“The agitation may have been caused by a draft of air.”
“I thought that, but the windows were closed in the room where we sat.”
“There are windows in the other room.”
“But, if either was open, there was nothing to make a draft. There is no mistake about it;—Uncle Elk was within a few feet of us all the time.”
The wife was so positive that her husband was brought to her way of thinking.
“Strange as it seems, you are right. There can be no doubt now that he doesn’t wish to meet us. He must have known of our camp on the other side of the lake and ought to have paid his respects to us. More than that, he ignored my invitation, though the time is so brief since it was made that that of itself is not conclusive. Well, all we can do is to accept the facts and leave him to himself.”
“He has been represented as the soul of hospitality. Why should he be repelled by us? Why did he not pull in his latchstring?”
“He was not expecting us or he might have done so.”
The doctor resumed his deliberate paddling and a minute later his wife asked:
“Have you any suspicion of the reason for his acting as he did?”