hastily. Then he added, “Did they say where I should meet them?"
"At the Field of Wonders, tomorrow morning at daybreak."
Pinocchio paid a gold piece for his supper and that of his companions and left the inn. He groped his way along, because outside the inn it was so dark that he could not see a hand's length ahead of him. It was very quiet, and not even a leaf stirred, only some night birds flying across the road brushed Pinocchio's nose with their wings. He jumped back and cried out in terror, "Who goes there?" and the echo in the surrounding hills took up his words, and repeated "Who goes there? Who goes there? Who goes there?"
As he walked on, he saw on the trunk of a tree a little creature that shone with a pale opaque light just like a candle behind a globe of thin porcelain.
"Who are you?" asked Pinocchio.
"I am the spirit of the Talking Cricket," it replied, in a voice so small and faint that it seemed to come from another world.
"What do you want with me?"
