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Annie held the rope with both hands. She pushed her feet against the side of the pit. She rose into the air with the rope.

"Don't worry, I'll be careful."

Jack looked up. The sorcerer was gone.

"Help us, please," said Annie.

Jack tugged. The rope tightened. It began rising.

"Tug on the rope," said Annie.

"I'll go first!" said Annie cheerfully.

Jack saw the sorcerer reappear and help Annie up. Then they moved out of sight.

What's going on? Jack wondered.

"Wow!" came Annie's voice.

"Annie, this isn't a game," warned Jack.

The sorcerer didn't speak. He stared through the eyeholes of the owl mask.

The sorcerer came back and threw the rope down again.

"Where did he go?" Jack said.

She kept pressing against the side of the pit -- until she reached the top.

Jack gave her the rope. "Okay. But hold on tight," he said.

Jack was puzzled. The sorcerer had used both hands to help Annie. So who held the other end of the rope?

"He wants to pull us up," said Annie.

The sorcerer threw a rope into the pit. Jack grabbed it.

At the top the sorcerer pulled Jack onto the snowy ground.

"I don't think so," said Jack.

Squeak. Peanut was sitting on the mammoth's head.

The sorcerer was tall. He wore a long fur robe. Jack could see only his eyes through the owl mask.

"Oh brother," said Jack. He walked up to the mammoth.

"Hey, mammoth starts with M," said Annie. "Maybe Lulu's the special thing!"

"Don't you think she looks like a Lulu?" said Annie.

Jack turned.

Annie was sitting on a woolly mammoth.

The mammoth looked like a giant elephant with shaggy reddish hair and long, curved tusks.

The great creature knelt down, just like a circus elephant.

"Lulu?" said Jack.

The other end of the rope was around the mammoth's huge neck.

"Hey!" Annie called.

"Lulu pulled us up," said Annie.

"Thanks," said Jack, standing.

But he kept his hold on the rope and his feet against the side of the pit.

Jack held on tight. He started up. His hands burned. His arms felt as if they were being pulled out of their sockets.

Jack grabbed it. And the rope started to rise.

When the mammoth stood up, Jack gripped Annie's coat to keep from falling off. He felt miles above the ground.

The sorcerer did not answer. But his eyes sparkled with kindness.

The bone was hollow. It had four holes along one side. And two on the other.

Jack looked at the sorcerer. "Do you know Morgan?" he asked.

Then the sorcerer reached into a pouch. He pulled out a smooth white bone and handed it to Jack.

The sorcerer helped Jack climb onto the mammoth.

Jack tried to give the flute back to the sorcerer.

"Mammoth bone," whispered Jack. ''Hey, maybe this is the third thing."

"Whoa!" said Annie. She clutched the mammoth's ears to keep from falling off.

"Oh man, I think it's his flute," said Jack. "The book said they make flutes from mammoth bones."

"He wants you to keep the mammoth bone," said Annie.

"Nice," he said politely.

He turned away from Jack and untied the mammoth's rope. Then he whispered in the ear of the giant woolly creature.

But the sorcerer held up his hand.

"Thanks," said Jack.

But at that moment the clouds parted, and the sun came out.

"How does he know where it is?" said Jack.

"Where are we going?" said Jack as they bumped up and down.

Jack looked back.

He squinted to see -- but the sorcerer had vanished.

He nestled behind Annie, in the dip between the mammoth's head and huge curved back.

Jack was blinded by sunlight on the snow.

"She just knows," said Annie.

The sorcerer was standing in the snow, watching them.

The mammoth took slow, plodding steps across the snow, then picked up speed.

"To the tree house!" said Annie.