at four o'clock.'

'But the sea's all treacle.'

[Illustration: '"Speak to the dragon as soon as it arrives."' Page 263.]

'I said on the beach, not on the sea, my good straw merchant. And what I
say you've jolly well got to do. You must be there--and no one else.
If you tell a soul I'll abdicate, and where will you be then?'

'I don't know,' said the wretched Prime Minister, stooping to gather
some more straws from the strawberry bed.

'But I do,' said Billy. 'Now for breakfast.'

Before four o'clock that afternoon the Prime Minister's head was a
perfect bird's-nest of straws. But he met Billy at the appointed place,
and there was a boat--and also Eliza. Billy carried his Lee-Metford.

A wind blew from the shore, and the straws in the Prime Minister's hair
rustled like a barley-field in August.

'Now,' said Billy the King, 'my Royal Majesty commands you to speak to
the dragon as soon as it arrives, and to say that your King has
abdicated----'

'But he hasn't,' said the Prime Minister in tears.

'But he _does now_--so you won't be telling a lie. I abdicate. But I
give you my word of honour I'll turn King again as soon as I've tried my
little plan. I shall be quite in time to meet my fate--and the dragon.
Say "The King has abdicated. You'd better just look in at Allexanassa
and get the Queen, and when you call again I'll have a nice fat King
all ready for you."'

The straws trembled, and Eliza sobbed.

Billy went on; and he had never felt so truly regal as now, when he was
preparing to risk his life in order to save his subjects from the
monthly temptation to be mean and cowardly and sneakish. I think myself
it was good of Billy. He might just have abdicated and let things slide.
Some boys would have.

The sea of greeny-black treacle heaved and swelled sulkily against the
beach. The Prime Minister said:

'Very well; I'll do it. But I'd sooner die than see my King false to his
word.'

'You won't have to choose between the two,' said Billy, very pale, but
determined. 'Your King's not a hound, like--like some-people.'

And then, far away on the very edge of the green treacly sea, they saw a
squirming and a squelching and clouds of steam, and all sorts of
exciting and unpleasant things happening very suddenly and all together.

The Prime Minister covered his head with dry seaweed and said:

'That's Him.'

'That's _He_,' corrected Eliza the Queen and Billy the King in one
breath.

But the Prime Min