Part 34 (1/2)

”What is that? Did you notice the shaking of the earth? or was it only the gra.s.s rocking in the wind?”

”It was--it seemed to be an earthquake,” answered Vigilant. ”There! I feel the ground again trembling beneath us.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 117.--A Trap-door Opened.]

The earth had, indeed, begun to lift up like a wave; higher and higher it rose, until the officers, finding that they were losing their perpendicular, flung themselves backward, in true Brownie fas.h.i.+on, into a bush on the summit of the ridge.

”See!” cried MacWhirlie, clasping the Sergeant by the arm, ”there is the enchantress of your haunted ground!”

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 118.--A Trap-door Closed.]

A trap-door had opened in the ground, and out of the crevice a huge chocolate-brown Pixie was stealthily peeping! The door was semi-circular in form, its edge beautifully beveled and covered with fine white silk, and fitted into the ground as smoothly as a cork into a flask. The top was covered with gra.s.s and ferns of the same kind as those on the ridge, so that the keenest eye could not detect the difference. A hinge of strong silk cloth held the trap-door to the upper side of the ridge.

All this the Brownies took in at a glance.[BA]

They crouched motionless in the bush, concealed by the leaves, but having a full view of the monster who was slowly emerging from the tubular burrow under the trap. The creature was the largest of the Pixie race that either of the officers had seen. She was several times the size of Spite or Hide, and compared to the Brownies was as an elephant to a child. She was covered with a fur robe of a uniform brownish-red color, fringed with black. Her fangs were huge tusks, her feet immense brushes armed with sharp claws. Woe to the enemy that fell within her power! The Brownie officers had as brave hearts as ever beat under uniform, but the wonder upon their faces was somewhat touched with terror as they looked from this monster into each other's eyes. There could be no mistake about it. This was the great giantess Cteniza, the Queen of the Pixies!

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 119.--Peep-oh! Pixie!]

The giantess turned, clambered up the ridge and made straight for the bushlet wherein the Brownies were hid. They grasped their swords and silently waited. Cteniza reached the bush. She stretched up an arm to--seize the Brownies? No! she fastened a strong cord to a twig and pulled it taut. The trap-door of her cave slowly raised until it stood ajar. Then another line was made fast to the bush and carried over to the top of the door. The trap swung in this wise and thus allowed the Pixie queen to enter her den when she wished to return. This done, she went down the ridge, gazed around her, and began spreading a thick snare over the ground round about the trap-door.[BB] She had not seen the Brownie officers at all.

”We are safe this time,” whispered MacWhirlie to Vigilant, ”but what shall we do? It would be folly for two of us, or even the whole guard, to attack that creature without some great advantage on our part.”

”We must wait and watch,” was the answer. ”Our action must depend upon the Pixie queen's.”

”Aye, Aye,” responded the Lieutenant, ”but there is one thing I have settled. These cords shall be cut and the monster shut out from her den.

If there is any hope at all for the recovery of our Captain and comrades it lies in that. Come what may the giantess shall never get back into her cave; at least until we have had a a chance to explore it.”

Queen Cteniza had by this time finished her snare of strong cords, and a smooth silken sheet stretched irregularly upon the gra.s.s. She gazed contentedly upon her work, cast a glance upon her trap-door swinging snugly by its lines, and set off in the direction of the Pixie camp. She stopped suddenly. She had caught sight of one of the sentinels in the outer circle of guards, and at the same moment the sentinel saw her. He lifted his bugle and sounded the alarm.

”Ter-ah! Tra-la, la-lah!”

The answer came like an echo from a score of bugles, and the air was full of the notes. Cteniza turned and ran toward her cave. MacWhirlie heaved up his axe and struck a double-handed blow. One of the lines which held up the trap was severed. Again he struck. The second line parted and down fell the trap with a heavy thud, just as the giantess reached it. She was shut out from her cave! A glance showed her the cause of her misfortune, and then her huge form shook with rage. She leaped upon the ridge. But by this time the Brownie officers were well away in hot flight, and the circle of guards was rapidly closing around them. A stir throughout the Brownie camp beyond showed that a general alarm had been sounded, and the whole army was falling into line. But could the devoted officers and their little band escape destruction?

”Stand!” cried MacWhirlie. He himself stopped short in his flight and faced toward Cteniza, who was pressing forward with uplifted claws and clattering tusks. Vigilant stopped and stood beside his Lieutenant. The sentinels gathered around them. Scarce a dozen of them! It seemed as if the Pixie might crush them all at a blow.

”Attention!” called the Lieutenant. ”There is but one chance left us. We must skirmish with this monster as best we can until the troops come up.

Mark those bushes to the right and left. Ready! Vault!”

MacWhirlie gave these commands in sharp, rapid tones that seemed to impart his own spirit to the sentinels. Cteniza had approached within half a bow shot of the Lieutenant as the final order was given. At the word ”vault,” every Brownie disappeared into the foliage of the bushes to right and left, and there perched on the outer leaves with bows and spears in hand.

The giantess paused and stood with raised arms, rampant and threatening.

She panted with anger and exertion. She looked to this side and that, before her, behind her, but saw no sign of her enemies. From the top of a tall clump of gra.s.s above her MacWhirlie's voice called: ”Fire!”

Cteniza started; a lance had struck her face; an arrow had cut through her s.h.a.ggy robe and broke flesh upon the abdomen; a dozen other weapons bounded back harmlessly from the chest, or frayed the skin upon arms and legs. She leaped upon the clump of gra.s.s whence MacWhirlie had issued the order. The stalks bent down so quickly under the great weight, that the bulky creature sprawled upon the ground. The Lieutenant was shaken from his perch, and rolled in the dust beside the Pixie, but at once regained his feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 120.--A Rampant Tarantula.]