Only Jimbo and his younger sister, retiring into a
corner by themselves, continued their mysterious confabulation. Their
faces were flushed with excitement. There was a curious animation in
their eyes--though this may have been borrowed from the embers of the
peat. Or, it may have been the stars, for they were close to the open
window. Both seemed soft-shiny somehow. _They_, certainly, were not
wumbled.
And several hours later, when they had returned from supper at the
Pension and lay in bed, exchanging their last mysterious whispers
across the darkness, Monkey said in French--
'Jimbo, I'm going to find that Cavern where the star stuff lies,' and
Jimbo answered audaciously, 'I've already been there.'
'Will you show me the way, then?' she asked eagerly, and rather
humbly.
'Perhaps,' he answered from beneath the bedclothes, then added, 'Of
course I will.' He merely wished to emphasise the fact that he was
leader.
'Sleep quickly, then, and join me--over there.' It was their game to
believe they joined in one another's dreams.
They slept. And the last thing that reached them from the outer world
was their mother's voice calling to them her customary warning: that
the _ramoneur_ was already in the chimney and that unless they were
asleep in five minutes he would come and catch them by the tail.
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