21 Another day goes by
　　Jack¹ felt lonely when the girls had gone down the steps to the hidden room for the night. He wasleft up in the courtyard with Kiki, and he felt bored.
　　‘I hope the girls will be all right,’ he thought. ‘Oh, hallo, Button, are you still here? Why don’tyou go back to Tassie? You won’t be able to get to Philip, you know.’
　　The fox cub² whined³ and rubbed his head against Jack, asking him as plainly as a fox cub couldto take him to his beloved Philip.
　　‘Listen. You go back to Tassie with that note,’ said Jack, still forgetting that Tassie couldn’tread a word. ‘Go on, Button. Once you get to Tassie, things will be easier for us, because whenshe reads that note, she will get help.’
　　Button stayed in the courtyard with Jack almost all night long. He didn’t give up hope of findingPhilip, and kept going off to hunt for him. Kiki was very scornful of him but Button took no noticeof her.
　　The moon came up and lighted the courtyard strangely. An owl⁴ hooted⁵, and Kiki at oncemimicked it perfectly⁶. The owl came into the yard on silent wings, to look for the one who hadanswered. Kiki was delighted. She kept hooting⁷ softly from one place and another, and the owlwas astonished to find what seemed to him to be a perfect host of owls⁸ all over the place, callingfirst from one spot and then another.
　　Jack enjoyed the fun. Then suddenly he saw the three men standing⁹ in the moonlight, and feltglad that he had not been wandering about, for he would certainly have been seen.
　　He slipped away into the shadows of the great wall, and came near to the enormous door thatstood facing what had once been the road to the castle. He sat down by a big bush, knowing itwould hide him completely.

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