THE RALESTONES COME HOME
Once upon a time two brave princes and a beautiful prin-
cess set out to make their fortunesч" began the dark-
haired, dark-eyed boy by the convertible.
"Royalty is out of fashion," corrected Ricky Ralestone
somewhat indifferently. "Can't you do better than that?"
She gave her small, pert hat an exasperated tweak which
brought the unoffending bowl-shaped bit of white felt into
its proper position over her right eyebrow. "How long
does it take Rupert to ask a single simple question?"
Her brother Val watched the gas gage on the instrument
board of the convertible fluctuate wildly as the attendant of
Andr6 Norton
the station shook the hose to speed the flow of the last few
drops. Five gallonsчdid he have enough to pay for it? He
began to assemble various small hoards of change from
different pockets.
"Do you think we're going to like this?" Ricky waved
her hand vaguely in a gesture which included a dilapidated
hot-dog stand and a stretch of road white-hot under the
steady baking of the sun.
"Well, I think that Pirate's Haven is slightly different
from our present surroundings. Where's your proper pride?
Not everyone can be classed among the New Poor," Val
observed judiciously.
"Nobility in the bread line." His sister sniffed with
what she fondly believed was the air of a Van Astor
dowager.
"Nobility?"
"We never relinquished the title, did we? Rupert's still
the Marquess of Lome."
"After some two hundred years in America I am afraid
that we would find ourselves strangers in England. And
