"What do you mean?" cried Varrick.
"I can tell you the story in a very few words, sir," returned the man; "and surely there's no one more competent to relate it than myself. I can relate it while we are rowing over to Wau-Winet Island:
"Some six months ago a stranger suddenly appeared in our midst. He purchased Wau-Winet Island, and a few days later a score or more of workmen appeared one night at Alexandria Bay, and boarded a tug that was to take them out to the island.
"These workmen were all strangers to the inhabitants around Alexandria Bay, and they spoke in a different language.
"They lived upon the island for a month or more, never once coming in contact with the people hereabouts.
"All their food was brought to them. Soon their mysterious manners became the talk of all the country round.
"In a month's time they had erected a grand stone house—almost a castle—hidden from any one who might chance to pass the island, by a net-work of trees.
"At length the gray-stone house was completed, and the strange, uncanny workmen took their departure as silently as they had come.
"The people were warned to keep away from the place, for the workmen had left behind them a large, ferocious dog who menaced the life of any one who attempted to land on Wau-Winet Island.
"Only last night an event happened which I shall never forget if I live to be the age of Methuselah. I was standing near the dock, when suddenly some one laid a heavy hand on my shoulder.