opening his own door into the corridor, for it seems that the boy's room, which was the middle one, whirled around on a pivot, while the adjoining rooms occupied by Bilbil and Rinkitink remained stationary. The little King also found a breakfast magically served in his room, and while he was eating it, Klik came to him and stated that His Majesty, King Kaliko, desired his presence in the royal cavern.
So Rinkitink, having first made sure that the Pink Pearl was still in his vest pocket, willingly followed Klik, who ran on some distance ahead. But no sooner had Rinkitink set foot in the passage than a great rock, weighing at least a ton, became dislodged and dropped from the roof directly over his head. Of course, it could not harm him, protected as he was by the Pink Pearl, and it bounded aside and crashed upon the floor, where it was shattered by its own weight.
'How careless!' exclaimed the little King, and waddled after Klik, who seemed amazed at his escape.
Presently another rock above Rinkitink plunged downward, and then another, but none touched his body. Klik seemed much perplexed at these continued escapes and certainly Kaliko was surprised when Rinkitink, safe and sound, entered the royal cavern.
'Good morning,' said the King of Gilgad. 'Your rocks are getting loose, Kaliko, and you'd better have them glued in place before they hurt someone.' Then he began to chuckle: 'Hoo, hoo, hoo-hee, hee-heek, keek, eek!' and Kaliko sat and frowned because he realized that the little fat King was poking fun at him.
'I asked Your Majesty to come here,' said the Nome King, 'to show you a curious skein of golden thread which my workmen have made. If it pleases you, I will make you a present of it.'
With this he held out a small skein of glittering gold twine, which was really pretty and curious. Rinkitink took it in his hand and at once the golden thread began to unwind – so swiftly that the eye could not follow its motion. And, as it unwound, it coiled itself around Rinkitink's body, at the same time weaving itself into a net, until it had enveloped the little King from head to foot and placed him in a prison of gold.
'Aha!' cried Kaliko; 'this magic worked all right, it seems.'
'Oh, did it?' replied Rinkitink, and stepping forward he walked right through the golden net, which fell to the floor in a tangled mass.
Kaliko rubbed his chin thoughtfully and stared hard at Rinkitink.
'I understand a good bit of magic,' said he, 'but Your Majesty has a sort of magic that greatly puzzles me, because it is unlike anything of the sort that I ever met with before.'
'Now, see here, Kaliko,' said Rinkitink; 'if you are trying to harm me or my companions, give it up, for you will never succeed. We're harm-proof, so to speak, and you are merely wasting your time trying to injure us.'
'You may be right, and I hope I am not so impolite as to argue with a guest,' returned the Nome King. 'But you will pardon me if I am not yet satisfied that you are stronger than my famous magic. However, I beg you to believe that I bear you no ill will, King Rinkitink; but it is my duty to destroy you, if possible, because you and that insignificant boy Prince have openly threatened to take away my captives and have positively refused to go back to the earth's surface and let me alone. I'm very tender-hearted, as a matter of fact, and I like you immensely, and would enjoy having you as a friend, but – ' Here he pressed a button on the arm of his throne chair and the section of the floor where Rinkitink stood suddenly opened and disclosed a black pit beneath, which was a part of the terrible Bottomless Gulf.
But Rinkitink did not fall into the pit; his body remained suspended in the air until he put out his foot and stepped to the solid floor, when the opening suddenly closed again.
'I appreciate Your Majesty's friendship,' remarked Rinkitink, as calmly as if nothing had happened, 'but I am getting tired with standing. Will you kindly send for my goat, Bilbil, that I may sit upon his back to rest?'
'Indeed I will!' promised Kaliko. 'I have not yet completed my test of your magic, and as I owe that goat a slight grudge for bumping my head and smashing my second-best crown, I will be glad to discover if the beast can also escape my delightful little sorceries.'
So Klik was sent to fetch Bilbil and presently returned with the goat, which was very cross this morning because it had not slept well in the underground caverns.
Rinkitink lost no time in getting upon the red velvet saddle which the goat constantly wore, for he feared the Nome King would try to destroy Bilbil and knew that as long as his body touched that of the goat the Pink Pearl would protect them both; whereas, if Bilbil stood alone, there was no magic to save him.
Bilbil glared wickedly at King Kaliko, who moved uneasily in his ivory throne. Then the Nome King whispered a moment in the ear of Klik, who nodded and left the room.
'Please make yourselves at home here for a few minutes, while I attend to an errand,' said the Nome King, getting up from the throne. 'I shall return pretty soon, when I hope to find you pieceful – ha, ha, ha! – that's a joke you can't appreciate now but will later. Be pieceful – that's the idea. Ho, ho, ho! How funny.' Then he waddled from the cavern, closing the door behind him.
'Well, why didn't you laugh when Kaliko laughed?' demanded the goat, when they were left alone in the cavern.
'Because he means mischief of some sort,' replied Rinkitink, 'and we'll laugh after the danger is over, Bilbil. There's an old adage that says: 'He laughs best who laughs last,' and the only way to laugh last is to give the other fellow a chance. Where did that knife come from, I wonder.'
For a long, sharp knife suddenly appeared in the air near them, twisting and turning from side to side and darting here and there in a dangerous manner, without any support whatever. Then another knife became visible – and another and another – until all the space in the royal cavern seemed filled with them. Their sharp points and edges darted toward Rinkitink and Bilbil perpetually and nothing could have saved them from being cut to pieces except the protecting power of the Pink Pearl. As it was, not a knife touched them and even Bilbil gave a gruff laugh at the failure of Kaliko's clever magic.
The goat wandered here and there in the cavern, carrying Rinkitink upon his back, and neither of them paid the slightest heed to the knives, although the glitter of the hundreds of polished blades was rather trying to their eyes. Perhaps for ten minutes the knives darted about them in bewildering fury; then they disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared.
Kaliko cautiously stuck his head through the doorway and found the goat chewing the embroidery of his royal cloak, which he had left lying over the throne, while Rinkitink was reading his manuscript on 'How to be Good' and chuckling over its advice. The Nome King seemed greatly disappointed as he came in and resumed his seat on the throne. Said Rinkitink with a chuckle:
'We've really had a peaceful time, Kaliko, although not the pieceful time you expected. Forgive me if I indulge in a laugh – hoo, hoo, hoo-hee, heek-keek-eek! And now, tell me; aren't you getting tired of trying to injure us?'
'Eh – heh,' said the Nome King. 'I see now that your magic can protect you from all my arts. But is the boy Inga as well protected as Your Majesty and the goat?'
'Why do you ask?' inquired Rinkitink, uneasy at the question because he remembered he had not seen the little Prince of Pingaree that morning.
'Because,' said Kaliko, 'the boy has been undergoing trials far greater and more dangerous than any you have encountered, and it has been hundreds of years since anyone has been able to escape alive from the perils of my Three Trick Caverns.'
King Rinkitink was much alarmed at hearing this, for although he knew that Inga possessed the Blue Pearl, that would only give to him marvelous strength, and perhaps strength alone would not enable him to escape from danger. But he would not let Kaliko see the fear he felt for Inga's safety, so he said in a careless way:
'You're a mighty poor magician, Kaliko, and I'll give you my crown if Inga hasn't escaped any danger you have threatened him with.'
'Your whole crown is not worth one of the valuable diamonds in my crown,' answered the Nome King, 'but I'll take it. Let us go at once, therefore, and see what has become of the boy Prince, for if he is not destroyed by this time I will admit he cannot be injured by any of the magic arts which I have at my command.'
He left the room, accompanied by Klik, who had now rejoined his master, and by Rinkitink riding upon Bilbil. After traversing several of the huge caverns they entered one that was somewhat more bright and cheerful than the others, where the Nome King paused before a wall of rock. Then Klik pressed a secret spring and a section of the wall opened and disclosed the corridor where Prince Inga stood facing them.
'Tarts and tadpoles!' cried Kaliko in surprise. 'The boy is still alive!'
