She could run no more. So poor Dulcie turned, and facing her pursuer, she cried-- "Oh, please, please go away--oh _do, please_!" But the ugly Crab never lessened its pace one bit; it came nearer and nearer--so close that she could notice how it was shaking all over; and how repulsive--till--till she saw that it was wearing something glittering around its body--a band of gold with one last catseye and the others all gone. It _must_ be Cyril. Why didn't he change? Dulcie couldn't imagine. The creature stopped motionless, and tears were dropping from its ugly eyes. "What can be wrong?" cried Dulcie with a sob of horror and fear. But she conquered her fear now that she was persuaded it was Cyril, and she approached still closer. She stroked it--actually stroked it--and although it was just a great horrid Crab the expression it wore was heart-rending. "It's the Wizard's trick!" she exclaimed suddenly. "Poor Cyril's last catseye won't work!" She never thought how many _she_ still had, for she was weeping bitterly over her brother in this dreadful guise, and she could hardly wonder what the end would be, if this indeed were not the horrible end of all. "Oh, Cyril," she sobbed, addressing it. "Oh, Cyril, how dreadfully changed you are! Whoever heard of having a crab for one's brother If only we had remained Twins all this never could have happened!" And she walked round and round it, wringing her hands in despair. But evidently the poor quaking thing was powerless to give a shred of comfort, and its whole appearance was helpless and hopeless in the extreme. "It's no use stopping here like this," she decided at last; "we'd better go on," and not quite thinking what she was doing, she whistled to it, as she whistled to Towzer, and they moved slowly forward--Dulcie, red-eyed and dejected, and the Crab following her at a side-way amble. The strange pair had not proceeded far when Dulcie musingly muttered-- "I wish I were a crab too, then of course I should know all that has happened!" Strange to relate, she didn't turn into a crab, but remained a little girl as usual. She might have sought the reason of this had not a sight arrested her attention which caused her to run forward with a cry of joy. It was the sudden appearance of the Bird-Fairy, in whose outstretched hand there glistened a jewel--a catseye; but how different was its gleam to the one the poor Crab wore. "Take it," she said hurriedly in her pretty soft voice--"and listen: I have wrested it from the Wizard, whose magnetic power succeeded in recovering one unused, though he had tried for several." [Illustration: _She stroked it--actually stroked it_] "Why did he do it?" interrupted Dulcie innocently. "Because he wanted to confuse me, and also to add one more to his dreadful Zoological Collection. Now replace the stone quickly and give me the sham one--for it belongs to the red-haired young lady, and is stolen property." The child busily and anxiously obeyed her directions.