eld the place about him suffused
with scarlet light. He leapt to his feet, turning in swift amaze to
learn from whence it came, and saw Prince Ember standing, with Sword
extended like a bar of fire across his snare. From it streamed that
heat, potent and overmastering, wherein its magic dwelt.

"Let the snare of the Ash Goblin perish before the power of the Sword of
Fire!" exclaimed the Prince, and as he uttered the words the Ash Goblin
saw the web that he had been at such pains to prepare, begin to shrivel
and shrink away, and presently it had vanished completely from the
surface of the Plain.

A frenzied shriek burst from the Ash Goblin at the sight of his work
destroyed before his very eyes and by the one for whom the snare had
been laid. Coward though he was, he would have rushed upon the Prince to
attack him with all his puny strength, had not the heat which streamed
from the Sword of Fire made his limbs powerless to stir from the spot
where he lay hid, had not the glow which surrounded him become so
intense that he was forced to bury his head in his cloak, lest his eyes
should be blinded by it.

Crouching there, wrapped to the very crown of his head in his dingy
cloak, he heard again the voice of Prince Ember.

"Depart quickly," commanded the Prince, "lest you be consumed in like
manner as your evil snare."

Then the Ash Goblin rose and fled away in terror from the place where he
had hoped to triumph, fled on and on, until he came to the threshold of
his own hut. In desperate haste he undid the door, and rushing in,
closed and barred it fast, to shut out the spell of the conquering
Sword.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XIV

While Prince Ember had passed from place to place, everywhere meeting
and conquering the perils that beset him and his companion, the Wind in
the Chimney had not been unmindful of his promise to Black Shadow. On
the contrary, he was only too willing to help the Wizard.

As soon as the Wizard's messenger had departed from him, he despatched a
half dozen of his keenest and most agile Breezes to the Chimney Mouth to
spy upon the Elf's house from thence, and bring him word at once the
moment the Prince was seen to cross its threshold.

During the time, therefore, that the Imps had been keeping guard at the
entrance to the Wizard's cavern, the Breezes, on their part, had been
industriously looking across the Plain from the Chimn