ttle
as his weight glided over it. But he thought some of the creatures
would try the legserpent's teeth.

One by one the oddities followed, and slid down in safety. When they
seemed to be all landed, he counted them: there were but forty-eight.
Up the rope again he went, and found one which had been afraid to trust
himself to the bridge, and no wonder! for he had neither legs nor head
nor arms nor tail: he was just a round thing, about a foot in diameter,
with a nose and mouth and eyes on one side of the ball. He had made
his journey by rolling as swiftly as the fleetest of them could run.
The back of the legserpent not being flat, he could not quite trust
himself to roll straight and not drop into the gulf. Curdie took him
in his arms, and the moment he looked down through the hole, the bridge
made itself again, and he slid into the passage in safety, with
Ballbody in his bosom.

He ran first to the cellar to warn the girl not to be frightened at the
avengers of wickedness. Then he called to Lina to bring in her friends.

One after another they came trooping in, till the cellar seemed full of
them. The housemaid regarded them without fear.

'Sir,' she said, 'there is one of the pages I don't take to be a bad
fellow.'

'Then keep him near you,' said Curdie. 'And now can you show me a way
to the king's chamber not through the servants' hall?'

'There is a way through the chamber of the colonel of the guard,' she
answered, 'but he is ill, and in bed.'

'Take me that way,' said Curdie.

By many ups and downs and windings and turnings she brought him to a
dimly lighted room, where lay an elderly man asleep. His arm was
outside the coverlid, and Curdie gave his hand a hurried grasp as he
went by. His heart beat for joy, for he had found a good, honest,
human hand.

'I suppose that is why he is ill,' he said to himself.

It was now close upon suppertime, and when the girl stopped at the door
of the king's chamber, he told her to go and give the servants one
warning more.

'Say the messenger sent you,' he said. 'I will be with you very soon.'

The king was still asleep. Curdie talked to the princess for a few
minutes, told her not to be frightened whatever noises she heard, only
to keep her door locked till he came, and left her.

CHAPTER 26

The Vengeance

By the time the girl reached the servants' hall they were seated at
supper. A loud, confused exclamation arose when she entered. No on