The enchanted castle

204 THE ENCHANTED CASTLE
snow man you make in the Christmas holidays.
He put the ring on again, and there was
Hermes, circling round the group and gazing
deep in each unconscious Ugly-Wugly face.
"This seems a very superior hotel," the tallhatted
Ugly-Wugly was saying "
; the grounds
are laid out with what you might call taste."
" We should have to go in by the back door,"
said Mabel suddenly. " The front door's locked
at half-past nine."
A short, stout Ugly-Wugly in a yellow and
blue cricket caj), who had hardly spoken,
muttered something about an escapade, and
about feeling quite young again.
And now they had skirted the marble-edged
pool where the gold fish swam and glimmered,
and where the great prehistoric beast had come
down to bathe and drink. The water flashed
white diamonds in the moonlight, and Gerald
alone of them all saw that the scaly-plated vast
lizard was even now rolling and wallowing there
among the lily pads.
They hastened up the steps of the Temple of
Flora. The back of it, where no elegant arch
opened to the air, was against one of those
sheer hills, almost cliffs, that diversified the
landscape of that garden. Mabel passed behind
the statue of the goddess, fumbled a little, and
then Gerald's lantern, hashing like a searchlight,
showed a very high and very narrow
doorway : the stone that was the door, and that
had closed it, revolved slowly under the touch of
Mabel's fingers.