“Is this your island?” asked the old soldier, stamping his game foot.
“Yes, and what are you doing on it?” demanded Chin Chilly, stamping his snow foot. “Just to look at you makes we want to melt!”
“Go ahead and melt,” advised Grampa coldly—by this time he was very cold—“but before you do and before you give us any more of your chin music, hand over the reward. I lay claim to half the Kingdom and the Princess in the name of Prince Tatters of Ragbad!”
“Has he slain the dragon?” asked the King, with a gasp of surprise. His manner changed at once and, looking as pleasant as a fellow with icicle whiskers well can, he turned to Tatters. The Prince of Ragbad nodded shortly, for he had not forgotten the King’s rudeness to Urtha, and Grampa waved his sword toward the body of Enorma, still floating half in and half out of the water. Running down to the edge of the stream, the snow men began to hug one another and dance up and down with excitement.
“This way! This way!” chuckled Chin Chilly, rubbing his hands together gleefully. Grampa, his head held high and his chest thrust out proudly, followed—for Grampa felt that this was a great day in the history of Ragbad—but Tatters was beginning to have misgivings about the Princess of Isa Poso.
Tatters Receives the Reward
CHAPTER 13
Tatters Receives the Reward
Prince Tatters had little time to think of either the ship or the fortune, for after a short march over the snow, Chin Chilly stepped across a small neck of land and the little army found themselves on a great block of ice, only connected with the island itself by the narrow strip on which they had crossed. A messenger had already been dispatched for the Princess and, standing first on one foot then on the other, Tatters impatiently awaited her approach. Urtha, remembering Chin Chilly’s distaste for flowers, kept perfectly still, holding fast to Tatters’ coat-tails and peering anxiously in the direction the messenger had taken.