All are lost in a wreck off the coast of Persia, excepting John Bunnyhug. In an open boat he succeeds in reaching land, where he is captured and brought before the ruler of the country, who orders him to be kept a week and then beheaded. During John's imprisonment, the Sultan dies. His death throws the Sultana into a great grief, and a dervish priest is brought in to pacify her. With incantations and his mysterious art, he throws her into a trance, with the understanding that the first man she sees on awakening, is to be her future husband. Poor Bunnyhug is being brought before the regent, when he succeeds in snatching from the hands of his jailers, two swords, with which he cuts a wide swath, fleeing into the presence of the Sultana, who awakens and immediately falls into his arms, willing to be his and his alone. She makes him Sultan, and now finding himself in power, Bunnyhug determines to visit his harem. The Sultana insists upon accompanying him and when he attempts to embrace the haremites, she leads him into another part of the castle. The jealous and plotting regent is determined to depose the Sultanas consort, by showing him to be a pseudo Sultan; in other words, a fake and a humbug. He tells Bunnyhug that unless he conforms to a test of endurance, climbing a step ladder of sharp-edged swords, and walking upon hot coals, the people of Persia will not accept him as their ruler. Bunnyhug removes his shoes, after seeing the feats performed by one of the natives, and attempts to repeat them himself, with dire results, lacerating and burning his feet so that he jumps and cries with pain, yelling for mercy. He is carried back to jail, disgraced and humiliated. Through the kindness of the Sultana, his sentence is commuted, and later he manages to escape with his life, and with no desire to become a Sultan or pass through the same experiences.
