and headed upstream.
The sky was light now, and far overhead a wisp of cirrus was glowing
pink, a warning of coming sunrise.

Rick sat on the gunwale and looked ahead. The creek narrowed for a few
hundred yards, then widened again. The left bank, going upstream, was
lined with scrub and swamp grass. The right bank began to change, the
swampy area giving way to good ground that rose slightly from the
water's edge. Soon the right bank was nearly three feet above the water,
and the scrub had given way to an occasional tree, and some grassland
that hadn't been mowed this year.

Then Calvert's Favor came into view and Rick caught his breath. It was a
stunning plantation house. The tall columns made Rick think of pictures
of the Old South, but as the boat turned slightly and more of the house
came into view, he saw that it had a strictly Maryland character.
Attached to the largest portion of the house, the one with the columns,
was a slightly smaller section, with a still smaller section completing
the picture. It was a "telescope house"--the kind that the Eastern Shore
natives referred to as "big house, little house, and one in the middle."

A broad sweep of lawn, broken only by flagstone walks and trees,
extended from the creek's edge to the house. The trees were ancient
dogwoods, with a single huge willow for extra shade. There was a small
pier extending into the creek, and from the rotted pilings next to it,
Rick saw that the original pier had been much larger.

A white barn stood at a short distance from the house. A barn of that
size, Rick thought, meant a pretty substantial farm. He searched for
signs of life and saw none. There was a boat, he noticed, an outboard
skiff perhaps fifteen feet long, pulled up on the bank under an oak tree
at the edge where the lawn met uncut field. A lawn table and chairs
under the big willow looked inviting, and he speculated that Merlin and
friends must spend considerable time there. Some of the chairs were of
the padded variety, covered with plastic wet from the morning dew.

Scotty pointed to the roof of the mansion. "Must be a ham radio operator
there. Look at that hay rake."

Both Rick and Steve had the same thoughts as they stared at the tall
antenna, with its cluster of small rods joining a single main bar at
right angles on top of the pole. The antenna might be needed for
fringe-area television--or, on the other hand, it might be a
communications antenna, as Scotty had said