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Page 38
"We have one advantage in being singular," said Nerle, cheerfully;
"and that is we are not likely to starve to death. For we can eat the
portions of our missing twins as well as our own."
"I should think you would enjoy starving," remarked the prince.
"No; I believe I have more exquisite suffering in store for me, since
I have met that gentle pair of Ki-Ki," said Nerle.
While they were eating the two captains came in and sat down in two
chairs. These captains seemed friendly fellows, and after watching
the strangers for a while they remarked:
"We are glad to see you able to eat so heartily; for to-morrow you
will probably die."
"That is by no means certain," replied Marvel, cutting a piece from
one of the twin birds on a platter before him--to the extreme surprise
of the captains, who had always before seen both birds carved alike at
the same time. "Your gray-bearded old Ki say we shall not die."
"True," answered the captains. "But the Ki-Ki have declared you shall."
"Their powers seem to be equal," said Nerle, "and we are to be taken
before the High Ki for judgment."
"Therein lies your danger," returned the captains, speaking in the
same tones and with the same accents on their words. "For it is well
known the Ki-Ki has more influence with the High Ki than the Ki has."
"Hold on!" cried Nerle; "you are making me dizzy again. I can't keep
track of all these Kis."
"What is the High Ki like?" asked Prince Marvel, who was much interested
in the conversation of the captains. But this question the officers
seemed unable to answer. They shook their heads slowly and said:
"The High Ki are not visible to the people of Twi. Only in cases of
the greatest importance are the High Ki ever bothered or even
approached by the Ki and the Ki-Ki, who are supposed to rule the land
according to their own judgment. But if they chance to disagree, then
the matter is carried before the High Ki, who live in a palace
surrounded by high walls, in which there are no gates. Only these
rulers have ever seen the other side of the walls, or know what the
High Ki are like."
"That is strange," said the prince. "But we, ourselves, it seems, are
to see the High Ki to-morrow, and whoever they may chance to be, we
hope to remain alive after the interview."
"That is a vain hope," answered the captains, "for it is well known
that the High Ki usually decide in favor of the Ki-Ki, and against the
wishes of the old Ki."
"That is certainly encouraging," said Nerle.
When the captains had gone and left them to themselves, the esquire
confided to his master his expectations in the following speech:
"This High Ki sounds something terrible and fierce in my ears, and as
they are doubtless a pair, they will be twice terrible and fierce.
Perhaps his royal doublets will torture me most exquisitely before
putting me to death, and then I shall feel that I have not lived
in vain."
They slept in comfortable beds that night, although an empty twin bed
stood beside each one they occupied. And in the morning they were
served another excellent meal, after which the captains escorted them
again to the twin palaces of the Ki and the Ki-Ki.
There the two pairs of rulers met them and headed the long procession
of soldiers toward the palace of the High Ki. First came a band of
music, in which many queer sorts of instruments were played in pairs
by twin musicians; and it was amusing to Nerle to see the twin
drummers roll their twin drums exactly at the same time and the twin
trumpets peal out twin notes. After the band marched the double Ki-Ki
and the double Ki, their four bodies side by side in a straight line.
The Ki-Ki had left their musical instruments in the palace, and now
wore yellow gloves with green stitching down the backs and swung
gold-headed canes jauntily as they walked. The Ki stooped their aged
shoulders and shuffled along with their hands in their pockets, and
only once did they speak, and that was to roar "Great Kika-koo!" when
the Ki-Ki jabbed their canes down on the Ki's toes.
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