Coronel got on his horse and rode away. As soon as he was out of earshot he began to laugh. Spasm after spasm shook him. No sooner had he composed himself to gravity than a remembrance of Udo's appearance started him off again. "I couldn't have stayed with him a moment longer," he thought. "I should have burst. Poor Udo! However, we'll soon get him all right." That evening he reached the place where the cottage had stood, but it was gone. Next morning he rode back to the wood. Udo was gone too. He returned to the Palace, and began to think it out. * * * * * Left to himself Udo very soon made up his mind. There were three courses open to him. He might stay where he was till he was restored to health. This he rejected at once. When you have the head of a rabbit, the tail of a lion, and the middle of a woolly lamb, the need for action of some kind is imperative. All the blood of your diverse ancestors calls to you to be up and doing. He might go back to Araby. To Araby, where he was so well-known, so respected, so popular? To Araby, where he rode daily among his father's subjects that they might have the pleasure of cheering him? How awkward for everybody! On to Euralia then? Why not? The Princess Hyacinth had called for him. What devotion it showed if he came to her even now--in his present state of bad health! She was in trouble: enchanters, wizards, what-nots. Already, then, he had suffered in her service--so at least he would say, and so possibly it might be. Coronel had thought him--funny; but women had not much sense of humour as a rule. Probably as a child Hyacinth had kept rabbits . . . or lambs. She would find him--strokable. . . . And the lion in him . . . in his tail, his fierce mane . . . she would find that inspiring. Women like to feel that there is something fierce, untamable in the man they love; well, there it was. It was not as if he had Coronel with him. Coronel and he (in his present health) could never have gone into Euralia together; the contrast was too striking; but he alone, Hyacinth's only help! Surely she would appreciate his magnanimity. Also, as he had told himself a moment ago, there was quite a chance that it was a Euralian enchanter who had put this upon him--to prevent him helping Hyacinth. If so, he had better go to Euralia in order to deal with that enchanter. For the moment, he did not see exactly how to deal with him, but no doubt he would think of some tremendously cunning device later on. To Euralia then with all dispatch. He trotted off. As Coronel had said, they were evidently afraid of him. CHAPTER X CHARLOTTE PATACAKE ASTONISHES THE CRITICS