“Don’t look up,” whispered Clia, pressing close to the little girl’s side.

“Why not?” asked Trot, and then she did exactly what she had been told not to do.  She lifted her head and saw stretched over them a network of scrawny, crimson arms interlaced like the branches of trees in winter when the leaves have fallen and left them bare.

Cap’n Bill gave a start and muttered “Land sakes!” for he, too, had gazed upward and seen the crimson network of limbs.

“Are these the sea devils?” asked the child, more curious than frightened.

“Yes, dear,” replied the Queen.  “But I advise you to pay no attention to them.  Remember, they cannot touch us.”

In order to avoid the threatening arms overhead, which followed them as they swam, our friends kept near to the bottom of the sea, which was here thickly covered with rough and jagged rocks.  The inky water had now been left far behind, but when Trot looked over her shoulder, she shuddered to find a great crimson monster following closely after them, with a dozen long, snaky feelers stretched out as if to grab anyone that lagged behind.  And there, at the side of Princess Clia, was another devil, leering silently with his cruel, bulging eyes at the pretty mermaid.  Beside the queen swam still another of their enemies.  Indeed, the sea devils had crept upon them and surrounded them everywhere except at the front, and Trot began to feel nervous and worried for the first time.

Cap’n Bill kept mumbling queer words under his breath, for he had a way of talking to himself when anything “upsot him,” as he would quaintly remark.  Trot always knew he was disturbed or in trouble when he began to “growl.”

The only way now open was straight ahead.  They swam slowly, yet fast enough to keep a safe distance from the dreadful creature behind them.

“I’m afraid they are driving us into a trap,” whispered the Queen softly.  “But whatever happens, do not lose courage, earth friends.  Clia and I are here to protect you, and our fairy powers are sufficient to keep you from all harm.”

“Oh, I don’t mind so very much,” declared Trot calmly.  “It’s like the fairy adventures in storybooks, and I’ve often thought I’d like that kind of adventures, ’cause the story always turns out the right way.”

Cap’n Bill growled something just then, but the only words Trot could make out were, “never lived to tell the tale.”

“Oh, pshaw, Cap’n,” she said.  “We may be in danger, right enough, an’ to be honest, I don’t like the looks of these sea devils at all.  But I’m sure it’s no killing matter, for we’ve got the fairy circles all around us.”

“Ha ha!” laughed the monster beside her.  “We know all about the fairy circles, don’t we, Migg?”

“Ho ho!” laughed the monster on the other side.  “We do, Slibb, my boy, and we don’t think much of fairy circles, either!”

“They have foiled our enemies many a time,” declared the Princess with much dignity.