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evening the stars came out in the sky and tipped the
waves around their boat with silver. All around them
was delightfully still save for the occasional snarl of
a beast on the neighboring shore.
They talked together quietly of their adventures and
their future plans and Zella told them her simple
history and how hard her poor father was obliged to
work, burning charcoal to sell for enough money to
support his wife and child. Nikobob might be the
humblest man in all Regos, but Zella declared he was a
good man, and honest, and it was not his fault that his
country was ruled by so wicked a King.
Then Rinkitink, to amuse them, offered to sing a
song, and although Bilbil protested in his gruff way,
claiming that his master's voice was cracked and
disagreeable, the little King was encouraged by the
others to sing his song, which he did.
"A red-headed man named Ned was dead;
Sing fiddle-cum-faddle-cum-fi-do!
In battle he had lost his head;
Sing fiddle-cum-faddl-cum-fi-do!
'Alas, poor Ned,' to him I said,
'How did you lose your head so red?'
Sing fiddle-cum-faddle-cum-fi-do!
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"Said Ned: 'I for my country bled,'
Sing fiddle-cum-faddle-cum-fi-do!
'Instead of dying safe in bed',
Sing fiddle-cum-faddle-cum-fi-do!
'If I had only fled, instead,
I then had been a head ahead.'
Sing fiddle-cum-faddle-cum-fi-do!
"I said to Ned --"
"Do stop, Your Majesty!" pleaded Bilbil. "You're
making my head ache."
"But the song isn't finished," replied Rinkitink,
"and as for your head aching, think of poor Ned, who
hadn't any head at all!"
"I can think of nothing but your dismal singing,"
retorted Bilbil. "Why didn't you choose a cheerful
subject, instead of telling how a man who was dead lost
his red head? Really, Rinkitink, I'm surprised at you.
"I know a splendid song about a live man, said the
King.
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"Then don't sing it," begged Bilbil.
Zella was both astonished and grieved by the
disrespectful words of the goat, for she had quite
enjoyed Rinkitink's singing and had been taught a
proper respect for Kings and those high in authority.
But as it was now getting late they decided to go to
sleep, that they might rise early the following
morning, so they all reclined upon the bottom of the
big boat and covered themselves with blankets which
they found stored underneath the seats for just such
occasions. They were not long in falling asleep and did
not waken until daybreak.
After a hurried breakfast, for Inga was eager to
liberate his father, the boy rowed the boat ashore and
they all landed and began searching for the path. Zella
found it within the next half hour and declared they
must be very close to the entrance to the mines; so
they followed the path toward the north, Inga going
first, and then Zella following him, while Rinkitink
brought up the rear riding upon Bilbil's back.
Before long they saw a great wall of rock towering
before them, in which was a low arched entrance, and on
either side of this entrance stood a guard, armed with
a sword and a spear. The guards of the mines were not
so fierce as the warriors of King Gos, their duty being
to make the slaves work at their tasks and guard them
from escaping; but they were as cruel as their cruel
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master wished them to be, and as cowardly as they were
cruel.
Inga walked up to the two men at the entrance and
said:
"Does this opening lead to the mines of King Gos?"
"It does," replied one of the guards, "but no one is
allowed to pass out who once goes in."
"Nevertheless," said the boy, we intend to go in and
we shall come out whenever it pleases us to do so. I am
the Prince of Pingaree, and I have come to liberate my
people, whom King Gos has enslaved."
Now when the two guards heard this speech they looked
at one another and laughed, and one of them said: "The
King was right, for he said the boy was likely to come
here and that he would try to set his people free. Also
the King commanded that we must keep the little Prince
in the mines, and set him to work, together with his
companions."
"Then let us obey the King," replied the other man.
Inga was surprised at hearing this, and asked:
"When did King Gos give you this order?"
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"His Majesty was here in person last night," replied
the man, "and went away again but an hour ago. He
suspected you were coming here and told us to capture
you if we could."
This report made the boy very anxious, not for
himself but for his father, for he feared the King was
up to some mischief. So he hastened to enter the mines
and the guards did nothing to oppose him or his
companions, their orders being to allow him to go in
but not to come out.
The little group of adventurers passed through a long
rocky corridor and reached a low, wide cavern where
they found a dozen guards and a hundred slaves, the
latter being hard at work with picks and shovels
digging for gold, while the guards stood over them with
long whips.
Inga found many of the men from Pingaree among these
slaves, but King Kitticut was not in this cavern; so
they passed through it and entered another corridor
that led to a second cavern. Here also hundreds of men
were working, but the boy did not find his father
amongst them, and so went on to a third cavern.
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