"They haven't lived six hundred years yet, and only those who have
lived that length of time are allowed to march through the Arch of
Phinis into the Great Blue Grotto."

The King looked at him with a sneer. "Has anyone ever come out of
that Arch alive?" he asked.

"No," said Ghip-ghisizzle, "but no one has ever gone into the Blue
Grotto until his allotted time was up."

"Well, I'm going to try the experiment," declared the Boolooroo. "I
shall march these three strangers through the Arch, and if by chance
they come out alive, I'll do a new sort of patching--I'll chop off
their heads and mix 'em up, putting the wrong head on each of 'em.
Ha, ha! Won't it be funny to see the old Moonface's head on the
little girl? Ho, ho! I really hope they'll come out of the Great
Blue Grotto alive!"

"I also hope they will," replied Ghip-Ghisizzle.

"Then I'll bet you four buttonholes they don't. I've a suspicion
that once they enter the Great Blue Grotto that's the last of them."

Ghip-Ghisizzle went away quite sad and unhappy. He did not approve
the way the strangers were being treated and thought it was wicked
and cruel to try to destroy them.

During his absence, the prisoners had been talking together very
earnestly. "We must get away from here somehow 'r other," said Cap'n