The enchanted castle

THE ENCHANTED CASTLE 251
when Gerald and Jimmy, holding hands in the
darkness of the passage, uttered their first concerted
yell, " just for the lark of the thing," that
yell was instantly answered from outside.
A crack of light showed in that part of the
passage where they had least expected the door
to be. The stone door itself swung slowly open,
and they were out of it, in the Temple of Flora,
blinking in the good daylight, an unresisting
prey to Kathleen's embraces and the questionings
of Mabel.
"And you left that Ugly-Wugly loose in
London," Mabel pointed out "
; you might have
wished it to be with you, too."
' ;
It's all right where it is," said Gerald. " I
couldn't think of everything. And besides, no,
thank you ! Now we'll go home and seal up the
ring in an envelope."
"I haven't done anything with the ring yet,"
said Kathleen.
" I shouldn't think you'd want to when you
see the sort of things it does with you," said
Gerald.
" It wouldn't do things like that if / was
wishing with it," Kathleen protested.
" Look here," said Mabel, " let's just put it
back in the treasure-room and have done with
it.
I oughtn't ever to have taken it away, really.
It's a sort of stealing. It's quite as bad, really,
as Eliza borrowing it to astonish her gentleman
friend with."
" I don't mind putting it back if you like,"
said Gerald, " only if any of us do think of a