the veranda, looking about for him. An iridescent haze shrouded the
hills and the bay; in it she heard a ship's bell strike twice; then
another struck twice--then another--and another--and another. The haze
thinned as the sun grew warmer, showing the placid water of the bay on
which the ships stood double--a real ship and a mirrored one. She saw
Alan returning, and knowing from the direction from which he came that
he must have been to the telegraph office, she ran to meet him.

"Was there an answer?" she inquired eagerly.

He took a yellow telegraph sheet from his pocket and held it for her to
read.

"Watch presented Captain Caleb Stafford, master of propeller freighter
_Marvin Halch_ for rescue of crew and passengers of sinking steamer
_Winnebago_ off Long Point, Lake Erie."

She was breathing quickly in her excitement. "Caleb Stafford!" she
exclaimed. "Why, that was Captain Stafford of Stafford and Ramsdell!
They owned the _Miwaka_!"

"Yes," Alan said.

"You asked me about that ship--the _Miwaka_--that first morning at
breakfast!"

"Yes."

A great change had come over him since last night; he was under emotion
so strong that he seemed scarcely to dare to speak lest it master
him--a leaping, exultant impulse it was, which he fought to keep down.

"What is it, Alan?" she asked. "What is it about the _Miwaka_? You
said you'd found some reference to it in Uncle Benny's house. What was
it? What did you find there?"

"The man--" Alan swallowed and steadied himself and repeated--"the man
I met in the house that night mentioned it."

"The man who thought you were a ghost?"

"Yes."

"How--how did he mention it?"

"He seemed to think I was a ghost that had haunted Mr. Corvet--the
ghost from the _Miwaka_; at least he shouted out to me that I couldn't
save the _Miwaka_!"

"Save the _Miwaka_! What do you mean, Alan? The _Miwaka_ was lost
with all her people--officers and crew--no one knows how or where!"

"All except the one for whom the Drum didn't beat!"

"What's that?" Blood pricked in her cheeks. "What do you mean, Alan?"

"I don't know yet; but I think I'll soon find out!"

"No; you can tell me more now, Alan. Surely you can. I must know. I
have the right to know. Yesterday, even before you found out about
this, you knew things you weren't telling me--things about the people
you'd been seeing. They'd all lost people on the lakes, you said; but
you found out more than that."

"The