The lodge was deserted, big and empty with an alienness in its emptiness that made Sutton, who should have been accustomed to alienness, shiver as he felt it touch him.
He stood for a moment outside his door and listened to the whispering of the place, the faint, illogical breathing of the house, the creak of frost-expanded timbers, the caress of wind against a windowpane, and the noises that could not be explained by either frost or wind, the living sound of something that is not alive.
The carpeting in the hall deadened his footsteps as he went down it toward the stairs. Snores came from one of the two rooms which Pringle had said that he and Case occupied and Sutton wondered for a moment which one of them it was that snored.
He went carefully down the stairs, trailing his hand along the banister to guide him, and when he reached the massive living space he waited, standing stock-still so that his eyes might become accustomed to the deeper dark that crouched there like lairing animals.
Slowly the animals took the shapes of chairs and couches, tables, cabinets and cases, and one of the chairs, he saw, had a man sitting in it.
As if he had become aware that Sutton had seen him, the man stirred, turning his face toward him. And although it was too dark to see his features, Sutton knew that the man in the chair was Case.
Then, he thought, the man who snores is Pringle, although he knew that it made no difference which it was that snored.
"So, Mr. Sutton," Case said, slowly, "you decided to go out and try to find our ship."
"Yes," Sutton said, "I did."
"Now, that is fine," said Case. "That is the way I like a man to speak up and say what's on his mind." He sighed. "You meet so many devious persons," he said. "So many people who try to lie to you. So many people who tell you half-truths and feel, while they're doing it, that they are being clever."
He rose out of the chair, tall and straight and prim.
"Mr. Sutton," he said, "I like you very much."
Sutton felt the absurdity of the situation, but there was a coldness and a half-anger in him that told him this was no laughing matter.
Footsteps padded softly down the stairs behind him and Pringle's voice whispered through the room.
"So he decided to make a try for it."
"As you see," said Case.
"I told you that he would," said Pringle, almost triumphantly. "I told you that he would get it figured out."
Sutton choked down the gorge that rose into his throat. But the anger held…anger at the way they talked about him as if he weren't there.
"I fear," said Case to Sutton, "that we have disturbed you. We are most untactful people and you are sensitive. But let's forget it all and get down to business now. You wanted, I believe, to ferret out our ship."
Sutton shrugged his shoulders. "It's your move now," he said.
"Oh, but you misunderstand," said Case. "We have no objection. Go ahead and ferret."
"Meaning I can't find it?"
"Meaning that you can," said Case. "We didn't try to hide it."
"We'll even show you the way," said Pringle. "We'll go along with you. It will take you a lot less time."
Sutton felt the fine ooze of perspiration break out along his hairline and dampen his forehead.
A trap, he told himself. A trap laid out in plain sight and not even baited. And he'd walked into it without even looking.
But it was too late now. There was no backing out.
He tried to make his voice sound unconcerned.
"O.K.," he said. "I'll gamble with you."