At that instant fearful shouts were heard, and to the bewildering surprise and joy of Sylvia and Joe, they saw Gorbo bounding up the hall. He wore instead of his close-fitting Snerg cap, a strange one of filthy appearance. In his left hand he bore a pair of ragged shoes, and in his right he held aloft a long whippy sapling.
He did not see them; even if he had he would not have recognized in these splendidly-dressed children his travel-stained young friends; he had eyes only for the alleged tyrant whose gold crown revealed his identity and whose attitude as he leaned across the table was excellent for the user of a magic sword. He leapt forward—remember all this occupied but one or two seconds—and brought the sapling down on the King’s person with a juicy smack that rang through the hall.
To say merely that things moved briskly after this is to confess—as I must—inability to cope in words with so strange a situation. I will, however, do my best to give a general impression of subsequent happenings.
The King bounced upright—nay, more than upright—and with eyes goggling and utterance impeded by the muffin in his mouth, glared maniacally at his assailant. And all present were so paralysed with amazement that for an instant there was utter silence. O moments big as years!
The thoughts of Gorbo in that bitter speck of time might be expressed as follows:--
“I have been cozened. This cap is not a cap of invisibility, because everybody is looking at me. This sapling is not a sword of sharpness, because just look at what’s happened! Therefore, for the love of Mike, let these be shoes of swiftness, for I need them!”
He flung away the sapling, sprang into the shoes, and ran.
He ran into the arms of about twenty soldiers, each of whom grabbed a bit of him somewhere.
“It’s Gorbo!” cried Sylvia in agony. “Oh, poor old Gorbo!”
“Gorbo, is it?” roared the King, sweeping away with his arms those who rushed to tend him, and literally gnashing his teeth. “So that’s your Gorbo? Harmless, eh? Not fierce at all! Oh----!”
Here I must cease writing down his words.