"No, no!" exclaimed another voice. "First of all you must cross the black lake, and that is impossible."
"Then there is the glass mountain to climb," cried a fourth voice. "That's ever so slippery, you know!"
"And then there are the two guardians of the gate. Nobody ever passed them alive!" The fifth voice said this.
"And even if you get into the castle, that's no use, for it is enchanted ground," said a squeaky voice. "You have to know the magic word, and nobody knows that."
"Pooh! Rubbish!" answered a great big voice. "The weathercock who sits on the very tip-top of the highest tower of the castle knows it. But nobody has ever asked him yet."
Then the voices were silent. George stood up and looked all round him, but he could see nobody. As he looked up into the trees a few birds flew away, and then there was silence in the forest.
"Well, we know the way to the castle now," he thought. "Oh, what an adventure it's going to be! Won't Alexander be sorry that he missed it!"
