“The first thing I must do,” said Molly, “is to set fire to the nearest beacon. They are marked on my map ... there is one being guarded on a hill close by.”
Half an hour later a flame sprang out of the night, on the top of a hill near the Giant’s Head. Spreading rapidly, the fire darted and leapt, rising higher and higher, until it became a great mass of blazing light.
People far and near stopped and gazed, crying excitedly to each other. “Look! Look! It’s the beacon—the first beacon! The Black Leaf is found!”
And as they watched, an answering beacon leapt forth from a neighbouring height. Hill after hill took up the glad news and passed it on, until the beacons, blazing throughout the kingdom, turned night into day.
CHAPTER XX
What Happened Outside Old Nancy’s Cottage
Molly had struck the last but one of Old Nancy’s matches in order to set light to the beacon. And now she and Miss Lydia, and the two men who had been guarding the beacon, stood on the hilltop gazing out at the answering light on the neighbouring hill. The fire cast a red glow over them all, and over the silent Grey Pumpkins in their midst. It could be seen that the guards wore curious dark red boots; these were part of Old Nancy’s magic protection against the Pumpkin and his spies, as also was the white circle chalked on the ground around the fire.
As they gazed down from the hill one of the guards told Molly the quickest way back to the East Gate of the City. If she followed the High Road, which was dimly visible far below, for about a mile she would come to a lane with a sign-post which said, ‘To the Orange Wood.’ Go to the bottom of this lane, over a little bridge across the river, and then along another lane which skirted the wood, and she would find herself in the village at the edge of the Goblin’s Heath. Back over the Heath was the shortest way then. But she would save several miles by going along the High Road at first.
Molly was very pleased to hear of this short cut, as she had not thought of looking up her map yet; and so, being very anxious to reach Old Nancy, Molly and Miss Lydia, who had determined to return with her, said good-bye to the guards and started off down the hillside, followed by the two Pumpkins.