quawk and the flop of wings in the air below, the crash into the
hedge, the jarring thud against the ground. Broken wires began to
sputter ominously and fire out sparks. A smell of singed feathers and
burning rubber filled the air.

[Illustration]

By the light of the sparks David saw the Phoenix staggering to its
feet. He jumped to the bird's side, but the Phoenix waved him away
with its wing.

"Quick, my boy," it gasped. "We must make a strategic retreat! Meet me
on the ledge in the morning. Ouch!" The Phoenix beat at the smoldering
sparks in its tail and flew off, leaving a trail of acrid smoke
hanging in the air.

David had the presence of mind to gather up all the tools, the wire,
bell, and pushbutton, and one of the Phoenix's feathers, which had
been torn out during the fall. He slipped through a cellar window, hid
the equipment under a stack of old boxes, and ran noisily up the
stairs into the kitchen.

"Hey!" he shouted. "The lights are out!"

"Is that you, dear?" came Mother's anxious voice from the dining room.

"The telephone's dead!" Dad shouted from the hall.

Aunt Amy came bumping down the stairs with a candle. "It's that
burglar!" she cried. "Turning out all the lights so he can murder us
in our beds!"

"Look!" David shouted, "the line's broken in our back yard!"

They could hear the wailing of sirens now. Fire trucks, repair trucks,
and police cars pulled up in front of the house. Everyone in the block
turned out to see what had happened. It took the repair men an hour to
untangle the wires and fix them. And all the time policemen were
going through the crowd, asking questions and writing things down in
their notebooks. They were looking rather haggard, David thought.

8: _In Which David and the Phoenix Visit a Banshee, and a Surprise Is
Planted in the Enemy's Camp_

[Illustration]

Next day Mother asked David to help her straighten out the garden,
which had been trampled by the repair men; so he could not go to see
the Phoenix until after lunch. But when that was finished, he rushed
up the mountainside as fast as he could, wondering all the way what he
and the Phoenix were going to do now.

The ledge was empty when he got there. He shouted, "Phoenix!" and
listened.

"Hel-l-lp!" came a faint answering cry from the other end of the
ledge.

David jumped through the thicket. A pitiful sight met his eyes. There
was the Phoenix, dangling by one foot from the snare, its wings feeb