a dangerous game," he said, "and must be
stopped at once. We do not wish to have the death of this stranger on
our conscience. Bring, therefore, bright lights and make a loud
noise----"

But here the Princess Melissa intervened. "No," she said; "he is not
really dead, for he still breathes. I watched him most carefully and am
sure of it. It is an experiment which he has often made. He tells me
that he has had this sleep every night of his life."

"Doubtless," said the King, "he wished to make an impression; we are not
bound to believe that."

But the King was bound to admit, though he did so grudgingly, that a man
who breathed was not a dead man.

All the night through they watched outside the sleeping-chamber, and
about the middle of the night they heard a terrific sound.

"That," said the King, "is the cry of his death agony. I know it. I am
sure of it. We have done wrong."

As a matter of fact, the sound was the first snore which had ever been
heard in that island. It made even the Princess Melissa nervous. But she
investigated the phenomenon and reported that no interference seemed to
be required. The man was not only breathing, he was breathing more
strenuously than he did when he was awake.

Nevertheless a great weight was taken from the King's mind when his
guest came back to life again in the morning. It was noted that the man
was none the worse for his strange experience. He seemed even better for
it. He was more active and alert. His eye was brighter. He was instantly
ready to undertake the fatigue of swimming for a long distance in the
sea.

That morning, as he conversed with the Princess Melissa, he tried to
explain to her something even more strange than sleep--the dreams that
come to one in sleep. The two walked alone through the forest together.

"Tell me," said the Princess, "do you think that I also could sleep and
have a dream? I know it is bizarre and morbid, but I long passionately
and above all things to have this strange experience."

"So far as I can judge," said her companion, "you are constructed
precisely as the women of the rest of the world, where sleep is a
nightly event. I may be wrong, but I should imagine that if the initial
impulse could be given to you, you also would sleep."

The Princess clasped her hands in ecstasy. "How perfectly splendid!" she
said. "But then how am I to get the initial impulse?"

"What," asked the man, "is that glow of red amid the yellow in the fie