II. The Unwelcome Guest 17 III. A Strange Dismissal 24 IV. The Hostess Jailer 28 V. The Northern Ladies 33 VI. Events on Deer Mountain 39 VII. The Godson Possibility 45 VIII. The Wordless Letters 56 IX. The Spectre in the Forest 67 X. A Skeleton in the Fire 75 XI. The Mysterious 'Dolphus 82 XII. The Secret of the Oak 88 XIII. A Sob in the Dark 98 XIV. The Going Out of Eve 104 XV. The Question of Guilt 109 XVI. A Call for Help 119 XVII. Hermione's Advocate 125 XVIII. A Startling Disclosure 132 XIX. Tangled in the Coil 140 XX. The Terrible Confession 146 XXI. Opening the Past 153 XXII. The Earthly Purgatory 169 XXIII. What 'Dolphus Knows 180 XXIV. The Woman with a Secret 189 XXV. Lost in the Maze 205 XXVI. A Tortured Conscience 217 XXVII. A Hound on the Scent 229 XXVIII. Probing a Deep Wound 238 XXIX. Forged Letters 251 XXX. The Vision in the Hut 266 XXXI. A Flash of Light 289 XXXII. What a Terrier Found 296 XXXIII. The Restoration 307 XXXIV. All That Happened 312 XXXV. Readjustments 323 Book I The Summit House Mystery Chapter I A HUT IN THE PRECIPICE In the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains the tree-clad ridges fold and coil about one another. In this wooded wilderness the trend of each slope, the meandering of each stream, take unlooked-for turnings, and the valleys cross and twist. It is such a region as we often find in dreams, where the unexpected bars the way or opens out into falling vistas down which our souls must speed, chasing some hope or chased by unknown fears. On a certain day a man called Neil Durgan passed through the village of Deer Cove, in the mountains of Northern Georgia. When he had left the few wooden buildings and the mill round which they clustered, he took a path by the foaming mill-stream and ascended the mountain of Deer.