everyone around.

Soon people hated him, and he made the taxes so high that it took
nearly all the money they could earn to pay them. This was to keep up
an immense army which he had formed with the intention of making war
against the other islands as soon as he had built a large fleet.

When Daimur was eighteen all the people of the kingdom demanded that he
should be crowned king.

Daimur wanted to be crowned at once too, so that he could put back all
the good laws his father had made, and save his country from going to
war, but his uncle begged him to wait for a couple of months.

One night shortly after his birthday, Daimur had gone to his apartment
and was sitting at his window thinking sadly of his troubled kingdom,
when suddenly his door was opened and before he could say a word a gag
was thrust into his mouth, his hands and feet were tied, and he was
carried quickly downstairs, out of doors and down the garden path to
the sea, where he was dumped into a boat that was anchored at the
little wharf there. The night was very dark, and Daimur could not see
because they had thrown a cloak over him and fastened it over his head,
but he could tell that it was a small boat by the way it rocked when
they moved about. The men ran up a couple of sails and pushed off to
sea. The boat raced swiftly through the waves, but Daimur thought the
journey would never end as he lay bound in the bow of the boat, and
half smothered by the cloak. They sailed all night. The sun came up
and it was a very warm day, but still they kept on, and it was not
until the middle of the afternoon that they came at last to land and
ran onto a sandy beach. Here the men pulled the poor Prince out of the
boat more dead than alive, set him free, and putting off a large jug of
fresh water and a big bag of biscuits, sailed away again and left him.

In vain Daimur cried after them to return, not to leave him there
alone. They paid not the slightest attention.

After watching them for some time he saw in the distance a large
sailing barge running towards the small boat, which he recognized as
his uncle's, so how he felt certain that his uncle had caused him to be
left upon the Island of Despair in order to take possession of the
Kingdom of Sunne.

CHAPTER III

After a while poor Daimur gave up staring blankly at the sea, and
taking up his jug of water and his bag of biscuits walked slowly up the
shore to a shady place and sat down to eat