'Then how are we going to get home?' said Cyril, at last.

'I haven't any idea,' replied the Phoenix, kindly. 'Can I fly out
and get you any little thing?'

'How could you carry the money to pay for it?'

'It isn't necessary. Birds always take what they want. It is not
regarded as stealing, except in the case of magpies.'

The children were glad to find they had been right in supposing
this to be the case, on the day when they had wings, and had
enjoyed somebody else's ripe plums.

'Yes; let the Phoenix get us something to eat, anyway,' Robert
urged--' ('If it will be so kind you mean,' corrected Anthea, in a
whisper); 'if it will be so kind, and we can be thinking while it's
gone.'

So the Phoenix fluttered up through the grey space of the tower and
vanished at the top, and it was not till it had quite gone that
Jane said--

'Suppose it never comes back.'

It was not a pleasant thought, and though Anthea at once said, 'Of
course it will come back; I'm certain it's a bird of its word,' a
further gloom was cast by the idea. For, curiously enough, there
was no door to the tower, and all the windows were far, far too
high to be reached by the most adventurous climber. It was cold,