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Updated: May 31, 2025
Ruggedo, on his part, decided that he could, by careful watching and listening, surprise the boy's secret, and when he had learned the magic word he would transform Kiki Aru into a bundle of faggots and burn him up and so be rid of him. This is always the way with wicked people. They cannot be trusted even by one another.
Instead, there was something so cold and merciless in the dragon's expression that the condemned Nome King trembled and was sick at heart. There was little comfort for Ruggedo in the fact that the dragon was now chained, although he had boasted of it. He glared at the immense head of Quox as if fascinated and there was fear in the old King's eyes as he watched his enemy's movements.
"I must in some way prevent these people from reaching my dominions. Where are they now?" "Just now they are crossing the Rubber Country, Your Majesty." "Good! Are your magnetic rubber wires in working order?" "I think so," replied Kaliko. "Is it your Royal Will that we have some fun with these invaders?" "It is," answered Ruggedo. "I want to teach them a lesson they will never forget."
Then they realized it was he who had scattered the jewels, from his many pockets, which one by one had burst with the weight of their contents as he had stumbled along the passage. "But I don't mind," said Ruggedo, with a deep sigh. "I now realize that I could not have carried such a weighty load very far, even had I managed to escape from this passage with it.
When he could no longer stoop over without falling, Betsy and Polychrome and the Rose Princess came to his assistance, picking up the finest gems and tucking them into his pockets. At last these were all filled and Ruggedo presented a comical sight, for surely no man ever before had so many pockets, or any at all filled with such a choice collection of precious stones.
All the way along the passage they found this trail of jewels, but when they neared the end the mystery was explained. For there, squatted upon the floor with his back to the rock wall, sat old Ruggedo, puffing and blowing as if he was all tired out.
At once his eagle cry was answered from beyond the grove, and another eagle, even larger and more powerful than the transformed Ruggedo, came sailing through the trees and alighted beside him. "Now we are ready for the start," said the voice of Kiki, coming from the eagle. Ruggedo realized that this time he had been outwitted.
The Wizard was delighted, and leaped from the hollow just as Ruggedo looked around to see what had become of Kiki. The Nome saw the Fox but no Kiki, so he hastily rose to his feet. The Wizard did not know how powerful the queer beast might be, so he resolved to take no chances. "I want this creature to become a walnut Pyrzqxgl!" he said aloud.
Rango the Gray Ape turned at once and glided swiftly through the forest on his mission. The Bear gave a grunt and walked away. Gugu the King rose and stretched himself. Then he said to Ruggedo: "Meet us at sunrise to-morrow," and with stately stride vanished among the trees. The man-unicorn, left alone with the strangers, suddenly stopped his foolish prancing.
"Come, let us follow Ruggedo at once and rescue my poor brother!" They agreed to this and King Kaliko called together a band of nomes to assist them by carrying torches to light their way. "The Metal Forest has a brilliant light of its own," said he, "but the passage across the valley is likely to be dark."
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