Read Ebook: The Enchanted Island by Apjohn Fannie Louise

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Ebook has 837 lines and 38144 words, and 17 pages

As most of the best statesmen and all the King's close advisers had been drowned, there was nobody in particular to disagree with him, and he immediately took possession of the palace and began ordering everyone around.

Soon people hated him, and he made the taxes so high that it took nearly all the money they could earn to pay them. This was to keep up an immense army which he had formed with the intention of making war against the other islands as soon as he had built a large fleet.

When Daimur was eighteen all the people of the kingdom demanded that he should be crowned king.

Daimur wanted to be crowned at once too, so that he could put back all the good laws his father had made, and save his country from going to war, but his uncle begged him to wait for a couple of months.

One night shortly after his birthday, Daimur had gone to his apartment and was sitting at his window thinking sadly of his troubled kingdom, when suddenly his door was opened and before he could say a word a gag was thrust into his mouth, his hands and feet were tied, and he was carried quickly downstairs, out of doors and down the garden path to the sea, where he was dumped into a boat that was anchored at the little wharf there. The night was very dark, and Daimur could not see because they had thrown a cloak over him and fastened it over his head, but he could tell that it was a small boat by the way it rocked when they moved about. The men ran up a couple of sails and pushed off to sea. The boat raced swiftly through the waves, but Daimur thought the journey would never end as he lay bound in the bow of the boat, and half smothered by the cloak. They sailed all night. The sun came up and it was a very warm day, but still they kept on, and it was not until the middle of the afternoon that they came at last to land and ran onto a sandy beach. Here the men pulled the poor Prince out of the boat more dead than alive, set him free, and putting off a large jug of fresh water and a big bag of biscuits, sailed away again and left him.

In vain Daimur cried after them to return, not to leave him there alone. They paid not the slightest attention.

After watching them for some time he saw in the distance a large sailing barge running towards the small boat, which he recognized as his uncle's, so how he felt certain that his uncle had caused him to be left upon the Island of Despair in order to take possession of the Kingdom of Sunne.

After a while poor Daimur gave up staring blankly at the sea, and taking up his jug of water and his bag of biscuits walked slowly up the shore to a shady place and sat down to eat and drink a portion, for he was nearly dead of hunger and thirst.

He had been sitting there only a few minutes when he heard a strange noise overhead, and looking up he saw a large hawk pursuing a beautiful brown dove. The dove flew this way and that, squeaking piteously, and at last fluttered to the ground at Daimur's feet, while the hawk swooped down to seize it; but Daimur jumped to his feet, and waving his arms beat it off and it flew away in fright.

When it was gone Daimur turned to look at the brown dove, which was lying quite still on the grass with its eyes closed.

"Poor thing," thought he, "I wonder if water would revive it," and he poured out a little in his hand and dropped some of it into the bird's beak.

In a few seconds the dove opened its eyes, and to Daimur's surprise spoke.

"Thank you, brave young man," it said. "You have saved my life, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am. The reason I am so weak is that I am nearly dead of hunger and thirst."

"Unfortunate creature," exclaimed Daimur, as he gave it a few drops more of the water, "I have some biscuits which you shall share," and so saying he proceeded to crumble one of the biscuits, which the dove seemed to hesitate to take.

"Unhappy young man," it said in a sorrowful voice, "I cannot take your last morsel, for this is the last pure food and fresh water you will ever get while you stay on this island."

"That may be quite true," replied Daimur, "but I cannot eat any of it while I feel that another creature is more in need of it than I," and after some pressing the dove hungrily ate up the biscuit.

When he had finished he was apparently much stronger, and hopped upon Daimur's knee.

"Look at me," he said, "and tell me what I am."

"You are a very beautiful brown dove with a golden crest," said Daimur.

"I am more than that," said the dove with a sigh; "I am Cyril, King of the Island of Shells, one of those which surround this Island of Despair, and you, I am sure, are a Prince or a King also, who has been put here to be out of the way."

"Yes," answered Daimur, "I am Prince Daimur of the Island of Sunne, and my wicked uncle has sent me here to starve, so that he may be made King in my stead."

"I thought it was something like that," said the dove.

"But that is not the worst of it," he went on. "You are wondering how I came to take the form of a dove. As you can see for yourself, I am enchanted. I was brought here with my wife the Queen and one little daughter, the Princess Maya, who is now seventeen years old. We too were given a bag of food and some water, but naturally I began to search for other food to eat when that was gone.

"I found that all the trees upon this island were fruit trees of different kinds and bore the most tempting and luscious fruits. There was also a well of clear water in the middle of the island, all neatly stoned around, which was fed by a small shallow stream flowing from the hill at the north side. You can imagine my relief. I had no fears of starvation anyway.

"We immediately began eating the fruit, and found it so delicious and satisfying that we threw the biscuits into the sea. What was my alarm in two days' time to find that I was growing stupid. I could not get enough sleep. The Queen was the same, and as for the Princess, when she was not eating fruit she was sleeping. We thought it must be the sea air, but on the third day we could hardly open our eyes at all, and as soon as we had eaten some fruit for breakfast we fell sound asleep, and when I woke I looked around in vain for my wife and little daughter.

"They were nowhere to be seen. Only beside me were a grey dove and a white one sitting on a branch sound asleep. Then on looking down I saw that I too was sitting on the branch, and that I was a brown dove, and I knew immediately that this was the work of the Evil Magician of Despair, and that it was through eating the charmed fruit that we had become changed into birds.

"It was not long before we found that there were many others here, who like ourselves had been sent out of their country. And to make it more horrible I discovered that the longer they stayed and the more fruit they ate the more stupid they became. Some of the older ones could not remember anything at all, and did nothing all day long but eat, drink and sleep.

"I do not eat more than will keep me alive, and I try to keep the Queen and our daughter from eating much too, knowing that we also are in danger of losing our minds. I have gone about imploring the others on the island to be careful, in hope of our being at some future time able to escape, but to very little purpose. Of course they must eat the fruit or starve, and most of them prefer losing their minds to going hungry."

Prince Daimur listened to the tale with a shiver, for he did not in the least want to be enchanted and lose his mind.

"Have you ever seen the Magician?" he asked after a pause. "I have been told he knows many secrets of chemistry."

"No," answered the dove. "We have never seen him. We feel that he is coming sometimes by the great wind that goes sweeping by, but as it is always coming and going in the path to the shore I think he must go back and forth a great deal from this island to some of the others. We know that he has a house on the hill on the north side somewhere, but have never been able to get close enough to see it, as the wind is always so strong around the hill that we cannot fly against it."

Now all this talk of wind made Daimur think of the day he had found the Good Old Man of Sunne in his cottage with the door blown in, and when he put his hand in his bosom, there safe and sound was his little case with his cap, spectacles and key, which in his distress he had entirely forgotten.

He opened the case and putting on the spectacles looked at the dove.

What he saw before him was not a dove, but a tall, splendid looking man, very thin, with a sad, pale face. He was clad in a rich suit of brown velvet, and wore a gold crown on his head, and he looked at Daimur in some surprise as the Prince next drew on the cap.

Now he knew all things. He knew that the Magician had been called away suddenly by his uncle, and that his uncle intended to have the Magician construct some tale whereby he could make the people believe that Daimur had died a natural death.

He turned to the dove, or King Cyril, as he really was, and said:

"You may think it strange for me to put on these articles at this particular time, but by them I am enabled to see and to know all things, and I must ask you to swear that you will tell no one I have them, for the Evil Magician is looking for these very treasures, and their possession would make him a hundredfold stronger than he is.

"I am able through this cap to know that he is now at Sunne with my wicked uncle, and will not be back until to-morrow night, so come, let us walk about, and I will look for something to eat besides this enchanted fruit."

King Cyril promised solemnly that he would tell no one about Daimur's treasures, not even the Queen, for fear he should be overheard, and then they set forth on their way. King Cyril flying slowly in front and giving Daimur time to look about.

They had gone but a short distance and had come to an opening in the trees, when Daimur said.

"I see a field of potatoes on that slope about two miles away."

"Potatoes!" exclaimed Cyril. "How can you see so far?"

"Oh, it is quite easy with these spectacles on," said Daimur. "Let us go and see them."

They set out, and after a long and tiresome walk through tangled underbrush Daimur found himself on the edge of the potato field. King Cyril resting on a branch beside him.

"Now, if I only had a spade," said Daimur, as he fell to looking about for a sharp stick or anything which would dig up the earth. After quite a search he found, half buried in sand and dead leaves, an old spade with part of the handle gone.

"What good luck!" he exclaimed, as he seized it and commenced digging up a hill of potatoes, and he soon had a large mound of them on the ground.

Then the question was where to put them, as it would never do to let the Evil Magician suspect that Daimur was not going to eat the charmed fruit, but was taking his potatoes instead.

After searching about for half an hour they suddenly broke through the trees and found themselves on a shore, the like of which they had never seen before. It was wild and rocky and barren, and some of the rocks were of very curious shapes. A few were high and conical, like caves, and had smooth flat floors.

They began to look for a cave in the rocks near the shore, and at last found one at the foot of a great tree which overshadowed it. This cave had an opening in front looking out to the sea.

King Cyril flew into the air as high as he could and looked for the hill where they knew the Magician lived. He was quite breathless when he came down, but he said that the hill was away at the other end of the island, and that they were facing the south.

"Then we must be looking towards the Island of Laurel," said Daimur, "and these must be some of the rocks on which ships are often wrecked."

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