e to start, and there was no
castle to start from.

A young blugraiwee, peeping out of its hole after a rather disturbed
night to see whether any human beings were yet stirring or whether it
might venture out in search of yellow periwinkles, which are its
favourite food, started, pricked its spotted ears, looked again, and,
disdaining the cover of the rocks, walked boldly out across the beach.
For the beach was deserted. There was no one there. No Mr. Noah, no
Lucy, no gentle islanders, no M.A.'s--and what is more there were no
huts and there was no castle. All was smooth, plain, bare sea-combed
beach.

For the sea had at last risen. The fear of the Dwellers had been
justified. Whether the sea had been curious about the ark no one knows,
no one will ever know. At any rate the sea had risen up and swept away
from the beach every trace of the castle, the huts and the folk who had
lived there.

A bright parrot, with a streamer of motor veiling hanging to one claw,
called suddenly from the clear air to the little blugraiwee.

'What's up?' the parrot asked; 'where's everything got to?'

'I don't know, I'm sure,' said the little blugraiwee; 'these human
things are always coming and going. Have some periwinkles? They're very
fine this morning after the storm,' it said.

CHAPTER VIII

UPS AND DOWNS

We left Lucy in tears and Philip in the grasp of the hateful
Pretenderette, who, seated on the Hippogriff, was bearing him away
across the smooth blueness of the wide sea.

'Oh, Mr. Noah,' said Lucy, between sniffs and sobs, 'how _can_ she! You
_did_ say the Hippogriff could only carry one!'

'One ordinary human being,' said Mr. Noah gently; 'you forget that dear
Philip is now an earl.'

'But do you really think he's safe?' Lucy asked.

'Yes,' said Mr. Noah. 'And now, dear Lucy, no more questions. Since your
arrival on our shores I have been gradually growing more accustomed to
being questioned, but I still find it unpleasant and fatiguing. Desist,
I entreat.'

So Lucy desisted and every one went to bed, and, for crying is very
tiring, to sleep. But not for long.

Lucy was awakened in her bed of soft dry seaweed by the sound of the
castle alarm bell, and by the blaring of trumpets and the shouting of
many voices. A bright light shone in at the window of her room. She
jumped up and ran to the window and leaned out. Below lay the great
courtyard of the castle, a moving sea of people on which hundreds of
tor