CHAPTER XIII

HOW I SET TO WORK TO UNDO A WRONG THAT HAD BEEN DONE IN THE KINGDOM

OF THE MIKKAMENKIES, AND HOW BULGER HELPED.—QUEEN GALAXA’S

CONFESSION.—I AM CREATED PRIME MINISTER AS LONG AS SHE LIVES.—WHAT

TOOK PLACE IN THE THRONE ROOM.—MY SPEECH TO THE MEN OF GOGGLE LAND

AFTER WHICH I SHOW THEM SOMETHING WORTH SEEING.—HOW I WAS PULLED

IN TWO DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

The first thing I did after the genuine princess Crystallina had left me

was to seek out Doctor Nebulosus and learn from him the exact number of

hours before the queen’s heart would run down.

As he had just been making an examination, he was able to tell the very

minute: it was seventeen hours and thirteen minutes, rather a short time

you must confess, dear friends, in which to accomplish such an important

piece of business as I had in mind. I then made my way directly to the

royal palace and demanded a private audience with the Lady of the

Crystal Throne.

With the advice of Sir Amber O’Pake and Lord Cornucore she firmly but

graciously refused to receive me, giving as an excuse that the

excitement that would be sure to follow an interview with the “Man of

Coal”—so the Mikkamenkies had named me—would shorten her life at least

thirteen minutes.

But I was not to be put off in so unceremonious a manner. Sitting down,

I seized a pen and wrote the following words upon a piece of glazed

silk:—

“_To Galaxa, Queen of the Mikkamenkies, Lady of the Crystal Throne._

“I, Lord Bulger, a Mikkamenkian Noble, Bearer of this, who was the first

to discover that the real princess was not sitting on the steps of the

Crystal Throne, demand an audience for my Master Baron Sebastian von

Troomp, commonly known as ‘Little Baron Trump,’ and prompted by him I

ask, What are thirteen minutes of thy life, O Queen Galaxa, to the long

years of sorrow and disappointment in store for thy royal child?”

Taking this letter in his mouth, Bulger sprang away with long and rapid

bounds. In a few minutes he was in the presence of the queen, for the

guards had fallen back affrighted as they saw him draw near with his

dark eyes flashing indignation. Raising himself upon his hind feet, he

laid the letter in Galaxa’s hands. The moment she had read it she fell

into a swoon, and all was stir and commotion in and round about the

palace. I was hastily summoned and the audience chamber cleared of every

attendant save Doctor Nebulosus, Sir Amber O’Pake, Lord Cornucore, Lord

Bulger, and me.

“Send for the damozel Glow Stone,” commanded the queen, and when she had

appeared, to the amazement of all saving Bulger and me, Galaxa bade her

mount the steps of the Crystal Throne, then, having embraced her most

tenderly, the queen spoke these words:—

“O faithful Councillors and wise friends from the upper world, this is

the real princess Crystallina, whom I have for all these years wickedly

and wrongfully kept from her high state and royal privileges. She was

born with a speck in her heart, and I feared that it would be useless to

ask my people to accept her as my successor.”

“Ay, Lady of the Crystal Throne,” exclaimed Lord Cornucore, “thou hast

wisely done. Thy people would never have received her as Princess

Crystallina, for, being by the laws of our land denied the privilege to

look for themselves, they never would have believed that this spot in

the princess’s heart was but a tiny speck like a single hair crystal in

the arm of thy magnificent throne. Therefore, O queen, we counsel thee

not to imbitter thy last hours by differences with thy loving subjects.”

“My Lord Cornucore,” said I with a low bow, “I make bold to raise my

voice against thine, and I crave permission from Queen Galaxa to parley

with her people.”

“Forbid it, royal lady!” cried Sir Amber O’Pake savagely, at which

Bulger gave a low growl and showed his teeth.

“Queen Galaxa,” I added gravely, “a wrong confessed is half redressed.

This fair princess, ’tis true, hath a speck in her heart which ill

accords with the name bestowed upon her by thy people. Bid me be master

until thy heart runs down, and by the Knighthood of all the Trumps I

promise thee that thou shalt have three hours of happiness ere thy royal

heart has ceased to beat!”

“Be it so, little baron,” exclaimed Galaxa joyfully. “I proclaim thee

prime minister for the rest of my life.” At these words Bulger broke out

into a series of glad barks, and, raising upon his hind legs, licked the

queen’s hand in token of his gratitude, while the fair princess looked a

love at me that was too deep to put into words.

“I had now but a few hours to act. The excitement, so Doctor Nebulosus

assured me, would shorten the queen’s life a full hour.”

It had always been my custom to carry about with me a small but

excellent magnifying-glass, a double convex lens, for the purpose of

making examinations of minute objects, and also for reading inscriptions

too fine to be seen with the naked eye. Hastily summoning a skilful

metal worker, I instructed him to set the lens in a short tube and to

enclose that tube within another, so that I could lengthen it at my

pleasure. Then having called together as many of the head men of the

nation as the throne room would hold, I requested Lord Cornucore to

inform them of the confession which Queen Galaxa had made; namely, that

in reality damozel Glow Stone was princess Crystallina and princess

Crystallina was damozel Glow Stone.

They were stricken speechless by this piece of information, but when

Lord Cornucore went on to tell the whole story and to explain to them

why the queen had practised this deception upon them, they broke out

into the wildest lamentation, repeating over and over again in piteous

tones,—

“A speck in her heart! A speck in her heart! O dire misfortune! O woful

day! She never can be our princess if she hath a speck in her heart!” By

this time my arrangements were complete. I had placed the princess

Crystallina just outside the door of the throne room where she stood

concealed behind the thick hangings, and near her I had stationed Doctor

Nebulosus with a large circular mirror of burnished silver in his hand.

Calling out in a loud voice for silence, I thus addressed the weeping

subjects of Queen Galaxa:—

“O Mikkamenkies, Men of Goggle Land, Transparent Folk, I count myself

most happy to be among you at this hour and to be permitted, by your

gracious queen, to raise my voice in defence of the unfortunate princess

with the speck in her heart. Being of noble birth and an inhabitant of

another world, it was lawful for me to look through the sorrowing

princess, and I have done it. Yes, Mikkamenkies, I have gazed upon her

heart; I have seen the speck within it! Give ear, Men of Goggle Land,

and you shall know how that speck came there; for it is not, as you

doubtless think, a coal-black spot within that fair enclosure, clearer

than the columns of Galaxa’s throne. Oh, no, Mikkamenkies, a thousand

times no: it is a tiny blemish of reddish hue, a drop of princely blood

from the upper world, which I inhabit, and this drop in all these

countless centuries has coursed through the veins of a thousand kings,

and still kept its roseate glow, still remembered the glorious sunshine

which called it into being; and now, Men of Goggle Land, lest you think

that for some dark purpose of mine own I speak other than the pure and

sober truth, behold, I show you the fair Crystallina’s heart, in its

very life and being as it is, beating and throbbing with hope and fear

comingled. Look and judge for yourselves!” And with this I signalled to

those on the outside of the palace to carry out my instructions.

[Illustration: BULGER PARTS HIS MASTER FROM PRINCESS CRYSTALLINA.]

In an instant the thick curtains were drawn and the throne room was

wrapped in darkness, and at the same moment Doctor Nebulosus, with his

mirror, caught the strong, white rays of light and threw them upon

Crystallina’s body, while I through an opening in the hangings made

haste to apply the tube to which the lens had been fitted, and, catching

the reflected image of her heart, threw it up in plain and startling

view upon the opposite wall of the throne room. Upon seeing how small

the speck was and how truthfully I had described it, the Mikkamenkies

fell a-weeping for purest joy, and then, as if with one voice, they

burst out,—

“Long live the fair princess Crystallina with the ruby speck in her

heart! and ten thousand blessings on the head of little Baron Trump and

Lord Bulger for saving our land from cruel dissensions!” The people on

the outside took up the cry, and in a few moments the whole city was

thronged with bands of Queen Galaxa’s subjects, singing and dancing and

telling of their love for the fair princess with the ruby speck in her

heart. I had kept my word—Queen Galaxa would have at least three hours

of complete happiness ere her heart ran down.

But suddenly the River of Light began to flicker and dim its flood of

brilliant white rays.

Night was coming. Noiselessly, as if by magic, the Mikkamenkies faded

from my sight, stealing away in search of beds, and as the gloom crept

into the great throne room, some one plucked me gently by the hand and a

soft voice whispered,—

“I love! I love thee! Oh, who other than I can tell how I love thee!”

and then a grip stronger than that gentle hand seized me by the skirt of

my coat and dragged me away slowly, but surely, away, through the

darkness, through the gloom, out into the silent streets, ever away

until at last that soft voice, choking with a sob, ceased its pleading

and gasped, “Farewell, oh, farewell! I dare go no farther!” And so

Bulger, in his wisdom, led me on and ever on out of the City of the

Mikkamenkies, out upon the Marble Highway!