It seemed impossible that the storm unassisted had blown her from
Battle Orchard across Lake Annandale; but we were now close upon her
and seeking for means of getting aboard.
"She's a bit sloppy," observed Gillespie as we swung round and caught
hold. The water gurgled drunkenly in the cuddy, and a broken lantern
rattled on the deck. I held fast as he climbed over, sending me off a
little as he jumped aboard, and I was working back again with the
paddle when he cried out in alarm.
As I came alongside he came back to help me, and when he bent over to
catch the painter, I saw that his face was white.
"We might have known it," he said. "It's the last and worst that could
happen."
Face down across the cuddy lay the body of Henry Holbrook. His
water-soaked clothing was torn as though in a fierce struggle. A knife
thrust in the side told the story; he had crawled to the cuddy roof to
get away from the water and had died there.
"It was the Italian," said Gillespie. "They must have had a row last
night after we left them, and if came to this. He chopped a hole in
the _Stiletto_ and set her adrift to sink."
I looked about for the steamer, which was backing away from the pier at
Port Annandale, and signaled her with my handkerchief. And when I
faced Gillespie again he pointed silently toward the lower lake, where
a canoe rode the bright water.
Rosalind and her father were on their way from Red Gate to Glenarm.
Two blades flashed in the sun as the canoe came toward us. Gillespie's
lips quivered and he tried to speak as he pointed to them; and then we
both turned silently toward St. Agatha's, where the chapel tower rose
above the green wood.
"Stay and do what is to be done," I said. "I will find Helen and tell
her."
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Rosalind at Red Gate, by Meredith Nicholson
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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