ength the ball came to an end, and then the king ordered all the
doors to be shut, and search made for a man with two black dots on his
cheek. The chamberlain went among the guests, and soon found such a man,
but just as he was going to arrest him and bring him before the king his
eye fell on another with the same mark, and another, and another, till
he had counted twenty--besides the Wise Man--on whose face were found
spots.

Not knowing what to do, the chamberlain hurried back with his tale
to the king, who immediately sent for the Wise Man, and then for his
daughter.

'The thief must have stolen your bottle,' said the king to the Wizard.

'No, my lord, it is here,' answered the Wise Man, holding it out.

'Then he must have got yours,' he cried, turning to his daughter.

'Indeed, father, it is safe in my pocket,' replied she, taking it out as
she spoke; and they all three looked at each other and remained silent.

'Well,' said the king at last, 'the man who has done this is cleverer
than most men, and if he will make himself known to me he shall marry
the princess and govern half my kingdom while I am alive, and the whole
of it when I am dead. Go and announce this in the ballroom,' he added to
an attendant, 'and bring the fellow hither.'

So the attendant went into the ballroom and did as the king had bidden
him, when, to his surprise, not one man, but twenty, stepped forward,
all with black dots on their faces.

'I am the person you want,' they all exclaimed at once, and the
attendant, as much bewildered as the chamberlain had been, desired them
to follow him into the king's presence.

But the question was too difficult for the king to decide, so he called
together his council. For hours they talked, but to no purpose, and in
the end they hit upon a plan which they might just as well have thought
of at the beginning.

And this was the plan. A child was to be brought to the palace, and next
the king's daughter would give her an apple. Then the child was to take
the apple and be led into a room where the twenty men with the black
dots were sitting in a ring. And to whomsoever the child gave the apple,
that man should marry the king's daughter.

'Of course,' said the king, 'it may not be the right man, after all, but
then again it MAY be. Anyhow, it is the best we can do.'

The princess herself led the child into the room where the twenty men
were now seated. She stood in the centre of the ring for a moment