Drew paused to lock the cottage which had been Mother Ramacciotti’s. He had bought the furnishings.
“What will you do with the cottage now?” Johnny asked.
“Listen.” Drew’s look was serious, sad. “We are going on a vacation, you and I, Herman, Newton Mills, and Joyce. Before that vacation is over, unless conditions change, the gunmen will have provided us another widow and more orphans to fill that cottage. I mean to keep it till there are no more. God grant that the time may soon come!”
A week later Johnny, Drew and Joyce were seated in a clinker-built rowboat over a deep, dark hole that lies close to shore on the north side of Lake Huron. On the shore was a cabin. In a sunny spot before the cabin Herman McCarthey and Newton Mills sat spinning yarns. For life must not be all work. Man’s nature demands a change. They were enjoying the change along with those who were younger.
Drew Lane’s experiences as a detective were not over. They were but well begun. The problems of enforcing the law and maintaining order in a great republic are never fully solved. They go on from year to year and from generation to generation. Drew Lane was destined to do his full part. And Johnny Thompson, as his understudy, was not to lag far behind. If you are to realize this to the full, you must read our next book entitled The Gray Shadow.
Transcriber’s Note
- Copyright notice provided as in the original printed text—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.
- Apparent typgraphical errors were corrected without note.
- Non-standard spellings and dialect were not changed.