He bowed politely to the children, but dug a claw into Winks, who yelled and shot outside in a hurry. Winks shook a bright blue fist at the cat.
"Where are we?" said Peter, as they walked down the hillside, now filling with shadows as the sun sank low. "Goodness—why, there's our gar¬den!"
So it was, just nearby. How very extraordinary. "If only people knew how near their gardens are to curious and wonderful places, how surprised they would be!" said Mollie, walking in at their side-gate, and going to the playroom. "Well, we can take that short cut to-morrow. I do wonder how it is that the sea is outside that other window. I just simply can't understand that!"
They said good-bye to Winks, who had tried in vain to wash the blue off his hands under the gar- den-tap. Then off they went to ask their mother if they could have the whole day to themselves to¬morrow. She said, Yes, of course they could! It would do them good to go into the country in the lovely summer weather they were having now.
"Well, I don't know what Mother would say if she knew we were going to hunt for Giant Twisty in his Wandering Castle!" said Peter. "I suppose she just wouldn't believe it."
The next day the children had breakfast very early indeed, and then set off down the garden to collect Winks. His hands were still as blue as ever, so he had put on a pair of gloves.
"Oh—you've borrowed them from my biggest doll, Winks," said Mollie. "You might have asked permission first. I should have said, 'No, certainly you can't have them.'"
"Yes. I felt sure you wouldn't let me,' said Winks. "That's why 1 didn't ask you. I'll take great care of them, Mollie, I really will. Your doll doesn't mind a bit."
They went out of the garden gate and looked round. Where was that short cut now? They couldn't find it at all! But Winks spotted it.
"I've better eyes for strange things than you have," he said. "1 can see a little shining path in the grass that you can't see. Follow me."
"Well, you must be right," said Peter, as Winks led them straight over the grass to the same trees on the same sunny hillside as they had seen the day before. "And there's the little silver door!"
Cinders opened it as they came near. Winks shot in so quickly that he hadn't time to scratch the brownie, though he did try!
Mr. Spells was there, surrounded by papers and old books of all kinds. "My mother is still asleep in bed," he said. "I'm glad you're early. We can start off straight away."
"Oh—have you found out where the Wander¬ing Castle is?" asked Mollie, in delight. Did your magic books tell you?"
"They helped," said Mr. Spells. "And Cinders and I did a little Find-Out Spell we know. Wander¬ing Castle is now on the island belonging to Giant Small-One, Twisty's brother."
"Giant Small-One—that's a funny name," said Mollie.
"Not really," said Mr. Spells. "He's small for a giant, that's all. Well, we'd better start."
"But how can we get to an island?" said Peter.
"We haven't a Wishing-Chair to fly over the sea!"
"That doesn't matter," said Mr. Spells. "Cin¬ders has been getting my ship ready."
He pointed to the window that so surprisingly looked out on the sea. The children stared in won¬der and delight. A most beautiful ship rocked gen¬tly on the calm blue sea, a picture of loveliness with its big, white sails. Mollie cried out in joy. "Oh—what a beauty! And it's called The MollieV
"Just a little complinment to you," said Mr. Spells, smiling. "Also it's supposed to be lucky to sail in a ship bearing one of the passengers' names. Well—shall we set off? The wind is just right."
Cinders opened the window. Just outside was a stone ledge, with steps leading down to a tiny jetty. Cinders went first and helped Mollie down.
They all stepped aboard the beautiful white- sailed ship. Mr. Spells took the tiller.
"Blow, wind, blow.
And on we will go
Over the waters blue," he sang, and the white ship leapt forward like a bird.
"Is that a spell you sang?" said Mollie.
"Oh, no—just a little song" said Mr. Spells. And he began to sing again, whilst the ship sailed lightly over the blue waters. The children and Winks en¬joyed it very much. Mollie trailed her hand in the water.
"Did we bring any food?" asked Mollie, sud¬denly. "I'm hungry!"
"No," said Mr. Spells, and everyone at once looked rather gloomy. "Enchanters don't need to," he went on. "I always carry a spell in my pocket that I use when I need any food."
Soon they were all eating and drinking, as the ship sped on and on.
For two hours the ship sailed on—then Cinders gave a shout. "Land ahoy! It's the island, Mr. Spells, sir."
"Aha!" said the enchanter. "Now we must be a bit careful." They all looked hard at the island that was rapidly coming nearer as the ship sped over the water. It didn't look very big. It was crowded with tall buildings, some of them looking like pal¬aces, some like castles.
"Which is the Wandering Castle, I wonder?" said Mollie.
"Can't possibly tell," said Mr. Spells. "Now here we go towards this little jetty. We'll land there. You'll have to watch out a bit, because several gi¬ants live here and you don't want to be trodden on like ants."
Mollie didn't like the sound of this much. She was determined to keep very close to Mr. Spells. Cinders was left with the ship, much to Winks' re¬lief. They all set off up an extremely wide street.
"We shall be all right if we keep to the narrow pavements that run beside the walls of the build¬ing," said Mr. Spells, guiding them to one. "There are plenty of small folk living here, as well as gi¬ants."
So there were—pixies and brownies and gob¬lins and elves—but there were also giants, and Mollie suddenly saw a most enormous foot, fol¬lowed by another one, walking down the street! She shrank close to Mr. Spells.
When the giant came by the children tried to see up to the top of him, but he was too tall. "That's a large-sized giant," said Mr. Spells. "I know him
— nice fellow called Too-Big. Here's a smaller one."
It was exciting and extraordinary to see giants walking about. Mr. Spells guided them to a palace not quite so tall as some of the buildings.
"This is where Giant Small-One lives—the gi¬ant the island belongs to," he said. "Come along
— we will ask him whereabouts his brother's Wan¬dering Castle is. Don't be afraid. I am much more powerful than he is and he knows it."
They went up a long, long flight of steps. At the top was a big open door, leading into a vast hall. At the end of the hall sat a giant—but he was such a small one that he wasn't more than twice the size of the enchanter himself!
"Advance, Mr. Spells, and pay your respects to Giant Small-One," boomed an enormous voice from somewhere.
And Mr. Spells boldly went forward. Now to find out what they all wanted to know!
XX
WANDERING CASTLE AT LAST
Mr. Spells made a small bow. "Greetings, Giant Small-One," he said. "I see you have not yet found a spell to make you Tall-One instead of Small-One. 1 come to ask you a question. We want to find your brother, Giant Twisty. Is Wandering Castle on your
island?"
'i believe so," said the voice of Giant Small- One, rather a feeble voice for a giant. "Go to High Hill and you will see it there. Why does Mr. Spells, grand enchanter, want my brother?"
"That is my own business," said Mr. Spells. The children thought he was very bold indeed to speak to a giant like that.
"Pray stay to a meal," said Small-One, and he clapped his big hands, making a noise like guns cracking. "I have few guests as important as you."
"Thank you, no," said Mr. Spells. "Our busi¬ness is urgent. We will go."
He walked back to the children and Winks, and they made their way to the door. But it was shut! They couldn't open such a big door themselves, so they had to go all the way back to Small-One and ask for a servant to open the door.
It took a long time to find a servant, which was strange, considering how many there had
been in the hall a few minutes before. "He is delaying us," said Mr. Spells angrily. "He wants to get a mes¬sage to his brother, before we reach him, to warn him that we are on his track!"
At last a servant was found, the door was opened and they all trooped down the endless steps. They made their way down the street, came into a wide lane, lined with hedges as high as trees, and then found a sign-post that said "To High Hill."
"There's High Hill," said Peter, pointing across the fields to a very tall hill. "There are quite a lot of buildings on it. I wonder which is Wandering
Castle?"
They came to High Hill at last and toiled up it. They met a small pixie running down, and Mr. Spells hailed her.
"Hey, little pixie! Where's Wandering Castle?"
"Let me see, now—1 saw it yesterday," said the little pixie. "Yes, I remember now. It's in the Sil¬ver Buttercup Field, sir."
"Silver Buttercups!" said Mollie, astonished. "I've never heard of those. I don't think I should like them. The golden ones are just right."
"I agree with you," said Mr. Spells, guiding them round a big house. "But some enchanters are very silly—always trying out novelties, you know. Well, here we are—here is Silver Buttercup Field."
So it was. Silvery buttercups nodded in a great shimmering carpet. "Beautiful, but washed-out looking," said Mr. Spells. "The thing is—where's Wandering Castle? It's certainly not here! It's wan¬dered away again. Small-One got a message to his brother in time—whilst we were trying to get that door open. Well, where has it wandered to now?"
"Please, sir, I know!" said a small goblin, run¬ning up. "It's gone to Loneliness! I don't know if you know that country, sir. It's over the sea to the east—a very, very lonely palce, where nobody ever goes if they can help it. It is going to hide itself there till you've given up looking for Twisty and his castle."
"How do you know all this?" demanded Mr. Spells.
r
"Because I was lying resting in these butter- cups when a servant from Giant Small-One came running up to warn Twisty that you were after him," said the goblin. "And I heard Twisty say where he was going."
"Right. Thank you very much," said Mr. Spells. "Come along, children—back to the ship. We must sail off to Loneliness at once. Twisty could easily hide himself in that strange, desolate land without anyone finding him for years."
"Oh, dear—we really must find him, because of Chinky," said Mollie. They went back to the ship. Cinders was so pleased to see them back so soon that he quite forgot to try and scratch Winks as he got on board.
They set off again, the wind filling the sails and making the ship fly like a bird. She rocked up and down lightly as she went, and the children began to feel very sleepy.
They fell asleep. Mr. Spells awoke them after a time. "Mollie! Peter! We're here. Wake up, both of you."
They sat up in the ship. It was moored to a small pier. Mollie looked out on the land of Loneliness. It was a gloomy, desolate place, with enormous trees growing in thick masses. "There are forests and forests of those," said Mr. Spells, looking as gloomy as Loneliness looked. "How we shall ever know where the Wandering Castle is, I can't imag¬ine!"
They landed, and walked towards the nearest forest of trees. Just as they got there they heard a voice shouting furiously.
"No peace anywhere! None at all! I come here, where nobody ever goes—and what comes walk¬ing almost on top of me but a castle! A CASTLE! Just when I thought I was going to sleep alone in peace!"
And out of the trees burst Chinky's cousin, Sleep-Alone! He was just as surprised to see the children and Winks and Mr. Spells as they were to see him.
"Sleep-Alone! Oh, Sleep-Alone, you're just about the only person who would come here!" cried Peter. "Where is that castle you've been complain¬ing about? It's Giant Twisty's, and he's got Chinky a prisoner there."
"Good thing, too," grumbled Sleep-Alone. "Mischievous creature, always coming and dis¬turbing me at night!"
"Listen, Sleep-Alone," said Mr. Spells. "If you
will lead us to that castle, we plan to rescue Chinky and the Wishing-Chair—and we will turn the wicked Twisty out of his castle. Then it will be empty, in the middle of the land of Loneliness. And you shall have it for your own! Think of being alone there, with no one to wake you at night, no one to bother you!"
Sleep-Alone listened to all this in delight.
What, have a large empty castle all to himself, with a thousand rooms to sleep in—lost in the middle of a forest in the land of Loneliness? Won¬derful!
"I'll show you where it is," he said eagerly.
They followed him. He darted in and out of the trees, following no path that they could see -and then at last they saw Wandering Castle! It stood there, rocking a little in the wind, for it had no true foundations as other buildings have. It was tall and dark and gloomy—and it hadn't a single win¬dow of any kind!
"There you are!" said Sleep-Alone. "A very fine castle, too—only one door—and no windows. Just the place for me!"
Mr. Spells looked at the castle in silence. One door—and no windows. A very difficult place to escape from if they got inside. But they must get inside. There was no doubt about that.
"Stay here by the door, Sleep-Alone," said Mr. Spells at last. "We're going in." He went up the broad steps to the great studded door.
The door opened. A giant stood there, a cross— eyed fellow, with a twisted smile on his face.
"Come in," he said. "So you've found me, have you? Well, I'm not going to deny that I've got the Wishing-Chair—yes, and Chinky, too—and now I'll have you as well."
To the children's surprise, Mr. Spells didn't run away. He stepped inside and the children and Winks went, too, all feeling rather scared. Twisty laughed.
"This is easier than I thought!" he said. "How are you going to get out again, Mr. Spells? There is now no door—and, as I dare say you have seen, there are no windows at all!"
The children turned and looked behind them. The door had vanished. They were indeed prison¬ers. But Mr. Spells didn't seem at all disturbed.
"Where is Chinky?" he said.
"Follow me," said Twisty, and he went down a long, dark passage and through a door. He crossed the room beyond the door, and came to another one. The door to this was locked and bolted. He opened it.
Inside was Chinky, sitting miserably in the Wishing-Chair! He leapt up in the greatest joy when he saw the others. Mollie ran to him and flung her arms round him.
"Chinky! You're safe! Oh, Chinky, we've come to rescue you!"
Peter slapped Chinky on the back and Winks pumped his hand up and down, yelling, "Chinky, good old Chinky!"
In the middle of all this there came the sound of the door being slammed and bolted. Then they
heard Twisty laughing loudly.
"EasyiToo easy for words! You can't get out, Mr. Spells, however powerful you are. This door has a Keep-Shut Spell in it that I bought from an old witch years ago. And it's the only way out! You can go free if you give me some spells I've wanted for years."
"You'll never get them from me, Twisty," called Mr. Spells. "Never!"
"Mr. Spells! You are going to get us out of here, aren't you?" begged Mollie.
"Sh! Don't get alarmed," said Mr. Spells. "I am going to do a spell on us all. Yes, and on the Wish- ing-Chair, too. Now, where's my chalk?"
He found a white chalk in his pocket and a blue one, too. He drew first a white circle and then a blue one inside it. He made the children, Chinky and Winks sit down in the middle of it.
Then he got inside the circle himself, and sat down in the Wishing-Chair.
"I'm going to say very magic words," he said. "Shut your eyes, please—and don't be surprised at whatever happens!"
XXI
A VERY EXCITING TIME
The children, Chinky and Winks shut their eyes. Mr. Spells began to mutter some magic words un¬der his breath—then he spoke some aloud and then he suddenly shouted three spell-words at the top
 
; of his voice, making everyone jump violently.
There was a silence. Then Mr. Spells spoke in his ordinary voice. "You can open your eyes now. The spell is done."
They opened their eyes and looked round them in wonder. They were in the very biggest room they had ever seen in their lives. The floor stretched endlessly away from them. The walls seemed miles away. Not far from them was a colossal wooden pillar—or what looked like one. The ceiling seemed to have disappeared or else was so far away that they couldn't see it. Certainly there was no sky above them, so probably the ceiling was still there!
"What's that enormous wooden post?" said Peter in wonder. "It wasn't here just now."
"It's the leg of the table," said Mr. Spells sur¬prisingly.
"What do you mean?" said Peter. "It's much too big for that—look, that's the wooden pillar I mean—over there. And where are the chalk circles gone?"
"We're still standing in the middle of them," said Mr. Spells with a laugh. "Do you mean to say you don't know what has happened?"
"No," said Peter. "I feel funny, you know—but except that we appear to be in quite a different place now I don't know what's happened."
"/ do," said Chinky. "You've used a very pow¬erful Go-Small spell. Mr. Spells, haven't you? Goodness, I was awfully afraid you weren't going to stop the spell soon enough—I thought we were
going to shrink to nothing. How big are we?"
"Smaller than mice," said Mr. Spells. "I wanted to make us small enough to creep under the door, you see."
"How clever of you!" said Mollie joyfully. "I
see what has happened now—why the ceiling seems so far away, and why that table-leg looks like a great pillar—and why we can't see the chalk circles—we'd have a walk a long way to get to them now!"
"Quite right," said Mr. Spells. "Now I think we'd better make a move, in case the giant comes back and guesses what I've done. I'm glad the spell went so well—sometimes a powerful spell like that makes loud noises, and I've known it to make light¬ning come round the circle."
"Gracious!" said Peter. "I wish it had. I'd have enjoyed our own private little storm!"