shadow of the porch received him.

. . . . . . .

'Bother the child,' said the nurse, coming into the drawing-room a
little later; 'if he hasn't been at his precious building game again! I
shall have to give him a lesson over this--I can see that. And I will
too--a lesson he won't forget in a hurry.'

She went through the house, looking for the too bold builder that she
might give him that lesson. Then she went through the garden, still on
the same errand.

Half an hour later she burst into the servants' hall and threw herself
into a chair.

'I don't care what happens now,' she said. 'The house is bewitched, I
think. I shall go the very minute I've had my dinner.'

'What's up now?' the cook came to the door to say.

'Up?' said the nurse. 'Oh, nothing's _up_. What should there be?
Everything's all right and beautiful, and just as it should be, of
course.'

'Miss Lucy's not found yet, of course, but that's all, isn't it?'

'All? And enough too, I should have thought,' said the nurse. 'But as it
happens it's _not_ all. The boy's lost now. Oh, I'm not joking. He's
lost I tell you, the same as the other one--and I'm off out of this by
the two thirty-seven train, and I don't care who knows it.'

'Lor!' said the cook.

. . . . . . .

Before starting for the two thirty-seven train the nurse went back to
the drawing-room to destroy Philip's new building, to restore to their
proper places its books, candlesticks, vases, and chessmen.

There we will leave her.

CHAPTER IV

THE DRAGON-SLAYER

When Philip walked up the domino path and under the vast arch into the
darkness beyond, his heart felt strong with high resolve. His legs,
however, felt weak; strangely weak, especially about the knees. The
doorway was so enormous, that which lay beyond was so dark, and he
himself so very very small. As he passed under the little gateway which
he had built of three dominoes with the little silver knight in armour
on the top, he noticed that he was only as high as a domino, and you
know how very little that is.

Philip went along the domino path. He had to walk carefully, for to him
the spots on the dominoes were quite deep hollows. But as they were
black they were easy to see. He had made three arches, one beyond
another, of two pairs of silver candlesticks with silver inkstands on
the top of them. The third pair of silver candlest