“Is that your final answer?”
“It is.”
“Be it so, then. From this time forward I am the queen of the Land of Hez. Farewell, my sister. May you and your lover enjoy the agonies of death you have so freely chosen!”
This nerved Dick to a feeling of desperation, and he strove to free himself with all his might.
But it was utterly useless; the heavy cloth that bound his hands to his sides was too firmly wound about him.
Then, too, his legs were secured in the same manner, and he soon found that he could scarcely even turn over.
“It is useless,” he said, panting from his exertions. “We have got to die!”
“Oh, say not so,” wailed the queen, and she fell back in a faint.
And Dick! He relaxed his muscles and fell into as comfortable a position as was possible, and set to thinking over their situation.
What worried him most was what the queen’s sister had said about them furnishing a meal for the dreaded picuasus.