said Sir Wulfric de Talbot. "Repeat
thy words--what hadst thou?"

"A ripping--I mean a jolly--no--we were contented with our lot--that's
what I mean; only, after we got into an awful fix."

"What is a fix? A fray, mayhap?"

"No--not a fray. A--a--a tight place."

"A dungeon? Alas for thy youthful fettered limbs!" said the knight, with
polite sympathy.

"It wasn't a dungeon. We just--just encountered undeserved misfortunes,"
Robert explained, "and to-day we are punished by not being allowed to go
out. That's where I live,"--he pointed to the castle. "The others are in
there, and they're not allowed to go out. It's all the Psammead's--I
mean the enchanter's fault. I wish we'd never seen him."

"He is an enchanter of might?"

"Oh yes--of might and main. Rather!"

"And thou deemest that it is the spells of the enchanter whom thou hast
angered that have lent strength to the besieging party," said the
gallant leader; "but know thou that Wulfric de Talbot needs no
enchanter's aid to lead his followers to victory."

"No, I'm sure you don't," said Robert, with hasty courtesy; "of course
not--you wouldn't, you know. But, all the same, it's partly his fault,
but we're most to blame. You couldn't have done anything if it hadn't
been for us."

"How now, bold boy?" asked Sir Wulfric haughtily. "Thy speech is dark,
and eke scarce courteous. Unravel me this riddle!"

"Oh," said Robert desperately, "of course you don't know it, but you're
not _real_ at all. You're only here because the others must have been
idiots enough to wish for a castle--and when the sun sets you'll just
vanish away, and it'll be all right."

The captain and the men-at-arms exchanged glances at first pitying, and
then sterner, as the longest-booted man said, "Beware, my noble lord;
the urchin doth but feign madness to escape from our clutches. Shall we
not bind him?"

"I'm no more mad than you are," said Robert angrily, "perhaps not so
much--Only, I was an idiot to think you'd understand anything. Let me
go--I haven't done anything to you."

"Whither?" asked the knight, who seemed to have believed all the
enchanter story till it came to his own share in it. "Whither wouldst
thou wend?"

"Home, of course." Robert pointed to the castle.

"To carry news of succor? Nay!"

"All right, then," said Robert, struck by a sudden idea; "then let me go
somewhere else." His mind sought eagerly among the memories of the
historical romance.

"Sir Wulfric