dusky pillars towards a far grey speck of
sunlight.

It was not till they were once more under the bare sky that Lucy said:

'What did it say?'

'You must have heard,' said Mr. Noah.

'I only heard the voice and what it meant. I didn't understand the
words. But the voice was like dreams and everything beautiful I've ever
thought of.'

'I thought it a wonderfully straight-forward business-like oracle,'
said Mr. Noah briskly; 'and the voice was quite distinct and I remember
every word it said.'

(Which just shows how differently the same thing may strike two people.)

'What did it say?' Lucy asked, trotting along beside him, still
clutching Philip's bundle, which through all these days she had never
let go.

And Mr. Noah gravely recited the following lines. I agree with him that,
for an oracle, they were extremely straightforward.

'You had better embark
Once again in the Ark,
And sailing from dryland
Make straight for the Island.'

'Did it _really_ say that?' Lucy asked.

'Of course it did,' said Mr. Noah; 'that's a special instruction to me,
but I daresay you heard something quite different. The oracle doesn't
say the same thing to every one, of course. Didn't you get any special
instruction?'

'Only to try to be brave and good,' said Lucy shyly.

'Well, then,' said Mr. Noah, 'you carry out your instructions and I'll
carry out mine.'

'But what's the use of going to the island if you can't land when you
get there?' Lucy insisted. 'You know only two people can land there,
and we're not them, are we?'

'Oh, if you begin asking what's the use, we shan't get anywhere,' said
Mr. Noah. 'And more than half the things you say are questions.'

* * * * * *

I'm sorry this chapter is cut up into bits with lines of stars, but
stars are difficult to avoid when you have to tell about a lot of
different things happening all at once. That is why it is much better
always to keep your party together if you can. And I have allowed mine
to get separated so that Philip, the parrot and the rest of the company
are going through three sets of adventures all at the same time. This is
most trying for me, and fully accounts for the stars. Which I hope
you'll excuse. However.

We now come back by way of the stars to Philip wrong way up in
the clutches of the Pretenderette. She had breathed the magic word
in the Hippogriff's ear, but she