Part 20 (2/2)

”None could do that sort of thing save a Sun hero! My Master! n of utter!”

But Roy did not hear himself called thus He did not even know for days afterwards if he had succeeded or if he had failed; for a wound just above the heart, close to the sign-mark of his race, very nearly carried his are reotten

But he _had_ succeeded He had saved the Heir-to-Empire's life that dawn, and a day or two afterwards kumran, daily more hated for his cruelty, had escaped, and the soldiers, rejoiced to get rid of hi Prince Akbar's adventures

But when Roy ca beside hi on Bija's lap; Bija, who had just returned from India with Queen Humeeda in time to console the Heir-to-E the few days he was left alone with cruel Uncle kumran

How much he had suffered no one knew, and the little fellow refused to say anything about it It was a way he had when the luck went against him So, just as he had remarked when he had fallen down the ravine, when the white cat and the black dog first came to him, that he had ”tumbu-down,” so now he simply said that it wasn't ”very comfy,” but that Tumbu had come to see him more than once And this was possible, for you han sentry to rise, Tuain Therefore he _had_ to find his old master

And Foster-father, Foster-reatly subdued for the tiive him some of the titles she ont to bestow on little Prince Akbar

For there was no doubt whatever that the lad was the rightful Rajah of Suryamer, icked rebels had exposed in the desert to die, who had been found and kept alive by wandering goatherds and had finally been discovered when unconscious froitives

And out of this arose the only sadness of the happy May days when the little party onceto sit under the _arghawan_ trees and watch the sunset

Of course Dearest-Lady was not there, but all the others were assembled, and Down, the cat, purred as loud as ever, while Tu than before But it was not the absence of the Khanzada Khanuhtful at times

She, they kneas at rest, and they laid flowers for her beside those they gathered in memory of Firdoos Gita Makani--on whoe that Roy could not reo back to his ing for their old rulers

”You see, brother, I as cannot always do what they like”

”Do you think they ever do, _really_?” asked the little Heir-to-Eravely, ”for I don't”

And here we come to the end--for a time at least--of Prince Akbar's adventures

Now, if you want to kno much of this so-called veracious story is really true, I cannot quite say

Did some one like Roy _really_ tell theover the battlements of the bastion? If some one did not, how did the master-fireworker find it out? And he did; indeed, in the history books he takes great credit to hi_ found it out But then he was a boaster

Then did Dearest-Lady really bind kumran by an oath not to harm the Heir-to-Empire until she returned?

If she did not, then why did she, an old, frail woo out into the wilderness just as winter was co on, and why did not cruel kumran kill the Heir-to-Empire when he had him in his power?

These are all questions; but what is certain is that Baby Akbar did go through all these adventures before he was five years old

So good-bye, brave little lads! Good-bye, stout old Foster-father and kindly Foster-s of titles, and good-bye, dainty little Bija! Good-bye also to grinning Meroo, to purring Down, and frolicking Tumbu!

And for those other three whose memory remained--Old Faithful, Dearest Lady, and the Great Emperor, Firdoos Gita Makani, who all helped the little prince to safety, what of the the tulips and violets of the Garden-of-the-New-Year says,

”'Is their eternal abode'”