“That was fine,” said the Twins.
“What a narrow escape it was for you, Uncle Munch,” said Diavolo.
“Very true,” said the great soldier rising, as a signal that his story was done. “In fact you might say that I had sixty-three narrow escapes, one for each elephant.”
“But what became of the ivory?” asked Angelica.
“Oh, as for that!” said the Baron, with a sigh, “I was disappointed in that. They turned out to be all young elephants, and they had lost their first teeth. Their second teeth hadn’t grown yet. I got only enough ivory to make one paper cutter, which is the one I gave your father for Christmas last year.”
Which may account for the extraordinary interest the Twins have taken in their father’s paper cutter ever since.
V
THE STORY OF JANG
“Did you ever own a dog, Baron Munchausen?” asked the reporter of the Gehenna Gazette, calling to interview the eminent nobleman during Dog Show Week in Cimmeria.
“Yes, indeed I have,” said the Baron, “I fancy I must have owned as many as a hundred dogs in my life. To be sure some of the dogs were iron and brass, but I was just as fond of them as if they had been made of plush or lamb’s wool. They were so quiet, those iron dogs were; and the brass dogs never barked or snapped at any one.”