Ah, there can be no doubt of it now! The blues and yellows are real and perdurable. Colour is steadily flowing through the veins of the earth, and we may take heart, for she will soon be restored to life again. But had we kept one eye on the sky we should have noticed that a star was quenched with every flower that reappeared on earth.
And now the valley is again red and gold with vineyards, the hills are clothed with pines, and the Dapple is rosy.
Then a cock crowed, and another answered it, and then another—a ghostly sound, which, surely, did not belong to the smiling, triumphant earth, but rather to one of those distant dying stars.
But what had taken Ranulph? He had sprung to his feet and was standing motionless, a strange light in his eyes.
And then again, from a still more distant star, it seemed, another cock crowed, and another answered it.
"The piper! the piper!" cried Ranulph in a loud triumphant voice. And, before his astonished companions could get to their feet, he was dashing up one of the bridle-paths towards the Debatable Hills.
CHAPTER XXI
THE OLD GOATHERD
For a few seconds they stood petrified, and then Luke was seized with panic, and, calling to the little boys to stay where they were, dashed off in pursuit.