The whole party crowded to the hearth where benches and chairs were drawn up in a wide circle before the flames. The maids relieved Mrs. MacCall and the girls of their outer wraps and overshoes. The boys had been shown where they were to leave their caps and coats.
Such a hilarious crowd as they were! Jokes and cheerful gossip were the order of this hour of rest. With all but one member of the party! There was one very serious face, and this was the countenance of the youngest of the four Kenway sisters.
"Dorothy Kenway! what is the matter with you?" demanded Tess, at last seeing the expression on the face of her little sister.
Dot had been gazing all about the room with amazed eyes until this question came. Then with gravity she asked:
"Tessie! didn't Mr. Howbridge say this was a lodge?"
"Why, yes; this is Red Deer Lodge, child," rejoined Tess.
"But--but, Tess! you know it isn't a lodge, nor a room where they have lodges! Now, is it?!"
"It can't be!" went on the smaller girl with great insistence. "You know that was a lodge where we went night before last to have our Christmas tree on Meadow Street."
"Yes. You know it was. And there was a pulpit and chairs on a platform at both ends of the lodge. And lodges are held there. I know, 'cause Becky Goronofsky's father belongs to one that meets there. She said so. And he wears a little white apron with a blue border and a sash over his shoulder.
"Now," said the earnest Dot, "there's nothing like that here, so it's not a lodge at all. I don't see why they call it a red lodge for deers."
Tess would have been tempted to call on Mr. Howbridge himself for an explanation of this seeming mystery had the lawyer not been just then in conference with Hedden in a corner of the room. The butler had beckoned his employer away from the others.
"What is it, Hedden?" asked the lawyer. "Has something gone wrong?"
"Not with the arrangements for the comfort of your party, Mr. Howbridge," the man assured him. "But when we came in here yesterday (and I unlocked the door myself with the key you gave me) I found that somebody had recently occupied the Lodge."
"You don't mean it! Somebody broken in! Some thief?"
"No, sir. I went around to all the windows and doors. Nobody had broken in. Whoever it was must have had a key, too."