eatly, 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 com