,' Lucy cried, and Philip patted them, one with each
hand, 'how did you get here?'

'It was a little surprise of Mr. Noah's,' said the parrot.

Max and Brenda whined and barked and gushed.

'I wish we could understand what they're saying,' said Lucy.

'If you only knew the magic word that the Hippogriff obeys,' said the
parrot, 'you could say it, and then you'd understand all animal talk.
Only, of course, I mustn't tell it you. It's one of the eleven
mysteries.'

'But I know it,' said Philip, and at once breathed the word in the tiny
silky ear of Brenda and then in the longer silkier ear of Max, and
instantly--

'Oh, my dears!' they heard Brenda say in a softly shrill excited voice;
'oh, my dearie dears! We _are_ so pleased to see you. I'm only a poor
little faithful doggy; I'm not clever, you know, but my affectionate
nature makes me almost mad with joy to see my dear master and mistress
again.'

'Very glad to see you, sir,' said Max with heavy politeness. 'I hope
you'll be comfortable here. There's no comfort for a dog like being with
his master.'

And with that he sat down and went to sleep, and the others had
breakfast. It is rather fun cooking in yachts. And there was something
new and charming in Brenda's delicate way of sitting up and begging and
saying at the same time, 'I do _hate_ to bother my darling master and
mistress, but if you _could_ spare another _tiny_ bit of bacon--Oh,
_thank you_, how good and generous you are!'

They sailed the yacht successfully into the river which presently ran
into the shadow of a tropical forest. Also out of a book.

'You might go on during the night,' said the parrot, 'if the dogs would
steer under my directions. You could tie one end of a rope to their
collars and another to the helm. It's easier than turning spits.'

'Delighted!' said Max; 'only, of course, it's understood that we sleep
through the day?'

'Of course,' said everybody. So that was settled. And the children went
to bed.

It was in the middle of the night that the parrot roused Philip with his
usual gentle beak-touch. Then--

'Wake up,' it said; 'this is not the right river. It's not the right
direction. Nothing's right. The ship's all wrong. I'm very much afraid
some one has been opening a book and this river has got out.'

Philip hurried out on deck, and by the light of the lamps from the
cabin, gazed out at the banks of the river. At least he looked for them.
But there weren't any banks.