"Wait! Stop!" Nox sprang up with surprising lightness for one usually so ponderous and slow. "Do you realize that I am treasured and watched more closely than the crown jewels? At this very moment twenty guardsmen stalk round and round the stable. I have as much chance of leaving Keretaria as a goldfish has of flying through a forest."
As if to prove his words a tall soldier in a blue shako thrust his head suddenly through the window from the outside. "Is everything in order and as you wish, your Highness?" puffed the Guard, looking suspiciously at the Goat Girl's revolving arms.
"Everything is lovely," murmured the Ox in a sleepy voice. "My slave here is doing her exercises and when she finishes she will polish my horns." At his warning wink, Handy Mandy dropped all her arms at her side.
"Well! Well! A pleasant evening to you," mumbled the soldier, withdrawing his head after another disapproving look at the Goat Girl. For a moment after he had disappeared neither spoke, then Handy Mandy, snatching a silk cover from one of the pillows fell to polishing Nox's left horn for very dear life.
"I can always think faster when I'm working," she observed earnestly.
"Think away," replied the Ox, closing his eyes so as not to see the numerous hands flashing past his nose. "But be careful what you say and do. If you rouse the suspicions of old King Kerr, you'll be flung into a dungeon in spite of all my influence."
"Now don't you be worrying about me," chortled Handy with a little wink and nod. "I've been taking care of myself and a flock of goats for ten years! Say, this is a bend, for sure." The Goat Girl ran her rubber fingers curiously along the curve in the Ox's left horn and then, with one of her sudden and kind-hearted impulses, tried to straighten the quirk with a quick twist of her wrist. Imagine, then, if you can, her horror and surprise when the golden horn came off in her hand.
"Oh my goats and my goodness!" shuddered Handy hopping from one foot to the other. "What'll I do? Where's some glue? Oh My—igh—igh! I'm mighty sorry!"
"Sorry!" gulped the Royal Ox, glaring at the Goat Girl with rolling eyes and lashing tail. But before he could lunge forward as he certainly intended to do, Handy gave a little scream of excitement. "Oh look," she panted, pointing all thirty-five fingers at the base of Nox's horn, "Oh, my dear—ear, it screws on—there are regular grooves. Wait—I'll have it back in a jiffy."