us turned, half-running. And for a vague, bewildered, half-remembered moment we searched frantically up and down the craggy shore of the lagoon. Then in the moonlight I saw Nopp and Nealman come together, and Nopp seized the other’s arms. “My God, Grover!” he said hoarsely. “The body has disappeared!” [Pg 75] [Pg 75] CHAPTER IX There was no further possibility of a mistake. Marten’s inability to find the body could not be further attributed to a mere confusion as to its correct location. In the few minutes we had been phoning and while the remainder of the guests had been searching for the murderer, the body of the murdered man had vanished from the shore of the lagoon. Nor had any mysterious over-sweeping of the water carried it away. We found, easily enough, the place where it had lain, and we knew it by the crushed vegetation and an ominous stain on the earth. For a moment we all stood speechless, almost motionless, gazing down on the place where the body had been. The guest’s faces all looked oddly white in the moonlight. Then I heard Nealman and Nopp talking in a subdued voice at my side. “You see what it means,” Nealman said. “The murderer came back to the body—that’s the only explanation! That means he’s still on [Pg 76]the grounds—perhaps within a few hundred yards.” [Pg 76] “But what did he do with the thing? I wish I did know what it meant. It makes no sense. But there’s nothing we can do——” do——” His words blurred in my consciousness, and I suddenly ceased to hear him. The reason was simply that my own thoughts were now too busy to admit external impressions. If there was one thing needed in this affair it was careful investigation and research—the very key and basis of my own life’s work. I was a scientist—at least I had gone a distance into scientific work—and scientific methods were needed now. Why shouldn’t I direct the same method that made me a successful naturalist into the unraveling of this mystery? Science has explored the lightless mysteries of the deep, has measured the stars
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