Page:The Grey Fairy Book.djvu/386

372 in the wood,’ cried Broad, and he began to swell himself out.

The prince did not understand why he should run to the wood, but when he saw Long flying towards it, he thought he had better follow his example. He was only just in time, for Broad had so suddenly inflated himself that he very nearly knocked over the prince and his horse too. He covered all the space for acres round. You would have thought he was a mountain!

At length Broad ceased to expand, drew a deep breath that made the whole forest tremble, and shrank into his usual size.

‘You have made me run away,’ said the prince. ‘But it is not every day one meets with a man of your sort. I will take you into my service.’

So the three companions continued their journey, and when they were drawing near the rocks they met a man whose eyes were covered by a bandage.

‘Your excellency,’ said Long, ‘this is our third comrade. You will do well to take him into your service, and, I assure you, you will find him worth his salt.’

‘Who are you?’ asked the prince. ‘And why are your eyes bandaged? You can never see your way!’

‘It is just the contrary, my lord! It is because I see only too well that I am forced to bandage my eyes. Even so I see as well as people who have no bandage. When I take it off my eyes pierce through everything. Everything I look at catches fire, or, if it cannot catch fire, it falls into a thousand pieces. They call me Quickeye.’

And so saying he took off his bandage and turned towards the rock. As he fixed his eyes upon it a crack was heard, and in a few moments it was nothing but a heap of sand. In the sand something might be detected glittering brightly. Quickeye picked it up and brought it to the prince. It turned out to be a lump of pure gold.