"George, I love you: heaven only knows how much I love you. But how can I leave little King Loc?"
"Ha, ha! you are both prisoners of mine," cried King Loc in a terrible voice.
He put on a terrible voice by way of amusement and to play a good joke. But really he was not angry. Freeheart came to him and bent a knee to the ground.
"Sir," he said, "will your Highness be pleased to let me share the captivity of the master I serve?"
Bee, recognising him, said to him:
"It is you, my good Freeheart. I am pleased to see you again. You are wearing a very ugly feather. Tell me, have you composed any new songs?"
And King Loc took them all three off to dinner.
CHAPTER XXI
IN WHICH ALL ENDS WELL
The next day George and Freeheart dressed themselves in sumptuous clothes which the dwarfs had prepared for them, and betook themselves to the Hall of State where King Loc, in the dress of an Emperor, soon came to join them as he had promised. He was followed by his officers wearing arms, and furs of a wild magnificence, and helmets on which swan-wings waved. The dwarfs, thronging in crowds, came in by the windows, the ventilators, and the chimneys, and even crept under the seats.