Strange events took place on the Nannabijou Limits during the morning of the day Hammond left by tug for Kam City.
Josephine Stone arose early after a restless night of nervous dread of she knew not what. There had been disturbing incidents that had contributed to her trepidation. When she had returned to the island after her fright at encountering the Indian wizard, Ogima Bush, on the trail, she found Mrs. Johnson, her companion, was absent. Inquiry of her Indian woman-of-all-work, brought out fragmentary information that Mrs. Johnson had left shortly after Miss Stone and Hammond had set out on their trip up Nannabijou Hill.
“Two men come in boat,” said the girl, “and big lady go way with them.”
“But, Mary,” insisted Miss Stone, “didn’t she leave any message—didn’t she tell you any words to tell me?”
“Maybe tell Mary—don’t know. They talk fast. Walk fast. Go way fast—in put-put boat. Maybe go some place big lady know, for she laugh and look—glad. Mary think she say she not come back for long time.”
“Which way did the boat go?”
The Indian girl swung her arm to the west. “Maybe go to city, don’t know.”
Mrs. Johnson must have been sent for hurriedly. Most likely she had received an urgent message from her home in Calgary. Something sudden must have happened, but Josephine Stone could not imagine the considerate Mrs. Johnson leaving without an explanation. She again frantically searched every possible place in the cottage for sign of a note that she might have left behind. There was none.
The messengers in the boat must have brought a telegram from Calgary to her. Perhaps, in her excitement, she had forgotten to leave a message of explanation. But just what sort of news Mrs. Johnson could have received that would make her laugh and “look glad,” as the Indian girl had said, was more than she could imagine.
“Mary,” Miss Stone demanded, “did you see the men give Mrs. Johnson a piece of paper to read before she left?”