The sound filled the vast cavern and penetrated
to many caverns beyond, where countless thousands
of nomes were working at their unending tasks,
hammering out gold and silver and other metals, or
melting ores in great furnaces, or polishing
glittering gems. The nomes trembled at the sound
of the King's gong and whispered fearfully to one
another that something unpleasant was sure to
happen; but none dared pause in his task,
The heavy curtains of cloth-of-gold were pushed
aside and Kaliko, the King's High Chamberlain,
entered the royal presence.
"What's up, Your Majesty?" he asked, with a wide
yawn, for he had just wakened.
"Up?" roared Ruggedo, stamping his foot
viciously. "Those foolish mortals are up, that's
what! And they want to come down."
"Down here?" inquired Kaliko.
"Yes!"
"How do you know?" continued the Chamberlain,
yawning again.
"I feel it in my bones," said Ruggedo. "I can
always feel it when those hateful earth-crawlers
draw near to my Kingdom. I am positive, Kaliko,
that mortals are this very minute on their way
here to annoy me--and I hate mortals more than I do
catnip tea!"
"Well, what's to be done?" demanded the nome.
"Look through your spyglass, and see where
the invaders are," commanded the King.
So Kaliko went to a tube in the wall of rock
and put his eye to it. The tube ran from the
cavern up to the side of the mountain and turned
several curves and corners, but as it was a magic
spyglass Kaliko was able to see through it just
as easily as if it had been straight.
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