"You can't help it," said Edred. "Yes, I can. You know how I went and lived in King James's time. Well, I'm going there again--for good." [Illustration: "'I'VE THOUGHT OF NOTHING ELSE FOR A MONTH,' SAID DICKIE" _Page 304_] "You shan't," said Elfrida. "I'll tell father." "I've thought of all that," Dickie said, "and I'm going to ask the Mouldiwarps to make it so that you _can't_ tell. I can't stay here and feel that I'm turning you and your father out. And think what Edred did for me, in this very cave. No, my mind's made up." It was, and they could not shake it. "But we shan't ever see you again." Dickie admitted that this was so. "And oh, Dickie," said Elfrida, with deep concern, "you won't ever see us again either. Think of that. Whatever will you do without us?" "That," said Dickie, "won't be so bad as you think. The Elfrida and Edred who live in those times are as like you as two pins. No, they aren't really! Oh, don't make it any harder. I've got to do it." There was that in his voice which silenced and convinced them. They felt that he had, indeed, to do it. "I could never be happy here--never," he went on; "but I shall be happy there. And you'll never forget me, though there are one or two things I want you to forget. And I'm going now." "Oh, not now; wait and think," Elfrida implored. "I've thought of nothing else for a month," said Dickie, and began to lay out the moon-seeds on the smooth sand. "Now," he said, when the pattern was complete, "I shall hold Tinkler and the white seal in my hand and take them with me. When I've gone, you can put the moon-seeds in your pocket and go home. When they ask you where I am, say I am in the cave. They will come and find my clothes, and they'll think I was bathing and got drowned." "I can't bear it," said Elfrida, bursting into sobs. "I can't, and I won't." "I shan't be really dead, silly," Richard told her. "We're bound to meet again some day. People who love each other can't help meeting again. Old nurse told me so, and she knows everything. Good-bye, Elfrida." He kissed her. "Good-bye, Edred, old chap. I'd like to kiss you too, if you don't mind. I know boys don't, but in the times I'm going to men kiss each other. Raleigh and Drake did, you know." The boys kissed shyly and awkwardly. "And now, good-bye," said Richard, and stepped inside the crossed triangles of moon-seeds. "I wish," he said slowly, "oh, dear Mouldiwarps of Arden, grant me these last wishes. I wish Edred and Elfrida may never be able to tell what I have done. And I wish that in a year they may forget what I have done, and let them not be unhappy about me, because I shall be very happy. I know I shall," he added doubtfully, and paused. "Oh, Dickie, _don't_," the other children cried out together. He went on-- "I wish my uncle may restore the Castle, and take care of the poor people so that there _aren't_ any poor people, and every one's comfortable, just as I meant to do."