LITMIR.BIZ

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crease which had appeared so recently between Rupert’s eyes deepened.

      “Leg hurt, Val?” he asked quietly, glancing at the slim figure sharing his seat.

      “No. I’m expressing curiosity this time, old man, not just a whine. But if we’re going to be this far off the main highway—”

      “Oh, it’s not far from the city road. We ought to be seeing the gate-posts any moment now.”

      “Prophet!” Ricky leaned forward between them. “See there!”

      Two gray stone posts, as firmly planted by time as the avenue of live-oaks they headed, showed clearly in the afternoon light. And from the nearest, deep carven in the stone, a jagged-toothed skull, crowned and grinning, stared blankly at the three in the shabby car. Beneath it ran the insolent motto of an ancient and disreputable clan, “What I want—I take!”

      “This is the place all right—I recognize Joe there.” Val pointed to the crest. “Good old Joe, always laughing.”

      Ricky made a face. “Horrid old thing. I don’t see why we couldn’t have had a swan or something nice to swank about.”

      “But then the Lords of Lorne were hardly a nice lot in their prime,” Val reminded her. “Well, Rupert, let’s see the rest.”

      The car followed a graveled drive between tall bushes which would have been the better for a pruning. Then the road made a sudden curve and they came out upon a crescent of lawn bordering upon a stone-paved terrace three steps above. And on the terrace stood the home a Ralestone had not set foot in for over fifty years—Pirate’s Haven.

      “It looks—” Ricky stared up, “why, it looks just like the picture Mr. Harrison painted!”

      “Which proves why he is now in Italy,” Val returned. “But he did capture it on canvas.”

      “Gray stone—and those diamond-paned windows—and that squatty tower. But it isn’t like a Southern home at all! It’s some old, old place out of England.”

      “Because it was built by an exile,” said Rupert softly. “An exile who loved his home so well that he labored five years in the wilderness to build its duplicate. Those little diamond-paned windows were once protected with shutters an inch thick, and the place was a fort in Indian times. But it is strange to this country. That’s why it’s one of the show places. LeFleur asked me if we would be willing to keep up the custom of throwing the state rooms open to the public one day a month.”

      “And shall we?” asked Ricky.

      “We’ll see. Well, don’t you want to see the inside as well as the out?”

      “Of course! Val, you lazy thing, get out!”

      “Certainly, m’lady.” He swung open the door and climbed out stiffly. Although he wouldn’t have confessed it for any reason, his leg had been aching dully for hours.

      “Do you know,” Ricky hesitated on the first terrace step, bending down to put aside a trail of morning-glory vine which clutched at her ankle, “I’ve just remembered!”

      “What?” Rupert looked up from the grid where he was unstrapping their luggage.

      “That we are the very first Ralestones to—to come home since Grandfather Miles rode away in 1867.”

      “And why the sudden dip into ancient history?” Val inquired as he limped around to help Rupert.

      “I don’t know,” her eyes were fast upon moss-greened wall and ponderous door hewn of a single slab of oak, “except—well, we are coming home at last. I wonder if—if they know. All those others. Rick and Miles, the first Rupert and Richard and—”

      “That spitfire, the Lady Richanda?” Rupert smiled. “Perhaps they do. No, leave the bags here, Val. Let’s see the house first.”

      Together the Ralestones crossed the terrace and came to stand by the front door which still bore faint scars left by Indian hatchets. But Rupert stooped to insert a very modern key into a very modern lock. There was a click and the door swung inward before his push.

      “The Long Hall!” They stood in something of a hesitant huddle at the end of a long stone-floored room. Half-way down its length a wooden staircase led up to the second floor, and directly opposite that a great fireplace yawned mightily, black and bare.

      A leather-covered lounge was directly before this, flanked by two square chairs. And by the stairs was an oaken marriage chest. Save for two skin rugs, these were all the furnishings.

      But Ricky had crossed hesitatingly to that cavernous fireplace and was standing there looking up as her brothers joined her.

      “There’s where it was,” she said softly and pointed to a deep niche cut into the surface of the stone overmantel. That niche was empty and had been so for more than a hundred years—to their hurt. “That was where the Luck—”

      “How hold ye Lorne?” Rupert’s softly spoken question brought the well-remembered answer to Val’s lips:

      “By the oak leaf, by the sea wave, by the broadsword blade, thus hold we Lorne!”

      “The oak leaf is dust,” murmured Ricky, “the sea wave is gone, the broadsword is rust, how now hold ye Lorne?”

      Her brothers answered her together:

      “By our Luck, thus hold we Lorne!”

      “And we’ve got to get it back,” she said. “We’ve just got to! When the Luck hangs there again, we—”

      “Won’t have anything left to worry about,” Val finished for her. “But that’s a very big order, m’lady. Short of catching Rick’s ghost and forcing him to disclose the place where he hid it, I don’t see how we’re going to do it.”

      “But we are going to,” she answered confidently. “I know we are!”

      “A good thing,” Rupert broke in, a hint of soberness beneath the lightness of his tone as he looked about the almost bare room and then at the strained pallor of Val’s thin face. “The Ralestones have been luckless too long. And now suppose we take possession of this commodious mansion. I suggest that we get settled as soon as possible. I don’t like the looks of the western sky. We’re probably going to have a storm.”

      “What about the car?” Val asked as his brother turned to go.

      “Harrison used the old carriage house as a garage. I’ll run it in there. You and Ricky better do a spot of exploring and see about beds and food. I don’t know how you feel,” he went on grimly, “but after last night I want something softer than a dozen rocks to sleep on.”

      “I told you not to stop at that tourist place,” began Ricky smugly. “I said—”

      “You said that a house painted that shade of green made you slightly ill. But you didn’t say anything about beds,” Val reminded her as he shed his coat and hung it on the newel-post. “And since the Ralestone family have definitely gone off the gold or any other monetary standard, it’s tourist rests or the poorhouse for us.”

      “Probably the poorhouse.” Rupert sounded resigned. “Now upstairs with you and get out some bedding. LeFleur said in his letter that the place was all ready for occupancy. And he stocked up with canned stuff.”

      “I know—beans! Just too, too divine. Well, let’s know the worst.” Ricky started up the stairs. “I suppose there are electric lights?”

      “Got to throw the main switch first, and I haven’t time to do that now. Here, Val.” Rupert tossed him his tiny pocket torch as he turned to go. The door closed behind him and Ricky looked over her shoulder.

      “This—this is rather a darkish place, isn’t it?”

      “Not so bad.” Val considered the hall below, which seemed suddenly peopled by an overabundance

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