with the wheelbarrow, set it down, stared,
and said:

"Then she's a liar. It's a house."

"It's twice the size of a three-decker, anyway," said his friend, and
together they stood and contemplated the building.

It was a handsome pile of old brickwork, set in a foundation of rock
almost overhanging the river--on which, however, it turned its back;
in design, an oblong of two storeys, with a square tower at each of
the four corners, and the towers connected by a parapet of freestone.
The windows along the front were regular, and those on the
ground-floor less handsome than those of the upper floor, where
(it appeared) were the staterooms. For--strangest feature of all--
the main entrance was in this upper storey, with a dozen broad steps
leading down to the unkempt carriage-way and a lawn, across which a
magnificent turkey oak threw dark masses of shadow.

But the house was a picture of decay. Unpainted shutters blocked the
windows; tall grasses sprouted in the crevices of the entrance steps
and parapet; dislodged slates littered the drive; smears of old rains
ran down the main roof and from a lantern of which the louvers were
all in ruin, some hanging by a nail, others blown on edge by
long-past gales. The very nails had rusted out of the walls, and the
creepers they should have supported hung down in ropy curtains.

Mr. Adams scratched his head.

"What I'd like to know," said he after a while, "is how to get the
cask up them steps."

"There'll be a cellar-door for sartin," Mr. Jope assured him
cheerfully. "You don't suppose the gentry takes their beer in at the
front, hey?"

"This," said Mr. Adams, "is rum; which is a totally different thing."
But he set down his barrow, albeit reluctantly, and followed his
shipmate up the entrance steps. The front door was massive, and
sheeted over with lead embossed in foliate and heraldic patterns.
Mr. Jope inserted the key, turned it with some difficulty, and pushed
the door wide. It opened immediately upon the great hall, and after
a glance within he removed his hat.

The hall, some fifty feet long, ran right across the waist of the
house, and was lit by tall windows at either end. Its floor was of
black and white marble in lozenge pattern. Three immense chandeliers
depended from its roof. Along each of the two unpierced walls,
against panels of peeling stucco, stood a line of statuary--heathen
goddesses, fauns, athletes and gladiators, with here and there a