“Then I will be the first to find out,” said Michael. “Tell me how much you want, and give me your largest boat.” On this the men muttered together, and one said, “He is mad.” “Yes,” said another, “but his money is good, for all that. Let the madman have his way. It will hurt him, not us.” So they gave Michael their best boat, and he paid them well, and he set sail and steered where the red star shone. He sailed all night till he had left every trace of land behind him, and saw no shore in front, only the cold, gray sea on every side. By day he kept the boat still, afraid lest he should get out of the track of the star, but when the second night came he was so weary that in spite of himself he fell asleep. When he awoke he found the sun had risen, and his boat was drifting close to land. It was a flat, lonely shore, without trees or grass growing in sight, and facing him was an immense castle. It was built of black marble, and a more gloomy place could not be, for the windows were small and high up, and were all barred across, with heavy iron bars, and the castle had no spires or towers, but was one square black block, and looked more like a prison than a castle. Around it was a high wall, and outside this a moat, without a bridge.
Michael steered his boat to shore, and stepped from it, and looked about for some way by which he could cross the moat, and try for entrance to the castle. Then he saw a little hut near, and beside it lay an old man apparently fast asleep. He was small and dark, and his face was gray and wrinkled as a monkey’s, and he had no hair on his head. Close beside him coiled up was a large snake, also asleep. Michael stood watching them both, afraid to wake them, when, without a word, the gray man raised his head, and opening a pair of dull, gray eyes, fixed them on him. Still he did not speak, and at last the Prince, growing impatient, went up to him and said, “Friend, I beg you to tell me how I am to enter the castle; or if you have the key, to give it to me.”
On this the old man answered, “I have the key, and no one can enter without my leave. What will you give me for it?”
“Why,” said Michael, “I have nothing but money,” and he took some coins from his pocket as he spoke.
At this the old man laughed. “Your money is nothing to me,” he said; “But look yonder. Over there I am building a wall of heavy stones, and I am old, and my strength fails me; stay and work for me at that wall, and in return I will give you the key of the castle.”
“But how long must I work?” said Michael, “For unless I can enter the castle before seven years are over, it will be no use to me.
“Look at that serpent,” said the old man; “It is sitting on its eggs. When they are hatched you shall have the key and open the castle door. Till then you must be my slave.”
“Gladly,” said Michael, who was delighted; “for no snake could take seven years hatching its eggs.”
Then the old man rose, and beckoning to him to follow, went into the little cottage. From a nail upon the wall he took a pair of manacles fastened together by a heavy iron chain. These he slipped over Michael’s wrists, and stooping down over them, muttered a few words, and at once the manacles fastened together as if they had been locked, and Michael could not move them, or draw out his hands. Then the old man took down another heavy chain and passed it over the first and fastened it with more iron rings to his ankles, so that he could only move his arms and hands a little way, and could not raise them high, and could only walk with slow careful steps. This done, he pointed to where, on the wall high up, hung a gleaming golden sword, the handle of which was set with precious stones.
“That,” said he, “is the key of the castle, and you need only push the doors with its point and they will all fly open; but while your hands are chained you cannot reach it to lift it down, but when the serpent’s eggs are hatched your iron rings will fall off, and you yourself may take the sword down from its place, and push your way into the castle. Now get you to your work, and work hard, or you may rue it.”
Then he showed Michael how he was to move the heavy stones, and where to build with them, and he himself sat down by the serpent and watched him, while the Prince went to work with a light heart, for he thought, “It is hard work while it lasts, but ’twill not be for long, and ’tis not much to do to win my Joan.” So he worked hard till the sun had set, and then the old man rose, saying, “Enough,” and called him into the hut and gave him food and drink, but he ate nothing himself, and then he showed him where he could sleep in one corner, and Michael lay down and slept soundly and dreamed of Joan.
At break of day he was waked by the old man, who again gave him plenty to eat, and again ate nothing, but what he gave to him he took from an urn in the corner, and when he had done he put into the urn the fragments that were left.
All day Michael worked hard, and in the evening as he passed by the
