There were exclamations of amazement at these sinister tidings, and the friends stared at one another in bewildered perplexity.
'I can scarcely, even now, believe it!' cried Alondra.
'You are sure there is no mistake? Or may it be that some one is playing a joke upon you?' suggested Gerald rather vaguely.
'No one would dare to attempt such a thing!' Alondra asserted haughtily.
'But--it sounds impossible,' said Jack helplessly.
'It wouldn't if you knew our master as well as we do,' Malandris put in. 'I have had an idea for some time past that something of the kind was hatching.'
'If it be as you say, Prince, our position is critical indeed,' Malto declared. 'Agrando will not hesitate now to send one of his airships against us--the very thing I thought we were safe from so long as daylight lasted. I am afraid we must make up our minds to the inevitable--we shall all be his prisoners before another hour is over. And what that means you can now guess; although what we have already told you is but a small portion of the actual truth.'
'My father will rescue us; and they dare not harm us meantime!' cried Alondra proudly. 'Agrando knows too well the terrible vengeance that would be exacted.'
'Do not count too much upon that, Prince,' he said. 'It was partly the fear that some such plot was brewing which made me wish to see King Ivanta in order that I might warn him. I had hoped that in return he would be willing to assist me in another matter on which my heart is set--to right a great wrong. But I fear it is useless to dream of it now.' And he sighed.
'But is there no other way of escape open to us?' Jack asked. 'Surely, if it be that our friends cannot come to our aid, we should do better to try some other plan rather than stay on here to be tamely captured whenever it pleases Agrando to send an airship to take us prisoners!'
'Yes, it might be better even to risk a run across the enclosure where your monster lives,' Gerald put in. 'It is only a choice of monsters--that or Agrando.'
'Very likely both--Agrando will give us to him later on,' said Malandris grimly.
'Well, then, what is this place that we are in?' Jack went on. 'Is it empty? Is there nothing in the place that might be useful to help us to defend ourselves?'