“Oh?” he said thoughtfully. “O’Rigami, is it now?”

“Who else, and what else would it be? Ah, I see it’s yourself has it all figured out already. Here we are, out of the goodness of our green gremlin hearts—”

Mr. Sheperton snorted.

“—the goodness of our hearts, I was saying,” Baneen went on blandly, “about to help this lad in his troubles. What more likely, I can see you’re thinking, than he’d wish to do us a small favor in return? Sure, and it’d be no more than a second’s effort for a bright lad such as himself who’s not bothered by cold iron and all the hard things men put about to bar out the likes of us.”

“Ah. Hmm…” Lugh turned back to scowl thoughtfully at Rolf.

“Come, Lugh!” cried Baneen. “Surely you’ve got a smile for the young man, after your fearsome looks of a moment ago.”

“A… smile…” muttered Lugh. He made an effort to smile at Rolf. It was about as effective as if a bulldog had tried to simper.

Mr. Sheperton either cleared his throat or growled. It was hard to tell which. “ ’Ware the gremlin bearing promises,” he muttered. “If the Trojans had listened to that advice, they’d have never let that horse inside their gates…”

“Just a minute,” Rolf said. He sat up and crossed his legs. He was feeling braver now than he had a few minutes before. Not because of Lugh’s smile—a tiger would not have felt much braver after having been smiled at by Lugh—but because something Baneen had said was ringing in his ears. Baneen had hinted that there was something that he, Rolf, could do that not all the gremlins with their obviously magical powers, could do. Rolf wanted to learn just what it was.

“Go on, Baneen,” he said. “The least I can do is listen.”

“Said the fly to the spider,” growled Mr. Sheperton.

“Now, now, it’s no spider I am at all!” Baneen snapped. “A wee wisp of a gremlin, that’s all, far from the golden sands and stinging winds of my native home, helpless on a stranger shore.