e unseen Princess, but of Paolo. At last I
condescended to enter into a detailed account of the night's
happenings, where the aeronaut was concerned, and the Boy threw up his
chin, showing his little white teeth in a burst of laughter at my
manoeuvre. "But that _isn't_ an American duel," he objected, still
rippling with mirth. "You commit suicide, you know. The man who draws
the short bit of paper agrees to go quietly off and kill himself
decently somewhere, before the end of a stipulated time."

"I'm aware of that, but I gambled on Paolo's ignorance of the custom,"
said I. "I flattered myself that I'd totted up his character like a
sum on a slate, and I acted on the estimate I formed. If I had kept
entirely to facts, without giving the rein to my imagination, you
might now be doomed to travel at this time next year to Buda-Pesth,
and there drown yourself in the largest possible vat of beer. Had
Paolo been unlucky in the matter of getting the short bit of paper, a
little thing like that wouldn't have bothered him much. He would
simply have gone off for a long trip in his newest air-ship, and
conveniently forgotten such an obscure engagement. It was the thought
of standing up defenceless, to be artistically potted at by you, that
turned his heart to water."

"I believe you're right, and anyway, you are very clever," said the
Boy. "What does one do for a man who has saved one's life?"

"If you were only a girl, now--a Princess in a fairy story--you would
bestow upon me your hand," I replied gaily. "As it is--I can't at the
moment think of a punishment to fit the crime."

"Though I can't be a Princess, I might play the Prince, and give you a
ring," he said, pulling at the queer seal ring he always wore.

"But it wouldn't fit the crime--I mean the finger."

"Mere mortals never argue when the fairy Prince makes them a present.
Do take the ring. I should like you to have it to--remember me by."

"To remember you by? But such chums as we have got to be don't give
memory much pull; they arrange to see each other often."

"Fairy Princes vanish sometimes, you know."

"If I take your ring, will you appear if I rub it?"

The Boy was smiling, but his eyes looked grave. "If when the Fairy
Prince has vanished--that is, if he _should_--you want to see him
really badly, try rubbing the ring. It might work. But you'll probably
lose the ring before that--and the memory."

I answered by hooking the ring, which was far too small