away than a great hole appeared right where he
had been standing. He could see that it was both wide and deep, but he
didn't go back to look at it.

"No; he kept on his way, and it wasn't long before Cob-Handle began to
jump and thump. Keen-Point also began to jump and thump, and showed
him which way to go, and he ran as fast as he could. He heard a
roaring sound as he started, and he had hardly got fifty steps away,
though he was running with all his might, before a tremendous
whirlwind came along, tearing up the bushes by roots and ploughing the
ground. It came so close to Valentine that if he had had on a
long-tail coat, I believe it would have been tangled in the whirlwind.

"I tell you," Mrs. Meadows went on, seeing the children smiling, "it
was no laughing matter to Valentine. He shivered and trembled when he
thought what a narrow escape he had had.

"He went on his way, and in a little while Cob-Handle began to jump
and thump again. Valentine, thus warned, stood still and looked around
more carefully than he had yet done. Some distance off, he saw a
horrible creature coming towards him. It was in the shape of a man,
but it had four arms and hands, and in each hand it was flourishing a
club. Its hair stood out from its head like the shucks in a
scouring-mop, and as it came nearer, Valentine saw that it had three
eyes,--one on each side of its nose, and one in its forehead.

"Keen-Point said, 'Go straight forward,' and then Butch began to jump
and thump, so Valentine placed Cob-Handle and Keen-Point in his
girdle, and took Butch in his hand. Holding the point straight before
him, he went towards the misshapen creature. Its red and watery eyes
were blinking and winking, and its arms were threshing the air with
the clubs at such a tremendous rate that Valentine thought his hour
had surely come. But he shut his eyes and went straight at the
creature. The sharp point of Butch had no sooner touched the monster
on its hairy breast than its hands dropped the clubs, and it ran
howling back the way it came.

"Valentine followed fast enough to see the creature enter a cave, and
to this, Keen-Point told him he must go. As he went forward, a
fierce-looking man came from the cave and stood guarding the entrance.
He was covered from head to foot with silver armor, and he brandished
a long keen sword with a silver handle. But Valentine went straight
forward, holding Butch in his hand. The long sword never touched him,
nor