The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

call. It was left to him to meet this unbelievable invasion alone. There was a stir beside him. Val glanced up to meet the slightest of reassuring nods from the swamper. Jeems was with him.
    “Whatcha gonna do with the joint, Brick?” asked Red, tossing his cigarette down on the flagstones and grinding it to powder with his heel.
    “I dunno yet.” The rival strode importantly toward the front door.
    “You might tell us when you find out,” Val suggested quietly.
    With an exaggerated start of surprise the rival turned toward the boy.
    “Oh, so it’s you, kid?”
    “Perhaps,” Val said softly, “you had better introduce your friends. After all, I like to know the names of my guests.”
    The Boss smiled sardonically and Red grinned. Only the red-faced lawyer shuffled his feet uneasily and looked from one to another of his companions with an expression of pleading. But the rival came directly to the point.
    “Where’s that high and mighty brother of yours?” he demanded.
    “Mr. Ralestone will doubtless be very glad to see you,” Val evaded, having no desire for the visitors to discover just how slender his resources were. “Jeems, you might go and tell him that we have visitors. Go through the Long Hall, it’s nearer that way.” He dug the fingernails of his sound hand into the soft wood of the chair arm. Could Jeems interpret that hint? Someone must remove and hide the Luck before these men saw it.
    “Right.” The swamper turned on his heel and padded toward the French windows.
    “No, you don’t!” the rival snarled as he moved into line between Jeems and his objective. “When we want that guy, we’ll hunt him out ourselves. When we’re good and ready!”
    “If you don’t wish to see my brother, just why did you come?” Val asked feverishly. He must keep them talking there until he had time to think of some way of getting that slender blade of steel into hiding.
    “We’re movin’ in,” Red answered casually for them all.
    “How interesting. I think that the police will enjoy hearing that,” Val commented.
    “It’s perfectly legal,” bleated the lawyer. “We possess a court order to view the place with the purpose of appraising it for sale.” He drew a stiff paper from the inside pocket of his coat and waved it toward the boy.
    “Bunk! I don’t know much about the law but I do know that you could have obtained nothing of the kind without our being notified. And just which one of you has been selected to do the appraising?”
    “Him,” answered Red laconically and jerked his thumb at the Boss.
    “So,” Jeems stared at him, “since yo’ couldn’t git what yo’ want by thievin’ at night, yo’re goin’ to try and git it by day.”
    “But what are you really after? I’m curious to know. You certainly don’t want a sugar plantation which hasn’t been paying its way since the Civil War. That just isn’t reasonable. And you ought to know that we can’t afford to buy you off. We must be living over a gold-mine that we haven’t discovered. Come on, tell us where it is,” Val prodded.
    “Cut the cackle,” advised Red, “an’ le’s git down to it.”
    “I would advise you to get back in your car and drive out.” Val wondered if his face looked as stiff as it felt. “This visit isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
    “We ain’t goin’ any place, kid,” remarked the rival. “You don’t seem to understand. We’re stayin’ right here. I got rights and the judge has recognized them. I’m top guy here now.”
    “Yeah. Yuh ain’t so smart as yuh think yuh are,” contributed Red, scowling at Val. “We ain’t gonna leave.”
    It wasn’t Red’s speech, however, that straightened the boy’s back and made Jeems shift his position an inch or two. There was another car coming up the drive. And since their enemies were all gathered before them, they could only be receiving friends, or at the worst neutrals.
    But the car which came from between the live-oaks to park behind the first contained only two passengers. LeFleur and Creighton got out, stopped in surprise to view the party on the terrace, and then came up, shoving by Red.
    “Quite a party,” Val observed. “But how did you manage to arrive so opportunely?”
    “We have made a discovery,” panted the Creole lawyer; “a very important discovery. What are these men doing here?”
    “We got a court order to view this house for sale.” The rival was truculent. “An’ it’s all legal. The mouthpiece