‘Did you hear what he said?’ asked Gerna, greatly surprised.
‘Every word; and I was so afraid you would tell him you had found me. It would have been too dreadful if you had, especially after they dropped me by accident over the cliff, as they did, and haven’t been able to find me since.’
‘However did you get into this purse?’ asked the child.
‘Hager, the King of the Spriggans, put me in here and sealed me up, so that I should not get out,’ said the little voice.
‘Whatever for?’
‘Because I wouldn’t marry him, and because he was afraid somebody else I loved was going to marry me.’
‘He can’t be a very nice king,’ said Gerna. ‘I am glad I didn’t take the purse to the cavern, as you are inside. You know, don’t you, that the little brown kiskey of a man promised they would give me a bag full of gold if I took this purse to their place. Will they?’
‘It all depends,’ answered the little voice. ‘The Spriggans—all those little Dark Men you saw on the sands were Spriggans—are dreadful storytellers, and they never keep their word unless they are obliged to. If they cannot get this purse without having to pay heavily for it, they will give you what they offered. Do you want to be rich, dear little maid?’ it asked anxiously.
‘I don’t one bit,’ returned the child truthfully; ‘but my Great-Grannie and my brother Gelert do. If they were to know that the little Brown Man had promised to give me a bag of gold if I take this one to Piskey Goog, Great-Grannie would make me take it. We are very poor—poor as a coot, she says.’ As the small voice in the purse was silent: ‘If I don’t take you to the goog, will you give me some of the dear Little People’s golden money?’
‘I have no gold to give,’ said the voice very sadly. ‘And if I had, I would not like to give it you, for it would not bring you real happiness. But if you take me down to the cavern, as the Spriggan suggested, you will break my heart. Hager,[4] who is even crueller than his name, will never let me escape from him any more.’