Chapter 27. A Hundred Years Afterward
About a hundred years after Prince
Marvel enjoyed his strange adventures in the Enchanted
Island of Yew an odd thing happened.
A hidden mirror in a crumbling old
castle of Dawna broke loose from its fastenings and
fell crashing on the stone pavement of the deserted
hall. And from amid the ruins rose the gigantic
form of a man. His hair and beard were a fiery
red, and he gazed at the desolation around him in
absolute amazement.
It was the Red Rogue of Dawna, set
free from his imprisonment.
He wandered out and found strange
scenes confronting him, for during the hundred years
a great change had taken place in the Enchanted Island.
Great cities had been built and great kingdoms established.
Civilization had won the people, and they no longer
robbed or fought or indulged in magical arts, but
were busily employed and leading respectable lives.
When the Red Rogue tried to tell folks
who he was, they but laughed at him, thinking the
fellow crazy. He tried to get together a band
of thieves, as Wul-Takim had done in the old days,
but none would join him.
And so, forced to be honest against
his will, the Rogue was driven to earn a living by
digging in the garden of a wealthy noble, of whom he
had never before heard.
But often he would pause in his labors
and lean on his spade, while thoughts of the old days
of wild adventure passed through his mind in rapid
succession; and then the big man would shake his red
head with a puzzled air and mutter:
“I wonder who that Prince Marvel
could have been! And I wonder what ever became
of him!”