you really mean? But of what?" Loneli questioned
further.

"Of what? That is easily said: of what! You ought to have seen that huge
creature coming towards us from the castle."

Since it had come out that they had been so frightened, Clevi now told in
detail about the horribly tall armoured knight with the high boots and
the long cloak hanging down to his boot-tops.

"Was the mantle blue?" Loneli, who had been listening intensely,
interrupted.

"It was night-time, and you can imagine we did not see the color
clearly," Clevi said indignantly. "But the color has nothing to do with
it, it was the length, the horrible, horrible length of that thing! It
looked just too awful. He had a high helmet on his head besides, with a
still higher bunch of black plumes that nodded in the most frightful
way."

A gleam of joy sparkled in Loneli's eyes. Flying away like an arrow, she
sought out Mrs. Maxa's house. Kurt was standing at the hawthorn hedge
in front of the garden with his schoolbag still slung around him. He had
not rushed in ahead of the others according to his custom.

With puckered brow he was pulling one leaf after another from the hedge.
Then he flung them all away, as if he wanted with each to rid himself of
a disagreeable thought.

"Kurt," Loneli called to him, "please wait a moment. Don't go in yet,
for I want to tell you something."

When Loneli stood beside Kurt she was suddenly filled with embarrassment.
She knew exactly what she had to say, but it would sound as if she was
trying to examine Kurt. This kept her from beginning.

"Tell me what you want, Loneli," Kurt encouraged her, when he saw her
hesitation.

So Loneli began:

"I wanted to ask you if--if--oh, Kurt! Are you so sad on account of what
happened at the castle and because you thought there was no ghost?"

"I don't want to hear anything more about it," Kurt said evasively,
pulling a handful of leaves from the hedge and throwing them angrily to
the ground.

"But it might only have been a man after all," Loneli continued quietly.

"Yes, yes, that is easily said, Loneli. How can you talk when you
haven't even seen him?"

Kurt flung the last leaves away impatiently and tried to go. But Loneli
would not yield.

"Just wait a moment, Kurt," she entreated. "It is true that I did not
see him, but Clevi told me all about him. I know why he looked that way
and why he was so enormous. I also know where he got the armour, the
long blue mantle, and