'is the Beak.'

'Let's go to him,' cried both the girls jumping up. 'Let's go and tell
the truth. They MUST believe us.'

'They CAN'T,' said Cyril. 'Just think! If any one came to you with such
a tale, you couldn't believe it, however much you tried. We should only
mix things up worse for him.'

'There must be something we could do,' said Jane, sniffing very
much--'my own dear pet burglar! I can't bear it. And he was so nice,
the way he talked about his father, and how he was going to be so extra
honest. Dear Phoenix, you MUST be able to help us. You're so good and
kind and pretty and clever. Do, do tell us what to do.'

The Phoenix rubbed its beak thoughtfully with its claw.

'You might rescue him,' it said, 'and conceal him here, till the
law-supporters had forgotten about him.'

'That would be ages and ages,' said Cyril, 'and we couldn't conceal him
here. Father might come home at any moment, and if he found the burglar
here HE wouldn't believe the true truth any more than the police would.
That's the worst of the truth. Nobody ever believes it. Couldn't we take
him somewhere else?'

Jane clapped her hands.

'The sunny southern shore!' she cried, 'where the cook is being queen.
He and she would be company for each other!'

And really the idea did not seem bad, if only he would consent to go.

So, all talking at once, the children arranged to wait till evening, and
then to seek the dear burglar in his lonely cell.

Meantime Jane and Anthea darned away as hard as they could, to make the
carpet as strong as possible. For all felt how terrible it would be if
the precious burglar, while being carried to the sunny southern shore,
were to tumble through a hole in the carpet, and be lost for ever in the
sunny southern sea.

The servants were tired after Mrs Wigson's party, so every one went to
bed early, and when the Phoenix reported that both servants were snoring
in a heartfelt and candid manner, the children got up--they had never
undressed; just putting their nightgowns on over their things had been
enough to deceive Eliza when she came to turn out the gas. So they were
ready for anything, and they stood on the carpet and said--

'I wish we were in our burglar's lonely cell.' and instantly they were.

I think every one had expected the cell to be the 'deepest dungeon below
the castle moat'. I am sure no one had doubted that the burglar, chained
by heavy fetters to a ring in the damp stone wall, would be t