The Enchanted Island Part 17

His cap could tell him nothing. He beat upon the doors, but his strength soon failed him, and he fell down in a stupor.

How long he lay there he did not know, but when he awoke at length a faint light was s.h.i.+ning into the room from a small iron grating close up to the ceiling, and the spicy smell was gone.

The first thing he did was to feel for his cap and spectacles which he had had on when he fell asleep.

THEY WERE GONE.

Poor Daimur. For the first time since the beginning of his adventure he felt completely helpless, and with a very dejected countenance indeed he sat down to await the next happening.

He had not been sitting there for more than half an hour when a light step sounded in the inner hall and stopped at the door.

A key was turned in the lock and a voice said: "Oh, bother this lock."

The key rattled again, the door opened rather suddenly, and there entered--not a witch as Daimur expected--but the loveliest lady he had ever seen.

She had big blue eyes, a lovely complexion, though it was a trifle pale as if from being indoors a long time, and golden hair that hung over her shoulders in long ringlets. Her gown was of a deep blue silk that almost matched her eyes. At sight of Daimur she stood still in astonishment, then came quickly towards him.

"Oh, poor young man," she cried. "Surely you are not a prisoner too."

"I am afraid I am," answered Daimur sadly, as he gazed at the beautiful lady, "but tell me, do you know whether Queen Amy is here? I must find her."

"I am that unhappy Queen," answered the lady. "Can it be that my faithful subjects have sent you to seek me, sir?"

"Rather I have come because I wished to undo in a small measure the mischief that the Evil Magician did," and Daimur hurriedly told her something of his adventure, and finished by wis.h.i.+ng he had his cap and spectacles back, as he was afraid without them they would have great difficulty in escaping.

Daimur at first had hopes that Princess Helda and Redmond might find them and perhaps be able to open the door, as it was only bolted on the outside, but then he remembered that the day was now well advanced and that they must either have been trapped themselves long before this or had crept back to the s.h.i.+p while it was still dark.

"Is there no other way of escape but by this door?" he asked Queen Amy, after some reflection.

"No," said she. "No other way excepting through the door in my sitting-room which leads into the witches' sitting-room, and that opens into the main hall. There is generally one witch stationed in their sitting-room to keep watch over me. They still hope to get my chest of gold, you see, and that is why I am kept a prisoner here."

Daimur drew his sword and announced his intention of trying to get out to the main hall if Queen Amy was willing to go with him, to which she replied that she would indeed take any risk to get out of that dungeon and back to her dear people.

She turned at once and led the way bade through her apartment to the door which was to decide their fortunes. It was a swinging door, and Daimur pushed it open and looked in. What he saw was a great bare room with cupboards all around it, and a few plain old kitchen rockers here and there. A number of the cupboard doors were open and there could be seen on the shelves dozens of bottles, boxes, tins and pots, while over the fire in a large black pot some vile-smelling mixture was cooking.

Beside the fire on a mat, lay the old witch's black cat, apparently asleep. There was no one in the room.

"Now is your chance," whispered Daimur, and sword in hand he went softly across the floor, closely followed by Queen Amy.

As they pa.s.sed the cat he opened one of his green eyes and looked at them, but they did not notice him. As soon as they were out of the room and into the hall he sat up on the mat and began to yowl in a most blood-curdling manner.

"We are lost," said the Queen, wringing her hands. "Listen to that cat. We must have awakened him. He is calling the Old Witch I am sure."

"Run," said Daimur, and seizing Queen Amy by the hand he almost dragged her along the wide hall towards the staircase. But they were too late.

Down the stairs came the Old Witch, followed by her daughter and the other witch from Sh.e.l.ls.

At the sight of Daimur with his sword drawn and the terrified Queen Amy shrinking at his side the Old Witch gave a howl of rage and said something quickly to the others.

Instantly three great tigers were bounding towards them, their teeth showing in a dreadful manner, and their deep growls filling the whole hall.

Thrusting Queen Amy behind him Daimur clutched his sword in despair and set his teeth with a determination to kill them all if possible--when suddenly he thought of the tiny silver bugle which he had had around his neck all the time.

Raising it quickly to his lips he blew three times upon it. The faint sound it made was not heard amid the terrible roaring of the tigers, but before he had finished the last blast there stood in front of him three giants, so tall that their heads almost touched the high ceiling, and that was more than ten feet. They were dressed like Roman soldiers and each carried a huge flat sword.

"The tigers. Kill the tigers!" cried Daimur.

It all happened so suddenly that the tigers did not have time to stop their rush, and in a second the giants were upon them and you may be sure soon cut their heads off. Then before Daimur could even say "Thank you," they had disappeared again.

The three witches lay dead at their feet and they were free.

Daimur turned towards Queen Amy and found her leaning against the wall in a half-fainting condition, and while he was trying to induce her to make an effort to pa.s.s the dead tigers and get away upstairs there suddenly rang out a loud cry of "Fire! Fire!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: He was trying to induce her to make an effort to pa.s.s the dead tigers.]

Daimur recognized Prince Redmond's voice. Doors banged overhead and footsteps scurried across the floor. Daimur waited for no more.

Picking up the Queen in his arms he almost flew towards the staircase and up the stairs. As he reached the top a puff of smoke came from an inner room and half blinded him. He rushed across the kitchen and at the door almost ran into Prince Redmond and Princess Helda, who were coming in again shouting his name at the top of their voices.

"Here I am," said Daimur breathlessly. "Help me to carry the Queen out."

"To the s.h.i.+p instantly," shouted Prince Redmond, as he seized Queen Amy from Daimur's arms and ran towards the sh.o.r.e. Daimur s.n.a.t.c.hed Helda's hand and they hurried after him.

Shouting orders to the sailors Prince Redmond boarded the s.h.i.+p. Up went the sails, and as there was a good breeze the boat began to move out. It was not a moment too soon.

They were not more than a hundred feet away when a long flame burst through the roof of the Evil Magician's castle and in a moment the whole building was burning.

"What happened?" cried Daimur.

"We accidentally set the place on fire," said Prince Redmond.

"Last night," he continued, "after wandering about those long pa.s.sages without finding the Queen, and seeing no sign of you, we crawled through a small window in the coal cellar and Came back to the s.h.i.+p.

Then as you did not come we grew very much alarmed, and at daybreak went back the way we had come, intending to search for you.

"Anxious not to miss finding you we even mounted a stair which led up to a long half-dark room, quite off by itself. It was full of mysterious-looking bottles and pots, many of them marked 'poison,' but the queerest thing of all was a tiny well in one corner, on the cover of which was printed in large black letters 'Enchanting Oil.'

"We lifted the cover and peered in. It was so dark in there that we could see nothing, so I lit a match and by the light of it we looked down a terrible depth and could see the oil s.h.i.+ning dimly at the bottom.

"Just then Princess Helda accidentally touched the handle of the little bra.s.s bucket which was drawn up to the top, knocking the match out of my fingers. It fell into the bucket, which contained a few drops of the oil. Immediately a flame leaped into our very faces and shot up nearly to the ceiling. We turned and ran down the stairs again, and up another flight near it which Helda knew would take us to one of the living-rooms. There we ran about like mad shouting 'Fire,' and thinking that you and the Queen would surely perish. We knew that some of the fire must soon drop into the oil well, and when that happens I am sure it will explode."

He had hardly said the words when a terrific roar shook the earth. The flaming house suddenly scattered into a million burning pieces which dropped into the sea, and some of which fell on the s.h.i.+p and had to be thrown overboard.

A column of black smoke rose into the air and hid the island entirely from view.

They lay to all morning, waiting for the smoke to clear away, but it was not until mid afternoon that it began to disappear.

They sailed slowly nearer to the island, wondering what damage had been done besides the burning of the house. As they came closer they seemed to see houses by the waterside through the haze of smoke, which was steadily growing thinner, and then what appeared to be streets.

Their wonder grew when they carefully steered back to the cove and found that they were in a harbor that was lined with stone docks. Some s.h.i.+ps lay at anchor, packages of goods were piled up on the wharves, workmen went back and forth loading and unloading the vessels, piling goods into long warehouses, and the scene was a busy one.

The first thought that sprang to Daimur's mind was that they had made a mistake and in some manner got to one of the other islands again.