d it.

Then the Mouldiwarp said--

"What brings you here?"

"Kind magic," Elfrida answered.

And the Mouldierwarp said--

"What is your desire?"

And Edred said, "We want Dickie, please."

Then the Mouldiestwarp said, and it was to Edred that he said it--

"Dickie is in the hands of those who will keep him from you for many a
day unless you yourself go, alone, and rescue him. It will be difficult,
and it will be dangerous. Will you go?"

"Me? Alone?" said Edred rather blankly. "Not Elfrida?"

"Dickie can only be ransomed at a great price, and it must be paid by
you. It will cost you more to do it than it would cost Elfrida, because
she is braver than you are."

Here was a nice thing for a boy to have said to him, and before all
these people too! To ask a chap to do a noble deed and in the same
breath to tell him he is a coward!

Edred flushed crimson, and a shudder ran through the company.

"Don't turn that horrible color," whispered a white toreador who was
close to him. "This is the _white_ world. No crimson allowed."

Elfrida caught Edred's hand.

"Edred is quite as brave as me," she said. "He'll go. Won't you?"

"Of course I will," said Edred impatiently.

"Then ascend the steps of the throne," said the Mouldiestwarp, very
kindly now, "and sit here by my side."

Edred obeyed, and the Mouldiestwarp leaned towards him and spoke in his
ear.

So that neither Elfrida nor any of the great company in the White Hall
could hear a word, only Edred alone.

"If you go to rescue Richard Arden," the Mouldiestwarp said, "you make
the greatest sacrifice of your life. For he who was called Richard
Harding is Richard Arden, and it is he who is Lord Arden and not you or
your father. And if you go to his rescue you will be taking from your
father the title and the Castle, and you will be giving up your place as
heir of Arden to your cousin Richard who is the rightful heir."

"But how is he the rightful heir?" Edred asked, bewildered.

"Three generations ago," said the Mouldiestwarp, "a little baby was
stolen from Arden. Death came among the Ardens and that child became the
heir to the name and the lands of Arden. The man who stole the child
took it to a woman in Deptford, and gave it in charge to her to nurse.
She knew nothing but that the child's clothes were marked Arden, and
that it had, tied to its waist, a coral and bells engraved with a coat
of arms. The man who had stolen the child said he would retur