hall, I think I could find means for us to
escape from this barren island."

"Then," mumbled Rinkitink, with his mouth full, "let us move the blocks
of marble."

"But how?" inquired Prince Inga. "They are very heavy."

"Ah, how, indeed?" returned the King, smacking his lips contentedly.
"That is a serious question. But--I have it! Let us see what my famous
parchment says about it." He wiped his fingers upon a napkin and then,
taking the scroll from a pocket inside his embroidered blouse, he
unrolled it and read the following words: 'Never step on another man's
toes.'

The goat gave a snort of contempt; Inga was silent; the King looked
from one to the other inquiringly.

"That's the idea, exactly!" declared Rinkitink.

"To be sure," said Bilbil scornfully, "it tells us exactly how to move
the blocks of marble."

"Oh, does it?" responded the King, and then for a moment he rubbed the
top of his bald head in a perplexed manner. The next moment he burst
into a peal of joyous laughter. The goat looked at Inga and sighed.

"What did I tell you?" asked the creature. "Was I right, or was I
wrong?"

"This scroll," said Rinkitink, "is indeed a masterpiece. Its advice is
of tremendous value. 'Never step on another man's toes.' Let us think
this over. The inference is that we should step upon our own toes,
which were given us for that purpose. Therefore, if I stepped upon
another man's toes, I would be the other man. Hoo, hoo, hoo!--the other
man--hee, hee, heek-keek-eek! Funny, isn't it?"

"Didn't I say--" began Bilbil.

"No matter what you said, my boy," roared the King. "No fool could have
figured that out as nicely as I did."

"We have still to decide how to remove the blocks of marble," suggested
Inga anxiously.

"Fasten a rope to them, and pull," said Bilbil.
"Don't pay any more attention to Rinkitink, for he is no wiser than the
man who wrote that brainless scroll. Just get the rope, and we'll
fasten Rinkitink to one end of it for a weight and I'll help you pull."

"Thank you, Bilbil," replied the boy. "I'll get the rope at once."

Bilbil found it difficult to climb over the ruins to the floor of the
banquet hall, but there are few places a goat cannot get to when it
makes the attempt, so Bilbil succeeded at last, and even fat little
Rinkitink finally joined them, though much out of breath.

Inga fastened one end of the rope around a block of marble and then
made a loop at the other end to go over Bilb