o see him.

He was not crying, however, but thinking, thinking, thinking, and trying
to find some way out, when he heard a little scratch, scratching on the
corner of the shed. He sat up and listened. The scratching went on. He
held his breath. Could it be that some one was trying to get in to help
him? Nonsense, of course it was only a rat. Next moment a voice spoke so
close to him that he started and all but cried out.

"Bide where you be, lad, bide still; 'tis only me--old Mouldiwarp of
Arden. You be a bold lad, by my faith, so you be. Never an Arden better.
Never an Arden of them all."

"Oh, Mouldiwarp, dear Mouldiwarp, do help me! I led them into this--help
me to get them back safe. Do, do, do!"

"So I will, den--dere ain't no reason in getting all of a fluster. It
ain't fitten for a lad as 'as faced death same's what you 'ave," said
the voice. "I've made a liddle tunnel for 'e--so I 'ave--'ere in dis
'ere corner--you come caten wise crose the floor and you'll feel it. You
crawl down it, and outside you be sure enough."

Dickie went towards the voice, and sure enough, as the voice said, there
was a hole in the ground, just big enough, it seemed, for him to crawl
down on hands and knees.

"I'll go afore," said the Mouldiwarp, "you come arter. Dere's naught to
be afeared on, Lord Arden."

"Am I really Lord Arden?" said Dickie, pausing.

"Sure's I'm alive you be," the mole answered; "yer uncle'll tell it you
with all de lawyer's reasons to-morrow morning as sure's sure. Come
along, den. Dere ain't no time to lose."

So Dickie went down on his hands and knees, and crept down the mole
tunnel of soft, sweet-smelling earth, and then along, and then up--and
there they were in the courtyard. There, too, were Edred and Elfrida.

The three children hugged each other, and then turned to the Mouldiwarp.

"How can we get home?"

"The old way," he said; and from the sky above a swan carriage suddenly
swooped. "In with you," said the Mouldiwarp; "swan carriages can take
you from one time to another just as well as one place to another. But
we don't often use 'em--'cause why? swans is dat contrary dey won't go
invisible not for no magic, dey won't. So everybody can see 'em. Still
we can't pick nor choose when it's danger like dis 'ere. In with you. Be
off with you. This is the last you'll see o' me. Be off afore the
soldiers sees you."

They squeezed into the swan carriage, all three. The white wings spread
and the