_Chap. 20._
THE HOME OF THE OCEAN MONARCH]
Trot sobbed quietly, with her head on Cap'n Bill's shoulder. She hadbeen a brave little girl during the trying times they had experienced,and never once had she given way to tears, however desperate theirfate had seemed to be. But now that the one enemy in all the sea to bedreaded was utterly destroyed, and all dangers were past, the reactionwas so great that she could not help having "just one good cry," as shenaively expressed it.
Cap'n Bill was a big sailorman, hardened by age and many adventures;but even he felt a "lump in his throat" that he could not swallow, tryas hard as he might. Cap'n Bill was glad. He was mostly glad on Trot'saccount, for he loved his sweet, childish companion very dearly, anddid not want any harm to befall her.
They were now in the wide, open sea, with liberty to go wherever theywished, and if Cap'n Bill could have "had his say" he would have gonestraight home and carried Trot to her mother. But the mermaids must beconsidered. Aquareine and Clia had been true and faithful friends totheir earth guests while dangers were threatening, and it would not bevery gracious to leave them at once. Moreover, King Anko was now withthem, his big head keeping pace with the mermaids as they swam, andthis mighty preserver had a distinct claim upon both Trot and Cap'nBill. The sailor felt that it would not be polite to ask to go home sosoon.
"If you people had come to visit me, as I invited you to do," said theSea Serpent, "all this bother and trouble would have been saved. I hadmy palace all put in order to receive the earth dwellers, and sat in myden waiting patiently to receive you. Yet you never came at all."
"That reminds me," said Trot, drying her eyes; "you never told us aboutthat third pain you once had."
"Finally," continued Anko, "I sent to inquire as to what had become ofyou, and Merla said you had been gone from the palace a long time, andshe was getting anxious about you. Then I made inquiries. Every one inthe sea loves to serve me--except those sea devils and their cousinsthe octopi--and it wasn't long before I heard you had been captured byZog."
"Was the third pain as bad as the other two?" asked Trot.
"Naturally, this news disturbed me and made me unhappy," said Anko;"for I well knew, my Aquareine, that the magician's evil powers weregreater than your own fairy accomplishments. But I had never been ableto find Zog's enchanted castle, and so I was at a loss to know how tosave you from your dreadful fate. After I had wasted a good deal oftime thinking it over, I decided that if the sea devils were slaves ofZog, the prince of the sea devils must know where the enchanted castlewas located.
"I knew this prince, and where to find him, for he always lay on ahollow rock, on the bottom of the sea, and never moved from thatposition. His people brought food to him and took his commands. So Ihad no trouble in finding this evil prince, and I went to him and askedthe way to Zog's castle. Of course he would not tell me. He was evencross and disrespectful--just as I had expected him to be; so I allowedmyself to become angry and killed him, thinking he was much better deadthan alive. But after the sea devil was destroyed, what was my surpriseto find that all these years he had been lying over a round hole in therock, and covering it with his scarlet body!
"A light shone through this hole, so I thrust my head in and found agreat domed cave underneath, with a splendid silver castle built atthe bottom. You, my friends, were at that moment swimming toward me asfast as you could come, and the monster, Zog, my enemy for centuriespast, was close behind you.
"Well, the rest of the story you know. I would be angry with all ofyou for so carelessly getting captured, had the incident not led tothe destruction of the one evil genius in all my ocean. I shall resteasier and be much happier, now that Zog is dead. He has defied me forhundreds of years."
"But, about that third pain," said Trot. "If you don't tell us now, I'mafraid that I'll forget to ask you."
"If you should happen to forget, just remind me of it," said Anko, "andI'll be sure to tell you."
While Trot was thinking this over the swimmers drew near to a greatcircular palace made all of solid alabaster, polished as smooth asivory. Its roof was a vast dome, for domes seemed to be fashionable inthe ocean houses. There were no doors or windows, but instead of theseseveral round holes appeared in different parts of the dome, some beinghigh up and some low down, and some in between. Out of one of theseholes, which it just fitted, stretched the long, brown body of the seaserpent. Trot, being astonished at this sight, asked:
"Didn't you take all of you when you went to the cavern, Anko?"
"Nearly all, my dear," was the reply, accompanied by a cheerful smile,for Anko was proud of his great length; "but not quite all. Some ofme remained, as usual, to keep house while my head was away. But, I'vebeen coiling up ever since we started back, and you will soon be ableto see every inch of me, all together."
Even as he spoke his head slid into the round hole and, at a signalfrom Aquareine, they all paused outside and waited.
Presently, there came to them four beautiful winged fishes with faceslike doll babies. Their long hair and eyelashes were of a purple color,and their cheeks had rosy spots that looked as if they had been paintedupon them.
"His Majesty bids you welcome," said one of the doll fishes, in a sweetvoice. "Be kind enough to enter the royal palace and our ocean monarchwill graciously receive you."
"Seems to me," said Trot to the queen, "these things are putting onairs. Perhaps they don't know we're friends of Anko."
"The king insists on certain formalities when anyone visits him," wasAquareine's reply. "It is right that his dignity should be maintained."
They followed their winged conductors to one of the upper openings, andas they entered it, Aquareine said in a clear voice: "May the glory andpower of the ocean king continue forever!"
Then she touched the palm of her hand to her forehead in token ofallegiance, and Clia did the same; so Cap'n Bill and Trot followedsuit. The brief ceremony being ended the child looked curiously aroundto see what the palace of the mighty Anko was like.
An extensive hall, lined with alabaster, was before them. In thefloor were five of the round holes. Upon the walls were engraved manyinteresting scenes of ocean life, all chiseled very artistically bythe tusks of walruses, who, Trot was afterward informed, are greatlyskilled in such work. A few handsome rugs of woven sea grasses werespread upon the floor; but otherwise the vast hall was bare offurniture.
The doll-faced fishes escorted them to an upper room where a table wasset, and here the travelers were invited to refresh themselves. As allfour were exceedingly hungry they welcomed the repast, which was servedby an army of lobsters in royal purple aprons and caps.
The meal being finished they again descended to the hall, which seemedto occupy all the middle of the building. And now their conductors said:
"His Majesty is ready to receive you in his den."
They swam downward through one of the round holes in the floor andfound themselves in a brilliantly lighted chamber, which appearedbigger than all the rest of the palace put together. In the center wasthe quaint head of King Anko, and around it was spread a great coverletof purple and gold woven together. This concealed all of his body andstretched from wall to wall of the circular room.
"Welcome, friends!" said Anko, pleasantly. "How do you like my home?"
"It's very grand," replied Trot.
"Just the place for a sea serpent, seems to me," said Cap'n Bill.
"I'm glad you admire it," said the King. "Perhaps I ought to tell youthat from this day you four belong to me."
"How's that?" asked the girl, surprised.
"It is a law of the ocean," declared Anko, "that whoever savesany living creature from violent death owns that creature foreverafterward--while life lasts. You will realize how just this law is whenyou remember that had I not saved you from Zog, you would now be dead.The law was suggested by Captain Kid Glove, when he once visited me."
"Do you mean Captain Kidd?" asked Trot, "because, if you do--"
"Give him his full name," said Anko. "Captain Kid Glove was--"
"There's no glove to it," protested Trot. "I ought to know, 'cause I'veread about him."
"Didn't it say anything about a glove?" asked Anko.
"Nothing at all. It jus' called him Cap'n Kidd," replied Trot.
"She's right, ol' man," added Cap'n Bill.
"Books," said the Sea Serpent, "are good enough, as far as they go; butit seems to me your earth books don't go far enough. Captain Kid Glovewas a gentleman pirate--a kid-glove pirate. To leave off the glove andcall him just Kidd is very disrespectful."
"Oh! you told me to remind you of that third pain," said the littlegirl.
"Which proves my friendship for you," returned the Sea Serpent,blinking his blue eyes thoughtfully. "No one likes to be reminded of apain, and that third pain was--was--"
"What was it?" asked Trot.
"It was a stomach ache," replied the King, with a sigh.
"What made it?" she inquired.
"Just my carelessness," said Anko. "I'd been away to foreign parts,seeing how the earth people were getting along. I found the Germansdancing the german, and the Dutch making dutch cheese, and the Belgianscombing their belgian hares, and the Turks eating turkey, and theSardinians sardonically pickling sardines. Then I called on the Princeof Whales, and--"
"You mean the Prince of Wales," corrected Trot.
"I mean what I say, my dear. I saw the battlefield where the Bull Runbut the Americans didn't, and when I got to France I paid a napoleonto see Napoleon with his bones apart. He was--"
"Of course, you mean--" Trot was beginning, but the king would not giveher a chance to correct him this time.
"He was very hungry for Hungary," he continued, "and was Russian sofast toward the Poles that I thought he'd discover them. So, as I wasnot accorded a royal welcome, I took French leave and came home again."
"But the pain--"
"On the way home," continued Anko, calmly, "I was a littleabsent-minded and ate an anchor. There was a long chain attached to it;and as I continued to swallow the anchor I continued to eat the chain.I never realized what I had done until I found a ship on the other endof the chain. Then I bit it off."
"The ship?" asked Trot.
"No; the chain. I didn't care for the ship, as I saw it contained someskippers. On the way home the chain and anchor began to lie heavilyon my stomach. I didn't seem to digest them properly, and by the timeI got to my palace, where you will notice there is no throne, I wasthrown into throes of severe pain. So I at once sent for Dr. Shark--"
"Are all your doctors sharks?" asked the child.
"Yes; aren't your doctors sharks?" he replied.
"Not all of them," said Trot.
"That is true," remarked Cap'n Bill. "But when you talk of lawyers--"
"I'm not talking of lawyers," said Anko, reprovingly; "I'm talkingabout my pain. I don't imagine anyone could suffer more than I did withthat stomach ache."
"Did you suffer long?" inquired Trot.
"Why, about seven thousand four hundred and eighty-two feet and--"
"I mean a long time."
"It seemed like a long time," answered the King. "Dr. Shark said Iought to put a mustard poultice on my stomach; so I uncoiled myself andsummoned my servants, and they began putting on the mustard plaster. Ithad to be bound all around me, so it wouldn't slip off, and I began tolook like an express package. In about four weeks fully one-half of thepain had been covered by the mustard poultice, which got so hot that ithurt me worse than the stomach ache did."
"I know," said Trot. "I had one, once."
"One what?" asked Anko.
"A mustard plaster. They smart pretty bad, but I guess they're a goodthing."
"I got myself unwrapped as soon as I could," continued the King, "andthen I hunted for the doctor, who hid himself until my anger hadsubsided. He has never sent in a bill, so I think he must be terriblyashamed of himself."
"You're lucky, sir, to have escaped so easy," said Cap'n Bill. "But youseem pretty well now."
"Yes, I'm more careful of what I eat," replied the Sea Serpent. "But Iwas saying when Trot interrupted me, that you all belong to me, becauseI have saved your lives. By the law of the ocean you must obey me ineverything."
The sailor scowled a little at hearing this, but Trot laughed, and said:
"The law of the ocean isn't _our_ law, 'cause we live on land."
"Just now you are living in the ocean," declared Anko, "and as long asyou live here, you must obey my commands."
"What are your commands?" inquired the child.
"Ah; that's the point I was coming to," returned the King, with hiscomical smile. "The ocean is a beautiful place, and we who belong herelove it dearly. In many ways it's a nicer place for a home than theearth, for we have no sunstrokes, mosquitoes, earthquakes or candyshops to bother us. But I am convinced that the ocean is no properdwelling place for earth people, and I believe the mermaids did anunwise thing when they invited you to visit them."
"I don't," protested the girl. "We've had a fine time; haven't we,Cap'n Bill?"
"Well, it's been diff'rent from what I expected," admitted the sailor.
"Our only thought was to give the earth people pleasure, your Majesty,"pleaded Aquareine.
"I know; I know, my dear Queen; and it was very good of you," repliedAnko. "But, still it was an unwise act, for earth people are asconstantly in danger under water as we would be upon the land. So,having won the right to command you all, I order you to take littleMayre and Cap'n Bill straight home, and there restore them to theirnatural forms. It's a dreadful condition, I know, and they must eachhave two stumbling legs instead of a strong, beautiful fishtail; but itis the fate of earth dwellers, and they cannot escape it."
"In my case, your Majesty, made it _one_ leg," suggested Cap'n Bill.
"Ah, yes; I remember. One leg, and a wooden stick to keep it company.I issue this order, my friends, not because I am not fond of yoursociety, but to keep you from getting into more trouble in a countrywhere all is strange and unnatural to you. Am I right, or do you thinkI am wrong?"
"You're quite correct, sir," said Cap'n Bill, nodding his head inapproval.
"Well, I'm ready to go home," said Trot. "But in spite of Zog, I'veenjoyed my visit, and I shall always love the mermaids for being sogood to me."
That speech pleased Aquareine and Clia, who smiled upon the child, andkissed her affectionately.
"We shall escort you home at once," announced the Queen.
"But before you go," said King Anko, "I will give you a rare treat. Itis one you will remember as long as you live. You shall see every inchof the mightiest sea serpent in the world, all at one time!"
As he spoke, the purple and gold cloth was lifted by unseen hands anddisappeared from view. And now Cap'n Bill and Trot looked down uponthousands and thousands of coils of the sea serpent's body, whichfilled all of the space at the bottom of the immense circular room.It reminded them of a great coil of garden hose, only it was so muchbigger around, and very much longer.
Except for the astonishing size of the Ocean King, the sight was notan especially interesting one; but they told old Anko that they werepleased to see him, because it was evident he was very proud of hisfigure.
Then the cloth descended again and covered all but the head; afterwhich they bade the king good-bye and thanked him for all his kindnessto them.
"I used to think sea serpents were horrid creatures," said Trot; "butnow I know they are good and--and--and--"
"And big," added Cap'n Bill, realizing his little friend could not findanother word that was complimentary.