"By Your Majesty's leave, I have seen him," said the wooden man; and the
boy was so scared that he commenced to shake where he sat under the hat
and looked at the bronze man through a crack in the wood. But he calmed
down when the wooden man continued: "Your Majesty is on the wrong track.
That youngster certainly intended to run into the shipyard, and conceal
himself there."
"Does he say so, Rosenbom? Well then, don't stand still on the pedestal
any longer but come with me and help me find him. Four eyes are better
than two, Rosenbom."
But the wooden man answered in a doleful voice: "I would most humbly beg
to be permitted to stay where I am. I look well and sleek because of the
paint, but I'm old and mouldy, and cannot stand moving about."
The bronze man was not one of those who liked to be contradicted. "What
sort of notions are these? Come along, Rosenbom!" Then he raised his
stick and gave the other one a resounding whack on the shoulder. "Does
Rosenbom not see that he holds together?"
With that they broke off and walked forward on the streets of
Karlskrona--large and mighty--until they came to a high gate, which led
to the shipyard. Just outside and on guard walked one of the navy's
jack-tars, but the bronze man strutted past him and kicked the gate open
without the jack-tar's pretending to notice it.
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