g to take him."

Nevertheless Earley went to the back door and asked Hannah to inform her
mistress that "Mr. Tancred had taken Mazter Tony along of 'im."

Hannah was busy, and serene in her conception of Hugo as the sorrowing
widower, did not think the fact that Tony had gone for a walk with his
own father was worth a journey to the day-nursery.

"How would you like a ride down to the junction?" Hugo said. "I believe
we could just catch a train if we take the omnibus at 'The Green Hart.'
I want to make inquiries about something for Auntie Jan."

Tony loved trains; he had only been twice to the junction since he came
to Wren's End; it was a fascinating place. Daddie seemed in an agreeable
mood this morning. Auntie Jan would be pleased that he should be nice to
him.

It all fell out as if the fates had arranged things for Hugo. They saw
very few people in the village; only one old woman accompanied them in
the bus; he heard his father ask for a ticket to the junction, and they
arrived without incident of any kind.

The junction, however, was busy. There were quite a lot of people, and
when Hugo went to the ticket-office he had to stand in a queue of others
while Tony waited outside the long row.

Suddenly Tony began to wonder why his father should go to the
ticket-office at all to inquire for a parcel. Tony was observant, and
just because everything was so different from things in India small
incidents were impressed upon his mind. If his father was going on
anywhere else, he wasn't going; for Peter had promised to take them out
in his car again that afternoon. When Hugo reached the window of the
ticket-office Tony heard something about Paddington.

That decided him. Nothing would induce him to go to Paddington.

He pushed his way among the crowd and ran for dear life up the stairs,
and over the bridge to the other platform where the train for Amber
Guiting was still waiting, lonely and deserted. He knew that train. It
went up and down all day, for Amber Guiting was the terminus. No one was
on the platform as he ran along. With the sure instinct of the hunted he
passed the carriages with their shut doors. Right at the end was a van
with empty milk-cans. He had seen a porter putting them in the moment
the train stopped. Tony darted into the van and crouched down between
the milk-cans and the wall. He thought of getting into one of them. The
story of Morgiana and the Forty Thieves was clear in his mind, for Meg
ha