e; now it reached the
level of the dome, now it hung below it; down, down, down it came, past
the level of their eager eyes and splashed in the water close by the
ship. It was a large empty bucket. The rope which held it was jerked
from above; the bucket dipped and filled and was drawn up again slowly
and steadily till it disappeared in the hole in the roof.

'Quick,' said the parrot, 'get the ship exactly under the hole, and next
time the bucket comes down you can go up in it.'

'This is out of the _Arabian Nights_, I think,' said Lucy, when the
yacht was directly under the hole in the roof. 'But who is it that keeps
on opening the books? Somebody must be pulling Polistopolis down.'

'The Pretenderette, I shouldn't wonder,' said Philip gloomily. 'She
isn't the Deliverer, so she must be the Destroyer. Nobody else can get
into Polistarchia, you know.'

'There's me.'

'Oh, you're Deliverer too.'

'Thank you,' said Lucy gratefully. 'But there's Helen.'

'She was only on the Island, you know; she couldn't come to
Polistarchia. Look out!'

The bucket was descending again, and instead of splashing in the water
it bumped on the deck.

'You go first,' said Philip to Lucy.

'And you,' said Max to Brenda.

'Oh, I'll go first if you like,' said Philip.

'Yes,' said Max, 'I'll go first if you like, Brenda.'

You see Philip felt that he ought to give Lucy the first chance of
escaping from the poor _Lightning Loose_. Yet he could not be at all
sure what it was that she would be escaping to. And if there was danger
overhead, of course he ought to be the one to go first to face it. And
the worthy Max felt the same about Brenda.

And Lucy felt just the same as they did. I don't know what Brenda felt.
She whined a little. Then for one moment Lucy and Philip stood on the
deck each grasping the handle of the bucket and looking at each other,
and the dogs looked at them, and the parrot looked at every one in turn.
An impatient jerk and shake of the rope from above reminded them that
there was no time to lose.

Lucy decided that it was more dangerous to go than to stay, just at the
same moment when Philip decided that it was more dangerous to stay than
to go, so when Lucy stepped into the bucket Philip helped her eagerly.
Max thought the same as Philip, and I am afraid Brenda agreed with them.
At any rate she leaped into Lucy's lap and curled her long length round
just as the rope tightened and the bucket began to go up. B