To D. B. N. In return for many miles of proof so diligently read...

How hold ye Lorne? By the oak leaf, By the sea wave, By the broadsword blade, Thus hold we Lorne! The oak leaf is dust, The sea wave is gone, The broadsword is rust, How now hold ye Lorne? By our Luck...

“Once upon a time two brave princes and a beautiful princess set out to make their fortunes⁠—” began the dark-haired, dark-eyed boy by the roadster. “Royalty is out of fashion,” corrected Ricky Ralest...

“Nice of you to drop in, old man,” commented Rupert dryly as he shut the door. “But didn’t anyone ever mention to you that gentlemen wipe their feet before entering strange houses?” He surveyed a line...

Val lay trapped in an underground cavern, chained to the floor. An unseen monster was creeping up his prostrate body. He could feel its hot breath on his cheek. With a mighty effort he broke his bonds...

Val braced himself against the back of the roadster’s seat and struggled to hold the car to a road which was hardly more than a cart track. Twice since Ricky and he had left Pirate’s Haven they had na...

Val stood on the small ornamental bridge pitching twigs down into the tiny garden brook. A moody frown creased his forehead. Under his feet lay a pair of pruning-shears he had borrowed from Sam with t...

“Val, did that cat go upstairs?” Ricky stood at the foot of the hall staircase frowning crossly. “If he did, you’ll just have to go up and get him. I will not have him walking on the beds with muddy f...

Depositing the desk on the seat of one of the hall chairs, Val started toward the dining-room, a grim hole which Lucy had calmly forced the family to use but which they all cordially disliked. Its pan...

Sam had produced a horse complete with saddle and a reputed skittishness. That horse was the pride of Sam’s big heart. It had once won a small purse at some country fair or something of the sort, and ...

Rupert had dismissed Val’s story of what he had seen in the hall in a very lofty manner. When his brother had persisted in it, Rupert suggested that Val had better keep out of the sun in the morning. ...

In spite of the fact that they received but lukewarm encouragement from Charity, both Holmes and Creighton lingered on in New Orleans. Mr. Creighton made several attempts to get in touch with Jeems, w...

“Val! What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Following you. Good grief, girl,” he exploded, “haven’t you any better sense than to come into the swamp this way?” Ricky’s mouth lost its laughing curve...

The swamper was lying on his back, his eyes closed. From a great purple welt across his forehead the blood oozed sluggishly. When Val touched him he moaned faintly. “Val! Are you hurt? What’s the matt...

It had been on of those dull, weepy days when a sullen drizzle clouded sky and earth. In consequence, the walls and floors of Pirate’s Haven seemed to exude chill. Rupert built a fire in the hall fire...

The rain, fine and needle-like, stung Val’s face. There were ominous pools of water gathering in the garden depressions. Even the small stream which bisected their land had grown from a shallow trickl...

Through the dull roaring which filled his ears Val heard a sharp call: “Val! Val, where are you? Val!” He stared up into utter blackness. “Val!” “Here, Ricky!” But that thin thread of a whisper surely...

“I like Louisiana,” drawled Holmes lazily from his perch on the window-seat. “The most improbable things happen here. One finds secret passages under houses and medieval war swords stuck in drains. Th...

Val ventured to break the sudden silence which resulted from Creighton’s astonishing statement. “But how⁠—why⁠—” “Yeah,” the rival had collected a measure of his scattered wits, “whatta yuh mean, wise...

“Such a nice domestic scene,” Val observed. Ricky looked up from the bowl into which she was shelling peas. “Now just what do you mean by that?” she asked suspiciously. “Nothing, nothing at all. It’s ...