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 and her eyes seemed to narrow. She
was, by all the signs, distinctly annoyed.

"It's perfectly safe. I knew what I was doing."

"Yes? Well, I will enjoy hearing Rupert's remarks on that subject when
he catches up with us," snapped her brother.

"Val!" She lost something of her defiant attitude. He guessed that for
all her boasted independence his sister was slightly afraid of Mr.
Rupert Ralestone. "Val, he isn't coming, too, is he?"

"He is if he got my message." Val stretched his leg cautiously. The
cramp was slowly leaving the muscles and he felt as if he could stand
the remaining ache without wincing. "I sent Sam Two back to tell Rupert
where his family had eloped to. Frankly, Ricky, this wasn't such a smart
trick. You know what Charity said about the swamps. Even the little I've
seen of them has given me ideas."

"But there was nothing to it at all," she protested. "Jeems told me just
how to get here and I only followed directions."

Val chose to ignore this, being hot, tired, and in no mood for one of
those long arguments such as Ricky enjoyed. "By the way, where is
Jeems?" He looked about him as if he expected the swamper to materialize
out of thin air.

Ricky sat down on the edge of the platform and dangled her booted feet.
"Don't know. But he'll be here sooner or later. And I don't feel like
going back through the swamp just yet. The flies are awful. And did you
see those dreadful vultures on that dead tree? What a place! But the
flowers are wonderful and I saw a real live alligator, even if it was a
small one." She rubbed her scarf across her forehead. "Whew! It seems
hotter here than it does at home."

"This outing was all your idea," Val reminded her. "And we'd better be
getting back before Rupert calls out the Marines or the State Troopers
or something to track us down."

Ricky pouted. "Not going until I'm ready. And you can't drag me if I dig
my heels in."

"I have no desire to be embroiled in such an undignified struggle as you
suggest," he told her loftily. "But neither do I yearn to spend the day
here. I'm hungry. I wonder if our absent host possesses a larder?"

"If he does, you can't raid it," Ricky answered. "The door's locked, and
that lock," she pointed to the bright disk of brass on the solid c