"That's really a good joke," said Ember. "I didn't suppose you had it in you."
"It isn't in me," said Lowboy. "If it were in me, you couldn't have heard it."
"It was in you or it couldn't have come out," said Ember.
Hortense stamped her foot.
"Oh do hush, all of you," she said. "The trouble with you all is that you talk and talk and do nothing. Only Malay Kris says little and acts."
"And look what happens to him," said Owl.
Malay Kris did, indeed, look uncomfortable, half buried in the wall, but he endeavored to be cheerful.
"Some one will rescue me in the morning," he said. "I shouldn't mind at all if I'd tasted blood."
"Instead you only struck the air," said Lowboy. "You must be an Airedale like Coal and Ember."
Nobody laughed.