As she has said, the lake is not deep, and several of the men-servants at Fairvale Park are skillful swimmers, but for all that they cannot find the earl's memorandum-book beneath the shallow waves. All trace of it is gone.
"Are you quite sure you carried it down to the lake with you?" the baronet asks, unfeignedly perplexed.
"I am quite sure," she replies, with decision. "It lay open on my lap when I fell asleep."
"Can any one have stolen it?" he asks, unconsciously hitting the truth.
"Impossible," she answers. "I am sure if any one had come near me, I should have awakened. I am a very light sleeper."
"There is something very mysterious about its loss. I am quite confident it did not fall into the lake," muses Sir Harry Clive.
Lady Vera, on the contrary, is quite sure that it did, but she does not urge her belief, feeling a little wounded by his incredulous air, but after a little, she says, thoughtfully:
"I am so sure that what I have told you is the truth and no dream, Sir Harry, that I shall write to this Joel McPherson in America, and offer him a large reward to come to England and explain that strange entry in the lost memorandum-book. What do you think of my plan?"
"It can do no harm," he answers, after a moment's thought, "and it might be a good plan."
"Then I shall lose no time in executing it," she answers, decisively.