likewise would run to them over the mirror of the lake. So Pete and I exchanged our ideas in whispers.
"The place appears to be all under one management," said Pete.
Plainly, indeed, the mansion and the opposite beach, with the three blue monoplanes and the sheds and workshop, must be associated. I traced, through the trees, the sheen of a white road circling the lake from the square building on the east to the great house opposite. I caught the flash of a motor-car scurrying between the trees.
"Headquarters," said Pete, "seem to be at the big house. They're on the way to report. Suppose she's in the car or at the house, waiting for them—and for us?"
I shook my head which could form no clear picture of her place here.
"Shall we try to go up again?" I asked Pete. "We've a quart of gas, maybe."
Women appeared on the terrace; women's voices floated over the water; a girl's laugh rippled to us. Hers, I wondered? I did not think it hers; I did not like to think it hers. Pete was perfectly willing to suppose it hers;
