d chicken, THAT
prospect did not deter him. He left the room so quietly that Helen did
not even lift her eyes.

Then upon the landing he waited and listened. The house had all the
lighted trembling dusk of the snowy afternoon; there was no sound save
the ticking of the clocks. He might come upon the Jampot at any moment,
but this was just the hour when she liked to drink her cup of tea in the
kitchen; he knew from deep and constant study every movement of her
day. Fortune favoured him. He reached without trouble the little dark
corkscrew servants' staircase. Down this he crept, and found himself
beside the little gardener's door. Although here there was only snow-lit
dusk, he felt for the handle of the lock, found it, turned it, and was,
at once, over the steps, into the garden.

Here, with a vengeance, he felt the full romance and danger of his
enterprise. It was horribly cold; he had been in the nursery for two
whole days, wrapped up and warm, and now the snowy world seemed to
leap up at him and drag him down as though into an icy well. Mysterious
shadows hovered over the garden; the fountain pointed darkly against the
sky, and he could feel from the feathery touches upon his face that the
snow had begun to fall again.

He moved forward a few steps; the house was so dark behind him, the
world so dim and uncertain in front of him, that for a moment his heart
failed him. He might have to search the whole garden for the dog.

Then he heard a sniff, felt something wet against his leg--he had almost
stepped upon the animal. He bent down and stroked its wet coat. The dog
stood quite still, then moved forward towards the house, sniffed at the
steps, at last walked calmly through the open door as though the house
belonged to him. Jeremy followed, closed the door behind him; then there
they were in the little dark passage with the boy's heart beating like a
drum, his teeth chattering, and a terrible temptation to sneeze hovering
around him. Let him reach the nursery and establish the animal there and
all might be well, but let them be discovered, cold and shivering, in
the passage, and out the dog would be flung. He knew so exactly what
would happen. He could hear the voices in the kitchen. He knew that they
were sitting warm there by the fire, but that at any moment Jampot might
think good to climb the stairs and see "what mischief they children were
up to." Everything depended upon the dog. Did he bark or whine, out into