With that, the little fellow deflated, plumped himself down, and set his elbows on his knees a~d his chin in cupped palms, to ponder the gravity of his dilemma.

    The boisterous Grail had against all his nature grown still, and Lynn seized the moment to take stock. She unlocked her hand from the dog's neck, reawakened to discomforts both mental and physical. One pant leg was icily soaked. She had sticks and leaves in her hair, an astonishing departure. But these upsets paled to insignificance before the fact that she could exchange conversation and bargain with a creature that by rights belonged in the province of fairy tales.

    After the briefest cogitation, she concluded that her nerves were too worn from the strain of dealing with Sandy's illness. That was enough to wrestle without battling further with a situation that confounded logic. Either the creature in the stump was a pixie or a leprechaun, or something else of that ilk; or else she was irrevocably crazy.

The truth in the verdict was unlikely to help Sandy, either way. The next instant the matter resolved itself. With no warning, and a blinding quick movement, the little man shot to his feet and bolted for the opening in the stump.

    Illusions didn't bid for escape. Lynn ducked to block off the cleft, and collided shoulder to shoulder with Grail's snarling lunge to achieve the same end.

    The combined effect startled the little man back with his hands palm out in supplication. 'Mercy! It's crushed by your blundering about, you'll have me. And unfairly, too I might add, since I've

figured a chance for the boy to have what he's wishing.'Grail whined doubtfully and rolled his eyes.

    Unwilling to credit the mutt with intelligence, but touched by the self-same distrust, Lynn glared down at the little man. In vindication for bruised dignity and a growing sense of the ridiculous, she was determined to extract satisfaction, even if the next moment she woke up, rumpled in her bedclothes, to discover the whole event a silly dream. 'You tried to get away,' she accused.

    The brown man sulked. 'What if I did?' He crammed chubby hands in the pockets of his waistcoat and started with agitation to pace. 'I'm caught still, and trying desperate hard to remedy that unfortunate mistake!'

Grail snarled, as if the creature might be lying. In a blend of

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