"Well," said Dimples, demurely, "has your Majesty made up his mind?"
"Oh, don't!" whispered his Majesty, crossly. "You know I can't behave like a king if you laugh at me!" Then he folded his arms and looked down at the captain. "I have decided not to punish the prisoner at all," he said solemnly.
"What!" cried the captain, furiously. "You are not going to punish the prisoner at all?"
"No," said his Majesty, growing bolder; "and what is more, I am going to have you beheaded for interfering in the King's private affairs!"
Even Dimples felt a little nervous when she saw the look that crept over the captain's face.
"Oh, dear," she whispered to the Prince, "that is how he looked yesterday when I said he wasn't real. Would it not be wiser to make friends with him?"
But her little playfellow was looking as he had looked when he first entered his palace. "A king," he said grandly, "makes neither friends nor enemies. The captain is only my toy, and I can do as I will with him."
The captain's fury knew no bounds when he overheard this. "That is what comes of having a king who is not made of wood," he said. "But you have forgotten one thing, your Majesty!"
"And what is that?" asked the King, smiling.
"The bottom brick," said the toy captain, as he stooped and pulled it out.