"You certainly got hold of that gem, my dear—and you evidently consider yourself in consequence an apt pupil of that old Fairy who befriended you—worse luck to her! had she but passed a moment later there would have been no time to frustrate me. My science would have been powerful enough to change you into a mere Bird. My Collection would have been the more valuable, and she could not have made you into a Fairy besides; nor would you have known enchanting arts with power to torment me; nor would you have had any hope of future freedom."
The Wizard paused a moment, then rasped out—
"Were it not for your own salvation perhaps you wouldn't be so ready to help the children, and to dare attempt to triumph over me. But we shall see what progress we have both made!"
"We shall see!" she repeated. "Touch these dear children if you can. You find it difficult? You do not understand it, eh?"
The Wizard, with a groan of pain, had leapt back after another attempt.
"I soon shall understand it," he cried angrily, taking up a bottle containing a green fluid, a few drops of which he poured into his palms, then smiled. "This will wake them quickly enough, and probably never let them sleep again."
But the only result was a louder cry of pain from him and a peaceful snore from them.
The Bird-Fairy looked steadily at him, and the Wizard trembled with anger and fear. Recovering himself he muttered: "You've got them well under your wing. So it must be with you I have to deal first. Ah, ha! I'll show you how Science can outdo your paltry old-fashioned arts!"
Thereupon he took a curious box-shaped mechanism, pointed it at the Bird-Fairy, pressed a spring, and instantly the pretty trio became enveloped in a halo of rainbow. The next moment the wings of the Bird-Fairy drooped, and the children awoke. Her Spell was broken!
He moved his terrible invention slightly, so that she alone was encircled by the rainbow ray. She stood there motionless like a beautiful statue; and the Bird-Fairy was in the Wizard's power!