"

"Which one, your Majesty?"

"Which one? Why, of course, yours--that is to say,
Belvane's--or--rather----" He came to a stop in front of Coronel and
looked at him earnestly. "Well, in a way, both."

Coronel nodded.

"You want to marry my daughter," Merriwig went on. "Now it is
customary, as you know, that to the person to whom I give my daughter,
I give also half my kingdom. Naturally before I make this sacrifice I
wish to be sure that the man to whom--well, of course, you
understand."

"That he is worthy of the Princess Hyacinth," said Coronel. "Of
course he couldn't be," he added with a smile.

"_And_ worthy of half the kingdom," amended Merriwig. "That he should
prove himself this is also, I think, customary."

"Anything that your Majesty suggests----"

"I am sure of it."

He drew up a chair next to Coronel's, and sitting down in it, placed
his hand upon his knees and explained the nature of the trial which
was awaiting the successful suitor.

"In the ordinary way," he began, "I should arrange something for you
with a dragon or what-not in it. The knowledge that some such ordeal
lies before him often enables a suitor to discover, before it is too
late, that what he thought was true love is not really the genuine
emotion. In your case I feel that an ordeal of this sort is not
necessary."

Coronel inclined his head gracefully.

"I do not doubt your valour, and from you therefore I ask a proof of
your cunning. In these days cunning is perhaps the quality of all
others demanded of a ruler. We had an excellent example of that," he
went on carelessly, "in the war with Barodia that is just over, where
the whole conflict was settled by a little idea which----"

"A very wonderful idea, your Majesty."

"Well, well," said Merriwig, looking very pleased. "It just happened
to come off, that's all. But that is what I mean when I say that
cunning may be of even more importance than valour. In order to win
the hand of my daughter and half my kingdom, it will be necessary for
you to show a cunning almost more than human."

He paused, and Coronel did his best in the interval to summon up a
look of superhuman guile into his very frank and pleasant countenance.

"You will prove yourself worthy of what you ask me for," said Merriwig
solemnly, "by persuading Prince Udo to return to Araby--alone."

Coronel gasped. The thing was so easy that it seemed almost a shame
to accept it as the condition of his