THE MASTER CRAFTSMEN
487
which Vainglorious had smashed in his fury. Amalgam had
managed to hide it.
He climbed up onto the ledge of the narrow window in the
tower and caught a ray of sunlight in the glass. A spot of rain–
bow-colored light danced over the roofs, towers and walls of the
palace. Then suddenly the spot of light, the envoy of the Master
Craftsman, danced into the hovel where Melchiora wept, wring–
ing her tender hands, and Isobar clenched his mighty fists in
helplessness. Melchiora immediately guessed that this was a mes–
senger from Amalgam.
She ran to the window and saw a rainbow-colored ray com–
ing from a window in one of the towers.
Immediately her father, the wise John Greenfingers,
clapped his hand to his forehead and said: "Oh, what a green–
fingers I am! I have some bindweed seed. I have grown it for
fifty-five years in succession! I tended it day and night until it
could look after itself. This weed grows so fast that if you stretch
a thread from the top to the foot of Quiproquo and plant the
seeds below, shoots will instantly weave around the thread and
before you can say one-two-three, bindweed will be blossoming
at the very top of the mountain. But listen. I once tried sowing
it
during a shower. You can imagine what happened. Like light–
ning it wound round a stream of rain and before the rain could
reach the ground, it had already climbed up to the sky. I put
these seeds aside for a rainy day, daughter, to be able to weave
a wreath around the house which you would live in with your
lover, but it seems the time has now come to use it. Don't cry,
we will save Amalgam. I will sow the bindweed below the win–
dow of the tower in which he is imprisoned." "But the tower is
high and the window is at the very top. How can we stretch the
thread so high or make rain?" wondered Isobar. "My bindweed
is
so strong and fast-growing that it only needs a straight sun–
beam and it will climb up it. But we cannot do this in the day–
time," he said, "the guards will see, and at night there's no sun."
"Yes, but the moon is full just now." "The king has posted
