“Not so good,” he replied honestly. “A house as big as Pirate’s Haven is a burden if you don’t have the cash to keep it up properly. Though this artist chap did make a lot of improvements on his own.”
“But think of the Long Hall—” began Ricky, rolling her eyes heavenward.
“And just what do you know about the Long Hall?” demanded Rupert.
“Why, that’s where dear Great-great-uncle Rick’s ghost is supposed to walk, isn’t it?” she asked innocently. “I hope that our late tenant didn’t scare him away. It gives one such a blue-blooded feeling to think of having an active ghost on the premises. A member of one’s own family, too!”
“Sure. Teach him—or it—some parlor tricks and we’ll show it—or him—off every afternoon between three and four. We might even be able to charge admission and recoup the family fortune,” Val suggested brightly.
“Have you no reverence?” demanded his sister. “And besides, ghosts only walk at night.”
“Now that’s something we’ll have to investigate,” Val interrupted her. “Do ghosts have union rules? I mean, I wouldn’t want Great-great-uncle Rick to march up and down the carriage drive with a sign reading, ‘The Ralestones are unfair to ghosts,’ or anything like that.”
“We’ll have to use the Long Hall, of course,” cut in Rupert, as usual ignoring their nonsense. “And the old summer drawing-room. But we can shut up the dining-room and the ballroom. We’ll eat in the kitchen, and that and a bedroom apiece—”
“I suppose there are bathrooms, or at least a bathroom,” his brother interrupted. “Because I don’t care to rush down to the bayou for a good brisk plunge every time I get my face dirty.”
“Harrison put in a bathroom at his own expense last fall.”
“For which blessed be the name of Harrison. If he hadn’t gone to Italy, he would have rebuilt the house. How soon do we get there? This touring is not what I thought it might be—”
The 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 gateposts 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
