Part 14 (2/2)
What was the Prince to do now? He tried to plan some other way of rescuing the Princess but he could think of none. In spite of the dragon's threat he went back the next day and tried the same thing again. Again the dragon overtook him and s.n.a.t.c.hed back the Princess.
”I have spared you one time,” he said to the Prince, ”and I will spare you this one time more for the sake of the water you gave me. But I warn you if you come again I will tear you to pieces.”
But what man worthy the name will accept such a warning when the safety and happiness of his loved one is concerned? The next day while the dragon was out the Prince again returned to the castle.
”It is plain,” he said to the Princess, ”that we can never escape until we, too, get a magic horse. We must find out where the dragon got his.
To-night when he comes home, speak him fair and caress his head and when he is in fine humor ask him about his horse--what kind of a horse it is and where he got it. Then I will come back to-morrow at this same hour and you can tell me.”
So that night when the dragon came home the Princess allowed him to put his head in her lap and she scratched him softly behind the ears and petted him until he was purring like a giant cat.
”Urrh! Urrh! Urrh!” purred the dragon. ”How happy we are here, just you and I! What a foolish young man that Prince of yours is to think I'd let him carry you off! Urrh! Urrh! Urrh!”
”Yes,” the Princess agreed, ”he is foolish or he would never suppose his horse could outrace yours.”
”Urrh! Urrh!” the dragon purred. ”You're right! He seems to think my horse is an ordinary horse. Why, I got my horse from the Old Woman of the Mountain and the only other horse in the world that can outstrip him is another horse that the Old Woman still has. The Prince would have a hard time getting him!”
The Princess still scratching the dragon behind his ears, just where he loved it most, asked softly:
”Why?”
”Urrh! Urrh! Urrh! Because the Old Woman will never give that horse away until a man comes along who is able to guard for three nights in succession the Old Woman's mare and foal. Any one who attempts this and fails she kills. But even if a man were to succeed he would never get the right horse for the old witch would palm off another on him. Urrh!
Urrh! Urrh! Oh, that feels good, my dear!”
”How would she do that?” the Princess asked.
”Urrh! Urrh! Urrh! You see she says to every man who undertakes to guard the mare: 'If you succeed you may have any horse in my stable.' Then she shows him twelve beautiful stallions with s.h.i.+ny coats, but she doesn't show him a scrawny miserable looking beast that lies neglected on the dung heap. Yet this is the magic horse and brother to mine.”
Now the Princess knew all she needed to know and the next day when the Prince came she told him what the dragon had said. So the Prince at once set out to find the Old Woman of the Mountain.
He traveled three days over waste places and through strange lands. On the first day as he was riding along the sh.o.r.es of a lake he heard a little voice crying out:
”Help me, brother, help me and--who knows?--some day I may help you!”
The Prince looked down and saw a fish that was floundering on the sand.
He dismounted to get the fish and throw it back into the water.
”Take one of my scales,” the fish said. ”Then if ever you need my help just rub the scale.”
So the Prince, before he threw the fish into the lake, sc.r.a.ped off a scale and tied it in a corner of his handkerchief. Then he rode on.
The second day a fox that had been caught in a trap called out to him:
”Help me, brother, help me and--who knows?--some day I may help you!”
The Prince opened the trap and the fox, before it limped away, gave the Prince one of its hairs and said:
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