Page:The olive fairy book.djvu/271

When Déna arrived he was closely questioned, and then all three started to see the rajah, and to him Déna told the whole story.

‘What night was it that you slept in the peepul tree?’ demanded the rajah.

‘I can’t remember,’ said Déna; ‘but my wife will know.’

Then Déna’s wife was sent for, and she explained that it was on the last Sunday of the new moon.

Now everyone knows that it is on the Sunday of the new moon that spirits have special power to play pranks upon mortals. So the rajah forbade them all, on pain of death, to say a word to anyone; and declared that, on the next Sunday of the new moon, they four—Kahré, Musli, Léna and Déna—would go and sit in the peepul tree and see what happened.

The days dragged on to the appointed Sunday, and that evening the four met secretly, and entered the forest. They had not far to go before they reached the peepul tree, into which they climbed as the rajah had planned. At midnight the tree began to sway, and presently it moved through the air.

‘See, sire,’ whispered Déna, ‘the tree is flying!’

‘Yes, yes,’ said the rajah, ‘you have told the truth. Now sit quiet, and we shall see what happens.’

Away and away flew the tree with the four men clinging tightly to its branches, until at last it was set down by the waste sea-shore where a great wide sea came tumbling in on a desert beach. Presently, as before, they began to see little points of light that glistened like fires all around them. Then Déna thought to himself:

‘Think! last time I only took four that came close to me, and I got rid of all my debt in return. This time I will take all I can get and be rich!’

‘If I got ten thousand rupees for four stones,’ thought Léna, ‘I will gather forty now for myself, and become so