“You shall be her husband!” cried the villagers; “we believe you to be a good lad.”
“If you give him the golden statue, I’ll ruin the whole village!” cried Hocky in a rage. “You know I can do it.”
And indeed it was the truth, for Hocky had lent the villagers a lot of money, and in return they had given over their lands and houses to him, so he was really owner of the whole place. All the villagers were dismayed at this, and Filina’s father began to weep, for he thought he would never hear his daughter’s merry voice again, when Kelch spoke.
“I’ll restore Filina to life and get rid of Hocky, if you withdraw your accusations of my being a magician.”
“Yes, yes!” they all cried; “you are no magician—you are a good man, and shall marry Filina.”
“And how will you get rid of me?” asked Hocky, angrily turning to Kelch.
“By giving you more gold than you ever saw before in your life,” replied Kelch. “Will you agree to that?”
“Yes, I will,” replied Hocky greedily, “if you give me more gold than I’ve got, and more gold than there is in this statue of Filina.”
“Very well,” observed Kelch; “in order to see more gold than you ever saw in your life, all you’ve got to do is to pull that ring off Filina’s finger and place it on your own.”
“Hurrah!” cried Hocky, turning to the statue. “I’ll do it at once.”