Show S MATERS aanna a ahna mcclure shell W i B N q U st CHAPTER I 1 alts AS S THE one train iraln a day pursued its course through a sparsely settled hill country janet mercer was conjecturing why parents should send boys boy and girls to school in such a lonely region from her bag she had taken more than once onca the clipping of an advertisement verti ement pinned to the letter which had so greatly aroused her interest and had resulted in her turning burning her bridges and coming to this unfamiliar region to teach english literature and rhetoric the advertisement had first caught her attention because bee ause of its odd wording loftland Lost Lostia land nd academy famous in its time in the fingerlike Finger lake region it still adheres to classical education and regards an acquaintance with horace as a privilege to be sought not evaded in the interest of U ur bality A new ner faculty IR b beings belh brought pr ought together and the bonor honor of aiding in its composition rs Is open to early applicants college graduates only need apply A teacher of english literature and rhetoric I 1 Is needed also a teacher of mathematics and chemistry the letter signed gordon haskell was more circumstantial my dear miss mercer your letter of application forthe for the post of teacher of english literature and rhetoric in loftland Lost land academy pleased me greatly you seem well qualified for the position and I 1 should judge that you were a young lady not easily disturbed or excited and fully equipped mentally to earn the generous r salary alary of af three hundred a month for the eight teaching months which Is the standard salary for my teach ers I 1 relieve believe that if you desire talent you must be willing to pay tor for it and the noble work of educating our future citizens should liev r be underpaid 4 f to reach loftland Lost land academy you must change cars at and take a branch line we have but one train a day which leaves at 10 a m and arrives here at 4 unfortunately it has neither a pullman an nor dining car so you would do well to bring a station lunch box you will be met at blade perhaps there will be another member of the faculty traveling down at the same aade time janet had looked her fellow pas engen oyer over several times in the hop of identifying another member of the faculty but no one fittin ung in her preconception she caos a man about twenty seven years old in whose countenance she thought she ahe detected ability to solve mathematical problems he too had brought a station lunch box and about noon he examined its III contents but he ate mechanically chani cally and then settled to the examination of a letter after a time he made a journey down the rocking aisle of the train to the water tank where he had infinite difficulty in clawing out a paper cup then in sh it and conveying the nicked rim to hla his lips with an air ir of relief and some come water on his vest he biml came e down the aisle As ac the train turned a curve the young man passed janeas seat and was nearly precipitated into it simultaneously 1 I he ie regained his bal arnce nee and baw ane letter outspread on her lap fj im so sorry he be apologized in a delightful voice and will you me m e tery impertinent may 1 I if you are on the way to fe loftland Lost land academy S yes ycek im I 1 the teacher of eng burti diab literature and rhetoric y f and jm im slated for mathematics an and d chemistry wont you sit down Th thanks anka hi he smiled boyishly boyls lily as it really grateful to her for the invitation beneath the smile she read a certain bewilderment min aled led when hla his eyes were turned toward her with frank ly admiration ile be was thinking that she was very pretty he liked liar blue serge suit and her close little velvet hat from under which lier ber eyes regarded him kindly rather bather strange landee landscape ape he ventured but its all sarfin strange e my sudden cowing coming the letter the large salary and every one on the nine ame basis somehow it fill all seems rather ideal the lonely country a number of people with a common purpose marooned among these 1 I dont like cities I 1 am 3 looking Goking forward to cross country 7 walks skating do you skate alyis yes I 1 am very veri fond fon d of outdoor sports Bp orta i and I 1 suppose you love your sub ejects or you would i scarcely be ua leaching ching them 1 5 engli english literature J my I 1 cr 1 feel as if I 1 were a mistress inis treBS of ceremonies and should I 1 wave a wand a blind man inan with beautiful thoughts and visions would enter or a melancholy poet with the heart of a child and a 0 great fear about his salvation or a stern and young woman whose soul I 1 am sure still haunts the purple heather in yorkshire milton cowper and emily bronte 11 he be commented with a smile 1 I am a great lover of dickens I 1 want to go to london bo be fore all his haunts have vanished I 1 should like to see dover as david did you remember he imagined his bis mother coming down the shining road of the sea mine died when I 1 was three afy my mother Is dead too and my rather father married again 1 I am so glad you are to be on the faculty his color rose a little and his dear boyish eyes were directed again to the hying flying hills there was another strange thin thing she ventured 1 I did not find loftland Lostia Lost land nd acad academy auy listed in any of the educational directories 1 I 1 looked for 14 it too then I 1 thought it might possibly have a new official name and unregistered I 1 wish we were there I 1 want to have all my questions answered what time is it just three one hour more blade proved to be a flag station I 1 no one but himself and janet mer I 1 and a middle aged woman in black alighted from the train the three stood uncertainly on the rough unpainted platform and then a woman in black approached them a shade of anxiety in her k kindly sensible face 1 I am mrs denver she said the new matron at loftland Lost land academy I 1 expected to be met but I 1 do not see anyone are you ac q i minted were no wi we are strangers this Is ie mr fleming one of the new teach eis and I 1 am miss mercer 1 I am glad you are going there too mrs denver exclaimed with unmistakable relief this seems such a lonesome place undeniably it did the hills vast and grayish green in color as if from of granite ruse rose with threatening abruptness immediately back of the little station from the station root roof a rotting sign I 1 hung hearing bearing in faded crimson let the word blade what an orld location for an acad Mc ademy erny janet commented beginning to feel rather homesick and lonely and thankful that mrs denver was there with her obvious good balance and her kindly concerned face fleming did not answer her comment but janet saw that he was puzzled and that he bleared bli ared the dismay of lila lons ions 1 I imagine haskell relies as much on fresh air as on the urbanities ties of horace to bring his pupils forward and considering that he knew three of us were arriving on this one train a day it seems strange he send send some kind of a conveyance for us here cowes comes a larmer farmer f with a load of apples sirs mrs denver said lets ask him the creaking old wagon was still stil several hundred yards away and they watched its slow progress with impatience A wizened old man was hunched in the drivers seat and the slack reins hung almost to the ground behind him was a mound of greenish apples and his gray hair blew in the mountain wind As aa he drew near arthur hailed him ean can you yon tell us ui how to get to loftland Lost land academy and how tar far it Is ii from here the slack rein was drawn up but the inquiries were not answered immediately the driver stared with a curious expression at them as it if they were in some way marked and identified by their connection with this academy as destined for no ordinary experiences 1 I know the place ought t its been there moren a hundred years hell send for you all right duebbe will be easier to get there than to come away why do you say that arthur demanded Is there anything wrong with the place the country mans manner became secretive almost shy rhy 1 I dunno as there Is I 1 never heard a big school in doctor brace bridges day Haskell Has kellil ll send for you all right the farmer continued gazing at them then as if this were none of his business he chirped to his bis horses and the wagon moved ponderously derous ly forward at the same mo ment bien abey heard the distant chug ol of a mol motor or arta and a ahr car swung into view from around a curve behind it clattering and swaying appeared an open wagon drawn by two bony white horses the poor beasts had evidently been whipped down the mountain and janet now seeing singularity in hi the most obvious circumstances felt that even een the horses in this wild region looked like the horses in a miracle pageant lean and scarred and foam flecked with long thin necks protruding toward scones scenes in which like alke they scented disaster the man who drove the car was a septuagenarian in appearance his comp companion anlon directing the white horses a youngish fellow with a rather sullen air the new teachers he asked with a kind of leer toward the imperturbable old man on the front seat beal yes and as you have but one ona train a day here it seems to me you ought to be able to meet it promptly fleming remarked conscious that his strictures were not altogether logical the man laughed and began putting the elie baggage in his wagon and adjusting a tarpaulin over it with the comment that it was likely to rain the old driver of the car indicated by a wave of the hand that they were to get in mrs denver and janet both secretly rather unhappy and nervous took their places ilow how far Is it about live five miles Is it near a village it used to be were comin to the ruins a genuine deserted village I 1 ng e it was culled called loftland Lost land too in the old days there was no time for further discussion for now they were entering a road protected from curious visitors by high iron gates newly spanned by an iron grille hearing bearing in letters once gilded the words loftland Lost land academy they now beheld a great mansion looming beyond the immense pines which were shaking in the wind built massively in the shape of a greck temple its high porch columns reached to the root roof and supported a tympanum on which was bleaching a latin motto in tall black faded letters which fleming at janeas request translated as the biblical text unless the lord build the house their labor Is in vain that build it from the central body of the building which was of brick warm and time toned aud and superimposed upon a basement of granite blocks two wings of the same material jutted butted out the whole covered with huge metallic green patches of english ivy carefully cut away from the long narrow georgian windows filled with small panes of glass flashing purple and violet iridescence lilac bushes almost as tall as trees partially hid some of the ground floor windows A strange hush was over the place so BO deep so profoundly unbroken by human voices or sounds that the three passengers spoke in whispers as if not to introduce a discordant note an evergreen walk outlined by enormous century old box bushes stretched to a tar far perspective in that walk a tall man was pacing with a cloak over his shoulder H he e looked both unhappy and reliable j the car stopped before a majestic front door with a fan and sidelights tilled with delicate iron tracery shoe scrapers in ancient iron flanked the stone steps down these a man about forty years of i age came to greet them tall clean I 1 shaven with bright restless eyes I 1 and an over solicitous manner he be seemed more like a very keen cluan anan cler than a schoolmaster he was fastidiously dressed in a nearly new suit of leaf brown in his buttonhole he wore a gardenia strangely reminiscent janet thought both of funerals and festivities 1 ali ah my new teacher of english literature I 1 my new teacher of mathematics my new matron matro nl 1 he bald in a soft almost paternal voice which tilled filled janet with a vague resentment sent ment welcome I 1 welcome I 1 down that avenue between the evergreen hedges you see the new professor of psychology almost like hamlet in appearance he I 1 told him he be suited the old academy quite marvelously come in I 1 come in binl I 1 they followed him into a broad imposing hall paved with lozenges of black and white marble which at one place bore an insertion in green stone of a laurel wreath surrounding the letters in black marble loftland Lost land academy on the white paneled side walls hung dark oil paintings of stern and scholarly men in gown and bands their yellowed hands resting on neat plies piles of books beyond them one of a much later date represented a man in middle life clothed in the academic gown with a crimson hood and wearing the I 1 mortar board the gown was nying fly in the wind indicated by bending tle toPs and a wild sky of cumulus clouds and the artist had put an expression in the eyes far removed from academic calm a searching hungry sorrowful look tile the first licht three presidents of loftland Lost land 11 haskell said with a wave of the hand toward the older portraits who Is the fourth the very sad gentleman who seems to be running from this spot arthur asked boldly haskell changed color flashed a look almost of hatred at his n ii ew I 1 teacher the fou fourth rf h Is br dr jeffiro bracebridge he replied curtly 1 I see a lake in the background la Is there a lake near here janet questioned yes we have a small but terrifically rifi rill cally deep lake almost back of the grounds and from it recedes one of those wild gorges for which this middle section of new york Is a justly ramous it has a waterfall w ater fall of course janet remarked haskeu haskell gave her a piercing look are you clairvoyant yes it has a fall rather a high and terrible fall a direct sheer drop of two hundred and twenty five feet from no an out jutting ledge above this fall he continued his manner becoming chiore more gracious the cliffs rise to a height of four hundred feet let me show you into the drawing room he ushered them into a lo 10 long ng apartment filled with old fashioned green velvet covered chairs and ofa boba over the fireplace hung a painting of the old academy representing it in the elie blandness of some forgotten gotten summer a coach and four drawn up before the pillared portico and little girls in full skirts and panta lettes rolling hoops on the trim walks or playing battledore itna shuttlecock on the shaved green lawns A in large rge photograph album bound in green leather lay on a marblo marble topped console table mechanically chani cally janet raised its cover dout dont touch that please haskell said sharply she took her hand away flushing with embarrassment 1 I beg your pardon I 1 really have no special interest in the book no matter mattery miss mercer I 1 suppose im fussy perhaps the old things shou dit t be about but I 1 like to have everything as it was in 1 my sterrit friers time my stepfather dr jethro Jet bro bracebridge I 1 was very devoted to him I 1 watched over dver his oli la last t melancholy years hen when n the old pince was shut up well have ten tea here and then you can go to your rooms dine stairs lit ht |