“And if any one ate my head,” said the green one, also chuckling, “emeralds [[120]]would come from his mouth whenever he so desired. Lucky the stupid mortals will never know!”
Schalu and his friend had heard enough. Trembling with excitement, they crept away from their hiding place, out of sound and sight of the serpents, and then fell to hugging each other for very joy of their discovery. They lost no time in making for themselves huge oak staves, and armed with these, they walked back to where the serpents still sat lazily talking together on the bank of the stream. With a shout, they leaped from the bushes upon the unsuspecting monsters and attacked them. The fight was short and sharp. The great creatures turned upon the two boys viciously and lunged at them with their hard, metallic heads, but the lads dodged skilfully and brought down blow after blow upon their enemies until at last they lay motionless and quite dead.
“Now,” said Prince Schalu, leaning on his staff and breathing hard, “we must [[121]]build a fire and cook ourselves a meal, and if the serpent-gods spoke the truth, we shall then be rich for the rest of our lives.”
With their knives they cut off the heads of their dreaded enemies and, having built a fire of twigs, they cooked them well and then ate them. Schalu ate the golden head and declared it delicious, while Saran said that he had never tasted anything quite so good as the emerald-green head.
“Let us see,” said the Prince, when they had finished, “how well the charm works. I wish that my mouth would pour forth gold!” Scarcely had he finished speaking before a rain of bright gold coins fell from his lips, and the boys gathered them up in big handfuls and stowed them away in their pockets.
“Now let me try!” said Saran. “I wish that my mouth would pour forth emeralds!” Immediately emeralds pattered to the ground in great profusion.
“What fun!” said Saran, gathering them up. “Now let us hasten back to the [[122]]palace and show your royal father all that we have accomplished!”
“No, don’t let us go home yet,” said the Prince. “One adventure is but a stepping-stone to another, and I am minded to travel a bit and see what fortune we may meet by the way. With this marvellous gift of gold and emeralds, we should surely come by some strange and interesting experiences.”
To this plan Saran readily agreed; the two set forth with merry hearts and, finding an unfamiliar road, followed it, they knew not whither. All day long they traveled, meeting many wayfarers, but finding nothing in the shape of an adventure. In the late afternoon they reached a palm grove whence came shouts and cries and signs of great commotion. Hurrying toward the scene of disturbance, they beheld half a dozen lusty boys fighting most brutally.
“Here, young fellows!” cried the Prince, “stop that at once and tell us what [[123]]you are fighting about!” But the boys paid no heed to him at all.