Sacho ranged the prisoners in a circle before Zog's throne, and
slowly the magician turned his eyes, glowing like live coals, upon
the four. "Captives," said he, speaking in his clear, sweet voice,
"in our first interview you defied me, and both the mermaid queen
and the princess declared they could not die. But if that is a true
statement, as I have yet to discover, there are various ways to make
you miserable and unhappy, and this I propose to do in order to
amuse myself at your expense. You have been brought here to undergo
the first trial of strength between us." None of the prisoners
replied to this speech, so Zog turned to one of his slaves and said,
"Rivivi, bring in the Yell-Maker."

Rivivi was a big fellow, brown of skin and with flashing, black
eyes. He bowed to his master and left the room by an archway covered
with heavy draperies. The next moment these curtains were violently
pushed aside, and a dreadful sea creature swam into the hall. It had
a body much like that of a crab, only more round and of a jet-black
color. Its eyes were bright yellow balls set on the ends of two
horns that stuck out of its head. They were cruel-looking eyes, too,
and seemed able to see every person in the room at the same time.
The legs of the Yell-Maker, however, were the most curious part of
the creature. There were six of them, slender and black as coal, and
each extended twelve to fifteen feet from its body when stretched
out in a straight line. They were hinged in several places so they
could be folded up or extended at will. At the ends of these thin
legs were immense claws shaped like those of a lobster, and they
were real "nippers" of a most dangerous sort.

The prisoners knew, as soon as they saw the awful claws, why the
thing was called the "Yell-Maker," and Trot gave a little shiver and