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"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.

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"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!"

"Now the thing is—where's the door gone?" said Chinky. "We've gone so small that the room is simply enormous, and the wall where the door is seems miles away. We'd better begin walking right round the walls till we come to the door!"

But Mr. Spells knew where the door was. Car¬rying the Wishing-Chair, which had gone small, too, he led them for what seemed miles over the floor, and they at last come to where the door was fitted into the wall. A draught blew at them as they came near to the enormous door.

"That's the draught blowing under the bottom of the door," explained Mr. Spells. "Now—I'm go¬ing to squeeze under first to see that everything is safe. Be ready to follow me when you hear me call."

He disappeared under the door, bending him¬self double. Soon they heard his voice. "Yes— come along—It's all right."

One by one they squeezed under the door, and found themselves in what they supposed must be the room outside—but now, of course, it seemed a very vast dark place indeed. "Shall I make us our right size again—or shall I keep us small?" won¬dered Mr. Spells. "On the whole, 1 think I'll keep us small."

He led them across the room and down a pas¬sage making them all keep very close to the bot¬tom of the wall. It was a very good thing he did, too because round the corner they heard the sound of tremendous footsteps that shook the floor and made it tremble—the giant coming along the pas¬sage!

In a trice Mr. Spells pulled them all into what appeared to be some kind of mouse-hole—it seemed as large as a cave to the children! They crouched there till the thundering footsteps had gone by. Then out they went as fast as they could.

"I want to find the front door if I can," said Mr. Spells. "We can easily slip under that. I must be at the end of this passage."

But before they reached it a thunderous noise made them all jump nearly out of their skins.

BANG-BANG-THUD-RAT-TAT-TAT!

"What is it?" cried Mollie, and caught hold of Mr. Spells. "What can it be?"

Mr. Spells laughed. "I think 1 can guess what it is," he said. "It's Chinky's cousin, Sleep-Alone. He's got tired of waiting for the castle, and he's knocking at the door to see what's happened! Oh dear—now I don't know what will happen!"

Plenty happened. When the knocker banged again on the door, an answering roar came from inside the castle, and Twisty the giant came pound¬ing along the passage in a fine temper.

"Who's that knocking at my door? How dare you make this noise?"

The door was swung open and a wind blew down the passage at once, almost blowing the five tiny people over. Sleep-Alone stood outside, a small figure compared with the giant, but seeming like a giant now to the tiny children!

"Quick!" said Mr. Spells, "they are going to have a quarrel. Now's our chance to escape out of the door—but keep away from their feet. We're so small that neither of them will notice us."

The children ran with Chinky and Winks out of the door, keeping well to the side. But they couldn't possibly go any further than the top step because the drop down to the second step seemed like a cliff to them!

"I'll have to take a chance now and change us back to our right size," said Mr. Spells. "Other¬wise we'll have to stand on this top step and sooner or later be trampled on. Shut your eyes, please, take hands, and keep together. I haven't got time to draw chalk circles, so this spell will happen very quickly. As soon as you're the right size, run down the steps as quickly as ever you can, and go to that tree over there. I'll bring the Wishing-Chair, and we'll soon be off and away!"

"What about Sleep-Alone?" said Chinky. "We promised he could have the castle."

"He'll look after that all right," said Mr. Spells, with a laugh. "Sleep-Alone is bolder than I thought he was! Now—eyes shut, please, and hold hands hard."

They all obeyed. Mr. Spells said the words that undid the Go-Small spell, and allowed them to shoot up to their right size again - but, as he had said, it happened very suddenly indeed, and all five of them gasped, felt giddy and fell over.

"Quick—get up—he's seen us!" shouted Mr. Spells. He picked up the Wishing-Chair which had also gone back to its right size, and ran down the steps with it. Everyone followed.

Sleep-Alone and the giant had been having a real rough and tumble. The giant was stronger and bigger than Sleep-Alone—but Chinky's cousin had got in so many sly jabs and punches that the giant had completely lost his temper.

He lashed out at Sleep-Alone, who ducked but the blow just caught him on the top of his head. He stumbled—and that would have been the end of him if the giant hadn't, at that very moment, caught sight of the five prisoners tearing down his steps!

He was so tremendously astonished that he for¬got all about Sleep-Alone and simply stood there, staring out of his saucer-like eyes!

Then, with a bellow, he was after them. "How did you escape?" he roared. "Come back—or I'll throw you all up to the moon!"

Mr. Spells put down the Wishing-Chair. He sat in it quickly and pulled Peter and Mollie on his knee. Winks and Chinky sat on the back. "Home, Chair," ordered Mr. Spells, and at once the obedi¬ent Wishing-Chair rose into the air.

The giant made at grab at it, but the chair dodged, and Mr. Spells hit the giant smartly on his outstretched hand. The giant yelped.

"Good-bye!" called Chinky, waving his hand.

Meanwhile what had happened to Sleep-Alone? Plenty! When he saw the giant rushing after the others, he stood and stared for a moment. Then he hopped into Wandering Castle and shut the door very quietly.