"Oh, not now; wait and think," Elfrida implored.
"I've thought of nothing else for a month," said Dickie, and began to lay out the moon-seeds on the smooth sand.
"Now," he said, when the pattern was complete, "I shall hold Tinkler and the white seal in my hand and take them with me. When I've gone, you can put the moon-seeds in your pocket and go home. When they ask you where I am, say I am in the cave. They will come and find my clothes, and they'll think I was bathing and got drowned."
"I can't bear it," said Elfrida, bursting into sobs. "I can't, and I won't."
"I shan't be really dead, silly," Richard told her. "We're bound to meet again some day. People who love each other can't help meeting again. Old nurse told me so, and she knows everything. Good-bye, Elfrida." He kissed her. "Good-bye, Edred, old chap. I'd like to kiss you too, if you don't mind. I know boys don't, but in the times I'm going to men kiss each other. Raleigh and Drake did, you know."
The boys kissed shyly and awkwardly.
"And now, good-bye," said Richard, and stepped inside the crossed triangles of moon-seeds.
"I wish," he said slowly, "oh, dear Mouldiwarps of Arden, grant me these last wishes. I wish Edred and Elfrida may never be able to tell what I have done. And I wish that in a year they may forget what I have done, and let them not be unhappy about me, because I shall be very happy. I know I shall," he added doubtfully, and paused.
"Oh, Dickie, don't," the other children cried out together. He went on—
"I wish my uncle may restore the Castle, and take care of the poor people so that there aren't any poor people, and every one's comfortable, just as I meant to do."