140 "PRINCE FILDERKIN

which entered. At the gateway, however,
he met with an unexpected obstacle. On
each side sat a huge mastiff, motionless as
if carved in stone, but with jaws open, which
disclosed an alarming set of teeth, and with
a savage look upon each of their faces,
which appeared to show a longing on the
part of each of the monsters to make those
teeth meet in the leg of any one who gave
them a decent excuse for doing so. At the
moment when the Prince was pushing
forward into the gateway, a growl, which
was more like a roar, proceeded from each
of these creatures, and at the same time a
voice called out in sharp, shrill tones :

‘Get back, you fool, or Grim and Griffin
will have you !’

Prince Filderkin looked up and perceived
that the voice came from a dwarf who was
looking out of the porter’s lodge hard by,
and whose face was more like a plum-
pudding than anything he had ever seen,
save that no plum-pudding ever did or ever
could look so disagreeable as that face.
There was evidently no time to be lost, so
the wise young man clapped his banjo
quickly under his left arm, almost at the