When he crawled out from under the mallow, the first thing he saw on the Island facing him was the dark form of a great black chough. He was perched on the wall above the old arched doorway, gazing gravely in front of him.
The Piskey lost not a moment in getting across to the Island, which he did by the Piskey passage known only to the Piskeys; and when he had caught the bird’s attention he said:
‘I am a poor little Piskey who has lost his laugh, and I am come to ask the Good King Arthur if he has seen it.’
But the bird was too high up for him to make himself heard, and he had to wait patiently till it flew down. After waiting a short time it did, and perched on a stick stuck in the ground.
The Piskey ran over, and, clasping his hands, he repeated what he had just said.
‘How came you to know I was King Arthur?’ asked the chough, ignoring the little fellow’s question.
‘The mole who says she is the Lady Want told me,’ he answered.
‘Ah, I know her—the grand lady who considered the ground on which she walked was not good enough for her dainty feet, and has now, as a punishment, to walk under the ground—a lesson to all children of pride.’
‘But please, Good King Arthur, answer my question about my laugh,’ pleaded the little Piskey, in an agony of impatience. ‘If I don’t find it soon something dreadful will happen to me.’
‘Have patience,’ said the chough kindly. ‘Nothing is ever won by impatience. I have seen something very funny lately running about over the grass. It is like nothing I have ever seen before except in a Piskey’s face when he laughs. It is like a laugh gone mad, and it is enough to kill a man with laughing only to watch its antics. It made me laugh till I ached when I first noticed it. It does not make a sound, but its grimaces are worth flying a hundred miles only to see.’