accurate barometer, that crooked bone was announcing the
arrival of the coming storm with a sharp pain or two which shot
unexpectedly from knee to ankle. One such caught him as he was about to
take a step and threw him suddenly off balance.

He clutched at a dim tapestry which hung across the wall and tumbled
through a slit in the fabric--which smelled of dust and moth balls--into
a tiny alcove flanking a broad, well-cushioned window-seat under tall
windows. Below him in a riot of bushes and hedges run wild, lay the
garden. Somewhere beyond must lie Bayou Mercier leading directly to Lake
Borgne and so to the sea, the thoroughfare used by their pirate
ancestors when they brought home their spoil.

The green of the rank growth below, thought Val, seemed intensified by
the strange yellowish light. A moss-grown path led straight into the
heart of a jungle where sweet olive, banana trees, and palms grew in a
matted mass. Harrison might have done wonders for the house but he had
allowed the garden to lapse into a wilderness.

"Val!"

"Coming!" he shouted and pushed back through the curtain. He could hear
Rupert moving about the lower hall.

"Just made it in time," he said as the younger Ralestone limped down to
join him. "Hear that?"

A steady pattering outside was growing into a wild dash of wind-driven
rain. It was dark and Rupert himself was but a blur moving across the
hall.

"Do you still have the flash? Might as well descend into the lower
regions and put on the lights."

They crossed the Long Hall, passing through another large chamber where
furniture huddled under dust covers, and then into a small
cupboard-lined passage. This gave upon a dark cavern where Val's hand
scraped a table top only too painfully as he went. Then Rupert found the
door leading to the cellar, and they went down and down into inky
blackness upon which their thread of torch-light made little impression.

The damp, unpleasant scent of mold and wet grew stronger as they
descended, and their fingers brushed slime-touched walls.

"Phew! Not very comfy down here," Val protested as Rupert threw the
torch beam along the nearest wall. With a grunt of relief he stepped
forward to pull open the door of a small black box. "That does it," he
said as he threw the switch. "Now for the topside again and some
supper."

They negotiated the steps and found the button which controlled the
kitchen lights. The glare showed them a room on the mammoth sc