"Well," said the monarch, "he isn't a thing to be trifled with. And that is the reason I think it would be fine for you to celebrate your birthday by fighting him and setting the Princess free. Don't you?" "H'mm," murmured the Prince, "I don't know. I can think of other things I would much rather do." "Why, I am surprised," said the King. "I should think you'd be _glad_ of the chance. I only wish some one had suggested the idea on _my_ eighth birthday. Just think how famous you'll be if you conquer the twenty-headed Gallopus." "Yes," said Ting, "but just think how I'll be if I don't." "Pooh! Pooh!" remarked the Prime Minister, who sat on the other side of Ting, "that's no way for a prince to talk, especially as we've announced to the public that you are about to rescue the Inherited Princess from the enchanted castle." "Yes," said the King, "and every one is talking about it, so you can't back out unless you wish to disgrace me." [Illustration: The minute the parade was over he started off.] And of course, as Ting had no desire to bring disgrace upon his family, he saw he would have to fight the twenty-headed Gallopus whether he liked it or not, though how he was ever going to do it, he could not imagine. However, as the longer he thought about the matter the more discouraged he became, he finally decided to go and have a look at the monster and see what his chances were. So the minute the parade was over, he started off. Now a twenty-headed Gallopus is shaped like a star with twenty points, and on each point is a head. And each head has two pop eyes, two big ears, a wide mouth with a complete collection of long, sharp teeth, and a turned up nose. And when a twenty-headed Gallopus wishes to show a person that he does _not_ care for his society, he turns slowly about and stares at him fixedly with his forty eyes, which makes a person feel _very_ uncomfortable. So you can easily imagine how Ting felt when he reached the enchanted castle and confronted the twenty-headed Gallopus in the courtyard. "Well," cried the twenty-headed Gallopus, speaking with about ten of his heads and making a fearful racket, "what do you want around here?" Whereupon the Prince told him how he was expected to rescue the Inherited Princess, and had come to see what the Gallopus looked like before he started to work. "Oh, you did, did you?" roared the monster. "Well, what do you think?" "I think," said Ting, "that you're the most awful thing I ever saw. You're enough to guard a dozen princesses and it isn't fair to ask a little boy of eight to fight you." "It's not only not fair," said the Gallopus, "but it's downright mean, not to say ridiculous." Then he laughed with all his heads at once until the ground actually trembled. "Don't you know," he went on, "that I'd have to lose every one of my heads before the Princess could be freed? Even if you chopped off one or two it would be no use. I must lose _all_ of them before the spell is broken."