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Updated: June 20, 2025
"Come, come!" interposed the prince, stepping forward with a deprecating smile; "there should be no quarrelling among friends, especially at the beginning of a long journey. See, I have fetched your breakfast for you. Instead of tumbling on the fire and putting it out, Maikar, I think it would be wiser to see if there is a spark left and blow it into a flame. Quick! I am hungry."
Bladud's arrow hit it fair between the eyes, but stuck in the impenetrable skull. The shaft of the captain missed, and the javelin of Maikar went wildly wide of the mark. By order of Bladud the three had separated a few yards from each other. Even in its rage the monster was perplexed by this, for it evidently perceived the impossibility of attacking three foes at the same moment.
Maikar, on the other hand, went up like a squirrel. Now, the little seaman had been told that some kinds of bears can climb while others cannot. Remembering the fact, he glanced anxiously down, as he went up. To his horror he saw that this bear could climb! and that his only chance would be to climb so high, that the branches which would bear his weight would not support the bear.
For a few moments they continued to gaze at each other then there was a general sigh, as if a matter of great importance had been finally settled, and the silence was at last broken by little Maikar solemnly demanding another rib of roast-beef.
The captain and Maikar gently elbowed their way to the front, where they could see what was going on. "I will remain in the back row where I can see well enough," said Bladud. "Keep a look-out for me when you feel lost. I don't mean to make myself known just yet." At the further end of the ground enclosed for the sports, a slightly raised platform had been prepared for the king and his household.
No doubt, living as they did, constantly in fresh air, having no house drains or gas, and being blessed with superabundant exercise, their appetites were keen and their capacities great. For at least ten minutes after the evening meal began, Bladud, Arkal, Dromas, little Maikar, and the Hebrew, were as dumb and as busy as Brownie.
"Then no hope remains to us," said Maikar, with a sigh, "except to join ourselves to the wild people of the land if there be any people at all in it and live and die like savages." "Patience, Maikar, I have not yet finished." "Besides," interpolated Bladud, "a wise judge never delivers an opinion until he has heard both sides of a question."
Arkal and his men whiled away the time in whispered conversations, which related more or less to the part they were expected to play. "If any of the robbers reach this side of the swamp alive," remarked Arkal, "there will be no need to kill them." "What then? would you let them escape?" asked Maikar in surprise. "Not on this side of the river," returned the captain.
"Pooh! nonsense!" exclaimed little Maikar, twirling his thumbs, for smoking had not been introduced into the world at that period and thumb-twirling would seem to have served the ancient world for leisurely pastime quite as well, if not better at least we are led to infer so from the fact that Herodotus makes no mention of anything like a vague, mysterious sensation of unsatisfied desire to fill the mouth with smoke in those early ages, which he would certainly have done had the taste for smoke been a natural craving, and thumb-twirling an unsatisfactory occupation.
The squall or puff was only strong enough to cause the Penelope to make a graceful bow to the controlling element and cleave the sparkling water with her prow so swiftly that she left a gleaming wake as of lambent fire astern. It was short-lived, however, and was followed by a calm which obliged little Maikar and his comrades to cease their story-telling and ply their fifty oars.
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