Tim, sitting beside her on the grass, felt the exquisite mystery of it too. It was marvellous that any one could vanish in such a way. But he hesitated too. He felt uncertain about something. His thoughts flew off to that strange wood he loved to play in. He remembered the warning: "Beware the centre, if you enter; For once you're _there_, you disappear!" But this explanation did not appeal to him as likely now. He stared at Judy and his uncle. Some one _had_ touched him, making him warm and happy. He remembered that distinctly. He had caught a glimpse--though a glimpse too marvellous to be seen for long, even to be remembered properly. "But there's no good looking unless we know where to look," he remarked. "Is there?" "He's just gone out like a candle," whispered Judy. "Extror'nary," declared her brother, hugging the excitement that thrilled his heart. "But he can't be really lost. I'm sure of that!" And a great hush fell upon them all. Some one, it seemed, was listening; some one was watching; some one was waiting for them to move. "Uncle?" they said in the same breath together, then hung upon his answer. This authority hesitated a moment, looking about him expectantly as though for help. "I think," he stated shyly, "I think--he's--hiding." Nothing more wonderful ever fell from grown-up lips. They had heard it said before--but only said. Now they realised it. "Hiding!" They stood up; they could see further that way. But they waited for more detail before showing their last approval. "Out here," he added. They were not quite sure. They expected a disclosure more out of the ordinary. It _might_ be true, but-- "Hide-and-seek?" they repeated doubtfully. "But that's just a game." They were unsettled in their minds. "Not _that_ kind," he replied significantly. "I mean the kind the rain plays with the wind and leaves, the stream with the stones and roots along its bank, the rivers with the sea. That's the kind of hide-and-seek I mean!" He chose instinctively watery symbols. And his tone conveyed something so splendid and mysterious that it was impossible to doubt or hesitate a moment longer. "Oh," they exclaimed. "It never ends, you mean?" "Goes on for ever and ever," he murmured. "The moment the river finds the sea it disappears and the sea begins to look. The wind never really finds the clouds, and the sun and the stars--" "_We_ know!" they shouted, cutting his explanations short. "Come on then!" he cried. "We've got the hunt of our lives before us." And he began to run about in a circle like an animal trying to catch its tail. "But are we to look for him, or he for us?" inquired the boy, after a preliminary canter over the flower-beds. "We for him." They sprang to attention and clapped their hands. "It's an enormous hide," said Tim. "We may get lost ourselves. Better look out!"