de
and now I don't see it."

Tom stared about him.

"It must be a little further on," he said.

But further on it was not to be seen, and we began to feel perfectly
puzzled. The street was quite a short one--we soon came to the end,
where, right and left, it ran into a wider one, quiet and rather dark
too--that is to say, compared with the great street of shops where we
had just been. We stood at the corner looking about us--

"This is our street--it must be," I said; "but what _can_ have become of
the letter-box in the little street?"

Tom could say nothing, he was as puzzled as I. We walked on slowly, more
because we did not know what else to do, than for any other reason.
Going home without posting the letter, for which we had run such risks,
was not to be thought of. Suddenly Tom gave a little scream, and would
have darted across the street had I not kept tight hold of him.

"Tom, what is the matter? Where are you going?" I said.

Tom wriggled and pulled.

"Let me go, Audrey," he said. "_There's_ one--don't you see--across the
street. Let me go, to be sure it's a proper one like the other."

"One" meant another pillar-post. I wouldn't let go of Tom, but we all
went across together to examine it. It was just like the one that had
suddenly disappeared from the little street, and it took a great weight
off me when I had dropped my letter into it.

"It is just as if they had wheeled it across from the street
opposite--isn't it?" I said to Tom.

But as there were no wheels, and as the pillar seemed stuck in the
ground as firm as a rock, we could not explain the mystery.

"Now," said I, "let's run across again and find our house. It must be
just about opposite."

We crossed the street and went along slowly, peeping at every house we
passed in search of some sign by which we would know it. We had left the
door the tiniest little bit ajar you will remember--and two or three
times when we saw a house which we fancied looked just like Uncle
Geoff's, we went up the steps and gently pushed to see if the door was
open. But no--none of them were, and beginning to be really frightened
we returned to the pavement and considered what we should do.

"I don't understand it," I said, "we _must_ have passed it. It wasn't
above five or six houses from the street we turned, down, where the
pillar-post was."

"But, Audrey," said Tom, "p'raps we came up another street by mistake,
'cause you know we couldn't find the pilla