n, who then was mate of the _Martha
Corvet_, were crossing the lake in a tug with a crew of four men to
Manitowoc, where they were going to lay up more ships. The captain and
one of the deck hands of the tug were washed overboard, and the
engineer was lost trying to save them. Uncle Benny and Mr. Spearman
and the stoker brought the tug in. The storm was worst about five in
the morning, when the _Miwaka_ sunk."

"How do you know that the _Miwaka_ sunk at five," Alan asked, "if no
one ever heard from the ship?"

"Oh; that was told by the Drum!"

"The Drum?"

"Yes; the Indian Drum! I forgot; of course you didn't know. It's a
superstition that some of the lake men have, particularly those who
come from people at the other end of the lake. The Indian Drum is in
the woods there, they say. No one has seen it; but many people believe
that they have heard it. It's a spirit drum which beats, they say, for
every ship lost on the lake. There's a particular superstition about
it in regard to the _Miwaka_; for the drum beat wrong for the _Miwaka_.
You see, the people about there swear that about five o'clock in the
morning of the fifth, while the storm was blowing terribly, they heard
the drum beating and knew that a ship was going down. They counted the
sounds as it beat the roll of the dead. It beat twenty-four before it
stopped and then began to beat again and beat twenty-four; so, later,
everybody knew it had been beating for the _Miwaka_; for every other
ship on the lake got to port; but there were twenty-five altogether on
the _Miwaka_, so either the drum beat wrong or--" she hesitated.

"Or what?"

"Or the drum was right, and some one was saved. Many people believed
that. It was years before the families of the men on board gave up
hope, because of the Drum; maybe some haven't given up hope yet."

Alan made no comment for a moment. Constance had seen the blood flush
to his face and then leave it, and her own pulse had beat as swiftly as
she rehearsed the superstition. As he gazed at her and then away, it
was plain that he had heard something additional about the
_Miwaka_--something which he was trying to fit into what she told him.

"That's all anybody knows?" His gaze came back to her at last.

"Yes; why did you ask about it--the _Miwaka_? I mean, how did you hear
about it so you wanted to know?"

He considered an instant before replying. "I encountered a reference
to the _Miwaka_--I supposed it