had the effect
of terrifying the waiting warriors.

"Quick!" cried Cor. "Destroy the bridge, or we are lost."

While the men were tearing away the bridge of boats the Queen ran up to
the palace of Gos, where she met her husband.

"That boy is a wizard!" she gasped. "There is no standing against him."

"Oh, have you discovered his magic at last?" replied Gos, laughing in
her face. "Who, now, is the coward?"

"Don't laugh!" cried Queen Cor. "It is no laughing matter. Both our
islands are as good as conquered, this very minute. What shall we do,
Gos?"

"Come in," he said, growing serious, "and let us talk it over."

So they went into a room of the palace and talked long and earnestly.

"The boy intends to liberate his father and mother, and all the people
of Pingaree, and to take them back to their island," said Cor. "He may
also destroy our palaces and make us his slaves. I can see but one way,
Gos, to prevent him from doing all this, and whatever else he pleases to
do."

"What way is that?" asked King Gos.

"We must take the boy's parents away from here as quickly as possible. I
have with me the Queen of Pingaree, and you can run up to the mines and
get the King. Then we will carry them away in a boat and hide them where
the boy cannot find them, with all his magic. We will use the King and
Queen of Pingaree as hostages, and send word to the boy wizard that if
he does not go away from our islands and allow us to rule them
undisturbed, in our own way, we will put his father and mother to death.
Also we will say that as long as we are let alone his parents will be
safe, although still safely hidden. I believe, Gos, that in this way we
can compel Prince Inga to obey us, for he seems very fond of his
parents."

"It isn't a bad idea," said Gos, reflectively; "but where can we hide
the King and Queen, so that the boy cannot find them?"

"In the country of the Nome King, on the mainland away at the south,"
she replied. "The nomes are our friends, and they possess magic powers
that will enable them to protect the prisoners from discovery. If we can
manage to get the King and Queen of Pingaree to the Nome Kingdom before
the boy knows what we are doing, I am sure our plot will succeed."

[Illustration]

Gos gave the plan considerable thought in the next five minutes, and the
more he thought about it the more clever and reasonable it seemed. So he
agreed to do as Queen Cor suggested and at once hurried away to the