a long time without a break, and when it lifted all
recollection of the bedroom scene had vanished.

Jimbo found himself back again on the grass. The swinging gate was just
in front of him, but he did not recognise it; no suggestion of "Express
Trains" came back to him as his eyes rested without remembrance upon the
bars where he had so often swung, in defiance of orders, with his
brothers and sisters. Recollection of his home, family, and previous
life he had absolutely none; or at least, it was buried so deeply in his
inner consciousness that it amounted to the same thing, and he looked
out upon the garden, the gate, and the field beyond as upon an entirely
new piece of the world.

The stars, he saw, were nearly all gone, and a very faint light was
beginning to spread from the woods beyond the field. The eastern
horizon was slowly brightening, and soon the night would be gone. Jimbo
was glad of this. He began to be conscious of little thrills of
expectation, for with the light surely help would also come. The light
always brought relief, and he already felt that strange excitement that
comes with the first signs of dawn. In the distance cocks were crowing,
horses began to stamp in the barns not far away, and a hundred little
stirrings of life ran over the surface of the earth as the light crept
slowly up the sky and dropped down again upon the world with its message
of coming day.

Of course, help would come by the time the sun was really up, and it was
partly this certainty, and partly because he was a little too dazed to
realise the seriousness of the situation, that prevented his giving way
to a fit of fear and weeping. Yet a feeling of vague terror lay only a
little way below the surface, and when, a few moments later, he saw that
he was no longer alone, and that an odd-looking figure was creeping
towards him from the shrubberies, he sprang to his feet, prepared to run
unless it at once showed the most friendly intentions.

This figure seemed to have come from nowhere. Apparently it had risen
out of the earth. It was too large to have been concealed by the low
shrubberies; yet he had not been aware of its approach, and it had
appeared without making any noise. Probably it was friendly, he felt, in
spite of its curious shape and the stealthy way it had come. At least,
he hoped so; and if he could only have told whether it was a man or an
animal he would easily have made up his mind. But the uncertain light,
and