"
"Where did you engage him?"
"Actually, in St. Kitts."
"H'm," muttered Smith, and automatically he took out and began to fill
his pipe.
"I can offer you no company but my own, gentlemen," continued Van
Roon, "but unless it interfere, with your plans, you may find the
surrounding district of interest and worthy of inspection, between now
and dinner-time. By the way, I think I can promise you quite a
satisfactory meal, for Hagar is a model chef."
"A walk would be enjoyable," said Smith, "but dangerous."
"Ah! perhaps you are right. Evidently you apprehend some attempt upon
me?"
"At any moment!"
"To one in my crippled condition, an alarming outlook! However, I
place myself unreservedly in your hands. But really, you must not
leave this interesting district before you have made the acquaintance
of some of its historical spots. To me, steeped as I am in what I may
term the lore of the odd, it is a veritable wonderland, almost as
interesting, in its way, as the caves and jungles of Hindustan
depicted by Madame Blavatsky."
His high-pitched voice, with a certain laboured intonation, not quite
so characteristically American as was his accent, rose even higher; he
spoke with the fire of the enthusiast.
"When I learnt that Cragmire Tower was vacant," he continued, "I leapt
at the chance (excuse the metaphor, from a lame man!). This is a
ghost-hunter's paradise. The tower itself is of unknown origin, though
probably Phoenician, and the house traditionally sheltered Dr.
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