* * * * *
"So, how should we handle this?" I asked Sir Anthony.
"Very delicately," he replied: "Tonight, before lights out, I shall write a letter to Mr. Chelgi at the Detroit Lodge. Requesting that he conduct a most discrete integrity check on Mr. Galstaff and his assistant. Along with a statement of our reasons for same. I will also ask that he mail his findings to us, via special delivery. For, as you know, the general store at Deepayintinee has no telegraph, and only local telephone service."
"That's a pretty long walk, from the south shore landing to the trail head," remarked Bob: "You want me to take that letter there for you, tomorrow?"
"A capital idea, Robert! Yes, thank you."
We then resumed our deliberations on how to ask our three immediate suspects a second round of questions without tipping our hands. During that interval, I half-consciously registered the voices of youngsters raised in song. And, I vaguely recognized one of the numbers as an accapella rendition of "My Country, 'Tis Of Thee." Evidently, some of the children were rehearsing a number for the Fourth of July celebrations, this coming Monday night, when some of the prospective adoptive parents from Opening Day would be returning.
My reverie was interrupted, however, by the sound of another youngster's voice shrilly calling for help!
The three of us hurriedly ran outside, and saw a girl about nine or ten years of age running into the courtyard of the main camp from a westward-facing hiking trail. Mr. Draconicov, the chief administrator, reached her first, and just barely caught her in time as she collapsed in a near-faint.
"Bob! Smelling salts; in my knapsack. Quick!"
He merely nodded, and had returned with them in short order. I then held one of the ampules under the girl's nose, while Draconicov and the camp nurse held her up. One at each shoulder. Faster than it takes time to tell, she was sitting up and coughing. I then looked at the camp nurse, and softly asked for the girl's name.
"Stacy Bishop," she whispered back.
"Stacy?" I now asked, slightly louder: "My name is Dr. Thorpe. What happened, dear? Why were you calling for help?"
Stammering and stuttering, the poor shaken waif gradually made it clear that she and her cabin mates--along with the girls from neighboring cabins--had been taken for a nature hike around the lake by their section leader. Upon reaching the southeast corner of the lake, they stopped to rest. Choosing to cool off their aching feet on a good-sized sandbar.
Suddenly, however, the water had begun to stir and bubble, quite strangely!
"Miss Stepwicz..."(and, here, Tomas Schmidt became deathly pale), "...she made us stand back up and put our shoes back on! As she was afraid it might be muskies hunting trout in the shallows, or something. But, it wasn't. It was...it was a beautiful lady in white."
"A lady in white?" I echoed: "Are you sure?"
Stacy nodded: "She introduced herself as Meleusina. And, she said she had come to take us to our new home. Because, even the most beautiful home on land was just plain ugly compared to the underwater castle where she and her sisters lived! And, what orphan girl wouldn't want to live like a princess?"
Stacy added how this Meleusina had not said of any of this in a normal tone of voice. It was more like she had heard the strange woman's voice in her head, while the woman, herself, kept on humming some indescribable tune.
"Then, suddenly, all the other girls began walking toward her! I was the only one of them who didn't. Because, there was something about her eyes that scared me! And, Miss Stepwicz must've been scared, too. Because, she took out her Swiss army knife; set it to the biggest blade it had; and, then, held it over her head as she ran straight at this Meleusina. Screaming really loud!!"
"That's when I got twice as scared, and ran for help."
"Mein Gott!" muttered Schmidt: "Nich mein Anna! Nein!"
Whereupon, he would have run off half-cocked if Bob and Sir Anthony had not grabbed him, right away. He struggled a bit violently. But, they managed to keep hold of him until he had calmed down enough that they felt confident in releasing him. By which time, Draconicov had organized a search party from the staff members of both the boys' and girls' camps.
While he was preoccupied with that, I softly asked Stacy (at Sir Anthony's insistence) what precisely about Meleusina's eyes had scared her. She replied:
"They were black and skinny...like a snake's eyes!"
tbc
Giantess World
Author's Chapter Notes:
Things start to get a little darker, now.
Chapter End Notes:
Muskie: American slang term for "muskellunge." A member of the pike family that's recently acquired a controversial reputation for being more of a freshwater barracuda.