The Prince seemed to approve of them, too, and with their quaint answers and ways they certainly amused him—Archie bluff and outspoken and Joe modest and retiring as a girl.
Presently, as he lay back upon his pillows, Kai Lun Pu began to laugh. He laughed again, seemingly much amused; and still again, with evident enjoyment of some thought that had occurred to him. Archie and Joe stared at him rather uneasily, and I own I had myself a fleeting suspicion that his maimed body was finally affecting his mind. But the next moment the Prince said, in his ordinary tones:
“By all the big and little gods, I’ll do it!”
“Do what, Prince?” I asked, curiously.
“Give you a new adventure to undertake,” he replied, almost gleefully. “You three boys are not tired of adventures, are you?”
“Not much,” returned Archie, stoutly.
“And although you’ve found some small treasure already, you wouldn’t object to finding more, would you?” he continued, eyeing us closely.
Our eager faces must have answered him; but I said, as calmly as I could:
“What is the proposition, your Highness?”
“The proposition is simply this, Sam; I’m going to show you how to rob my ancestral halls!”