de of the French doors leading to the terrace, and
then he reached the haven of the last deck-chair and settled down just
where he had intended. And when Jeems returned there was nothing he
could do but accept the fact that Val had fled the cot.

"Miss Ricky won't like this," he prophesied darkly. "Nor Mr. Rupert
neither. Yo' wouldn't've tried it if they'd been heah."

"Oh, stop worrying. If you'd been tied to that cot the way I've been,
you'd be glad to get out here, too. It's great!"

The sun was warm but the afternoon shadow of an oak overhung his seat so
that Val escaped the direct force of the rays. A few feet away Satan
sprawled full length, giving a fine imitation of a cat that had rid
himself of all nine lives, or at least of eight and a half.

Never had the garden shown so rich a green. Ricky's care had sharpened
the lines of the flower-beds and had set shrubs in their proper places.
And the plants had repaid her with a riot of blossoms. A breeze set the
gray moss to swaying from the branches of the oak. And a green
grasshopper crossed the terrace in four great leaps, almost scraping
Satan's ear in a fashion which might easily have been fatal to the
insect. Val sighed and slipped down lower in his chair. "It's great," he
murmured again.

"Sure is," Jeems echoed. He dropped down cross-legged beside Val,
disdaining the other chair.

Satan stretched without opening his eyes and yawned, gaping to the
fullest extent of his jaws and curling his tongue upward so that it
seemed pointed like a snake's. Then he rolled over on his other side and
curled up with his paws under his chin. A bumblebee blundered by Val's
head on its way to visit the morning-glories. He suddenly discovered it
difficult to keep his eyes open.

"Someone's comin'," observed Jeems. "Ah just heard a car turn in from
the road."

"But the folks have been gone such a short time," Val protested.

However, the car which came almost noiselessly down the drive was not
the one in which the family had departed. It had the shape of a sleek
gray beetle, rounded so that it was difficult to tell at first glance
the hood from the rear. It glided to a stop before the steps and after a
moment four passengers disembarked.

Val simply stared, but Jeems got to his feet in one swift movement.

For, coming purposefully up the terrace steps, were four men they had
seen before and had very good cause to remember for the rest of their
lives.

In the lead stru