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won’t be able to walk for some time.”
    â€œThen we have to go back,” Cindy said. “We tried and it didn’t work out. What can we do?”
    Pan raised his head and looked back in the direction they had come from. “I had resigned myself to never reclaiming my kingdom. That is until I met you four and you gave me hope. It is hard to let go of that hope, now that I have finally found it.” But then he sighed and lowered his head. “But you are not my subjects. I have no right to lead you into deeper danger.”
    â€œIt does seem that we have to go back,” Adam said.
    â€œI agree,” Sally said. “We have no idea how many more of those nasty elves are patrolling these woods.”
    But Watch suddenly spoke up. “No. You can’t abandon the quest this easily. Pan, take the arrow out and give me something to bandage the wound. I’ll rest here until you return.”
    Pan was grave. “The elves who shot at us might find you and kill you. Klandor has obviously twisted their minds. You would be helpless lying here.”
    â€œI’ll stay with him,” Cindy said. “I’ll guard him.”
    Sally was impressed. “That’s very brave of you.” She added, “Or else it’s very stupid.” She reached in her back pocket and took out her Bic lighter and gave it to Cindy. “Keep this in case we’re gone a long time. If it gets dark, and cold, you can always build a fire.”
    â€œIf Klandor has ordered elves to shoot on sight,” Pan said, “then the road ahead will be equally dangerous. Perhaps I should go on alone.”
    â€œNo,” Adam said, coming to a fresh decision. “Sally and I will stay with you. You’ll need our help with the wizard. Cindy will stay with Watch. Things will work out for the best. They always do.”
    Sally looked down at the wound in Watch’s leg. “In all our adventures,” she said anxiously, “this is the first time any of us has gotten seriously hurt. That worries me, it worries me a lot.”

8
    P an found the crystal necklace without difficulty. As he had remembered, it was lying not far from the road that led to his castle. Yet getting to the necklace was hard and took more than two hours. Because now they were afraid to walk openly on the road. As a result they had to fight their way through the trees, which took a lot of energy, even for Pan. By the time Pan lifted the necklace out of the bushes, they were all sweating and panting.
    â€œIt’s not that impressive a piece,” Sally said.
    Pan brushed off the dirt. “Klandor had shined it up that evening. I took a fancy to it.”
    â€œLet me see it,” Adam said, stretching out his hand.
    Pan gave it to him to hold. The gold chain was ­simple, thin links that could be found in any jeweler’s shop. The crystals themselves were curious. There were three of them: two clear, like quartz crystals, and the other a deep blue, like a very large sapphire. What made them odd was that the clear ones were not set around the blue one. The blue stone was on the bottom, which threw off the color balance of the piece. Adam wondered if that was part of the reason it distorted one’s mind. He was anxious to experiment with it and pulled the chain over his head, causing Sally to jump slightly.
    â€œAre you sure you want to do that?” she asked. “Maybe the effect is permanent.”
    â€œAre you saying that my mind has been permanently distorted?” Pan asked, not pleased.
    Sally spoke carefully. “I didn’t know you before you used the crystal necklace,” she said. “So I can’t comment on that. But I do know that Adam has an extremely sensitive mind that is easily swayed. Why, the day he met Cindy Makey, he . . .”
    â€œIf we can’t prove our theory,” Adam interrupted, “then we may as well go home.”
    â€œBut how are you going