From the tops of the hills the travelers caught their first glimpse of
the wonderful cities of Twi. Two walls surrounded the cities, and in
the walls were two gates just alike. Within the inclosures stood many
houses, but all were built in pairs, from the poorest huts to the most
splendid palaces. Every street was double, the pavements running side
by side. There were two lamp-posts on every corner, and in the dim
twilight that existed these lamp-posts were quite necessary. If there
were trees or bushes anywhere, they invariably grew in pairs, and if a
branch was broken on one it was sure to be broken on the other, and
dead leaves fell from both trees at identically the same moment.
Much of this Marvel and Nerle learned after they had entered the
cities, but the view from the hills showed plainly enough that the
"double" plan existed everywhere and in every way in this strange land.
They followed the paths down to the gates of the walls, where two pairs
of soldiers rushed out and seized their horses by the bridles. These
soldiers all seemed to be twins, or at least mates, and each one of
each pair was as like the other as are two peas growing in the same
pod. If one had a red nose the other's was red in the same degree, and
the soldiers that held the bridles of Nerle's horse both had their left
eyes bruised and blackened, as from a blow of the same force.
These soldiers, as they looked upon Nerle and the prince, seemed fully
as much astonished and certainly more frightened than their prisoners.
They were dressed in bright yellow uniforms with green buttons, and the
soldiers who had arrested the prince had both torn their left
coat-sleeves and had patches of the same shape upon the seats of their
trousers.
"How dare you stop us, fellows?" asked the prince, sternly.
The soldiers holding his horse both turned and looked inquiringly at
the soldiers holding Nerle's horse; and these turned to look at a
double captain who came out of two doors in the wall and walked up to
them.
"Such things were never before heard of!" said the two captains, their
startled eyes fixed upon the prisoners. "We must take them to the Ki
and the Ki-Ki."
"Why so?" asked Prince Marvel.
"Because," replied the officers, "they are our rulers, under grace of
the High Ki, and all unusual happenings must be brought to their
notice. It is our law, you know--the law of the Kingdom of Twi."
"Very well," said Marvel, quietly; "take us where you will; but if any
harm is intended us you will be made to regret it."
"The Ki and the Ki-Ki will decide," returned the captains gravely,
their words sounding at the same instant.
And then the two pairs of soldiers led the horses through the double
streets, the captains marching ahead with drawn swords, and crowds of
twin men and twin women coming from the double doors of the double
houses to gaze upon the strange sight of men and horses who were not
double.
Presently they came upon a twin palace with twin turrets rising high
into the air; and before the twin doors the prisoners dismounted.
Marvel was escorted through one door and Nerle through another, and
then they saw each other going down a double hallway to a room with a
double entrance.
Passing through this they found themselves in a large hall with two
domes set side by side in the roof. The domes were formed of stained
glass, and the walls of the hall were ornamented by pictures in pairs,
each pair showing identically the same scenes. This, was, of course,
reasonable enough in such a land, where two people would always look at
two pictures at the same time and admire them in the same way with the
same thoughts.
Beneath one of the domes stood a double throne, on which sat the Ki of
Twi--a pair of gray-bearded and bald-headed men who were lean and lank
and stoop-shouldered. They had small eyes, black and flashing, long
hooked noses, great pointed ears, and they were smoking two pipes from
which the smoke curled in exactly the same circles and clouds.
Beneath the other dome sat the Ki-Ki of Twi, also on double thrones,
similar to those of the Ki. The Ki-Ki were two young men, and had
golden hair combed over their brows and "banged" straight across; and
their eyes were blue and mild in expression, and their cheeks pink and
soft. The Ki-Ki were playing softly upon a pair of musical instruments
that resembled mandolins, and they were evidently trying to learn a new
piece of music, for when one Ki-Ki struck a false note the other Ki-Ki
struck the same false note at the same time, and the same expression of
annoyance came over the two faces at the same moment.
When the prisoners entered, the pairs of captains and soldiers bowed
low to the two pairs of rulers, and the Ki exclaimed--both in the same
voice of surprise:
"Great Kika-koo! what have we here?"
"Most wonderful prisoners, your Highnesses," answered the captains.
"We found them at your cities' gates and brought them to you at once.
They are, as your Highnesses will see, each singular, and but half of
what he should be."
"'Tis so!" cried the double Ki, in loud voices, and slapping their
right thighs with their right palms at the same time. "Most
remarkable! Most remarkable!"
"I don't see anything remarkable about it," returned Prince Marvel,
calmly. "It is you, who are not singular, but double, that seem
strange and outlandish."
"Perhaps--perhaps!" said the two old men, thoughtfully. "It is what we
are not accustomed to that seems to us remarkable. Eh, Ki-Ki?" they
added, turning to the other rulers.
The Ki-Ki, who had not spoken a word but continued to play softly,
simply nodded their blond heads carelessly; so the Ki looked again at
the prisoners and asked:
"How did you get here?"
"We cut a hole through the prickly hedge," replied Prince Marvel.
"A hole through the hedge! Great Kika-koo!" cried the gray-bearded Ki;
"is there, then, anything or any place on the other side of the hedge?"
"Why, of course! The world is there," returned the prince, laughing.
The old men looked puzzled, and glanced sharply from their little black
eyes at their prisoners.
"We thought nothing existed outside the hedge of Twi," they answered,
simply. "But your presence here proves we were wrong. Eh! Ki-Ki?"
This last was again directed toward the pair of musicians, who
continued to play and only nodded quietly, as before.
"Now that you are here," said the twin Ki, stroking their two gray
beards with their two left hands in a nervous way, "it must be evident
to you that you do not belong here. Therefore you must go back through
the hedge again and stay on the other side. Eh, Ki-Ki?"
The Ki-Ki still continued playing, but now spoke the first words the
prisoners had heard from them.
"They must die," said the Ki-Ki, in soft and agreeable voices.
"Die!" echoed the twin Ki, "die? Great Kika-koo! And why so?"
"Because, if there is a world on the other side of the hedge, they
would tell on their return all about the Land of Twi, and others of
their kind would come through the hedge from curiosity and annoy us.
We can not be annoyed. We are busy."
Having delivered this speech both the Ki-Ki went on playing the new
tune, as if the matter was settled.
"Nonsense!" retorted the old Ki, angrily. "You are getting more and
more bloodthirsty every day, our sweet and gentle Ki-Ki! But we are
the Ki--and we say the prisoners shall not die!"
"We say they shall!" answered the youthful Ki-Ki, nodding their two
heads at the same time, with a positive motion. "You may be the Ki,
but we are the Ki-Ki, and your superior."
"Not in this case," declared the old men. "Where life and death are
concerned we have equal powers with you."
"And if we disagree?" asked the players, gently.
"Great Kika-koo! If we disagree the High Ki must judge between us!"
roared the twin Ki, excitedly.
"Quite so," answered the Ki-Ki. "The strangers shall die."
"They shall not die!" stormed the old men, with fierce gestures toward
the others, while both pairs of black eyes flashed angrily.
"Then we disagree, and they must be taken to the High Ki," returned the
blond musicians, beginning to play another tune.
The two Ki rose from their thrones, paced two steps to the right and
three steps to the left, and then sat down again.
"Very well!" they said to the captains, who had listened unmoved to the
quarrel of the rulers; "keep these half-men safe prisoners until
to-morrow morning, and then the Ki-Ki and we ourselves will conduct
them to the mighty High Ki."
At this command the twin captains bowed again to both pairs of rulers
and led Prince Marvel and Nerle from the room. Then they were escorted
along the streets to the twin houses of the captains, and here the
officers paused and scratched their left ears with uncertain gestures.
"There being only half of each of you," they said, "we do not know how
to lock each of you in double rooms."
"Oh, let us both occupy the same room," said Prince Marvel. "We prefer
it."
"Very well," answered the captains; "we must transgress our usual
customs in any event, so you may as well be lodged as you wish."
So Nerle and the prince were thrust into a large and pleasant room of
one of the twin houses, the double doors were locked upon them by twin
soldiers, and they were left to their own thoughts.