nd was weeping for his grandfather.

"Has the carriage come?" he demanded. "I am waiting for a carriage."

They assured him that a carriage was on the way, and were very much at a
loss.

"I would like to go quickly," he said. "I am afraid my
grandfather--Nikky!"

For there stood Nikky in the doorway, a staggering, white-lipped Nikky.
He was not too weak to pick the child up, however, and carry him to the
head of the stairs. They had moved the body of the concierge, by his
order. So he stood there, the boy in his arms, and the students, only an
hour before in revolt against him, cheered mightily.

They met the detachment of cavalry at the door, and thus, in state, rode
back to the Palace where he was to rule, King Otto the Ninth. A very sad
little King, for Nikky had answered his question honestly. A King who
mopped his eyes with a very dirty handkerchief. A weary little King,
too, with already a touch of indigestion!

Behind them, in the house on the Road of the Good Children, Haeckel,
in an access of fury, ordered the body of the concierge flung from a
window. It lay below, a twisted and shapeless thing, beside the pieces
of old Adelbert's broken sword.

CHAPTER XXXIX. THE LINCOLN PENNY

And so, at last, King Otto the Ninth reached his Palace, and was hurried
up the stairs to the room where the Council waited. Not at all a royal
figure, but a tired little boy in gray trousers, a short black Eton
coat, and a rolling collar which had once been white.

He gave one glance around the room. "My grandfather!" he said. And fell
to crying into his dirty pocket-handkerchief.

The Chancellor eyed grimly from under his shaggy brows the disreputable
figure of his sovereign. Then he went toward him, and put his hand on
his head.

"He was very eager for this rest, Otto,", he said.

Then he knelt, and very solemnly and with infinite tenderness, he kissed
the small, not overclean, hand.

One by one the Council did the same thing.

King Otto straightened his shoulders and put away the handkerchief. It
had occurred to him that he was a man now and must act a man's part in
the world.

"May I see him?" he asked. "I--didn't see him before."

"Your people are waiting, sire," the Chancellor said gravely. "To a
ruler, his people must come first."

And so, in the clear light from the room behind him, Otto the Ninth
first stood before his people. They looked up, and hard eyes grew soft,
tense muscles relaxed. They s