an earthenware dish, "is dem powders to be took inside arter bein' well
shooken, or rubbed outside?"

"Whichever way you please, Ebony. Would you like to try?"

"No thankee, massa."

"Now, then, look here," said Mark, making some pencil notes on a sheet
of paper, after arranging several plates in a row. "You and Hockins set
to work and mix these in the exact proportions set down on this paper.
I'd do it myself, but I'm due at the palace, and you know the Queen does
not like to be kept waiting. Stick to the paper, exactly, and here you
have an egg-cup, a table-spoon, and a tea-spoon to measure with. Put
your pipe out, I advise you, Hockins, before beginning. If Rainiharo
should call, tell him he will find me with the Queen. I don't like that
Prime Minister. He's a prime rascal, I think, and eggs the Queen on
when she would probably let things drop. He's always brooding and
pondering, too, as if hatching mischief."

"If that's a sign of hatching mischief," said Hockins, with a short
laugh, "the same thing may be said of yourself, doctor, for you've done
little but brood and ponder for more nor a week past."

"True, I have been plotting; but many a man plots much without much
resulting."

Hurrying away, Mark found the Secretary waiting for him to act as
interpreter, for the Queen understood little or no English.

After the preliminary ceremonial salutations, the young doctor asked if
her Majesty would honour the gardens with her presence the following
day, hold a grand reception, and make arrangements to remain in Anosy
till after dark.

Yes, the Queen was quite ready to do so, but why did her Court Physician
make such a proposal? Had he some new surprise in store for her?

"I have," answered Mark. "In my country we make very grand displays
with fire. But I have various little surprises and plots in store,
which cannot be properly wrought out unless Ranavalona will consent to
go to the gardens privately--that is to say, without public
announcement, for that has much to do with the success of my scheme."

"It shall be done, though it is against my custom," said the Queen, with
a good-natured nod, for she had begun to regard her young physician as
an eccentric creature who needed and deserved encouragement in his
amusing and harmless fancies.

Immediately after the audience, Mark and his sympathetic interpreter,
the Secretary, obtained an interview with Rafaravavy. The doctor began
abruptly.

"I am