Part 8 (2/2)
The little officer turned sharply to his companion. ”Make a note of that, Sergeant,” he snorted. ”Head it, suspicious information: first prisoner, probably dangerous burglar burgling on Christmas eve; second prisoner, cattle thief; third prisoner--”
”But we aren't anything like that,” broke in Rudolf hastily. ”You're entirely mistaken, we--”
”Say what you are, then,” snapped the officer, ”and where you have come from and where you are going and what you are going to do when you get there; say it, quick!” And raising his little gun, the officer pointed it straight at Rudolf's nose.
”We have come from Catnip Island where we were captured by the cat pirates,” began Rudolf, stumbling over the words in his excitement, ”and we--we don't know exactly where we are going, and we--we aren't doing exactly anything!”
”Aha!” The officer turned to his sergeant with a triumphant expression. ”Just what I thought. Anybody that can't give a better account of himself than that had better be locked up. Spies--aha!
Another of you came ash.o.r.e a while ago--a glib-tongued, story-telling gentleman who fooled us into letting him off, but we've got _you_ safe and sound and here you'll stay! Sergeant, arrest these spies!”
”Certainly, sir,” said the sergeant, making a note of it in his book, ”but please, sir, how do they be spelled, Captain Jinks, sir?”
”S-p-i-s-e, spies, of course, idiot!” snapped the captain. ”Now then, off with 'em. Separate cell for each prisoner, bars to the windows.
Heavy chains on this gentleman in particeler,” pointing to Rudolf.
”Bread and water, on a Sunday. Off to the jail with 'em--march 'em along!”
”Beg pardon, sir,” interrupted the sergeant who was glad of an excuse to stop at a very difficult bit of spelling. ”We'll have to wait a bit. I hear the Queen's band playin'--”
”Then stand at attention and hold yourself answerable for the prisoners!” With this command, Captain Jinks faced about to the road, and stiffened all over till he looked like a little tin statue. For some time the children had been hearing the sound of music, at first faint and far-away, now growing louder and louder. The sergeant pulled them hastily to the side of the road, and bade them in a gruff voice, ”Keep quiet, or he'd settle 'em!” Then he, too, stiffened all over just as Captain Jinks had done, and both of them presented arms.
The head of a procession was coming in sight.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER X
MEETING A QUEEN
First came a large company of soldiers almost exactly like Captain Jinks and the sergeant, except that their uniforms were a little shabbier-looking, and their arms a little less brightly polished. They held themselves stiffly and marched very well, in spite of the fact that many of them had suffered severe injuries, such as the loss of a leg or an arm at the least, in some former campaign, and all of them were rather the worse for wear. After the soldiers came the band, playing shrilly on their tiny instruments, and next, to the children's delight and astonishment, rolled a number of little carriages drawn by mechanical horses. Rudolf was so keenly interested in the working of these mechanical horses, that he hardly noticed the fine ladies who sat stiffly on the cus.h.i.+oned seats of the carriages, very grandly dressed, and holding beautiful pink and blue parasols over their curled heads.
Suddenly Ann grabbed his arm and whispered: ”Look, look! Did you see them? Marie-Louise and Angelina-Elfrida, my _own_ dolls, and they never so much as bowed!”
”Perhaps they didn't know you,” whispered Rudolf.
”They did, too,” returned his sister angrily. ”They just laughed and turned their heads the other way, horrid things! Just wait, I'll tell them what I think of them; but, oh, Rudolf, here come more carriages and more dolls in them, and how queerly they are dressed, these last, I mean! I never saw any dolls like them before. See their poke bonnets, and their fringed mantles, and their little hoop-skirts, but, oh, look, _look_, can that be the Queen?”
Ann's voice sounded disappointed as well as surprised, and in her excitement she spoke so loud that Captain Jinks himself turned his threatening eye on her and called out: ”Silence!” But Ann paid no attention to him, nor did the other children; the eyes of all three were fixed upon a little figure who rode all alone at the very end of the procession. They knew she must be the Queen by the respectful way in which Captain Jinks and the sergeant saluted, but she was very different from what they had imagined a Queen to be. The wooden horse which she rode was not handsome, indeed one of his legs was missing, but he pranced and curvetted so proudly upon the remaining three that it seemed as if he knew he carried a Queen upon his back. The royal lady kept her seat with perfect ease, and when she came opposite the children, she checked her steed, halted, and gazed down upon them.
”Have you forgotten me?” she said. Then she smiled and they knew her at once. It was the corn-cob doll! Though she had grown so much larger and seemed so much grander, yet she looked just the same as when they had taken her out of Aunt Jane's sandal-wood box from which, the children now remembered, certain tin soldiers and a three-legged wooden horse had also come! The Queen still wore her flowing greeny-yellow gown, her hair was braided in two long braids that hung over her shoulders, and she carried her quaint little head high, in truly royal fas.h.i.+on.
Now she dismounted gracefully from her horse and came toward the children, holding out her hand. They dared not look her in the face.
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