make this place boom to beat the band. It'll be the biggest kind of
advertisement. Restoration of Royalty at Mervo. That'll make them take
notice by itself. Then, biff! right on top of that, Royal
Romance--Prince Weds American Girl--Love at First Sight--Picturesque
Wedding! Gee, we'll wipe Monte Carlo clean off the map. We'll have 'em
licked to a splinter. We--It's the greatest scheme on earth."

"I have no doubt you are right, Bennie," said Miss Scobell, "but--" her
voice became dreamy again--"it's not very romantic."

"Oh, shucks!" said the schemer impatiently. "Here, where's a cable
form?"




CHAPTER VI

YOUNG ADAM CUPID


On a red sandstone rock at the edge of the water, where the island
curved sharply out into the sea, Prince John of Mervo sat and brooded
on first causes. For nearly an hour and a half he had been engaged in
an earnest attempt to trace to its source the acute fit of depression
which had come--apparently from nowhere--to poison his existence that
morning.

It was his seventh day on the island, and he could remember every
incident of his brief reign. The only thing that eluded him was the