But it did! The egg toppled, cracked, and fell crashing to the earth. “Hurry down yourself!” cried Bab, in terror. “That man will kill you!” The man-at-arms had drawn a dagger and was trying to reach Dick. “Oh, I don’t think he will kill me!” laughed Dick, and slipped over the edge of the wall into the mass of delicate vine-tendrils where the Fairy Flowers were blowing. “Help me!” he cried, and came down so quickly that there could be no question about its being magic! He reached the earth just in time to see a slender young man in doublet and hose rise from the heap of egg-shells, and rush with outstretched hands to meet the Princess! It was Prince Humpty Dumpty, free at last! [Illustration] XVI _Behind the Reindeer_ [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XVI _Behind the Reindeer_ By this time Bab and Meg had sprung to the earth, and they all joined in a cheer of joy. “Good-bye to you!” cried Mudge. “I’m going back to my father, the Sea Kobold. He has been expecting me for hundreds of years, and he will get me some new scales. Thank you very much for helping me to get away. Good-bye! Good-bye!” And he was off. The Sea of Glass was close at hand, and Dick imagined that he could see the Sea Kobold’s anxious head sticking up through the hole in the glass, and watching what was happening on shore. “There’s no time to be lost even now,” declared Bizzybuzz. “Hurry, all of you!” Several of the men-at-arms had reached the top of the wall, and the children could hear one of them calling for the big key that opened the gate, and horses on which to hunt down the escaping ones. “Hurry!” said Bizzybuzz, even more anxiously. And they all ran as fast as they could in the direction of the wood. Bizzybuzz flew on ahead, calling to them to hurry; next came Humpty Dumpty and the Princess,—she holding up her long train and not caring at all that her crown was on the side of her pretty head,—and then Bab, and Meg, and Dick, and Wiggles! There, at the edge of the wood, was Santa Claus’s sleigh, with his splendid reindeer, waiting impatiently to be off. As they all climbed into the big sleigh, Dick looked back at the Red City. “The gate is open!” he exclaimed. “And they have gotten horses too! They are going to try to catch us!” “Never mind!” laughed Bizzybuzz, overhead, as the reindeer plunged forward eagerly, and the sleigh rocked with the mad motion,—“Never mind! They’ll have a pretty time—horses or no horses—trying to catch up with Santa Claus’s fastest team!”