The Conquest of the Skeezers
Queen Coo-ee-oh dropped the rope, tottered and fell headlong into the
water, sinking beneath the surface, while the Skeezers in the
submarine were too bewildered to assist her and only stared at the
ripples in the water where she had disappeared. A moment later there
arose to the surface a beautiful White Swan. This Swan was of large
size, very gracefully formed, and scattered all over its white
feathers were tiny diamonds, so thickly placed that as the rays of the
morning sun fell upon them the entire body of the Swan glistened like
one brilliant diamond. The head of the Diamond Swan had a bill of
polished gold and its eyes were two sparkling amethysts.
"Hooray!" cried the Su-dic, dancing up and down with wicked glee. "My
poor wife, Rora, is avenged at last. You made her a Golden Pig,
Coo-ee-oh, and now I have made you a Diamond Swan. Float on your lake
forever, if you like, for your web feet can do no more magic and you
are as powerless as the Pig you made of my wife!"
"Villain! Scoundrel!" croaked the Diamond Swan. "You will be punished
for this. Oh, what a fool I was to let you enchant me!"
"A fool you were, and a fool you are!" laughed the Su-dic, dancing
madly in his delight. And then he carelessly tipped over the other
copper vessel with his heel and its contents spilled on the sands and
were lost to the last drop.
The Su-dic stopped short and looked at the overturned vessel with a
rueful countenance.
"That's too bad--too bad!" he exclaimed sorrowfully. "I've lost all
the poison I had to kill the fishes with, and I can't make any more
because only my wife knew the secret of it, and she is now a foolish
Pig and has forgotten all her magic."
"Very well," said the Diamond Swan scornfully, as she floated upon the
water and swam gracefully here and there. "I'm glad to see you are
foiled. Your punishment is just beginning, for although you have
enchanted me and taken away my powers of sorcery you have still the
three magic fishes to deal with, and they'll destroy you in time, mark
my words."
The Su-dic stared at the Swan a moment. Then he yelled to his men:
"Shoot her! Shoot the saucy bird!"
They let fly some arrows at the Diamond Swan, but she dove under the
water and the missiles fell harmless. When Coo-ee-oh rose to the
surface she was far from the shore and she swiftly swam across the
lake to where no arrows or spears could reach her.
The Su-dic rubbed his chin and thought what to do next. Near by
floated the submarine in which the Queen had come, but the Skeezers
who were in it were puzzled what to do with themselves. Perhaps they
were not sorry their cruel mistress had been transformed into a
Diamond Swan, but the transformation had left them quite helpless. The
under-water boat was not operated by machinery, but by certain mystic
words uttered by Coo-ee-oh. They didn't know how to submerge it, or
how to make the water-tight shield cover them again, or how to make
the boat go back to the castle, or make it enter the little basement
room where it was usually kept. As a matter of fact, they were now
shut out of their village under the Great Dome and could not get back
again. So one of the men called to the Supreme Dictator of the
Flatheads, saying:
"Please make us prisoners and take us to your mountain, and feed and
keep us, for we have nowhere to go."
Then the Su-dic laughed and answered:
"Not so. I can't be bothered by caring for a lot of stupid Skeezers.
Stay where you are, or go wherever you please, so long as you keep
away from our mountain." He turned to his men and added: "We have
conquered Queen Coo-ee-oh and made her a helpless swan. The Skeezers
are under water and may stay there. So, having won the war, let us go
home again and make merry and feast, having after many years proved
the Flatheads to be greater and more powerful than the Skeezers."
So the Flatheads marched away and passed through the row of palms and
went back to their mountain, where the Su-dic and a few of his
officers feasted and all the others were forced to wait on them.
"I'm sorry we couldn't have roast pig," said the Su-dic, "but as the
only pig we have is made of gold, we can't eat her. Also the Golden
Pig happens to be my wife, and even were she not gold I am sure she
would be too tough to eat."