"Would you rather go back to our mermaid¹ home for a time and rest yourselves or would you prefer to start for Giant's Cave at once?"

 

"I guess we'd better go back home," decided² Trot³. "To our own home, I mean. We've been away quite a while, and King Anko seemed to think it was best."

 

"Very well," replied the Queen. "Let us turn in this direction, then."

 

"You can say goodbye to Merla for us," continued Trot. "She was very nice to us, an' 'specially⁴ to Cap'n Bill."

 

"So she was, mate," agreed the sailor, "an' a prettier lady I never knew, even if she is a mermaid, beggin' your pardon, ma'am."

 

"Are we going anywhere near Zog's castle?" asked the girl.

 

"Our way leads directly past the opening in the dome⁵," said Aquareine.

 

"Then let's stop and see what Sacho and the others are doing," suggested Trot. "They can't be slaves any longer, you know, 'cause they haven't any master. I wonder if they're any happier than they were before?"

 

"They seemed to be pretty happy as it was," remarked Cap'n Bill.

 

"It will do no harm to pay them a brief visit," said Princess Clia. "All danger disappeared from the cavern⁶ with the destruction of Zog."

 

"I really ought to say goodbye to Brother Joe," observed the sailor man. "I won't see him again, you know, and I don't want to seem unbrotherly."

 

"Very well," said the Queen, "we will reenter the cavern, for I, too, am anxious to know what will be the fate of the poor slaves of the magician."

 

When they came to the hole in the top of the dome, they dropped through it and swam

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