ng in pain.

"They look bad, poor little beasts," Charlie said; "but what has that
got to do with my soup?"

"Shure, yer honor, isn't that jist what I keep the cratures for, just
to give them a taste of everything yer honor has, and I claps it into
the oven there to kape it warm till I've had time to see, by the
monkeys, whether it's good."

"It looks very serious," Charlie said, gravely. "Do you go quietly
out, Tim, call two men from the guardhouse, and seize the cook; and
place one or two men as sentries over the other servants. I will go
across to the rajah."

The latter, on hearing what had happened, ordered the cook to be
brought before him, together with the various dishes prepared for the
dinner. The man, upon being interrogated, vehemently denied all
knowledge of the affair.

"We shall see," the rajah said. "Eat up that plate of soup."

The man turned pale.

"Your highness will observe," he stammered, "that you have already
told me that one of these dishes is poisoned. I cannot say which, and
whichever I eat may be the fatal one."

The rajah made a signal to him to obey his orders, but Charlie
interposed.

"There is something in what he says, your highness. Whether the man is
innocent or guilty, he would shrink equally from eating any of them.
It is really possible that he may know nothing of it. The poison may
have been introduced into the materials beforehand. If the man is
taken to a dungeon, I think I could suggest a plan by which we could
test him.

"I believe him to be guilty," he said, when the prisoner had been
removed.

"Then why not let him be beheaded at once?" the rajah asked.

"I would rather let ten guilty men escape," Charlie replied, "than run
the risk of putting one innocent one to death. I propose, sir, that
you order the eight dishes of food, which have been prepared for my
dinner, to be carefully weighed. Let these be all placed in the cell
of the prisoner, and there let him be left. In the course of two or
three days he will, if guilty, endeavour to assuage his hunger by
eating little bits of food, from every dish except that which he knows
to be poisoned, but will take such a small portion from each that he
will think it will not be detected. If he is innocent, and is really
ignorant which dish is poisoned, he will not touch any of them, until
driven to desperation by hunger. Then he will seize on one or more,
and devour them to the end, running the chance of death by poiso