s hung, and with great black cats which prowled everywhere. The
door was of solid oak and immovable. Wilbur knew; he had tried it once
when Merlin had gone out.

At the moment Merlin and he were sitting facing each other on a pair of
stone couches. They had been sitting so for some hours and the silence
was wearing Wilbur down.

"So Arthur is going to be king," he said at last, in an effort to start
a conversation. "He looks like a fine boy."

"He is," Merlin agreed. "Chivalrous and all that. It was foreordained.
That's why I had to get back. I knew he was going to be along that road
today, and I knew he was going to pull out that sword."

"I thought you said he had a fault."

"What a fault," Merlin sighed. "He's got your trouble, but in reverse.
He was born without fear. It's a bad thing for a king to be like that.
He'd lead his people into sure death. You heard what he said this
afternoon. Even odds of fifty to one mean nothing to him."

For the first time Wilbur saw the whole thing. Until now he had
entertained a faint hope that Merlin might not really want his eye. But
this was the clincher. The _Elixir of Caution_! Desperately he cast
about for a means of escape. There was none. And Merlin was watching him
with an eagle eye.

"Maybe," Wilbur offered weakly, "a few drops of my blood would do the
trick. You don't want Arthur to get _too_ timid."

"Nice of you to think of it," Merlin said. "But I really couldn't fool
with that recipe."

Wilbur wished with all his heart that he had the courage to put up some
kind of fight. Merlin was an old and feeble man. But he knew his
genetics. Wilbur had been born without a gene of courage. Wilbur rubbed
his right eye, the one he would soon be without, and felt tears well up.
His last glimmer of hope was borne on a sigh.

"Maybe he won't come."

"He'll come all right. Arthur never breaks a promise. That's one of his
best points. What I'm trying to do is see to it that he isn't so rash
about making them in the first place."

It seemed that Merlin was right, for just then there came to their ears
the sound of iron shod hoofs in the courtyard above their heads. The
ceiling trembled slightly and a drop of water fell on Wilbur's head.
Then footsteps clattered down a long flight of stairs and the door swung
open. It was Arthur, and from his appearance it was plain he had been in
a fight.

* * * * *

From a cut alongside his temple blood d