But now there were no flame-cats here, unless one tiny glimmer of light on the wall was the remains of one, and he had to grope his way—and, oh, how long it seemed—to the end of the passage, where he remembered that the blue door was. He had left the key hanging up on a nail beside it, but now he could not remember which side it was, and as he groped for it, he knocked down the bottle which had something to do with the electric light. As it gurgled away on the floor, he remembered that he had shaken it, to shock the flame-cats and made them stop dancing, and now he felt for it at his feet, meaning to shake it, and get the electric light to flare out again, so that he might find the key of the blue door. But the stopper had come out, and it was empty, and when he shook it nothing whatever happened. Meantime the pursuit had got much nearer, and he could hear that a lion or two, and some soldiers had come to the garden door. ‘He went in here,’ roared a lion. ‘I can smell him.’ Then the Brigadier-General spoke. ‘Bring up the machine-guns,’ he said, ‘and rake the passage from end to end. Then advance in open order.’ David heard the bullets rattling against the wall of the passage at the corner, and knew that when they had turned that, he would be exposed to their full fire again. There was no cover of any sort or kind; when once they had advanced to the corner, he had nowhere left to go, unless he could find the key of the door. Then he heard the voice of the Brigadier-General when the firing stopped. ‘Up the stairs and right turn,’ he said. ‘Then open fire again. I’m behind you, so don’t be afraid.’ David pressed his hands to his head, and squeezed it to see if there was a single idea left in it. There was just one. ‘Oh, flame-cats,’ he said. ‘I _did_ stop shocking you when you asked me. Do show a light just for a minute.’ Then the one little glimmer on the wall began to grow brighter, and he saw it was the eye of a flame-cat. Then another eye lit up, as if a gas-lighter in the street had turned it on, and after that the apricot-and-poppy-coloured tabby appeared. ‘Set to partners,’ it said, and disappeared again, like water running out of the hole at the bottom of a basin. But in that moment’s light, David had found the key and fitted it into the lock of the blue door. ‘There’s just time to take the key with me,’ he said, and pulled the door open. Before he had shut it after him, and locked it again, he heard a voice say ‘Fire,’ and there was a tremendous explosion. * * * * * He had fallen forward on his bed, and the pillow went with a soft thump on to the floor. But tight clenched in his hand was the golden key, and the door was shut and locked behind him. [Illustration: David reaches home]