e
pony knew better than he. So they went splashing down for a long way,
wondering what would come next, until Stonecrop again stopped and
whinnied; and a little further on they came upon another little stream,
running into that which they were following, where the pony turned and
followed the new water upward. A little further on he gave a kind of
whispered grunt of satisfaction, and presently there came the sound not
only of neighing but of pattering hoofs, and a pony suddenly came
trotting out of the mist towards them. He stopped and whinnied gently,
turned round, trotted back for some way, then stood and whinnied again,
while the children's ponies hastened their own pace towards him. Then
the sound of a shrill whistle came down the water, and the strange pony
at once turned and cantered away towards it; but Stonecrop only moved
the faster in the same direction, giving a loud scream to call him
back. And now a faint light came dancing down by the water, drawing
closer and closer to the children till they could see that it was a man
carrying a lantern. Nearer and nearer it came, and Dick cleared his
throat and began, "Oh, please--," whereupon the man stopped so short
that Dick stopped too, and Elsie came up close to him and clung to his
arm. Then the light disappeared and the man gave a peculiar whistle.
It was answered by the same whistle at a distance, and the children
waited with beating hearts till the light appeared again; and at last a
woman's voice said very roughly out of the mist,

"Who's there?"

"Oh, please, we have lost our way," said Dick; "please, please tell us
the way home."

A suspicious grunt was the only answer; and Dick hastened to go on,
"Oh, please, we mean no harm, but we've lost our way. It's only Elsie
and me."

"Ah!" said the woman's voice, as if in surprise.

"Yes, it's only Dick and me," said Elsie in her most reassuring voice,
but, like Dick, forgetting her grammar.

And then a curious, cackling laugh sounded out of the mist; the lantern
came bounding forward, and before she could realise what had happened,
Elsie found her skirt seized and a great rough head scrubbing against
it. She gave a cry of terror, but directly afterwards the lantern
showed her the face of the idiot, which grinned at her with delight for
a moment and then bent again to kiss her skirt. Then another figure
came out of the darkness, seized the lantern and held it first to her
face and then to Dick's.