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Augusta Huiell Seaman. The Curious Affair at Heron Shoals
The Curious Affair at Heron Shoals
Table of Contents
1. Introducing Methuselah
THE big, dim kitchen was very warm and smelled of hot biscuits and baking gingerbread. The late September afternoon sun slanted through a west window, intensifying the velvety green of the tall cedars outside. Within the kitchen it caused the red-checked table-cloth to glow with a burning brilliance. Little old Mrs. Greene bustled about the room, opening and shutting the oven door and putting a shovel or two of coal in the range. Suddenly the rays of sunlight were gone from the west window. The swift, late September twilight had begun. It left the old kitchen dimmer than ever
2. Marty Meets the Musical Prodigy
MARTY left the school-bus the next afternoon and fairly raced home along the sandy road that led to the Coast-Guard Station. Her home was at a considerable distance from her school, which was in a large town across the Bay. There was a long bridge across the Bay, connecting the little, eight-mile-long Heron Shoals Island with the mainland. On the northern end of this otherwise uninhabited island, there had sprung up within comparatively recent years, the little town of summer cottages called Surf Crest. But beyond the southern limits of this town, the concrete road ended abruptly, and below it stretched only the rolling dunes and beach on the east of the narrow strip, and on the west, the thickly wooded growths of cedar, holly, and pines. Except for the town, two Coast-Guard Stations, the home of Captain Cy and Marty’s own abode constituted almost the only other human habitations on the entire island. As the school-bus did not go below the limits of the town, Marty had about a mile of almost impossible road to negotiate before she reached her own home. She had been very inattentive at school all day, her mind absorbed with the new conditions that were about to take place in her home
3. The Unwelcome Kilroys
MARTY and Ted sat together on a high, steep dune overlooking the sea. It was a warm, golden, perfect afternoon—the type of weather that often comes to the coast in the early fall. The sea before them was a vivid floor of green-blue, with only small wavelets lapping in at the water’s edge—an ideal day for surf-casting. Swooping gulls, silhouetted against the intensely blue sky, gleamed with an unbelievable whiteness. The air was pungent with the odor of salt and pine and cedar, wafted by the light west wind from across the Bay
4. A Clue from the Record
THE weather had changed. The balmy warmth of the last two days had vanished and a cold, woolly fog was drifting in from the sea. Marty shivered unconsciously as she was trudging home from school on Monday afternoon, but her thoughts were not on the weather or her own personal discomfort. They were deeply concerned with the doings of the previous day and the progress that was being made in diverting Ted’s mind from his own affairs to the mystery that centered in Methuselah
5. Monsieur Has a Theory
WELL,” sighed Marty, when she had sufficiently recovered from her astonishment at this revelation, “you certainly discovered something this time, Ted! But, tell me, is there anything more about it in these records?”
6. One Memorable Day
OLD Mrs. Greene was stepping about her kitchen, preparing vegetables for the midday meal. The early morning sun streamed in at the south window and the kitchen was at its brightest hour of the day. Methuselah on his perch was pecking half-heartedly at the sunflower seeds in his cup. Having recovered somewhat from his indisposition of the day before, he was being allowed a limited ration of food, but his appetite was still far from normal
7. Footprints in the Sand
IT had been a glorious afternoon. As Marty looked back on it afterward, it was also the last afternoon they were to know of quiet enjoyment and freedom from worry, bewilderment and even danger, for some time to come
“Abner Greene, “Acting Keeper.”
8. Revelations by Mrs. Greene
BUT how do you know they were made by Chips Kilroy?” demanded Mr. Burnett. “Any boatman or crabber or some complete stranger might have landed here!”
9. Intruder in the Night
MARTY always remembered afterward the queer expression on all their faces at the sound of that crash. Startled astonishment mainly, frozen immobility for an instant, mingling with just a little fear in that of her grandmother. The spell was broken the next moment, for the sound had wakened Thusy from a nap and his immediate raucous squawking was hideous to hear
10. Morning Adventure
FAR into the night Marty awoke, roused to intense awareness by something, the origin of which she could not for a moment identify
11. The Hurricane Strikes
SHORTLY after ten-thirty that morning, there came a sudden lull in the driving northeast wind and rain. Looking up from the table where she was preparing clams and vegetables for a chowder, Mrs. Greene observed the lull and decided that it would be a good chance to go outside and get some more wood from the shed for the range. Without even bothering to don a shawl or raincoat, she opened the kitchen door, which faced toward the west, and left it open so that she could enter the more easily with her armful of wood. Beyond the steps, after a few feet, the ground was two or three inches deep with unabsorbed rain-water, which was unusual in that sandy soil. She wished she had stopped to put on her rubbers, but did not go back to get them
12. On the Trail of Chips
MARTY, what does Chips really look like?” demanded Ted, as they splashed along the path through the woods toward the Bay. “I didn’t get a really good look at him last Sunday, when he came over to the beach with his mother. We were too busy hiding from them!” he ended with a chuckle
13. Hurricane’s Harvest
AT two o’clock that afternoon, Mrs. Greene sat down in her comfortable old rocker in the kitchen and despairingly wiped her face, which was streaming with perspiration. The kitchen was the only comparatively dry room in the house. The window whose broken pane had been removed by Chips that morning, she had closed by shutting tight the outside shutter and filling up the chinks with cloths
14. After the Storm
WELL, land sakes! I just don’t understand it all!” muttered Mrs. Greene, taking off her spectacles and wiping them for the third time, as she rocked nervously in her old kitchen rocker. The last surprise of this terrifying day had been almost too much for her. From the moment that she had beheld Ted, alive and unharmed, the strength borne of excitement and suspense had seemed to ooze out of her, leaving her trembling and shaken. The arrival of Chips with the party had been the most astonishing of all the queer events
15. Aftermath
MARTY sat alone in the kitchen by the table, peeling some potatoes for her grandmother. One foot was propped on a stool. The warm morning sunlight streamed through the windows, all open to an air as balmy as midsummer. She was alone as she worked. Mrs. Greene was upstairs trying to straighten affairs in her disordered house, Ted and Monsieur had gone over to the Coast-Guard Station to ascertain the condition of the pianos, Mr. Burnett had gone to town by way of walking up the beach, and Chips was out in the back, chopping vigorously at the fallen willow tree, to remove its obstruction from the dooryard
16. Thusy Takes the Spotlight
IT struck Marty that Mr. Burnett looked rather grave when he came in. He and the others were armed with large packages of supplies that he had promised to bring Mrs. Greene from town. When he had put them on the table he announced:
17. Chips Solves the Riddle
THEY all collapsed in helpless laughter at the impudence of the retort. And when they had recovered, Mr. Burnett eagerly made a suggestion
“June 11, 1912
18. One November Night
ON the stage of a certain concert-hall in New York, a slim young boy sat at a grand piano. The stage was lighted but the rest of the hall was darkened. The audience could not be seen by the boy who was drawing such remarkable strains of melody from the piano keys
