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Page 25
10. Prince Marvel Wins His Fight
When the door had closed on the Royal Dragon, King Terribus turned
again to Prince Marvel, while his crimson face glowed with
embarrassment, and his front eye rolled with baffled rage as he
thought how vain had been all his efforts to kill this impudent
invader of his domains.
But his powers were by no means exhausted. He was a mighty king--the
mightiest of all in the Enchanted Island, he believed--and ways to
destroy his enemies were numerous.
"Send for a hundred of my Gray Men!" he suddenly cried; and a courtier
ran at once to summon them. The Gray Men would obey his orders
without question, he well knew. They were silent, stubborn, quick,
and faithful to their king. Terribus had but to command and his will
would be obeyed.
They entered the room so quietly that Nerle never knew they were there
until he turned and found the hundred gray ones standing close
together in the center of the hall. Then Prince Marvel came to
Nerle's side and whispered something in his ear.
"Will you obey my orders?" they heard the king ask. And the Gray Men,
with their eyes fixed upon their master, nodded all their hundred
heads and put their hands upon the dangerous three-tined forks that
were stuck in every one of the hundred belts.
Prince Marvel handed one end of a coiled rope to Nerle, and then they
both sprang forward and ran around the spot where the hundred Gray Men
stood huddled together. Then they were pulled closer together than
before--closer, and still closer--for the prince and Nerle had
surrounded them with the rope and were tying the two ends together in
a tight knot. The rope cut into the waists of those on the outside,
and they pressed inward against their fellows until there was scarcely
space to stick a knife-blade between any two of them. When the prince
had tied the rope firmly King Terribus, who had been looking on
amazed, saw that his hundred Gray Men were fastened together like a
bundle of kindling-wood, and were unable to stir hand or foot.
And, while he still gazed open-mouthed at the strange sight, Prince
Marvel tilted the bundle of men up on its edge and rolled it out of
the door. It went rolling swiftly through the courtyard and bounded
down the castle steps, where the rope broke and the men fell sprawling
in all directions on the marble walk.
King Terribus sighed, for such treatment of his Gray Men, whom he
dearly loved, made him very unhappy.
But more than ever was he resolved to kill these impudent strangers,
who, in the very heart of his kingdom where thousands bowed to his
will, dared openly defy his power. So, after a moment's thought,
Terribus beckoned to a dwarf who, robed in gay and glittering apparel,
stood near his throne.
"Summon the royal Dart Slingers!" he said, with a scowl.
The little man bowed and hastened away, to return presently with
twenty curiously crooked dwarfs, each armed with a sling and a quiver
full of slender, sharp-pointed darts.
"Slay me these strangers!" exclaimed the king, in his gruffest voice.
Now Nerle, when he beheld these terrible Dart Slingers, of whom he had
heard many tales in his boyhood, began to shiver and shake with
fright, so that his teeth rattled one upon another. And he reflected:
"Soon shall I be content, for these darts will doubtless pierce every
part of my body."
The dwarfs formed a line at one side of the gloomy throne-room, and
Prince Marvel, who had been earnestly regarding them, caught Nerle by
the arm and led him to the opposite wall.
"Stand close behind me and you will be safe," he whispered to his esquire.
Then each dwarf fixed a dart in his sling, and at a word from their
chief they all drew back their arms and launched a shower of the sharp
missiles at the strangers.
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