"Come on then!" he cried. "We've got the hunt of our lives before us."
And he began to run about in a circle like an animal trying to catch
its tail.
"But are we to look for him, or he for us?" inquired the boy, after a
preliminary canter over the flower-beds.
"We for him." They sprang to attention and clapped their hands.
"It's an enormous hide," said Tim. "We may get lost ourselves. Better
look out!"
And then they waited for instructions. But the odd thing was that
their uncle waited too. There was this moment's hesitation. They
looked to him. The old fixed habit asserted itself: a grown-up must
surely know more than they did. How could it be otherwise? In this
case, however, the grown-up seemed in doubt. He looked at them. It
_was_ otherwise.
"It's so long since I played this kind of hide-and-seek," he murmured.
"I've rather forgotten--"
He stopped short. There certainly was a difficulty. Nobody knew in
what direction to begin.
"It's a snopportunity," exclaimed Judy. "I'm sure of that!"
"We just look--everywhere!" cried Tim.
A light broke over their uncle's face as if a ray of sunshine touched
it.
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