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under that sand bridge."
"Camouflage."
The putt-putting of an engine made Rolf turn his head toward the right. A
boat was puffing through the sea, heading straight for the disguised channel.
As the three of them watched, the boat came in and two grimy looking sailors
in tattered shirts and shorts leaped from its deck and tied it securely to the
posts that held up the bridge.
"They're the villains that sent the mechanical beast at us," Mr. Sheperton
muttered. "They wanted more sand to cover their bridge and dump into their
breakwater."
Another man appeared on the ship's deck. He was chunky and fat-faced. He wore
a blue jacket and white slacks, and even had a perky little captain's hat
perched on his head. He squealed orders at the two sailors, who were now back
on the boat, sweating and struggling with heavy boxes.
"Come on, come on," the captain piped at them in a nasty nasal, high-pitched
voice. "I want all the telescopes and binoculars stored away here so we can
use all our space to carry people on the day of the launch. Move it, move it!"
"So that's it," Mr. Sheperton said. "He's the one that your father was
worrying about. Bringing in tourists to watch the launch from here on the
beach."
"There must be more to it than that, though," said Rolf. "They wouldn't go to
that much trouble for a boatload of tourists two or three times a year."
"Quite right! How about that, you gremlin?" Mr. Sheperton demanded of Baneen.
"Ah well," said Baneen uncomfortably, "sure and the one in the sailor hat
there does bring in people with guns to hunt and fish, now and then."
Rolf felt suddenly sick in his mind's eye he saw images of the brown pelican
and the young piglets, bloody and slaughtered.
"But this is a Preserve!" he said, fiercely. "It's the one little piece of
the environment around here that's protected! And you say I shouldn't report
someone like that?"
"But we've never let them harm the wee beasts and birds," said Baneen,
hastily. "Not since we've been here has one of his hunters gained a single
prey "
"That doesn't make any difference!" said Rolf. "I don't care what you've been
doing. I'm reporting this man and his crew."
"No lad, you can't!" said Baneen. "Listen to me, now. We mustn't have police
and rangers and suchlike stamping up and down the beach here and tramping all
over our Hollow."
"I'm sorry," said Rolf. "But this is one thing I just have to do."
"But you'll listen to me for a moment before doing it, won't you?" pleaded
Baneen. "Wait, Rolf, just a second whilst I bring you one who can plead our
desperate case better than myself. . . ."
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"Don't listen to him, boy," growled Mr. Sheperton.
"I don't see how they've managed to avoid being seen, anyway, before this,"
said Rolf. "You ought to be able to see that oil slick and boat smoke from a
ranger plane pretty easily."
He turned to look suspiciously at Baneen.
"Now, now!" cried the gremlin. "It was just the slightest touch of magic
we've used in their favor, to be sure just enough to keep them from being
seen. Nothing invisible, mind you. Just a wee distraction or two to make the
patrol rangers look the other way as they fly past the noise and dirt. But
just a minute. Wait right here "
He disappeared with a popping noise.
"Let's not wait for him, Shep Mr. Sheperton, I mean," said Rolf.
"Quite right!" rumbled Mr. Sheperton. "Enough of the blackguard's lies and
evasions "
Baneen popped back into existence, pulling along with him another
gremlin also wearing green, it was true, but with a long, sad, greenish blue
cloak around his shoulders, long dark hair hanging down under his hat, and a
violin case under his arm.
"Rolf, let me " puffed Baneen, breathlessly, "introduce that grand gremlin
musician O'Kkane Baro."
The other gremlin took his hat off his head and swept it before him as he
bowed gracefully. He had a handsome, if tragic, face.
"Glorious to acquaint you!" he cried, in a rich, full voice, "Glorious! If my
heart was not breaking, I would dance with joy. But who dances in a world like
this? I ask you!"
He sat down mournfully in the sand, laying the violin case aside. Rolf stared
at him.
"Hist!" whispered Mr. Sheperton in his ear. "Don't let this rascal fool you,
either. He's a gypsy gremlin. Do you know what Hokkane Baro means, in the
Romany tongue?"
"Ah, but the heart of our poor friend is indeed breaking," said Baneen
sorrowfully. "All these thousands of years that he has lived, now, only in the
hope of seeing Gremla again "
"Ah, Gremla, my sunshine, my beautiful!" exclaimed O'Kkane Baro resonantly,
covering his eyes with one hand. "Never to see you again. Never . . . never!"
"Hokkane Baro means," whispered Mr. Sheperton severely, "thebig trick, a con
game they used to play on gullible peasants."
Rolf nodded. He had no doubt that Mr. Sheperton was right. But O'Kkane Baro's
unhappiness was so convincing he began to feel a twinge of guilt in spite of
himself.
"You'll see it," he said to the dark-haired gremlin. "Don't worry."
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"Ah, but will he?" said Baneen. "Now that you're determined and all to report
what you've seen. Sure, and it's only a matter of minutes after the
authorities come prowling around here that our magic will be spoiled and our
last chance at Gremla lost for good."
"Ah . . ." said O'Kkane Baro, unshielding his eyes. "But, why should we
weep?" he spread his arms. "Let us laugh . . . ha, ha!" Rolf thought he had
never heard such mournful laughter in his life.
"Yes, laugh!" cried O'Kkane Baro, rising to his feet. "Laugh, dance, be
gay sing! Music!"
He clapped his hands; at the sound, the lid of his violin case opened and a
gremlin-sized violin floated out and up into the air. A gremlin-sized bow
floated after it and poised itself over the strings.
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