wn, and he realised that escape was an accomplished fact, he began
to search for the governess, calling to her, rising and falling,
darting in all directions, and then hovering on outstretched wings to
try and catch some sound of a friendly voice.

But no answer came, either from the stars that crowded the vault above,
or from the dark surface of the world below; only silence answered his
cries, and his voice was swallowed up and lost in the immensity of space
almost the moment it left his lips.

Presently he began to realise to what an appalling distance he had risen
above the world, and with anxious eyes he tried to pierce the gaping
emptiness beneath him and on all sides. But this vast sea of air had
nothing to reveal. The stars shone like pinholes of gold pricked in a
deep black curtain; and the moon, now rising slowly, spread a veil of
silver between him and the upper regions. There was not a cloud anywhere
and the winds were all asleep. He was alone in space. Yet, as the
swishing of his feathers slackened and the roar in his ears died away,
he heard in the short pause the ominous beating of great wings somewhere
in the depths beneath him, and knew that the great pursuer was still on
his track.

The glare of the moon now made it impossible to distinguish anything
properly, and in these huge spaces, with nothing to guide the eye, it
was difficult to know exactly from what direction the sound came. He was
only sure of one thing--that it was far below him, and that for the
present it did not seem to come much nearer. The cry for help that kept
rising to his lips he suppressed, for it would only have served to guide
his pursuer; and, moreover, a cry--a little thin, despairing cry--was
instantly lost in these great heavens. It was less than a drop in an
ocean.

On and on he flew, always pointing away from the earth, and trying hard
to think where he would find safety. Would this awful creature hunt him
all night long into the daylight, or would he be forced back into the
Empty House in sheer exhaustion? The thought gave him new impetus, and
with powerful strokes he dashed onwards and upwards through the
wilderness of space in which the only pathways were the little golden
tracks of the starbeams. The governess would turn up somewhere; he was
positive of that. She had never failed him yet.

So, alone and breathless, he pursued his flight, and the higher he went
the more the tremendous vault opened up into inconceiva