But the Queen insisted, and so they went outside, the old woman carrying
her broom, for all the world like a crossing-sweeper.
The great cat rubbed against her skirt and licked its jaws. It was
about the size of a lion now.
They came to the back of the house, and there the pen was--a cage
covered completely over, and filled with a multitude of geese. The old
woman undid the door and threw it wide, and immediately, with a mighty
rustle of wings filling the air, the geese swept out of the pen away
into the sky.
The old woman chuckled, and the cat crouched itself down as if preparing
to spring, lashing its sides with its long tail. But the Queen only
smiled, and started off straight into the air, faster even than the
geese had gone.
The old woman gave a shriek, and the cat a horrible yell, and then the
Queen saw the one mounted upon her broom, and the other without any sort
of steed at all, come flying after her.
Then ensued a terrific race. The Queen put up one hand to hold her
crown on, and the other to shield her eyes, and then flew as fast as she
could, with her hair streaming out upon the wind.
Right through the startled geese she went, and the old woman and the cat
followed after; but, fast as she went, they gained upon her, and at last
the cat was almost upon her. In despair, she doubled back and almost
ran into the old woman, who aimed a furious blow at her with her broom;
but the Queen just dodged it, and it lighted full in the face of the
cat, and, locked fast together, the cat and the old woman whirled to the
ground.
They were both of them too enraged to inquire who was who, and such a
furious battle raged that the sand they threw up completely hid the
earth from view for miles around.
The Queen, however, after she had recovered her breath, hovered over the
spot to see what would happen.
All of a sudden there was a loud explosion, and a column of blue flame
shot up.
"Now what has happened?" the Queen thought to herself, and prepared to
fly off at full speed. But the cloud of sand sailed quietly off down the
wind, and, save for a deep hole, there remained no trace of the old
woman and her cat.
Just at that moment the Queen heard a mighty rustling of wings, and,
looking up, saw the great herd of wild geese swirling round and round
her head.
"Dear me!" the Queen said to herself, "I wonder if I could talk to them.
Perhaps they will understand bat's language."
Now, it is a rather difficult thing to give you a good idea of what the
bat's language is like, because, although one may produce a fairly good
imitation by rubbing two corks together, or by blowing through a double
button, it doesn't mean any more in bat's language than "Huckery
hickyhoo" would in ours, if any one were foolish enough to produce such
sounds.
Suffice it, then, to say that the Queen said in the bat's language, "Oh,
come, that's a good thing!"