I don't wish to hurry you, but please tell me
if you are coming down, or going up?"
"Neither," snapped the alligator, clicking its cruel jaws together.
The General hesitated.
"Are you likely to stay there long?" he asked.
"A few hundred years or so," said the alligator.
Guph softly rubbed the end of his nose and tried to think what to do.
"Do you know whether the First and Foremost Phanfasm of Phantastico is
at home or not?" he presently inquired.
"I expect he is, seeing he is always at home," replied the alligator.
"Ah; who is that coming down the mountain?" asked the Nome,
gazing upward.
The alligator turned to look over its shoulder, and at once Guph ran
to the bridge and leaped over the sentinel's back before it could turn
back again. The scarlet monster made a snap at the Nome's left foot,
but missed it by fully an inch.
"Ah ha!" laughed the General, who was now on the mountain path.
"I fooled you that time."
"So you did; and perhaps you fooled yourself," retorted the alligator.
"Go up the mountain, if you dare, and find out what the First and
Foremost will do to you!"
"I will," declared Guph, boldly; and on he went up the path.
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