You may be sure the Queen of Coregos was not well pleased to have King Gos and all his
warriors living in her city after they had fled from their own. They were savage natured
and quarrelsome men at all times, and their tempers had not improved since their
conquest by the Prince of Pingaree. Moreover, they were eating up Queen Cor's
provisions and crowding the houses of her own people, who grumbled and complained
until their Queen was heartily tired.
"Shame on you!" she said to her husband, King Gos, "to be driven out of your city by a
boy, a roly-poly King and a billy goat! Why do you not go back and fight them?"
"No human can fight against the powers of magic," returned the King in a surly voice.
"That boy is either a fairy or under the protection of fairies. We escaped with our lives
only because we were quick to run away; but, should we return to Regos, the same
terrible power that burst open the city gates would crush us all to atoms."
"Bah! you are a coward," cried the Queen, tauntingly.
"I am not a coward," said the big King. "I have killed in battle scores of my enemies; by
the might of my sword and my good right arm I have conquered many nations; all my life
people have feared me. But no one would dare face the tremendous power of the Prince
of Pingaree, boy though he is. It would not be courage, it would be folly, to attempt it."
"Then meet his power with cunning," suggested the Queen. "Take my advice, and steal
over to Regos at night, when it is dark, and capture or destroy the boy while he sleeps."
"No weapon can touch his body," was the answer. "He bears a charmed life and cannot be
injured."
"Does the fat King possess magic powers, or the goat?" inquired Cor.
"I think not," said Gos. "We could not injure them, indeed, any more than we could the
boy, but they did not seem to have any unusual strength, although the goat's head is
harder than a battering-ram."
"Well," mused the Queen, "there is surely some way to conquer that slight boy. If you are
afraid to undertake the job, I shall go myself. By some stratagem I shall manage to make
him my prisoner. He will not dare to defy a Queen, and no magic can stand against a
woman's cunning."
"Go ahead, if you like," replied the King, with an evil grin, "and if you are hung up by the
thumbs or cast into a dungeon, it will serve you right for thinking you can succeed where
a skilled warrior dares not make the attempt."
"I'm not afraid," answered the Queen. "It is only soldiers and bullies who are cowards."
In spite of this assertion, Queen Cor was not so brave as she was cunning. For several
days she thought over this plan and that, and tried to decide which was most likely to
