The wicked Queen of Coregos was in a very bad humor this morning, for
one of her slave drivers had come from the fields to say that a number
of slaves had rebelled and would not work.
"Bring them here to me!" she cried savagely. "A good whipping may make
them change their minds."
So the slave driver went to fetch the rebellious ones and Queen Cor sat
down to eat her breakfast, an ugly look on her face.
Prince Inga had been ordered to stand behind his new mistress with a
big fan of peacock's feathers, but he was so unused to such service
that he awkwardly brushed her ear with the fan. At once she flew into a
terrible rage and slapped the Prince twice with her hand-blows that
tingled, too, for her hand was big and hard and she was not inclined to
be gentle. Inga took the blows without shrinking or uttering a cry,
although they stung his pride far more than his body. But King
Rinkitink, who was acting as the queen's butler and had just brought in
her coffee, was so startled at seeing the young Prince punished that he
tipped over the urn and the hot coffee streamed across the lap of the
Queen's best morning gown.
Cor sprang from her seat with a scream of anger and poor Rinkitink
would doubtless have been given a terrible beating had not the slave
driver returned at this moment and attracted the woman's attention. The
overseer had brought with him all of the women slaves from Pingaree,
who had been loaded down with chains and were so weak and ill they
could scarcely walk, much less work in the fields.
Prince Inga's eyes were dimmed with sorrowful tears when he discovered
how his poor people had been abused, but his own plight was so helpless
that he was unable to aid them. Fortunately the boy's mother, Queen
Garee, was not among these slaves, for Queen Cor had placed her in the
royal dairy to make butter.
"Why do you refuse to work?" demanded Cor in a harsh voice, as the
slaves from Pingaree stood before her, trembling and with downcast eyes.
"Because we lack strength to perform the tasks your overseers demand,"
answered one of the women.
"Then you shall be whipped until your strength returns!" exclaimed the
Queen, and turning to Inga, she commanded: "Get me the whip with the
seven lashes."
As the boy left the room, wondering how he might manage to save the
unhappy women from their undeserved punishment, he met a girl entering
by the back way, who asked:
"Can you tell me where to find Her Majesty, Queen Cor?"
"She is in the chamber with the red dome, where green dragons are
painted upon the walls," replied Inga; "but she is in an angry and
ungracious mood to-day. Why do you wish to see her?"
"I have honey to sell," answered the girl, who was Zella, just come
from the forest. "The Queen is very fond of my honey."
"You may go to her, if you so desire," said the boy, "but take care not
to anger the cruel Queen, or she may do you a mischief."
"Why should she harm me, who brings her the honey she so dearly loves?"
inquired the child innocently. "But I thank you for your warning; and I
will try not to anger the Queen."
As Zella started to go, Inga's eyes suddenly fell upon her shoes and
instantly he recognized them as his own. For only in Pingaree were
shoes shaped in this manner: high at the heel and pointed at the toes.
"Stop!" he cried in an excited voice, and the girl obeyed, wonderingly.
"Tell me," he continued, more gently, "where did you get those shoes?"
"My father brought them to me from Regos," she answered.
"From Regos!"
"Yes. Are they not pretty?" asked Zella, looking down at her feet to
admire them. "One of them my father found by the palace wall, and the
other on an ash-heap. So he brought them to me and they fit me
perfectly."
By this time Inga was trembling with eager joy, which of course the
girl could not understand.
"What is your name, little maid?" he asked.
"I am called Zella, and my father is Nikobob, the charcoal-burner."
"Zella is a pretty name. I am Inga, Prince of Pingaree," said he, "and
the shoes you are now wearing, Zella, belong to me. They were not cast
away, as your father supposed, but were lost. Will you let me have them
again?"
Zella's eyes filled with tears.
"Must I give up my pretty shoes, then?" she asked. "They are the only
ones I have ever owned."
Inga was sorry for the poor child, but he knew how important it was
that he regain possession of the Magic Pearls. So he said, pleadingly:
"Please let me have them, Zella. See! I will exchange for them the
shoes I now have on, which are newer and prettier than the others."
The girl hesitated. She wanted to please the boy Prince, yet she hated
to exchange the shoes which her father had brought her as a present.
"If you will give me the shoes," continued the boy, anxiously, "I will
promise to make you and your father and mother rich and prosperous.
Indeed, I will promise to grant any favors you may ask of me," and he
sat down upon the floor and drew off the shoes he was wearing and held
them toward the girl.
"I'll see if they will fit me," said Zella, taking off her left
shoe--the one that contained the Pink Pearl--and beginning to put on
one of Inga's.
Just then Queen Cor, angry at being made to wait for her whip with the
seven lashes, rushed into the room to find Inga. Seeing the boy sitting
upon the floor beside Zella, the woman sprang toward him to beat him
with her clenched fists; but Inga had now slipped on the shoe and the
Queen's blows could not reach his body.
Then Cor espied the whip lying beside Inga and snatching it up she
tried to lash him with it--all to no avail.
While Zella sat horrified by this scene, the Prince, who realized he
had no time to waste, reached out and pulled the right shoe from the
girl's foot, quickly placing it upon his own. Then he stood up and,
facing the furious but astonished Queen, said to her in a quiet voice:
"Madam, please give me that whip."
"I won't!" answered Cor. "I'm going to lash those Pingaree women with
it."
The boy seized hold of the whip and with irresistible strength drew it
from the Queen's hand. But she drew from her bosom a sharp dagger and
with the swiftness of lightning aimed a blow at Inga's heart. He merely
stood still and smiled, for the blade rebounded and fell clattering to
the floor.
Then, at last, Queen Cor understood the magic power that had terrified
her husband but which she had ridiculed in her ignorance, not believing
in it. She did not know that Inga's power had been lost, and found
again, but she realized the boy was no common foe and that unless she
could still manage to outwit him her reign in the Island of Coregos was
ended. To gain time, she went back to the red-domed chamber and seated
herself in her throne, before which were grouped the weeping slaves
from Pingaree.
Inga had taken Zella's hand and assisted her to put on the shoes he had
given her in exchange for his own. She found them quite comfortable and
did not know she had lost anything by the transfer.
"Come with me," then said the boy Prince, and led her into the presence
of Queen Cor, who was giving Rinkitink a scolding. To the overseer Inga
said.
"Give me the keys which unlock these chains, that I may set these poor
women at liberty."
"Don't you do it!" screamed Queen Cor.
"If you interfere, madam," said the boy, "I will put you into a
dungeon."
By this Rinkitink knew that Inga had recovered his Magic Pearls and the
little fat King was so overjoyed that he danced and capered all around
the room. But the Queen was alarmed at the threat and the slave driver,
fearing the conqueror of Regos, tremblingly gave up the keys.
Inga quickly removed all the shackles from the women of his country and
comforted them, telling them they should work no more but would soon be
restored to their homes in Pingaree. Then he commanded the slave driver
to go and get all the children who had been made slaves, and to bring
them to their mothers. The man obeyed and left at once to perform his
errand, while Queen Cor, growing more and more uneasy, suddenly sprang
from her throne and before Inga could stop her had rushed through the
room and out into the courtyard of the palace, meaning to make her
escape. Rinkitink followed her, running as fast as he could go.
It was at this moment that Bilbil, in his mad dash from Regos, turned
in at the gates of the courtyard, and as he was coming one way and
Queen Cor was going the other they bumped into each other with great
force. The woman sailed through the air, over Bilbil's head, and landed
on the ground outside the gates, where her crown rolled into a ditch
and she picked herself up, half dazed, and continued her flight. Bilbil
was also somewhat dazed by the unexpected encounter, but he continued
his rush rather blindly and so struck poor Rinkitink, who was chasing
after Queen Cor. They rolled over one another a few times and then
Rinkitink sat up and Bilbil sat up and they looked at each other in
amazement.
"Bilbil," said the King, "I'm astonished at you!"
"Your Majesty," said Bilbil, "I expected kinder treatment at your
hands."
"You interrupted me," said Rinkitink.
"There was plenty of room without your taking my path," declared the
goat.