hat they share one of the largest bedrooms together.

"For," said he, "we are not sure that old Gos will not return and try
to recapture his city, and you must remember that I have no magic to
protect me. In any danger, were I alone, I might be easily killed or
captured, while if you are by my side you can save me from injury."

The boy realized the wisdom of this plan, and selected a fine big
bedroom on the second floor of the palace, in which he ordered two
golden beds placed and prepared for King Rinkitink and himself. Bilbil
was given a suite of rooms on the other side of the palace, where
servants brought the goat fresh-cut grass to eat and made him a soft
bed to lie upon.

That evening the boy Prince and the fat King dined in great state in
the lofty-domed dining hall of the palace, where forty servants waited
upon them. The royal chef, anxious to win the favor of the conquerors
of Regos, prepared his finest and most savory dishes for them, which
Rinkitink ate with much appetite and found so delicious that he ordered
the royal chef brought into the banquet hall and presented him with a
gilt button which the King cut from his own jacket.

"You are welcome to it," said he to the chef, "because I have eaten so
much that I cannot use that lower button at all."

Rinkitink was mightily pleased to live in a comfortable palace again
and to dine at a well spread table. His joy grew every moment, so that
he came in time to be as merry and cheery as before Pingaree was
despoiled. And, although he had been much frightened during Inga's
defiance of the army of King Gos, he now began to turn the matter into
a joke.

"Why, my boy," said he, "you whipped the big black-bearded King exactly
as if he were a schoolboy, even though you used no warlike weapon at
all upon him. He was cowed through fear of your magic, and that reminds
me to demand from you an explanation. How did you do it, Inga? And
where did the wonderful magic come from?"

Perhaps it would have been wise for the Prince to have explained about
the magic pearls, but at that moment he was not inclined to do so.
Instead, he replied:

"Be patient, Your Majesty. The secret is not my own, so please do not
ask me to divulge it. Is it not enough, for the present, that the magic
saved you from death to-day?"

"Do not think me ungrateful," answered the King earnestly. "A million
spears fell on me from the wall, and several stones as big as
mountains, yet none of them