..."
My voice petered out helplessly. I braced myself for a supreme
effort....
An impatient yelp rang out.
"What's the matter with Nobby?" said Adele in a voice I hardly
recognized.
"Fed up, 'cause I've lost his ball for him," said I, and, cowardly glad
of a respite, I rose and stepped to the aged riot of ivy, where the
terrier was searching for his toy.
I pulled a hole in the arras and peered through.
There was more space than I had expected. The grey wall bellied away
from me.
"What's that?" said Adele, looking over my shoulder.
"What?" said I.
"There. To the right."
It was dark under the ivy, so I thrust in a groping arm.
Almost at once my hand encountered the smooth edge of masonry.
I took out a knife and ripped away some trails, so that we could see
better.
There was nothing to show that the pedestal which my efforts revealed
had ever supported a statue. But it was plain that such was the office
for which it had been set up. Presumably it was one of the series which,
according to Vandy's book, had displayed imaginative effigies of the
Roman Emperors, and had been done away in 1710. The inscription upon the
cornice upheld this conclusion.
PERTINAX IMPERATOR.
I looked at Adele.
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