Chapter XV: By the City Wall

The three escaping friends did not know what to do. Bab had used up all her sand, and there seemed no way left to overcome their enemies.

Meanwhile the crowd in front of them were snarling threats and mocking words.

“I will be the one to kill them!” cried one.

“No,—I!” exclaimed another.

“I—I—I!” shouted everybody at once.

“Hush!” said someone, sharply. “The King himself is coming!”

And everyone became silent. They were all deeply disappointed, for they knew that now the Wicked King would insist on killing the children himself, and none of them would stand a chance of getting that promised half of his kingdom.

Suddenly an idea came to Bab.

“Dick,” she whispered, “we must try to get the Wicked King to put us in prison or something like that!”

“Why?” asked Dick, gloomily. “I think that it would be much nicer to be killed at once and get it over!”

“Oh, but, Dick!” Bab breathed eagerly into his ear. “Don’t you remember the tiny piece of wood that I told you about? The piece of magic wood from the Wooden Cow’s horn? Well, I have it still! and Santa Claus said that it was a very powerful weapon to have. And if we can only see the Wicked King alone I’ll throw it at him, and I’m sure from what Santa Claus said that it will do something awful to him!”

“Why not throw it at him now?” suggested Dick. “Just to see what it _will_ do!”

“Because—don’t you see?—then we’d have all these other dreadful people to fight, and we’ve nothing at all left after this splinter of wood goes! No, we must try to see the Wicked King all by himself!”

“I see!” exclaimed Dick. And at that moment the Wicked King strode up to them, with his long, bright, sharp sword drawn, and a fiendish smile on his wicked old face.

“How nice of you,” said the Wicked King, “to stand against a wall! It is ever so much easier to kill a person when he stands against a wall!”

“Oh, your Majesty!” cried Dick. “Don’t kill us until you have heard our story!”

He was talking at random, of course, to gain time, but he succeeded in making the Wicked King stop short for a moment to listen.

“Oh, well,” said the Wicked King. “I would not mind hearing your story, as a matter of fact,—if it happens to be an interesting one.”

For this was the one weakness of the Wicked King: he loved stories,—almost as much, indeed, as did a certain great ruler in the East, of whom you will read one of these days in one of the most splendid wonder-books ever written by any man.

“_Is_ it an interesting one?” he demanded.

“Oh, yes!” said Dick, seeing his advantage. “It’s a splendid story!”

“Of course you understand,” said the King, “that you will both be beheaded just as soon as you are finished? I should not like to encourage any false hopes.”

“Oh, we quite understand!” said Dick, looking hard at the drawn sword in the King’s hand. In his own mind he decided firmly that in any case he would not finish the story for a very long time!

“I should really like to hear,” the Wicked King went on, “how you stole my daughter and sent my soldiers to sleep, and how you chased my Brownies away from their work, and did all the other extraordinary and impertinent things which you have done. You are dangerous creatures, but you are unusual; and I think you are worth keeping alive for an hour or so,—as long as I have an army to watch you while you talk!”

Then he sat down on a large rock and folded his arms.

“Begin!” he commanded.

Dick was at his wits’ end. Of course he had expected that the Wicked King would have them sent to prison; instead he was expected to tell his tale surrounded by hundreds of people. How in the world was Bab to make use of her magic splint of wood under such conditions as these?

The Princess, who had been silent all this time, came very unexpectedly to the rescue.

“Revered parent,” she said,—for that was what the Wicked King liked her to call him,—“I beg you to first take me back to my tower, from which these creatures have dragged me against my will!”

The Wicked King looked at her sharply. He was not at all sure that she had been dragged away! However, she looked as innocent as possible, and he called two men-at-arms to him.

“Escort the Princess back to her tower!” he commanded. “Now, Creatures, tell your story!”

But just then, when everything seemed most hopeless, a big bird was seen flying toward them, quite high up in the air; and the next moment Bizzybuzz’s head appeared over the wall, and he whispered excitedly: “Meg is coming with the spell! Hold out a minute longer!”

All this time Humpty Dumpty had not said a word. In fact, he could not see even what was going on, because his back was turned to the others. But at the word “spell” he suddenly lifted up his voice, and shouted wildly: “The spell! The spell! Now I shall be free! Oh, Princess Star, Princess Star! Do you hear? I shall be free!”

“I hear, I hear, dear Humpty!” cried Princess Star. “And I shall be free too; for I am sure that a really good spell can rescue us both!”

“Undutiful daughter!” shouted the Wicked King, waving his sword. “How dare you talk like that with an—an egg?” He spoke with contempt as well as rage.

“He—is—not—an—egg!” sobbed the Princess, hiding her face in her satin sleeve and spoiling the embroidery with her tears. “He’s my—own—poor—angel—Humpty Dumpty! And I’ll talk to—him—just exactly—as much—as—much—as—I ch-choose!”

The big bird had been drawing nearer and nearer all this time, and now swooped down to the top of the wall. It alighted close to Humpty Dumpty. Dick and Bab could see that it was Moon-Eyes, the Owl, and that he bore upon his back their sister Meg!

As they watched, she waved a bright blue paper, and cried: “Dick! Bab! I’m here! Are you both quite safe?”

With his sword upraised, the Wicked King rushed forward upon the two children. Wiggles barked and snapped at his legs, all the men-at-arms shouted, and the Princess screamed loudly.

“Now!” cried one of the men. “Watch their heads drop off!”

But at that moment Bab threw the scrap of wood that she had straight in the Wicked King’s face! And he stopped stock-still, his hand still up in the air. The sword dropped to the earth. Everyone cried out, “What has happened?”

The Wicked King’s face got queerer and queerer, stiffer and stiffer; his eyes stared, his wicked smile was frozen on his lips.... The Wicked King was turned to wood!

“Run, run!” cried Dick, seeing that now they had but one chance. “Follow Meg with the spell!” he shouted, and he and Bab and the Princess ran like the wind along the city wall.

Just then Mudge came flying down the city street.

“Oh, please,” he called at the top of his lungs, “don’t forget that you are going to save me too!”

Meg, riding furiously upon Moon-Eyes, had reached the gate. The men-at-arms and courtiers and gentlemen-in-waiting, and all the other citizens of the Red City, had started in pursuit, and were gaining on them every moment.

“Come with us, Mudge!” shouted Dick; and Mudge brought up the rear of the flying procession.

Behind them on the wall Humpty Dumpty was shrieking, “You aren’t all going off without rescuing me, after all!”

“The gate!” cried Bizzybuzz to Dick. “Meg’s spell will open it!”

As they all rushed toward the big iron gate, Meg hastily unrolled the scroll of sky-blue paper, and read out at the top of her voice, and so fast that no one could understand a word, the lines of the Fairy Queen’s spell. And when she came to the words

“Shot bolt, shut gate,
Yield up your contents straight,”

there was a queer, clicking, clattering, creaking sound.

The great gate of the Red City swung slowly open!

The fugitives dashed out, and closed it behind them with a crash, and stood there on the safe side, panting and gasping, as their pursuers came shouting up to the gate on the inside. It must have been a very strong gate, for nearly all the inhabitants of the Red City threw themselves against it and shook it, but it would not give a hair’s breadth. They all howled with fury, but the children were safe.

Then suddenly they all turned and dashed back the way they had come.

“Look out for Humpty Dumpty!” shouted Dick “They’ll try to do something to harm him if we don’t take care!”

“Oh, my poor angel!” wailed the Princess. “What shall we do!”

“Pile onto Moon-Eyes!” cried Dick to Bab and Mudge.

The three children sprang onto the owl, and the Princess and Wiggles hurried along the ground. Bizzybuzz darted ahead, his wings humming like little electric fans.

“Here is the spell!” cried Meg, giving Dick the blue paper. “You only have to read it over him, and you must strike him with something hard and sharp at the same time!”

Dick seized the paper, and pulled his jack-knife out of his pocket. Then he stood up on Moon-Eyes’ back, so that he could be ready to jump the moment they were anywhere near the wall and Humpty Dumpty.

When they reached the poor Egg, he was almost cracked with terror. His agonized expression had made big creases in the egg-shell, and he was squeaking, “Help! help! help!” in a high faint voice.

The men were just climbing up the wall on the inside, so really there was some excuse for his fear.

“Quick!” cried Bab and Meg, speaking both at once.

And Dick took a flying leap from the back of the owl to the top of the city wall.

“Don’t forget to break the shell!” cried Meg. He held up his knife, to show her that he was prepared. The head of one of the men-at-arms appeared over the edge of the wall. His hand was outstretched.

Dick jabbed the huge egg-shell with his jack-knife, and began to read the spell so rapidly that it was a wonder that it could work at all!

But it did! The egg toppled, cracked, and fell crashing to the earth.

“Hurry down yourself!” cried Bab, in terror. “That man will kill you!”

The man-at-arms had drawn a dagger and was trying to reach Dick.

“Oh, I don’t think he will kill me!” laughed Dick, and slipped over the edge of the wall into the mass of delicate vine-tendrils where the Fairy Flowers were blowing.

“Help me!” he cried, and came down so quickly that there could be no question about its being magic! He reached the earth just in time to see a slender young man in doublet and hose rise from the heap of egg-shells, and rush with outstretched hands to meet the Princess!

It was Prince Humpty Dumpty, free at last!

XVI

_Behind the Reindeer_