Duma Key

Edgar and the others enter the ruins of Heron’s Roost, which look like they have not been visited in decades. In a rotting chest in a downstairs study, Jack finds a handwritten note from 1926, in which John’s friend Dave Davis writes of gifting John “Table X 2” (597). Edgar remembers Elizabeth’s remark that the table is leaking. He also recalls Mary Ire telling him that Davis used to supply Jack bootlegged liquor and disappeared at sea in 1926. He realizes the note refers to a whiskey brand. At the bottom of the stairway, the men find a ha-ha, a false step which serves as a box. Inside the box is a tin labeled “Elizabeth/Her Things” (602). In the box is the ragdoll Noveen. Edgar wishes Noveen could talk because it was through her that Perse spoke to Elizabeth at first. When Jack jokes that he knows a bit of ventriloquism, Edgar gets a flash of inspiration. Since the house is filled with Perse’s power and the remnants of Elizabeth’s potent imagination, Jack can actually try making Noveen talk.

Jack sits Noveen on his knee like a ventriloquist’s dummy and lets his mind wander as he practices a routine.