Agatha's Pier 141 X The Flutter of a Handkerchief 159 XI The Carnival of Canoes . 171 XII The Melancholy of Mr. Gillespie 182 XIII The Gate of Dreams . 198 XIV Battle Orchard .... 211 XV I Undertake a Commission 227 XVI An Odd Affair at Red Gate 237 XVII How the Night Ended 255 XVIII The Lady of the White Butterflies 263 XIX Helen Takes Me to Task . 280 XX The Touch of Dishonor . 291 XXI A Blue Cloak and a Scarlet 303 XXII Mr. Gillespie's Diversions 328 XXIII The Rocket Signal . 347 XXIV "With My Hands" . 365 XXV Daybreak 379 ROSALIND AT RED GATE KOSALIND AT EED GATE CHAPTER I A TELEGEAM rEOM PAUL STODDABD Up, up, my heart! Up, up, my heart. This day was made for thee! For soon the hawthorn spray shall part. And thou a face shalt see That comes, O heart, O foolish heart, This way to gladden thee. — H. G. Bunner. Stoddard's telegram was brought to me on the Glen- arm pier at four o'clock Tuesday afternoon, the fifth of June. I am thus -explicit, for all the matters here- inafter described turn upon the receipt of Stoddard's message, which was, to be sure, harmless enough in it- self, but, like many other scraps of paper that blow about the world, the forerunner of confusion and trouble. My friend, Mr. John Glenarm, had gone abroad for the summer with his family and had turned over to me 1 2 EOSALIND AT EED GATE his house at Annandale that I might enjoy its seclusion and comfort while writing my book on Russian Rivers. If John Glenarm had not taken his family ahroad with him when he went to Turkey to give the sultan's engineers lessons in bridge building; if I had not ac- cepted his kind offer of the house at Annandale for the summer ; and if Paul Stoddard had not sent me that telegram, I should never have written this narrative. But such was the predestined way of it. I rose from the boat I was caulking, and, with the waves from the receding steamer slapping the pier, read this message: Stamford, Conn., June 5. Meet Miss Patricia Holbrook Ainnandale station, five twenty Chicago express and conduct her to St. Agatha's school, where she is expected. She will explain difficulties. I have assured her of your sympathy and aid. Will Join you later if necessary. Imperative engagements call me else- where. Stoddaed. To say that I was angry when I read this message is to belittle the truth. I read and re-read it with growing heat. I had accepted Glenarm's offer of the house at Annandale because it promised peace, and now I was ordered by telegraph to meet a strange person of whom I had never heard, listen to her story, and tender my sympathy and aid, I glanced at my watch. It was A TBLEGEAM 3 already after four. "Delayed in transmission" was stamped across the telegraph form — I learned later that it had lain half the day in Annandale, New York — so that I was now face to face with the situation, and with- out opportunity to fling his orders hack to Stoddard if I wanted to. Nor did I even know Stamford from Stam- boul, and I am not yet clear in my mind — ^being an Irish- man with rather vague notions of American geography — whether Connecticut is north or south of Massachu- setts. "Ijima!" I called my Japanese boy from the boat-house, and he appeared, paint-brush in hand. "Order the double trap, and tell them to hurry." I reflected, as I picked up my coat and walked toward the house, that if any one but Paul Stoddard had sent me such a message I should most certaialy have ignored it; but I knew him as a man who did not make demands or impose obligations lightly. As the founder and su- perior of the Protestant religious Order of the Brothers of Bethlehem he was, I knew, an exceedingly busy man. His religious house was in the Virginia mountains; but he spent much time in quiet, humble service in city slums, in lumber-camps, in the mines of Pennsyl- 4 EOSALIND AT BED GATE vania; and occasionally he appeared like a prophet from the wildemess in some great church of Ifew York, and preached with a marvelous eloquence to wondering throngs. The trap swung into the arched driveway and I bade the coachman make haste to the Annandale station. The handsome bays were soon trotting swiftly toward the village, while I drew on my gloves and considered the situation. A certain Miss Holbrook, of whose existence I had been utterly ignorant an hour before, was about to arrive at Annandale. A clergyman, whom I had not seen for two years, had telegraphed me from a town in Connecticut to meet this person, conduct her to St. Agatha's School — just closed for the summer, as I knew — and to volunteer my services in difficulties that were darkly indicated in a telegram of forty-five words. The sender of the message I knew to be a serious character, and a gentleman of distinguished social connections. The name of the lady signified nothing except that she was unmarried; and as Stoddard's ac- quaintance was among all sorts and conditions of men I could assume nothing more than that the unknown had appealed to him as a priest and that he had sent her to Lake Annandale to shake off the burdens of the A TELEGEAM 5 world in the conventual air of St. Agatha's. High- born Italian ladies, I knew, often retired to remote convents in the Italian hills for meditation or penance. Miss Holbrook's age I placed conservatively at twenty- nine; for no better reason, perhaps, than that I am thirty-two. The blue arch of Jime does not encourage difficulties, doubts or presentiments ; and with the wild rose abloom along the fences and with robins tossing their song across the highway I ceased to growl and found curiosity getting the better of my temper. Expectancy, after all, is the eheerfullest tonic of life, and when the time comes when I can see the whole of a day's programme from my breakfast-table I shall be ready for man's last ad- venture. I smoothed my gloves and fumbled my tie as the bays trotted briskly along the lake shore. The Chicago express whistled for Annandale Just as we gained the edge of the village. It paused a grudging moment and was gone before we reached the station. I jumped out and ran through the waiting-room to the platform, where the agent was gathering up the mail-bags, while an as- sistant loaded a truck with trunks. I glanced about, and the moment was an important one in my life. Standing 6 EOSALIND AT EBD GATE quite alone beside several pieces of hand-baggage was a lady — ^unmistakably a lady — leaning lightly upon an umbrella, and holding under her arm a magazine. She was clad in brown, from bonnet to shoes ; the umbrella and magazine cover were of like tint, and even the suit- case nearest her struck the same note of color. There was no doubt whatever as to her identity ; I did not hesitate a moment ; the lady in brown was Miss Holbrook, and she was an old lady, a dear, bewitching old lady, and as I stepped toward her, her eyes brightened — they, too, were brown! — and she put out her brown-gloved hand with a gesture so frank and cordial that I was won at once. "Mr. Donovan — Mr. Laurance Donovan — I am sure of it!" "Miss Holbrook — I am equally confident!" I said. "I am sorry to be late, but Father Stoddard's message was delayed." "You are kind to respond at all," she said, her won- derful eyes upon me; "but Father Stoddard said you would not fail me." "He is a man of great faith! But I have a trap waiting. We can talk more comfortably at St. Aga- tha's." A TELEGEAM 7 "Yes; we are to go to the school. Father Stoddard kindly arranged it. It is quite secluded, he assured me." "You will not be disappointed, Miss Holbrook, if se- clusion is what you seek." I picked up the brown bag and turned away, but she waited and glanced about. Her "we" had puzzled me; perhaps she had brought a maid, and I followed her glance toward the window of the telegraph office. "Oh, Helen ; my niece, Helen Holbrook, is with me. I wished to wire some instructions to my housekeeper at home. Father Stoddard may not have explained — that it is partly on Helen's account that I am coming here." "N"o; he explained nothing — ^merely gave me my in- structions," I laughed. "He gives orders in a most militant fashion." In a moment I had been presented to the niece, and had noted that she was considerably above her aunt's height; that she was dark, with eyes that seemed quite black in certain lights, and that she bowed, as her aunt presented me, without offering her hand, and murmured my name in a voice musical, deep and full, and agree- able to hear. She took their cheeks from her purse, and I called the porter and arranged for the transfer of their luggage 8 EOSALIND AT EED GATE to St. Agatha's. We were soon in the trap with the bays carrying us at a lively clip along the lake road. It was all perfectly new to them and they expressed their delight in the freshness of the young foliage; the billow- ing fields of ripening wheat, the wild rose, blackberry and elderberry filling the angles of the stake-and-rider fences, and the flashing waters of the lake that carried the eye to distant wooded shores. I turned in my seat by the driver to answer their questions. "There's a summer resort somewhere on the lake; how far is that from the school ?" asked the girl. "That's Port Annandale. If s two or three miles from St. Agatha's," I replied. "On this side and all the way to the school there are farms. The lake looks like an oval pond as we see it here, but there are several long arms that creep off into the woods, and there's another lake of considerable size to the north. Port Annandale lies yonder." "Of course we shall see nothing of it," said the younger Miss Holbrook with finality. I sought in vain for any resemblance between the two women ; they were utterly unlike. The little brown lady was interested and responsive enough; she turned toward her niece with undisguised affection as we talked. A TELEGEAM 9 but I caught several times a look of imhappiness in her face, and the brow that Time had not touched gathered in lines of anxiety and care. The girl's manner toward her aunt was whoUy kind and sympathetic. "I'm sure it will be delightful here, Aunt Pat. Wild roses and blue water ! I'm quite in love with the pretty lake already." This was my first introduction to the diminutive of Patricia, and it seemed very fitting, and as delightful as the dear little woman herself. She must have caught my smile as the niece so addressed her for the first time and she smiled back at me in her charming fashion. "You are an Irishman, Mr. Donovan, and Pat must sound natural." "Oh, all who love Aunt Patricia call her Aunt Pat !" exclaimed the girl. "Then Miss Holbrook undoubtedly hears it often," said I, and was at once sorry for my bit of blarney, for the tears shone suddenly in the dear brown eyes, and the niece recurred to the summer landscape as a topic, and talked of the Glenarm place, whose stone wall we were now passing, imtil we drove into the grounds of St. Agatha's and up to the main entrance of the school. 10 EOSALIND AT EED GATE where a Sister in the brown garb of her order stood waiting. I first introduced myself to Sister Margaret, who was in charge, and then presented the two ladies who were to be her guests. It was disclosed that Sister Theresa, the head of the school, had wired instructions from York Harbor, where she was spending the summer, touching Miss Holbrook's reception, and her own rooms were at the disposal of the guests. St. Agatha's is, as all who are attentive to such matters know, a famous girls' school founded by Sister Theresa, and one felt its quality in the appointments of the pretty, cool parlor where we were received. Sister Margaret said just the right thing to every one, and I was glad to find her so capable a person, fully able to care for these exiles with- out aid from my side of the wall. She was a tall, fair young woman, with a cheerful countenance, and her merry eyes seemed always to be laughing at one from the depths of her brown hood. Pleasantly hospitable, she rang for a maid. "Helen, if you will see our things disposed of I will detain Mr. Donovan a few minutes," said Miss Hol- brook. "Or I can come again in an hour — I am your near A TELEGEAM 11 neighbor," I remarked, thinking she might wish to rest from her journey. "I am quite ready," she replied, and I howed to Helen Holbrook and to Sister Margaret, who went out, fol- lowed by the maid. Miss Pat — ^you will pardon me if I begin at once to call her by this name, but it fits her so capitally, it is so much a part of her, that I can not resist — Miss Pat put ofE her bonnet without fuss, placed it on the table and sat down in a window-seat whence the nearer shore of the lake was visible across the strip of smooth lawn. "Father Stoddard thought it best that I should ex- plain the necessity that brings us here," she began; "but the place is so quiet that it seems absurd to think that our troubles could follow us." I bowed. The idea of this little woman's being driven into exile by any sort of trouble seemed preposterous. She drew off her gloves and leaned back comfortably against the bright pillows of the window-seat. "Watch the hands of the guest in the tent," runs the Arabian proverb. Miss Pat's hands seemed to steal appealingly out of her snowy cuffs ; there was no age in them. The breeding showed there as truly as in her eyes and face. On the third finger of her left hand she wore a singu- 13 EOSALIND AT RED GATE laxly fine emerald, set in an oddly carved ring of Roman gold. "Will you please close the door ?" she said, and when I came back to the window she began at once. "It is not pleasant, as you must understand, to ex- plain to a stranger an intimate and painful family trou- ble. But Father Stoddard advised me to be quite frank with you." "That is the best way, if there is a possibility that I may be of service," I said in the gentlest tone I could command. "But tell me no more than you wish. I am wholly at your service without explanations." "It is in reference to my brother; he has caused me a great deal of trouble. When my father died nearly ten years ago — ^he lived to a great age — ^he left a con- siderable estate, a large fortune. A part of it was di- vided at once among my two brothers and myself. The remainder, amounting to one million dollars, was left to me,' with the stipulation that I was to make a fur- ther division between my brothers at the end of ten years, or at my discretion. I was older than my brothers, much older, and my father left me with this responsi- bility, not knowing what it would lead to. Henry and Arthur succeeded to my father's business, the banking A TELEGEAM 13 flnn of Holbrook Brothers^ in Xew YorL The bank continued to prosper for a time; then it collapsed sud- denly. The debts were all paid, but Arthtir disappeared — ^there were unpleasant rumors — "' She paused a moment, and looked out of the window toward the lake, and I saw her clasped hands tighten; but she went on bravely. "That was seven years ago. Since then Henry has insisted on the final division of the property. My father had a high sense of honor and he stipulated that if either of his sons should be guilty of any dishonorable act he should forfeit his half of the million dollars. Henry insists that Arthur has forfeited his rights and that the amount withheld should be paid to him now; but his conduct has been such that I feel I should serve him ill to pay him so large a sum of money. Moreover, I owe something to his daughter — to Helen. Owing to her father's reckless life I have had her make her home with me for several years. She is a noble girl, and very beautiful — you must have seen, Mr. Donovan, that she is an unusually beautiful girl." 'TTes," I assented. "And better than that," she said with feeling, "she is a very lovely character." 14 : ROSALIND AT RED GATE ^ I nodded, touched to see how completely Helen Hol- brook filled and satisfied her aunt's life. Miss Pat con- tinued her story. "My brother first sought to frighten me into a settle- ment by menacing my own peace; and now he includes Helen in his animosity. My house at Stamford was set on fire a month ago; then thieves entered it and I was obliged to leave. We arranged to go abroad, but when we got to the steamer we found Henry waiting with a threat to follow us if I did not accede to his demands. It was Father Stoddard who suggested this place, and we came by a circuitous route, pausing here and there to see whether we were followed. We were in the Adi- rondaeks for a week, then we went into Canada, crossed the lake to Cleveland and finally came on here. You can imagine how distressing — ^how wretched all this has been." , "Yes ; it is a sad story. Miss Holbrook. But you are not likely to be molested here. You have a lake on one side, a high wall shuts ofE the road, and I beg you to accept me as your near neighbor and protector. The servants at Mr. Glenarm's house have been with him for several years and are undoubtedly trustworthy. It is not likely that your brother will find you here, but if A TELEGEAM 15 he should — we will deal with that situation when the time comes!" "You are very reassuring ; no doubt we shall not need to call on you. And I hope you understand," she contin- ued anxiously, "that it is not to keep the money that I wish to avoid my brother; that if it were wise to make this further division at this time and it were for his good, I should be glad to give him all — every penny of it." "Pardon me, but the other brother — ^he has not made similar demands — you do not fear him?" I inquired with some hesitation. "No — no !" And a tremulous smile played about her lips. "Poor Arthur! He must be dead. He ran away after the bank failure and I have never heard from him since. He and Henry were very unlike, and I always felt more closely attached to Arthur. He was not bril- liant, like Henry ; he was gentle and quiet in his ways, and father was often impatient with him. Henry has been very bitter toward Arthur and has appealed to me on the score of Arthur's ill-doing. It took all his own fortune, he says, to save Arthur and the family name from dishonor." She was remarkably composed throughout this recital. 16 EOSALIND AT EED GATE and I marveled at her more and more. Now, after a moment's silence, she turned to me with a smile. "We have been annoyed in another way. It is so ridiculous that I hesitate to tell you of it — " "Pray do not — ^you need tell me nothing more. Miss Holbrook." "It is best for you to know. My niece has been an- noyed the past year by the attentions of a young man whom she greatly dislikes and whose persistence dis- tresses her very much indeed." "Well, he can hardly find her here; and if he should — " Miss Holbrook folded her arms upon her knees and smiled, bending toward me. The loveliness of her hair, which she wore parted and brushed back at the temples, struck me for the first time. The brown — I was sure it had been brown! — ^had yielded to white — ^there was no gray about it ; it was the soft white of summer clouds. "Oh !" she exclaimed ; "he isn't a violent person, Mr. Donovan. He's silly, absurd, idiotic ! You need fear no violence from him." "And of course your niece is not interested — ^he's not a fellow to appeal to her imagination." "That is quite true; and then in our present un- A TELEGEAil 17 happy eircTimstaiices, with her father hanging over her like a menace, marriage is far from her thoughts. She feels that even if she were attached to a man and wished to marry, she could not. I wish she did not feel so; I should be glad to see her married and settled in her own home. These difficulties can not last always; but while they continue we are practically exiles. Helen has taken it all splendidly, and her loyalty to me is beyond any- thing I could ask. If s a very dreaxiful thing, as you can understand, for brother and sister and father and child to be arrayed against one another." I wished to guide the talk into cheerfuUer channels before leaving. Miss Pat seemed amused by the thought of the unwelcome suitor, and I determined to leave her with some word in reference to him. "If a strange knight in quest of a lady comes riding through the wood, how shall I know him ? What valor- ous words axe written on his shield, and does he carry a lance or a suit-case ?" '\Ee is the Knight of the Sorrowful Countenance," said Miss Holbrook in my own key, as she rose. "You would know him anywhere by his clothes and the re- markable language he uses. He is not to be taken very seriously — that's the trouble with him ! But I have been 18 EOSALIND AT EED GATE afraid that he and my brother might join hands in the pursuit of us." "But the Sorrowful Knight would not advance his interests by that — ^he could only injure his cause!" I exclaimed. "Oh, he has no subtlety; he's a very foolish person; he blunders at windmills with quixotic ardor. You un- derstand, of course, that our troubles are not known widely. We used to be a family of some dignity," — and Miss Patricia drew herself up a trifle and looked me straight in the eyes — "and I hope still for happier years." "Won't you please say good night to Miss Holbrook for me ?" I said, my hand on the door. And then an odd thing happened. I was about to take my departure through the front hall when I remembered a short cut to the Glenarm gate from the rear of the school. I walked the length of the parlor to a door that would, I knew, give ready exit to the open. I bowed to Miss Pat, who stood erect, serene, adorable, in the room that was now touched with the first shadows of waning day, and her slight figure was so eloquent of pathos, her smile so brave, that I bowed again, with a reverence I already felt for her. A TELEGRAM 19 Then as I flung the door open and stepped into the hall I heard the soft swish of skirts, a light furtive step, and caught a glimpse — or could have sworn I did — of white. There was only one Sister in the house, and a few servants; it seemed incredible that they could be eavesdropping upon this guest of the house. I crossed a narrow hall, found the rear door, and passed out into the park. Something prompted me to turn when I had taken a dozen steps toward the Glenarm gate. The vines on the gray stone buildings were cool to the eye with their green that hung like a tapestry from eaves to earth. And suddenly, as though she came out of the ivied wall itself, Helen Holbrook appeared on the little balcony opening from one of the first-floor rooms, rested the tips of her fingers on the green vine-clasped rail, and, seeing me, bowed and smiled. She was gowned in white, with a scarlet ribbon at her throat, and the green wall vividly accented and heightened her outline. I stood, staring like a fool for what seemed a century of heart-beats as she flashed forth there, out of what seemed a sheer depth of ma- sonry; then she turned her head slightly, as though in disdain of me, and looked off toward the lake. I had uncovered at sight of her, and found, when I gained 20 EOSALIND AT EED GATE the broad hall at Glenarm House, that I still carried my hat. An hour later, as I dined in solitary state, that white figure was still present before me; and I could not help wondering, though the thought angered me, whether that graceful head had been bent against the closed door of the parlor at St. Agatha's, and (if such were the fact) why Helen Holbrook, who clearly en- joyed the full confidence of her aunt, should have stooped to such a trick to learn what Miss Patricia said to me. CHAPTEE n COXFIDZXCES When Spring grows old, and sleepy winds Set from the Sonth with odors sweet, I see my lave in green, cool groves. Speed down dosk aisles on shining feet She throws a kiss and bids me run. In whispers sweet as roses' breath; I know I can not win the race. And at the end I know is death. O race of love! we all have run Thy happy course through groves of spring. And cared not, when at last we lost, For life, or death, or anything! — Atalanta: Maurice Thompson. Miss Patricia received me the following afternoon on the lawn at St. Agatha's where, in a cool angle of the hnildings, a maid was laying the cloth on a small table. 'T.t is good of yon to come. Helen will be here pres- ently. She went for a walk on the shore." 'Ton must both of you make free of the Glenarm preserve. Don't consider the wall over there a barricade ; 31 33 EOSALIND AT EED GATE it's merely to add to the picturesqueness of the land- scape." Miss Patricia was quite rested from her journey, and expressed her pleasure in the beauty and peace of the place in frank and cordial terms. And to-day I sus- pected, what later I fully belieTed, that she affected certain old-fashioned ways in a purely whimsical spirit. Her heart was young enough, but she liked to play at being old! Sister Theresa's own apartments had been placed at her disposal, and the house. Miss Patricia de- clared, was delightfully cool, "I could ask nothing better than this. Sister Mar- garet is most kind in every way. Helen and I have had a peaceful twenty-four hours — the first in two years — and I feel that at last we have found safe harborage." "East assured of it. Miss Holbrook! The summev colony is away off there and you need see nothing of it ; it is quite out of sight and sound. You have seen An- nandale — ^the sleepiest of American villages, with a curio shop and a candy and soda-fountain place and a picture post-card booth which the young ladies of St. Agatha's patronize extensively when they are here. The summer residents are just beginning to arrive on their shore, but they will not molest you. If they try to land CONFIDENCES 23 over here we'll train our guns on tliem and blow them out of the water. As your neighbor beyond the iron gate of Glenarm I beg that you will look upon me as your man-at-arms. My sword, Madam, I lay at your feet." "Sheathe it. Sir Laurance ; nor draw it save in honor- able cause," she returned on the instant, and then she was grave again. "Sister Margaret is most kind in every way ; she seems wholly discreet, and has assured me of her interest and sympathy," said Miss Patricia, as though she wished me to confirm her own impression. "There's no manner of doubt of it. She is Sister Theresa's assistant. It is inconceivable that she could possibly interfere in your affairs. I believe you are per- fectly safe here in every way. Miss Holbrook. If at the end of a week your brother has made no sign, we shall be reasonably certain that he has lost the trail." "I believe that is true ; and I thank you very much." I had come prepared to be disillusioned, to find her charm gone, but her small figure had even an added dis- tinction; her ways, her manner an added grace. I found myself resisting the temptation to call her quaint, as implying too much; yet I felt that in some olden 34 EOSALIND AT EED GATE time, on some noble estate in England, or, better, in some storied colonial mansion in Virginia, she must have had her home in years long gone, living on with no increase of age to this present. She was her own law, I judged, in the matter of fashion. I observed later a certain uniformity in the cut of her gowns, as though, at some period, she had found a type wholly comfort- able and to her liking and thereafter had clung to it. She suggested peace and gentleness and a beautiful patience; and I strove to say amusing things, that I might enjoy her rare luminous smile and catch her eyes when she gave me her direct gaze in the quick, challeng- ing way that marked her as a woman of position and ex- perience, who had been more given to command than to obey. "Did you think I was never coming, Aunt Pat ? That shore-path calls for more strenuous effort than I im- agined, and I had to change my gown again." Helen Holbrook advanced quickly and stood by her aunt's chair, nodding to me smilingly, and while we ex- changed the commonplaces of the day, she caught up Miss Pat's hand and held it a moment caressingly. The maid now brought the tea. Miss Pat poured it and the talk went forward cheerily. CONFIDENCES 25 The girl was in white, and at the end of a curved bench, with a variety of colored cushions about her and the bright sward and tranquil lake beyond, she made a picture wholly agreeable to my eyes. Her hair was dead black, and I saw for the first time that its smooth line on her brow was broken by one of those curious, rare little points called widow's peak. They are not com- mon, nor, to be sure, are they important ; yet it seemed somehow to add interest to her graceful pretty head. It was quite clear in a moment that Helen was bent on treating me rather more amiably than on the day be- fore, while at the same time showing her aunt every deference. I was relieved to find them both able to pitch their talk in a light key. The thought of sitting daily and drearily discussing their troubles with two exUed women had given me a dark moment at the station the day before; but we were now having tea in the cheer- fullest fashion in the world; and, as for their difBcul- ties, I had no idea whatever that they would be molested so long as they remained quietly at Annandale. Miss Pat and her niece were not the hysterical sort ; both ap- parently enjoyed sound health, and they were not the kind of women who see ghosts in every alcove and go to bed to escape the lightning. 26 EOSALIND AT EED GATE "Oh, Mr. Donovan," said Helen Holbrook, as I put down her cup, "there are some letters I should like to write and I wish you would tell me whether it is safe to have letters come for us to Annandale; or would it be better to send nothing from here at all? It does seem odd to have to ask such a question — " and she con- cluded in a tone of distress and looked at me appeal- ingly. "We must take no risks whatever, Helen," remarked Miss Pat decisively. "Does no one know where you are?" I inquired of Miss Patricia. "My lawyer, in New York, has the name of this place, sealed ; and he put it away in a safety box and promised not to open it unless something of very great importance happened." "It is best to take no chances," I said ; "so I should answer your question in the negative. Miss Holbrook. In the course of a few weeks everything may seem much clearer; and in the meantime it will be wiser not to communicate with the outer world." "They deliver mail through the country here, don't they ?" asked Helen. "It must be a great luxury for the farmers to have the post-ofSce at their very doors." We must take no risks whatever, Helen." Page 26 CONFIDENCES 27 "Yes, but the school and Mr. Glenarm always send for their own mail to Annandale." "Our mail is all going to my lawyer," said Miss Pat, "and it must wait until we can have it sent to us with- out danger." "Certainly, Aunt Pat," replied Helen readily. "I didn't mean to give Mr. Donovan the impression that my correspondence was enormous; but it is odd to be shut up in this way and not to be able to do as one likes in such little matters." The wind blew in keenly from the lake as the sun declined and Helen went unasked and brought an India shawl and put it about Miss Pat's shoulders. The girl's thoughtfulness for her aunt's comfort pleased me, and I found myself liking her better. It was time for me to leave and I picked up my hat and stick. As I started away I was aware that Helen Holbrook detained me without in the least appearing to do so, following a few steps to gain, as she said, a certain view of the lake that was particularly charming. "There is nothing rugged in this landscape, but it is delightful in its very tranquillity," she said, as we loitered on, the shimmering lake before us, the wood be- hind ablaze with the splendor of the sun. She spoke of 28 EOSALIND AT EED GATE the beauty of the beeches, which are of noble girth in this region, and paused to indicate a group of them whose smooth trunks were like massive pillars. As we looked back I saw that Miss Pat had gone into the house, driven no doubt by the persistency of the west wind that crisped the lake. Helen's manner changed abruptly, and she said: "If any difficulty should arise here, if my poor father should find out where we are, I trust that you may be able to save my aunt anxiety and pain. That is what I wished to say to you, Mr. Donovan." "Certainly," I replied, meeting her eyes, and noting a quiver of the lips that was eloquent of deep feeling and loyalty. She continued beside me, her head erect as though by a supreme efEort of self-control, and with I knew not what emotions shaking her heart. She con- tinued silent as we marched on and I felt that there was the least defiance in her air; then she drew a hand- kerchief from her sleeve, touched it lightly to her eyes, and smiled. "I had not thought of quite following you home! Here is GJenarm gate — and there lie your battlements and towers." "Eather they belong to my old friend, John Glenarm. COXFIDEXCES 29 In his goodness of heart he gave me the use of tiie place for the STiTTiTner; and as generosity with another's prop- erty is very easy, I hereby tender yon onr fleet — canoes, boats, steam lannch — and the stable, ■which contains a variety of traps and a good riding-horse or twa They are all at your serdee. I hope that yon and yonr annt will not fail to avail yonrselves of each and all. Do yon ride? I was specially charged to give the horses exer- cise."' "Thank yon very mneh," she said. 'T^en we are well settled, and feel more secnre, we shall be glad to call on yon. Father Stoddard certainly served ns weU in sending ns to yon, Mr. Donovan." In a moment she spoke again, qnite slowly, and with, I thonght, a very pretty embarrassment. "Annt Pat may have spoken of another diffienlty — a mere annoyance, really," and she smiled at me gravely. "Oh, yes; of the youngster who has been troubling you. Tour father and he have, of course, no connectioiL"' '•^o; decidedly not. But he is a very offensive per- son, Mr. Donovan. It would be a matter of great dis- tress to me if he should pursue ns to this place." ■■'It is inconceivable that a gentleman — if he is a gen- tleman — should follow you merely for the purpose of 30 KOSALIND AT EED GATE annoying you. I have heard that young ladies usually know how to get rid of importunate suitors." "I have heard that they have that reputation," she laughed back. "But Mr. Gillespie — " "Thaf s the name, is it ? Your aunt did not mention it." 'TTes; he lives quite near us at Stamford. Aunt Pat disliked his father before him, and now that he is dead she visits her displeasure on the son; but she is quite right about it. He is a singularly unattractive and un- interesting person, and I trust that he will not find us." "That is quite unlikely. Tou will do well to forget all about him — ^forget all your troubles and enjoy the beauty of these June days." We had reached Glenarm gate, and St. Agatha's was now hidden by the foliage along the winding path. I was annoyed to realize how much I enjoyed this idling. I felt my pulse quicken when our eyes met. Her dark oval face was beautiful with the loveliness of noble Italian women I had seen on great occasions in Eome. I had not known that hair could be so black, and it was fine and soft; the widow's peak was as sharply defined on her smooth forehead as though done with crayon. Dark women should always wear white, I reflected, as CONFIDENCES 31 she paused and lifted her head to listen to the chime in the tower of the little Gothic chapel — a miniature affair that stood by the wall — a chime that flung its melody on the soft summer air like a handful of rose-leaves. She picked up a twig and broke it in her fingers ; and look- ing down I saw that she wore on her left hand an emer- ald ring identical with the one worn by her aunt. It was so like that I should have believed it the same, had I not noted Miss Pat's ring but a few minutes before. Helen threw away the bits of twig when we came to the wall, and, as I swung the gate open, paused mockingly with clasped hands and peered inside. "I must go back," she said. Then, her manner chang- ing, she dropped her hands at her side and faced me. "You will warn me, Mr. Donovan, of the first ap- proach of trouble. I wish to save my aunt in every way possible — she means so much to me; she has made life easy for me where it would have been hard." "There will be no trouble. Miss Holbrook. You are as safe as though you were hidden in a cave in the Apennines; but I shall give you warning at the first sign of danger." "My father is — is quite relentless," she murmured, averting her eyes. 33 EOSALIXD AT EED GATE I turned to retrace the path with her; but she for- bade me and was gone swiftly — a flash of white through the trees — ^before I could parley with her. I stared after her as long as I could hear her light tread in the path. And when she had vanished a feeling of loneliness pos- sessed me and the country quiet mocked me with its peace. I clanged the Glenarm gates together sharply and went in to dinner ; but I pondered long as I smoked on the stax-hung terrace. Through the wood directly be- fore me I saw lights flash from the small craft of the lake, and the sharp tum-tum of a naphtha launch rang upon the summer night. Insects made a blur of sound in the dark and the chant of the katydids rose and fell monotonously. I flung away a half -smoked cigar and lighted my pipe. There was no disguising the truth that the coming of the Holbrooks had got on my nerves — at least that was my phrase for it. Xow that I thought of it, they were impudent intruders and Paul Stoddard had gone too far in turning them over to me. There was nothing in their story, anyhow ; it was preposterous, and I resolved to let them severely alone. But even as these thoughts ran through my mind I turned toward St Agatha's, CONFIDENCES 33 whose lights were visible through the trees, and I knew that there was nothiag honest in my impatience. Helen Holbrook's eyes were upon me and her voice called from the dark ; and when the clock chimed nine in the tower beyond the wall memory brought back the graceful turn of her dark head, the firm curve of her throat as she had listened to the mellow fling of the beUs. And here, for the better instruction of those friends who amuse themselves with the idea that I am unusu- ally susceptible, as they say, to the charms of woman, I beg my reader's indulgence while I state, quite honestly, the flimsy basis of this charge. Once, in my twentieth year, while 1 was still an undergraduate at Trinity, Dublin, I went to the Killamey Lakes for a week's end. My host — a fellow student — ^had taken me home to see his horses; but it was not his stable, but his blue- eyed sister, that captivated my fancy. I had not known that anything could be so beautiful as she was, and I feel and shall always feel that it was greatly to my credit that I fell madly in love with her. Our affair was fast and furious, and lamentably detrimental to my standing at Trinity. I wrote some pretty bad verses in her praise, and I am not in the least ashamed of that weakness, or that the best florist in Ireland prospered at 34 ROSALIND AT EBD GATE the expense of my tailor and laundress. It lasted a year, and to say that it was like a beautiful dream is merely to betray my poor command of language. The end, too, was fitting enough, and not without its compensations : I kissed her one night — she will not, I am sure, be- grudge me the confession ; it was a moonlight night in May; and thereafter within two months she married a Belfast brewer's son who could not have rhymed eyes with skies to save his malted soul. Embittered by this experience I kept out of trouble for two years, and my next affair was with a widow, two years my senior, whom I met at a house in Scotland where I was staying for the shooting. She was a bit mournful, and lavender became her well. I forgot the grouse after my first day, and gave myself up to consol- ing her. She had, as no other woman I have known has had, a genius — it was nothing less — for graceful atti- tudes. To surprise her before an open fire, her prettily curved chin resting on her pink little palm, her eyes bright with lurking tears, and to see her lips twitch with the effort to restrain a sob when one came sud- denly upon her — ^but the picture is not for my clumsy hand ! I have never known whether she suffered me to make love to her merely as a distraction, or whether she CONFIDENCES 35 was briefly amused by my ardor and entertained by the new phrases of adoration I contrived for her. I loved her quite sincerely; I am glad to have experienced the tumult she stirred in me — glad that the folding of her little hands upon her knees, as she bent toward the lighted hearth in that old Scotch manor, and her low, murmuring, mournful voice, made my heart jump. I told her — and recall it without shame — ^that her eyes were adorable islands aswim in brimming seas, and that her hands were fluttering white doves of peace. I found that I could maintain that sort of thing without much trouble for an hour at a time. I did not know it was the last good-by when I packed my bags and gun-cases and left one frosty morning. I regret nothing, but am glad it all happened just so. Her marriage to a clergyman in the Establishment — a duke's second son in holy orders who enjoyed consider- able reputation as a cricketer — followed quickly, and I have never seen her since. I wa.s in love with that girl for at least a month. It did me no harm, and I think: she liked it herself. I next went down before the slang of an American girl with teasing eyes and ama3ing skill at tennis, whom I met at Oxford when she was a student in Lady Mar- 36 EOSALIND AT RED GATE garet. Her name was Iris and she was possessed by the spirit of Mischief. If you know aught of the English, you know that the average peaches-and-cream English girl is not, to put it squarely, exciting. Iris understood this perfectly and delighted in. doing things no girl had ever done before in that venerable town. She lived at home — her family had taken a house out beyond Mag- dalen; and she went to and from the classic haUs of Lady Margaret in a dog-cart, sometimes with a groom, sometimes without. When alone she dashed through the High at a gait which caused sedate matrons to stare and sober-minded fellows of the university to swear, and admiring undergraduates to chuckle with deUght. I had gone to Oxford to consult a certain book in the Bodleian — a day's business only; but it fell about that in the post-o£Bee, where I had gone on an errand, I came upon Iris struggling for a cable-blank, and found one for her. As she stood at the receiving counter, im- patiently waiting to file her message, she remarked, for the benefit, I believed, of a gaitered bishop at her el- bow: "How perfectly rotten this place is !" — and winked at me. She was seventeen, and I was old enough to know better, but we had some talk, and the next day she bowed to me in front of St. Mary's and, the day after. CONFIDENCES 37 picked me up out near Keble and drove me all over town, and past Lady Margaret, and dropped me quite boldly at the door of the Mitre. Shameful! It was; but at the end of a week I knew all her family, includ- ing her father, who was bored to death, and her mother, who had thought it a fine thing to move from Zanes- ville, Ohio, to live in a noble old academic center like Oxford — that was what too much home-study and liter- ary club had done for her. Iris kept the cables hot with orders for clothes, cara- mels and shoes, while I lingered and hung upon her lightest slang and encouraged her in the idea that edu- cation in her case was a sinful waste of time; and I comforted her father for the loss of his native buck- wheat cakes and consoled her mother, who found that seven of the perfect English servants of the story-books did less than the three she had maintained at Zanes- ville. I lingered in Oxford two months, and helped them get out of town when Iris was dropped from college for telling the principal that the Zanesville High School had Lady Margaret over the ropes for general educa- tional efficiency, and that, moreover, she would not go to the Established Church because the litany bored her. Whereupon — their dependence on me having steadily in- 38 ItOSALIND AT EED GATE creased — I got them out of Oxford and over to Dresden, and Iris and I became engaged. Then I went to Ireland on a matter of business, made an incendiary speech in Galway, smashed a couple of policemen and landed in jail. Before my father, with, I fear, some reluctance, bailed me out. Iris had eloped with a lieutenant in the German army and her family had gone sadly back to Zanesville. This is the truth, and the whole truth, and I plead guilty to every count of the indictment. Thereafter my pulses cooled and I sought the peace of jungles; and the eyes of woman charmed me no more. When I landed at Annandale and opened my portfolio to write Russian Rivers my last affair was half a dozen years be- hind me. Sobered by these reflections, I left the terrace shortly after eleven and walked through the strip of wood that lay between the house and the lake to the Glenarm pier ; and at once matters took a turn that put the love of woman quite out of the reckoning. CHAPTEE III I MEET ME, EEGINALD GILLESPIE There was a man in our town. And lie was wondrous wise, iHe jnmp'd into a bramble-bush. And scratch'd out both his eyes; But when he saw his eyes were out. With all his might and main He jump'd Into another bush. And scratch'd them in again. —Old Ballad. As I neared the boat-house I saw a dark figure sprawled on the veranda and my Japanese bov spoke to me softly. The moon was at full and I drew up in the shadow of the house and waited. Ijima had been with me for several years and was a boy of unusual intelli- gence. He spoke both English and French admirably, was deft of hand and wise of mind, and I was greatly attached to him. His courage, fidelity and discretion I had tested more than once. He lay quite stiU on the pier, gazing out upon the lake, and I knew that some- thing unusual had attracted his attention. He spoke to me in a moment, but without turning his head. 39 40 EOSALIND AT EED GATE "A man has been rowing up and down the shore for an hour. When he came in close here I asked him what he wanted and he rowed away without answering. He is now off there by the school." "Probably a summer boarder from across the lake." "Hardly^ sir. He came from the direction of the vil- lage and acts queerly." I flung myself down on the pier and crawled out to where Ijima lay. Every pier on the lake had its distinc- tive lights; the Glenarm sea-mark was — and remains — red, white and green. We lay by the post that bore the three lanterns, and watched the slow movement of a rowboat along the margin of the school grounds. The boat was about a thousand yards from us ia a straight line, though farther by the shore; but the moonlight threw the oarsman and his craft into sharp relief against the overhanging bank. St. Agatha's maintains a boat- house for the use of students, and the pier lights — ^red, white and red — lay beyond the boatman, and he seemed to be drawing slowly toward them. The fussy little steamers that run the errands of the cottagers had made their last rounds and sought their berths for the night, and the lake lay still in the white bath of light. "Drop one of the canoes into the water," I said ; and I MEET GILLESPIE 41 I watched the prowling boatman while Ijima crept back to the boat-house. The canoe was launched silently and the boy drove it out to me with a few light strokes. I took the paddle, and we crept close along the shore to- ward the St. Agatha light, my eyes intent on the boat, which was now drawing in to the school pier. The prowler was feeling his way carefully, as though the region were unfamiliar; but he now landed at the pier and tied his boat. I hung back in the shadows until he had disappeared up the bank, then paddled to the pier, told Ijima to wait, and set off through the wood-path toward St. Agatha's. Where the wood gave way to the broad lawn that stretched up to the school buildings I caught sight of my quarry. He was strolling along under the beeches to the right of me, and I paused about a hundred feet behind him to watch events. He was a young feUow, not above average height, but compactly built, and stood with his hands thrust boyishly in his pockets, gazing about with frank interest in his surroundings. He was bareheaded and coatless, and his shirt-sleeves were rolled to the elbow. He walked slowly along the edge of the wood, looking off toward the school buildings, and while his manner was furtive there was, too, an air of 43 EOSALIND AT EED GATE Tinconeern about him and I heard him whistling softly to himself. He now withdrew into the wood and started off with the apparent intention of gaining a view of St. Agatha's from the front, and I followed. He seemed harmless enough ; he might be a curious pilgrim from the summer resort ; but I was just now the guardian of St. Agatha's and I intended to learn the stranger's business before I had done with him. He swung well around toward the driveway, threading the flower garden, but hanging al- ways close under the trees, and the mournful whistle would have guided me had not the moon made his every movement perfectly clear. He reached the driveway leading in from the Annandale road without having disclosed any purpose other than that of viewing the vine-clad walls with a tourist's idle interest. The situa- tion had begun to bore me, when the school gardener came running out of the shrubbery, and instantly the young man took to his heels. "Stop ! Stop !" yelled the gardener. The mysterious young man plunged into the wood and was off like the wind. "After him, Andy! After him!" I yelled to the Scotchman. I MEET GILLESPIE 43 I shouted my own name to reassure him and we both went thumping through the beeches. The stranger would undoubtedly seek to get back to his boat, I rea- soned, but he was now headed for the outer wall, and as the wood was free of underbrush he was sprinting away from us at a lively gait. Whoever the young gentleman was, he had no intention of being caught; he darted in and out among the trees with astounding lightness, and I saw in a moment that he was slowly turning away to the right. "Eun for the gate!" I called to the gardener, who was about twenty feet away from me, blowing hard. I prepared to gain on the turn if the young fellow dashed for the lake ; and he now led me a pretty chase through the flower garden. He ran with head up and elbows close at his sides, and his light boat shoes made scarcely any sound. He turned once and looked back and, find- ing that I was alone, began amusing himself with feints and dodges, for no other purpose, I fancied, than to per- plex or wind me. There was a little summer-house mid- way of the garden, and he led me round this till my head swam. By this time I had grown pretty angry, for a foot-race in a school garden struck me with disgust as a childish enterprise, and I bent with new spirit and a EOSALIITD AT BED GATE drove him away from Ms giddy circling about the sum- mer-hoTise and beyond the onlv gate by -(rhieh he conld regain the wood and meadow that lay betwerai the gar- den and his boat. He turned his head from side to side nneasily, slackening his pace to study the bounds of the garden, and I felt myself gaining. Ahead of us lay a white picket fence that set off the vegetable garden and marked the lawful bounds of the school. There was no gate and I felt that here the chase must end, and I rejoiced to find myself so near the runner that I heard the quick, soft patter of his shoes on the walk. In a moment I was quite sure that I should have him by the collax, and I had every intentian of dealing severely with him for the hard chase he had given me. But he kept on, the white line of fence clearly out- lined beyond him ; and then when my hand was almost upon him he rose at the fence, as though sprung from the earth itself, and hung a moment sheer above the sharp line of the fence pickets, his whole figure held almost horizontal, in the fashion of trained high- jump- ers, for what seemed an infinite time, as though by some witchery of the moonlight. I plunged into the fence with a force that knocked I MEET GILLESPIE 45 the wind out of me and as I clung panting to the pickets the ninner dropped with a crash into the midst of a glass vegetable frame on the farther side. He turned his head, grinned at me sheepishly through the pickets, and gave a kick that set the glass to tinkling. Then he held up his hands in sign of surrender and I saw that they were cut and bleeding. We were both badly blown, and while we regained our wind we stared at each other. He was the first to speak. "Kicked, bit or stung !" he muttered dolefully ; "that saddest of all words, 'stung !' It's as clear as moonlight that I'm badly mussed, not to say cut." "May I trouble you not to kick out any more of that glass ? The gardener will be here in a minute and fish you out." "Lawsy, what is it? An aquarium, that you fish for me?" He chuckled softly, but sat perfectly quiet, finding, it seemed, a certain humor in his situation. The gardener came running up and swore in broad Scots at the destruction of the frame. We got over the fence and released our captive, who talked to himself in doleful undertones as we hauled him to his feet amid a renewed clink of glass. 46 EOSALIND AT EED GATE "Gently, gentlemen; behold the night-blooming cereus! Not all the court-plaster in the -universe can glue me together again." He gazed ruefully at his slashed arms, and rubbed his legs. "The next time I seek the garden at dewy eve I'll wear my tin suit." "There won't be any next time for you. What did you run for?" "Trying to lower my record — it's a mania with mo. And as one good question deserves another, may I ask why you didn't tell me there was a glass-works beyond that fence? It wasn't sportsmanlike to hide a murder- ous hazard like that. But I cleared those pickets with a yard to spare, and broke my record." "You broke about seven yards of glass," I replied. "It may sober you to know that you are under arrest. The watchman here has a constable's license." "He also has hair that suggests the common garden or boiled carrot. The tint is not to my liking; yet it is not for me to be captious where the Lord has hardened His heart." "What is your name?" I demanded. "Gillespie. E. Gillespie. The 'E' will indicate to you the depth of my humility : I make it a life work to hide the fact that I was baptized Eeginald." I MEET GILLESPIE 47 "I've been expecting you, Mr. Gillespie, and now I want you to come over to my house and give an accoimt of yourself. I will take charge of this man, Andy. I promise that he shan't set foot here again. And, Andy, you need mention this affair to no one." "Very good, sir." He touched his hat respectfully. "I have business with this person. Say nothing to the ladies at St. Agatha's about him." He saluted and departed ; and with Gillespie walking beside me I started for the boat-landing. He had wrapped a handkerchief about one arm and I gave him my own for the other. His right arm was bleeding freely below the elbow and I tied it up for him. "That jump deserved better luck," I volunteered, as he accepted my aid in silence. "I'm proud to have you like it. Will you kindly tell me who the devil you are ?" "My name is Donovan." "I don't wholly care for it," he observed mournfully. "Think it over and see if you can't do better. I'm not sure that I'm going to grow fond of you. What's your business with me, anyhow ?" 48 EOSALIND AT EED GATE "My business, Mr. Gillespie, is to see tliat you leave this lake by the first and fastest train." "Is it possible?" he drawled mockingly. "More than that," I replied in his own key; "it is decidedly probable." "Meanwhile, it would be diverting to know where you're taking me. I thought the other chap was the constable." "I'm taking you to the house of a friend where I'm visiting. I'm going to row you in your boat. It's only a short distance ; and when we get there I shall have some- thing to say to you." He made no reply, but got into the boat without ado. He found a light flannel coat and I flung it over his shoulders and pulled for Glenarm pier, telling the Japanese boy to follow with the canoe. I turned over ia my mind the few items of information that I had gained from Miss Pat and her niece touching the young man who was now my prisoner, and found that I knew little enough about him. He was the unwelcome and an- noying suitor of Miss Helen Holbrook, and I had caught him prowling about St. Agatha's in a manner that was indefensible. He sat huddled in the stem, nursing his swathed arms I MEET GILLESPIE 49 on his knees and whistling dolefuUy. The lake was a broad pool of silver. Save for the soft splash of Ijima's paddle behiad me and the slight wash of water on the near shore, silenee possessed the world. Gillespie looked about with some curiosity, but said nothing, and when I drove the boat to the Glenarm landing he crawled out and followed me through the wood without a word. I flashed on the lights in the library and after a short inspection of his wounds we went to my room and found sponges, plasters and ointments in the family medicine chest and cared for his injuries. "There's no honor in tumbling into a greenhouse, but such is E. Gillespie's luck. My shins look like scarlet fever, and without sound legs a man's better dead." "Your legs seem to have got you into trouble ; don't mourn the loss of them !" And I twisted a bandage un- der his left knee-cap where the glass had cut savagely. "It's my poor wits, if we must fix the blame. If s an awful thing, sir, to be bom with weak intellectuals. As man's legs carry him on orders from his head, there lies the seat of the difficulty. A weak mind, obedient legs, and there you go, plump into the bosom of a blooming asparagus bed, and the enemy lays violent hands on you. If you put any more of that sting-y pudding on that cut 50 EOSALIND AT EBD GATE I shall undoubtedly hit you, Mr. Donovan. Ah, thank you, thank you so much !" As I finished with the vaseline he lay back on the couch and sighed deeply and I rose and sent Ijima away with the basin and towels. "Wm you drink? There are twelve kinds of whisky — " "My dear Mr. Donovan, the thought of strong drink saddens me. Such poor wits as mine are not helped by alcoholic stimulants. I was drunk once — ^beautifully, marvelously, nobly drunk, so that antiquity came up to date with the thud of a motor-car hitting an orphan asylum; and I saw Julius Caesar driving a chariot up Fifth Avenue and Cromwell poised on one foot on the shorter spire of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Are you aware, my dear sir, that one of those spires is shorter than the other?" "I certainly am not," I replied bluntly, wondering what species of madman I had on my hands. "It's a fact, confided to me by a prominent engineer of New York, who has studied those spires daily since they were put up. He told me that when he had sur- rounded five high-balls the north spire was higher; but that the sixth tumblerful always raised the south spire I MEET GILLESPIE 51 about eleven feet above it. Now, wouldn't that doddle you ?" "It would, Mr. Gillespie; but may I ask you to cut out this rot — " "My dear Mr. Donovan, it's indelicate of you to speak of cutting anything — and me with my legs. But I'm at your service. You have tended my grievous wounds like a gentleman and now do you wish me to unfold my past, present and future ?" "I want you to get out of this and be quick about it. Your biography doesn't amuse me ; I caught you prowl- ing disgracefully about St. Agatha's. Two ladies are domiciled there who came here to escape your annoying attentions. Those ladies were put in my charge by an old friend, and I don't propose to stand any nonsense from you, Mr. Gillespie. You seem to be at least half sane — " Eeginald Gillespie raised himself on the couch and grinned joyously. "Thank you — thank you for that word! That's just twice as high as anybody ever rated me before." "I was trying to be generous," I said. "There's a point at which I begin to be bored, and when that's reached I'm likely to grow quarrelsome. Are there any 52 EOSALIND AT EED GATE moments of the day or night when you are less a fool than others?" "Well, Donovan, I've often speculated about that, and my conclusion is that my mind is at its best when I'm asleep and enjoying a nightmare. I find the Welsh rabbit most stimulating to my thought voltage. Then I am, you may say, detached from myself; another mind not my own is building towers and palaces, and spiders as large as the far-famed though extinct ichthyosaurus are waltzing on the moon. Then, I have sometimes thought, my intellectual parts are most intelligently em- ployed." "I may well believe you," I declared with asperity. "Now I hope I can pound it into you in some way that your presence in this neighborhood is offensive — ^to me — personally." He stared at the ceiling, silent, imperturbable. "And I'm going to give you safe conduct through the lines — or if necessary I'll buy your ticket and start you for New York. And if there's an atom of honor in you, you'll go peaceably and not publish the fact that you know the whereabouts of these ladies." He reflected gravely for a moment. "I think," he said, "that on the whole that's a fair I MEET GILLESPIE 53 proposition. But you seem to have the impression that I wish to annoy these ladies." "You don't for a moment imagine that you are likely to entertain them, do you? You haven't got the idea that you are necessary to their happiness, have you ?" He raised himself on his elbow with some difficulty; flinched as he tried to make himself comfortable and began: "The trouble with Miss Pat is—" "There is no trouble with Miss Pat," I snapped. "The trouble between Miss Pat and me is the same old trouble of the buttons," he remarked dolorously. "Buttons, you idiot?" "Quite so. Buttons, just plain every-day buttons; buttons for buttoning purposes. Now I shall be grateful to you if you will refrain from saying " 'Button, button, Who's got the button?' " The fellow was undoubtedly mad. I looked about for a weapon ; but he went on gravely. "What does the name Gillespie mean? Of what is it the sign and symbol wherever man hides his nakedness ? Button, button, who'll buy my buttons ? It can't be pos- U EOSAUXD AT BED GATE sdble that yon neTer heard of the Gillespie buttons? Where have you liTed, my dear sir?* "Will you please stop talking rot and es^ain what you want here?'' I demanded with growing heaL ''That, my dear sir, is exactly what Ym. doing. Fm a suitor for the hand of Miss Patricia's niece. Miss Pafanda scorns me; she says Fm a mere child of the Philistine rich and declines an alliance without thanks, if you must know tiie truth. And iifs all on account of the fact, shameful enough I admit, that my f atha died and left me a large and prosperous button ^ctory." ''Why dont you give the infernal thing away — sell it out to a trust — '' "Ah I ah V — and he raised himself again and pointed a bandaged hand at me. ''I see that you are a man of penetration ! You ha?e a keen notion of business ! You anticipate me ! I did seU the inf enud thing to a trust, but tli^e was no shaking it! They made me pre^dent of the combination, and I control more buttons than any other living man! My dear sir, I dictate the button prices of tiie world. I can tell you to a nicety how many buttons are swallowed annually by the babies of the uni- Terse. But I hop^ sir, that I use my power wisefy and witiiout oppressing the people.'' I MEET GILLESPIE 55 Gillespie lay on his back, wrapped in my dressing- gown, his knees raised, his bandaged arms folded across his chest. Since bringiag him into the house I had studied him carefully and, I must confess, with in- creasing mystification. He was splendidly put up, the best-muscled man I had ever seen who was not a pro- fessional athlete. His forearms and clean-shaven face were brown from prolonged tanning by the sun, but otherwise his skin was the pink and white of a healthy baby. His short light hair was combed smoothly away from a broad forehead; his blue eyes were perfectly steady — ^they even invited and held scrutiny; when he was not speaking he closed his lips tightly. He appeared in nowise annoyed by his predicament; the house itself seemed to have no interest for him, and he accepted my ministrations in murmurs of well-bred gratitude. I half believed the fellow to be amusing himself at my expense; but he met my eyes calmly. If I had not caught a lunatic I had certainly captured an odd speci- men of humanity. He was the picture of wholesome living and sound health; but he talked like a fool. The idea of a young woman like Helen Holbrook giving two thoughts to a silly youngster like this was preposterous, and my heart hardened against him. 56 EOSALIND AT EBD GATE "You are flippant, Mr. Gillespie, and my errand with you is serious. There are places in this house where I could lock you up and you ■would never see your button factory again. You seem to have had some education — " "The word does me great honor, Donovan. They chucked me from Yale in my junior year. Why, you may ask? Well, it happened this way: You know Eooney, the Belief ontaine Cyclone? He struck New Haven with a vaudeville outfit, giving boxiag exhibi- tions, poking the bag and that sort of fake. At every town they invited the local sports to dig up their bright- est amateur middle-weight and put him against the Cyclone for five rounds. I brushed my hair the wrong way for a disguise and went against him." "And got smashed for your trouble, I hope," I inter- rupted. "No. The boys in the gallery cheered so that they fussed him, and he thought I was fruit. We shook hands, and he turned his head to snarl at the applause, and, seeing an opening, I smashed him a hot clip in the ■chin, and he tumbled backward and broke the ring rope. I vaulted the orchestra and bolted, and when the boys finally found me I was over near Waterbury under a barn. Eli wouldn't stand for it, and back I went to the I MEET GILLESPIE 57 button factory; and here I am, sir, by the grace of God, an ignorant man." He lay blinking as though saddened by his recollec- tions, and I turned away and paced the floor. When I glanced at him again he was still staring soberly at the wall. "How did you find your way here, Gillespie?" I de- manded. "I suppose I ought to explain that," he replied. I waited while he reflected for a moment. He seemed to be quite serious, and his brows wrinkled as he pondered. "I guessed it about half; and for the rest, I followed the heaven-kissing stack of trunks." He glanced at me quickly, as though anxious to see how I received his words. "Have you seen anything of Henry Holbrook in your travels ? Be careful now ; I want the truth." "I certainly have not. I hope you don't think — " Gillespie hesitated. "It's not a matter for thinking or guessing; I've got to know." "On my honor I have not seen him, and I have no idea where he is." I had thrown myself into a chair beside the couch and 58 EOSALIND AT RED GATE lighted my pipe. My captive troubled me. It seemed odd that he had found the abiding-place of the two women; and if he had succeeded so quickly, why might not Henry Holbrook have equal luck ? 'Tou probably know this troublesome brother well," I ventured. 'Tes ; as well as a man of my age can know an older man. My father's place at Stamford adjoined the Hol- brook estate. Henry and Arthur Holbrook married sisters; both women died long ago, I believe; but the brothers had a business row and went to smash. Arthur embezzled, forged, and so on, and took to the altitudi- nous timber, and Henry has been busy ever since trying to pluck his sister. He's wild on the subject of his wrongs — ruined by his own brother, deprived of his in- heritance by his sister and abandoned by his only child. There wasn't much to Arthur Holbrook; Henry was the genius, but after the bank went to the bad he sought the consolations of rum. He and Henry married the Hart- ridge twins who were the reigning Baltimore belles in the early eighties — so runneth the chronicle. But I gos- sip, my dear sir; I gossip, which is against my prin- ciples. Even the humble button king of Strawberry Hill must draw the line." I MEET GILLESPIE 59 When Ijima brought in a plate of sandwiches he took one gingerly in his swathed hand, regarded it with cool inquiry, and as he munched it, remarked upon sand- wiches in general as though they were botanical speci- mens that were usually discussed and analyzed in a scientific spirit. "The sandwich," he began, "not unhappily expresses one of the saddest traits of our American life. I need hardly refer to our deplorable national habit of hiding our shame under a blithe and misleading exterior. Now this article, provided by your generous hospitality for a poor prisoner of war, contains a bit of the breast of some fowl, presumably chicken — ^we will concede that it is chicken — ^taken from rather too near the bone to be wholly palatable. Chicken sandwiches in some parts of the world are rather coarsely marked, for purposes of identification, with pin-feathers. You may covet no no- bler fame than that of creator of the Flying Sandwich of Annandale. Yet the feathered sandwich, though more picturesque, points rather too directly to the strut- ting lords of the barn-yard. A sandwich that is deco- rated like a fall bonnet, that suggests, we will say, the milliner's window — or the plumed knights of sounding war — " 60 EOSALIXD AT EED GATE With a little sigh, a slow relaxation of muscles, Mr. Gillespie slept. I locked the doors, put out the lights, and tumbled into my own bed as the chapel clock chimed two. In the disturbed afEairs of the night the blinds had not been drawn, and I woke at six to find the room flooded with light and my prisoner gone. The doors were locked as I had left them. Mr. Gillespie had de- parted by the window, dropping from a little balcony to the terrace beneath. I rang for Ijima and sent him to the pier; and before I had finished shaving, the boy was back, and reported Gillespie's boat still at the pier, but one of the canoes missing. It was clear that in the sorry plight of his arms Gillespie had preferred paddling to rowing. Beneath my watch on the writing- table I found a sheet of note-paper on which was scrawled : Dk4b Old Mait — I am having one of those nightmares I mentioned in our delightful conversation. I feel that I am about to walk in my sleep. As my flannels are a trifle bluggy, pardon loss of your dressing-gown. Yours, R. G. P. S. — I am wUling to pay for the glass and medical at- tendance; but I want a rebate for that third sandwich. It really tickled too harshly as It went down. Very likely this accounts for my somnambulism. G. I MEET GILLESPIE 61 When I had dressed and had my coffee I locked my old portfolio and tossed it into the bottom of my trunk. Something told me that for a whUe, at least, I should have other occupation than contributing to the literature of Eussian geography. CHAPTEE IV I EXPLOEE TrPPECANOE CBEEK The woodland silence, one time stirred By the soft pathos of some passing bird. Is not the same it was before. The spot where once, unseen, a flower Has held its fragile chalice to the shower, Is different for evermore. ■Unheard, unseen A spell has been! — Thomas Bailey Aldricli. My first care was to find the gardener of St. Agatha's and renew his pledge of silence of the night before; and then I sought the ladies, to make sure that they had not been disturbed by my collision with Gillespie. Miss Pat and Helen were in Sister Theresa's pretty sitting-room, through whose windows the morning wind blew fresh and cool. Miss Pat was sewing — ^her dear hands, I found, were always busy — ^while Helen read to her. "This is a day for the open ! You must certainly ven- ture forth !" I began cheerily. "You see. Father Stod- dard chose well; this is the most peaceful place on the 62 TIPPECANOE CEEEK 63 map. Let us begin with a drive at six, when the sun is low; or maybe you would prefer a little run in the launch." They exchanged glances. "I think it would be all right, Aunt Pat," said Helen. "Perhaps we should wait another day. We must take no chances; the relief of being free is too blessed to throw away. I really slept through the night — I can't tell you what a boon that is !" "Why, Sister Margaret had to call us both at eight !" exclaimed Helen. "That is almost too wonderful for belief." She sat in a low, deep, wicker chair, with her arms folded upon her book. She wore a short blue skirt and white waist, with a red scarf knotted at her throat and a ribbon of like color in her hair. "Oh, the nights here are tranquillity itself! Now, as to the drive — ^" "Let us wait another day, Mr. Donovan. I feel that we must make assurance doubly sure," said Miss Pat; and this, of course, was final. It was clear that the capture of Gillespie had not dis- turbed the slumber of St. Agatha's. My conscience pricked me a trifle at leaving them so ignorantly con- tented ; but Gillespie's appearance was hardly a menace. 64 BOSAUXD AT BED GATE and fhoa^ I had pledged mjsdf to warn Hden Hol- brook at the fiist sign of trouble, I determined to deal with him on mj own account. He was only an infatu- ated fool, and I was capable, I hoped, of disposing of his case vitiioot taking any one into my confidence. Bat first it Tras my urgent bnsjnees to find Mm. I got out the lannch and crossed tiie lake to the sum- mer colony and b^an my search by asking for Gillespie at the casino, hut found tiiat hk name was unknown. I lounged about until lunch-time, visited the goLf course that lay on a bit of upland bejond the cottages and watched the players until satisfied that Gillespie was not among tiiem, then I went home for hmcheoad. A man wi& bandaged- arms, and dad in a dressing- gown, can not go far without attracting attrition : and I was not in the least dbconraged by my fruitless search. I have spent a considerable part of my life in tiie engaging occupation of looking for men who were hard to find, and as I smoked my dgar on the sha^ terrace and waited fcKt Ijima to replenish the launch's tank, I Mt confident that before ni^t I should hare an understanding with Gillespie if he were still in the nei^borhood of Annandale. The midday was warm, but I cooled my eyes on the TIPPECAXOE CREEK 65 deep shadows of ibe wood, through which at mtervals I 8aw white eaik flash on the k^. AH bird-song was hushed, but a woodpecker on a dead sycamore hammered away for dear life- The bobbing of his red head must hare exercised some hypnotic spell, for I slept a few minutes, aai dre^ned that the woodpecker had bored a hole in my forehead. "When I roused it was wifli a start that sent my pipe clattering to the stone terrace floor. A man who has ever camped or hnnted or been hunted — and I have known all three experiences — always scru- tinizes the horizons when he wakes, and I found myself staring into the wood. As my eyes sotight remembered landmarks here and there, I saw a m^i dressed as a common sailor skulking toward the boat-bouse several hundred yards away. He was evidently following tiie school wall to escape observation, and I rose and stepped closer to the balustrade to watch his mov^nents. In a moment he came out into a little open space wherein stood a stone tower where water was stored for the house, and he paused here and gazed about him curiously. I picked up a field'glass from a little table near by and caught sight of a swarthy foreign face imder a soft felt hat. He passed the tower and walked on toward the lake, and I dropped over the balustrade and followed him. 66 EOSALIND AT RED GATE The Japanese boy was still at work on the launch, and, hearing a step on the pier planking, he glanced up, then rose and asked the stranger his business. The man shook his head. "If you have business it must be at the house; the road is in the other direction," and Ijima pointed to the wood, but the stranger remained stubbornly on the edge of the pier. I now stepped out of the wood and walked down to the pier. "What do you want here ?" I demanded sharply. The man touched his hat, smiled, and shook his head. The broad hand he lifted in salute was that of a laborer, and its brown back was tattooed. He belonged, I judged, to one of the dark Mediterranean races, and I tried him in Italian. "These are private grounds ; you will do well to leave here very quickly," I said. I saw his eyes light as I spoke the words slowly and distinctly, but he waited until I had finished, then shook his head. I was sure he had understood, but as I addressed him again, ordering him from the premises, he continued to shake his head and grin foolishly. Then I pointed toward the road. TIPPECANOE CREEK , 67 "Go; and it will be best for you not to come here again!" I said, and, after saluting, he walked slowly away into the wood, with a sort of dogged insolence in his slightly swaying gait. At a nod from me Ijima stole after him while I waited, and in a few minutes the boy came back and reported that the man had passed the house and left the grounds by the carriage entrance, turning toward Annandale. With my mind on Gillespie I put off in the launch, determined to study the lake geography. A mile from the pier I looked back and saw, rising above the green wood, the gray lines of Glenarm house; and farther west the miniature tower of the little chapel of St. Agatha's thrust itself through the trees. To the east lay Annandale village; to the northwest the summer colony of Port Annandale. I swung the boat toward the unknown north of this pretty lake, watching mean- while its social marine — if I may use such a term — with new interest. Several smart sail-boats lounged before the wind — more ambitious craft than I imagined these waters boasted ; the lake "tramps" on their ceaseless er- rands to and from the village whistled noisily ; we passed a boy and girl in a canoe — a thing so pretty and graceful and so clean-cut in its workmanship that I turned to 68 EOSALIND AT BED GATE look after it. The girl was lazUy plying the paddle; the boy, supported by a wealth of gay cushions, was thrum- ming a guitar. They glared at me resentfully as their cockle-shell wobbled in. the wash of the launch. "That's a better canoe than we own, Ijima. I should like to pick up one as good." '"There are others like it on the lake. Hartridge is the maker. His shop is over there somewhere," and Ijima waved his hand toward the north. "A boy told me at the Annandale dock that those canoes are famous all over this country." "Then we must certainly have one. We could have used one of those things in Eussia." The shores grew narrower and more irregular as we proceeded, and we saw only at rare intervals any signs of life. A heavy forest lay at either hand, broken now and then by rough meadows. Just beyond a sharp curve a new vista opened before us, and I was astonished to see a small wooded island ahead of us. Beyond it lay the second lake, linked to the main body of Annandale by a naxrow strait. "I did not know there was anything so good on the lake, Ijima. I wonder what they call this ?" He reached into a locker and drew out a tia tube. TIPPECAXOE CBEEK 69 'This is a map, sir. I think they call this Battle Orchard. "' ''Thaf s not bad, either. I don't see the orchard or the battle, but no doubt they liaye both been here." I was more and more pleased. I gave him the wheel and took the map, which proved to be a careful chart of the lake, made, I judged, by my friend Glenarm for his own amusement-. We passed slowly around the island, which was not more than twenty acres in extent, with an abrupt bank on tiie east and a low pebbly shore on the west, and a body of heavy timber rising darkly in the center. The shore of the mainland sloped upward here in tiie tender green of young com. I have, I hope, a soul for landscape, and the soft bubble of water, the lush reeds in the shallows, the rapidly moving panorama of field and forest, the glimpses of wild flowers, and the arched blue above, were restful to mind and heart. It seemed shameful that the whole world was not afloat : then, as I reflected that an- other boat in these tranquil waters would be an imperti- nence that I should resent, I was aware that I had been thinking of Helen Holbrook aU the while; and the thought of this irritated me so that I criticized IJima most unjustly for running the launch close to a boulder ?0 EOSALIND AT EED GATE that rose like a miniature Gibraltar near the shadowy shore we were skirting. We gained the ultimate line of the lower lake, and followed the shore in search of its outlet, pleasingly set down on the map as Tippecanoe Creek, which ran off and joined somewhere a river of like name. "We'll cruise here a bit and see if we can find the creek," I said, filling my pipe. Tippecanoe ! Its etymology is not in books, but goes back to the first star that ever saw itself in running water; its cadence is that of a boat gliding orer ripples ; its syllables flow as liquidly as a woodland spring lin- gering in delight over shining pebbles. The canoe alone, of all things fashioned to carry man, has a soul — and it is a soul at once obedient and perverse. And now that I had discovered the name Tippecanoe, it seemed to murmur itself from the little waves we sent singing into the reeds. My delight in it was so great, it rang in my head so insistently, that I should have missed the creek with the golden name if Ijima had not called my attention to its gatiiering current, that now drew us, like a tide. The lake's waters ran away, like a truant child, through a woody cleft, and in a moment we were as clean quit of the lake as though it did not exist. TIPPECAXOE CEEEK 71 After a few rods the creek began to twist and turn as though with the intention of maldTig the voyager eara his way. In the narrow channel the heat of our engine rang from the shores rebnkingly, and soon, as a punish- ment for disturbing the peace of the little stream, we grounded on a sand-bar. "This seems to be the head of navigation, Ijima. I believe this creek was made for canoes, not battle- ships." Between ns we got the launch off, and I landed on a convenient log and crawled np the bank to observe the country. I followed a stake-and-rider fence half hidden in vines of various sorts, and tramped along the bank, with the creek still singing its tortuous way below at my right hand. It was late, and long shadows now feU across the ■ world ; but every new turn in the creek tempted me, and the sharp scratch of brambles did not deter me from going on. Soon the rail fence gave way to barbed wire ; the path broadened and the underbrush was neatly cut away. Within lay a small vegetable gar- den, carefully tilled ; and farther on I saw a dark green cottage almost shut in by beeches. The path dipped sharply down and away from the cottage, and a moment later I had lost sight of it; but below, at the edge of the 72 EOSALIXD AT EED GATE creek, stood a long house-boat with an extended plat- form or deck on the waterside. I can still feel, as I recall the day and hour, the titter peace of the scene when first I came upon that secluded spot : the melodious flow of the creek beneath ; the flut- ter of homing wings; even the hum of insects in the sweety thymy air. Then a step farther and I came to a gate which opened on a flight of steps that led to the house beneath; and through the interveniug tangle I saw a man sprawled at ease in a steamer chair on the deck, his arms under his head. As I watched him he sighed and turned restlessly, and I caught a glimpse of close-trimmed beard and short, thin, slightly gray hair. The place was clearly the summer home of a city man in search of quiet, and I was turning away, when sud- denly a woman's voice rang out clearly from the bank. "Hello the house-boat!" 'Tes ; I'm here !" answered the man below. "Come on, father; I've been looking for you every- where," called the voice again, "Oh, it's too bad you've been waiting," he answered. "Of course I've been waiting !" she flung back, ajid he jumped up and ran toward her. Then down the steps flashed Helen Holbrook in white. She paused at the TIPPECAXOE CEEEK 73 gate an instant before continuing her descent to the creek, bending her head as she sought the remaining steps. Her dark hair and clear profile trembled a mo- ment in the summer dusk; then she ran past me and disappeared below. "Daddy, you dear old fraud, I thought you were coming to meet me on the ridge !" I turned and groped my way along the darkening path. My heart was thumping wildly and my forehead was wet with perspiration. Ijima stood on the bank lighting his lantern, and I flung myself into the launch and bade him run for home. We were soon crossing the lake. I lay back on the cushions and gazed up at the bright roof of stars. Before I reached Glenarm the shock of finding Helen Holbrook in friendly communication with her father had passed, and I sat down to dinner at nine o'clock with a sound appetite. CHAPTER V A FIGHT ON' A HOUSE-BOAT The best composition and temperature is, to have open- ness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit, dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to feign, if there be no remedy. — Francis Bacon. At ten o'clock I called for a horse and rode out into the night, turning into the country with the intention of following the lake-road to the region I had explored in the launch a few hours before. All was dark at St. Agatha's as I passed. No doubt Helen Holbrook had returned in due course from her visit to her father and, after accounting plausibly to her aunt for her absence, was sleeping the sleep of the just. Now that I thought of the matter in all its bearings, I accused myself for not having gone directly to St. Agatha's from the lonely house on Tippecanoe Creek and waited for her there, demanding an explanation of her perfidy. She was treating Miss Pat infamously: that was plain; and yet in my heart I was excusing and defending her. A family 74 ON A HOUSE-BOAT 75 row about money was ugly at best; and an unfortunate — even criminal — ^father may still have some claim on his child. Then, as against such reasoning, the vision of Miss Pat rose before me — aad I felt -whatever chivalry there is in me arouse with a rattle of spears. Paul Stoddard, in committing that dear old gentlewoman to my care, had not asked me to fall in love with her niece ; so, im- patient to be thus swayed between two inclinations, I chirruped to the horse and galloped swiftly over the silent white road. I had learned from the Glenann stable-boys that it was several miles overland to the Tippecanoe. A Sab- bath quiet lay upon the world, and I seemed to be the only person abroad. I rode at a sharp pace through the cool air, rushiag by heavy woodlands and broad fields, with an occasional farm-house rising somberly in the moonlight. The road turned gradually, following the line of the lake which now flashed out and then was lost again behind the forest. There is nothing like a gallop to shake the nonsense out of a man, and my spirits rose as the miles sped by. The village of Tippe- canoe lay off somewhere in this direction, as guide-posts several times gave warning; and my study of the map 76 EOSALIND AT EBD GATE on the launch had given me a good idea of the whole region. What I sought was the front entrance of the green cottage above the house-boat by the creek, and when, far beyond Port Annandale, the road turned ab- ruptly away from the lake, I took my bearings and dismounted and tied my horse in a strip of unfenced woodland. The whole region was very lonely, and now that the beat of hoofs no longer rang in my ears the quiet was oppressive. I struck through the wood and found the creek, and the path beside it. The little stream was still murmuring its own name musically, with perhaps a softer note in deference to the night; and following the path carefully I came in a few minutes to the steps that linked the cottage with the house-boat at the creek's edge. It was just there that I had seen Helen Hol- brook, and I stood quite still recalling this, and making sure that she had come down those steps in that quiet out-of-the-way corner of the world, to keep tryst with her father. The story-and-a-half cottage was covered with vines and close-wrapped in shrubbery. I followed a garden walk that wound among bits of lawn and flower-beds until I came to a tall cedar hedge that cut the place ofE from the road. A semicircle of taller pines ON A HOUSE-BOAT 77 within shut the cottage off completely from the high- way. I crawled through the cedars and walked along slowly to the gate, near which a post supported a sign- board. I struck a match and read : Red Gate •R. Hartrldge, Canoe-Maker, Tippecanoe, Indiana. This, then, was the home of the canoe-maker men- tioned by Ijima. I found his name repeated on the rural delivery mail-box affixed to the sign-post. Henry Hol- brook was probably a boarder at the house — it required no great deductive powers to fathom that. I stole back through the hedge and down to the house-boat. The moon was coming up over the eastern wood, and the stars were beautifully clear. 1 walked the length of the platform, which was provided with a railing on the waterside, with growing curiosity. Several canoes, care- fully covered with tarpaulins, lay about the deck, and chairs were drawn up close to the long, low house in ship- shape fashion. If this house-boat was the canoe-maker's shop he had chosen a secluded and picturesque spot for it. As I leaned against the rail studying the lines of the 78 EOSALIND AT RED GATE house, I heard suddenly the croak of an oar-lock in the stream behind, and then low voices talking. The deep night silence was so profound that any sound was doubly emphaaized, and I peered out upon the water, at once alert and interested. I saw a dark shadow in the creek as the boat drew nearer, and heard words spoken sharply as though in command. I drew back against the house and waited. Possibly the canoe-maker had been abroad, or more likely Henry Ilolbrook had gone forth upon some mischief, and my mind flew at once to the two women at St. Agatha's, one of whom at least was still under my protection. The boat approached furtively, and I heard now very distinctly words spoken in Italian : "Have a care; climb up with the rope and I'll follow." Then the boat touched the platform lightly and a second later a man climbed nimbly up the side. His companion followed, and they tied their boat to the rail- ing. They paused now to reconnoiter — so close to me that I could have touched them with my hands — and engaged in a colloquy. The taller man gave directions, the other replying in monosyllables to show that he understood. "Go to the side porch of the cottage, and knock. When the man comes to the door tell him that you are ox A HOUSE-BOAT 79 ilie chaaSear from an antomobile tiiat has broken down in the load, and ihat yon want help for a wcHiian ^o has been hnrt." "Yes, sir." "Then — you know the rest" "The knife— it shaU be done." I have made it the mle of my life, against mnch painr fnl experience and the admoniticHis of many philc^o- phers, to act first and reason afterwards. And here it was a case of two to ona The men b^an stealing across the deck toward the st^ that led up to &e cottage, and with rather more zeal than judgment I took a step after them, and dnmsilT kicked over a chair that f dl clatter- ing wildly. Both men leaped toward the rail at Ihe sound, and I flattened myself against the honse to await developments. The silence was again complete. "A chair blew over," remarked one of the voices. "Thrae is no wind," replied the other, the one I recognized as belonging to the leader. "See what yon can find — and have a care !" The speaker w^it to the rail and began fumbling wilh the rope. The oiher, I realized, was slipping quite noiselessly along ibe smooth planking toward me, his bent body faintly silhouetted in the moonlight. I knew 80 BOSALIND AT BED GATE that I conid hardly be dJsisogiiighable from ibe long line of tibe house, and I had the additional advantage of knowing their strength, while I was still an nnkaown qnantity to them. The men wonld assume tiiai I was either Hartridge, the boat-maker, or Henry Holbrook, one of whom tiiey had come to kSQ, and there is, as every one knows, little honor in b^g the victim of mistaken identi^. I heard the man's hand scratching alcmg llie wall as he advanced cautiously; there was no doubt but that he would discova* me in another mcnnent; so I re- solved to take the initiative and give batile. My finger-tips touched the back of one of tlie f