eter, whom
their last adventure and the Knight-mare's talk had quite put out of
their minds.

"I tell you what," said Rudolf suddenly, "I'll make a bargain with
you. My little brother has run away to find the Bad Dreams, and we
have got to find him and bring him back. If you'll lead us to him and
help us all you can, why--why--I won't promise--but I'll see what I
can do for you."

The Knight-mare gave a loud triumphant neigh. "Ods-bodikins and bran
mash!" he cried. "You're worth rescuing for nothing, the whole lot of
you! But"--he added mournfully--"I ought to warn you to keep away
from that crowd--they're a bad lot. You'd do better to cut along
home."

"We can't do that," cried Rudolf and Ann together.

"Then come with me," said the Knight-mare. "It's only a short way
to--"

He was suddenly interrupted by a fresh commotion in the wood. Heavy
bodies were parting the undergrowth back of where they stood. Before
the children could think of escape, four strange figures sprang on
them from behind, their arms were seized, they were tripped up, and
they landed very hard upon the ground. Both knew in a moment what had
happened. The Bad Dreams had caught them!

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIII

THE BAD DREAMS

At first the children's view was entirely shut off by the size and
heaviness of the things that were sitting on their chests. They had
been completely taken by surprise and they had not even breath enough
left to cry out, but lay still and listened to what was going on about
them. This is what they heard:

"Ye arre arristid in the name of the Law!" a gruff voice was saying.
"Move on, move on, move on."

"One moment, Officer," a second voice interrupted. "Imprison these
young persons, if you are so disposed, but pray allow me first my
little opportunity to practise on them. This young lady--ahem! We will
begin by extracting that large molar on the upper left-hand side, we
will then have out two or three--"

"Ugh--ugh!" A series of hoarse grunts, and what had been sitting on
Rudolf rose up and rushed at the last speaker. "No, no! Big Chief
first! Big Chief Thunder-snorer take two fine scalp--ha! ha!"

There was a confused sound of struggling and voices arguing, and in
another moment Ann was relieved of her burden which, with a mighty
moo, got up and joined the others. Ann sat up and clung to Rudolf,
while the Knight-mare who was standing close beside her, laid a
protecting hand up