“It’s all right,” said the Goblin. “I haven’t told the goblins where you are. I thought they’d be sure to want to see you, and this, of course, would attract attention. But I _have_ told them to go and have some sport and to lead the old hag and the girl a real dance. I told them they were the Pumpkin’s spies—they _will_ lead them a dance too—making crackly noises in the bushes to lead them off the track—and running—and squealing—a regular goblins’ dance we’ll lead them. I’ll go too and tell you what happens. I’ll be back before dawn—this is my home, you know—this tree. Good-bye for the present,” and he dashed away. The children saw him swoop into a group of excited goblins and urge them to follow him—which they did. And presently there was scarcely a goblin in sight. They had all gone trooping away to the place on the Heath where the old woman and the girl were searching for Jack and Molly. It seemed to the children that they waited in the tree for hours and hours, waiting, listening. Occasional sounds floated to them from the distance. They could hear squeaking and crackling, and once they heard a shrill scream. But they saw nothing, until the dawn broke. Almost immediately afterward the Goblin returned, darting from out of the bushes opposite, popping into the hole in the tree trunk and scrambling up to them. In the pale glimmer of the morning light he told them what had happened, and how they had twice prevented the old woman from turning down the path that led past the children’s hiding-place. “They are gone from the Heath now,” he said. “We drove them home, in the end, by darting out and pinching their legs and throwing prickly leaves at them. There were thousands of us goblins.... I wish you could have seen us.... When they found we were really in earnest and meant to get rid of them, and were not just teasing—they soon went. The old hag tried to tread on some of us—she was so angry; but we snatched her shoe off and threw it into a pond.” “It’s very kind of you to have helped us so,” said Molly. “We enjoyed it,” said the Goblin. “It was great fun. And they really deserved it, you know.” And now that it was daybreak the Goblin bade good-bye to the children. “Remember,” he said, “I will find some means of warning you throughout the day, if the Pumpkin is near.” He popped down his hole; they heard him scramble a little way inside the tree—then all was quiet. Jack and Molly looking out from the tree saw that all the other goblins had vanished. They waited a while until the day came, then they climbed down from their hiding-place, stretched themselves, and at once set about their search.