“I do not know,” confessed Shaggy. “I cannot remember his looks very well, it is so long since I have seen him; but all of our family are noted for their handsome faces.”
Betsy laughed and Shaggy seemed rather hurt; but Polychrome relieved his embarrassment by saying softly: “One can be ugly in looks, but lovely in disposition.”
“Our first task,” said Shaggy, a little comforted by this remark, “is to find one of those secret passages to the Metal Forest.”
“True,” agreed Kaliko. “So I think I will assemble the chief nomes of my kingdom in this throne room and tell them that I am their new King. Then I can ask them to assist us in searching for the secret passages.”
“That’s a good idea,” said the dragon, who seemed to be getting sleepy again.
Kaliko went to the big gong and pounded on it just as Ruggedo used to do; but no one answered the summons.
“Of course not,” said he, jumping up from the throne, where he had seated himself. “That is my call, and I am still the Royal Chamberlain, and will be until I appoint another in my place.”
So he ran out of the room and found Guph and told him to answer the summons of the King’s gong. Having returned to the royal cavern, Kaliko first pounded the gong and then sat in the throne, wearing Ruggedo’s discarded ruby crown and holding in his hand the sceptre which Ruggedo had so often thrown at his head.
When Guph entered he was amazed.