“Shan’t!” shouted his Majesty defiantly, pushing his crown further on to his head.
“What!” screamed the good lady, in a terrible passion. “Do you dare to rebel?”
“Yes, I do,” called out his Majesty bravely. “I don’t believe you are my sister-in-law at all, and I’m not going back to Why to be snubbed and ill-treated for you or any one else—so there. You can’t get at me, hanging up here, and I don’t mean to get down till you’re gone. Yah!”
“Oh, we’ll soon see all about that,” called out the Doctor-in-Law, working himself to the edge of the shute, and trying to climb up the steep sides of the bank.
We watched his endeavors with considerable anxiety, for if he did succeed in getting on to the bank, it would be an easy matter for him to get at us, by means of the bridge. The rope, however, by which he was attached to the Sister-in-Law was not sufficiently long to enable him to do this, and while he was unfastening it there was a sudden cry in the direction of the tunnel, and a moment afterwards, screaming, kicking, and struggling, the whole party rapidly disappeared down the shute.
The rope had given way!
“He, he, he! Ha, ha!” laughed his Majesty, as the huddled mass vanished in the distance. “What a lark! Oh what a muddle they will be in when they reach the bottom.”
I tried to imagine what would be the result, and came to the conclusion that, uncomfortable as I was in my present position, I would rather be where I was than attached to the rope with the others.
In the meantime the little blue people, their curiosity evidently aroused by the noise, were hurrying towards us as quickly as possible, bringing with them a very stout blue person, who was waddling along, being alternately pushed and pulled by the others in their eagerness to reach us.
“See, there they are!” cried the little lady whose name we afterwards found out was Gra-Shus. “Oh my! Aren’t they a funny color?”