V. The Island of the Nine Whirlpools
The dark arch that led to the witch's cave was hung with ablack-and-yellow fringe of live snakes. As the Queen went in, keepingcarefully in the middle of the arch, all the snakes lifted their wicked,flat heads and stared at her with their wicked, yellow eyes. You know itis not good manners to stare, even at Royalty, except of course forcats. And the snakes had been so badly brought up that they even puttheir tongues out at the poor lady. Nasty, thin, sharp tongues they weretoo.
Now, the Queen's husband was, of course, the King. And besides being aKing he was an enchanter, and considered to be quite at the top of hisprofession, so he was very wise, and he knew that when Kings and Queenswant children, the Queen always goes to see a witch. So he gave theQueen the witch's address, and the Queen called on her, though she wasvery frightened and did not like it at all. The witch was sitting by afire of sticks, stirring something bubbly in a shiny copper cauldron.
"What do you want, my dear?" she said to the Queen.
"Oh, if you please," said the Queen, "I want a baby--a very nice one. Wedon't want any expense spared. My husband said--"
"Oh, yes," said the witch. "I know all about him. And so you want achild? Do you know it will bring you sorrow?"
"It will bring me joy first," said the Queen.
"Great sorrow," said the witch.
"Greater joy," said the Queen.
Then the witch said, "Well, have your own way. I suppose it's as much asyour place is worth to go back without it?"
"The King would be very much annoyed," said the poor Queen.
"Well, well," said the witch. "What will you give me for the child?"
"Anything you ask for, and all I have," said the Queen.
"Then give me your gold crown."
The Queen took it off quickly.
"And your necklace of blue sapphires."
The Queen unfastened it.
"And your pearl bracelets."
The Queen unclasped them.
"And your ruby clasps."
And the Queen undid the clasps.
"Now the lilies from your breast."
The Queen gathered together the lilies.
"And the diamonds of your little bright shoe buckles."
The Queen pulled off her shoes.
Then the witch stirred the stuff that was in the cauldron, and, one byone, she threw in the gold crown and the sapphire necklace and the pearlbracelets and the ruby clasps and the diamonds of the little bright shoebuckles, and last of all she threw in the lilies.
The stuff in the cauldron boiled up in foaming flashes of yellow andblue and red and white and silver, and sent out a sweet scent, andpresently the witch poured it out into a pot and set it to cool in thedoorway among the snakes.
Then she said to the Queen: "Your child will have hair as golden as yourcrown, eyes as blue as your sapphires. The red of your rubies will lieon its lips, and its skin will be clear and pale as your pearls. Itssoul will be white and sweet as your lilies, and your diamonds will beno clearer than its wits."
"Oh, thank you, thank you," said the Queen, "and when will it come?"
"You will find it when you get home."
"And won't you have something for yourself?" asked the Queen. "Anylittle thing you fancy--would you like a country, or a sack of jewels?"
"Nothing, thank you," said the witch. "I could make more diamonds in aday than I should wear in a year."
"Well, but do let me do some little thing for you," the Queen went on."Aren't you tired of being a witch? Wouldn't you like to be a Duchess ora Princess, or something like that?"
"There is one thing I should rather like," said the witch, "but it'shard to get in my trade."
"Oh, tell me what," said the Queen.
"I should like some one to love me," said the witch.
Then the Queen threw her arms around the witch's neck and kissed herhalf a hundred times. "Why," she said, "I love you better than my life!You've given me the baby--and the baby shall love you too."
"Perhaps it will," said the witch, "and when the sorrow comes, send forme. Each of your fifty kisses will be a spell to bring me to you. Now,drink up your medicine, there's a dear, and run along home."
So the Queen drank the stuff in the pot, which was quite cool by thistime, and she went out under the fringe of snakes, and they all behavedlike good Sunday-school children. Some of them even tried to drop acurtsy to her as she went by, though that is not easy when you arehanging wrong way up by your tail. But the snakes knew the Queen wasfriends with their mistress; so, of course, they had to do their best tobe civil.
When the Queen got home, sure enough there was the baby lying in thecradle with the Royal arms blazoned on it, crying as naturally aspossible. It had pink ribbons to tie up its sleeves, so the Queen saw atonce it was a girl. When the King knew this he tore his black hair withfury.
"Oh, you silly, silly Queen!" he said. "Why didn't I marry a cleverlady? Did you think I went to all the trouble and expense of sending youto a witch to get a girl? You knew well enough it was a boy I wanted--aboy, an heir, a Prince--to learn all my magic and my enchantments, andto rule the kingdom after me. I'll bet a crown--my crown," he said, "younever even thought to tell the witch what kind you wanted! Did you now?"
And the Queen hung her head and had to confess that she had only askedfor a child.
"Very well, madam," said the King, "very well--have your own way. Andmake the most of your daughter, while she is a child."
The Queen did. All the years of her life had never held half so muchhappiness as now lived in each of the moments when she held her littlebaby in her arms. And the years went on, and the King grew more and moreclever at magic, and more and more disagreeable at home, and thePrincess grew more beautiful and more dear every day she lived.
The Queen and the Princess were feeding the goldfish in the courtyardfountains with crumbs of the Princess's eighteenth birthday cake, whenthe King came into the courtyard, looking as black as thunder, with hisblack raven hopping after him. He shook his fist at his family, asindeed he generally did whenever he met them, for he was not a King withpretty home manners. The raven sat down on the edge of the marble basinand tried to peck the goldfish. It was all he could do to show that hewas in the same temper as his master.
"A girl indeed!" said the King angrily. "I wonder you can dare to lookme in the face, when you remember how your silliness has spoiledeverything."
"You oughtn't to speak to my mother like that," said the Princess. Shewas eighteen, and it came to her suddenly and all in a moment that shewas a grown-up, so she spoke out.
The King could not utter a word for several minutes. He was too angry.But the Queen said, "My dear child, don't interfere," quite crossly, forshe was frightened.
And to her husband she said, "My dear, why do you go on worrying aboutit? Our daughter is not a boy, it is true--but she may marry a cleverman who could rule your kingdom after you, and learn as much magic asever you cared to teach him."
Then the King found his tongue.
"If she does marry," he said, slowly, "her husband will have to be avery clever man--oh, yes, very clever indeed! And he will have to know avery great deal more magic than I shall ever care to teach him."
The Queen knew at once by the King's tone that he was going to bedisagreeable.
"Ah," she said, "don't punish the child because she loves her mother."
"I'm not going to punish her for that," said he. "I'm only going toteach her to respect her father."
And without another word he went off to his laboratory and worked allnight, boiling different-colored things in crucibles, and copying charmsin curious twisted letters from old brown books with mold stains ontheir yellowy pages.
The next day his plan was all arranged. He took the poor Princess to theLone Tower, which stands on an island in the sea, a thousand miles fromeverywhere. He gave her a dowry, and settled a handsome income on her.He engaged a competent dragon to look after her, and also a resp
ectablegriffin whose birth and upbringing he knew all about. And he said: "Hereyou shall stay, my dear, respectful daughter, till the clever man comesto marry you. He'll have to be clever enough to sail a ship through theNine Whirlpools that spin around the island, and to kill the dragon andthe griffin. Till he comes you'll never get any older or any wiser. Nodoubt he will soon come. You can employ yourself in embroidering yourwedding gown. I wish you joy, my dutiful child."
And his carriage, drawn by live thunderbolts (thunder travels veryfast), rose in the air and disappeared, and the poor Princess was left,with the dragon and the griffin, on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools.
The Queen, left at home, cried for a day and a night, and then sheremembered the witch and called to her. And the witch came, and theQueen told her all.
"For the sake of the twice twenty-five kisses you gave me," said thewitch, "I will help you. But it is the last thing I can do, and it isnot much. Your daughter is under a spell, and I can take you to her.But, if I do, you will have to be turned to stone, and to stay so tillthe spell is taken off the child."
"I would be a stone for a thousand years," said the poor Queen, "if atthe end of them I could see my dear again."
So the witch took the Queen in a carriage drawn by live sunbeams (whichtravel more quickly than anything else in the world, and much quickerthan thunder), and so away and away to the Lone Tower on the Island ofthe Nine Whirlpools. And there was the Princess sitting on the floor inthe best room of the Lone Tower, crying as if her heart would break, andthe dragon and the griffin were sitting primly on each side of her.
"Oh, Mother, Mother, Mother," she cried, and hung around the Queen'sneck as if she would never let go.
"Now," said the witch, when they had all cried as much as was good forthem, "I can do one or two other little things for you. Time shall notmake the Princess sad. All days will be like one day till her deliverercomes. And you and I, dear Queen, will sit in stone at the gate of thetower. In doing this for you I lose all my witch's powers, and when Isay the spell that changes you to stone, I shall change with you, and ifever we come out of the stone, I shall be a witch no more, but only ahappy old woman."
Then the three kissed one another again and again, and the witch saidthe spell, and on each side of the door there was now a stone lady. Oneof them had a stone crown on its head and a stone scepter in its hand;but the other held a stone tablet with words on it, which the griffinand the dragon could not read, though they had both had a very goodeducation.
And now all days seemed like one day to the Princess, and the next dayalways seemed the day when her mother would come out of the stone andkiss her again. And the years went slowly by. The wicked King died, andsome one else took his kingdom, and many things were changed in theworld; but the island did not change, nor the Nine Whirlpools, nor thegriffin, nor the dragon, nor the two stone ladies. And all the time,from the very first, the day of the Princess's deliverance was coming,creeping nearer, and nearer, and nearer. But no one saw it coming exceptthe Princess, and she only in dreams. And the years went by in tens andin hundreds, and still the Nine Whirlpools spun around, roaring intriumph the story of many a good ship that had gone down in their swirl,bearing with it some Prince who had tried to win the Princess and herdowry. And the great sea knew all the other stories of the Princes whohad come from very far, and had seen the whirlpools, and had shakentheir wise young heads and said: "'Bout ship!" and gone discreetly hometo their nice, safe, comfortable kingdoms.
But no one told the story of the deliverer who was to come. And theyears went by.
Now, after more scores of years than you would like to add up on yourslate, a certain sailor-boy sailed on the high seas with his uncle, whowas a skilled skipper. And the boy could reef a sail and coil a rope andkeep the ship's nose steady before the wind. And he was as good a boy asyou would find in a month of Sundays, and worthy to be a Prince.
Now there is Something which is wiser than all the world--and it knowswhen people are worthy to be Princes. And this Something came from thefarther side of the seventh world, and whispered in the boy's ear.
And the boy heard, though he did not know he heard, and he looked outover the black sea with the white foam-horses galloping over it, and faraway he saw a light. And he said to the skipper, his uncle: "What lightis that?"
Then the skipper said: "All good things defend you, Nigel, from sailingnear that light. It is not mentioned in all charts; but it is markedin the old chart I steer by, which was my father's father's before me,and his father's father's before him. It is the light that shines fromthe Lone Tower that stands above the Nine Whirlpools. And when myfather's father was young he heard from the very old man, hisgreat-great-grandfather, that in that tower an enchanted Princess,fairer than the day, waits to be delivered. But there is no deliverance,so never steer that way; and think no more of the Princess, for that isonly an idle tale. But the whirlpools are quite real."
So, of course, from that day Nigel thought of nothing else. And as hesailed hither and thither upon the high seas he saw from time to timethe light that shone out to sea across the wild swirl of the NineWhirlpools. And one night, when the ship was at anchor and the skipperasleep in his bunk, Nigel launched the ship's boat and steered aloneover the dark sea towards the light. He dared not go very near tilldaylight should show him what, indeed, were the whirlpools he had todread.
But when the dawn came he saw the Lone Tower standing dark against thepink and primrose of the East, and about its base the sullen swirl ofblack water, and he heard the wonderful roar of it. So he hung off andon, all that day and for six days besides. And when he had watched sevendays he knew something. For you are certain to know something if yougive for seven days your whole thought to it, even though it be only thefirst declension, or the nine-times table, or the dates of the NormanKings.
What he knew was this: that for five minutes out of the 1,440 minutesthat make up a day the whirlpools slipped into silence, while the tidewent down and left the yellow sand bare. And every day this happened,but every day it was five minutes earlier than it had been the daybefore. He made sure of this by the ship's chronometer, which he hadthoughtfully brought with him.
"The Lone Tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools."_See page 88._]
So on the eighth day, at five minutes before noon, Nigel got ready. Andwhen the whirlpools suddenly stopped whirling and the tide sank, likewater in a basin that has a hole in it, he stuck to his oars and puthis back into his stroke, and presently beached the boat on the yellowsand. Then he dragged it into a cave, and sat down to wait.
By five minutes and one second past noon, the whirlpools were black andbusy again, and Nigel peeped out of his cave. And on the rocky ledgeoverhanging the sea he saw a Princess as beautiful as the day, withgolden hair and a green gown--and he went out to meet her.
"I've come to save you," he said. "How darling and beautiful you are!"
"You are very good, and very clever, and very dear," said the Princess,smiling and giving him both her hands.
He shut a little kiss in each hand before he let them go.
"So now, when the tide is low again, I will take you away in my boat,"he said.
"But what about the dragon and the griffin?" asked the Princess.
"Dear me," said Nigel. "I didn't know about them. I suppose I can killthem?"
"Don't be a silly boy," said the Princess, pretending to be very grownup, for, though she had been on the island time only knows how manyyears, she was just eighteen, and she still liked pretending. "Youhaven't a sword, or a shield, or anything!"
"Well, don't the beasts ever go to sleep?"
"Why, yes," said the Princess, "but only once in twenty-four hours, andthen the dragon is turned to stone. But the griffin has dreams. Thegriffin sleeps at teatime every day, but the dragon sleeps every day forfive minutes, and every day it is three minutes later than it was theday before."
"What time does he sleep today?" asked Nigel.
"At eleven," said the Prin
cess.
"Ah," said Nigel, "can you do sums?"
"No," said the Princess sadly. "I was never good at them."
"Then I must," said Nigel. "I can, but it's slow work, and it makes mevery unhappy. It'll take me days and days."
"Don't begin yet," said the Princess. "You'll have plenty of time to beunhappy when I'm not with you. Tell me all about yourself."
So he did. And then she told him all about herself.
"I know I've been here a long time," she said, "but I don't know whatTime is. And I am very busy sewing silk flowers on a golden gown for mywedding day. And the griffin does the housework--his wings are soconvenient and feathery for sweeping and dusting. And the dragon doesthe cooking--he's hot inside, so, of course, it's no trouble to him; andthough I don't know what Time is I'm sure it's time for my wedding day,because my golden gown only wants one more white daisy on the sleeve,and a lily on the bosom of it, and then it will be ready."
Just then they heard a dry, rustling clatter on the rocks above them anda snorting sound. "It's the dragon," said the Princess hurriedly."Good-bye. Be a good boy, and get your sum done." And she ran away andleft him to his arithmetic.
Now, the sum was this: "If the whirlpools stop and the tide goes downonce in every twenty-four hours, and they do it five minutes earlierevery twenty-four hours, and if the dragon sleeps every day, and he doesit three minutes later every day, in how many days and at what time inthe day will the tide go down three minutes before the dragon fallsasleep?"
It is quite a simple sum, as you see: You could do it in a minutebecause you have been to a good school and have taken pains with yourlessons; but it was quite otherwise with poor Nigel. He sat down to workout his sum with a piece of chalk on a smooth stone. He tried it bypractice and the unitary method, by multiplication, and byrule-of-three-and-three-quarters. He tried it by decimals and bycompound interest. He tried it by square root and by cube root. He triedit by addition, simple and otherwise, and he tried it by mixed examplesin vulgar fractions. But it was all of no use. Then he tried to do thesum by algebra, by simple and by quadratic equations, by trigonometry,by logarithms, and by conic sections. But it would not do. He got ananswer every time, it is true, but it was always a different one, and hecould not feel sure which answer was right.
And just as he was feeling how much more important than anything else itis to be able to do your sums, the Princess came back. And now it wasgetting dark.
"Why, you've been seven hours over that sum," she said, "and you haven'tdone it yet. Look here, this is what is written on the tablet of thestatue by the lower gate. It has figures in it. Perhaps it is the answerto the sum."
She held out to him a big white magnolia leaf. And she had scratched onit with the pin of her pearl brooch, and it had turned brown where shehad scratched it, as magnolia leaves will do. Nigel read:
AFTER NINE DAYS T ii. 24. D ii. 27 Ans. P.S.--And the griffin is artificial. R.
He clapped his hands softly.
"Dear Princess," he said, "I know that's the right answer. It says Rtoo, you see. But I'll just prove it." So he hastily worked the sumbackward in decimals and equations and conic sections, and all the ruleshe could think of. And it came right every time.
"So now we must wait," said he. And they waited.
And every day the Princess came to see Nigel and brought him food cookedby the dragon, and he lived in his cave, and talked to her when she wasthere, and thought about her when she was not, and they were both ashappy as the longest day in summer. Then at last came The Day. Nigel andthe Princess laid their plans.
"You're sure he won't hurt you, my only treasure?" said Nigel.
"Quite," said the Princess. "I only wish I were half as sure that hewouldn't hurt you."
"My Princess," he said tenderly, "two great powers are on our side: thepower of Love and the power of Arithmetic. Those two are stronger thananything else in the world."
So when the tide began to go down, Nigel and the Princess ran out on tothe sands, and there, in full sight of the terrace where the dragon keptwatch, Nigel took his Princess in his arms and kissed her. The griffinwas busy sweeping the stairs of the Lone Tower, but the dragon saw, andhe gave a cry of rage--and it was like twenty engines all letting offsteam at the top of their voices inside Cannon Street Station.
And the two lovers stood looking up at the dragon. He was dreadful tolook at. His head was white with age--and his beard had grown so longthat he caught his claws in it as he walked. His wings were white withthe salt that had settled on them from the spray of the sea. His tailwas long and thick and jointed and white, and had little legs to it, anynumber of them--far too many--so that it looked like a very large fatsilkworm; and his claws were as long as lessons and as sharp asbayonets.
"Good-bye, love!" cried Nigel, and ran out across the yellow sand towardthe sea. He had one end of a cord tied to his arm.
The dragon was clambering down the face of the cliff, and next moment hewas crawling and writhing and sprawling and wriggling across the beachafter Nigel, making great holes in the sand with his heavy feet--and thevery end of his tail, where there were no legs, made, as it dragged, amark in the sand such as you make when you launch a boat; and hebreathed fire till the wet sand hissed again, and the water of thelittle rock pools got quite frightened, and all went off in steam.
Still Nigel held on and the dragon after him. The Princess could seenothing for the steam, and she stood crying bitterly, but still holdingon tight with her right hand to the other end of the cord that Nigel hadtold her to hold; while with her left she held the ship's chronometer,and looked at it through her tears as he had bidden her look, so as toknow when to pull the rope.
On went Nigel over the sand, and on went the dragon after him. And thetide was low, and sleepy little waves lapped the sand's edge.
Now at the lip of the water, Nigel paused and looked back, and thedragon made a bound, beginning a scream of rage that was like all theengines of all the railways in England. But it never uttered the secondhalf of that scream, for now it knew suddenly that it was sleepy--itturned to hurry back to dry land, because sleeping near whirlpools is sounsafe. But before it reached the shore sleep caught it and turned it tostone. Nigel, seeing this, ran shoreward for his life--and the tidebegan to flow in, and the time of the whirlpools' sleep was nearly over,and he stumbled and he waded and he swam, and the Princess pulled fordear life at the cord in her hand, and pulled him up on to the dry shelfof rock just as the great sea dashed in and made itself once more intothe girdle of Nine Whirlpools all around the island.
But the dragon was asleep under the whirlpools, and when he woke up frombeing asleep he found he was drowned, so there was an end of him.
"Now, there's only the griffin," said Nigel. And the Princess said:"Yes--only--" And she kissed Nigel and went back to sew the last leaf ofthe last lily on the bosom of her wedding gown. She thought and thoughtof what was written on the stone about the griffin being artificial--andnext day she said to Nigel: "You know a griffin is half a lion and halfan eagle, and the other two halves when they've joined make theleo-griff. But I've never seen him. Yet I have an idea."
So they talked it over and arranged everything.
When the griffin fell asleep that afternoon at teatime, Nigel wentsoftly behind him and trod on his tail, and at the same time thePrincess cried: "Look out! There's a lion behind you."
And the griffin, waking suddenly from his dreams, twisted his largeneck around to look for the lion, saw a lion's flank, and fastened itseagle beak in it. For the griffin had been artificially made by theKing-enchanter, and the two halves had never really got used to eachother. So now the eagle half of the griffin, who was still rathersleepy, believed that it was fighting a lion, and the lion part, beinghalf asleep, thought it was fighting an eagle, and the whole griffin inits deep drowsiness hadn't the sense to pull itself together andremember what it was made of. So the griffin rolled over and over, oneend of it fighting with the other, till
the eagle end pecked the lionend to death, and the lion end tore the eagle end with its claws till itdied. And so the griffin that was made of a lion and an eagle perished,exactly as if it had been made of Kilkenny cats.
"Poor griffin," said the Princess, "it was very good at the housework. Ialways liked it better than the dragon: It wasn't so hot-tempered."
At that moment there was a soft, silky rush behind the Princess, andthere was her mother, the Queen, who had slipped out of the stone statueat the moment the griffin was dead, and now came hurrying to take herdear daughter in her arms. The witch was clambering slowly off herpedestal. She was a little stiff from standing still so long.
When they had all explained everything over and over to each other asmany times as was good for them, the witch said: "Well, but what aboutthe whirlpools?"
And Nigel said he didn't know. Then the witch said: "I'm not a witchanymore. I'm only a happy old woman, but I know some things still. Thosewhirlpools were made by the enchanter-King's dropping nine drops of hisblood into the sea. And his blood was so wicked that the sea has beentrying ever since to get rid of it, and that made the whirlpools. Nowyou've only got to go out at low tide."
So Nigel understood and went out at low tide, and found in the sandyhollow left by the first whirlpool a great red ruby. That was the firstdrop of the wicked King's blood. The next day Nigel found another, andnext day another, and so on till the ninth day, and then the sea was assmooth as glass.
The nine rubies were used afterwards in agriculture. You had only tothrow them out into a field if you wanted it plowed. Then the wholesurface of the land turned itself over in its anxiety to get rid ofsomething so wicked, and in the morning the field was found to be plowedas thoroughly as any young man at Oxford. So the wicked King did somegood after all.
When the sea was smooth, ships came from far and wide, bringing peopleto hear the wonderful story. And a beautiful palace was built, and thePrincess was married to Nigel in her gold dress, and they all livedhappily as long as was good for them.
The dragon still lies, a stone dragon on the sand, and at low tide thelittle children play around him and over him. But the pieces that wereleft of the griffin were buried under the herb-bed in the palace garden,because it had been so good at housework, and it wasn't its fault thatit had been made so badly and put to such poor work as guarding a ladyfrom her lover.
I have no doubt that you will wish to know what the Princess lived onduring the long years when the dragon did the cooking. My dear, shelived on her income--and that is a thing that a great many people wouldlike to be able to do.
"Little children play around him and over him." _See page96._]
VI
THE DRAGON TAMERS]