At the Queen's Mercy

by Mabel Fuller Blodgett

The red witch still appeared some paces ahead, and old as she was, I had all that I cared to do to keep the distance from widening between us. She walked on and on, evenly, and without word or sign to me who followed. Once she stopped and listened with head raised and nostrils distended like a beast. Our course was winding, and I thought we doubled on our tracks. Sometimes it was grass that my feet walked upon, sometimes smooth rock, and again we crossed a torrent bridged by a single tree trunk.

All at once Hubla vanished. I stared stupidly at the empty air, and I think another in my place would have run with all good speed from the spot where such devil’s tricks and things of ill omen could happen. I did indeed commend me to the holy four, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as is my wont before I lay me to rest. It is a worthy practice, and a comfort to a man in my evil case. And that it was Hubla, the red witch, who answered, shakes not my faith, seeing even the end with the beginning. Her words coming almost from beneath my feet did both startle and enrage me. It was, indeed, well for her who spoke that she was old, and if a foul she-monster, that she still wore the shape of woman.

“Son of a pig! Why standest thou staring? Is the golden apple of fortune overripe that it should fall into that gaping mouth of thine?”

At the same time I felt an iron clutch about my ankle, and the solid earth gave way beneath my feet. Also, at the moment, a chain slipped through my fingers.

“Struggle not and hold, on your life,” said the same voice in my ear, and I obeyed, because it was borne in upon me, that to obey was all that there was left to do. I felt about me the swift fall of gravel and small stones that went tinkling down into some abyss on which I dared not think.

Then once again I found a foothold, and clung to it with vigor and all earnestness. I stood now upon a narrow platform bridging a bottomless well, and the chain had vanished, pulled from my grasp by the turn of an invisible windlass. At the opening far above me I saw the dark blue sky and a single golden star.

There was many a thing a man might have said to such a guide as this, but Hubla waited not the hot words that burned upon my tongue. Instead, she thrust into my hand a crooked piece of iron, and by signs showed me how it might be made to fit an opening in the rock before me. She had held her claw-like hand like a vice upon my wrist, but now she relaxed her hold, and in another instant had gone, cat-like,—only no cat could have done it,—up and up the side of this strange prison, until, reaching the top, she sprang over the edge, without so much as a backward glance, and I was left alone.

Then, as one having no other outlet, I put my shoulder against the rock, and with all my might I leaned upon the bar of iron that I held. Slowly, slowly the great stone yielded to the strain, and presently there yawned an opening big enough for a man of substance, like myself, to crawl through. I had no stomach for further acquaintance with my latest dungeon, so, grasping the iron as my one hope and weapon, I plunged feet foremost through the hole. I swung for a moment thus, helpless, with no resting-place within reach; then, as I could not hope to better my lot by such procedure, I commended my soul to Heaven, and loosed my fingers from their hold upon the ledge. Fortunately, the fall was not a bad one. I picked myself up but little bruised and shaken, and found that I was in a narrow passage whose sides I could touch on either hand.

Walking thus, and moving with all caution, I advanced, until at length further progress was barred by a door of stone. I went carefully over its surface with my fingers and found a small opening. Into this I thrust my strange key, and the rock giving way on a sudden to my touch, I fell headlong into the next chamber. For a moment I was blinded by the dazzle of light with which the room was flooded. But after a little I opened my eyes, and as I did so, my heart leaped in my breast, and a sudden faintness seized me, for I saw that I stood on the threshold of the hidden storehouse, and the treasure of the kings of the people of the Walled City, aye, and of their gods, had been delivered into my hand.

I am an old man now, but my pulse beats faster even to this day, when I think of what it was mine to see in that same wondrous treasure house. I noted not that the door had closed behind me, and that there was no opening on the inner side into which my key might fit. I saw only that I stood on piled-up ingots of yellow yellow gold; that bags of skins lay bursting and brimming over with pearls by my side; that half-opened wooden chests held each its store of many-colored jewels; that the gem-encrusted weapons, crowns, and girdles of a dead and bygone royalty littered the very floor. I saw great rough-hewn blocks of silver, curios of many kinds, and mass on mass of ivory tusks. There were, also, beautiful woven tapestries, and rugs of silken lustre, and great sealed jars that I found held wine, fragrant and honey-colored, and fit for an emperor’s banquet.