Chains extending from concealed mechanism below the walking-beam proved the dams to be operated by power. A tiny building, cleverly cached in a natural opening in the rocks at the west side, and from which copper wire was strung into the Cup, housed the hydro-electric plant where the current was generated. Hammond was scientific enough to conceive that the water-gate and the gong-signal near it were animated by a concealed magnet system at the simple pressing of an electric button somewhere.
As he swept into the Cup, Hammond’s discovery of the beautiful little mountain lake and the buildings above it, set off by their well-kept parklike surroundings, was even more of a revelation. From the plane it proved a wonderful picture—so wonderful that Hammond forgot he was in an area of danger until it recurred to him that here some place Josephine Stone was held captive.
But when he circled over the chateau and the wireless plant, he could discover no signs of life. He was certain if there were people about their attention would have long since been attracted by the roar of his engine. He decided to land and make an investigation in spite of the caution of Inspector Little that he should return to the camps after making observations from the air.
He slid down at a point in front of the bungalow.
II
The silence after quitting his machine seemed oppressive, and the place utterly deserted. He walked up on the verandah and rapped thrice on the chateau door. Receiving no answer, he tried the door. It was not locked, so he opened it and boldly entered. He was now determined to explore the building from top to bottom. The quaint, unusual appointments of the chateau at another time would have deeply interested him, but he felt he must work fast and be on the alert for surprise.
The rooms all bore the appearance of recent occupancy, but there were evidences that the house had been set in order before the departure of its people.
The sleeping chambers he examined last. All of these rooms had been swept, dusted and the beds made; but in one of them he picked up a fancy celluloid hair-comb. There was only one person on Nannabijou Limits to whom that could belong, and that was Josephine Stone.
The conviction brought home to Hammond from every quarter was that he had arrived too late. Josephine Stone’s captors must have carried her off to some other fastness. He thought of the building adjacent, but on going there he found the doors and windows securely locked. The blinds, however, were up, and he could get a clear view of all the rooms and the wireless plant inside. There was nothing else there beyond a number of empty bunks, a table and a few chairs.
It struck him that there was possibly another retreat hidden away in some other part of the Cup—perhaps up in the woods. He returned to the plane intending to make a thorough search of the area in the Cup from the air. But his engine was in a decidedly balky mood. He had a feeling it would fail him altogether, and, on an impulse of better judgment, he swung up and over the cliffs.