it he had scurried back to the
beach, bored holes in his gold heels, fastened on the skates, and was
skating away over the brown sea towards Allexanassa. For the treacle,
heated to boiling-point by the passing of the dragon, had now grown
cold, and, of course, it was now _toffee_! Far off, Eliza had had the
same idea as soon as she saw the toffee, and, of course, as Queen of
Allexanassa, she could skate beautifully. So the two skated into each
other's arms somewhere near the middle of the channel between the two
islands.

They stood telling each other how happy they were for a few moments, or
it may have been a few hours; and when they turned to go back to
Plurimiregia they found that the toffee-ice of the treacle sea was black
with crowds of skaters--for the Allexanassians and the Plurimiregians
had found out the wonderful truth, and were hurrying across to pay
visits to their friends and relations in the opposite islands. Near the
shore the toffee was hidden by troops of children, who had borrowed the
family hammers and were chipping into the solid toffee and eating the
flakes of it as they splintered off.

People were pointing out to each other the spot where the dragon had
sunk, and when they perceived Billy the King and Eliza the Queen they
sent up a shout that you could have heard miles out at sea--if there had
been any sea--which, of course, there wasn't. The Prime Minister had
lost no time in issuing a proclamation setting forth Billy's splendid
conduct in ridding the country of the dragon, and all the populace were
in a frenzy of gratitude and loyalty.

Billy turned on a little tap inside his head by some means which I
cannot describe to you, and a bright flood of cleverness poured through
his brain.

'After all,' he said to Eliza, 'they were going to give us to the
dragon to save their own lives. It's bad, I know. But I don't know
that's it's worse than people who let other people die of lead-poisoning
because they want a particular glaze on their dinner-plates, or let
people die of phosphorus-poisoning so that they may get matches at six
boxes a penny. We're as well off here as in England.'

'Yes,' said Eliza.

So they agreed to stay and go on being King and Queen, on condition that
the Prime Minister consented to give up straws altogether, even in
moments of crisis.

'I will, your Majesties,' he said, adding, with a polite bow, 'I shall
not need a single straw under your Majesty's able kingship.'