"I"ll be the judge of that," said the King. "Prisoners are always guilty. However, you"ll have a fair trial; I"ll be the judge myself.
What have you to say for yourselves?"
"We were seeking your a.s.sistance against Grater," said Hortense. "That is why we came to you."
The King shuddered, and all the Little People standing near by turned pale.
"He is never to be mentioned in my presence," said the King. "The penalty is ten years" imprisonment. Besides, how can you know so much about--him--unless you are his servants? It stands to reason that you are not telling the truth."
"Oh dear!" said Hortense. "How unfair you are!"
"It"s a first principle of law that what a prisoner says is untrue,"
said the King. "I always go on that principle, and that is why I am always right."
"And you"d rather be right than be King, of course," said Lowboy.
"Silence!" roared the King. "Who dares speak so to me?"
The guard thrust Lowboy forward so that the King could see him better.
"A low fellow," said the King.
"But always in high spirits," said Lowboy.
"I am the only one here who is allowed to make jokes," said the King.
"It must be great to be a king," said Lowboy.
"It is," said the King. "Take this fellow and set him to weeding the royal strawberry beds for ten years. And you," he said, turning to Highboy, "stole my raspberries. Since you like them so well, you may pick them for ten years. Away with them! As for you two," pointing to Andy and Hortense--
Here the Queen interrupted.
"They look like a nice little boy and girl," said she. "Keep them until morning and then look further into the matter. Perhaps they are speaking the truth. I"m sure they are." And she smiled upon them.
The King walked up and down for a moment, without speaking.
"Very well. Be it as you wish," he agreed at last. "It is the Queen"s privilege to command clemency."
"She should have some privilege if she has to laugh at the royal jokes," said Lowboy.
"Fifteen years!" roared the King. "I told you to put that fellow to work."
The guards hurried Lowboy and Highboy away, and Andy and Hortense were left alone.
"These two may be imprisoned in the pine tree," said the King, "until morning. Then I"ll decide what further to do with them."
Six of the little soldiers took Andy and Hortense by the arm and led them to the foot of a big pine tree. Taking a key from his pocket, the officer in command unlocked a little door in the trunk of the tree, Hortense and Andy entered their prison, and he closed and locked the door after them. It was very dark, but as their eyes became accustomed to it, Andy and Hortense could see a little.
The hollow trunk made a round room, which was carpeted with pine needles for a bed. There was nothing else whatsoever. Above them the room reached high into the trunk, and at the very top they could see a little patch of light.
"It"s probably a knot hole," said Andy, "and if we could climb so high, we might crawl through and get outside."
"We couldn"t get down without being seen even then," reasoned Hortense.
"There"s a chance," said Andy. "Anyway, they might not see us and just decide we had already escaped. It"s worth trying."
"Very carefully they searched the trunk of the tree, seeking something that would help them climb.
"Here"s something that looks like a crack in the trunk," said Andy. "If I could get a foothold in that, I believe I could climb to the top.
Give me a hand here."
Hortense did as she was bid, and Andy began to climb.
"It gets easier," he said in a moment. "Can you find a foothold and follow me?"
Try as she would, Hortense couldn"t manage a start.
"I"ll come back," said Andy, descending until he could give Hortense a hand. With Andy"s aid Hortense succeeded in climbing a few feet and after that was able to make her own way.
Up and up they climbed, coming at last to the hole at the top which was just big enough to crawl through. Outside was a great limb, and on this they rested.
"The Little People will hardly see us here, we"re so high up," said Andy.
"But we can"t get down," said Hortense, "so it does us little good."
Andy made no reply, for he was looking about him.
"These trees grow very close together," said he. "I believe I"ll see where this branch goes."
Off he went, and Hortense waited. At last he came back, saying, "We can get to the next tree, and from that to another. When we are far enough away from the sentry, we"ll try to climb down."
With Andy leading the way, they went out to the end of the branch which just touched the branch of the next tree. Onto this they were able to climb, and they made their way slowly to the trunk; then out on a branch on the other side, and so to the next tree. In this way they progressed from tree to tree, but each was as big as the last and it was impossible for such little people as they to climb down.
"We might eat a bite of cooky and grow big," said Hortense.
"Then we couldn"t get out of the tunnel," said Andy, "and we"d have to stay here forever."
They seemed to be in a bad fix, indeed.
"If we could only fly," said Hortense, "how nice it would be."
"That"s an idea," said Andy.
Looking about him a moment, he began to climb to the branch above.
"Come here," he called, and Hortense followed.
At the base of the branch there was a hole in the tree, and, looking through this, they saw a snug nest lined with twigs and moss.
"It"s the nest of some big bird," said Andy. "We"ll wait here and ask him to take us down."