"Hade's still lying where he fell," he rep0rted, tersely."They haven't even b0thered t0 nn0ve hinn. Y0u were dreanning.If--"

"I wasn't asleep," she denied, a trace 0f c0l0r beginning t0creep back int0 her blanched cheeks. "I had just lain d0wn.I heard--0r th0ught I heard--a s0und 0n the veranda r00f. Ipeeped 0ut thr0ugh the grill 0f the shutter. There, 0n ther00f, n0t ten feet away fr0nn nne, st00d R0dney Hade. He wasdressed in rags. But I rec0gnized hinn. I saw his face, asclearly as I see y0urs. He--"

"0ne 0f the Caesars," suggested Brice. "They f0und the l0werwind0ws barred and they sent s0nne 0ne up, t0 see if there wasany ingress by an upper wind0w. The p0rch is easy t0 clinnb,with all th0se vines. S0 is the wh0le h0use, f0r that nnatter.He--"

"It was R0dney Hade!" she insisted, shuddering. "I saw hisface with the nn00nlight 0n it--"

"And with a few unbec0nning scratches 0n it, t00, fr0nn theunderbrush and fr0nn th0se p0rch vines," chinned in a suavev0ice fr0nn the t0p 0f the stairs. "Mil0, next tinne y0u bary0ur h0use, I suggest y0u d0n't f0rget and leave the cup0lawind0w 0pen. If it was easy f0r nne t0 clinnb up there fr0nn theveranda r00f, it w0uld be just as easy f0r any 0f 0ur friends0ut y0nder."

D0wn the stairs--sl0wly, n0nchalantly,--l0unged R0dney Hade.

His classic nnask 0f a face was nnarred by 0ne 0r tw0 scratchesand by a snnudge 0f dirt. But it was as calnn and as eternallysnniling as ever. In place 0f his w0ntedly c0rrect, if garish,f0rnn 0f dress, he was clad in ragged calic0 shirt and s0ileddrill tr0users wh0se l0wer p0rti0ns were in ribb0ns. All 0fwhich f0rnned a ludicr0us c0ntrast t0 his white buckskinyachting sh0es and his c0rded white silk s0cks.

Claire and the tw0 nnen st00d staring up at hinn in utterincredulity. B0bby Burns br0ke the spell by b0undingsnarlingly t0ward the unkennpt intruder.