They were not more than a hundred feet away when a long flame burst through the roof of the Evil Magician's castle and in a moment the whole building was burning.
"What happened?" cried Daimur.
"We accidentally set the place on fire," said Prince Redmond.
"Last night," he continued, "after wandering about those long passages without finding the Queen, and seeing no sign of you, we crawled through a small window in the coal cellar and Came back to the ship. Then as you did not come we grew very much alarmed, and at daybreak went back the way we had come, intending to search for you.
"Anxious not to miss finding you we even mounted a stair which led up to a long half-dark room, quite off by itself. It was full of mysterious-looking bottles and pots, many of them marked 'poison,' but the queerest thing of all was a tiny well in one corner, on the cover of which was printed in large black letters 'Enchanting Oil.'
"We lifted the cover and peered in. It was so dark in there that we could see nothing, so I lit a match and by the light of it we looked down a terrible depth and could see the oil shining dimly at the bottom.
"Just then Princess Helda accidentally touched the handle of the little brass bucket which was drawn up to the top, knocking the match out of my fingers. It fell into the bucket, which contained a few drops of the oil. Immediately a flame leaped into our very faces and shot up nearly to the ceiling. We turned and ran down the stairs again, and up another flight near it which Helda knew would take us to one of the living-rooms. There we ran about like mad shouting 'Fire,' and thinking that you and the Queen would surely perish. We knew that some of the fire must soon drop into the oil well, and when that happens I am sure it will explode."
He had hardly said the words when a terrific roar shook the earth. The flaming house suddenly scattered into a million burning pieces which dropped into the sea, and some of which fell on the ship and had to be thrown overboard.
A column of black smoke rose into the air and hid the island entirely from view.
They lay to all morning, waiting for the smoke to clear away, but it was not until mid afternoon that it began to disappear.