_By the City Wall_
The three escaping friends did not know what to do. Bab had used up all
her sand, and there seemed no way left to overcome their enemies.
Meanwhile the crowd in front of them were snarling threats and mocking
words.
“I will be the one to kill them!” cried one.
“No,—I!” exclaimed another.
“I—I—I!” shouted everybody at once.
“Hush!” said someone, sharply. “The King himself is coming!”
And everyone became silent. They were all deeply disappointed, for they
knew that now the Wicked King would insist on killing the children
himself, and none of them would stand a chance of getting that promised
half of his kingdom.
Suddenly an idea came to Bab.
“Dick,” she whispered, “we must try to get the Wicked King to put us in
prison or something like that!”
“Why?” asked Dick, gloomily. “I think that it would be much nicer to be
killed at once and get it over!”
“Oh, but, Dick!” Bab breathed eagerly into his ear. “Don’t you remember
the tiny piece of wood that I told you about? The piece of magic wood
from the Wooden Cow’s horn? Well, I have it still! and Santa Claus said
that it was a very powerful weapon to have. And if we can only see the
Wicked King alone I’ll throw it at him, and I’m sure from what Santa
Claus said that it will do something awful to him!”
“Why not throw it at him now?” suggested Dick. “Just to see what it
_will_ do!”
“Because—don’t you see?—then we’d have all these other dreadful people
to fight, and we’ve nothing at all left after this splinter of wood
goes! No, we must try to see the Wicked King all by himself!”
“I see!” exclaimed Dick. And at that moment the Wicked King strode up
to them, with his long, bright, sharp sword drawn, and a fiendish smile
on his wicked old face.
“How nice of you,” said the Wicked King, “to stand against a wall! It
is ever so much easier to kill a person when he stands against a wall!”
“Oh, your Majesty!” cried Dick. “Don’t kill us until you have heard our
story!”
He was talking at random, of course, to gain time, but he succeeded in
making the Wicked King stop short for a moment to listen.
“Oh, well,” said the Wicked King. “I would not mind hearing your story,
as a matter of fact,—if it happens to be an interesting one.”
For this was the one weakness of the Wicked King: he loved
stories,—almost as much, indeed, as did a certain great ruler in the
East, of whom you will read one of these days in one of the most
splendid wonder-books ever written by any man.
“_Is_ it an interesting one?” he demanded.
“Oh, yes!” said Dick, seeing his advantage. “It’s a splendid story!”
“Of course you understand,” said the King, “that you will both be
beheaded just as soon as you are finished? I should not like to
encourage any false hopes.”
“Oh, we quite understand!” said Dick, looking hard at the drawn sword
in the King’s hand. In his own mind he decided firmly that in any case
he would not finish the story for a very long time!
“I should really like to hear,” the Wicked King went on, “how you stole
my daughter and sent my soldiers to sleep, and how you chased my
Brownies away from their work, and did all the other extraordinary and
impertinent things which you have done. You are dangerous creatures,
but you are unusual; and I think you are worth keeping alive for an
hour or so,—as long as I have an army to watch you while you talk!”
Then he sat down on a large rock and folded his arms.
“Begin!” he commanded.
Dick was at his wits’ end. Of course he had expected that the Wicked
King would have them sent to prison; instead he was expected to tell
his tale surrounded by hundreds of people. How in the world was Bab to
make use of her magic splint of wood under such conditions as these?
The Princess, who had been silent all this time, came very unexpectedly
to the rescue.
“Revered parent,” she said,—for that was what the Wicked King liked her
to call him,—“I beg you to first take me back to my tower, from which
these creatures have dragged me against my will!”
The Wicked King looked at her sharply. He was not at all sure that she
had been dragged away! However, she looked as innocent as possible, and
he called two men-at-arms to him.
“Escort the Princess back to her tower!” he commanded. “Now, Creatures,
tell your story!”
But just then, when everything seemed most hopeless, a big bird was
seen flying toward them, quite high up in the air; and the next moment
Bizzybuzz’s head appeared over the wall, and he whispered excitedly:
“Meg is coming with the spell! Hold out a minute longer!”
All this time Humpty Dumpty had not said a word. In fact, he could not
see even what was going on, because his back was turned to the others.
But at the word “spell” he suddenly lifted up his voice, and shouted
wildly: “The spell! The spell! Now I shall be free! Oh, Princess Star,
Princess Star! Do you hear? I shall be free!”
“I hear, I hear, dear Humpty!” cried Princess Star. “And I shall be
free too; for I am sure that a really good spell can rescue us both!”
“Undutiful daughter!” shouted the Wicked King, waving his sword. “How
dare you talk like that with an—an egg?” He spoke with contempt as well
as rage.
“He—is—not—an—egg!” sobbed the Princess, hiding her face in her
satin sleeve and spoiling the embroidery with her tears. “He’s
my—own—poor—angel—Humpty Dumpty! And I’ll talk to—him—just exactly—as
much—as—much—as—I ch-choose!”
The big bird had been drawing nearer and nearer all this time, and
now swooped down to the top of the wall. It alighted close to Humpty
Dumpty. Dick and Bab could see that it was Moon-Eyes, the Owl, and that
he bore upon his back their sister Meg!
As they watched, she waved a bright blue paper, and cried: “Dick! Bab!
I’m here! Are you both quite safe?”
With his sword upraised, the Wicked King rushed forward upon the two
children. Wiggles barked and snapped at his legs, all the men-at-arms
shouted, and the Princess screamed loudly.
“Now!” cried one of the men. “Watch their heads drop off!”
But at that moment Bab threw the scrap of wood that she had straight in
the Wicked King’s face! And he stopped stock-still, his hand still up
in the air. The sword dropped to the earth. Everyone cried out, “What
has happened?”
The Wicked King’s face got queerer and queerer, stiffer and stiffer;
his eyes stared, his wicked smile was frozen on his lips.... The Wicked
King was turned to wood!
“Run, run!” cried Dick, seeing that now they had but one chance.
“Follow Meg with the spell!” he shouted, and he and Bab and the
Princess ran like the wind along the city wall.
Just then Mudge came flying down the city street.
“Oh, please,” he called at the top of his lungs, “don’t forget that you
are going to save me too!”
Meg, riding furiously upon Moon-Eyes, had reached the gate. The
men-at-arms and courtiers and gentlemen-in-waiting, and all the other
citizens of the Red City, had started in pursuit, and were gaining on
them every moment.
“Come with us, Mudge!” shouted Dick; and Mudge brought up the rear of
the flying procession.
Behind them on the wall Humpty Dumpty was shrieking, “You aren’t all
going off without rescuing me, after all!”
“The gate!” cried Bizzybuzz to Dick. “Meg’s spell will open it!”
As they all rushed toward the big iron gate, Meg hastily unrolled the
scroll of sky-blue paper, and read out at the top of her voice, and
so fast that no one could understand a word, the lines of the Fairy
Queen’s spell. And when she came to the words
“Shot bolt, shut gate,
Yield up your contents straight,”
there was a queer, clicking, clattering, creaking sound.
The great gate of the Red City swung slowly open!
The fugitives dashed out, and closed it behind them with a crash, and
stood there on the safe side, panting and gasping, as their pursuers
came shouting up to the gate on the inside. It must have been a very
strong gate, for nearly all the inhabitants of the Red City threw
themselves against it and shook it, but it would not give a hair’s
breadth. They all howled with fury, but the children were safe.
Then suddenly they all turned and dashed back the way they had come.
“Look out for Humpty Dumpty!” shouted Dick “They’ll try to do something
to harm him if we don’t take care!”
“Oh, my poor angel!” wailed the Princess. “What shall we do!”
“Pile onto Moon-Eyes!” cried Dick to Bab and Mudge.
The three children sprang onto the owl, and the Princess and Wiggles
hurried along the ground. Bizzybuzz darted ahead, his wings humming
like little electric fans.
“Here is the spell!” cried Meg, giving Dick the blue paper. “You only
have to read it over him, and you must strike him with something hard
and sharp at the same time!”
Dick seized the paper, and pulled his jack-knife out of his pocket.
Then he stood up on Moon-Eyes’ back, so that he could be ready to jump
the moment they were anywhere near the wall and Humpty Dumpty.
When they reached the poor Egg, he was almost cracked with terror. His
agonized expression had made big creases in the egg-shell, and he was
squeaking, “Help! help! help!” in a high faint voice.
The men were just climbing up the wall on the inside, so really there
was some excuse for his fear.
“Quick!” cried Bab and Meg, speaking both at once.
And Dick took a flying leap from the back of the owl to the top of the
city wall.
“Don’t forget to break the shell!” cried Meg. He held up his knife,
to show her that he was prepared. The head of one of the men-at-arms
appeared over the edge of the wall. His hand was outstretched.
Dick jabbed the huge egg-shell with his jack-knife, and began to read
the spell so rapidly that it was a wonder that it could work at all!
But it did! The egg toppled, cracked, and fell crashing to the earth.
“Hurry down yourself!” cried Bab, in terror. “That man will kill you!”
The man-at-arms had drawn a dagger and was trying to reach Dick.
“Oh, I don’t think he will kill me!” laughed Dick, and slipped over
the edge of the wall into the mass of delicate vine-tendrils where the
Fairy Flowers were blowing.
“Help me!” he cried, and came down so quickly that there could be no
question about its being magic! He reached the earth just in time to
see a slender young man in doublet and hose rise from the heap of
egg-shells, and rush with outstretched hands to meet the Princess!
It was Prince Humpty Dumpty, free at last!
[Illustration]
XVI
_Behind the Reindeer_
[Illustration]
[Illustration]