“Better put it back,” said Roger uneasily, and Lyra upturned to its immemorial resting place before returning to ts oime companion still close to h.

    “ers get coffins. turies t t be room to bury t cut ts t important part of em anyway.”

    t tacombs under tory kept Lyra and Roger busy for days. Once sried to play a trick on some of tche wrong daemons.

    Pantalaimon became so agitated at t o a bat and fletering s sook no notice: it oo good a joke to e. S later, t top of Staircase t tood at ting to sumps  treat, backing ao tance of til all t c tened doo tacombs and restored to tful places, and he skulls.

    tacombs oo .

    o be found turned ttention else before tted leaving t by tercessor, ory.

    tercessor . It o preacaken an interest in ual o be confounded by ances. S spiritually promising, he had decided.

    urned reluctantly and , into t musty-smelling dimness of tory. Candles flickered  of images of ts; a faint and distant clatter came from t,  beckoned from try door.

    “o times noo?”

    one  accusatory. erested. ongue at them from her perch on his shoulder.

    Lyra said, “e ed to look do.”

    “ever for?”

    “ted to see all the coffins,” she said.

    “But why?”

    S  response when she was pressed.

    “And you,”  on, turning to Roger. Rogers daemon anxiously ail to propitiate s your name?”

    “Roger, Father.”

    “If youre a servant, wch you.”

    Roger turned and ran. Lyra dragged  from side to side on the floor.

    “As for you, Lyra,” said Fat, “Im pleased to see you taking an interest in ory. You are a lucky co ory around you.” “Mm,” said Lyra.

    “But I  your choice of companions. Are you a lonely child?” “No,”

    she said.

    “Do you...do you miss ty of other children?” “No.”

    “I dont mean Roger tco  sort?” “No.”

    “But other girls, perhaps...” “No.”

    “You see, none of us  you to miss all times. I sometimes t must be a lonely life for you ?” “No.”

    apped ogeterlaced fingers, unable to to ask tubborn child.

    “If troubling you,” ell me about it. I .” “Yes,” she said.

    “Do you say your prayers?”

    “Yes.”

    “Good girl. ell, run along.”

    iturned and left. o find Gobblers beloook to treets again. S here.

    t erest in the Gobblers appeared in Oxford.

    t Lyra  ian family she knew.

    It  time of ts and butty boats, raders and travelers, and terfront in Jeric ealing a ride on a less-ttended unities for provoking warfare.

    And ture of t tended time to make a proper voyage before being turned out. If sc as far as Abingdon, the weir....

    But to be no ering along t Meadoyard in t Roger for once (ailed to ery floor) but  and Simon Parsloolen cigarette from one to anot tentatiously, when she heard a cry in a voice she recognized.

    “ell, w h him, you half-arsed pillock?”

    It  once, because ta,  given  gingerbread on ted for tu-ousness of t. tians, and Lyra admired Ma Costa greatly, but sended to be , for t she had hijacked.

    One of Lyras brat companions picked up a stone automatically  Lyra said, “Put it down. Semper. Swig.”

    In fact, Ma Costa looked more anxious trader, was shrugging and spreading his hands.

    “ell, I dunno,” e and gone t. I never saw w....”

    “he was helping you! he was holding your bloody horses for you!”

    “ell, ayed t he middle of a job—”

    no furta suddenly dealt y blo up  urned to flee. traders nearby jeered, and a flig reared up in alarm.

    “s going on?” said Lyra to a gyptian ccs s?”

    “Its s Billy. S ve done, too. I aint seen him meself since—”

    “to Oxford, then?”

    tian boy turned ao call to ca.

    “S knohe Gobblers is here!”

    s turned te do. Everyones daemon instantly became alaimon, contemptuous of ted imaginations of tian daemons, became a dragon the size of a deer hound.

    But before ttle, Ma Costa ians aside and confronting Lyra like a prizefighter.

    “You seen him?” she demanded of Lyra. “You seen Billy?”

    “No,” Lyra said. “e just got  seen Billy for months.”

    Ma Costas daemon  a gyptian: in tig gyptian boat ly loved, and a mot if a c of sig  be far from someone elses  it instinctively.

    But a, a queen among tians, in a terror for a missing c was going on?

    Ma Costa looked tle group of curned ao stumble t once turned back to one anothe face of her grief.

    “ is them Gobblers?” said Simon Parslow, one of Lyras companions.

    t gyptian boy said, “You knoealing kids all over try. tes—”

    “t pirates,” corrected anotian. “ts whey call em Gobblers.”

    “t kids?” said Lyras ot, a kitc.

    Michaels.

    “No one kno gyptian. “take em a never seen again.”

    “e all kno,” said Lyra. “e been playing kids and Gobblers for mont. But 1 bet no ones seen em.”

    “they have,” said one boy.

    “ed Lyra. “ ent just one person?”

    “Cian girl. “talked to took tle boy out the garden.”

    “Yeaian boy. “I seen em do it!”

    “ did they look like?” said Lyra.

    “ell...l never properly sae truck. t ttle boy in truck and drove off quick.”

    “But whey call em Gobblers?” Lyra asked.

    “Cause t em,” said t gyptian boy. “Someone told us in Norton. ton, ook, and sook old o eat him.

    Everyone kno. they gobble em up.”

    A gyptian girl standing nearby began to cry loudly.

    “ts Billys cousin,” said Charlie.

    Lyra said, “?”

    “Me,” said offee-apple seller—I seen he crane—”

    ed it out, s Billy ain not less two hours previously.

    “So,” sime in t two ve been Gobblers here....”

    te of tar and rouble  because no one kne be a Gobbler, as Lyra pointed out to tians alike.

    “to look like ordinary people, else t once,” s nig if t, t to look ordinary. So any of t be Gobblers....”

    “t,” said a gyptian uncertainly. “I know em all.”

    “All rig t anyone else,” said Lyra. “Lets go and look for em! And te truck!”

    And t precipitated a s ones, and before long, ty or more gyptian co end of t of stables, scrambling over tyard, leaping over to teen at a time on ter, and running full pelt treets of Jerictle brick terraced o t square-toory of St. Barnabas t.  kno it  a lark, but t to Lyra felt a real fear and appreime tary figure doory:  a Gobbler?

    But of course it . Eventually,  Jericime neared, tians gat to  anding in angry groups, ated and rising in nervous flig shadows.

    “I bet t dare come in o Simon Parsloepped over to t lodge of Jordan.

    “No,” ainly. “But I kno.”

    “ of t c s his.

    “Jessie Reynolds, out t t sting-up time yesterday, and s of fisea. S and everywhere.”

    “I never  t!” said Lyra, indignant. S a deplorable lapse on t of s not to tell  once.

    “ell, it erday. Sve turned up now.”

    “Im going to ask,” said Lyra, and turned to leave the lodge.

    But s got out of te before ter called her.

    “ to go out again ters orders.”

    “?”

    “I told you, Masters orders. ay in.”

    “You catced out before the old man could leave his doorway.

    Sreet and doo t. tting-up time, t a knot of youtood smoking and talking by tral gate opposite tone . Miceen-year-old s furt and ed o notice her.

    “Yea do you ?” he said finally.

    “Is Jessie Reynolds disappeared?”

    “Yeah. hy?”

    “Cause a gyptian kid disappeared today and all.”

    “tians. After every hey disappear.”

    “So do horses,” said one of his friends.

    “t,” said Lyra. “ternoon and t him.”

    “t?”

    “t you he Gobblers?”

    It o t from a fes tened closely to hem.

    “Gobblers,” said Lyras acquaintance, upid. tians, tupid ideas.”

    “ted, “and taken. to Oxford noo get kids from us. It mustve been t got Jessie.”

    “t over Coie, serday, cause s a van, and s it....Some little boy, ts it...I dunno about t real, Gobblers. Just a story.”

    “tians seen em. t tch, and...”

    Sopped in midsentence, because someto her mind.

    During t strange evening s iring Room, Lord Asriel ern slide of a man reams of lig around it; and  . Lyra remembered t severed meant “cut.”

    And t : where was Roger?

    S seen he morning....

    Suddenly s afraid. Pantalaimon, as a miniature lion, sprang into o te and ly back into turl Street, and t for Jordan lodge, tumbling in tah-shaped daemon.

    ter imonious.

    “I o ring ter and tell  pleased at all. I  be in your s for money I .”

    “heres Roger?” she demanded.

    “I ent seen , too. Ooches him—”

    Lyra ran to tc o t, clangorous, steaming bustle.

    “ed.

    “Clear off, Lyra! ere busy here!”

    “But ?”

    No one seemed interested.

    “But  t orming away.

    Bernie try cook tried to calm  s be consoled.

    “t er catce em! You dont care about Roger—”

    “Lyra,  Roger—”

    “You dont, else youd all stop work and go and look for  now! I e you!”

    “t turned up. Listen to sense. e got dinner to prepare and serve in less ters got guests in ting over t means Co attend to getting t dont go cold; and  to go on. Im sure Roger11 turn up....”

    Lyra turned and ran out of tcack of silver dis arose. Seps and across too t buildings of tood.

    Pantalaimon scampered before airs to top, , and scrambled out. tone gutter a foot  beloanding in t, surned and clambered up over tiles until sood on topmost ridge of talaimon, wh her.

    t, cream: tender little ice-cream clouds in a oood around t no eau-Vert and e o t and t. Rooks  of a gas engine announced t of tc climb a. Mic first as tip of tle finger  arms lengteadily smaller until it  in the pearly sky.

    Surned and looked doo to drift in ones and totery, trutting or fluttering alongside or percs ained-glass o glo moved up tables ligeo toll, announcing half an hour before dinner.

    ted it to stay t it ealing c on the roof ridge, chin in hands.

    “e better rescue alaimon,” sll be dangerous,” .”

    “Remember iring Room.” “?”

    “Somet a cic. t  attracting t.”

    “t ire c about it?”

    “t mig to do to Roger and tians and ther kids.”

    “?”

    “ell, ire mean?”

    “Dunno. t em in  of em.

    td be more use. t mines up tomcraft. I bet ts  is. And if t groead because t less. ts h him.”

    “I think—”

    But alaimon t o , because someone began to s from below.

    “Lyra! Lyra! You come in tant!”

    tience:

    it here was no hiding from her.

    tigo tter, and ter into ttle co t of a great groaning and he pipes.

    “times you been told about going out t you! Just look at your skirt—its filtake it off at once and  ent torn.  keep yourself clean and tidy...”

    Lyra oo sulky even to ask o olid retriever, trying in vain to annoy him.

    “Look at tate of t  this—”

    Look at t t...Lyra didnt  to look. S  owel.

    “Youll just o  as it is. t time to take an iron to it.

    God bless me, girl, your knees—look at tate of them....”

    “Dont  to look at nottered.

    Mrs. Lonsdale smacked  all t dirt off.”

    “ last. “I never  my knees. ve I got to do all t care about Roger neit—” Another leg.

    “None of t nonsense. Im a Parslo you didnt kno, cause I bet you never asked, Miss Lyra. I bet it never occurred to you. Dont you c caring about the boy.

    God kno you, and you give me little enoughanks.”

    S t pink and sore, but clean.

    “to er and s. I o God you beo, be quiet and polite, smile nicely and dont you ever say Dunno wion.”

    S dress onto Lyras skinny frame, tugged it straig of red ribbon out of tangle in a drawer, and brush a coarse brush.

    “If t me knooo bad. As long as t look too close...tand up straig patent-leather shoes?”

    Five minutes later Lyra ers lodging, tly gloomy  opened into to talaimon, an ermine noeness, rubbed  ers manservant Cousins, an old enemy of Lyras; but bot tate of truce.

    “Mrs. Lonsdale said I o come,” said Lyra.

    “Yes,” said Cousins, stepping aside. “ters in the drawing room.”

    o t overlooked t of to it, to up tures and ter collected.

    It also lit up ts, and Lyra realized o dine in s were women.

    “Aer. “Im so glad you could come. Cousins, could you find some sort of soft drink? Dame  t Lyra...Lord Asriels niece, you know.”

    Dame . Lyra sely as sroduced to ts, eresting. ter came to t.

    “Mrs. Coulter,” o Mrs.

    Coulter.”

    “er.

    Siful and young. her sleek black hair framed her cheeks, and her daemon was a golden monkey.