e bed. His eyes
were dancing with excitement; sleep was momentarily routed.

"Say, Mr. King, I wish I was going with you to find Uncle Jack. You will
find him, won't you? I'm going to say it in my prayers to-night and
every night. They won't hardly let me leave this room. It's rotten luck.
I want to fight, too."

"We are all fighting for you, Prince Robin."

"I want you to find Uncle Jack, Mr. King," went on Bobby eagerly. "And
tell him I didn't mean it when I banished him the other day. I really
and truly didn't." He was having difficulty in keeping back the tears.

"I shall deliver the message, your Highness," said Truxton, his heart
going out to the unhappy youngster. "Rest assured of that, please. Go to
sleep and dream that I have found him and am bringing him back to you.
The dream will come true."

"Are you sure?" brightening perceptibly.

"Positively."

"Americans always do what they say they will," said the boy, his eyes
snapping. "Here's something for you to take with you, Mr. King. It's my
lucky stone. It always gives good luck. Of course, you must promise to
bring it back to me. It's an omen."

He unclasped his small fingers; in the damp palm lay one of those
peculiarly milky, half-transparent pebbles, common the world over and of
value only to small, impressionable boys. Truxton accepted it with
profound gravity.

"I found it last 4th of July, when we were celebrating out there in the
park. I'm always going to have a 4th of July here. Don't you lose it,
Mr. King, and you'll have good luck. Baron Dangloss says it's the
luckiest kind of a stone. And when you come back, Mr. King, I'm going to
knight you. I'd do it now, only Aunt Loraine says you'd be worrying
about your title all the time and might be 'stracted from your mission.
I'm going to make a baron of you. That's higher than a count in
Graustark. Vos Engo is only a count."

Truxton started. He looked narrowly into the frank, engaging eyes of the
boy in the nighty.

"I shall be overwhelmed," he said. Then his hand went to his mouth in
the vain effort to cover the smile that played there.

"My mother used to say that American girls liked titles," said the
Prince with ingenuous candor.

"Yes?" He hoped that she was eavesdropping.

"Nurse said that I was not to keep you long, Mr. King," said the Prince
ruefully. "I suppose you are very busy getting ready. I just wanted to
give you my lucky stone and tell you about being a baron. I won't hav