They had come now to the widest part of the valley. Ahead of them the Chair still loomed terrific over the head of the gorge and it was difficult to see how the track found its way up to the summit. Three hawthorns, their gnarled trunks white with sheep's wool, and two big boulders marked where their track divided with the left-hand fork leading over towards the old mines.

"We stopped here a bit," Jenny continued hurriedly, "to look in those trees and then, very quickly, it seemed to get dark and I said we'd better run for it 'cause if we didn't hurry it would be quite dark before we got home. And George said, 'Right-o,' and a cloud came up and we couldn't see much and suddenly... and suddenly, Peter, we heard horses galloping. 'Twas faint and far away, but we knew it was the Black Hunt. We ran home hard as we could and even as we ran we could hear those horses coming after us - sometimes quite close and sometimes far away. But it was them, Peter. I know it was, although I didn't actually see them and neither did George, but it was them and I'll tell you how I know. The Black Riders always come before something awful happens. Dad says they rode up here before the last war and this one too. And this time when we got home at last and George told someone, we began to wonder a bit, but next day old Humphrey up at your farm heard that his boy was a prisoner in Germany, so you see how right it is."

"Is it?" said Peter. "He didn't hear the ghost hunt or see it either, did he?"

"No, he didn't," Jenny replied, "that's true enough. But somebody else saw them afore Dunkirk too, so you can't help believing, can you?"

Peter was not very impressed. She wanted, now that she had got so far, to climb to the top and suggested it to her new friend.

But Jenny would not agree to this.

"No," she said. "No, Peter. I'm sorry, but I won't go to the Chair."

Then she pointed dramatically upwards.

"Peter," she whispered. "Look! It's going. It's the mist. He's coming to his throne. Quick! We must run," and at this, she grabbed Peter's hand and dragged her back down the way they had come.