So tickled did she appear at this somewhat ambiguous question that she laughed till the building trembled to its foundation, and she no sooner recovered from one guffaw than she went [[40]]off into another, until it ended in a severe fit of coughing.
Samson the Nugget was rather surprised at the old lady’s merriment. There really seemed nothing to laugh at. How was he to find the way to that subterraneous passage by which he had come? And, moreover, supposing he found it, how was he to convey the Princess up the steep sides of the black chasm?
The whole thing had been feasible enough if the ram’s horn had still remained in his possession, but the relic had mysteriously gone from him the moment he re-entered the old woman’s hut.
After many futile attempts at choking, Mother Dot recovered sufficiently to say,—
“Sir Knight, be not troubled concerning the maiden. I will find means to send ye both to Golden Cloud.”
“But, dame, I repeat the place is a ruin.”
“Tut! To thee it seemeth so,” she answered shortly. “I will undo the spell cast upon it, and thou shalt see it in all its former magnificence. The statues shall rouse them from their long sleep and give ye welcome. I have said it.”
The dame hobbled to a pretty cage, and took therefrom a beautiful ring-dove which perched tamely on her finger and began to coo. Bending [[41]]her mouth towards its beak she whispered a few words, and the dove flew away and was lost to sight in a moment.
“Come, Sir Knight; come, Princess. You must now set forth on your journey to Golden Cloud,” continued Mother Dot. “We will all mount upon the back of the ass, who shall bear us to Moonshine, after which you will have no difficulty in reaching your destination.”
The miserable donkey gave forth a loud bray of dissent at the undue weight placed upon him, but a few sound thumps, administered with the old lady’s crutch, soon quieted him. The dark night had fallen round them ere they reached the frontier which divides Golden Cloud from Work-a-Day.