whirling about like a pin-wheel, the Gallopus started for the Prince.
And the minute he started the Prince started also, in the opposite
direction.
"Oh," shrieked the Princess, "he'll eat you."
"He'd--he'd better not," cried Ting, running around and around the
courtyard as fast as he could.
"Bah!" shouted the Gallopus, "don't tell _me_ what I'd better not do.
And stop running so. How am I ever going to catch you if you run around
so?"
All of which showed what a silly old thing the twenty-headed Gallopus
was, for he might have known that Ting would _not_ stop running around.
Indeed, he ran so fast that the monster finally stopped and stood
panting with his forty cheeks all puffed out. And then it was that the
Princess leaned out of the window, extended her hand, and Ting, giving
a leap, seized it and jumped in at the casement where she sat.
"Now," he jeered at the monster, "catch me if you can."
"I don't need to catch you," replied the twenty-headed Gallopus,
calmly, "the enchanted castle has caught you and that's enough, as
you'll soon find out."
"Why, what do you mean?" asked the Prince, in a tone of alarm.
"Oh, nothing much," chuckled the monster, "only that in an hour you
will begin to turn into a spider, that's all, but it's enough, I guess.
Hee, hee!"
With another shriek the Princess fainted away, and as for Ting, he
almost fainted too, at the thought of turning into anything so horrid.
"I don't believe it," he said, glaring at the Gallopus.
"Just as you please," answered the monster, "but when you're a spider
you'll believe it. That castle was built to hold the Princess and
nobody else. If anybody else goes in they turn into a spider unless
they come out in an hour."
Well, you can imagine how Ting felt, and you can also imagine how the
Princess felt when she came out of her swoon.
"I like you awfully, Ting," she said, "but really I'm afraid I could
not like you as a spider."
"I should say not," replied the boy. "I couldn't like myself that way."
Then he pulled out his watch, looked at it and shuddered. "Only three
quarters of an hour left," he groaned.
And there they sat at the window worrying and worrying and worrying,
and wondering what to do. And underneath the window sat the
twenty-headed Gallopus gloating and gloating and gloating over the way
they were worrying. And finally the three-quarters of an hour passed
and they knew if Ting stayed in the castle another minute he would turn
into a spider.
[Illustration: Underneath the window sat the twenty-headed Gallopus]
"Oh, dear," said the boy, "I guess I'll have to go out and be eaten.
It's bad enough but I think I'd rather be eaten than be a spider."
"Yes," said the Princess, "and I think I should, too, only I _would_
like to disappoint that Gallopus. I know he'd much rather eat you than
have you turn into a spider."
"Oh, do you think so?" said Ting.
"I'm sure of it," responded the Princess.
"Then," said the boy, "maybe I can make a bargain with him."
So he leaned out of the window and called to the monster: "you might as
well go away now. I've decided to become a spider."
"What!" shouted the twenty-headed Gallopus, "why, you must be crazy.
Why--why, it's an awful feeling to be a spider. It's much nicer to be
eaten. Come on out and I'll swallow you whole and it won't hurt a bit."
"No," said Ting, "I think I prefer to be a spider."
"Oh, go on," said the Gallopus, looking awfully disappointed, "you
can't mean it."
"Yes, I do," said the Prince, "although I might change my mind if you
let the Princess go free."
"Never," cried the monster, gnashing his teeth.
"Very well, then," said Ting, "you'll not eat _me_." And he started to
draw in his head.
"Wait, wait," shouted the Gallopus, "wait a moment. Let me think."
Then after a moment he groaned. "All right, I'll do it, though I ought
to be ashamed of myself. But it has been so many years since I tasted a
boy I simply cannot resist the temptation. So come out and be eaten and
the moment I gulp you down I'll go off to my cave and shut my eyes, and
the Princess can come out of the castle."
And the instant the monster said that the Prince jumped out of the
window, because he knew if he hesitated the Princess, who had been
listening in horrified silence, would never let him be eaten to set her
free.
"Ah, ha!" cried the Gallopus, smacking his twenty pairs of lips, when
he saw Ting standing before him, "now I _have_ got you." Then he burst
into a roar of laughter. "I knew that story about the spider would
fetch you. That's the reason I made it up."
"You made it up?" cried Ting. "Do you mean to say it wasn't true?"
With another laugh the Gallopus shook every one of his heads merrily.
"Of course it wasn't true, and only a ninny like you would have
believed it."
"Is that so!" cried the Princess.
And as she spoke _she_ jumped out of the window and marched right up
to the monster. "You wicked, wicked creature," she said, her cheeks
flaming and her eyes sparkling like diamonds.
And as she stood there right in front of the Gallopus she looked so
lovely Ting felt he would be willing to be eaten a dozen times for her
sake. And as for the twenty-headed Gallopus, he blushed scarlet with
confusion. Of course he had often seen the Princess at her window,
but never before in the sunshine outside the castle where she was a
_hundred times_ as beautiful. So he just stared and stared with all
his mouths open, and shuffled his hundred and twenty feet uneasily.
And then all of a sudden his heads began to get dizzy, and he felt as
though he would sink through the ground with bashfulness. And then--as
the Princess, growing more dazzling every minute, advanced still
closer--bing--he lost his twenty heads entirely. Bing, bing, bing--each
one went off like a balloon when it bursts, and nothing remained of the
dreadful Gallopus to worry about.
"Hurrah! Hurrah!" cried the Princess, clapping her hands. "The
enchantment is broken. I am free again and you will not be eaten after
all, Ting. I wonder what ever made him lose his heads that way?"
"Why," said Ting, taking her hand and liking her more than ever, "don't
you know? Because if you don't, just come to the palace and look in a
mirror and you will soon find out."
And when he said that the Princess tucked her arm in his and marched
him off to the palace as quick as she could.
"Well, well, well," cried the King, jumping off his throne in
excitement when he saw them coming in, "if this isn't the great
surprise of my life."
Then he patted Ting on the back and called him the bravest boy in the
land. "To think of conquering the twenty-headed Gallopus and rescuing
the Inherited Princess on your eighth birthday," he said. "I never,
never thought you would do it."
"I didn't do it," said Ting. "The Princess did it all herself."
And after the King had learned all that had happened he patted the
Princess on the back also, and then he pinched her cheek.
"I don't wonder, my dear," he said, "that the Gallopus lost his heads.
And I guess I'll announce that you and Ting did it between you, for
it's all in the family, anyway."