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"Er…ere you expecting to see?" Tiffany ventured "Daylight!" snapped Miss Treason, so loudly that the mouse scuttled away "Have you no brains at all, child?"

"Ah dunno if anyone is interested," said Rob Anybody, "but I think yon Wintersmith has offskied An' it's stopped snowin'" No one was listening When witches row, they concentrate "It was mine!"

"A trinket!"

"No!"

"O' course, this may not be the best time tae tell ye…" Rob went on, miserably "You think you need it to be a witch?"

"Yes!"

"A witch needs no devices!"

"You've used shambles!"

"Used, yes! Don't need Not need!"

"Ahnervously Anger grabbed Tiffany's tongue How dare this stupid old crone talk about not needing things! "Boffo!" she shouted "Boffo, Boffo, Boffo!" Silence slammed down After a while Miss Treason looked past Tiffany and said: "Ye wee Feegle scheht noo! Ah'll ken it if ye don't! This is hag business!" The roo noise, and the door to the kitchen slammed shut "So," said Miss Treason, "you know about Boffo, do you?"

"Yes," said Tiffany, breathing heavily "I do"

"Very well And have you told anyone--?" Miss Treason paused and raised a finger to her lips Then she banged a stick on the floor "Ah said get oot, ye scunners! Off intae the woods w' ye! Check that he's really gang awa'! I'll see yer guilt through yer own een if ye defy me!" Fro as the Feegles scraone," said Miss Treason "They'll stay gone, too Boffo will see to that" Somehow, in the space of a few seconds, Miss Treason had becohtly less scary "How did you find out? Did you go looking for it? Did you go prowling and ru?" said Miss Treason "No! I'm not like that! I found out by accident one day when you were having a nap!" Tiffany rubbed her hand "Does that hurt a lot?" said Miss Treason, leaning forward She ht be blind, but--like all the senior witches who knehat they were doing--she noticed everything "No, not now It did, though Look, I--"

"Then you will learn to listen! Do you think the Wintersone?"

"He just seemed to vanish--I ive me back my necklace"

"Do you think that is the sort of thing the spirit of Winter, who commands the blizzard and the frost, would really do?"

"I don't know, Miss Treason! He's the only one I've met!"

"You danced with hi to!"