back and tell them to send out something to carry me back in. It
hurts fearfully.'

The child sat still for a little time and Miss Allardyce closed her
eyes; the pain was nearly making her faint. She was roused by Wee
Willie Winkie tying up the reins on his pony's neck and setting it
free with a vicious cut of his whip that made it whicker. The little
animal headed towards the cantonments.

'Oh, Winkie, what are you doing?'

'Hush!' said Wee Willie Winkie. 'Vere's a man coming--one of've Bad
Men. I must stay wiv you. My faver says a man must _always_ look
after a girl. Jack will go home, and ven vey'll come and look for us.
Vat's why I let him go.'

Not one man but two or three had appeared from behind the rocks of
the hills, and the heart of Wee Willie Winkie sank within him, for
just in this manner were the Goblins wont to steal out and vex
Curdie's soul. Thus had they played in Curdie's garden--he had seen
the picture--and thus had they frightened the Princess's nurse. He
heard them talking to each other, and recognised with joy the bastard
Pushto that he had picked up from one of his father's grooms lately
dismissed. People who spoke that tongue could not be the Bad Men.
They were only natives after all.

They came up to the boulders on which Miss Allardyce's horse had
blundered.

Then rose from the rock Wee Willie Winkie, child of the Dominant