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"No, I'm wide awake now," answered the child. "I'm afraid if I goes to sleep ag'in, I'll wake up a pot roast," said Cap'n Bill. "Let us consider ways to escape," suggested Clia. "It seems useless for us to remain here quietly until Zog discovers a way to destroy us." "But we must not blunder," added Aquareine cautiously.
"Don't look up," whispered Clia, pressing close to the little girl's side. "Why not?" asked Trot, and then she did exactly what she had been told not to do. She lifted her head and saw stretched over them a network of scrawny, crimson arms interlaced like the branches of trees in winter when the leaves have fallen and left them bare.
"You don't mean it!" he exclaimed in wonder. "Then there's magic in it," announced Trot soberly. "True, my dear. To avoid tiring you and to save time, we have used a little of our fairy power," said Clia. "The result is that we are nearing our home. Let us go downward a bit, now, for you must know that the mermaid palaces are at the very bottom of the ocean, and in its deepest part."
So they again started, this time almost at a right angle to their former course, the little girl inquired: "How can the cuttlefish color the water so very black?" "They carry big sacks in front of them where they conceal the ink," Princess Clia answered. "Whenever they choose, the cuttlefish are able to press out this ink, and it colors the water for a great space around them."
Although the queen had lost her fairy wand in Zog's domed chamber, she had still enough magic power to carry them all across the ocean in wonderfully quick time, and before Trot and Cap'n Bill were aware of the distance they had come, the mermaids paused while Princess Clia said: "Now we must go a little deeper, for here is the Giant's Cave and the entrance to it is near the bottom of the sea."
The queen worked her magic power as hard as she could, and the ice flowed and melted quickly before her fairy wand. Yet when they reached the old sailor, he was almost frozen stiff, and Trot and Clia had to rub his hands and nose and ears very briskly to warm him up and bring him back to life.
As they approached to look around them, a brilliantly colored gregfish approached and gazed at them curiously with his big, saucer-like eyes. "So Zog has got you at last!" he said in a pitying tone. "How foolish you were to swim into that part of the sea where he is powerful." "The sea devils made us," explained Clia.
"Can't they get in?" he asked anxiously. "No. The palaces of the mermaids are inhabited only by themselves." "Is there anything else to be afraid of in the sea?" asked the little girl after they had swum quite a while in silence. "One or two things, my dear," answered Princess Clia.
"We are sure to, dear Princess," Trot hastened to say. Then Clia escorted them through the archway and into a lofty hall. It was not a mere grotto, but had smoothly built walls of pink coral inlaid with white. Trot at first thought there was no roof, for looking upward she could see the water all above them.
While she spoke they began to descend through the water, and it grew quite dark for a time because the cave shut out the light. But presently Trot, who was eagerly looking around her, began to notice the water lighten and saw they were coming into brighter parts of the sea. "We have left the cave now," said Clia, "and may swim straight home."
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