usual
habit, refrained from saying anything disagreeable. As for the poor boy
whose home was now a wilderness, the tears came often to his eyes as he
marked the ruin of his dearly loved island.

When, at nightfall, they reached the lower end of Pingaree and found it
swept as bare as the rest, Inga's grief was almost more than he could
bear. Everything had been swept from him--parents, home and country--in
so brief a time that his bewilderment was equal to his sorrow.

Since no house remained standing, in which they might sleep, the three
wanderers crept beneath the overhanging branches of a cassa tree and
curled themselves up as comfortably as possible. So tired and exhausted
were they by the day's anxieties and griefs that their troubles soon
faded into the mists of dreamland. Beast and King and boy slumbered
peacefully together until wakened by the singing of the birds which
greeted the dawn of a new day.

Chapter Five

The Three Pearls

When King Rinkitink and Prince Inga had bathed themselves in the sea
and eaten a simple breakfast, they began wondering what they could do
to improve their condition.

"The poor people of Gilgad," said Rinkitink cheerfully, "are little
likely ever again to behold their King in the flesh, for my boat and my
rowers are gone with everything else. Let us face the fact that we are
imprisoned for life upon this island, and that our lives will be short
unless we can secure more to eat than is in this small sack."

"I'll not starve, for I can eat grass," remarked the goat in a pleasant
tone--or a tone as pleasant as Bilbil could assume.

"True, quite true," said the King. Then he seemed thoughtful for a
moment and turning to Inga he asked: "Do you think, Prince, that if the
worst comes, we could eat Bilbil?"

The goat gave a groan and cast a reproachful look at his master as he
said:

"Monster! Would you, indeed, eat your old friend and servant?"

"Not if I can help it, Bilbil," answered the King pleasantly. "You
would make a remarkably tough morsel, and my teeth are not as good as
they once were."

While this talk was in progress Inga suddenly remembered the three
pearls which his father had hidden under the tiled floor of the banquet
hall. Without doubt King Kitticut had been so suddenly surprised by the
invaders that he had found no opportunity to get the pearls, for
otherwise the fierce warriors would have been defeated and driven out
of Pingaree. So they must sti