"It was this love which was his ruin. "One day in the presence of the King of his country he boasted of being the father of the three most beautiful young girls in his country. [Illustration: THE KING'S DAUGHTER] "What an imprudence! The King himself possessed a daughter whose beauty, to say the least of it, was not remarkable, and the King, who was very intelligent, was perfectly well aware of the fact. He was furious when he heard Djorak's boast. He had him arrested and tried before the high court, who decided that the punishment of death was barely sufficient for such an audacious criminal. "The punishment of death in Djorak's country is by beheading with the sword; a criminal's head is only cut off once--but it is once and for all." [Illustration] CHAPTER IX The elder Flying Fish loses one eye, and the Hen finds it: The Historian wakes up, and Smaly and Redy run out of the house: The Healer mends the paw of the Confectioner. The Flying-Fish upon their perches now began to shake their wings and then their paws, and last of all their heads. "Are we really awake?" asked the elder Flying-Fish of the younger. "It seems to me that we are more or less shaken up," replied the little Flying-Fish. The two Fish prepared themselves to fly forthwith once more upon their arduous duties, for the Flying-Fish in this country act as sentinels and look-out men, and also cry the hours publicly. Just as they were about to set off the little Flying-Fish noticed that the other had lost an eye. "That must have been when I shook my head," exclaimed the elder Flying-Fish with conviction, and both flew down on to the floor to look for the missing eye. The Hen joined them in their search, and as she fluttered down she managed to upset a glass retort from which an opalescent vapour began to escape. Soon the whole laboratory was filled with this vapour in layer upon layer of different colours, from deep rose at the base up through violet and pale green to a layer of no colour at all, which was succeeded by a layer of blue. Through the vapour Smaly and Redy could hear that the Fish and the Hen were continuing their search for the lost eye. Sometimes they were quite near the two little people, although no one could see any one else. It was the Hen who finally discovered the lost eye. "Why, it's still shut," said the younger Fish to the elder. "Doubtless it must have fallen out before I had really shaken myself awake," replied the elder. Taking the eye from the hands of the Hen, the Fish held it in its cupped paws to shake it, as one shakes a coin, to see whether it will come down heads or tails. When it had been well shaken the eye was open. The little Fish took the eye and replaced it in the elder Fish's head; then they both flew out, making a buzzing noise like gigantic bluebottles. * * * * *