Spoiler Warning: This story is somewhat more serious than the original Hoka stories but still very agreeable. It is not set on the Hoka homeworld, and there is only one Hoka in it, but he is a host in himself. Originally using the name Bertram, with a strong 19th century Oxbridge personality, he is tutor to young Charles Stuart, the human song of a space captain who stops off at the roughly feudal culture alien planet of New Lemuria. While taking a tour of one of the islands making up the Kingdom of Talyina, whose usurping ruler Olaghi is trying to transform it into "modern" absolute monarchy, One convivial evening Bertram starts explaining the story Bonnie Prince Charlie (for whom Charles Stuart is named) while a local guide tells him in turn of a legendary Prince of the Prophecy who is supposed to perform a series of heroic deeds and free the kingdom from a hated tyrant. Vast amounts of alcohol transform Bertram into the Highland warrior Hector MacDonald, who proclaims Charles the rightful Prince. The local lord Dzenko, who resents Olaghi's centralizing policies, decides to back Charles' claim. Together Dzenko and Hector fake Charlie's success in the first feat, using a crossbow to shoot a fruit from Hector's head. Then he is supposed to slay a monster who turned out to be a gigantic but aged equivalent of a lion who dies of a heart attack at the sound of Hector's pipes. The next feat is fighting the three " heroes" of a town. The three are old and feeble, but have a disconcertlngly strong "second" who gives Charlie real trouble before Hector defeats him. The next feat, solving the riddles of an ancient (and decaying) priesthood who burn unsuccessful competitors alive, turns out to be genuinely easy for Charlie, as the riddles strongly resemble earthly chestnuts("Why does the chicken cross the road, etc.) He makes the priests end the use of the deadly furnace, but gives them a new riddle to try on the next comers. Before Charlie can try the last feat, Olaghi attacks his traveling convey with his own "modern" fleet of bombing balloons launched from a crude "aircraft carrier.' These prove less effective than the traditional weapons of Charlie's fleet, and when Olagi shifts more successfully to boarding, Charlie does in fact lead his "men" to victory.
The last feat involves surviving in a tidal-flooded cave. Charlie figures out that air pressure will form a bubble at the top of the cave where he can survive. Before he tries it, he unwisely lets Dzenko know that once he is king he will stop Dzenko's plans for setting himself up as ruler of a smarter and more ruthless version of Olaghi's tyranny. Thus Charlie survives the cavern but is nearly murdered by Dzenko, but holds him off till Hector shows up to the rescue. Charlie is duly crowned, rights various wrongs and sets up a parliamentary monarchy, whose "eternal" (and therefore presumably irreplaceable) absent king will be himself. Then he leaves the planet to the fond strains of "Will Ye No Come Back Again." Though there is a lot of humo,, some heavy-handed, Charlie really does show development from a bookish boy who thinks feudal society is romantic to a more mature person who understands the sometimes grim realities of the culture and feels a genuine commitment to improving the lives of its people, though ultimately by renouncing power instead of using it to impose his own notions on the people he has come to love. ( )