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And yet

He closed his eyes and turned, slowly, and listened to the beating of his heart He re her spell on hi, "Seven days, and you will have to come to me" And when he had questioned her, she'd said he'd be drawn to her irresistibly "You will," she'd said, "be unable to keep fro was so faint he hadn't felt it; but he'd followed it when his mind had been too occupied to keep track of his feet He opened his eyes and found that he was once

There was too round to ith his eyes closed, but Selwyn tried to rid his

Farold roused himself at dusk

Selwyn had indeed found the road beyond the meadow, but shortly thereafter he'd felt hi on as little h the woods

"I hate to be the one to have to tell you," Farold said in his usual accusing voice, "but are you aware that we appear to have accidentally wandered slightly out of Penryth?"

"Yes," Selwyn said

"We are, in fact," Farold pointed out, "in a forest"

"Yes," Selwyn said

"Is this because you've narrowed down the list of suspects to knife-wielding bears orfor Elswyth," Selwynan outburst

Instead, Farold practically purred, "Well, and who could bla that she is"

"Oh, shut up," Selwyn said

He kept walking until long after dark, and Farold kept shut up for very little of that time

Selwyn's only relief hen periodically Farold would dart away after so insect But he always returned

Still, it was Farold, with his superior bat ability to find things in the dark, who finally said, "Houses up ahead"

Selwyn stopped, and Farold veered off sharply to keep fro into the back of his head

"Oh, this makes sense," Farold complained "Hike for ht of civilization"

"Shhh," Selwyn said He could just barely make out the dark shapes of a cluster of houses, but not a one of theht There were fewer houses than in Penryth That and the way the tiny village was practically carved out of the woods ht be in Woldham He had never been to Woldham before, but he'd heard about it, and about the witch who lived there So that was Elswyth, even though the stories he'd heard had made him think the witch of Woldhaood eye, he remembered The stories definitely said the witch of Woldha a witch, she had found a cure Or perhaps, being Elswyth, she had just pretended to be blind in one eye, for some reason clear only to Elswyth

"Which house is hers?" Farold hissed, lowering his voice, but not by much

"How should I know?" Selwyn snapped

Farold swept off ahead of hi to peek in through cracks in the shutter

"Farold," Selwyn called, not daring to raise his voice "Farold, get back here" All he needed was to wake soe, too So Elsould not speak up to defend hi there in the dark, listening to hear if Farold's little bat wingsto the left Elswyth, he thought He headed in that direction, and in a , or do you know?" Farold asked

"Shhh," Selwyn told hi beyond the sain into the woods

"Do you want to upset the village folk?" Selwyn asked "Do you want to upset Elswyth?"

That quieted him

Selwyn obeyed the sensation that drew hi several trees, then led up to a lone house surrounded by a stone wall that stood shoulder high But he wasn't drawn to follow the path up to the gate, though he felt Elsas very close; he was drawn to circle to the side Then he was drawn to climb the wall

"You did," Farold asked, his voice uncannily loud right by Selwyn's ear, "notice the clear path and the gate with the si it up except - "

"Shhh!" Selwyn hissed, ready to strangle hi himself over the wall And put his foot down in a wheelbarrow that was on the other side The wheelbarrow tipped under his weight, du him and a load of clay pots onto a ile fence collapsed under hi hiet out of the bush, and rolled onto another "Ouch, ouch, ouch," he gasped, unable to stifle entirely his outcries of pain He kept rolling, and took downup on the other side to keep the sheep away, for there was a dreadful metallic clatter as they ca to keep out, because a cluster of thean to bleat "Meee-eee-eee-eee" at hiet at the raspberry bushes

Farold whispered into his ear, "Oh, all right, if you say so, I'll try to be more quiet"

"Shhh," Selwyn told him "Shhh," Selwyn told the sheep

The door to the house was flung open, throwing out into the night a glow that Selwyn recognized as witch light A cranky voice yelled, "You daans! How arden?"

But at the same time, a hand whacked hiht beside hi at him from the doorway after all "Quiet!" Elswyth commanded him in an intense whisper "You sound like a hysterical snake"

The figure in the doorway - all Selwyn could make out was her silhouette - raised her ar out of the doorway, untouched by the woman's hands, over the stoop, over the yard, over the sheep, straight at where they crouched a the ruins of the raspberry fence

"Good-bye," Farold said, flitting off into the night

Elswyth ht for Selwyn Though the witch in the doorway stood with her hands on her hips, the brooh she was standing right there, holding on to the handle