Hempie, oddly enough, was in favour of his going. The old woman's attitude to the whole affair was a curious one. Nothing would make her believe that it was not fairy fruit that Willy Wisp had given him. She said she had suspected it from the first, but to have mentioned it would have done no good to anyone. "If it wasn't that what was it then?" she would ask scornfully. "For what is Willy Wisp himself? He left his place--and his wages not paid, too, during the twelve nights of Yule-tide. And when dog or servant leaves, sudden like, at that time, we all know what to think." "And what are we to think, Hempie?" enquired Master Nathaniel. At first the old woman would only shake her head and look mysterious. But finally she told him that it was believed in the country districts that, should there be a fairy among the servants, he was bound to return to his own land on one of the twelve nights after the winter solstice; and should there be among the dogs one that belonged to Duke Aubrey's pack, during these nights he would howl and howl, till he was let out of his kennel, and then vanish into the darkness and never be seen again. Master Nathaniel grunted with impatience. "Well, it was you dragged the words from my lips, and though you are the Mayor and the Lord High Seneschal, you can't come lording it over my thoughts ... I've a right to them!" cried Hempie, indignantly. "My good Hempie, if you really believe the boy has eaten ... a certain thing, all I can say is you seem very cheerful about it," growled Master Nathaniel. "And what good would it do my pulling a long face and looking like one of the old statues in the fields of Grammary I should like to know?" flashed back Hempie. And then she added, with a meaning nod, "Besides, whatever happens, no harm can ever come to a Chanticleer. While Lud stands the Chanticleers will thrive. So come rough, come smooth, you won't find me worrying. But if I was you, Master Nat, I'd give the boy his way. There's nothing like his own way for a sick person--be he child or grown man. His own way to a sick man is what grass is to a sick dog." Hempie's opinion influenced Master Nathaniel more than he would like to admit; but it was a talk he had with Mumchance, the captain of the Lud Yeomanry, that finally induced him to let Ranulph have his way. The Yeomanry combined the duties of a garrison with those of a police corps, and Master Nathaniel had charged their captain to try and find the whereabouts of Willy Wisp. It turned out that the rogue was quite familiar to the Yeomanry, and Mumchance confirmed what Endymion Leer had said about his having turned the town upside down with his pranks during the few months he had been in Master Nathaniel's service. But since his disappearance at Yule-tide, nothing had been seen or heard of him in Lud-in-the-Mist, and Mumchance could find no traces of him.