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 18 if you wish us both to keep it secret, I am quite satisfied."

The Black Man went up and bent down near the chair, and with the thumb of his right hand he made a ring on the ground round about it, and Shiana noticed that out of the place where his thumb was drawn along the ground there arose a vapour like the vapour of fire, and that the thumb made a mark upon the ground such as a bar of red-hot iron would make.

Then Shiana looked out at the apple-tree, in dread lest perhaps he might see a boy stuck high up in it. He went out, and the Black Man went with him. Shiana did not see any person in the tree, but he saw what appeared to be a bird on the topmost branch. The bird was shaking its wings as if it were trying to rise from the tree and were not able. They came near to the tree. Shiana looked at the Black Map. The Black Man was looking up at the bird.

"He is stuck in the tree, sir," said Shiana.

The Black Man did not speak. He went over to the tree, and he bent down and put the thumb of his right hand on the ground at the foot of the tree. Then he drew the thumb along the ground round about the tree. Shiana saw a smoky vapour coming out of the ground in the part where the thumb touched it. A red ring remained on the grass at the foot of the tree after the thumb, just as it would if a red-hot iron had been drawn along it. The Black Man stood up when he had done that. Shiana looked up at the top of the tree. The bird was gone. Shiana was surprised that he had not heard it going. He heard no sound of wings, but the bird was gone.