* * * * * * * *

And now the sound rang loud and clear in Teddy's ears; it was the
beating of hammers upon anvils.

When Teddy looked about him he was standing on a road that ran along the
side of a mountain. All along this road were openings that looked like
the mouths of caverns, and from these openings poured the ceaseless
sound of beating, and a ruddy glow that reddened all the air and sky.

It all seemed very familiar to Teddy, and he had a feeling that he had
seen it before.

Stepping to the nearest cavern he looked in, and there he saw the whole
inside of the mountain was hollowed out into forges that opened into
each other be means of rocky arches. In every forge were little dwarfs
dressed in leather and hammering at pieces of red-hot iron that lay on
the anvils.

As Teddy stood looking in he was so tall that his head almost touched
the top of the doorway. He was dressed in a long red cloak, and under
that he wore a robe fastened about the waist with a girdle of rubies
that shone and sparkled in the light; upon his hand was a ruby ring. The
stone of the ring was turned inward toward the palm, but it was so
bright that the light shone through his fingers, and he drew his cloak
over his hand that the dwarfs might not see it, for it was not yet time
for them to know that he was King Fireheart.

After a while the iron that the little men were beating had to be put in
the fire again to heat, and then they turned and looked at Teddy.