KASTLE KRAGS A STORY OF MYSTERY BY ABSALOM MARTIN NEW YORK DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 1922 Copyright, 1921, 1922 By Duffield & Company By Duffield & Company Printed in U. S. A. TABLE OF CONTENTS [Pg 3] [Pg 3] KASTLE KRAGS CHAPTER I Who could forget the Ochakee River, and the valley through which it flows! The river itself rises in one of those lost and nameless lakes in the Floridan central ridge, then is hidden at once in the live oak and cypress forests that creep inland from the coasts. But it can never be said truly to flow. Over the billiard-table flatness of that land it moves so slowly and silently that it gives the effect of a lake stirred by the wind. These dark waters, and the moss-draped woodlands through which they move, are the especial treasure-field and delight of the naturalist and scientist from the great universities of the North. It is a lost river; and