"I shall die if this goes on much longer! I know I shall!" gasped Lady Muscombe.
"Ha!" cried Clarence, as the pages staggered in with a huge distended sack. "Leave it alone, I'll open it myself."
"Surely not without asking the owner's permission?" said the Duchess, who had hitherto witnessed the scene in silent and dignified amazement.
"You can open it if you like!" said the Count, with a confident smile. "And then you will see what a fuss you have made about nothing."
Clarence cut the cord, and opened the sack. The moment he did so his jaw fell. "I own up," he said. "I was wrong. They are pumpkins!"
"And if you are a gentleman, Clarence," cried Edna, "you will apologise to Ruprecht at once!"
"There may be something else underneath," he said, lifting a pumpkin suspiciously in both hands. "Hullo! My hat! What's this I've got hold of?" he exclaimed, as the vegetable suddenly developed, the moment it was clear of the sack, into one of the chubbiest of the royal pages. "Very odd!" he remarked, as he set the boy down. "Let's have the lot out." He tilted the sack, and as each pumpkin rolled out upon the sardonyx pavement, a bewildered page sprang up in its stead.
"Quite a clever trick!" said Lady Muscombe. "Even Maskelyne and Devant couldn't beat that!"
"After all, it wasn't so very much of a change!" was Ruby's comment.
"What do you boys mean by playing at being pumpkins in this way?" demanded King Sidney. "I must have an explanation of this. Speak out, one of you!"