TROLL. Take his place, Mottlesnout, and let him rest; for he has served us well.

MOTTLESNOUT. I wish we had the arts of those hateful miner

folk. Then our picks and crowbars would be as fine as theirs.

KOLL. Patience, Mottlesnout. Our time is coming.

[Enter Slumpkin, left.

TROLL (seeing him). Come, blow the sparks for me, Slumpkin. Where have you been so long?

SLUMPKIN. Out on the hills, Troll, out on the hills. The Prin

cess strayed from the castle and lost her way. We followed her, Shag and I; but she fled from us and called us dreadful shadows.

TROLL (with malicious delight). She'll feel the hands of us shadows presently.

MOTTLESNOUT. Aye, that she will!

KOLL. Why didn't you seize her, Slumpkin, and carry her off? SLUMPKIN. Above ground? With the miner-folk likely to appear at any moment? I am not such a fool as that, good Troll; not I! What a wise goblin steals is stolen by night, and silently. The sunlight people love the brightness of the day, but we are of the dark, and in the dark our deeds thrive best.

MOTTLESNOUT. Aye, for none know of our deeds save the rats in the castle cellars, and the rats are dumb!

KOLL (coming down from the back of the stage). Goblins, our King is coming at last!

ALL. The King!

[General tumult of preparation.

TROLL. Drop work and let us meet him.

MOTTLESNOUT. Aye, let us give him the greeting he deserves! Come, Ratkin!

[Rouses the sleeping Goblin.

RATKIN (following staggeringly as he rubs his eyes). Even in my sleep I heard the sound of someone moving rocks up above us! [The Goblins rush out, left, leaving their tools behind them. A moment later Cubert forces his way through an opening in the

rock, at left foreground, and, running to the center of the stage, looks about him wonderingly. CUBERT. Is this, indeed, the place?

(Looks up) So dark! So And with so many wind

dim! (Runs, peering right and left) ing passages! How strange and still it is! And how the shadows dance! Here are the Goblins' tools; but where are the Goblins? There's not a sign of them, and yet this is their forge room, I know, for only a moment since I heard them hammering and talking.

MOTTLESNOUT (speaking in the passage, left). Way for his Majesty! Room for King Shadowcob!

CUBERT. Hark! I hear them coming!

[He runs behind boulder that juts into the right foreground, and crouches there, perfectly screened from view. King Shadowcob enters from left background, attended by all the Goblins grotesquely bowing and capering.

TROLL (as Goblins bring tools for inspection). Behold our work, your Majesty! Not a pick but what is as sharp as hand can make it; not a crowbar or gimlet but what is ready to work your will, and teach the castle-folk the meaning of goblin cunning.

KING SHADOWCOв. Well spoken, Troll, and like a true earth child. Goblins, is all in readiness?

KOLL. All is in readiness, your Majesty. Our labours are at an end. The secret passage which we have hewn through the rocks and which leads from our council hall to King Radnor's castle, is at last complete, and to-day, while the Princess roamed the hills, our valiant Mottlesnout made an opening in the wall of her room.

CUBERT (in an outraged voice, the cry escaping from him). Oh! KING SHADOWCOB (turning). Who spoke?

KOLL. 'Twas nought but Ràtkin, your Majesty. He is always drowsing and talking in his sleep.

KING SHADOWCOB (indignantly). This is no time for slumber! Now or never we must act, and act quickly. King Radnor is away, the miners are weary with blasting, and the foolish castle-folk unmindful of what we Goblins plan. Shoulder

your tools, and let us make what speed we can to our council hall, and from thence to the castle cellars. There we will wait our time till the clock strikes midnight

KOLL (half-breathless with delight). And then

KING SHADOWCOB. Then we will creep like rats up from the castle cellars through the castle tower, push back the panel that leads to the room of the Princess, and her Royal Highness will be ours.

RATKIN. Aye, but what if the King's guards should discover us?

KING SHADOWCOB (frowning). A foolish question, Ratkin. There's not a guard that knows of the secret panel we have cut, and only goblins or moles could crawl through the passage we have made. (As he speaks Goblins gather round him) And if more than goblins or moles crawl through, have we not a remedy? The river is higher this Spring than ever before. Already it has overflowed its banks. Even now, if you listen, you can hear it rushing up above you. If courtiers or miners should follow us, we will break in the walls of our secret passage, and the water from above will rush in and fill it. The river will sweep through our tunnel to the castle cellars. It will fill even our council hall. The entrance to this forge room might be found; the entrance to our council hall is past mortal finding!

RATKIN. Aye, but what of us, if the river should enter the hall?

KING SHADOWCOB (impatiently). Are there not caverns far beneath that hall where we can hide in safety till those who hunt for us are drowned?

MOTTLESNOUT. True, true, your Majesty!

KOLL. Ratkin talks like a blinking owl!

SLUMPKIN (suddenly breaking silence). I would liefer have an owl than her Royal Highness.

KING SHADOWCOB (glowering at him). When she is old enough you are to marry the Princess.

SLUMPKIN. But, father, the Princess is not sweet or comely. I would I might marry someone beautiful

as we are!