Page:Russian Wonder Tales.djvu/285

Rh night and sleeping heavily, while the archer sat alone in the golden summer-house on the island. On the fourth evening, Taraban, finding loneliness sit heavily upon him, sighed and said to himself: "Oh, Schmat-Razum, my faithful servant! How long will it be before I hear thy voice again?" And at that moment Schmat-Razum replied at his elbow, "Here I am, master; I but waited thy call."

The archer rejoiced. "It is time for us to go to my own Tzardom," he said. And in a twinkling, island and summer-house vanished and the whirlwind lifted him and bore him away.

Next morning the captain, the merchant and the trader awoke on the vessel. "Ho! Schmat-Razum!" they cried, "bring us a cooling drink!" But there was no answer and the service was not rendered. They ran hither and thither and shouted and bawled, but the invisible servant was gone. In anger they put about and returned to the place where the archer's island had been, but no trace of it could they find. Then they said to one another: "This was a magician, and he has cheated and fooled us! May the devil take him!" And weeping and lamenting, they spread their sails and departed, each in a different direction.

Meanwhile the archer was carried by the