"Either I've got hallucinations," snapped Ricky, "or those swords belonged to my father."
"Your father?" exclaimed Ruth.
"Ages ago," Ricky tugged at his collar, "my father had a collection. Did you know that?" (Sir Henry Merrivale, had he been present would have growled assent). "He got tired of 'em; Grandmother Brayle said he gave the stuff away; he put up those old guns you can see in the Green Room. But I could swear, from that writing on the tags…’
He hurried over, catching his own reflection in a dust-furred mirror where so many of the despairing must have looked, and bent down.
"You remember, Dr. Laurier?" he added.
Dr. Laurier, for a moment hypnotized, uttered what for anybody else would have been a cry of delight He darted over to the rapiers, pulling at one so that others rattled and tumbled down.
"Surely," he cried, "this is a…"
"It's damn funny," said Ricky. "How did this stuff get here? Why?"
Up went the influences or vibrations, up and upl Stannard inflated his thick chest and laughed.
"Are you a swordsman, Mr. Fleet?"