Luke fell into a brown study; surprise, indignation, and pleasant visions of himself swaggering in Lud, praised and flattered by all as the man who had run the smugglers to earth, chasing each other across the surface of his brain. And, in the light of Toby's story, could it be that the stranger whose mysterious conversation with the widow he had overheard was none other than the popular, kindly doctor, Endymion Leer? It seemed almost incredible. But on one thing he was resolved--for once he would assert himself, and Ranulph should not spend another night at the widow Gibberty's farm. Toby won the toss and pocketed the knife with a grin of satisfaction, and by degrees the talk became as flickering and intermittent as the light of the dying fire, which they were too idle to feed with sticks; and finally it was quenched to silence, and they yielded to the curious drugged sensation that comes from being out of doors and wide awake at night. It was as if the earth had been transported to the sky, and they had been left behind in chaos, and were gazing up at its towns and beasts and heroes flattened out in constellations and looking like the stippled pictures in a neolithic cave. And the Milky Way was the only road visible in the universe. Now and then a toad harped on its one silvery note, and from time to time a little breeze would spring up and then die down. Suddenly Ranulph broke the silence with the startling question, "How far is it from here to Fairyland?" The little boys nudged one another and again began to snigger behind their hands. "For shame, Master Ranulph!" cried Luke indignantly, "talking like that before youngsters!" "But I want to know!" said Ranulph petulantly. "Tell what your old granny used to say, Dorian," giggled Toby. And Dorian was finally persuaded to repeat the old saying: "A thousand leagues by the great West Road and ten by the Milky Way." Ranulph sprang to his feet, and with rather a wild laugh, he cried, "Let's have a race to Fairyland. I bet it will be me that gets there first. One, two, three--and away!" And he would actually have plunged off into the darkness, had not the little boys, half shocked, half admiring, flung themselves on him and dragged him back. "There's an imp of mischief got into you tonight, Master Ranulph," growled Luke. "You shouldn't joke about things like that ... specially tonight, Master Chanticleer," said Toby gravely. "You're right there, young Toby," said Luke, "I only wish he had half your sense." "It was just a bit of fun, wasn't it, Master Chanticleer? You didn't really want us to race to ... yonder?" asked little Peter, peering through the darkness at Ranulph with scared eyes. "Of course it was only fun," said Luke. But Ranulph said nothing. Again they lapsed into silence. And all round them, subject to blind taciturn laws, and heedless of man, myriads of things were happening, in the grass, in the trees, in the sky.