e divided according to rank, the King and Queen
taking half, the captains a quarter, and the rest being divided amongst
the warriors.

The day following the feast King Gos sent King Kitticut and all the men
of Pingaree to work in his mines under the mountains, having first
chained them together so they could not escape. The gentle Queen of
Pingaree and all her women, together with the captured children, were
given to Queen Cor, who set them to work in her grain fields.

Then the rulers and warriors of these dreadful islands thought they had
done forever with Pingaree. Despoiled of all its wealth, its houses
torn down, its boats captured and all its people enslaved, what
likelihood was there that they might ever again hear of the desolated
island? So the people of Regos and Coregos were surprised and puzzled
when one morning they observed approaching their shores from the
direction of the south a black boat containing a boy, a fat man and a
goat. The warriors asked one another who these could be, and where they
had come from? No one ever came to those islands of their own accord,
that was certain.

Prince Inga guided his boat to the south end of the Island of Regos,
which was the landing place nearest to the city, and when the warriors
saw this action they went down to the shore to meet him, being led by a
big captain named Buzzub.

"Those people surely mean us no good," said Rinkitink uneasily to the
boy. "Without doubt they intend to capture us and make us their slaves."

"Do not fear, sir," answered Inga, in a calm voice. "Stay quietly in
the boat with Bilbil until I have spoken with these men."

He stopped the boat a dozen feet from the shore, and standing up in his
place made a grave bow to the multitude confronting him. Said the big
Captain Buzzub in a gruff voice:

"Well, little one, who may you be? And how dare you come, uninvited and
all alone, to the Island of Regos?"

"I am Inga, Prince of Pingaree," returned the boy, "and I have come
here to free my parents and my people, whom you have wrongfully
enslaved."

When they heard this bold speech a mighty laugh arose from the band of
warriors, and when it had subsided the captain said:

"You love to jest, my baby Prince, and the joke is fairly good. But why
did you willingly thrust your head into the lion's mouth? When you were
free, why did you not stay free? We did not know we had left a single
person in Pingaree! But since you managed to escape us th