"I suppose," said the Prince to himself, "he's mad at me now. But I don't care if he is, the island is mine and whoever gets shipwrecked here can stay if they want to, lots or no lots." Then _he_ turned on _his_ heel and walked away in the opposite direction to that taken by the Gingerbread Man. Now as you know an island is an island--it may be a round island, or an oblong island, or a square island--but if it is an island and you start at a certain place on the seacoast and walk long enough, you are bound to come back to the very place where you started. And that is exactly what happened to Frip. After he left the Gingerbread Man he went on walking, and walking, and walking, until after a bit he came to a place that looked very familiar and he saw by the real estate sign that it was the same spot he had started from, except that something had happened to it, which was that a bonfire was burning there and that running round and around the fire was the Gingerbread Man. And my, how fine he did smell for the fire had warmed him enough to freshen him up. "Hello," said Frip, sniffing hungrily, "what's the matter with you? My, you do smell nice!" "Oh, I do, do I?" said the Gingerbread Man, keeping on running, "then I suppose you'll join the cannibals and help eat me." "Cannibals!" exclaimed the Prince, "what cannibals? I don't see any cannibals." "Perhaps not," replied the Gingerbread Man, "but you can easily see their footprints on the beach, can't you?" And sure enough there were the prints of bare feet all about the bonfire, and now that Frip had noticed them he saw to his surprise that fresh footprints were being made all the time. "Why--why--" he began, very much startled, "why--hey, is anybody here?" And the minute he said that there was a blood-curdling yell and upon his vision burst a band of coal-black savages with waving plumes on their heads and spears in their hands. [Illustration: Upon his vision burst a band of coal-black savages] "Oh," he gasped, "goodness gracious!" Then turning about he started to run away as fast as he could, but when you are surrounded by savages it is not so easy to run away, and presently Frip found himself running around and around the bonfire in the opposite direction to that taken by the Gingerbread Man, each one of them pursued by a towering cannibal. And no one knows how long they might have kept it up if at last the Gingerbread Man had not bumped into him, cracking himself badly and almost knocking the Prince down. And at this the cannibals howled with glee. "Now," said the Cannibal Chief, as he watched Frip trying to get his breath, "perhaps you'll tell me why you ran so. Was it because we shocked you? I was afraid we would." "Well," said Frip, "you certainly did sort of shock me. And then--" "I knew it," said the other. "That's the reason we make ourselves invisible when strangers are about. We hate to shock folks. Listen."