'Earth-crawler! this insolence to my majesty shall be your death-warrant. You are an ordinary mortal, and to stop a mortal from living is so easy a thing to do that I will not keep you waiting half so long as you did for my conquest.'
'I'd rather you wouldn't stop me from living,' remarked Betsy, getting off Hank's back and standing beside him. 'And it would be a pretty cheap King who killed a visitor while she was hungry. If you'll give me something to eat, I'll talk this killing business over with you afterward; only, I warn you now that I don't approve of it, and never will.'
Her coolness and lack of fear impressed the Nome King, although he bore an intense hatred toward all mortals.
'What do you wish to eat?' he asked gruffly.
'Oh, a ham-sandwich would do, or perhaps a couple of hard-boiled eggs – '
'Eggs!' shrieked the three nomes who were present, shuddering till their teeth chattered.
'What's the matter?' asked Betsy wonderingly. 'Are eggs as high here as they are at home?'
'Guph,' said the King in an agitated voice, turning to his General, 'let us destroy this rash mortal at once! Seize her and take her to the Slimy Cave and lock her in.'
Guph glanced at Tik-Tok, whose gun was still pointed, but just then Kaliko stole softly behind the copper man and kicked his knee-joints so that they suddenly bent forward and tumbled Tik-Tok to the floor, his gun falling from his grasp.
Then Guph, seeing Tik-Tok helpless, made a grab at Betsy. At the same time Hank's heels shot out and caught the General just where his belt was buckled. He rose into the air swift as a cannon– ball, struck the Nome King fairly and flattened his Majesty against the wall of rock on the opposite side of the cavern. Together they fell to the floor in a dazed and crumpled condition, seeing which Kaliko whispered to Betsy:
'Come with me – quick! – and I will save you.'
She looked into Kaliko's face inquiringly and thought he seemed honest and good-natured, so she decided to follow him. He led her and the mule through several passages and into a small cavern very nicely and comfortably furnished.
'This is my own room,' said he, 'but you are quite welcome to use it. Wait here a minute and I'll get you something to eat.'
When Kaliko returned he brought a tray containing some broiled mushrooms, a loaf of mineral bread and some petroleum-butter. The butter Betsy could not eat, but the bread was good and the mushrooms delicious.
'Here's the door key,' said Kaliko, 'and you'd better lock yourself in.'
'Won't you let Polychrome and the Rose Princess come here, too?' she asked.
'I'll see. Where are they?'
'I don't know. I left them outside,' said Betsy.
'Well, if you hear three raps on the door, open it,' said Kaliko; 'but don't let anyone in unless they give the three raps.'
'All right,' promised Betsy, and when Kaliko left the cosy cavern she closed and locked the door.
In the meantime Ann and her officers, finding themselves prisoners in the pit, had shouted and screamed until they were tired out, but no one had come to their assistance. It was very dark and damp in the pit and they could not climb out because the walls were higher than their heads and the cover was on. The Queen was first angry and then annoyed and then discouraged; but the officers were only afraid. Every one of the poor fellows heartily wished he was back in Oogaboo caring for his orchard, and some were so unhappy that they began to reproach Ann for causing them all this trouble and danger.
Finally the Queen sat down on the bottom of the pit and leaned her back against the wall. By good luck her sharp elbow touched a secret spring in the wall and a big flat rock swung inward. Ann fell over backward, but the next instant she jumped up and cried to the others:
'A passage! A passage! Follow me, my brave men, and we may yet escape.'
Then she began to crawl through the passage, which was as dark and dank as the pit, and the officers followed her in single file. They crawled, and they crawled, and they kept on crawling, for the passage was not big enough to allow them to stand upright. It turned this way and twisted that, sometimes like a corkscrew and sometimes zigzag, but seldom ran for long in a straight line.
'It will never end – never!' moaned the officers, who were rubbing all the skin off their knees on the rough rocks.
'It must end,' retorted Ann courageously, 'or it never would have been made. We don't know where it will lead us to, but any place is better than that loathsome pit.'
So she crawled on, and the officers crawled on, and while they were crawling through this awful underground passage Polychrome and Shaggy and Files and the Rose Princess, who were standing outside the entrance to Ruggedo's domains, were wondering what had become of them.
Chapter Seventeen
A Tragic Transformation
'Don't let us worry,' said Shaggy to his companions, 'for it may take the Queen some time to conquer the Metal Monarch, as Tik-Tok has to do everything in his slow, mechanical way.'
'Do you suppose they are likely to fail?' asked the Rose Princess.
'I do, indeed,' replied Shaggy. 'This Nome King is really a powerful fellow and has a legion of nomes to assist him, whereas our bold Queen commands a Clockwork Man and a band of faint– hearted officers.'
'She ought to have let Quox do the conquering,' said Polychrome, dancing lightly upon a point of rock and fluttering her beautiful draperies. 'But perhaps the dragon was wise to let her go first, for when she fails to conquer Ruggedo she may become more modest in her ambitions.'
'Where is the dragon now?' inquired Ozga.
'Up there on the rocks,' replied Files. 'Look, my dear; you may see him from here. He said he would take a little nap while we were mixing up with Ruggedo, and he added that after we had gotten into trouble he would wake up and conquer the Nome King in a jiffy, as his master the Jinjin has ordered him to do.'
'Quox means well,' said Shaggy, 'but I do not think we shall need his services; for just as soon as I am satisfied that Queen Ann and her army have failed to conquer Ruggedo, I shall enter the caverns and show the King my Love Magnet. That he cannot resist; therefore the conquest will be made with ease.'
This speech of Shaggy Man's was overheard by the Long-Eared Hearer, who was at that moment standing by Ruggedo's side. For when the King and Guph had recovered from Hank's kick and had picked themselves up, their first act was to turn Tik-Tok on his back and put a heavy diamond on top of him, so that he could not get up again. Then they carefully put his gun in a corner of the cavern and the King sent Guph to fetch the Long-Eared Hearer.
The Hearer was still angry at Ruggedo for breaking his ear, but he acknowledged the Nome King to be his master and was ready to obey his commands. Therefore he repeated Shaggy's speech to the King, who at once realized that his Kingdom was in grave danger. For Ruggedo knew of the Love Magnet and its powers and was horrified at the thought that Shaggy might show him the magic talisman and turn all the hatred in his heart into love. Ruggedo was proud of his hatred and abhorred love of any sort.
'Really,' said he, 'I'd rather he conquered and lose my wealth and my Kingdom than gaze at that awful Love Magnet. What can I do to prevent the Shaggy Man from taking it out of his pocket?'
Kaliko returned to the cavern in time to overhear this question, and being a loyal nome and eager to serve his King, he answered by saying:
'If we can manage to bind the Shaggy Man's arms, tight to his body, he could not get the Love Magnet out of his pocket.'
'True!' cried the King in delight at this easy solution of the problem. 'Get at once a dozen nomes, with ropes, and place them in the passage where they can seize and bind Shaggy as soon as he enters.'
This Kaliko did, and meanwhile the watchers outside the entrance were growing more and more uneasy about their friends.
