e door had closed on the Royal Dragon, King Terribus turned
again to Prince Marvel, while his crimson face glowed with
embarrassment, and his front eye rolled with baffled rage as he thought
how vain had been all his efforts to kill this impudent invader of his
domains.

But his powers were by no means exhausted. He was a mighty king--the
mightiest of all in the Enchanted Island, he believed--and ways to
destroy his enemies were numerous.

"Send for a hundred of my Gray Men!" he suddenly cried; and a courtier
ran at once to summon them. The Gray Men would obey his orders without
question, he well knew. They were silent, stubborn, quick, and
faithful to their king. Terribus had but to command and his will would
be obeyed.

They entered the room so quietly that Nerle never knew they were there
until he turned and found the hundred gray ones standing close together
in the center of the hall. Then Prince Marvel came to Nerle's side and
whispered something in his ear.

"Will you obey my orders?" they heard the king ask. And the Gray Men,
with their eyes fixed upon their master, nodded all their hundred heads
and put their hands upon the dangerous three-tined forks that were
stuck in every one of the hundred belts.

Prince Marvel handed one end of a coiled rope to Nerle, and then they
both sprang forward and ran around the spot where the hundred Gray Men
stood huddled together. Then they were pulled closer together than
before--closer, and still closer--for the prince and Nerle had
surrounded them with the rope and were tying the two ends together in a
tight knot. The rope cut into the waists of those on the outside, and
they pressed inward against their fellows until there was scarcely
space to stick a knife-blade between any two of them. When the prince
had tied the rope firmly King Terribus, who had been looking on amazed,
saw that his hundred Gray Men were fastened together like a bundle of
kindling-wood, and were unable to stir hand or foot.

And, while he still gazed open-mouthed at the strange sight, Prince
Marvel tilted the bundle of men up on its edge and rolled it out of the
door. It went rolling swiftly through the courtyard and bounded down
the castle steps, where the rope broke and the men fell sprawling in
all directions on the marble walk.

King Terribus sighed, for such treatment of his Gray Men, whom he
dearly loved, made him very unhappy.

But more than ever was he resolved to kill these