TWILIGHT LAND

thumb upon it thus, and instantly a Genie dressed in
red comes to do all that he is bidden. That is how it is.”

“‘T should like to see it,” said the king.

““So you shall,” said Jacob Stuck; “here it is,” said
he; and he reached it across the table to the prime-
minister to give it to the king.

Yes, that was what he did; he gave it to the prime-
minister to give it to the king. The prime-minister had
been listening to all that had been said, and he knew what
he was about. He took what Jacob Stuck gave him,
and he had never had such a piece of luck come to him
before.

And did the prime-minister give it to the king, as Jacob
Stuck had intended? Not a bit of it. No sooner had
he got it safe in his hand, than he blew his breath upon
it and rubbed it with his thumb.

Crack! dong! boom! crash!

There stood the Genie, like a flash and as red as fire.
The princess screamed out and nearly fainted at the sight,
and the poor king sat trembling like a rabbit.

“Whosoever possesses that piece of blue crystal,” said
the Genie, in a ‘terrible voice, “him must I obey. What
are thy commands ?”

“Take this king,” cried the prime-minister, ‘and take
Jacob Stuck, and carry them both away into the farthest
part of the desert whence the fellow came.”

‘“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie; and instantly he
seized the king in one hand and Jacob Stuck in the other,
and flew away with them swifter than the wind. On and
on he flew, and the earth seemed to slide away beneath
them like a cloud. On and on he flew until he had come
to the farthest part of the desert. There he sat them both

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