Posy, Keeley said, reproachfully, you must be more careful. Deep Lake is one of the deepest and most treacherous lakes in all Wisconsin. Now, dont cut up silly tricks in a canoe.
Oh, I know how to manage a canoe.
You managed to upset, said Lora Moore, accusingly, and pretty Posy changed the subject.
After dinner there was a little bridge, but the youngsters were going to a dance, and Mrs. Dallas seemed to want to go home early, so Ames carried her off, and our own quartet was left alone.
I was glad of it, for I like a chat with a few better than the rattle of the crowd. And it was not very long before Lora and Mrs. Merrill left us, and Keeley and I had the porch to ourselves.
Pleasant people, I said, by way of being decently gracious.
Good enough, he agreed. To-morrow, Gray, well fish. Its open season for everything now and the limits are generous. Except muskellonge. You may bag only one per day of those. But trout, all kinds, bass, all kinds, pickerel, rock sturgeon oh, well have the biggest time!
Sounds good to me, I returned, heartily. Im happy to be here, old scout, and well fish and all that, but dont put yourself about to entertain me.
I shant; but you must fall in with Loras plans, wont you? I mean, seem pleased to attend her kettledrums and whatnot, even if it bores you.
Of course I will. Your ladys word is law. Shes a brick, isnt she?
Yes, and Moore smiled happily at my somewhat crude compliment. Shes just that. And such a help in my work.
Your detective work?
What else? Shes more than a Watson, shes a real helpmate. Her insight and intuition are marvellous, and she sees through a bit of evidence and gets the very gist of it quicker than I can.
Then you surely got the right one.
I certainly did. But I hope to Heaven therell be no cases this summer. I want a real vacation, thats why I came way off here, to get away from all crime calls.
Dont crow before youre out of the woods. Crimes can happen even in Wisconsin. And to me, this whole country round looks like a perfect setting for a first-class criminal to work in.
Hush! Im not superstitious, but your suggestion of such a thing might bring it about. And I dont want it!
You think you dont, I smiled a little, but deep in your heart you do. You cant fish all the time, and youre even now restively hankering to be back in harness.
Shut up! he growled. Talk of something pleasanter. How do you like the Dallas queen?
Stunning, seductive, and serpentine, I summed up the lady in question.
Moore laughed outright. I must tell Lora that, he said. You see, she agrees with you. Now, I think the right words are stately, gracious, and charming.
All right, I said, you know her better than I do, She is very beautiful, I concede.
What do you mean, concede? Are you against her?
How you do snap a fellow up! No, not exactly. But I wouldnt trust her as far as I could see her, and Im near-sighted.
Sometimes I think Im no detective after all, Moore said, slowly. Now she gives me no effect of hypocrisy or insincerity.
But she does hint those things to Lora?
Y yes, in a way.
Then Loras more of a detective than you are. But after I see more of the siren, I may change my mind. I didnt talk with her alone at all. What about the grumpy Mr. Ames? Is he in love with the Dallas?
Not at all. In the first place, he wouldnt dare be, for she is engaged to Sampson Tracy, and Tracy is not one to take kindly to any poaching on his domain. Besides that, Ames is a woman hater, also a man hater, and I think, an animal hater.
Pleasant man!
Yes. Hes always in a fierce mood. I dont know, but I imagine he had an affair once
Oh, crossed in love and it made him queer.
Rather say, queered in love and it made him cross.
Yes, he looks cross. Does he always?
Always. He and Samp Tracy are old friends, and Samp can manage him, but nobody else can.
Pleasant guest for Mr. Tracy to have about.
He doesnt mind. Pleasure Dome is usually full of guests and if any want to sulk they are at liberty to do so.
Pleasure Dome?
Yes, thats the Tracy place. Its next to this, but its some distance off. You see, Deep Lake has a most irregular boundary line. It has all sorts of coves and inlets, and theres one that juts in behind the Tracy house. Its so deep and black and so surrounded by trees that its called the Sunless Sea.
Why, thats from Coleridges Kubla Khan, too.
Yes, these are the lines:
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately Pleasure Dome decree;
Where Alph, the sacred river ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
You know it, of course, but that will refresh your memory. Well, old Tracy
Is he old?
Oh, no, hes forty-five, but he seems older, somehow. Well, anyway, hes romantic and poetic and imaginative. And he has a fad for Coleridge. Collects editions of him and all that. So he built his enormous and gorgeous house and called it Pleasure Dome. And the deep arm of the lake, which is right beneath his own window, he calls the Sunless Sea. And it is. Its on the north side of the house, and so hemmed in with great firs and cypresses that the sun never gets a look-in.
Must make a delightful sleeping room!
Oh, theres plenty of sunlight from the east and west. His rooms are in a wing, a long L, and you bet they have sunlight and all other modern improvements. The house is a palace.
That all sounds nice for Mrs. Dallas.
It is. And Samp is so drivellingly, so besottedly in love with her, that she will have everything her own way when she takes up the sceptre.
Nobody else in the family? The Tracy family, I mean.
No. Not now. There was. You see, Tracys sister, Mrs. Remsen, and her daughter used to live with him. Then Mrs. Remsen died, about a year ago, or a little more, and then Mrs. Dallas came into the picture, and some think it was at her request Tracy put his niece out
The brute!
Oh, come now, you dont know anything about it. Alma is a lovely girl, but shes a high-handed sort all the Tracys are and her uncle gave her a beautiful home on a near-by island
On an island? A girl, alone!
She has with her an old family nurse, who took care of her as a baby, and old nurses husband is her gardener and houseman, and old nurses daughter is her waitress, and oh, Lord, Alma Remsen is fixed all right.
But on an island!
But she likes being on an island. It was her own choice. She didnt want to stay with the new wife any more than the new wife wanted to have her. You always fly off half-cocked!
All right, all right, I soothed him. Tell me more.
Well, thats all about Alma. Shes a general favourite, has lots of friends, and all that, but of course, when the new mistress of Pleasure Dome comes in at the door, Almas prospects will fly out of the window.
Cut off entirely?
Im not sure, but Ive heard so. I suppose her uncle will always take care of her, but she will no longer be the Tracy heiress.
And how does Miss Alma take that?
Not so good. She has had several talks with the family lawyer, and she has tried to wheedle her uncle, but hes a queer dick, is Samp Tracy, and he obstinately refuses to make a new will or even consider its terms until after hes married.