his inquiring mind. It had not been
long built, as was shown very plainly by the fresh appearance of the
unpainted boards of which it was constructed; and while it boasted of a
door, as I've already said, there were no evidences visible of any other
break in the smooth, neatly finished walls. A wooden ellipse with a roof
but no windows; such it appeared and such it proved to be. A mystery to
Sweetwater's eyes, and like all mysteries, interesting. For what purpose
had it been built and why this isolation? It was too flimsy for a
reservoir and too expensive for the wild freak of a crank.

A nearer view increased his curiosity. In the projection of the roof
over the curving sides he found fresh food for inquiry. As he examined
it in the walk he made around the whole structure, he came to a place
where something like a hinge became visible and further on another. The
roof was not simply a roof; it was also a lid capable of being raised
for the air and light which the lack of windows necessitated. This was
an odd discovery indeed, giving to the uncanny structure the appearance
of a huge box, the cover of which could be raised or lowered at
pleasure. And again he asked himself for what it could be intended? What
enterprise, even of the great Works, could demand a secrecy so absolute
that such pains as these should be taken to shut out all possibility of
a prying eye. Nothing in his experience supplied him with an answer.

He was still looking up at these hinges, with a glance which took in at
the same time the nearness and extreme height of the trees by which
this sylvan mystery was surrounded, when a sound from the road on the
opposite side of the hollow brought his conjectures to a standstill and
sent him hurrying on to the nearest point from which that road became
visible.

A team was approaching. He could hear the heavy tread of horses working
their laborious way through trees whose obstructing branches swished
before and behind them. They were bringing in a load for this shed,
whose uses he would consequently soon understand. Grateful for his good
luck--for his was a curiosity which could not stand defeat--he took
a few steps into the wood, and from the vantage point of a concealing
cluster of bushes, fixed his eyes upon the spot where the road opened
into the hollow.

Something blue moved there, and in another moment, to his great
amazement, there stepped into view the spirited form of Doris Scott,
who if he had giv