"There has been no rain for a long while, the lake is low, and one can see more distinctly the stones and pebbles on the bottom. Now I've already noticed that some of the stones are arranged in a certain pattern. Look."
"Undoubtedly," he said. "And they've hewn stones, shaped. One might fancy that they formed huge letters. Have you noticed it?"
"Yes. And one can guess the words that those letters form: 'In robore fortuna.' At the mayor's office I've studied an old map of the neighborhood. Here, where we are, was formerly the principal lawn of a sunken garden, and on this very lawn one of your ancestors had this device inscribed in blocks of stone. Since then some one has let in the water of the Maine over the sunken garden. The pool has taken the place of the lawn. The device is hidden."
And she added between her teeth:
"And so are the few words and the figures below the device, which I have not yet been able to see. And it's that which interests me. Do you see them?"
"Yes. But indistinctly."
"That's just it. We're too near them. We need to look at them from a height."
"Let's climb up on the hillocks."
"No use. The slope—the water would blur the image."
"Then," said he, laughing, "we must mount above them in an aëroplane."