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Edred looked in the eyes of the Mouldiestwarp and saw that they were no longer a mole's eyes but were like the eyes of all the dear people he had ever known, and through them the soul of all the brave people he had ever read about looked out at him and said, "Courage, Edred. Be one of us." "Now look at the people on the Hall," said the Mouldiestwarp. Edred looked.
But the night before the duel he wrote a letter saying what he had done and put it in a secret cupboard behind a picture of a lady who was born an Arden, at Talbot Court. And there that letter is to this day." "I hope I shan't forget it all," said Edred. "None ever forgets what I tell them," said the Mouldiestwarp.
"Then ascend the steps of the throne," said the Mouldiestwarp, very kindly now, "and sit here by my side." Edred obeyed, and the Mouldiestwarp leaned towards him and spoke in his ear. So that neither Elfrida nor any of the great company in the White Hall could hear a word, only Edred alone. "If you go to rescue Richard Arden," the Mouldiestwarp said, "you make the greatest sacrifice of your life.
Edred asked in anxious tones, and she nodded distractedly. "Great Mouldiestwarp, on you we call To do the greatest magic of all; To show us how we are to find Dear Dickie who is lame and kind. Do this for us, and on our hearts we swore We'll never ask you for anything more." "I don't see that it's so much better than mine," said Edred, "and it ought to be swear, not swore." "I don't think it is.
"But isn't Elfrida to have a chance to be noble too?" Edred asked. "She will have a thousand chances to be good and noble. And she will take them all. But she will never know that she has done it," said the Mouldiestwarp gravely. "Now are you ready to do what is to be done?" "It seems very unkind to daddy," said Edred, "stopping his being Lord Arden and everything."
And Edred said, "We want Dickie, please." Then the Mouldiestwarp said, and it was to Edred that he said it "Dickie is in the hands of those who will keep him from you for many a day unless you yourself go, alone, and rescue him. It will be difficult, and it will be dangerous. Will you go?" "Me? Alone?" said Edred rather blankly. "Not Elfrida?"
"To do right often seems unkind to one or another," said the Mouldiestwarp, "but think. How long would your father wish to keep his house and his castle if he knew that they belonged to some one else?" "I see," said Edred, still doubtfully. "No, of course he wouldn't. Well, what am I to do?" "When Dickie's father died, a Deptford woman related to Dickie's mother kept the child.
"You mean the Mouldiestwarp?" said the Mouldier, as I will now call him for short; "you will not see him till the end of the magic. He is very great. I work the magic of space, my brother here works the magic of time, and the Great Mouldiestwarp controls us, and many things beside. You must only call on him when you wish to end our magics and to work a magic greater than ours."
Don't you remember you can only get at the Mouldiestwarp by a noble deed? And wanting to find Dickie isn't noble." "No," she agreed; "but then if we could get Dickie back by doing a noble deed we'd do it like a shot, wouldn't we?" "Oh! I suppose so," said Edred grumpily; "fire away, can't you?"
But you didn't finish yours. And it couldn't be 'swear, because of rhyming," Elfrida explained. "But I'm sure if the Mouldiestwarp hears it he won't care tuppence whether it's swear or swore. He is much too great. He's far above grammar, I'm sure." "I wish every one was," sighed Edred, and I dare say you have often felt the same. "Well, fire away! Not that it's any good.
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