The Dante Club

Up ahead, Lowell dropped to one knee. He sca

Mead’s head was visible from a narrow opening cut into the lake of ice. The rest of his naked body was concealed by the ice water, under which his feet were bound. His teeth chattered violently. His tongue was curled up in the back of his mouth. Mead’s bare arms were stretched forward on the ice and bound tightly by some rope, which extended from his wrists to Dr. Ma

Ma

Teal stepped onto the embankment to watch them struggle, and then a gunshot rang out. It cracked the bark of a tree behind the murderer.

Lowell charged ahead, gripping his weapon and sliding wildly across the ice. “Teal!” he shouted. His rifle was poised for another shot. Longfellow, Holmes, and Fields all scrambled behind him.

Fields yelled, “Mr. Teal, you must stop this!”

Lowell could not believe what he saw over the barrel of his gun. Teal was remaining perfectly still.

“Shoot, Lowell, shoot!” Fields yelled.

Lowell always liked to take aim on hunting trips but never to fire. The sun now rose to a perfect height, unfurling over the vast crystalline surface.

For a moment the men were blinded by the reflection. By the time their eyes adjusted, Teal had vanished, the soft sounds of his ru

Pliny Mead, shivering uncontrollably, went entirely limp, his head drooping against the ice and his body slowly sinking into the deadly water. Ma

Holmes heard the crack of a whip and looked up to see Lowell on the driver’s box of the abandoned carriage. He urged the horses into the woods. Holmes jumped up and ran toward him. “Jamey, no!” Holmes cried. “We must get them into the warmth or they’ll die!”

“Teal will escape, Holmes!” Lowell stopped the horses and stared at the pathetic figure of Augustus Ma

Dr. Holmes stripped off his gloves and hat, then his overcoat and frock coat, and began piling them over Pliny Mead. “Wrap them up in everything you have! Cover their heads and necks!” He ripped off his cravat and tied it around the boy’s neck. Then he kicked off his boots and his socks, slipping them onto Mead’s feet. The others watched Holmes’s dancing hands carefully and imitated him.

Ma

Dr. Holmes shouted, “Make sure to keep them awake! If they fall asleep, we’ll lose them!”

With difficulty, they carried the frigid bodies into the carriage. Lowell, stripped down to his shirtsleeves, returned to the driver’s box. As instructed by Holmes, Longfellow and Fields rubbed the victims’ necks and shoulders and raised their feet for circulation.

“Hurry, Lowell, hurry!” Holmes called out.

“We’re moving as fast as we can manage, Wendell!”

Holmes had known at once that Mead had the worst of it. A terrible gash at the back of his head, presumably left there by Teal, was an ill ingredient to mix with the deadly exposure. He frantically jolted the boy’s blood circulation on the short ride back to town. In spite of himself, Holmes heard echoing in his mind his poem he recited to his students to remind them how to treat their patients.

Mead’s body was so cold that it hurt him to touch it.

“The boy was lost before we arrived at Fresh Pond. There was no way to do more. You must believe that, my dear Holmes.”

Dr. Holmes was sliding Longfellow’s Te

“And Augustus Ma

The three Longfellow girls, dressed elaborately for outdoor play, knocked at the study door.

Alice was the first inside. “Papa, Trudy and all the other girls are sledding on the hill. Can’t we go?”

Longfellow looked to his friends, who were fixed in armchairs all around the room. Fields shrugged.

“Other children will be there?” Longfellow asked.

“All of Cambridge!” a

“Very well,” said Longfellow, but then studied them as he was overcome with second thoughts. “A

“Oh please, Papa! I have my new shoes to wear!” A

“My dear Panzie,” he said, smiling. “I promise just this once.” The other two skipped out, and the little girl went into the hall to find her governess.

Nicholas Rey arrived in full-dress army uniform, with a blue coat and tunic. He reported that nothing had been found. But Sergeant Stoneweather had now raised several squads of men to search for Benjamin Galvin. “The board of health a