l the worse because it was inspired by malice, which
is the meanest of all weaknesses. I had the pleasure of knocking down
some of your majesty's representatives, but they stole the girl away
while I slept, and, briefly, I have come to fetch her back."

The monarch had followed my speech, the longest ever made in my life,
with fierce, blinking eyes, and when it stopped looked at poor
shrinking Heru as though for explanation, then round the circle of his
awestruck courtiers, and reading dismay at my boldness in their faces,
burst into a guttural laugh.

"I suppose you have the great and puissant Hither nation behind you in
this request, Mr. Spirit?"

"No, I came alone, hoping to find justice here, and, if not, then
prepared to do all I could to make your majesty curse the day your
servants maltreated my friends."

"Tall words, stranger! May I ask what you propose to do if Ar-hap, in
his own palace, amongst his people and soldiers, refuses to disgorge a
pretty prize at the bidding of one shabby interloper--muddy and
friendless?"

"What should I do?"

"Yes," said the king, with a haughty frown. "What would you do?"

I do not know what prompted the reply. For a moment I was completely
at a loss what to say to this very obvious question, and then all on a
sudden, remembering they held me to be some kind of disembodied spirit,
by a happy inspiration, fixing my eyes grimly on the king, I answered,

"What would I do? Why, I WOULD HAUNT YOU!"

It may not seem a great stroke of genius here, but the effect on the
Martian was instantaneous. He sat straight up, his hands tightened,
his eyes dilated, and then fidgeting uneasily, after a minute he
beckoned to an over-dressed individual, whom Heru afterwards told me
was the Court necromancer, and began whispering in his ear.

After a minute's consultation he turned again, a rather frightened
civility struggling in his face with anger, and said, "We have no wish,
of course, stranger, to offend you or those who had the honour of your
patronage. Perhaps the princess here was a little roughly handled,
and, I confess, if she were altogether as reluctant as she seems, a
lesser maid would have done as well. I could have wooed this one in
Seth, where I may shortly come, and our espousals would possibly have
lent, in the eyes of your friends, quite a cheerful aspect to my
arrival. But my ambassadors have had no great schooling in diplomacy;
they have brought Princess Heru h