Land of Unreason Read Online Free PDF

standing-tuck, you—"
     
                "Here sir," said a
dark-skinned boy of about twelve, appearing suddenly. "Did you call, O
Pearl of Wisdom?"
     
                "Call? Aye, and for the
last time. Take the brat, then, my lady, and let me call myself well shut of
him."
     
                Chandra Holkar Raghunath
Tippu Vijayanagar Rao Jaswant Rashtrakuta Lallabhbhai Gosh stood grinning
unregenerately, with his feet apart and two small thumbs hooked into his sash,
then turned to Titania and bowed. "Am I truly to be yours again, O Star of
Beauty and Queen of Felicity?"
     
                "Aye," said
Titania. "Come, my babe. Let's to our chambers."
     
                The boy winked at Barber.
Oberon's mouth suddenly fell open. "It's not to be done," said he.
"And wherefore not?"
     
                "There's a matter—they
are not fit—" As he stumbled Barber experienced for the third time, and
stronger than ever, the sixth sense that told him the man was lying. But Oberon
rushed on: "That is, I did prepare your apartment against your coming and
it is but now all betousled and lumbered with new decoration. Since you left my
bed—"
     
                "It stayed cold not long, I'll warrant," said Titania, her foot beginning to tap dangerously.
     
                Oberon's fists clenched and
the diamond danced on his chest. "Fie! Fah! By Beelzebub's brazen—look
you, who are you to talk, wench, with a changeling in your train whose beard
sprouts and fists are like footballs! Call me kobbold if he's not good for more
games than ring-around-a-rosy." Before Titania could retort, he swung
suddenly on Barber. "Sirrah! How long have you known my wife? Quick and
true or turn to a frog!"
     
                "If you mean how long
since I met the lady," said Barber, his sixth sense warning him there was
something phony about this outburst, "maybe an hour. If you mean—"
     
                "Enough, let be. Your
reply's ample."
     
                "But not yours to
me," said Titania. "Come, Gosh, we'll see what 'tis my lord is so
desirous to conceal." She swept regally toward the factory chimney,
followed by the boy. Oberon muttered after her. "Wish her joy of her
conquest. He's found a taste for felonious magic—oh, a perfect accomplished
young cut-purse ... Yet now what's to do?" He looked wildly from side to
side, then seized Barber's arm. "Your name, fellow!"
     
                "Barber."
     
                "Marry, a most proper
one to the emergency, since here's a great bloated business to be bled docile.
Art trustworthy?" He poked his face close, then went on rapidly: "No
matter, it's a case of trust and be damned, or doomed for lack of trust.
Harkee, fellow Barber: there be two entrances to my lady's apartment, by the
staircase and through our royal rooms. Do you take the nearer while we move with
her ladyship by the longer route. Will find a wench there—ha, ha, 'tis a babe
of parts, I see you take my meaning. Well, spirit her away; exorcise her, by
any means. Come!"
     
                Still gripping Barber's arm,
the King went across the grass after Titania in a series of bounds, dragging
the other with him. They were together at the entrance to the chimney, which
proved to have surprising interior dimensions and a helical staircase that went
up and up. "Pox take these villain shapings," panted Oberon, as they
climbed, "that will not let us mount by the old Fairyland method of a word
and aloft. Ouf!"
     
                He came to a halt on a
landing opposite a brown door, and as the other two took the circuit that
carried them out of sight, yanked out a key and pressed it into Barber's hand.
"So, and nimbly," he whispered, then bounded up the stairs after the
Queen.
     
                There seemed no lock or even
latch on the door. Wondering why he had been given the key, Barber pushed.