Wales' thoughts leaped. He pulled open the door and went out to his car fast. In a moment he was driving on downtown, his hopes suddenly high.
"The Castle." That was what, when they were all kids, they had called the old hilltop mansion of an ancient great-aunt of the Kendricks'. They had given it that name because of its 1900-ish wooden tower with a crenellated top, that had fascinated them.
Of a sudden, checking his elation, there came to Wales the sure knowledge that Martha had been afraid, when she wrote that direction.
Afraid to leave a more definite clue, than that one that only a few people could possibly understand.
"But she didn't leave that for me—" Wales thought, puzzledly. "As far as they knew, I was still on Mars. But then, for whom?"
He began to worry more deeply than before. He had found a clue to the Kendricks, a clue that Fairlie's agents had been unable to understand, but the careful obscurity of it made their disappearance suddenly more sinister.
Wales drove fast through the familiar old hometown streets. He noticed, as he swung around the Diamond, that one store had a brave sign chalked on its window, "Closed for Doomsday".
He swung right, up North Jefferson Street, then on up the steep hill that was the highest point of Castletown. He was wire-tense with hope when he parked in front of the old wooden monstrosity of a mansion.
Everything was dark here, too. His hopes fell a little as he went up the tree-lined walk. Still, people would be careful about showing light—
Something exploded in the back of Wales' head, and his face hit the ground hard.