"Who with?" said Udo suspiciously.
"Any one—that old woman, if you like."
"Oh, don't talk of her," said the Prince with a shudder. "Coronel, hadn't you a sense of being out of some joke that she was in?"
"Perhaps we shall be in it before long. I could laugh very easily on a morning like this."
"Oh, I can see a joke as well as any one," said Udo. "Don't be afraid that I shan't laugh, too. No doubt it will make a good story, whatever it is, to tell to the Princess Hyacinth. Coronel," he added solemnly, the thought having evidently only just occurred to him, "I am all impatience to help that poor girl in her trouble." And as if to show his impatience, he suddenly gave the reins a shake and cantered ahead of his companion. Smiling to himself, Coronel followed at his leisure.
They halted at mid–day in a wood, and made a meal from some provisions which the old woman had given them; and after they had eaten, Udo lay down on a mossy bank and closed his eyes.
"I'm sleepy," he said; "I had a restless night. Let's stay here awhile; after all, there's no hurry."
"Personally," said Coronel, "I'm all impatience to help that―"
"I tell you I had a very bad night," said Udo crossly.
"Oh, well, I shall go off and look for dragons. Coronel, the Dragon Slayer. Good–bye."
"Only half an hour," said Udo.
"Right."
With a nod to the Prince he strolled off among the trees.
Chapter IX
They Are Afraid of Udo
This is a painful chapter for me to write. Mercifully it is to be a short one. Later on I shall become used to the situation; inclined, even, to dwell upon its humorous side; but for the moment I cannot see beyond the sadness of it. That to a Prince of the Royal House of Araby, and such an estimable young man as Udo, those things should happen. Roger Scurvilegs frankly breaks down over it. "That abominable woman," he says (meaning, of course, Belvane), and he has hysterics for more than a page.
Let us describe it calmly.
Coronel came back from his stroll in the same casual way in which he had started and dropped down lazily upon the grass to wait until Udo was ready to mount. He was not thinking of Udo. He was wondering if Princess Hyacinth had an attendant of surpassing beauty, or a dragon of surpassing malevolence—if, in fact, there were any adventures in Euralia for a humble fellow like himself.
"Coronel!" said a small voice behind him.
He turned round indifferently.
"Hullo, Udo, where are you?" he said. "Isn't it time we were starting?"
"We aren't starting," said the voice.
"What's the matter? What are you hiding in the bushes for? Whatever's the matter, Udo?"
"I'm not very well."
"My poor Udo, what's happened?" He jumped up and made towards him.
"Stop!" shrieked the voice. "I command you!"
Coronel stopped.
"Your Royal Highness's commands," he began rather coldly―
There was an ominous sniffing from the bushes.
"Coronel," said an unhappy voice at last, "I think I'm coming out."
Wondering what it all meant, Coronel waited in silence.
"Yes, I am coming out, Coronel," said the voice. "But you mustn't be surprised if I don't look very well. I'm—I'm—Coronel, here I am," said Udo pathetically and he stepped out.
Coronel didn't know whether to laugh or to cry.
Poor Prince Udo!
He had the head and the long ears of a rabbit, and in some unfortunate way a look of the real Prince Udo in spite of it. He had the mane and the tail of a lion. In between the tail and the mane it is difficult to say what he was, save that there was an impression of magnificence about his person—such magnificence, anyhow, as is given by an astrakhan–trimmed fur coat.
Coronel decided that it was an occasion for tact.
"Ah, here you are," he said cheerfully. "Shall we get along?"
"Don't be a fool, Coronel," said Udo, almost crying. "Don't pretend that you can't see that I've got a tail."
"Why, bless my soul, so you have. A tail! Well, think of that!"
Udo showed what he thought of it by waving it peevishly.
"This is not a time for tact," he said. "Tell me what I look like."
Coronel considered for a moment.
"Really frankly?" he asked.
"Y—yes," said Udo nervously.
"Then, frankly, your Royal Highness looks—funny."
"Very funny?" said Udo wistfully.
"Very funny," said Coronel.
His Highness sighed.
"I was afraid so," he said. "That's the cruel part about it. Had I been a lion there would have been a certain pathetic splendour about my position. Isolated—cut off—suffering in regal silence." He waved an explanatory paw. "Even in the most hideous of beasts there might be a dignity." He meditated for a moment. "Have you ever seen a yak, Coronel?" he asked.
"Never."
"I saw one once in Barodia. It is not a beautiful animal, Coronel; but as a yak I should not have been entirely unlovable. One does not laugh at a yak, Coronel, and where one does not laugh one may come to love…. What does my head look like?"
"It looks—striking."
"I haven't seen it, you see."
"To one who didn't know your Royal Highness it would convey the impression of a rabbit."
Udo laid his head between his paws and wept.
"A r—rabbit!" he sobbed. So undignified, so lacking in true pathos, so― And not even a whole rabbit," he added bitterly.
"How did it happen?"
"I don't know, Coronel. I just went to sleep, and woke up feeling rather funny, and―" He sat up suddenly and stared at Coronel. "It was that old woman did it. You mark my words, Coronel; she did it."
"Why should she?"
"I don't know. I was very polite to her. Don't you remember my saying to you, 'Be polite to her, because she's probably a fairy!' You see, I saw through her disguise at once. Coronel, what shall we do? Let's hold a council of war and think it over."
So they held a council of war.
Prince Udo put forward two suggestions.
The first was that Coronel should go back on the morrow and kill the old woman.
The second was that Coronel should go back that afternoon and kill the old woman.
Coronel pointed out that as she had turned Prince Udo into—into a—a—("Quite so," said Udo)—it was likely that she alone could turn him back again, and that in that case he had better only threaten her.
"I want somebody killed," said Udo, rather naturally.
"Suppose," said Coronel, "you stay here for two days while I go back and see the old witch, and make her tell me what she knows. She knows something, I'm certain. Then we shall see better what to do."
Udo mused for a space.
"Why didn't they turn you into anything?" he asked.
"Really, I don't know. Perhaps because I'm too unimportant."
"Yes, that must be it." He began to feel a little brighter. "Obviously, that's it." He caressed a whisker with one of his paws. "They were afraid of me."
He began to look so much happier that Coronel thought it was a favourable moment in which to withdraw.
"Shall I go now, your Royal Highness?"
"Yes, yes, you may leave me."
"And shall I find you here when I come back?"
"You may or you may not, Coronel; you may or you may not…. Afraid of me," he murmured to himself. "Obviously."
"And if I don't?"
"Then return to the Palace."
"Good–bye, your Royal Highness."
Udo waved a paw at him.
"Good–bye, good–bye."
Coronel got on his horse and rode away. As soon as he was out of earshot he began to laugh. Spasm after spasm shook him. No sooner had he composed himself to gravity than a remembrance of Udo's appearance started him off again.