Page:The Floating Prince - Frank R Stockton.djvu/185

170 Gantalor waved his hat and his sword, and if he had had more hands, he would have waved his coat and his boots, and he shouted: "Victory! victory!"

And all the soldiers shouted "Victory!" till they were hoarse. The excitement was so great, that every man in the army rushed pell-mell into the fort, even the reserve corps and those left in charge of the hospital-tents.

As for the giant, he sat down on the ground outside, and picked the arrows out of his clothes.

When the enthusiasm had somewhat subsided, Gantalor ordered the seventeen barrels of flour to be piled up, end on end, until they made a high column, and then he got on the top of them, and summoned the giant to deliver himself up.

"Not to-day, if you please," said Derido; "I've only changed my base. Now then," he cried, "just let me see any of you fellows come out of that fort. You're all my prisoners, every man of you!" And he jumped up, and drew his sword, and commenced rushing around the outside of the ditch, chopping his sword into the ground, and whirling it over his head in such a terrible way, that Gantalor got down off the flour-barrels in a hurry, and the soldiers crouched down behind the walls, as close as they could get. Not one of them would have dared to climb over the walls while that terrible giant was slashing his great sword about in that way. When Derido got tired of this exercise, he sat down near the fort and began throwing great stones across it, just grazing the tops of the walls. As all the stones went clear over, they hurt nobody, but if any one had been on top of the walls, it would have been bad for that person. The giant was a good shot with a stone or young rock, and every now and then he made one just scratch the top of the earthworks, causing the dirt and gravel to fly like hailstones.