* * * * *
The peacefulness of our sleep ended (just as I had diagnosed) very early, Thursday morning, with the blaring call of a bugle!
Evidently, it was the custom for two male youths to volunteer for reveille duty. One to blow on the bugle; the other to hold a coxswain-style megaphone in front of its bell. Just to be certain everyone else heard it and awoke!
Upon getting dressed, Bob Gabriel, Sir Anthony, and I went over to the mess hall for breakfast. There, Mr. Draconicov introduced us to the rest of his staff. Not to mention, the cabin monitors. That is; the older youngsters who supervised the younger boys and girls in each sleep-away cabin.
The cabins that housed the girls were about a hundred yards eastward, down an obviously well-worn path. And, as soon as they arrived, breakfast started getting served. Thirty minutes later, after everyone had eaten their fill, the dishes were cleared away by those youngsters who were on kitchen duty. Whereupon, the three of us accompanied Mr. Draconicov back to his office.
"So!" he exclaimed: "What would you gentlemen like to see, first?"
"I think it would behoove us to start with your administrative files," replied Sir Anthony: "To see who among them is from Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin. We went there to see a woman who claimed to know the name of a man complicit in the disappearance of the orphan train. Unfortunately, for us, she was...rather brutally murdered before she could identify him for us! So, we must find that out, the hard way."
"And, you think that man is on staff, here?"
Mr. Draconicov seemed genuinely horrified by the idea.
"Such is what we've been led to believe," Sir Anthony replied: "So, we must pursue that avenue of investigation. Even it leads to a dead end!"
Mr. Draconicov nodded and asserted he understood.
"Luckily, for you," he added (with a slightly mischievous smile): "...we cross-reference our staff members by state and home town."
Yes, that was lucky, indeed. For what I had dreaded would take us, literally, all day actually only took us one-twelfth that long! With Bob handing me the geographically arranged files. While Sir Anthony was handed those that had been alphabetically arranged.
Finally, about twenty minutes before lunch, we had narrowed down our list of suspects to three. Tobias Blair; Thomas Schmidt; and Theophilus Wiseman.
"Hmmmmmmmm!" Sir Anthony mused, partially, to himself: "Quite an assortment we've compiled. Thomas Schmidt is a Pennsylvania Dutchman who moved to Arbor Vitae after being sentenced to shunning, for some reason not specified. He teaches woodworking."
"Tobias Blair, on the other hand," added Bob: "...is a retired soldier-of-fortune who initially served with the French Foreign Legion, following his less-than-honorable discharge from the U.S. Army. He teaches archery."
"And, Theo Wiseman," I joined in: "...spent a lot of time overseas, as a back country missionary, before ending up here as the camp chaplain."
Sir Anthony consulted his pocket watch.
"It's about ten minutes before noon. Why don't we wait for lunch call? Then, we'll all have them in one place. Three of them; three of us. Giving each of us someone to personally question."
Bob and I shrugged, good-naturedly.
"Sounds like a plan," I said.
tbc
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
MANISTIQUE COUNTY, MICH.
(JUNE 30, 1921)
(JUNE 30, 1921)