elf. The Doctor and the rest were taken before the
King.

"Ha, ha!" cried the King. "So you are caught again! This time you
shall not escape. Take them all back to prison and put double locks on
the door. This White Man shall scrub my kitchen-floor for the rest of
his life!"

So the Doctor and his pets were led back to prison and locked up. And
the Doctor was told that in the morning he must begin scrubbing the
kitchen-floor.

They were all very unhappy.

"This is a great nuisance," said the Doctor. "I really must get back to
Puddleby. That poor sailor will think I've stolen his ship if I don't
get home soon.... I wonder if those hinges are loose."

But the door was very strong and firmly locked. There seemed no chance
of getting out. Then Gub-Gub began to cry again.

All this time Polynesia was still sitting in the tree in the
palace-garden. She was saying nothing and blinking her eyes.

This was always a very bad sign with Polynesia. Whenever she said
nothing and blinked her eyes, it meant that somebody had been making
trouble, and she was thinking out some way to put things right. People
who made trouble for Polynesia or her friends were nearly always sorry
for it afterwards.

Presently she spied Chee-Chee swinging through the trees still looking
for the Doctor. When Chee-Chee saw her, he came into her tree and asked
her what had become of him.

"The Doctor and all the animals have been caught by the King's men and
locked up again," whispered Polynesia. "We lost our way in the jungle
and blundered into the palace-garden by mistake."

"But couldn't you guide them?" asked Chee-Chee; and he began to scold
the parrot for letting them get lost while he was away looking for the
cocoanuts.

"It was all that stupid pig's fault," said Polynesia. "He would keep
running off the path hunting for ginger-roots. And I was kept so busy
catching him and bringing him back, that I turned to the left, instead
of the right, when we reached the swamp.--Sh!--Look! There's Prince
Bumpo coming into the garden! He must not see us.--Don't move, whatever
you do!"

And there, sure enough, was Prince Bumpo, the King's son, opening the
garden-gate. He carried a book of fairy-tales under his arm. He came
strolling down the gravel-walk, humming a sad song, till he reached a
stone seat right under the tree where the parrot and the monkey were
hiding. Then he lay down on the seat and began reading the
fairy-stories to h