“The others don’t think so,” he said, a little hurt. “They began by saying I was only an irregular Sea Urchin, because I’ve got this jolly tail”—he gave it a merry wag—“and they called me Spatangus, and names like that. But they’ve made me their General now—General Echinus. I’m a regular now, and no mistake, and what I was going to say is the enemy is going to attack the North Tower in force in half an hour.”
“You good boy,” said the Princess. I do believe if it hadn’t been for his Sea Urchin’s uniform she would have kissed him. “You’re splendid. You’re a hero. If you could do it safely—there’s heaps of seaweed—could you find out if there’s any danger from the Book People? You know—the ones in the cave. It’s always been our fear that they might attack, too: and if they did—well, I’d rather be the slave of a Shark than of Mrs. Fairchild.” She gathered an armful of seaweed from the nearest tree, and Reuben wrapped himself in it and drifted off—looking less like a live Boy Scout than you could believe possible.
The defenders of Merland, now acting on Reuben’s information, began to mass themselves near the North Wall.
“Now is our time,” said the Princess. “We must go along the tunnel, and when we hear the sound of their heavy feet shaking the flow of ocean we must make sallies, and fix our shell shields in their feet. Major, rally your men.”
A tall Merchild in the Crustacean uniform blew a clear note, and the soldiers of the Crustacean Brigade, who having nothing particular to do had been helping anyone and everyone as best they could, which is the way in Merland, though not in Europe, gathered about their officers.
When they were all drawn up before her, the Princess addressed her troops.
“My men,” she said, “we have been suddenly plunged into war. But it has not found us unprepared. I am proud to think that my regiments are ready to the last pearl button. And I know that every man among you will be as proud as I am that our post is, as tradition tells us it has always been, the post of danger. We shall go out into the depths of the sea to fight the enemies of our dear country, and to lay down our lives, if need be, for that country’s sake.”
The soldiers answered by cheers, and the Princess led the way to one of those little buildings, like Temples of Flora in old pictures, which the children had noticed in the gardens. At the order given a sergeant raised a great stone by a golden ring embedded in it and disclosed a dark passage leading underground.
A splendid captain of Cockles, six feet high if he was an inch, with a sergeant and six men, led the way. Three Oyster officers followed, then a company of Oysters, the advance guard. At the head of the main body following were the Princess and her Staff. As they went the Princess explained why the tunnel was so long and sloped so steeply.