After a few minutes’ enjoyment of her secret jest she called to Golithos to approach, and he came in looking very sulky and seated himself.
“Where have you sent that Snerg to?” he asked.
“Ah,” she replied, “that’s telling.” And she went on chuckling.
“Now,” she said after a time, “let’s get to business. Are you going to take my offer or not? I may as well warn you (if you haven’t found it out yet) that I’m a bit short-tempered, and if you get obstinate with me I’ve ways of making all kinds of trouble for you. I’m not an experienced witch for nothing.”
Golithos scratched his head in a discontented way. “It’s so dangerous,” he said at length.
“So it is to make me annoyed. Now then, answer up! Will you kill the King if I get those young ones for you?”
“But you haven’t got them to give.”
“Yah! I can get them back easily enough if I make up my mind to do it—and if you make it worth my while.”
“Yes, but—but why didn’t you get that Snerg to kill him. He’s fool enough.”
“Yes, he is—a bit worse than you in some ways, and that’s why I sent him out of the way. But the reason is that I’ve found out by black magic that if the King is killed at all it will be done by an ogre, and you’re the only one left in these parts. So now you know.”
“Oh! So that’s it, is it?--And does your magic say what will happen to the ogre?”
“Yes, it says he’ll live happy ever after.”
Golithos scratched his head again. In spite of his belief in Mother Meldrum he had doubts whether she was telling the exact truth here.
“I suppose I must do it,” he muttered sullenly. “But I want to be sure of those little ones first. You bring them here and keep them safe for me first. Then I’ll go and do it.”
The old woman glared furiously at him. “Yes, you’re trying to get me annoyed,” she said. “Very well, then, I’ll show you.”
“No, wait, please! You see if I could just see them it would put me in such good heart for the job. I’ve been living on lettuce and stuff like that so long that I’m not as brave as I was; and though I’ve eaten my cow it doesn’t encourage me like my own natural food. You must see that. It’s so reasonable.”
She looked at him partly in rage and partly in doubt. “H’m!” she sniffed, “you’re the flabbiest thing in ogres I’ve ever met, and I’ve met a few in my time. Do you mean to say that if I’d shown them to you this morning you’d have done the King in?”
“Yes,” he replied eagerly, “that’s it. Just a glimpse of those nice little well-filled-out children—which you promised me so faithfully—would have made me quite anxious to do it. But I never even got a peep at them,” he went on pathetically. “You must own it’s hard on me.”
“I’ll get even with the funny man,” growled Mother Meldrum. “Well, suppose I bring them both back? Will you go straight off at once as soon as you’ve had a look at them and do what I want?”
“Oh, yes! I’ll just have one good look at them and I’ll go at once. Of course if I could have a piece of one first, just to encourage me properly, so to speak----”
“Well, you won’t. You’ll see them when I’ve got them safely here and then you’ll be off, or you’ll see what I’m like when really annoyed. Did you bring your axe with you?”
“Yes, I’ve got it here.” He went to a corner of the kitchen and produced a mighty battle-axe and balanced it in his hand. “Many’s the stout man-at-arms I’ve laid out with this in the old days.”
“The days when you had some pluck, you mean.”
“Yes, that’s it. But my pluck’s coming back. And if you give me a nice roast pig for dinner, it’ll come back more. And when I see those dear little children waiting for me, it’ll fix it for keeps.” His eyes were rolling and his teeth were showing fiercely now, and he handled the axe, which any other man could scarcely lift, as if it were a medium-sized chopper.
“Yes,” said Mother Meldrum, after watching him for a moment, “I think that’s the way it will have to be. I see you need some practical encouragement, being the worm you are, so wait here until I come back with them. Keep your courage up by thinking about them. It’s taken a long time to work you up to this, Golithos,” she went on with a fierce laugh, “but I think I’ve done it at last. You’ll get what you want, and I’ll get what I want—Revenge!”
She sprang up and did a hideous dance of joy round the kitchen, footing it with an agility that seemed marvellous considering her years. Golithos, whose long dormant savagery was awakening fast, laughed long and boisterously. Truly a terrible scene. Let us not linger over it.