The Book of Brownies (The Enchanted World) (11 page)

‘Well, we’d better go to that hill over there,’ said Skip bravely. ‘We might be able to rescue the Saucepan Man
some
how. We simply
can’t
leave him
to that Dragon-bird and the Golden Dwarf
 
’

‘Come on then,’ said Hop, and off they all went, keeping a very sharp look-out in case the Dragon-bird came back again.

The hill was very much farther away than it looked. All the afternoon the brownies travelled, their saucepans clanking and jingling at every step.

‘No wonder the Saucepan Man is so deaf
 
!’ said Hop. ‘It’s all I can do to hear myself speak with all this noise going on.’

Presently they came to a little cottage.

‘Let’s knock at the door,’ said Skip, ‘and see if we can get some food in exchange for a saucepan. I’m hungry.’

They knocked. A dwarf opened the door and peered at them.

‘What do you want?’ he said.

‘Do you want any saucepans?’ asked Hop. ‘We’ve got some fine ones here.’

‘How much?’ asked the dwarf.

‘We’ll give you a big one, if you’ll give us a loaf, and some milk,’ said Hop.

The dwarf fetched them three cups of milk and a loaf of bread.

‘Here you are,’ he said. ‘Now give me your biggest saucepan.’

Hop gave him a fine blue saucepan.

‘Who lives in that castle over there on that hill?’ he asked.

‘The Golden Dwarf,’ answered their customer. ‘Don’t you go there, or you’ll be captured by the Dragon-bird.’

‘Why does the Golden Dwarf capture people?’ asked Skip.

‘To eat,’ answered the dwarf. ‘Didn’t you know
that
 
? Ah, he’s a terrible fellow, the Golden Dwarf is, I can tell you. There’s only one word that will
stop him in his evil ways, but as he lives away up there in his high castle that nobody can enter, he’s safe!’

‘What’s the word?’ asked Hop with interest.

‘Ho ho! Don’t you wish you could use it on the Golden Dwarf
 
!’ laughed the dwarf. ‘Well, I’ll tell you. It’s
“Kerolamisticootalimarcawnokeeto”!’

‘Buttons and buttercups!’ said Hop. ‘I’ll never be able to say that!’

‘We’ll split it into three and each of us can remember a bit of it!’ said Skip cleverly.

The dwarf laughed, and said the long word again. Hop said the first piece over and over to himself, while Skip said the middle bit and Jump repeated the last bit.

‘Much good it’ll do you!’ said the dwarf. ‘Why, no one’s ever even
seen
the Golden Dwarf since I’ve lived here – and I’ve been here a
hundred and forty-three years come next November!’

The brownies sighed. Things seemed very difficult. They said goodbye and left the cottage behind them.

‘
Is
it any good going to the castle?’ said Jump, who was beginning to feel very down in the dumps. ‘Suppose we all get caught and eaten.’

‘Cheer up,’ said Hop. ‘You can only get eaten
once
, you know!’

‘Don’t be silly,’ said Jump crossly. ‘I don’t want to be eaten even once.’

‘Sh!’ said Skip. ‘We’re getting near the castle. Better keep a good look-out.’

‘Bother the clanking saucepans,’ said Hop. ‘Shall we take them off and leave them here?’

‘No,’ said Skip. ‘If that horrid Dragon-bird appears again we’ll pretend we’re just a heap of old tins, and maybe it won’t see us then.’

Just as he spoke a shadow fell over them again. At once the three sank down to the ground beneath their saucepans, and lay quite still. The shadow grew blacker, and at last the Dragon-bird
landed by them with a flop. It pecked at Skip’s saucepans and dented them badly. Then it spread its wings, rose into the air, and flew away again.

‘Oh my stars!’ said Jump, shaking like a jelly. ‘This is the sort of adventure that doesn’t agree with me at all. Has that horrid bird gone?’

‘Yes,’ said Hop. ‘It’s a nasty-looking thing too, I can tell you. It’s got scales as well as feathers, and a long tail. It must have thought we were piles of
saucepans!’

‘Come on while we’re safe,’ said Skip.

They ran towards the castle and, panting and breathless, flung themselves down at the foot of it.

‘Isn’t it a funny colour!’ said Hop, looking at it closely. ‘It looks just like toffee!’

Skip broke a piece off and licked it.

‘It
is
toffee!’ he said. ‘My goodness! Fancy a castle built of toffee!’

‘Toffee!’ cried Jump in delight. ‘I say, how lovely! I’m going to have a really big bit!’

He broke off a fine fat piece and began chewing it. It was delicious.

‘I suppose it was built by magic,’ said Hop. ‘I can’t imagine
people
building it, can you? They’d get so terribly sticky.’

‘Well, don’t let’s forget about the Saucepan Man,’ said Skip, looking round about him. ‘I expect he’s feeling very lonely and afraid.’

‘Let’s explore round the outside of the castle,’ said Hop. ‘Maybe we can find some way of getting in then.’

Off went the brownies, after having carefully taken off the saucepans and hidden them under a bush. They were afraid that the Golden Dwarf might hear the clanking if they carried them about.

They marched off round the toffee castle, looking everywhere for a window or a door.

Not one was to be seen.

‘Goodness!’ said Hop at last. ‘No wonder nobody ever sees the Golden Dwarf, if there’s no window and no door on the ground-floor.’

‘I don’t believe there’s any way of getting into the castle at all except by that window right at the very top,’ said Skip, craning his neck to see.

He was right. Not a door was to be seen, and no windows either, except the big one set right at the very top of the castle, where the Dragon-bird had flown in with the Saucepan Man.

The brownies came back to their saucepans and sat down under the bush.

‘Well, that
is
a puzzle,’ said Hop. ‘We haven’t a ladder, and there’s no door – so how ever
can
we get in?’

‘We can’t,’ said Jump. ‘The only thing left to do is to go back to that signpost, and take the road to Witchland.’

‘What, and leave the poor old Saucepan Man to be eaten by the Golden Dwarf
 
?’ cried Skip, who was very tender-hearted. ‘After he’s been so very kind to us too!’

The others looked uncomfortable. They didn’t like leaving their friend behind, but they didn’t really see what else there was to do.

‘Listen!’ said Skip. ‘If you want something badly enough, you’re sure to find out a way. Now let’s just keep quiet and think very, very hard.’

The three brownies put their heads on their hands, shut they eyes, and thought.

They thought and thought and thought.

The sun went down. Still the brownies thought.

The moon came up. Still the brownies thought.

Then Hop raised his head. ‘If only we could get something to climb up the wall with,’ he said. ‘But we haven’t anything at all.’

‘Except silly old saucepans,’ said Jump mournfully.

‘Yes – saucepans,’ repeated Hop. Then his eyes widened as a great thought came into his head.

‘
Saucepans
 
!’ he said again, and chuckled. Then he got up and did a little dance of joy. Skip and Jump stared at him in astonishment.

‘Are you mad, Hop?’ asked Skip.

‘Or do you feel ill?’ asked Jump.

‘No, I’m not mad!’ answered Hop. ‘I’ve only got that fantastic feeling you get when you suddenly think of a perfectly splendid idea.’

‘What is it?’ asked Skip and Jump together.

‘Well, here we’ve been groaning and moaning because we’ve nothing to get us up the castle wall,’ said Hop, ‘and we’ve got the very best thing in the world to
get us up there – the saucepans!’

‘Whatever
do
you mean?’ asked Skip.

‘
This
is what I mean,’ said Hop, and he picked up a saucepan. He held it upside down and drove the handle into the toffee wall. It went in quite easily, and stayed there,
for the toffee held it tight.

‘One step up,’ said Hop, and picked up another saucepan. He pushed the handle of that one in, a little way above the first one.

‘Two steps up!’ he cried. ‘
Now
do you see the idea?’

‘Oh
yes
 
!’ cried the other two. ‘What a good plan, Hop! We can climb up on the saucepans, if only the handles will hold all right!’

‘The toffee will hold them,’ laughed Hop, who was beginning to feel very excited.

One by one the saucepans’ handles were driven into the wall, so that every saucepan made a step higher than the last. They were quite firm and steady and, as the brownies were little and
light, there was no fear of the steps breaking.

Higher and higher they went, until they had almost reached the window at the top. Jump carried the saucepans that were left and passed them one by one to Skip, who passed them to Hop, who drove
the handles into the wall.

‘What a mercy we had so many saucepans!’ whispered Skip.

‘Yes, wasn’t it!’ said Hop. ‘I say! We’re nearly at the top. Suppose the Golden Dwarf leans out of the window and sees us!’

‘We’ll say the magic word!’ said Skip. ‘I know my bit all right.’

‘And I know mine!’ said Jump.

‘Well, we’ll have to join the bits on very quickly when we say it,’ said Hop, ‘or else it won’t sound like a word. Perhaps we’d better practise it before we
go any further.’

‘Hurry up, then,’ said Skip, ‘I’m not very anxious to hang on to these saucepans all night.’

Hop said his part of the magic word, Skip said the middle and Jump joined in quickly with the end. After seven or eight times they managed to do it perfectly, and Hop thought they might go
on.

They had just enough saucepans to reach to the window-ledge. At last Hop could peep over it and look into the room.

He saw a large room hung with golden curtains and spread with a golden carpet. In the middle of it, sitting on a stool, was the Saucepan Man, looking the picture of misery. He was all alone.

‘Good!’ said Hop, and whispered what he saw to the others. Then he peeped over the ledge again.

The Saucepan Man looked up and when he saw Hop, he fell off his stool in astonishment.

‘I must be dreaming,’ he said, and pinched himself very hard.

‘Ow!’ he said. ‘No, I’m not.’

He ran to the window.

‘Help me over,’ said Hop. ‘We’ve come to rescue you.’

The Saucepan Man hauled him into the room, and then they helped Skip and Jump.

Quickly, Hop wrote in his notebook to tell the Saucepan Man how they had come to him.

‘You’d better escape at once, with us,’ wrote Hop, ‘for there’s no knowing when that awful Dragon-bird will appear again, or the Golden Dwarf.’

‘Ugh! Don’t talk of them,’ begged the Saucepan Man. ‘I shall never forget being carried off in those talons. When I got here the Golden Dwarf came and looked at me, and
said I wouldn’t be plump enough to eat for a week.’

The brownies shivered.

‘Come on,’ said Hop, running to the window. ‘Let’s escape while we can.’

He had just got one leg over the window-sill, when heavy footsteps outside the door made his hair stand on end.

‘Oh!’ whispered the Saucepan Man. ‘Hide, quick! It’s the Golden Dwarf.’

The brownies dived behind one of the curtains just as the door opened. In came a peculiar creature, not much bigger than the brownies, who looked as if he were made of solid gold. Hop thought he
looked more like a statue than a live person.

‘I smell brownies!’ said the Golden Dwarf suddenly, and sniffed the air.

The three brownies trembled.

‘Remember the magic word,’ whispered Hop anxiously. ‘It’s our only chance.’

‘I SMELL BROWNIES!’ said the Golden Dwarf again, and strode over to the shaking curtain.

He pulled it aside. Out sprang Hop, Skip, and Jump. ‘Kerolamisti –’ shouted Hop.

‘Cootalimar –’ went on Skip.

‘Cawnokeeto!’ finished Jump.

The Golden Dwarf stared at them in terror.

‘The Word! The Word!’ he cried, and pulled at his hair. Then he uttered a deep groan, jumped into the air, and vanished completely.

The brownies and the Saucepan Man stared at the place where the Golden Dwarf had stood. Nothing happened. He didn’t come back.

‘You’ve done the trick!’ said the Saucepan Man. ‘He’s gone for good!’

‘Hurrah!’ cried Hop. ‘Thank goodness we remembered the magic word! Come on, Saucepan Man – let’s get away from this horrid castle!’

Over the window-sill they clambered, and were soon scrambling down the saucepans as fast as they could go. ‘We’ll leave them there,’ said the Saucepan Man. ‘I don’t
want to waste any more time here, in case the Dragon-bird comes back.’

So off they all went in the moonlight, to the signpost pointing to Witchland.

Their Adventure with the Labeller and the Bottler

They hadn’t gone very far when the Saucepan Man began to yawn.

‘I’m
so
sleepy,’ he said, ‘and it really must be very late. What about getting underneath a bush and going to sleep till morning?’

The brownies thought it would be a very good idea. So they all cuddled together beneath a bush, and went fast asleep till the sun rose.

‘Wake up! Wake up!’ cried Hop. ‘It’s time to go on our way to Witchland and rescue the Princess Peronel.’

The others woke with a jump. They washed in a nearby stream, picked some blackberries for breakfast and went on towards the sign-post.

Suddenly a great black shadow came over them.

‘Oh! Oh!’ yelled the Saucepan Man in terror. ‘It’s the Dragon-bird again. Run! Run!’

The brownies ran helter-skelter to some bushes. The black shadow grew darker.

Zee-ee-ee! The Dragon-bird landed on the ground by them with a thud.

‘Where is my master? Where is my master?’ it cried in a croaking voice.

‘We have said a magic word and made him vanish for ever!’ shouted Hop bravely. ‘And if you don’t leave us alone, we’ll make
you
vanish too, you horrid
Dragon-bird.’

‘No, no!’ shrieked the bird. ‘Oh, most powerful wizard, let me serve
you
, now that my master the Golden Dwarf, is gone. Let me be your slave.’