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Page 50
"Me! Who am I? Why, I am the great and powerful Kwytoffle! So
beware! Beware my sorcery!"
They all looked at the man curiously. He was short and very fat, and
had a face like a puff-ball, with little red eyes and scarcely any
nose at all. He wore a black gown with scarlet grasshoppers and
june-bugs embroidered upon the cloth; and his hat was high and peaked,
with an imitation grasshopper of extraordinary size perched upon its
point. In his right hand he carried a small black wand, and around
his neck hung a silver whistle on a silver cord.
Seeing that the strangers were gazing on him so earnestly, Kwytoffle
thought they were frightened; so he said again, in a big voice:
"Beware my vengeance!"
"Beware yourself!" retorted the prince. "For if you do not treat us
more respectfully, I shall have you flogged."
"What! Flog me!" shouted Kwytoffle, furiously. "For this I will turn
every one of you into grasshoppers--unless you at once give me all the
wealth you possess!"
"Poor man!" exclaimed Nerle; "I can see you are longing for that
flogging. Will you have it now?" and he raised his riding-whip above
his head.
Kwytoffle stumbled backward a few paces and blew shrilly upon his
silver whistle. Instantly a number of soldiers came running from the
building, others following quickly after them until fully a hundred
rough-looking warriors, armed with swords and axes, had formed in
battle array, facing the little party of Prince Marvel.
"Arrest these strangers!" commanded Kwytoffle, in a voice like a roar.
"Capture them and bind them securely, and then I will change them all
into grasshoppers!"
"All right," answered the captain of the soldiers; and then he turned
to his men and shouted: "Forward--double-quick--march!"
They came on with drawn swords; at first running, and then gradually
dropping into a walk, as they beheld Nerle, Wul-Takim, King Terribus
and Marvel standing quietly waiting to receive them, weapons in hand
and ready for battle. A few paces off the soldiers hesitated and
stopped altogether, and Kwytoffle yelled at the captain:
"Why don't you go on? Why don't you capture them? Why don't you
fight them?"
"Why, they have drawn their swords!" responded the captain, reproachfully.
"Who cares?" roared the sorcerer.
"We care," said the captain, giving a shudder, as he looked upon the
strangers. "Their swords are sharp, and some of us would get hurt."
"You're cowards!" shrieked the enraged Kwytoffle. "I'll turn you all
into June-bugs!"
At this threat the soldiers dropped their swords and axes, and all
fell upon their knees, trembling visibly and imploring their cruel
master not to change them into june-bugs.
"Bah!" cried Nerle, scornfully; "why don't you fight? If we kill you,
then you will escape being June-bugs."
"The fact is," said the captain, woefully, "we simply can't fight.
For our swords are only tin, and our axes are made of wood, with
silver-paper pasted over them."
"But why is that?" asked Wul-Takim, while all the party showed
their surprise.
"Why, until now we have never had any need to fight," said the
captain, "for every one has quickly surrendered to us or run away the
moment we came near. But you people do not appear to be properly
frightened, and now, alas! since you have drawn upon us the great
sorcerer's anger, we shall all be transformed into June-bugs."
"Yes!" roared Kwytoffle, hopping up and down with anger, "you shall
all be June-bugs, and these strangers I will transform into grasshoppers!"
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