A butler no less dignified than Watkins held the door open for us, and a palsied footman strove with the valet for custody of our scanty baggage. Watkins motioned both aside when we entered the high-pitched hall.
"This way, if you please, your ludship and gentlemen," he said. "I 'ave 'ad supper served in the Gunroom. 'Is late ludship used it as a snuggery, as 'e called it, Mister Hugh—beg pardon, sir, your ludship—and far more cheery it is, sir, with a bright fire and all, than the other rooms."
"That's fine," approved Hugh, and he led us after Watkins through a short passage to the right and into a big room, with mullioned windows, deeply-embrasured, and carved oaken rafters and stone walls showing above the rich paneling that rose a tall man's height from the floor. At one side was a vast fireplace, with chimney-piece, ingle-nooks and over-mantle elaborately carved. A log-fire blazed on the dogs, and before it, warmly illuminated, a table was set with snowy linen and silver emblazoned with the Chesby crest, a mailed arm clutching a dagger and beneath it an open eye, with the motto "I search."
Hugh rubbed his hands with satisfaction.
"This is home," he said.
But a shadow instantly chased the smile from his lips.
"And if Bellowes is correct, it will continue to be my home only if we succeed in finding something lost more than seven hundred years ago," he added.
"If it is to be found we shall find it," answered Nikka. "What a beautiful room!"
"I was going to say the same thing," I said. "As an architect, I have tried to achieve this effect for rich Americans, but I must admit I can't do with mere money what time and many men's imaginations have accomplished here."
"And women's imaginations, too," replied Hugh. "This is the oldest part of the castle, but it has felt the influence of that redoubtable Lady Jane you heard about this afternoon. I believe this wing is supposed to be the remains of the Angevin keep and Great Hall of the first Hugh's castle, which were partially destroyed in the Wars of the Roses, and again by fire in Bloody Mary's time. Lady Jane rebuilt this wing and joined it with what was then the modern, and early Tudor, central mass."