our
dog, you coward, and come down off your horse, and fight fair!"

At this moment, _bleeding yellow blood_, dusty, mad with pain, the dwarf
was a sight to strike terror into the boldest.

Dick sprang from his saddle, but so terrific was the appearance of his
adversary, and so dazzling was the sheen of the diamond sword, that he
put his hand in his pocket, drew out, as he supposed, the sham Cap of
Darkness, and placed it on his head.

"Yah! who's your hatter?" screamed the infuriated dwarf. "_I_ see you!"
and he disengaged, feinted in carte, and made a lunge in seconde at Dick
which no mortal blade could have parried. The prince (thanks to his
excellent training) just succeeded in stepping aside, but the dwarf
recovered with astonishing quickness.

"Coward, _lache_, poltroon, runaway!" he hissed through his clenched
teeth, and was about to make a thrust in tierce which must infallibly
have been fatal, when the Princess Jaqueline, in her shape as a wasp,
stung him fiercely on the wrist.

With an oath so awful that we dare not set it down, the dwarf dropped the
diamond sword, sucked his injured limb, and began hopping about with
pain.

In a moment Prince Ricardo's foot was on the blade of the diamond sword,
which he passed thrice through the body of the Yellow Dwarf. Squirming
fearfully, the little monster expired, his last look a defiance, his
latest word an insult:

"Yah! Gig-lamps!"

Prince Ricardo wiped the diamond blade clean from its yellow stains.

{The fight with the Yellow Dwarf: p141.jpg}

"Princess Frutilla is avenged!" he cried. Then pensively looking at his
fallen foe, "Peace to his ashes," he said; "he died in harness!"

Turning at the word, he observed that the two lions were stiff and dead,
locked in each other's gory jaws!

At that moment King Prigio, looking in the crystal ball, gave a great
sigh of relief.

"All's well that ends well," he said, lighting a fresh cigar, for he had
allowed the other to go out in his excitement, "but it was a fight! I am
not satisfied," his Majesty went on reflecting, "with this plan of
changing the magical articles. The first time was of no great
importance, and I could not know that the boy would start on an
expedition without giving me warning. But, in to-day's affair he owes
his safety entirely to himself and Pepper," for he had not seen the wasp.
"The Fairy of the Desert quite baffled me: it was terrible. I shall
restore the right fairy thing