"It may be you have supernatural powers, as the Irishman remarked," said the Student Brownie doubtfully. "Have you ever tried to put them to a test?" Prince Florimel sighed. What could he do to gain the confidence and esteem of these little people whom already he was beginning to love? How could he make them all his friends? In his doubt and uncertainty his eye strayed to the bow in his hand. A sudden thought came to him. In this extremity it might be of aid. But it had failed him once--would it fail him again? Without a word he took an arrow from the quiver and placed it to the bow. The Brownies watched his every movement with the keenest interest. He gazed about seeking some difficult target at which to aim. With their pop eyes the Brownies gazed where he did. He saw the crescent moon hanging low in the deepening sky, like a hunter's horn, and pointed the arrow at it. He pulled back the cord with all his strength, and to his great relief it held. The arrow whistled away in its swift flight, and was lost in the violet atmosphere. But almost the next moment a great cry of surprise went up from all the Brownies. The arrow that Florimel had shot was sticking through the moon! [Illustration] CHAPTER VI THE HUMAN OCTOPUS SNOOPS AROUND [Illustration] Watched by the admiring eyes of Dragonfel and his followers the Human Octopus wriggled and squirmed his way out of the enchanter's palace. And, whether he flew through the air, or swam through the waters, to Queen Titania's fairy kingdom, using his tentacles as propellers, is a matter for conjecture. But, at any rate, he got there with all tentacles. Whenever his suspicions were aroused, or there was the slightest doubt, he would hastily secrete himself among shrubbery or weeds, with which his mottled green sides proved a perfect match, so that as a whole he blended in admirably with the vegetation. He did not have a heart, a rather sluggish liver performing for him instead the necessary functions of the other organ, and, as he approached Queen Titania's palace with due caution, it thumped with torpid pleasure. [Illustration] If there was anything he liked above all others it was sneaking, and the job which Dragonfel had given him presented most attractive possibilities. Noting a gurgling brook in the proximity of the portcullis, he took great pains to soak the round pad-like ends of his tentacles in water so that when they were applied to a flat surface they would adhere through atmospheric pressure sufficiently to bear his weight. In such a manner, when no one was looking, did the wily rascal climb up the high garden-wall and down the other side, wriggling and squirming with ill-concealed chuckles toward the palace. Only the magic dove that Euphrosyne had left, which was preening itself on the edge of a fountain's basin, saw him, with the result that it was strongly tempted to fly back to the Goddess of Mirth forthwith.