t every man."

"Even if he is unarmed?" inquired the Crown Prince, who had also studied
strategy and tactics, and felt that an unarmed man should be taken
prisoner.

"Sure. We don't really shoot them, silly. Now. Get in step.

"'Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.'"

They marched up the steps and out through the opening at the top. If
there were any who watched, outside the encircling growth of evergreens,
they were not on the lookout for two small boys and a dog. And, as
became pirates, the children made a stealthy exit.

Then began, for the Crown Prince, such a day of joy as he had never
known before. Even the Land of Delight faded before this new bliss of
stalking from tree to tree, of killing unsuspecting citizens who sat on
rugs on the ground and ate sausages and little cakes. Here and there,
where a party had moved on, they salvaged a bit of food--the heel of a
loaf, one of the small country apples. Shades of the Court Physicians,
under whose direction the Crown Prince was daily fed a carefully
balanced ration!

When they were weary, they stretched out on the ground, and the Crown
Prince, whose bed was nightly dried with a warming-pan for fear of
dampness, wallowed blissfully on earth still soft with the melting
frosts of the winter. He grew muddy and dirty. He had had no hat, of
course, and his bright hair hung over his forehead in moist strands. Now
and then he drew a long breath of sheer happiness.

Around them circled the gayety of the Carnival, bands of students in
white, with the tall peaked caps of Pierrots. Here and there was a
scarlet figure, a devil with horns, who watched the crowd warily. A dog,
with the tulle petticoats of a dancer tied around it and a great bow on
its neck, made friends with Dick Deadeye, alias Tucker, and joined the
group.

But, as dusk descended, the crowd gradually dispersed, some to supper,
but some to gather in the Place and in the streets around the Palace.
For the rumor that the King was dying would not down.

At last the senior pirate consulted a large nickel watch.

"Gee! it's almost supper time," he said.

Prince Ferdinand William Otto consulted his own watch, the one with the
inscription: "To Ferdinand William Otto, from his grandfather, on the
occasion of his taking his first communion."

"Why can't you come home to supper with me?" asked the senior pirate.
"Would your folks kick up a row?"

"I beg