himself go, to spread himself, to
attack his enemy with extended front so that they would not know where
to have him. Half-a-dozen small tags of red tape gave him a far greater
sense of resource and opportunity for aggression than any one good piece
of measurable length capable of being well wound and knotted. His
powers, such as they were, were largely imitative; and now for some
weeks the wordy Max had been coaching him. The Professor had supplied
him with the material, Max with the method for applying it; the
Professor had given him his head, Max had given him his tongue. Looking
forward to the exercise of his new-found powers he meant, in a word, to
be voluble; and when in later chapters he becomes yet more surprising,
let the reader remember that fortuitous crack at the back of his skull
through which the windows of his head were open and his brain-pan a
place of draughts wherein any winds of doctrine might blow. A word of
opposition, a mere gust of excitement, were now quite enough to set him
going, and once started he was very difficult to stop.

For much the same reason, having once started to prance up and down the
carpet--that carpet so variegated and Maxian in its pattern--he found it
very difficult to sit down again; and would not have done so had not the
measured striking of the clock upon the chimney-piece reminded him that
he was expecting a visit from Max. Then a curious change came over his
deportment; he stood considering, glancing from the telltale volumes
upon the table to the door through which he was presently expecting his
son to enter. Then with a secretive look and a shake of the head, "Oh,
dear me, no," he murmured very softly; and taking up the books he put
them away in a drawer and locked it, and, when presently Max came in,
said nothing of his new discovery, but sat docile and listened, while
the other drew out the shining length of his vocabulary, making words
sound like deeds.

Not for nothing was John of Jingalo the son of his father, not for
nothing a descendant of kings who so far as they consciously achieved
power had always held it possessively and exclusively, withholding the
key from their heirs. Post obits were not popular in that royal House of
Ganz-Wurst which for two hundred years had ruled over Jingalo.

CHAPTER IX

THE NEW ENDYMION

I

Readers who have hearts will remember that while these things were
taking place in the political world, something of more in