Afterwards Vernon
can take it, as he has a right to do, and I am sure that with it will go
our luck."
"Then the sooner our luck goes, the better," replied Haswell, with
a mere ghost of his former whistle. "Life is better than luck,
and--Aylward, that Yellow God you are so fond of means to murder us. We
are being fatted for the sacrifice, that is all. I remember now, that
was one of the things I saw written in its eyes!"
CHAPTER III
JEEKIE TELLS A TALE
The Court, Mr. Champers-Haswell's place, was a very fine house indeed,
of a sort. That is, it contained twenty-nine bedrooms, each of them with
a bathroom attached, a large number of sitting-rooms, ample garages,
stables, and offices, the whole surrounded by several acres of
newly-planted gardens. Incidentally it may be mentioned that it was
built in the most atrocious taste and looked like a suburban villa seen
through a magnifying glass.
It was in this matter of taste that it differed from Sir Robert
Aylward's home, Old Hall, a few miles away. Not that this was old
either, for the original house had fallen down or been burnt a hundred
years before. But Sir Robert, being gifted with artistic perception, had
reared up in place of it a smaller but really beautiful dwelling of soft
grey stone, long and low, and built in the Tudor style with many gables.
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