“‘Hearten her very tender, then,’ says
Dravot, ‘or I’ll hearten you with the butt
of a gun so that you’ll never want to be
heartened again.’ He licked his lips, did
Dan, and stayed up walking about more
than half the night, thinking of the wife
that he was going to get in the morning. I
wasn’t any means comfortable, for I knew
that dealings with a woman in foreign parts,
though you was a crowned King twenty
times over, could not but be risky. I got up
very early in the morning while Dravot was
asleep, and I saw the priests talking together
in whispers, and the Chiefs talking together
too, and they looked at me out of the corners
of their eyes.

“‘What is up, Fish?’ I says to the Bashkai
man, who was wrapped up in his furs
and looking splendid to behold.

“‘I can’t rightly say,’ says he; ‘but if you
can induce the King to drop all this nonsense
about marriage, you’ll be doing him and me
and yourself a great service.’

“‘That I do believe,’ says I. ‘But sure,
you know, Billy, as well as me, having
fought against and for us, that the King
and me are nothing more than two of the