'Oh, no! Nothing at all. It is only that shortly before we left I
heard that the sultan of my country is very ill, and that the
only thing to cure him is a monkey's heart.'

'Poor man, I am very sorry for him,' replied the monkey; 'but you
were unwise not to tell me till we had started.'

'What do you mean?' asked the shark; but the monkey, who now
understood the whole plot, did not answer at once, for he was
considering what he should say.

'Why are you so silent?' inquired the shark again.

'I was thinking what a pity it was you did not tell me while I
was still on land, and then I would have brought my heart with
me.'

'Your heart! Why isn't your heart here?' said the shark, with a
puzzled expression.

'Oh, no! Of course not. Is it possible you don't know that when
we leave home we always hang up our hearts on trees, to prevent
their being troublesome? However, perhaps you won't believe that,
and will just think I have invented it because I am afraid, so
let us go on to your country as fast as we can, and when we
arrive you can look for my heart, and if you find it you can kill
me.'

The monkey spoke in such a calm, indifferent way that the shark
was quite deceived, and began to wish he had not been in such a