“They will be,” Peter said with quiet confidence.
Now little Paul was curious.
“What did Rama look like?” he asked.
He was told that Rama was a green image and carried a sheaf of arrows at his belt. He had been carved in the act of bending a great bow in order to win the hand of Sita.
“What bow shall I bend?” asked the magician.
“I think you’re already bending it,” Judy told him, “in winning the hearts of the children. Do they know who you are?”
She asked this last question in almost a whisper. The children had moved away from them a little and were busy talking to each other about the contents of the case. Peter had let them take his flashlight.
“It’s hard to say what they know,” the magician said in answer to her whispered question. “I think Paul suspects more than he will admit.”
“What about Penny? Does she know?” Judy asked.
“I don’t believe she does,” he replied. “She keeps staring at me with those big blue eyes of hers as if she expects me to vanish any minute. She’s such a little pretender that it’s hard to guess what she’s thinking. Neither of them has called me Uncle Paul. You knew it, of course?”