“Tommy, I can cure his Majesty. I know how to do it.”

Tommy was surprised.

“What! You?”

“Yes, I.”

“Why, you little fool, the best doctors can’t.”

“I don’t care: I can do it. I can cure him in fifteen minutes.”

“Oh, come off! What are you giving me?”

“The facts—that’s all.”

Jimmy’s manner was so serious that it sobered Tommy, who said:

“I believe you are in earnest, Jimmy. Are you in earnest?”

“I give you my word.”

“What is the plan? How’ll you cure him?”

“Tell him to eat a slice of ripe watermelon.”

It caught Tommy rather suddenly, and he was shouting with laughter at the absurdity of the idea before he could put on a stopper. But he sobered down when he saw that Jimmy was wounded. He patted Jimmy’s knee affectionately, not minding the soot, and said:

“I take the laugh all back. I didn’t mean any harm, Jimmy, and I won’t do it again. You see, it seemed so funny, because wherever there’s a soldier-camp and dysentery, the doctors always put up a sign saying anybody caught bringing watermelons there will be flogged with the cat till he can’t stand.”

“I know it—the idiots!” said Jimmy, with both tears and anger in his voice. “There’s plenty of watermelons, and not one of all those soldiers ought to have died.”

“But, Jimmy, what put the notion into your head?”

“It isn’t a notion; it’s a fact. Do you know that old gray-headed Zulu? Well, this long time back he has been curing a lot of our friends, and my mother has seen him do it, and so have I. It takes only one or two slices of melon, and it don’t make any difference whether the disease is new or old; it cures it.”

“It’s very odd. But, Jimmy, if it is so, the Emperor ought to be told of it.”

“Of course; and my mother has told people, hoping they could get the word to him; but they are poor working-folks and ignorant, and don’t know how to manage it.”

“Of course they don’t, the blunderheads,” said Tommy, scornfully. “I’ll get it to him!”

“You? You night-cart polecat!” And it was Jimmy’s turn to laugh. But Tommy retorted sturdily:

“Oh, laugh if you like; but I’ll do it!”

It had such an assured and confident sound that it made an impression, and Jimmy asked gravely:

“Do you know the Emperor?”