“QUEEN GUDA ROLLED THE STONE INTO THE SEA.”
She then returned to the castle weeping, telling her attendants that the children had run away, that she had called them to come back, but all in vain, they would not obey; so she now sent out messengers in all directions, pretending terrible grief at their supposed loss.
CHAPTER II.
HOW THORWALD AND INGIBJÖRG FOUND THEMSELVES AT THE WITCH’S ISLAND, AND WHAT THEY DID.
The two children meanwhile, when they felt the stone closing, tried their utmost to force it open. But all their efforts proved fruitless; the stone remained shut, and the children soon felt, by the rapid motion, that they were fairly out at sea, for, being a magic stone, it floated on the surface of the water instead of sinking to the bottom. The waves tossed it about for many hours, but at length the children felt the motion getting less and less, until at last the stone lay perfectly still.
“I think we must be near land now,” said Thorwald. “There is no motion at all.”
“If you think that, why should not you say the same words the queen did?” replied Ingibjörg.
So Thorwald waited a little longer in order to make sure it was not merely a temporary lull, and then he called out loudly—
“Open, oh stone!”