“His feet are in the air, his head in the water, and he is drowned as dead as a stone,” replied the voice. “And where is the one with the three ears?” “He stands outside the dungeon and is just about to open the door,” was the reply; and sure enough, the bolts were drawn, the key was turned, and the giant Humpkin strode into the room. “How did you get here, you young rascal, you?” he roared. “I put you into the other dungeon to wait till I came to eat you. You’ll pay for this, you will.” Humpkin caught him by the arm, or rather, tried to catch him, for the instant the giant put one foot within the circle, something or other struck him a heavy blow. He tried again, and this time he was struck so terribly that he howled with pain and fright and ran for his life, leaving all the doors wide open behind him. “Come,” cried the magician; “come quick!” He caught the boy by the hand and half dragged him out of the dungeon. “Stay there,” he said when they had come to the courtyard, and he himself ran through the gate of the castle. Then, while Humpkin was half running and half rolling down the mountain, the magician, too, was running as fast as he could go, making a wide chalk mark entirely around the castle. When this was done, he went back into the court, not troubling himself to close the gate, and called to Hansel. “Come, let’s go up into the tower,” he said, “and see what will happen.” They climbed to the top of the highest tower and looked around. Pretty soon they saw Humpkin come stumbling up the hill, snarling and growling and by turns rubbing his head and shaking his great fist. “I’ll be there,” he muttered, “and then you’ll pay for this, you will. I’ll eat you both before you can say--‘Oh! Oh!’” he screeched, for again he had touched the magic circle, and a third blow, worse than either of the others, had sent him a quarter of a league from the gate. He tried again and again, but as he made the third attempt, a swarm of bees flew into his face, buzzing and stinging so savagely that they drove him over the cliff. This cliff was so high that he broke into pieces long before he reached the bottom, such small pieces that as yet no one has ever found even one of them. After the magician and Hansel had seen the last of the giant, they came down from the tower and began to look through the castle. Of course there were, as in every giant’s castle, rooms upon rooms filled from floor to ceiling with silver and gold; there were others fairly crammed with diamonds and rubies and emeralds and pearls. “You will be the richest boy in the whole land,” said the magician. “You are king, of course.” “Why, aren’t you going to be king?” asked the boy, with wide-open eyes.